What (and Where)'s the Deal?

What is up with consumer product contests these days? I mean, I get that the internet is a great tool and it helps draw people to the product and all, but explain to me how this contest is better for anyone, including the company: Dr. Pepper is running a "1 in 6" contest. The idea: you buy a bottle of Dr. Pepper, any variety, you look under the cap - hardly a new concept - and see if you win. There's a "UWIN" code if you're an instant winner; just 16 other numbers and letters if you're not. Either way, to redeem said codes (and find out if you've won one of the non-instant prizes), you have to enter the codes on Dr. Pepper's website. The "UWIN" code means you've won a free soda. Okay, great. But to get the free soda, you have to enter the code on the site, and they SEND YOU A COUPON FOR A FREE SODA. Was it not easier to just print "free soda" right on the cap and let people just turn in the cap for the soda? I mean, I know that making everyone register on the site means they collect a lot of consumer data, but at what expense? They now not only have to pay for all those free sodas, they have to pay for paper to print the coupons, envelopes to mail the coupons, postage to mail the coupons...is this really worth it just to get people to the website? It sure as heck ain't worth it for the customer to get their free soda. I miss the good ol' days, people.

Crybabies

Folks, I play poker. Mostly, out of convenience, I play online. I prefer to play in person, but not being a resident of Nevada or New Jersey, that’s a bit challenging. So, I’m limited to online poker rooms, charity events and play-money tourneys at corporate parties, and the rare but always welcome living room game where I can make my friends wish they hadn’t invited me. Love the game – love almost any card game – and love the thrill of playing for real money, even when the stakes are only 11 cents.

So here’s my beef: crybabies in the poker room. I have won money and lost money; I have had my pride and confidence shaken by beats good and bad. I have often wondered just how legitimate the software is when my Q-10 suited is beaten by a 2-3 off-suit that lands a 4-6-5 flop. But I do not sit around crying about it, and I don’t clog up the chat feature with my complaints. Sadly, many others do. The “this site has more bad beats than any other” is the most common gripe (and patently ridiculous, as I hear the exact same thing on every site). Then there’s “this site is rigged”; this is my husband’s favorite lament, as he is sure that they track how much money you have left in your account with them and then deal you hands such that you invariably lose and have to make a new deposit.

But the one that probably bugs me more than any other is the one with the general theme of “you’re not playing like you’re supposed to”. The comments include things like, “What the ****? You limped in with pocket Ks and then call me all in with a 4-7?” (This is usually after said 4-7 lands an exceptionally lucky straight or full house on the river.) Granted, some poker behavior is inexplicable. Many people bet hands they shouldn’t; others refuse to bet hands most others would play. Still, this expectation that there is some kind of textbook poker to which all of us are expected to adhere DRIVES ME ABSOLUTELY MAD. Folks, the whole beauty of poker – the fun, the challenge, the point – is that you don’t know what the other guy has or is gonna do with it. Yes, good poker players develop a pretty good radar for what the other players have based on betting patterns and odds (online), and mannerisms and other tells (in person). But a good player also knows this about other good players, and is going to try to shake things up a bit so as not to be predictable to the point of beatable. Hence, while I would agree that it is generally not good policy to go all-in on a 4-7 unless you already have the nut flush or full house, sometimes, you do the less obvious thing for any number of possible reasons – to throw off the other guy, because you just have a “feeling” about this hand, whatever. AND THAT’S OKAY. That’s poker! Crybabies, get over yourselves!!!

57 and Getting Better All The Time

With all due apologies to my husband - whom I love dearly and wouldn't trade for anything - Rick Springfield is just the hottest ticket in town (aside from my husband, of course). I am watching Oprah right now - and I do not watch Oprah as a general rule - specifically because Mr. Springfield is on today. He is nearly SIXTY, as old as my mom, and yet he could easily pass for one of my hubby's peers (38, for those who're wondering). I have seen a couple of his shows - recently, mind you, not back in the 80's - and he is still rockin', still hot, and still a sight to behold. Even Oprah is rockin' out, which I don't think I've ever seen before, or could even have imagined! Granted, he's probably got makeup on or had work done or is using some other camera trick to look THAT good up close on Oprah, but MAN, he is just the purtiest thing I ever did see on a television set. Or at a rock concert. Or on a t-shirt, like the one my husband wishes would spontaneously combust so I'd stop wearing it to bed at night. :)

Tribute

Ever since Heath Ledger died, I just cannot get enough of the movie “10 Things I Hate About You”. Now, I know that this was not exactly his cinematic masterpiece, nor what he’d want to be remembered for, but I just find myself incapable of passing up an opportunity to watch – for the zillionth time – this bubble-gum teen version of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. It was his breakout role, but he specifically went a different route afterward so as not to be pegged as a pretty-boy teen idol, and his subsequent work proved he wasn’t a flash in the pan. So, I understand why he’d probably cringe to hear me say that I find myself absolutely riveted to his face every time he comes onscreen. I think the appeal for me is that this movie is a snapshot of him in which, to borrow a line from Steel Magnolias, “…he will always be young, he will always be beautiful…”. I genuinely believe that this was a guy who was truly talented, had a brilliant career ahead of him, and just plain screwed up, innocently if fatally. I don’t think he was a drug addict, I don’t think he was suicidal; I think he was so engrossed in his work that he found himself unable to sleep and just made a really poor choice in trying to rectify the situation. Maybe that’s naïve, but I choose to believe it nonetheless. And every time I watch this movie again, just to get a fix, I find myself wondering if his family does the same thing.

5 Things I learned from Eatzi’s*

(*the greatest prepared-foods/pseudo-restaurant/grocery store chain, specifically referring to their location on Westheimer in Houston, TX)

1. You can make some amazingly tasty dishes from a few simple ingredients.

2. Blue cheese – the cheese, not the dressing – just makes everything taste better.

3. Wash your dishes as soon as you’re done making the dish. It’s easier and faster than you think, and it frees you up for the next activity.

4. Knife skills are a must if you’re going to bother to be in the kitchen.

5.Nobody – and I mean nobody – does balsamic vinaigrette better than Eatzi’s.

No Excuses, Just Do Better

That's my new motto, at least where this blog is concerned. It doesn't matter that I had a baby 7 months ago and have found myself not so much too busy to blog as simply undermotivated, I just need to get off my @$$ and do it. So, here are a few new entries. Hardly catches me up, but it's a start.