Using Twitter Responsibly
Twitter, the wonderful social networking site used by millions around the world, can be a lot of fun. But it can also get in the
way of your regular life, and the life of others.
Some Twitter users find themselves glued to their computer or cell phones literally hours a day, waiting for the next bit of
information. Some users rarely show up, only remembering when it happens to come to their mind. Here are some tips for how to
use Twitter effectively.
One way to use Twitter is to set defined times for when you want to pop on to see what's going on. Doing that means you won't be
wasting time that's needed to do other things by checking on Twitter.
Use a program such as Tweetdeck or Twhirl, and set it up so that those specific people whose messages you really want to follow will be
there when you do decide to sign on. The general Twitter stream moves so fast that there's literally no way to keep up with it all
unless you are on it 24/7. By using programs such as the ones above, you can be pretty sure that their messages will still be around
whenever you do decide to check in.
If you have a blog, find a way to use a plugin of some sort to automatically send those messages to Twitter whenever you do an update.
Of course, you can also set up your blog to see what the people you follow have to say, as well as to show what you're saying on Twitter.
Try to sign into Twitter at least once every couple of days. Just like blogs, people like to see some sort of consistent participation
from those folks they're following. If you pop in and out with no regularity, people will unfollow you.
Every once in awhile, post something that has nothing to do with you. If you see an interesting article, video, or image, post that
link onto Twitter. If you read something on Twitter that appeals to you, retweet it for others to see, since everyone following you may
not be following someone else. And sometimes, just talk to someone you're following; you never know what may come of it.
Don't overdo anything. Don't try to talk to everyone all the time. Don't retweet too often. Don't post too many links. Don't post
too many quotes. Don't ramble; always try to have something to say.
If you're using Twitter to only promote your business, try to find ways to interact with people so that it doesn't look like it's the
only thing you're doing. Respond to people who try to reach out to you from time to time; it enhances your presence, and people like
to see that you're accessible.
These are only a few tips to help you get the most out of Twitter. There really are no right or wrong ways to use it, but some ways
will be more effective for you that others.
Smoking Cessation And Weight Gain
There's an odd relationship between people who stop smoking and weight gain. One part of it is due to being able to taste food better
once they stop and realize how much they enjoy it. The other part is that, like smoking, eating is sometimes a habit that a person can
get into, and will eat when they're not hungry, just to have something else to do.
This isn't a myth either; studies have shows that nearly 60% of both men and women gain at least 15 to 20 pounds within six months of
their attempts to quit smoking, and explains why almost 50% of women smokers worry about gaining weight if they do decide to stop. Of
course, if one has to do one or the other, gaining a little bit of weight is much preferred to smoking.
Still, the fear of weight gain by women is real, and it seems women even know this, with many indicating that they use smoking as a way
to lose weight. Women are more than four times likely to admit to it. And it's not just adult women, as a 2002 Centers for Disease
Control study showed that high school girls trying to lose weight were 40% more likely to be smokers.
Smoking speeds up the metabolism by stimulating the central nervous system and other organs. At the same time, it increases the amount
of energy a person uses, which helps them burn more calories. When a smoker quits, their metabolism slows down, and it takes time for
it to get used to the body not having that extra stimulus anymore.
However, weight gain isn't an absolute. Though many people do gain weight, at least half of the rest lose weight, not because of any
special changes in their body but because, when they cease to smoke, they've also decided on other positive life changes, which may
include exercise and dieting. Therefore, increasing physical activity is usually encouraged when someone stops smoking. It doesn't
take a whole lot, but it does take some effort, which should be easier because people can breathe easier once the effects from smoking
start being reduced.
Making changes in how one eats is integral to not gaining weight also. Planning meals, and only eating at those times, will help stop
random or binge eating. Watching portions, of course, helps keep one under control also. And adding a snack here or there will take
the edge off cravings; think of it as a treat for giving up smoking.
Also, there are foods to eat that help stimulate better health and will keep one's weight down. Vegetables are obviously at the top
of the list, along with some fruits, and those recommended contain antioxidants and phytonutrients, which help cleanse the body of bad
stuff, which includes nicotine, and can help reduce the effects that the body absorbed while smoking. Research has shown that smokers,
oddly enough, don't eat many foods high in antioxidants, probably because cigarettes dull taste buds, and therefore vegetables on their
own aren't palatable enough for them.
Also, chemicals known as free radicals are in cigarette smoke, and they reduce the amount of Vitamin C in the body, even if smokers
happen to drink a lot of orange juice. Therefore, it's recommended that they increase the amount of Vitamin C when they stop smoking
to help the body become healthy once more.
Overall, it's hard for smokers to make a case that staying skinny is a better thing than gaining a little bit of weight. With
weight gain, there are ways to get one's body back in shape and under control; with smoking, the only thing a person can do is quit.
Tips For Playing $2/$4 Texas Hold 'em
Texas Hold-Em poker is probably one of the most exciting card games there is. The excitement comes in that
fact that the hands go fairly fast compared to other games, and the overall rules are simple to learn. In
essence, you start with two cards in your hand, five hands are eventually flipped onto the table, which
everyone can bet off, and you hope to have the best hand out of seven cards at the end. There are four
rounds of betting, but usually most people will bail out before you get to the third round so it ends up
moving along fairly quickly.
The thing is, if one goes to the internet and does a search on tips of playing the game, those tips all
concern how to play no-limit poker. What that means is poker where, at any time, you can push all your
chips into the pot and dare someone to take you on. Yeah, that's really exciting, but most people don't
play that way, can't afford that game, so they start with the lesser amounts, such as a $2/$4 game. The
problem is, they've been reading all these tips on how to play no-limit poker, and limit games are so much
different, especially the $2/$4 game.
So ask me; am I a big winner in $2/$4 poker? Well, it depends. If I go to only play a couple of hours, maybe
three, I'm a great player. I'm usually very alert, always eager, and I will end up ahead around 75% of the
time. However, if I stay past 3 hours, which I often do, I tend to win only 20% of the time. What's the
difference? Stick with me on this one.
First, the quick rules of how $2/$4 Hold-em works. There's a "real" dealer, and there's the "dealer button",
which represents the order that the cards will be dealt. The person immediately after the button is called
the "small" blind, and that person has to "ante" up a dollar. The person to the immediate left of the person
who anteed up the one dollar has to put in two dollars; that's the "big" blind. Then the real dealer deals
two cards to each person; the button dealer gets the last card. Next, the person after the big blind gets
the first opportunity to either call the $2 "bid", "raise", or throw the cards in. Everyone gets their
opportunity until it gets around to the small and big blinds. If no one has raised and the small blind wishes
to stay in, it'll cost at least another dollar. If no one has raised and the big blind wishes to stay in,
the total amount owed has already been put in, so that person can "check" (sometimes known as "stay"), or
can raise. If there is raising going on, the maximum amount it can go to is $8.
Next comes the "flop", which is 3 cards. Then the betting begins again, starting with the person who was
small blind. If someone bets money, it has to be at least $2, but can't be more unless someone raises.
Once again, the maximum amount the raising can end up being is $8. Many people will check, but often at
least half the people will throw in their cards in this round.
The next card is known as the "turn", and in this round, the bets have to be at least $4, with the maximum
raising amount able to end up at $16. This is usually the do or die round, in that a person gets to determine
if they think they already have the winning hand, or if they're willing to shoot for that one last card that
they believe will be the winner.
The final card is known as the "river", and it's the card where dreams are made or broken. Once again, betting
has to begin at $4, but unlike other rounds, if there are only two people left and they decide to raise each
other, raising is unlimited until someone runs out of money; otherwise, the maximum is, once again, $16. If
at least two people go to the end, then the person who made either the first bet, if it's not raised, or the
person who made the last raise, has to show their cards first. This is when the game tests people's sanity,
where great cards are beaten by even better cards, or someone wins with a ridiculous hand that someone else
can't believe.
And now, here's where the tips start to come in. To all you no-limit players; this is a MUCH different game
than what you're used to playing. If you come into a $2/$4 game with a lot of money and think you're going
to push people around, you're wrong. Sure, you'll win a hand or two, but you're going to lose way more than
you started with. The why is simple; to stay in a hand usually only costs $2.
Some people are more inclined to stay in a hand with bad cards at only $2 a pop than they would in no-limit.
In $2/$4, a 3-5 "non-suited" hand might be worth it to someone to stay in until at least the flop, just to
see what transpires. Even if someone who has a pair of aces raises, it still might be worth it because the
cards are close enough to flop right into a straight draw, or so many people believe. It's also fairly easy
to flop into two pair. And if that happens, kiss those aces goodbye. So, it's rarely a good thing to raise
before the flop, because the best of cards can so quickly turn bad, especially if a lot of people stay in
the hand. And, two things will happen; if a lot of people stay in the hand before you and you raise, at $2
more they'll probably stay for the flop. If they bailed early, then raising may drive out the one or two
people who stayed, and you end up with nothing for your great hand, and you'll be frustrated.
For the same reason, raising with a small hand is a bad deal before the flop. If a lot of people stay in,
your odds of doing something spectacular with your small hand decrease drastically, and you've just thrown
away good money.
Another thing that's bad to do is play too many hands. Some people start with a lot of money, and then
play every hand, looking for that one card on the river to make themselves successful. Yeah, it can
happen, but it happens rarely, and it'll cost a lot of money to get there, especially if you're playing
a lot of bad beginning hands. Doing it every once in awhile isn't a bad thing to do, but playing too many
hands will just send you home much sooner.
Another tip is not to raise late in the game when you know you have a bad hand. An okay hand, as in
having at least a pair, may win you a hand or two, but if you have nothing, raising in $2/$4 will get
you killed. One especially dumb thing I've seen happen often is someone raising when they're the last
person to play, even if they have a pair, without the almost guarantee that they have the best hand.
It's best to just check and hope you end up the winner instead of raising, only to learn that someone
else has just check-raised you because they were hoping to trap someone into raising so they could get
more money. It's a fools move that's made because they haven't been paying attention to how other players
have been playing.
And that's the next to the last tip here; watch how other people at your table are playing. There are
some people who are aggressive, some who play every hand, and some who rarely play a hand at all. The
ones who rarely play are the most dangerous, because if they play it means they think they're actually
going to win, and at least 50% of the time they will. The ones who are aggressive are fascinating to
watch because they're giving away their strategy pretty easily; I win a lot of money from those guys
because I realize they'll raise with a pair of twos, thinking it'll bring them victory every time.
And the final tip brings me back to what I said about my winning percentage. Most of the time, when I
go to play poker, it's a hours upon hours type of thing. I usually enjoy the company, and the banter
at the table of a $2/$4 game can be fun and carefree. So, it's an outing for me more than my going in
to conquer the masses. The thing is, in a limit game, no mind can play for hours and hours at a time
and keep its concentration level sharp without breaks, many of them, and a couple of long ones.
I'll admit that, when I go to play marathon hours, I rarely take a break, only to go to the bathroom;
sometimes I don't even eat. That's bad, of course, but I know what I'm about. I've often been up over
$200 at three hours and probably should leave, but I came for the entertainment, and if I play a few
more hours and can end up with what I started at, or a couple of dollars ahead, I'm happy. Even if I'm
some dollar behind, I'm usually okay with it, because I had a nice time. But I rarely totally bust out;
I like leaving with a few dollars in my pocket, as it makes me feel like I had at least some bit of control.
Remember this; Hold-em limit poker is supposed to be about fun. If you can't afford to play, don't start.
If you're going to play $2/$4 poker, you want to have at least $50 you can afford to lose; it goes up
incrementally if you start playing higher dollar amount games, including the no-limit games. I've heard
tales that even Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, goes to poker rooms and only plays $2/$4 games,
because he likes the fun part of it. And that's the most important thing; just have fun.
How Far Are You Willing To Go For Promotion?
I've been reading things lately where both men and women are losing the opportunity for getting some pretty good jobs because
more and more companies are hiring someone whose responsibility it is to go online and look for information on these
applicants, and they're going to sites like those above and not liking what they see, and turning down those applicants.
It's not only about qualifications anymore, especially as the web has given everyone the opportunity to express themselves in
whatever fashion they so choose. Not only that, but as we learned from the Miss New Jersey situation last year, setting those
pictures up as private means literally nothing anymore. I have enough knowledge to be able to figure my way into a lot of
things; I just don't do it.
I think about that sort of thing all the time as I work towards promoting all of my businesses. In Hollywood, agents may say
that any publicity is good publicity, but most of us don't have the luxury of trying to recover from negative publicity,
especially when it gets out to a large audience. And, truth be told, negative publicity doesn't mean you did anything wrong
either; some marketing ideas just don't work.
For instance, think about your image of a lawyer. Now try to think of that same lawyer wearing baggy sweats and a baseball
cap. Now imagine you're in deep trouble of some sort, and need a very good lawyer to get you out of trouble. Who are you
going to when you need help? If you didn't already know the guy in sweats, you're going to someone who looks the part, right?
If you saw a commercial on TV from a lawyer wearing sweats and a baseball cap and he or she was telling you how good their
law firm is, how much credibility do you think that would carry, whether it was true or not? Memorable, sure, but credible?
For my "day time career", there's a certain standard that's expected for me in order to get contracts. Consulting has its
own set of rules, and the kiss of death would be to decide to be far away from the norm. I already have an uphill battle,
being one of a very few minorities who do what I do, so the last thing I can afford is to be seen as too much of a radical
or party guy, both of which aren't my nature, but on my business blog I will tackle issues that I won't address here.
I met one guy locally who's a millionaire, and he was telling a group of us some of the things he's done over the years
in promoting his businesses. Some of those things make good business sense; some of them would basically end the careers
of the rest of us.
So, let's relate this to being online. We all want traffic and visitors, and we all want to be credible. At the same time, all
of us know that if we can find a way to stand out from the crown that we might increase the number of our visitors even more,
because people might want to see what the heck you're going to do next.
Now, Rich Jerk might be able to get away with abusing visitors, but most of us can't do that sort of thing. We also can't, or
shouldn't, have all sorts of bells and whistles when people visit our site, because those things get really irritating. I can't
stand music or video automatically playing when I visit a site; irritating as sin. I also don't like flash start up pages; get me
to the content quickly.
So, how far will you go in promoting your business or blog in order to achieve a substantial online status? How far should you go?
What kind of attention do you want? Hey, that's how we started, isn't it?
