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Ultimate Sauna Suit
I’m not a sweater. Of course, by that I mean I don’t sweat easily (also, I’m not a warm, woolen garment). But recently I tried out the Ultimate Sauna Suit (by Realsauna at Karate Depot) and it put me through my paces.
The Sauna Suit is an interesting development in workout technology. You’ve probably heard of this sort of training aid before, but what you usually see is a shiny spaceman outfit – 
http://www.karatedepot.com/ae-ss-12.html
The point of this getup is to capture all of the bodies evaporating water and enhance the dehydration process; the result being a quick loss in water weight. Furthermore, the suit locks in body heat, helping keep muscles warm for extended workouts or flexibility training.
I was skeptical of the Ultimate Sauna Suit at first because, like I said, it takes a real harsh workout to get me gushing. I doubted that an article of clothing could make it happen without doing a ton of exercise. Also, the suit looked like casual Adidas warmups, nothing particularly space-age – 
http://www.karatedepot.com/ae-ss-16.html
What I didn’t notice (until I put it on) was the strange inner lining. It’s like a soft plastic that reminded me of the material used for rain slicks, but less stiff. 
The lining took some getting used to at first because it felt unusual against my skin, and crinkled a little when I walked. But after about 5-10 minutes, I was completely adjusted.
I decided to begin my test workout with a little walk. I didn’t expect much, but figured it would help me warm up for more serious exercise afterward. To my surprise, by then end of about a mile, my legs and arms were quite slick.
After the walk I trained on the Johhny Sockitomee bag. I even put my hood up for awhile because a lot of heat escapes through the head. In minutes, maybe 10-15, I was a sweat machine. I won’t go into detailed elaboration, but believe me when I say I hadn’t sweat that much since my last karate test. My original intention was to do some weight lifting after training on the bag, but I decided to call it quits. I realized a little discretion and responsibility is needed when losing that much hydration that quickly.
The brass tax of the Sauna Suit is this – you wouldn’t wear it all the time for comfort, but it has a very nice design and delivers in functionality. Therefore –
Ikigai108 gives the Ultimate Sauna Suit…
SuTree.com
By now there’s a good chance the more web-savvy of you will have heard of "Web 2.0". It’s a bit of a buzzword really, but one of the main things that defines Web 2.0 is the fact that it’s the users who make the sites what they are, not the authors. Think of sites like youtube, flickr or wikipedia and you’ll start to see what I mean. These days content is king, and people are keen to learn and absorb information.
It’s with this in mind that Joseph Maaravi founded sutree.com, an online video sharing and learning resource. The principle of sutree is simple; if you want to learn, chances are there’s a video to teach you what you want to know. Or maybe you fancy yourself as something of an expert on a subject and want to share your knowledge? Both are welcome and encouraged. Think of it as a knowledge community, similar to instructables.com but with video rather than photographs.
Video tutorials are indexed and tagged and sorted into categories, so it’s simple to find what you’re looking for. A few clicks later and you can be watching your video either streamed directly from the site, or by linking to the original source – wherever on the web it might be. Videos are aggregated from many of the larger, more well-known sites as well as some smaller ones you might not be familiar with.
It’s an addictive site and one which it’s very easy to spend a lot of time on. You may go there looking for something in particular, but end up watching many more videos than you’d intended, and more often than not, on subjects you had no particular interest in before. I can testify to that first-hand, in the process of writing this review I’ve been sidetracked several times and ended up losing the odd half-hour here and there. I may have gone there looking for a bit of martial arts information, but ended up learning how to light a fire with a can of drink and a chocolate bar (seriously!).
With it being a community-based site, there are plenty of options for social interaction. Commenting and rating of existing content is simple, as is adding new content. In fact the more prolific contributers will find they can have videos automatically added via RSS feeds. There are widgets available for your own blogs and sites to find related videos for visitors, and there’s a unique option to ‘wrap’ links. In a festive example, supposing you know someone due to host a family dinner, but nervous at the prospect due to their abysmal skills in the kitchen. Just ‘wrap’ them up a bunch of links perhaps showing them how to cook the perfect turkey, how to do the same for the vegetables. Maybe they’ll be serving cocktails, let’s find an example of how to mix a Long Island Iced Tea. Heck, while we’re at it, why not show them how to make a table centerpiece while we’re at it. The wrapping option means you can send one neat bundle of links to videos with everything someone might need to know contained within.
With a little over 11,000 videos indexed at the time of writing, and with that number growing every day, there’s a good chance you’re going to find out what you want to know. Even if you don’t, a search soon shows you the members who have some expertise in that field, so a friendly message may have you pointed in the right direction. There are even online courses available to take. The only downside I found as a user was the redirection to external content providers sometimes felt a little disjointed. It’s a small quibble for something as valuable as sutree though, and as such comes highly recommended.
For its ease of use, wealth of collated knowledge and just being such a good idea, TSDAdam gives sutree.com a BBM Review rating of….
Baby Jamz Contest Winner Announcement
Before you hit play, please keep in mind a few things. First, it took Mr. BBM and I several hours to get this 10 second video done. Why? Vista sucks. That’s right. Here’s my review of Vista. Vista sucks. Because Vista sucks, I ripped half my hair out. I don’t usually look that horrible. The lighting is bad on purpose because the webcam adds 10 lbs and 4,000 wrinkles, and also pops blood vessels in the head from searching over and over again for "webcam video plays but no sound." That being said, I give you the winner of the Baby Jamz dance mat. . .
Thank you to all who entered the contest; and thanks to Child Play Communications for sponsoring the contest! Make sure you check back for future give-aways!
What to Expect: Guide to a Healthy Home
You know that book that was pretty much your Bible for the entire time you were pregnant, "What to Expect When You’re Expecting"? Well now there’s a much smaller guide from the "What to Expect" people that includes tips on how to have a healthy home. The best part? You can get yourself one for free (details below).
I first sat down to read it while I was eating my lunch. I wouldn’t recommend eating while reading, since there are frequent mentions of "snot," "feces," and other icky terms. The guide is divided into two sections: "Keeping Your House Healthy," and "Healthy Habits for Your Family."
My first impressions of the guide went something like this: "What? I’m supposed to actually wash my curtains every once in a while?" The guide offers great tips for those with allergies and asthma, on how to combat the dust mites and the irritation they can bring to everyday lives. For anyone with allergies, this guide is a must-have. Did you know that you can stick non-washable stuffed animals in a bag in the freezer overnight to kill dust mites and other allergens? I certainly didn’t. You can also do the same with other materials that can’t be easily washed.
The guide also discusses the playroom and how to make sure germs aren’t spread from toy to toy and child to child. Kitchen safety is also addressed, and I am happy to say that I would have scored an A+ on this section. My curtains may be dusty but my cutting board is clean y’all.
The "Healthy Habits for Your Family" section is your anti-flu and cold companion. You know how Barney, that loveable purple dinosaur, encourages children to sneeze into their elbows? Yeah, do that. It helps if there’s not a tissue around to do your business to eliminate germs on hands. There are also tips on how to get your kids to 1. use soap and 2. wash for a long enough period of time. Singing the ABC’s twice or even three times if you have a singer on fast forward is a great way to get those germs taken care of in the sink. There are also other great tips for avoiding the flu, and keeping germs from spreading throughout the entire family.
The most exciting part of the guide for me was the very useful information about the 3-second rule. You know, the one where you can drop a piece of food on the floor and still eat it if you can bend quickly enough? That one. Let me break it down for you. The 3-second rule (and even beyond 3 seconds is o.k. too) applies as long as whatever you’ve dropped is dry onto a dry surface, and as long as we’re talking about indoors. If the dropped item is wet or dropped outside, don’t go there. It’s that simple.
There are also plenty of handy tips for children in child care situations, and even includes help on how to choose a daycare that’s not flu-friendly. This guide was published by the "What to Expect Foundation." If you’d like to get your own copy, you can do so at the Clorox website.
For addressing just about every possible place that germs could thrive, and for being 100% free, BBM gives "What To Expect: Guide to a Healthy Home". . .
Stardust
New to DVD this holiday season is the release of Stardust, the adventure fantasy film from director Matthew Vaughn.
The basic plot of the film sees a young man making a promise to the girl he loves to return a falling star to prove his devotion. The only catch is that it’s landed on the other side of "the wall", a wall which legend has it borders our world from a magical one. The adventure begins, and it doesn’t mess about in doing so, you’re thrown in head-first and in doing so have no choice other than to be absorbed and utterly engrossed.
For many readers here, the cast will be a mix of the very famous (Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes), and a mix of unknowns. Our British readers will recognise a great many more of the faces from various TV series and comedies on our side of The Pond. This mix is one of the key draws to the film in my own opinion, some of the major characters are played by actors many people will be unfamiliar with, and this unfamiliarity coupled with some excellent performances mean that the viewer isn’t pre-loaded with what kind of character to expect from the actor. I doubt there’s anyone who would have expected Robert De Niro to play the character he does in this film!
It’s a beautiful film to look at, both worlds in it are wonderfully realised and totally believable. The visual effects are kept to a minimum where possible, but obviously with it being a fantasy film, expect some lavish creativity. In many ways this is a real throwback in terms of the ways this genre of film is made nowadays, those of you old enough to remember when such fantasy gems as The Princess Bride, Krull or Legend came out will be over the moon. Stardust is a proper family film, there’s plenty in there to keep all generations laughing, albeit not for the same reasons some of the time. For those with little ones worried about violence or gore of any kind, there’s really nothing to speak of. Perhaps just one scene where some witches ‘read’ the entrails of an animal, but even then we don’t witness the act and there’s no blood involved. The only time blood is spilled in the whole film, it happens to be royal blood, and fittingly enough is blue. Some scenes could still be deemed a little scary for the very young though.
Fans of the book by Neil Gaiman need not worry, this film really does the original story justice, and carry it off in a very polished manner. Claire Danes manages a very believable English accent throughout the two hours, Robert De Niro will have you laughing with his non-typecast role and Sir Ian McKellen has the perfect story-telling voice to play the narrator. Ricky Gervais pops his head up and despite basically just playing "Ricky Gervais" is a welcome addition. The perfect film for those cold, dark winter evenings, huddled up on the sofa, remembering how charming a well-made fantasy tale can be.
Tsdadam gives Stardust a BBM Review rating of….
Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, and a bit scary for the very young, but fantastic entertainment.
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