I grew up in a relatively video game-less universe. The only game we had was Pong which my brother and I played until it broke after only a few months of use. After that I had the occasional opportunity to play the Nintendo at a friends house. But I sucked so I was not a big fan of it. Eventually we got a computer that could handle a few games. I remember playing Duke Nukem, Doom, and Tie Fighter a lot. But it wasn’t until I got to college that I bought my first console. It was a PS2 and I played it quite a bit at first, GTA 3, Rogue Agent and Vice City. But eventually I got bored with it too. It wasn’t until last year that I really got into gaming. My roommate is a born-gamer, he is way better at it than I ever hope to be. Mostly because he has been gaming since the womb, he came out of it with a silver Nintendo controller in his right hand. He bought an Xbox 360 and we started playing, a lot. We would play for entire days. It was awesome. We had tons of games to play, Halo 3, Fable 2, Dynasty Warriors 6 and The Force Unleashed. I should mention that I played Dynasty Warriors 6 just this morning. Neither one of us can get enough of that game. That and GTA 4. Anyway with all this use and with the added bonus of living in a dusty apartment, I thought that our Xbox would be really dirty. But when I cleaned it for the article How to Clean an Xbox 360 I discovered that it was hardly dirty at all. I think it helps that I dust and vacuum on a regular basis. Anyway if you need to clean your Xbox, PS3, Gamecube or Wii, you should check out my article How to Clean an Xbox 360.
Archive for April, 2009
Water is among humanity’s greatest needs. Of the world’s supply of water; 97% is in the ocean and 2 % is frozen. This leaves just 1 % of the world’s water left for drinking. When I see a statistic like this, I get the initial reaction that we all get: a bit of shock. But what exactly does that mean, 1 %? How much water is that? How much do we need? It is a shocking statistic, but in itself it doesn’t mean much. I am not doubting that there is a water crisis. Maybe not in America but in other countries for sure. And perhaps someday we Americans will be faced with a water crisis. We already have a strange fascination with bottled water. Ooh, it’s from a rare mountain spring. Oh my God, what flavor!. Fortunately, a lot of people have gotten hip to this whole bottled water scam and discovered a way to make their own filtered water. The result has saved them loads of money, natural resources, and energy. There are a lot of ways to filter or clean water. In my article How to Clean Water, I have listed all that I am aware of. I have also included the benefits and downsides for each.
For those of us with some sinus conditions, a humidifier can be a blessing in the winter months when the air is dry. Unfortunately, an unclean humidifier can be a hazard to your health. The moist area of a humidifier is the perfect place to grow bacteria. And water vapor is the perfect carrier of that bacteria. There are four types of humidifiers: ultrasonic, cool mist (impeller), evaporative, and steam vaporizers. Of the four, the safest are evaporative and steam vaporizers because the evaporated water cannot carry bacteria as well as the tiny water droplets the other two create. But they can still harbor microorganisms in the tank. Use of a bacteriostatic additive and regular cleaning can nearly eliminate any risk of infection. The following is the best way I have found to clean a humidifier. The humidifier in the pictures is an evaporative wicking console humidifier. But you should be able to use the advice here to clean any humidifier. Read How to Clean a Humidifier.
