How To Win A Food Eating Contest

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Are you hungry? If you’re a competitive food eater than the answer is always a resounding, “Yes!” Believe it or not competitive food eating is serious business. The most famous event is the annual Fourth of July Nathan’s Famous Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest. For years, this event had been dominated by Japanese native Takeru Kobayashi but in recent events American hero Joey Chestnut has brought the gold back home. How much gold? Try $10,000 smackers for cramming 68 hot dogs into your gullet in less than ten minutes. Do you have what it takes to become a competitive eater?

Competitive Eating Pros

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Written by Rick B.

May 22nd, 2013 at 9:24 pm

Getting to Know HOBY

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Inspiration comes in many forms. For Sir Isaac Newton all it took was an apple falling on his head to make the startling discovery, “Hey, things fall… plus gravity.” Benjamin Franklin was inspired by lightening to see if he could harness that power. He could. Legend has it that Thomas Edison actually saw a light bulb appear over his head which inspired him to invent the light bulb. (Okay, that one might not be true.) As for out next generation of leaders, where will they get their inspiration from? One terrific source is HOBY or the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership organization. For over 54 years, HOBY has been getting teens excited about service and leadership. They’ve also managed to forge friendships which last a lifetime. That’s why HOBY is one of iPoll’s charities that matter and, yes, you can help!

 

HOBY Participants

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Written by Rick B.

May 21st, 2013 at 5:37 pm

Mobile Army Monday: Live Blogging A Survey (sort of)

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Working from home does have it advantages. You can make your own schedule. You save on commute time and you can be here to make sure the dog doesn’t go after the mailman. On the other hand, nothing beats getting out into the real world and going on a mission. I’ve had several successful iPoll Mobile Army missions thus far but for today’s excitement I decided to stay close at home and live blog taking iPoll Surveys. What follows is the actual survey taking. Fasten your seatbelts:

Office Mess

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Written by Rick B.

May 20th, 2013 at 7:10 pm

How To Be Cool At a Wine Tasting

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Do you cringe when asked to pick a wine at a restaurant? Is it easier for you to just say, “Something from a grape?” Perhaps you need a crash course in wine. You’re in luck because no matter where you live you’re sure to find a wine tasting event. In fact, this could be a perfect event to add to your bucket list.These are usually held by restaurants, wine clubs or even your local wine store. If you can make it to an actual wine distillery all the better. Now if you think that a wine tasting is just for the Park Avenue set you’d be wrong. It’s wine. Anybody can taste it! Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting to look “cool” at a wine tasting. Thankfully, I’ve been to many a wine tasting and have come off extremely cool (honest). Here’s how you can get the most out of your next wine tasting event if that wine tasting will be your first.

Professional Wine Taster

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Written by Rick B.

May 17th, 2013 at 7:01 pm

Crazy eBay Auctions

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Back in the day when we needed to clear out our closets or garages we would hold a yard sale. This meant dragging all the junk out to the front lawn, putting up a couple of signs and then waiting for the bucks to rain in. Chances are you might have had a few items which someone picked up but more often you had to drag all that junk right back where it came from. The real problem with yard sales is a lack of foot traffic. Without that you have no customers. Enter eBay. This is the online auction site that was founded in 1995. Legend has it that the first item sold was a broken laser pointed that went for $14.83 to someone who apparently collects broken laser points. At first, eBay was focused on selling collectibles but that soon changed and now just about anything and everything is put up for auction. Their “buy now” feature lets you skip over the auction process and get what you want right away. That’s certainly giving online marketplace Amazon a run for the money. From the sublime to the ridiculous, you’ll find it on eBay.

Selling Your Stuff

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Best Summer Jobs for Teens

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Ahhh, summer. A time for backyard grilling, blockbuster viewing and all around laziness… if you can fit it into your busy schedule. Summer is also the perfect time for teens to enter the workforce. For many this will be their first forays into the wonderful world of earning a paycheck. There are plenty of lessons to be learned such as being a responsible worker, a team player and spending money you make. Your intrepid correspondent’s first summer job was as a busboy at a crab shack. My number one responsibility was to clean up the crab shells from the tables. That experience taught me two valuable lessons: 1) Always be kind to the busboys 2) I don’t like steam crabs.

Old Bay On Crabs

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Written by Rick B.

May 15th, 2013 at 7:05 pm

Getting to Know Habitat For Humanity

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If given the right amount of lumber and the perfect set of tools would you know how to build a house from the ground up? There are many stories about grandparents building homes for their family. There was even a time when you could order a home building kit from Sears. According to the instructions it only took 90 days to build a house from scratch. There is one organization that has home building down to a science and that is Habitat for Humanity. This is a non-profit international organization the believes, “every man, woman and child should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live.” To achieve that goal, a veritable legion of volunteers have been building and repairing homes all over the world since 1968. Since then thousands upon thousands of families have been given a new lease on life with a new lease on a home.

Building with Habitat for Humanity

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Written by Rick B.

May 14th, 2013 at 5:30 pm

Mobile Army Monday: The Great Pick A Box of Cereal Race

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Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So says everybody. Okay, I get it, I eat breakfast to get charged up and fuel my day. Happily, I’m a big fan of breakfast with “eggs anyway” and “blueberry pancakes anytime” topping the list. However, there is one go-to breakfast staple we can all agree and that would be cereal. Actually, we can agree on cereal as a concept for breakfast but when it comes to personal preferences it’s “Katy bar the door” (which means there are way too many choices for breakfast cereal). So it was with great excitement and awesomeness that my last iPoll mobile mission involved cereals. Who would have thunk it?

Grocery Store Cereal Aisle

Image Source: Consumerpsych.blogspot.com

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Written by Rick B.

May 13th, 2013 at 6:55 pm

Get Your Groupon On: Tips for Using Groupon

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Have you tried Groupon yet? No? Then you’re missing out on an awesome amount of discounts. Groupon is a mega discount site that offers daily deals targeted to your specific neck of the woods. You sign onto Groupon with your email address and locale. Then you get to pick the type of discounts you’d most appreciate. Categories include foodie, fresh air, home improvement, good for kids, pampered, pet lover, healthy living. Adrenaline, road trip, will call and new car smell. I’m focused on foodie, home improvement, pampered and pet lover (otherwise my dog would never forgive me). Then you’re presented with daily deals. You buy those deals directly through Groupon for the advertised and deeply discounted price, print out the Groupon coupon and off you go. Piece of cake right? (Note to self: check for cake Groupons). Here are some important tips you should follow to help you get your Groupon On.

Watching Whales

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Written by Rick B.

May 10th, 2013 at 6:51 pm

From Pong to Halo: How Video Games Evolved

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“A cathode ray tube amusement device.” That’s how the first video game was described and the U.S. Patent Office issued that particular patent in 1947. However, it would take another thirty years before the video game would be mass produced and hold the world captive. As with most of the cool stuff we have, video games started out as a college project among a few uber computer geeks. The first coin operated video arcade game was built in 1971. It was Galaxy Game which was a precursor to the popular Space Invaders. Yet it was really a video version of tennis which opened the floodgates for all the video games to follow. AllĀ  you needed was a pizza for sustenance and a TV and you could go all night long. We’re talking about Pong and yes, it was a game changer.

Pong Screencap

Image Source: Games.softpedia.com

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Written by Rick B.

May 9th, 2013 at 9:17 pm