Since I've been making the prediction to anyone who asks for weeks now, I figured I might as well put it up here: Notre Dame will win at least eight football games this (regular) season, and nine or ten wouldn't really shock me.

A Gator or Cotton Bowl win to top off the season and I'll be very, very happy.

John McCain has an alarming history of disrespecting women and their contributions to society. He's violently opposed to womens' reproductive freedom, has voted against women's access to health care, and has repeatedly opposed women receiving equal pay for equal work. None of us can afford to vote for a person like John McCain, who shows such utter disrespect for women.

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Due to the incompetence of my new and now former bank Wells Fargo I was left without access to my money today. I had planned to play the $1,500 PLO event today, but that plan was dashed due to my bankroll being held hostage.

I would, however, not advocate anyone repeatedly call Wells Fargo's toll free number and take up their customer service representative's time with inane questions. I certainly would not encourage anyone to call 888-231-0757 or 800-869-3557 over and over. Not at all. Companies pay money for each 800 number call received, so this would be wrong.

Anyway, lacking the cash to play anything other than a $1/2 game I decided to skip poker for the evening. I did drop by the Rio briefly and while there I dropped $5 in a slot machine (for those that know me, this is a good indication of just how tilted I was).

After two pulls in the $.25 slot I hit a jackpot for $283.75.

Maybe I should become a professional slot player.

I have a poker post coming, but in other related news:

Never do any business with Wells Fargo Bank. Absolutely hands down the worst treatment I have ever received from a financial institution.

It's been a rough week of poker for me, with just about everything that could go wrong reaching up and slapping me in the face.

Between the draw outs, bad reads, and sold out events I spent much of the week on tilt. I mean, seriously, AhKh on a 7h8h9h board should really win against AcTh.

Tonight I feel like I've gotten back on track. I final tabled a Mega Satellite, and even though I didn't win a seat, I at least put myself in a good position to have the opportunity to do so. I played by far my best poker of the week.

On the good side, RubBBQ at the Rio is pretty good. Not as good as Memphis Championship BBQ, but the convenience factor is very high.

Warning: This post contains a bad beat story.

I played pretty well today, though there were some missed opportunities. There was a player at my first table who had to have been involved in about 60% of the pots. I was just waiting for my chance to trap him but never really got the opportunity. Professional player Burt Boutin was moved into the death seat [1] at my first table but was knocked out after not too long. I made one ill-advised play with AQ and lost a chunk of chips when my opponent had KK.

After seeing my stack go up and down all day I finally managed to get slightly ahead of the curve entering level six. With the blinds at 200/400 and a 50 ante I had just under 9,000 chips. Not great, but far better than the 1,650 chips I had at my low point.

An early position player with a large chip stack raised to 1,200, everyone folded to me and I raised to 3,700 with KK. He instantly went all in. I, of course, called and he turned over AKs. The flop of 345 gave him a few more outs, the turn was a blank. The river, of course, was the deuce to give him the wheel and send me home.

Said hello to Pauly prior to the start of the tournament. His coverage is second to none, if you're not reading it you're missing out.

Next up: Satellites and either Event 7 or 9. I wish I had the bankroll to play Event 8, just because it sounds like the sickest game ever. But considering how bad I am at Razz and Stud 8 I really can't justify wasting $10K.

[1] It seems like there's always one seat each table where player after player is eliminated. I call it the death seat.

May starting day for event 2 is here. I'll be heading over to the Rio in a couple hours along with approximately 2,000 other players for today. Yesterday's action in this tournament saw nearly 2,050 entrants, but just 225 remained at the end of the day.

I'll post Twitter updates during the tournament (the five most recent will be visible in the post below) and update this post at the end of the day with more detail.

I've created a Twitter account for ease of updating everyone while WSOP events are going on. You can follow my updates here.

If you choose you can even have my updates sent to your phone as a text message.

Here's my last few updates:

The 2008 World Series of Poker began yesterday. I'll be playing in my first event tomorrow, Event 2. Below is my receipt, and as you can see I drew Amazon Orange Table 1, Seat 1. Pocket aces even before I sit down. Nice.

For general WSOP coverage, check out Tao of Poker and PokerNews.com.

E Street Band organ player Danny Federici passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer. I hope to post further thoughts and remembrances of Danny at a later date, right now I find myself unable to do so. If you wish you could make a donation to the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund.

A few days ago the subject of jury duty came up in conversation. I mentioned an easy way to get out of it that the people I was talking with had never heard of.

If you are serving on a jury and do not like the law you are asked to enforce you do not have to enforce it.

Judges and prosecutors do not want anyone to know this. And they sure as hell don't want jurors who do know about it. So, if you want out of jury duty mention jury nullification at some point during the selection process and you'll be out.

From CribFashions.com:

I'm not much of a candle person. Sure, they can smell nice, and I'll often light one after cooking something that leaves behind a strong odor. But I've never really understood the fascination they seem to inspire in some people.

Until I saw this one. Damn, that's cool.

I am rooting for the Patriots. This may surprise some of you, but I'm so sick of hearing from the 1972 Dolphins team that I want another undefeated team so they will finally shut the hell up.

As I'm typing this Mercury Morris is on one of ESPN's talking head shows trying to claim the Patriots are close to equaling his team's performance. He has some stupid metaphor about wearing a tux and waiting for his bride that he keeps using.

First, Mercury, I don't think you are Tom Brady's type.

Second, the last time I checked 19-0 is better than 17-0.

1. Bruce Springsteen - Magic
2. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
It was a battle until the end which order these two would go in. Springsteen turns in an album that both recalls his past work and moves it forward. Arcade Fire avoid the sophomore slump completely, with an astounding album.

3. Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
Another year, another stellar release from Sam Beam. This one is more lush than previous releases, perhaps taking a cue from 2005's collaboration with Calexico.

4. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
An album that has tremendous rewards for repeat listens. I was rather disappointed at first, but given time I came to love it. Is there any band that changes more album to album?

5. Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter

6. Lori McKenna - Unglamorous

7. Brandi Carlile - The Story

8. Over the Rhine - The Trumpet Child
I remember reading a line from a review of this album, "Over the Rhine makes creative, weird and pretty pop music." That's a perfect description. This one is more jazz and blues influenced than their recent work, and singer Karin Bergquist has the perfect voice to pull it off.

9. Chuck Prophet - Soap and Water
I somehow missed the release of this album in October, only finding it in late December. It quickly found a spot here, and if I gave it more time it might even rise up the list.

10. Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers - No More Beautiful World
A slight disappointment, given how good their last album was, but still enough good songs to land in the ten spot.

Just Missed:
Ben Lee - Ripe
I've been shocked not to see anyone else list this album in their year end lists. I know it took a bit of a critical drubbing, but I've found it to be an enjoyable pop album. Plus What Would Jay-Z Do? is one of the best song titles of the year, even if the song doesn't quite measure up.

The National - Boxer
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade
Okkervil River - Stage Names
Jesse Malin - Glitter in the Gutter

Singles I Loved
Spoon - The Underdog
The National Lights - Midwest Town
Grant Lee Phillips - Soft Asylum (No Way Out)
Kelly Willis - Nobody Wants to Go to the Moon Anymore
Jimmy Eat World - Big Casino

My friend Mike Collins has started a blog. He has assembled several very good writers to contribute to go along with his own musings. It's worth checking out.

I'm a card carrying liberal (seriously, I made a card). I've been involved in environmental causes for over ten years. But Greenpeace is seriously pissing me off with their continued unfounded attacks against Apple.

"Apple is getting greener, but not green enough," said Rick Hind, the legislative director of Greenpeace's toxics campaign. "The Macbook Air has less toxic PVC plastic and less toxic BFRs, but it could have zero and that would make Apple an eco-leader," he added.

Right.

What you have here is the equivalent of a football coach cutting his starting quarterback because he's not Tom Brady while ignoring the fact that his backups are Ryan Leaf and Akili Smith.

Greenpeace will get no money from me until this stops.

The Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks chronicles the "misuse" of quotation marks on "signage" and "packaging." It's highly entertaining if you have any concept of "proper punctuation."

I sure do love me some waffles. I would love for someone to invite me over for some.

With the first presidential primary only days away I would like to take this time to formally endorse Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

For the first time in a long time, we have the chance to build a new majority of not just Democrats, but independents and Republicans who've lost faith in their Washington leaders but want to believe again — who desperately want something new.

We can change the electoral math that's been all about division and make it about addition — about building a coalition for change and progress that stretches through blue states and red states. That's how I won some of the reddest, most Republican counties in Illinois. That's why the polls show that I do best against the Republicans running for president — because we're attracting more support from independents and Republicans than any other candidate. That's how we'll win in November and that's how we'll change this country over the next four years.

Just a reminder:

This site is not, in general, compatible with Internet Explorer 6. If you're using it you should really upgrade. Firefox is free, and a good option. Why drive an '84 Yugo when you can have a new Lexus for free?

42 Below Vodka's Clio Award winner. The whole series is good, but the first one is the best.

What I love the most is that it requires the reader to interpret the ad instead of hitting them over the head with the message.