Okay...

Yesterday's post was pretty depressing, but something topped that today when I witnessed the ultimate destruction and embarassment of the Dallas Cowboys this afternoon to the Eagles. I've almost never been more stunned in my life during a football game at how awful they played, they didn't even care it seemed that the playoffs were on the line! I'm never betting on them again. It's over Dallas, you and I are through. I still like Romo, but I now hate the Cowboys. Yeah, I said it. You suck.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't know if I mentioned it on this blog before but I had been watching Death Note a lot lately and I think I'm going to buy the live action movie with the gift card I got for x-mas if I can find it. Until then though I'm starting to watch Serei no Moribito on animecrazy.net for awhile, up to episode 11 so far...

Disgusted...

with myself for letting our apartment get so god damn filthy.

As I write from my living room couch there are dirty plates sitting to my left, newspapers all over the floor, shoes everywhere, emtpy cig packs at every turn and don't even get me started on the kitchen or bathrooms...let's just say that I will be throwing some things away that have been "growing" on me the past couple weeks rather than washing them because they are that digusting. I have probably around three or four bags of trash to put out and Hannah is just sitting here next to me probably thinking about how much of a slob I've been this year. I've just grown kind of numb to everything lately and so has Billy. It's like we're both trying to avoid responsibilities at the moment.

I ended up not going to see a movie afterall this year around Christmas, mainly due to lack of time, sleep, and money honestly. I have so many bills to pay and working two jobs is already starting to wear on me a bit even though it's just been two weeks so far and I'm supposed to do this for at least six more months! Its really cut into my poker time as I expected to happen but even now when I have some time off I just find myself too tired to even play for an hour. I'd rather veg out on GTA4, the pool game in particular is addicting. I love videogames and I hate to admit it but I've noticed that in the past few years whenever I would lock myself away to play videogames for hours on end it usually means one and one thing only: I'm trying to ignore something that's more important. In this case, for right now I think I've been avoiding the cleaning, the bills, the everything that's so damn depressing that I've just sorta zoned in on GTA4 lately as a way to "get away" from it all. It makes perfect sense since I don't smoke weed or cigs, nor do I drink myself to sleep-I just play games (or eat) to get the same effect. I don't think I get like that all that easily but I know that I'm incredibly stressed right now, and I don't know how it started. It's probably a good thing James and Thinh aren't in town right now or I'd be hanging out with one of them instead of doing some proper cleaning or doing laundry or whatever else I know I should be taking care of because I just don't feel like doing ANYTHING lately and that's why everything is so damn filthy and I can't stand myself for letting this happen but I'm so tired all the time, I don't drink coffee or energy drinks but I'm finding myself having both a lot lately just to do something.

Here's to a better year in 2009 in case I don't post again before then. *cheers*

Merry X-Mas!

Happy Holidays! I hope you all had a good Jesus Birthday and have given each other nice things and all that this year. Since my last post a lot has come up including my going back to Target to work the truck in the mornings but I'm still with the hotel too so hopefully the dual-workload pays off and I'll be able to save a lot more money for the Austin trip in Feb. and for the eventual move to the ABQ later this summer. I had a nice dinner today with family and I'm thinking about seeing a movie tonight, probably Valkarie or however that's spelled but I have to go in to work at 3am tomorrow so maybe I should sleep here pretty soon...

Addicted...

...to Lady GaGa's "Poker Face" and "Let's Dance" songs. I've been listening to "Let's Dance" almost every day, especially on the radio but I didn't know who it was until I was over at James's and we looked it up and also found her "Poker Face" song which sounded absolutely horrible the first time we listened to it but after a few more listens it actually became hilariously addicting. Even her video is awesome and I usually hate this type of pop dreck but it's so damn catchy. I thought she was hispanic because of her voice for some reason but turns out she's German I think. She reminds me of what Christina Aguilera and Gwen Stefani would look like if they could've had a baby together. I'm almost embrassingly addicted to some of the more catchy pop songs I hear on Top 40 radio these days but I'll make no apologies for it like I might have done if say, I was 16 or 17 again. I just don't care anymore, if it sounds good, and it's got a fun hook then I'm listening to it. I don't care if it's Akon or even *gasp*, Ms. B. Spears! Don't get me wrong though, I still like listening to quality music but you can't go wrong with a quick fix every now and then!

Latin America Poker Tour News

"As Dr. Pauly first reported here, something foul was going on at the LAPT Nuevo Vallarta in Mexico this weekend and it didn't have anything to do with digestive issues after eating food there, although for players caught up in the mix, it probably left a similar feeling in their collective stomachs.

While the exact reasons have yet to trickle out, the basic gist is late during Day 1 play, Mexican gaming officials made an unexpected decision to revoke the LAPT's gaming license. Play was suspended and eventually canceled.

In related news, just adding "Mexican" before any combination of words makes it sound way shadier, doesn't it? Mexican gaming officials. Mexican pharmaceutical doctors. Mexican birthday cake."

--Recent blog entry @ WickedChopsPoker.com

I love WickedChops so much it's probably making me fat.

It's Been Awhile...

My MSN homepage is telling me that Anne Hathaway turned 26 this week. Everytime I see that woman on television I always have to turn to someone and say, "damn, that is the whitest girl I've ever seen!" because she really is. Even if the only person in that room is my cat Hannah. I thought Liv Tyler was the queen of that judgement but nope, not anymore, not in my book anyway. I know there's a lot of celebrities who may be more white but you can't really count red-heads since they're technically pinkish and thus don't qualify. Why am I rambling about this? There's nothing else to talk about! The election is over, Halloween's over, I am excited about Thanksgiving and x-mas though. I guess that's something to talk about, but you have to admit Anne Hathaway is pretty bright. She's like a walking flashlight, a living ghost...

OBAMA WINS!

What a night...

Is anyone really that surprised? This is the 21st century we're living in now folks. People growing up today don't remember a time when we had black water fountains and white ones. Race isn't an issue anymore, at least to most Americans. Obama has crushed that last-century mentality swiftly with his win last night. He won every state that mattered and the slave state's he lost to he can and did do without. Just look at that blue and red grid that every website and television station has up and does it really shock you to see that almost the entire South is Red? White people there are still trying to live in the past as far as I'm concerned and hopefully this election will open their eyes to what the future will look like for them whether they like it or not.

Less than an hour ago before heading to work I went to buy some gas ($1.95 btw) at Billy's work and he said that there were a lot of angry people in today. At first I was surprised and almost asked how come before it hit me with the realization that I'm living in one of those Southern states that I speak so badly of so often and just smiled because it felt so good to know that the right thing was finally being done in this country. How can most Texans still feel loyal to Bush after all that he did to run this country into the ground the past eight years? Denial works I suppose. I remember just a few days ago when a woman told me that she was voting McCain because she was afraid that Obama would ban guns nationwide. Mentally I was screaming "ARE YOU SERIOUS, YOU BELIEVE THAT SHIT?" but outwardly I nodded and said "well let's hope that doesn't happen now huh." One person doesn't represent the whole of Texas or that of the South but you have to really wonder sometimes with people like that around.

I also learned today that Prop 8 in California (you know, the one that's trying to write discrimination into law) has officially passed meaning a great blow to liberals and to the GLBT community as a whole. You can no longer get married in California although marriages done since May should still be recognized by state law and in other states like New York. For this to have happened in the gayest state in the country is pretty bad. It means that the American people are ready for a black president but not for two people of the same gender to exchange vows and live in holy matrimony. Looks like divorce is going to belong to straight people for a little while longer...

*EDIT*
I should have known that there wouldn't be any USA Today or local papers left here at work since everyone wants a "framing" or memory copy for themselves, sigh...

Happy Halloween!

Today was the last day to vote early so I hope you all did it already or else face the loooong lines on Nov. 4th! I went and took care of it this afternoon and the old man in the booth next to me had no clue how to use his electronic voting machine. He kept asking the guy next to him if his own machine worked or not and just stood there. Why he didn't go for the paper ballot in the first place was beyond me but I found it funny that something as simple as operating a few buttons and a screen can really still scare some people. I don't want to be that guy forty years from now, not knowing how to vote via 3-D brain-scan or whatever they'll be using and being made fun by online blogger punks...darn kids.

I saw the hotdog man on the street outside while I was there and it took a lot to stop myself from going over and getting a dog...in good time, in good time Albie.

Other than that though, this Halloween sucks because I am writing this from the office here at work. WORK!!!! There's not even any candy here...

Maybe they call him a socialist because he likes talking to people...

"You can argue the merits of each candidate and/or bash each one over the other all you want but it doesn't take a genius to realize that eight years of failure from an unpopular Republican administration has led to the American people realizing that just maybe they should pick a Democrat this time around. It's pretty much unavoidable and I hope Obama fully realizes what he's getting into because he's going to have to clean up the huge mess that Bush left behind. Still, no matter what happens in the next four years there's no way his approval rating will ever be as low as Bush's and if I had to make a guess, I think Obama might even become more popular than Bill Clinton ever was with the American people, something closer to the status of what JFK enjoyed in his brief stay at the White House. Unfortunately, McCain never had a real chance this time around...and he can blame Bush for that, not the Democrats."

--A little something I said in response to someone else who posted their opinion in the local paper the other day. Guess who I'm voting for! :)

Poker Update

I signed up with cardplayer.com's "SpadeClub" program over a week ago to help work on my tournament game and so far I've been doing very well making several final tables here and there building up my points and hopefully next month I'll be turning those points into entry tickets for their Weekly $5Ks and Monthly $40Ks soon enough. The player fields on average right now are between 80-130 for pointbuilders, 500-700 for the 20/50/75 cash guarantee tourneys, and the highest of course going to the weekly and monthly's with around 1000-1500 players so I have my work cut out for me if I want to win either of those two tourneys but to me, it's not even a matter of if I'll ever win one but more like when it'll happen because I feel like I'm playing my best right now and I'll start posting screen-cap's of my progress here as soon as I can.

I can say that tonight was a particularly good night for me as I final tabled two tourneys at the same time, a 5th place finish out of 129 in a PointBuilder tourney and then a 1st in tonight's $50 cash that I had to really fight for since I was down 7-1 in chips going into heads up play but over came it for the finish. I know they aren't big scores like what Bodog would offer but at least I'm able now to try new moves and really put people to the test while "practicing" on SpadeClub so I really like it and the community of players that play there. I just wish I could have joined the site six months ago since they have a Spade Club Player of the Year race going on in a standings/stats format that I'm a little too late to play in for this year but as soon as that starts over again for next year I can guarantee you'll be seeing me in that Top 20!

Eggplant Excitment

I've been collecting simple vegetarian reciepes online for me to try out and I really like the one's that I've found so far using zucchini and eggplant in particular. I also cooked with tofu for the first time ever last week and that was fun. I've always watched my mom make and cook tofu in her kitchen before but I've never tried to on my own but it turned out pretty good in our speghetti pasta dinner the other night. Or at least I thought it did, Billy gave me all of his tofu, lol. Maybe he'll like it when I deep fry it next time...

I've also been thinking over the whole vegetarian thing and I think I might alter the diet a bit to include fish since I love sushi too much to really give up sashimi and tasty cooked eel. I read up on it and according to Wikipedia, I would be called a "Pescetarian" if I went that route. The word itself was aparently added to the 2008 Webster's Dictionary as being, "vegetarian whose diet includes fish." This explanation though is a little strange considering the fact that most "official" vegetarian groups out there wouldn't say that these type of people were vegetarian at all if they ate fish flesh but that's a topic for another post and time! I just want to be able to lose some weight and enjoy some deliciously and beautifully prepared raw fish, is that too much to ask? I don't care what I'll be referred to as, or called, as long as it isn't "fat-ass", "chubby" or "slightly overweight half-asian" anymore and I'll be happy.

New Diet?

I'm proud of myself for having lost about 15 pounds since July but lately, or around two weeks ago I should say, I've been starting to revert back to some old bad habits such as eating out too often, especially at McDonald's since they're just down my street and doing that nifty free food Monopoly sticker game right now! Ahh, see what I mean? I get excited about stupid things sometimes. Fortunately, Billy and I dicussed this and I've come to the conclusion that in order to NOT eat BURGERS, or CHILI-CHEESEDOGS, or anything else that I know would ruin a week's worth of healthy eating, I've decided to officially go vegetarian for a month as of almost a week ago now.

Again, I'm only doing this for at least one month to see if 1) I can do it, and 2) to show how serious I am about getting healthy and I really want to attain that golden number goal of 200 lbs. once the New Year hits. I really think I can do it and I still have over two months in which to pull it off and I know it can be done. I'm not going to starve myself to get there either, but by eating more veggies and fruit I know I'll start losing it quicker and I should also mention that I have a pretty big bet going with Billy AND my mother about this so I can't let them have the satisfaction of winning now can I?

Only 25 pounds left to go...

Ramenlicious

In my opinion there are only two types of "perfect" food in the world.

1) Sushi.
2) Ramen.

Sushi is what I would eat if I had money to waste, while ramen would be what I'd eat later as a result of spending all my money on good sushi. Mainly because ramen is so affordable, and yes I did say good sushi because I wouldn't want to eat subpar or just average sushi. Not for the $6-12 a roll that most places would charge for just one roll! Ramen has this horrible reputation for being cheap and awful when if simply prepared correctly and made as how the Chinese or Japanese would make their ramen, it's freaking delicious! Most Americans only know of ramen as this Maruchan brand product that costs next to nothing and doesn't taste that great but buy it anyway because they're in college and have little money to spend on something better. Of course instant ramen will taste boring if all you do is follow the package directions. Real ramen like those that are found in noodle shops in larger cities, especially one's on the west coast and around New York serve huge bowls of deliciously prepared ramen with all sorts of different flavors and styles, cold and or hot. You can easily prepare authentic ramen soups now thanks to websites like ramenlicious.com with easy to follow receipe directions for really good eats. Google "ramen" and you'll come up with dozens of different sites that can show you how to best prepare delicious ramen. Being half-chinese I may be juuust a little biased on this topic but give ramen a "real" try and you just might be surprised at its versatility. ^_^

Dragon* Sake and Sushi Bar

Yes! It's been awhile since I've talked about sushi on this here blog and that is because there really wasn't any reason to with Nakamura Sushi hogging all the spotlight for the past year or so but there's a new sushi bar in town ladies and gents and that place is the dark and mysterious Dragon* Sake and Sushi Bar! It's located within the recently remodeled China Garden and opened a couple months ago and my friend Thinh and I have been dying to try it out for weeks. The last time we tried going there it just so happened to be a Monday and they told us that the sushi bar was closed on Mondays. Epic FAILURE...for us at least. If memory serves though I believe we went and ate at Nakamura instead (which is closed on Sundays by the way) and had a grand time eating the competition's sushi while thinking to ourselves, "how good could China Garden's sushi really be anyway? It's your typical asian-american buffet restaurant after all, right?" Well I can tell you tonight that we were absolutely wrong about those silly assumtions and had a GREAT dinner at the new Dragon* sushi bar which is located in what used to be the smoking section of the old sports bar area of the restuarant. When you first walk in, you will notice candles lit on cool little black tables, flat screen televisions, mood music, and it's darker than my balls in there but that's what makes it hip and romantic probably. Nakamura now looks like a Luby's cafeteria compared to this place. We seated ourselves at the bar, and we then realized that the place was EMPTY. Not a good thing you would think, but those worries left our minds once we were given complimentary miso soups without having even ordered yet. They also gave us this cold plate of some kind of pickled meat drenched in what I think was sesame oil that tasted utterly amazing. Sarah being the devout and unstraying vegetarian unsurprisingly chose to order the Veggie Rolls, which were incredibly huge and tasty looking. She could only eat about half of the eight peices "chunks" that they made for her. Thinh and I on the other hand, ate almost everything that we ordered which included an Unagi (Eel) Roll, the China Garden Roll, Yoo Hoo Roll, and the Alvin Roll, named (and probably created by) after the owner, Mr. Alvin Lin. I can't remember if Thinh also ordered the Kobe Roll or not because he did mention wanting to try it but I don't remember eating anything with tamago (sweet egg) in it so maybe not. I do remember drinking some pretty cold $9 sake though. My only regret? Not finishing all of said $9 sake! :(

I tried taking some pictures with my cell phone but alas it was too dark so here are a few pictures from their website, chinagardentx.com of some of the things we gorged ourselves on:




*Sushi bar did not really have any dragons nor did they serve any species of dragon unfortunately.

R.I.P.

Maybe it's just around me but death seems to be a close topic as of late. Not only did a 17yr old Central student recently die in a high speed wreck just down the street from where I work, another young man was shot and killed last week who's former girlfriend (and one of the suspected shooters I believe) had actually worked as a housekeeper for us a short time ago. On top of that, if you look at today's obits you'll see Ortiz, the Central student and below him David Lewis Johanson of whom I had known quite well...at least at the poker tables here in town. We knew each other by name and he was always very nice and courteous, a true gentleman. The paper said he died of heart surgery complications on the 13th in Austin. He was only 53. I'll always remember him as that snowy-haired guy with a cig in one hand and two cards in the other trying to figure out if I had AK when I raised him or 24suited as he often accused me of having. I'll certainly miss that old man.

My YouTube Find of the Day

After this vid, be sure to check out some of the related links...

33rd Annual Taste of San Angelo...

...took place today, and I had to work! >_<

For only $25 you could have sampled food and booze from around 50 local restaurants including my friend Justin's restaurant River Terrace Restaurant (www.theriverterrace.com) I'm a little pissed about missing this event since I completely forgot about it last year and I might not be here next year for the next one so it really sucks. Oh well, on the plus side I probably saved myself five extra pounds...

EDIT**

Almost forgot, this week marks my 2nd full year with "the company" and I'm a little proud of that since that was my initial goal when I started. Too bad I won't be there for very much longer hehe!

"For the Record" - Standard Times

I found this entry to be quite ironic, amusing, take your pick:

Vernon Jack Redwine, 1/42, pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while intoxicated. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

This guy had to have been caught by police many times to have been awarded a hefty 12 year sentence. I can't help but wonder if red wine really was his drink of choice or not. Also, doesn't his name pretty much obligate himself to having to drink all the time? They should give the guy a break. I mean, his ancestors must have really loved booze to have taken that last name in the first place right? It's not his fault he's an alcoholic with places to go if it's in his naturally .09 bloodline...

International Coming Out Day

I learned just a few days ago that today, October 11th marks the annual Coming Out Day for anyone who wishes to do so. Big events are held in large towns like Austin for this special day with local GLBT groups around the country but I thought it was pretty cool that there's a day for this. They say to wear support pins or patches or whatever to show support and awareness of GLBT people around the world which I think is a really cool idea. Too bad I don't own a pink triangle pin or rainbow braclet or anything snazzy like that or I would have today! There's a certain friend of mine that I will not name here that I think could use this day to tell us all "something" but that isn't my place or my business to talk about really since I myself know all too well how hard it was to come out to my closest friends and family when I was younger. Everyone does it in their own way and that's fine! Just uh, don't wait until you're married, have three kids and then decide to tell everybody because umm it might be just a little late then... ^_^

Register To Vote!

I think today is the last day to register if you haven't already and plan to vote for the next president of our country. I was asked to renew my voter card back in July when I renewed my driver's license and I finally recieved my voter card in the mail yesterday so that I can vote next month and you should too! I'm happy to live in a time and society that lets us choose our leaders by voting by the people and their representatives and know how important this next election is for the future of our country. We're living in a time of war and a horrible economy, not to mention worry about the future of Social Security and oil. Yes, every election is going to be touted as an important election but this one feels a lot different to me than the one four years ago with Kerry and Bush. We didn't have the rediculous gas price issues back then, nor did we have a bunch of billion dollar businesses go bankrupt on us and lead us to a near financial collapse. People today are having trouble getting morgages for homes, they can't sell their homes, and unemployment is at its highest in years while the stock market hasn't hit this low since at the least the '87 crash...

Throw in the fact that a black man may actually become president as well as a woman for vice president and you've got yourself something pretty damn historical. I'm not going to use this space to try and convice you as to who to vote for as much as I would like to see you out there actually VOTING. So read about the issues, go to each candidate's website and find out who you would like to be the next leader of our ailing country. I can't stress enough how important it is to research and learn about the person and party you vote for because without doing so, your vote will have been a waste of time. Nothing bugs me more than the thought of someone going to the polls and voting simply based based on the color of skin, sex, age or appearance.

Be smart, or stay home November 4th!

The Omnivore’s Hundred

Per the U.K. blog “Very Good Taste” I am going to try my hand at the Omnivore’s 100 - a list of foods that every omnivore should explore to broaden their palate.

To participate, just go to the original post and copy & paste the list before identifying the stuff you’ve eaten or won’t eat.

Instructions:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

"Don’t worry if you don’t recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers."


The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred, as experienced by Albie:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I've tried just over 30 so far, that I know I'm sure of. I wonder if Durian wafers count...I'll update this list once I figure out what some of these things even are.

*EDIT*
Okay, aparently Epoisses is a specialty un-pastuerized French cheese that is banned from the public transit areas of France because of its horrible stench. Hmm, reminds me of Durian fruit. I'm 110% sure its not available in San Angelo and neither is a lot of those Indian/Middle-Eastern/Russian/Japanese dishes since we don't have any restuarants that would serve anything even remotely similar to what's on this list! I'll probably try and make the Currywurst this month since its Oktoberfest time and I found a good receipe.

I'm starting to love this Borders...

Their website says that now until the 29th, if you buy 4 graphic or manga novels you'll get the fifth free. I got all excited until it said that it was "in stores only" and then realized that San Angelo doesn't have a Borders--just it's kid brother Waldenbooks. Which then made me realize that this town doesn't have enough book stores. I can only think of two in this entire town, and Hastings is as good as it gets here unfortunately. They have an okay selection yes, but its no B&N's. I remember the last time I was in Austin, I had the great fortune of going into this HUGE bookstore that I can't remember the name of that was two or three stories large in which I could have looked around for hours and it was so amazing that I actually even remember the disappointment I had about leaving it from that day still and that was a good while ago now! I particularly remember it having the biggest selection of poker books I'd ever seen and could only wish for Hastings to have...

Sigh.

Microsoft is taking over our living room...

Not much going on, I added a few new songs and fixed some broken ones on the playlist. Yesterday I ordered the Samurai 7 DVD boxset for an unbelievable $25 on Borders.com during a 2-day sale. I'm selling my Wii and everything with it to my friend James. It was my x-mas present from Billy but we both haven't had any real reason to play it now for the past several months and we're playing the xbox360 a LOT so it just kind of makes sense.

Playing some online poooker at the moment, see you next time space cowboy!

Back from Dallas

I've lost my phone transfer cable so everytime I've wanted to post something I've been putting it off but I can't find the dumb thing. It costs like $20 for a replacement so I'm not in a hurry to get a new one but at the same time I want picture posts damn it! I was in Dallas from Sept. 29th through October 1st and attended the yearly Animefest convention there and it was a blast. As soon as I can I'm going to put up some pictures of us in our awesome cosplay gear and of course we ate some amazing food while in Dallas. This made it our 2nd anime convention so far and this time we made sure to cosplay since we were so inspired from the Dallas A-kon convention in June. I easily had some of the best sushi ever at The Blue Fish, good vegetarian/indian food at Cosmic Cafe and then some great Thai food at a cute little place on Oak Lawn Ave. which was in the gay area of Dallas and I swear everyone eating there was gay or lesbian and no I'm not complaining. ^_^

On the poker front I've been doing very well this month ever since I've been concentrating on playing a LOT more sitngo's and more than ever I'm wishing I was on Pokerstars instead of Bodog since it takes a rediculous 8 WEEKS to get a check from them for a withdrawl...and since I don't want to wait until November for a check I'm going to just let it grow my bankroll which is probably what Bodog wanted anyway from us players (in the hopes we keep playing on their site instead of the competition) I've heard that on Pokerstars it only takes a few days tops so that is really messed up Mr. Calvin Ayre, your company can do better.

4 more days...

I tried on the nori eyebrows the other day and they looked alright. I also got the dress shoes I needed for the costume and Payless was running a buy one get 2nd half off sale so I got a pair of running shoes but I took them back yesterday when I realized that I already had a brand new pair of them at home from long time ago. I guess credit goes to Billy for spotting that lol. Hey at least that's almost $20 that could go to food...which it did, Subway to be exact. They're doing that Scrabble peel and win game like what McDonalds does with Monopoly so I've already accumulated like five of them so far. It's like gambling or the lotto but involving food--my kind of game! I'm such a sucker, its a wonder how I don't play the Texas state lotto or at least the scratch offs yet. Well now that Billy is working at a convience store I just might start...

Never Too Late...

Next week, Animefest!

Everyone is just about done with their cosplay costumes and later this afternoon I'm going to pick up my dress shoes to go with my suit. Billy spray-dyed my hair red to see how it looked and everyone agreed it was decent enough so I guess I won't have to permanently dye it red (whew). Supposed to go to Target later with Thinh to get the shoes and then we're supposed to go walk/running later at the park tonight like we did yesterday. I'm glad I'm finally starting to get serious about working out again. It feels really good also to have someone to do it with so it isn't so boring and even though today will be just the 2nd day, I want to run already!

I've also started to eat healthier this month, taking canned fruits to work, eating less, and just generally eating better...I'm not going to lie though, I sort of hate the idea of not being able to eat burgers and other greasy foods but hey its for the better good, especially if I want to lose weight which is the goal here. Like last night at Chili's I had to order something off the "Guiltless Grill" because even their entree salads had to many calories (Cobb was 1000+ calories!) and almost everything sucked on the "healthy" menu save the fish that was too expensive so i settled for the plain ol' Grilled Chicken Sandwich (490 cal) which came with a side of shredded carrots and brocolli, BOOOORING...but I'm getting used to it.

Sup?

Not much to report right now.

8-8-08 wasn't very lucky as I had to deal with a flat tire, an over-flooded toilet, my desktop dying, and then being slapped with a $67 bill just to get Hannah shaven and cleaned up the other day. Blah!

Oh and I had the weirdest dream a few days ago involving my "death by shrimp" which I'll get into later but right now I really need to sleep so g'nite!

I'm Late!

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

I've again gone too long without an entry and for that I apologize. The past couple weeks have been blazing with my 25th birthday as the primary catalyst I suppose. I was able to dine with good friends at Cheddar's (as always) and then again the next day with family at The Wharf, which was good but not great unfortunately...don't get the sirloin! I'll probably put up pictures (as always) but I've also eaten at a couple of other nice places again like Nakamura a few days ago and Miss Hatie's last night which I'll get into later probably. I don't have any pictures to post because I'm using the office PC here at work and speaking of PCs, mine broke! Or the LCD monitor did, not sure which is to blame yet but Billy and I are on the case. Looks like it'll just be the lappy for awhile and Billy's hoarding it which forces me to play more of my brand new XBOX360 than I'd like to...hehe, who am I kidding I've been playing Bad Company, Rainbow Six Vegas, and Call of Duty 4 everyday since I've gotten that thing! BWUAHAHA. That was probably the most unexpected present that I've ever recieved from anyone but I love him for it! I had been bitching about how the Wii has been a bore the past few months and then BAM, xbox360 elite. Nice.

Busy!

Insanely busy week, will update about what happened later--not very much time to blog...

Here's a short one:

WATCH GURREN LAGANN ON SCI-FI ANIMONDAY TONIGHT @ 10pm central time!

AMERICAN DEBUT EPISODE!

Lost Ring

A guest staying with us just said that she lost her $2000 ring somewhere on the property she thinks. Good luck getting that back lady! Maybe a housekeeper will find it tomorrow after they check out...and maybe even turn it in.

Ha.

Mondaaaaay!

There's a reason why there wasn't a post yesterday.

I was dead tired...

...from playing mixed cash games from around midnight to about 7 AM Sunday morning and then having to get up about four hours later to incur the wrath of Billy for having been out so late. We literally played until the sun went up. There were just six or seven of us but we played like idiots once it got past 5 or 6AM and then called it a session at 7 in the morning. Some people had been there since 7pm and played 7 to 7--purely insane.

Before joining these guys I had never played a hand of Stud OR Omaha and these guys really wanted to play those games including the variations like 8's or Better and Hi/Low, Qualifier (or Not) and while it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do--to sit in a game that I knew nothing about, at least I got to learn how to play and cheaply since they only wanted to do a dealer-ante set-up so every hand was cheap and we were playing for just .50 blinds/chips, $20 buy-in so the game was small.

Playing these mixed games helped me learn a lot, especially about the other players at the table. Most were very loose, calling stations, and weak bluffers but what do you expect at a .50 table? Never have I ever wished more to play just hold'em against these guys in my life. The gentleman to my left all night kept throwing his money away in single hands for entire buy-ins. He must have lost $300+. He lost so much that he had to start writing checks to people...and this was a $20 buy-in game!!! (WARNING, more complaining ahead:)Oh course, I never could get a hand that night. Pocket sevens preflop was the best starting hand I could get ALL NIGHT. It was so sick how everyone kept throwing their money away on dumb draws and I never had anything worth playing. Couldn't get aggressive preflop because you couldn't get anyone to lay a hand down which is perfect if you can get good hands to profit from it but nooooo. At least I ended play just $7 down after 7hrs. instead of a bajillion bucks down like most of the table. This one girl at the table did pretty well, played solid, tight poker and got it in with the best most times and took a good profit home...but she also caught cards at the right times. < /jealous>

Ex. Where are my pocket JJ's when a drunk pushes all in for no reason hmm???

Sticky Sites

Interesting article I found today...

"A website's "stickiness" is a measure of how much time each user spends on it. The latest Nielsen Online data logs the average Google user as spending 1 hour and 50 minutes on Google sites. Microsoft sites come in at 2 hours and 12 minutes. Yahoo, with its very broad selection of topics -- and perennial favorite Yahoo! Games -- holds users for more than 3 hours.
But what category of website holds users' attention for much, much longer? In one case, more than 10.5 hours per user per month -- on average?
Online poker! Although their unique audience is significantly smaller than the big boys, PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker and PartyPoker all average more than 4.5 hours of play per user per month -- with PokerStars.com logging an astounding 10 hours and 37 minutes.
As for social networking sites, Facebook only managed 1 hour 21 minutes per user -- I guess playing poker is more time consuming than poking."

Source: http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/07/18/what-commercial-sites-are-stickiest-holding-users-attention-answer-shouldnt-surprise

July 16 Dinner

They came in cute little boxes.
(Scary)Spider Roll
Spicy Tuna Roll
I'm stuck at work for the whole eight hours when I go in so I when I eat its either hotel food or delivery and I chose China Garden, especially now that they are getting serious finally about their sushi...

Workaholic?

I've always usually just worked just three or four days a week at my current job but lately its been full time more often and starting this week, six days a week! Candy was going to have her baby next week but she went into labor yesterday and so I came in to fill in for her and this'll be the norm most likely for the next few weeks. So yeah, way more work to do but at least I can look forward to more money and that's always a good thing. We really need to hire a new front desk person so everyone doesn't have to work full-time and/or overtime but oh well.

**EDIT**

I just found out that her baby died. That totally threw me, I didn't even think that could even be possible so close to when she was due. Not for sure yet but it sounds like the umbilical cord or whatever strangled the baby and probably cut off the circulation. I can't even imagine what she and her family must be going through right now...

Haruko's Rickenbacker

Thinh did an amazing job on this "weapon" that Haruko uses against her enemies in FLCL. He said it cost around $30 to create and it looks really nice. I think he or Sarah is going to add a strap to it later so they don't have to hold it the whole time which is probably a good idea. I need to hurry and order my stuff this week...

Cheddar's Again??

I've been to Cheddar's about four or five times now in the past couple weeks and it really never gets old that place. As usual, you can't start a meal here without the Santa Fe Spinach Dip, so here's a few more shots of greatness. Not so sure what is so "Santa Fe" about it but its pretty damn good stuff.

Yeah that's my dad...his fingers anyway.
What every bowl should look like at the end.
Mom's B-Day Strawberry Margarita (only $2.50!)
Andrew's Buffalo Chicken Tenders
My Blurry Chicken Tender Basket
My Beans and Rice side (w/ spicy Sausage)

Potato Skins w/ Jalepenos because Justin HAS to have 'em hot.

Hawaiian Chicken Sandwich

The Rollercoaster that is...

I just got home from a 1/2 no limit hold'em cash game where the min buy-in was $30 and max $100. There were just four left playing by the time I got there around midnight but was able to turn $50 into $100 just as we finished for the night at 1am. That was the good news. The bad news was that I then proceeded to lose about two buy-ins or about $50 online at a .10/.25 ($25max) no limit table. Oops. So now I'm back to even for the day I guess.

Time for a couple turbo SNG's and its off to bed to dream about well...poker hopefully. That or zombies.

Oops...

I think I jinxed her.

She ended up finishing in 17th place but won $334,535 for her valliant effort.

Oh well.

----

Thinh and Sarah came by the office to show off the guitar he hand-made for Sarah's Haruko Haruhara cosplay character. I don't think I mentioned yet that we three are planning to hit AnimeFest 2008 like a hurricane with our FLCL cosplay crew!!!

But now I just did.

Thinh is going as Naota Nandaba (a.k.a. Ta-kun) and I will be Commander Amarao (a.k.a. Eyebrows).

I'm pretty sure that we're going with one other girl, a friend of Sarah's...can't remember her name, starts with an A/haven't met her either yet, but I'm already having Mamimi thoughts that probably won't happen but its still early so who knows for sure yet. It'll be her first convention though and I sure didn't want to cosplay at my first one ever so it'll be understandable if she just wants to come along for the experience of it all.

And speaking of AnimeFest, I purchased the tickets online tonight so I think I'm set and can just focus on making my costume complete now. I need to order the right sunglasses, the fake guns, find a black suit and get some red hair dye/spray stuff. Oh, and lose 10-15 lbs...

*EDIT*

UGH, and I just found a perfect Mamimi costume but for $100 online at http://www.elusivevisions.com/index.cfm/Custom_Costume_Info

maybe if we all chiped in for $20? eh? eh??

39th WSOP ME 2008

I'm already starting to get lazy with updating...need to keep it going or I'll give up and I'm not going to do that anytime soon--I don't care if anyone reads this or not, I have to keep it going or something awful will happen. Or not... but I just feel like this blog is something that I should keep going, for good feng shui or whatever. Okay on to the news...

The World Series of Poker Main Event is going on right now in Las Vegas and they are down to the final 27 players from the initial 6800+ runners that bought in for $10,000 each putting the prize pool at over $64 million bucks. Over $9mil goes to this year's winner and I really hope that the only girl left in the event wins as that would be HUGE news--for not just the poker world but for the general media as well. It'd be great for poker and hey, she's not bad looking either...GO TIFFANY MICHELLE!

July 7th Dinner

@ Work. via Papa John's delivery!

Thanks to the lovely 50% discount our property has with the pizza joint, I was able to snag a large order of the new "White" pizza that they offer now along with that new snazzy wheat crust that they're boasting about now on the cheap. Oh yeah, and obligatory side of chicken tenders.


As always, pictures below!

Three cheeses: Ricotta, Garlic Parm, and Mozzarella

July 5th Dinner

@ Cheddar's Casual Cafe


This place has got to be in my top five for best place to eat in San Angelo. I know it's a chain but its a damn good one for both the price, value, quality, and atmosphere. I always make sure to get at least one of these three things when I come here: the spinach dip, the chicken tenders, and the broccoli cheddar rice casserole. And usually it ends up being all three like it did a few days ago when I went with Billy for a little (romantic?) dinner night out. Oh yeah, they finally finished remodeling this place and it looks REALLY nice now. Like hip, cool, and happen'n nice.

Obligatory pictures below!

My chicken tenders and honey glazed baby ribs w/ red beans n' rice

Broc Cheese Casserole

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Billy's chicken torilla soup

As you can see...ribs were'nt bad.

Sorry no pictures of the glorious spinach dip...we ate it all before I even thought about taking pictures, always next time.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Let's see what did I do today (I guess yesterday now since its almost 4am, yikes)... went with my brother to the mall to get mom a birthday card and we both also settled on getting her a gift card since we both know how hard it is to shop for her even though I always think gift cards are a bad idea since they lack original thought but we didn't have any this year! We're both just lazy when it comes to these kind of things. We ask for money every year and then when its the parents turn we get them stuff that they never use so gift card it was was what we both thought.

Then at 7pm I went to Shenanigans to play some tourney poker and I did pretty good in the first one but played a little sloppy in the second game at 9pm but I overall liked how I did--I just need to get more aggressive in these shallow tournaments more often. Can't sit back and expect cards in these bar games.

Did some much needed laundry awhile ago and played several SNG's that went 0-6 which is a rarity but I wasn't on my A-game...I played too fast, chased too much and well that's what happens in those things. I never did go on tilt though, everytime I'd start to like when my 2-pair would lose to some guy's better 2pair or whatever I'd just look to the right and see my Hannah there sleeping upside down and moving her cute little paws--looked so cute how could I get upset! ^_^

I better get to bed soon...have to get up and head to the house by 3pm...

Bored @ Work

3:30 AM, at work, bored as hell (i doubt hell's actually boring)

Surf'n the net, looking at apartments for vegas and albuquerque, and ABQ is looking a lot better by the minute...

Sandia Resort and Casino in Albuquerque just posted an opening for a "Front Office Agent" FT, $10.55/hr salary, with benefits...everything I'm doing now but w/ way better pay/hrs/benefits. I should be jumping through flaming hoops to try and get this position but how serious would they take an applicant who doesn't even live in their state? ARGHGHGHGHGHGh.

**EDIT**

Fuck it, I went and registered just so I could apply for it. If I get a call asking to come down for an interview I'm fucking going. Yeah, I think I'm drinking too much coffee right now but I'm definitely going for it. Can't hurt to try right.

Happy 4th Everyone!

This is the monster 4th of July dinner I made for myself.

Yup, hot dogs! Hey, its tradition right?

Anniversary Lunch

Billy's eggrolls
Yoshio Tatsuo Special
Crystal Shrimp Roll, Unagi, Tuna, Salmon, Yellowtail
Sparkling Sake (I've wanted to try this for a long time)

Spring Roll, MUCH better than the eggrolls here

Happy Anniversary Honey!

Yesterday marked four full years of Billy and I putting up with each other. It blows my mind that four years have already passed, it really doesn't feel like it was all that long ago when I met Billy while living at the Crestwood Terrace apartments but I guess that really was four years ago now...

A lot has happened, and a lot has changed over the years and through all the great times and all the very memorably bad times--we've managed to stay together somehow and that has to count for something! I think that for every year a gay couple is together, it counts double to that of any hetero-relationship so if my strange math is correct, Billy and I have actually been together for EIGHT years now...gay years that is. ^_^

I had to work unfortunately but we had time to have a great lunch at Nakamura and I have pictures for tomorrow!

Nite.

Hotel Reservations 101

I will never understand why certain people reserve rooms with empty credit or debit cards and then somehow expect to have their room still waiting for them when they get to their hotel.

Fifteen minutes ago I had to tell this poor family who had a reservation in place since January to find someplace else to stay and why? Well, the card that they used to reserve with back in January had declined today when I did my credit card pre-authorization checks! Hotels do these things people!

One thing you MUST do when booking a room is to make sure that your credit card can handle the room charge plus something like an incidental charge of say around $50 to $100 extra just in case because some hotels do put in hidden incidental charge just in case you take something from the mini-bar or start watching a pay-per-view channel or make use of the hotel's dry cleaning service. That stuff is always extra and your card better be able to handle the extra charges even if you don't plan on using them.

That unfortunate family that I had to turn away probably won't be able to find another place in town either since its the weekend of the 4th and NOBODY has rooms today. So while I feel bad for them, I also know that they'll have learned something about this give and take business called the hospitality industry and hopefully they can come back next time smarter about these things...

**I wasn't a total ass about it either. Even though our policy was to cancel said room at 4pm I held off until 8pm before I finally had to do it. Reason being, if I kept the room for them and they never show--its lost money for us and a possibly empty room for the night which is very unacceptable on a weekend like this one. I called them twice and they never answered and after that there's really nothing we can do for them anymore.

Working...

I just checked in a very large man who's last name was Hunger. Not even joking.

--

My last post was still pretty vague as to what I was getting at but essentially what I want to do is be out of this town by July of next year. If I can accomplish that then and only then can I over-look my own laziness that was the past couple years...

July 1st - Still Here.

I can't believe it's July already and that we're already past that half-way point for 2008. This year has moved much too quickly, but as I've come to realize over the past several years, the older you get, the faster the days just seem to go by. School was always something that made the days go by slower for some reason. Once you're done though, days go by like weeks, and weeks like months. It's something that most kids can't grasp until they grow up and realize how life really is out in the real world.

Am I 'grown up' yet?

To be honest, I really don't think so. I won't be able to convince myself of that until I move away. To me, that will be my barometer, my true test. When I can move away and not have that safety net at my back to easily pull me out of a bad situation, that will be when I know what I'm made of. I just don't feel like I am now. I still owe my parents for favors they've pulled for me over the past couple years and for those things to have even happened kind of tells me I'm not ready. I turn 25 this month. From as far back as I can remember I had always sworn that by that age I wouldn't be here anymore. Where am I supposed to be then you may be thinking?

Thousand Miles West...

Gurren Lagann is coming! July 28th...

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is coming to stateside television! Sci-Fi Channel is picking it up to be put on their Ani-Monday block of TV programming and what's even better news is that it will be shown in a subbed format which will be quite refreshing to see especially compared to all the butchery and recycled cast dubbing of what Adult Swim generally does with their properties (*cough, Bleach) so finally, there's going to be something worth watching on that channel again besides Enterprise/Battlestar reruns...

I have to thank my friend Carey for suggesting such an awesome series a couple months ago because this is a really good anime and I think having this put on american TV will give it the much bigger audience and a hopefully larger fanbase because this show definitely deserves it. It's from GAINAX, the creators of such great shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion and FLCL so if you liked those shows you should like this one too.

--

I wish I had my own mighty Gurren Lagann,

--

sigh.

A-kon 19 - 2008

I never did get to write about my first time ever trip to A-kon this year on my livejournal last month so I guess this space will have to do...

On second thought, I'm too lazy to write about everything that happened so instead I'll leave a link to a site that did a damn good job covering one of this year's best anime conventions. (at least their photos are nice)

http://www.japanator.com/elephant/index.phtml?t=cosplay

Samurai 7 Part 2

What happens when you combine a show like Gundam and Samurai X together? Samurai 7 comes out of course. It took me a few days but I just finished watching the 26 episode series and it was well worth the time spent and a great interpretation of the original story with some interesting twists thrown in there with the last few episodes. You know your watching a good show when you start to mentally root for the well being of certain characters to make it through alright and boo the bad guys. This show felt more like a really long movie than a TV series and the quality except for one "recap" episode really shined with good quality animation throughout and the only bad news I have about this series is that I'm gonna have to add this to my list of must-have shows to own and I really can't afford it right now!

Hysterically Cute

Lolcats have been around for quite some time now but I've just now started to look through some of the entries that gets posted to the icanhazcheezburger blogsite and this one (above) in particular almost killed me. Its one of those that when you look even harder at the picture you just keep laughing even more. It really reminded me of Cowcat and made me want to do one so here's my thrown together five minute version of one of these just for Hannah...

Samurai 7

I always did like the Akira Kurosawa classic (and even the Magnificent Seven version) so I don't know what took me so long to find and start watching this anime version of the story but I'm very glad I did! They went and sci-fi'ed it up a bit but kept the old samurai type traditions and added cool badass-ness all over the place. I've seen six episodes so far of the about 26 available but it already oozes with some of the coolest sword fighting scenes this side of Samurai Champloo. You can't really compare the two shows that much though since this one takes its fights much more seriously but there is plenty of humor as well from a certain 'machine samurai' as they call him. I definitely recommend watching this series if you have the time to kill...(chop chop)

http://watchanimenow.com/video/category/samurai-7-episodes/page/3/

Bodog Beta

Wow, Bodog's new user app is so much better than their usual setup. You can finally change the size of the screens, 'bout time! I think it's still limited to just three games at a time though, haven't tested that part out yet...

---

I kinda swore to myself that I wouldn't join any other poker site until I got my act together with Bodog but I gave in and downloaded Pokerstars last week. Their graphics are nicer but there's hardly any sound! I guess you have to upload your own but I'm too lazy right now. Still haven't made a deposit yet...just poking my head around.

Hannah Pictures!