Author: Muttrox

The other day I had that rarest of prizes, free time. Mrs. Muttrox took the kids off for a couple hours leaving me alone in a quiet house. While reading a book (a disappointing one) I drifted off. The best kind of sleep. As Calvin says, “I like days where you sit under a tree and you look at the clouds and think about the sky and then you wake up from the nap.” I wasn’t quite asleep but I was right on the verge.

A mosquito buzzed. Just enough to make me aware of it. Inside my house. I languidly decided to ignore it. Live and let live. It landed on my ear. It bit me. I really need my sleep (I had been covering the kids for three days straight) but this s.o.b. bug is actually sucking my blood right now but if I hit it I’ll wake up and it will take me another 30 minutes to doze off again and everyone will be back by then… Which is more important? Protecting my lifeblood or protecting my precious naptime?

I whacked. Nap be damned, humans gotta keep their place at the top of the food chain.

I predict 10-6. 11-5. No, 10-6. Heck with it, 11-5. Why so optimistic?

1) We are an offensive powerhouse. We set every single record there was to set last year. Even if you take away 30% of our points, we’re still very good. Remember when we won our first eight games by an average margin of 20 points (or something absurd like that)?
2) We are a system team. Tom Brady is a system quarterback. The team is not build around Tom Brady’s arm, it’s built around his brain and the brain of everyone on the team. This is an easier team to take over than a team that relies on individual brilliance. Furthermore, Cassell has been studying with Brady for quite a few years now, he knows the system well.
3) Easy schedule. We have the easiest schedule in the NFL this year.
4) We’re already 1-0.

I’d better stop, I’m talking myself into 14-2.

Go Pats!

(I also added a couple more onto the political links from a couple days ago…)

Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Comedy

Mickey Mantle. All class (apparently true)

Baby gets the evil look on

More cowbell, please!

Never ask the Internet for help

Another Seinfeld/Gates ad, the long version

5 real world criminals who were supervillians

You just made my list! (Very funny)

10 Women who would have been better VP picks

Charges Filed Against Bed, Bath & Beyond Manager Who Refused To Allow 911 Call

Beautiful Flash Clock

What Wikipedia is not

10 Amazing Physics Videos

70 year old color photos

Mott’s gets tricky with labeling. I admire this.

YouTomb – See all the videos that got pulled from YouTube

Why Mike Tyson isn’t in my top 10 all-time boxers

102 year old man explains English spelling.

Wikipedia: Paradoxes and Unusual Articles

An interesting reaction to Palin’s first interview.

Andrew Sullivan gives up on McCain (no surprise, but well-said)

US Churches are getting ready to fight for their right to talk politics. But should they be tax-exempt then? Legal battle a brewin’

Approval Voting (I introduced this to my book club. It’s much better than standard voting.)

What does the Freddie/Fannie bailout mean to you?

Rising Income Inequality in America, and how it favors the Democrats. A comprehensive analysis from David Frum… and a few corrections

Scott Adams on the Palin pick (thanks Woodson).

I suspect this is completely unfair. But it’s funny. The Sarah Palin Pregnancy Decision Guide

Another great outing. I’m starting to feel good about my game again. Once again my name strikes fear into their hearts.

Early on I caught a nut flush on the river, took most of one guys chips. The very next hand I caught the nut flush on the flop, took down another huge pot. Both hands I checked on every card (which no one ever expects from me). A few hands later I caught A-A and took down a medium-pot (not large because the flop had a straight draw on it – I put in a ludicrously large bet to scare them off). I was in good shape.

Am I proud of that? No. Anyone can get lucky cards. I’m proud of (1) Sticking to my plan and bullying from the big stack. It’s really fun when it’s working. Three people in pre-flop, I raise big. With 7-2. And they all fold. (2) Calling all-ins correctly. I was more willing to call them. I caught three people bluffing or with weak hands and knocked them out. For once I didn’t sit back and wait for players to eliminate each other. I actively eliminated them myself.

Entering heads up play, I was up about 17K to 3K with the blinds at 400-800. I had A-J, pushed him all in, and he caught a flush on the river. Arrgh! A couple hands later I had J-7, the flop was J-x-x. This time I wanted to get all his money in the pot. I checked, he bet, I called. Turn was the same thing. River was the same thing. With nothing higher than a jack on the board, I put him all in (there was ~10K in the pot and he only had another 1K anyhow). He had a pair of 10s, but the river card was a 10. My slowplaying cost me the hand. But I don’t think I misplayed it. My goal is to knock him out and I played it correctly to do that.

The blinds went up to 500-1000 and we were essentially tied. I vowed to get super-aggressive. I did. I raised almost every hand. I was soon up to 15K again. With K-8 suited I raised the blind to 3000. He went all-in. Of course I called, his J-9 didn’t get lucky. Ah, winning is fun.

Tonight: $92
Running Total: $208

Recently I shopped off the Bed Bath & Beyond website. It was a pretty good experience. Up until the end I was going to give them a hearty thumbs up, but then they blew it.

Good: Website want to get your information. It’s worth real money to them. But they don’t want you to drop out of the purchase because you are so annoyed at their attempts to get your information. BB&B did it just right. Very early on there was the usual screen to create an account to purchase the item. But they had a prominent choice to not create an account. They stated very clearly that you did not have to have an account to shop, and that you would have another chance at the end to create one if you wanted.

They held to their word. Telling the consumer up front builds confidence in the process. Being truthful about the process build confidence that BB&B can be trusted to keep your information private. BB&B can use their easy purchase funnel as a way to convince consumers that are good folks. This experience left me with a rare good taste in my mouth, that of a website that put the consumer first.

Bad: And then they blew it. It came time to do the money. As with most sites, there were a few screens worth. Gift wrapping, did you forget anything, any gift certificates, enter your credit card information, etc. The screen were you click to actually pay the money showed the amount, but didn’t break out the detail. Specifically, they had added in the tax but hadn’t informed you that they had done that and hadn’t displayed the tax amount for you to see. Suddenly the cost seemed to have gone up $15. Coincidentally, my tax was about the same amount as shipping & handling. The screen about shipping had merely said what is was going to do, didn’t say it was doing it, so it looked like they had double-charged me for shipping. I had to call customer support to understand the final bill, which rather defeats the point of doing it all through the web.

You should never show the final cost, or any of the steps along the way, without displaying all the detail that builds up to it.

It’s a short list, but I wanted to get the political ones in here before they become even more obsolete!

Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert on the Sarah Palin pick

McCains VP Short List

Conservative commentators on MSNBC discuss Sarah Palin after the cameras go off

The new Google browser Chrome (in comic book form)

The Abraham Simpson guide to being miserable

What are you going to die from? New charts from the NCI.

Police caught on film.

I doubt this, and yet I’m fascinated. Musical tastes correlated with personality traits.

Cool drawings from Russia. No idea what they mean.

One of a Kind Recording

I got dragged into fantasy football. I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I think I have a decent team. What do y’all think? (if you’re in the league, keep yer yap shut!)

Player
Brees, Drew QB NO
Rivers, Philip QB SD
Gore, Frank RB SF
Turner, Michael RB ATL
Driver, Donald WR GB
Jennings, Greg WR GB
Welker, Wes WR NE
Olsen, Greg TE CHI
Bulger, Marc QB STL
Ryan, Matt QB ATL
Rhodes, Dominic RB IND
Taylor, Fred RB JAC
Gage, Justin WR TEN
Miller, Zach TE OAK

According to the national polls this has been a close race, only slightly in Obama’s favor. You should be wondering how much the national poll matters. What does the situation look like if you go to each state and see where it’s electoral votes are polling and add it all up?

Ladies and Gentlemen, one of the best election sites out there, www.fivethirtyeight.com. You can look that up and play with all kinds of different possibilities to your hearts content. A dream tool for the amateur politnik.

Oh, by the way? Current projections are Obama 310, McCain 227. The race isn’t nearly as close as you think.

What do y’all think?

I guess my overall take is that it reflects very poorly on McCain. McCain made a horrible pick, and made it without thinking about it or caring about the consequences. This is not a good sign for someone who’s campaign is based on judgment.

Another blogger used this analogy. Both Obama and McCain gambled. Obama played poker. He figured out his odds, weighed the circumstances, and made a move. It might not work, but it’s the best play he can make. McCain played craps, he just rolled the dice and hoped things would work out. Which seems like a better character trait?

Before I dive back into poker n’ politics, I wanted to thank all the well-wishers. It’s appreciated.

I played an error-free game.

That feels so good to say. I’ll say it again, because I’ve never been able to say it before. I played an error-free game. I can’t think of one play that was a mistake.

In the first two hours, I only showed my cards twice. Every other time I folded, or bet big enough to push other people off the hand. That was the big difference. Instead of value-betting non-premium hands I was putting in large bets and getting other people out of the way so I never had to see if my non-premium hands (low and middle pairs, K-J suited, etc.) would hold up. The only two times I showed my hand were both chops with the same person. So two hours in, no one had seen me lose.

When we down to five people, I had a bad luck run. There three coin flip hands in a row (2 overcards vs. a pair) and I lost all three. That’s unfortunate. I was right to be in the hand each time though. I fought back. With three players, I checked the option with 9-3. The flop was K-9-5. With middle pair I made a good-sized bet. He put me all in. It wasn’t much of a decision, a fold would have crippled me and I was getting 3-1 on my money. He had 9-6, his hand held up and I finished in 3rd.

Never been so pleased with my own performance to finish in third. This was my best poker playing since I started blogging it.

Running Total: $116 (three winning weeks in a row…)