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Monday, August 27th, 2007
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7:05 pm
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| Wednesday, June 6th, 2007
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5:56 pm - Busted
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Meant to post this the other day but ran out of time.
But I lasted longer than Phil Hellmuth, though not much.
Made it to the first break in alright shape, down to about $2,700 from the original $3,000. Then disaster. I'm BB and everyone folds to the cutoff, who raises. I call with A-Jh. Flop is J-4-4. I bet and get a call. Turn is a blank. I bet and get insta-raised. Dude is tight, but I've seen him raise with shit too, so I'm not putting him on an overpair. Maybe J with weaker kicker or AK. I call and then check-call the river which is another blank. Dude turns over A-4.
Another lap of the button and I pick up A-A in the SB. Folded to me so I raise. Called by BB. Flop is Q-Q-4. I bet and get called. Turn is an 8. I bet and am raised again. Probably should have released at that point, but I call and again check-call the river. BB turns over Q-7 and I'm terribly short-stacked.
Next BB, I pick up A-4h. UTG raises and everyone folds to me. I call. Flop is Qh-7h-4c. I check call with a flush draw and bottom pair. Turn is As for two pair. I bet and am raised all in. I call. UTG turns over A-Q and I don't catch a heart on the river. That's the end of me at the 2007 WSOP.
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(comment on this)
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| Sunday, June 3rd, 2007
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3:04 pm
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Flight was suprisingly alright. Arrived on Friday around 10:15p.m. local time, went to the hotel to check in, then straight to the Rio to register for my event. Spent FOUR FUCKING HOURS in line for registration. They do not have their shit together.
The Amazon Room is huge. 300 tables this year. Only railed for a couple minutes on account of the FOUR FUCKING HOUR wait in line. While waiting, though, saw a lot of familiar faces leaving as they busted out of the tourney, then a lot more as the game ended for the day (at 2 a.m. local time, about half way into our wait). Mike Matusow came by looking pissed (surprise). Barry Greenstein, Cindy Violette, Minh Ly and my boy Devilfish also came by and were a little more friendly. After buying in, we went back to Harrah's and did a little gambling and drinking, finally getting to bed around 8 a.m. local time after eating breakfast. 30 hours of sleeplessness and four beers apparently does me in pretty good.
Woke up at 4:00 p.m. and slowly made our way to the Bellagio, where we ran into MMA fighter Wanderlei Silva. Scary dude. Wish I had my camera with me.
Spent another evening drinking and gambling. Woke up around 10 today for brunch at the Bellagio. Been walking around the strip since.
Tourney goes tomorrow at noon. No drinking today. Need to stock up on some energy bars or something to get me through the 14-hour first day (if I can make it that long).
Wish me luck! Will update if I can get Internet access. It's taken me this long to find it already, and it's rather expensive.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, May 31st, 2007
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10:39 pm - Vegas, baby
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I'll be there this time tomorrow. WSOP Event #6 begins Monday @ 3:00 EST. Live chip counts at cardplayer.com
My mind is right. I'm there to win.
Will update, time and Internet permitting.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, April 12th, 2007
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5:36 pm - God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut
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| Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
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5:44 pm - A short list of long-term poker goals
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1. Play in a WSOP event.
2. Cash in a WSOP event.
3. Make the final table of a WSOP event.
4. Win a bracelet.
Right now, it's looking like #1 will be taken care of in a matter of months. Fingers crossed for 2 thru 4.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, November 13th, 2006
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6:01 am - Jet Lag
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Got home Saturday night around 11:00 after 33-hours of planes and stopovers, and I've pretty much been a zombie ever since, and not the cool, brain-eating kind. As you can see, it is now early Monday morning. I've been up since midnight, and I have to be at work for 9:00 a.m.
Dubai was crazy. The Philippines, crazier. I always figured you were supposed to return from trips like this with a better understanding of different cultures and a deeper appreciation of the human condition. Didn't happen. If anything, many stereotypes were reinforced, and a lot of new ones formed.
Straight up, Manila was a shithole. I don't think I was prepared for that kind of poverty. It was overwhelming and sickening. During my entire stay in the Philippines I saw maybe five or six Western women, but there were dozens of white guys, all either old, overweight, or ugly (often a combination of the three). They were not there on business. Complete fucking creeps.
I was lucky enough to get out of the city to Tagaytay and Legazpi for a couple of days to see some of the Philippines' natural beauty, but even then I found it difficult to deal with the overpopulation and shitty living conditions of the suburban areas.
It's not something I like to admit, but it wasn't long before I felt disconnected from the locals. I don't want to speak for all Westerners, so I'll only say that my values are fundamentally different from the majority of Filipinos'. Admittedly, I didn't get many opportunities to discuss more than superficial topics, but, I mean, for Christ's sake, they had a live cockfighting TV station at the hotel, Vern had a number of ignorant comments made about her weight (they are fucking obsessed with weight, let me tell you), and I witnessed a fist-fight between a cab driver and his fare while two cops watched and laughed for a couple of minutes before stepping in.
And, oh fuck, the HEAT!
Man, this all sounds really negative. The trip didn't totally suck. I definitely had some fun, and I'm grateful for having gone, though I won't ever go back. I'm so fucking whipped right now that this is all I can get out. I'll try to add some happier stories and pics when I'm a little more lucid.
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, September 28th, 2006
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6:39 pm - Another loss
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Yesterday didn't go so well. I got in a five-hour session and lost about $300. I was dealt pocket kings four times and had them cracked three. I didn't flop one set despite being dealt an inordinate amount of pocket pairs. In fact, in my last two sessions, a combined 16 hours of play, I've only flopped one set. Just plain bad luck.
I think I played much better than last week, though. I made some nice reads and won a few pots I had no business even being in. There were two guys I think I had completely pegged, but there were two older women at the table who I had absolutely no clue about. Maybe I have a tougher time reading women (good news for you, Kate).
I was a lot more loose than too, playing a lot of mediocre hands out of position, and probably limping a lot more than I should have. That probably sped the losing up, but the bottom line is I just didn't hit many hands. Still, kinda shakes the confidence a bit.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Thursday, September 21st, 2006
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12:38 am - More poker
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Just got back from an 11-hour session in Brantford, and I'm tired. That's a long fucking time to play, at least for me. I'm aware a lot of pros go 24 hours straight or more, but I have nowhere near that level of endurance.
This was my first losing session all year. Down $85 for the day, but I'm still happy with my overall play. I was down close to $400 at one point and managed to keep my head, make some plays and chip my way back, and I only hit maybe three or four monsters all day.
Still, I should have finished up on the day. About midway through the day there was an hour stretch where I felt exhausted and totally lost my focus and played like booty. That's when I donked off most of my chips. I managed to catch my second wind at the beginning of hour seven (thanks to a quick stretch and three coffees), and I felt great about almost all my moves until the final couple laps of the button.
The quality of the opposition was also pretty tense today, especially early on, which makes sense as it's the middle of the week and the more casual players were likely working. It got much looser around 7:00 p.m., though, which made it that much easier for me to rebuild my stack.
By the end of the night my ass was numb and my vision was blurry from fatigue and hunger, plus it was raining, which made for one bitch of a drive home. I want to make this a weekly trip at least, but especially with winter coming, I think the commute might be too far. We'll see.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, September 8th, 2006
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11:34 pm - A Tribe Called Quest
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My hands-down favourite hip hop act of all time just recently got back together. They're touring and they'll be in Toronto September 17. Tickets are sold out.
I'm reaching out in the hopes that someone will know someone scalping tix. Please, hook me up.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, August 31st, 2006
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10:03 pm - Texas Hold Them
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I’ve been on a bit of a tear recently. I had my eighth consecutive winning cash-game session two weeks ago (brick & mortar, that is), and last weekend I placed second in a live 80-person NL tourney. In more than 12 hours of combined play in the past couple weeks, I’m confident that I only played three hands in a donkeyesque fashion.
I know eight sessions isn’t a big enough sample to predict consistent winnings, but my play has been so solid, my reads have been so good, and my confidence is so high that I’m considering quitting my job (and not for the first time) to go pro. I just don’t have the bankroll to finance it right now, though there’s always my line of credit.
I wish this would have happened a year ago, before buying a house and having mad bills. I’m scared to lose a steady (if a little unspectacular) income, but I think in 10 years I’ll regret not taking the chance more than I will if I fail and end up with debt.
Thoughts?
P.S. Check out McSweeney’s lists, yo.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, March 31st, 2006
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12:04 am - Long time, no post
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Hello.
Much has happened in the past two-ish months. I think most of you know that I've moved into my house. For those that don't, I've moved into my house.
To understate, it's been stressful -- lots of little issues that a more savvy homebuyer would have been on top of, but we overlooked. It'll all be taken care of, by and by, but I'm too short-sighted to be satisfied with that. I want to fix everything now, but I don't even have the time to get a good night's sleep nor the money to pay the gas bill. How the fuck am I supposed to overhaul the bathroom when I don't have the means to keep it stocked with toothpaste?
I do, however, have a gigantic TV in the basement, and that sorta almost makes things alright, so long as I don't remember that I've yet to pay for it. It's awesome, though. I fucking love TV.
We're planning on having a housewarming party some time in June, though I don't know if we'll be able to fix up the back yard by then. The previous owners left it in bad shape, with two-months worth of two-dogs' shit hidden under the snow, the dirty fuckers. Even the deck was covered in shit. I have no problem cleaning up my dog's shit, but I draw the line at cleaning up someone else's, especially when it's been so watered-down by the snow that it's become a formless brown goo.
I'm generally pretty content with home ownership, though. Fact is, we should have covered all this throughout the offer process and upon final inspection (though I figure most people would take it for granted that upon moving in, their back yard would be feces-free). Live and learn, and all that.
Oh yeah, and the beard is gone.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, January 20th, 2006
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1:04 am - My beard
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Remember that Kids in the Hall sketch where the businessman goes on vacation and decides to let his beard grow, which ultimately drives him mad? That's me at this moment, bearded and perhaps losing my fucking mind.
I spend at least 10 minutes every night before I go to bed combing my beard, and countless minutes throughout the day stroking and playing with it. Driving, I can't keep my hands away from my face. I make an attempt to appear sane at work, but as soon as I sit down in my cube, out of sight of everyone, the first thing I do is gently stroke it to make sure it's neat and flat. It feels so good that I can't stop touching it. The skin beneath is red and chapped because I play with it so much.
I've been having a lot more sex dreams too, but maybe that's just the weather.
My beard is a topic of ongoing conversation at work. My hair, when I choose to grow it, is brown, but my beard is distinctly red. I've been asked more than once if I dye it that colour. Who the fuck dyes a beard? There is also an ongoing debate on whether I should keep or shave it. I have a keep:shave ratio of about 5 to 1.
It makes me look older, which is never good, but straight up, the ladies love it. It's fucking sexy! Since growing it, women at work, with whom I've previously had no more than a polite, professional relationship, and some whose names I don't even know, have gone out of their way to approach me to tell me how well I've been looking recently. Motherfucker panty-peeler!
This post has taken me almost 30 minutes to write because I take a beard break in between each paragraph.
Look at it, all of you!
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(9 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
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12:46 am - New Year, same old.
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I'm trying to stay positive, but I always get down when I realize how little progress I've made in a year.
There was this crazy, long-bearded professor from Cambridge University on 60 Minutes who said that within the next 30 years, with adequate funding for scientific research, average human life expectancy could be extended to between 500 and 1000 years. That seems awfully long, but I think I'd feel a little better about pissing most of the last 28 years away if I knew I had that many ahead of me.
I've never really made New Year's resolutions before, but I have some little ones this year, because I figure it's probably easier to succeed at something if the goals are defined, and I'm tired of feeling so unsuccessful all the time.
I want to see my friends more. I hung out with two non-work friends in 2005. That fucking sucks.
I also want to feel healthy for once. I'm not interested in joining a gym or eating nothing but salad. I just want to stop being such a couch potato and not get winded and sweaty walking up a flight of stairs.
I want to at least start writing something publishable, fiction or non, long or short. It doesn't even have to get published, so long as it's publishable.
And, finally, I want to have some money in my savings account at the end of the year, and even more in my poker bankroll.
Wish me luck.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, December 5th, 2005
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1:09 am - Pissing away a long weekend
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Had Friday off to attend Vern's corporate Christmas party in dingy, grimy Sarnia. Got an early start so we could have some time to rest for what was sure to be a long night, and hit a wall of traffic just outside Ingersoll. Some monster accident had the 401 completely shut down. Three lanes of mid-day traffic had to squeeze onto the shoulder to exit. We travelled about three kilometres in a little over two hours.
We barely made the party and were pretty grumpy, so we started drinking heavily with some of Vern's friends, who mentioned a charity casino just down the road from our hotel. I have never turned down an opportunity to gamble in my life, so off we went.
There was a very small poker section, four active tables, laying $3/$6 and $5/$10. I was with a couple guys who have never played live games before, and I hadn't played live in more than a year, so we went with the lower limits so we'd all be able to sit.
I spent the first hour throwing away junk and not taking down a single pot. Tried to make a couple steals early on, but came up against a couple sitting side-by-side who called EVERYTHING! The guys I was with got lucky early on and landed some nice pots. I started playing tight, and eventually the deck hit me. I won a little more than $100 after three hours of play.
At about 1:30 a.m., a pimp sat down two seats to the right of me. I've never seen a real pimp up close before, and I was a little frightened. He wasn't wearing an orange velvet suit or anything that would immediately identify him as a merchant of hoes, but I'm convinced this guy was the real deal.
The first thing I heard was his drawl when he sat down. Thick. The dealer had to ask him to repeat himself several times. The dude was incomprehensible.
When he started playing, I noticed his finger nails were fucking long. I mean really fucking long. Three-quarters of an inch past the end of his fingers, easy, and very nicely manicured. He was an older guy -- 51, I found out later, and in good shape for his age. I probably would have pegged him around 40 -- but he had a mouth full of gold teeth.
I didn't notice at first, but I ran into him in the washroom later and the dude had a cane. A fucking pimp cane. Not decked out in ice or chrome-plated or anything gaudy, but a finely-crafted wooden cane that obviously cost a lot of money. I can assure you, this guy didn't need a cane. It was just part of the ensemble.
Oh fuck, and the limp! He walked with the most exaggerated limp I've ever seen, his cane barely brushing the ground when he dipped. I'm telling you, no 20-year-old thug in the ghettoist of ghettos would be brazen enough to walk with that sort of limp.
He eventually struck up conversation with me in the bathroom, but I could barely make out what he was saying. He was talking about a hand earlier where I rivered him. He had pocket kings, which he slow played, and I limped on the button, with three other callers in earlier position. Flop was 8-10-2, and he bet. I called, as did the three other limpers. Turn was a Q. I was ready to throw the hand away, but it was checked around to him, and he let me catch a free 10 on the river. He bet and I raised and took it down with a set.
Anyway, he wasn't happy about it. I tried explaining that he played his hand like a chump, but he wasn't very responsive to that. I decided to let it go, because, honestly, this guy scared me a bit. He was shifty, and I didn't feel like getting sliced up in a casino washroom.
He also got into a fight with a dealer later in the night about the way he was dealing. The pit boss had to come over and ask the guy to calm down or leave. An ice-cold mother fucker.
I made it to bed around 4:30 in the morning, and had to wake up early to check out. Felt like shit because I haven't drank in so long, slept most of the drive home, then had a two-hour nap once I got back. Woke up around 5p.m., having done nothing all day, and spent the rest of the night watching TV.
Today, a little more of the same. Tomorrow, work. Accomplished, nothing.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, November 4th, 2005
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7:29 pm
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I've been waiting for more than a week to get all the details finalized, but I can now officially announce that Vern and I are the owners of a house in the West end of Guelph. We take possession on January 27th, and I'm informally inviting anyone to come by shortly thereafter for hours and hours of decorating fun.
There's an in-ground pool, too, though you might want to wait a couple months on that.
I'm excited, but far too stressed to enjoy it.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, October 25th, 2005
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5:06 pm
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My uncle Leslie was a funny guy. He was born with a harelip, and was deaf as far back as I can remember, but he got by with an artificial palette and an old, monstrous hearing aid. The doctors and nurses at the hospital weren’t able to put either of them in, though, so we could only communicate with him by writing large, closed-ended questions on a dry-erase board and holding them directly in front of his face.
On Friday morning, he fell in his bathroom, with enough momentum to put his head through the bathroom door and severely bruise his spine, leaving him paralysed from the shoulders down. Uncle Leslie’s BP was too low for surgery, and his kidneys began to fail on Saturday afternoon. When I visited him Sunday, he was semi-lucid and trying to speak, but we couldn’t make out anything. All we could do was ask him if he was comfortable and touch his head and shoulders. With his kidneys gone, it didn’t take long for fluid to build up around his heart and lungs. He died this morning.
He was 81, which is pretty old as far as folks go. Old people die unexpectedly all the time, I guess, which should make it somewhat more expected, but it‘s not, at least in his case. Initially the doctors guessed he might have has a small heart attack or stroke, but the lab results showed that most 30-year-olds are at a higher risk than he was. No broken hip or anything either. He was in good shape. Looks like he just slipped and went down the wrong way. A fucked up way to go.
I only got to see him about once a year, but I always cherished it. I’m not terribly broken up about it all, but I do and will miss him.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
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1:59 am - Lazy
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I just ate a partially frozen piece of lasagna because I didn't want to walk 10 steps to the kitchen to nuke it for another minute.
I also just spent almost three minutes looking at a spot on the wall six feet away from me trying to determine whether the little black mark was a bug or not, when even just a small lean foward probably would have decided it. But my feet are up and I can't be bothered.
I'm still glancing over and wondering.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Friday, October 14th, 2005
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3:08 am
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Stolen from everyone and his sisters.
Leave me your name and...
1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal, lest I punch you one.
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, October 11th, 2005
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1:45 am - In the past month I've...
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Grown a beard, gone camping, seen a bear (while camping), watched K-os perform one of the most entertaining shows I've ever seen, bought an expensive suit, contemplated quitting my job at least 30 times, gotten the ball rolling on starting my own small business, begun to sleep with a CPAP machine, shaved my beard off, had one of the best Thanksgivings in memory, been unable to eat a lot of my favourite foods due to a wicked, persistent case of TMJ.
There are good stories to go along with almost all of those, but I'm hanging on to them for now.
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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