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?



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