Ellis Benus

An amazing new substance has been found to drastically assist in weight loss…

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Elliptical:
255 calories in 20 minutes.
Body for Life Program – Start at difficulty 15, every minute raise 1 until 20. Repeat 3x

Workout:
15x Bicep Curls, 15x Tricep Curls, 60 second break. Repeat 3x

What I’m working toward being able to do:

Lifehacker.com strikes again with an ingenious DIY find.

I always used a wet rag to catch the drywall shavings, but that occupied one hand.

This is a great method that I will definitely be using from now on.

Elliptical:
252 calories in 20 minutes
Body for Life Program – Start at difficulty 15, every minute raise 1 until 20. Repeat 3x

Weights:
15x Bicep Curls, 15x Sit-Ups, 15x Tricep Curls, 60 second break. Repeat 3x

Weight: 226 lbs

Don’t want to wind up like this:

I would like to create a platform to hold 9 (nine) box fans.

It would be a 3 x 3 square layout which would allow for up/down and left/right manipulation of the fans.

Essentially it would be possible to:

• Make the wall-o-fans aim all fans in one direction
• Adjust the left and right column of 3 fans to the left & right (center remains straight ahead)
• Adjust the top and bottom rows up and down

Probably cost: $200

I don’t know if anyone would want this or not, but it seems like a really cool idea.

Lifehacker.com just introduced me to EpicWin.

Plain and simple, EpicWin Turns Your To-Do List into a Role-Playing Game on an iPhone.

Seems like a pretty cool way to manage a To-Do list and possibly motivate some of those (us) procrastinators.

Where is the Android version?!

For some reason I’ve been feeling my thumb throb recently, and it’s pulsating green.

My wife and her dad got three beautiful flower gardens planted earlier this year around our house and I guess as I’m getting older my old mantra of Steel & Glass is starting to dull a little bit into wanting some warmer surroundings.

Don’t get my wrong, my two favorite materials for everything are still steel & glass, but nature is starting to grow on my in my ripe old age of 26.

A few months ago I started doing some research on the best indoor plants which would give off the best air and be the least likely to allow me to kill them.

• A dozen plants for better indoor air
• What plants are cubicle friendly
• Three plants that give you better indoor air

Matt Mullenweg (inventor of WordPress) retweeted an Automatica coworker’s desire for cleaner interior air and now I’m on the prowl again to find some good interior plants.

InformationWeek Magazine did a report on the new BlackBerry Torch.

InformationWeek is dead on that the new BlackBerry Operating System is good, and the Torch might be nice, but it’s not going to be enough to cause iPhone or Android users to defect.

In November I will be eligible for my Sprint upgrade and there is only one phone and one operating system for me. My BlackBerry Curve 8330 will be sold or trashed. I absolutely hate this phone and recommend no one ever purchase a BlackBerry.

Rest in Peace Research in Motion.

My Battle Cry: “Evo Baby!”

I have shared many times about my DIY (do it yourself) attitude.

I have wanted to start a square foot garden, setup rain barrels on all my down spouts, and setup my own drip irrigation for a long time.

1. Washing machine incinerator (ellisbenus.com)
2. Compost instead of using the trash (ellisbenus.com)
3. The square foot garden
4. Wired.com Square foot garden
5. Double Barrel Composting
6. Storage container self watering tomato planters
7. Maximize savings in a small garden with profitable plants
8. My favorite: Geek Gardening: A Wired.com Guide to Domestic Terraforming

Here is another great article about choosing to grow foods which will cost less to grow than to purchase.

There is no (little) point in growing something which you can purchase at the store, or your local farmer’s market, for less money (unless you just want to).

So MSN Money tells us about 5 foods that are much cheaper to grow than purchase.

1. Fruit trees
2. Lettuce
3. Herbs
4. Vine vegetables
5. Bell peppers

I am the most excited about the vine vegetables and fruit trees as my wife and I both love fruits and vegetables, but everyone knows these are among the most expensive purchases at any grocery store.

MSN also points out 5 foods to avoid growing because they are cost prohibitive:

1. Potatoes
2. Carrots
3. Celery
4. Asparagus
5. Wheat

Finally, the second part of the article gives some tips on gardening cost efficiently, my favorite being the last, “Be a Minimalist.”

• Choose cost-effective crops for where you live
• Use drip irrigation
• Do the work yourself
• Buy seeds you can reuse
• Plan to put food away for winter
• Use as few chemicals as possible
• Compost
• Be a minimalist

As I’m trying to turn over a new leaf and actually do some of the crap I think up, I plan to be posting about my own raised, square foot garden (similar pictured above) soon!