Here are some tips to help you...

1 - Know your material and your performances upside down and backwards. You have to be able to play your songs and not mess up under any situation, and way to do that is to KNOW them well ... memorization ... playing a song and working out each and every measure of it until you know it blind-folded. Then, if something bizarre happens while you're in middle of a performance, muscle-memory and instinct will take over and you won't be thrown.

2 - Know your strengths ... know which songs are "yours" and which songs aren't. In effect, build a really strong set list. When someone like Bruce Springsteen cuts a new album, he'll record 50 songs ... 12 of those wind up on album we hear and other 38 go to other artists to do.

3 - LOOK unique. Dress yourself in a way that makes a statement. You know from my previous posts that I believe in dressing way you always dress; to not be pretentious or something you're not ... but that doesn't mean that you want to look like guy next door. You want to create an "image" ... just make it an honest one. So you usually wear jeans and a t-shirt? Fine. Just add some accents that make it all yours. A unique pair of glasses (if you wear them), a very special vest, a wardrobe of scarves, purple boots or hand painted sneakers ... whatever separates you from average guy walking down street and doesn't make you look like you're trying to be someone who lacks sincerity or who has lost all sense of reality.

With above going on, you're going to FEEL confident, because you ARE ... and THAT sells.

Hello... my name is Scott Thomas and this is my Contact Page. I live in the Austin Texas area. The so-called Music Capital of the World.

I love playing the guitar and everything that goes with it. I grew up in this cultural music town seeing some of the best guitar players ever. Need advice ... whatever, give me a shout!

If you would like to contact me, please e-mail:

A satellite creates its own reference through use of spinning wheels. A spinning wheel has property that axis maintains it position due to centrifugal force as it spins. - This effect can also be seen in a spinning top. It maintains its upright position when it spins. - Slowing wheels down or speeding them up a bit is also used to change orientation of satellite, hence ensuring that antennas always point in direction of covered area on earth.

Heat Dissipation

Space is cold; its temperature is almost absolute zero. But objects in space can be hot, especially when close to a hot celestial body like sun. Our very existence depends on energy sun gives us. The same goes for satellites; their main source of energy is sun. A satellite heats up because it is exposed to sunlight. Also electronic equipment inside satellite generates heat.

On earth there are 3 ways to dissipate heat from a body. Through convection heat energy can be given to passing air which then transports heat away. Through conduction, which means heat is transferred to another body. Another possibility is through radiation.

A satellite has no other option than to use radiation to dissipate heat as there are no other bodies around and no air to cool them. It radiates heat energy through louvered panels, meaning that they do not face sun so that they don’t collect heat, but just radiate heat in direction of black space, which is very cold.

Cosmic Radiation and Micro meteor Protection

The earth is protected by its atmosphere from most cosmic radiation and small meteors. In space a satellite needs to have its own protection. Shielding of all electronic equipment is necessary, especially computer circuits which are so small that very low levels of radiation can already do damage. A satellite collides with very small meteors which damage solar panels and other equipment that is exposed to space.

Even though small meteors do not disable a satellite, it does have an impact on its life span. Solar panels will gradually produce less power because more and more solar sells will be disabled over time.

Another effect that radiation has is that materials can become brittle. This effect can also be seen in plastics that have been exposed to sunlight for a long time.

Over all a satellite has a hard time living in space. Even though Space seems to be just an empty whole of nothing, it actually is a very unfriendly environment full of invisible damaging radiation and tiny particles (meteors) that are dangerous because of their high speeds.