There are some poor poker players over there. it's hot as hell, the air is like a sauna, there are mexican immigrants lining the streets with phone card advertisements of local sex workers, the bellagio's water show blasts high high into the air, the cars are stuck in traffic, and the strip is a brilliant glowing diamond light show.

And a few $1 drinks and 16 hours of poker later, you're either a tired, satisfied defeater of all less lucky or skilled poker players, or a tired, zombie-like defeated shmuck. Vegas is fun, I was there a grinding, poker-playing, nocturnal week.

vegas.

I haven't written in this blog in a long time. More than a year. A lot has happened. I traveled the USA. I'm currently in Seattle.

The more I reflect on where I was in my life when I began this blog, the more I want to be there again. Sounds depressing, it isn't, it's more a driving force in the back of my mind.

Nobody reads this blog, it's more for my own use, and I'm glad I spent some time writing in it during what was the most exciting beginning in my life.

Perhaps I'll write more in the future.

Pix of Tamarindo, the house:
http://picasaweb.google.com/segreen23/

Jaco Beach

¿Qué mae, mae? Pura Vida.
I heard that a lot this past weekend. Jason, Number 7 (Scott), and I took a bus to Jaco Beach this weekend, (Pacific Coast of Costa Rica) and we had fun enjoying the beach by the day and sightseeing all the drugdealers and hookers at night. I didn't feel in danger though, partly because we were hanging out with our friend that we met on the bus that also happened to be a drug dealer. There are a lot of them in Jaco. Seriously, every corner, trying to sell yayo (cocaine) or marijuana. But we would politely decline the drugs and the sex offers and take our relaxing walk in the touristy town.

The first night we played no limit poker with blinds of 500 and 1,000 colones. ($0.50/$1.00) The players were bad for the most part, and if I hadn't played my last hand I would have left +$100, but instead left up $3. So it goes when you meet up against a set of 7s when you have top pair. Oh well. Es la vida.

Oh - back to the story about our drug dealer friend. So we're waiting by the bus ticket area in downtown San Jose, and some young looking guy in shades waves to us, probably because we looked like such white gringos - well, I thought he was our taxi driver from before so I wave back, then he comes over to chat, he's not our taxi driver but instead just some guy that's cool as hell and who wants to practice speaking english with us. Well, when Jason asked him what he does, he plainly said "I'm a drug dealer, I travel from Jaco to San Jose much." Well, okay. We didn't get hung up about it and just kept chatting about topics like religion, girls, and life in the USA compared to Costa Rica. Believe me when I tell you this guy was extremely cool, he helped us out when we got off the bus, recommended a hotel, took us to a couple others until we found one we liked, and on top of it all, bought us beers when I forgot my ID. Eduardo, you've only used the internet twice, but if you ever stumble upon this post, thanks for everything mae.

Some other funny occurences at Jaco - we were looking for a cheap dinner and a couple of white-blonde haired american-looking surfers were walking by, so I figure they have to know, lo and behold they point us to a cheap, delicious little "soda" that had big plates of rice, beans, grilled fish, plantains and vegetables for $3. If only it wasn't so damn humid in Jaco though, I remember at the dinner table feeling really woozy from sweating out all my fluids.

Oh before I forget, we also happened to meet a couple really nice American girls at the beach on our last day, and we're hanging out again this weekend if all goes according to plan.
So there you have it - my weekend at Jaco. If you have any questions, remember you can always e-mail me and I'd be glad to shoot a response back as soon as I can.

Costa Rica Post!
Okay. So this post isn't going to be that great because I've been writing a seperate blog for work and therefore am a little faded by the idea of writing two blogs at once.

But I am going to try and run down some events so far in Costa Rica in a list-type of thing.

Here we go:

- Costa Rica airport was insane, 100 shady taxi drivers begging to rip you off
- Weather was hot and sweaty, drive to office was quick, followed by the realization that my boss is 23, drinks coronas, and wears jeans to work. Fuckin' A.
- Followed by a dinner at a hookah bar, getting a serious tobacco buzz and a delicious steak dinner that was paid for


-




Followed by entering my house for the first time, which is straight out of Scarface, with a large outdoor pool, columns, outdoor couches, a sauna, a pool table (which is busted though), furniture made of bamboo, a sweet sound system with an iPod cable, a flat screen TV, DVD Player, and a roof that you can walk onto to overlook San Jose. (By the way, check out the jeanis above)
- Maids 3x a week. I speak spanish with them. They laugh at me.
- Guards outside the house 24/7. We live down the road from the president of the country. They're cool, but really poor from Nicaragua, so I give them food and beer whenever I get a chance and teach them english words for a half hour at a time.
- The beer is good, not that cheap though. The cheap stuff is this moonshine type of drink that doesn't taste very good.
- When we party at night, it's rockstar status. VIP tables, bottles that are paid for, etc. I'm pretty much the ultimate "rich" gringo even though I'm not paying for any of it.
- The people at this company are young and cool as hell. I'm doing a lot of work on www.pokerinternships.com, keep your eye out, it'll be very good very soon.
- The office is pretty plain, nothing special, but it's always expanding.
- The food is good, I especially enjoy Casados, which is the traditional meal consisting of rice and beans, fried plantains, grilled chicken, and veggies. But it varies.
- The women are quite beautiful. I don't have any experience with them yet. I need a testicular implant sometimes... but I also wasn't feeling too hot for the first week or so because my stomach loves being a pain in the ass when travelling.
- Past weekend I went to the jungle, jumped off a waterfall cliff 50 ft up, rode horses like a noble gentleman
- The World Cup kicks ass
- I share a room with Luciano, who hid in a small bathroom because he thought our house was being robbed. It was a noise complaint. But guess what - the noise complaint came from the President of the country. We were in the process of being thrown out of the house. Things have luckily been smoothed over. And no, the noise complaint had nothing to do with music late night. The complaint was one of the members of the company was having relations with women rather loudly...
- What else?
- Haven't been playing poker that much, but I did play the owner of the company who enjoyed pushing $100s around with some questionable hands. I guess if I was playing penny antes I'd do the same.
- A TV Crew is coming next week. I think its for a documentary on the company but it's also possibly for MTVU. I don't like the idea.
- There's a shot that Mark Seif comes down and the interns play him for $$$
- There are also bounty tournies coming soon that have the interns where players that knock us out earn cash
- It's a lot of fun
- Send some questions if you got 'em.

www.pokerinternships.com will have a lot more within a week or so, with pictures and blogs from not only me but also the other interns.

Radiohead Concert:

My babbling does not do this show justice, so I will just say:

BEST SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN.

After all these years - Radiohead is still the greatest. And I'll end it at that. And they played my favorite song - Knives Out! And the new track "Videotape" sounds unbelievable. I cannot wait for the LP.

High School all over again

4 Year Reunion you could call it. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing the various dames and lads from high school and let me tell you something, Noaam, you're a smart jew for getting everyone in there from facebook. Even though there were like 200 invites, you got a solid 50? people in there and it resulted in good times had by all.

Highlights? Popcorn, vodka/raz shots, freestyle with Rusty, high school makeouts, and good hip/hop being played all night long. It's a fantastic fresh and funky release from the fucking fazed out amherst bars that play Jon Bon Jovi and Journey on repeat.

Shoutout to Nate and Jon Joe. They read my blog and called me a fag. That's terrific.

Shoutout to Benjamin Goldman. That man is working for NESN.

Let's do it again sometime soon NSHS. Before Monday Jun 12. Because then I'm gone.

(I apologize for this intoxicated post. I love you.)

Batwoman is a lesbian

AWESOME. As long as she isn't one of those fat lesbians that eats trail mix and shaves their goatees. ;)