Sep 18 Here are some small things that you can do that might just save your more than you’d think. They’re easy to do, so give ‘em a shot! It’s not a huge list of tips, but these are simply ones that I’ve thought of/started using recently.
- Navy Shower Directions:
1. Turn on water
2. Rinse
3. Turn off water
4. Lather and scrub
5. Turn on water
6. Rinse off
7. Turn off water
8. Enjoy the moment of the day that you will be the cleanest
Save yourself water like the sailors had to do on ships. You’ll realize it’s not bad at all. I mean do you really need to have water being wasted while you scrub? I doubt it.
- Coasting in the car - When you’re driving around, think about the fact that only having two action options, accelerate and brake, could not be the most efficient. There is room for some other option: do nothing and let the laws of physics propel you. The momentum that you’ve previously gained can be utilized. All you need to do is be more aware of things going on around you. If there is a red light up ahead, take your foot off of both pedals and just let your car glide along. Positives while doing this are
1. Less stress - Coasting, as in life, will let you relax
2. Save money - Not pressing the gas pedal will obviously not use gas and that is an obvious monetary savings
3. Have fun (and stay awake) - It's like a game to accurately figure out when to let off the gas in order to coast such that you won't have to brake at all. Great for when you're falling asleep, huh?
4. Eliminate congestion - I should write about this sometime, but coasting at a constant speed in congestion will not only get you to your destination in the same time, but it will actually start the elimination of said congestion! For those not totally self-centered, this can be seen as a huge positive.
- Always turn off the light when you leave a room. No matter how long you’re gone, it has been verified (okay okay, by the great Mythbusters) that it’s more worthwhile to just turn off the light if you leave the room for ~20 seconds (I don’t remember the actual number).
Pretty simple and straightforward, huh? Let me know what you think about ‘em in the comments. Or even better, give me some other tips.
Edit: I totally forgot that when I was thinking of this post I actually meant to also say that these things will save you money but will also help save the environment! Take that into account, why don’t you?
Sep 13 Firefighters use some pretty powerful hoses. I know this. You know this. But this video that I just saw confirms it. Firehoses come in different sizes, and I would assume that they’re using numerous “Blitz line” (2 1/2 inch) or maybe even 3 inch hoses in order to do this. 10 of ‘em work the magic.
[via Gizmodo via LiveLeak]
Sep 10 Have you heard of DNS? Well if you haven’t, in short it is what allows you to memorize “google.com” rather than “72.14.207.99”. Every time you enter a website address into a browser, the browser first has to retrieve the actual numerical address (called an IP address) that corresponds to it so that it can actually access the website.
A real-world analogy would be looking up a phone number in a telephone book. You likely don’t memorize everyone’s number. In fact, you probably don’t know all too many by heart. But you can easily remember someone’s name, right?
So each time you enter the address, your web browser has to ask a DNS server to give you the IP address. Very often, your ISP will have a DNS cache to more quickly give you the IP address.
Something everyone should consider using is OpenDNS. It is a couple of DNS servers that are able to specify on your own computer to always use instead of whatever it is that you would otherwise use. Why is it good? Well OpenDNS offers things like safety from malicious websites (e.g. a misspelled website that causes you to arrive at a malicious website) and speed (likely from optimized servers) to name a few. Try it out, and see if you can notice a difference. I have and I do!
There are instructions at the OpenDNS website for every operating system, and they take but a few minutes. *[IP]: Internet Protocol *[ISP]: Internet Service Provider *[DNS]: Domain Name System
Sep 6 I think that commenting is one of the most interesting and enticing things about an online blog. It allows one to share their thoughts, but it also allows others to give feedback on those thoughts! I like to comment on other blogs, but I also like to respond to comments on my own blog.
So after participating a bit at One Man’s Blog (who is also having a great contest for becoming a “member” of his site right now where he gives away something to the winner of a random drawing), and enjoying it very much I decided that I would do something similar to what he does.
Instead of removing the nofollow on each and every commentator’s link, he instead creates a refreshed list of the top 10 commentators and provides them with a link back that way. I think that after seeing how I can sometimes be getting the single comments just to get a link, I think that this is a more prudent decision to minimize single-line “spammy” comments.
So therefore I am going to go for installing the Show Top Commentators plugin.
The way to get onto the list is as follows:
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Use the same information (name, e-mail, website) when leaving comments. It might be easiest to simply register (which I have opened up) on my website. You’ll be able to log in and not have to enter your information each time you leave a comment.
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Leave comments! It’s fun anyways, I think to get to give feedback to the author (and be assured that authors do enjoy feedback, especially this author).
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The plugin will gather its data from the last 60 days, so be active else you fall and cease being the king of the mountain. Hm I always enjoyed that game (king of the mountain, not falling).
Oh an don’t worry, it will start immediately and retroactively use the comments that you’ve left. So we actually don’t start off with a clean slate, but I wouldn’t think that would be fair anyways to those that have graced me with their participation.
I’m going to remove myself from any sort of communities for adding dofollow. I don’t really get too much traffic from them, and the traffic that I do get is usually people just leaving a single comment to get the link back to their site. I like the idea of adding dofollow, I just don’t like how it’s worked out for me thus far.
Comments might not make the world go ‘round, but they sure are more pleasant than the alternative.
Sep 4 There are many sources out there for how to get money, how to invest money, how to save money, and so on and so forth. But in reality, money is a fairly simple concept that seems to get muddled and complicated because people have such a vested interest in it. And because analysts want to keep their job of explaining the complex to the uneducated.
Basically you earn money (or you find it, or you steal it, or whatever) so that is what is coming in, and then you spend it (or you give it away, or you lose it, you know) and that is what is going out. So what’s the best thing to do? Well spend less than you earn and you should do right fine. Makes sense huh?
A while ago I read about a basic rule for which one could ideally budget and limit one’s spending. It’s called the 40-30-20-10 rule for obvious reasons. The very quick among you would have already realized that those numbers add up to 100 and that would seem to represent 100% of your income. So what do the rest of the numbers represent?
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40 - Savings
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30 - Necessary spending such as rent, food, bills, etc
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20 - Free expenditure allowing any possibility of spending on entertainment, gifts, and otherwise unnecessary for living types of things
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10 - Tithe
When I first read that, it seemed pretty easy and straightforward to me! However, I am wondering if it’s too easy to look at on paper but perhaps a bit too difficult in reality. How many people do you know who only live on 30% of their income? It sounds extremely conservative doesn’t it? You’d require a much better income just to be living an average lifestyle. Of course, I think that’s kind of the point of this budgeting scheme. However, I honestly don’t think that too many people could adhere to this type of drastic budgeting change from their own methods because they have come to expect a level of “luxury” in their lives.
I think that this is a superb idea, and I will try to stick with it as much as I can. I’ve been working on The Budgeteer (although that’s not what this post is really about), and I’ve been using this budgeting as my budgeting inputs. It’s been going alright thus far, and I actually have personally increased my savings category since my necessary expenditures are currently not as high. It’s nice, but I’m wondering if it’ll always be so.
Have many people heard of this plan? Would/could/will many practically use it?