Wing and Things Eating Contest

We went out for a quick bite to eat and saw a huge mess at the table next to us at Wings and Things.  On closer inspection it was a young guy trying to finish off his hot wings.  There were several of his friends offering some encouraging words waiting for the remaining wings to go down.  It only took one and a half hours for the whole episode and the Wings and Things lady came by to verify that the wings were all gone and presented the hard earned black t-shirt.  This was our "Man versus Food" kind of thing in Chula Vista and at least we got to see him actually win.  I congratulated him and told him that I'd post it tonight.  I may even try it next time...

Would you participate in one of these eating events?

Free Re-Fills

We went to a national fast food restaurant the other day and we ordered our food and I give one of the kids their soda cup to fill up while I finish paying.  By the time I get over to the machine, they are waiting for me to see what options they have.  Usually not a big deal because I don't have a problem with any one of them but today I guess our choices were quite limited.

Don't forget the sign that says, "It is against the San Diego County health code to refill any cup after drinking from it"

By the way...Enjoy your unlimited free re-fills!

Diagnostics Failure

I was having a few problems on my computer so I started the diagnostics on the system.  Things were clearly not going well and I called Dell with the information that was displaying on the screen.  Dell asked me to read the message at appeared.  I told them that I could decipher the message but that despite what the message was saying, it was wrong!


After repeatedly telling the tech, "No.  The system is NOT working properly."  He didn't believe me.  I had to take a photo of the screen and then finally, he said, "The computer is faulty.  Would you like to be transferred to our warranty service so that we can get that taken care of?"  


Have you ever had this type of experience with a technical support call?

$8,000 Chicken McNugget

You've heard about pancakes that supposedly have a photo of Jesus or a leaf looking like a person before.  So what makes this Chicken McNugget special?  Well, it looks like George Washington!  Someone put this up for auction on eBay and actually sold it for $8000.  How crazy is that?  Would you buy it if money were no object or do you think this is just stupid?

Do you think it looks like anything?  A rip-off?

Impractical Jokers

My friends consider me a joker to some extent and really like watching shows like Impractical Jokers.  Some times I wonder if I would have the nerve to do some of the stuff these four guys do.

We try to watch this as a family and each of us has a favorite episode, even though at times it gets a little weird :)  A good laugh...check it out.

Hot Hot Hot Sauce

Do  you like your food spicy?  Can someone say, "would you like some food with that hot sauce?"  I've been adding hot sauce to my food to give it a little kick.  I think it's funny when even the mildest sauce gets people to sweat.

Did you know there is a hot scale?  It's called the Scoville Scale.  The range goes from 0 to 16,000,000.  A jalapeño pepper is rated a 3,500 on the scale and most police pepper spray is in the neighborhood of 1,500,000 to 2,000,000.  Whoa!  Can you imagine what 16 million is?  That's pure capsaicin.  I don't even want to try it.  Maybe I'll watch someone else...

Do you like spicy food?  Would you be willing to try the really hot stuff to make you sweat off 10 pounds merely inhaling the fumes?

Jeb Corliss - Wingsuit Flyer

Have you ever wondered what feels like to fly?  Well, with a wingsuit and a death wish or an infusion of risk taking genes, you can!  I watched a special on HBO's Real Sports that had a segment on Jeb Corliss.  Jeb talks about how you can travel 3 feet forward for every 1 foot you fall.  Nice huh?  You become one giant human flying squirrel.  If you go to Jeb's site you'll see some cool videos of him "flying" around.  I think it's more like controlled gliding but regardless it looks like a boatload of fun.  All of the footage seems to be shot with GoPRO cameras - pretty cool.

I was asked, "If given the opportunity to try the suit would you do it?"  "uh...NO!  If Jeb, a seasoned BASE jumper, and wingsuit flyer has broken almost every bone in his body doing this, then I'd probably splat on the first mountain on my first attempt.  No thanks."

How about you?  What do you think of this?  Crazy?  Or is your definition of crazy the same as his?

Mega Millions Jackpot

The Mega Millions Jackpot is over 100 million dollars!  I walked into the  7-11 and asked the manager if anyone really goes crazy and buys a lot of tickets.  He said, "Yup.  There is someone that comes in here and buys hundreds of dollars of tickets a couple of times a week.  More so when the jackpot is huge."  I then asked, "Do they ever win anything?"  "Yes, twenty or thirty dollars here and there.  They put the money right back in though."  I got my Big Gulp and noticed a little bag next to the register as I was leaving - "The Loser Bag."  These people didn't beat the 175,711,536 to 1 odds.

Do you play any type of lottery?  Have you ever won? Do you really think you're going to hit the jackpot?

My Starbucks Rewards

If you frequent Starbucks then you've probably heard of the Starbucks Gold Card.  The premier rewards card from Starbucks.   In order to get one, you need to buy 30 drinks.  Oh, wait.  It's 30 visits!   So if you decide to order a round for your entire office that counts as one (1).  Yes, one! But then again, you might get looks if you did 30 different transactions from the long line waiting to order.

After you use your card 30 times, you get a FREE drink!  Let's add that up.  In my example, I being like everyone else would order the same thing each visit - a venti caramel frappuccino at a whopping $4.85.  that's $4.85 x 30 = $145.50.  Woohoo, you get a coupon for a FREE drink :)  Again let's do the math.  You get $150.35 of drinks (31) for the price of only $145.50.  That's a whopping savings of...drum roll please:  3.2%.  Any savings is a good savings right?

But then you qualify for the buy 15 and then get a FREE drink coupon.   You're really special now because you get a little over a 6% discount overall for your sixteen drinks.  So make sure you add everything that you can on your free drink :)

New Bowling Ball

I'm not very good at bowling and it seems when I do go it's more for the social aspect than to actually do well.  I don't have the time to try to get better nor desire but do get a little grin when I get a strike!  Maybe this gruesome bowling ball will help raise my average?

I guess not :(  What's your bowling high score?

Dining Out

When you go out to eat with your significant other do you sit next to them or across facing them?  This has been one of my unofficial observation items that I do when I'm out.

At first I tried to determine if it was the new couples that sat next to each other and then they shifted to sitting across as the relationship lasted longer.  The jury is still out so keep reading to find out if I have some concrete evidence years from now.  But back to today...

We were out today for lunch and I spotted this couple and initially they were sitting across from each other.  I heard them say that they liked to "see each others face," when I mentioned my question.   I'm okay with that it seems logical and it doesn't bother me in any way.

I sit next to my significant other but sometimes the waiter puts the menus or plates across and we get that weird look, like "hey there's a plate set up.  Now I have to readjust."  No biggie.  One of my friends said, "just wait.  You'll be sitting across from each other eventually and you won't even hardly talk while eating."  

This couple switched sides and sat next to each other so I could take the picture and then moved back...But later on moved back next to each other.  Maybe I got them thinking huh?  Do you see her smiling?  I think she and her man were thinking, "Uh, how did we let some random stranger take our picture at lunch for his blog?"

Well?  Do you sit next to, or across from each other?

Lego Optical Illusion

If you're a regular on my blog you'll probably guess that optical illusions are a favorite of mine.  This is one of a theme of impossible shapes.  Escher impossible cube is the most popular on my site.  What do you think of this one? I got it from lego illusion

Childhood Games

There are games we play when we're children that we remember for our entire lives.  We buy them for our families when we get older if we don't have the original any longer.  Just seeing the childhood game can bring back memories and feelings that were going on at the time.  Sometimes even feelings or scents.

The other day we were walking downtown and came across a store with some novelty items.  All of us went into different areas of the store but a yellow box caught my eye and there it was...The game I was taught in 5th grade.  I remembered handing out the sheets and trying to decide who would call out the cards, if it was okay to say the card in English, etc...  I took a photo of the box and a salesperson instantly said, "No photographing the merchandise.  I apologized and continued browsing with a little grin on my face.

What games bring back instant memories for you?  Are they good memories or bad?

Married with a Facebook Account

Do you have a Facebook account?  The interesting thing about having an account is what to do when you get married if both of you already have an account.  Should you get a joint account and keep your individual one?

If neither of you have an account when you get married and then decide that you'd like to have a presence what do you do?  Some will create a joint account with a cheesy photo of them both in the profile picture to show, "Hey, this is our account."  Or maybe a neutral photo of the kids or dog.

It could get awkward when the mutual account has only friends from one spouse or the other.  And...did they get one account because one spouse wants to keep track of the other with everything being in the open.  On the extreme, the husband will usually open an account and not let the wife have one.  There is usually a huge problem in that case.

Creating individual accounts seems to be the more popular idea.  There is usually a higher level of trust and why shouldn't there be?  The issue that may come up is, "Hey dear...who is he?  How do you know her? Do they know you got married?"  Should the ladies put their maiden name to let others find them easily and don't know their new married name?

Some decide they aren't playing the game and all the issues that come up and don't even get one.  How about you?  What's your thought?

How to win the Lottery

Sam's $25,000 Scratcher

I've recently discovered a guaranteed way to win at the scratchers!  Yes...GUARANTEED.  You read that right.  Here is an un-altered winning scratcher.  I haven't used Adobe Photoshop on the photo of the ticket or manipulated it in anyway shape or form other than to re-size it to fit on this post.


We know that you can spend a whole lot of money on scratchers and not get three of anything to match up.  But after following my very easy instructions you too will know the secret.  How is it that I can share this tip?  Well, I believe that everyone deserves to see a winning ticket.  Btw, you don't even have to give me a single cent although tips are always welcome.  Leave me a comment and I'll share this very simple way that you can get three matching $25,000 items to appear after you scratch off that silver looking stuff.


I'll show you how to hold the ticket, how to scratch it, what coin to use and even how quickly you must remove the metal stuff.  Make sure you have your friends around when you do it so you can all share in the experience.  


I don't know how long this post will be allowed to appear here before someone tells me that it's not fair or to take it down.  So...hurry up and leave a comment!

Secure Passwords

One of the toughest things is picking passwords.  Not just any password but something better than LetMeIn, Password1, 10141989, 12345678, qwerty, abc123,  <any cuss word>.


The password should be at least 8 characters.  Let's add an upper case character, a lowercase, special character, number, to the mix for good measure.  Another thing is to make sure you have different passwords for all your accounts.  This way, someone doesn't have free reign if you love your password.  Get a password manager!

Sam's EMail Password

Sometimes I just remember the temporary passwords websites send me instead of creating my own.  Which leads to ... where's the "I forgot my password" link?!


Do you use secure passwords?

Hidden Tiger

I haven't posted one of these in a while so here is one of those optical illusions.  Are you able to find the hidden tiger in this image?

Do you look in the trees?  How about the bushes?  Or maybe in the dirt?

Yes...It's there right in plain sight.  If you give up, then you can follow the link to find out.

Answer

Words with Friends

I play words with friends (WFW) for the fun of it and don't care if I win or lose.  It's just interesting to me to see what kind of weird words come out of the game and the strategy.  BTW I  normally don't like playing games that reply on random chance or how the tiles are shuffled.

In this game I lucked out and got 111 points on the word SMAZE.  The other person almost resigned right then and there.  But decided to play on just for the heck of it.

What is the highest total points that you've received for tile placement in words with friends?

Ginormous Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

I really like Reese's peanut butter cups.  Most of the time that you go into a store you'll probably see a candy bar that is smaller that you remember for the same price.  But check out this Reese's peanut butter cup that I found today!  No photoshop or anything.


What is your favorite candy bar and when do you remember that it first became that.  What memories do you have associated with this candy bar?

Pyschopath Test?

The Shining 1980

This is a puzzle that was supposedly designed to see if you're a psychopath.  It has gone through a few changes each time I read it but the core is the same...Here it is:


A young woman is at her mother's funeral. She meets a man she had never seen before, but who's there as a part of family. She instantly falls in love with him but doesn't get any contact information for him. A few days after, she kills her sister. Why?


I solved this test very quickly..Are you scared yet?

Happy New Year - 2012

Here it is another year.  I asked a friend if they had any resolutions and they said, "Why set yourself up for failure? What's yours?"  I told them that I had one, "not to make one."  Did i succeed?


After thinking about it for a second, I came to the conclusion that a resolution is your acknowledgement that you have some sort of imperfection that you're trying to work on.  Keeping it is a matter of discipline that most of us don't have.


Are you going to make one or any?