Posts filed under ‘Around The House’
Save Your Wet Electronics by Sticking Them in Rice
Simply put, when you make rice, you take 1 cup of rice and pour at least a cup and a half of water into it. Then you put it on the stove for a while and when you’re done, there’s no more water — it’s in the rice!
The point is, rice is really good at absorbing water.
So if you drop your cell phone in a bucket of water, toilet or swimming pool: get it quickly; turn it off; dry it and immediately put it into a bag of uncooked rice.
If you can access the battery, you should take it out too since some devices, especially cell phones, are still consuming power on standby, even when they appear to be off.
If you’ve got a wet vacuum, like a shop-vac, you should use it to suck some of the water out. A friend of mine (you know who you are) spilled water on my laptop keyboard once. I flipped the laptop upside down immediately, turned it off and pulled out the battery. It set it down and ran to get the shop-vac. While keeping it upside-down, I sucked all the water out of the keyboard. (more…)
Why Beer Bottles are Green, Brown or Clear
St. Patrick’s day was last week and it wasn’t deathly cold that night so I was going to start the evening by finally taking down my Christmas lights. Luckily, I got a much warmer offer from my friend Chris who invited me over for green beer.
Chris’s wife Jeanne was turning yellow beer into green beer using blue food coloring and Jeanne’s daughter was there too. We got talking about import beers and how many of them are in green bottles. Chris pointed out that Moosehead was maybe the only green bottled beer that he liked (and one of the few Canadian beers we get in America). That lead to a conversation about why beer bottles came in three different colors: clear, brown and green.
Chris mentioned the color of the glass protected the beer from light, which was a secret to me, so I read more about it and here’s what I found: (more…)
Australian Toilets Do Not Flush in the Opposite Direction
Despite what you may believe, being in the secret business is not glamorous. Nothing in school prepares you for this many late afternoons, drinking whipped cream topped drinks at Starbucks.
Actually, college did prepare me for that, but it’s still not glamorous. Take my word for it. Just the other day I was sitting by the pool thinking, “what am I going to write about for tomorrow?” I couldn’t come up with anything at all.
For inspiration, I moved to the hot tub — maybe some bubbles would help. You wouldn’t believe it, I still couldn’t come up with an idea! It usually comes naturally and the hardest part of my day is answering repetitive questions like, “what is it like to be such a handsome and successful blogger?”
I’m kidding of course, except about the lack of glamor, not that you really expected it to be glamorous anyway. The truth is, I don’t sit by any pool or hot tub and I rarely drink whipped cream topped drinks at Starbucks. I work a normal day job and write this blog at night.
It’s probably a lot more work than you may realize; even before I start writing I spend a lot of time digging for ideas and accurate sources to come up with something I think you’ll find interesting, and sometimes really helpful. The most common real question I get is, “where do you get all of your ideas?” There are two main sources. (more…)
How Restaurants Make Taco Shell Bowls
If you’re ever ordered a taco salad, it has probably been served in a giant bowl made from a taco shell. Nachos are often served with smaller versions of these tortilla bowls to hold sour cream and salsa.
My friend Scott worked in a restaurant back in our high school days. While we were having dinner one night I asked him how they did it.
For the smaller sized dipping bowls, they would take two ladles, put one ladle cup inside of the other while sandwiching a small tortilla shell between them. Then they would hang on to the handles and dip the other end into the deep fryer. After a short amount of time they would remove the ladles from the fryer; as the tortilla cooled, it would hold its shape. It was a good bowl, but it was a great deep fried bowl shaped nacho when that last bit of salsa was left at the bottom.
Bad Fats Can be Hidden on Nutrition Labels
My good friend Scott is probably the fittest person I know. He works out at least once a day (sometimes more) and eats like a champion.
A little while back, I was in Toronto and staying at Neil’s place (author of The Book of Awesome). Scott came by and took us to the gym for a personal training session. At the end, I was beat and he hadn’t even broken a sweat. Then he said, lets do it again! I thought he was joking, I really did… but he was not.
The point is, Scott is very fit and extremely well read. When I asked him what book I should read to learn more about nutrition, he suggested this book.
I’ve been reading it off and on for a couple weeks now and it’s a great book. I found the section about fats very interesting. Of course, most people realize there are good fats and bad. Fats that your body needs and fats that your body shouldn’t have. But, there was an interesting little trick for identifying fat that is not itemized on the nutritional label. If you look at “total fat”, that number is often higher than the itemized fats listed below it (at least saturated and trans fats must appear itemized in the US since 2006). If you add up the saturated and trans fats and the subtract that from the total, you’ll know the approximate amount of unsaturated fats. The reason I say approximate, is because the trans fat number is regulated to be inaccurate in some cases. (more…)
You Shouldn’t Use Fabric Softener on Towels
I have a love-hate relationship with fabric softener.
The hate comes from all of the embarrassing moments they are responsible for. I remember being at work when a co-worker pointed out in front of a bunch of other people that a dryer sheet was hanging out of the bottom of my pant-leg. They all thought it was pretty funny of course, and I think most people have been there. I have a few other embarrassing dryer sheet stories, but the great things about them are more interesting.
Fabric softener is really useful in your laundry and understanding what it does and how it affects fabric is important to knowing when to use it.
Most modern washing machines have a reservoir that can automatically add fabric softener liquid to the load during the rinse cycle. Of course, fabric softeners are also available in my favorite form: dryer sheets. (more…)
Caffeine Free Coffee Beans Discovered
In case you haven’t noticed from my video about properly pouring coffee, my various Starbucks secrets or my post about why coffee is called java, I love coffee.
I got hooked on it when a local chain started serving high fructose cappuccinos. They’re mostly sugar, but they’re also a gateway to the serious stuff: coffea arabica, the most common species of coffee bean.
As I got older, I started to notice the effects of all the caffeine. I would get headaches if I didn’t drink enough of the stuff, but I couldn’t stop drinking it entirely… I loved the taste and it was a habitual part of my day, so I switched to decaffeinated coffee. I’m not alone, decaf coffee is growing in popularity, making up 10% of the global coffee market. (more…)
Dishwasher Detergent Has Bleach In It
I learned it the hard way.
A couple weeks ago, I popped the cap off the dishwasher detergent and some splattered on me. I didn’t think much of it, but a couple hours later I noticed one of my favorite t-shirts had pink spots on it.
It surprised me, but I knew immediately what caused it. Just to be sure, I checked the dishwasher detergent ingredients and there it was, “Chlorine Bleach.” I knew we had another brand, so I checked that one too — same thing!
That was news to me and I asked a few other people if they knew dishwasher detergent contained bleach and it was news to them too. The question is why?
Food Nutrition Labels are Not Accurate
In 1990, the US Congress mandated that certain nutritional information be placed on packaged foods. There are some exceptions, especially for small manufacturers. Otherwise, every food product you buy has a label that lists the ingredients and nutritional value of those ingredients. Most other developed countries use a similar or even superior system.
This makes a lot of sense. Consumers can read packages and have a good understanding of what they’re eating so they can make healthy decisions. Unfortunately, this data is often inaccurate and intentionally misleading.
The misleading packages are easy to pick out if you’re looking, but often go unnoticed. These are usually products that you buy for a snack and consider to be a single serving, perhaps a small bag of chips or a small bottle of soda/pop. You read over the calories, fat and sugar content and while it doesn’t look great you know what you’re getting into. At least, you think you do until the person next to you that points out that is “per serving” and there are two servings per bag. Or worse, when there are 2.5 servings. What is 73 calories times 2.5? (more…)
Why Vinyl Records are Becoming Popular Again
By Chad Upton | Editor
There have always been cool record shops in the hip parts of town hocking vinyl to the enthusiasts. But, it had been a long time since the major record stores carried them, until last year.
Maybe you’ve noticed, maybe not. But if you’ve been into BestBuy recently, some of their stores have a massive vinyl record selection. A year ago, they had a few, now they have hundreds. It’s not every store, but some of them.
Vinyl Edition
For many people, it’s probably hard to imagine that anyone would go back to using records.
Records are not convenient to use. They don’t play for very long, about 26 minutes before you have to flip it over or put a new one on. You can’t easily skip songs at the push of a button. They have to be kept very clean to sound good. The needle drags on the record so the sound degrades over time and worst of all, they are expensive.
Since all of these drawbacks are easily overcome by digital formats like CDs and MP3s, it surely makes people wonder, why are vinyl records making a mainstream comeback? (more…)
Broken Secrets 