Tax Day

Taxes are competed, so I will have a leisurely tax day.

I don't procrastinate but I get the taxes figured out enough in February to know ball park of refund or pay. The 2009 taxes seemed real strange when I owed a grand+ to Feds but was getting a grand+ back from state. Other than years cashing stock options the state has always been within $100 but with my work sabbatical and different tax treatments of unemployment compensation I thought it was correct.

When I pressed the TurboTax Review button it decided this can't be right and led me to a form where I had somehow entered number as capital gains that belonged in income tax with-held box.

Big props to Turbo Tax for finding me a few thousand mistake.

The actual e-file process did not go smoothly as there is just no possibility to convince them that K2H 8K7 is a valid employer zip code on W-2 for CA or that ON, ONT, OT is a valid state abbreviation.

I got in some cheap rush PLO to celebrate and some cheap super turbos. 45 man $3 superturbos crack me up how can someone call a jam for 600 chips at 15/30 with 89 off?

My Favorite McNabb TD

The 1st one is still saved on my Tivo that is in daughters room.

It is still interesting to see McNabb traded in the division.

For all we know Kevin Kolb is 2nd coming of Rob Johnson.

Farewell Online Poker

I have decided that I will take a break from playing online poker.

Mookie is only thing I have played since Monday and I made mistake of shoving two overs and a flush draw against Speaker and failed to suck out. Congrats to him for deep 50-50 run since he spewed away my gift in Mookie.

During poker break I will get out of my comfy chair and try to get in better physical condition.

Simplest aspect of plan is to have at least 3 days a week where I walk or run.

I figure with my access to public transportation it is pretty easy to walk 1 mile to trolley in morning to get to work, for trip home I can walk home until I feel ready to try to run home. I will just run along trolley route so I can bail and ride but last 3/4 mile (1 mile without trolley change) always has to be at least walking.

Tuesday I made effort but only walked 1st mile toward home when I realized it was frkn cold. So I sprinted 200 yards to catch a trolley. Driver was not going to open the door to teach me a lesson but instead let me in and made admonishing announcement about dangers of jaywalking.

In my defense Tasman was clear to top of hill at least 1/3 mile away and I ran behind trolley after it passed. I chuckled and a few of the other passengers were shaking their fingers at me as they laughed.

Today was supposed to be another trolley day but it was warm under the covers and cold outside. I did not have time for trolley and timely arrival at a meeting so plan broken.

Note for quitter: I will spend medals for iron month to keep streak alive one more month.

Mookie Tonight

In an attempt to revive I believe Al has promised a Full Tilt jersey to the winner of an 80 entrant Mookie tonight. I quit e replaying as payout (top 3 up to 20 some entrants), time involved due to structure only to be sucked out on by a douche-bag lagtard who talks smack after his 25% comes home is just annoying.

I will register assuming home by 7.

I will play depending how wife feels tonight.

My wife was very excited that her favorite niece was going to have a baby, went shopping this weekend and sent the baby gifts Monday morning.

Today same niece is undergoing procedure to remove deceased baby as doctor determined yesterday the heart had stopped beating. I would guess procedure is similar to 2nd trimester abortion (without moral implications or hopefully any protesters). They tried to induce labor and she is still waiting to deliver.

Hope she gets through procedure okay and her grief okay.

I played poker Monday night and was in BB with Th9h9c7c, Scandi UTG raised, SB called

and we saw a flop of Qc8h6h, SB checked, I checked planning on a CR because I don't think I h have ever seen a Scandi check behind after raising pre UTG and indeed saw an almost pot bet an almost pot raised so I made an all in raise feeling I was gambling against a set and an overpair.

Instead

Scandi had QsQd8s6d

SB had Qh8s6s8c

SB was dead money, I was an awesome 75% to win on flop getting 3:1 and did hit my straight.

After teaching me how bad I play in chat (yes even Q886 felt need to educate me) they left I played around to button collecting my 200 points and IronMan for month.

The quitter will never pass my IronMan streak now!

I haven't played a hand since and am probably going to take April off from poker but buy an Iron Month with medals to keep streak alive. I finished Monday up $200 but just not in good poker mindset.

The demon child has me driving her around Saturday otherwise I would have to make an exception for live poker and tri-tip dinner. We'll see how late daughter keeps me Saturday afternoon.

My wife has still not renewed license to drive and has only made the one attempt at test, demon child can take test in 5 weeks and has a week off from school in April. My money is on kid passing test 1st.

NBC Boycott

I will boycott NBC if they run one more commercial for Parenthood that hints at masturbation or women 'faking it' or any other sexual in nature theme before 10 pm!

I understand this is a rather minor threat because I probably only watch 2 hours of NBC's prime time lineup a week because of their overall suckitude but I would prefer the demon child not ask me to explain what faking means?

Wife cracked down on me last week and said I can't delegate all the explaining to her with a "Your her father you're going to have to deal with her growing up!" emphasis.

(For waffles only: Take note of grammatical difference in 'your' and 'you're')

My explanation was halted by daughter, I reported question to wife and she will explain today, if she understands what faking means.

So Stressed

I really like the day to day work I am doing but dealing with the changes from the contracting company is really stressing me out.

Have got to wonder if DrChako can prescribe some medical marijuana to alleviate my stress???

Biggest problem is I am sure my wife would also need something to alleviate her stress over me smoking pot.

The demon child set me up big time last night when she asked me why I never said anything about John Edwards cheating on his wife. I was part way through answering question when I realized wife was paying closer attention than I realized to how I answered question.

I think I escaped trap when I pointed out that Jesse James and Tiger were over the top with their exploits while Edwards' wife to the outside world seemed to accept situation but since she was a politicians wife we would never know the real story until the last book was written.

My Work Day

Was going to update schematic, UNIX machine that hosts my files and tool crashed, put in request to IT.

2nd tried to create a part in vast system, read process document.

Got to step 2 and discovered I don't have EMCO account put in request.

3rd went to update Visio document. Discovered I don't have Visio.

Tried to install Visio and discovered as of 2 weeks ago manager has to approve SW installs for contractors. There is process and it involves having Oracle account

4th established Oracle account now must wait up to 24 hours for password to sync.

5th Got notified EMCO account has been granted access but I will have to sync up password.

How long until hoops tips off?

Demon Child last night concluded "Russell is greatest Survivor player ever. I still hate him"

Mo Health Insurance

I have decided I am ready for full blown socialism with regard to health care.

US branch of company is moving to group health insurance.

Since we are 2 employees and group health is minimum 2 it means we have to agree.

This means our wives have to agree.

Boss has 2 small kids and his wife likes their pediatrician and have been covered by Blue Cross which is very wide network.

I moved 3000 miles to California in 1999, company at time paid 100% family coverage for Blue Cross or Kaiser. Kaiser looked cheaper out of pocket to me option and I had to find a new doctor anyway so no objections to being restricted to Kaiser facilities, they seem to have one in every town out here. Through 4 jobs and 1 period of unemployment we have stuck with Kaiser.

I spent far too much energy on phone and sending emails yesterday, my final email was always going to be enough to end discussion.

"We can switch to Blue Cross if they are willing to accept after we answer the pre-existing conditions portion of application".

2014 we can probably switch insurance carriers but doubt it can happen before then if I am not part of big employee pool.

Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010

Around 1985 the state of Virginia decided it was still okay to charge more for auto insurance based on age but gender could not be a factor in setting rates.

I did not see any savings in what I paid to insure my car but remember hearing from Becky that her auto insurance rates got jacked up.

Seems pretty standard to me that if insurance companies cannot use actuarial statistics to determine insurance charges they will charge higher rates to account for not being able to adjust for payout expectations.

A quick poll of the household would indicate 2 Obama votes in 2010. Neither of them pay taxes into the system so wtf do they care how much something costs.

I suspect I am screwed on this financially because it will either cost money long term in higher taxes or I will be dealing with higher out of pocket costs for health care as my company moves to a cheaper insurance plan. Being sole american I doubt CEO passes on the savings to employees.

I tried to read the bill but it is a lot like reading a document in Microsoft Word in 'Review Mode' if they had a choice of 'show only markup'. Without the underlying government law being modified it is just complete garbage to read!

Back from Vegas

Things that tilted me this trip (in chronological order):

1) 1st time rolling the dice I established a point of 9 4 times. Since I made point on 3rd roll after establishing point 1st 2 times I decided to hop 5-4 3rd roll of that point. I rolled a 6-3. The next roll establishing point again was 5-4.

2) Georgia Tech played the ugliest 2nd half of basketball against Maryland a team has ever played in a victory.

3) It seemed like every person who got near broke at a blackjack table managed to walk to craps table I was at to buy in for less than 3 pass line bets. They of course would only bet "The Field" They also managed to time it to slow down a shooter that seemed to be just about to go a a roll.

4) 2 of the offending field bettors bought in using 5+ $1 bills.

5) Had one bad beat at poker for huge pot.

6) I was asked to leave Casino Royale when a field bettor managed to walk up to the table and knock the dice down as he placed his "money plays" $5 field bet. Laws of probability do not apply to this situation as dice come up 7 >90% of time. My rant was wafflesque resulting in request to leave.

7) I knew things would go badly after this happened Friday morning:

Bayne: I have to leave

Bayne: time for Vegas depart
sirfwalgman: nice
sirfwalgman: gl with the craps
sirfwalgman: I will be ROOTING for YOU
sirfwalgman: Cheering YOU on
sirfwalgman: to KILL CRAPS
Bayne: bastard
sirfwalgman is typing...
sirfwalgman: BLAHAHAHA

I run so bad

Monday I thought it would be funny to suggest to waffles that he could have wine and dinner with a friend from high school but catch was dinner was after running a half-marathon.

Then:

IM 20 minutes ago

K: so

me: so?

K: tell me about waffles

She learns of my blog yesterday when I told her about the can't arouse captcha and the link she clicks on leads her to waffles because google reader picked up this post.

me: I have been sweating ever since he posted:

http://sirfwalgman.blogspot.com/2010/03/marathon-training.html

OMG what have I done

K: yes, that's the post i almost commented on! i'm like, whoa! he's talking about ME!

me: shit

Worse part is I was thinking I would have to train so I could run in a half-marathon just on the slim chance that waffles stuck to a training plan.

Me getting in half marathon shape seemed trivial compared to logistics of can we take kid out of school to go to Disney World in October as kid is less likely to understand me going to Disney World without her than wife would accept me traveling cross country to run with chica from high school.

Was going to head to Las Vegas this weekend with boss and other canadian co-worker, The boss' wife saw 'The Hangover' or has some other issue with him going to Vegas so he has bailed on me, sucky part is I am now within 72 hour cancellation window so I would have to pay for a room I don't use or get free room if I still go.

Health Care

No poker:

Working for a Canadian Company means they do not have a lot of experience dealing with Health Insurance. End of the month I am transitioning from individual policy to a small company group health policy with deductible and HSA. I have no idea what it means for my out of pocket costs and that is my biggest concern since provider is still Kaiser so am willing to assume quality of care is same.

I have still not fully decided how I feel about Health Care 'Reform'. I remain confident that having US Government run would be clusterfuck but would not want to read another story like Otis' 2nd child.

I decided it would still be a good idea to contact the White House and send them link to Otis blog, I also may have included a rant about Hospitals' biggest drive seemed to be run tests to rule out issues (from wife's seizure experience) which I was not sure was to pay for equipment or protect from lawsuits. Insurance companies big drive seemed to be to raise premiums and deny claims and pharmaceutical companies biggest drive was to medicate moods or sell me Cialis or Viagra.

Of course White House wants to make sure a bot does not flood them so a captcha came up on send:

Marching On

No Poker Content:

I saw on Facebook a friend had commented on some pictures of a Naval vessel that were posted.

It got me curious about the ship I spent a month on during my ROTC summer cruise.

A quick google search led me to the 'plankowners' site of the USS Thorn. My summer cruise occurred 20 months after commissioning so I served with some of the plankowners.

I looked through the site than ran into one page that saddened me:

How am I old enough to have served on a ship that was new when I boarded but has been decommisioned and used for target practice????

Grats Canada on Hockey Gold, don;t know how US lost the momentum from end of regulation. It does strike me as strange that overtime is 4 on 4 when US played the rest of tournament 5 on 5. But going to shootout would have been worse.

SCOOP Ticket Step 1

After reading all the uproar over the pokerstars email I sat at my desk contemplating PokerStars offer I decided to consider two factors:

1) Has Stars accumulated any good will?

2. How hard is it to meet the 1st condition?

Waffles never has a bankroll which is why playing poker is clearly a game of skill.

I am sensing a theme but doubt I will get a $109 ticket for showing the most work or imagination.

So Lonely

It's not easy being the only American in a Canadian Company today.

No emails.

No calls.

Don't they understand I am in pain from the top 2 (1:40 mark)

'Good Luck Waffles'

Waffles lit me up in chat yesterday. I had been telling him for months in IM that now that he is divorcing it was time to pursue his dream girl. Of course the tard felt he had to level up his character in some RPG first so I had to put up with his crying in IM about her changing her facebook status from 'single' to 'in a relationship'. I suggested he move on to another blogger who apparently desires some relationship drama so she has more to talk about with her girlfriends.

It was at this moment that it hit me that just like Dane Cook in 'Good Luck Chuck' waffles may be the key to women finding happiness.

The best part for you ladies out there is you don't actually have to sleep with waffles for it to work. We concluding all it really takes is waffles believing he has a chance with you.

So as a service to my single female readers, for a token $5 transfer on Full Tilt I will convince waffles he has a chance with you. Between his delusional self and my ability to goad waffles into a bad prop bet I have to believe I can succeed in getting waffles to believe he has a chance.

It may actually take him months (who am I kidding years) to work up the nerve to talk to you so you may never even have to reject him.

If you have a troll fetish and actually want to be set up with waffles I can arrange this for $250. The extra cost is for your own good and money will be donated to a worthy charity as it would feel like profiting from conflict diamonds to keep.

On a side note all the Fidus employees in Ottawa have the day off for Family Day, all the Canadians in Fidus US office have President's Day holiday. I am stuck working because Cisco does not have Presidents Day off so I am missing FTOPS O8 (scene of my glorious FTOPS final table).

Such a bad beat!

Back to "Start-Up"

Last year I made a decision that I was tired of working for start up companies and the long hours that entailed. Thought decision to go to services company would free me up. Then they pimped me out into my old industry.

Even at the biggest companies apparently they will request that you put in some extra hours to reach project milestones. I am probably stuck working 60 hour weeks for most of February.

Poker will probably limited this month, I may even have to use medals to maintain my IronMan streak unless RushPoker can get me some points. There is no reason to give former blogger RecessRampage an opening to a longer streak just in case he drops pathetic claim that Platinum Star status on PokerStars is worth more than rakeback on FullTilt.

I hate that Gold Star status on Pokerstars may slip away from me as well, I like to maintain that so if double status tournies return I can sneak my way to SuperNova, came close last time they ran promotion but settled for bump to Platinum.

Next Post will probably be my NCAA tourney preview.

At least the long hours this time mean the sure thing of overtime rather than the speculative payout of IPO. It's like I switched from playing tournies to grinding cash.

Fawk Rush Poker

Being on the West Coast is brutal. I have been summoned to the SVP in charge of IT here because they apparently don't have enough bandwidth to get files streamed between corporate sites and handle Waffles IM barrage as he plays Rush poker.

How the fuck do you stream so many hand comments?

Could you multi-table please to slow IM down?

Fawk if Cisco's servers can't handle the traffic then who can?

Saturday Night Rush

Decided Saturday Night 'Rush Poker' would be a good idea.

Lesson from graph above is to get your money in bad.
Hand 1 I got it in with top set against 2 flush draws (neither nut flush draws) and one of them went runner runner straight.

Hand 2 I got it in with Top pair, nut flush draw and went runner runner straight against middle set.

Lesson 1 from Saturday is get it in bad.
Lesson 2 is it is trivial to get in 700 hands.

Somehow I find it fitting that Brett Favre threw an interception in Conference Championship game as both a Packer and Viking on throws that could most kindly be labeled 'reckless'.

Vikings and Saints both have fine (long suffering) fan bases, but after scenes from Katrina it is hard to not to be happy for New Orleans.

"Move it Shorty"

It seems like a fine expression when a short stack at table is holding up game making a decision every hand.

It does not seem like respect when "Move it Shorty" is said by the Demon Child as she walks behind her mother. Now I am beginning to wonder is kid really still growing or is my wife shrinking?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

To review a betting sequence:

1) Democrats in Massachusetts expect Kerry to beat Bush in 2004.

2) Governor is Republican so they change long established rules from Governor appoints interim Senator to call for special election.

3) Kerry loses.

4) Devan Patrick (Dem) wins Governors Office.

5) Senator Kennedy dies.

6) Republican Senate candidate wins Teddy's old seat, putting in doubt legislation Senator Kennedy worked for most of his career.

Well played Massachusetts Democrats!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I played super turbos rather than the new "Rush Poker" to get my requisite 100 point goal.
I am behind ironman bonus clearing pace at this point, but tutoring demon child in algebra plus new project at work is kicking my ass.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had a change of heart and played some 'Rush Poker', I had heard play was terrible so gave it a shot. It took ~40 minutes to get in 150 hands and win 2.5 buyins.

Full Tilt Poker Game #17745350356: Table Apollo - $0.10/$0.25 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:30:40 ET - 2010/01/20
Seat 1: Ashing ($10.94)
Seat 2: NASCAR-1955 ($105.68)
Seat 3: usgrant1862 ($34.30)
Seat 4: SBSlackers ($83.24)
Seat 5: bayne_s ($51.11)
Seat 6: X-Chess ($16.83)
Seat 7: senseoffense ($100.52)
Seat 8: bcnbc ($18.29)
Seat 9: Mados ($24.75)
X-Chess posts the small blind of $0.10
senseoffense posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bayne_s [2h 2d]
bcnbc folds
Mados raises to $0.50
Ashing folds
NASCAR-1955 folds
usgrant1862 folds
SBSlackers calls $0.50
bayne_s calls $0.50
X-Chess calls $0.40
senseoffense folds
*** FLOP *** [4c 2c 2s]
X-Chess bets $1.25
Mados calls $1.25
SBSlackers folds
bayne_s calls $1.25
*** TURN *** [4c 2c 2s] [Qc]
X-Chess bets $3.50
Mados calls $3.50
bayne_s calls $3.50
*** RIVER *** [4c 2c 2s Qc] [Jd]
X-Chess has 15 seconds left to act
X-Chess bets $11.58, and is all in
Mados has 15 seconds left to act
Mados calls $11.58
bayne_s raises to $23.16
Mados calls $7.92, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $3.66 returned to bayne_s
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bayne_s shows [2h 2d] four of a kind, Twos
Mados mucks
bayne_s wins the side pot ($15.40) with four of a kind, Twos
X-Chess mucks
bayne_s wins the main pot ($48.68) with four of a kind, Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $67.08 Main pot $51.24. Side pot $15.84. | Rake $3
Board: [4c 2c 2s Qc Jd]
Seat 1: Ashing didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: NASCAR-1955 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: usgrant1862 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: SBSlackers folded on the Flop
Seat 5: bayne_s (button) showed [2h 2d] and won ($64.08) with four of a kind, Twos
Seat 6: X-Chess (small blind) mucked [Ac 9c] - a flush, Ace high
Seat 7: senseoffense (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: bcnbc didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Mados mucked [4s 4d] - a full house, Fours full of Twos

Clearly I play good.