If you're in the market for a product with which you have no experience and you don't know who to turn to for advice, Google can help.

Just type "[product name] sucks" (WITH quotes) into Google and see what comes up.

There's ALWAYS something, but once you read the specific complaints, you can judge for yourself if they're legitimate.

Is it some moron who can't type whose REAL complaint is that he couldn't return the product to the store without a receipt?

Or maybe it's someone who ACTUALLY knows his stuff who gives a list specific flaws and failures in the product.

The biggest thing you'll want to look for, though, is a pattern. If the same problem keeps getting mentioned on one link after another, you'll probably want to avoid that product.

The good news, though, is that a lot of times you'll see people chiming in with alternatives for the product you're considering - something you may never even have heard of. You might want to look into one of those, instead.

Final hint: if your "sucks" search turns up a dedicated site at www.productnamesucks.com, you REALLY might want to think twice before using it.

Posted by: Harvey at 07:35 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Anathematized of Rivers of Blood points out this instructional video that shows a VERY slick t-shirt-folding technique.

The bad news - the video is in Japanese

The good news - it's a visual, so the words aren't important.

You'll probably need to watch it a couple times to get the hang of it, but it's kinda cool. And if you fold a lot of t-shirts, it might be a technique worth learning.

Posted by: Harvey at 07:40 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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... to never locking your keys in your car?

Only lock your door by using the key while you're outside the car.

The other secret is to carry a second set of keys with you.

Posted by: Harvey at 08:12 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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For those of you (and me) currently "between jobs", there's an excellent resource available.

Aunt Bonnie's Career Catapult

Her qualifications:

after 11+ years as a college career counselor, masters in counseling, and my own personal history of stumblings and foibles (iÂ’m old...thus the aunt bonnie part), I thought it would be a good idea to jump into conversations revolving around....anything career/vocation/life calling/job related.

So here's your chance to pick the brain of a real live career counselor who can actually answer those job-search related questions.

Plus she's already got numerous posts full of good advice.

I've got her blogrolled under my "Useful Tools" section. You might want to put her link somewhere handy, too.

Posted by: Harvey at 05:13 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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