take a shot or not?

[joao_,martins]

hey thanks man.
i have a couple of questions!
i usually play short-handed and look for games with a medium to high flop percentage and medium to low sized pots ( obviously I am looking for a fairly loose-passive game ).
My first question is... should I not play short-handed, lessen the variance, even though short-handed is my game?
Second... I am obviously not very good at game selection, as my way of selecting is very basic; what else should I look for before sitting down?
Third... should I maybe set-up a stop-loss system for myself and if so what do you think that should be?
And lastly... you play stars, i want to railbird you???