Kill Depression with Exercise
We all get depressed from time to time. It’s just human nature. Stress is normal as well; in fact, stress can be good, because it is necessary in order to keep you motivated, alert, and prepared for danger. It’s no secret that stress and depression are linked. Likewise, the mind and body are linked – if one is affected by something, the other will often be as well. Stay stressed too long and you can develop a condition known as distress, which disturbs the internal equilibrium of your body. Your mental problems will start to manifest themselves physically. In other words, all that shit that’s bothering you is damaging your body. You could develop any of the following conditions:
- Depression, Anxiety, and Panic Attacks
- Headaches
- Upset Stomach
- Chest Pain
- High Blood Pressure
- Sexual Dysfunction
- Sleeping Problems
- Emotional Problems
- Worsened or increased chances of heart disease, lung problems, cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, accidents, suicide, and more (Chakraburtty)
Luckily, this mind-body link works both ways. According to a publication at Harvard University’s website, “A review of studies stretching back to 1981 concluded that regular exercise can improve mood in people with mild to moderate depression. It also may play a supporting role in treating severe depression.” Read more…
Training Plateau or Stress Injuries? De-Load!
Training is hard. There’s no way around that. But it’s even harder when you are trying to train through a plateau, or are training with accumulated stress and small injuries. Your eagerness to get through your plateau may be resulting in over-training, and thus only making the plateau worse. How about that tightness and instability you develop in your hamstrings after weeks of doing heavy deadlifts and squats? Keep it up and you could get a ruptured hamstring. Or maybe you’re feeling other small aches and pains elsewhere in your body. Anyone who trains regularly is going to accumulate fatigue in their body – it’s just natural. You might think that if you’re not reaching your goals, you need to push yourself harder. The reality is that you need to learn how to listen to your body.
If you’re having trouble with a plateau or are suffering from accumulated stress injuries, it may be time to initiate a “de-load” or “back off” period. This simply means reducing your training volume or intensity for a specific amount of time, such as a week or for one cycle of your training split routine, however long that is.
What De-Loading Does
- Gives you a mental break from intense lifting and lets your central nervous system recover
- Allows your connective tissues – joints, tendons, ligaments, etc. – to recover
- Reduces the risk of or helps recover from over-training (also known as under-recovery)
- Helps you get over plateaus and prepares you for further gains Read more…
Is Using Samples / Loops in Your Music “Cheating”?
This is a pretty common topic among modern-day computer musicians. In this day and age, so many people create music using samples and loops for the basis of their songs. Is this “cheating”?
I don’t think so. Where do you draw the line, anyway? If you use a microphone to record a set of drums being played live, then should it be “cheating” because you did not build the drums yourself? Come on. Besides, if you have pro recording equipment, then the recording of the drum beat played live versus the drum beat played using samples isn’t going to sound very different, as long as you use the same kind of drums and play them the same way. Using samples of recorded instruments isn’t a lot different from just recording instruments to begin with – especially with these crazy, multi-sampled libraries of today, where each note / drum has multiple recordings and nuances to make the beat sound more “real.” Add to that the degree to which you can alter the sound using effects, and you can really make the sound “your own.” The biggest problem with recording things yourself is simply that in order to get professional results it’s going to take a lot more time, effort, money, and equipment. Don’t get me wrong – nothing beats the real thing, but if all you’re doing is trying to lay down a good beat, why not use samples? In this day and age, it’s almost expected. Read more…
Beginner’s Guide to Making Music Using Computers
This article was originally written in July of 2008.
Please note that I’ve removed all links from this article (they just led to pages of zZounds.com).
HARDWARE
The Computer:
First of all, you’re going to need a decent computer — as good of one as you can afford. It doesn’t have to be a supercomputer, but you can’t have too good of a computer; especially when you get into the more advanced applications. Nearly all aspects of the computer will factor in, including the CPU power, the amount of RAM, the speed of the hard drive(s) and how much space they can hold, the quality of the sound card, etc… For audio creation, your sound card will be one of the most important components of your computer. You should get a sound card built to be used for audio creation, preferably from a company such as Creative Labs (or even more preferably, from their “Pro”-level subsidiary company, E-MU). M-Audio also makes good sound cards for this purpose. Read more…
Metal Gear Solid 4: Mad Gekko Disease
This article was originally written in November of 2006.
Please note that I no longer feel as strongly about this as I did back in 2006. I just don’t care as much… although I still hate AC!D and those “digital comics.” You will find a mini-review of MGS4 at the bottom of this page, which was written in 2008. MGS4 is a pretty good game… not as good as MGS1, but none of them ever will be. Anyway, hopefully you’ll get a laugh or two out of this article, if nothing else:
Let’s sum up the main installments to the series: Metal Gear, 1987 – the original stealth action game. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, 1990 – some say it’s the best of the series. Metal Gear Solid, 1998 – a classic in the history of gaming. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, 2001 – a highly anticipated game; a tad disappointing to some. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, 2004 – a high-rated hit… that could have been better.
Enter Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots! Stunning new graphics, and a continuation of the intriguing story. But what’s this? Snake looks ancient now, he’s got a stupid-looking mustache, and he’s dying?! That’s right, folks, he looks like DICK VAN DYKE. I’ll prove it to you:
Record Any Audio Your Computer is Outputting
Have you ever wanted to record the audio that your soundcard is outputting, whatever it is? Maybe you’ve Googled the name of a song, and noticed that there are tons of sites (like iLike, Rhapsody, etc.) that show up in the top of the Google searches and let you play the entire song in high-quality, for free, right there in a pop-up window. Of course, the next time you listen to the song, it will only be a 30-second demo (although this can be worked around by simply clearing your web browser’s cache – boom, you can listen to the whole song again). Well, if you simply record what your sound card is outputting, you can record that song that is playing into an MP3 file and save it on your PC. Cool, huh? And then you can go to iTunes or eBay and actually purchase the album because you like the song so much (hint, hint). I’m not trying to support illegal music downloading or anything – but this is a cool trick that has tons of uses. Read more…
Make Money Online by Talking About Making Money Online
Make money online! Those three words are like gold to the eyes of those who are looking for a quick, easy, and steady way to make money so they can quit the dead-end jobs that they hate. There are so many ways to make money online… If you are innovative and persistent, and hopefully have some programming skills, then you may eventually have a flash of insight and come up with the next Google, Facebook, or Twitter. Or you could – with a lot of patience – start a blog and get it popular enough that you make lots of money through ads alone. Or you could become a YouTube celebrity by making videos where you talk to yourself in front of a camera and act insane (who knows – one might even go viral). You could make money through any combination of these things. Read more…
Endangered Species
Okay, so the bald eagle has been removed from the U.S. federal government's list of endangered species. However, the cheetah is still on it. (I just thought the two photos meshed together well.)
This essay was written in April of 2008 by Ryan C. Stebbins.
The protection of endangered species is a controversial topic, but an important one. As the dominant species on this planet, humans need to act responsibly regarding the treatment and management of the other living creatures with which we share this world. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was signed into law by President Nixon in December of 1973. Although not the first law of its kind, the ESA is the first law to actually attempt to preserve endangered species, instead of simply listing species that are vanishing (Di Silvestro, par. 5). The Act makes it illegal to import, export, or sell listed animals and plants across state lines. It also is illegal to take listed animals from the wild without a special permit; it is illegal to possess, harass, harm, or kill them. The penalty for such actions can be up to $200,000 and/or a year spent in jail (de Koster, par. 6). Advocates of the ESA believe that the law works, and that it has already saved many species from extinction. Others believe that the ESA does quite the opposite. One concept that any responsible person can agree on, however, is that the human species needs to consider its actions and what they do to other species living on Earth. Read more…
Smoking
It is said that Vincent Van Gogh suffered from mental illness, but clearly he had no illusions about what his habit of smoking was doing to his body.
This essay was written in March of 2008 by Ryan C. Stebbins.
It is common knowledge that smoking is harmful to human health. Smoking has been recognized as a leading cause of disease and death for at least 40 years, and few subjects have received such extensive study. Thousands of scientific studies confirm that smoking is a major hazard to people’s health (Lukachko, par. 4). Yet many people continue to smoke, regardless of the consequences. One excuse that smokers often use is the fact that they will eventually die even if they had never smoked at all. However, this attitude does not take into account the fact that smokers are not only affecting themselves, but also people around them, as well as society itself. People who die prematurely from smoking are not only cheating themselves out of years of living that they could have had – they are also cheating their family and friends from time that could have been spent with them. Smoking wastes money, time, and life. Read more…
Global Warming
This essay was written in February of 2008 by Ryan C. Stebbins.
Global warming is a topic very often discussed today, but it is also a topic about which most people are poorly informed. First of all, one needs to have a basic understanding of how global warming works. After solar radiation warms the Earth, global warming occurs when the thermal radiation reflected back into space is trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (“Environment” 174). This is a natural phenomenon that is essential to life on Earth. Most of the present concerns regarding global warming are about whether mankind is increasing global warming by increasing greenhouse gas emissions and whether or not this is dangerous. However, global warming is largely a natural phenomenon, and one that is nothing to worry about; in fact, it may be beneficial to us. Read more…