Do good things and good things happen to you.

"Do good things and good things will happen to you. Do bad things and it will come back and bite you in the ass." That’s what my friend Earl always says.

This weekend I played in a card tournament hosted by my uncle. You know how it goes, 24 people started, and 3 Kovacs' ended up at the final table. I realized that the rules of the tournament had some holes in them. 2nd place could theoretically win less then 3rd place. Well people were drunk by this time and ready to argue. The chip leader, my uncles "friend", who I get the feeling really doesn't care for any of the Kovacs', figured that it wasn't in his best interest to modify the rules and give 2nd place a share of the kitty. I mean he dominated all night, and had a majority of the chips; he wanted all the money to himself.

He was quite cocky, talking shit all night, telling my father multiple times that he was going to take all his chips. Finally after arguing for 10 minutes and me basically saying we don't play until this is resolved, he agreed to give 3rd place $60 and 2nd place $80 out of the $700. Play started again, and he was gunning for us Kovacs even more now. His play was getting sloppy however, the next day was his birthday, and he had been drinking hard and had just done a few shots with friends. He then made a bet and the girl behind him went all in. He then tried to take back his bet, and we called him out on it. Although he was still dominating the table and even took out my uncle. I was almost out of chips, he had almost all of them, but my dad still had a chance.

My dad goes all in and he calls, he has my dad now, talking about his full house as the chips are getting counted out. He shows his 8's full on 5's and his jaw drops as my dad pulled another King for Kings full on Queens. This was the beginning of the end for him. He goes on to lose all his chips to my dad and me.

He wins $60 when he could have won $500 if he had been humble and sober.

"Karma. You got to love it." - Earl

What an F-ed up night

So tonight I got home from work and had dinner with my parents. My dad was on the phone with car dealers. I don't know who drives me more nuts, the car dealers with their lies or my dad. I got a call from our friend saying there were two women picking things up off the ground at the house we are building. So I ran over then and no such women. I get back and we head down to Southfield to look at some cars. I hit a big dirt clump in the middle of the road. Kinda scared me. Then since we are only about 20 minutes from Detroit we head over to the casino. Side note: I got a quarterly bonus today, which I wasn't really expecting, so I figured I might as well gamble it away. On the way to the casino I run over a curb and bottom out the trailblazer. We finally get to the casino, and I realize that the dealer never returned my ID when he made a copy. Even with my mustache, which is thick, I can't get into the casino. We try and drive quickly to the dealership to get my ID. My mom is driving now, and we can't find the express way. Tempers start the flare. "fuck!" starts to be thrown around by all. My dad and I yell at each other. My dad drives me nuts more then dealers. It was a long ride home. I get home and my internet dies on me for like 1/2 an hour. And it's late, so I got home just in time to go to sleep and get ready to work on friday.

Work = Headache

Today I had a meeting with the senior engineers about the project I’ve been working on. Engineering at Numatics is a group effort that involves a million different ideas from engineers, marketing, and customers. These ideas are rarely the same and often conflict. And if there is one thing I've learned about design engineering (at least in the pneumatic valve field) everything is inter-connected. I will be going to work tomorrow barely ahead of where I was almost 2 months ago. It hurts my head, but I guess I'm getting paid.

Symphony

Last night I went to my first symphony. It was a great time. The theme was ‘From Russia with Love.’ It opened with Mily Balakirev, and then Gershwin’s Concerto in F major, and finished with an amazing song by Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade.

Scheherazade is one of my father’s favorites and was the reason we went. It is a truly beautiful thing how all the instruments in an orchestra come together. It’s hard to say in words how spectacular this song is. You can hear the story of 1001 Nights being told as you listen to the music. I highly recommend that everyone go see a symphony orchestra in person. My first time was an unbelievable experience, and was not my last.

Also I ran into and got to chat with my old high school chemistry teacher Dale Wolfgram. He has not changed a bit, but I guess I have as he did not recognize me with my mustache.

Well I've gone and done it

Just like the iPod, I've gone and followed a new tread. But I guess this one will be nice and give me something else to do while I spend countless hours on the computer at both work and home.