Okay so I am supposed to meet up with Hapachan and Tony for breakfast in about 2 hours or so. I'm also supposed to go to Bay 101 today also. Apparently I don't think I need to be well rested in order to play cards. Plus I have to know what is going on in the world, so I'm being kept up by the morning news...well not really the news...I could care less that on this day, Ed Sullivan fucked us over by showing us the Beatles...but I can't help but be mesmorized by Robin Meade.

Oh yeah. Anyone who has seen the Sin City trailer should think that it looks fucking sick. If not then perhaps something like The Notebook's cinamatography is more your style. But if you do have any inkling of balls then you will think it looks cool. Just with Garden State's music during the trailer, I think the music really made this trailer a lot more cool than it already is.

So after doing some research and after some downloading, I am really digging this band called The Servant. It sounds Christian, but I assure you that they are not...well I don't think they are. Although they do have a song called Jesus Says...but these guys are going to blow up here it seems. I'm sure we will see them on TRL soon. Shit...I bet Andy has already heard of these guys. The sound of them are kind of an electronic alternative.

The song on the trailer is called Cells. I can't put my finger on it, but this song sounds familiar...maybe 80ish? Check it out and let me know if you like it. The guy has a voice kind of like Maroon5, but not as fucking annoying (well in my opinion). The guitar riff in Cells is hypnotic.

The track Beautiful Thing is a little different. In fact I can't see anyone on Pooky listening to it...except me anyway. I had to let it grow on me, but I enjoy it now. Orchestra, another track is kind of a slower ballad...well not really slow like R&B but in rock terms. Liquify is another song that I think might have to grow on you if you haven't already dismissed this band already.

Alright time for my two hour nap. If you take a listen and don't like it...don't blame me...but I really think everyone will at least like Cells...I can already see myself driving faster to this track...well as fast as a 4 banger Nissan will. Just trying to expand tastes in music...if anyone has got any other recommendations for me, lemme know.

I am now sitting in my Maya 3D animation class. They were nice enough not to tell anyone that they are reversing the lab time with the lecture time. So now I have 4 hours to kill before we even get to the lecture. So if anyone read my whining and crying post on my limit game...I came across this while searching the poker forums for an answer. Before I get to the quote that I will steal as my own (unless you have heard of it yourself...then I will feel stupid) I would like to say that after analyzing some hand histories that I cut and pasted on my beats...I probably only played one pot wrong. So perhaps I am just running cold at the tables. As of right now though I bought in for 100 and am sitting with 160...30 dollars/hour...I'll take it. Here is to a comeback!

Okay before I get into poker shit that no one cares about...one announcement. Bay 101 seems to have gotten rid of the button drop as of a week ago. This of course means nothing to you people who don't come with me to play cards...haha! Except for Steve who thinks the definition of a bankroll is money to be bet on fucking numbers at the game with the ball spinning around some red and black shit...and also using two cubes to bet on some type of numbers...I think the way to go is the horn bet? I wouldn't know. I play a real game like Slots and Poker. Heh! So anyway just thought I would stick that out there for anyone interested. I'll probably go Saturday so I don't have to see Tony. Zing! (Taken from Jonathan)

Steve. I totally understand what you mean about Valentine's Day. If your birthday fell on that shit...you might not be alive today...since you are the romantic of the group haha...pretty soon you might be saying...I'm old and I'm single. Well you can always get whores. All you need is money.

There was no point in that last paragraph. I'm a little random right now. A little tired...oops...just hit 180 dollars. Perhaps the reason I am losing in the past month is because I'm writing and playing cards online...I'm an idiot.

BTW Steve...Karate Kid part 2 is fucking dope ass. Yes that dragon was made out of foam. But that Japanese guy is bad ass. It's funny how I see him in a bunch of shit, but I have no clue what his name is, but he is single handedly leading the way for the Japanese to break through. Haha. I can't wait for one of you to tell me he's Chinese or some shit.

Okay enough gibber. The quote that kind of put everything back into perspective for me...and the funny thing is that I have always realized it, but reading it made more of an impact than my memory served...

"Good players take more bad beats. Since you are ahead when you get your money in the only way for your opponents to beat you is through luck." Brendan Horiuchi (blatant lie)

I hope all of you will remember that, especially Bryant whose competitive spirit has got him signing on to Pokerroom every night. Here is to me getting my money back from the last month and to all of us who go to Bay 101 to see if the lack of the button charge is really true...or if that bitch was lying to me on the phone.

What's up guys. I'm sitting here in my Special FX class and it looks like we have enough people to keep the class. Basically this means that I will probably graduate this semester. What this means is that I must do a project this semester. My professor has already told Ari, Mike and I that we can't just get away with coming to class and playing poker online...haha. Jonathan, I know you are cracked out right now, but hopefully you can find sometime to start practicing some choreographed moves. I know that you don't have a lot of time, but hopefully you won't see it as "work", but as a cool project that both our creative minds can work on together. I will try to find out where we are shooting it, where I am going to find the lights and some camera angles that I would like to use to showcase some special effects. Let me know if you are still interested, I know that you said you were, but it is time that I start preproduction on your dancing portfolio.

I've been on a downward slope in poker. Nothing serious. Been seeing a lot of crazy beats and it is putting a dent in the bankroll. Nothing significant, but over the past month or so I've probably dropped around 4 bills. Nothing big, and I'm an advocate for staying cool at the poker table...except for Bryant catching that last jack on the river...haha! What a hand! My confidence isn't shattered, so don't think that now! HOWEVER, Jonathan asked me one nigh if I felt hat reading people has become a bigger part of game since everyone now can see in a general sense how to play poker because of television...(those might not be his EXACT words...hehe) but it is what he basically asked. I do think that it plays a bigger role in my game...I have of course taken a liking to Daniel Negreanu's play. If you find him annoying, you at least have to give him the respect he deserves. Daniel relies heavily on his ability to feel out the flop and the player. Since he can do it well...he can tend to play mediocre hands and play them accordingly. Anyway I think that I have taken my gut instincts over my mathematical decisions many times at the table. Sometimes this might not be the right play mathematical wise, I think I have won a lot of pots or rather picked up a lot of pots that I probably shouldn't have. Okay with that out of the way I think I need help on my online play.

I'm not sure if my losing streak of the past month has been because of some crazy beats (like Table Mountain) or because my online play is suffering. My no limit seems to be doing okay...I took a break from tournaments, then played in one and got eighth out of 275. I think I could have played it better...made some mistakes...but I'm talking more about my limit game. I have realized that it is almost impossible to read people online...am I losing because my mathematical play is wrong? Am I playing too many hands? Am I just getting outplayed after the flop? Am I just on a bad streak? I don't want to bore anyone here with my own poker loopholes in my game...hopefully I can just bug Jonathan one night when he's not going crazy. Not to say that you Pooky players couldn't help me also, but Jonathan has played more online and could probably give me a straight answer.

Okay back to class.

Our huge non-member followers...don't listen to Eecs. He has no clue what he is talking about. I PLAY CRAZY SHIT! NOTHING BUT CRAZY GAMBLE DRAWS! Yeah the smoking definetely got on my nerves. The shitty thing was that the room was not inside the huge floor of the casino. It was on the side in another room with even lower ceilings. I didn't see anything close that resembled a vent of any sort which didn't help my breathing at all. Oh in case you guys were interested, my dad made 3 dollars in eight hours at a 2/4 game. Let the fun times roll!

Tomo's food is just around the corner by the way...

Our huge non-member followers...don't listen to Eecs. He has no clue what he is talking about. I PLAY CRAZY SHIT! NOTHING BUT CRAZY GAMBLE DRAWS! Yeah the smoking definetely got on my nerves. The shitty thing was that the room was not inside the huge floor of the casino. It was on the side in another room with even lower ceilings. I didn't see anything close that resembled a vent of any sort which didn't help my breathing at all. Oh in case you guys were interested, my dad made 3 dollars in eight hours at a 2/4 game. Let the fun times roll!

Tomo's food is just around the corner by the way...

Re: Brendan @ Table Mountain

First... I'm pretty sure no one in Team Pooky thinks you'd gamble crazy money away or that you're a bad poker player, so enough of that nonsense. And if that rep protection is intended for our massive non-member audience... you want them to think you suck, in case you sit down at the same table one day. Empty their pockets with slowplayed rockets.

Smoking at the table is really irritating. Especially if you have jacked lungs. Second hand smoke... it's like a fat guy who's sure to blow an artery any second picking some cheese from his triple deluxe bacon burger off his plate, tossing it down your throat, and saying, "hey it's up to you to sit there or not, but this is gonna keep happening for the next 1/2 hour." Dirty devil dogs spreading single serving smog.

The odds against your opponent going from nothing to trips from flop to river are indeed close to 180 to 1. I'm guessing the pot wasn't $540 on the flop. But he could also have drawn out with two pair against top pair, improving his chances to about 71 to 1. You don't see a lot of $200+ pots at the flop either though, so in the long run that sucker should lose out. Heavily. To our benefit. One long session, we all have bad nights... just keep your line out there, let the fish take glad bites.

I told Steve I would blog about Table Mountain. The big picture of it is that it took me eight hours to lose one hundred dollars. I think the eight hours is an important stat so you can know that I didn't just gamble crazy money away. Here are the thoughts on Table Mountain...and whether or not I think it is worth a trip down to Fresno.

THE ENVIRONMENT

We didn't start playing until around 11:30 to 12:00 it seemed. We didn't get there until late since we waited for my family who was getting back from a Bulldog game and working at Tomos. The casino is fairly close and easy to get to. We had to travel the freeway for about 5 minutes and then get on another road that took us pretty far from the freeway. You turn a corner and there it is. First impressions was that it was cold as fuck. But the casino turned out to be relatively nice. I definetely wouldn't but it on par with Cache Creek, but it was fairly huge. Now for the bad part, I didn't really seem to mind the smoke at Cache Creek, but Table is pretty bad. A assload of slots and other card games. My dad and I made our way to the Pokerroom.

THE ENVIRONMENT PART 2

Did I say pokerroom? I meant to say poker cubicle. No matter. How ghetto is this. You sign your own name on the board. Perhaps everywhere else does this, but my spoiled ass always has some asian guy who can't spell Brendan remotely close. The games they had running were as low as they come. Well that is somewhat exaggerated, but I was hoping they were running a 4-8 game. The tables if I remember correctly...6 running 2/4, 3 running 3/6 kill, 1 running 6/12 kill. Not exactly my cup of tea, but what better way to check out 6-12 swings than by playing a 3/6 kill. I opted for that. In the meantime I signed on for 2/4 since 3/6 seemed to be moving very slow.

2/4

Within 15 minutes of sitting at 2/4 I was already up around 25 bucks. It is amazing how bad people play poker. You can believe me or not, but these guys only bet when they had it. So if it came down to check, check, check to me...I bet and I win. Amazing. After looking back on it I should have stayed at 2/4, but 3/6 was calling my name so I asked for a rack and got up.

3/6 KILL

Now I don't want any of you thinking I am a bad poker player so I'm going to just lay it out on the table. I'm not whining, and I have no excuses. I honestly have no regrets with the way I played and always got my money in with the best of it. With that being said, nothing I am going to tell you right now is exaggerated. I know my memory isn't the best, but I was paying very, very close attention to this table...

This was the best table I have ever seen EVER. Online, live, different card rooms, playing against John Ho (haha)...without a doubt the best table I have ever seen. So how did I lose money and not come up? I will honestly say that someone like Jonathan probably would have made around 300-400 bucks in that eight hour session. So why not me?

To put it simply, I have never been drawn out on so many times. I'm not sure exactly what the odds are and Jonathan will probably correct me, but in four hands, COUNT 'EM...FOUR, people stayed in with no pair on the flop. I bet into it figuring out that all four my hands at that point were in the lead. The turn brings some blank card that is still not higher than my holding pair. The river of course brings the same turn card. A 180 to 1 shot I believe (correct if I'm wrong) and in the end they all had a set. Well I lost money that way.

There was this one girl who everyone gave credit for being a good player. I will say that being lucky does make you a good player. I'm not going to criticize her at the table, but I will here. At the peak I saw that she had about 600 dollars in chips in front of her. You must be thinking, "wow, what a player." Well I saw her get down to about 100 dollars in chips at one point. How did she accumulate that many chips? I swear to god, when she went on her 600 dollar spree, she made nothing but full houses and gutshots. I kept track in my head because it happened so many times. It was truly a site to see. By the end of her spree that got her about 600 dollars in stacks...she had (and I could be off by 1 or 2) made 5 full houses, 6 gutshot straight draws, 5 flushes AFTER she needed a runner, runner.

So she was having a good day. I can't fault her for that. The only problem was that I couldn't get any cards after her luck streak ran out. She dumped 500 dollars to everyone else at the table except me. Truth is after I sit there for a long ass time without a hand to play, I try to make something happen just to keep my mind mentally ready in case a hand comes up. So every 30 minutes I might play a questionable hand to try to make something happen. For the next 6 hours I won 6 pots total. One of them being a KILL pot which kept me in the game. But in the final hour and a half or so I started getting cards and then getting drawn out on.

The session was brutal. Was I ever on tilt. Nah. I was more angry at the fact that it was such a good table with everyone gambling like crazy and I couldn't get a decent run of cards to take advantage of them. I could go ahead and say that I only lost one hundred, but looking back on it I can honestly say that I probably lost about 300-400 dollars...or the oppurtunity anyway. It hurt.

I told my dad who actually staked me the money (and he reassured me he would do it again in which actually means a lot to me) that at a certain point I'm sure I would have gotten up and left if I was at Garden or Bay, but it has been a while since I have been frustrated at the card table so I stayed at that table to test my tiltability. Well I'm happy to say that I was fine. The people at the table were prime for the taking, but you cannot rely on bluffs if everyone at the table is gambling. In this case you need ammunition. It didn't come to me that night and I'm cool with it. AND yes I believe you can be a bit frustrated (like I was about losing all the action) but not be on tilt.

CONCLUSION

Table Mountain is an alright place. I'm more interested in their other, real cardroom, CLUB ONE. I'm sure there is a button charge there though. Would I say we should all go there for a trip? Well for me the food (TOMOS) is worth it. I wouldn't have gone so late and wouldn't have stayed as long, but like I said we got a late start. I like Cache Creek a million times better since at least their poker area is smoke free. Table Mountain had people smoking next to me which was not pleasant at all. I'm not sure how to spell it, but Chachancee is also right there...okay never fucking mind. I just called Club One down in Fresno and they are strictly a cardroom with some event rooms and shit, AND THEY ALSO DON'T HAVE A FUCKING BUTTON CHARGE. Okay so yes, I do think that we should go to Fresno one of these weekends after hearing about that shit. Tomos then Club One. Fuck me...I'm glad I was smart enough to call to see...so in conclusion, FUCK TABLE MOUNTAIN. Haha.

Okay I know I haven't blogged in a while, but I do have one in progress on Word. I just thought I would let out some steam here real quick...of course it is nothing serious. I don't even really know the meaning of drama...unless you count Hapachan playing RE.

EA gets ESPN for 15 fucking years. Which means Sega no longer gets the right to do ESPN games. I will say right now that I hate EA. EA is garbage. Fuck Madden and fuck all their other sports titles. Well actually I don't give a shit about football games, but this fucks up my NHL game playing.

For those who don't keep up with video games...EA decided that they couldn't make a god damn decent game on their own so they decided to become a publisher. The SOLE reason they are the most successful game company is becuase of what they have published, not their own in house games. What got them to the top?

Names like Harry Potter, The Sims, Medal of Honor and Lord of the Rings. Yet they didn't make any of these games themselves. Shit they didn't even technically make their own EA BIG games. They went out and bought studios to do their own shit. All I know is that I used to be an EA fan. Fuck I even played Jordan VS Bird on my EGA monitor, but since they knew that SEGA sports was catching up to them (that's exaggerated I know, EA pretty much had a lock on the sports titles, HOWEVER they knew that SEGA was gaining ground and they fought back the only way SEGA couldn't...and that was with money.

So fuck EA and good bye NHL2k series. You were the best and even made me hang out with a Korean for nights in a row to win the cup.

Gift Ideas:
I'm not big on "gift exchange" games as being our form of giving gifts to each other solely because someone may walk away from the game not getting what they want. I know Xmas isn't about receiving, but watching others get pretty cool things and you getting something small isn't that fun. I'm game for whatever everyone wants to do, but I still plan on buying gifts for some people. I am with Jonathan that we probably have everything that we need, but it's nice being able to give gifts between friends. I enjoy giving presents, hoping that it's what someone wants and if not that is the beauty of gift receipts. Gag gifts could be fun, but it wouldn't be as fun because I'm not that creative. hehe

Not sure where the dinner thing should be, but we should bbq sometime! Maybe a potluck for a Xmas dinner? I dunno.

GTA - San Andreas
Overall, the game is pretty damn fun. There are a lot of things you can do that you can't do in real life and that's the beauty of videogames. If I feel like beating some bitch on the street I will damn do so. I didn't go through every little detail like the spray painting and picture taking because that would take me forever and I didn't find it fun.

One thing that helps the game is the "skip trip" feature. It allows a user to not have to fail a mission and drive 5 - 10 min again just to start it. This cuts down so much time and I love it. The missions themselves were pretty fun. Though I wish I could've had more missions in San Fiero and Las Venturas.

Another thing I liked was swimming. It wasn't instant death when you went in the water and I thought that was cool. It expands what you can do in the game as well.

The big downer to the game is pop-up. It was a bitch doing a time based mission then all of a sudden a car pops out or a tree appears. I understand the game is huge in terms of design, but damn, it was pretty bad. I'm interested to see a PC or Xbox version to see if that gets cleaned up at all.

Unlike EGM, I don't think the game is a 10. I would probably give it a low to mid 9.

Next:

• Halo2 Clan Matches! - Once Brendan, Brian, Ari and whoever else get done w/ finals and projects, hopefully we can kick ass w/ our clan ratings.
  
• Metal Gear Solid 3 - Already started the intro part
• Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories - Just started the intro part
• Mario 64 DS - 29 Stars, apparently only 120 more to go or so. I heard I can beat the game w/o all the stars, which is a relief to me.
  
• Mario Tennis - need to unlock more mini games and people
• Paper Mario - I need a lot of time w/ this one
  

I think all these games should keep me busy over my vacation, which btw rocks!

Clubbing:
I had a good time going out last time, hopefully we can go again sometime soon. Unfortunately, we all didn't have fun, so that is something to strive for. I don't think I've ever been out clubbing or dancing where all involved had a really good time. Though I'm not a great dancer, I miss doing it from time to time. Getting the perfect buzz and dancing is awesome and good exercise. haha.

New Years Resolution - Gym.

Alright I'm out.

Good luck with finals! Also - good luck w/ the relationship Farmer B...don't let it clog ur halo2 playing like Andy! haha jk. Congrats!

So we all agreed that we're not doing gifts this year, huh? That's cool with me.

Okay I made that up. But I don't know what to get anyone. We already have more than we need and most of what we want since we all spoil ourselves til the rot stinks up the pantry. And I don't need 5 copies of the Seinfeld DVDs.

I still think it's fun to exchange gifts of course. I like the element of surprise more than the actual receiving. I suggest we do one of the following (if anything):

(1) That thing we did in elementary school where you bring a wrapped gift and then everyone puts their name in a hat and when your name is picked you go choose a gift from the pile and open it in front of everyone and if you're not the first person you have the choice of stealing from someone before you and they go choose another gift and a gift can only be stolen two or three times and there could be a price range I dunno maybe $20 to $40 and everyone has a good laugh unless they got their dream gift stolen from them in which case they are bitter the rest of the night and for the rest of the next year they only think about stealing the best gift back from that jackass and laughing in their face and how sweet it'll be. Sound familiar?

(2) Same thing with gag gifts. Funny.

Actually maybe we could do both. The point is the whole shopping and giftgiving can be made fun and affordable for everyone, without the stress of recalling what everyone already has in their DVD collections.

And to those who already bought me a gift... it better be beef flavor. And remember, 'tis better to give than to receive, you lucky dog you.

Here you go guys

http://www.mmodating.com/

Me and Jon will stick to the old fashioned method, cuz that seems to be getting us far.

Happy thanksgiving guys. There's so much to be thankful for! I guess.

FYI - don't put this demo disc in my PS2!!! Dirtiest trick to play on somebody...haha

Sony warns of major glitch in Holiday 2004 Demo Disc

SCEA alerts public that playing the Viewtiful Joe 2 demo will erase memory cards.

Over the past few weeks, members of the PlayStation Underground--Sony's US fan club--have been receiving copies of the Holiday 2004 Demo Disc. One of the premier demos on the disc was for Viewtiful Joe 2, which arrives on the console December 7.

Unfortunately, gamers eager to sample the cel-shaded beat-'em-up were in for a very nasty surprise. That's because the demo contained a glitch which will erase all saved games on the memory card or cards currently inserted in the console. Considering many PlayStation 2 owners are currently shooting their way through Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which takes at least 40 hours to finish, the glitch sparked an uproar among PlayStation Underground members.

This week, Sony acknowledged the glitch via a mass e-mail to PlayStation Underground members. Besides conveying the corporation's "sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused," the e-mail also suggested that gamers "please remove your Memory Card(s) from your PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system before you load the Holiday 2004 Demo Disc." Speaking to GameSpot, a Sony rep clarified the situation further, saying, "You can play all of the demos including VJ2 as long as you remove the mem cards."

Why can't there ever be nice ghosts. Ghosts that look like Olivia who tend to your every need. Instead Nihon is filled with nothing but ghosts that hold grudges. Fucked up grudges at that. I am pretty disturbed. Let the shambles continue...I'll write a more detailed, unspoiler review tonight. Peace.

OH DAMN! From what I've been reading, (Thanks for buying those mags for me Jon...) I hear a Mazdaspeed Mazda 3 is in the works. This may be what I need instead of hunting for the 2003 Mazdaspeed Protege. Me = Happy.

Edit:
Eh, sorta happy at least. A lot of it is just specuation and rumor. I'd be nice if they came out with the mazdaspeed3, but my car would probably be dead before that.

On a realated note, I finally saw a Dodge SRT-4. Damn, it has a powerful sounding engine. It's a possible, but not likely. The Ion Red Line from Saturn got a few bad reviews and Nissan's SE-R V-Spec reviews say poor interior. So I might be back at square one. Whee.

One More Edit:
Jon Stewart on Crossfire.

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2652831

A quick shout to everyone that helped move or came over and just celebrated~ I hope you enjoyed the new place.

Kevin - thanks for everything. You were more than a great help and I was glad you could make it this weekend. Our house would be so much worse off if it weren't for you. Thanks again and I miss you already, come back soon! hahaha

Brian and Terri - thanks for the sushi, it was super yummy! Glad you actually got to see my place for once.

Brendan - thanks for going w/ me to the store. I needed a breather from the stresses that some call my parents haha.

B3 - playing pokerroom w/ me, that was fun! Though you couldn't be in San Jose, you still found a way to keep me busy. I'll practice COD so I can get used to a mouse and perchance see why everyone jocks it. =)

Thanks to everyone else who has talked to me, hung out w/ me, and just overall kept my mind off the crappy things in my life. I appreciate it more then you will ever know.

It's been very interesting hearing everyone's views and advice. Some differ a lot more then others and I found that enlightening. I know I have to find my own path and others who give advice, sometimes go off their experiences, but I think that's how we learn in life. We learn from others experiences and it's our job to take that knowledge and see if it applies to us. There are so many different situations out there and there will probably never be one that matches us exactly.

Back to work, I actually have stuff to do for once.

Well this is just a post to say that I've once joined the land of the single. Tiff broke up w/ me last night. Though I am not ready to write about the details of why, I just thought everyone should know about it.

Time to enter a new phase of my life w/o her. I say this only because I really don't know if we'll get back together or not, but I will start preparing for the worst.

Take care...

EDIT:
So I wrote about some of this in my Xanga, but still didn't really go into detail to why.

The reason Tiff broke up w/ me was because ever since we broke up and got back together the first time she had been feeling kind of weird about our relationship. Things didn't feel totally natural. Reason being was because we set some ground rules when we got back together especially where I needed a little bit of space so that I could have some time to myself. In turn, this left Tiff in a state of "how much is enough" type of situation, where she didn't know if she was crowding me or not, therefore she was scared to call, hang out, stay at my place, etc. Unfortunately this is something that I really couldn't fix unless somehow I put measurements on how much I hang out with someone, which would be ridiculous in a relationship. The unfortunate part of it all was that I thought our relationship was fine. I was really happy w/ the way it was going therefore when she told me that we were breaking up, I was left it total shock.

Another small reason was that the distance was getting to her. I think she wanted to have me around a little bit more then what I could provide. This is quite unfortunate because this is another situation I really couldn't fix. I wasn't ready to give up my job at IBM just so I could live in SLO for a couple years.

So now I am left here alone again and single. I haven't been for a year and a half and some say this could be a good thing. This is my first time truly being single ever since I got back to San Jose. I didn't realize this until Brendan said it to me yesterday. If you read my Xanga, I think I will just take this time to evaluate my life and see what I've accomplished so far.

Well here's to a new journey in life...can't wait to see most of you this weekend. Thanks for helping me move =)

What kind of world do we live in when Superman, Man of Steel, dies at the age of 52? I'll tell you...a pitiful, pitiful world. That is why you don't ride horses. Relationships don't work out and you become paralyzed from the neck down. Christopher Reeve, may you have much luck in the big phone booth in the sky. Do they allow wheelchairs in phone booths?

Alright, I just got back from a video game store and I'm going to bitch for a bit.

The State of Video Game Stores
I do not like the direction these stores are headed. I've noticed it for the past few years, but here are the top reasons I hate them.

First of all, I usually go to the store to browse through the games. Sometimes I want an old game, sometimes I'm there for a release date. But now, the geniuses up above realize they are losing money in inventory. The business side of me realizes that they are trying to get zero inventory in the store, but this does not work to the average gamers advantage. Everything is Pre order this, pre-order that. What if I don't want it now? What if I'd rather wait for a review? Ohhh, they're sold out, because the dumbass store only bought 4 extra copies. Like there are only 4 others out there like me. Fuck that. See, and I found out another sneaky thing... I was at the store two weeks ago and saw Silent Hill 4 was $50 pre-order only. This week, it looks like it's $35 and they have multiple copies left. They get the suckers that need the game the day it comes out, and then entice the others to jump on the bandwagon with a lower price. Granted this strategy would work if it was an A-listed game... But with all these games coming out before the holiday rush, guess what? They're losing out. Bottom line, if things continue the way they are right now, the only way we'll be able to buy games older than 6 months old is by going online. And that's no fun either. Who wants to buy a game and sit around for 3 days waiting for it to come by? I did that once, for Sam and Max. But I spent more on shipping the game to me next day than the game itself. FedEx wins. I remember in my marketing class there was some sort of graph showing the product life span, but damnit, everyone gets placed differently all the time. Sometimes, we'll buy the game first thing, other games are not high priority, and sometimes we always wanted a game, but never bothered to buy it, but it caught our eye in the bargain bin.

Another thing. Strategy guides. They all ask you if you want a strat guide for a game you just bought. I understand the chances of getting one of us to buy the game is fairly high during the time of game purchase, but DON'T TRY to shove it down our throats. Most of these guys at the stores are gamers as well... They should know that unless it's an uber complex game with hidden stats and fucked up secrets normal humans would never get, WE DON'T WANT TO SPOIL THE GAME. I didn't spend $35 just to go through the motions of playing a game. Maybe that's why adventure games are dying out though... Too many people are turning to walk=throughs strat guides to beat a game? Interesting. But something to blog later....

Finally... I DO NOT WANT TO PURCHASE A USED GAME FROM YOU BITCHES. Yes, I realize I can save myself a whole $5 on a game because some sorry sap decided he wanted $3 for a game he bought for $40. I do not want to fund you bitches in your quest for higher profits. I'd rather support the people that actually made the game, not the bullshit stores that are fucking things up for everyone else with strat guides and pre-order crap.

*sigh* I'm sure I'd be more coherent in a few hours, but I wanted to get it out there right now.

Star Wars:
What I found that went wrong w/ Episodes 1 and 2 is that everything was in computer generated. The worlds, the non-human characters, the environments, everything. Like when you watched the Episodes 4 - 6 and saw the making of them, you think, "Wow, George Lucas is a genius." You saw his imagination go wild in how he created some scenes. Now, it seems so easy (in relative thinking terms) to create a crazy world w/ crazy aliens without any real effort. I 100% agree w/ Brendan about Yoda. The fight scene with him was cool, but I thought that was more a cheesy fan appeal thing that Lucas did so that people wouldn't hate his movies.

Episode 1 - I would need to watch this again, but a few things come to mind.
-Darth Maul - I wish he had more interaction w/ the Jedis in terms of speaking. Why he's after them. I would've liked a little more background on the Sith in general and what their deal was.
-Acting - I know Star Wars isn't known for it's acting, but damn that little kid was terrible. I guess he had the look Lucas was looking for, but nothing he said was really believeable.
-Qui-Gong or whatever his name is - the desert scene where he's fighting Maul and then he jumps on a plane and is hella tired. What a weak ass, no wonder why he got killed.
-Darth Mauls death - You go through this long sabre battle and how does he die? Obi Wan jumps and slices him in half. That's not really dramatic, that's not really what I was looking for.
-Jar Jar was annoying, but this one is obvious.

Episode 2
-Anakin's crying - boo hoo hoo all movie long. I know they wanted to try to show his confused feelings, but his whining was no good.
-I've already mentioned Yoda's CG.
-The story was ok, but it was a little too much at times.
-I'm sure there was more that I didn't like, but I can't think of it at the time.

What I did like:
-I like Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan. I thought he was an excellent choice and he plays the part (as much as he can) well. A lot of writing in the movie isn't great, but I think he does a great job.
-Natalie Portman - ditto w/ the addition of the scene where her shirt rips. Good for the movie? No. Good for the fans of Natalie? Yes.
-I liked the scene where all the jedi's actually fight. I also liked the portion of the clone wars that they showed. I thought it looked awesome. This goes the same for the Gungan Battle.
-Pod race - went a little long, but it was entertaining and it looked cool.

Overall I hope episode 3 at least ties in the story well and brings it all together. Almost every question should be answered for me to think this movie is good. I like B's scenarios below and I hope Lucas is smart enough to incorporate them.

Sony PSP
I think both the PSP and DS are going to be overpriced, but I will most likely buy them anyway at some point in time. The opening games haven't blown me away just yet, but the new Mario games look fun.

Sony isn't known for it's high quality gaming stations and I agree taking the PS2 apart to clean the lens isn't the greatest thing. Also their DVD player sucks ass at times. Though did anyone see the new PS2? It's hella slim and comes ready w/ network capability. It I played my PS2 more, I would definitely consider getting it hehe. What a stupid purchase! ?!

Poker
I'd be interested in hearing your theory on K5 suited, etc. I am having a hard time deciding whether to raise pre-flop in low stakes games. I find if I do that and the flop doesn't hit me I'm screwed. Anytime I raise pre-flop and it doesn't hit, everyone checks to me, I bet and usually I get raised because someone kept their 72 offsuite. One reason I don't like raising pre-flop in late position is people have already bet, so a raise to them (especially in low stake games) is nothing, so they call regardless and that's what gets me in trouble.

Also I would be interested in hearing thoughts about online vs poker room playing. I find that I play a few more hands and play much more aggressively online. But when I'm in a poker room, I play super conservative waiting for good, quality hands to play and I lose. I'm trying to find my balance and maybe take a few more chances in a poker room. For now I think I will keep working on my discipline online and bring my confidence back up to where I think I can hang in an actual cardroom.

Brendan's Hair
I've always dreamed about talking about this one.....haha I really don't like that look. I guess I would have to see it in person before I made my final decision. But let's remember who's had the same haircut for 8 years and counting and who's pretty ultra conservative when it comes to hair. Being creative has nothing to do w/ your haircut, it has to do w/ what you put on the screen and what you put on paper, tablet, etc. Brendan is one of the most creative people I know and you can read his blogs, look at his damn icon and see his creativity. So Brendan, I vote no on the hair. Though it would be fun to call you 'Streak' or something cool like that haha.

Alright I'm out.

Actually a few notes:
-Happy early Bday to Jonathan because I know I won't be blogging again that day haha. See you soon ROOMMATE muhahahahah
-Steve, have fun in SD. You can have my ol' microwave for X-mas. It smells like curry.
-Derek - How'd you know I was the onlooker? You found out my secret haha. Glad to see you blogging again. At least more then a sentence =)
-Brian - Love the videogames reviews, but now you need an Xbox.
-Andy says he cant' blog because he found out he has 124 spyware programs on his computer hehe. I'm going to try and help him with that.
-Kevin - congrats on your CPA exam, now finish the rest you slacker! Stop replacing me with Sean! =)

Episode III - The Return of Darth Vader

There were a couple of things that I actually did enjoy from the first two installments. Mostly Obi-wan fighting off Darth Maul who in my mind was kind of a retarded character. Just goes to show that a dual lightsaber really brings you respect in a galaxy far, far away. In the second one I have to admit that I did like Anakin wielding two lightsabers. Yoda was kind of cool fighting even though I really, really, really hate how they CGed him instead of use Frank Oz to control him by sticking a hand up his green ass. Looking back on V and VI, Yoda looked fucking good for a puppet and more believable at that. So what exactly do I need from Episode III in order to restore all faith in Lucas...at this point in time I don't even know if I can trust Lucas taking Indy to Atlantis. Okay back to the point. Here is my list of things that must be done.

- All true Star Wars fans (of course I mean geeks and nerds alike) know how Anakin ends up in the Vader suit. If you don't know then you have a life and I wish I were you. The question is then (and if you think this will be a spoiler because you have absolutely no clue how Anakin ends up in the Vader suit...please scroll down) The question is not whether or not he gets fucked up burned, but IF Obi-wan takes Anakin's limbs as a parting gift as well. According to Lucas the lightsaber battle between Obi-wan and Anakin is the longest sword fight sequence in cinema history. It is also supposed to be on par with how fast Obi-wan fought with Darth Maul. All this better be true.

- Anakin obviously turns to the Darkside. This might be a tad wishful, but I seriously hope that Anakin will use the Dark side (lighting) in his attack on Obi-wan. After watching Star Wars again on superb DVD, it finally hit me that Obi-wan somehow got Anakin's lightsaber. Considering that the two of them are going to have a major falling out, I doubt Anakin gave it to him for fun. So somewhere in the battle, Obi-wan takes the lightsaber away (This must be true if Obi-wan gives Luke "his father's lightsaber")...the thing I want shown is how...Since Anakin has no weapon, he better bust out the Dark force.

- Padme better give birth to the Skywalker twins and we better see them at the end of the film. We also better see her die and it better be as sad as fucking "Beaches". Lucas better not try to CG Mark Hamill's face on a baby.

- I want all Jedi Knights slaughtered. I understand that there must be a shit load of Jedi knights since the galaxy is so big, but I kind of liked the fact that in Star Wars, being a Jedi Knight was a thing of legend. To see all the Jedi in Episode II fighting off those huge mosquitos looked like one god damned skittle fest. Why does Samuel L. Jackson get a purple (also known in the crayon box as the color gay) lightsaber. Is there still affirmative action in a galaxy far, far away? He gets to be cool becuase he's black? Fuck him. I hope he dies and he will.

- I need to know why Palpatine looks the way he does in Empire and Jedi. Obviously he either grows old really fast or he gets the life sucked out of him...either way I hope this is shown. Perhaps even a standoff with Yoda (yes, I'll even take a CGed Yoda if I have to) would be very interesting. The leader of the Knights vs. the newly formed Empire.

- Does anyone care about Count Dooku or Dookie or whatever the hell his name is. Lucas didn't even bother to give us some history on this guy. Lucas just kind of threw him in saying he was a Jedi knight but turned evil or some shit. Fuck it. I don't need to know why he changed or who he is. He could even be Yoda's dad...I just don't care and I hope he doesn't get 5 minutes of screen time.

- General Grievous. Apprently this guy is supposed to be type of alien, 95 percent robot and like 5 percent alien. I guess this guy is kind of the "hey Anakin, even though you won't be able to get any chicks with ur burned up body, we can keep you alive because we have the technology" catalyst. If you have never seen this guy on the Clone Wars on cartoon network then you are in for a treat. I think his design is pretty bad ass. Nothing special because they can't make him look too much like Darth Vader, but he has a cool look about him. His looks better be backed up with dope ass fighting.

I think that about sums up the Episode III blog. I'm sure more will come when May comes around, but I think for now I hope that you can see that Episode III does have a chance of being the darkest Star Wars yet. Hopefully if you haven't heard of some of this, you will be more excited about seeing it. Here's to you Lucas. Do your fans proud...unlike the Star Wars DVD's...

Okay, okay, they aren't that bad. However, I really wish he could stick the originals on DVD. I mean the films are his property so he do whatever he wants with them, but for some odd reason, the more crap they stick in there, the worse to me it looks. Yet the color and the picture has never been clearer. I can't say that I don't enjoy them a lot, I just wish Lucas would have kept the gems the way they were instead of polishing them so much they now look like plastic Moon Dreamers gems.

Sony's PSP is supposed to be ridiculously awesome. It is also going to be ridiculously expensive. Yet, it is not expensive enough to make me feel comfortable about buying it. What you essentially have here is a device that plays DVD-roms on a huge screen, controlled by using an analogue stick and essentially every other Sony type of thing (USB, Sony's memory card, some other ports for whatever reason). So what do I mean that the price doesn't make me feel comfortable buying it? Well something like this I feel should probably cost more, but Sony is so scared about putting up for too much money that they are trying to make it as cheap as possible. Is this true? I can't say for sure, I don't work at Sony's headquarters in Japan, however I do know that when it comes to game consoles, Sony's work is mediocre at best. My PS2 still can't read blue discs one hundred percent of the time (I know all you have to do is clean the lens, but I shouldn't have to dismantle the fucking thing to do so), I know a friend who had to stick his PS1 into a freezer to play his games. Also the showing in the Japan game show wasn't exactly as hot as planned. In fact if you follow videogame news you would know that Nintendo's stock jumped up after that showing in Japan because insiders are starting to suspect that even though the DS is still a risky release for Nintendo, they felt the lineup of games and the fact that Nintendo does know better than anyone else how to release a handheld, would be enough to propel the DS past the PSP. Either way I'm going to buy it because I can't help myself. Good luck Sony...you already got one customer who isn't happy about buying your cheapo shit.

Gran Turismo. THE only racing sim I play. Apparently the only racing game that isn't online. What the fuck is this? How are you going to delay releasing it, hyping it up then dont' fucking deliver? I would be frustrated too if I had to stick an online experience on Sony's servers too, but you hyped this shit up and you better deliver. Oh what is that you say Mr. Hashinoya? You will release GT4.5 later this year? Well this shit better be free with proof of purchase for GT4. In case you haven't noticed developers of Turismo...the PS2 doens't have a real hard drive. The X-Box can come out with incomplete games (ahem...ESPN hockey stand up) because they offer online service far superior than Sony's shit. They can release patches. If you just made it for the X-Box there wouldn't be a problem...but since you are on a PS2 you can't release two games that are basically the same with the only sole difference being online play. Fuck this and fuck you.

Okay I was beginning to type out this long thing about Hold'em...then I decided to fuck it. It is not that the concept is hard to understand or that it is above you or anything like that...but in a way in contradicts Lee Jones and I don't think we should be doing that right now. Lee Jones is a solid foundation and is a good way to get your bankroll going. If you think I'm being an ass on not thinking you are ready for the thing I was going to talk about...here is the bulk of it.

You play K5 suited in a loose, passive game. You fold something like AJ in there is a raise or don't raise preflop in late position with AQ when other people have limped in. Contradictive? Is that even a word? You bet your ass. If you want to know about it then ask me. I'll be happy to explain it to you. I just don't recommend playing this way yet.

Okay enough commentary...I will give a good blog about Gradius becuase it deserves it. On to more important stuff like the Love Parade...screw it...I'm too out of it to even do that. I've been getting up early for like a week now...and for all you working people out there that might not be that bad...but I'm talking about 5 o'clock every morning then not getting my afternoon nap. My dad just busted my balls for being a bump on the log. Which is true, but he is just jealous I'm getting to the card room and he isn't. Haha. It is his birthday soon (No I didn't forget about your ass Jonathan) and I'm thinking of taking him to a cardroom. That is if he can find it in his heart to let me fucking catch up on my sleep.

Also for the sake of showing Ricki that I'm not a fucking boring prick...this is how she wants me to dye my hair. Please let me have your honest opinion on it. She got all fucking pissed because I didn't say I liked it...then she fucking knocked on my directing skills because she says and I quote, "how you going to be a director if your not creative"...let me show you what she has in mind for my hair...then maybe she won't think its so fucking stupid or at least, not fucking criticize me for having good tastes. Haha.



Actually painting it doesn't make it look bad...haha. But that is becuase of my awesome paint skills. Just becuase something looks good painted doesn't mean it probably looks good in real life. Insert opinions in the chatbox. Peace.