Strange How Things Happen

I was perusing Craigslist the other day to find a part time job listing that I may be interested in. We could use the extra cash and If I could find a simple job on a few evenings or weekends, It'd be great. So I see this listing looking for people who know Texas Hold-em. I thought, I know Texas Hold-em. I mean, I probably watch 10 hours of poker on TV a week. There is a poker league in S.E. Michigan called the Pioneer Poker League that plays in local bars and restaurants pretty much every night of the week. The job was to setup and run these free tournaments.

The job was not good for me, but the idea of playing in some free Hold-em tournaments sure tweaked my interest. I guess the deal is, you gain points every time you finish top 10 in a tournament and after 3 months, the top 100 point getters play in a championship tournament where the winner gets sponsored into a real money event like a WPT cruise or WSOP event in Vegas, all expense paid. Needless to say, I have a new hobby and hopefully, if I play my cards right, I'll get a chance to win some real money, retire early, and live the life of Riley.

BTW, still looking for a good part time job.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Part 4

I went out to my car to leave for work this morning and noticed that my dashboard was ripped apart and my stereo was missing. When it rains, it pours. The worse part about this is the CD they got in the CD player. Now I have to get it again.

Do You Eat The Crust?

There are only a few types of people in the world when it comes to dealing with problems. I'd like to think that the majority of them are good, caring people, who generally don't want to do harm to others, but their intentions have little to do with how they deal with issues. I've learned to generalize these types by comparing them to the Crusty ends of a loaf of bread. That piece of bread that is completely covered by crust on one side symbolically stands for that which we like to avoid.

There are people that avoid the Crust. They dig down to the next slice of bread, avoiding it all together. These are the kind of people who like to avoid problems, sometimes pretending they don't exist. The person who walks away after dropping the Mayo jar in the aisle of the grocery store. These are sometimes angry people, who lash out when questioned.

There are people that seek out the Crust. They'll take it so that others don't have to worry about it. These are the mother types who filter the bad from a child's eye, or a guy who runs into a flaming building to save a puppy. Hero types, do-gooders.

There are people that just take whatever is in front of them, crust or not. These are the apathetic. They don't avoid issues, but don't seek them out either. People who go to work every day, pay their bills on time, clean up after themselves, but don't necessarily work their hardest, make extra payments, or scrub the toilet.

Then there are the people who eat the crust if that's all is left. The problem with these people is they avoid issues until they can't be avoided anymore, then they are stuck with two crusts for their sandwich.

Take the Poll on the right. What Kind Of Crust Eater Are You?

Greek Town Casino & Customer Service

I'm the best man in my wife's Sister's wedding. So I decided to take out my soon to be brother-in-law to the Greek Town Casino, downtown Detroit, last Saturday. I figured a night of gambling, good eats, and entertainment would be a welcome change for a guy who has four young children at home. The entire party consisted of the Soon to be Groom, his brother, a childhood friend, a neighbor, and myself. We decide to park in the attached parking garage and because it's a Saturday, the garage was packed. They have a connected walkway on the 3rd floor of the garage to take you through a restaurant\shopping area, then a small walk across the street into the casino.

Now from here on, I had several run-ins with the staff at the Casino and my experience with them fell into two categories. Either I was incredibly pleased or completely alienated by them. The first encounter was with the security guard at the entrance. He was checking ID's and looking for suspicious characters. This fellow was a joy to deal with. You can tell he loved his job and loved conversing with the patrons. Good start. I was pretty overwhelmed by the casino at first. Being my first time there, I really didn't know where anything was. This was the Grooms second time in the casino and wanted to head straight for the roulette tables. While I was interested in finding the poker room, I went with him to keep him company. The rest of our party split up temporarily.

My second run-in with the staff at Greek Town was with Wesley. He was working the roulette table we started at. Actually, he was in the process of opening the table we started at and while waiting for the pit boss to clear him to start, we had plenty of opportunity to chit chat about the casino. Wesley was another one of those guys who really loved his job. He explained the game and how the casino worked, gave us advise, gave us directions and made it a pleasure to lose money. I lost $99 in about 20 minutes at the table. I kept a $1 chip for a souvenir.

I was determined not to waste anymore money at the roulette tables so we ventured off to find the p0ker room. We connected up with the Groom's brother and friend. In the half hour or so that we were separated, his brother Justin swooned several ladies, got a VIP card, jumped a line or two, got some drinks and a phone number. He also was fond of the staff. This soon changed.

The poker room was a cluster of people and we avoided it at first pass, but before the night was over, I hung out there to see how it worked and maybe get a table. I watched a table for about 10 minutes and watched a guy lose about $300 on a bad beat. Seeing an opening at a table, I asked one of the workers if I could just sit down. I was then berated and informed that "NO, you may not sit down. All tables are on a list. See the check-in." She then turned her back to me and pretended I wasn't there. This was pretty common in the poker room. They should have a sign posted or something. If the casino wants my money, they should at least be kind enough to tell me how I can give it to them.

I couldn't wait around to get a table. The rest of our party was soundly broke at this time. The Groom was up $300 at the roulette table for a short while but, like me, was down $100 before long. The rest of our party was so broke that part 2 and 3 of our evening was canceled (The good eats and entertainment parts). So we stopped at Burger King to feed the animals and took them home. I took the Groom out to Applebees afterwards to chit-chat and talk about what could of been, and went home happy, but down about $150.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Part 3

Oh, and the guy emailed me about the car I was interested in originally. I guess it's for sale now.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Part 2

After a few car ads, I finally found a car that I'd settle on. It's a 1994 Pontiac Grand Am 4-door, White, and a little worse for wear. It's gonna need some cleanup and a little work, namely on the breaks and an oil change, but it will get me to work and back relatively worry free.

So I went to the corner store last night to get a bag of ice for my wife. I took my new ride. It's loud. Every dummy light in the dash is lit up saying, "Please Kill Me", but I thought, hey, at least the windshield isn't all cracked up and laughed to myself (This is known as foreshadowing).

So, its really windy today and the guy who lives next to our work parking lot has a canopy car cover setup. The wind takes it and throws it half way over the fence and the big metal support bar smashes into my windshield leaving a big ol crack. Now my car looks like it sounds and the windshield is now also saying, "Please Kill Me."

A Series of Unfortunate Events

The Wife and I made a decision some time ago to always own one reliable car. That way, in a worse case scenario, we have a means to continue getting to and from work, doctor appointments, and what not. We own one brand new Saturn Ion for this reason. The other vehicle is a 10 year old mini-van. Let me describe the worse case scenario that has unfolded. A couple of weeks ago, I pulled out of my driveway in my van, put the van into drive and pop, no transmission. I roll down the hill a ways and veer the van over to the curb, hit the emergency brake and let it stay parked. We had decided to wait until our taxes got back to get the transmission fixed so It stayed parked for about a week.

We get our tax refund and schedule to have the van towed to a transmission shop the following morning. The night before, about 10:30 p.m., some clown comes barreling down our road, smashes into the side of our van, crushing the drivers side sliding door and takes off down the road. The wife is so angry she hops into the car and gives chase. She never finds the guy, however. I Call the police and about 2 hours later they finally come to make a report. The officer was nice enough and offered her condolences, but said that chances are, they wouldn't catch the guy who did it.

To add insult to injury, we just dropped the insurance coverage on the van to the minimum required by law. We figured, I only drive the van 5 miles to work. I am a safe driver. Chances are that I wont get into an accident and if some clown hits me negligently, my insurance company can sue them. We didn't foresee this option. I call the insurance company anyways the following day. That lady was also nice and offered her condolences, but anytime you talk to an insurance agent and they quote Murphy's Law, you're in trouble. She did say that should the police find the guy who did it, they will represent me in any claims. I can paraphrase the entire conversation as, "Too Bad, So Sad."

We have a single income family of four. While I don't complain about my pay too much, it doesn't give me any room to go out and buy another new car. For that matter, I really don't have the cash to go out and buy a nice used car, nor the credit rating to do so. While we're on the subject, a middle priced used car with some issues might be a little too much for me right now. I'm basically stuck looking for a junker that might last a year or two. Our search begins. Feel free to donate to our cause. Donation link on the right.

I have been starting every day since the hit and run by looking through Craigslist, an online classified ad service catered to local merchandise and job searches, personals, etc. I actually found a few cars that sounded like winners. Who wouldn't think these cars were great though with the way they word these ads. They always start with, "Runs great, new battery, fresh oil change, non-smoker, perfect interior, etc. "And after seeing them, always end with, "Needs engine or leaky gas tank."

This leads me to a side topic, The used car mentality. When you go into a dealership selling used cars, or when talking to anyone selling a used car, you get the same thing. Their car is gold, your trade in is crap. They will tell you everything that is good in the car like its the only important thing and act matter of factly about any detriments in the car while doing the opposite with any trade in you may have. This is because somewhere down the line, cars have become an item to haggle over. I don't really know why this is so. It's not like I can go into a grocery store and tell the cashier at the register that I only want to pay a quarter for the loaf of bread, and start debating the pros and cons of wonder bread over a hearty rye. What do you think they'll give me on a trade in for the bread I ate last week?

Anyways, the first car I see is an older model Dodge Van. It's one of those full size models. You know the kind you can put in surveillance equipment and go on a stake out in? So I have to drive 30 minutes to go check it out, when I get there, it doesn't even start. Of course the ad doesn't say anything about not starting or the fact that the entire van is going bald (i.e. paint peeling everywhere). Next car I go to look at is an older model Pontiac. Big car. Looks O.K. from the outside. The guy gives me the keys and I go for a test drive. The sign on the window says runs and drives beautifully. The problems are as follows; entire steering column moves about 30 degrees in every direction, the blinker switch won't function because of this, radio was ripped out by force, all four power windows don't work, it wont start without pumping the gas a lot, it rattled, knocked and generally was about to die. It did have new hubcaps though. The one I went to look at last night was nice enough. It wasn't pretty but it started and drove and the radio worked and everything. I test drove it, negotiated the price and was ready to buy. The guy then says he can't sell it till next week when he gets his new car. This is an inconvenience, but doable. I tell him to give me a call when he's ready to sell. He then re-posts it on Craigslist that night. I'm confused.

So we're still looking.

A Poem

My mind was once a vehicle of knowledge
Firm and Inquiring
Now as life beckons
My mind is no longer required to work so hard
...
So now It doesn't.
SIGH

Monotinous Mind Numbing Work

Sometimes my job requires me to spend hours looking through thousands upon thousands of records of data. It's monotonous and detrimental to brain activity. Why doesn't someone offer me a job watching TV or doing weather forecasts or something? Anything that doesn't require me to do constant repetition.

I think I'm going to go shoot myself now.