Katitude does Poker

Sayonara, ciao, buh-bye

2008-11-06T09:26:00.002-05:00

After 780 posts, many mangled attempts and more than a few lost drafts, I am now officially done with Blogger.

I'm now officially here: Katitude.ca

Wii/Write/Day 5

2008-10-29T18:17:00.001-04:00

Post is here.

****

The last post is around the corner; change your RSS to here.

What's this? A poker post?

2008-10-27T01:23:00.002-04:00

Yes, an actual poker post.

don't forget, change your RSS feeds to katitude.ca.

I think this was the last one.

2008-10-25T00:20:00.002-04:00

What is possibly the last ride of the year.

That was wierd

2008-10-23T22:50:00.003-04:00

How I busted out of NumbBono's rebuy.

Another week and I think I'm shedding this place. Change your RSS feeds to Katitude.ca.

Lookie whats going on tonight:

2008-10-23T14:08:00.000-04:00

Cross-posted from Katitude.ca:

Tonight is the night of the dime rebuy. A full hour of joint silliness. Folds will be mocked, walks even more so. Carson has some odds loosely calculated....they're interesting, to say the least.

I'm not 100% I'll be there. I hope to be as it looks like a giggle, but too many factors are sucking the fun right out of life at the moment - I feel like I'm wearing a "Kick Me" sign on my back that only the Fates in charge of friends, family, home and work issues can see.

One more kick and I may take up drinking heavily for a living.

Actually the drinking heavily sounds like a plan. Maybe I should stop by the liquor store and pick up some martini fixin's for tonight. HHhhmmmmm...martini fueled poker. Maybe the dime rebuy game is just what the doctor ordered.

2008-10-22T11:25:00.001-04:00

This place is slipping from memory already. Two posts up on katitude.ca.

Gimme Gimme Teenage Head

2008-10-16T11:11:00.002-04:00

Story here. RIP Frankie Venom.

****

Want to keep up with my ramblings? Change your RSS to katitude.ca

Verbal snapshots from a long weekend

2008-10-14T15:38:00.001-04:00

Too long to put in both places; look here.

****

Last post in the space coming soon; change your RSS to katitude.ca

Fucking Brilliant indeed

2008-10-10T17:41:00.001-04:00

Best example of kerning ever.

It is done

2008-10-10T08:52:00.004-04:00

After having the domain purchased and hosted for well over a year (thank you yet again, Kipper!), I've finally done something with it.

So within a week or so (as long as it takes me to get tired of duplicate posting), I'll stop posting to this blogspot address, and will focus on the new and pretty blog at Katitude.ca. Change your RSS feed if you want to continue to read my rants and ramblings.

If there was anything that reinforced what a design geek I am, this was it. I spent waaaay too much time finding images for the random image banner and playing with the css font tags, but I became impatient and irritated when it came to figuring out why the effing comments kept showing as 0 even when there WERE imported comments.

Let me just say that the Wordpress forums are not as helpful as you might think.

Because I am so done with importing comments from blogger to wordpress, commenting will be closed here. Head on over to Katitude.ca and leave your two cents worth. Please; let me know what you think.

****

This weekend is the Canadian Thankgiving....happy turkey day to all my fellow Canucks. The weather is going to be wonderful, so Keith and I are gong to head out on the bikes for a last ride. We'll be returning to town for family dinners on Sunday and Monday. Mmmmmm...turkey *drool.

Friggin' Waffles. And Riggs.

2008-10-09T12:57:00.001-04:00

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluctuation, particularly when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Oh yeah, this is fun.

2008-10-09T12:22:00.006-04:00

01001011 01100001 01110100 00101100 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 01100111 01101111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100110 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01101001 01110110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101111 01100100 01100001 01111001 00101110
~ my computers.

I have today off. It's a lovely sunny day, high of around 70 or so. It would be a good day to get the bike out for a cruise along country roads lined by red maples or to go rollerblading on the trail along the Humber River.

But technology has conspired against me, and this is what I'm doing:

Using this computer to try and find a solution for my Wordpress woes. This is Day 3 of trying to find a workaround for the problem of uploading a 4mb file to a server that will let me upload a max of 2mb. Many thanks to Pokerwolf for the much needed laugh, and to OhCaptain for the assistance!
Cleaning this laptop of the tens of thousands of teeny tiny litte files created when FileSplitter crashed while attempting to split the 4mb blog file. The morning was spent backing up data and trying to do a factory setting restoration. No go. So I'm deleting the teeny tiny little files a few thousand at a time (select all and the laptop crashes).
Working on a clients site re-design on the mini laptop while I'm waiting for things to happen on the other two machines.
My passport expires 3 days before I leave for Vegas. Vegas is my current light at the end of the tunnel. This reminds me to get on it and get across to a photographer today. Not sure if that's going to happen today tho; so immersed in computer glitches that I'm still in my bathrobe. I know it's not technology, but I still have to do it and soon.
Drinking vast amounts of coffee in my happy kitty mug. This was cup #3 of a really nice dark roast Mexican/Cuban blend. I've had another since...I feel like I'm vibrating at a cellular level right now.

Is silence obsolete?

2008-10-07T20:59:00.008-04:00

Today's code word was supposed to be indulgence. Throw some money at my pensive mood and see if I can shake it loose.

My plan was to leave work at 11, walk downtown, have a nice lunch on Wish's patio then head to Stillwater for my hair appointment. Change Wish's lamb burger on the patio for a brie and raspberry crepe in the park, and that part of the plan went well. I was faulty in thinking that it was the monetary exchanges that would improve my mood.

I had been listening to an interview on CBC this morning (no idea what the show was or who was interviewed), my attention being caught by a discussion about the increasing ubiquity* of iPods providing a never-ending soundtrack to one's life. A question stuck with me - is silence obsolete? One guest jokingly said yes, the other was far more earnest in his reply: I am far more in the world when I am experiencing it with all my senses, he said.

So rather than walking around listening to Weekend Players and Lhasa de Sela, I left the iPod in the purse. I'm so glad I did; I would have missed the sound of the kids laughing in the playground and the twittering of a flock of sparrows in the bushes behind me, waiting for me to leave so they can scavenge for my crumbs. There was the whir of two dragonflies moving past me, their wings flashing gold and green in the sunlight, and the sound of the wind moving through the leaves.

Presto. Instant mood improvement. Which made the rest of the day icing on the cake.

Keith picked me up after my appointment and we went for sushi at our favourite place. It seemed a shame to waste the rest of a nice day inside working on a computer, so we went for a walk along the east branch of the Don River.

We hiked and explored the path through the trees, walking along the river when we could. Stones were skipped - it's our ritual. I found a 3' fish skeleton in some shallow water, picked clean. We wondered about it and put it down as a fluke, until we saw 2 similarly-sized salmon in some clear shallow water a bit further down. In one spot, we surprised a blue heron who was wandering in the slow shallows, startling it into flight.

There's a commuter rail line that runs along the path for a while, and we were in a clearing when the outbound train slid past us. We waved like maniacs for no other reason than that someone might wave back.

I doubt I'd have had this kind of a day if I hadn't unplugged. It felt so good, I might do it again tomorrow.

*yes, A, I used it correctly in a sentence. You owe me a coffee *grin.

PLO8

2008-10-05T22:31:00.002-04:00

Played a little PLO8 with NutzCarson and DonK_Tuckfard tonight for a giggle. And it was a giggle for sure.

See, even the RNG has having fun:

Dems the most useless Quads evah, Bitches!

Sick.

2008-10-05T11:14:00.003-04:00

Well, this sucks.

A nice weekend, with plans, and I'm down with a bug. Not sure if it's something I ate or something a young lovely passed on to me. Doesn't matter. All I know is that I feel dizzy and lightheaded as soon as I get vertical.

And it's not dizzy and lightheaded in a fun way either.

I was looking forward to heading over to Taylor and Tawny's for dinner; I've been really MIA with them lately, and I always enjoy spending time with Tawny. We have a lot in common - knitting, poker, and a love of a good martini to name a few. We've also been thinking about taking some music classes together where she works.

But the weekend hasn't been a total loss. So far I've

caught up on my sleep.
written a lot.
played around with the blog. The time has come to transfer it to the katitude.ca domain I've owned for over a year. Question: any thoughts on Blogger vs. Wordpress for this?
knitted some
did some marking (ick)
spent some time updating/cleaning out/adding to my music.
did I mention sleep?

Keith just came in with a gift to make me feel better:

Oddly enough, it does.

Eye candy

2008-10-03T12:58:00.004-04:00

I've been informed that today is Clive Owen's birthday. In honour of that very yummalicious (TM Fuel) Brit actor, here's some eye candy for the ladies. Enjoy...lord knows I am.

And yes it has something for the guys too. A few years ago, BMW did a series of web-only ads/short movies entitled The Driver; the only common thread was the BMW brand and the driver, Clive Owen. The ads featured a number of star actors and directors, and were just kickass on stun. I was very distressed when BMW took them down, but thanks to YouTube, they live on:

The Star, featuring Madonna, directed by Guy Richie:

Beat the Devil, featuring James Brown and Gary Oldman directed by Tony Scott (you'll love the ending):

If I had a loonie for everytime I said AYFKM? last night...

2008-10-03T09:06:00.007-04:00

...I could take my beloved out for a realllly nice dinner tonight.

Good lord.

Now I'll be the first to admit, I have not been a very political person. Was not raised with political discussion as a kid, was too self-centered as a young adult (read: too busy killing brain cells to try and edumacate them), was too lazy as an adult. Don't get me wrong, I still did my civic duty and got into it around election time, but inbetwen elections I was just living my life.

But then I started working here, where everyone is intelligent, informed and well-read. Politics and social issues are as likely to be discussed in the lunch room as is the idiocy of the latest batch of grade 8's. It's pulled me up whether I like it or not. And in the last year, I've been following political discourse in the blogosphere and next thing I know, I'm watching not one, but two political debates last night on tv.

I feel like my head is going to explode.

I started with the Canadian leaders debate. Jesus H. Christ. Harper could not look any more surreal if he was made out of plastic (who knows, he just might be... would certainly explain the hair). Dion's English is good, but his pronunciation is painful. By the time I translated "garble swishy garble" to "sustainable development" they'd already moved on to another point. Layton was busy being the thorn in everyone's side. I tuned out Duceppe as the Bloc's refrain of "Quebec before all others" makes me angry. The one I was impressed with was May, who stood her ground, made some good points and made them well. Of course I could be thinking that because I was doing a subconcious compare-and-contrast to another female politician I was watching on an American channel.

Oh. My. God.

The twitter tweets and an IM from Astin lured me over to watch Biden and Palin. It was that painful mix of entertainment and embarassment. Kinda like when I saw Dumb and Dumber.

If there was anyone who gave the impression of being totally unprepared to stand in front of millions and speak eloquently and well for a party and a country, it'd be Palin.

Oh wait, it's not an impression, is it?

After that was over, I went back to the Canuck debate for the closing and the commentary. What to do, what to do. Do I vote the way my values and conscience want to vote? Or do I vote for a party I really don't like very much so that the party I really don't like at all has less of a chance of getting back in? Ah the joys of a five party system.

A gift.

2008-10-02T23:15:00.009-04:00

Valdez, Alaska was not what I expected.

Somehow I had it in my head that Valdez would be all tarted up like Skagway, a Gold Rush period piece of a town replete with souvenir shops and nature areas for the tourists. I had this image in my mind of colour, warmth and history as we rode toward it through the Thompson Pass, giving me something to focus on to avoid thinking about how cold, wet, and borderline freaked out I was by the thick fog and the road.

Instead, what we found was a working town. A fishing town. An oil town. Then a tourist town. The harbour at the end of Prince William Sound was full of boats, and the terminus of the Alaskan Pipeline was across the bay. It looked nothing like Skagway; an earthquake and submarine slide had wiped out the old town of Valdez in the 60's and the residents had rebuilt Valdez further along the bay, all modern and utilitarian.

When we arrived, the low gray clouds combined with the damp chill air seemed to give this town a certain noir feeling, dark and colourless, brooding even. I'm sure that the town is very lovely on a nice, sunny day, but I was still rattled from the ride and everything I saw seemed faintly ominous.

We found our hotel quickly, as one does in a one-main-street small town. The Lonely Planet Guide described our hotel, the Keystone, as a "modular relic of the pipeline boom years with lots of clean, cramped, prefab rooms". Note the lack of words like charming, or interesting, or comfortable. It was in the kind of place where we unloaded all the gear off our bikes lest it not be there in the morning. Our room was certainly special: dingy carpet and chipped pressboard furniture; floor, door and bed squeaked equally loudly; and bringing in all the gear made it just that much smaller. I could not stop the disappointment that settled over me. I was tired, cold, over-extended and done.

I was on my way out the main doors to get the last of the bags from my bike when I saw a slight figure in black jeans and hoodie hurrying away across the large empty parking lot. It registered immediately that he came from the direction of the bikes. There were no other vehicles around them, and my first suspicious thought was what have you done, you little shit. I'm ashamed to say I made some snap judgements. Had I left anything unsecured on the bike that he might have taken? Had I locked up the saddlebags? What was he after?

The boy looked to be about 16 or 17, and looking over his shoulder, he saw me come out of the hotel. He turned and watched as I almost ran down the stairs to my bike. How odd that he's waiting, I thought, quickly followed by more negative thoughts about teenage boys.

Then I saw my bike. There, in the exact center of the black leather seat he had placed a perfect pink flower.

I stopped cold and stared at it for a long moment. I looked up to see him still watching me, nervously, expectantly. I think he knew what I'd been thinking and was waiting to see how I would react. All I could do now was smile. And blink back a few tears, truth be told. I waved and shouted a very sincere "thank you". His face lit up as he waved back and shouted "you're welcome!" back, then he turned, put his hands in his pockets and walked down the road.

I stood in the cold misting rain for a few minutes just looking at the gift on my bike. I knew that I was thanking him for more than just the flower, and that he'd never realize it.Thanking him for testing my assumptions and proving them wrong, for giving me hope, and for making it all right.

Not what I'd planned

2008-10-01T23:28:00.003-04:00

Tonight I'm Mookie-ing and Dookie-ing as usual.

However, I'm drowning my sorrows a bit more than usual. While this is fun and it's making me lol for realz to hear the Buddy Dank radio clips from the Bash, this was not my original choice for the evening.

I was supposed to go my boxing class, and then go and see these guys:

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It would have been a great show. If only I could read a fucking calendar.

Sigh.

Don't think. Do.

2008-10-01T10:34:00.008-04:00

You think too much. Stop it.
~ parents, grandmother, brothers, both husbands, many close friends

Yeah. But what if I like it?

I love taking something and turning it around and around in my head. Looking at it from all angles. Pulling the stray threads to see where they lead, see which thread will unravel the Gordian knot of a problem/situation. Playing the what-if game.

Love it.

And yeah, I know there's a downside.

I get so wound up in the stray threads that I become one with the problem/situation, so entangled I can't think about anything else. Time passes without me.

The problem is twofold:

the problem/situation becomes bigger than it needs to be. I ride through one very challenging and frightening mountain pass then in my head they all will be very challenging and frightening mountain passes. They weren't, and I freaked myself out needlessly
I actually end up talking myself out of something.

Not even three days back from the Bash and I'm already thinking about the December Vegas Blogger Bacchanalia.

Thinking too much.

Can I get the time? It's right at report cards and really busy - do I need the stress? What about money? Bankroll is laughable as it was all spent on the trip, and I still have to pay back the rest of the trip. And we want to get away for the holidays; where's that $$ going to come from?

Etcetera, ad nauseum.

Laid in bed this morning, starting to think about along those lines, then thought, oh no, not going to play this game anymore; life is too damn short. I will not talk myself out of this one.

Don't think. Do.

Asked Keith for some of his airmiles: granted.
Asked work for the time off: granted. I can only get Friday off but hey, that's better than nothing.
Flight arrangements: almost done.

So ignore the waffling you may have heard from me over the last while. I'm going to Vegas, dammit!

P.S. Anyone looking for a roommate? I'm not gender particular. And yes, I can sometimes keep my hands to myself.

****

I got tired of the poker theme blog look on a blog that is less and less about poker every day. changed the look a bit to last until I get around to moving it over the domain I've had for over a year. Whatcha think? Colours need to be tweaked a bit.

Aftermath

2008-09-29T11:34:00.025-04:00

(Preface: Sorry, this grew in the writing. It's gotten a tad long. Don't say you weren't warned.)

Amen. Three days post-Bash and I'm still worn out, but holy shit, what a ride!

Yes, there was drinking - lots.

Yes, there was hugging - even more than the drinking.

Yes, there was ass-grabbing - however, not as much as you would think.

Yes, there was flashing - hey, I love the Clash, what can I say.

And yes there was snogging - lots. All good; one so good I was left weak in the knees.

Thanks to Al for setting up this edition of the Blogger Bacchanalia. Huge thanks to Astin for the ride down and to Evy for the accommodations; you two made it possible for me to even be there.

And to everyone I drank with, talked to and played with; thank you for making a middle aged broad feel fun and fabulous even if just for a weekend. My conversations and interactions with you all (and no, I'm not making a list as it's EVERYONE) are cherished.

And those cherished friends who could not make it were missed deeply. I woke up Monday morning filled with regret that we all live so far away, and the thought of waiting another 3 months to see you all again left a bitter taste in my mouth. I had to stop thinking about it. I'm thanking the powers that be for Astin (20 minutes away) and the Tuckfard gang (an hour away), whom I will hopefully be seeing in 2-4 weeks (right, guys?).

(this is where I begin to wax philosophical. You may want to bail now.)

Lately I'm finding that a trip's success isn't dependent on how many drinks I had, who I talked with, what game I played, who I hugged/kissed/ass-grabbed/flashed or who hugged/kissed/ass-grabbed/flashed me. Not to say however, that all those aren't +EV. Far from it.

No, a trip becomes more meaningful the more it makes me think. And I did a lot of thinking on the long, quiet ride to home. The very quiet ride home. There was little conversation as we all tried to recover.

I sat/laid in the back seat and replayed scenes from the Bash in my head. Some made me shiver, some made me cringe (note to self, don't think about that last SoCo shot while still recovering from that last SoCo shot), all made me smile and realize the extent of my good fortune to have stumbled upon and been accepted by this eclectic group of exceptional people.

Also did some internal poking and prodding, pondering the fickle nature of feminine ego and self esteem. Over the weekend I had people tell me I was beautiful, fun, talented, brave and amazing. It's a pity that deep down, I just don't believe them. My secret fear is that one day they'll all realize it's all just smoke and mirrors, and that really, I'm not all that.

Then I thought of the bike trip, and what happened to me both inside and out. And no, I still don't think I'm beautiful, fun, talented, brave or amazing; I'm just me. However, I am pretty damn comfortable now with what that is. And that really is enough.

****

One of my best memories of the Bash was sitting in at the upstairs bar talking to Otis. He asked, as so many do, about the trip to Alaska. It's difficult to explain, so I often just say "amazing" or "incredible", tell a quick anecdote and leave it at that. Like a photograph that fails to communicate the true scale and beauty of that wilderness, words fail to convey how the place got under my skin. But I tried anyway and told him of riding the highway between Haines, AK and Haines Junction, YK.

After I told my long winded and slightly weepy tale, we got into another conversation about writing. I was told not that I should write these stories or even that I need to, but that I had to. And I do believe he was right; I need release from the pressure of them crowding in my head.

So I've spent the morning writing. And it feels good.

Has anyone seen these?

2008-09-29T07:57:00.005-04:00

Last seen upstairs at the Tyler James Pub on my face. No idea where I put them down, maybe around the back of the bar.

Reward if found - I'm not looking forward to shelling out for prescription lenses again. IM me at badkatitude at yahooo, or send me an email to badkatitude at gmail.

Many thanks.

Still in a post-Bash haze....more to come.

EDIT: The glasses were picked up by Al and will soon be back on my face. Al is my hero!

Dammit dammit dammit

2008-09-28T23:31:00.003-04:00

Home.

I know I should sleep as the young lovelies will crush me in my weakened state tomorrow; however am still too wired. I had such a good time. I know it's been said before and often, but these gatherings are far too brief and too far apart. I miss you all already.

I'm already yearning for the next one.

Bash

2008-09-28T09:53:00.003-04:00

Consumption (as near as I can recall):

Vodka and OJ.
Another vodka and OJ.
Beer.
More beer.
teqila shot.
Beer.
Water and Tylenol.
Beer.
Vodka and Red Bull.
tequila shot.
another vodka and Red Bull.
tequila shot.
SoCo shot (*shudder.... that's where I just about lost it.)
yet another vodka and Red Bull.
water and Tylenol.

High points:

pretty much all of it.

Low points:

misunderstod and over reacted to something. Had a hissy fit. walked away, cooled off, returned and apologised.
lost my glasses and my mind

Bash Friday edition

2008-09-27T11:52:00.005-04:00

Long drive.

Astin's car is comfy and I had the back seat to myself. Knitting was done while we chatted and listened to Asin's most surreal playlist.

Quick dash into hotel (don't care if we're late, not wearing road clothes), then to tourney room where they are jsut getting started. A flurry of hugs, then at my table with DonK, Evy, Astin and others who I can't remember. Falstaff gets moved to our table and things go south from there.

the music was sucky and was getting a bit too sugary for me, so in my usual offhanded & unthinking way I ask:

Who do have to show my boobs to get some Clash played??

Falstaff, apparently. (Thanks babes, rocking playlist!)

I'd only had four beer at that point. No shots. Christ only knows what tonight will be like.

I'm actualy a little afraid.

I can't tell you how good it is to see (and hug) everyone. I wished I coulld split myself into 6 of me last night and put one on every table so I could sit and talk with everyone.

Can't concentrate

2008-09-25T11:29:00.004-04:00

24 hours from now, I'll be on the road with Astin and Vinnay.

36 hours from now, I'll be playing poker and drinking adult beverages with like minded degenerates.

Seriously, that's all I can think about. I know I played the Mookie / Dookie combo last night and was on BDR, but don't remember a damn thing.

Just as well really. I'm sure I spewed drunken nonsense as usual. EDIT: Jordan's confirmed it. Drunken babblings and interruptions. Just another Mookie BDR night then.

Kudos to April for winning! And commiserations to Waffles on losing the bet. I was rooting for ya, babes!

Ok my mind has drifted back to the hundred and one things I have to do before meeting up with Astin in the morning to head to the Bash.

OMG, the Bash. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

****

I've got this song stuck in my head for a few days now. Unlike other songs that become earworms, thiis isn't even clsoe to bugging me yet.

File under: RNG my ass

2008-09-22T18:04:00.004-04:00

Full Tilt Poker hates me.

I have been busted out of the last 3 MTT's I have played on Full Tilt with the same hand: my AA vs Villian's QQ:

Q on the river
Q on the river
Q on the turn.

FT, you're fucking kidding me, right?

The fun never ends

2008-09-21T22:43:00.006-04:00

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
~ attributed to Albert Einstein

Yeah, then I'm insane. I log in to Full Tilt every Friday night, somehow thinking that maybe this week will be different, that this week will be fun, that the poker gods might stop fucking with me. I play the rebuy with wild abandon (maybe that's my problem), donate far more than I am really comfortable losing (or maybe that's my problem), drink maybe one beer too many (oooh, maybe that's my problem), and have a bit of a laugh.

But then it turns. Often faster than a peri-menopausal woman's mood swing (trust me, I know whereof I speak on this one; so does Keith, poor man). I'll get screwed by a two-outer on the river and a switch will be thrown. I'll either rant or sign off in a snit, and then feel like a goober once I've cooled down. I'm not amused by the fact that online poker and hormones are turning me into a whiney bitch sore loser.

Time to do some (more) attitude adjustment. SSDD is getting old.

****

The Friday Night Bloggerment will play without me next week. Thanks to some help from some friends, I'm going to the Bash, bitches!

(insert wheeeeeeeeee here)

****

Weekend wrap-up:

Saturday was a very good day. One of my students invited Keith and I up to the Brantford Jazz festival to watch her perform.

This kid is incredible. There she is, 15 years old, standing on stage in front of 500-600 people belting out Frank Sinatra like she's done it for 50 years. As we sat in the sunshine watching her and the other 3 "young divas", I was struck by how todays kids are so much more sophisticated and confident than me and my friends were at that age. Thinking about how brief childhood seems to be now cast a bit of a shadow over the afternoon. But then when she raced up to us after the show, all hugs and laughter and OMG's, I realized that hell, no matter what, 15 is still 15; the rest is really jsut all show.

After the show was over, we went to Taylor and Tawny's for a BBQ in honour of Tawny's birthday. Lots of laughter made the evening special, as always. Thanks guys, and Tawny, I meant what I said - more live life, less online life!

****

Today did not start out to be a good day; in fact it was pretty damn close to being the worst day in 10 years. Luckily, an apology and a nap saved it (and me) from total disaster.

Part of the fallout of the day was a continuation of a long internal conversation about friends.

I have friends that I feel I've neglected. Karen, Jules and Tawny - I am truly sorry, and can only say I will definitely make more of an effort. Feel free to whack me upside the head if it happens again. I mean it.

I have a good friend that I can no longer talk with, and the loss has left a hole in my life. I will abide by their wishes, and hope that their life goes well and that someday we can pick up our friendship again. I miss you.

SSDD

2008-09-19T23:07:00.002-04:00

It's official.

All hope of having a fun Friday night on Full Tilt has been beaten out of me.

Why? This is why.

2008-09-17T18:16:00.008-04:00

D friend sent me these today:

Cagers

2008-09-16T22:07:00.003-04:00

What happens when I'm behind someone I assume knows the difference between this:

and this:

I find that my assumptions are faulty, and next thing I know I'm asking that someone to at least help me pick up the bike.

Exchange of insurance information follows.

Bike ok. I'm ok. Just some very minor bruises, a killer headache and a great desire to tear someone a new one.

Later: Mood somewhat soothed by appropriate application of expensive bubble bath products and chocolate. Desire to kill has now subsided to occasional grumblings about stupid cagers who can't read signs.

Now if I can only get rid of the headache. I'm oh so glad I wear a full face helmet.

God, I love cheap rebuys

2008-09-08T15:09:00.002-04:00

Is that the real Katitude?
~ a Pokerslut player who's name escapes me at the moment

Good lord, I'd hate to think there's fake ones out there. Poor things need help if so.

I played the PokerSlut Rebuy game last night, bringing my secret weapon with me - a year and a half of Friday Night Bloggerment rebuys.

Man, it was fun last night. It's a close group, and the comments were flying fast and furious in the table chat window. It took a while for my tablemates to grasp my "all in first 5 or 10 hands" rule. Limpers were mocked. I may not be asked to play another.

But that makes two (count 'em, TWO) one dollah rebuys that I've ITM-ed in in three days. That makes two (count 'em, TWO) times I made money playing poker this weekend.

God, I run good.

It's 4 am. Do you know where your car is?

2008-09-07T09:11:00.002-04:00

Last night was a night of watching my favourite cult movies. Repo Man, Bruce MacDonald's Road Kill (with a cameo by Joey Ramone), Rock n Roll High School, and Heathers.

This morning I am groggy after disturbing dreams of dead aliens, rabbits, Vince Van Patton and Christian Slater. I've never been so glad to wake up.

I played some poker last night, of the cheap and cheerful variety. As I watched bad movies, I knocked out enough people in a $3+.30 KO MTT to make back my money. The highlight was going all in with the hammer and having the biggest tard at the table call me with AA. The board came 227,2,7.

The fireworks were so pretty.

Oh, and guess what??? I CASHED in the Donkament!! I KNOW! Weird, eh? I think maybe the RNG felt sorry for me; I won 9 of the first 11 hands. I spent all of 6 bucks on the thing, a far cry from my usual 20-30-40.

Which luckily leaves me donking funds in my Full Tilt account, as I've just received notice that the flavour of tonight's PokerSlut tour is a one dollah rebuy. I can't decide...all in first five hands as usuall? Or should I make it ten and some some singles as sacrifices to the poker gods?

Decisions, decisions.

I <3 Heart

2008-09-05T10:26:00.002-04:00

From the Jezebel blog:

The sister act behind "Barracuda," the song used by the McCain-Palin campaign in reference to Sarah Palin's "Barracuda" nickname, is none too pleased that their pro-woman anthem is being co-opted by the GOP. Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart sent a cease and desist letter to the McCain campaign, and, in reaction to last night's use of it, Nancy sent an angry letter to Entertainment Weekly, tearing Sarah Barracuda a new one. "I feel completely fucked over," she said. "Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there."

Yippee Skippeee!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-04T21:28:00.003-04:00

And I don't even mean that facetiously for a change!

A HUGE congrats to the ever-fabulous, ever-luscious and extremely boobalicious Evy for placing 5th of 1200 in the Borgata Poker Event today.

Way to go chickie!!!

I may have to re-think my non-Bash plan, so's I can congratulate her in person *wicked grin.

SRSLY?

2008-09-03T18:00:00.004-04:00

Woke up at 3am with a sore throat.

Felt so shitty that I took a bus as there was no way I was riding feeling like that. It's embarassing falling over at stops.

Plodded through the first day back with what I know to be Strep Throat; I get it every. damn. year.

Went to the walk in clinic. Say it with me now - EEEW. So, so gross.

Waited.

Finally saw a very attractive (like this guy attractive) but very frazzled doctor and got the prescription for something called Biaxin. A penicillin allergy limits my options.

Took it to Shoppers. Waited some more.

Finally home. $70 for the Biaxin; thank god for drug plans. Opened the bottle and shook out two of these:

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???????

I have STREP THROAT, cannot even swallow TEA for gods sakes, and you braniacs give me pills the size of my little finger from tip to first joint???

This is gonna hurt.

The vacation is officially over, alas.

2008-09-02T19:19:00.003-04:00

Yes, it's true. I go back to work tomorrow.

Well, technically I was back to work last week, but I don't really count two staff meetings that I zoned out of really working.

The kidlets are back tomorrow; that's working.

And I'm really looking forward to it. Honest.

****

The road trip is often on my mind. Since I've been back, people have asked "did you have fun?", "are you relaxed?", or some variation on that theme.

Short answer:

No.

Longer answer:

It wasn't that kind of vacation.

Fun is Vegas and blogger gatherings. Relaxation is remote northern cottages.

A five-week motorcycle road trip is an experience, a challenge. I re-learned that I can do anything, and that the specter of on-coming middle age is not nearly as big as I perceived it to be. I discovered that even while one is physically cold/wet/tired/miserable, there is still room for awe and wonder. I regained a sense of perspective. I lined up all the things that give me stress and threw them all in the mental file folder called "Fuck It".

It's funny, out of all the folks who asked about the vacation, only one asked the right question: are you happy now?

Yep.

****

My nephew and his wife just bought a cottage in Northern Ontario, where I spent the Labour Day Weekend. It is water-access only, has no cell service, no electricity, no running water other than that which gravity supplies from the tank up on the hill, and a cozy little one-holer for all your biological evacuation needs.

It also has a wood-fired sauna and a propane-powered beer fridge down by the dock. It's on a quiet lake where most of the shoreline is still Crown Land and so can't be sold for development. There are fish in lake and they are still edible.

Perfection.

I saw bears and bald eagles. I swam and played with my great-nephew. I sat on the dock and watched the light change from a killer sunset to a myriad stars of a cloudless night.

The bazillion mosquito bites I got and dealing with the traffic on the way home was a small price to pay for this:

For Bam-Bam and Pebbles

2008-08-28T19:44:00.005-04:00

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):

Holy HAWESOME

2008-08-28T16:03:00.002-04:00

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

Not sure

2008-08-28T00:14:00.002-04:00

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

dabbling my feet back in the water

2008-08-26T18:27:00.005-04:00

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:

Is there an entomologist in the house?

2008-08-24T19:14:00.002-04:00

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

Venting

2008-08-24T00:19:00.004-04:00

(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)

No Bash for me

2008-08-23T17:32:00.003-04:00

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.

Catching up

2008-08-22T17:14:00.003-04:00

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:

massage
get food as fridge is empty
get beer as fridge is empty
have some good sushi
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.

ok bitches, I'm BACK!

2008-08-22T03:17:00.002-04:00

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.

No no no...

2008-08-14T18:28:00.002-04:00

...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.

Dear Poker Bloggers

2008-08-14T12:18:00.000-04:00

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

I am overwhelmed by meh

2008-08-09T00:04:00.005-04:00

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.

A funny thing happened on the road to Alaska...

2008-07-31T02:49:00.000-04:00

... I started caring again.

The time has come

2008-07-19T21:33:00.005-04:00

After about six months of planning, the big trip is here.

Tomorrow morning we are getting up far too early and heading out for a four week tour to explore the roads between Toronto and Anchorage. Longer if we see any interesting roads, like maybe this one:

Photo: David Smith-West Michigan, Flickr.com

We're bringing the cutest teeny tiny laptop with us to keep in touch as we go; seems even campgrounds in the far north offer free wifi these days. The cutest teeny tiny laptop has been a bit of a PITA for me - I'm just not that much of a geek where I find hours of researching Linux hacks and script tweaks all that entertaining, just so I can get the damn thing to do just the basics of what I want. I now know more about sudo bash and debian thingamabobs that I really care to, but it's all set and running with what we need.

If you're at all interested, you can follow our travels here (there's a link above as well).

Alas, this poor blog will be left languishing over the next four weeks. I could have spent another few hours trying to get a windows emulator to work on Linux so I could install Full Tilt and play poker. As Joanada would say, "yeah.....no". Vacations are supposed to be getaways from the normal everyday routine, and I am greatly looking forward to the break from the poker routine. Which has become far too normal and everyday right now.

Not to say I won't be playing any poker during my travels; Joanada may be getting a home game together, combining my family and hers, when we hit Calgary on Thursday-ish. And how could I not play poker at a place called Diamond Tooth Gertie's Gambling Hall in Dawson City, Yukon?

Oh, someone asked me if the Friday Night Donkaments will continue in my absence....hellz yeah! the lovely and talented Joanada will be taking over as hostess while I'm gone, which really just means that she has no chance of cashing. At all.

See y'all on the other side! Rubber side down, shiney side up!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

2008-07-18T08:54:00.002-04:00

An impartial judge (aka Keith) spent many long and thoughtful seconds (five) going over the caption contest entries.

The winner is.....Easycure! His entry of "The ass to my left raised 5 brown chips." brought a smile to my beloved's lips. "It works on so many levels."

$10 has been sent to Easycure to donk it up in a Friday Night Blogger Rebuy game.

I'm craving chicken fried steak already

2008-07-16T23:16:00.001-04:00

Going to be a long year 'til we can do this again...

Okie Oh Eight

2008-07-15T21:24:00.010-04:00

I'm sitting here on my couch, my cat purring beside me, laptop on my lap, bruised ankle propped up on three pillows.

In other words, pretty much where I've been all day.

And yes even though I've been kinda lazing around all day, I hadn't yet written my post-Okie post. Totally stalling. Not sure why.

Before leaving for Okie, I had some misgivings. Frankly the thought of canceling had flitted across my brain a few times. Yes, I know I'd been booked since the dawn of time (or so it feels), but seriously, last year's event was so utterly perfect, how could this year's hope to be the same?

And it wasn't. The same I mean.

There were people I was looking forward to seeing again, who couldn't make it for one reason or another, and people there that I really wanted to spend more time with, but couldn't for one reason or another. There was a fly in the ointment that I could not get past. There was an early over-indulgence that caused me to miss some fun while I lay on the grass counting stars and being drunkenly profound in the way that only tequila can fuel. There was the solo stumble back to the trailer that ended my ability to walk (and jet ski) for the rest of the weekend. (I swear, my ankle would have found that damn hole in broad daylight, much less in the dark, while ...umm....tipsy. This is right ankle sprain #5 in 4 years. I am a klutz, with weak ankles.) There was the most incredibly frustratingly bad run of cards (yeah like that's anything new). Oh, and let's not even get started on the fact that middle age is bringing with it changes that I have yet to fully accept.

And while these things stopped this year's Okie-Vegas from being the utter perfection of last year's, don't get me wrong, it was still a shitload of fun!

Gary and Carrie, their daughter Casey, Carrie's mum Kaye (my source of pickled okra goodness!), and their trailer neighbours Bill (aka Beer Bitch) and Rhonda, and Okie co-hosts Maudie and Oossuuu are the best people you could ever hope to meet. Generous, hospitable and friendly, wrapped around a steel core of no bullshit, WYSIWYG.

I told Gary the other night (quite sober) that I would walk through broken glass to be able to hang out with them. So, being stranded, limping through an airport for a few hours is truly a small price to pay.

I've been thinking a lot about the nature of friendship lately. There are acquaintances, friends, and Friends with a capital F. The people that fall into the latter category run few and far between for me, and it was my great pleasure to spend a weekend with so many Friends in one place.

****

I gave in to my techno-envy and bought a Flip camera, which I used a bit in Okie. I didn't take as many pictures or videos as in last year, because as I get older I realize I'd rather experience an event more than document it.

But I did get some good stuff, and tomorrow's day of sitting here on my couch, my cat purring beside me, laptop on my lap, bruised ankle propped up on three pillows will be spent playing around with some audio and movie editing software.

In the meantime, here's a Mookie-style Caption and/or Guess That Ass contest. Winner gets a buy-in and some all-in bucks to blow in a Friday Night Donkament.

So this is Washington?

2008-07-14T10:02:00.003-04:00

We're sorry, but Flight 7849 to Toronto is cancelled due to weather.

Fuckin' A.

Landed at Dulles just as a weather front was coming in. Hustled across the airport to the other terminal just in the nick of time, boarded, and then sat on the plane for a half hour as they decided what we were going to do.

De-plane, that's what we're gonna do.

Delay, delay, delay, then cancel. I'm tired, grumpy, and the ankle I sprained at Gary's lake place (details later) is swollen, bruised and sore.

Oh yay, the earliest flight they can put me on is at 3:45 pm. Quick call to the only person I know that lives in Washington, but alas, we won't be able to connect as he has no car and is a looong cab ride from the airport.

I call around, and the Hyatt Recency Reston is offering a bit of a deal for the stranded passengers.

Perfect. Quick check in, room service meal complete with frosty adult beverage (and delivered by a very cute waiter), wireless connection, ice on ankle, a last-minute lunch date with the nearby Pokerwolf, and I am a somewhat happy camper.

Still miffed I'm not at home though.

****

Okie was fun.

I need a new word. "fun" no longer seems to convey what I want it to. It certainly falls flat when trying to describe the Okie experience.

There you go...The Okie Experience. What esle could you call 4 days with some of the most wonderful people in the blogosphere?

A trip report (complete with incriminating photos and video *grin) will be forthcoming soon as I get home, collect myself, dig out all the technology cables I packed in the luggage I checked (DOH!), and pour myself a nice cold beer.

Gary, Carrie, Casey, Kaye, Bill (aka Beer Bitch) and Rhonda: thank you so very, very much.

****

By all early reports, the Gentile Conference was a success as well. I'm looking forward to reading the details after everyone suitably recovers - trust me, I know what that feels like *grin.

Outta here

2008-07-09T09:47:00.004-04:00

In just under an hour, I'll be on my way to the airport, heading to fabulous Okie-Vegas. I've only been booked since January - after 6 months of waiting it seems a bit surreal that it's today.

I gotta tell ya, I'm nervous about this one. Not the flying part but the event itself. Last year's Okie-Vegas was so much fun that this year has a hard act to follow.

I'm schlepping my laptop down there as there will be group BDR/Mookie fun tonight. There will be casino poker, lake poker, and let's not forget the real reason why I'm going, chicken fried steak at Ozzies.

I LOVE chicken fried steak. It's probably a good thing no one makes it up here. It would totally sabotage my lose-weight-before-the-Bash bet with Surflexus and Riggstad.

Nah, the real reason I'm going is the people. I'd walk through broken glass to be able to sit and quaff a few wobbly pops while shooting the shit with the likes of Gary and Carrie, Surflexus, Maudie, Joanada, 23SkiDoo, Buddy Dank, OOOSSSUUU, etc. It's pure gold to able to hang out in a small group. Don't get me wrong, I love the chaos that is the Vegas gatherings, but I never leave the smaller events thinking "man, I wish I'd had a chance to talk to _____ more".

And cheers to those going to the Gentile Conference - you have the cell numbers, North-South Dial A Shots are in order *grin. Have fun, y'all.

Nope. Can't do it. Canuck girl cannot even type y'all without feeling like a goof.

And a huge bonne chance to the little blogger that could. Kick ass today, Iggy!

Wheeeeee! see you at the Mookie tonight, same bat time, same bat channel!

A debt paid

2008-07-06T10:25:00.004-04:00

I rode up to Casino Rama on Friday to meet NutzCarson, and buy him the dinner I owe him for being such a donk at the Monkey Game.

Stupid prop bets *grin.

The ride up was great, and the sunny warm weather meant that everyone was outside enjoying the day (or working), so I found a seat right away.

I'd love to say that I left up, or even that I broke even. But alas, my Alaska fund is lighter by $200, thanks to rivered flushes (2), Mr. Shakey Hands' nut flush beating my second nut flush, and the most missed flops ever. It was laughable.

At one point I saw A9 hearts, and with only $18 left I flung myself at the mercy of the most benevolent (HA!) of poker gods and went all in preflop. Crazy Maniac Man called me (quel surprise), and one other, someone that NutzCarson said was pretty tight. Uh oh.

Both guys check it to the end. The board ended up with a diamond four flush, no ace. Great. Crazy Maniac Man has nothing, so I have a faint hope that my ace plays. Nope. The tight player flips over 35 clubs, meaning that his paired three wins. Good lord.

That stung....beaten by three five. That was when I made my big mistake of the night; I pulled out another buyin.

But like I told the dealer (the cute one, not the old one), there's been times when I've spent more money and had less fun. NutzCarson is a pretty funny guy to talk to, and he had me laughing so hard a few times that I got dirty looks from serious players at other tables.

I bailed just after 9, and was treated to a lovely sunset over the water as I rode to where Keith was working. It's always cool when I can watch him work in his element for a bit, and when he was able to break away, we wandered around the grounds for a bit and I got my fix of fair food.

Nirvana

2008-07-05T19:39:00.003-04:00

One of Dictionary.com's definitions of nirvana is:

An ideal condition of rest, harmony, stability, or joy.

Today, I found Motorcycle Nirvana. New smooth blacktop, a slight tailwind, the engine revs at that sweet spot where there's no vibration or noise....it was like I was floating.

Utterly perfect.

I stopped at a farm stand that promised fresh strawberries. And that first taste of a ripe berry, still warm from the sun, juicy and sweet, was the proverbial icing on the cake.

Small town fireworks are +EV

2008-07-02T19:23:00.007-04:00

****

As usual, I've returned from a few days away feeling like it's been much longer. Time spent with family I like is always good and one can't help but relax on the island. We chilled. I played with my nephew and met my new niece. I drank good beer, read, and spent evenings around the campfire watching the how the setting sun changed the landscape. And watching the Canada Day fireworks put on by South Bay Mouth.

Oh, and swatting mosquitoes. Man, those little fuckers loooooove me. Can't wait to meet the 26 varieties of mosquitoes in Yukon/Alaska.

The original plan was to stay away until the weekend, but I had to come back and finish up some client work. Yay.

****

Finally got unpacked and with a good cup of coffee in my hands, I fired up the computer. For once, I looked at my 400+ unread blog items in Bloglines with dread rather interest. I made it past the first 9 or 10, thought "good god, not this shit again", and marked all remaining outstanding posts as read.

The next immediate thought was to change the word again to still.

I can't tell if I just need a longer vacation, or if I'm finally hitting the bullshit saturation point.

Meme-a-licious aka PokerWolf's fault

2008-06-29T22:43:00.000-04:00

Flickr game:

The Rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker).

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Kat
2. What is your favorite food? Chicken Fried Steak
3. What high school did you go to? Winona
4. What is your favorite color? Red
5. Who is your celebrity crush? John Cusak
6. Favorite drink? Martini
7. Dream vacation? a motorcycle and any open road
8. Favorite dessert? Chocolate
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Happy
10. What do you love most in life? Challenge
11. One Word to describe you. Fiery (courtesy of Joanada)
12. Your flickr name. Katitude

1. Japanese Kit Kat, 2. Chicken-Fried Steak on Route 66, 3. Come back home..., 4. Bosque by Twilight Star Trails, 5. trying to take comfort in my favorite leading man in my favorite movie, 6. Bottoms Up, 7. On The Road, 8. there's nothing better than summer, 9. Happy Girls Under a Rainbow, 10. Skylight au Natural, 11. Fireworks Wednesday, 12. Double Nut-flush

More news from nowhere*

2008-06-29T16:57:00.006-04:00

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Martini Goddess and I were not able to connect for the weekend as originally planned.

Damn.

So I was left with no outs, and had to go to a family event. It's funny; even as I kind of dread family get togethers a bit, I'm always very glad I went in the end. We drink, we laugh,we catch up, we play with the kids, we're sarcastic and smart-assed, we call each other out. It's comfortable and there's no drama. (Imagine that, eh?)

Oh, and we eat. My country cousin does pig roasts as a sideline business, so it's no big surprise as to what we had for dinner. Here's my first helping:

Roast beef and horseradish, pork with sausage stuffing, apple sauce, fresh dug new potatoes, baked beans, potato salad, cole slaw and a deviled egg. Oh and a tasty libation to wash it all down with.

I'm still full.

****

What's going on with poker you ask? It's so much SSDD, that's it's not even worth mentioning.

****

And please stop asking if I'm going to the Winter Vegas gathering. Yes, I am planning on going, but there's a lot of water that still has to flow under the bridge. Check with me again in October. Or after I've fully recovered from the Bash.

****

School was done as of last Thursday, and while I'd love people to think I've been lazing about like a lady of leisure, I've actually been deep in client work, trying to get it done so I can then focus on actually being a lady of leisure during the trips I've got planned this summer.

It's a pretty full dance card:

June 30 - July 3: solo ride to Manitoulin Island to hang with my older brother's family, like last year
July 5-6: Up to Orillia and Casino Rama to buy Carson dinner as per the prop bet I lost last week.
July 9-13: OKIE BABY!
July 18 - August 18-ish: Annual Road Trip. This year we're heading to the Alaska Highway, and hopefully as far as the Arctic Circle. No, I haven't found my "I want to stand here" spot yet, but this and this and this and this are in the running. the route looks something like this:

****

*

BTW, the video has girls dancing around brass poles but the naughty bits are covered. You decide if it's NSFW or not.

SSsmokin'!

2008-06-25T10:07:00.002-04:00

Sometimes Keith gets a gig that is right up his alley. And one of the plusses is that when he gets these sweet gigs, he can sign me up as a walk-in.

This week he's mixing monitors at the main stage for the Toronto Jazz Festival. And last night night I got to see these guys:

They were smokin' hot, daddy-o!

Challenging myself

2008-06-23T10:34:00.002-04:00

Yes, I am a PokerSlut

2008-06-22T23:20:00.002-04:00

As if you didn't know that before.

Gadzooks twittered about the new round of games in the PokerSlut tour, and being bored and procrastinating from doing laundry, I joined.

Tnaks guys, it was a fun way to finish off a weekend!

Lions and tigers and lemurs, oh my!

2008-06-22T14:49:00.009-04:00

Yesterday, I went north to join some like-minded degenerates for a charity game to raise some funds for the Bear Creek Exotic Wildlife Sanctuary.

I could not have come up with a better way to spend an afternoon. Seriously, how awesome is this: hanging out on a back deck, overlooking a big yard with a horse paddock beyond it; great conversation; the amazing hospitality of BamBam and Pebbles (you two rock!); some tasty beverages; a great dinner; and a poker game with a long blind/deep stack structure.

So deep it took me almost three whole hours to Gigli. Yeah. NutzCarson outlasted me, so I have to buy him dinner at Casino Rama when we meet up there in a few weeks.

And yes, it tilted me. I hate going out first. But frankly, what happened after dinner made it all better.

As we were finishing a great nosh of roast beef sandwiches with fried onions and a pasta salad, BamBam tells us to hurry, there's a surprise waiting for us over at the Sanctuary. We all mosey down the road a few houses, and turn into a driveway to see a woman bringing out three little white animals.

Mary, who runs the place (which is no longer open to the public), let us play with three week old White Bengal Tiger cubs. I cannot even begin to explain just how fucking cool that was.

After we wore the cubs out, Mary took us for a brief tour of part of her back yard where we saw some of the animals in her care; monkeys, tigers, a 28-lb raccoon, wolves, and emus. I was looking at a bit of fencing through a gap in the trees but was distracted by something Mary said. When I looked at back, I saw this:

Some of the stories Mary told were a bit heartbreaking; animals and children should be protected more than they are.

I was totally fascinated and entranced. There's a feeling that you cannot describe when an adult tiger slowly paces only a few feet from you, stops, meets your glance and gives you a long look. Just because we don't understand animal intelligence, doesn't mean there isn't any.

Mary takes on some volunteers, so I think I'm going to try and head up there over my holidays. She also accepts adoptions and donations by PayPal, so even if you couldn't make it up to play the poker game, you can still help out.

Oh and here's one for Riggstad.....

Ouch :-(

2008-06-16T15:48:00.004-04:00

The ever fabulous Tripjax has a post up that sends shivers through me. And not in a good way. One moment of inattention from one person, and a lot of lives are affected.

My thoughts are with him and his family; drop on by and send some good vibes through the blogosphere.

And to all of you that drive cars, please by all that you hold holy and dear, put down the cell phone, the crackberry, the mascara, the cd, the hamburger, and please pay attention to your driving.

Pretty please.

The new crack

2008-06-16T00:20:00.003-04:00

Full Tilt.
Sit & Go.
$3.50 + .30.
9 players.
300 starting chips.
Super turbo.

Good grief. I can't stop.

I need help.

Behaviours you wouldn't want to see in your kids...

2008-06-14T09:58:00.011-04:00

Lying.
Cheating.
Poor sportsmanship well beyond the range of tilt.
Name calling.
Sexism.
Threats of physical violence.
Hiding behind anonymity to be an asshole to your friends and community.

Hardly honourable traits, are they?

One plus about all the blogger shenanigans over the last few weeks is that an interesting conversation has begun to play out in my head about honour, right, wrong, good, bad, and where I land in thought and deed.

In a truly honest moment of self awareness, I know that at one time or another in my adult life I have done each of the above, all behaviours that have both saddened and infuriated me over the last few weeks when exhibited by other bloggers.

I have been living in one of these:

about to throw a whole bunch of these:

I am in no way condoning this behaviour in myself or in others; as adults we're supposed to be role models. Instead, through laziness and selfishness I/we have become something that I/we should not be proud of.

I'm not going to point fingers or tell people what to do, I'm sure there's justifications and reasons for how people behave. I/we can all be quite creative in coming up with rationalizations for bad behaviours, big and small. All I can do is look at myself, realize how shallow those reasons and justifications are, and do a some internal house cleaning.

And mildly suggest that others might do the same.

Oh, and fuck you all very much for making the start to my vacation an exercise in soul searching, when it should have been far better spent in martini swilling.

Bastards.

Ten weeks, four days

2008-06-12T10:22:00.002-04:00

That's right. 74 days until I have to hear the sound of teenage girl voices in a classroom setting again.

By then I might just miss them.

I get it now.Or at least I get that I'm not going to really get it.

2008-06-10T17:24:00.006-04:00

I read three things today that made me wrinkle my forehead and say "what the fuck?"

They're blogger things, but it doesn't matter what exactly they are precisely. The point is I was perplexed. Puzzled. Bemused. Bewildered.

Then a friend sent me this:

Say no more. I'll just file it all in the same drawer that has the Three Stooges in it and move on.

Math Cash

2008-06-10T09:23:00.002-04:00

It was a light field in the MATH last night, with only 15 players. I guess that accounts for the fact that I managed to ITM in third place.

I found myself the short stack, with both Hoy and H0P having around double my chips. I figured if I concentrated I might be able to chip up and take second. Then I looked at the time, looked at the difference between second and third ($36), looked at my schedule for Tuesday (day before end of school = brutal), looked at the stacks again, and then down at JA. Thought what the hell and played the Asian Jew as badly as one could.

Sorry CK *grin.

I turned off the laptop and all the lights and sat back to watch the thunderstorm that swept through. I don't mind thunderstorms; they used to bother me a bit, but once you ride on two wheels through a big prairie lightning storm complete with hail, experiencing it from the comfort of your living room doesn't seem quite so intimidating.

Last night I invited it in. I opened up a few of the windows and let the wind swirl around the room. The crack of thunder, so close, made me flinch every time even though I knew it was coming, and drowned out the loud rush of the wind in the trees in valley below. Eventually common sense and sleepiness won out, and I closed the windows and blinds and put in earplugs.

I'm not sure if it was the storm winds, the proximity of the end of the school year or a weeks worth of good night's sleep, but I woke up feeling that some of the dreck I've been carrying around since Christmas has dissipated.

About bloody time.

Almost there

2008-06-09T17:56:00.002-04:00

Ok.

I have all the software reinstalled now on the laptop. I even have some of my marking done for tomorrow.

Not all, of course. That would mean I was completely prepared instead of totally procrastinating; the world is not ready for that kind of a shift yet. So I will likely be killing time this week in the usual ways.

During the day I:

click bloglines every 6.2 minutes to check for any new blog posts or WSOP updates from Pauly, Change100, Otis, Shamus, F-train, Falstaff, Pokernews, the Pokerati crew, etc.
re-read Truckin' stories and think that I should get off my ass and get the 4-5 stories out of my head and onto virtual paper. Hey, a new issue is out - go and look!
check Twitter to find out what the other peeps are up to. I'll be honest, I'm still not totally sold on Twitter, but that's a post for another time.
IM a number of people who are listed on Yahoo and so are clearly asking to be interrupted while at work
click the Stumble button a few dozen times for my daily dose of near-random.

At night I:

play online poker.

Now that the BBT is truly over it'll be interesting to see who still plays what. Tonight is Hoy's MATH which I may play. On the one hand I love 6-handed; on the other I can't say as I'm enamoured of the change away from cash prizes to a $216 tournament buyin.

Tuesday is still the Skillz game, which is knockout Limit Stud Hi/Lo this week. Umm... no. There's also the online poker blogger tournament on Bodog that $mokkee hosts, but alas, being from the Great White North means my money is no good there. Rats.

Wednesday is the Mookie as usual, a game which has been near and dear to my heart ever since it was two tables filled with Mookies locals. However Wednesday is also the schools end of year / graduation ceremony, and plans are afoot to go out with colleagues for a few (or more) wobbly pops in celebration of lasting another year. In other words, I won't be playing that one as I'll be getting drunk in some pub or another.

Thursday is the Riverchasers game, Friday is the rebuy madness now known as the Donkament (much to Maudie's horror), Saturday is Dr. Pauly's game on Pokerstars, and Sunday is the Britbloggerment.

Which brings us back to Monday, when the whole thing begins again.

Thank you bloggers, for giving me work-avoidance outs every single day!

Hotter than the fires of a thousand suns

2008-06-08T21:01:00.008-04:00

That is what my skin feels like. I am so sunburned, that I'm surprised to look in the mirror and see bright pink rather than a lovely shade of charcoal. Aloe vera and Hawaiian Tropic ICE are my bestest pals right now.

But I would do it all over again. It's a small price to pay for an extra day with my Sis-In-Law, two nieces and sort-of-nephew before they head back to Calgary.

Playing with them in the pool and hearing the giggles of three- and five-year-old girls was the best thing that could have happened on a hot Sunday afternoon. Throw in cold beer, burgers, and good conversation and it was double plus good. I didn't even care that the aunt I've disowned was there and throwing me dirty looks.

We were supposed to go to a friends birthday barbeque after, but I was too tired and too sunburnt (sorry Tawny, really). Plus was too soggy; someone had forgotten her bathing suit and went swimming in jeans.

Do you have any idea how long it takes jeans to air dry while still being worn? Longer than you think.

****

Anyway, we got home just before six. I half wondered if I'd been blinded out of the BBT3 freeroll yet and while I was tempted to log in and see, I could not bring myself to click on the Full Tilt icon. I did get some updates from NuttzCarson and Pushmonkey, and was amused to get this from Instant Tragedy later:

[20:59] instanttragedy: I hate your computerized self
[20:59] instanttragedy: It sucked out on me THREE times as I tried to take you out during the freeroll.
[20:59] instanttragedy It then OUTLASTED me
[20:59] instanttragedy: :-)
[21:00] instanttragedy: Even gone you still find a way of coming out on top

So it appears I finished 35 of 122. Funny how I do better when I don't actually play a hand. Sigh.

Well now the BBT3 is well and truly over. Congrats to those who got seats, those who won cash and those who won jerseys. And a HUGE gracias to the one and only AlCantHang for not only masterminding this, but for crunching the numbers every damn week.

I'd have to say (now that I'm rested and have a week's worth of distance under my belt) that I'm pretty happy with my BBT3 performance overall. Yeah, I'm still an online donk and likely always will be, and yeah, I played games that I normally would run from, but an end result of 35th out of 422 total players is nothing to sneeze at.

Yes that's right - 35th. Overall. Out of 422. Most of the time I was between 15th and 25th place on the leaderboard, and up until the last week was pretty confident that I could obtain one of those snazzy FT custom jerseys that I would never wear anywhere coz I would feel like a total poser goof.

But no jersey for me. However I did identify some new holes in my game and gained some awareness of how sleep deprivation affects the middle aged female, so it wasn't a total loss.

****

As well as the BBT finishing up this week and games returning to normal, there was a decidedly abnormal disturbance in part of the blogosphere last week. I'm disappointed and saddened by the whole thing. The shame of it is, that this person has effectively cut themselves off from a pretty fucking wonderful group of encouraging and supportive people, IMHO.

****

I got my laptop back today. It's got a shiny new hard drive ($70), and all my data has been fully restored (WAY more than $70).

And while I'm happy that I have my mobile link to the Intertubes back, I can't help but dwell on these facts:

for what was spent on this, I could have bought a newer / faster/ smaller / lighter laptop
I only need the data off of it for another week, two weeks max.

Sigh.

Fuck x about a billion

2008-06-01T12:19:00.002-04:00

Blue Screen of Death.

Safe Mode fail.

Diagnostic tests reveal 17 hard drive error messages.

About 4 weeks of data lost. Assignments, marking, attendance, client work.

Yippee skippee.

Couldn't wait TWO BLOODY WEEKS could it?

****

Folks, take an hour away from your busy day of surfing for porn, WSOP news and Twitter updates and back up your data. Trust me when I say you'll be glad you did.

A delayed response

2008-05-28T15:33:00.003-04:00

Oh Captain asked some questions on his blog a little while back, which I totally missed. And that is a shame because one of the questions was directed at me:

Will Kat really stop hosting the donkament like she said this past week?

No. I won't.

Yes, I get frustrated with it, and yes, I get tired of the same people who manage to tilt me every single solitary time they play it, and yes, I do sometimes let the tilt get the best of me and stomp off threatening to take my toys and go home.

But I won't.

Because as frustrating as it can be, it's always good for a few giggles at the end of the week, no matter what.

Notice

2008-05-28T11:59:00.002-04:00

The internal weather forecast for today is an overall testiness. Predictions call for a general mood of meh interspersed with (thankfully) short bursts of unreasonable anger and (thankfully) brief spells of sadness.

As a result of this forecast, today's work day has been canceled. Recommendations of staying in bed and watching cult movies will be followed forthwith. Thankfully, necessary comestibles have already been purchased.

Fucking hormones.

this, that, the other thing

2008-05-26T13:01:00.003-04:00

This:

I've been almost afraid to post anything for fear of jinxing it, but poker has been going very well over the last few days. There's been

15th in the Riverchasers on Thursday. This brings me up from the 30 overall slot to 27th as of this writing. I've been hovering between 12 and 30 for most of the BBT, and I'm going to be making a serious push for points in this last week as I've had my eye on a custom FT jersey since the damn thing began.
3rd in the Friday Night Blogger Donkament. I actually only rebought once in it, and netted about 30 bucks. Which I promptly lost playing drunken low limit cash poker with Joanada and Buddy Dank.
3 of 4 Tier One token wins
3 of 4 $75 token frenzy wins
1 of 2 Tier Three attempts for T$216 (the other was close...I bubbled when my flopped boat lost to rivered quads. No way you can get away from that one)
made about $130 playing at the .50/$1 limit holdem cash tables.

Here's hoping that this is a sign of an improved game, and not just the poker gods fucking with me again.

That:

The man had Sunday off, and since it was so pretty out we decided to go for a ride. We meandered along and found ourselves along on the east shore of Lake Simcoe. We stopped at a small community park by the water where I lay under the trees while the man made coffee.

He went and chatted up a fellow vintage bike owner, which gave me the chance to go wading along the beach. My toes were very happy to get out of the boots.

And of course, we took a wrong turn and ended up on a remote gravel road. Every time this happens we are treated to something unusual, and yesterday was no exception. We saw a great blue heron flapping inelegantly across the sky, had to slow to allow a few porcupines to cross the road, and saw this off to one side...and no it's not a dog.

The other thing:

Speaking of bikes, I am a licensed motorcyclist again. Went up to a small town north of here to take the road test as I'd have to wait until August to take it in Toronto. It was a bit of a PITA, as the address had changed and the the guy administering the test showed up almost a half hour late.

It would have been nice to know that I was expected to push my bike as dead weight in a figure 8 as part of the test. I'd have made sure that my after market over-sized tank was not full. I did bomb one section, but since I've yet to run into a situation where it's critical that I slalom and snake around a dozen cones at a painfully slow speed, I'm not terribly concerned about it.

Alaska, here I come.

Yummalicious

2008-05-22T13:54:00.007-04:00

A new word was coined by ~~Joanada (I think?)~~ Fuel last night on BDR:

Yummalicious.

Say it with me, and put a purr in your voice..... yuuummmmaaaalicious.

Now there's a ~~sex~~ leather kitten word if I've ever heard one.

Live blogging

2008-05-21T21:46:00.010-04:00

It's been a while since I've live blogged a game, so what the heck.

10:00
I've got dwal78, lightning36, surflexus, rmbj494, jjok, oossuuu754 and recess rampage. This is gonna be fun *grin.

10:09
First playable hand is KK. I get one preflop caller, but lightning folds to my pot bet on the raggy flop. phew.

10:10.
And presto is gold. Who knew?

10:26
stealing here and there = chipping up oh so slowly. Oh hey, for once JJ is OK.

10:30
have 99 here and in the face of dwal's rasies, I'm pretty sure it's not good. Fold. But I get KK right after and get it back.

10:44
my laptop crashes . yay. come back just in time to be moved to a new table.

10:54
ok. I'm pretty sure that 77 is no good with a flop that has AK. Merde!

11:12
Out. A9 < AT.

No BBT points, but for the first time in a week or so, online blogger poker was fun. And that made it all better.

And now for something completely different

2008-05-21T10:44:00.003-04:00

Poker content:

I did something last night I have never done before online: I played a limit cash game. And after tripling my buyin within the first 25 hands I have fallen in love.

And yes, I am aware that this is how the poker gods keep me hooked.

Oh, how did I do in the Skillz game, you ask?

*walks away, the sound of her near-hysterical laughter trailing after her.

It's a process - notes on design (no poker content at all)

2008-05-21T08:54:00.008-04:00

Most of you know I teach; really, if you read this, how could you not. I've also run my own business for the last 10 years both full and part time, where I get to be a total design geek AND get paid for it.

It's pretty damn good when you can make some money with a passion. It helps support my poker passion, something that I do not make money at. Alas.

When I wear my business hat, I do design for both print and www; commercial and informational site design, custom blog templates, newsletters, marketing materials, business cards and logo design.

I love doing logos. It gives me something to sink my teeth into; this is something that all the branding hangs on, that determines the flavour of a business for lack of a better word. I'm not claiming to be the world's greatest graphic designer, far from it, but I've had the opportunity to work with a number of small businesses who have been very happy with what I've done, and I've built up a good, solid portfolio of work.

What I love about doing logos is the process and to be able to marry my geeky side and creative side. One of my design instructors of a course I took at OCAD said, good design is more than just being proficient at software. It needs to be creative, original, and thoughtful as well as technical. So FWIW, here's my process as applied to the Live Poker Radio logo.

Research
First, I like to get a handle on the owner's personality/personalities as this permeates and colours the business. With LPR, I've talked with all the players. Then I take a look at the competition - what does their branding look like? What are they doing well? What works? What doesn't? This is pretty crucial from a copyright standpoint as well. Buddy's design is a good concept but I found other existing logos that incorporate radio iconography inside a poker chip and even though it's not an intentional duplication it could still lead to legal issues down the road.

Inspiration
Once that part of the process is done, it's time to get the creative juices flowing so to speak. Over the last 12 years I've built up a substantial library of reference books, catalogues and magazines like HOW and Communication Arts. I shudder to think how much I've spent on it all, but every time I flip through it for inspiration I'm reminded that it's worth it's weight in gold. I also check out sites like GettyImages.com and do some keyword searches in photography and illustration for more ideas.

Putting pencil to paper
Now I usually have ideas popping all over the place, and start doodling and sketching old school style, with pencil and paper. I'll usually fill 5-10 pages, brainstorming as I go. Then it's time to take a break, and come back to the sketch book with fresh eyes to see what's crap and what's usable.

Colours
While it changes from culture to culture, there's a psychology to colours, to how we perceive them. When I was asked to make the logo three weeks ago, the colours mentioned were red and yellow. There's a solid reason why these colours are used in business logos. Red is an action colour that evokes strong emotions, excitement and intensity; I've listened to LPR and felt red echoed the energy. We pay more attention to red than any other colour...there's a reason why so many businesses use it. I was originally thinking of green there, the colour of money, but green has been successfully co-opted as the colour of environment concerns. Yellow has been shown to increase the metabolism (back to excitement), and since yellow is the most visible color, it is also the most attention-getting color making it good for an accent. Black is used for the text as it's a power colour, and it tends to draw our eyes to text as it's what we are most used to reading. Since the logo is going to be reproduced in print, www and in embroidery I kept the colours strong; gradients can be expensive and tricky to replicate in some media.

Fonts
Since this is mainly going to be used online, I went with sans serif fonts as they are easier to read. Plus I always feel that serif fonts feel a bit old-fashioned, and LPR is anything but. The font of initials is futuristic, making me think of new media and new directions. The text font is strong, and echoes the slight futuristic feel of the other font, and has more interest than boring old Arial or Helvetica.

Creating the file
I love Adobe Illustrator. Adore it. Even more than PhotoShop. It's one of only two software programs I couldn't grok on my own, and had to take a course to stumble up that steep learning curve. I'm always glad of a reason to play around in the software. I originally designed the logo with the radio tower from BDR's original graphic for continuity, but felt it gave everything too much of a retro feeling for a relatively new way of delivering content. I kept the radio waves imagery, but skewed it slightly.

And this is what I ended up with:

It's clean, simple, forward thinking and easy to reproduce. Or at least that's what I was trying to go for *grin.

One weekend, 24 hours of driving

2008-05-20T19:28:00.003-04:00

"What is your reason for traveling to the US? Business or pleasure?"

"Pleasure."

"Are you bringing in anything into the US? Any alcohol? Tobacco? Citrus fruit?" (Citrus? Huh? We don't grow citrus up here!)

" No. No. No." (And please don't look in the cooler where the Cubans are hiding)

"Enjoy your visit."

"Thank you. I think I will."

And I did.

OMG, Fugo de Chao. Jesus. What Al says is true. But I swear I thought the orgasmic cries of a happy carnivore were only in my head. Meat orgy indeed. And no, I didn't have a meat nightmare that night, but it was the most surreal and vivid dream in a very long time. Four days later I am still haunted by it. Too weird to even relay.

Thank you to the Toronto Blue Jays for winning Saturday and Sunday; the TO - Phillies bet with Gracie was the only thing I won all weekend. Poker was not kind. But it was very entertaining, what with Peter the drunken Russian and the Twitter tale.

Ah, Twitter. Alcohol + instant technology = seemed like a good idea at the time.

And driving to Philly falls into the "seems like a good at the time" category as well. Or it did until the 13 hour drive home. That was not so enjoyable. Thank god for audio books.

Big thanks to Gracie and Maudie for hanging out - I needed it! And huge thanks to Donkette for arranging the room at the Tropicana in Atlantic City, and for taking delivery of my bike gear (which fits great and looks kick-ass, photos to come).

Looooooong weekend!

2008-05-16T10:55:00.002-04:00

Happy Victoria Day Weekend to my fellow canucks! Nothing like a statutory holiday to make people happy.

I'm leaving very soon to join some bloggers in Philly and Atlantic City, but wanted to toss out a reminder that the Donkament is tonight. I've signed up, but won't be playing - if all goes according to plan I'll be sitting in a bar in Philly with martini in front of me and blogger conversation around me at the starting time. Sorry it's only a $2 donation rather than the usual $20 *grin.

Have a good weekend, y'all.

soon

2008-05-15T13:48:00.007-04:00

This time tomorrow I will have (hopefully) cleared customs and will be cruising happily along I90 East on my way to meet up with some pals, who like me, need a weekend of fun, booze and poker. We will harass the locals while there, because that's how we (I) roll.

Ipod is loaded and charged, camera is charged, phone is charged. All I need to do is convert some $ to USD and throw some clothes in a bag and I'm ready!

Actually, in my head I was ready about a month ago, but that's another story.

****

As a thank-you to some folks, I offered to pick up treats that one can only get here. Of course I left it to the last minute (quel surprise) and ran out at lunch to pick them up. I found the place with google, and luckily it wasn't far from the school. It's a busy part of town, but the joys of the bike is that I can park it anywhere.

I walked into the store still in full leathers with helmet in hand. The smell hit me as soon as I walked in, dark and smokey, and it reminded me of when I was a kid and Dad would treat himself. I was surprised at how busy it was; there were about 10 men in there.

"Can I help you?", the very attractive young man asked me.

"I hope so. I'm looking for something for some friends of mine. Something...Cuban."

He smiled, and opening the door to the large walk-in humidor, led me inside. The door shushed closed behind us and deadened the other conversations.

"So", he said. "how much do you like these friends?"

"Excuse me?"

"Do you like them $15? or $95?"

Thank god for having worked on my poker face. Otherwise my eyes would done this. I knew they could be pricey, but the thought of basically smoking a hundred dollar bill kinda floored me.

I couldn't stop myself from saying with a smile, "Ninety-five dollars? What's the difference between those and the $15 ones? Are these ones rolled on the bellies of 12-year-old virgins?"

A very long, very drawn out pause while he just stares at me. Just as I think, oh shit, I've stepped in it now, he starts to laugh.

"No, not on their stomachs, you need a hard surface to roll a good cigar. But a lot are rolled by young women as they are more dexterous."

I learn something new every day.

And no, I didn't get the $95 cigars. Nor did I get the $15 either *grin.

Well, so much for that.

2008-05-13T10:27:00.004-04:00

The glass half full experiment is now officially over.

What was I thinking? There are lots of things in my life that I appreciate, but enforced gratitude and making these kinds of lists apparently goes against my nature. This week's attempt to do otherwise is 1) too much like work and 2) apparently a migraine trigger.

We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Oh and Astin, ty for the cocktail .... I'm going to give it a whirl very soon!

Fuck x 20 , AKA glass half full takes a day off before my head explodes.

2008-05-12T14:32:00.009-04:00

Fuck defective alarm clocks.

Fuck drivers who pull out of their driveway without looking to the right. On the other hand, a big yay for good brakes.

Fuck people who give you the finger even when they're in the wrong.

Fuck the Blue Screen of Death.

Fuck the stupid @#&% at reception who keeps installing LimeWire to download music and spyware. And no, I'm not going to fix it again, call the tech guy and wait two days 'til he gets here. And no, I don't care that you can't do your work and you're inconvenienced. It now officially has an SEP field around it as far as I'm concerned.

Fuck the person who has been "sick" seven Mondays of the last twelve, causing me to lose my Monday prep period as I cover her class. Funny how she's never ill any other day of the week.

Fuck students who think I don't see the eye roll.

Fuck people who break in and steal technology from schools.

Fuck parents who think they can tell me what method of transportation to use. "My little Susie may be traumatised if you get in an accident on your motorcycle". AYFKM?

Fuck people who never do a backup, then complain to me when their data is lost.

Fuck people who come home, grab the remote and change the channel to a documentary, right in the middle of a movie I was watching. And then looks at me all innocent like and says "oh, were you watching that?" when I object.

Fuck a fingernail broken below the quick.

Fuck rain when they said it would be clearing.

Fuck Timothy's for their inability to know the difference between a double espresso long and a Cafe Americano.

Fuck whoever stole my new stainless steel water bottle.

Fuck Firefox updates that wipe your preferences.

Fuck officious parking lot attendants who think that the way to job satisfaction is to be bitchy to customers.

Fuck being mother-less on Mother's Day.

DAMMIT! Fuck Blue Screen of Death. Again.

Fuck new clothes that are clearly labeled as bing machine wash- and dry-able, and yet clearly aren't.

Edit: and one more. Fuck feeling like a fool.

Yes! Finally! Some poker!

2008-05-11T20:58:00.007-04:00

The plan on Saturday was to ride up to Rama, goof off a bit, then ride over to the Carson residence for some Tuckfard goodness.

The weather cooperated, and the ride up was 2 hours of back road perfection. Granted, there's not a lot of swervily roads in this part of the world, but I found a few. It was an ideal temperature, warm enough for the Joe Rocket perforated leather jacket I love so much, and cool enough to keep me sharp and alert.

I was seated at a $1/$2 table within 20 minutes of getting there, and within the first hour had almost triple my buyin in front of me.

The first hand was the absolute best. As much I want to layout the hand for you as it was played or even make a clever story about it, I just can't. I really need to bring a notebook with me, as my memory is proving less than satisfactory.

All I really remember is I had pocket 8's, and the flop was K, 8, T rainbow. There were three other players who hung on right to the end, betting/calling through the the turn of a 5, and another 5 on the river. The other players had KA off, K3 s00ted and KT would lose, and I made a profit of $275 with my loverly boat.

It was an awesome first hour... my pocket aces held up, a flopped straight didn't crash and burn, and pocket twos on the BB paid me off big time - Dems Quads Bitches!

I played for about 4 hours, with no more really good pots, some minor losses, some minor wins. The table was good, and one guy who sat down was very amusing. You know the kind; sits down with a Poker Stars hat and a Full Tilt shirt and proceeds to tell us about how great he is as he donks off a buyin on his third hand. Total tool.

I'll admit, it was the confidence booster I needed vis a vis my poker game. But just in case I got too cocky, the seagulls left me a little present to remind me that there's a little shit in every day:

Yep. Dead fucking center. Couldn't help but laugh, as I went back inside for paper towels.

Unfortunately, I had to bail on joining the Tuckfards; not enough liquids and no lunch = nagging headache, the kind that won't go away without major drugs and will turn into a migraine if not looked after. Sorry guys...I will definitely be there next time!

Glass half full, day 6 and 7

2008-05-11T20:06:00.004-04:00

Well technically, this is just about Day 6 (Saturday). Day 7 (today) was spent turning things over in my mind while I watched it rain and play meh poker.

Saturday was awesome. The bike ride to the casino was incredible, but the one back was better. It was about....

some enlightenment. Sometimes it creeps up on you slowly, and sometimes it's like a whack on the side of the head.
some validation. Everyone needs it now and again. Even kickass biker chicks.
my friends. Goddamn, you guys rock. Whenever I feel particularly doubt-ridden and insecure, I look at these people and think, if these chicks think I'm ok, then who am I to argue?
my motorcycle. Or rather what my bike enables me to experience. Those of you that ride know what I'm talking about.

Almost forgot...

2008-05-09T11:30:00.004-04:00

It's Friday, so that means it's donkament night. I have a at least $20 worth of poker and technology tilt to work off, so join me for therapy and take advantage of me.

A week from today

2008-05-09T09:32:00.004-04:00

A week from right now, I'll be sitting at this desk in the computer lab, feeling like a high strung racehorse at the gate; fidgety and eager to be off.

A week and two hours from right now, I'll be bolting out the door and beginning an 8-hour drive so I can spend the Victoria Day Weekend hanging out with I FF's who are no longer so invisible.

This weekend is like a beacon. I know I'm indulging in escapism, and that the things preying on my mind will still be there upon my return, but fuck it. That's what vacations are for.

****

And speaking of IFF's it looks like a planned trip to a casino is morphing into a spontaneous last minute plan to hook up with the northern Tuckfards for a game. AND it's supposed to be a nice day, which means getting there on the bike will be a huge bonus.

Pokertart, Bankwell...what are you guys up to tomorrow?

****

Glass half full experiment, day 5.

I'm a bit disconcerted at how hard it is to for me to come up with 5 positive things a day versus the usual 500 negative things a day. This is already a whack on the side of the head for me and has given me much to ponder about my outlook on life. Thank you Annie..... I think *grin.

Today I am thankful for where I live. I love Toronto; it's been Home with a capital H since I moved here 25 years ago. I am thankful for

Kensington Market
the islands
innovative architecture like the ROM's Crystal and the OCAD addition, that make you thing and bring new textures to the visual city.
a downtown that stays vibrant even after the commuters go home
Discovery Walks and trails
the Distillery District and Perigee resturant
being by the lake
Merchants of Green Coffee
Evergreen and the summer market
the multiculturalism that mostly works
Lee's Palace
Joe the bartender, his martinis, and the view at the Rooftop Bar of the Park Hyatt
the chip trucks at City Hall
Eh-Vegas and poker degenerates

Glass half full, day 4

2008-05-08T09:28:00.003-04:00

Today's list is brought to you by my favourite colour.

I am grateful for the following because they always give my soul a boost on a bad day (or any day for that matter):

dark red nailpolish, like Royal Rajah Ruby by OPI
the sight of a red cardinal
my watch with the animated red flames that lick up the face
MAC's Viva Glam lipstick
My new red top that hugs my slightly-more-svelte curves and makes me feel very delicious.

Last night's poker in two sentences

2008-05-08T08:48:00.003-04:00

Mookie: KK < 9Th

Dookie: 2 pair < rivered flush

I'm just going to leave it there - you're all clever enough to read between the lines.

What $600 worth of bike gear looks like

2008-05-07T15:28:00.004-04:00

Silly Donkey

2008-05-06T23:30:00.008-04:00

to paraphrase Quentin Tarantino:

~ You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?
~ You know, for a second there, yeah, I kinda did.
~ Silly donkey. Razz is not for you.

Played the Razz installment of the BBT3 Skillz game last night. Why? I have no reason to report other than the fact I am a deeply disturbed little donkey.

Sigh.

Tonight is my favourite, the Mookie, and if I can stay awake, I'm in!

****

Today was worth getting out of bed because (aka experiment day 3):

of the unexpected and unsolicited "I love you" text message.
of the taste of a Kraft caramel, which brought me back to the first summer I spent away from parental control and reminded me of all the things I learned then.
the new hair conditioner leaves my hair feeling like it has not been coloured every month for the last 29 years.
after 7 years, I still love where I work, who I work with and what I do. The previous record was 10 months.
my grade 12 class wanted to watch this, which sparked a really interesting conversation about animation techniques, Disney, the Disnification of imagination, and racial stereotyping in North American cinema. Me, all I could remember was being a kid and the treat of seeing a real movie with my family.

WSOGMM

2008-05-06T14:31:00.004-04:00

Freebie:
The new Nine Inch Nails release, The Slip, is out and available as a free download under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial share alike license.

****

I am not a huge video game person, never have been. Don't get me wrong, I'll play them sometimes and have a blast, but I'm not so into them that I'll buy one. However, I am SUCH a techno weenie that this has convinced me that maybe I should look into buying some Wii bits. Holy fuck, is that cool!

****

You'll never guess what happened last night.

I ITM'ed in the MATH. Admittedly, it was by the skin of my teeth; while I know I need to loosen up and be more aggressive in the late stage, I still went the other way and tightened up to the point of near paralysis as I watched my stack be blinded away.

And that's one of the things I love about poker...it always changes as there's always some new aspect to learn and master.

****

Today (day 2 of my experiment), I am deeply appreciative of:

Nick Cave
TED talks
spontaneous hugs from small children
being raised with spirituality rather than Religion
Spring after a long Winter
friends that can cut through the crap to the heart of things
red winged blackbirds

I am the new Waffles!

2008-05-05T20:10:00.001-04:00

Lets review....

my record for online cashes speaks for itself
I go off on a total tilty rant at the drop of a hat
I have a secret, unidentified back for some BBT3 events.

I rest my case.

Props

2008-05-05T09:24:00.002-04:00

Huge props to Riggstad, Perticelli, Instant Tragedy, Buddy Dank, and all those behind Live Poker Radio.

I couldn't listen to all the day's coverage of the Borgata's $500k Deep Stack tournament (Action Man made me go outside on a warm sunny day and go for a walk), but what I heard was funny, interesting and professional.

Well done!

Is there even a glass?

2008-05-05T08:41:00.004-04:00

It's been a bit of a mess inside my head the last few months. Hormones and situations have had me oscillating wildly between glass half full and glass half empty. Sometimes within the space of a few seconds. It's exhausting. I can only imagine how tiresome it is to be around me.

So I'm adopting a strategy from another blog I read, Jesus' Favourite. I found her blog through Wil Wheaton, and immediately added her to my bloglines as her writing is snappy and very funny.

Jesus' Favourite, in an effort to rid her head of "vomit and Smith's songs", is running a 30 day experiment to post something she's grateful for every day, no matter how big or small. She's encouraging her readers to share their I'm-grateful-for items, but I'll leave that up to you if you want to toss something in the comments or not.

Here goes. 5 things a day for 30 days. Surely I can come up with 150 things, both big and small, that make it worth getting out bed in the morning.

Day 1:

The morning coffee ritual with Hunny Bunny. He brings me coffee in bed on the mornings that he is home, and we look out over the city and talk. I honestly think it's these conversations that truly cement us together. Plus it helps me get my ass out of bed almost cheerfully.
Living in a big city that has wild spaces.
The feel of well-worn bike leathers. Especially well-work bike leathers that are now a size too big.
Smart ass girls. The world needs more of them.
Burt's Bees Pomegranate Lip Balm.

Good luck to:

2008-05-03T12:48:00.003-04:00

The blogger degenerates at Weekend at Mookies - have a blast, make notes for the trip report so the rest of us can live viariously. Oh, and operators will be standing by for Dial-A-Shots!
LJ and Lucko in the Borgata 500,000 game tomorrow.
The boys behind Live Poker Radio and their inaugural episode as they cover the Borgata game.