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Dove Hunting in Argentina – Where the hunt is much safer than hunting for animals that could actually eat you

Written by on May 18, 2012
Filed Under Reviews

For those into the sport of hunting, consider a nice foray into the wild, exotic world of Argentina, where if the climate doesn’t fancy you, at least the food will.

C&C Outfitters Dove Hunting is an agency that offers a hunting/travel package for those who enjoy dove hunting in particular, complete with guides to show you the way and opportunities to enjoy a BBQ known as “asados,” basically BBQ with an Argentinian flair that makes it a unique and tasty experience unto itself.

The tours are located in the capital province of Cordoba, with a landscape that traverses mountains, lakes, grasslands and rivers that glitter under a bright sun.  The golden fields in which the doves themselves hide could alone inspire songs and works of art due to the inherent beauty of Argentina’s landscape.

C&C are toted as one of the best organizations to open your world to the beauty and enjoyable hunting atmosphere within Argentina, with a record of customer satisfaction going back 10 years and an emphasis on personalized services and small groups to help ensure fun interaction and a rewarding experience.

The tours range from a 2 to 4 day or custom packages that include free shells (ammo), lodging and all meals, particularly the famous asados that take place out in the fields.

Watch the video below for more information, then visit the site and book your next trip to Argentina today. :-D

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Digitizing my cold hard cash at Coinstar for a gift card and a woman (but mostly a gift card) #NOFEECoinstar #CBias

Written by on April 2, 2012
Filed Under Reviews

Due to my awesomeness, I have been paid (at Coinstar’s request) to try and blog about Coinstar’s products/services as part of a Collective Bias shopper insights study.  All opinions are my own, but I assure you, they are awesome opinions.

Because I’m a guy, I like to keep my spare change in a sophisticated and completely hi-tech manner: my jean pockets.  None of those dweeby man purses or pouches for me thank you very much.  I am HARDCORE.

So on the occasion that I pull out some greens to pay for something, I usually jam whatever spare change I get from the purchase into my pockets, then unload them into a pouch inside my suitcase when I’m back at the hotel, and ultimately into my coin bank when I return home from another crazy traveling adventure.  My coin bank, true to my awesomeness, is cleverly designed to be completely undetectable to the naked eye.

State of the art, undetectable coin bank. For realsies.

That’s generally been my habit since I graduated college, though usually when I’m ready to cash in I head over to the credit union.  I’ve tried the Coinstar machine once before at Stop & Shop but lost nearly $8 from the fee I had to pay just to redeem my cash, so I never bothered to use it again, at least until now, when they got smart and introduced a NO FEE option.

"Seriously, you expect me to believe this is a real soda can?"

With my coin bank now at capacity, there was no better time to give Coinstar another try, so I grabbed up my *ahem* soda can, and headed over to my favorite Stop & Shop. (BTW, check out Coinstar at Facebook and Twitter.)

For whatever reason Stop & Shop just has that vibe that makes me prefer going there for groceries over other supermarkets, and particularly because their self checkouts are blazing fast and usually don’t have a line to them.  Anything that allows me to run in and run out with bags full of food in as little time as possible is WINNING in my book. (Check out Stop and Shop’s Facebook page for more info about their supermarkets.)

Now that's a slot machine I can work with.

The Coinstar here was located next to Redbox and their customer support/lotto center, right by the entrance. About as convenient a place as you could hope for.  Long Island being what it is though (as in, filled with rancid, uncouth human beings such as myself), I basically got shoved aside by some battle axe of an old lady who wanted to use the Coinstar machine, not to redeem coins mind you, but to scratch off an instant lotto game she had just purchased.  Sigh.

While I waited I decided to go over and get myself a ticket of my own, for the Mega Millions (which was $640 million at last count.)  My Lord, I could buy like, another MacBook with that kind of money.

The battle axe finally left, so I finally had the machine to myself, and started sifting through the NO FEE options.  As it turned out you can select from a variety of different gift certificates, but I was surprised to find out that despite touting the option of redeeming your coins for a Stop & Shop gift card, there weren’t any gift card choices that you could actually use at Stop & Shop itself.  Weird.

Why u no hav Stop & Shop gift option Coinstar?

Ultimately I picked Amazon.com as it has the widest range of goods, though I might have picked a Stop & Shop card instead had that option been available.  I slowly dumped my coins in, and watched and listened as the machine chirped and beeped away while tallying my coins.  Net total:  $77.28.  BOOYAH.

And Mommy said I didn't know how to save. HA!

The machine then gave me a second chance to turn my coins to cash instead, but the fee was nearly 10 cents to a dollar.  Seriously?  Still, I balked at the decision for so long that it timed out and went to the default Amazon.com gift payout.   I guess I just like having options instead of being limited to some degree, even if Amazon.com does offer just about anything you could be looking for (except true love, and the meaning of life, and all that.)  I like being a free spirit after all.

I cropped out the gift code. Yeah, y'all ain't gonna get freebies from me THAT easy.

That said, this was pretty convenient, as long as the NO FEE options offer a nice library of gift cards to choose from I’ll likely continue to use this in the future than go to the credit union (where I have to wait in line and then stand there like an idiot while they slooooooowly tally the coins.)  Plus I rarely visit my credit union anyway, so this kinda works out perfectly.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a few chocolatey goods and a video game I’d like to buy off of Amazon.com now…  :-D

Oh and if you have a moment check out my Coinstar Google+ album and share!

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Pouring a crate’s worth of International Delight iced coffees on my friend’s head #IcedCoffee #cBias

Written by on January 13, 2012
Filed Under Reviews

Well no, I didn’t actually do that, but it would have been funny.  By the way, this shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias… even though err, I didn’t actually shop for anything, and this was really more of a giveaway, but I’m disclosing here so y’all know once again what a capitalistic pig I am.

Anyhoo, Casey Petersen has been a friend of mine for years, and we enjoy a sort of real life House-Wilson friendship, me being the ornery House, him being the weenie-geek-who-wubs-everybody Wilson.

My blog is prettier.

He recently started a brand new job at Collective Bias, so it seemed appropriate to send him boatloads of sugar and caffeine to keep him awake and lively so he can continue to steal my ideas and advance his career on the shoulders of my superior intellect.

Just kidding, Casey. :-)

But seriously, the iced coffees should help. I’ve previewed the flavors in another post and been since gulping them down to help me get over the winter blues.

Ice me, baby.

I think International Delight may actually have something here too, especially because I’m not aware of any other brand offering iced coffee in cartons you could easily pick up in the dairy section (ID’s own coffees will be available starting January 15th in the dairy section of Walmart.)

If you see and decide to grab a carton then, let me know what you think. my friend liked the Mocha flavor, but I’m all about the original. :-D

Comments { 2 }

Previewing Upcoming Iced Coffee Treats – #IcedCoffee #CBias

Written by on January 3, 2012
Filed Under Reviews

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias, which I am participating in due to being a greedy capitalistic pig and because I likes me iced coffee, but mostly because I’m a greedy capitalistic pig.

I seem to have a love/hate relationship going with coffee in general.  The blend has to be just right for me to keep from spitting it out like I just tasted gas fluid.  Same deal with iced coffee too.  But when they get the taste JUST right, it’s a psychedelic experience, yo.

That’s why I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try out International Delight’s new upcoming Iced Coffee blends:  Original, Vanilla and Mocha.  (The coffees will soon be available in the dairy section at your local Walmart, January 15th.)

Koko awaits his coffee treat...

I was surprised to see them arrive in milk cartons, since I was expecting the more flashy and shapely containers like I’ve seen with their usual cream selections, but eh, as long as it keeps it preserved…

Iced coffee should be shaken, not stirred.

Love the insulated glass they sent me too, does a nice job of keeping things cold.  I decided to sample the Original first, and must say, that seemed to strike the perfect balance between coffee and milk creamy taste, especially since I like my coffee the same way Winston Wolf likes it:  lots of cream, lots of sugar (extra props if you recognize the Pulp Fiction reference.)

Added some whip cream, which in hindsight was a completely unnecessary ingredient.

I then tried the Vanilla and err… hmmmm.  I guess I was expecting more of a vanilla ice cream kind of taste, but here vanilla was more like vanilla extract.  Don’t really have a taste for that so I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Original.

The Mocha might be been the most disappointing though.  I didn’t really taste the mocha at all and the blend here was more like sugar and water than anything resembling the familiar taste of chocolatey goodness.

The amount of sugar is a bit staggering too, almost 30 grams per serving, so careful not to drink TOO much.

Koko goes for a sip...

 

... and passes out from the sugar overdose.

With so many coffee drinkers eschewing sugar for dieting or low carbing purposes, I personally think International Delight needs to invest in creating sugar free versions of these drink as well, but that’s just my opinion.

As far as the Original goes, I’m definitely hitting that up once it comes out on the 15th.  Unless it’s 2 degrees out, then I’ll probably hold off till the summer, at which point I won’t look as stupid as a result of freezing my shagwagons off while sipping iced coffee.  :-)

Comments { 10 }

The new Reflex case for the iPhone 4/4S by Otterbox: should you get it?

Written by on November 29, 2011
Filed Under Reviews

Update:  Otterbox is having a Black Friday/Holiday Shopping promotion for their cases, which you can find the details on here.  The promotion ends December 2nd.

While Otterbox released a statement indicating that their Reflex series would be the only case that would properly fit the new iPhone 4S, the series has still been updated with some improvements, so even if you have an old case now, you might want to consider swapping it out for one of the newer Reflex cases, especially since the Reflex is one of the cheaper options offered by Otterbox.

I was curious to see just how much of a difference there really was though, so I asked Otterbox to send me a review sample to compare it to the Reflex I had now. After receiving it a few days later, I inspected the quality and could tell that there was no noticeable difference in the material, while the hole cutouts were all aligned exactly like the old case. There is one notable change though: the inside of the case now sports a foamy pad to help cushion the back of the iPhone, a really welcome change for me because I found that the repetition of sliding the iPhone in and out of the case caused some light scratches on the back side.

The old Reflex case (for the iPhone 4)

 

The new Reflex case for the iPhone 4/4S (notice the padded interior)

To be fair, I was using a third party screen protector that added enough thickness to the phone that just pulling the case on and off took more effort than usual, so it was expected that a few scratches might occur as a result.

That definitely made the padded interior on the new case a welcome improvement, originally I was going to get protective film for the backside as well, then enclose the iPhone in the case, but it added far too much bulkiness that it sort of defeated the purpose of using a case like this to begin with (designed so that the bottom half can easily be slid off for docking purposes.) Now with the foamy pad to minimize any rubbing of the iPhone’s back side against the interior of the case, I can spare myself the added expense.

Overall, I think it’s worth the trade-up, especially if you’re selling the old iPhone 4 (in which case you can use the opportunity to sell the old Reflex right along with it and upgrade to the newer version.)

Out of all the bazillion cases out there (so much that its caused my eyes to glaze over and conjure up nightmares of being trapped in an iPhone 4S Flip Case myself), the Reflex seems to suit my needs the best: more protective than other slim sized cases, but without losing the convenience of docking it on speakers or snapping it into a car cradle.

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