Reticent Man

I think I'm getting sick.  I shouldn't be getting sick as often as I have been while on the primal diet.  This is really disappointing.  Did a nice Chest/Back p90x in the morning.  Got a call from mom and helped her out with a mortgage calculation which took a while.  Then got to Bay and did about 5 hours.  Home for TV.

Gran Torino A typical Eastwood movie these days.  Of course I don't really agree with the politics.  And a lot of it is really over the top.  The feminism is only on medium at least.  It's funny when movies like this make my points perfectly and then act like they're showing how those points are wrong when they really don't.
  Using Asian immigrants instead of hispanics is not subtle at all.  It's mostly well done with some parts that stick out.  Acting 5, Story 4, Style 6.

Gran Torino 5/10

Day off from p90x.  Got in at Bay at noon, played til 7, decent games, didn't win.  I've decided I don't really like the viet soccer game so I'm skipping it.  Went home and watched TV.

Woke up and did my Kenpo p90x... at least most of it until the DVD scratches ended it.  Then had a nice lunch with Grace and went shopping.  Dropped by GC to check out the game and it was terrible.  Played 2 orbits but it was a waste of time.  So I watched some TV and then did the late night pickup.  I played poorly and did not enjoy it.

On the Waterfront.  What a great movie.  Even though the themes are now well worn and the ending a little corny, you can tell it's a master of the genre, a classic.  The cultural aspect is also classic and great.  Marlon Brando's performance is truly breathtaking.  And the well known contender scene lives up to the hype.  I loved the romantic scenes too.  They fit in perfectly, weren't overdone, and respected realistic gender roles. Acting 10, Story 10, Style 9.

On the Waterfront 9.5/10

Got up to do Legs/Back p90x. Started out ok, but the Legs part is mostly lunges, which inevitably cause pain in my knee and I can't continue.  I thought I could do Plyo here because I'm skipping it on Wednesdays, but maybe I can do a Plyo/back hybrid here because I like the second back day.  After doing the legs/back that I did and then AbRX I feel really really good.  Plowing through chores now, did a money rec and things are ok.  I'm through 9 months and I've done 90 hours per month when I needed to be doing 130.  If I'd done 130/mo at 30 I'd be even, if I ran at 40 instead I'd be up $10k and ready to play 40/80.  Anyways I dont want to get too far into details but I've got a small but healthy liferoll now and I'm going to work it hard.  However simple math tells me if I run like I ran Dec-Feb I will bust.  I'm no where near safe, which means I need to keep job prospecting on the horizon.  Paid bills, did dishes, straightened, shopped at WF, put away laundry, and did goalie admin.  I feel like I want to do another workout, that's how much energy I have.

Fanny & Alexander DNF  This is an epic slow period drama about a big family.  I'm sure it's a great movie for what it is, and to enjoy it you have to really get into it.  Unfortunately it is heavily F/M, which is no surprise from a Swede.  It kept me from staying with it and I gave up.

Jeremiah Johnson  A decent movie with good and bad qualities.  The overall theme seems mixed and unclear.  Sometimes it seems like it's all dark and bleak and sometimes heroic.  Redford is good but seems miscast. Light F/M as expected.  Acting 6, Story 6, Style 6

Jeremiah Johnson 6/10

Did more of the Yoga for p90x this morning.  It felt really good afterwords but I still struggled doing it.

Had an ok hockey pickup in the morning.  I felt good and everything was fine but I didn't catch the breaks.  It fills me with a sense of something to accomplish.  Poker was ok, again I felt great at the start, things went mediocre, ended up bailing out after 4.5 hours down some.  Watched TV

War of the Roses.  I expected the worst out of this movie and it almost delivered.  It's a super dark comedy, but it's also an extreme anti-marriage F/M screed.  There were some funny bits, but nothing particularly interesting to hold my attention from noticing every anti-male anti-marriage attack.  Acting 6, Story 1, Style 5 Enormous deduction for F/M.



War of the Roses 2/10

Did p90x shoulder/arm in the morning.  Then got in at Bay by 1:00, but I cut my session short at 5:30.  I wasn't into it and had made a few mistakes.  Went home, did laundry, and watched TV.

Intermission:  This movie is a boring and ultrafeminist romantic comedy dressed up as a Tarantino crime movie.  It has a million storylines and they are all about how evil and/or incompetent men are.  No thanks.  I had to fast forward through large chunks just to finish it.  Acting ok, but cultural trash from top to bottom.  What a shame Acting 5, Story 2, Style 4.  Massive deductions for F/M

Intermission 1/10

A very cool day.  Lunchtime pickup, played ok and it was a good skate.  Hopped over to Bay where I won big pots and won back the amount I lost yesterday.  Then went to Ice Oasis and scored 2 goals in a 6-5 OT win.  Went home and relaxed.

Uninteresting day.  Had a nice start with a good Chest/Back p90x.  Then Got in at Bay at noon, played til 7, lost.  Then went home to watch TV.

Manic  Didn't really care for this movie.  It's about an anger management teenager in a mental health facility with other crazy teenagers.  The acting is very good but that's about the only good thing.  The story is fairly trite, and pretty boring.  They're doing something aggressive with the camera, always closeup and shaking around during confrontations, but it's really more annoying than interesting.  There are a number of plot unbelievabilities, and a decent amount of Feminism.  Story 2, Style 1, Acting 7 deduction for F/M.


Manic 3/10

Paranoid Park  This movie is highly stylistic.  And the style was hit and miss for me.  There are many slomos of incredible length showing nothing, and it gets to be tedious.  The nonlinear storytelling is ok, but not great.  The music is very eclectic but nice.  The acting is pretty good, very realistic portrayal of teenagers.  I thought to myself just partway into the movie "the director must be gay".  And I didn't know that Gus Van Sant is gay but I just found out he is.  There is enormous overt gay subtext in the movie.  The plot is almost non-existant.  It is supposed to be an intense examination of all aspects of this one event, but it ends up just not being very interesting.  And there's quite a bit of F/M for how little there is of anything at all.  Still it's wall crafted enough to be worth passing the time.  Story 2, Acting 7, Style 6.

Paranoid Park 5/10

The start of what I hope will be a solid new schedule.  Getting up at 9am and soing p90x right away.  Then if no other conflicts poker until 7pm.  p90x was just stretching this morning, which is fine.  My body, which had been cripplingly sore all week finally feels great.  Got in 5.5 hours at Bay which is perfect for a monday, won more than 2 racks, and then went to vietsoccer.  Vietsoccer just really isn't interesting me that match this year, I may stop going.  This session was no better.  I always notice the problems with the field and the play just never seems to quite suit me.  Left early to go home and relax.

Traffic A great epic depiction of all levels of the drug trade.  It is strong, bleak, and amazingly without obvious bias.  It's not a glorification of the drug trade.  It's a revelation in the filth of it all.  The interweaving stories is done well, all of the characters and pieces are interesting and acted incredibly well.  A few minor nitpicks about F/M cliches but nothing too bad. Acting 10, Story 10, Style 9

Traffic 9.5/10

My brunch with Grace is canceled because she is spending the weekend with Charo, who isn't feeling well.  After hanging around for a little while I headed down to Garden City at about 1:30 to search for Neal and found him there.  But I should have showed up earlier and I knew that.  Regardless I played for 5 hours in some pretty good games and won.  But I am still low energy and I got very tired near the end.  Also I didn't play that great.  In the evening I watched TV including Raising Arizona.

Raising Arizona
Reading Ebert's review, the thing that he hates about this movie is just about the only thing I liked about it.  The intentional disconnect between the trashiness of the character's lives and the exacting way that they speak.  I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.  You can see the beginning of the Coen's cooky style here, and a lot of that part of the movie works.  I didn't really enjoy it though.  For one thing it's a fairly feminist movie, and highly negative on child rearing in all the cliched ways.  And the story is really pretty boring.... the goofiness can only salvage so much.  Story 3, Acting 6, Style 7.

Raising Arizona 5.5/10

In the morning, tried to do yesterday's Yoga session.  I am really really bad at Yoga.  My plan is to take it really slow, I'll give myself credit for 10 minutes this time and I'll try to build on that. 

I really hit a low right now.  My motivation is gone.  I need to figure out a way to stop this from happening.  I'm planning now a regular 9am wakeup with p90x right away.  I'm also going to call this week an introductory week for the p90 because I couldn't do Saturday's workout either.  I played 2 uninspired hours at GC and then went to Ray Zee's dinner.  It was smaller than before (6 people), and I ended up driving a lot of the conversation.  Ray is just absolutely the man... if anything I didn't take enough advantage by grilling him about old school stuff.  He talked about holecarding the casinos for years making big big money.  And playing in crooked games.  At the same time it does drive home the point that poker is not a great future for me.  Still, I need to maximize my time in it now. 

Felt just a little off today. Started at Bay, went to Garden City.  The games were good but I was not completely on my game. Ended up playing 5 hours which is fine. Shifting today's Yoga p90x until tomorrow morning. 

21 grams:  This movie has a lot going for it, but a major shortcoming.  It's a fairly simple melodramatic tragic story, told in a very jumbled way.  Which is a fairly pedestrian idea for a movie, but it's done really really well.  The acting is fantastic, this is the least Sean Penn has annoyed me in a movie not named fast times.  The jumbled editing is done really really well.  It is super slow at times, but that is made up for by the fact that the style/composition is great.  Overall worth watching  Story 4, Acting 9.5, Style 9

21 grams 7.5/10

So sore from Plyometrics workout. Simple day.  Played 7 hours at Bay, went home and did Shoulders/Arms plus Ab Ripper, Day 3 of P90. Watched TV.

Got up and did some misc chores.  Planned to get a late start at Bay and play until my 9:30 Geckos game.  Did Plyometrics p90 in the morning.... quite an aerobic workout.  I didn't complete the whole thing but hopefully there will be progress going forward.  I am lightly sore from Chest Back yesterday.  It was a tough poker day.  Got in at 3 which was a little later than I wanted and then the games at Bay weren't that great.  Also wasn't as completely focused as usual, possibly due to the morning workout.  Switched over the Garden City and the game there wasn't that great either and I wasn't feeling it so I bailed after 3.5 hours of play.  The Geckos game was tough.  We got badly outplayed and lost 7-3.  But again I was on for 0 goals against, as well as 0 for.  It is getting a little tough watching teammates stupid mistakes and lack of hustle.  Through the season so far we've given up 23 goals and I've been on the ice for 3.

Got in at Bay at 11am and played until 6 easily straight through, which is great.  Planned on going to PG for my first day of P90x but it was so incredibly crowded.  I really need to figure out how I'm going to use the gym if at all.  Ended up doing the workout at home fairly easily.  It was an excellent workout, I couldn't do another push-up by the end. Looking forward to seeing if I can repeat and improve on it going forward. Watched some soccer and misc.

A solid start to the week.  Got a little bit of a late start due to daylight savings.  Playing from 11:30-5, playing fairly well and winning.  Then went to play soccer with the Viets.  My gas tank is still way too low from the diet, but it was reasonably fun.  While resting I enjoyed the view of the green hills in the backdrop... a true California situation it was.

In the morning, watched sports and relaxed. Scotch and Skills wasn't going to come together and I didn't have much else to do so I decided to see what was happening at GC.  Ended up playing a 5 hour session with Neal.  It was fun but ultimately unsatisfying.  I made some obvious mistakes in my haste and dropped some bets.  Ended up even.  Neal cashed out 6 racks.  Went home and watched TV.

Frost/Nixon:  This movie is made really well, but I only mildly enjoyed it.  It's just not a hugely interesting story.  I can't love a movie just because the acting is really good, or because the design choices are great.  It has to actually be scintillating to watch.  Acting 9, Story 4, Style 7

Frost/Nixon 6.5/10

A nice relaxing day.  Lazed around in the morning... watching some TV.  Finally got to Garden City in the late afternoon for a solid 4 hour session.  Then I went home and watched more TV.

Go.  I was shocked at how good this movie was based on not having heard of it before and its general description.  I didn't notice it when I first watched it, but as all the reviews point out it's a sort of a Pulp Fiction knock off, although with a more youth/grunge type ethic instead of adult/chic.  But the story was very enjoyable throughout, and as a black comedy, often hilarious.  Katie Holmes' annoying stroke face is here but thankfully she's not a main character.  Really the only drawbacks are that 10 years after it was made some of it is slightly dated, and there's a few cornball lines.  Acting 8 Story 8 Style 8.

Go 8/10

Not a bad day at all.  Lunchtime pickup, I played well.  Out played Marc in fact.  Even though I was wearing my new goalie skates that are built differently than my old ones and I fell several times.  Then I played the second best 5 hour stretch of limit poker I've ever played.  Won more than 5 racks.  And I felt great about the way I was playing too... free and easy.  This definitely might carry over into other things.  It's amazing that through this entire terrible stretch of 3 months, I've been waiting for exactly this last two days to happen.  Knowing that it could happen, knowing that it should happen eventually.  All I needed was to have one nice good stretch to get everything back on track.... my confidence up.  And I could finally combine my new energy level with my old confidence.  Now that it's happened it's everything I knew I needed.  I will ride this hard now, and see what happens.  If I put in 35+ hours week and actually dont get killed everytime I play who knows what could happen.

In the evening I played for Palmer West in the San Jose B league.  It wasn't a very fun game.  We won but mostly because they dominated the other team.  I wasn't terrible, but I didn't play that well either.  I would really like to play well for these guys but I can't seem to be able to play well in the B league right now.  But that can't ruin my mood.

Woke up earlier than usual, got to Bay earlier than usual.  Ran great right from the start.  Played 4 hours then took a break and planned to play 4 hours more.  But after about 1 more I was up 4 racks on the day and decided I could lock up that big a win.  This is the first time I've had a win that didn't immediately follow equal or larger losses in well over a month.  It's the first time I've ever been able to have any positive feeling about poker in a long long time.  I really enjoyed it.

Slumdog Millionaire:  I had a feeling I wasn't going to love this movie and I didn't.  It's a well-worn storyline that I never really enjoy repackaged in a new and moderately interesting way.  And the storyline wasn't even done that well, as there were major character actions that weren't believable or satisfying.  The style of the movie is pretty good.  It's strongest point is the Indian setting in a wide distribution of wealth.  It seemed realistic enough, whether or not it actually is.  At least it wasn't overly feminist.  Acting 6, Style 7, Story 3.

Slumdog Millionaire 5/10

Lunchtime pickup.  Did not play well, mostly due to newly sharpened goalie skates that are really too sharp.  Purchased new goalie skates for $260.  Had a small win in 10-200 and 20-40.  Then in the Geckos game it was a tough game.  We played the Russian team #1 in the league and lost 2-0.  I had probably the best one or two scoring chances on our team and didn't finish.  I think that's one of the most pressing areas of improvement in my game is finishing. Not much else to the day.

Not a lot going on.  Tourney still on at Bay, got in on time but left early.  Did some calcs on runbad streak.  It's about a one in sixteen thing. Still, having trouble putting in hours as I keep losing.

Wall-E. Story 6, Style 9.  Less a little for some obvious feminism with EVE being so much better than Wall-E.

Wall-E 7/10

Bay 101, the first day of this year's Shooting Stars.  Really not that interesting.  The few stars playing a tournament, yay.  Played a lame 5 hour session, lost motivation near the end.


Maltese Falcon.  I was definitely disappointed in this movie.  Most of the reviews you see by critics will mention how revolutionary it was.  But all those innovations don't themselves make it a great movie in 2010.  A great movie in the 1940s can be a great movie today (Casablanca), but this one is not.  However it is still enjoyable.  The breakthrough film noir style is very good, and the acting fits right in.  It's a character based movie, not plot based, and the character development is quite good with one major exception.  A main scene at the end hinges on there being a mutual attraction between Bogart and Aster, but at no time during the movie did I ever get the impression that any existed, at least from him to her.  There were two weird seeming cuts in the cable version I saw, and perhaps material that solidifies their relationship was cut.  But otherwise I find that a large hole in the character development.  As far as the plot, it's decent in its complexity, but nothing special.  As with all movies I've seen from the 40s, the cultural aspects are great.... no feminism or marxism. Acting 9, Style 7, Plot 6.

Maltese Falcon 7/10

Hard Candy.  This is the most feminist movie I have ever seen.  I believe it is the most feminist movie it is possible to make.  For a man, watching this movie is akin to a jew watching a movie that portrayed a greedy evil jew and a nazi lustfully torturing and killing him.  This movie cannot be enjoyed by any real man.  The style was in some ways pretty good, and the acting was ok, but none of those factors could make this anything but the worst movie ever made.  It is the shining talisman of the now rapid decline of western society.

Hard Candy 0/10

Hung out watching TV with Jim in the morning until his flight home.  Then got a call from Bo to do 'Scotch and Skills'.  We hung out at his place making drinks for a couple hours, then went to Ice Oasis for skills class.  It was ok, being buzzed didn't hurt, but I just really don't like drills and classes.  We waited around to see about Sunday night, but it turned out they had 13v13 which is crazy.  So we went and got some burgers and went to Jeremy's place.  A pretty fun crazy day.  Watched the end of Casino at night.

Casino is definitely a great movie.  It's a mob rise and fall story centering on De Niro playing a jew handicapper come casino manager working for the mob and his boyhood friend Joe Pesci playing a mob mid level crazy guy.  All the little casino based vignettes are very enjoyable and the whole thing seems very realistic.  The rise and fall story is fantastic if obvious.  The other main character is Sharon Stone playing De Niro's bitch whore wife/leech.  It's hard to enjoy the scenes she's in as her character is completely unsympathetic, though Stone does a fairly good job.  I have to give them credit for making Stone as realistically unsympathetic as she is, and I find it interesting that two mobster movies in which the females are played as realistically as they are (the other being once upon a time in america) involve De Niro playing a jew.  Acting 9, Style 10, culture detracts nothing, Story 9.

Casino 9/10

Recent times.  Been on the primal diet for a while, still going great.  But I'm still waiting for the last layer of gut fat to go away.... it is stubborn.  Been getting annihilated in poker for months, on my last bankroll... waiting to see if I play for a few more months, get a job with Arnold, get a local job, or what.

The last full day of Jim's visit.  Woke up and hung out, made scrambled eggs with shredded cheddar and bacon for breakfast.  Also made Almond flour, Banana, Egg, and Coconut Oil biscuits, which turned out better than I could have hoped.  We went on a hike to Hidden Villa, which is very close by.  Did a brisk 5 miles in 2 hours and felt great.  Had dinner at Arcadia (high end Marriott place) at night.  I had a very tasty Steak Rossini with Pinot Noir sauce and seared Foie Gras on top.  And for Desert a huge root beer float.... it was very very good.  Watched 12 monkeys at night.  The movie was not quite as good as I remembered it, although I followed it much better this time around.  It's very stylish in a way, and had some very unique performances and affectations at the time.  I think I enjoyed it less because it's now dated... the style which at the time was unique has been worked into so many more decent movies that it's not interesting anymore.  Brad Pitt's 'crazy' performance was a breakthrough at the time, but he's copied himself now several times and it doesn't stand out like it used to.  The basic plot is solid but unspectacular.  At least I follow the ending now.  He succeeds in what he's meant to do by identifying but not killing the virus spreading man, and the older female scientist sits next to him on the plane to get the copy of the virus to bring back to the future to study.... so everything is tied up in a bow.   Bruce Willis and Madelaine Stowe's characters are a basic tragic love story.  I give the acting a 9, the style an 8 (down from 10 when it was released), the culture and politics detracts nothing, but the story a 5.5.

12 Monkeys  7/10