The past few days have been great. I stayed an extra night in Prague after Nate left to meet up with his gf in Dublin, which allowed me to experience a different part of the city: Wenceslas Square. Saturday's highlight was seeing a classical guitar duo perform in a small chapel near the Charles Bridge. Their performance was very very impressive. It's nearly impossible to over-emphasize how awesome Prague is...there's so much to do and so much amazing stuff everywhere you turn. Five days was not nearly long enough; I'll be back soon!

I got to London on Sunday and booked a hotel for one night in Soho since I didn't have a full plan laid out for my ~5 days in the UK. Unfortunately, I managed to book a "vintage" 19th-century-style hotel where everything was straight out of the 1800s. Lots of people (like my mom & sisters) would love this sort of place, but I'm too much of a technology whore to ever contemplate living without modern-day things like an upright shower or a sink with a single faucet for both the hot & cold water. And obviously overhead lighting, a TV, and internet access would all be nice too.

I had a great time meeting up with a local CR member for drinks that night, then I had lunch with one of my former NL students the next day. Since I'd seen the London sights before and my main UK poker friends were all in Manchester playing dumb SCOOP events all week, I decided to pack up my stuff and move to a hotel in Milton Keynes for the week. Why? Because they have a wind tunnel!

The Airkix tunnel is in a giant shopping complex near the train station and has been PACKED to capacity since I got here. Apparently it's a school holiday for the next few weeks, so there are tons of kids everywhere. I still managed to get two sessions in yesterday:

Nate and I are in Prague right now, enjoying the most beautiful city either of us have ever laid eyes on. I really can't say enough about how amazing this place is -- it's the first European city that I could actually picture myself living in someday.

Anyway, I'm flying into London on Sunday for a few days and would be happy to meet up with some of the local CR members for a drink or three. Sunday night will probably work best, so send me a PM if you're interested.

Finally, in accordance with my previous blog entry, I definitely plan on hitting up the wind tunnel a bit north of London on Monday. One of my students is probably gonna join me out there, so if any of you London-ites want to join in let me know. I'll probably call them up tomorrow to book our flight times, so let me know ASAP if you want in! Cost and other info is on their website; expect to spend ~$100 for a decent length first-time flight, and expect to spend 2-3hrs there total. This is the most fun activity you'll ever get to experience, guaranteed!

Intro to the sport of bodyflight:

Song is "No One Together" by Kansas:

So I'm kind of a music snob. A strong vein of musical prowess runs through my family heritage on both sides, which is something I'm very happy to have inherited. My mom still teaches all forms of music in a variety of venues and has been since before I was born; one of my dad's first memories of borrowing his family's car as a teenager was to go see his favorite opera. My older brother has perfect pitch, and, in addition to once being a child prodigy pianist, still plays a multitude of instruments quite well. My youngest sister is graduating with a music theory & performance degree this May and spends an unreal amount of time practicing and studying music every day -- even during vacations. And although my other sister doesn't play anymore, she still has one of the most sensitive musical ears of anyone I've met. It's all around me!

Unfortunately, I felt that my natural ability was never quite up to par with my personal expectation for flawless performances, so my musical performance career ended when I graduated from high school. Band was a mixed bag of fun and absurdity, and it was time to move on. I (kind of) play guitar; I keep it around just for fun to help me appreciate how complex the music I enjoy actually is.

Since then, I've significantly broadened my musical horizons and seen my taste in music evolve tremendously from my throne as an elitist music appreciator. Listening to good musicians play, create, and/or improvise on well-written music is among my favorite past-times; I'm hard-pressed to think of anything more enjoyable than this activity.

My passion for music merged with my love of electronics in my late teenage years and has swelled nicely since, transforming me into the elitist audiophile I am today. Hell, the etymology of my nickname is a simple combination of two of my favorite brands of electronics: Bryston (high-end) and Marantz (mid-end). In terms of musical reproduction, there's simply nothing like the experience of hearing well-recorded music played back through a high-end system (properly [professionally] calibrated, of course). You won't realize how much you're missing until you've experienced true 3-dimensional imaging from a single pair of speakers for yourself, and unfortunately very very very few people have experienced what I'm talking about for themselves. I'd go so far as to say that none of you reading this blog entry right now have experienced this for yourself, and it's something you can do for free at your local high-end electronics dealer (find them with CEDIA's zip code search). Make sure you bring a well-recorded music CD (original CD, not burned from mp3s) that you're really familiar with when you go. :)

It's actually kind of like poker in this way: most people think they either have (or have heard) a good sound system before because they've never experienced a truly great one themselves to give them an appropriate point of reference. Similarly, most people think they're pretty good at poker but have absolutely no idea how clueless they actually are until they hear the full thought process going through a good player's head during every hand.

The two most important factors found in music I typically enjoy are complexity and musicianship. Combine the two, and I'm in heaven. And although I generally prefer the (progressive) rock sound, classical music can be just as awesome. So although a classical guitar etude wouldn't show up on my list of favorite musical works, I absolutely love this performance:

Music: Going For The One, by Yes. Awesome band, phenomenal musicianship, excellent songwriting. Enjoy!

Last weekend, I flew out to NJ to spend a weekend with my brother and (more importantly) see a Genesis tribute band called The Musical Box perform some of my all-time favorite songs from Genesis' golden era. Props to CR member zinc1024 for cluing me in on this band; I'm a pretty hardcore music fan -- esp when it comes to progressive rock -- so I jumped at the chance to see these guys recreate the musical mastery of prog-era (1972-78) Genesis.

The venue was smallish and was way the hell out on Long Island, but it was well worth the effort we put forth to see this group of musicians in such an intimate setting. The soundboard mix was a little off the entire time: the drums were mixed too loud and the vocals were mixed too low, but aside from that the show was amazing! Setlist was:
"Dance on A Volcano"
"The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway / Fly on a Windshield / Carpet Crawlers"
"Cinema Show"
"Robbery, Assault and Battery"
"White Mountain"
"Firth of Fifth"
"Entangled/Squonk"
"Supper's Ready"
"I Know What I Like (in Your Wardrobe)"
"Los Endos"
...with "It / Watcher of the Skies" for an encore

Highlights were the Cinema Show jam during the second half of the song. Here's a clip of what I'm talking about from a Genesis performance in 1976:

I'm on my way to NYC to visit my brother for the weekend, and the act I just recently committed may have qualified me for the 2009 Darwin Awards.

After having lived in Chicago for a year and a half, you'd think I would have learned my lesson about flying out of O'Hare by now. But you'd be wrong. Like an idiot, I showed up on time (early, even!) for my noon flight to NYC on a snow-free day simply expecting for my Continental Airlines flight to be reasonably on-time. I even checked the flight status of the airplane's previous flight this morning to make sure everything was flowing smoothly. And in doing so, I could not have been more ignorant.

If you fly out of O'Hare with any sort of regularity, you're used to nothing being on time and you likely have a favorite place where you waste away your life in waiting for your flight to arrive/depart. It's quite surprising to me when my flight is anywhere near on-time -- even when flying into the airport -- so my decision to wake up at a reasonable hour this morning seems pretty stupid right now. My sanity remains intact thanks jointly to Quizno's and my AT&T broadband card.

On a slightly different note, my buddy Nate was telling me about how he spanked his surgery exam this morning when an interesting bit of convo came up:

Nate: just had our surgery exam today. shiiiip!
Me: nice
Me: did you keep a piece of the dude's insides as a trophy
Nate: haha no but this doctor in new jersey got arrested the other day
Nate: well like a year ago
Nate: for keeping a hand from a cadaver's body
Nate: and giving it to a stripper as a present
Me: genius

I'm still unsure about whether or not this guy's actions are dumber than my showing up early for my flight today. What do you guys think?

Music by Jethro Tull (gogo jazz flute!)

I had a great day at the tables again winning just over $20k and bringing me back into the black for the month of February. I guess that's karma rewarding me for coming clean to this blog yesterday!

To celebrate, my roommates and I went around the corner to Harry Caray's and started ordering drinks. I took it easy on the booze since I'm still coming off being sick, but this didn't stop me from having a good time. My roommate Ryan used to play poker for a living, but now works full time and plays 1/2NL & PLO for supplemental income, so he's usually up for some prop betting degeneracy. After starting out tame by betting even/odd on the Jazz/Celtics score at the end of the 3rd quarter (I obv lost $100), it was time to bring out the big guns.

Ryan has always insisted on his ability to put back drinks, and just for reference he had already downed 3 car bombs and 2 beers by the time this next bet was made. I bet him he couldn't down 5 more car bombs in 40 seconds without vomiting for at least an hour afterwards. And I was positive this was damn near impossible at this point in the night. I mean, even though they are absolutely delicious, each one curds up pretty thick in your stomach.

Ryan refused to take the bet for a solid 15-20min, insisting the whole time that he could do it but he just didn't want to. The rest of us obviously called bullshit, and I really wanted action from him on this bet so I started laying odds. 5-4? Nah. 9-7? No thanks. 2-1? "Sorry guys, I've got work in the morning." Bullshit Snapple! (That one's for you, Tosh fans)

I finally caved in and offered him a sick 5-2 price on $1k (which was a bit overly generous in retrospect), but even then he took at least 30min to muster up the balls before accepting. I recruited a neutral third-party onlooker from a nearby table to judge Ryan on both spillage and completion of each drink by her own standards.

The waitress brought over 5 half-pints of Guinness and 5 shot glasses with Bailey's + Jameson, and it was go-time. I couldn't believe my eyes when he finished his third car bomb with only about 14sec having passed. Nobody in the small crowd that gathered to watch could believe it either. This might just be the sickest hustle ever.

Then humanity set in: Ryan's eyes started drooping, he leaned over the table a little, and looked like he was about to hurl. Two seconds passed. Unfortunately, he quickly regained his composure and -- being ever mindful of the clock -- timed his final two car bombs to finish with just under three seconds to spare. I was in awe. Yeah I just dropped $1100 in prop bets, but wow...I just witnessed an unbelievable feat. Ryan kept it all down like a champ too.

Since I wasn't drunk at all, I came back and decided to make back my losses at PLO. I found a super soft 5/10 game and crushed the table for ~$2700 in just under 50 hands, then quit for the night. Not a bad day!


Here's month-to-date, now with more profit!


G'night blog...

I haven't been sleeping well this past week and I'm not sure why. Currently, my brain is moving a million miles an hour and I can't seem to slow it down enough to fall asleep. My eyelids are heavy and I feel tired, but I find myself lying in bed with my eyes closed for hours on end lately. Generic sleeping pills haven't helped much either, it's weird.

Couple this with the fact that I've been sick (and essentially bed-ridden) since Sunday, and it's hard to imagine a life much more boring than mine right now. Today was the first day since the weekend that I felt healthy enough to play a session, and it went pretty well. I'm still utterly destroying 2/4PLO -- I'd be shocked if I wasn't the biggest winner in these games -- and my shots higher have been successful recently too.

I just realized that I never blogged about my disastrous meltdown day earlier this month where I tilted like crazy after losing my first $20k from playing well. I then proceeded to add insult to injury by dropping ~$42k on the day. I need accountability to someone/something for my days like these (remember that #1 new year's resolution Thomas?!?!?!), and it's gonna be to this blog. I hereby pledge to post the good AND the bad to this blog as soon as possible from now on. So without further ado, here was my meltdown day on Feb 3rd:



Like I said, I was playing really well until about the 2k hands mark; pretty sure that's when I lost AAKK(1s) to AAKQ allin for ~$8k on a T63r flop, which sparked major tilt spewage. :(

But on the bright side, I utterly own the games I'm playing and am now only -$18k on the month! My goal is to break into the green for Feb. Today's graph:


I swear, I'd be sick rich if I didn't go nuts and tilt off so much of my winnings once a month. I'm really working hard on this guys, I really am. Ok time to go try for some sleep again.