We had to cancel our gig tonight, as Dan had a last minute business trip. Our next gig is scheduled for October 6th at Hotel Utah in San Francisco.

In reverse order of importance, we had our last practice before my first gig with the Atomic Love Bombs, and Darla is pretty sick. It was a rough practice at first, due to the studio time interrupting real band practices, but things came together pretty quickly. I am stoked.

We’re playing First Street Billiards in San Jose on Friday the 14th. It would be nice if we could rehearse one more time, but I think we’ll do well enough without it.

We finished our three days in the studio, and man was it fantastic! All four of the songs we set out to record came together on Monday, and they sound great, even in a rough mix. Tim will be spending a time in the coming weeks doing some mix downs, and I can\’t wait to hear the final product.

Tim and I laid down some great background vocals (I think) for \”High Again\” and \”100 Mile Freefall,\” and Joe was kind enough to let me play a GREAT guitar line he came up for \”High Again.\” I think it really brings the tune together, especially below Dan\’s vocals and Michael\’s lead work.

I was particularly gratified to get some nice comments from the boys in the band for my contributions to our work. Being a new member, that means more than I can easily express.

Another day in the studio! Fortunately, I was feeling a bit healthier than yesterday, and I laid down two (mostly) good tracks for “I can’t see you lasting much longer.” I also laid down a track for “100 Mile Freefall,” and “High Again,” but we’re starting over on that one, so it doesn’t matter.

One more day! Sure is cool to be able to do this stuff.

Oi! It was our first day in the studio, and man, am I wiped! I’ve done LOTS of home 4-track recording (back in the day when that was cool), and a lot of home digital recording, but being in a hot studio (AC gets turned off on the weekends where we are!!!) for 9 hours when you’re sick is TIRING!

We laid down scratch tracks for four songs, and then did some very rough demos for 8-9 more. Next, we started working on the real guitar tracks for Early Grave, one of the four tracks planned for this weekend. We didn’t make a lot of progress, but I think we’ll do well on Sunday.

And hopefully I’ll be feeling a bit better, too!

Oh, and Joe and I worked out some guitar parts for some songs, and I really dig ‘em. These aren’t for our studio time, but rather some of the band’s repertoire where we hadn’t spent time on figuring exactly what I would be doing. It’s good stuff, IMNHO.

Lastly, I put Apple as a tag because we’re working on ProTools on a G5. My first experience with ProTools, but then I am not engineering it. That task falls to Tim, our bass player, who went to school for this sort of thing. w00t!

I’ve never been keen on being sick. Accordingly, I am delighted that I have a nasty-ass chest cold, especially since I am getting two crowns today, and am going into the studio with the Atomic Love Bombs all weekend.

Oh, and I am going into the studio all weekend with the Atomic Love Bombs. w00t!

We had a great rehearsal on Tuesday, and Joe and I tossed around some new ideas after the rehearsal for some new tunes. ‘Twas good stuff. I am hoping the band can finish something I’ve been doodling with for months, and Joe has two songs that I really, really dig.

Now, back to my irregularly scheduled chest cold and phlegm-filled lungs.

I love the folks at J!NX. They have the best geeky shirts, and I saw a great new one in their newsletter. N00B. I AM YOUR FATHER.

N00B. I AM YOUR FATHER

That’s awesome. :)

One of the reasons I have enjoyed heads up Razz and HORSE Sit-n-Gos so much is that they match my style. My ability to read the board, understand my odds (both pot and drawing), and consider what my opponent is playing allows me to bully passive players and give the lagtards enough rope to hang themselves.

Where I run into trouble is against very aggressive players who know what they\’re doing.

If I am catching cards, it\’s still routine: I call if I am likely to be ahead, but don\’t want to commit too many chips if I am not, and I raise, check-raise, or reraise if I know I am ahead (i.e. if I think it highly likely that I am ahead).

An examples of the first would be calling down with bottom pair (no obvious draws on the board) against an aggressive player who is going to bet it down no matter what. In heads up, this is likely to be a winner against an aggressive player, but it\’s by no means definite. If I am ahead, why scare the guy into folding? If I am not, I will pay off the minimum number of chips. This does run the risk of him catching me, but in a Limit event, I have consistently found it to be a profitable style of play.

An example of the latter would be popping back with top pair, two pair, or any sort of unexpected and strong holding, especially one vulnerable to a draw or redraw. I want my opponent to pay for his aggression.

But, if I am not catching any cards, I get steamrolled, with no ifs, ands, or butts. For instance, a guy raises every hand, and I am getting cards like T9s and worse (83o, 64s, 52o, etc.). I have no high card value to call down, and if I don\’t hit the flop, I have to bail, after having paid two bets to see that flop.

In these situations, the hyper-aggressive, yet skilled player almost always crushes me. This is something I\’d like to change.

Against these kinds of players, I tend to be very aggressive preflop, but again, if I don\’t hit the flop, I am going to lose chips. This is especially a problem for me in No Limit Hold Em heads up SNGs, not that I meet that many skilled players at the $5 level, where I play that particular game.

That\’s one reason why I have enjoyed the HORSE and Razz formats. Balls-out (i.e. blind) aggression is not rewarded in Limit Omaha Hi Lo or Limit Razz, at least not against an opponent who is skilled at those games, which I am. In Stud, however, and to a lesser extent Stud Hi Lo, aggression is rewarded more than Omaha Hi Lo and Razz, if not as much as in Hold Em.

In any event, this is one area of my game I am working on.

Hmmm….41 and in a rock band. w00t! The Atomic Love Bombs asked me to officially join the band today, something I immediately said yes to. These cats make music that is not just right up my alley, it’s in an alley that runs behind the house I grew up in.

Or something. The point is that I love the tunes, I like the guys in the band, and I feel like a lucky duck to have a chance to work with them. The music is original, and I love their approach to it. Those who’ve known me for a long time will understand the band’s appeal to me if they listen to some of the live tracks on the site.

Heck, I am so excited, I might return to regular updates here!

When the hell did John Edwards grow a pair of balls? During an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN Wednesday, Mr. Edwards said that President Bush has been using Al Qaeda being in Iraq as the excuse for everything he has done (though he didn’t mention that Al Qaeda was not in Iraq until Saddam was ousted, but that’s another issue), including the war itself, "Guantanamo," "torture," and "illegal spying on Americans."

Those last three items are things the American people and the Democratic party have largely been shamefully silent on (I used different terminology when discussing this with Darla). For a presidential candidate to be finally willing to take on those issues makes me stand up and say "Huzzah!"

Huzzah!

Listening to him speak, it’s obvious that he’s gained some strength since the 2004 election, and that’s also a good thing. He also addressed the criticisms of his US$400 haircuts from Republican Mitt Romney by saying, "Governor, we ought to be talking about what we’re going to do about men and women dying in Iraq, not this kind of silliness."

Huzzah!