In my last post I mentioned that there are only a few (I said 3) events from the WSOP that will be televised this year. I have noticed something I think is a bit odd over the last few years, while there appears to be a growing interest in watching poker on television ESPN has decided to cover fewer events (in their defense they have expanded the coverage of the main event almost every year).

Now understand that I am just happy that any events are being covered, but with that being said there are 57 bracelet events (and a few special events) that could be covered. One reason I have heard as to why some events aren’t covered is that people don’t want to watch anything except no-limit hold-em. Personally I think this may be true because people don’t get exposed to the other games. Look back the coverage over the years – almost every event that has been covered is nlhe (no limit hold em), and only occasionally has any other game been covered (there was some coverage of horse events for a couple years, but even that has been changed to only show the final table and that will be nlhe).

I guess the point I am trying to make is that we repeatedly hear no one wants to watch anything else, but if you never give them the chance how do you really know? If you have only showed it to them briefly, you don’t have much of a comparison.

My opinion on the matter is this:

1. We need a full-time 24/7 poker channel that could have coverage of events that never get air time otherwise.
2. When major tournament stops are being televised, why not show some of the specialty events that occur at the same time?
3. If you’re going to show other games (beside nlhe) then take a minute to explain the rules of the game.
4. You will never get people interested in viewing other games if you don’t show them the other games.

I am under absolutely no illusions that this post is going to make a bit of difference to anyone. I just felt like getting it off my chest and out there for consideration.

On a related note, I am very disappointed in Charter. Supposedly they are going to be airing the new Poker stars sponsored show The Big Game late nights (I thought about the same time as Poker After Dark) on FOX, and yet I can’t find a listing for it anywhere. Sometimes I just hate only having one choice for cable.

More later…..

Well I have to say that I am very annoyed and disappointed in iTunes.

Let me explain why this is so:

The job I have requires me to spend many hours a day in a car on the road in areas where there is really bad radio reception and since I don’t want to fork out the money for satellite radio I have been using my iPod. I download and listen to a variety of podcasts (mostly poker related) and use this to keep me company and hopefully increase my knowledge base while I am driving. Here is where my annoyance/disappointment comes in, I fairly regularly will check iTunes for new podcasts that I might be interested in. Unfortunately it seems that iTunes doesn’t ever clear out the backlog of podcasts that have been posted in the past but aren’t being updated anymore. It is very frustrating to me at least that I have to sift through the ton of orphaned podcasts that seem to live there. I am not a programmer, and I have very limited knowledge of database functions/issues but it seems to me that the folks at iTunes should be able to write some sort of monitoring program to see how long it’s been since a podcast was last updated. If it’s been more than a year, then it’s time for this thing to go away. I realize this may not mean much/anything to anyone else, but I doubt I am the only one in the world that feels this way. It can’t be that tough to do something like this, even if they couldn’t write a program to do this (which I doubt seriously) then as a last result it seems that they could have some people do it by hand (yes I know it would be hugely time consuming, but it could be done by people that were very low on the ladder so they weren’t wasting higher paid people on it).

I know that there are some who would say I’m just lazy and that it’s not that tough to sort through the orphaned podcasts, or that there is some value to having them still there. I disagree and say that if you’re providing a service like this, it’s your responsibility to ensure the best experience for the customer possible and the current situation isn’t the best for anyone. Of course I also blame the people that posted the podcasts since they are the ones that abandoned them. If your going to start a podcast and post it on iTunes then I feel it’s your responsibility to keep it up to date, and if your not going to post anymore then either remove it yourself or post one final entry saying that it isn’t being updated anymore.

I could probably go on about this some more, but what would the point be???? So instead I will say that I am very pumped to know that the WSOP (World Series of Poker) started last week, which means it won’t be long until they start broadcasting the events from this year. Unfortunately they are supposedly only broadcasting 3 events this year, my comments on that will be coming soon.

More later…..

I mentioned in my last update that we (kaiala and I) were looking for a new scale, so that we could get a handle on our actual weight to see if this new way of eating is going to work. Well we found one and it does hold and weigh us both (not at the same time of course), so we are hopeful that it will help us keep track of where we stand.

We did our first weigh-in last Sunday and I have to say I was not happy. Apparently I have gained more weight than I though I had. I have to believe that the new scale is accurate and given that idea, then I have gained about 30 lbs. So at this point I am currently at my highest weight 469.0.

I am committing to eating according to the pre-packed Nutrisystem plan that we are getting delivered. The biggest advantage that I see this having is that it will provide the portion control that neither of us seems to be capable of doing on our own.

Well that’s all I have to say about this for now, I know that we have to do whatever is necessary to lose the weight. Otherwise neither of us will live long, and I just can’t take being this annoyed/depressed about myself.

More later………..

Well folks it’s been a while and I thought I should put some info out here again.

Life has been a bit on the hectic side lately, the job is going well but keeping me hopping right along which keeps me from doing some of the things that I would rather be doing.

On the poker front – I haven’t been able to play much either live or online, so I am having no luck whatsoever in getting a shot at winning a seat in the WSOP Main Event. A few weeks ago my fiancé/slavegirl and I played in a charity tournament for the rotary club here locally and found out that there is a new charity poker room here in town. Last week we went over to play but didn’t have enough people to play a tournament so we played in a short handed cash game. I didn’t do badly (I actually had some money left when we were done), but I made a few really bad plays that cost me a lot of chips. I was hoping to get a shot at playing again this weekend, but they didn’t have a license for this weekend so I will have to try playing online.

On the lifestyle front – I have been listening to this really interesting podcast lately from DungeonPlace.com. The people that put this on are an odd and interesting group that regularly has me thinking and laughing like a madman.

On the rest of my life – kaiala (my fiancé/slavegirl) and I have started using the Nutrisystem prepackaged meals to try and lost some weight. We have been doing this for just over a month (though we seem to have trouble staying on the program). We have felt some difference, but we are having some issues trying to find out if we are actually losing weight, since our scale seems to have a mind of its own. One day I will get on it to weigh myself and it will give me a number I basically expect, a week later I will get on it and it will be 30-40 pounds heavier or lighter. I just don’t believe that we are having these kinds of huge swings in a week’s time. We are looking into getting a new scale, but it’s a pain in the ass to find one that will actually weigh my fat ass (450+).

Well I have rambled enough for right now, more later…..

If you saw any of my previous entries you will notice that I am re launching this blog. If you haven’t ever seen it before than this won’t seem the least bit odd to you (okay it might seem odd, but that’s not the point).

Let me start by saying that when I originally conceived of this blog it was going to be a place for me to post my thoughts on the BDSM lifestyle (of which I am a participant). My original theory was that I would keep it separate from the other things that I might post and therefore keep it more ordered and coherent. The problem with this is that I don’t post often enough and therefore there is no real continuity of the posts. As a result I decided to post on a variety of subjects and just let the chips fall where they may.

So allow me to introduce myself, I am Tarvos{k} the dominant partner in a 10 year M/s (Master/slave) relationship. My slave girl is kaiala{T} and she also has a blog that she posts to, though I don’t believe she is currently. I am currently working for an automated retail company, doing service and repair on their machines in NW Lower Michigan. I also enjoy playing poker (both online and live). Beyond that I do read (not as much as I used to), watch movies, play Everquest 2, and spend time with my fiancé/slave girl.

So since I am not limiting this blog to one specific type of post, I will do my best to ensure that they are in the appropriate category and that they are coherent.

More Later…..