Blog O’ Obscurity

This fall, more than 600 communities will each hold their own Alzheimer’s Memory Walk to help raise awareness about the disease and funding for research into this dreaded problem. Please consider finding out about this important event and, if you can, becoming a Captain and helping others get involved. Almost anyone of any physical ability can participate in this 2-3 mile walk which will help raise money to find better treatments than are currently available to the 5.2 million people in this country currently dying of this disease.

It’s likely that many of you know someone who has this disease and feel powerless to help. Now is your chance to take a stand against this illness and help your loved ones. Even if you don’t personally know someone with Alzheimer’s, you probably know what this disease does. Think of this walk as your insurance for the future so that if you become ill with Alzheimer’s, you have a better quality of life than those who struggle with it today.

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I just got back from a thrilling trip to the windy city. I didn’t see Oprah, but I did get to see signs pointing toward Harpo Studios and that’s almost as good. We went to Blue Man Group, took a boat tour up (down?) the Chicago river and used every mode of transportation available to the city. I even got to have the light scent of urine attach itself to my skirt after riding in a taxi (my first time).

Truthfully, the city was magnificent and no one threw any punches on the bus so it was quite fun. I wouldn’t want to live there but it was alot of fun to visit.

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Every time I’m at a conference, or volunteer, or start a new job, or even go to some safety training, I seem to come home with some sort of trinket or swag with the company logo on it. They range in usefulness from fun or clever to useful and indispensable. If you want to be remembered or have your company remembered, it never hurts to give out merchandise with your logo or slogan on it. These promotional products will be well remembered years later, and often even used to give your company a call back.

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It seems like it nowadays. Everywhere you look there is someone on a motor scooter trying to save money on gas. With a commute of less than three miles, I decided to join in on the new trend. Easier said than done.

Took me almost a month to find one.

I was somewhat surprised that my small town didn’t have any scooters at the dealership, but I soon moved on to look in neighboring small towns, then in Vegas, and finally in Phoenix.

One dealership had a half dozen of the small scooters that I was looking for. Lucky me. I ended up with an Adly Jet 50. I’ll let you know more about it after a few weeks of taking it to work and around town.

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If you’re looking to start a new business, but you want to reduce the risk that this venture causes, a franchise may be for you. If you’re looking for a franchise opportunity, then this is the site for you. It lists out many different franchise options for almost every type of business imaginable. Using the blueprints for business that others have already shown to be successful is a great way to reduce risk and give yourself the best possible chance for success.

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Now that I’ve moved to a region that has the G4 network on basic cable, I can’t get enough of Ninja Warrior, a Japanese game show where contestants move through an extremely difficult obstacle course. Over the past ten years, there have been 20 competitions of Ninja Warrior. Each competition features 100 athletes. That makes an even 2000 competitors. Now here’s the thing. Only two people have ever completed the obstacle course.

It changes every year and usually becomes more difficult. The insanity of many of the obstacles is just incredible. That’s one difference between cultures. This show would never have started in America. We have to have a winner at the end of the competition. It wouldn’t be good enough to have everybody lose. The popularity of the show is growing dramatically in this country, so maybe we will have an American version of this show soon. That would be really cool.

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A lot of prescriptions are available online nowadays, but you have to remember to be careful where you get these controlled substances. Phentermine is a controlled substance and a form of amphetamine so you’ll need a doctor’s prescription before you try to order any of this stuff. The site lists all of the possible side effects and other prescriptions that might interact negatively with the Phentermine.

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No, not the old Bobby Brown group.

Dungeons and Dragons has a new ruleset out. It means a lot of money for the new books and a lot of time spent learning the ins and outs of all the new rules, but things look pretty interesting.

Gnomes and half-orcs are out as player characters but still in the game as monsters. New elves, dragon people, and evil tieflings are in as player characters with all sorts of new and weird abilities.

The entire magic system has been revamped along with just about every other rule. Every character also gets abilities that are at least like magic depending on their class. Can’t wait to give it a try.

They released some videos with interviews of monsters and characters. They’re pretty funny, even for non-D&D fans. My favorites are the mind flayer and the gnome.

Beholder

Teifling and Gnome

Mind Flayer

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There are no other kind of toys like birthday toys. It seems that the best toys that I ever had growing up were always the ones that I got on my birthday. I can remember what I got at many of my birthdays, but not so much the toys I got for Christmas. With my own kids’ birthdays coming up, I need to find the memorable toys that they will remember after they’re all grown up. The internet comes to my rescue again.

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Evidently, during the writer’s strike of 07-08, Joss Whedon (of Buffy and Serenity fame) started writing a musical for release on the internet. The result is Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.

Okay.

I’m not the biggest Joss Whedon fan and never really got into any of his projects, but Neil Patrick Harris is pretty funny on his new series on CBS, and he looks like he’s having fun here. Looks like it could be interesting if not downright scary.

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