The weather in Melbourne has been incredibly unpredictable.  There have been days where it feels like it’s 80 degrees out at noon and then an hour later the temperature drops 15-20 degrees.  Overall it’s been a little unseasonably cool but beautiful.  I’ve gotten two rounds of golf in and plan to get a couple more in before I come back to NYC.  We saw about 1,000 flying foxes at the end of one hole (picture to come) perched on a few trees and these really cool bright green/blue birds.  Have yet to see a snake, kangaroo, or koala.  Apparently there’s a place 90 minutes away where we can see Penguins.

I’ve steadily been drinking beers most days and because the NFL playoff games this past weekend were shown here at 5 and 8:30 AM, sometimes the beer drinking has started as early as 8 AM.  I’m on vacation though so it’s OK.  So far, Fat Yak has been my favorite local beer but the others I’ve tried have been pretty good too (James Squire, Cascade, and Victoria Bitter in that order).

We went out for one of my friend’s gf’s birthdays Monday night and it went from a we won’t be out to0 late night to a karaoke filled, breathalyzer blowing, debaucherous party.  They have breathalyzers all around the casino and you can put in a dollar and check your BAC.  I think I blew a .186 and then .171 a few hours later.  One of DC EP’s hit a .212.  I think it’s funny that the purpose of these things is to make sure you are OK to drive but pretty much everyone I saw checking their BAC was competing with friends to get it as high as possible.

The casino culture here is unbelievably ridiculous.  You are not comped drinks and you are not allowed to celebrate a big hand or the dealer busting and everyone at the table winning.  It’s basically just an anti-fun policy.  If you appear to be having too much fun, they will ask you to leave.

The food has been pretty mediocre.  Melbourne is supposed to be the restaurant capital of Australia and most everyone here has agreed that there have been very few decent meals.  Surprisingly, one of the meals that most people hated was a top 3 rated steakhouse and I had my best meal of the trip there.  I ordered an awesome beet salad, a fried goat cheese appetizer, and some sort of gingery pasta dish.  If any locals are reading this, please please recommend us some good restaurants.

The service has been otherworldly bad with only a couple of exceptions.  At the steakhouse, we waited about 90 minutes before we were even served bread.  The first time the waitress came to take our order, we asked her how many of one of the appetizers would be a good amount for the table and after she suggested a number and we started discussing, she decided to just leave and go take another table’s order.  This would’ve been fine if she waited 30 seconds and then said “would you like me to come back?”, but no, she just left…and didn’t come back until she had served/waited on 3 other tables and 15 minutes had gone by.  Similarly, when she finally started taking our order, someone asked her a question about one of the items on the menu.  Instead of even asking “I can check on that if you’d like”, she without any hand motion indicating she’d be back just puts on a grumpy face and disappears for 5 minutes.  At this point, there is no question worth answering that we’d be willing to wait 5 minutes for.  We are starving.  Communication is good, lady.

I happen to think that tipping culture in the USA has gotten completely out of control and only a few things really should warrant a gratuity.  Tipping for service at a restaurant is definitely one thing that results in better overall service and it has shown most times I’ve been out of the country.

Compared to a lot of other places I’ve been, the locals here have been extremely friendly and it’s hard to really see any sort of anti-American sentiment that we would experience in a lot of European countries.  At one of the two places where we actually had good friendly service, (small cafe w/ 4 tables) the lady behind the counter upon recognizing our American accents explained the different terms they had for coffee here (a long black = an americano, a white coffee means milk added).

We went to the Australian Open yesterday and saw an incredible 5 set match between Juan Martin Del Potro and our fellow countryman James Blake.  Blake took him to a 5th set that he eventually lost 10-8.  We were by far the rowdiest people in the stands and got some USA chants going multiple times throughout the match.  If Roddick faces Del Potro in the quarterfinals, we are preparing to bring the biggest USA flag we can find.

We played some tackle football on the 2nd day there and hopefully can do it again.  Unfortunately we are all a bit beat up with strawberries and sore/bruised spots all over.  My knees ooze after each shower.  It’s not a pretty sight.

I forgot my contacts and plan to learn how to surf so I am going to the mall where I saw an optometrist sign and see if I can figure some way for them to give me contacts.  I will update this some more in a few days.

1) Hummus Place – So my mom will come visit me in NYC every now and then.  Recently she came to help set up my new kitchen with flatware and pots/pans.  Mom stuff.  Anyway, each time she comes, she begs me to take her to a good falafel joint.  Usually we do sit down dinners and I tried explaining to her that most of the good falafel places involve standing in line and eating the food while on the go.  It’s just not your typical mom/son meal when you don’t see each other that often.

I recently went to this new middle eastern place called Hummus Place and they had great falafel and awesome hummus AND they allow you to sit down.  There is one of them that is maybe a 15-20 minute walk from my apartment.  So on my mom’s most recent trip to NYC, I told her we could go there.  Now I am probably the fastest walker in all of NYC so when I say 15-20 minute walk, that is at my pace.  In the 15 degree windy weather, at mom’s pace, we finally made it to Hummus Place.  We sit down and are still shivering even though we haven’t removed our coats.  We are given a menu and I can’t find falafel anywhere on it.  Upon further examination, I see that one of the appetizers is crossed out with black marker.  They decided to take falafel off the menu.  Awesome.

2)  Do you know your apple juice? – So last grocery batch, I got some Red Jacket Orchards apple juice.  It has 47% RDA Vitamin C per serving.  It is 100% juice.  I compared this to Martinelli’s apple juice which only has 2% RDA Vitamin C per serving.  It is also 100% juice.  What the hell?  I feel like I have to be amongst some of the more intelligent and perceptive consumers but I have no answer for this.

3)  New Years Eve -  I am not anti-NYE or super pro-NYE.  I think it’s a sham holiday but one that you get to party on and spend with a lot of your friends.  I think a good analogy would be Thanksgiving is to your family as NYE is to your friends.  With that being said, I think calling family/friends at 12:05 to wish them a happy new year is pretty ridiculous.

4)  Surf Lessons – I want to learn how to surf.  I tried unsuccessfully in Costa Rica a couple years ago.  I am taking a 2.5 week trip to Australia in a week or so and plan to get it down.  Anyone have any advice on good places in Australia to go surfing?  I’m going to be in Melbourne.  Also, general surfing advice would be great.

5)  Halloween – This got put off for a while but I think if you had to pick one holiday that best represents a city, I think Halloween does it for NYC.  The adult-like atmosphere and people watching opportunities Halloween creates perfectly typify some of NYC’s unique qualities.  If you aren’t from NYC but plan to make a trip there for Halloween, I would recommend skipping the parade and instead making it out to McDougal St./Bleecker St.  This is where the true debauchery happens.  While it will get crowded, unlike NYE in Times Square, it’s a fun crowded as you get to gaze at ridiculous and awesome Halloween costumes and see people go nuts.

6) Cooking Rice/Quinoa/ETC. – This advice is for you guys who don’t really cook often.  Don’t listen to them when they tell you to go 2 parts water, 1 part rice.  They are lying.  If you do this, the water will get soaked up and evaporate and your rice will be slightly crunchy.  Now, you will have to go through a really annoying process whereby you add more water and keep cooking and some rice will get cooked and some won’t.  I would recommend 2 1/2 parts water, 1 part rice.  It might take a little bit longer but you won’t get stuck with crunchy rice.

7) Football picks – Baltimore +3.5, GB +2.5, NYJ +2.5, Philly +4.  Let’s go road dogs.

1) I think while it’s gotten better, the game selection process for Thursday/Sunday/Monday night games can be improved upon.  The current system has both MNF and TNF games picked before the season starts and SNF games flex’d so the last half of the year, they pick out good games.

I understand there are issues with having scheduling uncertainties of not knowing exactly what day you are playing on but I think 2-3 weeks notice should be enough.

The Raiders and Browns should just never play on MNF.  I don’t believe in the “every team should get a chance to play in front of a nat’l audience” mentality. You should have to earn your right to play in these games.

2) The interface the NFL uses to display the score, time left, timeouts left, etc. can be improved upon also.  Each network uses its own system but they all seem to leave one important thing out or don’t use the space on the tv efficiently enough.  Timeouts left, down and distance, score, time left in the game, and challenges remaining (doesn’t really take up much space) should all be displayed.

Who posted the following:

I don’t know how to do the EV calcs but I’ll throw some numbers out there.

The Pats 4th down conversion rate on the year was around 78%.
If the Pats convert, they win. If they don’t, they lose around 85% of the time based on the momentum of the game and giving up good field positioning to the Colts.

If they punt, they win around 80% of the time. Even the great Peyton Manning would have a tough time going 70-75 yards with only one timeout.

Why give the Colts a real good chance to win the game 1/4th the time when they can just punt it and win 80% of the time?

My numbers might be slightly off, but they’re close.

Bad call.

I think those numbers you are using are way off.

A 4th and 2 conversion rate for the Pats since Tom Brady took over has been 78% but the league rate is 60%.  Given that the Colts are a significantly above average defense, we can take a number somewhere in between.

After punting, an average NFL team in the Colts shoes is going to score 30% of the time.  If the conversion fails, an average NFL team is going to score 53% of the time.

Here is the link to stats – http://www.advancednflstats.com/2009/11/belichicks-4th-down-decision-vs-colts.html

I think there are a couple errors in the methodology:

1) 4th and 2 conversion rate needs to be adjusted to above 60%

2) the 30% and 53% figures need to be increased because the offense is more potent than the defense

Overall, however, this results in a similar conclusion as the poster comes to, or one that favors Belichick’s decision even more.

Going for it is clearly the correct call.  If you punt, any live Vegas book will have a line no worse than Indy +200.  If you go for it, you win the game > 66.7% when you make it.

I got to try out a few new places this past month.  Here are my new rankings:

1) Lucali

2) Grimaldi’s

3) Luzzo

4) Keste

5) Patsy’s

6) Lombardi’s

Honorable mention goes to Joe’s Pizza on Carmine and Bleecker.  It’s the best pizza by the slice I’ve ever had.  Can’t compare it to sit down pizza places that serve it margherita style though.

Still have to try:  Co., DiFara, and Franny’s

Here is how I would order the teams:

1) Undefeated SEC Champion

2) Undefeated Texas

3) Undefeated Cincinnati

4) Undefeated Iowa

5) Undefeated Boise State

6) One loss SEC Champ

7) One loss Texas that wins the Big 12

One loss USC

Contrary to what the ESPN analysts say, I think an undefeated Cincy, Iowa, or Boise St (this is iffy tho) gets in over a 1 loss SEC champ, 1 loss Texas big 12 champ, or 1 loss USC.  Only time will tell.

I just got back from London a few days ago.  While a lot of the following is going to sound overly negative/critical, my time there was very enjoyable.

Attitudes towards Americans

It seems like they hate Americans in London.  We were taking a train to the outskirts of London to see Hampton Court and my friend had his feet propped up on the chair across from him.  The train had maybe 8 people on it.  One young Brit struck up a conversation with my friend asking him about his Kindle and where he got it and what he thought of it.  Almost instantly after the conversation ended, and it was apparent we were Americans, a 50+ yr old lady sitting close to us told my friend he wasn’t allowed to put his feet on the chair.  Now, despite the fact that my friend was in the wrong here, this is just something no one would ever say.  The only reason she told him that was because he was an American.

Another time we were taking a cab somewhere and from our conversation and accents it was obvious to the cab driver that we were American.  As we exited the cab and made our way to the sidewalk, the cab driver motioned for my friend to come up to him.  “When you’re in London mate, you don’t slam the door to a taxicab.”  Again, not a big deal but it’s just obvious that every American is perceived as an arrogant asshole.

While we’re on the topic of taxicabs, there is this bizarre phenomenon in London whereby < 50% of cabs with their unoccupied light on actually stop for you if you try to hail them!  This was just baffling.  We thought for a while that it might be the particular spot we were trying to hail them but a cab driver we talked to dispelled that notion.  I’m not sure if they don’t keep their fares but that’s the only thing I can think of that makes sense.  Conversely, in NYC, cabs fight each other for fares.

Exercising/Fitness

Exercising and fitness seem to be nonexistent in London.  In all of our time walking around London, and we probably walked on average 10 to 12 miles a day, we were only able to find one gym!  This is evidenced in the physical appearance of Londoners.  While statistically Americans are more likely to be obese, if you factor out african americans and hispanics, they are actually slightly less obese than Brits.

At almost every tube (subway) stop, there was no option to take stairs.  You were pretty much stuck taking the escalator up.  The one subway stop we did find stairs at actually had a sign that said “for your safety, we request that you only use the stairs in an emergency”.  One silver lining is that they have this cool stand to the right policy whereby on any escalator, if you are merely going to stand, you are requested to stand to the right side so anyone who wants to walk up can pass you on the left.  This needs to be adopted in America.

Chelsea/Liverpool

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a Chelsea/Liverpool match.  I don’t really want to get into a debate of soccer vs. american football vs. baseball vs. basketball, etc.  I pretty much find most sports enjoyable to play and watch.  Soccer is no exception.  We hung out at a pub close to the stadium for a while and the atmosphere was insane.  There was heavy drinking, broken glasses all over the floor (they only served you in plastic ones), celery being thrown, crazy chanting, etc.  They would only let you in if you were a Chelsea supporter.  This seemed kind of silly but after going inside, it was pretty apparent that this rule was in place for your safety.  If you were a Liverpool fan, you were not making it out alive.  At the door, if you were wearing a jacket, they made you take it off to make sure you weren’t wearing red (Liverpool color).

Overall, I found the trip to be a lot of fun.  It turned into a vacation as we ended up skipping the EPT.  I just thought that London had very little to offer that you can’t find in any other big city.

I’m considering going to London for a poker tournament which will inevitably turn into a vacation where I don’t even end up playing the tournament.  I have  a friend who is basically a local and he’s creating an itinerary for all of us.  This just got me thinking about how much I hate sightseeing despite my love for traveling.

I don’t actually mind seeing truly unique and extraordinary landmarks, locations, what have you.  I actually enjoy doing this.  If I take a trip to Egypt, I will make it a point to see the pyramids.  What I really hate, however, is sightseeing only for the sake of sightseeing.  You can basically waste multiple days in some of the smallest  towns in America if you were hell bent on going sightseeing.  There are things to see everywhere.  On a trip I made to Copenhagen last winter with a few friends, one of my friends insisted that on the second to last day we make a trip outside and go check out some museums.  I’m not all that into art but if Copenhagen had some super famous museum like the Louvre, I’m all for checking it out.  If it’s just some ordinary museum though, I’d rather not waste my time.  When you only have a week’s time, there are just so many better things you can be doing than seeing something that you will not remember three months later.  (Insert friend’s name here), I bet you cannot remember a single thing we saw in that museum.  I think this is a pretty good test for what’s worth seeing.  A few years later when someone asks you what you did in random city, the things you can name are probably the things worth seeing.

I think the best things about traveling are tasting the local cuisine and experiencing the culture.  Sometimes the latter is hard to do, especially if you don’t know any locals.  Almost all of my best experiences traveling have resulted from either befriending a local or knowing a local.  So many of the best things you can do in a foreign city are not listed in the tourist guidebook.  I’ll make it a point when I travel to try and avoid super touristy areas as much as possible.  What’s the point of traveling to some foreign city if you end up spending all your time with a bunch of American tourists?

Well, it has truly been too long since I have updated this but my life has been pretty hectic and exciting lately as I’m sure most of you are aware.

I cannot possibly start off this entry without talking about Two Months Two Million.  I think the show has been an entertaining and accurate portrayal of a lifestyle that so few people are aware of outside the poker community.  It has been a tremendous joy to watch the show with friends and Jay and I have been having weekly viewing parties.  For those who have been watching, I promise you the show is only going to get better.  Seemingly, every time I talk about the show with Jay, Dani, or Brian, someone recounts some hilarious event they captured on camera that has yet to be shown.  The summer just passed by so fast and we got pretty used to having cameras around us at all times that it’s hard to even remember what they got on film.

I think one of the things that the show has done extremely well is balancing the amount of poker they show on TV versus lifestyle stuff.  I’ve had numerous people tell me they’d like to see more poker or less poker and the bottom line is just that there are people who want to see poker, and others who just want to see the hilarity that ensues when the four of us are together.  The show captures both.

In terms of the actual experience of filming a reality tv show, I would say that it was enjoyable but I think better adjectives to describe it would be surreal, exciting, unique, educational, and even exhausting.  We had set times we’d have to be awake each day and anyone who knows Dani or I well knows this is a challenge.  Our talent coordinator, Jill, was the girl in charge of making sure we were awake at the proper hour each day.  Poor girl.  Honestly, I think Dani and I were both pretty punctual for most of the summer.  With the exception of Jay, however, the rest of us each had a morning where we were too comatose to rise.  Unfortunately, mine happened at a time when I was badly needed.  I had a late night out and was just too out of it to understand what was happening when Jill called me in the morning to wake me up and kept telling her to call me back in 15 minutes.  I was smart enough (or stupid enough) to lock both doors that led to my bedroom.  The calling went on for a while and then I heard someone knocking on my bedroom door.  At this point, I’m coherent enough to be confused as to how this could be happening since the outer door to the top floor was locked.  A few minutes later, the door busts open, lights are turned on, and I’m basically forced awake.  I didn’t realize until later that day when I went back upstairs that they had broken down both locks to get into my room to wake me up!  Apparently, the backup plan was to set up a ladder to access a 3rd door that led out to my balcony.

I got recognized on the street a couple days ago!  I was walking to go to this spectacular tacqueria by my apartment and on the way back I heard this couple mutter something like “Hey”.  I didn’t think they were talking to me so I just walked into my apartment and was about to take the elevator up when they burst through the doors and shouted “Emil!”.  They were so excited the doorman had to restrain them.  They asked the usual questions like did you make it, etc.  (not allowed to say!).  While Jay and I have both been recognized in NYC before re: DeucesCracked, this marks the first time any of the four of us have been recognized because of our tv show (sorry Dani, yours doesn’t count because you initiated the conversation).  Pretty cool.

In other news, I am settling back into my normal NYC life.  For the month and a half that I’ve been back, we have been without a personal assistant and personal chef, both of which we had prior to leaving for Las Vegas.

I’ve been getting by just fine without a PA and it’s comforting to know that I haven’t developed some sort of dependency after having one for almost a year.  This is one of the things that a lot of my peers are torn about and I definitely am in the pro-PA camp.  The biggest arguments that I’ve heard against hiring one are things like well it gives me satisfaction to do these things myself or I like to keep myself busy.  I just don’t feel the same way.  I’d rather be spending more time playing guitar, learning how to cook, reading, writing, going out, etc. versus doing laundry, depositing checks, washing sheets, setting up the speaker system, running to get AA batteries, etc.  If you don’t feel weird about having someone do things like this for you, and would rather spend your free time pursuing old or new hobbies, you should definitely considering hiring a PA.

As for the personal chef, I’m still up in the air over whether I want to rehire him.  One of the things I did after I got back is I enrolled in a vegetarian cooking class.  I think becoming a badass cook is something useful and fun that I want to pursue.  I’m still considering rehiring the personal chef we had because for the most part, I don’t think I’ve been eating particularly healthy since being back.  I haven’t been eating unhealthy but I just am not getting enough variety in my meals.  I’ve been eating way too much pasta and pizza.  I think a good plan might be to go through with the cooking class, maybe take a couple more, and also try and learn from our personal chef who is terrific.

I’ve maintained a decent gym routine since being back and hopefully in a couple of weeks I can be back at my personal peak fitness level.  Before going to Las Vegas, I could squat 225 lbs and bench 150 lbs at a body weight of 120-125 lbs.  I badly sprained my foot playing soccer barefoot in Las Vegas and had to take a month or so off from any heavy leg workout.

I think I’ve now been playing guitar for around 5-6 months and I’m really enjoying it and have noticed a dramatic improvement in my play.  I’m currently learning Over the Hills and Far Away by Led Zeppelin which is an awesome song.  My fingers have been calloused for most of that time that I’ve been learning.  Normal?

In sports news, I’ve basically stopped watching the Mets since leaving for Las Vegas.  I really had no time to watch baseball while we were filming and when I got back, the Mets were out of it and way too depressing a team to watch on tv.  It’s awesome that football is finally here.

I will try and update this blog every Wednesday.