Here Comes the Rain Again

We can share the women, we can share the wine...Jack Straw just started as I type this. Today's Sunday Selection is from the Paramount Theatre in Portland, OR. It's a fairly mellow vintage 1972 and perfect for a stormy Sunday morning w/coffee and a bowl. If only they could harmonize....

I'll be spending the day on the poker tables over at Pokerstars. I'm using the shitty weather to justify this. I am in a Deep Stack tourney right now where I'm going to employ some 'small ball' strategy. I am also scheduled to play in the Sunday Quarter Million @ 3pm and maybe a few others too.

Yesterday I spent the day inside the Madison Avenue Pub playing poker as it dumped on the city. While I was there I played in Saturdays with Dr. Pauly which was my first Pot Limit Omaha tournament. I finished 14th of 44 and got my stack in with the best of it before my opponent's flush card hit on the turn. That crippled me and I was left to push and hope. I played a few hours on some PLO cash tables and came out with a slight profit, but I'm not sure if it was because of good play or bad opponents. I was there for 1/2 price appetizers and put back an order of ribs and an order of Voodoo Chicken Fingers during the 3-7pm sale washed down with 5-6 pints of Keith's which also happened to be on sale. I made about as much playing poker as I spent at the bar.

I'm having some trouble finding a dance partner for my fantasy baseball poll trade deadline. I am looking to add either a Stud starting pitcher or second baseman. My depth is in the outfield and above average, but not studly starting pitching. I'd be happy with my team as it is as it's very well rounded, but if I can make it better I will. Right now I'm holding down the wild card spot for the playoffs. We have 3 four team divisions for some reason. I am currently second in my division but would be in first in any other division. As such, I may end up with the second best record but will go into the playoffs as the 4th seed.

I am the commissioner of a Yahoo football league called "The Lion's Den". I have sent out invites for this upcoming year so as to give everyone enough notice to prepare for the draft. With families, multiple time zones, etc this is a must. Last year we did an auto-draft which is kind of like getting dealt a hand of cards. I like the decision making, smack talk and berating of each others picks that goes along with the live draft. I have been able to link up our past leagues on Yahoo so now we can keep running stats vs each other over extended periods of time. We can now pick up patterns like 5 wins-in-a-row against another opponent. This is useful info for "Smack Talk". I have a good solid core of 6-7 players and others have come and gone. Some were kicked out because they were bumps on a log. If you're running a fantasy league and don't want any lame duck owners I would recommend charging the last place finisher 2 or 3 times the entry fee. Hockey will be starting soon too and that's a lot of fun. I am going to run a free-to-enter fantasy hockey pool over at ESPN as a part of my Tragically Hip Blog.

Speaking of fantasy sports, I have been on a good run over at Fantasy Sports Live tripling my initial buy-in in just over 2 weeks. It's a pretty cool concept. The match-ups are daily and you can play in more than one. It is set up like single table poker tournaments and can have 10 players with the top 3 getting paid down to a heads-up match where the winner takes all. The cost goes from $1 up to $200+ per match so there's something for everyone. If you're interested hit the links provided here and enter bonus code JStraw to get a little something extra. The best part is you can load and unload via Paypal. No need for CCs.

We're still in the midst of a garbage strike here in Toronto. The weather is just not cooperating with the union. In an ideal world it would have been a hot and muggy July and the city would have been just stinking. Instead we haven't had much above 24C. Room temperature works for me. Some people have been complaining about this, but trust me, these will be the same people bitching about the smell when the temperature does go up. As for the workers who are holding out for the benefits of future employees while walking off a job that pays the over $24/hr to do moronic work like sweeping sidewalks, I hope they're prepared to face the wrath of this city's citizens when they come back. People are unemployed and hurting. Wrong economic climate to pull this shit. They better not be standing around either. Not when you and I paying their salary.

I love the 10 minute Dark Star intro before Jerry hits that first verse...

-mrjackstraw