Citrus County Fair

Our local AgriLife Extension Agency held a citrus competition in conjunction with a brief presentation last night. There were all sorts of citrus in the contest: satsuma, lemon, lime, grapefruit, mandarins, blood oranges, etc.

The only thing I have that is currently fruiting is a Moro Blood Orange. At K.'s insistence, I chose three good luck specimens from the tree and submitted them to the judges. Unfortunately, I did not win. It looked like mine had the most red of any of the submitted fruit, though, so I was not completely disappointed.

The Blood Orange group was a little strange. They awarded a 3rd place and a 2nd place, but no 1st place.

There were several folks in the contest who entered multiple varieties in each fruit type. I think one farmer entered in about 20 different varieties throughout the various types. Some folks are very into the fruit.

Maybe next year I'll have some lemons to show off, too.

At the Movies: Monsters vs. Aliens

Monsters vs. Aliens : 2

I was really hoping to like this movie better than I did. I think it ended up being all frosting and no cake. There wasn't much substance to the movie.

It was visually pleasing, but the story lacked any attraction to me.

Sale in my ArtFire studio - with link

I keep forgetting that these posts appear in Blogger and in Facebook (where my studio is not a visible as it is on my blog).

Use the coupon code 10PERCENTOFF for 10% off any pen or bottle stopper from now until December 31, 2009.

I'm trying to generate my first sale(s). I did receive my very first sale over the weekend. If you're local to Houston, let me know and I might hand-deliver the item. If I can, I'll come up with a free shipping coupon.

My studio is here.

SMOFCon27 - Texas Hold 'Em tournament

When SMOFCon is held in a state that allows it, a Texas Hold 'Em Tournament is held. Texas allows private games, so this year's SMOFCon had a tournament.

I was one of 26 players in the field and was seated at one of the three tables. By random chance, all of the Texans in the field were seated at the same table.

I did not have very good hands throughout the tournament. I had "Big Slick" once. Other than that, my top hands were: pair of tens, pair of sevens, and pair of fours.

Weirdly, the most important hand I had was 5-4 off suit. When I was dealt this hand, I was down to 1 $1000 chip, barely more than the big blind, and I was the big blind for that hand. At the time there were just 6 players left in the field and everyone wanted a piece of me on that hand. So, they all bet what I had in my stack $1000. They knew I had to get into the hand and they figured my hand would probably suck. And it did.

But, the flop did not hurt me as it was ( 4, 2, 7, I think). That gave me a pair of 4s and nothing else looked threatening (no flushes).

More betting went on in the side pot, but I was really just a ship on the ocean. There was not much I could do.

The turn card comes and it's a 3. That gives me an open-ended straight draw to go with my pair.

More betting ensues on the side pot.

River card reveals an Ace. One of the other players remarks that it makes the 5 good. More betting ensues and then it's time to reveal the cards. A-2-3-4-5 straight for me.

I turns out to be the winning hand. The side pot is won with a pair of Aces, I believe. But I go from $1000 to $7000 in a hurry. I'm now able to play.

I go from playing so tight I can make a dollar bill squeak to much looser. I start being active the cards, while still nothing to speak of,allow me to increase my stack, until I'm down to a head-to-head matchup. I think we play 7 or hands before we get down to what turns out to be the final hand.

The final 5 players were of the following nationalities: Texas, Canada, Canada, Britain, Texas.

For the final hand, I was dealt J-10 off suit. I felt this to be a decent hand in head-to-head, so I did a decent bet ($5K). I get called.

The flop was 10-2-7, I think. I see top pair for me, with a good kicker, so I bet at it. I get called.

Turn reveals a Jack. I've got two pair, so I bet again. I think my opponent raises and we end up all-in.

He turns over his cards to reveal J 9, so I believe he had a straight possibility, but I had a good lead with my two pair to his one pair. I think the river card was a King or Queen, so there was no damage done to my lead.

I won the tournament! I'm still flabbergasted.

SMOFCon 27 - an encapsulation

I spent this past weekend at SMOFCon 27, since I run the Art Show at Armadillocon.

I made it to Austin at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, but wasn't able to really see the con until after dinner. I had to remotely oversee a software build that was happening back in Houston.

After dinner was the Icebreaker. This year's task was to prepare for a (fictional) WorldCon bid in under 2 hours. The members of the team of which I was a part chose the available London Underground location as our site. Our motto was "Get Ripped Underground." This lead to a theme of Zombies and Jack the Ripper for the convention.

I think I hit the Con Suite and the lounge for a bit after that, but turned in fairly soon.

Saturday, I was up at my usual time and headed off to breakfast at Annie's. Shortly after I arrived, the Division Heads meeting for Renovation showed up. As a crowd of 22 folks, they were about 80% of the patrons of the restaurant. At one point during their breakfast, most of the folks turned, as a group, to look at me. It turns out they were all boggled by the fact that someone from the convention would be up at that hour without a good, solid reason.

I went to the following panels on Saturday:

"Printed & Electronic Publications - How & When to Distribute Them"

"Managing Your Bid with Time and Money"

"Programming Timelines for Different Types of Conventions - WorldCon vs. Regionals"

"Artists - What They Need and Expect from Conventions"

I was the moderator of this panel in name only. It took on a life of its own and I was unable to do much to control it.

I expected the discussion to go in one direction, that of how to best serve the artists of the Art Show. It went in the direction of how to serve the interests of the artists who are attending the convention. Below are some snippets of items I noted during the lively discussion that occurred:

Artists have a product that is useful for advertising the convention. If you can afford it, look into using their art ( with permission ) for at-con and pre-con marketing material and signage.

If you GOH brings along a companion, make certain that you meet both of their needs, if possible. Pay special attention to the needs of the mobility-, visually-, etc. impaired.

Make the Art Show a fun place to be. Set up places to sit, places to draw

Artist's Alleys are debatable in their worth. you need to be able to drive extra traffic

Lighting = Sales. Improve your lighting. We need a standard to help art shows judge whether they've got enough lighting or not. Does one exist?

See about creating artists' workshops

"Hands on" tours of the Art Show for the visually-impaired. Can this be done for 2-D works?

Concept Art website

Awards for the artists. They're relatively simple to do and can provide egoboo for the artists.

I did mention some items that folks had suggested I throw out to the crowd in relation to art shows:

Make it easy to find the forms and rules
Get the Art back quickly
Give the artists numbers to determine if your show is right for them
Send an after show report with numbers
Help them meet the deadlines
Be polite
Let them know if their application has been accepted

Some numbers that folks were interested in receiving about a show:

Percentage of attendees that buy art
Avg & median sales/buyer
Avg & median price per original sold
Avg & median price per print sold
Avg & median revenue per artist
Percentage of art for sale that sold (i.e., exclude NFS)
Percentage of prints that actually sold
Total Sales
Avg sales per panel

Somewhere in there, I had a bit of a lunch break. I didn't go eat, but I did go with Chuck Siros to see the site for next year's Armadillocon. We're changing hotels and I wanted to see where we will be putting the Art Show. It's an interesting space and will be fun to fill with panels.

After all of the panels, I went to Threadgill's for dinner with a few friends.

When we got back, it was time for the "Fannish Inquisition" This is a part of the con when seated WorldCons and prospective WorldCon bids make their presentations in front of most of the SMOFs. It was interesting to see that 2012 ans 2013 are unopposed for their years. Chicago in 2012 made a statement during their presentation that the winner of that night's Statistics and Probability Seminar (aka Texas Hold 'Em Tournament) would become the Chicago bid's Treasurer.

After all of the WorldCon bids were done, the SMOFcon bids were presented.

After that, it was time for the Statistics and Probability Seminar (aka Texas Hold 'Em Tournament). I'd been looking forward to that for quite some time. I ended up winning the tournament. I'll have a more detailed post in a bit.

Sunday:

Up early to find breakfast. Unfortunately, no non-hotel restaurant opens before 9 a.m. So, I wandered around downtown Austin in a light drizzle looking for food. I gave up a little before 9 and then went back out at the magical hour of 9 a.m. and dined at El Sol Y La Luna.

My only panel of the day was:

"How to Run a Remote Convention"

I thought about sticking around, but I wanted to get home. So I took off for Houston.

A good convention. I had a good time.

Weekend update

Friday:

Up at the crack of dawn to head to Austin for SMOFCon 27. I drove through bits of sleet and snow, but nothing too bad. Arrived at the hotel around 9:30 a.m. I spent the next 8+ hours getting a software build out to production.

Dinner at El Sol Y La Luna

More SMOFfing

Saturday:

Breakfast at Annie's (French toast and oatmeal)
SMOFfing
Dinner at Threadgill's
SMOFfing
Poker

Sunday:

Breakfast at El Sol Y La Luna
SMOFfing
Drive home in constant rain

Weekend update

Thursday:

Baking
Eating
Football

Friday:

Stringing Xmas lights
Aikido

Saturday:

Visit a craft show
Aikido
Dinner at Durango's
D&D

Sunday:

Football
Bathe the dogs

Sale in my ArtFire studio

Use the coupon code 10PERCENTOFF for 10% off any pen or bottle stopper from now until December 31, 2009.

I'm trying to generate my first sale.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/28/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Tom.

Ukemi: I did the usual warm-up no air falls. Led Trey through some air falls.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Uked for Tom

Techniques:

We tried to work Tom through 1-5 of Ju Nana. We made through number 3. Trey and I would alternate serving as uke. I think he made some great strides.

Treay and I then did some work on Owaza Ju Pon.

Kubi-garumu - this went fairly well

Kata-otoshi - we spent a lot of time on this with Trey. It is the most sensitive of the techniques of Owaza Ju Pon.

Aiki-nage - You must keep uke close and in an arm bar.

Shiho-nage - I can never remember the footwork for this one. I *may* have it down now though. Left back, right back, pivot, forward.

Ushiro-ate - No violence is needed: move your center

Kote-gaeshi - uke should end up pretty much on his original line of attack.

Ushiro-kubi-gatame - off hand must participate in making a beach ball out of uke, otherwise the choke does not sneak up on uke.

Aftermath: General soreness in the knees. I have no idea why.

We ran the session for about 2.5 hours, about 45 minutes longer than normal.

Aikido Friday Night - 11/27/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Tom..

Ukemi: Full warm-up with self-induced air falls. Those were a bit rough.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: None

Techniques:

We spent the evening on aigamae-ate. It is currently the technique that drives Trey and me nuts. Tim wasn't very happy with our performance either.

I don't know why we do it so poorly so often. Possibly because we're too late or not late enough. You can do this only on a body rise, really, and if you are late on the first one you have to wait for the second one.

Aftermath: None of note.

Thanksgiving

Living in the same town with my mother and one of my sisters, Thanksgiving is always a family affair. We generally rotate duties from house to house. This year's Turkey was at my sister's and Christmas will be at my house.

I was up kind of early making pies and other desserts. I made a chocolate pecan and a pumpkin pie and then the first batch of pecan pralines of the holiday season.

The feast at my sister's was huge, plenty of food for everyone. My brother-in-law is a professor, so he invited several of his graduate students to join us as they were away from their families.

Good food, good fun.

Lunching out: Gabacho's

Lunching out on the Wednesday of Thanksgiving Week, I turned to Gabacho's. It's a small Mexican restaurant that has had severl a occupants over the years, but it looks like they're going to make it. They're doing some construction to expand.

I had no idea what I was interested in, but the specials on the whiteboard looked interesting. I tried the stuffed avacados. Two avacadoes, halved and stuffed with mushrooms and chicken, reassembled and lightly fried. Very good. The rice and charro beans as sides were quite good too. The chips were boring but the green salsa was ok. I did not try the red salsa.

I'd be willing to go back.

Strider update

Strider is continuing to improve. He is still breathing with a little difficulty, but less than previously. He is eating well, almost as much as his big brother Vlad.

We are continuing to pill him with antibiotics (3 pills a day), which he does not enjoy too much. We are also applying ointment for his ringworm.

I think he's turned a corner, but we're keeping an eye on his health.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

Up to take Strider to the vet to get pilled and get the catheter taken out.
BAGS Christmass gathering to take pictures
JEMCO to get another set of Lindstrom pliers
Aikido
Dinner at Durango's with K and K

Sunday

Football
Keep an eye on Strider
Pecan pie
Grilled out for dinner

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/21/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Brad and Will.

Ukemi: I did a condensed warm-up and watched Will.

The Walk: Twice as usual.

Releases: Brad and I did some intensive work on the releases. We made it through number 6.

Techniques:

Brad and I did some work on Shomen-ate and Aigamae-ate, really working on the initial off-balance. Tim had me change up my attack a bit for the afternoon.

At the very end, I had Brad try the initial off-balance for Oshi Taoshi. We need to get him onto his next set of techniques.

Aftermath: None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 11/20/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Sal, and Will. Will's a new student.

Ukemi: I did a condensed warm-up as I was watching Will.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Trey and I worked with Sal on his releases while Tim worked with Will on the Walk.

Techniques:

At the end of the evening, I uked for Trey on 1-17. He did a good job. There were a few minor stumbles, mainly in the usual places, but nothing major.

Aftermath: None of note.

Lunching out: Alamo Tamale and Taco

This report is a bit late, but at least it's being made.

Alamo is located within spitting distance of where my company's new offices will be, so I thought I'd give them a try. It's a small joint with no tables, but it does have some bar stools arranged around the outer wall. I got my meal to go, so I could get back to the office.

I ordered 2 pork and 1 chicken handmade tamale with a side of rice and a side of beans. The tamales were kind of bland, but not bad. the rice was okay, but the beans were the star of the meal. They tasted like they might have been cooked with bacon fat.

I think the meal cost me around $6 or $7 with a drink. Not a bad meal. If they're still in business when our office is up and running, I'll probably be dropping by often.

Strider's under the weather

Over the weekend, Strider lost some of his vim and vigor. He took to sleeping more and eating less. He was scheduled for his booster shots today, so we didn't rush a new appointment.

It turns out he has several ailments. Apparently his ringworm has not been cleared up. Sometime over the past few days he has managed to consume about 3 already used staples (no sharp pointy ends for his GI tract). And he's having issues breathing.

The breathing issue is of the most concern. The other two should pass without serious attention.

I'm waiting for the results of the bloodwork.