Practice Advice: Get More Life Out of Your Guitar Strings

Different guitar players have different body chemistries.  The chemistry of our hands reacts with the strings, and that is bad because it causes corrosion, which shortens the life of strings.

I used to know a guitar player whose hands were so acidic that he could only used his strings a few times before they sounded terrible.  I learned from him that it is a good idea to wipe a guitar down after use.

I, myself, do not have hands that cause much corrosion, and as I said, people’s body chemistry varies.  However, it is always a good idea to wipe down your strings after use with a clean cloth.

Always wash your hands before playing too.  Often times, our hands have oil on them.  The body chemistries that shorten string life can be countered by washing your hands.  Not only will your guitar sound better, but you will also save money while you are at it.  You may even want to wet the rag with a cleaner to help get off that extra grit, but consult your local guitar store before doing that, as you don’t want to use a solvent that might damage your guitar (in addition to cleaning it).

Exercising With Soup Cans

Usually, most of the exercise one should be doing is by weights that are 5Ilbs or less. There may be instances where one might want to isolate a major muscle group and exercise with far more weight than 5Ilbs though. For example, my biceps get just about nothing out of a 2Ilb work out, no matter how long I exercise for. Also, for the purpose of rehabilitation, it might be desirable to isolate a specific muscle. However, for the vast majority of people, soup cans are an excellent source of weight for exercise.

Save yourself the money and don’t even bother buying weights that are less than 5Ilbs. Use canned food as weights instead. Also, it is always better to use 2 separate weights if you are exercising, such that the weights that you are using aren’t connected by a bar. Bars make it so you can lift more, but the problem with using a bar, such as in a standard bench press is that the bar helps stabilize your arms, so your minor muscle groups, the one’s primarily used for stabilization, don’t have to do as much work. That is, when you are working out, you might be lifting more weight as you practice with a bar, but you won’t have any more real strength. Real strength requires that it is not just your major muscle groups that are fit, but also your minor ones as well. The thinking: 2 soup cans = no bar.

Minor muscles groups by nature can’t lift as much weight. Even some weight lifters that can lift hundreds of pounds might find themselves stressing to get 20 repetitions with a 1Ibs soup can. What’s more, if you don’t exercise minor muscles and just exercise your major muscle groups, your body will look odd. People will be able to see that you have not approached your discipline with a holistic spirit of attaining fitness. In my opinion, if you don’t use the minor muscle groups, you are perverting your body, and it should not surprise you that you don’t look as good as you could if you had spent some more time taking a holistic approach.

Save Money on Your Heating Bill by Owning a Fish Tank

This may sound crazy, but a lot of the things I say or write are borderline crazy. Most fish sold in pet stores are tropical fish. They need heated water. Goldfish are an exception to the rule. The exact temperature of the water necessary to maintain tropical fish may vary.

If you are looking to have a tank primarily for its use as a house heater, I recommend something easy like Neon Tetras, as maintaining fish tank with community fish that are hardy is going to be less labor intensive. We are all looking to save time! Also, it is a good idea not to buy rare fish because they sometimes come from either Africa or the Amazon, where they are in short supply in the wild.

It is such that fish tanks require heat. And, heaters run at a temperature that is hotter than the water, but it results in heating the water to probably at least a temperature where it can help heat a house. Having several fish tanks, like maybe one in each room might be able to heat a house, but even having one will almost certainly take a chunk out of a heating bill. That is, the heat a tank requires is probably higher than what you would normally keep the temperature of your house at, so what ends up happening is that the water in the fish tank ends up warming the house.

If you have a two story (or more) living space, I advise you to put the heating in the lowest parts of the house. Heat rises.

Many, if not most houses are heated by heating water. Hot water is hot water. However, fish tank hot water won’t enter a house quite as fast as it would if copper piping were used. In my opinion, fish tanks could be designed better, such that they could be both an aquarium and a house heater. For example, fish tank design could incorporate copper.

The most important part about having a heater is that they don’t require a lot of energy to operate. Most tropical fish tank heaters range from 50watts to 150watts of power. That is about the same as a light bulb. So, basically what I am saying is that you can add a lot of heat to your house for the cost of operating a light bulb. That is a good deal! Even 2 or more heaters, with a fan to blow over the surface in order to spread the heat is a good idea.

I haven’t seen tropical fish tanks optimized for house heating yet, and it is probably because most people that raise tropical fish to be sold in pet stores raise them in areas where it is warm enough year round that heaters are not required, but fish tanks could also be better designed, such that they assist in heating your house.

Next, there are ways of improving house heating if you have a fish tank.

1. Position the heater such that the water flow from the fish tank filter blows over it. A very small filter is capable of achieving this tank circulation effect. I have a mid-sized filter, which operates at 5watts. Even slightly increasing water circulation, and thus flow to the extremities of your tank it ensures that the heat can then leave the fish tank in an optimized way.

2. You might have low power fan (0.5amps or less) blowing over the surface of your aquarium, increasing the distribution of heat from your fish tank to the rest of the room.

3. Also, air bubblers can be of assistance, where a pump, pumps air into your aquarium for the fish to breath. That air will heat in the tank as it rises to the surface, and is released.

4. Then, there is the use of the fan that I used to spear the heat.

5. Lastly, don’t forget to clean your tank, as algae and debris will hold in precious heat, costing you money.

Anker Products are a better buy than Best Buy

I am thrilled with my Anker product that I bought from Amazon.com. It was power cord that I needed for my lap top. First, I shopped at Radio Shack. They said, $70. I left, and asked Best Buy. They to said $70. So, I left both places, coming home empty handed. I decided to try Amazon.com. I found a company that I had never heard of before, Anker, and they were selling the cord I needed for $12, but it came to $15 with shipping. That's a $50 difference! I had to give Anker a try!

The cord came early. It has worked for several months without breaking. The design is robust. I saved over $50 from purchasing a universal from a local store. Usually, I try to buy local, but I just can't argue with a savings of $50! Best Buy is not the best buy, and neither is Radio Shack either. Anker is now my first choice. I highly recommend Anker.

1st Bartering - Sandwich, MA Public Library

I like to go to the library. I use it for many reasons. However, this blog is not about that. It’s about bartering. I had lost my library card, and there is a fee for a new card. The fee is $3. I’m okay with it. The fee probably even written into law or something. Don’t let anything stop you from bartering. Many times people will waive something, especially if you can give them something in return. So, to get the fee waived, I offered about $50 in free books. The idea was to be somewhat charitable in addition to making the trade.

Naturally, there was a little stammer in by the librarian. She had probably never encountered something like this before. She was not the head librarian, so she said that she wanted to consult her superior before making the decision. In my town, I don’t know of many people that barter. That is a shame.

When the librarian said that she would have to ask her superior, I retracted my offer of the books. In Hyannis, I know that there is a place where I can leave books, and though I would get nothing in return for it, I feel laws should not be hard and fast, such that they can’t be waived. That is, I felt a need to give to charity, but it is important not to squander one’s valuables. If it wasn’t worth it to the librarian to give me a free card in return for about 7 books, 2 of which were hard cover, I didn’t want them to have my books. Seriously, I was offering them a trade of about $50 for a $3 card. If it wasn’t worth it to them, then I would take my books elsewhere, where there was nothing that could be offered to me in return. Maybe, the next place wouldn’t squander it? However, I am glad that there was no squandering, and I was proud of how my town acted with my generous proposition.

I prefer to give to charity locally before I give it away to places further away though it is important not to neglect places that are further away. In the story of the city of Sodom in the Bible, according to legend lack of hospitality was the reason the city was destroyed. As the legend goes, the people in Sodom would starve anyone who visited by doing things like raising the cost of bread. So, what this legend tells us is that it is important to be hospitable to everyone, and not just locals. This is why the Sandwich Public Library was my first choice to give books.

Luckily, the librarian made a split decision, and decided to waive the $3 fee. I am very proud to live in the town I live in. I like for it to be a nice place and a part of that is actually working to make it a nice place. Hopefully, by bartering, I have helped improve the world, and not ripped off the town. What do you think?

The Value of a Penny

During childhood, mom bought lobsters about once a week. I pled that she would buy me a lobster shaped lollypop, but every time the same, “No! We don’t have enough money for a (lollypop).” True, lobsters cost more than lollypops, but she drove home a point, the value of a penny.

Often, she gave me $0.10 or $0.25 for penny candy. Some pieces cost a penny, some cost a nickel, etc. I learned important budgeting skills.

When I was about 6 or 7yrs old, my allowance was $1 a week. But, I would also go collect tin cans at construction sites, redeemable for $0.05. After a half a year of discipline, between my allowance and cans I saved up $20 and bought an electric train set.

Later, my family went through an extended period of having $40 each month. We weren’t paying our rent, but we never once had to go to a local food pantry for free stuff. $40 a month was plenty.

So, though learning the value of a penny wasn’t immediately important, 25yrs later it made a big difference.

Eating the Apple Core

I don’t mean to suggest that the apple core is the tastiest part of the apple. However, a lot of work goes into apple picking. Apples are heavy and picking them is back breaking work. So, even if you don’t care about saving money, save someone’s back. Maybe, if you save an apple picker’s back, one day your back will be saved. The same is true for all the people that work in the supply chain to make sure that apple gets from the tree to your belly.

Apple cores are perfectly edible. Nothing special needs to be done with them. I usually eat the bottom off the apple, and then work my way up to the stem. I don’t eat the stem.

If you eat the apple core, then you will be adding fiber to your diet, which is a good thing. If you have the money to throw out apple cores, why be wasteful? Just think; you’ll save yourself the extra effort of lugging it to the dump. And, you say, “It’s not a problem to bring a few apple cores to the dump,” well as my dad says, “Pennies make dollars.” Maybe in a lifetime eating apple cores will only save you one trip to the dump. However, I try to avoid trips to the dump. I was raised with a pennies make dollars mentality. I try to get the most bang for my buck. So, I not only eat the meat of the apple. I also eat the apple core.

Save a Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Tea Lemon, and Then Use the Lemon Juice for Home Brewed Tea.

I imagine the first thing that pops into your mind if you have been reading my blog is, “What’s he doing buying tea at Dunkin’ Donuts if he wants to save money?” To tell you the truth, it is usually not I that gets the tea from Dunkin’ Donuts, it is my wife. My wife likes to splurge sometimes and get an iced tea from Dunkin’ Donuts. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, she does it so rarely that we probably end up spending about the same amount on tea. This is because I usually drink 2 or 3 pots of tea a day, where 5 bags make a pot. Though I am only spending pennies for each bag of tea, since I drink it more often, it ends up that we are probably spending about an equal amount of money. That is, unlike many Americans, my wife does not frequent Dunkin’ Donuts every day. Instead, it is that every now and then she gets a donut and an iced tea. She gets her iced tea with lemon. This is where I come in.

After my wife is finished with her tea, she gives me the lemon. I save the lemon, and squeeze out the juice into my tea. Every now and then I like a little fresh lemon in my tea, and this is one way I don’t have to spend any extra money for it.

Lastly, you could probably eat the lemon peel. If it is already squeezed, then it probably won’t be too sour. I have been known to eat my grapefruit and orange peels. In general, eating peels of fruit adds bulk for better bowels. In fact, next time, I think I’ll try eating the lemon peel.

Pour that Old Dirty Fish Tank Water On Your Lawn. It’s Fertilizer.

If you have an aquatic fresh water tank, the creatures in it will produce nitrogen as waste. For example, urea has nitrogen. Most plant fertilizers are nitrogen based. One way you can add a little bit of nitrogen to the soil is by pouring the dirty water from your fish or aquatic animal tank onto your lawn.

Nitrogen is a necessary part of an ecosystem where it is in a cycle. As a part of that cycle, when lightning strikes, it causes nitrogen fixation to occur causing the growth of greenery to increase especially fast. This is one of nature’s ways of adding nitrogen to soil for plants. The nitrogen that gets fixed to the soil for the greenery to take up the nitrogen in the process of nitrogen fixation, meaning that it is from the atmosphere. That is, nitrogen fixation, takes gaseous nitrogen and gives it to plants in a way that the plants can use. Lightning splits 2 triple bonded gaseous nitrogen atoms, and fixes the nitrogen that was once tightly bound to the soil.

Nitrogen comes in several different ways, meaning that there are several compounds that contain nitrogen. The nitrogen in a fish tank might be urea or ammonia. However, though you can buy ammonia at a store, it is a bad idea to dump it on the lawn. This is because it is far too concentrated. Dirty fish tank water, however, can serve as an excellent source of nitrogen in lawn care. Don’t have a lawn? Pour it near a tree or a bush. This is also the reason why peeing on greenery makes plants grow if you urinate on a lawn for example.

The nitrogen in the dirty water will provide fertilizer to help your grass grow greener. It might not amount to much, but why pour your water down the drain if you can put it to better use? If you can’t save the whales, then save scum! Use the water to help vegetation grow. However, don’t pour it directly on crops, or you may get sick. Use a bucket to pour it out. You will also be exercising your arm, shoulder, and back muscles by carrying water, which is good too!

An Inexpensive Way of Fixing a Buzzing String On a Practice Guitar

Probably the most common way a buzzing string is fixed is to bring the guitar into the local store and have it worked on. Sometimes, the neck is floppy, and there is nothing that can be done. There is nothing wrong with bringing you guitar to a repairman, especially if you are unsure of what you are doing. The repairman will probably fix your guitar by filing down a certain part of your guitar. If you must file, then let a knowledgeable guitar repairman fix you guitar. However, if there is buzzing at a certain fret, the guitar may need a truss rod adjustment instead, and not filing. There are plenty of websites that describe how to do a truss rod adjustment. If you know what the truss rod is, and it is also not the body of the neck of the guitar, and the issue is not the truss rod this blog is for you.

If you think hard enough, there is a reason why one fret buzzes while other ones don’t. The reason is that you haven’t been using your whole fret board when you practice. It is important to use the whole fret board when practicing. It is especially important to practice above the 5^th fret. Thus, the inexpensive and best way to fix your guitar is to play the guitar until the problem is fixed. Now, this probably won’t be accomplished in a day. In fact, it may take a year. So, obviously, I am not saying to play your guitar nonstop until it is fixed.

What you want to do is focus playing such that the metal of the fret wears until all the notes of the string can be played. Don’t only play the fixing note(s) over and over until the guitar is fixed. Focus on playing that area until your guitar is fixed. You will still want to play on other parts of your guitar when you practice, but what you will want to do is focus on playing the next fret after the fret that is buzzing. One way of doing this is to adjust your guitar exercises such that you are also working on fixing your guitar at the same time.

Turn that old pair of torn PJs into Boxer Briefs and rags

1. I don’t like to throw anything out. Usually, I wear my clothes until they are well worn. This blog is about what to do with pair of pajamas that has a tear on one or two of the legs.

If your pajamas have pockets and the ripping is on the seam, then the ripping will probably stop at one of the pockets. Stitching a rip also help stop it. Thus, blog is not about how to save pajamas with a ripped crotch. Pajamas with a ripped crotch probably have that ripped crotch because you were wearing clothing that is too tight.

Boxers versus Briefs:

Some people wear tighty whiteys, while some like to wear boxer shorts. Wearing boxer shorts is usually better for the male genitals because you testicles are not held too close to your body. Testicles have an optimum temperature, and it is slightly less than the rest of the body. What I am getting at is that we weren’t built to wear tighty whiteys and boxers are usually a better choice. The problem with tighty whiteys is that they kill more sperm than boxers do, or at least make them less healthy.

Converting your PJ bottoms:

My guess is that you aren’t too concerned about what your underwear looks like. Some people are, and if you are, then this blog is probably not for you. This is about comfort. Usually, old clothing feels more comfortable than new clothing, and that is just one more reason why you should do this other than it will save you money. It will save you money because you will not need to buy as much underwear. And, instead of buying rags, the leftover legs of the pajamas can be cut open, folded, and put somewhere. One use of such a rag is to clean up an oil spill.

The process is very simple, just cut the legs off of your pajamas slightly below the crotch. That is, you want to keep some of the leg of the pajamas when making them. All this requires is an old pair of pajamas and some scissors.

Eat for Really Cheap by Adding a Little Corn Flour and Water to Your Scrambled Eggs

Relatively speaking, corn flour and eggs are not very expensive. Eggs are one the cheaper ways to get protein. Corn flour is one of the cheaper flours. For $5 you should be able to 6 meals using this method. Though that is not as inexpensive as a school lunch, it is still relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme of things. Corn flour is a staple in Mexico, and eggs are a staple virtually anywhere.

So now your are probably wondering: What’s the Recipe Fool?

1. Preheat pan with three tablespoons of vegetable oil on medium high heat.

2. 2 eggs crack them into a bowl. Whisk the eggs with a fork or spoon. If eggs stink, throw them out.

3. Add 3 tablespoons of corn flour, (Masa flour) and whisk.

4. Add a pinch of cayenne power, onion powder, salt, and ground black pepper. (I like my food spicy.)

5. Flip after 2 minutes of cooking.

6. Cook until eggs are dry. It should take about 3-5 minutes to cook.

Ingredients list: 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 2 eggs, 3 tablespoon corn flour, cayenne, onion powder, salt, ground black pepper.

Putting Those Charcoal Grill Ashes to Work in Order to Save Money

When I was a wee little boy, my dad would often grill burgers, steaks, chicken, and other things outside on a charcoal grill. My dad is often old fashioned. He is the type of guy that won’t usually buy charcoal that lights instantly. He buys the charcoal and the lighter fluid separately. Because it is not a gas grill, the ashes collect below the grill. My parents were also lucky enough to have a property were they could have a garden. However, the soil on Cape Cod is not that great. So, instead of buying loam, fertilizer, or something else, my dad did it the inexpensive way. And, it is not only the most inexpensive way; it is also the best way. Dad saved the ashes and would spread them over the garden. This helped us to grow fresh vegetables. That is we used natural charcoal ashes as a fertilizer.
There are several ways that this saves money.
1. Having a garden saves money over buying produce at a local grocery store.
2. You don’t have to buy fertilizer.
3. You don’t have to buy gardening soil.
4. If you don’t throw out ashes at the dump, you don’t have to pay to throw out ashes as the dump (In our town, we pay to get rid of trash. A thirty gallon bag costs $1.25.)
5. You are being ecologically friendly, by making top soil that future generations can use.
6. Charcoal grills are usually much less expensive to buy than gas grills.
7. Lugging around charcoal and ashes is good exercise, which should result in fewer visits to the doctor, but watch your back.

Pipes, Cigars: Safer than Cigarettes

Cigarettes are almost certainly and entirely bad, but why?
I suggest that a part of the reason cigarettes kill is that many of them have polyester filters.
Polyester sometimes feels snug, as many of us know through wearing polyester clothing.
Leave polyester against your skin or body tissue for an extended period of time, it is bound to become irritating.
In addition, when smokers inhale, they also may be inhaling small particles of filter, especially if the cigarettes are old and the polyester is broken up.
Through investigation, it occurs to my thoughts that the irritation that these small polyester particles give to the lungs can cause cancer.  15 or so years before Camel, the company that invented the filter cigarette, began putting polyester filters in their products, lung cancer was virtually unheard of among smokers, but those 15yrs gave just enough time for a link of smoking cigarettes with cancer. 

In addition, there was even the possibility that centenarians had their life expectancy increase if they were a smoker, but that I hypothesize was because they started smoking before polyester filters had been invented.  As filtered cigarettes have become more pervasive, so too has the morbidity of cigarette related products increased.  I suggest it is that the polyester filter that is doing us wrong, while the past ways of smoking, such as unfiltered pipes and cigars are actually safer.

Review of The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms by Nassim Nicholas Taleb *****

This book is better than the translation of Proverbs. Holy smokes! This one could be canon!

Review of The Black Swan (audio book) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb *****

The take home message is that the world is run by freak events, and that certain environments are better for creating extreme events. The paradox of this book is that because the idea of a black swan would be an event, it has resemblance to the idea that this book could have become a black swan itself. I would bet that this one becomes a classic.

Super Frugality: Get Energy Packed and Save Money on Coffee

I like a lot of coffee. Specifically, I think it is that I am addicted to caffeine. As far as I am concerned, this habit is quite expensive. I have already discussed the joys of shopping for coffee at the Christmas Tree Shop to save money. Ocean State Job Lot is another great place to find coffee for a low price. This blog/note is not people who buy their coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, or some other coffee shop by the cup. However, if you buy coffee grounds or coffee beans, this is for you. Making coffee at home is less expensive than buying it by the cup at a coffee shop. What’s more, you won’t have the beans to cook with to get that extra added punch of caffeine. Save on you craving! Get the most caffeine for your bean by first making coffee with it, and then eating the leftover coffee grounds.

By themselves, coffee grounds are not very tasty. If my guess is correct, then you will agree with me on that one! However, coffee grounds should not be thought of as a food by itself, but as a spice. If you cook your coffee grounds into your food, chances are that you will find that don’t need to drink as much coffee to get the same high. Drinking less coffee means not having to make as many cups of coffee for breakfast, which saves on the amount of coffee grounds you use. Saving a little here and a little there adds up! And, why waste some perfectly good used coffee grounds!

Are you sold? Here is where to begin. Begin with breakfast. To save time, most coffee makers can be preprogrammed to turn on before you wake up. I recommend doing that. That way you can have your coffee and your breakfast at the same time. When you wake up, my guess is that breakfast starts with a cup of coffee. A good thing to mix the grounds with is grits. Try putting a table spoon or two of coffee grounds in your grits before you cook them.

Here is a sample recipe (grits will vary in how much water is required):

1. Pour yourself a cup of already made coffee.

2. ¼ cup grits

3. Combine with 1 table spoon of USED COFFEE GROUNDS from the already made coffee.

4. Combine with a pinch of allspice, or cloves, or nutmeg.

5. Combine with a pinch of cinnamon.

6. Combine with a pinch of salt.

7. I like to make my grits with soy milk. So what I do is when measuring out the necessary liquid to make grits in a measuring cup. I use 50% water, and 50% soy milk. If you aren’t allergic to milk, then it’s okay to substitute regular milk for soy milk. That is, a package of grits will probably prescribe the amount of water to use. Here I substitute water for liquid, using the prescribed amount of liquid in a 50/50 ratio of the kind of liquid. Make sure you use the prescribed amount of liquid because grits expand. You don’t want to literally blow up your insides and wind up at the hospital!

8. Cook for the time prescribed amount of time on the grits package.

9. Add a tablespoon of soy butter. If you aren’t allergic to milk, then you may consider using regular milk.

10. Sweeten to taste with brown sugar, or white sugar, or Stevia*.

*Stevia is a sugar substitute.