Just three days away, and it will be Christmas. Normally I really like this time of year, but this year with being unemployed and just working at Dominos, I don't have much in the cash department to do much for anyone. I did get a little something for my niece, but other than that..... well I'll have to scrape something together for the rest of the family and friends.
Speaking of money (and unemployment), no luck on the job front....well this week I am taking a break as I don't think anyone will be in the rush to hire someone during the holiday season (unless you're UPS of course). So in the meantime, I've been looking into some home based opportunities to put a few extra dollars into my pocket. If you look over to the right, you'll notice a few banner ads that I have added to my site. One of them seems to be a little sketchy to me so I won't pay anything to upgrade my membership and see what happens. The other two seem to be very reputable companies, and I think I'll look into possibly making a small investment and see how it goes. Which one is the sketchy one? Put it this way.... they are in order of how reputable I think they are. So if you would, sign up (it's free) and check things out. You never know.
Other notes..... we won our semi-final baseball match 13 - 3. I didn't see any playing time (nor was I expecting to)and we easily shut them down. I did get one at bat, but popped it up to first base to end the inning..... just got a little under it or I may have driven in the game ending run. The championship will be in a couple weeks against the team that beat us badly in the regular season. I hope we're up to the challenge this time!
That's it for now..... Merry Christmas to everyone!!!!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Year End....
It's almost Christmas, and soon after will be the end of 2009. Personally I can't wait to start a new year..... be able to forget all the goals I didn't make and time to come up with a few more that maybe I won't make again.
As for last year.... I wrote all my resolutions on my white board and took a picture (I had just gotten a new camera for Christmas, and I was having fun with it). On it were the following goals:
No more scratchers: Kind of succeeded..... didn't buy that many throughout the year, although every once in a while I bought some of the new ones just to see what they were like.
Set aside $10 - $15 each work day: Not so much.... pretty much spent my money as I got it.
Reach goal weight (225) by Nationals (July): Succeeded. Although I did put it all back by the end of the year.
Graduate June '09: Succeeded. Got my AA, and working on transferring.
Out of Debt Nov '09: Not so much..... see above on spending.... although I didn't get any further behind.
Not too bad for the year actually. Next year will probably have similar resolutions, or I may just resolve not to make any resolutions at all ;)
Other notes of interest from 2009:
Hit my very first home run in my entire baseball career, and it was a GRAND SLAM to boot.
Wow.... I think that was my only note of interest this year. We made the playoffs, but due to rain, we're still in a holding pattern.
That should do it for now (until another 3 months), check out the PTC links over there on the right somewhere.... seems pretty interesting, we'll see how it works out.
As for last year.... I wrote all my resolutions on my white board and took a picture (I had just gotten a new camera for Christmas, and I was having fun with it). On it were the following goals:
No more scratchers: Kind of succeeded..... didn't buy that many throughout the year, although every once in a while I bought some of the new ones just to see what they were like.
Set aside $10 - $15 each work day: Not so much.... pretty much spent my money as I got it.
Reach goal weight (225) by Nationals (July): Succeeded. Although I did put it all back by the end of the year.
Graduate June '09: Succeeded. Got my AA, and working on transferring.
Out of Debt Nov '09: Not so much..... see above on spending.... although I didn't get any further behind.
Not too bad for the year actually. Next year will probably have similar resolutions, or I may just resolve not to make any resolutions at all ;)
Other notes of interest from 2009:
Hit my very first home run in my entire baseball career, and it was a GRAND SLAM to boot.
Wow.... I think that was my only note of interest this year. We made the playoffs, but due to rain, we're still in a holding pattern.
That should do it for now (until another 3 months), check out the PTC links over there on the right somewhere.... seems pretty interesting, we'll see how it works out.
Friday, October 30, 2009
UPDATE - 3 Months Later
Wow.... talk about your infrequent posting. Someone needs to remind me why I decided to start one of these things anyway.
OK.... updates..... WEIGHT LOSS project.... well got down to 225 (or so) then stopped caring and spiked right back up to 270something. Guess what?? Time to get back on track. Smaller goal this time.... 240 and we'll go from there.
Bowling.... I've been sucking something fierce the last few months. Pretty much ever since I got back from Nationals in Vegas. My Tuesday night league ended (and I'm not going back) and I didn't do well in sweeps, and my Thursday morning Christmas Club league I've got to see my average plummet about 10 pins or more. That league ends in a month then I am putting everything in the closet for a little while until I head to Reno for Nationals in June. I really, REALLY need the break.
Baseball. Spring/Summer season came and went, and I batted a miserable .199 (or something like that) and we missed the playoffs by one game. I just couldn't make contact with anything. For some strange reason they wanted me back for the fall and in 5 games I've gotten a total of 10 plate appearances. Overall I am 2 - 6 with 4 walks, 3 Ks, a single and a HOME RUN....a GRAND SLAM no less. Batting .333 right now. Let's see if that keeps me in the lineup.
Poker..... ummmm not so much. No time, no money. Heck, no job either. Planning to go down to Pechanga on Thanksgiving morning for the 10am tournament. Would be a nice break.
More to come later.... but right now I need sleep. Doing homework at 2am is not good for the sleep cycle (it can't be good for the grades either).
OK.... updates..... WEIGHT LOSS project.... well got down to 225 (or so) then stopped caring and spiked right back up to 270something. Guess what?? Time to get back on track. Smaller goal this time.... 240 and we'll go from there.
Bowling.... I've been sucking something fierce the last few months. Pretty much ever since I got back from Nationals in Vegas. My Tuesday night league ended (and I'm not going back) and I didn't do well in sweeps, and my Thursday morning Christmas Club league I've got to see my average plummet about 10 pins or more. That league ends in a month then I am putting everything in the closet for a little while until I head to Reno for Nationals in June. I really, REALLY need the break.
Baseball. Spring/Summer season came and went, and I batted a miserable .199 (or something like that) and we missed the playoffs by one game. I just couldn't make contact with anything. For some strange reason they wanted me back for the fall and in 5 games I've gotten a total of 10 plate appearances. Overall I am 2 - 6 with 4 walks, 3 Ks, a single and a HOME RUN....a GRAND SLAM no less. Batting .333 right now. Let's see if that keeps me in the lineup.
Poker..... ummmm not so much. No time, no money. Heck, no job either. Planning to go down to Pechanga on Thanksgiving morning for the 10am tournament. Would be a nice break.
More to come later.... but right now I need sleep. Doing homework at 2am is not good for the sleep cycle (it can't be good for the grades either).
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
2009 USBC LAS VEGAS REPORT
Well, here's the long story of what happened this week while in Vegas. Yes, I was in Vegas for a WEEK!! I did manage to come home with some $$$ so it wasn't totally bad.
I left last Sunday night around 11pm after work and arrived at Buffalo Bills somewhere around the 1:30am mark. My goal was to get a room (using my slot points) and drive in later in the morning. As luck would have it, they were sold out due to some concert. So I gambled a little bit then headed to the Orleans where I was staying at about 5:30am. Once I arrived I promptly sat down in the keno area and tried my luck at live keno. Guess I didn't have any luck at all. After playing around for a couple hours, I was able to go check in and head up to my room. Once I went upstairs and put things away I separated my "play" money from my "bracket money" and proceeded to head back downstairs and play some more. After losing for a bit, I finally got some luck as I hit a 6 of 6 keno machine for $800. That got me closer to even. About 2 hours later I hit another machine for the same thing....yup another $800. Now I am at about even. I played for a little longer before heading up to the room to get some sleep for the High Roller tournament tomorrow morning.
Tuesday morning I get up and head on into Sam's Town. I head down to the center just in time for a little bit of practice to get a feel for the lanes. The shot seemed very playable and I was feeling good about my chances. The first VIP tournament starts up and I shoot a whopping 210 game. Needless to say, that didn't cash for anything. My first match wasn't until 1pm, so I went upstairs and decided to play a little bit more. As luck would have it, I hit ANOTHER 6 spot on a keno machine for ANOTHER $800. Now I am ahead for the couple days and feeling pretty good. My start time was coming up aso I headed back down to the bowling center for my first match.
Match 1: 234 - 188 I win
Match 2: 210 - 195 I win again. Should have lost this one, but my opponent whiffed a 5 pin in the tenth to give it to me.
Match 3: 246 - 176 I win again. This was the money round, and the winners were now guaranteed $1000. For those in the know, I was bowling against PBA PRO Michael Fagan's wife Amanda. She just couldn't get lined up and I caught some good breaks. Michael seems like a pretty nice guy as I was chatting with him for a few after the match.
Match 4: 234 - 181 I win again. The winner of this round gets into Saturday's finals and can not re-enter any other round 1 slots to try to make extra money. Now I am guaranteed $1100 plus $250 from a refund check for the unused re-entry I had pre-paid when submitting my entry. I really must have gotten under my opponents skin as I opend wit ha spare then a four bagger, the first two were solid BROOKLYN strikes, and he never got going. I did apologize after the match. I realyl hate beating someone like that when they are throwing a better ball than me.
Now here's where I get really STUPID! Knowing that I have about $1400 coming to me on Saturday, I began gambling like an idiot and BLOW all my winnings right out the door with the exception of the bracket & mini-eliminator money I had. Nice move eh? Anyway, so I get up early Wednesday morning and check out to head home to pick up my car and turn in my rental. Probably a good thing as I probably would have blown ALL the rest of my money on Wednesday.
So Wednesday morning I drive home and pick up my car and drive back up Wednesday evening. I get to the Gold Coast about 11ish and am able to check in a day early. I go back out to my car to get my stuff and nothing is working. Lights won't come on or anything. After about a half hour of messing around with it, I notice the connector for the battery cable to the battery is loose.... once I tighten it down, no problem and it's back to running as usual. So back in the casino I go and guess what..... I BLOW EVERYTHING ELSE I HAVE. Yup, I am officially an idiot. All I have left is a couple credit cards that I can purchase food on. So that's what I do all of Thursday. I was hoping Friday would bring my unemployment check in, but that didn't happen either (good thing too) so Friday was more of the same.
On Friday, I wandered over to the Rio to watch the World Series of Poker Day 1A. On the way down the elevator at the Gold Coast, WSOP 2007 Main Even Champ Jerry Yang gets in. Why would someone want to stay there instaed of somewhere a little more upscale is beyond me. Anyway, he's a very friendy guy and I chatted him up for a min or two and wished him luck as I continued over to the Rio. I managed to get a spot right above the featured table when play began. There were four empty seats at the start (guess people were late or something) and one of the late comers was Alan Cunningham, so I snapped a picture there. After an hour of watching boring poker, I headed out to the exhibition hall. I saw Humberto Brenes who was with his wife and he was carrying a large rubber shark (about 7 inches in length) so I snapped a couple pictures there. Also doing a little Q/A discussion was Phil Hellmuth & Johnny Chan (snap snap with the pictures). Then I headed out. Kinda interesting to see, and I can't wait to see the opening rounds on TV.
Saturday FINALLY comes around and it's back off to the Roller for my round 5 match. Winners here are guaranteed $1400. I win this one 222 - 202. My opponent gave me another gift by missing right badly and leaving a six count washout (he needed a double to beat me). Moving on to round 6 where the winners are guaranteed $2250. I was leading by 20 going into the 8th frame when my opponent left the 7-10 split. I really thought I had it in the bag there....then HE PICKED IT UP! I wound up opening in the 8th and sparing in the 9th which forced him to punch out to lock me out. He did that and I opened again in the tenth to lose 228-203 and recieved $1400 for my finish. I don't hold anything against the guy for picking that up, since he shouldn't have left it anyway and was throwing good shots the whole time. I cash my checks (now I have some money for brackets) and head back to the hotel.
SUNDAY TEAM EVENT:
Before I head out to Cashman, I stopped off at another keno machine (YEAH YEAH I KNOW) and hit a 6 of 6 and 7 of 8 at the same time for $800 and cash out and leave (there's something new eh?). I hang out for a little bit until the rest of my team shows up and I try to find out if someone is being backed for brackets or will we be on our own. Nobody is able to decide anything, so I invest $1000 of my money and hope for the best. I have a pretty good line, but can't get it left too much or squeeze it in. I maybe have three boards to play with and that's it. I shoot 212 - 211 - 215 for a 638. At this point I am hoping for just my $750 back (the other $250 was in Super Brackets which won't be done with until the end of the tournament). Once the payout screen comes up, next to my name is $2095!!!! I almost TRIPLED my money!!! We head down to Binion's to pick up the cash and myself and one other from our team decide to have dinner at the steakhouse there. It's on the 24th floor, a bit pricey but well worth it! After dinner and a little playing (I dropped only $100) I drop my teammate off at his hotel and head back to mine. I should have gone to bed then, but didn't and ended staying up until 3:30am gambling (only lost $250).
MONDAY SINGLES & DOUBLES:
After getting an hour and a half "nap" I head back to Cashman for singles & doubles(the 7:00am squad). I decide to invest $750 into brackets and keep my fingers crossed. I don't know if it was because I was tired or the lanes were crap (more than likely a combination of both) but I bowl lousy in doubles 197 - 172 - 182 = 551 (partner shot 549) We move pairs and I have a much better shot as I go 244 - 195 - 193 = 632 for singles and finally get my 30 clean!! I'm hoping for $300 for this and get shocked as I get $483. Still a loss, but smaller than I thought. Same routine as yesterday, go to Binion's, pick up the money, and head out. I drop of my teammate again, and start to head out of town. I'm pretty tired so I swing into the South Point and manage to get a free room for the night. I probably should have just drove straight home, but didn't, and wound up gambling about $700 or so away. Left Tuesday morning and here I am now. Had to bowl tonight.... 211 - 217 - 225
Came home with a little under $2000 (right about my starting point) and should be getting a check in August/September for about $750 or so.
That's it for this trip.... too bad I can't control my gambling LOL OH well..... get to do this all over again next year in RENO!!! :)
I left last Sunday night around 11pm after work and arrived at Buffalo Bills somewhere around the 1:30am mark. My goal was to get a room (using my slot points) and drive in later in the morning. As luck would have it, they were sold out due to some concert. So I gambled a little bit then headed to the Orleans where I was staying at about 5:30am. Once I arrived I promptly sat down in the keno area and tried my luck at live keno. Guess I didn't have any luck at all. After playing around for a couple hours, I was able to go check in and head up to my room. Once I went upstairs and put things away I separated my "play" money from my "bracket money" and proceeded to head back downstairs and play some more. After losing for a bit, I finally got some luck as I hit a 6 of 6 keno machine for $800. That got me closer to even. About 2 hours later I hit another machine for the same thing....yup another $800. Now I am at about even. I played for a little longer before heading up to the room to get some sleep for the High Roller tournament tomorrow morning.
Tuesday morning I get up and head on into Sam's Town. I head down to the center just in time for a little bit of practice to get a feel for the lanes. The shot seemed very playable and I was feeling good about my chances. The first VIP tournament starts up and I shoot a whopping 210 game. Needless to say, that didn't cash for anything. My first match wasn't until 1pm, so I went upstairs and decided to play a little bit more. As luck would have it, I hit ANOTHER 6 spot on a keno machine for ANOTHER $800. Now I am ahead for the couple days and feeling pretty good. My start time was coming up aso I headed back down to the bowling center for my first match.
Match 1: 234 - 188 I win
Match 2: 210 - 195 I win again. Should have lost this one, but my opponent whiffed a 5 pin in the tenth to give it to me.
Match 3: 246 - 176 I win again. This was the money round, and the winners were now guaranteed $1000. For those in the know, I was bowling against PBA PRO Michael Fagan's wife Amanda. She just couldn't get lined up and I caught some good breaks. Michael seems like a pretty nice guy as I was chatting with him for a few after the match.
Match 4: 234 - 181 I win again. The winner of this round gets into Saturday's finals and can not re-enter any other round 1 slots to try to make extra money. Now I am guaranteed $1100 plus $250 from a refund check for the unused re-entry I had pre-paid when submitting my entry. I really must have gotten under my opponents skin as I opend wit ha spare then a four bagger, the first two were solid BROOKLYN strikes, and he never got going. I did apologize after the match. I realyl hate beating someone like that when they are throwing a better ball than me.
Now here's where I get really STUPID! Knowing that I have about $1400 coming to me on Saturday, I began gambling like an idiot and BLOW all my winnings right out the door with the exception of the bracket & mini-eliminator money I had. Nice move eh? Anyway, so I get up early Wednesday morning and check out to head home to pick up my car and turn in my rental. Probably a good thing as I probably would have blown ALL the rest of my money on Wednesday.
So Wednesday morning I drive home and pick up my car and drive back up Wednesday evening. I get to the Gold Coast about 11ish and am able to check in a day early. I go back out to my car to get my stuff and nothing is working. Lights won't come on or anything. After about a half hour of messing around with it, I notice the connector for the battery cable to the battery is loose.... once I tighten it down, no problem and it's back to running as usual. So back in the casino I go and guess what..... I BLOW EVERYTHING ELSE I HAVE. Yup, I am officially an idiot. All I have left is a couple credit cards that I can purchase food on. So that's what I do all of Thursday. I was hoping Friday would bring my unemployment check in, but that didn't happen either (good thing too) so Friday was more of the same.
On Friday, I wandered over to the Rio to watch the World Series of Poker Day 1A. On the way down the elevator at the Gold Coast, WSOP 2007 Main Even Champ Jerry Yang gets in. Why would someone want to stay there instaed of somewhere a little more upscale is beyond me. Anyway, he's a very friendy guy and I chatted him up for a min or two and wished him luck as I continued over to the Rio. I managed to get a spot right above the featured table when play began. There were four empty seats at the start (guess people were late or something) and one of the late comers was Alan Cunningham, so I snapped a picture there. After an hour of watching boring poker, I headed out to the exhibition hall. I saw Humberto Brenes who was with his wife and he was carrying a large rubber shark (about 7 inches in length) so I snapped a couple pictures there. Also doing a little Q/A discussion was Phil Hellmuth & Johnny Chan (snap snap with the pictures). Then I headed out. Kinda interesting to see, and I can't wait to see the opening rounds on TV.
Saturday FINALLY comes around and it's back off to the Roller for my round 5 match. Winners here are guaranteed $1400. I win this one 222 - 202. My opponent gave me another gift by missing right badly and leaving a six count washout (he needed a double to beat me). Moving on to round 6 where the winners are guaranteed $2250. I was leading by 20 going into the 8th frame when my opponent left the 7-10 split. I really thought I had it in the bag there....then HE PICKED IT UP! I wound up opening in the 8th and sparing in the 9th which forced him to punch out to lock me out. He did that and I opened again in the tenth to lose 228-203 and recieved $1400 for my finish. I don't hold anything against the guy for picking that up, since he shouldn't have left it anyway and was throwing good shots the whole time. I cash my checks (now I have some money for brackets) and head back to the hotel.
SUNDAY TEAM EVENT:
Before I head out to Cashman, I stopped off at another keno machine (YEAH YEAH I KNOW) and hit a 6 of 6 and 7 of 8 at the same time for $800 and cash out and leave (there's something new eh?). I hang out for a little bit until the rest of my team shows up and I try to find out if someone is being backed for brackets or will we be on our own. Nobody is able to decide anything, so I invest $1000 of my money and hope for the best. I have a pretty good line, but can't get it left too much or squeeze it in. I maybe have three boards to play with and that's it. I shoot 212 - 211 - 215 for a 638. At this point I am hoping for just my $750 back (the other $250 was in Super Brackets which won't be done with until the end of the tournament). Once the payout screen comes up, next to my name is $2095!!!! I almost TRIPLED my money!!! We head down to Binion's to pick up the cash and myself and one other from our team decide to have dinner at the steakhouse there. It's on the 24th floor, a bit pricey but well worth it! After dinner and a little playing (I dropped only $100) I drop my teammate off at his hotel and head back to mine. I should have gone to bed then, but didn't and ended staying up until 3:30am gambling (only lost $250).
MONDAY SINGLES & DOUBLES:
After getting an hour and a half "nap" I head back to Cashman for singles & doubles(the 7:00am squad). I decide to invest $750 into brackets and keep my fingers crossed. I don't know if it was because I was tired or the lanes were crap (more than likely a combination of both) but I bowl lousy in doubles 197 - 172 - 182 = 551 (partner shot 549) We move pairs and I have a much better shot as I go 244 - 195 - 193 = 632 for singles and finally get my 30 clean!! I'm hoping for $300 for this and get shocked as I get $483. Still a loss, but smaller than I thought. Same routine as yesterday, go to Binion's, pick up the money, and head out. I drop of my teammate again, and start to head out of town. I'm pretty tired so I swing into the South Point and manage to get a free room for the night. I probably should have just drove straight home, but didn't, and wound up gambling about $700 or so away. Left Tuesday morning and here I am now. Had to bowl tonight.... 211 - 217 - 225
Came home with a little under $2000 (right about my starting point) and should be getting a check in August/September for about $750 or so.
That's it for this trip.... too bad I can't control my gambling LOL OH well..... get to do this all over again next year in RENO!!! :)
Friday, December 26, 2008
2 months later......
This year is just about over.... and I've made what.... about 10 posts?? Whatever Kevin.
Anyway.... first off. Lost my morning job right before Thanksgiving (or somewhere around there). Was laid off due to cutbacks. Shit happens. It's giving me a great opportunity to go back to school and finish up some loose ends. So it's Domino's & unemployment for income. Have to cut back a bit on bowling and other spending. I think I'll survive.
Been dieting since August. Started at 315 and got down to 272 doing the low carb thing. Switched to Weight Watchers about 1 month ago and today (day after Christmas feasting) I am down to 260.7 I think it's going in the correct direction!!!
Got a new camera for Christmas, so I might turn into a shutterbug for a while... we'll see.
That's about it for now. Surprised I remembered my login info for here!!
Anyway.... first off. Lost my morning job right before Thanksgiving (or somewhere around there). Was laid off due to cutbacks. Shit happens. It's giving me a great opportunity to go back to school and finish up some loose ends. So it's Domino's & unemployment for income. Have to cut back a bit on bowling and other spending. I think I'll survive.
Been dieting since August. Started at 315 and got down to 272 doing the low carb thing. Switched to Weight Watchers about 1 month ago and today (day after Christmas feasting) I am down to 260.7 I think it's going in the correct direction!!!
Got a new camera for Christmas, so I might turn into a shutterbug for a while... we'll see.
That's about it for now. Surprised I remembered my login info for here!!
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