Man, im getting so excited for the super bowl. Bears are seriously gonna kick some major ass. I may cry when they win. I just love this team more than any other.
There are some good videos on you tube:
They're so sweet...really get me pumped up for the superbowl. Meanwhile, this is the crappy video the colts have (it's the most watched and it really sucks big time, I'm not just saying that....(c'mon, a montage of pictures with metallica's nothing else matters????)):
Anyway, it's gonna be friggin awesome and I can't wait.
In other news, neteller pulled out of the u.s. along with other deposit/withdrawal providers which really sucks big time. I'm not motivated to play poker much because of this but hopefully everything will get smoothed out so I can continue to play. I'm really hoping this works out.
LOL, im hopin for so much right now.
I was in a serious need for some new music...something upbeat and/or summery. And I got that. I put some jimmy eat world songs from clarity on my computer that I didn't have and totally forgot about. I also got the format's dog problems, the shins, and jack's mannequin from tom. I also downloaded something corporate even though i hate when u c jordan or whatever. that song used to annoy me. but i know they got some quality stuff/summer sounding songs on their albums. So that's that for now. I made a summer playlist that i really need to add to.
I need the smell of summer I need it's noises in my ear
So much going on lately...i just wish it was all figured out.
dashboard confessional - the only gift that I need
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MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
It was a really nice christmas this year like always. It's my favorite time of year mainly because of the emotions and nostalgic feelings evoked, whether good or bad. I like to reminisce among christmas past and think about what it'll be like in the future. I really have no idea where I'll be in 5 years and that gets me worried sometimes. But I guess you can't really let stuff like that bother you, just gotta wait and see what happens...prepare for it the best you can and follow the life you want. It'll be nice having a family and sharing a different kind of christmas with your kids.
I did well for my first semester of grad school, 2 As and a B - that coming from a teacher who likes to make you feel like an idiot, I think. He's my advisor too, whoopie. I don't even know what I want to do. I'm soooooooooo not as into city planning as others in this program. But whatever, I don't want my job to be my life. (Secretly, I'm looking to grow my poker bankroll next year and use that after getting my master's to start investing and a business, but we'll see how that goes.) Tom and I really need to start a business...it'd be nice to have some money to start it...or a solid idea. We have thought of some, but who knows how solid they are. I'm pretty proud of one idea, but who knows. It'll be interesting. He can take care of all the legal stuff...since he's become a resident of the law library like a chump, ha.
But anyway....let me know if you wanna come by my place for new years. I decided to have a shindig since no one was really planning anything. I'm really excited about it too.
I should do some 2006 memorable moments soon. I may. I do have some pretty insanely radical new years resolutions im thinking of. Just need to follow them. Hmm. I'll work on that. Once grad school is over, that's it. I'm excited for it. Livin the life of a balla...ha. we'll see.
the new brand new cd kicks ass. different and great. i need more music.
i did my xmas list and it was pretty fun cuz i never know what to ask for but i found some pretty cool stuff and it was fun looking around. def. had some fun doin that.
school is almost done for the semester. one class tomorrow where some people are giving presentations, im not thank goodness. i dont need Charles tearing me a new one again. brutal. so im just gonna sit back and listen. then come back, do some cr work, and play poker. i had a brutal night last night, worse than i thought i was doin. so that wasn't fun. im gonna need some help if i wanna make some serious mula in the next week. im gonna play a lot over break and hopefully save up a fair amount.
first semester was pretty easy. i didn't do as much work as i would have liked, but whatever. ridiculous amounts of theoretical readings. i hate that. i wanna do, not think about theories. which makes me feel like an idiot then cuz i can't really talk well about my field. but i dont care, i just wanna design and stuff like that.
i feel like i've failed in a lot of things and it's really frustrating. i think i try to be good at a lot of things and end up not doing well in any of them. it's pretty depressing, but i guess i can try to do better. just frustrating when nothing seems to go your way.
I should work on updating this more than once a month. Never really in a journal-ing mood or I don't have much to report on.
Yesterday I won a $25 tourney for $1080. So that was pretty sweet. It's nice having a big win once a month or so because I feel like it pays for all that month's expenses.
But I can't play much really til after school is out due to me having like 3 papers and a project due in the next 2 weeks. None of it will be challenging, but it will take some time. Bleh.
But once school is done, I'll be in a super good mood. Get to play a lot of poker, got a christmas party coming up and I'll be "done" with the abs diet. Yeah, i started it a couple weeks ago and I think it's going well. I just felt like I had too much of a beer gut and wanted to get it in shape for once. I basically have to eat 6 times a day and eat a lot of powerfoods which I like anyway. So it works.
I need an internship next semester. A non-poker one. I kinda wanna be doing well outta grad school.
I saw seinfeld friday night with my sister and he was hilarious. Pretty much all new stuff I haven't heard and I laughed the entire time. He's so good live. Everyone should see him. I'm glad I finally got to do that.
Also going down to U of I next weekend. That should be awesome since I only went once for homecoming this semester. Looking forward to that.
And this weekend being thanksgiving and all. The beginning of the holiday season.
Lot of other stuff going through my mind. I'll be more relaxed once xmas break is here.
well im kinda sad to post this but my grandpa passed away early this morning after being in the hospital/nursing home/home for the past month. we all pretty much knew he wasn't gonna get better this time but it really didn't hit me until i arrived at my grandparents today. i was at isu and was planning on visiting today anyway, but i thought he would make it at least a little bit longer.
he was the only grandpa i knew even though he's not blood related. but he's been married to my grandma since '77 so he is my grandpa, or papa as he's known. my dad's dad died when he was just 10 i believe so i never knew him or my dad's mom since she died early too. kinda sad to think about, but at least i had my nana and papa together for this long. we had so many uncertainties with him over the past few years because of his frequent trips to the hospital.
it was nice reminiscing though when we were younger and how greatly he treated us. he would never yell or anything...he was always in a joking mood with us and im glad i have those memories. just something im keeping in mind.
i hope i dont think about the whole life and death thing after this again. i've thought about that before and it's too much to worry over. cuz then you wanna make sure you lead a great life and put pressure on yourself...blah blah blah.
so the wake is tuesday and the funeral wednesday. i'll be heading back to my grandma's tuesday morning/noonish and be back wednesday night. then i have this stupid group presentation the next morning. ugh. oh well. i'll be fine.
jeez i haven't updated in awhile. not a whole lot going on right now. i got some more responsibilites at cardrunners now so that'll take up more of my time which is fine, im just gonna be super busy. between that, grad school and actually making money with poker, im gonna have lots to do. it'll be nice when i have more structure, but this is all good for the real world. it's really time to start getting everything in order and living life properly? i guess. it's kinda fun living the real world.
lots going through my mind lately. just how i am. pretty typical. at least it keeps me busy. im working on doing better with structure and order in my life. eating better, exercise, not wasting time, etc. it'd be nice to win a really big tourney soon, save up some cash. i wanna buy a tv for our place and some furniture. it's lacking. and im saving up for stuff for our christmas party. which we're all really excited about. it's gonna rock.
nothing else really. going to isu this weekend. yeah...i got nothing. meh.
my computer sucks right now, i just want it fixed!
ugh, hopefully soon. im missing poker like no other :). I have to play some tourneys to practice for aruba. The tourney starts in one week! I leave early saturday morning with erica. I'm so stoked. I'll be bringing my computer (if it's working, hopefully) and will have e-mail access. So shoot me an e-mail at andrew.hasdal@gmail.com if you wanna see how I'm doin or what not. Hopefully I'll come home with $1,000,000+.
I really don't know what to write about in this thing seeing as that I don't want to fill it with poker and I don't want to spend too much time saying how I miss college.
I've been thinking about what I want to do when I'm older and it basically comes down to doing as little work as possible. Everyone wants that, but not everyone actively pursues it. Why? Who knows, but I'm really thinking about all this stuff a lot lately seeing as how I need some sort of income when I get out of grad school.
There's an internship I'm probably gonna apply for. I'm gonna apply for more in the spring, but this one sounded really cool and it's only 10-20 hrs/week. It'd be nice to have the extra money and getting some internship experience which I lack.
I hope to come down to u of i for homecoming weekend and all you peeps better be down there celebrating whatever.
fall out boy - I've Got A Dark Alley And A Bad Idea...
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i miss college.
that's the theme of this live journal now i guess. i wanna do a mix cd of songs that remind me of college the most. this one (fall out boy - I've Got A Dark Alley And A Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth) reminds me of college the most. i dunno. it wasn't played a lot or anything. it's just such a good song and makes me reminisce a lot. i dont really know what else would go on the cd, freshman year would be the last ataris cd, sophomore year - first mae cd, junior year - bright eyes - im wide awake, it's morning, senior year - probably fall out boy or say anything. man, i miss those times. the first few weeks of senior year were awesome. a mix cd is in my future.
i have no desire to do grad school work. but i know it'll be good down the road to have my master's. but the last thing i wanna do is get stuck in some regular routine going to the same job every day. this is partly why i like planning...you get to go out and work on site sometimes. if i do real estate investing too, i get to go out a lot too. my whole life i've tried to make money with minimal work, maximizing my earned income : effort ratio. i think i'll keep doing that in the future.
who's gonna be at u of i homecoming weekend? im gonna go one night but i dont know which and i wanna see when people are going. all you who read this should go. i need some u of i scene bad. i know everyone is missing the past few years. i think i'll get over it.
what im looking forward to in the future: spring break with friends, vacationing, etc. Investing money and living off that cash flow. potentially being thoroughly involved with some sort of real estate company. spending time with friends and family which i feel i dont do enough of, but im kinda worried about affording the apartment and getting my master's at the same time.
I have no school work to do today, but i got some other shiz to take care of. kinda blahahgglhalghal.
some cardrunners work, take care of loan stuff, find out where my birth certificate is.
oh yeah....i won a trip for 2 to aruba. if you didn't already know. it's pretty sick really. a $10,000 prize package includes playing in a $5,200 event with the top pros. That's kinda sick. Doyle went last year, what if i sat next to him. That'd be nuts/crazy/scary as hell. I'm pretty stoked for this. Erica and I are going from sept. 23rd to oct. 1st. I'm so excited.
I need to get a passport though and my mom had to overnight my birth certificate. I need to get that asap. Although you don't have to have it to travel to aruba, but they recommend it to make the process easier. So if i don't get it, i can still go. just may have to deal with some shiz.
man, that's so crazy. what if i win. ha. that'd be insane. i could essentially retire. i dunno if i'd finish school. probably. or i may take some investing/real estate classes and look into that moreso. how's about i worry about that when the time comes.
I'm just thrilled to go for the experience. 8 nights in aruba with erica, get to play in a huge tourney with pros, get to party all week and just have a great time. It's a long way to aruba, but i'm gonna bring some poker books to read.
My path to that package was crazy. I had to finish in the top few spots in 3 tourneys in a row. First a $5 rebuy, then a $100 then a $1000 one. Crazay. I played some great poker and I hope that spills over into aruba.
I need to go to champaign too. I'm going the weekend I get back cuz it's homecoming weekend. So I'm excited for that. I may go for a night the weekend before too. Not sure yet, but I'm going to isu that weekend and erica and i will probably come for a night. I really miss that place. Chicago's fine and all, but meh. Not really necessary.
The aruba trip is during my bday too. That's sweet. I was wondering what i'd be doing this year for it. That's a nice present for me.
the lyrics in all the songs are really meaningful to the band. they took a lot of time with this cd and it shows....one of the best of this year. and the early november's triple disc. i need more music.
soooooooo, this journal wont be about poker really. i know people dont wanna read about that so im gonna try to incorporate other parts of my life in this or what's on my mind.
what's really on my mind??? im jealous x 100000000 that im not gonna be in champaign this fall. i dont know why really. i just wanna be there. i hate thinking that that time is over. it really is the best 4 years of your life and i didn't get everything out of it. im jealous that friends are going back this weekend and are gonna have an awesome year. im upset that i have to start a real life. what would've been awesome would be taking a year off and getting an apt. in champaign and just partying the whole year. wow, that'd be freakin incredible. work during the week, get stuff ready for grad school, but just have one more amazing year. it wont happen obviously, but it should've been a thought.
i feel like i should be there.
guess im gonna have to visit a lot. not a whole lot, but im gonna try to make it down there a few times this semester. i just need to. i feel like i haven't completed it. this summer was fun, but it doesn't feel right not going back to champaign.
ugh, i should stop thinking about it. chicago is awesome and all, but there's something about that little niche at u of i. here, im nothing. im a little speck in the giant bubble of chicago. it sucks a little.
i guess life is full of opportunity here. i need that.
i need to win like $2million and retire. tomorrow ish.
in other news, i ordered lots of new bedding stuff today. im excited for that. as lame as that sounds, my bed will be super comfortable...like a giant marshmallow.
a year ago i was blowing money on going out and alcohol for our place...
...now im buying new bedding...and excited about it...
so let's see, this summer...pretty much: erica + poker. that's it. really. that's pretty much all i've been keeping busy with. it's pretty sweet. no job, but that's awesome cuz i've made a hella lot this summer playing poker. last night i won a $30 6 handed event for $1636 which is just insane. biggest score yet. i've just been having major cashes left and right. the way it's going i may pay for grad school while im in it. im not getting a job over the year, unless it's an internship. i really want to focus on urban planning while in grad school cuz it'll be my job. i can't rely on poker and i dont want to. it would be way too much of a grind. but it's nice being able to pay for everything in grad school with it.
erica and i have been spending a lot of time together too. so this summer pretty much rocks cuz of that. she doesn't have an intense job, just babysitting a couple times a week. which works out for us. she's coming here tomorrow, we're going out to dinner to celebrate our 6 month which is actually tuesday, but we're going to six flags then. so it's pretty awesome. i'm just happy that poker has made me financially stable for now so i can enjoy finer things in life rather that letting my job consume most of my time.
school starts in a few weeks, im pretty pumped for that. i'll be balancing everything quite steadily i hope. grad school, internship info, poker, learning about real estate, etc. i really just wanna work hard and retire early. life is really too short to grind it out. might as well try to enjoy it every chance you get.
im waiting for erica to get out of her summer class so we can get going. just working on some cardrunners stuff right now and i did play a little poker, won a peanut and im done for today i guess. i wont be playing much in the near future cuz...
IM MOVING TO CHICAGO BITCHES! yep, signin the lease tomorrow and then hopefully moving in soon. it's gonna be awesome. our address is 2032 w. pierce st. i believe. it's in wicker park and we'll have plenty of shin-digs for all you folks to come to. it's a pretty sweet apt. from the pictures i've seen and from what jen and andy have said. grad school is gonna rock.
once im moved in and all settled i'll be playing poker pretty hardcore-ly. i really need to make plenty of money to last me for awhile. i'll be able to play during the year, but i want to play as much as possible while i have all this free time to myself.
erica and i went shopping yesterday. i bought lots of shiz. im happy with my new purchases. that is all.
for all you u of i-ites, we're all planning on going down at the end of july for one last weekend. it's either the 22-23 weekend or the 29-30 one. i think it'll be the first one. i have to check. waymire, if you're reading this, which weekend is it? anyway, you all better go. all we're gonna do is play bags, drink, watch tv, eat good food and go out. that's all. everyone can relax, you can stay at my place if you want and it'll be a great time. so make sure you're a part of the madness. and you can move out all your leftover stuff too bitches, so that works too.
man, i can't wait to move to chicago. pretty soon now, a new chapter in my life will begin :)
the travel channel - i need music on my laptop, stat
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k, i couldn't think of a subject title, that will suffice.
soooooo, since im done with the reminiscing, i'll get back to regular updates and stuff and things.
for all of my loyal readers' sake, i will no longer post hands from poker or talk about bad beats, yada yada yada. But, I will still talk about poker, but more interesting stuff. Like, in the past week, i've made more than i've made in any week of my life at anything. so that's cool. I've made around 8 final tables with no wins! That kinda sucks. My best cash was a 2nd place in a $25 tourney for $640. Today i got 4th in a $10 rebuy for $340. But i thought this was gonna be the win. Ha! nope. oh well, i know i'll win one eventually. And i'd rather make 8 final tables with no win, than one final table with a win. It's just reassuring to know that I'm good and can get deep into tournaments and sometimes crank out a win.
we pretty much have a sweet-ass apartment locked up in the city. it's expensive but freakin awesome! (i haven't seen it yet, just pictures, ha). anyway, it's in wicker park and pretty new so im stoked. i wanted to be in a safe area so i can trust my car in the street. but i may have to get a job in the city to pay for it, which wouldn't be so bad, but i would rather make enough this summer to take care of myself so i can focus on a career path (not a poker one).
I could never do the pro poker life. It's just too frustrating and crazy and stuff. I would like to play in a couple big tournaments and set myself for life if possible, but whatever. We'll see what happens with that. :)
Right now im down in kentucky and i think i'll go to champaign on friday then head up to erica's saturday. not for sure on that yet. i feel like i haven't been here too long. but summer is going by fast. i have to get ready for grad school and my new apt. and stuff like that. it'll be exciting. i can't wait.
ok, people are requesting the last installment in my series of college memories by year, and i haven't had time to write about it but now i do.
first an update on my summer. It's awesome. I love just playing poker and having a good time this summer. the cardrunners internship is going well and I really have the freedom i was so much lacking last summer. last summer was so bad. that's where i'll start this post. but first, poker has been going well. i've already made about 30% of my goal for the summer and it's still early. i got 2nd in a $25 tourney for $640 last night and 4th in a $10 rebuy for $360, so im doing well. and i won an entry into the $200 tourney tomorrow so that'll be exciting. first will be over $40,000 :). haha, i just wanna cash really.
ok, onto senior year.
well, during this summer, i was really at a crossroads in my life i think. julie and i had broken up after 4 years, everyone was so far away, ihad john 15 min. away while staying at my grandma's, but i was pretty much losing my mind. haha. not to freak anyone out, but it was really miserable. i disliked caddying just because of all the d-bag caddies there and my huge a-hole boss. then staying with grandparents would be rough for anyone. but my poker game wasn't good enough at this point to purely supply my income through that. so i stayed in the cold concrete basement, thinking about my life, what i wanted, where i was going, what i wanted life to be like. basically, it came down to, man, i just want a nice, small, brunette girl who's funny and easy to talk to. the hair has to be shoulder length too. i guess i know what im looking for with that. haha. i dunno, im not so much a blonde guy. but i also wanted to be successful. i want to retire early and just take vacations and have fun. i dont want my life to be a grind. this is what i thought about day in and day out. it was really an awakening.
bright eyes' cd, im wide awake, it's morning, is the perfect soundtrack to how i was feeling. it was like being born again and i was excited for senior year. i could not wait to get down there. we all got down there early and the fun started from the get go. i had my air hockey table on the way, we were building the bar, meeting people at bars and having a good time. i went out so much at the beginning of the year, spending lots of money and having a good time. in a sense, i had to make up for the 3 years of college where i didn't really experience it fully.
so the first good story was where i met some randoms on the street after brothers one night, left my friends, followed these people to park place tower, almost passed out there until they kicked me out. i stumbled back home somehow, it was about 3 am, billy and alberto were playing air hockey and i just passed out on the couch. but somehow, i woke up in our bathroom with my pants down. i dunno. it was fun. i was doing exactly what i wanted. having a good time, meeting people, living the college life. for instance, i didn't really know jill and beth until this year. and beth's bday party. i got to know them a lot better this year and im happy about that. they're cool girls.
then...another great night. perhaps the greatest night of senior year: dance party night at antonio's. i got that whole place dancing and im not joking. ask anyone there. EVERYONE was dancing. people would walk in and i would get them to dance. i would dance with every girl and it was then that i became an Antonio's legend. haha. they love me there. they're good guys. just wait until the end of the semester disaster. they took care of me. i'll get into that.
sooooo, i wasn't really doing much homework...my days usually consisted of waking up late, surfing the net, playing poker, watching tv. then i'd go out at night and recover the next day. it was awesome but it's a slippery slope. i managed to get that in line when i dated jackie. so that was probably good. john came up for halloween and i showed him an awesome time. but times were good. and then the end of the semester hit. something i dont want to relive.
so everyone knows i was upset with jackie and i breaking up, and with finals week coming up, it was no time to dwell on things. i had that to think about, plus my final presentations and erica - :) - and i met in this time. it may have been not such a great time since i was not in the best state to be looking for a new girlfriend, but things dont always go as planned. but i had some pretty reckless nights. at the end of the fall semester, us planners had a planning night where i had a little too much to drink. it was pretty bad. i really didn't know what i was doing, or where i was when i was at station. i was thinking mitchell told me to go to niro's and wait for them, but he told me to go home i guess. well, i went to niro's, waited for the bathroom, fell down, made a fool of myself and i remember thinking "screw this, im going to wait at antonio's, they'll find me there." well, that was a mistake. no one knew i was there, and i passed out at the side bar. the guys there were making sure i was okay which is awesome. but i passed out for well over an hour. everyone was worried about me apparently, but dan finally got a hold of me, i met up with them and i was a wreck. it really was a low point for me cuz i was just so upset with everything. erica was good consolation for me though, she was super nice and awesome even though i probably looked like such a jerk.
oh but it doesn't end there. i wake up the next morning, talking with erica and then rob calls me. tells me, yeah, some girls stopped by to say my car was broken into. yea!!!! they took my stereo and broke my window. so i had to get that fixed and i had such a crappy ride down to louisville cuz i had to listen to my portable cd player even though that's not legal. but i didn't care. i needed xmas. nothing was going my way. i was in such a bad mood. and i felt bad for erica because she didn't come in at the most opportune time for me. it's okay though. we worked through our difficulties and got together in february.
but first, we all came down to chambana for new years and it was an awesome time. erica and i spent some quality time together and it turned out to be great for both of us i think. anyway, spring semester started and i planned on playing more poker and looking for internships, getting ready for grad schools, yada yada yada. on feb. 8th, i surprised erica at isu with flowers and asked her to be my girl for real now. so it was official and im so happy i got some control back in my life. i was doing well, having a good time, i just needed to enjoy the rest of my senior year.
unofficial came and it was quite possibly the greatest single day of the year. did i say another day was? hmm...well, this was too. john came up eventually, but we spent the day beer ponging, being stupid, running around doing dumb things, and having an awesome time. it was so much fun. i did drink a lot that day, i won like $200 playing poker semi-drunk and did some things that didn't make much sense. like leaving katie's place out of nowhere, getting empire, and going home. why? i dont know. well, the night ended with me getting a mohawk from jill so she would buy me new jeans and so i would keep beth there at the round balcs. well, it was quite interesting cuz john got one and his friend nick too. it was pretty crazy. we went to antonio's then (3rd time that day for me). it was fun, and im glad i was always able to show john a good time when he visited. i didn't go to bed til 4am, then woke up at 7 to puke, and i just saw my awful haircut in the mirror and it's one of those times you ask yourself, "what the heck am i doing." but it was all in good fun.
oh, i forgot to mention winning the corec intramural softball championship in the fall and then the guys winning the basketball one in the spring. those were great accomplishments for our group. it was awesome. i always played head cheerleader, which im sure everyone found entertaining.
but then graduation was approaching. i remember taking my last final and thinking, this is it. the best 4 years of my life are at a close. but im headed to UIC in the fall and living with andy and jen and i know the good times will continue. i'll still make it down for some station thurs. nights with the new juniors. and we'll have parties in chicago. it's gonna be great times still. there's so many memories that im grateful for and i could've made this post a lot longer. like the story of me jumping in bushes drunk with my pants off in front of lots of people. or ice bomb night, $1 millers at station on thurs., grilling every day for the last month, playing bags all the time at the end of the year. the list goes on and on. visiting champaign again brings back all these memories and im glad i was able to have them all with everyone. we'll all go on and do our own thing but we'll always have these good times to look back on.
i think i'll do another post sometime recollecting about college. but im looking forward to the future and the fun times ahead at UIC.
so this is the third installment in my 4 part series on college reminiscing. Junior year.
In my opinion, this is really where college began for me. It was always fun before, but now we were all in apartments, hanging out, partying and having a good time. I also was taking my first urban planning classes which were a lot of fun. But it was also quite an eventful year outside of school. Parents moved to louisville and julie and i broke up after almost 4 years together. but out of that year, i learned a lot. and the summer following it i realized what i really wanted and what was really important. but i'll get to that at the end of this post.
let's see, i still remember moving in junior year. rich and rob were already there and the sox game was on. we lived in the round balcs with tony if you didn't know and it was quite a sweet place. we had a good setup in the living room and our parties were incredible. we had the three over the year...first a halloween party that i was super excited for since i claimed we were having one since the beginning of that school year. but when the time actually came, i was worried about the cops coming because we were going to have a lot of people, loud music and i was one of the few people who would be 21. when we had parties, we would go all out. clear out the living room and put everything in our bedrooms so we had the maximum amount of space. these weren't little get togethers with 20-30 people. we would have 100+ people coming in and out the entire night so it was a little scary. so i was worried for most of the halloween party. the next one i wasn't there because i had to be at a concert that i helped put together and when i got back, i wasn't in the mood to be partying just cuz everyone was way ahead of me. and then the last one was when i was single for the first time in a long time so i was ready to go kinda crazy, but i still maintained control and had a really good time.
illini basketball. it was an unbelieveable season and i can't believe we lost the last game of the season. i didn't even see it cuz i woke up late and didn't realize it was on early that day. so that sucked but it was an awesome ride to the championship game even if we did lose it. it was great the whole time and i loved the get togethers we had where we would order lots of pizza and just hang out. those were some good times.
so julie and i broke up too late in the school year. even though we made a good couple, it was necessary because we knew we would have problems down the road due to not experiencing college all the way and dating other people. through this, i did get to date other girls and just have a good college time. i kinda realized what i wanted at this point but it wasn't until the craptacular summer that i really knew what i was looking for. so it was kinda a rough time around then but i knew it was necessary and that was why i was never really upset. i could see it coming for awhile before but just didn't know how to approach it. kinda weird really.
what else happened...poker nights on thursday nights. i always looked forward to that. that was when the comaraderie was high and the gambling aspect wasn't so important. we had some good tournaments at our place with lots of people and it was always a good time. i just wonder how i would've done if i had the skills i have now. i made all 3 final tables but always as the shortstack and i always went out early. oh well, i still had fun. i started an online account and slowly worked my way up the stakes and am happy at where i've come in the past year and a half or so. ddr was also really big for me at this time and i really lost some weight over the year i think. i need to get back into that this summer because it really is a great exercise. i dont even play now for the fun of it...it is fun, but i do it mainly for the exercise. so hopefully it will help in my exercise routine this summer.
i also met some great planners this year. i met chris first and we would sit together all the time in class. i didn't really get to meet a lot of the others very well until second semester really. that's when i got to know jen, marisa, andy and clemente pretty well. i always think about my first impressions i had with all of them and it's pretty funny how wrong i was with pretty much all of them. my favorite was jen's because i thought she was such a bitch and was too cool to be in class because she always snuck out of 260 early. she is too cool...but she's not a bitch...haha. chicago will be great. we have so many memories from that year of planning for us. there were some crazy nights happening when we hung out, always fun.
i can't really remember much more. my family moving to louisville was pretty rough but i've gotten used to it. i like to travel and go visit people when i can. for instance, this summer i've been in champaign, joliet/shorewood, crystal lake, lake villa, milwaukee, nekoosa, las vegas with many more to come. in the next week i'll be in crystal lake, lake villa, joliet, champaign and louisville. man, that's a lot for one week. anyway, back to junior year. so the family moved, julie and i breaking up, figuring out what i wanted to do with my life...all were pretty substantial changes in my life and i really think i changed a whole lot that year. music that perfectly fits that time is the bright eyes cd I'm wide awake, it's morning. for some reason, it gave me the feeling that life moves on and you can't really plan it out. you have to go with the flow and do your best to enjoy the good times when you can and swallow the bad times. you can't change everything to how you want, you just have to be flexible. but that's what makes life great, the always changing nature of it...if it didn't change, it would just be boring and monotonous. i guess i could go into the hell that was the summer to follow. but i think i'll leave that for my next entry because it flows into how i was senior year. i totally changed and i was ready to live a new life and try and find what's most important to me. i think most people know what that is.
so, next time: senior year, the defining moments and the crazy last year.
So sophomore year came around...and i decided to get my own apartment. I dont know if this was a good or bad decision really. It wasn't a whole lot of fun, but i did get some time to myself, i was able to figure out what major i wanted to pursue and i worked on disciplining myself, which i need more of this summer.
I partially lived by myself because the dorms were getting annoying with the bad food and RAs treating you like you're 2. plus i was at isu practically every weekend so it didn't matter much. i think during the spring semester i spent more time at isu than at u of i. my last class would get out at 10 on thurs., so i would immediately leave for isu and stay til monday morning. the fall semester was a little different because i had one friday class, math 247 which was in the afternoon, so i would go to isu thurs. night, come back friday afternoon with julie, then either go back to isu friday or saturday. kinda a pain in the ass, but i didn't really care. at times it really sucked living alone which is why i dont want to do it in grad school. but you do get a lot of work done due to less distractions. and i needed that in the fall semester.
here were my classes: calc 3, math 247: intro. to fundamental mathematics (basically a proof writing class that was pretty confusing and made me want to give up on math), physics and spanish. what a pain. i did more work that semester than any other semester in college. i was so fed up with everything that i was ready to move on to something else. i really was deciding between architecture and urban planning and decided on UP because i would get out of school earlier, i could find a job faster that was well-paying, and with architecture there are so many tests and requirements to take care of and at the end of it you can still be making not so great an income. so in the spring semester, i decided upon UP somewhere in march. soon after i found out i got into architecture, but i had already made up my mind. it was a good decision as i really feel it's what im gonna be good at.
i really wish i would have had more time sophomore year to get in shape and see friends at u of i, but in the spring i just didn't care and went to isu all the time. and i had fun there too. i was virtually non-existant in the u of i world.
i went to a lot of concerts that year, which was fun. but in the past couple years, i just dont have as much of an urge to go like i did. i do like concerts, but when i go, i go for the mosh pit, the sweat and the absolute rocking out. that's how it was in the good ol' days of high school. i just can't stand sitting down and watching a show. i really need to rock out soon....preferably to say anything.
that spring semester i took 2 history classes in order to be eligible for architecture, and then i took an architecture class and another spanish class. pretty light load i thought, even though they recommend NOT taking both histories in the same semester. meh. i did fine.
oh yeah, for physics that fall semester, i was freaking out cuz i thought i was gonna get a C in the class cuz i sucked on all the tests. i pretty much studied for 2 weeks before the final and even took the second final option to give myself an extra day to study. anyway, i freaked out on test day but managed to cool down and get an A on the final somehow...that was a very merry christmas. i was so relieved to be done with math and everything related to it. i really like math, but i just didn't see a future in it.
as to mayhem that year, i can't recall much since i was at isu all the time. we really didn't do much now that i look back on it. i dont like that. i can't be lazy, i have to be doing stuff. otherwise i really dont like who i am, if that makes sense. i feel if i procrastinate or dont do anything, im a waste of space. so i like being busy, getting things done, accomplishing huge things.
so in sum, i guess sophomore year i should have sucked it up and lived in the dorms once more. i did figure out where i wanted to go in terms of my major. but that's one year i would rather not relive.
next edition: the life changing moments of junior year
it's late and im tired...well, not really late but i could go to bed or i could update this journal at the request of rob petersen...not so much requested but i know he wants to read about my exciting life so i guess i can write a little ditty (spelled right?)
anywho, i just realized the other night after walking out of potawatomi casino in milwaukee at 3am the other day that i can do whatever i want this summer. i actually have a summer of freedom. it's like the summer of andy reincarnated. the summer of andy was the summer of 2001 for those of you who dont know. i went out every night that summer...from the last day of finals until the first day of classes senior year. in order for it to count as "going out" i had to do something with someone past 7pm. This includes someone coming over to my house to play video games or do whatever. and i went out 80 nights in a row, which includes holding down 2 jobs, one of which i had to wake up at 530am for sometimes and i had a girlfriend. looking back i dont know how i was able to do such a thing, but i am reincarnating that summer. granted it wont be the same because i will be hanging out with completely different people in very different areas, but it's my first summer of freedom since 1999.
one day i'll be online updating stuff for cardrunners from a joliet library and the next i may be outside by our pool in louisville. who knows. what's sweet is that i have this laptop that'll be my partner this whole summer. i can play poker from wherever and do stuff for cardrunners too.
speaking of that, i have to do a blog for cardrunners too, which i enjoy, but i dont know how much i'll update this journal now. im also putting up some mad numbers for poker too lately. im a quarter of the way to my goal for the summer which is good news. i won my first $50 10 person tourney last night for $250 and i crushed the .50/1 no limit game i was playing, biggest run at that game ever. i should be moving up soon. i lost a little today, but it's no biggie. i need to go back to potawatomi and beat up that stud game again...people there are just horrid.
i need a big tourney score again. gotta find time for one first though. this week i should have some time. and the weeks after too. maybe i'll be getting to my goal even faster.
this would be good since andy and jen want to move to chicago like now. as much fun as it would be to move to the city now, i can't really afford it with the champaign apt. soon. but we'll see, maybe i can make enough scratch where i can afford both.
ok, maybe i should do some college highlights and downpoints. errr...hmm. dont know where to start. this will probably be a couple entries cuz i can't really think of much right now. but i'll write whatever i can.
i still remember move in day freshman year. i was wearing my yellowcard shirt which i used to love just cuz kenny of the starting line had it..but i dont even know where it is now. i met rich and rob and wondered how i was gonna tell them apart. then met mitchell who admired my cd collection and we all got off to a good start i thought. played some goldeneye, ate dinner together, went to the freshman night thing whatever it's called at the union. i remember meeting rob taliana too not too long after moving in. sergio too, i miss that kid, he made freshman year...him and jon solverson. so many good times. like sergio telling girls he and i were twins..then saying we had different moms but we were twins. and them believing it up until that point im pretty sure. or him trying to get girls to touch his belt buckle, then cheering loudly when they did.
maybe i'll just recollect freshman year this post. ok.
it's funny how first impressions can be waaaaaaaaaay off which is why you shouldn't judge people. i know jon changed a lot, but i first thought he was a huge a-hole, only later realizing how great he is and how he was a real good friend to me freshman year and sophomore year even. i've pretty much kept my same judgment of mitchell though which was pretty dead on. rich and rob....i can tell them apart easily now and dont get how people can't tell them apart, maybe they looked more like twins freshman year. i remember when stupid people at stores or working the front of the cafeterias were amazed they were twins...like it's such a rare thing. morons.
it's pretty cool that we all stayed friends all 4 years. too bad tony couldn't be around more, why they lived in urbana this year, who knows, but junior year with him was interesting. anyway, back to freshman year. man was i confused as to what i wanted to do with my life. thinking, oh yeah, math is definitely what i want to do...or maybe engineering, or astro-physics (yes that did cross my mind and i did plan out ridiculous class schedules for it), architecture...nah, i'll stick with math, i like it. what a mistake. i'll go over that more in part 2 of this 4 part novel im writing. i'll do 4 and then do a top 10 moments thing like waymire. that sounds good.
so i came to college with julie and i being only an hour away but no car to use. luckily tom's brother chris didn't live far and would let me use his car. it's funny how before we came to college we talked about seeing other people, didn't do that, then decided to do it...almost 3 years later. i dont regret it, there was just some lost opportunities to meet more people i guess. i wouldn't have gone to isu as much, especially sophomore year, but i have some good friends there too. living in PAR though, i was far away from anyone from high school, which i liked. i wanted to start over in a sense.
man, the only good food was wok on the wild side...dorm food blew and late night was a joke. but i remember rich eating pepperoni pizza from there 14 days straight. why, who knows. or how about when we all didn't shave for a month or so at the end of freshman year....and since i was the only one between me, rich, rob and tony that was actually growing a full beard and mustache, i wanted to quit. but tony put a huge amount of nacho cheese on his chin at lunch and walked all the way back to our floor saying "it's cheesy!" to anyone we passed, in order for me to not shave. so i didn't. it was ugly.
classes were alright...why i took chemistry, who knows. it's funny that i did better than a lot of the chem or bio majors in that class though. chem just came easy to me. calc was fun too! ugh. i took a good variety of classes to see what i would like and i never got a concrete answer. hell, i still dont know for sure, but i know i want to build things and make developments and be in real estate. nothing freshman year led to that decision, but i found out what i didn't want to do at least.
the pranks had to be the best part of freshman year...lemme try to list as many as i can think of:
breaking FAR's window with water balloons breaking theta chi's (right?) windows with water balloons other water balloon related incidents BLUE SHIRT! ARE YOU TOO DATING? WHERE'S YOUR BOYFRIEND? stacking chairs in front of octavio's door umbrellas in the ceiling plastic silverware in the ceiling sports in the hall mattress sliding in the hall people trapping me in the open lounge when im on the phone billy spraying octavio with silly string, and octavio thinking it was waymire put the money in the bag, stick 'em up! calling the first floor hos at random times...including when rich woke up at 5am on a weekday morning to blow his nose and then proceeding to calling the girls, waking them up, and hanging up...so great throwing toilet paper on someone in the shower and the janitor pretty much quiting at the end of the year after all we did to him
there's so many more...like the air horn or screaming out the window during thunderstorms...that i can't think of. but it was good times. makes you wanna live in PAR Saunders 4 all over again. and we could've been so much worse. and we should have been. oh well, it was still an excellent time. a good start to college in my opinion.
next installment to this series: sophomore year...a waste of time and also the changing point in college
The Early November - Something that Produces Results
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Well, i have a research paper due at 5 tomorrow which i wont start writing til tomorrow. Luckily my method of writing a detailed outline with all my quotes allows me to write papers at 1 page per 15 minutes. So shouldn't take more than a couple hours.
Let's see....i'll officially be traveling around this summer which is really what i wanted. it'd be good to have an internship, but what can you do when you try so many places and they dont email back. i'll have a better chance once im in grad school. but im gonna have a fun summer which i deserve after such a bad summer last year, ugh.
Here's the cities i'll be in this summer:
Las Vegas Champaign-Urbana Louisville Crystal Lake Joliet/Shorewood/Minooka Chicago Libertyville Milwaukee Lake Villa Nekoosa, WI maybe Los Angeles probably others
I'm getting really excited for Vegas next week. i gotta figure out which tournaments i wanna do for sure. i want to make a little bit more money before i go though. hopefully my luck continues after that last tourney win.
it'll be a good summer though, playing poker, doing cardrunners stuff, swimming in louisville, visiting people, getting ready for grad school in chicago (which will rock x 10). plus im gonna be disciplining myself hardcore this summer...9 hours max sleep per night, good eating habits, exercising every morning, getting organzied, cleaning out a bunch of clutter, getting new clothes and get rid of ones I dont wear. i wanna make sure i'm efficient when i get to grad school because i'll be balancing so much.
i dont even want to finish this week, seriously, it doesn't matter that much at all. but it does, but who cares. ugh. i guess i can go one more week after 4 years of work.
wow....all i can say is wow. i just won my first multi-table tournament. $20 6 handed event, 103 entrants and i took first for $618. i know it is possible now and it isn't so much luck as it is skill. i did get lucky in a couple spots, but you have to to win one of these tourneys. but i felt like i played really well and it feels so good.
i attribute a lot of this success to the videos i watched at www.cardrunners.com who my internship is for. i played pretty differently than my normal play, not a whole lot, but i definitely played the player more than the cards. it's just incredible. i hope there are more of these to come.
so more on that internship. there's a lot of things they want me doing for them, which is cool cuz it'll be a fun and rewarding experience i think. plus i'll be improving my poker game a hell of a lot. i mean, i won my first tournament since i started watching those videos. they definitely helped. i no longer limped in for the money, i was a force going into the final table. anyway, they want me writing a blog on poker and my experiences with the internship so there will be little poker talk in this journal anymore. i'll just update on other stuff if anyone cares to know. but i'll also be keeping track of money, advertising the site and basically helping them grow in whatever way i can. it's also paying $450/mo. so that'll help with expenses in grad school. i love poker.
in other news, i'm graduating soon and i'll write a detailed post on my college experience when it's all over. there were plenty of bumps and uncertainties in there, but i had a great time overall. looking back, i have some great memories.
ugh, i hate stupid research papers that shouldn't really matter because I already got into grad school and I want to get there now. seriously, where's the motivation? luckily the 12-15 page one is on a topic im interested in, casino and riverboat revenue for cities. the other one is gonna suck but it got pushed back til monday which isn't really good either cuz it was originally due friday and now im gonna procrastinate and ruin the weekend. but i could just come here all day thursday to work on it, i get a lot more work done here and a lot quicker i might add which is also due to my computer sucking.
im working on my detailed outline where i find all my quotes first and then write the paper copying and pasting them in. it works a lot better and once im done with that i can write pages at about 1 per 15 min. it seriously works so good, i dont know why no one else really does it. suckas.
so let's see, what's coming up.
research paper due wed. another due monday final next wed. and friday tournament of champions for my poker tournaments this saturday graduation vegas
hellz yes. in poker news, i was hired to be an intern for www.cardrunners.com. check out the site if you want. i guess i'll be doing bookkeeping work and advertising and such, kinda waiting on more info. i guess i should get it this week? all the guys who are pros for the company are insanely good and most are my age or younger. insane. anyway, it's a year-long internship and i should be learning a lot from them and the business - running the business and improving my poker game. im picking up so many tips lately, i can't wait to play my next tournament and try them out. i probably wont have time though until i get back from vegas. ugh. maybe this wed. night i'll find some time. i could try them out in vegas too...im planning on playing 3 poker tourneys a day ranging from $30 - $100 buy-ins. hopefully i'll make more than i spend. if i do really well i may do a more expensive one.
im really starting to get tired and not seeing straight, i think im gonna head back, do a little more work then get up and finish the rough outline, try to get some of the paper written before class and then finish it after law. i can always work on it wed. morning too, although i really dont want to do that. ugh, this sucks. laterz
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