So I played my first poker game for money two weeks ago. It was a five dollar buy in among four people, and I won. I was stoked. Last week, at the $20 buy-in, I was first out. Last night at a $10 buy-in, I stayed in until we went to a sudden-death hand, and I lost to King-high.

I’m not ready to call myself a poker blogger yet, but I’m getting in there enough to remember some of the bigger hands of the night. Last night’s worst hand was when my brain inexplicably forgot that a flush beats a straight and made me fold an Ace-high flush to what I knew was a straight. Being a fucking moron cost me a huge hand. On a later hand, I lost a King-high straight to an Ace-high straight. Unbelievable. Anyway, I’ll try to keep up with the poker news.

On another note, you may have noticed that I added some links. I’m trying to keep up with my fitness report, and when you notice me going a few days without getting to the gym, feel free to call me on it. FYI, the sweet graphs there are created entirely in Apple’s iWork suite. Specifically, they’re made in Pages.

The badass new banner at the top of my page was created with help from Apple’s Motion 2, which is ridiculously easy to get the hang of, and Adobe Imageready, which has been helpful from the very start. If you don’t have these programs, get them. Come to where I work, and get them from me.

If you happen to enjoy reading my site on occasion, and would like to link to me, feel free to use either the large version at the top, or the small version right here. I need advertising. Help me out.

Just wanted to wish anybody who’s out there a happy Independence Day. And I want us to remember that the freedoms we celebrate today were intended for all Americans, and are deserved by all people everywhere. So remember that no matter how wrong-headed, foolish, hateful, or unfounded someone’s opinion is, they have a right to state it. Then, when they finally shut the fuck up, state a better one right back at ‘em.