quite uneventful

that pretty much describes how my life has been going for the last week or so. Other than saying goodbye to numerous personalities and getting ready to say goodbye to more penn state friends when we start classes, my life has been consumed with one thing: win this essay contest. It wasn't so much that it was a normal essay contest, or I wouldn't be so adament about doing well on it. Rather, it was a challenge from an old English teacher who thought that I could benefit from not only reading the encyclopedia of a book called Atlas Shrugged; but also from being tortured on writing what will turn out to be close to a 10 page essay on it. It concerns me that the more I read this book, the more enjoyment I get out of reading it.

Today was, once again, very boring for the most part. Aside from working all day on reading and beginning to write this thing, I went out to hit golf balls, ran a few errands, and watched high stakes poker on GSN(for the first time in a long time). With this little break in the action, I've been able to keep up with sports for the most part. When school starts and I start working again, my sports knowledge will sink into oblivion, and my brother will constantly harass me about how many useless baseball statistics he knows. At the driving range today, I was absolutely killing the ball. As usual, my irons felt very smooth, and I think I fixed the problem with my driver. I was determined to find the lowest tee there and it didn't take me long to find one that looked like I could do some damage with. After the first few flopped swings with the driver, I realized that the key was to stand far enough away and swing furiously at the ball. And guess what? It works! I was slamming the ball 260 yards, right down the middle every time. It felt so good to get away from that stupid book and swinging a club and sending a ball flying 130 MPH will definitely give you a feeling of condescension. On high stakes poker, I was surprised to see that negreanu was still taking a beating. The problem with his play wasn't that people were getting out on him, it was that he was paying them off when he was obviously beat. One hand in particular sticks out in my mind: The flop was 2 4 6 with 2 diamonds, and negreanu had flopped a nut straight with eli elezra flopping a set of sixes. Negreanu bet, eli raised, and negreanu raised one more time and eli called. At this point, the worst hand that you can put your opponent on is two pair, or a huge pkt pair like kings or aces(which was def. feasible because eli was calling everything that day). The turn came a rainbow 5 and danny bet out 30k, which was called by eli. The river came the dread card, the 2. Negreanu checked, and eli bet 60k. Danny called, and eli showed him the winning full boat. How do you call in this spot? Is this a call that says "well, I know that I'm beat, but I just want to see how bad I got sucked out on so that I can mope about it?" Personally, I've made calls like that, but it just shows you how vulnerable even the greatest professionals are.

Tomorrow will be a smorgesbord(sp?) of activities. In under two hours, I have to drive my dad to the airport for his flight to nashville. Then, I have to get my brother to school, and run to about 6 places after that. That, combined with the fact that I'm only 20% done with this book that I need to read. Oh, and they're showing the main event part 2 tomorrow night. For two hours. Oh well, I might be catching late night reruns of that one.

For old time's sake, we'll put a poem in here. I actually found this somewhere and decided to make a few changes of my own to it. Enjoy.

If God had answered all my prayers
Edited by: Matt Hartman

If God had answered all my prayers
I’d be traveling the world in my own private yacht
Involved in several romantic affairs
With women whose beauty I longingly sought

If God had answered all my prayers
I’d have fame, fortune and beautiful weather
I’d sail along the coast of Spain,
And if inclined, stay there forever

But if God had answered all my prayers
There I’d be, a millionaire
Beneath the sun a world away
From where I met you that rainy day

mh