Month: September 2010

Albertson’s 1 Penny Cookware

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog, Products I LikeLeave a comment

About a month or so ago, Albertson’s our local grocery store started this new campaign.  Cookware for a penny. It’s as close to free as it gets. Collect stickers & redeem in-store for your pots and pans.

The problem is, you only get 1 sticker for every $10 you spend. If you spend $15 you still get 1 sticker and what sucks even more is if you spend $19.99 you still only get 1 sticker. That number has to go up to $20 before you can get a 2nd sticker. So I guess when you are at the store buying groceries, keep in mind how much moneys worth of groceries you have in your cart so that you either don’t go over or under a $10 increment. Even if it means buying a candy bar or a bag of M&M’s or a bottle of water or package of cookies at the check stand.

7.8″ Non-stick fry pan. It’s 1¢ with 50 reward stickers or you can purchase it for $5.49 with 25 reward stickers. Retail price is $29.99
10.2″ Non-stick fry pan. It’s 1¢ with 60 reward stickers or you can purchase it for $8.99 with 30 reward stickers. Retail price is $39.99
7.8″ Casserole with Lid. It’s 1¢ with 70 reward stickers or you can purchase it for $9.99 with 35 reward stickers. Retail price is $44.99
9.4″ Saute Pan with Lid. It’s 1¢ with 80 reward stickers or you can purchase it for $11.99 with 40 reward stickers. Retail price is $49.99
10.6″ Square Grill Pan. It’s 1¢ with 80 reward stickers or you can purchase it for $11.99 with 40 reward stickers. Retail price is $49.99
9.4″ Dutch Oven with Lid. It’s 1¢ with 90 reward stickers or you can purchase it for $12.99 with 45 reward stickers. Retail price is $54.99
11″ Non-stick stir fry pan with Lid. It’s 1¢ with 90 reward stickers or you can purchase it for $12.99 with 45 reward stickers. Retail price is $54.99
13.7″ X 10.1″ Roasting Pan with Rack. It’s 1¢ with 110 reward stickers or you can purchase it for $19.99 with 55 reward stickers. Retail price is $89.99

I will be saving up for the 9.4″ Saute Pan with lid but I’m going to go the easier route by turning in 40 stickers and buying the rest with $11.99. I may also save up for the first 2 pans, the 7.8″ and 10.2″ frypans using the same deal with half the stickers and paying for the rest.

The little pan is great for omelette’s and the biggest one with the lid is great for hamburger helper or something like that which needs a lid. I’m not sure if I will have the stickers for all of these things by the deadline which is the end of January but one could hope.

Update 2011-01-24: We ended up getting the 9.4″ Saute Pan with Lid and the 9.4″ Dutch Oven with Lid.  We really didn’t need all of these and I’m very satisfied to have the 2 pots and pans we ended up with.

No Ordinary Family

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

Tonight was the series premier of the new ABC show “No Ordinary Family.” I have been looking forward to it because as you know, it is supernatural in nature. It’s a live action “Incredibles” if you will.

Here is the synopsis that ABC Publicity wrote:

“The Powell family must learn to deal with the super powers each has mysteriously acquired after the crash of their plane in the Amazon River.

Jim discovers that he has the power of super strength and immediately feels a new sense of purpose and empowerment. With the aid of his best friend and confidant, George, he sets his sights on becoming a hero.

Stephanie struggles to balance her family life with working 80 hours a week as an award-winning scientist, and after developing the power of speed, she can now move effortlessly through her daily responsibilities. Always the scientist, Stephanie immediately questions the phenomenon and, with the aid of her lab tech,

Katie, the two begin to research the mystery behind the powers. For 16-year-old Daphne, she turns telepathic and hears other people’s hopes, dreams, fears and joys, whether she cares to or not.

And 14-year-old JJ struggles constantly to satisfy his parents and teachers as he grapples with a learning disability and bad grades. But he suddenly finds his mental abilities strengthened to a super genius level. Written by ABC Publicity“

I couldn’t have summed it up any better.

Michael Chiklis was a super hero in Fantastic-4 so he already knows how it is being strong as his character was “The Thing.” The Thing had super-strength with a rock-like body which made him invulnerable. It’s very similar except in No Ordinary Family he retains his human form and has all 5 fingers on each hand. Unfortunately in this show he does show that he has an invulnerability. He got shot at near close range in the back of the neck. It didn’t go that deep into his skin but he could have been killed if it was at closer range I bet.

Julie Benz was the first face you saw in the very first episode and original unaired pilot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where she played a vampire who was the original love to Angelus. Ah, the glory days. I loved her as Darla. Because she played a vampire in Buffy and Angel, she already knows a thing or two about super speed considering vampires can move faster than any human can. Then again, in Buffy and Angel, they didn’t really showcase their speed as much. Her speed actually reminds me of Superman.

I don’t know any of the other actors in this new would be hit show but I do admire their abilities.

Katie can do what everyone wishes they could do, read minds. Although, it’s probably more a curse than a blessing because she will never be able to date a guy knowing that he might be thinking really nasty things about her but it could go to her advantage if she knew that she was about to drink a ruffietini. She may lose all of her friends because the thoughts they have in their heads about her may not be too friendly. The prospect of finding new friends might end up being difficult too. At least she won’t have to worry about being talked about behind her back because she can hear it from the horses brain.

JJ has an advantage that I wish I had when I was in school. He struggled with a learning disability which I also suffer from but he can finally conquer that because his new power is that of brain power. He’s a freakin’ genius now, and not in the sarcastic tone either. He can see the problems being worked out right in front of his eyes. Now that is an ability that can be a huge gift. Although, it looks like cheating to me lol.

Of course you can’t have super powers and have all the advantage, there has to be an yin to their yang. It’s just like in the show Charmed, you can’t have good witches without demons to fight. It’s also why there is a “God” and “Devil”. There can’t be a good without an evil.

This show also reminds me of X-Men and Heroes since everyone seems to have a different power.

No Ordinary Family airs on Tuesday nights at 8pm on ABC. If you miss it then catch it on the ABC website on demand.

Wrote Another Chapter

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, Daily Blog, eBookLeave a comment

I’ve been having trouble writing this book of mine because I have all these memories that are scattered throughout my whole life. I don’t know where to begin. I wrote the first chapter which covers conception until my two’s but I was at a loss for what happened next.

Last night during my shows it occurred to me that I don’t have to type it out in chronological order.  I just have to type out what time periods I remember then fill in the blanks.

After my shows were finished I started typing out from when we moved in with my Aunt until she kicked us out.  That was a lot of information, about 13 pages.  My chapters probably won’t all be big but there will be many chapters of my life to include.  I actually only wrote 9 pages last night but today I added 4 more.

Tonight after my shows are over I’m going to continue where I left off for the next chapter.  It’s a lot of information to process, I hope I can do it.

I’m Drugged up with Adrenaline

On By Michel McDonaldIn My ChildhoodLeave a comment

It all started out with looking at my AOL buddy list then double clicking a name and saying hi to Chips cousins girlfriend.

We get in this conversation about her girlfriend being in the hospital which turns into me talking about my childhood lol.  I focused the conversation from her girlfriend in the hospital to my childhood trauma lol.

The more we talk about it, the more adrenaline pumps into my body and I start getting angry and then the testosterone starts pumping in and next thing you know, I’m wide awake at 2:30am.

I finally took an ambien which won’t work without food so I had a banana but I have a feeling I’m gonna need some toast.  Ok so I don’t need it, I’m craving it lol.

Why is it that when talking about my childhood my body starts to go through something else?  Most people would cry about it and get over it and it’s done.  But me, I don’t cry, I want to punch someone and since it’s not my style I want to punch something.  But since punching things also isn’t my style (I’m too cheap to damage things I have to replace) then the next best thing is to start growling and just being pissed off lol.

As I’m back in time in my head I’m yelling IN MY HEAD at people who are talking trash to me and I’m punching them in the face lol.  I guess it’s better and less illegal to punch a memory in your mind lol.

This would be a great time to start writing about what happened but I’d rather keep writing in chronological order when I write my book so I’ll wait.  Those memories aren’t gonna go away so I can put them in the back of the closet for a while until I get to them and then watch out lol.

Anyway, off to bed when I get food in me and the ambien kicks in.  Relaxing helps calm me down long enough to go to sleep because it stops my brain from working overtime lol.

Autobiography Research

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Gay, NookLeave a comment

I went looking on the Rainbow ebooks website for an autobiography and they don’t have that category so I searched in biography which is empty. So I went to the borders website to find a gay autobiography in e-book format but unfortunately there are 34,537 biographies. They have many categories so you can narrow down your search but there were none in the “gay” category so I thought…. GOOGLE!

Note: I searched Borders because I have $15 borders bucks from doing surveys with e-rewards.com and I’m tired of only being able to get $25 Game Stop cards. I was never really interested in the other rewards they offer but now that I have a Nook I figure I might as well get some ebooks out of it.

So I went to the Google search engine and typed “Autobiography of a gay person” and this is what came up.

glbtq >> literature >> Autobiography, Gay MaleIn its first century of existence, gay male autobiography has become increasingly more open, frank, and unapologetic…

Edward Carpenter’s “My Days and Dreams” was published in 1890. Like other early gay male autobiographies, the book was reticent about its author’s intimate relationships.

This is the very first autobiography of a gay person and it was published in 1890. You know what first came to mind? A book that was published in 1890 is now out of print which means… It’s FREE!

I turned my Nook on, went to the shop menu, chose e-books then typed in the name of this book and it was the 2nd thing in the list and it said it was from Google and it was free!

So now I get to do my research from a pioneer. Although, his experience is going to be totally different from mine given the fact that they were from BLOODY 1890… but still. It will help me anyway.

Evan Williams Explains New Twitter Interface

On By Michel McDonaldIn Amplify, Daily BlogLeave a comment

I am definitely not part of the 1% of people who woke up today to a brand new Twitter but even if I was, I wouldn’t have known it considering I only ever go to the Twitter website to click my list of followers to follow people back. For the rest of the day I have TweetDeck running on my screen at all times.

Even if I were part of the 1% of Twitter users who woke up with a brand new interface it wouldn’t do me any good because TweetDeck gives me way more than Twitter.com ever did and even with a new UI it still won’t do me as much good as TweetDeck does.

Watch the video below to see how CEO and co-founder of Twitter Evan Williams explains the new Twitter interface…

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

Evan Williams Explains New Twitter Interface

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjPi31ANzIA

For the 1 percent of users who woke up to a different Twitter experience Wednesday morning, it was probably the biggest change they have ever seen to the real-time information service. Twitter has approximately 160 million users and there are nearly 90 million tweets sent every day.

Tech Crunch has a good walk-through of the new look. Mashable thinks it will put developers on the platform out of business. We asked Evan Williams, the CEO and co-founder of Twitter about what motivated the changes. Take a look:

Read more at www.youtube.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/b6vk

Resting Eyes Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, NookLeave a comment

I’ve been reading every day this month and even though I feel like I’m in a race to read as many books as I possibly can, I think I need to give my eyes the day off today.

Ok so it’s not a race but I just feel like I’m on vacation when I’m reading. Vacation from the problems of the world, of my world. It’s an escape. But for today I need to rest.

If I go blind from over reading then what point will I have made by spending $160 on a Nook?

Earlier in the week I posted a poll asking how long it takes people to read and because only 5 people took the poll (thanks a lot) I didn’t get a definitive answer.

It’s interesting though that a friend of mine who got me wanting to read told me that she reads funny. She will be reading many books simultaneously. Like she’s reading 13 books right now. She has finished 9 of those 13 books but what she does is she reads a chapter in 1 book then goes and reads 1 chapter in another book and so on and so forth. And that’s all in 1 month too.

It takes me 4 days to read 1 book and I can usually read 4 books per month because after I finish reading a book I take a few days before going to the next one. I can’t imagine how fast she must read that she can go through 13 books in 1 day by reading 1 chapter each. That would take me the whole entire day and by the end of the day I would be too blind to do anything else.

I have astigmatism, I have trouble focusing my eyes after looking at a book so close for a certain amount of time. It’s like when I play video games on my PSP, after playing for so long, when I look away from it everything is blurry. That’s usually when I know it’s time to stop. Or when I’m sitting there with my PSP so close to my face that I can’t see anything in my peripheral vision. That’s why I like to play with the PSP hooked up to the TV.

It’s too bad I can’t hook the Nook up to the TV to read it lol. Then again what would be the point of e-ink if I’m reading from the tv.

I do use the large print when I read. I should probably use the biggest print which is extra extra large. Maybe that would be a lot easier on my eyes but that only means more page turns which means more battery usage. I’ve been using large only because of the time it takes to turn the page, it’s not too long but it’s long enough that I don’t want to have to turn it as much.

So from now on, I will use extra extra large as if I’m in my 80′s lol. What happens when I am in my 80′s? I will need a magnifying glass to go with it or maybe the Nook of the future will be as big as the wall with a remote control for turning the page. I’d still need to use extra extra-large though lol. I can see me in my 80′s with coke bottle glasses like Professor Farnsworth from Futurama.

Or maybe by then (if I’m still alive) I will be totally blind but hopefully voice recognition will be a lot better. I can grab my future nook like gadget, push the button on top and hear a sound like I turned on the computer then hear a voice greeting me. “Hello Mr. McDonald. What would you like to read today?” then I say “I’d like to continue reading the last book” then it starts reading to me in a calming voice, not electronic like the Kindle. That would be ideal for my blind 80-year-old ass in the year 2050 lol.

I said I was going to give my eyes a break today, what the heck am I doing blogging? Sheesh!

Reboost

On By Michel McDonaldIn AdLeave a comment

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

Communication is the most important thing these days whether it be for work or play. Everyone needs a cell phone for one reason or another. They have to have that constant connection. I remember when cell phones were too expensive for the common folk, you only had one if you were a doctor, lawyer or just plain old rich. Gone are the days that you had to worry about price because now it’s inexpensive for everyone.

Boost Mobile has unlimited monthly plans starting at $50 which include nationwide calling, text, web, multi-media (image, audio and video), email, 411, call waiting/forwarding, voicemail, long distance and a nationwide network. $60 for the Blackberry monthly unlimited plan.

Boost Mobile phones/plans are social in nature since you can tweet and send Facebook updates from your cell phone for one price per month. I see people tweeting from their mobile phones all the time when I’m on TweetDeck and I know it’s because they’re all taking advantage of tweeting on the go. You can tweet and leave a Facebook update where you are along with pictures.

What I like about Boost Mobile is that there are no contracts. You aren’t subject to any fees if you decide to cancel your account unlike other cell phone companies who charge you hundreds to get out early before your year is up.

They have daily plans too so if you know you aren’t going to use your cell phone you can pay as you go. They have Daily Unlimited for $2 or Blackberry Daily Unlimited which is $3. Or you can go Pay as you go which means you pay for every phone call, every text etc. That option is great if you hardly ever use your phone like me.

They have Re-Boost, a great way to pay for your account. You can pay in person, online or by phone with your debit or credit card. Or if you need help paying then someone can put funds into your account on the website with their credit card. I’m sure college students need their parents to help them out with that every so often or maybe every month.

Activation is easy, they have great replenishment options, phone features and extra options. I personally like the Samsung Seek. It has a big screen and you turn it on its side and flip out the keyboard and you can start typing. It’s not as fancy as a Blackberry but it’s cool in my opinion.

Colbert Testimony Before Congress (House Subcommittee)

On By Michel McDonaldIn Amplify, Humor, Joke, Political, TVLeave a comment

Stephen Colbert testified before congress about immigration and people were not amused at all. Although I found his speech hilarious, I do find that it was a waste of time for congress. He could have just put the skit into his show and Congress could’ve watched it from the comfort of their homes or offices.

People are saying he is making a mockery of the congressional hearing, well, wasn’t that his point of being there? He was asked to be there by the congresswoman that he mentioned and later she said that she didn’t know he was going to be in character. Come on, he’s StephenColbert. If you know anything about him it’s that he’s like Lady Gaga or Kathy Griffin, always in character.

Again, I found it hilarious but that’s just me. What do you think?

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

Colbert Testimony Before Congress (House Subcommittee)

(there was a video here but it was removed by the user who uploaded it)

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/b3le

Movie Macabre with Elvira on My Network

On By Michel McDonaldIn Halloween, Humor, Movies, TVLeave a comment

Hey remember Movie Macabre from the early 80′s? Well it’s back!

Elvira is now hosting movies on “My Network” or My45 here in Bakersfield but check the info page on her Facebook fan page to find out if you will get it in your city and what channel/time it will be on.

It says that its going to be on at 12am on Saturdays but I checked and it’s wrong. It says 12pm on the guide but on the My45 website it’s says that it’s on at 7:30am which I also just checked and that is wrong too lol.

I can safely say that if you are in Bakersfield, California, you can watch it at 12pm on Saturday on KUVI 45 which is Brighthouse cable channel 4 or 1004 for My45 HD.

This weeks movie is Night of the Living Dead (1968).

I wonder if Breather will be coming back too lol. Remember him? He had like this vaseline on his face or something and he was always calling her and breathing heavy on the phone and occasionally they would have him on the show.

I watched her show every Saturday at noon when I was in elementary school and junior high school lol. I even paid $12 to her fan club where I had to send a self-addressed stamped manilla envelope (S.A.S.E.) to receive whatever came with the fan club membership. Let me think, I remember an 8×10 signed black and white photo, bumper sticker and I forgot what else. That stuff is long gone though. I bought it in 1982 lol. Oh it had a newsletter too but that was the only one I ever got. I guess it was a standard newsletter that they only sent out to 1 time members who paid $12.

Anyhoo, it’s gonna be so fun to watch her again. I’ve missed her so much.