#POKERFACE - Freeroll Tournament

I haven't been on Stars in awhile. Or that I have but lose interest. Mainly because it's been turning into a donk fest and everyone shoves with garbage hands. AA gets cracked by 10 6 offsuit. A high is beaten by an idiot who plays with 7 2 and hits a bottom pair.

So yeah. The game has been tilting me and making me re-evaluate how I play the game. Or rather, make me question if I even know how to play the game. 

Today I decided to take a break from DoTA 2 and the PS3 and play the well-known donk fest on Stars that's the $100k Privilege Freeroll. I was sitting out for awhile because cleanliness is next to godliness and my workstation was a mess. Came back and saw I was still alive (thought I'd been blinded dry) and sat back in. With just about 1k left, figured why not try my luck and shove. After all, I'd given up on ever cashing out or even lasting more than a few hands.

There will always be a Russian at the table and they'll always be the aggressive shovers. More often than not, it's with garbage and from past experience, they somehow get there with garbage. Decided that I should play their game and be a jerk. The following two BOOM! replays are against the same guy. 

So you thought you could bully me eh?

After this, I think he was pissed and wanted revenge. So ok, let's try it again. He must have thought I was such a donk to be calling with garbage hands. This time, I had a legit hand. Usually, AK gets cracked, from several painful past experiences. This time, maybe Stars wanted payback on this jerk.

I bet you thought I was gonna go all-in with junk eh?

By the time he was playing his next few hands, which wasn't against me, he was realllllly on tilt. He kept shoving and shoving and then finally busted out. Hurrr. Right now I'm still in the tourney, not too sure if I'll last long, but we'll see if I can at least survive till the players wind down to 1,000k players or so. Total number of entrants is 12,460. I think I can chill for awhile and read kotaku.

Just another memorable hand for me before I log off. My past self would probably chicken out after I've seen the flop but somehow, I managed to grow metaphorical dinosaur balls and see this hand through. Fortunately, I was rewarded. On hindsight, maybe I should have played it as if I had the A. Would have made the other K6 think.

Never used to have the balls for this kind of flop.

UPDATE! 3hrs and 41mins later.

I'm still alive and we're down to 69 players. Had help and a lot of encouragement and advice from the boyfriend to go for this hand.

I rarely play with a small pocket pair. Unless I'm on tilt.

I was top 20 for awhile with 450k in chips but lost a big hand and down to about 100k. That's ok. At least I'm in the money (or ITM as they call it) and if I bust out now, I'll cash out $2. Not bad considering that I profit about $1+ as I paid $0.30 for an add-on.

Ok back up to 300k. Have to thank my boyfriend really for teaching me how to read the opponents, to not be afraid and have faith in my cards and to make the calls.

Love you baby!

FINAL UPDATE! 4hrs and 15mins later.

I'm finally out! Just happy to get it over and done with because (a) I was hungry (b) I can't multi-task that well (c) my bum was getting sore. But hey! I cashed out more than I envisioned myself to and I lasted longer than I normally would. It's given me just a little bit more confidence in the game but then, we'll see what happens at the next freeroll. In the meantime, happy little victory dance for me and I can finally finish up my dinner and watch my anime while I'm at it.

Gosh, I'm such a nerd.

#MOVIEBREAKDOWN - THOR: The Dark World

Sometime last week the boy and I went to catch Thor: The Dark World. Wasn't really expecting anything because I'm not a huge fan of Thor (gimme Tony Stark anytime yo!). The main selling point for watching this was of course, for Loki. Out of all the villains I can think of right now, Loki's perhaps the most charming one of all. Maybe because it's Tom Hiddleston who wore the crown and mantle so well, or that he was given such a deviously brilliant script and character to act out.

I don't know but I like his witticism and humour. Dark and always pulled off with a smile.

The movie in itself was kinda meh. Effects were awesome but well... it centers too much around Thor and Jane Foster (like duh, I suppose it is a show about them ultimately). Didn't quite like Natalie Portman's performance in this. Some bits were ok, the rest were just... I don't know. It felt as if she was a Mary Sue. Someone wrote her character like how Meyer writes Bella Swan. At least that's the impression I got.

Asgard looks beautiful though.

What my boyfriend thinks:

I thought it was rather amusing. I thought it was very entertaining, from the start till finish.

And then I asked him why?

Because I was watching it with you and nobody else. 

Boyfriend has a way with words, always trying to make me melt >.<

#RANDOM - Falling Skies and every other apocalyptic show there is out there

I am a weird person.

I like watching shows when I'm having my meals. My family doesn't have the typical "let's all sit down together and eat" kinda family meal. If we do, it's usually because of some fancy occasion, like birthdays or celebrations or when my sister and her husband decides to drop in over the weekend. As such, I take my meals in my room and in front of my macbook. I know, super nerdy and classy right?

I found Falling Skies while browsing through sidereel. It's a science-fiction show that revolves around humanity's fight for its specie survival against alien invaders. Looking through the cast, I only remember one guy, who also happened to be the lead. Noah Wyle from E.R. Back then, so much younger and youthful looking. In Falling Skies, he sports a shaggy beard and even shabbier clothes. That's because washing machines and dryers and laundromats don't exist in the post-apocalyptic world.

It's an intense kind of show and the main plot twists a fair bit here and there to allow for side stories. I had to skip a couple of parts because at times there tended to be way too much dialogue - all the human need for interaction and bonding and reminding oneself that even in the midst of this despair there is some hope blablabla. The fight scenes against the aliens are incredible and realistic. They really do spark some sort of emotion in you, as if you feel that you too need to fight for your own survival.

Character-wise, each individual evolves and grows over time. Children grow up from being carefree to battle-hardened and wary. Upon finding out that the aliens are able to mind control, people start to be suspicious of one another. To add on top of that, even humans fight against one another. Brings to mind again about an earlier post I had written about how humanity needs to be able to survive in a community yet will still find themselves in conflict with one another even when that community is essential for every individual to have a chance to survive.

Liking It:

I kinda like most shows that are post-apocalyptic, within reason. In this case, it's succeeded in having a varied cast, an interesting and stable plot as well as good development - side plots and characters. It evokes emotion and makes you think and reflect about your own identity in the real world. In some shows where the deaths of others are not mourned as solemnly, Falling Skies seems to make it a point to remind its audience that death is important and that remembering those who have fallen, no matter the situation, is important. In an uncertain future, the only way to retain sanity and that desire to survive is to remember the better times and to be able to achieve that same stable better and happier future through this seemingly never-ending fight.

Not Liking It:

There were a fair number of boring chatty bits. Too much talk eating into all the time that's needed for action. I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't some Street Fighter movie and the human and inter-specie politics is every bit as essential in keeping in line with the main plot. Though I just wish they could phrase and package everything succinctly instead of beating about the bush.

Overall:

The fact that I'm waiting for Season 4 to come out and was so giddily excited when I managed to get and watch all the episodes for Season 3 must mean something. Each time the episode ends, it's with a cliffhanger and it drives me nuts to have my heart beating so fast knowing that something big is gonna happen.

Rating: 4/5 (would have been 5/5/ if not for all the chitty chatty talk)

#ANIME - Suisei no Gargantia

Suisei no Gargantia is an anime that starts off first in the future. Humans in mecha suits fighting against giant squid-like crustacean alien creatures. The synopsis for this anime on the website was a bit misleading.

The story begins in the distant future in the far reaches of the galaxy. The Human Galactic Alliance has been constantly fighting for its survival against a grotesque race of beings called "Hidiaazu." During an intense battle, the young lieutenant Redo and his humanoid mobile weapon Chamber are swallowed up into a distortion of time and space. Waking from his artificially induced hibernation, Redo realizes that he has arrived on Earth, the planet on the lost frontier. On this planet that was completely flooded by the seas, people live in fleets of giant ships, salvaging relics from the seas' depths in order to survive. Redo arrives on one of the fleets called Gargantia. With no knowledge of the planet's history or culture, he is forced to live alongside Amy, a 15-year-old girl who serves as a messenger aboard the Gargantia fleet. To Redo, who has lived a life where he knows nothing but fighting, these days of peace continue to surprise him.

So I thought it was a story about a young pilot who was thrown out of time and space into the future, not needing to fight the squid creatures and learning to live a happy peaceful life. Boy was I wrong about that. This is one of those animes where you find yourself expecting pointless episodes after another only to find yourself drawn by the twists and turns of plot development. There are of course, the episodes where everyone's all laidback and having fun with not a care in the world. But like new anime these days, happier moments slowly turn to something more grim and even shocking. I quite like the fact that this anime surprised me and had me wanting to see the next episode because the ending ends in a cliffhanger.

Liking it:

Mecha. I love mecha. Well, most mecha-related shows. It's a bonus because the character develops and grows over the episodes and there are some issues here that can relate to real-time and not just some future fantasy. Illustration-wise, I guess you can say that it's easy on the eyes. The characters aren't drawn too badly, the mechas look reasonable enough.

Not liking it:

Maybe I wish the villains were drawn a little less cuddly. I know they're squids and all but maybe a more fearsome-looking squid? Less like snails, more like the Kaijuu in Pacific Rim. Another thing that struck me as just a little dubious is how I don't know how a mecha that was designed to work in space would be able to function and fight underwater. That's two completely and vastly different environments. Wouldn't water get into the parts? I'm also unsure as to how this mecha is powered or what it is powered by. In the future where electricity and advanced technology seems sparse and difficult to come by, there has to be something that's needed for the mechs to be able to function and move. Then again, I don't think anyone else is concerned with the technicalities. So let's just focus on the plot.

Conclusion:

Having just completed the series I can say that the ending, though a little too convenient, did manage to wrap up the anime. The series isn't long, about 13 episodes long and managed to cover and close the main plot decently enough. There's a valid explanation as to why the lead is unable to return home and why he chooses the path that he does at the end. Following which, it also successfully managed to wean him off the dependency of a mecha (sad because I kinda liked Chamber's personality, even for AI) and eventually have him lead a normal life - one where he makes his own decisions and is able to satisfy his needs and desires.

Rating: 3/5

#EXAGENCYGIRL - Virgin America shows a new way to (enjoy a safety video)

I think the last time I saw a safety video or instruction was when Cebu airline had their cabin crew dance to Lady Gaga. Now Virgin takes a more stylized approach. With the help of Jon Chu who produced Step Up 2, they created a catchy song and video routine for the in-flight safety video.

I wouldn't mind the Singapore Girls doing her thang. In fact, would rather SIA stick to their usual stuff because I hate to see the SIA girl dancing and singing because it might just seem a tad bit cheesy. Now if we're talking about budget airlines - JetStar, Air Asia, Tiger Airways - then that's a different story. I would pay attention, it'd take my mind off the discomfort of cramped narrow seating and a bumpy ride.