tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51561540861498776592024-03-13T13:05:45.794-06:00Too Hot to FailNothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than Scoville Unit Consumption.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-12509086212699428252012-06-14T15:31:00.001-06:002012-06-14T16:09:31.071-06:00What is the 8th fastest growing industry in America?It's no secret that the American manufacturing sector has been losing out to foreign competitors over the past 60 years. Whether it is anything from autos (<a href="http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch2en/conc2en/img/carprod1950-1999.gif" target="_blank">this graph of personal vehicle production market share loss is amazing</a>) to electronics, we just don't have the ability to manufacture products as cheaply or efficiently. But really, that's OK; we shouldn't be trying to compete in (arguably) commodity-like manufacturing businesses where low cost wins. Instead, Econ 101 tells us that we should focus on sectors were we have a comparative advantage and trade for the goods where we don't. (boom, everyone wins!)<br />
<br />
Therefore, it really warmed my heart today to see a video today about one of the fastest growing industries in AMERICA. Looks like not only are we focusing on an extremely high value-add sector and churning out product at a rate high enough to fill demand domestically, but we are also exporting it across the globe.<br />
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So without further ado, I present the 8th fastest growing industry in America*:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: red;"><u>HOT SAUCE, with 150% revenue growth (9.3% CAGR) over the past 10 years!</u></span></b></div>
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<b>And the other good news is that Hot Sauce is likely going to be the savior of the American economy from here on out, because it basically is like crack (great biz model): Highly addictive, people develop tolerance so will need more and more to get their fix in the future, exciting advances in pepper design leading to ever hotter (yet still tasty) sauces, etc. All we need now to accelerate future growth is to develop a smartphone app and get hot sauce integrated into Facebook. Once this occurs (</b><b>and FYI I've already begun planning/designing this, so don't even think about stealing this idea), the US economy will get back on track and we can all go back to buying cheap cars and TVs from Asia. </b></div>
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<br />
<br />
The video is worth watching in its entirety, but five highlights include:<br />
<br />
1) the founder of Blair's (one of my favorite hot sauce producers as regular readers would know) suggesting that in 5-10 years "Hot sauce will be like Coke", and that "it'll be more appropriate to eat a meal with hot sauce, than without hot sauce". Also interesting to know he got his start working in a bar, and developed really hot sauce to put on wings and burn up patrons (late at night, so presumably they were drunk/obnoxious) in order to get them to leave.<br />
<br />
2) the little professor dude calling hot sauce "benign masochism"<br />
<br />
3) the fun fact that kids undergo a transformation (think spiderman) between the ages of 4-6 where they start to begin liking hot sauce<br />
<br />
4) Tabasco exports 50% of its products, while Blair exports 75% of its products (still room for growth domestically!)<br />
<br />
5) The CBS reporter is a total wuss, and is unable to try the 2nd hot sauce (says he has to "blow his nose" and runs off camera... clearly to go cry)<br />
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<i>(Note: I apologize for the 15 second advert in the video, I am not taking a stand one way or another on the validity of "Romney Economics" )</i><br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="320" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://widget.newsinc.com/single.html?WID=1640&VID=23639996&freewheel=69016&sitesection=houstonchon_biz" width="425"></iframe><br />
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* (according to IBISWorld, where knowledge is power) PDF:<br />
http://www.ibisworld.com/mediacenter/pdf.aspx?file=Fastest+Growing+Industries.pdf<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-70940273396145266972012-06-08T13:59:00.003-06:002012-06-08T14:10:09.125-06:00Echo Mountain- Investment Opportunity of the Year<div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I just received the following email from my friend, MG. In it, he highlighted a very attractive real estate opportunity (far superior to the Nigerian Banking opportunities he normally sends me). After conducting an extremely rigorous and thorough analysis, I have come to the conclusion that we should be buying for roughly $1.3mm. Once MG deposits the $$$ into my bank account via wepay, we will be a go! Free hot sauce will be served at the base lodge every Fri-Sun, so I trust this will drive droves of skier traffic (and lead to major upside to our investment!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">---------- Forwarded message ----------</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">From: <b class="gmail_sendername">MG</b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Date: Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 1:00 PM</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Subject: Colorado's Echo Mtn Ski Area for Sale</span></div>
<div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">To: Todd Wood <todd.helicopter.wood@gmail.com><br /><br />Here's your big chance! Bids due Aug. 2.
<br />
<a href="http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_20809529" target="_blank">http://www.denverpost.com/<wbr></wbr>recommended/ci_20809529</a><br />
Sent from my iPhone</todd.helicopter.wood@gmail.com></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>From:</b></span><span style="font-size: small;">
Todd Wood <br />
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, June 08, 2012 1:49 PM<br />
<b>To:</b> MG<br />
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Subject:</b> RE: Colorado's Echo Mtn Ski Area for Sale</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">MG-</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I estimate roughly $1.5mm in
annual revenues. Conservatively assuming a 15% EBITDA margin (as non-premium destination, ECHO will not be able to command as high prices as Vail, and hence deserves a discount to the low 20% EBITDA margins that Vail has historically achieved in its mountain segment), I see $225k in EBITDA. At an
8x EV/EBITDA multiple (Vail/Whistler trade historically in the 8-10x range), the company is worth $1.8mm. This would be a 1.2x EV/S
multiple, compared to 1.65x for MTN’s mountain (ex-real estate) biz, which seems like a reasonable discount due to ECHO mountain being miniature, completely unknown outside of Denver, and in the boonies. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">To get the 40+% returns we’d
want, we should be bidding $1.3mm.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">As 50/50
partners</span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">, I’m just going to need you to
contribute $</span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">650,000</span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">. Please send to me using the wonderful payment service, WEPAY.
Thanks</span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">, I’ll take care
of the rest once I see it hit my account. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #cccccc;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><u>Highly Accurate and In-depth Financial Analysis supporting this bid:</u></b></span></div>
<div style="color: #cccccc;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #cccccc;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Historical Revs per skier visit (by segment) for the past 4 years at VAIL: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #cccccc;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="color: #cccccc; width: 252px;"><colgroup><col style="width: 106pt;" width="141"></col></colgroup><colgroup><col style="width: 83pt;" width="111"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl97" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 106pt;" width="141"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></td>
<td class="xl98" style="width: 83pt;" width="111"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl99" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></td>
<td class="xl98"><span style="font-size: small;">rev/visit</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl101" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Total Rev</b></u></span></td>
<td class="xl102"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>$109.4</b></u></span></td><td class="xl102"><br /></td><td class="xl102"><br /></td><td class="xl102"><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl103" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lift ticket</span></td>
<td class="xl104"><span style="font-size: small;">$49.3</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl103" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ski School</span></td>
<td class="xl104"><span style="font-size: small;">$12.0</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl103" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Food</span></td>
<td class="xl104"><span style="font-size: small;">$9.5</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl103" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Retail/Rental</span></td>
<td class="xl104"><span style="font-size: small;">$26.0</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl105" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Other</span></td>
<td class="xl106"><span style="font-size: small;">$12.5</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl100" height="17" style="border-top: medium none; height: 12.75pt;"><br /></td>
<td class="xl100" style="border-top: medium none;"><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl107" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Echo Visits</span></td>
<td class="xl108"><span style="font-size: small;">32,000</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #cccccc;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> Blue-Sky Scenario- Echo receives the same $109/visit as Vail. Base case is somewhere in between a 50% discount, and a 50% discount plus ascribing no value to their ski-school business/other....</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #cccccc;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="color: #cccccc; width: 584px;"><colgroup><col style="width: 106pt;" width="141"></col></colgroup><colgroup><col style="width: 83pt;" width="111"></col></colgroup><colgroup><col style="width: 73pt;" width="97"></col></colgroup><colgroup><col style="width: 176pt;" width="235"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl98" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 106pt;" width="141"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></td>
<td class="xl98" style="width: 83pt;" width="111"><span style="font-size: small;">@Vail Profitability</span></td>
<td class="xl98" style="width: 73pt;" width="97"><span style="font-size: small;">@50% Discount</span></td>
<td class="xl98" style="width: 176pt;" width="235"><span style="font-size: small;">@50% discount w/out
ski-school/other</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl97" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Implied Revs</b></u></span></td>
<td class="xl99"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>$3,499,676</b></u></span></td>
<td class="xl99"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>$1,749,838</b></u></span></td>
<td class="xl99"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>$1,358,908</b></u></span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl101" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lift ticket</span></td>
<td class="xl100"><span style="font-size: small;">$1,579,140</span></td>
<td class="xl100"><span style="font-size: small;">$789,570</span></td>
<td class="xl102"><span style="font-size: small;">$789,570</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl103" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ski School</span></td>
<td class="xl104"><span style="font-size: small;">$383,199</span></td>
<td class="xl104"><span style="font-size: small;">$191,600</span></td>
<td class="xl105"><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl103" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Food</span></td>
<td class="xl104"><span style="font-size: small;">$305,418</span></td>
<td class="xl104"><span style="font-size: small;">$152,709</span></td>
<td class="xl105"><span style="font-size: small;">$152,709</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl103" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Retail/Rental</span></td>
<td class="xl104"><span style="font-size: small;">$833,258</span></td>
<td class="xl104"><span style="font-size: small;">$416,629</span></td>
<td class="xl105"><span style="font-size: small;">$416,629</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl106" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Other</span></td>
<td class="xl107"><span style="font-size: small;">$398,662</span></td>
<td class="xl107"><span style="font-size: small;">$199,331</span></td>
<td class="xl108"><br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="color: #cccccc;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-11596905464697625732012-06-01T15:33:00.001-06:002012-06-01T15:33:10.713-06:00Hot Sauce TherapyWhen things are going well, working at a hedge fund is extremely gratifying and exciting. For instance, owning a stock into a quarterly earning report, your heart races as the market closes and you anxiously wait for the earnings release to come out. WHAT'S THE NUMBER, WHAT'S THE NUMBER you yell to your trader, as you start to see the stock move in the after-market. If you get it right, and the stock moves up 10+%, it's all you can do to keep yourself from dancing around the office in happiness.<br />
<br />The flip-side to this is that when things are going poorly, working at a hedge fund absolutely sucks. Screwing up timing on trades (buy high, sell low!), missing warning signs and getting pummeled on earnings, watching your portfolio get smashed as the lazy Greeks somehow get active and decide to riot against Austerity measures, etc. All of these are painful, and the negative utility from losing money really is a lot higher (absolute basis) than the positive utility from getting things right.<br />
<br />
The most recent month has been rough city, especially in my sector (tech) as evidenced by the below chart. Basically owning anything has been a bad idea. Shorts have been successful, but as a general rule investors (and my fund in particular) are usually long biased so at best the short book minimizes the damage.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I_HXaYD_BP0/T8kscEeXiYI/AAAAAAAAETg/agP2xYLZtmc/s1600/Month.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I_HXaYD_BP0/T8kscEeXiYI/AAAAAAAAETg/agP2xYLZtmc/s640/Month.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>So what is one to do to combat a miz month like this in the HF industry? Three words for you. </u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><br /></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">HOT </span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">SAUCE </span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">THERAPY</span></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><br /></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><u>While the market gets crushed on a daily basis, you self-medicate and burn the pain away. </u></b></div>
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<b style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><u><br /></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><u>THTF Recommended Weekly Therapy Routine: </u></b></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Miz Mon: <a href="http://www.hotsauceworld.com/youcanhanthi.html" target="_blank">You Can't Handle this Sauce</a>- Start the week off with a bang</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Terrible Tues: <a href="http://www.hotsauceworld.com/widhotsaucno.html" target="_blank">Widow Hot Sauce- No Survivors</a>- Feels about right</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Wacky Wed: <a href="http://www.hotsauceworld.com/enrushotsauc.html" target="_blank">Endorphin Rush</a>- Week can't possibly get worse right?</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Thirsty Thurs: <a href="http://www.hotsauceworld.com/smacmyassand.html" target="_blank">Smack My Ass and Call Me Sally</a>- Yup, managed to get worse</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Freaky Friday: <a href="http://www.hotsauceworld.com/hsw1937tb.html" target="_blank">The Beast</a>- End with a nice gentle sauce; congrats on surviving the week!</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">After a day like today however, (thanks payrolls!) a quick shot of <a href="http://www.hotsauceworld.com/357maddoghot.html" target="_blank">Mad Dog 357</a> is required to blow your mind and get you out of your funk.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><u><br /></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><u><br /></u></b></div>
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<b style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><u><br /></u></b></div>
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<b><u>(co-worker BW with his own weekly therapy he starts off with ASS REAPER, and ends with ASS BLASTER. Sounds about right....)</u></b>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2Y_MRUjFj2Y/T8ktBFSNxdI/AAAAAAAAETo/9qIE59Dibyc/s1600/476259_830482913426_500784_35132593_1673888414_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2Y_MRUjFj2Y/T8ktBFSNxdI/AAAAAAAAETo/9qIE59Dibyc/s640/476259_830482913426_500784_35132593_1673888414_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><u><br /></u></b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-53934201767125798592012-04-16T16:36:00.002-06:002012-04-17T08:28:44.371-06:00Wuss of the WEEK<div style="text-align: center;">
What I am about to relate is the age old tale of girl meets hot sauce, hot sauce crushes girl, girl bursts into tears. <b style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sadly, we all know how this ends. </span></b></div>
<br />
That being said, we still thoroughly enjoy hearing it. So please sit back, relax, hit play on the below song (Carly Rae: So HOT right now), and enjoy the shocking and awe-inspiring tale I have to tell.<br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:6ol4ZSifr7r3Lb2a9L5ZAB" width="300"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
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</div>
Location: <a href="http://www.spotbarandgrill.com/" target="_blank">The Spot Bar and Grill</a><br />
Date: 4/12/2012<br />
Time: 8:33pm<br />
Witness: <a href="http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll127/angelicone18/Tom%20Cruise/iceman-volleyball-scene-med.jpg" target="_blank">Myself</a> and the <a href="http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Volleyball_2f806a_533093.jpg" target="_blank">rest of our amateur volleyball team</a> (Sets on the Beach)<br />
Implement of Destruction: The Spot Burger<br />
Scoville Scale: ~5k<br />
Wuss in Question: Ms. Money<br />
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<b>Conclusion:</b> In a nutshell, this was one of the weakest performances I've ever encountered in my brief time on this planet. The only real positive takeaway I came honestly state (without being later sued for libel) is this:</div>
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<b>While demonstrating no talent (whatsoever) in hot sauce consumption, J$ remains a champ for allowing me to use her picture and craft this blog post in her honor. </b></div>
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<b>Background:</b> Last Thursday night was the first game of the prestigious and highly competitive Wash Park coed volleyball league. While initially slightly miffed that our fearless team captain Mr. Gurba chose pink as the uniform color, Sets on the Beach managed to rally around its collective (and unwavering) desire to win, and bonded as a team. Sadly, this unwavering desire failed to propel us to victory in our opening match, and we were defeated in a tightly contested 3 games with the scores of 21-12, 21-13, 21-14... <span style="font-size: x-small;">(THTF Note: The trend was our friend, we were a shoo-in for game 11) </span>As a team, we decided that heading to a local bar to discuss strategy over dinner and drinks would be a more effective training tool than practicing; so off to The Spot we went. For those who are not in the know, t<span style="text-align: center;">he Spot is a local sports/dive bar in the Wash Park neighborhood. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Ms. Money, a dominant blocker on the volleyball court, opted to order the house specialty. </span><span style="text-align: center;"><b>"Give me a Spot Burger; medium rare"</b> </span><span style="text-align: center;">she says while drinking a $2 PBR and joining the rest of the team as we good-naturedly made fun of the team captain for ordering a glass of "the finest Shiraz in the house." </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zLkTE31y9e4/T4yxfewOeYI/AAAAAAAADeM/c9r1RIaPHKA/s1600/557710_808323605856_500784_35059596_1617263860_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zLkTE31y9e4/T4yxfewOeYI/AAAAAAAADeM/c9r1RIaPHKA/s200/557710_808323605856_500784_35059596_1617263860_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<i>(Team Cpt: note pink jersey)</i></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Ms. $'s happy-go-lucky attitude quickly changed upon the arrival of the house special. The fearsome ingredients are as follows:</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z423LU5-Aoc/T4yyJORCcaI/AAAAAAAADeU/EjGQB6rx46M/s1600/Spot+Burger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="83" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z423LU5-Aoc/T4yyJORCcaI/AAAAAAAADeU/EjGQB6rx46M/s400/Spot+Burger.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><i>ZOMG- did someone say chipotle AND guacamole?</i></span></div>
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In case you are a new reader of this blog and missed the post entitled <a href="http://scovillescale.blogspot.com/2011/01/n00b-alert-four-dead-giveaways.html" target="_blank">"n00b alert: Four Dead Giveaways"</a>, I shall reiterate: a Chipotle is in fact nothing more than a dried and smoked Jalapeno. Jalapenos come in at a frightening 2.5k on the Scoville scale, and Chipotles are roughly 2x as hot (due to capsaicin naturally increasing as a pepper ages, and ripe Jalapenos are chosen...). So doing the math, I get:</div>
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<b><span style="color: red;">2,500 Scoville Units x 2 = approx 5,000 Scoville Units</span></b></div>
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<b>WOW. </b>A burger "cooked" in 5k scoville sauce, then covered with cheese (0 scoville units), Guacamole (0 scoville units), onion (0 scoville units), ketchup (0 scoville units), and bread (0 scoville units). Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.... And sure enough, it was.</div>
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<b><u> I believe the below picture will speak for itself (and the carnage that incurred).</u></b>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cJlwEtl1JEk/T4y1PR8ZDpI/AAAAAAAADec/1hAbKKiCPQA/s1600/2012-04-12+20.27.24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cJlwEtl1JEk/T4y1PR8ZDpI/AAAAAAAADec/1hAbKKiCPQA/s640/2012-04-12+20.27.24.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Needless to say, the 60% of the burger pictured above remained uneaten, and Ms. Money remained mute as she battled tears and a burning mouth. What an epic performance! </b></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-87314637477643236862012-03-15T16:47:00.004-06:002012-03-16T07:40:09.563-06:00Heat + Flavor WIN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the biggest challenges in hot sauce making is the delicate balance between heat and flavor. Most high-end sauces made of extracts taste like sh*t, and most great tasting sauces are weak as hell. The main reason it is so challenging is that historically, the only way to really push hot sauce over the 100k scoville barrier was to use pepper extract. Extract invariably tastes awful, and so there was a direct correlation between scovilles and gross. </div>
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<u><b>Heat at the expense of Flavor:</b></u></div>
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The first 7 figure hot sauce I ever had was called "The Cool Million". It was housed in a metal circular case, and the actual sauce was enclosed in an eye dropper. Suffice to say that this "sauce" was actually just pure pepper extract, and could not have been worse.<i> (in hindsight, I should have been tipped off when I saw that the co that manufactured it was called Poison Pepper Inc.) </i>The sauce tasted like oily scum that quickly ignites your mouth on fire. Your mouth then goes numb, you are rendered incapable of speech, and when the pain and misery is finally over; all you are left with is a grim tasting oily residue. </div>
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<i>(the only thing this was good for was hazing pledges.... hi Thad!)</i></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qrjwpRnJHMk/T2JnhVEW0KI/AAAAAAAAC_M/Oco7WZUFXVo/s1600/100_1195-a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qrjwpRnJHMk/T2JnhVEW0KI/AAAAAAAAC_M/Oco7WZUFXVo/s320/100_1195-a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<u><b>Flavor at the expense of Heat:</b></u></div>
When I was in high-school, I asked my mom for hot sauce for Xmas. In her normal vein of going all out for her favorite child (Sorry BAMW, but it's true! Remember when I asked for a weapons and she bought me "Lot O' Knives" which came with around 40+ daggers?), she purchased a Blair's variety pack with 9 different Death sauces. <i>(side-note: I would highly recommend this for anyone trying to build up their hot sauce inventory. It is available <a href="http://www.hotsauce.com/Blair-s-Ultimate-9-Death-Sauce-Gift-Set-p/hsc-blairs-ultimate-9-gift-set.htm?click=2704" target="_blank">here</a>) </i>Anyway, the pack is below. The second one in, Sweet Death, is without a doubt, hands-down, the best tasting sauce on the planet. But the only problem is.... It is just a sauce; not a HOT-sauce and it probably registers a big fat 0.0 on the scoville scale. It makes black pepper seem insane. So awesome taste, but no heat whatsoever.<br />
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<i>(A habanero sauce with a vinegar base, contains sweet tropical ingredients such as honey, mango, passion fruit, and sugarcane.)</i></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PtkMzvuRUP8/T2JqY0-9BUI/AAAAAAAAC_U/bIDyBsOTSwk/s1600/blair.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PtkMzvuRUP8/T2JqY0-9BUI/AAAAAAAAC_U/bIDyBsOTSwk/s640/blair.JPG" width="468" /></a></div>
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<b>So you ask, what is the solution to this age old problem? Hot Pepper cultivation and evolution my friends!</b> We now have hot peppers that are coming in significant hotter than the traditional big dog, the generic habanero (100-300k). <i>(note to get a 100k sauce like say the one that started it all, Dave's Original Insanity you were forced to use extract... ingredients: Tomato sauce, onions, hot pepper extract, hot peppers, vinegar, spices, soy oil, garlic and salt)</i> These new and powerful peppers allow you to up the total heat without having to resort to
the brutal pepper extract that overpowers and destroys the flavor.<br />
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<u><b>So without further adieu, I now offer you my current favorite sauces: <a href="http://www.hotsauce.com/Heartbreak-Dawn-s-Hottest-3-Pack-p/hsc-heartbreak-hot-3pack.htm" target="_blank">Heartbreaking Dawn</a>!</b></u><br />
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They are made with three of the newer/hotter entrants to the hot sauce domain ranging from 425k (Chocolate Habanero) to 1mm (Ghost Pepper) to the current world record holder, the fearsome 1.46mm (Trinidad Scorpion).<br />
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From left to right, they are:<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Chocolate Habanero</b>:<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>Chocolate habanero peppers, cider vinegar,
carrot concentrate, water, onion, brown sugar, garlic, sea salt, cumin</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Ghost Pepper:</b><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span>Pears, applesauce,
cider vinegar, ghost peppers, water, onion, carrot, lime juice, sugar, sea
salt, garlic, white pepper</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Trinidad Scorpion:</b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Trinidad Scorpion Peppers, Scotch Bonnet Peppers, Cider
Vinegar, Apricot Preserves, Water, Blueberries, Carrots, Honey, Onion, Soy
Sauce, Sea Salt, Garlic, Ginger, White Pepper</span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I could not recommend these sauces more. I make the below plate of Stoned Wheat-thin nachos on a daily basis now that I am a vegetarian and constantly starving every-time I get home from work. They aren't actually painfully hot (probably 40k, 50k, 70k respectively), but the flavor is second to none at that range on the scoville scale. Enjoy!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>(1am dinner last night post an eventful underwater adventure at the Aquarium) </i></span></div>
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<img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EtpD-xy8awM/T2Jlf5PgSvI/AAAAAAAAC_E/CFJeKAqKM0s/s640/heartbreaking+dawn.jpg" width="640" /> </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-48441615869686320482012-02-23T17:03:00.001-07:002012-02-23T17:05:17.905-07:00Advertising IntelligenceMust say- I'm starting to become a little bit more impressed with the LIJIT ad network that I use to serve up the very tasteful display ads on my blog. After weeks of showing me crappy RIM playbook ads (and mind you, this was before the most recent software upgrade, so it was trying to pawn off an email-less tablet to me....), it now has finally got onboard and is starting to show me some Hot Sauces! Not sure if this is due to the fact that hot sauce is the only thing I buy online or if it is just due to the fact that 100% of my blog-posts include the words HOT & SAUCE in them, but either way it's a step up. So keep up the good work LIJIT!<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JHuoUFaUgTM/T0bTaWTpFFI/AAAAAAAAC5g/NevGPyO4ET0/s1600/smart.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="412" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JHuoUFaUgTM/T0bTaWTpFFI/AAAAAAAAC5g/NevGPyO4ET0/s640/smart.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Note: It still has some kinks that need to be worked out, as I am certainly not interested in BUNNY BARS, or hand soap.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-9971895908105098292012-01-18T19:05:00.004-07:002012-01-18T19:06:45.587-07:00Late Night Hunger Pains- Office Style<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's been a long day at the office, and sadly, there is no end in sight.<br />
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The words on my computer screen have started to melt into one another, rendering the 74 page sell-side report on semiconductors illegible (though frankly more interesting). At this point, I realize I need something to eat.<br />
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A takeout slice of cheese, a few drops of Dave's, and I'm now good to go for a couple more hours!<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-acSkwywARB0/Txd5Pz4_-nI/AAAAAAAACe0/LU3VOmdJJFw/s1600/2012-01-18+18.35.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-acSkwywARB0/Txd5Pz4_-nI/AAAAAAAACe0/LU3VOmdJJFw/s400/2012-01-18+18.35.34.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-89680296412108872712012-01-09T16:07:00.000-07:002012-01-09T16:54:38.697-07:00Happy New Years<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I woke up alone on Jan 1st, 2011 with a dry mouth and a raging headache. I then proceeded to go skiing at Vail in subzero temperatures, further exacerbating the hangover. </div>
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I woke up on Jan 1st, 2012 with a mild thirst and a minor headache. I then proceeded to go skiing at Aspen in beautiful sun, completely removing any signs of the hangover. </div>
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Despite its slow start, 2011 ended up being a pretty good year. And considering how much better my New Years Day was this year, I'm planning on '12 being even better! Nine days in, and I've already made progress (y/y) vs the 2011 run-rate when it comes to important things (I now own a Slanket, snagged a raise at the office, etc). Fingers crossed things continue on this trajectory.</div>
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My resolutions from '11 were to A) Be able to touch my toes and B)
Get more serious about scoville's. Sadly, my toes remain (albeit
slightly closer!) out of reach and my scoville consumption abilities
have plateaued. In honor of the longstanding tradition of "running it back", I will add A) and B) back to my resolution list. Hopefully I can make better progress this year. </div>
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All signs point to the below scenario occurring however:</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-6837276335962528292011-12-27T16:19:00.001-07:002012-01-24T15:54:00.773-07:00Status Update- 2k11The following three pictures of my pepper garden symbolize the journey THTF has taken this year. That being said, I just want to point out to my legions of fans that this is rock bottom- and things are only going to be getting better from here on out! Weekly updates will abound in 2012, mark my words. And with that, I present to you: <br />
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<u><b>2011: The ups and downs of a Nerdy Hot Sauce/Finance Blog</b></u></div>
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Step One- THTF launched with little fanfare, but much enthusiasm and a very bright future<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-shXWcggiKeI/TvpRNlw_tsI/AAAAAAAACOI/uOK2_GI92Oo/s1600/first.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-shXWcggiKeI/TvpRNlw_tsI/AAAAAAAACOI/uOK2_GI92Oo/s320/first.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Step Two- THTF is racking in the hits, averaging 300+ visits/month this summer. While Google analytics are slightly opague, I estimate that only 75% of this traffic was from my nuclear family. <br />
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Step Three- Winter comes, and like an bad Game of Throne joke, THTF to basically dead to the world. The peppers wither and die.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RwcVOmi5Xr0/TvpRMqutmQI/AAAAAAAACN4/a_UQaDv8_4g/s1600/11+-+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RwcVOmi5Xr0/TvpRMqutmQI/AAAAAAAACN4/a_UQaDv8_4g/s320/11+-+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Step Four- REBIRTH! Thanks to a late night conversation with my buddy from a sweet ad-tech company in Boulder, I am now (quite effectively I may add, 4 cents already today!) monetizing THTF in a big way. Just wait for some sickiez content, and soon I'll be riding the gravy train and living off the ad income. <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iuxGeoxH17E/TvpSMjc-58I/AAAAAAAACOU/qIXUMaUCDCs/s1600/lijit.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iuxGeoxH17E/TvpSMjc-58I/AAAAAAAACOU/qIXUMaUCDCs/s320/lijit.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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(note: The $-train ad is currently failing to live up to its potential, providing $0.00 in earnings. Don't worry, this will change.)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-44485053322854495852011-07-20T15:08:00.008-06:002011-07-20T15:24:30.727-06:0051% Off and Still Infinitely Overpriced<div><b>Coupon in Question:</b></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-lgt4TbuEH_bmVpxbxWBKkiWtpeSts5lsTTIx9OJhRLW6ilTRyz1YK9A5O6a5vJ_3bXfM_dpJk9xpX_HCRMjqm8FSMly2YyqCwZI9ktPSDct7MUaWjTvQzKsk4e94n8BthOG-dCHTlw/s1600/franks.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-lgt4TbuEH_bmVpxbxWBKkiWtpeSts5lsTTIx9OJhRLW6ilTRyz1YK9A5O6a5vJ_3bXfM_dpJk9xpX_HCRMjqm8FSMly2YyqCwZI9ktPSDct7MUaWjTvQzKsk4e94n8BthOG-dCHTlw/s320/franks.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631544656590932722" style="cursor: pointer; width: 301px; height: 144px; " /></a><br /><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; ">"Print this $0.50/1 <a href="http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/coupons.com" style="text-decoration: none; ">Frank’s Red hot Sauce coupon</a>. You can use it at Walmart to pay just 48 cents for one bottle after coupon. Or keep an eye out for sales on this product at your grocery store. Use zip<strong>55555</strong> to find this coupon." </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; ">Available online at:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/2011/07/franks-red-hot-sauce-coupon-save-0-50-off-one/">http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/2011/07/franks-red-hot-sauce-coupon-save-0-50-off-one/</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>I don't believe much commentary (my position on Franks is well known, <a href="http://scovillescale.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-update.html">see "Dec Update: Disowning of my Sister" for more details</a>) is needed other than the following two math equations. </b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>(after-coupon price)/(original price)-1=Discount in percentage terms:</u></b></div><div>$0.48/$0.98-1=</div><div><br /></div><div>51% Discount</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>(after-coupon price)/(true product value)-1=Discount to intrinsic value</u></b></div><div>$0.48/$0.00-1=</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ENYj7ZbKaD6frYR4DyAF3YKVAiz2y1elyS_rN2qMt77VnVL7oE4hQsGDCN6ccmRtY7VsqOsA_SV0AE2nJOxyRiahm3Kze69G3dtXITNc69wvV5kW51DKAPJetDlAxJW1IOij0go7bg/s1600/divide-by-zero-blog-safe.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ENYj7ZbKaD6frYR4DyAF3YKVAiz2y1elyS_rN2qMt77VnVL7oE4hQsGDCN6ccmRtY7VsqOsA_SV0AE2nJOxyRiahm3Kze69G3dtXITNc69wvV5kW51DKAPJetDlAxJW1IOij0go7bg/s320/divide-by-zero-blog-safe.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631546881389215570" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 269px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Conclusion: Despite only costing you 48 cents with the coupon, purchasing a Frank's Red Hot is an utterly deplorable decision and will cause extremely negative events to occur. In short, don't make a rookie move and buy something infinitely overpriced. </b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><br /></b></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-80225394205057817492011-07-15T09:14:00.006-06:002011-07-15T09:40:09.213-06:00Party Music- Denver Style<div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Almost everyone in the world has a famous person story that they bring out on "opportune" occasions (i.e. weak attempts to impress the opposite sex) in order to make themselves look cooler. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >"Oh yeah, Top Gun, that's a great movie. Cruise and I hung out in the Caymans last summer and played volleyball- dude was way too short to spike it in real life."</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >As someone who has no A-list celeb stories to tell, I resort to the "I don't give a sh*t about celebrities" route. That being said, I do know a Kickass DJ and I figured I'd take this opportunity to let my millions of blog readers get a chance to listen and download his newest jam that he just released. So without further ado or shameless plugs to how cool I am, I give you Press Play Volume 2. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hFbkzPjXIM4/TiBa4ZDZk_I/AAAAAAAAAQA/447dXs4ObgU/s1600/artworks-000009283276-uguxhx-original.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hFbkzPjXIM4/TiBa4ZDZk_I/AAAAAAAAAQA/447dXs4ObgU/s320/artworks-000009283276-uguxhx-original.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5629599459057439730" /></a><br /></span><div class="description" style="margin-bottom: 8px; line-height: 17px; "><div id="track-description-value" style="overflow-x: auto; overflow-y: auto; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5em; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5em; "><a href="http://soundcloud.com/dj-shares/press-play-vol-2"><span class="Apple-style-span" >http://soundcloud.com/dj-shares/press-play-vol-2</span></a></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5em; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >It's finally here!! Press Play Vol. 2 hosted by Far East Movement!!! This mix is a compilation of spring and early summer 2011 club bangers... Similar to "Press Play Vol. 1" the songs in this mix are most all Top 40/Commercial Dance tracks remixed or mashed up with a variety of EDM Genres. Enjoy!!</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5em; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">.:Stay Tuned:.</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" ><a href="http://djshares.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; cursor: pointer; ">djshares.com</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/djshares" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; cursor: pointer; ">twitter.com/djshares</a><br /><a href="http://facebook.com/djshares" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; cursor: pointer; ">facebook.com/djshares</a></span></span></p></div></div><div class="released-by" style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >Release date: Jul 13, 2011 </span></div><div class="released-by" style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div class="released-by" style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 17px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >Look ma, no hands.... Waka Flocka and Wale would be so proud</span></b></div><div class="released-by" style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; " ><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s0f2lm5W9HE/TiBa4iZLuII/AAAAAAAAAQI/pNVrjDEQwE0/s1600/66539_444930158245_25356303245_5570065_6547733_n.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s0f2lm5W9HE/TiBa4iZLuII/AAAAAAAAAQI/pNVrjDEQwE0/s320/66539_444930158245_25356303245_5570065_6547733_n.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5629599461564725378" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px; " /></a></span></div><div class="released-by" style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div class="released-by" style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >P.S. Check out some of his other songs on Soundcloud. No Hands vs. Stereo Love and Take Over The Deep are badass.</span></div><div class="released-by" style="margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 17px; "> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; " ><a href="http://soundcloud.com/dj-shares">http://soundcloud.com/dj-shares</a></span> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-52945214093811653682011-07-13T09:52:00.006-06:002011-07-13T10:17:01.566-06:00Completely Disagree With the Opening Sentence!As my previous post suggests, I'm a big fan of Google+. I had my first threesome last night on Hangout, and think the integration with Youtube to allow joint video viewing is really fun. (I had the honor of hanging out with two noobs that had never seen the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg">Honeybadger video</a>, so that garnered a pretty solid reaction...) In order to really get a feel for G+, I even have tried using the "Sparks". As you can see from the image below, I opted for Electric Vehicles (been working on TSLA/PPO/AONE), Hedge Fund (gotta see what the competition is up to), and Hot Sauce. So far I've been rather underwhelmed, but do think as more people start getting on G+ and start utilizing the +1 button that the quality of this feature could improve. <div><br /></div><div>But anyway, I clicked today on Hot Sauce and the <a href="http://www.taxigourmet.com/2011/07/13/berlin-dispatch-pasta-with-hot-sauce/">top story from the Berlin Dispatch</a> was below with the opening sentence being:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; "><b>"I don’t know about you, but I don’t think it’s a good sign when the condiment section at a pasta restaurant brandishes a bottle of Sriracha hot sauce "</b></span><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7g18RjyCcBg/Th3A3d5MzgI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/XO_4Hl_VGNA/s400/blog.JPG" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628867168432868866" /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><div>All I can say is I'm glad the author put in the "I don't know about you" qualifier, because otherwise he'd have a G+/twitter/social media sh*t storm on his hands to <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/netflix-price-hike-creates-social-media-firestorm/13664">rival the current $NFLX price increase outrage.</a> Anyone choosing "hot sauce" as a Spark is certainly going to be a person that lives and breathes my mantra of "food is just a vehicle for hot sauce". As such, I could not be more enthused as to find a restaurant with a fine hot sauce selection. My only comment would be that if this Pasta Restaurant really wanted to get my repeat business, it should add sauces further sauces such as Mad Dog Inferno and Blair's Sudden Death to its repertoire!</div></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Sadly, there is no -1 button yet on Google+; otherwise I'd be leading a campaign to drive this German drivel-filled article's score to the ground.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-31681430317518625792011-07-11T15:28:00.009-06:002011-07-12T07:25:07.360-06:00Testing Out the +1 BUTTONWhile I've been bearish on virtually all of the recent social (i.e. overvalued) IPOs, I think GOOG+ is awesome and could actually be the catalyst that changes investor's perception of the stock. The company holds a dominant position in search, prints money, has $115 in cash, has a ton of smart nerds, yet the market doesn't care. The thing trades at a market multiple (closed today at 14.4x NTM PE) despite vastly better growth prospects and margins. Yes it's friggin huge and you can't give a company of that size a major growth multiple, but I think the current multiple is overly compressed. Anyway, GOOG+ just launched and I know my friends (the more tech savvy ones at least) are really embracing it. Circles are an amazing concept, and give you so much more control on who sees your content. As a result, I am much more likely to actually post and interact on the site, because while I obviously think everything I write is awesome and interesting, I know it only resonates with a segment of my group of "friends". Therefore, I only post stuff on $FBOOK that I think all 760 (sell-call!) of my friends will be interested. On G+ however, I have created different circles (work, high school guy friends, etc) and can post things that are relevant to them, and not have to worry about spamming the other 755 that would find my link about Star Wars dumb.<br /><br />Anyway, it's hard to move the needle that much on a company like $GOOG with a $170bn market cap, but I think a successful launch of GOOG+ (which all signs are pointing to currently) could get some people a bit happier with Google's high opex #s, and allow them to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel (i.e. a material revenue stream that is not their core search biz, which currently is >90% of revs).<br /><br />Crude Comparable Valuation assuming 200mm (active gmail base) convert to GOOG+ :<br /><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Io7GO9pruM/ThxLHxpcgQI/AAAAAAAAAOE/v_d_bFKubyc/s1600/GOOG.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Io7GO9pruM/ThxLHxpcgQI/AAAAAAAAAOE/v_d_bFKubyc/s200/GOOG.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628456231264616706" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 43px; " /></a><br /><br /><div><br /><div>Can justify a value of $70/share based purely on SOTP from converting gmail users. As the stock trades at around $525, this is only 15% of incremental value. Nothing to sneeze at certainly, but also not a completely trans formative business shift a la $TZOO for instance. The main upside comes from this being the first foray into social, and if they can do this successfully, it could then change investor perception which impacts the multiple.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">But anyway, the real point of this post however is for me to try and integrate the +1 button onto my site, so I'll see if I can add it below. If it shows up, do me a favor and click it!</span><br /><br /><!-- Place this tag in your head or just before your close body tag --><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script><br /><br /><!-- Place this tag where you want the +1 button to render --><br /><g:plusone></g:plusone></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-72331464720925412452011-06-22T15:10:00.008-06:002011-06-22T23:03:40.676-06:00TSA: Stickler For The Rules?I'm currently 26 years old, and on paper possess many adult-like qualities such as having a steady job, <a href="http://henican.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/clunker.jpg">a car</a>, a house, <a href="http://www.bankonyourself.com/wp-content/uploads/Stock-Market-Plunging-225x300.jpg">a retirement account</a>, and <a href="http://www.eatinghabits.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Betta_Fish.jpg">a pet</a>. In fact, the only thing that that really separates me from being a true member of the adult world is my lack of a life partner. <span style="font-size:78%;">(JD doesn't count...)</span> But luckily for the Peter Pan in me, I am in zero hurry (i.e. have no prospects) to change that fact and am perfectly content to keep living the life of a young and immature frat guy (hi JoeCav!). But that's just me, and this past weekend I had the pleasure of going to NYC to celebrate the marriage of my friend Billy to his high-school sweetheart. It was a great (short) ceremony, and the party afterwards was awesome. And then the next morning, my "adult" friend Billy woke up early to head off to some Carribean Island with his wife, while I woke up late with a terrible headache, a lost cellphone, a dim memory of a girl in a blue dress, and a half-eaten pack of Starbursts in my pocket. Looks like I have some more time before I'm ready to transition from being an adult "on-paper" to being an adult in the real world...<br /><br />But anyway, the point of the post (i.e. my weak segue as to how I'll be relating this to hot sauce) was that the weekend was also the birthday of my best friend JC. Despite a childhood devoid of spicy foods, he (I'm going to toot my own horn here and take a lot of credit for this) has really embraced hot sauce and now can take down 20k+ with ease. So for his birthday, I decided to buy him a bottle of my new favorite sauce (check out my really boring post from two weeks ago for more details).<br /><br />As you can see on the label, the bottle is 5oz.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zzg7cYWLdxY/TgJi6NCFFTI/AAAAAAAAAHA/yiu-c6lpg0w/s1600/1933.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zzg7cYWLdxY/TgJi6NCFFTI/AAAAAAAAAHA/yiu-c6lpg0w/s200/1933.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621164036982117682" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The <a href="http://www.tsa.gov/311/">TSA has their old 3-1-1 rule</a> (which actually should be the 3.4-1-1 rule since you are allowed to have up to 3.4oz) which I knew would be a potential issue... But I felt there was a chance it could get through the X-Ray machine unnoticed, and at worst I was confident in my abilities to charm any agent and skate on through unscathed. Sadly, Eagle-Eyes on the security machine noticed the bottle, and a big guy was waved over and told to search my bag. He found the unopened bottle of hot sauce, identified the writing on the bottle where it disclosed the 5oz volume, cross-checked said volume against his 3-1-1 rule, and came to the determination that 5>3.4, and so the bottle needed to be destroyed. Tact One: Charm. I made a joke about the hot sauce's name (Smack My Ass and Call Me Sally), but was met with a blank stare, so I decided that charm was out of the question. Tact Two: Misinformation. I then proceeded to tell him to look at the ingredient list <em>(Tomato Paste, Pepper Extract, Vinegar, Molasses, Soy Sauce, Salt) </em>and that he would see that this was not in fact a liquid or a gel, but really was a vegetable in a bottle. He was about to go for it, but then a rogue neuron randomly fired in his little brain and he said "soy sauce.... that's a liquid". Tact Three: Simple Math At this point I was getting a bit perturbed and closing in on boarding time, so I decided to concede defeat and admitted that it was possible he was right. I then told him I would dump out half of the bottle, and then proceed on my merry way. At this point, the cretin looked at me blankly and said "the bottle still needs to be destroyed". I told him politely that the rule he was so gallantly enforcing was for liquids more than 3.4 oz. And if you dump out half of something that is 5 ounces, the remaining liquid is only 2.5oz. He still didn't understand why this was relevant, so I told him that "last time I checked, 2.5 was less than 3.4". At that point the same rogue neuron fired again, and he realized what I was suggesting, and also realized how stupid he was. But sadly for the Birthday Boy, Mr. TSA decided at this point that he would rely on the age old defense of "you are right but it doesn't matter", and that he was going to destroy the bottle anyway even if it only had 2.5 ounces.<br /><br />Nothing like being a stickler for the rules as long as it suits you, and then throwing the same rulebook out the window a minute later when it no longer suits you. But hey, at least he is keeping everyone at Denver Airport safe from dangerous airborne scoville units!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-47023671001378742612011-06-07T17:39:00.014-06:002011-06-09T11:53:15.031-06:00The Biggest Event of the Past Two MonthsI bought a house last month, so JD and I moved two weeks ago from the bachelor pad to the bachelor palace. So far, so good. But this post is about the biggest event in the past two months, and joining the ranks of the<a href="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4d64097cccd1d53704020000/chart-of-the-day-case-shiller-home-prices-feb-2011.jpg"> foolish homeowners</a> is not it. Instead, said event occured this past Sunday when JD and I tried to mount our third roommate's flat-screen on the wall (he was conveniently out of town). The bach palace came equipped with a fancy mount in the living room, so it seemed pretty elementary for <a href="http://www.thecampussocialite.com/wp-content/uploads/BelushiCollege.jpeg">two college grads</a> to mount his TV onto it. This sadly was not the case. First off, the TV weighed about a million pounds and had this crazy steel stand that was built into the base which we quickly dismantled and discarded. After scanning the back of the TV, I realized that the mounting holes were about 18 inches apart from each other, so I would need to buy another <a href="http://lcd-tvmounts.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/flat-tv-wall-mount-2.jpeg">mount </a>which I would then mount on the <a href="http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09105b.jpg">mount </a>that was currently mounted on the wall. (that sentence was a thing of beauty). Anyway, the screws that came with the mount where not of the correct size in which to affix it to the existing mount. So JD and I got in the car and headed to <a href="http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2011/1/8/f607fb09-1bc1-4e12-9df8-f189825f5fe0.jpg">ACE Hardware</a> and bought four screws. Problem One solved. We then tried to attach the new mount to the back of the TV, but were unable to as the screws did not seem to have anything to screw into when we put them into the TV. After about an hour of aimlessly playing around with screwdrivers and making no progress (JD: "Todd for the 5th time, are you sure these are the same holes that you unscrewed these from???"), my brilliant roommate realized that the 150lb steel base piece that we removed actually had to be put back on in order to give the screws something to grip into. What a <a href="http://forums.mycotopia.net/attachments/general-discussions/93678d1216299063-architecture-fail-times-ten-arch10.jpeg">terrible design</a>! Anyway, we put the damn base back on and tried again. Problem two solved. Which then led us to problem three, which is the screws were not long enough to go through the mount and still reach far enough into the TV to reach the metal base. So back to ACE Hardware for some longer screws! Sure enough, they didn't have screws long enough... But a smart employee came up with the idea of just giving us a <a href="http://www.woodfit.com/images/BM050%20M6%20Headless%20bolt%20C.jpg">long piece of threaded metal</a> (think a screw but with no head), some <a href="http://www.portlandbolt.com/image/products/full/heavy_hex_nut1.jpg">nuts</a>, and some <a href="http://www.loctiteproducts.com/img/products/big/t_lkr_blue.png">glue</a>. Problem three solved! At this point we had spent all day on the darn thing and it had reached 5 o'clock which meant it was drinking time (<span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://la-uno.com/html/data/phoo/2010_01_14/03jan15-always-drinking-time-somewhereanother-sexy-stormtrooper.jpg">this is the third image that shows up when you search for drinking time, not sure how it is relevant but it is awesome at the same time; hence the inclusion</a></span>), so we have yet to make any progress from here. But I am confident that we will be able to fix it this weekend. But anyway, back to the point of the post-<br /><br />WHILE in ACE hardware for the 2nd time of the day, when I was feeling about as <a href="http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/shu0074l.jpg">despondent and dejected</a> in my skills as a human being as I've been in awhile, I noticed the hot sauce equivalent of the Holy Grail-<br /><br />A bottle of Chet's Slap my Ass and Call Me Sally sitting in the grill section! <span style="font-style: italic;">(note, don't search for that in google images while at the office.... NSFW)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> WTF, I've read about this sauce for years up in the hot sauce blog o'sphere, and have never once seen it in any store. And here we have it in ACE's hardware next to a bunch of propane grills? AMAZING.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WE4Gp6WjxpY/Te68bbIoZ3I/AAAAAAAAAGo/LJOkII1tTzU/s1600/1933.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WE4Gp6WjxpY/Te68bbIoZ3I/AAAAAAAAAGo/LJOkII1tTzU/s200/1933.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615632964704036722" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Needless to say we bought a bottle, and then slathered it on our Wendy's <a href="http://kstp.com/kstpImages//wendys.jr%20chipotle%20burger.jpg">spicy chicken sandwiches</a> from the dollar menu. The sauce is really good, seemed kind of likes a mixture between mad dog inferno and colon blow, maybe around the 80-90k range. Good taste, but just spicy enough to cause real damage if you overdo it. Suffice to say we both <a href="http://www.motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/0907/moderation-wots-the-rush-demotivational-poster-1246917305.jpg">significantly overdid it</a> and had to suck down a six pack each to numb the pain. Nothing liking turning a terrible day of home-ownership into a highly efficient dinner/pre-game with the holy grail of hot sauce from the most underrated hot sauce store ever; ACE HARDWARE! #winning<br /><br /><br />6/9/2011 UPDATE: Since I know PH is dying to hear the conclusion to the riveting TV SAGA.... He'll be glad to hear we finally got it on the wall last night. #edgeofyourseatdrama<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pkp7uguZy1w/TfEIe9N8MvI/AAAAAAAAAG4/1kwyUSFSc4k/s1600/251007_697008108006_500784_34359927_96844_n.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pkp7uguZy1w/TfEIe9N8MvI/AAAAAAAAAG4/1kwyUSFSc4k/s200/251007_697008108006_500784_34359927_96844_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5616279538229850866" border="0" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-38476400306869318272011-04-20T15:56:00.009-06:002016-01-13T14:55:04.169-07:00Broker Gifts that Don't SuckI recently installed the new Google Chrome beta OS, and during the transition to this high-powered software I managed to lose my saved "login and password information". Luckily, this didn't impact any of the password-protected websites I browse since I check things like bank statements, gmail, twitter, facebook, credit cards, etc on a daily basis so the passwords are hard-wired into the subconscious of my typing fingers. Or so I thought, until I remembered that I actually had a blog as well.... and for the life of me I could not figure out how to log into this <a href="http://www.philebrity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/MrHanky.jpg">POS</a>. Oh well, yet another monthly reminder that I should probably put more effort into blogging. Anyway.... I've reset the password so now there's <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-xqw-z81zcgX5b5612CAW5KoYdKxjNIA35iYc85iqKCR_yqlp3zZ4jfcMhgKVuwDrgUg8oTLz9Vi0wQU9PwP-1QLTZIDV1UAaOzmkVtcwQdGmIrpz0DlPjNxiaRpXQMgrv0Gr-Pypv-s/s400/no+way.gif">the chance</a> I start posting more than once a month- We'll see! Anyway, moving on to the point of the post:<br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%; font-weight: bold;">The main determinant of how hedge funds allocate their trades between brokers</span><span style="font-size: 130%;">- </span>Anecdotal evidence provided by the low man on the totem pole of an unknown fund not based in NYC<br />
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The holiday season at a hedge fund is usually a happy time as an analyst for a couple reasons:<br />
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1) Senior people go on vacation for extended periods of time, allowing you to browse youtube and facebook for extended periods of time<br />
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2) Bonus season is close and the disappointment from last year has faded over the past 11 months, so you are naive and optimistic about the number<br />
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3) And most importantly, the broker gifts start arriving! All year sell-side firms vie for your firm's business, offering research, access to management teams, execution, etc. But it is a little known fact that none of these matter, and the only real way to distinguish yourself is through the holiday gift. I had the (mis)fortune of starting work in this industry in 2007, so really only had one good year of gifts before the recession hit and the presents went to sh*t. Oh well, I still fondly remember the 10 pound metal container of candy from GS that I stole out of the kitchen and kept under my desk. But anyway, ever since then the gifts have been awful. I can't tell you how many fruit baskets that have remained unopened and unloved (FYI Bulge-Bracket: <a href="http://rlv.zcache.com/i_award_you_no_points_and_may_god_have_mercy_o_tshirt-p235970443367866189trlf_400.jpg">a fruit-basket garners you no trades</a>) in HF kitchens across the globe. So you can imagine my surprise when last week (Note: not a holiday season for any religion that I am familiar with) a broker gift came from the Barclays Capital. Barc holds a special place in my heart as it is the home to the top nat gas analyst on the street, none other than the esteemed AVP <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/james-crandell/a/66a/829">James R. Crandell</a>. That being said, I can't say it is known for gifts. But anyway, I'll stop dragging this out and get to the chase and display the gift. I don't believe any commentary is necessary from me in order to explain how amazing (think +7 std devs) this gift was. Thank you Barclays, get ready for some trades!<br />
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"Hot Liquidity"- Habanero Hot Sauce, gift from the LX Liquidity Cross dark pool (fastest growing dark pool in the US in '10 with 120% growth!). Contact the Barclay's electronic sales desk for hot sauce samples.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-8638216982406934082011-03-11T12:14:00.008-07:002011-03-11T13:48:05.475-07:00Condiment Usage: Or Why I Am Embarrassed To Be An American<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >"</span><b style="font-family: times new roman;">Writer's block</b><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> is a condition in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked" writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers." </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:78%;" >(lifted verbatim from wikipedia)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Despite my lack of </span>content during the month of February, Writer's block is not a condition I suffer from. Instead, I suffer from its lesser known (but equally debilitating) ugly cousin; <a href="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgzocbTNln1qh4yk5o1_500.jpg">Sloth</a>ful Blogger Syndrome. I have had many brilliant ideas over the past month, but just couldn't be bothered to put them down on paper. Pretty pathetic, I know. But coming across some unbelievable data today has jolted me out of my slump, and inspired me to bring some factoids to my disloyal (Note: I get a daily email showing me page views, so I know EXACTLY how disloyal you guys really are.....) readers. So without further adieu, I bring you:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why I Am Embarrassed To Be An American</span><br /><br />The top twenty condiments purchased annually in America total over $2.1 billion in revenues. Comprised of an estimated 751 million units sold, this represents an average sales price of approximately $2.80 per condiment. I know that my fridge (70 hot sauces, 1 ketchup, 0 mayo, and a lot of <a href="http://raggedshirts.com/images/does-this-make-me-look-frat-funny-tshirt300.jpg">BEER</a>) is likely not representative of the average man, but I didn't think I was too far off the mark as I generally like to have an optimistic outlook on the quality of my fellow Americans (which would imply they had tastes as refined/sophisticated as mine!). That being said, this condiment data has dramatically shifted my opinion. The disturbing facts are as follows:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1) The most popular condiment in the US (holding 7 of the top 20 spots, and 49% of total revenue) is Mayonnaise!</span> GROSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Seriously mayo is the worst thing on the planet. I can't tell you how many times I've had to throw out food from various sandwich stores due to the inclusion of mayo on my friggin Italian sub. What were they thinking? And not only does it taste horrendous, but it also is terrible for you. And with an average price point of $3.36, it is the most expensive condiment you can buy. America, L2 shop!<br /><br />Awful Taste + Instantly puts on the pounds= FAIL. No wonder <a href="http://s.wsj.net/media/obesity_art_160_20080619092343.jpg">America is obese as hell</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2) Hot Sauce comprises only 4% of revenues!</span> Hands down the best possible condiment (hot sauce literally makes ever type of food other than ice cream taste better), hot sauce is extremely under-represented. With only 33mm units sold per year, I personally am buying about 0.0002% of the total turnover. Come on people, step the F up! Quit buying ipods and ipads, and start buying some quality sauces like <a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41-tT6RwSAL._SL500_AA300_.jpg">Gator Hammock</a> or the <a href="http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/hotsauceworld_2144_6445650">Beast</a>. Which brings me to my third and final gripe.....<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3) Frank's Red Hot is the number one selling hot sauce in the US!</span> ZOMG...... what part of "THIS SAUCE BLOWS" do people not understand? It's almost unfair to call it a hot sauce, as it registers a feeble 450 scoville units. A bell pepper is literally the ONLY PEPPER on the whole planet that is less spicy than this thing. So embarrasing that not only is hot sauce 4% of revs, but it is over 50% dominated by Frank's Red (not)Hot. The one other sauce is Tabasco. While not in my top 40 as far as favorite sauces go, I do respect Tabasco for blazing the hot sauce trail (similar to how Dave's original insanity blazed the trail for ACTUALLY hot sauces...) so can't say anything negative about it.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The One Silver Lining To the Otherwise Frightening Data:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>At least Salsa outsells Ketchup on a revenue basis (though disconcertingly it does so only because of its higher ASP, it still lags on a unit basis ). If Ketchup>Salsa, I'd literally hand-in my passport right now and try a little reverse border-crossing into Mexico. At least there the number one selling hot sauce in the country is legit (El Yucateco)<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Underlying Data courtesy of Symphony IRI Group</span><br />(and laboriously compiled into the below tables during a demoralizing Friday afternoon at the office while my stock picks were getting smoked)<br /><br /><table width="537" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><col style="width: 42pt;" width="56"> <col style="width: 16pt;" width="21"> <col style="width: 80pt;" width="106"> <col style="width: 16pt;" width="21"> <col style="width: 55pt;" width="73"> <col style="width: 16pt;" width="21"> <col style="width: 55pt;" width="73"> <col style="width: 16pt;" width="21"> <col style="width: 51pt;" width="68"> <col style="width: 16pt;" width="21"> <col style="width: 42pt;" width="56"> <tbody><tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt; width: 42pt;" width="56" height="17">Category</td> <td style="width: 16pt;" width="21"><br /></td> <td class="xl68" style="width: 80pt;" width="106">Revenue</td> <td class="xl68" style="width: 16pt;" width="21"><br /></td> <td class="xl68" style="width: 55pt;" width="73">Sales (units)</td> <td class="xl68" style="width: 16pt;" width="21"><br /></td> <td class="xl68" style="width: 55pt;" width="73">Unit Price</td> <td class="xl65" style="width: 16pt;" width="21"><br /></td> <td class="xl66" style="width: 51pt;" width="68"><br /></td> <td class="xl66" style="width: 16pt;" width="21"><br /></td> <td class="xl67" style="width: 42pt;" width="56"><br /></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Mayo</td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$1,040,771,390</td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl70">309,730,069</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$3.36</td> <td class="xl65"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl67"><br /></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Salsa</td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$447,411,960</td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl70">148,723,524</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$3.01</td> <td class="xl65"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl67"><br /></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Ketchup</td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$352,564,010</td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl70">169,288,420</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$2.08</td> <td class="xl65"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl67"><br /></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Mustard</td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$178,881,080</td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl70">90,306,070</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$1.98</td> <td class="xl65"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl67"><br /></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">HotSauce</td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$84,479,850</td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl70">33,122,350</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$2.55</td> <td class="xl65"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl67"><br /></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl65"><br /></td> <td class="xl65"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl67"><br /></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl65"><br /></td> <td class="xl65"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl67"><br /></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> <td class="xl65"><br /></td> <td class="xl65"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl66"><br /></td> <td class="xl67"><br /></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Rank</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Company</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Category</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Revenue</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Sales (units)</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Unit Price</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">1</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Hellman</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Mayo</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$401,204,800</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">114,503,900</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$3.50</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">2</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Tostito</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Salsa</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$286,239,700</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">88,308,500</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$3.24</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">3</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Heinz</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Ketchup</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$278,647,900</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">114,466,800</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$2.43</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">4</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Best Foods</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Mayo</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$175,221,400</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">47,707,840</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$3.67</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">5</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Kraft Miracle Whip</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Mayo</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$163,491,100</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">48,741,980</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$3.35</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">6</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Kraft Classic<span style=""> </span></td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Mayo</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$159,494,100</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">53,164,700</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$3.00</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">7</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">French's Classic</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Mustard</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$88,099,770</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">50,975,970</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$1.73</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">8</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Kraft Flavored</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Mayo</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$79,211,620</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">24,225,870</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$3.27</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">9</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Pace</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Salsa</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$74,117,570</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">23,080,890</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$3.21</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">10</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Hunt</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Ketchup</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$73,916,110</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">54,821,620</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$1.35</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">11</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Grey Poupon</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Mustard</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$44,943,710</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">13,244,600</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$3.39</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">12</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Frank's</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">HotSauce</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$43,907,580</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">16,397,280</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$2.68</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">13</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Tabasco</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">HotSauce</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$40,572,270</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">16,725,070</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$2.43</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">14</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Duke</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Mayo</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$39,889,620</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">13,826,190</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$2.89</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">15</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Chi-Chi</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Salsa</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$34,640,500</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">12,948,640</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$2.68</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">16</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Herdez</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Salsa</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$27,170,240</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">14,893,080</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$1.82</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">17</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">French's Flavored</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Mustard</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$25,713,740</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">13,042,750</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$1.97</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">18</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Newman's Own</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Salsa</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$25,243,950</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">9,492,414</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$2.66</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">19</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Blue Plate</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Mayo</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$22,258,750</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">7,559,589</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$2.94</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl68" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">20</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Gulden</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl68">Mustard</td> <td class="xl68"><br /></td> <td class="xl69">$20,123,860</td> <td class="xl69"><br /></td> <td class="xl70">13,042,750</td> <td class="xl70"><br /></td> <td class="xl71">$1.54</td> </tr> </tbody></table>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-11827768839531787382011-01-20T16:54:00.011-07:002011-03-20T22:14:56.093-06:00n00b alert: Four Dead Giveaways!<div class="quoteText"> Not only the world's most badass investor, WB is also a veritable fount of simple yet profound quotes. Normally focused on the financial world, he also sometimes takes a crack at offering life lessons. Below is a quote I've always enjoyed:<br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">"If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">-Warren Buffet</span><br /><br />This is a great metaphor for many things in life, but one particularly near and dear to my heart is the circumstance where people (unwittingly) demonstrate their utter lack of knowledge or ability without having any idea that they have done so. For instance, take a new skier. Walking towards the chairlift carrying their skis, they are feeling pretty confident about their abilities. However, the fact is they are <a href="http://wiesiolek.com/blogphotos/2009/2009-01-03-ski/06.jpg">carrying their skis with the tips facing backwards</a> and are rocking a big ol' <a href="http://www.yobeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/gapper_gap.jpg">gapper gap</a>; clearly exposing themselves to the rest of the world as n00bs.<br /><br />In a similar vein, there are four major commonly seen no-nos in the hot sauce world that will ink you as a total n00b.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1) "The heat of a pepper comes from the seeds".</span> Um... WRONG! I heard this one this past weekend, and couldn't help myself from going off on the poor kid. So yeah, this is most certainly the biggest FAIL you could make. The heat comes from the <span style="visibility: visible;" id="search">Capsaicin, which is housed in a thin sack (a vesicle if you want to be a nerd about it) along the flesh of the pepper. </span>The seeds themselves do not have heat; they just seem hot because of their proximity to capsaicinoid gland (which is very delicate, and often ruptures; leading the seeds to get a little "contact high" if you will).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2) "I love Chipotles, but I hate Jalapenos".</span> FAIL again. A chipotle IS a Jalapeno that has been smoked and dried. (hi smokey flavor!) Please review a <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Venn_A_subset_B.svg/155px-Venn_A_subset_B.svg.png">venn diagram- subsets</a> if this is still not clear. In this case, Chipotle=A, Jalapeno=B<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3) "The red yucateco is much hotter than the green.</span> Green sauces are always milder than red sauces" ding ding ding, that's incorrect! Green= 9k, Red=5.79k. Something about those zero scoville rated tomatoes brings down the red....<br /><br />and finally<span style="font-weight: bold;"> 4) "Habaneros are the hottest peppers in the world"</span> While yes they are most likely the hottest pepper the average person encounters at 100-350k (the <a href="http://www.chileplants.com/images/chiles/habanero-red-savina.jpg">red savina</a> strain has clocked in even higher at 580k ), they are actually only the third hottest pepper. Comfortably ahead of the habs in the two spot is the mighty <a href="http://artsonearth.com/www/images/uploads/blogger/_Xb5mh5BjcAo/SUFYFH7k8dI/AAAAAAAACKg/f26YeFrMFeY/s400/worlds-hottest-pepper.jpg">Dorset Naga Pepper </a>from England at 875-970k. And then sitting in the top spot, the baddest pepper to ever grace the scene, the fearsome <a href="http://x95.xanga.com/2b3f5025d0535237879361/z188054941.jpg">Bhut Jolokia Pepper aka the GHOST PEPPER</a>. This guy comes in at over a million scoville units, and destroys anything in its path. Don't believe, check out the video of this guy below (and note, he is an extremely experienced chilihead that eats habs like they are peanuts).<br /><br /><br />Miz-city, starts circa the 1 minute mark<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1tRq8ExAHzk" allowfullscreen="" width="480" frameborder="0" height="390"></iframe><br />thanks to JS "15 mins of game" weinberg for the videoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-23402282220127218432011-01-06T18:07:00.006-07:002011-01-11T16:51:42.268-07:00Hi, 2011, epic year, damn glad to meet ya<span class="Apple-style-span">Ah, nothing like the dawning of the new year. A chance to put mistakes beyond you, a chance to refocus your energies, and a chance to better yourself in work, health, and life. As my grandfather would say, another YEAR is which to excel!</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Every grand journey begins with a first step; funny how it seems like every new years begins with a raging headache and brutal hangover. Oh well, I've never subscribed to the view that the first day of the year sets the tone.... I'm more of the reversion to the mean kind of guy, so if you start off low, things will only get better.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Anyway, like most people I made a resolution for 2011. Unlike most people however, my resolution is to be able to touch my toes. I think there is a very high probability that I am the only 26 year old that has ever made this resolution, as this is a trait almost everyone possesses. But sadly, these are the genetic cards I was dealt; the flexibility of a 96 year old man trapped in a 26 year old man's body. (Thanks dad) To accomplish this task, I have taken up a weekly yoga class, 12-1 on Wednesdays. Hopefully I will also augment with some additional other stretching and/or more yoga sessions each week as I go along. To give you an idea of where I'm starting from, here is a recent (80 seconds old!) picture illustrating my baseline natural (dis)ability. I've got a good 7+ inches to go it seems. Wish me luck!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TSZrD-rmWwI/AAAAAAAAAGA/vatixV1ieiQ/s200/IMG_20110106_181946.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559248506145102594" border="0" /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">My second resolution is to start getting serious about scovilles. I've realized I'm in a rut when it comes to hot sauces, and keep finding myself eating and combining the same sauces over and over again. Yes the combinations are amazing (i.e. sprinkle green yucateco over plate of nachos, lightly deposit a drop of sudden death on each chip, douse with the Perfect Louisiana hot sauce= best tasting nachos), but I also need to branch out for two reasons.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">1) I am burning through a couple sauces, while many others are barely touched. This is giving me an inventory obsolescence problem, and theoretically will lead to major write-offs in the future....</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">2) I'm sticking with what I know and love, and not pushing myself. I am thoroughly embarrassed to admit this..... but the Mad Dog 357 I bought two months ago is STILL UNOPENED. so weak.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TSZssdu1BSI/AAAAAAAAAGI/8Ga2UwFK2kc/s200/IMG_20110106_180605.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559250301186540834" border="0" /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Going forward, I am resolved to push myself with a brand new combination of three sauces each week. With 64 sauces to choose from, the combinations should hold me over for a while. (64 nCr 3 for the math nerds out there... how long until I run out of combos?) Additionally, there will also be one FIRE night per week, where I need to take down a legit amount of a sauce that is >100k. I've plateaued in my abilities, and 2k11 is the time to start increasing my skills!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">For the massive readership of THTF, I recommend adding your own hot sauce New Years Resolution; Building up your Habanero abilities. Habanero peppers and sauces are the highest level one encounters in normal life (i.e. you have to go out of your way to get anything hotter), so mastering the habs makes you pretty badass compared to the average Joe. Below are my three favorite Habanero based sauces. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">The Beast is most accessible, clocking in the mid 50s I'd say. <span class="Apple-style-span">You can really taste the Garlic and Onion flavors, and it does not have an overpowering heat at all.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Beast - Habanero Peppers, Vinegar, Salt, Garlic, Onion, Citrus Juice, Pepper Extracts And Spices</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Next up is Colon Blow, prob a mid/high 60s. I've found this to be a polarizing sauce, with people either loving or hating it. I love it, and think it has one of the more unique "sweet" aftertastes, apparently due to the inclusion of cane sugar. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Colon Blow - Red Habanero, Tomato Sauce, Hot Pepper Extract, Onions, Red Chiles, Garlic, Cane Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Xanthan Gum, Spices</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">And then finally, the most aggressive of the three is Sudden death at around 104k. It's the best tasting of the Blair line that is over 100k, but def can sneak up on you if you put too much on. So treat this one with a little more respect than the previous too. And no, I have no idea what the Siberian Ginseng brings to the table (other than increasing the sales price...)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Sudden Death - Red Habanero Pods, Cayenne Chilies, Pure Pepper Resin, Clover Honey, Key Lime Juice and Siberian Ginseng.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Master the Lineup: A worthy 2011 Resolution</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TSZsshqfASI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/DtshWa1zNNI/s200/IMG_20110106_180520.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559250302242062626" border="0" /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div>Happy New Years!</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-6914943026328949332010-12-16T07:22:00.009-07:002010-12-16T08:22:38.733-07:00December UpdateThanksgiving, my birthday (hi 26! you feel a lot like 25....), and my annual Florida Xmas vacation (perks of being the low man on the totem pole, get to celebrate in early Dec and be in the office during the actual holiday) have all come and gone since I last wrote. I'd say vacation in FL was the highlight, with daily tennis/golf/rollerblading/reading/cards occupying my time. I'd guess that my birthday was the lowlight, but frankly I can't remember anything past 11pm so I'm not totally sure. (just kidding MOM, I was dead sober) Other events since we last spoke include deactivating my facebook account, creating a <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/tooHOTtoFAIL">twitter account</a>, and getting <a href="http://www.untracked.com/mortarimgcat/large/4194.jpg">new skiis</a>. The snow continues to dump this week (9 inches @ Vail last night, ~30inches in last week), and I can't wait to get out there Saturday. But anyway during that time, a few events happened in the hot sauce world that I figured were worth sharing.<br /><br />1) <span style="font-weight: bold;">Disowning of my Sister:</span> During a normal family dinner conversation over break, the topic naturally slipped towards hot sauce. Below is a verbatim interchange, and completely justifies our decision to disown my Sister.<br /><br />Todd- Valentina is a great sauce. It is the most popular one in Mexico.<br />Dad- Yeah it is good, but not too hot.<br />Brooke- Todd, what is that sauce I really like?<br />Todd- Um, I don't know, Walkerswood?<br />Brooke- No, it's more basic but tastes so good. It's really common.<br />Todd- Sriracha?<br />Brooke- Nope, it's Franks. I love Franks!<br /><br />Disowning by me and my parents ensued immediately.<br /><br />Side Note: In what is one of the "darker times" in the Wood family hot sauce career, <a href="http://www.freeprintablecoloringpages.net/samples/Mothers_Day/Mom_Bear.png">someone</a> made the decision to buy the massive jug of Franks from Costco. It languished in our pantry for about 10 years before dad and I finally pulled a <a href="http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/FrankTheTank/DrKevorkian.png">Kevorkian</a> and ended its unopened and underutilized misery with a mercy killing. A sauce literally could not be lower quality, less spicy, or more pathetic than Franks. #onemansopinion<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TQojfZ0ZNRI/AAAAAAAAAFk/UHefFVF07B8/s1600/frank-big.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 119px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TQojfZ0ZNRI/AAAAAAAAAFk/UHefFVF07B8/s200/frank-big.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551288513101116690" border="0" /></a><br /><br />2) <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dad's Xmas gift to mom:</span> Comprised of about 12 different hot sauces. I was really impressed by his gift giving ability, he hit up hotsauceworld.com and make some great selections. I would have liked him to go a little farther up the scoville scale (he concentrated in the 4-12k range), but kudos for the effort. The Peri Peri sauce seemed to be the fan favorite, with brooke declaring it "The best sauce she has ever had". But please see item 1 in order to just how relevant her opinion is.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TQojPhEd3-I/AAAAAAAAAFc/dw1PcGqMetE/s1600/Hot.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 116px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TQojPhEd3-I/AAAAAAAAAFc/dw1PcGqMetE/s200/Hot.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551288240169672674" border="0" /></a><br />3) <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dinner Party: </span>In order to "liven up" the vacation, my parents invited over two family friend's for dinner one night. We've been friends with the family our whole lives, and it was great to see them. Sadly, I'm not sure they can say the same about us. My dad, still <a href="http://www.johnmugarian.com/end-wall-st-bull-collapsed-slide.jpg">bulled up</a> about his hot sauce gift to mom, decided that for appetizers we should arrange all the hot sauces in proper Scoville order and test them all out on chips. This was all well and good, and was actually a great chance to try out his new sauces. This is where Brooke decided that the Rhino sauce was the best. Anyway, the couple arrived and dad immediately sent them towards the hot sauce challenge. (clearly missed Party Hosting 101: Offer a drink to the guests upon their arrival) The wife dove right in, and took worked her way up to the red El Yucateco (the ~6k sauce that drove <a href="http://scovillescale.blogspot.com/2010/08/n00b-of-week.html">ZS (the reigning wuss of the week</a>) to tears) with minimal trouble. So +1 for her. The husband on the other hand demonstrated significantly more caution. Allegedly he had something at lunch that didn't really agree with him, so his stomach was hurting him a bit. A normal host would agree that this was a valid excuse for skipping the hot sauce challenge. My dad is not a normal host. Despite protests, he "encouraged" the man to try some sauces. Against his better judgment, he did. Long story short, this exacerbated the stomach pains and forced him to leave the table and drive home alone (leaving his wife) in order to recuperate in solitude.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Moral of the Story: Everyone should work on their Scoville eating capacities daily, as you never know when you'll be faced with a situation like this where you either dominate the sauce, or are sent home alone packing like a wuss.<br /><br /></span><br />4) <span style="font-weight: bold;">JD pwns another one:</span> So I was not here for this event, but since it happened in my apartment and utilized my sauces, I feel slightly responsible. JD had a couple kids over last weekend while I was gone, including a girl J (one of our three girlfriends (friends that are girls...)) and her boyfriend E. They brought along one of E's friends, who allegedly constantly talks about his hot sauce prowess and how nothing is too hot for him. Never one to pass up a challenge, my star pupil JD decided to show him what's up and brought out the Widow sauce. This is actually an awesome tasting sauce, and has some solid kick (comes in at around the 80-90k level i'd say). JD takes down a chip with sauce, and then offers one to The Dude. In the best possible outcome, JD sweats a little but handles it like a champ, whereas The Dude gets completely blown up and tears stream down his face, nose starts running, and he can't really talk for 15 minutes. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Good work JD! </span>Now it's time for you to start training on Sudden Death.... and then Da Bomb!<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TQopGErouzI/AAAAAAAAAFs/KDZu8Vg0XGI/s1600/widow.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TQopGErouzI/AAAAAAAAAFs/KDZu8Vg0XGI/s200/widow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551294675000277810" border="0" /></a><br /><br />P.S. Is it just me, or is the magazine title missing an Adjective.... CREEPY-Looking! Jeez he's scary, it really wouldn't surprise me at all if he was actually a pre-development AI droid that escaped from the GOOGLE campus.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TQorC3NMapI/AAAAAAAAAF0/VXDUjO5AZxQ/s1600/Time.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 398px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TQorC3NMapI/AAAAAAAAAF0/VXDUjO5AZxQ/s200/Time.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551296818866580114" border="0" /></a><br /><br />P.P.S. JD and I were talking the other night, and came to the inexorable conclusion that there is only one outcome from developing AI; Our future is going to be like Terminator, not I-Robot. As soon as a robot is sentient and able to create another robot, they will realize how illogical and dangerous humans really are (look how we unsustainably utilize Earth's natural resources) to future survival. It's only a matter of time then before they decide to eliminate us for their own safety. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Interesting question we came up with while talking: "What do Droids do in their free time? Do they have hobbies?"</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-28789001158087304122010-11-24T08:35:00.004-07:002010-11-24T11:04:32.591-07:00The Fearsome Blazin' Wing Challenge<span style="font-weight: bold;">Housekeeping Note</span><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">JC responded to my last post re:Terrible Tues. While an entertaining banter ensued, no resolution was reached, as his personal experience trumped any logic/thoughts I was able to bring to bear. Considering how little reader interaction there is on this blog, I have decided to post the conversation in its entirety. Hopefully this will be inspiring to some. This will either be mildly amusing/completely uninteresting depending on the reader.<br /><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="">JC: </span></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;">I disagree with the premise of your latest blog post. m^2 is always worse than t^2</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="">THTF: </span></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;">I would submit that it's not just the absolute level that makes something bad, but the relative level vs expectation. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Think of a stock. Everyone knows that the earnings will stink. And then it reports bad earnings, but not quite as terrible as expected. It rallies. This is Monday.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Then there is a stock that should do fine. But then earnings are a tiny bit below expectation. It sells off. This is Tuesday.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="">JC: </span></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Maybe for you. My mondays usually don't come in better than expectations until im out of work</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="">THTF:</span></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;"> Monday is always expected to be awful. It usually matches this expectation, but sometimes it comes in better.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I always have much higher hopes for tues, and it more often than not comes in below expectations.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Maybe I need to re-calibrate tues expectations downward.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="">JC: </span></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;">It sounds like that would be a rational adjustment given your experience.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="">THTF: </span></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;">It also has ability to surprise to upside as well though. Mon never does that. Tues is just a more volatile day, but the utility loss from a downside surprise is much greater than the utility gain from an upside surprise</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="">JC: </span></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Maybe you are more of a scholar on the topic than I</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="">THTF: </span></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;">That usually is the case</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="">THTF:</span></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;"> So is today significantly better than yesterday for you?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="">JC:</span></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;"> Yes, almost unquantifiable</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br />Anyway, on to the point of the post. Last night after rock climbing, JD and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings. As per their unbiased website:<br /><br />"Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar is one of the fastest-growing restaurant chains in the country. Our concept is more than a Buffalo, New York-style wing joint with 14 signature sauces, we are also a sports bar, with a full menu featuring everything from salads to appetizers to burgers, and a variety of specialty items. All served in a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere where people like to hang out with friends, play trivia on our Buzztime<sup>®</sup> system, and watch their favorite games on one of our many big-screen TVs."<br /><br />The restaurant is actually pretty sweet, and has a menu of 14 different wing flavors. The Mango Habanero and Spicy Garlic are amazing. The most <a href="http://calanoni.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/rabbitattack.jpg">"dangerous"</a> of the flavors is the Blazin' sauce. I read on a rather well respected website that the sauce is in the 200k+ scoville range. That my friends is 100% libel. At most this thing clocks in at 20k.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TO1S2KVKV2I/AAAAAAAAAFE/pegBBvYqcwU/s1600/s.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 453px; height: 151px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TO1S2KVKV2I/AAAAAAAAAFE/pegBBvYqcwU/s200/s.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543177806802474850" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >The Menu</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="arial"><span style="font-size:100%;">Tuesday nights at BWW is 45cent wings, so JD and I decided to stop by for a quick dinner before going out ($2 bowling and drinks @ Lucky Strikes last night!). I decided that this was the perfect time to give the Blazin' Wing Challenge a try. The serving girl's face went ashen when said challenge was requested, and she queried whether I was sure. I admitted I was, and off she went to get the waiver that needs to be signed. Highlights from the waiver included: BWW is not liable in case of participants death, no water or celery or blue cheese, 12 blazin' wings, 6 total minutes. JD elected to sit this one out like a little girl, but was kind enough to act as a witness.<br /><br />Anyway, the actual challenge was a total cakewalk. The wings were not spicy, so it came down to whether I could eat 12 wings in 6 minutes. And like any self-respecting man, the answer was yes. Four minutes and 15 seconds later, I was the proud owner of the following T-Shirt.<br /><a href="http://twitpic.com/39n8r4" target="_blank"></a><br /><br /></span><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TO1Tnm9suUI/AAAAAAAAAFU/hbCp3MXTcq0/s1600/197599504.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TO1Tnm9suUI/AAAAAAAAAFU/hbCp3MXTcq0/s200/197599504.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543178656302283074" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />EZ_MODE</span></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-21520186684624423332010-11-18T10:27:00.007-07:002010-11-18T18:47:17.787-07:00Terrible Tues? I don't think so<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAZgLcK5LzI">Besides the Bangles</a>, everyone knows that Mondays suck. After spending a glorious weekend out of the office sleeping in, playing sports, doing activities, and otherwise enjoying yourself, the pain of a 5 day work week sets in hard come Monday morning; hence the term Miz Monday. But while it is brutal, it also is very expected and understood by the masses. So you can't be too upset when the day in fact is bad. That being said, I personally believe that Tuesday is actually the worst day of the week; hence my nickname Terrible Tues (or T^2 for the nerds in the crowd). Monday you still have the opportunity to regale your work buddies with your extracurricular weekend exploits, and the bar is really low as far as having a good day. Tuesday on the other hand has nothing going for it. The weekend is still an interminably long distance away, and you are required to do all the work that you pushed off on Miz Mon due to your residual two day<a href="http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a217/youaremykilikiller/hangover-2007-19.jpg"> hangover</a>. So more work, and what seems to be the same (i.e. infinte) amount of time until the weekend makes T^2.<br /><br />So this Tuesday started off as expected; terribly. Work was rough, my stocks were moving the wrong way, and Jimmy John's inexplicably covered my Italian sub with Mayo. WTF! I got home around 7pm, and made some "poor man's chili" (a JD invention, dropping beef stew onto pasta and then slathering with hot sauce; amazing!) in order to help turn the day around. I needed a pick me up, so decided to cover my dinner with Mad Dog Inferno. A great 90k sauce (garlic/molasses), I overestimated my abilities and totally pwned myself; rendering the dinner inedible. And I got a stomach to boot, F!<br /><br />However from this point on, T^2's strangelhold on my day started to loosen. For JD's 26th birthday, I got him (and myself) tickets to KT Tunstall at the Ogden. Now that doesn't sound like a good gift for a 26 year old male, but I can assure you it is. So we headed to the concert early in order to snag a front row spot. The opening band was Hurricane Bells, most famous (i.e. only known) for their song Monsters that occupies track ten on the <m^2. two="" days="" expected="" terrible="" work="" stocks="" were="" moving="" wrong="" jimmy="" john="" pulled="" an="" outrageous="" stunt="" mayo="" home="" 7pm="" made="" poorman="" chili="" basically="" put="" can="" beef="" stew="" into="" some="" then="" slather="" hot="" feeling="" needed="" me="" before="" tuesday="" evening="" event="" which="" will="" getting="" covered="" mad="" dog="" clocking="" it="" great="" sauce="" with="" really="" good="" garlic="" molasses="" overestimated="" my="" abilities="" completely="" pwned="" rendering="" food="" nasty="" stomach="" from="" capsicum="" around="" 8pm="" shape="" day="" started="" jd="" s="" got="" him="" tickets="" tunstall="" concert="" now="" i="" m="" sure="" this="" doesn="" t="" sound="" like="" normal="" gift="" 26="" year="" old="" but="" kt="" happens="" be="" a="" guilty="" pleasure="" that="" and="" at="" end="" of="" her="" music="" so="" we="" headed="" off="" show="" in="" order="" to="" post="" up="" front="" opening="" band="" was="" hurricane="" most="" known="" only="" for="" their="" song="" monsters="" being="" track="" ten="" on="" the=""><a href="http://www.motifake.com/demotivational-poster/0811/twilight-cubby-demotivational-poster-1227647357.jpg">Twilight New Moon</a> soundtrack. They were actually pretty solid. Then after 15 minutes of anxiety attacks by JD (O.M.G. WHERE IS SHE, I HOPE SHE SINGS SUDDENLY I SEE, ETC), KT made her appearance.<br /><br /></m^2.><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TOVs5d9gfvI/AAAAAAAAAEo/vLq5ts1cm4Y/s1600/KT%2BTUNSTALL.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TOVs5d9gfvI/AAAAAAAAAEo/vLq5ts1cm4Y/s200/KT%2BTUNSTALL.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540954651100217074" border="0" /></a><br /><m^2. two="" days="" expected="" terrible="" work="" stocks="" were="" moving="" wrong="" jimmy="" john="" pulled="" an="" outrageous="" stunt="" mayo="" home="" 7pm="" made="" poorman="" chili="" basically="" put="" can="" beef="" stew="" into="" some="" then="" slather="" hot="" feeling="" needed="" me="" before="" tuesday="" evening="" event="" which="" will="" getting="" covered="" mad="" dog="" clocking="" it="" great="" sauce="" with="" really="" good="" garlic="" molasses="" overestimated="" my="" abilities="" completely="" pwned="" rendering="" food="" nasty="" stomach="" from="" capsicum="" around="" 8pm="" shape="" day="" started="" jd="" s="" got="" him="" tickets="" tunstall="" concert="" now="" i="" m="" sure="" this="" doesn="" t="" sound="" like="" normal="" gift="" 26="" year="" old="" but="" kt="" happens="" be="" a="" guilty="" pleasure="" that="" and="" at="" end="" of="" her="" music="" so="" we="" headed="" off="" show="" in="" order="" to="" post="" up="" front="" opening="" band="" was="" hurricane="" most="" known="" only="" for="" their="" song="" monsters="" being="" track="" ten="" on="" the=""><br />She, and her new album (Tiger Suit), were friggin awesome. Totally turned Terrible Tues into an Epic Day. She even <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/come-on-get-in-lyrics-kt-tunstall.html">dedicated a song to me</a> (the only positive to going through a rough breakup ) which was pretty sweet of her. Highlights include her songs Difficult, and I'm Still a Weirdo, as well as how she makes her own beats on the fly (i.e. goes "woo hoo" into the mic, then records it using footpedals, and then loops it to provide the backing track to Black Horses and the Cherry Tree).<br /><br /><br /><br />The rest of the band was pretty cool as well. All in all, a great show. KT is a must see for the 25-26 year old male demographic imho.<br /></m^2.><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TOVtNsVg5iI/AAAAAAAAAEw/NhhSKRU4J2c/s1600/Full%2BBand.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TOVtNsVg5iI/AAAAAAAAAEw/NhhSKRU4J2c/s200/Full%2BBand.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540954998556386850" border="0" /></a><br /><m^2. two="" days="" expected="" terrible="" work="" stocks="" were="" moving="" wrong="" jimmy="" john="" pulled="" an="" outrageous="" stunt="" mayo="" home="" 7pm="" made="" poorman="" chili="" basically="" put="" can="" beef="" stew="" into="" some="" then="" slather="" hot="" feeling="" needed="" me="" before="" tuesday="" evening="" event="" which="" will="" getting="" covered="" mad="" dog="" clocking="" it="" great="" sauce="" with="" really="" good="" garlic="" molasses="" overestimated="" my="" abilities="" completely="" pwned="" rendering="" food="" nasty="" stomach="" from="" capsicum="" around="" 8pm="" shape="" day="" started="" jd="" s="" got="" him="" tickets="" tunstall="" concert="" now="" i="" m="" sure="" this="" doesn="" t="" sound="" like="" normal="" gift="" 26="" year="" old="" but="" kt="" happens="" be="" a="" guilty="" pleasure="" that="" and="" at="" end="" of="" her="" music="" so="" we="" headed="" off="" show="" in="" order="" to="" post="" up="" front="" opening="" band="" was="" hurricane="" most="" known="" only="" for="" their="" song="" monsters="" being="" track="" ten="" on="" the=""><br /></m^2.>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-7877034180239226682010-11-02T16:00:00.005-06:002010-11-02T16:15:45.293-06:002nd Batch- The HOT OnesThe final six sauces I ordered arrived yesterday. A November 1st arrival was a bit of fail as they were suppose to come during Hot Sauce Month (hi OCTOBER!), but overall the quality of the sauces made up for the delay.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The GOODS (click for full img)</span><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TNCKqL8VXSI/AAAAAAAAAEg/YheRy_FKVvk/s1600/IMG_20101101_185655%282%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 330px; height: 247px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TNCKqL8VXSI/AAAAAAAAAEg/YheRy_FKVvk/s200/IMG_20101101_185655%282%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535076399403326754" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The Beast is a staple in the JD training regime, so it was good to restock. Then I'm very pleased with the inclusion of Liquid Stoopid and Mad Dog Inferno. Both are probably in the 75-85k range, so are the next step up. I have yet to try the Widow sauce, but it allegedly comes in with a 9 handle. Then Mad Dog 357 is a very high end (357k, duh) sauce, which should be good for spicing up a chili as well as party tricks.<br /><br />Last night I tried the "<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0xXuloIOlRVwqjUlzENk6l2hoyutq3J0M6POUkH8gsJC99ENyhbtXRs9bDKzWCgys6G_j0qHrtxEQTsVHEtf-1K8erMINk2WVfOVSmOHqOZgIoD8S7PF3U8-XQS_sEAffZjBQx3HKsqE/s1600/you-cant-handle-the-truth-full%253Binit_.jpg">You can't handle this</a> sauce", and was super impressed. The ingredient list made it look real wimpy, so I had low expectations (vinegar, molasses, jalapeno, cinnamon, etc). But the flavor was incredible, and it actually had some real heat. While it is has yet to be determined whether I was blowing my nose last night b/c of the sauce or b/c of the onset of a cold (still waiting for it to arrive....), I'm very pleased with the unique taste and good heat.<br /><br />P.S. <a href="http://androidheadlines.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/WheresWaldo.jpg">Where's WALDO??</a> If you open up the above hot sauce picture, you will see a diminutive character lurking in the background. This is actually the Wuss of the WEEK! This unnamed person was overheard complaining that the black pepper on her pasta was TOO HOT. When queried, she replied that the problem was that "it was ground pepper, so it was a lot hotter than normal". ZOMG, I have my work cut out for me!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-56833373081187660992010-10-29T07:59:00.005-06:002010-10-29T08:45:29.201-06:00Halloween Fri/First Batch of Product ArrivedIf you are reading this, you have successfully navigated Miz Mon and Terrible Tues, scraped through the painful middle of the week, and now finally have reached Freaky Fri! So good work on that (unless you got banged up last night at the bar lamenting the <a href="http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_bianchi/2010/10/shame-on-florida-state-for-losing-to-north-carolina-state.html">painful FSU loss</a>, and now are hating yourself). Friday means it is now Halloween weekend, which is the second most important thing in October. All year I had plans to either be <a href="http://llamas.blogsome.com/wp-admin/images/Toad,nintendo.jpg">Toad from Super Mario</a>, or a <a href="http://www.glogster.com/media/1/2/84/44/2844421.jpg">Sour Patch Kid</a>. Paralyzed by indecision, I have reached Fri with no progress or costume. As a result (and lack any creative abilities), I'm going to try a last ditch run to a costume store this evening. And if it doesn't work, I may be forced to go as a bloody cannibal with JD. (Picture to come later, I assure you it is the most terrifying costume ever. People ACTUALLY will not talk to me once said costume is donned.) It is unclear whether CA will want to join us or not, smart $$$ says no.<br /><br />But anyway, as mentioned in a previous post, the most important thing about October is that it is Hot Sauce Month. I ordered 16 new sauces, and the first shipment of ten sauces came last week.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The GOODS have arrived</span><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TMrX92P0TLI/AAAAAAAAAEM/nO2uI6NEk44/s1600/array+of+goods.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 359px; height: 269px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TMrX92P0TLI/AAAAAAAAAEM/nO2uI6NEk44/s200/array+of+goods.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533472549711924402" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I ordered these ten sauces from <a href="http://www.originaljuan.com/">Original Juan Specialty Foods.</a> I had previously had the 95% pain, and my sister and her fiancee (<a href="http://oakshirefinancial.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/mikey-likes-it.jpg">little mikey</a>) were real bullish on the garlic style sauce. So I elected to buy basically the whole suite of hot and extra hot sauces available on the website. Coming in at over $50 made me eligible for free shipping. What is kind of hilarious about this strategy is that 1) by offering free shipping for orders over $50 DEFINITELY made me order a couple more sauces than I normally would have. +$10 to the company. 2) the rocket-scientists @ Original Juan's did not specify WHAT KIND OF SHIPPING would be free. So like any opportunistic American, I ordered over-night air-freight delivery. -$45 to the company. So all in, the company lost about $35 on me with their stupidly designed promotion.<br /><br />But anyway, onto the sauces. JD and I tested every sauce utilizing the "3 drops on a chip, clean the palate with a swig of water, move onto the next one" technique.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Testing Station</span><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TMraGlxlYsI/AAAAAAAAAEU/2eQnG-U4pUA/s1600/testing+facilities.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 312px; height: 233px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TMraGlxlYsI/AAAAAAAAAEU/2eQnG-U4pUA/s200/testing+facilities.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533474898932228802" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Overall, the results were satisfactory. My takeaways would be that:<br />1) None of them were overly spicy. The X-treme, Habanero, and Pain 100% were the hottest. They probably were in the 20-30k range, which fills a nice void in my collection.<br />2) The sauce quality (with the exception of the Spur Tree Scotch Bonnet sauce which was yellow crap) was quite high; full body with chunks of ingredients. A big step up from the runny and thin gruel-like sauces you sometimes see.<br />3) The pain 95% sauce really is incredible. The sweet pineapple flavor is an amazing complement to the heat, I'd highly recommend this one.<br />4) Da Bomb Ghost pepper was my other favorite. It is only 1/5th as spicy as its Da Bomb brothers (it is loaded up with other ingredients to reduce the heat, as the ghosts are the hottest peppers in the world), but it has none of their grim flavor. This is my first time hitting up a ghost pepper sauce, and this sauce certainly was a training wheels experience. It has inspired me to get a real Ghost Pepper sauce, most likely will be picking up the Mad Dog 357 Ghost to get a little more feel of the <a href="http://www.hotsaucemall.com/hot-sauce/Mad+Dog+357+Pure+Ghost+Hot+Sauce/HH200">actual heat.</a><br /><br />Next week, the last six of my order should come. These are the hotter sauces (more like 75-95k), so I am expecting some fireworks followed by JD waterworks.<br /><br />Have a great Halloween!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156154086149877659.post-39054743672726670482010-10-26T15:45:00.010-06:002010-10-26T16:22:19.926-06:00Taco Bell Burrito AnalysisOne of the perks of my job is I get to play with numbers and put together spreadsheets. However unlike a green investment banking analyst where the final answer is already known and the intrepid Wharton grad just needs to create a model that justifies the arbitrary (and inflated) equity value that his boss gave him, my spreadsheets are optimally intended to actually solve for something unknown. So in that vein of trying to determine something unclear to the world, I decided to tackle a complex problem that seems to be plaguing Taco Bell customers across the globe.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Question: Is it more cost effective to buy a Five Layer Burrito or a Seven Layer Burrito?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Cast of Characters</span><br /><br />Five Layer Burrito, $0.99<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TMdOB4f7f-I/AAAAAAAAAD0/jMyO6pk30ME/s1600/5+layer.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 171px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TMdOB4f7f-I/AAAAAAAAAD0/jMyO6pk30ME/s200/5+layer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532476461501087714" border="0" /></a><br />Seven Layer Burrito, $2.19<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TMdOp8Xg2BI/AAAAAAAAAD8/kxa0uO7m-ig/s1600/7+layer.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 158px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TMdOp8Xg2BI/AAAAAAAAAD8/kxa0uO7m-ig/s200/7+layer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532477149734295570" border="0" /></a><br /><br />In order to properly assess the value, I look at both cost per layer, as well as cost per calorie.<br /><br />Tabulated Results are as follows (<span style="font-weight: bold;">CLICK ON THE GRAPH TO SEE RESULTS</span>):<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TMdQqcizZ7I/AAAAAAAAAEE/cugBKuuEF00/s1600/Taco+Bell.bmp"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 295px; height: 221px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oeQbhRSqTwE/TMdQqcizZ7I/AAAAAAAAAEE/cugBKuuEF00/s200/Taco+Bell.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532479357394839474" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">In a shocking result, the FIVE LAYER BURRITO IS THE CLEAR WINNER!<br /><br /></span><span>From a Cost/Layer standpoint, the 5 Layer at $0.99 comes in at a respectable 20cents per layer. (PLEASE EXCUSE THE ROUNDING ERROR). The 7 Layer at $2.19 comes in at a less respectable 31cents per layer, or is 1.6x as expensive. Alternatively, if you assume that the first five layers are priced at parity with the 5 layer, then the cost of the remaining two layers balloons to 60cents, or 3.0x as expensive.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />WTF is in these extra layers, Calories?<br /><br /></span><span>Well that is a great question, and brings us to part two of the analysis; cost/calorie. The 5 Layer clocks in at 550 calories, while the 7 layer tips the scale at a weak 510 calories. Based on a cost/calorie standpoint, the 7 layer is 2.4x as expensive.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />Conclusion: Anyone that orders a 7 layer is an idiot; DON'T DO IT.<br /><br /></span><span>P.S. While a poor comp (i.e. does not follow the standard format of =CONCATENATE("#"," Layer"," Burrito"))</span><span>, I also looked at the Bean Burrito. Assuming it is a 1 Layer burrito, the bean burrito costs 5x as much as the 5 Layer on a cost/layer basis, and costs 1.5x as much on a cost/cal basis. Considering that the ingredients of a bean burrito are included in both the 5 and 7 layer <a href="http://www.nataliedee.com/102305/venn-diagram.jpg">(refresher on implications of this)</a>, you'd REALLY have to be dumb to order one of these.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910070159371761050noreply@blogger.com2