Good morning faithful blog readers. I promised an update on how January treated me, and here it is.

Poker has been okay. I think I made about 100 in January between poker and coaching, although 2/3 of that was from the PCA cash. Still, given the fact that I spent the first half of the month in the Bahamas, I can't really complain with that number. I felt like I probably played my C+ game of poker. I started out winning quite a bit at 5-10 and 10-20 but playing badly, then I started to play well and run really badly. All in all, I think I might have won ~10k or something at those stakes with a decent volume of hands. I've started February doing more Leggo related things and less actual playing, although my results over a small sample have been good. I think I've finally remembered how to play poker.

In other news, I grinded out the first two seasons of Breaking Bad over the past few days. I have to say that I'm quite undecided about it so far (Skip the remainder of this paragraph if you don't want to see spoilers). On one hand, the storyline is fantastic. The acting is great, the pace is good; I am almost always compelled to watch the next episode, although they usually don't go over the edge to make cheesy cliffhangers. On the other hand, I have a problem with watching TV. I like when I can cheer for a character and I like when characters make good decisions (or, frankly, the decisions that I would make). I know, I know, most "good" TV doesn't allow me to enjoy it. [Sidenote: The Wire is simply an entirely different entity-- I look at the characters objectively, it has more of a documentary-esque feel to it.] However, it's really tough to watch Breaking Bad when I have such difficulty figuring out how I'm supposed to feel about Walt or Jesse. I keep wanting to root for Walt, but he keeps doing uncharacteristic things that make me question his motives and priorities. Jesse on the other hand is supposed to be a train-wreck, I think-- we want to turn away and pray that he turns his life around to reflect the upper-middle class upbringing that he was given, but we "know" that for the sake of the show he will pretty much always end up making a stupid decision. And finally, I'm a little uneasy about the way the second season ended. I usually like things to get tied up relatively nicely with a minor cliffhanger between seasons, but I felt like there were just a lot of things open for interpretation.

Before Breaking Bad, I watched the second season of Sons of Anarchy. My friend, a true TV-grinder who suffers from temporary insanity, told me that Sons of Anarchy was better than The Wire. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he said that, perhaps recency bias? Anyways, I'm sure he just needs a second or third or fourth viewing of The Wire, since it ages like fine wine. Sons of Anarchy is kind of cool though, sort of like the 'Sopranos on bikes' (I can't take credit for that comparison, I read someone say that on 2+2). If you've seen the Sopranos and not SoA, the comparison is rooted in the amount of importance of family, the impression that they give back to the community, and the ridiculous amount of stereotypes based on race (in SoA there is basically a gang for every race, LOL). I don't think I could really write as much about SoA as I could about Breaking Bad though, it's more bad ass than complex (although there are certainly some layered characters, especially the protagonist). The one thing I will say is that even though I was enthralled by S2, I thought it ended with just a little too much on its plate.

A week ago I was in a pretty good routine of lifting and playing basketball. I wasn't eating very well, but I had gotten over some food poisoning and was strong again. However, I think around Tuesday I was playing basketball and must've come down wrong after a jumpshot and threw out my lower back. I have no idea what is happening, but I was basically completely out of commission for a few days and I'm still in a lot of pain. I went to the chiropractor the last few days and am trying to stretch it out. I haven't really iced it much, but I'm not sure how much that would matter anyways. I guess I just have to rest it and give it some time, although I don't know how a problem like this will solve itself. I had never really had many lower back problems prior to this, although I have extensive neck problems and have also had major problems between my shoulder blades. It's tough getting old!

The Super Bowl is coming up in a couple of days. I'm going with the Saints with the spread and also the Saints with the moneyline. I think the moneyline is a nice bet getting almost 2 to 1 vigfree. I make it a point to not bet much on sports, but it's fun to have a little sweat... although I'd imagine a little sweat for me is a pretty big sweat for other people. I feel a little dirty going against the hometown Colts, but I'm a Bears fan. I guess a win would be "good for the city," but whatever. Really, I'm not cheering for anyone on Sunday, but I do think it's got the potential to be a hell of a good game. I'm sure the rest of February will be a fun month as well, and I head out to LAPC in a few weeks.

I'm sure you guys appreciate all the cool shit going on at Leggo, I definitely appreciate everyone (active coaches and members alike) partaking in the fun.