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Main > Living > Grooming > Male grooming > Shaving
Keep your razor blade sharp: To make your safety razor blade last for a very long time store it in a small dish of cooking oil or wipe the blades with cooking oil after using it. It is the oxidation of the blade that makes the blade seem dull. The coating with oil will prevent oxidation by keeping out the oxygen. Another alternative is "Tilex" or equivalent shower tile cleaner - it keeps the blade like new by getting rid of skin buildup, soap deposits and oxidation on the blades, and also does not hurt the lubricating strip in a Sensor blade the way alcohol does. ^{Kevin Solway (173)}

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Main > Living > Food & drink > Drink and drinking > Tea
Brewing time: The finer the grain of tea, the faster the brew time. Nearly powdered teas are ready to go in about two minutes or less, while large leaf varieties may need more than five minutes. ^{Kevin Solway (173)}

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Main > Living > Food & drink > Drink and drinking > Tea
Make your own decaffeinated tea: Caffeine is highly water soluble, so it is one of the first constituents of the leaf to be extracted in the steeping process. Usually 80 percent or more of the tea's caffeine content is released within the first 20 to 30 seconds of steeping. You can enjoy any tea virtually caffeine-free (with little sacrifice of flavor) by discarding the water after the first 30 to 60 seconds of steeping and adding fresh hot water to the now largely decaffeinated leaf. ^{Kevin Solway (173)}

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Main > Living > Food & drink > Drink and drinking > Tea
Iced tea: To make iced tea that is clear and not too cloudy, place 4 tea bags into a 2-quart pitcher of water and leave in the refrigerator for approximately 4 hours. When making a pitcher of iced tea, add fruit juice (pineapple or citrus juice) - it tastes refreshing, delicious and saves on the amount of tea you use. To keep ice tea cold without diluting the tea, freeze some of the brewed tea in ice cube trays and use them in your serving pitcher. ^{Kevin Solway (173)}

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Main > Living > Food & drink > Drink and drinking
Drink filtered water: And filter it with a good quality filter. The water that comes through your regular tap is not top quality. ^{Kevin Solway (173)}

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Main > Living > Annoyances
Spam: Australian citizens can use SpamMATTERS, software for Windows Outlook Express, that reports each spam on the press of a button to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA): link ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Living on a budget > DIY
Bread: 600g wholemeal flour, 1 tsp yeast, and warm water makes a kilo of bread. Mix, knead, leave to prove in a warm spot 40 minutes. Another light kneading and 40 mins proving. Bake at 380F 30 minutes. Leave to cool. ^[guest]

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Main > Living > Grooming
Crushed marigold blossoms rubbed on underarms function as a good deodorant. ^{sdw (11)}

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Main > Living > Living on a budget > Garage/yard sales > Selling
A bouquet of helium balloons will magically draw people to your yard sale. ^{sdw (11)}

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Main > Living > Food & drink > Food and cooking > Jar-opening
Use a tea-towel to afford more grip on the lid, or use a specially made lid-remover. You can also use an oil-filter remover strap if you have one in your garage. ^[guest]

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Main > Living > Food & drink > Food and cooking > Oven/range & stove
Electric stove: If you have an electric stove of the type that has spiral elements, line the bowls underneath the elements with aluminium foil. This greatly helps when it comes to cleaning. ^[guest]

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Main > Living > Money > Investments
Don't invest in 'the markets'. The key to forecasting is psychology. Namely, fear of the low moods of other traders, and selling before they do. Useful companies can be destroyed by such volatile financial support, as it has no rational basis. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Survival
Condoms can make useful water storage vessels. They can be placed in a sock for additional strength. ^{Spud (21)}

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Main > Living > Money > Investments
High return investments usually entail a higher risk (i.e. a greater chance of losing your money). ^{Spud (21)}

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Main > Living > Money > Investments
Do your homework prior to investing otherwise all you are doing is gambling. ^{Spud (21)}

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Main > Living > Big Brother
Phone Numbers: If you don't want to reveal your phone number & it's required to fill out a form, make up a number by using any area code, then 555 for the exchange, then any four digits. There are no 555 exchanges so it will not be anyone's real phone number but as long as you supply the right number of digits the form will accept it. This only works in the US of course. ^{sdw (11)}

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Main > Living > Grooming > Female Grooming
Facial Hair: A razor can be used to remove unwanted hairs from your face. It's much faster & less painful than tweezing. ^{sdw (11)}

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Main > Living > Relationships > Marriage
After making a reasoned decision, do you abandon it? Marriage involves compromise at least 50% of the time, more if you're male. Can you be contented to do what makes absolutely no sense to you? ^[guest]

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Main > Living > Relationships > Marriage
If you're a rational person, who'd only marry someone rational, so as to avoid compromise and conflict, then you're really wanting to marry yourself. ^[guest]

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Main > Living > Relationships > Marriage
The main motive people have for marriage is probably not sex, but lack of confidence. ^[guest]

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Main > Living > Money > Social security > Australia
Work For The Dole Blues? You don't have to do it if you can get a part-time job where you work 15 hours a week. The solution? Most pizza delivery shops will take on anyone with their own car, and many even if you drive their car (though far less). You might not make much working there after costs, but you won't have to work for nothing. ^[guest]

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Main > Living > Annoyances > Jehovah's witnesses
Answer the door naked. ^{Diogenes (25)}

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Main > Living > Annoyances > Tele-marketing and surveys
Answer the phone but remain perfectly silent for 30 seconds. ^{Diogenes (25)}

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Main > Living > Relationships > Family
Avoid them unless you need money, then, pretend you care. ^{Diogenes (25)}

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Main > Living > Relationships > Making friends
If you're the sort of person who easily attracts friends, consider changing your personality, because it sucks. ^{Diogenes (25)}

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Main > Living > Relationships > Making friends
Friends are thieves of time. Would you give a thief your wallet just because he asked for it? ^{Diogenes (25)}

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Main > Living > Relationships > Making friends
The more talk, the less think. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Work
Contract Termination Warning Signs

1) New workers start with the company in your role leading up to your contract end date
2) Your boss takes a long time to do anything for you, including granting leave, signing forms
3) Your boss and co-workers start subtly blaming you for things they didn't blame you for before,
such as procedural errors
4) Your co-workers start turning against you in any way when they were lukewarm/friendly beforehand
5) Mention is made by co-workers of a negative attitude of your boss towards you, negative statements etc
6) A cultural divide between you and your organisation is played upon by anyone including co-workers, bosses and staff (especially older staff). This takes the form of "you're older than the other guys" or "you're from this country/background etc"
7) Other workers start performing your tasks (i.e. things the bosses used to ask you to do), sitting near you (surveillance) or changing their working hours in the last few weeks of your contract (rescheduling to fill-in for your coming absence)
8) Your boss or colleagues do not want to communicate (say very little), especially if this is in marked difference to an earlier openness
9) Your statements are contradicted by management or co-workers
10) You have a general disagreement with a co-worker who is beloved by the boss (this person can then feed the boss negative slurs about you that will ultimately have a devastating effect)
11) Your boss is from a radically different culture to you, or age group (i.e. late 40s, Indian)
12) You do not have any good banter with your boss ^{myxlfidian (150)}

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Main > Living > Annoyances > Noise
Earplugs, noise-cancelling headphones, or industrial ear muffs can be used to reduce external noise. ^{Kevin Solway (173)}

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Main > Living > Annoyances > Noise
Lawn mowers: A four-stroke lawn mower will make less noise than a two-stroke. A manually powered mower, that you push, will make even less noise. ^{Kevin Solway (173)}

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Main > Living > Living on a budget > Holidays
Couchsurfing is a good way to cut-down on your accomodation costs. The idea is that you make your home available to travellers, and other members of the couchsurfing community make their homes available to you when you're travelling. link ^{Kevin Solway (173)}

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Main > Living > Annoyances > Noise
Lawn mowers: A nanny goat will make less noise than a manually-powered mower. She will also quietly turn into milk, clothing, and meat. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Annoyances > Noise
Neighbour's Loud Televisions: place a mobile phone/MP3 player as close to the television as possible. Whenever the television is too loud, play your favourite music. The neighbour will soon get the message. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Annoyances > Noise
Neighbour's Loud Televisions: if it's on while you're trying to sleep, don't get upset. Use the time to meditate, or think. But you'll need to catch up on missed sleep later. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Annoyances > Hazing
Name-calling: don't react. Just focus on the matter at hand. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Food & drink > Food and cooking > Choosing foods well
It's probably wise not to buy food at a school fete. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Decision-making
Indecision: If you are pressed for time, yet the pros and cons weigh equal, then try to set things up so that you are really challenged. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Decision-making
Imagine a person you greatly admire facing the same decision. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Decision-making
Try to reduce uncertainty by finding out more information before deciding. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Decision-making
Never hurry a decision. If emotional, delay the decision until in a better state of mind. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Decision-making
Give others enough time and quiet to decide for themselves. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Money > Banking & loans
Paying off loans and debts is a greater priority than saving money, because of the vast difference in interest rates. Save first, spend later. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Money > Credit & store cards > Debt-collection
Debt-collectors 'buy' debts from lenders such as credit-card companies. They then try to find the borrowers, and may contact people with the same or similar name, even taking them to court for unpaid debts. So although you might receive notice of incurring a debt, it may not be you that ever owed the money in the first place. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Money > Credit & store cards > Interest rates
It's okay to use credit cards, if the bill is cleared each month. This leaves your cash in the bank to earn interest. But it is a false economy if you're paying more interest on purchases made by credit. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Money > Banking & loans
Check the small print of loans. They may charge fees for 'overpayment', meaning, early repayment of a loan. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Money > Bills
Paying bills by direct debit often includes a discount. However, there may be a fee for paying in instalments on things like insurance. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Money > Credit & store cards > No-no's
Steer clear of cash advances from credit cards, which usually incur a hefty fee. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Money > Credit & store cards > No-no's
Never pay a credit-card cheque into your account, as you'll be charged heaps of interest. They are classed as 'cash' by card companies that send them to clients, so have a higher interest rate. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Money > Credit & store cards > Store cards
Store cards do not charge similar rates to credit cards. The interest rate is much higher, unless you clear your card each month. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Main > Living > Money > Credit & store cards
If spending more than $200, it's best to use a credit card as you'll get extra protection under consumer law if the company you buy from goes bust or the goods are faulty. ^{kellyjones00 (593)}

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Category | Discussion (0)Living (General)