Ohhhh, where to start. First of all, I guess I should give a little thanks for the holiday season. The restaurant is busy, I am making money, Christmas was merry, kids are happy. I want to remind myself how thankful I should be because poker has absolutely sucked. I debate with myself if I am playing my A game or not. I think sustaining such heavy losses means I am not, how could I be? Running bad EV wise is okay for a while, but I went through a phase where I just didn't want to play. So I didn't. And when I did, it was more of the same but just coolers and losing flips. All the same, I know I am not madly tilting off money, so I feel pretty good about everything on the whole. And I long for the time when I can just six table 50nl, which is coming up in January. I am firmly in 50nl territory with my roll though, so I will have to grind that up for a return visit to 100nl. Sigh.

I am pretty confident, though, based on all of the bad play I have seen. It comforts me to know I just need to get my own sh*t in order mentally and I will be back in action.

In other news, I have had some interesting experiences. Last night I saw the movie "Inception," and really liked it. I can see how all poker players would be really into the movie. I would probably have to watch it again and again to really decide what was going on, but I am going to just walk away with the good impression that I have of the movie, which makes me a cinematic short stacker, I guess.

For Christmas, I got a copy of "Metropolis Symphony." I heard an interview with the composer on the radio. I am not into a lot of classical music, but I really like this. Reading the liner notes helps, and it is definitely not for listening to while playing poker as it is pretty, umm, energetic. I think it is up for some grammy awards, too.

I have talked to a few Sommeliers, and it is something I think I will pursue wholeheartedly. Since I started talking about it, everyone is coming up to me and wanting advice and recommendations about wine. I got a lot of wine resource books for Christmas, which is great. Also, more than a few people have just given me wines they think I should be familiar with for my upcoming test in March. I will start making some trips to Napa this month since I have a friend from Paris in town, but I really need to become familiar with a lot of imported wines. I like being known as a wine resource, and after I get a few months of study under my belt, I will maybe offer my services to the general leggo community. I have absolutely no idea what that would entail, but I need practice answering questions about wine. The deductive tasting technique is very much like putting people on hands, so maybe I can post a video of that after some practice.

One of my regs at the bar works for Pixar. I asked him to donate a tour of the studio to my daughter's school fund raising auction. I have heard it is something other employees for Pixar have done. He said he could definitely do that, and why don't I just go ahead and bring the family down one day and he could show us around. We are going tomorrow, and I think it will be super interesting. I already saw an exhibit at the Museum of California in Oakland about Pixar (would definitely recommend it to any Bay Area members), and I can't believe I get to go to the studio now.

I am starting to ease myself off coffee since I am for the most part through the holiday season at work. I felt a little bad about taking it up again, but my wife said to me this morning, "you did what you had to do," and she is right because I don't think I would have made it without my little caffeine helper.

I have been listening to the "Bondcast," and I am a big fan. I am pretty much a people person, and I like listening to other people's experiences with poker and life. Keep up the good work, Jaymesbond.

So, on the whole, running good, just not in poker. I will be much more active in the forums and stuff in January. Happy New Year, everyone.

Play well. Do good work. Keep in touch.

PFJ