Monday's gonna suck

Tonight I have sat in my room for multiple hours doing nothing.

I have no will or desire to do anything.

I've stared at my computer monitor, I've stared at my ceiling, I've accomplished nothing.

Earlier today was better.  I woke up and immediately ate some Lucky Charms, I was satiated.

I then shaved most of the hair off of my head and hit the showers.

Later in the day I watched 20 minutes of the Pro Bowl and then headed over to a buddy's house to watch the Royal Rumble.

Since that point in time I have done nothing.

I have not read, I have not played any games, I have just wasted my entire evening staring off into different directions of space.  Ugh.

I'm mostly not looking forward to tomorrow.

It's going to start with a trip to the dentist around 11 am.  Depending on how that goes and what gets done will determine if I hit up the gym later in the evening or not.

Obviously if a tooth gets pulled (wisdom) then I will not be able to hit up the gym.

But, before gym time comes play time and I'll be heading out with a friend to take in a movie.

A re-release.

In 3d.

Have I ranted about how I don't particularly like 3d?  If not I'll probably get to it eventually.

Yesterday was Poker Tourney day and I spent the majority of my time auctioning off my chips to the better hand.

It was seriously a pretty damned crappy tourney even though I had played very well (I thought) during my time at the table.

I started early by raising TT in early position and betting down on a Jack high board.  The river I was suddenly bet into fairly large but the way the hand played out he told me that he was drawing to something and missed.  I called and he mucked.

Later I did the same with J8 on a J high 4 straight board, but I was the only one doing the betting.  

Those two hands were the hi-light of the tourney for me.

After that (all in the 1st level of the tourney) I got AQ, AJ and AT each once and no other hands worth while.

I raised those 3 hands and missed everything and got lots of action (4 -5 callers pre-flop and being bet into and called post flop).

Meanwhile the rest of my table was busy getting lots of AA and KK, rivering gut-shots after calling half their stack away on the turn and of course getting all in and rivering flushes.

My table saw the 1st 4 people eliminated from the tourney, 3 people had pretty large chip stacks by the time I made my final move and watched my opponent out flop me, out turn me and then out river me - just to get me every single way possible during my fair-well hand.

I will play it again at the end of Feb, it was worth while and there was a lot of bad play involved.

However, until that point I will have to suffer through another month of life.

At work I put in for two positions that popped open and I suspect that I will not receive interviews for either of them, however you get no where in life if you do not at least try.

I also have a meeting with my store manager on Thursday as she is going to tell me what it is that she wants me to do and I suspect that it is somewhere along the lines of 1-on-1 training with essentially everyone else in the store over the course of a couple month time period.

M.Prosk is my 20th follower - yet another roll over from Josie and TBC blogs of doom.

Also, TBC's latest blog post is full of racism and extremist views - also a very bad belief system and it seems to me (and others) that he really doesn't understand the difference between Dems and Repubs.

However, from what he said you have to be mentally ill to vote for the Democrats because they support black pimps mistreating white whores (paraphrased of course).

Last night I drank and had a great time, good night followers. I've bounced around enough for one evening.

My attempt at healthier - boring - feel free to skip

Today at the gym I decided to do things a little differently.
When I jumped on the Elliptical I hit the button that says "weight loss" and i'm 100% sure that button didn't do it's job.  However, I continued.
The weight loss program runs for 28 minutes and then 4 minutes of cool down, and the entire time that I was going through the program I tried my hardest to keep my heart rate in the "fat burn" target range which is evidently much less than cardio.  I don't know enough about all this and that to understand why-the-fuck it's that way, I just kinda play along and hope the results show up.
Other than going over the heart-rate threshold twice (but getting it back down quickly) i stayed where I was trying to stay for the entire 32 minutes and I was happy with myself.  Broke a decent sweat in the process and felt good.
It was then that I decided that I'd see how long I could go balls out and slowing down to make sure I got to 13 minutes (so that I could hit 45 total) if need be.
I'm happy to report that I did the 13 minutes without much of an issue at all and I kept my heart-rate in the target cardio area the entire time.  I kept trying to control my breathing so that I could control my heart rate better and I think the more fit I become the better I'll become at this as well.
Either way - 45 minutes is more than I had planned to hit by the end of my 1st week in the gym.
Makes my 1 hour mark seem much more reasonable at this point.

Over the course of this week I have also increased my water intake dramatically (and by water intake I mean just pure water - not all that other stuff that I dream where the 1st ingredient is water).  I am up to 80 ounces per day min (mind you I have gone entire months in my past where I have not drank a single ounce of water - so this is pretty dramatic for me.
I have also cut down my soda intake since I am drinking more water - which leads me into this.

I was reading on our works social networking forum today and some guy posted how he went about making changes in his life in order to lose weight and get healthier after his heart attack (it's fucking weird how I'm now starting to see people everywhere writing about how they had a heart attack between 35-40 and then proceed to describe me almost to a T lol).
He says one of the things that he did was cut out soda's complete - not even drinking diet sodas.  Switching up to almost all water with whatever else.
Then, in parenthesis like it's some big amount he states that he used to drink up to 5 cans of soda every single day.  I actually laughed out loud because in my prime I think I was downing over 3 two-liters of Mt Dew every single day, and probably a couple of cans/bottles as well.  This was high-school.
In college I think I lived off of Mt Dew daily and when the weekends hit I lived off of Vodka.
It's truly disturbing how much Mt Dew that I used to consume daily now that I look back at it.  So, his claim of up to 5 cans of soda every day made me laugh and I wanted to write back "Shit, that was what I called breakfast when i was younger."

I've also cut out most of the junk food that I normally ate and replaced it with a steady stream of fruit.
My daily eat list is not really that impressive - there are still some flaws with it, but it will slowly change over time to something more healthy.  I cannot cut out every single vice from day one and actually still enjoy my life.
Currently I eat a banana and a cheese stick for breakfast with a bottle of water and if I have one a small bottle of Sunny D (probably an 8 oz one I think, it's pretty tiny).
My first break at work I generally eat either left overs from the night before or a lunch meat sandwich consisting of chicken or turkey, some cheese and some mayo and mustard.
My second break at work I eat another banana and another cheese stick.
Also note that i bring a baggie full of grapes to work as well, and a sliced kiwi or a cutie (mini orange looking thing).
And, in there somewhere (or during my longer lunch break) I have a real snack brought from home.  In a small baggie I have either a couple of cookies, or some Doritos or if my mom has been in a cooking mood a brownie or something equally as delicious.
I know that I should cut out the real junk food and only do that once a week - but I can live with myself this way for right now.  We'll talk about cutting out more after i've dropped 25 pounds or so.
And other than my traditional banana after my workout, I have not been eating anything after 8pm.
No snacking, nothing.

I am very happy with the way this first week went.  I got 4 good days of exercise in and I have made at least one healthy change in my diet (more water, less soda).
Next week is going to be a challenge - Monday is a trip to the dentist.
The big issue with that is that there is a possibility of having 2 wisdom teeth removed on Monday which means no gym for a couple days afterwards.
So, we'll play next week by ear and hope for the best.

Too many words and I need to get some reading in before falling asleep.
Hope you all have great weekends and hope I have some good shit to write about after tomorrow nights tournament!

The wee morning hours

I'm not a morning person, though over the last year or so I have had to force myself into the routine of being up early because of my job.  It's not that bad but every morning I look at that clock and think to myself or out loud to my dog that I'd rather be sleeping.
Also, the alarm has another annoying side effect and that is waking the dog up so that I have to take him outside and wait for him to do his business.
Not really cool. 5:30 in the morning outside in my boxers and a T-shirt is starting to get a little bit chilly out here in Las Vegas.  I guess at least it's not snowing ha :)

Yesterday I came home from work to find that 3 new people have started following me.  I've got LVPokerplayer who is a carry over from TBC's blog I do believe and Summer Smith who I knew WAY BACK in high school.  The 3rd I am less than 100% sure about but I think is thlf.  I am just going to assume that stands for "Totally hawsome, loves fucking."  but I could be wrong.

So thank you all for coming along on my little adventure - sadly this is no Big Top Adventure and Paul Reuben will not be coming to play with us.

Yesterday I hit up the gym for the 3rd time this week and pushed myself to 35 minutes before caving and calling it a day.  I'll probably do the same tonight and by the end of next week I'm hoping to be able to push 45 minutes.  My overall goal is that when I'm doing just the elliptical to be able to do 1 hour per day.
I was going to weigh myself but when I went into the locker room there was a naked guy hogging the "how fat are you" machine.  In fact, he was on there entirely too long and trying to stand perfectly still until the metal arm of weight positioning stopped moving 100% and told him how fat he was down to the ounce.
It was kind of annoying.  Get on, move the scales and when it starts to normalize BINGO, that's about what you weight.  If you need more exact readings then buy a fucking scale and use it at home lardo.

Two more days until my weekend begins and that means two more days until the Aliante tourney. $100 buy in (technically $90 buy-in and $10 dealer add-on, but if you don't take the add-on you're an idiot) and 100% of the $90 buy-in goes to the prize pool.
I want to work on my tournament game (read: develop one) so there is no reason why I shouldn't start playing.   Also, if you show up early and play you get an extra $500 in chips for every half hour you play up to a max of an extra $2000.  If I can weasel my way out of work just a little early and get seated fairly quickly I should be able to get the full $2000 extra chips.

For the Ladies

Yesterday I posted the picture of your typical "hot" chick in a swim suit.
I suggested that it was eye candy for the guys, to convince them to keep reading my boring diatribes that contain no info about poker but things about working out, and my job and other such things no one finds fun to read about.

Another reader asked if I would be posting some pics for the ladies who read my blog (and even though they are greatly out numbered I do have to remind myself that they control all of the vagina's and thus I should probably listen if I ever want to see one again).

So, with that in mind - This blog is for the ladies.

It's long been rumored that the ladies love the chocolate.  Cake, cookies, candy bars and ice cream. It doesn't matter the source as long as it's flavored with that brown delicious stuff.
Speaking of chocolate

This man has 4 kids and can't afford his child support since he somehow managed to squander the 80 (that's fucking right kids) 80 million he made over the course of his NFL career.
So, he had to take a "job" playing for an arena team for a measly $500,000 so that he could keep making his payments and keep his ass out of jail.
I felt less gay putting this picture up because he is a football player and not just some random muscular fuck-tard from a Google search.

So sit back and enjoy a few sips of the nice delicious red wine that I am providing for you and relax.
Take off your shoes and I'll give you a nice foot massage.
Let me throw another log in the fireplace for you.

Are you relaxed?
Good.
Because I've been single for far too long and I put a few roofies in your drink.
Daddy's going to score tonight

Wednesday's hodge podge - Evening Edition

So, I thought that I'd start adding more eye candy for my mostly male reading audience.
The chick above, Katrina Law, is going to be in the new Spartacus show that is coming out soon.  If you haven't seen the previous seasons it's basically Soft Core Porn with blood and violence added in.

Tonight I am taking the night off from the gym.  I have gone the past two in a row which is good, and after today I will also go on Thursday and Friday.  Four days for my first week back in the sweat factory is a good accomplishment.
I'll still find some sort of exercise to do from home, maybe some fat-boy sit-ups and push-ups will do me good. If I can count to ten I think I'm pretty damned golden right now.

I started reading a book today, Alice in Deadland, which I picked up for my Kindle Fire of course. I'm not 100% where I saw this book advertised or anything, I just remember that it was/is a 99 cent book and from my brief glance at the cover and the name I assumed it would be a bizarre twist on the Alice in Wonderland story.
That part I got right, but I think that was easy to decipher.
The part that I got wrong was I saw the name Deadland and my mind immediately went to Deadlands which is essentially part of the whole D&D universe of tabletop RPG games.  I love the Deadlands universe from what little I have played of it - so with those two thoughts I spend the 99 cents and off I went to the download page.

Now that I have officially got a few pages into it (briefly read a bit during lunch) it is more of an Alice in Wonderland meets Zombies type of book - which I still have no problem with and if I were to have known that (you know, if I would have done research and read reviews or anything) I would have bought it all the same.
I am not far enough into the book to give any good information about it just yet, I am still just starting to get a feel for it myself.  What I can say is that it looks like it's going to be a different take on zombies than the mindless killing machines that they typically are.

The fattie that I am is telling my superego to get a beer and something to snack on, the skinny(er) person that I want to be is telling the fattie to shut his pie-hole and drink a bottle of water instead.

My (angry) customer will be coming into the store tomorrow to take care of his issue.  When I called him today I told him that if he came into the store and spoke to a manager and let them know the situation that I'm sure they'd have no issue throwing 10% his way.  So, of course the first thing he asks is when I work tomorrow to make sure that he comes in when I'm there.
So, I guess I should probably prime the management team in advance of the situation and the solution that I have already offered so that when he arrives it's as quick and painless as possible.
Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma'am!
I love my solutions like I like my women.

Angry Customer

Today I have to find a solution for an angry customer.
It'll be fun - I'll pretend I'm a manager and I'll throw money at the problem and hope it goes away.  :)

Next week is a week of work that I'm really not looking forward to.  The other person who shares my office is supposed to be covering another department because of a vacation, so I get the full week to myself.
That's not the bad part, I've done it before and it's honestly not that hard.  The bad part is that this time they threw me in a horrible morning shift.
5:30 - 2:30 every day.  Well, not every day.  For some reason they gave me off Saturday - Monday.
I think that they were trying to give me the weekend off and somehow just forgot to schedule me on Monday (since I never work that day) but failed.  Which really is good news because I have a dentist appointment on Monday.  While I am not looking forward to that appointment I am also not really wanting to work the day just to get out of it.
I've got to do some soul searching (study my debt, my bills, my financial situation, etc) and see if I can afford to have the 3rd day off that week or if I should just come in and work on Saturday like I normally do.

Dentist - Oh - the thing that makes me hate January more than anything else.
I have to get a permanent cap for one of my teeth.  I also have to lose two smart-tooths.
One I have to lose because it's next to the tooth with the cap.  If they try to remove it later there is a chance it will break/crack the cap and I'd have to get a new one all over again.
The other one I believe has cracked and chipped over the past couple of months, was causing me bad headaches for about 2 weeks and just needs to go away.
I'm going to be old and toothless, the perfect picture of the typical dirty old man grabbing nurses asses and making bad jokes. Regaling in stories of my youth like that one time..... and that other time..... telling the same stories over and over and over again.

Gym - Day #2

I'm not sure whether I should put all of my updates for everything here or whether I should separate stuff like my boring gym blogs into their own separate space.

What does everyone else think?

I'd be curious to know this answer because I don't want to alienate people from checking me out regularly because I'm posting too often and detailing the whole weight loss thing here.

Either way - I'll do it for a time or two more and if you all hate it I'll move it to it's own separate space and be done with it.

Because the gym kicked my ass so bad today I'm too tired to actually type about anything else.

so, without further ado.....

Today was the day that I weighed myself for the first time in nearly 6 months.
Wow - that was not a happy moment in life, though truth be told I was kind of expecting the results that I saw.
I have eaten horrible over over the past 6 months, I have gotten no exercise and as a result I have gained weight and am at my highest total ever.

295.
Ugh
Pretty disgusted with myself at the moment, but I'm working on doing something about it.

So, with that motivation I walked my fat-ass up the stairs and hit the elliptical.
Dear Elliptical,
I heart you
Love serge

Today my only goal was to get my 30 minutes in and to make sure that I got even just a slightly better distance than yesterday.
I have no clue how distance transposes itself into the real world but it's a unit of measurement and I might as well make some use of it.
Yesterday I did 2.01 of this magical distance unit.

Nearing the end of my workout I noticed that I was getting close to 400 calories burned so I decided I was going to keep going until I hit 400.
That's the little game I play with myself once I get into the routine of actually going consistently.
I look at all the little unit measurements and I tell myself that I'm going to go until I hit unit x - then when I hit that I notice that I'm close to something else so I say that I'll keep going until I hit that.
I keep that up as long as I can until I'm exhausted and then I quit mostly satisfied.

So, today it was 400 calories and that is what I did.
Ended up being 31minutes 30 seconds - 402 calories - 2.12 magical distance units.
I'm happy.
I'm exhausted.
I'm worn out.

I will probably take tomorrow off to recover then do back to back days Thursday and Friday and give myself the weekend off.
4 days a week will be good for a month or so.
There is a possibility that it will veer back to 3 days a week for the first few weeks depending on if I can keep it up come Friday or not.  Only time will tell.

Gym - Day 1

I don't care if I post too much - y'all can ignore most of it and hopefully just pick through the good stuff.

Either way - today I finally found motivation to start going to back to the gym.
Hopefully.
We will see.
I'm going to need lots of encouragement for this - I'm not asking y'all to post stupid shit and telling me what a good job I'm doing - I'm just saying I'm a fat lazy slob and it's hard to break that cycle.

Today was the 1st step and hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday I can take step 2 and go back.
Next time I will search for the "how fat are you" machine so that I can actually track my progress.

Right now everything I do will be on the elliptical.

Session 1 - 30 minutes - 2.01 distance - 358 theoretical calories destroyed.

The Dark Tower

I don't recall when I started reading the series but I know it was not from the beginning (for I was too young then really).  I have faithfully bought ever book that came out after I started, 1st print and in hard back even though I have put them off for far longer than I should have.

Book 7 was released in 2006 if I am to believe the information on Amazon.com (or that could be that the paperback portion was released then) and here I sit in January of 2012 just finally finishing it, nearly 6 years later.

I had known that I wanted to read the last three books in succession after sai Kings accident and as such I kept picking them up but waiting on reading them.  When they were finally released I started the journey and enjoyed pretty much every page on the way to the final destination.
Wolves of the Calla went by very quickly for me and I had visions of running through the last 3 books within a month.  However, about 200 pages into Songs of Susanna I put the book down and walked away from it for a couple of years.
Once I started it over I made quick work of it and then started book 7, The Dark Tower, and once again I stopped just a couple of hundred pages into it. I did not realize it at the time, but the reason I kept stopping was not because I had lost interest but because I did not want it to end.  If I did not know what was written on the pages ahead then the journey was still continuing.  However, as all things must, I knew that I had to eventually finish the series so that I could see the end of the journey for the ka-tet.

Another reason why I decided to finally finish with the series (as it exists at this moment) was because The Wind Through The Key Hole is coming out this year and I did not want to go into that book without having finished the other books in order.  Now that my journey has ended (until Keyhole comes out) I wish that I would have ended it sooner.  I wish that I would, instead, be looking to begin anew much like Roland and start back over with The Gunslinger so that I can read the new book in it's proper timeline of the series.
Unless a random lightning strike of motivation hits me this will most likely not be happening.  I need to turn my attention to something of a lighter nature and a quicker read for that last book was definitely a heavy hitter on my mind.

I don't know if I'll ever sit down and give this book a good full review because I just don't think that's my style. I'm not one to delve into the inner workings and come up with good words and sentences to do anything justice - I don't believe that I have that kind of talent - at least not enough to make other people say that it was worth their time to read.  However (I rely on using that to start sentences too much) I do know that I have two fine folks waiting to palaver with me on the subject of The Dark Tower, Tricia and Josie.

Also, I did want to say that I had no long internal debate on whether or not I wanted to read the "ending" or stop when sai King warned me to stop.  I had come this far and I was not going to leave the last few pages sitting there, unfound, without me having knowledge of his artificial ending.

Truth be told I got to the point where I almost expected that ending.  It had played in my head over the last couple of weeks in a "wouldn't it be funny if..." kind of way.  So in that sense I was not disappointed by the way those last few pages played out.  I will state that I do feel that the other ending, before we get to see the inner workings of the Dark Tower, is the true ending and I would have been much happier if the book would have just quit right there.  I'm sure it would have pissed many a person off but I feel like that would have been satisfactory.

I loved this book, I loved the series and I will re-read them from start to finish (which is very very rare for me as I almost never re do anything - books, games, whatever).  I'm sure as I go through them a 2nd time that I will pick up on things that I didn't before, the language will be quicker to read and easier to comprehend and I will also take the time to go back over sai Kings vast catalog of books and read the other books that come into play in the Dark Tower story line.  I've got a lot of words ahead of me but I'm up to the challenge.

16!

That's right snitches and bitches, I'm up to 16 followers of the Cult of grrouch.

Not wholly impressive but I take every in I can get (not something overheard during the AVNs).

So, I do want to thank Gary and Balt999 for being the two latest people to track me down and stalk me online, send me flower and hayweed.   I appreciate it.

Hopefully later today I'll post something with more substance.  I have had a request to give some info on my poker session from last night which I might do if the right frame of mind hits me.

Might also get around to finishing off the The Dark Tower so that I can have officially accomplished something this month.

Yesterdays games were bloody amazing - definitely two great games leading up to the Super Bowl. Now just have to suffer through the Pro Bowl before we can finish the season off.

Obligatory Championship Sunday Post

So I still haven't bothered to watch the games from last week even though I have them all saved to my computers hard drive just in case the mood struck.
The Steelers lost and it sucked the life out of me, they were my one ounce of happiness that I had left during this portion of my life.
I know that the 9ers/Saints tilt was a great game with a tremendous ending but I don't care enough to watch it now - maybe during the summer.  Giants vs Packers was also a good game if you dislike Green Bay much akin to the way I have been disliking them lately because of one particular person at work.

So, here we sit, broken hearted, Invested all of our love into the Steelers and against the Bronc's they sharted.

The funny thing about the next 3 weeks is that I do believe that 3 of the 4 games are going to be outstanding no matter who wins today.  Of course the 4th game, that poor excuse to pay some of the talent a bit more money and watch them essentially play two hand touch in a nice sunny tropical getaway, being the pro bowl I 100% expect it to suck like normal.

The 4 teams pitted against each other today should both be great match ups and no matter what two winners advance the game should be fantastic.  There are also some very fine story lines that could exist for the Super Bowl.

Giants vs 49ers - normally I'd be rooting for the 9ers because they haven't been around in a long long time, however that has all come to an end because of one obnoxious fan who works with me, so I've been rooting against them for several weeks now.

Pats vs Ravens - It's like flip a coin and see what team I hate less lol.  Naturally I hate the Pats less even though they have knocked us out of many AFC championship games.  Baltimore is pure evil and their reign of terror needs to come to an end.

Super Bowl possibilities.
9ers vs Ravens - for the first time ever two brothers as head coaches paired up against each other for all the glory.  This would be a great story line if it were to occur.  Also two tremendous defenses and this game would prove the adage that Defense Wins Championships.  In the year where there has been more air in the ball than ever - this match up would make people stop and take notice.  No record setting Drew Brees or runner up Tom Bready.  No Aaron Rogers and the high flying Packers and no Eli Manning who also made a serious run at 5,000.  No, it's Joe fucking Flacco and Alex Smith with two running games and two great defenses.  However, I hate the Ravens and I also have a Raven fan and a 9er fan and having to live with either of them just fucking talking for a year about how their team is #1 and defending champions would pretty much take away any pleasure that life might have left for me.

Patriots vs Giants - RE-MATCH - Oh the game where the Pats have revenge on their mind as the giants turned them from perfection into 18-1.  The Taint bowl as I have come to call it.  Even though the Pats did something no one else ever did (18-0) It's how they ended that season that mattered.   The Pats D is worse this year (and really it's pretty fucking awful to tell the truth, at least yardage wise) but Tom is putting on clinic's and Gronc is truly a beast.   Eli has not been bad himself lately, storming through the playoffs and knocking off some heavy hitters and also appears to have some of that Super Bowl magic back in his fingers. The Giants D is also firing with Osi, Tuck and Paul all balling hard and creating havoc.

Ravens vs Giants - Another Rematch but from the 2000 season.  The first super bowl was shit, it was a waste of time.  One sided and boring and after Janet Jackson's nipple incident there were back to back kick offs returned for touchdowns and then I don't remember a bloody thing because I was fucking drunk off my ass.  I remember that the Ravens won this pretty easily and it really SHOULD have been a Cleveland Browns super bowl victory but life shits on the Browns :)  Also, with Madonna doing the half time this could very well be Nipple Bowl 2

Pats vs 9ers - this game has the least amount of story.  I guess you could play it up as Tom Brady, the modern era's version of Joe Montana going against Joe's old team in the 9ers.   This is pure offense vs pure defense with the high flying Pats vs the ground and pound 9ers.   The 49ers have proved (against the saints) that they can play in a shoot out this year (although it was at home with their fans basically proving that they are as worthless as raider fans when it comes to class - those fucking douche bags) can they do it when they don't have the advantage of the home crowd?  Can the Pats beat back to back teams with top notch defenses and solidify Brady's stature as the best QB in the game (or has Rogers surpassed him).

So, lets go Championship Sunday - I might have actually just typed myself into an excited frenzy.

Great F'n Day

Last night was another of restless sleep.
Tossing, turning, waking up and looking at the clock and seeing that time has not advanced nearly as much as one would hope.
In there, somewhere, I drempt a little bit - just a strange dream that I was driving down the road and my car battery died.
Well, not being very car smart I'll just assume that the battery died.  The car lost power, coasted to a stop and I could not get it to turn back on.
That feels like a dead battery to me.
It's been a few years since my battery died while I was in the middle of traffic.  I also have just recently replaced the battery so there should be no reason to even worry about it dying.
And that literally was the end of my dream.  That was the whole dream actually.  I remember nothing else of it.  After that I tossed or turned and found myself face to face with 1:33 am.
Before I continue, 1:33 am was definitely not normal last night either. I recall 3 separate instances of sleeping and waking up and seeing that the clock read 1:33 am.  It is possible that I woke up 3 times over the course of that 60 second time span, but it just feels weird that I remember looking at that same exact time multiple times during a restless night.
And - we're back from our brief commercial break.
It is a little odd that I would find myself having an our of place dream about my car having an issue only to find out, on my way to work, that it had been broken into over night.
Maybe I've got some weird connection with my car - maybe my car is secretly alive and was trying to tell me so that I could come to it's rescue - go outside into the rainy and cold 1:33 in the morning air and come face to face with it's attacker.  Maybe my dream was my car blowing the rape whistle that I heard but misinterpreted for the random noise of just another dream?  It's tough to say.  What I do know is that I was (and really still am at this point) pretty damned annoyed.

I'm going to assume that they got spooked by something during their search for valuables because there is not a whole lot missing.  Now that it's nearly 10 hours later I have come up with a list of 4 items that were in my car and are no longer in my car.  I have searched it looking for things and I am only coming up with this small list.
1 - Cash that was in my console - This is obvious.  You break into a car you are taking the cash - DUH.
2 - Garage Door Opener - This was in my console as well.  I don't really see why this is missing though because I live in an apartment complex where there are no garage's.  In fact I don't think there is a single garage anywhere on the block that I live. Unless this person knows me or found a random piece of paper with the address to my house where the Garage Door is located, I'm just going to guess it'll get sold for 5 bucks and reprogrammed.
3 - A bottle of pills that was sitting under my console - Duh - Kids love pills.
4 - A pen and pencil set that was given to me on my 5th anniversary of working for the company that employ's me.  This was stolen out of my glove box and was the only thing taken out of my glove box.

This is the reason I think that they (and I like to think it is a they - a big group of low life's converging on my car just to irritate me and make my day shit) must have gotten spooked by someone taking a dog for a walk or a car driving by.  They only went through the front of my car.  They did not grab anything out of the back seat and there was some stuff worth grabbing in that area.
They did not pop my trunk and go through it because there definitely was some stuff back there they could have made a few bucks off of.  Nope - they grabbed the 4 things above and that was it.

I was damned happy to see that my John, Dr. Dirty, Valby CD's were still all in the car because Dammit those things are all beautiful and personally autographed by one of the last living legends in the whole fucking land.
My radio/MP3 player is still in tact - in fact I really wish they would have just taken that piece of shit. the MP3 portion has not worked in over 3 years and I really need an excuse to buy a new radio for the car.
I had a collectors edition of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (360 video game) still shrink wrapped and sitting in my back seat (was going to give it to someone yesterday) that was not disturbed.
And numerous books, poker chips in a great metal carrying case and a Wii-Fit that were all in my trunk remained undisturbed.

My glove box was left open with (almost) everything stuffed back into it and my bottle of Listerine that I keep in the garbage bin attached to my drivers side door (you know - for the Boulder Street Walkers after a quick $50 BJ) was on my drivers seat.
This was the only reason I even knew someone was in my car.  Had they just closed the glove box and removed the bottle from my seat I would have been none-the-wiser.

I think from now on I'm going to leave a big sign in my car with the web address of my blog so that in the future if something like this ever happens they know where to look to see the rant that they caused.
Maybe they'll register and become a follower and we can exchange a back and forth over why I think that they are a waste of sperm and eggs and their mom should have used better birth control and then can let me know how awesome my fucking pen and pencil set writes.

Ramblings of a fat mad man

There is a lot going on in this tiny little brain of mine and I thought that I should really just sit here at the computer and see what comes out.
You see loves, you are all basically the cheap, underpaid stand-ins for my therapist.
I'm not too proud to seek therapy, I'm too bloody cheap to do it.
Also, I feel that therapy is just you mentally jerking off in someone else's presence and that person leading you to your next position.  Um, where was I going?
Oh yes, senseless babble.

Talking to a friend today and for what I believe to be the 2nd time she told me that I need to read The Hunger Games.  I asked for a brief explanation of the book and after hearing her version of it I said that I'd look into it to which she replied "No, just read it."
Have any of my 3 readers taken the time to read this book (or series?).  I'm currently researching opinions on the book to see if it might be to my liking.  It's a bit over $4 on amazon kindle right now and I should probably just buy it because I'll never miss $5 anyways and that would force me to at least attempt reading it.
But I want opinions from real people first.

Work was brutal today - but not for actual work related reasons but more for personal reasons.
I'm not going to go into any of it because I don't want to bore all of you and send you running for the hills.
However, I do recognize one of my biggest character flaws and that is that I'm just too fucking nice of a person.  I let people get away with murder and use me for way longer than is reasonable.
It's something that I've known for many years, but something I'm forced to deal with currently and it's really depressing the fuck out of me.
My life lately has seriously boiled down to working, maybe having a conversation or two on/through Facebook, browsing a few of my (Very) favorite (Josie) blogs and then having a night of on again off again sleep.

Sleep - Oh why do you tease me? Why doth though not want to just wrap me in your warmth and allow me uninterrupted bliss for the duration instead of rousing me 5 or more times before the dreaded alarm?
I haven't slept good in about two weeks now.  I wake up too many times for no apparent reason other than to annoy the shit out of myself.
I'm tired all the time and once my head hits the pillow I'd really love if I could follow through and just rest for multiple hours at a time.  that would be lovely.

my Billy Bumbler has to go outside again.  He is spooked by the passing of people by my window and he would love the opportunity to tell them in person.  With this we part ways for now.

The Fag Debate

Not really a debate, but something I would like to get opinions of from my peeps.

WARNING: MIGHT BE OFFENSIVE - Sensitive ninny's need not read.

Curious people - Yesterday I was told that I cannot use the term fag unless I had already taken in the practice of blowing dudes.
I used the term "Fag-Hag"  which I have used many times over the course of my life and not once has anyone decided to tell me that was a term that I am not allowed to use because of my own personal lifestyle preference to not place a penis in me.

So, I ask you all - Is using the term fag in any way shape or form the same as me not being able to say nigger because I lack the proper skin tone?

Ka

Did you ever notice that when you are engaging in an activity for a long period of time you start to think and act differently.
It's human nature to adjust to your surroundings but sometimes things just kind of catch you off guard.

Take tonight for instance, I'm chugging along reading more and more of The Dark Tower (book 7) when monster, my Billy Bumbler, decides to let me know he would like to be escorted to the outside world for a few moments so he can dampen the grass.

I get up and put on my pants a shirt and a sweater.  I pause to make sure I have socks on before putting my shoes on.  The past 40 pages have been talking about how bloody cold it is that I made sure to be very warm going outside, unnecessarily of course - but whatever.

I'd like to stick around and palavar more, however the Tower is calling me back for another chapter.

Along the Beam

For those of you planning on reading the Dark Tower series but haven't i'm just going to come out and suggest you skip this blog posting entirely.
There might be some spoilers ahead that you don't want to see.


Now, after that has been said.
I am starting to pick up pace in book 7 again and am now in Part 3, right after SK decided to kill off Eddie and send everything into a depressing spin.
What I did not expect is that just a few short pages later Jake was going to be violently leaving the story again.
Man oh man.  I thought I felt bad the first time that he killed off Jake - but this one kinda took me by surprise.  I thought that all the alluding to a member of the ka-tet dying was going to end up being Oy as it made more sense at the time to kill off the Bumbler.

I still 100% expect that to happen too, but I'm surely not looking forward to it.

I'm close to 65% of the way done with the book and Stephen King has been saved and that was the hi-lite of the last few depressing chapters.  The inside of the Tet Corporation was pretty cool especially with the sign that changes its language based on the reader.  I need me one of those bad boys.

I have read lots of reviews and chatter about the DT series and a  lot of people really seem to hate the series when King picked it back up after his accident.  Maybe these are more long time readers and more hardcore readers than myself but I am really enjoying book 7 currently.  I remember loving Wolves of the Calla and while not my favorite I didn't have any issues with Song of Susanna either.
Like I said, maybe i'm just more casual.

I'm really looking forward to the next book coming out and my internal debate is whether or not to re-read the books leading up to the newest release and then re-read the rest of the series from there or if I should just pick it up and read it as a standalone.

I'm definitely going to end up going back and picking up some of the other King books that have people and places and fit into the dark tower story line.  Insomnia might be next.

I know that all of the above was just rambling, so sorry you had to suffer through it :)

rawr

I'm old, ugly, tired, sore, beat up, tossed aside and I just want to go back to sleep.
At least that's how I feel.

Last week was inventory and I feel like my body hasn't caught up to the lack of rest that it received.
I've got this nagging pain in the area where in-shape people have pectoral muscles that just won't go away.
It feels like the backache I had last week just decided to move it's way up into my man titty area.   Hurts when I sneeze which really just leads me to believe that I pulled something.

I'm slowly getting back into the bump-n-grind of my daily routine again at work but it's the slow season which means I'm pretty much bored off of my ass 80% of the time.
I want to change positions into something more fun and challenging but I know that the huge drawback of that is losing my set schedule.
Football season is pretty much over so the set schedule doesn't mean anything until September again but man, this is the first time in over a decade that I have been able to actually watch football consistently.  It's been bloody nice.  Going back to the floor in any position will force me to lose the schedule.
So, I'm at odds with myself over this one.  Probably just wait around until the right thing pops up and deal with losing the comfortable schedule while going back into retail-hell schedules.

I'll probably give in and just stick to the position that i'm becoming increasingly bored with because of the schedule.  It's so much easier to actually plan things when you know what you work in advance.

In other news I just hit 50% in The Dark Tower book 7.  I've gotta double my efforts so that I can finish this mammoth beast before the month ends.

Now that I realize I'm running out of time and need to put clothes on soon to make it to work on time and not naked I remember that I also need to talk about the home-poker game I went to over the weekend.
Lots of fun, I played the entire time like a donk and got invited back.  They usually play once or twice a month and it will be fun to play cheap relaxing poker.

Someone fetch me my Lucky Charms!

Happy MLK Day

I still don't get quite why we actually celebrate this day as a holiday where shit closes and stuff.

I'm pretty sure MLK's dream was NOT for banks to close on his day every year because he had a few night terrors.

However, since it is a holiday and all I am going to wish you all a Happy Happy Day y'all.

Inventory

I've been absent lately.
Not just absent from my blogging endeavors, but pretty much from everything in life.
I ended last week with a backache that would stop a hooker from having sex and it slowly went away and then Tuesday struck.
Twice a year I have to endure going through inventory at work and I think I look forward to it less and less each time.
Back when I started working for the company I didn't mind it even though most dreaded it.  Inventory was a process that started on Sunday and ended Friday. You generally finished with between 50-60 hours during that time span (one of the very few times the company would ever consider giving OT) and afterwards I went out drinking with everyone else who was on the inventory crew.  It was truly a bonding experience.  You all suffered together and thus you partied together after the fact.
Over time things changed.  The company changed, started carrying less inventory which also cut back on the amount of hours that people worked.  It turned into a Monday-Friday gig with 40 hours max.

Then I moved to Las Vegas where people apparently have no love for one another.
To put things in perspective, my last inventory in Pennsylvania the entire crew of 18 people went out to a local bar afterwards (including the manager who ran the show) and drank heavily, played pool and ate wings from 3pm till the bar closed at 2 am.
My first inventory after coming to Las Vegas I had to beg every single person and act as a cheerleader to get 4 people to join me for a few drinks and they all ducked out early anyways.

So, needless to say I've been quite disappointed in that whole regards.  This has helped to make me hate inventory.  Not only is the process long and boring but I now get zero overtime hours and I don't even have a large crew to go out drinking with afterwards.

And to the final straw that broke my camel's sack.
With stores carrying less on hand inventory everything has been streamlined.
Now we work Tuesday - Thursday putting in 10 hours per day and when inventory is over they tell us to finish our shift before we go home.  Find something to do.
Then we still have to come back on Friday to get all of our hours in for the week.

So, I slave my ass away counting and fixing errors that have been made over the last 6 months.  I receive no overtime. I don't get to have a big group orgy to end the week and I still have to go back to work the next day without a day of rest.

Fuck man, I quit.
Life just isn't fun any more.

NFL Playoffs

My season is effectively over with the Denver Tebow's defeating my Pittsburgh Steelers.

Even though the outcome was quite negative and I'm in a deep depression and want to do nothing other than drink and snort coke off of the breasts of strippers I am OK with life and ready to move on to 2013.

As I get older I get better at dealing with defeat, specifically that of my team.  It's not that it doesn't phase me (oh it does, it does.) it's just that I realize that even though my team is done competing for the year I have it better than many other fans out there.

Shortly after the Steelers Super Bowl Victory of the Arizona Cardinals a few years back a buddy said some words that have stuck with me.
"Enjoy it while you can, your team just went to and won two Super Bowls and you never know when you might get a chance to see that again."

He is correct.  He is a life long Dolphins fan and the last time his team was in the Super Bowl was 1984 (is that right? 84 or 85 or something) which put him at like 9 years old.  They had it going on back then with Marino and that passing game and everyone said "Tough loss but Marino will make it back and win one some day."

Dolphin fans are still waiting for that day.

So, no matter how upset I am after watching my team get knocked out of the playoffs, I know that my team always seems to make a good run.  They are well managed and well coached and they will be in contention for the foreseeable future, and for that I am quite happy.

So, when you read the papers tomorrow about a dead hooker know that it wasn't me because I've got friends who will help me hide bodies.

Rogue Dead Guy Ale

While the Saints are busy showing Detroit the door I decided that now is a good time to review a beer that I have never tasted before.

Rogue Dead Guy Ale.

This beer was given to me as a Xmas present by Carmel and I have been dying to give it a try.
Take note that I normally do not try new beers.  I am a "light beer" type of guy and I drink the same thing every single time as long as it's served where I'm at.  So, going into this I am hoping for the best in that it will taste great and I'll love it but at the same time I am not excited about it to help avoid the big let down if it doesn't work for my pallet.

Moments into what I am hoping is a great review I encounter my first problem - this beer does not have a twist off cap ha!  I am foiled before I even begin.  The good news is I always have bottle openers lying around as a "just in case" even though all of my normal beverages do not require it.

As you can tell, I am no master at pouring beer as I gave myself way too much head (that is for another discussion).  The ale itself has a nice copper color to it (darker than my usual) and a scent that makes me salivate a bit - definitely a good first impression.

The flavor is a little different, starts out a little bitter. Definitely more bitter than I am used to, but not so overwhelming that I do not want to continue drinking.  Does not really have an after taste that I notice.
I have read other reviews of this ale where they mention a fruity taste to it, but I am not sensing that myself.

I have just finished my first glass of this (The bottle was a pint) and the more I drink of it the more I seem to notice the bitterness.  Sometime in my life I'll have to figure out if it's the Barley, Hopps or the yeast infection that is giving it what kind of flavors so that these self indulgent reviews mean a bit more to my 3 readers.

I am going to try to get through this whole bottle - because why would one open a bottle of booze and NOT finish it up?

Glass #2 - I would like to point out that I am a light-weight at drinking now-a-days.  After the first glass I am starting to feel a little warm (and looking forward to trying out my Doritos Flamas sitting beside my "computer stand").
I got less head on the 2nd glass which is a blessing.  I don't normally drink from a glass unless a busty beer-wench is bringing it for me because I'm a man's man who drinks straight from the bottle.
The 2nd glass reminds me a bit of why I decided to switch from tasty mixed drinks to beer and that is because no matter how bad a beer tastes (and I'm not saying that this ale tastes bad) after a couple you don't really notice (taste bud deadening?).
First you take the jumbo jack and then you add two tacos, but them together and what do you get JUMBACO, JUMBACO!!! (I love Jack in the Box commercials).
The bitterness that I noticed at first is mostly gone now and I am left with a nice pleasant taste.  Even though this beer is darker than I am used to (I like my beer like I like my urine, yellow and smelling like Honey Nut Cheerios) I could definitely see myself ordering this at a bar or picking up a case now and then (you know, if that was actually an option instead of having to go to a specialty store to pick it up here in Las Vegas).

Glass #3 - The Saints won by the way and the game definitely covered the over.  I feel like I've used Definitely too much but I don't know how to rectify that (heh, you said rectum Beavis) without some editing and I'm totally not into that.  Tomorrow is the important day for football as the Steelers enter their first round by, unless this Timmy Teblow guy can learn to complete passes consistently the whole game through.
By this point I just have a little head, I'm hoping that the forth and final glass is headless.  I'm obviously feeling pretty good right now and wishing I had a second bottle as I really don't want to switch up to Mich Ultra after drinking this.
It's like making out with your huge crush but having to go home and screw your wife to end the evening.
I'm beginning to think that the 'bitterness' is really just a deeper, richer flavor that you have to get used to over time.  I remember not liking beer when I first started drinking it but eventually coming to enjoy the flavor.

Glass #4 - Final Glass.  I've got a buzz, I am pathetic.
1 pint 6 ounces doesn't seem like a lot but it's enough.  At this point I wish I was in a group of friends somewhere instead of watching lame NBA dunk highlights on ESPN.  I also wish that I would have proportioned my glasses better because this last glass is definitely (there i go again) smaller than the previous 3.  After the first glass I thought that I might have to give up half way through but I'm really enjoying it now.  I'm going to end up having to "sleep with the wife" because I really don't want the buzz to end.
And, because I'm home alone this means that I'm going to end up playing drunken video games - Thinking about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2.  I have yet to play any games this short 2012 but I might as well start something that I can beat by the end of tomorrow.

Looking back on it now, it appears that this bottle size (1 pt 6 oz) is pretty close to the perfect sized bottle for someone who does not drink very often.  It's enough to get me a nice happy buzz-on without actually being drunk.  IF (notice the all caps there, that's the big if)I had self control I could drink one of these and just enjoy the feeling for a little while before going to bed.  However, I have an addictive personality and as such I will be opening another bottle or two of 'the ugly wife who I'm now suddenly tired of sleeping with but still puts out and dammit I have needs, so open up and say ahhhhhh.'

The bottle is officially gone and at this point I have to go back and add photo's to the blog.

I hope you all have enjoyed this little trip with me, I sure as hell am enjoying it, definitely, yo.
I miss Drinking!!!

Sometimes I am just too sexy!!

Edit: The Morning After - I F'n slept like a dead guy, longer than normal and having a tremendous time waking up :)

Sushi

Yesterday I took a friend to a local Sushi joint and tried it for the first time.
Myself, I ordered the Filet that came with soup, a salad and some rice
I didn't bother trying the soup, but the salad had a nice dressing on it.
The Filet was cooked quite well and had a great flavor to it. Also, there was a lot more than I was actually expecting to receive.
I made sure that I had all of my food ready and handy for when I finally tried the sushi - which had like shrimp and carp on it or something.

Overall, including the "dipping sauce of unrecognizable colors" it was OK.
I ate my "piece" in two portions - 1st the top portion which had trout attached to it and then the bottom portion which was mostly Sea Monkeys or something.

The piece with the flounder I didn't really find satisfying at all. I don't particularly like fish and it had a semi-fishy taste.
The bottom half with the shrimp and something crunchy (Wheaties?) was not too bad. If I am ever to try it again I might see if I can get it without the salmon and just the shrimp and Wheaties.

I am now off of work and have a 3 day weekend in front of me before I have to head back and help with inventory.  However, I guess I cannot bitch about my life because I just learned (earlier today) from Tony BigCharles's blog that because I make more than $30,000 i am, in fact, rich.   So, really with my financial disposition I would feel it beneath me to complain about money.  I should probably start investing to help with future passive income and I'm thinking Mt Dew stock.
I have not checked my bank accounts within the last few days (which I'm pretty sure are just overflowing with money) but I should do that today because I'm quite interested in getting a session or two of poker in this weekend.

What are everyone else's plans this weekend?
It's a great Football Weekend as it's Wild Card time.  My team practically has a bye which means that next week we'll be traveling most likely to New England (if I had my druthers) to beat them for the 2nd time this year.

Redneck

Don't have time to type a real full post right now, but from talking to a couple of people it appears that some are actually against my desire to go more redneck in 2012.

As soon as I express interest in growing a handle bar mustache and a mullet people start telling me that they don't think it's a good idea and that I might want to reconsider.

Any of you have opinions?

:)

Not a good way to start the new year

Here I sit
broken hearted
paid to shit
only farted


I'm not sure where or how I managed to mess my back up but it's done.  Yesterday wasn't too bad with just a minor ache under my shoulder blade and above one of my fat rolls.  It was a little annoying but it was something I could live with.
Today started out pretty much the same but within the 1st couple of hours at work the paid decided to work it's way up right between my shoulder blades in that one muscle that says "Don't you fucking move too fast or I'll cut you down to size, yo."  Damn I hate that muscle.

I tried taking some pain meds during work and nothing really helped, I'm sore and i'm stiff and I don't have my full range of movements.  However, I stayed at work for my whole shift and still went over to old man Floyd's house to help him set his computer and iPad up on his home network system.
It was all pretty simple but nothing I could have explained for him to do without showing him. Someone had already set up his router so I needed to get in there and retrieve their passphrase so that the devices could connect properly.
From there I set up a FaceBook account for his wife because she wants to check up on her kids and grand kids.  Good deed accomplished for the year.  Can't wait for 2013 now!!!
The one good thing about doing this is it is cutting the price of the old-man's birthday gift in half.  I'll have it by the end of January but he can't get it until June lol.  Poor guy is going to wonder what the hell it is when he reads this!! :) :)

After that I came home and laid down on the floor for a few moments until I came to the realization that this was a horrible idea.  It struck me when I needed to get up and I could not figure out a nice mostly pain free way to do it.  Rolling to the left and the right were blah and trying to sit up was retarded pain.  Eventually I just hit myself in the belly and followed the motion of the fat-rolls until I was on my side and able to use my legs to get vertical.

Either tomorrow or Friday I do have a $5300 special order flooring install getting paid for, so that's a nice accomplishment for someone who doesn't even work in that department, and the extra commission will definitely help on the next check.

Tomorrow I'm going out to dinner with a friend, maybe a movie as well.  Nothing has been really discussed or arranged other than we will be going out to shoot the shit and catch up and gossip.  Trying to do that once a month for good times.

I then have a 3 day weekend and next week is Inventory Week which is really going to suck, because if I'm correct the computer geek show is going to be in town which means tons of computer dorks at the poker tables pissing away money but I'm going to be too mentally drained to be out playing poker and taking advantage of it.
I must have pissed in the Baby Jesus's Wheaties in order to have my year start out like this.

Work

It's always difficult to go back to work after a vacation no matter the length.
I've only been off for the last 5 days but I enjoyed the hell out of it even though I wasted those days for the most part.  I accomplished nada, nothing, zilch.

Last night watched a Best of King of the Ring WWE DVD that my buddy bought and enjoyed most of it.  A lot of good matches packed into those 3 discs and really surprised that they had so much involving Kurt Angle.
Best two matches on the whole thing were Mankind vs Undertaker Hell in a Cell (obv as it's one of the greatest matches ever) and Kurt Angle vs Shane McMahon which is an amazing match.

Cashing In

Today is going to be the start of another tradition in the me household and that is taking my yearly change collection over to a local CoinStar machine in exchange for goods and prizes.

Normally what I would do is save up yearly and use that money for Xmas gifts or whatever but now that my debt is nearly gone it's not so much a need any longer.

What I most likely will end up doing is getting an Amazon.com gift certificate because that way allows you to not have to pay a ridiculous 8.9% penalty for letting a machine count it for you and I also happen to love spending my money on Amazon.com.  This year I do not expect to add up to very much as a lot of my extra money went into a shared change jar before I moved out of my house, however I do believe that there will be enough to make me smile and make it all worth while.  I consider this free money for a me-gift and as such I will not bother to be my cheap ass self and mull my decision over trying to think if I should put it off and wait for a sale or if I should just be sensible and use the money towards something better like Chocolate Lucky Charms.

My only real decision is do I lug the jar with the pennies as well or do I just let that sit and collect until it's full? Man do I lead a tough life. Edit: just got back from the machine.

Edit:  Just got back from my trip. Not the greatest pic, but whatever.

2012 Happy New Year

So here we are in a new year and I am utterly bored with football because they decided to put some craptastic games on TV.
For the 1st set of games I got to suffer through Miami vs the Jets or New Orleans vs Carolina.  I chose the Saints game just based on the fact that they were going for some records but honestly I could not care about any of the games.
For the 2nd game it's Oakland vs San Diego which is blah.  It has minor playoff implications in-so-much as the Raiders could get in if they win AND Denver loses.  Better choice for a game on TV would have been Baltimore vs Cincy because Cincy is in a must win situation.  They win and they get in.
Even the Steelers vs Browns would have been better but that's because I'm a fan of the Steelers.
Either way, Football is boring today (in part because I'm bloody tired) and thus I'm sitting in front of my computer composing my first blog of 2012.

I ended 2011 by playing a few hours of poker at Planet Hollywood and winning over $300 in part to 2 big hands.  The first big hand was the complete antithesis to what happened to me last time when I was out and playing on the strip during NYE.  There was a raise to $7 and I made it $27 and only the pre-flop raiser called. I have pocket Queens and am very happy to see a flop of JQK.  Pre flop raiser makes a bet and I put her all in for the $100 or so she has left and she instantly calls.  I flip up Queens and say that I know I'm behind to her Kings - good hand.  However the turn is the most beautiful lady in the deck and my quads take down a nice pot.

A little bit later I limped with T7 and the guy after me limped as well.  We take a flop of about 6 people and it's a very gorgeous looking 689 with 2 diamonds.  I bet out $15 and the guy next to me raises it to $30, everyone folds to me and after a moment or two of contemplation I decide to make it $130 - he calls.
The turn is a pretty ugly 9 of hearts but I throw the rest of my chips into the middle - the guy thinks about it for a while and finally decides to call with AA and I take down a nice pot.
Between then and 15 minutes before the group molestation I pissed away about $100 - and ended up leaving up $359.

Now there is the matter of the fireworks, the celebration and over 300,000 screaming idiots out on the streets. I got the great pleasure of being inside what must have been a pot circle because the smell was coming from every direction.  It was next to impossible to move and at one point I have 3 chicks in front of me and the one who's ass is right next to my crotch decided to dance a happy dance because it's New Years, definitely weird.
A bit later, I'm slowly working my way down towards the street and I'm standing near a guide rail and a middle aged Asian chick tries to grab a hold of the rail but ends up with her hand on my crotch instead, normally I'd consider this a huge victory but she just smiled at me and apologized.

Another thing that decided to take away from the fireworks was the fact that there are just too many idiots out. You have drunks with no self control and then just groups of thugs who are looking to start shit.  I got to watch one drunk guy get beat up right near me twice and all because he happened to accidentally knock the hat off of some low-life thug looking to start shit.

While I'm complaining about idiots - who in their right mind brings small children to this type of celebration?  Out on the street where you are basically packed body to body with strangers and you're standing out there with your little 2-6 year olds (or those who were pushing around strollers).   Everyone of those parents should probably be shot for putting their kid in danger like that.  "Watch what you're doing, there's a kid here."  Really?  Maybe be a real parent and leave your kid the hell at home instead of subjecting him to fights, drunks, pot smoke and potential molestation by any of the random 20,000 people who are passing by you in a 20 minute span.  You are a horrible parent and deserve what is coming to you.

Oh, and the fireworks (from my vantage point) just really weren't that exciting.  Maybe i'm just an old curmudgeon now a days but I was unimpressed.

After the fireworks my evening picked up as I caught up with a friend who I then spent the next 5 hours in conversation with.  I got home at 6:30 in the morning and woke up at 9 when Monster decided he really wanted to go outside.

Good times.
It's 2:20 right now and I'm really considering running to the casino in order to catch some of the games while they are still good on this day of drunken tourist celebration.

I plan on having an awesome 2012 and I hope you all do too.  I thank everyone who is coming along for the ride and I'm happy to report that on New Years Eve my "subscribed" membership went from 9 to 12, a 33% increase.

Peace, Love, Recycle.
Live Long and Prosper
Hasta La Pasta
Where the hell is my 5-hour energy?