purple and red

purple and red, originally uploaded by Kasrielle.

wildflowers along highway 97 north of Prince George, BC - June 25, 2008 - Canon Rebel XT with Canon 50mm 1.8 @1.8

So many dandelions, so little time...

So many dandelions, so little time..., originally uploaded by Kasrielle.

I took this pic quite a while ago, but it's still one of my favorites. This was taken along the Hudson Hope highway, about halfway between Hudson Hope and the Halfway Bridge. We found this guy stuffing his face, and even stopping to take the pic (with the 300mm zoom - of course) seemed to elicit a response of "huh??" He never stopped chomping on dandelion greens...

clouds rising

clouds rising, originally uploaded by Kasrielle.

I was driving to Fort St. John for work last week, saw this at the top of the Taylor Hill. The clouds were just rising from the Peace River, creating a beautuful river of clouds over the water.

sweet kiss

sweet kiss, originally uploaded by Kasrielle.

I love this pic. I took it through the fence at the Calgary Zoo - one of the first outings with my 30mm zoom. I've now had the zoom for a long time, but this first attempt is still one of my favorites.

christian the lion

This one is dedicated to all my beloved furkids, past and present...

Playing with the camera

playing with depth of field

through the living room window!

I love the colour here...

Because I promised...

...here are the horses!

Argo is a 12 year old registered Morgan mare:

And Epona (Poni for short) is the baby - not quite 2, quarterhorse, a touch of arab, and sabino paint:

This is her right after waking up - she's covered in shavings...!

looking for birdseed

looking for birdseed, originally uploaded by Kasrielle.

I took this through the livingroom window. Again handheld - I have a tripod, but was afraid that she would be gone by the time I set it up! So she isn't very sharp, but I was pleased. I used a sigma 70 - 300mm @ 300mm and held my breath...

Lilacs, Dawson Creek BC June 2008

Lilacs, Dawson Creek BC June 2008, originally uploaded by Kasrielle.

I'm playing around with macro photography. Trouble is, I don't have a dedicated macro lens. This was taken with my Canon digital rebel and a Canon 50mm 1.8 @1.8, autofocus. It was also handheld, no it isn't tack sharp - far from it. But I like it!

Stages of Acceptance

Some days just... wow...

If you were wondering...

What's be going on - well - work! Yep, I blame work for not blogging. (I have to have something to blame, because I certainly haven't been around here...!)

But I'm getting back into photography, so I wanted to reconnect and put up some of my new pics. And the family has changed - we lost our sweet Georgie girl back in December.


Then in March we added a new baby to the family - here is Dori, also knows as Doribug, pumpkin 2, and that damn puppy (depending on what shit she's disturbing at the time!)

And here is Dori now:

She's 3/4 Sheltie and 1/4 American Eskimo, but we think she's part fox!

She joins Jedi and Wookie:

And the cats Autolycus and Ares:

We also have 2 horses, but I'll post them next time.

Now so you know - these aren't the pics I was referring to in the opening paragraph... But I have to show off the furkids first - then the scenery...

Never Enter a S&G when you're sleepy...

Ever since the demise of Neteller, I've been playing poker at Party for the simple reason that I can deposit directly from my chequing account and not have to deal with another ewallet. I play micro stakes - 5 cent/10 cent NL and $3 S&Gs. I've had some decent luck and slowly built my bankroll up over $100 - less than peanuts for most, but fun for me.

I was playing on and off yesterday, getting some decent cards and placing in a few S&Gs. (I also played the Round 1 Grey Cup Freeroll at Poker Stars - winning $2, but just missing making it into Round 2, finishing 209 from 2855. Only the top 200 move on...)

Anyway, it was midnight and I decided to go back to Party and play one more S&G before bed. I ran my eyes down the list and noticed a table registering. I clicked twice, was the last person to take a seat, and the cards were dealt to determine the button.

That's when I noticed the top of the window - and freaked out. I hadn't entered a $3 S&G. It was a freaking $55 tourney - over 1/2 my bankroll!!! Good grief! I don't play at this level! For one thing - I can't afford it. Amd I know enough to realize that these players are likely much better than I'm used to...

I didn't know what to do! I spent the first few hands just folding, then finally decided that if I didn't start playing I would lose my $55 for sure. So I tried to calm my nerves, and concentrated. Itell you what - I wasn't sleepy anymore...

I came in 4th, which left me with really mixed feelings. Cool that I held my own with some good players. Sick that I went out just out of the money - and lost 1/2 my bankroll... (The top 3 places pay in these single table S&Gs.)

So my advice - when venturing onto the net, whether to play poker or shop - make sure you look at what you are clicking BEFORE you click it.!

Facebook is Cyber Crack

And is therefore evil - join me there! Only on Facebook could I receive a friend request from a man who is a Church of Christ minister in Nashville... Turns out we went to high school together a lifetime ago. Did he read my profile? LOL Oh well - as long as he doesn't start preaching...

Anyway - come check out my Facebook page: just doa search for Kim Sullivan. (I tried to paste the URL but blogger won't let you right click/paste and the url is about 90 characters long!)

All that to say that I'm still here - working hard and being lazy when not at work. We've had a hell of a summer but it's better now. I'll give you all the nasty details in my next post.

End of the Year Bits and Bobs

Well, lots has happened since I last wandered by. The Dems took back the US government (thank the gods,) Michael Richard's career imploded, Friday Night Lights was renewed for the full year, and we all survived the triptophan haze which was the Solsitikkah season. (Although my blog's previous incarnation did not make it out alive, in my turkey stuper I decided to change my template, and lost all my customized add ons, damn it. The warning that stated clearly "all custom yadda yadda will be lost" didn't even register...) I now have to try and remember where I got the HTML coding for the fundie logo - I really liked that one...

Now I know - you've tripped up back in the last paragraph. "Wtf is Solstikah, you ask?" Well, my wife and I - good pagans that we are - celebrate the winter solstice this time of year instead of Xmas. (Don't even get me started on how the early christian church basically stole most the of the festivities from the pagans - Jesus wasn't even born this time of year...) And the wife also has incorporated some Jewish tradition into her belief system. So we created Solsitkah. We celebrate 6 days of Solstikah, beginning with the winter Solstice on the 21st of December and running through Boxing day (December 26 for you Americans.) We exchange a big present on Solstice, then little ones every day, do stockings on the 25th, and finish up on the 26th. We also cook our big feast on the 21st. It's a really cool tradition, and we enjoy it very much. We also exchange a small present the first night of Chanukah, and light the menorah.

I also took holidays beginning on the 20th, which was a really nice break. However, I spent much of it staying up late in the night playing poker. I really think poker will either be my major life lesson, or will be the death of me. I swear - nothing brings out pure rage in me like this game! Yikes! It makes me crazy. In a way that deserves it's own post - look for that soon...

Those Scary Canadian Fire Fighters...!

So have you heard about the wildfire in southeastern BC? The smoke is so thick folks can't see. The National Post has an article on it here. Especially interesting is the following quote from Jeanne Rucker with the Forrestry Service:

"If the wind is blowing more towards the west, Manning Park could be threatened," said Rucker. "And if it goes the other way it will go into Cathedral Park and Snowy Mountain protected area.
"We've been watching it now for weeks, but we haven't had the approval or the authority from the U.S. government to go down there [across the border] and fight it. We've had to wait until it comes to the border before we can take any action."
Rucker said the U.S. finally gave permission late Saturday "to go in and perform certain action on that fire."

Ok - so this fire has been burning out of control for weeks. Headed to Canada. No reason for it to put itself out before it crossed to border. The US Forest Service has been too overwhelmed, undermanned, and all around busy to try and deal with it.

But the US "Officials" wouldn't let us cross the border to try and contain it. I suppose they were afraid that we'd send terrorists across the border disguised as fire fighters...

Good grief.

He finally admits it!...

Taken from the President's press conference this morning:

Reporter: What does the war in Iraq have to do with 9-11?

Dubya: NOTHING!

So What the Fuck have you been

doing the last 5 years???

This is what happens when Dubya goes off script... Oh, and he does stuff like having an assinine conversation with the Premier of China about how far China is from Germany, and he gives the German Chancellor an unwanted massage (which could be construed as sexual assault,) and just shows us once again how he a a sociopathic child prone to tantrums...

The poker gods are laughing...

Ok - so I'm 3 levels into a MTT at Poker Stars, middle position, and I have A J of spades in the hole. In EP is a LAG (Loose Agressive Player) that will play any two cards. I'm surprised has not gone out already - much less has managed to garner more chips than me.

Blinds are 25/50 and LAG comes in for 300. I call, as does the button. Flop comes 3, 5, 10 - all spades. I've flopped the nut.

LAG bets 600. I laugh at the screen in glee, and come over the top all in. The button quickly folds. LAG calls! (We both had around 2400 at the start of the hand - he with a bit more, so he has me covered.)

The cards turn over to reveal my nut flush, and his - 3 Q of Diamonds. He called my all in with a PAIR OF THREES??? No spades?

Now I'm laughing out loud. Dancing in my chair.

The turn is the Q of hearts. Ok - now he has 2 pair, and 4 outs. But only 1 card to come...

The river - can you guess???

3 of hearts.

Frikin suck out King pulls a Full House out of his butt and busts me out.

And all my Zen practice went out the window! I stomped around the house turning the air blue and dreaming of ways to go throught the computer to punch Suck out King in the face.

Apparently I have not yet achieved enlightenment.

Still here....

I'm still here...!
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking my god - she has returned to us! Or else your'e thinking who the hell is this chick and why does she think I give a rats- ANYWAY, I figured I needed to check in.

The world is further down that road to crazy. Don't even get me started. So I'm just trying to live my life, do my thing and enjoy the days as they pass. Summer is glorious here in the Land of Bubba - the only place in North America that isn't too hot, and the evenings are cool and sweet. Xena's Kwoon is getting off the ground and we're excited about that.

And I've continued to try and improve my poker game. I'm studying, and playing some every night. I'm now in the money more than I'm not, and that makes me happy. I wanted to go with my Karma theme, but Zen in poker has already been done.

It's an interesting concept - attempting to apply the principles of Zen to a competitive game. There are some things that are easy connections -
Patience
examining the moment and paying attention
letting the frustration role off you and avoiding tilt
The biggest seeming conflict for me is that winning at poker calls for aggression. Passive players don't win - at least not in the long run. And Buddism is about a lot of things - but aggression isn't one of them.

So part of my task is to balance the Zen principles I'm using with being aggressive when necessary. It's a delicate balence - let me tell you. I tend to tilt way too much.

Tonight I came in 3rd in a S&G. Won $18. Not bad. Play the players. Wait for good cards. Then push!

My day...

Poker and Me

My relationship with poker is definately love/hate. I suck. Then I suck not so badly. Then I suck again. Then I play great and just know my sucking days are over. Then I suck. Again.

My performance in the Blogger Tourney was a clear example of me sucking. I had high hopes, but was out within the 1st 1/2 hour. After moping about for a couple of days, I went into a round one freeroll over at Full Tilt Poker, where I amazed myself by coming in 6th of 1800 and winning a seat in the 2nd round satellite. The top 9 in this second round would go on to a WSOP Seat tourney, where the top 20 would win free seats to the WSOP Main Event!! That's a $10,000 buy in!

I took my seat, gulped down a Red Bull... And was out in 1/2 an hour. Again. I played too tight at first and missed out on some amazing hands, and then my cards went cold.

Why do I play this game?? The only thing consistant about my game is my inconsistancy. The day is beautiful. I could be walking my dog, or enjoying my yard. So why am I inside staring at the screen?

Because there is a tourney starting in a couple of minutes. Gotta go!