They say everything is bigger in Texas. When it comes to weddings, that’s certainly true! Texas brides love to throw a big event, featuring the biggest, brightest, and best of all.

The wedding dress is one of the most important elements of a wedding. It helps determine the style of everything else in the wedding. Many brides will plan the rest of their wedding around the type of dress they choose.

Texas brides want their dress to have personality. These girls are not afraid of dresses with full skirts, heavy embellishments, or other fantastic details. While a girl in Boston might go to a bridal shop looking for the simplest wedding dress available (A-line skirt, no petticoat, no crystals), brides in Texas have no problem putting on a fabulous gown. This is a case where more is better, and the dress should have a standout style.

Of course, no bridle is complete without the right finishing touches. Don’t expect a Texas bride to apply some lip gloss and declare herself ready to walk down the aisle. These ladies take beauty very seriously and know that they should hire professionals to do their hair and makeup to make them look perfect on their wedding day.

Naturally, a fabulous gown requires matching bridal jewelry. Swarovski personalized bridal necklaces are a wonderful option to pair with a stunning wedding dress. The shimmer and shine of custom made bridal necklaces with dazzling Swarovski crystals are perfect for a bride who wants to feel like royalty on her wedding day.

Another part of the wedding that you can expect to be fantastic in a Texas wedding is the flowers. Southern women love feminine details, and mountains of flowers certainly fit the bill. Look for beautifully arranged bouquets and centerpieces featuring lush roses and other classic wedding flowers arranged in an elegant style. Colors like white, pink, and lilac are always great choices, or a Texas bride might choose to go with the Lone Star State classic: the yellow rose.

No party is complete without good food. Like the rest of the reception, a Texas wedding menu will be fantastic. They could be very traditional meals executed to perfection, or they could feature local favorites like barbecued meat. Many brides will opt for an informal rehearsal dinner with barbecue and all the fixings and then have a more formal meal for the wedding reception.

If many of your guests will be traveling to the wedding, welcome them with gift baskets filled with information on local attractions in your part of the state, as well as some of the local delicacies. For example, an Austin-based bride could give her guests tips on the best places to catch live music and a few bottles of a local craft beer. Dallas wedding guests will appreciate tips on shopping at Neiman-Marcus!

Every wedding should be full of the personality of the bride and groom. When the couple is Texan, the welcoming spirit of their home state will also be a big part of the festivities. Texas wedding style is alluring, grand and fabulous!

Did you know that there is a way to make it much easier for other people to find you on MySpace and even in search engines?

Making a small change will give you much more exposure to your MySpace profile and make it easier for others to remember your profile URL. It is done by choosing a MySpace URL, also known as a ‘MySpace Username’, and adding it to your profile to replace the one provided. By changing your default “Friend ID Number” to one customized by you, you’ll make it much easier for your friends to remember you and for others to find you.

Instead of sharing a profile URL with a bunch of random numbers, you can provide a different URL of your choosing. For example, if you love puppies, you’ll want to set your address to http://www.myspace.com/Ilovepuppies, or something that appeals to you. Not only will your friends be able to remember your address more easily, but you’ll eventually appear on Google where others with the same interests can find you.

Changing your unique MySpace URL is done by logging into your profile and selecting ‘Edit Profile’. Once you’ve logged into your profile, you’ll want to select ‘Name’ and then click ‘Choose your MySpace Username/Permanent URL’.

You will then be presented with a screen informing you to choose the name you would like to select for your new MySpace username. You need to think carefully about your choice because once you have selected a name, it becomes permanent. Once you have selected a name and clicked ‘OK’, you will be asked to enter your real name. If you do not wish to do so, you can select ‘Skip’.

The benefits of changing your URL are numerous. Focusing your profile on your favorite hobby or interest and selecting a relevant URL can have amazing results. You will find that with the right keywords and URL selection you can start to appear on many of the search engines. I have even used this strategy to successfully build a network of like-minded profiles and increase my Google Page Rank.

Just remember, once you’ve selected a new username, there’s no going back. It becomes your permanent name and will be yours forever. Choose a name that you like and that you can share with others. After all, your mom might as well be on MySpace.

For those who were asked about their property deductible, most would laugh.

“Me? Of course I know there’s a deductible. What kind of fool do you take me for anyway?”

Well surprise yourself. Many people simply assume that they know what type of deductible comes with their homeowners policy. However, in states like Texas where natural storms are common, the amount associated with a deductible is not a given for those who live out of state.

Sample question: do you know the answer?

Q: You do not live in Texas but own property there. He has a five percent deductible associated with his $500,000 coverage at his building in Austin, Texas. Your building sustains $100,000 worth of damage from a hurricane. How would you explain your 5% deductible in relation to the amount that the insurer will reward you?

1. Does the insurance company reimburse you $95,000 (five percent of your total claim)?

2. Or reimburse you $75,000 (five percent of the total value of the property)

If answer number 1 was your answer, you failed the test! The correct answer would be #2!
Unlike most states, in Texas, the five percent deductible refers to the full value of the property, also known as the TIV.

Those who live in Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Irving or anywhere else in Texas where Mother Nature wreaks cyclone havoc are much more familiar with deductibles and the relevance of total property value. That’s why the average Texan would probably have chosen option #2. Due to the widespread damage and loss resulting from violent storms, insurance companies always set high deductibles so that damage liability risk is pooled along with property policy owners.

What about the higher loss scenario?

Example of building deductible in case of wind damage:

• Your building is valued at $5 million
• There is a five percent deductible
• You are not covered for $250,000!

Example deductible for an apartment complex incorporating 3 buildings in case of wind damage:

• Your property incorporates 4 strips of ten residences, each valued at five hundred thousand dollars, which equals a total of $2 million
• 1 strip is destroyed by the storm and there is a five percent deductible
• You are not covered for $100,000!

Moral of the story

If there is one thing a homeowner can learn from the above it is to educate themselves on the contents of their policy, as well as to use the services of a reputable and qualified independent insurance agency who will point them in the right direction.

A brain tumor! Really?

This was my thought last April 2012 when I was diagnosed with a 3 centimeter tumor in the left occipital region of my brain. What about simple illnesses like a cold, or if that wasn’t appealing to me, how about a less life-threatening illness? Of course, those questions cannot be answered, so I made up my mind. I would do my best and use all available tools (medical and otherwise) to manage this crisis, learn from it, grow from the experience, and be free of it! This is the first of several articles that will describe the healing process and understand how to make the most of a health crisis.

My Story: It is traditional at the Passover Dinner for all participants to read. When it was my turn, I tried to read and couldn’t! Of course, I went into immediate denial. “I’m tired of all the cooking” and “I just got a new puppy.” Well, that didn’t make a difference. What he did was my good friend Judy, who yelled at me, “Call the doctor.” “But I was in the middle of a TV show,” I complained. She and my husband wouldn’t leave me alone, so I called. Two days later I had an MRI and 4 hours later I was at Cedars Sinai Hospital with the best neurosurgeon in California. Three days later they operated on me to remove the tumor.

The good news…they got it all…the bad news…it was aggressive and I had to have radiation for 6 weeks and take chemo pills for 6 weeks. The treatment protocol is to take 5 days of chemotherapy pills every month for a year. I have also entered a clinical trial at Cedars Sinai for a vaccine that will inactivate these cells. The end result of the surgery is that I’m healthy, but I still can’t read or drive… damn it… more to deal with! I think we have lessons to learn from the crisis in our lives. I will address that important topic in a later article.

I told you my “story” because I didn’t want you to get caught up in what happened. What’s important is what I decided to do about it and the journey I’ve been on over the past six months.

When first diagnosed, after the initial wave of fear and apprehension, we take action. We listen to the doctors and we choose who we want to be on our team. There is a lot of pressure on everyone to do the ‘right’ thing. But what is correct? How do you know what is right for you? Questions flood your brain. The tendency is to leave decision-making in the hands of doctors or family members. Do not do that! Keep your humor. Feel the emotions that arise. Then come back to yourself, to your truth, to your intelligence and to what you believe. This is the only place where you can really hear yourself. It became clear to me that I needed a traditional and holistic treatment. I saw it as a complete circle. Very clear. Now he had to find out what the circle contained.

I knew I needed an advocate, a therapist who could keep me in tune with myself so fears wouldn’t take over. I knew that I was going to do Western medical treatments, although I have always been suspicious of the traditional medical society. I took a leap of faith and realized that they are experts in treating tumors, they are trained by experts, and I would receive good advice and guidance. I listened to my family and friends and made my own decisions. I went through all the options and ideas that came my way. I think when an idea occurs to me I should pay attention. It is an opportunity that may or may not be right for me. I decided yes with a nutritionist, yes with my holistic doctor (which I already had), and yes with a clinical trial of a cancer vaccine. I decided against acupuncture and some other healing modalities simply because I was overwhelmed with doctor’s appointments. I of course said YES to hypnosis and guided imagery. I have been practicing hypnotherapy for 30 years and it is a big part of me. The difference is that I allowed other practitioners (my friends) to work with me. I have some wonderful CDs to listen to and hypnosis is multi faceted as I am able to work with stress, fear, negativity as well as healing, relieving symptoms and strengthening my health.

My mindset was important. I chose a therapist who believes that once the tumor is there, the crisis that caused it is over and healing is in progress. He resonated with me. I have never seen myself as sick or unhealthy.

The articles that follow will explain how I maintain my strength, my power, and my patience. They will discuss different healing modalities and how to choose what is right for you. The last six months have been a journey of letting go, relearning what I took for granted, making up for it, letting myself be cared for, and receiving. I am learning to control my urge to be in control! This is the hardest job I’ve ever had. As I navigate through life, sometimes I feel like I’m failing and I don’t understand it, and other times I feel very wise and powerful. When friends, family, doctors, people I know look up to me for how I’m handling it, I just quietly smile inside.

© 2012, Hypnosis Concepts. Publishing rights are granted as long as the article and byline are reproduced intact, with all links active.

Texas Hold em is one of the most exciting poker games you can play online. While it is an easy game to learn, it has turned out to be a difficult game to master. Many players at the beginning of their career find winning an easy task, but as they get deeper into the money and tournament tables, they discover that Texas Hold’em is a difficult game that requires a lot of skill and knowledge. In this article we will cover some of the most fundamental tips and advice that will prove to be very beneficial for new players.

learn to bend

If you don’t learn when to fold, you will end up losing huge amounts of money. There is an old and classic saying that says; Don’t hold them! fold them! This is absolutely true and it is the basic principle that you must understand about this game. But to follow this rule, you must also know which cards to fold. In general, you should fold starting hole cards that are below TJ and are not even. For example, you can play an 8-8 and even a 3-3, but you shouldn’t stick with a T-8. You can stick with an A-6 but you shouldn’t go blind with a T-7. To better understand this, you need to learn what starting hands to play, but in general remember not to hold anything below TJ. There are some times when you will win with a 7-8 making a straight and many more times when you will lose.

Another aspect is the flop. The Flop is one of the most crucial stages as 3 of the 5 board cards are revealed and players who make a connection to the Flop start betting the pot. So there’s no need to keep betting if you don’t make a connection on the flop. The only exception to this is if you have a fairly strong pair in hand and all of your open cards are lower ranked. For example, you have KK, the flop opens 4-T-9. But if you have a weak pair like 3-3 and the flop opens QK-9 and the remaining players start betting, consider folding since you are the underdog. As you understand, poker is quite complex. He demands a lot of judgment and even divination skills. Remember that each round is unique. In order to better appreciate your opponents hand you must estimate the flop in relation to their bets.

learn the rules and the classifications

People think they know the rules, but sometimes the game can be tricky. For example, in Texas Hold’em you can use all the cards on the board. There are many players who seem to ignore this rule; they fold after the river when the board has a flush or a straight and there seems to be no better potential hand between the players. For example, you have a QJ and your opponent a KT. The board has an AQJK-10. In this case, you can fold considering that, according to the betting, your opponent has a better hand, but the board has a straight and it is visible that there cannot be a higher straight. So you share the pot regardless of your hole cards.

Create a strict-aggressive image

A Tight player is a player who folds with weak hole cards but plays quite aggressively when he has a good or strong hand. To create a good image of yourself, lay out your cards at the Showdown stage (whether you win or lose) suggesting that your bets or raises were justified by your strong hand. This way, your opponents will believe that you are a player who bets only when you have a good reason to, and they will be more willing to fold in the next few rounds. You can take advantage of this image if you decide to bluff. But don’t overdo it, as bluffing is another skill that requires a lot of experience, especially estimating your opponents and their hands as well.

Understand your opponents

You must estimate the profile of your opponents at the table. There are players who bluff, who play only the strong cards, who play all hands, and players who bad beat all the time. Trying to understand what cards your opponents are playing can be difficult, especially at first, but it’s a must if you want to better control the game. Over time you will see players whose bluffs are exposed by other players. Try to remember who is bluffing and who is not. It can help you in later rounds. Look out for players who play too aggressively most of the time, and also look for players who expose their cards at the end of a round. This means that they want you to believe that they only play small or strong hands in order to take advantage of this at a later stage.

take your time to learn

You can try practicing your poker skills at the fun mode tables and the micro limit tables where bets start as low as 0.02 cents. In this way you will feel much more secure when taking risks. Texas Hold’em requires a lot of practice. So take your time to read up, test your skills and practice your knowledge before joining the high stakes tables.

Quick tips:

• Play at six-seat tables if you want easier control over your opponents.
• Free-roll tournaments are free to play and a good place to familiarize yourself with the tournament structure and rules.
• Always view poker in general as a source of entertainment and not a source of profit. If you are afraid of losing your money, don’t play in the first place. To take risks, you must be able to afford them. Play responsibly and you won’t lose.

Pearl Buck’s “The Good Earth” is the story of a simple farming family set in the early 20th century in rural China. Wang Lung is an ambitious young man who seems to be in complete control of his destiny. But as a young farmer, he abruptly discovers that the only thing he has out of control is the all-important rain that every farmer depends on and fears. The entire existence of this farmer is controlled by the rain that has the ability to provide him with times of festival, famine and flood. As Wang ages, he tries to adjust to the abysmal times that rain or lack of rain can bestow on him, but these conditions turn out to be defining events in Wang’s life.

Wang and his purchased wife O-lan, a former slave, tirelessly work the land with the help of a generous and consistent summer rainy season. Wang and O-lan are grateful that the fields and crops are irrigated without having to do the backbreaking work of carrying buckets of water slung from a pole on their shoulders. The irrigation of their fields provides a kind of small feast for the few farmers. Wang’s small plot of land produces onions, garlic, rice, beans, corn, cereals and wheat, the fruit of the land. This little party also helps support the animals on the farm. The ox that plows the fields is well fed and watered and the small collection of chickens and pigs are kept and then consumed. Furthermore, it can be reasonably argued that Wang’s children are well nourished during infancy with the healthy breast milk provided by O-lan.

At harvest, Wang is wise to sell most of his crops on the market while retaining only enough food supplies for family consumption during China’s long, cold winters. Unlike Wang’s scheming uncle, also a farmer but much less successful, Wang hangs food from the rafters of his house for the winter. In the market, Wang, despite his illiteracy, is astute in knowing how to sell his crops when prices are high while he stores crops that sell at low prices for future times when prices are favourable. Much to Wang’s satisfaction, his business savvy provides him with the precious silver coins with which he eagerly lines his belt. Any additional silver is secretly hidden in the walls of his apartment for future use. Wang has great respect and understanding for his hard-earned silver because it not only represents security for him, his father and his family, but is also saving for the purchase of more precious farmland. After buying rice land from the House of Hwang, he shouts, “To those of the big house it means nothing, this handful of land, but to me it means how much!” All this is provided by the rain for Wang and his family.

But one can reasonably say that for what the rain gives, the rain can also take away. It is not difficult for the reader to see that everything is going too well for the humble peasant family. Can lean times be brought forward? Can Wang’s fertile land fail them? Because the earth can only produce what the rain provides. The rains that should have come in early summer stopped, and day after day the skies shone with a cool careless brilliance. As the skies dry out and the clouds become incapable, Wang faces a devastating drought that nearly destroys him, his family, and his fellow villagers. Lack of rain leaves Wang’s fields dry, cracked and fruitless. He has nothing to sell in the market and almost nothing to feed his family. Animals starve or are poached for food. The villagers are left numb with hunger and idle as scattered leaves. Children are particularly affected as their bodies resemble bony skeletons, except for their familiar swollen bellies. Despair begins when people are forced to eat grass, tree bark, and even dirt. Worse yet, Wang’s neighbor Ching informs him of the horror: “In the village they are eating human flesh.”

The prolonged and unrelenting drought turns the villagers into evil, rabid dogs who, mob-style, resort to stealing from each other, including the last bits of Wang’s dried beans and corn. This is a terrible event for Wang because he doesn’t she has food for O-lan who is pregnant with her fourth child and her breasts are now barren and she is unable to feed her baby. The girl once cried from hunger but kept quiet. She was never the same as a result of starvation. O-lan’s strength in giving birth to her fourth child is a testament to her inner strength. What starvation agony this woman had endured, with the hungry creature biting her from the inside out, desperate for her very life! How hard must it have been for O-lan to mercifully squeeze the life out of the weak and malnourished newborn? In better times it would have been a sin to take the baby’s life, but in such desperate and otherworldly times it was probably for the best. The child, having been born a woman, facilitated the morbid decision of the young mother. O-lan proves to be the rock and foundation of the family and her strength and devotion to her family go unnoticed until the moment of her death.

Years later, after the rains revisit Wang’s lands and civilized life returns to the village, Wang is faced with another natural event affecting the average and routine life of this common farmer. Excessive rainfall fills the river to the north, and runoff from winter snows causes the mighty river to overflow its banks. A great sea now engulfs Wang’s fields. All forms of planting, cultivating, and harvesting cease and no work can be done. Fortunately, Wang was prepared for hard times, as he wisely stockpiled food rations and is owed sums of money from the grain markets. But now Wang faces a different kind of difficulty that changes his life in unexpected ways. Lack of work in the fields leaves Wang idle and at a loss for what to do with his time. To entertain himself, Wang drinks tea at the town’s teahouse. There he watches in horror as men play and mingle with wicked women. But Wang is swayed and cannot resist the temptation of a beautiful young woman. She was one of the loveliest, a small, slender thing, a body as light as bamboo and a small, pointed face like a kitten’s face. Wang’s wealth allows him to afford to buy the young woman as his mistress, and when the floodwaters recede, O-lan finds herself sharing his home with a new addition to the family. Of course, O-lan was hurt by the sudden and unexpected change in her husband’s behavior, but she accepted it and continued to serve Wang as the slave she once was.

In Wang’s old age, he does not remember all that the rain bestowed on his life. Instead, she looks back at the extensive fields that she acquired with great satisfaction. She takes pride in her herd of children and grandchildren. As Wang looks forward to his death, he takes comfort in the knowledge that he will be buried on his land along with the rest of his deceased family members.

Have you ever wondered what tattoos mean and why do greyhound ears tattoo on you? All greyhounds that are racers must do so and be registered with the NGA (National Greyhound Association). They are usually tattooed between the ages of 2-1/2 to 3 months. Each pup’s actual tattoo must be on a “Litter Registration” form and submitted to the NGA at the end of 3 months. The NGA then assigns a new litter registration number with each new litter.

The tattoo on the left ear is the litter’s registration number.

The right ear tattoo is a combination of letters and numbers that identify that particular dog. On the right ear, looking from the dog’s back to its nose, the first number is the month the dog was born (2=February, 11=November, etc.). The second number is the last digit of the dog’s birth year (1=2001, 3=2003, etc.). Then follows a letter that identifies how many dogs are in the litter. So, for example, if there are 5 puppies on the letter, one pup would have the letter A, another would have the letter B, another C, another D, and the last E. Different breeders have different methods of choosing who gets tattooed. first, second, last. Some choose it on dog personalities, others I have heard as to which one was born first, second, last.

Tattoos on your greyhound, however, are useful after you’ve adopted your greyhound so you can verify where he ran, his ancestry, and his littermates. You can find this information at http://www.Greyhound-Data.com. It’s a lot of fun and very interesting to see where your greyhound comes from.

Traditional indicators of heart disease such as smoking, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure have been found to account for around 50% of heart attacks. In trying to explain the rest, attention has shifted to psychosocial factors: personality and behavior that give rise to stress hormones. Chronic stress, type A personality, anger, depression and social isolation not only have a direct negative effect on the cardiovascular system, but also increase the effects of other cardiac factors. This article looks at two of these factors: depression and anger.

Anger People who have a high level of anger, irritability, cynicism, and aggression have a higher risk of developing heart disease. A heart attack is almost three times more likely in people with high levels of anger than in those who do not experience a lot of anger. Feeling angry from time to time is normal. Some people express their anger easily while others smoke about a situation. When anger is experienced in relation to a specific event and the amount of anger felt is appropriate for the event, it is generally not a health risk. However, if anger surfaces too easily and lasts too long and is suppressed and not expressed, then it can become a cardiovascular risk factor.

The following test adapted from Pistcatella and Frankin (2003) will help you assess your level of anger.

Please read each of the statements below and rate yourself how you would respond to each situation using the following scale.

1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = often, 4 = always

1. It doesn’t take much to make me angry.

2. People tell me to calm down.

3. I blow up with terrible drivers.

4. If I’m upset, I hit the dog, the cat, or something else.

5. People call me impetuous.

6. I am angry at the way I am treated in restaurants or stores.

7. When other people’s mistakes slow me down, I can be angry all day.

8. If the situation is bad enough, I throw things away.

9. I swear out loud to vent.

10. I feel like hitting someone who makes me very angry.

11. I have been told that I have a bad temper.

12. If you embarrass me in front of someone, I will be furious.

13. I am a very ambitious person, so sometimes I get impatient and angry with other people.

14. I have been known to break things when frustrated.

If you scored less than 18, you can remain calm in situations that would frustrate others. This is a great help in managing your stress levels.

If you scored from 19 to 27, you get angry as often as most people.

If you scored between 28 and 35, chances are you’re either too stressed or getting angry has become a habit. Take this score seriously and start making changes now before it negatively affects your health.

If you scored above 35 and continue with the same behavior and approach to life, you are at risk for serious stress-related health problems.

Depression The association between depression and heart disease and heart attacks has been established for some time. Depression is reported to precede a heart attack in up to 50% of cases. In addition to the link between depression and heart disease, depression also contributes to a poor lifestyle. Depressed people are more likely to eat poorly, be sedentary, smoke, and drink too much alcohol.

How do you know if depression is a problem for you? The following test, adapted from one developed by Harvard University, is designed to help assess people who are likely to suffer from depression.

Read the following statements and answer yes or no to them.

1. I feel sad most of the time.

2. I don’t enjoy the things I used to do.

3. I sleep too little or too much.

4. I don’t feel like eating or I eat too much.

5. I can’t make decisions.

6. I have difficulty concentrating.

7. I feel hopeless.

8. I feel worthless.

9. I get tired for no reason.

10. I think about committing suicide.

If you answered yes to four or more of these questions and have felt this way every day for two weeks or more, you may be suffering from depression and should see a health professional for further evaluation.

If you answered yes to question 10, seek professional health care immediately, regardless of your answer to any of the other questions.

Depression and anger are two of the factors that can lead to the development of heart disease, with associated heart attacks, angina, cardiac arrests and heart rhythm disturbances. They also reduce the quality of your life. There are many things that you can do about these problems. If you suffer from mild or moderate depression, you will benefit from joining the Growez.com Depression Program.

References

Aesoph, L. 2001, 6 Steps to Managing Stress, Health World Online. June 2001.

Hippisley-Cox, J. et al.1998, Depression as a risk factor for ischemic heart disease in men. British medical journal. June 1998.

Pistcatella, JC and Frankin, BA 2003, Take a load off your heart. Worker.

Oberman, A. 2000, Emerging Cardiovascular Risk Factors. Clinical Reviews. Spring 2000.

One of the most overlooked facts about online Texas Hold’em is that it is executed by a highly specialized suite of computer software and poker algorithms. The fact is that many players try to play the game of poker online in the same way as they do in a live game. This is the biggest downfall and failure of many successful poker players.

An adjustment to your game is necessary if you intend to be successful at Texas Hold’em online. That adjustment is found in knowing how the poker site software works and how to use it to your advantage. The bottom line is that online poker is different from live games in that it uses advanced poker algorithms instead of the randomness of real life.

Although many will argue about the rigged online poker debate, the fact remains that many skilled players even find it difficult to counter the relentless variations in online Texas Hold ’em games. The answer is to understand the Texas Hold’em software used by poker sites and use that knowledge in an effort to win more often and get more money.

The main reason why poker sites use advanced software and algorithms is to prevent cheating and collusion between players. Furthermore, his argument is that these poker algorithms are necessary to emulate a real game, although any seasoned poker player knows that consistent bad shots are not that common in a real game. You need to make adjustments to your online game, as the odds vary greatly from a live game.

In reality, the Texas Hold’em algorithms and software used by online poker rooms are easy to manipulate to your advantage if you understand their purpose and why the poker sites use them. Taking advantage of these poker algorithms is the best poker strategy for playing online.

To learn how to win at online Texas Hold’em poker, it is important to discover how poker algorithms work. Once you learn how they work, you need to adjust your game to compensate for the flaws of those computer generated programs that would otherwise give you monster hands only to kill you on the river.

Just as you learned to implement advanced poker strategy in your live game, you need to apply certain poker techniques to an online Texas Hold’em game to win. Knowing how to do this and making the proper adjustments will surely ensure more profit and higher cashouts. The bottom line is winning and you need to add the correct poker techniques to your online game to achieve this.

Last weekend two different things coincided. First, I finished reading ‘Poetry Is: Jose Garcia Villa’s Philosophy of Poetry’ edited by Robert L King, which by the way is one of the best books on writing poetry I’ve read (and I’ve read a lot), and second, moving some old magazines to a new resting place in the house. One of these magazines was an old poetry magazine called ‘Oasis’ (number 14 to be exact) published in the UK in 1976. And boy did I find that I subscribed to it in those days and to many other magazines to increase my enthusiasm. for all things poetic and in my quest to learn as much as possible about poetry.

In fact, 1976 was the year I graduated with honors (First Class, Magna Cum Laude) in English Literature from a British University, so one might reasonably have concluded that I knew something about literature, and poetry specifically, like many of they. my course choices had been precisely on that topic. However, I continued to subscribe to ‘Oasis’ and a dozen other similar UK magazines for at least two more decades, and now looking at the content of these magazines I have to wonder why? Why did I punish myself this way? The magazine does not have a poem, but it does have at least 25 ‘free verse’ efforts, each indistinguishable from the last; and alongside some more modernist experimentation with the short story, we have a pretentious piece entitled ‘The Literary Scene (#1)’, which spends much of its time attacking Philip Larkin (a true poet who understood form) and the “Establishment”. who published it, while promoting Beat poets and Beat lifestyles (though grudgingly admitting that Kerouac’s “last years were kind of sad”), and of course generally promoting that view of free verse (which of course is not has nothing to do with verse or poetry in general). all) which suggests social, political, philosophical, theological freedom (yes, they all tend to be atheists, or more accurately deniers of the Spirit, so how could they have a Muse?). Freedom, man! Who can argue with that? Yes, there’s always that self-congratulatory tone of morally superior freedom fighters who, from their comfortable British armchairs and pretty bourgeois lives, manage to hint that the chaos of their lines is contributing something to the well-being of humanity and the survival of poetry. in our time. The typical adjectives that describe his poetry always go like this: ‘sober’, ‘tense’, ‘precise’, ‘sombre’, ‘resolute’, and what this really means is ‘anti-musical’, ‘unstructured’, ‘drab’, ‘depressing’. ‘, ‘Unimaginative’. But delusions are hard to die.

Enough, then, with the nonsense, although I could write much more; but you get my point: these writers in the last fifty years have created a consensus that has ousted real poetry, and allowed anyone and their dog the opportunity to stand in the street and howl (yes, the allusion is intended). ) and barking and pretending this pile of poop is poetry. And that’s where Villa’s brilliant book comes in; in fact, the addresses at the end of the book, exactly this tragedy. Quoting Jay Parini, we learn: “Most poetry written after the mid-20th century is ‘free verse,’ as anyone will know.” But as Villa brilliantly observes, “when you begin a poem with a meaning in mind, that meaning, instead of building the poem, undermines it, tears it down, and has a birth defect.” What a superb image of all free verse, which by its nature has to start with meaning, since it cannot, by definition, start with form, since it has none, which has a birth defect. In most cases the birth defect is fatal, although a great poet can produce a living free verse poem: TS Eliot did, but it is not the norm or even the norm.

Let us now consider some of the wonders of Villa’s book, which I highly recommend to any poetry lover to buy and read, although I must say that Villa is austere in his thinking and severe in his criticism, which will not be to everyone’s taste. . But his arguments are so powerful and his thinking so powerful about the process of writing poetry that I truly believe that all practitioners of the art should consider his ideas. However, before covering the content, a few words must be said about the genesis and writing of the book. Credit must be given to the author of the book; yes, the book is Villa’s but he died in 1997 and he never actually wrote it. Instead, his student and disciple, Robert L King, it seems, in a labor of enormous love, brought together all the extant lecture ideas and surviving lecture notes at Harvard. Writing a book yourself is difficult, but putting this book together from notes is a great achievement and I think generations to come will be extremely grateful to Robert King for what he has so intricately pieced together here. One gets the feeling that this is Villa’s book and King has kept his ego in check and allowed Villa and Villa to just talk; that is amazing.

The gist of what Villa and his book argue is that poetry is an art form that requires discipline, at least 10 years, for anyone to get anywhere or produce something worthwhile with it. Furthermore, poetry is about language, music, and form, but his view of form extends far beyond meter, stanza structures, and imagery, though this is not denied. Because this is so, Villa describes much of the poetry of today (that is, of his days, though nothing much has changed) as “self-expression, which is nothing more than romantic infantilism and childish talk.” This is because “self-expression always happens” while “good writing doesn’t happen by itself.” There are three important consequences of this.

First, poetry is irreplaceable for prose; prose tells its meaning, but the meaning of poetry is intrinsic to its form, so it cannot be said otherwise. In other words, all prose is paraphrasable, but to paraphrase poetry is to put an end to its existence as poetry. Second, the discipline of poetry is aesthetic, but also intellectual and ethical. As Villa says, “poetry becomes a civilization of the human spirit.” You can immediately see from this how at odds with free verse Villa is; the question is not only poetry, but also the lifestyle, values ​​and spirit of humanity. Thirdly, according to Villa, poetry prevents mental disorders! This is a staggering claim, but not without precedent and foundation. He does not cite GK Chesterton, but Chesterton noted that there was only one great English poet who went mad: Cowper. And more generally, Apollo, the god of poetry, was also the god of healing and sanity. But Villa quotes Wallace Stevens approvingly: “Poetry is not a literary activity, it is a vital activity, a part of life itself.” How good is that? And to top it off, Villa says: “To be art, the form is mandatory”; the form is obligatory, which means that the order is obligatory, and the obligatory order means that the mind is ordered, but not like a shopping list or an excel spreadsheet. The order of poetry comes from the deep mind, so it is not surprising that its practice leads to stability and mental health.

Another brilliant point Villa makes—and I’ll have to pause because this essay is already too long—is that, quoting Christopher Morley, “Poetry is the perfect expression of something you didn’t know you wanted to say.” In other words, every true poem is a journey of discovery; and again that is why ready-made meanings, important topics you want to convey, may produce interesting writing of a kind better called polemics or public relations, but they will not produce poetry. Poetry surprises both the poet and the reader when it finally emerges on the page, written and complete. In fact, there’s an insightful chapter near the end of the book on the subject of the last line of a poem and how difficult it is to write it; because the last line has to tie everything together and yet invariably create a meaning that wasn’t obvious at first. In other words, attack at the same time it completes! Paradoxical but true.

I think I’ve said enough to persuade you, hopefully, to go out and buy this brilliant, brilliant book on Villa’s poetry. Once again, Robert King deserves our deep appreciation for the labor of love he has given to this work and to the master of it, to ensure that such important ideas are not lost to the world, but can continue and stay fresh.