A Week of Contradictions

During the past few days, a couple mixed messages have popped up in my life.

#1 - My poker life is usually spent in ebbs and flows. Just when I think I turn a corner, I regress to playing like a donkey. I'm currently in one of those regressions - to the point that I figured a break for a few weeks would be a good idea. Time to hit the gym, read some books, and begin my kitchen cabinet project.

Then, just yesterday at work, I'm asked to go to the NAB Show later this month.

In Las Vegas.

110,000 people attend this annual convention, including people from 163 countries. The convention floor will have over 1,600 exhibitors. The convention started as a relatively straightforward broadcasting convention, but has since morphed into this monster, all focused on content creation and delivery.

This will be, by far, the largest convention I have ever attended.

That's like bringing a fat kid who was just put on a diet into the All Candy Expo.

I'm very excited to be attending NAB. And very excited to be returning to Las Vegas - somewhere I haven't been in 15 months I believe (I have probably been there about 20 times this decade, 90% of them for work).

#2 - I made it to the gym for the second day in a row (sadly, an accomplishment these days), and after scanning my ID, one of the staff members found me in the locker room and mentioned that my membership had been canceled yesterday.

Hmmm. Odd. I was just at the gym yesterday.

I thought quickly as to what could have happened, and concluded that they did not have the new expiration date on the credit card they used for auto-billing (my old card expired on 3/31/08).

No big deal, he gave me a number to call after I finished up.

So, on the way to Home Depot last night, I called. The billing center informed me that my membership was canceled yesterday. Yes, I told them, it was probably a billing issue since they needed the new expiration date on my card.

No, they informed me. They received a certified letter from me, asking to cancel.

They did? Hmmm.

I told them I did no such thing. They investigated a bit, and learned that they transposed the final two numbers of my account number with the correct person who has elected to cancel his/her account.

So if i am to believe her, and I suppose I should, there was an odd coincidence that my credit card expired on the same day as them canceling my account for an unrelated reason.

No big deal, I should be all squared away.

But I'm taking this as a conflicting sign. Poker on pause, intent to go the the gym more, then I'm asked to go to Las Vegas and my gym membership is canceled.

What should I make of this? None of it was April Fools' either!

Props to Bostonist, Bad Luck Ensues

It appears that I'm one of Bostonist's "favorite local bloggers."

Awww...geez...thanks guys.

Mad love back atcha.

However, in a terrible stroke of bad mouse-positioning, as I was posting this, I was also playing in a poker tournament online (and had been doing so for about 2 hours....it was a low buy-in, but had a large prize pool, and I was somewhere just below the average stack size).

Well as I hit the mouse button to upload the Bostonist logo, the tournament window popped back onto my screen and became the active one. Exactly where the "upload image" button was positioned was also exactly where the "raise all-in" button was.

So, yep, I'm now sitting all in with K-7 hearts, having inadvertently re-raised someone all-in, and I am now all-in myself. The Gods of bad fortune continued to pummel me, as someone else went all-in, and the original raiser called.

Lovely.

Needless to say, I didn't win the hand.

And I think I learned a lesson in multi-tasking.

But, I will keep reading Bostonist. You owe me a couple beers.

Attacked Again! - Verizon Yellow Pages

You're kidding.

Seriously?

Seriously!

At first, I thought this was a joke. I figured someone read my prior post and was playing a joke on me.

Or, I thought our Yellow Books might have reproduced.

Then I looked more closely.

Today's new unwelcome books were from Verizon.

Seriously?

Seriously!

Just days after Yellow Book polluted my neighborhood with their archaic directories, Verizon joined the anti-environmental party today.

This is awful. What a waste.

Are consumers seriously going to pick which directory they prefer?

Are those who actually brought their Yellow Books into their homes on Friday now going to retrieve those books and replace them with today's Verizon directories?

Are they going to add a second option to their personal reference libraries?

Please.

It's basically the same product - yet another anachronistic distribution of local phone numbers.

I will give Verizon credit for good timing. Curbside recycling goes out on Tuesday nights.

An Orange Day

Unexpectedly, today became an orange day.

I don't own many pieces of orange clothing and household items, however three of those few items seemed to emerge within the same hour this morning.

First, I took Rosie for a walk, and threw on a baseball cap - my University of Texas Longhorns hat, which is orange with white stitching.

Upon my return, I took a shower and grabbed the towel I had hanging up, which was also orange.

Finally, I went to put a long-sleeved T-shirt on, and for some unconscious reason, I grabbed my orange V-neck (which unfortunately eliminated my Texas hat from my active accessories today, forcing my to put my usual hair stuff in today).

Perhaps I'll have some carrots for a snack later.

Bizarre pocket deuces

I'm not super tired yet after being attentive during a long drive back in the pouring rain from New Jersey this evening. So I am up late playing poker. Again.

The weirdest thing just happened which makes me a tad suspicious and freaked out.

I'm playing three tables consecutively, and at the same time, I was dealt pocket deuces on all three tables. Not the same exact two deuces, but simply two deuces (with four suits, there are 6 ways to receive pocket deuces). There are 169 different starting hands that can be dealt to a player during hold 'em (pocket deuces are one of these 169, not six. taking all two-card combinations into account, there are 1,326 of those).

What are the odds that the same starting hand would be dealt to one player at the same time while playing three tables? I'm thinking (1/169) x (1/169) x (1/169) = (1/4,826,809) = .000021%. Could that be?

I did make a set of two's on the flop on one of those boards (i.e. I got a third 2 when the first three community cards were revealed at one table) and won a nice pot as a result. The other two hands were folds, but the net of all three tables was great.

Too much to think about. maybe it is time for bed. I'm hearing thunder in the distance and a lightning strike might be up my alley.

Dolor de cabeza

I have a splitting headache right now. So, naturally my inclination is to post on Platinum Elite.

I'm not usually prone to headaches. Therefore, I should recall the events of the day that are atypical of my usual Monday routine.

1. I spoke with my parents on the drive to work.

2. I did not leave my office building between 8:45am and 8:45pm

3. I threw my socks away at work today

Everything else was pretty standard for a Monday.

It seems to me that every time I discard my socks at work, I get a splitting headache. I won't be doing THAT anymore.