11.25.08
Boiled Eggs
Although I love eggs, I had totally stopped cooking any here due to the messy clean up of frying eggs.
But a new girl I met recently gave me a HUGE idea when she cooked some BOILED eggs for me. Why, I should have thought of it myself!!
No clean-up, just the great egg taste you know and love. After you finish boiling the eggs, no burnt egg stuck to the pan. Goes great with a tuna sandwich!
What could be easier, I ask you?
No hate mail from vegetarians, please.
Rating: Five Stars (Out Of Five)
08.20.08
Japanese Dental Floss
Front and back images of Johnson & Johnson REACH brand dental floss purchased in West Tokyo.
Product not rated (but worked well).
03.16.08
Japanese Black Facial Tissues
Here’s an interesting product… I recently found a box of black facial tissues at a Don Quixote store in Tokyo.
It was the first time I’d ever seen boxes of facial tissue displayed with a sample — an open box to reassure customers that the black tissues functioned just like the normal boring white ones. Even though the black tissues were more expensive, I couldn’t resist buying a box. 
The texture of the tissues is exactly what you’d expect (which seemed to surprise many of the shoppers testing the free samples). I did notice though — when I blew my nose — that the tissues have the very faint smell of black dye, similar to a cheap t-shirt before you wash it for the first time.
I’m not sure if this is the most environmentally-friendly product idea ever conceived, but it does illustrate the fact that design is everything — especially in a consumer’s paradise.
I took a few photos, including a close-up of the box (with product information in Japanese).
11.12.07
Need Advice? Ask the Elder Wisdom Circle
This is a cool website, where you can ask advice to someone with a little more life experience.
It’s called the Elder Wisdom Circle, and I think it’s a neat idea.
The EWC is a place for people in their teens, 20’s and 30’s to connect with a Cyber-Grandparent for anonymous personalized advice. Elder Wisdom Circle is organized as a IRS 501(c)3 non-profit association. Most advice-seekers are 14-35 but we reply to everyone. We are based in the San Francisco Bay Area with 600 Elders all over North America. We are one of the largest providers of personal advice anywhere with hundreds of thousands of readers. The mission of our association is to promote and share elder know-how and accumulated wisdom. We also have a goal of elevating the perceived value and worth of our senior community.
I personally sent them a question about a year ago, and their reply was extremely helpful.
rating: FIVE stars (out of five possible)
Link (to Elder Wisdom Circle)
Link (to story on NPR about Elder Wisdom Circle)
10.20.07
Anonymous Surfing — Recommendation
We got a lot of feedback about the blocked websites in China.
One way to get around censorship is to surf the web anonymously — some people also do this for privacy.
We have tested a number of anonymous web surfing sites, and the one we recommend is called “Anonymouse”.
This service allows you to surf the web without revealing any personal information.
It is fast, it is easy, and it is free!
Some sites won’t allow you to use an anonymous web browser, but Anonymouse works more often than not.
Rating: FIVE stars (out of five possible)
Link (to Anonymouse.org — anonymous web surfing — available in English or German)
09.29.07
Fanta Mystery Flavor
There are always a lot of cool soda pop flavors here in Japan, but my favorite is the new Fanta that just came out — it’s Mystery Flavor!
I was delighted to find a bottle at the convenience store a few nights ago. I could immediately tell that it was some unknown flavor by the GIANT QUESTION MARKS and WALKING FRUIT featured on the label.
The soda apparently contains two kinds of fruit and you have to guess which ones. According to Fanta’s website, the drink will be connected to an elaborate new cell phone mystery game.
I have not yet attempted to guess the fruits, but I hope this drink stays around for a while. It’s delicious!
rating: FIVE stars (out of five possible)
Link (to another picture of bottle on Flickr.com)
Link (to Fanta Japan website)
09.15.07
IrfanView – A Great Freeware Photo Editor
My favorite photo software is IrfanView (pronounced “EarfanView”).
It’s free to download and super easy to use.
The feature I like most is the ability to quickly resize photos imported from your digital camera for sending to friends via email.
To do this: Use the “Control-R” command, which will cause a screen of options to pop up. Click the “Half” button on this screen twice. You can now resave the photo, and it turns out the perfect size to send in an email — no more unwanted extreme close-ups of your face!
Interesting fact: The guy who created IrfanView is from Jajce, Bosnia.
Rating: FIVE stars (out of five possible)
Link (to IrfanView website where you can download the software)
09.13.07
Firefox Tips
Here at Spiddlement, we only use Firefox browser.
I honestly can’t imagine ever going back to Internet Explorer. IE offers so little control over the browsing experience and seems to be a magnet for picking up spyware and viruses.
(Some of the annoying adware I had on my old laptop worked ONLY when Internet Explorer was launched. Firefox managed to eliminate it entirely. In fact, the first time I heard of Firefox was when I took my computer to a repair shop to get the hard drive reformatted. The first question the guy there asked me was, “Have you been using Internet Explorer?”)
Firefox is easy to use, totally intuitive upon downloading. But if you REALLY want to dig into the great features, here is an article from PC World called “15 Undocumented Firefox Tips”. Add these to your Firefox bag of tricks and you will be surfing in total comfort and safety.
I particularly like the “Control-T” command which quickly opens up a new “tab”, and the “ALT-D” command which lets you enter a domain address (follow it up with “ALT-Enter” and you don’t even need to type “.com”).
It’s hard to understand why ANYONE would EVER use Internet Explorer again — especially considering that Firefox is totally free.
rating: FIVE stars (out of five possible)
Link (to Firefox website, where you can download the browser)
Link (to “15 Undocumented Firefox Tips” at PCWorld)
09.04.07
Styptic Pencils
There is nothing worse than cutting your face when you shave. But it seems pretty inevitable.
So the next best thing to growing a beard is having styptic pencils around.
According to Wikipedia:
A styptic or hemostatic pencil is a short stick of medication, usually anhydrous aluminum sulfate (a type of alum) or titanium dioxide, which is used for stanching blood by causing blood vessels to contract at the site of the wound.
Before safety razors were invented, it was an essential part of a shaving kit and was used to seal cuts caused by improper shaving. Some people continue to use styptic pencils for minor skin wounds from safety or electric razors.
The last time the author was stateside, he stopped by a pharmacy to pick up some styptic pencils, because they are often difficult to find in Asia.
To his delight, not only did the clerk at the pharmacy help him find the pencils, but treated him to anecdotes of other blood-stopping home remedies the clerk had heard of over the years — the list was too long to go into here, but one candidate was peanut butter!
I couldn’t imagine putting peanut butter on my face to stop a cut, but it’s a certainly an experiment I’ll keep in mind if I ever again find myself without styptic pencils.
rating: FIVE stars (out of five possible)
Link (to Wikipedia entry)
Link (to “How To Keep A Shaving Nick From Bleeding” on eHow.com)
