Wednesday morning BLAHs...

I've just spent half the night playing with a server hardware issue. It should've been an easy fix. Suspend the hardware and let the vendor replace it. I had their tech lead take a look at the server after and schedule the hardware replacement. It's still not working right after the hardware replacement, and the customer is screaming. This is only the second time I've worked on this type of hardware replacement. It should be easy, but my bad luck seems to be coming into play. The first time, I ended up corrupting a database and it had to be rebuilt completely from backups. I don't want to do something like that again. Especially since its the same customer. :)

I *WAS* having an upswing in cards recently. I'd moved up from .05/.10 NL ring games to the .10/.25 NL ones and had built up my bankroll by 50%. I was feeling quite pleased with myself... and I think that was my downfall. Not to say that I didn't get my share of bad beats (flop a set of Ks, get "bluffed" by A7s, and have them runner-runner a flush - stuff like that), but I think I tilted pretty hard. It's funny because I never thought I tilted. At least not that badly. It seems that I don't know myself as well as I thought I did. I felt calm. I seemed calm. I called raises with TPTK when someone suddenly started betting out of nowhere on the turn or river. It should've been my first clue that they caught a second pair or a straight when I had two pair, but who would play those cards, right? My first tilting mistake: not giving people enough "credit" (!?!?) for their randomness and donkey-like poker playing attitude. Took a step back. Deep breath. Try again a few days later, and came out slightly ahead. Good, good, good. Making progress. Give it a little more time... try again.

I have good news to report too. I'm officially getting better at pool. :) I'm now ranked a 3 instead of a 2 by the APA. I've won my last two or three matches in a row. I still have problems where sometimes I'll need to shoot on the same ball close to half a dozen times before I can sink it, but my defensive shots and ability to completely screw my opponent with my leave (we call that "johnson pool"... it's all about being a dick LOL) keep me ahead of the other person. And if I get behind? I actually play better, believe it or not. I think the extra adrenaline that leaks into my veins when I've got more balls to sink (or when I'm "short-stacked", whichever the game might be) helps me to focus and play better. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. They keep playing me against other women in my matches though. I always thought it was because there were quite a few of us that all started this session and are still ranked as 2s. No excuse now. I'm a 3, and there are plenty of 3s that are male. My low-cut tops that display cleavage are definitely gonna be coming out of the closet! Any legal advantage that can be taken should and will be...

It's all how you play the game. Tilt your opponent before they tilt you. In any game. :)

And now for my next trick....

Hey Bullwinkle - watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat! Well, no rabbit, just a post.... but some days, that does seem like magic.

Welcome back to my little corner of the universe! It has been an extremely busy time since we got back from Vegas, but I'm sure it would bore most people... it's interesting to me since I had to live through it. Quick highlights to explain....

- My Mom came to visit the day after we got home. This is a great thing, actually. I love my Mom and never get to see her enough. Plus, she makes me cheesecake. :) She stayed for 3 weeks... and while she has succeeded in making my house a little more girly and looking a little more lived in (I HAVE CURTAINS NOW!), I spend most of my time wth her when she's here.

- The Atlantic City Expressway sucks. I became a gaper delay on the weekend after we got back. My truck got rear-ended twice... since I was the first car of a 3-car pileup. I must say that I was very impressed with NJ's accident response - start to finish, including the switch over to the other side of the road for paperwork, we only lost 20 minutes of our trip. Truck is in the shop now. I'm driving a Ford Focus. Now, if I'd wanted to drive a Focus, I would've bought one. Definitely not for me. And the shop is now saying I won't get my car back until tomorrow or Saturday... even though the original estimate was 3 days and I dropped it off Monday. I'm not happy with them right now.

- I've won my last two pool matches. My pool skills have been kicking butt lately... and its surprising since I haven't been playing as much. Maybe I was focused in too much and couldn't see enough of the big picture. I can't say as much for shuffleboard... we're not gonna make it into the playoffs this session. I guess you can't be a winner at *everything*, no matter how hard you try. I guess I could just blame my partners... LOL

- Speaking of focusing, I've been playing poker again lately. It comes and goes in waves for me. I'm riding the crest of a killer wave right now. I'm still playing low limits since its all my bankroll will support. After losing everything on Full Tilt earlier this year, I decided I wasn't going to deposit anymore. I'd just wait until my advertising credit hit my account and play from there. Over the last 3 or 4 months, I've taken those credits and doubled the amount. My play has been pretty solid, and I'm doing my best not to play while I'm tired for my mind is elsewhere and I can't concentrate.

- Allergies suck. Need 18 hours of sleep when they hit this bad. Can't seem to get more than 7 lately. ...even when I do, I feel like crap. Ugh.

- Work is busy... lots of stuff to do. Haven't heard about a live interview for the other job I was looking at. Very disappointing. Gotta call them today to see what's up. Turns out my friend will probably no longer be working there soon. Who knows... maybe it's for the best. Maybe he can get me in where he's gonna be working. I like to work with cool people...

- Fish is still alive. Officemate didn't kill him. This is a good thing. I spend half my time at work zoning out, staring at said fish. This is a bad thing. ...but he's got such a pretty tail!

Ok... I think my mind is progressing into the deeper stages of poor mental health. Brain dump is complete, for now. Still have more to say, but there's no juice to get it out into this media. Maybe, just for fun, I'll take a picture of the keyboard imprints on my forehead from when I pass out on the keyboard. It will make for a good logo on the blog. Sending best wishes and good Karma to whoever needs it...