raidz.net - a perspective

Top 5 Techniques for getting out of bed.

Andrew — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:05:31 +0000

So I am sure all of us at one point or another have troubles getting out of bed when that alarm goes off. I have decided to share some of the techniques I use and have heard of other I know use that work pretty well. Some are mildly annoying others are obnoxious and some are just shocking! Here are my Top 5 techniques to get myself out of bed:

1. Take a flathead screwdriver and attempt to rip Snooze button off of alarm clock.

2. Some clocks have the option of setting multiple alarms. I set one 15 minutes before the other; you must have it set to the annoying beep, DO NOT USE YOUR RADIO….unless it is a station that plays The Pussycat Dolls over and over again.

3. Get one of those timers you usually use for Christmas lights, plug it into the outlet and set the desired time you would like to be awoken. Now plug a strobe light into the timer. Do make sure you still have you still have your normal alarms set and the strobe light is pointed directly towards your face but in a safe enough distance from getting hit.

4. This one works! Most phones have alarm clocks that are loud and annoying. Most phones also have a setting to loop the alarm. Make sure you have the alarm set to “loud” and “loop”. Now take your phone and place it on the other side of your room in an area that takes some work to get to. This should work pretty well most of the time unless you are like me some days when you could care less about the loud noise across the room and you still rather attempt to sleep through it. That brings me to my fifth and probably the most effective yet uncomfortable way of getting out of bed (This worked really well when hangovers existed in my life):

5. As stated above this is the most effective technique but is not meant for everybody. Those who are deathly afraid of getting an electrical shock might want to rethink trying this, however, that is what makes it so effective. You can buy an alarm clock that will shock you if you try to hit the snooze. It is possible to hit the snooze button without getting shocked but it takes some attention which you usually don’t have right after awaking from a slumber. There were many times at the beginning where I forgot I had set it up and was very surprised!

6. Get a roommate/spouse/girlfriend/family member there are a lot of FBI agents in front of the house. This worked on me twice, and to my surprise there were FBI agents outside of our house, they weren’t there for me; our neighbors made some bad choices…

I am pretty sure one of these techniques should work for you. I don’t know about you guys, but for me, I needed all the help I could get on certain mornings. Most of the techniques listed are simple yet effective.

--- Andrew

A horrible ending of the year, and a great start to the new one!

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:57:33 +0000

Warning: Talk about ex-girlfriend!

Happy New Year!

Last night was of course New Year's Eve. I had a headache and a party to go to. I was also going to be house-sitting for a friend who would be out of town that night. 2008 was a pretty decent year for myself, much better than some of the previous years. At the end of 2006 I had two big things happen in my life, the death of my dog, Blitzen, and the end of a crazy relationship.

My dog had been in my life for 11 years, he was one of the most well-mannered, easy going, and loving dogs once could ask for. The relationship I was in I couldn't begin to describe, I guess I could say this much: very dysfunctional and yet for me, exciting! There was something about this person that really grabbed me, I am still not sure what it was. Anyway, things didn't end well, we were both at fault and that was the end of that.

So yesterday I was hanging out most of the day helping my dad set up his new computer. I was excited for the new year to come. The party I was going to started later in the evening.As I was leaving for the party everyone but my sister were gone at parties. I didn't want to leave my sister at home for the New Years so I ended up calling the Host of the party I was going to to see if he wouldn't mind me bringing my sister. He was cool with it. My sister was not. She claimed one of her friends might be coming over so that was that, no problem, she had plans and wasn't going to be alone, I felt better.

I left for the party around 9 only to find out 2/3rd's of the way to my destination I left my wallet at home. I went back home to get it and what do you know! My ex-girlfriend and my sister are hanging out! I left one detail out earlier. My ex-girlfriend was also my sisters best friend and my sister didn't know about us being involved after 2 months of being together, that didn't go over well with her and now I regret doing that.

I thought I was over this girl, it had been two years. As soon as I saw her I was steaming. A million thoughts that I would rather not mention were running through my head. My temper has gotten a lot better and I managed to keep cool and I just avoided talking to them. What angered me the most was that my sister lied to me, she could have told me the truth and it would have been fine. I was also pissed because my ex-girlfriend is kind of slow when it comes to social interaction and common sense, there are still many thing about us my sister doesn't know about that my ex hasn't told her, but no worries, she can't help it and its none of my business. I ended up finding my wallet, saying goodbye, and left for the party.

It turned out to be a very good rest of the night. The party I went to was very nice, relaxing, with some great food. Although I didn't imagine the end of 2008 to go down quite like that it's okay. Sometimes things happen for a reason, and although I don't know the reason all of that went down, there is a message there. Today I can forgive people and also remember the wrong I might have done to them. Who am I to be mad at my sister and my ex-girlfriend after what I put them through?

Relationships can hurt, I do think I am over this girl, but, I believe there will always be those feelings because of the time we shared together even if it was rocky.

I hope you all have a great year, I know I will!

Do you guys think I handled this well? Do you think I am missing anything? Let me know, comment form below!

Road rage and me.

admin — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:52:15 +0000

Recently I have been enjoying the many different obstacles life has been giving me. Most of my life I have been a loose cannon and the past two years I have been continually working on controlling it. Anger has always been a problem with me. To some people, like myself, anger can be disabling and self-sabotage.

Driving is lots of fun and ad the same time a major hassle. There are so many knuckleheads our there who just shouldn't be behind the wheel. Sure, we all make mistakes, but making 4 mistakes in a 15 second time-frame is just unacceptable. This kind of stuff happens all the time and I can usually stay cool but manage to blow up at some unknowing jackass who just cut me off because they were too busy talking to their friend about their newest pairs of shoes on the cell phone! Obviously, I made some of that up, but I think you get it. So now without further ado I thought I would share my tools that I use to help further avoid making myself look like a nutcase and the violator a bigger idiot than they already are:

Let it be, get used to the fact that the anger will pass, do you really want to give this prick any of your precious brainpower?
Come to understand that you really have no control over the actions of that stuck up bitch in the Mercedes who thinks she owns the road. You only have control over your own actions and only your actions.
The next person you blow up on could be your neighbor (yep, happened to me ).

That's it! Hope some might come to use. Also, New Years Eve is tomorrow, be safe and try to plan ahead if your gonna be drinking. Many innocent people get killed because people think they are "okay" to drive.

Gran Torino, best movie of 2008? A review.

admin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:16:46 +0000

Gran Torino is one of the most well done movies in its category that I have seen for a quite some time. The directing was superb and the acting, although average at some points (the kids), was masked by the grasp of the story and Clint Eastwoods presence. I already held high expectations for this movie but was still blown away! This movie covered everything from racism and poverty to spoiled suburban families living in a bubble. The great thing about this movie is that the themes were brought up in a way that made it easy to understand without getting too detailed about any of it; you could make up your own mind and understand what was implicated through the acting.

There were parts of the movie that were extremely tragic and made my blood boil, but there were also many scenes that were very comedic because of the “tell it like it” is attitude of Clint Eastwood. One of the traits that I really enjoyed was Clint’s character always saying these outrageous racial slurs to the neighbors/friends while the neighbors ignored it and in my opinion knew he was old and from those times, it seemed almost like a programmed response he picked up from his generation. This movie has a very good moral and brings up some current issues affecting the United States, and most likely other countries as well. Although my review of this film is pretty un-detailed it’s because I don’t want to tell you the story. I always like to go into a movie fresh-minded with as little knowledge as possible about the movies themes. However, if you do want to view a trailer I will include it with this post. Hope you can all find a chance to get out to the theatres and check out this film!

The Chase; a good underrated flick from the 90's

admin — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:47:16 +0000

The Chase is a great movie that came out in 1994. I just finished watching it for the 12^th time tonight and still can’t get enough! The plot is somewhat corny but there is just something about this movie that keeps me going back and watching it again. IMDB gave it a rating of 5.3 stars which is a bit low, I would give it around 7. The movie is sometimes serious, usually comedic, and fun to watch on almost any occasion. I never hear people talk about it much so I though I would let all of you know about it. Check it out!

Director:

Adam Rifkin

Writer (WGA):

Adam Rifkin (written by)

Release Date:

4 March 1994 (USA) more

Genre:

Tagline:

Getting there is twice the fun.

Plot:

Jack Hammond is sentenced to life in prison, but manages to escape. To get away from the police he takes a girl as hostage and drives off in her car...

(Movie Information Courtesy IMDB.com)

Google's new battle against net neutrality.

admin — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:25:42 +0000

So I wrote a post about Google earlier. I hate to sound like a big critic of Google as they do bring me quality traffic, but, I can’t help myself by bringing up this issue because I am a big fan of net neutrality.

The internet should remain neutral, equal, and open. Online traffic increases by 50 percent each year, which means a lot of exposure for companies who do business online and offline. You see more and more sites loading pages down with advertisements. Now I don’t have a problem with online advertising, I feel if you are spending your own time putting quality content online you have the right to be reimbursed for it. Google, however, is taking this to the next level, not so much with advertising but with preferential treatment for faster access to their traffic.

The internet is a huge market and should be a free market, at least in the USA. Well Google now feels they are allowed to sell traffic and speeds to the highest bidder. They are already in talks with some of the major ISP’s in the US looking to strike deals to grant them front of the line spots on their servers. This threatens the small guy, which this country used to stand up for. Big business, although sometimes good, is slowly destroying this country. This new option, if put into practice could give these big ISP’s the power to control what their customers can and can’t see. This is very dangerous in many different aspects. More search engines and bigger players on the net seem to be more and more willing to kick net neutrality to the curb to rake in some major dough. I wonder how long it will be until net neutrality is no more?

To look further into this check out the following article:

Google Wants Its Own Fast Track on the Web

Society should be ashamed of their infatuation for Hollywood celebrities!

admin — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 09:38:03 +0000

Nowadays someone can't go long before hearing the latest and greatest news about Hollywood. I am disgusted. You see reports about names like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Amy Winehouse almost daily. What is wrong with this society? How can one person become so infatuated and interested in people like this? These "stars" or "celebrities" offer nothing interesting to me, not even looks. They have the personality of mutated opposum fetuse's and enoy nothing other than spending money on useless materialistc things and performing terrible mockeries in public places.

Now this isn't all their fault. You people have made them this way. They are receiving attention they don't deserve, attention not one person should ever get (other than real leaders like the President or important public figure). Sometimes I can almost understand why they act the way they do, because nobody will treat them like a human being. The real problem is not these so-called "celebrities", its you fools who waste your time and brainpower finding out about and discussing their latest meltdown. Who really cares, stuff far worse happens everday and people rather hear about Britneys latest blow up and Lindsay's latest relapse! If only people would start to come to reality and focus on something productive other than those people, they have enough grandiosity as it is.

Do discount drug cards work? I am investigating!

admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:49:13 +0000

So I have had a problem with nicotine for a couple years now. I have been smoke-free since February 2007 but have still been hooked on nicotine lozenges for some time now. I discuss more about My Nicotine Addiction in this post: My Nicotine Addiction.

I have decided to try Chantix again. This time I am going to go on it for a minimum of six months so I hopefully undo the learned behaviors of using the nicotine lozenges. I have been short on money for a little while now and since my insurance doesn’t cover Chantix it would be hard for me to pay the $130 minimum a month (the initial cost the first month is even more since you have to buy the starter pack and then the regular 1 mg tablets).

I was browsing around for places online that sell it at discount with no luck. There are a lot of “online pharmacies” which look like scam sites and the Canadian pharmacies that charge the same amount as my local pharmacy, and that’s without the shipping fees. So now I am stumped, hmm, “Maybe I can try the American Cancer Society!”. I shot them an e-mail, they e-mailed me back on November 18^th saying they would try to help me and I have yet to receive another e-mail as of today. At this point I was just googleing “Chantix discounts” and came upon a website called: http://www.freedrugcard.us. This site apparently get’s you a discount from the pharmacy by creating a discount card you are supposed to print out and show to your pharmacy upon paying for your prescription. They claim they are able to get you the cheapest price for many medications by getting the pharmacies to charge you their lowest price for the desired medication. I am going to try to use this card today and will let you know if it works out!

UPDATE: For the prescription I tried to fill (Chantix), it gave no discount. This might just be the type of prescription. I would be warry, but then again, since it is free, what do you have to lose?

Note: I am in no way affiliated to http://www.freedrugcard.us. I have no idea if this discount card works or not!

Christmas gift ideas, need your input!

admin — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:12:31 +0000

Tis the season. Christmas is quickly approaching and I am trying to figure out gift ideas for my family and friends. Money has been a hassle for me the past year, and now that the economy is losing momentum, I need to find some frugal but sincere and caring ways to choose good gifts. I will be writing an article later on with good gift ideas for those low on cash after I figure them out. If any of you guys have good ideas please leave a comment or contact me with your idea and your web address (if you have one) so I can give credit where credit is due. Until then, Happy Holidays!

Your privacy in the digital age, does it still exist?

admin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:42:32 +0000

These days online privacy is mentioned quite a bit. You hear about identity theft, hackers, and data collection among other things. There are many people and business’s out there who are willing to sell, purchase, or use your information to look at your online shopping, browsing, and e-mail habits. Many of these companies are actually well known corporations and always claim that your data is safe, anonymous, and secure. Even if that was the case I rather not anyone or any computer have the capability of accessing my personal habits as they please.

One big name I hear often is Google. Google is the biggest search engine ever to hit the net, and they keep on getting bigger. One of the reasons Google has become the giant it is, is in part due to its huge database of habits by virtually anyone who has gone near a Google service or product. One example of their collection techniques sparked a lot of controversy. Their new browser “Google Chrome” has been the talk of the tech community and privacy advocates alike. This browser, not one of my favorites, is sleek, simple, and probably the most well designed private investigator known to man. Google claims all of the data will be erased, ip’s will be somewhat blocked after 18 months and your data being identified only by your browser, and their servers. Apparently, none of your data is stored on your computer. Great, so none of My data is stored on MY computer, where is it stored then? It’s stored on THEIR servers, out of my hands. You can try many techniques to hide your ip address, opt-out of tracking etc. but they are usually meaningless and do nothing to hide your habits from software like the Google chrome browser.

Another big company who tracks your habits is Alexa. Alexa claims to use your browsing habits to help better improve Amazon.com’s marketing. Alexa is looked at by many as another alternative to the Google PageRank system, I tend to differ with that idea since it is very easy to spoof your rankings with Alexa and much more difficult with Google’s PageRank system. I still remember when I first started to hear about Alexa their name

went hand in hand with tracking cookies and Spyware. They have managed to avoid that perception nowadays although I still believe this to be the truth. Alex seems to have managed to make people believe their companies practices are now legit and acceptable, they have got to be the most successful company that has managed to convince people that their obvious tracking behaviors are okay and don’t threaten you the user.

I believe that although these giants have a lot of people’s data, it is still possible for your to get into the wrong hands, privacy as we know it no longer exists and it keeps getting smaller and smaller as these giants get more and more of your personal data. Imagine if this data got into the wrong hands…..

December is here, but where is the weather?

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:08:27 +0000

(Above: Beautiful December day in Danville,CA December 1st '08)

Wow! Its December already! The weather in California this year has been very bizarre. It feels as if it’s the first of November; the leaves are just now starting to fall! I am hoping the current weather situation means a short winter and early spring, I am very anti-winter. In the winter my energy is drained, depression sets in on gloomy days, and its cold. I can deal with rain for he first few weeks but after that it’s just frustrating. On those rainy days traffic seems to slow to a crawl. That bone-chilling type of coldness seems like it will never leave me, no matter how many layers of clothes I am wearing, and everyone just gets cranky. Christmas is coming and we have only had like a solid 12 days of rain! Hope this weather keeps up!

--- Andrew

Is society really doing their best in teaching their children?

admin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:12:13 +0000

So I wasn’t too sure about what I would discuss today and decided to bring up an issue that has been on my mind for quite some time. Every now and then I take a bit out of my busy schedule of work, school, furniture restoration, hobbies and other tasks I usually partake in on my weekdays and try to reflect on where I was a year from today, or two years, or five years etc. A lot has happened and most of it has been great. I have matured more in the last two years than any other time in my life. It took a lot of very bad circumstances and poor choices to get me here but now I am almost happy I was able to experience those circumstances, they have caused so much fear, hopeless, and heartache, but now life is a lot different.

I still have those feelings every now and again but that’s okay, that’s how life is. I have always wanted everything in my life to be perfect, I had expectations, wants, and a very fantasy-like outlook on my future. Sadly most of my imagination has dissipated since I came to reality, I’m a “grown up” (damn). I have now come to accept the possibilities and the impossibilities that face me. I hope that again I can get a little more of that imagination I once had as it was always so comfortable and euphoric, but it usually takes me further away from reality and inhibits my chances of being successful and responsible.

I was always one of those kids with that ADHD label. I don’t know how much I buy into the ADHD label. I do match about 97% of the symptoms perfectly but most people do, joking aside, I do believe that if ADHD is a true illness I am very much affected by it. School was always such a downer, still is but I know that if I want to get a job that doesn’t involve putting couches over my head all day (furniture mover) for the rest of my life I need to accept it and try to tough it out. Well, I am defiantly toughing it out, I would rather be almost anywhere but in a classroom. I am by no means dumb or average, and please don’t take that as bragging, but I just wish there was some type of approach that someone like myself could have taken in my early years of life. I know there are many, many people that have the same story I have that could go places and because of the little knowledge we as humans have in our own neurology it’s difficult to know the right way to go about helping these people in their most influential stages of life . We have the basics down, know some neurotransmitters, behaviors, hormones and other signs to better help mentally ill people, but lots of these mental illnesses and learning disabilities, in my opinion, aren’t “illnesses” or “disabilities” at all. Now don’t get me wrong, mental illnesses do exist and are major hardships for many people, but there is still so much we don’t know, so much we don’t seem to want to know and even unconsciously pretend we don’t know. The figures for the diagnosis of mental illnesses seems to rise each year, more and more children are getting prescribed some fairly serious medications for something that might really just be treatable with a new way of teaching, and a new way of raising kids in certain environments that can help them excel instead of sticking them with bunch of different children from different intelligence levels, thought processing skills, talents, interests, in a classroom setting. I might be going a bit overboard but I just know there are MUCH better methods to use for education that need to be researched and improved. It’s such a tragedy to see so many kids in almost a state of apathy, and disregard for other people and themselves. Getting into a good college in my state requires a HUGE commitment to academics, something that most kids are not ready to do when they are between the ages of 14-18. They don’t have good direction and seem to have some kind of negative view on society. It is frustrating and de-moralizing for many kids who just aren’t capable of everything asked of them. I know remember how school was and I remember the assignments, most of them were boring, seemed like busywork. Now how am I supposed to lean when I don’t have any interest whatsoever in the subject being taught. Now think about this; how is someone like myself who thinks it is boring, busywork and has no interest in it supposed to excel and score an A in the class? Well, sometime I did get that A, but did I learn much, nope. Did I cheat, nope. Now think about it this way; what if I was being taught a subject I was interested in. What if I was being taught a subject that I was interested in through an agenda that fit my type of personality, who knows what could happen. I will talk a lot more about this in later articles but for now I will stop here. Feel free to add comments; I would love to receive your input!

Thanksgiving this year is; surprisingly welcomed?

admin — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:14:26 +0000

It's the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I always look forward to the holidays! I love getting together with the family. We usually have big gatherings, lots of pies, hams, turkeys, and....drama.

Never a dull moment on my families holidays! Since one of the relatives decided to disown us, the drama has significantly decreased. It's very sad the way things went, and a little dissapointing since I enjoyed their company. Holidays are the time's where families should come together, put aside their differences and dislikes towards each other (or at least make an attempt at it). Many of the reasons this relative has isolated themselvs is rediculous and childlike, she almost always thought about herself and had to be "better" than everyone else in the family, for years, well decades, everyone tried their hardedst to put up with it. Finally, it turned out that "SHE" decided enough was enough and broke communications with us. She brought her level down to that of a spoiled child who couldn't get their way.

Aside from that I beleive that everything happends for a reason and now the holidays are much more enjoyable since everyone seems to get along and enjoy eachothers company! The drama has subsided and Thanksgiving is looking better and better as the years go on!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, I will!

How selflessness has brought me happiness.

Andrew — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:12:38 +0000

It has been awhile since I last posted, life happens. I have noticed recently how things have been going so smoothly in my daily life. A couple years ago it was not like this, I had a void, something wasn't right, and something was missing. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I now know what it was, why it was causing these problems, and how I came to cope with it. This can be of a great help to most but may be difficult to get used to at first. To introduce myself; I naturally have these characteristics:

good intentions
a short temper
passionate/extreme personality (all or nothing approach)
jack of all trades
start lots of projects and rarely finish any of them
selfish
can hyper focus on subjects that are of interest and excel at them at a faster rate than most

I have only shared characteristics relevant to the subject so please don’t try to sum me up by only reading this article. Now some of these are good and some bad, all of them can make life a real hassle if I don't recognize them and cope. For twenty years I lived by those and they created a lot of very tough, uncomfortable, sometimes violent, sometimes depressing, and rarely happy and satisfying situations. A key characteristic that I bolded was “selfish”, selfishness is a bad trait and something many people these days either have or acquire. Selfishness is how most of the negative heart wrenching situations are shaped these days (enron,yahoo,most banks etc), it is the main ingredient in unhappiness.

I no longer have this void, this negative feeling about me, life, and society because I try not to focus on my views towards them much, at least on a personal level. You see, my type of personality thrives on selfishness, as do many peoples. We only think about what good is in a situation for us, what can you do for me? This outlook is very flawed, it’s not reality. What I have found to be the key to my own peace of mind is helping others and not trying to get something out of it. I try to spend time with family and friends, even if I don’t want to. I try to do something for someone else that might negatively affect me in the short term, possibly even in the long term. There are limits, I still need to look out for my own existence and well-being but usually if my heart is in it and it can be a positive deed for someone else, I will be okay and everything just seems to work itself out. I used to fight this so much thinking that if I wasn’t always trying to get something out of situations other people would get the benefits and I would get the rest. That is not true, there is always enough to go around. I know that as long as I am being a positive influence on somebody’s life, not a negative influence there is nothing to worry about, no guilt, no worry. I can sleep well at night and know that if I died tonight I was able to help someone other than myself. I am not trying to brag or act like I am perfect. I am no saint and far from perfection, but I am taking action and trying to be a benefit to society versus an expense.

I hope this can help motivate some. Still getting used to blogging and writing in proper English. Hope you all have a great week!
--- Andrew

Tips to speed up the time it takes to build calluses on your hands and ways to harden your hands.

admin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:03:06 +0000

The first couple years in my job as a furniture mover were tougher than the later years. This is partially due to undeveloped muscles which get developed over time and hand calluses. It takes awhile to build hand calluses, sometimes a long while. Many of you reading this post may be interested in building calluses for the guitar, baseball, ect. This easy method can work for all. I have some tricks of the trade, and my own ideas that many might not be aware of. Lucky for you, its likely you haven't read or heard some of what I am going to tell you.

Before I explain my tips you have to know a little bit about calluses and hardened hands:

Girls do NOT like them!
Girls do NOT like them!
Girls do NOT like them!

I hope you got the point, this is usually a turn off to the ladies so keep that in mind before trying to get some rough hands. It is a necessity for my job to have calluses therefore I have no choice and the ladies will have to deal, but if possible try to avoid this method if it is not a necessity because you will get some mean looking paws.
Calluses are the toughened area of skin which has thick and hard as a response to repeated contact or pressure. When you begin adding pressure and continue to dry out the skin it speeds the process of building your calluses. Here is a list of options and materials you can use speed up for formation:

Mild and semi-safe approaches:

Dry them out with 90-99% rubbing alcohol 2-3 times a day, don’t soak them in it just pour a little in your palm and rub your hands till it dries up.

Continually rub some powdered chalk onto your hands

Soak your hands in warm-hot water and alum in the morning and at night.

Urinate on your hands. (Gross I know, I have not tried this and will not but it apparently works).

Harsh and potentially dangerous/unsafe approaches:

Warm up a dumbbell, not to where it burns your hands but just about. Hold on and lift the dumbbell shoulder height and keep it there until you can no longer hold it or it cools down. Repeat this 3-4times in a row and attempt 2 times a day.
CAUTION: This method can be dangerous, and will build scar tissue from the heat and pressure applied to your hands. This could be irreversible so think hard before choosing this path.

There is a trick that martial artists and would use and still use to harden their hands. There are 4 different levels you move up to over time:

Level 1: Fill a 5 gallon bucket full of white rice and punch your hand open straight diagnalloy. Do this 10-12 times in a row and continue this 5 times a day
.
Level 2: After you no longer feel pain fill a 5 gallon bucket with assorted dried beans. Repeat the same steps as mentioned in step one.

Level 3. After you are no longer in pain from level 2 fill the 5 gallon bucket with sand and repeat the same steps a level 1 and 2.

Level 4. It should have taken you quite awhile to reach this level, if not I guarantee injury because you are trying to speed up the process. Once you have no pain from Level 3 and feel your hands are pretty hardened and have skin flaking/peeling off (heavy calluses, scars) you can attempt this. If you are uncomfortable with it just stay at level 3 and be happy with what you have achieved. Fill 5 gallon bucket with tiny .177 BB’s or small ball bearings. Repeat steps in level 1,2,3 but once reaching this start at 2-3 straight hand punch’s twice a day. Slowly increases your punches and frequency each day.

CAUTION: This method is irreversible, dangerous, and if you ever get in a fight, the police can arrest you with the use of a deadly weapon if your hands are hardened!! I am not joking. Please take a bit before you decide to do this as your hand will be hardened the rest of your life and could limit your finger use and flexibility.
Most of you readers will not need to harden yours hands or even go to the more extreme measure for building your calluses. What works for me is taking a bottle of 99% alcohol and mixing it in a jar with a small bottle of alum. Just shake well, pour the alcohol/alum mixture on your hands and rub it till it dissolves.

I will wrap up this article with the pros and cons of building your calluses and hardening your hands.

Callus Building:

Pros:
You can grip heavy items like glass or armoires much easier.
Less likely to cause bleeding if you get stuck by nails, staples, or other sharp items.
Can handle rough objects easier due to padding effect on hands which protects your more sensitive tissues from irritation.

Cons:
Ladies are not impressed.
Flaking of heavily callused areas and more prone to hang-nails due to dryness of skin.

Hard hands:

Pros:

You can really beat the crap out of them without much pain.
Lots of padding for heavy objects.

Cons:

Irreversible.
Risk of losing function of fingers.
Improved risk of arthritis.
Ladies will not be impressed.
Cops deeming them lethal weapons if used in fight.

Check back now and then as I will improve this article and add more, or replace tips with better approaches ect.
If you have any experience in this area please comment and I can add it to the article.

Dislcaimer: I am not a proffessional in this area and provide this in as an informative approach. Any of these tips you choose to apply are at your sole discretion and I take no responsibility for anything you do to youself as a result.

AT&T New Capping Limits Unfair To Customers.

admin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:20:25 +0000

Recently many broadband companies have been putting together think tanks on battling their never-ending broadband woes. They have too many users and too little throughput, well that’s in my view. These huge companies have been lining their pockets for years with random fees for unjust reasons. AT&T has now followed Comcast in their new initiative to yet again find other ways to charge their customers extra while still keeping their customer base. Since Comcast announced a couple months ago that they were going to cap their broadband users at 250 gigabytes a month; AT&T has followed suit. AT&T is now introducing a cap on new customer’s starting at 20-150 gigabytes a month depending on their service plans. Existing customers are in the clear at the moment as this is a “test” run. I have more than a hunch that this is just an early introduction to another way of keeping their customers down and capping potential for new innovation and productivity on the internet

Since AT&T already has a huge market, solid foundation, and presence in the United States they should be investing their money in ways to increase their throughput and broadband capabilities instead of spending more money on advertisements and research on new ways to give their customer the finger. 150 gigabytes might sound like a lot to some people but for someone like myself that has this service at home, pays for “unlimited” bandwidth and manages a website, visits video sites, forums, legal music services, Netflix watch now service ect., this cap will hurt big time. AT&T has just found another way to charge their customers more with their existing service! After going over this 150 gigabyte cap, a customer will then be charged an extra dollar for each gigabyte they exceed past their monthly cap. This is sneaky, and WRONG. I am now going to be looking into other services such as Comcast (at least they have a 250 cap versus AT&T’s 150 cap) and possibly a company that does not yet have caps. At this point I am even willing to pay more for service from a company that has no caps just in spite of this unfair decision.

Note to AT&T: This might work out for a couple years, but how long do you expect your average customers to stay at their daily bandwidth usage with new online media services showing up now on a regular basis?