Excessive Variance

I don’t have a fancy intro this time… this is just stuff I compiled over the last two weeks and purged it here like a supermodel after a trip to Taco Bell.

The Superbowl

Was like watching a couple of cute college lesbians have a pillow fight in their panties… it was a fun game to watch, but I didn’t care if the brunette or the redhead won.  I was a little tired of hearing about the two things that every sports show was covering for the two weeks before the game .  Peyton Manning is the best QB ever, and the Saints are a great story because of Katrina.  Both may be true but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t tired of hearing about them.   The game delivered for entertainment value, and it was nice to see one of the coaches I like in the league take some risks and get rewarded.  Congrats to the redhe Saints.

Side note… There is a lot of talk of Peyton Manning being a choke artist again and not preforming well in big games.  His playoff record of 9-9 keeps getting tossed around which I find sort of funny.  The Colts have been good enough because because of Manning that they are consistently one of the top seeds, usually getting a bye, and as a result playing teams at the end of the year that are usually at the top of their game.  Being 9-9 against the best each and every year, isn’t really bad.  It’s not like they are losing a bunch of wild card games every year.  Ripping on Manning for one bad play in the Superbowl is ridiculous.

I don’t really recall any outstanding commercials this year.  The Tebow anti-abortion ad wasn’t worth the hoopla, and the only ads I really remember were the first few Bud Light spots.  Pretty bland overall.  Speaking of bland, when the age of every member of the halftime show is older than the Superbowl itself, it’s probably not that entertaining.  I suppose I could blame Janet Jackson’s nipple for The Who being the halftime show, but really it’s just old white people who are to blame.  I find it odd that networks are all opposed to a little boob shot, but have no problems performers who have a history with child porn.  I was half expecting to see Chris Hansen show up at halftime and interrupt the show.  I’ve read the notes on him being let off and what his excuse was for paying for access to the material.   However just because he didn’t download any onto his PC doesn’t mean he wasn’t viewing it, which isn’t really any better than having it in your possession is it?

Entertainment

Zombieland:  Picked up the blu-ray sight unseen based on reviews from my friends.  I think my expectations were a bit high going in which left me with a certain amount of disappointment when the movie ended.  I’d compare it to when you first sleep with a hot girl that you have imagined to be extremely great in bed, but she actually has no enthusiasm and ends up being boring.  Sure it’s a bit satisfying, but it was less spectacular than you were expecting.  After a second viewing over the weekend I think I enjoyed it a bit more since I was just watching it for enjoyment and I realized that I should have approached it like an average looking girl who is fun and frisky in bed.  That’s Zombieland, a 6.5 that tries hard and has fun which makes the experience more enjoyable than the packaging.

Dollhouse: Watched the series finale after downloading the missing episode from season 1, which was actually the prequel to the finale.  I thought it was a great way to wrap up the series.  The show had a few problems to begin with (mostly Eliza Dushku’s acting being blown away by the rest of the cast), but by the end it was really sorting those out and the attachment to the characters had gotten much deeper over the last few episodes.  I’m disappointed it’s going away, but not on the same level of Joss’s previous series Firefly.  I really hope someday he lands a series on a HBO or Showtime where he can do more without the typical constraints of network television.

Game of Thrones:  Based on comments on Winter is Coming and Martin’s blog some HBO execs have already screened the pilot.  There are also reports of them renting out the location the pilot was shot in for the next 5 years, so a series order seems probable.  The list of HBO’s future shows looks really strong with Game of Thrones, Treme (from David Simon), and Boardwalk Empire.  Martin also posted in his blog he is pushing 1200 pages on the manuscript for the 5th book, which means it has to be getting close to completion.  In anticipation of it showing up sometime this year I’ve been listening to the first book again in audio format, and the narration is exceptional.  Fans of the series should really check out the audio books.

Speaking of books, or in this case graphic novels, a friend posted on her Facebook page a little bit ago about reading Vol 1 of Niel Gaimon’s Sandman series which got me thinking about reading it again since its been probably ten years since I read it the first time.  Instead of digging through my stuff in storage looking for it I just went out and purchased it again, along with a few other books that maybe I’ll get around to posting my thoughts on later.  My list of things to read is actually getting pretty long.  I’m not sure how I’m going to get through my backlog anytime soon.

Poker

Played the Sunday Million tournament on Stars two weeks ago, the one with the 2 Million dollar guaranteed prize pool which actually ended up being over 3 million.  I ended up cashing for a little more than my buy in.  Shortly after the money bubble broke I lost a flip with with a pair of 5’s to AJ and was out.   Pretty good considering I only really had 4 hands the entire time I was playing.  I survived mostly by stealing and getting lucky to spike a 3 outer about two hours in the one time I was short and was trying to resteal.  I have a pretty good string of cashing in events like this, just never making it really deep where the big money is at.  I sort of feel like I’m due to make a good run, but I haven’t been playing enough tournaments to actually have that happen.

Last weekend I put money back on Full Tilt to give Rush Poker a try.  I put in 1 quick thousand hands over the weekend and was winning at a 38bb/100 clip.  It would have been much higher if it wasn’t for losing the two largest pots where I was a more than a 90% favorite when the money went in.   Hooray for short term variance.  I’ve played a bit of full ring and 6-max, and so far the full ring has produced better results for me though 6-max has been decent.

Nothing interesting about playing live to discuss.  Assuming the weather is decent I plan on heading over to Council Bluffs next weekend to play in a couple of WSOP circuit events.  I also finished booking my trip to LA I am taking in March.  Will be playing some cash games at the Commerce and maybe playing some WSOP events over at Harrah’s Rincon if we feel like driving a couple hours.  I’ve been looking around for things to do in LA besides play cards and I’m not finding much that looks interesting to me.

So I watched the Grammy’s last night while flipping back and forth with the pro-bowl and I noticed something was missing… Kanye West.  I just can’t figure out why he would not be at the biggest music award show of the year when he is one of the largest personalities, not to mention most talented people, in the entire industry.  This is the same guy who’s first 3 albums have been up for Album of the year, and from 2005 to 2009 he won 12 Grammy’s out of 29 total nominations and his last album is arguably his best, though apparently the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences didn’t think so.  Admittedly Kayne has a sketchy past with award shows.  Everyone knows about the Taylor Swift incident at MTV’s award show, which was completely blown out of proportion, and he got mad at the Grammy’s when his speech thanking his dead mother was cut off by an insensitive program director among other incidents, but that’s exactly why he should be there.

Maybe I want something different from these shows that other people don’t.  I enjoy the outspoken and opinionated celebrity who isn’t afraid to say anything, because that is infinitely more interesting to me than all the cookie cutter appearances we get thanking god, moms, record execs and a bunch of other people we don’t know or care about in an effort to be nice.  Charles Barkley is my favorite sports personality because he isn’t afraid to say anything to anyone.  I watched SNL for the first time in probably 8 years because he was the host a couple months ago, sure it wasn’t great but it was interesting.  Apparently in the land of free speech and open conversation, we only want to hear from people we agree with and that means Kanye can’t be at the Grammy’s.  Why is interesting so much to ask for?

I do think it was great that Taylor Swift, the girl who couldn’t maintain a steady pitch during her performance, won album of the year.  Way to solidify the status of your show as a joke.  She should probably thank Kanye too, since his stunt at the other award show built up sympathy for her to win, because it was not her overwhelming musical talent that won that award.

On another note… I mentioned the other day on Facebook that I set up a rule in my email that any emails containing the word Valentine would get automatically moved to the trash bin.  I’ve gotten a bit of grief over my negative attitude towards Valentines Day so I’ll expand on it here for anyone who gives a shit.  I’ll admit that I have never been fond of the Hallmark holiday, but I think I have good reasons.  Most importantly I’ve never understood the need for there to be a day where I should show affection toward my loved ones more than other days.  Shouldn’t they know it every day based on my actions?  Then when you add in the commercialism of the whole day which is what prompted my Facebook post in the first place.  I can’t stand how all of a sudden rose prices go from 12.99 a dozen to 49.99 a dozen, and I get flooded with advertisements wanting me to purchase everything from heart shaped pizzas to hand made teddy bears. I just don’t feel obligated to do these things on one particular day.  Maybe VD works out best for the people who have trouble communicating with their significant others, or those who aren’t using protection.  See what I did there?

So the other day while ranting about the commercialism of VD to my pal Brandee, she dug up some links for some… lets call them interesting… VD gifts that I thought I would share for those if you who are doing last minute shopping.  There is this kickass yellow hoodie, or if you want to go the more traditional jewelery route here is a lovely charm or even some nice suckers if candy works out better for you.  I know some people like to pick up pampering supplies for baths and such, so here is another great idea or you could try the Twilight version for the people who are fans of those books and films.   Of course if all else fails, I highly recommend a vampire vagina mole.  Who wouldn’t want one of those?

Side note – since the VD rule is working so well on my inbox, it’s going to spread to every other holiday too.  I might skip doing it to fathers day because maybe I’ll buy myself a gift though.