Red Meat Warning

The World Health Organization concluded that eating processed meats hot dogs, ham and bacon raises the risk of colon cancer. They said that red meats "probably" raises the risk as well. The International Agency of Research into Cancer, a section of the WHO, “classified the consumption of red meat as probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A),” and processed meat “as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1).” 


Some people are already taking this advise to heart despite the vague indications of the serious threat that red meat possesses. It's not any surprise that processed meat is definitely a carcinogen. We have all heard many warnings of the effects of any processed food. This seems to make sense that our bodies cannot process unnatural things.

But what about these red meats that eaten by our ancestors for ages?
Could they really a possible carcinogen?

According to the National Institute of Health, all research in the past tied red meat to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. But most of the studies that could not be taken too seriously because the studies were done over limited periods of time, had design flaws or weren't done with American diets. They talk about one study that seemed to provide more evidence but even this study, which was an observational study, had flaws in totally believing the association between red meats and health diseases.

I believe that everyone is different. Therefore, the way that they eat will effect them differently. Also what that person's environment, genetics and their lifestyle (active or not) plays a big role in their health.

This warning probably won’t change consumer behavior, according to an analysis of historical trends by the NPD Group. I really can't see too many people changing. There is still a big industry for tobacco and that has been an obvious carcinogen for a long time. I will agree though that it has went down in the last few decades and where people can smoke is totally different. I definitely don't see red meat being something rare we see on a menu though.  

2nd Best Christmas Gift 2015

According to TopTenReviews top ten Christmas gifts of 2015, the second best gift this year is the DreamWalker. The DreamWalker is comparable to Marty McFly's hover board on "Back to the Future." They describe it as a Segway without handlebars.http://best-christmas-gifts.toptenreviews.com/dreamwalker-review.html

You may wonder why I chose to review the second best gift and not the first best, that is because I think the DreamWalker is more interesting than the R2D2 look alike that is #1. It is a robot drone of some sort that I didn't even bother looking into since it only sold for $150 I can't image it could do too many commands or at least the commands I would want my robot to do: fold my laundry or make me a drink. Maybe I am selling it short by not looking into it but drones and droids scare me anyways ever since I watched the movie I, Robot with Will Smith where the robots siege war on the humans.

The DreamWalker may be exactly what Dean Kaman needed to make instead of the Segway which he believed would change the way that most people commuted. Even though I do not see the DreamWalker being comparable to a bike for commute, it might actually do netter than the Segway. I could see this being the thing to replace the skateboard.

It seems as though this thing takes some mastering. The operator must figure out first how to stabilize it when they mount it. Then, they must try to figure out how move forward, backward, stop and turn by adjusting their weight. We'll just say, this isn't a good gift for your grandma.

The reviews all say that it is best to be on even, smooth ground. I cannot image this thing would be good for off-reading. A rock in the road could send your weight backwards which would send the machine flying backwards as well.

It seems like a great $500 conversational piece or with some good marketing the next new X-Games sport for the 21st century.

I can definitely say I do not have any techie friends to get something like this for, but I'm sure some people would be geeked to see this under the Christmas tree.

Children's Shows

I get up around 8am and my boyfriends daughter asks if she can watch some Netflix.
I tell her that she can as long as she watch the "kids" version.
As I am walking around trying to get some breakfas
t going, she picks a show. I hear one of the characters say something to the effect of "omg that outfit is so ugly." When I look at the characters they are 10 year old divas wearing every accessory you can and leather jackets with beetles t-shirts underneath. I thought it was crazy when people of my generation wore beetles schwag. But that character and the TV was a few generations off from being able to be a beetles fan.
Anyways, as I watched for these 10 year olds looked like they put more time and money into their outfits than I did in a couple weeks. Of course I know that this is just a TV show, but do children really know the difference. Is this what kids think they should look and act like?

I asked Kenzie if she could find a different TV show and the same thing. The little girls talking about superficial things with outfits that looked like something some 30 year old would wear going out on the town. 

I can see that his daughter buys into these shows encouraging girls to worry about their clothing and image choices. This little girl shops with her grandmother more in a week than I do in a year. She always wants to go get new clothes.

I remember being similar to her when I was 12-15 but not when I was seven years old! 

It's scary how young kids are encouraged by what they see on TV to be so materialistic. Even if you do not allow your child to watch any of these shows, other kids in schools who are allowed to watch these shows will influence your child.

I know that my changing point as a kid worrying about materialistic things is when I had to become more independent. Soon these clothes and shoes that were free came at a price. I definitely learned to appreciate the sale racks after that and soon realized that my hobbies were more important to spend money on rather than materialistic things.

Maybe that's what it takes for kids to realize the actually cost of these things they "need."

Easy Money

Everyone these days are looking for "easy quick cash" deals. I've always been raised on the thought that there is no such thing as easy money. Some of these deals seem to good to be true though.

You could earn a pink cadillac from selling makeup, which you know they will buy anyways, to all of your girlfriends?

That sure seems easy.

Sell a milkshake that will make you lose 40lbs in 3 months to your coworkers who are complaining they need an easier way to lose weight?

I haven't ever tried to do these direct sales but I can say I have attended Scentsy parties and some sex toy parties that were only interesting because of the food and social aspect.

I personally do not know of anyone that has been successful doing these directs Ellington achemes. But you alway here of these people that have financed their homes by these jobs.

With the evolution of the more interactive Internet, these "easy quick cash" schemes seem to be plentiful. I do have to admit I get suckered into these when they claim you can earn easy cash answering online surveys.

There's always a catch though.

One site seemed promising because I read about it off a public group on Facebook. I have forgotten the name of the website but you could do online tasks and earn anywhere from $2 to $20. Of course, many of these online tasks were highly technical and companies just wanted an easy way to outsource small minantinous jobs.

I have gotten smarter and have learned to read the terms and conditions. For this particular site it said that they were not responsible for the payments from the job provider. Which meant that if you were not to be paid you would need to take it up with that company you did they job for, in which you are not an employee and I would think they legally did not need to pay you. Besides, good luck finding the company they worked for because every company created their own usernames and did not have reveal their company id. 

On Pinterest, I ran across an article on 30 ways to make extra money. It mentioned blogging for money, Being a virtual assistance (graphic design for bloggers, social media promoting for people and other jobs), starting your own laundry service, eBay selling, tutoring, and other random jobs.
Some of these things seemed like promising ideas but as I went on it was hard to get through the article without accidently clicking on a sponsored link.

I see now, this was just a sponsored blog someone was making money off of for making it viral on Pinterest. How did this person start? How much were they making now? Did they actually successfully make "easy quick cash?"

The end of television as we new it

The way that most people watch their favorite TV programs is much different than a decade ago. Thanks to Netflix, Hulu and easy access to pirating television shows, TV will be dead in no time, much like cassette tapes or VCRs. 

If you read articles online, there are many saying how economists predict the end of cable or dish television. Other articles say that television is just evolving:
"In essence, television is not dying so much as it is evolving into an all-encompassing video category, one that includes content streamed over the internet on computers and mobile devices, as well as shows accessed on-demand via set-top cable boxes and connected TVs" (Aaron Taube, Business Insider) 

So television is not really dying the modes of viewing television is dying. Dish and Direct TV are the ones that should be worried. Along with cable companies like Comcast and Charter.

Investors in these companies are going to see this and start selling their shares before they go all the way "down with the ship". This makes this a very slippery slope for these companies. 

In fact Cable TV recently topped The Wall Street Journal’s “10 things not to buy” list as far as stocks

Comcast is well aware of this and tried to merge with Time Warner, who will be likely to survive this technology "ice burg" with online streaming possibilities. 

See ya Satellite TV!

The new "GoPro"

Since GoPro has had such a huge success many companies have tried to make some sort of action camera to compete. Some of the GoPro "wannabes" are DBcam, ActionPro, HitPro, and Polaroid XS extreme. With the GoPro camera being the best action camera in the market. You can find thousands of reviews online from all kinds of extreme sportsmen and women that all rave about their GoPros. 

It seems to me that the only reason that anyone would choose an alternate to GoPro for action camera is that the alternate option is less expensive or you have stock in that company or you are brand loyal or you are a hipster and you buy Polaroid expecting to have an instant video you shake. 

So another company to move into the action camera industry is Garmin. Garmin is usually something that is thought of as a GPS navigation and fitness device. The creators at Garmin started out with a small lipstick shaped camera with a LCD screen on the top. There was problems with this so the Garmin Virb EX ended up looking similar to the GoPro's design. 

To compete with GoPro, any company needs to set itself apart and be something more. There is an image that people buy when they buy a GoPro. Since it is the original extreme sports camera, it is what the most "sick" "killer" extreme sportsmen use. If you use anything else you are viewed as less serious or cheap. This is also the case for the brand Garmin though. They are a trusted, well known brand in the technology field, so they may be able to compete.

The Garmin Virb EX is definitely not cheap being $400.00 its about the same price as a GoPro. There are many things that set it apart from the GoPro though. It can dive 50m underwater without the use of a cover. One of the coolest features is that you can track its last known GPS co-ordinates in an app! That means when you high-mark that mountain on your Ski-Doo summit and forget to keep the throttle pinned, you can find it. Yeah, I have tried this at a not so amazing speed and lost some important things during the flip. I am not really a snowmobiler. I just ride and try to keep up and attempt a cool thing now and then or when I've had a shot of liquid courage. ;)

You can also use a Bluetooth microphone with it. Maybe so that you can do an awesome voice over of the sick stuff you are doing. I would personally use it to do a video diary of my horse rides. It also uses Wi-Fi and can pair with tons of different accessories like a heart monitor, multi-sport watches, OBD tools that capture heart rate, speed, RPM and even throttle postion. This sets a whole different dynamic to your videos when you actually can see the speed or things like vertical drop.

I think it is awesome that Garmin is trying to step into this industry and diversify themselves from just being a GPS brand. 

Halloween

Halloween is another huge holiday where consumers spend way too much on prefabricated costumes. According to National Retail Federation, 2.8 billion was estimated to be spent in 2014 on costumes. So there is definitely a lot of consumer behavior marketers are analyzing. I could talk about the trends with Disney costumes for children, risk-ehh costumes for adults or the classic witch, zombie, vampire and cat costumes but that would be getting to deep into the Halloween spirit which for some reason I didn't have much of.

I did do the traditional pumpkin carving and corn maze Halloween things but this year, unlike most years, I didn't dress up. It could be that my life has been way too busy or simply that I didn't have extra money to put into it. Anyways, I did pretend to be something for Halloween though.

A huntress 

 



Yes, I will admit I said pretend.

As much as I hate to admit it, like any other women that try to live down the stereotypes that women don't hunt, I am not much of a hunter.

I have been out hunting quite a bit though. More for the thrill of the hike and the beauty in the places my boyfriend or male friend takes me. I haven't ever shot anything and I really don't want to until I feel like Annie Oakley with a gun.

I believe I faked my boyfriend out when we first started dating that I was really into hunting. I did own some camo, (I bought in high school because I thought it was cool and would go with my country girl look) but I was a poser for the most part

But I am definitely not the only one out there. Case and point: 

Cameo is more like a fashion statement now.

You can get it in the most ridiculous colors that would make you stand out more than blend in.

 

That is a rant that I will save for another day.

 

So I went out on Halloween dressed in my Camo and orange at 6a.m. and hiked through the dark following my boyfriend trying to hush my breath while hiking a 2000ft elevation gain.

 

The hiking was not the concern of this trip. Hiking in a bear infested and possibly mountain lion infested woods carrying a .44 revolver I hadn't shot before was my main concern.

I have shot other hand guns before but not this one. How was I suppose to wipe out a gun I wasn't that comfortable with at a seconds notice and shoot a charging wild animal?

 

I am from Michigan, we like tree stands or hunting blinds not hiking up sides of grizzly bear and cougar mountains. I was a bit out of my element. With all that aside, when day broke it was worth all the hiking and worry because of the beautiful scenery I was able to see.

 

I will go out and "pretend" to be hunter more this season and will possibly shoot my first and last deer just to see if hunting is really for me.

 

 

Cleaning Products

As I may or may not have mentioned in my previous posts, I have been cleaning houses around the Bozeman area for a little more than three years. Most of our clients are wealthy stay at home mothers that do not have time to keep up with cleaning apparently because they do too much yoga or Zen meditation.

Anyways, most of these peoples houses are filled with all organic products and foods (or at least they would like to think that because the label says it). They have that weird brown super thin toilet paper and paper towels made from recycled whatever. They also have the extra bin you get for recycling.

My cleaning company I used to clean for promoted "green cleaning." Our products were supposed to be green. One product I know was harmful that we used was Comet with extra bleach. I found on treehugger.com that Comet contains 146 different chemicals some of which are: formaldehyde, chloroform, benzene, and toluene. Some of the chemicals are thought to cause cancer, asthma and reproductive disorders. Even if we aren't sure what the contaminates can do, I don't think many of our "green" want us to use a cleaner that has the chemical to preserve dead animals in it.

The next cleaner that most are clients are attracted to us because we use it is Simply Green. These are the same people though that have "organic" everything all over all of their food and probably don't realize that just because they slapped a label on that claims to be organic, doesn't mean that the product is 100% organic, in fact according to the NSF only 95% has to be organic to be organic. And it says contains organic materials only 70% has to be organic.
Simply Green is not as "green" as their name would imply. It contains 2-butoxyethonal which is a irritant and may damage red blood cells. Some members of this chemical family are banned by the European Union.
With that said it does work very well at removing grease from a stove top. Not sure that any "green" product could do that.

There are so many cleaning products on the market that are very toxic. With that, there are many blogs out there talking about how terrible all these cleaners are for you. But how are you suppose to clean 10 year old soap scum off a shower wall or super cooked on grease off a stove without a toxic cleaner?