DAY 7

Appleton, Wisconsin
April 19, 2009
Sun 11:07 PM

today was a fairly productive day i must say, but it got off to an odd start when i got up for church apparently for nothing. rare is the day that my family does not start their week off with church, but it is very commonplace for me, the youngest, to be left out of the loop. i am always the last to know. but before you think my family was just slacking off today they did have a valid reason, some good friends of my parents were staying over for the weekend and we had to leave early for lunch in green bay. and eventually i figured out that i got up too early and that church was a no go. sure, i could've gone by myself, but that's no fun sitting by yourself.

anyway, we had lunch in green bay because there was a free poker tournament we were playing in. and i gotta say, i did pretty darn well considering i haven't played poker in months. last time i played was fall of 2008. i played really tight, and it was a good strategy. i also told my table outright that i only play good cards, and i don't bluff. one guy commented that i should just show my cards after giving out so much information, but that IS my strategy, because whenever i do finally play my cards they all fold, much to my delight. and in case you find yourself at a poker table with me, those first two statements are generally true, i only play good cards and i don't bluff. i'm not saying i always have the best hand- that would be impossible, all i'm saying is if i'm betting, i have something. your something could beat my something, but if you're holding a jack high, you'd best fold before i take more of your money. i also paid closer attention to position (where you're sitting at the table in relation to the dealer, who gets to make the last move). i played a few hands that weren't quite as strong as others because i had position to push people around more. i ended up taking 12th or 13th out of i believe 32 people, so not bad. they started with four tables and i was still in with two tables left. and i didn't lose because i made a bad decision, i lost my chips to in some bad beats. but that's poker. i was chip leader for awhile cause i won a huge pot with pocket jacks that turned into a full house. my mom actually happened to be sitting at my table during that time, i played it really well and she was so proud. i joked that graduating from college is nothing, but play good poker and my mother couldn't be prouder (i guess we'll see about the former, seeing as how i haven't yet graduated from collge). but then later i lost with pocket kings to a 6-5, yeah, talk about bad beat. the cards on the flop were a 3, 4, and 7, so i thought i was golden. and i did make a big raise before the flop, 3,000 chips on an 800 blind, so why he called that with a 6-5 is a mystery to me. but i'm not gonna be that player that gets all whiney when someone makes what is technically speaking a bad call. i've played with people like that and its no fun. i got beat, it happens, its poker. eventually i went out going all in with pocket fours, and wouldn't you know it i lose to a the same guy who had the 6-5, but this time he held pocket threes. oh well, it just wasn't meant to be.

my mother did really good in the tournament though, she always does. and my father went over to oneida and won there, so it was a good day. AND we went to suburban taco bell afterwards, so i felt like i won! Yeah!

i know what you're thinking.. suburban taco bell? yes, suburban taco bell- the only taco bell worth having. this is a cold-hard fact, taco bells in the suburbs have better food than the taco bells in cities. its a law of science, not a theory. i know this to be true because the few times i had taco bell in dc, it sucked. i would take the metro to virginia just to get my fill of chalupas and quesadillas. not to mention the baja blast mountain dew. and the same holds true in milwaukee, taco bell just is not good. but go home to appleton (or in this case west de pere) and mmmmm, taco bell. a friend of mine who lives in milwaukee first put this phenomenon into words for me, "suburban taco bell." and its so true in every way. the food, the service... everything is better in the suburbs.

so, taco bell and poker aside it was setting up to be a good day. went back home and watched the amazing race with my mom. the teams were in china and one of the challenges saw them using trained birds to catch fish. pretty entertaining, i kept thinking that there was no way my sister could ever do that challenge- she's afraid of both birds and fish. after 'the race' i watched slumdog millionaire with my dad, such a great movie. had to set up the playstation 3 to watch it, cause i own it on blu-ray and my parents don't have a blu-ray player yet. but regardless, if you haven't seen this movie go and watch it. the film is put together so well, the story and the way it moves, the acting, the cinematography- you feel like you're in India (you can tell they filmed it in Mumbai and not on a soundstage), and of course the music... A.R. Rahman definitiely earned those two oscars for his work. the first time i saw the movie in theaters i couldn't breath at the end, the first time that ever happened to me watching a film. people always use that phrase "it was breathtaking" and for the first time ever in my life a movie was such; i'd describe the scene but don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it. great, great film.

as if today wasn't good enough, i also got my laundry done... the obligatory activity of college students home for the weekend. i was even feeling ambitious enough to wash my sheets, which yes, i do from time to time, just probably not as often as some people. the only problem is i can't fold a fitted sheet, it always ends up as a wrinkled ball of cloth. oh well, tomorrow it'll be back on my bed in milwaukee and what do i care if its wrinkled or not.

oh, right, i just remembered, i was gonna talk about those stupid 'tea parties' people were throwing around the country on april 15. i'm pretty sure its just fox news making something out of nothing (such a rarity, fox news being the standard bearer of decent, honest news... sorry, sarcasm doesn't exactly translate into the written, erm, typed word. but believe me, its dripping from my typing fingers at the moment). my disdain for fox news aside, these tea parties are really really lame. oh, poor me, i pay too much taxes. shut up. be glad you have a job. and yes, i know its pretty populist to rag on taxes and say they should be cut and yada yada, but whenever i talk to people about politics and open up and they hear my postion on things, it invariably comes up when they attack me and try to get me on the defensive about taxes. but it doesn't work, because unlike everyone else i don't mind paying taxes. there, i said it. i don't mind paying taxes. paying taxes is the price i pay for living in a country where the infrastructure is second to none... well, maybe second to japan. but that's fine. paying taxes is the price i pay for police protection, public education (which i gotta say, is generally great in wisco), nearby fire departments, an excellent military, and most importantly- someone to pick up my garbage. if you don't wanna pay taxes fine, then when your house is on fire, put it out yourself. when you want to drive to work don't use the roads. and when you want to throw away your garbage, just store it in your house. and since anti-tax people are also usually big pro-military people, to them i say this- your taxes pay for those soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, so next time there's a war go fight it yourself and buy your own guns and armor. and i know people also have a problem with the progressive tax system in this country, but to that i say this- rich people take advantage of the perks living in this country affords more than poor people. when's the last time you saw a poor person drive their mercedes to work on the interstate? or start their own business? these things are possible because of opportunites this country provides- you could say the government provides. and yes, gov't isn't perfect, i'm not saying it is, and there is wasteful spending, but look at your own spending, is it all perfect? do you not waste some money here and there... i know i do. heck, sitting in my room i can see a lot of things that shouldn't be bought by anybody: a cricket bat, lucha libre mask, romulan ale, foam badger paw, tokyo drift on dvd, and the list goes on. and say you make $1,000 a year and i make $10. if we were taxed the same, say 10%, then i'd pay $1 while you'd pay $100. i had almost nothing to begin with, and now i have 9 bucks, whereas you're still sitting pretty with 900. but say i pay 10% and you pay 25%, i keep my 9 and you still have 750 to live on. i don't know, i guess that just makes sense to me. and i guarantee if you make 1,000 versus my 10, you're taking advantage of the american infrastructure more than i am. so to all you teabaggers out there (yeah, i just went there) i say sure, go ahead and not pay taxes. but then stop using any and all things that those taxes pay for. and also, if you're gonna complain about paying taxes all the time, then i want to hear your alternative.

uh, ok, all that ranting made me tired. i know i said i'd try to keep that kinda stuff to a minimum, but i can't stop the fingers from doing their work, once they go, they go. such marvelous typers. anyway, gotta get up and head back to milwaukee tomorrow, we'll see if anything sparks me up then.

alright, this is gonna be posted just in time.

salbrent