Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Whitewater Memorial Day weekend

Whitewater Adventure on Cache Creek

After an unplanned detour through Sacremento, we finally made it to the camp site at Cache Creek for our overnight rafting trip. After cruising the campground parking lot looking for signs of Chizz, I finally opted to ask some random people in the parking lot, "Hey do you know Chad and Lyndsey?"
"Oh, yeah, they're right over here."
Miraculously, they just happened to have met our trip organizers earlier in the day, and directed us right to them; past the barn, a playground, over a hill, across a field to the back of the campsite's picnic area. Had we not asked for help, there's no way in hell we would've found them.
Quickly we pitched our $30 WalMart tent and got to drinking. But at this hour, there was no way I was going to be able to catch up with them. They'd been drinking since 2 pm. Soon after, everyone hit the sack. Including my friend JoeO.
It was a cold night. Fucking freezing. Even in our 15º mummy bags, we couldn't stay warm.
The next morning we got moving quick. The launch area was bustling with rafters and their gear. After a swig of Stoli, we loaded our gear onto the gear truck, and then ourselves on the buses. From there, we rumbled to the actual launch area. We endured a quick orientation on how to use a life-vest and how to paddle a boat, and we were off.
We quickly got the hang of navigating the boat, and soon we were maneuvering around rocks and through rapids with relative ease. A couple times our boat got caught on shallow rocks, but mostly we were able to navigate around most of the dangers.
"Mother" is the class 3.5 rapid we had to negotiate. Though for us novices, it did seem a bit intimidating, at that point, we were expertly weaving in and out of rapids, no problems whatsoever. Maybe it was overconfidence that did us in at the end. Or perhaps it was the 6-8 beers I drank while on the river, in lieu of the water I should have been drinking to stay hydrated.
The final bit of rapids seemed harmless. It was a gentle left turn followed by a sharp right turn which was flanked by a large bush on the left bank. It didn't look too menacing, but once we headed down the short rapid, making the sharp right turn became immediately impossible. I watched as our boat slid under the bush, and smacked my GF right off the front of the boat. Another instant and the bush swept me out of the boat too, and an instant later I was bobbing helplessly downstream.
I reminded myself to keep my toes in front of me as my ass cheeks painfully bounced on the shallow rocks beneath. We finally made it to shore, and luckily our friends retrieved out boat for us.
We shivered up the shore to retrieve our tent, cooler, etc, which had been lined up along the banks where we were going to be camping that night. In a few hours, the stretch of shoreline became a massive tent city. The ipod player emerged, as did the coolers of beer and booze.
The rest of the afternoon was a blur of cocktails, beers and volleyball. Sinewy steaks and bone-dry chicken breasts were on the communal menu. As were baked potatoes the size of my head, corn on the cob and pasta salad. The latter items were edible, the previous items, not-so-much.
We were informed that the day two's rafting route was to be a repeat of day one's, (due to road closures) so it seemed to me that opting out might be a good option. As I rubbed my aching butt cheeks, we decided that we'd make the drive home rather than freeze our asses off for another day.

Overall, I had a blast. Besides having a cold, and being cold, I had a terrific time on the river. Camping was pleasant too, as was the communal living aspect of the weekend. Whitewater Adventures runs a decent excursion, and for just over a hundred bucks, they provide quite a fun time.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

J5 live



With short notice and discounted tickets, we hit up the Jurassic 5 show last night at Santa Clara University's Leavey Center. Not that I need discounted tickets to see one of the best underground hip hop bands in the world, but it certainly helped with the decision making.
We started the evening by meeting up at Cluck U. Chicken and putting back a couple gallons of beer, which warmed us nicely. Had we known that the Leavey Center doesn't serve beer, we would have smuggled some in. But alas, we entered the arena empty handed, and sobering.
I was surprised to see the sparse crowd at the Leavey Center. It looks like the marketing team did a lousy job of promoting the show. In fact I hadn't heard word one about the show until a Santa Clara U. student told me about it. The Mercury News' Arts & Entertainment section didn't even list it on their calendar. I imagine many fans stayed home because they knew about the beer situation.

Dilated Peoples opened up for them with a slew of songs I couldn't recognize or identify. They didn't perform badly I suppose, but the audio in the arena just isn't perfect for hip hop.
Luke made a call to one of his buddies who was arriving late. He showed up with something nice to spike our gatorades with. Sobriety and concerts is like oil and water. They just don't mix that well. At the very least, sobriety should be at a minimum at any live music event, in my humble opinion.

When J5 took the stage, the difference in skillz is obvious. J5 can turn a party out. They rocked the stage and got the crowd jumping. Furthermore, these dudes can rap. UNLIKE some of the shit that on the radio, these MC's aren't just chanting, hooting and hollaring, repeating the same 'hooks' over and over again. Their lyrics can be profound, the delivery flawless, timing on-point. J5 impressed the shit out of me, to put it eloquently.

So despite the poor turnout, my relative sobriety and poor acoustics, J5 live was a fantastic mid week treat.

Friday, May 19, 2006

home game

After an extended losing streak at my home game (excluding one win a couple weeks ago) I won one last night. The first game was horrible, and I ended up getting blinded out due to being cold decked. But the second game was mine. I concentrated on playing aggressively and going with my reads. Early on I got bluffed out of a pot by AaronManiac, but redeemed myself when he tried an all-in bluff which I called. I got a tell off him and decided to make a risky call. It paid off. With the chip lead, and momentum, I busted JoeO with my pocket 7s vs AKo. That gave me a big chip advantage which I proceeded to use to dominate the rest of the field. In the end SamD and I went heads-u. I won outkicking his top pair for the win, redemption, and a rejuvenated self-confidence.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Poker bad

Last night I played 3 sit n go's and three times I lost crucial hands to horrendous bad beats. As painful as bad beats are, I reconcile with myself the fact that I played great. I made a couple HUGE bluff calls and some big steals. And the bad beats were TRUE bad beats, with my opponents having 4 or less outs to win. Of course the unlikely happened in three games in a row.

The bad beats were abound these past 10 days. I've been on a losing streak. A couple times my losses were due to horrible play, but mostly bad luck. Pretty much all of what I've gained over the last couple months have been decimated this past week or so.

My confidence is a bit shaken. My resolve has waned slightly. Playing great poker is all I can do though. If I keep playing my game: Stay aggressive, keep disciplined, make great reads, I will win.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Star Trek at Caffeine Guy

Caffeineguy linked to a couple StarTrek spots that you have to check out.
It had me laughing for a solid 3 hours. At least.

Check out these commercials for Star Trek on G4.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

COPAGs


I bought my first deck of Copag plastic playing cards about a year ago and haven't played with anything but Copags at my home game since. Actually I gave away a deck. So I've been playing with this deck for at least 6 months.
If you've been playing any amount of cards using the cheap Bicycle playing cards, you'll know that these cards don't last very long. At most two games of poker is all they can take before they need to be thrown out.
Plastic playing cards last thousands of games. They are hard to mark, tear, or otherwise damage.
However if any cards do get damaged, KEM and COPAGs offer replacement cards.

Rochester Chess Center has the best prices for plastic cards... And probably chess stuff too, if that's what you're into.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

HOSTEL




My GF and I stayed home an watched HOSTEL, produced by QT.
We're both fans of horror movies and this one seemed to be interesting, especially since it had QT's name attached to it.
Hostel is a film about a euro-backpacking adventure gone wrong. 3 guys head off to Euro-land (where the Euros come from) to indulge in the booze and women that reside in Euro-land. Some Euro-dude suggests they check out a hostel in Slovakia where hot Euro-chicks love dirty American backpackers and will sleep with them on-demand. Well that seems to be the case until one of the guys mysteriously disappears. This is the point where things go horrible.
The beginning of this movie is anything but horrifying. Actually from a male perspective, it's quite watchable. Mostly because the Euro-chicks have PERFECT Euro-breasts which are highlighted during the obligatory sex sequences. Strangely my GF thought that the first half of the movie was pure garbage, soft-porn. I didn't see anything wrong with the soft-porn aspect of it.
Hostel then suddenly turns ugly. When one of the backpackers wakes up in a very dirty room, with lots of second hand surgical tools lying around, it's obvious that he isn't in the Hostel anymore.

Insert horrific torture scenes here.

Hostel does not take the standard path to terror. It imagines a worse case scenario of a Euro-backpacking trip and runs with it.

The acting is quite good. Good photography and scenery is better than average. The story could be worse. But at the end I felt a little cheated. I loved the aspect of revenge which brought the film to a close. But if they had added a bit more personal element to the good and bad characters, I could have related more.
The movie has sex and violence. Perfect for the fellas, not so great for GFs. And take note that the torture scenes in this movie make the Reservoir Dog's ear scene look like Winnie the Pooh.

Why did the killers want to kill. What happens to the protagonist? What happens to the torture complex? Does it continue to operate?
Too many questions are left unanswered. Which is probably what the filmmakers intended to do.
For the sequel of course.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

TOOL



I just finished listening to TOOL's long awaited 5th album 10,000 Days.
Let me just preface this by saying that Tool is my favorite band and favorite live show. I also need to preface this by saying that each time they release a new album, it takes me two or three listens before my impression sets in. At this point, my feeling is that this is definitely TOOL through and through. Which means, this album is good, solid, dark, hard hitting. Also typical of Tool, it is punctuated with extended melancholic sounds-capes, gritty distorted guitar riffs, smooth, loud Maynard vocals and soul throbbing bass-lines. All very typical Tool
This album is typical Tool. Too typical.
Actually as a standard addition to the Tool library, this is essential listening. Is it better than Lateralus or any of Tool's other albums? I'll venture to say no.
Worth purchasing and supporting? Absolutely.
A refreshing change from crappy pop-rock and shit southern rap hooks? You fucking bet.

After a listening, I feel newly rejuvenated. My music ears are alive. My concert radar is on.

Monday, April 24, 2006

more live poker

A crucial error in judgement caused me to bust out of the tourney I played in Sunday. It was a $25 short stack tourney with unlimited rebuys, and a $25 add-on.
I made the mistake of going all in on a draw. I did this knowing I was beat.
I should know better than to do that in a tourney. In a cash-game, pushing all-in with a solid draw is more acceptable, but in a tournament, with all your chips at stake, it's really a bad play. Chalk it up as a donkey play. I've learned my lesson.
In the side tourney after the main game, I played a bit better and managed to get to the final three before chopping. So I made back some of the money I lost in the first game.

The alumni for my fraternity which was recently kicked off campus held a poker game to raise money for our bid to reanimate the house was Friday night. The ATO first ever poker tournament was a success. The prize pool was ridiculously small, considering we all dropped a bunch of money on rebuys and an add-on. But, some food was included and pretty much all the beer we could drink. So in that regard, we were all winners.
In the end I finished tied for 5th place. Although I feel I could've finished much higher if the blinds didn't get completely ludicrous. At one point the blinds jumped from $500-$1000 to $4000-$8000! After that any bet was essentially an all-in bet.

We all took home an ATO alumni shot glass, rejuvenated memories, and a thick heady buzz.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Poker lately

I've had one win, a couple bad beat eliminations and a couple second-place finishes in recent live tourneys. My play in these sit-n-go single table tourneys have been excellent, I must admit. I think I'm playing as good as I can right now. That's not to say the money has reflected my play unfortunately. Sometimes the cards just don't fall my way.
I'm resisting the temptation to tell a bunch of bad-beat stories right now. It's quite difficult. It can be stated that my eliminations from these tourneys were indeed ALL bad beats. All of my opponents had less than 5 outs when they drew out on me in the last five tourneys.
Honestly I don't feel a bit pissed off about them. A bit frustrated yes. But by no means am I Matusow pissed. Not remotely Otani pissed.
The last time someone bad beat Otani, he stomped around my house for a solid 2 hours fuming and name-calling. So he thoroughly deserved the new nickname I gave him when he drew out on me to win the latest tourney: Scott "Fluke-Ass, Dumb Luck" Otani.
That's as good-a poker nickname as he's gonna get playing the way he's been playing lately.

I will attribute some of my recent poker playing to Doyle Brunson's Super System 2's chapter on No-Limit play. He advocates an extremely aggressive style. He suggests playing strong draws extra aggressively and big hands cautiously. This style has it's risks, and will result in much bigger swings to your bankroll. It also tends to forces your opponents to take up a more defensive strategy because they'll have to adjust to your reraises. The system is similar to the style of play I already use, but reinforced some of my initial ideas about how to win.
I'll just say, I'll not be lending this book to ANY of my friends.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Rate yourself politically.

I rated as a LIBERAL.

No surprise there.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Bad Beat poker

10 players $30, no-limit freezeout:
My home game Friday night was the wildest game ever. Bad Beats galore. Almost every showdown ended in ridiculously improbably occurences. My KK got killed when Thumb's AQ turned trip Queens. Bootie's QQ caught on the river against ScottO's AA. The hooting and hollaring was at a maximum.
I feel I played a great game. Probably my best game. I had the Marinucci's on my left and right. Both guys are extremely aggressive and tend to throw my game off, but I was able to play well against them despite their hyper-agro style.
At the end the bad beats kept coming and The Bootie took down a fishy-win.
Game two went better for me. The bad beats continued while MMarinucci absolutely dominated the table. He unceremoniously dispatched every player at the table ending up with an incredible enormous stack of chips. I quickly double up heads-up against him and I was suddenly a contender. It came down to him and me, with Mike holding A5s and me going all-in with a pair of nines. He calls.
The flop comes down all blanks with two spades. The turn brought another spade and I was dead in second place.

I played as well as can be expected. I didn't tilt. I didn't donk. But in the end, LUCK was indeed a whore slut who's clearly not to be trusted.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Bluffin at Negreanu

Daniel Negreanu played in the $10 buy-in Negreanu Open last night and was seated at my table. I played one hand against Danny and played like a complete donkey.
I raise from middle position as the short stack and he called from the big blind. I know that A8o isn't a good hand, but I figured this would be my one chance to bluff a big name poker star. Flop comes down JKx. He checks, and dumbass me, I go all in, HOPING he didn't have a king. Alas he held KTo and instantly called. I failed to improve and finished 70th out of 120.
So much for trying to bluff one of the best players in the world.
In retrospect it was a stupid stupid play from a stupid stupid man.
I am hoping to play in next weeks tourney and hopefully I will have a chance to play him again.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Poker Brat



One of my ex-co-workers recently wrote an insightful article about the "poker brat" himself, Phil Hellmuth. Check it out in the Palo Alto Weekly.

Here's an eye-opening, but not-so-surprising excerpt from the article:
By the time he qualified to play in the World Series of Poker, which Hellmuth refers to as the "Holy Grail" of poker tournaments, he was 24 and had paid off all his student loans. Hellmuth's resolve to win was so strong he pledged celibacy.

"I hadn't had sex with a woman for like four years because I told myself, 'You're not going to do it. If you don't, you're going to win the 1989 World Series of Poker,'" he said. "Somehow I convinced myself if I could just wait ... I would win."


MmHm, Sure Phil, you PLEDGED celibacy for FOUR YEARS.... sure you did.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Weather Underground



Since my GF referred me to this site for my weather information needs, it's been in constant use.

Weatherunderground.com provides up to the minute weather analysis. So far it has been very accurate.

Monday, March 20, 2006

A History of Violence

A History of Violence


I finally got to see A History of Violence from Netflix last night, and I have to say, I loved it. The plot isn't complicated. This film is not pretentious. There's no twist. It isn't remotely intellectual. It's gritty, brutally violent and yet somehow maintains a sense of humor. The film is about family. About skeletons. About coming to terms with one's past and getting closure for our past deeds.
A History of Violence explores the violence which is within all of us. Even when we don't expect we can be capable of it. Human nature is in fact violent.
The movie did seem a bit short. It left me with questions. I suppose all good movies do, but somehow I felt it was incomplete. The villains were indeed villainous, but there is a lack of depth to their character development. I wanted to know more about who they were, what they did, and why they wanted Stall/Cusack dead.
All-in-all, I enjoyed the film immensely. I expect this film to be my all-time favorite Cronenberg films.

When all is said and done David Cronenberg has made a movie I would love to have made.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Fight Night



The fighting sports represent the most primal human competition. Since my first kung fu movie, through my first Tae Kwon Do lesson in 2nd grade, Kenpo lessons in sixth grade, watching my first Mike Tyson knockout, I have always loved fight sports. When The Ultimate Fighting Championship One appeared, It blew me away.
Mixed-martial arts represents fighting as a sport requiring the highest level of athleticism. Until recently California Athletic Commission had never legally sanctioned an MMA event. Last Friday night I went to the first one to be held in California. It also was the best attended MMA event ever in the nation. More than 18,000 people watched Cung Le fight in his first MMA event, defeating Brian Ebersol. Frank Shamrock beat down a Gracie legend Cesar Gracie in a 20 second knockout.
The crowd was pretty crazy. The HP Pavilion was packed. Every dude there looked like a fighter: Shaved head, thick neck. That would've been a bad night to go out looking for a fight.
Afterward, we got the VIP treatment at Studio 8, where the fighters were going to party. We crammed into their upstairs VIP section with a bunch of meat-heads and tried our best to mooch from the Red Bull and Ketel One at the booths. Soon the balcony was closed dude to meat-head overflow.
Sprinkle these drinks into my accout above: One double shot of Jågermeister, One pale ale, Three $8 Bud Lights, One single shot of Jågermeister, One Ketel One-Red Bull, and possibly another beer/cocktail?
In the end, fun was had by all.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Poker

I played in a three table $10 sit-n-go last night at Fullcontactpoker.com.
After playing pretty good poker and getting really lucky once, I won the damn thing.
$116 take home.
After that win, and and some positive results in this weekend's online games, I doubled my money at Fullcontactpoker.com.

Last weekend played in a $5 re-buy tourney, 200+ players, I finished 5th place and cashed $119.
I won a qualifying sit-n-go for a $100 buy-in tourney online. The winner got $12,000! With 450 players, paying out to 40th place, my odds weren't very good. I finished 202nd, $0.

Considering my buddies who've been playing online have all long since lost their initial deposits, I feel pretty good that I've only made one initial deposit, and otherwise only made withdrawals. Which means I've been a winning online player.
My bankroll took a couple dips last week due to live play losses. One huge losing session in Tahoe, and one losing session at Garden City. But otherwise I think my poker game is improving. I am gaining confidence, trying to minimize brain-farts, and generally trying to make better decisions at the table.
I will be gradually moving up in limits so I can properly compete at the casinos without putting my whole bankroll on the line each session.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Walk the Line



Netflixed Walk the Line starring Walkeen Phoenix, aka, Leaf.
I wonder what the reason behind changing his name was. I mean, Leaf is kind of a funky name, but it didn't take anything away from his performance in Parenthood, which he was excellent in. Even back then you could see some real talent and inevitable stardom in his future.
Despite looking nothing like Johnny Cash, I think it was a good performance. NOT an Oscar worthy performance, but good. Convincing.
Overall, the movie wasn't quite as good as Lou Diamond Phillip's portrayal of Ritchie Valens in La Bamba, one of the best biographical movies made or Oliver Stone's The Doors with Val Kilmer. But it held my interest. My overall enthusiasm for Walk the Line waned at the end, when the film abruptly ends.
Reese Witherspoon was good. I'm not entirely conviced that she deserved an Oscar or her performance, but what can you expect from the Academy?

This film is worth a rental not much more than that.

Friday, March 03, 2006

Mezzanine




I recently purchased Massive Attack's Mezzanine (1998) for my GF who heard the song 'Teardrop' on the TV show House.
This album fills a huge hole in my Ipod lineup. I desperately needed some mellow electronica to round out the selection, and Mezzanine is perfect match.
This is my first voluntary exposure to Massive Attack's music. After buying the album, I realized I surely have heard their music in the past. It seems the entertainment industry LOVES Massive Attack. Their songs are featured on many films, television programs and commercials.
They've heavily influenced modern musicians from Madonna to Mos Def to Sinead O'Connor. I can understand why.
Mezzanine is haunting, infectious and moody. It's simultaneously electronic, reggae, hip-hop, blues, rock and roll.
Plus, I tripled my buy-in at a no-limit table on fullcontactpoker.com while listening to it, so it must be good.