It's still been pretty warm and summery out, although it gets dark so early now - going to go for my jog while there's still the chance to enjoy some fresh air and sunshine

Was going to do a little investing update - but in addition to Poker Masters having their finale tonight, some of my silly tv shows also have theirs tonight as well! MasterChef, America's Got Talent, and Big Brother ...

Was trying to write my update, but my eyes keep getting distracted by all the different shows, and my head's starting to get a bit confused


Will try again in a couple of hours

Short-Term Trading - Good Idea Y/N?


Wonder if maybe shorter-term investing might be kind of like playing hyper-turbos? Maybe lots more of randomness ... and sometimes there might be wider swings as well?

Warren Buffett recommends sticking to longer-term investments - guess over time the variance smooths out and quality will tend to get rewarded ... then guess there's much less gamble?


Sometimes the gamble can seem like such fun though My longer-term investments have been coming along - so wonder if it'd maybe be okay to set a side a little $ for experimenting with some shorter-term investing, if conditions maybe look like they might be promising?

Granted things haven't gone well so far! Before these two little experiments, there were also the failed attempts at investing in gold and shorting snap

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

Investment Stuff

The short has gone South!

Also bought some lithium stocks a couple of days ago ...

Have learned some lessons along the way though, like ...

• Guess the chance of making huge gains in a short amount of time can be so tempting! But after losing money on gold and snap, guess it's become a lot easier to stick with only risking small amounts of $, in ase things don't turn out?
   
• Something different this time around as well was that there was a specific event that made it seem like maybe there might be a big swing in the immediate future - guess last time was just hoping the market would go up or down at some later point? So this time with bitcoin there was the announcement that China was closing down exchanges at the end of September, and with lithium there was the recent announcement that China is hoping to start phasing out gas cars?
    
• And then maybe made a whole new mistake with my more recent bitcoin short - maybe sometimes there might be a temptation to try and wait for the top/bottom before selling? And then after waiting too long and overshooting the mark, maybe sometimes there might be a temptation to wait and hope things take a turn back in the right direction? If hadn't gotten so sticky with my bitcoin short holding out for a 30% return, could have sold on day 2 with a +20% profit ... and now find myself in the hole for -10% Maybe cashing out at 20% might have been better than hoping for 30% and winding up with -10%?

After making that mistake with the bitcoin last week, decided to sell my lithium today, and wound up with a 10% profit overall - guess maybe could have sold it even earlier? But at least it didn't get whittled all the way down to 5% - the stock wound up dropping quite a bit today

Guess short-term trading does feel a little gambly, so probably won't do it very often. Will definitely have to wait and see how this bitcoin short turns out - there may not be any $ left to try anything else out after that!


Time to turn in now - night everybody

Last day of summer - once the cold hits, will likely burrow into and not move for the next 6 months So should probably go out and enjoy the rest of the summer-like weather while there's the chance

Heading out the door now for a quick little jog!

Kind of neat to have an enormous selection of movies and shows available to watch, since there doesn't seem to be anything to watch on tv tonight

The selection's almost a little overwhelming! Not sure exactly where to start - could probably spend all of tonight just scrolling through each of the categories, to see what's available?

First day of Fall, and there's quite a big change already in the weather already ...

Will have to go back in a couple of weeks, when the leaves really start to change colour - just wanted to add an updated pic, because this new page of my blog was in serious need of something interesting to look at besides my gigantic walls of text!


Will add a bonus shot of my dinner ...

Because have more walls of text to add down below

Nightly Updates


Bitcoin Update

Guess should post an update of how my short is going - since by tomorrow, may wind up wishing had just ditched it today while there was the chance, if the price of Bitcoin shoots right back up again?

Have read in a bunch of places that Bitcoin can sometimes move like gold - and guess yesterday the price of gold dropped because the Chair of the US Federal Reserve said something that gold investors didn't like? Tried reading the article to see what the bad news was, but wasn't quite sure - guess if had better understood gold, my investment in it wouldn't have wound up being such a disaster So will just take everybody's word that the news wasn't great - it seems like maybe a smaller and more temporary piece of news than China closing exchanges? So maybe the price of Bitcoin might bounce back up before any exchanges in China start to actually close?

Here's gold dropping yesterday

And bitcoin today

Marketing Stuff

Didn't wind up watching anything on Netflix - guess enjoy reading as well, so wound up doing more of that tonight after all ...


May have solved the mystery of what it may be that may sometimes make marketing feel a bit ... cheesy? Here were a couple of examples had posted before ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

Inc Articles

Marketing's kind of an interesting concept - because how many times has it seemed like there's been this type of person, who's managed to find a way to get people to buy enormous amounts of junk?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

The marketing stuff on the other hand feels like such a different world from math/chess/poker – guess it's more the domain of like the Eric Hollreiser types Like take this example of a statement from a PR rep for Burger King ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

It seems like such a silly thing to say – but does this stuff work maybe? How could that guy in the CNBC article made have made $1mil so quickly by selling junk, unless marketing works??

Saw this quote today - didn't realize some people feel that marketing is about targeting peoples' fears and weaknesses???

Guess that's a very different philosophy from this one?

Maybe the kind of marketing that might tend to not to seem quite so appealing might be the kind where there's poor quality products like the CNBC person has, or maybe there might be outlandish claims like the Burger King rep was making, or maybe the person takes the low road like the first quote does?




The second quote sounds more like what maybe most of us would hope for as consumers? Have to admit though, that the reminder that the business owner doesn't come first caught me a little bit by surprise! In the sense that with games like poker and chess, there's never been a customer to worry about - there's only been stuff like info gathering and choice optimization ... stuff like that?


Have been seeing so so many articles on how to actually go about getting better at putting the customer first - this one really stood out as something a little different from the rest ...

It sounds like they put a lot of thought and effort into trying to appeal to their customers - wonder if that much is really necessary?

Marketing Stuff - Reading Materials

The person who wrote the article for Inc is CEO for a small independent book publisher - it looks like they're tiny, but they've had a number of their authors make the NYT Best-Seller list, so they've done very well And it looks like they have some marketing resources on their website that might be interesting to take a closer look at?

https://greenleafbookgroup.com/learn...xpert-branding

Also saw this link to a new Google learning site, but didn't have a chance to check it out ...

Did have a chance to check out the MIT free course site, and wasn't finding their Entrepreneur course to be very helpful - but maybe some of their other courses might be more helpful?

Guess will have more time to take a look at more stuff on the weekend

Big day at the tables, with the WCOOP Main Event happening - always so fun to rail

Heading out the door for a bit, but may check out Lex Veldhuis twitch stream later on? There was someone in the Twitch thread who was quite enthusiastic about his stream!




Hope everyone is having a nice Sunday afternoon!

enjoy the heat wave

Hey lumberajack!!


Canada felt like Las Vegas today


Was surprised to see so many people out and about in the park, with it being so steamy ...

And relief from the heat was kind of hard to come by - the line to get ice cream was all the way down the block!

This ice cream place has become known for selling charcoal ice cream - not sure if there's anything special about it, besides it being black and costing $6.50 a cone though?

(The ice cream cones look like Halloween treats in this pic from the internet, don't they? boo! )

There was a pretty painting in the park that seems like it would be nice to have hanging on the wall to enjoy when it's cold and snowy outside in the middle of winter - too bad it was about 15x more than was looking to spend, so guess will have to keep looking for something a little different

Hope everyone's having a nice day

No one's started a rail thread for the WCOOP Main Event in NVG? Was scrolling through the table list and there's so many huge names playing today ...




Didn't realize the person who was at my mini-FTOPS table a couple of years ago played such high stakes - just knew they were owning me super hard ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam;

Tourney Assessment


Have people heard PLO players say that when NL players give PLO a try, it can sometimes seem like they're playing NL + 2 cards, instead of playing it like a 4 card game with different nuances and stuff? Wonder if maybe there can sometimes be a similar thing that happens when cash players give tourneys a try - where maybe it might be common to approach tourneys like a series of cash spots ... with a push/fold chart off to the side for when stacks gets short?

At least that's the way it was for me


Got so lucky to have a couple of deep runs, just by playing that way - which was super exciting! But at the same time, I remember it being pretty heart-breaking to have made it so deep, only to realize that all the people at the table with more experience were doing stuff I didn't know how to do, and because of that there was basically no way I was going to be able to win.


The difference in play styles really shows up when comparing my HUD stats to some of the other people at the table of my deep runs - the two during the miniFTOPs were especially aggro, and were totally running circles around me lol




My FT miniFTOPs $11 final table bubble

Guess today's the last day of WCOOP - and it's also the last day of the Usain Bolt Zoom promo Hope there'll be something else happening on PS after this, otherwise it'll be so quiet?

My Graph for 2nl - Usain Bolt Edition


Looks like was able to wind up in the plus for the past +1 month of play - thanks in large part to Usain Bolt

The rake's 6bb/100 at 2nl - such a large amount to overcome Probably not worth playing cash when there's no promo going on? Maybe not even worth playing, even worth the promo, with my level of play?

Although ... have been trying to get better at playing tourneys for over 3 years, and that hasn't been going so hot, so guess there's not a ton of poker alternatives for me


Have a larger sample of hands, but the rest are all from 5 years ago - games were so soft back then, went on a slide for a full 40k hands, and was still able to stay in the plus ... as in like, guess it was possible to be terrible and one could count on there being plenty of people who weren't much better?

Poker's so fun but it's gotten so much harder, even at 2nl. Wonder how many new people are signing up to learn poker these days, when it's so hard to get started? Would be nice of Stars would lower rake at the entry level the way Unibet apparently has, so new players have more of a chance to have a positive experience?

Goodie Corner - New Gadget Edition


This site @Mashable was on a list of who to follow for small business into - haven't seen too much small business stuff posted, but they do seem to have a lot of new inventions, which have been pretty neat to see?


Some of the inventions are very clever and look like they'll save lives - like this solar-powered contraption that pulls moisture from the air to make drinking water ...

The fun ones are the first-world inventions

How fun does this look?

Is the cat included?

Need this!!

Could see this coming in handy

These tweets make the page boomerang up and down like ScreaminAsian's But the vids are all kind of fun ...

Guess that's it for today

Just clicked on the PokerStars twitch stream listed over to the right, expecting to see Igor Kurganov streaming the online event of the year, the WCOOP Main Event - but instead, PokerStars seems to be showing one of the new Twitch streamers, playing a $22 daily?




Guess is no one streaming the WCOOP ME?

With the Usain Bolt 2nl promo now over, it was back to spinning the wheel at 888 today for daily freeroll tickets

The wheel's no longer at the Pyramids of Egypt

They have a new format for the freerolls now too - it's a Blast tourney, so everybody pretty much goes all-in every hand from the get-go ... and the entire tourney with +5k entries was over in 12 minutes!

The format of having to shove almost every hand right from the beginning's not very interesting - but guess the entry's worth about $0.60 ... is that right? (Or is it only $0.06?? ) Guess it's a pretty nice chance to make a little something, for only a couple of minutes of time - maybe worth playing every once in a while?


Oh goodness!

So dark out, it feels like it's about 10:30pm - feel like turning in for the night ... too soon?

Haha - oh dear ... hard to tell the doggie and the muffin apart, because they're both so sweet

May lie down, but won't fall asleep - will just lie sideways and scroll through headlines

So have been reading that weekly feature on PokerNews, with all the vacation and relaxation pics of all the big names in poker - and seems to have a new name now?

It used to be called 'Tweet, Tweet, Bad Beat ' - but maybe it kind of grew to become something different from what it started out as ... so now it looks like they're calling it 'Off the Felt'? Although it still has the same sort of pics

The latest one has a visual update of Jaime Staples' prop bet - guess he and Matt must be at about the halfway mark now, are they? Amazing how much of a transformation they've both had!

It kind of feels like maybe there's some sort of larger inspirational message to be drawn from this - although in my sleepy state, seem to keep focusing in on the prop bet aspect

Should get to bed now, otherwise will be sleepy again tomorrow night ...

It sounds like 3rd in chips in the WCOOP Main Event really wont million

The two new PS Twitch sign ups seem very comfortable streaming - the WCOOP Main Event stream seems pretty entertaining so far?

Keep tuning into Saturday Night Live out of habit, and it's never funny Will have to get used to having Netflix, because there's so many stand-up comedians in the library - there's probably enough to last months!

Wanted to start off my new Netflix subscription by trying out the Netflix originals first, so this was my first pick ...

Was at bit surprised to see how polarized the feedback was in the comments section ... tough crowd!

Ouch!

This one made me laugh - it sounds like it was written by me, but someone actually beat me to it! 'Pure fun' ... let's mark that 'Helpful'!

Also tried a little bit of the stand-up vids for the host/contributor of The Daily Show - Trevor Noah's starts out with jokes about NYC! Guess must not have been there long enough, so didn't understand many of the jokes? Will have to give it another try again later ...

And also only watched a bit of Hasan Minhaj's as well, but found it very charming because he told stories about growing up with his mom, dad, and little sister - so guess his stories were sort of a mix of universal family stuff that everybody can relate to ... and then there were little bits of Indian-American culture thrown into the mix? So he talked about growing up feeling pressure to excel at stuff like spelling bees, and also did a Drake impression and a Tinder swipe, etc?

Also gave Stranger Things a try, but this warning is no joke! Those kids are such good actors - was quite frightened, and had to take a break from watching

Guess there'll be more time to explore more of the Netflix library next week, if Poker After Dark won't be on? Wasn't watching very much of the PLO, so it was nice to have something else to watch ...

There's still farms on the outskirts of town, so today went to a country Fall fair just North of the city ...


This little mini-horse had a funny little Justin Bieber hairdo - was wondering if it bothered him to have his hair covering his eyes all the time? But went to take a peek into his eyes and it looked like he was sleeping - guess maybe that long hair may be handy after all?

The fair was kind of neat because they had a bunch of different competitions - there were even some for baking and crafts. They had different categories for all different types of baked goods - chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, butter tarts ... here are some of the prize-winning pies ...

There were also all sorts of rodeo competitions, but none of my pics turned out because the action was so fast My iPhone 5 knock-off works great for making calls and checking messages - although guess the camera has some room for improvement ... the flash also seems to have a bit of lag, so this shot of the rides turned out a bit blurry ...

Hope they don't run out of new iPhones before the holidays - thatll be a nice time to try out the new camera

Hey Hank!!

For some reason, wasn't able to get the video to play? Is it one of your new GoPro vids, and are there any shots of Sven?

Hope everybody's having a lovely Sunday!!

It's been getting darker and darker, earlier and earlier ... and it's gotten much colder too, so have been eagerly awaiting the fall colours on the trees - guess the colour's mostly still just showing up on the leaves that have fallen off the trees ... maybe in a couple more weeks or so?

The salad/bowl place that have been getting my recipe ideas from, Sweetgreens, still has their summer menu up - a lot of people must like having fruit in their salads, because half their menu seems to have fruit in it ... peaches, blueberries, apples. Has have tried making salads with fruit in them like this one here, but wound up taking out the fruit and saving it for dessert?

There was another restaurant in Los Angeles that had some nice salads - have been copying some of their ideas as well. with a couple of changes like using a yogurt dressing and adding beans, and stuff ...

Some Marketing Stuff, and a Bitcoin Update


Marketing Stuff


After reading this article, have started to notice that this really seems to be a thing? Like here Tiffany mentioned trying to do that on their app, during an interview with Adweek, about how they've tried to stay up to date with trends, and avoid growing stale ...

https://twitter.com/Adweek/status/914230873448427520

And then after reading the Adweek article about how they keep an eye out for what's working for others, started to notice emails with fresh eyes - kind of interesting to see which ads manage to catch one's attention ... and which ones maybe miss the mark? Like here's an ad that actually arrived in my inbox, looking like this - the company may have applied for protection from creditors a while back, so guess this might help explain why they might be struggling?

On the other hand, here's one that caught my eye - don't really eat much take-out, and don't watch any of those shows ... but it seemed like such a neat idea for Uber and ABC to pair up? And they painted such a lovely picture of a cozy evening at home Also they used so few words too ...

And then here's one that got me to click on the link - award-winning wines for $7 a bottle ... yum!!

The description on the order page started off so well - and then the ad started to feel really infomercial-like pretty fast Wonder if maybe adjectives can make a real difference when used sparingly - but maybe when they're used too much, it can start to feel way over the top?

It seems like there's been so much research done on how to send emails - guess it's kind of neat to see how people are using those ideas when they send stuff out?

Bitcoin Update

In other news, apparently people in China have moved their Bitcoin trades to peer-to-peer networks, so the closing of the exchanges may not have as big an effect after all, even if they do close? Which was supposed to happen by the end of the month, but didn't? Guess my big mistake was not selling my short according to plan after Bitcoin passed the $3.6k mark on day two - and then probably my bigger mistake was not selling it on day three, after the plan went to pot? May just sell it tomorrow and take the loss ... and then probably the price will drop and will wish had just held onto it after all

Sometimes maybe it's not so bad to have a fail (or two) - if they happen now, and it helps make it possible to doing something better the next time around? Next time will have to make a plan, and stick to it

Going to bed now