FREE Holiday Gift: $10 Restaurant.com Certificates
Restaurant.com is offering up to 100 FREE $10 gift certificates per patron when you send via this link. You can send to friends via Facebook or email. This "Feed It Forward" deal makes a great gift for teachers, coworkers, or even family and friends if you're broke this holiday season.
Recipients will then be allowed to choose a restaurant themselves from a list of participating establishments within their area code. Patrons who send eCertificates will also receive a certificate via email.
Some tips:
Add email addresses one at a time only. Multiple addresses with commas will not be accepted.
Add only up to 100 people. Certificates will not be sent if you send to more than 100 and you will have to delete some people.
Five Below: Holiday Deals
Five Below has dozens of holiday sale items this week. Check local stores for availability. Some deals include:
- Smart Touch Gloves for $3 to $5
- Key Chain Games, such as Connect Four, for $3.99
- Holiday Wii and DS games for $5
- DJ style headphones for $5
Sesame Street: Activity Set for $18
Get a Sesame Street holiday activity set for just $18 with this online deal. You save 56% on these easy-to-clean wipe off activity books and may purchase up to five for holiday gifts.
Slightly Late Movie Reviews
Ok, so I feel a little guilty saying this, but I sorta enjoyed the movie. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have any nostalgia for the older comics or the tv series, in which case I can kind of understand people getting picky and not enjoying Seth Rogen as the new Hornet. Since there isn’t much to ruin for me, I pretty much accepted it at face value and rolled with the punches. I’m not saying it was a great movie or even a good movie, but I had a fun enough time with it.
Seth Rogen is one of those guys who I don’t go out of my way to see but he doesn’t completely bug me either. Considering his role was to be a spoiled rich boy who kind of wants to do something better with himself but doesn’t have any skills or idea of what to do, he sort of fit the bill perfectly. Jay Chou’s Kato was fun and it was great that they pretty much made him the center of all the actual heroics.
I totally appreciated the fact that they did not at all tried to sell us on the possibility of Cameron Diaz hooking up with either character. They teased it at the beginning and tossed it out the window pretty quick, so I thought it was great that they didn’t go with the cliché of the goofy hero winning her over.
I think what I loved the most was Christopher Waltz’s insecure crime lord villain who was worried about maintaining his image as a ruthless killer amidst all the new and hip criminals. There was just something about him feeling the need to update his image and that he was worried that he wasn’t scary enough and had to get affirmations from his goons. Then he tried too hard and just didn’t get the point when he just added Blood to his name.
I felt that the movie knew what it was and it knew it wasn’t a blockbuster and it couldn’t take itself seriously. At what point did anyone think the Green Hornet was going to make it big and be relevant again? It felt like Michel Gondry realized what he was working with and just rolled with it, and I can appreciate that and take it for all of its bromantical fun.
A good paintbrush is an investment
Ages ago someone gave me some really good advice: spend the most you can on the paintbrush that you use the most. It really is worth the extra money.
Please stop the whining
Children have many ways of dealing with conflict and it's out duty as parents to teach which of these ways are acceptable and which ones aren't. Little Johnny can punch his little brother for taking his train or he may stand up and tell a parent or teacher...and every action in between.
My own oldest son has recently latched on to the crying and whining crutch of conflict resolution. When something doesn't go his way, he immediately raises his voice and lets out a whine before falling to the floor in tears.
It can be as simple as drinking from his drink, stealing a French fry or reading his book. These aren't tantrums because he's not angry or falling to the floor kicking and screaming. He simply puts on his best high pitched, whiny voice and goes around telling everyone about it.
I do my best to resolve the situation, but also talk to him about how he should have resolved the conflict. Instead of tears and whining, he should not get so worked up and simply tell me about it. Slowly, but surely things are getting better. He's handling conflict better and either lets it roll off his shoulders or if it's something that really upsets him, he will come to me or his mom.
It's a huge step in the right direction and parents shouldn't be worried about telling their children about proper conflict resolution. I had to tell him several times before he began to actually listen, so don't give up.
Nuclear Weapons 10 - Selection of Japanese atomic bomb targets
After the Japanese rejected the U.S. demand for unconditional surrender in the spring on 1945, Harry Truman, the U.S. President authorized the use of atomic weapons in Japan. The Manhattan project had produced two nuclear weapons by that time, one based on uranium known as Little Boy and the other based on plutonium named Fat Man.
The goal for dropping an atomic bomb on a Japanese city was to force surrender according to the Potsdam Declaration. The psychological impact on the Japanese was especially important. In addition, the United States wanted other nations to recognize the importance of this new weapon when news of the devastation was made public.
The choice of targets had three constraints.
- The target had to be more than three miles in diameter and had to be an important target in a large urban area.
- The detonation of the bomb would result in significant damage to the target
- The target was unlikely to be attacked by August of 1945.
Four potential targets were initially selected that met the required criteria including Kokura, Hiroshima, Niigata and Kyoto. Kyoto was dropped from the list of targets because of it importance to Japanese religion. Nagasaki was added to the list as a potential target to replace Kyoto. Leaflets had previously been dropped on Japanese cities warning of possible bombing raids.
Hiroshima was ultimately selected as a target for Little Boy. It was an important army depot and port of embarkation in the middle of an urban industrial area. Adjacent hills were expected to create a focusing effect to increase the damage of the blast. Nearby rivers made it a poor target for firebombing. Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and exploded.
Kokura was the first selection from the primary list as the target for the Fat Man bomb. It was felt that the distance to Niigata was too great for a successful mission. Nagasaki had already been bombed a number of times and it was spread out over hills and valleys which could dissipate the force of a big blast. The bomber carrying the Fat Man bomb took off on August 9, 1945 with the intention of dropping the bomb on the city of Kokura. However, the day was cloudy and after three passes over the city without being able to sight the target, the mission to bomb Kokura was aborted. This was fortunate for a few thousand American and Dutch prisoners of war who were being held at Kokura.
Nagasaki was chosen as a target only after the attack on Kokura was aborted. The bomber, low on fuel, turned south and headed for Nagasaki. The weather was clear and the Fat Man bomb was dropped and exploded. With the explosion of these two nuclear bombs in Japanese cities, the United States became the first and, to date, only country on earth to use nuclear weapons against another country.
When your credit sucks
When you start out with bad credit and it takes you years to get out from under it, you end up with a stable living, little debt and an abysmal credit score. You may have finally taken care of the loans and the credit cards, but it will be years before your credit score will be anywhere near a decent number.
What this means for you is your options for things like credit cards, home and car loans and pretty much anything else are incredibly limited. Unless you've got one huge down payment, expect a lot of rejections and calls for a co-signer. If you want to buy a home and get out from under the thumb of a landlord, then you're going to need at least 20 percent down.
If you have any wage garnishments for student loans, then you're not going to be accepted for any government programs either. Most people can walk onto a lot and buy a car, but not you. After spending two to three hours with a dealer, you'll ultimately be denied and they ask for you to have your grandmother co-sign or even put the loan in her name.
If you don't want to reach that level of humiliation, then welcome to the world of buy here and pay here. The good news is they'll give you are car without checking your credit, but you'll need a hefty down payment and pay them every pay day personally.
The bad news is they won't tell the credit how good you are doing when it comes to paying for your car, so it doesn't influence your score.
Enemies are honest, friends can be worse foes...
Enemies suck, but at least your relationship with them is honest. You don't like each other. You don't wish each other well. Whether you're the type of enemies that loathe each others' existences and are constantly at each others' throats or you're totally content to stay as far from each other as possible, it is what it is. There's no trust there, so you don't have to worry about them betraying it. Enemies can't hurt you the way friends can.
The amazingly wonderful things that come with friendship, most importantly love and trust, are precisely the things that make the hurtful things hurt. You confide in your friends. You give them part of you and trust them to cherish it.
There are many ways they can betray that trust. They can expose your deepest secrets or lie to your face. They can do things they know will hurt you or compromise your relationship if you ever find out. There are many ways they can painfully twist your loyalty and devotion until it's mangled beyond repair. Those lines are clear. Friend turns foe.
But to me, the greatest pain they can cause it to hurt themselves and refuse to acknowledge that it affects you too. At least with the other jabs and stabs, it's direct. When someone you care deeply about tells you she is going to take care of herself and then doesn't, it hurts both of you. Not only is she breaking the promise she made, but she's hurting someone you love...and may even play the victim card to make you feel guilty about your anger or pain.
This raises the question: Is she friend or foe? You love and trust her, but she hurts someone you love and trust. How long can you take the cycle before the relationship is too far gone?