The 12th

"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get." - Dale Carnegie

Erika has started up a blog. It is always nice to have someone else you know writing. It will give me another interesting thing to read while I’m in class. I think she is trying it out right now to see how she likes it, but I hope she keeps it up. If you want to check it out, it’s at: http://erikaksilva.blogspot.com

Friday I picked classes for my final semester. It is sad that my motivating factor is when the classes are rather than if I need the class to help me on the bar. I still am not sure exactly what my semester is going to look like, but I know that I will be glad to finally get past this one.

This weekend was a poker weekend. Saturday night, Mark and I went to play poker at a poker club in Baltimore. It was a trip. It was the first time I was able to test my skills. The game was going to be 2/5 NL, but we ended up playing 1/2 NL which was more along the lines of what I was wanting. It was a slow night, but we had a full table. I sat down with $300.00 and at the end of the night went home with $299.00. I was up over $100, but lost it late in the night. There was on fish there and he lost all his money, but the one time I got him all in, he sucked out on me. I was ok with him, but was wishing to go up against him again, but didn’t get my shot before he went broke. We start around 7:30pm and ended at about 1am (well we left then, the game went on). A lot the players were good and experienced. One guy won over $700 and just played superbly. He did get pocket Aces 5 times, but that aside, he made some amazing reads. He laid down a set against my nut flush late in the night. I was more than impressed because he asked me a question to get a read on me. I got nervous and didn’t know how to act, mainly b/c all I could think of was what he could have and if there was a way I could be beat. I was just caught off guard. The place had free food and drinks which was nice.

Sunday I played a lot of sit and gos and won about 100 dollars a day over the weekend, for a $300 profit. I’m starting to get better at those, but I have to admit I am getting lucky. It is hard thinking about the long run when you lose a tournament. I just finished reading the Zen of Poker. Not a great book for strategy, but it does give some good advice about how to think about the game. I didn’t agree with some parts, but over all, I think I will one day become one with folding.

School is nearing the end. This means I have a lot of papers coming up. I hope to get them all started this weekend. That is my goal. Let’s see how it goes. This is also my last week of work. I’ll be working next semester, do I have kept delaying my goodbye.

I’m looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving. I have a feeling it is going to go by very quickly. It should hopefully be a lot better than last year. Too bad the Texas game won’t be as meaningful now that they have thrown their season away to such a weak team. I was lobbying like crazy for them to get a chance to defend their title, saying that McCoy was a different man from the Ohio State game and that now they were the best in the country. They proved me wrong. Yes, there were many chance mistakes that Kansas scored on, but nevertheless, a championship team doesn’t give a team that many chances to beat them.

she is very thoughtful

Control of Congress

"A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election." - Bill Vaughan

I went to vote when I got out of work. The line wasn't too bad. I asked for a paper ballot, but I was told I had to vote on the computer. I voted democratic of course. I walked out hoping to participate in an exit poll, but no one cared about what I thought. Once I got home, I turned on the TV to watch election results and watched late into the night.

The Democrats won back the House, this I am excited about, but I was hoping it would be a larger margin. Maybe I just can't understand why anyone would vote for Republicans. The Senate is still up for grabs and the VA race is very close. Right now Web is up by a few thousand votes (my vote counted) and we are on our way to a recount it seems. This will probably take a long time, but I wish it could be over sooner. I am very excited, but won't celebrate until we find out about Virginia. I always seem to be late to the area of contention, but this year I was right in the middle of it.

Update: Democrats won the Senate! Now we have the tools for real change.

Rumsfeld stepped down! Finally! This news really made my day. It looks like the tide is changing. I almost don't mind that Bush lied to us about not firing him. Of all the lies, that one I'm willing to take. I am actually just tired from all the watching of news. I want investigations, I want names, I want a better planf or Iraq. Minimum wage, man I hope they get that done quickly.

Tonight is the season finale of Lost. I am still addicted to that show. I'm looking forward to it, but once it is over, I'm going to feel like I am missing something.

it hurts more when a person is ambivalent and doesn't care than when they are mad at you

Pumy, Esq.

"The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn't angry enough. " - Bede Jarrett The House of Gold

I'm writing this the morning the of the election. I have yet to vote. What should of happened was that I should of woken up early and gone to vote before work. Instead I was up until 3am and didn't get up early enough. I plan to go right after work, which will probably mean standing in a longer line. I am concerned about the electronic voting machines, I mean RFK Jr's article on the presidential election in Ohio makes you wonder if everything is really legit. All you can do is hope things will be ok and in the future fight for getting some sort of paper ballot print out they can use to compare against the machine results.

So I have great news. My good friend Rick passed the Texas Bar Exam. He is now officially a lawyer (plus or minus some dues and swearing in procedures). I think that is amazing. You see someone who has worked their entire life for this goal and it is amazing to see that they have achieved it. I feel like I get this false sense of security, considering that everyone I have ever known personally has passed the bar (don't know many who have taken it), but all have talked about how terrible studying was. I have to remember I still have a school year to get through and then the summer of studying fun. I can't wait to be over with all this, but I still have a lot of dues to pay.

Here is my concern, I get really excited about things and then I get tired of them and move on. For example, I have about 5-6 books where I have read 30-60 pages of and just stopped and started another book. I like finishing things I do, but I'll start it and then just want to see if the other book I have waiting there is better. Then I think about all the reading I have to do and it feels more like a chore than enjoyment. Is this just some sort of common instant gratification symptom or am I dealing with a larger issue? I've looked online, and some people do the same thing. The other problem is that when I start them again, I don't know if I should just start over or pick up where I left off.

I am not a fan of the BCS, at least not how it is currently set up. I understand why a playoff is unrealistic, but I don't understand why a top 4 playoff can't be done. You keep the BCS as it is, and just pick the top 4 teams to play until you have a champion. It seems every year there is one team that deserves to be there and then at least 2 teams saying they deserve the#2 spot. This year there should at least be 3. It costs one extra game (and they added an extra bowl this year anyway) and I don't think it will take away from any of the other bowl games. I mean, the Holiday bowl is the Holiday bowl not the Championship game, and we all know that. I think an Ohio State Texas repeat would be a great Championship game. But with a 1 loss Michigan (assuming they lose to Ohio State), 1 loss Notre Dame, and undefeated Louisville, I think you could have a nice 4 team playoff.

The Witherspoon separation, I felt bad for, but this new Britney K-Fed divorce, it has to make you laugh. That marriage was like the republican party, you could tell it was falling apart, but the more ridiculous it got, the more you wondered if maybe you where the one not in touch with reality.

she break's up with him, she breaks up with you

Vogue

"The richness of life lies in the memories we have forgotten."- Cesare Pavese

The election is a day away. I still haven't figured out where my polling place is, but I'm going to vote either before or after work. I'm voting strictly democratic and am hoping that they can take control over Congress. I don't think they fight strong enough or call Republican's on their bullshit, but maybe some control will embolden them. Democrats will raise your taxes they say....I mean I can't believe people really buy these 1980s talking points. Today in class our professor told us that voting is irrational (probably tongue in cheek). Your vote can't change the election, so why vote? I need to read more about that economic argument, but I still buy the voting is important propaganda.

It was great seeing Erika this weekend. It sucks not getting to see your girlfriend daily, but I feel like we talk a lot more than if we did live close. She flew in on Thursday and I picked her up at Reagan airport. We had lunch and then went to my place. I had set up a poker night, and it ended up with a good turnout. We played poker for hours, but I didn't do too well. I am not very patient when it comes to live games. We finally called it quits at 11, but the game went on past midnight without Erika and me. I packed for NYC and then tried to get a few hours of sleep. We never really got a moment where we could relax for a long period of time.

Friday, we woke up at 5am and got ready. We got to the bus station for our 7am bus. My ticket was $35 roundtrip. Such a deal. The taxi cost me more than the bus. We were tired, so we both slept most of the trip, which made it go by faster. I'm still not a big fan of the bus, but you just can't beat it.

We arrived in NYC and met with Erika's sister Lana for lunch. She works at Teen Vogue. In that building, there is GQ, Vogue, and a lot of other magazines I can't remember right now. We had lunch in a cafeteria that Lana said comes out in the devil wears prada. The first thing I noticed there was the fashion. Everyone there was dressed fashionably and though some people looked nice, some people just looked silly. There they just looked unique because everyone was dressed differently, but you put them in the normal world and people would think they were weird. I do admit, some stuff was nice but it was like some sort of fashion contest. After lunch, Lana gave us a quick tour of Teen Vogue and Erika got to see the closet. I don't know much about the fashion magazine business, but it was still interesting. Erika really enjoyed it and it was probably nice to have a visual of where her sister has been working.

After lunch, Erika and I went to see the movie Borat. I enjoyed the movie very much. It is definately worth seeing. Once we were done laughing, we headed down to Chinatown to purchase some purses for Erika's mom's friends. That went well and didn't take too long. We then made our way to the Bronx to meet up with Juan Carlos. I was proud of our ability to get there on our own. He let us stay at his house for the weekend. For dinner Juan took us to a Dominican restaurant which had really good food. At night, I didn't have any plans, and we met up with Lana to go out with and her friends. Well some not very efficient decisions were made, and I didn't get my hands on a beer until 1:20am. It was fustrating, but the night did get better.

Saturday morning, we had plans to go to the Bronx zoo. Erika met up with her sister (the reason she came to NYC) to go shopping and spend some time together. I hung out with Juan, though I probably should of joined them. By the time we all met up again, it was too late for the zoo, so now we have something to do next time. I haven't been to the zoo since I was in elemetary. Juan's brother arrived from out of town and drove us to visit Jorge's new apartment. We hung out and then went to dinner at Dallas BBQ. It was very good food, of course not Texas. We then headed to a house party thrown by one of Jorge's friends. The party had a lot of alcohol, but being NYC, it was just too small to make for a really good party. It had a hallway feeling to it and there was nowhere to sit. There was a funny moment when Jorge mixed up everyone's shoes. We left the party early to meet up with Erika's sister at a bar. The place looked really nice, but just wasn't my type of place. It had a lounge feel to it, but was more of a bar. The music was too loud so you couldn't talk and there was no dance floor, so it wasn't a dance place. All you can do is drink, but I don't know, I did not like the place. My friends didn't seem too excited about it either. After a while, my friends called it a night and we headed home, which was probably good since we had to be awake so early.

Erika had an early flight, so we got up at about 5am, or I at least tried to. All I remember is that she packed, and Juan drove her to the airport and left me at the subway. I found my way from the Bronx to Port Authority and then on to a bus. I was like a zombie, but at some point I ended up in DC, so it all worked out. Once I was home, I just slept and missed the Dallas v. DC game where the Cowboys lost.

There was a funny screen saver I read today. "God is Santa Clause for Adults." I'm not anti-God, which I seem to come off, but I am anti-people that express their belief in stupid ways. God is not an excuse for ignorance, faith not a substitute for thinking and rethoric a substitute for actions.

good friends