Good Times, Bad Times

This was an interesting weekend – nothing spectacular or wretched, just interesting, in both positive and negative ways.

Poker Tournament

The weekend started off with an annual poker tournament I play in. It was started by my buddy Jim’s father’s poker club to honor one of their fallen members who died on the way home from their monthly game. Despite them being the originators of the tourney, I’d say more than half of the players came from either Jim’s family or friends, including myself, Joe and Bake. This was the 4th annual tournament, and I finished 9th, 1st and 6th in the last 3 years, but THIS year was not my year to repeat. I played it technically well, but the odds were a real bitch – twice I lost on good hands to someone who just had a better hand that the odds said was unlikely. Between those two losses (to the same guy), I was crippled, and didn’t last long – I finished 34th out of 44. Jim and Joe were on either side of me (33rd and 35th, respectively), although Bake did much better finishing in the 20’s somewhere. Still, none of us get back our stake, and I handed over another $30 later in a cash game – which I did play poorly.

Rating: -1

Lightroom

Based on my wife’s accounting of using the newest beta of Lightroom (Beta 4.1), I decided to give it another try. And I have to say that I am very impressed. Adobe deserves kudos for listening to those who gave feedback and truly addressing it (they also did so with Adobe Bridge CS3’s problems). The interface is better, cleaner and easier to use. And the processing tools are fantastic, particularly the color management. Not perfect, but it is still a beta and I’m sure that they will fix more stuff later. I could write a user review of that, but that will have to wait. Suffice it to say, it was a nice piece of software to open and play with.

Sidenote: Adobe Bridge CS3

Although Adobe initially said that they wouldn’t release another beta version of Bridge – giving the ‘we’ll fix it before final release’ excuse – they actually surprised people with a second beta version. I have to assume that a) feedback was bad enough; b) they turned enough people off with that response; c) felt that it needed more testing after major fixes; d) all of the above, but regardless, they released it and I like the improvements. Particularly having the Batch Rename back at my fingertips in the right-click menu.

Rating: +1.5

NFL Championship Games

I have to admit, with all of my teams out of contention (Dallas, Philly and Denver), I went into rooting for the underdog mode. New England has been there a few times and … well, I just don’t like the Bears. In the NFC, it would have been a boon to New Orleans to have made it – both because of Katrina and because that team has heart (and has never made it to the Super Bowl). But they didn’t win – in fact, it was a hard game to watch- so it was the Bears. Then came the AFC game came on – and it was a great game. Finally, Peyton Manning has made it to the big game, an honor he richly deserved. He was quickly becoming this generation’s version of Dan Marino and John Elway, both of whom made it to the big game but could never win it. Now that Manning has made it, he needs to prove he can win the big one, like Elway did late in his career (After 2 thrashings earlier in his career, he finally won back-to-back Super Bowls) and not be the next Marino (0-2, both drubbings, in his 2 Bowl appearances).
So, I’ll be rooting for Manning and the Colts – because I’d like to see him win, and well … because I really do hate the Bears.

Rating: +1

Play

The weather wasn’t cooperating again this weekend, so I didn’t get to go out and do anything fun outdoors. Instead, I got the joy of picking up the trash that blew out of the squirrel’s nests all week. Frickin’ tree rats.

Rating: -1

Sci-Fi Channel (Geek Alert!)

Finally, Battlestar Galactica is back on the air! The first episode was pretty good, with a lot of good events that are sure to make the ‘second season’ very interesting. If you aren’t watching, you’re really missing out. We also checked out the new show, The Dresden Files, which is basically Harry Potter meets Law and Order. It was interesting, but it will take a couple of episodes to see if it’s worth it. On the flip side, neither of the Stargate series will be back until April. *sigh*

Rating: +0.5

Flickr

I got some great responses on recent shots, which is nice. I just wish I had a little more time to catch up with all of the friends that I’ve made on there.

Rating: even
Overall Weekend Rating: +1

And here’s some other fun stuff to check out

• MS Firefox – Scary thought.
• Girl is Human Slingshot – via Van