I was browsing through youtube’s top 10 most viewed videos of all time and was surprised at the rankings of some of the videos. Like the Pokemon video (#2) and the Hey video (#5) are just kids making stupid faces and dancing to songs…isn’t Youtube overrun with those types of videos? I didn’t really see anything that stood out about theirs that it would make the top 10! My favorites were:

this guitar rendition of canon in d. I love this song so it was really cool to watch it being played with an electric guitar

this real life simpsons intro. so cute!

and the “urban ninja” video. very impressive.

Photojojo just posted this great tutorial for photo ornaments. It’s very easy and I think it looks so cute!

The only modification I would probably make is to perhaps glue the same picture on both sides so the ornament does not show the white backing but I think it looks great either way!

Here’s some online digital photo printing deals:
whoblinked – Use coupon code “whobfriendsandfamily” for 4.5 cents each 4×6 photo (includes shipping!!)
snapfish – Use “SH25AFF11” for free shipping, “AFFOFF2506” for $5 off your order of $25 or more or “AFFOFFTEN06” for $2 off your order of $10 or more.
Shutterfly – Get 15 free prints for new customers
photoworks – Use “c622-38-5144-71” for 30 free 4×6 prints

Here’s a link to a very rare 40% off Borders coupon! It’s only good for one day only though and that’s tomorrow 12/12/06.

For people who live in the South Bay I’m really excited because they finally opened a Borders near my work in Manhattan Beach!!! Here is the address:

710 S. Sepulveda
El Segundo, CA 90245

It’s in the new shopping plaza they are building on Sepulveda.

A book suggestion:

I just recently got this book for boyrobot. We both love travelling and adventure. This book is published by those Lonely Planet folks and it basically lists places you can go and things you can do by month and week. It tells you when is the best time to do what and the skill level of the adventure. It has some really neat things in the book and has great ideas for your next travel adventure! It’s a great gift for anyone who loves travelling.

1. It’s possible to get a prime rib that’s cheap AND tasty. Go to Terrible’s Casino. Upstairs is a cafe that serves all different types of food. They have a hidden menu where you can order a T-Bone steak or a Prime Rib Dinner for only $7.99. Not only are the portions huge but the dinner comes with a side of green beans, your choice of baked potato or fries, a salad, AND a huge mug of draft beer. The food was surprisingly really GOOD. The steak and prime rib were cooked to order and they were really juicy and totally worth it! Hands down the best prime rib deal in vegas.

BTW, I found this great link with all of the dining specials in Las Vegas: Link

2. If you want to see poker superstars like Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harmon, Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey, or others….head to the Bellagio poker room. In the back is a glass room where they can be seen playing on any given night. Supposedly the blinds for that room are 3K-6K. While we were there, Jennifer Harmon came out and walked right by us! She is so tiny in real life. We also saw Doyle Brunson wearing his famous cowboy hat. While we waited for the other poker players to come out we watched the people in the regular room. Wow, everybody playing in there were also such high rollers. We guesstimated that some of them had at least 30K just sitting in bills right in front of them. Crazyyyy!

3. If you want to find cheap shoes, head to the Zappos.com outlet! You can see it on the 15 freeway heading back from Vegas to LA. It’s in the group of “Safari” furniture outlets on your right hand side right after you are about to leave the city of Las Vegas. All of the name brand shoes are $30 and the no-name shoes are $20. They have all of the major brands including Saucony, Asics, Converse, Puma, etc…basically the types of shoes they have on their website. Most of them are crazy colors though but they have plenty that are normal looking and a great deal! I especially like Zappos because they carry sizes 5 and up whereas most places start at size 6. I’m a size 5.5 so this was shoe heaven for me!

4. Always bet black. Boyrobot slammed on black 4 times in a row in roulette and won each time! Another important roulette lesson is don’t think that just because a number hasn’t shown up in the last hour that it is bound to show up. Some numbers must have an antimagnet going on with the ball. We kept betting on 18, boyrobot’s favorite number, and it just never hit!

5. Never listen to boyrobot’s surefire sports bets. He was sure UCLA’s basketball team was going to win against Texas A&M (#6). So I dropped $50 bucks on the game. The spread was 4 points. Well, boyrobot was right, UCLA did win…but only by 3 points!!! If you watched the game, you will know how frustrating the ending was to watch. Sigh :(

The most painful lesson would have to be:
5. I suck at poker cash games. I think when I play with an unknown crowd I lose confidence in my skills and I start to play differently. Perhaps it just takes practice. Oh well, lessons learned!

Seems like there is a new game like this coming out every week. I know a bunch of people are addicted to these types of games so here’s the latest one everyone is playing:

Puzzleland

There’s goals on each level and you click on things in a certain order to accomplish them. As of right now, noone has completed this puzzle yet, not sure how many levels there are! Good luck!

Tis the season of giving. This website is hilarious. It’s about the art that is known as “regifting“. It has regifting 101, regifting stories, and a pretty cool Regifting Robin game! If you’re asian, your parents are probably experts at regifting haha.

Here’s a funny regifting story:

Busted, so busted
By: Laurie D.
From: Portsmouth
Posted: 12/6/2006 452

My favorite aunt bought me a sweater that was awful. It had colorful appliqus all over it and looked like one of Bill Cosby’s rejects. I dutifully swooned over it and put it away and forgot about it. Years later I was looking for one last present and came upon the sweater and thought, “She’ll love this!” I wrapped it up. It wasn’t until my favorite aunt was unwrapping said sweater that it dawned on me. Yes, I had given the same aunt back the sweater she’d given me. I watched her face go from delight to bewilderment while my mind raced. I asked quickly, “Do you love it? Does it look familiar?” She looked up at me and nodded slowly. I blurted, “Years ago you had gotten me a sweater almost exactly like it. When I saw this in the store, I couldn’t believe it and I had to get it for you!” She broke out in a huge smile and told me how much she loved it. I’ve learned my lesson, and apparently she has too, because since that Christmas I’ve received nothing but gift cards from her.

Check out the site for more.

As I posted previously, I am going to Las Vegas this weekend. I can’t wait to try the Wynn buffet! I really hope I do well at poker and perhaps pay for my whole trip ha ha. Turns out another friend we play poker with will be there as well so it will be cool to meet up with him. I’ve been to Las Vegas more times than I can count. Is there anything new in Las Vegas to do that I might not have done yet? What are you favorite things to do in Las Vegas? Also, where are your favorite places to eat?

I’ll be staying at MGM Grand

Besides the Wynn buffet, I hope to try the famous Charlie Palmer Steak

And I’ll definitely be doing some outlet shopping

Wish me luck!!

Just read that they found James Kim’s body. :(

KTVU story (kind of slow)
CNN story
Remembering James Kim

FYI, James Kim is a CNET editor and appeared on TechTV. He and his family have been missing ever since they left Portland during their Thanksgiving trip. It appears they took a wrong turn and got stranded during the huge snowstorm that took place in the Northwest. The family was found recently but James Kim had left the family to go look for help.

Even if you don’t read CNET or have watched TechTV, this story could have happened to anyone. Please be careful while travelling in the winter time!

For anyone who is working and has the option to have a Flexible Spending Account, MyMoneyblog just made a post with a link to all of the eligible expenses: Link

Notable items are: Lodging of a companion (hmm can I write off boyrobot? ha), bandages, condoms, cold medicines, etc.

I had no idea you could pay all of those items with your FSA!

For people who don’t really know how the FSA works, here is a general definition:

Some employers offer flexible spending accounts, sometimes called cafeteria plans, as part of their employee benefits package. You contribute a percentage of your pretax salary, up to the limit your plan allows, which you can then use to pay for qualifying expenses, including medical costs that aren’t covered by your health insurance, child care, and care for your elderly or disabled dependents.

The amount you put into the plan is not reported to the IRS as income, which means your taxable income is less. However, you have to estimate the amount you’ll spend before the tax year begins. And if you don’t spend it all, you forfeit any amount that’s still in your account at the end of the year.

I love lists. And I really like ranked lists. When we went to Japan this past year we went to this store called the RanKing RanQueen. They only sell top ranked items which included the best snacks, drinks, and even makeup! That store was awesome! I wish they had a store like that in the US.

Anyways, I just discovered Amazon’s UnSpun website. You put in what you want to find the best/worst of and it spits out a list that the community has voted on.

Here’s some sample top #1s I found:
Top soda: coke
Top TV Show: LOST!
Top Sushi restaurant in LA: Sushi Roku
Top Website on the Internet: google.com
Top Movie: Shawshank Redemption
Biggest Slacker: George Bush (ha!)

It seems there is a list for everything!