Azazelo Blog

Hot tempered Poker Players

Fri, 30 May 2008 19:00:09 GMT

You are that cheeky little green fellow with the tail that I beat last Thursday. I'm still trying to figure out how you dealt those big ole cards, since you're just 6 inches tall. Keep up the good work. Speaking for myself and others, it really is fun watching our resident poker expert get his panties all twisted up in a knot by a little green lizard. I am proud to pass on the mantle of Dave's favorite tormentor to you. Just be sure to save some for pitterpat should the need arise.

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14.500.000 ways to earn million.

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:16:12 GMT

The Conclusion: Leave a comment

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10 Ways to Quit Smoking Forever

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 12:38:14 GMT

Quitting is big business, and there's an endless array of ways to spend money on kicking the habit. Smokers spend about $2,400 per year on cigarettes, so, while some of the products and therapies are expensive, they are still less expensive than a life-long smoking habit. As with all programs, each person is different, so everyone will respond to a program in a different way. Giving up smoking is like giving up a neurotic relationship. Ultimately there comes a day when the decision is made, only to return to what you know is bad for you. Premature wrinkles and yellow teeth don't deter smokers - so, how do you quit? Here are some of the most popular program today.

Many people try to quit cold turkey. It's the easiest method to begin. Simply stop smoking and resolve -through willpower alone - to never take another puff. The success rate is about 3-5% because most smokers are not prepared to take on both sides of quitting: intense withdrawal cravings and smoking habits. If you have had a difficult time trying to quit in the past, studies show you should consider trying an assisted quit method

The patch is KING! In clinical trials, nicotine replacement therapy was shown to double a person's chances of quitting. The patch functions by transdermally (topically) feeding the body nicotine at a continuous and regulated pace over a 24-hour period, controlling the body's physical addiction which allows a smoker to sever the mental reliance on tobacco. The total cost of Nicoderm is $270 for the 10week therapy. There are normally no adverse reactions, but side effects can include irregular heartbeat, rashes, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and weakness.

Grass Roots "Smoke No More" is an herbal tincture. This option is popular because of the "oral fixation" so often associated with smoking. Whenever a smoker has a craving, the Smoke No More drops are placed under the tongue and held there until its absorbed. According to the creators, the tincture works based on healing the connection of mind, body and spirit. Relaxing the mind staves off cravings. And the absence of tobacco detoxifies the system. Reports claim that the drops are horrible tasting and burn immediately upon using. Side effects include quesiness, making the user less interested in both smoking AND eating, but it is something to do with the mouth. Smoke No More can be purchased for about $22 at herbal stores.

If you'd like to try acupuncture, don't confuse the National Board Certified or Licensed Acupuncturist with Certified Acupnucturist. The latter is a doctor or dentist who has completed only 300 hours of course work. These types are great for physical injury but are less equipped to handle internal problems. According to this Chinese tradition, inserting needles in certain points on the body will draw energy to that point and then redirect it to the area of concern. This allows the body to heal itself. For addictions such as smoking, the three points that correspond to the liver, kidneys and sympathetic nervous system are targeted and, by detoxifying the body, the cravings for nicotine are reduced and there is an increase in the flow of energy into the body. While peaceful and stimulating at the same time, for a half-hour treatment one can expect to spend $75 for the first treatment and $55 for subsequent treatments. Over a series of 20 treatments, although acupuncture is not a miracle cure, the experts guarantee the results.

Many people find the support and encouragement of counseling or group treatment helpful. Counseling can help smokers identify and overcome situations that trigger the urge to smoke. Research shows the success rates for all quit methods are higher when coupled with ready access to support. For help with your quitting effort, consider selecting a program that is at least four to eight weeks in length. The programs that work best provide plenty of encouragement and weekly one-on-one meetings with a counselor.

Deciding to do an in-home hypnosis program like Dr. Walton's or employing the services of an certified hypnotist, stimulating the occurrence of deep focus and relaxation means making yourself vulnerable to someone else. By filling out an extensive questionnaire to determine one's particular smoking habits, motivations and patterns, the hypnotist can use the subjects brain to "reprogramm" the cravings. Self-affirming phrases like "I don't want to smoke" and "I don't need to smoke" are used to convince the brain that what it has been told during hypnosis is factual, therefore allowing the body to "ignore" the need to smoke. The National Institute for Mental Health reports that 80% of smokers who use this method successfully quit smoking; it's the longest lasting form of therapy on the market. For this service, expect to do sessions again and spend $75/hour to drop your average addiction.

CHANTIX is a pill that is different from other ways to quit. It contains no nicotine but works on the same receptors as nicotine. And it's the addiction to nicotine inhaled from smoking that makes quitting so hard. Ciga-Rest is also a pill designed to help smokers overcome the urge to smoke whenever and where ever it strikes.

Smoking cessation prescription medications are clinically proven to help smokers.

There are also the fun ones that let you think you're actually having a cigarette! E-Z QUIT is a smokeless cigarette substitute that fills your need to do something with your hands and mouth, and to inhale deeply. Smokers can use E-Z QUIT by itself or together with any other quit smoking method.

While unpleasant in any form, quitting smoking can be devastating. Most relapse and then crawl back on the wagon without successfully giving up. Picking and sticking to one of these methods is the best way to ultimately increase health and rid the body of cravings all together.

Smoking changes brain the same way as drugs. Time to Think.

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 12:49:15 GMT

Let’s think in term of quitting smoking, although you are love with ‘smoking’. You have to build up an honest sincere desire to give up smoking. Perhaps you have the felling how it is possible to quit smoking since you love so much to smoke.

Smoking causes long-lasting changes in the brain similar to changes seen in animals when they are given cocaine, heroin and other addictive drugs, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Someone knowing fully well that if he drives his car in high speed may lead to a serious accident, still he does it. So it is like that you know smoking is bad for you but still you enjoy smoking.

A study of the brain tissue of smokers and nonsmokers who had died showed that smokers had the changes, even if they had quit years before, the team at the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported.

You have to make up your mind to develop the desire to quit. You can now plan to draw up a list of merits of your smoking. You can also make a list of de-merits of smoking recently you experienced.

"The data show that there are long-lasting chemical changes in the brains of humans," said Michael Kuhar of Emory University in Atlanta, who was not involved in the study.

Be generous and make list of most idealistic reason that could lead you to quit smoking. You may like to prove yourself a great economist “save money for tomorrow”, “be honest to your family”, “The most obedient husband” etc.

Go on reading the lists everyday. It will motivate you fast to quit smoking.

"The chemical changes alone suggest a physiological basis for nicotine addiction."

A team led by Bruce Hope of NIDA, one of the National Institutes of Health, analyzed levels of two enzymes found inside brain cells known as neurons.

Fix an appointment with your physician to see a human lungs picture taken out of smoker’s body. Ask your physician what good thing you are going to achieve after you have given up smoking etc.

These enzymes help the neurons use chemical signals such as those made by the message-carrying compound dopamine.

Smokers and former smokers had high levels of these enzymes, the researchers reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.

When you have a definite desire to quit smoking you can really go through deeply with your list of ‘benefits of smoking’. You may take a comparative statement how a non smoker relives boredom while you cannot do without smoking what leads a non smoker to relax and get away with stress etc.

Hope said other studies had seen the same thing in animals given cocaine and heroin -- and it was clear that the drugs were causing the effects.

"This strongly suggests that the similar changes observed in smokers and former smokers contributed to their addiction," he added in a statement.

You should be careful enough to know that much of the positive parts of smoking are temporary with no for reading results to yield good to you.

Experts on smoking have long said that nicotine is at least as addictive as heroin.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20.9 percent of all adults smoke in the United States, which adds up to 45 million people. And 23 percent of high school students smoke.

You have already examined your benefits you get while you smoke but now is the time to workout on replacement for your cigarettes by and by continue to receive benefits that smoking was providing you. Have a see through within yourself and find out is really the so called benefits giving you any useful atmosphere where you can feel calm and relaxed. If so then try to consider the fact how a non smoker relax.

So, in the list of your benefits add some more points which may replicate other than smoking. You can really feel different than what you are today; if you sincerely try re-invent your life.

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We Edit brain

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 12:20:48 GMT

Want to relax? Meditate? Learn faster? Focus attention? Increase your awareness? Try self-hypnosis?

Just put on the earphones and let BrainWave Generator take you to the state of mind you want.

The sound and visual stimulation functions of BrainWave Generator help you:

prepare for stressful situations or challenging tasks
improve learning results
alleviate sleeping problems and headaches
...and much more!

BrainWave Generator generates binaural beats that change your brain frequency towards the desired state, be it relaxation or enhanced attention.

In addition to using the more than 20 built-in brain wave entrainment programs, you can create your own programs (presets).

Getting rid of bad habits by meditation

Meditation and relaxation capabilities of BrainWave Generator may help to get rid of some bad habits:

Quit smoking
Quit drinking
Lose weight

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A mind machine uses sound and/or light to alter the brainwave frequency of the user, resulting in altered states of awareness that have been compared to those obtained from meditation and shamanic exploration.

The process is also known as brainwave synchronization or entrainment.

This is because habits such as smoking and excessive drinking or eating are often unconscious ways to control one's feelings and moods, for example, to alleviate anxiety. This is especially true in the case of drinking, as alcohol changes one's state of mind quite noticeably and can create an illusion of relaxation.

Brain wave entrainment - fact or fiction?

Would you believe it if someone told you:

"Hey, there's this new software, BrainWave Generator, that allows you to boost your creativity, learn 10 times faster than normally, and travel out of your body!"

Everybody's first reaction is probably "bollocks, it can't be done, at least not with a computer software of any kind".

This first reaction is true in many ways. We do not say that BrainWave Generator makes you learn faster, makes you super-intelligent or breaks any laws of physics. It doesn't. However, it can help you do some of these things.

The following are scientifically proven facts about brain wave entrainment:

FACT 1: There is a lot of electrical activity going on in your brain.

FACT 2: This activity can be measured by EEG (electroencephalography) technology. EEG has been around since 1930's.

FACT 3: The electrical activity changes depending on what a person is doing. For example, participating in a critical exam versus deep sleep have very different brain wave patterns associated with them.

FACT 4: If you can make your brain wave patterns change at will, you can create conditions that are better suited for certain types of activities (meditation, for example).

From this point on, everything else is basically up to the individual person using brain wave entrainment.

Mind machines typically consist of a control unit, a pair of headphones and/or strobe light goggles. The unit controls the sessions and drive the LEDs in the goggles.

Sessions will typically aim at directing the average brainwave frequency from a high level to a lower level by ramping down in several sequences. Target frequencies can be in the alpha wave area in the frequency range of 8-12.

The following points are not labeled as facts, instead we call them assumptions:

ASSUMPTION 5 (example of fact 4): Theta frequencies are usually associated with learning - by entraining your brain wave patterns towards theta, you can make your brain more receptive to learning new material.

ASSUMPTION 6 (example of fact 4): Alpha frequencies are usually detected in meditators who practice meditation several hours each day - by entraining your brain wave patterns towards alpha, you can make it easier for you to meditate. Perhaps you don't need to train meditation for 10 years, but instead 10 months or even less would suffice when using brain wave entrainment to help you.

Theory Behind BrainWave Generator

EEG and the brain's state

EEG (Electroencephalography) technology is used to measure brain's electrical vibrations from the surface of the scalp. The resulting EEG pattern will contain frequency elements mainly below 30Hz. The frequencies are categorized into four states as follows:

State	Frequency range	State of mind
Delta	0.5Hz - 4Hz	Deep sleep
theta	4Hz - 8Hz	Drowsiness (also first stage of sleep)
Alpha	8Hz - 14Hz	Relaxed but alert
Beta	14Hz - 30Hz	Highly alert and focused

The dominant frequency in the EEG pattern determines what shall be called the current state of the brain. If the amplitude of the alpha range frequencies is highest, then the brain is said to be in the alpha stage. Note, that other frequencies still exist and it is impossible to give any "exact frequency your brain is operating on". However, later references to the brain states use the simplification of assuming that such a single frequency exists.

Entraining the brain to a desired state

Mind machines are often used together with biofeedback or neurofeedback equipment in order to adjust the frequency on the fly.

Modern mind machines can connect to the Internet to update the software and download new sessions. When sessions are used in conjunction with meditation, neurofeedback, etc. the effect can be amplified.

If external stimulus is applied to the brain, it becomes possible to entrain the brain frequency from one stage to another. For example, if a person is in beta stage (highly alert) and a stimulus of 10Hz is applied to his/her brain for some time, the brain frequency is likely to change towards the applied stimulus. The effect will be relaxing to the person. This phenomenon is also called frequency following response.

When the brain's state is close to the applied stimulus, entrainment works more efficiently. Thus, when doing a sweep from one frequency to another, the starting frequency should be as close to your current brain state as possible. The sweep speed should be such that your brain's state changes steadily with it, so that the difference never gets very large. In practice, it is difficult to determine your brain state without extra equipment (like EEG devices). However, you can quite safely assume that during the day your brain is in the beta stage (about 20Hz) and you can start the sweep from there. If you are already somewhat relaxed, you can use a start frequency of 15Hz or a few Hz lower.

Stimulating the brain with binaural beat frequencies

The easiest way of applying stimulus to the brain is via ears. Other senses could be used as well, and vision is actually used quite often (often in addition to hearing). However, humans cannot hear sounds low enough to be useful for brain stimulation, so special techniques must be used. One such special technique used is called binaural beats.

If the left ear is presented with a steady tone of 500Hz and the right ear a steady tone of 510Hz, these two tones combine in the brain. The difference, 10Hz, is perceived by the brain and is a very effective stimulus for brainwave entrainment. This 10Hz is formed entirely by the brain. When using stereo headphones, the left and right sounds do not mix together until in your brain. The frequency difference, when perceived by brain this way, is called a binaural beat.

The effect of the audible frequencies used

To get a stimulus of 10Hz, you may use tones of 500Hz and 510Hz, or 400Hz and 410Hz, or 800Hz and 810Hz, or so on. The only requirements are that the tone is heard well enough and that it is below about 1000Hz. Below 1000Hz, the wavelength of the skull is sufficiently small so that the sound waves curve around it.

You may try out different audible tones with BrainWave Generator and see which ones work best for you.

Altered brain states

As mentioned above, applying a stimulus to the brain will eventually bring the brain's state closer to the stimulus frequency. The following paragraphs describe some possible effects of this.

Note, however, that just passively listening to binaural beats does not necessarily alter your state of consciousness. For example, willingness and ability to relax and focus attention affects how effective the binaural beat stimulus is for inducing state changes.

Helping in meditation

Meditation is essentially about willingly being able to alter one's brain frequency to a desired state. While meditators have traditionally used several years to learn the techniques of meditation, you can now attain the same effect with brainwave entrainment. No special training or great discipline is required. Good meditation frequencies are in the alpha range, from 8Hz to 13Hz.

When a certain brainwave state is experienced and practiced over a period of time, the brain will "learn" the state change and it will become easier to self-produce the desired brainwave state at will. Thus, using brainwave entrainment, you can expect to get some of its effects later even without any entrainment.

Reducing learning time

The theta stage (4hz - 7Hz) has been found to increase learning capabilities. In fact, children spend more time in theta stage than adults, which probably explains the accelerated learning capabilities of children.

Alpha frequencies are also useful for learning purposes. You can play language cassettes, subliminal tapes, etc. during an entrainment session for a maximum effect.

Reducing sleep needs

Some people have found that half an hour a day of the Theta stage can replace up to 4 hours of sleep.

Treatment of certain mental diseases

Brainwave entrainment is used in treatment of depression, low self-esteem, attention deficit disorder, drug and alcohol addiction and autism, to name a few.

Brainwave entrainment has also been found helpful in alleviating headaches and migraines.

Miscellaneous

Some users have also reported increases in their sex drive as a result of brainwave entrainment

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