Hella Hold'em

Hello, again, my pretties!

I'm here waiting for a 90-player SnG to fill up, and in the meantime (and beyond), I will hang out and ramble with you all.

It's likely the 2nd to last beautiful day of 2008 in Chicagoland. Tomorrow will be nice, and after that, we drop into the 60's and below, probably for the rest of the year. We've had 2 of the most gorgeous weeks of weather I've ever experienced - so you'll all have to remind me of this when I'm bitching in a couple months that Chicago weather sucks, and that we never get any moderate temperatures - just freezing cold into boiling hot, skipping over anything resembling spring or fall.

Ahh, we're full. Let the games begin!

I've been catching up on the WSOP on the TiVo. There was a segment where Ray Romano was saying that it's nice to have something that makes your heart pump. I still get that feeling when playing poker. I just don't have as much time to play as I used to. However, I'm glad it still makes my heart pump, so to speak.

I love Ray Romano. I never watched "Everybody Loves Raymond" when it was on, I think because it was on in first-runs before I had a TiVo (and thus, pretty much before I watched TV on a regular basis). Now, I watch it whenever I catch it, and every episode cracks me up. He looks good with a little gray :)

Ouch, set over set, FTP classic - good thing it wasn't me.

Joy, I've got the every-hand-min-raiser at my table.

I had my first hummingbird ever come to my back yard bird feeders yesterday. Totally stoked. Yeah, I like birds. What of it?

I don't necessarily like 3-9 suited.

I do like the smell of exhaust from a dryer drying clean laundry.

I've been back in Ultima Online again. It'll be 11 years this November that I've been playing that game... effectively, a third of my life. Crazy. There's a new expansion coming out in 2009 that I'm totally looking forward to. They really have a brilliant business model. There's no end-game, so it's a subscription based cash cow, for all intents and purposes. Many players have multiple accounts (including myself). And so it goes, cha-ching, month after month. Compared to the big guys like World of Warcraft, the subscription base of UO is minuscule, around 100,000 subscribers - but I've never found a MMORPG that is anywhere near as flexible in terms of making it whatever you want it to be. WOW is built on the "kill stuff" premise. You can kill stuff in UO, but you can also build a life for yourself crafting or gardening or working as a merchant. There's a vibrant PvP community, a respected roleplay community, and just a great variety of things to do. As long as UO exists, I will play it.

Hovering right around average in chips...

I bought Parallels, the virtual machine software, so that I could run Windows within OS X on my Mac. I had hoped to be able to play UO on it, but it's just not quite fast enough in video rendering (even though it says it can play games - UO isn't one of the listed "official" games that it supports. I thought it might work anyway, as UO's video demands are much lower than some of the games on the list). I've heard that VMWare Fusion works better, and I probably should have tried them both out before I spent $50 on Parallels. I will get use out of Parallels anyway, as it makes it much easier for me to test web sites in IE (barf-a-roni), and it gives me easier access to MS Office (they use it at work, so sometimes I must play nice and be compatible). I had been running Vista with Bootcamp on my Mac, but it's a bit of a pain to have to reboot and boot into Windows for the few things I use it for, because then I don't have my web bookmarks, or access to my documents or my iTunes or anything that lives on the Mac side. I may try VMWare Fusion. We'll see.

I'm getting tired of folding decent hands to raises, but I'm out of position and too likely dominated. Still, it's annoying.

Wow - I'm watching a video tour of VMWare Fusion, and already I see a feature that makes me want it: it can run my existing Bootcamp installation right within OS X! I won't have to reinstall Windows! (again!!) They've got an academic discount, $39.99. TYVM, career! Hmmm this is intriguing. Still, I will download the free trial and test it before buying - but this looks quite promising. Kudos to VMWare's download site too - I'm pulling over 1,000 KB/sec down. Nice.

Card dead...

Might as well install VMWare while I fold... Down to 11xBB... Gotta move soon...

So, Dave Matthews had joined Twitter.com, and holy cow does he post some funny stuff! He's @DaveJMatthews - lots of funny pictures, and nuggets of wisdom like only Dave can do... lovin it.

My hair is getting long. Not long, relative to people with long hair, but long relative to the length I've had it for like the last 8 years. It's longer than it's been in a long time. I wish it would grow faster!! I need a dye job, too. Oy.

Big time push of fold mode. Nothing to push with. Oooh, A3s. Here we go. Damn it, 2 people all in in front of me. FOLD.

Owie antes hurt!!

So I finally got sick of the spicy Italian sandwich at Subway. Trouble is, nothing else is really calling my name there. i've given the chicken bacon ranch sandwich a few days in court, and it hasn't really sold me. I feel lost without a signature sandwich. *sniffle*

AQo, I'm pushing regardless...

2 callers. Nada on the flop. And... I'm out, in 34th place.

Time to go play with VMWare!

A poster I made for my friend and photog professor's upcoming photo exhibit. See the photography of Carol Thorner at her show: "What Will People Think? (and other concerns)" at The Center for Visual & Performing Arts in Munster, Indiana. Sept 12 to Oct 19.

Come out and meet Carol at the artist reception on Sept 19, 6-9pm.

I have just fired up a lil' 27 person SnG on Full Tilt, baby size. Five buckeroos.

I'm also fired up over the infiltration of damn ragweed that is occurring. I cannot breathe and it is driving me insane. This wicked congestion has foiled every allergy med I've got, and it is so bad that is is messing with my inner ear and giving me vertigo and just making me overall miserable. Mold spores can kiss my ass, too. Man, I am miserable!

In happier news, I've got 49 prints so far up on my eBay store, and had a good first week. Check it out if you're into art prints - http://stores.ebay.com/Purple-Penguins-Studio. Right now, I've only got 8 1/2 x 11" max, but that will change once I get around to buying some larger format paper. I can do up to 13x19" prints.

Rest assured that anything you purchase helps to keep this single gal in a roof over her head!

My starting hands are decent so far, but the flops are missing me.

OESD, called it down with odds, didn't hit. Way to become the short stack, Shel!

It must be the dramamine.

So, I'm taking an art class this semester - ART101, to be exact. 2D design. Typically, I don't do art, but it's part of the photography program, and one of my photography classes canceled, so this was all I could pick up. It has me a bit terrified. The only saving grace is that about half of the projects can be completed on the computer (which is my only hope, because I *really* cannot draw). Any advice from creative types for a non-artsy-type trying to survive a 2D design class?

Has everybody heard by now that Google is launching a new web browser tomorrow? Google Chrome - I'm mildly curious. I'm still a bit peeved at Google, as traffic to this here blog has dwindled to less than 25% of what it was before they implemented their Big Brother twist on terms of service. Thank heavens for all of you RSS peeps!

Wow, I sure exited that tourney in joker-iffic fashion. Well, my AK vs K8 looked good, until the flop.

Sadly, I had to suck out my meager bankroll to pay bills (again), so this next tourney will be even more Scooby-tastic: a $1+.25 90 player sit n go. Bring it on!!

You see, I'm trying to keep myself awake until a respectable bedtime hour. These meds that keep me from spinning are also trying to knock me unconscious.

Maybe iTunes will help.

Nice, I'm sitting next to the hot pirate avatar!!

Here's a little something I posted to my personal blog the other day...

From the eulogy of the late LeRoi Moore of DMB:

Edna St.Vincent Millay:
“I burn my candle at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light."

---
If I should happen to expire before my time, I wouldn't mind if one of you considered eulogizing me with this.

Something to keep in mind, you know, if ever...

Chatter has begun about the Winter Classic in Vegas... I know I'll shock you all by saying it's unlikely I'll make it out. I've come to accept my lot in life - I teach for a living, and teachers don't make squat for pay - particularly when they have expensive hobbies and the philosophy that she who dies with the most toys, wins. If lots of peeps go buy my photos, then maybe you'll see me in Sin City - but artists don't make squat for pay either, so squat + squat = .... not a whole lot. Such is life!

Finally, a hand I can call with. 33. No flopped set. Boo.

I should really be working on a couple articles, but my mind is too foggy to write.

Playing da hammer, yeah doggie.

Folding da hammer, indeed.

Wow, AA vs KK and a JT came along for the ride (???) and outflopped us both. Ugly. (I had the pointy ones).

Looking through photos for a suitable one to make a September desktop calendar out of. Searching for "symbolize September" doesn't work very well, due to a particularly unsavory event in recent US past.

See, I can be productive while folding. Get your free September desktop calendar here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phlyersphan/2820256482/

I'm severely short-stacked... you might need to get that eulogy ready...

Now, I'm going to attempt an upgrade on my WordPress site... I am brave. Actually, WordPress has always been good to me. If my URL wasn't established here, I'd switch this blog to WordPress, but... I'm not that brave.

Doubled up. 13xBB.

And... out! Ahh well. At least it's a decent hour to go to bed now.

And I finished the WordPress update... Purple Penguins shall live on!

LJMSArt.com has a gorgeous tribute poster to LeRoi Moore available. Limited edition, 500 prints numbered and signed, with ALL profits going to the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation for the LeRoi Moore Memorial Fund (the official memorial fund as specified by davematthewsband.com).

$20 plus shipping. Go get one.

http://www.ljmsart.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=119

(Note - there's music on the page, in case you're at work or something... adjust speakers as appropriate).

DMB love always...

LEROI MOORE 1961-2008

08/19/2008

We are deeply saddened that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. LeRoi had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program.

http://www.davematthewsband.com/

I've finally gotten around to opening my eBay store. You can now find Purple Penguins Studio fine art prints on eBay.

And now, I must sleep! :)

DMB Alpine was absolutely fantastic. I've been on a DMB high all week (while chasing away the cold I caught), but oh my my, was it good!

I'm doing that limit thing again. I can't really explain it, but limit really is my game - though I've been doing strictly NL SnG's for what seems like forever now, and I do well at those - but I guess that's the thing. After all these years, it's NL tourneys and limit cash games. Yup, that's me. I'd love to make it out to check out the new Horseshoe poker room in Hammond one of these days...

I came across the most amazing looking recipe for chocolate peanut butter cake on the PLANET today. Seriously. It's like food porn. Go see: Smitten Kitchen - Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake. The pictures are ridiculous. Thanks to Kevin Rose for posting it. It is on my Must Make list.

One thing I did forget over time about these micro limit games: how many insane chasers there are. Yowza. I've hit 2 straights and flopped a set so far, and lost all 3! I know, I know... these are the people I WANT at my table... yada yada yada.

I still haven't changed to the penguin avatar. Thinking about it.

I spent a good chunk of time last night working in Photoshop on a logo header for what may become my ebay store. I sold photography prints on there for a couple months before I left on vacation, and am thinking of doing the whole store thing. I sell prints through Zenfolio as well, but I think eBay has much better exposure.

Ha I just flopped a straight, but with the wrong hole cards on the wrong table. LOL!

Is there any good reason to sit down at a .25/.50 limit game with $50? Oh right - to give it all to ME!

Or not. These are some butt ugly cards.

Not much else going on around here. I go back to work next week. Summer went by WAY too fast. I'm not ready to get back in the grind. I've got a busy schedule for fall, teaching 4 classes and taking 3 photography classes. It's all good - I'll just be a bit chicken-sans-head. But what else is new, right?!

Debating shutting this thing down to go eat a bowl of Lucky Charms and watch the Olympics...

I've got a couple new articles up on Suite101 -

Twitter Tools: TweetDeck - Organize and Search Twitter Tweets Quickly and Easily

and

Point n Shoot Digital Infrared Photography: Get Creative with Invisible Light

and

Inexpensive Macro Photography: Close-Up Lenses - Magnify the World Around You and Take Amazing Photos

So, what are you waiting for? Go read! :)

I'm not sure what prompted me to play a little limit holdem the other day, but I did... Limit to me is kind of like auto-pilot poker. It's all math. It's not very situational. The rules are pretty much the rules, all the time. Kind of like doing brain teaser puzzles.

My brain likes limit. Multi-tabling limit is like brain exercise.

Limit really makes me want to go hit up the boats. The new Horseshoe poker room opened up in Hammond, and I hear it is MIGHTY nice...

I'm heading to Milwaukee tomorrow for DMB at Alpine Valley. It should be sick!! Can't wait!!

K4o, on the other hand, is not sick. Or it is, in the literal sense.

I much prefer full ring games to 6-handed, for the record.

I've been thinking about making a change. I'm usually the goldfish avatar on Full Tilt Poker, but they now have a penguin avatar - and I love penguins! I collect them, and I sponsor one at the local zoo. But, the goldfish is... sort of... part of me. Maybe I'll try the penguin on for size. But is that disrespecting the goldfish? I don't want to diss the fish.

I hate when I call someone down with second pair thinking they're weak as all hades, to see that they turned the straight.

Ahh well, lunch beckons me...

I've got a new article up on Suite101.com: Creative Film Photography with Holga Cameras.

Enjoy!

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.

A few notable poker bloggers got blocked over the weekend by Blogger and locked out of their blogs. All seems to be operating normal today, but in case you missed it, Blogger has apologized for spam-blocking blogs.

We have now restored all accounts that were mistakenly marked as spam yesterday. (See: Spam Fridays)

We want to offer our sincerest apologies to affected bloggers and their readers. We’ve tracked down the problem to a bug in our data processing code that locked blogs even when our algorithms concluded they were not spam. We are adding additional monitoring and process checks to ensure that bugs of this magnitude are caught before they can affect your data.

Kudos to Blogger for admitting the problem and apparently working quickly to clear it up. In a similar vein, it looks like they are working on some import/export tools that should make it easier to back up your blog's posts (should something similar ever happen again).

Catching up on Poker After Dark on the TiVo, and you know what that means... two days in a row of posts that, while maybe not poker related, at least had some poker going on during their creation. w00t for you! haha :) Firing up a SnG on FTP...

So I'm watching the Director's Cut of the "Nets vs Vets" week, and the players are all introducing themselves and whatnot. One thought I can't shake: these internet players are going on and on about how they've played just as many hands as Doyle has in his lifetime because they play 32 tables at a time. Yes, BUT... playing live has so many facets beyond the poker itself that these net players have NO experience with - and in a lot of cases, it shows and gives away a wealth of information. I'm just appalled that they can seriously feel justified in comparing themselves to the legends of poker. Hell, the one kid can't even figure out how to cut out his chips.

It's a new age, I guess.

I enjoy playing online - don't get me wrong. But I play online because I can't get to the casino as often as I'd like, or because I don't at this moment have an actual bankroll. The authentic poker experience, to me, occurs in the poker rooms of the world, and not on living room couches. I'm sure some of these zillion-multi-tablers would disagree.

How many computer monitors does it take to run 32 friggin tables simultaneously??

Is anybody watching HGTV's Design Star? I want Jennifer to win so bad!!! :)

Nothing doing in this SnG. I need some cards and soon, or else I will be making an early exit.

Did this guy just say, "Doyle is a tight player..." The net kids must define "tight" differently than I do.

Shocker, he went out first.

True multitasking: watching PAD while playing a SnG while giving myself a manicure.

Now up: the Poker After Dark heads-up challenge. I like this show, but I really miss High Stakes Poker.

At some point today, I actually have to get out of my PJ's and go to work...

Just got knocked out. I'm mildly irritated at the range of hands people will call an all-in re-raise with for 1/3 of their stack. K3 suited? Really?

Let's roll this one more time...

Ahhh, nice little double up on the first hand with the nut straight. 3rd pair bet it all the way and called my river all-in reraise. Okie dokie!

It's amazing how Chris Ferguson can look so friendly yet so menacing, all at the same time. I'd have a messy chair to deal with if I ever had to stare him down heads-up.

Yowza. Made my straight J9 with a 10-8-10-Q-4 board. Was up against 8-10. Ouch.

Still 2nd in chips but the chip lead felt much more comfortable.

Well, that did not go well. 10-10 and out, knocked out by a caller who chased me down with K-10 and hit a K on the river. A pair draw? Really?

Scoobies 3, Me 0

Yes, ladies and gents, it's a quickie sit n go, starring ME!

Got back from vacation in Boston a couple days ago. Love that city. I'd move there in a heartbeat if the winds of fate shifted so. We hit all of the usual tourist haunts - the Duck tours, Prudential Center, Newbury Street, Faneuil Hall, Quincy Marketplace, Cheers (both the real and replicas), the Boston Common and Public Garden with the swan boats and the Make Way for Ducklings statues, various cemeteries, Fenway Park, the Boston Garden, Hard Rock Cafe Boston, the New England Aquarium Whale Watching cruise, Harvard (including Mr. Bentley's Burgers - highly recommended). That's all I can remember! Oh, and we checked out Salem, which after 2 visits I now feel comfortable saying it's overrated and rather lame (this coming from a girl who used to dabble in some of the esoteric arts). Boston, though, is an awesome city. I've been there twice now and absolutely love it. The subway ("T") is clean and user-friendly, and the people are great. There's so much history there.

Nothing doing so far in the SnG. Folded orbit #1.

For the photography geeks amongst you - has anybody used Costco's private label brand ("Kirkland") Professional Glossy Inkjet Photo Paper (8.5x11")? It was rumored that originally, this paper was a private label of Ilford's Gallerie Smooth paper, but that was when the packaging indicated that it was Made in Switzerland, where Ilford produces paper. Now, it is Made in the USA, and I've read once in passing that it is made by Mitsubishi and is not as good. Others claim it's a re-branded Epson paper.

I'm curious, because it's extremely reasonably priced, and has the same weight specs as some good papers (69 lb, 255g, 10.4mil). I'd love to know the source, mostly for estimating its permanence and archival qualities with pigment based inks.

Bummer. Just folded 67c to an all in preflop raise for 6xbb out of position with no previous callers... he had AA and against one caller, I'd have turned the straight.

Redemption, with a twinge of sadness: I just knocked out the donkey of the table. At these $20 tables, I find that there are on average maybe 5 decently solid players, 1 or 2 really good players, and a couple scoobies. It's kind of sad to see the donkeys go. Makes the game just a little bit tougher.

The Experimental Techniques photography class that I'm taking ends tonight. Overall, I'm pleased with the work I created for this class. We did some interesting techniques - hand coloring, solarization and the Sabbatier effect, infrared photography, paper negatives, and Polaroid image and emulsion transfers. I particularly liked the emulsion transfers and the infrared stuff.

For infrared, we shot with Ilford SFX 200 red-sensitive film (not true infrared - more of a "special effects" film). I shot my first roll with a Red 25 filter, and while the result was interesting, it wasn't quite infrared. I've since picked up an R72 filter but haven't had a chance to shoot another roll of film with it yet - though I did shoot some digital with the Canon PowerShot G9 and the R72 filter, and it definitely appears infrared. I only had a monopod in Boston and not a tripod, so nothing really came out as crisp as I'd like. A tripod is a definite must with that R72 filter. My camera was able to meter through it, but even in sunlight, the exposure was 1 second.

Flopped an OESD. Fingers crossed. Great. On the turn, a guy pushed all in for 1900 with 400 in the pot, and another guy called for his 1500. Was an open ender with one card to come worth my tourney life, even though I had top pair 7's? There was a 4-card lower gutshot onboard. I figured one of the two had it. I folded. The caller had the lower straight, and I'd have rivered the higher straight.

I should stop folding, eh? If only I were psychic.

Woohoo, FedEx just brought me my tickets to Dave Matthews Band at Alpine Valley (near Milwaukee, Wisconsin) next weekend. Sweet!

I'm short stacked at 6xBB right now, 4th of 6 remaining in chips.

And now I'm out, AJ vs AA. Whoops. Or not - had a few chips left and just doubled up to 3xBB! Life support!

Doubled again! Back to 3rd in chips with 8xBB. LOL!

Chip and a chair, buddy... chip and a chair.

I've got about an hour and a half to kill before I leave for class (and for a tasty Subway sandwich). Storm clouds are gathering. I didn't expect rain in the forecast today, but the skies look menacing.

If you caught any of my tweets last week, you may have read about my Blackberry mishap. I've got the Pearl 8130, the 2nd generation Pearl. I've been loving it since December. In Salem, we got caught in the rain, and though I took the phone off of my hip as soon as it started pouring (and put it into a plastic bag with my camera gear), the phone's screen shorted out from liquid damage. Strangely, though, it did not even get wet enough to trip the liquid sensors inside the phone. Just my bad luck, I guess. I had insurance on it and Sprint replaced it with no problems, but as I dug around on the internet, I found many reports of similar damage. The repair guy at the Sprint store told me that he has even seen sweat from people carrying the phone in their pockets cause this damage on this model. It seems to be overly fragile. I'm not hard on my phones. I had my last Blackberry for 5 years, and retired it only because it was so friggin old. Spare a couple of dings on the corners, and the thing was a tank.

With the Pearl, I managed to scratch it on the very first day I had it, by bumping up against the side of my car. I mean, really? Since December, it has earned more dings in its plastic case than my original BB ever had, and the silver plate around the trackball has chipped and lost most of its silver. I only had a skin on it for protection, so I've learned my lesson. I ordered the OtterBox Defender case for my new Pearl. It's water resistant and much more durable.

By the way, I'm heads up in that SnG.

And... out! Ha! From the gutter to the penthouse, baby - or, just beneath the penthouse. Second place. That's a win to me!

And with that, I will go get ready to head to school...

What if the iPhone "brick" tragedy extended to other parts of our lives? Brought to you by Revision3.

Go, Iggy! Cheers and good luck from Chitown!  

On PageRank, nofollows, ads, and SEO - Falstaff said it best:

PageRank is based on the quality of incoming links. By putting a nofollow into the link, the site that is linked doesn't get the PageRank boost, but your site doesn't get considered a linkspammer and your PageRank doesn't get hurt. It seems like Google has decided that some of my advertisers are buying links to manipulate the system, and need to be punished for that. Since I'm providing the link without a nofollow, I'm getting punished as well, because I am part of manipulating the system.

I'll be keeping an eye on that post over at PokerStage. I'm curious to see fellow bloggers' responses.

I'm a bit disturbed that Google can effectively decide who is allowed to buy and sell ads on the internet via this "policy." It's a little too Big Brother for my taste.

Many, many, many poker bloggers are finding that they've been dogged by Google, with a drop in page rank and a disappearance from search results. If you search Google for hella holdem right now, you'll see that I too have fallen off the map.

It appears to be related to buying/selling links / banner ads / affiliate programs. On the page to request reconsideration by Google, they note:

In general, sites that directly profit from traffic (e.g. search engine optimizers, affiliate programs, etc.) may need to provide more evidence of good faith before a site will be reconsidered.

I'm not sure if it will do any good, but you can request reconsideration from Google.

Happy 4th of July, everybody!

The fireworks were fan-friggin-tastic this year! As usual, we went to the New Lenox, IL display, and they never fail to put on a great show. It was a full half hour long, and not a bit of it was cheapo-filler-crap. I love their show.

I shot on a tripod with a cable release, and used ISO100 and f/11 for the entire show. Most of the time, I used a 2 or 3 second exposure. I made a few shots with a 6 second exposure, when they were firing off multiples in sequence, and those turned out pretty cool too.

Here are a few of my favorite blasts:

I've just dropped the following letter into the outgoing mail (postal mail, that is):

July 3, 2008
Customer Service
Hewlett-Packard Company
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185

To Whom This May Concern,

I am writing regarding a recent experience I had with your technical support representatives (Ticket #801330xxxx). On June 28, 2008, I purchased the HP Photosmart Pro B8850 printer and several packages of Advanced HP photo paper. I ordered these items online via CircuitCity.com. The items were delivered in June 30, 2008.

I unpacked the printer and began setup. When I plugged the printer into the wall outlet, the printer received no power. After troubleshooting via telephone with one of your support representatives, it was determined that the AC power adapter was likely faulty. Your representative shipped a new AC adapter to me. It arrived on July 2, 2008.

The new AC adapter did not solve the problem. I called technical support again, and after troubleshooting, the representative determined that there was likely a problem with the printer itself. While I was disappointed, I understand that this happens. Hardware fails. It’s the way of the world, when it comes to computers.

What I was most disappointed in, though, was the solution offered by your representative. She offered to replace my brand new printer with a refurbished one. I explained that this printer was brand new out-of-the-box and was dead on arrival. I paid for a new printer. I expect replacement with a new printer. I could understand a refurbished replacement if I’d owned the printer for some time and it needed repair, but this printer was not used. The support representative agreed with me, but that she could not guarantee that the replacement would be new, and that she had no other options to offer me.

I find your policy of replacing brand new, defective items with used, refurbished ones to be completely unfair. I spent $549 on your product in good faith that it would work when I brought it home. When a brand new item is defective, I expect a brand new replacement - not just from HP, but from any company.

I am a photographer and a professor, and despite the advice of many of my colleagues to purchase an Epson (the reigning king in the professional photo printing arena), I decided to give HP a shot. The B8850 might be a fantastic printer. I did not get the opportunity to find out. Based on this experience, HP is not the kind of company I want to do business with.

As a result of my disappointment in your company’s policies, I have returned the HP printer and papers to Circuit City and instead purchased the Epson Stylus R1900 and Epson papers, and will recommend to my colleagues and students that they do the same.  

Sincerely,

Shelly