Cold Beans

We're sitting here on the sofa waiting for our red beans & rice to finish cooking. It's taking so long I'm considering eating the ham and the rice and saying screw to the beans. I shall never again assume that dried beans can be eaten with 24 hours of leaving their package, no less within two. Now I understand why a recipe from my mom would contain a request for a *gasp* CANNED good: the beans. Damn.

Also, while striving to prepare said failing meal, there was no hot water to be had from the sink. An investigation has uncovered that we're out of propane, and neither of us can afford to pay for more right now. So Craig will be showering at work, and I'll be showering at the gym at school. The heat has already been off for a week and it's not really a big deal, as the electric can pick up the slack. The only real issue will probably be doing dishes. That's what used the last of the water, anyway, was the dishwasher. Stupid ungrateful machine. Or something.

As much as I'd like to post something scintillating, I haven't really got much right now. Today was spent alternating between doing homework and playing poker, and tonight is Poker Night, when we spend as many hours as humanly possible watching High Stakes Poker, usually followed by either the World Poker Tour or a World Series of Poker event. Last week it was reruns of the 2006 US Poker Championship, and last night was the Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash game. I'm such a junkie, but there are far worse things I could be addicted to.

Poker and Blackjack

I'm looking forward to next week, when I should have something actually interesting to say. The most interesting thing to happen yesterday was me placing 25th out of 744 players in an online poker tournament (you're forgiven for the yawn), and then watching the movie 21, about the students from MIT who learned to count cards and took Vegas for millions of dollars.

The really interesting parts weren't in the actual movie, though. Firstly, MGM Grand, one of the casinos who got taken by the students, actually bought the production rights to the movie. They figured it would actually make them their money back, between movies sales and encouraging more people to come and try to count cards. The theory is simple, but not everyone's mind actually works like that. They probably did pretty well.

Secondly, as a special feature on the DVD, there was a tutorial on card-counting! I guess MGM wanted people to get as cocky as possible before taking a swipe at them. I can't imagine all the casinos were happy about that, but there's nothing they can do...it's out there now. And while the theory of card-counting makes sense to me now, and I might even be good at it (programmer's mind), I have no interest in blackjack. I'm really a poker nut. I'd rather win a million in a WPT tourney than steal it from a casino and then get the shit beat out of me by security. After all, what's the point of winning money if you have to turn right around and spend it on medical bills?

Oh, and a note I forgot to put in that last random entry: NaNoFiMo was a total fail. I expected it would be, so I'm not bothered about it. I'll finish the novel when I feel like it. I know, I can hear the voices..."Yeah, that's what they all say, you'll never finish it." I have only this protest: I did finish my last one, three months after the end of NaNoWriMo.