Grinders Island

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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

How Full Tilt Poker Screwed Poker Players Thanks to Republicans

Posted on 6:13 AM by Unknown
I actually went to my old work yesterday.  They hired me back for like 1 day a week or whatever.  So yesterday was the day I was trying to remember my old phone number and get passwords and remember to plug in LAN connections.   One day a week ain't bad.


In fact it seems all the people Walker tried to get rid of are now double dipping.  Schools are hiring back teachers because they can not find replacements and so forth. So instead of hiring new people to replace the old people, there are not enough trained new people. 


BTW - did you see that it seems many of the jobs Walker said he created are actually OUTSIDE the State of Wisconsin?  It's almost like he was not telling the truth or something.


But you can't get totally mad at Republicans (of course you can but follow along).  11 years ago Republicans were all anal about online poker because the Christian right Tea Partiers (before they were formally called Tea Party) believed poker was evil.


The Republicans wanted to shut down all online poker because it was not regulated.  After passing a bill which basically DID shut it down online poker (and took $10,000 a year out of my pocket).  They made it illegal for banks to accept poker money . . . like a bank could tell it was poker money.  So what happened was that Neteller, a very very large  AND SAFE bank in England was shut down to Americans.


So with only a few places still open to Americans we were forced to leave our money IN the online sites instead of transferring the money to safety.  But recently it was getting harder to get money INTO the online sites (I had not tried to get money INTO a site since 2001 . . didn't have to it was always coming out).


WELL - It seems one major online site.  Full Tilt WAS CROOKED.  It was a giant ponzi scheme that the Republicans forced poker players to partake in.


The problem started with getting money INTO a poker room. Full Tilt could not get accept money into their accounts, HOWEVER, it wanted business, so it just SAID the money was in the accounts so people could play.


So Full Tilt had hundreds of millions of dollars in virtual money that people were playing with.  When someone wanted to cash out they would us OTHER peoples money. Except all of a sudden everyone wanted their money.  $300 million is owed to American players.  Meanwhile the people running the company were pulling out tens of millions of dollars a month.  In fact $444 million were paid to owners and partners while payouts were not being processed.



Lawyers say it was not a ponzi scheme . . . it was just bad management.  PokerStars the rivel was having the same problem getting money from US players but instead of saying "yea we got it trust us" they said - "sorry no money no playing"


The whole problem as with all ponzi schemes is what happens when everybody wants their money at once.


So while Republicans sort of had the right idea saying money COULD be stolen, they totally screwed Americans with how they attempted to fix the problem.  They actually CREATED the problem by closing all of the SAFE places to store money. 


And these guys think they have a better idea on financials?
 --------------------------------

Columbus had another 0.42 inches of rain yesterday and combined with the 0.72 inches the day before we are pretty soaked. Madison has had twice that amount. This LOW system has been siting over Wisconsin for about a week now and if you have been watching, a 50 wide 200 mile slash down the middle of Wisconsin has been some of the coldest weather in America.

Also of note is "weather forecast slippage". This is a really hard part of the year for forecasting. The battle between good and evil, summer and winter has begun. The week long predictions for the most part are pretty good but there has been nothing to push the low away. There is a cold front not even on the west coast yet that is now suppose to push it away. We will see.
-------------------

Ticket for the Nebraska/Wisconsin game are going for $400 a ticket on ebay. Did playing high school teams and technical schools really help UW prepare for Nebraska? This is a totally different animal. The College football world will be in Madison this weekend.  The game of the week in America.

--------------------

Last weekend I was at the International Wooden Boat Show. This was the first time the show has ever been in Wisconsin and WOW, were there some amazing boats on Lake Geneva. Most were built in the 30s and 40.  I walked around all day Saturday snapping photos and now have the task of preparing all 300 for viewing. 





 
The boat above was the first boat to ever go 100mph. It was built in the early 30s   Huge engines.  The cool thing here is that the owner was able to fire up it's engines from this dock and have it on the trailer in 42 seconds.  He demonstrated it.  You can't tell from this shot but it's 33 feet long!

In fact that was one of the odd things.  As he left the dock and turned left so we could see the broad side people gasped at it's length.  They built boats very long back then.  At the end of the day there was a boat parade with over 130 antique boats!  AWESOME!!!

You can see more at Rod Melotte dot com,  I'll be slowly putting more and more shots out there.  

------------------------------

Watched Pan Am last night - excellent show - not like anything else on TV and I liked it.   Check it out or record it for something different.

Have a great day today!

Rod
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Thursday, September 22, 2011

I LIKE TV!!

Posted on 5:57 AM by Unknown
This weekend I'm attending the International Boat Show in Lake Geneva BUT DON'T WORRY - I'll be in front of the TV for the Packers!!

I've been reading a lot about Nick Collins injury - scary stuff. One report said "If you look at the replay tape carefully, you will see a slight bend in Collins' neck when he impacts Stewart. That type of involuntary motion to the neck, delivered by an impact at speed, can cause a narrowing of the spinal canal and permanently increase the risk of paralysis from a recurring injury".

I doubt we will ever see Nick Collins play football again which . . for HIM this is a good thing. The average life expectancy of an NFL player is 55 years. Collins is very very lucky he was not paralyzed.

Looking at the injury list is crazy with Packer/former Packers/Badger players

Lee Evans
Aaron Kampman (again)
Al Harris
Jim Leonhard
Josh Bidwell

Before people get all worried about the Packer defense. ALL the NFL teams are having trouble. This looks like Canadian football. Green Bay is ranked 20th in Defense efficiency right behind Minnesota after 2 games. The Bears are 17th. BUT the Packers are #2 on offense and actually #1 in rushing offense. #1 you ask? The reason is that when the Packers rush they ALWAYS achieve their goal. It's not quantity yard but quality yards.

The Bears? #29 on offense.
-------------------------------------

TV - I LIKE TV.

2 Broke Girls is pretty good with some peppy repartee' and an interesting story.


If you have a chance it's a nice comedy. I liked Unforgettable



New Girl - I have always liked Zooey Deschanel but for some reason the show did not make it for me - she was good and I'll have to watch episode #2 as pilots (not piglets) are always a little over the topish with acting.

I have not see Person of Interest or Terra Nova yet. 

Of course the BIG news on TV is that this is the last week for All My Children and it's been interesting to see how they are all coming together and saying good bye to people that have been in our homes for 40 years!

One last TV thing - the rock group Cake. What a bunch of ass holes they are. I saw them on the Audience Channel and I tell ya - the lead singer is just a POS in my book.
-------------------------------

Have a great day.

Rod
-----------------
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Monday, September 19, 2011

HARRRRRR!!

Posted on 6:21 AM by Unknown
HARRRR - It's international  talk like a pirate day and as Cap'n Slappy says:

Thar be only three pirate jokes in the world. The biggest one is the one that ends with someone usin' "Arrr" in the punchline. Oh, sure, thar be plenty o' these, but they're all the same damn joke.

"What's the pirate movie rated? - Arrr!"
"What kind o' socks does a pirate wear? - Arrrrgyle!"
"What's the problem with the way a pirate speaks? - Arrrrticulation!"


The second joke is the one wear the pirate walks into the bar with a ships wheel attached to the front o' his trousers. The bartender asks, "What the hell is that ships wheel for?" The pirate says, "I don't know, but it's drivin' me nuts!"  ARRRRRRR! 


And finally. A little boy is trick or treatin' on Halloween by himself. He is dressed as a pirate. At one house, a friendly man asks him, "Where are your buccaneers?" The little boy responds, "On either side o' me 'buccan' head!"   ARRRRRRR!!   


-------------------------------------------------------


Then thar be Micheal Vick! He got slapped last night in the noggon and he be out with a concussion! Oddly no one is really sad about this.

Sad are the Packer Corner backs by giving up 800 yards this year so far. No worries - it's early.BUT - this is an extreme year for the NFL - look at Brady who is putting up video game numbers!
----------------------------------------------------------

The weather was good for  half the weekend and Saturday we went on the Down Syndrome walk.  Here is a shot of Caydence being herself.  She had a great time even though she is getting over a cold.


A funny thing happened to Josh.  He applied for Channel 15's Biggest Loser contest and got in (even though he is not 700 pounds or anything)

WELL - as told by him they are at the initial weight-in and get to meet their personal trainers.  The first 4 contestants meet their trainers and they are buff guys that shake hands and ask normal questions.  Then it's time for Josh's trainer.

Out steps this HUGE RIPPED WILD EYED AMAZON WOMAN.  She looks him in the eye and says  YOU, ME, WE ARE GOING TO WIN THIS THING, I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU HURT AND WHEN WE'RE DONE WORKING OUT TWO HOURS A DAY I'M GOING TO TAKE YOU GROCERY SHOPPING AND IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO COOK THE FOOD I TELL YOU TO EAT I'LL TEACH YOU!

all said in a somewhat intimidating scary way.

Let's just say something about his work outs - his REST period, is running on a treadmill (seriously).

And BTW - I guess there is no food pyramid anymore?   It's not a "Food Plate".  this is the new "Food Pyramid".    

Notice there is no spoon or knife and I can not find where the cake would go.
---------------------------------------------

Nice amount of rain yesterday and this morning.  Columbus received 0.51 inches of good soaking rain.  In another weird thing - we are at 59 degrees for 18 straight hours.

But here is so real news - the first prediction for snowfall has arrived.  We are heading into the 2nd straight year of La Niña and the NOAA prediction, based on previous results from back to back La Niña's, is that we will have below average snow fall.

Here are the last six winters.

2005 - 47.9 inches
2006 - 55.1
2007 - 101.4
2008 - 72.0
2009 - 51.6
2010 - 73.1
2011 - 43.8
Average - 50.9

------------------------------------------------

I was in Milwaukee with Karl and Jody last Thursday and took a bunch of photos,  here is one of a lion in front of the Bradley Foundation house.


also a statue shot which I loved because of what was behind it.



We all know who this is right?


And finally a Milwaukee street scene. 


In my pools I have two pools where "in the long run" it would be nice for the Giants to lose tonight - but in one pool I need the Giants to win so I can win the week.  

Have a great day! 

Rod
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Friday, September 16, 2011

Brewers - win going away!!

Posted on 6:38 AM by Unknown
THAT was close - I wrote a small blog yesterday before I took off to Milwaukee - I had made a comment about the laundromat burning down (at least that was the report I received) but now I hear a DRYER caught fire and it was extinguished with a fire extinguisher. That is MUCH different the the "laundromat is engulfed in flames".

We have a Cuisinart coffee maker which started spilling over the sides (I think I told you about this once but it's the prolog to another thought). I guess you have to soak the TOP of the carafe in warm soapy water every so often to clean it - ANYWAY before I found the simple fix we purchased an $8 drip coffee maker and while reading the instructions I was perplexed. Then I realized that THEY consider a cup of coffee to be like 6 ounces!! SIX OUNCES?? Why even bother!!
-------------------------
HEY - Survivor looked pretty good but I dislike Ozzie and like Coach much better. Also notice that Jeff Probts is now the Executive Producer. Why is this a big deal you say? Because in the last two Survivor's he has been the Executive Producer and in tribal council's he is allowed to steer the tribes in a certain direction.

For instance - this week John Cochran was on the block to be kicked out and Jeff steered conversations away from him and to Semhar, who was eventually kicked out. And I was happy. I noticed this a few times in the last season. Normally Jeff was pretty fair but all of a sudden I saw a change. THEN I noticed that he had become the Executive Producer. AHH HA!
-----
As I said I went to Milwaukee with Jody and Karl to see their condo. I took my camera (of course) and snapped away! I've never really walked around Milwaukee that much. I mean really explore. Seriously, what a nice city, at least in the downtown district (don't go north of 30th street).

So many people smiled at me an said high. Two older woman saw me and as I passed with my camera tripod and so forth, one said "nice equipment" I said "thanks" and then a few seconds later I said "OH, you mean my camera!". They ignored me.

It was cool for sure but in the sun it felt good. HOWEVER, Columbus was very very close to frost the other night! This would ALMOST have been a record for how soon we got frost. The record was 9/13 and on 9/14 there were patches of frost but not everywhere. We got to 34 degrees.

Back in Milwaukee the condo was nice. The condo/hotel had impressionistic prints all over in muted colors so I created the below shot.  I don't know if colors in that era were muted OR they faded over time . . . whatever.

I had an hour to walk around by myself and then Jody and Karl showed me around a bunch.  Had lunch at the Water Street Brewery.  Here is the inside of the brewery.


As I said I liked downtown Milwaukee.  I'm not going to put a lot of photos here because they can be copied to easily.  If you want to see them LIKE Melotte Photo Imagery on Facebook OR email me to get on my email list as I send out photos periodically.

In baseball the GOOD news is that Detroit lost and FINALLY Jim Leyland can change his underwear!  He was not changing until they lost.  TWELVE DAYS MAN!!!

The Brewers - here is the rest of the schedule for the Brewers WITH the opposing teams winning PCT

Cinci .493
Cinci .493
Cinci .493  should win 1.73 games
Cubs  .433
Cubs  .433
Cubs  .433 should win 1.92 games
Florida .447
Florida .447
Florida .447 should win 1.88 games
Pitts  .453
Pitts  .453
Pitts  .453  should win 1.86 games

So the Brewers SHOULD win 7.39 games of their next 12 games - the Magic Number is 8

The Cards play

Philly  .655
Philly  .655
Philly  .655
Philly  .655 should win 1.22 games
NYMets  .473
NYMets  .473
NYMets  .473 should win 1.71 games
Cubs  .433
Cubs  .433
Cubs  .433 should win 1.83 games
Hou .342
Hou .342
Hou .342  should win 2.15 games


 So the cards SHOULD win 6.91 of the next 13 games

Final Standings

Brewers  95 - 67  .586   ----
Cards      88 - 74  .543     7 games behind!

BTW - K-Rod - shut the f*ck up!!  I guess you care MORE about YOU then winning!  Would you rather play on a 4th place team as a closer or a first place team as a set-up!!   DUDE - leave - you are a free agent and you just told everybody you don't care about the team - just yourself!

Rod  
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Survivor

Posted on 7:01 AM by Unknown
Few things before I get going to Madison.

SURVIVOR - season Premier is tonight on CBS - 8:00 featuring Coach and Ozzy - WHOO HOO!  Also tonight is Big Brother 13 finale'.

A few photos of the The Pagami Creek fire in NE Minn (Boundary Waters) thanks to efudd.


 


 



Brewers - WHEW - Magic number is now 8 after Braun's walk off HR!!   WHOO HOO!!

I have fallen in love with Black IPA's  YUMMO!!!!    New Holland and Dogzilla make outstanding Black IPAs.  New Glarus has a new one, it's good but . . . .not as good as the much more expensive ones mentioned.

-------------------------------

I was doing my spread sheet for the art fair to see what sold and saw that there was a completely different set of prints sold.  Of the 19 different prints only ONE was the same as what sold in Fitchburg - weird.

OK - sorry - gotta run.

Cheers
Rod
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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

SMOKE

Posted on 9:16 AM by Unknown
The smoke you are smelling is from a HUGE forest fire in northern Minnesota way north of Duluth. it's BLUE here in Columbus.

This morning I was outside and the sky seemed weird, no clouds but weird hazy. Then about 10:00 I start smelling smoke and look outside - BLUE, wind from the north. Word is for a few days of blue-ness - you know what that means? AWESOME sunsets!!

Hey - you have to look at the bright side of things.
--------------------------

Football - last year opening weekend in football there were three 300 hard passers. This year? Thirteen 300 yard passers. Plus three kickoffs were returned for TDs. Most ever on opening day.

------------------------

Going to Milwaukee for some photos Thursday, I hope the smoke helps (as opposed to hurting).

I did not have anything to say but felt I should spread the word that if you have breathing problems in the past - JUST WAIT until this smoke hits you!

Just found something - since March 1st

I have and 1891 visitors (not page hits but actual bodies)from California read this blog - the 3rd most of any state.

582 from Germany
15 from Iran

Wyoming is the least amount from one State 19 (and I like Wyoming) I get more from Delaware then from Wyoming. I had more from Esfahan Iran then from Wyoming!

-------------

This site really makes me want to take Amtrak cross country!

Lee Rantz Photography




Cheers!

Rod
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Monday, September 12, 2011

The Aba Daba Honeymoon

Posted on 6:36 AM by Unknown
So far the featured games of the year (Monday Night football on Thursday and Monday Night Football on Sunday Night) have been outstanding nail biters. The Dallas game last night was SWEET. Even my Dallas friends say Dallas has great talent but STILL are dumb as doorknobs! They continually shoot themselves in the foot and once again - BAM.

Camp Randall 1914
I know nothing about the Wisconsin game this week but at the Art Fair people were telling me I MUST get photos of Camp Randall (did you know that Camp Randall was named Governor Alexander Randall, who later became Postmaster General of the United States.

The photo on the right is Camp Randall in 1914 - I'm pretty sure "Jump Around" would have been frowned upon.  (The "Jump Around" tradition started on Saturday, October 10, 1998). 

I believe on the photo they are all singing the 1914 hit song by Arthur Fields "The Aba Daba Honeymoon" the words are below:

’Way down in the Congoland
Lived a happy chimpanzee,
She loved a monkey with a long tail,
(Lordy, how she loved him!)
Each night he would find her there,
Swinging in the cocoanut tree,
And the monkey gay, at the break of day,
Lived to hear his Chimpie say: 
 
“Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Said the Chimpie to the Monk,
“Baba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Said the Monkey to the Chimp.
All night long they’d chatter away,
All day long they were happy and gay,
Singing and swinging in their hunky, tonkey way.
“Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Means “Monk, I love but you,”
“Baba, daba, dab,” is monkeytalk,
means “Chimp, I love you too,”

 WELL - I can see how that would put the crowd in a frenzy!!


I'm pretty sure it was not thew other hit song "Back Back Back to Indiana".

Funny thing about  "Jump Around".  On September 6, 2003 UW officials decided to cancel the "Jump Around" and Stadium security and the local police department had been informed of this decision. Yet no one told the students.  When the 4th quarter started the students realized that there was no "Jump Around".  Then the entire section sat down in protest, raises their middle fingers and started chanting "FUCK THE SOUND GUY FUCK THE SOUND GUY" Chanting and booing continued through the majority of the fourth quarter. (oh those crazy kids)

Two days later when engineers confirmed that the stadium would suffer no structural damage and after a huge petition was circulated the Chancellor announced that the "Jump Around" tradition would resume and all, once again, was right with the world.

------------------------------

Then there is the Brewers - never fear.  The only thing to fear is the fact that against powerhouse pitching they have problems, but look, the Phillies did not really do that well either.  All the games against the Cards and Phillies were low scoring.  The Brewers will win the division and then in short 7 game series anything can happen.

--------------------------------

Art Fair in Sun Prairie was very good.  25% better then last year in sales (same weather, same spot, same Badger game, everything was the same).  Oddly and ONCE AGAIN, what sold in Fitchburg (Vince) did not even get glances Saturday.  I wonder if everyone was in a Badger mood.  Another thing I have noticed is that strangers are knowing how I am. They come up and call me by name and I don't have a clue who they are.  Anyway, all is much better then good on the Art Fair Circuit.

Another surprise was the submarine photos  - who knew they would be an attraction.  I did know that I was probably the only artist that had WWII Sub photos!  One guy purchased a print and told me he was stationed on a Boomer in the 60s (I thought that was WAY WAY awesome. . . a BOOMER.  Boomers were the nuke subs that could take out a nation . . as opposed to Hunter Killers that could only take out Boomers).   Another old guy was the radio man in older subs.  A tattoo artist loved the forward torpedo photo and purchased one saying it would make an outstanding tattoo.


 --------------------------------

I don't think DJ will win money this week on her awesome $20 football pool put on by a church (there were legal problems with "pool" and the name is now a "sweepstakes"!  Each week she gets 3 random NFL teams.  Add all the points scored and she COULD winn $500 a week.  This week she had Houston (34) which seemed promising but then she had San Diego and Carolina( 24 & 21).  Not going to make the cut.  MAYBE 5th place but the Dallas/NYJ game hurt her.  There has to be a TON of people in this pool, 17 weeks, 3 random teams  $1000 a week given away.  All for $20.

---------------------------------

Have a great week and get those fire places ready - high Thursday will be in the middle 50s  BRRRRR!

Rod
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