mikesmy.name

Bonjour! Today was spent at the Louvre. It’s an absolutely gigantic museum, so I’ll tell you now that I only scratched the surface. If I have time this trip, I hope to go back again before I leave. This time I focused primarily on 16th and 17th century paintings (and any nearby stuff that looked cool). As usual, beware of boobies. Let’s get started! (That means put your mouse on the link and click it! <wink>).

Bienvenue! Day 4 was spent walking through Bastille Square, the Jewish section of Paris, and then all over the Pompidou museum of modern art. So without further ado…

By the way, if you didn’t read yesterday’s warning about cleavage creators and muff mounders then do so now. It only gets better from here on out (read: worse if you’re easily offended). Ok, enough preamble. Me likey you clicky-clicky.

Welcome to Day 3 of my trip to Paris! Let me start off this entry with the following:

WARNING! The following journal entry contains pictures of (gasp!) boobies and hoo-hoo dillys. Also known as chesticles and beavers, or melons and cooters… if you get my drift. Paris is chock-o-block full of nude images. You can’t avoid it. They’re on billboards, television, and statues mounted on every corner. Paris is a place for artists, and they celebrate the beauty of the human body (yay!). If you completely obtuse and do not appreciate the splendor of a beautiful naked woman (or man), then turn away… this blog (and pretty much all the blogs yet to come on this trip) are NOT for you. Hell, PARIS isn’t really for you. And if this note does in fact, turn you away, why did you get to know me in the first place? I mean, it’s pretty obvious that I like dirty pillows and bearded clams…

ANYWAY… let’s get down to business! (That means click the link – you know you want to see ta-tas and pink tacos…)

Welcome to my Paris travel diary! My plan is to post the details of my Paris escapades THE SAME DAY that I experience them. Well, maybe a day later… or maybe two days… You know I’m quite the procrastinator. Anyway, I got right to work on the first two days! Let’s get started! (That’s your cue to make with the clicky-click)

So I went down to Club Savvy’s poker night* last Wednesday only to discover that it was finals night in the tournament. I’d only played a few times before. I usually ran out of chips before the first break but I did get one top 10 and one top 5 finish in during those weeks.

Anyway, I dealt the first table which sucked because I was so nervous about dealing correctly that my play suffered. When we went to two tables I got on a roll and won a number of big hands. I went to the final 10 table about fifth in the chip rankings. By this time, the blinds were so high that most people were close to all-in if they even call the blind. One losing hand could be fatal. I have two in a row, but then somehow survive 3 successive all-in’s dark on the big blind. Later on I go all-in with A3 on a 234 flop. I’m called and lose to a 3/4 and limp away with just 3 chips (I need 10 for the big blind). Then I suck out again, and again dark on the blinds. After that I actually have a large chip stack and use it to bully the other two opponents out of the game. I win the final hand with pocket 5’s.

Now I’m well aware that luck was the primary factor in me taking first. I won an unusual number of hands in the dark. However, that is the nature of the final table. If you’re not the chip leader, you’re pretty much all in on any hand you play, which makes it damn hard to work any skill into your playing. But I digress… My prize for finishing first is a certificate good for a $100 bar tab.

Behold! For I am a POKER GOD!!**

*The Savvy’s Poker God tournament is a free poker game down at Club Savvy’s on most Wednesdays at 7pm. There is no actual money involved. Everyone gets a chip stack and we play tournament rules. The sponsor and the club provide modest prizes to the top finishers every week and some pretty nice prizes on finals night.

**Well… technically a Savvy’s Poker God Tournament Champion… until the next finals.

My friend Damien and I created the design for a three-piece shale board poker top that would rest on top of my pool table. I came up with the idea. Damien did most of the designing and assembly work. I picked the materials and purchased the supplies. A couple weeks later we had this:

Pretty cool huh? It can seat twelve and each player gets their own chip tray and cup holder. I use twelve counter-height stools as seats for the players. The two end pieces weigh 50lbs and the center piece weighs about 35lbs.

Welcome to Days 1 and 2 in the journal of my Sicily trip! In this journal update, I discuss the flights to Palermo (yay) and what happened during our first day there (not much – we were tired). But hey! Click anyway…

The thing that strikes me most about being 30 is that I’ve always somehow associated it with formally becoming an adult. You know, like one of those “old” and “mature” people. Well, I’m not. Sure, I’ve got a decent head on my shoulders and I’m well aware of the responsibilities of adulthood. I make the minimal effort necessary to keep up the impression that I’m on top of things, but really… I’m still a kid at heart.

Welcome to the first entry in my journal about my trip to Sicily. Now I’m sure you’re thinking, “uh Mike, Denver is in Colorado… not Italy,” and you’d be right! So a little backstory… I live in Idaho and my mom lives in Colorado. Since we’d be traveling together to Sicily, I flew down to meet her in Denver so we’d catch the same… blah blah blah… Make with the clicky-click already.

This is a entry where I expond on a particular political/moral/social position. In it I explain my stance on the topic of abortion. Obviously, this is a very heated issue and people get very emotionally invested in protecting their stance. I welcome any constructive feedback, but please don’t crucify me because my opinion is not the same as yours. It is, after all, just an opinion.