My Two Cents: Dissecting Mean Gene
Monday, January 17, 2005
In za future, whenever I review anything or pimp another blogger, I plan to use the My Two Cents title as noted above. In addition I have a pretty cool picture of a Two Cent piece to add to the top of the post, however, when added it's the size of a freaking dinner plate. Good for red beans and rice...bad for TripJax posts. Not being too hip on the How Stuff Works scene, I'm just gonna skip the picture until I know how to fix it. Just know I had a cool thing going but, alas, I digress. It's what I get for trying to be hip.
But I'm not here to to tell you about my picture problems...My Two Cents are better served giving you the scoop on fellow bloggers of the world. For this particular piece, I'll be dissecting Pittsburghs very own Mean Gene...one of the better poker bloggers I've read since I began this journey a few months ago. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I will only pimp (and link on the sidebar over there -->) bloggers I've taken the time to actually read. To date I've stuck to that plan. I would not want to read a movie review from a critic who didn't see the movie, thus I do my homework on those I pimp. And what enjoyable homework it is. It goes something like this -- I like to read -- I like poker -- I like to read about poker -- I don't have money for books right now -- Enter the poker blogging world to the rescue. My wife is probably sick and tired of me carting around page after page of blogtastic printed material throughout the house, though she's been an absolute sport about it. The way I see it, she's got her 83 trillion magazines and I've got my blogs.
I came upon Mean Gene via reading The Cards Speak. I was doing my usual killing some time and decided to give Mean a try. Specifically I read the post titled Why Mike Matusow Should Be Teaching High School Math. Glad I did. It was funny, informative, and even discussed a topic I had read and learned about through Daniel Negraneau's site quite a while back...bluffing a dry side pot. Thankfully I read that piece before making an ass of my self at a tournament. Continuing...having already read through Iggy, HDouble, and the Quiet Lion from beginning to current, I knew after reading the Matusow post that Mean was just what the doctor ordered. At the end of a long work day I began the task of printing off every month of Mean's old posts. Good gravy...what had I gotten myself into?! It kept printing and printing and printing. I was contemplating whether to abort the mission, but I reminded myself the more it prints, the more there is to read...and that's a good thing. Plus, the final resting place of each page will be my fireplace as they take one for the team each night and help me get the wood a burnin'.
One month later, I've just finished the roller coaster that is Mean Gene's blog, and I must say I had a blast reading it. It took a month because I would read it at leisure. Plus, he's written some unbelievable amount...over 200k words I think?! As for the content, it was right down my alley. To relate, I went from live weekly hold'em tournaments and ring games ranging from $10 - $100 buy-ins - or the occasional SNG on Party - to not playing anything but freerolls and $1 qualifiers online - (and rarely at that). Meanwhile Mean was playing small dollar games with ups and downs, and then not playing at all due to a self induced tightening of the leash. Noble in every right.
Where Mean shines, and I have work to do, is when he's writing about the most random things. I remember reading a post about the correlation of good/bad haircuts and your poker play and also a follow-up post on whether a relationship with your hair stylist would ever work. As I was reading I had to ask myself, what the hell am I reading? But it all seemed to make sense in the end and oh man was I addicted. Great, great stuff. He's got a way with words and you know when he pounds out an uber post like the haircut one, you are in for some primerib material. His vocabulary is strong to quite strong for an ameteur writer and I think he's got room for some worthy writing...the getting paid kind of writing. But that's just My Two Cents. As for me, I just shell out the basics and hope a few posts stick. I don't have it in me (yet) to write a novelesque post, but I'll write what I think and as close to the English language as possible. "Me Fail English, That's Unpossible." Had to slip a little Simpsons Ralphie quote for ya.
As I prepare to conclude this post, I am chuckling a bit. Bear with me on this one. Going forward, after I do my pimping, I plan to email said pimpee to let them know they've been pimped. I've yet to inform Iggy, HDouble, or the Quiet Lion that they were pimped as I did theirs so early in my blog life that it wouldn't have meant a whole lot. The way I figure, you gotta get some posts under your belt to prove your worth. Nearly four months in, I'm ready to make my presence known. So, I chuckle because at this point I'm writing a post about a blogger who may become the only current reader that I have besides myself. A couple of my friends have seen my blog, but do not actively read it yet because they are not aware that I'm actually keeping up with it. So if you are reading this Mean Gene, thanks for making it this far. If not and I end up still the only one reading this, well I'll continue to write...this stuffs gotta get out of my head one way or another.
Oh...one last thing...I find it a bit eery, but when I was doing my 2004 Personal Year In Review, my title and post included the word pontificate (and pontification -- if that is a word). I then noticed while finishing up my reading of the Mean Gene posts that he used pontificate in one of his posts. Not that this is journalistic history we are seeing here folks, but I rarely bust out a big word in my posts, and the one time I do so it's been used quite well in a post by Mean. Just thought it was weird after I read his post.
Next up, I think a post about my foray into the life of being a dealer is appropriate. Sadly, numerous people out there in the local Greensboro poker world only recognize me as a dealer, not a player. Oh bank account, why do you mock me so...you can't get here soon enough bonus...
posted by TripJax @ 1:17 PM,
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