Vibration Makes it Better

I recently spoke with a contemporary who works as a dental hygienist and she informed me of a couple of things. Firstly, hard tooth brushes are not helpful and secondly you only need a pea sized amount of toothpaste.

I had always been under the impression that unless you were actively scrubbing away layers of tooth, then you weren't doing yourself any good. I always bought hard bristled brushes and scrubbed away at my mouth. This friend made it very clear that the different bristles are all marketing. As far as she was concerned, the hard bristles made no sense and no one should ever buy them.

She also mentioned that the best combination is a soft bristle and an electronic toothbrush. After doing a little bit of searching around, it is clear that there is one electronic toothbrush that is superior to all others. The Oral B Triumph 9000. It doesn't come cheap, at around $180 (cheaper if you look around) and I'm sure there are aspects of it that you will never use. On the other hand, dental hygiene is not a place to cut corners. Kind of like underwear. Just ask my sister about her wool underwear.

It Keeps On Giving

Over the past few years, I've taken my body a bit more seriously than in the first 20 or so. I started to think that it's really important to stay fit and to have fitness goals. One of the things that started it off was when my sister (who despite her bad odour is not without good ideas), purchased me a one year subscription to Men's Health.

It is a really well written magazine and it really does give you incentive to go to the gym. I don't think the vast majority of people will ever look like their cover models, but they offer some really good insight into exercise, nutrition and health in general. One of the best features of the magazine, for me, is their summary of scientific findings that have been recently published in journals. The journal articles themselves would be painful to read so it's nice to have it summed up in 100 words.

If you do have a friend whose due for a present, consider getting them a subscription. Though it is called Men's Health, it is also well received by women. The best thing about it is that your friend will be reminded of your generosity almost every month (10 issues a year) upon receipt of a new issue. At about $37 CDN or $26 in the US, it's a good move.

Pray for the Health of your Garden

Costco is currently taking pre-orders for a praying mantis egg case. The praying mantis feeds on the other insects in your garden and is supposed to keep your backyard free of mosquitoes, spiders, moths and whatever else you may find in the dirt. If you've got an insect problem, this may be a viable option.

I'm not a huge fan of introduced species since one can never take into account all of the consequences. On the other hand, if you're going to spray chemicals in your backyard anyway, then I supposed a natural species is a better option. It is also the case that they cannot survive a typical Toronto winter, which inserts a natural control.

I can't say that I've ever employed this method of pest control. The biggest pests around our house growing up were my sisters and I have yet to meet a mantis large enough that it could have been effective. We have been seeing some ants around the house lately though, so I'm going to do my research to see if this is a viable option. If you're interested, the Costco case contains between 40 and 400 eggs and sells for $18.99 but Costco is supplied by Natural Insect Control which sells a case for $12.99.

My (hard drive) Space

We're using up more and more hard drive space to store the crap that we keep on our computers. With music, video, games and who knows what else, my hard drive space requirements have just ballooned. I remember when the first modern computer I got in 1997 had 8GB of hard drive space and I couldn't understand how we would ever fill it up.

With HD seemingly coming on with a vengeance, you're going to need even more space as you begin to store HD video. With that in mind, I think you should look into buying a second hard drive. If you have a desktop, they're really easy to install so don't be intimidated. If you have a laptop, then you may want to consider buying an external drive or looking into buying a regular drive and then purchasing an enclosure. The enclosure will convert the internal drive into an external one with relative ease, and cheaper than buying a dedicated external drive.

Cruising around the internet today, I came across a good price on a 320GB Seagate drive. Dell is selling the drive for $79. With free shipping, the total came in at just over $90 in Ontario. Now, let it be known that I own shares of Seagate - but the reason I bought shares in the company was because it was clear that they made the best hard drives. Still, I thought you should know.

I don't know how much legitimacy there is to the Teflon panic. I actually wrote a thesis on ski wax using Teflon as the generic formula for performance ski wax, and the whole reason that it's effective is that it's almost totally inert. It doesn't stick to anything. That being said, I don't know very much about the debate and I do have a frying pan that now has the Teflon coating peeling up that I have decided to replace.

The real issue for me is that Teflon coated cookware is essentially temporary. It's going to scrape, it's going to peel and you're going to have to replace it. If you buy a more expensive All-Clad stainless steel set, you should be able to hold on to it for life if you treat it well.

After you buy your expensive set, you're still going to need to compliment it with a non-stick pan for eggs and crepes. In my search I found that two brands were pretty good value. Cuisinart makes a Chef's Classic line that hard-anodized and is well respected and seems to perform well. I decided to go with the hard-anodized Emerilware. Though it pains me to have something endorsed by a man as corpulent and annoying as Emeril, his cookware is made by All-Clad and represents some really good value. The hard-anodized is not as non stick as the Teflon but it will last you a lot longer.

Oldie But A Goodie

About one year ago, I turned on my TV on a lazy Sunday morning and saw that The History Channel was playing the entire Band of Brothers mini series. One episode after the other and I decided to watch them all.

I'm now halfway through watching the series for the third time and I just want to sing my praises for Band of Brothers once more. If you haven't had a chance to watch the show, then I highly recommend buying the DVDs ($70 CDN) or at least renting them from Blockbuster. The story, the acting, the cinematography; it's all very good. It follows Easy Company, an elite group of paratroopers, from training to the end of the war.

The same team that created Band of Brothers is currently working on a new mini series chronicling the battles in the pacific. The projected release is in 2009, so you'll have some time to watch the original and decide whether or not you're a fan.

You Are What You Wear. Be Funny

I like T-Shirts a lot. They're comfortable and you can wear them with anything. Admittedly, they are a little casual for most situations but that should stop you from having a personal catalogue of "go to's."

The internet has caused a mass proliferation of T-shirts. Some of them funny, some of them offensive and most of them comfortable. This second go at the internet economy has been fuelled by two things: Advertising dollars and user submissions. YouTube, Facebook, Second Life are all examples of sites that are built by the people who view the pages, not the people behind the pages.

The people who started Threadless applied the same concept to T-Shirt design. The site is really an ongoing design competition and people are constantly submitting their ideas. If the design is selected by the Threadless staff, then it goes for sale on the web site. With so many user submissions, you're sure to get a couple of gems and the shirts available keep changing.

Right now I'm a rather big fan of this particular shirt. It's one of a few that made me laugh. The only issue with these tee's is that they're printed on 50/50 blend shirts. Threadless Select tee's are 100% cotton.

Alberta: So Hot Right Now

I lived in Calgary for almost five years when I was obtaining my Bachelors degree. The city has it's positives and negatives but overall I was extremely happy with my experience there. If you are an outdoors type of person, then Calgary can be a great place to live. It's got access to some of the greatest mountains in the world.

Though Alberta is known for it's support of the oil and gas industry in Canada, it has quite a bit else going for it as well. The Tyrrell Museum is home to some of the greatest dinosaur fossils in the world (that just happens to float my boat), the Calgary Stampede is one of the greatest exhibitions of drinking the world has to offer.

One of the better things that gets exported from Alberta is the beer from a brewery called Big Rock. It was started in 1984 by Calgarian Ed McNally and today brews eight beers. I am not a big fan of the Grasshopper but I really enjoy their Traditional Ale (know as "Trad" in Calgary). It is a dark ale that has a great taste and finish. Fortunately, The Beer Store has started carrying Big Rock so that I can enjoy Trad here in Toronto.

Pick up a case and tell me what you think.

The Best Medicine

Depending on how old you are, you may or may not remember the real Eddie Murphy. Not the imposter that has been walking around for the past ten years making Disney movies for his many children to enjoy. There was a time when he wore red leather outfits, said anything he wanted to. There was a time when he really made you laugh.

In 1983, Eddie Murphy, at the age of 22 waltzed on stage, full of bravado and he made me come quite close to pissing myself when I watched it later on tape. Rumour has it that Eddie did not want to re-release Delirious on DVD because he was ashamed of the things that he said and he didn't want his children exposed to it all. So for years you had to search the earth for VHS copies that were in good working order. It was always rented at your local Blockbuster and if you did rent it, you probably ended up just stealing it so that you could keep a copy. In any event, I don't know what crazy woman Eddie owes money too, but in February, Delirious was finally released on DVD.

Everytime I watch it I'm afraid that it won't be as funny as it is in my memory and everytime I'm wrong. It is comedy gold and you can't place a price on that guttural laugh that you get from watching Eddie in his absolute prime.

Ditch the Hammock

Remember when you were a kid and everyone wore bathing suits with the built in underwear? Remember how uncomfortable they were? Or how about before that when everyone wore speedos? Let's all be grateful that those days are over.

In the last five years we have seen the board shorts become dominant. And with good reason. They look pretty damn cool and they're so much more comfortable than the old school "trunks." They're also versatile. They are designed to wick the moisture away from your body so that you can jump out of the water and be comfortable drinking beer on the dock. Since they do wick the moisture so effectively they're also really great as gym shorts.

There are quite a few good board short designers out there. My favourite is Billabong and they've come up with some nice gear again this year. When you consider that you can wear them to the gym, they're not that expensive at about $65 CDN.

There are many stores online such as Altrec, Moosejaw and Killer Dana that sell the board shorts, but they're all based in the States so they'll charge you duty when it comes over the border. Be careful of companies that ship UPS (such as Moosejaw and Altrec) since they charge huge brokerage fees. Killer Dana ships USPS who are generally very good about charging low brokerage fees. Alternatively, get off your ass, turn off the computer and walk to West 49 or Sporting Life. If you're in Vancouver, you don't need me to tell you where to go since every other store sells board shorts.

Enjoy the dock.

Building a Home Gym

So now that you've got the Powerblocks in the corner of the room how much have you really used them? One of the problems with the home gym is the floor surface. You can't really push yourself if you won't lift heavy weights for fear of dropping them on the hardwood. The good news is that you can replicate the rubber floor of a gym at home without dropping a lot of cash.

You can go to a fitness equipment supplier to get yourself the mats, but you'll be paying more than you need to. The truth is that the rubber mats that are used in the gym are the same that are used for horse stalls to protect the hooves of our equine friends. And their feet are worth a lot more than mine. A company called Northwest Rubber is the foremost manufacturer of all of these rubber flooring systems.

Find a local horse feed and tack store and call them up to find out if they have the rubber stall matting. In my search, I found a supplier in Rockford, Ontario that sells the Red Barn mats made by Northwest Rubber. The 4' x 6' pieces are $49 CDN and the 5' x 7' are $79. One of the great things about these tiles is that you can afford to build your floor one large tile at a time. You can buy more pieces as you expand your home gym and put in more equipment or you can just use one piece for a small space in your apartment.

I Grew Up on NES

I try to post things that are a little bit unusual. Things that people either wouldn't think of buying themselves or at the very least a purchase that would require a fair bit of research in order to identify the best product. This post is a bit of an exception since everyone knows about this product and it differentiates itself quite clearly.

I played the Nintendo Wii on the weekend and it is, in my opinion, the best video game system ever made. It's social, it's fun and it's only a matter of time before I figure out how to use it as a drinking game. The game play is just so intuitive that it sucks you right in. To those of you out there who are reading this and have tried the Wii, you can vouch that it's more fun than you had ever expected. To those who have not yet played with it, find out who among your friends owns one and be really nice to them so they invite you over to play.

In Canada, Walmart has dropped the price to $249 CDN in their most recent flyer. Now all you need is to find a store that has a unit in stock. There is also a report that the supply shortage will be thing of the past come mid April. Here's hoping.