Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Racism at CU

There's a lot of hoopla going on right now about an editorial that was published in the campus newspaper a week or so ago. It was by a white boy who claimed that all "Asians" hate white people. (I put "Asians" in quotes because what does that really mean? Asian Americans? Actual Asians? If he means literally people who originally lived in Asia-- not children of people who originally lived in Asia, well, there just aren't that many of them in Boulder and I highly doubt that he's talked to more than 4 of them.) Anyways, it rightly got a lot of attention and flack. What I find interesting is that the paper published another editorial right alongside that one from an Asian American student that seems to support the original editorial's opinion, and in my opinion is equally offensive. But this one's getting almost no attention at all!

If you go to this website: http://www.colorado.edu/news/reports/campuspress/chronology.html there's links to the two editorials. All I can think is there must be monkeys running the campus press, because no one in their right mind would publish either of these articles without expecting a lot of backlash. Perhaps they were supposed to be sarcastic and satirical, but in today's world where it was a Korean student that shot up Virginia Tech, this sort of satire is not welcome. There is enough racial tension in the US without poorly-expressed editorials like these fanning the flames.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Oscars Reflections

We had a girls' night last night and watched the Oscars. I got pizzas, Alizzle made sangria, and Amber brought Zoe. It was a great night, with altogether too much snarkiness regarding the celebrities' outfits and too much pizza... at least for me! Some majors points that I got from the evening:

1. Sangria is delicious. Rock on wine and rum!

2. John Travolta dressed like a woman for his last movie Hairspray, and decided to continue the trend by wearing a LOT of makeup to the Oscars.

3. Tilda Swinton wore no makeup to the Oscars. Her coollness level skyrocketed when I found that out. But perhaps she and John Travolta should take a page from the others' book and switch that trend up. John at least would benefit from the lesson.

4. A lot of the ladies went with the classic Hollywood look on Sunday. I thought they looked more beautiful than usual. I hope this trend keeps up.

5. John Stewart is frickin' hilarious. I hope he's the new Billy Crystal and they keep bringing him back.

6. I'm very grateful that the writers' strike is over. I hope they got a good deal out of it, but I'm really happy that they ended before the Oscars. It's such a fun night! Plus, it means that awesome shows like The Office will be starting up again soon!

7. Papa Murphy's may be my favorite pizza in town. Abo's would normally be number 1, but I've been disappointed with them lately. Their pizzas aren't as crispy as I like.

8. I really need to see No Country for Old Men.

Monday, February 18, 2008

The Gods Must be Angry

I played in the uber-crapshoot yesterday, the 10k FPP turbo tourney on PokerStars. 9600 ppl registered, although there was room enough for 12k. The top 4,000 people cashed, so it was a juicy tourney to play, even if it was a turbo. I managed to qualify for it in a 2k FPP 6-man qualifier, and joined the Wolf and Bag for what I predicted to be a wild, but fun ride.

It started off so well. I doubled up early and kept building my stack the way my bludgeoning style does so well. I was especially proud of the hands I didn't get involved in. Sometimes I get so excited about playing that I'll jump into pots I shouldn't... but not this time. I was up to 24k when the average stack was about 8k, and then made what I hoped would be the play of the tourney. Two players ahead of me with average stacks both went all in, and I called on the button with 99. I was wavering on the decision of whether or not to do it, but then Wolf said, "folding here is a fine play, but if you're playing for the final table, picking this pot up would be huge." And I always play for the final table. I called and the others showed A9 and KQ. I somehow managed to dodge all the high cards, and BLAMO! I'm at 42k.

This is when the poker gods got angry.

Apparently that was too much success, because I don't think I won a pot after that. And I was playing good hands. I lost 99 to KQ, KK to JT, AK to QJ, AK to J5, AK to AA, JJ to A4, and I'm sure plenty more that I've stricken from my memory. These were all in pre-flop. The only hand I didn't lose was when I got AK in against AK, and even then I was seriously worried, until the flop came rainbow for the split.

I managed to finish in the 750s for a pretty decent score considering that I put zero dollars into the tourney, but I found no joy in it. I was playing a great game, had a great stack size, and lost it all to an insanely bad run of luck. Even when I was crippled, with a measly 1200 stack when the ANTES were 400 each I got it in with Tc2c against KT. I thought that there'd be a little mercy at the end when the flop came 3 K x with 2 clubs. The turn was 3c and I had a flush to bring me back to 6k (certainly no reason to hope for a comeback, but it would've been a moral victory) but then the river brought the dreaded third tre and I was gonzo.

What's the lesson of this story? I have no idea. If you can find one, you let me know. The best I could come up with was that maybe I'm not meant to have a huge poker score, maybe the gods want me to be a small fish in a big pond. But I'll be damned if I stop trying.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Top 10 No-Thinker Games:

These are games that are good for slacking off at work, or when you just wanna zone out. Other game lists pending.

10. Mahjong
9. Free Cell
8. Solitaire
7. Bounce Out
6. Alchemy
5. Minesweeper
4. Web Sudoku
3. Daily Jigsaw Puzzle – shout out to Dr. Coins for getting me obsessed with this one
2. Spider Solitaire
1. Text Twist

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

SUPERbowl

There are so many things to say about Sunday's Superbowl, and I've heard many of my own thoughts echoed on ESPN, in Moon's blog, and talking to friends. I won't repeat it again here. What I wanted to add was a quote that came to me while watching the game. It's from Miracle, the movie about the USA hockey team that beat the Soviets in the Lake Placid Olympics. I love that movie because it shows the side of great sports moments that are so often neglected by other sports movies. It shows that it's not just talent but working your ass off that'll get you that far. (I've never seen another movie devote so much of its time to sprints.) And it also shows that sometimes working that much harder, and having team unity can overcome a more talented team. That's a lesson that everyone should know, because-- if you're not Tiger Woods or Roger Federer-- there's always someone more talented than you playing your sport.

"Great moments... are born from great opportunity. And that's what you have here, tonight, boys. That's what you've earned here tonight. One game. If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, WE are the greatest hockey team in the world. "

Nice job Giants.