FINDING PENNYS

My Grandpa was an amazing man. I was his only grandchild and he treated me as such. There is nothing I could do on earth that could thank him for what he gave me. Simply an angel. The guy was a little crazy too however although he was never even close to the degen that I am. Well I used to spend every summer with him in Ohio. Wow these were great times (thank you Grandma toooooo!). I will never forget this but my Grandpa after his retirement loved, was even fixated on finding free money and collecting it (never spending it – I think my Grandma still has his stash – God rest his soul [or whatever higher power you believe in).Well some how I inherited this sickness (although I spend mine probably the same day I get – stupid city). I work in Santa Monica which happens to be high traffic shopping and errands area that has a tremendous amount of metered parking. Everyday a take a walk for about an hour mostly traveling to the post office and then the goodwill and then the grocery store which are conveniently centered around a nice little loop of eye candy and items to unwrap. Well I obsessively check around the meters and the people make it ran with pennies (and oh yes I sometimes even find nickels and dimes). Since pennies do not work in the meter there are a few people a day (at the least) who decided the pennies they are have are more annoying than having to go to boring business meeting (and believe me that is beyond boring) and leave the remains for weird degenerate scavengers such as myself. This is not from my Grandpa but often when I pick up a penny I hear this voice (I think it is my dads) that says a penny saved is a penny earned (which is some famous quote that I wish I could props to the original naysayer). Anyways if there a point to the whole story is: For the people is there is a whole bunch of free money out there just keep your eyes open for it and for me the point is that I think I am the only person that can lose a couple thousand a day gambling and not even think 3 times about it (oh I do think and sometimes cry twice about it) and then be hunting for pennies the next with finding a pennies and gleefully spending them as one of the only thoughts on my mind.

So this is the best time of the year. Basketball, football and hockey of geeez does it get any better. I am absolutely crushing hockey this year and will soon dabble in some football and with 10,000% guarantee I will be basketball picking like the champion that I am and well the Las Vegas Kid and Smalls Buffet will put a many grand breaking the sports book theories to the test (see previous posts for the background of these profound young men). Well Minnesota crushed (what feels like ages ago, a few days and I promise the blog updates are going to be coming frequently and with the heat – thanks for reading all!!!!!!!!!!!!) and my public record is looking gorgeous.

W/L (Wins/Loses) 4 -1 R/R (Risk/Reward Ratio) 6.38/5.3 Total Winnings 3

Well I am breaking from logical thinking as I often do and am trying to make a pick (proceed with caution) that goes against my rational sports betting strategy. I am a degen what can I say. I look for any opportunity to get in the action and let my competitive spirit and disgusting disregard for money overtake my well layed out life rules. For those normal it is not a good idea to bet on sports in diverse leagues if there are only a few games – in this case two) that are being played (when a typical night or busy night includes 7+ games). Simply put the odds makes are too good and with only two games going you can be assured the ish is going to be very close with little value being found in soft lines due to a vast amount of data and analytical need.

Dallas (4-4-2) +115 at Chicago -125 (3-3-3)

PICK DALLAS +115

Reasons why:

-Dallas has there defensive groove back. One of the best defensive teams in the league and after an abysmal start they are looking good in the defensive crease.

-First game of a long road trip for Dallas. They are energized and all any professional wants to do on a LONG road-trip (even if it includes the boardroom (maybe the bedroom?)) is get off (maybe in more ways then 1 – think of every pun you can and make it intended). Bottom line first road game for a team starting to play there best defensive and all around hockey of the year is solid gold.

-Great value. Positive money on a better team. Can not beat that.

-I have to win. I am trying to even out my risk/reward ratio so of course I am going to win. Power of positive thinking baby!!!!!!!!!!

Some ridiculous writing is coming soon as usual so check back. I do not want to toot my own rolex but my blog will be like putting one on for the first time over and over again.  Read my previous blog post as there is some great stuff.  Read and get addicted make some money and thank me later………….

Ball out of control and as usual you need me – HOLAAAAAAAAAAA!

The degenerate kid,

DegenaMATT

CUTTING IN LINE

You have to be one of the most vile and self-centered human beings to think it is cool or okay to cut in front of people in line. Here’s the story. At the post office the other (I go to the post office about 5 times a week and short lines are like clean air in Los Angeles [non-existent]) and I’m am doing my usual stand behind 7-10 people waiting to get helped and thinking wow I wish I was gambling with my two parents on each shoulder looking like cartoons screaming PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE drowning out all thoughts of gambling and much else. So there we eight is a company (most of the time everyone looks like they have similar thoughts as mine on their mind (we can all only speculate what the 50 + people are thinking that I see at the post office each week – probably a great book). So this nice 30’ish looking couple waltzes past all seven blank stares into the sea of speed that is government workers and proceed to walk up to one of the window clerks and engage them in conversation and ask them if they can have help on so and so. So the clerk as clueless (or could care less) as most govt workers do helped them without glance. It appeared they were purchasing something and the whole ordeal took around 5-10 minutes while everyone else waited. A few others were helped and I heard some one in front of me ask a post office clerk:

Lady: Hey how come you let that couple over there cut in front of every one.

Post Office Clerk: Lady I just got here. Talk to some one else (life moved on).

As the couple was done and walked by me as I was still waiting in line I tipped my hat and let them know what kind people I though they were that brought a few chuckles from those same minds that were a desert canvas not but a few moments before. The most ironic part of the whole life sequence was that I ended up being helped by the person that helped the people who cut in front of me. I knew the post office clerk well (know most all of them) so I kept my trap shut. Good game Matt and good game life.

So the cutting in line topic is near in dear to my heart as I intend very shortly to finally complete a book of which is a compilation of short essays that teach individual life lessons on what to/not to do (etiquette for the degenerate). If you think my blog writing is a little sideways these essays are crooked and zig zagged at best.

Signing off for today as I need to get my hockey pick in.

Chicago (3-2-3) +140 at Minnesota -150 (5-0-1)

PICK MINNESOTA –150

Reasons why:

-Minnesota is coming off an overtime loss. They are hungry and ready to win (I have made this play already a few times but pick a really good team off a loss or two. This has been working like a charm on a Random basis so far).

-Minnesota has not had a regular time loss. They are good very good and Chicago is mediocre at best.

-Minnesota’s goalie Niklas Backstrom is the goods. Backstrom is 11-0-1 in his past 12 decisions dating back to last season and simply put comes through lately.

-Minnesota at –150 is a good value at home in this scenario.

-I bet The Las Vegas kid a Pint of Guinness the Wild would win. So it is a must and guarantee because he is the cooler!

Holla at me with comments or if you need something in LA or if you think I can help with anything let me know.  I am here for the world.

The degenerate kid,

DegenaMATT

RANDOM

Well if/when I have time I decided to get back into a little published/paid writing for other people and projects. With one of those old school whisks I whipped up a pretty dope article on facebook applications for a buddy named Aaron at:

http://4cweb.blogspot.com

Hopefully I can do more work for this site and I have got some great ideas (Aaron break out the check book and holla at ur boy!). More alternative writing work to come as well (a nice break from the degeneracy that is me).

So I decided to post a whole bunch of random thoughts this Sunday to allow my brain to rest. We will back to all business on Monday and I can assure you with 0% certainty that this will happen. So lets get random:

My top five greatest gamblers of all time in order of importance:

-Chip Reese (#1 Gambler of all time) (no on truly knows how amazing he was at all things gambling and to top it off he was and amazing friend and family man. This man could gamble sports like no other)

-Stu Unger (#2 Gambler of all time) (some great dvd’s and books on his story. Stories about Stuey leave me speechless time and time again – The dvd High Roller The Stu Ungar Story by Michael Imperioli was okay (my wife and I enjoyed watching it but it was not like watch it 5 times good although we do own it and would recommend it as a one time watch as it gives a decent glimpse into the life that was probably Stueys.). In the book Aces and Kings by Michael Kaplan and Brad Reagan a good story emerges about both of the

great heavy weights above (although Chip slowed down Stu never did).

Book excerpt:

“In the 1970’s and early 80’s, cocaine was as prominent in poker rooms as bottled water is today. To poker players, it was the perfect drug: It kept them awake for days at a time and made them feel bulletproof. Those are among the qualities, of course, that also make the drug nearly impossible to manage on a strictly recreational basis. Even (Chip) Reese got sucked in-though not to the extent of some of his pals. On one occasion according to (Danny) Robinson, several of them (including Stu Unger) holed up and played an epic gin rummy match that lasted more than three weeks. They sent out for cocaine, under the condition that the losers would ultimately pick up the tab. The final bill, just for coke (yay yo), was more than $90,000.”

Archie Karas (#3 Gambler of all time). If you never heard of this guy there is some great stuff on the web about him:

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2008/02/sextons-corner-31-archie-karas-part-1.htm

Find and read everything you can. This man is sick. Cheers to Archie (he still plays!)

Doyle Brunson (#4 Gambler of all time). Probably no introduction or writing needed. The godfather.

Phil Ivey (#5 Gambler of all time). His legend grows. There are videos of him playing craps for a million dollars.

www.pokerroad.com (POKERTV> The Life of Ivey)

I have watched him play countless times live at the Hustler casino here in LA and the man flys ice cold and makes no mistakes (when it’s a std game and Larry’s in it).

So love it or hate probably all arguable but there it is top five gamblers of all time (Sorry Patrik Antonious, David Benyamine, Tom Dwan, Guy Liberte, Bobby Baldwin, Brian Singer, Cole South and company the list of names is long and all miss-spelled in my head).

Okay so speaking of gambooooling I crushed yesterday at the sportsbook and the stats are gonna be looking goot.

W/L (Wins/Loses) 3-1 R/R (Risk/Reward Ratio) 4.88/4.3 Total Winnings 2

San Jose absolutely crushed 3-0 and it was easy money as mentioned. I think I am going to focus on only one hockey game despite sniffing the NFL lines because a key rule in gamballing is that if one thing is working keep going with it. For those that do not understand the risk reward ratio here is an explanation. Overall after betting four games I risked $4,880 to win $4,300 (or insert your own monetary unit as it is 1/1) and so far have won $2,000!!! Hope you have to. So I just checked the hockey games and there are none. Meaning I get the day off to watch football and study my next winning hockey pick for Monday. More time with the family is a must as well.

Well I promised pictures and obviously failed. I tried hard believe me. I put a pick up and it seems to indicate it should show up on my last post but of course me and my lame computer knowledge fall as usual. I will try to get this picture thing working ASAP ( working on it now but my mind works better on Monday). I should finish the one of many fun conversations I have wit my wife on a daily basis (because we are almost inseparable) but I think that may only lead to more fun conversations and I already have all the fun I can handle in my life right now. So the bottom line. Sponsor me now.

-Sweet new unique/niche clothing line (read earlier blog post for some details). Solid sample/knowledge base. $30,000 to start for %50 of company and future earnings.

-2 Book commission deal. Have two full length screenplays and you can pick one to get %50 rights to. I will also write two books within one year and self publish and promote one and you will have %50 rights to both. Trust me I have a few heavy hitters in the works. $50,000 to start and %50 of everything mentioned above.

Okay my wife just pinched me and I woke up. Trust me in a few months the above will look like a goodwill bargain and I will be saying I told you so. By now you know the drill.

One last random thought. Sick prop bet at:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54/poker-beats-brags-variance/official-updated-race-sne-propbet-324205/

Holla at me with comments or if you need something in LA or if you think I can help with anything let me know.  I am here for the world.

The degenerate kid,

DegenaMATT

I PROMISED

Well I promised more details about friends and today is a good day to do so. So I just got finished dropping off my good friend at the Los Angeles International Airport as he is on his way to Vancouver for the weekend to A. most importantly attend the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks game:

Edmonton (4-2-0) +115 at Vancouver –125 (3-4-0)

* Game info: 10:00 pm EDT Sat Oct 25, 2008

* TV: CBC, NHLN

and B. stimulate the economy by having a truly enjoyable vacation.

So first let me say yes he is baller (but he will never tell you that). This is just after I just got done sending him off to Latvia to party Euro style with the ladies at the clubs and beach at his front door (despite him having a condo a few front door steps away form the beach in one of Los Angeles most exclusive and expensive neighborhoods – Playa Del Rey). Oh yeah he rolls two beamers and has a crib in Las Vegas as well. Yes ladies he is single and for no good reason. The short and good is that I have known him for ten years and have rarely if ever seen him get out of line. A man with impeccable character and life knowledge base he is a rare find as a Los Angeles native. I attended four years of college with him (Loyola Marymount University), same school (business) and live down the street from him making watching sporting events and drinking beer a usual and habitual task. Out of all people I consider to know well he bets the most sports by far. He will gamble anytime, anywhere and at all costs on sports. Loves the thrill of the sports bet and the smell of a casino. A man after my own heart. He is an accountant for a major movie studio and otherwise kicks it with the million + friends he has in LA. He is the loveable, huggable always cordial:

Ryan B. AKA The Las Vegas Kid

In relation to everything that is sports betting I hit as expected from Yesterday. New York crushed Columbus 3-1 and that was an easy prediction (see yesterdays blog reasons). This puts me up again on the season and back in the black!!!!!

W/L (Wins/Loses) 2-1 R/R (Risk/Reward Ratio) 3.53/3.3 Total Winnings 1

Oh and yeah I promised more picks! So my hockey pick is San Jose –135

PICK SAN JOSE SHARKS -135

San Jose (6-2-0) -135 at Tampa Bay +125 (1-2-3)

* Game info: 7:30 pm EDT Sat Oct 25, 2008

TV: SUN

The Reason:

-San Jose is just so good this year and this is such a cheap price you can not pass it up.

-San Jose has lost two in a row and are hungry for a win. They need this.

-One of my winning earlier picks was Tampa Bay. Time to bet opposite.

-There are a lot of games to bet today confusing the average wager. This is the best spread value across all games.

For those that care I source my odds at www.vegasinsider.com (hover over the NHL link and then select Vegas odds). Tomorrow I should be making an NFL and NHL pick and next week and in between I will be throwing in some NBA and some NCAA football and if my winning keeps up and I keep BTO’ing it (breaking the odds) then it should be both fun and profitable.

Finally I promised I would try to not only learn how to post pictures (this is my first attempt). I will post one of the clothing company I mentioned that I tired to start in an earlier post. I will also try to post a ton more pics in the future plus expect a lot more degenerate writing on all topics that are my wild brain. I submitted an article for a piad writing gig today that I hammered out so it is time for the hands to rest and watch a ton of football and hang out with my family who is all up this weekend (a sister in law, a brother in law, 3 nephews and of course the wife)

Holla at me with comments or if you need something in LA or if you think I can help with anything let me know.  I am here for the world.

The degenerate kid,

degenaMATT

PICK OF THE DAY

New York (6-2-1) -110 at Columbus (3-3-0) +100

PICK NEW YORK AT –110

That’s right you heard it here last bet New York tonight. Reasons why:

-Nikolai Zherdev (Right Wing) is hungry to crush his old team

-Last four games Rangers have slumped on offense and are poised for a breakout offensive crushing and win

-Rangers rarely win at Columbus bet the opposite

-Almost even money on a team that is 6-2 vs. a team 3-3 (wow who made this line juicy!)

Friday is a lazy day and a ton of picks and degeneracy will be here tomorrow. But I leave you with this. Please note my wife will kill me when she reads this (and she reads this). So we were in a small disagreement yesterday and she was in the bathroom and I in the bedroom. Conversation:

more to come soon…

BUSINESS AS STOOGUAL

So the motor city killed my motor.  Great game but my pick St. Louis lost by 1 (lost 6-5) and gave me the darn blues.  I will be taking a break from sports picking today as I often due after a loss to re-group mentally and also focus back on just researching and learning.  The weekend is coming up and smalls buffet (see previous post friends) assures me he has some hot picks lined up to tell me about shortly.  The San Jose game was also much better then expected as phili only lost by one in overtime.  The surprise of the night was Ottawa falling to Florida 3-1 despite being a -190 favorite (whew glad I did not put my money on that game).  So until my next pick(s) this Friday the tracked stats for the season look like:

W/L (Wins/Loses) 1-1 R/R (Risk/Reward Ratio) 2.43/2.3 Total Winnings 0

So we are break even through two an as mentioned you only need to win close to 50% of the time and can still come out a huge winner (and who says this is not better odds then the stock market).  We got our money in good last night and came close to busting out with a huge score (but I just went bust instead).  Still nothing lost over the season yet and at a minimum were having a lot of fun.

Now to add some more meaning to the title.  My whole life it feels like I have been hard wired for business.  My mind most often views the world from a business perspective.  I often think of concepts and objects as monetary vehicles in the traffic of the business cycle.  Although this thought process is in many cases a good thing sometimes it has a devastating impact on life’s relationships.  Before we get to heavy into the many business concepts that weigh like the bricks on that one circus side show guy’s special place we will look at some of the more promising business ideas I have had over the years in hopes of revitalizing the dead.  The first idea I will share that I thought had some great potential was a niche/unique clothing company I tried to launch.

THE CONCEPT:

All my life I have loved sports.  All my life (and yes still now at age 30 save the snickers because it is fun to be an adult kid when appropriate and even sometimes when considered in-appropriate by the more adult-adult like people -boo on them – adding lots of different boos in my writing to get into the Halloween spirit –see previous post and find the word boo!) I have loved to collect sports cards.  I was out of the card collecting hobby for an extended period of time but was drawn back into the world that is upon learning about the new types of cards that were available (cards with the players actual jerseys and other pieces of game used items designed into the card).  Now being a lover of fine clothing (although I can not afford it any more – man back in college I used to have some really nice extra money to spend on the clothes I liked), a hug fan of sports and with a deep fascination on how the sports card companies were designing and marketing this new type of collecting card I decided how much better could it get if you combined all of the concepts into a clothing line.  Essentially make functional clothing with other famous people and athletes clothing designed into the new clothing.

WHAT I HAVE DONE SO FAR:

Well I first have invested a significant amount of time (a few years), energy (nearly killed myself for a few years working so much), and money (about 15-20K) developing this idea.  I cam up with and had a design firm produce a logo.  I came up with a name – Game Used Clothing Inc. (with Celebrity Cast-Off Clothing as a sub-brand).  I did have established a manufacturer and an extended amount of quality (basically production worthy) samples made for many different types of products/clothes.  I have tags and have sewn up many other loose business ends (pun intended).  I have thought about the concept in great detail and have many notes on ideas.

WHERE IT WENT:

Nowhere.  After doing everything myself and running out of money ($20,000 was a lot for me to spend at the time) and knowing nothing about how to start a clothing I basically gave up for the time being.  I never sold an item (except to a few friends) and really feel I just did not have the right money and contacts behind me at the time.

WHY I THINK IT WOULD BE HUGE:

Every single person I either explained the idea to or showed/gave actual pieces of clothing loved the idea.  I have not met a person that did not like the concept or thought it would fail with the proper attention.

I will try to post some pictures of this clothing (if it is possible on word press – should be I think) and will expand on this and many of business concepts I have had in the future (they run the gamete of topics).  Next blog will include notes on one of my longest and best standing business friends, more sport picks and the general LA garble that is my  life.  Stay tuned the weekends usually get interesting.

Holla at me with comments or if you need something in LA or if you think I can help with anything let me know.  I am here for the world.

The degenerate kid,

degenaMATT

FRIENDS

Well I first want to say weeeeeeeeeee! I hit my first sports bet prediction for the general masses. Tampa Bay came through in an overtime win and scooped it. A few corrections from yesterday. After checking the line yesterday Tampa was actually a favorite at like a –143 (you can think of it like this bet $143 to win $100 + your $143 back). In hockey the straight bets you only need to win by a point and the final score was 3-2. This puts my totals at:

W/L (Wins/Loses) 1-0 R/R (Risk/Reward Ratio) 1.43/1 Total Winnings 1

For today bets I have the odds early and am ready to pick a dog as I intended to yesterday.

PICK – St. LOUIS +130

10/22 8:35 PM

Detroit –140

At

St. Louis +130

10/22 8:35 PM

San Jose –130

At

Philadelphia +120

Detroit (3-1-1) at St. Louis (4-1-0)
San Jose (5-1-0) at Philadelphia (0-3-2)

Why I think St. Louis is a great pick.

-A home dog with one of the best records in the NHL (does not get better then this)

-Great value for your money

-If you look at the above comparison of another game today and it’s odds it is amazing that a team that has no wins against an equally good opponent as in Detroit is getting not as good odds.

-St. Louis is playing better hockey then Detroit right looking at stats and previous games.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO St. Louis lets make it two for two!

The reason I labeled this blog friends is because I truly think friends are one of the most important inventions in life and since we are now dabbling in a little sports betting I will introduce you to some of the cast of characters. One of my longest running friends (if not the longest) loves sports. He knows just an unthinkable amount of information about all games/teams (NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB etc.) and truly enjoys watching, reading and listening about them. He just hit a big score betting on the bo sox in Vegas I believe last Saturday (sometimes my weekend memory is a little hazier then my weekday memory). Well this guy is an all around sports nut, knows his stuff and does a lot of gambloooooooooing on the ish. He is a great guy and a great friend. He is from Texas as am I and now resides in LA and lives a much more normal life then I. Unfortunately ladies he is taken and has a steady boo (not the Halloween type boos where there only for one night yeowwww!). It is the man the myth:

Scott C. AKA Smalls Buffet

Besides being an all around great guy with his head and heart in the right place as well as a sports baller he can play cards, loves the beach and if you can find him not traveling the states and the world assuredly you will be lent a helping hand. He is also a big time metals dealer and if you need advice or product regarding gold or platinum or else metal he is the man to talk to.

Always available for business at:

http://www.golddealer.com/bullionpage.html

Inglewood, CA. 90301-1627. 1-800-225-7531

We talk a lot and see each other a little but probably not enough for living in the same city. Hopefully this will change but as mentioned we both are very busy (SOOOOOOO cliché LA no truly we are hahahahahah) and we do live crazily different lives (you will not find someone who lives the crazy life that is mine – more on that to come.

Oh yeah and I owe him $60.  Hey what are friends for.  I’ll get it to you buddy real soon.

Next blog big business ideas and more friends and sports Gambloooing if I keep winning and do not want to rest my head from banging it against the sports book.

Holla at me with comments or if you need something in LA or if you think I can help with anything let me know.  I am here for the world.

The degenerate kid,

degenaMATT

SPORTS BETTING

Well I think I had my first comment which was nice and I hope people keep reading and keep coming to the blog as it should be getting a lot better.  Although the comment was marked as spam by wordpress I still think it was legit.  So I want to start off by giving a shout out to my boy:

Jesse Goodin at  www.AGamblersGuide.com

I read through some of the blogs on the above site and they were interesting and looks like some decent stuff over there.  Since a lot of my life revolves around gambling and it seems there are a few gamblers now reading I will start to try and make sports predictions every day for those sports bettors while discussing some of the logic and thinking about how to make sports bets.  The first concept I will lay out is betting the underdog.  I read a famous sports gamblers quote that if you bet the underdogs the whole season there is a very very high probability that you will come out a winner.  One reason most likely for this is that the house is paying you a little extra to make the bet and over time if your right 50% of the time you still can eak out profits.  So for the first pick for today we will start with a dog and see how the logic holds up.  After researching the hockey games for today I came up with the game I think is the best to bet on.

PICK TAMPA BAY

Atlanta (2-2-1) at Tampa Bay (0-2-3)

The reasons for the pick:

-Tampa has lost five straight games by 1 point (there due for a win and get very close every game)

-Tampa has lost 7 straight games to Atlanta (progressive probability odds are tipping in our favor)

-Atlanta after scoring 7 goals in the first game have only 7 goals in the remaining games (they are cold)

-Barry Melrose says he feels his team Tampa is on the verge of a breakout win.

-The city of Tampa is pre-occupied with the World Series so the money is on Atlanta (bet opposite the money)

We will see how the sports picking and my record will be tracked on my blog.  My friends and I discuss sports betting all the time so some winning picks and good insight should come out of this (I hope – please don’t crush me mr. sports book).  Random side note: also after calling www.amazon.com to discuss a change they made to the selling features on there website they gave me the below email to use to try and get the issue fixed:

Sya-changes@amazon.com

So I will be emailing them today about that.  I also have a great business idea for Amazon and they gave me the below address to send in my proposal:

Amazon.com attention Marketing

P.O. Box 81226

Seattle Washington

98108-1226

So I will be sending that in soon as well.

Stay tuned for sick prop betting thoughts, millionaire business ideas, more sports picks and random baskets of delicious mental fruit.

Hopefully my sports betting will not have feeling like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest!

Holla at me with comments or if you need something in LA or if you think I can help with anything let me know.  I am here for the world.

The degenerate kid,

degenaMATT

SPEWEY DEGENA BANNANA MONKEY CHUNKY PEANUT BUTTER TILT

My whole life I have been a risk taker.  I never seemed to be scared of anything as a child and had little regard for personal safety or logical thinking.  Sure all kids due to there age and life experience exhibit some of these characteristics but my habits seemed extreme.  Even now my degree of risk taking seems extremely over the top and odd as my parents are probably the most conservative I have ever met in my life.  Picture my mother as a little old lady who goes to church every day and try’s to save the environment in her remaining free time.  She has a great many flaws but these two endeavors occupy most of her time and are conservative to say the least.  My dad works 7 days a week and seems to care about little else but making himself more money and keeping it.  He has few flaws now (his past is a different story) and is an impressive man of great character and intellect.  Despite being athletically reckless at such a young age I can remember being financially and emotionally reckless as well.  I remember going on ski trips to Lake Tahoe with my father (which were a blast – thanks dad!) and it was as if the casinos called me (I think I was around 12 at the time).  After the day of skiing was over I would beg my dad to take me Harrah’s for food and little gamboling.  I can remember saving weeks of allowance only to have my dad bet it for me in one roulette shot and losing most of the time.  When I won of course I always pressed it in lost.  This went on for many years with me rarely (if ever) booking a winning night.  I can remember as I grew older and my father did not need to take me anywhere anymore gambling was at the forefront of my mind.  I worked as a waiter at Nordstroms for a long time (great company to work for and even better people to work with) and I met a friend named Khan who just loved to go to the Indian casinos and so we enjoyed this passion together.  We happily spent many a losing day at the Pai Gow tables (a few winning ones as well but mostly losing).  So now over the course of my life roulette and Pai Gow continued to crunch my soul and finances.  I can remember turning 21 and thinking this was the greatest thing that could happen to me for the fact that I could now gamble any where it was legal.  I proceeded to go right back to my old stomping grounds of Lake Tahoe and try my luck at a new game called blackjack.  Over the course of a short night I lost about $4,000 + dollars which was my entire life savings (that I worked many long and tough hours to accumulate).  Many more trips to vegas ensued with much the same result.  Save, travel, play blackjack and lose.  Rinse wash repeat.  Moving to Los Angeles brought me closer to Vegas.  What I did not realize at the time is that it also brought me closer to one of my single greatest passions in life playing poker (all variations).  My first experience with poker started on-line probably about 6 years ago.  As usual I lost and lost and lost.  Worked and worked and worked.  As poker is a game of skill (where blackjack and Pai Gow not so much) I have to only acknowledge simply that my skills were far less then the competition.  I vowed to get better which I have but still lose constantly and consistently and I am hoping it stops soon.  My dream is to become a professional card player and I am no where near fulfilling this dream and to make it a reality will require a lot of work and talent that I often question if I even have.  This weekend was no exception.  On Friday I get home from a long week of work and gather $75 to relax, have fun and blow off some steam.  As is the story of my life it feels like things went terrible and I was down to my last $8 and essentially was ready to quit and move on with the weekend.  Somehow I told my wife I was going to really focus and see what would happen with the remaining $8 dollars.  To my surprise with extreme focus I turned the $8 into $600 dollars in about a half a day.  I then proceeded to continue playing very tired and under the influence for around an entire day straight and lost it all as well as proceeding to lose another $600.  So in a day in half time I took $1200 dollars that I used my skills to make and gave it back to the world in a matter of less then an hour.  This had nothing to do with my card playing skills and everything to do with my life skills.  Now I am back to the drawing board and no closer to my dreams (with these type of life leaks I never will be close).  So is the life of an unsuccessful gambler.  Will write soon on the qualities in my self I will need to adjust to avoid pitfalls like this (although I have been trying/practicing for three years and still fail miserably all the time).  I would estimate (probably under estimated) that in the past three years I have busted at least a 100 $1000 bankrolls (believe that is $100,000 I wish I had).  Good game me and good game life.  Thanks for reading and look forward to some more thoughts about life and great adventures from the depths of LA.

Holla at me with comments or if you need something in LA or if you think I can help with anything let me know.  I am here for the world.

The degenerate kid,

degenaMATT

MY BAILOUT PLAN

I will never pretend I know anything about the government and politics but I do conjure many opinions on the subjects based on my real life personal experiences.  What I have noticed in my own life is that the cost to live in America is rising while the opportunities to pay for these costs are dwindling.  My poor economic mind and body state can be attributed to many reasons and I am at fault for a wide array of decisions that have led to a spiraling financial demise.  The government recently has seemed to acknowledge that the world as a whole is in dire straits and that many American companies and systems are also partially to blame for the current monetary distress felt by many of the nation’s people.  If I understand the plans to save the economy even slightly it appears the details played out as follows.  First the government decided to print/find a whole bunch of money to give to specific ailing companies.  I am not sure how this helps the world as a whole but I think this would help all the people directly tied to those companies (none of which I was) so for me as an American citizen this decision meant little.  The only result for me personally regarding this idea was new and deep disdain for the government because on the surface it seems they are devaluing and using my money to save companies that made bad decisions.  What were these companies doing when profits/times were good?  Certainly not happily giving it back to America.  What about all the small businesses and companies that maybe did not even make a bad decision that are lost, is it fair just to forget/screw them?  This move seems more like a high level buddy buddy scam then anything.  A hypothetical relational picture may look like this.  Three people are in a room.  Two are friends and one has never met the other two.  One of the friends has a million dollars.  The stranger and the other friend are broke and desperate.  They both ask for money from the rich friend.  As almost defined by human nature the rich friend loans his friend some money and asks the other person to leave him alone because he has other issues to worry about.  Although a simplistic comparison it easy to see how the third stranger is never helped and never will be similar to the government helping there friends (big companies) while forgetting about the strangers (despite the strangers making up there very essence).  The next grand idea was to earmark a large portion of money (where is all this money coming from?  Are they just printing it up?  Could the printing of so much money devalue the dollar so fast that any influx of money is essentially negated once finally trickled to the people) for a grand action plan to be determined later.  Well the first phase of the action plan came in and it was to by 9 banks stock with 250 billion.  Okay not sure how this helps me either.  As we know these topics and decisions are complex and far reaching with little right answers and have not provided any immediate help to me or anyone I have met.  I can never understand why solutions that appear so obvious to me never even seem to be considered.  I propose making payment coupons for all the asset backed security classes in America and giving the American people through a program money that will directly impact there lives as well as stimulate the economy.  Devise a coupon plan that will give money directly back to the people to pay for there Mortgages, there auto loans, there credit cards, there business loans etc.  Bracket the entire nation by some type of age and need scale and then print coupons that will help/allow people to take care of there daily responsibilities/bills.  This seems like an easy enough plan and one that is much better then the tax rebate program they used earlier.  This guarantees that people use the money to pay off necessities or debt that will directly impact the economy in a positive manner.  I could write hundreds of pages on many topics and hopefully my life will afford me to do so in the future.  The bottom line to me is that once again the government has spent and used our money or someone’s money frivolously and unwisely (i.e. the war, the many crappy programs and institutions they run etc.) with little thought or care given to the actual and overall result.  I work in a finance company but know very little about the stock and am barely invested in it and have no interest in it at all but my friend told me the other day the stocks to buy meet the below three criteria and all of this made sense to me.  So if you like to buy stocks then the below strategy might work.  Until next time.  Wow do I have a lot of thoughts and ideas to write about in the future.  So stay tuned and keep checking back.

GOOD STOCK PICKS WILL MEET THREE CRITERIA:

Companies with large amounts of excess cash in reserve

Companies that pay dividends

Companies that provide good and services that are a necessity to human living

Holla at me with comments or if you need something in LA or if you think I can help with anything let me know.  I am here for the world.

The degenerate kid,

degenaMATT