Update

I'm still trying to shake whatever bug I caught, but I'm feeling well enough to come back and start posting again. Sorry for the dead week.

Cocktail Machine

Shaken.... not stirred.

Pink Sony Vaio

In keeping with gadgets and tech that help support Breast Cancer Awareness, here is a pink laptop! This limited edition bundle includes a VAIO® W Series Mini Notebook, an optical mouse and sleeve for protecting you laptop. Did I mention it is all pink?! Sony will be donating $100,000 from sales to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. This could make a great gift for a birthday for that pink lover in your family for a daughter who has just left for college. You can find more information including the rundown on specs here.

Susan G. Komen Nintendo DS Lite

The Susan G. Komen Nintendo DS Lite is your average DS Lite, but sports the Breast Cancer Ribbon. Five dollars from every sale is donated to Susan G. Komen for the cure with a minimum of $100,000.00 being donated. All the fun of a DS and helps to support research for a cure for breast cancer, now that's worth playing video games for!

Check out Amazon to get yours today!

Weekend Storm

This weekend brought a mess of a weather system bringing a lot of rain, and yes, a few inches of snow. Due to the snow, I've been busy trying to save plants and picking up the ones that didn't make it as well as all the other fun things that comes with snow. Sorry I couldn't find the time to get a machine posted for this weekend, but I promise to make sure there is another one up for this next weekend!

Breast Cancer Awareness Snuggie

I have to admit I'm supprised at the number of different snuggies that seem to be just comming out of the woodwork, but I've found another one that is very fitting for NBCAM. Snuggie is offering a limited edition pink snuggie. Snuggie is donating $50,000 of the sales from their pink snuggie to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Its pink, it keeps you warm AND it's helping to fight breast cancer... this is one heck of a "blanket!"

Breast Cancer Awareness

With my blog, I want to try and keep my focus on the cool gadgets and gizmos, rather than find myself getting off topic with random this and that. Breast Cancer, however, is a topic I can make an exception for. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and this year NBCAM is celebrating their 25th anniversary. The NBCAM website has numerous helpful links to information about the disease, how to get tested and other helpful information. I would like to ask everyone to take a moment out of their day to visit their website and to talk to your loved ones about the risks of breast cancer as well as learn about steps you can take to help prevent and detect the early signs of the disease. To help raise awareness, I'm going to try and share some posts this month related to breast cancer awareness.

The Proper Pour

The entertaining way to pour a beverage.

Dots Gloves

I just got a new phone over the weekend and so far I'm really happy with it, but I know that it's still no iPhone. However, just how awesome is the iPhone? Well a touch screen is a start to a great high-tech phone, but if it's so great... then why is the touch screen also a problem? Winter. When winter time comes, we all get bundled up with hats, scarves and gloves... gloves... Gloves don't tend to work well with touch screens, and having to take them off in the snow to answer a call or look up a number can be a hassle. Now you won't have to anymore.

Dots Gloves are warm gloves that are designed to still operate the touch screen of iPhones while keeping your hands protected from the elements. I don't have much information on the gloves themselves yet to say how they work, but a friend has told me they have small discs in the finger tips and are covered with a fabric that retains heat. This means that your gloves can safely touch and operate your phone while your fingers get to stay toasty warm in the comfort of your gloves. I know a number of friends who are going crazy trying to get a pair and the worst thing about these gloves so far seems to be trying to get a pair. From the website, the gloves appear to be sold out or only available for preorder. Keeping your hands warm and still letting you use your iPhone what more could you want from a pair of gloves?

(picture from gizmodiva.com)

"Creme That Egg"

This week's machine is rather "smashing." Enjoy!

I Love This R2 Unit!

This IS the droid we're looking for!

I haven't posted any "mods" before but this one is just too cool to not share. From Hack n Mod comes an amazing Star Wars mod, an R2D2 cooler that has been transformed into the ultimate gaming machine... er, droid.

While I haven't been able to find any "specs" for this one of a kind gaming droid, it looks like this R2 unit can support games for NES, SNES, Sega, Playstation (of some sort), N64, Dreamcast, Xbox, and guessing from the picture, what looks like Atari. If that isn't impressive enough for you though, how about the built in sound system? Similar to his movie counterpart he also has a projector so you can play your favorite game on your favorite system on your favorite wall. This really is an amazing creation!

There are some gaming systems out there that you can buy that will play a number of old systems games, such as the Retro Duo NES/SNES System found at ThinkGeek. It looks pretty sleek and saves the space of needing to have two old systems. As cool as it is though, it's hard to compete with such an impressive droid. I can only imagine how much time must have been spent on this project, as well as all the cursing that must have gone along with working in such a small space with so many electrical components, if only I was this handy.

All this talk about gaming... I think I'm going to go play some Super Mario All-Stars.

Rube Goldberg Machine: Dog Food

While short in length, this Rube Goldberg Machine still gets the job done and is entertaining to watch.

Snore No More

There's a new weapon in the war against uncontrollable loud snoring partners in bed, that weapon is My Sleep Solution. Kiss those Zzzzs good-bye and say hello to a quite night of amazing sleep.

The best way I can describe this is a sling for your chin that helps keep your jaw up and mouth in a closed position. While I'm no expert in the "how to get better sleep" department, it seems like a rather interesting way to help keep the wearer's airway open at night. A long time ago when I was a young kid, I had to wear head gear at night for my braces. It wasn't the easiest thing for me to fall asleep with that thing wrapped around my head so I think I would have the same problems with this. There are though, many people out there who have tried different pillows, beds, and even sleeping on sofas just to try and get a better night's sleep and this could be something worth looking into if you are really looking to improve your or your partners sleep.

(picture from http://mysleepapneasolution.com/new/)

Update...

I've had a number of computer related issues over the last few days, and I'm just now getting caught back up on the work that I need to get done, which means I'm running behind a little bit here. I have a few great finds to share, I just have to get a few minutes to get them posted. Hang in there, more to come soon!

Rube Goldberg Machine: Honda Accord

What happens when you give Honda engineers a new car, a camera and a lot of spare parts? You get a Rube Goldberg commercial!

Snuggie - College Fever

So, just when I think I've seen all that Snuggie has to offer my cold body, and my cold pet, I find a Snuggie that's perfect for taking to those cold winter football games. That's right folks, the Collegiate Snuggie comes in many of your favorite college team colors but still offers the same warmth and comfort of the original. They have more than 50 different teams to choose from like Ohio State University, University of Nebraska, LSU and Rutgers.

SkyMall - Spy Pen

Growing up, James Bond was my hero. No matter what sort of trouble he was in, he always had a really cool gadget to get out of trouble. From rockets in his car to the belt he wore that had a grappling hook, he always had the coolest gadgets that didn't seem to exist in the real world. Well years later and we finally have the ability to get some of our own "Bond Gadgets."

Another cool find from SkyMall's catalog is the Spy Pen. It's not a class 4 grenade like some of Mr. Bond's, but this pen has a small built in video camera and microphone. As if that wasn't cool enough, the pen really writes! The pen can hold up to 4gig and uses USB to hook up to your computer so you can upload your spy videos. This could make a great gift for that special spy in your life or even for an aspiring film director to give him a new angle in his films. And did I mention, the pen really writes too?!

SkyMall - Sodastream

On my recent trip, I had the pleasure of rediscovering SkyMall. SkyMall is a company that sells "innovative merchandise," of which is mostly seen in their catalogs which can be found tucked in front of your seat on many airlines, or ordered online. Being the gadget guy that I am, it was a real treat to flip through the pages and look at all the interesting items. Not a bad way to help pass the time considering there was no in flight movie and the gentleman next to me had fallen asleep just after take off.

There are a number of great items that can be found in the SkyMall catalog, such as the Sodastream Soda Maker Kit. It's been a long time since I've seen a soda making kit so I thought I would share this one with you all. The Sodastream requires no electricity meaning that you can take it with you in your RV or on boating trips. It carbonizes water that you then add some of their soda mix to, and TA-DA a nice refreshing cup of soda. While it may seem goofy to go through the "trouble" to make your own soda when you could just go buy a 24 pack of Mountain Dew, or a couple of 2 liters, Sodastream might actually save you money over time (assuming that you like their drinks). From Sodastream's website, a Fountain Mist soda mix bottle that makes 12 liters is roughly $5 and in the market today, that's about what you would pay for 2 liters of Mountain Dew.

Myself, I'm trying to cut down on how much soda I drink, but this could be a fun little gadget to help you save some money, and could be fun to use with the family.

Rube Goldberg Machine: 1 or 2 Lumps?

I can't tell for certain what this machine launches at the end, if its a tea bag, ice cube or a cube of sugar, but it's still really impressive!

Throwing Fire

To get some thing rolling around here again, I wanted to start off with something that I thought was pretty damn cool. Hand mounted flamethrowers! This video makes the guy look like a current day iron man almost, crossed with Pyro from X-men.

I'm not going to suggest trying to build one of these, or buy something similar off the web cause, well, it's going to be dangerous. That said, there's no harm in imaging what it would be like to have this at your house to get rid of those pesky caterpillar nests in your trees... and get rid of the trees themselves... Enjoy the video!


(Video found from BuzzFeed)

Made it Back

Well I'm back from my trip! I've not been feeling the greatest though, so I haven't gotten the chance to get new posts up. With some luck, I should get something up later this evening and tomorrow and after the weekend, things should be back to normal again. Don't worry, there's still plenty of cool gadgets and things out there to post about, I didn't just up and leave. =)

Rube Goldberg Machine: Office Space

What happens when two guys raid the supply closet late at night? Who knows for certain, but it's probably something similar to this!

Snuggies... for dogs?

I haven't had the chance to see a Snuggie in person just yet, however some friends that I will see this weekend have some, so hopefully I will see just how awesome they are. All that said, this weekend I came across something even more unusual than the Snuggie, a Snuggie for dogs. Now since I haven't seen a Snuggie to know how comfortable and warm it is, it's impossible for me to imagine what a dog would think of such a thing. I am under the impression though that dogs should not be dressed up. As warm as these things may be it's hard to imagine that a dog would actually appreciate having one of these for his or herself. However silly of an idea it may seem, Snuggie fans my find this to be a must have for their pets. Just look at this little guy, couldn't be more comfortable could he?

Meat Eating Robots?!

A desktop computer is a machine that requires human input for it to perform an action. You tell it to run a program, play a game, or search of files. Without your direct input, the computer sits there, it doesn't surf the web while you are gone to occupy its time. If you ever saw the movies WarGames, I Robot or T3 though, you are probably familiar with the concept of a computer (or machine) becoming self aware. While these are movies, the idea of machines ruling over human kind one day is slightly... scary. Could we one day create our own demise? Maybe, but we don't intend to do so any time soon... or do we?

You can feed a man a fish, or you can teach him how to fish. With the first, you will have to come back to feed him, however the second, he will learn how to feed himself. What if you could take the same idea, and apply it to a machine? Instead of having to replace batteries (or plug it into an outlet), you teach the machine to feed itself energy. Are you starting to get the drift of where I'm going here? Designers from the UK have come up with a couple crazy ideas, such as the clock that eats flies and the mouse eating table. Yes you read that right, a clock that eats flies to power itself! Yes people are designing machine to EAT living or once living creatures. If this isn't the start of the end of the human race, then I don't know what will be.

I haven't found as much about the table eating mouse, as the clock that eats flies, so that's the big thing I wanted to share with everyone. The clock appears to be wall mounted with an LED display. Running the length of the clock is a roll of fly paper to attract a meal. The roll is slowly turning and when the meal reaches the "mouth" at the bottom, it is flicked off the paper and into a tank containing microbes which break down the fly and digest it. Power cell is able to draw energy from the breaking down process and use that energy to power the clock and keep the roller turning. Of course, if there are no flies to eat, then the clock would run out of energy and eventually stop. If you were to place one of these clocks in an area that would see a lot of insect activity though, it could be come self-sufficient for a long time.

I really think this is a neat idea, and in a sense, is a greener alternative to other receiving your power from a coal plant. On second thought... its more of a red alternative since we are talking about a machine that has a taste FOR BLOOD! Is this really the end for humans? I highly doubt that we will fall insect eating clocks, but the ground work has been laid! We are creating machines to devour small pests, it's only a matter of time till the machines become self aware and consider us to be nothing more than pests and a quick snack.

Below is a video talking about the different machines they have come up with to help rid you of pests and provide functionality to your home or office. Please be sure to check out the mouse eating table and the lamp that eats flies, after all, these ideas may one day find their way to a Target or Wal-Mart near you.


(First found from Engadget with further information found at NewScientist)

News Update

So the last two weeks have been filled with finals at school, and getting ready for a trip this week. That said, I haven't had too much time to sit down and make all the posts that I have wanted to but I have found some pretty amazing things to share! Since I have so much great material, I'm going to get some posts up before I head back to packing to make sure there are more great gadgets for everyone to enjoy. I really hope you enjoy the next one. ;-)

Rube Goldberg Machine

This Rube Goldberg Machine is HOT! In fact, it seems that most of this machine is burning or exploding. I hope you all enjoy this one.

Transform and Compute

Transformers were one of my favorite toys as a kid, next to my Legos and Nintendo. It's a race car... and then it's a robot! It's a fighter jet... and then a robot! Sure they all have robot forms, they all transformed into something else, but there was something about making them go from one thing to another that was so much fun. As we grew up though, we grew out of playing with our old toys, and in this day in age, most "toys" are electronic and involve computers or gaming systems (Who hasn't played Halo with some friends after a movie night?). Now, I don't still play with transformers, though I had bought a transformer that was disguised as a cellphone last year to leave at work as a gag for those people who love to look through your phone while you are away, but I'm very interested with a new set of transformer toys that are going to be hitting the shelves in the next month or so at BigBadToyStore.com. Transforming computer peripherals!

Since the new movies have come out, we have seen transformer video games, new toys and even a special edition Camaro, but now Transformers are transforming into mice, USB drives, and USB hubs. These are real functioning devices that will make you the envy of your work place. Ravage and Tigatron are large cats that transform into 2gig thumb drives. Blaster transforms into a four port USB hub that looks like a laptop. Lastly there is Trypticon and Grimlock, USB laser mice that transform into raptors. Transformers that actually transform into something we can use! Now, if only they could dance in robot form for our entertainment...

Since these have yet to come out, I can only guess that these are not as great as say a Logitech mouse, but still have a pretty pricey tag of 40-60 dollars per item. But you aren't buying a thumb drive, you are buying a transformer that doubles as a storage device. You aren't paying for a mouse that is super comfy and comes with a 3 year warranty, you are buying a mouse that you can play with in your down time. Show your coworkers what they could be missing out on, and before you know it, there are four of you that are having mini battles while the boss is away at lunch! These just look too awesome to pass up. For those of you who are like me, who would like a transformer but don't want to be teased by your significant other, this is just the thing you need! They can even make great gifts for your kids (caution: may contain small pieces and pose a choking hazard to little kids) or for that friend of yours who could not stop talking about Megan Fox after seeing the new movie for the 6th time.

Rube Goldberg In the Forest

The machine this week is very different from most others I've ever seen. I can't put my finger on why I like it so much... because its outdoors? Maybe because the ending was something I wasn't expecting? Or possibly because it was built with materials found outside? Who knows, but this really is one awesome machine to watch.

Sticks and stones might break your bones but this will really amaze you!

The Shredder Scissors

The Shredder Scissors look like something from a horror movie more than they do a useful office tool. Designed to work like any regular pair of scissors, these bad boys have 9 blades! Just like the name suggests, they are made shred. But what about new electric shredders? Well from my own experience, electric shredders don't seem to last. I've gone through two a year for the last few years that I've owned one. I never send cards or paperclips through them, just old bills and junk mail, yet it never fails that the motor burns out, or paper builds up somewhere paper isn't supposed to inside of it. If you've had a similar experience, then these could make a great back up for when your shredder is on the fritz, or who knows, maybe even replace it! Stuffing letters into the shredder can be fun, but the Shredder Scissors put the fun back in cutting up your old documents.

Credit Card Torch

Ever find yourself out at night, in the cold, trying to find the keyhole to your car or front door? Flashlights are too big to just carry around for that random 1 or 2 instances where you could use a little extra light. Fear not though because there is a simple solution, the Eon Credit Card Torch. Just as you can guess from its name, its about the size of a credit card and is in fact small enough for you to keep in a wallet, purse or in your car. This little torch has two bright LED lights to help you out in the darkest of situations. It boasts an impressive continuous illumination time of 168 hours! That means if you were to lose yourself in your wife's walk in shoe closet, or get lost trying to find your purse under a giant pile of your boyfriends clothes, you would have 7 straight days of light till you found your way out! (that is, unless your torch is IN that missing purse)

I've seen, and owned a number of little torches, mostly that hang from a key chain. While I don't own one of these credit card torches, I can say, as a guy who hates to carry around more than two keys on a key ring, this seems like a much better solution to your help I can't see in the dark problems.

No more Myths to Bust?

The MythBusters build a holiday Rube Goldberg machine

C6... No wait... A4!

Ever get that craving for something a little... saucy? Maybe something a little cheesy? The craving for pizza can hit at any time, day or night, but pizza is not always the most convenient thing to get. Pizza places are not always open, or close by, and lets face it... delivery means you could be waiting upwards of an hour! Well if more of these hit the streets, all those horrors might be a thing of the past!

WonderPizzaUSA has come up with a pizza vending machine. That's right, right next to your favorite sodas and candy bars could be a pizza machine! The machine hold up to 102 pizzas at one time, can make 3 different kinds, and takes roughly 2 minutes to cook and serve. How awesome is that?! The cost per 9" pizza is 5-6$, and considering you are getting almost instant pizza satisfaction , thats not too shabby.

Now these things aren't everywhere like you find soda and candy vending machines, but these are out there, and slowly spreading across the world. Infact, these machine have been aroudn in Europe for some time now. I myself have not run across one of these in the US yet, but you can bet I'm going to jump at the chance to try one out!

Pizza Scissors

At some point or another you've ordered a pizza and when you open to box to dive in, you find the it was not cut well, if it was cut at all. What a pain, now you have to dig out your own crummy pizza wheel that makes a mess, then pull the slice out of the box, usually losing half your toppings to gravity. Well here's the easy fix! These Pizza Clippers can cut a pizza with the rest of them, AND serve it without getting your fingers covered in grease and sauce while trying to hold on to your toppings. Cut once, cut twice, and serve and eat!

No shirt, No fun

Shirts are something we wear every day. We sometimes spend hours looking for new shirts that look amazing and help us stand our from our peers. But can a shirt be more than just a shirt? I mean, can't we make our clothes be more than just clothes? Well some of the guys with ThinkGeek have come up with a few great shirts that are definitely more fun than your every day bought at JCPenny's T-shirt ever was.

We go about our daily business singing to ourselves or sometimes humming along to the radio, but its nothing like the movies. In the movies, dramatic music can almost always be heard; running from a bomb, seducing the evil lady spy, or celebrating that the galaxy was just saved. Are you jealous yet? If so, then have I found the shirt for you! The Personal Soundtrack Shirt from ThinkGeek has a speaker attached to the shirt that allows you to play a number of preloaded sounds, or lets you load some of your own to play as you move through your day. You can even hook up your iPod to the shirt so you can play a different song for any mood you're in.





For the geek on the go, trying to pick up a wireless signal can be a huge pain. Pull out the laptop, turn in circles, hoping to get a signal... but nothing. You try and try but you just cant seem to find a good signal anywhere! Well put that laptop down until you know you can find a signal. Now with the Wi-Fi Dectector Shirt, you woln't have to keep checking your laptop every 5 minutes to see if theres a signal, you can just look down at your shirt. When you've got a signal, the shirt starts to light up, and when there isn't one... the shirt looks plain and dull, just like your life without the internet. If shirts aren't your thing, they also have a hat that does the same job!

You can find these shirts and more Here.

How to open a soda

Today we have another good example of how to make a simple task more complex than it truely needs to be. You guys enjoy the video, I'm gonna go grab a Coke =p

Instant Zombie

Ever find yourself walking down a long dark street at night with your girlfriend and feel the urge to burst into your own rendition of MJ's Thriller? (The video seems to have some clutter about it, but it was the best quality I was finding) Maybe you just like zombies so much you wish you could be one. Either way, there is now a shirt the help make these dreams a reality. To help promote the new Resident Evil game, Capcom has been giving out reversible shirts at Comic-Con. The shirt reads "Let your darkside out," and when you feel like releasing your inner zombie, you pull the front of the shirt up and over your head, to reveal your zombie face!

(www.crunchgear.com)

Alright, so this shirt is nothing TOO special, just something neat I ran across. However you never know, maybe this is just the tool you need to survive a real zombie attack. What better way to fit in without becoming a zombie, than to have a shirt that helps make you look like a zombie.

Do you see what I hear?

Do you hear what I see? These Oakley THUMPs seem like something almost right out of a James Bond film. No, they don't have a camera in them and no they can't blow things up, but they can play your favorite jams. The built in MP3 player can hold up to a 1gig of music. It's no iPod, but it's one less thing to carry on you for those early morning jogs. Plus they look good to impress the cheerleaders during those sunny football practices (Clemson and Husker players recieved these as a gift from the 2008 Gator Bowl).

Flasks on your feet?

Yup, that's right, flasks on your feet or rather flasks IN your Reef Dram Sandals! Headed out to party but want to bring your own "flavor" to add to your drinks? Well now you can, or at least you could. Reef no longer has these available on their site, however Amazon did look as if they were still selling them. I would imagine that many kids have gotten into some trouble for trying to sneak alcohol into school events and such, so maybe these were discontinued. It's a neat idea though, to be able to carry around a little emergency drinking water with you in case you were to be stranded somewhere.

Rube Goldberg Machine

On Sundays I'd like to do something a little different. Instead of the regular postings, I want to post something that's a little funnier, so I've decided to post a different Rube Goldberg machine each Sunday.

To start us off, I've found a good video that helps to show you exactly what a Rube Goldberg machine is. For those of you who are unfamiliar Rube Goldberg, you can read more about him Here at wikipedia. The best way to describe one of these creations is a complex machine built to perform a simple task generally done in a comical manner. So without further chit chat, here is today's machine!

Rube Goldberg - Contraption - LE best
by e-boueur

(video from http://www.geeksaresexy.net/)

Only in America...

Not only do we have gun racks for our gun racks, but we have cup holders for our guns. I found this picture from wired.com that shows what appears to be a cup holder attachment for a "sniper rifle." I can't say that this is one of those things that really makes your life easier... unless maybe you are in the military, or are hunting from a perch with no better place to set your drink? Yeah it's a stretch but I'm sure there is someone out there with a few of these on their guns.

A blanket with sleeves?

YES! The Snuggie is making an appearance here because, well, it has to be one of the most popular "inventions" on the market today. I have not had the privilege to see one yet myself, but I know a few people who swear up and down that they are the greatest things ever.

The Snuggie, for those who aren't familiar with it, is a wearable blanket. All blankets are wearable in a sense, but the Snuggie has built in sleeves for your arms. No more pulling the blanket up and down to get your hands out to grab or hold things, you can stay nice and warm wrapped up in your blanket with your arms free to do your bidding.

Can your shoes do this?

A long long time ago, when I was young, there were two really cool kinds of shoes. Those Reeboks with the pumps, and the LA Lights that would flash when you walked. Now that we are older, we spend less time worrying about how cool our shoes look, right? Not exactly, but we have found ways to make them a bit more useful to us.

BrightFeet Lighted Slippers are just one such example. They've taken your plain old boring slipper and added LED lights to them to help see in the dark. No longer will you knock things off the wall trying to find a light switch or stub your toe on the dresser while you look for the bathroom. They aren't just awesome though, they are smart too! The LEDs are activated when you put your feet into them and it's dark enough to trip the sensors, just like some new nightlights.

Summer time means two things, Sandals and Parties! If this sounds like the sort of summer you are into, then Reef has the sandal for you! Reef Fannings come with a bottle opener built into to the bottoms. Now you can wear something stylish and useful (in a very few situations).

Watch your toast... toast...

What could be more fun than watching for the water to boil? Watching the toast... toast! This toaster concept is kind of cool, if for no other reason, because you can watch your toast get to the correct darkness you like. While not a common occurrence, there are still times when someone else plays with the knob and the next morning, BAM my waffles and toast are burnt to a crisp, and then some.

This design allows you to see what your toast looks like WHILE in the toaster. Watching your toast isn't a time saver, but the toast is generally the last thing I make, so the clear walls would make it very easy to spot when your food is starting to burn. On the topic of design, this does look very slick and I don't remember the last time I saw a toaster this cool.

Check it out at HERE!

Cooking Cookies

Just the way grandma used to make them, with lots of love and a dash of sugar. Today, though, grandma doesn't make you cookies (unless you are really really lucky) and doing them yourself is such a hassle with all the mixing, scooping and then baking. If only you could get warm cookies just like grandma used to make, without the time consuming mess. Have no fear, presliced cookie dough bits are here!

Companies like Pillsbury have come up with the simple solution to your problem, buy the dough, bake and eat. Sure they aren't made the same way, and contain different ingredients than grandma's, but for the taste of a nice warm chocolate chip cookie without having to pull out the mixer, these Ready to Bake! cookies are the next best thing. While the company may not suggest it, these are also great to have in the dorm room where a microwave is the only means for cooking you have! Pop them out, throw them on a plate, and heat them up. They don't bake like in an oven, but hey, you live in the dorms, this is the next best thing!

For everything you don't know you want to see...

For everything you don't know you want to see... there is StumbleUpon. Now I know this seems a bit backwards to start off with. I said I would be posting about things that help to give you free time, not something that eats it up like a hungry mountain lion. As fun and time eating as stumbling is, it's also a great tool for looking for what you don't know what you are looking for.

Google and other search engines are designed to take a word, group of words, or phrase and spit out results based on what you told it to look for. StumbleUpon works in a slightly different manner. It takes your interests, throws them into a hat, and randomly finds a web page in it's giant bag of tricks for you. Looking for some new cooking recipes, but don't have anything in mind? Maybe you can stumble upon something new and tasty! What a new joke to share with the guys, but everything else you are searching for has already been said and done. After all, how does one go about searching for a new joke... search "new joke?" I think not, but with StumbleUpon you can come across tons of humorous content without having to input something very specific.

Go on, give it a try, find everything you didn't know you wanted to find!

(warning: stumbling can be very addicting, there is just so much you don't realize you want to see!)

Cloud Envy

At one time or another you've probably experienced Cloud Envy. Maybe you are working outside, or slaving away over a hot oven, when you take a moment to look up at the clouds and think... man those clouds have it easy. Would it not be fun to be a cloud for a day, to just relax and drift off with the winds? It probably would (unless you're a rain cloud), but then you snap back to the real world, and go right back to work.

I started Cloud Envy as a place to share some of the little gadgets and gizmos out there to help make life a little easier so you have more time for yourself. Some of these inventions you use already every day and don't give a second thought to what your life might be like without them! Others are nifty new creations designed to make the already simple tasks of your day even easier! If it can make work easier, faster or even more enjoyable, I'll find it! Even if it's not a new concept, but can accomplish its task with style, I'll post it.

This is my first blog so I'm going to be playing around with a lot of things at first, and will try to get a lot of content loaded ASAP so there is plenty to look over for everyone. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to contact me and let me know whats on your mind.

EnJoI