Merry Xmas

Here’s wishing you the best of holidays.

Get Out of My LINE!

I used to experience gridlock on a daily basis when I worked in Mexico and lived in the US.  Those border crossings are brutal.  And, of course, I never picked the right line.

The Micros–Holiday Special

You will have to watch this several times just to get half the stuff.  Awesome!

Blogger

The vast majority of blogs I read are hosted by Blogger.

Yet, most people treat Blogger like the ugly, redheaded step-child of blogging platforms.

I tried to switch over the WordPress a while back but they are not as flexible or useful unless you plan to host your site outside of the free WP site.  I couldn’t get flash to work unless I was willing to pay for it.  Screw that.  Blogger let's me do that for FREE.

Anywhooooo.  I popped over to the Blogger Dashboard today to make some modifications to my template when a message popped up notifying me that Blogger Beta (if you haven’t check it out you totally should) now offers a Mobile Template (Beta).  I turned that feature on and was able to see a preview:

I don’t know about you guys, but my phone is what I rely on to keep me entertained when I am stuck waiting somewhere. 

It was always annoying to try to read blogs on the phone because they just weren’t phone friendly – although, it is much better now with my Android phone than it was with my old Blackberry and WinMo phones.

One of the reasons I prefer to read blogs on my Google Reader is that I don’t have to try to block out all the formatting people do.  Not that y’all have fugly blogs, but let’s face it, I’m pretty sure none of you are web designers (and that includes me).  Just saying.

Speaking of design, if you are a Blogger user and haven’t checked out the new Template Designer you are totally missing out.  It offers so many options to make your blog look spiffy and not the least bit, erm, trashy. NTTAWT.

There is a huge selection of backgrounds many with customizable color options.  The designer makes it so easy to change column widths, headers, fonts, colors.  It is incredibly easy to use and the results are noticeably NOT STOCK BLOGGER TEMPLATE.

.

One of the best parts is the live preview.  Change anything and it is reflected in the preview.  No more saving and viewing only to find out that something didn’t turn out quite right AND it is live until you fix it. 

If you have grown tired of your blog template, or, if you think your readers have gotten tired of it just pop over the the Blogger Beta and have some fun.

PokerSlut Tour XX 7 Game Mix

Sarcasm

You know it!

Google Gives

I just spotted this in my reader.  I’m a HUGE Google fan but I’ve just had a real hard time giving up my Firefox.  Believe me, I’ve tried.  Most recently a few days ago.  My Firefox was acting squirrelly and I was just about to call it quits.  I loaded all my bookmarks into Chrome and was off and running again.  Then Firefox released an update and I was back like an addicted crack whore. 

But, this little article by TechCrunch will get me back to using Google Chrome – at least for the next few days.  Maybe by then I will assimilated and there will be no looking back.

Be sure to tech out TechCrunch if you aren’t already a regular reader.

 

I’m addicted to browser tabs. I probably open several hundred of them each day during my regular web browsing. And today brings good news: Google wants to reward me for that.

Well technically, Google wants to reward charities on my behalf for my obsessive web browsing. A new initiative today called “Chrome for a Cause” asks you to download a Google-made Chrome extension that will note your tab opening activity and allow you to donate to one of five charities at the end of each day based on your usage. Yep, just browse the web, and donate to charity.

The charities involved in this are: The Nature Conservancy, charity: water, Doctors Without Borders, Un Techo para mi Pais, and Room to Read. Here’s Google’s breakdown of how much you have to browse to donate to the various charities:

• 10 tabs = 1 tree planted
• 10 tabs = 1 book published and donated
• 25 tabs = 1 vaccination treatment provided
• 100 tabs = 1 square foot of shelter built
• 200 tabs = 1 person’s clean water for a year

The initiative will run for five days from December 15 to the 19. Google says they’ll donate up to a million dollars on behalf of the extension’s users.

Find the extension here. Get clicking.

CrunchBase Information

Google Chrome

Information provided by CrunchBase

PokerSlut Tour PLO8 DS

PokerSlut Tour XX Starts Tonight

Rush Flush

I had no intention of even trying to do that Rush Week promo on Full Tilt.  Hell, I haven’t even fired up FTP in ages except to try out the Rush app on my phone. 

Snuffy asked me if I was going to do it and I said, “Uh, hell no,” or something equally as obnoxious.  Then I had to sign in to do some research for a writing job only to have the Rush promo pop up in my face.  It was easier to just say yes and go on than to turn it down. 

There I was sitting there on the couch last night.  Nothing new on the intertubes.  Ho hum.  Aw heck, I should fire up FTP and play some Rush pokers cause they are sooooo much fun.  Not.  No, not really.  Not fun at all.  The last several times I played Rush I swore I would never, ever play that shite again.

So, instead of playing my usual stakes I figured I could just donk around at $10 Rush.  That can’t be that painful, right?  I mean, how long can it take me to get 10 FPPs at Rush?  (I totally forgot that FTP decided to change their FPP formula to reward the agrodonktarded players and penalize the nits.  And by nits, I mean me.

I play the few small pairs I get until I pick up KK.  I raise it up and get a caller.  An A on flop but I still bet at it and get raised.  I fold like the nit I am and move on.  Since I have the auto-top off feature turned on I have no idea how down I am when I pick up KK again.  The flop comes out 8 high and, once again, my c-bet gets raised but I’m not going to fold this time. It all goes in on the flop and I’m rewarded with a nice double up versus 99.

Then comes THE HAND.

• Pre-Flop ($0.15, 9 players) Hero is CO
• 

2 folds, DieBySword901 raises to $0.20, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.20, 2 folds, izei84 calls $0.10

• Flop ($0.65, 3 players)
• 

izei84 checks, DieBySword901 checks, Hero bets $0.40, izei84 raises to $1.10, DieBySword901 folds, Hero calls $0.70

• Turn ($2.85, 2 players)
• 

izei84 checks, Hero bets $2.85, izei84 calls $2.85

• River ($8.55, 2 players)
• 

izei84 checks, Hero bets $6, izei84 folds

• Final Pot: $14.55

• Hero wins $13.98 (net +$3.83)
• izei84 lost $4.15
• DieBySword901 lost $0.20

Yeah, I was feeling jiggy.  I mean who wouldn’t play that in position??? 

I was totally not going away on that flop.  I had second nut flush and a gutterball straight flush draw.  I think that’s donkey for, “I’m ready to gambol, bitches!” 

Why oh why couldn’t that guy have the As?  Sigh.  I was convinced he did or I wouldn’t have bet so much.  As it was, I’m sure he wasn’t calling any bet on that river.

I’ve hit four royal flushes on FTP and a few straight flushes but I never suspected I would actually hit one at Rush since I mostly set mine my pairs and hope to stack somebody.  Rush just doesn’t lend itself to playing a lot of soooooted connectors. 

I managed to get my 10 FPPs in just 115 hands.  As soon as I was done with the Rush Flush hand I logged off.  Nothing like quitting while you are ahead.