My First RL Poker Tournament

I played in my first real life (as opposed to online) poker tournament today at Foxwoods.  I was a little nervous going into it and I did make a few blunders, but I ended up having a lot of fun.  About 260 people were in the tournament and I managed to stay in for about 2.5 hours.  I would guess I went out somewhere around the 80's or 90's.  There were about 9 tables left when I went out.  Foxwoods does no limit Hold 'Em tournaments multiple times per week and Jeff always looks forward to going up there whenever we visit my parents.  It's probably a good thing we don't have such a nice casino (with poker) close to where we live.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Went to see this last night.  It was really good.  Unfortunately, it was not quite as good as Lord of the Rings, a movie that it will undoubtedly be compared to.  The LOTR books themselves are probably a little richer than the Chronicles of Narnia, and that shows up on the big screen.  I have to say, I personally enjoyed LWW more than Lord of the Rings, but I know I am biased as the Chronicles of Narnia (specifically LWW) were some of my favorite books growing up. 

Two notable things: Aslan - the CGI was amazing.  In most scenes, I would not have known they were not using a real lion.  There was one part in particular where you could see individual hairs in his mane move - awesome!  The script was also really good.  id odn't remember how many of the one liners came out of the books, but I was snorting (and outright laughing) in several places.

Two things that could have been improved: The score was really lacking.  After seeing LOTR (for example), I rushed out to buy the score on cd.  I don't even remember the music from LWW and this is definitely the kind of movie that could have used some strong musical themes.  Also, one of the most climactic scenes of the book (won't spoil it here) was not as moving as it should have been, imho.

Nonetheless, I definitely think people should go see this movie.

"I just shot John Lennon"

Rolling Stone marks the 25th Anniversary of John Lennon's death with this tribute: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/8898300/johnlennon?rssfeed=musicnews&rnd=1133536183468&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1059

Imagine is still one of the only songs that makes me cry when I listen to it.  RIP, John.

Get a Grip

There is no "war on Christmas".  How absurd.  And if the biggest thing that has your panties in a wad is the White House Christmas card not referencing Christmas, I really think you need to reevaluate your priorities.  I can think of about 769,345,301 other things that should be more important to you.  #1 on the list?  Peace on earth and goodwill to men (and women).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/06/AR2005120601900.html

Stop Yelling At Me...

...you are slowing my healing process?  OK, obviously I'm a fan of research, but I'd really like to know who came up with the idea for this study. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4499080.stm

Holy Crap! Killer Squirrels!

The winner of this week's most ridiculous news story...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4489792.stm

woot!

One class down, one to go.  I just finished my research paper for my parties class: predicting presidential election outcomes with people's perception of the economy.  Fascinating, I know.