Category Archives: Informational

Effects of Stress

Many of days now it seems as if everybody is under stress, whether it be good stress or bad stress. I know that I am usually under a whole bunch of stress and a majority of it isn’t the good kind. I’ve noticed that while under stress, there are many things that happen to me. Some of those things include pimples, gray hair, not talkative, deeper concentration, and patient.

Pimples are a major effect for me. (pictures) Before camp I was all stressed out and my face was full of them. As camp dates got nearer, I got even more stressed out because some things happened. My face was looking very horrible and I almost didn’t want to go to camp because it looked so hiddious. I decided that going to camp would do me a huge favor and I would get closer to God. I’m very thankful that I did go because it was a blessing and I had so much fun there! (As will soon be described in a blog post.) While I was at camp, I wasn’t stressed out or stressing out about anything. In fact, I almost had a care free attitude and I was a very different person down there. People who met me down there didn’t and couldn’t believe that I was actually a shy person cause I was that different. That was all fun and good, but when I had to start heading home stress hit me. When I got home around 4 (or so) I looked in the mirror and could see three pimples already forming. I wasn’t happy about it, but that’s when I realized it was an effect of stress.

Some people would laugh if I told them that I have gray hair at this young of age, but being 100% honest I do. How? Because of stress. Back before I started running the sound system, I had a nice one shade of brown hair color. Now you look at me and you’ll see that I have gray hair inside of my brown hair. I look a lot older now but I’m not complaining!

When I’m under a lot of stress and pressure of things, I tend to talk very little! In fact I would rather not talk at all when I’m under tons of stress because I might release some pressure out and yell at someone, not really meaning to. If I want to communicate with someone and not have an worries about telling, I write things out or type things out.

Since I’m not very talkative when under stress and pressure I do a lot of thinking and tend to have deeper concentration. If you look back at some things I’ve posted, you might notice that they tend to be a little deeper (*cough* Brianna *cough* :-p lol) and easier to read. One of those articles I think was the “What Will It Take”.

One of the last things that I’ve realized stress does to me (there are many more, but these are the main ones) is I can be very patient. To some that can come as a surprise since under stress and pressure, people tend to lose their patience and explode. I have been told that I’m one of the most patient people someone has meet, and especially an IT guy. I’m praying that the Lord helps me keep my patience and not lose it, especially when I get under a ton of stress and pressure!

Please don’t be grossed out too much by the pictures posted below, as they are pictures of pimples right after I got back from Camp! Shows how much stress does effect my face and looks.

God Bless,
Bradley

To Be Blogged

I didn’t go through with my promise that I had in my previous blog post did I? No, I didn’t and I’m really sorry. I’ve honestly been busy with school and church… Last week I had a ton of homework each night, and tonight I’m even luck to be able to post this entry without getting yelled at that it’s time to get to bed. Tonight I had two hours of homework in Marketing class alone, and I have some other classes of homework, but honestly my brain is done for today. I can’t really think straight enough to post a good blog post.

I have a promise for you all that I think I will keep. Today while sitting in Earth Science I overheard some people talking about different things and what they were talking about caught my attention big time! All I will say is that what they were talking about could possibly (if only i could emphasize that word more) effect the whole world. I promise to post this blog entry when I get done writing it. And for those of you wondering, yes I do actually write down the majority of my recent blog post on paper since I get a good amount of my ideas away from home (like at church or at school [majority at school]). I hope to have it done and completely wrote by Wednesday night or Thursday night. That IS a promise! :)

Another blog post that I might post, without writing it on paper, is about Friday since it’s going to be a awesome day! So, that’s two promises in one blog post. Do you think I can keep one or both of them? Yes, no, or maybe? You tell me…

God Bless,
Bradley

P.S.: Today is @mae_chica’s birthday!!!

Windows 7 Review (short)

Let’s start off with saying that I haven’t even tried out 10% of Windows 7. Part of that might be because I don’t know about it, or I haven’t had time to really “use” my computer. Another thing that I want to start off with saying is that my task bar is at the top of the screen because I’ve found it easier to use (different I know). So, here goes my short “review”.

One thing that is a huge difference is the task bar. What’s so different about it you may ask, well honestly a bunch of things. Here’s a screenshot of it: win7 taskbarI know that the image may be hard to see, you can click on it (I think) to make it appear bigger. As you can see it’s a huge change from Windows Vista. The taskbar no longer has the names of the programs, but it has their icons displayed big. Another thing that has changed, is how it now displays that you have more than one window open of a program. For instances in this picture I have two windows open in Google Chrome, MSN Messenger, and Microsoft Outlook 2010. Can you tell how I know that? Because it has what looks like one square on top of another. This helps a lot when you have more than one window open of a lot of programs and you’re a multi-tasker like me. Did yourvista-taskbar icons on the right of your taskbar ever get to much like this image –—>? Well on Win7 they have made it easier to customize which icons actually appear. Whenever you click on the arrow to

“Show hidden icons” you’re now displayed with a window that has an option to “Customize…”. Like this one to the right. I think that this is a really nice feature because getting too many icons over there can be a pain. And I just now figured out how to only make the ones that you want to appear be there. One more thing thing that is different is the “live preview”. This first came out with Vista, and on Win7 they have made it much, much, much better! Not only can you have a live preview of one screen, but now you see both screens of the same opened program. Here’s a link to a video that I took of my screen because I couldn’t get a screenshot of it. I didn’t know how to work the video part of the screen, so bare with me there :) . http://screencast.com/t/OkJwMk08

There are many and may of new features of the taskbar that I didn’t cover because I didn’t realize how long I was going… So here’s the other part that I was going to do.

You know how with Windows Vista it came out with the 3D switching between windows? That’s still here with Win7, but I honestly don’t like it because it is too much of a memory lover. Well, I really like how on Mac computers you can have the open windows tile when you (I think) go across the top right of the screen. So, I searched the internet for a program like that and luckily found one that did exactly what I wanted it to do. It’s called “Switcher” and very simple to set up. Here are two screenshots. One of the windows advanced (memory lover) switcher and the second is the program called “Switcher”.

I think that the Windows one looks pretty cool as far as eye candy is, but like I said before it’s a huge memory lover and just eats it right up. The program called “Switcher” isn’t as nice looking as far as eye candy goes, but it’s not really a memory lover like the Windows one is. There are different ways that you can set up how you want to view the open windows. I personally like it like the picture above, but there are two other options. A gird option (which shows them in evenly ordered rows and columns) and then there’s dock, which is pretty cool cause it has smooth animations and shows the open windows a different way. The numbers on the screens are what you can push on your keyboard so you don’t have to do any mouse clicking. Pretty awesome application if you ask me.

One last thing before I go. Win7 is very fast compared to Vista!!! I was completely surprised, because honestly I thought it was going to be slower. I totally recommend someone to either buy this when it comes out or wait to buy a new computer with this already on it. Hope you enjoyed this LONG (yet short cause i didn’t get to hardly any features) blog post. I will hopefully be posting another one later on this week and then one or two next week. One I know this week will be about what’s happening this weekend, and thus one next week will be about what happened over the weekend (and what’s gonna happen on Wednesday the 23rd). Looking forward to more writing and looking forward to you reading! :)

God Bless,
Bradley Hilton

How Noise Affects Cognition and Mood

Picture for the article of Noise and Health

We subject ourselves to ‘acoustic startle response’ each morning we’re roused by the unpleasant sounds from an alarm clock. This abuse can, in the long run, induce cardiovascular and digestive distress.

We also become mentally combative when we’re pummeled with noise, such that the World Health Organization notes aggressiveness as a health risk of noise. Additionally, other cognitive functions are sacrificed in the presence of noise-induced anger.

Psychologist Arline Bronzaft’s research has shown that, in the case of a school located next to a train track, students’ performance is hampered by noise. On the quieter side of the school, students performed at a reading level higher than the students on the train side. When measures were taken to insulate the noise-affected students, their performance evened out.

Beyond this, stroke victims have also been reported to have increased visual awareness when listening to preferred music, and surgery patients have reported less pain while listening to nature sounds.

The takeaway? Take measures to calm your mind and body by using more soothing sounds to wake you up in the morning. And whenever possible, try drowning out noise by listening to something pleasant. Your brain will thank you!

I take no credit for writing this article! I give all credit to www.lumosity.com because they sent me an email with this and I thought that I would share this with you all. It’s a very interesting article and has some cool information.

I might continue to post articles like this along with some blog post about my life and some things I’ve been up to or doing. Leave a comment if you want,

God Bless,
Bradley Hilton