An all around good weekend!

What a great weekend! Of course it started off with a couple beers at PTs after work on Friday. I didn’t stay long as the family was looking to do out to dinner. We had a good meal over at Chili’s and then headed home. I then spent 3 or 4 hours completing a project that I had started at work. That wasn’t really the plan when I got home, but I just kept finding “one more thing” I wanted to fix on it. By the time I was done, I was really happy with the result. I guess you can’t ask for much more than that.

Saturday we went over to the mall and pretty much just walked around. I finally got a new battery for a watch that I’ve had for SEVERAL months that hasn’t been working. Amazing what a fresh battery can do, huh? After the mall we came home and took a bit of a nap before getting ready to go to a halloween party at some friends’ house. The party was excellent. The place was packed. There must have been 60 people there. There were some great costumes, too. My favorite was a guy who came dressed as Richie Tenenbaum from the movie The Royal Tenenbaums. He looked just like the guy! I failed to bring a camera so I have no photos to share. But, as soon as somebody else posts some, I’ll be sure to set up a link or two. There was some great drunken foolery, as well. We had polished off a bottle of tequilla in the first 45 minutes and the keg was gone after about 90 minutes. Like I said, it was a good size party. I’m glad I stopped drinking fairly early on in the evening. I woke up at a fairly normal time on Sunday, and felt great. No hangover in sight! Woo Hoo!

Sunday was pretty cool, too. Went to the movies with Rob. Jason was set to join us, but after a weird set of happenings, he wasn’t able to make it. Turns out, it was a blessing in disguise. The movie that we went to is “Saw 2″. I had loaned Jason the first Saw movie and he hasn’t had a chance to check it out yet. After seeing 2, it’s clear that you should REALLY see 1, first. While it’s not mandatory and the plot stands up on it’s own, there are some cool things that relate back that make for some added coolness. I can’t write about too many details just yet… Jason reads my blog and I’d hate to spoil it for him at this point.

Spent the rest of Sunday working on a project. I’m glad I sat and worked on it. Several key things fell in to place and I was able to mark a large portion of the project complete. I still have some updates to do for the sites in question, but they are “good enough” at least for a while.

WHAT?? No BlogRoll?

Since most of us write blogs because we think we have something interesting to say, our goal is usually the same; get more people to read your site. The best way to get new readers is by having your buddies who also blog kick down with a link back to your blog from theirs. Usually this is done in the form of a blogroll (see the nifty list, top-right). Any mass blogging site (blogspot.com, WordPress.com, etc) or any blogging software that is worth a it’s weight in cow dung offers the ability to add links to your buddies in the form of a blogroll. But, as I have also found, there are sites and scripts out there that make blogrolling either very difficult or impossible to do.

If you are currently writing a blog and your software or the site you blog at doesn’t allow you to blog (You know who you are), you owe it to all of your blogging compadres to jump ship and move to a better solution. It’s all about the links, man. It’s all about the links.

And one last thing. myspace.com can eat my ass! Craig, you MUST move to a real blogging site now! Visitors can’t even add a comment to your posts unless they sign up for an account at that crappy site. I’m as likely to join myspace.com as I am to be MVP of the NHL in 2005-2006. You’ve seen the type of shape I’m in, that aint F’n happening!

Why you shouldn’t miss a scheduled lunch

Every Thursday a group of us go to lunch at Memphis BBQ. Today, Matt decided he had OTHER things to do during lunch. So, while we were there, we decided we’d tell him he missed some crazy fight. When we got back from lunch, I decided it would be better to tell the tale via ICQ as I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face during the telling. So, here is the story, along with Matt’s responses along the way:

[14:10] Geeeek: Did Rob tell you about the fight that happened at Memphis?
[14:10] Geeeek: Ask him about it.
[14:14] Matt P: he isnt willing to tell the story
[14:14] Matt P: he said you gotta
[14:15] Geeeek: oh man, it was crazy. 2 of the new female employees totally started going at each other. Started calling each other bitch and started getting sorta loud.
[14:15] Matt P: LOL nice
[14:16] Geeeek: Yeah, so then they started pushing each other a bit.
[14:16] Geeeek: The one girl fell over a chair and landed on her back.
[14:16] Geeeek: She screamed.
[14:16] Geeeek: She gets up and charges at the other girl at top speed.
[14:16] Matt P: holy shit, i wish i was there
[14:17] Geeeek: She put her shoulder right in to the other girls midsection. We heard this big “ooooofff” as all the air got knocked out of her.
[14:18] Geeeek: So at this point they are just standing there and the one girl slaps the other HARD across the face.
[14:18] Geeeek: Then, the first girl reaches out and grabs the girls collar and totally rips the front of the other’s shirt.
[14:18] Geeeek: So, the second girl, reached over and did the same to the first girl.
[14:19] Geeeek: Then, the second girl reaches for the BBQ sauce.
[14:19] Geeeek: She pours it all over the other girl’s chest.
[14:19] Geeeek: She yells, “I’m gonna eat you like a rack of ribs”
[14:20] Matt P: holy shit why wasnt i there for it

Should I tell him I was only kidding?

I didn’t think so either.

EDIT: Somebody sent Matt the link to here so he has read the story and now knows the truth… but, his response was pretty good:
[14:41] Matt P: Hey fucker
[14:41] Matt P: geeeek.com
[14:42] Matt P: LIES

Mission accomplished. (bet he doesn’t miss next Thursday)

Sunset Station: Home of the Bad Beat

Go to any poker room in the world and it will take you, on average, 30.7 seconds before you are hearing somebody replaying a bad beat story to anybody who will listen. I’ve told my fair share. I’ve listened to my fair share, too. But, after this past weekend, I think it’s time I write down some of the gems that have happened to me playing in the $50 tournament on Sunday morning at Sunset Station.

The reason I think it’s time to write them down is that I’ve played in the tournament 3 times and have had bad beats in all 3 tournaments. twice knocking me out and once keeping me from taking first place in the tournament.

Let’s start with the first time I ever played in that specific tournament:

4th or 5th hand in the tournament. I’m in the BB with K/9. The blinds are 25/25. Somebody raised the pot to 75 and there were 2 callers before it got back to me. I went ahead and called the extra 50 chips. I figure I can dump the hand after losing 75 if I miss the flop… But instead, the flop comes K/9/J, with 2 diamonds. I check, the original raiser bets, everybody else folds, I simply call. The turn card is another King, giving me a full house. I check, the original raiser bets, I reraise all-in. He calls with J/Q of diamonds. The river is the 10 of diamonds, the 1 and only card he can hit to win the pot. Ouch.

Second time I played there, 2 bad beats:

#1. We are down to about 7 players left, the guy in first position moves all in for about 3 times the BB. I look down and see A/A. I’m about middle of the pack in chips so I want to have somebody else call behind me for the extra action. But, everybody folds. First guy turns over his hand, he has 8/8. The board ended up with 2/3/4/5/6 to make a straight and we chopped the pot. No, I didn’t lose this pot, but still it’s a bad beat. I got half the pot when I should have gotten the entire pot and then knocked him out. Lame!

#2. We are down to 4 players left. I’m first to act. The BB only has 1 chip more than the amount needed to pay the BB. So, he’s going to call no matter what 2 cards he has. I look down and see K/K. I raise the pot, the other two guys fold and the BB throws in his last chip without even looking at his cards. When he turns them over, I see he has 2/3. The flop deals out a 2 and the turn is a 3 to make 2 pair for him. The board doesn’t pair to give me a higher 2 pair and he wins the pot. Because of the size of the blinds, this lose ends up taking a good portion of my chips. and I’m not able to recover and end up going out in 4th place. If I win that hand, I feel I was in a pretty good position to win the tournament.

OK, now on to this past weekend. First, I gotta mention that I was EXTREMELY tired and shouldn’t have played to begin with. The night before I played in an online tournament. Out of 1583 players, I finished 10th. It took 5 hours to play and didn’t end until after 4 in the morning.

On the first hand of the tournament, I made an absolutely horrible play to go broke. I’ll tell you about it, cause it’s sorta funny.

I have A/K. The first person to act raises from 25 to 100. The next person calls. I call and one other guy on the end calls. The flop comes K/Q/7. Normally, this would be an excellent flop. But, the initial better moves all-in. The second guy thinks for about 5 seconds and then he calls all-in. I call all-in without even thinking about it. The last guy folded. We turn up the cards and the first guy has A/K. But, the second guy had Q/Q. I was drawing mostly dead. The turn was a 2 and that was the end of that… But, did I learn my lesson and go home? Hell no! At this tourney, they’ll let you buy back in for the first hour. So, I bought back in…

About 90 minutes later, I was down to about 800 chips and the blinds were already at 100/200. I was going to be the BB on the next hand so when I saw K/J, I figured I’d go ahead and move all-in just to try and double up. At this point, I’m going to need to get lucky in order to stay in the tournament, I realize this… A guy at the end with a LOT more chips than I had moved all-in as well. I’m fine with this because he’s basically protecting me. Now I only need to beat him rather than 2 or 3 players calling my all-in.

We turn over the cards and he has 9/10 of clubs. I’m pretty happy about the situation but I realize anything can happen. The flop comes out K/K/8. Now, I’m pretty stoked. I’ve all but won this hand at this point. The turn comes a 7 giving him an open ended straight draw. But, if he catches a Jack, I make a full house. So, really, he can only catch a 6 to knock me out. At this point do I even need to tell you what the river card was? I didn’t think so… I left in a hurry and as I’m walking away from the table the guy says “sorry dude.” Why do people say they are sorry? I’m not sorry when I put a bad beat on somebody. I NEVER say I’m sorry to somebody in that situation. I think it’s better to not say anything at all then to say you are sorry.

OK, I’ll stop whining now. Perhaps after writing about it I’ll be able to move on…

Back to the tables!

Well, I guess I should start of with an update to the hockey weekend. DAMN, what a weekend!

It started on Friday, we had a morning game, which, isn’t usually a good thing for us. Historically, we’ve never done well in the morning games. And, true to form, we blew a lead in the 3rd period to lose by a goal. After the game, everybody went back to their rooms, showered and then headed over to my place for a poker tournament. I ended up chopping the pot with one of the guys.

After poker, we had second hockey game on Friday evening. The game before ours was running almost an hour behind, so, we didn’t finish up until pretty late. (we lost this game by 1 goal, too) We then went out for the team dinner. We left the reastaurant at about 2AM. We headed over to Palace Station where we played Pai Gow until about 6:30 AM. We too took a cab home after a full evening of drinking and slept until about noon on Saturday. Our daughter had a singing performance that we went to Saturday afternoon before we went to our 3rd, and final hockey game. We tied this last game which left us no shot at making the championship game on Sunday. Probably just as well. I was tired as all hell!

We were planning to go back out with the group after the 3rd game, but, by the time we got home and showered, we were pretty much toast! We decided to just kick back at the house instead.

On Sunday, we got up and went to Sunset Station for a $50 buy-in tourney. I felt I played really well and ended up getting unlucky in 3 key pots. I still finished in 4th place which put me in the money, but, I felt I should have won this tourney outright.

Here are the 3 key hands:

Hand 1: 6 players left. First player to act moves all in for about 4 times the Big Blind. I have some big stacks behind me and I don’t mind if any of them come in to the pot, so I just call with A/A. Everybody folds and we turn up the cards. I have the guy crushed with his pocket 8s. The board comes out:
2/3/4/5/6
Split the pot.

Hand 2: 5 players remaining. The BB is all-in pre-flop for less than the cost of the BB. I have pocket 4s. I move all in to isolate the guy heads up. everybody folds. He turns over his cards… pocket 5s. Bad timing.

Hand 3: 4 players remaining. The blinds are 800/1600. The BB has a total of 1700 chips. So, he’s going all-in no matter what 2 cards he has. I want his 1700 chips, so I raise to 4000 with K/K. Everybody else folds and he flips over his cards… 2/3. Of course, both a 2 and a 3 hit the board and he takes 1700 chips of mine.

OK, enough about that… Over the past few nights I’ve also been playing online a bit. I’ve played in about five 3-table tourneys. I’ve finished 1st twice, 3rd once, 6th once and around 15th in the last one. So, perhaps the slide I’ve been on playing online may be over. I’m testing my luck now. We’ll see how it goes…

The hockey weekend is here!

Man, I’ve been waiting for this weekend! My buddies are here in Vegas to play in the “Las Vegas Hockey Classic“. The tournament is always fun. It’s great to get to play some hockey. But, more than anything it’s awesome to hang out with a great group of guys. We’ll play hockey Friday morning, have a poker tournament Friday afternoon and then play another hockey game Friday evening. We’ll likely have the team dinner Friday night and then go out gambling til all hours of the morning. You just can’t beat this kind of entertainment!

I’ll give you an update on how we did after the weekend is over.

What do I do with THIS domain?

For a while there I was a domain name junkie. I purchased domain names left right and center. If an idea came to mind, I’d go buy the domain name before writing a single line of code… Then, I’d get busy and that million dollar idea I had gets thrown on the bottom of the to-do list never to be heard from or seen again… But, I still own the domain name. Now what?

I found a great way to answer that question… DomainHop.com Sign up for an account, let them optimize the sites for the domains you aren’t using and you are done. They’ll set up a keyword search type page where you get paid per click. I don’t know that you’ll make back that million you lost from the idea that started this whole process, but, I’m fairly certain you’ll earn more this way than having the domain name point to your “Coming Soon” page. Hell, it’s worth a shot.

I’m happy for a really geeky reason

When you are big in to Nascar, you get excited when you learn that your favorite driver earned some new sponsorship or won the pole position for the big race. When you follow a band you get excited when you find some rare recording or get to see them at a tiny venue.

Well, I’m a geek. I get excited about some things that are probably going to seem, well, geeky. Like today when I loaded up my browser and pulled up the geeeek.com home page and found that I FINALLY have an alexa.com rating! They basically rate web sites by popularity. yahoo.com is ranked #1. google.com is ranked #3. As of today, geeeek.com is ranked 3,279,454. Watch out, Yahoo, here I come!

Even though my rating is 3 million plus, I’m excited and happy to see that some work I’ve been doing is actually paying off. I took a lot of tips from Jason on ways to improve the site. But, one of the main things I did is actually just starting writing a whole bunch. Amazing how much more often people will visit when the site actually changes from day to day.

So, for those of you who visit regularly, thank you. And for those of you who rarely ever visit, what’s wrong with you?? ;)

Seriously, thanks for visiting.

Digital Jack!

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie\'s RevengeOK, file this under “I CAN’T WAIT”!

The release date for this game has been pushed back several times, but, it appears the game will see the light of day this Tuesday, 10/11/05. If you’d like to check out some cool trailers for the game, head over to GameTrailers.com.

I did find it a little funny that a game being distributed by Disney Interactive, the kings of all-things-kids, has a game with an ESRB rating of “Adults only”. That rating means Titles rated Adults Only (AO) have content suitable only for adults. These products may include graphic depictions of sex and/or violence. Adults Only products are not intended to be sold or rented to persons under the age of 18. - I wonder if there are hidden scenes where Jack and Sally are getting it on? Or, maybe Dr. Finkelstein creates a new girl who IS willing to play nice-nice… It boggles the mind… well, at least my warped mind.

[edit] ahh crap. I see now that it’s just Amazon.com’s screw up. The game is not rated Adults Only. It’s rated “E - for everybody”. While I’m sure the game will still be good, I’ll have to put my warped little mind back to work on something else…

Hockey is back, baby!!

I’m sitting here at work and finding it hard to concentrate. The NHL season is back in action in less than 1 hour from now and I’m STOKED (yes, I guess people do say stoked, Poodle)! I know that hardly anybody noticed that the sport was gone for a year. I’m sure even less will realize it’s back. ESPN has opted to show poker rather than hockey (big surprise). We’ll be stuck watching games on OLN… Can’t wait to see what their coverage is like. Thankfully, I was able to get the hockey package through my cable company. As long as I’m able to see most of the Kings games, I’ll be fine. The rest of the time I’ll be satisfied to watch pretty much any 2 pro teams go at it.=0D=0DSo tonight, if you need me, I’ll be sitting on my couch, possibly with a beer in hand, flipping channels between OLN and the other 10 channels showing hockey. Woo F’n Hoo! Pass the remote, eh.

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