Oil Blot Sheets

I’ve been using oil blot sheets for a while now; from the well known Clean n’ Clear, to “unnamed” Asian brands I find randomly at the local Asian markets, and even tried the Toilet Seat Cover “trick.”

The Internet is filled with ideas and comments about these. For me, the ones I find to work best are the plastic-y ones similar to Clean n’ Clear’s. The one I happen to use is from Callas Paris (which is actually made in Japan) that I got from a local beauty supply shop at the rate of $3.00 per pack of 5- sheets. That’s still cheaper than Clean n’ Clear’s and works just as well.

Callas brand. My favorite of all the Clean n’ Clear alternatives

It’s even blue and has got the sticky thing on the lid that pulls a sheet out for you. You’ve got to admit that the black box looks spiffier than Clean ‘n Clear’s blue box.

My comments on the alternatives?

“Tissue-y” ones (aburatorigami, if I’ve read my Japanese correctly): This one was from Marukai for the price of $2-3.00 for a pack of 300 sheets. They work decently. I would assume they work fairly well if you’re not too oily, particularly in the T-zone. It seems that I use 2 sheets per “session.”

These are similar to gift wrap tissue paper. Works fine.

Toilet Seat Covers: Free if you just grab one from the stall (might want to grab the ones toward the middle/back to be sure it’s more sanitary). I’m not sure what the prices are, but I’m fairly certain they’re really cheap. I have ripped some and used it, but it didn’t work all that well for me. Probably because it wasn’t the “waxy” type. And the idea that it’s a toilet seat cover kinda puts me off.

Brown, recycled napkins (like from Starbucks): Works if you’re in a jiffy. Free.

Tissue paper (the type you stuff gift bags with): This is probably the closest to oil blot sheets for me from the list of alternatives. It’s pretty much the same as the thin aburatorigami ones that I have. However, seems that I have to use about 3 sheets to get the job done (or probably the same 2 sheets needed as the aburatorigami had I cut them into the same size). But it does a decent job, nonetheless. And at $1.00 (or less) per pack of tissue paper, it’s a good deal. You can get hundreds of sheets from the one pack of tissue paper.

A stack if tissue paper I had cut and left an my desk. Not the prettiest things in the world, but they work and I just use them at the desk when I’m at home.

All in all, the alternatives generally work well. But for me, as I get oily fairly easily, I prefer the plastic-y kinds if I can get my hands on them for a decent price. Otherwise, the aburatorigami and tissue paper would be tied for my next choice.

Community/Family Kitchen

Y’know.  I’m getting sick and tired of sharing the kitchen with my own family.  Yep.  Sharing food is all good and fun.  BUT not when they don’t reciprocate.

Example.  On Monday of this week, I bought a brand new loaf of bread and a brand new jar of Goober (that’s striped jelly and peanut butter for y’all who aren’t aware), as seen in my previous post here.  Four days later, my loaf of bread is all gone.  And my brand new jar of Goober?  Less than a third left.  Who the hell even puts that much filling into their sandwiches that it would be that low after only a loaf of bread?  That’s a diabetes sandwich right there.

Anyway.  I wake up this morning to make myself lunch, thinking that I would indeed like a PB/J sandwich, only to find that the loaf is gone.  No more bread.  At all.  And it’s starting to get on my nerves simply because I’m always the only one who buys bread in this household (or fixins such as tuna, bologna, cheese, PB/J, and other sandwich goodies) but hardly ever gets to enjoy the sandwiches because for the most part, they’re gone before I can have at it.  MAYBE one sandwich out of the loaf will be mine (that means two slices, y’all).  PLENTY of times, I don’t even get a single slice before it’s all gone.

Now, I’m all for sharing and such.  But not when I’m always the one buying the sandwich stuffs.  If other family members start to pitch in, fine.  No complaints there.  But apparently, sandwiches aren’t too high on their grocery shopping list and only seem to want it when I buy the stuff.  And it’s not even the entire family; my immediate family is pretty good at letting everyone have their share.  It’s the ONE UNCLE that mooches off of all of our shit and it’s getting annoying as hell.

Yeah.  I will start the day off like this.  I really wanted a sandwich for lunch.  Ah well.  The day will go on.  But it wasn’t the best beginning.  I guess I’ll have to have rice for lunch again today.  <_<

Frozen Concentrate

Is there something bad about frozen juice concentrates?  I’m surprised that not many people use it.

I was at Target the other day buying some groceries and got some frozen concentrates of apple and of berry mix.  I’ve never found them to taste bad or the like; if anything, they taste just as good if not better than the bottled, branded stuff.  But nobody every buys them… not often, at least.

For $1.00 and some change (I think it was about $1.52 for the Orchard something or other brand), I can make a minimum of 48 ounces (1 can of concentrate + 3 cans of water); though I think that’s still fairly sweet so I actually add more water.  For Tree Top brand, I’m looking at about $3.00 for a bottle that is 32 ounces.  AND IT’S MADE FROM CONCENTRATE ANYWAY!  O_O  So why not skip the heavy lugging of those bottles, save some money, and mix up your own?  You end up getting more for a third of the price.

And apple was actually the more expensive concentrate of the ones I’d seen.  The berry mix (which I love!) was $0.87 and also makes about 48 ounces.

I dump and mix everything into a Rubbermaid 2 quart drink container, but you can definitely reuse any other containers that’ll accommodate your drink.  I’d only bought it ($2.00) ’cause it was well made and can easily take drink mixes that are “meant” to make 2 quarts (like Kool-Aid).

Wonderbread Seal’r N’ Decruster

I found this neat little doohicky gizmo at Walmart for a dollar and some change.

I can make my own “uncrustables” now. I know we can make ‘em with a glass cup n all, but the seal isn’t all that great. And the Pampered Chef costs at least 9 bucks, which just isn’t worth it.

The instructions are simple.

My set up! 2 slices of Sara Lee whole grain white, strawberry Goober, the gizmo, and a knife to spread the Goober goodness.

I’d spread some pbj in both slices. Though after biting into it, I’d regretted it ’cause it was way too much for my tastes.

The instructions say to slice the bread using the outer (white) piece first, then seal it with the inner (red) piece. It works perfectly without fail.

The crust peels away without any effort. And because it’s square (as opposed to the typical round shaped cutters), there is very little waste. This one pretty much got it right up to the crusty edges, giving you more area for your sandwich innards. I’d thrown the crust back into the sandwich bag for someone else to eat. xD

All in all, I’m happy with my random purchase. Sure, I could have done without this, but it was just fun. I couldn’t have done much worse with $1 and change.

Besides. Buying a box of frozen uncrustables costs a lot more.

In all I’d spent:
– loaf of bread: $2.00
– Goober: $1.50
– Decruster: $1-$2.00

All good.

Update: (15 March 2011)
Apparently, bread doesn’t last very long in my household. I think there’s only about a half loaf left. But I’ve been making use of my sealer. And it definitely beats the price of a single Uncrustable from Smuckers. The last time I checked, they were running for anywhere between $1.00 and $2.00 EACH. And they’re filled with way too much pbj as well. Disney even took them off the kids’ menu for having over 400 calories in a single tiny sandwich.

Lent 2011

And so the Lenten season begins.  I’ve decided to go back to vegetarianism (as I was a vegetarian for 8+ years of my life) for the season and see how long after I can continue, reminding myself that I can do it for just one more day for Him.  I’ve also given up spending money on unnecessary purchases so that I may use that money toward a greater good.  The purchases that I’ve been making recently has definitely took a toll on my wallet and was just for small items that kept me occupied in my currently mundane life since quitting my job.  Though, I did recently (like a week ago) obtain 2 volunteer positions.  I’d also decided to give up eating out for the same reason as the unnecessary purchases; the money could definitely go toward a greater good and there was no reason in not using the perfectly good food at home to eat while at school or work.    Happy Lenten season and I hope everyone a great one!

Locating Business Cards is Hard Work

So with my newfound hobby of collecting business cards from places I’ve been (good or bad), I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re actually pretty hard to find.

Are business cards out of style now? Has everyone forgotten about the tangible-ness of a business card and switched on over to the Internet marketing world? I’ve seen more posters around stores telling me to “like” them on Facebook but have had a hard time locating business cards.

It’s become a little disappointing.

Today I went to Tuna Town of HB with my buddies Mochi Doughnut and Devil. Needless to say, it took some scouting around before I’d realized that their business cards were kept behind the desk. I had to ask the concierge if I could have one. Why aren’t they just set out for my pleasure? It’s not as though it’s a networking conference in which etiquette in exchanging business cards is taking place…

By the way, Tuna Town sucks. Don’t even bother with that place. More on that in another post though.

I think so far, the only shops I’ve had 100% luck in finding cards is at small Vietnamese establishments around town. I’ve yet to come I to one that has let me down. They’re always right there by the registers if I need them.

I was surprised to find that most of the mom and pop shops around Costa Mesa and such only resulted in disappointment. I thought for sure these fine establishments would have them. But alas, I was incorrect. Particularly the small restaurants such as Lil Pickle. I would definitely have started collecting the menus as well, only they would take up way more storage space than the happiness that is the 2×3.5″ business card.

February Roundup (Picture heavy!)

Oh the times have escaped me. Just a collection of things from February that I didn’t get a chance to blog about. So very quick and dirty:

This was my first time at Mochilato in Irvine with a few lovely ladies. Very good! This one in particular was the one that had everything thrown together.

It also came with 4 servings of Mochilato- mochi with gelato filling. Insanely delicious.

I was really into making Puri this month. These were the lovely ladies who accompanied me to Mochilato.

Some sort of handroll. Crunchy spider or something? This was my first time at Kula in Irvine, a rotating sushi restaurant. Good stuff.

An outing to the “Camp” in Costa Mesa yielded this cool parking lot in which every stall had a different saying. Originally we had parked in one that said “Paddle your own canoe” but as soon as we got out, we scouted the available lots until we agreed on this one and reparked. Yep. Meesho and I are just that awesome.

My mom told me this was my dinner one night… Right after telling me that she’d just done the groceries.

Also at the “Camp.” we found these seed bombs. Apparently, you throw these around and hope that a plant (or weed?) grows.

The stairs at the “Camp” were pretty cool. Motivational.

Plant reproductive system. I didn’t know my iPod could take such awesome pictures through the microscope oculars. Heck, I didn’t even know it was possible.

Burger King of Costa Mesa was too cheap to fix thee ketchup machine. So they had squirt bottles set out.

My Burger King toy.

I’d never seen one of these signs written in Viet, I I had to take a picture.

The condiment line up at The Hat of Brea. They even had ranch and thousand island!

My bestie at The Hat.

Our obnoxiously large order of chili cheese fries. They were the size of those 4-cup cup holders. Came with a side of diced tomatoes and pickles as well. I didn’t think pickles would go together with chili cheese fries, but man they were good!

4Imprint’s alternative to Levenger’s slim wallet writer. I love it! And it was free via their request a sample thing. And of course, the note card was from VistaPrint.

I was really in the mood to colour one day.

This was on the placemat at Jack-In-The-Box.

Teehee! A cool ice cream scoop from Sur La Table at South Coast.

Dookeys from Paper Source at South Coast.

Jake is coming to the OC!

The snails we races in Biology lab. The one on the left is Speedy.

This was at the top of the stairs at school. O_o

Pretty nice. Ready to mail without fumbling or wondering how much for postage.

That’s it for February.

Starbucks Gold Card

Ah. After just about 6 months, I’ve finally earned “gold” under the Starbucks Rewards program.

I’d received my 30th star two days ago on the 28th of February. My Starbucks Mobile app has recognized that I’m now officially a Gold member.

Now I’m just wondering how long before my card comes in the mail. I hope by the end of the month since those things typically take 4-6 weeks, right?

Oh glorious personalized gold card… I can’t wait to have you in my possession! xD

Update: (16 March 2011)
Today I finally got an e-mail stating that they have recognized that I’ve become gold. Took long enough… Now, to wait for the gold card!

Lil Pickle

Yum. I just had lunch at Lil Pickle, a dinky little sub shop down the street from school. Good stuff! The sandwich rolls are freshly steamed, all of the ingredients have a nice fresh crisp to them, and of course, it’s garnished with a lil pickle on the side.

I got the number 1, Lil Pickle. I didn’t bother reading the menu to see what was inside; I just wanted it simply because of the name! From what I can tell, there was lettuce, tomato, salami, something similar to Italian dressing, and lots of white shredded cheese of which I am unsure of its exact name.

There it is, the Lil Pickle. Quite a great change from the pizza and junk that I’d normally get from school.

Good stuff.

I was really bummed that they didn’t have a business card that I could add to my collection though.

Come to think of it, now that I’ve started to become more aware of business cards, not too many businesses do have them, which saddens me. I believe that after a whole day’s outing the other day, only one of the stores that I’d stepped into (Kinokuniya) had business cards.

VistaPrint Jackpot!

I think I’ve just died and gone to VistaPrint heaven!

Whilst waiting for class to start, I decided to check my RSS feed. Lo and behold, a nice FatWallet member posted that Groupon’s deal for the day (for Baton Rouge, though they said anyone can purchase it) was $50 VistaPrint credit for $10 with free shipping!

Just in time! I’d nearly made an order this week but decided to hang on until a better deal came along.

It doesn’t get any better than this.

I’ve an email that gives me all of the premium items that I’m interested in for free, including:

– 100x standard postcards
– 25x [business card sized] magnets
– 1x premium* rubber stamp
– 1x premium* pen
– 250x premium* business cards

*premium being fully customizable without extra charge other than an image upload fee if you so choose to upload an image.

And then some. But those were the freebies that I’m most interested in.

Anyway, besides those freebies, the email also gives me $10.00 off my purchase. And since I’m ordering with a friend I’d referred (to save on shipping), I also get $5.00 credited to my own account via their refer-a-friend program!

Yep. That’s the best deal ever. $10.00 for a $50.00 credit but get $10.00 off my purchase, free shipping, AND $5.00 credited to my account.

This deal only lasts for a few more hours though, sadly. I wish I’d found out sooner!

Oh Groupon. I love you now.

**ETA: Oh yeah. It’s limit to 1 per person.