I sometimes have a hard time saying goodbye. Usually, that involves a beverage or a plate of chicken wings, but today it involves one of my favorite web sites - Hobo Trashcan.

The site hasn’t completely gone away, just undergone a major transformation. Unfortunately, I won’t be part of the regular lineup anymore, but I will probably contribute occasional pieces over there. I’m kind of bummed because I really like the new format - it just wouldn’t have worked out time-wise for me.

I didn’t always pimp my HTC columns on this site so you can find my latest column and links to the archives here. Good luck to Hobo Stu and all the other folks over there and thanks to Joel for leting me babble at his readers for a while.

In the aftermath of my 40^th birthday recently, I noticed something about the gifts I received. Almost every one had something to do with food or beer.

Part of me wondered what this said about me. Do I drink too much or do I just enjoy quality beer? Am I a glutton or do I just enjoy eating out? Am I so hard to buy for that people just fall back on the simplest gift?

After talking to my wife, I realized that I had no room to complain. I liked getting beer and oft cards for restaurants. Outside of someone dropping big bucks to give me a Wii, I really didn’t want anything special for my birthday. I really appreciated that people knew my tastes so well.

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Over the past few weeks, some of my siblings have done a great deal of genealogy research. We have found out many details about relatives on both my mother and father’s sides of the family.

While I really enjoy learning where I come from, none of the research has turned up the most important thing right now.

I still have no idea how to easily qualify for citizenship in some obscure country so I can represent them in the Olympics.

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I don’t endorse that kids try this, but beating Joey Chestnut is a marvelous accomplishment regardless of the arena.

HT: Deadspin

On my three trips to Las Vegas, I have spent a fair amount of time in poker rooms.I have discovered I enjoy playing poker much more tan blackjack and roulette, which I played a bunch my first two trips.

Part of the reason is that I feel I have more of a chance at winning with poker. I feel a little more in control of things unlike most other card games. The other reason is that the interaction with the other people at the table makes it much more enjoyable.

Well, that may come to an end for many players, at least if you play at MGM Mirage properties in Vegas. Excalibur will replace all of its poker tables later this month with electronic tables.

That story on David Matthews’ outstanding blog says that this is a test from MGM Mirage. That means if the all-electronic tables make more money than ones with human dealers, you could see this spread to MGM Grand, Monte Carlo, even Mandalay Bay.

I don’t like it at all.

The creator of these electronic tables is PokerTek Inc.  I am sure they fill a nice little niche in the market, but I don’t know about bringing these machines to Vegas. They have filled rooms in other casinos and just got into Atlantic City so this is something that has been building.

Rapid Roulette has helped casinos make more money off roulette, but I think it also has increased interaction. The dealers don’t have to worry about different colored chips and people are chatting while sitting at their terminals.

I think the opposite will happen with electronic poker. A good dealer can liven up a table, and people have to interact with each other when they have real cards and chips in front of them. I like playing poker online, but I go to Vegas for the real experience, not to look at a touch screen.

But the biggest thing I worry about is how this will relate to the douchebag factor. The explosion of poker means more and more people think they are auditioning for a spot in the World Series of Poker. Dealers and a chatty, interactive table can help control this phenomenon. A computer can’t.

I know the growth of electronic games is nothing new. Venetian has unveiled hand held games in its high-limit area. I usually don’t complain when gadgets proliferate, but removing an entire set of tables just seems a little rash.

But in the land of 6:5 blackjack and horrific video poker play tables, nothing should surprise me.

When I started The Brians, my yearly version of the Academy Awards, I didn’t intend for one person to dominate them so thoroughly. I don’t want them to turn into a personal tribute. Will Ferrell just had made it that way.

I can usually tell when an award is basically off the market. I thoroughly got that feeling while watching “Stepbrothers” the other night. I hadn’t heard any bad reviews of the film, but I had heard it was uneven in some spots.

That’s kind of true, but the absolute hilarity makes up for any lulls in the laughs. The only thing which makes me think that Ferrell might not win his fourth Brian for Best Actor is the performance of John C. Reilly. The movie works so well because Ferrell had such a great foil.

As you watch their antics, you can see how much fun it would be to live that kind of life.  I love my wife and daughter, but if I could be a 40-year-old child around the clock, I’d be so happy. Don’t we all wish our biggest worries were whether someone touched our drum set?

Richard Jenkins certainly threw his hat in the ring as Best Supporting Actor with his performance as Dale’s father. Mary Steenburgen filled the most important criteria for Best Supporting Actress by looking very nice for the duration of the film.

Even with four months left in the year, “Stepbrothers” has made the Best Picture race very interesting. The other films eligible are “Juno,” “Semi-Pro,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” and “21.”

Last weekend, as we drove home after a little shopping, the skies opened up. Rain poured down in buckets. You could almost call the precipitation Biblical.

That didn’t surprise me at all. I saw the storm as God’s way of commenting on the tremendous shift in the universe which had just taken place.

Maria bought a cell phone.

I don’t think that the rain signaled any sort of displeasure with the purchase. I just think the whole thing took everyone by surprise. I honestly thought I would help my daughter buy a cell phone long before I helped my wife make the same decision.

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If you’re hiding from Olympic results, shame on you. You’re gonna get spoiled here, and I don’t really care. If I “ruined’ the result of the soccer game today, take that as your warning to stay away from my site for the next few weeks. When I hear news, I don’t like to keep it to myself.

Anyways, things got off to a good start for the U.S. today with a 1-0 soccer win over Japan. I know the women played yesterday and lost, but I’m not very interested in that tournament so it doesn’t count to me. You’ll learn that I have my own version of what counts at the Olympics.

For the soccer geeks, here’s my quick assessment of the U.S. - we need to utilize the wings better, Jozy and Freddy need to play together, a ref with more backbone would have made McBride more valuable since they hacked the hell out of him with no real punishment, Mo Edu kicked butt at central defense even if he did get away with a thing or two, and those uniforms looked fugly with no flag or shield or anything to identify who we are.

I might watch the opening ceremonies tomorrow, if only for the comedy value of the Cirque de Soleil crap they pull, the goofy outfits some countries wear, and the insipid commentary. But Saturday and Sunday will be chock full of TV goodness. On Sunday morning, men’s soccer plays at 7:30 a.m. with basketball set for a 10 a.m. tip off. Wow.

Don’t forget all the evening swimming finals with Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff leading the charge. The Olympics are here,and I’m pumped.

I took my daughter to see Wall-E the other day. I really didn’t go in with a lot of expectations since I had barely read many reviews. I kind of knew the premise, but didn’t know a lot of details.

All in all, I enjoyed the film, but the filmmakers certainly took a subtlety lesson from the folks who made Bruce Almighty.

I know the whole thing is really aimed at kids, but they didn’t have to be so heavy-handed. I found it a bit comical how fat and sedentary everyone was on the spaceship. I don’t know how else they could have made it work with the story they laid out, but it was just funny.

The animation, however, was spectacular. I half-expected real people to show up after the first half hour. I guess the videos with Fred Willard set that up. The animators did a great job showing the desolation on Earth.

I probably wouldn’t see Wall-E again, but I enjoyed the film.

Things that really didn’t fit anywhere else:

• On my last night, I noticed a distinct change in the clientèle at Imperial Palace. After some research, I discovered that a roller derby convention started on Wednesday. Let’s just say that the hookers who troll the casinos wouldn’t have any competition from these “ladies.” Mullets and tattoos everywhere.
• Besides the drunken idiot I described in my poker post, I saw two other incidents in poker rooms. One night at the IP, a guy went all in and his trip queens lost to someone else’s trip kings. The loser pounded on the table not once, but twice before storming off. Good thing he lost all his stack because I don’t think he would have been welcome there any more. The funny thing is, he was never ahead in the hand so I don’t see why he got so upset. Sometimes, good cards beat you. The second incident came at Harrah’s during my first tournament there. At a cash game next to us, a guy and a chick were arguing non-stop. She said he was being sexist and demeaning. He said he was just having fun. I did hear a few things he said that weren’t so kosher, but she just wouldn’t let it go and eventually started accusing him of saying stuff when he never said anything. The floor people and dealer did a great job keeping things from escalating.

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