This time, it really was quite a few days

Rented ESPN Basketball Friday morning. I didn't get a good feeling with it the first few times I've played, but now I think it is way superior than the NBA Live series. The movements of the players feel more real, and the gameplay has the pace of a real NBA game and you have to move the ball and use the players and really play good basketball in a NBA way in order to win.

Got a call from Ed Friday morning for a house poker game in Balboa. Between the call and the eventual game was more ESPN baksetball. Drove to Ed's place round 8 and we're off to Balboa. The conversation in the car felt good.

Let's see. There was Dan, the sixty-something landlord; Isa, the resident; Ed and I, and that fat Hispanic/Asian dude whose name I can't remember. I lost $90 in that game. True, I played badly, $60 out of $90 was mostly money tossed in after bad money when I should've folded. The $20 buy-in Ed said was (minimum) which I did not know. The ante (what!? ante in hold'em? oh but it was dealer's choice) was $1 every hand and the price was probably why I played on tilt, that and the unfamiliar games (like baseball, in which I lost hands with four 8's and another with four queens showing). It's a lesson then, for future reference.

It was good to hang out with Ed regardless. I think the easy pleasantry was mutual. The many cigarettes and beers probably had something to do with it.

And then, of course, came Saturday morning, when Stanford lost to Bama!? Somehow someway I knew that the Cardinal wouldn't make good on their media-hyped promises.

That, combined with the bad poker beats and the completion of the nug and the Saturday night ESPN basketball all-nighter were definitely an omen for another beginning if I've ever had one. A bloody Sunday followed by a new Monday.

Also finished American Gods tonight. Gave ideas for new stories and urge to scrap old ones. I don't think the Dick/Dawn story was very good. The characters were too shallow. Although I did intend them to be shallow gender stereotypes now I think that rather hurts the irony of the point. I liked the Black Crow girl in American Gods. Maybe I can use her in the pool story. gravity can definitely use some idealism.