Come on September!

Well, I’ve been trying to put up a big blog update for a while now, and just can’t seem to do it. To make a long story short, it’s been a tough summer, and I’m not really interested in turning this blog into more of an emo-fest than it already is.

So! Here’s the lowdown on September plans. I’m finally done with travelling for a bit and should have some consistent peace and quite once I move back up to Boston next week. Time to to relearn how to play poker. I’ve played a whopping 35k nightmare-ish hands since May 1st. I am seriously rusty and my heart is probably bleeding from all the beats I’ve taken, and I think my brain has melted from all the tilt/stress.

I’m shooting for 40k hands of 100nl in September. I’ve got an absolutely beautiful new 30″ Apple cinema display that fits six tables like a dream, so I don’t think that should be too hard. As always the catch will be whether or not I can maintain some discipline and not tilt like a monkey every five minutes. We’ll see – I’d like to say I have some compelling reasons for thinking I’ll do a better job handling the swings, but I don’t, at least not really. I don’t know what to say other than that it’s time to grow up a bit.

Anyways, on to more fun stuff. In no particular order:

Mad Men is a sick show. I’m only a couple episodes into the first season, but I’m impressed.

I will buy one of these soon if I ever make $ again at poker.

StoxEV is an amazing piece of software. Another goal for September is mastering how to program with it.

The Gaslight Anthem and Ra Ra Riot are both pretty sweet bands. I think the edge has to go to Ra Ra Riot though since they somehow have a super hot violinist AND a super hot cellist I mean look at them! If poker doesn’t work out I’ll probably become a groupie and try to marry one of them.

Let’s see, what else… I’ve been reading a bunch of Philip Roth’s stuff lately. Portnoy’s Complaint is probably the funniest book ever, if you like goofy lewd humor you should check it out. I can understand why some people wouldn’t like it (it’s definitely monotonous, but being monotonously hysterical isn’t such a bad thing), but I really enjoyed it. Right now I’m working on A Confederacy of Dunces, In Defense of Food, and Frank Wilczek’s new popular physics book, The Lightness of Being.

Ok sweet, hopefully I’ll keep updating this thing and get back on track quickly. Peace and good luck everyone, Alan

PS. I also have an iPhone now! It’s pretty damn cool, although it’s hilarious that whenever you’re inside a sturdy building, standing behind a large bus, in a remotely rural area etc. you get no signal from AT&T. Lame.