Okay, I'd really like to have a little more solid content on here, so I'm going to try to do a more regular List of 13 feature. Here's today's list:

13 Things I Want to Do Before I Die (or Turn 40, Whichever Comes First)

In no particular order

1. Play poker at a casino in Las Vegas
2. Publish a book of poetry (without self-publication)
3. Publish a book not of/on poetry (see above parenthetical remark)
4. Get married (or at least sustain a committed long-term relationship successfully for more than a year)
5. Visit all 50 states (currently have about 35)
6. Earn a graduate degree
7. Sink the 8-ball on the break or run every ball in a game of 8-ball
8. Appear on a late-night talk show
9. Fish for tarpon or similar ocean fish
10. Write a great love poem
11. Learn to play guitar
12. Create a game (board, card, dice, roleplaying, hybrid, etc.)
13. Contribute something newsworthy to a liberal social or political cause

As you likely know if you've helped edit a literary journal or submitted to a lot of them, many places have multiple rejection forms: (A) the basic "no thanks" they send to the crowds and (B) the "we liked these, please try again" they send to the slightly more talented crowds who actually sent something they looked at twice and wouldn't mind hearing from again. You probably also know that, for many journals, it's hard to tell sometimes whether you're getting a rejection from column A that's blowing smoke up your ass or a rejection from column B that isn't quite enthusiastic enough for you to get it.

Well, AGNI doesn't have that problem. I got a rejection from them yesterday, and it started with the standard "Is it or isn't it?" boilerplate: enjoyed reading it, careful consideration, think about us again in the future. But then, in bold and italics, it says "This is not our customary rejection slip." I think that's great, and I wish more places were clear like that. I know we try to be with our rejections (though rejecting via e-mail usually risks the problem of having a basic form note seem more special than it is).

This is going to be a short post, and you'll see why. I'd been experiencing some numbness in fingers on my left hand, so I called my dad, who quickly diagnosed me with ulnar nerve compression (like carpal tunnel but a different nerve and different fingers). We easily pinpointed it to the fact that I changed my typing posture recently because I bought a new computer desk--also to the fact that my sleep position is woeful on my left elbow. So I'm correcting both those things, but my fingers (pinkie and ring) aren't better yet, and I'm not sleeping well because I now can't bend my left elbow when I sleep. Ack.

Also, thanks to Comics Curmudgeon, here's a fun and relevant edition of one of my three or so favorite comic strips:

Edited to add: That's Pearls Before Swine, in case you don't know.

I don't think Ron and I agree on a huge amount poetically/critically (though there are probably more areas of overlap than I'm thinking of right now), but this line is thoroughly awesome: "Any anthology of the thematic is really a book about cats."

It's pretty hard to win $29 on one hand at .15-.25 No Limit Hold 'Em. Here's one way to do it:

(If you hate reading about poker, skip this whole post.)

Sit down at a table and glean rather quickly that the players are maniacs who are raising and calling with anything. When you get ace-king on the button, watch skeptically as there's a raise/call/re-raise before the action even gets to you. Then re-raise all in. Watch all three raisers call your all-in (really not what you wanted). Flop the ace. Watch a guy bet on the flop; the original raiser, who called your $8.50 re-re-raise of his initial $0.75 raise, fold (meaning he most likely wasn't holding a hand that could afford his pre-flop action); and the third guy call the bet, which puts him all-in. When the dust settles without your top-pair/top-kicker improving further (very worrisome), find out that the guy who bet the flop was doing so on a stone bluff (meaning his original hand was donkey crap that didn't improve) and has an ace-high, and find out that the guy who called on the flop did so with a pair of sixes, meaning that he called a $0.75 cent raise and an $8.50 all-in reraise with 9-6 offsuit (even worse donkey crap).

Unbelievably poor level of play at the $0.25 no-limit tables on Full Contact Poker. Fun for making money, incredibly frustrating when you get sucked out on. Unfortunately, the 9-6 guy got busted and left the table shortly thereafter, and the other idiots tightened up considerably.