it's kinda crazyfrozen

having 300k frozen in online poker accounts is kinda crazy.  everyone with any money on stars, ftp, and cereus, the 3 main sites, had their money frozen recently, when the Department of Justice went after those 3 main sites, who were apparently bending banking laws.  actually probably out right breaking, but i'm not a lawyer and I don't know.

But the players like myself were not breaking any laws, but now our funds are all frozen.  2 of the 3 sites have worked out deals to attempt to return the money,  one site is allowing non usa players to withdrawl 250 dollars per week,  at that rate, i'll be 50 before i got my moniez off that site.  (moniez is the poker term for funds)

so anyway I was walking out of RPAC yesterday at 11:55 pm, and realized, wholy shit I have 300k frozen in online poker accounts  A: that's a lot of money B: i'm handling it amazingly well C: wtf that's a lot of money to have in limbo.

but all i can do is do my rehab for my leg, keep my room clean, and my kitchen full of dumpster food.

i got a 5k to run in a week, and a half marathon the week after that.

i'm doing a half ironman during summer, and trying to go somewhere in soccer within 9 months.

why did I have 300k in online sites?  cus I play high stakes poker and the swings are big, and you want to have a bankroll that can cushion you for the swings.  Furthermore, you can only cash out 8k per week for free, so I had basically been doing that, but the total $ number in my account wasn't coming down fast enough.

I was actually in the process of preparing to pay for larger withdraws, and was in contact with FTP to make special arrangements for larger than 8k withdrawls.

at least I am now 175 lbs which is the leaast I have weighed in 2 years, and I am getting good at basketball.

i bid my 300k goodbye and will not worry about it, and it will just be a bonus if i get any of it back.

i got a soccer game in an hour and a half.

a lot of this rambling is to document my emotions and to assure myself that things are going to be OK, when i'm actually feeling quite vulnerable.

I'm 28, i have less money then i've had in 5 years.  my hamstring is torn.  etc.

well, let's give it another go.

Black Friday

So this morning I woke up and truly realized that onlnie poker sites are no longer allowing Americans to play on them, and all our funds are being frozen.  It is unclear whether any or all of the money will ever be returned to me.  In total if you include my money and money I have invested in others online, It is between $350,000 to $400,000 that may potentially be lost.  I am handling it surprisingly well and am considering moving on to other business ventures (stock market) to make multi millions, or to move LA, or las vegas, to be a live poker pro. Right now I'm keeping all options open, as I have savings to last me a few dozen years for now...

I'm in the mean time going to focus on getting my hamstring healthy, and getting more fit.  right now my body weight is 177, and I am wondering as my body fat %, i'll get it tested this weak coming up.

So I'm doing rehab well, and looking at trying out for pro soccer in prolly 18 months or so.

soccer

in 2003 i played soccer in the PDL.
It was the best year of my life.

I am attempting to get as fit as I can (soccer fit) and see how far I can take myself, whether that be MLS, A league, PDL, Premiere league, or OSU intramural coed B league, I'm gonna see w hat I can do.

This is all starting with rehab to my injured right hamstring, strengthening, stretching, ART treatment.  I'm so far in about 8 grand out of my own pocket on treatment, and things are coming along slowly but surely.

Today I swam 750 yards in 14:55, I played goalie at ARC for an hour or 2, and then did my hamstring stretches and strengthening at ARC. Also situps and planks.  Tomorrow I plan to  lift weights, swim 750 yards, do all my strengthening and stuff, and if my hamstring feels good, I'll run, if it doesn't feel good i wont.

Might play volleyball just for fun, we'll see.

man it's gonna be slow, and i'm gonna hafta make sure to not over do it or play much.

pics from china

having a few setbacks getting pics up...
1. my camera isn't working right. it seems chinese batteries won't work in it??

2. i think uploading pics is somehow blocked by chinese government on blogger. i can't figure out how to uplaod them.. even though i've done it before, ..

i might have to make a blog on a different website..

my address

For those of you who want to send me mail or packages, below is my address.

All mail must not contain, explosives, knives, flammables, instructions, news, dissent against china, and any mention of hope.

Patrick is hard for Chinese people to say, so instead I go by Leo. Li You actually, but pronounced Leo. Li would be my surname, and you first name, and when you call someone by their name you basically always say surname then first name, so ppl call me Leo.


Leo Costello
Room 609, Foreign Student Dormitory
Hainan University
Haikou, Hainan 570228
China

I got a cell phone, and if you can figure out how to send and receive SMS messages to my cell fone for free, please let me know so I can let everyone know. The # is 15248920049. Please try to send me a txt from your phone, or find a website that will allow you to send/receive txt.

A little about my life.

I take Chinese class every morning from 8 am to noon.
My class has 30 people. We are in the A level class (complete novice to chinese).

Jeff is in the C class.

Most of my classmates are Russians. I'd say about 20 of the 30 are Russians. There are no other Americans, there is 1 Finnish girl, a German, two phillipinas, a Thai girl, a few Khazaks, and me.

Jeff and I live on the 6th floor of the Foreign student dorm. It is the top floor. We each have single bedrooms to ourselves with our own shower and toilet. The cost is about 110 dollars a month + electricity (about 10 usd a month).

Ok Jeff just stopped by my room, we're gonna go play sports.
Basketball, Run 10kilometers, ping pong.

In china

im testing out some software that lets me post from blogspot even in china.

Chinese government has banned facebook, blogspot, youtube, and censors google, so i'm trying this workaround.

If this works well I will soon post pics and stories.

I'm in columbus now.
In Japan I experienced.
3 earthquakes
a $57,000 downswing at poker.
a loss of 4lbs of bodyweight.
couchsurfers crashing with me.
Tokyo Vegan Runners club.
My best friend attempted suicide and is in the hospital now.

coming home!

be home monday nov 3rd at 420pm.
livin at the legion

let's hang out !

marathon

did a half marathon today, it kicked my butt... my endurance breathing was fine, but i didnt strethch beforehand (big mistake) and i am not flexible enough in general.. my hamstrings tighened up severely, and my knee started hurting at about kilometer 13.. (i was keeping a 5 minute per kilometer pace until kilo 13) at this point i driopped off to about 6 minutes per kilo. Then the last 3 kilo I had to walk cus my knee was in so much pain from running. None the less, I finished, in 2 hours and 6 minutes or something. (I decided to run the race after regrestration was full, so I wasn't officialy registered, I just ran anyway, without the number bib) Only once did an old man notice I had no official number bib and tried to talk to me about it but I just kept running.

It was fun, and I will get in better shape so I can do better next time.

Also I got runners nipple, which hurts!!

things i wanna learn

juggling
magic
freestyle rap
gymnastics
yoga
italian
french
ASL
thai
chinese


i will practice these (more often) starting today

life and stuff

i got internet... i've been running... josh went home

i joined ICU swim club, i'm gonna go swim in a little while
if you e-mail me your e-mail address, or leave a comment, i will share my google calander with you, so that you can see what i am doing everyday.. it's mostly just sports, and dates to hang out wtih friends.

Tomorrow is japan vegetarian festival, and a raw food potluck.
i will add pics soon.

I'm trying to work towards a goal of doing 3 miles in 18 minutes, and 10km in 40 minutes... we'll see how it goes.

oh yeah

i know it's not the best idea but i have been playing on borrowed wireless.
it disconects sometimes, and has cost me aproximately 2000 dollars so far, but i'm up around 25k on the connection so *shrug*.
won like 9k yesterday and then 2k today, which was nice cus i was down pretty big, and ended up a little.

i also dumpstered : curtain, silverware, jeans
foraged: 2 oranges and 1 persimmon.

I lift weights at ICU (my former university in Tokyo). It's 2.9 miles from my apartment, so I just run there, lift weights, and run home usually.

Also tomorrow wakana is coming over. She is doing a lot better lately, I took her to blind runners of Tokyo, and she tried running, also i helped her lift weights a few times (which she asked me for). we also went dumpstering togehter.

she spends the night about every other night, cus her parents make her go home SOMETIMES.

anyway, i also remembered i want to learn ASL american sign language, and chinese. I think when I go back to school i will take chem2, bio2, and either ASL I or CHIN I.

If i start swimming i might get a triathlon bike here in tokyo and put in some miles during the winter.. i hear you can do it, it's just cold :) Also 2 friends of mine are visiting me in 2 weeks. 2 girls i met in thailand, they're super cool and we had a fun day together hangin out in bangkok.

Oh yeah, anyone who reads this and wants to visit me, feel free to come sleep on my dumpstered carpet with me. I can promise you a place to stay, electricity, and hot water :).

exercise

been running a lot lately.
did 13k yesterday, and did 3km at a fast pace today. saturday vegan runners meetup we are doing 25km along arakawa river. i am hosting a couch surfer tomorrow, and also josh is arriving on sunday.

the house i tried to buy seems that the real estate agency was shady and gave verbal acceptance, then went and accepted someone else's higher offer. wtf m8.
i get fiber optic internet installed on saturday.
i've been lifting weights every other day for about 2 weeks, its fun.

also i found swimming club at ICU so i will hopefuly start swimming 4 days a week.

world championship triathlon is sunday.

no internet lately

haven't had internet lately
been running a lot.. mostly 10km a day
wakana spends the night
i eat fruit.
i take walks..
i dumpstered some clothes...

updates more to come when i get internet (hopefuly in 3 days)

Bad day..?

So I lost like 5500 today and somehow i let it affect me.
SO I was kinda in a bad mood, mopin around, etc...
Didn't do much exercise, just a little stretching in the AM.
Anyway I started to really feel like crap by night time.
So I had the strength to convince myself to go for a jog.
Then I got home and stretched a lot and did a little meditation and now i feel a million times better.

I'm gonna watch a movie and go to sleep :)

today poker, cold.

lost like 2k today...
its cold here i need to get clothes

gonna go running 10km tomorrow.

Doing a half marathon in october in Chiba Tokyo.

p.s. new pics were posted, a couple days old. scroll down to see.

woah sunshine

so it is a sunny day!
sun woke me up layin on the floor.. i shall get a curtain.
later i will try to take pics of stuff to upload for you guys.

i played poker for about 90 minutes, made about 21k.

Now i'm gonna do laundry and hang it outside, then tidy up my room.
After that I will do yoga. I'm going running in the evening.

Today there is badminton at 5pm but I don't think I'm going.
Tomorrow there is softball game to watch at 10am.
I'm in the softball club but i dont play in the games, but watching is fun!

anyway, off to clean hou!

dumpster diving in JP

Today I had a great day.
Wakana spent the night.
In the morning we took a walk to Kichijoji station, and walked through inokashira park.
When we got to the station we dumpstered some cardboard to make the bed that i sleep on thicker, because only one piece of cardboard was kinda hard.

We carried the cardboard, and i also dumpstered some disposable chopsticks that are ubiquitous in japan. I took all those back to my apartment, then eventually me and wakana went to ICU (the shcool). She had class, while i signed up for a soccer team with some old friends, played frisbee, and then played catch-ball (throwing a baseball back and 4th). Then I lifted weights, stretched, and did yoga in the ICU gym. After that me and wakana laid in the grass and talked about life and death. Then i took a shower in ICU sports club house, then went to juggling club with wakana. At the same time as juggling club is badminton, and futsal club. So I skipped off from juggling for an hour and playhed futsal, and badminton. Then I escorted wakana to the bus home. Then I went back and played more badminton, then took shower, and rode bike with badminton club to near the train station where we have "nomikai" which is drinking and eating with club-mates. I drank some table dived-bear, and rice and tofu. I rode my dumpstered bike home, and on the way home saw a desk and chair and carpet in a "dumster". I then went back to the dumpster, and turned the desk upside down, put it on top of the rolly-chair, then put the carpet on top of that, and pushed this the aproximately 3km (or 2 miles) home, which took me about an hour. It was kinda loud and ppl looked at me strange, and right outside my apartment is a police station (koban) but i waited till there was no cop looking and pushed it home. I live on the 4th floor so i carried the desk up to the 4th floor, put it in my room (not before the carpet) then went down and got the chair.

Now I am typing this on my borrowed wireless, on my dumpstered desk, sitting in a dumpstered chair on top of dumpstered carpet, still feeling a slight buzz from table dived beer.

I'm gonna do some yoga and go to bed.

Tomorrow I am running 10km, buying organic fruit, and dumpstering more.




This is my room, you can see the window, and i have clothes drying outside.
3 pieces of cardboard, then on top of that i folded a piece of carpet in half to make the bed.
And a blanket that wakana lent me.


The desk, and chair. On top of it i smy laptop, and some mikan oranges.
Also the carpet is dumpstered obviously.

im in my apartment, and it's ok.
there is wireless internet from the nighbors, and me and wakana ate some peanuts and fruit.

im gonna try to buy a motorbike, 250 cc.
also went to the organic food store, it was avg, but i will try dumpstering there as soon as i get a motorbike.
will also try to get my own internet so ican poker.

today me and wakana lifted weights.
tomorrow we have juggling club to learn to juggle at ICU.

In a manga cafe in tokyo japan

you can use these places basically as hotels. a place to sleep for 20 bucks.

i am scared.
scared of having left things unfinished in cbus, like school, my aunt, a house, my friends.
im scared of living alone in tokyo.
im in this manga hotel thing at 4 in the am and i cant sleep.

i know i have to do this, to stay intokyo, but it is not easy, but i will do it.

i just worry about others, my friends, and family.

i will do my best to stay healthy, and stay in touch with those who i care about.

in Tokyo

I came to Tokyo on short notice.
A friend needed me to be there for them, and here I am.

I originaly bought a ticket for 2 weeks, and would return the day before classes started in CBUS so that I could finish my pre-med for med school.

It l ooks like those plans will be put on hold for a while.

For now I will be getting an apartment in Tokyo and concentrating on a few things.

Helping my friend enjoy life.
Running/Swimming.
Raw vegan food.
learning to juggle.
Poker.
Learning Chemistry so that I can be prepared when I do have the chance to go back to school.
Yoga.
Becoming healthier as a person.

It looks like I will probably be here for several months.

I have almost no clothing (and no cold weather clothing).
I have almost no possessions.
I don't want to be a consumer.

I will be joining an organic food COOP.
I will become even healthier.
I have been running a lot lately, and will likely run the chiba half marathon, (chiba is a prefecture of tokyo area). It is 13.1 miles or 21 kilometers. I hope to do it in 105 minutes or less.

Today I am going to go trail running (basically running in the woods). Or maybe actualy just walking cus my left leg is soar from softball practice. (I kinda joined the ICU softball team). Tomorrow I should be paying my money so I can get an apartment.

Its 11am now and i'm going to go to Gruppe the organic store, and buy some fruit, and then lift weights in the ICU gym. After that I will take a shower and do some laundry in the ICU sports club house, and then go to the trail and exercise.

excercise in beijing

i have been running at night, to and then around tian'amen square.
also swimming and soccer,
i also got a road bike and ride it around beijing, although it's hard with polution in the air, wind, and other bicyclists and pedestrians, but i'm getting the kilometers in.

I htink my mom is gonna come visit me in China.

i can do handstands better now, maybe stand for 5 seconds and take a few steps.

i am gravitating towarda a raw diet.
at least much less processed foods

in beijing

im in beijing.
i played soccer a few times at an indoor field that is outside, for like 1 dollar a day.
every1 was pretty bad and the field was so slippery, but it was excercise.
p.s. there is lots of polution in beijing.
the field is pretty neat though, its a big sportspark in the midst of tall buildings
also i play ti jienzi everyday, its like chinese hacky sack but they use a weighted badminton shuttle cock.

i am learning xianqi which is chinese chess.

i go running at night, near tian'amen square, which is really fun.
food sucks.
MSG
OIL
processed foods
white rice
white bread

blah

i usualy eat tofu with veggies, or bananas and peanuts and apples and pairs and juice
pistachios, and tea.

yeah.

triathlons are cool too

traveling china

i have been in beijing for some time.
i tried to find an apartment and couldn't

i met some cool people (sweedish people) and we are going to travel around china together.
shang hai, qumin, and dali.

this will be a few weeks.

after that traveing, i'm not exactly sure what i will do.

i might not right much over the next couple weeks, but rest asured i am safe and having fun.

I am learning "jienza" it's like chinese hacky sack, but played with a weighted shuttle-cock type ball. Also I am learning chinese chess (like western chess, but a little more complicated i think). and my Mandarin is improving steadily.

I basically have stopped playing poker for a couple months now, and it's really relaxing without it. I haven't played soccer yet, but I plan to soon.

ANyway i love you all and will talk to you in a few weeks.