Live Blog: Creating a song

OK, here's something I've never tried before. Live blogging a song. I was messing with my guitar and just playing this little riff. I have the guitar capoed at the second fret. I'm playing kind of a C to D chord pattern, pulling off of my my middle finger in the C cord about halfway through the strum pattern, pretty common for me. Actually maybe the last note of the c strum I pull off. I'm muting the strings with my picking hand and I'm picking with my fingers, giving it that staccato sound. Lord knows if I'm spelling this stuff right. 10/9 12:19pm

I'm humming a little melody to the chords, now I need to dive into a chorus. I'm going with G, Am, C, D, pretty standard progression it might change. Let's see if I can throw some words on top of this puppy. 12:22pm

You held me
Through the storm
You loved me
Through the fire
You saved me
In my darkest hour
You led me
Through the valley

First verse? 12:36

I think the 3rd and 4th what are they called? stanza's? need to be reversed. To where it's You led me, and then you saved me. Now to the chorus, I think sometimes thats the hardest part to write. 12:40pm

You
My Rock and my Salvation
Through every generation
A cause for celebration Hmmm, sounds ok when I play it. 1:10pm

You
My Savior and Redeemer
To whom I seem so eager
To raise my hands to ....

You!

kind of weak but try and find something to fit with redeemer, ugh! Remember, these are just beginning ideas, ok, I've got to go to sleep! 1:33pm

Poker Stars WSOP $1 Million giveaway: Weekly Final Live Blog

10:00 am I qualified into this tournament on Tuesday in one of the hourly tournaments that Poker Stars is running. The actual qualifying tournament was pretty much a super turbo rush job. I was surprised when I looked at the tournament info at the $5,000 starting stack and the blinds starting off small and lasting for 15 minutes. It's actually somewhat of a real tournament and not just a poosh fest. I don't know if that's good or bad for me. It's a half an hour before the tournament starts and there's already over 7,000 runners.

It's funny how excited I am about this tournament. It's the same feeling I get when I buy a lotto ticket. I get to dream about what I would do if I won. I'm picturing myself driving out to Vegas, entering into my suite at the Palms, hob nobbing with all the poker glitterati, you get the picture. Ahhh, dreaming. I don't do as much of it as I used to. So for a couple of hours I get to dream.

10:30 am 7,795 runners start it off, people are already playing 10x the blind on the first couple of hands. Sigh.

10:45 blinds up to 15/30 I'm at 4,800 in chips. Saw a couple of flops but nothing happened. Stack: largest 20355, smallest 10, average 5261 Your current position is 5195 out of 7424.

11:00 am blinds 25/50 I'm at 6,895 in chips. Won a couple of hands and split a plot to get up above the starting stack. Stack: largest 29325, smallest 100, average 5841 Your current position is 384 out of 6681

11:15 blinds 50/100 I won another couple of pots to double my starting stack. $10,445. Feeling pretty good about my play right now. Stack: largest 35610, smallest 180, average 6239 Your current position is 814 out of 6263

11:30 first break blinds 75/150. I'm at $10,945. Was a slow level for me. I actually got check-raised out of a pot that somewhat hurt. OK, got to go pee. Stack: largest 41595, smallest 70, average 6881 Your current position is 759 out of 5664

11:50 blinds 100/200. My first huge all in bluff works. Thank God. $14,570 in chips. I'm also at a new table, a couple of stacks larger than mine. Stack: largest 77640, smallest 50, average 8003 Your current position is 560 out of 4880

12:13 I'm out. The stupid hand that crippled me. I don't know what the hell I was thinking, couldn't lay it down. I hate myself right now....

PokerStars Game #18443112332: Tournament #84389993, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (125/250) - 2008/06/28 - 15:07:35 (ET)
Table '84389993 974' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: raster1 (13410 in chips)
Seat 2: Marto28 (3380 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: ashhardwares (11109 in chips)
Seat 4: Nuscas (3275 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 5: bub66ohm (14270 in chips)
Seat 6: MrSiggs (21243 in chips)
Seat 7: Cigman420 (3525 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: headsuppkr (9400 in chips)
Seat 9: SLOWHANDS59 (12158 in chips)
raster1: posts the ante 25Marto28: posts the ante 25
ashhardwares: posts the ante 25
Nuscas: posts the ante 25
bub66ohm: posts the ante 25
MrSiggs: posts the ante 25
Cigman420: posts the ante 25
headsuppkr: posts the ante 25
SLOWHANDS59: posts the ante 25
MrSiggs: posts small blind 125
Cigman420: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to bub66ohm [8c Jc]
headsuppkr: folds
SLOWHANDS59: calls 250
raster1: calls 250
Marto28: folds
ashhardwares: calls 250
Nuscas: folds
bub66ohm: calls 250
MrSiggs: calls 125
Cigman420: folds

*** FLOP *** [5h Jd Js]
MrSiggs: checks
SLOWHANDS59: checks
raster1: checks
ashhardwares: checks
bub66ohm: bets 800
MrSiggs: folds
SLOWHANDS59: folds
raster1: calls 800
ashhardwares: folds

*** TURN *** [5h Jd Js] [2s]
raster1: checks
bub66ohm: bets 1600
raster1: raises 1600 to 3200
bub66ohm: raises 9995 to 13195 and is all-in
raster1: calls 9135 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (860) returned to bub66ohm

*** RIVER *** [5h Jd Js 2s] [6d]

*** SHOW DOWN ***raster1: shows [2h Jh] (a full house, Jacks full of Deuces)
bub66ohm: shows [8c Jc] (three of a kind, Jacks)
raster1 collected 27995 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***Total pot 27995 Rake 0 Board [5h Jd Js 2s 6d]Seat 1: raster1 showed [2h Jh] and won (27995) with a full house, Jacks full of DeucesSeat 2: Marto28 folded before Flop (didn't bet)Seat 3: ashhardwares folded on the FlopSeat 4: Nuscas folded before Flop (didn't bet)Seat 5: bub66ohm (button) showed [8c Jc] and lost with three of a kind, JacksSeat 6: MrSiggs (small blind) folded on the FlopSeat 7: Cigman420 (big blind) folded before FlopSeat 8: headsuppkr folded before Flop (didn't bet)Seat 9: SLOWHANDS59 folded on the Flop

There it is. In a live tourney I probably only call in that spot and then get out of the way. Here I think I can push someone off of a hand, he obviously check raised me with something and I wasn't going to get him off the hand. Shit. Oh well, maybe next year. I think I'm going to go play some live cash at the Lady Luck as soon as I cool off.

Random Thoughts

I have never looked so forward to going back to work after my days off as I am today. I have spent the last couple of days (except for a couple hours at my NA meeting) cooped up in my bedroom reading blogs and playing online poker. I even fell asleep during the Padre game before we got the winning runs in the bottom of the 8th. Letty woke me up to tell me. I'm bored. If I was in a meeting I'm sure someone would point out to me that's because I'm boring. Maybe. Can't wait to get my bills caught up so I can have some old fashioned fun again. I am such a whiner.

One of the things I have been trying to do is to find some interesting christian blogs to read. Verily, I tell you, they do not seem to exist. I read over 40 of them yesterday trying to find just one funny, entertaining blog. I got a lot of conservative christian blogs. No offense, but that's not my cup of tea. I don't hate gays, drug addicts, alcoholics, or degenerate gamblers. I'm not real fond of pedophiles. I guess that's my big dislike. A lot of them seem to have this "us" against "them" attitude. Maybe it's a "holier than thou" thing. I think maybe it's because the ones that I have been reading have been Christians all their lives and I don't relate. Then there are the "bible study" or "theological" blogs which is like reading quantum physics. Snoooooooze.

I want to read about struggle. I want to read about how people apply their faith in real life situations when everything isn't going their way. I want to read about how people overcome their addictions and fall back but still persevere. I get more of that in the poker blogs that I read than the christian ones. People doubting their poker playing abilities but persevering through it till the next big pot.

I don't know about anyone else. I struggle with all of this. I know, I'm too much of a thinker. An analyzer. I've never been able to go "Oh, that's just the way it is." Some days my faith is great and sometimes it's not so great. I've been going to self help groups for 22 years. I should know that I shouldn't judge my insides on other people's outsides. Yet I do it again and again. Human nature I guess.

I'm thinking about looking for some recovery blogs today. Maybe I will find some hope over there with the rest of the dope fiends. Thank God for the poker people. They keep it interesting around here.