Foaming Soap : Biggest Rip Off Ever!

Big news! Seeing how easy this is, I feel kind of dumb not realizing it earlier. The foaming hand soap that they sell now is just watered down regular hand soap and they charge more for it?! I took an empty bottle of foaming soap, added about 4 table spoons of Bath & Body Works shower gel and just filled the the bottle with water. Once the foam goes down you have a perfect bottle of foaming hand soap. It's a great way to use up all those shower gels that just sit around or were gifts that you didn't use. Nice!

3 Things To Know This Thursday

1. Exxon Mobil: $11,680,000,000.00 profit. Misses Forecast!! (so sad)

2. Ticks from head to toe. I think I am going to throw up.

3. NASA shoes for the elderly!

30 Million Dollar Adventure In Space

I am a huge fan of space travel! I think it's an important part of figuring out the most that we can about us and the universe around us. This guy though, Richard Garriott is spending his entire 30 million dollar fortune to fly to the international space station. His reasoning behind going is that his dad did it in the 70's and something called the "the immortality drive". It is a computerized list of humanity's greatest achievements, digitized human DNA and personal messages from Earthlings that will be left on the space station if something should happen to Earth. Give me a break there is not something better to spend 30 million dollars on back here on Earth! What good will we ever get from this. If something happens on Earth and we all die there will be one guy stuck on the international space station with all of that info. I know 30 million isn't like this world changing amount of money but I feel alot more good could have been done with a man's entire legacy. To each their own though I guess, have a nice flight.

3 Things To Know This Wednesday

1. Alzheimer's cure?

2. Your car does not appreciate airplane fuel...I promise.

3. One-year ban on fast food!

3 Things To Know This Tuesday

1. Ty Pennington, Help!

2. Your police car smells like a french fry.

3. Steve Bartman is a bad person if he doesn't sign one autograph for charity!

Felicitea Contest Entry

This fun food blog Felicitea is having a writing contest about why you are either a coffee drinker (me) rather than a tea drinker or vice versa. I decided to go with a classic Haiku! So here goes. You get free tea if you enter btw.

coffee is easy
american convenience
tea confuses me

Hope everyone enjoyed that. Hopefully I win, check out that tea blog and enter if you want some tea!

Is Your Starbucks Going to Disappear?

Just thought you might want to know if your local Starbucks would be closing in their big downsizing effort. CNN has a cool map where you can click your state and find out for yourself.

Click here to check on your Starbucks.

Mike Tyson's Crib

Remember that infamous house of Mike Tyson's with the pet tigers and all that. Well I guess in 1999 he sold it to some guy who was then subsequently arrested. No one ever occupied the house after 1999 and the pictures from this link are from December of 2007. Surprisingly not much has been changed or vandalized. The pool is still filled with water, some plants are still alive, and apparently the doors are wide open. You have to check out the pictures very creepy/fascinating.

Click here to see Mike Tyson's abandoned house.

3 Things To Know This Monday

1. Google beware, something called cuil.com (pronounced cool dot com) is coming for you.

2. Shia LaBeouf, the newest member of the League of Young Celebrity Criminals.

3. Who even knew that men competing as women was such a big problem for the Olympic Games?!?

I Want to Bet on Human Racing Not Horse Racing or Why Can't I Think of Another Way To Make Track & Field Popular?

I think I have a great idea. It all stems from watching the U.S. Olympic Trials on USA network a couple weeks ago. There were some of the most exciting sports moments I have ever seen. In the men and women's 100, 200, and 400 people were diving and tripping over the line. All that to pick up 3rd place and have a chance of competing in the Beijing Olympic Games. That is for third place! It's very exciting to have that Olympic dream but all I could think about the whole time is why can't I place a 3-1-6 trifecta on those runners.

I am not a big gambler but who doesn't enjoy a good old fashion race with a few bucks riding on it. I don't know if there is a law or anything preventing this, frankly I don't really care enough to look into it. Wouldn't this be fun though. Horses are easily injured, they are taken advantage of by humans, and really what motivation do they have to win. I'll tell you what motivation pro track athletes would have, cold hard cash. The money in horse racing all goes to trainers, owners, and jockeys (the athlete??). I feel that runners are true athletes. They deserve to be recognized on a national level more than once every four years. There is not a special skill set, everyone can run, just not as well as these super-athletes. It would be fantastic to give this sport the visibility it deserves and maybe let the athletes (and fans) make a few bucks along the way.

If some rich guy could please make this happen and give me the credit, that'd be great.

3 Things To Know This Saturday

1. The Chinese government is so understanding!

2. Japanese officials are puzzled over Olympic baseball tie-breaker rule (and so am I.)

3. Quote of the day! "We encourage people not to lick our police officers."

3 Things To Know This Thursday

1. Cell phones give you cancer (crap!)

2. Bottled Water Is Bad For The Environment (but good for your body)

3. You Can Lose Weight But Not Skin

Microwave Chocolate Cake!

Stop everything! This is amazing! I have never heard of this or even thought of this. Its from www.dizzy-dee.com (full link is in the title).

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons cake flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
1 Mug

Instructions:

Mix flour, sugar and cocoa in the mug:

Spoon in 1 egg

Pour in milk and oil, and mix well

Put in microwave for 3 minutes on maximum power (1000watt)

Wait until it stops rising and sets in the mug

Tip contents out of mug onto saucer and enjoy!

I read in the comments that a little whipped cream on top is fantastic. How great is this though seriously. A chocolate cake and the only dish to wash is one coffee mug. Sweet!

Top 7 Presidential Fun Facts

With the election drawing near, here are my favorite interesting facts involving the "leader of the free world".

7. Fourteen Presidents served as vice presidents: J. Adams, Jefferson, Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, A. Johnson, Arthur, T. Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman, Nixon, L. Johnson, Ford, and George Bush.

6. The tallest president was Lincoln at 6'4"; at 5'4", Madison was the shortest.

5. The ancestry of all 43 presidents is limited to the following seven heritages, or some combination thereof: Dutch, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Swiss, or German.

4. Jame Buchanan was the only president never to marry. Five presidents remarried after the death of their first wives——two of whom, Tyler and Wilson, remarried while in the White House. Reagan was the only divorced president. Six presidents had no children. Tyler——father of fifteen——had the most.

3. Presidents Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe all died on the 4th of July; Coolidge was born on that day.

2. For two years out country was run by two people who were not elected. After Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973, President Nixon appointed Gerald Ford as vice president. Nixon resigned the following year, which left Ford as president, and Ford's appointed vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, as second in line.

1. 23% of presidents have had assassination attempts made against them, 40% of those were successful (I don't like those odds). Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy were assassinated in office. Assassination attempts were made on the lives of Jackson, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Truman, Ford, and Reagan.

Above info based on http://www.littleknownfactsshow.com/presidents.html

Santa's Village Amusement Park - Abandoned

I traveled to East Dundee, IL and captured these pictures in 2006. This was a regional theme park that operated from 1959-2006. There has been talk to relocate Santa's Village to Utica, IL. This would add to the already booming area of Starved Rock State Park.

Chevy Spends $200 On Advertisement and Literally Stops Traffic

This is a fun one out of England. Chevy decided to show off the new low price of the Chevy Aveo on their new billboard. They attached 20,000 pennies (1 pence pieces) to completely cover the car on the billboard. It was picked clean in 30 minutes by people that were literally stopping their cars and running over to the billboard. Can you imagine if they did that here in America. Half the people would be filling up buckets, while the other half would be like "it's just pennies, who cares". Click the picture to see it in a much larger size.

FREE Benefiber Single Serving Sticks

I don't know how good of an idea a water bottle full of fiber in the middle of your work day is, but it is free so might as well try it. It says its totally tasteless and grit free so you can add it to any water or soft drink. Might be a great way to supplement your diet, who knows!

Click here for free fiber.

The Oil Fueled World Of Dubai

As the world keeps spending more and more money on oil, Dubai keeps coming up with more and more amazing ways of spending that cash. Below are some of my personal favorites.

7. Ski Dubai
http://www.skidxb.com/
Ski Dubai is one of the largest ski resorts in the world, did I mention the average high temperature in Dubai is 92 degrees Fahrenheit. It has 22,500-square meters of indoor ski area. Ski Dubai is a part of the Mall of the Emirates, which is also one of the largest malls in the world. It is approximately 25 stories high and can accommodate 1,500 guests at any one time.


6. Rotating Skyscraper
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/25/duibai.tower/index.html
This one is just proposed at this point but it is to be a 68-story combination hotel, apartment and office tower where the floors will rotate 360 degrees around a central core. Each story of the tower would be round and be attached to the center which would house all of the elevators. Each floor rotates independently and would controlled by the owner if they own the whole floor. Can you imagine that one, a 360 degree view all controlled by remote.

5. Burj Dubai
http://www.burjdubai.com/
If all goes according to plan, Burj Dubai will become the tallest building in the world by the end of 2009. The funny part is, we don't know what the exact height will be as they keep increasing it avoid competitors. The interior will be decorated by Giorgio Armani. It also will include the worlds fastest elevator at a speed of 55.2 feet per second (yikes!).


4. The Burj Al Arab
http://www.burj-al-arab.com/
It is a "7-star" luxury hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates built by Said Khalil. It stands at 1,053 ft, it is the tallest building used exclusively as a hotel. The Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island 919 ft away from Jumeirah beach. It's connected to the mainland by a private land bridge. Professional golfer Tiger Woods hit several golf balls from the helipad into the Persian Gulf and professional tennis players Roger Federer and Andre Agassi played a game on the helipad at a height of 211 meters (a record), which was converted into a grass tennis court.

3. Hydropolis
http://www.hydropolis.com/
This one is almost too hard to believe but Hydropolis hotel is the world's first underwater luxury resort. It will sit 66 feet below the surface of the Persian Gulf and feature 220 guest suites. The Hydropolis was scheduled to open in late 2007, but has faced major delays due to cost issues and concerns over the project's impact on marine life.

2. The Palm Islands
http://www.thepalm.ae/
This one is just amazing. It is an artificial island created using land reclamation by Nakheel. Nakheel is some company owned by the Dubai government. It will include 3 artificial islands in the shape of palm trees that will hold nearly 500 apartments, 2000 villas, 25 hotels and 200 shops of luxury. It provides 125 kilometers of additional coastline. So basically they are taking a bunch of extra sand, dumping it in the ocean and making a multi-billion dollar land development.

1. "The World"
http://www.theworld.ae/
This one is my personal favorite! I mean look at that, what an awesome idea. It's 300 individual islands that are positioned to form the shape of a world map. It's currently being constructed 4 miles offshore from Dubai in Gulf waters. "The World" is being built using sand dredged from the ocean itself. It will cost you $15 million to $45 million to purchase your very own island. That's right, you can own the US southwest recreated, in miniature, in the middle of the ocean, off the coast of Dubai. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2009.

Yes!

Now that there is the do not call list you just don't get as many opportunities to do something as funny as this to all of those helpless telemarketers that have to stick to their script. enjoy.

Mmmmm....Expired Food

I could not do what this guy is doing even if it is to show how much food people waste. I dont care what it is, if I see a date on something that is even a day before it is going in the trash. It doesn't matter what it looks like or how it smells. I totally hate lunch meat and deli cheese because they print the day of purchase on it. Whats that all about! I think its just to throw you off. The date alone makes me think that it has gone bad. Excerpt from the crazy English guy's 14 day gross food challange:

"Welcome to an unusual experiment. For two weeks I have decided to eat increasingly out-of-date supermarket-food in an attempt to discover the truth about Use-By and Best Before dates, and prove that Britain is throwing out tons of perfectly good produce."

Read the rest of the article and his daily food journal by clicking here.

Addictive Flash Game

This is a ridiculously addictive, fun physics game. See if you can get through all 10 levels. It gets tough by the end.

Click here to play!

Free Monthly Tea Samples

I found out that if you request Republic Of Tea's catalog, they send you the catalog and a different free sample of their tea every month. good stuff.

Click here to sign up for free tea.

Fiber One Oats & Caramel Bar

Well you have to start somewhere, so how about here! I have to say this was pretty tasty. It has a very strong, rich caramel flavor with a hint of coffee. It boasts that it contains 35% of your daily fiber which is a nice bonus for such a great breakfast treat. What an ingredient list though, yikes.

The main ingredient is chicory root extract. Its not very often that the first ingredient listed is a flavor extract. I had to know a little bit more about what the heck chicory root extract is. Here are some fun (?) chicory root extract facts:

• Has a high inulin fiber content which is known to cause stomach cramps and gas. (fun!)
• In the United States chicory root is used as a substitute for coffee in prisons.
• Known for its toxicity to internal parasites.

I think it might be toxic to my entire digestive system as well. As I have been writing this, my stomach has been making odd sounds and I feel terrible. I am going to go ahead and never eat another one of these. Taste great but too much weird fiber for my liking.