You gotta know when to fold 'em

Poker.

I Love Poker.

At first, it was the challenge of learning the rules, the hands, the bets, the terminology (check? check what?...)

Then I experienced Bluffing. Oh what an exciting and complex element to layer on top of this oh-so-logical, mathmatical game!

Then I started to understand the importance of knowing the probability of hands, which hands to bet on and when, when to fold off the bat, what is the likelihood that OTHER players have hands they are pretending to have..

Put it all together, add some good friends (or possibly strangers), pour some beer on top (really?! cause I don't have ENOUGH trouble playing as it is?!) and you've got one hilarious, often tense, but always fun-filled night.


SO! Who wants to join a weekly game??

water

drinking it, floating in it, splashing it on your face, over your feet, running through it on your bike, feeling it tap tap tap your face in big drops, little drops, in a spray off the side of a boat, hearing it lap at the side of a canoe, wiping it off a windshield with your finger, being completely immersed in it, being blinded by slivers of light reflecting off it...

Missed Connections

i love adrian tomine too.

There is something inside of me, some incredible hopeless romantic, some miserable self-loather, some delusional loner and sadomasochist who LOVES Craigslist Missed Connections.

For the uninitiated amongst you, this is a section of Craigslist ("Local classifieds and forums - community moderated, and largely free") where people post hopeful messages intended to catch the eye of some random people they've crossed paths with but couldn't get the guts to approach. This is such a thing that it even has a wikipedia article devoted to it. Or how bout Sophie Blackall's lovely illustrated blog?

Take as an example:

"I was waiting to cross the street at pine and st.laurent, you pulled up on your red peugeot bike, grey hoodie, sweet smile and long blond disheveled hair. You liked my shoes, I was overcome by your beauty and asked if you wanted them. You laughed and rode off on your bike. I thought I saw you look back. I wish you had come back... if you had I would've lamely attempted to ask you out. maybe by some insane stroke of luck you will read this and give me another chance to embarrass myself?"

This seems the kind of thing you're not supposed to admit to reading. or checking regularly. but I do. I don't really think some perfect mate saw me on my bike and due to my excellent taste in sweathshirts and bicycles wants to run off to some countryside town hall and elope. Rather, reading some of them makes me feel a bit warm and fuzzy inside.

What gets me is the hopeful belief in the power of love and fate. Everyone wants lightning to strike, everyone wants love at first sight with some beautiful stranger on the street (and not at a bar.) Everyone wants to believe in soul-mates. No one really believes it completely, but we all have at least one strong string of hope somewhere deep down in the darker (lighter?) parts of our hearts that someone noticed us noticing them and noticed us right back. Everyone has a life that is just mundane enough that they want it transformed in an instant by some act of fate and love.

And the anonymity makes it even better; not that it could be anyone, but that is IS EVERYONE. it's the faceless every-man. OR -woman.

And then there are those people who use it very meta-. who acknowledge that it's really a forum for expressing feelings of hope, of disappointment, and treat it as such.

My recent favorites:
Everyday I go out

I ride my bike literally all the way across town in the morning to work and at night coming home. I then come home make dinner and then go for another bike ride around the plateau or even downtown if I am really bored, then I go home, watch a movie and go to bed. In the morning I check missed connections from work, and there is never, not once anything posted about me. God damn you Craig and your list.

And someone's perfectly optimistic reply:
On a bike (Universe)

At some point in the near or space-mind-boggling distant future you will be engineering your mode of transport over seas and oceans or roads of impacted concrete and asphalt. You will not know until your feet hit the hard wood floor and you lower yourself onto a seat of synthetic material (the origins of which we contemplate). Someone will have written/thought out/telepathically communicated/hit you on the head with a missed connection. Except it will not be missed. A flicker in an eye or a slight movement directed at you will be your initial sign. Keep your senses sharp!

Dinners will then cease to be a solo activity. Menus will change and expand in their rotation due to an extra mind and tastes. Bike rides will become tandem. New routes and scenery will evolve right before your very eyes. Some films will be not to your liking but this is called compromise. At least they will be a little warmer due to extra body heat.

So, yeah, damn Craig and all his missed connections. Be patient and don't be missed.

I love Missed Connections. I might go write it a missed connection... see if it replies. maybe it will love me back.

i'm easily impressed

I love it when objects leave an impression in your skin. Like when my corduroy pillowcase leaves big lines on my face. Or when the seams from my undies remain after undressing.

Or when grass, grass, gets imprinted on your legs from lying in the park.

maze'o'bagels

The scene I fell upon making a late night visit to Fairmount Bagel...

kites

or in this case, a really cool string of mini kites, being masterfully lifted into the air by father-son-duo.