So, it's Friday afternoon. In an hour or so I'm leaving with my friends Tim and Jake to go to Atlanta. The Georgia Dome will be the neutral site of this weekend's Alabama versus Clemson football game. I don't have a ticket yet but a friend of mine and I are gonna go on the prowl before the game and scoop a couple from the scalpers. We're probably going out in Buckhead tonight, so if anyone is in the area gimme a call.

Yesterday I finished my second week of classes. Things are going pretty smoothly. I'm starting to get the feel for it again and am having a good time. The only part that sucks is I have to park in this sort of far away parking lot and catch the U of Alabama's transit system. That means I have to leave my house earlier than I'd like. Whatever. Maybe the most interesting of my classes is American Literature. We've been kind of analyzing poetry in that class the last couple of days, which is actually pretty damn interesting stuff.

Other than that, Zack and I have been going to the gym a lot. We went all 4 days Monday through Thursday. We lifted, ran, and sat in the steamroom. I've quickly dropped back down to about 204 lbs and have realistic hopes of being at like 190 pretty soon. Now that we've gotten through 2 weeks of fitness, I think that I can keep it up. This is one of the big steps I'm taking in self-improvement. This is a subject that's really fascinated me lately. I want to be the absolute best person I can be, and getting really healthy can only help that. While I'm really happy with a lot of the things poker has provided me, it definitely didn't allow me to be the best that I could be in life. It is sort of neat going to classes, having this drive and working towards a goal. Ok I'm rambling.

Some poker: I played online last Sunday. I booked a slight winner, as I cashed in the 100r (18th), 200r(33rd), and the 500 (77th)on Stars. For whatever reason, I've been unable to close tournaments online. A lot of it has to do with me being so damn impatient, as I said in an earlier blog. A lot of it also has to do with variance, I like to think. Obviously the money is pretty insignificant in the online MTTs except for the top 3 spots, so it hurts to come close and not get there. A couple of other things regarding poker: I am going to put my online Omaha 8 cash game freeroll back on. The other night I came home and bled a lil bit in those games, and I am clearly not a winner in those high limit short handed games. The first 10 people who find me playing Omaha 8 at 30/60 limit or up can email me and receive 1000 dollars each. I am going to put this freeroll on until the end of the 2008 calendar year. My name on Stars is basebal1b and FTP is BLUFFforRENT. That will save me from answering 50 emails :) While following the WPT Legends online, I found myself missing poker for the first time since I've been back in Alabama. Watching the videos was the hardest. Just hearing the guys talk about the circuit and watching the live hands as the players shuffled chips really made me want to be at the Bicycle playing. I guess poker's not going anywhere. Then again, the numbers are WAY down.

SS

While I am sitting here in my Tuscaloosa apartment, I'm living vicariously through those that I'm fond of while I'm unable to play live poker. That said, good luck to Zack Clark, John Phan and Amit Makhija at the final table of Legends. Although WPT attendance is down, 1.1 million is still 1.1 million. I'll emerge with more tomorrow about my life for those few that are interested :)

Also, "Yea, we don't usually take bows (after winning pots)." -Erick Lindgren

SS

So the first week was easy. Classes didn't start until Wednesday and I don't have Friday classes, so basically I just had to show up at my classes two days so far. We did nothing but pick up our syllabi. I think it's going to be a pretty manageable schedule. Things went smoothly except for my very first class on Wednesday. I'm taking this one class, statistics, at the nearby community college called Shelton State. I was relegated to doing this because the only openings for that class at The University of Alabama were MWF from 8 to 8:50 a.m. Obviously that wasn't going to work. So, I headed down to the community college and arrived at like 12:58 for my 1 p.m. class. I asked some lady at the desk where my classroom was because I couldn't find it. She informed me that there was another campus, lol, and that my class was there. I got directions and arrived 18 minutes late on the first day. Nice. Didn't matter though because all we were doing was watching some film informing us what "Statistics" was about. One of my professors seems like she might be a real bitch, but I also have a couple professors who are seemingly interesting people. Ok, I won't bore you with any more school stories.

Other than that, things have been really cool. I've been sort of punishing my body with lots of alcohol over the last week. Whatever, it's the first week of classes, so it's standard to go out a bunch. I'll chill a lil bit once classes start. It's definitely been a really good time though so far. My biggest leak at the bars has been buying like EVERYONE I know tons of shots. The nice thing about it is that going out like 5 nights in Tuscaloosa only hits the wallet about as hard as one night out at the Vegas nightclubs. I can handle it though.

Other than that I've been to the gym a couple times this week with my boy Zack. Spent significant amount of time in the sauna too sweating out the impurities.

One other thing. College dudes (and others) that are reading: don't bet football this fall. I made a mental note to blog about this the other night. I remember when I was a freshman in college and just getting into online poker how I got stuck for the first like 9 months and just played ALL the time. The sickness that is online poker and gambling took over my life. There was a period of time when I wasn't even interested in doing social things because I needed to stay home and get my fix. I know this is already the case for a lot of you guys reading this, and I can only hope you find your way out. Things, I guess, worked out for me in this business, but I think it's a lot more important to get the most out of your college experience. Gambling can only detract from that. That's my public service announcement for the day. If it saves one kid from turning into a complete degen then I've done my job. Hope this paragraph wasn't too weird.

Cheers.

SS