Totally Super Pumped

Finally.

I haven’t been to Vegas since the wife and I had our honeymoon there in 2000. Thankfully, my wife saw the signs as I did and we realized that it’s high time for another trip.

We’ve been planning since this last Christmas to go to Vegas for Christmas 2005, and spent some time last night hemming and hawing about whether two trips to Vegas in the same year would be too much. What the hell were we thinking? Of course it’s not!

So, on June third, the Head + wife will be landing for the tenth time in Vegas, ready to get to the tables with some poker players who all have a similar urge to publish stuff on the Web. We’re going to be staying at the Golden Nugget because neither of us has stayed in “old Vegas” before, plus it’s cheap as hell. Airfare and 3 nights at the hotel cost us $650, NICE.

Now where did I put that spare liver?

Uh-oh..Sounds like trouble

Here it is folks…a reason to get those poker profits pumped up. No one got served, but nonetheless, It’s ON.

The wife and I spent our honeymoon at the Alladin. My birthday is June 7. Is it me, or does this sound a lot like providence at work?

Now I just gotta find the money…geez, that’s gonna be a lot of plasma to donate :)

A.I.

Artificial Intelligence? Nope, American Idol, but the intelligence contained therein is definitely artificial. The Mrs. is an American Idol fan, which I guess by proxy makes me one too. Thank God for that Intraweb thing during that time slot.

Last night I didn’t have to see too much of the show since I got home later than normal and still had to cook. While I’m in the kitchen, I hear a noise most disturbing….

Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo

It was as familiar as it was unpleasant, and it took me a second to place it. **accessing memory banks…located** Arsenio Hall Show….oh no, say it’s not so.

Coming out from the kitchen I find Randy Jackson not only prompting the male contestants to make this odious noise, but also to partake in the attendant fist circle motion that was Arsenio’s little gimmick. Even during it’s height, the Arsenio fist and noise thing wasn’t very cool, I wonder why he can’t grasp the fact that it’s even less so now?

Just when I think it’s impossible for my sensibilities to be offended any further, he refers to the male Idol contestants as ‘The Dogg Pound”. Mommy, make the bad man stop… Note to Randy: Snoop did this already in the early 90’s, and it belongs solely to him.

Jeezus, next thing we know, Randy Jackson will be calling himself the Don Mega. I kind of hope he does, as seeing him punched by Ice Cube would be worthy of a Pay-per-View style event.

Which brings me to my Randy Jackson Hypothesis. Everyone knows a white guy that acts WAY too artificially black. That’s Randy, except he actually IS black. That’s it, that’s the hypothesis. Most white folks are more black than Randy Jackson. God is definitely a cruel comedian.

The Light of Day

When you’re alone at night, even if you know where you’re going, you still feel like you are floundering a bit. Something about the lack of light relegating everything around you to an obscure shape makes it seem like you’re a bit lost even though you’re not, exactly. Finally, the sun peeks out from the horizon and invigorates you, spurring you forward on your path with a renewed vigor.

It seems to me the same holds true with poker. For so many years, our game has been relegated to the perpetual night of the back room, scorned by puritanical notions that claim a figurative monopoly on the light of day. Over the last, what, 3 to 4 years(?), more folks than ever have discovered the proverbial “back room”, and if that’s where the game continues then sooner or later people will leave, opting instead for sunshine and leaving us where we began.

PokerProf has a new post up from a new contributor talking about a new International Poker Association, and it sounds like their vision is a good one. Of all the fledgling organizations out there struggling to lift themselves up, I’m glad to see that this one chose the word ‘International’, because that’s what the game is. The consistency of its rules make it something that everyone can participate in, regardless of language or geography.

I posted before about the constant efforts by the powers that be to squash our game. The reason for doing so was an article that Roy Cooke wrote in CardPlayer. I emailed Roy, voicing my support and desire to help if there was some way that I could, and last night I actually received a response. It seems there is something that this little blogger can do, and that is try simply to round up a bit of support for the notion. Long story short, the powers at CardPlayers are beginning to get a bit reticent about Roy writing and pushing so much for such an organization, and seem to be leaning towards putting the kibosh on the subject unless he can show that there is support out there for such a thing.

So, if you are so inclined (and I certainly hope you are), send a mail to pokersVoice at aol dot com to voice your interest in seeing future columns on the subject, and to be included in future discussion. I truly believe that this little (well, not so little these days) community can actually contribute something very real to help ensure the future prosperity of this game.

Of all the material I’ve read thus far on the subject, and at the risk of sounding like a Cooke evangelist of sorts, I really think that he has the most cohesive vision for an association thus far regarding the fact that one unified organization needs to be formed. I think that this is a crucial point, because a whole bunch of smaller organizations will eventually end up scrapping with each other and getting little or nothing accomplished. The big money folks are never attracted to splinter groups, and are lot more open with their pockets when presented with the option to work with a unified whole.

Basketball has the NBA, football the NFL. If we really want to see this game be popular over the long haul, I think it behooves us to make every effort towards bringing about that formation of a NPA.

The light of dawn is beginning to peek through. Let us not be apathetic because of the present booming popularity and the warm sun. While the way is clear we really should be preparing for the evening that is eventually and inevitably on its way.

Check out my new Dubs

I’m approaching a mark I honestly didn’t think I would reach: Ninety days.

Ninety days, a lot of crap, a few decent pieces, and I still want to keep going. This little endeavor has certainly had some unexpected results.

I have been off of the Celexa for an entire sixty of these ninety days. Now, I’m all for better living through chemistry, but I’ve never been wholly OK with the anti-depressants other than for recreational purposes. They smack of artificiality, and not in the good way. When on a steady diets of these, there are things that you know should be making you feel some way or another, yet you don’t, and that in its own way is, well, depressing.

As an outsider reading, you must be asking “How did you come to be one of the legions of the anti-depressed?” Long story short, ’00 to ’02 a high-paying, unrealistically high-pressure sales job stole pieces of my soul and “broke” something in my brain. Imagine having a heart attack that lasts anywhere from four to eight hours, multiply it by every day, and you get the picture.

Many would say that blogging serves no purpose. After all, what are they really, but slightly edited snippets of the mundane soap opera that is life? I can’t help but disagree with those of the ‘no purpose’ school. It may be a bit tougher to find, but great insight can be found in a mundane snippet sometimes, just ask some of the folks who have improved their poker game through said mundane snippets. Move over little pink pills, I’m repairing myself one word at a time.

And now, on to other things...

There is new inductee on my Persons who ought to be Thrashed list. Okay, I don’t really have a list like that, but sometimes I think I should. The new inductees are none other than the folks who started Jamster and Dirty Hippo. Have you seen these? No? Well, turn to MTV or Comedy Central and I promise you they will rectify that in short order.

I noticed them a few months back popping up sporadically on Comedy Central (seemingly with the intent on souring my enjoyment of Friday Night Stand Up), and remember thinking to myself that no one could possibly want what they were selling. After all, how many people could possibly feel as though they need a spinning dub screensaver on their phone, to be accompanied by a lame SirMixaLot ring? Quite a few apparently, as the commercials in question have gone from annoying in their frequency to downright “quick, give me that rusty spoon so I can gouge out my eyes.”

Here’s to hoping that they go away quickly, because I would very much like to keep my eyes. I realize that this wish is tantamount to wishing for world peace, but I can dream, right? One thing is for sure: I’m obviously in the wrong damn business, because there seems to be an awful lot of money in them thar crappy bitmaps and MIDI tunes.

Staying with this train of thought, I long for an idea like that which makes me oodles of quick money. Straight from impulsive consumers right into my pockets. The trick seems to be doing that while maintaining a sense of personal dignity and not selling my soul in the process. Decisions, decisions. This brings an interesting question to mind: Would you rather be unbelievably rich, being hated my many and loved by few OR would you rather be upper-poor/lower-middle on the economic scale, but loved by all and hated by very few?

Put that in your pipe and smoke it for a while. Speaking of smoking, I’m long overdue for a date with my smooth blend of Turkish tobacco (Camels, for you non-smoking readers).

This is the crap that comes out when you have to spend six hours alone at work. Thanks for staying with another episode of my mundane soap opera. I have to get home now to console the Mrs., who it seems just bubbled out of two straight SnG’s and is mighty unhappy about it. Aaaaah, smell that springtime variance…..

Remastered Goodness

Here is sit, all brokenhearted
Tried to work,
But only farted.

Yes, it’s true; I’m sitting at work on this most auspicious of holidays, one of the very few instances that I’m actually jealous of the salaried folk. Oh well, it is what it is.

I wish I had some more substantial content to share, but all I can think about is the fact that I’m actually looking forward to taking a dump, as that is most likely going to be the only thing that breaks the monotony of the next six hours. The weather was beautiful this weekend (for once), so I spent most of it doing some constructive things other than poker, like socializing and poking my giant head outside for once.

Saturday evening was some good fun, and well, toe-down is about the only way to describe it. Stupid Stolichnaya.

I awoke on Sunday morning with full intentions of getting a post written, and while I still had the motor skills to type, the aforementioned vodka had slowed my thinking to the point of actually moving backwards, hence no post. What does one do in a condition such as this? Why, go out and spend some poker profit! After all, what fun is money if you don’t do anything with it?

Thanks to my new television, I am now a movie purchasing freak. A couple of weeks back, the wife and I made a score at Hollywood Video when they were having a sale on DVD’s, 3 for $30. So, for a nominal fee we added….

· Anchorman Uncut (I’m a sucker for anything Will Ferrell)
· City of God
· Garden State
· Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
· Napoleon Dynamite
· Hero

….to the collection. Yesterday though, I broke from my budget conscious tradition and went big, buying both The Ultimate Matrix Collection and The Alien Quadrilogy. Rush home, whip up a nice meal, herbally prepare, and then spend the next seven hours enveloped in the warm embrace of digitally remastered goodness. No computer screens, no virtual tables, just what the doctor ordered.

Now I’m ready to get back to the tables, and I have to work. Curses!

Since I’m sure many of you have a bit of extra time today, I thought you might enjoy Banned from Poo Mountain. Here’s hoping that you enjoyed it as much as I did, although I probably would have renamed it “Pothead discovers Richard Brautigan.”

Thinking Big. Head Much Bigger. Talk at ya soon…..