Since we're on the topic of wallet-lightening...

in

How about these two gems? * After my ass-reaming of a registration fee "a few weeks back":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001288/, I saw my check clear, and then be returned a day later with the cryptic message "Refer to Maker". How biblical. I call my bank, and they have no idea why I came back. I had plenty of money, so it's not like it's an NSF(Non-Sufficient Funds) situation; the guy thought maybe the endorsement stamp on the back wasn't clear enough and my bank rejected it. I called MVD to see if they had any info on their end, but they didn't even know about it being returned yet. They said to wait for a letter or call back in a week. I gave them two. First I call MVD today to see if they had any more info for me, and they didn't. I tried to explain to them that it was some sort of bank mix-up, and not like I had passed them a bum check (although after watching "Catch Me If You Can":http://imdb.com/title/tt0264464/ last night it was highly tempting). They said no matter what if there's a problem with the check I have to give them an extra $25, and I also need to give it to them cash or credit card; no more checks. Of course the location near me only takes cash, and I'm not going to make 3 trips to the ATM to get $500 out, so the location that will actually take my check card is on the other side of town. Whee! I called PNC Bank back and tried to get further info, and gently hinted that perhaps they should pay for the $25 extra since it was something that they (or at least not I) had screwed up, to which they gently hinted that I should go fuck myself.

* I accidentally paid my wireless bill twice last month, so I figured I wouldn't have anything to worry about this month. Wrong! A bill of $200+ shows up, only partially covered by my double-payment of last month. This seems to have been a disturbing trend over the last few months; amazingly high wireless bills. I called to find out what was going on, and apparently my new plan (unlike my old one before I moved) DOESN'T INCLUDE LONG DISTANCE?!?! Are you shitting me? $5 a month for the long distance would have saved me a few hundred over the last few months ($.20 a minute for LD... ouch!). So, I added the package, upped my minutes per month allotment (having only a mobile phone when you're telecommuting can use up peak minutes pretty fast), and grimaced when the nice woman on the phone told me I was already over my prorated minutes for this billing half-cycle to the tune of like $60. Some days you just shouldn't get out of bed.

Ho, ho, huh?

in

A projected high of around 70 today makes it feel fairly unlike any December I can remember in New Jersey or Pittsburgh. In fact, if not for the swanky holiday decorations that April put up in the main house, I'm not sure I'd even know that the holidays were right on top of me. This year I think I'm going to push back xmas until early next year. I haven't even told my mom about it yet (and I'm sure you can keep a secret, right Internet?), but I'm just ill-prepared for the holidays right now. No presents are bought, and I don't have enough vacation time to visit all the people I would want to visit properly. I've got 3 families, as well as friends in Pgh and NJ, and my trip home was only going to be like 3 days. So I cancelled my flight yesterday, and I'm going to reschedule for sometime in January, when I'll have time to do some proper shopping for people. Getting smacked around with some "unexpected bills":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001289/ has hurt me in the wallet, including my "Pgh back taxes":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001139/ (wahoo!) enough that my meager "poker":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/poker/ winnings can't compensate for.

A nice long weekend in January will be lovely. I'll get to spend time with everyone that I want to (maybe even drop in on the old weekly poker game and show the kids what I've been learning), and be able to do it all on my schedule. Mom will be sad, but xmas is just another day on the calendar, especially when it's 70 out. ;-)

Family weekend wrapup

in

Well, the folks had a great time out here, although the weather wasn't particularly nice. 2 out of the 3 days they were here saw lots and lots of rain, which is very odd for this time of year. We got snowed out of a trip up Mt. Lemmon; made it about 3/4 of the way up and then were turned around by the police. Snow and ice at higher elevations, I suppose. The snow made the mountains look fabulous, as you can tell by my new header graphic. After the Mt. Lemmon snow-out, we went to Bisbee the following day (Sunday) to just walk around and see stuff. It was a little chilly, but fairly nice in the sun. We checked out some of the antique shops, and also saw Tombstone and Boot Hill cemetary, which my parents got quite a kick out of.

Monday was more rain, which sucked because I wanted to take them to see the Desert Museum, which is almost completely outdoors. We puttered around 4th St. in downtown Tucson, which is sort of the hip cool college area. After a nice lunch at one of the bars, the weather seemed to be cooperating enough for us to try the museum, so we headed on over under grey skies. We had a great time walking around; saw javalinas and cute prairie dogs.

A nice dinner with Paul and April to thank them for putting up my folks, and then off to the airport so they could catch the redeye flight. I'm hoping they'll come back when the weather is a bit more like what I thought it would be in December: sunny and 70 instead of rainy and 40.

"Pics from the visit are here.":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/?folder=20041206_rents

Family time!

in

Folks are in, after arriving on the late LATE flight last night. I worked today and sent them out in my car this morning to the "Saguaro National Park":http://www.nps.gov/sagu/, then they came back for lunch and we met with "Kim":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20041107_bisbee/IMG_0142.jpg at Feast, then I went back to work and they went to "Sabino Canyon":http://www.sabinocanyon.com/. Now we're off to go get some good authentic Mexican, and meet up with "Eric":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20041030_party/IMG_0089.jpg (the cat sitter) and "Kim":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20041107_bisbee/IMG_0142.jpg. Then maybe back to the house for a little family poker, then early bed for everyone. Tomorrow is either "Bisbee":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/?folder=20041107_bisbee or Mt. Lemmon.

That stings a bit

in ,

I was in full-on car upkeep mode this week, as the 'rents might borrow it to toole around while I'm working on Friday. Got the oil changed (and washed it) yesterday, and today I went first to State Farm to move my insurance over to AZ, then to the MVD (as opposed to DMV, which is what every sane state calls it) to get a new driver's license and registration for the car. Apparently owning a newer car is A Bad Thing(tm), because the registration is amazingly expensive. I walked out of there with a $500 hole in my wallet, but on the plus side I did get a cool personalized plate out of the deal.

az_27off.jpg

*Update:* "Robin":http://firepile.com/robin/ sent me an updated license plate. Really sort of demonstrates what she thinks of me.

f_off.jpg

You can also "make your own here":http://www.acme.com/licensemaker/.

*Update 2:* Crap. After doing a Google popularity contest between "27o poker":http://tinyurl.com/5p8uz and "72o poker":http://tinyurl.com/6sohb I should have made it be "72 OFF". Crap. Maybe I'll have a nice run at $3/6 and just get it anyway.

Feelin' the rush

in

I figured at the end of the day today I'd do just a little bit of online poker before heading out for the evening. I had just re-read some sections of "Small-Stakes Hold 'em" last night and was feeling all pleased with my play. I sat down at two $3/6 tables and proceded to get completely smacked in the face by the deck. Sit down to two pair, kings and 9s. $40 pot there. Other table I sit down to AKs, flop 4 to the flush, and my lead-out bet gets no callers. Only $16 there, but it was still a good sign. I proceded to get a few flushes, a couple of open-ended straight draws that came through, and pocket aces twice in 3 hands (both of which held up for a $70 and $80 pot) at one of the tables. Bottom line, I made $200 in about 20 minutes. Granted, my win rate of around 60 big bets/hour (a good player will average about 3) was completely unsustainable, so I quickly got up before the cards went cold and went for a nice bike ride, but it was still a lot of fun. I'm hoping I'll get similar cards tomorrow at Casino Arizona, but confident that I'll play patiently and well regardless of what I'm dealt.

diamond_jim_feral.jpg

Zzzzz...

in

Guess I haven't updated in awhile, eh? I wish I had more exciting stuff to report, but I guess I don't. Here comes a patented Bullet Point List(tm). * Work has been pretty busy, especially last week while we were trying to push out a new release like a fat man bearing down on excreting last night's dinner (I'll pause for a minute and let you savor that mental image. Pretend it's Dom DeLouise, or maybe Horatio Sanz from SNL).

* Finally picked up GTA:San Andreas, and it's good. I don't know if it's as good as the hype; as it's just not that much different from the previous two games. It's a hell of a lot of fun tho. I think the world is a bit more interactive (horse track, barber shops, etc.). Maybe a slight correction to my statement above: if you are just trying to plow through the game it's not much different, but if you just want to explore around and try stuff, there's a wealth of new bits and bobbles that are loads of fun, and well worth the purchase price.

* Visitors are coming soon. My mom is coming to visit first weekend in December, and I'm scrambling to find cool stuff for us to do while she's here. There's the desert museuem, that restaurant at the top of Mt. Lemmon, and just general going around and seeing stuff; I want her to have a feel for the place out here because it's so different from NJ, but just considering the temps will be in the 70s I guess I don't really need to worry about her noticing the difference. The following weekend Ryan and his SO(Significant Other) will be heading out this way. Some debate still as to whether we will kick around Tucson, or head to Vegas for the weekend. Either way, it'll be fun, and I'll be sure to wear my drinkin' pants.

* Climbing season is full-on now. Paul and April did their guide certification, which hopefully will mean more trips to the restricted areas of Heuco. I realized what a fat, out-of-shape slob I am and started in earnest on hangboard workouts. I did 2 sets over the weekend, a set yesterday at lunch and 3 last night. I need to shock my muscles back into shape quick, and doing 2 sets at lunch and another 2 or 3 every night should help do the trick until my next Heuco weekend, which will be the extended Thanksgiving weekend.

* Poker has been going well; both online and in the casino last Sunday. That "Small Stakes Hold 'em" book has been fantastic, and I think I'm really getting a good limit game down. Of course, this means my no limit and tourney play has suffered, but I keep threatening to head on over to the casino one of these Wednesday nights to try out their $25 tourney. This weekend I'm going to a birthday party up in Phoenix, so I'm hoping to get to check out "Casino Arizona":http://www.casinoaz.com/ for a few hours while i'm in the hood.

* "Edith Frost":http://www.edithfrost.com will be here in a few weeks, which means I'll get to see her live! She's definitely one of my more favorite musician/nerds, so I'm happy she's coming to the relative wasteland (musically speaking) of Tucson.

Comings and goings

in

JR (our friend from PGH) was in town this past weekend for a dental conference that just happend to be in Tucson. We went out and hit 4th Ave., which is pretty nutty on a weekend night. Sunday I went "to Bisbee":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/?folder=20041107_bisbee to check it out. It's an old copper mining town which has respawned itself as a sort of New Hope-esque cute little antiques town. Along the way drove by the airplane graveyard in Tucson (which is awesome), and stopped in Tombstone (which is just as fake and depressing as you would imagine it is).

Work is crazy this week... scrambling to squash the last few bugs before a major release. This one has installers and everything, which hopefully will make future releases brain-dead simple for the clients, instead of managing a myriad of scripts and files.

Stop spam now with your gigantic p3n1s!!!

in

Even though I have the fantastic MT-Blacklist installed on my site, I still get tons of comment spams, both denials that get blocked but eat up resources, and spams for as-of-yet-un-blacklisted sites that eat up resources and my patience. The flood has gotten especially bad over the last few weeks (I'd wake up to 20 new comments and hundreds of denied notifications) so I decided to take a few more drastic measures. I didn't quite upgrade to MT 3.1 yet, but I did follow most of the suggestions "here":http://www.elise.com/mt/archives/000246concerning_spam.php that I wasn't already doing, including renaming mt-comments.cgi, and taking off the comments popup from the link; instead forcing you to the individual entry archive. We'll see how much that reduces the crap around here. Oh, I tried to run David R's "mt-close script":http://www.rayners.org/2003/12/closing_comments_on_old_entries.php to close out all entries older than 5 days, but I kept getting an error about something to do with App.pm, although it is in my cgi-bin folder somewhere. Anyone else seen that before?

The games people play

in

Man, there are so many cool games either coming out or already out for PS2 this holiday season. There's possible Game of the Year "GTA: San Andreas":http://ps2.ign.com/articles/559/559560p1.html. There's "Gran Turismo 4":http://ps2.ign.com/objects/489/489327.html. There's "NHL 2005":http://ps2.ign.com/objects/678/678013.html. "NFSU2":http://ps2.ign.com/objects/679/679032.html. "Tony Hawk":http://ps2.ign.com/objects/640/640600.html. All this is making me think about getting a totally cheap-o (read: $100) tv to put in my room so I can hook up the PS2. That will let me both play games AND watch DVDs. It's a win-win!

Wow

in

I hope everyone watched the "lunar eclipse":http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/lunar_eclipse last night; "it was pretty spectacular":http://flickr.com/photos/tags/eclipse/. I saw pretty much the whole thing sitting out in the courtyard. Of course my new camera comes _today_, so I was unable to take any pictures, but suffice to say that it was very red out west, because it was passing through more atmosphere than at my mom's in NJ, where it was already much higher in the sky.

Tucson casino trip(s)

in

Wow, haven't done a poker post in awhile... I guess without a "home game":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ every week there's not usually anything exciting to report. This past weekend I hit the casinos, tried $3/6 Hold 'Em for the first time, had some ups and downs, and came out on top. Saturday night I went to check out the Desert Diamond poker room for the first time. Well, that's not exactly true. The first week I moved here I actually wound up there, but just walked through to look at it, and was waaaay too intimidated to sit down.

This time I walked in ready to play (especially after hitting the poker room at Casino Del Sol a few times and finding it not scary). I went up to the cardroom manager (super-nice guy (Jason maybe?)) and asked about $2/4. He said that everyone in a seat right now was a die-hard, so it might be a long wait. He wanted to know if I would take a seat at a $3/6 table instead. I thought about it for a minute, then said "sure". After all, it's only a buck more in blinds per orbit, so as long as I played tight I figured I'd be alright.

Finally got into my seat, got $100 in chips, and I was ready to play. I folded about the first 20 hands, then got pocket 4s. I call the big blind, and the flop is full of overcards, so I fold at the first bet.

Couple of hands later, and I'm dealt pocket 9s. 5 players to the flop, and there's a 9, so now I've got a set. There's a bet in front of me, and I raise to try and ward off any freak draws. 2 callers, and the turn in a blank. I bet out again, get one fold and one call. Last card makes a pair of jacks on the board, so now I've got a full house. It's checked to me, and I bet. The woman I'm heads-up against folds, and I show my cards as sort of a PR move. It was a nice sized pot, and now I'm probably at about $140.

After that, however... nothing went right. I continued to play tight/aggressive, but cards weren't coming my way. I mucked bad hand after bad hand... 2-5o, 10-5o, 7-3o. Fold, fold, fold. It wasn't really frustrating; just some quiet bemusement that I wasn't getting anything to work with. The few good starting hands I did get didn't turn into anything. I would flop four to the flush, and then no more cards I needed would come. Medium pairs wouldn't yield anything, so I would have to fold. The end result was that I walked away down about $70, but considering how long I was playing, and how much worse it _could_ have been, I was pleased with my play, but just dissapointed with the net results.

Yesterday I went to Casino Del Sol, to see if I was just having an off night. Once again no $2/4, but there weren't even any tables of it, so I had to go to a $3/6. This one started out much the same way; up a little, down a little, but holding my own and no major disasters.

Then the cards started coming my way. It started with A-10o, and the flop came with some cards towards a straight, and 2 spades. My ace was a spade, so I figured it would be worth it to stick around. 4th street was another spade, and the other guy in the pot is betting like mad trying to get me off the hand, but I stay in. Last card is another spade, and now I've made the nut flush. With no pair on the board, I'm sure I've got the best hand, and I do. That opened the floodgates, and I started getting some really good hands. Flopped trip 7s which held up. A-J of diamonds makes a flush grabbing me a monster pot. Even my A-10 stands up as top pair, top kicker. After that hand one of the better players at the table (and they were by far better than the people playing the night before) commented that he couldn't get a read on me, which I took as a huge compliment. Of course, I had to say something funny like "why, because I look like I'm shitting my pants on every hand?" I don't think I wound up losing a showdown the rest of the day. I had a weak 2-4o (in the blinds) turn into 2 pair on the river, beating out a pair of aces.

The funniest hand had me a late position with a 5-7 of diamonds. Flop came with some low cards and a 7 (with a diamond), so I stayed with my pair and backdoor flush. Next card gave me a gutshot low (A-2-4-7 on the board), so I called the bet from across the table. Last card was the miracle 3, giving me a wheel straight. The other guy had a pair of aces, and I flipped up my 5, proclaiming "straight!". The dealer took a look and said, "I can't get a straight from this", which of course made my heart completely stop beating. Then she took a second look and decided I did indeed have the straight, and raked that one in.

The total tally had me walking out with $275 after buying in for $100, so a profit of $175 for the day (not including all the tips for the dealers), making my weekend tally solidly in the black. I probably could have stayed longer and made more, but I had plans (bowling!) that I didn't want to miss. Small aside; the guy who said he couldn't read me and one of the dealers both made a point to tell me when I was leaving that I had played really well, which was pretty cool indeed.

ClimbX nostalgia

in

Finally got my home computer up and running (I've been -surfing porn- working only on my work desktop since I got here), and dug out my movie archives. I had tried to save most of the good video clips from the "now-defunct climbxmedia.com":http://www.rockclimbing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46006 while it was still un-defunct. I'm going to give all the "post-Dosage Vol 1":http://bigstone.bizhosting.com/dosage_dvd.html videos to Paul so he can "make a DVD":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001171/ out of them. For anyone who remembers the site I'm posting a few of the better clips:

"Dave Graham and crew tear it up at Rumney":http://feralboy.com/climbx/rumney.mov

"Klem Loskot deep water soloing in Spain":http://feralboy.com/climbx/psicobloc.mov

"Joel Brady on a cool project in New England":http://feralboy.com/climbx/stereo.mov

"Some Cockney dude on his woody":http://feralboy.com/climbx/splinterbig.mov (heh heh heh)

Where's Fido?

in

Exciting afternoon yesterday. Just sitting and working, and it starts getting really windy. I hear the front gate creak open, and go out into the courtyard to latch it. An hour later or so I head back to the main house to get some more "water":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000861/, and noticed only Morgan (the choco lab that lives here) was on the outside couch, and Senga (the black lab puppy "with the digestion issues":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001239/ that I was dog-sitting) was nowhere to be seen. She sometimes sleeps in the house during the day, so I called her when I got into the house. Hm... no dog. Check more thoroughly, and maybe even think that her dad came and got her when I went to lunch or something. Call April: "Hey, did Vince and Tammy bring Senga's crate this time?" "No, why?" "Oh, crap. I was hoping she went back home and that's why her crate's not here and neither is she."

So, now it's panic time. Go out the back and yell, no dog. Go out front and yell, no dog. I start walking the pasture out behind the house, where the dogs like to go and run and sniff gopher holes. Morgan comes along to "help", and for a minute I get excited that she's going to lead me right to her, kicking it Lassie-style, but she's completely worthless and wants me to play frisbee with her. Walking is too damn slow, so I go back to the house and grab April's mountain bike to cover ground faster. Riding, riding, riding... no dog. I'm already figuring out just how the heck I'm going to tell V&T that I lost their dog, and mentally calculating how much a purebred lab costs.

April gets home from work, and goes driving around to scope out neighbors' houses and ask them to keep an eye out. I'm back to walking, because it's now raining for THE FIRST FUCKING TIME SINCE I MOVED HERE! Figures, right? I walked the whole pasture, and saw nothing. Then April was back, so we started walking to other houses. Of course the rain is coming down really hard now, and we're both soaked. Everyone was super-nice and sympathetic. Uttering the word "puppy" somehow causes a neurochemical reaction that stimulates the speech center of the brain and out comes "awwwwwwww".

As we walked we talked about what could have possibly happened. From the house you can't go more than 1/8 of a mile in any direction without hitting some sort of civilization, so best case was that someone had already found her and picked her up (it's the perfect story, right? Wet, shivering puppy on a dark night... what heartless bastard _wouldn't_ pick her up?). Senga's not chipped, but she did have a collar and tags. We weren't sure what was on the tags; maybe a vet name/number, so we were hoping to figure out who her vet was and call and see if anyone had called in. But, we didn't know who the vet was, so we would have to call V&T to tell them their dog was gone, which we didn't really want to do until we could look some more and maybe even find her.

Finally it started getting full dark, and we headed back to the house. Paul was home too, gamely looking in the back pasture with a flashlight. April called Vince and Tammy and told them what was going on. They sounded pretty ok, and were quick to say that we shouldn't feel bad or guilty. Yeah, right. Anyway, the number on her tags was their home number, so we headed over to their house on the west side of town (Apparently they have the last answering machine in the known universe where you can't get messages remotely ;-).

Get to their house, and there's 4 messages. #1, nope. #2, nope. #3, nope. Last one, and it's some dude who found Senga!!! I call him back, and he found her on his doorstep. His address was just across the street and down a few hundred yards from our street, so we hustled on back, and got the dog. Apparently she had come with some other dog (not Morgan) into his yard. I wouldn't have thought she would venture that far on her own, so I guess it makes sense that she fell in with a bad crowd and started wilding.

So, all's well that ends without me having to explain in detail how I lost their dog permanantly. I'm still going to put her in some sort of Hannibal Lechter-style restraints from now on. Or maybe just sit on her while I'm working. Mmmm.. doggie cushiony.

Back back back

in

Home from Antigua ("pics":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/?folder=20041016_antigua), with a small writeup coming soon. Throwing myself fully into work this week; relishing being back in comfortable and familiar environs.

While on the trip, right towards the end my camera started acting flaky... fresh batteries would act like they were nearly flat, and it would only work maybe one time out of 10. I thought maybe it really was something with the batteries, so when I got home I charged them up, slapped them back in, and got more of the same. So, a call to Olympus tech support last night to find out an estimate for repair, and they tell me $180, not including the shipping to get it to their repair facility. Have they seen digital camera prices lately? Totally not worth it to fix a slightly-outdated camera anyway, so it was time to scour the reviews. I was pretty impressed with the "S500":http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/s500.html that I just purchased for "Paul and April's wedding":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001242/ gift, but I didn't need/want to spend that much on myself, so I settled on the "A95":http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/a95.html. "$300 shipped":http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=A95, and I should have it in time for the little post-wedding Tucson Halloween reception next weekend.

Hello from Antigua

in

Sitting in the small market/deli thing checking email, and figured I'd do a quick update. Here's Antigua in a nutshell: * Hot * Humid * Very pretty * Poor country * No hold 'em, except for the game in our kitchen at night. :-( * Lots of newlyweds and older couples. * British people smoke like it's going out of style. * Never, EVER play something called "rainbow jackpot". * I miss Arizona, and my cats. * The beach life is not for me, but I love the time with my family.

I'll have lots of pictures, but probably not that much in the way of stories, when I get back. I have made poor, poor movie viewing choices in the last few days, but I will say in my defense that I managed to avoid seeing "American Wedding", and I am very happy about that.