Aveeno Nourish Shampoo - Form can be found here.
Dogswell Pet Food sample - go here. Not just for dogs, btw.
Dove Moisturizer - Original form is in Spanish here, or there's google translation here. If you use the latter, there's a goof in the translation of the gender category's drop box, giving it two 'F's instead of M/F. The second one is the 'real' F for female, the first is supposed to be M.
John Frieda Shampoo - go here and fill out the form.
Taster's Choice Coffee Samples - go here and click on the 'try it on us' link.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Inedible Cookie Warning
There's some new Google AdSense update, and since I can't find a Privacy Policy thing, I guess I'll put this here:
* Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site. (aka this blog)
* Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and other sites on the Internet.
* Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
More info on the new cookie can be found here.
I recommend opting out, myself. The only cookies I like in my life are the edible ones.
* Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site. (aka this blog)
* Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and other sites on the Internet.
* Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
More info on the new cookie can be found here.
I recommend opting out, myself. The only cookies I like in my life are the edible ones.
Friday, January 16, 2009
More free samples.
Don't forget that you can always check WalMart.com once a month or so for whatever free samples they have up. Don't like WalMart? Neither do I, really, but it's fun to think of this as a way to get them back by getting free things and then not shopping there... Granted, it probably doesn't make a big dent in their bottom line, but it's something. And the little boxes are useful for anyone who might need little boxes for packages and gifts.
The direct link to the free samples page, if you don't want to hunt for it and they haven't changed it again, is here:
http://walmart.triaddigital.com/In-Stores-Now-Free-Samples.aspx
If they do change it, just give me a heads-up and I'll fix the above link.
The direct link to the free samples page, if you don't want to hunt for it and they haven't changed it again, is here:
http://walmart.triaddigital.com/In-Stores-Now-Free-Samples.aspx
If they do change it, just give me a heads-up and I'll fix the above link.
Free cereal.
Total's giving out free samples of cranberry-flavored cereal at their website for a time. Just be warned, the site was very slow to load for me, so expect it to take a little time. The rest of the process was straightforward, though. Just go here:
http://www.totalcereal.com/
http://www.totalcereal.com/
Monday, November 3, 2008
Warning: Not-So-Free Catalog
Just a quick heads-up for coin collectors out there - do NOT request a 'free' catalog from the Littleton Coin Company website. I was pointed in their direction as a place to get mixed bags of old coins, and asked for a catalog to be sent so I could check it out.
Imagine my surprise when, along with the catalog, I received a baggie of three very overpriced coins I did not ask for, and a bill for $30! They then ask you to ship it back in 15 days if you don't want it, and say they'll send you more every month!
Thankfully, they did have the sense to pay for their own return shipping, but this has pretty much guaranteed I will never buy anything from them. (Besides, E-bay is cheaper.) I only hope they take the hint and don't send me any more unrequested coins.
Imagine my surprise when, along with the catalog, I received a baggie of three very overpriced coins I did not ask for, and a bill for $30! They then ask you to ship it back in 15 days if you don't want it, and say they'll send you more every month!
Thankfully, they did have the sense to pay for their own return shipping, but this has pretty much guaranteed I will never buy anything from them. (Besides, E-bay is cheaper.) I only hope they take the hint and don't send me any more unrequested coins.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Where's the Juice?
I remember a TV commercial from when I was a kid that had three little old ladies buying fast food. One looks in her hamburger bun and asks "Where's the beef?"
Recently, I found myself in a similar spot. Not with a hamburger patty that was smaller than expected, but with fruit 'juice' bought at the store. Now, I go to a discount grocery, as more of us are likely to find themselves doing with the current budget mess. So there isn't that great of a selection to start with. You pretty much have orange juice concentrate, gallons of refrigerated orange juice, or maybe a dozen choices, tops, for shelf-stable juices. And half of those might be cranberry blends.
Now, me, I like grapefruit juice. The only available kind anywhere in the store was actually labeled 'Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice Cocktail From Concentrate'. With, I might note, Ruby Red Grapefruit in large letters and the rest in small thin ones that could easily be lost in the background art for a hurried shopper. Ask a few of your friends what they think this means, and they'll likely have the same initial assumption that I did - it's grapefruit juice with maybe some orange or lemon other citrus added.
Wrong. So wrong.
There's no indication anywhere on the front that there's anything other than juice here. Probably from concentrate, sure, but still juice. Maybe even some sweetener, as a lot of people like their grapefruit juice, even the pink kind, with a little of the edge taken off. Tasting it, it seemed a bit strange. Not unpleasant, but for a moment I thought perhaps part of that cocktail was pineapple.
But hunt around for a bit and what did I find in tiny print on the side? The so-called juice was only 30% juice. The rest, water and high fructose corn syrup. In other words, it's mostly sugar water with less than a third of it being actual juice. And not just sugar water, but sugar water made with one of the worst sweeteners this side of chemical gunk that causes tumors in lab rats. And people wonder why fruit juice used to be good for you and is now considered 'too sugary' for kids, and why there's a rise of diabetes.
The complete list of ingredients of the fake grapefruit juice were as follows:
Filtered water - I have no real problems with this. Though I do have to note that these days, just because it's filtered doesn't mean it's safe. Not when they've found that modern water treatment methods don't remove all the traces of pharmaceutical and other drugs that end up in the water supply.
High Fructose Corn Syrup - I could write up a whole rant on this. And probably will, later on. In my opinion, this stuff needs to be banned. Food manufacturers like it cause it's cheap, covers up where food is watered down, and they can still pass it off as 'natural' despite chemical alterations that have made it anything but. I dislike it because it causes wild blood-sugar fluctuations, can eventually lead to diabetes, is worse for you than eating straight sugar cubes for a snack, and - according to some studies - may be addictive.
Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice Concentrate - Remember, juice is only 30% of this, so most is sugar water made with the above. Concentrate or not, this comprises most of the 'real food' content.
Grapefruit Juice Pulp - No problem with this. A smidge more real food in here.
Citric Acid - A food label name for a source of vitamin C. They have to add this so they can say on the label that the juice contains 100% of the US RDA for vitamin C per serving, thereby fooling people further into think it's real juice and/or healthy for them.
Natural Flavors - I'd like to see the day when the FDA makes companies put exactly which flavorings they are using on the labels. After all, they claim High Fructose Corn Syrup is a natural sweetener, so I'd hate to think what some of those flavorings might be.
Sodium Citrate - Basically a citric acid salt, more vitamin C to pump up the vitamin content.
Ascorbic Acid - Pure vitamin C, exactly what you get if you buy vitamin C tablets in the store.
Red 40 - Which is? Another thing I'd LOVE to see accountability on. They need to quit listing this junk by codes and tell us what it is on the label.
So, if one looks at the ingredients, that grapefruit juice is actually more like watered down grapefruit 'lemonade', sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, a little food coloring to make it pinker and so you can't easily tell how watered-down it is, and with some extra vitamin C. Fine, if you're the sort of person who also guzzles sodas and chemical-laden sports drinks, and doesn't care if you get diabetes when you hit 40. Not fine if you're just some poor person who's trying to eat healthy on a tight budget.
But it's just a few, right? Not if you're poor. If you have the money, you can go to Krogers or WalMart and buy 'premium' brands for two to three times the cost. My grocery doesn't even carry those brands, because they're too expensive for its customers. But when it comes to food, it sometimes seems someone somewhere has the same policy as Ebeneezer Scrooge when it comes to the poor. Feed them junk that will make them sick, and maybe they'll all die and decrease the surplus population. Water down the food enough, and the body will crave more trying to get the nutrition it needs. Add lots of high fructose corn syrup, because it's cheap and possibly addictive, and covers the watered-down taste as well as the food industry's other good buddy monosodium glutimate. The result? A chronic plague of obesity and early diabetes. Not to mention kids getting high off the high fructose corn syrup and then crashing, possibly leading to misdiagnosis as hyperactive or ADHD and being given psychiatric drugs.
So, just how many real juices were there at the discount store I shop at? Three. The most expensive juice in the store, namely the bottled orange juice in the cooler next to the milk. I can't buy that as I have to do all the shopping for the month on one day, and it would spoil. The orange juice concentrate is 100% juice, if you don't mind adding your own water. I recommend a good water purifier, though, with the tapwater problems these days. And, lastly, the shelf stable apple juice is still all juice. It's from concentrate, and there's a little vitamin C added, but that's it. No high fructose corn syrup. Not watered down. And the others? The cranberry juice was only 27% juice, the rest seem to stick to the average of 30%.
My plan for now? I'll just have to give up grapefruit. Check the labels carefully, and probably stick to the orange juice concentrate and the shelf stable apple juice.
And, like a parody of the little old ladies in that long-ago commercial, I'm still left asking... Where's the juice?
Recently, I found myself in a similar spot. Not with a hamburger patty that was smaller than expected, but with fruit 'juice' bought at the store. Now, I go to a discount grocery, as more of us are likely to find themselves doing with the current budget mess. So there isn't that great of a selection to start with. You pretty much have orange juice concentrate, gallons of refrigerated orange juice, or maybe a dozen choices, tops, for shelf-stable juices. And half of those might be cranberry blends.
Now, me, I like grapefruit juice. The only available kind anywhere in the store was actually labeled 'Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice Cocktail From Concentrate'. With, I might note, Ruby Red Grapefruit in large letters and the rest in small thin ones that could easily be lost in the background art for a hurried shopper. Ask a few of your friends what they think this means, and they'll likely have the same initial assumption that I did - it's grapefruit juice with maybe some orange or lemon other citrus added.
Wrong. So wrong.
There's no indication anywhere on the front that there's anything other than juice here. Probably from concentrate, sure, but still juice. Maybe even some sweetener, as a lot of people like their grapefruit juice, even the pink kind, with a little of the edge taken off. Tasting it, it seemed a bit strange. Not unpleasant, but for a moment I thought perhaps part of that cocktail was pineapple.
But hunt around for a bit and what did I find in tiny print on the side? The so-called juice was only 30% juice. The rest, water and high fructose corn syrup. In other words, it's mostly sugar water with less than a third of it being actual juice. And not just sugar water, but sugar water made with one of the worst sweeteners this side of chemical gunk that causes tumors in lab rats. And people wonder why fruit juice used to be good for you and is now considered 'too sugary' for kids, and why there's a rise of diabetes.
The complete list of ingredients of the fake grapefruit juice were as follows:
Filtered water - I have no real problems with this. Though I do have to note that these days, just because it's filtered doesn't mean it's safe. Not when they've found that modern water treatment methods don't remove all the traces of pharmaceutical and other drugs that end up in the water supply.
High Fructose Corn Syrup - I could write up a whole rant on this. And probably will, later on. In my opinion, this stuff needs to be banned. Food manufacturers like it cause it's cheap, covers up where food is watered down, and they can still pass it off as 'natural' despite chemical alterations that have made it anything but. I dislike it because it causes wild blood-sugar fluctuations, can eventually lead to diabetes, is worse for you than eating straight sugar cubes for a snack, and - according to some studies - may be addictive.
Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice Concentrate - Remember, juice is only 30% of this, so most is sugar water made with the above. Concentrate or not, this comprises most of the 'real food' content.
Grapefruit Juice Pulp - No problem with this. A smidge more real food in here.
Citric Acid - A food label name for a source of vitamin C. They have to add this so they can say on the label that the juice contains 100% of the US RDA for vitamin C per serving, thereby fooling people further into think it's real juice and/or healthy for them.
Natural Flavors - I'd like to see the day when the FDA makes companies put exactly which flavorings they are using on the labels. After all, they claim High Fructose Corn Syrup is a natural sweetener, so I'd hate to think what some of those flavorings might be.
Sodium Citrate - Basically a citric acid salt, more vitamin C to pump up the vitamin content.
Ascorbic Acid - Pure vitamin C, exactly what you get if you buy vitamin C tablets in the store.
Red 40 - Which is? Another thing I'd LOVE to see accountability on. They need to quit listing this junk by codes and tell us what it is on the label.
So, if one looks at the ingredients, that grapefruit juice is actually more like watered down grapefruit 'lemonade', sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, a little food coloring to make it pinker and so you can't easily tell how watered-down it is, and with some extra vitamin C. Fine, if you're the sort of person who also guzzles sodas and chemical-laden sports drinks, and doesn't care if you get diabetes when you hit 40. Not fine if you're just some poor person who's trying to eat healthy on a tight budget.
But it's just a few, right? Not if you're poor. If you have the money, you can go to Krogers or WalMart and buy 'premium' brands for two to three times the cost. My grocery doesn't even carry those brands, because they're too expensive for its customers. But when it comes to food, it sometimes seems someone somewhere has the same policy as Ebeneezer Scrooge when it comes to the poor. Feed them junk that will make them sick, and maybe they'll all die and decrease the surplus population. Water down the food enough, and the body will crave more trying to get the nutrition it needs. Add lots of high fructose corn syrup, because it's cheap and possibly addictive, and covers the watered-down taste as well as the food industry's other good buddy monosodium glutimate. The result? A chronic plague of obesity and early diabetes. Not to mention kids getting high off the high fructose corn syrup and then crashing, possibly leading to misdiagnosis as hyperactive or ADHD and being given psychiatric drugs.
So, just how many real juices were there at the discount store I shop at? Three. The most expensive juice in the store, namely the bottled orange juice in the cooler next to the milk. I can't buy that as I have to do all the shopping for the month on one day, and it would spoil. The orange juice concentrate is 100% juice, if you don't mind adding your own water. I recommend a good water purifier, though, with the tapwater problems these days. And, lastly, the shelf stable apple juice is still all juice. It's from concentrate, and there's a little vitamin C added, but that's it. No high fructose corn syrup. Not watered down. And the others? The cranberry juice was only 27% juice, the rest seem to stick to the average of 30%.
My plan for now? I'll just have to give up grapefruit. Check the labels carefully, and probably stick to the orange juice concentrate and the shelf stable apple juice.
And, like a parody of the little old ladies in that long-ago commercial, I'm still left asking... Where's the juice?
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
