November 2006 Archives

I have my Wii now, and am playing too much Zelda.

So, my first attempt to get a wii this evening proved futile, though I was not overly optimistic. The wife and I went out for dinner near a Wal-Mart and then went to see how the line looked. They only got 20 in stock, and there were at least 20 in line at 6:00 pm. Oh well.

My second attempt will be at the local Target. The store opens at 8:00 am, and I'll go get in line around 4 or so. Ick. That sucks even as I type it. Wish me luck.

This little baby plugs right into your computer and keeps your beverage at a chilly 45°. Awesome.

So, what do you think the odds of me getting one at Wal-Mart. They are the only retailer around that I know is having a midnight party, and also the only store to say that they WON'T be selling it with a ridiculously huge bundle of $500-$700. On the other hand, people tend to get hurt at Wal-Mart for big events like this.

I wish I could camp out at our local Target for the Sunday morning launch, but I have to be at church too early to try that as I'm playing the piano this week.

What is a guy to do?

I don't intend for this to be a poker blog, but I thought I'd tell you about my worst bad beat.

I'm sitting in K7 of spades

Flop comes AJ4 of spades

The other guy pushes all in with J hearts and 8 of spades and I call, of course.

I'm 97.17% favored to win

He hits an 8 on the turn

I'm 90% favored to win

He hits an 8 on the river for a full house, 8's full of jacks to beat my A-high flush.

Game over.

So I like to play poker. It's true. There are a bunch of guys I get together with once a month or so for nice $5 games. I played last night in a pot-limit game where I took second place. Awesome. Allow me to describe the situation:

Jim and I each are sitting on around 2000 in chips while Bob has around 14,000. Clearly, we are playing for second place (though I did win once from a similar situation). Jim and I get in a hand together and I try to bluff with two suited overcards, unfortunately, Jim hit a straight on the flop and I got nailed.

Now I'm down to 700 with blinds at the 150/300 level. So I'm all in on the next hand with 47 offsuit. I get called with... 68 off. Ends up being a split pot as the board pairs with three other cards above nine. Nice.

Next hand I'm all in again with junk and once again, it is a split pot. (I can't remember what I had now. That's upsetting.) Regardless, I was a pretty big underdog and pulled it out.

Now I'm on 775 and go all in with A5 suited, only to be called by Bob with QQ. Ouch. Except that I hit an Ace on the flop and then a 5 on the turn. Sorry Bob.

Now I'm at 1850 (with the 300 big blind taken last hand as well) and go all in just a few hands later with AK offsuit. I get called by K10 suited and take that hand.

So, while I was a couple hands away from elimination I come back to almost 4000 in chips, and now Jim is sitting low around 1000. I wait it out and Jim eventually gets beat by Bob.

I go all in on the first hand heads-up with QJ and get called with K9. King pops up and the game is over.

With that effort I now sit second in our standings (which you can check out here), with 7 more tournaments to go. The two lowest scores will be dropped, so the first tournament that I missed won't hurt me.

Now, how to take down Bob...

Ok, so now that it's almost 1:00 am on a weekday, I think it's time to go to bed. Hopefully more will be known in the morning, but I have a fealing that lawyers will be very active nationally in the next few days.

It looks like some of these Missouri races are going to be quite close. I love watching the election results coming in.

On another note, Cars is an excellent movie.

Well, I've voted, and for those of you curious to know how I came out on the candidates... well, I'm only going to give you a small piece of the puzzle. I will say, though, that I voted for a lot of Democrats and Republicans, dependent on different candidates/level of government. I will, though, let you know how I came down on the Talent/McCaskill race.

I voted for Frank Gilmore, the Libertarian Candidate.

That's right. In one of the closest, most important senate races in the country, I voted Libertarian.

I can't say that I find myself more able to identify with the Lib party than either the Reps or Dems, but I will say that I don't think I can take either party too seriously anymore. I have a hunch that this will not be my last vote cast for a third party. Like these political adds keep saying, "It's time for change in Washington."

Well, I bought all the hype and watched the Manning vs. Brady duel. It was a pretty good game, with the game coming right down the final minutes, but I have to say that the Pats just gave it to them. Dropped passes, turnovers, a missed field goal. Ugly. Congrats to the Colts, though. We'll see if Manning can finally live up to his regular season greatness in the post-season.

On another note, who figured that Vinatieri would miss that final field goal. I figured he'd end the game in his usual fashion in his old stadium. Guess he got used to that dome environment.

I bought some new socks today. The plain, ole', fruit of the loom crew socks. Yay! I know that some people might not truly appreciate the new sock experience, but I do. So... envy me, I guess.

One quesiton, though--Why do these socks come in a resealable plastic bag?

You know, it's interesting. Everytime the big elections roll around every two years, I find myself once again having to make some decisions. "Decisions?" you ask. Yeah, I'm one of those very few people in the United States that actually seems to sit on the fence between the major policital parties.

So how will I be voting come next Tuesday. I'm still not entirely sure. I tend to be more liberal with more local governments, but more conservative at the national level. Does that mean I'll vote for the Republicans nationally and the Dems locallly? In previous years that has been the case, but a few things have made me think I might flip-flop entirely.

First, I've always lived in the suburbs until the last couple of years, and I don't like what I see happening with the Kansas City government. The school system is an appaling failure. The downtown revitilization is great, but who the heck is going to be a tenant of the Sprint Center? Anyone? Now, I do very much like our mayor Kay Barnes, but frankly, I don't see these high sales taxes and other government funds being used very effectively. I'll vote for higher taxes in the blink of an eye if I can see the benefit. I don't think that is the case with our city government.

At the state level, I'm all about the dems. I will proudly say that I did not vote for Gov. Blunt. His tenure so far has been a debacle, in my opinion.

So, what about nationally? This is were things get rather tricky for me. Let's go down my list of stances and you tell me where you think I fall.

I prefer smaller government, lower taxes, and fiscal responsibility.

I think separation of church in state is a very important idea, designed originally to protect not the state, but the church.

I think international military intervention should be limited to immediate concerns on national security or instances of significant moral injustice.

I am ashamed to say that I supported Bush in his push to go into Iraq, and am glad I jumped off that bandwagon a long time ago. (Sorry, I was keeping this non-specific until now.)

I believe that foreign aid should be increased and third-world debt eliminated. (Yes, I know that no one says "third-world" anymore. I just forgot what we've moved on to since "developing.") I also think the system needs to be overhauled so that so many of these welfare nations can get on their own footing. (Possibly contrasting ideals.)

I believe very strongly in globalization and free trade. I think outsourcing is a good thing for our economy.

I think that more can be done to protect workers in international factories. I know corporate responsibility is a bit of an oxymoron, but unfortunately, corporations are much better able to influence the countries in which they operate.

I believe that unions are a very good thing, and that the current minimum wage is absolutely deplorable. Bravo to states and business that are creating higher standards.

I think that global warming is a very serious issue that can no longer be ignored. Action must be taken now.

I think that much more needs to be done about campaign finance reform.

I think we spend far too much money on our military.

I would also like us to be able to eliminate our entire nuclear stockpile. Even if say, N Korea nuked LA, us nuking Pyonyang would still be morally reprehensible.

We need a solid nuclear missile shiled, I just wish the technology was up to snuff.

Ok, so that's a small sampling. As you can see, I can kinda go both ways. I do prefer to lean to the right nationally, as I said before, but I don't see how I can vote for this administration. First, of course, is Iraq. That alone should make me vote against Talent, but honestly, what could the democrats do differently at this point? It would simply be a vote against the Republicans. Fiscal responsibility? Why am I hearing the democrats talking about balanced budget issues. Talk about a national security risk. How many more bonds can we expect China to buy? And we desperately need to end our dependence on foreign oil with alternative and renewable energy. It's time to stop propping up these Mid-east dictatorships. (P.S., extending daylights savings is really only helping businesses, which is not itself a bad thing, just not the goal as politicians seem to have espoused.)

I've looked very seriously into voting Libertarian or Green or something else. Unfortunately, those parties tend to be a little to far on either side for my taste.

So, how do you think I should vote? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?