Continuing in its never ending role as comedy relief, yet another religious incident takes place, receives wordwide attention, and leaves anyone with the slightest shred of rational capabilities utterly stunned and dismayed at how dumb a species mankind seems to be.

Apparently a 2nd grade teacher in Sudan allowed her students to name the class teddy bear. They chose the name Muhammad. As a consequence, the teacher is being investigated, the school closed down for the year, government officials in both Britain and Sudan are wasting their time and energy with this 'business.' And a woman who just wanted to teach children will likely have her life ruined; for what sort of duration is unknown, maybe a lifetime.

My favorite quote about the incident thus far has been: "What has happened was not haphazard or carried out of ignorance, but rather a calculated action and another ring in the circles of plotting against Islam," the Sudanese Assembly of the Ulemas said the statement."

Why is this disturbingly insane remark given the dignity of finding its way into an actual news article? Were it in there to show the depths of derangement that religious thinking can often induce, that would be one thing. But no. We can't call out this sort of behavior because it is shrouded in taboo. Religion is so protected and tolerated as to be above any rapprochement. We simply can not discuss it or insult it, or call it what it is.

This is utter madness. And the fundamental reason I find religion in this age to be beyond reconciliation. What you believe effects the real world. You can't divorce faith from action. All that can be accomplished is temperment, as is the case in atleast some places on earth. But notice that even a completely secular society would still be nonetheless aggravated by those who find offense where there is none. The prime minister of Britain gave a public speech, though short, on this matter. And other government officials, likely dozens, are also engaged in this matter.

What a monumental waste of time! Rather than focus on genuine problems, of which there are no end, some amount of authoritative resource will be thrown down the toilet to deal with this affair. Fantastic.

Been a while since I posted. Haven't been playing much poker this month. Typically what happens is I'll get ready to play, look at the tables, realize that they are all full of nits, and then just say fuck it. I think I've only played 11,000 hands this month. Whatever.

I went to the doctors about my foot finally. I originally sprained it in April, and it still was bothering me, which is what prompted me to go. The doc pretty much told me that my foot had healed up well but I needed some physical therapy. I said no thanks to the therapy and have since been walking on it a lot more and stretching it often.

My right calf muscle has atrophied quite a bit though. Not walking on that leg for half a year has taken its toll. So I've been riding a stationary bike at my gym the past few mornings. I'm going to try to ride 5 miles 5 times a week.

Funny side story about the doctors trip. He asked me what I did for a living, and I told him I played cards. He asked "oh, you mean you gamble." I shrugged and said "I guess." Now, later on when he was talking about physical therapy he kept bringing up the fact that I was self-pay (i.e. no Health Plan.) And that it could be costly. Going as far as saying "if you had a losing month [gambling] you might not be able to afford it." I simply responded "I never have a losing month." And he chuckled. But not in the way someone might chuckle if they thought it was a funny remark. More like "haha, what a fool you are."

Didn't bother me that much though. I'd rather do what I do than what he does. He can be smug. And I'll enjoy my freedom.

Gah, I dunno what has happened, but Cake has certainly been less fishy this month. Used to be a ton of 50%VPIP tables. Now I'm finding tables with 2-4 regs, and only a few donks. The fishier tables are now 40%+, and those aren't around often. I might head back over to AP. Looks fishy as hell lately.

Am I a geeenios? Yes. Yes I am.

In a post I made on July 11th, I wrote the following:

"In my opinion, this is very bad for online poker, especially now. Gives me a somewhat ominous feeling. Like maybe AP is just doing everything that it can right now to squeeze every penny out of this cash cow before some real shit goes down."

How crazy is that?! Right before the whole AP scandal hit.

My old posts are gold baby.

::

I'm fighting sleep by reading my old entries. God I need a life.

Oh, and I 4 tabled 2/4nl today for a few hours. I lost $1000 immediately. First all in, 3 way. J552 board. I have 56, some idiot in EP has 57, maniac who said he was drunk and high shows QJ. River J! Why do I always run like shit when I jump?

I instantly bemoan my luck (as almost all rivers have me no worse than splitting.) I also get stubborn and don't leave like I said I would in my previous post if I dropped a buy in. I lose another buyin to something, don't even remember. But eventually get even and then some.

Oh, and I also finished in 2nd place this past week in Cake Pokers GC500. (If you don't know, don't ask, it's really stupid.) But I get $400 for that too! w00t

Jerad messaged me on Facebook about how reading old posts is somewhat funny. Yup. I recently did this myself, and I chuckle at both 1) how bad I play some of the hands and 2) how mad I got at such relatively small amounts of money.

But I equally enjoy some of my older posts that are long and well written and somewhat forgotten by yours truly. I think I'm a really good writer when I want to be, and I wish I chose to be more often on here. Rather than my short rants about losing to morons who think T5 sooted is good because of its soootedness.

I've been mulling over writing projects that I want to delve into. Possible books that I could write. If I'm going to do something great in life, now is as good a time as any. I have money, time, and few genuine obligations.

I was strongly considering the purchase of a new car and a laptop. Go on the road and play poker from wherever I am at. And just write about whatever. I also have crazy sci fi novel ideas. I wanted to write a book about some time in the near future when the earth finally meets aliens. But I don't want to write about the aliens. Rather the book would be a political satire on how stronger countries keep third world nations down so they can expoit them. Earth, as it turns out, would be the equivalent of a third world nation. (It's already been shown that Earth, in terms of absolute planetary size, is quite small, so maybe I'd use that angle.) We then find ourselves in some sort of alliance with other planets, but with no power. Only to further find out that the other planets actually intend to use earth to further their own agendas and pretty much rape us.

And that is just one idea. I also wanna write non fiction stuff. I have a theory that in almost every aspect of life, most every human being would be happier if that specific aspect most directly modeled life from 6-10,000 years ago. Take diet for instance. The only reason that we need the proportion of grains/greens/fruits etc. is due to what our earlier nomadic ascendents ate. We need exercise because they lived a life full of it. And I postulate, not even controversially, that other (if not all) aspects follow along the same lines. And yet no one really talks about this.

Everyone is trying to figure out how to be happy. And so they look to modern conveniences for that happiness. But how can any of that possibly make a person happy when it didn't even exist when our genes were being programmed the way they are? Technology, though exciting if not scary, is likely making us more miserable. It will probably be a while until humans can fully adapt to the lifestyle offered by it. Which leaves current mankind in a state of limbo, so to speak. And in a tough spot to find happiness.

I'd like to study every aspect of the current academic climate, in reference to this very idea, and see what I could come up with. Would that make a good book? Or is the idea so obvious (and equally almost impossible to implement) as to make it irrelevent? I read an intriguing book a while back called "Stumbling on Happiness" that was on a very similar idea. Although the books point was basically that humans have no idea what makes us happy, and most people can not predict with any degree of accuracy what will make us happy in the future. In fact, most people seem to have diametrically opposing ideas of what will in fact make us happy. (i.e. We think A will make us more happy than not A. And we're wrong.)

Fascinating book if anyone has the time. Go read it.

I've also thought of turning my blog into a sort of short story or chapter by chapter enterprise. I have a remarkable number of readers for only linking to a dozen other blogs. And I bet I could triple my readership if I just linked to everyone else (although a part of me rebels against that so very much.) I kinda hate bloggers who do that. It's roughly the equivalent to certain celebrity award ceremonies set up by the celebrities/Hollywood so that they can jerk each other off and draw more attention to themselves. But maybe I'll do it anyways!

But yea, I could just post a new chapter of some larger work every few weeks and see if I can draw people in. At the very worst it would horribly fail (but fail for free.) And I have oodles of time to waste.

Oh, and I wanted to thank everyone who gave me ideas on what I should waste my time with. For the immediate short term, I've chosen art. And I've already started a sick pointilism project. But I think I'm gonna learn to cook. I may even join a class, I dunno. But I'd really like to be able to make more than bagels and already prepared frozen stirfrys (though delicious they are.) And once my foot heals all the way, I think I'm gonna join this Columbus Scrabble group and try and get really good at Scrabble, ala Paul Phillips. It's a natural for me, as I'm a wordophile.

::

In poker news, I played a bit of 3/6nl the other night. It went ok, I almost doubled up my $600 stack right away, and then I lost it all back to some tard who plays 2 pair oddly.

I'm thinking about just saying fuck it and jumping to 2/4nl full time. I'm plenty good enough at this point, and I have the roll (for the most part.) I really need to start the climb up. I don't want to stay ssnl forever. It's a trap. It's such easy money, but 1) it's somewhat unsatisfying to beat up on droolers and 2) there is more money to be made at higher stakes. I'm thinking of implementing a cautious jumping strategy.

What I will do is play 2/4nl, but if I drop just a single buy in, go back to 1/2nl, get the buy in back, and jump back up. This will likely result in a lot of wavering in between levels, but it will also keep me from making too big of a mistake. Often when I have jumped in the past I'll drop 2-3k and then finally drop back down.

Eventually, before dropping a buyin, I'll run good and just be able to stay there, who knows, maybe my first jump will be that way. I'm just being a big pussy staying at 1/2nl, where it is nice and comfortable.

For some reason I'm really into the NBA this year. It's like I'm 9 all over again. I used to watch every single game that aired on TV when I was younger. And then I sorta lost the love for the NBA by highschool. Don't remember exactly why. But I became much more into college ball, maybe because I was about to enter college.

Anyways, Boston (and the surrounding area) sure must be enjoying themselves. First the Red Sox win it all, the Pats are fucking unbeatable, BC was #2 before losing this past week, and now it looks like the Celtics are going to be sick this year. I watched them handle the Wizards easily. The addition of Garnett and Allen on top of Paul Pierce (and a surprisingly good young point guard) has made all the difference. It wouldn't surprise me if they ended up in the Conf Finals.

Also, the Lakers might be better than a lot of people give them credit for. Sure, they are young. But they have a ton of talent. I doubt they can bring it all together this year, especially if they lose Kobe. But if he stays, and Luke Walton steps up like he's capable of, and a few of these young guys mature quickly, they have a chance to do some damage in the playoffs. It's so early though, hard to say for sure. But they didn't look terrible against the Suns a few nights ago, and Kobe wasn't even a large factor.

More off the top of my head ranting. Why the hell can't ESPN re-air NBA broadcasts without having to shorten them down so much? They have 2 hours to fit in 48 minutes of play. Despite this, Stuart Scott comes in during the middle of almost every quarter to say "due to time constraints we will now move ahead..." blah blah blah. Why? They don't even have to deal with half time or timeouts, they can just skip all of that since it is not live. 48 minutes of play should fit into a 2 hour slot, and easily.

Well October has come and gone. I decided to continue playing through to the end of the month, rather than quit and book the win. And I'm glad that I did. I ran well for the last week, finishing the month out just under $12k. I'm mostly pleased with this result. It's my highest total for a full month, and I'm glad I keep pushing the bar higher. But I didn't get in as much playing as I should have.

I'm pondering how much I should play this month, as I kind of want to finish out the year really strong, and hopefully have a month over $20k. I think I could do that this month if I can find a way to get in more than 60,000 hands. It's just such a grind to play a full month like that. It's usually not hard to get in 2,000 hands for a single day, but to do it every day, day after day, is the challenge. By the 2 week mark I usually need a break badly. So I'll take a whole day off, and then get discouraged that I'm behind pace for the month. This leads to me giving up and taking either more days off, or more half days.

Also, every month has a point in it where you just can't seem to win. (Or almost every month. Last month was surprisingly smooth, I only had a few short bad periods, and I didn't tilt too much.) That is another thing that makes hitting the goal harder though. Poker is tediously slow when you can't win a pot. When you're winning, its all gravy, and I feel like I could play forever. And the exact opposite is the case when I'm losing.

I really wanna book a $20k+ month though, so I may just grit my teeth and plow through. I have my doubts I'll play anywhere near a full month in December, so this month is the time to do it. I also think I'm going to vacation in January. So a good month here in November will make the rest of the year and the beginning of next year much nicer.

Good luck to everyone at the tables this month.