Bloggers and poker

Wil Wheaton's blog had a post mentioning that pokerstars.com is having a World Blogger Championship of Online Poker. It's a freeroll, and all I have to do is place an ad on my page and I'm in. So, without further ado, here it is:

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 4045295

It should be fun. It's actually a pretty good deal for all parties involved. Pokerstars.com gets free advertising dusted across blogtopia and undoubtedly just as many posts from bloggers reporting their results. And bloggers get a free chance to win a variety of poker/blogger related swag. Also, as Mr. Wheaton so aptly pointed out in his blog, the above linkage is SEOtastic and likely to draw in new readers to blogs that post it.

I don't expect to place too highly in the event itself. Freerolls of this magnitude tend to be fraught with such perils as the allinornothing bombers, the neverraiseneverfold minefields, and the undead money (bad players who become dangerous with irrational, unpredictable moves). It should be fun though. First place is entry into, travel to, and housing for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, a tournament on Paradise Island. So, for the next week, I can entertain dreams about island antics, and that'll be fun for me. I'll make sure to post my results after the freeroll.

I'm grateful for Pushing Daisies (20).

Punkass chicken or chickenass punk?

Yup. I'm a scaredy cat. So there's a job that was posted on Friday, and I didn't apply for it until just now. A good job for me. I'd been telling people that I'd already applied for it even though I hadn't. Why didn't I apply for it? Did I feel underqualified? Was I afraid of being rejected again? No. . . Actually, I think I'm afraid I'll get it. From what I can tell, it's basically the same job that I'm doing right now, it's just for a paper that will let me work 30 hours a week instead of just five. It's a small, local-type of paper that wants a reporter to produce content on the area high school teams. Exactly what I'm doing now.

Oh, and it's in Ohio.

I hate the idea of leaving Michigan for two reasons. First, Michigan is running into some serious economic and social issues because the kids who've grown up in Michigan and then graduated from Michigan colleges and universities are all leaving to get jobs in other states. It's a serious problem. I don't want to do that because this state has been good to me; it's my home.

The biggest reason I don't want to leave, though, is that all of the people who I care the most about in this world live in Michigan. Some of them I see seldom enough as it is. What happens when I add five or six hours to the drive? Maybe I've discussed this already? I'm not sure. . .

Lacing this leavingthestate fear of mine, however, is a sugary optimism that paints the new setting as the place where I will flourish and become who I've always wanted to be. I was indulging in an extended version of this fantasy (I had a book published within a year, I was a yoga instructor, I was promoted through the belt progression faster than anyone in the history of my new dojo, my phone was overloaded with new numbers, etc., etc.) when I finally sent in my application. Can't see if the fantasy will ever come true if I don't pursue it, huh?

So, I'll keep you posted.

I'm grateful for flights of fancy (20).

Cute

So I haven't posted much lately. I don't really have any news as of late. I have possible news (a job application that I expect to hear back about), but nothing that's actual news just yet. But I do have a cute story about my nephew.

My grandmother is in town from Arizona and tonight all of the in-town family came and we ate Chinese food together. The Chinese place we go to doesn't deliver, so my mom and I went to pick it up. When we got back, my mom announced that it was time for dinner. Hearing this, my nephew ran into the kitchen.

"It's food!" he said.

Now, I'm not accustomed to him speaking in full sentences just yet. So I often prompt him to either repeat what he's just said or to say something else. "It's what?" I asked.

"Chicken butt."

I hope you all can imagine how hilariouscuteawesome it is to hear a child who's just starting to speak respond to a what question with 'chicken butt,' because, wow, that might top a list of good things to be categorized later. I guess my brother's been working with him on the chicken butt thing for a bit now. Totally worth it.

I'm grateful for my nephew, chickenbutt (20).

Nerdgasm

Halo 3 and Heroes. I repeat: Halo 3 and Heroes. Halo 3 and Heroes. Halo 3 and Heroes. Halo 3 and Heroes. Both in the same night. Last night. Yeah. Somewhere, a huge group of nerds must have done the most amazing thing in order for karma to put together a night with both the season premier of Heroes and the release of Halo 3. Thank you, altruistic nerds, for your good deeds that prompted the universe to such ecstatic heights.

So my brother, mehen, and I have been planning for the release of Halo 3 for a while now. We set up our very own mancave in my brother's basement, fully equipped with microwave, refrigerator, goodbutnotgreat sound system, and a couple of recliners. Mehen pointed out that we've recreated the dorm experience pretty well down there. All we need is a hot plate and a splendid array of soiled laundry to really flesh out the motif. We of course also made plans to buy the video at 12:01 when the game first hit stores for sale to the general public.

The evening started out with my brother's family and mehen's family all coming over here for pizza. The idea was that if we all got together, the agony of waiting until 12:01 would somehow be lessened. It was like the night before Christmas. But worse because there wasn't any chance of any of us sleeping for any amount of time before the hour arrived. So we all got together and paced around for a bit, watched the kids pound on each other, ate pizza. . .

Then we went to the mancave, played some Halo 2, watched some of the various Halo 3 promotional preview type things, watched the old triumph at the opening of Star Wars because the release of Halo 3 promised to have many things in common with the premier of a Star Wars movie, and basically wasted some time. Then at a little after eleven we went to the store. There was a pretty big line of dudes in t-shirts and shorts already cued up and waiting for the moment. It was kind of funny, when a girl showed up, everyone watched her as she made her way to the back of the line. What's a girl doing here? A chick that plays Halo? That is so hot. And so on, as the dudes pretended not to be looking at her.

Anyway, I've dragged this on for long enough. The game kicks ass. A lot of ass. If you have some ass, don't get it too close to the game because it will get kicked. . . We played through the beginning of the campaign (co-op) mode, and it was all Halo, just tweaked from the last time we encountered it. As often happens with the cooperative mode, we started off screwing around, experimenting with all the shinyshiny coolness, and of course attacking each other. Then when we got into actually playing the game seriously, we started accidentally attacking each other. In the new version of the game, the button that you used to use to reload is now used to throw some special grenade-type weapons. So we'd all be standing in a group when someone would decide to try to reload and "Damnit! Who did that?" Fun.

Heroes was really good too. I'd write about it, but I fear that many of my readers have already been turned off by this outpouring of nerdocity. So I'll leave you with some gratitude.

I'm grateful for. . . well. . . you know. . . nerd stuff. . . (20).

Still changing

I'm still working on figuring out a new template for this little blog o' mine. . . I was getting tired of the original. So I changed to the one I had up briefly over the weekend. But I didn't like it. So here's another one. Maybe I need to go back to the original? I don't know. I just don't know. . .

Everything changes

I think the changes I've made are pretty obvious. I mostly wanted to use this post to point out that in a fit of blogger solidarity I've linked to some of my favorite blogs off to the right there. If you happen to run one of those blogs and want me to take down the link, let me know. Also, if you happen to know of any other cool blogs that you think I would like, point me toward them. I always enjoy myself a blog or twenty. . .

Talk like a pirate day

I just missed it. If Last Comic Standing had been one hour instead of two tonight and I had been able to watch Top Chef at ten instead of eleven, this post would be busting with arrs and mateys and me timbers would have most certainly been shivered. But since it's tomorrow already, you're all stuck with my regular, notpirate voice. Sorry.

So, I may have finally started looking into something that I should have been looking into a long time ago. Freelance writing. A bit ago, z-man pointed me to a freelance posting in a video game magazine, and I applied for that. Then, after the idea of freelancing percolated for quite a while, I realized, 'Hey, maybe there are other freelance writing jobs out there.' Hell yes, there are other freelance writing jobs out there. Cool ones. Related to subjects that I not only know about but am passionate about as well. Awesome. Procrastinator, writer for hire. A mercenary writer. Were pirates mercenaries? That's right. It's coming.

Avast ye landlubbers! Thar be writers thar!

I'm grateful to live in a time when pirates are jokes instead of thieving, killing menaces to society (20).