Like,Duh,Obvious!

I swapped Playstation3 usernames with Step A a while ago and finally got round to sending her a "friend invite".She accepted and yesterday I sent a "hello COD noob" message on the PS3 network and received the reply " and u r?".( good news that she wasn't willing to start chatting freely to just anyone!) " Ldo,Nacho's Dad" got a "lol Hi" reply.I was trying to be cool with the "ldo" which I discovered this week is forum speak for "Like,Duh,Obvious".I think I blew any semblance of cool though, when I noticed her name tag online included the word "Legendery" and couldn't resist messaging her the correct spelling and the instruction to pay more attention to English at school!

My conjunctivitis was so bad last night I could barely see out of my left eye and that's my excuse for running badly at Call of Duty when the s-man was round.I managed three $22's after he left before deciding it was just stupid to play with only one good eye.

My leg does feel much better at least and although I can't quite sleep on my right side it no longer hurts too much during the day.The main problem I have left is the feckin lump at the base of my back on the right side as it still hurts and seems to flare up even more when I do too much.My latest sick line runs out next week and I'm really hoping this painful lump will go down or be better by then.I'm going to call for a Docs appointment tomorrow and hopefully she can refer me for some physio to sort it if required.My Mum bought me a "Tens Machine" but in truth I find using it sore and as it's supposed to relieve pain I've given up on it for now.

Righty I've used the eyedrops and I'm off to find out if my UAV is online....!

Friends will be Friends...

Friday was great.I took Step A out for Mcd's and probably sounded like a right old git as I warned her about boys with hormones and pushed her to keep working hard at school.I was a bit unsure on the alcohol front( she came home drunk a month or so back) as I certainly don't want to encourage her, but at 15 I was drinking too and nobody had ever told her the basics such as not drinking on an empty stomach,having a glass milk before going out and trying to drink lots of water before bed when she comes home.

Anyway the place was busy and I asked her to get us a free table as I queued to save time."But then I'll have to shout to let you know where I am", Step A said.As I could sense her unease at drawing attention to herself I assured her I when I heard her call out, I'd jump on the fast food counter,swing my arms round in a windmill pointy fashion and yell,"There's Step A" at the top of my voice.That got a smile.

After dropping her off I was home in time for the visit of Al Eleven ( the San Jose Salmon aka Miami Trout) and Mrs E.We had a fine old night on da herb, although since Al is smoking less these days he had to accept the downgrade from his previous "Iron Lungs" nickname to the more realistic "Pink lungs poofter" moniker.( though to be fair I added the poofter bit just now!)

Al,Mrs Eleven and the S-man are coming over tonight ( assuming I'm not snowed in by then) and once again I'm looking forward to chewing the fat with a few of my closest friends.Apologies to the Big Chap and Dudley as we're not going to get a poker home game this time round unfortunately.

If it doesn't piss Mrs E off too much we might get some Call of Duty played tonight too.I'm really starting to get hooked on the online game and my kill/death ratio is improving slightly too.The s-man takes the run+ gun LAG ( loose aggressive) approach and I stick to my TAG ( Tight Aggressive) style of mooching around trying to sneak up and knife people.

I also finally got round to watching the first episode of Prison Break ( liked it too) and that hasn't left room for much poker recently.

After the Bloggerment last night ( congrats to Mair on winning it) I watched Barney win his first round match at the World Darts Championship and then hit up the $22's where I couldn't get a hand to hold or hit for about 10 games before I finally took one down and cashed in a couple of others for a break even session.

Oh and I listened to the Radio 1 charts for the first time since I used to tape my favourite singles from it when Bruno Brookes presented it back in the day.I have to own up to cheering loudly when it was finally announced that the X-Factor winner had been beaten to the Xmas number 1 spot by Rage against the Machine with their "Killing in the Name" song.GIRUY Cowell and co! I don't use Facespace,Mybook or have any other web presence other than this blog, but I take my hat off to those who organised the campaign and I'm look forward to next years X-Factor smasher already.( "Holidays in the Sun" perhaps?)

Righty,enough wittering for now.If I don't post before the 25th then have a Merry Xmas reader! Enjoy the vid...

Taking Out Snipers

My boss and a young apprentice manager were out this morning to pay me a visit,get an update on my health and to try and get a general idea of when I'll be going back to work.My right leg does feel much better, however I still can't sleep properly on my right side ( the side I fall asleep on) and I still have a lump at the base of my back where I tore muscles.I gave them an estimated date of mid Jan.

Everyone who saw the car either at the scene or in the photo's I posted back on Nov 6th reckons I'm very lucky to have walked away.I suppose at the time I thought that having made it out the car alive,I'd soon heal up in a week or so.On my last visit the Doc said it could take around 3 months to heal and despite my "luck" I may also have to accept that the injuries will always cause me some degree of pain.

It's just very frustrating to be stuck indoors doing very little for so long.I could have used this time to try and really grind the turbo's but being loaded up on painkillers + diazepam and feeling a bit low in general means that I just haven't felt like playing much at all.I have really enjoyed going through the Sng turbo hand histories people have sent me to look at and hopefully I've helped make a real difference to their games.Feel free to send more to the email address above, but be warned I tell it like it is and won't put too much sugar coating on it if I see clear mistakes that are costing you money!

In other news I believe my good mate Al Eleven(and Mrs E)are now back in Scotland for their Xmas visit and I'm looking forward to seeing them.I've known them both since school days and they stay in the US these days.As usual, being blokes there has been talk of poker home games ( with Dudley,s-man,Two Pies,Big Chap etc) and Call of Duty sessions but nothing arranged.I do have some fine herbs waiting for Al so my guess is he'll be in touch soon...

I'm also seeing Step A tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to catching up with her, although as usual I've not much of an idea what subjects 15yr olds like to chat about these days.I recall being her age and constantly being asked "How's school going?" and other such standard boring adult type questions.Answering "It's crap" usually brought about the standard lecture about how important it is to "stick in" and study hard if you want to avoid a life of asking customers if they'd like to "go large" with their happy meal.Yeah,Whateva..

Apologies if I've put this clip up before.I think I posted it on Raisetheriver somewhere but it may have been here.It's of some kid owning ( don't wanna lose a reader with pwning!) another in COD:Modern Warfare 2 and if you like the game or play shooters online I think it'll raise a smile...



Ok,thanks for reading.Don't forget all are welcome to play in Sundays $5.50 Blogger/Raise the River tourney on Pokerstars this Sunday.Hope to see you there....

Peck the Eyes Right Oot Yer Heid

Just off the phone to the Doc and I've been given a sick line for a further two weeks with an appointment for Dec 3rd at 10.30am.I've been prescribed a stronger pain killer as I'm still in quite a bit of pain down the right hand side of my body.I'd rather have my Aces rivered ten times in a row than sneeze!Apparently it can take 4-6 weeks for torn muscles to repair and I also have a couple of lumps on my leg and a bit of numbness too.

My insurance company ( More Than) made a good offer to replace my car and I've already looked at a few online.I was tempted to go for a Vauxhall Vectra Sri or a Honda Civic Type S but I'll probably go for a 2litre Mondeo TDCI and maybe look at remapping the engine to add a few bhp.( although 0-60 times aren't quite as big a priority as they used to be a few years ago)

I've been keeping busy by playing at Full Tilt under the name Isildur1 and so far things have been going well against Durr and co at the Heads-up nose bleed tables.Ok,lame joke but I have been watching some of the Isildur1 heads up battles with the top HU players online and it's made for fascinating viewing.Here's an excellent take on the emergence of Isildur1 by InternetPokers over at Cardrunners.

I haven't played a great deal of poker over the last week.The Bloggerment on Sunday saw 16 runners and it was great to see some new faces and some very very very old ones like Dudley too.I didn't last long after my 66 fell to Mr Clouds A10 but it was fun while it lasted and I'm looking forward to doing battle again this Sunday.All readers,bloggers and Raise the River members welcome!Read an excellent write-up on last Sundays game by Rubbish here.

Perhaps inspired by watching Isildur1 I've played a few more PLO games since my last post although the one DON ( Double or Nothing where 5/10 players get paid) I played last night seemed to last forever despite it being a turbo.I've also played a few of my usual $22 NL turbo's and they have been as swingy as ever.Up a few hundred for the month,go on a cashless streak for 10-12 games,win 2 from 3 games etc etc.As it stands right now I'm up a few hundred Dollars for the month over about 75 games.

Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2 also arrived in the post and I've had a wee go at the online team death matches,getting my arse handed to me on a plate by 12 yr olds shouting "pussy faggot" on a regular basis.Managing 6 kills and 12 deaths in one game is my best effort so far.More progress is being made on Motorstorm Pacific Rift where I'm hoping to move up from Gold Veteran to Hero status soon.Drop me an email/leave a comment with your Play Station 3 user name if you fancy a game sometime.

Ok,just time for a bit of info I found in "The Times" re online poker in the UK.With so many new players coming into the game from other countries I'm not sure any fall in UK players would affect Party or Stars a great deal although obviously the more fellow Brit donks at the tables the better overall. I included it as I felt it may be of interest to any fellow poker geeks** reading this.

"Internet poker: The boom in online poker is over in the UK, according to research from Mintel, which found that after growth of 72 per cent between 2004 and 2007, the poker market had stagnated last year and would fall by 7 per cent this year."

**Watching the Poker Million coverage last night Jesse May commentating said that of the two players heads up at the end,Gus Hansen and Taylor Caby,only poker geeks will have heard of Caby.My previous subscription to Caby's Cardrunners site,the hundreds of games I play per month, the poker blog,floattheturn membership and the endless surfing of RTR,2+2 and Pocketfives may already indicate a certain love of the pokers already but I don't think I've ever been a geek!

Ok,thanks for reading.Here's an old classic I felt was worth dusting off.The tv Dolmio adverts Glasgow style....

NSFW: