memoryloot

As I was sitting on the train today I was staring out in darkness and began to reflect what’s been happening in my life the last couple of months. I’m at a completely different phase in my life right now compared to last year. First of all, I’m sitting on a train to work! I’m sure I never thought I’d be doing this a year ago. I’m actually happy that I am doing this to help be more green and not contribute in the demise of our environment.

Last year, I was playing poker on a weekly basis. Now we’re playing once every 3 months as it seems. I miss the face time to BS with the friends and catch up. I got to do that 2 weekends ago when all of our schedules allowed it.

I’m 10lbs lighter than I was a year ago. I’m more active and enjoy running and biking this year. Last year, my bike was sitting in the garage collecting dust. I was coming with all sorts of excuses not to go to the gym. It was not until the blood results that came in on my annual check-up to wake my lazy ass up. I’ve already run 2 5K back-to-back weekends. I will be participating in my first sprint triathlon relay this year and hopefully the LA marathon next year. I’ve added 2 more bicycles to encourage myself to ride them. And ride them, I do. This is one trend I don’t want to forget.

This year we’ve been actively searching for a new home for my family. Unfortunately nothing has turned up and I may have to look for property for myself. I can’t help it when my folks are so picky about all the places we’ve seen. My second offer to potentially the last house of our search has been submitted. It’ll take a miracle for the seller to accept the offer but I guess we’ll see.

I’m in this weird purging phase. My motorcycle is listed on Craigslist still. I’ve had people who were interested inquire about it but no formidable offers that I can entertain. Lots of people want to trade me for another bike and even a boat. That does nothing to someone who doesn’t know how to swim. I’m also playing with the idea of selling my trusty car and get a more fuel efficient Honda Fit. I love the fact that you can carry crap in such a compact vehicle. Maybe after I buy my first property.

I’ve lost interest in gaming from last year. Yes I still play my XBox but it’s still the same game, NBA 2K8. I love that game!

In the work front, things aren’t looking so good. I’ve inherited more applications to handle and it’s starting to stress me out. The overall company politics is making it harder and harder for me to do my job. It’s only a matter of time where grinning and bearing won’t work. Until that time, I can only keep my head up and work through this tough time.

I can’t believe I’m on the half-way mark of my vacation. Can’t say they were dull. Spent the first day of my vacation in Sun City, Ca at our 4th Annual Christmas Party. We had lots of food to eat, had our gift exchange, played a home-made game by Sophorn, sang karaoke, and finished the night with a Trivia Pursuit game. The fun didn’t stop there. I delivered some gifts on Christmas Eve and went over to my sister’s for our annual tradition of opening gifts at midnight.

I received some great gifts this year! I received a set of Memory Foam Contour Pillows, which by the way eliminated all the shoulder pain I’ve been experiencing with my old pillow. I received a pair of Converse All-Star shoes, a GPS, and some motorcycle and car related toys. It’s amazing but I didn’t get any gift cards this year. I did however received alot of picture cards from friends.

Christmas day was spent with the parents eating Hot Pot and hanging out at Billy and Jen’s watching movies and eating at a buffet. The day after Christmas and the Wednesday afterwards was spent at the Harrah’s Casino in Rincon, San Diego. Played some poker and lost about $130. Still on that losing streak. Thanks Drew for setting all that up.

Here I am today with nothing to do. It’s a great feeling and I’m glad I do this every year. Gives me a chance to reflect the events of this year and usher in the new year. I’d have to say 2006 was one of the better years in my life. I became debt free, went to new places, continue to challenge myself at work, began investing, and just enjoyed life. There really isn’t anything else to complain about. Except maybe living on my own, but I have feeling I may be able to make that happen in the coming year or 2. Hope everyone have a safe and happy holiday. Let’s make this new year a good one too.

Went back to Hustler to try to get my playing edge back. Unfortunately my luck still haven’t changed. I did however played a more aggressive game and caught some good action. It felt good winning some hands. The first $100 lasted me about 2 hours and my last $50 lasted about an hour. The last $50 I tried to tighten up my game, but the blinds and raises chipped away at my stack when the flop didn’t prevail for me. I think I’m going to try a new stategy. That’s sitting out for awhile. I’m not in control these days. I’m either playing scared or playing reckless. I need to find a middle ground so I don’t become the fish of the table. Can’t wait to get out of this slump.

Finally sold my energy position yesterday at a loss. Can’t believe XLE fell over 3% in one day! Thank goodness SHY’s dividend will help ease the pain. I suppose the news that they found more source of oil may have caused this recent downturn. In any case September-October is suppose to be historically bad months for the market. I’ll just sit in cash and international position and watch. So far international isn’t so hot either.

An attempt to recapture the Vegas feeling, I went back to Hustler and played a round of NL poker. Busted out my $50 buy-in in about an hour. Man, what a string of bad luck. I haven’t won since the eve of my birthday camping trip. When you’re not catching cards, you’re not catching cards. I was fairly content with how I played.

My first attempt in planning a bachelor party went fairly well. Besides the bachelor losing his wallet within the first 30 minutes of arrival, everything else was great. We did some rock climbing, lots of eating, gambling, and of course gentlemen’s club. I ended up being down $400 in gambling. $300 of that was playing poker. Been in a bit of a losing streak lately. Spending time with friends and making new friends is worth the $800 spent on the trip.

My 30th celebration started with a marathon of a poker game. Received two buy-ins from Greg. Lost it pretty fast. Very hard to play serious when the money was given to you by someone else so I decided to pick up on the balance. After buying in for another $80, I made my come-back. At the end of the night, I walked away being up $60. Of course $40 of that was a gift from Greg. Didn’t get home from the game until 5am. Thanks guys for setting it up and hosting a good poker night!

I woke up the same morning at 8am to pack up and get ready for my Idyllwild camping trip. I was done packing by 10am and sat and waited for my ride. Didn’t leave my house until close to 1pm. We reached the camp site close to 3pm and began our feasting. It was a relaxing evening where we sat around the camp fire and just relaxed. The most ideal way of spending my 30th birthday with friends. I turned in at midnight. The tent floor was hard but I was able to fall asleep after having just 3 hours the previous night. I didn’t get up until 8am again. We made breakfast and cleaned up the place. Went into town to sight-see and ended up buying some souvenirs. We departed Idyllwild by 1pm and began our journey to our final destination, Sun City. We unloaded the remaining food in preparation for lunch. Took a long overdue shower and had lunch. I was completely surprised by a birthday cheesecake in my honor.

Needless to say, this was the best birthday I’ve ever had. There was so many people who came out and spent some time with me. Thanks to everyone who made this possible. Thanks to all that sent a card (paper and electronic). Thanks for the text messages. And thanks for all the wonderful gifts. Oh the gifts! I was fortunate to receive a Nintendo DS Lite game system, a bunch of gift cards/certificates, a poker set, DS Lite games, and a spring loaded BB gun. More are coming in the mail!

Again, thanks everyone!

Its been awhile since I got so many consecutive days off. What began the weekend with a great Radiohead concert, ended with fireworks and some time with friends.

Saturday night spent sometime playing so poker. Again I lost only one buy-in. I was up alot but seem to lose all my gainings in the last 30 minutes of play to Greg. This has happened probably the last 3 times I’ve played with the guy. Again, minimizing the loss was still maintained.

Sunday night I spent with my college buddies with some good BBQ and drinking games. We played a few drinking games and polished away more than half of the beer that was brought. The food was delicious and the creme brulee was prepared by Prince and Sandy. They sure know fine dining. Also congrats to them on their engagement. Like I’ve said before, this is the year is the year of engagements, weddings, and babies. The night ended with a couple of hours of fragging on Halo 2. It was fun to get reacquainted with that game. Makes me want to buy a 360 more. I must hold off on that purchase until the end of the bachelor party this year.

Monday was spent watching Superman Returns and dining out at Outbacks Steakhouse in Long Beach. Yes, a Fourth of July weekend at an Australian themed restaurant. The party moved on to a karaoke bar in Garden Grove where we sang the night away or until midnight or so. Superman by-the-way, was great! It really went back to the roots of Superman and made it better.

Tonight, we went to the local 4th of July fair in Long Beach. This featured much of your carnival games, rides, and food. Oh the food was fantastic! We had some taquitos, tacos, and elotes asados (roasted corn on a stick). Washed it all down with a cup of horchata and a churro for dessert. Yes your traditional Mexican meal on the 4th of July. As you can tell that’s pretty much what the 4th should represent. The many different culture that has been integrated to the daily lives of people in America. The fireworks was pretty disappointing this year. First of all, we thought the fireworks was going to be launched from Queen Mary. Instead it was launched somewhere out side near the coast. It was pretty far away and the palm trees were hiding parts of the show. It was a very lack-luster display. We saw better fireworks on the way back from Long Beach. All in all, a rather mild ending to my long weekend.

Unfortunately, I failed to bring a camera to all the events mentioned above. No pictures for now. I’ve just haven’t been my phototaking self these days.

The Memorial Day holiday brought a great opportunity to pay another visit to Las Vegas for the 3 days off. It was also a birthday celebration for Chanthou as well as a celebration for me being debt free. We left for Vegas Saturday morning and did not arrive until 5pm. The traffic wasn’t too bad. There was some delay’s on the way to Hesperia, but it was negligible considering we did not experience major traffic from that point on.

I played some craps and a $50 1-2 NL game when we got there. Unfortunately lost about $150 before we even went to eat dinner. We enjoyed a nice dinner at an Asian noodle place in the Hilton (our hotel). Did some saki bombs and saki shots for Chanthou’s birthday. After dinner I went back to the 1-2 NL game and bought in for another $50. At the end of the night I walked away with $377. So I was up $177. We spent the next morning eating dim-sum in Chinatown Las Vegas. Because I had won the night before, I decided to give everyone a treat and paid for the bill. We then went to see a magic show at the Tropicana hotel. This was my first Las Vegas show I’ve ever experienced. The show was okay and I’ve always enjoyed watching magic so it was a good experience.

After we finished the show, we went back to the hotel. Rich and I decided to lay-out at the pool. It was nice. The pool was cold and the weather carried a breeze towards the end of our 2 hours out in the sun. I did get a bit of color, but nothing to really brag about.

We get back up to the hotel room and discovered that the girls had received comp dinner at our hotel for signing up with a player’s club card. Sweet! We stuffed ourselves with all sorts of buffet food. There was even free alcohol at the buffet.

After dinner, we went to see Fremont Street, the original “Las Vegas Strip” in Downtown Las Vegas. I really liked it there. It was also a first time for me being there. We settled down at the Binions Hotel and played some craps. Lost another $140 there. We left Fremont at 11pm and went back to our hotel. Obviously I had to visit the card room once again after the successful night I had before. With the initial $50 buy-in, I had slowly accumulated about $650 and became big stack in a matter of 5-6 hours. Unfortunately, I had lost $400 in a matter of 2 hands afterwards. The second place chip-leader had busted me with a set of Q’s. We actually both had Q’s and I thought I was good since my cards were Q-10. Unfortunately, he had Q-A. That hurt. I grinded out my last $200 for another 3 hours until I lost it all. I rebought w/another $100 and played all the way till 5am this morning. I lost it on busted up flush draw against another Q top pair. The cool part about both poker nights, I came across a couple of regulars who were very receptive of me. The first night I had an older gentleman who joked around with me and told me all the regulars that played with us that night along with their style of play. This morning, the guy who beat me w/top pair Qs shook my hand and said, “I’ll see you in the circuit.” He thinks that I play professionally! A great confidence booster to a down weekend. At the end of the trip, I had only spent $300 of the $600 I brought. Not bad considering I had treated for dim-sum and paid for other expenses besides gambling.

I’ve never been part of an engagement party before but my buddy Andrew had his this past weekend. It was good seeing his family as well as his fiancee’s family and help serve lunch. It was a successful get-together as well as for his belated birthday later in the evening. Even got to play poker at night. Came out up $21. I was disciplined this time and played what came to me. All in all a fairly calm weekend.

Murder mystery at Aphrodisiac restaurant (formerly Lunaria) in Century City went fairly well. They used props, served a dinner, and had over the top acting. It was definitely quite an experience and I would recommend going there once. I have to say I solved the case but they gave the prize to a 12 year-old kid. A new career in detective work.

We also had a delicious lunch on Sunday at Newport Seafood restaurant in San Gabriel. A 11 course meal with lobsters and crabs. It was awesome! Unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera and wasn’t able to get pictures for the event. We went to Shon’s house and had a quick poker game. I dropped $40 in a matter of 30 minutes. I was playing too loose. Too much confidence in my game. I have to reevaluate my strategy. That’s the thing about Texas Hold’em, there’s always room to learn and the checks and balances to keep you humble. I need to take a break from the game for a little bit before I test the waters again.