Online Poker. Have you heard about it? Have you tried it?

Late last night, after a second glass of martini, I have found myself staring at my computer screen with nothing to do. I was bored, and so, I clicked on an online poker banner.

I always thought that online poker is a good way to lose money. It turns out that it's a great way to lose money!

I opened a free account at pokerstars.com. Had a few runs of play money (as opposed to real money) poker. Went good! Man, was I hot. I tripled my chips, and it only took me about half an hour.

So I was thinking, 200% profits in half an hour. That's a good investment, ain't it? That's when I drew my credit card, clicked on "cashier" and bought a hundred bucks, that's 100$ (I wish I could lose a "0", but I don't want to lie to my faithful readers) of real money chips.

At first I got lucky, I'll give you that. I had a full-house, I went heavily in and took back some nice profits.

Tragically, what seemed at first as beginner's luck quickly became beginner's disaster. Encouraged by my intial success, I went all in in my next hand. I was missing a card to complete a flush, and I thought, what the heck – the odds are not that bad. Well, bad or not, that card didn't came. Congratulations, whomever took my dough from me.

I figured that my losses are simply the result of my reckless game, going all in like that. Again, I wish it weren't so but I bought 100$ more, this time promising myself that I will go easy on it.

And that is just what happened: This time, it took me four hours, not two minutes, to lose the 100$.

So, final check: 200$ lost in four hours and two minutes.

Cheers!

Thoughts about MMORPG addiction

The internet allows gaming possibilities that couldn't otherwise exist. I'm talking about MMORPGs - Massive Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Games. These are roleplaying games much like D&D, only that they are played over the internet, along with people from all around the world. The two most prominent examples are Everquest (nowadays less popular) and WoW - World of Warcraft.

I had my own personal experiences with these kind of games, back in the days when they were still only text-based (MUDs). I remember these games very fondly.

Nowadays, though, you often hear about how dangerously addictive they are. Many fine young lads have lost their lives due to overgaming, apparently. This is just one out of many examples.

One might add that these losses occurred mainly in Southeast Asia. Makes you wonder.

Anyway, with all the reports about casualties, socially malfunctioning teenage addicts, etc, I really wonder: Is it the MMORPGs? Are they really this incredible threat to society? National security? Humanity?

Personally, I don't think so. The truth is that people die all the time because they develop obsessions for habits that are otherwise just plainly fun, or even healthy and beneficial. According to wikipedia, it appears that hundreds die every year due to overworking. Many more all over the world die due to over-eating. Should we regard food and work as dangerous and unhealthy activities?

I argue that it's the very same case with MMORPGs. Many people play them without developing any addiction whatsoever. On the other hand, it allows the gamer to communicate, sometimes meaningfully, with people from different cultures and backgrounds. And it can also be just great fun!
TDXT92WRHVT7

Top Movie Reviews sites

Without saying a word about illegally downloading movies from the internet, many of us like to enjoy a good movie every now and then.

Myself, I tend to get quite busy. That's why if I make the time to watch a movie, I want to be sure that my time is spent wisely. Strange as it may seem, when I watch a movie, i'd like it to be a good movie.

So, I surf to one of the many movie reviews sites and check it out. Reviews are very likely to be found even for the newest of movies.

Here are my favourite sites:
1. RottenTomatoes.com
Rotten Tomatoes is extremely comprehensive and very easy to navigate, and it includes online reviews from authors that are certified members of various writing guilds or film critic associations. You can search for a movie by title, by actor, director, etc.
Notice the different parameters for each movie: There is the tomatometer, the certified fresh tag, the audience's opinion and the "top critics" tomatometer.
Also, I like it's design. Fun to surf in that.
2. RogerEbert.com
Roger Ebert is perhaps the most well known film critic in the world. Regardless of that, I usually find his reviews very accurate and very in tune with my own likings and opinions. I dig his taste, if you may.
Notice his site has the ordinary reviews and the "great movies" section.
3. Metacritic.com
Metacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. In that sense, it is more generally "useful" than the above sites. It is somewhat similar to rotten tomatoes, but with less cool design and a different scoring method. Safest would be to check the movie both at rotten tomatoes AND here.

So, choose wisely and have fun!