Highlights from the Week: How to Kill All Romance

I can’t remember the last time I only posted once in a week, but for various reasons last week was one of them.  Highlights include online gin rummy, movies, and a sure-fire way not to get loving from your wife for probably at least a month.

Here’s a quick recap of the top events.

• I found an unparalleled way to waste time:  online gin rummy.  I played on two sites, Rubl Games and Rummy Royal.  Rubl Games has some sort of ranking point system with I think a java interface (what do I know about that?), and you can only challenge a player to play (they can accept or refuse and get up).  It’s pretty depressing to see higher ranked players continually flee.  Rummy Royal looks more like what you’re used to, with a user interface similar to one of the poker sites.  Here, you can play up to four-handed gin rummy (you receive seven cards) as well as traditional rummy.  You can only one-table at gin, and you have to pay constant attention to the cards, especially three or four-handed.  You get in 2-4 games an hour.
• Sweetie got her hair cut last week; not a great cut, but sometimes that happens.  Anyways, she says she doesn’t really like it over lunch, so I say I can see her point, that it does sort of look like a mullet.  I guess I could have figured this one out, but it isn’t really a good idea to tell your wife that she looks like she’s wearing a mullet.
• Sports Rant #1:  NASCAR Chase/PGA FedEx Cup.  I think the NASCAR Chase is stupid, and modeling the PGA FedEx Cup after it is as well.  If I had the energy, I’d look up when they switched to the Chase, but the Cliff’s Notes version is that on a certain point in the schedule (this weekend), the top dozen drivers in points become finalists for the points championship for the season.  These top dozen drivers basically get zeroed out, with the second place driver getting twenty points less than the top driver and so on.  They then race some number of races to finish the season.  The PGA announced something similar this year, where the top 140 or some number qualify, they play an event then the top 90 or some number in points qualify, then they play again and the top 30 qualify for the Tour Championship (that was this weekend).  Both of these programs are to increase interest in their respective sports to compete with football, but I think they are just stupid.  Jimmie Johnson just took over the points lead from Jeff Gordon this weekend with Tony Stewart close on their heels:  that’s not compelling enough?  And having a driver dominate and pull away from the pack in a season, that’s some sort of crime?  The fact that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson each skipped an event in their four tourney playoff system and are still in the top four places is laughable.  Maybe I’m an old fart, but the top dog in a sport should be a protector of the game and the competition, not always simply looking at the sport as a growth vehicle to squeeze out a few more dollars in revenues or eyeballs.
• Appalachian State.  For those followers of I-AA College Football, which crowns the top college football champion each season with an NCAA Tournament, Appalachian State was hardly a mystery.  These guys had manhandled Furman and Georgia Southern in the tough Southern Conference, as well as the top schools in the nation.  That Michigan thought it was a good idea to schedule them in their first game of the season is questionable (can’t get Memphis or SMU to make the trek?).  To me, I’ve never understood why they allow I-A teams to play I-AA.  The Reds don’t play the Memphis Redbirds (although that would probably make for a decent series), so why does the NCAA allow inter-division play in college football?
• I haven’t played much poker last week.  Here is a bizarre hand (at least I thought it was).  I didn’t really figure it out but decided I had to be good (thought maybe he’d slowplayed kings or queens).  It was one of the first hands of the table, which also made it play a bit stranger.  POKERSTARS GAME HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00) Table ‘Dibaj II’ 6-max Seat #4 is the button
  Seat 1: zills_1001 ($44.15 in chips)
  Seat 2: tevez87 ($99.90 in chips)
  Seat 3: miguelinho33 ($100 in chips)
  Seat 4: csquard ($70.20 in chips)
  Seat 6: BlueCity ($136.60 in chips)
  BlueCity: posts small blind $0.50
  zills_1001: posts big blind $1
  *** HOLE CARDS ***
  Dealt to csquard [Ac Td]
  tevez87: folds
  miguelinho33: calls $1
  csquard: raises $4.50 to $5.50
  BlueCity: folds
  zills_1001: folds
  miguelinho33: calls $4.50
  *** FLOP *** [Ad Kh 6c]
  miguelinho33: checks
  csquard: bets $9.25
  miguelinho33: raises $9.25 to $18.50
  csquard: calls $9.25
  *** TURN *** [Ad Kh 6c] [3s]
  miguelinho33: checks
  csquard: bets $26
  miguelinho33: raises $26 to $52
  csquard: calls $20.20 and is all-in
  *** RIVER *** [Ad Kh 6c 3s] [9d]
  *** SHOW DOWN ***
  miguelinho33: shows [As 7h] (a pair of Aces)
  csquard: shows [Ac Td] (a pair of Aces – King+Ten kicker)
  csquard collected $139.90 from pot
  *** SUMMARY ***
  Total pot $141.90 | Rake $2
  Board [Ad Kh 6c 3s 9d]
  Seat 3: miguelinho33 showed [As 7h] and lost with a pair of Aces
  Seat 4: csquard (button) showed [Ac Td] and won ($139.90) with a pair of Aces
• Roger Federer is simply the best male tennis player to ever play.  There shouldn’t be anyone as dominant as he is, but he’s simply too good.  I hadn’t watched tennis in a long time but saw him knock off Andy Roddick and two others with very long last names.  He’s better than Sampras, I think better than Laver (although he’s slightly before my time).  Borg is the enigma in all of this, maybe the only one who could have rivaled Federer at his peak.  Lendl isn’t considered at the same level, but he held a place of dominance similar to Federer (except for Wimbledon, where he famously stated that he was allergic to grass before skipping the event one year).
• Highlights from the NFL Week 1:  Randy Moss=good, the Colts and Pats are the teams to beat again this season, there is a reason Joey Harrington isn’t the starter for the Dolphins, watch out for the Texans.
• Britney:  not exactly Shakira anymore, now is she?  Britney should book the Flamingo after Toni Braxton splits; correction, maybe she can do the 5:00 show each day instead.  She actually looks better in the rehearsal vs. at the MTV Video Awards lip-synching and strutting in her underwear.  (Shakira at the Grammys bonus clip, actually singing and actually dancing and actually having lots of fun)  (Second bonus clip:  Britney’s first bf, Justin, at the Grammys as primo-performer)  And what about the girl  who wins some contest and gets to perform with him?  Pretty, pretty cool.

Later, got to get to work now.