points for mastery

"Ahhhhhhh....yes"
-Karl Geisler, APUSH teacher at Baldwin High School

It's funny how things from your past make segway into the present. In a recent speech for my CAS class, I had to do a double take as I walked up to the podium because I instantly felt like I was doing a PFM. I could see the bewildered look on my classmates' faces as they solemnly prepared to try to bullshit an answer they didn't look up in the unfortunate case that they were called for one of the dreaded PFM's. I still remember the first PFM I ever did. I was 15 years old, in 11th grade, and scared shitless because I was told the day before(when we received the questions) that I could be called and should be ready to deliver an answer to any one of 15 questions that I had to prepare for the next day. I think the question had something to do with New Spain, but I can't quite recall the whole thing. I jumped back from that to the speech I was giving last week. The assignment was to find four poems and give your interpretation of each poem. Apparently, I wasn't prepared well enough as I completely froze after I finished reading a selection from Wordsworth. Then, I recalled back four years ago as I was standing in a similar spot, and I learned a valuable lesson: To be a great orator, you have go be a great bullshitter. That's all an articulate person is anyway; someone who can quickly bring up an answer to a question that's being asked on the spot. Therefore, I went into a rant about how Wordsworth took a walking tour with his sister around England and that's where the inspiration for a lot of his poetry came from. After finishing with a selection from Keats, the professor said he was impressed by my "good selection of poetry" and "well prepared, excellent interpretations." Hey, you know what they say, what you don't know can never hurt you.

Thanksgiving break was a pretty enjoyable one for me. For Thanksgiving, I played football from about 12-2, and it felt good to actually be able to tackle someone while playing football. At around 4, I went over to my uncle's house. I can't think of a better place that I'd rather spend my holiday because I get along well with almost all of my relatives. My uncle is always entertaining as we talked about what's been going on, gambling, and a recent trip he took. Apparently, while traveling, he was invited to watch the Michigan/OSU game at....Muhammad Ali's house! That was crazy to hear. Ali is an icon, and as my uncle was telling me about this, he said that even he was doing double takes wandering "Am I really in this guy's house? The same guy that knocked out Joe Frazier, won the heavyweight belt, and redefined the sport of boxing?" Just amazing to say the least. I also got to see my aunt kathy and cousin mary who I really only see twice a year(thanksgiving and christmas), but we left before my other cousin nick showed up with his girlfriend and son. After that, we went over my dad's mom's house to visit the other side of the family. As much as I hate to say it, I'm intrigued at the proposition of living with my grandma and pap for a week whenever my parents go to Mexico. Supposedly, they're going to be staying over my house for at least 3 of the 7 nights, which leave the other 4 open for speculation. Friday, I golfed with my brother, my dad, and my cousin Mike. It was probably the most beautiful day of the whole month and it was definitely an enjoyable time even with my brother getting on my nerves. Later that night, I re-acquainted with two men that I have not seen in a long time: Rob Rossi and Tom Choijnicki. We played pool and went out to EnP afterwards. At EnP, I saw ivana(like usual), but didn't really recognize anyone else other than the throngs of TJ fans celebrating their win at Heinz Field. I can't really say that I root for or against TJ, they're just neutral in my opinion. I think that I would like them a lot more if I didn't hear about some of the illegal activities that their players engage in. Saturday was full of poker and college football. I went deep into ANOTHER MTT, and fell victim to bad luck again in the third hour finishing 54/1275 or so. Later that night, I saw some other people I hadn't seen in awhile and got back in touch with another long lost friend: Captain and Coke. During 11th grade, that was my drink of choice, and the sweetness of the drink brought back the bittersweet memories of that year. I think when all was said and done we all went to EnP again, this time to the one in South Hills Village. Sunday, I watched(unfortunately) the Steelers get run over by the Ravens and the Saints triumph in the Georgia Dome. The Saints are the feel good story of the year, even if it's been a whole year since Katrina. After the game, I went over sarah's to hang out with her and kathleen. We watched reruns of monk before going out to applebee's to eat. Afterwards, we headed over to alyssa's(maybe?) to chill. I had a drink spilled on me, beat grace in floor hockey, and lived one of the funnier moments of the year involving kathleen and this dude from chile. A story to be told in the future to say the least. Finally, we ended off by going over peanut's. Charlie was there and I'm glad to see that they've found each other because they look to me to be very compatible personality wise. When all was said and done, it was a weekend that I couldn't complain about.

I'm going to leave you with the brief words of William Carlos Williams. This is definitely a poem that you have to think about to get, but once you do, it's well worth it. Enjoy.

The Red Wheelbarrow
By: William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

the red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.





mh

south hills bowl

"This place is deader than Stephen Hawking's legs."
-Shawn Masten

People say that life goes in circles, and I'm beginning to understand why. While perusing the once cherised lanes of South Hills Bowl on a 24 hour weekend bender, I found something interesting hanging on the delapidated walls of the "shithole on the hill". It seemed to be a very old newspaper article from at least 50 years ago signifying the opening of a place in South Baldwin, PA, that would be known as South Hills Bowl. If I recall correctly, it said something to the effect that they would be the most modern lanes in the whole state with the automatic ball return and automatic pin setters. Oh, how the times have changed. As I was finishing up the article, something at the bottom stuck out at me. It was the picture of a smiling young man with glasses, and I quickly turned to the caption to read that "Bill Glus will be the manager of the newly established South Hills Bowl." I could hardly believe that Bill had been there for all those years and had still managed to keep that quirky smile as he watched the place rise to the top of the tops and sink down into the hellhole that it currently has been for the last five years. Since the turn of the millenium, that place has been on a slipply slide to the bottom, and it almost crashed head first this year by nearly failing to open in early September. No matter how terrible the smoke is in there or how black my hands ever get, that place will always feel like home to me. And one day, when the place is long boarded up or getting its shit ruined by construction equipment, I'll be able to look up at the shithole on the hill and remember all the unforgettable times that I had there.

Other than the all night bowling, there was nothing really great to speak of this weekend. Friday night consisted of me hanging out with kathleen and sarah at jeff's bonfire, and myself, jeff, conroy, and another kid doing a live rendition of Wonderwall by Oasis. God I love that song. Saturday night I spent the night bowling with kevin, nayhouse, and shawn masten, who I hadn't seen in quite some time. It was good to reminisce as I could see that although we had moved our seperate directions since graduation, there was still a bit of the old friendship that was rekindled that night. I spent the rest of the night fitfully sleeping on the floor of kevin and nayhouse's dorm in oakland. We went down to marketplace sunday morning, and later on I traveled out to west mifflin.

In other news, the online poker seems to have hit a rough patch. In just two days, I watched as 25% of the bankroll went off to cyberspace as I simply went card dead for about 36 straight hours. It started saturday when I was down to the last 100 of a 5+.50 tournament on stars. I had an average stack, but just got blinded away to 42nd place. Very disappointing because I felt as if I had a decent chance to final table it. The rest of the weekend consisted of me bubbling in SNG's four or five times and running into a terrible situation in a cash game where I flopped a set of jacks and lost to a flopped straight. I'm known for writing about bad beats, but that was just a bad situation there. There was nothing I could do(I guess I could have mucked when he raised), but obviously it's tough to put your opponent on exactly A 1O on a J Q K rainbow board. I began to recover tonight as I got 5th in a 45 person SNG and tripled cashed in back to back to back SNG's, yet I failed to win either of the two that I got heads up in. It just seems that it's coming down to me getting a little card dead or losing races. You have to win races to win SNG's as you can only expect to get in dominating spots every once in awhile.

To end this post, I'd like to give you a little taste of Claude McKay. I discovered him this year in my poetry class, and out of all the African American authors we have read, he is second only to Langston Hughes(who is probably one of my three favorite poets of all time). That will be a topic for a future post, but until then, enjoy this one.

If We Must Die
By: Claude McKay

If we must die- let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die- oh, let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe;
Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!



mh

the winds of fortune

"Yet I am of the opinion that it is better to be rash than over-cautious, because fortune is a woman and, if you wish to keep her down, you must beat her and pound her."
-Nicollo Machiavelli, The Prince

Luck is a funny thing. Just when you think that you have a lot of things figured out, something happens that changes your view on things. In my last post, I addressed the fact that I needed to start thinking about situations from different perspectives(using the example of how the Native Americans looked at Europeans stealing their land). Most situations are cut and dry where there is a definite right and wrong thing to do, but for other ones you have to really analyze your options and come to the decision that you think is right. Of course, just when you think that you have your mind made up, luck comes back and rears its ugly head by giving you another option. I actually stumbled upon that quote when I was reading The Prince this afternoon, and I have to say that I agree with what Machiavelli says about luck. He concludes that no matter how hard you try, life comes down to 50% preparation and 50% being in the right spot, at the right time. What we fail to see is that being in the right spot does constitute half of making correct decisions, but being in a perfect situation happens so rarely that we often forgo thinking that we could make a bad situation into a good one. Also, he states that the people that will be the most successful in life are the ones that can quickly adapt to the situation at hand. Once again, I have had many experiences where I failed to change my strategy and most of them ended up not working out so well. All in all, I'm glad that I discovered Machiavelli's work(in a book that I stole from PSUM's library) and it was worth the weeding through a lot of his more boring topics.

In other news, our flag football season is done. To begin with, I'd like to thank everyone that played on the team because it was definitely an enjoyable season. Our game Tuesday was probably the best game that we played all season. It's a shame that the season has to end so early because we are just getting into a groove now. In the first half of the game, we played stingy defense, but they still managed to lead 12-0. After we had a little team meeting at halftime, we had a really good drive to start the second half that ended in a punt pinning them down deep in their own end. The first play of their drive, their QB threw to my man, and I tipped the ball and shane caught the tip and returned it to their 1. Mark ran an option right and Pitch caught a touchdown pass. We missed the extra point, and it was 12-6. On our next offensive drive, they got a safety on us putting them ahead 14-6. However, we struck back once again and Jon intercepted the ball and returned it for a TD for us. 14-12 now. On their next drive, Mark came with a safety blitz and we got a safety to tie the game. On our drive, we had to punt. 51 seconds left now. In what I remember as a flurry, they got the ball down to our 20 with 20 seconds left. I remember running across the field in coverage and timing the possible interception run perfectly. The quarterback bit on the old trap and I had the interception. In all my years, I can count the number of balls that I've dropped that were perfect throws to me on one hand. It was muddy and rainy, but there is no excuse for watching the ball go right through your hands and into the receiver's that you're covering. The good thing was that he fumbled the ball into the end zone and we got the ball at our 10 due to the touchback rule. The bad news was that with 9 seconds left, our season ended as mark was blitzed from all sides and was unable to get rid of the ball. He was safetied, and we lost another close one. It was heartbreaking not because we lost, but the fact that we were huge underdogs starting the season and by the end, we were able to compete with last year's champs. Oh well, we still have one more game to go and we are going to do what we did at the start of the season: have fun.

In regards to the situation that I was describing, I still haven't made up my mind. It's simple, but it's complex. On the surface, it looks like an easy, one step decision, but there are so many other factors that will ultimately play a part in my decision. Enough about that now though.

Song of Myself(Poem 46)
By: Walt Whitman

No I, not any one else can travel that road for you,
You must travel it yourself.

It is not far, it is within reach,
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born and did not know,
Perhaps it is everywhere on water and on land.

Shoulder your duds dear son and I will mine, and let us hasten forth,
Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go.

If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on my hip,
And in due time you shall repay the same service to me,
For after we start we never lie by again.

This day before dawn I ascended a hill and looked at the crowded heaven,
And I said to my spirt When we become the enfolders of those orbs, and
the pleasure and knowledge of every thing in them shall we be filled and satisfied then?
And my spirit said No, we but level that lift to pass and continue beyond.

You are also asking me questions and I hear you,
I answer that I cannot answer, you must find out for yourself.

Sit a while dear son,
Here are biscuits to eat and here is milk to drink,
But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet clothes, I kiss you
with a good-bye kiss and open the gate for your egress hence.

Long enough have you dream'd contemptible dreams,
Now I was the gum from your eyes,
You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life.

Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the shore,
Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,
To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to me, shout, and
laughingly dash with your hair.




mh

postcards to columbus

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed a second opinion to find what the right thing is to do, but the person that you might ask for help cannot help you because they are involved in the situation?

While you ponder what that may be about, I will briefly update you about my life. Poker feels more like a job now than a hobby, and that's how I wanted it to be. I put in my 20 hours a week and get paid less than minimum wage, but things are beginning to look up. Today, I was in prime position to win a 45 person 6 dollar turbo SNG, but i ran into a tough situation with jacks, and another one with AK. Poker has consumed a lot of my time lately, and it has been for the most part enjoyable.

The control of both the House and Senate by the Democrats is going to spell both good and bad things. First, I think that it will spell a brief backwards turn in the market(which has had its best three consecutive quarters ever) because Democratic policies usually coincide with less laissez faire economics and more government control. Also, the price of gas may be going up because of OPEC's decision to reduce production by 1 million bb a day and the ties that many Republicans in Congress had with oil giants overseas have been cut because of their removal from office. On the good side, the Democrats claim that they will have a less scandalous Congress, but we all remember what happened the last time a Democrat promised us to have a scandal free administration(er, Bill Clinton). I like that the Dems supposedly want to challenge Bush on setting a timetable for leaving Iraq, but it's something that is going to be tough to convince Bush to change his mind on. The way I see it, Bush knows that the Iraq ship is sinking, but he's determined to go down with it. The sad thing is, he is probably going to cost the Republican in 08 a chance to be elected unless his approval rating is higher than its current low of 31%.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving break because everyone will be back in town. I have deeply missed some of my friends that left at the end of August for institutions of higher learning. Speaking of higher learning, I'm already done with my microecon class and the rest of the semester is going by so quickly. In all seriousness, where did the whole year go? 2006 was probably the quickest year that I've ever been a part of. Next semester, my classes are going to be a lot more difficult because they will be focused on higher level economic concepts. Obviously, I am excited for it because I love a challenge and typically as things get more difficult, I start giving better performances.

So now that you've had time to think about it, what do you do? How do you make a decision that is going to affect you for at least the rest of this year? Which way do you go, or do you just completely defer on making the decision until later in life? These are all things that I need to think about. The title refers to looking at things in a different light, something that Sherman Alexie does in her poem "Postcards to Columbus". Enjoy it.

Postcards to Columbus
By: Sherman Alexie

Beginning at the front door of the White House, travel west
for 500 years, pass through small towns and house fires, ignore
hitchikers and stranded motorists, until you find yourself
back at the beginning of this journey, this history and country

folded over itself like a Mobius strip, Christopher Columbus
where have you been? Lost between Laramie and San Francisco
or in the reservation HUD house, building a better mousetrap?
Seymour saw you shooting free throws behind the Tribal School

in a thunderstorm. Didn't you know lightning strikes the earth
800 times a second? But, Columbus, how could you ever imagine
how often our lives change? Electricity is lightning pretending
to be permanent and when the Indian child pushes the paper clip

into the electrical outlet, it's applied science, insane economics
of supply and demand, the completion of a 20th century circuit.
Christopher Columbus, you are the most successful real estate agent
who ever lived, sold acres and acres of myth, a house built on stilts

above the river salmon travel by genetic memory. Beneath the burden
of 15,000 years my tribe celebrated this country's 200th birthday
by refusing to speak English and we'll honor the 500th anniversary
of your invasion, Columbus, by driving blindfolded cross-country

naming the first tree we destroy America. We'll make the first guardrail
we crash through our national symbol. Our flag will be a white sheet
stained with blood and piss. Columbus, can you hear me over white noise
of your television set? Can you hear the ghosts of drums approaching?



mh