With the 2008 baseball season upon us, the fantasy baseball season is about to begin. Here are some tips to creating a successful fantasy baseball team.

1) Be smart

When you are drafting your baseball team, don’t take unnecessary risks. This year you shouldn’t be taking Pedro Martinez (36 years old and diminishing health) or Chris Carpenter (might be out until All-Star break) in any of the early or middle rounds. You may not know every player in the MLB, but it isn’t hard to use good judgement. Don’t fall into the mentality that you need to get certain positions early in the draft, just because the rest of the league makes a run on a specific position. You cannot afford to take catchers, like Victor Martinez and Russell Martin, in front of other Top 40 players such as Aramis Ramirez, Magglio Ordonez, Alex Rios, and Curtis Granderson. Closers fall into this same type of category; there are plenty of good closers that will be available after the 8th round. Decide what is more important: having the best catcher and closer or getting more stats for your draft picks.

2) Make a plan and stick to it

Have a plan before the draft starts. Of all the fantasy baseball teams of mine that have been good, only one or two have been very balanced. More so than in other fantasy sports, such as football or basketball, you need to choose some categories that you want to dominate your league in. Whether that is good pitching (Wins, ERA, K’s), power hitting (HR, RBI), or speed (SB, R), it doesn’t really matter what it is, but pick something and stick with it.

3) Drafts cannot make a season, but they can break one

It’s true that you need to research, know your stuff, and have a plan going into the draft, but don’t put too much emphasis on the draft. The baseball season is six months long and you can’t underestimate the value of staying on top of your league every day. Because of the length of the season, it is very easy to turn around a baseball league in the summer months by simply checking the free agents every day, watching what players get on hot streaks, and updating your daily lineup.

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Please feel free to go check it out and take a visit. I love feedback from my readers so if you want to tell me something then email me at sportsnationblog@gmail.com

So you’ve got a Jeep or other OHV and your ready to Step into the offroad world, you’ve hooked up with local club or Internet forum and going to a local Offroad park or National Park.

Before you take off there are some things you might want to consider purchasing for your vehicle before you go. Do you have proper Recovery hooks at the front and rear of your vehicle, if your vehicle isn’t lifted do you have any body protection or Skid plates to keep things straight under your Vehicle?

The first trip offroad I went on was so embarrassing, first I backed up onto a rock and pinched my exhaust system to where it would not flow any longer, I didn’t have any tools, a jack, and no way to work on my Jeep, Later on that day I got myself into an off camber situation and almost put my Jeep on it’s side if not for my awesome club members to come to the rescue and figure out a way to get me back to earth. Luckily I was with a great group and everyone jumped in to help, but I still felt bad that I’d held up their day.

Having the right equipment in and on your vehicle is important for safety reasons and to improve your day of fun. Now I know a lot of you don’t have play money just to go throw at your truck, so don’t think you’ve got to go run out to buy a winch right away (not a bad thing to have though). The first thing I did was I made a tool box that fits into the back of my Jeep with some of the necessary tools for the trail, which includes.

A bag of hand tools (Metric and standard wrenches and Sockets)

A couple Recovery straps, be sure to get looped ends, you don’t want to be in the way of a projectile Metal hook if the rope snaps or comes loose.

–A Flashlight (yes even if it’s a Day trip)

–Either a Hi-Lift Jack or regular Bottle or scissor jack

–A Pry bar

–A Cheater bar if you don’t have power tools

–You’re Electric Drill with some extra batteries from home

–Duct and Electrical tape

–A Spare tire of equal size

–And any extra Tools you can get in there.

–A First Aid Kit

This list is a rough list for a starter, as your OHV starts growing and getting more serious the time will come to bring spare parts like axle shafts Engine parts, Drive shafts, Steering and Suspension Joints the list goes on and on.

On your first trip be sure to pay close attention to what the experienced club members are bringing and how they use the tools they brought in certain situations. You never know, you could save the day for someone on your first trip.

Nathan Rickaway is an avid offroader and loves teaching people the in and outs of his hobby. For more Articles and information please visit http://www.rockrunneroffroad.com -The new trend in Offroad
Motorsports.

There are now plenty of avenues where one could get the best bad credit cash loan. That would mean the lowest interest rate is charged for them.

For this facility that specializes in students as target borrowers, the best way to get in touch with is the school where the student is enrolled or about to enroll. Some of the schools that offer this facility receive some counterpart funds from the state or the government. This is one good alternative for a bad credit cash loan for student as this would enable the borrower to consolidate previous loans and at the same time work out and apply for a new one. Cash loan may be in many forms such as tuition loan for students, or housing loan, or any purpose stated by the borrower.

Another choice to get a bad credit cash loan for a student is to look for a co-signer. This may be anyone from the family who is qualified to guarantee or co-sign the loan made by the student-borrower. This way, there would be a big chance for the borrower to get a lower interest rate and terms as the co-signer and his good credit standing would help a lot in getting the best loan.

Another option for a student to apply for one, if there is no loan facility offered in the school, is to contact any financial institution that offers this facility. There are plenty of companies that offer such. All you have to do is choose the best company that offers the best service and at the same time offers the lowest interest rate and loan term. This way, you will find the best bad credit cash loan that suits best your needs and paying capacity.

For more information about Bad Credit Cash Loan, feel free to visit us at: http://www.bad-credit-loans-zone.com/article-2-Bad-Credit-Cash-Loan.html

I think all of us have asked the same questions. How do all these inventions work? Microwave over; refrigerator; television; radio; clocks; toaster; vehicles; and the list goes on and on. What would you do without your Blackberry, your cell phone or your computer? Have any idea how the “panic button”works?

For over ten years, I worked for a large world-wide engineering company, which employed over 30,000 employees. We did work for all the big boys and girls all over the world including; Los Alamos Scientific Labs; Sandia National Labs; large aircraft builders; universities; government agencies such as Interior and NASA; National Lightning Center; all the military services and governments around the world, etc. Additionally, EG&G manufactured parts and equipment for National Hurricane Center; Geological Survey and our technicians worked on the communications systems on Air Force One.

I don’t consider myself a technical-minded person, but as a technician for over ten years, I worked on some really interesting projects while with the company until I was laid off. Steel, epoxy, foam, washers, nuts and bolts don’t to much by themselves…but, when you put them all together, you have a piece of equipment that can do great things.

During the many years I worked there, it was amazing to me, how many important things the company did for mankind and for the nation. We designed and manufactured proto-type things…things that had never been done before. That’s why anyone dealing with EG&G, would have to have deep pockets and/or a blank checkbook!

* Flood control: You may remember the severe and destructive floods that happened all along the Mississippi River valley a few years ago. I liked working on this project, because it was for ordinary people, and something everyone can understand. EG&G manufactured about 130 rain gages, to help control flooding in the Mississippi river and elsewhere.

The rain gages were aluminum tubes, which stood about 8 feet tall. About 5 feet of the tube would be buried in the ground at its location. At the top of the rain gage, was a little bucket to collect rain. When the bucket was full of rain, it was emptied by remote-control by some computer, probably hundreds of miles away, and the process of collecting rain would begin again. Engineers and scientists could find out where there was the most rainfall, and build dams and diversion channels to control the flooding. Isn’t this neat?

* Classified parts: Many of the things we worked on were classified, and so was this piece for Los Alamos Scientific Labs, which I remember was my favorite job to work on. I saw the piece of copper when it came in to make this piece, and it looked like copper…all corroded, rough edges and dirty. But, when this piece of copper was machined and polished, it looked like a brand new, shiny, penny…and it measured about 3 feet in diameter; by 4 inches thick; and weighed about 225 pounds!
It was tapered along the edges, and it looked like a shiny, copper UFO!

The only thing we knew about this piece, was it would have a short shelf-life at Los Alamos, as engineers were to blow this piece up, and take photographs and the data from its demise, etc.

* Antenna: One of the biggest projects I worked on, was a 40 million dollar contract for the U.S. Navy. The research and development on this project took over five years. When assembled, this monster antenna would stand about 25 stories tall, and resembled an upside down ice cream cone…with the narrow end at the bottom and the wide end at the top. It contained over 2,000 housings of resistors and over 60,000 potted resistors.

Hurricane Katrina taught us all, just how important communications is during a national tragedy, and crucial especially during wartime. This antenna was built to simulate nuclear explosions and the effect they would have on communications systems on ships at sea! (EMP-Electro-magnectic pulse)

* * *

EG&G ceased to exist in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I live, and it was a victim of the big fish eating the little fish…in this case Honeywell eating the little fish, etc. After EG&G, I got a job at a plastics manufacturing company, that made parts for everything from sewing machines to computers, etc. I was always wondering how all these parts were made, and now I got my chance. I think the reader can relate to this story, because I think this industry in the back-bone of our society.

The process of making plastic parts, is called the injection-molding process, and for those of you who have never seen this process in action, I’ll try to briefly describe it for you. So, how can an alarm clock or calculator be sold for only five dollars and a profit be made? Answer: Because this process is FAST…very FAST…and that keeps the costs down!

Almost all of the parts made with this process are made in about 20 seconds! The mouse you’re probably holding in your hand right now, was probably made someplace in only 20 seconds. Many of these parts are assembled out of the country, which makes them affordable to the average consumer.

Engineers have developed these enormous machines, which handle enormous pressures to move the melted plastic and cooling systems throughout the machine. After a part is made in only 20 seconds, most are cool to the touch and can be packaged, if nothing else has to be done to the part, etc. Even if the part is a small as a dime, or as large as a television back…it is still made on only 20 seconds.

Many molds have multiple cavities, so that many parts are the made at the same time. Example; Smoke alarms are made six at a time, and every 20 seconds makes 18 a minute; and about 1,000 an hour and 24,000 for a 24 hour period…and that’s gitty-up for a machine! During the three years I worked in this industry, I saw everything made from a 24″ television back and front…to dentures!
This is a very fast process, and this is one way the cost of products are kept low. Amazing!

Excuse me, Jer…but shouldn’t the title of this article be, “Four out of five people have trouble with fractions?”

Now, the reader can see why I’m not an engineer or an accountant…and I’m not good with numbers at all. Almost everything we use today, has the finger prints of an engineer on it, and I don’t think engineers get the credit or recognition they deserve!

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