I grew up in a relatively video game-less universe. The only game we had was Pong which my brother and I played until it broke after only a few months of use. After that I had the occasional opportunity to play the Nintendo at a friends house. But I sucked so I was not a big fan of it. Eventually we got a computer that could handle a few games. I remember playing Duke Nukem, Doom, and Tie Fighter a lot. But it wasn’t until I got to college that I bought my first console. It was a PS2 and I played it quite a bit at first, GTA 3, Rogue Agent and Vice City. But eventually I got bored with it too. It wasn’t until last year that I really got into gaming. My roommate is a born-gamer, he is way better at it than I ever hope to be. Mostly because he has been gaming since the womb, he came out of it with a silver Nintendo controller in his right hand. He bought an Xbox 360 and we started playing, a lot. We would play for entire days. It was awesome. We had tons of games to play, Halo 3, Fable 2, Dynasty Warriors 6 and The Force Unleashed. I should mention that I played Dynasty Warriors 6 just this morning. Neither one of us can get enough of that game. That and GTA 4. Anyway with all this use and with the added bonus of living in a dusty apartment, I thought that our Xbox would be really dirty. But when I cleaned it for the article How to Clean an Xbox 360 I discovered that it was hardly dirty at all. I think it helps that I dust and vacuum on a regular basis. Anyway if you need to clean your Xbox, PS3, Gamecube or Wii, you should check out my article How to Clean an Xbox 360.
Archive for April, 2009
Water is among humanity’s greatest needs. Of the world’s supply of water; 97% is in the ocean and 2 % is frozen. This leaves just 1 % of the world’s water left for drinking. When I see a statistic like this, I get the initial reaction that we all get: a bit of shock. But what exactly does that mean, 1 %? How much water is that? How much do we need? It is a shocking statistic, but in itself it doesn’t mean much. I am not doubting that there is a water crisis. Maybe not in America but in other countries for sure. And perhaps someday we Americans will be faced with a water crisis. We already have a strange fascination with bottled water. Ooh, it’s from a rare mountain spring. Oh my God, what flavor!. Fortunately, a lot of people have gotten hip to this whole bottled water scam and discovered a way to make their own filtered water. The result has saved them loads of money, natural resources, and energy. There are a lot of ways to filter or clean water. In my article How to Clean Water, I have listed all that I am aware of. I have also included the benefits and downsides for each.
The very first time I can remember wanting to kill raccoons, I was out camping with a crew of friends from high school. It was about 2:00 a.m. and we were all sprawled out around the camp fire in our sleeping bags when we heard a rustling. When we looked up there was a frickin’ raccoon going to town on our Doritoes (never mind that we were stupid enough to leave them open and on the picnic table). So my buddy Nick and I gave a battle cry, grabbed some sticks and tried to chase the little bastard down. We failed horribly but it was fun. Nowadays, I’m an avid feeder of birds. I’ve been awoken more than a few times at night to the sound of raccoons knocking my bird feeders down and making a meal out of my expensive bird seed. After a few times of that happening, I decided it was time to learn how to get rid of raccoons. Turns out there’s a number of things you can do to diminish their presence in your yard. Getting rid of raccoons is accomplished through a series of raccoon control methods, raccoon trapping, and even some good ol’ scare tactics. If you’ve got raccoons in the attic or in the yard and need to get rid of them, check out this article.
As a kid I used to catch flies, tear off their wings and throw their wingless bodies into the webs of spiders so I could watch them get wrapped up and eaten. Looking back at things like that makes me realize that deep, deep down, I truly am a bad person. Oh well. I’m over it. Not everyone can be good right? Right. Anyway, nowadays my methods for getting rid of flies have improved greatly in proficiency. And that’s a good thing. Using the old method, it would probably take all the nine year olds in the entire world to empty one back yard of flies. Plus, that would make for some fat ass spiders. And that would make them even creepier. So, as I said, my fly control methods have improved. All it takes is some cleanliness, some diligence, maybe a fly trap or two, and….ah hell. Just read the article.
The armies of fitness gurus who insist that you can get rid of your love handles by doing crunches and side bends are crazy, and they don’t agree with your doctor. The vast majority of people with enough abdominal fat (especially around the obliques) to dub the flub “love handles” need to lose overall body fat. That’s right - to get rid of love handles, you’ll need to lose weight, and the weight loss industry is saturated in false promises, ridiculous solutions, and convoluted schemes. Losing weight is a very difficult thing to do, but it isn’t that complicated. Read my latest article on how to get rid of love handles to learn about safe, sustainable weight loss as well as strategies for toning those abdominals and obliques once that fat begins to melt away.
Though all women will experience facial hair growth at some point in life, our popular, media-conditioned notions of feminine physical beauty require women to get rid of it. The good news is getting rid of facial hair isn’t all that difficult; however, as with any industry involving our insecurities, there are many scammers and schemers who would love to part you from your money. Reading my article about how to get rid of facial hair will help you avoid these pitfalls. In the article, I describe the proven methods for removing facial hair - everything from thermal electrolysis and prescription medication to simpler solutions like sugaring, shaving, and threading. The article also explores each method’s strengths and weaknesses - looking into price, duration of results, and whether or not they work on all skin and hair types. Don’t waste your time seaching elsewhere; read this article and avoid an avoidable social stigma.
There are very few things in this world that can make you feel as crawly and itchy as when you know there are cat fleas wandering around your home. The constant paranoia this induces can be maddening. Every little tickle you feel is turned, in your brain, into a ten foot gorilla flea attempting to eat your leg off. It’s emabrrassing too. It shouldn’t be, but it is. No one likes explaining to friends and co-workers what all those little bumps on their appendages are from. I’m no stranger to cat fleas or of how to get rid of them. During my years working in the pet shop I had to get me some larnin’ bout getting rid of cat fleas. What to do, what not to do, what to put on the cats when they have cat fleas, and how to keep cats from getting cat fleas to begin with. So if you’re battling a cat flea infestation and need to know how to get rid of cat fleas, read this article.
I’m well-acquainted with heartburn. As a lover of food, alcohol, and almost all other things consumable, I have often inadvertently acquainted my esophagus with my stomach acid. I also have asthma, and apparently asthma and heartburn have some kind of mysterious evil partnership. I’m lucky, however, in that my heartburn is usually relatively mild. It does sometimes make me feel like I can’t breathe, but the burning itself is usually more like a warm glow than a raging fire. Don’t misunderstand: it’s not a pleasant glow, and I sympathize deeply with those who have it worse than I do. If I’m taking steps to get rid of heartburn, then they must be desperate to do the same. The good news is that there are a lot of ways of getting rid of heartburn, ranging from simple to slightly radical, and they’re all covered in my latest article. Take a look.
For those of us with some sinus conditions, a humidifier can be a blessing in the winter months when the air is dry. Unfortunately, an unclean humidifier can be a hazard to your health. The moist area of a humidifier is the perfect place to grow bacteria. And water vapor is the perfect carrier of that bacteria. There are four types of humidifiers: ultrasonic, cool mist (impeller), evaporative, and steam vaporizers. Of the four, the safest are evaporative and steam vaporizers because the evaporated water cannot carry bacteria as well as the tiny water droplets the other two create. But they can still harbor microorganisms in the tank. Use of a bacteriostatic additive and regular cleaning can nearly eliminate any risk of infection. The following is the best way I have found to clean a humidifier. The humidifier in the pictures is an evaporative wicking console humidifier. But you should be able to use the advice here to clean any humidifier. Read How to Clean a Humidifier.
I went to college for biology, so I don’t really like to use the word bug to describe something. It is just too vague a word for it to really mean much. But it is commonly used, so I shall do my best to define for you what a bug exactly is. Bugs are arthropods. Arthropods have exoskeletons, which means their skeletal structure is on the outside of their bodies. In the phylum Arthropoda, you will find insects, arachnids, myriapods (centipedes and millipedes), and crustaceans. Only a few land-dwelling crustaceans are commonly referred to as bugs—mainly the pill bug and sow bug. Even though crabs and lobsters are not normally referred to as bugs, they do meet the criteria to be a bug, however vague the definition may be. For more information on getting rid of bugs read the full article How to Get Rid of Bugs.