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Aug 3, 2004

The 1st Annual NRH Invitational
So I played in a poker tourney this past weekend. It was a $100 buy-in No Limit Texas Hold 'Em game. There were 27 players, and two of us were of the female persuasion...It seemed, after only a few hands, that for me at least, this was of no consequence for once. I didn't feel any of the usual "awww, she's a girl" vibes...It is such a weird thing to explain too...Guys don't get it. They don't even know they do it. And they don't mean too, but until you hit that weird place where they stop seeing you as a girl, you feel it. It reminds me of making a new friend who is of a different ethnic background than you are--an ethnicity that you have never been friends with before. As you first feel them out, you watch yourself a little. You aren't sure where the boundaries are. But as you get to know them, that all fades away and you don't see their ethnicity at all. You just see a friend. I love that. Well, it's the same at poker. At first, the guys see a girl. But if I am lucky, at some point they just see another poker player...and that's when I take all their money!!

So basically, I played REALLY well until just before I went out. I was my table's chip leader for about an hour, and possibly the chip leader for the tourney during that time, as well. I was kicking butt. I had them. I had them all...I knocked out two guys on one hand. Then I knocked another one out a couple of minutes later...Then I lost $150 on one hand...Then something similar on the next hand I played...and then I was on tilt...And then I lost it all...I was 11th. Not bad, but I should have been top 5. Top 9 at the very least. I was playing so well...I will kick myself for that for a long time.

The game really became a $100 poker lesson. As long as I look at it that way, it was a great game...But I have a new nemisis hand--Pocket 6's....that's an evil hand. Not so bad that you want to get it out of your hands as quickly as possible so the bad luck of that hand doesn't rub off, but absolutely and completely beatable. And I was beaten twice holding it. And then beaten by some else who was holding it. I will stay away from that hand for awhile, I think. I will be going back to my A-7, and A-9. They treat me well in the category of hands-that-shouldn't-be-played-but-win-a-surprisingly-large-number-of-pots. This, I think, is where skill comes in...I don't have the skill to play pocket 6's but I do to play an A-7. It's all very subjective really. Everyone has that hand they love, and that hand they hate, an it's usually the ones in the middle. The decent hands that aren't bad but can be beaten with relative ease unless you have confidence and trust in them. After I get over my pocket 6's tilt, I will try to learn the skill for this hand.
posted by Ty @ 8/03/2004 | 0 comments
My Big Fat Pet Peeve
So I think this week's big fat pet peeve has got to be the political foward. Not the political satire foward--just the regular old fashioned Polititian Bashing-Spun Facts-Only idiots believe them-Junk e-mails that get passed around ten million times until people start believing them. I don't understand how people can sit there and just take it up the you-know-what. Get off your you-know-what and spend 15 minutes reading real articles--with real facts. Not spin. And if you think it might be spin leaning left or right, go to a news source that leans the other way and read what they have to say on the topic. If both sides say the same thing, then you can have reasonable confidence that you are being fed at least some truths. It isn't THAT hard. It doesn't take THAT long. But if you must insist on NOT doing your own research then at the very least, DON'T send those stupid e-mails and don't read them either. Just stay in the dark because those e-mails don't help anyone. All they do is breed a voting body whose decision-making information pool is flawed and radically incomplete, and this is the basis upon which they are willing to cast a vote for the leader of the free world.

This is the e-mail I received yesterday--it took me no time to realize how many inaccuracies were in this e-mail. I don't care if you support Kerry or Bush, you can see how spun this e-mail is, and this is just one example of this type of e-mail. If this is the best way to "properly debate our poor misguided friends and family" then Bush is in some serious doo-doo. I have included my comments in red and a link to the table I referenced.




Regarding Bush
Learn these facts to properly debate our poor misguided friends & family
before election time !!!

1.. There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq during the month of January.....
2.. In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January.
3.. That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war torn country of Iraq.



Just to start with #1... Whoever counted the 39 soldiers killed for this
e-mail missed a few. If you look at January 2004, there are
clearly 47
fatalities. Perhaps this has to do with the “combat related killings” statement,
but in my opinion, the soldiers that died in non-combat situations in Iraq are
just as important, and still lost their lives because of the war even if it
wasn’t directly at the hands of an Iraqi. January also happens to be at the low
end of the monthly tallies. In particular, note April of this year. Also note
that there were only 175 deaths during the ACTUAL war period between March and
May. The other 739 deaths occurred after the “war” ended. That is an average of
50.7 soldiers PER month since the start of the war. Also, that e-mail made no
note of the deaths from our wonderful coalition…so are the other soldiers
fighting with us also not important?? Or how about the innocent civilians that
have been killed?

As for the statement that 35 people were killed in January in Detroit…doesn’t that suggest that perhaps there is a problem here at home…When there are as many people dying here in ONE city in one month as there are in a WAR doesn’t that suggest that something should be done HERE? Why hasn’t Bush done anything about that?


4.. When some claim President Bush shouldn't have started this war, state the following...
a.. FDR... led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us: Japan did.
From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year.

You can hardly compare lives lost from WWII to today because of technological advances. The amount of hand to hand combat has decreased dramatically. We also were asked to join the war in Europe. We didn’t start it. It had already begun.

As for Japan, we did fight back after we were attacked. WWII took place in Europe AND Japan…

b.. Truman... finished that war and started one in Korea, North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 18,334 per year.

The war in Korea was a proxy war against Russia. It was part of the Cold War and Truman was smart enough to not walk into Russia guns a blazing because he knew Russia would just nuke us. We fought in Korea as a blow to communism and Russia—who was supporting North Korea. None of us [in the 20-something crowd] are truly old enough to really remember the threat the cold war and Russia posed. Ask your parents how it was.

c.. John F. Kennedy... started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked
us.

Again, war by proxy against Russia…that then went very wrong…let’s keep it from happening again.

d.. Johnson... turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives
were lost, an average of 5,800 per year.

Yes, he did, and this is what we are trying to avoid happening again.

Also, what happened to the statistics that started in 1962…I bet that would change the yearly average huh? Wouldn’t want to lower that…it might make it too close to the yearly
average we have in Iraq right now…


e.. Clinton...went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent, Bosnia never attacked
us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.

We were trying to stop a mass genocide and were asked to
help…yes this was happening in Iraq as well, but this is NOT the reason Bush
went to Iraq. He went to find WMDs and terrorists. If he had said he was going
to stop mass genocide and this was his main goal, I do not believe the same
percentage of people would be against the war and the rest of the world might
not have been so quick to hate us.

As for Osama…That was just dumb on Clinton’s part, but Bush didn’t do anything either and he received the same types of reports that Clinton did. And as the 9/11 report said, 9/11(and Osama) was able to happen because of a “lack of imagination” on the government’s
part—in both Clinton AND Bush’s administrations.

f.. In the two years since terrorists attacked us President Bush has: liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.

And through the way he chose to do this, alienated half the world. Yes, let’s let half the
world hate us so that there is another country to fight a war with later…good idea…

I am glad he did all of that but I bet he could have figured out a way to do it without ruining our foreign relations if he had been willing to listen to other heads of state—at all.

g.. The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking, but...It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51 day operation.

What an idiot statement…let’s see…an entire army versus part of the FBI…I wonder who can work faster…I don’t think Janet used quite the same man or fire power…

h.. We've been looking for evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it
took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.

Again, idiot statement that is just reaching for a connection…and we are STILL looking and haven't found anything yet.

i.. It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at
Chappaquiddick.

Same thing…idiot statement.

j.. It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!!!!

Well, that one would be the fault of both democrats and republicans now wouldn’t it—I am pretty sure that the people counting weren’t all democrats… AND it happened in a state with a republican governor, so if we really want to lay partisan blame then I believe Mr. Jeb’s
republicans should take the fall…

k.. Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military moral is
high! The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts.

The media bias swings both ways, and if you want to know the truth you have to do more than read an e-mail…the truth is out there but you have to look for it…I agree, don’t trust the media. Do your OWN research.

PASS IT ON.
Pass it on.

BUSH 2004!

posted by Ty @ 8/03/2004 | 0 comments