Thursday, December 31, 2009

Is Constant Innovation Dangerous? See Ancient Rome

Archaeologist Sander van der Leeuw discusses the dangers of constant innovation. "Every innovation creates a cascade of new challenges," he says, which shifts a society's focus to short-term thinking. He warns China is currently "addicted to innovation," but praises the bustling nation for its focus on long-term thinking.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Helpful winter hints

Here are some helpful hints that could make your winters easier to deal with ...

Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights - lasts 6 weeks.


Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity.


Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Frost on it's way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water & spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they'll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water---preventing water from freezing!


Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray! Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors & rub it in with a paper towel. The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber.


Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream! Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield & wipe if off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.


De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer! Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key & the lock & the problems solved!


Hope these hints help even just one time

Friday, December 25, 2009

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Fix a Scratched CD

Sometimes pulling out an old CD from your music archive reveals some discs haven't fared well in the passage of time. CDs are vulnerable to fingerprint smudges, a bit of dried syrup from the time you spilled that Coke in the car, perhaps even some scratches from the time that CD disappeared under the passenger's seat three years ago.

If you've got some CDs that are well past their prime (and no, we don't mean that perfectly unblemished Spice Girls disc you've been hiding from your friends), fear not. There are ways to get that disc spinning again so you can transfer the music or data to a more respectable media, like MP3s.

The first thing to try with your potentially damaged CDs is a PC. Many times a CD that's too mangled to work in a car stereo will work just fine in your (much faster) computer CD/DVD drive. In addition, CD/DVD computer hardware and ROM software error-recovery differs by brand; a high-quality player will play discs which freeze or skip on a lower-quality one.

This article is a wiki. If you still buy CDs and want to help people restore their music collection, hop on and improve this article.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Polish
* 2 Repairing scratches
* 3 Recreate
* 4 Future Outlook

Polish

If you've got a disc that won't play, start with the simplest solution: give it a gentle, but thorough cleaning.

Take a damp, lint free cloth (the cloth used to clean eyeglasses works very well) and starting in the center of the CD, wipe to the outside edge in a straight line. The direction of the polishing is important, don't wipe in circles, and don't wipe randomly. Move in a straight line, center to edge.

Now that you've got all the surface blemishes off, give the CD another try. Still no luck? Well, read on.
Repairing scratches

If polishing alone doesn't work, chance are your CD is scratched. See if you can find the offending scratch -- hold your CD up to the light and check it from different angles.

CD's read from the inside out to the edge so you may be able to locate the scratch that's causing the problem based on which tracks skip. Obviously if you CD has data rather than music this method won't work.

Once you've found the scratch there are a few ways you can repair it. However, before we get started, be aware that some of these methods can actually damage the disc even more so. Use them only as a last resort.

Polish the CD Two popular ways of polishing out scratches include using toothpaste (get the kind with baking soda in it) and Brasso. In either case apply a thin layer to the scratched area and wipe from the inside out to polish out the scratch. Although popular in internet postings, the brand of toothpaste may matter, and the toothpaste or Brasso abrasive will replace scratches with finer ones, possibly making the problem worse. A low-cost commercial solution such as Allsop 'DVD Scratch Repair" (about $3 retail -- www.allsop.com) provides extremely fine abrasive fluid and a fine polishing cloth which always will improve the playing; the cloth alone may improve results with toothpaste or Brasso.

Wax the CD Along the same lines as the toothpaste method, you can try applying a very thin coat of vaseline, car wax or shoe polish to the scratched area. Caution: Wax may be difficult to remove and may make further polishing attempts more difficult.

Professional Refinishing Unless the scratch is very deep the above methods should work. If they don't you can always try having your CD refinished by a professional service. Consult your local music store or try searching for CD refinishing in your favorite search engine.

Audio CD Scratches For some CD's that are scratched and skipping, you can use iTunes to import the CD and attempt to fix some of the scratches. To do this go to the Preferences -> General -> Import Settings and make sure that "User Error Correction when Reading Audio CD's" is ticked. For a badly scratched CD it may take a LONG time to read it (possibly hours for one disc) but it can make some CD's quite listenable.

Meguire's Deep Crystal (cleaning system) Paint CleanerPersonally, the best product I have ever found to restore BADLY damaged CD's and DVD's is Meguire's Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner, which is part abrasive and part high quality carnauba wax. It is applied by 2-3 drops onto the offending disc. Spread it thin on the whole disc or just where you see scratches. Allow it to dry completely and then buff in a circular motion while checking that it is indeed polishing the scratches out. Some people may say to wipe from the center out, and that is OK for cleaning some discs, but with this product I would recommend a soft, lint free, dry cloth, such as a microfiber towel burnishing/polishing in small circular motions. With this cloth or towel you will obtain the best results by polishing in small circular motions. The reason for this is because not all scratches will be fill-able only moving from the center towards the outside of the disc.

(ALWAYS INSURE YOUR CLOTH OR TOWEL IS ABSOLUTELY CLEAN FIRST: You don't want new scratches added)

Because this product is for Automotive use, and is clear coat safe, it has minimal buildup and may require several repetitions of the above steps to completely restore your disc. This makes it much safer than household abrasives such as Brasso or Toothpaste. As many as 12-15 coats may be needed for VERY badly damaged data discs or DVD's, but so far with patience it has proven to be the right solution for all but cracked discs, which are best replaced with new discs.
Recreate

If you're dealing with an audio CD, here's an interesting option.

This may not be legal in some countries but where it is legal you can download all the tracks in the highest quality you can find and recreate the CD. Find 320Kb/s MP3 versions, or better yet, lossless versions, and use a CD burning program that can create audio CDs to recreate the CD.

Optionally scan the front of the original and print it on a CD sized sticker.

I know for US citizens this might sound as ridiculous illegal advice but in for example The Netherlands this is perfectly legal.
Future Outlook

The future of CDs looks like it is set to mirror that of the Dodo circa 1660. While music, movies and data storage devices of the future will have their own set of problems, at least we won't have to resort to toothpaste to recover lost tunes.

The trade off is the lack of a physical medium to show off to your friends as a sign of music superiority. In other words, no more fancy album art. In many ways the album is going the way of the Dodo as well. The record industry is increasingly focusing on singles rather than congruent records.

Don't fear, Pink Floyd fans (and other fans of congruent, thematic concept albums). Online MP3 stores, like Apple's iTunes store, are starting to bundle album art and even extra songs and video with downloadable albums. While you still can't frame your favorite MP3, at least you can watch the behind the scenes making of it. Better yet, you don't have to worry about scratching your MP3 like you can a compact disc. If you lose your music, chances are, in the future, your music store will replenish the music you bought from them for you at little or no cost.

How to change a VW Genetator-Alternator Fan belt!

Don't try this at home!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Secrets Of Nonverbal Communication

Body language can speak more strongly than words. Make sure you say the right things with it.In 1961, when Joe Navarro was 8, the Bay of Pigs invasion happened six miles from his home in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and his family fled to Miami. The boy knew no English, so he relied on careful observation of his peers, neighbors and teachers to figure out how things were done in his new country.

That close reading of nonverbal clues turned into a lifelong pursuit. Navarro, 56, worked for 25 years as a counterintelligence special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and since 2003 he has been a consultant to the Energy and State Departments and the Institute for Defense Analysis, in Washington. His latest book, Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence, applies all his knowledge to the business world. Navarro believes that fluency in nonverbal communication can be as powerful a tool as masterful negotiating techniques or expert salesmanship. The starting point, he says, is what he calls "personal curbside appeal." Project yourself as a confident, welcoming person, and your clients, colleagues and bosses will be attracted to you, keen on doing business with you and on promoting you within your organization.

Curbside appeal has several components, starting with looks. Tidy, neat, conservative clothes are preferable, Navarro says. A good rule of thumb: mirror, don't shock. "Observe how upper management dresses, and follow their lead," he advises. "Casualness can kill credibility." Unless, that is, you work in a place where the top brass wear jeans and polo shirts, like, say, CBS Studios in Hollywood, where Navarro recently discovered he was the only person in a suit.

Even when the dress code is jeans, make sure they are not ripped or stained. Not only will trim clothes impress others; they will help you do a better job, Navarro maintains. "What we wear shapes our behavior and prepares our body and mind for what we need to do," he writes. "In the workplace, you put on the attire of a warrior for business, and that's your persona." One thing he insists on is polished shoes, in good repair. "Men often wear scuffed or worn-down shoes that subvert the effort they spent on the rest of their appearance," he writes.Gestures go a long way in conveying your personal message. One of the most appealing: Stand with your head slightly tilted and your hands clasped, and with a smile and a gaze that meets the other person's. The head tilt exposes the neck and says, "I am listening, I am comfortable, I am receptive," Navarro says. By contrast, if you touch your neck or cover the dimple at the base of it, you're saying you are uncomfortable, insecure or concerned.Sit back comfortably in a chair, with your hands interlaced behind your head, and you project control and dominance. But it can be a little much, too. In a meeting avoid it, unless you're the senior person there.

Steepling your hands means you are strongly confident in the message you are about to deliver. Also, aiming your thumbs up conveys a sense of confidence. Navarro likes it when fingers are interlaced and thumbs are aimed up. Hiding your thumbs--in your pockets, say--gives the impression you are insecure.

Navarro also stresses the importance of making a strong, positive impression on first meeting. This involves blending all his tips and putting them into action. The well-dressed, tidy employee or boss makes eye contact, smiles, gets up from behind his or her desk, approaches the guest either from a slight angle (men prefer this) or directly (which women like better) and extends a hand to shake in what Navarro describes as "a firm but easy grip, lasting a few seconds." Avoid the overly tight squeeze, the pump or any wrist torque, he advises.

FBI agents devote a lot of energy to establishing rapport with people, Navarro says. When he left the bureau six years ago, he was stunned to discover how many business people were clueless about forging effective nonverbal connections. "I wrote the book to give people that nonverbal edge," he says.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

A Natural AND Cheap Alternative to Dishwasher Detergent

By HappySlob

By jove, I think I may have GOT it. Dishwasher detergent is one of those annoying necessities that I could never quite embrace using. But, I'm finally pleased with the results of two ingredients that seem to be getting my dishes good and clean, minus the chemicals.

I pour regular table salt (or I've also used baking soda) into the detergent openings in the dishwasher door, and then pour about a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide over the salt until it's a bit sludgy and slushy. Close the door and give it a whirl.

I really want to know what you discover from using this! Do you like it as much as dishwasher detergent? I'm still working on improving this all the time, so please do share if you tweak it and like the results even more.

Friday, August 21, 2009

The Recovery Plan – Get Rid of All the Motivational Speakers

On the subject of my post Dos and Don’ts of Talking to a Person who is Looking for a Job. Anyone caught delivering motivational speeches or a strategic advice of any sort should be rounded up to protect the public. With all the motivational speakers off the streets there is a hope for the economic recovery.

Let me explain. The rules of the game changed so dramatically that whatever script the motivationlists have been reading from, ain’t no longer working. The best motivational speakers are trying to convince themselves, hoping that repeating whatever carp there are saying, will improve their chances of actually believing in the bs. Most of them never held a regular job. And even if it worked for them personally in the past, as I wrote, there is a new game in town. More importantly there are certain truths that don’t report to change, despite the depression and the recession. As always and forever only three things are still working – cash, contacts or real leads. If a motivational speaker doesn’t include any on the three in the no power / no point presentation, they might as well shove it. Take the bastards off the streets now, protect the society! With ten million of them off the streets and off the tweets there might be just enough jobs for the rest of us.

Advice from Hugh MacLeod – Ignore everybody

I often speak and write about the puzzlement of advice. It is difficult to give and receive advice. Most of advice we receive from friends and strangest is either clueless or irresponsible. In fact closer and more trusting we are to people, more likely it is that we will be misled by a bad advice from them. A trusting guidance from friends usually results in a lasting damage. In this light with particular interest I read the sketch of the of the forthcoming book by Hugh MacLeod Ignore everybody:

“The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you. When I first started with the cartoon-on-back-of-bizcard format, people thought I was nuts. Why wasn’t I trying to do something more easy for markets to digest i.e. cutey-pie greeting cards or whatever? You don’t know if your idea is any good the moment it’s created. Neither does anyone else. The most you can hope for is a strong gut feeling that it is. And trusting your feelings is not as easy as the optimists say it is. There’s a reason why feelings scare us.

And asking close friends never works quite as well as you hope, either. It’s not that they deliberately want to be unhelpful. It’s just they don’t know your world one millionth as well as you know your world, no matter how hard they try, no matter how hard you try to explain.

Plus a big idea will change you. Your friends may love you, but they don’t want you to change. If you change, then their dynamic with you also changes. They like things the way they are, that’s how they love you- the way you are, not the way you may become.

Ergo, they have no incentive to see you change. And they will be resistant to anything that catalyzes it. That’s human nature. And you would do the same, if the shoe was on the other foot.

With business colleagues it’s even worse. They’re used to dealing with you in a certain way. They’re used to having a certain level of control over the relationship. And they want whatever makes them more prosperous. Sure, they might prefer it if you prosper as well, but that’s not their top priority.

If your idea is so good that it changes your dynamic enough to where you need them less, or God forbid, THE MARKET needs them less, then they’re going to resist your idea every chance they can.

Again, that’s human nature.

GOOD IDEAS ALTER THE POWER BALANCE IN RELATIONSHIPS, THAT IS WHY GOOD IDEAS ARE ALWAYS INITIALLY RESISTED.

Good ideas come with a heavy burden. Which is why so few people have them. So few people can handle it.”

Hitchens on Religion

Christopher Hitchens gives a talk in Canada on Free Speech in November 2006.

The Three Things worth Doing in Life

by Ben Atlas on 08/08/2009
Hugh MacLeod tweeted yesterday: “Three things worth doing in life: Breeding, loving and learning. Everything else is filler…” I will take this aphorism for a spin.

1. Breeding – Offspring and fertility. A woman’s life long obsession with being attractive, the confidence of being able to arouse a man. A man’s sense of self worth depending on his ability to meet the challenge.
2. Loving – the intoxication and the yearning. The “loving” is never complete if unrequited. “Speed” Levitch said it must be reciprocal. Love is about being loved, about validation of what you are. Loving includes being respected, the accolades and appreciation. If you love a man or a god and they don’t love you back, you can’t put a check mark here.
3. Learning – Trying to understand your place in the universe, an opportunity to satisfy the natural thirst, an opening to quench the curiosity. The desire to travel and see the world. By no means is this a textual manipulation.

I have never met a person who had all three in the bag. If you imagine the world as a puzzle and the goal of the game to line up all three, the jackpot is theoretical. The vast majority of people manage only one of the three life essentials. There are a small number of the lucky bastards who lined up two of those. But the fascinating human condition is that even if a single goal is at bay out of the three, humans are in a state of constant agony, like a chronic plain, the realization that a defining component of life is missing. They constantly think about it and if you are a friend you have the privilege of always hearing about it. Perhaps the wisdom is the recognition of the bargain, and if you managed to score two of the three, acceptance of your luck. Just like at the end of his remarkable speech Alain de Botton says that “every vision of success has to admit what it is loosing out on”.

When people say “money is not important” they mean it isn’t amongst the three essential goals of life but no one ever argued that money indeed can facilitate all three. Or on a more nuanced level the traditional “bazaar” is treated in the Middle Eastern cultures as an elaborate ruse to cover up the transactions in the intangibles, the ritual of pretending to trade in physical objects. Pay respect to haggling, a breeding dance with love and knowledge.

P.S. I was thinking where creativity fits into the scheme. I have to say that creativity is a part of learning. People dance, paint, write code, do scientific research, play ball, all in order to think. These are the rosary beads of learning. As McLuhan said an artist confronts “present as his material because it is the area of challenge to the whole sensory life.” This is the process of learning and occasionally there is a byproduct, a breakthrough of discovery.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Michael Pritchard's water filter turns filthy water drinkable

Too much of the world lacks access to clean drinking water. Engineer Michael Pritchard did something about it -- inventing the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds. An amazing demo from TEDGlobal 2009.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Jonathan Drori: Why we're storing billions of seeds


In this brief talk from TED U 2009, Jonathan Drori encourages us to save biodiversity -- one seed at a time. Reminding us that plants support human life, he shares the vision of the Millennium Seed Bank, which has stored over 3 billion seeds to date from dwindling yet essential plant species.

Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren't we happy?

Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, challenges the idea that well be miserable if we dont get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things dont go as planned.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Refusing to Forgive: 9 Steps to Break Free

Refusing to Forgive: 9 Steps to Break Free
By Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D.
April 15, 2009
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/mindfulness/2009/04/refusing-to-forgive-9-steps-to-break-free/

I see it every day. We all hold grudges against other people who we feel have hurt or offended us in some way or another. We even hold these grudges for people who aren’t even alive anymore. We do this with the false idea that somehow we are making them suffer by being hurt and angry with them. Now, there is nothing wrong with being angry with someone, but it is how we express this anger that makes all the difference on us and our relationships . What is a grudge anyway? May it is harboring ill feelings toward another in the need to settle a score.

Let’s try a little experiment. Think of someone in your life right now (maybe not the most extreme person) who you are absolutely holding a grudge against right now. There is no way you are willing to forgive this person right now for their actions. Picture that person and hold onto that unwillingness to forgive. Now, just observe what emotions are there; Anger, resentment, sadness? Also notice how you are holding your body right now, is it tense anywhere or feeling heavy? Now bring awareness to your thoughts; are they hateful and spiteful thoughts?

Most people who I do this with find this to be an uncomfortable experiment that elicits feelings of tension, anger, and thoughts of ill will toward the other person. This is not conjuring these feelings out of nowhere; this is just bringing to light what is already within stirring around. There is a common misperception that forgiveness means condoning the act of the other person. Forgiveness simply means releasing this cycle of torture that continues to reside inside.

Forgiving does not mean forgetting or condoning! Forgiveness is for the person who was perpetrated, not the perpetrator. It is saying, “I have already been offended against, I am going to let go of this so I don’t continue to be burdened by it.” You have already been tortured once, why continue letting this torture you by holding onto it with the erroneous belief that holding onto it is somehow hurting the other person. The practice of forgiveness has been shown to reduce stress, anger, and depression and support many aspects of well-being and happiness.

Like many things, this is easier said than done depending on the person and level of offense. In his book, Forgive for Good, Fred Luskin, Ph.D. lays out 9 steps to forgiving for you!

Know exactly how you feel about what happened and be able to articulate what about the situation is not OK. Then, tell a trusted couple of people about your experience.

Make a commitment to yourself to do what you have to do to feel better.
Forgiveness is for you and not for anyone else.

Forgiveness does not necessarily mean reconciliation with the person that hurt you, or condoning of their action. What you are after is to find peace. Forgiveness can be defined as the “peace and understanding that come from blaming that which has hurt you less, taking the life experience less personally, and changing your grievance story.”

Get the right perspective on what is happening. Recognize that your primary distress is coming from the hurt feelings, thoughts and physical upset you are suffering now, not what offended you or hurt you two minutes - or ten years -ago. Forgiveness helps to heal those hurt feelings.

At the moment you feel upset practice a simple stress management technique to soothe your body’s flight or fight response.

Give up expecting things from other people, or your life, that they do not choose to give you. Recognize the “unenforceable rules” you have for your health or how you or other people must behave. Remind yourself that you can hope for health, love, peace and prosperity and work hard to get them.

Put your energy into looking for another way to get your positive goals met than through the experience that has hurt you. Instead of mentally replaying your hurt seek out new ways to get what you want.

Remember that a life well lived is your best revenge. Instead of focusing on your wounded feelings, and thereby giving the person who caused you pain power over you, learn to look for the love, beauty and kindness around you. Forgiveness is about personal power.

Amend your grievance story to remind you of the heroic choice to forgive.

Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. is a Clinical Psychologist and conducts a private practice in West Los Angeles. Check out Dr. Goldstein's acclaimed CD's on stress prevention, depression, and addiction -- "They are so relevant, I have marked them as one of my favorites on a handout I give to all new clients" ~ Psychiatrist. If you're wanting an interactive program to find relief from anxiety and stress, check out Dr. Goldstein's progressive online behavioral change program in Aliveworld. Dr. Goldstein is also available for private psychotherapy.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

What Billionaires Have In Common

What do billionaires have in common besides a lot of money? Forbes magazine decided to find out, and did an in depth analysis of the 657 self made billionaires on their list from a few months ago. Amongst the things they analyzed are the billionaire’s parents, education, job, and social standings.

Some of the surprising common traits they found are:

September Birthdays

Of the 380 self-made American tycoons who have appeared on the Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires in the past three years, 42 were born in September–more than in any other month. Maybe that’s because September is the month the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans is published.

Tech Titans Who Dropped Out of College

Forget everything your guidance counselor told you: You don’t have to go to college to be successful. More than 20% of the self-made American moguls on the most recent list of the World’s Billionaires never finished college. Many of them made their fortunes in tech. Among them: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, (Oracle) and Theodore Waitt (Gateway).

Skull and Bones

Several current and former billionaires rounded out their Yale careers as members of Skull and Bones, the secret society portrayed with enigmatic relish by Hollywood in movies like The Skulls and W. Among those who were inducted: investor Edward Lampert, Blackstone co-founder Steven Schwarzman and FedEx founder Frederick Smith.

Monday, April 6, 2009

49 Things Every 18-Year-Old Should Know

1) "If you are buying something that you will use often and for a long time, never go cheap. You'll end up replacing it sooner or paying more in maintenance costs than if you had spent more on good quality in the beginning. Plus, you'll enjoy the nicer product throughout its lifetime, rather than cringing every time you use something that is falling apart." -- bretts

2) Don't spend money on a credit card that you can't afford to pay back. The interest and late payments can put you in a hole that can take you years to pay back.

3) Compound interest is your friend. Saving even a relatively small percentage of your income each year, starting at 18, can leave you in much better shape by the time you're ready to retire.

4) If you're working with someone who can be bargained down on a price, it seldom hurts to try. The exceptions may be someone of exceptional talent, someone you're going to have to work with on a regular basis, or someone whose help you're going to need in a timely manner.

5) Try to keep enough cash to pay your bills for at least six months in reserve. It will make your life immeasurably easier if your car breaks down, you have a surprise medical expense, or you get an opportunity to get a fantastic bargain.

6) Dogs are fantastic animals. They deserve to be called man's best friend. But, if you are under the impression that you just need to buy a collar and a bag of dry dog food every month and you're set, you're in for a rude awakening. Dogs tend to be much more expensive and time consuming than you'd think.

7) "Don't have any children or get married until you can support and love yourself first." -- D-Vega

8) "Don't trade your vehicle in on a new one just a couple of years after buying it. Pay it off and ride it until (the wheels fall off), all while putting that car payment in the bank." -- The_Muck_Man

9) College is a lot more work than high school and your job will be a lot more work than college was.

10) Start looking for a new job BEFORE you quit your old job.

11) Don't take any job that only pays commission unless you're either an expert salesman or ready to spend months working without pay to gain the skills you need to become an expert salesman.

12) Ideally, you should choose something you love to do so much that you'd do it for free and find a way to make it into a career.

13) When asking for a salary, always have a figure you want in mind -- and then ask for significantly more than that number. That way, you may get more than what you want and even if you don't, you have a better chance of getting the amount you had in mind than if you had blurted it out right off the bat.

14) There's no shame in taking any honest job.

15) Getting fired or laid off isn't the end of the world. To the contrary, a lot of people, myself included, have moved on to bigger and better things after being laid off or fired.

16) If you're not happy with the job market, the government, or the schools in your area, remember that you can always move to another city or another state. Lots of Americans do just that every year.

17) "I wish that I had known to check the oil in my vehicles and to have changed it regularly. It would have saved a lot of money that I spent on repairs -- directly due to my lack of changing the oil per the mechanic." -- Ann H.

18) Lefty loosey, righty tighty. Turn it to the left to loosen it and to the right to tighten it.

19) Don't ever open a hot radiator cap or you can get seriously burned.

20) Here are 3 keys to keeping a reasonably clean house: don't leave any dishes in the sink overnight; every time you have a full load of clothes, wash 'em, and take out the trash every time the can is full. You do those things, wipe up your messes, and vacuum when the floor gets filthy, and you'll keep things reasonably neat.

21) If you use a computer even semi-regularly, it's worth your time to take a typing class.

22) It's not enough to buy a gun and stick it in a drawer like a lucky talisman. You need to learn to use the gun.

23) When you move, sell, throw away, and give away as much as possible or you'll just end up moving boxes from one closet, where they have been sitting for five years, to another closet, where they'll be sitting for the next five years.

24) Don't ever loan your friends money if you want to keep them as friends. After all, if they were good with money and were likely to pay you back in a timely manner, they probably wouldn't need the loan in the first place. If they really need the money, you want to help them, and you can afford it -- just give it to them.

25) Women should never allow a boyfriend to take naked pictures. If it's on film, you shouldn't be surprised if it goes public in one form or fashion after a break-up.

26) When men have a problem and they tell you about it, they want to know how to fix it. When women have a problem and they tell you about it, they just want you to listen.

27) If you ever get arrested, don't say anything until you talk to a lawyer.

28) If you don't know the agenda of the people you're getting your news from, then you don't have the information you need to know if what they're telling you is true.

29) Government is a necessary evil. It's best to keep its tentacles out of your life and out of our society as much as possible.

30) "When you're 18, you worry about what everybody is thinking of you; when you're 40, you don't give a darn what anybody thinks of you; when you're 60, you realize nobody's been thinking about you at all." -- Daniel Amen

31) Trust your instincts. They're usually right.

32) If you think a doctor's wrong, don't hesitate to ask for a second opinion. Your health is vitally important and doctors make mistakes just as often as anyone else.

33) Don't ever say anything that may offend someone who is going to be serving you food. You never know what they may stick in it when you're not looking.

34) If you get into a business deal with someone who goes to unusual lengths to convince you of how honest or Christian they are, watch your wallet and make sure you have an iron clad contract. They "doth protest too much."

35) "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." - Jim Rohn

36) If you want to do something exceptional, don't expect anyone to believe you can do it until you've done it. Unless you're already perceived as exceptional, most people won't believe in you. That's doubly true for the people who know you best and have therefore seen you at your most mediocre, like your parents, family, and friends.

37) If you don't feel like you're being treated fairly by a company, don't hesitate to ask for a manager. Oftentimes, a manager has gotten to where he is in a company because he is good at pleasing customers like you in the first place.

38) "You are not invulnerable and you are not going to live forever. You can (make) mistakes at 18 that you will have to live with for the rest of your life." -- Don_cos

39) Nobody owes you a living.

40) You are not a victim.

41) If you just assume that every conspiracy theory is wrong without even examining it, you will be right 99.99% of the time.

42) "It's likely that whatever challenges you have faced in your life currently could have been avoided but some better decisions upstream." -- Anonymous

43) At a minimum, keep a basic "to do" list, a schedule, and a budget.

44) "Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better." -- Pat Riley

45) "If you want your life to have impact, focus it! Stop dabbling. Stop trying to do it all. Do less. Prune away even good activities and do only that which matters most. Never confuse activity with productivity. You can be busy without a purpose, but what's the point?" -- Rick Warren

46) Ironically, successful people tend to fail a lot more than unsuccessful people. They also tend to ask a lot more questions.


47) You beat 50% of the people by just showing up. You beat another 40% by working hard. The last 10% is a dogfight in the free enterprise system.

48) There are at least six key areas of your life: health, career, romantic, social, money, and religion. If you neglect any one of those areas, it will harm you in the other areas and keep you from being as happy as you can be otherwise.

49) When trying to decide between two closely matched alternatives, always have a bias towards action. In the long run, it'll lead to your having a lot more experience, great stories, and a richer, fuller life.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Marcus Luttrell: "I'm Not a Hero"

After Marcus Luttrell lost his teammates in Afghanistan, he made a promise.

Kris Carr: Be the Author, Not the Victim

Despite her cancer, Kris Carr stays healthy by controlling what she eats, drinks, and thinks.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

VCR Hack!

Don't throw out that old VCR! Hack it to find all kinds of goodies inside!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009