Just updated/renewed this website. I know that I’m not really using it as much these days, but $45 a year isn’t bad…and I enjoy looking at some of the past posts. I’ll also probably continue to use it when I travel in the future.

First, some interesting books-

Age of Turbulence, by Alan Greenspan- Very interesting, the guy is obviously a genius and it’s great to read his thoughts on the economy and overall market ideas.

Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall- Extremely fast and easy read about a hidden tribe of super runners and the approach to problems with running. This book has inspired me to start running barefoot. In the past, I’ve had issues running anything over 2+ miles with my legs tightening up very badly near the achilles, cutting off all blood flow. Hopefully this barefoot thing remedies it.

So those are two books off the top of my head that I recently finished. Actually, I still have a bit to go on the Greenspan book but oh well.

In anticipation for UF football (and general football season) coming up, here are some fun UF moments the last 5 years-

Major Wright trucks OU receiver 2008

Harvin counter in 2006 vs Arky

2008 OU/UF goal line stand

Jarvis Moss 2006 USCe/UF FG block

Entire D in tOSU 2006 NC game

Spikes lays out Moreno 2008 UGA/UF game

So pumped for football to start. I’m going to the UF/USCe game in Gainesville in November, along with a slew of NU games. This is the best time of the year and it’s not even close.

I’ve been doing alot of climbing lately. I went on another trip after my last one and went to Wyoming and Colorado, where I did my first trad lead (awful, I suck at it). It was still a great time and I had alot of fun. I’m going to start focusing on martial arts alot more now, though, and put climbing on the shelf for a bit. I’m going to start going to MA maybe 5-7 times a week and maybe climb on the weekends.

In terms of production, I haven’t been playing a whole lot (obviously). That said, poker has been going decently well, and I’m still enjoying a nice hourly and win rate (relative to the stakes I’m playing).

Anyways, regular life is boring here. Thinking about starting to plan another trip…but we’ll see. Have to get some scrilla first. Cheers

Also, a PSA, durrrr is playing jungleman headsup, 200/400NL over 4-6 tables. More information can be found on 2+2 HERE

I’m going to ramble a bit here on various topics. I’m bored and wanted to write something poker related…not sure if anyone really checks this blog anymore, now that my south America trip is over…but meh.

Poker

I haven’t really played much at all the last 1.5 weeks. I went on my CO trip, which lasted 5 days, haven’t really played since. I’m fairly sure that I’m not the only one, either…each month, it seems as if more and more regulars (that is, in SSNL) are claiming they aren’t playing as much. I’m assuming they are somewhat like me, in that they don’t really enjoy poker much anymore. Like any obsession (especially one that involves heavy emotional attachment and insane variance), poker is one that gets fucking old. Unless you’re someone like durrrr who can play a billion hands at the highest levels (and one who obviously loves poker, and has for many years), it is hard.

I think all of us poker players hope to somehow rekindle the love we had when we first started. It probably won’t happen though. Reminds me of this song- Airplanes

/end bitching/whatever.

In other news, jungleman is playing durrrr in the durrrr challenge. Basically, durrrr has offered a sidebet of 3-1 for 500k (durrrr’s 1.5m to 500k) over a 50k hand headsup match of …100/200+ (I think?) of either PLO or NLHE. This is incredibly exciting and should make for great viewing. An older article on it- Cardplayer

Climbing and workout stuff

Has been going well…I’m still trying to get back the endurance I had pre-South America. I think I might go on another climbing trip west of here this coming week. I’m excited to learn more about outdoor climbing.

I’ve been doing martial arts as well, which has been a ton of fun. I’m afraid that I’m spreading myself too thin and not resting enough. I know that you’re supposed to give yourself a day or two between workouts (depending on extremity)- I’m having a hard time finding at least one day a week to rest. Today I’m hoping that I’ll be able to stay put and let my body heal…but we’ll see.

I think I’m probably going to quit the climbing wall next month and focus on martial arts. I still feel reasonably competent at climbing right now. The opposite is true with martial arts, and I need to focus on that a bit.

Random

-Colorado is a very fun state, albeit a very pussy one. Hippy city galore, I couldn’t stand it. I was disgusted when I saw some douchebags sprawled out on the ground, chirping “donations for medical marijuana research?”…Part of me wanted to go over there and kick them in the face.

-I’ve been losing weight and I think it is due to my martial arts. As stated earlier, I need to work on resting more.

-College Football season is upon us and I cannot fucking wait…I plan on going to a few NU games this year, along with maybe a UF game.

-Inception is a must see movie and very good.

-Only a few more days until I finally get to pick up the last season of LOST on dvd…I still haven’t finished it due to being in South America. I might rewatch the entire show, thinking about it now.

-Moved my brother into college the other day. It depresses me alot when I think about college and how it is all over. So much fun…lucky bastard.

-Starcraft 2 has been eating up too much time. I play it for a few hours each day. Christ…

this is too long, so I’ll end it now. thanks for reading.

I’ve been home for about 2 weeks now and the states for a month. The transition from straight adventure to typical home life has been a difficult one for me. On one hand, I’m happy right now. I’ve been doing alot of relaxing, climbing, biking, seeing friends, eating good (American) food, and playing poker. The problem right now is that I’m going back to my stagnant state that I was in before my trip: a time wasting bum life.

It’s tough to think about what the future has in store for me. I know I’m not alone, either- there are tons of other like minded people out there in similar situations. Perhaps this is a product of being a college graduate in a shit economy, along with being involved in a business that is a “non contribution to society” (as some would like to state-obviously this is debatable).

A poker player’s life is boring: Your friends are working, you are on your computer many hours during the day, and the stress involved is hard. I’m in a position that many of my (poker) friends are in- We’re sick of poker and we’re looking for other things…but we don’t know what. Further, we have yet to find that niche that allowed us to be so successful at poker in the first place; that is, the passion involved.

I’m working on some life goals that I’ll need to accomplish. No, I’m not at the point where I really desperately need a job (money wise)…but I need a passion in my life that isn’t useless (re- starcraft 2). I’m starting some real estate studying to go along with a few hours of investment study each week (this needs to be upped). Thankfully I’m also playing more poker than I was before.

In other news, I’m going to start martial arts this coming week…I’m both nervous and very excited for it. I’ll probably get my ass kicked badly for the first few weeks, but hopefully I’ll be able to improve.

Alright…I made this blog to set goals and challenges for myself. I need to keep myself accountable, be it in poker, life, studying, or whatever.

This week I would like to:

-check out a martial arts gym and watch some of the classes/decide if I want to join (I have been thinking about BJJ or Muay Thai for a long time now, seems like a great way to get in shape).

-Study more finance, real estate, whatever investing stuff.

-Climb at least 3-4 times. Bike 2 times+ and run at least once (or more) outdoors.

-Catch up on tv shows such as LOST or movies that I missed while abroad (I heard that ‘Kickass’ was a fun watch).

-Watch the diet…I’ve already uber failed at this alot this week. It’s been pretty awful lately and I need to start to cut down the portion sizing.

Anyways, yeah. I want to also play more poker…I played tourneys today and busted all of them, didn’t do jack. I have been playing 1-2 hours a day though 4> tabling, so I think that it’s been going well. I’m still really playing poorly at times, though, and I need to watch that a bit.

Here are the videos from my trip:

http://www.youtube.com/user/oI2ange

Observation Point at Zion

Iguazu, Argentine Side

Dynamite going off in Potosi

Machu Picchu

There are more, but I don’t want to waste your time. Go to the channel to see them all.

Sorry I haven’t updated this in a while. Not too much happened in Vegas, lost a few more times, ate at some nice places, whatever. I went to Zion National Park in Utah right after Vegas with terp and carrotsnake, incredibly fun time. We hiked and camped out and it was a nice finish to my trip.

Here are the two albums, via facebook-

Zion1

Zion 2

I’m home now and I’m relaxing. I’m also starting to go back to my old routine, which was dick around on the computer WAY too much and then do minimal physical exercise. I’m not working hard enough on various things and the motivation factor is upsetting to me.

I also am debating discontinuing this site. I made it purely in the interest of keeping any poker articles mine (and mine alone…I’m not sure if blogspot would have any claim to it, but who knows). I will continue to blog, however, be it on this site or back to my old site at blogspot.com.

Above all, I initially created this blog to hold true to my goals; and to keep a constant reminder of what I want and need to accomplish. This includes all life/poker/work/education stuff, things that I need to work on as I continue my vagabond lifestyle. I understand that I’ll probably have few, if any visitors on this site now that my trip is done…but meh, whatever. I hope that I can continue to list my goals here and stay true to them as best as I can. So, I’ll hopefully write up a list of goals and things I want to accomplish within this week.