Trivia but not trivial

If you like trivia, or you just like training your memory to remember interesting pieces of information, the Aviva Trivia Blog is for you.  What I like about this blog is that the trivia is embedded in an interesting essay on a particular topic, which is a much better way to learn than to read a list of isolated facts. Putting things in context makes them more meaningful. For example, Cool Facts about Killer Bees has all kinds of info about killer bees, but it's also interesting to read. Did you know that a single sting from an Africanized bee can lead hundreds or thousands of other bees to come and sting the victim? Scary!

The Complete Coffee Compendium will teach you the history of coffee and more. Check it out!

$900 on PayPerPost

I just broke the $900 mark on PayPerPost, approvals pending. It's been a slower week in terms of the kinds of opportunities available. Quite a few low-paying with lots of work items. I haven't seen any video opportunities in weeks, but maybe things will pick up tomorrow.

Powered by Qumana

VegasPokerPro for poker players

For many people, poker is more than just a way to bet and lose money, it's a sport and a lifestyle. Last night when I switched on ESPN Sports Center, one of the features was about the most recent World Series of Poker. The winner took home twelve million dollars! That is an incredible amount of money and I'm sure that winning it must have been an exciting experience. The Internet has really changed the number of people playing poker and how they play it. A couple of years ago, Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker after qualifying through an online poker site. That gave hope to thousands of other would-be professional poker players and led to the rise of online sites which train you in the ins and outs of poker with professional players. Guys like Phil Ivey have become celebrities because of their poker playing and the influence of the Internet.  If you are looking for a one stop center for poker information, VegasPokerPro is your place. They provide an active online community with  promotions, useful poker information and links, and many poker players looking for action seven days a week at all hours of the day and night. Poker forums are a great place to interact with other players and learn some tips. You can also find help with poker strategy, locate free poker sites and play Full Tilt Poker. Whatever you need to know about poker, VegasPokerPro has got it. If you want Party Poker, Absolute Poker or if you just want to learn the rules of poker better in order to understand the bluffing and strategy, it's there.

VegasPokerPro also has a store with lots of poker related stuff, and lots more for you to explore. If you like poker, check it out!

Testing Bleezer

Bleezer is a free blogging tool. It's written in Java, so it takes a little while to start up, but otherwise seems fine. It supports a number of blogging systems and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Not bad.

However, when I went back to edit this post, I got an empty window and couldn't update it, so I went back to Qumana to make the changes.

Technorati: blogging bleezer

Powered by Bleezer

Another Soccer Tabblo

I made a new Tabblo:

See my Tabblo>

If I could do one home improvement

I think I would re-do the kitchen in my home if I could do one home improvement. A new floor, new counters and then I would refinish the cabinets. Our home has all the lowest-end choices, made by the original owners. The tile in the kitchen is white and really hard to keep clean, and the floor would be much better with tile. Although the kitchen would be the place to start, I could see doing quite a bit more throughout the house. Even the lawn could stand some re-doing in the backyard.

Bad Metaphor

Last week, ABC commentator Brent Musburger got some people mad by revealing a signal that USC's quarterback used during the game with his receivers. During yesterday's USC - Arizona football game, there was a moment where the coverage went to Jack Arute, the sideline reporter. The game was closer than expected, and he said that people thought the game would "be like clubbing baby seals" but it hadn't turned out that way. Huh? Did he come up with that on the spot, or did he think of it ahead of time? Either way, it seemed like a bad metaphor.

Dieting

It is a real challenge to lose weight and keep the weight off. Exercise and the right diet make all the difference, but you have to find something you can stick with over time. Low carb diets, such as the Atkins diet plans have worked for many people and are worth considering. There has been some controversy about the long term impact of low-carb diets, but with the right resources and planning, you can lose weight and keep it off using this approach. Low-carb diets are usually good for diabetics also, especially when they limit the amount of refined carbohydrates in the diet and concentrate on complex carbohydrates. Check out the Atkins Diet Plan n' Recipes to learn more about low-carb diets.

Total Gym 1700

I used the first $400 of my PayPerPost money to buy a Total Gym 1700. It arrived earlier this week and I've had a chance to set it up and use it several times. I had a standard Total Gym model for about 10 years and it was starting to wear out a little bit, plus it was missing a few features that the new model has, including a weight bar, dipping handles and a wider base and better padding on the main area where you put your back. Not sure what that's called. Overall, the 1700 is a much higher quality product. Each piece is more solid and the whole thing works well. The weight bar is nice to have and you can really feel the difference when you add some weight (up to 75 pounds total).

However, there are some negatives with the new model. It's heavier, and as a result it is more difficult to put away. The original was very easy to slide back into a smaller unit and move out of the way. The new one is a pain in the neck in that regard. While I like the dip handles and the weight bar, you can't really use them both at the same time. The weight bar gets in the way of the dip handles if they are both attached. Taking the dip handles on and off is easy, but the weight bar uses a bolt which has to be attached underneath the unit, so it's not so easy to take on and off. Also, while the new model has new features, none of them are reflected in the exercise manual. In fact, it's identical to the one I had for the older model. There's no video or DVD either.

I like the new one and I think it's a well made product which will last for many years, but in a few instances, they could have thought things out a little better to make it easier to use.

Fantasy Football Podcast with Josh and Jason

Check out the Ultimate Fantasy Football Podcast with Josh and Jason. One of the ugliest and least readable web pages I've looked at in some time, but the podcast is great for fantasy football owners.

Fantasy Football

It's hard to believe, but fantasy sports leagues have been around since the early 1960's. The Internet has accelerated interest in fantasy sports and helped make these leagues a multi-billion dollar enterprise in the United States. More than 15 million people play fantasy sports each year! That's a lot of people drafting players and keeping a close eye on their performance each week.

Fantasy Football is now the most popular fantasy sport. The American Fantasy Football League is a fantasy league which offers cash and prize payouts to participants. Projections for this year put the grand prize at more than $80,000. If you are a serious fantasy football player, that's a nice prize to win!

You can check out the AFFL's message boards to see what's going on, or visit their home page to see the big checks won by last year's winners. 

Chargers look good this year

The Chargers don't play this week, so we'll have to wait a little while for their next game against the Ravens, but they look like a very strong team this year. I had my doubts about letting Drew Brees go in favor of Philip Rivers, but Rivers has looked very good in his two starts. The Chargers are strong everywhere, both on offense and defense, so it's just a matter of how they hold up against the strong teams and whether or not Marty Schottenheimer plays things too conservatively at the end of games.

No Mo for Dodgers

So much for any momentum following that great come from behind win on Monday night. The Dodgers lost last night to the lowly Pirates, putting them a half game behind the Padres, who won. It should be an interesting race to the finish, but it looks like there is a good chance that both teams will get into the postseason, especially since they don't play each other again.

Chris Berman and sports nicknames

Chris Berman on ESPN is known for the sometimes ridiculous nicknames he comes up with athletes. Many of them are references to songs from the 60's or to celebrities like "Jake "Daylight Come, and You Gotta" Delhomme, C.C. "Splish Splash, I Was Taking" Sabathia, and Scott "Supercalifragilisticexpiali-" Brosius". However, he refers to tight end Todd Heap of the Baltimore Ravens as the "Stormin' Mormon" which seems to be a little over the top even for Berman.

The All Car Garage

If you are interested in Cars, check out the All Car Garage, a weblog which follows automotive news. I really like blogs like this one, where you can keep up to date on a topic because of the effort of others to search out the latest information on a topic they are passionate about. It's like having your own research department, in this case, about everything automotive. Entries are categorized by company, so if you are a Honda person, you can jump right to a list of relevant items. Blog entries all have images with them, so the presentation is appealing.

Too Slow to Post

I had a feeling this would happen at some point, but today was the first time I lost out on one of the PayPerPost opportunities because all the spots were taken in between the time I clicked on take this opportunity and when I finished my post. I had a problem posting it, so it took a few more minutes than it should have, but it was a bit of a letdown to put in the time to get it right (and I did a nice job, if I say so myself) only to have it go for nothing. It seems like it might be better to have the opportunity locked for a certain time period once you take it, or maybe it's wiser to complete the whole process first, then go back and edit the entry before it gets reviewed.

In the case of the entry that got done too late, I even emailed the site to point out a typo on their home page...so much for my good deed.

Brand Name Shoes

If you need to Save On Brand Name Shoes, check out ToeCovers.com. They offer a great selection of shoes with free shipping and free returns. Sure, you can't try the shoes on online, but you can buy a couple of pairs and return the pair that doesn't fit at no charge to yourself. Nice deal. The site also has information about buying shoes and foot health.

They carry shoes for nurses,  athletic shoes, women's slippers, shoes for kids and even vegetarian shoes! Check out this page of men's athletic sandals, my favorite type of shoe -- I'm wearing some right now! Those vegetarian shoes are non-leather. You don't have to eat them...and you don't have to be a vegetarian to wear them.

Those new ipods

I already have a couple of ipods, but the new ones Apple showed today look pretty good. It's just like almost anything else with technology -- things get cheaper, smaller and have more storage. So you can always wait for the next generation and get more for your money.

Estelle.tv goes to Kuaui

Tags: payperpost, estelle.tvThe closest I've been to Hawaii was a phone interview where the people interviewing me were in Hawaii and I was in California. After watching the segments from Estelle.tv about Hawaii, I sure wish I had gotten that job there! The short video segment about Waimea Canyon is really incredible. The footage is amazing and must have been shot from a helicopter because you are crusing through the canyon, which is about 10 miles long and up to 3000 feet deep and very green. Estelle mentions that Mark Twain called it the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, and it is easy to see why after watching this clip. Wailua Falls is a remote waterfall around 80 feet high located on Kuaui. It looks fantastic and was featured in the opening sequence on the television show Fantasy Island, which I think was the one with Ricardo Montalban. The Estelle.tv website is a great resource for videos and information about travel destinations from around the world. The video segments are taken from the television show hosted by Estelle. She also offers a daily video podcast which you can subscribe to and watch on your computer or iPod. The site is really a great educational resource if you are interested in getting a local perspective on some fabulous destinations. Estelle frequently interviews locals who have the kind of knowledge and information about these places that you might otherwise miss. For example, in this photo, we see Estelle with some Hawaiian locals after she went for a swim in a secret cave on Kauai’s northshore. In some of these locations, the locals don't really like too many visitors to crash their party, but these guys look pretty friendly! Here, Estelle takes a nice walk on the beach in Kauia before jumping in for another swim: Hawaii is known for great surfing, and here we see Estelle hitting the surf near Princeville, Kauai (Hawaii). Is there anything Estelle can't do?: Estelle.tv should be in the bookmarks of every Internet traveller, whether they are going to be visiting the places in person or just online.

vizaweb coming back to life

Something is happening at vizaweb.com, which is an improvement over the past couple of days. I can access my weblog although it still has mysql errors. I am optimistic that they will resolve everything by tomorrow, but I'm sure that many of their customers will leave them and that they will lose other potential customers because of this. As with most cases where things go wrong, the bad thing was made much worse by the absence of any information from the people in charge.