PHIL NGUYEN

Those are my cash game results so far. Plus, I won a decent amount in tournaments too. It’s been a good year.

As predicted, Tony Romo and Brian Westbrook are fantasy football monsters. Their six touchdown effort powered my team to a romping victory this week. I made a trade: Laveraneus Coles for Selvin Young which I think is even for both sides. I needed some depth at running back, and got some. Young’s problems are obvious - he plays in a Denver system that more resembles russian roulette than football strategy and he doesn’t get those pesky goal line carries. Still, he is an upgrade for me and is a lock to get 10-15 carries a week, which is plenty. Losing Coles kind of hurts, but he’s been pissing me off this year and is kind of unpredictable. This is probably the week where he goes for two touchdowns. On the waiver wire, I picked up RB Michael Bush (Oak) and WR Matt Jones (Jax). Bush should receive a nice bump in fantasy value now that Fargas is out for 3-6 weeks and with McFadden’s injury also lingering. Oakland can’t do much, but like Forrest Gump, they sure can run the football. Jones has lead Jacksonville in receptions and targets this year and his size makes him an attractive red zone target. He’s filling my hole at the third receiver slot right now.

Anyway, here is my most recent fantasy football roster:

QB: Romo, Delhomme
RB: Westbrook, Jonathon Stewart, S. Young, M. Bush, J. Charles, K. Watson
WR: Brandon Marshall, Roddy White, M. Jones, R. Curry
TE: Dallas Clark
K: R. Bironas
DEF: NY Giants

Ives Galarcep’s column perfectly describes the state of American international soccer and echoes what I’ve been preaching for a while. It’s frustrating to see the USA veer away from the young studs that will be leading them to the World Cup in 2010. This reluctance to play our young talent proves to me that Bob Bradley is too conservative a manager to ever save American soccer from mediocrity. It’s a shame the USA couldn’t reel in a better manager following Bruce Arena’s flame out. And I haven’t even gotten to Bradley’s in-game tactics which are too reliant on the set play and don’t utilize some of the athletes on the roster. On the bright side, things are so dreary on the other side of the pond (lol English international soccer) that it makes us look like a fairy tale. Anyway, if American soccer - or soccer in general - remotely interests you, Ive’s blog is really spot on. He updates like a speed fiend and also covers news from overseas. The Yankees are dead; time for some of you guys to give a more interesting sport a shot.

When I was young and stupid, I often idealized about living in Manhattan. Every time I wander into midtown to take the train back to rural Colts Neck, I’m thankful that I didn’t. Midtown Manhattan is a strange place. I can’t quite place my finger on why, but it bothers me tremendously.

I arrived early to Penn Station not too long ago. As I was quietly munching on a chicken sandwich, I noticed a large group of girls walk by. The odd thing, though, was that they were wearing long gowns. And they were wearing that stripe of silk with their states on it. They must be from some regional beauty pageant or something. Each girl also had an entourage of five or six other people. For what it’s worth, the girls didn’t strike me as especially attractive - well, considering their “occupation” or whatnot.

A few months ago, I went to Houston for a wedding. On my return flight, I sat next to a commercial airline pilot. From his perspective, being a pilot seems like an interesting job. He told me that he only navigates two flights: Houston to Newark and Newark to Houston. That’s it. He also doesn’t have a set schedule when he flies. So often times, he’ll spend equal time in both cities. He lives with his girlfriend in Houston, but when he’s stuck in Newark, he lives at some hostel type place. It doesn’t seem to be that glamorous, but I guess short of being Vincent Chase, nothing really is.

Being a poker player, it really lends itself to natural small talk. I feel like being an airplane pilot would be similar. He had many stories to tell and I had many terrible stories to tell, but in the end, I was entertained enough not to throw on my headphones and watch Weeds on DVD.

There have been all sort of power outages in the New Jersey today. My parents told me that they haven’t had power all morning, which just means that my brother missed his Saturday morning cartoons. I didn’t think the problem was that widespread until my train died somewhere in between Penn Station and Secaucus. I type this as I have been underground for near an hour, and then had to wait for a rescue train to come and tow us away to safety. Finally, I’m back en route to the Garden State. This has been a four hour trek and I cannot wait to be away from public transportation.

Tonight (Tuesday) is my annual $1000 fantasy football league. I’m super jazzed. Fantasy football is kind of like the stock market. Pure interest in the topic is almost irrelevant. Both are dominated by mathmatics, strategy, research, and some luck. It’s also a great platform to gamble on and to boot, football is interesting. It’s not soccer, mind you, but it’s not a bad alternative.

NOTE: I wrote most of this while on the train and some of it afterwards. That’s why it’s very choppy. That’s always why this is extremely drab.

I’ve been an absentee blog owner recently. There hasn’t been any legitimate reason for my brief hiatus, but I have been busy with real work (poker), fake work (bar scouting reports), and fun (too much). A rundown of things I’ve done this past week:

Monday: A friend of mine does PR work for restaurants. Part of the job description is going to various restaurants, sampling some of their best, and reviewing it. I was invited for a dessert tasting, and well, you know, I can’t turn down a free meal. This instance, we went to Olana. I ordered a chicken milanese sandwich as a small entry (can’t eat on an empty stomatch!), which was subpar, but we were there for the desserts so I can excuse that lapse in culinary judgement.

The first one we got was peaches and blueberries on polenta waffles with a side of blueberry ice cream. It was pretty good. There was a mixture of textures, from the smooth ice cream, to the dense, crumbliness of the polenta. The next dessert was a rhubarb strudel and that was absolutely fantastic. The pastry was wonderfully flaky, and the taste was just delicious. We got a fried ice cream ’smore, but that was easily the worst one. It was too heavy and there was a singular flavor that was too overpowering. We also got a cheese plate, which was standard as far as cheeses go.

Tuesday: I saw Jaguar Love (ex Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves) at the Southpaw. Decent music doesn’t often come to this side of the slope, but the Southpaw houses some gems every once in a while.

You would think that I’d become exposed to new, rad music now that I live in the hipster capital of the world; well actually, a hop, skip, and jump away from said purgatory. But my once brazen ears have been musically sheltered. I am an endangered species. And soon, I will grow old and bald and be relegated to playing the Foo Fighters on repeat.

But ANYWAY, they were absolutely fantastic. I can see how their sound would be very hit or miss to some people - the singer’s voice is shrill and potent. But they are much more muted than their Blood Brother’s days, and they definitely put on a very fun live show. The two opening acts were really good, and I wish I remembered who they were.

EDIT: Stether’s remembers! They were called Kings of Left and the other was Beluga.

Wednesday: My knowledge of wine is pretty much zero. I don’t even know enough about it to be a novice or an amateur. But alas, I made my way to a Inoteca. I don’t think I made a fool out of myself, though I do feel like a girl ordering fruity, sweeter wines (read: blushes). But I must say that they tasted great, and I could get used to adding wine to my drinking repertoire. For various reasons, I feel somewhat important and older when I’m at a wine bar. It’s a stark contrast to drinking boxed Carlo Rossi and passing out in a bathroom during college.

I want to take this course at the French Culinary Institute. The price tag is kind of hefty ($995), and I’m not sure if I’m going to want to go to class at 8pm on a Wednesday night in December. The cold scares me. Why do I even live in the northeast? But still, I’m considering it. I’d learn a lot, and if I have plans to open a bar, I at least have to know the basics.

Thursday: Vegetarians united and we went to Vegetarian Palate for dinner. It wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be, but it’s still a place I would return too. I ordered a mango chicken which was pretty good. And the table split vegetarian peking ribs (very good) and fried chicken bananas (not good, but then again, I don’t like ‘nanners).

Speaking of vegetarianism - I briefly experimented with it about a month ago. In total, I was a vegetarian for 13 days, which of course is a small sample. But I want to dispel this myth: a lot of people say that becoming a vegetarian makes you feel healthier. It’s kind of like an intangible thing that not many people can properly explain. They don’t say you gain more energy, or that you lose weight, it’s just some feeling. Well, I didn’t feel better. I felt much, much worse. Perhaps it was a lack of protein. Or maybe I just missed a medium rare steak. But I felt less responsive, and I had terrible, irregular stomach pains. That, more than the lack of meat, made me not want to be a vegetarian for any period of time.

BUT, I recently stumbled upon an advertisement for something that might have cured it - and something, I may get anyway: The Washlet. It’s not a toilet or a bidet, but a toilet seat attachment. And a hose-type device juts out, and washes your behind. Look at the demo. I think I’m crazy, but I think this might be the ultimate luxury.

Friday: I played poker for like six hours. I thought my brain was going to melt away into the long lost corridors of the sphinx.

One more thing: this is probably common knowledge to the internet-savvy crowd, but for the unaware, XKCD is seriously the best internet-comic ever. And this is coming from someone who loves dinosaurs and dinosaur comics. I want to post some of my favorite XKCD ones, but half the greatness lies in the alt tags, but you sort of have to be an computer geek to know what they are. Still, I may post them anyway.