Let me preface with a little background.
I started playing poker sometime in December of 2006. At this time I was a second semester senior in high school, living at home being fairly average/normal. I played straight all day every day straight on through to when I began college (Drexel) that September. I lasted one trimester there or until that Jan-Feb 08'. I decided college wasn't for me so I dropped out to live at home and grind. One year of grinding, Vegasing and donkamenting later I decided it was time to move out. I moved to Orange County, California with tcorbin16 on Jan 1st 2009. It appears as though now that chapter is coming to an end.
I'm bored of California. It's not to say California is boring, in fact it can be very exciting, however I am no longer growing here. My original criteria for coming to California was that it be; somewhere warm, somewhere with other poker players and somewhere away from home. It was great for what I needed at the time, however now I have a bit more perspective and am looking at my life down the road, particularly my 20's.
My conclusion, CANADA!
I have been struggling for a while now with picking a hobby. Currently I'd say it was golf, though I don't really play enough for it to qualify. Earlier this year I went on holiday to Lake Tahoe to ski and snowboard. I enjoyed it thoroughly, it was definitely something that I could take up as a hobby as a supplement to poker. I was toying around with the idea of moving to Lake Tahoe, however Canada seemed more appealing.
I have major idealogical differences with America. To be honest I think this country is a disaster. My beef is with our system of government and how it applies to our system of economics. Ironically, Barry Greenstein said something in an interview that really struck a cord with me, while in DC working on UIGEA legislation he discovered that "Politicians are not necessarily the smartest people or the best at their jobs, they are however the best at getting elected".
Yikes... ok this seems to be turning into more of a political editorial than a blog post, but basically reason
#1. I don't agree with American Government. Not to say that Canadian Government is the absolute for me, however a change of scenery will help give me perspective.
#2. English. I don't speak any other languages, so to ease my quest into the rest of the world my options are limited; Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand... idk some islands or something?
#3. Proximity. I am planning on moving to Vancouver/Whistler Area, the West Coast of Canada which is very close to California where I have friends and Las Vegas where I routinely travel to.
#4. Snowboarding. I was in the whistler area when I was a kid, awesome resort type town, good food, sick slopes, etc.
#5. Cost of living. There are a few tax breaks I'll be able to take advantage of and I think it will be marginally less expensive to live in Canada.
#6. It is the start of what will likely turn into a world tour. The tentative plan in my head is to spend a certain amount of time getting settled in Canada, snowboarding and having a blast, then start moving east across the globe. Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, England, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Italy Sweden, Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Egypt, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand.
Not sure when but I think I want to mix in South America as well. If I'm really a baller I'll do all this before I'm 25. I'm finally starting the adventure that I imagined coming with poker.
I may play some donkaments in between but frankly I'm kind of over poker. I hate pretty much everything except heads up cash games, to tell you how I REALLY feel, I think they are a mechanical boring waste of time where nits can have no idea whats going on but learn a bunch of basic plays and seldom be put into interesting situations that causes them to think so if they are bad finding that out and exploiting it is boring as it takes a long time.
I probably haven't even played half the hours of poker I intend to play in my lifetime, but I am very certain about how the rest of my career will go. I'm intending on moving on to something else as my focal source of income and hobby, the way I view poker now, and hopefully my travels will shed some light on what that should be.
If anyone has wisdom to empart or knows anything about Canada, where to stay, eat, how to learn to snowboard, etc. please leave feedback in the comments.
Earlier I posted about needed to get more bands, thanks for the recommendations.
The last week I've listened to radiohead's discography two or three times, and my god. They are so so sooo sick, old people who whine about new school having nothing comparatively as good as the oldschool need to investigate this band, they have soooooooo fking many good songs. <3
Just in case you don't know and want to familiarize yourselves:
Listen to Pyramid song first. Then just pick any album and listen to it all the way through, you will not be disappointed.