Adventure Phoenix

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I have heard this question alot over the past few months. What is Twitter ALL about? Its crazy how simple Twitter is to use and what it does yet so many people still are so confused.  My own parents still tell me that they do not get it.

Honestly to me Twitter is simple.  Its pure human thought put in 140 characters or less posted for your friends or the entire world to see.  Sound crazy to think that Twitter is the pulse of the human race.  What is even more remarkable with the recent death of Michael Jackson, it was wild to see the buzz on twitter build from a few dozen twitter people who were at the hospital to millions within a few hours.

I mean seriously, where else could you find out whats happening in the world in real time other than Twitter.  In no time in previous history have any normal person can find out whats happening in any city or world as fast as it is happening today.

Something to think about, the average newspaper in the U.S. contains more information & news than anyone read in a lifetime during the 1500s.  Think about that! We are in serious overload of information and yet we have adapted.

The trick to Twitter is to learn how to filter thru all of the information to find out what applies to you! I will be posting more information on how you can use Twitter and become more efficient using it on a daily basis.

Breathe Right Strips, Box of 30

So far I am impressed with the results of my Breathe Right Nasal Strips.  Now I am still in a testing phase but based on what I experienced last night – I think we might have a winning solution.

I even got my wife to try it out for herself as well.  Being that she is pregnant she has started storing alot more.  Don’t worry, I made sure to ask her before I posted that comment. HAHA.  Anyways, she almost completely stopped snoring which is great for me since I’m such a light sleeper.

What I noticed was the fact that I felt well rested.  Even more than I normally do.  My theory is that if I got more oxygen while I sleep, I would sleep less.  So far I haven’t noticed this but we are only on day two of the test.

Will keep you posted on this blog!

Breathe Right Strips, Box of 30

About two years ago I visited Bolder Colorado.  In all of my travels I have yet to have the experience I had then what happened to me in Colorado.  I had my first bloody nose and I used an entire box of tissues.  I am not sure if it was the altitude or just the dry air.  Regardlesse b of the problem, ever since that trip I have been unable to breathe correctly.  My nose was forever altered.  I’ve been to chiropractors and seen ENT but sadly they all said I was perfectly normal.

I knew my body and I knew better.  I started snoring, having trouble breathing at night among many other problems.

I have tried all kind of natural remedies and tried adjusting my home humidity.  Spending thousands of dollars only to discover that nothing appared to correct the problem.

Then a few nights ago I had an idea pop into my head that Breathe Right Nasal Strips could possible help. So tonight I am wearing one of the nasal strips to bed.  So far I notice an immediate result with an ease to breathe.  In the next couple days I will give my full report but so far I am pleasantly surprised that a simple $10 box could fix my problems.

My main reason for correcting my snoring and breathing problem is to acheive a better nights sleep.  Basically my theory is that if I can sleep better I can sleep less which in turn will allow me to have more time to work! Or as I like to call it, playing! But thats another story for another day!

tr.im your URLs

Have you ever wondered what are all of these services emerging out there such as bit.ly or tr.im or tinyurl.com.  More and more appear each and every day but what do they really do?  Well for those of you who use Twitter or other social networks where they limit the size of your text.  Short URL services are just about the only way to go.

On Twitter you are limited to 140 characters.  And if you want to pass along those crazy long URLs from websites such as facebook, which the URL strings can extend up to 300 characters sometimes.  You will need to find a service such as tr.im.

I have tried many services over the years starting off with TinyURL.com which is a very well known service.  My only problem with TinyURL is the length of the url strings.  Since you are limited to 140 characters in Twitter, real estate is very precious to me.

Tr.im provides the shortest URL strings i’ve found to date and they even have a free online tracking tool where you can see how many times someone has clicked on your link.  This is great to tracking the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns on Google, Twitter, or Facebook.

Now I know there are dozens of other companies out there but one thing is for sure, to me, I like simple, free services so at this time, I am endorsing tr.im for its elegances and simplicity.

Check it out today!

Over the past several years I have been following alot of open-source options to replace my linksys or dlink router’s factory firmware.  I soon discovered dd-wrt as my best option and installed v21.  I loved the simplicity of how their web-based admin works plus all the features they offer.

More recently I began to have serious problems with connecting to the internet.  It started soon after I added a 7th home workstation to my home network.  Yea I know, 7 computers is alot for a house but if you know anything about me, I’m a computer junkie.  I have specific computers preforming tasks, running my security system, tvs, etc…  My house is almost completely computer driven.  But thats another topic for another day.

After adding my new computer I soon discovered that pages like Facebook, NewEgg.com, etc… would time out on every third or fourth click.  I called Comcast thinking it was something with their system.  But they ran speed test & line quality checks to verify everything was running smoothly.  I even plugged my laptop directly into Comcast and did a speed test for my self and I downloaded well into the 28mb/s and uploaded well into the 7mb/s.  After a few days of playing around with settings across my network, I soon discovered a little setting in my firewall/router called ‘Maximum Ports’ which set a max amount of TCP/IP connections into and out of my network.  It was set to 512 but next to that was a small text that said default setting 4096.  I thought to my self for a second and said oh well lets try changing it back to its default.

Instantly my internet speed across all machines returned to normal.  After monitoring my router for a few minutes I noticed my active IP connections hovered around 800 sessions.  Thus this simple setting was my bottleneck.

Apparently when I upgraded from the first version of DD-WRT, the original default setting was 512 but now they upgraded that to 4096.  Regardless my wife & I are happy campers now with super fast internet.

What you can learn from this is that sometimes you just gotta try something totally unexpected and you might be surprised that the result actually works.

Best!

RedBox Kiosk

A few weeks ago my wife Jessica introduced me to the ‘RedBox’.  If you haven’t heard of it before, its probably one of the smartest inventions I’ve seen recently.  I throughly enjoy being able to walk to my local Walmart and pickup a DVD for $1 per rental.  What is even better is that I can go online and reserve movies to make sure they are available before I pick them up.

And for all of the iPhone lovers out there, there is an application called RedBox Pro which gives you free DVD rental codes.  I paid $2.00 for this little application and I have saved a few dozen dollars or more thus far from rentals.

For everyone else who does not have an iPhone to access the great promo codes, use breakroom that will give you 1 free rental per credit card number.

I hope you get a chance to check out this sweet little system.  I have been able to save hundreds of dollars so far by not renting movies on Comcast OnDemand!

You may have noticed that my blog had been down for the past few days.  I do appologize.  I made the mistake of upgrading to 2.8 version of wordpress without reading the docs.  I had to go step by step to reverse my mistake until I could restore all the data from my backup.  Then I had to figure out where I went wrong and upgrade again to have all the features of 2.8.

Anyways, long story short, I’ve corrected all the problems!

Stay tuned to all the blogs that will be coming soon!

I find myself inspired by new ideas and new thoughts hourly.  My struggle is to figure out where to place those thoughts and ideas.  It can be very complex when I read as many books, articles, and talking with people to keep from being overwhelmed.  I think most people would rather choose to give up and not pursue a dream and say they tried then to actually give it a whirl.  I believe its more about the idea of success rather then the result of failure.  I mean – almost everyone fails so failure sadly enough is apart of life.  But the idea of success is so unique and so big that most people just give up.

I started reading a book tonight called ‘The Grassfire Effect’ by Steve Elliot.  Its an interesting take on how simple ideas – just ONE idea can CHANGE the world.  I mean seriously think about how many people you have heard about who with a single idea changed everything.  Bill Gate with Microsoft (MS DOS), Sam Walton (Walmart), and the list goes on and on.  I have read personally a few hundred books on people who took a stupid, simple, small idea and changed everything.

I see this happening right now with Twitter.  Its happening in REAL-TIME.  There has NEVER been a time like before where you can actual witness entire industries reform and redevelop.

What is it that so many people choose NOT to take that next step?  Its not the fear – it can’t be.  Is it really the success?  or could it be the fact that most people are complacient in the job, their life, their …. whatever you want to fill in the blank.

But why DO YOU continue doing the same thing?  I mean seriously, ideas are flowing around us like rain falling constantly.  Just hold your hands out, open your arms and just grab one.  I am not saying it has to be the next twitter, walmart, hobby lobby, or whatever else you think of but what if its as simple as spending time with your child just one more hour per week?  What if that one hour turns per week changes your child so he or she grows up to become someone of great success just by your lessons and the time spent with YOU.

IDEAS do NOT have to be some big grand venture.  It can be very small and very simple.

The next time you are feeling down – open your arms and take a deep breath. And ask yourself – What inspires you and how can this inspiration change the world?  Because no matter what comes to your mind – its big enought to make a difference in a single persons life.  And after all – that is TRULY worth a moment of your time!

With open arms and tenderness!

My wife and I recently found out some great news! We are having a baby!  Its a crazy feeling to know that after months of trying we are finally having a kid to take care of and what is more amazing is how normal it feels.  I thought months ago that I would be scared or nervious with the idea to have a new baby but honestly it just feels natural!

However during the last few days it hit me that we are gonna have to pay a TON of money for baby care.  Since I’m self employeed, our current health coverage does not include prenatal care or pregancy coverage.  But then I discovered CoverTN, a program thru BlueCross/BlueShield of Tennessee.  Basically Tennessee State Government funds a portion of our health coverage since we are self employeed.  Meeting certian requirements such as self employeed, TN resident, etc… it turns out that we receive complete coverage.  Pretty amazing and remarkable.  In total, our coverage will run us about $65-70/month for Jess and a bit less for me.

I’m sure alot of states offer similar coverage so I encourage you to seek out options as they are most likely available.  My only complaint was the amount of paperwork we had to file but aside from that, its a rather simple process.

Also, my wife discovered a local pregnancy study provided by Vanderbilt Medical Center where we receive all of our ultrasounds as apart of this study.  Pretty remarkable if you ask me – but hey – these programs exists all across the country.  Just spend some time researching as it may be availble in your area as well.  Who knows, maybe you will receive free ultrasounds!

I am not sure if we are like most future first parents but we have already selected our future kids names.  If we have a girl, we will name her Tayla Rene DeYoung and if we have a boy, his name will be Noah Jeremiah DeYoung. I know there are alot of parents out there that think its best to not find out the sex of the baby until the day he/she is born but to me we get more time to plan!

I think I would be extremely nervious not to know the sex at least during our first baby!

In either case – I can’t wait to find out.

I will keep you posted on future developments of the pregnancy!

So, I’ve discussed the fact that people are complaining without cause.  That people are not seeing opportunties in front of them.  But I ask you, why are you worried?  What are you afraid of and what do you fear?  Have you ever considered that fear is nothing more than F.E.A.R (False Evidence Appearing Real)?  I know its hard to believe one thing when all you see and all you hear is negative thoughts of people who really have no clue.  In fact, the average TV person is told to portray fear to boast ratings.  So ask yourself the next time you watch TV, listen to the radio or read the newspaper.  Is this being promoted to send the message of fear to boast ratings and the income of the station or radio?

I wish there was a real newspaper or radio station or even TV station that told the truth.  One that shouted success and promoted real people.  Not crap but honest truth. And more importantly that promoted what is really happening with our economy.

Yea our stock market is down by 40% but did you know that in the last 11 weeks, the market has risen 25.28%?  I mean seriously in your live can you tell me a time when you could invest $1 and end up with $1.25? Imagine if you invested $10,000, you would have made an extra $1,250 in 11 weeks for doing…well nothing but sitting and waiting.

So, honestly we did take a hit but that was in the past.  Its over and things ARE recovering.  Take a moment and look around.  Things are improving and will be stronger and better than ever before.  I will even go on record to state that we are about to experience the largest boom our country has even had in the next few months.  I ask YOU, are you ready for what is about to happen!  Are you prepared for this increase?  Or are you just sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what everyone else is going to do before you act?  Because we both know that will get you no where very fast!

The New Economy we live in is just beginning to form and will continue to evolve of the next few months but those who act, study, read, listen to postive information, and ignore the crap of the media will be the is shouting WILL be the ones that have great success!

I encourage YOU to act, take a chance on yourself! Take a chance on OUR country and take a chance on YOUR future.

I just dare you too and I promise it will be one great ride!