Ready for Hammond!

Well...it's Saturday. Great slate of games in college football today, and the MLB playoffs have begun. Well, they didn't get off to a very smooth start, as Chipper Jones had his career possibly cut short by one of the worst calls I've ever seen in a playoff game.  What's up with all the horrendous officiating calls in sports? And in big spots?

Last year I did a thing where I picked games for shits and giggles. I was GOING to do that again. And probably would have...when I sat down at 10am to write this. But oh! No! Forget that. This week has been dominated by me setting up the new Dell I bought three weeks ago. To do this, I have to transfer a shit ton of info from my computer to the new one. Then...I always give Squirrel my hand-me-down...and this one, an XPS, was the nicest one she's ever been about to inherit.

So I think I've got it all finished and all of them set up. Put her current Dell in the office closet. Figure out right away that my new one is schizophrenic. It has a smaller keyboard, which right away I found annoying. But it has this glitch, where it kept hopping around the page, despite not hitting anything to prompt it to do that. I'm in an Excel file..and its just bouncing all over the page. Bout ripped my hair out. Sat down here to blog...and it kept deleting entire paragraphs just for no reason, or who skip all the way back up the page and land in the middle of a word in the middle of a sentence. So I'm blogging on my wife's new one....a.k.a. my old one. After three unsuccessful, rant-filled calls to Dell today, I'm sending the new one back. I just don't know what I'm going to replace it with. Maybe nothing. Maybe just go back to using my old one. Wait for Windows 8 to come out (very soon). Maybe switch to a Mac. 

Okay, enough of that boring shit. Sorry. Just venting mostly. Before I go any further, there is something I need the poker players and acquaintances here in the Biloxi area to know about. This wife of mine...she is a real sweet woman. There are a couple of young guys...I guess one of them works or worked at the Beau at one time. He has a brother...really nice guy, one of those guys who never really caught all the breaks in life...you know, sort of the underdog...but would always help anyone who needed a hand. I met this guy 5 years ago when him and his brother helped Cheryl move from her apartment into our current house. I won't lie, I didn't know him very well...but from all the posts I've read in the past three weeks on Facebook from all the people who did know him...he was a really great kid. Him and his brother lost their parents...and there were all each other had. So the bond between them was incredible.

Well...about 5 months ago, this guy...Billy Bridges, suffered a cut on his arm. Like a lot of guys do, he just tried to 'shake it off.' Hoping that as the days went by, and a scab formed...it would heal up naturally. And he thought it had.  It hadn't. He started feeling very sick. Finally, he went to the hospital. To make a long story short, he had suffered a bad infection. It spread to his heart, where it destroyed one of his valves. He had to get a valve transplant. He was in the hospital for weeks. Finally, they thought he was all healed. Again, he wasn't. He had another setback. Last month, the kept him in the hospital for three weeks, trying everything to fix the problem. I think I was in Bossier City when I got the text from Cheryl..."Billy died last night...I'm so sad..." And I thought about her and the way she had described him the week before. I didn't know the kid too well, but it made me sad too.  The next day, also in Bossier City...I got a text from my step sister in Washington State....letting me know that my 99-year old Grandmother Marie had passed away. Needless to say, it was not a real great weekend. Actually got that message in the middle of that Omaha tourney I ended up final tabling.

So, Cheryl, and a few of her friends have organized a benefit to help raise money to simply pay for Billy's funeral services. And they are also going to celebrate his life...try to put a positive spin on it. Just listening to her talk about him...and the posts I've read on Facebook, make me wish I'd known Billy better. Well, she is going down to The Filling Station, (click the link to see where they are located) which is a popular hangout that our friend Jerry owns (for about three years now) to help get everything set up for the day long benefit. They will have all kinds of food, raffles for prizes and gifts...and a (forgive me if this isn't the right term) jumpy bounce thing for the kids. I am hoping there isn't a weight and/or height restriction on that...because I might have to get in that thing and go mental. They have TV's at the Filling Station...so if you are worried about missing your NFL game...don't. If you a single guy looking to meet some single ladies, there will be a lot of them probably, from the Beau Rivage. So whatever your reasons are...if you are free tomorrow, get down there and see if you can't help the girls out with their benefit. I know that Carley and I will pack up the 4Runner about 1pm and go down there for as long as she will behave.

Speaking of Squirrel. Ya know, since she moved to dayshift to make for a better schedule with Carley, she has been making barely anything. Well, that is bad in itself. But then today...guess where she got to work again? Oh yeah...if you read my blog...you know. That damn penny slot section with the 28 busses of hood rats that the Beau Rivage brings in from Atlanta and New Orleans. I would love to sit down over a cup of lava with the manager that came up with this as a good idea. Yes. I said lava.

Did you watch the debate the other night with Curious George and Mitt the Mormon? It was, well...it was your typical debate, I guess. My biggest observation was that Mitt seemed like he'd tasted his first sip of alcohol or overloaded on caffeine for the first time before going on stage, and Barack seemed like he was riding the X-train...and no I'm not talking about ecstasy, but rather, Xanax. I spent most of the night looking at the top of his head. What the fuck was he looking down at? And you know how they put this tiny little ear devices in their ear? I just have to wonder if he was wearing one of those...to tell him what to say. Because the Barack I saw at the debate, and the Barack I saw at his little pep rally the next day in Denver, which was hysterically staged so that we conveniently saw nothing but whites and Hispanics with the occasional Asian in the crowd directly behind him...but not ONE black person....were like two different people. I just feel like Obama is one big creation by his handlers. Put him on a stage with not script and/or teleprompter and he just fizzles. I mean, lets be honest. Does anyone? Seriously...ANYone...really think this guy has a clue what he's doing? I saw what I thought was an excellent post by a guy I respect quite a bit the other day...below one of my Facebook posts. Thought I would share it. 

Tom Sullivan this is no exaggeration; If Obama came to me 6 years ago and asked for a job...I wouldn't have hired him. If Romney came to me and asked for a job...I would have immediately named him CEO, given him an equity position in the company, and sat on a beach. Is he a boring robot? Yes. Is he a good campaigner? Not even close. Does he know how to build things? Fuck yeah. Is he a brilliant man. Hell yes. Obama is merely a celebrity and a good campaigner. He's a delusional, incompetent liar who counts on our apathy, on our willful ignorance, and he plans strategies around it. He tries to figure out how much he can get away with because of it. He counts on the blind support of all who envy what others have. Obama is a liar. He purposefully positions his opponents with non-truths. 

 

He loves that blind faith democrats will just start shouting that Bush was a moron and Romney is an evil rich guy. The largesse of the media are so upset that they missed the social revolution of the 60's...they can't recover from the unfortunate reality that the timing of their birth denied them the right to have a direct impact on the civil rights movement. So...they decided to prove how valuable they are to the cause. They decided that it's more important to be a part of history (that being the election of Obama) than it is to see, at least, the lesser of many incompetents into the seat of power (the White House). The lion's share of the media convinced the lemmings of the populace to vote for a man who disdains much of what has made this country great. 

 

The talking haircuts...wait...the haircuts that know how to read TelePrompTers...were enamored by a man who can...you guessed it...read a TelePrompTer. And they mistake that for greatness...because...they mistake themselves for greatness. And that's all they do...they read teleprompters. They believe in their own pseudo-intellectuality. Meanwhile, people like us...who've built companies and employed hundreds of people (all of whom have healthcare)...we're just meant to keep forking over truckloads of money to pay for the needy (I'm okay with that) but also the lazy, the incompetent, the corrupt, the fraudulent and the illegal. And...we're supposed to be honored to do so...and we aren't "patriotic" if we don't do it with a smile on our face and a deep reverence for the beer-swilling pouch-bellied dingos in DC. 

 

I say this. Fuck you Obama. Drop dead Barney Frank. Eat shit Nancy Pelosi. And yes, Bush is a moron. It's his fault, as much as the medias, and the idiocy of the majority that voted for Obama, that we're In this ever-deepening shit/federal debt....a debt that Obama is determined to multiply innumerably. Do I want to hang out with Romney? Hell no. Do I think or know for a fact that he can manage the hell out of budgets. Fuck yeah. He's proven it. if you give a shit about your children's future...that's what you'd be thinking about.

 

 

I read that post...and was like..."You know, Tom...that pretty much nailed a LOT of things on the head as far as the way I feel about Barack and his position in our government. I sit here and watch these assholes email us asking for (excuse me MOOCHING) our contribution...and it hasn't just been for a few months, these pricks have been asking for money SINCE HE TOOK OFFICE! It's been a 4-year re-election campaign...all while our country has fallen deeper and deeper into debt, the wars in the Middle East have just gotten more costly and more confusing...and our unemployment rate has skyrocketed. Oh...yeah, I saw the jobs report yesterday. Claiming we added 107,000 jobs last month. I wonder...who puts out those reports? How are they determined? Let me guess...there is no WAY they could be influenced or manipulated to benefit, say...the sitting President...right? This coming on the heels of reading that this week, our own government, back in the late 50's, set up a blower on a rooftop in a shitty neighborhood in East St. Louis, and blew an experimental gas over the residents there...telling them they were testing a 'smoke screen' designed to confuse the Russians in the event of a bombing attack. Well, for the past 40 or 50 years...these people have been suffering from all kinds of different forms of cancer and dying like crazy.

 

This from the same country who made SUCH a big deal about Hitler gassing his own citizens and Saddam using chemical weapons against his own people. Yeah...our leaders aren't quite the 'saints' they'd like you to think they are. Ever heard of a place called Plum Island? No? Google it! It's incredible the shit our government has done to members of our own military, all in the name of gaining an edge on our foreign adversaries. I'm sure they would chalk it up to 'collateral damage all in the name of preserving our freedom.' Yeah, okay...right. I just call it good 'ol fashioned murder. But that's me. I'm silly like that. I think everyone deserves to live a life where they are afforded the same rights as everyone else. And doesn't end up in a research lab. Or on a battleship or destroyer being parked downwind from a nuclear test just to 'test the effects' of fallout from a predetermined distance. Yeah...nice, sorry about your hair loss and your failing internal organs sir. Thanks for your service. 

 

I am not making this up. Some of you likely read this story. Our OWN FUCKING government...experimenting on our own citizens. With chemical weapons (essentially). And I know that has nothing to do with Obama. (yet) But it makes me think about the UFO in Roswell, and a litany of other things...like the JFK assassination. I grew up loving the USA. I never questioned our leaders. I never doubted the direction we were headed as a country. I bought into the whole 'Freedom' and 'Patriotism' song and dance that we were taught as kids. But the older I get, the more I learn, the more I find out...I just get more and more cynical. Does anyone NOT want to trust their leaders? I don't think so. But I really think we are getting closer and closer to the day when our government just flips a switch and sends us spinning out of control into an existence that none of us will be able to defend ourselves against. And this scares the hell out of me. Especially with a new daughter. What kind of fucked up world is she going to grow up in?

 

So, who am I voting for? Shit...I have no idea. Why is it that we can't have a clear cut straight-shooting GOOD GUY who runs for President? Oh...yeah, I know why! Because our leaders are determined by who the party decides to prop up there as their candidate. It's all guided by money, and who can raise the most of it. It sucks. That bullshit we tell our kids? About thinking that even THEY can grow up to be the President? Horseshit. They have a better chance of being Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

 

Sorry...got a little carried away there. If I offended you...sorry. Sort of. 

 

Wanna talk poker? Don't really have much to tell you...other than I've been getting my dick kicked into the dirt playing on Lock. I don't know man...I just refuse to believe that ANYONE is capable of running good online using basic skill and strategy to succeed. Now if you have cheat software? Or have a way of knowing certain outcomes? Or can get 4 guys together to sit in on a 6-handed table and fuck people up? Yeah okay...maybe those guys can make a profit, even a living playing on line. Bottom line? Playing on line makes me want to punch things. And people. And break shit. And smash things. It's a joke. Then there is all the imbeciles attempting to talk smack. You know...I don't mind getting into with a guy if he is even half way decent at giving it back. But the ridiculous comebacks these clowns on line throw at you? It's like...that makes you even more angry and irritated.

So, last time I posted, I mentioned I was selling shares for the event in Hammond. Whoops. I woke up and had PayPal money already from 3 people and 6 emails from people wanting to invest. And then I had the ONE email I should have seen coming. While in Bossier City, I got a message from a 'certain person' expressing an interest in buying 'all of my action' for Hammond if I decided to go to Hammond. Well, to be honest, I wasn't sure this person was serious. Especially about ALL my action. So when I saw the email from this person, I felt kind of embarrassed, and a little ashamed. I should have completely floated the proposal to them first. My bad. So I fixed the problem...with kid gloves. After all...how many poker players out there would like to have this problem? Like...uh...most of you? But there certainly is no guarantee that ANYONE is going to stick with you for the long haul, so best not to burn any bridges for the future. So I was mindful of that as I notified everyone and let them know that this event was closed.

So...yeah. I'm going to Hammond. And coming with me...all on the same flight...is a real cast of characters. Claudia 'The Claw' Crawford...who is going through kind of a much-talked about breakup with longtime boyfriend/fiance Gabe Costner...and could use a little time away from the Biloxi scene....my buddy Barth Melius from New Orleans...who I last 'poker-ventured' with in Vegas last spring, and Mr. Landry...a.k.a. Lord Puddingsworth...will be joining us. I managed to get us all booked on the same flight...out of New Orleans on Wednesday around noon, getting us in to Chicago around 4pm...where I have arranged for a limo to pick all four of us up and take us to our hotel...where we have two rooms right next to each other. I'm psyched for this trip. Should be a lot of fun. The turnouts should be huge. Some run good would really hit the spot right before the holidays! We have dreamed up a little idea that I plan to videotape and run up the flagpole on YouTube and Facebook and here if it comes out as good as I think it might. Keep your eyes peeled.

LSU lost today at Florida. This makes me extremely happy. I get so sick and tired of listening to LSU fans talk their irritating smack. They should have lost to shittass Auburn last week, who got pummeled today by horrendous Arkansas. So just how bad does that make LSU? I don't know...they did KILL my Washington Huskies...which was just...well, football is weird. 

Speaking of my Huskies? They are about to probably get murdered by Oregon. So...I'm gonna wrap up this blog post...and go watch that game...while finishing up a little paperwork. Probably won't hear from me again until I'm up in Hammond...and God only knows what laptop I'll be working on!

MONKEY