Hem

I recently started listening to Hem, probably best known by most people for their song "Half Acre" which is featured in a Liberty Mutual ad that started airing earlier this year.  I normally cringe when I hear music I have already found and like used in ads (especially, for example, the horrible Of Montreal shill for Outback Steakhouse that you have undoubtedly herad recently.  Yuck.), but I have to admit *sometimes* ads introduce me to new music that is good. 

The album that "Half Acre" is on (Rabbit Songs) is a few years old, but Hem actually now also has a new album out "Funnel Cloud" which is really good.  (They also have a few other albums which I have not yet listened to).  I highly recommend it.  Hem is one of those groups that is really difficult to categorize, but they are sort of country, folksy, and pop/rock all at the same time.  Their singer, Sally Ellyson, has a *fantastic* floaty voice.  Anyways, most people I know would like this band, so you might want to check them out.

Grad School and Misc other topics

I have not posted in an obscenely long time.  All I can say is that my Ph.D program has been kicking my butt - in a good way.  I have been pretty busy with that.  It is a lot more work than I expected, but I guess that is a good thing. 

I've also been playing a lot of poker.  I found a good weekly home game (1/2 NLHE), and I've also been playing at my weekly department NLHE tournament.  My tournament play still sucks.  I am a much better cash game player.  I think my problem is still the patience thing.  Tournaments require too much patience that I don't have.  Oh well - I'm working on it.  In good news, my cash game is becoming much improved.  I've also started to seriously try to learn some other games and I've been playing a lot of HORSE (that would be Hold Em, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Stud Hi, and Stud 8 or better) tournaments online.  I really need to get around to reading up on those games.  There is a local HOE cash game I would like to play in, but I don't feel like I am up to the challenge of a cash game in Omaha or Stud 8 quite yet. 

Jeff and I are going to New Orleans for our 5th anniversary.  It was between NOLA or Montreal and warmer wethare and a casino that spreads poker won out.  Several people I have talked to think we are crazy, but I have talked to a lot of locals and they have all said that the tourist areas are fine.  Considering we are only there for a long weekend, I doubt we will find time to make it out of the tourist areas.  This will also be the first time in awhile that we are going somewhere that I have never been that Jeff has been to before.  That should be interesting.

We also just got back from a wedding in Alabama.  (Congrats Chris and Ali).  It was actually a Jewish wedding in Alabama...with a lot of non-English speaking Germans.  LOL  We had a great time, and me and a couple people from work managed to do the electric slide to some big band music.  Quite entertaining.  Since the wedding was in Huntsville, we had planned to go to the Space Museum (our hotel was literally next door), but we missed a connection in Detroit (yes, we had to fly through Detroit!) and ended up spending 8 hours in the Detroit airport.  At least now it has been renovated, plus I had two papers to write that weekend, so it wasn't horrible for me.  It was probably worse for Jeff who didn't have a laptop or me to entertain him.  :)

This weekend we are going to our first UMD sports event - I got tickets to the homecoming football game against UNC.  Should be a good time.

Level Up

OK bear with me here - another poker post.  I recently went up a level at my online cash game.  At the casinos I have always played 1-2, despite some of the other good players at my table telling me I could hack 2-5.  They are there for the same reason I am though - to pick up the loose money.  Most people who don't know what they are doing at a casino are at the 1-2, not the 2-5.  But online I had been playing the ultra low limit $.10 -.25 game.  I decided to move up to .25-.50 because I didn't feel like people were "doing what they were supposed to" at the lower limit, which makes it harder for me to actually win when I have the best hand cause the random 6 on the river might make their crap hand the nuts, and also because Jeff rightly pointed out to me that .10-.25 was the highest game at the micro level while .25-.50 was the lowest game at the low level.

Anyways, I was reminded of Jennifer Harman's comment during the live broadcast of the 2006 WSOP final table that people might be surprised that the $4000-$8000 game at the Bellagio (aka the Big Game, and the highest limit game going on) was generally the best game in the room.  Surprisingly there must be something to this logic - the money since moving up a level is pretty good.  I am surprised at how fast it adds up at only .25 more.  Maybe this way I can add to my online bankroll faster.  :-)

Poker

Haven't posted in awhile.  I've been pretty busy with the new house and then quitting my job for school.  I quit my job a few weeks ago and then went to my parents' house to visit with my Mom's side of the family.  I always go to Foxwoods when I am up there because it is only 45 minutes away, and it is always pretty fishy, especially on the weekends.

Friday night after 4 hours of play I was up $238.  This was good considering I lost my first $100 buy in in the first 45 minutes on 3 bad beats.  Then I was able to grind my way back up.  I was getting tired so I left, but I would have loved to have stayed since a guy on massive tilt and a guy who clearly didn't know what he was doing both sat down at my table right before I left.

Saturday night I played for 4 hours again and was up $588.  I would have loved to stay at this table too, but again, I was getting tired.  Guess the moral of this story is more caffeine.

Sunday night I figured there wouldn't be as much action, but I went agaon just because I feel my game improves so dramatically when I am able to play live.  I wish I lived closer to a casino with a poker room.  I was up about $200 and thinking of leaving when I got involved in a hand that ended up with two other people, each with about $200-300 going all in.  I called, made my open ended straight on the turn and won the biggest pot I have ever taken down (probably about $600 that wasn't mine).  I played for awhile after that, but it wasn't a very friendly table after that hand.  One guy in particular started trash talking me, plus I had been there for awhile, so I decided to leave.  I ended up leaving with $802 in profit.

So, for the week I was a professional poker player and made ~$1700 in about 12 hours.  Gotta get to Foxwoods more often.  That is a pretty sick amount of money for a 1-2 NL game.

BTW, the nickname I earned last time I was up there came back on this trip: Silent Killer, LOL.

red paint - the bane of my existence

Just a word of warning - if you ever get the genius idea to paint a room red, don't do it unless you are willing to put in 4 times more labor than any other pain would require.  I recently saw a great room in a pottery barn catalogue that was painted red with all white furniture.  All my office furniture is white so i decided to try it.  I mean, that picture looks so good! First of all there is the tinted primer.  At this point I wonder how many coats we would have needed if we didn't use the tinted primer.  Yikes.  Then, the color I wanted was only available in semi-gloss/gloss.  As we all discovered, gloss paint is sort of a pain to work with.  It tends to get gloppy pretty easily and will run if you are not careful.  Right now there are 3 coats of paint in addition to the primer and I'm going back for the final inspection this morning.  Last night the areas where I cut in still looked a little blotchy.  Do I really care?  Do I really want to put a 4th coat on by myself (I told Jeff he was free after 3 coats and the primer)?  I am so sick of painting!  I probably should have started painting my kitchen cabinets before we actually moved in since that is something I wanted to do, but between being sick of painting due to the red paint in my office and the fact that I am supposed to be taking a 1 day business trip to Chicago on Tuesday, the kitchen looks like it will be staying exactly the same - ugly cabinets, sink, and all.

Haven't posted in awhile...

Things have been really busy.  I got my promotion at work so now I am a senior analyst.  I also got a nice bonus that will help defray new house costs.

Speaking of which, last weekend Jeff, my mom, and I painted 4 rooms in our new house.  2 of the rooms really need another coat before we are done - hopefully we can get around to that this weekend.  The colors I picked came out really well though I am still up in the air about the red I picked for my office.  i think it would be better if it weren't so glossy, but they only sold it in gloss, so I went for it. 

Jeff and I also bought a grill and the previous owners were nice enough to leave us their propane tank, so we got that filled (for free) when we bought the grill.  We're looking forward to getting everything all set up and having people over.

Promotion, Raise, and Bonus

Today was a great day at work -- I found out that I got my promotion to Senior Analyst, a nice salary increase, and the biggest bonus I have ever gotten.  All in all - a great day!  :)