142, The End

This will be my last NY post. Fittingly, I have created a new G-Mail account to make the segue into a "real life" professional look, and with it, a new blog. I figure that nothing else will really change, the blog will be the same, but it should be linked to my new e-mail. Plus, it gives me a chance to put an end on this blog. It started while I was sitting filing papers in a real estate agency the summer after Freshman year, so it's a nice ending, I think.

So as my pizza is on its way over, I shall bid this blog and NY adieu.

Peace.

Oh, and follow my future adventures at the more appropriate http://goodbetash.blogspot.com

Please Note

Jesse: While we're talking about topics that are taboo, can the future be one of them?

Please note that the next person who asks me, "so what are you doing now?" will get slapped in the face, either physically or emotionally.

That is all

For the record

I know the answers to the previously asked questions. They're really just food for thought.

Switching Gears

Dear Danny,

With my final of three graduations on the horizon tomorrow, it makes me think of this idea I've wanted to expand upon for a few days now. For those of you who aren't ask poker savvy as Feuer or Alex, the concept of which I'm thinking about these days is switching gears. Now this concept is a metaphor within a metaphor within a metaphor. So let me try and go at it simply.

When you play poker, there are different styles that you can chose. You can be aggressive which usually means betting frequently, a lot of bluffing, usually loud at the table. You can be conservative, which is of course, the opposite. Sitting tight, waiting for hands to come to you and not usually bluffing. When you ask some of the poker greats, they say you have to mix up your play. Sometimes you need to be firing away so people know you're willing to bet your chips and sometimes you need to let people try and bluff at you. Knowing when to speed up (become more aggressive) or slow down (play less hands) is known as switching gears. This is a skill that only the real pros have down, and still have trouble with with everyday play. It can be hard to know what the table is dictating, especially in tournament play when guys are coming in and out and you're just trying to survive. It can be even harder online when you have to rely on reads based on betting patterns and feel more than reading an actual player.

I'd like to bring up a hand I talked about briefly a couple weeks ago. It was my 37s vs. AKs, which I won when I hit my flush. I had said I played the hand completely wrong, which I did. But it came at a time when I was in a faster speed. Granted, I still should have folded preflop and misbet every step of the way, but I was in a more aggressive gear and wanted to play it out so people knew I could be reckless, so when I shut down I could induce more bluffs. It just so happened that I hit my flush and he hit his ace and I could profit from it.

So it all has me thinking. What gear am I really in right now? Am I speeding up towards graduation and eventual "real life"? Am I slowing down after a really fast aggressive session? Are my dreams of leaving the country a safe play or are they playing the 37s? Is my grant proposal submission a slow play or a bluff? Is there a play here at all? Maybe because there's no opponent to get a read off of, there is no answer. In "Psychology of Poker", it talks about being able to overcome yourself first and foremost before you can read anyone else. So I guess it's just a matter of using 3rd level reading on myself. 3rd level is the I know he knows I know I can read him...so what does he have?

I will leave you with this thought, or rather, my favorite poker quote --

Whether he likes it or not, a man’s character is stripped at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life.

-- Anthony Holden

My Internship Paying Off...Sort of

I was featured, sort of, along with 3 other interns on the Late Night Underground blog yesterday

This is it here.

Check out the blog otherwise too, cause it's cool

Sk8er Boy

So I've had this problem the past couple days where the last song I'm listening to before I turn my iPod off has been a, well, bad song. Yesterday was Destiny's Child "Survivor", of course not a bad song per se, but you know what I mean. Catchy, poppy song that was stuck in my head all day. Today was Avril Levine's "Skater Boy."

Why, may you ask, is Sk8er Boy on my iPod? It was added for some reason one night when Sushi was over, I think that explains enough. But today, as terribly catchy as that song is, I decided to think about it a little deeper. Call it boredom. Call it going to an art school for the past 4 years and learning how to over analyze everything to the point of oblivion. Call it...boredom. But now I shall shed some light into the soul of Ms. Levine's hit.

He was a boy, She was a girl, Can I make it any more obvious?

Here we're being set up for a fairy tale, boy meets girl, they fall in love.

He was a punk,
She did ballet,
What more can I say

Alright, we've been introduced to characters now. We start to see the tension between social classes. One can assume that this story takes place in a high school context, or you can take the archatypes and apply them to modern day people we all know. A punk, a rebel, an out cast would contrast against someone proper, a dancer, something considered "right" by societal standards. So what's going to happen?

He wanted her,
She'd never tell, secretly she wanted him as well
But all of her friends,
Stuck up their nose,
They had a problem with his baggy clothes...

The Skater, as we shall call him, had no problem expressing his feelings. As more of a free spirit type, he has little shame and feels no need to hide behind his stereotype. She, the Ballet, on the other hand, lets her friends and society decide her emotions for her. So far we have two interesting characters and a twist. They don't actually get together. Then we get a nice little chorus to remind us of this

He was a skater boy,
She said "see you later boy",
He wasn't good enough for her
She had a pretty face,
But her head was up in space,
She needed to come back down to earth

The chorus is told through her perspective, so we really think that he isn't good enough for her. We're supposed to sympathize with her. She's the one with the pretty face, she's in space and we want her to come back down to Earth. We don't know what happened or will happen to him. Was he crushed by the rejection? Did he give up on life? Did he change his ways to conform to her life style? Let's see.

5 years from now,
She sits at home,
Feeding the baby, she's all alone

Whoa. There's a jump. Ok, first of all we jump 5 years in time. So this can tip us off that we were in high school, or even college before. Let's assume high school. Ballet is at home with a new born child seemingly in either an abandoned father situation or a loveless marriage sort of situation. Either way, we know instantly that she's not happy.

She turns on TV,
Guess who she sees,
Skater boy rockin on MTV

There's our boy. Rocking out on MTV. We can assume from this surprise, then this means a great deal of success to him and to her.

She calls up her friends,
They already know,
And they've all got tickets to see his show
She tags along,
Stands in the crowd,
Looks up at the man that she turned down

Yup, this is a level of success that he reached and she didn't. She's going to see his show. Now the reversal is that she could have had him all for herself, and now she not only has to pay to see him but she has to share him with an entire crowd. Here we also get the play that society isn't always right. The same friends who said he wasn't good enough for her now flocks to see him.

Now, a revised chorus --

He was a skater boy,
She said "see you later boy",
He wasn't good enough for her
Now he's a super star,
Slammin' on his guitar,
Does your pretty face see what he's worth?

Here we start to hear a narrator. Avril is calling out Ballet. Almost mocking her, angry at her.

Sorry girl but you missed out,
Well, tough luck that boy's mine now,

Ah, here we go. Avril picked up our hero. So this song that started out as a story book tale is now a song from an angry punk chick calling out her love's ex love. Is Avril angry for any reason? Let's see.

We are more than just good friends,
This is how the story ends
Too bad that you couldn't see,
See the man that boy could be,
There is more than meets the eye,
I see the soul that is inside

Well, so far this is all just Avril professing love and reasserting what was established before. A simple don't judge a book by its cover message, but I think there's more here.

He's just a boy,
And I'm just a girl,
Can I make it any more obvious
We are in love,
Haven't you heard,
How we rock each others world

Now a little book end for structural purposes. She's beating the love over the head a little much, wouldn't you say? Why would she have to overcompensate?

I'm with the skater boy,
I said see you later boy,
I'll be back stage after the show
I'll be at the studio,
Singing the song we wrote,
About a girl you used to know

Here is where we can look for some real interesting insight. Is her line "I said see you later boy" just there to rhyme? Earlier she was singing directly to Ballet, but now she's talking to a boy? I'm going to count out any hermaphroditic implications as this wouldn't be fitting in our analysis. Maybe we took another time jump and Avril has been hit on by a boy at a concert and has told this story to show how much she's in love with Skater.

But the last line is addressed to yet ANOTHER person - Skater himself. "The song we wrote, about a girl YOU used to know." Is it possible that Skater has been thinking back about his first love? Maybe he saw her at the show and he's been thinking about her, so Avril decided to write this song and make sure she's locked in her man. Is it possible that Avril is herself self conscious? Maybe she's worried their love really isn't that strong and needs to try and make herself feel better. Perhaps Avril isn't as well put together as she may seem, perhaps she's insecure.

So there's a little insight into Sk8ter Boy. There is much to learn from this song. We can learn about growing up and staying true to yourself. Just because a girl doesn't like you now doesn't mean she doesn't like you, your soul. You will always be you, no matter what judgements society will make. But success may not ease the pain of love. I don't know about you, but I'm not convinced that Skater is completely over Ballet. I think that the real message here is that you can never really change who you are, as much dress up as you think you've done. I also think the message here is that Avril Levine is a jealous bitch of a girlfriend. But that's just me.

It's Better to be Lucky than Good

Today I won a decent pot with 37s vs. AKs. I hit my flush. As discussed with Alex and Danny, it was possibly the most poorly played hand in the history of poker. I literally made the wrong move on every single street. But I won a little money and had some laughs, it was fun.

So I've just finished my final essay...ever. It's a history and a deep look into the horror genre. From Golem to Hostel, I went over every trend in horror and explained them all and even used words like "neurotransmitters." It was fun. If requested, I'll post it on here.

I've also recently decided to write a Great American Novel. I think it's going to have robots.

That's all

Asher

School's Out Forever

I'm never going to a class again. I'm still writing a paper, but I'm never going to school again.

That's all.

Peace.