Over/Under Quandry, and Lunch At Wat Thai

Tomorrow's blog will be spent talking about an online poker tournament that I took part in last night. First prize of the tournament was ~$200 plus $1,000 to be used on two tickets to a National Football League game, transportation, hotels, and spending cash. Second place was $100, and third was $50. There were a number of other prizes, but I was definitely aiming to win the tournament.

Did I win? Will I be taking a trip to an NFL game this fall? Tune in tomorrow to find out.

- One quick-hitter: I enjoy betting on the over/under of a game or event (ex: Over/under of the number of hot dogs Kobayashi will eat during this year's Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest: 50. I think he'll eat more than that, so I'd bet the "over." If he eats more than 50 hot dogs, I win!).

That got me thinking: say I made a bet that some guy will finish "over" fifth place in some contest. Am I betting that he will finish better or worse than fifth place? In this case, I believe that "over" means "better," so I say that betting the over means that I am expecting the guy to finish first, second, third, or fourth.

Apparently, the exact opposite is true, to the best of my knowledge: if I bet on the over, I'm predicting that the guy will finish worse than fifth. That makes no sense to me! I know Krunk has my back on this one; does anyone else agree with me?

- We spent the morning at the Wat Thai (Thai Temple) of Los Angeles, located in North Hollywood. My sister likes to go there every now and then, and she especially felt the need to go today to pray. I, on the other hand, enjoy going there for the food: skewered chicken and pork, duck noodle soup, spicy papaya salad, beef and pork meatballs, and a delicious dessert made with tapioca, water chestnuts, jack fruit, coconut, coconut milk, and a simple syrup (sugar + water). They also serve sweet sticky rice and fresh mangoes, which are to die for.

I noticed something strange at the Temple today: banners were all around the place, asking people to not take food off the premises; I forget what the actual wording of the sign said. I thought that was weird, and especially so after ordering some food, when the servers asked if I wanted the food to go. If they didn't allow food taken off the premises, why could I opt to take the food to go?

We thought nothing of it, took our food, and sat down to eat. Maybe it was just me, but the food was exceptionally good today.

(Tangent: It's a good thing that it wasn't terribly hot today! Another mid-90s day, and I would have just stayed home.)

Afterwards, we went back to get some food to go, again wondering why the servers let us order food to go if the signs said otherwise. Of course, nobody stopped us as we got to the exit, and we were on our way.

That's all I've got for now. Apologies if the blog entry sounds rushed; it was :P