Nat Arem's Blog

When I was visiting Grand Cayman, my friend Pat mentioned that he bought some Versace china at the local duty-free store (they have them on the island kinda like they have in some airports). But, unlike most people, he bought it kind of as a joke. He said it just makes him feel ridiculously baller to sit there in the morning eating some cheap sugar cereal out of Versace. Of course, he’s joking because he doesn’t take himself that seriously but… he still bought the Versace so there was a little bit of seriousness there. So… I had to upstage him. I bought the following plate:

That plate isn’t even really meant to be eaten off of. It’s more of a serving plate and the eating plates are white in the center. But, there’s no doubt, as far as plates go, it’s pretty badass. Of course, the whole joke is eating something ridiculously cheap off of an expensive plate so here is a picture of my most recent meal off of the Versace:

Those are a couple In N Out double doubles and I can assure you they were as delicious as they look. I don’t really take the plate seriously, as you can tell. Pat was basically daring me to take it with me when we went to a restaurant and, instead of eating off of the normal china, insist on eating off of my Versace plate. Obviously, once again, as a joke. But I couldn’t take it quite that far. For now, I’m just happy to have a nice piece of china to use for whenever I have a need for it.

And despite what you may think after seeing that meal, I am still doing really well exercise and weight-wise. I’ve recently set some personal bests with 14 pullups in a row and a 155kg (or 341lb) deadlift. I’ve also been doing really well with squatting so I couldn’t be happier about how those things have been going since I got back from Cayman a little over a week ago.

Also, a few days ago, I saw a post in the P5s OT forums which mentioned the following thread: Democratic Republic of Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa. The thread is about a Belgian couple who drove across the Congo for roughly a month. And the trip across the Congo is only one month out of a roughly two year drive that they made around the world (although they didn’t make it to the Americas). It took me a long time to read through it, but the stories and pictures are just awesome. Keep in mind that this is something that NO ONE does. They said they couldn’t find any evidence of anyone doing this drive in the last 20 years. The roads are that bad. I think they’re a little crazy for doing it but I love the trip report. There’s also a long YouTube interview with the couple. The thread is “can’t miss” thread in my opinion.

I’ve been back in Vegas for a few days now after a great five or so days in Cayman. Most of the time in Cayman was spent just hanging out and relaxing but we did a little bit of drinking and partying too. First, here is a picture from flying in:

I am a bit of an aviation geek (among other things) so I enjoy a number of aspects of flying. I find the planes and engines to be fascinating. On the other hand, like everyone else, I somewhat dread traveling because of the hassle involved. That being said, views like that make up for the bad stuff. I also took a video on the way in because I think the view coming in to land in Cayman is pretty cool. It may put some of you to sleep though.

After I landed, my friend Pat picked me up and then we went to our other friend’s rum distillery to pick him up as well (Pat’s wife was cooking dinner so we were all headed that way eventually). Here are some pictures of the rum distillery:

In case you happen to make it to Cayman on a cruise or something like that, the Seven Fathoms rum distillery is located right by where you’ll come into port. They offer tours so be sure to swing by if you have time. Also, while I am far from an alcohol expert, the rum is pretty good as well.

After that we went back to Pat’s place. He has an amazing condo right on the water. I snapped this picture from his condo deck of the sunset over the water:

It’s hard to imagine a much better view than that. The infinity pool is great to hang out in although I somehow only managed to get down there once this trip. Here’s a picture of it during the day, looking north towards the cruise ships:

Anyway, there was a huge party last Wednesday (I think) in an area known as Rum Point. The party was for Mardi Gras although I’m not sure if it coincided with the New Orleans Mardi Gras. So anyway, Pat and I drove out there for the afternoon to check it out. If you look at this map, you can see the Rum Point area in the upper right. Where Pat lives is roughly in the lower left. So it’s not a short drive to get over there — maybe like 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic. Here’s a picture of me at the party with my single necklace:

I didn’t really drink a ton because I was planning on going to CrossFit Cayman the next day and I didn’t want to feel any worse than I had to during the workout (as it turns out, the workout was painful — go figure).

Then, on Friday, we decided to go out and drink a bit for my last night. First stop was an Indian restaurant which opened after I moved from Cayman. It was actually really good. I ate a ton which was probably a mistake given that we’d be drinking beer soon after. So then we moved to a sports bar sort of place and played quarters for awhile. I’m not sure if the way we were playing was standard quarters but it was a game where you basically just bounce quarters on the table into a cup of water and various things happen when you make it or not. One of the things we did was that we could make “rules” if you made a third shot in a row (there were three of us playing). Our rules got pretty absurd after an hour or so of playing. Most of the rules revolved around remembering to do something and given that there were like 10+ rules it was nearly impossible to avoid breaking the rules (punished by needing to drink). I felt absolutely disgustingly bloated after that. The rest of the night I was pretty uncomfortable although we only went to one more place so it wasn’t too bad. I was bemused to see the name of the next place though:

Karma is another place that opened up since I moved to Las Vegas. Obviously my first instinct was to get a fist pumping picture under the Karma sign (if you don’t watch Jersey Shore, you may be confused). Pretty soon after that we headed back because our friends were going to a nice-ish club and we were all dress in shorts and flip flops.

So, Saturday was my last partial day in Cayman. Since I hadn’t really spent much time on the beach all week, we went to the beach and got in a little sun/water session. The beach in Cayman is amazing. Per the request of a friend, I wrote the following in the sand and took a picture:

Indeed it is. People in Cayman have it pretty good.

I’ll be back soon with another blog entry about various other things.

I’m currently sitting in the United Red Carpet Club in the Philadelphia airport D terminal. This is probably the saddest excuse of an airport club that I’ve ever seen. For some retarded reason there is a doorbell here and the front desk lady needs to buzz in everyone. And the club is too small to get away from the sound of the doorbell. That sort of thing is super annoying for a club that is supposed to offer some relief from the noise and annoyance of the main terminal experience of security announcements and final boarding calls. But I guess overall this club is better than sitting in the terminal so I’ll deal with it — at least I have internet, power and a decent chair.

I’m headed to Houston and then I’m connecting to Grand Cayman. I will be there until the weekend visiting with friends. This’ll be the first time I’ve been back to Cayman since I moved to Vegas about 11 months ago so I’m pretty excited to go back for a few days.

I’m also currently watching the last four players in the Sunday Million. And by Sunday Million, I mean Sunday Almost Twelve Million. 59,128 players! That is stunning. It’s one thing to get that many players in a freeroll and a whole other thing to get that many players in a $215 tournament. It’s just amazing. I’m pretty sure I remember when the number of entrants in the “Sunday Million” (which was just a $215 Sunday tournament) was a few hundred people back in like 2002 and 2003. A number like 59,128 really just reflects how huge PokerStars’ marketing power has become. They are really the class of all poker sites in the industry. I really respect their business strategy and how they seem to think everything out very well (except maybe Double or Nothings, that didn’t turn out so well). Their foresight regarding player retention systems (ie, VIP programs, rakeback, etc) has been really pretty admirable in my opinion. It’s just amazing where PokerStars has gone in terms of popularity and I’m really curious to see if this can continue for them.

In other news, I recently switched back to the iPhone. After having an iPhone a few years ago, I switched to Android when I was living in Costa Rica because it was such a pain keeping the iPhone unlocked back in those days. It got easier after I sold my iPhone but I was using a hardware unlock solution (ie, a thing my SIM card sat on) and it was really unreliable. I used Android all the way through until a few days ago when I wandered by a Verizon store in Philly and just kinda randomly decided to get the iPhone. I know that the iPhone 5 will come out this summer but I don’t particularly care. Android is just really buggy and horrible with battery management and I wanted a more polished overall experience. Now with Verizon and the iPhone I feel like I’m getting the best of both worlds. So far, I really like it and I’m glad I got it now. When the iPhone 5 comes out, I’ll just sell this one and upgrade.

Alright, I’ve had enough of the doorbell. Time to go board my flight.