Saturday Night Classic Music Video

This week you get two.





Harry died about a year later.

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Nuke It

A couple years ago I realized how dependent we are on our microwave, when I needed to replace ours due to sparks flying inside....

Yesterday I found a dozen more ways to use my microwave from www.unplggd.com :

• Dry herbs in the microwave If you buy fresh cilantro or grow your own basil, you can use your microwave to dry out herbs (follow these instructions from The Kitchn). Drying allows you to store unused portions or dry up a small amount for an extra-tasty spice rub!


• Sterilize garden soil to make it fit to plant seedlings. Spread 400g soil on a flat dish and heat on high for 90 seconds or until steaming.


• Soften Brown Sugar. Keep the sugar in its plastic packaging, add a few drops of water, and heat on medium for 10 to 20 seconds.


• Make extra-tasty microwave popcorn by nuking a bowl of water first. Do a quick switcheroo and then cook the popcorn as directed. The moisture left in the microwave will make for some fluffier kernels.



• Disinfect sponges in the microwave. After you've given your sponge a good soak in water, nuke it for 2 minutes to kill 99 percent of bacteria.


• Disinfect plastic cutting boards (if they fit!). Wash the board well, rub it with the cut side of a lemon, then heat for 1 minute.


• Prepare your cutting board oil. Serious cooks who oil down their wooden cutting boards will benefit by zapping the oil for a spell first.


• Get extra life out of a dried-up mascara stick by heating for 30-40 seconds on high with a cup of water in the microwave beside it.



• Get more juice from a lemon or lime. Just zap it in the microwave for 20 seconds and then roll it around on the counter a few times.


• Bring solidified honey back to life. Crystallized honey is brought back to liquid life by uncovering the jar and heating on medium power for 30 seconds to 1 minute.


• Cook unexpected foods. You know your microwave can cook frozen burritos, but you can also make more impressive dishes with your counter top tech. Try making no-fry potato chips, in-the-husk corn-on-the-cob, or even scrambled eggs if you're in a pinch. You can also use a microwave to cut down on dough-proofing time if you're making homemade bread.


• Serve your delicious meals on warmed plates for pro-worthy presentation. Sprinkle each one with water and pile them up. Heat on high for around 30 seconds—but make sure they don't have any metal decorations.

(Images: Top, Sarah Rae Trover from Home Hacks: How To Dry Herbs In The Microwave; Others, Real Simple)

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Video Time: Parking

From TheStar.com:

A 62-year-old Richmond Hill woman whose terrible parking job became the subject of a viral YouTube video last year was sentenced in Newmarket court Tuesday.

Tripta Kaushal was arrested in October after surveillance footage captured her attempting to park her blue BMW SUV at a Markham gym. As she pulled into the space, the vehicle suddenly lunged forward, driving up on top of two parked cars.

Kaushal then fled the scene without reporting the collision.

The video was picked up on websites around the world, with audiences declaring the incident the ‘worst parking job ever.”

Kaushal pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge of failing to report, and was given a $500 fine and ordered to pay restitution to the two victims whose vehicles she damaged. She was also given six months probation and is restricted from driving between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.

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5 at 5

Since it is 5pm....

from the DLM Blog:

5 Effective Tips on Removing The Obstacles to Your Success

Posted: 28 Mar 2010 08:28 AM PDT

One of the fastest ways to success is to remove the obstacles in front of you. These obstacles can be anything from mental roadblocks to office politics and making them move in the direction you want is not always easy and it certainly isn't fast.

I am not here to tell you exactly what to do because that won't work; your world is much different than mine. I am, however, here to share my experiences with you so you can take what I have learned and apply portions of it where it makes sense in your life. Going in, understand that reading is never enough to achieve success. If you're going to skim this article and then do nothing, your life won't change. You have to take action and you have to fail an incredible amount of times until something happens. There are exceptions of course, but I think you catch my drift.

If you only learn one thing from this article, that alone is enough and it will have an impact on your life. With all that said, here are my five effective tips on removing obstacles to success:

1. Buy a Course
   The simpler you can make something, the easier it will be for you to succeed. If you buy a course that has been proven to work for thousands of people, you will succeed, if you follow the instructions.
   
   I know I’m supposed to say you should break the rules and be remarkable, but I'm not going to do that. Following instructions when you have no clue what you’re doing is the fastest way to success, at least for me. You might be different, so don’t take what I say as gospel.
   
   First learn the rules, play by the rules and only break them once you understand them. In the end what I’m trying to say is to find your own way of doing things.


2. Get A Coach
   Ever since I paid someone money to criticize my poker game, I’ve been in love with coaching. It’s just such an effective way to reduce your learning curve. If you’re not getting the results you want, you can ask your coach what he or she thinks is wrong and what you can do to improve.
   
   Not only did I use coaching to improve my poker game to such a stage that I was able to make a living at it for almost five years, but I’ve also used it to learn blogging. I knew what I wanted, so I went out and found someone who was already successful. I then joined their coaching program.


3. Outsource
   If you want to get something done online, you’ll naturally run into a lot of hurdles especially when it comes to design and the technical side of things. I realize you may not always have the money to throw on outsourcing, but if you do, it’s an effective way to save time and eliminate possible frustration.
   
   Want to get a blog up but don’t know how? Outsource it. Want to edit an audio file but don’t have the tools? Outsource it. Some things you want to outsource, others not so much. Think about where it makes sense.


4. Partner
   Don’t know how to do the technical stuff? Don’t have money to outsource? Still feel like you can provide? Partner with someone whose strengths are your weaknesses and split the profits.
   
   Another restricting belief you may have is sharing the profit with someone. I had that too. Still have it to some extent, but working with the right partner is a lot of fun. I’m not out to make millions of dollars.
   
   I live a simple life, so I don’t need a lot of money. I’ve realized that I can do what I want to do with a relatively small income. It’s a common trap we fall into. We think we need all this money to do something, when instead we can just do it right away.


5. Examine Your Beliefs
   When you think about success, it’s easy to associate it with competition. We have been taught to believe that success means stomping on other people to get higher up on the ladder, but does it really have to be that way?
   
   What you believe determines your reality. But remember, you do not have to be perfect to be successful. It’s easy to put successful people on a pedestal and think that they are above you when they aren’t.
   
   They are human beings just like everyone else. They have feelings, fears and worries. Think about what’s holding you back and why. You may begin to uncover some uncomfortable stuff, but if you want to become successful and do what you love, that’s one of the fastest way to get there.

Written on 3/28/2010 by Henri Junttila. Henri is addicted to living a free and passionate life. He runs the Wake Up Cloud, where he shows you how you can learn how to find your passion and live consciously.

Photo Credit: lululemon athletica

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Video Time: Real Country Music

There was some Country Music Awards show on TV again a few days ago. This song was not from that show!

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Be a Better Googler

I sort of forgot my afternoon update.

So here you go from the MakeUseOf.com website:

6 Ways To Reduce Irrelevant Results On Google Search

The internet is not your library and if you thought a ton of books was an overwhelming amount of information, think again.

The internet doesn’t contain just a few dozen or hundred relevant sources, no, it contains millions or billions or even more. To make things worse, there is no friendly and intelligent librarian to help you sort through all this information. It’s only you and a stupid search engine. You better act smart.

The challenge when searching online is to find only relevant information or – in other words – avoid irrelevant results on Google search. In this article I will show you 6 ways to reduce these false hits, so that you get better overall search results.

Surprisingly, the most effective way to reduce irrelevant results on Google search, may be not to use Google’s search engine in the first place. Read on to understand why.

1. Use Multiple Keywords

Use multiple keywords to receive more specific results on your first search engine results page (SERP).

2. Use Google Suggest

When you enter the first letters of a keyword into the search bar, Google will suggest popular keywords other people have used in their searches. Follow these suggestions and see whether they can help you gain better results.

3. Use Operators to Properly Connect Keywords

This is a whole article of its own and fortunately it has already been written. Please have a look at my article on Google Operators for an overview. You can use each of these “commands” to improve your search results. Here I will mention only the three most helpful ones.

• Use Negative Keywords

If you’re seeing irrelevant results, identify a keyword that has nothing to do with what you’re looking for and make it your “negative keyword”. Simply add it to your search query with a minus symbol in front of it, for example if you were looking for the band Gossip, you would search for [gossip -celebrity] (without the brackets).

• Use Quotes

This is most commonly used to find an exact match. Since Google already uses the AND operator to connect single keywords per default, you won’t need quotes to find exact matches in most cases.

However, if you find that Google returns results with highlighted keywords that are spelled completely different from what you entered, try to put these single words into quotes and try again. This will prevent Google from “finding” more popular keywords that are only vaguely similar to your search term.

• Search Within a Specific Website

If you don’t want to search the entire internet, but instead a specific URL, this operator is of great help. Type [site:URL "your search query"], for example [site:http://wikipedia.org "brandenburg gate"].

This MakeUseOf Poll compiled by Aibek features some more Best Google Search Tips & Operators.

4. Use Advanced Search

If you can’t be bothered with manually typing operators, you can use Google’s Advanced Search. It allows you to exclude words, search for results in a specific language or specific files, and search within a site or domain. As you enter the details, the search query is automatically composed for you.

5. Use Google Chrome With Quick Scroll

One of the most annoying parts of following a search result is finding the relevant part within the page that opens. The Google Chrome extension Quick Scroll helps you tackle this issue as it provides a quick way to scroll to the parts in that website that are relevant to your query.

We have profiled Quick Scroll in the MakeUseOf Directory.

In Firefox you could simply use Quick Find, i.e. “find in text as you type” to quickly find the keywords again. However, if you’re into Google Chrome, you should check out these 8 Cool Google Chrome Extensions for Google Services, an article written by Tim earlier this month.

6. Ditch Google

Google is the most popular search engine and as such it has a lot of power. Google naturally has full control over its search algorithm. This in turn has a great impact on what results you will see, i.e. those you actually want to see or those that Google wants you to see.

There are two major variables that determine which results are recognized as relevant for your search: Link Authority (a.k.a. PageRank) and Keyword Relevance. Keyword relevance is straight forward. How well do the keywords you entered match the result, how often do they appear throughout the website, are they included in links pointing to that site, etc? Actually, this is all that you’re looking for when using a search engine.

Google, however, is biased towards link authority. The number of links pointing to a certain page determines its “authority” or PageRank. The more, the better. Unfortunately, this means that keywords only remotely related to a high PageRank site may cause this site to appear on your SERP, no matter how relevant it really is. The advantage is that you’ll see a lot of results from reputable high impact pages like Wikipedia or MakeUseOf. On the other hand you may miss out on many more relevant results from smaller pages. That’s not necessarily what you want.

So what can you do? You cannot change Google’s algorithm. However, if you keep seeing irrelevant search results, no matter how well you tune your search, there is one more thing you can do to get better results: don’t use Google’s search engine in the first place.

Yahoo’s search engine, for example, is less biased towards link authority and will thus provide you with much better search results. For a detailed analysis and examples, please see Troy Philis’ article on More Irrelevant Google Search Results.

What are your experiences with Google search and what has helped you to get the most relevant results?

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7 from 7

No, it's not a math lesson.

More like a history lesson from the DLM Blog:

7 Profound Lessons From 7 of our Historical Leaders

Posted: 15 Apr 2010 07:50 AM PDT

Leaders aren’t necessarily special. They don’t wear a halo and they certainly don’t glow in the dark. Leaders are just the individuals who are further along the path that you’re traveling. Because leaders have traveled the path successfully, they are able to provide insights into the journey so by absorbing the lessons they have learned, one would think that with application, your path may be simpler.

Today I want to take a look at seven amazing lessons from seven amazing leaders. These lessons are intended to give us insight into our journey, as well as provide us with some much needed motivation. As you will see, these seven leaders are from differing backgrounds, but their message is similar.

As a sidenote, there are hundreds of leaders out there so if your favorite isn't listed, add it in the comment section below this post. With that, let’s get right to it.

1. You Must Crawl Before You Can Walk
   
   

   "Every artist was first an amateur." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

   
   As the Scripture says, “Despise not the day of small beginnings...Although thy beginning be small, thy latter end shall greatly increase.” It’s important that we remember that Rome was not built in a day. There are no overnight successes.
   
   Success happens over years, and only to those who are consistently consistent.
   
   Every “somebody” was once a “nobody;” everyone starts “small,” but if you’re focused, and if you’re steady, one day, you will be “big.”
   


2. Work From Your Strengths
   
   

   "Just do what you do best."- Red Auerbach

   
   Learn what you do best, and focus on that! If you wrote a book that only sold one copy after five years, then maybe writing’s not your "thing." Discover your true passion and dedicate your life to doing that task to the very best of your ability. That’s what success is. Success is not buying a Rolls Royce; success is doing the best with the talents that you’ve been given. It's playing the card you've been dealt to the very best of your ability.


3. Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude
   
   

   "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."- Thomas Jefferson
   

   
   I know its cliché but your attitude really does determine your altitude. Having a negative perspective is like walking through life with dark shades on; you don’t see as clearly and you miss opportunities that are right in front of you. In essence, you are your own worst enemy.
   
   It’s critical that you keep a positive mental attitude, it’s critical that you believe in your possibilities. Frank Loyd Wright said, “The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.” So always believe that you will succeed.


4. Success Comes From Your Habits
   
   

   "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."-Aristotle

   
   
   Your life is a collection of your habits. If you succeed, it will be because over the course of your life you’ve collected habits that cause success. Your habits will take you further than your education. Robert Collier said, “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”



5. You Must See Your Success in Your Mind
   
   

   "Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true."-Napoleon Hill

   
   
   What you constantly ponder you will eventually become. You must see where you want to be. The clear vision of your desire gives you the motivation to make it happen. This works positively or negatively. If you consistently think about gambling, you’ll eventually try it. If you consistently think about providing value, you will eventually provide it.
   
   It all starts with the vision that you glorify in your mind.


6. You Must Have a Goal
   
   

   "A goal properly set is halfway reached."-Abraham Lincoln

   
   
   Are you working towards your goals? A person without a goal is like a car without an engine; it ain’t going nowhere. You must have a goal, and you must constantly work towards the achievement of that goal. You must constantly move in the direction of that goal. Conrad Hilton said “Success…seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”


7. Go After Your Dreams
   
   

   “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”-Mark Twain
   

   
   
   You only live once, you only get one bite at the apple, I suggest you go after your dreams. Helen Keller said life is either a daring adventure or nothing! So live the life you’ve always imagined, explore, follow your passion, and in the end, you will have no regrets.

Thank you for reading and be sure to pass this article along!

Written on 4/15/2010 by Mr. Self Development who is a motivational author that offers a practical guide to success and wealth; support him by visiting his blog at mrselfdevelopment.com or by subscribing to his feed.

Photo Credit: maja-online

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