NJ Felt

trip

2006-11-11T12:36:00.000-05:00

ummm... i've been posting on LJ pretty regularly with where I'm at/what I'm doing, but I'll do a quick post here...

right now I'm in Burbank California at Risa's place, eating a chocolate PowerBar, wasting time while she's asleep, preparing to shower, preparing to play online poker. We saw this band play at this venue last night. Good stuff. Probably hanging around here most of the day.

Location: Burbank California
Now Listening:traffic

title

2006-10-11T03:34:00.000-04:00

**

I'm officially doing my 1st post ever from my laptop... just got it today. So far, so good with that. It's not really a replacement for my desktop, since I need the 2 big monitors for poker... I've been playing up to 12 tables lately. As far as online poker goes, the president is expected to sign the bill this Friday. It will remain to be seen how profitable 'net poker is in the near future. Anyways, I'm still playing online poker fulltime for the time being, and have succesfull been playing higher stakes too. Also, I'm going to play poker with my friends in Maywood on Thurs night.

In unrelated events... my back always starts acting up after about 2 miles of continuous running. I'm toying with the idea of getting a small back brace, but I'm skeptical that would really make any difference. Also, I need to start focusing on doing more situps, which could possibly alleviate some of the pressure from my back. Not a major issue, and the pain isn't even honestly that horrible, it's more of an annoyance and frustration. I've been able to make a huge reduction in my daily back pain by sleeping on my back with a pillow directly under my lower back. That is seriously the only I can feel ok the next day.

I was just looking at ebay before to try to find deals on customs... very few costumes available for adult men really. I might have to brainstorm and come up with something on my own. I will most likely go to the haunted house at Sterling Forest with Mike and whoever else is coming this Friday.

Location:
Now Listening:

weekend

2006-10-01T17:57:00.000-04:00

I posted it on my livejournal page, but yeah, I finished 8th/657 in the big 7 Card Stud event on Tuesday on PokerStars. Probably one of my biggest accomplishments this year really. Other than, was down in AC Weds-Thurs. Usual long marathon poker sessions, ended up breaking even.

A bunch of us headed over for Noah's bday in Nutley on Friday night. I had a good time, but that might just be because I drank excessively. Went out to a couple of watering holes last night around Parsippany, not really my favorite places, yet better than staying home. I'm saving up my credits (Frequent Player Points) right now on PokerStars, and almost have enough for another $1,000 to Amazon.com. I'm most likely going to pick up a laptop from there soon. I don't think I really need something with a DVD-R drive, really just CD-R. Some decent battery life would help also.

No plans for this week as of yet. Maybe I'll drive to Maywood again on Thurs night to play poker with that crew... we always have a good time and a lot of laughs.

Location: d-ville
Now Listening: Radiohead - Street Spirit (acoustic)

stuff

2006-09-18T23:17:00.000-04:00

Got done playing poker a little while ago, booked a decent win for the hours I put in. Sent an email to PokerStars, reminding them they owe me $3,000. My request has neither been accepted or denied yet, and I'm getting pretty anxious. Most likely that money will fund a trip to Las Vegas for me. Once that dust settles, I'll look further into getting a job. I have also been considering picking up and heading West. Not sure of anything right now.

Here's my revised World Series of Online Poker schedule, I have to set aside good chunks of time for each of these. I really don't expect to make any money of these tournaments. I just plan on playing aggressively as usual, and I don't think I'll be disappointed if I don't book any cashes in them.

No other plans for the week so far... will probably head outside to skateboard soon in further attempts at mastering switch heelflips.

stuff

2006-09-11T21:31:00.000-04:00

After a bad downswing in Poker, my PokerStars account is back up to $20,700, it was recently down to $18,300 which was pretty damn depressing. My highest point was slightly above $21,000 and I hope to surpass that soon. I can't connect to Party Poker right now for some reason, but I guess I have like $1500 there. Also PokerStars is going to owe me $3,000 for being a VIP in most likely 3-4 days. Right now there are deliberating on approving a Visa Gift Card for me, or a prepaid gas card, or whatever. We've been touch via email, and I'm hoping on a hasty verdict. When that comes through I'll probably take $3K of my own cash and book an escape to Vegas ASAP. When things are going well for me financially, it puts me in a better mood for sure. Also, I think I'm going to bombard Atlantic City with my resume again, and see if any jobs turn up.

I spent the majority of Saturday/Sunday night waiting to hang out with one of my "friends". She blew me off, and sent me a text message this morning with no apology, but stating "I don't think we're compatible as friends". This makes a great deal of sense considering she's one of the few people I ever confide in, and we've been hanging out for several years. Anyways, I don't care to beg people to be my "friends", and I don't need this type of stress in my life. In actuality, I feel this is just a major cop out by her, most likely she's dating someone who occupies most of her time and like 80% of the girls I've hung out with... she can't be upfront or honest about anything. I've never had anyone decide to stop being a friend before, and obviously it's a little upsetting. Anyways, I will continue to strive for success and happiness and try to not let distractions slow me down.

wcoop

2006-09-09T19:20:00.000-04:00

******

Here's my WCOOP schedule so far. I'm really psyched I satellited to get into the HORSE EVENT! These have all been satellite entries, and I believe only from FPPs, not real money. One of those Hold Em's is heads-up, which I absolutely suck at. I really enjoy tournament Omaha, and it's probably one of my stronger games.

2006-09-04T14:35:00.000-04:00

recovering from a couple of long days/long nights right now, it will be good to sit home for a while. on saturday, mike, the ced, and i went to the loop lounge, and had to make a detour to new milford afterwards.. got home around 5AM. yesterday (sunday), I drove to jim's bbq in lake hopatcong around 5. first time i've been to his new house. i drank a few rounds, and ate a few tofu kebobs, that i suppose Keri made. next i drove from hopatcong to nutley, to meet up with noah. basically i drove across a huge span. anyways, noah, his friend kristen, and i headed over to axis lounge for a while. it was pretty crowded, lots of industrial music, and a metal band was playing in the back. anyways, that had $1 PBR's which is always a good value. they had signs up for "midget boxing", coming up this friday. i'm not sure how i feel about midget exploitation though... maybe it's a little screwed up.

Panic at the Disco

2006-08-24T22:30:00.000-04:00

I mistakenly tried to listen to their album today, but then realized it's complete trash. Just as bad as Fall Out Boy.

concierge

2006-08-23T19:31:00.000-04:00

had an interview today at an advertising-type company in Saddle Brook... fortunately the Interviewer/V.P. was a good looking chick. Job seemed ok overall.. probably better than most.

Crappy week of poker so far, break even/small losses, only bright side is I have over 100,000 FPPs store up again. Almost enough for $1500 to Amazon.com, or might possibly save up to 160,000 FPPs to use their concierge service. I would be able to spend around $3,000 most likely... here are some things others have bought though the concierge service.

Location: same Bat place, same Bat station
Now Listening: Merle Haggard

work

2006-08-18T02:01:00.000-04:00

a typical day at work...

a little squished on my monitor, but it works out alright. generally I try to have 9 tables running at any given time, although if I'm in the middle of a tournament I like to tone it down to concentrate on the task at hand.

Now Listening:Sham 69 - With A Little Help From My Friends

PartyCasino

2006-08-16T15:23:00.000-04:00

I get an email saying I have a free $10 bonus to PartyCasino. I download software bet $10 on Blackjack, get dealt KK, bonus is cleared, and walk away a champion.

stuff

2006-08-13T18:21:00.000-04:00

recent happenings:

went to Warped Tour at Nasseau Colliseum with Mike (last Saturday), we got right in the front for Less Than Jake... and they were awesome as always. Met up with Allen, Keith, and Johanna in NYC.. and made our way to the bar to hang out with Adam, Mike M., and Brian. Exhausting trip... but good. Caught some nice sunburn too, which has caused some peel-age.

I got this phone free from Verizon, so far so good, no complaints yet. Actually the vibrate mode come to think of it, is substantially weaker than that of my old phone. Since I normally leave my phone on silent, it's causing me to miss some calls.

There are a couple new photos up on Flickr, but I'm gonna try to put my digicam to more use this week hopefully. I had a pretty decent week in poker, several small tournament victories (posted on livejournal), so that's got my feelin' pretty good. Nothing planned for this week so far, that I can recall. Most likely 12-hour marathon internet poker sessions, with intermitent outings to Taco Bell, Dunkin Donuts, Barnes and Noble, skate spots, jogging, etc.

Yep, very exciting.

order

2006-07-25T21:50:00.000-04:00

I had $300+ laying around on Amazon.com, so I ordered this stuff today:

Shipping estimate for these items: August 11, 2006 - August 14, 2006
Delivery estimate: August 18, 2006 - August 25, 2006
1 "Pot-Limit & No-Limit Poker"
Stewart Reuben; Paperback; $15.75

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "Omaha Poker"
Bob Ciaffone; Paperback; $16.00

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "Seven-Card Stud for Advanced Players (Advance Player)"
David Sklansky; Paperback; $18.87

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "Poker Essays, Volume III"
Mason Malmuth; Paperback; $16.47

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "Cache (Hidden)"
Michael Haneke; DVD; $19.87

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "Instrument - Ten Years with the Band Fugazi"
Fugazi; DVD; $19.99

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "New Order - 316"
New Order; DVD; $12.99

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "Elvis - Aloha from Hawaii (Deluxe Edition DVD)"
Marty Pasetta; DVD; $21.99

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "People's History of Less Than Jake"
Less Than Jake; DVD; $12.99

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "Good Night, and Good Luck (Widescreen Edition)"
George Clooney; DVD; $13.02

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "Let's Rock Again"
Joe Strummer; DVD; $14.99

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"
Tommy Lee Jones; DVD; $17.99

Sold by:Amazon.com
1 "We Jam Econo - The Story of the Minutemen"
Minutemen; DVD; $19.99

Analysis:

PLHE and NLHE - Good reviews, I can never find it in local bookstores.

Omaha Poker - Updated version of Bob Ciaffone's PLO book. I never read the original, but it got good reviews.

7 Card Stud by Sklansky - I've skimmed it several times, but wouldn't mind owning it. Unfortunately Amazon.com did not seem do have this in stock as an alternative - There don't seem to be many publications of odds for 7CS???

Poker Essays III - I don't think I've really ever read this either.

Cache (DVD) - I dunno, some random movie that got good reviews, hence I ordered it.

Instrument (DVD) - documentary/live footage of the band Fugazi. One of the most influential post-punk bands, and a personal favorite of mine.

New Order: 316 (DVD) - 2 live concerts by new wave band New Order... another favorite

Elvis (DVD) - no explanation required

Less Than Jake (DVD) - punk band, live footage, interviews, etc

Good Night, and Good Luck (Widescreen Edition DVD) - another movie w/ good reviews

Let's Rock Again (DVD) - performances/interviews Joe Strummer, deceased singer from the Clash

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (DVD) - some other movie

Minutemen (DVD) - fun 80's punk band documentary, Jackass's theme song is one of theirs

_______________________________________

I also ordered an olive colored canvas wallet and The Acoustic Guitar of Jorma Kaukonen, 3 DVD Set [DVD]. Fingerstyle Acoustic guitar instruction, to possibly aid with my awful guitar playing.

july update

2006-07-23T17:55:00.000-04:00

looks like its only been about 30 days since my last update.

My new computer is here, and it runs much better than it's successor. Even when I have 10 tabs of Firefox open constantly. (used to kill my computer). I have to swap power supplies tomorrow, and then try to run 2 monitors at the same time. 2 Firewire ports, USB 2.0, 200Gb HD, 1Gb Ram.

Went to Springfield (Dayton High), to see Kate's boss's daugther perform classical Indian (Hindu) dances... ate free vegetarian Indian food. We drove down to Point Pleasant later at night... it was raining slightly there, which kinda sucked. Played some BuckHunter and Air Hockey.. no major scores on the skill cranes.

Nothing major planned this week, though I do hope to make it to Clerks 2. I'm trying to figure out exactly how the PokerStars travel certificates work. It is through a company called ePlatinum, which is an agent (?) of expedia.com.

Location: home
Now Listening: The Lightning Seeds - The Life of Riley

update

2006-06-26T01:09:00.000-04:00

I guess I haven't updated this lately, huh?

Well, here's a couple of news briefs:

1) saw The Break-Up tonight (Vince Vaughn movie).. I found it pretty entertaining.
2) Ed's buying my Nano... glad it's going to be bought and used
3) read Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis (thanks to Keith)... good book
4) just ordered this!

Location: nowhere
Now Listening: Social D (discography)

Less Than Jake

2006-05-26T02:45:00.000-04:00

awesome performance at Vintage Vinyl... and I got to stalk/talk to Vinnie, Chris, and Buddy... all cool guys.

Location: Computing
Now Listening: Supper Furry Animals - If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You

happenings

2006-05-21T18:20:00.000-04:00

Ate some Chinese food with Sheindel on Friday, and went to see Da Vinci Code on opening night. I found the storyline interesting, having never read the book. There were certainly a few startling moments in that movie.

Did a bit of skateboarding on Saturday, and then drove into the city (to Allen's place). We saw his friend's band play here. Also went over to Molly's Pitcher, which Adam and Tim can't do without.

Went jogging earlier today... nothing really planned for tonight so far. Just catching up on some poker playing right now. Of course, a nightime Dunkin Donuts run is always very tempting to me also. Mike, Risa, and myself are going to Vintage Vinyl to see and hopefully meet Less Than Jake on Wednesday. They are one of my all-time favorites.

Location: home
Now Listening: New Order

2006-05-08T00:16:00.000-04:00

12:15AM Monday morning... playing a $6 tournament on Party Poker with the last of my money there.

Anyways, weekend recap is as follows -

Friday night: skateboarding at Ikea. I was suprising myself at how much of my technical ability I've gotten back. Of course, I still don't and never have considered myself competitive at skateboarding, but landing a few tricks a night always appeases me and makes me feel good.

Saturday: Hung out at Mike's house for a good few hours. Not quite the turnout we were hoping for, but we did get a number of Soco rounds in. Kudos to Kieth for polishing off the bottle... and the pillaged books too.

Sunday: Taco Bell with Mike and Dave Goffan.. another skate session at Ikea. Wasn't very focused, only accomplishment was one good distanced manual.

As for the upcoming week, Lauren inspired me to arrange a Veggie Heaven outting on Friday Night for my birthday. As of yet, no real plan afterwards though. Maybe Axis Lounge? I dunno. Other than that, I need to do a little weight lifting, cause I didn't do any of that this weekend. I may also research poker dealer school also, to find out some details on that.

Oh.. and I think I am going to hook up my Yamaha Keyboard in the morning hopefully. I want to get into some sort of music study/practice, and I'm not doing great with that lately.

My Ipod Nano is supposed to get here on my birthday also. I'll most likely be selling to Johanna cause she wants an mp3 players, and I am ok with using my Rio Nitrus still.

Location: Tournament-land
Now Listening: The Clash - Silicon on Sapphire

awesome

2006-04-27T15:10:00.000-04:00

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da news

2006-04-27T12:01:00.000-04:00

I'm supposed to be hanging out in NYC right now, but there were too many bad online poker players last night for me to go to sleep. Account is still at $4500.. have had some major swings, and am disappointed that I'm now at $5K now. On the bright side, I had enough Frequent Player Points to make my free order:

__________________________________________________________
Dear davebreal,

Thank you for your order from our FPP Store.
This confirms that you have ordered the following:

iPod nano 4 GB
FPP price: 16000
Color: Black

Your order will be shipped within 4-6 weeks
http://www.pokerstars.com/FPPStore/ipod.html
_________________________________________________________
My intentions are resist the temptation to keep it, and sell immediately on Ebay. I want to use the money to buy a widescreen monitor, preferably around 23". Actually I'm already 1/16th of the way to a 2nd Ipod, so there's more money in my pocket.

I played guitar with Pete yesterday, and had a good time learning a couple of parts to The New Jersey's songs.

Moving along, I have an interview coming up at Sands hotel/resort on Monday morning coming up. I don't know the pay range, but I'm psyched to check out the job.

_________________________________________________________
COORD-ADVERTISING Job ID: 5917
Division: Sands Atlantic City
Location: Atlantic City, NJ US
Travel Involved: None
Job Type: Full Time
Job Level: Experienced
Education: High school or equivalent
Category: Marketing
Department: Human Resources
Compensation: Not Specified

Job Description

Responsible for tracking advertising expenditures and preparing regular reports for management. Audits agency and all other advertising vendor billings. Allocates expenditures to proper budget accounts. Assists in the production of advertising and related materials. Must be knowledgeable of the Casino Control Act and its attendant regulations. Performs all other related and compatible duties as assigned.

Job Requirements

College diploma preferred. One (1) to Two (2) years experience in the advertising field.
___________________________________________________________

well, I think that's enough updates for now... time to gambool

Location: home
Now Listening: Bob Marley - No More Trouble(live)

stuff

2006-04-20T17:10:00.001-04:00

I guess I can do a quick post while I'm sitting here waiting for a playable hand on PokerStars. Went out last night with Pete and met up with Rob and a couple of others also at The Office in Morristown. Kinda dead there, but $2.25 drafts.

Just sitting at home for a while now, but I think I'll go to the mall later on. I want to find the best price on a set of 35lb weights. I have a set of 50 and 75 already, but really can't do many exercises with those.

Talked to Sheindel earlier, she and I are gonna go to to hang out tomorrow night. Nothing definite planned for Saturday yet, but maybe I'll head over to Joe's to hang out again in Budd Lake... good time last week. Thanks Joey R.

Been sending my resume out to AC fairly regular... no replies yet, but I'm gonna continue to stay on top of that for a while.

Location: computer desk
Now Listening: RHCP - Warm Tape

2006-04-20T17:10:00.000-04:00

Location: computer desk
Now Listening: RHCP - Warm Tape

tomorrow

2006-04-16T20:56:00.000-04:00

looks like I'll be in AC again tomorrow just for the day. Dan is heading down to meet up with his dad and brother, so I'll go get a few hours of rounding in at the Borgata and the Taj Mahal.

I kinda was thinking of tomorrow as an exercise/skateboard/music day, but I guess that will have to be Tuesday.

2006-04-15T11:50:00.000-04:00

I am currently eating some of Nature Valley's finest before I head out to go jogging. I went to AC for some gambooling with the Maywood Crew on Thursday Night, and it was good to hang out with everyone. We stayed and played at Bally's with a brief excursion over to the Tropicana. I made a few $$$ to help my poker confidence.

Stopped at Small Empire skatepark last night, kinda boring. Mobs of sweatty 13 yr olds skateboarding. Not sure what's going on tonight, but I think I have several phonecalls to make beforehand. Have a brunch to go to for Easter (not excited), but will be free the rest of the day. I'm getting harassed to go back to AC on Monday, but I don't feel like committing to that yet, as everybody's off from work and their might be something better to do.

I was really pumped to bring my camera to AC to get pics of hanging out... and of course I left it right here on the floor at home... great job.

Location: Home
Now Listening: Weezer - The World Has Turned

weekend

2006-04-09T16:06:00.000-04:00

I met up with Rob and a few of his friends at the Exchange (bar) in Rockaway on Friday night, good time was had, and eventually met up with Joe, Tim, and CCov later on.

Loop Lounge last night with Mike, Dimeck, and Liz. Didn't hear that many great songs... but at least they played "How Soon is Now?" by the Smiths.

I gotta crack down on taxes, and do some job hunting come tomorrow. Poker in Dumont tonight at 6:30... I think I'm overdue to hit Taco Bell... and I maybe drop in at Ikea for a quick skate session also.

new pic

2006-04-05T12:51:00.000-04:00

Me and my dope ride

Tuesday Night Post

2006-04-04T23:28:00.000-04:00

I think I'm gonna go find some smooth pavement for a skate session soon... been playing online poker the entire night now.

I went jogging down the boulevard in Mountain Lakes this afternoon... ran at least 80% of the time there and back down. One of my longest recent runs. I haven't been too physique conscious lately, most likely since I'm not currently a gym member.

I don't know what else I'm doing this week, I probably don't have any plans, but then again I have a horrible memory. Certainly need to do my taxes soon.

...need to get outside to skate before I lose motivation.

Location: D-ville
Now Listening: Flaming Lips - Mr Ambulance Driver

another overdue post

2006-03-28T17:14:00.000-05:00

sitting around in Denville right now... internet poker and listening to Grand Funk Railroad (really awesome stuff). Went out to skate a little earlier... I didn't stay out there too long, but still a decent time. Doing well with online poker for whatever that's worth.

Not all that many concrete plans for the week thus far. Headed to the city with the gang on Saturday night.

Saw the movie Crash with Sheindel over the weekend... pretty awesome. Thought provoking and emotional.

before i head out

2006-03-21T12:19:00.000-05:00

...before I head out for my morning jog (and screw up my back yet again)

I got the scores to 2/3 of my GRE exam instantly yesterday... both my Verbal and Quantitative scores were slightly above average. I consider that a great success personally, since there were some really tough questions. I will have to wait 2-3 weeks to have my writing section analyzed, but I think I spewed out some Grade A verbal jargon for that, so I'm expecting a decent/good score there also.

My PokerStars account is now over $1K in real money, which is a milestone for me. I've been grinding away and trying to improve. I'm still making too many errors, but I can usually recognize them instantly at least. It's hard to make "real" money playing low-limit poker, so I will try to step it up a notch and see what happens. Of course... internet poker may very well slow down/stop in September 2006. US politicians are shooting to take it down, and there is basically zero organized opposition to the bills presented. I will certainly enjoy it while it lasts, at least.

I'll be moving back in with my parents this weekend... a change to say the least. Looking forward to spending more time with my old friends from home. I may actually have more to do there, than I do living at my own place.

Considering going to AC on Thurs night. Generally weekends are the best times for the poker variations that I care to play... but I guess I've seen some decent action on Thursdays too. Other than that, I dunno... just trying to get back into my exercise routine... and waiting for it to get warm out so I can skateboard a little.

Location: in front of a glowing monitor
Now Listening: Sublime - Pawn Shop

shamrocks and shenanigans

2006-03-17T17:29:00.000-05:00

I believe Mike and I are hanging out with Ed early on, then hitting some local dives afterwards. I suppose I'll have to drink at least 1 Irish car bomb in honor of the holiday.

Headed back to AC tomorrow night with my friend Dan. Taking GRE exam 11:30AM on Monday. I will be living back with my parents as of next weekend also.

My back's a little bit sore right now, but I definitely want to skate soon.

Location: in front of my computer as usual
Now Listening: Mazzy Star - I've Been Let Down

tired

2006-03-16T01:08:00.000-05:00

Not much of a profit, but it was exciting nonethless. 71st place out of 1872 isn't that bad!

These long tournaments sure are fatiguing though.

I never had a big chip stack, so I was lucky to make it that far.

PokerStars Tournament #21184651, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $3.00/$0.30
1872 players
Total Prize Pool: $24918.00
Tournament started - 2006/03/15 - 20:15:00 (ET)

Dear davebreal,

You finished the tournament in 71st place.
A $44.86 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 77.63 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Neglect

2006-03-12T15:23:00.000-05:00

So yeah, I've been neglecting this page a lot lately, but I'm constantly posting on my livejournal poker page, and also I have an account at pokerhand.org now, so I post interesting online poker hands there whenever I get time. I was in AC Thurs-Fri, and overcame a BIG deficit, and cashed out +$200. Nothing crazy, but the momentum is still flowing.

Went to the Loop Lounge with M1k3k last night, ran into Liz... also ran into Joe and Nick there. Nice surprise.. very old friends that I haven't seen in years. All of this recent skateboarding talk is making me itch... I'm dieing to hit the pavement.

Went jogging this morning... pretty warm out... little drizzly. My back started hurting, which is nothing out of the ordinary... I just get angry and continue running anyways. F' you vertebrae.

Poker tonight in Dumont.

Location: Cyberspace
Now Listening: Ben Harper - Gather Round the Stone

Score

2006-03-06T04:31:00.000-05:00

PokerStars Tournament #20791892, No Limit Hold'em
Super Satellite
Buy-In: $3.00
524 players
Total Prize Pool: $5130.00
Target Tournament #20354660 Buy-In: $215.00
23 tickets to the target tournament

Tournament started - 2006/03/05 - 23:59:00 (ET)

Dear davebreal,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
You qualified to play in Tournament #20354660 and are automatically registered for it.
See Tournament #20354660 Lobby for further details.

If you choose to unregister from this tournament your account will be credited
with $215.00 Tournament dollars. Tournament dollars can be used to buy into
any tournament.
Visit our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/tournaments.html for more details.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Location: going to bed.. finally

Four Four 2006

2006-03-04T13:45:00.000-05:00

was in AC Thurs-Fri, write is on my livejournal page. Helped Adam pack up the U-Haul this morning along with Mike, Jay, Allen, and Tim. Good get together, and scored some free coffee and bagels for my efforts. Stopped in at Paramus Park mall to pick up something for mom's bday... I plan on heading over to their house tomorrow morning. I think I should be going to the Bigwig show in Montclair tonight with Noah and his friends. I'm not a huge Bigwig fan, but I had one of their cd's in the past, and it's fairly easy listening for me. Just another reason to get out of the house.

I took a couple pics of the Boardwalk in AC when I was killing time early Friday morning (there was absolutely nothing else to do). If anything turns out decent, I'll put edit and put it up on my flickr page.

Location:
Now Listening: RHCP - The Zephyr Song

Sunday Morning Post

2006-02-26T10:37:00.000-05:00

Made it down to AC again yesterday with Dave and Mike from Dumont. Had another small victory, for a profitable week. I don't even think I've been playing particularly well at all, I might just be running hot for now. In any case, I will go down at least once next week, and see if the streak continues. I'd be amazed if I could make any sort of minor income from poker. I actually made more money this week, than I would have at my job.

Today is "responsible day", so I will make myself go jogging soon. I ate awfully yesterday and remained in a state of inertia at the poker table for many hours. I also have to focus on GRE test studies. I have a PDF of practice formulas for the math section, and I have so much to catch up on.

I'm definitely psyched to go see Walter play on Wednesday in the city. That guy truly deserves a lifetime achievement award for all the good music that he's ever written. So far the posse is myself, Mike, Tim, and Fred. That same little bar was super crowded when we went to see Walter last year.

Location: home
Now Listening: Stone Roses - Fool's Gold

2006-02-23T23:29:00.000-05:00

I made a solo trip down to AC yesterday, first time ever for me. It felt good, felt like an adventure. I actually wanted to stop off at some shore points to get some ocean pictures, but I needed to get to the Taj Mahal by 12:15 for the tournament, and I was feeling a tad drowsy on 1:30AM departure from the casino also. I'm not going to delve into poker detail, but I did the write up here. I got my standard amount of table talk in, and met some really cool people down there. Some of them are regulars. I'm also starting to recognize some of the dealers at the Taj Mahal.

I felt like garbage this morning, since I got home at 4AM. Slept for a while, woke up, still felt awful, and my voice was mostly shot. Eventually I made it over to Barnes and Noble to flip through a GRE (the college exam) practice book. I only looked at the verbal section, and there was just tons of vocabulary words that I've never heard before. That got boring, so I checked out the book called Blink, and no that has nothing to do with a pop punk band. It's a really fascinating book about how quickly our subconscious can process information, and how long it takes for us to actually understand the info. I read a few chapters, and will definitely have to read the entirety sometime soon. The book was pretty hype up by some poker players... as quick decision making is such a factor in successful hold em play.

Well, I need to log onto PokerStars now, but hey, at least I got a post in.

Location: Home
Now Listening: Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear the Reaper

gate02c.medcohealth.com

2006-02-21T10:02:00.000-05:00

IP Address: 167.211.190.2

Hostname: gate02c.medcohealth.com

Location: Franklin Lakes, NJ

___________________________________________________

This person is apparently my biggest fan, according to my hit tracker. I'm not sure who it is, since I never really gave my link out to anyone at work. Seems that they read a lot of my archives yesterday, and came back for more today ( 167.211.190.2 - - [21/Feb/2006:08:45:40 US/Eastern] ) on a Netscape browser (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)").

My page got a lot of hits during my lunchbreak yesterday, so it obviously couldn't be anyone that hangs out in the cafeteria with us between 1PM and 2PM. This detective work sure is a tough gig, I tell ya.

First of all, I don't know why anyone uses Netscape at all, it's got a really bad interface. Second of all, thanks for being a faithful NjFelt reader, and feel free to leave a comment or 2 about my site. My guess is that my mystery guess is either part of management, or possibly a systems administrator. I could be wrong...

top 10

2006-02-20T12:06:00.000-05:00

Top 10 things I will miss from this job

10) free coffee (half decent)
9) occasional hummus in cafeteria
8) good excuse to listen to internet radio
7) chick spotting
6) blogging from work
5) having a landline phone
4) forces me to stay groomed
3) beating the work proxy, and viewing blocked websites
2) free gym
1) income

Location: last day on the job

myspace article

2006-02-17T14:21:00.000-05:00

some funny stuff under comments

art

2006-02-17T12:06:00.000-05:00

yeah, I don't know if I like this or not.

the olympics

2006-02-16T08:56:00.000-05:00

the olympics...

are quite possibly one of the most boring events to me, and I would probably receive the same thrills by watching a surveillance camera at the local library.

Man oh man, the American society will continue sitting back in their lazy boys, watching the boob tube, eating Ho-Ho's and Ding Dongs, and having their minds slowly melt away.

I may be a poker addict, but at least that involves more decision making than picking Cheetos over Fritos. Maybe it's a bad thing that I have so many negative comments to make that pertain to so many people. I just can't see how people can really justify their lifestyles to themselves, or make themselves they believe they are normal... or worse yet, cool... for being spectators. If someone was going to offer me $10/hr to soley watch public television for a few hours every night, I don't think I could bring myself to do it.... I guess if it were $20, we might start talking business.

...worked 8:30 - 7:30 last night. Normally I get pretty pissed when I have to skip the gym, but with a whopping 3 days left of work, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's great how disorganized my desk here, and how much filing someone else is going to have do when I'm gone. Man, am I evil.

I re-instituted an old cd in my car this morning - Punk in Drublic by NoFx. Notice how it's rated at 4.5/5 stars on Amazon? Linoleum is such a bad ass song... seriously.

Location:
Now Listening: Bob Marley - Buffalo Soldier

Happy Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T10:50:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to the Hallmark greeting card company, for selling ornate pieces of paper to foolish American consumers from the ranges of $2.75 - $5.00.

In honor of Valentine's day I will celebrate by going to the gym, and then most likey playing internet poker. I'm not wearing any red today... but then again I really don't wear much red at all.

I randomly ran into Jay last night at Chili's while me and Vtec Dan were killing time before headed to the poker game. I played poker for about 4 hours last night... and got my money back... awesome, that's what poker is all about.. breaking even.

rival vegas

2006-02-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

I had a dream last night that I was swimming in a small-ish community river in a canyon in the Las Vegas region last night, and that Rival Schools was playing, so I went over to check out the show.

Pretty bizarre.

Location: office
Now Listening: Weezer

end of a theory

2006-02-12T21:18:00.000-05:00

Just like Mike I was also a little upset to hear about the breakup of one of my friend bands, The Juliana Theory. I just have a lot of good memories associated with the music, like driving home late at night, on my way home from hanging out with friends. Sure it sounds sappy, but they really had some songs that hit home with me.

Thanks for the tunes, and the inspiration boys.

..and now I shall get back to my online 7 Card Stud High/Low tables.

Location: at my computer
Now Listening: tv in the background

notes

2006-02-10T16:56:00.000-05:00

note to self - make it to grocery store tomorrow, before crazy blizzard hits.

2nd note to self - also go jogging in the morning.

Playing poker at Mike's house at 9PM tonight. I have been doing nothing but playing poker lately, and have become a Livejournal addict. I have definitely networked with some interesting and cool people on there. Click on the Friends tab on my page to view their entries.

6 more business days until I'm a bum.

Location: Headed to the Gym
Now Listening: Bob Marley

more planning

2006-02-08T16:23:00.000-05:00

My last day of work here is officially Monday 2/20. I'm really excited for that. I think on that following Tuesday, I will take a nice car ride down the parkway, stop off at some ocean point, and stop to smell the fresh air for once. Then I shall proceed to Atlantic City with a few Benjamin's for some practice at the low limit poker tables.

I've been thinking of ways that I can cut back on spending since I might not be working for a couple of months. The first thing that comes to mind is coffee. It's a very minor expense, but it's one that I can easily do without. I probably won't play poker any less in general, since I have been winning more often than not lately.

As soon as my job ends, I need to get on the ball with starting the school process, because once I have that straightened out, I can get a part-time job. I cringe at the idea of not being able to go out on the weekend for a few beers.

Anyways, I'm sure this is pretty uninteresting to read, but I am nervous about making major changes, and doubtful that I can succeed. We shall see though...

I'm thinking that I may re-install Dreamweaver at home soon, and get some practice in with real web design. Maybe I can make a few $$$ freelancing at that with a little hard work. I should probably take a stab at Flash animations also... I have never done that before.

Snoogans

2006-02-07T17:48:00.000-05:00

Mike and I stopped into Kevin Smith's store in Red Bank on Saturday.

Location: Home
Now Listening: The humming of my computer

AC View

2006-02-06T12:51:00.000-05:00

Somehow this post got deleted... no idea how.

Done

2006-02-06T11:19:00.000-05:00

I handed in my resignation today. It feels really good.

I think I may end up living at home again, to get a teaching degree.

... we shall see.

Location: soon to be ex-job

What's Your Outlaw Biker Name?

2006-02-02T13:28:00.000-05:00

http://www.ratbike.org/motorcycho/outlawname.php

I'm Bubba of the Donkey Punchers MC.

...hmm.. I'm not feeling it.

Location: Hell
Now Listening: RHCP - Higher Ground

Football

2006-01-31T16:55:00.000-05:00

In further related news, I entered a raffle to win $50 to Sports Authority at work on my lunch break, but got 2nd place and won a football.

Location: Going to the gym now
Now Listening: The Beatles - The Ballad of John and Yoko

Superbowl Boycott

2006-01-31T10:54:00.000-05:00

Anyone else out there interested in starting an annual Superbowl Boycott? Every year I join people in sitting around a television for several hours to spectate an event I have absolutely no interest in. It is surely the most overhyped day of every year in America, and I always look forward to it passing. The half-time acts are usually bands 20 years beyond their primes, or crappy pop stars doing their best lip-sync dance routines. The "funny commercials" are really not that funny, and not worth talking about at work the following day. ...oh, and spectator sports are just that, activities for people who like to spectate as opposed to those who like activities of personal challenge, learning, or even worse... getting exercise yourself.

I am hoping to be someplace where sportstalk, hot wings, or meaningless sentiments of American macho-ism will not be present. I think great alternatives would be a poker game with no sports TV in the background, hitting a few dive bars, going to a show, or maybe playing some guitar.

If you find excitement in taking time to celebrate the athleticism and strategy of people you never have or never will meet... this boycott is not for you.

"Participate, don't spectate." ~ DRB

Location: Worky Work
Now Listening: The Clash - Clash City Rockers

..stuff..

2006-01-30T12:06:00.000-05:00

First day of the work week...

Had an enjoyable time in AC, despite missing out on the big day which I chronicled on my livejournal. Had some good support for the final table from Jay, Joe, Ron, Dan, Mike, and Theresa.

Cruised out for a jog yesterday, hit the weight bench for a minute... feeling a little weak since I didn't exercise much last week.

Usual stuff going on this week pretty much. Headed to Nightmare of You show with Mike on Saturday in Middletown NJ. I wouldn't describe them as a favorite band, but at the same time, I don't find the music abrasive at all, so maybe I'll enjoy seeing them live. I haven't heard of the supporting bands before, or had time to look them up yet.

I think our Vegas trip in July will be finalized soon. Definites are myself, Jay, and Joe... I think my friend Rob from Dumont will be coming also, which is a nice addition. As far as I know, we are looking into staying at either Bally's or the Excalibur for now. I guess both are decent locations... I'm not sure if I have a preference.

I guess I need to get my haircut soon, it's starting to get wavy and crazy again. Just have to find time to get to Supercuts, which is tough because I go to the gym after work almost everyday, and I don't shower until I get home.

I'm debating buying a new verizon phone soon, since I've had mine for over a year. It works alright, only problem is the stupid dust that keeps collecting in it. I may just clean it out and keep on trucking... I don't really need to spend that money just yet.

Location: Somewhere I don't want to be
Now Listening: Modest Mouse

Planning

2006-01-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

I have an overnight bag in my car for AC, which I put so much effort into remembering, but of course I left the lunch I made at home... like a moron. I did however, bring a bit of booze for the hotel, rounded up a few spare cans of Coors Light, and also the ol' bottle of Zambuca(sp?). I actually will probably be the most sober of the group, since Dan, Theresa, Mike, and Paul are all verified binge alcoholics. I also brought some books and my Mp3 player in case I need to kill time in the car or at the hotel. Picked up a few Protein/Energy bars at the convienent local CVS (24 hrs), by my house last night. I know I am going to be eating horribly tonight and tomorrow, so that will make me feel a little more healthy... plus food in Atlantic City is always really under-portioned and really over-priced.

This is suprisingly the first time I've ever staying over in AC. Chances are, we will most likely be back around 7 or 8PM tomorrow. Of course, if any of us do actually qualify in the satellite... that's a whole other ball of yarn.

Location: Same Battime, same Batplace
Now Listening: Ritchie Valens - Oh Donna

Crazy

2006-01-26T14:26:00.000-05:00

One of my co-workers, a guy in his mid-30's, with 2 kids and a wife told me that I should take a shot at moving to Las Vegas and gambling for a living. That's pretty crazy to hear from a responsible adult.

Really makes me think though.

Location: Cubicleland
Now Listening: Alice in Chains - Heaven Beside You

New Designs

2006-01-25T16:13:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to customize this blog a little bit more lately, so that it looks a less generic. I'm not sure if I like it, but my background is new, I edited a picture of the Ace of Spades, changed the colors around to be less distracting from my blog text, and even put my own signature on the card. Since I don't have my own web server, or pay for any real internet space, I'm stealing the bandwidth off of my livejournal userpics area. They let me use pics up to 40K, which is fine for a small background design that will repeat. I wonder if they'll notice that I'm jacking the bandwidth? I'm not sure if I get a bandwidth limit for livejournal... I haven't seen any statements at all about that.

Only a nerd like me is going to think of topics like those... or even come up with the idea of jacking livejournal bandwidth.

This is what I made for my new background

This is what my template had originally provided.

This was the original card I made, but I don't think it looked right on my blog.

Maybe my color scheme should be brighter... I dunno.

Location:
Now Listening:

Surrender

2006-01-25T15:14:00.000-05:00

I always have trouble naming my posts... maybe it's better to write the actual post first, and then pick a title afterwards. I guess I have to call Jim in a few minutes, and decide if we're jamming tonight. I do want to get to the gym tonight too though, I skipped yesterday because I worked an hour late. Our gym at work closes at 8PM, and also I noticed the parking lot was supercrowded when I was driving home at 6PM yesterday. It's a safe bet to say all of the equipment was used. I like to get there at 5PM on the dot, as it's usually pretty vacant at that time. I was reading a poker book for a few minutes last night and it implied that all poker players are due to fall out of shape. I guess that's somewhat true, because there's always marathon sessions, and really crazy hours. I guess the statement kinda bothered me though, because in my delusion of becoming a real poker player, I would also want to stay fit.

I think I'm going to stay home to relax tomorrow night. I need to pack a few things for the Atlantic City excursion. I want to bring my camera down to shoot a few pictures of the crew, as well as the boardwalk and whatnot. I'm also thinking that I should buy a few Balance bars, since I will probably be spending extended periods of time at the poker tables. I have to drive to Dan's house straight from work on Friday... I'm going to try to leave work a little early. I guess I'm a little pessimistic about AC, I'm expecting to spend any money I bring down there... who knows though.

It's a shame I can't go see Less Than Jake play tomorrow, I'd really like to see them play some of their newer songs. They had some really cool reggae songs on their last LP, Anthem. Plus, their cover of Surrender kicks *ss.

Surrender, but don't give yourself away.

Location: Franklin Lakes
Now Listening: Beastie Boys - Slow and Low

Awesome

2006-01-23T09:09:00.000-05:00

Stopped at Dunkin' Donuts after jogging yesterday, closed my car door to walk inside, and heard my car window drop on its own??? I instantly knew I was screwed. I have electric windows, and the window would not move up or down at all, and wouldn't even stay closed if I moved it manually. Fooled around with it for a while on my own, and got really frustrated. Drove to my parents house, my dad helped me by taking off the door panel, which is a major project in itself. The cable the raises and lowers the window itself snapped. Right now my window is propped up by a PVC tube stuck inside the actual door frame. Have to call Honda today to see what type of extortion they can demand from me. I have a little under 2,000 miles left under my extended warranty... if they will even cover this.

Awesome.

Location: a beige cubicle
Now Listening: Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American

SOD

2006-01-19T09:01:00.000-05:00

Everytime System of a Down comes on internet radio I have to mute it before the singing starts. I am still pretty sure they are one of the worst "bands" ever, and I am using the word "band" pretty loosely because I consider their noise to be more garbage than anything. I wish SOD and The Darkness would do a concert series together in China, in hopes they would both be thrown into military prisons for extremely long sentences involving corporal punishment.

I'm going to attempt to get to happy hour tonight with the crew from my old job. I went to the gym last night, and plan on running this weekend also, so I don't feel too guilty about skipping a night. I'm probably skinnier and stronger right now than I have been in a long time.

Sounds like Mike and I will most likely head into the city tomorrow night, and see Johanna's brother's band play at Don Hill's. If I'm not mistaken, the whole crew is coming along. Holla if you read this boys.

Atlantic City and The Borgata await.... 1 more week.

******************************

PokerStars Tournament #18289365, Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
Buy-In: $3.00/$0.40
10 players
Total Prize Pool: $30.00
Tournament started - 2006/01/19 - 00:16:58 (ET)

Dear davebreal,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $15.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Bandage Changing

2006-01-18T12:39:00.000-05:00

This is real, I saw this while browsing job postings. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm qualified.

Bandage Changing
...Bandage Changing last modified: Thu 12 Jan 17:14 EST Bandage Changing Reply to: job-124829978craigslist.org Date: 2006-01-12 5:14PM EST Private home resident seeks a nursing student/nurse interested in in-home bandage changing for leg ulcers. Requires approximately 15-20 minutes. 6 days/wk Currently Mon-Sat Time is somewhat flexible. Bandage changing skills & compassion essential!

The Bloomberg Article

2006-01-18T09:47:00.000-05:00

For whatever reason, I can't make a good link to the article, so here it is...
*******************************************************

Poker's Card Sharks Aren't Old Enough to Drive: Scott Soshnick
Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Turn on the television, even in the wee morning hours, and there's a good chance you'll come across either a ``Law & Order'' rerun or a group of guys playing poker.

Poker is ubiquitous on the ESPN and Fox cable networks. Bravo and the Travel Channel broadcast poker programs, too.

The ratings are good. On ESPN, poker-related programming draws about three times the audience that used to tune in to the channel's National Hockey League games.

What isn't tracked or known is how many kids have become hooked on gambling on the Internet or in their basements since poker replaced ``Friends'' and ``Seinfeld'' as must-see TV.

Teaching kids to gamble isn't smart. No 10-year-old should eagerly anticipate the river card, which often determines which player wins a hand of Texas Hold'em, the most-popular brand of poker shown on television.

Unlike Omaha High or seven-card stud, which entail endless possibilities for calculating odds, Texas Hold'em can be learned in a few minutes. That simplicity is what appeals to kids, who no longer want to be like Mike, as in Jordan, the former basketball star. They'd rather emulate Chris Moneymaker, an amateur player who pocketed $2.5 million when he won the 2003 World Series of Poker.

``Poker players are not athletes and they are not role models for our children,'' says Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals hockey team and vice chairman of America Online, the Internet division of Time Warner Inc. ``We are creating a culture of gambling convenience, and will rue the day we introduced this phenomenon into mainstream youth culture.''

It wasn't long ago that a half hour of Ben Affleck and his celebrity pals yakking their way through hands of poker were absent from the small screen.

Neat Trick

It started in 2003, when ESPN, better known for broadcasting sports such as baseball, football and basketball, began showing poker. The channel pulled off a neat trick -- installing a tiny camera on the playing table that allowed viewers to see who was holding what cards. Ratings soared.

Poker had two advantages. The professional sports leagues demand billions of dollars in television rights fees, a cost that broadcasters sometimes can't recoup. By contrast, poker is cheap.

More important, poker programming proved eminently capable of delivering viewers from that most-coveted demographic, men aged 18 to 34. Advertisers drool over frat boys with money to spend and fluid brand loyalty.

This revelation, of course, prompted other networks to introduce their take on poker.

Poker Stars

An explosion of poker-playing sites followed on the Internet, where impressionable kids spend much of their time these days.

Poker has followed the template well-worn by professional sports, cultivating rivalries and making celebrities out of the most successful and colorful figures. Take, for example, World Series of Poker regulars Phil Helmuth and Chris Ferguson. Both men have their own Web sites, books and devoted followings.

The game has become so mainstream that the New York Times in June hired a poker scribe, James McManus, who opened his first column by stating that, ``whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn poker.''

To see how omnipresent poker has become, check the offerings in America's toy stores.

You can buy all sorts of poker paraphernalia at Toys ``R'' Us, which sells a deluxe poker set with aluminum case. It's for kids age 8 and older. Hide-and-go-seek, or perhaps running bases, seems more appropriate for that age group.

Catching On

Even the sports leagues themselves are catching on to the craze. The National Basketball Association, for instance, sells a poker set. Two decks of cards (adorned with the faces of NBA players), five dice, a dealer button and 500 chips can be yours for $129.99.

How prevalent is poker?

Almost one in five Americans over the age of 21 played during the previous 15 months, a 50 percent increase over 2004, according to the American Gaming Association, a Washington-based industry group.

In Nevada and New Jersey, the only states that track poker revenue, Americans spent $151.7 million on organized poker in 2004, a 45 percent increase over the previous year.

Those statistics bring us back to Leonsis and his point about the dangers of poker.

Bet on It

Listen to Marty, who has spent the past 32 years attending meetings of Gambler's Anonymous, which is why he won't disclose his last name.

``More kids, younger and younger, are coming to meetings, and they're addicted to the Internet and poker. I'm sure it's going to get worse,'' he says. ``Parents have a tendency to look at it as a harmless vice, unlike taking drugs or drinking. But it's just as devastating.''

Congress last year scolded the major U.S. sports leagues for their lax testing for performance-enhancing drugs. It's only a matter of time before gambling takes center stage on Capitol Hill.

Like the steroid hearings, the poker proceedings will be carried live on one of the ESPN channels. You can bet it.

To contact the writer of this column:
Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net

An Email I Sent Out

2006-01-17T11:14:00.000-05:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 11:10 AM
To: xxxxx
Subject:

I love morons who have no idea what they are talking about. If someone tried to tell me that Negreanu and Ivy don't deserve their superstar statuses, I might have to slap them in the face. Look at all the degenerate athletes with convictions of heavy drugs, firearms, or beating their wives. Why should they be considered role models?

People really don't understand poker.

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

``Poker players are not athletes and they are not role models for our children,'' says Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals hockey team

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_soshnick&sid=awxVztElg7Fg

Dave's The Big Winner!

2006-01-16T23:16:00.000-05:00

***

You heard it here folks... huge tournament score, I put in $3, took 1st to profit $12, and broke dead even for the night. I can definitely rest easy now.

Wee Hours of Sunday

2006-01-15T01:54:00.000-05:00

Yeah, it's 2AM, I'm pretty awake still... downed a large french vanilla from Dunkin Donuts a little while ago on my way back from poker. I'm playing on PokerStars for a few more minutes, and then I'm gonna fire up some electric guitar.

I ended up working until 8:45PM on Friday night. I had planned on cruising into the city to hang out with everyone, but things just didn't work out. I ended up staying in, and crashed fairly early.

I did force myself to go jogging Saturday afternoon... of course I procrastinated so long, that it was already 2PM by that time.. and raining. F' it, I threw on a windbreaker, and saddled up... hadn't exercised since Weds so I really needed to burn some calories. It's getting icy out right now as I type this, so I don't know if I can get a Sunday jog in also. I hope so.. not feeling too toned at the moment.

Me, Jay, Joe, Ron, and Kelly played a few games of poker in Hackensack last night. I was playing pretty stupidly for the most part, and luckily I caught a lot of big hands to take the last game. I'm doing my best into talking everyone into another Vegas trip this summer. Last year was definitely a lot of fun.

I will be playing tomorrow night in Dumont also. Gotta really get focused... we will be headed to the satellite for the Borgata Open in 2 weeks.

Charlie Don't Surf

2006-01-12T10:46:00.000-05:00

Incredible, they are playing The Clash - Charlie Don't Surf on internet radio. This is such a great song! That song is from the album Sandinista, a diverse and experimental album that contains surf songs, R&B, gospel, funk, etc. This album got a lot of scorn from punk purists, but I think it's awesome.

A Couple O' Pics

2006-01-12T07:15:00.000-05:00

My hair was absolutely ridiculuous when this was taken. I could be wrong, but I think Ed was the photographer??? Bottled black n' tan is a great idea though

Glowing Yamaha. A photoshop jobbie I did a while ago, that kinda looked cool. My ill-used keyboard.

Strumming The Blues

2006-01-10T10:14:00.000-05:00

Here's the guitar book I picked up recently, it's got transcriptions of traditional Delta Blues songs and stuff like that. Of course, it's sounding pretty awful with me mangling the songs at 3 beats per minute right now. I'm enjoying trying it though, and maybe it is the type of music I can really get into playing eventually. Some of the guitar licks in it are pretty badass, and unlike anything I have ever played before. Lots of twangy slides and stuff like that. The book is a good thing because it's giving me goals to work forward to for the time being, and I think it might expand my overall ability.

I may have to dig up some Blues albums to listen to, because I don't have any in circulation at the moment. I know that I do have albums by Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Buddy Guy laying around somewhere.

***note - I am getting really excited for AC later on this month.

Weekend Recap

2006-01-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

Well, so many crazy things happened over the weekend, it's going to be tough to include them all in one post. Ok, so maybe nothing crazy really happened at all.

Mike and I cruised into NY around 9:30 Friday to rendez-vous with Tim. We proceeded to the overcrowded bars on the east side. We did a round at Niagara, but it was pretty much a mob scene in there. We proceeded to 2x4 Saloon on 2nd Ave & 4th Street. The place is a stereotypical dive bar, with a pinch of white trash thrown into the mix. Of course, $2 PBR's in New York is definitely a thing of beauty. Also, the female bartendars were dancing to bad rap songs on the bar. Keith and Johanna came there eventually, and by that point the alcohol was starting to set in with me. We ended up meeting Fred at HiFi, but it was already around 3AM, so nobody stayed there very long. All-in-all, I'd rate it as a good night out.

On Saturday I went jogging, played some online poker, played some guitar, and headed over to Jay's condo around 4PM to give those fools a little poker schooling. Unfortunately, I busted out of the 1st game really early when Pocket Aces lost to Pocket Fours. Tough to fold that on a flop of K 8 4. I was pretty dissappointed in myself. I consider busting with Aces a very amateur move, and the person I was playing against is a very tight/passive player. I made my comeback the 2nd game though, to come out a cool $10 in the green for the night. Ace King suited did not let me down!

I didn't end up going out on Saturday Night, just wasn't feeling motivated. Maybe because I blew a decent chunk of change on drinking the previous night.

I didn't do all that much on Sunday, played a little of guitar, although I wasn't too focused. Made my way over to Taco Bell, had the new Cheesy Bean & Rice Burrito again. It's fairly decent, but I may switch back to the original bean burrito. Went to play cards in Rochelle Park at 8PM last night. An $80 score for 2nd place there. I'm not sure how or why I've been winning so frequently lately, since I seriously do not consider myself that great.

Anyways, I've finished backing up my hard drives at home and burned pretty much anything of any importance to DVD. I think I filled up about 8 DVD's. I guess that's a little over 32 gigabytes total. It's pretty cool because now I don't have to worry much about my computer going kaputz. I have had bad luck with hard drives going corrupt and dying on me over the past couple of years. For all of those inquiring minds out there my at home setup is:

2 internal hard drives:
140gb
140gb
1 standalone external firewire drive:
100gb
firewire enclosure for 2 separate drives:
200gb (partitioned into 2 parts)
0gb (blank slot)

About 580gb of total storage at the moment. I'm sure over 300 of that is free.

I'm not going to do much downloading or fooling around with the hard drive my OS is installed on though, the last thing I want to do is to re-install Windows, all of my drivers, and a bunch of applications.

Pre-Weekend Post

2006-01-06T09:51:00.000-05:00

Wow, my Post titles really do suck, maybe I need to work on that.

I fooled around on electric guitar for a while, basically everything I played sounded exactly the same. I have to exchange something at the music store after work, so I think I may get a book on basic slide guitar. Music books usually fall under 2 categories, either ridiculously easy and useless, or ridiculously hard and frustrating. It's pretty rare to find anything I can comfortably learn from. I guess that's why people get guitar teachers, it is pretty difficult to teach yourself stuff. Maybe I'll fire up my bass guitar for the short period I am home tonight. I'm trying to play basic melodic rhythm patterns that can easily be complimented by lead guitar. I feel this is the sort of practice that will make me a better guitar player, and develop my ear more.

I don't know why I write this stuff on my blog, because it is probably not interesting to anyone who doesn't play guitar at all... but this is basically the type of stuff that does run through my mind. I'd write about current events, if I ever knew what was going on in the world. Unfortunately, I don't.

Saw King Kong in Parsippany w/ Erin on Weds Night. I guess it was alright, I wasn't too bored for most of it. You don't get too see a gorilla beating up dinosaurs all the often. I have a feeling this movie would be most appreciated by my parents' generation... people who were young when the original movies or the original re-makes were popular. There are probably nuances of the vintage NYC scenes that are competely missed by Generation X. That being said, I'd rather have the dvds of Harold & Kumar or Wedding Crashers over King Kong. I'm not really a full-fledged movie afficienado anyways, music and concert dvd's are my bag baby. I watched a couple of scenes from Pink Floyd: The Wall (live) yesterday, those guitar riffs are unreal.

Sounds like we will be heading into Manhattan tonight. Good thing. I need a change of pace from our local bars, I get sick of seeing so many guidos and townies.

Tuesday Blurb

2006-01-03T10:24:00.000-05:00

...I watched a few sections from The Eagles DVD - Hell Freezes Over. Don Henley really might be my hero, what a voice that guy has. I have listened to some Eagles' collections on and off in the past couple of years, but I have never sunk into the material like I have with the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, CCR, etc. I may have to start listening to them more. Man, do I love rock n' roll.

Back to work after a 3-day weekend. Spent the bulk of yesterday playing poker, and also picked up some more poker literature at Barnes and Noble.

I spoke to my boss this morning, and I will officially be playing a satellite game for the $10,000 World Poker Tour Event - The Borgata Open. The $300 satellite will either be on Friday, 1/27 or on Saturday 1/28. If by some stroke of luck I make it through that game, I will win the $10,000 entry into the Borgata Open which runs from 1/30 through 2/1. I am going down there with no expectations, other than to play as I always play. It should be a fun experience, as several people from Dumont are going: Dan, Mike, Paul, and Michelle. We have hotel reservations already, so the plan is definitely in effect. I did drop $120 playing poker yesterday though, so I'm a little shy on poker confidence at the moment.

I jogged Friday and Saturday, and I also made it outside yesterday too. I have been in a good fitness groove lately, and hopefully my schedule lets me maintain that. I get very frustrated when I slack off.

Schedule for the week:

Tues - Poker 8PM Rochelle Park
Weds - ??
Thurs - ??(Poker?)
Fri - ??
Sat - ??
Sun - Poker 8PM Dumont

Yes, that's basically the same core schedule I have for every week. I do have to make it the store this week to exchange a guitar book also, because the one I got is way out of my league. I am considering getting a David Bowie songbook or book on slide guitar. The stupid part is that I never really seem to learn much from music books.

Free and Exciting Download

2006-01-02T12:22:00.000-05:00

Here's 58 seconds of audio bliss, me playing crappy lead over a bad rhythm loop I made. If I was smart, I'd write out chord changes and try to put it into a song. As usual the guitar tones are processed through my Boss ME-50. The main effect on the rhythm guitar is a flanger, which gives it a trippy almost underwater tone. The lead part is just the really heavy overdrive that I like a lot for playing lead.

Something to listen to

Let me know if the download stops working, it might run out of bandwidth eventually.

Playing guitar has been pretty therapeutic to me lately, it makes me feel like that I might have some type of special skill, plus it gets my mind off of other things.

2005 in Review

2006-01-01T11:09:00.000-05:00

I guess overall 2005 was a pretty good year for me. I made a few personal developments, went on a few trips, and met a lot of new people. I got to spend a lot of quality time with my friends also. Probably the most memorable thing for me was getting out to Las Vegas, which is a true oasis for a gambler like myself. Physically I am in pretty decent shape now too, as I have been forcing myself to run on a pretty regular basis. I don't know why but that's pretty important to me. Overall I have been pretty motivated and productive in my spare time. I have been kicking my ass when it comes to putting in time for playing guitar. Also, I was getting on my skateboard on a regular basis, and getting some enjoyment out of my solo sessions. I've been getting along with my family pretty decently lately, and there have been no major blowups. Are things in my life that could improve? Sure. My attitude, staying positive... not being a single loner forever.

In any case, I guess if 2006 is like 2005, it won't be too bad.

Cheers to all of my friends. You give me a reason to get out of bed!

Random Rambling

2005-12-29T13:23:00.000-05:00

I'm really craving a couple of good Ramones songs right now. I just emailed the internet radio station that I usually listen to for a request. I really want to hear "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do" or "She's The One", both are such just awesome songs. The tones of the overdrive on the guitar and Joey Ramone's voice just sound perfect on both of those. I find some of the popular Ramones songs a little too dull, but they really did put out some gems during their career. It was pretty awesome when I went with Noah to see Marky Ramone's band play in Clifton earlier in the year. I also do have their new concert DVD. I do find some inspiration in their work and in their spirit. It really makes me want to grab my guitar and bang out some power chords.

I guess the music is so simple and honest, that it almost makes it complex.

It's pretty amazing actually that they are playing one of my favorite ska bands right now though... Buck-O-Nine.

No Sleep For The Weary

2005-12-28T13:28:00.000-05:00

I played poker last night again, got home a little after midnight, made $40, whoopee. I was asked to play at a different game tonight with different friends, and I guess I feel partly obligated to go.

I don't know why I do this to myself. Sometimes I get really worn down. I could really use some time to lounge around, clean up at home, and play guitar. I have been asked to play poker on Friday and Sunday night also now, but I am committing to neither, as I would really like to do some socializing this week, and also give myself some free time. It's not easy to go to work, run 2 miles at the gym, eat a quick meal, and then be out playing cards the whole night.

I need to stop answering these emails and phonecalls!

Who's drinking on Friday Night?

Post Xmas Post

2005-12-27T08:33:00.000-05:00

I'm back at work today after a 3-day weekend, that seemed much longer than it was. The biggest news is that I had a fairly decent score in Atlantic City yesterday. I split 1st place with another kid for the $50 Showboat Casino Daily Tournament. I profited about $600 after I left the dealers a tip and accounted for my buy-in. I'll post actual poker details on my livejournal page for anyone who has interest.

Other than that, I have survived arduous tasks such as Christmas shopping and family time. I got some new clothes as presents, which is good because I didn't have enough winter gear. Mike and I went down to The Exchange in Rockaway again on Friday, I saw Jim and Keri, 2 of my friends that I haven't seen in a really long time.

In further exciting and controversial news, I have gotten software to easily burn any videos to standard DVD format. I'm pretty excited about that since I have several concerts videos sitting around on my home hard drive right now. If anyone wants me to copy DVDs for them, the answer is probably no. If anyone asks if I can help them to burn their own DVDs, the answer is probably yes.

I've been playing electric guitar a lot using my processor and loop station. I feel like I'm getting creative with it, and it's a much needed break from my acoustic guitar.

I am definitely getting back on the exercise routine tonight, as I feel sickeningly fat right now.

Possible Weekly Schedule

Tues Night: Gym, Poker in Dumont
Weds Night: Gym, Sam Ash
Thurs Night: Gym, Poker in Maywood
Fri Night: Gym, ...drinking???? (dunno)
Saturday: Jogging, Guitar Practice, Party
Sunday: Hangover
Monday: ????????

If anyone knows of any other good activities to partake in, let me know.

Wow

2005-12-23T12:11:00.000-05:00

Some unfortunate soul found my blog by searching google for "where to buy pierogies in nj".

I'm the #3 hit, sweet!

209.158.69.100 - - [23/Dec/2005:12:00:49 US/Eastern] "GET http://njfelt.blogspot.com HTTP/1.1" 200 - "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)" "http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=where+to+buy+pierogies+in+nj"

The History of Dave's Gambling

2005-12-23T10:22:00.000-05:00

Have I been into gambling in general for a long time? Well sort of, but no.

I remember my mom playing card games with me and my sister fairly often while we were growing up. I know we played mostly Gin Rummy, but I'm not sure if we ever played any other games. Also, I'm not really sure what sort of knowledge my has about other types of card games. I wouldn't be surprised if we played a few games of 5 Card Draw, but I can't distinctly recall that. My mom usually seemed pretty enthusiastic about playing Rummy though, and I guess my sister never minded either. I don't think my dad ever played with us, or expressed any general interest in it either.

Oddly enough, my dad is very good at math and statistics. When I was home for Thanksgiving the World Series of Poker was on TV, and he clearly reckonized the value of starting cards in the game. He saw one hand where someone started off with Jack Jack, and someone started off with Ace Ace, and he realized that those were both premium starting cards. I have never explained anything about poker to my parents, so obviously he has some understanding of the game, although I never knew that. I alluded to him about hand probabilities and how basic poker math is done, and he seemed to accept the information pretty quickly. It's surprising that a non-gambler knows that poker is really not a game of lucky.

My parents generally are not concerned that I am willing to wager my money on poker. I guess they see it as a form of harmless recreation, and they know that I don't lose money at it. They are both pretty conservative people, and I've never heard of either one of them playing a $5 hand of blackjack or even roulette. Maybe they have, who nows.

I never really thought of it until a few months ago, by my mom's father is actually a very experienced 7 Card Stud player. I have talked to him about, and it sounds like he played pretty much everyday when he was in the military. He said that he and one of his friends pretty much cleaned up their entire ship at the game. He said that people got so desperate to play that they would put up their government-issued Zippos as their buy-ins. Come to think of it, he does have quite a few of those Zippos still. I figure that my grandfather's main poker days were back in the 1940's or thereabouts. I am not sure how a person came to be a winning poker player back then, I guess you have a friend give you advice or something like that. Maybe it was just natural instinct and common sense that allowed people to pick up on the game's finer points. It is certainly no mystery how to learn how to play today. Go to Barnes and Noble and find the gambling section. Go on the internet, and find a game at any time of the day, for play money or any stakes you want.

My mom's father played a lot of poker after his military stint too, and he had a group of regulars that he played with for nickels and dimes at their campsite in Florida. I guess he never ventured into a casino to try to tackle the game, but then again poker has not been a casino game on the East Coast for very long at all. My grandfather is well aware of televised poker, and though he has never played Hold 'EM, he does watch it occasionally on TV. I am sure he could pick up on that game pretty quickly, as 7 Card Stud Poker is not entirely different than Hold 'Em. My dad's father is/was also an avid card player. From what I hear, he often went out to card games once or twice a week for as long as people can remember. His main game is Bridge, a game that I know absolutely nothing about. I believe he knows how to play some forms of poker also, but I'm not sure which ones. I don't think my sister knows much about any gambling strategies, but her fiancee does participate in a poker home game.

Ok, enough about other people, now on to me. I know that I played poker with 2 of my childhood friends/neighbors, and with their cool dad he used to take us camping. I think we mostly played 5 card and 7 card draw, but I really have no recollection of any hands or any strategies! I probably lost every single hand, because I knew nothing of straights, flushes, or full houses until about 2 years ago.

I will now try to re-count my earliest casino experience. I believe the first time I ever went to a casino was with my ex-girlfriend Joann, and I'd have to guess I was 22 at that time. She was planning a trip to Alantic City with some of her other friends from college, so I thought it sounded exciting to go down there also. I guess I had it in my mind that I was going to play Blackjack, because it seemed like a simple game, and I didn't know how to play anything else. Nowadays I realize that there is a widely accepted chart of standard plays for Blackjack, and I am also aware of more advanced Blackjack concepts. All-in-all, I'm not really that interested in the game, because the odds just aren't good enough. I am very aware of the odds of the popular casino table games.

Anyways, that was the first time I ever gambled for real money, the year was probably 1998. This probably sounds crazy for some people who know me, because nowadays I am known as "the gambling guy". I had no idea that people were playing poker games in Las Vegas with minimum bets of $4000 on a regular basis. I think my first casino experience did net me a cool $150 though. I had a good time, but the gambling bug definitely had not bitten me yet. Note that I still had never played poker for money by 1998, and I would not for years to come.

I do have an awful memory when it comes to timelines and events, but I know that I did play blackjack in Atlantic City 2 or 3 more times in the following years. I also played blackjack at Foxwoods when we stayed there for Lauren's birthday. I guess our friend Adam was the main driving force in getting me to go to casinos, as he's an action junkie, plus he claims to have great strategies for Craps. Thanks Adam, I still think you owe me $200 for that time you guaranteed I'd make money. I went to Mohegan Sun once too, I think that was the time Adam, Ed, Mike M, and I ended up going on a late night whim. I liked going to casinos, but pretty much ended up blowing $150-$200 each time I went.

Man this post is really long.

I'll start to abbreviate more. I think I have posted about I started playing poker for money before, but I can't find the post anywhere. Fall 2004 - start to play poker with Jay and Adam. Consistently get killed. Eventually start playing with Jason R and others in Westwood. I don't do well, occasionally get lucky, and walk away with money. I play online for money for the first time probably in December 2004 (12/11/04). Tim F and I become full-fledged poker addicts and watch poker TV all the time in Paramus, and get in games as much as 5 times a week. We get games going our house sometimes,and can usually convince Allen to play also. I guess we usually played for $5 or $10 at a time. I win sometimes, but not all that consistently. I don't think I had done much poker reading at this point.

The first time I ever played poker in a casino was probably in November or December '04. I remember taking the train with Jason and Ryan to Atlantic City. We played a $60 tournament at the Borgata, and I think I finished 40th in a field over over 200. I also played $2/$4 and $3/$6 limit afterwards, but had no idea what I was doing, and certainly lost money on that trip. I think the 2nd time I ever played poker in a casino was when Joann and I drove up to Foxwoods impulsively. This had to be spring of 2005. I can remember misplaying several hands.

Ok, I've been typing too much, so I think is what the timeline looks like.

1998-2003: several stabs at blackjack
06/2004: first experiences at hold 'em
11/2004: playing more consistently
6/2005: Las Vegas casinos
11/2005: Canada casino

Pre-Christmas Eve Post

2005-12-23T09:47:00.000-05:00

It's Friday morning, I'm at work today, although I know some of my friends are off today. Hung at Jay's in Hackensack last night, played a couple of $20 games. Profit of $20.

Anyways, I should be getting out of work early today, company closes at 3:30PM, but I suspect I may get out even earlier than that. I would like to make my way over to the gym right afterwards, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen or not. Unfortunately, I can't see much exercise happening this weekend, and I don't know if I want to run outdoors anymore, because it has been hurting my back too much.

I think it is more than likely that I will stop at Chris F's party in Waldwick (or Pub 11 as he calls it). I spoke to Mike and Jim, and they said they might want to come. There doesn't seem to be a long list of attendees scheduled there, so I might opt to bounce to another drinking spot afterwards. Possible late-night targets could include Houlihans and Irelands, as they are within a 10 mile radius of Waldwick. *I just emailed Rob S, to see if he's doing anything tonight.

Tomorrow (Christmas Eve), I really have no responsibilities at all. I am going to my parents' house on Sunday, and I don't feel like driving down there needlessly tomorrow also. Maybe I will treat myself to new books or DVDs. I have not given myself any gifts in months probably. Aside from gambling, it is pretty difficult to find anyone tighter with money than me. I buy most of my groceries when they are on sale, I know where the cheapest local gas station is, I buy a good deal of my clothes at thrift stores, I rarely pay for CDs or movies, and if do I eat out, it's usually at Taco Bell. I am very money conscious, plus I just really have no interest in fancy consumer goods most of the time. I guess some people find it surprising that I have no problem withdrawing $400 or more to go to a casino. The truth is that I expect to break even when I play poker. Fortunately, I have been consistently doing better than break even over the past few months.

I am very excited that I am going to Atlantic City on Monday morning. Mike, Jay, Joe, and myself will be departing Bergen County at 7:00 AM, to make our way south to the gambling metropolis of New Jersey. There is a $40+$10 11AM tournament at the Showboat Casino which I plan to participate in, and after that I plan on allowing myself a couple of buy-ins at some $1/$2 hold em tables. It's pretty sad how much I'm looking forward to getting down there, but I just don't get too casinos all that often.

...and now I think I will start a new article about The History Of Dave's Gambling!

Monday Morning Post

2005-12-19T11:07:00.000-05:00

The Time: 11:08 AM
The Setting: Franklin Lakes, NJ - light brown cubicle

Played some poker last night in Dumont, continued my win streak, as I took 2nd place for a small profit. The game lasted pretty long, and I got home after 1AM. I am feeling a little worn down today, but I'm still going to try to make it to the gym after work today. Also, I'd like to make it over to Home Depot tonight, as I have a few odds n' ends that I need to pick up.

I did make it out for Dan S's birthday Saturday night. The night started off quickly with 2 early rounds of Jameson. Since I was driving, I had to cut myself off fairly early, because I knew I was going to be headed in the downwards spiral otherwise. Hung out with the Dumont crowd there for a while in their local townie bar. I felt a little out of place as there was mucho sports talk going on, so that was not keeping my interest. Everyone else got completely wrecked, and the alcohol was clearly flowing like a river. I ended up driving Dan and Theresa home around 2:30AM. A lot of late nights over the weekend.

I did make myself go running on Saturday, but my back was absolutely killing afterwards. I guess the treadmill is much better for me, as it absorbs the shock much better. I also played more guitar this weekend then I have in months. Since I'm taking a hiatus from online poker, I need to do something else to kill time when I'm at home.

For practice lately, I am trying to create some type of practice and creativity routines for myself. I have been running through the rythym parts on several Beatles songs to refresh my memory of chord progressions. When I'm not doing that, I am just screwing around and trying to make some noise of my own. Overall, I feel like I've been sounding somewhat decent. Unfortunately, when I play I'm usually just banging on 2 or 3 chords, and I really don't put any effort into constructing actual songs. Some of the techniques I've been employing include basic folky-type fingerstyle, ska/reggae upstrokes, poker chords w/ heavy overdrive, and just trying to accent 7th and Sus chords. Nothing I play is ever complicated, as my musical knowledge is pretty weak.

My practice habits and lack of band experience cut me back from being any good at lead guitar. I guess that makes me a little self-conscious. In any case, I guess I should have some sort of goal if I'm going to be putting time into music again. I had made some song writing attempts last year, but was not pleased with any of the results. I am really self-conscious about singing, but I guess I should try to layout some lyrics eventually, as my I wouldn't be able to sustain interesting guitar playing enough to write instrumentals.

Schedule for the week:
Monday: gym, Home Depot
Tuesday: gym, poker
Wednesday: gym
Thursday: gym
Friday: gym, then ???
Saturday: ???
Sunday: parents house
Monday: ???

Obviously not much planned this week, ideally I'd like to get out several times this week so that I don't go stir crazy. This weekend seems like it might make for some decent bar opportunities, hopefully other people are thinking the same thing. Maybe I'll see if anyone is going out around Rockaway again.

Saturday Evening Post

2005-12-17T17:31:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a while, so maybe I need some sort of content up. I'm killing a few minutes before a small free poker tournament online.

Had a decent night out last night, was originally supposed to hang out in Hackensack the whole night, but those plans had begun to fall through. Got home from work, IM'd my friend Kevin from home on a whim. I don't talk to him on that normal of basis. He said he was looking to go out also. I told Mike that I was headed down to Rockaway, and didn't give him any options to say no either. Got to Kevin L's place in Wharton around 10PM, said hi to his upstairs neighbor. Yet another old friend (Kevin C.), one that I never see at all though.

We cruised over to The Exchange in Rockaway Borough. Only a 2nd time for me. Sunny was bartending, Kevin's friend, my acquaintence. Kevin's friends Pete & Erin came in shortly thereafter. I had a few designated-driver beers, and talked to them for a while. Eventually Rob S. rolled in, not sure that last time I had seen him, but I guess it was at least 3 years ago. Eventually Kevin A. made it over also. I don't see anyone from highschool usually, I just haven't been in that groove in a long time. It was a good time, and I'm sure I'll get down there again sometime soon. I was a little disappointed that I didn't run into Jimmy and Chris, because I haven't seen them in forever either. Those fools went to see Twisted Sister.

Anyways, I have a few hours to go before Dan S.'s birthday tonight. Not sure of the exact plan so I guess I should call him in a while. I've been playing guitar more the past couple of days, and I think I will fire up my electric guitar tonight. I'm getting sick of my acoustic tones, and I want to put on some delay and mod effects. Who knows, maybe if I put enough time in this winter, I can record some crappy songs or something.

As for tomorrow's agenda, I'll probably try to get out for a morning/afternoon jog again, and hopefully our Sunday Night poker game is on. I don't know why, but I've just been extra excited to play lately. I certainly have the casino bug in me right now, and I just hear Atlantic City calling.

Tuesday Morning

2005-12-13T09:22:00.000-05:00

I was off from work yesterday, attempted to get a little Xmas shopping done. Yes, it’s truly one of my least favorite activities. It just gets too stressful, if I was smart, of would have started and finished shopping in November.

Weekend Review:

Made it to Dan S.’s apartment Friday Night. Bagged a 2nd place finish, put a few bucks in my pocket. Sheindel and I headed to Hoboken a little later than planned Saturday night. We got there around 9:30 PM, and I guess it took more than 30 minutes to find parking on the street. That is very typical of Hoboken, and the city in my mind will always be associated for the mania of trying to find parking spots. We ate a little food at Maxwell’s, and got into the stage area for to see the band The Tough & Lovely. They really had the garage rock sound down, had a good variety of songs, and a retro look to them also. I talked to the front-woman for a second at their merch booth, and she told me they are from Ohio. We didn’t hang around for the full set by the Deadly Snakes. I wasn’t feeling the songs, and felt the singer was trying way to hard to perform soul music. Couldn’t take it serious, and I felt like a lot of the lyrics were clichéd. I hope I’m not offending anyone out there in cyberspace, but that’s my 2 cents.

Headed to Dumont Sunday night to play poker. There were lots of cancellations so we weren’t going to get our normal group of 10 together. Dan and his brother Mike were running late, so I met them over at their local bar Daly’s a few blocks from their parents’ house. Mike provided a free shot of Jameson as promised. Talked to the guys for a while, and they are trying to get me to commit to head to the Borgata with them at the end of January. That casino is running satellite tournaments to qualify for the $10,000 entry World Poker Tour Open event.

For anyone who doesn’t know about the satellite system already, a satellite is a smaller buy-in event, where a certain number of the top finishers will advance to the main event. I believe this satellite costs around $300 to play in. Of course winning a satellite event is only ½ the battle, as the actual fields for the World Poker Tour are fairly large also. I think the average field size for a WPT event might be around 550 people total. It is definitely a goal of mine to try to get in to a major tournament eventually, such as the WPT, so I think I might give this a shot.

I have been playing poker pretty well lately, and I think I am getting much better at reading body language. I may have to start wearing sunglasses more, because people hate when you stare at them.

Anyways, here’s a possible outline for events for the week:

Tues. Night (tonight) - $20 tournament in Rochelle Park
Thurs. Night - poker in Maywood? (not sure)
Sat. Night - drinking in Dumont for Dan’s birthday.

Other than that, I have to squeeze more Christmas shopping in.

Typical Midweek Post

2005-12-07T08:56:00.000-05:00

Wednesday morning, can only mean one thing:  work and coffee, just like the majority of all weekdays.

What's going on this week:

Thursday Night: Poker @ James' in Westwood, typical game, .25/.50 blinds, $50 max buy-in

Friday Night: Possible poker game in Dumont (rescheduled from Tues), we are in the middle of a $20 cumulative points tournament (12 weeks), I'm placing consistantly bad through the first 4 weeks

Saturday: Bought tickets for random show @ Maxwell's to go to with Sheindel, we were going to get together, so I checked their schedule just to see who was playing.  After I read up on the bands that were playing, it started sounding like a good show.  Here's the line-up, and the other info I found online:

Sat. 12/10 The Deadly Snakes/The Black Lips/Subway Surfers 9:30 p.m. $8

"Satan Island" is the opening cut on the 4 song CD ep by NJ combo, SUBWAY SURFERS. This isn't surf music though, more a melding of The Damned with The Fleshtones to come up with something that sounds like some great 45 lost since 1977. What it lacks in fi is more than made up in spirit so check it out

Well, I'm VERY pleased to say that's exactly what has happened with the Deadly Snakes - this is by FAR their best album to date. They've married their love of garage rock, soul, blues and gospel more perfectly here than any band since the Rolling Stones circa 1972. I would also go on to say that it would benefit any one exploring the current crop of new "garage rock" bands to pick this up right away - the likes of the D4, Datsuns, Von Bondies, ect don't hold a candle to this group.

The Black Lips

Rough and raw. Original yet familiar--influenced with early blues, early rock with he pure essence of punk--difficult to believe these guys weren't even born until the 1980s. A must-buy for a serious music collector.

For some reason reason, the Maxwell’s website is completely not working right now.  If anyone’s not from the area and wants an idea of what it’s all about, check this out.

My Old Website

2005-12-01T12:09:00.000-05:00

I usually forget completely, but my geocities website is actually still online. Notice how I had added in scripts to kill the Geocities popups and advertising frames. You can see the frames load momentarily, but eventually they are forced to close.

My first attempt at web design was my old tripod site which I guess I started when I first had my own computer at college which had to have been junior year at college, around 1999 or 2000. I guess I wanted to put up a website back then, because that's right around the time that I started to be come a true internet addict. I grew up in a computer nerd home, and had a lot of computer experience, but I don't think I ever had an email account until around 1997. That was my school email account, which I didn't use much at first. I probably signed up for my first internet email account, yahoo, around 1998 or 1999. I'm not sure when I first started using AIM but maybe that was in 1999 also.

I guess I was sort of a late bloomer for internet usage. I can't remember there being any internet access at my high school even when I graduated in 1997. Although I didn't have my own computer freshman or sophomore year at college, there were several computer labs, including one built into the ground floor of our freshman dorm. I think I probably only used the internet then to read about skateboarding and cd reviews. I never thought I'd do any shopping on the internet.

My dad threw together an old computer for me for my junior year at college. We had moved into new dorms, and they had 2 ethernet (networking) ports in each room. I think everyone had to use dial-up in their rooms up until that point. I guess I mainly used my computer to instant message my friends, and reading about music. I did not have a CD Burner, and my computer was slow and had a small hard drive, so I never tried to download any music. I remember Mike telling me how great MP3's were, and how I should get into them too. I guess I scoffed at the idea and figured it wasn't for me.

I guess I wanted to write some music opinions online and get a few pictures up there, so I decided to settle on a free Tripod account. I used to be able to find a cached version of that original lay on the wayback machine, but I can't seem to find it right now. Anyways, my original site had a teal oceanic theme to it, a few photographs I scanned in, and maybe 4 pages total. I believe I had the script to kill popups back then also. I always got really annoyed by popups, so I didn't want to subject others to them.

** I really shouldn't be divulging the extents to my true computer nerdiness, but I guess it's too late now. Man this article is getting long.

Senior year of college is when I became more of a computer nerd. i ditched the 233mhz or whatever computer I had, and paid my dad a few $ to give me the 500mhz computer he had (note that I ended up giving the 500mhz computer to Joann's brother eventually I think, it's long gone now). This computer also did not come with a CD burner drive, but by now CD burners started to really drop in price, so I ended up buying a 10X Sony burner for around $120 I think. 10X was pretty fast by the standards of that time 2000/2001. I think Mike also gave me his extra DVD playing drive (not burning), so that rounded out my computer.

I don't remember how it started, but eventually I slowly got into the MP3 scene. That was back in the day when everyone was still pirating stuff on Napster, so I would download a track once in a while. I don't really have a good idea of how my mp3s I had, but maybe I had like 300 or 400 by the time I graduated college? I think I was only really listening to punk music at the time, but I was able to get new music right when it was released, and sometimes before.

_________
wow, this article is getting long, and I have gone really far off-topic (OT), but I will write a 2nd installment this afternoon or this week.

Patented Midweek Post

2005-11-30T08:53:00.000-05:00

After 3 consecutive nights of poker playing, I'll finally get a night to catch up on other stuff (hopefully not online poker). Definitely going to get some laundry going, also I think I'm going to stop in at the Barnes and Noble in Paramus to see what treasures I can come up with in the used section. I really should take advantage of the public library, but I don't always read on a regular basis, and don't like the pressure of due dates. Personally, I don't even own that many books, but among the ones I do have:

Online Texas Hold'em
Play Poker Poker Like The Pros
The Theory of Poker
The Tao of Poker
The Psychology of Poker
Bowie: Loving the Alien
How To Win Big At the Casino
I Me Mine (G. Harrison)
Stairway to Heaven
No One Here Gets Out Alive
Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
Teach Yourself Spanish
innumerated guitar/music theory/keyboard books

As you can clearly see, I'm not interested in reading fiction, much as I'm not interested in watching much fiction on TV. As far as books I'm looking to get, I'm thinking about picking up a psychology/human behavior book, and I'd also like to pick up an automobile maintenance book. I'd like to get into doing my own car maintenance eventually.

I'm not going to beat the dead horse about how I suck at guitar and don't practice enough. I'm really not.

As far as plans for the rest of the week. I'm not sure if I will play poker in Maywood tomorrow night, I've just been too rushed so far this week and had little relaxation time. As of right now I don't have any idea if/what I'm doing Fri & Sat nights. I'm going to start asking around, and see if my extended friend network has anything at all planned. Maybe I'll make it into the city or something.

Mike's helping me drop off my car at Pepboys in Hackensack on Saturday morning. Buying new tires and getting the alignment done for about as cheap as it could possibly get. I'm sure it's going to be a madhouse at Pepboys on Saturday, and I'm skeptical about the work being done and in a timely manner. I guess I don't have much trust for the automotive repair industry. If anyone doesn't know, my car had a bad spinout in the snow a couple years ago, has done repeated hydroplaning over the years, and makes excessive noise at high speeds. I'm totally ignorant, but it took me reading these reviews at tirerack.com to realize that Honda put horrible stock tires on my car, and I have been dealing with Firestone garbage tires for way too long. Those tires have really screwed me over, there's many other articles about them to be found online.

**click on "read all reviews", really crazy

I think that shall conclude this morning's post. (coffee time)

Piebald Weekend

2005-11-28T09:07:00.000-05:00

First of all, Blogger is being stupid this morning, and I had to figuratively run around in circles to log into my site. That being said, it's Monday morning, so yes I am here at work of course. Mike and I stopped in at Axis Lounge on Friday night. The urban cowboy was there as usual. For anyone "not in the know", the urban cowboy was a regular at the defunct Aldo's, and the similarily defunct Traxx Lounge. Some pecularities about this man include: being 50+ years old at a place where young people hang out, wearing ridiculous costumes like cowboy and sailor outfits, harassing girls and never leaving them alone, and last but not least doing some really crazy hokey dancing. He truly has to be seen to be believed. Some of the other less-crazy regulars were also out on Friday, nothing really noteworthy except I got a free Jack Daniel's t-shirt for drinking jack n' coke. They had one of those promotional nights running. We stopped in at Harley's on River St. in Hackensack after that, but that was pretty lame.

On Saturday, I drove over to Mike's, and Dimeck drove Mike, Lauren, and myself into the city. We headed over to Golby's appartment, and then met Risa a few blocks away. She was in town from LA, and I hadn't seen here in a few months. She was also accompanied by lil' sis Gayle. We got some food, wasted time, and eventually made our way over to Irving Plaza. The first band was called Hit The Lights, ultra-generic, sounded like Yellowcard, extreme boredome. I Am The Avalanche played next, energetic music, but I wasn't into, it reminded me of more drab high school emo. Musically, I'm really not the hard to please, but emo-pop is definitely not my thing.

Piebald played 3rd, and they were the only band I was really interested in seeing. Tough to really describe their music but I'd say: loud, funny, intelligent, and honest. The crowd went crazy for them. They played a bunch of favorites, and also did a cover of a Kink's song, The Stranger. Also, they had a guy playing the lap steel guitar (slide guitar), I think it was the guy from Hot Rod Circuit. Hot Rod Circuit was ok, but my back was aching a bit, so I sat down for most of that.

The real highlight for me that night, other than seeing Risa, was bumping into a very old friend that I haven't seen in a long time. This guy has been all over the country, but I know him from way back in my high school years. I guess I had met him through my friend Ken. He was into veganism, sXe, and emo, before I knew what any of that meant. He also used to ride around on roller skates while we skateboarded. His name's Jon, but has fortunately or unfortunately been stuck with the nickname Cheese for the better part of his life. Anyways, it was really cool to run into Jon, and really unexpected, since he is now making his residency in LA. He came out because he's friends with Piebald. Well I should get back to work, but here's a pic of Cheese, and there are more pics of the night, on mine, Mike's, and Dimeck's flickr accounts.

Thanksgiving Eve Post

2005-11-23T14:25:00.000-05:00

Let us first have a moment of silence for all of the dead and suffering turkeys before I proceed with this post.

..moving right along. I managed to take down 2nd place in our $40 poker game in Rochelle Park last night (9 people ended up playing). Felt pretty gratifying, and I really needed a poker-ego boost. Got home around 1AM, which kind of throws off my attempts to get on a good sleep schedule. Physically, I'm feeling decent today, and I have managed to put an increasing number of adrenaline songs onto MP3 player recently, so I think I will be making it to the gym from work today. I think I might opt for the elliptical machine over the treadmill, just to do something different.

I am supposed to be over at Jay's condo in Hackensack tonight for poker by 9PM. That's a good time, because it means I shouldn't be too rushed after work tonight. I really need to put my feet up for a few minutes, and I'd like to fire up my electric guitar too hopefully. Also, I'm really pulling to go out after poker tonight. I feel like any opportunity to have a late night and missing is just a big waste of time. I will see if anyone is going to be around to get to a bar or diner or whatever around 11 or 12 tonight. My last resort, which is not necessarily an unwelcome last resort, is online poker, but I guess "que cera cera" (transl. whatever will be will be).

I have to be at my parents house around 1PM tomorrow which is frankly a little earlier than I'd like to be over there, since I may be out late tonight, and that will make me rush in the morning. I'm not sure how late I'll stay over there tomorrow, but once again, I'm hoping to get some sort of action in tomorrow night.

Friday night plans are up in the air at the moment, although Risa will be in town, so I might try to meet up with her and Monica. Saturday night, Mike, Lauren, myself, Allen, and Risa are going to see Hot Rod Circuit, Piebald, and I Am the Avalanche play at Irving Plaza. Out of those 3, Piebald is the only band that I listen to, but maybe the others are cool to see live.

So all-in-all, it sounds to be an interesting week for me.

Tues Morning

2005-11-22T09:25:00.000-05:00

Looks like I will drop by the steakhouse for happy hour after work today. The best part about that place is the free food. I always make sure to formulate some sort of complete dinner out of all the stuff they have! In the past they've had: French-bread pizza, baked ziti, pierogies, and then there's non-vegetarian stuff that I don't really care about. Kinda sucks that I'm skipping the gym, but if I get home early enough, I may break out my flat bench and slant bench to do some sets of benchpress and sit-ups. I really need to get myself into better shape. I'm also trying to cut calories whenever feasible. I barely eat much as it is, but I'll see what I can do.

I wanted to re-post this old-school picture from Ed. This was probably junior or senior year at college for us, and is representative of our 4 year experience. We were all still kiddies back then, before the 9-5 routine was even a thought.

Happy Turkey Week

2005-11-21T08:38:00.000-05:00

A week of Thanks is upon us now, let us be thankful for the killing of our indigenous people, once again. Kidding.

Quick Weekend Recap
Friday - Chili's on Rt46 w/ Jim

Saturday - fixing/formatting new hard drive all day, met Monica and Noah at this place in Caldwell for a little while. VERY young crowd there, reggae band playing.

Sunday - Taco Bell, Grocery Shopping, poker in Dumont at night. Stupid coinflip knocked me out, my AQ didn't improve vs. JJ fairly deep into the game. Where the f' was my Ace????

After talking to Jim about music on Friday though, and thumbing through his new Songwriter's handbook, I may have been slightly inspired. I played electric guitar for a big last night (sounded totally awful), I was recording baselines into my loop station aka The Boomerang. Note that I have an older version than the one in that link. Basically I usually just take different 3 chord progressions step on one button to record, and one to stop. When I hit the play button, the loop will play until infinity, or one of us dies. I like it more than recording practice tracks on my computer, because recording audio takes up so much storage space on my hard drive, plus it's fairly CPU intensive.

I think I'm going to hang out with Ed and whomever else tonight, so I might not get to practice much. My recommendation was Firewater, as it's local, and has hot chicks. I'm still getting a lot of web hits for Firewater, and one of my theories is that that the owner(s) are probably conducting web research about their bar. I could be wrong.

Friday Afternoon Post

2005-11-18T15:44:00.000-05:00

Well this week sure went by pretty fast, having a 4 day work week definitely contributed to that. I skipped the gym last night because I was fatigued from inadequate sleep, but I think I should be in decent condition to go after work today. I did reload my mp3 player with different music to work out too. I don't really care what I listen to while I do my few sets of wait lifting, but I really prefer to listen to loud and fast music while I run. It helps me keep my energy level up, and to hit higher speeds. By louder music, I obviously mean punk rock, since I don't listen to metal or dance music.

I guess the only times that I really listen to aggressive music are when I'm working out, going out to skateboard, or sometimes when I'm driving. When I'm hanging out at home I really only ever listen to mellow music, generally indie rock or whatever. I'm listening to mellow music right now at work also The Jesus & Mary Chain. If anyone's not familiar with them, in my own words they are psychadelic, guitar driven, and at times poppy. Basically, a pretty easy listen. I also listened to Talkin' Blues by Bob Marley earlier. I think I like those songs more than most of those popular songs on Legend (greatest hits). There just seems to be a lot of substance to Talkin' Blues. I don't listen to the tracks of him talking, I don't even remember what he talks about really.

Nothing really planned for the weekend at all yet. Doesn't sound like anyone is going out so far tonight. Maybe I will try to talk to Noah or Jim after work. As of right now I feel motivated to get out of the house tonight. The feeling is definitely going to subside if no plans materialize before 10PM.

I have had a difficult time prioritizing guitar playing before poker playing lately. I suppose it's because I can get instant gratification (money) from poker, yet the fruits of the labor of guitar practice are never instant. On work nights, I definitely never feel like I have enough time to do all of the things I want to do, plus I'm tired half the time. It always seems like I'm just putting my interests aside to go to work everyday, I guess that's life. I have seriously considered getting a dry-erase board, and make a schedule of what I should do every night. I do like to play online poker pretty much everynight, but if I gave myself chunks of time alotted to folding laundry and playing guitar, I'd probably get a lot more done. Some people are more disciplined naturally about their spare time, but I know that I have been horrible at it lately. I even procrastinate eating when I'm really hungry, as hard as that is to believe. It's way to easy to get "insta-thrills" online. Chatting, downloading, gambling, emailing... all too accessible. Suprisingly I didn't miss the internet at all while I was in Canada. I guess that can be attributed to having constant company, constantly being on the go, and being a few blocks over from the casino.

Well I think that's enough for 1 day's blog content, so I will publish this and finish up at work.

Canadian Review

2005-11-16T09:10:00.000-05:00

Let me start things off with 10 pros and cons of the Canadian/Ontario region.

Good:
1)Veggie dogs from street vendors
2)Favorable exchange rate
3)Easy border crossing
4)Taco Bells in abundance
5)Lots of 24 hour coffee shops
6)Casinos
7)Very affordable lodging
8)Friendly locals
9)Decent weather in November
10)Everyone speaks English

Bad:
1)All consumer goods are overpriced
2)Sales tax is very high
3)Night life seems a little weak
4)No free booze in casinos
5)Self-serve gas stations go by the Litre
6)Poor TV stations on basic cable
7)No Fire Sauce at Taco Bell
8)No good malls
9)Parking can be sparse or expensive
10)No Dunkin' Donuts

Turns out that the leading coffee chain in Canada is Tim Hortons. Yes, that's the actual name of a business. The flavored coffee was pretty decent there, I can't vouch for the plain.

Ponder these thoughts for a while.

Maybe I'll write more later on.

Thursday Addendum

2005-11-10T11:58:00.000-05:00

I promise to write a more exciting and less confusing post when I get home! I will do my best to document any women, gambling, drinking, or other excitement that will appeal to action junkies. Of course, I do have to mildly censor all of my material, to make myself appear to be a respectable human being.

Thursday Morning Post

2005-11-10T11:04:00.000-05:00

As I try my best to get new content on this site fairly often, I probably won't be able to do any updates again until Tuesday or later. I will be across the Canada border, and don't own a laptop (although that'd probably be cool). Actually, now that I play poker online a lot, a laptop makes even more sense... ...moving right along

Yeah, I did some research on the poker scene in Niagara Falls, and it sounds like there's plenty of good action to be had. I think I might only allocate 2 or 3 hundred for that, which is really only 3 buy-ins for their $1/$2 tables. I had great success in Vegas, so I'm feeling optimistic about it.

I plan on doing plenty of sight-seeing with Sheindel while we are there, but maybe I'll just head to the casino while she sleeps. It's too bad that I'm only getting a few days to explore the area, because I'm sure there are cool stops on the way there also.

I've been surprised how high up on search engine lists my blog's contents place. I would have guessed that it'd be very difficult to accidentally land at this site. I guess since google owns blogger, it makes sense though. Recently I have been getting hits from people search for:

1) "gutair center" (since I mispelled it in an old post) Normally when you enter a typo into a search engine, you are not going to get the real page you are looking for such as www.guitarcenter.com, unless the company pays for the url to be redirected or owns the domains for the typo names too. Yeah, so I guess my bad spelling and lack of proofreading is important for generating new hits.

2) Mike Matusow and/or Spirit Rock - I copied and pasted an online poker hand and subsequent chat from them over a month ago. They are both hot topics in the professional poker world, so people are looking to get any info on them that they can. If you are reading this post now because you googled for Mike or Spirit Rock. You probably fit the following demographics: 13-17 year old male, suburban American, love trash talking.

3) Firewater in Hackensack - I'm a little surprised also that there's no official website for this bar yet either. It's pretty upscale, so it's not unlikely that one will go up soon. There are a ton of really crappy small NJ bars that undeservedly have their own websites. I had done a search for the bar a week or 2 ago to try to round up some more info and whatnot, and all I could come across was someone's livejournal with a really brief mention of the place. *note that I think my website has fallen down in search results for Firewater right now.

It's pretty safe to say that anyone who comes to my site searching for those topics isn't going to find all of the info they are looking for. If there's any appeal to my site for return visitors, I'd say they'd have to be really interested in punk/indie/classic rock music, local/online small-stakes poker, or they are just someone I know personally. I really don't get a lot of webtraffic in general right now, I might be averaging 8 hits every 24 hours.

I'm doing my best into putting up some thought-provoking content whenever I get the chance. It's a little boring if I just write: Got up, went to work, coffee sucked, boss sucked, got a flat tire, ate a triple cheeseburger, watched yankees game, I hate the world.... whatever. I'd say the majority of what I write online is really just for me to delve into my own thoughts, or so that I can remember details about certain events. Maybe someone will learn a thing or two about a new bar, a new band, a poker strategy, or just my overall philosophies. I will admit that there are many popular subjects that I'm very ignorant of, but hey, I do know a little something about something(quote borrowed from Tim).

I'm not sure why I write this litte/long rants, and I usually debate deleting them instead of posting them. Damn I'm feeling worn out today, under-the-weather, haven't been eating enough, haven't been sleeping enough. I burned the Maritime CD in preparation for the road trip, and I think I need to burn at least 3 more full CDs for the ride, because everything in my car is so old and overplayed.

Another case of the Monday's

2005-11-07T09:07:00.000-05:00

Another weekend gone, another week of confinement in the office. However, there are a few positives going on at least. I have a short work week; I'm off this Friday and next Monday for the road trip to Niagara Falls. Also, my boss is "working from home today". I always find it hard to believe that that equates to really doing any work at all. Probably not. *My computer is freezing up trying to convert an Excel document into a .pdf so I'll have to reboot after this post.

Not a bad weekend, and I feel that I was slightly productive at times. I didn't end up going out anywhere on Friday night, so I was playing online poker and whatnot. Saturday events included going with Mike to Toyota in Hackensack, doing some brief skateboarding in River Edge, and heading out to Firewater at night. Firewater is the bar on Route 4 in Hackensack right next to Hooters. They have a ton of beers on tap, a clean establishment, and always tons of eye candy. We witnessed a brief brawl of nerdy volunteer fireman who jumped some offguard little Spanish dude. It was right in front of us, and someone fell on my foot. The ordeal ended really quickly, before I even knew what was going on. All of the girls there were overdressed and heavily tanned, so I knew I was not going to make any major efforts at all. I did bump into a couple of local poker buddies from Dumont at Firewater. Chatted with them for a few minutes.

Sunday I did a little more skateboarding and a little more guitar playing. I have been trying to go over different exercise for guitar, but have been frustrated lately. I think I may fool around with my bass guitar after work today, sometimes that's a good change of pace. This is what my electric guitar looks like and this is what my bass looks like. (it's actually my dad's)

I won our little $40 tournament last night in Dumont. It's funny how much winning or losing at poker can affect my mood. It really seems like it shouldn't matter at all, but I guess since I have dedicated so much time into playing I can't help but be affected. Playing cards has become a normal part of my life now. It seems hard to believe that it wasn't too long ago when I couldn't remember that a flush was better than a straight. I played well last night, maybe one of my strongest performances ever. Of course, luck and timing is always a big factor in tournaments. Maybe I'll do some livejournal poker writing later on today.

I don't think my last.fm account can read the MP4 (aka AAC aka M4A) music files that I'm listening to via Winamp. Most of the music I listen to is in MP3 format, but I've been getting more and more AAC's. Damn Apple formats. Itunes for Windows would probably be able to upload the track info correctly to last.fm, but I do my best to avoid Itunes, and I don't care to install it. Oh yeah, I'm listening to Walking Concert right now.

Official Friday 11:48 AM Post

2005-11-04T11:48:00.000-05:00

1 hour and 12 minutes until my normal lunch break. Sometimes I go out to eat with a couple dept. people on Friday. Since I don't get very excited about overpriced bar food, I don't care if I miss that.

Was out playing cards again last night, my room is still insanely messy, and I'm hoping to straighten up after work. I'm going to stop by my parent's house tomorrow night to pick up my birth certificate for my trip across the Canada border next week.

In other revelations, I've realized that my lack of sleep is really killing my exercise routine. I'm feeling fine in the morning and throughout most of work, but once I get into the gym I can't perform very well with weights or the treadmill. That is disappointing, so hopefully I can put myself back onto my midnight bedtime. I have been granting myself a 1:00 AM bedtime for a while now, but maybe that's just not enough sleep. Plus, maybe more sleep will put me in a better mood overall.

For a brief view into Dave's opinion of sleep...

I really don't like to sleep. I know some people laughingly call sleep or napping as a "favorite hobby". Personally, there's always something productive at the end of the night that I wish I had more time to do, and that's why I don't look forward to sleeping. Of course, much of my lack of time is caused by my chronic procrastination, and poor time management skills.

As strange as this sounds, I get upset at myself when I'm tired and have to go to bed early or take a nap on the weekend. I know this sounds crazy to most people, but that's just the way I am. Like I said, the reasoning behind this is that I feel like I should be doing something better with my time. I do feel really guilty passing out outside of my normal "sleep parameters".

I'm not going to harp on the subject for too long, but this is much the same as I don't like eating. Once again, not a way that I generally like to spend my time. I often procrastinate eating so much, that I wind up with crazy hunger pangs, which puts me in an even worse mood. It's a vicious cycle.

I guess that's enough about me being crazy for now...

Another Midweek Post

2005-11-02T10:12:00.000-05:00

I realized that Fred hooked me up with a link on his blog, so I returned the favor, and put his URL in my link menu on the top left. I am waiting to hear back from my 2nd interview in Mahwah on Monday. It went well, and I'm really hoping I land the job. The position is "Operations Coordinator", I'd have a fair amount of responsibility, mostly database work, and everyone I met there seemed pretty cool.

On a different note: why is it that I never feel I have enough music to listen to? I hate listening to the same stuff at work and at home over and over again. I guess I do limit myself to the "rock genre" a little too much. I have so many classic rock, indie, and punk albums it's ridiculous. I would have to consider all of those falling under the rock genre, although I'm not into trendy rock.

My Top 5 overall according to last.fm usage is:
1) John Lennon
2) Fountains of Wayne
3) Morrissey
4) The Smiths
5) My Bloody Valentine

I don't listen to FOW that much now, so I expect that will drop pretty quickly on my charts.

Oh, and I posted 6 photos and 2 sketches onto my Flickr Account. The links on top left or wherever. I never take pictures, so 6 is a lot for me at any given time!

Last Night

2005-11-01T11:36:00.000-05:00

Here's what I did last night:

Got home from the gym, ate spaghettio's, started playing Party Poker around 6:30 PM. Stop playing around 1:15 AM.

Reasoning for this post:

That's pretty sad, and actually a little embarrasing. Online poker is seriously addictive for me, as there is constant action waiting to be had. My self control level is usually not great enough to pry me away.

I was up $150 at one point, after playing really well, but managed to lose all of my profit, plus and extra $20. Duh. The only problem is that there is so much easy money to be made, that I find it hard to stay away. I might be playing a live poker game tonight, not sure yet.

** Mr. Tambourine Man is now playing on that internet radio station, also heard Otis Redding before. Very interesting mix, I love pop and classic rock/soul/folk.

Awesome Internet Radio Station

2005-11-01T10:58:00.000-05:00

http://www.emapdigitalradio.com/emapdigitalradio/metafiles/qradio.asx This is broadcast by Q4 Music touted as "The World's Greatest Online Music Magazine". Who knows, maybe they are right??

I'm listening to this right now at work, lots of pop (especially BritPop). Stumbled across it via some other webpage. So far I've heard several songs off the new Oasis album (good album), Suede, David Bowie, and now Prince - When Doves Cry is playing!

I have a few mp3 albums here at work, but as much as I love The Beatles, Bob Marley, The Gin Blossoms, The Smiths, and John Lennon.... I can only listen to the albums consecutively so many times.

I had been listening to my own customized webpage at launch.com, but the commercials get a little irritating, plus I discovered there's an actual limit to how many hours a month you can listen to for free.

Official Week Start Post

2005-10-31T10:45:00.000-05:00

Monday is here, so I am unfortunately back in the cubicle. Had a good time over at Mike's Halloween party on Friday night. I have a couple of pictures on my camera, so I need to quit being lazy and resize them. Hopefully I'll upload them to my Flickr account sometime this week.

Mike and I stopped at his co-worker Megan's party in Rutherford on Saturday night also. Very small crowd, nice people though. We made our way over to the Loop Lounge. Fairly crowded in there, and a couple of decent costumes: a really well done Beetlejuice, many Ramones imitators, etc.

Sunday I was unsuprisingly lazy, and didn't accomplish anything I should have really. Went for a brief jog at the local track, probably didn't burn off all of the beers I drank Friday and Saturday.

At this point, I really don't have too much planned for this week. I know that I definitely need to clean up my hellhole of a room, do some ironing, and put clothes where they actually belong. I need to stick to the guitar studies, and dedicate time to that. I need to play some onlike poker WELL and turn a decent profit this week.

Oh, and I really need to make a good adrenline playlist on my Mp3 player for the gym. I can generally listen to anything while I do my few weight exercises, as that goes pretty quickly. What I really need motivating music for is when I get on the treadmill. It is really arduous for me to do my 2 mile job every time I get in there. Whenever I listen to good punk music or whatever, it really pumps me, and makes the run that much easier. Right now, I have a few albums on my mp3 player, but not a steady string of adrenaline songs.

Official Midweek Post

2005-10-27T10:54:00.000-04:00

I have things to do here at work, but I really can't dissapoint my millions of fans by not putting up some sort of post. I suppose the week has gone by fairly quickly. My excursion to Niagara Falls is coming up fairly shortly, I got an amazing room rate at this place. Of course, we opted for the budget "no view" room. I will definitely take advantage of the free gym, and possibly the sauna though.

Speaking of the gym, I think I'm skipping tonight, really haven't been motivated to go lately, although I went Mon-Weds already. Tomorrow night is Mike's Halloween party. Sounds to be mainly our party regulars, including the NYC dwellers, which is cool. I'll do my best be social, but we'll see how long that goes for. My short attention span, and disinterest in most small talk will kick in, only a matter of time. I'm not planning on a "drink your face off" night at this point, but who knows.

I should really put my digital camera to use, I have not gotten my money's worth out of it yet. Also, I have enrolled to go to another party on Saturday night, hosted by one of Mike's co-workers. There will be new people there, so that might be more exciting. My Party Poker account is at $280 right now, weekends definetly are optimum Party Poker time, so maybe I can run that up higher.

Regretfully, I will probably be calling it an end to my skateboarding season soon. It was a decent season for me, as I got out pretty regularly, popped a few tricks, and got some exercise. Maybe I'll get out intermitently during the colder months, but I might offset the loss by bundling up more and taking jogs at the local track.

I haven't played guitar in days. Slacking slacking slacking. Oh yeah, and I miss playing the drums.

Weekend Update

2005-10-24T08:53:00.000-04:00

This Monday morning provides us with another exciting opportunity of Dave's Weekend Update. I skipped the gym on Friday because I really just wanted to get the hell home, so I took the lazy route. Didn't end up going out on Friday, was mostly playing on Party Poker. Had several weekend swings on my account.

Made myself jog a few brief laps on Saturday at the local high school track. Maybe, just maybe, I ran enough to burn the calories from one bowl of cereal. I also logged more online poker time, which I'll go into further on my other poker blog. Mike and I stopped over at his friend Ryan's Halloween party in Clifton on Saturday night. The turnout wasn't huge, but Ryan put a really nice effort into decorating, themes, food, and booze. I felt slightly bad that so much of the food was going un-eaten. I conned Ryan into doing a SoCo shot with me almost every 20 minutes though!

After a couple of hours, we headed over to the party at John's house in Hackensack, where we heard all of our friends would be. Their was a decent # of people of there, and they had a keg and food. Seemed like a bunch of our friends had left already so we hung out with Mr. Dimereck (Dimeck), and his friend from work. Hung out there for a while, checked out some female eye-candy, no one seemed like they were worth any major efforts. We didn't stay there too late.

Sunday I play a bit of guitar. Not enough though, I am actually a little mad at myself for not focusing at all with this lately. I'm not making progress, barely treading water. I need to sit down several times each week and really get in my pratice groove to get better. Anyways, I did a Dunkin Donuts run into Hackensack, because I like that one better than the one near my house. I headed out to my local skate spot in Paramus. Had a decent skate session, nothing spectacular though, didn't really try anything too challenging.

Hung out at home for a while, played some more Party Poker. Went over to Rochelle Park for $40 poker game at 8PM. Actually, I got pizza around the corner before hand at Linwood Pizza. Decent food and prices I guess, it's just really a convenient location, and I've been at Taco Bell too much lately. I was having a decent poker game until I got trapped late in the game when I flopped top pair, against Rob who limped, and hit a set of 6's. Goodbye tournament, yeah, I didn't feel great about it.

Did my usual late night supermarket run at Shoprite in Rochelle Park. I love that place because it's 24 hours, really the only one around. Played more online poker, went to bed. It's Monday, and now I'm at work. I'm going to post a hand or 2 on livejournal, and then maybe do some work.