Sunday Drive

A buddy at work sent me this link -



http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&layer=c&cbll=42.953557,-77.663247&panoid=6vAkor2kYZz3m5_1iSkMrw&cbp=12,181.53727377395012,,0,21.75107339062427&ll=42.953463,-77.663242&spn=0.027766,0.22316&t=h&z=13





I brought it up and noticed a deer in frame. This conversation ensued:





Me: that is pretty cool
Me: but also begs the question... is streetview really necessary there?



Him: did you keep driving?



Me: no
Me: oh no



Him: oh yeah



Me: I think the next click is the sad one, it is right there along side, right before impact

Me: probably realizing... "uh oh"
Me: I thought the gvan went pretty slow..
Me: must have been moving pretty good

Update: It appears that this got Digg'd or something because it is no longer available due to high demand. I still had the start of the drive up on my screen so I snapped it. Once the demand dies down, it is worth a click (unless google removes it) I should also note that I think the van stopped.. because the street view ends 50 feet or so past the impact.

Tough to argue with the logic

From a friend's tumblr blog - (He is Dutch and understands football to mean something else)


So, this weekend, I will be wholeheartedly rooting for my beloved Steelers to win Super Bowl XLIII and in the process, become the undisputed Handegg Champions of the 2008 season.

Go Steelers!!

Baby It's Cold Outside...

Every Christmas, that annoying pop duet (the Frank Sinatra version comes to mind as the worst offender) gets stuck in my head. SteelerSteph likes to play the "Holly" station of XM through the television to get in the mood starting around Thanksgiving and ending in the New Year. That results in the aural bombardment of my tiny ears with this tune.





With no prompting from the radio, (I was listiening to Opie and Anthony joke about the plane crash in the Hudson) I started humming it on the drive into work this morning. I could not feel my toes, this picture may explain why:

Yep. Without factoring in any wind chill, 10 minutes into my commute it was still -12. And yes, for the more observant, I have over 100k on the Honda. This month I am making my last payment on the 04 Pilot and it cracked 100k with all the Christmas driving. It has been a great vehicle and I would get another in a second if they offered a hybrid version. 21 mpg is not horrible, but it is not great either. I managed to put on all those miles despite having a motorcycle, the wife's company car, and our summer car (01 Mitsubishi Spyder Eclipse) to share the love. I get around.

Lest I complain too much about Mr. Sinatra I should consider myself lucky. Lately when it has been freezing around these parts, one of the worst songs I have ever heard will invade my brain. T-Baby's amazing hit, Its so Cold in the D.

This being my first attempt to embed a video on this blog, here is the link just in case:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aktLRiWXfqg

If you have 2 minutes of your life to completely waste check out this production and lyrical masterpiece. You will regret it and have been warned.

The Road to the SuperBowl

Poor Poor Ravens.....

Peek A Boo

Sawyer at his Aunt and Uncle's over the holidays.

Busted

Today started out rough. Traffic was backed up on the highway so I got off and took surface streets in an attempt to get to the office by 8:30. I had made Rice Krispy treats for an office bake sale and they were supposed to be in the 4th floor conference room by that time. Supporting our Troops became a little more expensive this morning as my haste on the surface streets resulted in a citation from the Farmington Hills Police Department. Arriving even later and bummed about the extra $150 or more that this will cost me I was happy to find this Dilbert taped to my monitor:



While no one likes being compared to PHB (Pointy Haired Boss), I have a bit of a reputation for doing exactly what he did. I work on the server team at my company so my peers have elevated privileges and we should all be in the habit of locking our workstations when we leave them unattended. The penalty for failure is usually an instant message to a peer from the unsecured pc. The standard message is, "I like nekid Star Wars". It is a real conversation starter.

Although I would prefer the cash, it is nice to be noticed (and loved/loathed) enough by my team mates to have them cut out a comic that made them think of me and take the time to tape it to my (always secured) workstation. Idiot invading my perimeter be damned!

(about the ticket - the officer said he was doing me a favor by reducing my 49 in a 35 to "impeding traffic" as that carries no points. There is no fine listed on the ticket so a quick google revealed that is a relatively common thing that is good for the no points.. but carries a $20 greater fine than the real ticket. I am not sure what the points would cost, but I suppose that is a favor by the officer. I have not had a speeding ticket since I was long distance dating my future wife. Traveling between Washington, D.C. and Akron, OH resulted in two performance awards on the PA turnpike in one year. That was in 1998/1999 so I guess they have been expunged. Farmington Hill's finest said that I had no previous tickets.)

12-1 in the regular season of the office fantasy football league means nothing when you lose in the first round of the play offs. DOH. The only saving grace this weekend was the stressful victory of the Steelers over the Cowboys. I am not sure I could have taken both losses... and truthfully, if I had to chose one or the other.... I would take the Steelers victory all day. Next week is the big matchup against Baltimore. While not a must win, it is certainly a should and better win. I have a double or nothing dinner riding on it with my parents and bragging rights when I take the family home to Baltimore for Christmas. Go Steelers!

ZOMGWTFBBQ!!1!!

A work buddy e-mailed me about the Steelers taking it easy on LT.. he needed the points. I sent this reply and then went to look up how close I was on the penalty difference and thought that there was something wrong with the NFL site... they still had the score as 11-10.

My e-mail:

I don't normally bitch about the officiating.. but come on!! It was like the refs had money on San Diego or something. Sooooo many no calls on SD for holding (don't think there was one all game but I saw a ton) and calling every infraction on the Steelers. The Steelers committed 12 more penalties than the Chargers? Or did the Chargers get called 12 less? Hmmmm.

At least my boys got it done this week.... I would be fuming if they had not.

They let him have a TD...what more do you want? 100 yards? Heh, not this year.

J

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXXX
Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 6:39 PM
To: XXXXXX
Subject: Pitt

Tell pitt to ease up on ladanian....I neeed the fantasy points.......

It turns out I was incorrect about the penalties, SD was charged with 2 to Pittsburgh's 13 and I am absolutely floored about the final. I watched the game and I thought it ended 17-10. www.espn.com and www.nfl.com both have the final as 11-10. What gives? The spread was 4.5 and it seemed like the officials did everything they could to keep it in that... including taking a couple of TDs off the board. I can give them the Willie Parker TD called back for holding.. but the Polamalu one at the end of the game is pretty much ridiculous. The Steelers got the win, but it was still very frustrating to watch James Harrison get held on most plays, blatantly facemasked, and have it not called once while every infraction of the Black and Gold is flagged.

Whatever officials. I am die hard Steelers and think Football is the king of pro sports but the league is really dissapointing me this year. I think some of the responsibility lies with the commish, bitch-ass Goodell. I miss Tagliabue. I do not agree with the league "cracking" down on the hits. All of these fines that are issued after the game for plays that were legal and (correctly) not called during the game. For feck's sake, its football. Not flag football, tackle football. We all understand the business side of the game, i.e. it is bad for the business when you lose a Tom Brady for the season (but feck him and all the Pats fans too), but that is a risk that is assumed when the players suit up.

I am running out of steam and have no real intention other than venting. Summation? This season has been the most memorable in my lifetime of being a fan for bad officiating, bad leadership of the league, and frustration as a fan. Goodell and the officials GFY.

Dammit

Poker Time has been filled in with WoW lately. I don't have a character high enough to do any of the new content in the Lich King release but I still get to experience the delays to logging in. Worst of both worlds :-)

Life has been nuts since this July and I have taken a hiatus from poker to a more +EV game (although it guarantees me to lose $14 each month). It is nice to have a rough week and then smash through stuff with my work friends on Tuesday nights. While the peaks are not as high... it lacks the troughs of poker. I am getting enough of the negative variance in real life right now.

On the odd trivia/bright side, I am now renting a townhouse that is sandwiched between two Detroit Lions players. The QB, Orlovsky, and the long snapper.... and I no longer have the care and maintenance of the grounds and driveway of our dream home. Silver linings and all that.

Happy Halloween!

Sawyer's First Halloween:

We went to pick out a pumpkin on the 30th

And he was a skunk!

Migrations

Tonight we started our first pilot group of roughly 50 users that are transitioning from IBM's Domino Lotus Notes to Microsoft's Exchange for e-mail and calendaring.  It is going well but running into the expected snags here and there.  If I can figure out this last one the evening may end earlier than I expected.  That would be good because we will all be back here tomorrow morning to finish up.

Sad to see Iggy out as I enjoyed watching his status via Tao of Poker updates.  Well played Iggy and Pauly.

If I can get a dependable internet connection at home this weekend I expect to get some time in on the virtual felt.  Wish me luck.

Internet Tilt

Do you think Comcast would reimburse my $11.50 they cost my by inexplicably dropping my entire neighborhood's internet (or at least the two neighbors with unsecured wireless) in the middle of my HU match?

It was extra cool of them to allow me to connect back for a split second to see that my 2k to less than 1k lead had been whittled away to about 1200 chips for me and then drop me again after the glimpse.

A big FU to Comcast and all it's comcastic shittiness. Man that is frustrating....

Always Amusing

Sometimes the chat is a good jopke

Overheard after spinedo1 hit a gutshot to cripple mikedill:

mikedill: i know you dont win at sngs

spinedo1: cuz i'm sure you play perfct every time

mikedill: when sitting next to you it could look that way

mikedill: an infant could look like a pro



mikedill
Games Played: 2,922
Avg Profit: $3
Avg Stake: $27
ROI: 10%
Total Profit: $7,396

spinedo1
Games Played: 269
Avg Profit: -$1
Avg Stake: $4
ROI: -20%
Total Profit: -$190

New Experiences

At the risk of getting into Absinthetics' niche, who had a great post about childproofing your home the other day, I wanted to share my experience with traveling with a 4 month old. On the subject of Absinthetics it seems that I have been following in his footsteps with his child raising experiences. Pretty soon Sawyer will be mobile and I will be going through the same home safety exercise. It is pretty cool to read the experiences of a much better writer that is walking down the path a few steps ahead of me.

I have come to the realization that the amount of kit a person requires to travel is inversely proportional to their size. 10 days in Florida and all my big ass requires is one suitcase. 10 days in Florida for the baby requires a slightly smaller suitcase and a pack-n-play and a stroller and a car seat and a diaper bag and formula and his play mat and all other kinds of crap. All of this must be checked (to the tune of an extra $25 for the 5th piece of checked luggage for the pack-n-play) or processed by TSA. I have to admit, I was nervous about the airport security and the baby. I have flown before and witnessed parents struggle with all the gear and misbehaving kids at the security scan. They try to jam strollers that will not fit and load the entire scanning conveyor belt with kid accouterments. All this while dealing with crying or wild kids that will not listen. Throw in a liberal amount of lightweight hi speed business travelers queued behind this circus and you can see why I would not be able to relax until we were settled in at our gate.

All in all, it went much better than I expected. The stroller did not fit, and even though it was obvious to me, the TSA dude still made me try to shove it in the scanner. The biggest issue at the airport was declaring the baby formula (more than 3 oz of liquid) since it was recommended that we have the baby eating during take off and landing to help ease the pressure in his ears. The biggest hassle was lugging all of our crap. SteelerSteph had a diaper bag and pushed the stroller while I tackled the task of moving 4 suitcases and the pack-n-play. It did not work out too well as I had to piggyback the suitcases (2 and 2, the bigger ones hauling the smaller ones) and balance the pack and play on top of one pair. That sucked until the van picked us up in the parking lot and then sucked again in the airport. Freed of the checked baggage we headed to security to get scanned. That went much better than I expected but was still tough and I was glad to be through. An hour and 15 minutes to kill before the flight and Sawyer managed to have one diaper change and a big spit up on SteelerSteph. Her left shoulder smelled like sour milk baby puke so I tried to stay on her right side. :-) She takes it like a champ, I guess the pure unadulterated love helps balance out the highs and lows.

We had a layover in Orlando and arrived at Ft. Meyers at about 10:45 last night and as I am typing this I already have played in a few SNGs, drank 4 beers and enjoyed the baby inexplicably sleeping in until 12:30 this morning after getting up at 5 AM for a feeding. Vacation is good and I have a nice week ahead of me. My sister in law is getting married this weekend so we are in Sanibel Island, FL until next Friday. http://www.lesleyandchip.com/ has our itinerary. Welcome BBQ tomorrow, golf and rehearsal dinner on Saturday and Wedding on Sunday. I have a lot of drinking and eating ahead of me... so as much as I would have to liked to attend the Weekend at Mookies 2, having a buzz before 12:30 on a Thursday really softens the blow.

Time to go put in some QT with the wife and sit on the beach with her some (while drinking some more beers) and think about how lucky I am. Holla if ya hear me.

Happy Hour Doooooosh

For DNasty13: Got it all in on the flop.

Told ya I would take care of that aggro monkey! :)

Fun playing with you.

The Goat Speaks for Me

http://jgoat.blogspot.com/2008/04/viva-la-bbt3.html

Julius Goat fast became one of the reads I look forward to most when I fire up Bloglines. I have him categorized in the LOST section, but it is very hard to pigeonhole a talking goat so that was more a selection of convenience. If you are not up on his Table Profiles and Stupid System you owe it to yourself to browse his archives.

The Goat's latest post struck a chord. I think he nailed it on the head. I am happy to play the blogger tournaments now and then and appreciate all the people who play, set up the games, and do the really special stuff like BBT3. It is kind of weird how catty and dramatic a lot of the poker blogosphere has become lately. The name calling and other bashing is nothing new, nor is the calling out and comment wars.... but the amount of people that have allowed themselves to get caught up in the pseudo-drama seems new to me. If nothing else, it makes the morning read slightly more interesting... but overall seems pretty silly.

On a poker note, I played the first blogger event in awhile with the Mookie this week and managed a 3rd place finish for my efforts. Overall I was happy with my performance. I played very tight:

and I had two notable suckouts. One kicked off my final table run, the other ended it. I was ITM and I misread BuddyDank's hand when he limped with Kings in the highjack. I raised 3x from the BB and BD called. The flop came 8 high with one over to my pocket sixes and two diamonds. BD bet out the size of the pot and I put him on a flush draw. I jammed and he had me covered and called. I nailed the 6 on the river to cripple him and had a couple chip lead over PureProphet. It was a tough beat and BuddyDank took it well.

The last suckout occurred at my elimination. Memphis00 had been running very well and single handedly took out most of the final table. He was playing his big stack well and getting the cards he needed. He made a standard steal raise from the button and I went all in over top with my pocket 8s. He called with 35d. The flop seemed harmless enough with only one diamond. When the 4c hit on the turn I knew I was in trouble. The Ace on the river sealed my fate and I was out. I snapped a screenshot and watched the end as it only took a few more minutes for Memphis00 to make a flush on the river to eliminate Astin. I was happy with my performance and think that I could have given Memphis00 or Astin a run for 1st if those 8's stand up.

I wish Memphis00 all the luck in the TOC and might try the Mookie again next week. It was as fun as I remembered it... and maybe a little less chatty than I recall. Perhaps my expectations were too high from reading all the complaining or I never sat at the worst poker player's table. Either way, the chat seemed pretty tame and it was a lot of fun.