You’ve probably noticed the slick little image captions on my photos in the last few posts. That is one of my favorite features with the new Wordpress. More on that and my other favorite features below.
My Flickr photo with the most views
These features are actually part of version 2.6 (2.6.1 is more for bug and security fixes, etc), but I was on 2.5 so upgrading to 2.6.1 made sense. Of course just after I upgrade 2.6.2 comes out today. Anyway…I think my favorite feature is the Image Captions. It’s such a simple yet effective feature. It gives me the chance to put a little more information and a personal touch on photos while still looking very nice. Also when I click on an image while creating a new post I get a more advanced editing page which includes the image captions, as well image size adjustments, alignment, linking, alt text and more. Now if only I could figure out how to stack two or more images vertically in a post and have all the text on one side of them, that’d be greeaaat (in my best Lumbergh voice). Anyone have thoughts on that? I don’t think it can be done.
Post Revisons
Two other features I’ll get the most use out of are Post Revisions and Theme Previews. Post Revisions basically keeps a version of the post each time you save it, allowing you to go back to any of these save points and view what changes were made, when they were made, who made them and of course you can revert your post to any of these past versions. I don’t usually have a lot of time to write posts, so my posts rarely go from start to finish in 10 minutes, but rather some thoughts here and there until I’m happy with the way it flows. Post Revisions will help because sometimes after being away from a post for a bit I don’t like how it has turned out but I don’t want to start over either. Now what is Theme Previews? You can probably guess. It allows you to view a live version with a theme you are considering without making that theme live. I love this because anytime I’ve changed themes in the past, I’ve tried about 10 different ones while trying to tweak them and everyone that visits gets to see the mess. Not anymore. These are just a few of my favorite features, for more on other changes, some of which I will find useful also, check out this video.
By the way- I need to thank my web host for fixing my blog after the upgrade. As soon as I clicked the upgrade button in my control panel, my blog was gone. I opened a support ticket and then waited, a bit nervous I might have lost everything, for about 4 hours. Come to find out I missed one step before the upgrade, but they had a backup of what I needed and restored it. So big thanks to THC for fixing this noobs blog.
My wife and I unplugged for a weekend of camping. It was nice being away from the internet, the TV, and yes even from Pokerstars. I wish the end of summer wasn’t right around the corner, for a lot of reasons really, but I’d love to get another weekend of camping in. My wife works the next two weekends though and any camping after that could be marred by cold and rainy weather. Anyway, we used our canoe we bought last year for the first time, at first it was kind of pain, strapping it to the SUV and carrying it to Lake Michigan, but it was a blast to use so it was all worth it!
Because we went camping my week of Hold ‘Em was cut short and I ended up winning almost $2 for the week. Sure it’s better than losing money, but barely. I was up about $15 at one point but wiped that all out in one night, leaving me with this small win and a $173.91 bankroll. It’ll probably be a few more days before I play again, but I’ve been talking a lot of Hold ‘Em with my brother and reading a lot, so I have a real good feeling about playing again!
I spoke too soon. In my last post I talked about having a good start to the week and looking forward to keeping it rolling. Well I effectively wiped out any gains from Monday and Tuesday last night. I know I played bad in many spots, but at the same time I had some bad luck. Twice I had a full house and lost to a bigger full house. The second one hurt the worst because it left me totally dumbfounded. I had J-3o in the BB and the SB limped in for another 3 cents, I checked. The flop came J-3-Q rainbow. I bet about .15, he calls. Turn is another Q, I bet about .35, he calls. The river is another Q (board is J-3-Q-Q-Q) giving me a full house, Queens over Jacks. I bet about $1 and he shoves all-in. I didn’t put him on a Q so I called. He had pocket Aces. That makes no sense- limping with Aces and then calling all the way only to shove on a river bet. Sure it worked because with the line he took I didn’t put him on Aces, but I’m still convinced he is an idiot, and I think he knew it too because he promptly left the table.
Disclaimer: I am by no means gloating, this is just an update. I felt it necessary to get that in there, I don’t need any bad karma. I know better then to get over confident after back to back winning sessions on PokerStars. At the same time this is the first time in a long time I’ve had back to back wins. I was certainly stuck in a rut when my bankroll went from $212 down to $160 and I moved from $10NL down to $5NL. I hope I get a chance to play tonight, I’m anxious to keep on rolling. Anyway, here is where I am at…
I”m not longer keeping stats on each session but rather week long snap shots now. Last week, August 25-31, I made a whopping $3.83, it was a major up and down week. I’ve had a good start to this week but you won’t catch me assuming the week will end good, only that a good start is better than a bad start. This week will be a short week, I will be unplugging while camping all weekend.
I came across Ice Road Truckers today and watched bits of a few episodes, it made me think of the way my Hold ‘Em game has been going. I hate whiners as much as the next guy, but I have to vent some. I’m actually up on the week, but only about $3 after being up $12. I played two sessions yesterday and one so far today. I just got done going on tilt and trying to take it out on a fly that kept buzzing around, which is when I knew it was time take a break. I’m just having one of those stretches that if I have pocket 8’s, the flop comes As-Ks-Qd and everyone can’t wait to get all their money in. If I have pocket Jacks or A-K, of course I get 2 or 3 callers, and the flop comes 6h-7h-Qh and again I meet a wave of aggression. Nobody folds and I’m not getting the tickets to take advantage of it. It sucks! I’m probably going to play again tonight, after I cool down, and I’m sure hoping to see more of these…
The key is finding a cat that likes to sit on boxes, because really that is all that is going on here. Abby has this thing for sitting on or in boxes. I’m getting plenty of photo opps of this exact situation, just different beverage is all. I haven’t had time to play holdem since Monday night and I don’t see that changing until this weekend, but snapping a photo only takes a second.
I played my first live holdem in ages this past weekend. It was a friendly $0.05/$0.10 no limit holdem game with most people buying in for $10. We started with 9 people at the table, 3 of which play regularly on PokerStars like me. It requires a lot more patience to play a live game when you’re used to seeing a ton of hands per hour online. We only played for about 3 hours and I had a good night.
Last night I played online and had a good night, especially considering out of my last 5 sessions I had lost about $43. I won about $12 and most of the night I was playing just 2 tables instead of 3. I didn’t plan it like this, but I kept finding myself looking for a 3rd table since one of them always ended up having only 3 or 4 people. Finally I just left it at 2 fast tables and it worked out well. I’ve also decided to keep weekly stats on my bankroll now, instead of stats on each session. I’m getting tired of the micro-management of my bankroll. As of right now I’m at about $180 and the theoretical plan is to move back up to $10NL at $200, but I reserve the right to change my mind when the time comes.
After being down about $7.00 I rallied and ejected with a $0.50 loss for the night. I know it is a loss, but there is a lot to be positive about here. I lost $43 in three sessions at $10NL, so a $0.50 loss after moving down is like a win. I want to blame others for my bad run here, but ultimately if I think they’re bad players and fail to make money off of them, I can be the only person to blame. I know I’ve gone on tilt something fierce the last couple sessions, last night I actually yelled at my monitor once, like some psycho. I think my brother heard me yell (no we don’t live together), because the phone rang shortly after that and we talked about how things were going. He talked me down and I rallied shortly after. One thing is for sure, I haven’t had a good run of cards during this tough stretch. My great hands get counterfeited, or another trend that shouldn’t become a trend is flopping a straight and my opponent has the same hole cards. Suck outs have been too common. In any case, that little rally last night is what I’m taking with me to my next session.
After losing a total of $43 in my last two sessions at $10NL, its time to move back down to $5NL. Certainly I’m not proud of this fact, it sure makes one feel like they have a lot of holes in their game. I’m staying positive about things though. This is part of bankroll management. I’ll be taking a closer look at my game. You know, what doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger. I figure when I get back above $200 and move back up to $10NL I’ll have that little bit of experience that I didn’t have the first time. I’d like to sit in on some sessions with my brother again, work things out, plug the holes in my game. So although nobody likes taking a step backwards, I think in the long run this will make me better. Now, reflecting on the journey so far…
Since September 2007 its been a long but steady road from $2.00 to $212 until this speed bump. My first session at $10NL, on 08/17/08, was almost a year from the start of this journey- and I won $10. The next two sessions I lost $43. Sure it stings, but I refuse to believe at this point these players are better and thats why I lost, if anything it seems the opposite. More people see more flops for more money than they did at $5NL. The aggression is twice as high, it feels like everyone has loaded the last of their bankroll and they just don’t care anymore. Q-4 suited is a good hand to call PF raises with and getting all-in on the flop with TPNK is a good play. It seems like I could take advantage of that kind of play, it just didn’t happen this time. This isn’t sour grapes, just some observations. I may or may not play $5NL tonight, depends on my level of enthusiasm, but I’m definitely curious to see how it goes, because this trend can’t continue.
I vote for stupid. I took this while in my car sitting at a red light. When I first pulled up they were next to my car, and I got a good enough look that it didn’t appear the dog was in any type of restraints, just cradled in her arms. It seems like if the dog was startled by anything (honking horn for instance) it might try to run. Maybe they drive by someone walking their dog and he decides its time to play, or a squirrel catches his eye and it must die now. It just seems like if you love your dog so much that it has to go everywhere with you, even on a motorcycle, you wouldn’t take the chance of it freaking out and ejecting while you’re doing 40 MPH. What do you think? Stupid or cool?
This week will be a short week, I will be unplugging while camping all weekend.
