In Other News, Vol. 5
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 As usual, just a round-up of random cool things that don't fit in any other way with my blog, but might be of use or interest to you (or can get me cool free stuff). Stick around to the end. There's a video of Fury doing a DVD review.
The Force of Random.org is Strong With These Folks
I'm gonna make 4 people the envy of Star Wars geeks everywhere in 20 years (it's not derogatory when you're one yourself. Whut up mah 'wars geek!) -- unless they defile open these and give them to the kiddos, in which case they will just create more crap to pick up when playtime's over. Not my problem. I offered you the red pill.
Will the following please step forward and accept your prize of a FULL SET of 18 Star Wars Happy Meal Bobbleheads so I can finally get rid of this big ass box sitting in my home office:
Phil @ A Family Runs Through It
Cinthia (*GASP* she doesn't have a blog. I actually have a civilian reader!)
LoveyH @ Manuscripts and Sippy Cups
Carie @ Our Crooked Tree
I Like A Company With Balls
"Try it on us for 6 months and chart your progress, good or bad." (paraphrasing). Simple as that. Hmm. A throwdown of sorts.
Since d Wife is perpetually looking to lose 15 pounds (she said it, not me!), I asked her if she wanted to try it out. She agreed. And here we are.
A little bit about Sensa (it's the least I could do to reward a smart PR strategy). This product was invented by Dr. Alan Hirsch, a neurologist who has spent his career researching smell and taste. In one of his research studies he noticed that many patients who had lost their sense of taste due to head injuries tended to gain weight. Long story short, there's a portion of the brain called the "satiety center" that controls our urge to eat. The more it's stimulated (or satiated, I guess), the less you feel like eating.
Sensa is simply a non-caloric "tastant" - or magic crystals as I like to call them - that you sprinkle on your food that triggers the part of your brain that suppresses your urge to eat. No need to change your diet or get off the couch. You simply eat less and therefore lose weight.
d Wife has been sprinkling it in her food for a few days now and for the next few months, I'll be checking in and letting you all know how she's faring. Funny, I tried it on my spaghetti the other day and it made me eat more. I'm such a party pooper.
d Wife's starting weight: 145
d Wife's current weight (after a few days on the crystals): 143
Starting off strong in the opening round there, Dr. Hirsch. You are a worthy opponent. By the way, if any of you want to try it, they hooked us up with a discount code to get 15% off your order and free ground shipping. Just go to TrySensa.com and use the code ROCKETXL when you checkout.
Check out the site. I love admiring cool ideas that I didn't think of.
Seething jealousy aside, I have to admit, these are pretty useful. You can put your cell phone number on them, so if you happen to get separated at Disney World or trick-or-treating, people will know how to get in touch with you (just tell your kid not to go with telemarketers, even if they were just "in your area" at the time). Or if they have special medical needs or food allergies ("this kid will spit on you if you feed him tomatoes"), you can slap one of these on as a warning label of sorts. And you know your kid won't fight you on it. It's a freakin' tattoo, dude!
Schoolhouse Rock, Well... Rocks
Remember when you could ONLY catch cool cartoons on Saturday morning? Like literally, all that was on TV on Sunday morning was Barbapapa, Captain Bob (boy he could draw a mean swordfish!) and Davey and Goliath? I'm not going anywhere with this. I was just asking if you remembered. Because if you do, you remember that catchy Schoolhouse Rock tune "I'm Just a Bill." I don't remember too much else about Schoolhouse Rock - just that I liked it, and it was way better than that boring "In the News" segment they played between CBS cartoons.
Well it all came back to me a few days ago because I now have the DVD . And nearly 30 years later, it STILL rocks. If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, you MUST get this DVD. Watching it with Fury made me want to pee, because back then, they always stuck the videos between cartoons, thus preventing me from taking my pee breaks. But more amazing than that (way to set that amazement bar, BD) is the fact that despite its hand-drawn, old school cartoon style, Fury also loved it.
This special edition DVD compiles a bunch of election and history-themed songs, fitting for this election season. After watching "No More Kings," "Shot Heard 'Round the World," and "Three-Ring Government" I reaffirmed my belief that old school is simply better.
And you can really learn stuff too! Here's Fury's video review:
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Reader Comments (36)
Drat, no bobbleheads for me. I just bought a schoolhouse rock DVD too. Just a Bill was always my favorite.
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[BusyDad] Sorry Weaselmomma - but I'm sure I will have other extremely random prizes to give out in the future.
May I demonstrate envy, as a genuine 100% Star Wars geek - raising another?
However I fear my location may have eliminated from the T & C's of your very generous contest.
May the force be with you.
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[BusyDad] It's the dark side keeping us down, man.
1. If it's possible for Sensa to make peanutbutter chocolate cake taste any better, I think I'd buy it just to eat more of the cake, which means I would... I'm confused, what was I supposed to be doing?
2. Holy ink, busydad!
3. Old school TOTALLY rocks. I still get a kick out of the old Sesame street videos on youtube. Especially "A loaf of bread, a carton of milk, and a sticka buttah". LOL!
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[BusyDad] I really don't get how making something taste better will make you eat less of it, but we'll see, right? The old politically incorrect Sesame St. rocked.
Dude! No mention of Conjunction Junction?!
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[BusyDad] Classic. My bad!
Dang. missed the entry for the Star Wars toys. My oldest would have loved them. He has a toy room... sorry... collectibles room, where his opened and unopened collections are, among them, his prized Star Wars toys. It is most likely a room that will remain locked when he and his wife have children one day. It's also where his comics collection resides.
Love the ink, yes, very addictive.
Ah, School House Rock... I remember it well. I must get it for my younger kids.
sit vis vobiscum
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[BusyDad] Fury is still at the stage where opening everything and coloring them with markers to "customize" them seems more fun than keeping them eBay-able.
Dude. You are a brave man, posting your wife's weight for the internet to see. Either that, she loves you mucho. I'd kill my husband, weight loss efforts or not.
Heh.
And we're raising Star Wars geeks ourselves. Actually, the hubs is. I just feed them and try and bring them over to the dark side by forcing them to watch episodes of 90210 with me to counter-effect the Jedi.
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[BusyDad] Trust me, I got permission in triplicate.
i wanna borrow it! I thought I was the only one who remembered barbapapa btw. I saw them in a window shop the other day and was so psyched but no one with me knew who they were :( School house rock would be cool to see again, way to go fury for learning so much! He knows more about law than the average adult now...
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[d Bro] Sadly, he does.
About the tats - they're temporary, right? I'd sure hate to mark up my kids permanently and then find a better cell service provider (snort!)
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[BusyDad] Or you could cover them up with a nice skull tat?
I'm interested to see how Wife likes Sensa. They e-mailed me too, but I told them no thanks :-)
That Fury is so stinkin' cute!! He cracks me up.
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[BusyDad] So far so good! Nothing dramatic, but nothing negative either.
I lost 1 more pound this morning! :)
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[d Hubby] hear that, sensa? not bad.
Momo Fali totally stole my comment. So now at least there are TWO of us in the blogging world who will have that song running through their head all.day.long.
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[BusyDad] 3
Sensa helped me lose 20 lbs a couple months ago!**
Also, even though Schoolhouse Rock was cool, it didn't hold a candle to Thundar the Barbarian, man. I watched it again for the first time in about thirty years. What...was....I....THINKING?
**also caused runny nose, diarreah, bleeding ulcer, difficulty breathing, loss of sexual function, dizziness and enlarged extremities.
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[BusyDad] Haha the Boomerang channel does that same thing to me. And what about oily discharge?
Are those temporary tats? What if my phone number changes? Or if I disown my kid? I wouldn't want somebody sending him back to me.
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[BusyDad] I think the next phase of their business plan is to open a chain of kiddie tattoo removal clinics.
Nice tattoos! You make me want to show mine off!
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[BusyDad] Thanks! And do it. Nothing like positively IDing yourself on the internet, right?
(speaking of yours, that is)
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[BusyDad] haha I hoped so!
You are so much older than me so School House Rock was sooo not cool by the time I was born.. ba hahaha..
I kid, I kid..
But I will kick you for getting the song.. I'm Just a Bill, sitting here on Capitol Hill stuck in my head..
and congrats to dWife.. that is pretty flipping awesome..
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[BusyDad] Yup Schoolhouse Rock was only cool for 2 weeks ;)
I dont usually come here to get smart, but that kid knows more than I did when I got here.
And dayum, I cant believe she let you post the weight. That would be MY deal breaker.
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[BusyDad] Hey, those were the conditions. I'm a hard bargainer. I'm only nice on my blog. ;)
Woo hoo! Happy to help you purge crap! Thank Fury for the review; my boys will love SHR!
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[BusyDad] Believe me, it's his pleasure. He's like, so I just sit here, watch it and tell everyone I liked it and I get free DVDs? Hells yeah! That kid catches on.
My wife slaps one of those tats every time we go to Best Buy.
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[BusyDad] That's like me at Bev Mo
BARBAPAPA!! I had TOTALLY forgotten ALL about that!!! Oh my gosh I am SO headed down memory lane today.
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[BusyDad] Remember the theme song? This is the story of Barbapapa (doo doo dodooo) and all of the other Barbapapas (doo doo dodooo)...
One of the many reasons I married the woman who is my wife was because she had a complete set of School House Rock videos, and could sing "Lolly lolly lolly get your adverbs here!" right along with me. We have the DVD now and drag it out every time one of our teenage daughters gets confused about parts of speech or important historical facts.
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[BusyDad] Loved that song! Probably the catchiest one yet. And sadly, you do retain more of this than you do school.
I'm so white trash. I just write on my kid with a Sharpie every time we go someplace crowded like the fair or the zoo.
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[BusyDad] Shhh... I did that this past weekend.
I remember school house rock, especially the bill one, lol.
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[BusyDad] It's amazing how many I had forgotten about.
I totally need to get a copy of that School House Rock DVD. Thanks to SHR I learned the entire preamble to the Constitution in High School (and was forced to perform it in front of an audience of 20
adoringclassmates)."We the peoplllleee, in order to form a more perfect uuuunion, establish justice ensure domestic tranquilitttttttyyyyyyyyy..."
I won't sing the whole thing here, but I'll be happy to do the whole thing at karoke night sometime in the near future. ;)
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[BusyDad] I have to hold you to it because that is a rockin SHR tune!
SEND ME SOME SENSA! I'm gonna try that stuff.. it looks so interesting. Thanks for the code bro. Go d Wife! You can do it! As for SHR.. I couldn't get the youtube vid to play straight through... I think my pc is old! Glad to see you posting video though! BYE gotta go eat. Wish I had some crystals.
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[BusyDad] Um, you like run tens of miles per day. I think you're ok in that burning calories department...
BUSY! Great blog update! I need that DVD... Any chance you have come aross those two hippy girls? What was their show? Secret Garden? Magic Garden? You know - they had the "giggle patch" and sang the song that went "See ya see ya! Hope you had a real good time - so long!" Remember?
xoxo weather kim
ps - just got back from your HOME TOWN! and kicked some butt on the Chuck! More in my blog
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[BusyDad] You got me there. I have no clue! But Head of the Charles!!! Man I miss those days. I hardly remember any of the Head of the Charles events (for good reason), but I remember they were a blast.
If you used those safetytats, you'd never be able to change your cell # again.
Had a convo with Kat 'bout your tats on our way home from Blissdom yesterday. (Just that you had them - but you apparently are on the minds of Mommy bloggers everywhere - heh!)
Loved Schoolhouse Rock. They should make a comeback - I can imagine lots of interesting tunes about the economy taking a dump. Ha!
Fury is so stinking cute. The end of the clip was so worth it!
I LOVE the SafetyTat's! I've never seen those before.
Can't wait to hear if the Sensa works. Magic sprinkles that will get me to turn down Dunkin donuts is worth it's weight in gold.
Hey BD, I was singing Conjunction junction as soon as I saw the DVD... to be honest, I probably knew more about US government than Canadian at that age from all the Sat. morning cartoons.
Cool tats; awesome idea, except my kid wants her off usually as soon as I get them on. She's a diva that way.
I like Deb's idea of the Sharpie, though. Sometimes Oldschool does rock ;)
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[BusyDad] Sharpies are just all around the most useful thing around, besides duct tape. That didn't sound right in a parenting context...
Oooo, I am all over tatting my kids. Maybe I can create a tat that asks people to take them off my hands... wait did I say that out loud? Inside voice!! Inside voice!!
BTW: Is Fury enjoying the Clone Wars on Cartoon Network? We are all addicted in my house :)
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[BusyDad] Don't worry, I'm drinking right now too... and YES - we LOVE CLONE WARS
Why don't they have Sat morning cartoons anymore? Okay, well with real animation...
Good times... good times...
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[BusyDad] Good times indeed. When waiting all week made it all the sweeter.
Woot! NOw I don't have to buy Bran a birthday present! Thanks!
Oh, wait, I still have to buy him a bike. Damn.
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[BusyDad] It sucks when they begin to understand the value of stuff. Back in the day getting 18 bobbleheads would be way better than 1 bike. Cuz it's 18 of em!
On a recent family trip from Toronto, ON to Myrtle Beach, SC I picked up the 30th Anniversary edition of School House Rock. It includes every SHR song ever created (46 in all) and includes a second disc of special features. My kids are 11 and 9 and watched it during our entire 16-hour drive home. They couldn't believe that at 40 I still remember the words. Like one of your other readers, I know more about your government than my own.
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[BusyDad] I wish they put my college classes to music...
I want some Safety Tats, too!
I'm going to go out (okay, Amazon) and buy that Schoolhouse rock DVD.
I bought the Tribute to SchoolHouse Rock album some odd years ago.. the one with cool (at least back then) bands covering some of the popular songs and I recently pulled it out for my kids. They LOVE it.
Who doesn't love' Conjunction Junction' and' I'm just a Bill'??!! I'm going to play some right now.. :)
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[BusyDad] Conjunction Junction what's your function... oh crap, here we go. All night long I'm gonna song this. I remember that schoolhouse rock tribute! I should totally buy that for Fury.
Our kids loved that DVD, too (actually it may have been a more general School House Rock that included Grammar Rock but anyway...). Loved "Just a Bill" and "Tyrannosaurus Debt" too. We still sing Conjunction Junction and Lolly, Lolly, Lolly"
Hey, I think Fury may very well know more than Palin now!