I didn't forget about you, Knicks. Way to have an 8-point lead with just over a minute to go, and blow the game. Pathetic. Allan Houston is so overrated and overpaid, it makes me sick. Van Horn looked good, but he's as streaky as they come. Hard to be optimistic at this point, especially considering all the talent loaded up on the 76ers, Pistons, and, oh yeah, the entire Western Conference. This team has a long, long shot at the first round of the playoffs they way they are right now, thanks mainly to Houston's $100 million contract. If Houston wanted to be on a playoff team, he'd agree to cut his checks down for the good of the Knicks, but that's just crazy talk.

"Russell Crowe scoffed at the Bondi Hilton ban on flip-flops and wore a pair into the lobby of the posh hotel, according to the Scottish Daily Record. When reprimanded by an employee, he chuckled, 'Pretend they’re stilettos, mate.'" -- This gets my vote for Most Pathetic Instance of Girly Social Rebellion. Good thing they didn't notice your garter belt, Russ.

Knicks play for the first time tonight... time to see if they still suck.

Zen Master must intervene: "Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal have gone over the line, even for 2003. They have branded themselves as self-centered mercenaries without peer. They have put their own childish squabbles way ahead of the team. They are serving as icons for greed." Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamen.

CNN.com - School cooks win $95 million in Powerball - Oct. 28, 2003 - You can't help but be happy that something good finally happened in lunch lady land. Sloppy joe, slop-a-sloppy joe.

Bush: Iraq insurgents are ‘desperate’ - "He said those who are continuing to engage in violence 'can’t stand the thought of a free society. They hate freedom. They love terror. They love to try to create fear and chaos.'"

Why does Bush have to paint this ludicrous picture of the terrorists in Iraq? He makes it sound as if there's this race of terrorist demon-people with horns and fangs out there who would love nothing more than a world of fire and brimstone. Why not focus on helping Americans understand the terrorists' motives, which are most likely tied to the fortunes they made on oil while Saddam was in power? The terrorists are very, very bad people, but they are most likely driven by greed, revenge, and envy -- not a psychotic passion for death and destruction.

Poker: +$11
Number of times I bluffed: 0
Number of times people called me anyway, and lost: Enough
Bills: A little. Chiefs: A lot. Bledsoe: 4 INT, 1 fumble lost.
Amount of beef in the first mattdana-made pot of chili: 2 lbs.
Amount of a large container of extra hot chili powder emptied into the chili: ~ 33%

Someday, when you look at somebody and can't remember their name, you'll be able to access a database chip stored in your head and your eyes will digitally recognize their face and inform you of the person's name. I give it 30 years. This is what I was thinking about on my ride home.

CNN.com - Personal submarine for the super-rich - Oct. 24, 2003 - The day I have a million extra bucks lying around is the day I buy one of these.

Yahoo! Sports: "The strangest sight in the league this year will be watching the Utah Jazz without John Stockton and Karl Malone."

I miss those guys already. They were just about all the personality the NBA had left after it lost Magic, Bird, Isiah (sp?) and Jordan... meaning that if it felt lonely to be an NBA fan last season, it's even worse now.

Man survives plunge at Niagara Falls - Sounds like this dude just flopped over the falls like it was no big deal.

Dave Barry's Blog - The best blog in the universe.

ABCNEWS.com : Alaska Court Strikes Down Pot Law - "...the danger to society from marijuana is not as great as the danger of government intrusion into people's homes. " Amen.

ABCNEWS.com : Hard-Luck Cubs Fan ID'd - Proof that the news media will do anything for a story... in this case, they're ruining someone's life by publishing everything they know about him. Would it be so hard to keep his name a secret and spare him nationwide infamy?

Red Sox beat Yankees, tie ALCS: "Singer Michael Bolton had a long pause during the national anthem when he apparently lost his place after “ramparts we watched.” He resumed, and the fans sang the last few lines with him. When he concluded, some fans booed."

Monkeys’ brains move robotic arms - Really incredible. This is the news every paraplegic in the world has been waiting to hear.

Saw them playing a preseason game on Saturday and they looked bad. Van Horn looked really bad. We might be in for another long season.

CNN.com - Former Miss America strikes, kills cyclist - Oct. 13, 2003 - When are people going to figure out that riding their bikes on roads meant for cars is a bad idea? This story only made the news because someone vaguely famous was driving, but I'm sure it happens every day. It should be illegal to ride your bike on the road, because it's stupid. It shouldn't have to be illegal, but people are stupid.

Knicks Sign Mutumbo - We've got Mutumbo! If McDyess comes back, that puts the lineup at...

PG - Howard Eisley/ Charlie Ward - Nothing special, but good enough.
SG - Allan Houston - Not worth $100 million, but still one of the best shooters in the league.
PF - McDyess - Could be an All-Star and the best player on the team if he's healthy.
SF - Kurt Thomas - Gets better every year; great defender and improving scorer.
C - DIKEMBE MUTUMBO - If he's healthy, he can guard any center in the league.

F'n A, that almost looks like a team that should be playing in the NBA!

When we went to war with Iraq, I was glad because I believed everything the administration said about Saddam, being close to nuclear weapons, having huge stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, etc. I didn't think they would be stupid enough to lie about something like that, but they did, and you know the Democrats are building their (legitimate) case about it now, and in the 2004 campaign they're going to bury Bush with evidence that he lied, repeatedly, to the American public. That will be a good day.

Bill Clinton. If he were president after 9/11, he would have milked it for all the international support he could have gotten, and if we ever went to war with Iraq (which we now see there was no need to rush into), we would be doing it with the blessing of the UN and twenty other armies at our side. The country was so much better with him around, not this retard we have now.

Knicks unsure when McDyess to play - This article just reminded me that I have to deal with being a Keith Van Horn fan now that he's on my team. Seriously, I'd take just about anyone but him, a guy who's an OK jump shooter (and nothing else) until the postseason, when he turns into John Starks, Game 7 vs. Houston. I want Spree back, and Allan Houston (and his $100 million contract) traded for a halfway decent center. And I want McDyess at the beginning of the season -- the guy broke his kneecap in the pre-season LAST YEAR -- how can he possibly not be ready by now?

Kobe Off the Court - Pretty fascinating article about Kobe... a good example of what happens when you give a kid a one-dimensional childhood.

Brotha Sean had this one by Dubya in his buddy info... "There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again."—Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

Dean for America: Home

Forgot to mention this before -- fuck Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark. He's only running as a Democrat because he can't run as a Republican this year. He's better than Bush, but barely. Howard Dean is actually a true progressive Democrat, someone who I might actually expect* to take the right steps with the environment, health care, and education. Clark doesn't seem to have it together on domestic issues.

*Note I didn't say "trust." Dean's impressive, and I have high hopes for him, but they're just hopes.

CNN.com - Appeals court backs victim fund in 9/11 lawsuit - Sep. 30, 2003

I hate reading about families of 9/11 victims who complain that $1.5 million, tax-free, isn't enough. Only in America do people react to tragedy by suing everyone their lawyers say they should.

I've been having a good amount of success at poker lately. I've come to a few conclusions about the game.

1) Most players aren't really watching you. They like to think of themselves as observant poker players, but they're too preoccupied with their own hands and strategies. Most poker players have written themselves a book, whether they know it or not, about how they will play in a given situation, and it doesn't matter how you've been playing all night, they'll still play the same way against you. This is the only way to explain how my retardedly simple "strategy," if you can call it that, worked tonight. More on that later.

2) Most players don't bluff. When real money's out there, few players have the balls to put a solid bet out when they don't have the cards. A few do, and more often than not, these players do it too frequently and pay for it.

OK, just two conclusions, but they're important ones. How I won $85 tonight:

1) I never played a hand that wasn't fantastic from the get-go, which means I folded 95% of my hands before the flop. I would play any pair, or suited face cards.

2) If I got something on the flop, I'd check if it was nearly unbeatable, and bet if all I had was the high pair. Better to scare people way early than see a higher card come out.

3) Once some people were in, and I was certain I had the best hand, I'd bet everything I could. Very rarely was I even concerned that someone else had a better hand than me once I started betting.

I did the exact same thing all night, and you'd think people would have figured out that I absolutely always had a hand, but they didn't. Well, by the end they did, but it was too late, I was busy building castles with my chips. It's interesting to note that this is also how I got so far in the poker tournament (2nd of 45 or so) a couple weekends ago. I folded most of my hands before the flop then too.

The funny thing is I know I'd get killed by real card sharks. They'd spot how tight I was playing right away, and I'd watch my pile slowly dwindle as I folded my blinds away, until I got desperate and they moved in for the kill. And I have no idea how to correctly play loose -- I get killed when I try -- so that would be a pretty hopeless situation.

If you were observant enough to find my blog, then congrats, you know how I'll be playing poker in the near future, and you'll know enough to fold when I start betting. Then, once I run this well dry, it's on to some new theory...