you can do magic, trumpy!

Anne is out of town visiting relatives, and the kids are at their dad's, so this has been 48 hours of pretty much non-stop movies, video games, and bacheloresque goofing off, the likes of which haven't been seen in ages.

Friday night, I started with Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie, and logically followed it up with the MST3K version of Pod People.

Yesterday, I met up with my friend Ryan and saw 300 at the Chinese. Man, I'd forgotten what a complete freak show that whole area is on a weekend; I really need to do some sort of audio diary + photo essay + travelogue on the area between Fairfax and Wilcox one day.

300 was one of the greatest comic book adaptations I've ever seen. The only other movie that comes to mind as such a faithful live action version of the book is Sin City. It's flawed, but still a lot of fun, I thought.

After the movie, we met Ryan's wife for dinner at a fantastic Japanese restaurant on Highland and Franklin called Shintaro. Ryan and I ate our respective weights in sushi, and it was awesome. If you're ever in the area, and you are into this sort of thing, their dragon roll and spicy tuna hand rolls were fantastic, but the thing that totally blew my mind was this thing they call the Hamapeno, which is yellowtail sashimi with jalapenos in an oh-my-god sauce. If you've never eaten food in your life that makes you want to hug yourself, this could be a perfect place to start.

After dinner, I took the subway home (yes, I am as shocked as anyone that the subway in Los Angeles got me close enough to my final destination to be the preferred method of travel, rather than a novelty. It also meant that I could enjoy some Nigori sake with dinner. Awesome.) and after apologizing to my dogs for being out all afternoon and much of the evening, played some poker at PokerStars.

I did a few heads up matches, a couple of sit-n-goes, and then the night got interesting when I decided, against all better judgment, to play a huge MTT that started at midnight.

I'll spare you the hand histories, and I'm really too wiped out to recap the whole thing anyway . . . because I was up until 3:30 in the morning, navigating my way through 770 entrants to finish 25th!

Check it out:

PokerStars Tournament #45992475, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
770 players
Total Prize Pool: $7700.00 
Tournament started - 2007/04/01 - 03:01:00 (ET)

Dear Wil Wheaton, 

You finished the tournament in 25th place.
A $38.50 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

The 38.50 is lousy money for over three hours of time investment, and not even half of what I won playing the sit-n-goes, but that's totally not the point. Making it so deep in such a huge field was a much greater reward. In fact, if my QQ had held up against 44 (he rivered a straight against me), I probably could have made the final table, where the real money was.

And now I get to sip some coffee before I clean up the house a little bit and -- oh, who am I kidding? It's all about the couch and the DVD player today.

Comments

[Matthew J. Sanderson]

"You can do magic THINGS."

Yeah, great, the first comment is a criticism. Super. :) Coincidentally, I was just planning on watching that episode later this evening. Nothing else productive to say, sadly, as poker and sushi are a little outside my range of expertise. And, what, no lame April Fool's prank? *peer pressure*

[starshine_diva]

Yes, it has been a pig-out weekend for me as well... But because homework just takes so much time! Two more weeks...

And if you lived in downtown Montreal, you'd walk or take the metro over driving any day!

[Kel]

Sounds like a great bachelor-type weekend. :)

[AngryDan]

Going on record as saying that Pod People is the best episode of MST3K, second only to Hand of Manos.

[Amber J]

Indeed, Manos, Hands of Fate was a great MST3K episode as well. I think the restaurant I work at felt bad that I was working 6 days a week and gave me 4 days off in a row, and I've been living the life of laziness. Lazy trip to the mall, lazy days playing video games, lazy sleeping in... Tuesday will make me sad when it comes. (Also, I saw Blades of Glory on Friday night... amazingly better than the commercials lead me to believe it'd be.) Yay lazy days!

[BenPaddon.co.uk]

I've just finished three whole months of lazy goofing off and I'm now working again. So... do I win, or what?

Well done with the Poker, even if the game does bore me into a hypnotic stupor.

[lornadoone]

OK, this makes me wonder about the difference between men and women. My husband has been out of town for four days, and I've had no DVDs or dinners with friends. Instead, I've cleaned the fridge, planted seeds, moved stuff around in the garage, sold stuff on Craigslist, worked, made business calls and dozens (literally) of other things from my two-page long to-do list. While you are seizing your opportunity to get in some much-deserved leisure time, I've seized mine to get stuff done without tripping over someone else!

[Gilder]

Some women are action-oriented self-starters (points at LornaDoone), some would just as soon settle down with a good book or with TV and the latest crochet project (points at self).

Hey, Wil...Today I saw the final cut of an indie film I worked on two years ago. Thankfully, I only had one scene...!

Gilder in San Antonio

[Kato]

It behooves me to say: "Trumpy, you can do stupid things!"

IMHO, 300 did not disappoint.

[thirtyhelens]

Between Fairfax and Wilcox? I live between Fairfax and La Brea and it's pretty sleepy residential hub-bub. Okay, except for the odd 2 a.m. speed demon who plows into a fire hydrant and sets off Old Faithful right in front of my bedroom window. (True story.) But we ain't got nothing on "the 'Vard" ;)

[heatherr]

I just saw "Trinity and Beyond..." the other night. I had no idea so many atomic bombs had been set off. It made me feel sick and sad. I guess the world just stood by and watched. With the right spin you can get away with anything.

[One Salient Oversight]

The only problem with "Trinity and Beyond" is that the narrator is WFS!

I watched "Dead Man" the other night. Wonderful film. Post modern western... one of Depp's and Jarmusch's best.

[David Knighton]

Pod People is one of the funniest MST3K episodes EVER. PERIOD! "Carbon scoring all over my droid."

Agree on 300 as well. Saw it today. That movie was so tight and well done...I've never seen anything like it. The cinematography of the battle sequences was just incredible.

[Athol_Wolverine]

You sound like my younger brother when you talk about the couch and DVD player on a Sunday afternoon or evening. Too funny.

[MikeN]

Pepperidge Farm remembers! Pepperidge Farm Remembers!

[Drev]

I'm sure it's not lost on anyone here that 300 and Sin City are both Frank Miller's doing.

I've seen both movies, but have read neither graphic novels. I really should. Nonetheless, it's very refreshing to see such artistic and stylistic films in the diluted mainstream of the medium.

[cfauteux]

Hey there Wil. Just stumbled upon your blog while I was checking out some Trek stuff. Man the memories you've given us are great! You up to any acting lately? I produce a Star Trek spoof up here in Canada and we'd love to have you appear in it, spoken visually...anything. So if you're interested, drop me a note. Our show is called Star Track. Check out our site at
www.goldenmediastudios.com
We've got a great fan following and we're trying to get the word out there. Any help would be appreciated! Keep on blogging!

[Thirstigard P. Snippity]

The one episode of MST3K that has always stuck with me is Wild Rebels from season one or two. At its best, MST3K was a juggernaut of sarcasm.

"Two paths diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not take my hog down both"

[mrfrodothefluffy]

Omg, I never thought I would see/hear anyone else talking about Pod People.

+3 Cool points for you.
....and a cookie!

[jorenko]

Speaking of comic book movie adaptations, you may have heard, but the director behind 300 is doing Watchmen. Rejoice. (I was secretly hoping that this was the big project you were on about last week, but oh well.)

[BrainMc]

I'm in total agreement about watching DVD's and staying up late when the opportunity arrives. When my wife goes out of town, I rent the loudest action movie I can find and my dog wisely heads downstairs while I watch stupid shit on the big screen upstairs. I eat take out and live in "the room" for the weekend. Then when it's time to go to bed, something on some HD channel completely sucks me in and next thing I know, it's in the AM and I know way too much about praying mantises.

[Mad Monk]

I kept waiting for the part when you consumed copious amounts of beer?

[pat]

Hey I live on Wilcox - if you make it that far try Kung Pao Kitty - low key nice people and great food.
I agree there is weirdness in the area but I guess you get used to it.

[BobApril]

Hey, Wil,

I've been a bit lax about following the news on the subject - but aren't there currently some legal issues surrounding online poker for real money here in the States? Are you sure it's wise to publically state that you played - let alone to be sponsoring a game? My concern is not for you breaking a ridiculous law, but for any punishment that might come down on you as a result. When officers of a non-U.S. corporation that runs Internet Poker get arrested upon arriving at a U.S. airport...you're even easier to find. You might want to run this one past your attorney!

[Chris Kessel]

BobApril - playing poker hasn't been made illegal. The US has just made it harder for US customers to get money into the bank.

Think of it this way, they didn't make driving illegal, but made it illegal to purchase gas...

Wil, on a MTT note. Try the satellites (WSOP/Sunday million/etc). The competition is pathetically bad (especially in rebuys) and the payout structure is completely flat, so if you're in the top 15% or so you typically make 7-10x time your buyin. Just unregister if you win a set and take the $T/$W to play other tourneys (or sell them). Very fun and satellite bubble play is a unique creature in poker.