Product Review: Snickers Charged

I was pretty tuckered out after a weekend of skiing in Maine, so I turned to a new Snickers product to keep hunger at bay. It's called Snickers Charged, which is like a regular Snickers but with caffeine, taurine, and some vitamins.

There's 60 mg of caffeine in a small bar, about 3/4 the amount in a cup of coffee, while there are 250 mg of the amino acid taurine, just 1/4 of the taurine found in a Red Bull. It has 250 calories, which works out to about 30 calories a bite.

Mrs. NaturalBlog and I both tried it. Her verdict: "Tastes like a Snickers to me." I agreed, at least at first. But then my muscles started twitching beneath my logo apparel, my visual acuity increased five-fold, and I found I was suddenly able to name all the vice presidents. In order, with their home towns.

So I'd say Snickers Charged gets the job done.

Product review: Super cool five-blade razor

NaturalBlog doesn't splurge on much, but when it comes to innovations in personal hygeine I am the cutting edge.

So when Gillette told me that shaving with three blades was no longer good enough, I said damn tootin' and I shelled out $10 for the height of shaving nirvana, the new five-blade Fusion razor.

I am pleased to report that the Fusion did not leave me bloodied and battered. And after four days of shaving with it (the equivalent of 20 shaves with a regular razor, by the way) I have frightened my face whiskers into complete and utter submission. They've totally stopped growing. Thanks, Fusion.

Don't buy this book

This book is the written equivalent of refusing to fold a bad hand even in the face of overhwhelming evidence you are beat. All In: Poker Night Lessons for Winning Big at Your Career ($24.95, HarperCollins) by Geoff Graber with Matthew Robinson is ostensibly a look at how to apply no limit Texas hold 'em strategies in business and vice versa. Not a bad idea, I suppose, but the execution is flawed. Graber just can't find the appropriate analogies to make the book work.

For example, in a chapter on slow-playing (intentionally misrepresenting a strong hand as weak as you try to trap your opponent), Graber does an adequate job discussing the various poker slow-playing strategies. But then he spends page after page explaining why there isn't a good equivalent in business, until finally contriving one. And even then his advice is banal -- that you should keep your cards close to the vest an office setting.

Later, in the chapter on bluffing Graber advises never to bluff in business. It's clear he's trying to indemnify himself in his career against charges of outright lying, but it takes something away from the value of the section. In his defense, he does devote considerable time to discussing the semi-bluff in business, when you tell the truth in advance, so to speak, by playing an incomplete hand (or project or idea) as though it's a complete one. He sums this up by saying you have to up-sell. Of course, you don't need a business degree to know that, nor do you need to spend $25 on his book to learn it.

This book would be worth it if Graber was in your weekly game, and you could get a glimpse into his playing style that you'd later use against him. But unless you know this guy, I say fold'em.