No more showers on submarines

I've been working on a theory lately that I needed to share. I haven't got it quite figured out, but I think there is something inherently wicked about taking a shower on a submarine, and something bad will some day come of it. Just think about it; you're 1000 feet under water, in this little space you've carved out of this
unfathomable weight of water, and you're splashing water over yourself. You're
taunting very powerful forces, and I just don't think it's right.

I would feel a lot better if a "no showers on submarines" law was adopted globally as some kind of uniform military law. Because I'm not just talking about something "normal" bad happening. I think this could eventually blow some kind of hole in the fabric of space. We're really messing around with stuff that isn't to be taken lightly. "Hah, hah look at me.. I'm taking a shower under water. " It makes me sick just thinking about it.

Stop the madness.

Angels in America

I finally decided to commit six hours of my life last night to watch Angels in America. I'm glad I did. I thought it was great. You can really tell that it was a play turned into a movie. It still has the positive aspects of a play, along with the advantages of a movie. It's more than just a 6 hour dramatic movie.. it is art.

Sometimes the way you say something, the sound of it, is as important as the story you tell. It's like the difference between poetry and prose. And sometimes the way something looks is as important as what it is. Style and substance. That is what Angels in America has. The dialogue and the imagery is so good, it just feeds on the touching stories, and vice versa. On top of that, it's funny. Despite the various tragic arcs, it makes you feel happy to watch it. At least it should.

It got me thinking that there are some people that WOULDN'T enjoy it (if they would even see it), no matter how beautiful or artistic it was. There are still people that are so ignorant, pathetic, and basically evil that they can't accept homosexuality. It is incredibly sad. If you want a good example of the basic immorality of most religion, look no further. There are people that would deny someone basic rights as humans or citizens of the United States because they are gay. And why? Because God says so. It's just so morally bankrupt, I can't fathom it.

I also watched On the Waterfront Saturday. I thought it was a good movie. It seemed extremely dated, and the ending was pretty goofy. But the acting was outstanding. Brando was incredible in it. And the famous taxi scene was as good as billed, which often isn't the case with old movies. I give it two thumbs up.

Oh, also, I took the Colts -15 yesterday, and they beat the Texans by 18 or something. So I am 3-2 on the year now.

New Web Host

I finally gave up on my old web host - Tactical Systems. They really, really sucked. My website was unavailable about 50% of the time, it seemed. It was always random stuff that had nothing to do with my site, or wasn't my fault. So, I moved to GoDaddy.com. So far, it seems better. I've had one negative interacation with their support (They didn't seem to know that you needed to use a proxy to open URLs outside of GoDaddy from your server-side code. Luckily I found the settings by searching on Google). But, I am optimistic that my site will be much more available. The only time anyone ever sees it is for our Golf League, but still.. if I'm going to pay for it, it should work.

My site is here.

More ridiculous online poker

So.. I take a few days off to clear my head from the RIDICULOUS bad luck I've had playing online poker.

The very first tournament I play today, early on, I flop 3 deuces against a pair of Queens. I get all in, about to double up, and of course a queen comes on the river. EVERY time. It is just completely, out-of-this-world ridiculous how long this has gone on.

Getting Hand History Information...
----------------------------------------------------------------

Hand #9043312-20 at SnG-0054a (No Limit Hold'em Sit and Go)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 16/Oct/05 15:42:43

Kenji 33 is at seat 0 with 1365.
rrjcalgary is at seat 1 with 1145.
phantom83k is at seat 2 with 1590.
floptdanutz is at seat 3 with 450.
sliderdev is at seat 4 with 1570.
NDHawk is at seat 5 with 1330.
lucky275 is at seat 6 with 2780.
smalls616 is at seat 7 with 1910.
Takman is at seat 8 with 1225.
busta1129 is at seat 9 with 1635.
The button is at seat 0.

rrjcalgary posts the small blind of 15.
phantom83k posts the big blind of 30.

Kenji 33: -- --
rrjcalgary: -- --
phantom83k: -- --
floptdanutz: -- --
sliderdev: 2c 2d
NDHawk: -- --
lucky275: -- --
smalls616: -- --
Takman: -- --
busta1129: -- --

Pre-flop:

floptdanutz folds. sliderdev calls. NDHawk folds.
lucky275 folds. smalls616 folds. Takman folds.
busta1129 folds. Kenji 33 raises to 135. rrjcalgary
calls. phantom83k folds. sliderdev calls.

Flop (board: 2s 6s 5c):

rrjcalgary checks. sliderdev checks. Kenji 33 bets
435. rrjcalgary folds. sliderdev raises to 870.
Kenji 33 goes all-in for 1230. sliderdev calls.

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:

Kenji 33 shows Qh Qc.
sliderdev shows 2c 2d.


Turn (board: 2s 6s 5c Th):

(no action in this round)


River (board: 2s 6s 5c Th Qs):

(no action in this round)




Showdown:

Kenji 33 has Qh Qc 6s Th Qs: three queens.
sliderdev has 2c 2d 2s Th Qs: three deuces.


Hand #9043312-20 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
Kenji 33 wins 2895 with three queens.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Week 6 pick and poker

I'm going with New England (+3) at Denver tomorrow. Tom Brady is going to come through for me.

I'm taking a few days off from poker. I've had a horrible month playing online. I play a lot of single table tournaments that pay the top 3 finishers. Normally I finish in the top 3 about 40% of the time or so. In the last month, I've finished in the top 3 only 5/35 times! That's 14% of the time. An AVERAGE player should be 30%. I don't know what is going on.

Thursday was the last straw for awhile. I played two and got knocked out with KK against 55, and AA against 89. Both times I had an above average stack, and made raises. Everyone just hits their hand against me.

In the middle of all this losing, I managed to have a great night against my friends last Friday. I hit more than my fair share of hands, and more than tripled my initial buy-in.

I may try to play a little tomorrow during the football games, but I'm feeling extremely unlucky online lately.

Lost vs. Threshold

There are a couple new shows on that really wish they could be Lost -- Invasion and Threshold. I think Invasion is somewhat promising, but the comparison between Lost and Threshold shows why Lost is such a good show, and Threshold not so much.

With Lost, every show seems to further the story of the people and the island. Some episodes move the story along more than others, but I'm always wanting to see what will happen to them next. With Threshold, each episode (so far) is the same thing. The team needs to find another infected person. Ho hum, blah blah. It is more similar to the X-Files, with these almost-stand-alone missions, that all start to resemble one another. Occassionally on X-Files you'd get an episode that actually advanced the story, and I guess that will happen on Threshold too. But mostly it's just new ways to capture the bad guys.

With Lost, the characters reactions to unbelievable situations are belieavable. The writing is a step above. The characters don't have time to stop and make one-liners, or go off on ridiculous and unfunny tangents. They are in the middle of an unending crisis, and they react with the types of emotions and dialogue that I would expect. On Threshold, these tremendously unfunny characters are always making stupid jokes, or delivering these sickeningly melodramatic lines. Plus, their always having these long expositional conversations outside, in front of people that shouldn't really know we're being invaded by aliens. Blah.

Basically, I think Threshold is a pretty crap show. I don't know why I keep watching it. Maybe it will get better, but if it doesn't soon, I will stop. Lost, on the other hand... I wish it was on even more. Where the hell did Desmond get off to? He just disappeared! What happened to the other survivors? Did they get sick? Does the sickness only affect one part of the island? What was the second research station used for? Tune in next week, I guess.

Nine Inch Nails/Queens of the Stone Age

Last night I went to see Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age at Joe Louis Arena. I thought they were both really good. The Queens rocked, and sounded really good. Nine Inch Nails put on a great show, as always I guess. That is the second time I've seen him live. The show always looks great, and it sounded good too. We had tickets on the floor, which was a mistake. There are too many pathetic losers who don't care to actually see the show. They just want to be jerkoffs, and annoy other people. Some shows it is ok, but not that one. I am too old to put up with those idiots.

The Eagles are currently getting killed. Losers. So I guess I will be 2-1.

Week 5 pick

My pick for Week 5 is the Eagles (-3) at Dallas. This is the second week in a row I've picked Dallas' opponent. I hope I am right again. Donovan McNabb is hurt, but that didn't stop him from throwing for 370 yards last week. Just like I said Moss would have a huge game last week (He was over 100 yards, but no TDs), I think Owens will this week. And Bledsoe should get hammered by the Eagles D.

Go Eagles.

HORSE

I played in a HORSE tournament online last night. HORSE stands for:
H-Holdem
O-Omaha Hilo
R-Rass
S-Stud
E-Stud Hilo (Eight or better)

The game changes every time the stakes go up (every 10 minutes or whatever). Those are my favorite tournaments, because you have to understand each of the games to do well. I'm not an expert at any of them, but I feel like I am pretty good at most of them. I came in 7th, I think, out of 26. Not great, but not awful either. I felt like I played my cards pretty well, but I didn't get lucky near the end when I needed to. If this guy wouldn't have hit his flush on the river in Hold Em, it would have put me near the top with 7 players left. But it wasn't meant to be.

You're Kidding Me Buster

If you recognize the title of this post, then you watch the funniest show on TV - Arrested Development. If I could only watch one show, this would be the one. I don't understand when people say they don't get the show, or don't think it's funny. But, invariably, they think the King of Queens is hilarious.. so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

I will admit, it is very self-referential, so if you just start to watch for one week, you may not get all the jokes, or why they are funny. For example, you wouldn't find the "You're Kidding Me Buster" banner to be wildly hilarious (as I do), if you hadn't seen it in at least 3 other episodes (usually as "You're Killing Me Buster"). You wouldn't understand why the random blue paint marks around the house are funny, or why it is funny whenever anyone says they've made a huge mistake. But still.. every bit of it is so funny, I think anybody should be able to get into it. Maybe it will be like Seinfeld, and takea few seasons for the ratings to really pick up. I hope so, because people that aren't watching it are really missing out.

On a related note.. I watch way too much TV in the fall. I haven't had much time to play poker lately because the two nights I am not playing basketball I am watching tv. But, that is probably good, since I've been on a horrible losing streak. Maybe a few days away will get my mind right.

The Manchurian Candidate

Last night I watched the original Manchurian Candidate, with Frank Sinatra. I thought it was a good flick. Some of the communist/asian cliches were pretty funny; probably moreso now than when the movie came out. Angela Landsbury was such a mega-bitch.

My favorite part, though, was the interaction between Sinatra and Janet Leigh. It seems like there was something going on there that wasn't really resolved in the movie. When they first met, they had such a bizarre conversation. It was funny, but when you combine it with the "triggers" that Shaw had, it seems like there was more to it. She kept saying stuff that didn't make sense. And then she (supposedly) dumped her fiance after only having met Sinatra the one time on the train, and all of a sudden they are in love. It seemed like she was possibly another controller. But, you would think that if that was the case, they would have hinted at it more in the end of the film.

Overall, I gave it 4/5 stars.

The Raiders covered the spread yesterday. That means me 2-0 in my quest for the free chips from Paradise Poker. I picked Cincy in week 3.

The White Stripes

I went to see The White Stripes last night at the Masonic Temple in Detroit. It was a great concert. The White Stripes are probably my favorite band right now, and they put on a great show, especially Jack. I don't know if people understand what a great guitarist, and all-around musician he is. He played three types of guitars, piano, marimba, and even drums during the concert. On one song he sat at the piano with his guitar and switched back and forth. It was very cool.

I think that their new album, Get Behind Me Satan, is awesome. It is quite different from their previous albums, especially the popular songs on those albums. And, it is quite different from itself, with each track bringing a different sound. I think the first six songs on the album are as diverse, and good, as any I've ever heard. My only disappointment at the concert was that they didn't play "Take, Take, Take", "The Denial Twist", or "Little Ghost". But they did play a lot of songs. Their "encore" was almost as long as the main part of the concert, literally. It went on for about 45 minutes, which was very cool.

I also need to mention the Michigan-Michigan State game yesterday. I was right. Michigan State just wasn't up to the task. Michigan played pretty well, and managed to win in OT. It really shouldn't have gone to OT, because I think the fumble call on Henne was wrong, and Rivas should have made the first FG. But, a win is a win. Hopefully we can run the table in the Big Ten and salvage something from the season, but I don't think that is very likely.