PAPT and that list that everyone loves to hate

Quick update on our little home game we call the PAPT. As usual, Tuesday nights are reserved for the PAPT (which means no points on FullTilt). Based on all my recent comments about how I love points, you would think that's weird until you remember that there are points involved in the PAPT (as you can see on the side bar). Ramel still holds the lead for the PAPT Player of the Year award but guess who's closing in quickly? Yep, yours truly, the famous RecessRampage. Considering I haven't played in as many tournaments, I think I'm doing fairly well. You know at one point I'll recap that as a brag blog post. Anyways, last night, I took down the whole thing... a win in back to back weeks propelled me to 2nd place in the POY standings, passing Tyke. Again, 5pts go to 1st, 3 pts to 2nd, and 1 pt to 3rd. I really wanted Ramel to bust out early but his aggressive play, mixed in with good cards kept his chip stack healthy and in the end, there were just the two of us left. I'm not gonna go into too much detail here but if you want to know how aggression helps in a poker tournament, just watch Ramel. He is very very aggressive by nature. He plays his strong hands hard and bets his made hands very strong. And the thing is, his idea of "strong hands" is a lot looser than an average player. Which is clearly what makes him dangerous. When he raises preflop (esp when the blinds are like uber high), you don't know if he's got AA or 22... AK or K-10 (or Q-10 for that matter)... his range is very big. The only weakness he has is that his post flop game is not as strong as his preflop game. However, in the tournament structure of the PAPT, the blinds escalate at an almost ridiculous pace towards the end so uber aggro preflop takes down a lot of pots. Again, it's not just coincidence that he's got as many points as he does.

Alright... so on to my other main topic of this post. I'm not sure how it started. But I had a bad feeling when I first saw this post by RaisingCayne. Why? Because he then "tagged" Matt. I just had a feeling that this might eventually come my way. Well, I kinda let my guard down when I didn't see any "10 things about me" post from Matt in a while... until yesterday, on my bloglines, I noticed that it finally came up. Well, this is dated October 4th so at first, I was really confused as to how I missed this... until he mentioned that this was backdated since he started working on it almost a week ago. Shit.

Well, like Matt, I did this a few months back. And I love how we all allegedly "hate" doing this and yet we all follow... what are we, Lemmings? Well, apparently I am. So here goes my list of 10 things about me that not many people (ie mainly bloggers) know...

1. I was born and raised in Tokyo. Located in Japan for those globally challenged. I went to an international school called St Mary's (go Titans) where I spent 13 years there (K-12).

2. When I linked St Mary's above, that was the first time I visited my school's home page. Ever. And most likely the last.

3. Until I roomed with my friend after college, I was afraid of dogs. When I was a little kid, I was bitten by our neighbor's dog on my right arm. I still have a pretty nasty scar on my right forearm and have been deathly afraid of dogs until I had a roommate with a dog. That's also where I learned how dirty dogs are. At least Marlie was. My roommate would clean her and the first thing she would do is run out the backdoor into the lawn (ie, her personal bathroom) and roll around in the piss and shit covered lawn.

4. I really miss the atmosphere of St Mary's. The school was a true melting pot, at least in terms of race, nationality, and religion. When I was growing up, my "best friends" would include people from countries that today, might have negative connotation in some people's minds depending on your nationality. Pakistan, South Korea, Kuwait (I think no longer exists), Burma (used to be Myanmar, I think), etc. And tons of Europeans in our school as well as a fair share of Americans. Of course, there's the usual school stuff where people make fun of others but it was never (at least as far as I was aware) about race or nationality. It was about how geeky you were, how short you were, etc. Mean. But again, color blind. It was nice. And considering how things are here in the US today, I notice myself missing that atmosphere more and more.

5. I was arrested for speeding. I mean handcuffs and everything. For going 91mph on a 65mph zone. The cop was a dick. In a place called Norlina, NC. Apparently, I was speeding on "his" highway. I believe his exact quote was "You can't be speeding on MY highway, son." FUCK YOU. I had to pay $200 for bail.

6. I love NY accent. I don't know what it is. You know how a lot of people like British accent or Australian accent? Well, NY accent is my thing. "Wanna cup o' cawfee?" uh, yes please!

7. I've been arrested in 2 different countries. Once here in the U.S. as I described above. Once when I was growing up in Japan. Actually twice in Japan, now that I think about it. Actually, twice here in the U.S. now that I think about it... The other time, in the U.S. was when I was caught buying beer for underage kids. I was in college. That sucked. 100hrs of community service took care of that though. So, no record. Which is all that matters. In Japan, I was caught shop lifting once when I was a kid. I don't remember how old I was but I do remember everything else. I decided to steal these little weights that you strap on to your wrist so I took them to the bathroom, put them in my backpack and walked out the store. I was busted by a store clerk and taken to the police station. Another time, I was caught stealing someone's bicycle. I was riding this stolen bike to get home and I was busted by a cop. Taken to the station. My parents get the call at like 2am. I still remember the look in my dad's eyes. That memory will make me never steal again. EVER.

8. My favorite room in a house is the bathroom. Something about the privacy of bathrooms. I just love it. And just as important, I love pooping. And I take a long time to do so. Because I always bring something with me when I poo. Newspaper, magazine, lap top, book, etc. I typically spend about 20-30 minutes in the stall when I poo. And I'm obviously not pooping the whole time. I'm reading. At work, I take my treo with me and read blogs. Fun times.

9. My two favorite blogs to read in the pooper are Hoy and Dr Pauly. No offense guys. You guys write long posts so I don't have to "browse" as much on my treo which is obv not as fast as the network. So I always try to hold until the afternoon when their blogs are updated for the day. I just cry on the weekends.

10. I can't think of #10... so I'm gonna bail here.

And you know what. It's not fair that I do this without me tagging and unlike RaisingCayne or Matt, I'm gonna tag a bunch of people so maybe some of them will partake in this crazy ritual.

Bayne, LJ, Hoy, Fuel, Lucko, Cmitch, Gnome, JamyHawk, Mike_Maloney, Sean, and Schaubs. You're up!