The future is now

I would like to take this opportunity to recommend the current sci-fi TV program The 4400. If you haven't been watching, it's not too late to *ahem* obtain the episodes and catch up. Although, in my opinion, the first season was better than the second, the later season remains an excellent way to waste life an hour at a time.

Aside from Battlestar Galactica, I haven't seen a sci-fi show I've liked this much since Brimstone. Which, by the way, if you haven't seen you should.

Busted

So my fantastic run for a million dollars comes to an abrupt end. After outlasting 1500 other players, I was myself sent packing. All in all, not a bad experience for free.

Good luck to the 2500 players that remain. Except the guy that busted me. I hope he goes down in flames.

All In: Update

Well, I've won a seat into the big million dollar tournament. Most likely, I'll be eliminated early and this entire endeavor will have just cost me a few hours of my life. If I'm substantially more lucky, I'll let you know.

New Features! Aren't they shiny?

As you can see, there is now a little letter icon down at the bottom of every post. This useless feature allows you to send my mindless prattling to anyone you feel is in need of help falling asleep. The other neat addition is a comment-spam prevention tool.

Much as I'll regret cutting off this free source of stock advice, it had to be done.

All In

Please note that I'm not, in any way, employed by or otherwise related to Paradise Poker.com. However, that being said, I am going to give them a shameless plug.

In two days, Paradise Poker.com will be hosting the world's first free million dollar tournament. There is no entry free. All you need to do to get into the million tournament is end in the top ten in one of the free satellite tournaments on their website. Sounds easy enough, right? And it is. But of course, always with the catch these things are.

This time, the catch is rather innocuous. The only entry requirement for the satellite is that you sign up for a real money account. I don't think you even need to put any money into it, just sign up for it. However, even if you do need to put money in, you could always just put in a little and then cash it all out again. So it really is free to play in the satellite.

But what if you don't win your first satellite? Can you play another one? See, that's where they get you. Subsequent satellites are free too, but you have to qualify for them. How do you qualify for them, you might ask. Well, for that, you have to play at the real money tables. The calculations differ depending on the limit, but essentially, you earn "million points" as you play. If you get enough, you can play in another satellite. There's no limit to the number of satellites you can participate in, so long as you keep earning those points. Of course, as you play, the site earns money (called the rake, a small fraction of every pot), and so that's the nature of the gimmick.

At any rate, I highly encourage anyone with even a passing interest in poker to at least give the free satellite a try. Who knows, you might even get a seat into the million.

Another new IM system! Now if only I had some one to talk to...

Well, I never was very big on any of the old IM systems. I had ICQ a really long time ago (I've heard the early numbers are actually valuable now!), but I can't remember anything about it for the life of me. But as I'm a total google geek, I've signed on with Google Talk. It's neat. Check it out.

Totem Poles, Slave Labor, and Murder

Well, I now have a job. A non-paying job. When you add that to school - a school I have to pay to attend - the combination is an unholy amalgamation of my most horrid nightmares. Never since the spiny ridges of an overgrown lizard appeared in the waves of Tokyo Bay has an Asian man beheld his fate with such unabashed terror. Somehow, in a conspiracy of cruel dimensions, my two greatest enemies - work and school - are now united against my remaining free time.

Earlier today I met with Ed Nino, an attorney with the Santa Clara Public Defender's office. After a brief, almost prefunctory conversation, I was awarded an internship. He works in the homicide division, so that means I do too now. I'm not really sure what my duties will entail, but hopefully it should be interesting. If not, the least it could do would be to stay simple.

But I'm not holding out much hope of that either.

Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine:

I feel as though I see the world as it is, not as I want it to be. Although I retain a certain degree of resilient idealism, always is it colored with, if not subsumed by, an almost fatal cynicsm that is nonetheless the natural and probable side-effect of real life. Reason is a virtue, for me, and even more so on account of its relative scarcity.

What does this really mean though? Do I actually manage to keep a level head? Am I really governed by reason? Or do I simply choose to recast an unwillingness to commit myself enthusiastically to X (whatever it is at the moment) into a virtue?

In the end, it's probably a little of both. But then again, that's the way I bet it is for everyone.

Pointless Factoid XII

Babies have more bones than adults. During maturation, some bones fuse with their neighbors, thus making up for the disparity. How bizarre.

On another note, the Pointless Factoid is now one year old. It's neat how I'll now be able to chart my age based on the number of trivialities I've posted. Well, the intentional trivialities, at any rate.

Shiny

Well, I indulged myself and picked up a few electronic toys. My old headphones were getting uncomfortable, so I got a new wireless pair. They have a 150' range and this neat charger stand. I also bought a 160 GB hard drive and a GeForce 6200 video card. I wanted a 6800, but I just didn't have the scratch. Before leaving I gave the mp3 players a hard look, but I can't decide on what features I want. I'll have to do some reseach, and I'm more than open to suggestions.

Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to enjoy my new purchases very much. Installation and all took a little while, the hard drive wouldn't automatically hook up, and I spent the balance of the day wrestling with my video card. Although it worked well enough on games, the thing would go into epileptic seizures if ordered to play video files. An exhaustive search of the internet was of only minor assistance, and ultimately I simply played trial and error with old nVidia drivers.

However, in the end, I managed to triumph over my own personal incompetence. A feat not entirely inconsiderable.

Those tomboys and their damned cute names

I don't know exactly what it is about them, but I really like the names you find on tomboys (and the bodies too, but that's another story). Forget Stephanie or Charlotte, give me a Devon or a Jordan.

It's back to school time

Again. Damnit. Tomorrow I start my third year of law school. Unforunately, because I was part-time my first year, I might have to have a fourth year too. We'll see. For now, it's enough to know that I have to go through all this crap again starting in 23 hours and 22 minutes.