Results are in!

I'm clearly doing this wrong... but if you click on the little strip below, you can see my result.



Overall, I came in 43rd out of the 60 men competing in the 30-34 age group. My bike portion, which was clearly the slowest (hey, I've only had my bike for a few days) was 52/60... still shocking that I wasn't like last or second to last. 43 out of 60 puts me in the "slower half" but I can't help being very proud of myself.

I mean these are the guys I'm "competing" against... all so scary looking.



Richmond Times Dispatch also has a cool slide show of the Duathlon Nationals.

Phew!

The night before the race, as I'm getting ready, I keep thinking to myself if only I had two more weeks, I would definitely be more ready and in better shape. And the other thought was why the hell is our start time at 10:50am and why the hell does this have to be the first weekend where the temperature hits the mid 90s (when so far we haven't sniffed the mid 80s until this weekend). Hell, when I worked out outside on Wednesday, just 4 days prior to the race, it was in the 40s... So, I did the only thing I can do at that point which was to focus on keeping myself hydrated.

On the day of the race, I get out and there are tons of people... all looking like they are in kick ass shape. Seriously, I haven't seen a collection of athletic looking people like that since track meets in my college days. As my friend cleverly put it, "it is the national championship of duathlon." Good point. Why did I sign up for the championship event instead of the shorter version??? I mean I know that is what I do but man... why oh why.

Well, all said and done, I was able to complete the race. It was insane tough though. I was literally running on empty from about 16 mile mark of the bike. A funny thing did happen early though... 1.6 miles into the race (10k run), we come to the train tracks... and there is a train crossing... literally, we were stopped for 6-8 minutes (depending on when you got there) and the race officials had to come out to issue the official ruling (keep in mind that top 4 from each age group qualifies for the world championship in Sept so some of them were very fired up about this). I think the official ruling was that they are going to take 8 minutes off the race chip time. Well, getting that out of the way, the race continued.

By the time the 10k portion was done, I was actually feeling fatigued. This is not like the Monument 10k race where there are thousands of runners, some slow, some fast. All these guys were fast... hell, so were the girls. Well, another thing I learned was that I'm slow on my bike. Which makes sense since I just bought my bike few days ago... But that's where everyone broke away from me for sure... I mean I was kinda behind after the run but I imagine that I had to be the slowest guy in my age group on the bike. Around mile 8 into the 24 mile bike portion, my calves were starting to cramp up. And again, by mile 16, I was running on empty. I was just doing everything I can to keep pedaling but it was also not a flat course and my quads were burning as well.

The last 5k run portion is actually kind of a blur... I know that I was glad I was off the bike... just different muscle group I guess and it helped... a little. I was so happy to finish though since that was my goal. I don't know my official time yet (not posted on the website yet) but that's secondary, at least for this race. I'll just have a baseline of what to shoot for next time. And yes, even though I felt like death, there will be a next time. I haven't been this proud of myself in a long long time!!!

Oh and once you complete the race, they give you a "finisher's mug" and of course, Richmond Tri Club has a party with pizza from Papa Johns, burritos from Chipotle, and beers (Miller Lite and Yuengling). One free beer for race participants - man, Yuengling out of the finisher's mug tasted especially good!!!

Some picture dump:

Start Line


Different angles of the transition area - where you transition from run to bike and then from bike to run:





My bike racked up at the transition station:



And me kissing my finisher's mug!!!!

Ok, now I'm FIRED UP!!!!

I went to pickup my registration packet downtown for my duathlon on Friday and up until then, I was pretty nonchalant about the duathlon. I mean yeah, I was getting prepared, moderately working out for it but I wasn't like super psyched about it. Now, don't get me wrong. Despite my prior post, I work out more than the average person. I just haven't done targeted workouts for endurance. So Tue, Thurs, and Fri mornings, I play basketball for like 1-1.5hrs and then usually, on Wed, Fri (yeah I essentially work out twice) and Sun, I lift weights. I do decent cardio on Wed and usually pretty heavy cardio on Sat and Mon. So yeah, I know I work out harder than your average person - I don't want to come across like I do awesome in races without working out because that is NOT the case.

Well, anyways, I get downtown and I find the registration area and like all the other big races I've entered, the set up makes it enough to get you fired up. First off, I got all my goodies that come with the registration fee...



I then spot the finish line which is also right by the "transition area" where I guess we will all be hanging our bikes during our runs. This is where I would love to be able to cross... I don't have a goal time right now and since it's my first, I guess I will focus on completing. But if I could come under 2:45, then I would be pretty happy about myself I think.



And ultimately, this is where I would hope to avoid...



Wish me luck!!

My new ride

As I was getting ready for the duathlon, I have been contemplating what to do for the biking section. This is pretty typical me... I sign up for a duathlon without a serviceable bike for a race. Don't get me wrong. I have a bicycle. But it's one of those hybrid bikes... essentially, it's a mountain bike with road tires. And for those of you who are actually bike connoisseurs, it's got thick wheels, the gear change happens when you switch the knob on the handlebar or sometimes randomly. Nonetheless, I figured, well, I have a bike so whatever... and I wanted to try something different so that's kinda how I signed up for the duathlon... pretty much on a whim. I mean I've never ran more than 6.2 miles (this is still true - which could be a problem for me on Sunday) and I figured my next step would be to do a half marathon... but duathlon sounds more fun.

Leading up to the duathlon, I was fairly content with the idea of doing it with my bike. I mean sure, it's not as good as a road bike but it works. I worked out on the stationary bike quite a bit and then few weekends ago, I biked 18 miles on that bike and even though it was really hard, mainly because it was kinda cold and windy, I decided that it was still passable. Well, after talking to a guy at work about it, he mentioned to me that there was a guy selling his used road bike and he was telling me how much difference it makes. So, I tried it out and I felt like it was a little different but because I didn't know what I was looking for, I still didn't think much of it.

Well, this past weekend, I decided to at least go check out a few bikes. I spent about 3-4 hrs at the bike shop, trying out maybe 5 or 6 different bikes, some totally out of my price range... and then I realized something. These bikes do make a difference. It felt so much smoother and easier. After doing price comparisons, I realized that the used bike that a coworker was offering was not that great of a price... eventually, I ended up purchasing this bike (a Fuji Roubaix Pro '09 - yes, like cars, they have the year of the model):





It's a decent bike for an entry level biker and it set me back like $1400 ($1100 for the bike, bike rack, shoes, pedals, etc). Yes, I know... it sounds insane... but that's like the low end of bikes too. Who knew, that these bikes that YOU pedal, cost so much. On Wednesday, I bought this bike and promptly went on a 20 mile bike ride (I mean the race is this Sunday so I don't have much time - yes, I'm a last minute guy) and oh my god... it was so much easier to do the 20 mile ride than it was to do the 18 mile on my other bike. I mean so much easier. I am now glad that I bought this bike because it will definitely help me on race day. And believe me, considering that so far, I have yet to run more than 6.2 miles, I have yet to bike more than 20 miles, and yet, the races is 6.2 mile run, 24 mile bike, AND 3.1 mile run, I will need every help I can get... but then again, I never do the entire distance of the race when I train (most I ran leading up to the 10k was 4.5 miles and that was only once) so we'll just see how I do. Who knows, on Sunday afternoon, I might be writing about how I couldn't finish the race (first two segments have to be completed within 2.5 hrs or they won't allow you to do the third segment)... it's supposed to be 90+ degrees on Sunday. Fuckin shit.

Maybe I shoulda spent longer than 3 weeks training for it... The joke amongst the guys I play ball with in the mornings was that by the time I signed up for the duathlon, I should be starting to ease off the training so I can peak at the right time. Since I signed up like 4-5 weeks ago and I think 4 weeks ago was the 10k race, yeah, I probably shoulda been better prepared but oh well. We shall see.

Phew

I can breathe again... this could be more of a twitter type entry... With earnings call right around the corner, I am "on call" this weekend. However, I am gonna go out tonight to blow off some steam after working pretty sick hours recently. I have a few things I want to blog about (some even poker related!!! shocking, I know) but for now, I just got home from work and just popped open my first cold one. Man, it tastes good. Most likely hitting the clubs tonight... don't wanna get too drunk since I got a pretty heavy workout planned tomorrow (assuming I don't get called in to work) since my duathlon is coming up next weekend. Wait, did I even mention here that I signed up for one? Yes, me, the guy who never ran more than 6.2 miles at once in my life is attempting a duathlon (6.2m run, 26m bike ride, and 3.1m run)... and those are miles, not meters (for anyone in foreign countries who follow the metric system). I'm gonna be dead after the race for sure but it should be fun. We'll see how well I do. Alright, back to relaxing, at least for the evening. I'm out!

Foot fetish anyone?

I do apologize for the delay in posting this. It was totally unintended and I really wasn't trying to build any anticipation. With quarter end, work is super busy and I just never got the time to post.

The closest answer was jjok... with the hammer toes. It certainly reminded me of this...



Well, the actual answer was that she had effed up toenails. Yes, I know I know... that sounds so stupid. But really... she was telling me how she hurt her foot and so she took her socks off and showed the section that hurt. No bruise or anything so the conversation had more to do with she didn't know how she hurt it. Meanwhile, I'm looking at her toe nails and thinking "OH MY GOD. Those are the biggest, weirdest shaped toe nails ever." I mean seriously, her nail on her big toe was like the size of her toe itself... and weirdly shaped. I really wish I could have taken a picture so I can post it here because I really don't know how else to describe it.

So anyways, one thing leads to another, we're making out but I can't get the picture of the toenail out of my head. And it's not like one of those "wouldn't it just grow out?" kinda thing. It's just... weird. The exposed area of her toenail is like almost round... I don't know man, it just kinda freaked/grossed me out.

I'm not a foot guy or anything... (not that there's anything wrong with that either if you're into that kinda stuff) But I guess I should clarify. I'm not a foot guy in the sense that a) I don't really check out feet and b) having beautiful feet doesn't turn me on. However, apparently, ugly feet turns me off. Honestly, I still can't get that out of my mind.

I am shocked though that no one guessed effed up nails.

Nonetheless, the comment section was gold. And yeah, most of the stuff listed in the comment section would also be bad... but effed up teeth? I wouldn't even go out with her in the first place... For me to go out with the girl a few times, it had to be something not immediately noticeable. How common is an outie btw? That would def gross me out too. Man, I'm so superficial.

Another year older, none the wiser

Note: if you are too lazy to read through the whole thing, at least read the last paragraph. Little contest at the end.

First of all, thanks to all those on Facebook/emails/posts/etc who wished me Happy Birthday. I do have a birthday rant that I can go into but I can do that at another time so I will just share what can only be described as an "interesting" event.

My whole day went like the normal/typical day here. Played basketball in the morning, worked all day, yadda yadda. Well, during the course of the day, one of my friends who was determined to take me out for my birthday suggested that we go watch the new movie: Fast and Furious. She knew I was a big fan of the previous 3 (Fast and Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, FF: Tokyo Drift) and since I did make a comment that I wanted to go see the latest, it made sense. Plus, it's a Tuesday night so we figured there wouldn't be too many people at the movie theatre. Other people are generally the reason I don't go to movie theatres often so it made sense...

So, all was decided over email and so even though I had enough work to keep me here late, I ended my work day around 6:30pm to get home in time to change/eat before the movie at 8pm.

As I am driving home, I am entering my neighborhood and as I am approaching my driveway, I notice that there's a car parked. I can't think of whose car it is but it looks vaguely familiar. And then right when I get a little closer, I realize who it is... and when I realized it, that "oh shit" feeling entered my mind... you know that feeling when you are busted for doing something wrong? Well, that kinda feeling... except I didn't do anything wrong... but it still felt that way... why?

Let's rewind the timeline....

Few weeks ago, I met this girl at the evil empire of coffee shops. We talked, kinda hit it off, she gave me her number, blah blah blah. We hung out a few times, she seemed pretty nice, pretty cute, and definitely on to me. On my end however, not so much. I mean she's cute - italian, petite, pretty features, etc... but that's about it. Nothing that really wowed me I guess. But anyways, so we hung out a few times and then this past weekend, she just kinda got on my nerve. We're definitely not dating or anything and yet this weekend, she apparently really wanted to see me. So she texted me a few times, emailed me, etc. I kinda blew her off and then I responded to her on like a Saturday, telling her I had to work all weekend. (I did have to work - the "all weekend" part was a lie). Sunday was another beautiful day here so I went to the gym, worked out, did my chores, did some work, etc etc. Then, Sunday night, I get this email from her... ah hell, fuck privacy. I'll just copy and paste it here.

"I hope your day went well today, and that you were able to spend some time outdoors this weekend despite how busy you have been.

I don't know what to say, except that I am really confused. I've wanted to get to know you better...Mr. Cranky Pants and all! :), but it doesn't seem you desire the same. If that's the case, it's fine...err...ummmm...I mean, I'll understand. And it's not bc you have been so busy, rather I admire your passions and work ethic. It's bc... I feel kinda trivial to you, especially today.

I so much hope this is just a misunderstanding"

Ok, let's analyze this for a second (I'm pretty sure I just lost whatever female readership I had). First of all, she's feeling trivial to me???? Um, hello? We're not even dating. We just saw each other like 3-4 times. If this ain't a sign for being needy, I don't know what is. And I did needy girl long time ago and fuckin hated it. So I sure as hell ain't going back to that. Second, for all you ladies out there who think "oh, he's just really busy but he'll call back later." Um yeah. Let me tell you something. He's just not that into you. Period.

- Back to where I left off earlier....

So, I realize that the car parked in my driveway is none other than this girl... Now, after my previous paragraph, I do feel a little guilty because she was dropping off her home made chocolate chip cookies (cuz she knows I like chocolate chip) at my house... I so wish I was few minutes late in going home... Anyways, I come up with a lame excuse like "hey, sorry, I'd say we can hang out but the only reason I'm home so early (cuz I indicated to her that I'm working like 15 hr days) is because my friends are taking me out to dinner for my birthday (not a total lie - my friend and I had plans to eat pizza before the movie) and that I'm meeting them at 7pm. She understood, told me she assumed as much, and that she was kinda embarassed because she just wanted to drop off the cookies and leave them by the door. So I thanked her and walked into the house.

That was it in terms of the "interesting" event that I prefaced. My friend and I went to see Fast and Furious as planned and it was freakin awesome!!!! I love that entire series and if you liked the other F&F series, you'll definitely like this one too. And btw, movie on a Tuesday night is the way to go. No one at the movie theatre despite it being spring break week for the kids and there are coupons for like a $1 popcorn... can't beat that.

I will leave you with one thing... I did kinda like this girl and like I said, I did think she was cute... until one day, when we were messing around, there was one thing that I saw/noticed that completely turned me off. I am pretty certain that you won't guess what it was and no, you haters, it's not because she's not a he. But I'll leave you with this. What is it that I saw/noticed that completely turned me off about her?

I'll ship $5 on Fulltilt to the first person who guesses correctly. (if you don't have a fulltilt acct, well, guess anyways, it'd be fun)

PS: I brought the cookie into work... I had some already and they are pretty freakin awesome.

Opinion/Thoughts wanted (nonpoker)

Currently, in my FTP account, I have over 300K in points.. and in looking at the Fulltilt store, I was thinking about getting this:



I've checked out sites like cnet and pcworld and the ratings/reviews are nothing but stellar. If I were to purchase this, retail cost is approx $1,200. Considering what else is in the fulltilt store, it seems like the best value. Currently, I play poker on my apple macbook which is fine but if you know what the macbook looks like, the screen is tiny and playing 6 tables will be pushing it... So, even though I love my mac, for poker and other PC related apps that I use, I was thinking about getting a cheap computer.

Like this one. Top rated value desktop by PC World, doesn't have all the latest bells and whistles but the specs are more than enough to play a lot of the video games (maybe not the super graphics intensive but I don't play those - I'm more the Civ/Age of Empires type of game guy) I like to play, clearly enough for poker apps... $699 for the system (excludes monitor) is not a bad price to pay for a computer with this kinda horsepower.

Also, I've been thinking that it's better to buy a $700 computer every 2-3 years as opposed to buying a $1500-2000 system every 4-5 years (where undoubtedly, by year 3, you are starting to have new computer envy).

So, I would love to hear all your thoughts about the system or the monitor.

It's definite! Online > B&M (Vegas trip report)

Last time I wrote my post before I was rudely interrupted by the 10k race, I was writing from the airport all excited about my upgrade to first class. Well, let me tell you something. I don't know how much it is to upgrade to first class but for the trip to Vegas, I would say it's totally worth it (unless you can figure out how to smuggle enough alcohol through the security gate with the liquid restriction they now have). From Cleveland to Vegas, I was sitting first class and at first, when I took my seat, I was a tad annoyed... sitting next to me was a dude with his family in the other two seats across the aisle and they have clearly never been in first class. This dude was yelling to his other buddies few rows up (they were all in 1st class - clearly just upgraded like me) about how great it was... Fuckin noobies...

So here I am, sitting in this comfortable seat on the plane and in bit of a tilt... but then the flight attendant comes, I order a Miller Lite thinking I'll just enjoy a few cold ones for a warm up, put my noise cancelling headsets on and just ignore these clowns around me. Well, when our beer comes (the guy also ordered ML), he goes "well, cheers to Vegas!" Well, how can I not cheer to that. I smile, say cheers out of courtesy, and I take a good swig. Mmmmm, nothing like free beer on a plane. This got us to talking and next thing we knew, we were ordering more beers and I gotta admit, this guy wasn't so bad after all. He was willing to pound drinks and then the cold platter thing came with cheese and meat and so I downed a few glasses of wine, polishing off all the wine they had (they only had 2 bottles and there were 12 of us in first class - I had 3 or 4 glasses tho) and then we kicked the ML so we had to switch to Heineken. After all was said and done, I was pretty buzzed and definitely ready to get the night started in Vegas. Sure enough, it was almost landing time. Great way to kill time on a plane. I never even pulled out my PSP (which I only play on flights - and considering I fly to Japan at least once a year, I fuckin need it).

I meet up with my friends the first night and besides a short craps session (a profitable one, might I add), I decide to hit up bars to continue on with my drinking. No more gambling was done that night, which is definitely a rarity for me. I got to bed around 4am PST and having been awake for over 24hrs (I woke up at 6am EST that morning to play bball in the morning), I was ok with calling it a night.

Over the course of the next two days, I played a good chunk of poker and a good amount of craps. My buddy was on fire all weekend and he basically made the craps table his personal ATM machine. Oh, and in an attempt to dust off my "iceman" image, I roll a 4 point fire bet... I even set the 5th point but couldn't hit... I had $3 on the firebet so the 5th point woulda been huge (4pts pay 25 for 1, 5 pts pay 250 for 1, and all 6 pts pay 2000 for 1).

But instead of going into a detailed trip report, I just want to share something I discovered for myself. CK does a much better job recapping live poker experiences anyways so there's really no point in me telling similar stories about calling station tourists and some ridiculously passive/nitty table filled with college kids with no money out during spring break for the March Madness.

People always talk about the appeal of live poker... the social interaction, blah blah blah. I really don't know what else. Social interaction I guess makes up for a lot. For me, it just adds to the annoyance. Brue mentioned this before in his blog that I reluctantly pimp... But live play sucks. First of all, you see a lot less hands per hr... I mean online, you might see anywhere from 50-60 hands per hour... and that's only if you're playing one table. Live, you might see 20-30 per hour. Online, some of you earn rakeback, I just enjoy the very meager benefits that come with earning points but nonetheless, you get something in return... sure, you can earn comp points or $ or whatever in a casino but the accumulation has got to be much slower than online. The rake on FTP is capped at $3 (I think 5% of pot, capped at $3). In most casinos, I think it's $4... this, I could be wrong, and not sure. Then there's also the tipping factor of tipping the dealer which costs another $1 per hand (if it's a big hand, maybe even more). All of this really amounts to me preferring the online world.

Well, and then there's the social aspect of poker you can only get live... Man, I don't know what people enjoy but putting up with other people's banter just makes me wanna shoot myself. I don't want to hear other people's bad beat stories, I don't want to hear their "analysis" on their hands (which are never good ones), and honestly, I don't give a shit where you're from or what you do. If I wanted to socialize, I'll hang out with my friends. If I wanted to network, there are plenty of networking social events that I can attend that will be beneficial for me professionally. So when I play poker, I just wanna play cards and make money. I am not interested in getting to know people. And I realized this during one of the sessions in Vegas when one side of the table was discussing airline bad beat stories (my bag didn't get here, my flight was delayed, we had to wait on the runway for x hrs, etc etc - AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!) and the other side of the table was discussing strategy ("well, I limped from UTG+1 with K8s and this guy raises but I have to call because if I hit, I can win a big pot. Flop comes 8 high, turn brings a flush draw, but I miss completely and I lose most of my stack cuz this guy has AA! I'm just so unlucky!").

At least online, it's only in the chat box, you can mute whomever you want, or you can just not read what's there. You don't have to deal with some stupid ass boring story or engage in small talk. Now I know some of you enjoy this and that's great. But I just know that this trip finally, definitively made me realize that I prefer online poker to live poker any day of the week. Sure, live players are so much worse but man, the amount of time I would have to invest in it really isn't worth it. Great for vacation, maybe... Of course, a profitable trip made this all less tiltworthy but nonetheless, I am clearly an online donk.

Now I'm gonna go be unsocial again.

Woot 10k!

No, I didn't win 10k playing poker... but yesterday was the annual Monument 10k in Richmond, VA. This 10k is the 4th or 5th largest 10k in the country with 32,000+ participants in this year's race. I'm not totally into running or anything but this 10k event is awesome. We run down the historic Monument Ave for 3.1 miles and then loop back around... almost every other block, there's a band set up, tons of people come out to cheer for their friends and family, and there are tons of people who are rooting (or heckling) from the balcony of the houses lining up this road.

Few months ago, when the registration for this race started, my friends and I decided to all run this and also have individual goals. I figured this would be a good thing because a) I'm competitive and b) our friends are such that we would keep giving each other a hard time to make sure we work hard for this race... well, it turns out, I am too lazy to actually work out for the race so, even though I knew I was in pretty decent shape with all the basketball I play and the cardio/lifting I've been doing, I wasn't sure what kind of running shape I was in. I mean the last time I ran 6.2 miles was... 2 years ago at the Monument 10k...

So, it was to my surprise when I saw that I actually got a PR... Of course, for all you runners that read this, it's not gonna be that great. But PR is a PR and for any of you in any of the races, you know how great that is.

I didn't have a watch on me or anything so I didn't really know what my official time was. When the results were posted, I was psyched. As you can see below, my time was 46:34. Not too shabby!!!

I run goot!!!!!

Oh my god... You know my trip to Vegas is off to a good start when I get bumped off my original flight which was supposed to depart at 5:50 to Newark, NJ where I would then hop on to the plane to Vegas, arriving there at midnight. I mean to be able to avoid Jersey is a win, IMO. :D

But not only that, they switch me to a flight through Cleveland which departs Richmond at 6:30, giving me an extra 40 minutes which I will use to eat/blog/play online poker... And shockingly, this will get me in to Vegas at 10:30pm (PST obv)... a whole hour and a half before my scheduled arrival. Of course, delays can cause all of this to not work but still, it is off to a good start.

Oh and one last thing. Did I mention that my flight from Cleveland to Vegas is FIRST CLASS!? Yeah, I know... I run so goot!!!

I just hope I'm not using up all my luck before I even get to Vegas...

So I guess it IS different...

Generally speaking, I can pretty confidently say that I am a smart guy. I understand a lot of different concepts and ideas pretty quickly and analytical skills were never my shortfall. So, I always had in mind that the school you ended up in was more a reflection of how quickly you matured, how dedicated you were in school, and basically, much like the CPA exam, how much discipline you had for a predefined period of time. So, based on that, even the Ivy League schools to me was impressive and maybe a handful of geniuses went there but in general, I figured it had more to do with a being a dork in high school... and of course, I would phrase it that way because I did not have a GPA to brag about in school (and goes to show that means shit because my performance ratings in all my jobs have been very stellar).

Today, at my company, we had one of our many interview rounds where we are hiring for the May grads as well as the summer interns. We are fortunate to have the luxury of being able to hire some interns and you can tell that the job market is totally different for these college kids. The caliber of kids coming in to interview and subsequently not getting an offer is much higher than those of few years ago. Literally, the joke amongst us interviewers is that we wouldn't be hired in today's standards. And all of us are managers or above in finance and accounting roles (HR administers but we are the ones conducting the interview).

I am one of the "casers" as in I administer a case study and of course, during that process, there are multiple evaluation criteria. It's not perfect but it's definitely a good way to gauge some of the skill set that we are looking for here. Today's group consisted of several UPenn students and some Cornell students. Let me say that again. UPenn and Cornell students, interviewing for a company in Richmond fuckin VA. Let me say this in case you're not grasping the magnitude of what's happening here. Those Ivy Leaguers with their ridiculously loaded resumes and insane GPAs are always set to go work in Manhattan on the trading floor... Glitz and glamour of city life is what they have worked all their adolescent lives for and so they probably think that they deserve to be there... and yet today, they were sitting on the other side of me, trying to frantically figure out the case as they walk me through their thought processes under a lot of pressure of time as well as wanting the job.

And I will say this. Some of them weren't great fits for us but one thing they all had in common... very professional and even more astonishing to me was how smart they were... I mean they're freakin wired differently. They see angles that I am shocked that they see at their level. Certain calculation comes to them incredibly naturally. I remember walking out of one of the interview thinking "oh my god, this guy is freakin insanely smart... like genius level." The problem is, they might jump ship the moment the market turns. But of course, that's not one of our eval criteria. Now like I said, it's not that they all passed with flying colors. But when you show how much of a genius you are without even trying, you know what you get? A second chance. So, some that won't get offers for the summer internship will be saved for another round in the fall. Of course, by then, they may have other offers which is fine with us too. There's no shortage of great candidates right now and we're in the fortunate position of being able to decide who we get to keep and who we can't.

I guess the point of this post, in actuality, is to give props to all those who actually went to an Ivy League school. Hey, I always knew you Yale grads (besides the last Prez who clearly got in because of his fuckin connections) were super smart but today, interacting with these students from the Ivy League schools did make me realize how smart some of these guys are. Like I said, that doesn't translate into an immediate job offer or anything, but for what it's worth, you have my respect. I guess it was just interesting to see it in person as one to evaluate them.

So stay away from my poker table please. Thanks.

I'm the worst Japanese ever

Have you ever been to Hawaii?

Ok, or any other tourism heavy spot like pretty much anywhere in NY, Orlando, Hollywood, Vegas etc? Hawaii would be the best and Gnome/Kuro (lucko, Kuro does NOT live in Hawaii, unlike Gnome) can probably attest to this but a typical Japanese would have... holy shit, as I started this sentence, I realized that I'm gonna date myself on the last time I saw a Japanese tourist. I was gonna say that a typical Japanese would have a camera with a strap around his neck but I just realized that these days, the cameras are so small (or they use the camera on their phones) so maybe you don't see that as much. My point was going to be that usually, a Japanese tourist does a great job of taking pictures, capturing their memories/favorite sceneries, yadda yadda... whatever it is that they do, they take a picture of it.

So, being that I was going up to DC to watch the Wizards play the Magic (that's NBA for those that aren't familiar), I charged up the batteries on my digital camera, fully intending to capture the awesomeness of the corporate box suite that we got free tix to and maybe a glimpse of Superman/Dwight Howard.

Plan was a solid one too. Since I was gonna be in DC, brackchips from brack&brue suggested that we meet up before the game. I won't out you his screenname but I was pretty psyched to meet up with a guy that I had played with at 400NL quite a bit on Fulltilt (fuckin aggro monkey bastard). I get to the bar kinda early and so I start off my picture taking solid. We met up at this brewery restaurant called Chophouse so I start off with their amber ale and take a pic of their beer menu.



Very awesome place and Brack shows up while I'm finishing off my second beer. The beers went down smooth, it was fun talking to him and when my buddy from Richmond came (he came later due to work reasons), it was time to go to the game. We headed to the Verizon Center which was a block away and got to the company suite which is now located at the half court line (as opposed to the corner that it used to be). We treated ourselves to free food and free drinks, enjoyed what ended up being a closer game than expected and had a blast... of course, I completely forgot about my camera in my computer bag so sure enough, despite all my good intentions, the beer menu was the only pic I took...

Seriously, if you guys ever go out with me, make sure to NOT make me the designated photo guy... because there will not be any memories captured... I bring shame to the Japanese tourist stereotype...

This has to be a record

I'm too lazy to post a screen shot. But I was gigli from the Mookie... and it took me 3 hands to bust out... Cmitch raised from CO, I reraise from the button, he 3 bets, and honestly, I really didn't want to play and I wasn't sure why I signed up but I didn't care so I shoved with AQ. He instacalled with AA. Seriously. What a donkey. How can he call off 100BBs with AA???? :D

I really don't know why I signed up though. I gotta get up at 6am to go play basketball and as I indicated before, right now, bball > poker, despite the BBT. I blame peer pressure. I'm looking at you, New Yorkers, you know who you are. And if you thought "what, we didn't pressure you into playing" then yes, you are the ones.

Alright, I'm off to playing some STTs and calling it a night. These 10pm tourneys are tough for east coasters... I don't know how you all do it and go to work the next day. But then again, I suppose I used to also.

This IS the South, y'all!

This might be hilarious for those up north but down here in VA, things shut down when we get like an inch or two of snow... so when we got 5+ inches of snow, um yeah, it's like an apocalypse. Sure enough, I wake up this morning and the first thing I do is boot up my work pute to check my email to see if we are open today. First off, I can't even log on to the work network. It appears that the server is down.

I look outside and the roads in my neighborhood isn't even cleared. So I pull the ol' "eff it" maneuver and go back to bed. I woke up once again to attempt to check the email. This time, it works and sure enough, there's an email that says 1) campus is closed today (weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!) and 2) our server is intermittent. So, I guess I will be "working from home" today. The thing is, I really don't want to have to make up any work later so chances are, I will be doing some real work.

Last night, this is what it looked like and my guess was that regardless of whether the campus is open or not, I would be working from home since the roads in our neighborhood would definitely not be cleared up and my convertible is not ideal for a ride in the snow. Plus, I don't really need much of an excuse to work from home.



This morning, this is what it looked like. Yeah, yeah, I know. This IS the South!

Close = No Good

I came so close to winning a seat to the TOC in BBT4... it woulda been nice to lock up a seat this early and with the chip stack I had, I should have. I think I pretty much was in first place the whole time except at the very end when it mattered most.



My demise came here...

Full Tilt Poker Game #10919212418: Blogger Big Game (81289088), Table 5 - 4000/8000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:48:09 ET - 2009/03/02
Seat 5: RecessRampage (101,324)
Seat 7: Rake Feeder (223,676)
RecessRampage antes 1,000
Rake Feeder antes 1,000
RecessRampage posts the small blind of 4,000
Rake Feeder posts the big blind of 8,000
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Ks 6d]
RecessRampage calls 4,000
Rake Feeder checks
*** FLOP *** [2s Kh Ah]
Rake Feeder checks
RecessRampage checks
*** TURN *** [2s Kh Ah] [Qc]
Rake Feeder checks
RecessRampage bets 9,000
wwonka69 (Observer): go rakegeeder
Rake Feeder raises to 25,000
wwonka69 (Observer): rakefeeder
RecessRampage raises to 92,324, and is all in
Rake Feeder calls 67,324
wwonka69 (Observer): go go go
RecessRampage shows [Ks 6d]
Rake Feeder shows [Qh Qs]
*** RIVER *** [2s Kh Ah Qc] [4s]
RecessRampage shows a pair of Kings
Rake Feeder shows three of a kind, Queens
Rake Feeder wins the pot (202,648) with three of a kind, Queens
RecessRampage: gg
RecessRampage stands up
Rake Feeder stands up

I'm not unhappy with how I played the last hand. You can obv argue that I coulda bet the flop but there's really no card that I'm afraid of.... sure, a heart maybe but HU, you really can't sweat the flush draw. So, I felt that if I'm already behind, I'm going broke here anyways... and if I'm ahead, I figured to be pretty far ahead so I figured I'd try to let him catch up. Unfortunately, he caught up in a big way but any other card, I think I woulda got some more action out of his QQ by checking the flop. Oh well, moot point.

GG Rakefeeder! (Do you have a blog? If so, please comment and I'll link you up) And thanks to all those who railed me.

Fuel is gay.

Better to be lucky than good

This blog should be changed to "Other stuff and poker." I don't really foresee myself blogging much about poker anymore so unless you are interested in my nonpoker posts, really, there's prob very little reason to come back here. On the other hand, if you are here for my nonpoker posts, you are in for a treat.

So my subject line... it's so true isn't it? Now I'm not saying that you don't have to be any good to capitalize on the luck or anything but be it poker or be it real life, the saying seems to hold true and it feels especially true these days in this economy. I mean everywhere you read, there are more people laid off or struggling to find jobs. I'm still not convinced that the market is SO BAD that NO ONE can find a job. Perhaps their standard is still a little inflated from the years of lunacy that we've all be subjected to. But that is neither here nor there and not the point of this post.

One thing that is true is that the economy IS SO BAD that there are layoffs everywhere. And depending on where you are located or what department you are in, sometimes, it doesn't even matter how good you are. It's just like poker. You can get it in good and yet succumb to a sick runner runner or a one/two outer on the river when all the chips went in the middle on the turn. No one is immune to the layoffs and so to those who have been laid off and reading this blog, please don't mistake my previous paragraph. Losing a job is not a reflection of you. It is generally a reflection of the economy. I'm just saying that maybe not being able to find a job might be you. But again, that's not the point.

As for me... I still have a job. As a matter of fact, considering how the economy has been, I've had it better than just having a job. I've been given some serious opportunities, and after going through my appraisal, I am due for an awesome bonus so regardless of what people think about bonuses, since that makes up like 30% of my compensation, not getting that would be a bad, bad beat.

But this post is also not about how great I am at work... because believe me, there are plenty of others who are either just as good or better (there are plenty who are not also). However, I know this. One thing I excel in is my general personal presence and how I conduct myself. The other day, I had a one on one meeting with the VP of our group. He mentioned to me that I carry myself in a way that is very influential (in a good way) regardless of the other person's rank and that that is one of those qualities that all good leaders have. Granted, that's not something I didn't know about myself so as flattering as it was, no surprise there. But I will say this. During my 2.5 years in this company, I have volunteered a lot for HR related functions (I was in the controller's group before, in finance now so I have nothing to do with HR) such as being the interviewer or the one that takes the candidate to lunch. Because of my willingness to do that, I was able to meet many more people and expose myself to a lot more people here in this company. And I know that that has contributed to some of the opportunities I'm getting now.

That set me up nicely to be entered into what's regarded as a fairly prestigious rotation program and so even though it's almost downright silly to say that you're "safe" in this economy, I have to believe that I am in a safer bucket. I am not delusional. So, it could be that I will be typing a new post next week saying I lost my job because of a massive layoff. But my evals were great and my network is very strong so if that were to happen, I would just have to chalk that up to very bad luck.

But see, here's the thing. Somebody (or something) is clearly looking out for me because 2.5 years ago, I got a call from the recruiter of this company and that's how I got here. At the time, I was becoming increasingly disgruntled with my previous employer who I had been with for 8 years and in all honesty, have been nothing but great for me in terms of experience, compensation, and other special treatments that I clearly got over others. But because I was ready to move on, when the call came, I took the offer which immediately bumped my pay up like another 25%.

I recently had lunch with my former boss and heard about how things are going with the CPA firm that I used to work at. The firm is in shambles. Not that it's gonna go bankrupt or anything but in terms of morale and how things are generally going, it just seems like it would be a miserable condition. As a matter of fact, my boss mentioned that they are lucky that the economy sucks so bad because the people who want to leave are probably still there only because they can't find anything better. I mean when a statement is made like that from one of the partners of the firm, you know things are going bad. I could easily have still been there but instead, I am with a company which despite tough times and clearly contracting economy (and LOTS of cost cutting), I am getting great treatment and been given bunch of training classes and programs that are designed for the select few (some of these classes/training programs no longer exist as a result of the cost cutting).

I guess this is just my long winded way of saying that as much as I know that I work hard and do good things, none of this can happen unless I have some luck on my side. So, whoever you are that is out there that's looking out for me... please continue to do so and more importantly, thank you. Whenever I hear about things that have happened to others (and these days, it seems like it's never good), I am always reminded of how lucky I am and I am truly grateful of that.

Sorry for this seeming brag post. It wasn't intended to be that way... I was just in a self-reflecting mood.

Oh yeah, and BBT4 is kicking off. If you want more info, you can go to anyone else's site to check it out. I'll try to play many events but it clearly won't be my number 1 priority for now so good luck to all who are definitely gunning for the seat.

Sticking to my nonpoker theme

Gmello, I thought this was a poker blog too... see the thing is, I haven't felt inspired to write anything poker related these days. So for those of you that check here for poker related content, sorry, but the outlook is bleak in terms of me posting actual solid poker stuff... but I believe that's true for pretty much all "poker blogs." I haven't see any solid strategy posted stuff anywhere... there are things that some may consider strategy but bad advice <> strategy.

Anyways...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

I love my company. They just informed me that I am getting 2 tickets to the Washington Wizards v Orlando Magic game in DC on 3/13 (Friday)!!!! Dude, it must be all the hyping of Superman I've been doing!!! Dwight Howard baby!!! I actually had a choice between that game and a game against the New Orleans Hornets. Why do I care about New Orleans? Well, Chris Paul is awesome so being able to see him live woulda been cool as shit too. But hey. Dwight Howard, let er RIP!!!!! I can't wait. The Wizards suck too so hopefully I can see some highlight material that night.

Steve, if you still read this blog, I'll give you first dibs... of course, it's March Madness time so I'm guessing you will probably just prefer to stay at home and watch the college games. But, if you're interested in box seats with free food and booze, you are welcome to come. If you don't read this blog, well, then tough shit. Just kidding. I'll email you when the time comes but if you know now that you wanna come, let me know.

What a great Monday!

More Superman!

In my previous post, I mentioned that the dunk contest is about more than just the dunks. I mean the chances are, by now, it's been done before. The dunk from the free throw line, the ball around under your legs jam, the no look Dee Brown jam, etc etc... I mean really, you'd have to do something different and new to really get the crowd going. And that's what Dwight Howard does. I mean it's sh*t like this, from the set up, the use of props, that comedic nature of it all that makes him so fun to watch in the dunk contest. It's kinda like the good days of Ocho Cinco when he did his thing... I know that now, his stock went into the sh*tter but in his prime, he was funny as hell to watch.

Case in point. This is impressive alone but I don't think people go as crazy if the initial build up is not there.



Of course, he will then unleash his sick athleticism with this dunk. I mean this was just sick.



Riggs mentioned in the comments to my previous post that Dwight ruined his chances for his consecutive win by allowing this:



But see, I disagree. Winning the slam dunk contest, once you've done it before, is really not an accomplishment. I mean it's just for fun. And I think that Dwight was willing to be a part of the prop by allowing himself to get dunked over. I actually like the fun loving nature of these dunk contests than the selfish, immature, cocky, I am holier than thou attitude that a lot of the NBAers seemed to have had the past few years. After the Olympic Gold and watching these, I can definitely get back into the NBA... which is saying a lot considering I stopped watching the NBA (aside from the playoffs) from like 1996...

Superman!!!

Dwight Howard is SICK!!!!

Seriously, is this guy human?

Last year, I watched the dunk contest for the first time in a while... and it's rare that I would get up and yell when there's a spectacular dunk because... well, that's what they do. But man, if you wanna see some pure, sick athleticism, Dwight Howard brings it.

Now, if there are any haters out there, I'd say this. Slam dunk contest is about the dunk, but also about the creativity that goes into it. You know, capture the crowd, get everyone going. Even before his "Superman Dunk" this was like shocking to see:



And of course, there was this:



Of course, I've heard people say "well, that's not a dunk, he threw that in there." Um, ok. Yeah, so that's even sicker. What sick elevation do you have to get to "throw" a ball DOWN into the hoop? This guy is unreal.

And now, we have this year. Unfortunately, no vid available as of yet but my god... The way he captures the crowd is awesome. There's the 12 foot hoop dunk... and then he did it. The sick off-the-side-of-the-backboard slam dunk. That was actually awesome. And yet, Nate Robinson topped it! It was all about the presentation. Nate Robinson's final dunk was the key and Dwight helped him by being a great sport about it. Dwight Howard stood in front of the basket so Nate can dunk over "Superman." Knowing the background, if that didn't get you going, then you need to go get checked out...

On a completely separate note, did Jordan steal this commercial from the NFL Nike commercial? If so, good for him, cuz I love this commercial.



But really, that was clearly a rip of this commercial right?