Heading West

I'm heading out west tomorrow with a short stop in Vegas. During my one night stay in Vegas, I'll be staying at Wild Wild West, because everything was ridiculously expensive for a one night (Saturday night) stay during the World Series of Poker. Excalibur was $265. $265 for Excalibur. Unreal. I felt lucky to get a room under $100 at all. It's not like I plan on sleeping much, if at all. I mainly need a place to throw my stuff, while I go lose a little money playing poker.

The trip is really about Death Valley, Bristle Cone Pines, and Joshua Tree National Park. I'm gonna be in the desert, and I'm gonna be in the mountains. I'm not sure if I should be more concerned about 125 Deg F. in desert in Death Valley, or the 14,000 foot elevation on White Mountain. I am psyched about seeing Methuselah, the oldest living thing on the planet at 4839 years old.

Trip report will follow.

The Joe Loy Effect

Several people in my business have died recently. A year ago May 22, Chris Gulfman, age 35, a videographer from my previous employer of eight years, WYFF-TV, had a brain aneurysm and died suddenly.

April 30th, WHNS (Fox Carolina) videographer Cliff Cross, 41, passed away from a very short battle with a very aggressive cancer. Fox Carolina also unexpectedly lost their research director, Stephen Dillard, 42, two years ago from a heart attack. My wife worked at WHNS for 9 years, and knew Cliff and Stephen well.

On May 10th, a colleague and close friend of mine when I worked at WYFF, Mike LaBoone, 49, Broadcast Engineer, committed suicide. He taught me a lot about television, audio in particular. He always said in a twangy Ross Perot accent "You're gonna miss me when I'm gone." I will.

This week, Joe Loy, Assignment Editor/Videographer was hit by a van and killed while covering another accident. He also worked at WHNS, Fox Carolina. He was well known in this market, not just by people in television, but by many in the community. As assignment editor, he makes all the calls to everyone who is anyone, looking for the stories to send the news crews out to cover. They all knew him, and they all liked him. Who wouldn't? Look at that smile . . .

It is very sad and tragic for everyone who knew these fine folks. It can also be a tough issue for those working in the business. Joy Loy's death, in particular, strikes a cord. He died on the job, doing what we all have done. I used to be the engineer in the live truck. I've been on the side of the road so many times, I can still smell the brake dust. All news crews have been there. It's what they do. Everyone in this business that goes on location has been on the side of the interstate at some point. So many of the police officers and emergency crews Joe talked to on the phone daily are on the side of the interstate constantly. Heck, nearly everyone's car has at least broken down once. It is a scary place to be, and it makes us all identify with his tragedy.

But believe it or not, I'm not just blogging this to express my sorrow. Television can be competitive, and competition can be ugly sometimes. But I was amazed and awestruck when I heard a little something about Fox Carolina's competing stations. As I heard it from a reliable source, WYFF (the NBC affiliate) and WSPA (the CBS affiliate) both offered to help out Fox Carolina by producing their news for them, so that the entire staff could attend the funeral. The entire newscast, done by your competition as an act of kindness and compassion. Can you imagine Applebees sending over cooks and wait staff to help out TGIFridays? I am proud of these station's behavior.

I doubt FoxCarolina will take them up on the offer, but I am very impressed to see it made.

09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0, and Save Internet Radio

For those who don't know, this hexadecimal series of numbers was posted on Digg a bazillion times. It is the encryption key to HD-DVD. Oddly, it might've just been posted only a few times, except that there was a cease and desist letter sent to Digg, and they felt they had to take it down in order to avoid legal action. The intarweb revolted at the idea of being censored, and went post-happy. Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, finally decided that freedom of speech, and the desires of his clientèle were more important than possible legal action against him. That, and it was probably becoming impossible for him to stop the avalanche of posts.

Funny side note, as the lawyers tried in vain to prevent this code from being released to the public, they filed many official notices to stop it. These are now a matter of public record. They contain the encryption code. Brilliant move, idiots!

So, I would never know what to do with this number, but there are those out there who do. While I don't encourage the theft of music, movie, software, or any truly intellectual property, I do feel that the MPAA and the RIAA are out of control with their desire to inhibit our abilities to copy music and movies that we have legally purchased. The RIAA's unbridled greed to hold fast onto their product, and charging $16 for a piece of 15 cent plastic while giving the performer/artist pennies on the dollar is criminal in nature.

The really sad part is, that if they quit trying to stop copying, quit investing millions into copy protection and encryption, and quit fighting the legal battles associated with it, they could lower the prices of the music and movies enough so that no one would bother in the first place.

EMI has realized this, to a degree, and has dropped DRM on all music at iTunes. I encourage everyone to support their decision by purchasing EMI music on iTunes. When you buy an EMI song on iTunes, it is yours--you can put it on your laptop, your iPod, burn it to a CD, burn it to eight more Mix-Tape CD's, put it on your computer at work, and not have to worry about it not working. THANK YOU EMI! I will finally buy music on iTunes.

Should I rant now about NetRadio? I'll try and make it brief. The RIAA, ASCAP, BMI, and Broadcast Radio lobbyists have succeeded in killing internet radio. They have increased the ASCAP and BMI fees to as much as . . . well enough to make it almost impossible to do:

"The rates include a minimum fee of $500 (U.S.) per year, per channel with escalating fees for each song played. In 2006 (the decision is retroactive), the applicable fee would be $0.0008 per performance. Since a performance is defined as streaming one song to one listener, a webcaster with 10,000 listeners would pay 10,000 times the going rate for every streamed song. The fee structure increases each year with rates that more than double by 2009"-Toronto Star

Did you get that? 2006 fees are retroactive???!!! If CJ and Otis had started fooling around with UPFORRADIO, they would retroactively owe enough money to be bankrupted!I can't imagine how this could possibly be legal, but that is the legal ruling.

Like to hear radio on the internet? Too bad. Broadcast radio has killed it. It will be dead. Time of Death: July 15, 2007. It may have even backfired on the broadcasters as well--many stations that simultaneously stream their broadcasts on the internet will have to pay as well. KUDOS to NPR for fighting the good fight!! It is a shame you lost.

There is still hope here, PLEASE wirte your congressman and demand them to pass the Internet Radio Equality Act, and check out savenetradio.org

Enough of my ranting at The Man.

A Good Steak and BJ

It's here! The man's answer to valentines day. Steak and BJ Day is March 14.


























Steak. BJ. That's it. What more could a man want?

Inform your significant other now.

Been a While

It's been a while since I wrote in here. It's been a while since I played poker on any kind of regular basis.

I've been very busy at work. We've been creating a nature TV show called Expeditions with Patrick McMillan , which is now airing on South Carolina Educational Television. It's been a ton of fun and hard work. For those of you who can pick up SCETV, it airs 7:30 Sunday nights. We've done shows on Shell Rings, Snakes, Carnivorous Plants, Bats, SeaTurtles, Volcanoes & Fumaroles, Rainforests, and Salamanders so far. Not all of these have aired yet. We hope to have it picked up nationally by PBS.

But busy at work is no real excuse, it's that I've been lazy at home.

I did make a Poker appearance at BadBloods Annual New Years Tournament, and managed to take first place before being totally overcome by the amount of alcohol I had consumed.

Most recently I missed a game at BadBlood's but got the jones so bad that I went to the Spring Hotel (a local underground poker game) the next day. Playing 1/2NL, I started out doing fairly well, and chipped up from $200 to around $350 when I ran into a hand I am now asking advice about.

After a 45 minute cold spell, in middle position in the 5 seat, I take a look at KJ spades after a fold and two limpers. I bump it up to $15. Fold, fold, then Guy in the 8 seat pops it to $40. 3 seat calls and I decide to call. Flop comes 5TK two spades. I gotta like that flop, so I bet out $60. The 8 seat stands up to contemplate. After deliberating (possibly for show) he raises me $100. I don't know him too well, but my read is that he is a solid player, not likely to bluff outright, but could possibly semibluff a nut draw.

I have $250 still in front of me, and $100 in the pot, looking at a $100 raise. To me it's definately a push or fold situation. Top pair, good but not great kicker. 2nd nut flush draw.

I go in the tank, and figure he has AK to beat my kicker, a pair of Aces, or maybe two spades including the Ace, to beat my draw. I guess it is in my nature to put him on a better hand than me, but he did bump it to 40 preflop, so he has to have something. My reasoning goes this way: he either already has me beat, or he has a better draw, most likely the former. I fold face up.

He flips out that I could possibly lay that down. The dealer turns the last cards for show, and I see another T and K to give me a posthumous full house. Judging by his reaction, I think I woulda won if I hadn't folded, which ruled out Big Slick as one of his holdings. But was the fold the right decision at the time? Even if he does have Aces, should you push here? Other than playing KJ in the first place, did my play here seem reasonable?

Some guys there who know him better than I said later, they were 95% sure he had a pair of Aces. Although I thought I made a good laydown, I then went on some kind of wonder-if-I-did tilt for a while, and never really recovered. Ended up the night flopping a straight to someone elses set and pushing. Of course, he boated on the turn and IGHN.

Less Poker . . . More Liquor

So the next big trendy drink to sweep the restaurant industry is going to be, or already is, the Mojito. This is a drink made for me. Plenty strong with Rum, loaded with mint, not too sweet, with club soda's effervescence. It is a versatile drink, capable of handling various flavors and modifications. I haven't tried it yet, but I am imagining a Mojito with Pear Sake in it. The Mojito, I believe, has no rival as a mowing-the-grass beverage. Extremely refreshing!

If you didn't realize it by now, I love the Mojito.

3 oz Light Rum
Juice of 1 lime
5 fresh mint sprigs
2 tsp. sugar or simple syrup
Club Soda

Dissolve Sugar or simple syrup into lime juice and mint leaves. Mix well to crush mint flavor into lime/sugar. Add ice, rum, and top with club soda. Modify to your hearts content. Lower the sugar and add SoCo, I don't care. Might be great.

Another good thing with this beverage is that it makes a good drink for those watching their sugar intake, as you can easily use Splenda or Equal to make it. For many drinks out there, this is almost impossible. The wife has diabetes on one side of her family and hypoglycemia on the other . . . so she has sugar issues. Other than straight liquor, or Rum and Diet Coke, there are few choices.

So the Mojito is my current drink of choice.

**************

Here's my current Ice Cream Flavor: Ben & Jerry's Black & Tan

That's right, Guinness fueled ice cream ready for the likes of myself and Iggy. Try a pint and a pint for a Guinness Float. I always loved the creaminess of stout, glad to Ben & Jerry capitalizing on it.

**************


I drank a very small amount on my recent canoe trip. I mean, eighteen guys around a campfire with as much alcohol as they could afford, I drank a small amount. By the way, Goldschlager and Red Bull is tasty.

And I busted the hell out of my knee when Shep tipped over the canoe , and threw me on a rock (I'll continue to place full blame on him, deserved or not). It needed stitches, but I was 4 hours from the take out point, 1 1/2 more hours from my wallet and dry clothes, then a good hour and a half to the nearest hospital. By then, stitches would probably be too late. So, I had a couple shots of tequila, a couple shots of Jagermeister, and a couple of Newcastle, and kept on falling out of the canoe, until we got back to the camp so I could grab a butterfly, band-aid, and begin drinking in earnest.

Today I found myself at the doctor for a tetanus and some antibiotics.

Martinis

I order another beer and Blood has more martini. This makes me laugh. What makes a man switch to martinis? I mean, if you're some douchebag suit and you have to impress the minions...that's one thing. But when a turbine counter gets all fancy, that's just odd.


Not much time to post, Shep and I are heading out on a canoe trip to the Smoke Hole area in West Virginia, but I thought I'd quickly comment on some accusations G-Rob was making towards the Martini.

First off, Vodka Martinis are NOT Martinis. Martinis are made with Gin. That said, whatever drink you call it when you fuck up a martini with vodka, well they're pretty good too. However, since Vodka is a mostly flavorless liquor, we'll have to add one Ghey point.

Blood prefers the Grey Goose variety of Vodkatini. They Ghey Goose is sooo smooth, it has no bite, no kick, no . . . character. Add one Gay Goose Point.

Bloods recent post was entitled "Shaken, not Stirred", and I have this to say on that matter: When you stir a Martini, you get the drink cold. When you shake a Martini, you break up all the edges off the ice into the drink. This gets it cold, but it also waters it down a bit. Watered down Martini?? That's right, add 1 more Geigh Point.

Blood gets Two Geigh Points for sharing with his buddy, Clot. That's just queer.

Beer is never gay. Well, a Peach Lambic is, but most beers aren't. On the other hand, a martini is generally a very strong, non gay drink. G-Rob should not be dissing the Martini. The only problem is, James Bond and BadBlood queer them up a bit.

Nuff said.