Back in 10

Huge thanks to all who left the wonderful comments about Mrs. Head’s art. It provided a wonderful psychic boost for which both of us are eminently thankful. And I was right; she seems re-energized towards getting back on the art horse, as it were.

**********
There still hasn’t been any poker because the workload is heavy and over the next two weeks will be even heavier than normal (120 hours in 10 days). Bleh. There just isn’t enough time to do all of the fun stuff. I did have some spare time over the Labor Day weekend, but couldn’t resist the siren song that is God of War on the PS2. Just the fact that I only recently began playing this game a couple of weeks ago is a pretty accurate indicator of just how behind I am on “fun.”

It’s looking like my mother will shortly be a guest of Harvard Medical because no one can figure out what is wrong with her and she’s still having heaps of potentially life-threatening problems. Over the last week my father nearly died, again. It looks as though I’ll shortly be involved in a lawsuit against the property management company we recently rented from. Life still seem to be nothing but a circumstantial mess, but there is some positive in that the tenant/landlord laws in Arizona a pretty clear cut so it looks like we’ll be receiving a decent amount of money in the near (I hope) future. Why would I still continue to write this boring ass crap when it’s been trumped time and time again that no one wants to hear about it?

Because that’s what is happening.

That being said, there only remains the choice of keeping it short and sweet or trying to “flower it up” in an effort to give the impression that I have some writing skillz. I’m simply too tired and too busy to do the latter. I wrote the above to simply remind everyone (and myself) to appreciate the continuity that does exist in their lives. While certainly not a new message, it’s worth stating if for no other reason than to inspire a “geez I’m glad that’s not me” moment in others.

As a poker blog, yep, this space may be dying but it’s not dead. It’s simply changing. Into what, I’m not sure. It may come back around to more poker – maybe sooner, maybe later, maybe not at all. That’s part of the reason it exists in the first place, to work it all out.

Give your continuity a hug. I’ll catch ya in 10 days (ish).

Three states really the same

It seems that the Bloglines subscribers to this space are steadily decreasing. It’s depressing, but understandable *sigh*. That being said, I greatly appreciate anyone still taking the time to stop by and peruse. With the “poke” having left poker to become more akin to rape-r, none has been played since the last post, I’m definitely not in the right frame of mind and frankly tired of seeing my bankroll get chipped away while I try to get right. I have been watching on TV though, the current favorite being High Stakes Poker.

I’m not sure why it took me so long to figure out that I did indeed have GSN, but I finally happened upon it a few weeks ago and gleefully sought out HSP to record. Through watching it over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed the growing feeling that this is real poker, which of course makes tournaments feel a bit more…artificial somehow. This is nothing new, Barry Greenstein and other notables have talked plenty about the same thing, but the realization certainly seems worth mentioning, as I guess most things are when you really begin to realize them for yourself.

That’s enough of the blathering about this goddamn game of which I know so little.

We are now into the paid programming portion of the evening. Literally.

Every work evening between 2 and 4 AM that is all that is on the tube. Most of the time it’s not a big issue as I’m too busy to really pay attention or care, but on those rare occasions when I can sit back (like now) I find myself in one of three states:

State #1—The Paid Programming Pain. This leaves me highly annoyed and looking around at the telephone cords and Ethernet cabling, trying in vain to come up with inventive ways to hang myself. Muting is no help, the inane banter continues in my head even when the sound is gone.

State #2—The National News Pain. When watching the paid programming just isn’t enough self-inflicted punishment one can always (as a certain well-known Ewok is fond of saying ) “kick it up a notch” by turning on CNN. Whether it’s another story that jumps on the “should not have EVER been a story but what the hell we’ll hype it anyway because there aren’t any other important things to talk about” JonBenet reporting bandwagon or wonderful tales of yet another government fuckup and/or lie that will be completely ignored and go on completely unchanged, there are plenty of seeds to harvest a bountiful crop of depression and frustration. To be fair, you could turn on most any news channel for the same effect. BBC is still a small antidote, but even that isn’t nearly what it used to be.

State #3—The MTV Pain. Ready for the ultimate in extreme self abuse? Do you feel like your IQ is just a bit too high? This channel is custom fucking designed for your purposes. I don’t even feel the need to elaborate on this one. Tuning in for 2.3 minutes is really all the explanation one will ever need.

Thank you Chuck Norris for Walker Texas Ranger. Without your reruns coming on at 5 AM, I’d never know the back-from-the-brink-of-despair smiling pleasure that comes with indulging in pure TV cheese (“TV cheese” being Spanish for high good vs.evil action drama).

**********
Last, but certainly not least, I’m trying to push Mrs. Head into selling some of her paintings a) because we just don’t have the wall space to hang all of them anymore, and b) I’m of the mind that they kick ass. My opinion, of course, could be biased. Like any artist, she doesn’t really like her own work so I’m taking the reigns and putting it out there.

Here are a few of them.

Shoot a comment or email to talk price, and help me convince her to start painting again—she hasn’t done so for quite a while and really should resume, like, yesterday.