Random

So let's just get an old-fashioned stream of consciousness ramble on, shall we?

So when I stepped onto the scale this morning, we reached a new benchmark in our weight loss trials - 240.8 lbs. Fuck y'all, I'm rounding down and calling it 240. That makes roughly 25 pounds since I started this endeavor, and it all started with me looking at some pictures from Shrew rehearsals and thinking "wow, what a fatass." So it took me a month to lose the latest 5 lbs., and a good piece of that is because there was a Vegas trip in that month, and my schedule got all funky with travelling then doing the show. Now that my schedule is hitting some semblance of normalcy, I've been able to focus on getting the weight off again.

Next up is exercise. Saturday I'm headed to Sears to pick up a NordicTrack recumbent bike for me and Suzy to start using. I've wanted one for a while, and this one's on sale and has a decent reputation, so we'll see if I can add an exercise component to my weight loss and actually get down to my goal weight. Yep, I finally set a goal, and it's a long way from here. I want to get down under 200. That's another 40 pounds away, and probably at least a year from now, but I'm shooting for getting down to close to my college weight. If I see 199 once, I'll be happy to float around 205 forever, but in a perfect world I'll stop somewhere in the 195 neighborhood. That might be overreaching a little, because I'm still thick through the chest (and head) and have big shoulders and shit like that, but it's something to work towards.

Along the lines of things to work towards, I've been working on some of the leaks in my poker game recently. I sat down at the computer and came up with a list of ten things that bleed money from me in poker games, and now each night after rehearsal, I spend a little time decompressing by donking around at Full Tilt (Bonus Code Falstaff!) and I keep that list open on my laptop as I play. Some of the notes are limit-specific, as I spend most of my time at the $1/2 tables, but some are just a given for all forms of poker.

I particularly need to work on giving people more credit for the hand they are announcing with their betting patterns. I doubled Nate up twice last week by not giving him credit for the hand he was betting, and did the same once with Special K. If I had gotten away from those hands, I would have likely ended up even more ahead for the night. So that's one thing I'm working on.

Another is my tendency, in limit games particularly, to call preflop raises with suited connectors or one-gappers. These hands just aren't good enough in limit to make those calls with. In no-limit, where I can get someone's entire stack if I hit, it's often worth it. But in limit, especially at the lower limits where I'm living, the pots just aren't big enough to warrant the risk.

Now last night when I found T and Special K at the same $3 cap no limit table, I threw all those precepts out the window and donked to high heaven. There's something to be said for massive donkage at micro-limits, though, since I left that table up $10, my only winning session on the night! My only decent hand was won with a big suckout when I caught a K to go with my KJ when 4 of us were all-in preflop. I was actually only behind one hand, which means that two of the other players were bigger donkeys than me! Hard to do at a 6-max table.

Rehearsals are going well, we're into the home stretch with opening night looming a short week from tonight. I feel pretty good about the show, as long as everybody gets the lines down. There's just a lotta fuckin' words in Hamlet, and most of them are important. I've been working the cast pretty hard, and it's easy to see which ones are responding to me riding them and which ones are starting to shut down a bit. That's the fine line I walk when I direct, because I'm about as aggressive in directing as I am at the poker table, and some people don't react well to that. They usually don't come back to act for me a second time. The ones that flourish under my pressure turn out some great work, and some of these guys and gals are turning in their best performances ever. Tech rehearsals start Sunday, and those are the really long nights. If I leave the theatre before 11 any night next week, I'll be amazed.

That's enough for now, I'll think of y'all while I'm watching Slammin' Sammy Bush tomorrow night at Amos' Southend here in Charlotte, North Cackalacky. If you're close, you oughta come with. I gots a spare ticket.