Bucket List

Greeting my loyal followers,

So I've been thinking about the concept of a bucket list, and I feel like I've put it off because as I get older, the things I want in life change somewhat. Some remain constant, but others seem to shift around. But........ that's never gonna change, so I guess I'll just get workin on one, and if I need to shift it around some...... so be it. So without further ado, I give you my bucket list(in no particular order):


Pebble Beach, Golf, need I say more?? It's the mecca of any man's golf dreams. Give me this course, good buddies, and all the beers we can drink and I'll be happy as a pig in shit.

And while we're on golf...........






Getting a hole in one. Now anyone who's had the pleasure of playing golf with me knows that I'm FAR from a great(or even good, or even decent) golfer, so this one's gonna have to come from dumb luck and little else. But, I've got at least 70 years left.....





Run a Marathon. Not a 5k, not a Half Marathon, but a full blown, no shit 26.2 mile MARATHON. Why you ask? Just to prove to myself that I can. I don't expect to post a good time, or even a respectable time, but this is a MUST.








Go to a Superbowl. Honestly, I don't really care who plays. I want to go, for the atmosphere and to have a story to tell my grand kids.







Play in a World Series of Poker event. This one would be so awesome I can't even imagine. It will def take some saving(the buy in for one of these ranges from $1500 to $50,000) but it would SO be worth it. And who knows, I might get lucky as hell and make some money!! But that's not even close to being the reason I wanna go.





Honestly, that's all I can think of. I'm a man of simple needs huh?

Anyway, that was fun. Now the hard part........ makin it happen :)

On the Cusp of 30

Hello out there, how's everyone?

Sorry it's been a while, and I'm not keeping up with either of my blogs very well. What's that, you say; "BLOG(S)?? Julian, I didn't know you had 2?" Well the other one is basically my "poker blog" full of boring updates on my career as a world class poker player(he he) :) But it's here if you're interested.

Anyway, life has been pretty crazy lately, in a good way though. And.......... bum bum buuum, I turned 29 a few weeks ago. Yeah, holy crap that's dangerously close to 30. I would say if you asked me where my life would be at 30 when I was 20, I probably wouldn't have quite guessed correctly, but I think I'd be close. Married, kids, probably more money in the bank though, and in better shape, (yes round is a shape, but screw the clever T Shirt, you know what I mean:)

Anyway, for those of you who know me, you know I'm a very goal oriented person, so I've decided to come up with some goals for 30. Realistic goals, but one's that will still challenge me.

They're pretty simple, reclaim my pre marriage weight of 175 (currently 195ish), get up earlier(at least 5 or 5 30 as opposed to 6-630), and increase the size of my poker playing bankroll(more on that in my poker blog).

No I know that aimlessly throwing goals out without a plan is kinda pointless, so I've also decided to start running.............. again. This should not only help me with the weight thing, but maybe it'll create a little more energy to help me get up earlier??

I can already tell that 30's gonna be a little depressing for me, so if I can at least get in shape, and wake up earlier to make time for the things I need to do(poker, "Julian time", etc), maybe that will help smooth out the beginning of my 3rd decade of life.

Updates and progress reports to come; good or bad :)

JWC

Holy Early December Batman

Wow, so I'm sitting here thinking :"man I haven't made a blog in....... like a month!" So you can imagine my surprise when I realized it had been not 1........ not 2...... but THREE months since I put anything down. So to those of you that actually enjoy my writings.... I apologize.

A lot has happened since then. As most of you know, I'm having another kid. Yeah, I know crazy huh? After all the craziness we had to go through for Coop, to have such a gift dropped in our lap was a blessing to say the least. And is it a little bit earlier than we were planning??? Ummm.. HELL YES! But we're thrilled....... ya know, I can't imagine who would be reading this that doesn't already know about all this, so let's just summarize: Having second kid, thrilled :)

Other than that, it's pretty much business as usual. Still playing as much poker as my wife will allow, oh and I found the secret to happiness...... And poker has shown me the light. I can honestly say that my overall happiness has SKYROCKETED lately. Interested?? Read on. If not, you can stop here, and thanks for reading.

So in my conquest for poker domination, I discovered a major road block: Tilt. For those of you that don't play poker, tilt is what happens when you have a losing streak, and like most people you get upset at the thought of losing money, and your emotions get all out of whack and you end up playing bad........ thus losing more......... and the downward spiral begins.........

So I discovered three major factors that all successful poker players have in common.... AND they both can also be applied to life in general(hence the overall happiness).

And they are, 1: A complete indifference to money, 2: A clear, "in the moment" way of thinking, and 3: a good healthy dose of "perspective". I have a feeling this might get long, so consider yourself warned. Not that it isn't worth it........ but you know......

Money is evil. Very much a "necessary evil" but an evil non the less. In poker, if you lose a pot and think "damn, I could have taken my family out to dinner with that money" you're never gonna make it. Being attached to money like that will literally cripple your ability to succeed in poker.

But also in life. I must say, I know a lot of rich people, and a lot of poor people. I know TONS of happy poor people, but not a lot of happy rich people. Seems backwards doesn't it?? They say money changes people, and it does. Not only the way they act(something they can control), but the way people act around them and perceive them in general. Like Biggie says "Mo Money, Mo Problems". It AMAZES me how many stresses, arguments, and just general conflicts in life revolve around a fixation on money. I personally will never be rich. If I happen to come into money somehow, you better hope that you were already a friend of mine beforehand because it's all going to family and friends............. After I put back some for College for the kids of course :-)

I also am learning to live in present. It's so easy to dwell on past problems, and/or worry and stress about things that are to come in the future. But simply living in the present, while not easy to do at first, will also work wonders for your overall happiness. It did for me anyway. Anytime I feel myself getting worked up, I take 5 or 6 deep breaths and concentrate HARD on nothing but my breathing, it's like a switch gets flipped and all is well.............. It gets me re-centered and ready for action. It poker.......... AND in life.

Perspective is.... to me seeing everything as a "relative term". Like the word "rich" for example. As the saying goes, If Bill Gates woke up tomorrow with Oprah's bank account, he'd hang himself. When someone tells me what a horrible day they're having, my first thought is usually "compared to who??" I bet I know a few people in Japan that would gladly trade with you right now.

So to summarize, money is evil, eat out when you want, buy the damn shoes if you like them, and if you wanna play some poker, come find me :-) Live in the present, the past is in the past and until someone invents a time machine there isn't a DAMN thing you can do about it. And who knows what the future holds, so quit worrying about it. And it's easy to look at those who have more than you with anger or jealously, but why is it so hard to see that there's WAY more people who have it much worse.

Life's good,

JWC