I have had this happen countless times and it can be annoying, frustrating, and even costly- When I lose a thought. The idea is usually abruptly thrown out of my head to make room for something of priority. Then again I might even hang onto it for too long until it finally slips away.
None the less it is something that has happened to all of us. We may already have a method set in place for recalling these thoughts that fall into the back of our mind. Most of us however do not. So I would like to share with you my method to help you save a little time in your day.
I like to think of the thoughts that float around in my head as fragments. These are fragments of actual ideas that are not yet fully formed. They tend to come and go throughout the day and after conditioning my brain to filter out the un-wanted or un-needed thoughts, I am left with those that really matter to me.

First you have to Forget

Maybe one of the pieces of an idea is caught by my sub-conscious and brought to my attention. “This is how you can solve that problem,” echoes my mind. Depending on how urgent the subject determines how well I will retain my solution. So I push it to the side if I cannot write it down at the moment. My mind begins to wander again and finds another problem to tackle. All the while I am trying to cling to this idea as my mind multi-tasks away. All the sudden another thought pops up- Something important. But wait, what was that I was trying to remember?

First it is annoyance. My eyes dart from side to side as I attempt to recall the thought. Frustration kicks in as I am now trying to give myself a hint at what it might have been.

Finally desperation is all that remains in the wake of that idea. It seems to have been completely erased from ever having been thought moments ago. You tell yourself, “I wish I could remember that. It was a great idea.” But to no avail. You must either wait it out for that train of thought to align itself again, or accept that it is gone.
I hope I have brought back some memories of what it feels like to lose that special thought throughout the day.

All you Have to do Now is Recover the thought

Now that we have that out of the way, we can recover that lost thought. Here is the basic method that I have found to be tried and true in remembering a quickly forgotten idea.  Even though it might sound simple enough, it does take much practice. Right when the thought vanishes from your mind’s eye you must take a quick but calm approach to the loss. Stressing out will literally push remembering out of queue and place forgetting on high priority. Think about what most people say when they forget something, “I wish I could remember.” The phrase is accepting that you have forgotten the information already. The same goes with test information. You might actually know the material, but are pushing it out of view by actually unconsciously trying to forget it. So all you have to do in this instance is tell yourself these simple words, “I remember now what that was.” Feel free to change the words to fit your, “head voice.”

The concept is simple. All you do is assume that you have already remembered the thought. I know it sounds somewhat odd but it actually frees up your mind completely. I have timed the recall for my own mind; within less than two-minutes I can remember the forgotten thought.

The hard part about this exercise is that you will find it nearly impossible to try right after reading this. You must wait until you are actually preoccupied with other thoughts and forget something. Right at that moment you must apply the practice for it to work.

Once again I think the process is simple enough to be easily applied in anyone’s life. But it does take changes in the way you think and problem solve for it to become effective.

I recently made a post that I really thought was my best to date. Not because of content, but rather it possessed more voice than anything I had created before. I had also put a lot more time and thought into it than any other post I had made.

Late one night I uploaded all the information and images and posted it all. After which I received comments fairly quickly from a few community members I have gained in the past few weeks. However I felt somewhat unimpressed with the lack of traffic I had received. So I went to bed and figured people would either comment on my site or at least visit it by the time I checked it next.

I woke up the next morning and logged in to see the results- not much more than the previous night. I was baffled at first. I really thought this was great article and deserved a fair amount of attention. Why weren’t people looking at it?

Well it turns out I left out one major factor. Since I launched my site I have not put a whole lot of time into traffic. Yes, I do comment on some very popular blogs so that people at least know who I am. But I have not done anything significant. Nothing to talk about.
I figured that if you write something great, people will find you. With this approach nobody will ever find you. You have to let people know where you are in cyberspace. Even though a content based site is largely based on how good the content is, it is also based on how many people know about it.

I was at first hesitant to venture into Social Bookmarking sites because of the fact that there are a ton of them. But after reading Speeding Up The Social Bookmarking Process from JohnChow.com the light flickered on in my head.

I was expecting people to find me but wasn’t taking any steps to help them do so. The article by John really made me think about things and value the use of Social Bookmarking sites. So to anyone pulling out their hair trying to get traffic, give a Social Bookmarking site a try and literally see instant results.

From the day I began blogging I have always been amazed at how different areas of blogging can be monetized or draw traffic.

Take comments for example. Initially serving only to build community and allow reader feedback can now be used to increase traffic in other ways. There are many plugins available to keep you visitors commenting. In turn, they keep coming back again and again. One plugin that I’d like to mention is the Top Commentators Plugin. Since your visitors are spending time on your site and even giving input, why not give them something in return. Whenever I see a top commentator I know this person is spending a lot of time reading the content and may be an established user on the site. The funny thing about this plugin is that it lists the top 5 commentators. So as you might have guessed, you have greater odds and are easier to see if you are # 1. Needless to say, you sometimes see, “silent,” competitions taking place on popular sites.
So this might just be only one example but it does serve well for the concept behind blogging. A blog enables you to build community and change anything almost immediately. If something isn’t working, just try something else. If you have an idea for a blog you can literally have a working site up within hours.
And it is amazing that every aspect of the blog can be utilized in any way. The possibilities are endless.

 Awhile back I bought an Xbox 360 but truthfully never feel like playing it.  Every now and again I will check up on the new and upcoming games just to get an idea of what advances the game industry have made.  Well after a few months had passed since my last look at these games, I picked up my controller and thought I’d pop in a rental for an hour or two to pass the time.

The Problem

I turned on the Xbox and the screen remained black as the green Xbox panel light flashed on and then off.  I couldn’t really remember how exactly the unit powered up, so I figured this was normal.  Suddenly the nice comforting green light began to flash red over and over again.  Immediately I knew something was wrong- red= danger.  In response to this use of nature’s caution color I pressed the power button to turn it off.  Again I hit the power button and waited for it to turn on again.  Same thing.  Now I am usually level headed when it comes to electronics, but when nothing works it feels like you are beating your head against a brick wall.

After thoroughly checking all the cables, my last resort was the Xbox troubleshooting manual.  The book states that the red light may mean there is something wrong with the a/v cable.  Hmm…  I checked that and nothing changed.

The Fix 

This process was getting me nowhere so I figured I would apply some of my tried and true troubleshooting methods.  After a little observation I noticed that the unit would sometimes load up to the splash screen and then freeze which led me to believe I could at least get it working temporarily.  During one of the boot up attempts I for some reason or another ejected the cd drive.  The unit began to load up a little more but then froze once I sent the drive back on it’s way into the unit.  Another time I shut it down and booted it up again.  This time I began pressing the cd drive button repeatedly so the drive could not completely close.  As I did so the Xbox successfully loaded up to the dashboard screen.  Things were looking a little brighter now.  I placed my game into the drive and it also loaded up successfully.  Total success!

Conclusion 

Now I’m not sure what exactly is wrong with the Xbox 360. I haven’t done too much research either.  After I was able to get the Xbox working(for now), I called Microsoft.  Apparently a lot of people are getting this type of issue and having to replace the unit so I am also replacing mine with BestBuy next week.  The above method is not a fix, but rather a temporary solution for a guy trying to play a quick  game.

Wikipedia Intent of a Troll

Trolls can be existing members of a community that rarely post and often contribute no useful information to the thread, but instead make argumentative posts in an attempt to discredit another person, concentrating almost exclusively on facts irrelevant to the point of the conversation, with the intent of provoking a reaction from others. The key element under attack by a troll is known only to the troll.

We have all seen them but may not have known or understood the term, “Troll.” Perhaps you frequent a blog and every now and then see hateful remarks directed towards the author. Or you might even visit a forum on a regular basis and and come across someone who wants to create distress to the community. Wherever it is that you find these people one thing remains the same, they love to create trouble.
Recently I came across a troll and figured that there must be a way to deal with such individuals. A process to take care of them and go on with life.

Ignore the Troll

Silence is always the most powerful weapon to handle childish behavior. Rather than let your first emotional response get out, just refrain and let the dust settle. In most cases everyone will also ignore unwanted behavior because it doesn’t get anybody anywhere.

Confront the Troll

For this response to work you must remain rational. Someone else reading your response will realize how level headed your reaction is. If you lose your cool, you are giving the Troll what it wants and playing into its game.

Silence the Troll

Keeping the Troll from voicing its opinion is probably the easiest way to keep it at bay. But you have to make sure that you stay on top of things. This involves keeping up on your forum or blog. Whenever the Troll posts something nasty, simply delete it.

Kill the Troll

This method involves using MapQuest, a black van, and a tube sock full of batteries… Just kidding! I think it would be best if we avoid prison.

So there you have it.  A few methods towards the end of nasty Troll input.  If you find yourself fighting another battle with an unstoppable Troll, just keep one thing in mind.  This is a person who is putting time and effort into causing you stress.  On the other hand, they are also showing an interest in your site by spending their time this way.

These methods are not the end all be all, so if you have any others please feel free to share…