First and foremost, why the hell didn’t anyone tell me that Alice in Chains, one of my favorite bands, was touring sans Layne Staley, whose unfortunate demise precisely 8 years after Kurt Cobain’s signaled the end of said band? And who’s this William DuVall fellow who looks remarkably like Lenny Kravitz but nothing at all like Layne?

And what’s with the possibility of said band headlining the (free!?) Ozzfest 2007? I can’t wrap my head around all this.

Last night, after work, my boss and I entered the Colorado Poker Tour’s game at the Whiskey Bar next door to the office. While I performed quite admirably, I was quickly dispatched by pocket aces to my pair of jacks that I so hoped to bluff to win (I did bluff out the other 10 players at the table, but for some reason, a pair of aces in your hand tends to make even boring-looking accountants call and raise).

I have always enjoyed poker, and the (not-so) recent surge in Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments and renewed interest in the game (let’s get this straight, by the way, ESPN; If you want to be the sports network, stop defining so many damn things as sports) has been a delightful thing. It’s very pleasurable to sit down with a group of strangers at a felt table and have a casual game of poker, no stakes, just booze and a terrifying dealer whose mere size inspired fear. Not to mention the Vegas Mafia attitude and the white handlebar mustache. I’m sure it was an act, but I didn’t want to test anything.

My hope is, at my new place, to be able to have a couple games a month with friends, but I lack the volume of friends who play poker, really, to have any sort of good turnout. And there’s always the point that money being passed between friends, while making the game more entertaining, does add an unstable element.

In other news, I believe I will be writing my next Digital Web Magazine article on a how-to regarding PHP object-oriented programming, something I’ve come to rely on with many of my projects. Perhaps a walkthrough on how, say, a form processing class is created, or a email class that handles attachments and error-checking and that sort of thing. Up in the air a bit.

Also, Bill of Metromode has asked me to write yet another of my famous “Last Word” articles for the next issue (NB: the issue containing my most recent one hasn’t even been published) in March. My best guess, since he asked me rather than the Editor in Chief, Louis, he’s re-assumed editorial control over the magazine. As one who was his EIC for 6 months (one of now three total editors of the rag) I can make pretty informed guesses on that sort of thing. Bill’s definitely not a bad guy–indeed, he’s actually a very nice fellow who is always smiling and helpful–but his managerial tack leaves a good deal to be desired.