Fake Pool

I'm totally putting this in my dream house.

Poker Content!

Been a while since I posted a tournament hand, but this one is mildly interesting.

First hand of a tournament. Blinds are 100/200 (10,000 starting chips). You're dealt Ks-Kc. Two limpers in front (why does this always seem to happen on the first hand?) and you raise to 700. Both limpers call. There is 2400 in the pot with the blinds.

Flop: Jd-10d-4s

It checks to you, and you bet 2000. The initial limper calls 2000 and the other gets out of the way.

Turn: Qh

Now limper leads out for 3000.

What do you do? What hands do you put him on?

Atlas Shrugged

I understand there's a movie coming out. I probably won't see it, but thinking about it gave me a chance to revisit Ayn Rand. What follows is a link to the "Francisco d'Anconia Money Speech." It has been called the greatest 5 pages written in the English language.

Francisco d'Anconia's Money Speech

Dollars and Sense

It's tax time. I rarely get upset or outraged at this time of year, mostly because my CPA takes care of all the paperwork and I just sign. Because of a small glitch on the part of Wells Fargo, we got a letter from the IRS saying we owe an extra ten grand on top of the taxes we already paid. It's an easy fix, but it gave me a reason to look at our taxes. Holy shit, we pay a lot. In fact, we pay more in taxes than our entire families made last year. Combined. I know, boo hoo. I'm not looking for sympathy here, just an honest discussion. I'm at work, so I don't have the time to get into this in detail, but you probably don't want to read a long diatribe anyway, so here are my issues: I'm pretty tired of hearing politicians argue over giving "tax cuts to the wealthy." It's bullshit. The "Bush-era tax cuts" are simply freezing the rate at a certain level. The argument is whether I should continue to pay 35% or if it should be bumped to 39% (I may have the numbers wrong, but I'm close enough). People spin this extra 4% many different ways. I could give a shit. You know why? Because I don't mind paying more taxes. I know that sounds crazy, but it's the truth. I know I'm going to have to pay more taxes. I have no control or choice, so I might as well accept it. But it's also true that paying more taxes will not affect how I live my life. Since I don't mind paying more taxes, and I pay more than most, it does give me the ability to rant, and rant I shall. If I'm going to pay more, I don't mind telling you that I'm sick and tired of people who pay no taxes telling me I'm not paying enough. Well, let me add one caveat. I believe America has an obligation to care for the most needy, which has been arbitrarily called the bottom 10%. I'm okay with that. But how can I have faith in a system where almost 50% of Americans pay no taxes, yet tell me I'm not doing enough? 47% of Americans Pay No Income Taxes Sure, we can argue that this doesn't apply to Federal taxes, but since income tax is our largest tax, and the one that stands to go up further, it's where I'm concentrating. So let's stop with the nomenclature, and get to the substance (where is George Carlin when you need him?). I'll pay more taxes. I just want the majority of Americans to have skin the game before they accuse me of not doing my share.

Epic-ness

I'm not even sure epicness is a word, but I don't give a rats ass. It aptly describes my trip tonight, and I thought I'd share it with you. We, being the awesome friends we are, decided to store a car for our good friend while she is deployed overseas. We had the extra garage space in Stockton, so it was a fairly simple proposition. After she left, we drop the car off over there and shuttle back together. I use the car once a week so the battery doesn't die, then I bring it back when she returns. Simple, right?

Well, it IS simple, provided I follow instructions. If you've ever given me a shopping list with more than three items, you know I'm not always the best at following instructions. Many have wondered how I got through medical school with this obvious flaw, and all I can say is... well, nothing. I'm not sure how I did it either, but I have this diploma, so I must have had the ability at one time.

Anyway, I was supposed to bring the car back this weekend, but I didn't. So today, I decided to do the swap myself. Why inconvenience anyone else for my error? I just pulled the cover off the Ferrari and found a really juicy route to get to Stockton. It's usually a 90 mile/80 minute proposition, but this time it was a 132 mile/3 hour deal. The roads were twisty as hell.

For those that care, this is the route.

Along the way, there was some incredible scenery.

I can't begin to imagine what some of these homes are worth,
but the view alone is a million bucks.

And finally, I arrived at my home away from home.
Look at that - it's like the parking space was specially
reserved for a Ferrari.