Hey folks

So I’ve been reading around about bringing high traffic to a website/ blog. What I've understood is that if a blog does not really have a focus topic, generally it will attract very little traffic. That sort of killed me! But then again this blog may not have a specific topic but it targets a specific type of person. So hopefully that will be enough to attract some decent traffic.

I recently added a link under each post, which allows you to email a certain posts to your friends and family. Please do so if you enjoy what you read, it will help bring traffic. Also feel free to comment on any posts.

Cheers!

Lauzon (surfedtoolong@hotmail.com)

Acid Rain

In general 'clear' rain (unpolluted) will have a pH of around 5.6, if the pH drops bellow this, it is considered acid rain or acid precipitation. The problem with this is that acid destroys everything over a long period of time.
Water; A polluted water source is no use to anyone or anything. When a lake becomes acidic, organisms depending on this lake for survival will eventually either be forced to leave of die. These organisms are needed to maintain a balanced ecosystem.

Plants and trees are also greatly affected by Acid rain. The acid breaks down the waxy coating around the leaves, which then allows acid to enter the leaves's cell. This suffocates the leaves and enables it to consume the needed levels of CO2 gas. In the long run this kills the trees and can wipe out forests. This ties in with my post on global warming. With less trees consuming CO2 gas, more CO2 gas will accumulate in our atmosphere quicker than we anticipated. Just be aware.

Why is Google called 'Google'

The goal of Sergey Brin and Larry page (the Google founders) was to create a search engine that could hold the entire world wide web, and to make it accessible extremely quickly to the public. The name Google comes from ‘googol’, which is a very large number; a 1 followed by one hundred '0's. They had to modify the spelling since googol.com was already taken.

If you use Google frequently you would have noticed how they often play around with the logo, this is one of the things that makes Google 'friendly' and somewhat welcoming. Here is an example of the Google logo modified for Halloween:

"Now you can search the equivalent of a stack of paper more than 70 miles high in less then half a second...- we think that's pretty cool." Larry Page

Ironic Titanic.

In 1898 Morgan Robertson wrote a short novel called the Wreck of the Titan. He described the journey of an unsinkable luxurious ship known as the Titan. He described it as the following- ‘the titan was 800 feet long, weighed 75,000 tons, had three propellers and 24 lifeboats and was packed with rich passengers. Cruising at 25 knots the Titan's hull was ripped apart when it hit and iceberg in April. Most of the passengers were lost because there weren't enough lifeboats.’

Now for what happened to the Titanic fourteen years later (1912):

The Titanic was considered the safest ship afloat. It was 882.5 feet long, weighed 66,000 tons and had three propellers. Along with 22 lifeboats and carried many rich passengers. Late on the night of April 14, the ship hit an iceberg sailing at 23 knots. The iceberg tore a hole in its hull and upended the ship. Over 1,500 people died because there weren’t enough lifeboats.

Taken from 'the biggest ever bathroom reader'.

Why do people threaten each other?

Have you ever really given thought to this?
While reading one of Paulo Coelho's books, I came to realization that ultimately a person only threatens another when they feel the situation is getting out of their hands. For this reason it is most likely to be the 'higher ranked' person such as an older brother, boss or teacher who threatens another.

Think about it... It makes sense.

Cool Ads

This is just a post of some of the coolest ads I've come across in the past few months:

Tell me which one you like best!

When I was your age, we had blue skies.

Some of you may choose to believe Global warming is a made up fantasy, I'm not here to challenge your believes. I personally find that global warming is a representation and human’s selfishness and lack of appreciation for existence here on earth.

The greatest cause of global warming is the increase levels of accumulated CO2 gas in the atmosphere. Not only are we releasing way too much of this gas in our atmosphere, but we are also cutting down forest and polluting water sources. We cut down the equivalent to a soccer field size of forestland every other second. In addition, water (the ocean mostly) currently absorbs up to 1/3 of all the CO2 gas we release, but here’s the problem: cold water is better at doing this than warm...that other 2/3 not being absorbed is heating the planet causing the oceans are heating up as well and therefore absorbing less and less CO2. This also makes the water more acidic and therefore kills much of the life undersea.

To the north of Canada, a huge chunk of the ice cap melted in the past decade forming a gateway, instead of this proving to humanity that things are starting to get out of hands, some major companies viewed this newly formed gateway as an opportunity to transport goods faster. That makes me feel kind of weird inside. There’s so much more greatness in life than money. Money is only one form of richness.

I hope that someday-human kind as one can come to respecting the beauty of the world, whatever beauty there may be left.

Saving your coins for your better future

Have you ever thought- 'Hey I have 1 dollar in my pocket' and then spent it? Just because it was a dollar coin? Well, yeah of course you have, we all have. But here I've experimented with a ‘money saving tip’ and found that it works like magic. If you follow up with this post's recommendation, you won’t regret.

For the next 2-3 weeks, every time you get change-save it. When you get home every night put it in a penny bank so you are not tempted to spend it. This way you will also not have to worry about your pockets getting heavy. At the end of the 2-3 weeks empty out your penny bank and see how much is in it (I say 2-3 weeks because its a good starting point, but the longer the better). Let me guarantee you that if you really did keep almost all the change that came into your hands, you wont be disappointed.

This extra cash that you obviously didn't NEED to spend can help pay for your bills or can help you save up for that new laptop or T.V. you've been looking out for. You'll find it becomes somewhat of a habit after a while.
I tried this over the course of about 5 months and accumulate a decent sum considering I am a student living off allowance from my folks. I saved up over $200. I don't mind saving up that extra $200! I personally use this money to invest in stocks. But what you do with yours is up to you. If you are interested in stock investing check out some of my other posts on the topic.

Try it and give me some feedback!

Paulo Coelho, a Daring Author.

This essay looks into why Paulo Coelho would risk his reputation and fame to write about the contreversal topic of sex. I hope you like it:

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It is magical that Paulo Coelho overcame the boundaries of gender and was able to write from the point of view of a female, more specifically, a Brazilian prostitute. Coelho explores the sanctity of sex, as well as the mysteries behind it, through his groundbreaking novel 11 minutes. Why would Paulo Coelho -- the author of the Alchemist, which is considered a gem of literature -- risk his fame and reputation to write about the controversial topic of sex in such an explicit and erotic way?

11 minutes was written as a method to help Coelho understand the sacred topic of sex. He admitted that the only way he finally came to understanding the deeper meaning of sex was through years of research and talking to people, such as Maria. In the end he concluded that sex was ultimately 'a manifestation of a spiritual energy called love.' It is typical of Paulo Coelho to go ruthlessly after a certain topic; his persistence is what sets him apart from many other writers. He will dig and dig until he finally finds his treasure; which is often in the form of answers to his questions. This is one reason why Coelho wrote this book -- he needed to understand the deeper meaning of sex because he knew it was so much more than a 'response to certain physical stimuli'.

Paulo Coelho attempted to write 11 minutes many times but failed, time after time. One day after a conference in Italy, a manuscript about the life of a prostitute was left on his bed. Although this was not the answer to his questions, it was a start…a glimmer of hope. He later met the prostitute named Maria who provided the 'connecting thread' needed to write 11 minutes. It was through working with her, reflecting on experiences of his life and intertwining his views that he finally finished the novel. He realized that in order to write about sex '[he] had to start with the fear that everything would go wrong'. Although the book was greatly influenced by Maria, it is more of a 'blend of people' and a mixture of experiences.

It was daring of Coelho to write 11 minutes, knowing that if he failed to deliver, he would face the possibility of thousands of readers worldwide losing interest in his writing. It was a huge challenge -- not many authors write about such a variety of topics. Many tend to stick to one theme or genre and never dare to explore anywhere else outside their ‘comfort zone’. This is one reason why Coelho is an extraordinary writer; he is able to weave his magic into every novel, regardless the genre– something only a handful of authors can do.

The life of Maria is very much the symbol of the American dream; she is a poor Brazilian girl who moves to Geneva in hope of a better life -- one of wealth, happiness and love. Instead, she finds herself trapped, with no money far from home, and finally resorts to prostitution. It is evident through the way that Coelho portrays prostitution in his book that he views little wrong with the practice. He does, however, underline that the life of prostitutes is one of great misery. What Maria does is not regarded as having sex with her clients, it is merely ‘opening her legs two, three times a day’ and moaning for 300 franks. The life of Maria is a sad one, considering that throughout the entire novel, she is working – to no avail -- in hopes of buying a ticket back home and to purchase a chunk of land. These dreams cause Maria to live for the future and to rarely appreciate whatever good she has in her life as it is.

When Paulo Coelho was interviewed regarding 11 minutes, no questions were asked as to whether any sections of the book reflected real life experiences. As a famous quote goes ‘’…no author can write about sex without writing about their own life’. I believe this is true and that some of what Coelho wrote in 11 minutes definitely must have reflected his experiences. These experiences may have been Coelho’s original drive to write about and understand sex. One part of the book, which accurately reflects on Cohelo’s life, is the road to Santiago. This 500-mile journey can be found subtly woven into many of Coelho’s other novels. In 11 minutes, the life of Maria changes at the road to Santiago because she finally finds love -- Her ‘body and soul reintegrate’. Ralf, a wealthy man who ends up falling in love with Maria, has a short conversation with her about the road. I believe Coelho reflected himself in this character; Ralf is not only wise, he is trying to uncover the deeper meaning of sex, (similar to Coelho).

During the Novel 11 minutes Maria is confronted by two seemingly opposite paths, one of pain for pleasure and one of the sanctity of sex. Through Maria we learn that, ultimately, they are both a form of pleasure and happiness. Pain, and idea that you must suffer to feel the good in life, somewhat frees Maria’s soul. Sacred sex is presented as a beautiful unspoken practice of the spiritual energy created by love. An example of this idea of pain for pleasure is when Maria is walking bare foot on sharp stones with Ralf. Every step she takes prolongs the pain, but she is willing to suffer through that pain. Maria encounters the idea of pain for pleasure a few other times in the novel, and each time, she refuses to ‘give in’ to the pain. Through this, much of Maria’s character is revealed, especially her willingness to explore the unknown. Pain itself can be used as a tool to make one stronger, which could ideally transform into a form of pleasure. According to Aria Juan, writer of “Paulo Coelho: Confession of a pilgrim’’, Coelho at one point of his life was imprisoned. During his sentence, it is said he was tortured; this may have been his greatest encounter of pain which I believe lead him to exploring the idea of ‘pain for pleasure’. In the novel, Maria seams to enjoy pain in some sense, as if it makes her feel human. When she is with a special client (a mysterious man who whips her), she could have asked him to stop at any time, but she didn’t. It is Maria’s curiosity that makes her both weak and strong at the same time.

With high risk come high rewards, Paulo Coelho lived up his well-built reputation with his novel 11 minutes, proving to the world that he is an all-round author. He did not just write a book about sex; he wrote about love and everything that comes with it -- sex, pleasure, happiness, pain and so on. After finishing his novel, Coelho was satisfied, not because he had managed to condense years of work into 269 pages, but because he had found his answer – and to him, these answers are priceless.

Bibliography
-Coelho, Paulo. 11 minutes. New York: HarperTorch, 2003.
-De Janeiro, Rio. "Paulo Coelho on Eleven Minutes." March 2003 26 May 2008
http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=1858&isbn13=9780060589271&displayType=bookinterview
-Juan, Arias. "Paulo Coelho: Confessions of a Pilgrim." 26 May 2008
http://www.bookworm.com.au/shop/scditem.asp?ProdID=46834
-Scott, Whitney. "Coelho, Paulo. Eleven Minutes." Booklist 100.13 (March 1, 2004): 1100(1). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. Singapore American School. 26 May 2008

100 meter Dash record set once again by Jamaican

On May 31st, 2008 at the Reebok Grand Prix at Icahn stadium New York, 21 year old Jamaican runner Usain Bolt sprints his way into history with a 9.72 second 100m dash. The previous world record was help by fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell at 9.74 set in September 2007.

It began with a false start which Bolt admitted he was glad for since his original start was not so good. Bolt, more of a 200m runner had come second last year in the 200m at the world champions. Before setting the new 100m record, he said he was probably not going to run the 100 in Beijing 2008. After running his 9.72 he changed his mind "I'm running the 100m in Beijing" he said.

Earlier in May, Bolt had run a surprising 9.76 in Jamaica (at the time, the second fastest 100m ever ran). It had also only been his 3rd competitive 100m race.

He now is hoping to take gold at the Beijing Olympics in August. "Tomorrow if someone runs faster than me, I'm not longer the fastest man" he says, "but if i win the Olympics, they have to wait 4 years to beat me".

Dope Wars (facebook version)

I've been playing this game of Facebook called 'Dope Wars'. I think it’s worth looking into since there are constantly about 3,000 players online. The Goal of the game is to deal dope (or fight other dealers) to come up with the greatest sum of cash you can.

You receive a lot of freedom in this game to a grow your own dope, buy/sell where you want around the world (total of 17 available cities to deal in- each city has different kinds of 'local dope'.) Along with this, each city in general consists of 3-5 turfs (which are areas to deal dope). You can become part of a cartel (a group of dealers), and try to put your cartel name on as many turfs as you can. All right this was just a quick intro. now I’ll get deeper in the game.
Here what I’ll look into (by sections):
1. The beginning
2. Fight club
3. Dope Lab
4. Cartels
5. Workers
6. Completing Missions
7. Other ways of making cash
8. Local dope (where you can find it)

1) The Begining
By far the hardest part of the game is when you start off with limited cash and no guns. For newbies I would recommend to go to the Ghetto in New York and deal weed there. You can buy it for as low as $10 here and sell it at as high as $200 (although lately it has only been going up to around $130). Simply refresh the page after you buy and you will see a price change. Dealing weed will offer you the greatest % increase you can get in this game. So why not deal weed ALL THE TIME? Well its because you have limited storage space, I believe you start off with 100 bags of storage. You can later upgrade it a few time to the highest possible storage facility allowing you 16,000 bags of storage. So lets say you buy 100 bags of weed at $10 and sell it off at $120, you'll make $11,000 profit! Making cash in this game is the easiest thing in the world. Making BIG is not so easy and a lot more time consuming. I have currently hit my first trillion, and there are quite a few players out there with significantly more cash than me.

I recommend you join a cartel as well, this will help you get cheaper prices. Probably join a large one such as 'Dope Ultimatum' or 'Revolution' since they are the biggest ones out there (with 95,000 and 11,000 members respectively.) This way you benefit from owning Turfs. Owning a turf will give you 5% discount on all dope sold at this turf, its a nice way to make that little bit more cash out of dealing.
When starting off, do not waste cash on blings or whatever since you are very limited in it. Wait until you have a few millions to do so. You should, on the other hand buy at least a few guns at the store to increase your chance of fighting off the cops. If the cops bust you, they will take half the cash you have 'on hand' along with half the dope you were trafficking (if any). Be smart about it!

2) Fight Club
One of the most 'unsafe' ways to make money in this game is through fight club. There are two cities where you can access fight club. You enter through either one, it leads to the same place. In fight club you will probably find around 10 other dealers at any one time (Depending on your net worth, since you can only fight people within a certain margin of your net worth).
Its simple: the more guns you have, the higher chance you have of winning a fight.

In fight club you can only ever make 10% of either the cash you hand of the cash the dealer you are fighting has on hand (which ever one is less). I recommend storing most of your cash as 'raw materials' in the dope lab (which can be cashed back anytime) so that at least it is safe. You can only lose what you come into fight club with. I have made up to 4 billion in one fight, but other times I found myself getting washed by other fighters. I think its fair for you to tell yourself that there will be at least ONE other dealer stronger than you in fight club, with this thought in might just make sure someone isn’t sucking money out of you without you realizing it. Keep an eye out for this since a dealer can fight another dealer more than once.
You can win decent money in fight club, but I would only recommend it early to middle stages of the game. It becomes too unreliable later on.

3) Dope Lab
Your dope lab is the one greatest tool for generating those billions. Originally your dope lab will grow dope in 24 hours, through the 4 or so upgrades, you can bring this down to 1 hour. I recommend that you focus on upgrading your storage (a couple times) before you begging using your dope lab; you need some decent amount of cash to really use it to its full potential. What makes the dope lab so great is that you can grow ST 8Drops (an example of the 26 different kind of dope you can grow) for $10,000/bag. Once it is grown, if you look around well enough you’ll be able to sell it at over $21,000/bag. That’s an $11,000 profit per bag!

It gets better, lets say your storage space is 100, the dope lab multiplies that by 10, so you can grow 1000 bags at a time. Just like if you have the largest storage space you can grow 160,000 bags at a time. Lets look at some numbers...

1,000 bags x 10,000 = $10,000,000 (your total cost to grow. aka raw materials)
if you sell for $21,000 a bag...
1,000 bags x 21,000 = $21,000,000 - $10,000,000
=$11,000,000 profit.
Not bad. And this is with the lowest storage space possible. Once you have done growing your dope, you can move it to your inventory (where it can be sold off). Once it is moved out of your dope lab, you can beginning growing a new batch of it (without having to sell what you just moved into your inventory.) In this way to can accumulate thousands if not millions of dope bags before you sell it all off (I believe there is not limit as to how much you can store in this manner).

4) Cartels
I recommend you join a cartel or start one of your own. If your cartel wins turfs, you'll get a 5% discount on all dope sold on these turfs for as long as no other cartels fight you off that turf. Also it is often easier to get folks to work for you if you are in the same cartel, you may do each other favors which benefits both of you (such as taking up $1 jobs.)
Many cartels also have boards with tones of tips. It’s a great way to learn more about the game.

There is also something about winning cash and dope if you win turfs but I think that varies from cartel to cartel.

5) Hire Workers
You will find that everyone who has trillions has gotten that through hiring workers. The benefit of hiring workers is that you get more storage space which, then mean you can grow a lot more dope and deal a lot more too. To hire workers, you will need a lot of cash, so this is not really an option for beginners, it is even hard for mid-way players (those with caps in the low billions).
Here is a list of how much you benefit from the storage depending on the rank of the worker:

• Hustlers (+100 bags storage)
• Street Sharks (+500 bags storage)
• Dealers (+1000 bags storage)
• Distributors (+1600 bags storage)
• World Distributors (+2500 bags storage)
• Cartel Generals (+4000 bags storage)
• Cartel Bosses (+6000 bags storage)
• Crooked Dictators (+8000 bags storage)

The higher rank, the more you will have to pay to hire them. The ultimate way to get thousands of workers is by offering the highest pay on the job boards. This will mean paying around 22 billion for a Cartel General, for example. You can also invite friends; you get 500 more storage space per friend you invite (there is a limit as to how many you can invite per day). Note that you hire dealers for one day only.

Another method for lower players to get workers is through spamming on the 'what up' discussions boards found on every turfs and the city pages. This is extremely competitive and nowhere near as effective as paying the highest on the job board. If you want to try, place your ‘advertisement' on the Ghetto and New York Wall. It can still provide 30-40 workers easy if you go about it the right way. Also this way you end up paying much less for workers.

6) Completing Missions
You may do up to 2 missions in one day. Completing a mission will give you 2% of your estimate net worth. Be sure to refresh your net worth before you begin a mission so that you get your full 2%. It is a great way to make that extra bit everyday. Most missions take around 5-10 minutes to complete.

7) Other Ways to Make Cash
The casino: I have heard of a couple people making significant money in the casino so I tried it myself. First I played Texas Holdem and I won 1 hand of 5, giving me just over 2 billion (since I raised to 1B on the last card). I found this boring and inconsistent. Plus the amount you can make is extremely limited. The computer always seamed to have the one card needed, which I found lame.

I then tried the slot machines going in with 10k at first. I lost about 10 times, so then i tried going witha million at a time, I lost another 5-6 times. Until finally I won. It gave me 80X my million (80 million), I still found that this was way too time consuming. Feel free to try it out though.

8) Local Dope
This list looks at where you can deal the three main different kinds of local dope (ST8 Drops, mexian brown Heroin and White Widow).

ST 8Drops: New York, Dubai, Vancouver, Sao Paulo, London,

Mexican Brown Heroin: Capre Town, Lost Angeles, Moscow, Toronto

White Widow: Shanghai, Freetown, Sydney, Bogota,

New to Blogging!

Alright, this is my first blog...
i hope to accomplish much through blogging as a hobby. some of the following i intend to write about in my earlier blogs are:
-investing for teens
-dope wars game on facebook
-100m Dash record

(these blogs should be on and running within a few days)

feel free to give me feedback any time!
cheers,
Lauzon