Got disconnected - what do you think of this ?

I think f4 is intresting but i dont think it works and white is just better

I'm just a beginner, but I don't get 18... cxd4.  It looks to me like White got more room to move and your Bishop still can't move in that direction, at least not yet.

Also, can I ask what your strategy was? Whenever I'm in these types of positions, I have practically no idea what I'm trying to do and I'm wondering what other people do in these types of situations.  Usually, I'll either advance my pawns or try to draw their pawns out if I can't see any moves, though the majority of the time it works against me.  I should probably read on strategy, but there's so much that it's overwhelming.

Whites position is much easier to play, Black has one big weakness his backward e6 pawn so if im white im just going to build the position up slowly.

Black on the other hand has the backward E pawn and a bad white squared bishop which he has to try and get into the game as quick as possible ie bd7, bb5, If im black in this position im trying to open the positon up.

In closed type of games it is usually better not to swap off pieces leaving your self with a backward pawn and if u find yourself with a choice a knight is more useful the more closed a position is.

Thanks for all the posts and yeah i know that the backwards e6 pawn I have is bad.

Well my plan was to attack along my queenside because I think black would castle there and cxd4 was to open the diagonal for my bishop and I do think it was a mistake because I somehow ( this happens) thought that he could only recapture with his c-pawn but oops.At least it does remove the e pawn from controlling the square f4 so I can push it later. As for my pllan let's just call it a simple plan to attack his queenside by Nc4 and Bd7 ,Bb5, Rc8 and maybe advancing my a and b pawns later.

And anyway, I think black is better in this position as white seems to be going nowhere and I can improve the position of my light-squared bishop easily with Bd7 then move it to aid my queenside attack

- Not really a good plan, but hey , what do you expect form a weak-player =/