So my season as a baseball fan is basically over. I'll watch and enjoy the world series, but I have no vested interest in either team so it kind of kills the excitement. Although I've only lived in Boston for a couple of years I feel like I've become a pretty serious Red Sox fan. The love of the team is infectious in the city, especially when you live about 1/8th of a mile from Fenway Park. Plus I never really rooted for or against a particular AL team, so I don't feel like I'm betraying my love of the Reds (sigh) by rooting for the Red Sox. If a Reds/Red Sox world series were to occur in the future I would probably end up rooting for the Reds since as a franchise their opportunities to win have greatly decreased, but I wouldn't enjoy having to pick between the two.
I started Google Reader tonight, and let me say its sweet. I highly recommend everyone give it a shot. Its super easy to use, and it really makes reading blogs/news/etc much easier. If you decide to give it a go and you read this blog give it a subscribe so you can get easy updates when I write something.
Assuming I keep playing well and running decent I'm looking for my 3rd 5 figure month in a row this month. Things are going pretty well, and I feel very comfortable playing 5/10 now. I rarely look for 3/6 games anymore, and I haven't played 2/4 all month. A massive downswing and resulting loss in confidence is all just one variance bitch-slap away, but I'm hoping that my transition into the higher end of mid-stakes can now be considered permanent. There are only really one or two stakes higher than this that you can actually grind, and I think making it to those stakes is going to take a lot of work on my part. Then again if you had told me a year ago that I would have changed from LHE to NLHE and have moved up to comfortably 6-10 tabling 5/10 I probably would have been a little skeptical. Not to say that I totally would have dismissed it, but I'm not sure that I thought my poker growth would have continued this upward trend for 12 months.
Speaking of which this is pretty much the one year anniversary of me going pro. In my first 12 months I can confidently say that I greatly improved as a player, and I think the proof is that despite averaging only about 65 hrs of play a month I cracked 6-figures for that 12 month span. I'd be really raking it in if it weren't for the IRS, but I pay my taxes in the hope that eventually some politicians will quit wasting most of what I give them.
Finally the contest! I'm looking for an idea for a sweet halloween costume. Something creative, funny, original, whatever. Basically something that is cool and can actually be had via a trip to a local thrift shop, retail store, or via ordering online. I'm taking ideas. I have a few of my own, but nothing that I'm really excited about. So if you post an idea in my comments and I choose it I'll ship $10 to you on FTP or stars. You'll know if I choose your idea because I'll be sure to take pics and post them on the blog. May the best idea win!
thats all for now. later
themightyjim
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
yesterday was weird, but life is good
so yesterday morning I decide I want to make some breakfast and I need to clean out a small pot that my gf had fixed some rice noodles in the night before. Some of the noodles have dried out and stuck to the bottom of the pan. Anyone that has cooked these noodles will know that they are very thin and hard to get off the bottom of a pan if stuck. I tried scouring them off, but when that wasn't working I decided to try and scrape them off with my thumbnail. big mistake.
I proceed to get about 2/3rds of an inch of rice noodle jammed like a splinter under my thumbnail. When it happened it was extremely painful (and I have decent pain tolerance/not squeamish). I immediately tried to remove it with some tweezers, but the end of the noodle just broke off and it was stuck under my thumb. At this point my hand is literally shaking from the pain, and I can see the noodle under my thumb. I called Katy and she was on her way to work and suggested I google it and maybe go to the ER. After looking it up I found not much help online. I tried soaking my hand to see if the noodle would break up, but the hot water was really painful and after half an hour I'd had no luck. I tried trimming back the nail and trying to get ahold of something with the tweezers, but no luck with that. Finally I steralized a needle and tried to poke it into the opening just to see if I could scrape out some of the noodle. This was also painful and ineffective.
I decided to try and get some sleep (I had been up late watching baseball/playing poker) and then see how I felt in the afternoon. When I woke up about 4.5 later my hand was throbbing and I could tell this was something I couldn't just ignore. So I headed to the ER where they checked me in. When I finally got back I was lucky that my room had a TV so I was able to watch the phillies and the brewers. First the resident came in and told me that everyone was getting a good laugh at my expense (Katy and her med school friends had also found this pretty funny) because the board just said noodle and they were all guessing what that meant. The resident informed me that they plan was to block off the nerves in my thumb with anesthesia (sp?) and then to separate part of the nail and remove the noodle. The attending came in and confirmed this, and after another 45 minutes or so they started sticking me with the needles trying to numb my thumb. My thumb had been continuously throbbing and having shooting pain about every 5 minutes, so the anesthesia was a welcome relief.
After the first 4-5 injections my thumb was getting pretty numb and the attending attempted to dig into my nail with some scissor/tweezer things. It was extremely painful and while I was trying to suck it up, he could tell that it was really too painful to keep going. On a side note isn't it interesting that when you are in extreme pain your body reacts the way it does? I was sweating and my heart rate had gone way up and my hand was visibly shaking. So they injected me another 4-5 times and gave me a couple of percocet. After waiting for that to sink in my finger was pretty numb and they gave it another try.
The attending used the scissors to dig a trench between my nail and the quick around the noodle. It was probably the most painful thing I can remember. I didn't embarass Katy by cussing or anything, but I have a new understanding for how horrible the bamboo under the fingernail torture must be. At one point I looked over to see his progress, and it really wasn't a pretty site. There was some blood coming out of the end of my finger and he was pretty forcible jamming the instrument into my finger.
When they finally finished getting it out my thumb was racked with pain. My hand was shaking and bleeding a little, and I just kept laughing and telling Katy how surprisingly painful it was. I mean I figure it would hurt, and I was not looking forward to whatever solution they had, but I have to say I really didn't think after all of those injections and the percocet that it would hurt that much. Let me just say I really really don't recommend ever getting anything jammed under your thumbnail. It's not fun.
The thumb is healing up, but it hurt pretty bad last night and woke me up a couple of times during the night. It's been getting better today during the day, and its draining and some of the sweeling and redness is going away.
Despite that not fun story, life has been good. For one I've started the month off on a nice heater. Secondly the Red Sox are playing great and picked up their second win against the LAA Angels. It was especially sweet because they got the win against K-Rod who I'm not a fan of. I had just been explaining to Katy why I thought he was overrated and why I really didn't like his post game celebrations when the Red Sox rallied in the top of the 9th and got three hits off of him including Drew's 2R HR.
that's about all I've got. hope the tables are good to everyone.
later
jim
I proceed to get about 2/3rds of an inch of rice noodle jammed like a splinter under my thumbnail. When it happened it was extremely painful (and I have decent pain tolerance/not squeamish). I immediately tried to remove it with some tweezers, but the end of the noodle just broke off and it was stuck under my thumb. At this point my hand is literally shaking from the pain, and I can see the noodle under my thumb. I called Katy and she was on her way to work and suggested I google it and maybe go to the ER. After looking it up I found not much help online. I tried soaking my hand to see if the noodle would break up, but the hot water was really painful and after half an hour I'd had no luck. I tried trimming back the nail and trying to get ahold of something with the tweezers, but no luck with that. Finally I steralized a needle and tried to poke it into the opening just to see if I could scrape out some of the noodle. This was also painful and ineffective.
I decided to try and get some sleep (I had been up late watching baseball/playing poker) and then see how I felt in the afternoon. When I woke up about 4.5 later my hand was throbbing and I could tell this was something I couldn't just ignore. So I headed to the ER where they checked me in. When I finally got back I was lucky that my room had a TV so I was able to watch the phillies and the brewers. First the resident came in and told me that everyone was getting a good laugh at my expense (Katy and her med school friends had also found this pretty funny) because the board just said noodle and they were all guessing what that meant. The resident informed me that they plan was to block off the nerves in my thumb with anesthesia (sp?) and then to separate part of the nail and remove the noodle. The attending came in and confirmed this, and after another 45 minutes or so they started sticking me with the needles trying to numb my thumb. My thumb had been continuously throbbing and having shooting pain about every 5 minutes, so the anesthesia was a welcome relief.
After the first 4-5 injections my thumb was getting pretty numb and the attending attempted to dig into my nail with some scissor/tweezer things. It was extremely painful and while I was trying to suck it up, he could tell that it was really too painful to keep going. On a side note isn't it interesting that when you are in extreme pain your body reacts the way it does? I was sweating and my heart rate had gone way up and my hand was visibly shaking. So they injected me another 4-5 times and gave me a couple of percocet. After waiting for that to sink in my finger was pretty numb and they gave it another try.
The attending used the scissors to dig a trench between my nail and the quick around the noodle. It was probably the most painful thing I can remember. I didn't embarass Katy by cussing or anything, but I have a new understanding for how horrible the bamboo under the fingernail torture must be. At one point I looked over to see his progress, and it really wasn't a pretty site. There was some blood coming out of the end of my finger and he was pretty forcible jamming the instrument into my finger.
When they finally finished getting it out my thumb was racked with pain. My hand was shaking and bleeding a little, and I just kept laughing and telling Katy how surprisingly painful it was. I mean I figure it would hurt, and I was not looking forward to whatever solution they had, but I have to say I really didn't think after all of those injections and the percocet that it would hurt that much. Let me just say I really really don't recommend ever getting anything jammed under your thumbnail. It's not fun.
The thumb is healing up, but it hurt pretty bad last night and woke me up a couple of times during the night. It's been getting better today during the day, and its draining and some of the sweeling and redness is going away.
Despite that not fun story, life has been good. For one I've started the month off on a nice heater. Secondly the Red Sox are playing great and picked up their second win against the LAA Angels. It was especially sweet because they got the win against K-Rod who I'm not a fan of. I had just been explaining to Katy why I thought he was overrated and why I really didn't like his post game celebrations when the Red Sox rallied in the top of the 9th and got three hits off of him including Drew's 2R HR.
that's about all I've got. hope the tables are good to everyone.
later
jim
Monday, September 29, 2008
ran good, then horrible, then decent...
So after the end of last month I made the post and things were going great. In the first week of september I made $13k in a hurry and was thinking that if I kept running and playing that good it wasn't out of the question to have another 20k month or better.
But as I should have learned, posting about success will guarantee a smiting from the poker gods. Obviously I don't believe in any of that, but I think all poker players have those laughably bad runs where we have to make these played-out, cliched comments. In a matter of about 5 days I lost back that $13k plus about another $8k for my new largest downswing ever. Wheeeeeeeeee!
So yeah, you read that right, after going on a $35k upswing, I followed that up with a $21k downswing. Oh variance, you are a cruel mistress.
But since then I've slowly climbed back up, and am back in the black with a very solid chance to book another 5 figure month with two days to go. So I can't complain in the slightest.
I spent 3 days last week in Chicago with two of my best college buds. We caught a couple of cubs games (including the clincher at wrigley against the cardinals) and hit the town pretty hard. Hilarious stories and memories were made, and the post-game party in Wrigleyville was truly epic.
After that I took a bus up to Madison WI to stay with another of my best friends, Eric, from college. He's in the middle of getting a Phd in English from UW so between teaching and taking classes his time was somewhat crunched for the 2.5 days I was in town. Despite that we were able to get some good food, drink a few tasty brews, and relive some great memories. I met his girlfriend and several of his good friends and they are all great people. Hopefully he'll bring his gf with him to Boston on his next visit so I can get to know her better.
Madison was a really nice town. UW's campus was cool, and the weather was great while I was there. I would definitely like to go back to visit Eric either during a UW football saturday or maybe at Halloween. I here the campus has some great parties and my sunday-wed morning visit didn't really overlap with any of those.
Since I've been back in town I've filmed an interview for the Boston cable access tv show Boston Baseball Heads. The show is about my teams championship in the Park League, and I appeared along with my manager and SS. It was a pretty good time and I'm looking forward to seeing it on tv when it airs. I'm going to try and get a DVD copy, and maybe if I'm lucky I'll find some way to upload it on the web and put it on the blog.
Also I attended the Bosox (official fan club of the Red Sox) luncheon where they honored the best amateur baseball teams in the region and our team received an award. That was really a good time as well and I was able to meet a former president of the Park League who was really nice to talk to. Talking with former Park League players and officials makes me really want to find away to bring back the prestige and interest that the league used to have. Years ago the league used to draw hundreds (sometimes thousands) of fans for regular season games and would outdraw the Red Sox during playoff games. All of the best players in the area wanted to play in the League and the teams really had a fan base in their respective communities. While there is still considerable talent in the league, and the players have the same reverence for the history of the league, the fans have long since dissappeared. I think at most we had 100 or so fans for a couple of playoff games. And while that is nice, its a shame that we can't draw more. The competition really is great, and the admission price can't be beat (free). The games are played on weekday nights after people get home from work, and its easy to bring food or drinks to the park and just sit back and enjoy a game on a beautiful summer night. My gf's friends in med school have come to some of my games and they've always had a great time. They really enjoyed a chance to spend a night outside with friends while watching baseball game, and found it a great diversion from their regular stress. I think there are tons of families in the Boston area that could bring their kids to the park watch a game, and have a better experience than sitting at home watching TV. I'm not old, but when I was a kid I pretty much took my bike to the ballpark every night and watched whatever game was being played while running around with friends. Plus we play baseball the way it was meant to be played, hard-nosed, with wood bats, and a real competitive fire.
But anyway I'll get off my soap box for now. Maybe if the teams in the League could get more active in the community during the off and pre season via baseball clinics or volunteering we might be able to attract more fans.
Tomorrow I'm going to get back to working out. I've been slacking since the end of the season and have probably only worked out a half a dozen times. But I really would like to put on 15 lbs or so this off season, and if I want those to be muscle and not burritos I really need to work on my lifting and training. I really hate lifting weights too.
later
jim
But as I should have learned, posting about success will guarantee a smiting from the poker gods. Obviously I don't believe in any of that, but I think all poker players have those laughably bad runs where we have to make these played-out, cliched comments. In a matter of about 5 days I lost back that $13k plus about another $8k for my new largest downswing ever. Wheeeeeeeeee!
So yeah, you read that right, after going on a $35k upswing, I followed that up with a $21k downswing. Oh variance, you are a cruel mistress.
But since then I've slowly climbed back up, and am back in the black with a very solid chance to book another 5 figure month with two days to go. So I can't complain in the slightest.
I spent 3 days last week in Chicago with two of my best college buds. We caught a couple of cubs games (including the clincher at wrigley against the cardinals) and hit the town pretty hard. Hilarious stories and memories were made, and the post-game party in Wrigleyville was truly epic.
After that I took a bus up to Madison WI to stay with another of my best friends, Eric, from college. He's in the middle of getting a Phd in English from UW so between teaching and taking classes his time was somewhat crunched for the 2.5 days I was in town. Despite that we were able to get some good food, drink a few tasty brews, and relive some great memories. I met his girlfriend and several of his good friends and they are all great people. Hopefully he'll bring his gf with him to Boston on his next visit so I can get to know her better.
Madison was a really nice town. UW's campus was cool, and the weather was great while I was there. I would definitely like to go back to visit Eric either during a UW football saturday or maybe at Halloween. I here the campus has some great parties and my sunday-wed morning visit didn't really overlap with any of those.
Since I've been back in town I've filmed an interview for the Boston cable access tv show Boston Baseball Heads. The show is about my teams championship in the Park League, and I appeared along with my manager and SS. It was a pretty good time and I'm looking forward to seeing it on tv when it airs. I'm going to try and get a DVD copy, and maybe if I'm lucky I'll find some way to upload it on the web and put it on the blog.
Also I attended the Bosox (official fan club of the Red Sox) luncheon where they honored the best amateur baseball teams in the region and our team received an award. That was really a good time as well and I was able to meet a former president of the Park League who was really nice to talk to. Talking with former Park League players and officials makes me really want to find away to bring back the prestige and interest that the league used to have. Years ago the league used to draw hundreds (sometimes thousands) of fans for regular season games and would outdraw the Red Sox during playoff games. All of the best players in the area wanted to play in the League and the teams really had a fan base in their respective communities. While there is still considerable talent in the league, and the players have the same reverence for the history of the league, the fans have long since dissappeared. I think at most we had 100 or so fans for a couple of playoff games. And while that is nice, its a shame that we can't draw more. The competition really is great, and the admission price can't be beat (free). The games are played on weekday nights after people get home from work, and its easy to bring food or drinks to the park and just sit back and enjoy a game on a beautiful summer night. My gf's friends in med school have come to some of my games and they've always had a great time. They really enjoyed a chance to spend a night outside with friends while watching baseball game, and found it a great diversion from their regular stress. I think there are tons of families in the Boston area that could bring their kids to the park watch a game, and have a better experience than sitting at home watching TV. I'm not old, but when I was a kid I pretty much took my bike to the ballpark every night and watched whatever game was being played while running around with friends. Plus we play baseball the way it was meant to be played, hard-nosed, with wood bats, and a real competitive fire.
But anyway I'll get off my soap box for now. Maybe if the teams in the League could get more active in the community during the off and pre season via baseball clinics or volunteering we might be able to attract more fans.
Tomorrow I'm going to get back to working out. I've been slacking since the end of the season and have probably only worked out a half a dozen times. But I really would like to put on 15 lbs or so this off season, and if I want those to be muscle and not burritos I really need to work on my lifting and training. I really hate lifting weights too.
later
jim
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