One Love People

I just want to send a shout out to all my readers. Yesterday, I had 147 people come to the site. I know that may not sound like a lot, but considering I just started this, I couldn’t be happier. Much respect people. I’m feeling the love and I promise I’ll keep busting my ass. Again…thanks for taking the time to listen to my thoughts.

 

I promised yesterday that if I broke 100 readers I would drop my first hip hop/rap mix and I’m going to keep that promise. Just be patient because I need to get home, decompress from working two straight weeks in a casino, and catch-up on somethings back in Vegas. It will be worth the wait, I promise.

 

Much love people. Namaste!

World Series of Poker Quicky: 6/24/08

Quit H.O.R.S.E-ng Around

In what is arguably the most revered of the WSOP titles, many of the game’s elite players are set to battle it out in hopes of winning what could be easily be considered the crown jewel of any poker player’s repertoire. With early expectations suggesting that there will be more players at this year’s tournament than in previous years, poker fans can expect the sharks to be out in full force.

 

Make sure to keep an eye out for Doyle Brunson as he tries to work his magic and win the newly-dedicated Chip Reese H.O.R.S.E tournament. My darkhorse pick is Andy Bloch, although I don’t think you can call him a darkhorse since he finished second to Reese in this event.

 

Originally the H.O.R.S.E. tournament wasn’t going to count in the Player of the Year standings, but due to the close race, the people behind the rankings decided to include it. A number of the players who are in contention for the title will be playing in this event and the WSOP’s decision to add it to the P.O.Y. race should make it even more exciting for the railbirds. This one should be a barn burner.

 

Quack Quack

Some players will do just about anything to win. Whether it is reading a book on game strategy or watching players do their thing online, these players are always looking for a leg-up on the competition. Fortunately for students of the game, there is a new weapon that could greatly add to their arsenal of tricks.

 

According to ThinkLikeAPokerPlayer.com, hypnosis is the way to elevate your poker game and they have put out a free Mp3 to attract poker players to the company’s new hypnosis poker system. In addition to the free MP3, visitors to the new site will also get details for a full poker system which includes other mind improvement techniques used by the TLAPP team.

 

I’m not sure about hypnosis. I always think about the movie Office Space and I start imagining that my hypno-therapist will have a heart attack and I’ll end up quacking like a duck at very inappropriate times. I have heard of people saying it works for them. Maybe I’ll download it and give it a try.

 

Antonius is Sick

Everyone’s favorite Finnish poker player just added to his reputation as one of poker’s bravest players. Fresh off of challenging the online world’s toughest competitors, Antonius finally received a venue for these huge match-ups. Recently acquired sponsor Full Tilt has given him several tables that offer the highest limits online. Featuring a variety of games, the tables should attract the game’s elite like moths to a flame and could end up making Antonius a very wealthy man should he succeed against his challengers.

The Dave Matthews Band: 15 Years and Counting

It is hard to believe that the Dave Matthews Band has been around for 15 years. I can vaguely remember being on Phish tour in the mid-90s and hearing the younger heads talking incessantly about Matthews and his band. Thanks to the woman would eventually become my wife, I caught a couple of the group’s shows and I quickly came understood why so many people are attracted to the group.

 

While Phish was all over the place and often spouting lyrics that had no meaning, Matthews and company focused on the messages of their songs and managed to achieve mainstream acceptance. Backed by a relentless touring schedule, the group established itself as one of the leading jam bands once Phish called it quits. 

 

Old school (if you can call them old) fans of the Dave Matthews Band are now turning on their kids in the same manners as the followers of the Grateful Dead did. It is not uncommon to see a large contingency of little ones at the group’s shows. “You know the diehard fans are diehard when you start seeing them at the shows with their kids. These are people who started seeing us in college, maybe even high school, and now they’re bringing their 12-year-olds,” said bassist Stefan Lessard in a recent Detroit Free Press article.

 

One possible reason for the band’s success comes with the group’s long-standing friendship. Lessard summed up the band’s friendship by saying, “The longer we do this, the luckier we are. There are so many bands in our position who can’t even talk to each other anymore. I feel like we actually get closer and closer, and you can really feel that up there – there’s a total admiration among everybody onstage.”

 

The kids on Phish tour were right. The Dave Matthews Band are well-worth seeing and their longevitiy is a tribute to their musical skills. Do yourself a favor and catch them if they come to town. Regarldess of whether you’re old or young, it’s a safe bet you are going to like what you hear.

Unconditional Love

Love is all you need.

The Beatles

 

There are many forms of love, each with its own unique and dynamic flavor. Depending on who is giving and who is receiving that love, it may seem like a lot of love at one time to one person or it may be more love than another person receives in their whole life to another. This is where life can get tough for a lot of people, because we all have a deep need for love and understanding.

 

Unconditional love is the greatest gift we can give or receive in our lifetime. Whether this means raising a child, loving your partner, or donating your time to a worthy cause, caring about others is why we do what we do. It is this togetherness that interweaves our destinies and provides us with lessons so we can grow and develop into the best human beings we can be. Giving of yourself to another is the ultimate sacrifice, but it also has the greatest rewards.

 

Desiring love or wanting to give it away comes from the fact that we all come from the whole (the universe). It makes sense that there is nothing more terrifying or lonely than being separated from that. While living this life, subconsciously, we all want to be part of the whole again, but are forced to be here and live this reality no matter how badly we want to be one with the universe. Somewhere between passing time in this life and the next, we will eventually come to the conclusion that love is the closest thing to being part of the whole, which is why people want it so bad. In other words, love is about self-honesty, understanding, the appreciation of others, and how far we are willing to go to achieve these things.

 

How long it takes you to figure out this key to happiness depends on your willingness to love both yourself and to give freely of yourself to others. Like playing a musical instrument, the more you practice the art of accepting love and being loved, the better you will get at it. Loving is a skill that requires patience and it is something that we must try to apply in every action we take.

 

Don’t be fooled by fake love either. People have a tendency to look outside of themselves for validation and nowhere more-so than in the concept of love. Whether its romantic love or familial love, people have a habit of thinking that another’s love will replace the fact that they don’t love themselves. In other words, people believe that another person can make them happy. This is belief not only hurts a relationship in the long run, but it usually destroys it before it even begins. People do the best they can and give love in the only way they know how, but sometimes that is not enough for certain people’s needs and it can quickly suffocate a potential partner or a friend.

 

It is also quite easy to confuse love with desire. We all want and we all need to an extent, but what we all want and need usually depends on what we have been given in the past. Those showered with love often give love freely. Those sheltered from love often hide their emotions and let few know what they think or how they feel. The key is to break out of this mindset of desiring happiness through others and see that you control the amount of love you have in your life.

 

In the end, love reminds us of our vague memories of life before cognitive understanding when we were innocent like newborns and just like with children, so it’s hard to blame people when they take steps to get attention. Eight out of ten times, they are doing anything they can just to be noticed and get some love. There is nothing more painful than feeling alone, but once you realize that if you just opened your heart and your mind, you could have the loving relationships that you desire so badly.

Lucy in the Sky with PlayStation?

According to a recent Financial Times article, both Activision and MTV Games are pursuing licensing for songs from the legendary Beatles catalog. The owners of the Beatles music (EMI and Apple Corps) are considering a deal that would rake in several million dollars. An agreement could finalize within a matter of weeks said a source close to the discussions. Both EMI and Apple Corps had no comment.

 

EMI, who owns the Beatles’ masters and Apple Corps, a company that was established by the band to oversee its business interests, have been slow to modernize that Beatles catalog, but the recent appointment of Jeff Jones as chief executive at Apple Corps may reverse this trend.

 

This is not to say that the people at EMI and Apple Corps are completely behind in the times. They recently allowed the hit television show American Idol to use Beatles’ songs for one of its shows.

 

I can’t wait for this to happen. I would love to be able to play Beatles songs on my PlayStation. I think their songs would become immensely popular with the younger video game demographics and they might even help to stimulate sales for both MTV’s Guitar Hero and Activision’s Rock Band. The release of these new tunes could also open another door to a new type of video game customer by reaching the seldom tapped 30-40 year-old market.