End-of-month is a slow time at my job, leaving me with too much time to do, well, absolutely nothing. So, to prepare for the impending catastrophic liver failure--as opposed to minor liver failure--that's sure to be brought on by the WPBT event looming on a very ominous looking horizon, I have updated my bloglines to include almost everyone that's attending.

I have a tough time keeping up as is, what with the previous number of feeds I'd try to read almost daily, but now with 104 feeds? In midwestern, white bread speak--forget about it. Now say that again, but enunciate and talk like your brain has been set to "sloth-like". Forget about it.

Perfect.

I can't imagine how anyone can read all that, let alone be a comment whore like Drizz. How do you do it, man? If I'm away for a weekend, I spend a few hours clearing out my bloglines, and most of the time, absorb very little of it.
I'm not so much of a commenter. Oh, it's not like I don't want to comment, or that nobody piques my interest enough that I don't feel a desire to say something. That's not it at all. I can't count the number of times I've composed a comment, hit the preview button and realize that it doesn't look as good in print as it sounded in my head, and click the "x" to scrap the whole thought. Can't have myself sounding like a retard, no sir, which is funny considering that I constantly say things that make me sound like helmet-wearing Troglodyte, but that's only because my brain's delete button is a little unreliable. Almost completely inoperable when I've been drinking.

During the bloglines update, I also noticed that my semi-recent Blogger template change completely wiped out my blogroll that you'll not see over on the right of the screen. See it? No? That's because I just told you it's not there. Sometimes, I wonder about you people. So, instead of dickin' around on Fark, or looking for hoodrat-hoodrat hoochie mamas on MySpace, I'll be doing my best Blogroll Updater impersonation. I'm not a real blogger, but I play one on TV! As much as I like having a place to write my inane gibberish, I'm not so big on the maintenance.

WPBT/poker blog ramble ahoy!

I attended the June event, but I'm going to go ahead and dub myself the anti-Maudie of the inaugural WPBT winter classic at Sam's Town--not because I'm a 30 year old guy from the upper midwest, which might qualify me for that monikor . No, that's not it. Maudie didn't really know anybody attending that event, not in the 'real-world' sense at least. But she took a chance, stepped outside of her normal comfort zone and traveled to Vegas, alone, not knowing if she had anything in common with the other attendees outside of the love of poker.

Me, I pussed out and waited for the write-ups. I was this close(yes, my thumb and forefinger are about a quarter inch apart, thanks for picking up on that), but I just couldn't do it, couldn't allow myself to stray outside of my comfort zones. I wish I had, though.

Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, the Aladdin in June.

A few weeks before that event, I did the same exact thing I'm doing now, as there were plenty of attendees that I was unfamilar with. I didn't know which April was which(not sure I do even now, for shame), had barely just started ingesting the superfluous words of Joe Speaker(is that the word I'm looking for? superfluous? It means super fluid, right?), and wouldn't know Iggy from Grubby if they were standing side-by-side.

And when I arrived in Vegas and met my first bloggers--outside of the few Minnesotans and an Eagles fan I had met--the whole scene was a little overwhelming. It's also a little surreal trying to introduce yourself as "pokeramarama", or "ramarama", and last, but certainly the most fun to say, "ramalamadingdong".

Oh how I hate you Joe Buck.

There's also someting surreal about other's introductions by their screen name(if they have one), and immediately having to sift through your mental blogroll in an attempt to attach a name to a face, and a face to a writer's voice. That, in addition to the drunken conversations, were probably the best part of the trip for me--it's so much easier to read and associate with someone when you've talked to them in real life.

This niche, the poker blogger niche, it's a little odd, don't ya think? You have the Iggy's, the Pauly's, you know, the core that, even though they sometimes don't want the responsibility, they hold the group together. And then you have the wave of bloggers that followed them, and then so on, and so on, expanding outward in concentric circles.

They've been around this arena for over two years, where I've been around for close to a year and a half, sitting firmly in the middle set of circles. After that time, and after traipsing to Vegas the last time 'round, I don't feel that I got to know many people as well as I thought I would. Or as I wanted to. Probably wholly my fault, with the only other option is that everybody else is an asshole.

You're right, my fault. That and the voice in the back of my head that was doubting whether the person I was talking to at the time actually knew who I was, or just humoring me. I tried my best to "get to know" those bloggers beforehand by reading their blogs, but I feel as if I failed in that attempt.

I don't want to fail in that now. I don't want to sit there while someone is talking to me, and in the back of my mind say, "Who are you?", or vice versa. Most of all, just like everybody reading this, I want to be able to relate.

A few questions to end this, and hopefully satiate my curiousity-

1. If you're participating in your first WPBT event, how are you feeling right about now? (looks like about 20 or so newbies, not sure any are reading this right now)

2. How did the rest of you feel before attending your first WPBT? How about after?

3. Be honest, how many of you even knew who I was before June? Ok, don't be honest. See if I care.

Jerks.