Suitedjustice's Ongoing Mid-life Crisis
I woke up in the middle of choking to death again; though to be accurate, it was towards the end of the process--woke up right away in a white hot panic with black spots of permanent unconsciousness swooping in across both sides of my vision.
Calm yourself, was the first important step. My lungs were soaked, steeped in the things that belonged only in my stomach, and locked up tight. My air passage was blocked and burning with bile and hydrochloric acid. No, I don't have asthma. I have a drinking problem.
Spoiler
Though, now that I think about it, is that inhaler thing any good? Maybe I'll try a hit sometime, just to see.
This was last Friday, just a few hours after I'd quit my office job of twelve years to take a shot at playing poker for a living out West in Nevada. This will not be my first shot at gambling for a living; although I have only tried something like this once before, many years ago.
Around the turn of the century I quit college most of the way through my senior year and I moved out to Las Vegas for 8 years. My experiences were somewhat of interest: rampant drunkenness, a stolen lab animal, solid card counting, North Korean meth, time spent with Mormons, advantage slot grinding, a cowardly pass on an FBI Most Wanted bounty, facing contempt of court charges, and dressing up as Albus Dumbledore. You can find that in my BBV thread.
[U][url]https://forumserver.twoplustwo.c...[/U][/URL] .
That thread held up pretty well in BBV, which is not nothing.
Starting meditative relaxation can be problematic when you're dying from choking on your own puke. I sat up straight, blind from the black splotches that had slapped away the weak light of the kitchen stove. I dropped my shoulders, relaxed my chest and upper arms, and then, projecting calm with all my might, I tried my throat. I pictured my lungs and throat opening up just a tiny passage, for just a little air to go by--something to get me started. And they did, untethering just the smallest little rivulet of air, and it made the most terrifying sound as it went through. It always does.
Whatever you've heard from actors pretending to gasp after being choked, the reality is worse. At least no one was with me this time. When that's been the case, the other person has invariably freaked the **** out when they've heard my gasping and choking routine, which only adds the burden of myself having to reassure them through nodding and non-frantic gestures, so that they won't call 911, as I hate the idea of calling the cops.
April 13th of this year was 14 months without me having a drink. During that long stretch I had honestly forgotten why I'd quit. That's right, I had completely purged from my recall the years of nighttime memories of myself almost choking to death, this happening once or twice every couple of weeks on average. Now, the terrifying night wakeups didn't happen even once during the 14 dry months. But 3 weeks back into drinking--oh yeah--there was that thing, wasn't there?.
Now, there was something else I'd forgotten about. And that's the Double Tap. The Double Tap happens when I don't force my drunk and tired and traumatized self to remain awake for a good two or three hours after a choking incident. If I fall back asleep before then, I wake up choking to death all over again. And sure enough, that happened last Friday, and I had to save myself again.
So on Saturday I jumped back on the waggy, and Cinco de Mayo is now my new anniversary date, and that's really enough about drinking. I'm not here to write about that business. I should have been done with it; and now I am.
My flight leaves for Reno in a few hours, and I'll be out there for the next 3 weeks scouting out the live poker games in the city. If I like it, that's where I'm moving to.
Solid watchlist Mr. Suited, that'll take a weekend or two. �� What did you think of Picard? That's like the only one of your in-progress list that I have watched....
I showed up at MGM today at 5AM for an early morning slot run, only to find that I wasn't the only grinder doing early morning runs any more. Also, the casino has pulled around 20% of the advantage machines in the past two weeks and replaced them with standard -EV machines. So, it's dying :(
Solid watchlist Mr. Suited, that'll take a weekend or two. �� What did you think of Picard? That's like the only one of your in-progress list that I have watched....
I actually only watched a few episodes of Season 1, back when they made them available on YouTube. then I watched the Red Letter Media guys—who are huge Star Trek nerds—review the rest of the episodes partway through Season 3, accepting the spoilers because I didn't think that I would ever get to watch the show; that is, until I turned pirate.
I agree with Red Letter Media's objection that the show is too dark and gritty. There's a temptation to go in that direction with every property, but with Star Trek, Roddenberry's vision of the future was that we'd solved a lot of our historical social and economic woes.
In the 24th century, the money economy doesn't exist, and we can replicate just about anything we need, so the income gap is virtually meaningless and there's much less of a need for crime or predatory consumerism.
Thus the original show's focus on exploration and discovery, and the lack of darkness and grit, at least on the Federation home front. Not so with Picard. It tried to make the Federation somewhat of a dystopia, but we already have countless dystopian futures in our Sci-Fi canon; Star Trek was supposed to be different.
That said, the boys at Red Letter Media really liked Season 3 because they got the (literally and figuratively) old Next Generation gang together and set out on an adventure. So that's why I'm interested in skipping over the rest of Seasons 1 and 2 and going right to 3.
What do you think?
I actually only watched a few episodes of Season 1, back when they made them available on YouTube. then I watched the Red Letter Media guys—who are huge Star Trek nerds—review the rest of the episodes partway through Season 3, accepting the spoilers because I didn't think that I would ever get to watch the show; that is, until I turned pirate.
I agree with Red Letter Media's objection that the show is too dark and gritty. There's a temptation to go in that direction with every property, but with
Well, like I know nothing about the Red letter guys. I think they are generally correct that the show ventures in a much darker direction than TNG or especially TOS, but it did certainly not start with Picard. Even TNG has some much darker elements in the story than TOS, although admittedly limited. And that continues and arguably expands quite a bit with Voyager, DS9 and Discovery. But I tend to judge more like on the merits of the story itself and in that respect Picard certainly did a more than respectable job.
Actually did you watch the shows mentioned above? If not, certainly worth adding to your list. Actually DS9 you should probably watch before Picard Season 3 if you can for some context/background. Personally, there were quite a few things I didn't like about DS9 and the first couple seasons were kinda meh tbh, some good episodes, some terrible ones, but it picks up later on, I think from somewhere in season 4 when they started that larger story arc with the dominion war.
By the way also worth watching ideally before that, is Babylon 5. B5 is credited for a number of things, one of them being the first that really showed Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV shows could successfully implement very long multiseason story arcs, which back in the days was apparently not accepted by Hollywood, they thought most peeps preferred something that ended each episode or at most after a couple episodes.
B5 was the main competition to DS9 in TV back in the day and its success reportedly led to DS9 adopting that 3 or 4 season story arc. But both B5 and those DS9 were much darker than TOS/TNG. Voyager had some dark elements too.
But for some really dark sh*t, I'd recommend Discovery, I personally liked it quite a bit. This show is kinda controversial, I think mainly because of its storyline, some peeps also do not like some kinda "woke" elements they put into, I think they prolly could have done without that but the story itself is pretty good.
So yes, it certainly didn't start with Picard. Reportedly they now want to make a series about Section 31, which will prolly also feature some distinctively dark elements. But I don't know much about it at this point.
I just googled MGM Springfield, it's much nicer looking than I assumed. Looks like they converted an old armory and electric company building, really nicely done. I was expecting something much more boring on the edge of town or something. I need make a road trip at some point and include this.
The website must have given it the Zillow treatment and made the place look bigger and posher than it is. It's a glorified slot parlor the size of a Fremont Street joint, located in a questionable neighborhood.
On the plus side, it has a 15-table poker room, a small table gaming area, a bowling alley and a movie theater, and I enjoy the free self-serve fountain soda and coffee machines, but mostly it's a half hour away, while everything else is 90 minutes or more.
Actually I thought it was fine, looks nice. Obv the pics make it a bit nicer and it's not that big, don't expect anything like those huge casinos elsewhere. I wasn't a big fan of the food court, limited selection and at least what I had was kinda meh, but yeah surprisingly big poker room and free self-serve drinks with good selections.
Well, like I know nothing about the Red letter guys. I think they are generally correct that the show ventures in a much darker direction than TNG or especially TOS, but it did certainly not start with Picard. Even TNG has some much darker elements in the story than TOS, although admittedly limited. And that continues and arguably expands quite a bit with Voyager, DS9 and Discovery. But I tend to judge more like on the merits of the story itself and in that respect Picard certainly did a more th
I've watched around 70% of the original series, and say 40% of TNG, DS9 and Voyager, and I think I've seen all of the movies including the reboot universe. Babylon 5 is on my to-watch list.
With Picard, they introduced a pile of characters in the first two seasons, then it seems like the showrunners said, "screw it, never mind them, here's the old TNG crew and we'll have an adventure" for season 3. So I don't feel like I'd be missing a lot with skipping over the rest of the first 2 seasons.
I'm watching The Orville now and enjoying it a lot. It's a Star Trek parody, but it's done with love and care, and the story lines are played for more than a joke. I can see that Seth MacFarlane embraces Roddenberry's idea of a human race that has advanced enough to take part in a sensible galactic civilization.
You haven't really lived if you haven't watched The Wire, that's all I'm saying.
That guy gets it.
This. Calling The Wire a cop show (which it is) would be like calling The Beatles a boy band (which they are)
All right. All right. It's on the list, but it's going to be a while. There's other stuff that I'd like to see before it. That's if they don't shut me down soon. I read that conventional streaming services were down around 7% last year from viewers switching to pirate streams. I doubt that Big Content is going to take that lost revenue lying down.
Speaking of good things coming to an end, a slot grinder has started showing up every day and checking the Ultimate X poker machines every 4 hours, seemingly without fail. He must live close to the casino, because I've seen him there every day I've been there, at all hours, from 5AM to 11PM and all points in between.
Ultimate X machines used to be my main revenue stream, given that the Asian Slot Syndicate left them alone for some reason. My slot totals will likely be tanking, so I'm going to have to play more poker. On that front, I've turned a downswing stretch into a breakeven/slightly profitable stretch. As always, I need to keep learning and playing if I want to make a living.
Yesterday I picked up a solid tell on Villain being weak in a hand, and I snapped off a bluff while holding pocket 7s as fourth pair. Unfortunately, Villain had turned third pair into a bluff.
He even said "You're good" as he sheepishly turned over his hand. Well, I'm not that good...
MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 14 hours
(-$75.00)
MGM Springfield Slots: 11 hours
+$164.55
2024 Running Poker Total: 61.5 hours, +$689.00
2024 Running Slot Total: 47 hours, +$2909.70
2024 Grand Total: 108.5 hours, +$3598.70
I couldn't get through the second episode of The Wire.
I couldn’t get through the first chapter of Genesis without throwing up!
Always the contrarian. Prolly comes from standing at an obtuse angle relative to most people.
I'll give you the cliffs for the next few chapters. Adam and Eve were cancelled so hard that all of us descendants are still guilty of their eternal sin of learning right from wrong. The inbred issue from the incest of their children begat several generations of freaks until everyone was cancelled with extreme prejudice, except for Noah and his family, who at least brought some in-laws along to tamp down on the incest...but only for a generation—you're still looking at cousins on cousins.
Also, don't eat shrimp or owls, don't plant two or more different kinds of seeds in a field, don't mix fabrics, and women are ritually unclean when they menstruate. And there are a few guidelines about how to treat your slaves.
I admit that the cliffs kind of make it look bad.
I'll try to think of something good. Um, some people lived to be like 800 years old. That's cool. There were giants, too. But that part may have been a mistranslation.
Today I realized that I'd never seen Dumb & Dumber, the Farrelly Brothers' 1994 classic, their first movie.
I've seen and enjoyed their next two films: Kingpin and There's Something About Mary, so I figured that it was fairly mandatory for me to watch Dumb and Dumber.
It was fun. I laughed out loud in a few spots, though it took me a while to adjust to the pure slapstick theme of the movie. The writing and the plot were nothing special, but that wasn't the point. The point was to put Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels into almost every scene and to let them work their magic.
I had to put myself into a Three Stooges mood to properly appreciate Dumb and Dumber. You don't go looking for plot and writing in the Stooges' shorts and films, you just laugh while you watch them be the Stooges. Same thing for Carey and Daniels in Dumb and Dumber. In fact, the Farrellys would go on to make their own Three Stooges movie. I'd be willing to see that some day.
There were a few gay jokes in Dumb and Dumber that wouldn't make the cut nowadays, but they were par for the course back in the 90s, so it's not particularly fair to retcon today's standards on to them, so I won't belabor the point.
Dumb and Dumber was probably the last movie from my lifespan that nearly everyone else has seen but I had not yet seen. Maybe Transformers qualifies. Has everyone seen Transformers? It looks really dumb, but not in a good way. Anyways, now I'll have to start looking at top 100 lists and whatnot for classics that I've missed.
Oooh, one more thing...
Tomorrow, for Valentine's Day, MGM is paying $100 for every heart flush and $2024 for every heart straight flush, so I expect to be putting hands like Q♥2♥ and 7♥3♥ into most everyone's ranges.
I wonder: if tomorrow I open 5♥3♥ on the button for $12, and Villain in the SB 3-bets to $45 with a $200 effective stack, should I continue for the promo? I wouldn't shove on anyone except for a reg who knows how to 3-bet bluff/fold in that spot.
Today I realized that I'd never seen Dumb & Dumber, the Farrelly Brothers' 1994 classic, their first movie.
I've seen and enjoyed their next two films: Kingpin and There's Something About Mary, so I figured that it was fairly mandatory for me to watch Dumb and Dumber.
It was fun. I laughed out loud in a few spots, though it took me a while to adjust to the pure slapstick theme of the movie. The writing and the plot were nothing special, but that wasn't the point. The point was to put Jim Carrey an
What did you think of the soundtrack of Dumb and Dumber? I liked it a lot. I haven't seen Transformers, by the way.
If you like keeping track of things, this website might be just for you. It also has tons of movie lists.
Oooh, one more thing...
Tomorrow, for Valentine's Day, MGM is paying $100 for every heart flush and $2024 for every heart straight flush, so I expect to be putting hands like Q♥2♥ and 7♥3♥ into most everyone's ranges.
That is such a cute promo! ♥
I got a bag of chocolates for tonight's bar poker league. Everyone who makes a heart flush gets one. While quantities last.
We don't have quite the resources of MGM. 😉
Hope you get a nice one, SJ!
What did you think of the soundtrack of Dumb and Dumber? I liked it a lot. I haven't seen Transformers, by the way.
If you like keeping track of things, this website might be just for you. It also has tons of movie lists.
That is such a cute promo! ♥
I did like the soundtrack for Dumb and Dumber, but I forgot to mention it in the post. A lot of good 90s alternative songs in it plus some Roy Orbison and Todd Rundgren. And of course the Crash Test Dummies' Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm was perfect for that movie.
Thanks for the movie link!
Well, I didn't make the ♥♥♥♥♥ bonus for Valentine's day. I wasn't dealt many heart-suited hands at all. I did cold call an EP $10 open and an MP call from my spot on the BTN with Q♥5♥, which was a first for me in all the hundreds of thousands of hands I've played online and live.
I have occasionally 3-bet squeezed a Qxs or Jxs with a low x from the BTN or SB, in rare and specific circumstances, but I've never flatted. In this case, the SB came along and 4 of us saw a ragged flop with one ♥, giving me a backdoor flush draw to the $100 promo and nothing else at all. SB checked, EP bet $15, MP shoved for $100 and I turbo-mucked. Turn was a ♥ and river was a brick for no flush.
I did, however, manage to pick off two bluffs, this time with better bluff-catchers than fourth pair, so I had a good night in spite of bricking on the promo.
MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 5 hours
+$359.00
MGM Springfield Slots: 1 hour
+$19.60
2024 Running Poker Total: 66.5 hours, +$1048.00
2024 Running Slot Total: 48 hours, +$2929.30
2024 Grand Total: 114.5 hours, +$3977.30
Between two tables, we only managed to find two heart flushes. They were on the same hand. Sigh.
Between two tables, we only managed to find two heart flushes. They were on the same hand. Sigh.
It looks good on paper, but there was only one heart flush on my table in 5 hours. The $4/$8 limit table had three in the same hand, and the promotion was set up so it actually paid all three players, so that was nice for them.
I assume that everyone at the limit table was playing every suited heart hand from every position. At $1/$2, I folded K♥4♥ and T♥5♥ from UTG. I probably could have limped them at a normal $1/$2 table, and it wouldn't have been a terrible play given the promo, but we had a "fun" player who was raising most limps, and I don't like limping in general.
