Daily Archives: February 27, 2017

I’ve Passed My Driving Test- What Next?

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The moment your examiner tells you you’ve passed your driving test is pure elation, and despite feeling like a dream, it’s something most of us will always remember. After months and months of hard work, honing your skills and stressing about driving tests, once it’s all over you can let out a huge sigh of relief. However, this isn’t the end, in fact it’s just the beginning! You can now start your real driving ‘career’ as an independent driver, and learn what being out on the roads is really like. If you’ve just passed your driving test, congratulations! Here’s what you need to do next.

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Image source: Pexels

 

Consider a Pass Plus Course

Now your lessons are finally over, the last thing you probably want is to take more of them. But if you’re lacking in confidence or just want to bring down the cost of your car insurance, Pass Plus is one way to go. This is done over six hour-long lessons and costs about £180. It gives you more driving experience, and statistically helps you to reduce your risk of an accident.

 

Find a Suitable Vehicle/ Get Insured

These two go hand in hand because as a new driver you can be somewhat limited to your car choices simply because of the insurance. Some models will be cheaper to insure, the age of the car and the engine size will all play a role too. Set your budget, then browse through suitable cars. Each time you find one you like the look of, run a quote through a comparison site. You will need to keep looking until you find one you like which is also affordable to insure. Often newer cars are cheaper to insure since there’s less chance of them breaking down, and also it’s easier to find parts if they need replacing. However, newer cars are of course going to be more expensive. Getting car finance could be the answer in some cases. If your credit score isn’t perfect it’s not the end of the line, there are specialist companies out there who offer car finance for bad credit too. Then you need to find a car where you can afford both the finance and the insurance. It’s a balancing act as generally as one goes down, the other goes up.

 

Practice, Practice, Practice

While you will have spent many hours out on the road as a learner driver, nothing comes close to gaining experience on your own. Over the next few months you will come up against situations you will never have come across on your lessons. Driving in different weather conditions, driving at night, driving in rush hour traffic. Don’t throw yourself in at the deep end, short journeys at less busy times of the day are a good way to build up your confidence. From there you can start doing more and more. Every time you get into the car you have something new to learn, so keep your wits about you and use it all as experience for becoming the best driver you can be.
Have you recently passed your driving test? What’s your next move?

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Gaming PC’s: Value For Money?

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Gaming is a darn expensive hobby.

 

The new Playstation 4 Pro is going to set you back about four hundred dollars, with the Playstation VR not far behind that. A 4K television set capable of displaying the full power of the PS4 Pro will cost near one thousand dollars and the controllers and games are sixty bucks a piece.

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That’s money that could frankly, be put to much better use – especially when you consider the five to seven year life span of games consoles.

 

The gaming PC is a whole different beast. For the same price as the Playstation 4 Pro, you can get a system that is arguably more powerful and you won’t need an expensive television to go with it if you choose a good monitor and there are a lot of points to consider to find the best gaming monitor.

 

So, is a gaming PC worth the investment? Well – it really does depend.

 

While the outlay on a system like the PS4 might seem initially cheaper, that could be false over its lifetime if you upgrade or buy new controllers. However, if you enjoy games that are exclusive to Playstation like Bloodborne or Infamous Second Son – then there is no question at all – the console is the choice for you as these games are unavailable on the PC. Remember that there are a number of games exclusive to PC – such as Civilization

 

If you aren’t fussed about console exclusives, then go right ahead with the PC. Steam and GoG have plenty of sales throughout the year meaning you can pick up good games for low prices often enough to make it worth it in the long run. Console games do go on sale, but not often enough.

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A thousand dollars of gaming PC can also run games at a higher level than the PS4. You’ll experience better draw distances, better graphics and better visuals.

 

Of course, PC games are customizable through user produced mods as well – so you have to take that into account as a deeper and more customizable experience might be worth more for you!

 

While PC’s have made huge strides in terms of size and portability over the past number of years, the consoles still hold the trump card in terms of accessibility. If you want to play on your existing TV downstairs, a console might work for you. That being said, a good PC case might be just as portable. It depends on the options available for you but you might not be able to beat a console for pure ease. A console is easier to play with friends in the first instance as well while a PC will require a bit more setup and care.

 

If you’re inclined to spend time and effort, the PC will work wonders for you. If you want to get up and go with an option then the PS4 and Xbox One consoles may be better. All in all though, dollar by dollar – the PC wins through and is better value in terms of performance.

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‘Embarrassing’ Health Issues Men Shouldn’t Be Afraid To Broach

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The old stereotype is that a man’s pride is one of his most important attributes. Being strong, stoic and silent when necessary so you can keep persevering. However, that stereotype is patently false. Holding things in only tends to lead to exacerbating any kind of crises. Nowhere is that no more true than where your health is concerned. There are times you need to put pride aside and face your fears.

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Pic Credit

Not-so-pearly whites

Teeth that are misshapen or discoloured in your opinion can have a real knock on your confidence. In turn, that lowered confidence can work counterintuitively to make you less likely to seek treatment. Many men fear hearing the worst when seeing a dentist and getting work done on their teeth. Or they simply aren’t looking forward to the reprimand. But the truth is that not getting the detail on the situation could end up with you missing some of the products and procedures that could turn things around and immediately give you more confidence.

Extra up top

The idea of men having extra breast tissue, even men who have very little body fat to them, can seem bizarre to some. That belief can lead to embarrassment and even shame about having extra breast tissue, yourself. But not only are breasts common in men, but plenty of breast problems are, too. Gynecomastia, growth of breast tissue, might occur naturally but it can also be the sign of several underlying conditions and hormonal changes you could get reversed.

Problems down below

Phallic imagery is strong in male humour and pride. It’s no wonder that we build up the importance of the penis to our lives that signs that everything is not right down there can feel like an assault on our masculinity. But problems like severe phimosis, for instance, that can be solved by a range of treatments from steroid creams to getting circumcised, can really get in the way not just of your sex life, but the health of the penis itself. Most doctors have seen penises of every shape, size, and variation. Yours is likely not going to warrant a second thought.

That one checkup

The same goes for the prostate exam. It might be an embarrassing thought, but prostate issues get increasingly common as we get older. You’re going to have to get used to the idea of that exam every four years. Every other man does. Otherwise, your chances of missing potential prostate cancer developments skyrocket.

Where’s your head at

One of the most unfortunate taboos in medicine, one that is thankfully changing for the better day-by-day, is talking about our emotions. Suicide in men is more than twice as likely as suicide in women, and this idea of masculine stoicism is a big reason why. If you’re ever feeling like your emotional state is skewed more toward to the negative on a daily basis than the positive, you might be suffering from depression. It can be a difficult topic to broach with doctors, but there are guides that can help you find the words to bring it up.

Certainly, you might not wish all and sundry to know about the health conditions that you consider embarrassing. But you should never let perceived social taboos get in the way of seeing your doctor. To them, no bodily taboos exist. They’ve seen it all before and they could easily give you the help you need.

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Trusting in Quality: Why Your Business Should Pay Extra for Brand Names

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When we go out shopping, we’re always looking to get a great deal. It’s human nature to want a great deal; if we see something that’s 50% off, we’re going to snatch it up whether or not we intended to buy that item in the first place. It’s fine because this is just how we are as human beings, but what does it say about our business?

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Picture Source

 

Business has no room for hardware failures

 

When you buy products from a less-than-reputable business, it’s clear when the quality is subpar. It doesn’t matter what type of product you got. It could be something simple such as a couple of pens and pencils, or it could be something larger such as a tablet device or a dozen or so cheap smartphones for your employees to use. Perhaps they don’t last as long as advertised, maybe they fall apart after a couple of weeks use, or perhaps they just aren’t as powerful as the branded versions. Whatever the reason for their poor quality, not getting brand names could spell disaster for your business.

 

Imagine if you bought a few cheap barcode scanners to keep track of your warehouse stock. Now picture this situation; one of them has developed a fault and your new employee doesn’t realise this because of the convoluted interface. Whatever items this new employee scans, it’s not getting read properly by the scanner and the codes are garbled. When it comes to stock check time, all of your stock counts are screwed because of an error from a cheap barcode scanner. This could have been prevented if your business invested in a Honeywell barcode scanner because they are a well-known brand that has served the industry for many years. It might have had a higher initial cost, but the cost of fixing your stock is going to be higher.

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Your quality reflects in your products

 

If you buy low-quality materials to make your own products, then the quality is going to be experienced by the end-user. For instance, if you are a keyboard manufacturer and you decide to use cheap imitation switches instead of genuine Cherry MX switches, then the quality of your keyboard will be below the industry standard.

 

You might be able to offer a cheaper price for your keyboard product, but that doesn’t mean much if the switches themselves are imitation ones that don’t offer anything different—they’re just lower quality than the real thing. If you want to ensure that your clients come back after purchasing your products, then the source of your products needs to be high-quality.

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Picture Source

 

Summary
It might be tempting to buy cheap products or materials to fuel your business, but it’s a pointless endeavour in the long run because you simply can’t trust bad quality. It might be fine for now, but in the future your, products are going to be mocked for using low-quality materials. You can trust in the consumers to find something off about your products if you advertise them as better than they actually are, so don’t play with fire. Be honest with your products, get branded equipment and materials, and don’t skimp on quality.

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