"Success is on the cards"

So far this week I've been into work everyday (I had the last two days off). Hopefully this trend doesn't continue.

Friday (Revisit): At work Ant-Man (first appearance) loaned me the wrestling DVDs 'One Night Stand 2006' (Including 'Barely Legal' the first ECW pay-per-view) and 'Summerslam 2003'. I watched 'Summerslam' as soon as I got home.

Sunday (26/11): Bolton 3 - Arsenal 1. Arsenal has not won away to Bolton since 2002. Before I saw the end of this match I had to go to work. I missed the last 13 minutes of play. After work I went out with K-Man to get some more PS2 games. We got 'Kingdom Hearts', 'God of War', 'Soul Calibur 3', and 'Resident Evil 4' before we split up. He went to meet up with one of his friends (and ended up bringing home 'GTA: San Andreas' and 'GTA: Liberty City Stories'. Whereas I went out to Chadstone and found myself a copy of 'Final Fantasy X'.

Monday (27/11): Worked. Found out that today is Saturns birthday.

Tuesday (): Went out for very late lunch with Saturn (3:30pm). We went to L'Aperitivo in Elsternwick, then we went on to work to try and pay for the christmas party - we met with failure. After we seperated I went to see 'The Descent' with Blur at the Jam Factory. I got to sit next to a screamer - I swear, my ears are still ringing.

Wednesday (): Watched 'Barely Legal' (1997 ECW pay-per-view) and 'One Night Stand' (June 2006 ECW pay-per-view). Went to try and get comics (paid for the christmas party on my way) - met with failure. So I continued on to Borders at the Jam Factory where I got myself two books - 'American Gods' and 'Stardust' both by Niel Gaiman. When I got home my Dad called and asked me to get him a keno ticket (which I did) - I wasn't happy about it (I missed RAW).
I went out to play poker again. The first hand was massive and two players were left with fifty in chips (I wasn't one of them) and one of them was the next big blind - forcing him all in. Almost everyone dropped out of the hand because one of his 'friends' scared us off with a rather large bet. I don't know the exact hands but it took the river for The all-in to win it. Three hands later and everyone was still in meaning that I had already improved on last week. But then Husband and Wife went at It and the Husband came off second best (or rather dead last) and was knocked out of the table (I think it was two pair vs one pair). Then in the next hand the same woman knocked out the girl who lost the second hand - complaining that she had just knocked out her two favourite people. Then it was my turn. The nineth hand saw me get pocket kings - unfortunately at that stage I had $400 in chips as the short stack, and bet $200 before the flop (a $100 raise - doubling the big blind). Two players stayed in and the flop came up J/7/3 so I went all in and both players called me. Next card was another 3 giving me two pair. The other two went all-in, leaving one player with $100. We flipped our cards - the guy with $100 left had A/9 - nothing, and the other one had A/7 giving him two pair 7's and 3's. And do you know what the last card was? Of course, an Ace came up, and for the second week in a row I lost to an Ace on the river when I had a pocket pair.

Thursday (6am): Fulham vs Arsenal at 6:45am.

Review:
The Descent:
I was surprised by how good this film was - though I didn't like the 'awakening' sequences (when characters appear to wake up but aren't - something happens and then they do wake up) because this film, I think, doesn't really need them. It works weel enough without them and the crazy lady we can understand is crazy and we don't need these sequences to tell us that. 4/5.

Final Thought: You'd have thought I had a chance with K/K but apparently not.

Bah Humbug.

I work in an environment where music is pumped over a PA system and for the last two weeks I have been listening to Christmas carols. Now I'm not a scrooge and at Christmas I always give presents to my family. I just don't enjoy the music associated with the holiday.

Tuesday (21/11): Bought a CD (U2 - 18 Singles).

Wednesday (): Arsenal 3 - Hamburg 1. Arsenal and FC Porto now lead the group on 10 points each and CSKA Moscow is third on 8 - any of them can go through (Hamburg is on 0 points and can't get through). And now to the poker - it was a short game, my fourth hand was a pair of sevens and the flop came down Q/7/4 and I was in with a set of 7's. my opponent bet 100 (we start with 1,000) and so I raised to 300, which was called. The turn was a 2 and we both checked. The river came up as an ace and my opponent went all in for 800. I called. My set of 7's lost to his set of Aces. And I was out, first out at the table and second out on the night.

Thursday (): To console me after that horrible night of poker I bought myself a PS2. I got GT4, LMA 2004, FIFA 2003, Soul Reaver 2, XIII and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.

Friday (): Worked.

Saturday (25/11): Worked. Voted. Talked to Saturn's brother (I don't know his name but now he will be called Jupiter)

Sunday (4am): Bolton vs Arsenal.

Final Thought: I think I may have jinxed myself when I said I hoped to finish better than fourth out in the poker - though this statement is true I will just play the cards I'm dealt.

Card Crazed

It seems to me that the most interesting thing about this blog is my pokering on wednesday nights. Because of this I will try and be as precise about what went on as I can.

'My World' news:

Wednesday (15/11): There was another player knocked out before I was (though it wasn't by me) and before the flop he had a pair of Queens (I had a Q/7), and there was only him and the girl (I mentioned her in my last post) in for the flop. A/Q/7 came up and she went all in (at the time she was second in the chip count, I wonder who was chip leader.........) and with three queens how could he not call? She had pocket Aces. There were no other cards drawn that mattered (he was drawing dead anyway I think). He was the third player to leave our table.

Sunday (19/11): Arsenal 1 - Newcastle 1. There were problems with my computer so it took an extra hour to get the final result of the match (it wasn't televised). At the time I felt that it wasn't going to finish in time for me to see the end before i needed to leave for work. Worked my standard six hours. Home. Sleep.

Monday (20/11): Worked. Cooked spagetti (my parents were both at work), experimented with the sauce - tomato sauce, mince beef, oregano, three tomatoes - ended in failure, future alterations: Tomato PASTE instead of sauce, less oregano. Otherwise it went quite well. Hired out 'Mirrormask', 'Colour Me Kubrik' and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.' Managed to stay awake during 'Oz' and then watched 'Mirrormask'.

Tuesday (): Watched 'Colour Me Kubrik' and 'FFVII: AC' before returning them all. Went and saw 'The Prestige.' There were faults in the projection and early in the film five minutes were interrupted with silence and no vision onscreen.

Wednesday (today): Arsenal vs Hamburg SV. And later today - poker.

Reviews:
The Prestige: Could have been better. The projection faults didn't help. And I really didn't like the ending - the secret to tesla's machine. 4/5.

Final Thought: Hopefully I can get further in the poker tonight. Getting knocked out fourth on the tble is nothing to be proud of.

Baltasar

Dead Men Can't Play Cards

I have found out that I only have confidence when I'm at a card table - This is why I enjoy playing poker. A lot of people sweat or mumble or have some other visual clues as to concentration and worry, as far as I know I do this very little, I become loud and extroverted and seem to no longer concentrate on the cards - I act on interaction. Hoping to get a sense of what my opponent has before I act.

'My World' News:

Monday (13/11): Arsenal 3 - Liverpool 0. The best way to start any day of the week. Worked. Ran into two other highschool 'chums' on my way home - SH and GL - had a short chat with them, nothing really intense, I didn't really talk to these guys much when I was in highschool why would that change now? Got a haircut. Didn't watch 2001, and for the second week in a row I fell asleep during 'Oz'. Oh yeah, my Dad quit his job today (he is still working for about a month).

Tuesday (Day off): Slept in. Went and saw 'The Wrong Man' - wanted to see it on Thursday but Blur preferred to see 'A Good Year' (and since it was his free tickets I didn't argue). Slept some more. Got CDs whilst I was there - 'Fashion Nugget' by Cake and a double CD set of Taxiride (Imaginate and Garage Mahal).

Wednesday (Day off?): Got called in to work - lots of managers missing due to meetings at other stores and such. Got 4 hours work. Saw TS again - avoided him. Got my Farseer box set and comics (7). Played (RSL) poker, this week I knocked out 2 players, the first time I had pocket aces and the guy flopped a pair of kings (I slow played my hand), the second time I had a K/2 pocket and was against 4/5 hearts - I won with king high. I got knocked out when my A/6 played off against a pair of 2's. I was all in after the flop (A/7/2), at that stage I was second in chips by about four hundred (I had about 4/5 thousand) and of course it is the chip leader who chooses to take me on. I needed two runners - I didn't get either. But, I didn't know this at the time, the girl sitting across from me went to the same highschool as me (did I mention the first guy I knocked out was her dad?), and brought along some other guys from there (I recognised one of them which was how I realised they were from my highschool).

Thursday (definate day off): Went and saw 'A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints' - was hoping to see 'The Prestige' with Blur but he's seeing it with his family (he's probably seen it already), I'll see it Tuesday. Did I mention that Blur quit his job? No? well he did. Last Thursday. AFTER we saw 'A Good Year'.

Friday (): Work. Sleep.

Saturday (18/11): Worked - Still haven't seen Thor. Slept for Soccer.

Sunday (currently 1am): Arsenal vs Newcastle 2am. Work 7am. Home 2pm. Sleep 3pm. Thats the plan.

Reviews:

The Wrong Man:
Josh Hartnett is becoming a good actor - this role, 'Sin City', and 'The Black Dahlia' are going to make him great. The US title for the film was 'Lucky Number Slevin' (Slevin being the main character) and I'd heard about it at the start of the year and I wanted to see it then and I still want to see it now (again). The only problem was that I thought some of it was predictable, but not nearly as much as a lot of other films. 4/5.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints:
I really wanted to like this film. And even though I didn't I still know it deserves perfect marks. 5/5.

Final Thought: Sorry about the lack of story. What do you expect?

Baltasar

Bereft of Me

I'm updating Blogger - now it uses my google account. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I wrote this while it was updating - and came second to the update by 39 minutes.

'My World' News:

Thursday (2/11): One last point and I'll never come back to this day - I (and Blur after watching Saw III) saw AH, a guy from our highschool. All of us were in the same house group but I first met AH through school sport - hockey (He was a year ahead of Blur and myself). In year 8 I was chosen (instead of AH) for the 9A team, it was only once and we did play different positions at the time (I was a defender and he was a forward) but neither of us was ever chosen again, and by the time I was in year 11 (AH's final year) we were playing the same position (Centre Forward) and I was chosen in the seconds team and he was in the thirds (there wasn't always enough people to make up a competitive thirds team - the minimum number of players is 6 to start a game). This is probably the only time I'll mention AH.

Wednesday (8/11): Watched 'Fun with Dick and Jane'. Got comics (11), and one for K-Man (Gen-13 #2). Played in a poker tournament - really bad tournament, as soon as a table was defeated the winner didn't wait 'til the next round s/he just joined another table with any gaps. I managed to outlast 3 players (starts with eight) on my table and the empty seats were all filled before I lost out. I even managed to knock out a player on the fourth hand of the table - and this was the SECOND player to leave our table because my pocket threes beat a pair of pocket kings when a three came up on the turn. But the second hand saw her husband knocked out (I was dealing) and three sixes came up on the flop. In the end I was there about two hours and was knocked out by the same girl as the first guy was - she was attractive and that put me off. When I got home I watched 'Dukes of Hazzard'.

Thursday (9/11): Arsenal won 1-0 against Everton thanks to an Emmanuel Adebayor strike in the 85th minute. Watched 'Roger Dodger' followed by '2001' but I kept falling asleep during 2001 - its so long and I was so tired. Went and saw 'A Good Year' with Blur. On my way home ran into someone else from highschool, TS - the guy is an absolute tosser and I wanted to hit him within about five seconds of seeing him. The strangest thing though is that Saturn mentioned him on Saturday (4/11) because they used to go to school together.

Friday (back on track): Worked.

Saturday (getting closer now): Worked. talked to Saturn and apparently the recent disappearance of Thor is due to his escape to europe for a week - even though he isn't scheduled for holidays - how this will affect his employment I can only guess, my guess being he'll be fired.

Sunday (yesterday): Worked. Slept.

Monday (The Now): Got up at 2am to find K-Man on the computer - he has to work at 6am and apparently 'can't sleep' so he doesn't even try. Why does that not surprise me. Arsenal vs Liverpool at 3am (its why I am/was up at 2am). Will work later, and probably try and watch '2001' again.


Reviews:

Saw III:
Could have been better. I was told it would be gory, and so expected more than I got. If you liked the series this is just what the doctor ordered - more of the same. The first two traps are the goriest and as long as you can get past them you will probably enjoy the movie - if you can't get past them, well, what did you expect? 3/5.

A Good Year:
No it wasn't. As soon as I saw this I told Blur that Russell Crowe was not right for the part (He didn't get to fight anyone), it didn't help that the plot was thin and easy to follow - and for the most part easy to predict. 2/5.


Final thought: I know, I said I would update on Thursday and now its Monday, at least there is a 'Saw III' review. Hopefully the next update will come sooner - but Arsenal doesn't play again 'til next week so it may be a while. Maybe there will be some story in the next post. But knowing me there are no promises.


Baltasar (I'm going to sign off my posts now so I can write my psuedonym (I hope thats how you spell it)- this post has had a lot of psuedonyms so why not mine?)

(Edit): I keep forgetting to title these things....

Its taken me over a week to put up a new post. This is due to a myriad of things: 1. The last three Arsenal matches have been televised (usually I write before/during the matches), 2. I got my Eldar Army box (lots of stuff to do), 3. Work has been rather intense. but I'm back now.

'My World' News:

Monday (30/10): This is a revisit. When I said I worked I didn't mention that I worked an extra half hour - I implied that I was on my regular scheduling. It's not that important, but I want to be as accurate as possible.

Tuesday (Movies): Watched 'The Machinist' and got some more movies, Alien vs Predator, Barry Lyndon, Three Kings and ...... I can't remember the last one, I returned them yesterday and this is just going to annoy me all day. Knew I should have updated sooner.

Wednesday (1/11): It was either this day or thursday that Arenal vs CSKA moscow occurred. The result was a 0-0 draw, this means that the group is CSKA Moscow 8 points from four games, Arsenal 7, FC Porto 7, Hamburg FC 0. This means that any of the top three teams can go through - only two will and they have two games left. Got my Eldar Army Box. Looked for comics - met with failure. Watched 'AVP'.

Thursday (2/11): Got Comics (7). My brother asked me to get him an NFL football, and I did. Watched 'Three Kings'. Went and saw 'Saw III' with Blur.

Friday (): Worked - half an hour less to make up for the extra work I did on Monday. Threw around the NFL ball with K-Man.

Saturday (): Worked - normal hours. Lots of conversation with Saturn - it appears that Thor has disappeared - we don't know whats happened to him. Threw the NFL ball around some more after work. Watched 'Unknown Movie' - I wish I knew what it was - it's an actiony movie that I've seen before (I only know this because when I was hiring them out I thought it was interesting that all the films I wanted I'd seen before)

Sunday (): Worked. Slept. Got up just before midnight......

Monday (): ....to watch West Ham vs Arsenal - West Ham won 1-0. Went back to bed at 5am to get up at 5:30am to go to work, where I worked for 8 hours. Fell asleep at around 10:45pm and missed the end of 'Oz' which is my favourite show and I am so pissed off about missing the end.

Tuesday (Day off): Watched 'Barry Lyndon'. Hired out more movies: Fun with Dick and Jane, 2001: A Space Oddessey, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Roger Dodger.

Wednesday (): Nothing much going on yet. Will go and watch one of my movies later, and play in a small poker tournament (no cash involved - its a points thing and at the end of the season there is a prize, its halfway through the season and this will be my first game - at least it gives me some practice for when my friends organise a poker night).

Final Thought: Will probably update this tomorrow when Arsenal play Everton - this update will include a review of 'Saw III'.