Found a new comment spam tonight, and the domain it linked to made me laugh; it was "gays-sex-gay-sex-gays.us", which of course is the domain I would go to first if I wanted to see some hot gay action. It wouldn't be gay.com, or hotgayass.com, or even youvegotmale.com.
Last night we mixed it up a bit. We had 6 players, so we decided instead of a few hours of limit-raise and then an hour or so of no-limit to run a tournament. Everyone bought in for $20, and got $2k in chips. The idea, much like the "WSOP":http://www.harrahs.com/wsop/, is that as each player is eliminated, you get a placement. We did it so that the top 3 places were "in the money", and got 50%, 30% and 20% for first, second and third. We had a quickly escalating blind structure, with levels changing every 20 minutes. We also let people do a rebuy at the end of the first hour to bring them back up to $2k, if they wanted. Mike and Aaron both had rough nights; never really getting good enough hands to play, and eventually got blinded down to the felt. David gets the "most improved student" gold star... he's been doing his homework and played really well... using his stack to his advantage, and making smart plays. His best hand was a showdown against "Jason(Jason and Sabre enjoying a quiet afternoon)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040419_coopers/P1010010.jpg where he went all-in with the K-high nut flush (A was already on the board), and Jason had the Q-high. Jason was the wild man; betting heavy, and not afraid to call someone's all-in, which proved to be a good enough strategy when paired with decent cards to put him 2nd in the money. Joshua was a little off-balance the whole night... loosing the first hand to me with cards he shouldn't have stayed in with, and then not getting a lot of good cards throughout the night.
I was fairly unstoppable. The very first hand of the night, I wound up going heads-up with 2 pair, and took in a nice sized pot from that. I sort of meandered after that, without enough of a stack to really do damage. Towards the end of the first hour, I won a massive pot off of "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ when my pocket 9s made a full boat with 7-7-X-X-9, and the miracle river beating his 2 pair. Some other lucky hands were me rivering a set of 2s with A-2, and knocking Joshua out the first hand after the rebuy period when my A-A yielded a set of aces on the turn, and his flush draw never materialized after I put him all in.
The last hand was pretty innocuous; I was big blind, and Jason just limped in from the small blind. I had something crappy like 2-6s (hearts), and the flop came X-K-2, with one heart. J made a small raise, and I called just to see if I'd get 2 pair or the lucky and improbable set of 2s. Next card was a heart. I don't think it even registered, as it was a low card, and didn't match either of my cards, and we both checked. Last card came as another heart, and I had made a flush with two running hearts. I checked my hole cards to make sure I really had it, and then looked one more time to be sure. I put J all-in, and he called with a pair of Ks. I wasn't even really sure I had the flush until I flipped my cards over, and sure enough, there were 5 hearts out there. 50% of $170 meant a very, very good night for me.
I wonder if I'll be able to repeat that performance. I was very lucky early on to not get short stacked, and as I picked up a few decent pots with good hands, I was able to start muscling the smaller stacks around, and bought quite a few pots with low pair or nothing at all, but people were unwilling to call after I had already made and shown such good hands before.
Hey everyone... it's my best friend Ryan's birthday today. He's turning 30, which of course means that now he is an old man. Send him a birthday greeting (or e-card or whatever) at esthero412[at]yahoo.com.
Pat pointed out the "Ghost Bike":http://www.ghostbike.org/ project that started this week. Basically a bunch of bikers took old bikes, painted them completely white, and started hanging them in places where bikers had been struck (although not necessarily killed). I think it's a good idea as far as bringing awareness, but it troubles me slightly that the "first(Intersection of Negley and Penn)":http://www.ghostbike.org/Resources/NegleyandPennlg.jpg two "places(Intersection of Negley and Baum)":http://www.ghostbike.org/Resources/NegleyandBaum2lg.jpg "pictured":http://www.ghostbike.org/photos.html are on my commute route.
Caught "this story":http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1909755.html on the drive home yesterday, discussing asprin's possible anti-cancer properties for women. The general gist is that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) inhibit cyclooxygenase (COX) activity. I pretty much almost crashed my car when I heard an NPR reporter use the phrase "blocks COX".
While out with friends the other night, I wondered aloud what a "Leaving Las Vegas":http://imdb.com/title/tt0113627/ drinking game might be like. Drink every time you see a bottle? Drink every time Nick Cage is drunk? No matter what, I'm sure it would be harsh.
If you see that basically a "frickin' tornado":http://www.dominionpost.com/a/news/2004/05/22/ab/ has blown through the night before, chances are the climbing at "Coopers":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000505/ will be wet. No need to drive down, park and hike in to see.
Just because you see something online for "shave oil":http://www.smartbomb.com/718334252063.html that _contains_ tea tree oil does not mean that: a) you should buy a "bottle of tea tree oil":http://www.drugstore.com/qxp83681_334918_sespider/desert_essence/organic_tea_tree_oil.htm at "Whole Foods":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000108/ just because it happens to be near the shaving products. b) you should rub 5-10 drops into your face c) you should not read the instructions on the bottle before doing step b, which would tell you to put one drop on a damp cotton ball, and NEVER PUT IT UNDILUTED ON YOUR FACE!
"Ow":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000770/! Owowowowowowowowowow!!!
This is such a pain in the ass it's not even funny. I need to keep a running total of rows in my repeater, and then put a subtotal column at the bottom. You can't do a normal FindControl on an item, and I saw weird stuff in the newsgroups about trying to pass a "ctrl1:lblName" to the FindControl, as well as using OnItemDataBound, which doesn't really work for what I want to do. So now, for posteriety, is the way to access a server-based control in the footer of a repeater (I'm assuming the same thing would work for headers):
Dim lblFooter As Label lblFooter = CType(rptSample.Controls(rptSample.Controls.Count - 1).FindControl("lblFooter"), Label) lblFooter.Text = "You found me!"
Sheesh.. what a hassle to figure that out.
*Update:* "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ asked in the comments if I asked the VB.Net Clippy for help. Yes, yes I did... and here's the response I got:
Thanks to Pat from the FeralMarketing dept. for the image.
Fun little ride yesterday. Met up with "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/, Casey, Aaron and some guy Mike at the oval bike track on Washington Blvd, and then we went over the R. D. Fleming bridge and up through Etna on Middle Rd. Hit 910, went east, came down into Harmarville where it catches 28, across the bridge into Oakmont, and then back down the Allegheney River Blvd. About a 30-mile loop, so probably about 40 total with the ride to and from the starting point. I felt pretty good at the end of it (and even rode in today!), so hopefully I'll be in good shape for the MS150 in about a month. Speaking of which, I finally have my "donation page":http://www.nationalmssociety.org//PAX/personal/go.asp?a=9830166&n=1&d=PAX0EMS120040612PGH&z=p set up! I only want to raise the minimum to ride, so if you feel like donating $5, be my guest! It's for a good cause, really... it's not funding my "poker habit":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/poker/ at all.
Yesterday I completed the ex-girlfriend trifecta. First, I had a really weird dream about my ex of a few years ago from New Jersey that I haven't thought about in quite some time. I don't remember all the details, but I remember waking up feeling a mixture of sad/nostalgic, "happy and angry(Ralph Wiggum - I'm happy and angry!)":http://feralboy.com/muzak/sweets20.mp3. Then on my "ride":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/bike/ in I saw my Pittsbugh ex driving from Highland Park to where I _think_ her new house is (I also saw her again this morning, same time and same place, which must mean she's gettin' some from somebody in that general vicinity, and good for her!). Then in the afternoon I got an email from the most recent for the first time in awhile (which was very nice), completing the sweep. No point to this story, just thought it was odd to have had something happen with three different girls from three different states all in the same day. Of course! It was Thursday the 13th! I should have known...
Today is the first really warm hazy day so far this spring, which means it's the first day that we are all learning just how fun it is to be just up the hill from the "water treatment plant":http://www.hampton-pa.org/wpcp/default.htm. It fucking reeks out there, in a way that puts the dead deer stink I rode past on the way in this morning (please please please someone come and get that before tomorrow morning) to shame. So, that probably means no grilling today. That still means I need to step outside in order to go get something to eat, so maybe it's a 6/half-dozen proposition.
An all-new installment of the Matt Poker Tour. Last night the action was at Ron's, who climbs at our gym. He has a sweet house (including regulation 8-sided card table!) up in the hills near where I work, so I went directly there from a work send-off party for one of my co-workers that's leaving. We started 6-handed, and did limit raise for about 2 hours. I finally was catching good cards, although I folded two big pots early on that I would have won, including a straight draw that I folded on the turn. After those beats I started to catch some good hands; 2 pair AJ, pocket aces that turned into a full house, and even a few good bluffs. By the end of limit play I was probably up about $20-25. No-limit was not as good. Drew had already busted out of limit play, so we started 5-handed. Aaron went down pretty early on an all-in, and so once we were playing 4-handed I started to play a bit looser, thinking that I wouldn't need as good of hands to win. Sometimes that was true, and I took a couple of pots with some dubious hands, but then wound up loosing about $10 to Joshua on a showdown I should have folded out of 2 rounds before. End result? I walked away up $15, but more important I figured out a little bit better rhythm than last weeks "disastrous":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001062/ playing. Josuha again walked away the big winner; up about $50. "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ finally had a good game; not bluffing too much, catching good cards and playing them well. He only lost $10 on the night, and our esteemed host Ron lost $20 after buying back in midway through the night.
I've also bought back in to the online poker recently to try and brush up on my no-limit skillz. So far it's working well, and I'm up around $30. No great shakes, and probably not nearly as many fish as if I went to Party Poker, but I like the desktop client at "the site":http://paradisepoker.com/ I play at.
So, we're having some problems with our internal network this morning. Can't hit the SQL box, which means can't do any development right now. In order to pass the time, I send my coworkers "these pictures":http://www.stereogum.com/archives/001478.html of Britney. *Dan:* Check out her fat ass. *Me:* Yeah, she's really let herself go. *Dan:* She's got that "gunt":http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gunt thing going on. *Me:* Yeah. *Pat:* I'd still totally do her though. *Me and Dan* (in unison): Yeah.
"Joshua":http://firepile.com/log/ just pointed out to me that "50 Foot Wave":http://www.throwingmusic.com is going to be at "Club Cafe tonight":http://www.throwingmusic.com/index.php?module=PostCalendar&func=view&Date=20040506&tplview=&viewtype=details&eid=31. I would go if I didn't a) completely suck, and b) already have plans for the evening. Oh well, maybe next time.
Ugh. Very short entry about last night. Suffice to say I had my ass handed to me to the tune of $30. I wasn't playing tight at all, but that was because I was seeing other people winning with these completely weak-ass hands. I had one decent hand all night (full house, and only because 4 of the cards were on the table); kept getting picture-rag, and then horrible flops. Next time, no fooling around; only playing good hands, and then we'll see who needs the KY Jelly.
(Tip o' the hat to London's "Mirror":http://www.mirror.co.uk/) Britney Spears really needs to start learning from her mistakes, especially when the results are permanent.
Husbands can be erased easily enough but tattoos are much harder to remove - and the singer has messed up yet another of hers.
The 22-year-old has had a series of Hebrew symbols etched into the back of her neck in an act of devotion to Kabbalah, the mystical form of Judaism she was introduced to by Madonna.
But unfortunately for her they are absolute gibberish.
Says a source: "She had hoped it would say new year or new era. It seems she's got the words the wrong way round."
(Story continues "here":http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/page.cfm?objectid=14205055&method=full)
Saw "that interesting news item":http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04125/310661.stm yesterday. All I can say is "ha ha ha ha ha!" "Die, fuckers":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000430/.
Well, after TextAmerica went and broke their RSS feed _again_ a few weeks ago, breaking my homepage display of the latest moblog image, I finally got motivated to change services. I've had a few run-ins with them before. One of their bizdev dudes took offence to my posting code to parse their RSS feed to strip out their stupid ad links and link (correctly, in my view) to the full-size image page from the thumbnail. We went back and forth via email, and eventually I took down the code that was getting his panties in a twist. My homeslice "Joshua":http://firepile.com/log/ (who is now "a rawk star":http://www.boingboing.net/2004/04/29/moblog_image_import_.html, btw) recently whipped up "an application":http://www.firepile.com/software/archives/000133.html to pull all of your images off of TA(TextAmerica), and then you can either save them locally as some XML(eXtensible Markup Language)/XSL(eXtensible Stylesheet Language) files, or you can email and post them directly into your new moblog account, which in the case of "my new moblog":http://moblg.net/blog/feralboy is on "MoblogUK":http://moblg.net/.
"MoblogUK":http://moblg.net/ seems like a pretty sweet site; you actually "own your own images":http://www.firepile.com/software/archives/000133.html, and it seems a bit more community-based, with ratings and open comments and (my favorite) seeing who has been to your moblog recently. I still need to tweak the code that's pulling up my most recent image to include the title and description, as well as put a "border=0" on the image tag, but already I'm about 1,000 times happier with "MoblogUK":http://moblg.net/ over TA(TextAmerica).
A bunch of things have happened in the last few days since "my original post":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001037/. Here there are in no particular order (some of them I already put into updates in my original post): * The next issue of The Medium contained "an apology":http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/04/28/rutgers.holocaust.ap/index.html. The issue is archived "here(The 'apology' issue of The Medium)":http://feralboy.com/medium/42804.pdf. * According to the emails I'm still getting between some former editors, Professor Jeff Buechner, who was faculty advisor to The Medium, has resigned. Below is the text of the email that was sent to him by one of the editors:
Dear Professor Beuchner,
I just received your voicemail indicating that you have resigned from your position as Faculty Advisor for The Medium because of your outrage over the publication of the holocaust cartoon. And while I certainly share your feelings about the content of the cartoon, I'd very much like to urge you to reconsider your resignation. But before going any further, I want to make very clear how I felt about the cartoon. It was utterly DREADFUL and I am very certain *I* would have opposed its publication with all of my ability had it landed on my front page when I was The Medium's Managing Editor. I sent the current editors a letter saying I believed it was a "supremely dumb idea" and I am glad to see they've issued an apology for printing it. That being said, I urge you to put your personal anger at the cartoon (and perhaps the current editors) aside and recognize The Medium as a unique educational laboratory. It may not seem immediately self-evident that publishing "101 Uses For A Dead Liberace" or "Stupid Jew Baking Tricks" would instill an appreciation for the balance between First Amendment rights and journalistic responsibility. But it turns out getting hate mail, death threats, universal condemnation and being forced to stand up and explain one's actions before the whithering attacks of a rabid public are uniquely effective at focusing the mind on matters of ethics and responsibility.
I have no idea what the current staff is like. It may well be the current Medium is just a pathetic attempt to recreate something that the editors have never seen. Maybe they are just going through the motions and have never thought seriously about what they were doing. I don't know. However, I believe deeply that the Medium needs to be cherished and yes, defended, as a place where students can and *should* explore the limits of free speech, screw up spectacularly, and feel the heat from their mistakes. I believe they should be *encouraged* to explore the ragged edges of good taste and required to defend themselves when they cross the line. I know the experience taught me more than I ever learned in "Expository Writing 101". And more importantly, I know other alums from the past 20 years of the Medium experience who believe as passionately as I do. They are cc'd on this email and their numbers and convictions are not trivial.
Of course, if you are not a tenured faculty member, then I'd have to say, "Good luck in your future endeavers" because I have seen first hand the Univerity's willingness to harrass and fire Medium Faculty Advisors. But if you are tenured, then I'd ask you sincerely to please reconsider.
Thanks,
-Janus Cole LC 1988 Medium Managing Editor 1986-1987
* Two former editors (and the "cutest little couple":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/?folder=20030524_robin_joshua_wedding you ever did see), "Robin":http://firepile.com/robin/ and "Joshua":http://www.firepile.com/log/, "have":http://www.firepile.com/log/archives/000130.html "also":http://www.firepile.com/robin/archives/000128.html "opined":http://www.firepile.com/robin/archives/000131.html.