Barack Obama plays poker, too.
And John McCain, apparently, does not.  They should have a Satellite tournament on PokerStars, winner gets to be Barack’s vice president.

I wonder if anyone else noticed that I wore my shirt inside out today.

Honestly, I just didn’t look in the mirror.  At all.

It was one of those days.

Here’s an email I just received:

Dear adamczar,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $108.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 181.41 tournament leader points in this tournament.

That’s right, charlatans!  I bought into a 180 person tournament for $2.00 and, well, yada yada yada, walked away with top prize of $108.  This is my first major win (aside from that $15 fluke a few weeks ago.)

I don’t look at Poker as gambling… it’s a game of skill, really, and there is no “house advantage,” so it’s an investment (with a lot of risk), but some do, so if your moral values don’t agree with online gambling I apologize.

But my $108 just bought me dinner.

(Ok, well, it actually gets me to the pretty much break even point if you add up how much I “invested” and lost since I started a few weeks ago.  Still… for the hours of entertainment that has now cost me $0 I’m pumped.)

Woot!

15 Things I Didn’t Know About Mr. Rogers

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Newest “Dharma” video from comic-con. Innnnnteresting stuff.

I want all of these.
First person to buy me all of them gets a dollar.

Superman is the way America sees itself, but Batman is the way the world sees America.
Michael Caine

I wanted to do an “update” blog on what’s happening but this is what came out.  Copy and Paste and fill it out and FWD to all yoUr FrIeNdZ!!!!1!

1)  How was Mackinaw Island?

Good.

2)  What did you do?

Whatever you do on Mackinaw Island.  We took a horse carriage tour, rode around the island on bikes, slept a lot, and ate fudge.

3)  I hear you took your own bike.

Yes, I did.  Logan let me borrow a bike-rack that straps onto the trunk of your car.  It was scary at first, because the wind resistance made it vibrate like crazy, but we pulled over and I found out what was doing it and once we fixed it we felt much safer.  And having my own bike on the island was worth it.

4)  Did you take pictures?

I did nay.  But Katy did, and they can be found HERE.

5)  Did you see The Dark Knight?

Indeed I did.

6)  What did you think?

Thoughts going into the theatre:  this is going to be awesome.

Thoughts after 1.5 hours:  this is awesome.

Thoughts after 2.25 hours:  this is ridiculously far-fetched.

Thoughts after the full 2.6 hours:  huh.

7)  So you didn’t like it?

The more I think about it, the more I like it.  The Joker was amazing, and what everyone says about it is absolutely true.  But Batman got on my nerves a lot in this movie, and the plot was hard to follow.

8)  How so?  The mob wants to take over the city and have to turn to a “freak” to get the job done since Batman put everyone else in jail.

Maybe I was over thinking it, then.  And some parts just seemed too ridiculous, like the sonar cell phones.  Come on.

9)  Yeah, but that was his BAT-dar!  His eyes turned friggin WHITE!

Whatevs.  I know Wayne has money, but that was a bit much.  I did enjoy the aspect that Batman was “more than just a man,” in the sense that he would not have been able to pull off a lot of what he did without the help of people like Gordon, Lucious Fox, and Alfred working just as hard with him.  In a way, all four men are the true Batman.

10)  On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the movie?

Nine.  One point deduction for Bruce Wayne inventing the All Seeing Ghost That Never Lies out of cell phones.  And Lucious being so disgusted by it but agreeing to use it anyway.

And it’s tragic that as good as the Joker was, there is absolutely no way we’ll ever see that particular role reprised.  In the beginning of the Dark Knight, we see Johnathan Crane (Scarecrow) going into custody, wrapping up the storyline from Batman Begins.  It would have been cool to carry that tradition on and see what happened to the Joker in the first few minutes of Batman 3:  The Bat Man That Can See Everything and Do Anything.  But we can’t, cuz the actor went and died.

11)  Moment of silence for Heath and Estelle?

[silent for a moment]

12)  Who is your pick for the villain in Batman 3:  The Bat Man That Can See Everything and Do Anything?

Batman has the best villains, but not all of them work with this new series’ realism.  The Penguin, for example, would just be laughed at.  Villains like Mr. Freeze would have to be sort of re-imagined to be less campy, but it could be done.  The sci-fi element has to kind of get played down, like Poison Ivy being injected with plant chemicals and turning into half plant.  Instead, she should just be a crazy plant lady.  Catwoman would just be a crazy cat lady.  Then again, Batman is a crazy bat man so maybe Catwoman makes the most sense.  The Riddler is too much like the Joker.  Two-Face is obvious, and maybe a Joker inspired villain like Harley Quinn as secondary villain.  It will be Mary Kate Olsen’s breakout role, and then she’ll die of an accidental overdose.

13)  Why did Batman get on your nerves?

Imagine me answering all of these questions as if I was out of breath, even though you know I’m totally not out of breath.  The Batman growl is acceptable and bad ass when he’s saying things like “WHERE IS HE?!”  or “I’M BATMAN!” but when he has to speak full sentences it just feels like he’s mid-heart attack and is ready to pass out.  “The people of Gotham need a hero, [breath] someone they can look [breath] up to. [exasperated breath]  I can not be that hero.  [breath]  They need someone good, [gasping for breath] someone noble, someone like [evil scowl] YOU.”

14)  I liked the truck flip scene.

Me too.  And I like how the Joker wanted him to hit him with the Bat-pod (which, BTW, is totally believable that that thing sprouted from the defunct Batmobile, right?)  And I liked how the Joker got upset when someone called him crazy.  And the scene where he’s leaving the hospital… that seriously creeped me out.  And of course there is the magic pencil trick, which I will be trying at my next party.

15)  Enough Batman.  How’s life?

[grabs nuts]

Weight gains and disappointment, dispersed with bouts of exhaustion.

16)  There are children starving in Africa, with bugs in their eyes.

Then I’m still lucky and am doing great.

17)  Win any money at poker lately?

YES.  I had $25, went to the $0.50-$1.00 tables, and made $80.  I was ecstatic.  I quickly paid Dave some money I owed him.  I got cocky, played in a few big buy in tournaments, and lost most of it.

18)  Did you just get lucky, then?

No.  I think the people at the $0.50-$1.00 tables were more on my level.  I think they know the mantra “folding is not losing, losing money is losing,” and so know when to fold.  At the lower buy-ins, people call and raise with anything, and then it’s more about luck because any card could come down next.  But I could be way wrong.

19)  You can’t blame other people.  What are your plans next?

Buy in to the $0.10 tournaments and proceed to the next stage once I “win” continuously.  I put “win” in quotations because those tournaments start with 360 people.  36 positions get paid, the overall “winner” ending up with $8.00.  As long as I place in the 36th percentile regularly, I’ll see if I’m ready to move up.

20)  How have you done so far?

I placed 48 a few days ago.  75 after that.  Then, 237, 238, and 330.  All but one of those were because of bad plays on my part.  Yesterday, I really thought about what it was I was doing and tried again, and I placed 25.  OUT OF 360 PEOPLE.  That’s huge for me.

[IT’S OVER!]

My Mind Was Just Blown
This is an incredible incredibly short story composed of all dialogue, between two aliens talking about our race.  Explains why we’re all alone in the universe.

I found out via PopCritics today that Estelle Getty died.  She played Sophia on the Golden Girls, and ironically was the youngest of the four women but suffered from severe dementia the past few years.

When we were thinking of names for our dog, we thought about a few like Bowser, Koopa, and Princess Toadstool, then thought about Blanche, Rose, Dorothy, or Sophia.  Katy liked Sophia, so that’s the one we went with.  My dog is named after this Golden Girl.

Sophia always made me laugh on the show.  Like when Blanche was talking about writers block:

Blanche: I have writer’s block. It’s the worst feeling in the world.

Sophia: Try 10 days without a bowel movement sometime.

People often ask me why I like the Golden Girls so much (okay, nobody has ever asked me, but I get the feeling that they’re wondering).  The answer is, of course, that it’s actually a genuinely funny show, but also because when I was a child I used to spend one day on the weekends at my grandparents house.  My grandpa would voluntarily sleep in the next room and my grandma would rub my back as I fell asleep while she watched Golden Girls.  So the show always reminds me of her.

Sophia:  Why did Rose throw an alarm clock out the window?

Blanche:  She wanted to see time fly?

Sophia:  No, because she’s a moron.

Can’t get this off repeat on my iPod.

Girl, my love’s gonna last just as long as my high. And I’m high all day every day.
Snoop Dogg, “My Medicine”

Traveling tip: when driving, make sure you stop for gas otherwise it may be 45 mins until the next gas station and that shit is nail-biting.

Driving up north with a bike strapped to the trunk = nerve-racking. The vibrations remind me of a loose tile on the shuttle or something.