- They rearranged the first five or so aisles of the supermarket I shop at, but I'm still wondering why you'd have the pasta in a separate aisle from the pasta sauce.
- YAY
- Tonight I went shopping for shoes 'cause, well, I need shoes, and since I dislike buying shoes even more than I dislike buying regular clothes, I've probably never noticed this before. But the men's shoes? We get one aisle down the side of the store and the back. That's IT. I'm amazed I found anything.
- Let me make sure I've got this right. This guy is now one of TV's newest heartthrobs? Would you have put odds on that 20 years ago?
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Sunday, May 21, 2006
A Couple Of Vague Recollections
(Since I can't get tourney hand histories from Party, I don't have any numbers.)
Thursday night's tourney was the first time where I felt like just about everything I've learned about playing poker hit me. I never got A-A. Not once. It seemed like I got 9-9 a lot. I'd played tight-aggressive almost throughout, but not to the point where I couldn't get any action (though I should have slowplayed my flopped quad 10s) I got K-K cracked early when my opponent rivered a Broadway straight, but this transgression would be avenged...
Hand 1 (It Pays To Get Lucky... Literally)
About 160 or so players left. 140 get coffee money. I'm in the big blind with K-K. MP raises, CO+1 calls, folded to me, I re-raise. MP short stack goes all-in, CO+1 calls, I call. We both started out with above-average stack sizes, so no need to push just yet.
I hit my set on the flop and push into a dry side pot. I've got CO+1 covered and she calls, flipping over her cracked Aces. MP says "I picked a bad time to go all in" and shows A-10. I bust both players and am assured my first MTT cash.
Hand 2 (Brain Freeze)
In middle position with A8o, which is a hand I despise most of the time. My stack is just below average at this point, which is actually a vast improvement over where I usually am (the rail.) Reason being is that I got good cards early and was able to pick up chips for once, so I could survive getting in behind and the dry stretches, which I must have been in the middle of to do what I did.
I make my standard raise of 3-4x the big blind. Player next to me calls, and seat 10 either min-reraises or smooth-calls; I don't remember anymore. Now, normally with A8o, I'm done after that (A6o-A9o are four of the worst hands in poker IMO). But something tells me that I need to win this pot.
So I push.
The player next to me folds. Seat 10 has me covered and calls immediately with... K-K. I feel weak and sheepish.
Flop: J-J-A.
Turn: J.
River's a blank and I've hit a two-outer to donk my way to top three in chips.
Why only two outs? Well, Seat 6 (the player next to me who folded to my push) said he also had A-8. Another player said, "nh, but shoving preflop with A8?"
I didn't say anything. They don't need to know that I don't know why I did that.
Hand 3 (Battling Blind[s])
Not long after I double up a player who was all-in in the big blind with Aces, this hand comes up. It's late in the tourney at this point, maybe around 25 players left. I'm in the big blind, and it's folded around to the small blind, who completes.
Flop comes 3-K-x. Check, check.
Turn: 3. SB bets, I raise, SB calls.
River's a 5. SB checks. I push my last ~T45000. SB thinks for almost 30 seconds and folds. She says "nice bluff."
I say, "if you say so" and muck my Q3o.
Hand 4 (The Leak)
I'm not used to playing a big stack. A couple of weeks ago I won a play-money SNG on PokerStars despite winning exactly one pot before it got down to four-handed. There, like at the final table on Thursday, someone must have sprayed me with some Good Cards OFF! or something. I haven't learned how to win with utter crap yet - my conscience won't allow me to play a hand that bad.
When we got to the final table, I resisted the urge to type "holy crap" into the chat box. Act like you've been there before and all that.
Blinds are 10k/20k with 500 antes. It's folded to the small blind, who completes, and I check with Q-4. Flop is a King and two rags. He makes a modest bet. I can't put him on much, but I'm not a big fan of my hand, and I call. Turn is an... 8? Another small bet from the SB and I call.
The river Ace is... unfortunate. He checks, I bluff at it (which is likely why he checked) and he calls, probably thinking if he comes over the top, I'm gonna fold. He didn't need to hit it because he already had an Ace, but it sealed my defeat. I should've folded to the flop bet and not called off 40 percent of my stack with Queen high. I need to not do that in the future.
After that it was waiting for a spot to make a move. I get A-3 UTG with about T140,000 left and push. It's folded around to the big blind, who calls with 4-4 and you know the rest.
Thursday night's tourney was the first time where I felt like just about everything I've learned about playing poker hit me. I never got A-A. Not once. It seemed like I got 9-9 a lot. I'd played tight-aggressive almost throughout, but not to the point where I couldn't get any action (though I should have slowplayed my flopped quad 10s) I got K-K cracked early when my opponent rivered a Broadway straight, but this transgression would be avenged...
Hand 1 (It Pays To Get Lucky... Literally)
About 160 or so players left. 140 get coffee money. I'm in the big blind with K-K. MP raises, CO+1 calls, folded to me, I re-raise. MP short stack goes all-in, CO+1 calls, I call. We both started out with above-average stack sizes, so no need to push just yet.
I hit my set on the flop and push into a dry side pot. I've got CO+1 covered and she calls, flipping over her cracked Aces. MP says "I picked a bad time to go all in" and shows A-10. I bust both players and am assured my first MTT cash.
Hand 2 (Brain Freeze)
In middle position with A8o, which is a hand I despise most of the time. My stack is just below average at this point, which is actually a vast improvement over where I usually am (the rail.) Reason being is that I got good cards early and was able to pick up chips for once, so I could survive getting in behind and the dry stretches, which I must have been in the middle of to do what I did.
I make my standard raise of 3-4x the big blind. Player next to me calls, and seat 10 either min-reraises or smooth-calls; I don't remember anymore. Now, normally with A8o, I'm done after that (A6o-A9o are four of the worst hands in poker IMO). But something tells me that I need to win this pot.
So I push.
The player next to me folds. Seat 10 has me covered and calls immediately with... K-K. I feel weak and sheepish.
Flop: J-J-A.
Turn: J.
River's a blank and I've hit a two-outer to donk my way to top three in chips.
Why only two outs? Well, Seat 6 (the player next to me who folded to my push) said he also had A-8. Another player said, "nh, but shoving preflop with A8?"
I didn't say anything. They don't need to know that I don't know why I did that.
Hand 3 (Battling Blind[s])
Not long after I double up a player who was all-in in the big blind with Aces, this hand comes up. It's late in the tourney at this point, maybe around 25 players left. I'm in the big blind, and it's folded around to the small blind, who completes.
Flop comes 3-K-x. Check, check.
Turn: 3. SB bets, I raise, SB calls.
River's a 5. SB checks. I push my last ~T45000. SB thinks for almost 30 seconds and folds. She says "nice bluff."
I say, "if you say so" and muck my Q3o.
Hand 4 (The Leak)
I'm not used to playing a big stack. A couple of weeks ago I won a play-money SNG on PokerStars despite winning exactly one pot before it got down to four-handed. There, like at the final table on Thursday, someone must have sprayed me with some Good Cards OFF! or something. I haven't learned how to win with utter crap yet - my conscience won't allow me to play a hand that bad.
When we got to the final table, I resisted the urge to type "holy crap" into the chat box. Act like you've been there before and all that.
Blinds are 10k/20k with 500 antes. It's folded to the small blind, who completes, and I check with Q-4. Flop is a King and two rags. He makes a modest bet. I can't put him on much, but I'm not a big fan of my hand, and I call. Turn is an... 8? Another small bet from the SB and I call.
The river Ace is... unfortunate. He checks, I bluff at it (which is likely why he checked) and he calls, probably thinking if he comes over the top, I'm gonna fold. He didn't need to hit it because he already had an Ace, but it sealed my defeat. I should've folded to the flop bet and not called off 40 percent of my stack with Queen high. I need to not do that in the future.
After that it was waiting for a spot to make a move. I get A-3 UTG with about T140,000 left and push. It's folded around to the big blind, who calls with 4-4 and you know the rest.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Downs And Ups (Or, A Dollar Spent)
You know how good it feels when you find money in your pants you didn't know you had?
Well, I'd pretty much stopped playing at Party Poker just because I don't really like playing there, but I logged in and saw that I still had a couple dollars left. So I entered one of their dinky $1 tourneys.
1177 players total.
And this is what happened:
Yep, that's seventh place. Cashed for about $35. I doubt the IRS will be coming after me. :)
Got bounced when, a while after losing half my stack to a river Ace, I pushed with A-3 and got called by 4-4. Got an Ace on the flop, but there was a 4 with it.
More hands later when I dig them up and aren't so sleepy.
Well, I'd pretty much stopped playing at Party Poker just because I don't really like playing there, but I logged in and saw that I still had a couple dollars left. So I entered one of their dinky $1 tourneys.
1177 players total.
And this is what happened:
Yep, that's seventh place. Cashed for about $35. I doubt the IRS will be coming after me. :)
Got bounced when, a while after losing half my stack to a river Ace, I pushed with A-3 and got called by 4-4. Got an Ace on the flop, but there was a 4 with it.
More hands later when I dig them up and aren't so sleepy.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
No, Really. What The...
"Any idiot can face a crisis; it is this day-to-day living that wears you out."
--Anton Chekhov
So sometime last week, I lost my driver's license. Along with a set of wallet windows with some random cards in them.
And I have no idea when or how it happened.
It's funny. On the extremely rare occasions that I forget to put on my watch, I "feel" that it's missing more than I "see" it. I know it's not there, but seeing that it's not there doesn't have the same effect as the feeling that something's not quite right. This was sort of the same thing. My wallet was lighter. I knew it was lighter. But I didn't "see" that something was missing because I was so used to it being there.
This puzzle started falling apart yesterday when I saw that I didn't have my supermarket card when I went on a run for bread. Further investigation revealed that the entire window set was missing, incluidng that, my Blockbuster card, my Suncoast card, and some other things so important that I can't remember what they were (all my credit cards and such are in another compartment.)
I turned the apartment upside down. Nothing. Checked the car. Three times. Nada. In addition, without my license, I can't get my car inspected. Among other things.
So off I went to retrace my steps. My adventures last week at the car dealership led me to believe that I'd left it there, especially when I remembered that the cashier needed to see my ID to cancel the credit card purchase of the part I ended up not needing. I'd talked myself into being almost positive that I'd find it there.
They don't have it.
Hit two area dollar stores that I'd visited in the past week. Neither of them had it.
So now I have to contact the police and get a report so I can get a new license. (It's a recent addition to New Jersey's new ID regulations, what with 9-11 and identity theft in general being big now.) That takes very little time, and I go back home and nap to try and lose this splitting sinus headache.
I wake up and head to the DMV... only to find that it's moved from the strip mall it used to be in to the Shore Mall just up the road.
Now, New Jersey is known for many things, one of which is its wide variety of malls.
The Shore Mall may be the lamest mall on the planet. The interior - the walls, flooring, lighting, storefronts - doesn't look like it's changed in 25-30 years. Some of the storefronts are just banners. And if you're depending on Value City to be one of your anchors, you've got issues.
So I go inside with my papers and my police contact and get put in line. This takes less time than I expect even with having to take my picture a second time because the first one was... less than stellar. (Not that I have such lofty expectations, but that first one was just bad.) They changed the design again when they went digital a couple of years back.
I leave and try to get to the inspection station before it closes. I make a wrong turn.
I still get there with five minutes to spare.
At least that went off without a hitch.
(And Butch is right. Dating Courtney Hansen probably would solve a lot of my problems.)
--Anton Chekhov
So sometime last week, I lost my driver's license. Along with a set of wallet windows with some random cards in them.
And I have no idea when or how it happened.
It's funny. On the extremely rare occasions that I forget to put on my watch, I "feel" that it's missing more than I "see" it. I know it's not there, but seeing that it's not there doesn't have the same effect as the feeling that something's not quite right. This was sort of the same thing. My wallet was lighter. I knew it was lighter. But I didn't "see" that something was missing because I was so used to it being there.
This puzzle started falling apart yesterday when I saw that I didn't have my supermarket card when I went on a run for bread. Further investigation revealed that the entire window set was missing, incluidng that, my Blockbuster card, my Suncoast card, and some other things so important that I can't remember what they were (all my credit cards and such are in another compartment.)
I turned the apartment upside down. Nothing. Checked the car. Three times. Nada. In addition, without my license, I can't get my car inspected. Among other things.
So off I went to retrace my steps. My adventures last week at the car dealership led me to believe that I'd left it there, especially when I remembered that the cashier needed to see my ID to cancel the credit card purchase of the part I ended up not needing. I'd talked myself into being almost positive that I'd find it there.
They don't have it.
Hit two area dollar stores that I'd visited in the past week. Neither of them had it.
So now I have to contact the police and get a report so I can get a new license. (It's a recent addition to New Jersey's new ID regulations, what with 9-11 and identity theft in general being big now.) That takes very little time, and I go back home and nap to try and lose this splitting sinus headache.
I wake up and head to the DMV... only to find that it's moved from the strip mall it used to be in to the Shore Mall just up the road.
Now, New Jersey is known for many things, one of which is its wide variety of malls.
The Shore Mall may be the lamest mall on the planet. The interior - the walls, flooring, lighting, storefronts - doesn't look like it's changed in 25-30 years. Some of the storefronts are just banners. And if you're depending on Value City to be one of your anchors, you've got issues.
So I go inside with my papers and my police contact and get put in line. This takes less time than I expect even with having to take my picture a second time because the first one was... less than stellar. (Not that I have such lofty expectations, but that first one was just bad.) They changed the design again when they went digital a couple of years back.
I leave and try to get to the inspection station before it closes. I make a wrong turn.
I still get there with five minutes to spare.
At least that went off without a hitch.
(And Butch is right. Dating Courtney Hansen probably would solve a lot of my problems.)
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Addendum to the Previous
I LIKE: finding out that the turn signal assembly is its own part, as well as part of the full headlamp assembly. So they didn't need to replace the whole thing, just that part. They refunded me the cost of having to order the full one and I ended up spending only about $50 for the turn signal (which they had in stock).
This is literally the best news I've heard in months. And that's kind of sad.
This is literally the best news I've heard in months. And that's kind of sad.
Friday, May 12, 2006
I Guess I'm It
Since Butch passive-aggressively tagged me:
I AM: something approximating the sum of my parts. I'm not sure if it's more or less or what.
I WANT: some ribs (I actually have a better answer but it's totally not for public consumption)
I WISH: I was a better talker
I HATE: the fact that I have to spend over $250 for a new headlight assembly just because the lens on my turn signal somehow broke off/disappeared. What a joke.
I MISS: more times than I care to admit, the obvious
I FEAR: not knowing what comes next
I HEAR: something. I need to always hear something. Lately it's been "Hero of the Day" by Metallica and "How We Operate" by Gomez
I WONDER: if it's time to change the blog template
I REGRET: not asking her.
I AM NOT: a social butterfly by any means
I DANCE: poorly
I SING: but not in the shower
I CRY: almost never anymore
I AM NOT ALWAYS: this depressing. Honest. :) <-- See?
I MAKE: a mean Caesar salad
I WRITE: not nearly as much or as well as I used to
I CONFUSE: when I see obviously out-of-place objects, and when I get raised in Razz by a hand that can't possibly be good
I NEED: a giant bag of cash
I SHOULD: be more proactive in my job search
I START: slowly
I FINISH: very few things that I start
I TAG: you. Yes, YOU. You and I both know you're out there.
I AM: something approximating the sum of my parts. I'm not sure if it's more or less or what.
I WANT: some ribs (I actually have a better answer but it's totally not for public consumption)
I WISH: I was a better talker
I HATE: the fact that I have to spend over $250 for a new headlight assembly just because the lens on my turn signal somehow broke off/disappeared. What a joke.
I MISS: more times than I care to admit, the obvious
I FEAR: not knowing what comes next
I HEAR: something. I need to always hear something. Lately it's been "Hero of the Day" by Metallica and "How We Operate" by Gomez
I WONDER: if it's time to change the blog template
I REGRET: not asking her.
I AM NOT: a social butterfly by any means
I DANCE: poorly
I SING: but not in the shower
I CRY: almost never anymore
I AM NOT ALWAYS: this depressing. Honest. :) <-- See?
I MAKE: a mean Caesar salad
I WRITE: not nearly as much or as well as I used to
I CONFUSE: when I see obviously out-of-place objects, and when I get raised in Razz by a hand that can't possibly be good
I NEED: a giant bag of cash
I SHOULD: be more proactive in my job search
I START: slowly
I FINISH: very few things that I start
I TAG: you. Yes, YOU. You and I both know you're out there.
Thursday, May 4, 2006
Tony Kornheiser Knows What's Up
Today on PTI:
"...because if Barry Bonds hits [home run No. 715] in Philly, they will boo him out of Center City. They might go after him."
"...because if Barry Bonds hits [home run No. 715] in Philly, they will boo him out of Center City. They might go after him."
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