Visiting the ER

ok...on Saturday night, I took a little tumble down some steps. It cost me $1000 to find out at the ER that I had a badly sprained ankle. $1,000!!!! And that doesn't even include the cost of the pain medication they prescribed for me (which i didn't fill.)

I can't imagine how families survive without insurance. I mean, if a sprain, which doesn't really require treatment other than rest and ice costs $1,000, what is some poor schmuck with a broken ankle or leg going to do without insurance?

The US is too wealthy a country to have citizens without access to adequate medical services. Ya ya, i've heard the argument...our medical system is top notch because it costs a lot of money to get care. Bull. It's so expensive because there are HMOs and PPOs and xxOs all over the place that are supported by taking a cut from everything down to the crutches they give you.

Can't wait until i have health insurance again.

Little known fact...

As a nerd one of the nerdiest things I do is read...a lot. Now, not all of what I read is useless, so I'll share a few little nuggets from a book that i read that was absolutely fascinating.

Power Sleep
by James Maas. Dr. Maas has the distinction of teaching the largest university lecture in the United States. More than 3,000 students can be in attendance at the Psych 101 class which he teaches at Cornell University. He's been studying the process of sleep for over 20 years and has consulted for many professional athletes including Olympic Gold Medalists!

So there's this stuff we all need. It's called sleep. The problem is that our society rewards behavior (working too much, watching too much TV, filling your day with lots of stuff) that tends to leave most of us sleep deprived, and this sleep deprivation has its price.

The MOST sleep deprived groups of citizens are, from most sleep deprived to least:

1. College Students
2. Senior Citizens
3. Pilots and business executives
4. Everyone else

Now, there are some of you who will read this and say, not me....I'm a great sleeper...I can fall sleep anywhere, anytime. Of course you can....that's because you are sleep DEPRIVED. The normal well-rested individual SHOULD take 15 - 20 minutes to fall asleep each night.

Here are some other things about sleep. Most of us know that there are stages of sleep. The most commonly known stage is REM sleep (or rapid eye movement). What most people DON'T know is that you cycle through various stages of sleep several times per night...and that each of these stages has a different emphasis for your regeneration from the day's activities.

Two of the most interesting of these stages happen to be near the end of your sleep cycle.

1. One of these stages will be particularly interesting to athletes. During this particular stage of sleep...your brain releases a wave of calcium that reinforces the neural pathways formed/used during the day. (It basically calcifies them and makes them more permanent.) Why is this important? Imagine you are a golfer...you go out for a lesson and finally your golf pro says something that makes perfect sense and your swing is perfect. You swing the clubs beautifully all afternoon. You go home. And if you get a full night's sleep...or at least, until the calcium wave hits, then your day's progress is reinforced and you will retain the benefit of your practice. If you don't, it's almost like you didn't practice at all.

So, athletes that wake up early in the morning (sacrificing sleep) in order to train extra hard beware...you may actually be negating the benefits of your training by not getting enough rest.

2. The other stage is more relevant to the rest of us. Seratonin is a neurotransmitter that most people hear about when people discuss MDMA (or Ecstasy). Basically, Seratonin has been linked to emotional health...specifically happiness. Opponents of MDMA claim that studies show MDMA artificially inflates levels of seratonin uptake....causing a general depletion which can ultimately lead to depression. Well, turns out that seratonin is replaced during sleep in general...but largely during the final stages of sleep. People who chronically miss the last couple of hours of their daily sleep requirement will routinely miss this critical phase of Seratonin replacement. Is it any wonder that anti-depressants are among the top-selling pharmaceuticals in the world?

Finally, Dr. Maas tells us that sleep deprivation is cumulative. If you need 8.25 hours of sleep a night, and get 6.25 a night....sleeping for 8.25 hours on Saturday night will not catch you up for the rest of the week's deprivation. You will actually need to get extra sleep EQUAL to the amount of sleep that you deprived yourself of in the past.

I read that and lost hope. While I certainly don't get as much sleep as I should (because I fall asleep anytime and anywhere), this book has opened my eyes to how critically important it is to at least try.

There is a ton more interesting stuff in the book, and i highly recommend getting a copy (just click the link above.)

Terry Schiavo: let the woman die for Christ's sake

Why is it that we have to hear about this every minute of every day? Is this even newsworthy? The courts have ruled, God/nature have ruled, and Darwin has been trying to rule. She's a vegetable. She's dead...her body just doesn't know it yet. There's a difference between being comatose and being a vegetable. People come out of comas.

No disrespect to Schiavo's parents, but there really is much more important stuff going on in the world. Personally, I hope she goes soon so we can all get on with our non-vegetative lives. But I worry deeply for her parents...i mean, what are they going to do to for sympathy from all their acquaintences when they can't use their vegetative daughter anymore? Maybe they can go to congress and lobby for a Terry Schiavo Bill making it a federal crime to let someone die by taking them off life support.

I wish you the best Terry...may St Peter welcome you with open arms at the Pearly Gates of Heaven. All of this mess is no fault of yours.

Is it just me?

Or does the world seem to be going to hell in a handbasket? I really need to cut myself off from all news sources and get a happy little puppy or something cheerful. Just a few of the blurbs that I come across while getting my daily news fix...

1. There's this thing called "Peak Oil" coming our way. Think tank folks have known about it for a good 10 years or more, and it boils down to this. We're running out of oil...and by "we" I mean Earth. Yep, that's right...between planes, cars, back yard grills, and countless other cornerstones of our society...we should be out of oil in about 20 years. That's why there's such an urgent move to invade Iraq. They have one of the last, largest oil reservoirs in the world...and it's strategically too important to not own it. So the US, violating all conventional charters of the UN, invaded a country that had no capability of making war on anyone (let alone the US). Economists..those folks who specialize in Supply and Demand curves...estimate that gasoline right now should cost like $19 a gallon...but because the US exerts so much pressure on the world market...we are able to keep our gas prices sub $3. If you don't believe me, ask a friend in Europe how much THEY pay for a gallon (err...2 liters) of gas.

2. OK...so Oil aside...let's not forget about the home front. Social Security...that tax I've been paying since I was 15...that's going to implode. President Bush told me as much personally in his State of the Union address. "You folks near retirement...you'll be alright...I think. The rest of you...well, we're going to try to pass some legislation that lets you take personal ownership of your retirement planning." Isn't that just a nice way of saying, "Sorry, you're fahked?" OK...so one more lil thing to worry about.

3. Oh yeah, North Korea sent out a mass email. Apparently they are still making lots of big bombs...presumably so they can tell the world that they are still making lots of big bombs. The real scary part of that is that N. Korea can't even afford to give it's soldiers new socks. The whole country is broke, desperate, and (if we believe a certain cowboy) "evil". Now, it seems to me that the whole situation is bad, bad, bad.

4. They dumbed down the SATs. Yep, kids were scoring lower, so rather than hurt their feelings (or God forbid educate them BETTER) we lowered the bar so all those dumb little ADD riddled nitwits can score as high as we did. Thank goodness the rest of the world is lowering their educational standards too....oh wait, they're not. So what exactly does that mean for us then? Yep, our kids will be ever more stupid in an age where improvement in information flow should be making it EASIER to teach. What this country needs is a whole generation of losers that can't seem to hold a job in the face of better-educated foreign citizens to bring to our attention that the US has lost its edge. Thankfully...we're already making the transition from the World's leaders to the world's leading consumers. Within 5 or 10 years...we should be able to just stay in the house full time without ever having to turn off Springer. I'm going to begin working on a DirecTV enhancement that allows subscribers to beam programming directly into the brain. That way, there's no need to get out of bed. Then, and here's the genius part, I'm going to start a pharma company that specializes in medications and treatment of bedsore symptoms. I'll make billions, build a spaceship, construct a biodome on Mars, and claim the planet for my own. Wow...that was a tangent.

5. Anyway, the world is falling apart fast, both at home and abroad. It's all very depressing and makes me question whether I ever want to bring a child into the world...which sucks because I've always thought that being a dad would be one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences ever. All is not lost yet, but geez...some good news would be welcome once in a while.

6. "Bush agrees to throw gasoline on the fire." That's right. Two Nuclear powers have been at each other's throats for the last decade, coming close to war several times. It really has been one of the major nuclear concerns over the past 5 years. I've got a great idea, let's sell F-16s to the neighbor who we've had the worst relationship with in recent history! It's incredible how the security of the world can get sooo bad in such a short period of time. Poor India, they are understandably upset. "The prime minister expressed India's great disappointment at the decision which could have negative consequences for India's security environment ."

7. I caught you a delicious bass.

Just had a cool interview with a poker legend.

So I'm working on this project which I can't talk a whole lot about, but as part of the project I got to speak with Daniel Negreanu, 2004 CardPlayer of the Year and probably the best tournament card player of my generation (with Doyle being the best of his generation).

We got to chat for about an hour about a variety of things, but what I wanted to mention was that he has what could be a very cool video game coming it. It's called Stacked, and basically it's your run of the mill NL Hold'em video game right? Wrong. The AI in this game is supposed to be far advanced relative to other poker AI's. It has been in development by a bunch of extremely smart researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada.

What makes this AI so good? For starters, it adapts to your play so that it gets harder and harder for you to beat over time. As he was talking about it, my mind raced with the possbilities. Imagine using this game as a training aid to help you mix up your play in order to be more unpredictable? As you play a more and more challenging opponent, it forces you to adapt if you want to continue to perform well. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy.

As for Daniel, I can't believe how accessible he makes himself to anyone with a passion for poker. I wish him lots of success this year and look forward to one day playing heads up against him...if not in the WSOP...at least in Stacked. :)

Why nice guys finish last...

My roommate's friend came to town this week. Poor guy's name is Kurt...And Kurt has been after our other friend Ashley for YEARS. Now...from what I hear...Kurt is an absolute jerk to most ladies he meets...and the amazing thing is, this works. He hooks up with a lot of them. But when it comes to Ashley...he's nothing but a gentleman, he's a stand-up guy, he's a doormat.

And that brings us to it...why is it that a guy can be soooo lucky with so many girls...except for the one girl that he really likes? Well, luck has nothing to do with it. The difference is that he treats the rest of the girls like trash...and he treats Ashley like gold...and that's why he'll never hook up with Ashley.

Girls are constantly testing your dominance. And when you supplicate to their wishes, you fall into the "pawn" category. Nonthreatening, noninteresting, nonexciting...you will do my bidding when i choose to exercise my control over you. This is a bad place to be.

Kurt, instead of falling into this trap...you must make a stand...be firm...challenge her. Make her by YOU drinks. Make her change YOUR oil. She loves being the center of attention...so ignore her. As long as you ignore her, she will think of more and more effective ways to regain that attention. The longer you hold out...the more aggressive her attempts to get your attention will be....see where this is heading?

We've all seen it for all of our lives. It's not an isolated incident. Women, for the most part, for the vast, vast majority, are not attracted to nice guys. They need a little danger, unpredictability, and someone who they can change in some fundamental way...because if she can change you, she must be worth changing for...and that is some sort of validation of themselves.

So don't be a nice guy, don't change, and she will continually seek to validate herself. And that's why all women are insane...because insanity is repeating the same thing over and over but expecting a different outcome.

Chasing The Flush

Alright...I'm tired of it...sickened by it...and I need to vent.

What is up with the flush chasers who don't know how to fold?! Normally, I love them...but when they hit and hit and hit and hit...it's just plain expensive...and frustrating. I have a theory that the horrible players at Party Poker that suck out on you with really bad hands are really NOT horrible players. They are Party Poker employees who have access to a special version of the software that lets them know when they are dealt the winning hand before the rest of the cards come out. How else can you explain someone calling a $5 preflop raise with 39 os and calling large bets all the way to the river only to catch a runner-runner two pair? Whatever...

OK. Done for the night.