You see I had some spare cash from selling off a television I have had stored for two years now burning a hole in my pocket. I had the best of intentions of putting that money to good use. Buy the buy one get one free package deal of Stir of Echoes and The Ninth Gate on DVD. Use it to upgrade my Diaryland account to super gold. Or possibly pick up a CD I�ve been meaning to get for months now, but keep forgetting it when I have the money to buy it. Or hell I could have used it to either pay off some bills or at the very least put some credit on them to give me a certain comfort zone.

Did I do any of these things?

Here is a hint to that answer. Yesterday afternoon my next door neighbor�s Dragon Hawke and Ex-Prego told me about a trip to the casino they planned on taking that night. And oh you got some extra money in your pocket it would be so much fun if you came along!

Stupid gold bricked road dreams.

So of course I don�t wisely invest the money or use it for something a bit frivolous, but at least is long term fun. Instead I take that money to the casino and watch it disappear faster then Michael Jackson�s fortunes.

At first Ex-Prego and I planned on hitting the poker rooms in hopes of getting in on a game of seven card stud. The problem with that was it was around eleven thirty at night on a Wednesday night. There where no games going on, not enough people interested in playing poker. Then we saw on the sign posted at the front door �free poker lessons�.

Curious we asked the guy when these lessons are normally given. He said usually in the afternoon, but in this case he would give one just for the two of us. Sitting down at the table with stacks of fake chips the dealer taught us the nuances to Texas hold out. Now I�ve seen tournaments for this game on the Travel channel before and it looked interesting. Well I think the exuberant amounts of money for winning the game was the most interesting fact. Hell the money you get for coming in somewhere in the top ten was even really good.

After being taught how to properly play and bet in the game, some tips how to play, and some terminology. Ex-Prego and I spent a good hour sitting there with the dealers just joking around. Then one of the dealers taught us how to shuffle two stacks of chips together with one hand. This trick is remarkably easy to do, but quite impressive and intimidating to people who do not know better.

I had a feeling I should have just sat there and kept bullshitting with the dealers instead of hitting the slot machines. I figured I�d not get very far with the slot machines, but I had no clue how bad my luck was going to be. I was barely winning anything, most times evening out at best. My luck was running so bad I asked Ex-Prego to pick out a machine for me because obviously I�m just not picking the good ones.

So she points me to a nickel slot machine called the Sphinx 2, said it was one that had proven to pay out for her often. My last five bucks and eleven spins later I didn�t win one single god damn nickel.

Suffice it to say I will not be going back to the casino for quite a long time and if I do manage to go back I�m avoiding the slot machines. I seem to do better at the card games and craps instead.

Of course I�m waiting to go back roughly three days after hell freezes over, but then again I said that the last time I went.

Never will I be accused of being a brilliant man.

It's about time - Wednesday, Jul. 07, 2004
An Honor for Chrome - Friday, Feb. 20, 2004
A great loss - Monday, Oct. 20, 2003
a terrible announcement. - Tuesday, Sept. 09, 2003
Chrome speaks: - Friday, Sept. 05, 2003