Fidel Castro Resigns...

... and the only thing I want to know now is when can I get Cuban cigars without traveling to a foreign country? I guess that embargo finally worked, it only took 40 some odd years but we broke him.

I started smoking cigars back in 1997 just before the craze hit and I was always happy with a good Dominican or Honduran cigar and just dream of the day I would taste a Cuban. A buddy of mine smuggled some back from the Bahamas, a couple of Montecristo Tubos, and holy crap were they good. They were more than likely the best things I have ever put in my mouth. The flavor and the quality of smoke just beat anything I had ever smoked before. It then became my new mission in life to get my hand on as many as I could. It wasn't until a couple years later when my wife and I made a trip to St. Martin that I would have another Cuban. We found this little liquor/cigar store on the French side in Marigot that was run by a crazy, 5 foot tall Cuban guy named Jackie. He told us, repeatedly, that everyone else on the island that sold Cuban cigars were full of bullshit and if I paid more than $6 for one I was buying bullshit. Jackie also told us that he was the only one on the island that had the inside track on Cubans because once a year he would pay homage to the head tobacco grower in Cuban, who by the way didn't take any bullshit even from Castro himself, by bringing him a wheel of Dutch Cheese. I guess maybe the Dutch thought they could break communism but refusing to export cheese to despots. I bought a bunch off him and he was right the others were bullshit. I have been back to the island a few times since then but the store was close and his website was no more but I still would risk buying them from someone else and it is always one of my highlights of our trips to the Caribbean.

Needless to say I hope that Castro's brother brings in some democratic reforms not just for the people of Cuba but for the cigar loving population of America who is tried of circumventing a stupid law.

Poker not So Resolved

I have been thinking about this for more then I should have and I have only come up with one simple thing; I resolve in '08 to have more of a bankroll at the start of '09 then I did at the end of '07. Simple, no fuss no muss. How I do that is another story and I am stilling trying to resolve what I will do to get there. Do I play more Limit Hold'em or O/8 or do I switch to PLO or Stud. I have been mixing it up with PLO and I have to say I am trying to have the stomach for the ups and down, but the way O/8 had been treating me the last couple of weeks of last year anything is better. I will just play smart and get in in with the best of it and hope variance doesn't rear its ugly head and spank be stupid.

I have been giving work and life a whole bunch of thought these days and the ground work is being laid down. It will be exciting once I get there. I haven't written as much as I would like to but finding my voice both on paper and in poker is ultimately the highest goal I would like to achieve this year. Clear out the cobwebs, quiet the monkey brain and become one with myself and the rest will take care of itself.

Life Resolve

With the new year now into its third day I have thought about what I resolve to get accomplished in my personal life. The Munchkin is on the verge of her 4th birthday and she has been the joy of my life and could not imagine my place in this world without her being a part of it. I have made some sacrifices in my professional life so I could spend as much time as possible with her during these first few years of her life. I plan to continue to be that positive influence in her life. This really isn't a new resolution because it has always been my plan all along but I think it is important to reaffirm it every once in awhile.

I also resolve to get in touch with some old friends that I haven't had much contact with in far to long. Even though having a child does change that it really is only an excuse. I miss socializing with friends. I have never been one to be set in my ways but that is what has happened because that is the nature of being a parent. I just have to make the effort to reach out and initiate the action. Even if it is just have someone over for coffee that is more then I have been doing for far too long.

In my marriage I would just like to get more alone time with my wife. We tend to be running in so many different directions, and for good reason, that we just don't get to be a couple instead of a parental unit enough.

Also I resolve to take more pictures, which may seem ironic since I fashion myself as a amateur photography with professional aspirations. I just need to make the camera an extension of me.

Mostly I resolve to just make the time to do what is really important in life as oppose to just waiting for it to happen.

Next post I'll make my poker resolution but I have a feeling it will be a reiteration of these last two post as it should be since the game tends to be a mirror of your life.

Work Resolve

Happy New Year to all, may it be happy, health and full of everything you hope it to be.

I thought on this resolution post that I would start with my professional life . If you have been reading this blog already know that my job has been anything but pleasant for the last year. I am contemplating striking out on my own and living the freelance life. I like the job security that comes with most full-time positions, but what I don't like is not having control over my destiny. I don't want to be stuck in a place where you have to wait 10 years for someone to die before you are promoted. I love the place and what it stands for and I will always have some connection to it be it a part-time job or as a member. For all of you have come in late I currently work for a Y in a town near by. I also have had a bunch of random ideas for projests floating around in my head and one in particular that I would like to commit to paper and see if I can get off the ground.

So here it is the first of my New Year's Resolutions:

I resolve that in the year 2008 I will do something everyday to further my career in a direction that will allow me to have more control over my destiny. When it comes to my career I will create a time line so that my goals will be met and not just exist in the ether of my mind as dreams yet to be fulfilled.

Next post will have what I will resolve to do in my personal life followed by the most important resolution of all, what I will do in 2008 in poker.

Is not making a resolution a resolution anyway?

It's that time of year where we sit down with ourselves and decide if we are going to make any resolutions for the up coming year. I usually resolve to not make any resolution at New Year's time because this date seems rather arbitrary to me. Can't we make resolution on the 5th of October? Why is January 1st any better? If you are Jewish do you make them on Rosh Hashanah? I have been someone that thinks that life is an on going project that needs evaluation and revamping periodically as situations dictate. This past year though I feel like I have been doing just that becuase I have had so many situations that needed my attention.

The only thing you can rely is that there is nothing that you can rely on. That is not to say that there are people you can't rely on but that situations in life that we think are firm and sure are neither. No matter how confident you are that you are safe in one situation there is always a possibility that things can change and this is neither good nor bad it just is. I do believe, even with that said, that this year I am going to make some resolutions. I feel I have been stuck in a bit of a rut for the past year or so and I really need to lay down some goals to achieve. Goals have timetables and dreams don't and all I have had lately is dreams.

Over the next couple of days I will list my resolutions/goals here for all to see in the hope that making them public will help me stick to them.

I think I'm playing well...I think?

I have looked at the numbers and other than my bankroll that is getting smaller and I truly think that I am making all the right moves and just getting sucked out on. I have been back to playing O8 and I can't even count the number of times I have been counterfeited, or have a flush lose to a full house two outer with no other draw. I know this sounds like a bad beat rant but it's just been incredible and I have to vent and watching my wife sitting at her laptop shaking her head every time I have some sort of outburst is no solace. I ran so well for so long and I keep thinking this is just variance but dammit it's a Vitch. Oh well I guess maybe I'll switch games for a while or just hope for the cards to run to me instead of over me.

Old Mug

Can a coffee mug make you feel right with the world? I have this coffee mug and I am not sure quite when I got it, if I bought it for myself or if it was a gift. I know that I got around the time of my first marriage back in '92 which meant that I got custody of it in the separation in '93, the long story of the short marriage is for another post. The mug is done by Masters Collection and is an Untitled Picasso. It was exclusively used as my home coffee mug. I had another for work which is also from the same collection but is call "A Man in a Hammock" by Albert Gleizes. Both Cubist and for whatever reason spoke to me, but the Picasso always seemed to say more.

At some point I moved in with my parents while I got back on my feet. I met my current wife, fell in love, got married and moved out. For some reason the Picasso mug got left behind and I don't know why. I have to say that it is my all time favorite coffee mug and I would use it exclusively when I would have coffee at my Mom's place. I have been meaning to claim it and bring home to roost with me for I don't know how many years now. It has be part of my life through marriage, success, failure, death, numerous moves by me and my mother. I was at my Mom's this weekend for a family get together and I decided that it was time for me to take it home so it could serve its purpose every morning.

For the most part I'm not a sentimental person. I take the Buddhist line of thinking that we shouldn't become attached to anything because that attachment is the cause our suffering. With that said I don't think I have been suffering for the last several years that I have been separated from the mug but the comfort that it gives me makes sense in my world right now and I will have to see if it is the cause of any undue suffering. I don't really have that favorite T shirt, or flannel pants that most do, but a warm cup of coffee in my favorite mug just makes sense to me.