Vim: faster way to select blocks of text in visual mode

Question

I have been using vim for quite some time and am aware that selecting blocks of text in visual mode is as simple as SHIFT+V and moving the arrow key up or

Answer 1

Text objects: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Creating_new_text_objects

http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/motion.html#text-objects

Answer 2

v 35 j

text added for 30 character minimum

Answer 3

simple just press Shift v line number gg

example: your current line to line 41 Just press Shift v 41 gg

Answer 4

Shift+V n j or Shift+V n k

This selects the current line and the next/previous n lines. I find it very useful.