America-- Fuck Yeah!

Hey gang, and happy Fourth of July to all (random question-- in Mexico, do they celebrate the Fourth of July by getting drunk on shitty American beer and eating hot dogs? I feel like it should be the way Cinco de Mayo is up here).

So, I'm through with my first week of grad school. Granted, it started a day late because Monday was orientation and it ended a day early because of the holiday, but these are just details. One week of grad school in the books! And so far, I've gotta say I'm digging it. There are some things that are sort of tedious (one of my classics is about graphic design, and my first project is to design a resumé for myself, complete with fancy typefaces and a logo for my name. I despise working on my resumé when I'm just using a word processor, let alone when I have to do all this graphics stuff). But my other class for the summer term is an introduction to news writing and reporting, which I think will be pretty cool. They gave us our first assignment on the first real day of classes (Tuesday), and it was due the following morning. So that night when we got out of class, we had to interview one of our classmates to write a profile about him/her, and then contact at least two additonal sources-- friends, family, etc.-- as research. I'm not entirely confident I'll get a good grade on my profile, but I really enjoyed writing it. I did a better job with the interviews than I thought I would, and I wound up with about half a dozen pages of notes for my profile. The biggest problem, for me at least, was deciding what to include and what to exclude in the article, since we had a limit of 2.5 pages. They also suggested that we be descriptive and find good, small details to reveal things about the subject, so I tried to be pretty descriptive in my writing, but then I found that I was quickly running out of room for facts and actual information. So the space limitation was the biggest hurdle for me, and I suspect that will be a recurring theme throughout my career as a journalism student and, eventually, a journalist. As anyone who has ever read one of my NFL previews on Rage Pirates (or this blog, for that matter) could tell you, I like to write at great length. So I guess I'll have to learn to be more succinct.

There was not much of interest to report on in my life this week, outside of class, as I've been quite busy. I did drive out to the Turning Stone casino the night before last, because I'd never been there and I've been meaning to check it out ever since I moved here (it's only a 30-minute drive away). It's a really nice facility, it has both smoking and nonsmoking sections on the floor, free and ample parking in outdoor lots, and a large poker room. I've had the itch to play cards for a while, so after wandering around the casino for a bit, just to see what there was to see, I went over to the poker area and bought into a $1-$2 no-limit game. Things went very well at first, and after an hour or two, I had more than doubled my $100 buy-in to about $220 or $230. Then my cards went ice cold. I feel like I did nothing but fold before the flop for about an hour. I should have walked away with my profit at that point, but instead I got frustrated and started playing hands I shouldn't have, making stupid calls, trying to catch cards, and I lost back most of the money I'd made. I still walked out with more than I had when I walked in, but the profit was minimal. In retrospect, I'm glad that I made any money at all, considering that in the few hours I played, I never had a pocket pair or AK or AQ. My best hand was when I held K-10, and the flop improbably came down 9-J-Q, giving me the nut straight. One of my opponents kept calling me all the way to the river, and I won a big pot (I can't remember exactly what he was calling with. I think he might have had a high two-pair, or he was chasing a flush).

So that was Turning Stone. Cool place. I actually could go back as soon as tomorrow. I think I'm going to drive out that way anyway, to pick up some cheap cigarettes at the Indian reservation, but maybe I won't stop at the casino. I've got plenty to keep me busy this weekend (mostly reading and work for class, but there are some other random errands I want to take care of, as well).

What else is new... I'm hoping to see Hancock this weekend, even though the reviews have been pretty bad. I normally don't get excited about these big summer blockbusters (I saw Indiana Jones, but had no interest in Iron Man, and I don't give a shit about The Dark Knight. Batman Begins sucked, and no one will convince me otherwise) but everything about Hancock looks cool to me. I'm also interested in seeing where they take the story, because I once came up with a similar idea about a reluctant, apathetic superhero. The only other movie I'm really looking forward to this summer is The X-Files: I Want to Believe, because we all know I'm a huge geek. Oh, and Choke, although I'm not sure when that's coming out. Definitely going to see that one, as Chuck Palahniuk's novel of the same name is one of the best books I've read in the past few years.

So today I'm going out to a barbecue for students and faculty of the communications school at the Associate Dean's house. I'm wondering if they're going to have alcohol at this thing, but it's a moot point since I committed to be a driver for some fellow students who don't have a car (damn you, lack of foresight). Should be a decent time. Tonight I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I'm always a fan of fireworks, so I might try to get somewhere to see a display, but I also might go to the movies or do something else entirely, if somebody suggests something at the barbecue.

All right, I guess that's all for now. Enjoy the holiday, and remember:

Freedom isn't free,
no there's a hefty fuckin fee.
Freedom isn't free,
freedom costs a buck-oh-five.