Exercise Some Cleanliness Please!

It is no shocker that the gym is not the cleanest place on earth and Men’s Health has driven that point home in their latest magazine issue. When describing the “Average Guy”, they state that

33% of men do not wipe down gym equipment after using it!

Along with many other disturbing facts, they have warned us that the gym equipment with the most germs are the dumbbells & stationary bike seats. So be sure to wipe those bad boys down before using them because there is a good chance whoever last used them didn’t.

If the exerciser who neglected to remove the sweat from the machine is attractive, perhaps try asking him/her to clean it. That sweaty, uncleanly individual just might be the future love of you life. Why? Check this out:

50% of men think the gym is a better place to pick up than a bar

I have provided a clip to help improve your gym “pick up” skills. I would like to stress that one of the tips is to wipe down equipment… and I strongly agree with that point.

I Don't See Your Name On It...

Source

It took me a very long time for me to like my name. Why? Because there was never any personalized products with “Kaleigh” written on them. If you were one of the kids in school who were jealous of the kids with their pencils that had their name on them… I felt your pain. Now, I enjoy having a name that not everyone has or a name not popular enough to make the personalized products cut off. To predict the personalized pencils of the future, I have supplied a list of the top 10 baby names (girl and boy) of 2009 from Baby Center.

1) Ethan / Isabella

2) Noah / Emma

3) Jacob / Olivia

4) Aiden / Ava

5) Jackson / Sophia

6) Logan / Madison

7) Jack / Chloe

8) Ryan / Abigail

9) Matthew / Addison

10) Jayden / Emily

Special mention to the following people:

18) Elizabeth

23) Sarah

31) Kaylee AND 53) Kayleigh (not my spelling but still kind of made the list!)

47) Savannah (who would have thought? Mom, you are a forward thinker...)

67) Alexandra

PS: Jaclyn & Kristen... looks like you didn't make the cut. Better luck next year :)

Click Here to see where you rank...

Picture This!

Photo by Bernardo Medina

I have always been a fan of National Geographic photography, so when I was searching for a new desktop wallpaper for my computer I naturally went to their website to see what was there. I came across the 2009 Ultimate Photo Contest and was blown away by the finalists. There were 6 categories: Inspiration/Keep Going, Animals/Wildlife, Nature, People/Cultures, Travel, and Weather. The GRAND PRIZE winner was the Inspiration/Keep Going photo at the top of the post. I have also added the winners of each category below because they are all worth taking a look at. Outstanding work! What are your thoughts?

Weather

Photo by Frederick Abels

Travel

Photo by Glenn Traver

People/Cultures

Photo by Bernardo Medina

Nature

Photo by Tracy Hagen

Animals/Wildlife

Photo by Ruston Agte

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Sarah Jane supporting the CIBC Run for the Cure :)

As you may know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. What you might not know is that, According to the Canadian Cancer Society breast cancer is the most common cancer among Canadian women (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer).

In 2009: 22, 700 women and 180 men will be diagnosed with it.

Doctor Kristi Funk, who has appeared on many television shows but most recently The View, has some statistics about how weight gain increases your risk. The following numbers relate to the amount of weight you have gained since high school:

-Lost or gained 4 lbs = no increased risk

-Gained 10 lbs = 10% increase

-Gained 10-20 lbs = 20 % increase

-Gained 20-30 lbs = 60% increase

If you have gained 40 pounds since high school you have increased your chances of getting breast cancer by 50%!

In addition to living a health active lifestyle to help decrease your risk, Dr. Funk suggests green tea. She claims that drinking 3 cups of green tea a day will reduce your chances of breast cancer by 50%...so drink up folks!

10 Most Expensive Cities in the World!

Global Property Guide has produced a list of the 10 most expensive cities to live in based on the “average price of a 120 sq. m., good-condition high-end used apartment in the city centres of more than 110 cities around the world”. Can you predict who came out on top?

The pricing is given in U.S. dollars. Here are the results:

1) Monte Carlo ($47, 578)

2) Moscow ($20, 835)

3) London ($20, 756)

4) Tokyo ($17, 998)

5) Hong Kong ($16, 125)

6) New York ($14, 898)

7) Paris ($12, 122)

8) Singapore ($9, 701)

9) Rome ($9, 166)

10) Mumbai ($9,163).

Cities that ranked as the least expensive include:

112) Cairo ($574)

111) Bangalore ($657)

The Science of Grocery Shopping

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The essentials of a grocery list include the following: fruits/veggies, milk, eggs, meat/poultry, bread. You know this, and more importantly, the grocery store designers know this. They take this information and use it to its fullest potential. The majority of grocery stores follow a similar layout as indicated by the image and you enter in the “Checkout” area. The floor plan is strategically designed to make sure you see everything the grocery store has to offer. The more you see, the more you are likely to buy because high impulse buying accounts for 60%-70% of all purchases.

Notice in the layout that the essentials I mentioned earlier are located at the back end and corners of the store. This means you must walk the entire perimeter to be able to get all the items starting on the right hand side. In addition, if you must go down an aisle, the most common products are placed in the center so you have to walk all the way there to pick it up. Once you got your food, it is unlikely you will turn back and go back down the way you came. Therefore you will continue down the aisle exposing yourself to more products. In addition, after walking down the aisle you will wind up on the “Checkout” side of the store and you will have to go back to the other end to get the rest of your essentials, which means you will walk down the next aisle to get there and probably buy unnecessary things. There are several sneaky tactics as work in the store. Too many to mention so I will leave you with a couple of my favourites:

-Timed bakery smells: makes shoppers hungry and want to buy more

-Eye level marketing: you will pay more attention to them, and so will your kids (as shown in the image below).

I would like to thank Professor Purac who lectured on this information and opened my eyes to many consumer habits.

Google It

One lazy day I was sitting on my couch and nothing was on television so I decided to test my knowledge with the popular game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Now the following question should be easy but proved to be very difficult for both the contestant and myself. Without cheating, see if you can answer the following correctly:

Which of the following is a true statement about the letters in the standard Google logo?

A) A) Both “O”s are yellow

B) B) Both “G”s are blue

C) C) The “L” is red

D) D) The “E” is green

I could not believe how difficult I found this question. Google is my homepage and I probably look at it upwards of 25 times a day! I could not even tell you what colour any of the letters are come to think of it. Considering I see that logo more than anything every single day… I should start paying more attention. How did you find the question? If you want to find the answer… Google it.