What's something you know that others don't that makes your life a lot easier?

[Kaido]

Not sure if this is knowledge, a skill, or simply a freak thing - but I can shut off all emotion is stressful situations. Very useful when the s hits the fan, someone gets seriously injured, etc., and someone needs to act. Helped a lot when i was an EMT.

I think it's a skill, because all of my EMT friends can do that. The natural human reaction is to panic full-tilt in emergency situations. I know that's what I used to do when people would choke or get hurt or something, because I had no freakin' idea what to do! I think a large part of that ability comes from having confidence, and that confidence comes from knowing what to do. I took a couple of first-aid classes and can now handle the basics for choking, injuries, etc., and it definitely helps you to be more calm in panic situations because you know exactly what to do when that situation occurs.

I also think this skill comes more naturally to some people than others. Partially you have to want to learn it and partially I think you have to just be able to handle it. Every time I've been around a situation where something crazy happened to someone, most people just stand around and gawk because they have no idea what they're supposed to do, and in the heat of the moment they don't think to call 911, go and seek help locally, etc.

 

[Kaido]

Also:


Switch between open windows and applications
[Alt]+[Tab]
[Alt]+[Shift]+[Tab]

Perception is a funny thing, because people think I'm a whiz on computers and what I'm doing looks super-fast, but to me, I'm actually kinda slow because I only know a select few keyboard shortcuts and I know I could work faster if I bothered learning all of them Stuff like having the browser icon in the Quick Start portion of the toolbar, clicking on that and then hitting CTRL+Enter to fill in the "www" & ".com" parts of a webpage when you type in the name, and using ALT+TAB to switch between applications looks like magic to people.

Also just curious, do you know & use all of those shortcuts?

 

[Kaido]

The little fuel pump symbol on the dash usually has an arrow pointing to the side with the fuel door/lid. Comes in handy when switching cars or driving other vehicles.

I just learned that like a month ago, unfortunately one of my cars doesn't have the arrow indicator and I always park on the wrong side, because my wife's car has it on a different side :biggrin:

 

[CZroe]

Most people think it's impossible for humans to fly without assistance. They believe this only because they have been told so their entire lives.

1. Clothes weigh you down. Take them off.

2. Flap your arms *really* fast.

You won't be able to do it right away. It will probably take a couple days of practice. I felt lift within the first hour. By afternoon the next day, I was flying.

Try it!

Involving all four limbs in a dog-paddle worked for me. I still lose altitude slowly but it's still pretty cool.

 

[Kaido]

If I told you, other people would know, and it would become meaningless.

My problem isn't that it would be meaningless, it's that nobody believes you. Or that they don't want to put in the effort to achieve the outcome. I have some really great knowledge in a few specific areas, but people are usually seeking a specific answer (i.e. the answer THEY want to hear) when they ask a question about making life easier, and they don't want to hear what really, actually works. What I've found is that if people are *really* seeking something, they'll find a way to learn or use it, whether it's getting rich, getting in shape, whatever. I'll cut & paste a quick motivational story off google here:

There's a story about a proud young man who came to Socrates asking for knowledge. He walked up to the philosopher and said, "O great Socrates, I come to you for knowledge." In response Socrates led the young man through the streets, to the sea, and chest deep into the water. The he asked the young man, "Now tell me, what is it that you want?"

"Knowledge, O wise Socrates," said the young man with a smile.

Socrates put his hands on the man's shoulders and pushed him under the water. Thirty seconds later the wise philosopher lifted his pupil out of the water. "What is it again that you want?" he asked. "Wisdom, O great and wise Socrates" the young man said under labored breathing.

Socrates again took the man and held him under water, this time longer. Thirty seconds passed, thirty-five, forty, forty-five. Finally, Socrates let him up. The man gasped for air as Socrates asked him, "What do you want, young man?"

He labored to answer. "Knowledge, O wise and wonderful . . ." To this response Socrates then plunged the man under water, this time holding him for close to a minute. As the young man came up panting for oxygen, Socrates asked him, "What do you want?"

"Air!" the young man screamed. "I need air!"

"When you desire wisdom as you have just desired air, then you will have it".

If you really want to learn something, you'll get out there and find it. If you only kind of want to learn something, meh, it may or may not happen.

 

[Kaido]

Involving all four limbs in a dog-paddle worked for me. I still lose altitude slowly but it's still pretty cool.

CZroe = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090768/ ??

 

[CZroe]

Perception is a funny thing, because people think I'm a whiz on computers and what I'm doing looks super-fast, but to me, I'm actually kinda slow because I only know a select few keyboard shortcuts and I know I could work faster if I bothered learning all of them Stuff like having the browser icon in the Quick Start portion of the toolbar, clicking on that and then hitting CTRL+Enter to fill in the "www" & ".com" parts of a webpage when you type in the name, and using ALT+TAB to switch between applications looks like magic to people.

Also just curious, do you know & use all of those shortcuts?

Yes, he does (twin brother). I can't stand using a Mac browser and losing CTRL+Enter.

 

[Kaido]

I know I've already been through the toughest, most difficult period of my life. This makes a lot of things seem easier and I get worried a lot less than other people.

No, no you haven't. Nope. All you've done is beaten one level of the game. Just wait, it gets harder as life goes on :biggrin:

 

[Kaido]

Yes, he does (twin brother). I can't stand using a Mac browser and losing CTRL+Enter.

Yeah, I use Windows at work, Mac at home, and Windows in a virtual machine at home. Doesn't matter which machine I'm on, the OS translation always takes me 2 tries to get the right keyboard shortcut sequence to work haha.

 

[rudeguy]

Don't be afraid to spend the extra money on a nicer tool. You would be surprised how much time and frustration an extra couple dollars can save you.

 

[grohl]

regular exercise and avoiding nighttime alcohol is the best recipe for a good nights sleep

 

[Kaido]

The converse is that people can eat almost anything they want and not get fat if they're willing to exercise. I LOVE baked goods and salty snacks, but don't gain an ounce because I stay very active. No need to diet, learn to enjoy healthy activities and you can also enjoy food.

Yup, seriously. I have a friend who is a Paula Deen-style cook (throw a stick of butter in everything!) and has made a life choice to eat everything & anything she wants, all day long. HOWEVER, she is also willing to do a 2-hour workout every day and burns it off and thusly stays skinny. Totally works for her because she has the self-motivation to do the workouts, and then she gets to eat like a pig as she pleases. It's an amazing system :biggrin:

 

[Kaido]

Don't be afraid to spend the extra money on a nicer tool. You would be surprised how much time and frustration an extra couple dollars can save you.

Story of my life. I used to buy the cheapest crap off eBay for electronics, tools, etc. Sure Harbor Freight is nice when you're never planning on doing the job again, but nothing beats a quality tool that is right for the job. In converse, nothing is worse than a crappy tool that falls apart, especially when it's not quite the right tool for the job. I bought one of those jeweler screwdriver kits from Radio Shack for like ten bucks and the tips twisted ON THE VERY FIRST USE! I was laughing too hard to even be mad, I had never come across such a crappy toolset in my life :biggrin:

 

[dabuddha]

Google maps already uses Waze, is there any benefit to using waze.com directly?

Google maps doesn't allow you to report cops accidents etc (unless I just haven't found it yet). It works like a cheap radar detector for me

 

[ControlD]

Don't be afraid to spend the extra money on a nicer tool. You would be surprised how much time and frustration an extra couple dollars can save you.

True words of wisdom right there.

 

[Kaido]

...this is a huge pet peeve. WTF is eating clean? Please define.

Very simple. First, break all food down into 4 groups:

1. Meat
2. Carbs
3. Fats
4. Sodium

There's the unhealthy choices:

1. Fatty meat (pork, 80/20 beef)
2. Simple carbs (sugar, white bread, white rice)
3. Bad fats (margarine, fried foods, etc.)
4. Too much sodium

Then there's the healthy choices:

1. Lean meat (chicken, turkey, 90/10 beef)
2. Complex carbs (brown rice, whole-grain bread, vegetables)
3. Good fats (olive oil, avocados, peanuts)
4. Enough sodium (>2000mg a day)

So the basic idea is good vs. bad:

1. Lean vs. Fatty meats
2. Complex vs. Simple carbs
3. Good vs. Bad fats
4. Enough vs. Too Much sodium

So eating clean would be having chicken baked in olive oil with a side of brown rice. Eating unclean would be having bacon with margarine-coated Wonderbread. You want lean meats, not fatty meats. You want complex carbs, not simple carbs. You want good fats, not bad fats. You want enough sodium, but not too much sodium (condiments like ketchup & hot sauce, salt, etc. are OK, just don't go nuts - your body needs salt but not too much!). There's some overlap but you get the idea - eating clean generally means making healthy choices at least 80 or 90% of the time. You can still have pizza and burgers and stuff without bad effects, as long as you're eating well most of the time. You don't have to be 100% to get great results, it just needs to be your main habit for the majority of your diet.

It gets tricky because of marketing. Stuff like salad dressings are usually very unhealthy. McDonald's salads are more fatty than their burgers:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-299653/McDonalds-salad-fatty-burger.html

So that's all. Eat lean meat, complex carbs, good fats, and sufficient sodium. You can still make a ridiculous amount of delicious food while eating healthy. Paleo is a pretty easy diet to get started on, there's some gourmet recipes here:

http://www.thepaleogourmet.com/

 

[balloonshark]

avoiding exercise and regular nighttime alcohol is the best recipe for a good nights sleep

ftfy

 

[atotnine]

7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 dwarves. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby.

 

[Ichinisan]

Perception is a funny thing, because people think I'm a whiz on computers and what I'm doing looks super-fast, but to me, I'm actually kinda slow because I only know a select few keyboard shortcuts and I know I could work faster if I bothered learning all of them Stuff like having the browser icon in the Quick Start portion of the toolbar, clicking on that and then hitting CTRL+Enter to fill in the "www" & ".com" parts of a webpage when you type in the name, and using ALT+TAB to switch between applications looks like magic to people.

I don't use quicklaunch because it takes up space on the taskbar and reduces the width of taskbar buttons/labels. I do this:

[Win]+[R]
[iexplore|chrome|firefox] [Enter] Sometimes I'll use an opt...ay. The list is fleshed-out now, by the way.

 

[SP33Demon]

Yup, seriously. I have a friend who is a Paula Deen-style cook (throw a stick of butter in everything!) and has made a life choice to eat everything & anything she wants, all day long. HOWEVER, she is also willing to do a 2-hour workout every day and burns it off and thusly stays skinny. Totally works for her because she has the self-motivation to do the workouts, and then she gets to eat like a pig as she pleases. It's an amazing system :biggrin:

Exercising to compensate for eating like crap is not sustainable. I had an ex who did the same thing, she would eat candy bars, pasta, sweet cereals, and pizza as her diet yet she would do cardio for 2 hours a day to compensate and looked great. However, once a life event hit, she skimped on the cardio and got chubby. Then it took her way longer to lose the weight. I was slightly disgusted that she wouldn't even try to eat a vegetable ("but tomato sauce is a veggie") and dumped her.

The difference between the two lifestyles (keep diet to maintain weight vs exercise to offset bad diet to maintain weight) is that we have to eat to survive and we don't have to exercise to survive. Hence why one is sustainable, you always have to do it. My $.02

 

[Ichinisan]

CZroe = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090768/ ??

I watched it again a couple years ago on Netflix. It was better than I had remembered.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell.

 

[Kaido]

Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell.

And the gravedigger puts on the forceps!

 

[Kaido]

Exercising to compensate for eating like crap is not sustainable. I had an ex who did the same thing, she would eat candy bars, pasta, sweet cereals, and pizza as her diet yet she would do cardio for 2 hours a day to compensate and looked great. However, once a life event hit, she skimped on the cardio and got chubby. Then it took her way longer to lose the weight. I was slightly disgusted that she wouldn't even try to eat a vegetable ("but tomato sauce is a veggie") and dumped her.

The difference between the two lifestyles (keep diet to maintain weight vs exercise to offset bad diet to maintain weight) is that we have to eat to survive and we don't have to exercise to survive. Hence why one is sustainable, you always have to do it. My $.02

Yup, and that's why my exercise philosophy is what it is: make your healthy food taste good and eat small meals every 3 hours or so. My August project consisted of putting my bodybuilding meals into freezer/microwave-safe containers so that I'd only have to cook once a week, but always have healthy, tasty food available at all times. Those silly plastic containers have literally been the best health decision I've made in my life because it enables me to have access to healthy food at all times, which in turn helps me sleep better, have the energy to exercise, and feel good because I'm not eating garbage.

You have an excellent point, and you've seen what happens: as soon as something happens in your life, whether it's a busy work/school schedule, someone passes away, you get injured, whatever, that motivation to keep on doing long exercise sessions can diminish pretty quickly. As long as your diet stays good, at least you won't get fat. And pretty much everybody likes food, so eating yummy food all day long is hardly anybody's idea of a bad time, you know? But we all live in denial and we all have our habits, so it's hard to break free of our largely self-imposed circumstances. Forcing myself to fill up those plastic food containers on weekends means that I have a waterslide to a good diet, instead of stairs - it's no struggle to do eat clean during the week!

 

[KeithP]

The little fuel pump symbol on the dash usually has an arrow pointing to the side with the fuel door/lid. Comes in handy when switching cars or driving other vehicles.

Nope. http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/icon.asp

Which brings us to what I know that others don't... I am always right.

-KeithP