Whoa!

I know I posted a long rant about gas prices recently here, but I just wanted to stop by and say that I filled my gas tank last night for $16.50. Unbelievable! I have nothing more than that people, just wanted to share.

Song lyric of the day "Baby why don't you stay " Glenn Hughes

Until next time.

Ace

Schoolin'

School is moving to the forefront for the next couple weeks as I wrap up the semester. In two and a half weeks I will give my presentation, which will be pretty informal, and submit my research paper, both on the topic of Moby Dick. Research is fairly well underway, I'd like to start outlining the paper this week and then getting down to the business of writing it this weekend. It needs to be 15 - 20 pages, which I don't think is going to be very difficult. I guess we'll see though!

I also registered for classes for next semester yesterday. I have a meeting this week to confirm that I'm good to go with the classes and will write more on that topic once it's all been laid out.

I'm also busy planning what to do with the few weeks I have off between fall and spring semester. I've got some ideas and may post some pics if these ideas of mine come to fruition.

Since this is a short post, I'll finish with a quick fantasy football update. Climbed back into a tie for first in one league, with just two weeks left until the playoffs start. A good finish will get me a bye into the money round. In another league I just won my fifth straight game and moved up to 3rd place. Again, a good finish could get me to a bye or at the very least a berth in the playoffs. I'm the highest scoring team so I definitely have a legit shot if I can just get in. In my 3rd league, I've lost 4 in a row but still should make the playoffs. I'm the 2nd highest scoring team in that one. So, hopefully I can get to the playoffs in all 3 and my teams can keep scoring a ton of points. We'll see.

Song lyric of the day "She's a hobo humpin slobo babe" by Whale

Until next time.

Ace

Friday funny

Here's a joke I stole from some random website...

A Husband takes his wife to play her first game of golf

The wife promptly whacked her first shot right through the window of the biggest house adjacent to the course. The husband cringed, 'I warned you to be careful! Now we'll have to go up there, find the owner, apologize and see how much your lousy drive is going to cost us.' So the couple walked up to the house and knocked on the door. A warm voice said, 'Come on in.'

When they opened the door they saw the damage that was done: glass was all over the place, and a broken antique bottle was lying on its side near the broken window. A man reclining on the couch asked, 'Are you the people that broke my window?' 'Uh...yeah, sir. We're sure sorry about that,' the husband replied. 'Oh, no apology is necessary. Actually I want to thank you... You see, I'm a genie , and I've been trapped in that bottle for a thousand years. Now that you've released me, I'm allowed to grant three wishes. I'll give you each one wish, but if you don't mind, I'll keep the last one for myself.'

'Wow, that's great!' the husband said. He pondered a moment and blurted out, 'I'd like a million dollars a year for the rest of my life.' 'No problem,' said the genie. 'You've got it, it's the least I can do. And I'll guarantee you a long, healthy life!' '

And now you, young lady, what do you want?' the genie asked. 'I'd like to own a gorgeous home complete with servants in every country in the world,' she said. 'Consider it done,' the genie said. 'And your homes will always be safe from fire, burglary and natural disasters!' '

And now,' the couple asked in unison, what's your wish, genie?' 'Well, since I've been trapped in that bottle and haven't been with a woman in more than a thousand years, my wish is to have sex with your wife.'

The husband looked at his wife and said, 'Gee, honey, you know we both now have a fortune, and all those houses. What do you think?'

She mulled it over for a few moments and said, 'You know, you're right. Considering our good fortune, I guess I wouldn't mind, but what about you, honey?' 'You know I love you sweetheart,' said the husband. I'd do the same for you!'

So the genie and the woman went upstairs where they spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying each other in every way. After about three hours of non-stop sex, the genie rolled over and looked directly into her eyes and asked, How old are you and your husband?' '

Why, we're both 35,' she responded breathlessly.

' NO KIDDING .' He said, 'Thirty-five years old and both of you still believe in genies?'

Song lyric of the day "I'm a genie in a bottle / You gotta rub me the right way" Christina Aguilera

Until next time.

Ace

Hitting the felt

After that last post of mine, let's put aside the inconsequential matters of national politics and personal achievement and focus instead on something more important that I have not blogged about in a while - poker!

I recently was playing online and decided to try my hand at something called a freeroll, basically, it's a tournament that the online site allows you to enter for free. These freerolls usually attract thousands of players (because they're free, duh!) and the prizes vary. But for this particular freeroll, I was playing to try and qualify for another tournament that had some potential for big money. So, this was basically a qualifying tournament. And while I say it is free, this particular one actually required using 10 frequent player points to enter, with the option to re-buy if you get knocked out. The players usually are pretty crazy in these tournaments because they've spent little to nothing to enter. So people push all their chips in with nothing and just hope to get lucky. I generally try to wait for an excellent hand and pick these people off.

So, very early in the tournament, I pick up pocket Aces, woohoo! I push all my chips in and two people call me, excellent! Unfortunately, one of them lucked out and beat me with I don't even remember what. So now, I have to decide whether or not to rebuy. I decided to and the very next hand picked up pocket Kings. Wow! Again I push all in and get 2 callers, this time my hand holds up and I'm sitting on a huge stack. To be honest, I don't remember any other hands in the tourney but I know that I lasted long enough to win my way into the next tournament.

The next tournament was a biggie. 12,000 people, no rebuying allowed. If you get knocked out, you're done. The top 4,000 made the money, with the top 100 winning a .01% share of one of the players at the final table of the World Series of Poker, which at minimum would be worth an extra $900 but could be as much as $9,000, depending on how the dude did at WSOP. In addition, the winner of the freeroll got $10,000 with the prizes descending to the people in places 2000 - 4000 making $9. Not bad for a free tournament!

Each player started with $1500 in chips. Very early, I picked up a hand where I made 2 pair and wound up essentially doubling up to $3000, making me the chip leader at my table. From there, I absolutely took off. On one hand, I made a straight on the river and knocked out a guy, picking up another $2k in chips. A couple other hands I got lucky and knocked out some guys with smaller stacks. And I had a few other big hands thrown in. Within an hour, I was up to $10k in chips and as high as 30th overall in chip stack. Great start!

I then got moved to a tougher table with some bigger stacks. As the tourney progresses, blinds and antes got higher and the pots got bigger. I was able to hold my own and increase my stack to around $16k. I easily cruised into the first and second money level, guaranteeing myself at least a $15 payout. I was about middle of the pack in chip stacks. At this point in the tourney, people usually only play excellent hands except for people who are close to out of chips, who are forced to push all-in with any decent holdings. So I basically hunkered down and waited for good hands. I picked up pocket 10s and tried to pick off an all in but the person I was playing against managed to hit a good card on the river. This put me towards the bottom in chips.

As I was running out of chips, I decided to push all in with the worst hand in poker 2-7 offsuit. One guy with a huge stack called me and I caught a 7 to double up and stay alive. Shortly after, I picked up pocket queens on the button and pushed in, getting 5 people to fold and picking up a very nice pot. At this point, we're down to 500 people or so and I've guaranteed myself a $31 payout. But I'm about 200th out of 400 and eyeing a much bigger prize, sitting on about 32k in chips.

Unfortunately, I stupidly wasted 6k in chips on hand with pocket 4s. With blinds and antes, I got down to about 24k, which was around 250th of 400. I woke up with an AK offsuit on the button, an extremely strong hand. Waiting for my turn to act, One guy in early position raises to 3 big blinds, or 12k. A shorter stack goes allin for a total of 15k. This is my chance to really make a big win and I'm likely to be a favorite or at worst 50/50. I think it's a risk worth taking and push allin for 24k. The original raiser calls and we are looking at a 57k pot. The first guy turns over pocket 9s, the second guy pocket 7s. If I can hit an Ace or King, I should win and I'm a 38% chance to win, with the guy with 9s a 45% chance and the favorite. Unfortunately, I came up empty and the nines were a winner. I finished 402 out of about 12,500, good for a $31 payout. Obviously I was happy to do so well but couldn't help but be disappointed about what might have been, especially with so much $$ on the line. As it turns out, the piece of the guy we were playing for was worth $4,000. Bummer.

Amazingly, the next day I played in another 12,000 person online freeroll and finished 44th. This tourney was for Limit 7 card stud, Hi/Lo. It was really fun and cool to play a different game.. The prize for this one was to win a spot in another tourney that has a nice prize pool. I'll post results after I play in it.

On the live poker front, I have a tourney tomorrow night for my poker league where I currently stand 2nd out of around 30 or so guys. I'm pretty far behind the guy in first but it's not impossible for me to catch him. The top 6 places get paid out at season's end, which includes tomorrow's tourney and one more beyond. It should be fun! At the end of the season, there is a big tourney where there is no entry fee for those who have played in most of the events, with a nice sized prize pool as well. I'm looking forward to it.

On the school front, I am deep in research on Moby Dick in preparation for writing my term paper. I'm hoping to discuss my ideas for the paper tonight with my professor. It will be a lot of work but I feel like I've got a pretty good start and some good ideas. And, thankfully, I've got the whole Thanksgiving holiday to work on it!

This past weekend the better half and I watched the summer blockbuster Ironman. I have to be honest, I really thought the movie was decent but didn't match up to the considerable hype. Robert Downey Jr was good but the whole love interest thing was completely unnecessary and detracted from the story. The effects were great and I definitely loved The Dude as a bad guy. I was waiting for him to show up in a robe with a White Russian in hand though. On the docket this weekend, a trip to the local multiplex for Madagascar 2. It's going to be bedlam.

Song lyric of the day "If I had a gun for every ace I have drawn / I could arm a town the size of Abilene " Cracker covering the Grateful Dead - Loser

Until next time.

Ace

Change

It has been a remarkable 24 hours here in the US of A. I have had a lot of difficulty trying to come to grips with just how I feel about everything. As most of you know, I'm not a terribly political person. But several of my recent posts have certainly captured just how intrigued I have become in this particular presidential campaign, similar to much of the rest of the world if cable TV is any indication. This is a long one, so settle in.

Regardless of where you stand on the candidates, the political process, or Barack Obama, it is clear that a large portion of America, and the world, is ready for a change. Two wars, one of which is extremely unpopular, a cratered economy and distrust of the president at an all time high mobilized the American voting public like this generation has never seen. The absolute fervor among American's youth, voters 35 and under, absolutely made the difference in this battle, voting nearly 2 to 1 for Obama, in record numbers. And again, many incumbents lost their seats in the House and Senate, with voters saying they are tired of the way things have come to be done in our federal government.

There are a number of things about the election that have been striking to me. First, the international reaction to Obama has been amazing. Video after video on the news has been shown of celebrations in nations all around the world. The message of hope that Obama has been preaching has struck a chord, and not just domestically. It seems as if America has a second chance to rehabilitate its image in the international community. Celebrations rang out from Kenya, to Indonesia, all across Europe - this is an opportunity to become not just a force of good, but a force that is seen by others as good, with the latter perhaps being more important than the former. The way in which the new administration reaches out to the world is going to be absolutely critical to Obama's hopes of returning America to prosperity. Follow the logic - if America can successfully navigate out of Iraq and reach some sense of accord in Afghanistan/Pakistan, billions in savings will be realized immediately, affording opportunities for middle and lower class tax cuts, improve the economy, etc, etc. That's a lot of ifs but it is a path.

Of course, the issue of race cannot be overlooked. The fact that a half African American man won the state of Virginia, the same Virginia formerly known as the capital of the Confederacy, is absolutely astonishing. 45 years after the ugliest time in America 200 years previous, (since the despicable act of robbing its natives of their homeland), it defies imagination to believe what occurred last night. This is another sign of hope in this nation, that a significant portion of those who choose our leaders have determined that the color of a candidate's skin (or the candidate's gender, for that matter) is not the most important factor to determine fitness for fulfilling the role. It sounds so silly to even have to write the words but this is a sign of tremendous progress.

At heart, I am an optimist. I have always believed in my own manifest destiny - that my tomorrow is forever brighter than my today. My natural abilities and the opportunities that are available to me will lead me to a better place and a better life than where I am today. In that way, I think Obama's message has particularly resonated with me. I am not going to lie, during Obama's speech last night in Grant Park, I was moved to tears. Not because he won or someone else lost. Not because of a disagreement over policies or positions or political wrangling. Not because I would no longer have to sit through the awful local campaign commercials! And not because of Obama himself. No, I found myself faced with something much greater than all of that, greater than a president, greater than myself. It was because of hope.

A hope that things can change. A hope that dreams, my dreams, can be realized. A hope that a nation can overcome 300 years of bigotry and racism. A hope that America can become a model of international leadership and diplomancy instead of a pariah and target for hatred. A hope that our economy, which secures our great way of life, can move to stable ground and begin to restore that way of life to the many who have been sideswiped in the last few years. A hope that the promise of a life full of optimism can begin to be realized. And a hope that the optimism is shared and passed on.

I certainly believe that the sacrifice Obama spoke of in the campaign and in last night's acceptance speech is a great way for everyone to become involved - through service or religious affiliations in our own communities or on a grander scale. I certainly intend to own this commitment and ask each of you to consider what you can do to make your community and this great nation a better place to live and be. Take a small step that may just lead to a larger one. But take it now, and begin to fulfill your own vision of hope.

Lyric of the day:

"This is your victory.
And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.
You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.
Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.
There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.
There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there."

Obama's victory speech - full text and video here

Until next time.

Ace

Trick or Treat!

The kids had a blast trick or treating on Friday. The weather was spectacular, around 70 or so and we had record turnout in the 'hood. The streets were teeming with ghosts, monsters and about 10,000 Indiana Jones' (unofficially my vote for most popular costume this year). #1 & #2 were medieval princesses, just like Mom. # 3 was Darth Vader, after being Yoda last year.

We also had a big bash on Saturday night at the homefront, a combo bday party for #3 and a costume party for the kids and adults. It was quite nuts, probably a dozen kids under the age of 8, all going various stages of insane from a combination of sugar shock and mob mentality. Good times. I will attempt to e-mail some pics out from the affair....

Kind of blew off school work this weekend, which is generally pretty dumb. I've got a boatload to do but am scheming as to ways to get it done. I have to say, I come away from class every Thursday feeling less and less like I get it. There is some serious analysis of the most minute literature being done in this class. Guess I'll never be a lit professor. I suppose I'll survive this tragedy. I have to say though, that the professor for this class is unbelievable in terms of his knowledge. I swear he's memorized everything he ever read and knows so much of the history to place the lit in context. Very impressive. I've really run across some excellent instructors at my university (and a couple not so excellent ones).

I'm sorry to report that fantasy football has not been going well of late. Went 1-2 this week, although the league that I won is the one where I needed it the most. I'm a shoo in to the playoffs in 2 of 3 leagues and right on the edge in the 3rd. As I learned last year, just making it in is all you need and then hope your team gets hot. I'm sure no one cares about this but whatever.

Song lyric of the day "I'm a-talkin' to myself" Billy Idol

Until next time.

Ace