Archive for the 'A Funny Farm' Category

Conclude Diner Club Craze with Wish Lanterns

For a fraction of the price, members of the general public are inviting strangers into their homes for a magnificent dining experience; a three or four course meal, with restaurant-style service, this is the latest trend going around town. A number of reasons like people love to see how other people live or have a good nose around their residence, and the hosts love to cook, and exhibit their culinary skills, hence the supper club concept is catching on at a fast pace.

Naturally, with a lot of these supper club joints to pick from throughout London and indeed across the UK, developing yours stand out for would-be clientele may be tricky-no more, say we. With wish lanterns, either launched at the end of the meal, or maybe given out to guests as a parting gift, your supper will be utterly impressed at your uniqueness and thoughtfulness, and almost definitely be recommending to their chums, promoting your small business and helping it keep running.

Simply create in your mind the occurrence: your diners are stuffed to the brim and completely pleased with their delectable food. You escort them outside for a attractive parade of sky lanterns, as they stand and observe with a glass of wine, praising their hosts.

Like to place an order for white or coloured wish lanterns? Please do get in touch with one of our teams and we will be happy to help.

Published in: A Funny Farm, Social Issues | on June 27th, 2010 | Comments Off

Theme Ideas for Your next Celebration

Are you jonesin’ to meet Justin? Perhaps you dream about being Demi? There are plenty of Hollywood party themes
that you can do right in your own home! So break out the red carpet for a glamorous evening for your favorite friend! If you enjoy the celebrity scene but don’t live in LA, you can still have a Hollywood experience: invite your friends over to escape familiar life and give a Hollywood theme party. From an A-List Menu to Celebrity Sightings, your Hollywood party is certain to be a hit with our ready to follow party planning tips.

Produce a Broadway play list with all of the most popular Broadway musicals’ soundtracks collected into one party play list. Guests will love hearing all their favorite songs throughout the night.If you or a friend own a mini karaoke machine, a Broadway musical themed party is the ideal time to break it out. Encourage everyone to show off their inner star and have fun singing along to show tunes.

After you have decided on a specific theme and have picked out your invitations, the next thing you want to do is locate decorations that will match this motif. For themed adult parties, add specific elements of their favorite pastime such as a favorite sport or have information about events occurring in their birth year printed on paper napkins or framed on different tables. This will definitely get guests talking.

Published in: A Funny Farm, Lifestyle + More, Miscellany | on June 18th, 2010 | Comments Off

Planning for Your Graduation

It’s almost the time of year when graduations happen. If you are one of those graduating this year, then most probably you would have to plan for your big day. Planning for graduation is not an easy feat especially depending on how you want your day to look. If you want to do something quiet and very simple, it may not cost you so much time and money, and you may not need to do a lot of planning. If, on the other hand, you are planning something big such as having a party, then you need to start planning a little early.
One of the major things people usually plan for are graduation cap and gowns along with other accessories. You may decide to order a brand new gown from a shop; you may also decide to buy previously used ones. There are also places where you can rent gowns. One advantage to buying a brand new gown is that while you may only get older designs in such shops where they offer only used gowns, you may possibly get graduation cap and gowns, which were produced in 2010 from those brand new ones.
This is not to say that older gowns cannot be used, but 2010 graduation gowns will look newer and maybe more comfortable that those from previous years. Rental shops may also have caps and gowns and accessories. The most important thing is to look for gowns, which are presentable and in which you may feel comfortable in during the ceremony.
If you are looking at having a party to celebrate your graduation, you will need to decide if the party will consist of only your close friends, your family members or both. If the party is just for you and a group of friends, you all may plan to eat out in a restaurant, or have a small house party either at your place or at any other friend’s place. The idea is just to catch some fun.
If, on the other hand, you are looking at doing something with your family, then you may have to do more intensive planning, owing to the fact that some people who may be present will not be able to handle the noisy party you may have planned with your friends. You will have to plan for invitation cards or messages to formally invite them for the ceremony and also send a reminder just before the day to ensure that they do not forget. Ensure that whatever preparation you need to do is done well before time.
Your graduation day is a day when you will be rewarded for your hard work of many years, so it is expedient to plan well ahead of time whether you are doing it all by yourself, or inviting friends and family.

Published in: A Funny Farm, Education + Schooling, Tutors Lair | on May 24th, 2010 | Comments Off

Bluffing Situations

Bluffing is a lot more than reading your poker online opponent and winning with a crappy hand-a huge part of bluffing is knowing the right situations in which to bluff. Many times, the cards on the table will dictate whether or not a bluff will be successful. There are situations when a set of cards on the table will be a big factor in helping you get your opponents to fold.

A low flop. Most players will enter a hand with some high expectation cards, hands like A-K or 10’s or something, so when a low flop like 6-6-2 comes out, you can usually bet on your poker online opponents being disappointed by the flop. Regardless of what you have, a bet after the flop, especially from position, will usually win you the pot after a low flop.

A scare card hits. If you put your opponent on a medium hand, you might be able to scare him off with a big bet. Say you’ve put your opponent on Ace-King and the flop comes 9-King-8 of spades. It doesn’t improve your pocket 4’s, but your poker online opponent bets tentatively, showing that he likes his hand, but he’s not a fan of the spades. If another spade hits on the flop, you can usually count on a big bet to frighten him out of the hand.

Published in: A Funny Farm, Gambling Luck | on May 6th, 2010 | Comments Off

Size up Stacks for Implied Pot Odds

Poker players have to calculate the pot odds to figure out whether not to call a bet. Sometimes the pot odds are not favorable but marginal, making for a tough decision. However, in these situations the player needs to take into account implied pot odds - just how big the pot may get after fourth and fifth streets.

The one way to gauge implied odds is to assess the other players’ stacks who are still in the action. Basically, in a No Limit online poker game, those stacks represent the maximum chips that could go into the pot. When there are only small stacks still in contention, then the pot is not going to get very big, so the implied odds are not favorable either. It is not worth chasing a flush or a straight.

Drawing and speculative hands are only going to be profitable if there is the possibility of a lot of chips going into the pot. Usually when a big stack enters a hand, it will chase off weaker poker online players with drawing hands, and you could be in a heads-up contest calling a big stack with the potential for a winning a lot more chips if you complete your hand on the turn or river.

When faced with a calling decision, size up the other stacks that could still be involved and take implied odds into account.

Published in: A Funny Farm, Gambling Luck | on March 31st, 2010 | Comments Off

Tournament Image

If you’re not a big name player with a known play style, don’t waste your chips on advertising your table image in tournament poker. The reasoning behind this is simple. You’re probably going to move table quite a few times over the life of the tournament, and you’ll probably be sitting with different players.

You see the problem here? All the effort you put into creating that image at your old online poker table will be erased as you come to face new opponents, essentially making the investment a mere waste of chips.

Instead, when playing in a tournament, your focus should be on the actual cards you get. The benefits of this method are two fold. If you’re getting a lot of good hands, and you end up playing them well, even if you don’t go to showdown, you may end up getting labeled a maniac. No problem there, you’re playing tight, and just running good. Let someone call you when you hold the nuts when they think you’re bluffing like a maniac.

Instead of getting the solid label of “tight” “weak” “maniac” etc., you will end up constantly shifting your poker online table image, and in tournament play this is never a bad thing. So not only do you not have to waste energy trying to create an image, but you also get to let your cards do the talking, essentially giving your more time to think about other things, like exploiting your weaker opponents.

Published in: A Funny Farm, Gambling Luck | on February 24th, 2010 | Comments Off

Don’t 7-10 Split, Bowl Competitively with Quality Bowling Shoes

Perhaps you’re a Nintendo Wii bowler hoping to play your neighborhood bowling league with improved precision and consistency. If that’s your calling, you’ve stumbled upon a important rebirth in growing as a true student of the game. Our guide to A Bowler’s Development stand as essential reading. Professionals at your city’s bowling pro shop can help their customers harness bowling zen mental toughness. Just like a lot of sports, roll strikes if can spare ‘em (hehe). Just kidding. I admit, so it’s more complicated than that. No worry, our bowling experts have you rolling the bowling ball correctly.

Most importantly, buy your own custom fit at any number of bowling pro shops in your city. It’s not a sales pitch, it actually matters. I promise, get your favorite ball drilled, and you’ll never go back. A well drilled bowling ball can make a substantial improvement in your game. Of course another critical matter is having well-made bowling shoes that don’t stink like desanitizer

Since you already purchased comfortable bowling ball and shoes, listen to the number two bowling tip: aim how the pros aim. While you face the pins, don’t necessarily roll the ball at the back of the lane. Aim for the the notches on the lane like a barrel of a gun. Never thought of this? It’s less difficult to hit a target which sits closer. To take full advantage, include it as part of your routine to aim from the exact spot on the wood on every attempt. If you do it the same every time you can perfect your accuracy and angle.

What about hooks, to get their desired pin action? Indeed, this is another “Next Steps” bowling hint. It’s all in the their expensive reactive resin balls. Might be surprising that pros bowl and regularly roll several types of bowling balls to pull off ridiculous hooks, according to the lane. Just a bit of caution: begginers should not try to be fancy, and don’t get a ball that weighs a ton. Many avid bowlers opt for bowling balls featuring advanced composite surface. Steer clear of them, because these balls can make even moderately good talents seem like beginners. That about raps it up. There will be more next month.

~Frank Rogers

I bowl with a company team (US Systems) made up of a league for a major bowling ball retailer just outside Plano, Texas. I chime in with guidance to professional and amature bowlers at my blog and in my local newsletter. Finally, I have to plug my bowling buddies back home. Knock ‘em dead.

Published in: A Funny Farm, Living + Recreation | on July 29th, 2009 | Comments Off

Orphaned Pots

How often has a hand been a sad series of folds to the river, only to see a 10-high win the poker en ligne hand? Few things are as unsatisfying as watching a hand go to a high card because nobody bet on the poker online hand. When you and another opponent bet all around, you leave a pot orphaned and are showing some severe weakness in front of the entire table. If you and an opponent are checking around, the pot is just waiting for the first aggressive poker bet. Your opponent may suspect you of bluffing, he might even be certain that you’re bluffing, but without any decent cards, he won’t be able to call your bet.

Of course, it doesn’t always work-sometimes he’ll call or raise you. Once in a while your opponent will be trapping you with a monster hand, but those times are few and far between. More often than not, your opponent has no confidence whatsoever in his hand, and he’s pretty much begging you to buy it so you both can move on to the next hand and forget about the garbage that you’re both holding. Do both of you a favor and buy the pot. You could use the chips, anyway.

Published in: A Funny Farm, Gambling Luck | on July 1st, 2009 | Comments Off

Sit-N-Go Poker Strategy

Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournaments come in all lengths and sizes. Some start with deep stacks and are designed for long play with many entrants at multiple tables at the casino. But players who want to limit their buy-in or time spent playing often choose the Sit-N-Go format, which is one self-contained table that often features quick rounds of blinds.

Sit-N-Go poker tournaments require different strategies than longer playing contests. In these fast moving tables, it is important to follow traditional poker principles of patience, discipline and intention.

Because Sit-N-Go starting stacks are typically small, there is little room for error. The blinds usually start off low, so you do have some leeway to practice patience and wait for a big starter hand in right position.

Disciplined folding is essential for Sit-N-Go success. It is easy to call off your small starting stack chasing after seemingly good hands, like a pocket pair or suited connectors, which fail to win. Pocket tens may look good at first glance, but when the flop brings over cards and aggressive betting, then folding will preserve your stack. You can go broke quickly in a Sit-N-Go with pockets cards you might ordinarily play in bigger tournaments.

Finally, because the margin for error is so small, you must focus on every action at the table, and act with dedicated intention when you enter the pot. Every action must be backed with a motive and a plan, such as executing an early strategic semi-bluff to sway your opponents’ thinking about your style later in the tournament.

Published in: A Funny Farm, Gambling Luck | on March 13th, 2009 | Comments Off

Poker Law: Leave it to the South

Something about the southern United States screams “We like gambling, only we only like some kinds of it.” I mean, all you have to do is take a look at Kentucky and see that while horse racing is like a state treasure, online poker is the leper colony as far as they’re concerned.

And perhaps that leprosy is spreading. In a recent public debate in Charleston, South Carolina, state representative Robert Ford reintroduced the idea of allowing video poker in the area. And again it was met with uninformed, propaganda and spin filled, hostility. Excuse me while I rant for moment.

One paper refers to video poker as “the crack-cocaine of gambling.” Calls it one of the sole causes of increased divorce/suicide/crime/and child abuse rates. Really? You have to be kidding me. And this was published by one Mr. Ken Hawkins of the TheDigitel.

Seriously sir, are we to just pass over the overwhelming evidence that people who would be afflicted with gambling problems are merely expressing a more deeply rooted sociological and psychological dysfunction that manifests itself in other ways when gambling isn’t present as an outlet? Are we to overlook the prevalence of the studies that show that gambling addiction itself is a comorbidity of some greater impulsive behavioral problem? For reference, sir, I ask that you look to the Journal of Clinical Psychology and do some research on personality disorders. Please, for your sake, to prevent your further ignorance of a problem you seek to scapegoat on something tangible.

Please under stand, sir, that when we fear what we don’t understand we tend to persecute it. You sir, seem to be of a religious bent, so please elucidate me on how prosecuting something tangible that changes your status quo is any different than your savior Jesus the Christ being prosecuted because of his radical idealism. Before you try to crucify something based on loosely associated statistics from for-profit, agenda associated organizations, sir, I ask that you please inform yourself legitimately and without bias before you bash something you don’t understand. We are all impressed with your journalism degree, sir, but before you hang up on the idea that such a proposal would boost the economic conditions of your area, please do us all a favor and reveal to us your economic credentials as well.

Perhaps it’s only from your position of financial comfort that you can judge the “poorest” of your state and group them all together into the same addicts who would fall victim to the “monster” of video poker. Perhaps it’s more complex than that, and perhaps we should look at the stratification of this society in general and the idolization of the higher status that money brings to find the real root of this problem.

Published in: A Funny Farm, Gambling Luck | on December 11th, 2008 | Comments Off