Saturday, June 28, 2008

Vacation, all I ever wanted

It has been quite a while since I posted here; my other interests have been consuming all of my free time, and writing posts has not seemed so important. I haven't played in many blogger tournaments lately, because my FTP bankroll has become totally depleted from playing in blogger tournaments I needed a break. I did win one of those satellites to a satellite in the Poker Stars WSOP run-up, and then traded in some WSOP $ for real $ with some guy on 2+2. I don't know why they don't just have a trade-in directly on the site; Full Tilt charges 5% for their trade-in, so they might make a bit of money. Anyway, I'm trying to build up some money in my FTP account, but it's not working out so well at the moment.

I also started another blog at Green Chutney, to chronicle our attempts to become less wasteful. Even that has been slow this month, as I have also started reading the political blogs, such as Daily Kos. Poker has sure been a shroud over my eyes the past 4 years, as I glanced at the headlines in the Globe or Times, and spent all of my free time playing and/or reading about poker. Now, I'm still playing some, and I'm still reading most of the poker blogs that I've read over the past couple of years, but I'm letting posts build up, or only hitting my favorites if I have just a few minutes in the morning. Now, I've been reading only the front section of the Globe or Times in depth, and read Daily Kos quite a bit. I barely watch any television at all -- I'll flip on a poker show at 11:00 at night, or watch the new green channel for a little while before bed.

It's a very scary world out there, and most people in the United States are so concerned with their next purchase of a plastic/electronic piece of junk, or whether their new "outfit" makes their boobs look good, or complaining about gas prices, that they have no clue how good they have it. Try getting beaten, tortured or raped for supporting a particular political candidate. Or being born with AIDS. Or contracting malaria, as 300-500 million people will this year.

We're on vacation this week, off to the Cape for a few days, then back. We were planning to drive down to Maryland, but Granny's recent health problems make it more sensible for us to remain close to home. I think I will bring the laptop, so I can catch up on all my reading and writing. It's going to be nice to sit in the ocean, bake in the sun, and wake up late every morning. It has been my goal all year to use up all of my time off. Just to keep up with where I was last year, I will have to take something like 27 days off. At the end of next year, I will be eligible for a 3-week sabbatical in addition to regular time off. So 2010 may involve a nice 2-month vacation. Something to look forward to.