lilviv's Xanga

New Addiction . . . FaceBook Texas Hold 'Em

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:48:22 GMT

As many of you already know . . . FaceBook started allowing applications a while back, and a sleu of good ones popped up.

I must credit my friend Charles with introducing me and getting me addicted to Texas Hold 'Em on FaceBook. It's on FaceBook, and it's not real money . . . just a play game on FaceBook, but it's so addicting! They have "Sit and Go" tournaments, Weekly Tournaments, regular Points games, etc. You can play with your friends or random people around the world.

In addition to sharing my new addiction to this virtual game, I share with you the best hand I've ever had . . . the pinnacle of Texas Hold 'Em Poker, the Royal Flush.

Awesome. :) This was followed by everyone in the room cheering "vnh" and "wow, nh" and other shorthand equivalents in the FaceBook world of "Nice Hand."

I have had my ups and downs in this game . . . you get 500 chips a day, and I have been all the way up to $3.4 Million, and now I am back down to $275K. I'll certainly have to stay off the "big boy tables" for a while. While I was "up top," I even passed $50K a time to my friends just getting started in the application.

It's not only this application that has me logging in relatively often, it's this oddly addicting one called "Speed Racing" where you race against your friends, earn points, and modify/upgrade/trade-in your car. In that world, I just stepped into an Enzo Ferrari. =P But, this one has the potential of losing my interest and everyone else's relatively soon since the novelty is starting to wear off.

Anywho, hope to see some of you on FaceBook. :)

More Wildlife . . . Pests in the Garden

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:08:25 GMT

Well, as you guys have seen from a prior post, it appears that my place has become somewhat of a wildlife preserve.

But, now that we recently got into gardening and the yard (more on that later), we have discovered a new set of animals . . . but these are becoming increasingly unwelcome.

First, as anyone in the North Carollton area can attest to, rabbits are out of control. I guess we had a coyote problem a while back, and then the city fixed that . . . so now we have a rabbit problem. =P If you plant anything nice . . . flowers, vegetables, etc., rest assured that you are spurring on the rabbit population. The fearless rabbits don't even leave when you walk up to them. I didn't take any cute/fuzzy pictures of rabbits, because I generally am armed with Toby instead of a camera when I see rabbits.

Now, recently around the Spiral Juniper we planted, we started to see a huge hole dug right into the roots. While I have no idea what this is, we initially feared it was a snake.

I don't know what this is, but after some Googling . . . we suspect that it is how rabbits breed. Yes, another way, besides eating and destroying my garden, rabbits are getting at us. Anyone in my Xanga viewing public have any idea what is going on here?

We filled that up with soil, mulched it back up, and then it happened again on the other side of the same plant. We repeated the process, and we hope this will stop occurring, or undoubtedly the Spiral Juniper will begin to suffer.

Next, we started to notice our Tomato plant was having trouble. A closer eye revealed that what at first glance appears to be part of the plant . . . was in fact a plant predator, a giant creepy caterpillar.

This was, by no means, the largest one we found . . . but it was super thick, full of green plant juice, and stuck on that plant like crazy. The plant is doing much better now. :)

It's a jungle out there . . . ;)

The Dentist . . .

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:44:00 GMT

I wonder if the 10th dentist who does not recommend Sensodyne is also the 5th dentist who does not recommend Trident?

DUN Dun dun.

Must be my dentist . . . I'll ask him at my appointment tomorrow.

Narrowly Avoided $4.00 Per Gallon . . .

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:29:45 GMT

As everyone has become extremely aware, especially as of recent, gas prices are on the rise. This, of course, is a bad thing for our economy. But, when searching for a silver lining . . . it has stemmed a lot of green technology development and finally spurred a change in habits amongst Americans. More people are utilizing mass transit, carpooling, etc.

Now, even though I carpool to work everyday . . . all of my cars suck down premium fuel.

Fortunately, one of the cheapest filling stations in the metroplex is right by my house. The Kroger at Old Denton & Hebron, when coupled with coupons they hand out and preferred customer discounts, has fair gas prices (well, as fair as gas prices can be). However, on Wednesday . . . when filling up, the sticker price of premium was $4.059 per gallon. Wow! That's not much more than it was a few days earlier, but it was psychologically significant to see a pricetag over $4.00 per gallon.

But, I dodged a bullet (psychologically, anyways). My wife had spent over $100 on groceries during the month, thus earning us a $0.10 per gallon discount . . . so my price for that fillup was $3.959 per gallon. :) Without that grocery run, I would've paid the $4.00+ per gallon.

I realize this was not a super exciting story, but this is my blog . . . and it's for my random thoughts I'd like to share. :)

My House Has Become a Wildlife Preserve . . .

Mon, 19 May 2008 23:27:30 GMT

So, not sure when or how . . . but my house has become a wildlife preserve. Yesterday, on the way to work . . . my wife and I were greeted by the following:

Then, when letting my dog out back . . . I was watched closely by a potential parent, ensuring I wasn't going to bother the nest:

And, even all of this was fine . . . but the worst is all the bunny rabbits. The adult rabbits aren't even scared of us anymore. We get home and go up close to 'em, and they slowly walk away . . . and sometimes just carry on eating our flowers and grass. The baby ones still get scared and bolt. However, all the rabbits run with fear when Toby runs out into the yard. But seriously, no matter when you look . . . there are at least 3 to 5 rabbits in my yard. It's a bit crazy.

All these little critters keep Toby quite excited as he peers behind the blinds through the windows during the day . . .

Marketing Worked . . .

Thu, 15 May 2008 21:03:55 GMT

Well, I thought I'd take a moment to share another random happening on this lovely, but cloudy, Thursday.

Today was May 15th, and McDonald's was running a special . . . free Southern Chicken Sandwiches until 7 pm when you purchase a medium drink or larger. At 6:40 pm, when we randomly decided we didn't want to eat at home . . . we stormed out to beat the 7 pm deadline.

4 Diet Cokes (came with the territory) and 4 Sandwiches later (no fries or anything else), Novie and I had only spent $6.66 after taxes (the sandwiches retail for $2.75 ea., too). And, marketing worked . . . we are now aware of the Southern Style Chicken sandwich, which is remarkably like the Chik-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich (double pickles we hand pick off and all). It was a bit juicier, but not quite the same.

Oh, and a sidebar, there was a BEAUTIFUL Maserati Quattroporte in the parking lot next to me . . . man, I love those!

Anywho, random happenings . . . and that's what blogs are for. :)

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Tue, 06 May 2008 16:31:05 GMT

I don't know who put a mini-box of Lucky Charms on my desk at work this afternoon, but Wow . . . that hit the spot. :) Simple things can be so wonderful sometimes. :)

The Horror of Singapore Airlines, Flight #SQ2 . . .

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:17:25 GMT

Well, I am staying true to the resurgence of my blog with yet another post! <Pats Self on Back.>

The purpose of this post is to tell you about the scariest flight ever. I am not scared of flying, nor have I ever been. I've been through stormy flights, extreme turbulence, scary maintenance comments by the pilot, and more . . . but this flight had be petrified, convinced it was more likely we would crash than not.

This was for the second leg of a log international flight . . . this leg was from Singapore to Hong Kong.

Minor Blip: Our flight was on the ground for about 20 minutes after our scheduled takeoff time before the pilot came on and politely told us that they were having trouble getting Engine #1 started, and they were going to try to have an engineer come out and attempt a manual start so we could get on our way. Seeing the ground crew in Asia out there screwing with the engine was not reassuring, but I guess we got it going and took off. I slightly missed the FAA and was envious of all those grounded MD-80's back home.

The Fear:
     As we got closer to Hong Kong, we started to have extreme turbulence. And, I don't mean just "bumpy." I mean, the plane making altitude drops and going side to side aggressively type of turbulence. Other than the spilled food & drink, the suspension of food service, etc. . . . I was able to just keep watching my movie and deal.
     Then, you can't help but to notice the huge, picturesque lightning out the window . . . which illuminated the dense preciptation (which appears horizontal at air travel speeds). The turbulence got worse and people were dead silent, except for kids screaming things like "Tummy Hurts" as your stomach drops like it does on the scary part of a rollercoaster.
     My wife and I are separated by an aisle, but at a glance . . . everyone around me was gripping their seat so tight, the person next to them's hands (even people who didn't seem to know each other), and the scary part . . . ?
     The scary part was seeing people all around me praying. When everyone around you is on a flight that is shaking around so much you think you're falling out of the sky is praying . . . man, that's not a good sign, and this scared the hell out of me.
     During all this, the pilot informed us that we were circling nearby to avoid a typhoon that grounded all flights in and out of Hong Kong's airport. But, he finally told us that we had to land . . . they didn't seem to sugar coat anything for us. =P
     We begin our descent . . . and we still can't see anything but lightning, sideways rain, and people praying or trying to hold in vomit.
     All of a sudden . . . we can see the airport out the window, but here's where things got *really* scary. It was visible and obvious now that the plane was tipping left and right . . . violently. The wing would be level one moment, and then appear to almost slam the ground the next. I can only imagine what this looked like outside; surprised I didn't find this on YouTube. The pilot, trying to manage this and extreme winds . . . touches down, but perhaps with the combination of wind and rough landing angle . . . we're turning at really high speed. And then we turn the opposite way and equally high speed jerking us violently the other way . . . also causing food service trays to break off their latches and luggage to fall from the overhead bins.

But, alas . . . we were on the ground and now at stable speed. I started clapping, and a few others joined in nervously and then rapidly stopped. People still continued to pray, but I was relieved at this point.

My wife and I resisted the desire to vomit, and we then had to get on the SAME PLANE for a 12 hour leg from Hong Kong to San Francisco. This flight had literally 10 hours of turbulence (no exaggeration) . . . which caused passengers to throw up, for which the smell made others throw up. We'd smell throw up, then look at the clock and realize we had 10 more hours to go. It was horrible. And, since I can only assume there was not a 6,500+ mile long storm . . . I bet something was wrong with the plane that caused all that turbulence. We still had to hop on an AA flight from San Francisco back to Dallas, but I was happy to have the safety & support of the FAA and U.S. Airlines behind me after all that. :)

Needless to say, when I got back at 6 am on Sunday . . . we slept 'til 11 pm. So much for avoiding jetlag. =P

Failure & Resurgence of the Blog

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:03:34 GMT

Hello Friends, as the subject of this entry says . . . I have not yet successfully "crossed the chasm" into blogging. In fact, as pointed out by a number of my close friends, this blog existing is a dismal failure.

As you can see by my post on 4/18/06 . . . where I promised a post on my last trip to Asia and on my Engagement, I clearly did not deliver. Too late to write a journal about my Asia Trip in 2006, and I am actually writing this blog entry from an airport on my way back from Asia, again! Not sure what it is about Asia that wants to get me blogging again. =P Further, not only am I not just "engaged" anymore, but I've been married for about 7 months. http://www.josephmark.com/VivekandNovie/ has pics. from the wedding, which went very well. :)

I hereby plan to ease into blogging, by at least adding one entry per month. I'm setting the bar low here, so it would be utterly pathetic if I wasn't able to clear it. I will place some responsibility on you, my Xanga/Blog reading public for reminders and the occasional push.

To Summarize: I'm Back!

I'm Engaged!

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 07:42:32 GMT

Hello, everyone . . . I owe you guys a post on my engagement, which I haven't gotten a chance to post about! I wanted to leave this post as a placeholder, and I will edit it later on with all the details about my engagement to the greatest girl in the world!

Right now, I am in Hong Kong and they have us on a pretty tight schedule, so I will be posting pictures for that trip and a journal for that, first.

Peace out, talk to you soon!