We all have our nights of fun. Often the following morning we have to go to work, school or somewhere else where it wouldn’t be socially acceptable to resemble a homeless person. Over the years I have attempted to fortify my body’s resources to combat hangovers. As a result I have created both a possible prevention and a remedy for the common hangover. In order for this to work its best to remedy before you go to bed. However, it can still help to do it in the morning as well.

To begin, a couple weeks ago I discovered a drink that must be just entering Canadian convenience stores – Function Drinks. This stuff is my hangover guardian angel. The drink comes in a variety of flavors and each has a corresponding function - energy, brain optimization, stress reducing and even one thats used to boost your immune system. However, in this case we want to use their “Urban Detox” formula.

The Urban Detox drink helps fight hangovers and rids the lungs of airborne pollution. It has a massive amount of B vitamins, vitamin C, sodium and calcium as well as NAC. NAC (or N-acetyle cysteine) is:

N-acetyl cysteine is a powerful anti-oxidant (used everyday in hospitals to help protect the liver) that maximizes the livers ability to clear acetaldehyde from the body. In addition, medical research in 2004 and 2005 suggests that NAC protects the liver from the acute inflammation associated with excessive alcohol intake. Recent medical research also suggests that NAC protects the lungs and sinuses from free radical damage generated by airborne particulate pollution (e.g. diesel exhaust, cigarette smoke).

Sounds good enough for me. What I normally do, is drink one of these before bed and then another when I wake up as the B vitamins are a good source of energy.

Next I will eat any type of greasy food I can find. Normally, this entails a big fat old cheese and bacon burger, some fries and a milkshake. Not a fan of greasy food? Find something that is high in protein like Almonds or Peanut Butter. I will also try to be as active as possible between the times of having my last drink and falling asleep. This normally means if I am within distance, I walk home from where ever I may be.

Directly before sleep, I will take some Tums, Gravol and maybe some Advil with plenty of water. These will combat gas, nausea (the spins & vomiting), indigestion, diarrhea and will help you sleep. Try and get as much sleep as possible.

In the morning, I will wake up about an hour and a half before work as I have a process that seems to optimize how I feel. I will wakeup and make a high in protein breakfast - Eggs, Bacon, Peanut Butter and will have an Orange Juice to drink. I will then have a bowel movement and take a shower. After my shower, I will have about forty-five minutes to an hour of free time. I find that naps are very key to ridding yourselves of hangovers, so I normally have a nap during this time. When I wake up (minutes before work) I will have another Function Urban Detox (mainly for the energy in the vitamin B), some Gravol, Advil and maybe some Tums.

Then, I will be good to go! Also, I remember to drink lots of water and eat regularly the day after.

Someone tell me different

I currently belong to and am a contributor to 28 social networking websites. However, I really only pay close attention to a small handful of them. Here they are:

Facebook – I use Facebook the most. There’s something so comforting about knowing what everyone is doing at all time. It’s almost like I don’t have to interact with my friends in person at all. I mainly have friends from school – past & present, on Facebook. I refresh it maybe every ten minutes. Ugh.

My Facebook (Click)

Myspace – I used to be a bit of a Myspace slut as such I still have close ties with my former slutty self. I don’t really contribute on Myspace anymore, because I have no idea who is a real person and who is some sort of robot computer script. However, I check my Account for updates like every twenty minutes. It’s a terrible habit. At one point I had about 20,000 Myspace friends, but now have about 12,000 – Popular fella! Plus Myspace has all the indie bands I need…

My Myspace (Click)

Twitter – Twitter, oh how I loathe you. At first, I thought Twitter was the dumbest social updating site I have ever seen. Then I began to tweet. Now whenever I see that Fail Whale, I want to strangle something.

Follow me on Twitter! (Click)

Twine – Twine is still in BETA, however this is really the first semantic social networking site. The program is a creation by internet brainchild Nova Spivack. It’s a fantastic medium to share information. If you want an invite to open BETA, just post a comment with your email.

My Twine Profile (Click)

Oversaturated content and ideas were the end of Web 1.0. Too many people were trying to cash in on ideas that they didn’t have. Now a whole new age of thinking has been created - Web 2.0. Where social networking and communication has been highly implemented and crazy website ideas are actually accepted. Any two-bit webmaster knows that the uniqueness of content is how to make money in this industry, and the advertisers are lovin’ it! (Some contextual advertising right there) However, everything in this world follows one of the fundamental laws of physics - What goes up must come down. And much like Newton’s apple that fell from the tree so will the internet, once again.

But why? There are plenty of advertisers with plenty of money and plenty of web startups with plenty of ideas. If you draw your attention to a couple mega-giant websites that have been somewhat of the poster boys for Web 2.0 you will see increasingly less advertising. This is because customers don’t like advertisements. A user will visit a website because they want the content of the website and don’t want to sift through “Shoot the Duck” or “Is this your Crush?” advertisements. The website makes money by applying advertisements to their content and only established websites have the resources to do so - and to be successful. Large websites are making it not okay to have advertisement banners and other primitive advertising tools - even though they owe their existence to these.

So, what’s to come of Web 2.0? If large advertisers do not create more applications and tools that fit the increasingly more semantic nature of the web, expect another depression. This will not occur for a while, and in fact, the online advertising industry will continue to grow. But, one day in years to come computer users will grow weary of clicking on sponsored link after sponsored link for products they do not want and the industry will take a dive once again. To avoid this advertisers as well as webmasters need to step up to the plate. Advertisers need to create more interesting and user specific tools. Webmasters need to make banner advertisements accepted again. Follow the Yahoo and Myspace method and monetize just about every aspect of your website, regardless if your visitors like it or not.

My name is Benjamin Walker. I am a nineteen year old communications student at Wilfrid Laurier University. In short I enjoy internet related things. Social networking, web development, search engine optimization, copywriting, hell even the odd porno. Currently, I am interested in the future of Web 3.0.

Internet aside, I am a student looking to get into the realm of marketing and advertising. I am a massive fan of food - like I’m talking any type. Cheeses, dairy and spicy things are of particular interest to me. I enjoy a good comedy. I like movies with actors that were only good before they hit puberty – Haley Joel Osment, Jonathan Lipnicki, Rory and Macaulay Culkin I’m talking about you, shape up. I like to dabble and would consider myself one who dabbles frequently.

What this is, is my inner workings blog. My personal blog, where I will blog about things that catch my blogging eye.