so i didn't post a whole lot in 2007 at all. i guess i could have done better, but it wasn't that life was busy, it's that life wasn't all that busy. things snuck up into my reality from time to time that i missed writing about, but rather than bore everyone with photography discussing and video game reviews and gambling stories, i tried to post sparingly about new things. i think the key is to actually write about things that i've written about before. you know, digging deep in a few places instead of shallow everywhere.

holy shit, maybe i am growing up.

anyway, a quick thought - i am finally starting to believe it might be better to be nice than smart. obviously i'd prefer both, but given the choice between the two parties, i am leaning towards nice right now. another sign that i might be actually maturing.

furthering my descent towards 'half-assed digital artist of the 21st century', i got the canon hg10, an hd-capable camcorder that records directly to an onboard hard drive. as a result, you can expect to see video going forward. i think the contrast in the two mediums, photography and video, is very interesting. i don't know which i'll use more going forward, but hopefully i'll be able to balance both.

so the holidays were generally good. christmas in madison with the family and jen went as well as one could have hoped. i have had a few pictures from there up on the photoblog recently - this one is probably my favorite. i came back to boston for a day or two only to fly out to cleveland for new years. this also went fairly well and was loosely documented by the video camera. on sunday, geoff and chad and i drove up to detroit/windsor for a little sunday gambling slash football watching. this substory to the weekend deserves a little embellishment, so i will complete that task... now.

like any good story, there are a few layers here. somehow, the base layer to this story is probably the patriot act, or some similarly short-sighted, reactionary legislation. the long and the short of it is that starting in 2009, people coming in to america via ground and sea will need a passport to enter the country. the enforcement of this rule has kind of started already though, so the best way to ensure a return journey from canada is to bring your passport. in the planning stages of this adventure, geoff reminded me about this requirement and even made a return trip to pittsburgh from cleveland to get his passport 2 weeks into his winter break(!). i reminded chad of this requirement a couple of times, and chad still forgot about it but took the dramatic step of spending his lunch break on the friday prior to our trip in a cab to and from his apartment. so, the level of devotion to the trip was pretty high, and i was impressed by the sacrifices made by the other participants. this made it all the more painful when i was sitting in terminal A in BOS and realized that my passport was sitting next to my computer desk at home.

i frantically called geoff and asked if it would make more sense to take a later flight and go home and get the passport. obviously i wasn't thinking that clearly. geoff assured me that it would be ok, and chad didn't understand a somewhat confusing joke i tried to make while walking to the plane, and with that i was on my way to cleveland passport-less with the full intent of going in to canada.

we toyed with the idea of going to detroit casinos, but on sunday this fell apart quickly. windsor had a sportsbook, windsor wasn't a burnt out shell of a city, windsor's limits weren't incredibly high, windsor's money was way more colorful - all these factors pushed us away from the motor city casino and mgm detroit and towards the newly rebranded caesar's windsor. it was of little concern that i might not return to america.

the entry to canada was pretty goofy in its own right. of course, canada has none of the fear that america has (rationally or no), so getting in is a lot easier. however, our entry was beyond easy. we came up to the border guard, passports and (in my case) driver's license in hand. we were asked to declare citizenship (american!) and what our business was in canada. geoff informed the guard about the casino, and after a long hard look at us, he responded back "ok" and semi-closed his window.

that was that, i guess. onward to the casino!

now the casino trip itself was kind of post-worthy. our primary reason for this entire trip, as i hinted at earlier, was the casino's newly established sportsbook. once we got there to see it in action though, we figured out what was going on. apparently sports betting is a lottery game in canada. you have to pick 2-6 winners based on the current line, and your payout is locked in depending on how many winners you pick. if, for example, you pick two winners, your payout will be 3:1. you fill out a scantron like form to make your picks, and apparently you can turn this form in at any 'lottery center' - meaning gas stations and convenience stores in canada have sports betting. they don't all have lots of tvs and people cheering, so the sportsbook had some advantage, but not the massive advantage expected. anyway, that is what to expect the next time you go to canada. here is an article that covers this subject with a little more detail.

after making our intial bets and basically being booted out of the restaurant part of the sportsbook, we wandered over to a $10 blackjack pit that was very similar to the argosy in kansas city in terms of style. a caesar's with lower ceilings, if you will. the session was short and generally nondescript, other than me winning $180 and chad and geoff both winning as well. the pit boss did make a few silly comments, such as "look at all those low cards on the table!" and "you made a lot of money, congratulations!" - things that wouldn't happen in vegas or AC. nondescript winning sessions are the best kind. after a quick check up on the browns (and no, i don't want to talk about the browns) we wandered the dice tables in search of a way to lose our profits.

we pooled together $300 for a $10 table with 10x odds on each point. basically, we were underfunded to play this table properly by about $700. no matter. we started with a 5x strategy for each number, meaning we'd be betting $60 regardless of the point. we hit the first one, and geoff backed out with his $20 profit immediately. it looked like a good move initially. chad and i decided to back down to a 3x/4x/5x strategy that fit how we play in a 'normal' casino. we had money on a point and one other come bet out there when the roller crapped out, leaving us down $30 each.

we put $10 on the pass line and the new roller hit a 4. 4s pay 2:1 on the back, which is right when you think about the odds of rolling a 4 vs rolling a 7. that's the wonderful thing about craps - the odds are actually right some of the time. i put down 3x our bet, so $40 on the table. i look at chad and say "should we put 10x down here?" chad hesitates, and says something to the effect that he doesn't think so, but it is up to me. the roller hits a 5. he is very drunk. i look back at chad, who looks at me with the perfect 'it is up to you' face. i pick up the green and red off the table and put down 4 greens. the roller promptly hits 2-2.

we rode that and 2 other points (and then a crap out and a run from the table) to a tidy $125 profit each. geoff and chad joked that this could be the seed money to my new life in canada. i said i was going to yell 'bomb' at the border crossing if they sold me out. this is the kind of edgy, sophisticated humor i employee when threatened with a life in canada.

happy with our profits, it was time to head back to the land of the free. we decided to take the bridge after a discussion of the best way to die (freefall versus water tomb) and geared up for the inevitable confrontation. i sat shotgun with driver's license and social security card in hand. we pulled up to the gate after a short wait, and after a little wrangling with the guard we handed over 2 passports, a driver's license, and the aforementioned social security card, which was immediately returned. chad and geoff had no problems, but i had a wonderful exchange with the border guard regarding my lack of secondary identification, such as a birth certificate.

guard: "where were you born, mr. shah?"
me: :pause: "chicago, illinois"
guard: :types into a computer, pauses: "but you can't prove that, now can you"
me: "no, sir"

i had to 'yes, sir' and 'no, sir' my way through a few more questions, but that was the extent of the difficulty. it kind of sucked, but it was also pretty funny and pretty sad, especially since the end result was being in detroit.

and that's the casino windsor bit. new year's eve will be told in video form over the course of the next 2 weeks.