Switching it up

I’ve made a few new life changes this past week. First being that I’m not going visit 3rd and Spring Garden anymore for breakfast. A story of my Uncles that goes way back is that he boycotted a restaurant up the street because they burnt his toast one too many times. I however am boycotting for a different reason. The panhandlers are driving me away. These guys feel like their entitled to my money because I drive an Acura TL. I’m not their friend. I’m not going to pretend that I am their friend and it’s not in my character to act like a dick. Thus, I’m never eating there again.

The second is that I made a deposit on Bodog. I only deposited 100 bucks. I’ve hit my first two baseball bets one of which was betting on the Marlins against the Phillies a few days ago and another last night betting on Kershaw’s gem against the Padres. I know this is almost unbelievable but I managed to win 500 dollars during the 4+ month football season last year betting practically every week. I by no means think I’m a winning sports better, and have lost in prior years, but my goal for the year is to never have to deposit for the rest of the season. I have 146 dollars in Bodog currently and I’m sure I’ll add a bet or two I make to the blog occasionally. I’m aware of one sports betting fact that took me a while to learn, the less bets you make, the better chance of success.

I’ve decided to do the Half Marathon in the middle of September. This is going to accompany a significant life change for the next 3 weeks of not drinking any alcohol. The bottom line is that I can’t train for a half marathon effectively getting smashed every weekend. I ran 3 miles in 17:27 yesterday and felt pretty strong. I know that’s a far cry from 13 but after getting in shape for the summer, it’s time to see what I’m made of. The goal is obviously 1:18. I intend to start doing some longer runs starting shortly and we’ll see where that takes me. I’ve also decided to stop drinking coffee in the mornings and maybe even try to eat healthier.

I also will visit Harrah’s a few more times to play poker. To win 2 buy ins in a 6 hour period at literally NO RISK is pretty encouraging. To play a session with literally no luck involved and winning 600 makes me want to go back. I hit plenty of hands and I know the cards treated me well but I was rarely putting my money in behind and when I did I usually had good implied odds to hit my hand. Bottom line, I feel like I have a pretty sizable edge at that game and will have to spend some time to see some results.

I feel like these changes in my life are all positive. Hopefully I will feel healthier, thus sharper mentally and good things will come. Basically we’ll see how good a sober me can be. People who know me probably scoff at this but it’s only for 3 weeks and I have come to the realization that I can’t take my potential to the next level filling my body with 20 beers each weekend. This half marathon will be my finish line.

By |2011-08-30T09:39:36-04:00August 30th, 2011|My Life|3 Comments

Harrah’s Poker

On Saturday morning I drove down to Harrah’s Chester to play some poker. I arrived at 10:45 and there were only a few tables running. It took about 5 minutes for 9 people to show up and they started a new game for us. I played a 7 hours session and booked a profit of 600 or so bucks. I thought I played pretty good and never really got it in behind and only made one bad call all day. Here are the details of the session. I started off turning a straight and the river paired the board, I called a 35 dollar bet from an unknown player who turned out to be decent. I folded 44 to a pf raise and would have flopped quads which made me sick. I was down 100+ or so within the first hour before things started going my way. I rivered a flush or two and had cowboys a few times to get my stack back to even. In a key hand, I had AJ on a AAK flop. I bet 20 on the flop that was called by one player. The turn was a brick and I bet 50 which was called. The river was a K and I moved in for about 125 and was called by a flush. That gave me about 600 before this next hand. I had 77 and made it 10 to go and got called by 5 players. A beautiful 7TQ flop gave me a set. I bet 30 and a guy moved in for over 200. I snap called and I think I had him drawing dead. That got me close to nine hundred and I was pretty much rolling. I hit 2 more flushes and got a hair over a K before calling it quits. I played pretty well, hit some hands, and booked a solid win. The players were all in all pretty bad. There was one guy who was ok but for the most part people call way to light pf and will look you up way too lightly. With some money in my pocket, I’ll considering going back soon.

By |2013-03-15T03:40:37-04:00August 27th, 2011|My Life|0 Comments

Storage Wars – Rnningfool Style

I’ve been pretty into Storage Wars over this past week getting caught up with as many episodes as I can. I like this show a lot because it’s an intelligent show assuming it isn’t fake. The idea of assigning a value to how a storage is kept is intriguing. For example, Dave might say something like “it looks like it’s their entire life is in this locker.” This means that all of their worldly possessions might be in this locker compared to a person who is buying the locker for the sole purpose of storing goods. I just find it extremely intriguing the valuation of items. I’m sure I’ll make some more posts regarding the integrity of the show. Anyway, Steve had the great idea to post this oven/dryer that has been sitting in our apt. The owner probably has no idea if it’s valuable or not and I’m going to let my audience decide. I’ve done no research and would value an opinion. Here are some pics, what’s it worth?

[poll id=”61″]

By |2016-11-01T23:34:35-04:00August 25th, 2011|My Life|3 Comments

My Panhandlers on 3rd and Spring Garden

I usually go to the same place to eat breakfast each morning on 3rd and Spring Garden here in Philly. It’s an interesting location for panhandlers because there is a lot of traffic, there’s a wide mix of people (low to upper class), and the area doesn’t seem to be policed. The issue becomes that there can be up to 3 people begging for money on a daily basis at all hours. It really becomes a nuisance and I hope someone from the city reads this to clean up this part of town. Sad thing is, this is probably one of the nicer parts of this area, although I bet if you go further towards Girard, there aren’t as many beggars because no one has any money.

Being that I’ve been coming to this area for over 5 years I’ve gotten to know these beggars. I’m a relatively nice person and will throw them a buck here and there and this is more than most people. This gives them the idea that I’m a sucker and they’ll ask me all the time. Panhandlers also have the shortest memory on the planet because they’ll ask you when you walk in and then again when you walk out. Here are a few I encounter.

One guy in his safety vest is a constant at this shopping center. I’ve seen him do dances outside of D&D and he is definitely cracked out on something. He’s a nice guy but he’s told me he was leaving the area months ago and nothing ever changes. I’ve given him a dollar or two in the past but he must really think we’re friends because he asks me for Iced Coffees and sandwiches. I’d say him and I have an ok relationship but he thinks that when he helps me park my car in a parking spot, that he deserves a tip.

There’s another guy who was in a war (at least that’s what he says) who is definitely a heroin addict. Believe it or not, we actually picked him up one day because we needed some help at the shop. It was 100 degrees and he never took his long sleeved shirt off. I assume this is to cover his track marks. He’s a nice guy and his line is “can you spare some change.” I try to help him out when he’s around and I prefer giving him some quarters opposed to buying him lunch. He smelled terribly.

The final guy I encounter isn’t my panhandler. I’ve never said a word to him, I don’t know him, I want no interaction with him. I get the feeling that every time I decline to give him something I enrage him. He has fresh clothes on and just gives off this non-suffering demeanor. I really dislike this guy and try to avoid eye contact at all costs. He’s the perfect example of a guy who can work, but would rather have people help him out.

By |2011-08-25T09:02:13-04:00August 25th, 2011|My Life|2 Comments

Earthquake Aftershock

I had a feeling that even a shitty post like the one I wrote below would bring in additional traffic. Funny how even the search terms “Philadelphia Earthquake” bring in hundreds of visitors considering it really started in Mineral, Va. They, the media, say to expect some aftershock but I don’t think people on the East Coast really know what that means. Here’s a quote regarding the DC area about the aftershock of an Earthquake “Then, at 8:04 p.m., a strong aftershock measuring 4.2 in magnitude again rattled residents. The U.S. Geological Survey said the aftershocks could last for days or weeks. Geologists also warned the quake could be a precursor to a bigger seismic event.” This is obviously pretty scary stuff. People in California are probably laughing at a 5.9 earthquake but I’m sure us East Coasters are all pretty worried. I get the feeling that the Earth is going to open up and start swallowing society and it’s infrastructure. Just kidding but who knows what to expect. Let’s just all cross our fingers and hope nothing substantial happens in the future.

By |2011-08-24T00:41:59-04:00August 24th, 2011|My Life|0 Comments

Weaker, Fatter, and Slower

I know the blog has been pretty weak lately and I can’t really explain why. Sometimes ideas come to me like rapid fire and other times I just sit here and do nothing. I have 5 posts in the queue which I just can’t finish because they will suck. I haven’t been feeling 100% as of late so maybe that has something to do with it. I hope to be a bit more creative in the future.

Today at work I welded about 50 slate stakes. I know it’s pretty amazing I know how to weld but the one thing that sucks with welding that much is that the sparks seem to stick to your skin. My skin smells like burnt metal. I took a shower when I got home and went to sleep but that only made my sheets smell. So I washed them and went to the gym to try to sweat it out and here I am still smelling like metal. The funny thing about the gym was what warranted the title of this post. I’m weighing in at close to 180, I can’t lift as much weight as during the winter and my time on the treadmill was about 25 seconds slower than the track. I’m regressing. Or digressing. Whichever. Hopefully that gives me the motivation to put in some extra work. Frankly I blame the Sopranos. I’m at episode 60 and can’t wait to finish the last 25. Hbogo has been truly awesome but I wouldn’t give it a 10 out of 10. Sometimes the player skips or backtracks and that is forever frustrating. I just wanted to post something just to let everyone know I’m still around but I’m going to fit in a few more episodes before bed.

By |2016-11-01T23:34:08-04:00August 23rd, 2011|My Life|0 Comments

Philadelphia Earthquake 8/23/11

A rumbling shook our building on 210 Vine St for about 10 seconds. There’s no doubt about it that it was an Earthquake. Laura told me it was a 5.9 that started in Virginia. I’m sure more news will follow. I was on the phone with a customer in Hawaii and had to rudely hang up and run outside. Our building took a few new cracks but other than that everything is OK. Pretty wild stuff though if you ask me. I thought our 4 story building was caving in and jetted. This part of the nation isn’t used to getting earthquakes and seeing everyone outside asking what happened confirmed it. Amazingly there wasn’t much damage and very little injuries to the city.

By |2011-08-24T00:34:13-04:00August 23rd, 2011|My Life|0 Comments

Blind as a Bat

My contacts were bothering me today and I decided to wear my glasses around. Unfortunately my glasses need a new prescription and even though I can see, it’s not 20/20. Driving around is actually pretty dangerous but I decided to hit some golf balls with my glasses on. I couldn’t even see all the way down to the end of the range. I took my glasses off at one point and I couldn’t see a thing. I would probably shoot 150 with no visual assistance. I’m a complete useless human being without contacts or glasses. I couldn’t drive a vehicle. I couldn’t identify an object unless it was right in front of my face. I seriously wonder how people got by with poor eye sight hundreds of years ago. Eye glasses have a history that begins around the 12th century but what the hell were people doing before that. If I were in the caveman times with my current eye sight I’d probably get eaten by a sabre tooth tiger or trampled by a wooly mammoth. I’d probably think it was a giant rock rolling at me. It’s really scary. I’ve considered lasik but that bothers me because it’s only been around for 20 years or so and who knows what the long term effects are? Even though I find contact extremely annoying and I still don’t know the the right way from inside out, I’ll live with it.

By |2011-08-23T00:03:44-04:00August 23rd, 2011|My Life|0 Comments

Pressure to perform

Being a blog owner is a weird thing. People think differently about you when they know you have a blog. There is this incredulous reaction followed with a half witted chuckle response “you have a blog.” I’m just like yeah yeah yuck it up. The weird part is though that when you maintain a website you are always looking for additional traffic. Amber shared the link to my website on her Facebook page (which was nice) and that’s a potential 500 new readers. Most likely hardly anyone will become a daily visitor but you never know. With that being the case I feel like I have to come up with some good material and there’s some pressure to write a good post. Nothing really exciting happened in my life over the weekend so I’m just pretty much stuck with trying to think of something. One topic though did come to my mind.

I feel like everyone is always judging. Anyone who comes across this website is going to form an opinion whether it be good or bad. When people come over and see my bathroom, they judge how clean I am. I have a Game of Thrones book in my bathroom and people probably figure out that I read on the shitter and they can judge you on that and probably figure out you don’t want to borrow books from me. How people can go through life and not worry about what other people think is seriously an amazing quality to have. My goal is to just be normal. When people think about me I want them to not have anything to form an opinion over. Not my clothes, my look, my habits, nothing. I don’t want to stand out. Which is why I’m bringing this post full circle to show that it’s really strange of me to maintain a blog because this contradicts everything I just wrote. Rnningfool.com is basically saying “hey look at me and like me because of the things I think.” I don’t even know half the people who come to this site. I’m amazed as many people come as they do. I don’t even know what I’d do if this site actually got really popular. A few hundred people a day is great and all but once I start hitting the thousand mark, I think that’s a pretty big milestone. To any new readers, I hope you like the site because this really is a culmination of me.

By |2011-08-22T14:24:56-04:00August 21st, 2011|My Life|0 Comments
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