South40 Slim is BACK!

After an extended layoff, I've started playing online poker again. First let me say I don't play real money over the internet. I may have been born at night while falling off of a turnip truck, but it wasn't last night.

I like playing tournament Texas Hold 'em on Full Tilt Poker. If you can get past the 1st and 2nd hand fools going All In on the deal, you stand a better than fair chance of finding some good poker to be played after a few hands.

In the last 2 days I've won 2 250 player tournaments and come in 2nd in another. There were also 3 or 4 other tournaments where I got my ass kicked early. But you have to focus on the positive! In those all I lost was my entry fee. That's what I like tournament poker!

I feel a trip to Winstar on the horizon...

Cool, Yet Very Uncool

Check this out, adjustable prescription glasses. No more bifocals. How cool is that?

1 minor drawback, they come in 1 style and 1 style only. Very uncool.

Yeah, I want to look like Captain Nerdo.

KVW: Karaoke Video of the Week

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Let me just say I am digging this weather! Unfortunately, we usually have about 30 seconds of spring and fall around here before it goes from one extreme to the other, so you really have to appreciate it while you've got it.

One of the advantages of living on the edge of civilization is I can sleep with the windows open and enjoy the cool night breeze. Of course I usually wake up stopped up tighter than a drum and can barely breathe enough to crawl to the econo size bottle of Claratin in the medicine cabinet, but damn it it's worth the hassle.

It reminds me of when I was a little kid and would go stay at my grandparents house. There was no such thing as central heat and air. There were Dearborne gas heaters when it was cold and windows when it was hot. When it was really hot you made a pallet and slept on the back porch. You pull that stunt today and they would have CPS kicking your door down. Oddly enough, humans actually survived under such primitive living conditions back then and did so quite well.

Anyway for the next few nights it will be prime sleeping weather.

While searching for something to shnazz this post up a bit I ran across this gem and it gave me an idea for a new feature. Karaoke Vid of the Week. Think about it, this has some serious Tosh.0 potential, or Gong Show at the very least. (Get the Chuck Barris theme now?) You never know what kind of performance you'll get. I'm telling you America's got talent! Wait, that's a Simon Cowell reference... anyway I'm giving it a trial run and see what happens.

Here's Contestant #1:

Opulence?

I has it!

Yesterday was a good day. No... a very good day for The South 40. We entered a long awaited and predicted era, signing a new mineral exploration lease and production contract.

My Grandfather once told me "Boy... someday they will come in here and go deep, real deep". That day has come to pass some 40+ years after the wisest and most respected man I ever knew spoke those words to me. 

In the next 30 days or so, a new well will begin drilling on The South 40 searching to exploit the Barnett Shale. Since I own the surface along with the mineral rights it's a win/win deal.

To be quite honest, for some reason I feel a bit like Hud Bannon right now, but without all the guilt. Maybe I should adopt more of a Jett Rink'ish attitude. 

It would be appropriate given the situation.

That's EYE-gore!

I have a lot of friends around the world and Mother Nature seems to dislike some of them. Remember the guy in Iceland that lives on the edge of an active volcano?

Well, I have another that lives in Bermuda. He's hunkering down for 40+ hours of Hurricane Igor tap dancing thru his back garden.. At one point Igor had sustained winds of over 140mph and was a Cat 4, but has weakened to a Cat 1.

The line is the projected storm path. The dot is his house.

Good Eats

I had planned to have Marie Callendar's lasagna for supper tonight after work. But I learned the new mexican restaurant opened in Chico. Heaven forbid that I not to support a struggling new business.

Trust me, they won't be struggling for long. Julio's is located on the Chico square in the old firehouse. I'm told it's run by part of the famed Casa Torres family in Decatur. If the food is any indicator, they are indeed. Absolutely delicious, fast and inexpensive. For their first week they really had their act together and they were busy.

I had the #14 Combo enchilada dinner. Yummmm!

They are open Monday thru Saturday til 9. I'll update with more info.

In other news from The Limestone Capitol of Texas, I'm told the Deputy Sheriff has taken to riding a tricked out bicycle around town writing tickets. That's either the stupidest thing I've ever heard or I'm having flashbacks to The Andy Griffith Show when Barney got a motorcycle.

But don't let Checkpoint Chickie keep you from enjoying the great food at Julio's!

I Owe My Soul To The Company Store

Ah, the dreaded call from the Bossman on my day off. "What are you doing?" is not what I want to hear.

Luckily, it's only a 1/2 shift I have to cover.

And Now, Tech Corner!

Let's Rodeo!

Don't miss all the action at the 54th annual Wise County Sheriff's Posse Rodeo this weekend! This is the main fundraiser for the WCSP which sponsors the Wise County Youth Fair, Wise County Youth Rodeo and other youth events.

There will also be a parade on the square in Decatur Saturday morning at 11am. Yours truly will once again be the MC. So there's always a chance I might start channeling Jan Brewer and have a live meltdown/panic attack on stage. Can't miss entertainment right there!

C'mon down and bring the whole family for some fun and excitement.

Got Marshmallows?

From The AP:

SAN BRUNO, Calif. (AP) — A massive fire burned homes as it roared through a mostly residential neighborhood in the hills south of San Francisco following a loud explosion that shot a fireball more than 1,000 feet into the air and sent frightened residents fleeing for safety Thursday.

A local fire chief said a gas line explosion likely caused the blast that sent flames tearing through the streets, incinerating possibly more than a dozen homes just after 6 p.m.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. officials said in an e-mailed statement that the ruptured gas line was theirs, although they cautioned that the cause of the blast has yet to be determined.

Unofficial damage so far: 53 houses destroyed, 120 houses damaged, 1 dead.

How I Spent My Mini-Vacation

Sigh... My little mini-vacation (2 days + 2 regular days off) is over. I rarely have a weekend off so I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish 1 thing I had planned, like having a nice grilled dove dinner. In fact I didn't see a single bird before it started raining.

But I did manage to spend a whole buttload (is that 1 word or 2? Spellchecker was no help at all) of money I didn't plan on. Hunting license, shells, new grill, ect., and all I had for dinner was hamburgers. I also spend some unexpected cash for repairs on my Minitruck. The battery decided this was the time to give out. What I thought would be a quick and easy $30-$40 repair turned into a slow and tedious $100 repair.

I thought a motorcycle or lawn mower battery would be used for a replacement (it's a tiny 3 cylinder engine), it wound up taking a car battery. Motorcycle and mower batteries have the wrong type of terminal. I get back home, remove the old battery and discover that the top posts are about 1/3 smaller than the replacement battery. So I dig out the vise-grip pliers and start grinding away at the lead posts. Problem was I got really good at it, ground off too much lead and one of the posts is now too small (insert Fred Flintstone grumbling rant here). After inserting several of the larger lead slivers that had been ground off, I managed to fill the gap well enough to get a firm grip between cable and battery.

Did I mention the truck was sitting in the middle of the field and it was raining the whole time I was doing this?

Deep Thoughts

• What would Don Draper do?
• What would Jesus do?
• What would Anthony Bourdain do?
• What would Jay & Silent Bob do?

Headless Body Found In Arizona

And it's running for election!

DVR Alert!

This is one of my personal favorite films. There were films 2 done about the true story of U.S, athlete Steve Prefontaine. The other was a big budget version titled Without Limits starring Billy Crudup and Donald Sutherland. Prefontaine is definitely the better of the two.

In Prefontaine,  R. Lee Ermey plays legendary Oregon Coach and Nike founder Bill Bowerman and Jared Leto portrays the dominating distance runner from Oregon that shattered records thru sheer willpower and just missed out on a medal during the tragic Munich Olympics. But thru defeat he rallied to redefine the rules for American amateur athletes and their sanctioning bodies to level the playing field. While Pre's opponents were living a King's life with all it's comforts, he was surviving off Food Stamps and tending bar to afford hot dogs for supper while living in a trailerpark just to maintain his amateur status and ability to compete.

Excellent flick!

Playing on Showtime Extra DTV 549 7:30am Monday morning. Set your DVR and sit the whole family down to watch this one.

Pre! Pre! Pre!

World's... Worst... Blogger

Ok, I know I've been bad and I won't make any excuses for it. But on the positive side, my Aces High score is in the Top 25%. Now, if I could just parlay that into an income...

Speaking of income, I finally signed papers with Devon. Looks like there will be an addition to the royalty check in a few months. I was really hesitant to sign and could have buggered the whole deal. I can get along just fine without it and there is a certain person it would keep from getting a nickle. But there were also people involved that I didn't hate (proper use of the term) and I thought "why drag them into my misery?". My kharma rules won that decision. But man what a classic dish of revenge served cold that could have been! One big factor that swayed my decision was the well and the field will be named after my Grandfather. Couldn't let that opportunity slip away.

Note to Barnacle: How much is that lot across the street? I might be able to make an offer soon.

Meghan McCain has a new book out that I'm definitely going to read. I've been impressed with her for quite a while now. I believe what she says is far more honest than the average Republican bear. Reminds me of her father pre-2000 and gives me hope for what the GOP might eventually become if they don't run all the good ones off..

This is the opening weekend of Dove season in North Texas and I'm taking a few days of well deserved vacation and aggression therapy. You'd be surprised what a couple days of beer, guns and BBQ can do for the soul.

My personal favorite method of cooking dove breast is marinate in Italian salad dressing (is there anything you CAN'T use that on?), insert slices of sweet onion and jalapeño, wrap in bacon then drizzle with fresh lime juice and grill to taste. You can thank me later...

The weather forecast looks good for hunting. A cold front is expected to move in this week and drive the temperature down. That should put the birds on the move and in search of food. I hope that holds out. If so, between my place and BIL's, we should be able to come up with enough birds for a decent cookout. So Far I haven't seen a single dove.

I learned a few former co-workers at my old job have either transferred or given notice due to inability to work with management. Hate to see them leave, they were good workers and good people. I'm positive they will move onto more successful and lucrative positions elsewhere. But, maybe now they finally understand why I transferred the hell outa there first chance I had and did so with no regrets. I'd say more, but it goes against my credo of "separation of work and blog".

Of course that only holds true until they finally piss me off enough to open my biiiggg mouth!