I am THE James

Yes, I know I haven’t updated this page in quite a while. That is totally my fault. I have been mega busy working. I have a couple of clients that have been keeping me very busy and at one point I had over 100 poker articles to write. I actually completed all of them and this week I have been slacking in comparison to the past two to three weeks. Of course my “slacking” still made me more money than a lot of people make a week. Yes, that sounds like bragging, and it is.

So we have a new President of the United State. Barack Obama won in convincing fashion over John McCain. I voted for McCain, but not without seriously considering Obama. I was leaning his way all the way to almost the end. Taxes and certain statements he made started me to lean McCain. Everyone that is buying into the “only the $250,000 and up crowd will see more taxes” need to do your research. Now, things may change and the plan may turn out better than what my research indicates. In a way I hope so. This isn’t because Obama won, but because the country typically prospers economically under a democratic president. There are certain points to Obama that I did like as well, so it wasn’t a “Obama bad, McCain good”type of vote. My research indicates that I would be potentially better off under Obama than McCain, and therefore I voted as such.

Now, with that being said, this election showed me the flaw in our current electoral system, especially for my state. In my state, the overall popular vote was significantly influenced by about 6 areas. In Missouri, the vote for the entire state was influenced primarily by Kansas City and St Louis. Due to the fact that these areas are much more heavily populated, the balance of power is shifted such to where if a candidate is a heavy winner, such as Obama was, then the state stands a chance to go to that candidate.

What should we do? I like what Nebraska and Maine do. First, they give the vote representing the two senators to the overall popular election. Then, the rest of the votes go by who won the popular vote in the particular district. For instance, look at Virginia. Lets say that a candidate wins the overall popular vote. He would get the two votes automatically. Next, the other 11 votes would be divided up according to who won the popular vote in the particular district. Lets say that the candidate won 6 of the districts. Then he would get 6 of the electoral votes and the opposing candidate would have gotten the other 5. I like this better as it prevents a few areas from swaying an entire state and actually makes the individual vote count more.

Now, I am not saying that using this system would have won McCain the election. It probably would not. It would have made it closer and a little more in line what the country actually thinks. I’m sorry folks, but from what I am seeing, the majority of the county was not overwhelmingly in favor of Obama. If you were in a big city or a highly liberal state, then yes, but in other states, such as Missouri and Virginia, the state was clearly not head over heels for Obama.

The WSOP Final table is tomorrow. I’m still of the opinion that this was a bad idea for the game. We will finally get to see tomorrow who will play heads-up and then Monday who will win. I shouldn’t say this, but I am rooting for some type of screwed up abnormality so that they won’t do this again. However, ratings are up and if ESPN decrees it’s good, it will likely be back.

Just a couple of weeks now before I head out to Vegas. I am looking forward to it. I tried playing some last night and did so-so. Of course, I was playing tired and played too distracted. Still managed a 2nd and 1st place finish out of three games played. My stud game play seems to be getting better in all realms. I hope this translates into strong H.O.R.S.E. finishes in Vegas as I am playing two H.O.R.S.E. events. I will be staying at the 4 Queens downtown. I’m also really hoping that this event draws decent. I would hate to go all that way for a bunch of tourneys that don’t draw over 50.

Tonight, my friend Summer and I went to check out Carlos Mencia at the Richmond Funny Bone. The Funny Bone is THE comedy club in the state. This was the third time Summer and I had been there and the first time for a major comedian. It was fucking awesome. Carlos is one of Summer’s comedic idols and she was stoked. She texted me around 3 am Sunday to tell me about the show and we wound up reserving tickets for the 7:30 show tonight.

The show was opened by Carlos’ brother Joseph. Yes, that is the same Joseph from the show. Juan Villareal was the next performer. He was good but looked like he belonged in a Grand Theft Auto game. Next, Cristela Alonzo performed. She has written for Mind of Mencia. Very cute. Great comedian. She actually pointed out first that Juan looked like he belonged in GTA. Her opening was great. To paraphrase she said first you have Joseph, who you can’t understand followed by Juan who looked like he belonged in a Grand Theft Auto game. Then you have me, “I actually went to college. Her bit about rappers promising shit to women was classic. Next Brad Williams came out to perform. Contrary to popular belief, he is NOT Wee Man. He gave shit to everyone. His bit about deaf people being politically incorrect was awesome.

Finally we get to the man we all came to see, Carlos Mencia. His opening set about the Olympics was great. I don’t know if he put this material together before the Olympics or waited until afterwards, but it was awesome. As usual, he doesn’t pull any punches. The tornader and potater bits were great, especially when he figured out HOW they got r’s at the end of potato and tornado. Also, some of his jokes are fairly high brow. There were a few that maybe 10% of the people in the room got. Of course, he had to give everyone else shit about falling off the comedy bus. Ding! Fries ready. “They have some soft pillers.”

Even New Orleans got shit. You have to really stop to think like he said. They build New Orleans below sea level and in the early 1900’s a hurricane fucked it up. Then of course we know what happened with Katrina, and they still rebuilt. To quote him, there a retard going “Maybe you should put some dirt on it and build it up some…” Ding! Fries ready!

The Obama and politic bit was great. Obama is apparently going to be the Abraham Lincoln for white people. If you want to know what I am talking about, BUY A TICKET AT THE NEXT SHOW. Ding! Fries ready!

At the end of the show, Carlos and the gang got up on stage to tell some various jokes. What do you call a mexican baptismal? Bean dip. How do you know if you are at a gay cookout? The hot dogs taste like shit. And my favorite, “What do fat chicks and bricks have in common? They both will get laid by mexicans.”

After the show was equally great. They were selling merchandise, taking pictures, etc. You had to pay $20 to have your pic taken with Carlos. I paid for it so that Summer could have a copy. (The pic is above.) The best part of the night happened then. We got up there to take our pic and Carlos real quick checked out Summer. He leaned over to me just so only I could hear and said, “Good for you man!” Obviously he approves. LOL. Summer got a kick out of it too when I told her cause “Carlos Mencia thinks she is hot.” Funny shit. After he signed her stuff, I got distracted for a sec and I was going to get him to sign my glass. I then noticed the next people were there. I was going to go off and he was like, “No man, what you want me to sign?” See that was cool too. It wasn’t just an assembly line sign off and send on. Summer and I took off and went back to the car and she was gushing for a while and we just kinda hung out. Anywho, a little while later, I was finally driving off and we could see Carlos sitting on one of the tables talking to about 5 or 6 fans. It was only him, some of his crew and the few fans. It was good that he was willing to hang around like that and talk to people. Shit like that is going to get people coming back. I know if we get another chance to see him, we will be there.

Now I need to find a place nearby that Robin Williams will be performing.