Man, it has been raining in LA recently. We had the closest thing to a downpour that I can remember yesterday, and I was loving it. I dearly miss the thunderstorms of the Midwest from my day's long ago living in Illinois. There is nothing that can make you feel as small as a storm like that. When the glass is rattling in it's own pane, and lightning shoots down to strike a tree in your yard, you are reminded that you are merely a visitor on this little patch of ground that you reside. We don't really get that here in California, but I gotta settle for what I can get...

I've had a couple of days to rest up here at home before splitting for Borgata this weekend. I wish I had a few more to just relax. It seems that I am conflicted these days between being a poker player and being a business owner. Both are a blast, so I'm not sure which will win out in the end. I can tell you one thing though, I can understand why the players who have gotten involved with the business side of poker no longer play as much online poker; it is just way too damn hard to try and run a company and actually play competently in the few spare moments you have to do so. Despite that, I'ma try to do both for now. It's just too damn much fun.

We have a ton of cool stuff coming down the pipeline on PokerRoad, so as usual, stay tuned. It's going to get even more exciting as we get to doing even more things that you guys are going to dig. Life is good on the 'Road...

On a completely unrelated note, I saw "The 11th Hour" on the flight back from Australia and it really affected me. It's a pseudo-documentary on the environment and people's role in shaping it. I have always given money to Greenpeace and Surfrider foundation, two groups who try and make an impact on the insanity that our world leaders have deemed fit to run our world, but you always feel like you should be doing more, and the fact of the matter is that we all should be. The Earth is sick and has been for some time, but we just refuse to change the way that we live. It's like some sort of mass suicide, like a morbid "don't ask, don't tell" policy that we will all have to deal with at some point in the near future.

At any rate, the final quote of that movie has stuck with me, said by Oren Lyons of the Onondaga Nation...

"It will regenerate. The rives, the waters, the mountains; everything will be green again. Because the Earth has all the time in the world. But we don't. Love the place you live in."

We don't love the places we live in. We abuse the places we live in. Seemingly until they are gone.

All of that then got me thinking of another movie quote, this one much more popular...

"I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet."
-Agent Smith, from "The Matrix"

Now, I'm not saying that we actually are a virus on the planet, but it kinda makes you think a little bit, doesn't it?

Anyway, that's what I have been thinking about, my peeps...

peace,
J