Happy Birthday to Liz

Went up to NYC with a great crew yesterday.  The car consisted of me, Mark, Dan, Dave, Shay, Jose Cuervo, and skull vodka.  I could not think of a more fun/well-suited crew for a little roadtrip.  If I could take 4 people into purgatory, the list might look a bit like this one.  We rolled in to Dirty Jers at around 4, and watched a lil football.  Those staying at Moses's place and various other venues left for the city, and I stayed to watch the parade of beautiful people and hair.  Liz looked straight up amaaazing, with her hair done up by a lil turkish woman and enough pixie dust to make Tinkerbell jealous.  We went to dinner a restaurant called "The Kitchen of Fish" only to find no fish on the menu whatsoever!  The meal was pretty hit or miss, good seafood skewers (no fish on that of course) were the highlight of the meal.  Dan and I made use of the all you can drink wine for two hours, and good conversation and picture taking ensued (though, liz will never send them to us ;)  

Unfortunately, they didn't take creditcards and I was sans atm card.  Shay covered me though, for which I'm eternally greatful.  Then it was off to Bbar, a posh little bar with beautiful gardens and overbearing heat lamps.  There I met what seemed like an endless chain of interesting people.  I was in pretty terrible shape at this point, and have the paper evidence to prove it (300 dollars at one bar? really Trev??) There was a bit of drama, but drama is the spice of life and without it my existence would be fairly boring.  Afterwards we went to R Bar...what's with all the letter bars!?  Anyway, this was much more my scene and the dance floor proved too much a temptation to pass up.  Good times were had, I owe a few people some dinners and polite conversation, but all in all it was a great time.

....

Tonight I watched some terrible TV!~

So tonight I watched some terrible TV

I saw Richard Dawkins on Bill Meher along with Michael Moore and Janine Gurrafalo (sp?)

I watched 3 to 4 episodes of South Park.

I watched a new show called the Modern Family 

and finally 10 minutes of "Cougar Land"

First off let me say the last show is unwatchable.  I give it 4 weeks tops.  The Modern Family is only slightly better.  The married with children dad has never really appealed to me and he's up to his old tricks with a younger hotter wife (go figure).  The characters are pretty vapid and I don't recommend it.  Sadly, South Park was the pinnacle of my night, even though it occurred during a losing effort in Scrabble with Shay (despite an early 50 point lead after turn 2 I guess there can be only so many I's Q's and X's a man can put up with...)

So begins my rant on Bill Meher.  Bill Meher is a moron.  He's not particularly funny as a comedian, and he's even less so as a TV show host.  That being said, he has a knack for getting people with vast amounts of knowledge on the same stage.  It's probably not hard given that these donkey liberals probably share a commune every Sunday at the altar of infinite hypocrisy.  What do I mean?

Let's start with Richard Dawkins.  Richard Dawkins is as stubborn an ideologue as the very religious fanatics he attacks.  During the show, he blamed all of terrorism on faulty religious beliefs.  Interesting, that sounds a lot like your last book....are you channeling your inner T. Boone Pickens?  Maybe he just believes what he says so strongly he is unwilling to consider other factors.  Apparently Janine is the only other panelist on the show willing to question Dawkins (although she does only that, and does not go nearly far enough)..."why if religion is the sole culprit is it that insane religions here do not produce similar suicide bombings?"  Thank you voice of reason... clearly pinning terrorist acts on religion alone is irresponsible.  I dare say that more atrocious acts have occurred UNDER the banner of religion, but to notice this and declare it a correlation are two distinct things.  In most instances of terrorism, far more than religion is at the motivational core.  Economic factors, political factors, devaluing of life, and revenge weigh more in terrorist cases than religion probably ever did.  I'm not saying I know it, I'm just saying it seems much more likely the correlation lies within these realms.  Richard Dawkins is a moron because he doesn't understand the function of religion anymore.  He claims that religion is akin to the appendix, genetic waste, something left over from a time when we needed something more than what science had given us.  Well sir, religion hasn't stopped giving people the sense of community, the social desire to love and be loved unconditionally in the face of all evidence and reason...to be loved.  This is the human condition, and religion will never fade out so long as nothing fades IN to take its place.  Why else would absoludicrous ideas like the Mormon church exist today...nay FLOURISH!  Because a large part of what we humans due is impose structure upon a world as WE see fit, not as it actually is.  Much like Mr. Dawkins has pinned the ills of the world on religion, instead of on the real issues.

Michael Moore has become the face of something frightening.  The truth.  If he expands upon his ideas of capitalism expressed in his upcoming film, he may become my favorite Gadfly of all time.  He's doing it late however, as the documentary "The Corporation" came out a while back in foreign countries expressing the same sentiments that capitalism is dead.  I'll wait until I see the movie to truly anoint him, but I have a good feeling.  That being said, I HATE the way Michael Moore presents himself.  He is all that is wrong with Hollywood.  Blatantly Partisan, terribly biased, and unfortunately fat and annoying.  If the truth had a real spokesman...or even an unknown spokesman, we would all be much better served.

The infinite hypocrisy... Bill Meher, Liberal Media, Conservative Media, Media Matters.com, Fox news, Hollywood... F U ALL!  Each one of you has picked a side, put the blinders on, and started shouting at the top of your lungs.  Mr. Meher, you criticize Obama for coming to the negotiating table with Republicans in the house and senate.  You say he should not even consider the politics of the right wing, they had their chance, now its ours.  Perhaps, the problem with the past 8 yrs of government were not the political ideals of one man, but the complete disregard of the political ideals of half a nation!  Last I checked the president does not have a mandate!  It is his JOB to sell people on his plans, to debate ideas, to negotiate.  Screw you Fox news, for allowing people like Glen Becke on the air at all.  He is nothing more than a shock jock in sheep's clothing.  In the end, F US...because the media is just after the all mighty dollar like the rest of us, and something about their strategy is working...which doesn't say a whole lot about us as a nation.

The next big trips...

Oh, I forgot!

The next big trips are:

Vegas for Halloween - with Peacock, Shay, Shay's bf, Becky (peacock's gf!?!?!?! lol), Liz, Deti?, plus many more!  Come as you are if you can!

Montana for Christmas - The usual cast of characters :)

Colorado for babysitting?...perhaps - Colin Chels Kev and Laurie....though I'd prolly rather go wine tasting with 'em...

Utah - completely new cast of characters...super excited to try my hand at powder mountain!

Thailand...on the distant not so distant horizon.

The next big trips, and the last big trip

It's been a long time coming, but here are some more of the pics and stories from China.  

The haze, the only thing stopping me from moving there right now.  Well, that, the language barrier, the food, the government, and the internet poker

 thing... 

This is the view from our hotel in Beijing e

very morning.

This is the temple of heaven.  It was beautiful and so full of life on a sunday.  I got the sense that this was the place to be for fun and games with family and friends.  There were groups playing badminton, and kicking around a Hack-y-sac like shuttlecock thingy.  It was definitely a cultural experience.  I would say its akin to hippies throwing frisby in the park.

Shanghai, where all sorts of fun can be had.  This is in the top 5 skylines in the world for obvious reasons.  The Pearl of the Orient is a gawdy, ugly, and ultimately quintessential piece of Shanghai's soul.  This view is from the top of the Hyatt hotel where we went to high tea twice, and enjoyed a few sugary cocktails atop their roof bar.  I highly recommend it.

We meet our second guide Joyce at the (jo ji go) airport.  Instantly in love :)

She more or less made our experience during the two day stint in xiao jighao (sp?)

She had a story for every plant my mom asked about and introduced me to Chincobarley wine (not for the avg. drinker...think apple cider mixed with orange juice and rum).  I met up with

 her in Beijing on the last day of our China trip...but that's a different story for a different blog.  Maybe I'll devote a whole entry to her eventually.  She earned it.

Here are some photos from our time with Joyce and Coco touring western China.

mom littering...and enlightened monks

A few pics to Tide one over

Trip report (beginning)

Starting at the beginning here are my thoughts and feelings illustrated with some pictures about the first few days of my trip to China.

Airplanes/getting there

Airplanes we're a huuuuge part of the trip.  I think in total we took around 8 flights.  The best of these flights were really good, there is a new system on the more advanced airlines (the ones leaving from or going to Japan i believe) that allows each person to have their own TV with on demand movies and TV shows.  THIS, makes flying bearable.  I watched around 4 movies on various flights and killed an entire Nicholas Sparks book called "The Choice" on the way there.  The movies I liked:

American beauty...I'd seen it before, but it is one of my favorite movies of all time.  My mom hates it, and most people find it a bit too morbid...but I think it drives home a point that isn't heard nearly enough in this world.  "There is so much beauty in the world, that I think my heart is going to swell up and burst...but then I breathe, and the beauty washes over me, travels through me and it's like I can see it all at once."  Furthermore, there is beauty in sadness.  A point probably only recognized by those that experience sadness less frequently, but nevertheless an important point.

Kung Fu Dunk: hella bad movie to the point of hilarity!  Putting the nail in the coffin of the ole, do Asians get basketball argument. NO.

Duplicity: sorry Clive Owen, I fell asleep twice.  Julia Roberts cannot carry a film anymore.  She is no longer cute and her terrible acting is not tolerable anymore.  (I never found her attractive or tolerable in the past, but this movie will make people start to agree with me)

Star Trek: Okay okay i get what people see in this movie....i guess it's good :/

The first leg:  So we got delayed in JFK, which is a terrible airport.  It's designed like DC as a wheel and spokes type of thing, but planes never leave on time, and air traffic control is inept.  Couple that with a mechanical malfunction with our plane and you have yourself 4 hours on the tarmac and a crappy meal service to boot.  Pictures from this leg of the flight were nonexistent.  We got into Japan, missed our connector, spent the night getting shuffled to a

 hotel, then fed deeeelicious food then shuffled back to the airport the next day.  

Japan pics

 

this is the hotel

  Banzai/peaceful garden.  Japan rocks gardens...and breakfast!  They've taken the best of french cuisine (croissants and other pastries) and coupled it with strange delicious fruits and assorted meat products!  Little did I know we would never see bread for breakfast again on this trip :(

Narita Japan's Airport...WTF is that thing?  It looks like a giant pillsbury doughboy made out of colorful glass...I didn't ask.

Japan was a short part of the trip but from what I can tell the place has it figured out.  While I was there, I thought about writing a blog entry about what a world would be like without planned obsolescence.  Japan is that world, and we have a LOT to learn from them.  I'll spare you the rant however, and instead give you a hint of what's to come in the next entry.

A great philosopher once said, " To inflict harm upon another is a human's first instinct, because a subject always looks for the source of the pain, whereas performing favors for another has the subject looking inward for a source of desert."  I could not agree more.  To be a more advanced human is to be conditioned to seek the source of pleasure.  Further still is the human that performs an act so great that a subject knows that the desert does not lie within, and thusly looks outward.  To be divine is to not meet that gaze with satisfaction.

A philosophy that does not motivate your every action is merely a religion.

-Trev

Having watched one to many episodes of the Mentalist in my life, I decided to perform an experiment.  You see I have at least 5 problem children on my all this session.  Controlling all of them had been impossible for an extended period of time.  So I decided to cheat.  If I could neutralize 2 or 3 of the hellions then my nights would become manageable.  I tried everything, bribery, threats, reasoning, and even physical force.  Nothing worked.  Then last night I decided to try something radically different.  I went up to two of my most rambunctious kids, and tapped them gently on the hand as I uttered, "You, be good tonight."  The response was instant and unexpected.  Both times the practice was greeted by this response: "What?"

I repeated the process, and then both children responded: "Okay, I will."  And they did.

July has been different.  At times it has been gratifying, and at times terrifying, but more than anything July has been tiring.  I'm sick of this place.  I think it's the smell of it, or maybe the fact that I'm trapped like a teenager on house arrest, without A/C, and without stimulating conversation.  I asked a girl to point blank talk to me about something deep today, she said she wanted to go to the mall.  The Spaniards leave on Thursday; I will be sad to see them go.  Many of them have made me laugh at America in ways I never thought possible, and at the same time be more proud of my heritage than ever before.

"Jes, I hhhaf herrd of this Wal - Marrt.  It is the place where you look this way and djou see tirres and den jou look this way and see FOOD!  WooooW."

-Kike

The great war of our generation, is with the illogical

Last night something finally snapped. Kid A (I will call him) decided it was in his best interest to not take his medication. It was nearing 10:30, and I knew the result of him failing to do so would be a sleepless night for him, and most likely his roommate too. The next day would only bring a deeper spiral out of control as his bipolar disorder took over. So I reasoned with him. I pleaded the case for taking the pill, but Kid A refused. I asked why he wouldn't and he said, "I want to get angry so I can kill Kid B!" To which I merely said, that is not going to happen Kid A, I won't allow it, so it's pointless to not take the medication.
"I DON'T CARE!" said Kid A.
I want to get angry.
This conversation went on for what felt like an eternity. Far longer than it should have...
It ended with me calling his parents, and him taking the pill after 20 minutes on the phone.

Afterward I asked him what his parents had said. He said, "Well, they told me that tomorrow was Monday, and that killing someone on Monday was frowned upon."

I shook my head...and quickly agreed.

Later that night I went downstairs to watch Friday the 13th with some of the staff. I generally detest scary movies, but once I start watching one, I have to finish! It's the suspense of it all, no matter how awful it is, I have to know JUST how awful it ends. So I watched it to its conclusion, and as i suspected everyone in the movie was retarded/died/will have died soon after the movie concluded (just trust me and don't start watching). YES, it was scary, but I never quite understood what it is that people find good about being scared.

So I went to bed, locked my door, and began thinking of Kid A somehow finding his way into my room with his 3 iron or something. I woke up three times during the night, once because I forgot to turn off my alarm for 230AM (gotta catch them campers sneakin out on thursday ya know) and twice because the fans blew my door against the hinges making a loud thud. Each time I jumped out of my skin, and did a lap of the room and hall to make sure everything was ok.

F the illogical

Youth but not youth

It saddens me greatly to see the state of today's youth. Two days ago I talked to a child that had had sex with two different people, one of whom was later described as, "a walking STD". She continued by saying that she had an inexplicable love of "spics" (it was ok for her to call them that, because she hangs out with them and they call themselves that so its like totally whatever). She was 14.

Furthermore, we have a child who's soul purpose in life is to make everyone around him more miserable. He is blatantly racist, has made numerous inappropriate comments to all of our black staff and campers. We won't get rid of him because of the love of the almighty dollar, and when we repremand him he cries and cries and cries but changes nothing. He is 13.

We have a child who has twice almost killed his twin brother via stabbing. He takes more pills a day than I have in my entire life. He held his family hostage with a knife and sent a kid to the hospital at a wrestling match. He lives two doors down from me, and I lock my door every night. He is 12.

For every case of a bad child, every pharmacutical ridden preteen, every sex-crazed teenager in camp there is one who is perfectly nice, and capable of some level of respect and self sufficiency. But the ratio is as close to 1:1 as i've ever seen.

I fear for my unborn child. For these are the children of the well to do.

the death nell of online poker, cheerleaders, and DC

Okay folks, lot to talk about very little time. Speaking of time its winding down here at "The Tower"...we're moving out soon and the place looks more and more vacated by the day. Dan is long gone, with his bootiful TV, and my measly 32 inch stands in its place. As for the others, sam and brian are in the process of exodus, and peacock and I are frantically searching/applying for houses in the district. Next year should prove to be the best year of my life...assuming a few things.

Before discussing some sobering news, I was stationed in the Rio sport and health in Gaithersburg for my charity advertising work. I thought it was going to be another boring day, but fate had the Redskin cheerleaders in store for me. An hour into my pitching of random people to let me rear their children (OMG HE WANTS TO REAR YOUR CHILD!!!! GET HIM!!!!) These beautiful girls dressed in street clothes passed nodding and smiling etc. etc.
They disappeared into the girls room and never in my life had i more wanted to be a fly on a wall. Anyways 20 minutes later they emerged in full redskinette garb (or non-garb) as it were. 3 more beautiful women I had not seen in quite some time. They we're overseeing the opening of a new energy drink store inside the gym...and the patrons that day we're overseeing them. It was hilarious. Bottom line is I got some pics and some signatures for my boys (as a better chance to brag probably would not present itself for quite some time). I chatted with them for a bit about their non-scantily clad jobs and one was a teacher of highschoolers, and the other was a lawyer...and I cursed my decision to not go to law school.

Sigh now for the sad news. Online poker suffered a serious blow today. 30 million was seized in cashouts from pokerstars and full tilt. This means one of two things... America is after poker players money, or poker players souls. By this I mean, the government wants to either tax the crap out of poker while leaving it legal....or they want to shut us down completely. Either way, we lose. The only positive that can come out of this is that we may show that we are partaking in a game of skill not of luck, leading to widespread legalization of the game. There is a bill in congress that would allow us based casinos to set up websites (something previously illegal) if a state deemed it legal to do so. Utah and hawaii have already said...no no this will not be legal in our state, but there is still hope for large states like cali and ny to allow it which would expand the player base by millions if it were easier to get money online. Anyway...here is the article courtesy of Sharon L.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB124459561862800591-lMyQjAxMDI5NDE0MDUxOTA1Wj.html


anyhow...more to come on this later I'm sure
best,
Trev

WOOOOOOW really? june? really?

why?

in other news, tennessee trip to see gma was fun, didn't end up making any of last month's goals, and if today is going to be any indicator of june...welll FU JUNE!

FML round two

If it weren't for running good at the tables...I'd be one livid SOB. In the past two weeks I've managed to lose 3 credit cards, get stranded in tyson's corner, gotten a 125 dollar ticket from a cop...for what? HOV violation of rte 66...why is that a 125 dollar ticket...I mean i'm all for encouraging ridesharing...but do we really have to do it to the tune of 125 dollars? FFS! I've had to go to this advertising job which I'm getting paid like a mexican bus boy while making money hand over fist in the 2 odd hours i get to play a day. I've gotten sick, I've driven or been on the road with no AC in 94 degree weather for more than 8 hours.
END RANT/

Hi my name is Al Coholic

Ladies and gents (mostly ladies) its time for my rant.....
F CELL PHONES! Even the magnificent Iphone cannot suade me from absolute disgust with this cell phone generation. This weekend, on two occassions we had people over...and on both occassions at least one person in the group might as well have not been there. She was living vicariously through her texts, either planning future nights or the immediate future plans for that night. Well, I've had it, the next time someone does it i'm taking their phone and chucking it out the window. I mean seriously, why even come over if all ur going to do is text someone who is not there. Siobahn was probably the only person this weekend that was 100% a good party goer, even when she didn't wanna be there, she was engaged in conversation and made an effort. /rant

open new rant

F Alcohol! I've been at or near my limit in drinks for 5 days straight. AC combined with Liz comin in has led to some of the worst hangovers, massive weight gain, and peculiar retardation ever. On the plus side...I think I had fun every night except for one, and managed to bounce back fairly well every day but one. No more drinking for Trevor! EVER! Until friday when we go to NYC to visit liz....wait wut?
/rant

Atlantic City
This "Atlantic" city is quite possibly the skeeziest...sleeziest...and most bizarre of places I have ever been. Both nights I was there, I stayed up till ~7am, a feat made much easier by the massive amounts of oxygen pumped into casino floors. I think I saw the sun the second day....maybe...once. Had some great food, met some cool locals. I guess the weirdest thing that happened...the thing that could only happen in Vegas or AC...was that on night one we went to a strip club (a too oft repeated manuveur methinks :/) and I got a dance from this Russian blonde who said that I must have worked out due to my massive muscles (a too oft repeated line methinks :/). Anywayz, the next morning/ 7am night Scott and I ran into her and her friends at a diner we went to. She was all dolled up with her russian friends laughing and pointing at a very boisterous and flirty me...anyway...I dunno if that will ever happen again.
/pointless anecdote.

Poker is still going well, but my life roll is still taking hits left and right from rando stuff...but w/e .
Got a call from Kev from china. He's havin a blast, and loves bargaining with the locals lol...something I know i'm going to suck at. I just don't care about money enough to haggle :/ I know I know that's ridiculous akjl;alfkj;lajfjiorqiewnv....whatever

Sometimes you're the windshield

This month has not been going according to plan :/

It started out with a 4k heater in 3 days, then hit a serious speed bump (graph to come later).

Anyway, I'm recovering quite nicely now, and am going to take a trip up to Atlantic City tonight with the GM crew. Dunno where we're staying, dunno when we get back, don't really care! I need the break. In other news, I got a pseudo real job as 4 star's advertising director (ok maybe I made that title up). It doesn't pay well (if at all), but it gets me out of the house and meeting people in gyms across Arlington. This has multiple benefits, as I dunno my way around here very well, so I'm learning the lay of the land.

Haven't heard from Kevin in a while, so i'm assuming he's in China. I can't wait to hear how it is for him! I'm so pumped to go and he is a good litmus test for what I want to do there.

Anyway...here's the month graph for Full tilt

I know it looks like I can't complain, but in poker there are 2 types of luck...all in luck (whether your AK holds preflop against their AQ) and Cooler luck (are you serious?? QQ to AA again?!?!) The latter does not show up on this graph, but this has been one of my worst months in straight cooler luck. Oh well...let's hope this recovery holds and I can get this back on track.

Trevor's public apology to the world

I'm sorry world, you've given me nothing but the best, and this is how I repay you?
For shame.

In the world of Trevor, it is always 75 degrees and sunny

Let's do a little life recap for you. Here are my last 5 days (month so far).

I don't know how long this heater will last...and I don't know how much of it is just sustainable good poker. I do know that I can't expect to run like god forever...That said i'm on pace for all goals! 15k seems like it should be in reach (even though i said that about 10k last month). Anyway, that's only the beginning of the run good.

Capitals series is 2-0. Ovechkin is a man possessed!! Peacock got to go to the game, and I watched it with Dan back home. After being at the games last series...I have to say its hard not to just reach for everyone in the room and give them a huge high 5 every time something like this happens:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrPxw465nkk

I think the fun thing about hockey in general...is that its nonstop action. Soccer would be a great american sport if we weren't so impatient, but Hockey gives us the best of both worlds. There are no prolonged periods of passing in hockey, no shortage of hitting and stealing and shot-taking. It has the advantage of constant action (other than the occasional faceoff) that football doesn't have, and goals are infrequent enough that they are all uniquely special (which basketball doesn't have). All in all, I'd still rather watch playoff football, and grand slam tennis, but hockey has definitly bolted into a clear number three spot. Oh, but you do have to find someone to care about lest hockey is just like every other sport, just a bunch of grown men playing a game...but i guess that's true of all sports.

Furthermore, it's cinco de mayo, and i'll be cooking dad's world famous blackbear burritos for people, sippin on margs and livin the life in my DC palace :)

Until next time au revoir!

and GOGOGOGOGOGO

one of the best cash game days ever...

Today I made 1700 dollas in like 1 hr....I think I finally had a Loriesque day :P

More to come this month I promise!!!

But i'm off to Freddytown, so I can't expound on how this happened or anything fun like that. Hopefully get to see Moges this trip!

10k month? FAIL

ok, so all in all April was a pretty solid poker month. But it couldn't have ended in a more frustrating way. I flirted with 10K all morning, after having made 1.3k in a little under 1 hours work, then spent the rest of the day running like absolute dog poo. The closest I ever got was a mere 200 dollars away, as I needed 1.5k for the win. Here's the Day graph, and the month graph.

Day

Month sigh...so cloooose

next month 10k for sure with a secondary goal of 15k

I guess Its time to get this all on paperrrrrr

Foxfields

Foxfields is basically an excuse for Uva to dress up in the most ridiculous outfits ever and all cram into little areas called "plots" then proceed to get absolutely shithammered, while maybe taking in a horserace or two...if you are unlucky. It is also a chance to catch up with old friends, old enemies, exes, acquaintances that you're just not sure deserve a hello, and new friends that you just haven't met yet.

This picture is of the entrance, a horribly coordinated multiple colored ticket mosh pit of sexually charged sun dresses. There is nothing quite like it, especially when you're hauling Titanic-like coolers of beer and vodka that are breaking faster than Arlen Specter's allegiances before a primary. Once inside this glorious donk fest, its a mere mile walk to the alumni plot. On the way I saw the first ex, Fiza plastered already and in great form. It was her birthday weekend and she looked fabulous and truly happy to see me. We exchanged pleasentries and passed like ships in the night. So we get to the plot to find that It is overrun by the med school tent. This is ok though as they have a ROBUST buffet. Me and G decided to talk transplants really loudly while snagging some raisin canes and chocolate chip cookies. No one was the wiser. Then the drinking commenced....jk we had been drinking since 7am.

So the first excursion into the orange plots (the youngins and the graduate schoolers) took me to Marky's. It was great to see him and meet my future wife and whatnot. However, this was short lived as Ex number 2 walked up with mutual friend. Heather Koo was not nearly so kind as Fiz, and despite 90 degree weather an arctic chill went down my spine....somewhere in the distance Socrates wept. The festivities continued with the arrival of george however, and we ran around meeting greeting and judging various annorexic women dolled up like easter eggs. The whole scene was so classically UVA, and it truly was a fantastic, allbeit nauseating at times expression of southern douchebaggery. It's like a trip to vegas, it's absolutely incredible until you realize you're mired in filth and disdain for your fellow man. Nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there. So the whole shebang comes to a close and then the game of, find the sober person to drive home, begins. We walked to some convinience store and sat in the grass waiting for a taxi as a line of cars passed by exitting the field. I decided to hitch-hike home (a genius drunk move) with a friendly couple from Washington and Lee that looked sober and seemed kind enough. Fortunately I made a good read and arrived back in time to snag some christian's pizza and walk back to Tom and Eric's for some post game passing the F out and Frosty consumption.

So then It was off to the bars for some post game antics. We decided to walk to Bhuddist, but upon seeing a mass of people cramming and jamming (a little too remeniscent of the foxfields entrance) their way in the front door, a detour to Biltmore was quickly executed. I got the first round, saw my favorite bartender, and made sure everyone had a drink in hand before peacing. Why? Because I had something on my mind that I just couldn't purge. An insatiable cruiousity. So I left the bar and headed to the tennis courts, when what to my wondering eyes should appear? Nari Song, decked out in tennis gear.

This was a pretty big shocker. I had received a text earlier in the night that said, "hey this is Nari, I thought you might be in town, would you like to play tennis?" I think, right then and there I understood what it must have been like to open the door and find publisher's clearing house guy with a giant check and big balloons outside. I could not have been more pleasantly surprised.

So I played a little tennis while buzzed ( a feat that makes serving quite difficult I might add) until they shut the lights off at 12:30. The rest of the night involved a lot of planet earth and water... one more foxfields in the books, and it couldn't have ended happier :)

Hockey Games

So as of late, I've gotten really into watching the Washington Capitals hockey team. It's basically a bunch of young guns playing flashy hockey, with Alexander Ovechkin leading the acrobatics. OV as he's known can plain and simple do things on the ice that no other player in the NHL has been able to do ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO1TuEp8eqI

The best part about this highlight reel goal was....I WAS THERE! Peacock hooked Dan and I up with some amaaazing seats for game 5. I must say, that playoff hockey games live might be the most exciting sporting event I've ever been to. It definitely rivals some of the greater college football games. I'm not entirely sure why hockey hasn't become the next big sport in America. It has everything, hitting, constant action, star power...I think if more people watched the Caps and Penguins play, they'd realize just how beautiful the game has gotten. It's no longer about fighting and forechecking, It's about fast skating, threading needles with passes, and deflecting pucks going past you at ~100 miles an hour. How anyone can be a good NHL goalie in today's game, with scorers like OV and Semin on the ice...it just baffles me.

You can imagine my delight when Game 7 went our way completing the comeback from 3-1 down in the series. Diana had to witness my apartment in all its ridiculous manhoodyness...sp?? Scotty, Joey, Ben, and Peacock's dad all argued about every miniscule detail of sports history...all the while Diana sat bewildered (I may have been too shhhh) wiping testosterone from her face every five or so minutes. I felt kinda bad, but at least we got to have a normal dinner at 1Gen thai, which was delish.

This post has gotten kinda long, so i'll save some stories for the next one. Until then, gl in all you do.

Graphical Update of 10k month

So far so good...I think I need to make about 1.5k more in 6 days...should be doable if current trends continue

Oh and I run good lol...sorry kev :/

Music post

So i haven't posted in a while, mostly because things have just been craaazy around here, and I've just not been in the mood to write it all down. And I'm still not. What I am in the mood to do is hopefully help some of you expand your musical horizons. Think of me as your pandora.

I'll do it by genre...I'll name the band and their best songs, and maybe who i'm targeting with the group.

For the Indy fans (kev, liz apparently, prolly zach tho he knows much more than me annnnd my sister:

Razorlight (I can't stop this feeling i've got, Golden touch, Before I fall to pieces)

Band of horses:( Monsters, The funeral, Ghost in my house [or something])

Kings of Leon: (Sex on fire)

Dredg: (Sang rial, ANY OF THEIR STUFF REALLY)

Guster: (airport song, most of their stuff is awesome [especially live])

The strokes: (reptilia, rockband song i know i know)

80's fans (more for me really maybe Mogle etc.)

The outfield: (your love)

Phil collins: (Air tonight, all his stuff is similarly golden)

Genesis: (black and white, tonight tonight tonight)

Sting and The Police: (don't stand so close to me, Message in a Bottle, wrapped around your finger)

Steve Winwood band: (Valerie)

Queen: (under pressure and bohemian rhapsody of course)

Techno Trance and Dance fans

ATB: all his stuff

Armin Van Buuren: all his stuff (Sound of goodbye is a good place to start)

Tiejsto: duh

DJ Trevor Simpson: any of his remixes are soooolid! (it's all in the name)

Bill Laswell: Ohm Shanti

Lady Gaga....sigh POKER FACE :P

Schiller: Troy (the phoenix from the flame)

Evolution: walking on fire

Prog fans:

Get the new steven wilson Cd its pretty money!

Pure by pendragon (thanks pops)

As for poker stuff...i'm back on pace...(i think...its gonna be close) for a 10k month.

here's the graph and add like 300 from my PLO play so far. PLO is an interesting game and i'll make a post about it soon, but I'm still trying to figure out where I stand on it.

Hickup

FML

Maybe i'm spoilt

So yeah...I was getting kinda used to positive days...and today i didn't have one. I think it broke a streak of like 10 straight or so too...so sick...anyway, my dad was talkin about how risky my job was to me as I filled out taxes. So in order to show him the REEAAAAL riskiness. Here is a graph of my last 200k hands or so.

The blueline is the real bottom line for my last 200k hands of poker played. In this graph one can see there is some variance, but a clearly positive trend. In the section in the middle, I think i ran colder than the ice caps and still ground out some sort of profit if rakeback is included. Furthermore, the odds of me having a negative month playing hu have decreased dramatically since I started playing Heads Up (hu) as my winrate is much higher (one can see this in the latter 4th of the graph where I made the switch to all heads up). Hu is an interesting beast, because actual variance is higher, whereas odds of having losses over an extended period of time go down. The standard deviations I can expect to see from my winrate in HU are very large, but since my winrate is higher against open-mouth breathers (fish, donks, spewtards, monkeys, Kevin Sivaneri's, bad players...whatever you call them) when I have them all to myself more of my standard deviation range lies in the positive territory. This is why good heads up players should never ever play eachother. This is why Durrrrr's challenge to the poker world is absolutely terrible.

For those of you who don't know, Durrr (Tom Dwan) has put up 1.5 million dollars to any opponents .5 million dollars, that over 40k hands he can be up >1$ heads up at either texas holdem no limit or pot limit omaha hi. From what I've described above, one should quickly see that if a winrate of a heads up player approaches 0, the range of what he should expect to see will have a large portion in the negative realm. In order to win, if Durrrr really is the better player, with a 95% confidence interval, Durr would have to play over 1 million hands with anyone even close to his ability level. Patrick Antonious took him up on the challenge (wisely I might add) because essentially Durr is flipping a coin laying 3 to 1 against ur winning. A laughable proposition. They are in the midst of playing their challenge and the lead is waffling back and forth, but regardless of the outcome, Durrrr is a moron....a rich rich moron.

Regardless, From the above graph, one should be able to see my risk of ruin is very very low. I will never "go broke" unless I do something truly retarded (along the lines of drunk playing or something). Anyways, I will try to get some pictures up here sometime soon that aren't poker related...as all these graphs i'm sure are monotonaus. But to do so may require a trip somewhere....Foxfields is coming up in cville...and if last year was any indication, mayhem will ensue and pictures I will do!

yet another wild weekend in the district

So last night was an interesting, awesome, embarassing, sobering experience. The day started at the bowling alley where I tried to repeat my previous performance against Dan. Fail...the high score was around 140, but I still won :). Then I started crushing donkeys in poker to the tune of 800 or so (graphs to come). Peacock got it in his head that he was going to cook out. So we had a FEAST! Amaaazing steaks, great chicken, solid potatoes...a meal fit for a king. The S's came over (Shay and Siobahn) and the party games began.

So the game of choice was kings. Now i've been running red hot in poker of late, but I assure you all that is offset by my icecold run in kings. Let's just say I ended up without my pants on, with beer all over my shirt and I broke a chair. Sigh, all in a days work...and ironically all while stone sober. In fact, the whole night my tolerance shown through and while the rest of the crew was getting absolutely retarded, I played mother hen and made sure people got home and got to dance their fill. It was interesting to say the least. We went to Whitlows and heard a good cover band and some solid convos.

Today I mostly sucked in tournaments and crushed cash games. I ended up about even. Here's the month and the race to 10k.

so far so good!

now we're on pace baby

What a great past couple of days! My confidence is at an all time high.

here's the monthly graph...I dunno what happened around 8k, but I think it was around my trip to freddytown...so perhaps its all about good food and travel with good people. Let's hope this boomswitch continues.

It was asked whether I still write poetry, the answer is no not really, but here's a go.

Shadow Play

One light flickers in the window

the ghost of a party dances below

Nothing is left but the cigarette smoke

and shadows that play where her glass broke

the cards on the table in solitaire rows

sirens fade in the distance

echoed by a murder of crows

guiding souls in broken prose

one light in the window

guides the shadows below

and the ghosts of departed in cigarette smoke

meh this will be edited (classic hedging :)

quest for the 10k month

Well i'm not on pace....yet but things are turning around....note the EV line...this cannot last!

my forray into plo

Okay so here's a pretty good day at the tables. All hunl....except for one hand of plo to be detailed later.

So anyhow I played a bunch and got to sweat peacock a lil bit in some really donk action. It's always fun to extract moneys from complete monkeys in front of people. So anyway I sat at one table of PLO for fun 25/50 cent table, but its pot limit so u can sit in for much more. Anyway

I get dealt something along the lines of 3456 I raise on the button he calls.

flop: 3 3 10

villian:checks

hero:bets pot

villian: pots

hero calls

turn: Q

Villian pots

Hero calls

river:3 giving me quads

Villian pots

Hero shoves all in

villian calls and mucks qq1010

Basically I one outtered him while playing for fun hehe...goot times. If you didn't understand a word of this i'm sorry...I barely did either, plo is a silly game played by silly people!

The weekend

Okay, so this weekend lets seeeee what did I do. Firstly there was Friday. On Friday, Dan and peacock took a "personal day" to work from home or in dan's case not work at all. So Friday was a good ole fashion day of rest. Thursday was a friggin wet hot mess as we went to car pool to get the run bad demons off my back and meet up with some of B Laub's coworkers. So here are the stories from the weekend:

Friday: Trevor, the professional bowler

So around 12:35am we stumble in from Carpool to find Dan drunk on the couch. We fire up a game of Wii tennis or something and the smack talk begins. Somewhere along the way, Dan decides to challenge my bowling prowess (real bowling not wii bowling). He decides to wager 250 dollars that he can bowl a better cumulative 3 game score than I can. Drunk Trevor quickly accepts because a.) drunk Trevor is FOS and will legit think he's the best at everything. and b.) drunk Trevor remembers Dan bowling in the 80s the last time they all went. Either way, the bet was set for later that day (3pm ish).

3PM rolls around, we've had I <3 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">thai, and watched a little bit of HBO. Then it hits Dan and I, the bowling urge. We drag Peacock along to moderate the bet. The first two games I absolutely destroyed Dan (no offense Dan, I just dunno where u were). I was up by 80 pins headed into the last game and decided to offer Dan a "best ball" sort of situation using peacock's now vacant frames. He quickly accepted and ended up bowling like a 130something to my 125. Ship the Cheddar my way Dannyboy. NOT SO FAST! Double or nothing!....sober Trevor considered his options, he hearkened back to his 3rd grade spelling test, the last one of the year and his incredible 19 test streak of spelling all the words correctly (wouldn't know it by the looks of this blog). He remembered how on that 20th test he spelled everything correctly....except for his name. Sober Trevor remembered the state tennis tournament, where he choked in straight sets to some kid who just got to every ball and put up sitting ducks the whole time. He'd never been clutch in anything but soccer.... he shook all that off and accepted the challenge.

The next part will only be pertinent to those of you who've seen rounders. Ya know that scene just after Mike has taken all KGB's money the first time, and they flash forward in the second match...and KGB says the line, "you myust be kyickying yourself myike. You shyould hyave quyit whyen you were achhhead!" Well that's how my 4th game started! Dan got what we here in Beer fest land call the "eye of the Jew". He started of strike strike spare. My arm was a virtual noodle, and I started off 5 89. On a side note, WOW I'm sore from bowling, that is quite sad! So the stage was set for one of the greatest comebacks of all time. The next five frames looked like the sign on a sex shop. X X X X X it was beautiful, and I don't know where it came from. I was truly in the zone, see previous posts about Rafa and Fed. By the end of this epic game, both Dan and I had bowled the highest scores in our lives, with me besting him 186 to 174. It was a pretty sweet moment worth 400 dollars (why am I such a degen sigh).

Saturday: trip to Freddyburg.

So to celebrate a great lil 1k day streak in March, I agreed to make a trip down to Freddytown to visit Diana and get some great food. It was a trip that almost wasn't because my car decided to die again and fortunately Sam jumped me for the 3rd straight time I've wanted to use that car (Great success!). At the Point B end of my Iphone's google map stood a beautiful 2 bedroom farmhouse complete with cows, a pasture, and the fluffiest cat I'd ever seen. Diana truly is living the life in her Grandmother's house (sans Gma). So I get the tour and we then make way for "La petite Auberge" or the lil inn, a delicious French restaurant. I got the Sirloin Bearnaise, cooked pretty darn rare. It was deeelish.

We then headed home and watched breakfast at Tiffany's, that Audrey Hepburn is HAWT! The movie was solid for an old movie, I generally detest old flicks as they just don't relate to me all that well. This one had a skank for a lead though with more family issues than the Osbournes, so it was all fairly amusing.

Sunday: Caps game and Poker.
So Sunday rolls around, and I roll into DC in time to get some lunch with the crew and surmise that it is nearly impossible to tell the founding fathers apart. The only discernible ones are George Washington and TJ. Gobbled up some I <3> and made our way back home. Dan snagged some tix to a Caps game, so we hit the metro around 3 (SO PACKED)! The game was awesome, and the people behind us actually won a "shirt off our back" prize and snagged a game jersey at the conclusion of the 6-4 victory. It was fan appreciation day, and it feels like everyone in the stadium won something. We picked up some sweet caps towels. I won all 3 prop bets -- a whopping 2 dollars each -- and shipped 3 beers in the process. All in all it was a great game with lots of high fiving and craziness. As for poker, I came home and passed out for 3 hours. I'd won 500 in the morning in about 5 minutes of play, and came back only to lose 700 in about 4 hours of play....sigh whatever, I was getting truly atrocious set-ups and hopefully i can remedy all this junk today. QQ to AA aipf was retardedly common yesterday, 3 times all for stacks, but w/e.

That's all for now, but to everyone involved in a truly classic DC weekend thanks :)

On the ego, and rational egoism

Philosophy post today!...and I'm affraid its time to tackle Ayn Rand. The reason i'm writing about rational egoism today is poker related. I was sitting across from a guy who had the handle, Aynrandhero. So when I called him out on his name, and told him rational egoism was ridiculous he said, "I get into these arguments all the time, I just want to play poker." Fair enough, I stacked him then he left in a huff saying, "you play poker about as well as you argue against rational egoism." So i figure, since I proved I could already best him in one, why not the other!

Rational egoism - is the principle that an action is rational if and only if it maximizes one's self-interest.

Okay, there are a number of ways to attack this argument. The first is a very interesting internal problem with the argument, and the one I offer is an extension of this argument that offers a more complete alternative.

The argument of arbitrariness: It would seem that rational egoism puts at the forefront of its argument an arbitrary perspective of the self. Why self-interest? What possible justification is there for choosing concern with self over concern with other people, or other things. How is selfishness more correct than fishishness (the concern about the well-being of fish?) or rockishness (the concern about the well being of ACDC?) The only response offered by Ayn Rand and other rational egoism is that this is the perspective we are all viewing the world from, so it only makes sense to make decisions based on it. Well, this may do for some, but I'm not convinced that one can apply this universally. Detractors say that this is merely a bias and not proof of correctness. I'm inclined to agree.

The argument that I tend to make is that we act correctly or incorrectly based on genetic egoism. That is to say we are selfish in so much as we protect our genes. This probably results from being the son of a genetic biologist and thus a bias towards empirical data and scientific conclusions. So where is this empirical data? It lies as so often is the case, in nature, my favorite lab for philosophical testing. In nature, there is a trend amongst some birds to have one or two (usually alpha males or flock leaders or whatnot) call out when they see danger, drawing attention to itself and warning the flock. It would seem to be against self-interest to put oneself in the harms way, so what possible rational egoism explanation is there? I would argue one would not find it in selfishness, but rather genetic rationalism. Protecting one's progeny outweighs the importance of protecting ones own life. Thus, the trait is passed on through the descendants of the endangered birds. This trait is not limited to birds, and examples can be found across species. Humans often will make sacrifices (some as grave as life itself) for their family and friends, and no one finds them to be silly or ridiculous (save maybe Nietzsche and he may have a point, but that's a different argument for a different day) in fact, most would find it a noble act, maybe make a movie about it (John Q anyone?).

The bottom line is, I can see the inner workings of genetic egoism. It plays out across the world as natural selection selects the traits that improve the replication of genes. The argument is not based on some unfounded bias of self interest, but rather relies on the basis for all decision making...procreation. I think this is like, the third philosophical argument that ends with me advocating decision making based on sex! That has to be some kind of record lol, or perhaps some sad commentary on my current situation....no no definitely the former!

Poker is going well...sorta. I'm still playing well, but luck has other motives, here's the past two days.

March, in like a lion out like a firebreathing dragon

So march was a pretty sweet month, here's the graph.



Keep in mind that I played half my normal hands due to Virgin islands and stuffs...
















my favorite part is the almost complete lack of variance! Add this to the shipping of the 43rd in the sunday brawl, and u get 7k+600 in rakeback...we got ourselves a good month! Goals for next month are 10k and at least one high placement in the brawl.


In other news, its D-day in my world, April 1st...the day liz geddes turns worlds upsidedown. The day the earth stood still. The day all your connections to her will be exploited into making your life a living hell. I've taken some precautions this year. I've turned off my cell phone for the day, I don't have my voicemail set up, so nobody can leave messages. Wish me luck because as the great orator JFK once said, "there are two things I fear more than fear itself, and both of them are Liz Geddes."

Shipt 43rd in the brawl for 1k today...all in a days work :)
lost a flip to allen cunningham for half my stack....to an 8 on the river :/
soooo...I was this close to a 280 dollar bounty and a Tshirt :(
siiiiiigh

Bruna Olly

Bruna Olly....???

Advertising has gone to far!

I guess not Paris

today I made 266 dollars...breaking my streak of 1k days at 3. This means no paris for Trev and D :(

I tried really hard too!...but the cards just weren't fallin my way today. Well actually they were, I just wasn't getting in good spots...here's the graph:

The hardest 88 dollars I've ever earned

There she is....My should have been a 1k day...instead...I earned 88 dollars. At one point, this French clown had 1k at 100nl (buy in for 100) at the table...and 900 of it was mine. Have you ever had 900 dollars stolen from you? Yes? No? Well that's what it felt like...but by the end of the day I had made 88 dollars and 45 cents.

In other news, Kevin qualified for The WORLD SERIES MAAAAIN EVENT...the guy runs like god...if this graph to the left was yin...he would be the god damn yang. But congrats to him, I think he is going to play in it. I'm sure he will ship it...maybe give me a mill or two for always being at his side. I don't know if he knows it, but I've been channeling my good ju ju to him for months now. ;)

That's all for now,
Better luck at the tables, and I hope my rents got home safe!

Trev

back to back 1k days

Always a good feeling when u make 2k in two days, here are the graphs...never hurts to run a bit above EV either.

As for brackets, I'm in the lead of the house pool by 4 or 5 points (a sizable lead at this point) and my other bracket is in a respectable 3rd place, so all in all it looks good for me to ship that so long as either louisville or pitt or not unc wins the whole thing.

That's enough degenning it up though, and i'm off to play some GTA4. This video game simply must be made into a movie, the plot is just sick!

Just like wii

Nothing super important to report today...except that i'm trying to make it my first ever pure cash game 2k day...1.5k so far...

so the reason i'm posting is this:

announcer: AJ Abrhams is the all-time big 10 leader in 3 point percentage with a stunning 51% lifetime avg.

Trevor: WOW! 40% is sick 50% is unreal.

Dan: It's just like my wii bowling motion...once you groove it (makes waving motion), the game is easy.

Trevor: ..............BUAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAHA

I have a Mandate

So let's see, march madness is going on, and I've got two brackets this year in a 50 dollar pool. So far i've missed 6 games in one and 7 in the other, and have lost one elite 8 team after the first round. That's pretty good, and if it weren't for my clear WVU bias, my brackets would be in ship shape. Unfortunately, i'm going to have trouble watching now that I have no teams invested in the darn thing, but c'est la vie.



Yesterday before the games Dan and I went shopping for his new look. Fashion has been a topic of conversation amongst my friends lately (more often than makes me comfortable)! I think, its important to seek out a look. This is not something everyone does, and I have a bunch of friends that are amorphis in this regard. That's all I have to say about that.

Went out last night to buffalo D's, now called some weird sports reference bar thingy...they did away with their hookah...which is retarded, but added shuffleboard...which is awesome! Met a cool girl named Nicole, who said things like "Who's left in the tournament? Is Maryland still in? Who else?"...to which I just answered....uuuuuh lots of teams! "Well time should fix that!"...uuuuuuh yes that is how it works. She was a PR consoltant with aspirations of owning her own business. I told her my job, and she called me Asian. Go figure.

Anywaaaays games coming on soon gotta run :)

run good in life

I have this theory that my parents think I'm a poker player because they don't believe I ever really graduated from college. Until today, that may have been Aucum's choice as well. However, today I ran down to Charlottesville and had my first ever friendly encounter with the trolls of the diploma department. I walked in, asked if I could have my diploma, and they said....sure................................................................................nothing came, no buts, no we're going to needs, no parking tickets, no missed payments, no lost payments, "what we have here, is a faaaaiiiilure to commmunicaaate"s! she just went to a desk behind her, grabbed it, grabbed a ribbon, and one of those artsy canister thingys and said, "your final test is finding a way to put this diploma in that canister. Good luck.

Naturally I failed twice. Proving my age old addage, "if something is worth doing, its worth messing up twice".

So for you nonbelievers, I am the proud carrying member of this:

In other news, St. Paddy's day was awesome, I think I'll save that story for another entry...aaannnnd My parents are in Big sky!....SUPA JEALOUS! I wish many a dump on them....eeewwwww skiiers meaning not figurative translation...whatever.

Razz and all that jazz

Today I heard Mark has a brother from the frat that is a top Razz player in the world. This needs to be explored when i'm in cville getting that pesky diploma for the 8th time or so. Apparently he makes six figures a year doing it (something i didn't think was possible) and I've been looking to explore other forms of poker as playing just HU can get somewhat tedious. In other news, I missed the conference call about China...sigh. Things sound like they're shaping up, and I'm definitely in mom's boat about getting there early as possible in august to maximize fun time. I think China will suit me well. It's a nation which values brains, money, and respect of which I have two of three. Furthermore, I've heard there are almost 0 murders (unless you are a female baby), which is a far cry from St. Croix. Course there is the whole language barrier thing, but if anyone can haggle to get deals...ITS ME! I plan to redo the wardrobe and take a nice long break from teh pokerz.

Diana's mom had surgery a couple of days ago to have her eye removed (not by choice i assume). It got me to thinking about just how vain I am when it comes to my body. I'm like 90% sure I'd be depressed if I lost any part of it, sigh. so needless to say my thoughts are with her and on her speedy recovery. I need to call my grandmother as well :/ One can never do these types of things enough methinks. Yet I do it not nearly enough.

I'm gathering my thoughts for wedding speeches. If anyone has suggestions on what NOT to say about your brother during his wedding...please leave them in the comments. I plan to write something truly epic for his big day. Often times we don't talk for months, but I love the guy to death, and I think he's got life by the you know whats and is really living a beautiful authentic existence. I see so much of myself in him (thinly veiled brag), and I only hope I can find someone half as awesome as Ming.

Anywayz, Poker I am a crushing right now *knock on wood. Up 2 k the last few days so China is lookin to be even more fun!

gl at the tables everyone

Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi believed in a very unique form of relativism. Relativism is a theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them. Thusly, the morals and aesthetics of a human are far different from the morals and aesthetics of a fish. In his famous example, he talks of how we find two particular people very beautiful, a fish apon seeing them flees into the depths, the birds fly away, and the animals scatter into the forest. In fairy tales we tell stories of beauty that transcends this relativism. Think about snow white and her harem of animals birds etc. A being so pure that her beauty was recognized by all. Alas, no such creature exists.
Zhuangzi was one of the foundation blocks of Daoism. He speaks of the Dao, or 'the way', at length in his book. The ironic part is that he is a firm believer that the Dao cannot be described using words, since words are a logical construct and thusly relativistic, whereas 'the way' is transcendent of relativism. He believes the way can only be reached through meditation, and the shutting down of the mind. To live the way, one must seal off what makes us human, and view the world through what he calls the vital breath. Then and only then can one cultivate the self.
It is interesting to me that there are entire religions devoted to getting outside of the human condition. It's an idea that seems futile, but shows so much promise. For example, when in your life are you completely incapable of thought? Go ahead and try to silence your thoughts right now...I double dog dare you. Can you do it? Didn't think so, There is at least one time in your life that a complete lack of thought occurs that I know of. Orgasm. This is for a purely chemical reason, your brain is flooded with endorphins and thought becomes impossible. AND IT FEELS GREAT! So if meditation can achieve a similar goal, I'm all for it :) The other times I hear people talk about being non-thinking is with athletes that are "in the zone". Often times you will here the best athletes say after a great performance, I don't know how I did that, I was just relaxed, or I was on another level today...etc. etc. We've all been there hopefully, with something that we do. Anyways, that's enough about shutting off the brain, back to Zhuangzi.
I think Zhuangzi is certainly on to something with beauty being relative. However, it's interesting to note the advances mathmatics has made into the realm of beauty. For example, the golden ratio is 1:1.618 or some such number (too lazy to google). It is a ratio that appears throughout nature and is symbolic of beauty. Babies amongst all species have enlarged facial features. A trait that naturally draws an individual to care for it. Furthermore, symetry is a universally accepted (at a visceral level) form of beauty. Studies have been done proving that babies of many species will stare longer at symetrical faces than asymetrical ones. Morals have similar characteristics. For example, the incest taboo spreads across many species (granted not all). This argument certainly doesn't render Zhuangzi's arguments moot, but I do believe the above caviats should be considered when discussing whether knowledge is truly relative.
It has been said that Zhuangzi was the first Anarchist. This is because he believed in withdrawling from the social construct and focusing on individual cultivation. The world will govern itself without our help he would say. In a way, he is correct. Remember the immortal words of the joker, "introduce a little ANARCHY, upset the established ORDER, and everything becomes Chaos..."? Well it turns out, the entropy of an 'ungoverned body' is not without order. Entropy, afterall, occurs within a 'governed system' and can only do so much. For example, take my room. Messy as it seems, there is an order to it still. Clothes are on the floor, pillows on the bed, sheets on the mattress, all fixtures that left to the whims of entropy would remain (despite what my mom would say). I could walk in and out of my room, sleep on my bed, or dance around naked, and at the end of the day, the clothes would still be on the floor and not on the ceiling. In a governed system such as Earth, entropy moves things towards their position of least potential energy, not least order. The question is, is this order superior to the some other order. Zhuangzi does not answer this from what I've seen. He mocks the efforts of people whom organize and do work upon the system because he knows their order will not last, but he doesn't say why natural order is better. For is there not something positive to the ant that comes from constructing an ant hill? Or is the Ant merely a sentient being not concerned enough with its self cultivation. I'm not so sure. Zhuangzi reminded me of Martin Heidegger who labeled human beings Da-sein, or that which is concerned with its being. In his later years Heidegger became obsessed with poetry and prose much like Zhuangzi. To me it seems both men struggled within in the confines of logical language. They turned to artistic language to illustrate concepts which were seemingly indescribable. In the end, I think Zhuangzi was an enlightened soul....relatively.

A good thing

Being above expectation is...a goood thing! Today was a goooood day. I found myself wondering what to do with my hours of extra time cause I won 500 dollars so fast (a lil under 2 hours) that I just didn't want to play anymore! So i beat halo, and prepared a feast and got in a workout in the extra time. I weigh 178 now...EEKS! I dunno if its muscle or fat or both, but I have been working out when I'm in DC pretty consistently. I guess I'll just let the ladies be the judge of that :/...anyhow a graph from today:

lol you can see where I played 6 max....its the long break even stretch in the middle...sigh the things I do for full tilt points. But i NEED that 47 inch flat screen so I can ball out on two TV SIZED MONITORS!!!!! muwahaha...tho...I dunno how my neck would handle that lol...

Whew back to reality....sort of

Sick week, sick life now back to the grind. Thre in another 500 dollar today which has made march a surprisingly productive month given the start of it being devoid of poker. Yesterday we had an amazing spread prepared by senor peacock the grill master. It included steak and shish-kabobs (sp?), potatoes and beer. It reminded me why I absolutely love living here!

This month i'm going to try to be stingy. It was B. Laub's bday yesterday and the night was spent dining and "rolling deep" to the bars. Clarendon where I managed to only spend like 45 (sigh when did that become good for me?!) on bar related stuffs. Got to meet a bunch of cool guys and girls that I'd only heard stories about. They lived up to expectation and were quite cool. Shot some pool, threw some darts, and watched Harvard steve get heckled by some donk jocks at the punching bag machine at the bar. In all fairness, there was an gorgeous indian girl that just beat the tar out of the punching bag scoring in the high 700's on whatever silly scale they use. Steve then punched a score slightly lower, prolly a mishit, but regardless quite the shocker moreso by the girl than steve.

Anywayz, happy bday to all those involved, my grandmother included! Bonne Chance!