“Cut my losses” is a term that means the opposite of what I think it should mean, like “frugal” & “fickle.”
Dreams
In one dream I was in my room trying to pick out a shirt to wear. I think there was backstory about how there was a good chance of me hooking up with a chick at school, so I wanted to wear a nice shirt but not a dress shirt. I remembered I had gym class, so I needed to remember to bring a regular shirt too. So this must have been during high school. My friend Ryan was there, and he was showing me this shirt that he got me I guess. It was white and at first glance looked like it had some Christian saying on it. But then I saw that it was some weird pun or farmer’s joke, and it was pretty inappropriate. I don’t remember what shirt I picked, but then I had to get to school but I was still in a poker tournament. I didn’t know how I let that happen, but it happened. So I sat out, but before I left the room I saw that I had AK so I was going to play it. I didn’t catch it in time and I folded, and that was it.
In another dream I was outside at a place that was similar to RIT but more like my dream version of college. I was with some people, and we were all looking for some bull statue or maybe several ones. We had like walkie talkies and were acting pretty spy-like, which was fun. I don’t remember what came of that, but then I was at some kids’ play place or game booth with my niece and nephew. My oldest nephew Dylan was playing around and having fun, and he was much younger in the dream than in real life. I was sitting with my niece Kimberly behind the bar-looking barrier that separated us from the kids, and we were talking about something. I think she was older than she really is, so I had that all backwards.
In the last dream I remember I was with some friends at a fast food place. I think we were on a road trip, and we stopped for some grub. It was a weird food place that served some kind of noodles with other random stuff. The big menu had pictures of lo mein-type noodles with weird things with them, like French onion toppings. The other guys ordered pretty quickly like they were used to this food, and I found orange chicken and got that. They just gave me my cup of lo mein noodles, and I guess they brought the topping later. That was all.
Dreams Explained
I don’t know what the shirt thing was about, or why my niece and nephew were in it. Poker was just from playing poker. The weird food could have been because my mom made Hamburger Helper that had some of that French onion topping on it. I think the road trip part was from The Big Bang Theory because they went on a road trip. That’s where the walkie talkies came from too probably.
One Year Ago Today
I started with a quote from Boy Meets World relating to sex, and I talked about my thoughts on that in marriage. I did some homework after getting just 6 hours of sleep by waking up at noon on this Saturday. Then I went to play ultimate frisbee with Jack and some people he knows, and I discussed how I act when they’re picking teams. Later I watched Up in the Air and The Invention of Lying with Andrew, and both were alright but not great. Then I talked about how I sometimes thought about becoming a professional poker player, and what would have to happen for me to do that. I discussed how I wouldn’t drop out of college to play, and although that isn’t exactly what happened it’s close. I said I wanted a good stretch of time to see if I could make it as a poker player, and I got that since this summer. It looked good for a while, but I learned I can’t let myself lose as much as I did in such a short time. However, I did say that I would get a full-time or part-time job so I had steady income while I tried it out, which is what I plan to do in California. But poker is really on the back burner now, and once I get a job I will not be quick to give it up. I said that it’s good for me to record my thoughts on this because it might come in handy later, and it is now.
Poker
I started with the tournament, and my first playable had was QQ. I reraised someone and he called with someone else, and even though the flop was small they still wouldn’t get out. I had to fold on the river to the guy in SB, and I don’t know if he flopped a set of 10s or played some other garbage that made a hand. I don’t think he was bluffing, but I feel like he called me with some crap. A few hands later we were in a pot again with my JJ this time. I got to see his cards and he was in there with junk, so I’m sure he had junk last time too. I got back a lot of what I lost, but then I lost some with AA when I laid them down on the turn to what I figured was a set. I just kept losing from my big hands on scary boards.
After a little bit I was down to 20 BBs, and I had AQ. Someone raised, and that was the perfect opportunity for me to go all-in and either pick up that extra bet or double-up. He called with A J, so it was exactly what I wanted. But the flop was J 10 4, and I couldn’t believe it. I wanted a King or Queen to redraw. The turn was an 8, and when the river brought a 9 I realized I made a straight after all. Phew! So now I had about 40 BBs and could play a little. When the blinds went up again I was shorter comparatively, and then I got a pair of 9s in BB. The guy who took most of my chips raised for 4 BBs, and the way he’s been playing he shouldn’t have a better hand than me. He would have raised less, so I figured that bet meant a mid-pair. So I went all-in, and he called with 7s. I was thrilled I made the right read, and I doubled-up to about 70% of the average stack.
I dipped a bit after that from two hands of 3-way pots. Both dealt with a shortstack in the pot, and I would have split the first pot and my AQ couldn’t catch anything to beat the all-in guy’s 5s. Then I lost another pot to that same guy I hate who called me in SB with 4 5 and called my bet later. I know I can get paid off for any hand I have, but I can’t seem to connect to any boards. I was moved to another table, and when two players limped I shoved on the button with A 8. One guy called with a pair of 4s, so I wasn’t in a bad position. The flop and turn were blank, but I felt it coming. Ace on the river, and I doubled-up again. It’s not luck that has saved me so many times already in this tournament, but it is very fortunate that I redrew on people and won coin-flips when I needed to. But I hated that I had to be in that position because usually when I go all-in I’m very far ahead.
So I had 30 BBs and half the chip average, so another double-up or some good pots were in order for me to have a good stack and play normally. I couldn’t find anything to play with, and when the blinds went up again I had between 10 and 20 BBs. When I finally got a hand I went all-in with A J but was called by AK, so it was bound to happen and I busted.
In the cash games I never really got anything going, but I was controlling the pots I lost. I didn’t lose too much, and I made up for it with my good hands. I was playing well and feeling good, and after a little bit I just felt that I couldn’t keep this pace up. I felt like I was due for some heartache, and I had a little profit so I was going to leave with that. In the process or leaving I got in a few pots, and I won some and lost some but overall I made some more to almost double what I already had. So that was good for the day and starting the week.
Basketball
There was only one game today. The Nuggets played the Pacers, and it was close for the first half and then somewhere in the second half the Nuggets really pulled away.
Thoughts
Let me tell you how silly my mom is. Silly is really a word I reserve for her, because she does a lot of weird things that can best be described as silly. She loves to watch movies on TV rather than put in the DVD if she has it. Sometimes she’ll flip through two movies on TV at once rather than watch just one on DVD. So the silliest example is just now I went downstairs and saw that she was watching Mama Mia on TBS. I heard her watching it on Friday on DVD, and I asked why she was watching it again. She said that there was nothing else on, but apparently she’d rather watch something she just saw again than put in a different movie or switch to another channel. And she said that they cut out lots of parts because it’s on TV, so that’s even more reason not to watch it again. She was like, “There’s nothing else on. What am I supposed to do?” It was funny to me.
Rest of My Day
I woke up a bit confused, which I always do on Sundays because it’s the only day where I have to get up by a certain time because I actually have somewhere to go. Thankfully it didn’t really snow last night, and I haven’t had to shovel before church yet this year. Church was good, but it seemed a little off. It seemed like everyone was just going through the motions this week, and it could have been just me but I was trying to fight that. The pastor’s sermon wasn’t like that, and it was good and held my attention. He talked about Psalm 27 and how God is our stronghold. He talked about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (with special emphasis that reverend always goes first) and the pressures he dealt with while fighting for civil rights. He quoted from a book by King that one night after he got a threatening phone call he felt like he couldn’t go on, but God pulled him through it and gave him strength to keep fighting. How small are my battles compared to his?
One good joke from the service today was when someone said that it was Dick Bly’s birthday. The pastor asked if he was 62, and Dick said, “61. I’ve done a lot of walking and bike riding so I lost one.” I thought that was a really clever line, because you can’t take a year off of your life. It’s like on Seinfeld when Jerry said he was trying to lose some height as opposed to weight. But Dick really got a good setup in order to deliver that line.
When I got home I was looking through TVGuide.com to see what was on, and there’s rarely something I want to see. Sometimes when I find MTV’s True Life I’ll click on it to see if it’s possibly about something I want to see. I went down farther and found Animal Planet, which I never watch. But the show Wild Kingdom was on, and I decided to click on it to see what it was about. My favorite animal is the cheetah, so that was the only animal I would have watched. It just so happened it was on cheetahs, so that was a great coincidence. That reminds me of a joke I heard a comedian say. She was talking about being a vegetarian, and how if God didn’t want us to eat cows he wouldn’t have made them so slow and easy to catch. She said that’s why we don’t eat cheetah burgers. I liked that.
Shows about animals are interesting, but I don’t like seeing an animal get killed. That reminds me of a bit by Jerry Seinfeld where he said you always root for whatever animal is on that week. Loosely paraphrased the bit was “ ‘Run cheetah, chase down that gazelle. Use your speed.’ Then the next day it’s, ‘Run gazelle, look out for the cheetah. Don’t let him use his speed.’ ”
After that I watched a few hours of pool. I find that I love watching pool on Sundays, and I feel off if I don’t now. It was women’s pool, which it almost always is unless they’re doing trick shots. I thought about that, and I have no problem watching women play pool. No offense, but normally I don’t care to see girls play sports. But for pool I think girls are completely even-skilled with men, so of course many women are better than many men at it. But for basketball, it’s just not the same.
After pool I watched some random shows for a bit and had dinner. Oh, for lunch my mom made grilled tuna and cheese sandwiches, and she put little bits of onion in them. I love that. So for dinner she made goulash, and I now have some of that for future lunches and tons of pasta sauce so I can make pasta for myself this week.
Then I decided to watch a couple movies since I finally had time to. I was in a rare action movie mood, so I finally watched Valkyrie. I liked it, and it kept my interest the whole way. It was weird because we were rooting for the Germans in this case during World War II, but not for the Nazis. These conspirators were shown as true patriots, which I agree with. At times it seemed like they were shown as overly heroic like we do for American patriots like in The Patriot (ironically it took me a few seconds to remember the name of that movie). But it was good because we can all agree that Hitler was bad, and I’m glad this movie showed that not all Germans were like Hitler. I never thought they were, but some people could write off every German just because of him, and that’s not right.
Next I watched the movie Melvin Goes to Dinner. I think it was an indie film, and it looked like it was filmed with a camcorder. But I got past that eventually, and it was a pretty good movie. It’s about this guy Melvin and three other people who all have dinner together one night. They talk about all aspects of life, and nothing is really out of bounds. It’s pretty nonlinear which I like, and you keep getting additional backstory that makes things more interesting. The conversations were pretty organic, and it seems like anyone could have these same conversations and react the same way. It was maybe the most real movie I’ve ever seen, and I thought the acting was genuine and the dialogue was very realistic. It also had several notable actors and lesser known actors that I recognized. One of the main characters was Elaine’s friend on Seinfeld who knew Marisa Tomei, and another was on Seinfeld as George’s girlfriend Jane who went topless in The Hamptons episode. Other actors I recognized were the woman from Liar Liar, Jack Black, Fred Armisen of SNL, Jenna Fisher, and a brief flashback picture of the bald guy from 30 Rock and the woman who was Ross’s lesbian wife on Friends (I could look up their names but you won’t recognize them by that anyway).
I played a lot of Zelda today which was good. I left off some time after finishing Level 3, and I got a lot done today. But I’m still not to Level 4, and I had to look up what to do next a lot. I watched more Seinfeld, and now I’m going to bed. I really hope I hear from some jobs or at least one job soon. I know it’s probably too early to hear back about a job, but if I don’t hear something soon I’m going to get really worried. And I have to call up some apartments because half of them haven’t emailed me back, one doesn’t have one available yet when we want it, and the other keeps sending me generic emails back. Thanks for reading, and would you rather date the blind or the deaf?
—Eric Del Medico
