Friday, January 14, 2005

Sweet, Sweet Friday

Apparently hammers and strippers just don't mix.

My little Party free chip spree ended not too long after my last post, when my boat ran into a bigger beat at a 10/20 BBJ table. On the bright side, I ended up about $400 to the good when it was all said and done, with all the withdrawals processed and safely in my Neteller account. On the slightly non-bright side, it appears that Party is just leaving those bonuses in accounts now. So at some point I'll have to work off the raked hands that are attached to those bonuses before being able to go after any bonuses in the future. Which is a pain, but they were pretty typical bonuses to begin with, so it shouldn't be that hard to bang out the hands.

Things are still running well, gambling-wise. I've worked my way through the first couple of tiers of good casino bonuses, sticky and non-sticky, and am knocking out some of the ones that offer decent bonuses but ones that you can only clear at games like SicBo and Pai Gow, etc. Which is sort of cool, as far as playing new games, even if the HA is slightly higher. It always amazes me as far as the ability and predilection of the human mind to construct crazily intricate systems for the sole purpose of gambling.

I'm starting to get the itch to play some MTTs again. I've been tournament-free for going on a month or two now. Still cranking away on assorted projects, cranking away at the tables, yada yada yada.

I got a call from a fundraiser at the University of Texas last night. We didn't get off to the best of starts, as he called at exactly 8:57, just getting in under the ban of harassing anyone by phone after 9:00 PM. I normally just hang up on any and all telemarketers/phone solicitations but for some reason feel compelled to at least attempt to be polite when it's someone from either my undergrad or graduate school calling to raise funds. This particular guy was representing the Fine Arts department (I got an MFA in Creative Writing back in the day) and wanted money so they could get matching grants, blah blah blah. So he gives me the spiel, says he knows I'm a Fine Arts graduate and that he won't hit me up for too much (ha ha), and that all he's asking is if I could help them out, maybe with a $500 contribution?

And I was all prepped with my stock line of I'll-begin-to-think-about-donating-money-as-an-alumni-when-I-pay-off-my-damn-student-loans (which is actually true), except I just started laughing instead. $500??? So I manage to choke out something about still paying student loans, to which he agreed, said he completely understood, and how about he'd cut me a deal and I could just give $250?

At which point, still giggling, I just told him to have a good night and hung up. I mean, good lord. It's not like I graduated from a MBA program. And that's ignoring the fact that the University of Texas has more money than Jebus.

6 comments:

April said...

Hey, I didn't know you were a Longhorn!!

And hey...they need that $500...for MY student loans!!! LOL

ScurvyDog said...

Yep, I was a Longhorn from 1996-1999. Now I'm sort of a Longhorn by proxy once again, as my wife works in HR at UT. Appears there's no escapin' the burnt orange.

April said...

Small world...that's when I was there the first time! I started fall of '95 and was kicked out spring of '97. Hehe. :)

ScurvyDog said...

JasonSpaceman,

Sadly nay, no connections in the MFA program. The umbilical cord gets cut pretty quick-like when you're done with the program and I haven't really kept in touch with any of the instructors or directors of the program.

I enjoyed it, and it's hard to pass up a fewllowship and free grad school, but it's not the most useful program in the world. Aside from a MFA not being of much use, they don't at all attempt to prepare you for any sort of real-world job, nor do they have good connections in the publishing industry, etc. So you're pretty much adrift and left to your own devices once you're gone. Which is fine, but other writing programs do a much better job of not only preparing students for life after grad school but also working pretty hard to get them agents, book deals, etc.

But yeah, like I said, it's a good gig if you can get it and I'd go again, if offered the same opportunity.

April said...

That's kinda neat, that we were all there the same time...just the 3 of us...out of 50,000. ;)

Hey Scurvydog, e-mail me when you get a chance, will ya?

ScurvyDog said...

Heh, read my comment on your Tunica trip report, SpaceMan.

I grew up in Charlotte, TN, which is in the same neck o' the woods (literally) as Ashland City. Charlotte is pretty dang tiny, though, a ten minute drive or so from Dickson and White Bluff, about thirty minutes or so south of Clarksville.