August 16, 2003 Archives

I guess I haven't been keeping good track, but as of this morning, we're down an incredible $16 since we started.

Tonight I played two tiny $5+$.50 tournaments and came in 2nd once. So, that's $3.50 on the upside. I think Helaine did the same earlier.

I find, because the action is there, that I'm playing a lot of No Limit Hold'em, which is a totally different game than what I had been playing. I'm not totally sure how much I like it, because there are major bluffs going on. So, it's possible for another player, in essence, to ask you to put up your entire stake (and any chance to place in the tournament) and that player has nothing.

If you have a larger stack, it's much easier to be bold, because you can force someone to make a life or death (so to speak) decision, yet you have much less on the line relatively speaking.

Even if I hadn't placed, this game offered good entertainment for the investment. For my $5.50, I played for 1:15.

This has been an exercises in frustration. I volunteered to coordinate judging of the Weathercaster Emmy for the Mid-America region (basically St. Louis and Kansas City) and sent out dozens of invitations to other weather people around New England, including many who I know enter themselves... and got very few responses.

If it weren't for the fact that it was summer, some folks were on vacation, the AMS convention had taken place last week, I'd name names because I'm pissed. I don't mind that only a few people said yes. I'm more upset at how many didn't respond at all!

Anyone who enters the Emmy's expects more... and deserves it.

Our Emmy panel was comprised of Matt Scott and Gil Simmons and me from WTNH, Michael Friedman from Fox61 (WTIC TV) and Jayne Smith (meteorologist and former weather intern turned weather producer). We watched 9 tapes. Helaine was the 'caterer' and as is always the case, we ate wonderfully... and then had pizza for good measure.

The rules say I shouldn't discuss individual tapes, and I won't, but I will discuss the general quality of the entrants and the tape content itself. No one really stood out. There were two who I thought were better than the rest... but not by much. There is less of an edge or style to these Midwestern folks than what we see here in the East and a lot more nuts and bolts meteorology (which I'm by no means criticizing).

By and large, there was not enough "talent at chromakey" on the tapes.

It seems all but one of these entrants confused a good location with a good presentation. Because you're somewhere, and something beyond your control has happened, doesn't mean what you're doing is special.

Don Fitzpatrick, TV talent guru, used to talk about reporter audition tapes that included a live shot from the president coming to town. Unless you got that exclusive one-on-one with the prez, ditch the tape.

At this hour, all our score sheets (which I haven't sneaked a peek at) are in the Airborne envelope, waiting to go out with the tapes on Monday.

Yesterday's forecast for today was mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thundershowers. I woke up this morning and it was sunny.

Let me pause and tell you one of the weirdest conflicts in my life is rooting for bad weather, just because I called for it! If I say blizzard and it's flurries, even though I hate snow, I'm very upset.

So, obviously, I was on edge when I saw the Sun.

But, give Mother Nature credit for being somewhat predictable. By mid-afternoon, as the Emmy judges were leaving the house, the radar was showing building lines of thundershowers north and west of Connecticut (there were thunderstorms south too, but they were heading away).

These were big storms, full of those giant economy sized drops that you only get in the summer, and only in thunderstorms. It didn't take long for streets to develop curb side streams, and puddling to take over low lying areas.

NEXRAD rainfall estimates show around 1" of rain where I live, with higher amounts toward Waterbury and Meriden, and a significantly higher accumulation along the Connecticut River south of Middletown.

I picked up Steffie at work as a thunderstorm was just tapering off. They had closed the front door to the store because water was blowing in.