could it be the aspartame



i found this protein shake while looking to get off glutapro for a month. The Apple Ecstacy flavor is made by Syntrax called in the Nectar. I drink 1 to 2 scoops a day....which might be very minor. I was drinking 2 to 3 scoops for a month. just the other day i've been wondering why i've been feeling mildly depressed and so detached even from all my current obsessions...poker, and the gym. i just don't feel like myself this week...and its been a steady decline in my willingness to participate in social activities within the last couple of weeks. true, it could just be the weather, but i found out yesterday that the protein shake has aspartame in it...and lots of it. and one of the most common effects of aspartame is that it messes with cognition and it makes you depressed. this stupid low carb craze gives these protein shake makers no choice when sweetening up their shakes. either make their shake taste bland, or put aspartame and sucralose in it. i would be much happier if these shakes just came with regular old sugar. is that too much to ask? it's much cheaper and healthier. who cares about the carbs. these shakes don't have fat so even if it was sweetened by sugar it would be no problem. plus the simple cards would be well used at the gym.



damn, i got a full bottle of Nectar that I like drinking, and now I can't drink it. My other shake is Glutapro and it has sucralose in it. There are a lot of studies coming out about the dangers of sucralose. I want sugar! just give me my simple carbohydrates damn it!



so fantasia won. no big surprise for me. diana did have a chance to nail her last song, but she started on the wrong foot, or her voice just went out after her first 2 songs and she blew it. when she hit a bunch of flat notes towards the end, I heard it coming after the first few notes when she started. I could only grimace in anticipation. She should have sang her best song (3rd song) first. But then again, fantasia nailed her 3 songs, especially her last one. its true the sympathy votes could have even helped her. by the things everyone seemed to be saying, diana was the underdog. camile's hair looked really awful. i guess that's what happens when you don't get the pros to make you over before the event.

the unpolitically correct american idol prediction



who will go tonight? well, let's break it down. fantasia has got the votes from everyone who's trying to salvage the diginity of the show. a mix of casual to dedicated voters. she'll also be on the rebound from being in the bottom 2 last week, and she's also got the majority of la toya's votes. diana nailed her last performance last night. the only people voting for her will be people who are voting to keep her in the top 2, especially after her last performance. jasmine still has got the sympathy votes, and the dedicated voters from hawaii. definitely not as much as last week, but still a lot. she's also got the votes from the asian nerds who can program auto dialers and program mass SMS text messaging with their wireless cards. go asian nerds! cause jasmine is the cutest one compared to the inflatable baby doll diana (seems to inflate a little bit more each week), and a girl who looks like or is chris tucker is not my cup of tea. i would say that fantasia is safe. diana i'm kinda worried about. and people will be screaming bloody murder if jasmine knocks out diana. after watching last night, simon's comments kinda irked me. it made me want to go "f you simon. i'll vote for whoever i want." and i did. even though she didn't deserve it. the east coast should know by now, but i won't peek.

the yin and yang



i ran into a strange combination of flavors which i found really interesting. i had a cranberry bagle and some jalepeno cream cheese. now, you would never think they would go well together but to my surprise was a great combination. the bitterness of the cranberry was complemented by the sourness of the sour cream, and the spicyness of the jalepeno was complemented by the sweetness of the cranberries. very interesting indeed.



just like i had predicted on american idol (other than george leaving earlier than expected), it came down to fantasia and La Toya much much earlier than people expected. And La Toya got the boot just like I said she would. I saw it coming a mile away. Man, I hope that idiot, Elton John, doesn't make any stupid anti-racist remarks again. With La Toya gone, a lot of La Toya's fans will be voting for Fantasia, and she'll cruise to victory as long as she keeps performing. I was never a big fan of hers. Especially since she is Chris Tucker in disguise. But I think she deserves to win this competition. I think next one gone will be Jasmine Trias. She got so many unnecessary pity votes from Hawaii that there will be a backlash this week. What's ironic is if she blows everyone away next week, she'll probably get less votes.



so i played at another tournament at viejas on sunday. I was doing spectacular, cruising to my 40th place, then I get handed 78 off suit in the Big Blind. The small blind calls. The flop is 3 7 8. My flop is 2 pair. Since its just me and him, I figured I had him beat. I raise $1000, he quickly calls. a 6 falls. I go all in because I don't want someone sucking me out on the river. And he calls. he has just about $1500 more in chips than me. We are the 2 big stacks at the table. he turns over 9 10, a nut straight. The river does not give me the full house, and the tourney is over for me. what sucks is that I could have eliminated him a few hands before when I had my pocket 10's and he had pocket 6's. Of course he made his set on the flop, and mine came on the river...too late I had already folded. If I just made it through that hand, it would have been pretty easy to win in the money. Oh well, i'll get him next time.

my parakeet flew away about 2 weeks ago. i stopped clipping its wings so that it had the freedom to fly around. but it got really hot in my room, so i left the balcony screen door open to let more air in, and i took the bird out so it can fly around as usual, and it made a circle, and then flew right outside my balcony. i lost sight of it after that. at least it knows how to fly with more precision now than it was when i got him, and its wings are long enough for a good flight. i can't really say i'm sure he'll be alright but from the day i got him, that bird was not meant to be a pet. he never really was social with people. it just wanted to stay still in the cage, bringing the least amount of attention to himself so that people would leave him alone. i got a new bird this week. a cockatiel. this bird and my last parakeet are polar opposites. while my parakeet tried to bring the least amount of attentiontion to itself so people would leave it alone, this one wants constant attention. just having people around him brings him comfort. i bought a very large rectangular cage, perch platform for outside the cage, and a toy set. they recommended that only half of his diet are seeds. the other should be wet foods like pasta, and fresh vegetables. so i bought him some 3 corn pasta, corn flakes, unsalted sunflower seeds, broccoli and carrots, and unsalted mixed nuts. this time, i didn't choose the best looking bird out of the cage. i went to a place that specialized in hand raised birds, and tried to pick each one up, and see the mannerisms and personalities. i have to say it was a good pick.



poker...didn't do too well last week. just got awful cards for the whole tourney at stan's place. i went to a poker tournament at viejas the next morning. i was holding K 10. i raised 300. another guy raised it to 600, so i called. i put him on AJ, or QJ. the flop was 3 5 5. he raised 1000, and thinking he was trying to buy out the pot, i called hoping to get lucky on the turn. the turn was a 10. So now I'm holding top pair with a King kicker. he calls all in, and I have to call. he turns over AA. doh. that ended the tournament for me.



i've been reading some poker books. i'm a very slow reader, so I'm still trying to get through my first book Caro's book of Poker Tells. Then I'll probably read Poker Theory, Super System, Winning Low Limit Poker, and Hold Em Poker for Advanced Players.



i went to see my bro and my family last week for my brother's birthday. we met at starbucks in irvine, went to costco, then to the irvine spectrum. walked around for a bit, then met the parents and went to go eat at U & I sushi. i don't really like muscles, but how they prepared them, they were da bomb. i've had better rolls at sushi deli here, but the nigiri was good.



i was browsing through classmates.com, and it looks like its more than just high school and college now. you can now put your elementary, jr high, even kindergarden in there. so i put my elementary school in there, and to my surprise i found the girl i had my first crush on in my elementary school list. she also went to my jr high for the first year, but tranfserred i think during the first year, or maybe before the 8th grade. and it was a shocker to find out that she went to UCSD the same years I was there from 1996 to 2001. what a small world. i wonder if i ever ran into her. i probably wouldn't have recognized her. but i always wondered where she ended up....