| NEW BLOG TIME, COOL AWESOMO |
[Apr. 6th, 2007|11:14 pm] |
GO GO GO! Actually, I don't know if it's any different. I'll assume that it is and make it cooler than cool.
Since blogger doesn't actually have a picture thing, I still have to upload and host via picasaweb, but whatever.
Check it out here: http://yavanatidae.blogspot.com/ |
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| Almost 20. |
[Apr. 6th, 2007|12:42 pm] |
I'm almost 20, strange how a year can go by so quickly...yadayadayada...
Thinking about moving the blog to google's blogger just so I can link up pictures more easily. Not sure on that just yet, gonna play with a bit once I finish studying for my midterms.
Anyways, I've got a big big big idea. It's huge. And if you want to steal it, it might not be a bad idea to steal. If it works. Hell, it'd probably guarantee my own division at Google. It's that good. I just need to people to develop the technology :(
Btw, AP is in JP, so if you want to see what he's up to, check out his blog
Oh, and if anyone wants dinner on saturday, talk to maggie. <3 |
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| I should do this more often |
[Mar. 26th, 2007|11:09 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | San Diego | ] |
| [ | Listening to: |
| | Yellowcard - Lights and Sounds...why? I don't know... | ] |
So it's spring break and I'm bored as high hell. Guess it's time to blog a bit eh?
To recap the last few weeks of my life...
I bought a Wii. Yay! I also own at Wii Bowling, so if anyone wants a challenge, I'm readily game. Also, if anyone has Rayman, and wants to sell, I'm also game. Or if anyone wants to buy Sonic for retail - tax, just ask...
I passed on midterm, did well on another, and completely bombed a third. We'll see how that even outs in the end.
The HBO series Rome is almost over (it is over, but I haven't watched the finale yet...) which makes me ever so sad, since it was ridiculously awesome.
I watched Dead or Alive last night. And guiltily, it is one of the better sucky awesome video game fighter movies that I've seen. Definitely better than Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter from the old days, and I enjoyed it more than the Resident Evil movies, so take that for what it's worth. The fighting, while not excessive, was fun to enjoy. The plot, while dumb, was, unfortunately just that...dumb. I think they developed the story wrong, emphasizing the fighting and the hotties, then throwing in a pathetic (in the pathos sense) storyline that didn't really materialize, but that's probably why it never saw wide release in the the theatres. Other than that, they had a scene with XBV! Which I thought was hilarious. And on the plus side, Holly Valance is ridiculously hot and her opening scene is one of the best in the movie (Sarah Carter is really good looking too, but that's probably because I recognize her from an episode of Entourage). All in all, I didn't feel like it was a total waste, which is always a good sign for a bad movie. I give it 2 and a half ducks! Woo!
Time to go back to studying, I suppose... |
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| Dogs go Woof. |
[Mar. 5th, 2007|10:29 pm] |
Just a reminder: the 2007 Iditarod Sled Dog Race started on Saturday (the first one of March) and my man Martin Buser left the Rohn checkpoint in second.
Stay tuned!
www.iditarod.com |
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| Why I look so damn good... |
[Mar. 1st, 2007|04:28 pm] |
Actually, I don't, but I was thinking about something today and while it has nothing to do with my life, I thought it'd be worth investigating since it's worth millions of dollars after marketing.
Anyways, aesthetics is an interesting concept because what is aesthetically appealing can differ so widely across several conditions. What looks good is much much harder to define than what looks bad. The reason for that is that there are (my theory here) two types of positive aesthetics - conformational and conditional. Conditionally positive aesthetics looks good because it stands out from its conditions in a way that enhances the view. This is difficult to define precisely because, as it suggests, each condition is unique. Picasso is conditionally positive because it does not fit the normal mold of art and radically redefines an image in a non-grotesque way. Why? Cognitively, it could be that it requires more processing, activating more of the mind, while still maintaining positive reinforcement of pleasure senses in appreciating the art.
More important, I think, is conformational positive aesthetics. Conformationally positive aesthetics is something that looks good because it looks normal based on the expectations of what something or someone should look like. While this is uniquely individual - each person has a different template on which they draw such conformations - as long as things are proportionally defined, it's pleasing to the eye. We see the golden rectangle, proportionally phi, and we like it better than an awkwardly proportioned rectangle. Similarly, my idea is that people are more aesthetically pleasing when they are proportionally arranged.
Now, this is where my theory gets less obtuse and more involved with me.
I've been dressing in shirts and a jacket lately and today I realized a part of why. It makes my legs longer, and proportions my upper body closer to the phi ratio with my legs.
I am 5'6"-5'7", so 66-67 inches. My pant length is 30 inches. My head is 7 inches. My neck is 3 inches. I'll add another 2 inches for my feet.
Now, with a shirt tucked in, I have 32 inches below the belt-line and my upper torso will have about 24 inches. That means the ratio lies at 1.33 (close to phi - 1.61).
If I have a T-shirt on, especially one of a longer one, there's an exchange of 3 inches for the upper torso from the lower body. In that case, the ratio is much closer to 1 (27:29 - 1.07)
Whether that shift is significant or not is debatable, but theoretically interesting. |
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| How Worlds End and People Die... |
[Jan. 18th, 2007|05:18 pm] |
This has nothing to do with worlds ending and people dying. But it's cool nonetheless.
I got into all of my classes *pump fist* and I'm all caught up with my work...albeit 3 days into the semester, but I'm still caught up *double pump*
Taking Bio 1a and MCB C100a, which, for the first 5 weeks will feel like the exact same thing over and over again. And since they're right next to each other, forces me to wake up at 7am for 2 hours of lectures.
Psych 122 is going to be fun. Definitely excited about writing the mock lab report for it, since I can research papers on my subject for my labwork, and make up data and write conclusions based on that data. Plus, anything to do with memory and learning is interesting. Plus, Shimamura has been an excellent lecturer so far...
Haven't been to Public Health 116 yet, but who cares. It's P/NP.
And surprisingly, Asian Studies 10B has been pretty fun, despite it being ridiculously crowded. Zook tries to entertain, and teaches at a relatively fundamental level. It's like watching TV. You don't need to really pay attention to learn, and it's a nice way to blow off 3 hours a week.
Going to see Jersey Boys in SF tonight with M and C. Should be fun, cause well, it won a Tony for Best Musical.
Uh...and if you've seen me this week, I've been wearing nice shirts and stuff. It's not an accident. It's kind of a hassle, but I've been wanting to prep up my wardrobe for awhile now and I finally have a bag that matches my blazer. So, if you don't like it, see me after 5. If you do, let me know, because reinforcement will help me stay motivated to look nice for a change. If you think I look retarded...then...atleast I don't look like that dumb penguin from Happy Feet...(and suggest what I can do to look better...flexibility is also important).
Oh. And I want to see Smokin' Aces. and Cake in concert. If you do too, LMK! KK! OMGAWESOME-O!
Oh, and big news coming up. I think. Maybe next week. Have to meet with a post-doc in my lab again, but big news. Stay tuned. You can flip the channel, but don't turn off the tube baby!
Out. |
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| Wow. |
[Jan. 10th, 2007|02:05 pm] |
I suppose it's been awhile since I've blogged.
I just watched the first four+ parts of the new season of 24. It's ridiculous. There's a vulnerability with the return of Jack Bauer, the situation is ridiculous...and there's a connection with the previous season. Amazing.
At this very moment I'm watching the season premiere of Beauty and the Geek...and wow...it's so painfully funny. I don't think I'll watch any more of this season, but it's hilarious. A lot of these guys remind me of people I know, and a lot of this feels so fabricated that it's great entertainment. And the girls...well...they aren't dumb, but the way they act, they also remind me of girls that I know, and it's that familiarity that makes this show charming.
Anyways, winter hiatus is over. School starts in a week. Shows start this week. Exciting times. Exciting.
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| So I finally did it... |
[Dec. 5th, 2006|09:25 pm] |
I finally fell asleep.
I went down for about 4 hours this afternoon after being up for almost 32 straight. It's a good start, but I definitely need to work on my stamina later on. Can't be a resident intern without those long shifts and that mental fatigue. |
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| The blows of Corporate America and why I'm going to fail |
[Nov. 26th, 2006|12:19 am] |
| [ | Feeling: |
| |  sad | ] |
| [ | Listening to: |
| | Snow Patrol - Headlights | ] |
I'm going to preface this by noting that the two conjoined topics are unrelated. I am going to fail, but not because of Corporate America. With that said, I proceed.
I'm getting a new phone. I've been wanting a new phone for ages and ages and ages. Finally getting one. But what's that? I'm switching to a Cingular plan that won't let me keep my old number. Which means everyone that would call me (yes, all one of you...) will have to enter into your contacts and/or memorize a new number starting with the 858. Sigh. I even went to LA today to try to get a decent deal on a phone, only to be rejected. Gonna go out tomorrow to see what I can do about it, but things are looking down for me. On a brighter note, I have the choice of getting a LG CU500 that I'd like to tether to my laptop (although it might suck taking it to arizona/tahoe since the service will be so bad that I won't want to use my laptop), or a media ready Sony-Ericsson W810i, which looks really cool. Of course, I'd rather have a W800i, or maybe even the GSM LG KG800 Chocolate, but sigh...what the blows. Awful.
Uh, now to why I'm going to fail. I have too much work, too little time, and too little motivation to keep working. I have to read atleast 40 journal articles on penguins, behavioral studies, and distinctly unrelated articles on the fusiform face area for two papers that I need to write. I have to watch 8 webcasts, 9 by tomorrow, and 11 by the end of the week. I have to ready 8 books of Paradise Lost, lead a discussion, then write a 6 page paper on it. I have Asian Studies unstudied, I have two math homeworks that I haven't done. Oh my. Oh me. Oh my again twelve million times twice. Oh, and I'm on the verge of quitting poker. Again. I imploded and spewed $600 on 24 tables (i.e. 0/1/2/21 - which is about 13% ITM or 20% less than random chance...). Failure. All over this. Failure.
Sigh.
Oh, and Maggie is still pretty. <3 |
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| Stupid people and the failure to reason. |
[Nov. 14th, 2006|02:45 am] |
Watching Heroes is one of the fundamental pleasures that I have the pleasure of indulging in. Reading what other people say about Heroes gives me insight to formulate my own speculations about the future of the show. I like having a clue about what the plot wants to do, where the characters seem to be led, and even more so, what each hero has the ability to do.
Of course, my favorite hero is Hiro. The ability to bend space-time is absurb, and awesome, but the portrayal is just so endearing, it's hard not to love.
Still, people are confused about what he can and can not do, simply because people are dumb. Reading a forum about tonight's episode on TV.com, people were discussing what Hiro really does and what his powers are, resulting in a discussion about space-time, the space-time continuum, and relativistic physics. And some of the response were downright ignorant. I'm flabergasted.
First, I'll give you a sample of what others wrote, quote in italics, then I'll comment. Ready. Let's begin.
Stupid Guy A:
Thanks for adding this post to this thread. O.K, its only right to talk about this on this thread. What I was saying is this, you see Hiro using his powers in that scene, this is how his powers work. When you see him as everyone else is calling it, Freezing time. No so, this scene proves just how it works. You see him and then you don't. Thats what I've been trying to say all along. Yes chances are he is showing her how his powers work. As I've been saying time and time again that he's not freezing time, He's a time traveler. If they showed us the way they been showing us how he was using his powers, then people would call that scene freezing!! LOL, Man I love it when I'm right about something.
Wrong. Hiro's power from the stationary relativistic viewpoint is not a, now you see me, now you don't. It's simply a transitory position of what do we see at what time. If can cover a great deal of distance in essentially no time, then we see him move very fast. If he returns to the same position he was before, we see nothing changing. For example, if we subliminally flash an image between a continuous image, we would not recognize that image because our eyes would not refresh fast enough. Same deal. Hiro moves too fast for our perception. If he doesn't move in that split second that time slows for him, then we don't see a change. He doesn't time travel at all, he just manipulates space-time.
Now from a different guy:
Wait hold on a sec, don't get ahead of yourself. We know that there are two aspects to Hiro's powers: he can warp both space AND time. That scene where Hiro slowly fades away could be him simply teleporting.
And in the same vein, if his powers are to manipulate space and time -- which, incidentally, is how he himself explains it -- he'd be able to travel in time AS WELL as stop/slow it down.
What I said.
Stupid Guy A again:
He don't have two parts, its all one. Either he can time travel or not, thats it. YOU CAN'T STOP TIME! TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE!
Again, time travel and stopping time are just two polar ends of the same continuum. Stupid.
Stupid Guy A (SGA) supports his opinion with this:
Hiro's powers are this-spacetime continuum.
A simple definition: space and time considered together as one entity.
Time is also defined as being the fourth dimension of our universe.
The other three dimensions are of space, including up-down, left-right
and backward-forward. Time cannot exist without space, and likewise,
space cannot exist without time. This interconnected relationship of
time and space is called the spacetime continuum, which means that any event that occurs in the universe has to involve both space and time.
According to Einstein's theory of special relativity, time slows as an object approaches the speed of light.
This leads many scientists to believe that traveling faster than the
speed of light could open up the possibility of time travel to the past
as well as to the future. The problem is that the speed of light is
believed to be the highest speed at which something can travel, so it
is unlikely that we will be able to travel into the past. As an object
nears the speed of light, its relativistic mass
increases until, at the speed of light, it becomes infinite.
Accelerating an infinite mass any faster than that is impossible, or at
least it seems to be right now.
To which I respond with these response from other posters:
Time doesn't slow down as a traveller approaches lightspeed. Perception during travelling changes such that an outsider viewing the traveller's clock (or measuring stick) or the traveller viewing the outsider's clock (or measuring stick) shows a change. Clocks and measuring sticks are spacetime measuring tools. Measuring tools change. There is time dilation and space contraction. The Lorentz Transformation shows what happens. The closer to lightspeed (c) a traveller approaches while remaining below c, the more extreme the change. I can demonstrate the numbers if anybody cares.
BTW, the formulas work the same whether travelling goes to the past or the future. The arrow of time works both ways. We have to deal with other issues when we address past time travel.
Hiro folds spacetime. As such, he can emerge from his folding in another location or another time or another time & location. His trip starting in the subway demonstrated both spacelike and timelike because he changed both his space and time positions drastically. His manipulations in the casino were more spacelike because he didn't change his time position much. His trip to the women's room was more spacelike. He always changes both, but sometimes one more than the other.
Hiro speeds himself up in spacetime. When we see from Hiro's point of view, everybody else appears to have slowed down. How much they slow down depends on his speed. The faster he goes, the slower they appear. When we see from an outsider's view, Hiro disappears from one location and may reappear in another unless he returns to the precise spacetime location where he left off.
Perfect. Great.
But wait...there's more from SGA:
It's the same thing as I posted. All those things that he did comply to what I was saying. Hiro bend time into space, People are just mixing it up. I honestly think the writers are using this term in the wrong way. The scene where he's saving DL, and the scene where he's saving the little girl, are all the same. He's simply is traveling threw time to get from point A to Point B.
The problem is that...he's not. He's not traveling through time to get from point A to point B, he's traveling through SPACE in a short amount of time. Again, warping the space-time continuum.
One poster disagreed with him with this:
I'm sorry, but not well said at all. Wrong, in fact. Hiro can manipulate space-time. He can go forwards and backwards in time. He can pause time. He can teleport great distances. All of those things have been demonstrated in the show already. I don't know why we have to bust out superfluous definitions of the theory of relativity...
More from SGA in three separate iterations of the same concept:
you can't stop time, I don't care how you put it and if I'm wrong, then prove it. Even in Science friction you can't stop time. In real life you can't stop time. If you can prove it to me?
and:
Even in Sci-fi, you can't stop time. There's a smart way of watching TV and I see you must have missed that. Hiro's scenes are only showing us what he's seeing while moving! Dah!!!
If you wanna get to talking science, Albert Einstein's theory on time travel was proven right, and he's proven that you can only travel forward in time, not backwards. In every sci-fi move that I've seen about time travel, not one ever said that they have stopped time. Time is always moving!
and finally, the crown jewel of logic:
So I guess you're saying that Albert Einstein is wrong then, because thats his theory. Last I checked, he was one of the smartest men that ever lived. I think I'll take Einstein's word before yours. No offense that is.
All of which were disproven or rebuked at some point or another by actual descriptions of special relativity, space-time, and Kurt Goedel's work on the field equations of general relativity. Since Goedel's work stemmed from Einstein's work, I'm going to assume that it's merely an expansion on GR and SR and that SGA is really an illogical moron. |
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| Can I be Donne with death... |
[Nov. 9th, 2006|09:09 pm] |
"There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Apparantly I should listen to Google's quote of the day for once. There's a reason for my poker losses, and stupid aggression might just be it. I mean seriously, who pushes 25 blinds from the small blind with 7-4 offsuit. Then gets called by pocket aces. Seriously. I won, though. Runner runner two pair...heh.
Anyways, the quote prompted me to write something a little less eloquent than I need to since I'm trying to finish my English paper tonight (a whole weekend before it's actually due!) Oh yeah, did you catch me little pun in the title? Donne with death? Yes, I'm actually writing a paper about John Donne, the Holy Sonnets, and what he sees as death. It's sad, but there's actually a lot to write about, I'm just not sure how to organize my thoughts yet. Should I be careful to address each poem (sonnet 1, 4, and 6) in chronology, in full, or in interchangeable parts? Not sure which is best, but my guess would be interchangeable parts. Still, I'm going to write in entirety first, then re-organize if I feel that it could be more natural in another way.
Oh, Rutgers beat Louisville. Now I just need one of two situations to play out, both required Cal to win out. First - Arkansas wins the SEC beating Florida in the SEC championship game, Texas losses a heartbreaker to Texas A&M, USC beats Notre Dame, and Michigan crushes Ohio State - leading to a Cal-Michigan National Championship Game. Or, second, and much more parsimonious, Cal wins out and Michigan loses to Ohio State, resulting in a Cal-Michigan Rose Bowl Game. Both are awesome, the first is awesomer. *cross fingers* |
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| Neural Systems and Nobel Laureates |
[Nov. 8th, 2006|11:38 am] |
Interesting day yesterday. I managed to sneak into a catered lunch with Dr. Sumumu Tonegawa, Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine, and listened to him talk about his thoughts on the future of neuroscience. Two things came out of that talk that really stimulated my thought process. First, I realized that neuroscience may never receive recognition as Nobel worthy research simply because discovery occurs subtly in small increments and everything is done in large collaborations that make it impossible to name only a few to receive an award. Second, I was encouraged by the emphasis he placed on interdisciplinary studies and multivalent synthesis of conceptual analysis in neuroscience. For awhile now, after reading a textbook by Gazzinaga, I had felt that neuroscience was disjointed with people focusing on individual branches of the tiered field. Some people were focused on genes, proteins, and expression, others on synapses, others on interregional associations, and still others on behavior and cognition on a organism scale. Still, I wanted to span these disciplines and Dr. Tonegawa's enthusiasm for such a field gives me hope that research pathways of that nature are plausible if not likely.
Dr. Tonegawa also gave two lectures over the past two days about his published work and his current unpublished research on learning and memory in the hippocampal regions. The primary thrust relied on gene manipulation using a CRE/loxP excision process removing a receptor gene from a mouse cell in select regions (promotor dependent). By removing that protein, they anticipated a break in the communication of that cluster of cells with the rest of the hippocampal circuit and measured the response of the mouse in a Morris Water Maze (A circular pool of water with a platform placed randomly and visual cues surrounding the pool to guide the mouse). His current research focused on breaking the synaptic output rather than input by disrupting the vesicles in the output neurons, severing the synaptic connection that way. The results were similar, but the technique proved useful in isolating one pathway from multiple cluster interactions. Interesting stuff.
Finally, two more things came up yesterday that I thought was interesting. Dr. Tonegawa suggested that neuroscience was limited by technology. What we could measure and test reliably was limited by what we could see and test. He said that fMRI was too restrictive and that to find a non-invasive method of visualizing activity in the brain was vital to expanding the field of neuroscience. I agreed with sentiment - I wrote a little blurb in my notebook weeks ago about the limitations of fMRI (figuring I might write a review paper about possible innovation or invention, but I changed my mind). There are no conceivable innovations that can have the resolution power of fMRI and still provide accurate information on a small timescale and any new invention relies on engineers and physicists to make another breakthrough. Still I think several possible methods of tomography or radiography using protein markers, radioactive probes, or voltage sensitive proteins that can mold during an action potential all have potential to be used in a much less invasive or restrictive way compared to surgically implanted electrode probes or fMRI.
Also, I thought about developing a simulation model for the circular feedback of the CA3 and dentate gyrus hippocampal networks. These neurons are naturally interconnected and with sufficient cues fire every other neuron in the network. However, an action potential is all or nothing, so how does the neuron differentiate how it fires and where it fires? Synaptic plasticity allows the neuron to increase it's potential - long term potentiation - and the all or nothing firing of the action potential limits not only how a pre-synaptic neuron fires, but when the post-synaptic neuron fires. If the synaptic neurotransmission is not strong enough across one synapse along one axon (out of many) then the neuron is capable of differentiating its signal. In that case, would an interconnected model be capable of circular transmission throughout the network at say a 50eV threshold and output that to the next system at 100eV threshold? If it were possible, would different combinations of input stimuli into the network produce different orthogonalized output neurons? If someone knows if research has been done on this or has the programming wherewithal to set up this multidimensional analysis, that'd be really cool. |
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| YouTube > Cancer?!? |
[Nov. 6th, 2006|10:35 pm] |
So apparantly YouTube won Time magazine's "Invention of the Year - 2006" beating a vaccine that prevents a cancer-causing STD (I'm guessing Human Pappiloma Virus and cervical cancer) and a shirt that hugs you...
Shrug. |
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| Ah, Damn. |
[Nov. 2nd, 2006|06:30 pm] |
| [ | Feeling: |
| |  aggravated | ] |
| [ | Listening to: |
| | The Fray - Over My Head | ] |
I need a good rant. I think that's the problem. Let's start with some obligatory random crap, then we'll work into poker.
1. Too many midterms too close together makes everyone dull and dreary. Add the rainy weather, the frigid air, and the miserable bums looking for shelter, and you can say that this time of year really sucks. I've been moderately prepared for this biology midterm, but hell, who knows how I'll do. It's a multiple choice test, and I'm above average at multiple choice tests, but I'm also very prone to minor errors which lead to deductions. Then I have a linear algebra exam that I have no idea how to do (mostly because I haven't gone to lectures), and yet I still haven't started working on it. Eventually those brackets around the box of numbers will make sense, but for now, I'm just BSing my way through quizzes and hw. Too bad I need to ace this midterm to get a good grade in the class.
2. Ignorant football fans are the worst. I hate how people cheer for their team, yet have no idea what they're cheering for. I've heard so many different things about Washu's victory over USC - most of them stupid - that it makes me want to vomit. NO. USC losing was not good in any particular way because Cal still needs to beat them at SC to win the Pac10. NO. USC losing doesn't suck, because even if they were undefeated and Cal did beat them, Cal still wouldn't be considered for the national championship game. A couple of reasons for that: first, we're in the Pac10, besides USC, no one in the Pac10 is any good; second, we're on the west coast, and east coast bias runs rampant in the polls (see 2003 and 2004 when USC and Cal got shafted from potential national championship or BCS bowl games). Oh, also, if you don't know anything about football, don't talk. It's really annoying when I overhear some girl whining about how we keep running the ball up the middle for no gain. "WHY DO THEY KEEP DOING THAT?!?!" Because it's football. Because if they didn't, the defense line would crush the QB. Because if they didn't, the secondary would sit in coverage, blanketing all the receivers. Because if they didn't, they wouldn't get those 10-15 yard runs up the middle that make up for the 1-2 yard gains. It's for balance. So shut up. (Also, it's annoying when people cheer really loudly for Jackson and Lynch, but can't give anything for anyone else...like Stevens, who played a monster game against Washington...they're all on the same team for crying out loud...support them!)
3. I'm awesome at fantasy sports. In fantasy hockey, I'm #1 in my rotisserie league thanks to a stable of high powered defensemen (NB: Defensemen are the key to roto hockey. Since you only get 82 games per position slot, and you have 4 D-men to fill, getting 20-30 extra points from each D-man is vital. It's easy to get a 60-70 point forward, but there's a scarcity of 60-70 point D-men, and there's a huge gap between them and the next tier of 30-40 point guys.) In fantasy football, I'm #1 in 2 leagues, and #3 and #4 in the other two. My sleepers in Frank Gore and Kevin Jones both have panned out so far (despite them rarely starting due to my obscene RB depth) and I think I have 2 teams that are solid enough to win my leagues. The only roadblock is Tiki Barber and his touchdown curse, but otherwise, solid. Seriously though, if someone wants to join a 8-12 man keeper league that runs annually, I'd really like to set one up and perpetuate it. I think it'd be fun.
4. Poker. Inevitable. I suck at it. Apparantly. Of course, it might all just turn around after I rant and rave, since I haven't ranted and raved about it yet. I'm in the middle of a $1000 downswing (i.e. -1000). I finished October -$350 for the month for my first losing month ever and I've started November -$300 or so. So, it sucks. I haven't finished a session above 40% ITM, which is terrible, and I'm getting really bad cards, really bad situations, and really bad luck, plus, I'm playing without any confidence that I can make money or that I can outplay anyone...so essentially, I'm dead in the water. I even made an ultimatum a week ago that if I lost $500 in that week, I'd quit for good. I lost $450. And then I stopped playing that week. That's how lame it's gotten. Certainly the game is beatable, since a lot of people are beating it, but if I can't turn it around (and I've been trying, trust me...), then I'm planning on cashing out $2000 and burning through whatever I have left to qualify for a WPT tournament in the Bahamas (+3000 in room/board and 1000 in cash). Sigh.
Done. |
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| Curious... |
[Oct. 20th, 2006|12:56 am] |
Maybe I still will, but for now, that dream is on hold, while I and all my contemporaries scramble just to make sense and make due. Hopefully, I won't be left in the cold, but if I do, I'm glad I made enough to buy a coat in the short time that I took advantage of.
I wrote that a little while ago (3 weeks...) about the turning fortunes of poker players everywhere. Fortunately, PokerStars is still alive and well and probably better than before, so my whiny rant was a little in haste. Still, I did manage to buy myself that coat that I said I would!
Yes, I bought a sports coat from Gap two weeks ago when my mom was in SF for a conference and Maggie and I decided to go shopping. It's a nice two-button black coat that goes well with a silver-grey button down dress shirt I picked up from Express. If I keep going (and I really did like a red-stripped tie that they had there), I'll be fully decked out in steamy hotness. Unfortunately, I still feel retarded when I'm dressed up for no particular reason and I still need a haircut...
Anyways, I bought an iPod Nano, black, and a new iceMAT Siberia headset with my bonus gift certificates from Amazon, so I'm excited about that. I also picked up a Nintendo DS Lite w/ the Nintendogs game and the Pokemon Rescue Mission thing for my sister's birthday in a month. (It's probably more money than my parents ever spent on me for any of my birthdays...so in the words of Michael Scott (i.e. Steve Carrell on The Office) - "How much a present costs is how much a person cares about you.")
Maybe I'll get a DS Lite...or a PSP...or a Wii...or a PS3...DAMN. I just don't know. I kinda want to save up and get a big screen TV, or a car. Sigh. And if Apple releases their new touchscreen Wi-Fi capable iPod...damn...I'll want that one too. Too many things to get, too many things to want. Still want those Oakleys too, and a Ducks jersey and hat, and tickets to the January 7th game against the Red Wings.
Oh, and DOA: Dead or Alive (The Movie!) got pushed back into December. So we'll get to see the ugly girls in Casino Royale before the hot ones...potentially making the hot ones hotter instead of the ugly ones uglier. |
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| Veni, Vedi, Vicabor? |
[Oct. 15th, 2006|10:40 pm] |
| [ | Feeling: |
| | Destructive | ] |
| [ | Listening to: |
| | The Fray - Over My Head | ] |
I think that's right.
I came. I saw. I was conquered.
Hard.
Made GoldStar this weekend for this month, bought $400 in Amazon gift certificates with my FPP points...but failed to get a $500 one because stars sold out. Lost $700. Threw a tantrum. Almost broke my laser mouse. Cried myself to sleep. Wished I actually had cried myself to sleep.
Sigh.
To say that this was the worst poker weekend ever would be an understatement. It feels like I was anally raped with a stick...except...with a really fat stick.
*Disclaimer* The following includes a lot of poker jargon and a lot of whining bad beat stories. Ignore at your own risk *Disclaimer*
At one point, I had lost 6 out of 7 times I was dealt pocket Kings. I won approximately 20% of the times I was dealth pocket Queens (most of the time to AK after they would flop an Ace or a King). I lost about half of the times I had pocket Aces. Everytime I flopped a pair, someone would turn a flush draw and river a flush (or turn a straight draw and subsequently backdoor the straight...). More often than not, I had a dominating hand (like AQ to A3) and they would flop trips, or two pair, or runner runner backdoor flush on me in some ridiculously unbelievable way. Either way, I felt hopelessly lost while trying to stem the bleeding. I took a break. I ate dinner. Eventually, it just got worse. Rather than make back any ground (like I usually do), it got worse and worse...and worse...and worse. In the end, I played over 140 tables, lost about $700, and in a way that was so morbidly depressing that you'd want to rip your hair out and eat it. Rather then run so bad that you know you're running bad, I ran almost good enough, but bad enough that I'd finish 30% ITM and have a -20% ROI. Over almost 150 tournaments. Most people wouldn't play that much in a month, let alone a day, and most people would never play again after that month, let alone that day. But sigh. It is my current calling and despite losing all my winnings this month in 8 hours. Somehow, I'll win it back (or keep losing, realize that I have leaks, and then seek professional help...or kill the software programmers for devising an obviously flawing random number generator that is out to get my karmatically deprived self). Because I know that for every terrible downswing I'm having, someone somewhere is rolling in the hottest heater of their life. I just hate having to deal with this crap every month while someone burns up 20 grand, never having a losing day in months...
Sigh.
End rant.
Also, I kinda want to write up an psuedo-article covering how well the first round NFL draft picks have played up to the midseason. I think it'd be reasonably in depth and would give me some time to focus on a pseudo-research project without actually succumbing to finding something academic. You can skip it if you want... |
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| Damn, I need to get drunk. |
[Oct. 2nd, 2006|07:47 pm] |
I hate Republicans. Not all you run of the mill, average joe, Republicans. Real Republicans (or real fake Republicans). The Republicans that lie to you just to make you believe, then do something completely different so the idiots in the Bible Belt can vote for them. I pretty much hate Bill Frist.
Now, I'm not a person that likes to start a rant about nothing (maybe...although I probably could if I wanted to), but this Frist character really needs to die. Like now.
I also don't want to over critical and insensitive (actually, I do, but what the hell ever), but those Bible-beating Christian maniacs that are running around screwing up this country - just like those Jihad-loving Islamic maniacs are screwing up the Middle East and Indonesia - need to die. Or atleast get a fourth grade education...cause god be damned, you can't fuck your own sister and be happy about it!
In effect, my way of living has been greatly impacted by a decision that I had no part in making. My plans, my unenviable future, now rests on my good fortune of getting into medical school and being successful as a doctor, when it could've depended on the turning of cards for a small fortune that the King of Brunei could be envious of.
Last Friday, the House and Senate signed into law the Safe Ports Act. Great. We need more legislation to defend against militant terrorists, foreign and domestic. Too bad Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee fame (and the namesake of the Princeton Student Rec Center) forced through additional language onto that bill through the Senate committee responsible for that bill for something completely unrelated to ports, terrorists, and safety. Added to that bill was the Internet Gaming Bill, prohibiting US banks from engaging in transactions with entities known to solicit bets on games of chance. That is, everything that isn't the State lottery, horse racing, or fantasy sports.
With that announcement, poker players everywhere groaned. This morning, the largest poker network in the world, PartyPoker, run by the largest gaming network in the world, PartyGaming, a publically owned corporation in the UK, decided to pull the plug on their US operations. And poker players everywhere cried. This announcement followed an announcement by 888.com, owners of Paradise Poker (or Pacific Poker, I can't remember since it sucked anyways) that they were pulling out of the US market. And poker players everywhere...well, they probably just cried some more. But, on top of that, the second largest poker network, PokerStars, were speculated to also be pulling out of the US market. And poker players readied their swords, just in case they tipped over and fell on them. All told, These poker sites were willing to give up a US market that made up between 50-80% of each of these businesses total activity in a market that generates over 6 billion dollars in revenue. Great scots!
What happened next? PartyGaming, 888.com, and NETeller (a debit accounting firm most notable for providing a method of funding gaming sites) all lost over 50% of their share value on the London Stock Exchange. US players rushed to cash out their accounts before the shops are closed for good. It was the beginning of the end today...
I have a lot of money tied up in poker sites for me to play poker. I make a solid amount every month playing this game. But in one day, a chain of events has been set off that will dry up the oasis and choke out all the fish that have been feeding the sharks. When the sharks are hungry and the fish are gone, the sharks feed on each other. Until its too much work to be a shark anymore, and they turn into lawyers and doctors and software engineers, or drug dealers, coke addicts, or dead.
It's sad, but people have made a livelihood out of playing poker, myself included, and are dependent on the income they make every day beating a game that they know they can beat. 40 year old fathers raising two kids by themselves are now going to be without a job. 19 year old college kid, with a future that could've included a house and beamer, now has to worry about just making it through school and paying off 200K in student debts. I wonder who's going to be worse off...that kid, that father, or the idiot Bill Frist and his right-wing contigency? I don't know, but I can only hope its the idiot.
These guys made a scapegoat out of some pastor's kid who lost all his money playing poker online, then robbed a bank. I still have trouble believing that this kid wouldn't have done something just as stupid whether or not he was down seven grand or if he was stuck fifteen to some mob guys or if he was itching for a fix. I don't know, no one will, but I remain skeptical - just as skeptical as I was when the RIAA posted massive losses to file sharing, just as skeptical as I was when the mothers of Columbine sued id software for making Doom and Quake, just as skeptical as I was when that Thompson fellow said something about Grand Theft Auto causing people to kill other people. I don't know, I just think people are stupid and robbing banks, murdering innocent civilians, and waging wars are just a part of human complexion. Whatever it is, it's screwed up.
It's sad to think that in two months times, I could've been making more money in a month than 70% of this country. All without a real job, without a real boss, without a real care in the world. I could've done it and in 3 years, when I'd be off to medical school, I'd have atleast 200K saved away just for me to pay off those stupid student loans and I'd have my house tucked away and beamer just waiting for me on the outside. Maybe I still will, but for now, that dream is on hold, while I and all my contemporaries scramble just to make sense and make due. Hopefully, I won't be left in the cold, but if I do, I'm glad I made enough to buy a coat in the short time that I took advantage of.
End rant. |
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| New iPods... |
[Sep. 13th, 2006|02:28 am] |
Good thing I waited on getting my iPod...too bad I can't decide which one I want...
The new shuffle looks hot and I could definitely see myself using one on the go. But then again, the new nano is twice the size of the old nano, the same price, and scratchproof...And still yet again, the video has longer battery life, costs the same as the nano, and holds 30GBs.
Damn. What a choice. I'm leaning towards either a Black 8GB Nano or a 30GB Black Video/Shuffle combo for when I want to watch The Office in class or just want to grab music to go.
But first, I need to make money this month. |
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