A Winter's Tale

An assortment of things that have, either peripherally or directly, made my life slightly less boring (in a good way or bad...) in the past few days.

That which I should not have picked up at Target for seventeen dollars:

Soul Calibur II for the Playstation2, which I played in Weapon Master mode until 12:30 AM last night, despite my intentions to go to the Independent and be social.

They who should suffer grievous bodily harm:

The people who stole Rob's chained-up 2001 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 9R at some point last night. They should have the skin flayed from their faces. Glow-stick sodomy is too good for them.

He who should have massive amounts of funding:

Rob del Bueno, bassist for Man or Astro-man?, who's trying to push biodiesel use in the Atlanta area and the Southeast through his site, Vegenergy.

He who must not be named:

Voldemort

She who should probably write something a little more substantial than "testing. testing..." since she went ahead and registered for an LJ:

genny0926

That which does not work:

Motorola's Mobile Power Tools, which have given me the capability to hook my new phone up to my computer and synchronize calendar and contacts, but which, for some inexplicable reason, will not upload my self-created MIDI file as a polyphonic ringtone. Damn you.

a.k.a. Screwed on the River

Warning: much bitching and moaning here follows...

In most variants of Hold 'em poker, the players receive some number of cards, and the dealer sets apart five cards as "the board." These are the community cards--they are revealed after set rounds of betting. Usually, in games such as Texas or Omaha Hold 'em, the dealer shows the first three cards after the players have placed bets based on their own hands--this is known as the "flop." Here follows a round of betting--often accompanied by groans or folds. The fourth card to be revealed is known as the "turn." Following yet another round of betting, the dealer then flips over the final card--the "river."

On Friday night, following our birthday dinner for sassica, flattop, and Thomas, and Robb, we went to play poker at Casa Ghetto. I was looking forward to the night, having been bereft of poker for the past few weeks. ( Once I sat down to play, however... )

With the night full of bad beats and lousy bluffs, I decided to devote Saturday to sulking. I spent a good portion (likely about 12 hours or so) watching TiVo, and another two or three hours reading comic books. I would get up only to eat a large bowl of raisin bran around noon when I awoke, and cook myself a can of beans and a Gardenburger Riblet around dinner time. It would be the only redeeming thing about the weekend.

On Sunday, we held ( the latest Eight Ball tournament at DuPree's... )

All told, I lost about $150 dollars this weekend. Thinking the worst was behind me, I decided to drive to Costco to get my tires balanced/rotated. On the thirty-or-so-minute drive up, I called flattop to see if he wanted to meet me there, since he needed new tires. He started driving up while I was about halfway there. Arriving around 4:30 PM or so, I spoke with the salesman, who informed me that the shop (which closes at 6:00 PM) wasn't taking any more work. They were short-staffed as it was, and couldn't fit my work in. After calling John and letting him know not to come up there, I spoke with a manager, who informed me that there was nothing he could do, despite their inability to take appointments. Sigh. Whatever.

Tired of getting dicked over at the last possible minute in everything I was doing that weekend, I went home and continued reading Life of Pi for Wednesday's meeting.

Hopefully, the pervasive shit of this weekend is now past...