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I know that I’ve already posted my “Friday Finds,” but since I had a few minutes, I decided to blog about a Redbox code I just found.  Until July 7, enter 7HE79B at your local Redbox and you will receive one free night.  From what I have gathered, this code can be used multiple times with the same credit card.  Make sure to return the movie by 9:00PM the following night so you aren’t charged!

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eBay has a great daily email with some hot deals on their site.  Each deal includes free shipping and is far below the regular retail price of the item.  If you’d like to subscribe, click here but if you’d rather not, check out the link below for today’s daily deal email.  Enjoy!

eBay Daily Deal Email - July 3, 2009

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It’s been quite some time since I posted a deal montage of sorts on a Friday.  Well, it’s time to break that cycle.  Here are some great deals that I’ve found while scouring the web this week.  Feel free to post any of your sweet deals in the comments section.

• Buy.com has a sweet Plantronics bluetooth headset available for only $19.99.  There is free shipping on the item so that in itself  is a great deal.  (AntiRebate)
• Aeropostale is having some great deals this week.  First, when you order clearance items online through 7/5, enter the code 30CLEAR and get  an additional 30% off of your purchase.  Also, if you prefer to shop in store, print off this $10 off $50 or more coupon.  Check out other Aero deals here.  (DealCatcher)
• Since it is 4th of July Weekend, maybe you are craving patriotic music.  If so, don’t spend any money on a CD, just download this DRM-free and cost-free CD from Amazon.  (Amazon MP3 Downloader is required)
• If you need a car charger for your iPod, this is definitely your deal.  eForCity has a great deal on a car  charger that is originally $6.99 but with the code PPOCCW, you receive a $6.74 discount, making the item only $.25.  Plus, there is free shipping!  This charger works will all iPod generations, include the iPhone and iTouch.  (SlickDeals)

Enjoy!

eric Deals/Deal Sites, Home

No, this is not one of those spam/infomercial blog posts.  The title did elude to that, but I’m sorry, that’s not what I’m aiming for.  Instead, I want to share a few things I picked up from an interesting article about exercise and keeping your body in one piece - literally.

When you exercise, your body uses two important things to keep you moving and healthy - carbs and proteins.  The carbs help you stay energized (consider it like the gas in your car) and the proteins allow for your muscles and tendons to repair themselves once you have strained and flexed them (like the oil in your car).  Without these two things, you aren’t going to have a great time exercising.  You’ll be tired, sore, and you might injury yourself.

How do you make the most out of your exercise time?  I’m glad you asked.

1.  Eat Before

You should never work out or exercise on a completely empty stomach.  A lot of people wake up in the morning and begin their workout right away but it really shouldn’t be done like that.  Take 5 minutes to eat a banana, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or maybe a half of a bagel.  Don’t pig out but just make sure you have something in your stomach.

2.  Eat After

According to the article I read, your body only has a small window of time when it rebuilds and restores all of your muscles once you put down the last barbell or put away the tennis balls.  Make sure that you eat a snack or meal that is abundant in carbs and proteins, such as pasta, peanut butter and jelly, turkey with cheese, any assortment of nuts/berries, or a protein bar.  This will help your body repair your muscles and will give your stomach the satisfaction it needs.

3.  Stretch

It’s crucial to stretch before AND after a workout or any form of exercising.  Stretching helps to ease your muscles in and out of your joints and will enhance your flexibility.  Stretching before a workout could be dangerous but only if you overstretch, causing muscle tears and other injuries.  Make sure you just do a light stretching routine before exercising.  Most people wonder why you should stretch after a work out.  Take this advice from wellnessletter.com:

“Stretching improves flexibility, which allows you to move your joints through their full range of motion. Flexibility is a key element of fitness; it can enhance physical performance and relieve muscle tension and stiffness. You should stretch after a warm-up and/or when cooling down after a workout, since it is easier and safer to stretch a warm muscle than a cold one. Warm-ups bring blood to the muscles and make injuries from stretching less likely.”

Well, that’s it - at least for now.  As I learn more and gain more experience working out and exercising, I’ll be sure to post about my tips and tricks.  For now, be sure to get enough proteins and carbs and don’t forget about stretching.  If you don’t remember anything else, remember this:  Don’t overdo it.  Don’t eat too many proteins or carbs or stretch too much.  You’ll be hurting your body more than you will be helping it.

eric Health, Home

I apologize for the recent lack of updates. When summer hit, a load of different responsibilities and priorities came my way so I wasn’t able to update the site as much as I would have liked to. I’m going to try and update quite often from this point on, with new recipes, top ten lists, and more tips on getting the most out of your money. If you have any article suggestions, please email me or post a comment to this entry. Thanks! Happy blogging!

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I’ve recently discovered the snackibility (probably not a word…) of granola. It’s a great food to munch on instead of super sweet candies or chocolate. Experimenting, I came up with the following healthy, and easy, treat.

• 1/2 cup of granola
• 1/2 cup of Rice Krispie cereal
• cinnamon to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in a sandwich bag and shake.

As I said, it’s a pretty simple recipe.  This is a great mid-afternoon snack, especially for kids in school.  I often make 2-3 cups and use it over multiple days.  It is also good with milk.

Has anyone tried this or a similar recipe?  What other things can you add to this to make it healthier or more interesting?  Share it in the comments!

eric Health, Home, Quick and Useful Tips For Various Things, Recipes

From WordCamp Mid-Atlantic 2009 #wordcampmidatl

(slides per @brandonsavage)

• What is caching?
• Why we need caching?
• Improving your code’s performance
• Improving the content’s performance
• Building your own caching plugin

Things that you cache…

• code (HTML, sidebar)
• login status (sessions, username)
• content (MySQL queries)

Things you don’t want to cache…

• dynamic content
• user permissions
• passwords
• security settings

Why is caching important?

• Caching improves the speed of the page load.
• Caching reduces server load.
• 9,829 function calls to load WordPress!

WordPress by itself is extremely inefficient!

WordPress Performance Benchmarks:

• Wordpress by itself (with plugins):  almost 6 seconds
• APC enabled (without WP-Cache):  about 2 seconds

Caching the code

• Opcode cache

1. PHP is not a complied language; code is compiled and executed at run time.
2. Compiling code takes extra time, extra CPU, and extra resources.

• Benefits of Opcode Cache
• Drawback of Opcode Cache

1. Still must invoke PHP (which requires resources)
2. Executes “expensive” stat() calls.
3. Doesn’t play nice with some WordPress caching systems (e.g. WP-Cache)

Bottom Line:  You’re crazy if you don’t have an Opcode cache!

Caching the content

Why cache content?

• Most blogs don’t have content changes that often.
• Cached content reduces server load and increases delivery.
• When high traffic shows up, you’ll be ready.

Typical WordPress process

• WordPress loads the plugins, then the theme, then the content and returns the page to the user.

With WP-Cache

• Checks for a cached file.
• If found, it serves the cached file and terminates Wordpress.
• If not, it continues on with typical process and caches.

WP-Cache is a file-based cache.

File based caches:

• Write directly to the disk, and read directly from the disk.
• This can be slow, as a disk read is required.
• This can be more reliable, as the files persist after Apache or MySQL start.

Drawbacks of WP-Cache

• File based cache (slower)
• Might have thousands of files
• WP-Cache still required the PHP parser
• WP-Cache evaluated the file before it serves it

Preparing for the Digg Effect

• WP-Super-Cache

1. Uses same code as WP-Cache
2. Replaces dynamic page hyperlinks with static HTML page hyperlinks
3. Removes the need for PHP parser

The rule of web servers: Static always beats dynamic.

Warning! If you used WP-Cache, it created a symlink for advanced-cache.php.

Words of caution…

• WordPress has not initialized a databse connection or the WordPress framework at the cache execution time.

eric Home

I’m attnding WordCamp MidAtlantic this Saturday.  It should be a great experiance.  WordCamp is a blogging conference for individuals who have chosen to use WordPress as their blogging engine.  I hope to learn a lot, make some new connections, and prove you with plenty of information.  Also, after this Thursday, I am officially finished with school for the semester which means that I will have plenty of time to blog.  I’ll try to update at least once a day.  Let me know if you have any ideas for articles that you want to see.

eric Home

Trying to find a new way to eat your chicken?  Try out this quick and easy marinade.  I put this together on a whim but it turned out pretty well.

• 1 lime juiced
• 2 teaspoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
• 1 tablespoon of Mrs. Dash or other sodium-free spice

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir thoroughly until all ingredients are equally blended.
2. If using with frozen chicken:  Apply marinade generously after turning chicken in the oven.
   If using with thawed chicken:  Put marinade in a Ziploc bag and let chicken soak for 6-8 hours.  Cook as desired.

Unlike most marinade, this recipe is low in sodium and is about as healthy as you’re going to get.  It adds a lot of great flavor, especially when the chicken has soaked for 8 hours.

Has anyone tried this marinade or a similar kind?  What are your thoughts?  Share with everyone via the comments.

eric Health, Home, Quick and Useful Tips For Various Things, Recipes

Well, today is the last Thursday in April, meaning that it is the last chance to recieve a free spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A.  Simply go into your local Chick-Fil-A restaurant and say “I can take the heat” to the cashier and you will get your free sandwich.  No additional purchase is required.  Enjoy!

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