Riggs and his damn YouTube 80's retrospective got me cruising around for songs from a misspent decade. And not the ones you think.

M
B-52's
Lene Lovich
Squeeze
Thompson Twins
Thomas Dolby
Siouxsie and the Banshees

and this one (I challenge you not chair dance while it's on):

THIS is the coolest and trippiest thing I've ever seen on the Intertubes. I had to stop, was making me dizzy.

I can't tell if my absence from poker and the blogosphere was too long, or not long enough.

I've been easing my way back into poker over the last few days. Honestly, it feels a bit odd to be playing after 5 weeks away.

I've played the Donkament and a few SnG's. I played in the Tuckfard Monday game, and was contemplating the LPR game, but took the advice of two very smart people and gave it a miss. I made bread, ate some lovely local peaches, read and had a bubble bath instead.

I feel now a bit like I did years ago when I stopped drinking for a year. It had gotten to be a habit (not a need, never that), but one that clouded my view of the other areas in my life. Nothing to do tonight, oh well, let's meet the DCon crew where ever they may be lurking and have a laugh.

When something goes from being fun to being a habit, it's not so much fun anymore. And things escalate to find the fun. One night something happened that is no one's business but my own, but the next day I started abstaining. And not only did it give me time to relfect and repair, but it saved me a shitload of money.

After the year, I adopted the Uniboue tag line as my motto:

Drink less. Drink better.

(Sidenote: Yeah yeah, I know that there have been instances where the concepts of both less and better have flown out the window; there has to be exceptions to every rule. And pretty much all of those instances have been with bloggers.)

Extrapolate that to poker. Playing online became a habit; when the fun slips away, ennui is just around the corner. Five weeks away made me see how same old same old it was, and frankly I am no longer interested in spending every weeknight in front of the laptop clicking then cursing when my opponent's three outer hits.

There is more in this life than this.

Poker has made me lopsided; I need to rediscover my version of well-rounded and well-balanced.

So to paraphrase Unibroue, my goal is to play less, play better. And divert the rest of my energies in long neglected areas like writing and glasswork.

And the first person who says/IMs "well, duh" gets thwapped.

You will definitely see me at the Mookie tomorrow night. It will always be my favourite game, and Joanada has invited me to be on BDR where I will bore you with stories from the wild Far North, like the tale of what happened here:

I spent a large chunk of my day ridding my bike of the last of road trip smegma.

So, so gross. I'm still trying to figure out what bug leaves that big of a bright orange smear when it collides with a bike and rider going at speed. It looks like petite pumpkins exploded on my windshield. Keith votes for a beetle of some sort; me, I'm thinking dragonfly.

You would not believe how encrusted the bike was at a few points. I got a bit punchy during one ride and named all the insect detritus Eric, in honour of the large bee that pinged off my helmet. The song proved to be the one ear worm that I could not shake (there's one every year - last year it was Paranoimia by Art of Noise).



Monty Python proved to be a good stress buster and helped me through some particular tricky bits, like during the Ride From Hell, aka Day 19.

But alas, all the Erics are gone now. Well not all...tomorrow I try and clean my jacket and pants.

eeeeewwwwwwwwwwww

(begin vent)

I am so angry right now. And upset. And near tears. But mostly angry.

Like, punch someone in the face hard enough to break my hand angry. And it takes a lot to make me that pissed off.

But someone's accomplished it. And I know that that someone reads this, so let me just say:

Bravo.

(end vent)

The joys of going away on a once-in-a-lifetime trip are the experiences you accumulate, and this trip was certainly no exception. I would not change one thing about it ... even the negative experiences had positive effects.

However, there is a cost to the once-in-a-lifetime experiences and to being on the road for four and a half weeks. Staying in a restored Gold Rush cabin is not cheap but oh man, was it cool. And the eight dollar grilled cheese sandwiches add up (the stories that came with the grilled cheeses were priceless, so I still feel like I got a deal).

The long and the short of it is, I spent all my dough along the 15,000+ kms we rode. I've been looking forward to the Bash for ages, but alas, my bank statement and credit card bills say nuh uh. I'll have to catch up with y'all in December.

While I was away, I was tagged. Damn you Wolfie; you know I cannot resist these things!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago: Working at a job that bored me, with people I despised.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today:

1. massage
2. get food as fridge is empty
3. get beer as fridge is empty
4. have some good sushi
5. play the Donkament tonight
   

3. Snacks I enjoy: shrimp chips, double salted licorice, Jelly Belly jelly beans, Ritz chips, nachos, chicken wings (mild, coz I'm a weenie), good chocolate.

4. Places I've lived: Southern Ontario.

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Family: arrange for anyone in my family to be able to go back to school if they wanted. Let my brothers retire comfortably.
Altruistic: Help people help themselves, ie Kiva.org. Also, fund some gardening initiatives in the city.
Selfish: Rent a resort in the Maldives. Stock it with SoCo, red meat and hot card dealers. Fly all my blogger friends in for a week (minimum) of degeneracy the likes of which would become legendary and that would never be seen again.

****

I love James Lipton and Inside the Actors Studio (the one with Chris Rock was very memorable), and so I am copying Riggstads post rather than post-vacation laundry.

1. What is your favorite word?

free

2. What is your least favorite word?

politics

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

solitude in wild spaces

4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

lucre for it's own sake

5. What sound or noise do you love?

children's laughter

6. What sound or noise do you hate?

whining

7. What is your favorite curse word?

Cunt. It's the last one left that people are not de-sensitized to yet.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

writer or filmmaker

9. What profession would you not like to do?

it's a tie between dentist and lawyer

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

Nice save.

And that can be construed a number of ways.

****

I was going to continue my break from poker for a little bit longer, but fuck it. I'm home in time for the Friday Night Donkament; a bit of poker bingo and a few beers is sounding pretty good right about now.

Come, join me, and take advantage of my all-in spree. On a whim, I'll even throw in a special bounty for whoever knocks me out tonight.

...not home yet.

In Edmonton at a friend of Keith's, floating around in their pool and watching enormous honey bees do their thing amongst the hollyhocks.

Might be home in 10 days or so. Still need to traverse the prairies, stop in Sudbury for some family meetups, then off to Manitoulin for a few days of camping.

Should get home just in time to start meetings for work. Yippee skippee.

I hope you're having as good a day as I am.

So, here I am in Dawson City, Yukon, place of gold rush shenanigans and wild times. Also the home of the one place I was going to play poker all holiday.

I was too comfortable after dinner tonight and had to practically be forced off my ass to get out the door, and walked the 5 blocks to Diamond Tooth Gerties gambling Hall to play a little poker. For the first time in weeks I thought about cards, and when I stood at the door I was ready.

I opened the door, smiled at the security guard, opened my mouth to say hello, and...

...the power went out. Black. Emergency lights clicked on to dimly illuminate the staff locking up trays of chips as the security guard ever so politely asked me to wait outside the door.

I waited for a few minutes to see if the power would go back on, walked around historic Dawson a bit, checked back but no go.

As I walked back to the cabin ( we're staying in a restored 1898 Gold Rush cabin), I realized that I was pretty ok with the thought of a beer and a bubble bath rather than poker.

So like other people before me, I'm questioning where I'm going with poker.

No clue right now. Hey, maybe I'll have an epiphany during the 2 week ride back home.