Hapland

It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to light the torches of Hapland

Poker Star!

Well, not quite... but on Friday night I won a Texas Hold'em tournament for the first time. There was only 11 players in total (including myself), but a triumph none the less.

The most interesting winning hand I had was the 9 and 7 of hearts; I chased the flush to fifth street, but didn't get it. I ended up with a pair of 9's, as the 9 of spades came up. Good thing too, as my opponenent in that hand was holding Ace and Queen of hearts. Had the flush draw come up, I would have lost to the nut flush, but instead my pair of 9's carried. Even I had to shake my head at that one.

Went to the word on the street today. It is an orgy of reading material, and picked up more stuff than I am going to have time for in the next 6 months. Mostly literary journals. I'll do a reveiw of them later on once I've gone through them.

Lord of War

Has anyone else noticed the change made to the movie poster for this film? When I first saw an add for it in the paper a few weeks ago, the picutre of Nicolas Cage rendered in bullets and shell casings was much more starteling... his features seemed more like a rotting corpse. I remember looking at the picture an being shocked slightly. It was an effective piece of art in that sense.

When I saw it in the paper the other day, I noticed it had been toned down... smoothed out, and made less disturbing. It makes one wonder if the film itself has been given the same sort of treatment so as not to shock the mainstream audiences. Probably.

Searching on-line, I found the original.

Arrr, because you don't waste enough time on the computer...

Waycool Flash Stuff

Old news... arrr.

Arrr!

My pirate name is:

Iron Roger Kidd

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Got time to kill? Go here:

Google Fight

Gabba Gabba Hey and some random thoughts...

A Museum honoring the Ramones is opening in Berlin tomorrow.

Today on the commute into work, I saw a woman who looked remarkably like my wife; she could have been a long-lost sister. I had to keep myself from staring at her.

I thought about pulling out a picture of my wife and showing her, in case she might find it interesting... but decided not to. I mean, I would find it interesting to see if there was someone out there who looked a lot like me; wouldn't everyone?

My mom insists that the actor Adrian Pasdar on "Mysterious Ways' looks just like me. I think my mom is losing her sight.

I was looking at my poor neglected web-site recently. All the links on my Cool Links page are broken, except for this one which will live on forever...

George W. Bush was caught passing notes in class.. er, Security Council the other day... he needed a bathroom break. Really. (Photo from Reuters)

Unfortunately appropriate for Iraq...

Blog Spam

This blog was created on August 22nd, and today it received it's first blog spam.

Death

I've been thinking about mortality more often lately; not for any particular reason other than recent events like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

I remember the first time it occurred to me that my life was going to endone day, period. It's a sobering thought, that usually takes my breath away for a moment.

We go on day after day, taking so many things for granted. When I get in this headspace, I usually resolve quietly to myself to do somthing charitable, artistic, permanent, etc. That usually lasts for short while; just long enough for me to do at least one thing. Then I go back to watching tv.

Speaking of which, The Bill Pages have been focusing on tv lately, and we've been exchanging comments back and forth on the reliability of HBO in producing decent shows, like this seasons, "Rome." Last night I saw an episode of "Slings and Arrows" for the first time; it's my pick for the funniest show on tv right now.

Now I just have to find a DVD copy of the first season.

Gone Fishun

Revamped Expectations

So I was thinking last night: How do I expect anyone to find out about my blog? It's not like I'm going to try an publicize it to the world; I can't guarantee it will even be interesting enough to keep the one person who does view it coming back (Thanks Bill). I don't think I could handle the pressure of having even more than a handfull of people look at it on a regular basis.

You see, I've been thinking about it in sense of being an ongoing conversation with people on the Web, but really, in my case its more like writing on the wall. Graffiti.

I guess the point is that I will update this thing occassionally, and try to make it interesting and/or thought provolking. If I get comments, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Thursday, Thursday, Thursday...

Why can't you be Friday?

Today I feel like talking to myself on the net, along with anyone else that happens by; right now, I think that might be one or two other people.

Today is actually a good day so far. I've joined the digital music revolution, and have just started using the iPod I bought last week. My train ride into work was soooooo much better; I'm hooked.

Of course, thinking of how good my day is going immediately makes me think of people living in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and how crap things are for them, if they survived. I guess it will be that way for a while.

So, along with inane babble about my day, I guess I should also try putting somthing out there (here), even if there is a chance no one will read it. So, I'm going to start a feature which may end up drawing people to read this stinking blog...

Ok, here it is... The Controversial Question of the Day

Should people around the world contribute aid to the citizens of a wealthy first-world nation that has recently spent over 2 hundred billion (feel free to correct me on this guesstimate) US dollars on a war that most people around the world deemed illegal?

Ok, the obvious answer is "Yes, such aid is humanitarian and knows no boundaries." But come on... really?

Discuss. Comment.