I might start conserving my shells from now on.

It could be nervous habit or tick. You find yourself chewing on the end of your pen and then suddenly it bursts open and the ink is all over you mouth. Funny thing is, you don't notice until you make a bathroom stop and see the blue ink on your lips. Oh the horror! What if there was actually a pen you could chew on and it was actually edible? Now there is!

Dave Hakkins has created an edible pen out of those delectable, edible, necklace candies we use to eat out of the quarter candy machine at our local drugstore. After long hours of deciphering which pens were the best to chew on. Yes, a daunting job, but it sounds like tons of fun, Dave has come up with an ingenious prototype.

Dave's edible pen contains twenty pieces of peppermint candy and is filled with edible ink - the only thing which isn't edible is the small point which you write with - and when it's finished you throw this nib away or put it in a new re-fill pen.

With rising health care costs, more so than ever now, medications for even the simplest of colds and allergies are terribly expensive. The majority of the population can’t afford to obtain the drugs needed for their family, so what’s a person to do. Are there ulterior methods for obtaining prescription medicine? Are the companies reputable? Over the course of a year, I’ve started to experience terrible allergies again and sudden acid reflux. As a student with enumerable costs to consider, I have to look to other means to take care of my ailments. I have found a canadian pharmacy to purchase the medicine I need, and let me tell you, it wasn’t an easy task to find a company I could trust and with such an excellent reputation.

I looked at business bureaus and reviews, trying to find companies online so I could buy nexium and some Claritin which I wasn’t able to find over the counter. I was also on the lookout to buy actonel for my fiance’s mom who suffers from osteoporosis. Yes, it’s easy to assume I could go to a doctor and have these drugs prescribed, however you still have to pay for the doctor’s visit. In this day and age, you have to make do with the resources you have, and sometimes the best companies can, and certainly are, found online.

Canadian Drug Company has been servicing thousands upon thousands of individuals looking to save money and time on their medications. CDC is a certified member of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA), not to mention, they are an approved member of PharmacyChecker.com and the International Pharmacy Association of British Columbia. What does this mean to you and me? Well, for starters their business practices are heavily monitored and  regulated to ensure safety, reliability, and quality. Consequently, they are fully licensed and their medications are 100% authentic.

If I haven’t convinced you yet, I urge you to check out their site for yourself. You may be pleasantly surprised like I was.

Put together from 22,000 images, photographer Terje Sorgjerd recently spent a week capturing one of the biggest aurora borealis shows in recent years in Norway.

There's nothing funny about religion, or is there? This evangelical church pokes fun at themselves, because in actuality, they're all the same.

From the tattooed pastor who lived a hard live before finding God, to the musicians, swiftly guiding the gullible to the Christian music shop, to buy their latest CD. Either way, a pastor actually pointed this video out to me, and to that end, enjoy!

What's funnier than a Grandma dancing in Walmart? A grandpa rockin some pretty heavy beats!

Press the dot in the book and see your imagination run wild. Imagine, pressing an imaginary button not attached to some high tech gadget. Each page of this surprising, irresistible book instructs the reader to press the dots, shake the pages, tilt them, and even blow on them—who knows what will happen next!

The kids are lovin it!

I remember being a kid and my mom making birthday cakes for my sisters. I would peak in the fridge, take a finger, and run it across the icing. Afterwards, I would smooth it out with a butter knife. Yes, I was sly. An hour would go by and a slight taste of icing was never enough, so I would take a spoon and dig a small hole in the cake. I would grab the extra icing in the fridge and fill in the huge crater I just made in the cake.

You blood sugar starts to rise and soon, the situation is taking a very ugly turn and grandpa is getting a slap in the mouth.

"I had tasted cake and there was no going back. My tiny body had morphed into a writhing mass of pure tenacity encased in a layer of desperation. I would eat all of the cake or I would evaporate from the sheer power of my desire to eat it.

Read the God of Cake and be prepared to laugh yourself to tears!

Japan Tsunami wave spills over seawall, smashing boats and cars, all while onlookers capture footage from a balcony.

People are already stating that the Japan Tsunami  is our 2012, and I can't help but wonder, if this is some sort of punishment. Does it have anything to do with the assault on one of most precious resources, the ocean and the animals that reside there?

In a heated conversation with the some residents of India yesterday, we spoke about the impact of Dolphin poaching and the BP oil spill. The consensus seems to be that after months of ignoring the fact that millions of sea creatures have washed upon the shores and dolphins have been poached by hunters that are just too hard to catch in action, not just in Japan mind you, that this horrible disaster could be an act of something greater many can't explain.

The most governments seem to have done so far is to create bans and restrictions on the hunting of these animals. These regulations may cut down on a small percentage of poaching, but as seen with elephants, rhinos and already protected animals, poachers continue to find ways around authority by hunting at night or hiding the game that they do catch.~Saratoga Falcon

I'm the first one to argue about the end of days and 2012, but you really have to consider what we've done to our water supply over the past 50 years and whether or not we are being punished for it now. It's not an answer or explanation, but when something like this happens, you try to make heads or tails of it any way you can.

Yes, comparing the poaching of animals to the Japan Tsunami is hard to even fathom and some of you might be quite angry about it, but you're not the only ones. Commentators on the "The Cove" trailer on youtube are up in arms and believe some people got what they deserve.

What is going on in the world? Your thoughts?

The demon god Pazuzu is the “king of evil spirits”, although on occasion, his powers have been evoked for beneficiary purposes. In this representation, Pazuzu is looking down from the top of this Assyrian bronze amulet as his abilities permit him to ward off diseases. Hence the duality of his nature. The Mesopotamians had a complex belief system of supernatural beings and forces, as many of their kings expressed a dichotomy of powers. This particular amulet expresses the treatment of illness and disease.This section clearly illustrates the symbols of the highest gods, including the star of the goddess Ishtar. The area is appropriately named the “heavenly domain”.


To the far left of the last panel, Pazuzu is depicted with a dog’s head, a scorpion’s tail, and bird talons. He triumphantly chases Lamashtu in the middle of the amulet. Lamashtu has a naked torso of an old woman, with a dog and pig suckling at her breasts. She is also carrying a snake in each hand.


Lamashtu, more specifically, was a female demon who sucked on the blood of women during childbirth and stole children while they were feeding, back to the netherworld. The netherworld is another name for the underworld, which represents the surface of the earth where the departed reside.

This is a true story, which actually happened to me one month ago. I was starting to have minor headaches once again and I figured it was time to get new prescription eye glasses. I went to the nearest retail store a few minutes from my home, as one of my friends told me it was the best place to get glasses. I took my frames in with me, as nothing was wrong with them, I just needed new lenses. After an eye exam, the doctor explained to me that my optic nerve was irritated. I had checked this once before with a specialist and they said it was from looking at a computer too long with the wrong strength glasses. I explained this to the optometrist and she assured me that the glasses would come out to my exact specifications. After all, I was looking for something a bit stronger than reading glasses.

Two weeks later, after spending close to $300.00 just for lenses, I received my glasses. I put them on for my fitting and almost passed out in the store. I asked "how the strong are these?" The technician checked the prescription and noticed they were three times stronger than what I needed. I was livid.  The told me to take them home and see if I got used to them. I did try them for a few days, but after getting dizzy in class, I immediately took them back.

So now, I was stuck with my glasses once again, but I needed glasses quickly and from someone I actually trusted, which is why I started looking on Zenni Optical. I know, I know, you see them all over people's blogs, and although you may not believe some of us have actually tried them, well I'll admit that I have.

Imagine spending a fraction of the price I did at the retail store and getting the correct glasses the first time around from the #1 online eyeglasses store. They have this reputation for a reason and thank goodness they do, otherwise I would never get the job done. At school or at home while working on my blogs.With an updated state of the art site with Zenni Frame Fit, customized for your face shape, super savvy navigation with options to narrow down your search, and not to mention they're the best online eyeglass retailer, you can't loss!

If you haven't tried Zenni and you wear prescription glasses, I urge you next time to give them a try.

I had always hoped, as I peered at the Portofino mural I had painted in my first Italian restaurant, that someday I would be able to take one of those glorious Italy holidays. A touch of Tuscany's rolling hills with a view of medieval fortress Montecchio Vesponi in the distance. The glories of the Roman Empire and the sensational architecture in Rome and Sorrento. The whitewashed trulli houses of Apulia in the more agricultural south. Oh, and Sicily, the place where my first Sicilian chili recipe evolved for my pizzeria. I would hate to stop there, but I'd have to have a lifetime to enjoy the history, arts, architecture, and landscape of one of the most culturally rich countries in the world.

I suppose if I had to choose, I would head to Tuscany for at least 8 or 9 days. I can't erase the hills flooding with sunflowers and wildflowers and the smell of local fare slow cooking in a villa nearby. The history of Tuscany is living and breathing, as residents still call walled cities their homes, as they have been doing for hundreds of years, with the exception of Montecchio Vesponi. The castle is currently under renovations however when my archaeology professor mentioned the history, I just had to hit the books. I'm a lover of medieval fortifications, and although some people ask me why, I simply reply, because of their story.

A short stay in Tuscany still wouldn't be enough to drink in the beauty that is Italy,  but of course, since Kelly and I are looking to relocate to Europe, it was one of my first choices. That's right folks, you heard it here first.  Possibly in two years I'll be calling Italy home, and those Italian language lessons I'm giving myself will finally pay off.

Amo l'Italia!

Tiny things do come in small packages when it comes to My Father's Garden, created by Mirko Faienza  with a Panasonic HPX 500- Fujinon 17x7.6 HD len.

Imagine water droplets running down a stem; tiny leaf petals expanding and grabbing the sunlight; a grasshopper walking a twig like a tight rope; water running through the cracks in a rock like a rapid. All these images of nature come alive in this spectacular video, which if you've haven't watched just yet, you'll want to share with friends over and over again.

Faienza is a talent beyond what many people could ever dream. He speaks Italian, English, Hebrew, and Portuguese fluently and devotes his life to his passion, which leads him to the farthest corners of the earth, to document life through a lense. 

"I bring true passion, enthusiasm, dedication, and will always push my self to the best I can, to give your project the value it deserves"