Spending Extra Money in Class

My business law teacher requires us to read The New York Times everyday and this can become quite a hassle.  Yes, it is true that the University provides free ones but at a limited supply.  Most days you cannot come across one because they are gone well before most people have a chance to get to them. Also most people aren’t here everyday so they still wind up having to spend money on these stupid newspapers.  This wouldn’t be the worst thing if it wasn’t on top of two textbooks that we rarely even use for the class.  All of this wasted money from students who have to pay tuition as well and all of their other expenses is a ridiculous thing to demand. The papers cost $1.25 which adds up.  This practice should be stopped.

Teachers Who Come late

Don’t you hate sitting in class and its 5 minutes after the class is supposed to start and you are getting happy because the teacher has not shown up yet.  It is the best feeling in the world.  Then that door starts to creek and you get this sick feeling in the pit of your stomach.  Mentally you have already prepared for class to be canceled and you cannot imagine sitting through another monotonous class of lecture.  You look up at that creeking door, which somehow seems to open ridiculously slow, and you see it is a student.  Your heart jumps out of your chest and you are now relaxed again, but sure enough right behind that student walks in the teacher.  She acts like nothing happened and just welcomes the class like its another day.  Well it’s not.  She has now ruined every student in that classes day.  There hopes were raised just to be let down.  Its not right to play with the students emotions like that.  if you are going to be late do not bother coming at all.  I even had a teacher last semester who was over 30 minutes late so everyone left. We found out next class that because everyone left she was pissed and decided to give a pop quiz so everybody got a zero.  There should be a time period that if the teacher is later than that the class is permitted to leave.  We all have tons of work to do and do not have time to sit around waiting for the teacher. Teachers should be courtious to their students as they, or most of them, are to the teacher.  Most of us are here everyday in our seats on time waiting for class to start. the least that the teachers could do is be there as well when class starts.  Teachers should stop being irresponsible and make sure they are not late for their classes.

Suicide Rate at Walmart

I was in Walmart the other day to buy a movie at a great discount price and i witnessed something which was comical at the time but afterwards it was just irksome.  When i was done picking out the movie, which happened to be Juno, I went to the self checkout to ring myself up.  The lady at the register called me over because there was a long line on the self checkout so she would ring me up herself.  As soon as i get over there you could tell she was having a rough day.  So she starts to ring me up and Juno rings up to 19.99.  I tell her that this movie is only 15.97 and that the register made a mistake.  So now she asks me to go get another one so i do; they were right next to the register so it was no big deal. I come back to the register with another copy and it still comes up 19.99.  She now turns to the lady behind her, which i assumed was the floor manager or in some position of authority, and was explaining what had happened and the lady behind the counter just kept barking at her that the movie was 15.97.  All the person that was ringing me up to her was trying to do was explain the situation but the other lady wouldn’t have it.  So as soon as the lady in the position of authority starts to walk away, the ringer shouts to her “Why are you being such a bitch?”  This now sparks the other lady to come back and they start fighting all in front of customers and eventually she walks away and its over.  Then the ringer turns to us and starts telling us how she hates everyone who works here. I was sort of laughing to myself at this point because it was just unreal.  Eventually the movie was rung up at the correct price and i paid with credit, the slip comes out for me to sign and she realizes that she had lent her pen out to another ringer so she no longer had a pen. She asked for the pen back and the other ringer gave her the dirtiest look ever and just put the pen down in front of herself.  My ringer now walked over to the other grumbling and all pissed again. As she came back she was complaining that she had brought the pen to her, the least she could do was to bring it back.  She spoke to us again about how she hates everyone that works at Walmart.  This was really sad how the people treat their co employees at Walmart.  There is no comradeship and all of the people just seem to hate each other.  I would suggest never getting a job at walmart.

Juno Review

Juno is a movie about a young girl, 16, who has sex and gets pregnant.  Recently I had been hearing much news about this movie.  Last Tuesday was its release date.  I finally purchased it on Sunday and watched it Sunday night.  I did not feel that this movie kept up with all the hype.  It was built up by everyone as a great movie and a must see and maybe even comedy of the year for last year.  This is not what i got out of it.  Yes, there were some very funny lines but how can it live up to some of last year’s movies such as Superbad and other fantastic comedies that are instant classics.  This movie is one that can be skipped all together without missing anything.  It is not a movie that i would recommend to take time out of your busy day to see but if you happen to be bored out of your mind and have nothing else better to do than just give away time out of your day well than this may be the movie for you.  If you are someone who values your time and are often pressed for it than this one can just be ignored. The main character, Juno, was a bit of an oddball.  She irked me at time making the movie a little tough to watch.  Her way of speaking of the phrases she used also bothered me.  All throughout the movie the language is a little bit off.  Juno decided, when having the baby, to give it up to other parents for adoption. She goes and meets with these parents and seems to be great and she finds that she has a lot in common with the husband such as music and taste in movies.  Well to make a long story short, the husband winds up filing a divorce with his wife to, as it seems, start a new life with Juno in the city.  This was a little bit to weird considering Juno was 16 and the husband, Mark, was probably about 35.  When this happened it was just another turn off to the movie and another reason not to watch.  But after finally finishing the movie, I decided that I did not know how I felt.  Although there were many parts that truly irked me and made it a tough watch, there were also many funny parts.  These funny parts were also not just stupid funny like most movies not but subtly funny and intelligently funny.  Hence I am indifferent to the movie.  I don’t think I will ever be watching it again, and just to reiterate, this would not be the worst movie to miss and I don’t recommend it to anyone.  But if you do happen to have the free time, then why not pop it in with some popcorn and you decide for yourself where you stand.

Week summary 4/8 – 4/15

I had 4 posts with 1747 words.

The City

All my live i have basically been restricted to Long Island.  This weekend i had to go to Little Italy for an class assignment in DNY.  We did not go on as a class so i was on my own and i had no idea what i was doing.  I decided to take my girlfriend, Christina, with me into the city.  She too has grown up with a sheltered Long Island life.  Neither of us knew anything about the city and it was not such an easy thing to figure out.  We got on a train leaving from Garden City, Long Island at 8:05am and we were in the city soon after. We got off at Penn station and we had to take a subway to get to Little Italy.  Out of the billion different trains we had to find the right one to take.  There were no people there to ask questions so we were stuck looking at the subway map by ourselves for a while before we even figured out how to read it and then we figured out what train to take.  We took it down to canal street and were awed by all of the vendors there.  So much shitty, knock off merchandise all in one spot.  Then we headed toward little italy and had some lunch.  it was delicious. at this point we decided we wanted to see the museum of natural history for some reason. we did know that it was uptown so we started walking.  we got all the way to 17th street before we realized that we should just take the subway. so we got on the subway once again and headed uptown.  we popped out on the east side and then realized the museum was on the other side of central park.  After a nice long walk we arrived at the museum.  it wasnt so hot. after 2 hours at the museum we got some dinner and then went to a cafe. at this point both of us were dead so we headed towards the subway for the last time and took it to penn and then we went home.  after this trip i was ridiculously tired.  it was an amazing trip and i had a great time and i really felt like i learned something.  next time we go on, which should be soon because it was an awesome trip, we will know what we are doing and have a better gameplan.

Middle Pairs

In Texas Hold’em you are dealt two face down cards.  If those two face down cards are a pair, then you have a pocket pair.  If those two face down cards are a pair between 6 and 9 then you have a middle pocket pair.  These middle pocket pairs can be very tricky to play and often wind up losing people a lot more money then they gain.  These hands have to be played with full intent of folding if you miss and chances are you will miss, especially with the pairs on the lower end of the spectrum.  Unless you hit your set with these cards, they generally belong in the muck.  Occasionally you will hit a straight draw with these or three unders will come but other than those two exceptions, if you miss your set you fold.

As with all hands, there are many different schools of thought on how to play these hands pref lop.  Some say you should call the big blind and fold to other raise and see what the flop has to offer.  Others say that you should play this hand supper aggressive and try to take it down pre flop before anyone has a chance to beat you out.  I disagree with both of these methods.  Pre flop, the proper way to play this hand is to make a 4x raise and hope to get some callers.  You want to string a few people along to the flop with you because the real payday on these hands come when there are a bunch of people in the hand and you hit your set.  Then you should get ready to get paid off because you will be.  Hopefully you not only flop your set, but some other people hit an ace on the flop giving them confidence leading them to bet into you.  If when playing a hand like pocket 9’s and the flop comes 2 4 7, i generally say to bet big while you have the best of it.  You do not want anybody calling because you are good right now but any high card can come out and completely obliterate your hand and any hopes of winning the pot.  Sometimes with pocket 9’s the flop will come out 7 8 10 in which case you have an open ended straight draw and you have 8 different cards in the deck that will give it to you.  In this instance someone would have needed a 10 to beat you so your 9’s are probably still good and you also have a draw at the nuts.  So this hand should be played pretty hard as well.  If anything other than these three examples happens you should be trying to get out of there as fast as possible and hope to hit it next time.  The set will eventually come and when it does you’ll be ready.  Don’t bother trying to throw a bluff into the pot.  Although it will work on some occasions, since we were trying to get a lot of people to call us pre flop, if a lot of overs flop, chances are they have them and a bluff will not work so don’t waste your money.

So to review what was said:

1. Try to get as many people to call pre flop as possible, we want all the action we can get.

2. If you do hit the flop, try to get as much money out of it as possible, these situations only come 1 in 8 times so make sure to make the best of it.

3. If you miss the flop, get out while you still can before you invest any more money.

Happy playing and good skill!

Smoking . . . Wow!

I recently had to give a persuasive speech in speech class.  I chose the topic of smoking and why not to.  Going into this speech i knew that smoking was detrimental to you and also that it was a bad habit to be into and that it kills many people.  But never had i realized how many people are hurt by smoking.  Over 488,000 people die each year in a direct result from smoking.  An additional 38,000 people die due to second hand smoke.  That is over half a million people dying each year because of smoking including about 40,000 innocent people that do not even smoke.  These numbers are truly startling.  Also i found that 1 in every 5 deaths in the US is smoking related.  That means that 20% of our deceased population dies due to smoking complications.  These numbers are also astronomical and as the Department of Health says, 48% of all men smoke and 12% of all women smoke.  That means that 30% of our population smokes.  These numbers astonished me when i saw them so i figured i would share them.  In addition, you have to take into account that the number of deaths each year, do not include all of the people that are sitting into hospital beds, crippled by smoking.  Hundreds of thousands of people are living off of machines due to smoking and you have to ask yourself if that is truly living at all.  I just want these numbers to inform you of the risk of smoking and i hope that they are able to make a difference.

Why Online Poker Sucks

There are many good things about online poker.  To name a few, it is very convenient, easy, comfortable, and there is always a game.  In addition, you also play many more hands than you do in live poker.  This does create some problems.  There are more suckouts and bad beats than you could ever imagine online.  I believe that there are many more online than there are in live poker.  For instance, tonight I entered a $55 tournament with 1200 people.  There was a huge pot and first place got $11,000 and 180th got $80.  I was sitting at the tournament for 1hour and 50 minutes and I was second place in chips at the table.  The chip leader at the table, the only person beating me, wound up hitting a one outer on the river to knock me out in 389th place leaving me with no money for the tournament.  I am now going to go through the hand to explain the poor play of the chip leader.

I started the hand with $8k in chips and he had $12k.  I was dealt pocket aces and was first to act.  The blinds were $150/300.  I made it $1200 to go preflop and I had one caller, that was the chip leader.  We were now ready for the flop.  It came down A  5  9, a complete rainbow.  I flopped a set and I had him right where I wanted.  I still wanted to play it hard so I bet $2000.  He thought for a few seconds and called.  The turn came a 6.  It was my turn to bet so I bet the rest of my stack which was around $4800.  He called me almost instantly.  The river came off an 8.  The chip leader now flipped over pocket sevens giving him a seven to nine straight.  He insta-called me with nothing but a pair of sevens and a gutshot on the turn.  This type is play is horrendous and very rarely works out as it did.  All he had was 4 outs in the deck (the 8’s).  This made him about 8% to win and me 92% and he still manages to hit.  It is complete bullshit but i guess that is the nature of the game.  Still, it is a shame when numbers that heavy to one side don’t work out.  O well.

Week Summary 4/1 – 4/8

These week I had 4 posts (including the process letter) with a word count of 1309.