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Showing posts from October, 2006

Trick or Treat Tip of the Halloween

Not sure what to pass out to those little princesses or goblin's tonight? Pick up a big gallon tub of ice cream and dish out one scoop to plop in each munchkin 's basket.

Thrifty Tip of Da Day

You are noticing the honey bear is emptying fast and it is becoming more time consuming to wait for the honey to drip out of the bear for sweet consumption. A thrifty solution that wastes nothing...boil some water, make some tea and add a bit of water to the bear and shake...then pour into tea. Enjoy knowing you are a savvy saver!

Halloween Tip of the Weekend

Need some ideas for a truly unique Halloween Costume? Well then have we got the Dashboard Widget for you. OS X users head on over and download the Halloween Costume Generator

Right Turn Tip of the Day

So lets say you're driving in downtown Nicholasville, fairly late, attempting to make a left turn. You're sitting at a red light. Minutes whizz past with no sign of the light turning green. In fact, you watch for the Pedestrian crossing to finally change to a stopped hand, but in fact, it changes to a walking man again. Clearly, even moving up or back doesn't register that your car is there. Your temptation? Since there's no cars coming, go ahead and turn. How ever, you get pulled over by an invisible cop. Sound familiar? Well it turns out the cop himself has some advice for this situation. He says, when that happens you should just give up going left, and make a right turn instead (remember downtown Nicholasville has very narrow roads so this is easy). Then go down smaller roads or make right turns till you're turned back around and not subject to any misbehaving green lights.

Drive Tip of the Day

If you're like me, you'll get caught immediately when you break the law. Like, say you're driving in downtown Nicholasville, fairly late, attempting to make a left turn. You're sitting at a red light. Minutes whizz past with no sign of the light turning green. In fact, you watch for the Pedestrian crossing to finally change to a stopped hand, but in fact, it changes to a walking man again. Clearly, even moving up or back doesn't register that your car is there. Your temptation? Since there's no cars coming, go ahead and turn. Who will see? But if you do, your radar detector might beep revealing a copper catching you RIGHT in the act. He WILL pull you over, and if you kiss butt, he may let you go just by checking your license and insurance.

Shakin' Tip of the Day

You can shake up a can of Mountain Dew , open it and it won't explode! Try it. -Tanx Tewi

Endowment Tip of the Day

Wait wait wait, don't skip this tip thinking its like all those emails you get that use the word "Endowment". It has nothing to do with that. Wouldn't it be cool to have your own endowment? Like where you could just live off the interest you already had? Well it turns out the magic number is 8%. If you can live off of 8% of your money, you could be all set. Here's how that works. Its not hard to find Mutual Funds that have track records that average 12% ROI every year. Inflation averages around 4%, so factor all that out and you have 8%. That's a little Dave Ramsey wisdom for ya. And as it turns out, that is your goal for your retirement fund. That way you don't have to count on dying soon. So say you wanted to live on $50,000. You would need $625,000 in good Mutual Funds. That doesn't sound so bad now does it?

Boyscout Tip of the Day

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So you know to always be prepared. And you are, you are ready for anything. But, if you want to become a Third Degree Eagle Scout, you not only need to be prepared for anything, you need to be prepared for every possible thing. That's right, everything you could possibly need to use a pocket knife for. From, a simple knife, to tweesers, to scissors to a bike chain rivet setter. This knife truly has it all:

Safari Tip of the Weekend

I know there has been a time when you really wanted to save the video or MP3 you were watching/listening to on a web site, but they weren't nice enough to provide a "download" link for the file. This tip works for many files on many sites but not all by any means. In Safari, while on the page you want to get the movie from. Then, open up the "Activity" Window from the "Windows" menu. Look for a .mov, .wmv, or .mp3 file that should be downloading. You can Option Double Click on path name, and that should add it to your download manager, and start downloading. Firefox calls it "Page Info" (under the Tool's menu, or Command-i for Mac users) and shows you all the plugins, content and files the page has loaded. Images, video and audio will be under the "Media" tab. It will allow you to click "Save As" if you're on a file. Updated Oct 26th with Firefox Instructions.

Narcissism Tip of the Day

Unless you like narcissism, it's generally not a good idea to run shirtless in Nicholasville (especially for the ladies). Why? Simply because you may get a catcall and a honk from two very Nicholasville women in an '82 pickup truck. It may scar you for the rest of your life.

Barf Tip of the Day

If either or both scenarios play out, stop WHATEVER you are doing and IMMEDIATELY attend to the situation: Your dog's stomach is making gurgling noises, similar to the sound a human stomach makes after eating a Big Mac at McDonald's. Your dog is making the following sounds: "Gag, cough, hack, hack, yaaaaaaaack, splatter, splatter." Oh, and bring a bottle of 409 and some paper towels. Maybe Renee's steam cleaner.

Parallel Parking Tip of the Day

Hate parallel parking? Don't we all. There are now cars in production that will parallel park themselves. Getting your drivers license just became so much easier.

Headband Tip of the Day

If you're clowning around and trying on your girlfriend's headband, do yourself a favor and take it off as soon as you're done playing. Otherwise, you may think it's your sunglasses, and walk into Blockbuster with it on and have people inexplicably mock and taunt you.

Final Cut Tip of the Weekend

While I realize this tip applies to a very small cross-section of our readership, someone out there may be able to benefit from this tip. If you're like me, when you're editing in Final Cut, no matter how well you label your clips, it's hard to know what's what. So when you're looking for that perfect shot of JimBob drag racing, you end up clicking on 5-7 different clips until you find the right one. My pseudo-solution helps a little bit. I sort my clips and bins by "Media Start," which basically is chronological order on the tape. Because you've already logged and captured the clips, you may have a better idea of how the clips are organized chronologically rather than alphabetically. This has helped me a great deal because I can easily know that I shot that pesky clip of JimBob toward the beginning of the tape, so I scroll to the top and voila. I found it.

Follow up Tip O Da Day

When scheming for bright ideas and seasonal fun always consider what PETA might say about your plan. Turns out their not big on fun that involves insects . As an added bonus sub-tip: If you're looking for a way to get in the Guinness Book of World Records but not sure if you have a talent that you are supperior at. Maybe you should give a shot at eating 37 Madagascar hissing cockroaches in a minute?

Flour Tip of the Day

Do yourself a favor and put the all purpose flour and the self rising flour in separate places in the kitchen. They don't substitute well for one another. I've messed up more than one pound cake using self-rising instead of all purpose, and it's a huge waste of eggs and butter.

Shoe Tip of the Day

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If you're black shoes get a little scuffed, just borrow a Sharpie from a co-worker. You can perform a quick touch up and only mice and gnomes would ever notice! -Thanks Thor

Timing Chip of the Day

So by this time next year, I hope to have convinced at least a few of you to try a triatlon. :-) (Thanks for the tri tip the other week, guys!) This two-fold tip relates to the chip you have Velcroed to your ankle when you start a race. Make sure it works. Apparently they don't always test these things. Make sure you reinforce it with tape. Sometimes when you're treading water with 249 other women in a 36-square-foot corner of a lake--when toenails are clawing (grossss) and arms are bumping--your timing chip band can be loosened. But never fear, they float!Retrieving one is time-consuming and no fun, however, especially when the 49 and up men are about to swim over you. Tape is good insurance, I hear.

Ringtone Tip of the Weekend

As a dear friend of mine once said, "all cellphone companies are out to get you. Once you realize that fact, you won't complain as much." It's true. Regardless of roaming, minutes, mobile-to-mobile, rollover and the like, all cellphone companies will screw you. But one thing that Verizon screws you with in particular is by not letting you use functionality built into your phone. But, we've found a way around that. With their new phones that play MP3s, they've locked them so that you can't simply add your own music to use as ringtones. They want you to BUY ringtones from them at $3 a pop. Here's how Verizon users can get an MP3 onto their phone to use as a ringtone for free, minus the cost of receiving a Pix N' Flix message. (Special thanks to Spunko on the Mobiledia forum site for this tip) First, edit your MP3 of choice into a 30-45 second rendition. Click here to download Audacity, free music editor. Next, export your shortened version as an MP

Pet Tip of the Day

One thing I've learned about having a dog. I haven't tested this to the limit yet, but I know I can only be away from the house for so long, before, em…they "explode". Which really cuts down on how late I could work. I see this as a good and bad thing.

Addict Tip of the Day

Some things are OK to be addicted to. Like this GREAT new game from Google! It's not only fun, it helps make image searching better! Here's the game. You get onto Google Image Labeler , and it will match you up with a partner. You'll be shown a bunch of random photos that you are asked to enter tags for. As soon as you and your partner match, you move onto the next image and get 100 points. It's Google's way of verifying that the photo is what it is. May sound dorky, but you'll be addicted if you play.

Name-That-Toy Tip of the Day

If you are naming toys for children, be kind to parents and pick names with kid-pronunciations that won't cause you to laugh when they are throwing the mother of all tantrums in Toys 'R' Us. Many kids don't pronounce "Rs" well. So for sake of every parent trying to keep a straight/non-blushed face at the toy store, don't name the train "Percy." I'm sure there are other examples, but a mom friend of mine has this one as her latest.

UnderDog Tip of the Day

Or, more things learned from watching Pablo and Cheddar play. If you're a Pablo-sized dog, meaning you're small and squirly , it may seem you haven't a chance when wrestling a medium sized fluffer-nutter of a dog, a Cheddar. But try not to let your little-man-syndrome get the best of you. You have a fighting chance. One of the best things you can do is hide out under your perpetrator's legs, taking cover under his undercarriage. The result? He won't be able to get you, and you can bite his entire undercarriage with your sharp, needle-like pincers. You're safe, and still inflicting pain.

Dollar Tip of the Day

Apparently if you have a flat on your bike, and there's a visible hole in your tire through which the tube was punctured or ripped, you can extend the life of the tire by folding up a dollar bill and putting it between the tube and the tire when you fix the flat.

URL Tip of the Weekend

This tip is repurposed from a tip on Apple.com's site. Did you know that on your Mac, if you need to email someone a URL, there's a new and improved way to do it? In the old days, you'd highlight the URL, copy, open email, create new message, paste and send. Now, all you have to do is hit Command-Shift-i from the page you're on and Mail will open, a new message will be created with the active URL in the message body. It's a beautiful thing.