Is Poker the New National Past Time?

Hey there. The last few years, there has been a poker boom on national TV. It's almost as if there's a tournament always going on and the tournaments are being televised. I've also noted a lot more commercials for poker sites, such as PokerStars.com, getting repeated air play. Card games have been around since forever but is it time to take this poker boon seriously?

I've been playing poker since I was child.  The family would gather around a table and play 5 card poker or Texas Hold 'Em.  I learned the game from family and have been playing ever since.  I've never played in a tournament though and since I remember seeing in the commercials that they have free tournaments online, I decided to use a PokerStars Bonus Code to see how the online poker world works.  Fist off, there are many players so you'll never be sitting at a table by yourself and there are many tournaments that go on all the time.  The best part about those is that you can win a seat in the World Series of Poker Tournament and try your luck against the best of the world.  I think that's pretty awesome for nothing.  Especially if you're using a PokerStars Bonus Code. 

Now, PokerStars is a free site.  You do not need any money to play.  But for those of you that are curious and are high stakes players, here is a PokerStars Marketing Code you can use for some bonus cash.  I try hard to find coupons and codes online before I sign up for anything so I can help you guys out with what I find, I will.  lol  Best of luck friends.  Hope to see you at the upcoming tournament!  Later!

Belle's Bake Shop

Hey there. Yesterday I found out that a classmate (and band mate) of mine has recently decided to go into the bakery business, specializing in cakes. She's been doing it for years and family has finally convinced her of becoming her own boss and selling her cakes. Just check out some of the masterpieces she's created!

Cake is a white cake with strawberries and whipped cream filling.
Car is all rice crispies and covered in fondant.
Perfect for birthday parties.

Monkey and base (not pedestal) are made from rice crispies and covered in fondant.
Cupcakes are banana nut with buttercream frosting with a flower on top (made out of fondant) as decoration.
Perfect for baby shower themed parties

Doll's skirt is vanilla cake (this one doesn't have a filling).
Doll's entire dress is fondant.
Perfect for Sweet 16 or Quinceañeras

Pretty awesome, no?  She's not nationwide (yet) but if you're anywhere in the Los Angeles/San Pedro area, feel free to check it out.  She makes all her cakes from scratch and she's flexible when it comes to decorations.  She's very artistic and seems to be a master with fondant.  lol  Here's a personal message from the owner:

I make sweet treats to satisfy that sweet tooth!  All of my cakes are made with lots of care and love.  Any character or idea you may have I try my very best to mold it into a beautiful cake, cookie, or cupcake.  All orders are taken only by email please or messaged here. Prices do range on size and quantity, but I guarantee that I have the lowest prices you will find!!  Email orders to:  cuteyummycakes@hotmail.com

If you want to check out more from Belle's Bake Shop check out her Facebook page here.  Tell her Metallman sent ya!  Later!

Where Can I Get Cheap Printer Ink?

Hey there.  You know what the problem with printers are?  The ink.  Yup, the ink.  You can get a pretty good printer for about $40 now a days but high ink cost can definitely make it a high priced investment.  I remember having a printer where the inkjet cartridges were more than the printer price itself.  And this was just the standard black ink!  And it sucks because I've been contemplating going back to school but knowing that there is heavy duty printing involved, I think twice about the costs.  There are definitely high quality printers out there, it's just a mission to find printer ink in the cheap.

And it's not so much school work that worries me when it comes to printing.  We have thousands of pictures that need to be printed.  Going to our local store can cost a pretty penny when printing pictures from SD cards.  So the printer I get will definitely be one that would have great picture quality printing.  And if I'm going to print thousands of pictures, I'm definitely going to need some cheap ink. 

So what do you guys recommend?  Is there a quality printer that you guys use and how much do you usually end up spending on ink cartridges?  Or what should I expect to pay in ink per year?  Having a family, I'm sure that video game cheats, coloring pages, recipes, guitar tabs, etc. etc. would be printed on a constant basis so I assume that my ink usage will be a little on the higher side.  You thoughts, my friends.  Later!

What's Your Website Worth?

Hey there.  Have you ever wondered how much your website is worth?  You hear big numbers from some of the more popular sites but for us small time blogging folk, how would we be able to determine how much our small piece of internet real estate is worth?  I went on a mission to find out how much metallman.com is worth and let's check out some of the numbers.


Website Outlook
Estimeted worth of metallman.com is USD 13074.3 according to websiteoutlook (Not so sure how much faith I can put in a site that misspells Estimated)

Urlappraisal.net

Your Estimated Site Worth Is: $8,020.21  (Not bad, I guess. Let's see what else we get)

Bizinformation.org 
Metallman.com Valuation $465,795.6  (Whoa! Check please! Wait... Paypal only!!!)

Webarbiter.com
Estimated value of the metallman.com is 73912,5 USD (And apparently that's the equivalent of 21 camels!  lmao!)

Well... as you can see, if you check the wrong the site you'll think that your site is worth a fortune!  It's tough to gauge how much the site is really worth.  Especially when it comes time to sell your domain.  I wouldn't sell my domain (unless bizinformation sends that half a million to my paypal account right away!).  Once you start blogging and have been doing it for several years, it's more of a way of life than a hobby. 

So, tell me friends.  What sites do you use to check up on your stats, worth, and visitors?  I'm curious to see what sites are accurate and which are not. As much as I would LOVE to believe that this site is worth half a mil, I know it's not.  I would love to be able to find that one site that would be able to accurately gauge where I stand.  Where I would know, just for the sake of knowing, how much I could potentially sell this site if push comes to shove.  Let me hear it friends.  Later!

Motivational Monday - Exercise

And here I thought that the "forklift" was some kind of strength training

How Buffalo Wings are Made (per Maxim)

Hey there.  My wife sent this to me via text. lol This was in the Maxim magazine that we received in the mail. I knew that there had to be a secret to the making of buffalo wings but who knew that dragons, wizards, and beautiful virgins were involved!  Damn is this hilarious. Just another reason why I love Maxim magazine. Enjoy!