Some poker below. In the cut, some political rants:

( Read more... )

Yesterday was UNESCARGOT at the Goldmans. Cash games, a tournament, and lots of fun. My cards sort of played themselves in the tournament. Early on, I was in the big blind when Josh (a friend of Sharon Goldman) raised UTG. A tight player re-raised, and I looked at AA in the big blind. I re-raised, Josh shoved, the tight player thought and thought and folded and I called, of course. KK no goot.

We got down to one table, and I was in the small blind when there was a raise all-in, and Dan Goldman (on my right) re-rai all-in. I looked down at AA and called (Dan had me slightly outchipped). Anyway, he did until I took most of his stack. Eventually, I went heads up against Scott Samaral. The prize pool was flat: 40% first, 30% second, 20% third, 10% fourth. Still, we made a $5 save (first paid $225) just to rankle a certain individual who thinks that deals are bad. It took about 15 minutes, but I prevailed in the heads-up battle.

I broke even in the cash games, and I had a ton of fun. Now, sleep beckons....

The John Birch Society still exists.

Not having heard it mentioned in many years, I was surprised to see a reference to it lately. I wonder if younger people have ever heard of it?

Without looking, which of these policies is not a (listed) JBS goal?

Poll #1495580
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10

Not a JBS goal?

I didn't really realize that not only can your friends see your stuff by default, but their applications can as well:

http://www.facebook.com/privacy/?view=platform&tab=other

A hilarious lamebook: when life gives you lemons... Read the comments too. (Note: while it is text-only, it does contain mature themes. Hint: if I were posting this as a standalone entry, the goatse icon would be involved.)

The Onion: Christ Turns Down 3-Year, Multimillion Dollar Deal To Coach Notre Dame. "I love Notre Dame and respect their football legacy, but no matter what you've accomplished before coaching there, once you're a Golden Domer, the expectations, frankly, are unrealistic."

via boingboing, funny/quirky ad for the UK Sun, parodying ads for iPhones etc. "The UK's best handheld for 40yrs"

Is Sarah Palin's book-promoting bus tour a sham? "Joe McGinniss reports she's in fact flying around America on a private jet."

Responses to seven common anti-climate-change arguments from SciAm.

People seem to perform better on exams when they think there are fewer competitors.

Food choices #1: "If the incidence of obesity fell to its 1987 level, it would free enough money to cover the nation's uninsured population."

Food choices #2: "It seems like a no-brainer, and it is: Take the junk food out of school vending machines and cafeterias, and kids will eat less junk food, according to a new study that took place in Connecticut."

A collection of Google Street View images showing people that may or may not be engaged in prostitution.

Yet another reason we should ban Christmas: "According to a poll of Pennsylvania adults, about 17 percent of Pennsylvanians experienced an injury or knows someone who was injured while opening gifts during past seasons."

Friends,
Back from weekend visit to St.Nicholas church in Cohoes
New York just north of Albany. It is a beautiful church
with a sort of jewel box quality which Orthodox churches
can have sometimes have. Here is a picture from the
choir loft which gets the general view.( Read more... )
And here is are a couple of others in which I appear...
In the first the icon of St Nicholas on a stand in front left.
( Read more... )
It is remarkable about St Nicholas how,although really all
we know certainly about his life is that he was a bishop in
Myra in present day Turkey in the 4th century, the stories
about him spread and grew, centering on his practical help
to people and standing with them in need, with sailors helping
them clear the rigging in a storm, with unjustly accused people
standing with them in court, appearing with money for a poor
man needing it for his daughter...to be there beside the other
is already a miracle perhaps,as Simone Weil says people wait
for the freeing question addressed to the Fisher King in the
old Grail stories ..."what ails you uncle?" for a question out
of real care as to what it means to be the person we are...a
rare question and a freeing one... well in any case perhaps
this standing with the other is at the center of the continuing
spread of the stories of St Nicholas.
And after liturgy today and a wonderful festive meal there was
a perforance by the children of song and instrumental play
ranging from "Jesus Loves me" to Beethoven...and then a great
surprise! St Nicholas himself appeared! I was in awe of a man
who has been a bishop 1600 years longer than I and looking so
well, and he brought gifts for all the performers. Picture
at end of post.
So today these and as always I am yours welcoming all response,
+Seraphim
.
I am to St Nicholas's right. to his left Fr Alvian Smirensky,
and the rector Fr.Terenti Wasielewski.then Victoria Serbalik
parish president. Some children who sang and played.

Poll #1495446 I scream, you scream
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 42

Is it weird that I microwave ice cream before eating it?

But...

Things I've done this weekend:

1. Slept
2. Lounged about in bed
3. Watched a really bad movie
4. Slept some more
5. Lounged about in bed some more

Things I've accomplished this weekend:

1.

I hate being sick.

Got 622nd of 50000 in the miniFTOPS Warmup today... for $6. Had swaps with Bayes and diesel, so I owed them 30 cents a piece, though I already paid diesel.

Will post about backing this week, think I'm playing... 4 tourneys?

I like Cincy, but switched off them last night, as I decided I needed them later in the year.

Today I find I have 9 reasons to root for the Lions!

Continuing my investigations, I tried to determine whether the cost of automobiles has gone up since 1990, adjusted for inflation.

Poll #1495346
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15

Has the cost of buying a car going up since 1990?

( The analysis )

I officially came up empty for Sydney by busting out of the heads-up event. I was able to win my first round match 2-0. In the first game, I had my opponent down about 3-1, I limped on the button with aces and he shoved right into them with Q5. In game 2, I ran really well making a lot of pairs, and finally we got it all in when I pushed with A3 and he called with K3.

I had to wait around a long time for my second opponent, Christian. The first match was basically just a cooler; he opened the button with AJ, I re-raised with TT, he shoved, I called, and there was a jack in the door. The second match he just ran through me winning pot after pot after pot. Finally we got to 200/400 and he put my last 6200 in with A3 which held against my K9.

Very disappointing. I think the format/structure of this tournament is as good as it gets for a 1-day heads-up tournament. The combination of a faster structure with the best-of-3 format is the perfect compromise between allowing skilled play and finishing at a reasonable-ish hour (last year we played until after 5 AM but it was because the semifinals took forever).

So ends what is now definitely my last major festival for 2009. It's been a pretty lame year in live tournaments (I guess online tournaments went okay), but I still feel that I've been playing great and improving all the time.

Back to Hong Kong tomorrow.

The new commercial for Interstate Batteries not only features a song I like from Oh No! Oh My!... the song features the line "Nice day for a walk in the park/nice day for a drive-by shooting".

I don't know if it's possible to make it out in this cell phone photo, but the carpet in front of the neighboring machine is littered with ashes because this douchebag is too can't be bothered to LOOK or lean over the two extra inches to make sure her ashes actually make it into the ashtray.

Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy

It's $3. If you're looking to check out some JAMC, it's very low risk. :)

Below the cut: Climategate, Sleeping with Max Baucus, Unemployment/stimulus chart, abortion and healthcare:

( Read more... )

BetOnSports received five years probation and a $28 million fine in settling the case with the US Department of Justice. Given that the company is now basically out of business, US gamblers who are owed $7 - $8 million will now likely never see any of that money.

Something for the "assault is assult, murder is murder, why do we need hate crimes?" contingent to put in their pipes and smoke: there were multiple incidents of racial violence at a S. Philly high school on Thursday (via laren on Facebook)



When a specific group is singled out and targeted, the effect goes beyond the individual crime or transgression and attacks the group spirit as a whole, in a way that random crime does not. True, if you hear about random murders going on downtown, it makes you incrementally more fearful of going downtown, but hate crimes have a much more significant and personal effect.

Think about this from a sociology standpoint too: the article does say "a gang of other students" although it's not clear in what sense they're using the word gang, but these sorts of attacks provide an incentive for the targeted group to band together; is this how actual gangs get started and/or escalated?

The school district's response is disappointingly flaccid:



(tagging glbt for the hate crime relevance)

Literally. via my boss, a series of photos of filthy insides of computers (dust, pet hair, spider webs, etc.) from the UK Register.

Friends,
Driving up to Cohoes, near Albany, today for liturgy tomorrow
at St Nicholas Church(67 Saratoga St. 10 AM for anyone in the
area and free). Seems we will have our first snow today--
just an inch or two.
So will be away until tomorrow evening. Just one picture,
letting it be fairly large so as to not trouble with a cut here
if that is ok... the path goes through what is ,in Summer,
a deer-proof garden. That is a collection of flowers which deer
do not eat and which are colorful. Deer eat most flowers one
plants, understandably since lacking opposable thumbs and much
in the way of brain for that matter, they cannot plant their
own crops of things they like to eat. That path which now seems
to be to nowhere and the remains of the plants perhaps makes
at evening a sort of interesting scene, anyway here it is
and as always welcome all response but will not be replying
til tomorrow night.
yours
+Seraphim
.

You are playing in the WSOP main event. It's the first level pretty early on, you don't have a read on the relevant players. Blinds are 100-200, starting stacks of 30,000.

You pick up KK. Someone limps third to act for 200, and you raise to 700 around back. The big blind and the limper defend. The flop is 932r. The big blind bets out 1650 and the limper folds. You elect to call. The turn is an offsuit J, and he bets again, this time for 2750. You call again.

The river is an 8. He bets a third time, for 5000. What do you do?

Poll #1494666
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27

Do you:

Now it's wrgpt (emailament) instead of the WSOPME. Do you: