Hella Hold'em

I haven't played a MTT in a while... OK, so 2 tables isn't exactly breaking the "multi" bank, but hey. I want to get to sleep at some point tonight (cuz we all know THIS IS MY TIME! I'm gonna ROCK THIS THING!) ha!

I've got a 20" monitor and a 24" monitor, and I can't seem to get comfortable. Bah. Windows feel disorganized. My head is twisted the wrong way. Man, I've got problems!!!

iTunes is on shuffle...

We had some wicked storms roll through here tonight. The tornadoes missed me (that's always a good thing, and it was too dark to take pictures anyway, so I don't mind). I was hoping to get some cool lightning photos, but no such luck. It was all flashy, not streaky. I see some lightning on the horizon now - maybe I'll get lucky tonight.

Loose table so far... 4 or 5 to each flop. One guy out already. (It's the 4th hand).

I've been trying out the hand-coloring technique (photography) using these photo markers I got at the craft store. It was one of the techniques we covered in the experimental photography class I took this summer. I want to give it a fair shake before I write it off completely (no pun intended). I generally suck at coloring, but hand-coloring can be an imprecise, which bodes well for my suckage. I colored a photo tonight that I took in Boston. Not sure what I think of it. I colored it, scanned it, then applied the Holga simulator in Photoshop. (I'm in love with the Holga simulator. More to follow).



So this Holga thing... if you haven't heard of them, they're these cheap plastic cameras with plastic lenses. They have a bit of a cult following due to the unexpected results you can achieve with the crappy lens and the light leaks and whatnot. Yes, some people call this "art." I love what I've seen so far. There's a Photoshop action to simulate the misframing and weird vignetting and strange blur effects of a Holga (as seen above). I've just finished shooting my first roll of film with a Holga 120. It's 120 format black and white film. I haven't developed it yet. I'm not sure if I have a 120 reel for my film tank. I'll have to dig around in the box of stuff I inherited. I've got 2 things in mind to do with Holga stuff: 1) mod my Holga camera to take 35mm film, and 2) buy a Holga lens body cap for my Canon Digital Rebel XTi. I really love the look.

If you don't have Photoshop and would like to try out the Holga effect on a photo, there's a free online Holganizer!

One of my BIGGEST poker pet peeves: When someone's all in versus 2 opponents. Normally, the 2 opponents should check it down to increase the likelihood of knocking the 3rd person out. The exception is when one person actually has a hand and wants to try and make some money, or has a hand he/she would rather take on heads-up, but WHY would you min-bet the other person out of the pot when you have nothing but QUEEN HIGH?!?! I know why. BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT YOU'RE DOING!

/end rant

I like to see cheap flops.

And now, it's attack of the clones who can't do anything but hit the "bet pot" button. Arg!!!

The donks are sucking me to a slow death.

But the iTunes is doing pretty well tonight with the shuffle. Soul Asylum on now. Nice.

What you beyotches don't know is, I'm going out on MY TERMS! Eat that, punks!

22 - here we go!

vs AJ

SET

BOAT

And I live to play another hand!

Reading on how to mod a Holga 120 into a 35mm Holga...

KK all in... one call... vs AK.... I win! Yay!

The mod doesn't look hard at all. I wonder if I have any foam pieces laying around somewhere. Looks like a non-permanent mod, too, in case I want to shoot medium format again. The thing is, I'd like to shoot color, and I don't have color processing equipment at home, so I'd have to rely on the local photo shops, and it's hard to get anything but 35mm processed around here anymore.

Hells yeah, Smoking Popes! I <3 my iTunes.

Final table... haha out of 18 :) Still on life support. But I have a whole orbit to pick a hand.

Fantastic! 66 vs KQ, doubled up!

So, I got Adobe Lightroom 2.0. I religiously used LR 1.0, and I'm already so impressed with version 2.0 that I wouldn't go back to version 1 if you paid me. (Well, MAYBE if you paid me). Thomas Hawk did a nice write-up on the 10 Best Things About the New Lightroom 2.0. It's good stuff.

Ahh, Billy Joel...

Sorry guys. I just folded a hammer. I feel like a hypocrite every time I do.

I'm just over 10xBB with 6 people left. 4 places pay.

1 more out, though I'm the bottom. Gotta double up and hope somebody else knocks out.

Faith No More is takin' me through!

I'm going to miss Pauly's blog-birthday game. I have no funds on PokerStars. Booo :(

There's my double up, against a scooby. People really surprise me. I'm 3rd of 5. Looks like somebody didn't click the "I'm Ready" button for break....

I tried out extension tubes for some macro photography yesterday. It's a nice way to get into macro cheaply, but there are some disadvantages to buying a dedicated macro lens. The cheapo tubes disable auto-focus and aperture control, though that didn't really bother me, as I probably shoot 30% of my work with manual focus anyway, and the depth of field is so tiny that aperture control doesn't help much.  The most difficult thing was that with my 50mm lens, which has a short minimum focus distance of about 11 inches anyway, the minimum focus distance with the tubes was a couple inches, tops! I used my body to focus, moving forward and back as necessary to try and get sharp focus, but it was tough. I thought of getting out the tripod, but I was shooting a bee on a sunflower, and didn't want to miss the shot. Here's what I came up with:






Arg Full Tilt is throwing me all these juicy hands that I just can't play this short!!! And the short stack doubled up, booo. I'm still 3/5 but it's crowded here at the bottom.

U2... Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses

Yeah baby, ITM! Time for a comeback, eh?

Doubled again. DMB. Bring me home, Dave baby!

Jake here is a crazy blind stealer. It seems to work for him but he also calls way too many all-in's with inferior hands. Bad habit.

Can't do much with Q7o and T3o.

Before These Crowded Streets is my favorite Dave Matthews Band album of all times. I'm heading to Milwaukee to see them at Alpine Valley Music Theater this weekend. Can't wait! My summer revolves around DMB shows each year. Got a cheap hotel on Priceline - $55/night at a nice place in downtown Milwaukee. Noon Saturday can't come soon enough!

Top 3 baby...

Oh my, and now I'm chip leader. I love when the scoobies get cranky and tired and do stupid shit.

Boy, my cards are suckin' though! Folding lots.

Some new R.E.M. on the tune-age...

Passing chips around...

Heads UP!

And.... Green Day takes me into the Winner's Circle!

I should play these more often.