Reading: And Her Soul Out Of Nothing by Olena Kalytiak Davis. I'm on page 84 of 94. I'll likely finish it tonight, but if not, I'll surely finish it tomorrow. Davis has amazing intensity on each of her line breaks, which is admirable. Her images are solid and concrete and very specific. The only thing that I don't like about her poetry is that she asks a lot of questions. She does it fairly well, but at times it distracts the reader by causing them to try and answer the question asked. For the novice poetry reader, Davis is on the shallow end. While her poetry is very good and she is well respected, it is not as far out there as some poets are.
Listening: The song Latyrx by the group Latyrx off of The Album. Latyrx consists of Lateef the Truth Speaker and Lyrics Born, both members of the Quannum label that I've been obsessed with lately. This particular song is amazing because it was an experiment that went very right. DJ Shadow produced the track, and what he did was create a rhythm that both Lateef and Lyrics Born freestyled to. Then, he put the two freestyles on top of each other. It's awesome. It's incredible to hear how the two, independently created freestyles intertwine in such a seemingly planned way. You have to check it out.
So I've taken on a job as a small-time music manager. One of my best friends from high school is a DJ, and he usually spins with another guy that I have yet to meet, but they don't book shows very often. Actually, they never book shows, which is why when I asked Matt he was totally for it. He told me that they just don't think about that type of thing; they just spin. As I'm making calls, I'm getting excited about it. Music management combines two things; music, which I love, and interacting with people, which I'm good at. If this goes well, I might look into doing this as a profession. That's a ways down the road yet, but you never know.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Reading/Listening, Bowling, No Poker
Reading: I did it! I finished Barthelme! I don't even want to go back and see when I started, but I'm guessing it was about two months ago. Maybe more. Regardless, I'm done now, and I'm going to dust off a couple of poetry books this week to make me feel like I'm accomplishing something again. First up will be And Her Soul Out of Nothing by Olena Kalytiak Davis. I've skimmed this for a poetry class before, but I'm going to take some time to read it and let it marinade this time. After I finish it, I'm going to dust off a collection of Wallace Stevens poems. When those two are finished, I'm going to tackle The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo. Throughout all of my recreational reading, I'm working on reading a real estate book to hopefully get licensed in the next month or so. It's something that I've wanted to do for awhile, and something that my parents have been hounding me to do for even longer. The book is brutal, however, as it goes overboard explaining everything. For instance, there were three pages dedicated to teaching me the difference between the feudal system of land ownership and the allodial system. A couple of things: 1) I don't really need to know this for any reason 2) This is covered in most elementary school history classes 3) This could be explained in a paragraph. Fortunately, I only have to read selections of this 400+ page snoozefest.
Listening: 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up by Gift of Gab. This is the first solo release by the MC for Blackalicious. If you've kept up with the blog, you know that I LOVE Blackalicious. 4DRGU has the same feel of a Blackalicious release even though Chief Xcel doesn't produce the entire album. Gift of Gab has a cool voice and relentless speed reminiscent of Busta Rhymes on Extinction Level Event. My favorite tracks are Rat Race and The Writz because of their unique musicality and solid lyrics. Tracks like Way of the Light and Moonshine show the artistry and intelligence that all of the Quannum Projects artists have dedicated themselves to (Quannum Projects is the larger collective that Blackalicious belongs to/associates with). As I've said before, if you don't like rap and hip-hop, you should check this album out. It may just change your mind.
I went bowling today. I used to be a serious competitive bowler in high school and then I just quit. UNL offered me a small scholarship to bowl there, but I just wanted to get away from it. It wasn't a conscious decision that I made, because I simply stopped bowling. Looking back though, I think that I didn't want to associate with the typical bowling types. Yeah, I'm a prick, but I wanted to start college with a slate free of stereotypes. Anyway, I have my own bowling balls (three of them) and my own shoes, but they've been at the bottom of a closet collecting dust for the past eightish years. Today I busted them out. The bowling went about as I expected. When I quit bowling regularly, I carried a 177 average with a high game of 244. Today, not so much. I bowled four games before I threw in the towel. I actually had to quit because my forearm and left ring finger were killing me. I throw a hook, which means that I cup my wrist when I throw the ball. My ball weighs sixteen pounds. If you do the math on this, it equals my left forearm being useless until Thursday. Further, my ball is drilled in such a way that my two fingers only go in up to the first knuckle. Or they're supposed to, anyway. Apparently my fingers have also gained weight since I graduated high school because I could only cram my sausage fingers into the holes just past the cuticle. Both of my cuticles were bleeding when I quit. As for the actual bowling: I bowled 165, 128, 161, and 135. I was as inconsistent as a Presidential candidate's platform. I didn't expect to be as good as I used to be, but I couldn't throw the ball the same way twice. The game that I was most proud of was the 161. Even though it wasn't my best score, I hit the pocket* with regularity, and several times was denied a strike by a stubborn ten pin. I think I'll go again on my day off next week (if I get one), because I'd really like to see if I could get back to where I was. I'll keep you updated.
*Go HERE and search the page for "Pocket". It's near the bottom.
Listening: 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up by Gift of Gab. This is the first solo release by the MC for Blackalicious. If you've kept up with the blog, you know that I LOVE Blackalicious. 4DRGU has the same feel of a Blackalicious release even though Chief Xcel doesn't produce the entire album. Gift of Gab has a cool voice and relentless speed reminiscent of Busta Rhymes on Extinction Level Event. My favorite tracks are Rat Race and The Writz because of their unique musicality and solid lyrics. Tracks like Way of the Light and Moonshine show the artistry and intelligence that all of the Quannum Projects artists have dedicated themselves to (Quannum Projects is the larger collective that Blackalicious belongs to/associates with). As I've said before, if you don't like rap and hip-hop, you should check this album out. It may just change your mind.
I went bowling today. I used to be a serious competitive bowler in high school and then I just quit. UNL offered me a small scholarship to bowl there, but I just wanted to get away from it. It wasn't a conscious decision that I made, because I simply stopped bowling. Looking back though, I think that I didn't want to associate with the typical bowling types. Yeah, I'm a prick, but I wanted to start college with a slate free of stereotypes. Anyway, I have my own bowling balls (three of them) and my own shoes, but they've been at the bottom of a closet collecting dust for the past eightish years. Today I busted them out. The bowling went about as I expected. When I quit bowling regularly, I carried a 177 average with a high game of 244. Today, not so much. I bowled four games before I threw in the towel. I actually had to quit because my forearm and left ring finger were killing me. I throw a hook, which means that I cup my wrist when I throw the ball. My ball weighs sixteen pounds. If you do the math on this, it equals my left forearm being useless until Thursday. Further, my ball is drilled in such a way that my two fingers only go in up to the first knuckle. Or they're supposed to, anyway. Apparently my fingers have also gained weight since I graduated high school because I could only cram my sausage fingers into the holes just past the cuticle. Both of my cuticles were bleeding when I quit. As for the actual bowling: I bowled 165, 128, 161, and 135. I was as inconsistent as a Presidential candidate's platform. I didn't expect to be as good as I used to be, but I couldn't throw the ball the same way twice. The game that I was most proud of was the 161. Even though it wasn't my best score, I hit the pocket* with regularity, and several times was denied a strike by a stubborn ten pin. I think I'll go again on my day off next week (if I get one), because I'd really like to see if I could get back to where I was. I'll keep you updated.
*Go HERE and search the page for "Pocket". It's near the bottom.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Reading/Listening, Long Distance, Poker
Reading: Still Barthelme, page 413/451. I just finished a story called The Emerald today and it was awesome. Overall, the collection has been a bit more experimental than I like. Barthelme's wit is amazing, but there are some stories that have been nothing more than disjointed conversations. While I enjoyed the playful banter, I wanted more from it. The Emerald, however, combined these experimental elements into a bigger, cohesive story that actually had a discernible point. I think my favorite character in the story is the Foot. Read it to find out what I mean.
Listening: I'll Do It All by Busta Rhymes. The song is off of The Big Bang. I'm not sure how this one missed the radio. Maybe it was on there, I never know because I hate the radio. For those of you that don't like rap because you can't hear the words, this one is perfect. Busta has such a neat voice that it's easy to get interested, and for once he's going slow enough that each word is clearly audible. LaToiya Williams also joins him on the track, and she has a great voice. Her voice mixes perfectly with the flute loop that makes up the backbone of the song, as well as with the heavy synthesizer use. A very well put together track. My compliments to the producer of this one, he put in long hours and it shows. I guess he could've put in short hours and is just a genius, who knows. Him, I guess.
So Virginia is in Mammoth Lakes, California for the next month. Mammoth is a ski town. I was wary that her cell phone wouldn't work in the house she's staying in, and I was right. It has really limited our phone time, which sucks, seeing as that is all we really have. I did finally get a microphone that works, and I ordered one that is being sent to her, so I think that we'll be able to use Skype while she's at the house. This will be nice because she's currently relegated to driving around or sitting in the Starbucks, which seems to be overrun with annoying, loud teenagers. Tonight we had a lengthy discussion about her ranking. She's just really torn on what she should make a priority in her decision making process. The quality of the program, the workload, the support structure, and the city all have legitimate arguments for their relative strength of importance. Obviously, if any one of them sucks, the idea sucks, but a lot of them are quite similar. Her sticking point is in trying to break the ties. I think I helped her sort out at least one tonight, but she has a lot of thinking left before the end of the month.
I went 0-2 on some HU matches the other night. The first guy I played was super-aggro and I simply wasn't prepared for it. I should've fought fire with fire, but I folded way too many hands to him and dug a deep hole. It's hard to be way down to somebody who is firing away all the time anyway because they simply aren't afraid to put you in with really weak hands, knowing that it will be hard to call of your chips with middle pair bad kicker. I signed up for another $15 right after that, and played a guy that was the total opposite. However, he benefited from my delayed reaction as I went alpha-male on him and he picked me off for most of my chips with second pair. After that he hammered on me and I had to put it in with a coinflip and came up empty. So it goes. My irregular playing schedule doesn't help my game a lot because it creates a lot of inconsistency. Six months ago, the aggro nut wouldn't have stood a chance, but he ran over me instead because I simply forgot how to play against people like that. Those are the things I'm going to have to deal with and keep a level head about. Oh well, bedtime.
Listening: I'll Do It All by Busta Rhymes. The song is off of The Big Bang. I'm not sure how this one missed the radio. Maybe it was on there, I never know because I hate the radio. For those of you that don't like rap because you can't hear the words, this one is perfect. Busta has such a neat voice that it's easy to get interested, and for once he's going slow enough that each word is clearly audible. LaToiya Williams also joins him on the track, and she has a great voice. Her voice mixes perfectly with the flute loop that makes up the backbone of the song, as well as with the heavy synthesizer use. A very well put together track. My compliments to the producer of this one, he put in long hours and it shows. I guess he could've put in short hours and is just a genius, who knows. Him, I guess.
So Virginia is in Mammoth Lakes, California for the next month. Mammoth is a ski town. I was wary that her cell phone wouldn't work in the house she's staying in, and I was right. It has really limited our phone time, which sucks, seeing as that is all we really have. I did finally get a microphone that works, and I ordered one that is being sent to her, so I think that we'll be able to use Skype while she's at the house. This will be nice because she's currently relegated to driving around or sitting in the Starbucks, which seems to be overrun with annoying, loud teenagers. Tonight we had a lengthy discussion about her ranking. She's just really torn on what she should make a priority in her decision making process. The quality of the program, the workload, the support structure, and the city all have legitimate arguments for their relative strength of importance. Obviously, if any one of them sucks, the idea sucks, but a lot of them are quite similar. Her sticking point is in trying to break the ties. I think I helped her sort out at least one tonight, but she has a lot of thinking left before the end of the month.
I went 0-2 on some HU matches the other night. The first guy I played was super-aggro and I simply wasn't prepared for it. I should've fought fire with fire, but I folded way too many hands to him and dug a deep hole. It's hard to be way down to somebody who is firing away all the time anyway because they simply aren't afraid to put you in with really weak hands, knowing that it will be hard to call of your chips with middle pair bad kicker. I signed up for another $15 right after that, and played a guy that was the total opposite. However, he benefited from my delayed reaction as I went alpha-male on him and he picked me off for most of my chips with second pair. After that he hammered on me and I had to put it in with a coinflip and came up empty. So it goes. My irregular playing schedule doesn't help my game a lot because it creates a lot of inconsistency. Six months ago, the aggro nut wouldn't have stood a chance, but he ran over me instead because I simply forgot how to play against people like that. Those are the things I'm going to have to deal with and keep a level head about. Oh well, bedtime.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Boring Again, Poker
I've been wanting to blog more, but I'm pretty boring. As my buddy Mike pointed out tonight, I've turned into some sort of robot that goes through the day with little variation. Here's how my days go: work until 6ish, go home, eat, play Call of Duty 4 on the PS3 (it's more addictive than heroin), talk to Virginia on the phone, go to bed. Occasionally I read. Occasionally go to the store. Every now and then somebody will call me and we'll chat. Other than that, I do the same thing every day. I figure that some of you may be sick of hearing about Virginia or my work, so my solution is to just not blog about it. Things should get a bit more interesting soon as I plan on shaking things up a bit, but overall I'm going to continue to be boring for at least the next two months.
I played three HU matches the other day going 3-0. It was pretty nice. All three matches were against the same guy. In the first one, I kept working him down to 5kish before doubling him back up. At one point I mad a bad call on an all in to put me down to 5k, but it wasn't long before I got him to double me up with a flopped straight vs his gutshot. After that I cruised to the victory. I got more aggressive in the second match and drove him down to 5k again. I got lucky when he got all of his money in with AJ vs my J7 on a J high flop. I spiked the river 7 to end match two. In match three I played really nit. I won a big pot when I put a bad beat on him. I had A8 vs his T9hh on an 7h 8h 2x flop. I don't even want to calculate the odds, but he's supposed to win that hand a lot. I bet it the whole way, however, and he missed, putting him down to 6kish. I hammered on him from there and just kept getting him down. He finally moved in with just a shade over 1k in chips and I doubled him with garbage. He double again two hands later, and then moved in over my raises several times to get all the way back to 6k. There, I began sniping. When I was sure he didn't have much, I would raise and steal the pot. I worked him back down to 800 and finished him off. It was a nice little +$35 for the day, putting me into $15 matches again. My bankroll is at $167.05. I would like to play a bit more to get my roll up there because I could use some extra money again.
I played three HU matches the other day going 3-0. It was pretty nice. All three matches were against the same guy. In the first one, I kept working him down to 5kish before doubling him back up. At one point I mad a bad call on an all in to put me down to 5k, but it wasn't long before I got him to double me up with a flopped straight vs his gutshot. After that I cruised to the victory. I got more aggressive in the second match and drove him down to 5k again. I got lucky when he got all of his money in with AJ vs my J7 on a J high flop. I spiked the river 7 to end match two. In match three I played really nit. I won a big pot when I put a bad beat on him. I had A8 vs his T9hh on an 7h 8h 2x flop. I don't even want to calculate the odds, but he's supposed to win that hand a lot. I bet it the whole way, however, and he missed, putting him down to 6kish. I hammered on him from there and just kept getting him down. He finally moved in with just a shade over 1k in chips and I doubled him with garbage. He double again two hands later, and then moved in over my raises several times to get all the way back to 6k. There, I began sniping. When I was sure he didn't have much, I would raise and steal the pot. I worked him back down to 800 and finished him off. It was a nice little +$35 for the day, putting me into $15 matches again. My bankroll is at $167.05. I would like to play a bit more to get my roll up there because I could use some extra money again.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Reading/Listening, Visit, Bar, No Poker
Reading: Still Barthelme, page 363/451. As I expected, I got no reading done over the weekend. It will be a day or two before I get anything read as I'm pretty sleep deprived now. It's funny how laid back I am all of the time, but I'm always wound up in my head, and with a lot of things going on last week and a girlfriend visit on horizon I sort of forgot to sleep. Oh well, I can still do that for a few more years. I AM going to read at least fifty pages this week though.
Listening: Politik by Coldplay. It's the first song off the album A Rush of Blood to the Head. The music is perfectly dramatic. I'm not sure why I haven't seen it used in a movie or movie trailer yet because I can think of so many different scenes where it would fit perfectly. Regardless, listen to it.
Virginia was here again from Thursday night until Sunday around noon. She got in around 7ish on Thursday after she was delayed because Air Force One was landing in Las Vegas. Chalk up yet another thing that the President has screwed up for me. Yet again I had a bunch of things planned that we didn't do. I'm not mad at all, but I'm confused as to why I keep trying to line up activities that depend on so many things. I didn't have anything at all lined up for Saturday and we ended up being out and about until after 3am, proving that I should stop swimming against the current with my silly plans. It's not my style anyway. I don't get to see her again until the end of March when I fly out for Match Day. Match Day is when all of the fourth year med students around the country find out where they will spend the next several years of their life. It should be fun to be there for it.
So I'm trying to buy a bar. There is one for sale here in Omaha and it is very successful, but my total lack of restaurant or bar management experience will shoot me in the foot if I apply for a loan. Amazingly (sadly?) I have good enough credit to get a business loan for around 1.5 million dollars, but I need to find a partner with experience. I've made a couple of calls to people I know so hopefully one of them wants to do something stupid and buy a bar with me. I won't keep you all updated on this because it's like a thousand to one longshot on actually happening.
Listening: Politik by Coldplay. It's the first song off the album A Rush of Blood to the Head. The music is perfectly dramatic. I'm not sure why I haven't seen it used in a movie or movie trailer yet because I can think of so many different scenes where it would fit perfectly. Regardless, listen to it.
Virginia was here again from Thursday night until Sunday around noon. She got in around 7ish on Thursday after she was delayed because Air Force One was landing in Las Vegas. Chalk up yet another thing that the President has screwed up for me. Yet again I had a bunch of things planned that we didn't do. I'm not mad at all, but I'm confused as to why I keep trying to line up activities that depend on so many things. I didn't have anything at all lined up for Saturday and we ended up being out and about until after 3am, proving that I should stop swimming against the current with my silly plans. It's not my style anyway. I don't get to see her again until the end of March when I fly out for Match Day. Match Day is when all of the fourth year med students around the country find out where they will spend the next several years of their life. It should be fun to be there for it.
So I'm trying to buy a bar. There is one for sale here in Omaha and it is very successful, but my total lack of restaurant or bar management experience will shoot me in the foot if I apply for a loan. Amazingly (sadly?) I have good enough credit to get a business loan for around 1.5 million dollars, but I need to find a partner with experience. I've made a couple of calls to people I know so hopefully one of them wants to do something stupid and buy a bar with me. I won't keep you all updated on this because it's like a thousand to one longshot on actually happening.
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