Month: October 2005

If I had to pick one way to change the world, if there was only one thing I could do, I would eliminate prejudice and bigotry, and ensure equal rights for all people. Period. That people are so ignorant, and so stupid that they can judge others based on factors which are randomly assigned by the universe, rather than the quality of one’s character, just baffles me.

When I heard yesterday that Rosa Parks died, I wanted to write something about it, but I couldn’t find the words. It’s hard to imagine what her world was like way back in 1955, especially since 99% of the people who have the ability to read this blog will probably never know a life a billionth as challenging as hers — and none of us are going to make one tenth of the difference she made. So what could I say that would matter?

Crooks & Liars managed to say it for me:

Try to imagine
yourself as Rosa Parks did when she left work that day in
1955. Exhausted from working long hours in the department store, she
looked to take a seat like always; but making sure she sat in the right
section of that bus at the risk of being handcuffed. You can’t-can you?
It took this incredible woman to refuse to give up her seat to a white
man on that bus to change the course of American history.

Think about that, and honor her legacy whenever you can. I challenge you all to make a difference, in some positive way, in someone’s life today. And tomorrow. And the day after that . . .

I can’t believe I forgot about this: I’m all over VH1’s I Love The 80s 3D. I wasn’t in much of 1980 or 1981, but I did about 9 hours of interviews with them, mostly focused on 1985-1989, if I recall correctly. Check local listings for maximum Uncle Willie Snark and your USRDA of funky giant post-Walter sideburns.

There has been a lot of fun poker in the last few days for me. The Friday WWdN Invitational has been a huge success two weeks in a row, and seems to be growing, I had a BLAST at IGN live, and the PokerStars Blogger Championship yesterday was a whole lot of fun.

I posted a live blog of the Friday Game at CardSquad:

5:04 PM – We’re at the first break. This is incredibly fun. What
a great group of people! I have 3105, and I am third at my table
(leader has 5400). Average is 2533. Our chipleader is the poker princess  herself, with 7285. There are 90 players left.

5:05 PM –
First hand after the break, I get KK in the cutoff. I raise it up 3x,
no callers. It’s funny to me that I get nervous when I see cowboys now.
🙂

5:27 PM – CJ from UpForPoker just got moved to my table. He’s REALLY good, and has position on me.

5:34 PM – wwdnposse just got moved to my table. His avatar is the image from "Wil has a posse." That is too weird.

5:35 PM –
I’m all-in UTG with pocket eights. One caller, plus CJ who also pushes.
I hope I’m in for a race here. Oh. No I’m not. CJ called me with KK.
Can I crack Kings? No, there’s a King on the flop. I go home in 54th.
What a disappointing finish. I really wish I hadn’t donked off those
chips like a dipshit, but I had a LOT of fun, and now there’s only one
"wil" avatar at the table.

5:37 PM – Join us next week for the WWdN: Up4Poker Invitational! (Tournament number 14090593, for you early registration types.)

The whole thing is at CardSquad, includng the final table, and the cash game I played with a bunch of other poker bloggers after I busted out. While you’re there, you may want to check out the recap of the Blogger Championship:

I was playing from IGN Live in Anaheim, where I was signing autographs and playing in SNGs for PokerStars. (Note: IGN Live was really cool. If you get a chance to attend one, GO!) I
was seriously multi-tasking at one point, when a reporter from Area51
radio sat down and talked with me about my books, poker, Star Trek,
gaming, voice overs, and all that other crap I do.

I moved up to almost 3000 chips early, but I missed some draws, got
pushed off some hands by GRob, and slowly dropped back down. I went
into a shell as the blinds came up,  and with just over 900 left, and
the blinds at 75/150 I was way behind par. I pushed from early position
with a A-8o. It was folded to ohthen, who called with pocket nines. The
flop came ace, ace . . . nine, giving ohthen a full house against my
set. The turn was a queen, and I caught the case ace on the river to
make quads and double up! Dems quads, beetches!

I’m working on a couple of posts for the next few days over there, that I think will be of interest to beginning players.

I love the impermanence of WWdN: In Exile. It’s given me a lot of freedom to experiment with designs, content, and the Typepad experience.

So far, I really like all of it, and I’m even considering sticking with Typepad once I get WWdN up and running again. The WYSISYG editor is outstanding, and the most important factor for me in deciding what blogging tools to use is: how easy is it for me to get my ideas out of my head and onto the screen? I’ve noticed that since I moved to Exile, I’ve actually been able to blog a whole lot more than the last few weeks at WWdN: BE, just because it is so easy to use.

I also get to try things out here to see if I’m comfortable with them or not, before I integrate them into WWdN:2.0. That’s why there is that Google AdSense thing over on the right side of the screen. For a long time, I’ve resisted putting ads on WWdN, and I even scaled back, then ultimately took a hiatus from BlogAds (which are great, by the way. It wasn’t them, it was me. We’re still friends.)

But  the fact is, I love to write. I love to write for CardSquad, I love to write for The Onion, I love to write for Suicide Girls, and I love to write for WWdN:IE (yuck! IE! Gross! Maybe I should call it WWdN:ix) I would like to earn my primary living as a writer, and if AdSense means my blog helps pay some bills, I can put more time into writing good content, and publishing books. (This is especially important since O’Reilly sent me my "royalty" statement for the last quarter, which was all negative numbers. Thanks for all that great promotion and support, guys!)

I don’t know if I’m going to keep the AdSense around or not. I understand that Google is hardcore about the way bloggers talk about the ads, so all I will say is that if they don’t earn me a certain amount of revenue each month, I’ll get rid of them. Oh, and Mesothel — Ha. Just kidding.

I’m interested in knowing what you other bloggers think, especially bloggers who use AdSense, TextAds, BlogAds, IndieClicks, etc. Is it worth it? Do you have any trouble with content, sponsors, or readers?