Im the worst

Whoops, sorry I havent updated in a while but Ive been a little out of the loop because I somehow managed to RUB POISON IVY ALL OVER MY ENTIRE BODY

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my days pretty much consist of sitting around and trying not to scratch my eyes, arms, hands, belly button, thighs and ears. The rash on my face does give me the bloodshot eyes/drug addict look though so maybe I can finally get the girls that want the bad boy persona. I pounded Benadryl for about 3 days straight and i was just in this drug induced Sleep coma all day. IM BACK THOUGH

In other news, after talking about how awesome the weather was out here the temperature shot up to 95 for a few days and our house decided to save money and not turn on the AC while I considered moving to Canada. We are back in the 70's now though so all is right again in the world

Figured I might as well explain a little better about cards on here, since everyone always wonders the same things. I play No Limit Texas Holdem on Full Tilt Poker. I play 6 to 16 tables at a time depending on lots of things. My screen looks like this, I have big monitors so the screenshot is huge:



Things people don't realize about poker:
1) There is variance. Sometimes you make the correct decision and lose money. Sometimes you get unlucky lots of times in a row and lose lots of money playing perfectly fine. Sometimes you make the wrong decision and win money ("sucking out"). We call getting lucky lots "running well" and being unlucky "running bad."

2) Its a job. Its not really even "gambling" anymore. I have an established hourly rate that I have won over the long term AKA hundreds of thousands of hands. Profits and losses swing up and down because of the aforementioned variance every day, so all I try to worry about is the long run. I can be up $1000 one minute and down $800 the next. Swings happen. Notice how I said "try to" worry about the long run because sometimes, no matter how hard I try, losing lots of money really quickly can put me in some... interesting moods. If you've lived with me, you unfortunately know this.

3) Online Poker is in this legal gray area where no one really knows what is going on. It is pretty much the most confusing thing ever. Online poker is legal, but the monetary transactions between online poker websites and banks are under crazy confusing legislation. All I know is that when I want money, I tell full tilt and they send me a check. The bank accepts the check, I pay my taxes on it, and thats it. If I end up in jail one day, please bail me out.

4) I am not some huge poker baller. There are people who are way better than me and make way more money than me. Im just a kid trying to make a living during a gap year

Thats what I usually get asked about. On the non job side of things, Sabo and Anne and I went up to Stinson Beach in the Golden Gate Recreation Area. It is pretty much the most beautiful place ever and highway 1 runs right up the coast. It looks like this:




It was awesome and we wanna camp somewhere up there one of these weekends.

Mithil and Sean started teaching today so I am looking forward to 3x the teacher stories (Sabo has been teaching for 4 weeks now). The school systems out here are insane, and I probably spend about 30 minutes a day laughing uncontrollably at stories about TFA teachers and their wild classrooms (one comes to mind of a 5th grade teacher who spent the first two hours of his first day trying to get his classes to stop dancing on their desks). HAHAHAAahahahah. It really does seem like an extremely difficult/selfless job and Ive already come to really respect everyone who is doing the TFA program and teachers in general. Sabo is pushing hard for me to become the gym teacher at his school (the last one quit after three days and they need a replacement) but Im not sure I am man enough for the challenge. As soon as I get a car out here I am gonna try to volunteer a little at each of their schools (they all teach at different ones) and get a taste of the crazy life.

WOW this is long, and i got carried away on the EMPHASIS BOLDING but what can you do. I gotta go scratch some poison ivy, BYEBYEYBEYBYEYBYEBYE

Its coming together!

Feel like its been a blur since I got here, even though without a car or computer I pretty much twiddled my thumbs all day. Bed and monitors got in so I can sleep well and FINALLY start to work during the day... plus my room isnt nearly as horrible looking anymore


Turns out that 130 thread count, $7 walmart sheets actually do feel like sandpaper so I will have to do something about that in the future. Motivational NIKE "Just Do It." banner isnt hung yet either but it is still motivating me from the floor so dont worry (Remember that thing Kyle?). The view out here is so incredible and Im not used to it yet so every time I walk by the deck I get sucked into gazing for like 30 minutes. Spotted this little guy in our backyard earlier today, who knew that Oakland had wildlife?



Finally got my computer online so I can play cards, Sabo+Sean+Mithil have been mad productive since I have been out here so it made me want to work. Sabo is the only one who has started so Im not sure how intense Sean and Mithil's jobs will be, but eric is gone when I wake up, gets home at 5, does something active, grabs some dinner, and then works planning his next day until after I go to sleep. Dude is a math teaching beast, and I hope he doesn't burn himself out. If all three of the roomies are like that, I will probably have the most productive year ever? Or maybe I will just degrade into a sniveling bum and they will learn to hate me as they return from the trenches of oakland every day to find me sitting on the couch in my underwear.

ANYWAY, I got my monitors hooked up and played my first session of cards this morning as a CALIFORNIA POKER PROFESSIONAL with good result. Maybe the new setup is lucky?

Still cant get over how awesome the weather is, yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. love and miss you all!

Dont mind me, im just bloggin

Let me be the first to welcome you to the greatest blog you will ever visit. Im not even going to pretend like I will update it on the reg like a true allstar, but I will try to keep you posted on the latest adventures.

My flight came into SFO uneventfully and much to my surprise, my bags showed up as well! Nice to get things off on the right foot. Sabo and one of my new roomates, Mithil, had made the drive over the bay to come get me so I wouldn't have to ride the BART in on my first trip. While I waited to get picked up, the guy beside me tossed on some mascara and blush to freshen up. Welcome to san francisco? We made our way back to the house and it was a lot nicer than expected. It sits way above the city so the view is killer, I will have to take some better pictures when I get a good camera out here. Here are the cliff notes:


Front:



















Sabo scoping the view off the back deck:



Home sweet home:


Overall, everything is swell. Sean and Mithil seem like real cool guys and Sabo is still Sabo, so Im sure we will have a great time out here.

Positives thus far:
1) House is great
2) Room mates arent serial killers
3) Weather is perfect (never rains, 65 degrees and sunny every day are you kidding me)
4) Oakland athletics $1 entry and $1 hot dogs on Wednesdays

Cons thus far:
1) Forgot to pack socks
2) Forgot all nice clothing except two collared shirts
3) Had a real small taste of california traffic, if I get a car out here chance of fender bender is near 99%

Gonna try to get more settled in this week and snag a bed/dresser/desk. My monitors get in on Tuesday so I suppose thats when work starts... Not too shabbyyyyyyyyy