After playing tournaments every day for almost a month, and then hitting a terrible losing streak, I just wanted to walk away from poker for a bit. It’s been a nice break, but I’ve recently started to get the itch to play again.

Anne and I went to Vegas yesterday for the opening of the new Blue Man Group show at Venetian (full review is coming soon — short review: it’s awesome). We stayed at Mirage, and though I was more interested in sitting with my wife than sitting at a poker table, walking past the poker room reminded me of how much I miss the damn game.

So, I think I’ll get back on the horse with a WWdN semi-private tournament, this Friday afternoon. It’s just a $10+1 buy-in, so it’s affordable for most people. To come and play with me and other WWdN readers, sign up for PokerStars and then when you log in, go to Tourneys -> Private -> WWdN: Where’s My Burrito? Invitational, or you can just search for tournament number 13722477. The tournament will happen on Friday the 14th at 4:00PM EST. I know this is a little early for West Coast players, but it should make it easier for international players to join us. The password is "monkey."

In easy-to-cut-and-paste-into-your-own-blog form:

What: WWdN Where’s My Burrito? Invitational
Where: PokerStars.
When: Friday, October 14th. 4:00 PM EST
Password: monkey
Tournament number: 13722477
Buy-in: $10+1

This tournament is open to anyone who reads WWdN or WWdN:IE, or who happens to know that the password is monkey. 🙂

It should be fun, a nice warm-up to the PokerStars Blogger Tourney, and if enough people show up (and enjoy it, of course) I will make it a weekly event, with the time (and buy-in) rotating to accomodate everyone who wants to play. As an added incentive, I’ll name the next tournament after the player who knocks me out.

I know two days is short notice, but I hope lots of you can make it. I’ll be sure to give more notice for future tourneys.

I hope to see you there!

This is crossposted to blogging.la.

In addition to countless lies, denying basic civil rights to gays and lesbians, and calling an unnecessary special election with powergrabs that masquerade as "reform," I present yet another reason Arnold Schwarzenegger makes me want to puke. Last week, while firefighters were battling the Topanga fire, the Governor flew in for a George Bush-esque photo-op, and several firemen say they were ordered to stand with him for the cameras.
It’s an outrageous insult to firefighters to force them to pose for a photo-op with this idiot, who is doing everything he can to silence their union with prop 75.

A few firefighters were bold enough to complain they were ordered to stand behind the governor against their will on the day of the news conference, KCAL 9’s Linda Breakstone reported. Seven more came forward Wednesday.
“We did not want to do it,” Los Angeles County firefighter Greg Alldredge said. “Then it came down as an order directly from above.”
Firefighters were "ordered and forced" to participate, Alldredge said. Rank-and-file firefighters were very displeased with "having to shake hands with somebody who really doesn’t support us.”
Schwarzenegger’s press secretary says "No one from the governor’s office ordered anyone to do anything.

Could it have come from his campaign office, and not his Sacramento office? I guess it could depend on what your definition of "office" is.

Updated: via comments, I see the Governor’s incredibly compassionate, thoughtful, appreciative response to the firefighters’ criticism:

Schwarzenegger later brushed off criticism of the stunt. He says everybody is ordered to do things at one point or another. He also pointed out that "as a matter of fact, in one of my movies, I played a firefighter."

It’s almost like the word "asshole" was invented specifically for him. He played a firefighter once in a movie, and we’re supposed to believe that fact is somehow relevant to anything.
Well, actually, it is. It shows how arrogant, out of touch, and clueless this coddled celebrity who’s playing governor actually is.

Wow. According to C|Net, there are fourteen million blogs on The Internets . . . and their editors have selected WWdN for inclusion in their top 100.

I don’t usually care about things like this, because they’re so subjective, and it’s too easy to obsess over what lists I’m on or not on, and what my ranking is or isn’t, but the blogs on this list are all really fantstic. It’s a real honor to be included with them.

. . . I guess I’d better hurry up and get WWdN working again, huh?

Several WWdN readers who have temporarily joined us here in exile (*wave*), wrote in this morning to inform me that I’ve earned a spot in another Joy Of Tech comic.

Clicky for teh funnay.

I haven’t had time to see Serenity, yet. I was too busy to attend both of the screenings I was invited to, but I hope to see it before the end of next week. I hear it’s fantastic.