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