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Three weeks to Florida

Well, since I went to Florida in April, I’ve been looking forward to getting back. I’ve already bought my plane ticket for September 2 and I’ll be there until September 12. I chose this week because Labor Day is on September 6, which means I’ll get an extra day without using any more Paid Time Off, and the first two Florida football games are on September 4 and September 11 at home. I’m hoping to get some tickets, but one thing at a time.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to going home for a while and I’m sure I’ll have a fantastic time.

California just over a month out?

Also, it looks like I’ll be going to L.A. for some training for work, but that won’t be happening until late September. I’m thinking I might take a few extra days to stay out there and take a little more vacation time, but I’ll have to clear that with work, first. I’m pretty sure it’ll be alright and it’ll give me some time to check out L.A. After all, I could be living there before I know it.

Florida again?

Also, I might be heading to Florida in late September or early October for work. Apparently, they like to send out some younger new hires to interview kids at the career fairs and showcases at Florida. I seem to be a good candidate, but they’re not sure if they’ll have the budget for it this year. Hopefully they will and I’ll get sent out to interview some folks and take a little vacation time on the company dime.

Thanksgiving trip, too

Also, I bought a plane ticket for the week of Thanksgiving because it was just too cheap to pass up. $164 round-trip. Anyway, I’ll be going home for that week and it’ll be nice to see my family at Thanksgiving. I was afraid going home for holidays wouldn’t be too easy, but at least I know I’ll have the chance during my first year.

And finally, Christmas

I guess I missed “Christmas in July”, but at least I can talk about it for a second here in August. My company has it arranged so that the whole company takes a vacation from about Christmas Eve until the New Year, so that means I’ll be taking about two weeks off at Christmas. That’ll pretty much use up the last bit of my Paid Time Off, but that’s ok with me. I’ve actually been told by those who’ve been working there a lot longer than I have that there’s no sense in trying to “roll over” vacation time. Just go ahead and use it up is what they tell me.

So, I’ll be heading home to Florida and probably spending a week up in Atlanta during that time. Campus Crusade’s Christmas Conference will be up there after Christmas and before the New Year, so I’ll go see some of my friends while they’re there. Also, I have several good friends that will be living in Atlanta then, so I’ll really be going to see them. I’m really looking forward to that week.

So, that’s a summary of all the traveling I hope to do for the rest of the year. I figure I only took Paid Time Off once during my first seven months here, so I have some time to make up. Here’s to cheap airfares…

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Current Competition Compilation

Well, after the tournament a couple weeks ago, I started playing in a home game with a few of the guys that were in the tournament. Last week, I didn’t do so well. I lost 30 bucks in 3 hours (it was a 20-dollar buy-in) and just didn’t seem to be able to win a hand. So, I thought about it all week and decided upon a strategy that I thought could be used to beat this home game. It’s simple: I don’t raise before the flop (there’s simply no point in trying to drive anyone out before they see the cards in this game), I slow-play almost everything and I’ll play drawing hands only if it’s really cheap to draw. This week, I won 35 bucks, so I made back what I lost last week and then 5 bucks bonus. I only played about 6 hands in 3 hours, but that’s because I just didn’t need to play any more than that.

I’m probably going back next week and I’ll see if the strategy is legitimate or if I was just experiencing the large swings that come with a loose aggressive group of players.

Basketball: Game 6

Well, we’re now 3-3 after starting 3-0. We lost badly tonight, 51-29, or something like that. I only scored 5 points, but that’s about my share since we had 6 guys. We just couldn’t execute in offense and we got outplayed. However, I felt I played pretty well. I certainly could’ve shot better and put up some more points, but I ran Point Guard for most of the game and I did it pretty well. I was playing very aggressively because they were playing a high 2-3 zone. That meant there was a huge soft spot about 18 feet out, all the way around the arc. I felt like I was finding open men and making passes to set them up for open looks, but we simply couldn’t hit our shots. I only had one turnover and probably 3 assists, but that assist number really should’ve been higher.

The last few games, our biggest weakness has been simple offensive execution. We just didn’t put the ball through the hoop, and we had plenty of opportunities. I really hope we can get back on the winning track before the playoffs in a couple weeks. Until then, we have one more regular season game against the first team we played. I expect we’ll win, but it’s hard to say with this team. We’ve shown that we can be very inconsistent.

Time to sleep.

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Stephen Hawking: Genius, funny guy, kindergarten teacher

Well, after about a year, I have finally made more progress on A Brief History of Time. What really blows me away is his ability to explain some really complicated stuff in an interesting (well, I find it interesting… I wouldn’t want to speak for anyone else), entertaining and concise way. His writing isn’t laugh-out-loud funny, though it does have its moments, but at least it keeps my attention. More importantly, he’s able to cover ridiculous topics like black holes, the space-time continuum (Back to the Future flashback), mesons and time cones in just a few pages each. Not only that, but an idiot like me can actually understand some of what he’s writing. The guy’s got a unique combination of intellect and eloquence that I doubt I’ve seen elsewhere.

I guess one thing I’m learning as I read his stuff is that I’m probably always going to be a bit of a nerd at heart. Ten or fifteen years ago, that might’ve bothered me, but I’ve been learning for a while now that I just have to be comfortable in my own skin. I guess that’s an idea I’ll have to continue getting used to since I’m still just breakin’ it in.

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Weekend Update

This week, I read Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris. I enjoyed it and I got the feeling that his “voice” is similar to what mine would be if I was actually a writer. He’s sarcastic, satirical, sardonic and short. Basically, the book is little vignettes from his life. A collection of autobiographical short-stories that are disturbing and interesting at the same time. I found myself compelled to continue reading by a sort of morbid curiosity. Anyway, I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a relatively quick read that will make you simultaneously laugh out loud and grimace for the characters.

I’m also still trying to finish reading other books I’ve started and put down. I’m working on The World According to Garp, The Illustrated A Brief History of Time, The Truth in Comedy, Money Matters and probably a few others that aren’t coming to mind right now. Between these books, TiVo, GameCube, Netflix and the gym, I’ve been keeping pretty busy doing things that ultimately don’t matter. I guess maybe I feel like I’m educating myself and killing time until I start moving into the next phase of my life.

One other thing I think I’ll start pursuing is sign language. I’ve been wanting to learn another language and, although French, Italian and other languages have a sort of romantic allure, I feel that learning ASL could actually be a useful way to invest my time. I don’t know if I’ll actually do this, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while.

More on music

A while ago, I wrote about shopping for an electric guitar. Well, I eventually decided I just didn’t want to spend the money on something that is essentially a variation on something I’ve already invested a lot of money in. That being said, lately I’ve been looking at digital pianos. I played for about five years until 10th grade, then I quit and picked up the guitar a year later. Since I got to college, I’ve been itching to play piano again and just haven’t had any way of scratching that itch… until now. I figure I can get a decent digital piano–weighted, pressure sensitive keys, good sound, etc.–for $500 or so, which ain’t bad. I’m trying to take my time and be patient about it, but the truth is I’ve been patient for the last five years and I’m really gettin’ the itch.

Maybe it doesn’t help that I’ve been listening to a lot of Billy Joel lately.

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Open letter to weight room loiterers

Dear loiterers

I know that working out can be exhausting at times and that we all need to rest and catch our breath, but please do your resting and breath catching somewhere other than on the machine I need to use. Sure, I often do multiple exercises on a few different machines and, no, I don’t expect all those machines to be unused while I’m not on them. But please, if you’re going to use something, just use it and get off of it. You may have three more sets of legs to do, but there’s no need to sit on the leg press machine while you’re getting psyched up for your next set. Go get some water, walk around, talk to someone, so I can get a set in there too.

I know you’re tired, but I’m busy and need to get home at a reasonable hour. It’s tough to do that when I spend an extra twenty minutes or so rearranging my workout to accommodate you as you perch on something I need to use.

Thanks for listening

Josh

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Good night for poker

Well, the tourney was tonight. There were 17 people, each of whom bought in for $50. The top 4 spots paid out: 1. $425 (50%), 2. $255 (30%), 3. $130 (~15%), 4. $40 (~5%). I finished 2nd, which was fine by me.

Here are some of the highlights (at least from my perspective):

  • First person I knocked out (pretty early on): I had pocket Aces and put in a large raise. Guy to my left declares he’s all-in. Obviously, I call. He has pocket Q’s. My A’s hold up and I move up to about second largest stack
  • First big hand: I flop bottom 2-pair and put my opponent in for about 75% of his chips. He goes all-in and I call. He has top pair with a K kicker. He catches a K on the turn and a 9 on the river for a boat to beat my 2-pair. Tough beat, but it left me with about 2/3 of chips.
  • I’d been hovering around the starting amount for a while and needed to make something happen because my stack was getting smaller and smaller. Person to my right makes a raise about half the size of my stack; I go all-in with AK. He calls with 99 and I catch a lucky K to win it.
  • Later, I’m against the guy who busted my 2-pair. I flop bottom 2-pair, he makes a reasonable bet and I push all-in. He thinks and calls. He missed his straight draw and I knocked him out.
  • We’re down to 3 guys and I’m in a situation where I could basically triple up my money. I matched a K on the flop for a K with a weak kicker. The guy to my left immediately goes all-in. The guy to my right is clearly debating a flush draw and a call. I decide I’m not calling and muck out of turn. This was a good play because I think it saved me $130. I have a feeling I would’ve been way behind to a K with a better kicker if I’d called. The flush draw ended up folding to the bettor.
  • We’re down to heads-up. I briefly held the chip lead, but am now down about $3500 to $5000. I’ve been playing ultra-aggressively calling all-in about every other hand (the blinds are $150/$300 and raising to 200/$400 in 5 minutes). I’m staying in the game by stealing blinds and otherwise playing pretty tightly. I sense weakness on my opponent (he’s Big Blind), so I move all-in with K5. He thinks for about five minutes and calls with A5. He catches A5 and beats my 5’s with a K kicker with Aces up. Game over, I’m in 2nd.

So, I guess the question is this: Would I have done anything differently, especially at the end? I think probably not. He was playing moderately aggressively and I simply wasn’t catching cards. I was moving in when I detected weakness, just waiting to detect strength when I had a superior hand, so I could move in and maybe get a call. I actually thought I had him with K5, but he just made a great call with A5. I had probably moved in on him 15 times by now and we were both ready to see some fireworks. I haven’t figured out if he outplayed me, or if I just lost. Maybe there isn’t a difference.

All that being said, I can attribute most of my success tonight to one book–Tournament Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky. I picked it up a week ago, finished it about an hour before the tournament and was constantly surprised by how much useful information I gained from reading it. I won’t go into details, but I can confidently say that $255 is a fantastic ROI for a $30 book purchase.

So, I’ve played three tournaments now and finished 3/8, 2/8, 2/17. I feel that’s a pretty good record, but I still haven’t got a win. Hopefully, these guys will continue playing tournaments and I’ll find some other tourneys around to play in. After tonight, I feel that poker is something I can actually be pretty good at. I also realize I have a lot to learn. I think I’m going to re-read all my poker books. I think there’s a lot of information I missed the first time through and I can now see that book-learning is a powerful weapon at the poker table.

End rambling about poker.

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Game 5 a better loss

We lost the fifth game of our league season, but only by one point, 45-44. We played pretty well both defensively and offensively, but just didn’t hit the one shot we needed to win. Basically, we made the mistake of starting in a 2-3 zone and they outscored us by about 12 while we were in the zone. Then, we went man (for about the last three-quarters of the game) and outscored them by 11–one short of what we needed to go to OT and two short of the win.

All in all, it was a good game and we played well. I did alright, but mostly was a quiet contributor tonight. I was pretty pleased with my performance, but of course I’m kicking myself for not hitting one more shot.

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Poker Tourney comin’ up
 
Well, I haven’t played poker since April and that was the first time I’d played since December… so, I figure to get back into the swing of things, what’s better than a tournament with a $50 buy-in?  A friend from work told me about it, so I figured I’d ante up and see how it goes.  Of course, I’ve been reading up to try and refresh my memory and I finally finished Sklanky’s Theory of Poker.  In fact, I picked up his Tournament Poker for Advanced Players the other day and I’ve started into that.  I don’t know if any of it’ll stick in time for the tourney Saturday, but I’m also hoping I don’t forget that a flush beats a straight.  I’m afraid I’ll be pretty rusty and my poker face and reading ability might be a little shaky.
 
Mom’s visiting this weekend
 
My Mom will be in town for an annual conference next week, so I’ll get to see her this weekend.  It’s been a long time since we hung out or spent any quality time together, so I’m looking forward to it.  But, I’m afraid she’ll show up and be bored of my humdrum life in about an hour.  Oh well, she’s always got the conference to anticipate.
 
Not much else going on
 
I haven’t posted in a while ’cause there hasn’t much happenin’ here.  Obviously, I’m gonna’ have an action-packed weekend, but that’ll be the exception to the rule.  Acting is going well and I think we’ve found a comedic monologue to use, so I’ve just been polishing that up and getting it ready to perform.  Doing the monologue in a few venues is the first baby-step toward getting an agent.  Man, this stuff takes a lot of patience.

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My team’s collective ego got a boo boo

Last week, we won by 20-something. This week? Lost by 20-something. The main factor: the guys we played were just more experienced and a lot more aggressive on both offense and defense than we were. We flat got outplayed. I had my worst game in a while. I scored four points–same as in the first game–but I did it on something like 14 shots or so. I missed several easy lay-ups, didn’t have any 3’s and couldn’t get 5-foot jumpers to fall. My teammate said I (and we as a team) were playing scared and I think he may be right. As I think back, I missed some easy shots, but they were shots that should’ve been a lot easier. I wasn’t jumping too hard on lay-ups and jumpers because I was trying for a quick release to avoid getting blocked; my 3’s were falling short because I was shooting too high and quick to avoid getting blocked.

We were caught off guard because they played very aggressive defense. They only had five guys and we had seven, so we figured we could “run ’em”. Well, since they had at least one guy who played Division 1-A basketball, they were in pretty good shape and weren’t intimidated by a fast-paced game. Ironically, our team totally forgot that we beat a ten-man team by 20 last week and we only had six guys.

Anyway, it was humbling, but it was good to see what we need to work on in practice and throughout the season. We’ll probably see this team again in the play-offs and I think we’ll be more ready for them this time around.

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Coasting along

Not much new has been happening lately, but I kind of like it that way. I mean, I have a tendency to get bored easily and I’m kind of always after some new challenge, but I also enjoy just layin’ around and doing nothing. In some ways, Peter Gibbons and I have a lot in common.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to find a good comedic monologue for a while now and that is proving pretty difficult. It’s difficult because I don’t know squat about theatre and that seems to be the sort of monologue I need to find right now. Apparently, there’s a local talent showcase (called Exposure) that is well known and frequented by agents, casting directors and the like. My coach says it would be good to appear in the showcase so I can start networking and to get my name out there. It’s a live performance gig, hence the need for a theatrical monologue.

For now, I’m learning a few monologues that he has used in the past. I don’t intend to perform these particular monologues, but I think the exercise of learning them, preparing them and presenting them will help me be more comfortable when I’ve found my own. I have to admit I’m pretty nervous about performing a monologue in front of any sort of live audience, but I’m hoping to fall back on my stage experience as emcee to keep me grounded. Emceeing was a blast and a cakewalk, so hopefully I can sort of “go to that place” when performing a monologue so I’ll remain comfortable.

The early bird…

Is tired most of the stinkin’ day? I’ve been trying to get into work by 7 a few days a week because that really frees up my afternoons. Unfortunately, I’ve found that I often use my free afternoons to catch up on my sleep. Stupid? Of course it is. But I’m trying to get used to the idea that I might not be able to sleep for eight hours each night. I figure if I start auditioning for and booking commercials and such in the Dallas area, I’ll have to start managing my time better. I figure it might be easier to manage my time if I have more to work with. I don’t know if I’ll stick with the 7 am thing, but I am trying tomorrow, so it’s time for me to sign off.