Winter survival kit

With winter weather not far off (look at what Colorado just got), it is always good to be prepared. Here is a link for LifeHacker.com that has some great advise on being prepared for winter. They recommend setting up a rotation of semi-perishable foods, having batteries handy for flashlights and radios, knowing where tools are for emergency repairs and having a way to communicate if phone lines are down. Read the complete details at LifeHacker.com.

Recipes for Coffee house favorites

If you are tired of paying high prices for coffees, lattes and other goodies at a local coffee house, here is a link for a free Coffee Recipe book from Coffeefair.com. This is a downloadable recipe book that tells you how to make all your favorie coffee drink. And it is FREE. Just think how much you could save making your own frappichinos and lattes instead of paying big bucks for them.

Sara Groves Video "It's Me"

Free song from Jars of Clay

To celebrate the start of Daylight Savings Time, Jars of Clay is offering a free download of their new song "Heaven". Just click on this link and enter your name, email and birthday to get your free song.

H1N1 Vaccine information for Northern Michigan

District Health Department #10 now has H1N1 vaccine available to the following target groups:
Pregnant women,
Caregivers of infants younger than 6 months,
people 6 months to 24 years,
Health care workers.

No clinics are set but if you fall into the above categories, you need to call your local health department for appointments. Here are the numbers:
Crawford County 989-348-7800
Kalkaska County 231-258-8669
Lake County 231-745-4663
Manistee County 231-723-3595
Mason County 231-845-7381
Mecosta County 231-592-0130
Missaukee County 231-839-7167
Newaygo County 231-689-7300
Oceana County 231-873-2193
Wexford County 23-775-9942

You can also visit DHD10.org for futher information.

There are also four H1N1 clinics coming up in Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet and Otsego county, tomorrow, October 30th. All of these clinics will be open from 8:30 to 5 with no appointments needed.

Antrim County: Health Department Office, 205 East Cayuga Street, Bellaire.
Charlevoix County - Public Library, 220 Clinton Street, Charlevoix
Emmet County: Health Department office, 3434 Harbor Petoskey Road, Harbor Springs
Otsego County: Health Department Office, 95 Livingston Blvd, Suite A, Gaylord.

Great recipes and the per serving price

If you are looking for great new recipes and want to watch your pennies, check out this blog called Budget Bytes. Not only does this blog provide some new recipes to try but also tells you how much you would spend per serving. This site can help you diversify your cooking and help you to save money too.

Shop Goodwill Online

I never knew this existed but you can shop for great used items from Goodwill online at ShopGoodwill.com. Just like your local Goodwill Store you never know what you might find for sale. This site is set up much like E-bay with auctions for the items that are available. But all the proceeds help Goodwill to help those in need.

Real Orange Votive Candles

Here is a link with step by step instruction to make this cool looking Orange votive candle holder with a real orange. And there is no waste as you scoop out the edible part of the orange and can eat it. Click here for instruction for this festive and natural decorative idea.

The don't make em like they used to...

Motion pictures have been around for more than 100 years and now you can enjoy some of the great movies for Free. Classic Cinema Online has 100's of classic movies to watch including comedies, sci-fi and even silent films. And they are all free to view. Click here to start watching the history of film at ClassicCinemaOnline.com.

Todays interview about Christianity in India

Today we talked with Denny Freeman of Gaylord along with Sam and Jothe, missionaries to the people of India. If you missed any part of the interview you can listen by clicking on this link:

Interview

Also, Jothe recorded a special Indian Praise hymn for us in the studio. You can hear that song by clicking the link below:

Jothe's Hymn

My son Josh's Creation

This is Josh's Lego Ipod player.

He drew out plans for the design and built it on his own. He worked to earn the money to buy an amplifier kit and speakers that he soldered together on his own with a little help from dad. (I mainly watched). And it works great. It is so cool to see your child make a plan, work through the problems and get to a solution. As you can see I am a proud dad.

Here are some more images of his handy work. I am very proud of this young inventor.

Free downloads from Michael W Smith and more

Click here to get your free downloads from Michael W Smith, Matt Maher and Phil Stacey.

What's dirtier than money?

According to consumer reports, paper money can retain germs and bateria for up to 3 days. That means that money can be a good transporter for Swine flu or any other communicable disease. But what is dirtier that money? Here is a list composed by a doctor for ConsumerReports.org:
1. Doctors’ neck ties.
2. The office candy bowl.
3. Library books.
4. Bathroom door handles.
5. Telephone receivers.
6. Grandchildren.
7. The movies, theater, or opera.

10 ways to trim sugar in your diet

It seems that sugar is in everything and many people are looking for ways to cutback. Here is a list of 11 suggestions from FitSugar.com to help you our in your quest to reduce sugar intake on a daily basis:

1. Cut back slowly. If you give up sugar cold turkey, you'll probably end up going into shock and consuming every kind of dessert you can get your hands on. So make the change to less sugar in your diet gradually.
2. Try to ween yourself off of the sugar you add to foods. Stir less sugar into your cup of joe and sprinkle less sugar on your cereal or oatmeal.
3. Choose your sugar vice for the day. If you can't live without sugar in your coffee, M&Ms after lunch, or an after dinner bowl of ice cream, then don't, but be sure to limit your sugar intake for the rest of your day. Keep in mind that one soft drink, a small candy bar, a few plain cookies, or a small portion of light ice cream or frozen yogurt is equal to 100 to 150 calories of added sugar.
4. Don't be fooled by natural sugars. Brown sugar, molasses, Sucanat, and turbinado sugar are still sugar.
5. Avoid liquid sugars. A 12-ounce can of coke contains 40 grams of sugar, and a 20-ounce bottle of Vitamin Water contains 32 grams. You'd be better off drinking plain water with lemon or lime, sparkling water, 100 percent fruit juice, milk, or tea instead.
6. Buy plain yogurt instead of flavored yogurt. Either sweeten it with fresh or frozen fruit, or mix half plain yogurt with half fruit yogurt.
7. Don't be fooled by healthier versions of treats. An oatmeal raisin cookie and strawberry ice cream are still made with sugar. So are many energy bars.
8. Get fruity.To satisfy your sweet tooth, choose naturally sweet foods like fruit, dried fruit such as dates or apricots, fruit smoothies, carrots, sweet potatoes, and homemade popsicles.
9. Check labels on fruit products. Fruit is naturally sweet enough, but some companies choose to make it sweeter by adding sugar. Choose jams and juices that are sweetened with nothing but fruit.
10. Check labels on other foods and look for hidden sugars. If a label says sucrose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, cane juice crystals, evaporated cane juice, dextrose, molasses, or malted barley extract, it contains sugar.

Host a Hersey Kisses Cookie Party

During the Christmas season, many people host cookie exchange parties. Hersheys is offering to provide the goods for your Cookie Exchange party. In fact, they are hoping to host up to 1000 parties across the country. You can apply online at Hershey.com . Make sure to read the fine print about hosting a party and the companies expectations before applying. This sound like a pretty cool way to get some freebies for your Christmas Cookie Exchange party.

Free Download from Wayburn Dean and more

I actually have two free downloads from Wayburn Dean today. One is a song off of his "Through The Rain" CD called "Crown Him". The other is a performance track of "Crown Him" that you can use to sing the song in church. Here is the link to the songs on PraiseHymn.com

I also found a Christian music site "Soul Audio" that has a number of free downloads of well know and up and coming Christian Artists. You can get to their audio download page at Soul-Audio.com

The return of the Polaroid Instant Camera

Long before the advent of digital cameras, Polaroid introduced the Instant Camera that really changed photography for the masses. No longer did you have to take your film to be processed to see how it turned out. The Polaroid was instant (well as instant as you could expect for the times.) But over time and with the introduction of digital cameras, the Polaroid faded into history much like the telegraph and eight track tape player (if you don't know what an eight track is, ask your parents.) But now a group of Polaroid enthusiasts have convinced the company to bring back this bit of photographic history. Here is a link to a Polaroid group about the return. It sounds like there will be some camera brought back into production and they will offer film for those who have a Polaroid camera collection dust in the closet.

Newboys Converse shoes

When I was a kid, i always wanted a pair of Converse canvas high tops (it was the 80's. What else can I say!). I never had any but now this might be a reason to think about it. As seen above, the Newboys now have a Chuck Taylor Allstar shoe with their logo on it. I am not one to flaunt commercialism but i like these. Could be a great converstation starter. Anyway, if you like to get them, they are only available online at AmericanAthletics.com.

New "Free" virus protection for your computer

Microsoft has now jumped into the Free virus protection software market. Security Essentials is a FREE program that replaced Microsoft's fee based "Live OneCare" security suite. According to Consumer Reports (read their report here) the software is easy to download and has a very user friendly interface. Now, if you already have anti-virus software this is not needed. But if you are paying for that service, Security Essentials could be for you. Get more information and download Security Essentials here.

Homemade Hand Sanitizer

With the threat of Swine flu and other germs and infections right now, Hand Sanitizers are very sought after and to be honest a bit costly. Here is a recipe from fitsugar.com to make your own hand sanitizer:

6 parts - rubbing alcohol

4 parts - Aloe vera gel

optional: 5 drops of tea tree oil ( a natural antiseptic)
optional: lavender oil to add a plesant scent

Put it into a bottle and you are ready to fit germs without the high costs of store bought Hand santizers.

How to find your cellphone

Ever lose your cell phone before? No land line in site to call it but you have internet? You can use this new service called Where's My Cellphone.com to call your phone. pretty simple ideas. Type in your phone number, the phone rings. One question, where are you going to be that you have internet access and no phone? Anyway a really cool idea. This service wouldn't have worked the only time I lost my cellphone though. It was on vibrate. Never found it.

Save printer ink with ecofont

Do you ever get tired of getting new printer ink cartridges? This could be your solution. Ecofont is a new free font that you can download to save money on printing. How does it save you may ask? Ecofont is a basic sans serif font that has holes poked through each letter. It is very readable and allows you to use less ink. Find out more and download for free at ecofont.com.

Artprize in Grand Rapids

"Open Water, No. 24" by Ran Ortner is the winner of the $250,000 first annual ArtPrize contest in Grand Rapids. This stunning painting is one of thousands of pieces of artwork that were displayed through out Grand Rapids and voted on by the public. You can view much of the art at this link to Artprize.org. (I have not seen all the art on this site so caution should be taken as there could be images that are not appropriate for children). Eric Daigh of Traverse City took third place with is images titled "Portraits", made of push pens.

Free photo book from Hotprints.com

If you are a user of Facebook and don't mind a few ads, Hotprints.com is offering you a 16 page photobook for free. Each photo book will include ads that are removable to help pay for the costs. Here is how it works: go to Hotprints.com and click on their link for Facebook. Once you log in and agree to use the application, you can have them print a photobook for free of charge. They even ship it to you for free. Find out more and sign up at Hotprints.com.

Facebook Happiness Index

Every day millions of people are posting their thoughts and feelings on Facebook. And now Facebook has come up with a a way to determine the Happiness of the country based on those posts. The United States Gross National Happiness index is determined by an analysis of words used in posts. You can zoom in and look at specific times of year to see the difference in Happines. It must work because it shows huge spikes on major holidays.

New KJ-52 video "He Did That"

Three Free Songs from iTickets.com

The folks at iTicket.com have three free downloads for you today:

Relient K - The Lining Is Silver

Paul Wright - Take This Life

COS - Your Will

Some of these are a little older songs but if you don't already have them, they are new to you. Downloads require a free membership to iTickets.com.

Enjoy.

Three Free songs

Here is your opportunity to get three free songs today in celebration of teh Third Day Revelation tour. Here are the song you can get for free:
Third Day - Run To You Live
Glory Revealed - How Great
Chynna & Vaughan - One Reason

These songs are yours for free by providing your name, email and birthday. Get your free downloads by clicking here.

Sandwich Cost Calculator

You have probably seen "cost of living" calculators or salary calculators online. Well here is a first. The Sandwich Cost Calculator will help you economize how much you are spending on making sandwiches. Just select what you are putting in and the Sandwich Cost Calcuator will tell you how much your sandwich costs. Click here to try the Sandwich Cost Calculator today.

Online Weight Management sites

One of the biggest things that hurt those who try to manage their weight is keeping track of what they eat. Here is a great link for 5 web based programs, that are all free of charge, to help you track what you eat, figure calories and encourage you as you try to maintain your current weight or lose weight. Most of them are about overall health and include exercise and other good lifestyle help. And there is at least one that is an app for an I-phone. Find out more in this article from LifeHacker.com.

50 unique and unusual uses for tennis balls

Tennis balls can be used in so many great ways (including Christmas Decorations) but I was suprised to find an article that give you 50 uses for tennis balls. From adding them to the legs of a walker to removing scuffs from the floor, tennis balls have many great (and goofy) uses. Read the article here to find some creative uses of Tennis Balls.

Free coupons online

These days we are all looking for ways to save money. How about getting coupons without having to by the sunday newspaper. Coupons.com offers coupons for food, entertainment and more. Just this week there are more than 160 coupons available to help you save money. And they have a weekly email reminder to help you save too. Start saving now with Coupons.com.

Volunteer next year and get a free day at Disney

Starting in January 2010, you can volunteer for a day and get a one day pass to a Disney park. Here is a link for more details. Having been to Disney World a few years ago, this is a neat opportunity to get into one of the Disney parks for free. The program starts in January and you can go to the Disney website to sign up for a reminder and get the details of this program. Disney hopes to have 1 million people volunteer through the program in 2010.

make your own Beatbox

To be honest, I am not much of a musician. So when I found this site it got excited that I could make music. Incredibox is a fun, easy to use site that allows you to mix your own beatbox sound. You can tell a lot of work went into make this site simple for even the least musically talented person to have fun making music. Check it out at Incredibox.fr.

Help those effected by Tsunami in Samoa

The 5 brother group, The Katinas, are originally from Samoa and are now using their mission project to help those effected by the recent Tsunami. If you would like to help the Katinas help those in need in Samoa, you can make a gift on their KatinaMission.com website. This is not an upstart mission for the Katinas as they have been trying to give back to their home island for many years. Find out how you can help.

?? Gas Powered Blender??

When I first saw this I thought it was a joke, but a company is actually selling this gas powered blender. It is designed for the car and motorcycle enthusiast and is recommended for making your smoothies at tailgate parties. I know, words can just not describe this contraption. Here is a link to a cookware site where they are sell the "Gas Powered Blender".