I don't enjoy oral.

My bankroll took a major hit Sunday night as I dropped about 150 bucks in a few hours (remember I started with 4 bucks a few months ago). I was determined to get it all back at one table and stuck my whole bankroll on the line at a shorthanded 3/6 limit table. I won a few hands and then got the hell out of there as I came to my senses. It would have been a real punch in the balls to tilt off my whole pokerstars balance in one night after building it up from 4 bucks. Instead, I prefer to lose it painfully over the course of several months courtesy of consistent sub-par play. I had a good day yesterday and was able to recoup a large chunk of what I lost.

Today, I decided it was a good idea to start tracking my wins and losses again via MS excel. Maybe this will add some more accountability to my play, even though I have been pretty good about not donking around lately - with the exception of Sunday night.

While I have been playing poker some lately a good deal of my time the last handful of days has been spent working on a presentation for my dissertation proposal. I love most things about being a graduate student, but giving oral (hehe) presentations isn't one of them.

About 5-6 years ago I gave my first lengthy presentation on data I had collected at the time. I had enough to fill about 45-50 powerpoint slides - I got through all of them in less than 20 minutes, leaving a full 30 minutes for any questions about the work I had babbled my way through. The looks of a few faces in the crowd still stick in my head today. Confusion. Nervous smiles. Looks of pity. They had to wonder if my body had mysteriously been inhabited by the fast-talking man who did those Micro Machines commercials back in the 80s. Some of them never came back to these meetings - ever! Even the presentation from the guy who mistakenly showed a porn video wasn't as poorly received. And the porn was awful!

I have got much better with public speaking since that time, but it's nothing that I look forward to. So, wish me luck as I try not to babble incoherently in front of a group of 5 professors.