Joined yet another team for the 48hours film competition this year. Actually made it to the Auckland finals this time, and though we didn’t win it, we got awards for Best Character and Best Make Up, as well as a great reaction from the crowd.

Now that the finals are over, we can host the video online. Here it is!

Had a lot of fun scripting it, and working with such a talented team.

Apparently the video with the most views wins a bunch of iPhones, so feel very free to spread that link around.

Will post another blog soon. Promise.

-PChow

Flat moving

Moving flats was quite an effort. Me and Paul took a Friday off work, and pretty much spent the Friday, Saturday and Sunday carrying boxes, desks, and other various heavy things around. Angus helped on Saturday night, which was very much appreciated.

Even after moving, we had to deal with flat exit cleaning (we used JC Cleaning Services, which I would recommend) costing a hefty $650 (our apartment was pretty big).

At least we’ve finally moved into the new flat. I like my new room, and the nighttime view is gorgeous (though, during the day, I’d still prefer the harbour view from our old apartment). I have a fairly spacious room, and an extremely comfortable King sized bed.

We still have stacks of boxes to unpack, which we really should get to soon. Also, something seemed to go wrong with our Internet set up, which led to us being internet-less at home for a week (for me and Paul, this is pretty upsetting).

Poker

Being internet-less, and unable to really go out since I was on-call for work, I spent a lot of time last week playing poker at SkyCity, which is just around the corner from what I now call home.

This week went really well for me. The Lee Nelson Deepstack series was on, and as a result, the cash tables were filled with few solid regulars, and several tournament bustos (om nom nom). This made for a nice combination of easy money, and a few interesting pots.

My 5 sessions at the casino in the last week went (approximately) +$650, +$250, +$50, -$200, +$250, which ended with me up roughly $1k (these are all approximates, and it was probably a bit less than 1k).

I was pretty proud of a laydown I made. Aaron (who was a rock I was semi-familiar with) at UTG+1 raised to $13, Brett (fairly loose) called, and I (playing pretty tight at this point) raised to $39. I noticed Aaron quietly counting more chips as the rest of the table folded. Aaron eventually 4-bet to $92. UTG+2 folded. After noticing Aaron only had $80 behind, and there was no set-farm value, I quickly folded QQ face up. Aaron looked pretty shocked, and, like a gentleman, showed his KK. This sparked a pretty interesting discussion between me and Aaron on the merits of flat-calling a 3-bet with KK vs 4-betting it.

Life

The new flat is pretty good, and should be even better after we unpack everything. I have enjoyed the apartment building’s gym a couple of times late at night when nobody else was around.

Although poker in the last week has been interesting (and profitable!), I’m feeling mentally exhausted from it (as you can probably tell from the rambling nature of this post). It always takes more concentration and mental stamina to play several hour sessions than I expect. Now that I’m finally not on call, I’m looking forward to spending a few nights out to waste my profit, or a few nights in for some music practice I’ve been lacking in the last couple of weeks.

-pchow

I haven’t blogged for a while, so here’s a few updates regarding the Pearlmillverse.

Concerts

- I went to the Backstreet Boys concert last Thursday with Alicia. (I can justify going with a girl by saying she “dragged” me there.) It was the most excited crowd I’ve ever seen at a concert. I’m guessing that the Boys have never been to NZ before, so their Kiwi-teenage-girl-fanbase must have had ten-plus years of pent-up hormonal frustration to unleash.
- I went to the Lady Gaga concert last Saturday with Mary (this was a really teenybopper week for me). Again, going with a girl justifies my presence there. It was quite a spectacle; lots of elaborate dance sequences, costume changes, exciting stage props, and many memorable performances by Gaga and her troupe. The only downside was the glam rock metal band that opened for her.
- I am very keen to go to the Massive Attack concert, but don’t know anybody else who is keen as well. I also haven’t listened to their latest album yet (which I assume this concert is attempting to promote).
- I am planning to go to the John Mayer concert next month. I’d better get tickets soon!

Moving flats

I must sadly say goodbye to the Prince’s Wharf penthouse I have called “home” for the last 18 months. duF is rerolling his life in Santa Monica, so Paul and myself have decided to move into one of the H47 apartments on Hobson St.

The new place is actually pretty good, and quite spacious compared to most boxes in the CBD. I’m sure I’ll spend a week or so experimenting with various arrangements for the stuff in my room.

Poker

I’ve been watching High Stakes Poker lately, and this season’s line up looks very good. The first few episodes were kind of quiet, but the most recent episode had a lot of action.

I haven’t played too much, but I’ve had a pretty good run in the last couple of months. In the last 2 months, I’ve had three winning live sessions (+$600, +$300 and +$400) and two losing sessions (-$250, -$250). It was pretty suprising to notice that I was playing pots with over $700 in them, and not really caring at all (a year ago, $100+ pots were still a somewhat scary notion for me). Being desensitized to money is probably a good attribute for a poker player, but I sometimes wonder if I’m now lacking some healthy respect for money.

I’ve played a few online sessions in the last couple of weeks, which were roughly +$60, -$80, +$100, -$50 respectively. As you can see, I’ve found online poker to be a much tougher field to get money from.

In one particularly crazy pot in a live game, I had raised pre-flop, c-bet the flop, and check-raised all-in on the turn. I had flopped trips, and my opponent had insta-called the check-raise all-in with AK (no pair, no draw). I was pretty worried by the insta-call, but it’s interesting to see how light some people will call a “sneaky Asian” like me.

Other things

- Work has given me an iPhone recently, and I don’t ever remember having been as obsessed about a gadget since my Nintendo Gameboy.
- There’s unofficial talk of work sending me back to Santa Monica in some weeks. Should be exciting!
- I’ve been playing a lot of card/board games with the Burns-Prestidge’s lately. I have gotten a lot of appreciation for card/board games, as there are usually more interesting tactics/strategies involved than in a lot of PC/console games.

That’s all I can think of right now. Will attempt to blog more frequently in future.

-pchow

Even though I don’t blog often, I’m working on some updates to the website. I’ve upgraded Wordpress, and am currently working on re-doing the skin and adding a new section.

I haven’t been writing much lately, primarily because I usually can’t be bothered fleshing out an entire post about anything I’d want to post about. Henceforth, all sub-140-character updates will be posted via Twitter. I’ve updated the blog to include a list of my most recent 8 tweets and the 4 most recently listened to tracks that last.fm knows of, although I haven’t actually used the scrobbler since January (if I had, my most recently listened to tracks would primarily consist of Kings of Leon). I probably should use the scrobbler more often, just for last.fm’s datamining purposes.

-pchow

I’ve been following some of the WSOP 2009. Negreanu cashed in 2nd place at Event 14 – $2500 Six-handed Limit Hold ‘em. Phil Ivey won Event 8 – $2,500 No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw. One of the exciting turning points was when it got down to heads up:

$2,500 No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw
Blinds 5,000/10,000
Monette (SB): 604,000
Ivey (BB): 506,000

John Monnette raised to 30,000 and Phil Ivey called. Ivey drew two and Monnette took one. Ivey checked and Monnette fired 45,000. Ivey counted out some chips and studied Monnette with his eyes darting and mouth wide open — the famous Ivey pose. Ivey then called and Monnette nodded as Ivey showed an ace low for the best hand.

Very sick soul read.

-pchow