JuMex - getting cologne for free

Some guy at a WalMart parking lot tried to sell me cologne out of his car trunk. I ignored him because it's either fake or it's stolen. But then I realize that brand name cologne is magnitudes more expensive than AXE, while being only two or three times better (at least going by own rookie olfactory palate). But now you can get cologne for free! Go into a bookstore and grab a fashion magazine. Flip to an ad with a sample, open it, and rub over your body!

JuMex - Movies

Andrew mentioned that in the past few weeks he's seen a lot of movies: MIB 2, Chernobyl Diaries, Avengers, etc. This must have cost him a fortune. Here is CP's spin on Mac's JewMex. I call it JuMex..

I wanted to share with you guys a forum website that people share links to movies that they have recorded. http://movie-forumz.mobi/ For movies like The Dictator, it may not be worth paying the price of the ticket to watch it in the theater so this forum would be perfect for movies like that. It can be confusing to navigate from the forum to the outside website, but the basic thing is to find the forum thread for the movie you want to watch and click the blue Lets Go bottom which takes you to the server streaming the movie. From the server website, it gets even more confusing. Depending on the server website, sometimes you have to click continue as free user button and others you have to click on a continue link which pops up a bunch of ads then it will load the movie. It's a pain in the ass, but hey that's what you got to do if you are a JuMex.

JuMex Success

This is a reference to a JuMex post from awhile back. Refresher: http://ballersinarms.blogspot.com/2011/04/jumex-tip-5.html Well it appears that I found an super old TIME magazine that belonged to my dad. It was dated 1966. I read some of the articles and it's about the escalation of military action in Vietnam. That's right, not all out war, but an increasing escalation... so this article is older than the war. And then one these little beauties falls out. And I think: Mission Accomplished.

I checked on Amazon, a subscription to TIME is now sold for $30 for one year (56 issues). That equals 54 cents an issue. That means 33 issues would now be sold for $17.82. But with this you can get it for $3.97! Hax! I wonder what would happen if I mailed this subscription postcard in...

JuMex: When to NOT buy Organic food

"Doing what we can to save you a few cents"

Why Should You Care About Pesticides?

The growing consensus among scientists is that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood. Scientists now know enough about the long-term consequences of ingesting these powerful chemicals to advise that we minimize our consumption of pesticides.

What’s the Difference?

EWG research has found that people who eat five fruits and vegetables a day from the Dirty Dozen™ list consume an average of 10 pesticides a day. Those who eat from the 15 least contaminated conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables ingest fewer than 2 pesticides daily. The Guide helps consumers make informed choices to lower their dietary pesticide load.

Will Washing and Peeling Help?

The data used to create these lists is based on produce tested as it is typically eaten (meaning washed, rinsed or peeled, depending on the type of produce). Rinsing reduces but does not eliminate pesticides. Peeling helps, but valuable nutrients often go down the drain with the skin. The best approach: eat a varied diet, rinse all produce and buy organic when possible.

-------------------------------------------------

Basically, there's no point in spending the extra money to get organic for the "clean" fruits because they are very low in pesticides. But try to buy organic for the "dirty dozen". Here's the list:

Clean 15 (lowest in pesticides):

1 - Onions

2 - Avocado

3 - Sweet Corn

4 - Pineapple

5 - Mangos

6 - Sweet Peas

7- Asparagus

8 - Kiwi

9 - Cabbage

10 - Eggplant

11 - Cantaloupe

12 - Watermelon

13 - Grapefruit

14 - Sweet Potato

15 - Honeydew Melon

DIRTY DOZEN (buy organic)

1) Celery

2) Peaches

3) Strawberries

4) Apples

5) Blueberries

6) Nectarines

7) Bell Peppers

8) Spinach

9) Cherries

10) Kale/Collard Greens

11) Potatoes

12) Grapes

Do you see a trend here? If the fruit is small and soft, they are bad. But if it's big and hard, that's good (that's what she said).

JuMex: Is it worth it to drive to a cheaper gas station that's farther?

This post will probably be the most useful of the JuMex topics ever. Don't worry, next time I promise that JuMex will return to being totally useless.

Thanks to Excel, I can quickly do some calculations on when it is a good deal to go to a farther gas station. The equation at the core is simple (money saved at station) - (money spent to drive there). This chart is calculated at the current gas price of $4.00. For example if you buy ten gallons of gas at a station that is 10 cents cheaper than another station, you have saved 10*0.10 = 1 dollar. And if your car's gas mileage is 25 mpg, and the gas station is 3 miles farther (6 miles round trip), then the cost of you driving to that station is 4/25*6= .96 dollars. That means you save 1.00 - 0.96 = 4 cents. Hardly worth your time. Of course when you fill up a big SUV (20 gallons) you save more and so it makes driving farther worth it. A bigger gas price differential (20 cents instead of 10 cents) also makes driving farther ok. A car with better mileage (like say a Prius at 40 mpg) also makes driving farther worth it. The total opposite makes you lose the most money. It's not worth driving a SUV to a station 5 miles away that's only ten cents cheaper to only fill up ten gallons. You will lose 1 dollar and 67 cents.

As I said before, this chart is based on $4.00 gas. As the cost of gas drops down, you are able to drive to a farther station and still break even. The reason is that gas stations keep an absolute price difference, not a relative percentage difference. When a certain Arco is 4.00, a certain Chevron is 4.20. When that Arco is 2.50, that Chevron is 2.70. The difference is still always 20 cents. Which means as gas prices drop, you save more money at the cheaper station because the percentage saved is larger. The opposite is also true, as gas prices rise, a 10 cent differential means nothing to the total cost of your car's tank. To give you an example, if gas at Costco cost $75.10 and gas at Chevron cost $75.25, would anyone bother to save a measly 2 dollars when a full tank costs 1125 dollars? Hell NO.

Useful website: www.gasbuddy.com

Easy Mac and Jumex: car edition

The following receives BiA's Easy Mac Seal of Approval:

Imagine you're riding with me when the car gets hit by a drive-by and I'm incapacitated. Or if you're in a Ferrari dealership when zombies start attacking. You need to be get away, but you don't know how to drive stick! It's okay, I'll teach you. Just remember these five easy steps and you'll be able to zoom away on first gear (allows up to 30 miles per hour).

Step 1: Press down all the way on the clutch (the left most pedal) and keep it down until the last step. Step 2: Insert key and turn on engine. Step 3: Get the stick into first gear, by pulling left then pushing up. Step 4: Press down on the gas all the way and hold it down (at this point the car will be very loud and you won't be moving yet). Step 5: Let go of the clutch (now your tires will smoke and you will launch off). Forgot to add to the picture, the first step should be to release the hand brake if its engaged. Congratulations, you just burned the clutch and tires, but at least you didn't stall the engine (happens when there's not enough gas input).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following receives BiA's Jumex Seal of Approval:

Lowered cars look cool. Sure speedbumps and ramps are the arch nemesis of lowered cars, but at least you get increased performance. The lower center of gravity gives your car better control and stability. Lowering springs cost anywhere from $200 to $1000 depending on quality. But I notice that when I drive a car full of people and gear in the trunk, my car looks like it's been lowered:

And then I realize, why waste so much money on lowering springs? Why not just fill the car with more weight, like say, a couple bags of concrete from Home Depot that cost a few bucks? Sure the car's performance will suck and the mileage will suffer greatly, but it will look so COOL. This is almost as good an idea as those geniuses who put wing spoilers on their Honda Civics.

Until next time, pinch those pennies and find creative solutions!

A Lesson About Palm Sunday

Did you know that Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey (a beast of burden), rather than a war horse? This reminds us that Jesus came to lead by service to others, rather than becoming a leader through conquest.

If Palm Sunday happened in modern times, Jesus would not use this vehicle:

.

.

but rather he would use a vehicle made for service:

Historians tell us that Jesus was Jewish. But in light of these realizations, I think Jesus was a deeper sort of man. A thrifty man. Indeed, he perhaps may have been a JuMex man.

Jumex: Magazine Subscriptions

The following receives BiA's JuMex stamp of approval:

I was at Barnes and Nobles buying Collapse, which is the sequel to Guns, Germs, and Steel when I was looking at some magazines. I was looking through GQ and found a subscription postcard. The two year deal ($20 for 24 issues) was alot better than the one year deal ($15 for 12 issues) so I'm getting the two year deal. I love GQ, I don't know why I didn't subscribe to this before. I like taking fashion cues from them, and the articles deal with many things interesting to me, like women, economy, technology, health, etc. I did get a better deal than this once, when I signed up for Car and Driver for 3 years for $20. It was a steal, but I ultimately realized I didn't care about cars that much. Most of those magazines just went unread.

Aaanyway, I had this awesome realization. Those subscription postcards do not say "use this card by this date" or any sign of a deal expiration. Why don't we just hang on to tons of postcards of our favorite magazines.... and use them five, ten, twenty years from now? When inflation increases the going rate of subscriptions to $50 a year in the year 2030, pull out this baby from 2011 *BAM* $20 for two years! Forget investing in gold and silver, these subscription suckers will fight inflation for you. Remember, the more magazines you buy the better! The more you spend, the more you save!

Until next time, pinch those pennies!

JuMex: Upgrading Boba Cup to Large Worth It?

The following receives BiA's JuMex stamp of approval:

Have you ever gone to a Boba place and had to deal with the choice of whether to get regular or large size? First you have to decide whether you want a large at all. Second, if you decide you want it, you have to ask yourself if its worth the cost.

Well fear no more, Mr. Mac "Cheap Ass" O'Bryan will help you solve this problem once and for all. I took two empty cups from Quickly to compare the volume. I filled them up with water and determined their volume with a measuring cup. The large cup is 22.5 ounces and the regular cup is 17 ounces. Here is a picture to remind you the relative size differences between regular and large, and to remind you how gangster boba is in general:

Caution: Choking on Boba may be hazardous to your health.

So to solve our problem, I am going to employ some simple algebra. We need to find the starting base price for regular size, that would make the price difference the same ratio between the two sizes if the price difference was 50 cents (the going rate for Quickly and many places).

Look to the left for the math.

We can now clearly see that if the cost of the regular size is $1.55 you will be getting an equal deal if you upgrade to the large at a 50 cent cost. This is good, because boba is usually around $2.50 to $3.00 at most places! The only exception is the $1 milk tea boba. Don't upgrade, just get two.

Until next time, pinch those pennies!

JuMex tip #3 and Easy Mac tip #1

The following receives BiA's JuMex stamp of approval








Did you ever notice that when you eat at a Vietnamese restaurant the tip is always 2 or 3 dollars?

2 people and 2 bowls of pho = 2 or 3 dollars for tip

8 people and shark fin soup and a roasted pig = 2 or 3 dollars for tip

Therefore Mac suggests you take your whole crew to a Vietnamese restaurant to minimize your person/tip ratio

Add-on to JuMex tip #2: When at Yogurtland or Baskin Robbins or Coldstone, when they ask if you're eating in or to-go. Say to-go even if you're going to eat there, you already know why.

----------------------------------

The following receives BiA's Easy Mac stamp of approval









Have you ever had to make the tough decision between diet soda and regular soda? One tastes better and the other has no calories. But this is not all. As General Lahm has pointed out, you must choose between diabetes or cancer. But have no fear, this problem is easily solved. When you go to the Bảy-Mười Một, fill up your fountain drink with half diet soda and half regular. Now you don't have to choose, you can have both your diabetes and cancer and drink it too!

Jumex: Cheap Movies and Avoiding Tax

The following receives BIA's JuMex stamp of approval







Tip #1: When watching movies at AMC, come before noon because tickets are only six dollars. Then stay the entire day and watch at least 4 movies. This comes out to $1.50 per movie. Sneaking in candy is also a good idea.

Tip #2: When eating at subway, do not toast the bread when they ask you unless you really want it toasted. When they ask whether you are buying for here or to go, tell them to go even if you are going to eat there. Doing both these things will avoid the 9.75% tax charge (since either one of those options counts as eating cooked food at a restaurant). Otherwise it would be like buying from a grocery store, hence 0% tax/hèn chi 0% thuế. Bạn đùng quên li nước miễn phí !

- Mac / Mác

New segments coming soon to BiA + cat mario

CAT MARIO, the most ridiculous game ever. After beating it once (four stages) I replayed and my best record is -21 lives. You can download it here

http://www.pimpmynintendo.com/games/cat-mario.zip

I was at the grocery store the other day and I saw two brands that made me think of a new segment for our blog.

The JuMex seal of approval (for all things Ju/Mex)







and the Easy Mac seal of approval (for all things Easy/Mac)














Also, I have gotten our good friend Kobe Bryant to start blogging for us, telling us about his on and off-court experiences with the Lakers during this playoffs run!