Insomnia

It's currently 3:30am and I'm just starting to feel tired. I've been trying to sleep for the past hour, but to no avail. So I ended up surfing the web while trying to induce sleep.

It's been like this for the past couple of weeks, my sleep schedule has shifted something horrible. This is due mainly to the fact that I haven't had a lot of work lately, and the flights I have been doing have all been in the afternoon. That is not the case in the coming week so I'm trying to get myself back on track so that I'm not too screwed on some big days of flying which are approaching.

The poker weekends obviously aren't helping, but this is ridiculous. And if I try to wake before 10am I find myself falling asleep on the couch around 2 or 3pm! Well, tomorrow I have some errands to run and tasks to accomplish so I plan on waking up earlier (10:30) which will only be less than 7hrs of sleep when I finally do fall asleep, and hopefully this will help me sleep earlier tomorrow night and I'll just continue this cycle and hopefully by Friday I'll be better off for my 8am flight across the continent.

Where are some damn sheep to count when you need them?

US bans online gambling

In a very surprising series of events, the US has banned internet gambling. Hidden within the pages of a "Safe Port Act" they have made it illegal for banks and financial institutions to transfer money to online gaming sites. This primarily is affecting the online poker industry which has seen a massive uprising in the past couple of years.

It seems you can't turn on the tv these days without seeing coverage of some sort of poker event. Then at every commercial there are adds for all sorts of different online poker sites.

This new law will make it extremely difficult for these businesses which rely heavily on the patronage of US residents. Here's an article describing what's going on:

Royally Flushed

To see that the stocks for some of these companies take such a downward swing is crazy. I recall reading many articles about people encouraging the purchasing of stocks related to online gaming as a direct result to the ever increasing popularity. Any of those folks that listened are now in a world of hurt. Not too mention the thousands of people who play poker online professionally for their livelihood.

People are already finding ways to bypass the new legislation, but it still is going to put a massive damper on the online poker boom. A sad, sad week for online poker.

Thanksgiving Poker

Well I've been all alone here this Thanksgiving weekend. Mike, my other pilot roommate was away in Florida and Shelley (half owner of house) and her brother (new tenant addition) drove into the BC interior to visit with family.

So it was just me and Shelley's 3 cats. Fun and exciting eh? My days off fell Saturday to Tuesday, so I've had the entire weekend off and to myself.

I decided that after last weekend adventures at the casino, I'd give it another go and take advantage of the weekend poker crowd. It's a mix of pros and newbies all in one. It's pretty easy to see who knows what they're doing, and who's there for some fun. The idea of course being, take advantage of the inexperienced and stay clear of the pros.

Friday night was night 1 of 2 that I spent at the casino. I played a solid 6.5hrs of Poker. The night started slow and my $200 buy in had wilted down to the $150 range when I came across a 54 offsuit in early position. I was big blind so no matter, I saw the flop. It came up QT5. I paired my 5. There were 2 others in this hand and the small blind bet $5, so I called and so did the other guy. The turn came a 5, which also made for 2 clubs on the board. The small blind checked and I bet $15 with my 3 of a kind. The other guy folded and the small blind check-raised the bet to $30. I called. The river came a 4. Also a club. So a flush hit the board, BUT, did ya see it? I made my full house. The bet was checked from the small blind and I bet out $30 which was reluctantly called by the small blind. He had tripped the 5's as well with a high kicker, but my full house took it down. A decent little pot that put me into the profit area.

Another round of cards later and I find myself with Q6 in the small blind. It was a cheap flop so I decide to call and see what I can make of it. The flop is a very nice looking QQ2. Trips, I like it! I check the bet and it goes around the table to the guy acting in last position who ups it to $25. I call and everyone else folds. The next card is a 6. Hello! Another full house! I bet out $50 and get raised another $75 by the other player. I'm trying to milk this for all she's worth. I look at my chip stack and at his, he definitely has me covered, so I move all in. He hums and haws and thinks about it for a couple mins before folding his hand. He had tripped the Q's as well but wasn't confident in his kicker. I then proceeded to flash my full house and got some Ooo's and Ahhh's from the table.

Now my stack was well in the profit at about plus $250 on top of my $200 buy in. This didn't last unfortunately. I hit cold cards the rest of the night and hovered around plus $100 for the last couple of hours of play and decided to call it quits when a heated argument began at our table when a very inexperienced player made a questionable call and won the hand which a much more experienced player had been bluffing at. I can't see how the new guy made the call thinking his little pair was good... but he did, and took down a monster pot as a result. So it was time for me to make an exit with exactly plus $100.

I then opted to head back again Saturday night. A quick stop at Starbucks on my way there and I was off to what was going to be a very entertaining night. And it didn't have to do with a lot of poker hands, some, but not many.

9.5 hrs of play occurred in this eventful evening which started out just like my other nights with me sitting down with the max buyin of $200. The table was very loose when I first sat down with big stacks at the table bullying people around. So I tightened right up and didn't play a lot of hands. I had made a few hands and had put myself into the plus $100 range, when I look down to see cowboys (KK). I'm in early position and raise it up to $25 and get 4 callers. This is looking nice, already 100 in the pot, hopefully no Aces on the flop. I was rewarded with a nice flop of J85. I didn't want anyone drawing and would be happy with the $100 in the pot so I bet out $50, which is folded around to the player on the dealer button. Who raises me $50, so I go all in which he quickly calls. The cards are flipped and I'm ahead of his AJ with my KK. The turn is no help to him, and then the river hit... a freaking Jack! I couldn't believe it. He tripped his Jacks. The massive pot went to this idiot! He was a weak player which I had already determined, but what can I do. He rivered me, and rivered me hard. I was not happy, but also humbled at the same time. I watched as he stacked his $450 in chips.. which should have been mine!

I called for chips, and reloaded my remaining $40 with another $150. I ended up loosing another $70 when I was betting heavy into a great pot, but got reraised heavily and I rightfully folded my top pair with ace kicker, and later found out the player had KK. I would have been destroyed. I reloaded with my final $50 and played very very tight for the rest of the night.

Now the night was not all about poker, some of the characters that night made for a very memorable night. There was a younger American who had been drinking for quite a while with his buddy who was sitting at another table, and then a female friend who was also drinking but not playing poker. She had obviously took her visiting friends out to see what Calgary had to offer and she reluctantly came to watch them play poker for hours and hours. What ensued was some of the funniest banter I had ever heard between people. The guy kept berating this hot girl because she had a bit of a mouth on her and there was a fair bit of friendly swearing going on. The guy kept on making reference to how he was going to show her the time of her night later on, so she best be quiet and things of this nature. It was all in good fun and she would reply back with quick remarks mocking his manlyhood and things of this nature. It was some funny stuff. At one point she had blurted out a few too many swears and the drunk American commented on how nice and friendly she was, to which she told him to "Fuck off". Jokingly, but still, she said it quite loud. The older female dealer wasn't too impressed anymore and told her to cut out the language. To which the young girl apologized and looked a little embarrassed. But then the dealer says this classic phrase - "You may not be a lady, but I certainly am one." The table went quiet, and finally someone yelled out "BURN!". Holy cow it was funny. We were all having a good time of it and they were all good sports and kept going at it. It made for a very entertaining couple of hours. I ended up knocking out the American at our table when my pocket 5's made a set on the flop and he moved all in. So it was sad to see him go, but the girl had made a friend at our table who she had recognized so she remained to talk to him. The whole time the American's want to go and she wouldn't give them the time of day because she had been wanting to go the whole time before that. So this made for a lot more comedy, this time getting more vulgar when the American's suggested that she should just get up on the poker table and that way the whole table could have their way with her. I was truly sad to see them go, they had provided great banter.

This wasn't the only thing happening that night though. What transpired next was actually quite a frightening experience. One of the players at our table had accidentally bumped the chair of another player at a different table and after a couple of behind the back comments, the other guy stands up and starts berating the player at our table. Now let me explain to you whom these individuals are. The player at our table is a big black guy who was very mild mannered and very calm, cool and collective. The other player looked like he was right out of the streets of east LA. He was a Latino boy who had on a baseball cap slightly sideways, with big baggy pants and shirt, accompanied by lots of bling. After some more heated words coming out of the gang member they were both standing up. The black guy was very calm about it the whole time while this kid kept shouting his mouth off. The poker room which is usually a buzz of all sorts of sounds of people talking and chips clinking is now totally silent with all eyes glued on this escalating situation. The talk between these two guys quickly turns to taking it outside to the parking lot. The gang member starts yelling at the black guy telling him he doesn't know who he's messing with and starts pointing to his tatoo's. At this point the poker room manager is yelling at them to sit down and shut up, but they're just about on their way to the parking lot but are in close quarters to each other and surrounded by others and closely packed in chairs. The poker manager gets inbetween them when suddenly they start to push and he is thrown to the side. Security is called as they get a little more heated and then suddenly the gang member starts reaching into his pocket! Holy shit, at this point I was quite concerned just waiting to see what weapon he was going to be pulling out! He never did pull anything out, but I'm sure he was armed with some sort of clapped out device. Yikes. Even when security finally arrived you could see that even they were a little scared about the situation and it took about 3 or 4 of them to escort them out of the room where statements were taken and then they were both booted out of the room. Wow, what a stressful couple of minutes. Poker returned to normal, and then the black guy returned to grab his chips and leave and apologized while everyone in the room was yelling out "you woulda kicked his ass!" and things like that. Haha. He would have, but I was a little concerned with what that guy had in his pocket. Poker continued, and throughout the rest of the night you could hear at least once an hour someone getting into a friendly argument which inevitably ended with the joking words of "you want to take this outside?!" Haha, we can all laugh about it now. :)

The rest of the night was filled with good conversation and decent poker. I was down as low as $70 at one point after saving myself from some deadly hands. And did manage to make my way back up. Primarily thanks to one hand which I am proud of how I played. I looked down to see KK, and cringed. This was not my favorite hand of the night after having lost that huge pot earlier. So I up the bet to $25 right away and get one caller behind me. This guy was a good player that called me so I had to play this one right. The flop came up QQ6. YUCK! I bet out $25 and immediately get raised to a total of $80. I hummed and hawwed, disgusted that he might have a Q or AA. But after watching him for a minute and thinking about his other plays, I was certain he didn't have Aces and pretty damn sure he didn't have the Q either. Perhaps Jacks or something equivalent. I push all in, this was my gutsiest move all night and my heart was pounding as the other player thought long and hard about the hand. He finally ended up folding and I took down the nice sized pot. He had AK. So that was a good hand for me and I got great respect from that player based on that play. We ended up talking quite a bit throughout the night and later when we left at the same time he even asked if I smoked weed. Haha, needless to say that I don't but we chatted up a bit more and parted ways.

The night ended with me recovering up to a -$140. So based upon the previous night I was down $40, but I was also up from last week by $95, so my poker outings are still in the plus. I'm confident I can grind away and make money in that poker room and I'll likely return back there every once and a while to see if I can make my thousands.

Well, there you have it. Lots of boring poker talk, but man what a weekend. When you factor in the free food and drinks I also consumed during my stay it also made for a very worth while adventure. Now if I can only recover a normal sleep schedule I'd be a lot better off!

Quick updates

I've been a little busy lately and haven't had the opportunity to post.

The main reason being that Justin visited this past weekend. So I decided to show him around and let him experience what Calgary had to offer.

After picking him up at the airport we were off to Banff on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. We stopped along the way in a trendy little tourist town called Canmore for some lunch and then continued on to go and check out the incredible views and features that some of our Canadian Rockies have to offer. After checking out the sights in Banff we headed back towards Calgary, but not before driving a little bit into the Kananaskis Country which has some incredible views of it's own.

That night we went out to Joey Tomatoes for a late dinner. Justin was itching for some good beef as it's hard to come by in Japan. So he had a great steak and seemed to enjoy it immensely. I think he also liked the scenery within Joey Tomatoes which is also a well known fact about Joey's in the Calgary area.

Then we headed off to check out some poker action in Calgary. He was also wanting to sit down on a poker game. We sat down from 11pm until 5:15am! We were definitely in the right spot for weekend poker in Calgary.. about 8 tables were going and we played for a long time. Justin actually cleaned me out at one point! It was a max $200 buy in and that's what we each bought. When I was down to my last $88 I was dealt pocket 6's. I made a small raise (we were playing 1/2 No Limit Texas Hold-em) and got some callers. The flop came 6QQ. Hello! I bet $20, everyone folded then Justin raised to $40 and I went all in for the remainder. Cards were flipped. I was ahead, Justin had AQ though, and on the river, of course.. an Ace came! Bah! So I had to rebuy for another $200 and began working my way back up.

Justin managed to take down a MASSIVE pot against a rather unique individual and doubled up when he had a full house against another guys trips. The pot was over $900!!! So at the end of the night I was up about $95 and Justin was up a very nice $630ish!

We left quite happy. The next day Justin and I went out and met up with a friend he knew back from elementary School days and who lives right near a very popular stretch of Calgary, 17th Ave. Lots of chic, trendy places, many bars and clubs and clothing stores etc. So we went bar hopping all the way down, having a round of drinks at each location. At our final stop is where we gave Justin some good 'ol fashioned Calgary hospitality. We had him drinking 4 Irish Car Bombs and a couple of big glassed (25oz) Hoeegardens. At this point he was not so coherent and was speaking in an Irish accent. :)

We got home and he was in rough shape, but survived. I dropped him the next day off at the airport as he continues his journey to Vancouver. I doubt he'll be able to top off the experience he had here though.. Hopefully he remembers some of it!

CD Review - John Mayer's Continuum

I'm a big fan of John Mayer's new CD. I have listened to the whole album at least a dozen times. There are very few albums that I have listened to, that I can say the same thing about. These days, you're lucky to find half the songs on an album that are worth while.

The main mood of his CD is a very mellow, cool and relaxing. Something you could just play and sit down and have playing in the background.

One of my favorite songs of the CD, and currently my just plain favorite song, is "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room".

I highly recommend checking out this CD. I put it on my ipod and have listened to it at least 3 times in it's entirety while cruising around at 40,000 ft.

Back from San Fran

We spent a good chunk of the day there yesterday. The weather was great, too bad we didn't have any time to really go and explore. Our hotel was right near the airport and therefore did not really allow us the opportunity to explore around. Plus I needed some much needed rest after not a very good nights sleep.

We were put up for the day in Hyatt near the airport. One word.. Pimp. It was a pretty nice hotel, but do to our short stay I didn't get to see anything more than the check in desk and the backside of my eyelids in the room.

The airport is incredibly busy. It is a huge international hub, with airlines from all around the world taking off and landing every 30 seconds, 2 at a time on a set of 4 runways. Just standing on the tarmac I couldn't help but just stand and stare at the massive activity all around me.

On our departure out, we were turned to track right by downtown and the golden gate bridge. Too bad my camera was in the back with the luggage. My new camera takes a mean picture, but it's also not very practical for a quick point and shoot application. I should have taken my smaller digicam to take some quick take off and landing pics of the area. It was a rare beautiful day in San Fran and all the fog was being kept offshore by a few miles, leaving the city out in the open. Quite neat though to see all the fog just off the shore as it stretches for miles and miles up and down the coast and quite a distance out to sea.

Today was a day of rest and then tomorrow I'm off with a full plane load of passengers to Monterey Bay California, then a quick hope over to Napa Valley to bring another full load of different passengers into Calgary and Edmonton. So it will be another full day of flying, but thankfully it only begins at noon and does not require me to awake too early. I deal a lot better with later evening flights than I do with early morning ones. So it doesn't phase me that tomorrow we'll be landing back in Calgary after midnight, whereas I'd be not too happy if it was a 6am start to the day!

"...be sure to wear some flowers in your hair"

Can ya figure out where I'm going bright and early tomorrow? Good 'ol San Francisco! Never been there and it's high on my list of 'must see' places. Too bad we're not spending any nights there, but we do get to spend the better part of the day there. We've got a hotel booked for some rest while we wait, but I think we'll spend more time looking around the joint. I'm anxious to tour around a bit. Not exactly sure how much time we'll really have to do any of that, but hopefully a little. I'll be taking my camera to snap some pics if able.

I wont be able to get much sleep tonight though, as I'm just coming off days off and I had to struggle to get out of bed by 10am this morning. Well, by that time we will have already landed in San Fran tomorrow. So the 5am wakeup tomorrow is going to hurt, so I'll likely need a little nap at the hotel. Hopefully the hotel is nearby some touristy stuff. I want to go to that famous park and see the houses that were featured in the opening title sequence for "Full House". Haha.. call it corny, but it's used so often in movies and commercials that I must see it in person!

My week in Edmonton is done

Thankfully. And now it's on to days off.

Edmonton wasn't too bad. During my stay I traveled out to the west coast to Campbell River a couple of times, over to Winnipeg, Vancouver, Portland and North Bend. So a little bit of a mix. I've now completed just about 30 hrs of flying in the jet and things are going well. I'm adjusting well to the change of aircraft performance. Just imagine driving a scooter all your life (not poking at Justin!) and then all of a sudden you're in a sports car with 500hp. It's that type of difference in performance. And by no means was my previous aircraft a slacker of a machine, it was a workhorse and a great machine to fly. But not much can compare to the jet setting world, when just yesterday I was doing 920km/hr going from Vancouver to Portland. And then a couple of hours later I was watching the twilight on one horizon and total darkness on the other from an altitude of 41,000 ft. I'm liking the upgrade to say the least. :)

Tomorrow is day one of four days off, and I'll be using the time to run errands and to replenish the fridge, as I have nothing to eat here!

A week in Edmonton

Looks I'll be spending the next week here in Edmonton. Just drove up to be on call here until Friday. We have a jet sitting here, but there is no crew. We have a flight scheduled to Vancouver Island on Friday, but need to be on call here all day tomorrow in case something comes up. Then we have another day free and then Sunday off to Winnipeg and back. Then somewhere there is also a day in Vancouver, I think Tuesday night I'll be there, but I'm not certain.

My last trip to Vancouver was great. Got to see a few of you fine folks and was generally quite pleasant. EXCEPT, that our clients were late. We were to leave at 10pm on Sunday night but didn't get out of there until past midnight! We landed in Calgary just before 3am.. what a night. And the funny thing was, that plane was scheduled to go out for an early morning trip to Texas and the crew was already at the airport getting ready for their flight at 3:20am. I went to bed, and they ended up flying to Texas.

Maybe I'll hit up the West Ed Mall while I'm up here.. that'll help kill a bit of the time up here.

I'll be in Vancouver this weekend

In an ironic twist of fate, my folks are out here in Calgary visiting, and now I'm off to Vancouver for the weekend.

I wasn't likely to see much of them anyways, as they plan to spend Saturday and Sunday almost exclusively at Spruce Meadows for the big horse shows going on.

Still.. an odd little stroke of luck that we swapped homes for the weekend. :)

'tis the life of an on call pilot. But at anyrate, if you're around and have some time, fire me an email or post here and maybe we can catch up.

Justin climbs Mt Fuji

Justin has successfully (as in still alive) climbed Mt Fuji in Japan. He's over there doing some work and schooling and having a great old time as I read about it on his blog.

He recently posted about his experiences climbing the great Mt Fuji and has posted some great photos as well. Check it out here: Climbing Mt Fuji.

Laptop clean up

My laptop over the past couple of months had really started to slow down. No matter how often I ran a disk defrag or any of the other cleanup tools, it just wasn't running 100%. So it was time for the drastic, but necessary, full format and reinstall.

I had recently acquired an external 250gb hard drive from futureshop at a pretty darn good price, so I backed everything up onto it and began the process a couple of days ago. I couldn't have been more happier with the results. She runs like she should. It is taking some time to reinstall everything that I had previously running, but so far so good. She works great and has likely increased general speeds by 40%. Not bad for 2hrs worth of work. I highly suggest the same to others if they find the computer just isn't running like it should. Just make sure you backup everything important before you do!

Also, on a side note, my folks will be in town this weekend. They decided to take a road trip out here in the SMART car. Quite the trip! But should be good, my mom has never seen the place where I am now, nor has she seen my place of employment. So I'll take them around for the grand tour. The reason they're coming out is for all the horse shows taking place at Spruce Meadows this week. My mom is a big horse fan and I plan to give her a belated bday present of a 3 piece frame with pictures that I took of her and her horses when I was back in Vancouver last.

Sacha on the state of aviation security

Sacha encounters the latest gong show that is airport security in these troubled post 9/11, shoe bomber, and liquid bomb days.

In his recent post on airline security, while traveling back from LAX he gets to see first hand at what the current state of security measures have become.

It is a little out of control these days. More of a case of "CYA Syndrome", which stands for Cover Your Ass. It's a constant reminder why I am thankful enough that our company does not have to deal with most of the security hassles that plague the majority of the traveling public.

Cessna Caravan gets wet

Well it's not secret to any pilot in Canada wishing to climb the commercial ranks and fly for a living, that for many people, starting out means having to fly in some interesting locations usually in northern Canada.

Flying supplies and people into small remote little airstrips. A lot of the times, where air transportation is the only way in and out. I feel very fortunate to have been able to bypass this portion of the industry, and constantly aware of the type of sacrifices some have to make.

There was recently a Cessna Caravan which was trying to operate out of a short strip in a northern location. They were actually operating off of an Esker. Long story short, the aircraft was likely overloaded beyond it's means, and already operating out of a short strip (1400 ft), so with a bit of bad luck, this take off turned bad. Here are some shots of the take-off roll which just recently appeared on one of the aviation forums I frequent. (Click on the image for a larger picture)

On the takeoff roll

Attempting lift off

SPLASH

All were OK, so that's the most important thing. The plane was still in good shape though. Aside from the engine, so it will be recovered. I think it is still sitting in the marsh still. It will take quite a bit to get it recovered from such a remote location. I believe they will be using a large transport heavy lift helicopter which will cost many many many thousands of dollars to get the job done. Here's a picture of the plane after it came to rest:



This same aircraft has had a bit of a troubled past, most recently being operated by a now defunct Vancouver operator after it had engine problems and crashed while attempting an emergency landing near Port Alberni, killing the pilot and some passengers.

There will always be a need for these type of aircraft to operate in some pretty remote areas, I just continue to hope that people see these types of incidents and realize that maybe they shouldn't always push the limits of the airplane or themselves.

Onto a softer topic... PUPPIES!

I got back from a trip yesterday after taking a father and his 2 kids out to Windsor Ontario. He was only going to be staying there for a couple of hours, so we weren't quite sure exactly what he was up to. Maybe signing some papers, or foreclosing on a house or something. When we dropped him off we still had no idea, and then he said he'd only be an hour. So that peaked our interest even more. Whatever though, makes my day quicker.

We left from Edmonton and it took 3.5 hrs to get there. The return trip would be another 10 mins more than that. So what could it possibly be that he needed to travel over 7hrs for and only stay for an hour in town? A PUPPY!

They had traveled all this distance in the jet to go to a breeder and pick out a puppy. What a cute puppy too. At best guess I'd say he was something like a beagle or bloodhound. I'm thankful they had enough sense of mind to bring blankets and newspapers and plastic rolls to lay down on the floor in case the puppy needed to relieve himself. But he was very well maintained, he spent equal amounts of time sleeping the arms of each of the 2 young girls that had accompanied their father on this adventure.

But even I got something out of this trip. As soon as I saw that this trip was going to Windsor I picked up the phone and called Bonnie. She's living there now with her fiance (yup, you heard me right!) Jim. I haven't seen Bonnie in quite some time, so I made sure to see if she was available to come to the airport. Too bad we didn't have a little bit more time, as I could have gotten the grand tour of Windsor. But she was able to come out and visit me at the airport. Here are a couple pics we snapped on her camera.

Bonnie having a seat in the nice cabin

Captain Bonnie at the controls :)

We tried taking self portraits of the 2 of us in the cockpit, but none of them really turned out very well.. so I've photoshop'd 2 of them together!

Bonnie and the Citation Excel