Wild Animals

The other day, JC caught some sort of field mouse in the garage. We kept it around for a few days feeding it apple bits and crackers. We finally let it go today. Hopefully, it doesn't return.


We also have been spotting wild boars around the area lately, and we finally got a decent shot of two of them. Looks like a mother and baby.


So, I looked up whether or not hunting them was legal or not, and it turns out that it is legal provided you've got a hunting license ($41.20) and a wild pig tag ($19.70). Also, it's perfectly legal to hunt them on your own property or on public land... I am not exactly sure what counts as public land. Is a county park considered public land? Because, I've definitely seen them in a nearby park.

I've never been hunting before, but it might be an interesting experience to take one down and then bring it over to a butcher or something to obtain useful meat. You'd probably get a ton of pork and bacon from just one of these guys.

Also, it turns out there's some odd rules (in my opinion) on what sorts of weapons you're allowed to use. From the official guidebook from the California Dept. of Fish and Game...

The following methods can be used for hunting wild pigs:

1) rifles and handguns using centerfire cartridges with soft point or expanding bullets;

2) muzzleloading rifles of at least 0.40 caliber;

3) shotguns capable of holding no more than three shells and firing single slugs; and

4) archery equipment and crossbows.

Spears, knives and other methods not specified in Sections 353 and 354 of the hunting regulations are not allowed for hunting wild pigs in California.

I guess I don't quite get why you're not allowed to spear them or use knives, yet you're allowed to shoot them with a gun or utilize archery. Seems strange to me, but maybe there are good reasons for these rules. Then again, I have no idea why anyone would want to try to take on a wild pig with only a knife if they had other alternatives.

Hands-Free Motorcycling

This video is about a year old, but it's just nuts. That is one crazy dude.

Mystery Beer

We hit up Trader Joe's today, and they had this mystery beer bag available. Undoubtedly, the beers were going to be leftovers from packs that got partly messed up. Anyway, we thought it was likely we'd get a good deal, so we went for it... 8 beers for $4.99.

Here's the mystery bag.


And, here are its contents.


So, we've got 2 cans of Murphy's, a bottle of Guiness, a San Miguel Dark, and 4 different varieties from the Trader Joe's Brewing Co. (Joseph Brau's). All in all, it seems that the mystery bag was a good value.

Spago

This past weekend was pretty busy for me. Headed down to SoCal to attend a wedding and also to enjoy a fancy dinner with the family to celebrate my dad's retirement. We were originally going to check out Mastro's steakhouse, but my sister and her husband had just gone there recently. So, we decided on Spago, which none of us had ever been despite it being a classic LA institution of fine dining.

The meal was very good. But, I'm not sure if it was on par with other two-star Michelins that I've had the privilege of trying in the past. Definitely a one-star, but it's really hard to say for sure since I'm really not that much of a foodie despite having lots of food pictures.

I liked my dishes (Tagliatelle as a first course and Salmon as the main course) a lot, and I did get to try bits of most others' dishes. JC's duck was excellent. Those that tried it felt it was probably the best prepared duck ever. My dad ordered, after some familial pressure, the Kobe (100% Wagyu) New York steak and he loved it. My sister and her husband shared the Côte de Boeuf for Two, and it too was very good. Though, they both claimed to have had better at other places. Also, JC and I felt the desserts at Le Cirque (in Las Vegas) were much better.

All in all, everyone was very happy with the meal. It was a nice dinner complemented with good conversation. Anyway, I'm a bit too lazy to write more since I did just spend a lot of time getting the photos ready. So, without further ado, I present the pictures of food.

Starting off with the First Courses...

Tagliatelle with Porcini Mushrooms

Endive and Vegetable Salad

Gnocchi with a Meat Sauce
(not sure exactly, but it sure was good)

Crab Cake

Hamachi and Tuna Sashimi

Risotto with Asparagus and Crab

And now, the Main Courses...

Pan-Roasted Liberty Duck

Red Snapper - Hong Kong Style

Alaskan White Salmon

Kobe Beef - 100% Wagyu New York Steak

Côte de Bœuf (half)

Alaskan Halibut

Finally, the desserts...

Souffle Pancake with Crème Fraîche

Raspberry Souffle

I guess that's all. The meal was expensive, and depending on how you look at it, perhaps it was a bit overpriced. Some felt that more should have been expected, but to be fair, the portions were generous and nothing was 'off.' Plus, there's the added cost due to 'brand recognition' that can't be helped.

Habana Cuba

JC and I went out for some Cuban food last night at Habana Cuba. We took advantage of the Dine About Town deals for San Jose. The promotional period ends in a few days, so if you're thinking about trying a new place on that list, hurry up.

I've been there once before, and I had a good experience. However, I recall the Mojito not being all that good, and this time was no different. The food was good just as it was during my previous experience.

There was some seriously good value to be had due to the promotional pricing. We shared two appetizers, a Yucca Fries plus Tostones combination and Papas Rellenas with more Yucca Fries. We each got a choice of either soup or salad; both of us opted for the chicken soup which was really good including a chunk of chicken with bone intact. Then there were our main dishes followed by desserts. I had the Cuban-spiced pork dish, and she had the stewed shredded steak dish (Ropa Vieja). Dessert for me was a cinnamon-spiced rice pudding, and for her it was a Tres Leches sponge cake. All this for $20 a person. We were both incredibly stuffed after finishing everything, so they surely didn't skimp on portions.

Anyway, if anyone wants to try some Cuban food, I would recommend that they give Habana Cuba a look. I've had two good experiences there so far... just skip the Mojito.

A Neat Problem

Recently, I went in for a series of technical interviews in search of a new position. As is typical in an interview for the types of jobs I seek, I was given a few reasoning/logic/brain teaser types of problems. One of them really stumped me, and it was only after being pushed in the right direction that I was able to see the correct approach and arrive at an answer.

Here it is for all of your entertainment.

A man arrives at the train station after work at 5pm daily. His wife always leaves the house earlier to pick him up and she arrives at 5pm sharp every day. After pick up, they head straight home. The commute time each way is always the same, so they get home at the same time each and every day. To be clear, both one-way trips (to and from) take the same amount of time.

One day the man catches the earlier train and arrives at the train station at 4pm. His wife does not know this, and so she is on her normal schedule. The man (at 4pm) decides to start walking home to save his wife some time. The wife sees him on the road on her way to the station. She picks him up and they turn around and head home. They arrive home 10 minutes earlier than their normal arrival time.

For how long did the man walk for?

P90X - Week 1 Update

Okay, so today marked the end of the first week of the P90X program. It was brutal. After the first two days, I was beaten down so badly that I could not even stand up straight for most of the next day. And to think that despite my poor condition, I had to do more exercise plus the crazy 'Ab Ripper X' workout.

Well, that wasn't really going to happen. I could not physically lift my legs up, so I was forced to skip the Ab workout. I was able to do the regular workout though, so that was good.

The Yoga day was very important for me. It effectively fixed me. I was no longer Quasimodo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame after that hour, and I was feeling a hell of a lot more limber. That Yoga thing took me from being at 10% to maybe 80%, which was good.

The next day consisted of doing a lot of pull-ups and squats. Well, you can only do so many pull-ups, so you have to cheat a bit (which is what they recommend) by using a leg on a chair to help give you additional support. This was fine, but man, I was so beat afterwards. The guys on the video did about 120 or more pull-ups throughout their session. It was pretty sick.

The final day (today) consisted of some Kenpo cardio kickboxing. It was pretty fun, but it really sucks when your calves and leg muscles are completely wasted from the exercises from earlier in the week.

I hate P90X. I really do. All I know is that it better be worth it afterward, because it sucks. Massive amounts of exercise is not normal. It's really not. Anyway, that's it.

Exercise Time

So, JC's been bugging me about trying this 90-day workout program called P90X. While I do go to the gym semi-regularly, I'm pretty bad about keeping up with trying to be more fit. A program with a rigorous set schedule didn't sound like it'd be too good for me, because chances are I'd break schedule then convince myself that it likely wouldn't work since I didn't follow the rules so to speak.

Well, over the weekend, we hung out with her cousin and her cousin's husband who were vacationing here in the Bay Area. And, the husband had just completed the program at their home and he lost 25 pounds and went from being able to do a mere 3 pull-ups to over 20. That's impressive.

I don't need to lose weight at all. What I do need, however, is to bulk up some. I can do 6 to 8 pull-ups on a good day, and I can't bench worth crap. If this thing can take a guy from 3 to 20, maybe it can get me up there too.

Anyway, today was Day 1 of the program. JC and I pretty much got our asses kicked, which was to be expected given all that we heard about it. There's no way anyone is going to be able to keep up with even half of the exercises on their first try, unless of course they're already in great shape. In any case, I'm super ridiculous sore right now, and I have no idea how Days 2 through 90 will go. I hope it's worth it.

We did take some pictures of ourselves so that if we do end up completing the training program successfully, we'll have some good before and after pictures. Maybe I'll finally get rid of the beer gut.

There are also tons of 'transformation' videos on YouTube.

Ghetto DIY Air Circulation

It's starting to get really hot here in San Jose, and we're pretty much forced to make use of the AC. The problem, however, is that when we turn on the AC in the upper two floors, the ground floor gets freezing cold. It will be 75 on the 3rd floor, 71 on the 2nd floor, and it'll be a chilly 66 downstairs. It's just not efficient, and if everyone is split up, it's never the case that everyone is comfortable.

Turns out this is a common problem. Some houses had designers that did it right... the people that drew up the plans for my place obviously didn't.

Anyway, to help this matter, we built something super ghetto to pump the cold air from downstairs all the way to the top. It's seriously ugly, but so far it's working out some. It's not perfect, but it's definitely helping. Here are some pictures of our set-up.

We start here on the bottom floor...


Then, we snake up two sets of stairs.


And, finally, the air makes its way out at the top where it is the hottest.

Movies

So, I watched two more movies to continue the Best Picture Quest. I saw Gandhi, which was the winner from 1982, and remaining in the Indian domain, I watched this year's winner, Slumdog Millionaire, too.

Gandhi was long. It told a good story, but it wasn't ever really all that exciting and though I was never bored by the film, it didn't really keep me that interested. It's a good film though in that it tells the story of his life, and if you, like me, didn't know that much about him and what he did, it was definitely informational.

Slumdog Millionaire was really well done, I thought. The movie basically gives you a glimpse of a really rough life for the protagonist that gave him the necessary life experiences to win the grand prize of a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire game show. The film did really well with balancing out a love story and all the various struggles of a homeless and exploited child. I recommend this one for pretty much everyone.

Outside of my quest, JC and I went to the movies and saw the new Star Trek movie. I thought it was really good, and I enjoyed it. I wouldn't consider myself a Star Trek fan, but I am quite familiar with the old series. I thought the Spock character who was played by that Sylar guy in Heroes was excellent. And, as a bonus, you get to learn Uhura's first name. So, if you haven't seen it yet, go check it out. There's no real prerequisite for this one, as they pretty much explain everything and provide all the background necessary to enjoy it.

KFC vs El Pollo Loco

Well, I did go and redeem my free Grilled Chicken Meal from KFC today, and I was pleased with it. I liked it, and I'd probably order it again. However, I think I still prefer El Pollo Loco for the grilled chicken. I was looking up what others thought about it, and then I came across this advertisement from El Pollo Loco, which I found highly entertaining only because of how poorly the KFC corporate guys did with pretending to be someone else. El Pollo Loco makes a really good point about "Highway 5." Ha ha. Enjoy.

Free Chicken Meal

So, the Oprah is buying everyone a chicken meal from KFC. If you're not opposed to that, follow this link and print out your free coupon: Unthink KFC. It's good until 5/19/09 with the exception of Mother's Day. Get your free grub on.

Lucky C-Note

I'm not superstitious at all, but lots of Asians are. Anyway, most of you know probably know that the Chinese people love the number 8. I recently got a hundred dollar bill from the card room with a serial number ending in five 8's. Pretty cool... probably should hang on to that one in case I ever play Liar's Poker for hundreds. Ha ha.


It's actually legal to post a picture of money... I looked up the rules.

ATVing in Oceano

So, we rented ATVs (Honda 250 Sport Quads) at the Oceano Dunes over the weekend as part of the bachelor party activities. I must say that while riding around in the ATVs was a lot of fun, it's actually a bit scary at times.

For the most part everyone who hadn't really been on one before started off overly cautious since the sand dunes were pretty damn steep at times. But, after a little bit of taking on the various drop-offs, everyone would get a bit too confident. Not long after you enter the stage of overconfidence, you'd pretty much get jacked in one way or another, and you'd revert to being cautious.

I think most of us got messed up at one point or another, and I'd say that getting hurt on one of these vehicles is probably not uncommon. At least two people got completely thrown off their machine, and one guy had the ATV roll over him... I'm surprised he wasn't seriously injured. Several of us banged our helmeted heads into the handlebars after being jolted around after catching air. At one point I managed to slam my leg into the side panel so hard that the fairly thick plastic completely cracked. My leg got really bruised up as a result of that.

Anyway, my opinion is that the activity is definitely dangerous, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for everyone. But, maybe this means nothing more than the fact that I'm just a wuss.

Countries of the World Challenge

If you have 15 minutes to spare, give this a try. Basically, you have to enter as many countries as possible in 15 minutes. Spelling counts, which cost me a few points, unfortunately.

Here's the link: How Many Countries Can You Name?

I got 116 out of 195. There were a few really obvious ones that I should have gotten, but I did manage to get a number of the more obscure ones. Not really a great score, but it's probably not all that shabby either. Below is a mini-image of my final map (click to zoom) so that there's no spoilers. Green = correct and Red = missed. Enjoy!

Upcoming Bachelor Party and Poker

So, I'll be attending a bachelor party for Ken (some of you know him as Captain Kings) this weekend. The plan is to head down to Pismo Beach and do some ATVing followed by the usual bachelor party activities of boozing and wasting money at strip bars.

We'll see how it goes. I've never really been a fan of strippers or of the establishments where they work. I haven't been to a strip club in a number of years, and that last time was for a bachelor party as well.

Been playing a lot of cards lately and running good... maybe I'll go again tonight. The drop at Bay101's low limit games is now $5. When I went a few times in January, it was only $4. Fortunately, the games are still great for the most part. But, it still sucks to pay 25% more in rake.

Pacific Treefrogs and Wild Turkey

In the early evening, we were out in the back planting a satsuma mandarin orange tree that we just bought, and we happened upon two Pacific Treefrogs. One was green, and the other was brown. Reading a bit more about them, it turns out that they can change colors within minutes. However, I was not lucky enough to see any of that action. Here area couple pictures that I took of them.



Since we're on the subject of random animal sightings, I guess I'll throw in a picture of a wild turkey I saw the other day during a walk on a nearby trail.

Las Vegas and Le Cirque

Last weekend, I was out in Vegas for our annual trip during March Madness. A bunch of the usual group was able to make it, and there were some new faces this time as well. All in all, when the various groups were accounted for, there were around 12 of us.

Before I even got there, I had already lost $50 betting on Memphis. They got spanked. I figured I better try and win some back, so during our first meal together, we played some game where we'd choose a category and then a person and then make over/under bets on how many from that category the person could name without too long a lull. Some categories were famous aviators, serial killers, NFL quarterbacks, etc. I won a few bucks mostly betting against a certain someone. Not all of it was his fault... at one point, Mr. Tarek set a ridiculous line of 30.5 for the category of NHL players when the person doing the naming wasn't a hockey fan at all (I think he ended up naming 6 or 7 total).

There was a fair bit of negative EV gambling to start off the night. The first night Paul (some of you know him as Womper) and I ran good and started the trip up a fair bit of money. Paul was able to win a quick $750 at the quarter blackjack table as he pressed his bets a few times and managed to go 13 hands without a loss (there were some pushes, of course).

I did alright playing blackjack, but my big winner was playing Let It Ride. I was mostly playing $10, but then decided to go for $20 since it was getting late. So, I've got 3 $20's out there and I pick up K55. I pull a bet back, and 4th street brings a K. With a sure winner, the last two $20's stay put, and the river is a 5 for a boat. That paid a lovely 11:1 on $40, and since I was actually up a fair bit already before that hand, I was able to finish the night solidly ahead.

The next day was mostly recovery, as we were all up pretty late and indulging too much in the 'free' booze. At night though, we had our nice dinner at Le Cirque over at the Bellagio. Seven of us participated in what would be one of the best Vegas meals I've ever had.

Here are some pictures.

Mint Gazpacho with Bacon and Mushroom Foam Topping

Burgundy Snails in Garlic Herb Butter

Terrine of Foie Gras

Brioche to go with the Foie Gras Terrine

Risotto Topped with Truffles

Duck Magret

Sea Bass Wrapped with Crunchy Potatoes

Filet of Beef and Sautéed Foie Gras

Crème Brûlée

Chocolate Soufflé

Lemon Soufflé

Pistachio Cream and Chocolate Cake

Yuzu Cream and Strawberry Sorbet in Ice Bowl

Strawberry Sorbet, Foam, and Gelatin with Chocolate Bits

Strawberry Souffle and Sorbet

Plate of Goodies

I am a bit too lazy to write more, but it goes without really saying that the food was outstanding, and the service was great. We were all able to taste each of the different desserts, as we played a game where the various plates got passed all around the table. Also, all of us got a taste of the risotto with truffles... we purchased 4 orders, which they be split up into 7 bowls.

We had a nice view of the Bellagio Fountain show, and an unexpected bonus was that during dinner, we were able to see the Las Vegas Strip go dark for Earth Hour. Here's actually a pretty cool page showing some before and after pictures from around the world. And, we did see one of the Dallas Cowboys at the restaurant, but none of us really knew who he was. All we know was that he was a very, very large man.

Anyway, later on that night, a few of us (including the Tiffster herself) hit up Tao. The lines were super long, but her boyfriend (the smooth talking fellow that he is) was able to work some magic and allow us to skip the line. Tao was pretty nice and all, but I wasn't a big fan of horrendously overpriced drinks ($16 Red Bull Vodkas -- no thanks).

Fortunately, we were able to strike up a conversation with this one girl from Hawaii who was out there partying with a big party. She was super cool and hooked us up with a couple cups full of vodka, which we could then mix with whatever we could buy at the bar. So, that made things a bit better. There were also some mostly naked women with nothing on but pasties that were floating around in these tubs, and a lot of the drink servers were wearing nothing but lingerie... sort of reminds me of the attire seen at Vietnamese coffee shops.

After the club, a few of us played some craps, and we were quite fortunate to be at a table with this guy with his lucky shirt. He was the shooter for 15-20 minutes making 8 points. So, let's just say that we were all big winners. This more than wiped out some smaller losses I took earlier in the day from additional -EV gambling. Gotta love being at the table when the shooter has a golden arm.

The next day I played some low 1/2 NL poker, and won $240. NL isn't really my game, and nothing too exciting happened. The two biggest hands I had were flopped sets. I was able to get all of my money in with TT on a monotone QT3 board when a guy with the Ace flush draw attempted a semi-bluff. I called and did not get unlucky.

My other set, I should not have won as much as I did. I had 33 and the flop came AK3 rainbow. Somehow A7d 3-bet me on the flop and called my final bet that put him all-in. I guess I really shouldn't be surprised by this, as donks will be donks.

And, that's all I've got to say about this most recent Vegas trip. For those that went, if any of you want pictures, let me know. Check you all later.

ShamWow Update

I'm sure you have all seen the ShamWow commercial. Here it is to refresh your memory.



And, you have probably heard that the guy was recently arrested for beating up some prostitute after she bit his tongue and wouldn't let go... details here.

Anyway, here's the updated commercial.

March Madness

Here's my bracket for this year's NCAA Tournament. I am not in any pools or anything, but some friends and I have one of those Yahoo groups set up so we can see how we do. A bunch of us will be in Vegas next weekend, so we should be able to watch a few games and make a few wagers during the Regional Semi-Finals.

Bubble Girl and Bubble Boy

Last night, JC and I played in a home poker tournament. It was $100 buy-in with no rebuys, and there were a total of 24 entrants. Everyone started out with 5K in chips, and the blinds went up every 15 minutes. I felt the blind increases were a bit steep, but it still took over 4 hours for the tournament to finish.

The top 5 spots were paid, plus there was a 'bad beat' payout to the worst beat that caused someone to get knocked out. The worst beat was based on the exact cards (and board, if applicable) when the money went in. It didn't matter how many chips you had or anything, so if you were down to your last 100 chips when everyone else had many thousands, you'd be hoping to pick up Aces and get them cracked by something like AK. Anyway, the bad beat payout went to KK that got knocked out by 55 (all the money went in pre-flop).

JC ended up in 6th, and I ended up in 7th. So, we were effectively co-bubblers. In a twist of sorts, she was the one that knocked me out. She had about 8K in chips, and I had around 6K. Blinds were 1K/2K at the time, and she goes all in from early position. I call with all my chips from the small blind with QQ, and she tables AK. The flop came out ragged, but a K hit the turn, and I was out. A short while later she got all her money in with A7c, but was called by A8o, and the A-high board didn't come with enough high cards to get her a chop, and that was pretty much it.

It was fun. There was no cut taken out by the house, and the host provided tons of snacks and drinks, which was real nice. I did make back $60 playing some head-up limit against one of my buddies. I had some pretty good cards and pretty much ran him over.

Elite Apple Trader

So, I was just looking at T&S data for afterhours trading in Apple (AAPL) and saw something funny...

18:27 $ 88.94 440
18:27 $ 88.95 100
18:11 $ 88.63 31,337
18:11 $ 88.63 20,901
18:05 $ 88.74 100

At 18:11, there's a trade for 31337 shares. I guess rich people or big traders have a sense of humor too.

Izakaya and an Irish Dive Bar

This past weekend, JC and I went to check out an Izakaya place called Oyaji in San Francisco. I'd never been to one before, and so it was a new experience for me. This one had a sushi bar too, which is not the norm, but I guess it results in an expanded sushi menu.

The sushi wasn't all that good, but the small plates were some good eats. I had all sorts of stuff -- grilled pork tongue, sizzling rib-eye beef, marinated meatballs, ramen, sushi, and more. Anyway, by the time we were done, we were ridiculously stuffed. I really felt like I needed to just rest a while before heading off to a nearby bar. Not sure I'd go out of my way just to eat there, but it wasn't a bad place and worth dropping by if you're in the area.

Oh, and I should mention that they carried Yebisu beer. That's the best Japanese beer in my opinion. I've only been introduced to it recently (maybe 6 weeks ago), but it's very different than your run-of-the-mill Sapporo or Asahi. For some reason, Yebisu tastes a lot more like a Belgian ale to me.

So, to finish up this quick story, we end up going over to an Irish dive bar about two miles away called O'Keeffe's. It's definitely a dive and it was very Irish (not the fake Irish you get at some of those so-called Irish pubs), but it was totally chill. We liked it a lot there. Both drinks and pool were cheap, the crowd was friendly, and the bartender was really cool too -- he even bought me a beer, which is always good for customer satisfaction. If it weren't so far away I'm sure we'd go back there a lot more.

Blokus

So, if anyone remembers, I played this board game over the holidays called Blokus. I was searching for a cheap place to buy it online today, and I ended up on the official site for the game. Well, what's great is that they have an online version of it that you can play live against others, or play against computers. Plus, you don't have to register and can play as a guest.

Give it a try... it's a great game that has an incredibly simple set of rules, but it's probably one of those 'lifetimes to master' types.

Blokus - Play Online

If anyone wants to play some time, shoot me an IM or something. I suck pretty bad, but hopefully I can get better with more play.

Go (Ukrainian) Army

This is at least a couple of years old, but it's new to me. Pretty ridiculous ad for the Ukrainian military.

1. Join Ukrainian Army
2. ???
3. CHICKS!

A Sloppy Chess Game

I recently played a game of online chess against a guy in the Netherlands that I thought was interesting despite a good deal of sloppiness. I managed to screw up less often and was able to finish with a sneak attack that actually worked. Anyway, here are the highlights of the game. I'm Black, and he's White.

The game started off fairly in a standard fashion until I messed up my position after move 9, which led my opponent to make a strong move... 10. Bxf7+. The Crafty engine approves of this move and I'm pretty much entering into a world of hurt. Crafty says I should have just taken the bishop (resulting in +1.95) as my line was inferior (resulting in +2.96). Either way, I'm in a bit of trouble.

Now, he makes a large mistake by moving his Queen. This allows me to take the bishop, and things are looking a bit better for me. However, I'm still in a bad spot. After some exchanges, we wind up in the following position, which according to the engine isn't so bad (+0.70).

I then manage to screw up with 15. ... Be6, which leads to an interesting spot where he forces a material imbalance at move 17. There's no decision here, and we proceed with a Queen + Rook + 6 Pawns vs 2 Rooks + Bishop + Knight + 4 Pawns. Such an imbalance usually makes for an interesting game.

We end up trading off rooks, and I am presented with the following position where I can even the game out. Too bad I suck, and fail to make the right move (21. ... d5 -- the engine puts us at +0.00 following that correct move). I remember I wasn't super worried about the pawn forking my pieces, because I figured I could threaten his Queen with my Knight. But, I overlooked the fact that if he proceeded to fork me and take my Bishop, it would also put me in check giving his Queen an escape. Lucky for me, my opponent didn't take advantage of this.

After a bit more play, I am able to pull the wool over his eyes and pull out a victory. He started to advance his h-pawn, and I was able to trick my opponent by making a move that looked like I was working on stopping it. But, what I had actually done was threatened to mate him on the next move. He fell for it; it's a mistake that only a human could make. Had I not gotten lucky, I think the game ends in a draw, but who knows.


Here's the game and all of its sloppiness in its entirety.

[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2009.02.21"]
[EndDate "2009.02.24"]
[White "Some Dutch Player"]
[Black "BruteForce"]
[WhiteRating "1420"]
[BlackRating "1616"]
[WhiteELO "1420"]
[BlackELO "1616"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Ng1f3 Nb8c6 4. Bf1c4 d6 5. O-O Bc8g4 6. Nb1c3 Ng8f6 7. d4 a6 8. Bc1xf4 Bf8e7 9. e5 Nf6d7 10. Bc4xf7 Ke8f8 11. Qd1d3 Kf8xf7 12. exd6 cxd6 13. Nf3g5 Be7xg5 14. Bf4xg5 Nd7f6 15. Nc3d5 Bg4e6 16. Nd5xf6 gxf6 17. Bg5xf6 Qd8xf6 18. Rf1xf6 Kf7xf6 19. Ra1f1 Kf6e7 20. Rf1e1 Ke7d7 21. a3 Ra8e8 22. Qd3d2 Be6d5 23. Re1xe8 Rh8xe8 24. b3 Re8e4 25. Qd2g5 Re4xd4 26. Qg5g7 Kd7c8 27. Qg7xh7 Kc8b8 28. h4 Nc6e5 29. h5 Kb8a7 30. h6 Ne5g4 31. Qh7g7 Rd4d1 0-1

Religulous

So, a high school friend of mine sent me Religulous last week. It's a documentary written by and starring Bill Maher. I found some time to watch it over the weekend, and I must say that I found it highly amusing and really funny yet there are parts that are somewhat scary. I guess that's what one would expect from a documentary that takes on religion.

There was one interview with this Catholic priest, Father Reginald Foster, who said a lot of things that I wouldn't expect of someone in his position. If all the super-religious types were to take on his stance on things, maybe religion wouldn't be as unpalatable.

Anyway, I'd recommend this for anyone, especially for those who are intelligent and rational, religious or not. It'll make you laugh out loud a few times, I'm sure of it.

Timber!!!!

Ugh, another brutal day in the market. This link really shows how negative everything was... S&P Heat Map. Pretty gross. Anyway, haven't got much to say other than Boo.

Cavalcade

It's been a while since I've watched a Best Picture Winner for my quest, but I finally did not long ago... Cavalcade.

I'll just keep this short and sweet. I didn't find it all that entertaining, and it was more like a movie that patched together historically significant events and replayed them through the eyes of two different families (one that was well-off, and another that was struggling).

However, the movie did not attempt to show how different these views were really. Like, it wasn't as if there were any large differences between the two. The film is titled appropriately... overall, the movie just wanted to show some U.S. history from 1900 to 1933.

I probably didn't appreciate it the way that I should have, but seriously, it just wasn't all that entertaining. If you want to enjoy a historical cavalcade put into a 'entertaining' movie, I suggest you just watch Forrest Gump instead.

Quick Update

Picked up a small piece of Nam Tai Electronics (NTE) today at $4.75 after its large drop following its earnings report. I might be catching a falling knife here, but I've been tracking it for some time now and I'm finally taking a bite. It is trading below net cash (one of the reasons it was on the watch list was its near-cash valuation), but it's good to be aware that the company has lost some of its cash over the past year due to weakness in its business. They have also suspended their dividend in an effort to preserve their cash reserves.

It's definitely not a sure thing, but I'm in for a small piece and looking to get out on any reasonable advance. Not willing to hold it to $0, but I don't see that happening soon... I just don't foresee management burning through their cash that fast.

End of Sports Betting Experiment

Well, it was fun and somewhat educational while it lasted, but my sports betting experiment is over as of today. The meta-system suffered a bad streak going a miserable 25-39-0. The final tally is that I'm up 0.9 units, and sides/totals won at an unprofitable 51.2%.

Now, I'm confident that the idea of a meta-system that effectively weights 'winning' sports bettors has merit. However, the problem is an obvious one... figuring out which sports bettors are winners is probably just as difficult as handicapping the games.

I will probably give it another go in the future, but for now I'm going to stop, as it started taking up a bit too much of my time. At least I got to make use of the TV a lot more, heh. Another thing is that if I do give it another go, I will probably go tighten up my criteria so as not to put on so many plays each day. I think I was averaging 6 plays a day. Also, it seems that playing only the absolutely best rated plays and flat betting them would have been superior (in hindsight) seeing as there was still a little bit of profit even with only 51.2% win rate.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Earnings Day

So far, after a few short days the Electronic Arts (ERTS) position is underwater about 8%. They release their earnings today after the bell. For the most part, analysts share a pessimistic view and feel the quarter will be disappointing. The company had already warned that the quarter would be weak back in December. I was hoping that much of the negativity had been priced in at the time of purchase with shares trading roughly where they were after their initial warning.

Hoping for the best here, but if the afternoon report is a disaster, I'll try to get out as best I can. With all their cash, I would think that the company has limited downside, but I've been wrong plenty before.

*** Edit ***

Looks like it is going to be brutal. The numbers are pretty bad. I guess I'll be losing some money here real soon. Shares halted... not a good sign.

*** Edit #2 ***

Shows what I know... shares have resumed trading in the afterhours market, and surprisingly, they are trading UP! I figured low expectations were built in, but the numbers were well off what I thought would be palatable by the street. I'm going to be getting out of this thing.... at the very least I'm going to unload at least half of it before the conference call.

*** Edit #3 ***

Unloaded just over half at the same price as I purchased ($16.15). Will hold the rest of it for a little and see how things unfold. I still plan on dumping the rest of it soon... if not tonight, then certainly later this week.

*** Edit #4 ***

Closing the books on this one... dumped the rest of it ~40% at 16.43. I obviously had the Street's expectations pegged wrong (fortunately), and I must really not understand something, but I can't say I like much of what was announced in the earnings release. More or less break-even given the size of the trade. Up enough for a nice meal, but nothing more.

I'll continue to follow the company. Even if it goes up from here, I'm not going to kick myself, because when that report first came out, it scared the crap out of me.

Quick Trade

Picked up a block of Electronic Arts (ERTS) today at 16.15. Looking at this one as a trade, as I don't intend to hold this one for any lengthy period of time. If the shares dip below the previous low around 14.80, I'll probably just take the loss. We'll see how this works out.

Sharp E05SH and E06SH

I'm still here at work waiting for a few tests to finish. Anyway, KDDI announced two new Sharp phones a week ago. These are the Sharp E05SH and E06SH. They were designed for the highly-rugged, highly-secure business phone market in Japan.

UberGizmo covered the phones briefly in this link.

As always, it's nice to see some of your work translate into something that ends up in a real product.Here are a couple images of the phones that I grabbed from the Japanese press release. The E06SH has a barcode scanner built in... that's what is shown in the bottom picture.

Sports Betting Update

Well, I guess it's that time again. Since the previous update, I haven't fared so well. I've put in over 100 more bets, and have actually shown a slight loss since that checkpoint. I could have reported some small gain, except that today my meta-system went a disastrous 3-6 for a loss of 2.6 units.

I don't have much time to put up fancy graphs, etc. But, here's a quick breakdown.

Straight Bets for Sides and Totals have won 52.9%, which isn't all that great, but at least it's not in losing territory.

Sides: 98-96-2
Totals: 22-11-0
Overall: 129-129-3 (includes ML, Combinations, Teasers)

ROI: 3.2%
Net: +8.3 units (where a unit = average bet size)
Change from previous checkpoint: -2.9 units.

ML Net: -0.9 unit
Combinations + Teasers: +0.3 units

Again, the total amount I'm experimenting with is incredibly small. But, even so, I get pretty excited about watching the games and sweating out close ones. I guess it's been fun. Anyway, I haven't reduced my betting sizes yet, but I am thinking about it.

That's all for now.

Perfect Balance

I have just spent more time than I have on this flash game called Perfect Balance. It's pretty neat. The goal is to place all the pieces on the board without anything falling off. On each level, there are some fixed structures from which you build and balance from.

Note that you can rotate pieces... when I first started playing, I didn't read the instructions and didn't realize it. Hehe.

Anyway, there's 40 levels divided up into two stages... Harmony and Inferno. So far, I'm having some difficulty on Level 18, Inferno. I'll give it another go later on. In the meantime, enjoy the game.

Perfect Balance