Ever seen two Galapagos tortises having ‘relations?’ I have. At the San Diego Zoo on Saturday. Could not stop laughing! I guess the third grader in me will never die. 🙂 I was in San Diego after going on a cruise that I won playing Poker. On the cruise I won an additional $10K+. If you were unaware, I keep a separate blog under my poker persona “ammbo” where you can find my report on the poker tournament. If you are looking for more frequent updates than here, tough. I am a slacker on both. Christine and I had a good time on the cruise. We got to hang out with my boss, his wife, and their 16 month old child. We went back to Mazatlan, Mexico for the first time since out honeymoon but our favorite smoothie place seems not to have survived the three years since we were there. It was a great trip but I still feel worn out. If only vacations were not punctuated by a day of travel I would be a happy man.
Category Archives: All Posts
https://ammonbrown.com/2005/03/working-hard/
Working Hard.
As you may know, I have a real job. I truly feel it is the best job ever. It hit me when we were doing laundry. Christine was folding one of the ten+ pairs of pajama pants that I seem to get every birthday, Christmas, and Arbor Day, and remarked that I have so many. I replied that I should get rid of some and she came back with, “No, you need them to wear to work.” What a great job I have. I sit at home, manage a big website, and play some poker when I get the time. The real problem with working from home is being able to turn it off. I find that there is always more to do on the site so I just keep at it. Being the neurotic perfectionist that I am, I tend to stay on task until I fall asleep. Then I wake up, start up the computer, and get right back to it. Repeat as necessary. I am not complaining, I love what I am doing. I just need to make better hours for myself.
On the poker side of things, I have not been playing a lot because I work so much. However, when I do play I have been doing well. I will be going on another cruise in about two weeks after having won my way in. It will be the Party Poker Million, the same one I went on last year. Hopefully this year I come away from it with a few thousand dollars rather than just a good story. Wish me luck!
https://ammonbrown.com/2005/01/saying-that-i-ignore-my-blog-is/
Saying that I ignore my blog is getting so boring and passe. Maybe my blog ignores me. Ever think of that?? Huh?? Lots has happened lately. I went to the Bahamas, won 9K by taking first in a tournament, got my car towed by the NYPD which consequently destroyed my differential and forced me to stay in NYC for another 5 days while the shop fixed it leaving me with exactly one clean pair of underwear, a lonely cat at home, and a boatload of work to catch up on. I never thought I would say that I am happy to be back in Ithaca with 14 inches of snow on the ground but here I am. Blech. I have so much to say I don’t know where to begin. I guess I will have to post some pictures later. Stay tuned you never know when the sporadic urge to update this thing will hit me again.
https://ammonbrown.com/2004/12/gainfully-employed-i-took-job-recently/
Gainfully Employed!
I took a job recently. I am pleased to announce that I am now the Operations Manager for InternetTexasHoldem.com. My job includes marketing, programming, sales, strategizing, and pretty much anything web-related. So it combines my two core competencies, poker and online marketing. I couldn’t be happier.
I also won my way into the PokerStars WPT event next month. I finished with that tournament not 40 minutes ago. So I will be at the Atlantis Casino Resort in the Bahamas from January 5th-12th. Looking forward to this one, too! Not bad for only spending $75 to get there. The package is worth $11,000; $1000 cash, an $8000 tournament buy in, and $2000 for a week’s stay in Atlantis. Whee! Life sure is peachy at the moment!
https://ammonbrown.com/2004/11/superstar-so-about-3-years-ago/
SuperStar!
So about 3 years ago, Christine and I went to see a taping of the Comedy Central stand-up comedy show Premium Blend. Well, this afternoon, my lifelong dream was realized. I finally saw us on an afternoon rerun of the show. The camera panned the audience and caught our fake laughter performance for a fleeting moment… my moment of stardom! And Tivo caught the moment for us to enjoy forever! Hooray!
https://ammonbrown.com/2004/10/oops-to-my-credit-i-have-very-good/
OOPS!
To my credit, I have a very good excuse for not posting. Nothing has happened. I don’t really do much of anything other than play poker. And do I ever play poker!!! Check this out:
Yes, ammbo is me. I won two tournaments yesterday. I made a deal in the BIG one and got an extra $3K on top of it. Rent is paid for a while!!! All I got for now, I am still in shock. I’ll post more later.
https://ammonbrown.com/2004/09/triumphant-return-well-its-return/
Triumphant Return
Well, it’s a return, anyway. Life is dandy. Let me get you up to date… I now live in lovely Ithaca, NY. It is already getting cold here, and the misery of Ithaca winter should be descending upon us any time. I am playing a lot of poker for the time being and looking into teaching GMAT classes. I have also talked to a few people about doing some consulting for website advertising, but nothing has come of that yet. Poker is going swell. I played an online tournament for $100 on Wednesday and made $2500. I went to Turning Stone Casino on Thursday to play a few tournaments. I left with $100 less than I went with and a $1000 voucher in my pocket for a tournament they are holding in October. I think that covers the trip. On Friday we drove to Atlantic City. I played a few tournaments with limited success, but I did leave with a $500 voucher for a tournament coming up later this month. Whoopie. The entire trip was rather unlucky. I played very well in my opinion, and I should have had more to show for it. Oh, well. We had a great time in the car. Road trips are so much fun. I now know all of the words to more than one Brittney Spears song, thank you, ClearChannel for homogenizing America’s musical selection. I promise I will make more of an effort to keep this updated. I shal;l regale you with stories of poker success! I need a real job!
https://ammonbrown.com/2004/08/no-go/
No Go.
So Cornell Business School correctly declined my petition to have my application reconsidered on late notice. With such a fast turnaround time, I was giving myself about a 10% chance of getting in regardless, so this is no surprise. I will certainly be applying again next year to them and to other schools. In the meantime, I will be moving to Ithaca next week to be with Christine. What am I going to do for money for the next year? Well, I have two kidneys, and it is a high demand market… I will be playing poker and doing some consultinng work for companies looking to advertise online. Between the two, I only need to make half of what I was making at my job to be ahead of where I was financially. The job I just left was paying for both our rents plus about $400 per month; Enough for 4 round trip tickets to Ithaca per month. This does not add up, as a guy has got to eat. If my poker results are as good every month as they were last month, which is unlikely given that I made about $9000 in a month, I will be quite well off. The best part of this decision is that Christine supports it, and that is all I need.
https://ammonbrown.com/2004/08/wow/
Wow. It has been a long time since I updated this. My life is progressing at a breakneck pace all of a sudden. I tendered my notice at my job on Monday, my last day is this Friday. I was facing the prospect of living five hours from Christine for another year while barely making enough money to cover two rents much less travel and living expenses. So I am moving to beautiful Ithaca New York soon. How soon, you ask? Well, if you recall, I had applied to the Cornell MBA program in April. When I accepted this job, I turned down an offer for an interview with Cornell, explaining that I had an opportunity elsewhere. On Monday I emailed my contact there and they called me today. I have a phone interview tonight for a possible admissions/waitlist decision tomorrow for a possible orientation session on Monday! Talk about breakneck speed! Obviously this is not something I can count on, so I am hedging a little. I am in contact with some people I have done business in the past who can use my expertise in search engine marketing. I can do freelance gigs for a year while waiting for next year’s MBA class. Starting my own marketing company is a goal of mine anyway, so getting an early start will not be a bad thing.
It really is amazing how events can stack up like this. Two weeks ago I was just working, not especially liking or hating my job, and now I am on the cusp of a major life change. Amazing how this world works!
https://ammonbrown.com/2004/06/big-daytoday-is-my-3-year-wedding/
Big Day
Today is my 3 year wedding anniversary. I have been making a certain someone’s life miserable for a full three years! So all of you who took the under on three, pay up. The vegas line is always wrong! I also get to go see Spiderman 2 today. My company bought all of the tickets to a showing today and doled out the tickets. Gonna be a good day!