I moved to New Jersey in the fall of 2003 and have learned some very interesting things — both good and bad. Here is a list of ten of them.

1. The Sopranos is real.
Though not as prevalent as it once was, the mafia is still very much active. Tactics have changed though, as now you see a lot more integration into the political system. A crime isn’t illegal if you’re mayor, right?

2. There are no freeways.
Coming from California, we call all highways “freeways,” that’s just how it is. However, when using the term with the locals here I am often greeted with a blank — what the hell are you talking about — stare. The reason, New Jersey highways such as the Turnpike and Parkway are not free; in fact, they’re rather far from it.

3. Avoid Newark at all costs.
Newark has the reputation of being a bad place, but unless you’ve been there extensively you really have no idea just how bad it can be. Case in point: the university I went to bordered on Newark and a few blocks away is where I saw my first (and still only thankfully) dead body. Not a pleasant sight.

4. The pizza everywhere else sucks.
New Jersey (and by proxy New York) has the best pizza you will ever come by in your entire life. Anyone who has eaten at a halfway decent pizza place will surely agree with me.

5. Guidos are everywhere, resistance is futile.
New Jersey has a well-known stereotype for being full of guidos. I’m sad to report that the stereotype is absolutely true. They seem to be bred from a young age to become fully blossomed guidos by adult age. Do not try to fight the trend, they have strength in numbers. Just do your best to ensure you’re not assimilated.

6. The Jersey Shore isn’t half bad.
There is a lot of negativity when discussing the Jersey Shore. Most people tend to brand it as “dirty” or “skanky.” In my experience the Jersey Shore has some very enjoyable and nice areas, such as Point Pleasant or Wildwood. But a word to the wise, try not to venture into Seaside Sleazside.

7. Children live at home until they’re 30.
Where I come from kids want to move out of their parents’ households as soon as they reach 18. In New Jersey, a surprisingly high number of people live at home until they are 25-30 years old.

8. Diners are awesome.
New Jersey has more 24-hour diners than you know what to do with. Growing up I was never fortunate enough to enjoy diners, as all we had was Denny’s. NJ diners are a drunk person’s ecstasy.

9. Everybody knows everybody.
New Jersey is a tiny state relative to some others. Whenever I go out with friends they run into people they know from all around the state. It’s not unusual to see someone in North Jersey and then again in South Jersey 2 hours later.

10. Harold and Kumar are lying to you.
Despite what Harold and Kumar would lead you to believe, White Castle is not a place you want to eat at. Without going into obscene detail, I’ll just say that there is a reason they are called “murder burgers.”

As men, we often get intimidated when we see a beautiful woman in the room. Worse even is when we see that beautiful woman with a guy who doesn’t deserve to be with her. In most cases we would jump to the quick stereotype of her being a gold digger, saying that she’s only with him for his money. But it goes beyond that. Even if you have money, there are certain characteristics you need to exhibit if you want to land that girl of your dreams.

Here now, I present to you the 7 C’s to landing a beautiful woman:

1) Confidence
We start off with this one because it is one of the most crucial. A man needs to be exhibit a sense of confidence in the way he carries himself. Beautiful women need men who know how to feel comfortable in all situations. She is often the center of attention wherever she goes, and she needs someone who can hold his own (think Albert at the party with Allegra in the movie Hitch). Be careful not to be overly confident to the point of cockiness, that is one of the quickest ways to drive her away.

2) Cleanliness
Take a shower, put on some deodorant, get a haircut and ace the 5 o’clock shadow. If you want an attractive woman you need to make yourself presentable.

3) Charisma
Be interesting and unique, someone that other people want to be around (recall how Alfie keeps women hanging on his every word). Beautiful women meet tons of people every day, and pathetic guys drooling all over them are certainly in no short supply. You need to separate yourself from the rest of the pack — do something that will leave a positive, lasting first impression so that she won’t soon forget you.

4) Charity
Be giving to others. Despite the common stereotype, a beautiful woman really doesn’t want to date a jerk. Be the guy who is thoughtful and genuine to everyone. Women notice how you treat other women, so position yourself as the sweetheart guy (think Bill Bellamy dancing with the ugly girl in How To Be A Player).

5) Communication
This one may be blatantly obvious but it’s easy to under appreciate. Bottom line: you need to be able to talk to her. If you walk up to engage her in conversation and your body is suddenly overcome by rigamortis what use will she have for you? Absolutely none. So turn off the computer, stop threatening 12-year-olds on Xbox live, get out of the basement and learn how to initiate and maintain a discussion with a member of the opposite sex. Ask her how she is and how her day was. Showing a genuine interest in her will get you a long way.

6) Chivalry
Sorry guys, but chivalry is not dead. Women like Beyonce may be independent, but they still enjoy being treated like a lady. Open doors, hold elevators, pull out seats when sitting at a table. Chivalristic acts of this nature will show a beautiful woman how great of a catch you are, and will make her more inclined to choose you from the bunch.

7) Career
Although most women are not gold diggers, they all need that sense of security and stability. You don’t need the pockets of Larry or Sergey, but you do need to have a job with enough income to pay the bills — no, employment at the BK Lounge does not satisfy this requirement. No beautiful woman wants to be the breadwinner while you’re at home playing WoW all day. Have some ambition and drive to succeed, laziness is nothing but unappealing to beautiful women.

I hope these seven points have provided you with something of substance that you can take away and apply to your own lives. Please feel free to contribute any additional C’s that could help our fellow men in their quest for beautiful women.

This guy could give Forrest Gump a run for his money…

I don’t want to spoil this for anyone so let me just say this guy is amazing, I can’t even do this on Wii Sports.

Well known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov cites Russian military experts when he says the looming US military attack on Iran is to be carried out during the first week of April, specifically beginning at 4 AM on April 6 — Good Friday. The attack is supposed to last 12 hours, from 4 AM to 4 PM local Iran time.

The attack plan, dubbed Operation Bite, contains about 20 targets for bombing, mostly uranium enrichment facilities, research centers and laboratories. Attacks will come from numerous US military bases, including the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, US aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, and US Naval forces in the Mediterranean.

Several Russians with close ties to the Kremlin are pretty sure of this, but of course one has to take it with a grain of salt, although Russia says it is seeing a buildup of US military forces along the Iranian border.

First off hold the phone, launching any attack against Iran would be illegal in every corner of the globe. Bush has sought no authorization from the US or the UN. Secondly, what the heck are they doing? There are wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there’s no need to start another one between them. I really hope this is an unfounded rumor, or, if it is true, the US will back out of it. This would be detrimental to peace and stability in the world and would increase terrorism throughout the world, particularly against Americans.

This one comes via Digg, and while I don’t generally like to take stuff off the front page (I prefer upcoming stories :P) I thought that this one from mingle2.com would resonate with some of my readers, particularly my girlfriend Carin. So without further adieu, ladies here are the top 10 reasons why you should be dating a geek:

1. They’re probably very smart.
2. Geeks are cool now, honestly.
3. Geeks have hobbies outside of computers and are often very good at them.
4. Geek humor is the best humor.
5. They listen to great music.
6. Geeks make good money.
7. Geeks can fix things.
8. There’s never a dull moment with a geek.
9. They’re very well-spoken and articulate with their words.
10. Geeks embody passion, even if only with gadgets.

If I could add one of my own I’d say: 11. Geeks are loyal subjects. Think of how many geeks still hold on to their computers and other gadgets years after they have become “obsolete,” imagine how well we would take care of and hold onto our leading ladies?

There is an amazing post on Craigslist called Advice to Young Men from an Old Man that offers some great tips for how to go about living your life. There are 30 numbered points in all, and while I don’t necessary agree with all of them, I think most of them are great and want to share some of them with my readers.

Disclaimer: to my female readers, these are not meant to offend, however keep in mind these are written from man to man, so take anything you find offensive with a grain of salt.

So here goes:

1. Don’t pick on the weak. It’s immoral. Don’t antagonize the strong without cause, its stupid.

5. As a former Marine, take it from me. Don’t join the military, unless you want to risk getting your balls blown off to secure other people’s economic or political interests.

6. If something has a direct benefit to an individual or a class of people, and a theoretical, abstract, or amorphous benefit to everybody else, realize that the proponent’s intentions are to benefit the former, not the latter, no matter what bullsh*t they try to feed you.

10. Don’t undermine your fellow young men. Mentor the young men that come after you. Society recognizes that you have the potential to be the most power force in society. It scares them. Society does not find young men sympathetic. They are afraid of you, both individually and collectively. Law enforcement’s primary purpose is to suppress you.

11. As a young man, you’re on your own. Society divides and conquers. Unlike women who have advocates looking out for them (NOW, Women’s Study Departments, government, non-profit organizations, political advocacy groups) almost no one is looking out for you.

12. Young men provide the genius and muscle by which our society thrives. Look at the Silicone Valley. By in large, it was not old men or women that created the revolution we live. Realize that society steals your contributions, secures it with our intellectual property laws, and then takes credit and the rewards where none is due.

13. Know that few people have your best interests at heart. Your mother does. Your father probably does (if he stuck around). Your siblings are on your side. Everybody else worries about themselves.

15. Acquire empathy, good interpersonal skills, and confidence. Learn to read body language and non-verbal communication. Don’t just concentrate on your vocational or technical skills, or you’ll find your wife f*cking somebody else.

17. Don’t speak ill of your wife/girlfriend. Back her up against the world, even if she’s wrong. She should know that you have her back. When she needs your help, give it. She should know that you’ll take her part.

19. If your girlfriend doesn’t make you feel good about yourself and bring joy to your life, fire her. That’s what girlfriends are for.

22. Have and nurture friendships with women.

29. Don’t believe the crap about the patriarchy. More women are accepted and attend college. More degrees are awarded to women than men. Women outlive men. More men commit suicide. Men are twice as likely to be victims of violence, including murder. If you consider sexual assaults in prisons, twice as many men are raped as women (society thinks prison rape is funny). The streets are littered with homeless men, sprinkled with a few homeless women. Statistically, women are happier than men. The myth that girls are being cheated by are educational system is belied by the fact that schools are bastions of femininity, mostly run by and taught by women. Girls outperform boys in school. It is the boys in school getting f*cked over, and prescribed ritalin for being boys. Real wages for men are falling, while real wages for women are rising. Just because someone says something enough times, doesn’t make it true. You have nothing to feel guilty about.

These are in their original, unedited form. The only alterations I have made are to remove the profanity. The link at the top of this post will take you to the original article if you want to read it in its entirety.

I’m not a big fan of astrology and astrological signs. When it comes down to it I will always dismiss it as rubbish, but sometimes its amusing to play around with it a bit, for pure entertainment of course. That being said, I’ve always been under the opinion that Libras were generally the best all around people. The symbol for Libra is balance, taken to mean that we are somewhat of an equilibrium. So tonight when I was randomly perusing Google I came across a list of famous Libras and to my surprise there were some truly amazing historical figures. So without further adieu, here is a list of the ones I found to be most important, in terms of those who have left a positive mark on this world:

• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Christopher Reeve
• T.S. Elliot
• George Gershwin
• Ed Sulllivan
• Gene Autry
• Truman Copote
• Jimmy Carter
• Gandhi
• Rutherford Hayes
• Neils Bohr
• R.D. Laing
• Desmond Tutu
• Jesse Jackson
• John Lennon
• Eleanor Roosevelt
• Margaret Thacher
• Dwight Eisenhower
• E.E. Cummings
• C. Everett Koop
• Oscar Wilde
• David Ben-Gurion
• Alfred Nobel

You can say I’m biased here but you can’t deny the quality of that list.

In high school physics one of the most common experiments was heating water from one temperature to another and seeing how much energy was required to do the necessary amount of labor. Typically this feat was accomplished with a bunsen burner and a beaker of distilled H2O, but what if instead we used our own body and a cup of ice water?

A Calorie is a kilo-calorie, and it takes 1 Calorie to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree Celsius.  So, for example, if we eat a 500 Calorie sandwich from Subway for lunch we are actually taking in 500,000 calories. But alas, when we run on the treadmill at the gym and burn 250 Calories we are really burning 250,000 calories. Now, unless your pee comes out nearly frozen, something has to heat that ice water that goes into your system, and that requires energy aka Calories.

So how many Calories would we burn by drinking a 16-ounce glass of ice water?

• The temperature of ice water can be estimated at zero degrees Celsius.
• Body temperature can be estimated at 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 F).
• It takes 1 calorie to raise 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius.
• There are 473.18 grams in 16 fluid ounces of water.

Thus, in drinking a 16-ounce glass of water, your body must raise the temperature of 473.18 grams of water by 37 degrees (0 to 37). This results in your body burning 17,508 calories, or 17.5 Calories as we know it. Burning 17.5 Calories doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you take into account that you’re doing nothing to burn them, it is free exercise. Furthermore, this is just one glass, if you drank 6 of these per day your body would be burning over 100 Calories. That’s over 3,000 Calories over the course of a typical month!

So it’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been super busy at work and will probably continue to get busier, however the good news is not all is lost. In my little spare time I have been working on tool for those in search engine optimization called SEO Robot. It’s still a rudimentary work in progress however it’s progressing nicely. I keep adding more and more functionality to the SEO Robot because I’m not quite sure how far I want to go with this one. For more information about this tool you can visit the SEO Robot page. I have also begun work on a search engine marketing glossary. There are others already in existence, however I plan to take mine beyond those into

Read the rest of this entry »