A little poker, very little

OK, played some online poker this weekend and getting really frustrated. While I have been playing mostly single tables when I have played lately this weekend I played mainly MTTs. I have a major flaw in my MTT game, I worry too much about survival early and so while I hang around, and cash at times, I usually get to the later stages without enough chips to really play except in desperation mode. My style seems to pay off in single tables as there aren’t as many chips in play but it’s killing me otherwise. So, since there were a number of multis I wanted to play going I decided to see if I could work on that aspect of the game.

First up was a freeroll, first half of the OFC, the second half being a $5 buy in on Sun. Followed that up with Cyndy Violette’s Rescue Pet charity game. Add in two buy ins from the Pokeranalysis league and the Shark tour and a PLO game on AP I like to play and I had a pretty good schedule and plenty of practice. Except for the PLO game they all went the same way. I started of accumulating chips, something I almost never do and the part of my game I wanted to work on so it was looking good. They all ended the same way too. Somewhere along the line I lost a good portion of my chips to a sick draw that caught and then had a good hands get beat by better, set over set, straight by higher straight, boat over boat. Enough to drive you crazy. The trend continued in Sunday’s portion of the OFC also. Was in top five from the first hand double up until about 10 min before break. I then flop top two and wound up losing to someone who called off their stack, in the top 20, on a flush draw with a pot bet and check raise in front of them. Their K-6 sooooted, played to a 4 times raise preflop also, somehow caught a runner, runner for a 9 hi backdoor straight. Left me crippled and took the other guy out. To be fair, I would have lost anyway as the guy that got knocked out would have beaten me any way as he had pocket As, a hand I didn’t put him on as I had an A and one was on the board. Thought he had A-paint. 4 hands after the break I lose straight over straight. Ah well. Only games I did do well in were a couple of single tables. Won a couple of $2 ones and a second and third in a couple of $5 ones. Maybe I should stick with the SnGs.

Tonight decided to sit at the ring tables. After a so-so session at nickel-dime NLHE I decide I haven’t played any Omaha lately. Since no one is playing regular Omaha I sit in on a .25-.50 limit game. Table looks lucrative as no one seems to understand the concept of scooping or folding. First hand I triple up when I flop nut low, practically counterfeit proof at that and nut hi draw and the hand only got better. Only problem is, I was first to act and had no chance to raise. Watching the calling stations in action while I had waited I figured I didn’t wish risk losing a bet by trying for a check raise. Afterwards the stake went up and down as I got smacked by a few boat over boat hands and quartered a couple of times when I had nut lo and decent but not nut hi. Some peckerwood couldn’t get it thru his thick skull that raising with only the nut low is not good sense, especially when someone else is already check calling in front of you, usually a sure sign that there is another low out there. Bastard caused me to be quartered at least 3 times. As of right now still up a bit as the table has tightened up and what pots I win aren’t that big. Just won a big pot by being on the higher side of the boat over boat situation but had to sign off the site as for some reason it won’t bring up the tourney list and I want to play in a PLO tourney in 10 min. Signed back on to AP and entered the tourney but now have to wait for a seat at the Omaha table.

Well, PLO game starting and just got a seat at the table so time to relieve you from your boredom. Thank you once again for your time.

A lot less this time

My poker sucks lately so before I dive back in to it, playing the Online Forum Challenge buy in on Tilt, I decided to do a little husbandry on the south 40. Well, more like one and a half but I do think it’s south. This fall I figured that some of the bushes needed some pruning and been waiting until the weather turned cold enough to do it. Then the weather went cold and I forgot completely about it. Ah, the bitch of turning old. Anyhoo, I remembered it yesterday, too late to do it of course, but was actually able to keep the thought in my mind until today so figured I better get it done or the next thing I know it will be spring. The year flies by faster the older you get. Besides, I need some relaxation. Which of course I didn’t get.

Started with the main blueberry. Not counting what I put in this fall I have about a half dozen blueberries but most are just about 4-5 years old. One however is close to 20 years old and a prolific producer but it’s been a number of years since it’s been pruned and the branches were getting in each others way. Plus older branches do not bear fruit so too much energy was going into maintaining these branches. Decided to take out one of the main shoots which was growing across the bush and through the middle. While taking it out would take out a lot of bearing shoots there are enough new side shoots growing up around it that will eventually take over on the production side, just may take a few years. Problem was, damn shoot was too thick for the pruners to cut. Need a saw to take it out and that isn’t going to happen until my other arm is good enough to balance me as it has to be cut about a foot from the ground. So I moved up a bit, cut off the shoots growing from the main one, and figure I’ll just have to do the job in a couple of years as new shoots grow across the bush again.. I also took out about another 4, fairly large shoots. There goes my blueberry production next summer. Hopefully though the production will be even better in two summers with all the new growth that will take place and be a lot easier to pick as the bush will not be as cramped together. I trimmed a few of the newer shoots off the discard pile hoping to be able to root a few of them. While I have a variety of bushes these days I cannot find this variety anywhere so I want to see if I can get a couple thru cuttings. It’s been a very big producer for me and unlike many varieties it is a self pollinator so you can get blueberries with just one bush though it does better with other types around. While gathering the branches to take back to the burn barrel I passed a walnut tree I planted about 4 years ago. Here is where the relaxation started to go by the wayside. The tree, while growing nicely is still really a sapling. While looking at it I noticed something funny about it, it had a fuzzy look to it. Then it dawned on me, it was a buck rub. A big chunk of the bark on it has been rubbed off leaving a frayed look to what was left. Just hoping the tree can survive it come the spring. Damned deer, has its choice of a number of full sized trees, most I really don’t care about, to rub one and the bastard wastes my sapling. Housing development or no, I may just have to dig out the bow next year.

After pruning the main blueberry I grabbed the smaller pruners and headed over to the cherry tree. That thing has been in the ground for 4-5 years and isn’t going anywhere. I looked at it and it has a lot of small shoots going every which way so I pruned it down to two main shoots and hopefully it will put its energy onto growing them this spring. After I finished the pruning I headed into the house to trim p the cuttings and get them into water, then get comfortable in front of the fire and play some online poker. I know sooner get settled than it dawns on me, I forgot to trim up some of the smaller bushes. They really didn’t have to be pruned but I figured that catching some of those crossing branches early would avoid the problem I had with the older bush later. So bundled up I get and trudge to the back of the property again. I get about halfway thru the job and a green branch doesn’t cut clean and jams the shears. I try clearing them but it ain’t working so I head back to the house and a screwdriver to leverage the blades so the branch can fall out. Get it fixed and then back to the cold and the job. So much for that relaxation. Got the job finished and ready to start playing the OFC.


Will be back later to bore you with some poker content. Thanks for your attention

And you thought the last one was long

Didja ever feel the need to just scream? Happened when I got home from work last night. Just before Christmas I made a trip to Shady Maple. It’s about an hour’s drive away but the meat counter; combined with the prices, make the trip worth it as long as you have a freezer. Usually like to make the trip up there to get my Christmas dinner and I stock up while there. Besides the rib roast I usually make I have been picking up whole tenderloin which I then cut in half, half as a roast for Christmas, half I slice into fillets. As I’ve grown older fillet seems to be the cut I want when I eat steak. Occasionally I’ll partake of a NY strip done on the grill during the season but I’ve given up on the sirloin and porterhouse. Screw struggling with bones and thin cuts, give me an inch and half or better fillet. That’s also a reason I cut my own, to get them thick enough. Few markets will give you a good steakhouse cut. While there I also saw a nice boneless strip at a damned good price and since everyone else enjoys the strip steak I decided to be nice and pick one of them up. Come the spring my brother can throw some on the grill. To get back to the subject, yesterday I am informed my mother is making steaks for dinner and knowing my tendencies, asked if I wanted one. Since, as explained above, I’m not a big steak man these days and with the bad arm not feeling like struggling with trying to cut one I said no and went on my way figuring that the strips were finally going to get used. I get home from work and first thing I find is everyone eating fillet. WTF??? Not only that one of my special cuts found its way on to a plate. My special cuts are cut just a tad thicker than the others, specially for me. Taking one of them is like taking my last beer, not something you want to do. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not above sharing the fillets, if I was I would cut all of them thicker knowing no one else is going to touch them, but I prefer to save them for when I’m doing the cooking. Besides, there are over twice as many strips in the freezer as fillets. If you are just doing a regular dinner I fully expect the strips to be used. While standing there open mouthed, looking at my fillets on the table, I am informed that everything was frozen, nothing was marked so she just pulled steaks from the freezer not knowing which ones they were. I can’t holler at mom but how the hell can you not tell a strip steak from a fillet. Ok, I cut my strips almost as thick as normal fillets, almost but not quite, but strips are at least twice as long as a fillet, not to mention noone would cut a strip anywhere near the thickness of my specials. So now I’m down 3 fillets from an already limited supply, remember half the tenderloin went as a Christmas roast, and I can’t even rant and rave and blow my stack about it. After all, mom’s been good enough to do the cooking for me while my arm is screwed up and dad’s been playing main chauffer for me so I can’t be churlish enough to scream about it and make them think I begrudge them the fillets. I don’t. It’s just that, as good a cook as mom is on some things, when it comes to steak those fillets aren’t going to taste much different than standard grocery store sirloin. Since they aren’t likely to read this, it’s my scream about the situation.


Played the Wicked Chops freeroll for a seat at the Borgata Winter Open the other night. Last time I looked there were about 1600 runners. Finished 20th so did halfway decent. Shame only top place got paid. Got started late and was down about 100 chips when I got to the table. One guy was there with a double stack so I figured he had already taken someone out. He was playing all in every hand and because of that it took me a few deals to realize no one else was playing. Tilt does not notify you of sitouts and with his all ins I didn’t think it strange everyone was folding, Wasn’t until I noticed how fast the folds went that I figured it was a dead table. Went on like that for an orbit or so, this guy all in, all fold and then him revealing crap. I had a couple of hands I might have played under normal circumstances but with him going all in, even though it was mainly with garbage, I wanted to make sure I had a chance in case he woke up to a hand. Luckily I was to his left. Time eventually came. Caught A-T, not the greatest but good enough to make a stand against the wild man, so called his all-in and doubled up when the A hit the flop. He still had about 4K in chips and continued his tactics but another orbit found me with pp9s so again I played and they held against his T-Jo and I was tripled up overall and he was gone. After that is was a matter of just min raising for the next hour to collect blinds. Boring, and though easy chips at no risk, not a good way to have to play in this type of tourney where only the winner gets paid, as others were building so decent stacks and I while I was holding overall position I found myself falling farther behind the leaders in chips making it a much tougher row to hoe later on. Also while at that table I was a freaking rack, collecting A-A 4 times, K-K twice, Q-Q three times, once back to back, and J-J twice. Also had T-T a couple of times and 7-7 at least 6 times. It all went to waste and I knew it was eventually going to bite me in the ass.

Break came and most of the players were under 1000 chips so I figured we would start losing players soon and maybe get some action finally. In the meantime another fellow had joined the table and wound up cutting into my easy pickings. New players did start to come in as others were knocked out but even though they had a couple of thousand chips they were as dead as the previous group. Finally, after about an hour and a half of this crap I got moved to a table with some action. Boy did it have action as I got dumped right to the left of Roy Winston. As I thanked the poker gods for small favors, they could have put me on his right; I noticed he was actually playing. As the last I read he was still in Event 11 at the Winter Open and it wasn’t late enough for them to have shut down I wondered what was going on. I had noticed his name in the entries but figured that, as I have seen happen in charity tourneys, he put his name on it but would probably sit out. He was sitting with about 6K so I felt a touch better with my 20K, which was decent but only about the middle of the road for that table. That felling didn’t last long as he proceeded to climb to about 38K in the space of one orbit and did it by going to a showdown only once or twice. Was astonished with the amount of min raising preflop he did but somehow he made it work. After hearing a lot of min raises are useless and should almost never be done lectures from some knowledgeable people here was a guy not only using them fairly regularly but making them pay off. After awhile a few observers hit the table and started pelting him with questions which he answered politely. He was very gracious even when one character kept harping at him for money or a book or anything. Handled it better than I would have as the guy was annoying. Since the questions had started flying I decided to ask why he was there saying I thought he was playing at Borgata. He said he was but that Event 11 ended, for him anyway, on a sick suckout and left it at that. Seemed like a decent guy.

Well, enough about Roy, he eventually went down. As for me, though not the rack I was earlier I did get my share of playable hands. Some paid off, some cost me but on the whole I floated between 25 and 30K for awhile. I would hit a decent pot to build my stack a bit then I would catch a middling pair and see my raise reraised either all-in or a healthy amount with another caller or two in front. Now maybe I was too tight but in the first case I really didn’t feel like risking my chips at that point on what was a race at best, after all blinds were still fairly low in relation to my stack, or, in the second case I figured with a caller to a reraise my piddly pair was beat somewhere along the line. So I just folded and waited for better times. Twice I got really pissed though. Both times I had pulled ppKs and there was a guy who had three moves, fold, call or all in and he was really pushing the all ins to limps and even standard raises. Both times I tried to lead him in, raising only about 2 ½ times preflop hoping for a reraise but both times he only called and then folded to my bet on the flop. So, while I was winning some they weren’t really as large as I could hope. So it went, I was on the Red Queen’s racetrack, running like hell just to stay in place. While all this is going on, my nephew is calmly accumulating enough chips to move to into 3rd place so I am taking a ton of abuse from that direction.

I eventually get moved again, with about 38K and this table is poker hell for me. Card rack? What’s a card rack? The cards have gone farther south than Tierra del Fuego. The deck is so cold I’m getting frostbite just touching the keyboard. By this time the blinds are getting up there and the antes have kicked in and the table is aggressive as hell. I catch a J-Q suited in position and am contemplating a raise when a guy in MP goes all in for about 40K and is called by the cutoff. There went that hand. One of the blinds also called. Except for the blind, who had 7-7 my Q-J was ahead and of course I would have turned the flush. Damn. Shortly after I grab K-Q suited in the SB. BB raises and I call. Flop is 3 middlings so I throw out an air bet figuring it missed him and he calls. Figuring he probably raised with a pair pre I decide to check the brick that hits the turn figuring to fold to his bet and he checks. The river brings another crap card, 4c,, and now I figure he’s got an A that he jut couldn’t let go of on the flop but hasn’t hit a damn thing so I throw out a pot sized bet and get called. Damn guy had a T-4 suited. Ok, made a play on the flop with the raise but called my air on the flop with even less and then a pot sized bet on the river with bottom pair? WTF? After that I had nothing until the end of the game. Didn’t see anything higher than an 8 for 3 orbits. Started bleeding what chips I had as I couldn’t even defend my blinds and the table was really aggressive with preflop raises almost every hand. About this time I picked up a few railbirds including Schaubs from the blogger community and Cory and Doug from Riverchasers. In addition my nephew and I had been keeping an eye on each other throughout the game so the chat box became a real sideshow, especially with Doug. Doug is a very aggressive player, sometimes bordering on being insanely so and when I first started playing him he had a habit of collecting my chips, mainly because I was a very passive player at the time. I would either let him bully me off a hand or, when I figured I had the best of it I would only call his raises, often allowing him to turn his garbage into something. I credit him with helping me improve my game, at least from the aggressiveness standpoint. Although I have grown more aggressive I’m still nowhere in his ballpark and he loves to bust my chops about my play. This being said I have to give him credit for my getting thru the, what was for me, final stage of the tourney. I was down to about 24 K and caught A-4 suited so I raise and the BB calls. Flop comes a row of bricks and BB leads out for 6500, bout half the pot. Figure what have I got to lose, I’m down so I shove. BB lays it down and Doug starts in, cheering me but at the same time poking good natured fun at me since the over the top shove isn’t usually something he sees from me. Later, when I told him it was done with nothing he really loved it. That kept me around for a bit more. I picked up a few bots here and there, mainly with semi bluffs but I’m still bleeding chips until I pick on the same guy again and again it was with A-4. In the BB and it folds to me and I check. A hits the flop; I shove and get called this time. He has T-T and the As hold up and while still relatively short I’m only on the edge of ATC territory and not right in the middle of it. Don’t know if I would have folded the A in the BB to a raise from the tens but limping with hem didn’t even make me have to decide. Couple hands later I catch another A, this time with a T, I think. Not sure because the card played no part in the hand. I raised pre and again the same guy calls. This time the flop comes 3 suited to my A so I again shove on the nut flush semi bluff. I again get called by this guy and he has a hand but the 4th diamond falls on the turn and as Dougie said, BOOOOOM! Or, as my nephew so succinctly put it, “you’re a scumbag”. Felt sorry for the player and am sure he was muttering under his breath about me as he left but hey, I didn’t want him calling me there, I was willing to take the pot as it was. That was the last decent pot, or possibly even the last pot I took. Cards stayed crappy and I limped into 20th. Stayed and railed my nephew and Smokkee until my nephew went down in 15th. By then it was around 2 in the am and I had work to get to later so I had to wrap it up. Had a great time and thanks to WCP, Full Tilt and the Borgata.
Hokay, finally wrote about some poker and I bet you guys wish I hadn’t. I’m a boring writer as well as a boring player. Hope to see you all next time

The long and winding post

Going stark, raving bonkers right now. Need a poker fix and need it bad and not talking about internet play but some real, live interaction with some people. Was just reading Jordan’s blog where he talks about a bus to AC and I’m about ready to hope one myself this weekend. Problem with that is getting to the pickup point. That and the fact that I don’t even know who runs the casino trips around here. Only time I’ve ever bussed it is when I went along on a someone else's charter. Bus trips usually aren’t conducive to my poker game. They run at the wrong hours and they aren’t long enough. To me it’s a waste of time if I don’t get to put in at least 8 hours at the table when I head to AC. Right now I’ll take what I can get. Doug, who some of you know from Al’s Bash, is planning a home game next Sat and even that will be better than nothing though his games sometimes degenerate into “who has got the bigger pair” contests. And I ain’t talking about the cards.

Speaking of Doug, he finally popped the question to the lovely Robyn. They’ve only been together for, oh, forever. Glad he doesn’t take that long when he decides whether to raise that 4-6 off. I half expect to see the K-Q of hearts atop the cake when it happens though given Doug’s love of Big Slick it may be A-K. Robyn might not mind being compared to an Ace. After all she does outrank Doug anyway. Congratulations Robyn and Doug.

Had my daughter down to visit last weekend thanks to the MLK holiday and my bi-monthly fill up of drugs. She had off from school and I take off from work to spend 5 or so hours at the doctor’s office so that allows me to make the drive to get her back to her mother at a reasonable hour so although Monday is shot we get some time Fri night and full days on Sat and Sun to be together rather than having to make the trip on Sun. Stopped for dinner on the way home Fri night, had to pay off my brother for driving right now, and he wanted lobster. There is a good seafood place in Scranton but he figured it would be too long a wait so we settled for Red Lobster. Another sign that my daughter is growing up. To hell with the mac and cheese or chicken fingers, she wants the crab legs. Could be worse though, at her age I was ordering lobster and giving my parents cardiac arrest.

We had a good weekend together. Since I’m not driving most of it was spent at home but since she only gets to play the Wii she found enough for us to do. It’s bad enough she trounces my arse in bowling, she now found out she loves the boxing option. Ok, boxing is a game requiring speed, stamina and, most of all, 2 hands. Given I’m 40 years older than my daughter, who as far as speed and stamina go, can make the Tasmanian Devil look like he’s having a bad day it doesn’t bode well to begin with. Add in the fact that my left arm, while rehabbing nicely and having some decent movement these days, still has all the usefulness of a limp dick and I can see an 11 year old dervish bouncing around and taunting the old geezer. Well, I tried my damnedest. Actually was able to get some punches in with the left, although they had the snap and power of a strand of spaghetti and my butt got toasted. When the arm got too sore to compete I persuaded her to switch to her Pokémon game, only 1 player in that one, or she actually took some quiet time to catch up on her reading. Was good just to have her around. Doesn’t happen nearly enough.

As for the rehab things seem to be moving along. I was starting to get frustrated awhile back because it seemed I was stalled, not improving at all. Last week or so though thing seem to be picking up. No great strides, like all of a sudden opening pickle jars, but noticing little things, things I might have struggled with a couple of weeks ago, are coming a bit easier. Still a long way to go but it’s always encouraging when you actually can notice the improvement. Really need to get it working because 1., I hate imposing on others for the necessary driving such as work or child pickups and 2., I can’t do a damned thing because of 1 I won’t ask for any unnecessary rides. One of my two toys came in, the serious one, the thing called the Web. Basically just a piece of rubber stretched over a frame with holes in it for your fingers but is much more versatile for exercising the hand than the squeeze ball. The hand usually feels much better and more limber after 10 or 15 minutes with it. Still waiting on my pegboard. One good thing is that I am now able to lie back in bed and read again. While I can’t quite get the hand turned properly to grip the book between the thumb and forefinger I can hold it between the first two fingers, which keeps the pages steady, and the arm is strong enough to support it this way for 15-20 pages before I have to shift to a one handed grip to give it a rest. By alternating the grips I can actually get an hour or so of reading in before I have to put it down totally to rest the arms. Hey, it’s better than nothing.

Right now, with all the books I have backlogged, I’m rereading one I had picked up while catching up on my cataloging the other night; David Drake’s Paying the Piper. Basically a combination of Sf and military fiction, part of his Hammer’s Slammers series. For those of you who don’t know Drake, he takes scenarios and stories from history and adapts them to whatever setting he decides to write about. Most of the stories in the Slammers series are based on actual military campaigns set in a futuristic universe. He also adapts myths and legends into both sf and fantasy novels. He served in Nam and his military stories contain the viewpoint of a man who has been there. No glorified noble armies fighting for truth and justice. Just plain old down and dirty fighting for whoever pays them regardless of whether those people are right or not. And for those who have certain preconceptions of the word gay, they should check out his character Major Joachim Steuben. Should make someone think twice about hassling the gays.

Work-wise have a real pain in the ass problem. Since you are viewing this on a computer I am going to assume most of you have had so occasion to tangle with a virus or spyware. Many of you probably have had experience with that piece of shit malware that infects your computer then goes on to inform you that your computer is infected and that you should download some product to get rid of the problem. Been dealing with this one for awhile now and they just keep making it smarter. At first I would look for processes running that shouldn’t be there, go into Safe mode and just delete them. Then I found a program to get rid of it, job became a snap. Then they improved it so that the original program no longer worked as the virus just rebuilt itself on reboot. Found another program that worked even better (for those of you who don’t already have it I recommend getting a copy of Malwarebytes Anti Malware and run it at least once a week on your system. It’s free though there is a paid version that has real time protection, which is better if you can afford it or do a lot of surfing. BTW, I have no association with Malwarebytes, just like their program). Just before I went down with the stroke I came across a version of the virus that was linked to Windows. The file couldn’t be deleted since it was “in use” and it couldn’t be deleted on reboot since as soon as Windows started it locked. It then rebuilt everything. Another way around the cleanup programs. Still not a big problem since Malwarebytes did the job of getting rid of everything else and once I ferreted out the offending file I just booted to DOS and deleted it. Well the virus makers are still at it. Got another infected computer the other day and this one has defenses against cleanup programs in it. It doesn’t allow them to install and if installed, doesn’t allow them to run. Just great. Well a bit of research and a bit of thinking and we’ve gotten around that problem so, though it’s been a tough 3 days we are getting close to licking this problem. Got Malwarebytes running, it’s gotten rid of most of the problems. Just waiting to see if I have to get the pick and shovel out to do the last bit of digging myself. Hope not. For some reason I look at these infections as a challenge. My IT partner was ready to do a wipe and rebuild two days ago. Me, I hate thinking the bastards beat me. Will let you know the outcome of this battle later.

Been writing this over the last 3 days as, since starting work, I don’t have all the time I used to keep up with this thing, and so it’s exceptionally long. As even those with great attention spans might have trouble with my boring messages I will finally take leave of this one. Tanks for bending an ear, or eyeball if you will, this way.

As if we need another bite out of our money

Have to rant a little here.

I live near Philly so my main source of news is the Philly papers and thus I get the Philly editorials that go with them. Now, the issue that triggered this rant is due to Philly problems and an op-ed concerning them but can be applied to any municipality anywhere.

As everyone knows we are in tough economic times and most people are hurting for money. Less money in people’s pockets means less money for civil constructs such as towns, cities, states, what have you since their main source of income is usually based on a percentage of their residents’ income. Less income for residents, less money for the city, etc. Now I know that is simplistic as hell but you get my drift. It works for my purpose here since, except for the rare occurrence such as Alaska getting oil money the largest part of any civic construct’s income is based on taxes on a percentage of some sum, be it income, sales whatever.

So, to get along with it, Philly is in trouble, money wise. They usually are since they have had a declining tax base for years but it’s even more acute now due to hard times. They seem to have a mayor willing to make some hard decisions of the type most people do in this situation, cutting spending. Lord knows they probably can do a lot of cutting since Philly is still providing services as if for a city of 2 million though they now only have about 1.5 million. Now here is the rub. Every time the mayor proposes cuts some group gets up and bitches, pisses and moans about it. Case in point, he is trying to close 11 library branches. Now that don’t sound like the greatest thing to do, close libraries, but even with those branches closed Philadelphia will still have more library branches per capita than any other major city in the country. Sounds like they can afford to trim a bit there. While some folks might be inconvenienced it’s not like they are being deprived of something. And so it goes. Groups are fighting these cuts every step of the way, in the case of the libraries going so far as to file suit to stop them. (Be patient, I’ll get there eventually. This is a rant you know)

So, now we have a city without enough money and a hamstrung mayor trying to make cuts and going nowhere which brings us to the next step leading up to this missive in which you probably have no interest and will never be read by people who need to read it. In the Philadelphia Inquirer the other day is an op-ed piece by a former city manager who basically outlines the problems and suggests that to solve this impasse it is perhaps time to take the hard step of, gasp, raise taxes. He goes on to say that it is a very unpopular idea and hard for the politicos to do but given the circumstances the necessary thing to do because of tough times. This is where I go ballistic.

It’s not because I am the typical cut taxes at all cost type person. I realize that government needs revenue to provide certain services that only they can and that we have to pay for those services somehow. Statements like this offend me for two main reasons.

First, times are tough and people already have less money yet this guy, and those like him, propose to take even more away from them. Does that sound even remotely sensible? People can’t automatically go to their boss, presuming they still have one, and say, “Times are tough, I need more money to provide for me and my family so henceforth I’m requiring you to give me more.” Wonder how far that would fly? No, people have to tighten the belt and make budget cuts and parents have to tell their kids that “no, you aren’t getting Madden 2009; you’ll just have to make do with 2008.” Of course the kid is going to kick and scream but the money ain’t there so they have to do without. So why can’t governments do the same? One problem is that governments have the power to vote themselves that increase. When parts of the electorate scream about service cuts the politicos, rather than make the tough decisions, decide that raising the revenue is a lot easier. To hell with belt tightening, people forget about tax increases after awhile. And so it goes.

The second, and more important, reason that I hate this line of reasoning is that no one seems to realize that raising taxes to increase revenues in hard times just perpetuates the problem, that it is part of a vicious cycle due to the nature of politicians. Just as revenues go down in a bad cycle so do they go up in a good one. What this means is that if taxes are raised to make up lost revenues in bad times then there comes a nice windfall once the economic cycle returns to good times. Now if taxes were then lowered back to previous levels it might not be so bad but you know that doesn’t happen. What does happen is this. Taxes are raised to cover shortfalls in bad economic times. The cycle starts to turn and the taxes start bringing even more money. Times get good and now the politicians are looking at much more money than they had during the last upturn. Now, while there might be a token tax cut it ain’t going nowhere near to what it was. Politicians figure they can fund even more pet projects with all those extra funds. Times turn bad again and now there are revenue shortfalls again even at higher tax levels because of all the increased funding during the good times. Politicos try to cut spending but each group starts yelling about their baby being cut. Politicians decide they need to raise taxes to increase revenues rather than telling their “kids” to shut up and live with it. Rinse and repeat with every turn of the economic cycle. So, to all politicians who feel they need to raise revenues by increasing taxes in hard times think about it. Of course most politicos can’t think further than the next election so I doubt they can even contemplate the next turn of an economic cycle. Ok, that’s today’s rant. Hope you can make some sense of it.

I was going to close this after my rant but something popped up today. It seems a coworker of mine has somehow stumbled across this blog. Now I cannot prove it is him unless I can trace the IP of the comments that were left. While I deleted them from the comment page they are still available to me to try and track. And given the timing of them they had to be sent from the work computer of which I know the IPs . He seems to suffer from small dick syndrome as he feels compelled to use the alias of Large Member, obviously envious of those more gifted than him. It’s an alias this coworker would feel compelled to use. Add in the fact that the comments posted were remarkably similar to those tossed off in the work environment, concentrating heavily on accusations of homosexuality tend to heighten my suspicions about the author’s identity and also his sexual identity. Isn’t making disparaging remarks about homosexuals and hurling those remarks as insults often considered a sign of latent homosexuality? Not to mention presenting the mentality of a 15 year old schoolboy. Fits this guy to a Tee. Well I mention this to explain why I had to switch to a moderated comment page to try and keep whatever loyal readers I have from being subjected to the filth that spews forth from the poster’s keyboard whether he is who I suspect he is or not. Yes, I know we are adults here, at least most of us and we don’t need to be protected but there is also the fact that I, and those I elect, are the only ones allowed to spew forth filth here and that filth does not include hate speech whether directed at myself or others. Switching to moderated also seems to have spoiled his fun since he was going down the line of old posts and commenting on each until he ran into the moderating message instead of the instant post. After that, no more comments.

So on that note I will leave this bit of boredom behind and be assured I’m not censoring comments in the general sense and Thank You for them and your visits

I don't need no steenkin' resolution

What can I say, back to work barely over a week and already looking for some time off. Gramps is missing his afternoon naps. Amazing how much your muscles and stamina go to hell sitting around doing nothing. Not to mention the weight gains. After busting my hump for the first 9 months of ‘08 the last 3 put me right back to ground zero, if not worse. Man, the doc going to give me another tongue lashing next Mon. Only good thing is I haven’t put on any more since the last visit. What’s really frustrating about this is that for the last 3 years I have been in a grind. I start out at the gym in Feb sometime (Jan is too crowded with all those resolution people) Takes me about a month or so of stop and go to finally get myself into a regular regimen. By May I’m feeling good, dropped some pounds, built some tone and starting to get frustrated because I’ve plateaued somewhat, at least as far as weight loss and waist size are concerned but I keep slugging, especially this year because I was able to strike a balance between gym visits and poker games. Before it was an either/or situation. July usually finds me going on vacation and, over the last couple of years, as if the break in routine wasn’t bad enough, not to mention all the Boardwalk food, I usually found a way to injure myself so that I was out of the gym for 3 to 4 weeks after vacation was over. The routine was broken and while I would try to start it up again I could never really get it going until maybe Nov or so and then came the start of the holiday season and who feels like the gym during that time. Add in all the overeating and along comes Feb again. Wasn’t quite as bad as the previous year but most of the work was shot to hell.

Then came this year. Came back from vacation without a scratch on me. While I didn’t jump right back into the full routine right away I didn’t completely layoff either so that within a couple of weeks I was getting more and more into my regimen. Thought that, Hey, this year I break the cycle. Gonna be able to keep it up, keep working through the holidays and hopefully break that damned waist size plateau. Was actually starting to also, the current slacks were starting to get some slack in them and I could actually shoehorn myself into the next smaller size, All I needed was a few more weeks and I would have to buy new Christmas clothes. Fat chance. Beginning of Oct a little thing known as a stroke came along. Now, not only did I lose gym time, I couldn’t do frigging anything. Feel like a frikkin slug right now and although I haven’t regained all the weight what I have is pure fat, muscle tone and strength are totally gone to hell in a hand basket. Add in the fact that the arm is still screwed up and who knows when I can start a routine again. I plan to though. Biggest stumbling block right now is the same one affecting my poker outings, I still can’t drive. I’ve been well enough to hit the gym for about a month now and actually have gone a few times but being back at work screws the situation up even more. Gym time now has to be in the evenings if I go and that is right about the times my drivers are settling in and getting comfortable. Yes, if I ask they will drive me but I already am putting them out because they are making two trips a day taking me to and from work (There’s that damned work screwing things up again) and I hate imposing any more than necessary. So I now have a lot more incentive for getting this arm back in action. I need to drive, not only for my mental health but for my physical well being as well. Just ordered two thing I was using in therapy to try to help speed up the process. One, a hand strengthener that works on pulling the fingers against resistance as opposed to a squeeze ball or grip where you push, and of which I also have, Figure this is actually better though since part of the recovery process is not just strengthening the grip but also extending the fingers, something this should help with. First thing I thought of when I knew I needed to do this was the old Kung Fu grip strengthener. Those of you who can remember reading comics when they were 12 cents might remember that item. Was advertised on the back cover with the X-ray specs and Charles Atlas 99 pound weakling ad, promising the “killer, crushing, kung fu grip” for those of you too young, didn’t read comics or whose memory is just failing them the damned thing looked like a circle of steel with springs leading down to 5 smaller rings for your fingers so that you put your fingers in and squeezed to build up grip strength. The springs offered resistance and would also pull your fingers back to their starting position when you relaxed. Being advertised on the back pages of comics made me wonder exactly how good it was but the principle made it the very thing I need. Alack and alas, a Google search couldn’t even turn up a reminisce about them let alone any info so it look like I’m stuck using something that looks like a rubber sieve called the Web. Probably works well but just doesn’t have the glamour of the Kung Fu Grip Strengthener.

The other thing I acquired was a kid’s toy. Not merely a kid’s toy but a toddler’s toy. It’s a bunch of large plastic pegs that fit into each other and a rubber pegboard. Kind of makes you feel like an idiot trying to stack them but when you have restricted use of your arm and hand it’s a real bitch trying to manipulate the damned things. Whole idea is to retrain the hand and recover manual dexterity. Luckily I found the thing on Amazon for about $11 total with shipping since most stores wanted $18 to $30 for the thing, not counting the shipping. Paying those prices for it would really make me feel like an idiot. When I get done with it I guess I’ll have to go find a willing participant and have another kid so it doesn’t go to waste as my daughter is a bit beyond such things. Hah!

Speaking of my daughter, thanks to the MLK holiday I get to see her this weekend. Cutting out of work early and heading to pick her up. Still haven’t figured who my driver will be for this trip but looks like it’s going to cost me dinner somewhere. Last one was at Red Lobster. Damn, I gotta get back driving. My nephew has absconded with her Wii after she left after Christmas and told him it better be hooked up where she left it before she gets down here. If it ain’t she’ll rip him a new one, literally. Never saw such a rivalry as the one that goes on between those two. No problem if I or her Uncle John had made off with it, but her cousin? That means war.

Ok, got some things to do so time I posted this paragon piece of boredom so I can put my followers to sleep. I have a great following among insomniacs. Thanks for lending me your ears. I’ll try to return them next week.

Elation

Eagles win

Disappointment

Game called on account of weather

A little poker

Trying to play a little poker these days. Ask some folks, especially Riggs, and they will tell you that’s exactly what I play, little poker, very little poker. Not driving my live play has virtually disappeared and lately I just haven’t had the motivation for online play. My nephew won a seat to the $500 event in the Borgata Open in 2 weeks and I had planned moving a medical off day from next Mon to that one and go rail him, play a bit and maybe do a little blogging from the Open. That idea got shot to hell however when I found out my daughter has next Mon off from school which gives us a long weekend to have her come visit. I love poker but my daughter is always my #1 priority and I don’t see her anywhere near enough since she moved to NY with her mother.

So back to poker. Tomorrow night looks promising. Game scheduled for the snakster Manor. Some of you might know snak as he blogged for awhile and played a bit in some of the blogger games. The man has a passion for poker and, unfortunately not enough outlets to indulge it. Always enjoy his home games. The chips, cards and bourbon are first class all the way. Lately however the crowds have been pretty weak. Seem to be the same couple of guys with an extra body or two and most of the night is played between 6-8 handed. Tomorrow sounds like it will be more like the Manor games of old if the people asking for seats aren’t just being long on promise and short on commitment. Hell, Riggs is even talking about an appearance and he doesn’t usually show at the JV game, as he refers to it. Right now only two problems on the horizon. One, since I’m not driving still, and my usual poker chauffer, my nephew, has an early work start Sun and can’t make the game I am dependant on someone for a ride home. I have one guy who said Ok as he goes by my place but he’s got a bit of a hike so he says he’s leaving around 12 and unless I can hitch a ride with someone else I’m going to have to leave early. Second problem is that they are calling for snow tonight/tomorrow. Predictions are for enough that could call the game, maybe keep some folks away or worst of all, have me get there and find my ride home decided not to come. Oh well, what will be will be.

Online wise am in the middle of the Donkament right now. Just won a hand raising the Hammer. How did that happen in the rebuy? NumbBono is living large however. Went all in back to back with 10-2 off and 8-4 off respectively and won both. Of course when he had a hand, K-K. He got beat. Cripes, the Donkament seems to be degenerating into the NumbBlowMe with nothing but all ins. Ok, I’m out. Can’t buy a hand. Time to stop rebuying. Seems my return to online poker is not auspicious. Wed I played a $2 SnG before the Mookie. At 5 players I had 2/3 the chips in play. 3 times in heads up I had over 11000 of the 13500 chips and still wound up in second. Then the Mookie. Pulled A-A 3 times and couldn’t get a caller. As soon as I got K-K however I found myself all in against someone else’s A-A. WTG herb. Did find a new buddy however. Woman in a SnG I played min raised with A-A and when I reraised with Q-Q only called. She then proceeded to min bet said As to a low board and then only called my raises. Lost on that hand, who could put her on aces, but going to look for games she is in. Gotta be profitable if she plays cash.

Enough poker for now, time to do what every father does, bore you with tales about my daughter. Had her for a week for Christmas and, fortunately for me, the school pictures lied. Despite he fact they made her look like a young woman when she arrived I found she was still my little girl though who knows for how much longer. She still likes Pokemon and her manga and was in her glories on Christmas Eve when the family got together and she got to romp with her cousins. She was ecstatic when she saw her Wii since she thought I hadn’t gotten it. In fact the first thing she mentioned when she got in the car for the trip back to the house the Tuesday before Christmas and I told her she was out of luck. So I lied to my daughter, sue me. Damn thing played hell with TV viewing for the week though but it was a gas. Cost me two extra controllers two as no one really liked to wait to play so I got the extras and we played 4 handed. My daughter is a killer at bowling, don’t know how but she is. Somehow has a knack of shutting you out in the tenth frame. Found that I could also play tennis and golf even though you supposedly have to use realistic motions to play and I’m not up to standing and swinging my arms around just yet. Found a way to do the job with just a flick of my wrist. Actually got pretty good at the tennis. Boxing is still out though as my left arm, while movable these days doesn’t exactly have the snap needed for the game. The other game I got her was a Pokemon battle game. It’s only one player though so I put limits on her with it so she wasn’t hogging the TV all by herself. The Wii played hell with TV viewing as it is but it was livable as long as everyone was participating. Was hell when I had to take her back to her mother, we had a great time together even though we couldn’t get out and around. Can’t wait for next Fri.

Ok, enough of the boring reminisces, time to play a bit more poker. Thanks for your interest.

Finally back

The title applies to two things; I'm back here after a bit of a hiatus and I'm finally back at work after an even longer one.

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you folks out in the cyber domain. The week or so leading up to the holidays was a bit busy, had my daughter the holiday week and the following week I was just a) tired, b) lazy, c) apathetic or d) all of the above. Take your pick. No matter what, not a whole lot got done, either in my blogosphere or with poker. No free games, no live games and only a Tuck Fard or 2 online. Damn I didn't realize the situation was that bad. Well, considering the above circumstances, the fact that I switched my TV over to Fios and got 3 free months of all the movie channels (and I have been catching up on a lot of movie viewing) and that I got my daughter a Wii for Christmas (that thing is the shit even if she does beat the crap out of me in bowling) I'm suprised that anything at all got done including eating, sleeping and taking a dump. More about the holidays later. They were fun but now it's over.

Yup, it's over. Everything is over. My sorry ass is back at work. In some ways nothing has changed, first day back two major problems including a blown printer, one that was necessary for printing checks. Luckily had a spare tho now have to hurry to put a new solution in place as if this printer goes we are up shit's creek. We use antiquated dot matrix printing for checks. Try finding a cheap one of those any more. Today the firewall decided to do a striptease. It decided to rid itself of its configuration so we spent hours trying to get internet access back. Somethings never change.

OTOH, I have a lot of catching up to do. A lot of procedures and upgrades that had been in the planning stages before I went out were implimented while I was away so while I have an idea of what is going on I have to get used to doing things in new ways. I'm too old to be learning new tricks. While I was just getting used to not working tho it does feel good to be back and occupied even if I am missing my afternoon nap. It's amazing how much stamina you lose sitting around doing nothing. Even tho the work isn't physically strenuous I feel beat when I get home. The fact that I'm still not driving adds a bit of frustration. Hell, I'm getting out to work but still can't get out to party. Life's a bitch.

That's enough of this little slice of boredom for now. Thanks for viewing