Hi,
I've just jumped the ditch (aka the Tasman sea) and moved back to Auckland from Sydney.
A friend of mine terms what I've done in the past as rut jumping (that episode of rut jumping occurred when I jumped from one profession to another and throwing in a move from Auckland to Sydney at the same time).
So I'm thinking I've just jumped from a rut in Sydney and have yet to establish a rut in Auckland. (Somewhere in the past I've seen a rut referred to as a grave with the end kicked out...).
The options when looking at whether you should jump ruts seem to be:
1) staying in your rut and putting up with it
2) wall papering your rut to make it more enjoyable to live in. An option I've been told about, if you have a mid-life crisis which is causing you to be unhappy with your rut, is to use the "shiny red convertible" wall-paper, or the optional "younger mistress" model of wall-paper. (Both options were put up for my consideration by the same friend who has termed my activity as rut-jumping - as an aside he settled on his 2012 new years resolution in June 2012. His resolution for 2012 was to get a mistress. Mission Unaccomplished so far.)
3) popping your head up above your rut and checking out whether the grass is greener in another rut, and deliberately looking at slum-ruts to make yourself feel better about your own rut, and then choosing to stay where you are.
4) Jumping out of your rut and starting anew - either in a new location or a new career or whatever
My main reason for jumping out of my Sydney rut is to have more time with my 15 and 17 year old sons... I've been missing them over the past couple of years and not seeing nearly enough of them so have taken a punt and jumped....
Seeing this is a poker site guess I'd better comment on my poker history.
Started in May 2012 at pokerstars. Mainly as a recreational activity at night after work. However, I seem to have uncovered an addictive element to my personality and I've been playing (and losing - sorry - I mean investing in my poker education) pretty much ever since. I viewed the $'s lost as being justified though as the cost for the poker wallpaper was considerably less than that for the "shiny red convertible" and "the younger mistress" brands...
Briefly tried 888 and, mainly for reasons of familiarity, most of my play is at pokerstars playing in low stake tournaments - with a recent move to low stakes SNG tournaments.
Category at the moment would be a fish with Shark Envy. BTW there does not appear to be a suitable icon for that category. If there was an icon for a fish with a walking stick or an icon for an elderly, geriatric shark who mistakenly thinks he can mix it with the sleek, shiny, younger sharks, then I would have chosen one of those.
While I've just jumped ruts, this new rut has yet to have a job associated with it. So I'm a guessing I'll be spending a fair chunk of time online until I land a job.
I discovered this site last week and pretty much the first place I landed was in jbpatzer's blog. With the title of his blog referring to a mid-life crisis, paradoxically, he sounds as though he has a pretty good time. I would like to think this jump to Auckland is yet another in a series of mid-life crisis's (sp?)... Coz that wuld mean I was still in mid-life.... Yet... If you think you have roughly 75 years then I've broken it out in the past as:
Young: 0-24
Middle-Aged: 25-49
Old: 50-75
I mainly worked it out that way many years ago to wind up my ex-wife's parents... Alas I now find that, by that definition I am well and truely old. 
Based on jppatzer's log, I am assuming I would be in the geriatric class of poker player. 
[edit starts] Somehow I managed to save the post without conscious intervention, so lets continue on and ignore that senior moment...
I tip my imaginary hat to jbpatzer. I gained considerable amusement and enjoyment from his blog. I even managed to learn a few poker related points.
Sadly, it appears that while I have played around 200,000+ hands, I get the sense I am still well and truely in the noobie category. Certainly, with respect to the other aspects of my poker education, such as understanding what the various statistics mean, and how to get to grips with the information being delivered by the pokertracker HUD, I am just a baby fish swimming with the sharks. (I've just downloaded the HEM2 software to try out as pokertracker is not placing the HUD correctly for 6-max SNG Tournaments at pokerstars which is a tad annoying - If anyone could point me in the direction of a "basic HUD statistics for dummies" and "advanced HUD statistics for dullards", I would be most grateful...)
While i enjoy poker as a recreational activity, I'm a guessing this is going to continue to be a fiscal drain unless I spend some serious time away from the poker sites studying the math and theory. As a serious procrastitasker, I somehow doubt that I will manage to do that unless I give my self a good talking to and a serious amount of finger-wagging in the mirror. Although with being able to read ebooks on smartphones and tablets, I may be able to do that in scenarios where I have access to an ebook but am unable to spend time playing poker.
Ok. that is enough for an introduction. Time to have a biological break.
(and yes, I know the title mentions the Unified Paddock Theory. That will have to wait to another post.)
You could play tracked to one of our partner rooms which are listed 
Hopefully time zone separation and geographical distance will lessen the chance for lasting harm.
