Fear and Loathing Friday: Vegas, The Pope, and Imposters

"For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampeled." - Hunter S. Thompson

I woke up this morning and found a $288 roundtrip flight on JetBlue from JFK to Vegas in early June. I snagged two tickets for me and Derek. Yes, we now have plane tickets purchased for the next WPBT event. All I have to do is find us a room. That's my goal this weekend.

BG and I reached a new low in proposition betting. I called him up last night and suggested we gamble on when The Pope is going to die. He picked 11 days from now. I'm a horrible McCatholic. We are both going to hell.

The Tao of Poker Imposter

If you see anyone playing under the screen name tao_of_poker, especially on Ultimate Bet... it is not me! That clown is an imposter and tried to take credit for my hard work on the net. Ingrate! I do not play on UB. On Check and Raise and PokerStars I play under: DrPauly. I have a secret name on Empire and if you are nice to me, I'll tell you my Party Poker name. Those are the only four sites I play on these days. If you see anyone who plays under TaoPoker or tao_of_poker... that person is an imposter! Believe me that I'm sure I've sat at your table a few times on Party or Empire and you had no idea it was me. April was the first one to clue me in on him. I heard that G-Rob was busting his balls! Here's what Daddy had to say about playing with The Imposter:

I went ahead and tagged him if for no other reason than someone to berate profusely when I'm running bad. Chances are he's just a big fan of yours. Probably lays in bed at night and masturbates to Pauly Paintings. Probably dubbed his wanker "McGrupp." Imitation is supposedly the most sincere form of flattery. Too bad he blew donkey sack at poker.

Misty Mountain Hop

My blogs hit the height of popularity at the beginning of February with over 6,000 visitors a week. How did I handle that moment? By freaking out, of course. Three years ago, I couldn't get five people to read something I wrote without seriously bribing or blackmailing them. Today, I am infecting minds all over the globe. I seriously considered walking away from blogging because I found myself spending more time on my blogs and reading blogs than working on my own personal writing projects and living life. After picking up a few freelance gigs this past month and on the cusp of taking a step forward in my relationship with everyone's favorite elevator button heiress, I had less time on my hands.

During the past few weeks, I took a few mini breaks and a brief hiatus. I worked on my fotoblog and got back into photography in addition to writing more for myself. I used my down time in Miami to think about the direction of this blog. When Hunter killed himself on Sunday, I was forced again to rethink my future as a writer. I am still in a mode of self-examination and I dunno if I will have specific answers in the next few days. I definitely feel like I am at a crossroads in my wild life. Suffice to say, I am thinking about writing much more than poker which makes me feel a lot better about myself when I wake up each day although I am still long strides away from achieving the perspicacity of my existence on this planet.

Do not worry. I will continue blogging. However, I have to scale back the time and effort I put into each. I had some ideas about taking weekends off from blogging in an attempt to prevent myself from burnout. We shall see if I can hold up to that in March. Even if I take one day off a week, that should keep me sane.



I finally caught up with reading everything in my bloglines folder. The picture you see above is what happened 12 hours into my trip to Miami. Yeah, I usually get twice as much stuff in my bloglines folder per day. Man, I'm still behind in daily blog reading.

Anyway, a lot of new bloggers asked me to link them up. I'll get off my ass sometime this weekend and take an hour or so to update my template and add new blogs. In the meantime, I added Ship It Poker to my blogroll. Those guys have made it onto my daily reading list. Check them out. Also congrats to Al Cant Hang for a year in cybersapce. Good job, dude.

Recent Poker Playing Music...
1. Karl Denson
2. The Talking Heads
3. Wilco
4. John Hammond
5. Paul Simon

If you are a Simpsons fan... check out this post. On Sunday or Monday I will post Part II of my Miami trip report. I will be writing and researching a bunch of freelance assignments this weekend and working off my Check and Raise bonus. I have been updating my fotoblog and even added "The Last 4 Pauly Pics" from my flog to this sidebar. I will be adding more Miami pics this weekend. Briana is hosting an Oscar's Party on Sunday which should be interesting since I'll be gambling on the outcome. Come on, Hillary Swank! I'll see everyone at the tables. Until then, have a great weekend and you should start looking for cheap flights to Vegas!