Off to Chicago

I'm off to Chicago for the weekend. This will be my first sports convention after about 30 gaming/comics/pop culture conventions. I'm sure they fans will be just as obsessive only over something completely different. It should be interesting.

Help Wanted

The Steelers are in need of a punter. Their starting punter when down with a season ending knee injury. Sure it sucks but I suppose if you're going to lose a starter on your football team the punter isn't the worst choice.

Bye Bye Tex

We barely got to know you. It is odd to have the Braves be sellers instead of buyers, first time I can remember. Granted they should have been sellers the past two years and then they would have been ready to compete this year or next but tis life I guess. At this point I think they'll be ready in 2010.

The Little Things

I firmly believe that most of the good or bad that you experience in life are what you could consider 'little things.' Today was one of those little things. The Little One is reading Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone. It isn't just that she's reading it. It is that she was reluctant at first, thinking it was 'too hard' for her. After five or six pages though she didn't want to put it down. She remembered parts she'd seen from the movie. Now she's very excited about reading it. Pretty Bird and I love books and it makes very proud that the Little One appears to have the same love.

OMG

I'll be in my bunk.

One Step Closer

Steelers' Training Camp opens today! That means it's one step closer to football season being here. Man I can't wait.

Alan Moore

What a brilliant writer, I mean just brilliant. I think he's great other than his affinity for women being raped or almost raped. It's possible to write a great story without it but to read his work you wouldn't know. The term brilliant gets thrown around too often but it does apply with Moore.

The dude is one pretentious fuck and batshit insane. We get it, you hate Hollywood. DC screwed you out of profits, blah, blah, whine some more. I get the artists problem with the parent company screwing them out of profits, I do. Whine about that all you want, it's shitty.

Please stop bitching about someone else adapting your story. I know you have high morals and you can't stand someone taking your characters and story and messing with them. I mean you've created such great characters like Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Captain Nemo, Alan Quatermain, Alice, Dorothy, and Wendy Darling. Those are some all-time classic characters and really shouldn't be messed with by another author. Oh wait a minute, you didn't create those characters did you?

It goes both ways you pretentious ass. That being said keep the good stuff coming, you're a damn good writer. Just don't let anyone interview you anymore.

July Is...

Official Ninja Month. At least according to Xbox and who am I to argue with Microsoft or a ninja. So happy Ninja Month.

San Diego Comic-Con

How I miss you so! My streak of six SDCCs in a row is broken, so sad. I love that show so much.

My favorite wall decoration

Too bad they couldn't have frozen him before he wrote and directed the three prequels. He's great at overall vision, not so good on the details of you know actually making a movie.

While he wouldn't make a bad wall decoration I still think the Han Solo in carbonite from Sharper Image would have made a great door or even coffee table.

I guess it was too much to ask

I guess two in a row was too much to ask. Instead the Braves get shutout by a pitcher who'd been rocked in all of his other starts. Good job guys.

Zach Snyder

Well the Watchmen preview made me very excited about the movie in March. The EW write up just made me think that Zach Snyder is an idiot. All the article made me believe is that he some pretentious ass. He's a movie director that now gets huge budgets so I'm sure he's a pretentious ass but you need better marketing people so that it doesn't end up in print.

Hot Rod

Pretty Bird rented it last night. I normally don't talk about rented movies but I need to here. Hot Rod is quite possibly the worst movie I've ever seen.

Substance > Hype

Going into 2007 the buzz was about how great a movie season it was going to be. For Hollywood it probably was pretty damn good since they set box office records. Going into 2008 Hollywood seemed depressed about its outlook since there were a lot fewer 'sure things.' I think 2008 is kicking the shit out of 2007.

By this time in 2007 I'd seen the following movies:
300
Spider-Man 3
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Knocked Up
Ratatouille
Transformers
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Live Free or Die Hard
Oceans 13
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
TMNT
Hot Fuzz

The year did save help itself out some with The Bourne Ultimatum and Stardust which we released in August. The above movies we only own 300, Ratatouille, Transformers, and of course Harry Potter. Granted we've cut down our DVD purchases but with how big a Pirates fan Pretty Bird is and how huge a fan of Spider-Man I am and we don't own them speaks volumes about their quality. More appropriately lack of quality.

This year seems to be a little bit better.
Cloverfield
Rambo
Iron Man
Kung Fu Panda
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Get Smart
Wall - E
The Incredible Hulk
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
The Dark Knight

On that list only Rambo, Cloverfield, Get Smart, and The Incredible Hulk do we plan on not buying. We're going to buy everything else. I even enjoyed Rambo and Cloverfield I just don't think they're worth me buying. So far it's been a good year for movies.

The Dark Knight

I don't usually rate movies and when I do I have a pretty simplistic system. Hated it, tolerated it, liked it, must own it, and all-time great. The Dark Knight is an incredible movie. I'm obviously going to own it but it's probably going to go down as an all-time great. This is a great violent crime drama to similar to Heat, Collateral, The Departed, or even Reservoir Dogs. Sure it doesn't have as much gore as Reservoir Dogs but the movie did feel at times like a Michael Mann movie. This crime drama just happened to have a superhero in it.

The movie also felt like one of the all-time great Batman stories like The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke. Christopher Nolan obviously gets Batman or at least the post 1970's Denny O'Neil and post 1980's Frank Miller Batman.

Dark Knight just hits so many of the great Batman story highlights. While most people think Batman's key partner is Robin. I think Batman's key part is actually Jim Gordon. Gordon is Batman's partner in crime fighting more than any other costumed character. As much as it's a cocktail joke to make fun of Gordon and his reliance on Batman; Batman has the same reliance on Gordon. They both have the exact same goal; one of them is a cop and the other runs around dressed as a flying rodent.

The other aspect they got so right was obviously the Joker. To say Heath Ledger was incredible would be an understatement. For a three dimensional version of the Joker there was nothing I could imagine better than what they put on screen for the Dark Knight. He was disturbing and brilliant at the same time.

There are two only two negatives with the movie. First off the sheer amount of explosives show and used was just too much. I understand the Joker's great and the Gotham City PD isn't but come on. The explosives in the hospital, the amount show in the Dawes/Dent scene or the amount show in the ferry scene. That was just too much for me. Sure, I know, in a movie with a superhero that hacks into everyone's cell phone I shouldn't be that picky.

The other thing I didn't like was the rating. I'm not one for censorship but if you have a rating system you should damn well use it correctly. The Little One is not squeamish at all, at least for an 8 year old. She took The Dark Knight okay but I'm sure there will be plenty of other kids even older than her who don't do so well. I loved the movie and I can't think of a better movie for Batman. Still a movie staring Batman released on 4400+ screens in the summer should at least be viewable by children. If it's not good for children to see then it should be rated correctly to give parents a fair warning.

That stuff aside this movie is great. If you aren't a child then GO SEE IT! Now I'll have to revise my Top 100 Movie List.

Villians!

If it wasn't geeky enough to have Watchmen, Terminator 4, and Harry Potter trailers we've got this. Man I do miss me some Heroes.

Stop what you're doing RIGHT NOW

And go see Dark Knight.

Who Watches This?

Who watches the Watchmen? I sure as hell know I will. Man that is a great trailer.

Fun work conversations

A question in the office was raise as to what number Derrick Rose would wear in the NBA. I guess it is nice when your job actually involves sports conversations. Here's how the conversation went.

Guy #1 - "What number is Rose going to wear in the pros?"
Guy #2 - "Why not 23, that was his number in college"
Tmac - "Um, not so much."
Guy #2 - "Why not, he was the #1 pick he'll get to pick his number"
Tmac - "Yeah, the #1 pick by the Chicago Bulls"
Guy #1 and #2 - "So"

Now I'm sure by now, 20 minutes later they've figured it out. I'm also sure given enough thought they probably could have figured it out on the spot. Maybe you have to be somewhat of a sports fan to know why that isn't going to be his number in the NBA. On the other hand my wife doesn't like the NBA at all I still bet she could tell you why a 19 year old in 2008 is not going to wear #23 for the Chicago Bulls. For that matter why anyone, ever is not going to wear #23 for the Bulls.

A more elegant phone

A more elegant phone for a more civilized time. If there weren't already enough reasons for me to buy an iPhone.

The All Star Game

I wonder if the NL can actually win one of these. I doubt it but since I'm planning on watching this one I hope they do.

Two In A Row!

I can't believe the Braves actually won two in a row. It sure has been a long season so far.

Off to the beach

Well not today or this weekend. I've got hotel points that will eventually expire so why not use them. We made reservations to go to the beach for a weekend in a few weeks. It should be a nice laid back trip for all three of us. The Little One has never really been to a beach so this should be interesting. Pretty Bird and I are always ready for another vacation. I just need to find that job that pays me to be on vacation and I'd be all set.

Burn Notice

I was bored the other day watching TV and there were explosions and a gun fight on a channel I stopped on. I ended up watching about 75% of an episode of Burn Notice. Thanks to this brilliant thing called the internet I caught a few episodes. The show isn't incredible or anything but it is a lot of fun. It's filmed in Miami so there are a lot of bikinis, its about a spy so explosions. Plus it has Bruce Campbell. A nice way to spend an hour when with most shows aren't on yet.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

We really enjoyed it. I love Del Toro's vision and how he handles special effects. I'm not against CGI stuff but the prop/puppet/makeup stuff in this was great as well. I highly recommend it if you enjoyed the first one.

Bored

There are times when I'm just too bored to blog. This has been one of those weeks. Work has been a little busy for the first time in a few weeks. It keeps me busy usually but this past week was much more, which is good. Anyway I might be back on track blogging but who knows.

Football season yet?

I miss football so much that I watched a replay of a Steelers game last night. It's not uncommon for me to watch a replay of a Steelers game when they're on the NFL Network. What is uncommon is me watching a Steelers loss. I watch the wildcard Jaguars vs. Steelers game from this past January. I turned it off before the Steelers lost but it was still almost surreal to watch a game I know the Steelers already lost, I've never done that before. Yes I'm really ready for some football!

Words to live by

Pretty Bird and I are re-watching a tragically short but brilliant TV series and I just came across this great advice.

"When someone tries to kill you try to kill 'um back."

Truer words were never spoken.

Hellboy

When I posted this I didn't realize there were other Hellboy parodies. I think I like the Chuck one that a former coworker found. Check them all out and decide for yourself.

Fireworks

It's raining here in Charlotte so we're not going out to find any firework displays. Here's some Disney World fireworks for everyone to enjoy.

Happy Birthday America

Not bad for 232 years old. You don't look a day past 229.

Boo Yeah!

Totally Awesome

Man he'd be great at roulette as well.

Its the Highway to the Dangerzone

Oh hell yeah. Okay maybe not the highway to the dangerzone but still pretty damn cool. That is provided you like cheesy 80s movies and their totally rad soundtracks.

Vegas Gambling (Part Three - Poker!)

I've been to Vegas about 15 or 16 times and all but one of them I've played poker. Every time but one I've left Vegas up in playing poker. I'm not saying I'm a great player or anything. I just know how to beat down the bad tourists that play at the level I play at which is usually 2-4 or 3-6 limit. I've played some NL and then a few tournaments. Online poker I almost exclusively play NL tournaments. This trip to Vegas I didn't want to play too much poker because Pretty Bird doesn't play poker and we were on vacation together. I did get about four hours on 2-4 play (about two hours at the MGM Grand, an hour at TI, and an hour at Excalibur). I also played in two NL tournaments at the Treasure Island. Each of the tournaments lasted about three hours so I got about 10 hours of poker in the seven days we were there. I've had days before in Vegas when I played over 10 hours so this was much smaller. In other news there is actually a lot to do in Vegas outside of the poker tables, who know.

The limit play was pretty uneventful. The MGM isn't near as loose as it used to be. The Treasure Island is as loose as the MGM used to be. The Excalibur still has the same mix of cheap tourists and weird locals so a pretty steady game. I was probably up about $80 or so total in my four sessions of limit. There wasn't any memorable hands. I did lose the nut flush to a full house on the river which cost me about a $60 pot.

The first tournament was the 2pm on Saturday at the TI. They have room for 50 players and take alternates. We got there 30 minutes early and were the 16th alternate, oops. My buddy said they almost never fill up until after it starts. I ended up getting in only a few hands before the first break. I had a regular full stack of 3500 chips but there were plenty of players with more.

I played a little timid for the first 40 minutes or so and was down to about 2200 chips. I then got moved to another table and was dealt my first decent hand of the day, TT. I was in good position on a new player so I just limped in, wanting to see how the good/bad the players were. The flop gave an Ace and a Ten, mixed. Perfect. Sure enough two people had an Ace and I almost tripled up, knocking one player out. I played a little more aggressive, especially after the flop, from then on but still nothing memorable. Not too many good hands but I was able to cripple the big stack with AJ vs. her A4. Why people think A4 is good from bad position I'll never know. Actually A4 is never good in any position but it can be played from good position.

The blinds were getting expensive and I was still on the bottom 1/3 of chips with about 16 or 17 players to go, time to make a move. One from the button I get dealt AK (which I normally have horrible luck) with a caller ahead of me. I double the bet and then the button pushes all-in, he's got me covered. There is another caller and of course I call. I'm vs. 88 and AQ (I think) and a King shows up. That ends up being enough chips to last until the final table. With nine players to go I'm 6th in chips on the BB. I get KK and the button pushes me all-in and I double up. I end up going out 6th on my 8-9suited vs. K4 on the big stack. The final table was very tight, I caught no cards, and I needed to make a move. After the BB I wouldn't be left with enough for another BB so I didn't to try it. Still money went to 6th so I made a nice $110 profit, the first time I hit the money in Vegas in a tournament.

On Monday after urging from Pretty Bird I decided to try my hand at the same tournament, this time the 7pm version. This one only had 38 players register but you could rebuy for the first hour. We ended up having over 60 players worth of chips in the pool after all the rebuys. This one started off great and other than a little hiccup in the middle went great most of the way. I didn't catch anything for the first 20 minutes or so then I got 88 two away from the blind which I doubled the blind. Most people were still timid and I hadn't played a hand yet. A nice 8 on the flop gives me about a 700 chip pot. My very next hand was AA under the gun. This time I bet 4x the BB fairly certain most people will think I'm full of shit. Sure enough two people did. The rockets hold and I'm liking my chip stack.

The next hand, as the BB, I get JT suited. The flop is AJx and I'm a little worried about the random A players. The turn gives me a T and now I'm much happier. The river gives me tens full of jacks and I rack up my first player with A rag. I get AQ a few times in before the first break and I'm first in chips overall. The session between break one and break two is not kind. I catch a bad beat with AQ (I got it 6 times in this tournament, it was bound to lose once) and then blinds eat a lot of my chips.

After the second break I only have 5000 chips and the blinds are 1000/2000 which isn't good. I'm three away from the BB when I push all-in with A-9 suited. I get a caller and steal the blinds vs. K something. I'm able to triple up with 88 putting me in pretty good position to make the final table. Two players go out at once bringing the final table a little early and I make it near the bottom in chips.

I use AQ and a pair of Jacks to get to about 14,000 in chips then comes my favorite hand of the weekend. This tournament only paid to four players and there are six left. There are two with almost no chips so it looks pretty good. I have about 14,000, another player has about 13,500, second place has probably 22,000 and first has at least double if not 3x second place. I'm the BB when the button (with 500 chips less than me) limps in, the SB folds.

I have Jack Bauer, 2/4. The flop is 2T2 which is pretty damn good. I check, the button checks. The turn puts a J out, I bet the minimum and the BB pushes all-in and I call. He's got JT thinking I had Jx. Rack 'um. Now I have almost 30,000 chips and I rack one of the small players. The super big stack takes the 22,000 chips with quads. He then beats me with two pair vs. my top pair. All in all over a $600 payday isn't too bad.

It will be much harder for me to go back to limit. Limit was already really starting to bore me but I get intimidated because I don't have unlimited funds. Not that most 1/2 NL players have unlimited funds either but they act like they do. Next time I think I'll try NL a little though.