Alot going on with the new site, and it’s been a first month that beat my expectations.  The design launch has gone well, and we’re tweaking things as we go.  One of the really neat features is the ability to subscribe to C2Choices via email, which you may enjoy while you are working if you can’t spend time online.

I’ve also been working hard to sigh up new advertisers here.  I want  to be sure that they are only top notch companies, and I can vouch for them.  I won’t put them here if I don’t feel they have great products.

My favorite place to find chocolate in the world is Angelina’s in Paris.  My second favorite place is Ghiradelli’s.  I’ve been to their original store in San Francisco, as well as their spot on the Vegas Strip.  They get the top spot currently for advertisers, and they have a great deal of free shipping plus a special gift for any purchase over $50.

I’m a golfer, and I’m planning on playing more frequently this summer.  The Golf Warehouse makes a great partner to offer you all of the equipment you need.  Their new PING lessons can be downloaded onto you iPod, as well as can be viewed when you are ready to work on your game.  MiamiDon can tell you how important the little things are in golf.

I’m a Barnes & Noble customer (we were just there last night).   I’d recommend “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch as a great Father’s Day gift, but really any of these stores can help you find the right gift or secret pleasure for you!

It must be difficult to imagine, but I was once a superb athlete.  Mainly tennis but hoops as well (although poor speed, poor man defending, short, mediocre ball handling, and streaky shooting doesn’t exactly get you a ton of playing time).  The email came again about the coaches soccer game today.  My performance after the Fall season didn’t give me much hope (see evidence below).

I had my left knee scoped maybe three or four years ago, including microfracture surgery.  I went probably thirty months where it still gave me problems, icing it down with minimal activity.  At the end of last summer, the knee almost miraculously became more stable and didn’t swell after activity.  This was by far the biggest test I’ve given it since last summer, although I’ve done more on it over the last few months.

Spectacular results today.  No pain, no swelling, no brace, just a quick stretch and go.  I was worn out pretty early on but held together much better than in the Fall.  I’m still feeling it and will struggle tomorrow, I’m sure, but it was a very, very good burn.

And I didn’t die, which was a real plus!

I just haven’t had the time.  That is the reason I’ve given myself when I wondered why I hadn’t relaunched one of hte favorites parts of my site, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.  Bacon (seen above with his wonderful wife Kyra Sedgwick, star of my summer favorite “The Closer) led us here by once stating he’d either worked with everyone in Hollywood or with someone he knew.  It took off from there (the Wikipedia entry is pretty interesting, btw).

I started off my version by going to a link of mine then heading to a link of theirs and so on.  I also start with someone who leaves a comment as it can take you further off the path more quickly.  Where you end up is pretty fascinating, and I’ve found some great people with this.  This will be a regular part of C2Choices, and hopefully it will be a nice reason to show up here.

Without further ado, I bring you Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Heavy Critters BloodyP was one of my daily blogs for quite awhile, a fellow quest to grind away and figure poker out.  His Heavy Critters is, in my feeble mind, a really neat departure from all of your normal online stops.  It brings a very interesting format, most often an image or video with a quick line or two.  The items themselves are on the one hand a critique and on the other simply their for your own consumption.  He doesn’t shove a particular mantra or agenda down your throat but does challenge you at times, again in the most simple of fashions.

The Deets Ed Kohler is a technology guru living in Minneapolis (I’ll have to look at his Haystack in a Needle web marketing firm more closely as well).  The Deets is a pretty fun look at Minneapolis specifically and urban living in general.  For the technophiles here, check out another of his blogs, the Technology Evangelist.

Afterglide I’m now deep in the techno-geekdom world that I don’t know anything about probably.  The subtitle here is Disjointed rantings from the cul-de-sacs of suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, so I need to dig deeper to figure out what we have.  Lots of f-bombs, analysis of sex, etc.  Should be right up your alley to check it out.

Abysmal Chick Lady blogger in Minneapolis with a C List Blogger icon (right up my alley–I aspire to become a C List Blogger).  Naked lady on the header, lots of smiling, fun photos.  Sweet!

Raymi the Minx Immediately smitten with this lady and her site.  A pro’s pro (having blogged since 2000) from Toronto (what cool person’s NOT Canadian, anyways?).  Terrific photos, just a great, great site.  This is a keeper, and I’ll have to dig through for awhile.  btw, did I mention she is serious eye-candy to boot?

Zucket Penned by Sass, a 22-year old lady born in Hong Kong, raised there and in Vancouver, now living in Toronto after going to school there.  Cliff’s Notes version:  check out her post Previous Facebook Profile Photos with the last line: “Ok. So really that was just another blatant “Look at me! This is why I’m hot. Look at me!” attention grab.  Whatevs.  You know you love me.  xoxo  I’m awesome.”  Sweet!

It’s been awhile, but I now realize why Six Degrees is such a fun part of this site, at least for me.  You get to find cool new sites, potentially new friends, and see cute hotties to boot.  What’s not to love?

I hate when the pot is supposed to be shoved to you, then for some strange reason it goes elsewhere.

PokerStars Game #17788564475:  Hold’em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2008/05/30 - 01:33:43 (ET)
Table ‘Kalchas IV’ 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: pic111 ($101.50 in chips)
Seat 2: sebwin ($97.50 in chips)
Seat 3: csquard ($98.50 in chips)
Seat 4: PapalRage ($243.75 in chips)
Seat 6: mr ladrao ($162.15 in chips)
sebwin: posts small blind $0.50
csquard: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [Ac 8c]
PapalRage: folds
PapalRage leaves the table
mr ladrao: folds
pic111: raises $3 to $4
sebwin: folds
csquard: calls $3
*** FLOP *** [8d 6c 3c]
csquard: checks
pic111: bets $7
csquard: raises $12 to $19
pic111: calls $12
*** TURN *** [8d 6c 3c] [2s]
csquard: bets $31
pic111: raises $47.50 to $78.50 and is all-in
csquard: calls $44.50 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($3) returned to pic111
*** RIVER *** [8d 6c 3c 2s] [7c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
csquard: shows [Ac 8c] (a flush, Ace high)
pic111: shows [5c 4c] (a straight flush, Three to Seven)
pic111 collected $195.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $197.50 | Rake $2
Board [8d 6c 3c 2s 7c]
Seat 1: pic111 (button) showed [5c 4c] and won ($195.50) with a straight flush, Three to Seven
Seat 2: sebwin (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: csquard (big blind) showed [Ac 8c] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 4: PapalRage folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: mr ladrao folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

Sharon Stone, I believe, is now available to be the spokesperson for the “New Orleans Had It Coming Because of The Decadence of Bourbon Street Society” and “Eight Belles Euthanized Due To Bucking Off Little Girl Club.”  At least, that only seems logical after she announced that the earthquakes in China were caused by bad karma from China’s treatment of Tibet.  Here’s a nice response from a media source in China.  The actual quotes (made in Cannes, reported on SFGate.com):

She said, “All these earthquakes and stuff happened and I thought, ‘Is that karma?’ When you are not nice, bad things happen to you.

“I’m not happy about how the Chinese are treating the Tibetans, I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else.

“They’re not being very nice to the Dali Lama, who’s a good friend of mine.”

For better or worse, I’m on the outside looking in at the 2008 World Series of Poker.  My request for Media Credentials was refused.

In 2006, I received a Media Pass under the umbrella of PokerWorks, spending a week at the beginning of the WSOP then returning for the Main Event.  I was fortunate enough to be invited by my buddy Otis to work on Team PokerStars Blog.  It was a terrific opportunity, and I felt like the lucky lottery winner to be writing with actual writers of high talent.

In 2007, I received a Media Pass under my own company while leading a team of writers for PokerWorks (including Dan, Tuscaloosa Johnny, Amy, and Carmen).  I also had the opportunity to work again with Otis and the PokerStars Blog team.  One of the reason I registered last year under my company’s name was to have more flexibility with who I worked with in the future.  If I was tied to one outlet as far as my history with the WSOP, then it might hinder me from returning.  It looks like that didn’t exactly work out.

The WSOP never acted on my request for Media Credentials until I emailed them, which is a problem in and of itself (not that mine wasn’t acted on but that there process seems to be broken).  I did not list a specific publication or outlet that I would be writing for, and my ability to independently gain Media Credentials was going to play a part in my decision of whether to go at all or not.  I wrote 275 articles for PokerWorks, probably half of which were about the World Series of Poker.  I came away last summer as damaged goods, my business taking a right turn while I dutifully plugged away at the WSOP.

It was always a bit dreamy yet unfair for me to even be there.  I am not a journalist nor a writer and worked among peers whose livelihoods depended on their word counts and meeting their deadlines.  I couldn’t hold a candle to most of them when it comes to the craft, but I always tried to find some depth to all of these seeming degenerates called poker players.  Were they superstars or just like us?  Was there more to interviewing them than asking them what their favorite hand was or what they felt like when they won?

I will miss sitting next to Nolan, holed away trying to be productive.  But let’s be honest, Harrah’s has much bigger fish to fry than if they are giving a random guy a Media Pass.  These are a few of the big questions I think they need to figure out (and a couple that players need to take a hard look at, too):

1. Is the World Series of Poker beneficial to Harrah’s? It seems to be more of a distraction than anything else, hardly a core brand when you put it up against Caesar’s, Harrah’s, and Total Rewards.  Head to their website and you’ll see where the brand stacks up–at the bottom of their brand less than a couple of weeks before the WSOP kicks off.  The revenue can’t be very much in the corporate big picture.  The greatest opportunity to leverage the brand (the WSOP Circuit Events) seems to be a failed experiment as the numbers appear to be fairly low.
2. Is there growth in poker? Poker seems to be alive and well in America and around the world, but that seems to be a struggle to connect to the WSOP.  This is primarily due to the difficulty of the WSOP to work with online entities.  PokerStars and FullTilt will send thousands of players to this year’s WSOP, yet they are unable to work with Harrah’s to drive growth.  It is a broken process.  Clearly, the online sites are the engines that drive poker growth.  As I write this, there are 75,393 players playing online poker around the world (from PokerScout).  How many new players will there be this year at WSOP events, and how does that compare to the number of new online players?  1% of the latter number I assume is generous (I’m sure someone has the numbers).  Here’s a sobering statistic.  PartyPoker, the #3 or #4 online site (depending on who measures things), signed up 573,000 new cash customers in 2007.  Again, how many new poker players did the WSOP sign up?  This isn’t a knock on Harrah’s but rather a blunt assessment of who is driving growth in poker.  The lack of partnership between these sites and Harrah’s has to drive strategies like PokerStars developing their own tournaments in Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.  Which is more important, FTOP VIII or the WSOP?  Which should be?  Which has more media cost and coverage?
3. What should the role of online media be at the WSOP? I really believe that poker blogs primarily (Pauly, Pokerati, Up for Poker, IGGY) and poker web sites in general have helped shape poker and interest in the broader WSOP events.  I also believe that their place at the WSOP was ahead of the game in comparison with other ventures like sports and professional leagues over the last decade.  Is the WSOP driving a leadership position in how to foster online access?  What is the vision for the Poker Media and the WSOP?  I’ve always headed to Pauly and others before I headed to CardPlayer.  With the current media guidelines, the current Tao of Poker (Pauly) I assume would not be allowed access to the WSOP nor would Pauly be able to write for any outlet other than the one he (or anyone) has on their Media Credentials (see Media Guidelines).   I assume we would miss out on the next great Pauly blog due to lack of access, whomever he or she would be.  When FullTilt is out innovating you by having a blogger write-off to win a trip to the WSOP, then you may want to dust off your vision of what you believe the role of the online community is.
4. Can poker become a viable professional venture with contemporary management? Since the WPT changed the televised game, the vision has always been to change poker into the PGA Tour where players can play for sponsor’s money and not their own.  This would only come through corporations seeing a Return on Investment (ROI) on par with other sponsorship opportunities (e.g., product placement in television/movies, other leagues like the PGA, etc).  This seems to no longer be a viable dream when it comes to poker.  How far away is poker?  The smallest purse on the Nationwide Tour (the PGA’s minor league of golf) will be found at the Knoxville Open presented by Food City ($500k).  That is $500,000 more free money in one tournament than will be contributed by sponsors or Harrah’s to the entire prize pool of the 2008 World Series of Poker.  I submit that it is not the job of Harrah’s to find free money to give to poker players, nor is it there job to share in the profits created by running the WSOP.  Having said that, whose job is it then?  Or has the last five years simply proven that there is no group called Professional Poker Players nor any value for utilizing their involvement in events?

I typed this throughout the day and really have no idea if any of it either makes any sense or is of any value.  It’s late now, and I’ll go ahead and fire it up.  I’d be interested to hear if any of this is relevant, as well as other folks’ thoughts.

I arrived back from our Memorial Day trip to the mountains of Upstate South Carolina yesterday afternoon, my two older boys in the car with me.  It was a comforting trip for me, even if the 55 hours seemed much too short.

For the first time in a few months, I slept through the night and had intricate dreams in the process.  I got to chat with Hillary in some lonely, empty diner with her husband  on the cell phone and Obama walking through.  I also was at some bizarre conference whose content escapes me.

I haven’t received Media Credentials for the WSOP this summer, and I’m still unsure if mine just didn’t get acted on or if there is some systemic problem. I’m emailing with Harrah’s, and the resolution may determine if I wash my hands of going at all or if I sneak out for a different, shorter look into that world.  We’ll soon find out.

My own view of the causes of my bouts with insomnia:  business/career stress for the future and spiritual decay.  I’m celebrating my tenth year of founding my company and being away from corporate America, and I don’t particularly like this mistress called unclear future revenue.  It is by far the biggest downside of being on your own, and I’m afraid I’ve gotten worse in dealing with it not better.

The more fundamental issue in my life, though, is stagnating spiritually.  That is a fairly fancy, nice description of things actually.  I’m living an indifferent life in my faith.  It is something that hurts my wife greatly yet she pushes through it.  That in itself should be enough cause for me to figure things out.  More fundamentally, I just wish I was back giving of myself more, using what I’m good at and living more intimately with God.  It is frankly one of the defects of the Christian faith:  that I can be a flunky, rarely pray, not read the Bible, not do anything for God’s work here, just basically wallow around as a sorry excuse for a follower and believer.

It pains me to pain my wife, but I long more for the man I used to be.  Sure, I’m a good person, a boys soccer coach that everyone loves.  There needs to be much, much more than that.  I’ve become a person who eschews superficial materialism who has become superficially spiritual.  Rocky steps ahead, and I hope I can take the first one with help from my wife.  Need another metric?  Look to the left at the posts marked Believing.  I went back and categorized a whole bunch of posts, and this is the first that fell into the Believing camp.

I want to want to want more.  But I know that it is enough to simply bow down and reach out to Him.  I don’t have to do fifteen things to prove that I really, really mean to recapture that spark.  He is that spark, and His gentle breath can absolutely reignite my fire.

Heading to the Mountains north of Greenville, SC for the holidays.  Hope everyone has a safe and restful weekend.

You can head to the archives of Waffles to get his description of my physique.  I’ve gone from a sliver of a boy to an athlete to a growing young man to gaining weight throughout my marriage.  About eight years ago, I lost I think 45 pounds on Atkins.  I peaked out at what would be termed obese around six weeks ago.  I’ve shed 18.5 pounds through this morning, although I’m only don’t to slightly obese/overweight.  Let hope I can keep it going.

Another long night last night unfortunately, with a good bit on my mind in work and life in general.  I headed to the basement sofa around 2:00 and found the 1968 version of “Planet of the Apes.”

Linda Harrison was the love interest of Charlton Heston (Taylor) in the film, and I saw the movie fairly early on (when their spaceship was in the lake).  I didn’t recall the early part of the movie for some reason, and I was sucked in for most of it (I ended up falling asleep after Taylor was speaking with Dr. Zaius.

The above clip was the famous scene where Taylor speaks in the midst of the apes for the first time, with the great line, “Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”  After a long Google chat session with one of my soccer mom’s, it got me thinking that I’ve lost alot of the my ability to speak and have a conversation.

I’m a terrific presenter and speaker, having addressed a maximum crowd of a few thousand on some topic before.  I grew up as a fairly chatty guy when I was with people, full of confidence and unafraid to strike up a conversation with strangers.

Somewhere in the last few years, I’m simply stopped speaking words very much.  I prefer to communicate via email or these posts, don’t make very many phone calls, don’t create the opportunity to make presentations or speaking engagements.  I have conversations with my wife and our boys, but I’m guessing I speak out loud less than 5,000 words a day.  It may be closer to 1,000 actually (an interesting experiment).

Is this common?  This is no great epiphany on the state of humanity, as others have already spoken quite elegantly on the subject (see Bruce Schneier among others).  But what has this done to me on a personal basis?  Am I lesser because I don’t speak?  Are there long-term impacts to me?

Unclear, but I’d be very interested in the thoughts of others.  btw, the last scene in “Planet of the Apes.”