Preliminary Oscar Picks

Mo and I pride ourselves as professional movie watchers from time to time. Every year our friend Brian holds a little Oscar party/pool, usually for $20 or so. We have never won any money, despite our studying year 'round. What little of the Golden Globes that I watched, I had a good read on the winners, so I am going to pick em' early for the Oscars, that way if need be, I can change my picks.

Actor in a leading role:
Forrest Whitaker - Last King Of Scotland
Mo and I just saw this, and I think this one is a no-brainer.

Actor in a supporting role:
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
I have not seen Dreamgirls, but I just think this is who will win at this point. I really would rather see Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine), Hounsou (Blood Diamond), or Wahlberg (The Departed) win.

Actress in a leading role:
Helen Mirren - The Queen
Another one that I haven't seen, but the buzz just points to this one.

Actress in a supporting role:
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
Don't know if this is a "sleeper pick" or not, but I'm pretty sure she won't win...but I gotta go with my gut, plus out of all of the movies nominated in this category, this is the only one i've seen. I wouldn't be surprised if Jennifer Hudson wins though (Dreamgirls).

Animated Feature Film:
HAPPY FEET

Art Direction:
Pans Labyrinth
I have a good feeling about this movie, even though I have not seen it yet. This is another one that could go to Dreamgirls though, but again, i'm sticking with my gut.

Cinematography:
NO PICK YET
The only nominee I've seen was The Illusionist, and I didn't find the cinematography to be all that great.

Costume Design:
NO PICK YET
Another tought one, that could go to just about any of the nominees imho. It wouldn't be a stretch to pick any of them, but preliminary pick has me leaning towards The Queen, with a nod to Marie Antoinette (which is what I would like to see win).

Directing:
The Departed
Seriously, it's time for Marty to take one down. Wouldn't be surprised to see Clint Eastwood take it (Letters from Iwo Jima).

Documentary Feature:
An Inconvenient Truth

Documentary Short:
NO PICK YET

Film Editing:
The Departed
I'm hoping this film takes at least two or three awards, but I think Babel might get this one too.

Foreign Language Film:
Pan's Labyrinth

Makeup:
Pan's Labyrinth

Music (Score):
The Queen

Music (Song):
Dreamgirls
NO BRAINER here.

Best Picture:
The Departed
This is a tough one, as always. But I do think this was the best out of them all. I would love to see the little low budget indie flick take it (Little Miss Sunshine), but this will win...it has to!

Short Film (Animated):
NO PICK YET

Short Film (Live Action):
NO PICK YET

Sound Editing:
Flags of our Fathers

Sound Mixing:
Dreamgirls

Visual Effects:
Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Mans Chest

Writing (Adapted Screenplay):
The Departed
God do I want Borat to win!!

Writing (Original Screenplay):
Little Miss Sunshine

A Quick One

So, a little while ago I was going to post a bunch of hands from the tournament that I took 3rd in, but I went over them, and aside from a few well timed plays, it wasn't all that interesting. I have them all saved still so if I feel like getting down and dirty with them, I will proceed. One hand in particular was really crazy, in a "had to be there" kind of way. It went something like this. I was riding a medium/short stack with about 50 or so people left, and was just moved to a new table with a bunch of similar stacks as mine. Fortunately, this time they were not all of the chip leaders, which always seems to happen to me. Blinds are around 800/1600 with whatever the ante is (I think it's 75). I'm in the MP with 44, and raise it up to 3800, it folds around to the BB who jams his 22K stack at me... I talked a little about this before, but at this point in the tournament, with the number of people left, it didn't really matter to me if I went out on this hand or folded only to go out a few hands later, of course I am talking about the payout structure, relative to this hand. EDIT: I must admit now, that I have gone back to looking at the hand, and I was actually in pretty decent shape at the beginning of the hand, I had 38K in chips. Well, it didn't take all of my time bank, in fact I think I only used an extra 10 seconds, but I decided to make the call. It felt like a huge overbet at the time, but I think regardless of knowing the table or not, this was a pretty awful call...luckily he had K3o and I essentially doubled up. It was a awesome feeling to catch the guy here, even though in hindsight, it was a pretty messed up call by me.

There were actually two other hands that I could talk about, but I won't right now since they are too hard to explain, but suffice to say, I OWNED this guy at my table who was playing table captain/bully/prick/etc....

And, what the &*#@ US GOVT!!!! Stay out of our personal lives!!! This whole conservative right wing christian regime needs to GO, including the dictat..I mean President...

IPOD RANDOM TEN
1. Harry Hood - Phish - 2/20/93
2. Rain Please Go Away - Alison Krauss & Union Station - Lonely Runs Both Ways
3. World Of Machines - The Samples - Return To Earth
4. Strance Of The Spirit Red Gator - Medeski, Martin, And Wood - Shack Man
5. Exempli Gratia - Ernie Stires - Samson Riffs (Performances: 1983-1997)
6. Moth Reprise - moe. - Warts & All Vol. 1
7. Not Myself - John Mayer - Room For Squares
8. Moma Dance - Phish - The Story Of The Ghost
9. Eveline - Nickel Creek - Why Should The Fire Die
10. Don't Tell The Band - Widespread Panic - Don't Tell The Band

Xmas > New Years

Well, the year has come and gone, and man was it up and down. Whether it be poker related or just plain old life, the year of 2006 will not be forgotten. It seems that the "Best of 2006 Mix" was a hit. With every cd that I gave out, I also included a synopsis taken from that very post. So hopefully i'll get some more readers out of it. Even though this here little blog is really only an excercise for my own well being, I am always very entertained to read all of my other favorite blogs, so hopefully others will get a kick out of my thoughts and my life in general.

I actually made it to a final table! My last post I titled "I CAN make it deep...but can I win?". It's like a song from The Newgrass Revival..."Deeper and Deeper". This time I pulled down 3rd place, while holding on to the chip lead for the majority of the final two tables. I had some bad timing and a few questionable hands in the end, but I wasn't really dissapointed. I was playing some great poker, and along the way got quite drunk as well. But, when things are going well, why change? I think i'm starting to get the hang of the Pokerstars tournament format. In that I mean, I now know that if you can dodge a few bullets (I mean bad beats) in the early portions of the tourney, you can very easily make the money. These low-buy-in tourneys are full of WEAK players who are begging to give their chips away. My only complaint is that everytime I get a table where I end up with a nice stack, I get moved to another with all of the chip leaders. This time around I ended up with the majority of the stacks, but it was only after a few GREAT hands that I played. I will be posting some of them shortly.

Christmas was very fun as usual. Mo and I had one of the first holidays where in the end all we could say is "We're not doing that again!". We cut down our tree at the same tree farm we go to every year, although this year, we went a little later than years before.
We picked out a good one though! When we got in the room, it looked awfully small, but once we got some lights and ornaments on it, it looked amazing.
The finished product!

Soon after finishing the tree we went on to our outdoors decorations. Every year our complex does a "Deck the Deck" contest. Last year, we didn't even think they were doing it and we ended up with third place. This year, since we knew it was happening we worked extra hard and spent a little extra cash.

We were robbed...we claimed "rigged", but this got second place for $100! I even tried to bribe the judges, and Mo even gave them home-made cookies...oh well.

Just before New Years, Mo and I went out with our good friends Lisa and Angie. We've been trying to get out to the "Garden of Lights", which is a public park that puts on a light show completely non-secular. It was a little bit of a wait to get in, but it was pretty spectacular.
Mo and friends Angie and Lisa.

This year, as with every year since we've known each other, Mo and I went down to St. Michaels, MD to stay with her Sister and Husband. We went to the same restaurant, except it was very dissapointing. Despite having what may have been the best bowl of soup i've ever had.

After dinner we rushed home to ring in 2007 with are annual fireworks display off the dock of the Inn. This years fireworks were ridiculous. We were actually a little scared that the "5-0" might stop by, but they've got "bigger fish to fry". Hell, the hillbillies down there were shooting off their shotguns in the air!

Happy New Year!