phillbecker

I work part-time as a late night delivery driver for a local pizza shop, and have tried all kinds of things to stay alert and productive until 3 or 4 a.m. Usually I drink lots of Mountain Dew (free and full of calories) or an energy drink. I like the serious ones with about 200 mg of caffeine + the herbs etc.

But, all that caffeine meant that I was up and wired when I got home and couldn’t sleep well, even though I had to be up in 2-3 hours with the kids. Skipping a night’s sleep is o.k. now and then, but I sure get grumpy and short-fused.

Last night I decided to try one of those 5-Hour Energyfor the first time. I’m not real sure how much I paid for it, I was reeling from filling the gas tank and didn’t pay close attention.

When describing the 5-Hour Energy feeling, some people say it’s “like the sun coming up in my head.” That’s because when you’re feeling groggy and lethargic, 5-Hour Energy wakes up your brain and gets you back to feeling the way you want to feel bright, alert, focused and energetic. What you won’t feel is jittery, or crash. That’s because, unlike other energy drinks, 5-Hour Energy doesn’t jack you up with sugar, caffeine and herbal stimulants. Instead, it’s packed with stuff that’s good for you B-vitamins, amino acids and enzymes. To get anything out of those canned energy drinks you have to force down a lot of liquid up to 24 ounces for some of them. It takes just seconds to slam down a 2-ounce 5-Hour Energy shot. That means its energizing ingredients get into your system faster. In a few minutes you can feel 5-Hour Energy brushing away the cobwebs and helping you regain the alert, focused feeling you need to get through your day. Canned energy drinks give you a lot of sugar, caffeine and herbal stimulants which can make you feel jittery, shaky or tense. But 5-Hour Energy’s blend of vitamins, amino acids and enzymes gives you hours of “smooth energy.” We named it 5-Hour Energy for a reason. People typically feel an elevated sense of energy, focus and alertness for about five hours. Individual results will vary, of course. And when that feeling wears off, it does so gently.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by the results. I wasn’t bounding off the walls or jittery, but I never got drowsy (even though it was a very slow night. The cook, by the way, was downing redbulls and coffee and fell asleep twice during the shift. I said slow, right?

Lo and behold, right about 2:30 I felt a lagging and slowing that I recognized from … 5 hours ago. And the night before for that matter. We closed up and I decided to get this review out. Actually, I decided I wanted a big bowl of ice cream and didn’t really want to turn the TV on so I did this instead.

The reason I resisted trying them earlier was mostly marketing. I have a tendency to disbelieve all marketing, especially slick ads with beautiful women in short skirts; or with the perceived benefits blasted all over the place instead of any real information. But I read the label and saw it was just like a liquid nutritional supplement and not really all that scary. I’ll be putting these in regular rotation, along with my green supplements and the occasional cup of coffee.

Anyhow, Amazon.com has them for $1.67 each and I see them on shelves all over town. I’m going to start adding them to my orange juice

The directions for Amazon.com widget said just do this.
doesn’t look right to me

try this
seventh generation products

better
for my own use now
a type=”amzn” search=”search contents” category=”something” text link
see also the category page

I picked up a new mp3 player the other day. It had good reviews at newegg, 2gig flash memory and a 1 gig microSD all for under $30.

To sum up the review so you can get on with life … it’s a piece of crap. Don’t get it.

First of all, it seems to be of a new generation of media device that is recognized as a media device and only lets you transfer music through Napster or the Microsoft player .. whatever it’s called. I don’t use either and could not figure how to just drag music over on the the player, unplug and play.

Ubuntu recognized the device and let me move files over. Then when I unplugged it would get stuck (as it is now) on a screen that says “Refresh Database” and stay there. Tech support had me connect the device by

1. Power down device
2. Slide “hold” button to right (on)
3. Hold left search key (previous)
4. Connect to USB

Now windows recognizes it as a USB device. Then he tells me to reformat the drive in FAT32 (it was FAT16). Now it works. great. I’m happy.

So I load up almost 3gigs worth of songs and take it to work for an 8 hour shift driving around. And hear “Crisis” and “Corruption Inc.” over and over and over again. It looks like the device only recognized 86 songs to play. (they both have myspace pages I refuse to link to)

Feck.

So I take it home, reformat the device and the microSD. Great it boots again. Load music. great it’s happy still. Load up the device, disconnect … “Refresh Database.”

DAMMIT

I’m just going to call Sansa and tell them to send me something better, or the version 1 of the device so at least I can load Rockbox on it (oh yeah. I tried that too. turns out V2 is incompatible at the moment.)

At least my ipod is handy as a paperweight. This one is complete crap. OH! and the screen got scratched before I even took it out of the house to listen to it. Just sitting around on my desk it got scratched!

Like I said at the beginning. Don’t get it, it’s a waste of time.

Back in high school, I started noticing this little bump that would form on my arm every summer. Just a little raised spot, no big deal. I assumed it was a wart and didn’t worry about it.

Then it got bigger. As years went on it got to about the size of a pencil eraser. I started cutting it off with finger nail clippers or a knife or my teeth. It grew back every time.

Then it got one of those things you’re supposed to watch out for - an irregular border. It never changed color, so I wasn’t real worried that it was skin cancer. Maybe a little, but not real worried. Besides, you can just get those “frozen off” right?

So I tried a take-home freeze kit from the drugstore. Not only was it smelly and painful, but it worked worse than just cutting the damn thing off!

Then I read an ad in a newsletter about how to “permanently remove unsightly moles and warts, without any harsh medical procedures or painful over-the-counter products!” I actually saw it a bunch of times before I decided to at least take a look.

The website went on and on about how great it was and had all these testimonials and went on and on. Now, I hate hype but it wasn’t that expensive and had a money-back guarantee. Doesn’t everything, right?

So I bought the e-book, read it, and almost went for the money back right then and there. The solution was just too simple to actually work. So I didn’t even try it.

But eventually I figured that I’d spent the money so I should give it a try before I completely wrote it off. After maybe a week or two of a band-aid on my arm covering my home-made paste, it was gone. That was May of 2006. Almost 2 years later and I can barely remember which arm it was on!

If you know someone who might want to safely remove warts or moles have them send me an email or drop a comment on this page or
read more. I’ll be happy to talk more about it.

Quite some time back, we caught an episode or two of a children’s show with a focus on American Sign Language. It was well put together, entertaining, and enjoyable for all of us. Then the local PBS station stopped airing it.

We eventually discovered Signing Time at the library and have since borrowed every episode at least once. These are fantastic videos! Each episode has a theme and focuses on several signs for each topic, each signed by children and the host, Rachel. And the songs will get stuck in your head forever.

Eddy, our five year old, discovered that if he signs the things he wants, we have to actually look at him, and pay that much MORE attention to him. hmmm….

Ruth, at 18 months, is obsessed with Baby Signing Time aimed at kids “3-36 months.” She’s picked up so many signs in just the short time we had it checked out and is now very good at communicating. Her pediatrician says that at 18 months her cognitive level is on par with many 2 or 2 1/2 year olds!

Update
At 19 months, Ruth can say (pretty closely anyhow) the following:

Mom, Dad, Eddy, “Owie”, stuck, butt, asleep, red, fish, eat, “B” (for Ernie), “B” (for bird), mine, please, thank you, me, no shoes, toes, down, help, woof-woof, meow, wet, poop, hop, oops, wow, ear, noes, eyes, soup, shirt, juice, bottle, book, read, hi, bye-bye, moo, ball, hello, push, pull, hot, “ah-ah” (for count), fall, snow, nope, teeth, beautiful, back pack, pea, bite, food, stop, go, share, Here you go, hat, baby, frog, swing, uh-huh, boy, “elephant noise”, “rooster noise”.

She can sign:
Owie (hurt), asleep, red, fish, eat, bird, lease, thank you, shoes, food, stop, share, hat, baby, frog, boy, blanket, sorry, blocks, more, build, bear, car, paper, draw, bunny, cracker, potty, brush teeth, sad, awake, grumpy, bath, “StarWars (made up sign), “bottle” (her own sign), cheese, apple, candy, cold, milk, cookie, caterpillar, monkey, gorilla, tiger, train, popcorn, dirty, pig, surprised, all-done, school, play, penguin.

There’s a lot of crossover words between the two lists, and we were never worried that signing would make her speech delayed.

Since Ruth keeps asking for Baby Signing Time again and again, I had to break down and buy them.

Allison has really taken to signing with Ruth, as well. Actually, Ruth and Eddy know more signs than I do! I guess I’ll have to watch more with them to figure it before they start secretly communicating amongst each other.

See if your library has a set, or if you can find it on your local PBS station. Or browse the Signing Time Store.I hope you love it as much as we do.