Poker career fini

I played the last ring games of poker today. It was pretty anticlimactic, really. In a movie I'd be dealt KK or AA for my last hand and I'd go out in a blaze of glory dragging a huge pot. In reality, I got deakt K8 offsuit and folded.

It feels good and I'm pretty relieved to not be obsessing over playing enough hands of poker each day. I'd been having a rough go of it lately, with my big hands getting beaten by hands who had no reason to stay in despite my raising and betting. The last week or so was pretty brutal and I think I was negative for the week. If not for rakeback I'd have been down quite a bit. But at the very least, I finished up for the day today and can walk away on a good note.

Now I can use the player points on getting some swag from the players' store. I'm looking at getting an 80GB Ipod Classic from there. I've had my eye on the 8BG Ipod Touch and I could get one from the players' store, but Apple put out a better 2nd generation model Touch that won't show up in the players' store for a long time (if ever). I may use the Classic Ipod myself or just sell it and put the money toward a 16GB Touch. I'm sure I'd use the Classic for watching movies on planes or trips, but since I don't travel much it wouldn't be worth it (plus the Touch is just so cool I want one anyway). It depends on how much I could get for it, I suppose. $200 and it's a sell. $150 and I should just keep it. Meh. Funny thing is, the 80GB Classic is 58,000 points and the 8GB Ipod Touch (first gen) is 67,000 points. And now that the 2nd gen Touch is out, the prices have dropped dramatically; $299 used to get you a 8GB Touch (1st gen as that was all there was). $299 now gets you a 2nd gen 16GB Touch, $229 gets you the 8GB 2nd gen. For $199 you can get a 1st gen 8GB Touch. Always worth it to spend another $20 for the latest technology. It'd have to be more like $125 for the 1st gen for me to think about getting that one. Even better, with the 9,000 points that I'd save by getting the Classic, I can get a messenger bag and gym bag.

So aside from a couple of free tournaments, I'm done with poker. On with screenwriting!

Remember when...? SNL edition

Hey remember when Saturday Night Live was edgy and funny?

It was not a good start to the new season this weekend. Mind you, I had no problem with Michael Phelps hosting. He wasn't good, but he's an athlete-- not an actor, comedian, noted author, newsman... really nothing that would prepare him to host a nationally broadcast live sketch comedy show. It was part of the "Michael Phelps media blitz" that he earned himself and I don't begrudge his hosting. They made every effort to make it easy for him, limiting his lines and screentime and going to old sketches that worked before. Note that they pulled out the locker-room Will Forte pep-talk/dance to a goofy song skit that they first did (to great effect) when Peyton Manning hosted (which was a damn funny show, so not all athletes are duds hosting). His other 'parts' were him playing a home-schooled inbred country boy on a quiz show (so if he was stiff or awkward, well that was the part he played), himself as a guest on a fictional Charles Barkley talk show, a son on a fake T Mobile Fave Fives commercial, the son on the 'ugly kids' sketch opposite Kristen "I said WE!" Wiig (another retread sketch that I first saw when Seth Rogan hosted), and himself (again) on a commercial for the Michael Phelps diet. The Michael Phelps diet commercial was the funniest sketch that he was in and it seemed to have that absurdist nature that SNL likes (or used to) so I was puzzled as to why they made that they last sketch of the night. I would have put that up front in the first 1/2 hour.

So anyway, my criticism of the show has to do with all of the redone sketches and jokes and the ones that weren't redone had no bite or payoff. I mentioned the locker room and ugly kids sketches-- both were done before. Plus they pulled out Fred Armisen's "Nicholas Fehn, political comedian who can't put together a coherent thought" for a bit on Weekend Update. Now, I don't have a problem with recurring characters on SNL-- that's how they get a following, after all (and I loved Hans and Franz back in the day. Even the MacGruber bit is funny when they choose to do it). I DO have a huge problem with REDONE SKETCHES. The ugly kids sketch was THE EXACT SAME as when Seth Rogan did it. The locker room sketch was THE EXACT SAME as when Peyton Manning did it (except with a different song and not nearly as funny). Nicholas Fehn was amusing the first time I saw it, but Fred Armisen did THE EXACT SAME thing as last time. It's a one-note-joke that he can't put together a coherent thought. It gets a laugh the first time as it keeps going, but you can't go to that well again. I mean, what was the point? I can tell when they're just killing time and the first episode of this season was 60-75% filler. You could pull this off when you had Will Ferrel and Adam Sandler as they would spin their WU bits a little differently. Maybe they could do the Nicholas Fehn thing similarly. This time they didn't.

As for the other sketches:

Seeing Tina Fey as Sarah Palin (Emphasized Fargo accent and all) was a great start. That, unfortunately, was the high water mark.

The quiz show sketch seemed like a hastily thrown together commentary on the state of education in America (public school sucks, home schooling sucks-- haha). It could have been funny with some bite but felt like it needed a few more rewrites. As it was, it didn't hold together and in the end wasn't funny.

The Chalres Barkley Show was pointless filler. Was there even one laugh in there?

The restaurant sketch.... I don't even know what to say. Maybe they were showcasing the new guy (I don't remember his name. The one who looks like Jonah Hill in 10 years) but it was so unfunny and pointless that I didn't even pay attention to it. Was Phelps in that one? He might have been.

The T Mobile Fave Fives commercial was good. Not a home run, but a solid double. Not enough to save the show, unfortunately.

I just hope next week is better. DO YOU HEAR ME JAMES FRANCO????

Football season! Wabbit season! Football season!

Wow, quite an eventful day in the ol' NFL.

Brady's out. Let that sink in for a moment. As a Steeler fan, I'm no Brady or Patriot fan. But even I wouldn't want the Pats to followup their crushing Super Bowl loss with a horrible Brady-less season. I'd rather it be a horrible season for them WITH Brady. Seriously, it's no fun to watch a hated rival bite it due to unfortunate circumstances or injuries. I'd rather the rest of the AFC figure out a way to beat the super-genius and Brady at their own game than just have the Pats slink off into obscurity due to the loss of their QB.

It also makes for a much less interesting week 2 matchup vs the NY Bretts next week. The consolation is that it'll still be Favre taking apart the Belichick D. At least THAT side of the ball hasn't changed.

And the fall TV season kicks off tomorrow with the season premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Buckle up kids!

Watch CHUCK, dammit!

Everybody needs to start watching Chuck on NBC. It's a damned good show. The schedulers, in their wisdom, are now showing Chuck reruns leading up to the new fall premiere. However, they are showing Chuck at 8pm on Saturdays but the fall time slot for Chuck will be Monday at 8pm. So even if they capture an audience on Saturday, these people may not know to look for Chuck on Monday nights in the new season. Make sure you follow it when it changes time slots. Or set the DVR to record it. And watch it again online the next day to let NBC know that we like this show, ok?

It's a great show. It's the only show since the Buffyverse that can handle action, comedy, and drama (Buffyverse gets the edge for the addition of horror, but Chuck's premise doesn't lend itself to horror). It amazes me that Zachary Levi in the titular role is Hollywood's idea of a geek. But I guess if James Van Der Beek can be a film geek on Dawson's Creek, Zach Levi can be a computer geek on Chuck.

First screenwriter's workshop

Well, we actually had out first post-class screenwriter's workshop last night. I was there early as usual and as it creeped closer to the appointed time with nobody showing up I was afraid I'd be stood up again.

Ah, but all was well as two other former classmates showed up and much catching up was done. I didn't have anything specific other than to hash out some possibilities on a screenplay idea I have. It still may not pan out as realistic, but the group discussion showed me some possibilities that I hadn't considered before. That's what workshopping's all about! Next meeting is tentatively in about 5 weeks. It's always tough to get people together but we did it once, so hopefully again!

In other news, I ordered a Wii online. What a pain trying to get one has been. CircuitCity had 'Wii bundles' for sale, but no Wii consoles alone. So you were stuck paying full retail price for Wii peripherals and games that you may or may not want along with the Wii (you had to buy 2 games at $50 each, plus buy another controller). Thankfully, Walmart.com had the console alone for sale. I had to pay for shipping, but I figured it was worth the extra cost just for the hassle factor alone, plus it'll keep me from driving to different stores to see if they have it in stock so I'll save the gas. It should arrive at the end of next week.

Wet floor

So I'm walking down the hallway when this woman about 10 feet in front of me slips and makes a slow, awkward fall to the floor. It wasn't one of those cartoon banana-peel slips where both feet went out from under her and you can almost hear the high-pitched "wheeeeee" sound. It was more of a little slip; one foot went out farther ahead of her and her back foot was also in whatever was slippery on the floor. She couldn't find any traction but she wasn't going to do a full split, either, so she jerked her back leg forward and stumbled to the ground.

She wasn't hurt (I stopped to ask if she was ok. I may be an asshole, but I'm not THAT much of an asshole) and the fall itself wasn't comical. But I mention this incident because she did stumble forward into the yellow "WET FLOOR-- SLIPPERY" sign that was placed there to warn people about this happening. And she broke the sign in half.

That struck an absurdist nerve in me.

Maybe I'm more of an asshole than I think...

How to use a Japanese toilet

I can't even begin to describe how wrong this is.

Reason for the Wii shortage.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/DN-gamer_0329gl.ART.State.Edition1.464cd43.html

"During the course of the interview, the analyst, Michael Pachter at Wedbush Morgan, said the real culprit for the Wii shortage in the U.S. is the weak dollar.

With a weak dollar, foreign companies that sell their goods in the U.S. for dollars and then convert those dollars to their native currencies get a smaller profit than if they sell their products in countries with strong currencies of their own (such as Europe with the euro). In other words, Nintendo makes a bigger profit on Wiis sold in Europe than on Wiis sold in the U.S."

Quest for a Wii

I thought I was done with video games. When Metal Gear Solid 3 came out for the PS2 and I didn't run out and get it immediately, I thought my interest in video games was on the decline.

When the Xbox 360 and PS3 came out and I wasn't even aware of the release dates, I was sure the gamer in me had died.

But a friend of mine got a Wii and said it was fun. What's more, he's a physical therapist and said that after playing the boxing game for a while he was pretty sore the next day. Hmmm, that's interesting. He's in good shape, so if this game has him moving enough to get sore, there must be something to the reports of the Wii helping people get some exercise in. At only $250 for the base system, it's worth looking into. I remember how tired I'd get sparring when I was in the karate club in college, so it's not surprising that a game that makes the player shadow box can burn some calories. That's a decent work out.

Then I heard about the Lightsaber Duels game that is coming out:



A game that has you use the Wii remote like a lightsaber handle? I'm in-- I want a Wii now. Too bad they're still SOLD OUT EVERYWHERE. After almost 2 years they still can't keep up with demand. Sick.

Buffy the Animated Series

We can finally see what might have been.



Sigh.

Even though the animation style looks a little like Erin Esurance, you can tell it would have been great.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner

So I finally saw Dirty Dancing. Good script. Classic Hero's Journey.

It took a while for the "Hey look!" factor to settle down. As in "Hey look-- it's Jerry Orbach pre-CHUNG-CHUNG Law & Order!", "Hey look-- it's Wayne Knight pre-Newman!", and "Hey look-- it's Jennifer Grey pre-nose job!".

The more I learn about screenplay structure, the more dialogue and scenes seem stilted and contrived, not just in this movie but in others as well. "Oh, here his where Patrick Swazye defines his need." "This is Jennifer Grey's refusal of the call to adventure." But people love this movie, so the lesson must be not to think too much about how contrived something seems. When it works, it works.

Happy Labor Day

Ah, the first day of September-- the "symbolic end of the summer" according to Wikipedia. A day off for us working citizens. Life is good.

I was just looking at the remote control for my Comcast Motorola DVR. One of the reasons to use a DVR is the ability to skip commercials and the Motorola DVR is no exception. Except, whoever designed it may not have taken a human factors in design class.

Here's the remote:




See the two buttons I circled in red? One button is the 30-second skip (forward) button. The other is the Instant Replay (skips backwards 7-seconds) button. Which do you think is which? Call me crazy, but I'd think that the button on our right would be the skip forward button and the button on the left would skip backward.

Wrong.

I guess because the button on the left has an arrow that points up, we're supposed to intuitively know that it moves us forward. And the button on the right, having a downward pointing arrow, moves backwards. Except that this GOES AGAINST THE WESTERN CONVENTION OF READING LEFT TO RIGHT and that we tend to think of the button on the right as the one that moves forward. Tivo got it right. Even ReplayTV got it right.





Now I can sort of understand that these are the "Page Up/Page Down" buttons that function on other menus. These weren't really meant to be the skip buttons; they just added that function to them during playback. Better that than just leave them functionless. But what's strange is that there actually is a labelled Instant Replay button on there. It's to the left of the white "My DVR" button. Yes, that's right-- they knew to put the labelled Instant Replay button on the left side of the remote. But they didn't include a labelled 30-second skip button at all. In the place where I thought a 30-second advance button would be, there is a LIVE button-- a button that stops the playback of your recorded show that you're watching and takes you to what's playing on the currently selected channel (hitting the "stop" button serves this same function, BTW). Brilliant. How useful.

You just have to wonder sometimes.