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.

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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.