| wtf purchase of the day |
[May. 15th, 2008|12:03 am] |
I somehow lost my shoes camping. So today, I wandered into the New Balance store. And bought these, because I am incredibly lame.
I don't even know if they'll work out as a running shoe, but they're so ridiculous I couldn't help myself. |
|
|
| life imitates Harold and Kumar |
[May. 13th, 2008|11:15 pm] |
Checking out my RSS news:
Bush Tests Positive for Marijuana
Heavyweight fighter George Bush (Pictures) has tested positive for marijuana following his decision loss to Ricco Rodriguez (Pictures) on April 11 in Atlantic City, N.J., at Yamma Pit Fighting's debut effort, Sherdog.com learned Tuesday. |
|
|
| despedida de soltero |
[May. 13th, 2008|01:04 am] |
I'm back from the roadtrip, and Hoss' bachelor party. The bachelor party was just a ton of fun, and the amazing part is that almost all the fun was PG-13 rated (or less). Of course, what happens on a remote camp site between seven dudes in middle-of-nowhere Colorado stays on a remote camp site in middle-of-nowhere Colorado. (But nothing gay happened. Not *too* gay, anyway.) Suffice it to say that the organizer did an awesome job. It made me feel so terrible because I've been best man precisely once and I did a horrible job planning the bachelor party and having been to this one really makes me wish I could do it all over again properly.
So I'm in Vancouver, but not staying put for very long. UFC 84 -- my first UFC live -- is just two Saturdays from now, and the first WSOP event ($10k PLHE) is the subsequent Friday. I originally was planning to fly to the UFC for just that event and return back to Vancouver, but now I dunno if I should just book a few nights' worth of hotels.
Twelve days off without poker was really nice. I've been slacking like crazy on the poker front, and I'll tell you that it feels phenomenal, except for the guilt of not earning any money. I went to BJJ today and it was a tough class (no technique, just continuous sparring). But I'm feeling unmotivated to play poker. That's kinda bad, since I need Platinum this month to maintain Supernova.
Anecdote that I never mentioned from the LA trip: On our way out the door from Jerry's Famous Deli, we noticed our waiter (presumably on his break after serving us) eating his lunch. The waiter is face down munching on his sandwich, when Dan says, "thanks, see you later, man." The waiter looks up, recognizes us, and with his mouth full garbles something incomprehensible with a thumbs up sign. I could not believe what I had just witnessed. It was nothing less than a measure of revenge in the name of millions of diners worldwide: For possibly the first time in the history of restaurant dining, a customer managed to get the waiter to speak with his mouth full!
Bachelor party stats:
Steaks consumed: 14
Score in my first ten frames of bowling: 27
Overnight temperature at campsite: ~20 degrees F
Water temperature first day rafting: ~40 degrees F
Percentage of rafters pushed out of the raft: 100
Number of horrible, raging, paint-peeling farts in a not-large-enough van: at least 30
Amount of time ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tiltcity spent trying to dogpaddle back to the raft: an eternity
Credit card roulette games played: 2
Credit card roulettes that I lost: 2 |
|
|
| Western USA -- Day 8 |
[May. 8th, 2008|08:52 pm] |
Today was a pretty quiet day. I had a few errands to run, mostly involving cleaning up after myself, and deciding what items I need to buy/leave here in preparation for the WSOP. As it turns out, that's not much.
I played some video poker at the Rio today, which reminded me that I hate video poker. At one point they started playing Rick Astley. Even casinos are rickrolling people now. As if video poker isn't sufficiently tilting by itself. I spewed a bunch of money and went back to the house to pack.
Dinner was once again the highlight of the day. Yesterday I had done a google search for "best restaurants dining alone" or some such and found Rosemary's Restaurant. This restaurant was exceptionally well reviewed in a number of different online sites. It is currently the #1-ranked Las Vegas restaurant on Tripadvisor. The food there was pretty awesome. I dunno about the #1 meal I've ever had in Las Vegas, but it can't be too far down. I think the reason it was ranked well for single diners is that you can sit at a bar right in front of the kitchen and watch the kitchen staff cook, which takes away from some of the boredom of dining alone. Of course, I was the only diner at that bar (the regular alcohol bar had people), so I still felt lame. The clientele there was definitely older. Not only did I figure myself to be the youngest customer by at least five years, I think less than 20% of the customers were even under 40.
Food was good, I ate too much, yada yada. I'm finally starting to come to the sad realization that meals in the United States simply aren't intended for 135-pound people. Sigh. I have eaten so decadently on this trip and I've enjoyed every minute of it, but it's just unhealthy and it needs to stop. My drive back to the house involved two turns. I missed both of them. It's a bad thing when you're so full that you potentially become a danger to other drivers.
Colorado tomorrow! Of course, it breaks the guy code to tell anyone about a bachelor party, so as far as the readership is concerned, this trip ends here. Hope you've enjoyed!
By the way, does anyone know when airlines went from two free checked luggage to one? How lame is that? |
|
|
| Western USA -- Day 6-7, Vegas |
[May. 7th, 2008|07:29 pm] |
Started yesterday off right with the always-wonderful The Egg and I. Our waitress was exceptionally cute. Breakfast was great, and I managed not to clean my plate of hash browns. Progress!
After breakfast, I e-mailed the rental company who is renting us our WSOP home. I wanted to check the place out, and it is amazing. Our auction for the master bedroom is going to be epic. I'm really looking forward to staying in that house.
I asked Dan if he still wanted to go to Whole Foods, seeing as how he was to be leaving in 24 hours. His response: "I always want to go to Whole Foods, even if it's just to look at things and whimper that I can't get them in Costa Rica." So off we went. I heart Whole Foods.
The Whole Foods turned out to be in the same complex as a Relax the Back store. We spent over an hour in there and Dan ended up buying a pillow and a footrest. I just can't get over how ridiculously comfortable zero-gravity recliners are. When I get a place big enough to hold it all, I want everything in that store.
Went to train jiujitsu at Marc Laimon's gym. Twisted up my neck a bit, but no real damage and it didn't hurt this morning. Dinner was at Lotus of Siam on Bree's recommendation. Good Thai is one of the things I hadn't yet found in Las Vegas yet, so I was pleased to find this place, which was excellent.
After that, we went to a late showing of Iron Man last night, a movie apparently so well-reviewed that it doesn't need mine. I thought it was very good, probably short of excellent. Being a comic book movie it requires more suspension of disbelief than I'm used to (me not being a comic book kinda guy), but in spite of this, it was a lot of fun.
Dan left back for Costa Rica this morning, so I've had a relatively quiet day. I went to Whole Foods again for breakfast/lunch (Wednesday is Indian food day!). I took my car in for an oil change and got a massage nearby. Since I picked the massage place simply based on proximity to the oil change place, I really didn't have high expectations. But this was actually one of the better deep-tissue massages I've had in a while, so I can now recommend Saffron Day Spa.
I have to say, I'm just running very good in everything on this trip.
Bonus pic under the cut.
( Dan: "Wow, I've never seen someone dressed so slutty to go out and walk their kid." ) |
|
|
| Western USA -- Day 5, LA to Vegas |
[May. 6th, 2008|01:05 am] |
Dan and I are in Las Vegas. He was annoyed that in all the hours we drove in California, not once did we manage to play "California Love" (Tupac/Dr. Dre) on my iPod.
We didn't end up leaving until this afternoon since I wasn't able to contact blakwngbrd last night. So we met up with Warren and saw the new BJJ movie "Redbelt". I can't really say it was disappointing simply because I didn't have high expectations. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I started getting into it in the second act, but the third act just blew the doors off any semblance of plausibility and cohesiveness for me.
So this morning after breakfast at The Griddle Cafe (same story: good food, too much of it) we started out. I love LA freeway drivers. Traffic on the freeway in LA moves so much faster than similar amounts of traffic on the freeway in other cities. We're cruising along at 80 mph or so with a decent amount of traffic, and I'm just thinking that the equivalent amount of traffic in other big cities we'd be driving at least 30% slower. It's beautiful.
Anyway, we arrive in Vegas and both fall asleep on different couches in Dan Goldman's house. Bree invites us over because her roommate Bailey is making nachos, burritos and so forth for Cinco de Mayo. Great food, ate too much, this is a recording. Back at the house now with plans to train at Cobra Kai Jiu Jitsu, one of the biggest and most well-respected schools in all of the US. We'll be bringing Bailey, a former tae kwon do world champion, to his second BJJ class. He is prepared to be humbled (having already been to one class), and so am I, because the people who train there are damn good. |
|
|
| Western USA, Day 4 |
[May. 4th, 2008|04:35 pm] |
Our $100 match went down today. Shawn Williams was our special guest referee. We ended up only doing eight minutes, but with heelhooks and toeholds included (not that either of us are leglock guys). I was a bit disappointed from the move down from ten minutes to eight because I have a pretty solid cardio advantage, but I was still confident I would win.
I didn't though. Dan was up a bunch of points and with 2:30 remaining I knew I would need a submission. Dan was in side control and I started to just desperately try to move so that he couldn't stall out the remaining time. At some point I left my arm behind and Dan locked up a kimura to win with 45 seconds left. I think even in a 10-minute match he would have won, but I probably wouldn't have started scrambling so soon. As in all sports, if you're down with time running out, you have to start doing desperate lower-percentage things.
Immediately after the match, Dan was awarded his blue belt from Shawn. Can't believe he earned a blue belt off my back. Fucker.
Of somewhat more significance, actor Sean Patrick Flannery was awarded his black belt. He was very surprised and emotional and it made for a great moment.
We then went to the Saddle Ranch for food at 5 PM, despite this rather concerning warning:
Again I ate way too much food. I think Dan is a bad influence because I never eat this much. For appetizers we each got a "cup" of chili and mini-hamburgers. Here's a visual representation:
Yes, those are the appetizers, as in food that arrives before one's main course. The bowl on the near side with the tortilla chips in it was the chili bowl. Obviously we both ordered steaks and sides as well so now we're disgustingly full again. Really going to stop doing that.
Still might head out tonight; might head out tomorrow morning. Probably depends on our digestive processes and what our friends in town are up to. |
|
|
| Western USA trip, Day 3 |
[May. 4th, 2008|01:15 am] |
Today was our first day not spent traveling. I'm quite tired and Dan's already in bed, so I'm going to fire this off quickly.
BJJ (gi) seminar with John Danaher was great. Everyone agrees Danaher is one of the most cerebral and intelligent people to ever don a jiujitsu gi. He was quite clearly made to analyze and think about BJJ, and teach it to people. No-gi is tomorrow.
Dan and I will be having a grappling match tomorrow for $100. We haven't rolled in over a year, when I last left Costa Rica. We're doing one 10-minute round, no heelhooks or toeholds, standard BJJ points scoring to break ties in the event of time expiring without a submission. Our old coach Warren will referee. Readers may feel free to make side bets in the comments. Dan weighs 80 pounds more than me and started BJJ before I did, but I feel good. (Originally I was offered a 1-point handicap, but Warren overruled this idea.)
After that, Dan took me to Jerry's Famous Deli. I had some of the most amazing hummus (+8) I've ever had for an intro and a gigantic pastrami and corned beef sandwich (+4). That was at 4pm. It's 1am now and I haven't eaten anything yet and I'm still full. I was once again uncomfortably full. Dan actually ate two sandwiches.
We then went to a call outdoor mall, The Grove. After walking around for a bit we went to see the new Harold and Kumar movie with Warren. Yes, it's true; it is not as good as the original. But that's a high bar to set. It was still a funny movie and worth seeing.
Back at the hotel, we realized that the seminar tomorrow will run until 3pm, so if we want to shower, we have to book the hotel for another night. We may or may not stay in the hotel tomorrow night. It's unclear whether we'll get to Vegas tomorrow evening or Monday morning.
We haven't taken any pictures yet. We suck.
So, trip is going awesome. I'm off to bed, astonished that I still am not hungry in the slightest. |
|
|
| in Hollywood |
[May. 3rd, 2008|01:28 am] |
Dan and I are in (West) Hollywood (da na na na na na...Hollywood). I'm exhausted from the trip. Dan is more excited than exhausted.
We have a 3-hour BJJ seminar in the morning. Whee! |
|
|
| Collusion on the delayed final table |
[May. 1st, 2008|01:15 am] |
Another thought just popped into my head: With the size of the WSOP fields the last few years coupled with the massive public interest, the possibility of any collusion between any two final table players was quite minimal. First, you would need to have two players at the FT know one another well enough to confide in them as a partner in crime. Second, you would need those two players to be unethical enough to actually do it. Third, they would have only about 10-12 hours to formulate a plan. Fourth, they would have to meet secretly to discuss the plan, which would be pretty hard since all eyes would be on them until the start of the final table.
With the new format, it is a small but reasonable possibility that two players who were complete strangers up until the final table end up getting greedy and colluding. Four months is a long time. Any two of the players could strike up a relationship and meet easily in private. They could go over their plan meticulously.
It doesn't even have to be that insidious. Almost certainly, some of these guys are going to get to know one another over the four months. They might make a simple softplay arrangement. It doesn't even have to be explicitly stated.
"You know, Bob, you're a good guy. You're a working man, like me, you've got a great wife and beautiful kids. I don't want to knock you out of the tournament."
"I feel the same way, Jim. I don't want to knock you out, either."
A wink and a nod. It's not cheating if we never agreed to cheat, right? |
|
|
| WSOP final table delayed until November |
[May. 1st, 2008|12:39 am] |
So, as was rumoured, the WSOP main event final table will be held in November, allowing ESPN to do a live-ish final table broadcast. Story here, with some comments from Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer and Johnny "Not Terrence" Chan: World Series of Poker stretches out Main Event
They pretty much have all the bases covered (coaching, studying video, increased bidding for sponsorships) as far as I can see, but there will probably be some weird unintended consequence that no one foresaw. This is probably the single greatest argument against it. Consider this: they're running an experiment on the biggest prize in the game with something like a combined $20-25 million in player money at stake! It's ludicrous. You don't just dramatically change the format of the biggest tournament in the world with absolutely no precedent or trial run. To my knowledge, not once in the entire history of poker has a final table run four months after they break for it. And they decide the best time to try it for the first time is the main event of the World Series?
This is so stupid that I almost hope there's some massive clusterfuck. Not really, since that would be quite bad for poker and I'd feel really bad for any of the players affected, but seriously, the arrogance of a decision like this blows my mind. |
|
|
| Hockey Night in Mandarin! |
[May. 1st, 2008|12:38 am] |
Saw this in the paper today.
It's Hockey Night In Canada, and Wang is preparing to call Monday's Game 3 of the Montreal Canadiens-Philadelphia Flyers Stanley Cup playoff series.
Bob Cole needn't fret about the competition, though. Wang is not a rival, but rather a companion. He's doing his play-by-play in Mandarin as part of a CBC initiative to reach out to non-English-speaking hockey fans.
Makes sense to me! If there's one thing that is truly Canadian, it's of course hockey. If there's a second, it's multiculturalism. The Chinese-Canadian community is at times isolationist (at times significantly more so than other ethnic minorities in Canada), but one thing bit of Canadiana that is too ubiquitous to ignore is, of course, hockey. My friends Mike, Melissa and I were recently stopped on our way home from a Canucks game by an older Asian lady who wanted to know the score in the game. And here is one of my favourite stories, which I posted to the Canucks newsgroup way back in 2001.
Here's the only YouTube clip I found of this guy doing his thing. Of course, evwhore is the only person I know who is qualified to judge his competence in both hockey and Mandarin. :)
|
|
|
| goin' on a trip! |
[Apr. 30th, 2008|12:50 pm] |
I have a fun little 11-day trip that begins tomorrow.
Tomorrow evening I go pick up Dan at Sea-Tac airport. The plan is to have dinner with ackbleh and sarahbellumm in Seattle, then drive south along the I-5 towards California until we're too tired to drive further.
We'll get to West Hollywood some time on Friday. On Saturday, we'll go to a seminar at Hollywood BJJ. We'll re-unite with some of our BJJ friends from Costa Rica in that two-day seminar, then on Sunday night we'll drive up to Vegas for a few nights there. It's Dan's first time out of Costa Rica in a while, and I am a recent once-again bachelor, so I think this will be a fun trip. We've both been looking forward to it for a while.
From Vegas I will fly to Denver for hoss_tbf's bachelor party, a two-day river rafting trip along the Colorado Arkansas River. The rafting is actually quite a long drive from Denver, so I won't be headed back to Vancouver until Monday morning.
Hopefully lots of pictures to come! |
|
|
| bursting at the seams |
[Apr. 27th, 2008|08:52 pm] |
I pigged out tonight. I am now very uncomfortably full.
It's safe to say that after a month of dieting, my ability to pig out and eat a full restaurant-sized meal has diminished pretty substantially. Definitely no appetizers from now on, at least.
I'm reminded of a line from loser_variable's recent post: "It's not 1929, you don't have to finish your plate." (Of course, if you were raised Chinese like I was, you do have to take it home if you don't.)
ohhhh I'm not doing this again.... |
|
|
| competition results |
[Apr. 26th, 2008|11:46 pm] |
Well, I'm exhausted. Woke up at 5 AM. First match was on the mats about noon (which is pretty good for a BJJ tournament). Woke up at 132.4 pounds so I made weight very easily (ate a nice breakfast, drank my pre-workout cocktails and so forth).
( details and video ) |
|
|
| self-actualization post |
[Apr. 26th, 2008|07:49 am] |
Resolutions for the mat today:
- Be aggressive.
- Commit to my movements. If I'm going to do something, then do it, don't half-ass it. Hip movement.
- If the opponent counters, beat him to the re-counter. Be first.
- My opponents will probably be tougher than I expected. Don't be bothered by this. I am prepared and have worked hard. Stay aggressive.
- If you're going to lose, make him beat you. Don't beat yourself.
- Fight hard and win.
All right, I'm out. |
|
|
| le hockey |
[Apr. 25th, 2008|10:02 pm] |
There's been some pretty darn good hockey these NHL playoffs. Nothing's more exciting than a playoff game with the home team down a goal.
Glad we didn't get any long protracted OT tonight in the Sharks/Stars game. I was planning to go to sleep at 10 PM tonight, and hopefully now I can.
Of course, I'm probably too excited about the competition. |
|
|
| jiujitsu tournament tomorrow / photos |
[Apr. 25th, 2008|04:45 pm] |
Tomorrow's the big day. Weighed in this morning at 132.4. I was told that we'd even be getting a pound allowance for the stated 134-pound limit (making it truly 135), so I will easily make weight healthy, hydrated and well-fed.
Aside from the food being relatively boring, it wasn't particularly hard to lose the weight. I didn't really do any cardio the whole last month. I just showed up to train regularly, cooked my own food, and did a good job with post-workout nutrition. Nothing dramatic. I stayed disciplined all the way through, even when people around me were eating lots of tasty and bad-for-you things. I didn't have a single cheat meal the whole time (even though people recommend you have one).
I don't have a mirror in my apartment here, but Laren's house did. It was there that I saw myself without my shirt off for the first time in a month. I was like, "wow, I'm actually pretty ripped." Ripped for me, anyway. I've never been ripped in my life. I was a pudgy kid and most of my life I've just been slightly soft around the middle. My cousin Calvin has called me fat for years.
So I took some pictures this morning, because I might never look like this again. :) Now, in the future when I get all lazy, undisciplined and fat, I'll look back at these pics and go "damn, what have I done to myself?!"
The pictures are behind the cut. Warning: ***These are pictures of a dude in his underwear.*** So if you don't want to see pictures of a dude in his underwear, don't click below the cut. Fair notice.
( vanity pics ) |
|
|
| disconnected in triple draw |
[Apr. 24th, 2008|08:48 pm] |
My defence for my position (in the form of the original chat with my friend) is posted below the cut.
( Read more... ) |
|
|
| online poker rules - disconnected player in triple-draw game |
[Apr. 24th, 2008|05:58 pm] |
A friend asked me today about my opinion on the following:
Triple-draw game on the internet. With one or more draws to come, Player A bets. Player B disconnects and is given all-in protection. Player A draws cards (or doesn't). In the interim, Player B re-connects. Should Player B be allowed to draw cards?
Poll #1176628 all-in in triple draw games
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, results viewable to: AllShould Player B be allowed to draw cards?
I thought about this for about five seconds and came up with my answer. I thought it was fairly obvious, and I think most of you will agree with me, but my friend disagrees. |
|
|
15 (34.1%)