It Felt Like a Trap
Oct 16, 2009 movies, politics, videos
I’ve spent the last couple of days of soaking up more films by Adam Curtis, one of the best living documentary filmmakers. Last year I watched The Power of Nightmares; earlier this year I saw The Century of the Self; lately I’ve been working through his two most recent: The Trap (2007) and It Felt [...]
Tags: Adam Curtis, Algeria, anthropology, Blair, Bush, Cambodia, capitalism, CIA, Clinton, Cold War, communism, conservatism, consumerism, Damon Albarn, documentaries, economics, free market, game theory, Hayek, ICM, John Nash, Lee Harvey Oswald, logic, neo-conservatism, poker, Prisoner's Dilemma, psychiatry, psychology, rationality, Reagan, revolution, Saddam Hussein, selfishness, Thatcher
Goodbye PokerStars
So I’ve quit poker for good in anticipation of my impending move to Argentina. It was extremely bittersweet for me to cash out my entire PokerStars account today; happy for the money, sad to leave it all behind, disappointed I didn’t win more. But poker has enabled me to have a life that wouldn’t have [...]
Tags: gambling, hold'em, poker, PokerStars
From Busto to Robusto
Jun 18, 2009 videos
The video below is part of an upcoming documentary entitled “From Busto to Robusto” — meaning, “from rags to riches” — about young online poker pros. Like all good documentaries, I don’t think you need much of an interest in the ostensible subject matter to be engrossed. The main characters are two Calvin College alums [...]
Tags: Calvin College, poker, Zeebo theorem
No Limit Kitten Hold’Em
May 13, 2009 personal
On Sunday Scott, Kraig, & I took in a stray cat, henceforth known as Lady Macbeth. She was black & white and a little gimpy, with one deformed ear and one hairless patch on her tail. Ms. Macbeth was starved for affection and food, both of which we lavished on her unceasingly — even cobbling [...]
My Favorite Debt
Mar 9, 2009 hitchhiking, reading
I picked up a hitchhiker this morning and he identified me immediately: “You’re a Cedarville student, aren’t you?” Is it that obvious? Do I just radiate repressed fundamentalist vibes? But Samir assured me it was just a guess based on probabilities: C.S.U. students speed by, C.U. students pick him up. He’s living at Wilberforce but [...]
Tags: Cedarville, Central State, hitchhiking, Holocaust, luck, poker, randomness, Wilberforce, Xenia
Donk me
Work saps my energy to blog. This is unfortunate. I watched Helvetica the other week which was funny because I work at a very Helvetica-esque company. Trust me… it’s hard to keep my credentials as an anarchist when I’m working as a corporate drone. Plus, not being a bum means I have to pay taxes. [...]
Don’t Blink Now
Jul 4, 2008 personal
Don’t blink or you might miss this: I’m actually kind of happy right now. I got the job with Exel (pays $11.75/hr) and I start training Monday @ 10am. My replacement motherboard arrived and my computer is back up with almost full functionality — I lost 1/4 of my memory sticks, and my onboard ethernet [...]
Failed plans
Apr 11, 2007 personal, reading
Frustration: I thought I was going to Boston, now I’m not. I thought I was going to Chicago, now I’m not. I thought I was going to Bangkok, now I’m probably not. Wheeee. Let’s check in on where my book/week project stands: 15. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 16. Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo [...]
Brief update
Mar 28, 2007 personal, reading
Hey donks, sorry for the lack of posts. Work’s been really busy lately. I moved up in limits but got bitchslapped by variance – so had to move back down again. Probably just as well because I have to pay rent soon and can’t afford extra risks. Good news is that in a month I [...]
Playing the PS $1M
Mar 12, 2007 personal
Yesterday was the largest poker tournament in the world as 10,508 hopefuls showed up to fight over a $2.1 million prize pool — 1st place paid a whopping $271k. I won my entry via a $12 satellite (took a few tries though). This was my first shot at real life-changing money and I was very [...]
Tags: poker
GG Pacific Poker
Dec 12, 2006 personal
Just finished 12th out of 481 in a stupid $3 MTT, good for a $14 profit. BOO. I was top 10 for 3 hours but ran into a total luckbox: this guy had $79 chips at $1000/$2000 and 14 people left. Naturally, he entered the final table as chip leader with a $40k+ lead over [...]
Tags: poker
Jim James connection
This is all I’ve been doing for the last days before November hit us. I was trying to hit GoldStar (VIP club) and I did just 4 hours before the midnight deadline on the 31st. Now I’m on a bit poker’d out so I’m going to take it easy for a while and re-charge. I [...]
Tags: Band of Horses, Jim James, M. Ward, mp3, My Morning Jacket, poker, Ray Lamontagne
Extreme Cynic Makeover
Oct 29, 2006 personal, television
I’m watching Extreme Home Makeover because it allows me to set aside my cynicism for one hour and maybe even get weepy (ok, likely not). Good show, seriously. Did I mention how I completely rocked two goals in one week? 1. Hit 20k FPPs on Stars and ordered my 30-gig video iPod. My black beauty [...]
Dear mankind
Oct 25, 2006 personal, television
Looong day at work today and extremely discouraging. Only good part is that I’m extremely close to being able to cash in my VIP points for a 30 gig video Ipod. Only stopped multi-tabling for a brief dinner of blueberry waffles, bacon and toast which is probably a meal I’ll be repeating because it was [...]
Lee Jones & Aristophanes
Oct 23, 2006 personal
Hey you spineless archetypes of Aristophanes: How are you, homies? My morale is plummeting along with the temperature. It’s all downhill from here til, say, April. I’m back from the long weekend in New York, and more recently, back from my post-vacation grocery shopping. Now it’s Studio 60 time. I may post wedding pics later [...]
Tags: poker
DIAF Bill Frist
US Congress approves Internet gambling ban bill Hey you parasitic troglodytes in the curdling cesspool of congress, thanks for sucking ass 24/7. Here’s an idea: bite me. So, so pissed right now. Why is everyone in Washington completely retarded? Republicans make me hate the world. Here’s a good analysis of what went down: Did Congress [...]
Swongs are one thing
Aug 23, 2006 movies, personal, reading
Poker’s a funny thing. I’ve been really struggling to fade this three-week downswing… yet in two days I’ve now recouped 25% of my losses. A part of me really thinks that so much of the poker life is essentially toughing out the bad runs so that you can the ride the rushes like hell. If [...]
Tags: poker
Blessings and eya
Blessings and eya to every one of you. As some of you know, poker has not been kind to me this month. I’m experiencing what we call “negative variance,” a “downswing,” or a “bad run.” It’s been pretty brutal but today I chalked up $200 in profits so hopefully things are turning around and I [...]
Tags: Joel, Minesweeper, poker, solitaire
Sorry Students
Aug 8, 2006 Cedarville, personal
Eya! Everyone’s coming to town soon, very soon. I’m excited… I’ve discovered that radio’s Delilah is quite likely the Antichrist. I found something from an old online journal, back before I officially started blogging: 31 Oct. 2001 Cedarville is a school of sorries. The favorite word around this place is “sorry,” and most people aren’t [...]
Movies etc
Jul 28, 2006 movies
WSOP Main Event started today — I’m really excited for the next 9 days but obviously bummed I’m not out there. Next year, next year… Yesterday I got to see some friends and (I mention this to make Trix jealous) hit up BW3′s for boneless wings. We rented Match Point which I hadn’t seen because [...]
Tags: documentaries, poker