I think one of the best tips I can give someone is to keep a journal. At the beginning of this semester I asked my English teacher what I could do to improve my writing. She told me to keep a journal. At first I was skeptical that keeping a journal would help me in any way, but it has helped me greatly.
At the start of this journal keeping experiment, rarely would I make an entry. I would always feel too tired. I realized after a while that on the days I wrote in my journal I would get to sleep faster. Instead of lying in bed thinking about random things not able to sleep for 15 or so minutes, I was able to fall asleep much faster because I had already spewed all those random thoughts down on paper.
Keeping a journal is a great way to remember things. Although I haven't really kept a journal for very long, already looking back through it, there are a great deal of things written I have forgotten about. I don't really think it has effected my writing much yet, but maybe I will notice a difference over time.
I have adapted this idea of keeping a journal to help with school. Everyday in my notebook I make a star next to ideas which I think I should remember forever. When I get home I look back through my notebook and make a note-card for each fact I wanted to remember. One of my desks in my room is covered with note-cards. Every night before I go to sleep I go through as many as I can. This has done wonders for remembering python functions.
When you are 60 you will thank yourself for keeping a journal. Not only does it tell you what you did but also your mindset when you did it, which is something almost impossible to remember well.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Protect your computer
Computer safety is important. Being safe on the computer is easy and following some simple advice and save you from spending a lot of time later.
Getting a computer virus sucks (for the sake of keeping things simple I am going to use the word “virus” to describe anything negative that can happen to your computer). A lot of people I know have been asking for help getting rid of a virus on their computer. It's incredibly hard sometimes, they usually disable your anti virus software and can mess things up so much that you end up having to install your operating system. I remember sitting next to my father as a child watching him get frustrated and trying recover pictures after a virus raped our computer. Fortunately he was able to recover them, but if he had taken better precautions he would not have had to.
If you have an inferior operating system (ie. Mac or linux) skip this paragraph as well as the next. For you savy windows users virus protection software is vital. There are many of them out there, I would recommend downloading AVG or Avast through http://ninite.com/. Ninite is a cool site for fast downloading and installation. You can read more about it on their site. Now that you have anti-virus software let the scanning commence! Make sure you keep it running at all times and make
There have been (and presumably are) exploits in internet browsers which allow people to download things onto your computer. Needless to say you should try to stay on reputable sites as much as possible and refrain from clicking ads. In addition do not download anything suspect. If you are on youtube and you see a video advertising some program, lets say an especially cool text editor, and this video links directly to a download chances are the program is a virus. People can also attach viruses to programs that are legit, so always make sure you get your programs from a reputable source. If your anti-virus software says something listen to it! If it tells you something is a virus, most of the time it is.
My friend recently had his email, facebook, and paypal intruded upon. Someone got the password and user-name which he uses for everything and used it to mess with everything. On his facebook they put a picture of Jesus sticking up his middle finger and changed his password on everything else. He had no recovery options set up, so it took him literally days to set everything right.
Beside viruses there are several other methods for people to steal your passwords. Companies will never email you asking for your password, if you get an email asking for your password do not respond to it. Avoid logging into anything important on public computers. Check the URL of any website you go to, making sure the domain name is correct. In the event your password is stolen, it's nice to have some way to recover it. For most email companies there is an option to allow recovery from another email or even from your phone. For instance if you have a university email recovering it is super easy so attaching all of your emails to it would be advisable.
Almost everyone I know uses the same password for everything. Do not ever do this. I cannot stress this enough. It's such a bad idea. If one thing gets compromised so does everything else. Try putting a different number at the end of passwords for different sites. Or another cool method which I utilize, memorize one password and put the first three letters of the website name for each different website, keeps each password unique and is super easy to implement.
Start protecting yourself sooner rather than later.
Getting a computer virus sucks (for the sake of keeping things simple I am going to use the word “virus” to describe anything negative that can happen to your computer). A lot of people I know have been asking for help getting rid of a virus on their computer. It's incredibly hard sometimes, they usually disable your anti virus software and can mess things up so much that you end up having to install your operating system. I remember sitting next to my father as a child watching him get frustrated and trying recover pictures after a virus raped our computer. Fortunately he was able to recover them, but if he had taken better precautions he would not have had to.
If you have an inferior operating system (ie. Mac or linux) skip this paragraph as well as the next. For you savy windows users virus protection software is vital. There are many of them out there, I would recommend downloading AVG or Avast through http://ninite.com/. Ninite is a cool site for fast downloading and installation. You can read more about it on their site. Now that you have anti-virus software let the scanning commence! Make sure you keep it running at all times and make
There have been (and presumably are) exploits in internet browsers which allow people to download things onto your computer. Needless to say you should try to stay on reputable sites as much as possible and refrain from clicking ads. In addition do not download anything suspect. If you are on youtube and you see a video advertising some program, lets say an especially cool text editor, and this video links directly to a download chances are the program is a virus. People can also attach viruses to programs that are legit, so always make sure you get your programs from a reputable source. If your anti-virus software says something listen to it! If it tells you something is a virus, most of the time it is.
My friend recently had his email, facebook, and paypal intruded upon. Someone got the password and user-name which he uses for everything and used it to mess with everything. On his facebook they put a picture of Jesus sticking up his middle finger and changed his password on everything else. He had no recovery options set up, so it took him literally days to set everything right.
Beside viruses there are several other methods for people to steal your passwords. Companies will never email you asking for your password, if you get an email asking for your password do not respond to it. Avoid logging into anything important on public computers. Check the URL of any website you go to, making sure the domain name is correct. In the event your password is stolen, it's nice to have some way to recover it. For most email companies there is an option to allow recovery from another email or even from your phone. For instance if you have a university email recovering it is super easy so attaching all of your emails to it would be advisable.
Almost everyone I know uses the same password for everything. Do not ever do this. I cannot stress this enough. It's such a bad idea. If one thing gets compromised so does everything else. Try putting a different number at the end of passwords for different sites. Or another cool method which I utilize, memorize one password and put the first three letters of the website name for each different website, keeps each password unique and is super easy to implement.
Start protecting yourself sooner rather than later.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Tea
This blog will try to help you in all that you do. Each week you will get a tip on how you could help your life. Each day you think, “what could I do to help make my life fun”, or “how can I do more work”. If you are just going through a hard time, or you are just far out of the woods, the tips found here might help. Use a tip for a few days and see if it helps. I will do all that I talk over, so there should be no duds. Here is the first.
Drink tea. I drank soda a great deal for a while and was scared for my health. I knew I had to make a change. Tea was my new soda. Some get turned off, by the heat of tea. Well it need not be hot. I do not like hot tea. I make some tea and put it in a glass with ice, it is good for me and it tastes good. Cold tea is great. Tea is said to take a long time to make. Not true at all. Not just can you make it very fast, but you can make a lot of it at a time. I make a pot full when I get home each day and it lasts all night. Drink tea, your health will thank you.
Cool old vid of tea:
Cool old vid of tea:
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