March 2011
1 post
1 tag
For Ory
I don’t know why it’s so hard for me to consistently write in this tumblr. Come to think of it, I don’t know if I’m consistent with anything. When it comes to things that are neutral or positive, we use words like “consistency,” “routine,” “habitual,” etc. But when it’s a negative thing, its suddenly an “addiction” or a...
October 2010
2 posts
3 tags
How about some slot on slot action? Oh yea~
It’s all set. I will be spending Halloween weekend at Vegas, and my costume:
A slot machine.
And if you look closely, you can see that this costume is covered with 7’s. The jackpot is three triple 7’s in a row! I mean, apparel just doesn’t get any luckier than that. I will be a slot machine playing slot machines.
It is on, Vegas, it is ON.
My grandmother was gorgeous.
There is only one black and white photo to prove this- a portrait of her when she was 19. I was shocked when I first saw this photo because by the time I first met my grandmother, she was already concealed with old age. But in the photo, she looks like a Korean barbie.
Because she was a looker, she was chosen for marriage by the richest man in her town at an early age. My grandmother was only 16...
September 2010
4 posts
4 tags
Featured Article Today on Yahoo
How to Get Lucky
user
by Reader’s Digest Magazine, on Fri Sep 10, 2010 8:06am
By Richard Wiseman Scientific proof that you make your own breaks. For centuries, people have recognized the power of luck and have done whatever they could to try seizing it. Take knocking on wood, thought to date back to pagan rituals aimed at eliciting help from powerful tree gods. We still do it...
1 tag
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The day a man in a short beard and a rugged cap...
I think that I am more or less even this year. With gambling that is. Maybe up or down a few hundred, but it’s hard to remember from January. Plus, a good rule of thumb is to never string along your previous wins and losses or it just becomes a headache. So then why waste so much time, gas, energy, etc. on gambling? Well for one, it’s fun. And two, I’m still waiting for that...
August 2010
2 posts
1 tag
To my 7th follower
Thank you, Paris. I now finally have 7 followers on tumblr. I hated, Hated that for the past 10 months, I had 6. I don’t even think 7 people really follow me (seeing as how I sporadically and rarely update), and I have no idea how you found me dear 7th. But regardless, merci beaucop! (Yes, I had to google that.)
July 2010
5 posts
1 tag
Gambling Gene pt. 3: "Date Night at Commerce?"
Ory: Happy Anniversary honey, I’m coming over after work.
Me (originally planned to go to Commerce at 5pm): Happy Anniversary, what time do you think you’ll get off today?
Ory: I’m going to leave at 4. Probably with traffic, I’ll be there 4:45 ish.
Me: Oh. Hm. What do you want to do?
Ory: I don’t know, what were you thinking?
Me: Want to go to Commerce?
Ory:...
1 tag
Gambling Gene pt. 2.7- "Just Like Daddy"
Whenever friends would comment on how much I love gambling, I’d say, “It’s in my genes!” The casino was my father’s second home, and so it was mine as well. He figured the best way to spend time with his two favorite things in life was to combine them. My family visited Las Vegas anywhere from 7-12 times a year.
The framed photo on my father’s desk is of us is...
3 tags
Gambling Gene pt. 2- "Shuffling"
After a very long month, I went to Commerce yesterday and played poker for 4 hours straight. I was dominating these older people who were not so subtly judging me. “Wow, you sure don’t look like someone who’d call me,” a bitter man said after losing his chips to my 2 pair. It was absolutely exhilarating. I didn’t want to leave! Then I found myself doing something I...
5 tags
Gambling Gene pt. 1- "A New Low"
My gambling has gotten out of hand this year. I am able to admit that I have a problem. According to this site, if I answer “yes” to at least 7 of the 20 questions it means I am a compulsive gambler. I answered “yes” to 14.
I broke my own record of money lost during a Vegas trip in June. I went with 5 of my girlfriends for Shel’s birthday (6 of us, bad number!). I...
3 tags
7.7
I remember watching the news on July 7, 2007 and seeing a long line of couples at the courthouse. I was never jealous of married couples, but that day I was envious of those couples whose anniversary will always be 07/07/07. It is a perfect date.
Three years later I am still nowhere near the vicinity of marriage, nor do I have a burning desire to be. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t...
May 2010
1 post
It is the 7th
I stay up every night on the sixth of the month
until midnight.
Until my digital calendar shows a big 7.
Then, everything is in it’s right place.
And now I can sleep.
Goodnight world.
February 2010
1 post
1 tag
December 2009
5 posts
let's go for a swim
See that little boulder in the back? All Solo does all day long is make circles around that boulder. He goes up over and down under through the opening, then back up and around. He does this over and over, sometimes more than twenty times in a row. I want to record it, but any time I point a camera at him, he stops moving. Solo has a pretty big tank all to himself, so why does he stay only in...
Rehab is for Quitters
My Father: Quit your job again huh? How come you can't stay at one thing for a long time?
Me: Hi Dad, good to see you too.
My Father: Hi quitter. You know I've never quit anything in my life.
Me: Ya, I know. You've got a dying liver and a six figure debt to prove it. Congratulations.
3 tags
two weeks notice
So I finally turned in my resignation at the bank, after talking about doing it for months. I decided what better day than the 7th to do so. It was easier than I thought it’d be. Sure I ended up crying, twice. Not because I was sad to leave, but because people made me feel really bad and guilty. “I just want you to know that when HR said you would leave within 2 years, I stood up for...
4 tags
Under the Influence
Ory drove home completely drunk last night. I was furious. I kept going off about how stupid that was, how irresponsible he can be, and how he should have just gotten a DUI to learn his lesson. Then I realized how futile all the yelling was since he’d probably wake up tomorrow not remembering a thing.
I remember my father waking up the neighbors when my brother drove home drunk. He should...
5 tags
Triskaidekaphobia
That’s a real word and diagnosis. It was coined in 1911 and it’s the fear of the number 13. I can relate to having a fear of certain numbers, but why 13? Possibly because it’s the year that initiates our teens (and we know how awful those were). There is a myth that says Judas was the 13th disciple at the last supper. But without Judas, could there have been Christ’s...
November 2009
20 posts
5 tags
Muck my life
“Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment.” This is how Aldous Huxley started the forward for Brave New World, 20 years after the book was published. “Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.” So, I won’t lament over my Vegas loss after this post.
Everyone around me kept winning. One friend hit $800 jackpot on...
Baby are you down, down, down, down, down?
I can’t stand that song! Why is it playing nonstop on the casino floor, polluting my mental gaming energy?!
Yes! Yes I’m down!
$800.00 to be exact.
This is a bad Vegas trip, but I still have a day. I need to go buy some ear plugs.
2 tags
It's only a thousand dollars...
“Don’t say anything, and no one will know,” Jenny said. Jenny is the vault teller at our small bank, which means she is the head of all the tellers. After hundreds of cash transactions with customers, there are times when at the end of the day, her balance is off. If she is under, she fucking looks everywhere to find that money, or we all get in trouble. It is the bank’s...
3 tags
just say no
D.A.R.E. (I still don’t know what the letters stand for) visited elementary schools teaching kids to “just say no” to drugs. I remember proudly wearing my D.A.R.E. t-shirt and collecting the neon colored pencils that also reminded me to “just say no.” Well, all that practice was futile for me since I was never offered drugs in my adolescent years. After many years of...
5 tags
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I'm all out of memory, I'm so lost without you
Magellan. What a perfect name for the device. It was able to guide me directly to my destination from any given point. It was magic. I trusted Magellan completely and together we went everywhere- restaurants, meetings, dates, work, and most importantly back home. I was completely dependent on it for two years and yesterday my navigation system died on me.
I looked back at some of my previous...
4 tags
SOLO
He is an electric blue Jack Dempsey cichlid, a fighting fish, and he’s a birthday gift I got for myself. When I was walking down the aisle of well-populated aquariums, Solo was the first to stop me because it was all alone in its tank.
“This one can’t share a tank with another fish. These Dempsey’s are aggressive,” the store owner said.
I looked at the fish. He...
3 tags
It's a control thing.
Nausea. What an ugly, ugly word. It paid me a visit yesterday, and tortured me for hours, well into the night. I had originally planned to write a post about my birthday. 11/15. A thoroughly odd day to be born. I wanted to write about how the numbers chose me, and how it was all wonderfully meant to be. But nothing about yesterday was wonderful. How could it be? It was the day I transitioned from...
1 tag
Identity Theft
Tamara Morehart’s mail has been coming to my apartment for more than a year now. She receives so much mail, more mail than comes for my roommate and me combined. In the beginning I used to save them just in case she ever dropped by. Then, after many failed attempts at reaching her, the pile got so big I had to get rid of it. Now she’s like the third roommate who is never here. Now, I just...
2 tags
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I got a flat tire and my calm, loving boyfriend...
Ory: What did you do, how did this happen, what did you hit?!
Me: That curb over there.
Ory: How did you, why weren't you paying attention?
Me: It's like extra dark tonight.
Ory: Which is why you should be paying extra attention. What on earth were you thinking about?
Me : ( How interesting it is that hair keeps growing only on our heads whereas it stops at a certain length everywhere else on our body, which got me wondering how many hairs I have on my head. And then I decided that would be the first thing I ask God if I were to meet him. Well, I’d ask for the average number because I assume the number changes all the time).
Ory: I said what were you thinking about?!
Me: You.
5 tags
11.11
In the U.S. it is Veteran’s Day. In Korea it is Pepero Day. To me, it is the one day a year when the same odd number lines up four times. It is also exactly 11:11pm right now. Choosing to spend this minute writing in this blog shows how special this blog is to me. This is supposedly when wishes are to be made.
I’ve looked up the mysticism of numbers and found countless articles on the...
1 tag
Is the law thicker than blood?
My father showed up at my work today and it was definitely a surprise. A delightful one at first, which then quickly transitioned into a suspicious one. A mixed emotion that only my father can bring out in me. He is not one to show up just for the sake of visiting. There is always some underlying purpose. This time it was to ask me to open an account for him.
From anyone else, this would be a...
3 tags
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slotting advice from a slot slut
My friends have always been shocked at how “lucky” I am with slots, and have asked me to share my secret with them. I have never hit a big jackpot, but I have hit multiple mini jackpots. My best one of all time was from a high limit slot ($15 per spin), when I got 7 7 7 on my third spin. Yes, most of it is luck, but I don’t believe I’m luckier than anyone else. So,...
Game time
I am in the car on my way to Vegas as I write this. I am alert, anxious, and so alive. My friend is driving in front, and he just said,”God this is like my fifth or sixth time going this year- that’s way too much!” It is my ninth time. But he doesn’t need to know that. That number will be ten in two weeks when I go again Thanksgiving weekend. He doesn’t need to know...
4 tags
A for Autism
For Halloween, my five year old niece Anna dressed up as Swiper, the villain from that Dora show. She demanded it, despite her mother’s attempts to have her be a fairy princess or a unicorn. When Anna doesn’t get what she wants, she starts screaming at the top of her lungs, then continues to throw her body on the ground. She keeps screaming until her little voice dies out, and then...
4 tags
let's get me dooced* with this one!
I came across this article from the NY Times yesterday talking about racists Koreans. Man, were they right. I’ve had 7 jobs before the bank and let me tell you, this job is by far the worst (8th job, coincidence?). I actually don’t even mind the bank work, I can open accounts for days. It’s my fucking Korean co-workers that drive me crazier than I already am.
Taken that we are a...
2 tags
hitting rock bottom
My roommate goes rock climbing every weekend, and she’s been trying to get me to go with her. After a month of excuses, I finally went yesterday. Caught up in the euphoria of the perfect weather, the amazing scenery, and just being away from “it all,” I was pumped up and ready to go.
I strapped on my harness, slapped chalk on my hands, and set off. It wasn’t easy or the...
2 tags
“Candor ends Paranoia”
– Allen Ginsberg, from “Poetry for the Next Society” 1989
I’ve thought about this statement a lot since I’ve first read it about four years ago. I wonder if I’ve become more and more paranoid over the years by keeping quiet. I find it ironic that in this little blog of...
In the Game
(HAPPY COSTUME BLOGGING! As a special treat Favorable Odd$ has its first GUEST POST from the hilarious Tom over at www.gospelaccordingtohate.com. Enjoy!)
It was the big night. After seven years of life, heart wrenching waiting, and studying from the eleventh stair of the old farmhouse, I was in the game.
Seven chairs encircled the round dining room table, which was draped in a midnight...
October 2009
32 posts
I believe in monsters
I encountered my first monster when I was in first grade. He was Zion’s friend’s older brother. It was a summer day. Zion and his friend were in the pool. I was in my room counting pennies from my piggy bank. He came in and closed the door.
I still cannot get rid of this memory. I am a haunted house. I fear there aren’t enough odd numbers in the world to help me get over this.
3 tags
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Haven't you heard? Chivalry is dead.
I hate when someone opens the door for me, or holds the door open for me. I usually try to keep a good enough distance between myself and the person walking in front of me in order to avoid this. Why? Because there’s a 50-50 chance that it will be the wrong door, which is the right door (the door on the right side). When I walk through the right door, I feel like the rest of my day is...
4 tags
Coincidence? Not a chance.
It was Sunday (yesterday) the 7th day of the week. I went to visit my mother before she leaves to go out of town this coming Tuesday.
First my odometer smiled at me 5 times:
Then, my favorite clock on Pico and Hoover pointed both its hands on 7 (look closely) when it was actually around 3:30pm:
As I exited my car, I saw a small sparkle from below… it was my favorite bracelet that had...
3 tags
tying the knot
The last wedding Ory and I went to we were late, and he got mad at me for wasting time playing poker online when I should have been getting ready. That is why, yesterday I got to his house one and a half hours earlier so we can go fight-free and avoid the awkward sneaking down the pews to the empty seats in front after the bride has made her entrance. With 20 minutes left, we had a problem, a tie...
2 tags
My devil wears prada too, and gucci, and chanel,...
If I learned anything from working at the bank it is that power driven female divorcees in their mid 40’s-50’s are the scariest people on earth.
I mean it. I’m scared to death of the line of women who sit at the head of our bank.
I wondered if I could ever be like them, but came to the conclusion that they truly are their own breed. I watch them, though, from the outside.
...
“Superstition is foolish, childish, primitive and irrational — but how much...”
– Judith Viorst “Love, Guilt & the Meaning of Life, Etc.”
“Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time”
– Haruki Murakami “Kafka on the Shore”