Simon weighs in before his Super Size Me trip to the USA (11 Oct 2010)

Super Size Me USA

I'm about to fly out to the USA for 4 weeks so I thought I'd weigh myself in to see how the big meals I hear so much about will affect me. Of course I'm sure they'll be heaps of walking which will counteract the food intake, perhaps even shed some weight if I'm lucky. Here I come San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York and Honolulu with my approximate starting weight of 78.5 kg (minus camera). Thanks for all the reader comments about places to eat in the USA — I hope to spend some considerable time reading through all the suggestions when I arrive. One of my personal goals is to see how I go with eating a McDonalds Big Mac with super sized fries and a coke like on the Super Size Me documentary movie. I'm keen to see how big this mother is going to be in relation to what we get in Sydney. I promise to eat better food after this.

Day 1 – Simon weighing in at approximately 78.5 kg before USA — perhaps minus weight of camera.

Carr's Naked Butlers: Best Cracker of a Joke, Martin Place (14 Sept 2010)

http://www.australiasbestcracker.com

Serving up a cracker

Advertised in Nine-To-Five magazine as:
“Naked Butlers! 14 September, 8:15 am – 10:15 am, Martin Place & Elizabeth Streets, Sydney. Sydney commuters are sure to have an early morning wake up call when butlers in nothing but a black apron covering their crown jewels and a bow tie, will be distributing free Carr’s crackers on silver platters.”

As I arrive at Martin Place at 9:55 am the muscle toned half-naked butlers are still in fine form serving up Carr's crackers to pedestrians walking past outside the Channel 7 News. The Nine-To-Five promotional photo had the guys with no undies behind those black aprons but apparently the police had firm words earlier in the morning to tell them it was illegal. So I guess they needed to cover their cracks up for one of a better word. Promotional flyers were given out advertising the chance to win $5000 by submitting your best joke online and of course to promote Carr's crackers. I tried the Carr's Melts Cheese which were really nice — I'd happily eat them again, very buttery and melt-in-your-mouth.

Q. What's the best way to enjoy a Carr's cracker?

A. One that's served by a Buttler!

You can vote for my joke at this link:

http://www.australiasbestcracker.com/comp/201

Be sure to tell your friends to vote for me too if you love reading my blog :-)

Half-naked butlers serving up Carr's cracker samples

Carr's Melts Cheese — actually very yummy :-)

Promotional flyer

Promotional website http://www.australiasbestcracker.com

OMG, look at the size of this Mutant Strawberry (11 Sept 2010)

Organic or Genetically Modified?

OMG, look at the size of this mother of all strawberries! It took up nearly half the punnet and is about 4-5 times the size of all the other strawberries and weighs in at 98 grams. It's physical size is 9 x 7 x 3.5 cm. It's one hell of a mutant strawberry which makes me wonder how it got to be like that in the first place. Can strawberries naturally grow like this or is there some GM at play here? Has anyone else ever found a strawberry like this? Thanks to my dad for bringing it to my attention.

In the same punnet: 1 normal and 1 mutant strawberry

Size comparison to normal sized strawberry

9 cm wide

7 cm depth

3.5 cm high

98 grams

It looks very similar in style to this one

Perfect Italiano: The Perfect Man Ads (11 May 2010)

http://www.perfectitaliano.com.au

Does the perfect man exist?

It looks like Fabio might have some fierce competition from the latest Perfect Italiano ads I've been noticing on TV during MasterChef — due to the fact they are a sponsor. They crack me up! I think they're quite clever and wonder if women actually find them funny as well. It actually reminds me a bit of those innocent Porn for Women postcards. The meals look pretty good as well :-)

Listening Face Ad

Perfect Ad

Example of Porn for Women postcard

Jellio: Gummi Bears Chandelier (3 Mar 2010)

Jellio: Fun by Design

http://www.jellio.com

5000 Gummi Bears lit up

Isn't it great when you come across those moments in life when you think you've just about seen everything and then suddenly seeing something fantastic and surprising makes you realise there's plenty more creativity in the world to be seen. I noticed this recently posted on Swissmiss which I simply felt compelled to share with everyone and some comments also referenced YaYa Chou Gummi Bear Series including an amazing Chandelier. The pictured chandelier sold by Jellio is made of approximately 5000 hand-strung acrylic gummi bears which apparently takes about two months to complete. Only ten will ever be made and each one will be a little different. The chandelier weighs approximately 50 lbs and is 31" in diameter. At first I thought they were actually real edible gummi bears but the material is listed as acrylic, so that's a shame but at least it will last forever. If you want one then buy here.

So which generous person wants to buy me one?

Adobe Photoshop Cook By Lait Noir (25 Feb 2010)

Lait Noir

http://vimeo.com/user456458

Cooking made easy

I first came across this video on swissmiss. It's sooo cool I had to share it with you all. I wish my Photoshop could do this. Cooking would be so much easier, quicker and cleaner :-)

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

A video made in stopmotion for competition AdobeYouGC. The simulation of a tutorial which shows how to make the lovely butter cookies with the new Adobe Photoshop Cook! Whole set was made with cardboard and with kitchen utensils.

Andy Wright: You Dropped Food on the Floor. Do You Eat It? (22 Jan 2010)

"We've all been there: You dropped your cupcake on the ground. Did it land icing up, down? Can you just scrape off the icing? How many hours have you lost trying to decide? Here's a time-saving flow chart to help out."

LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!

Sometimes you come across those ideas in life that you simply have to share with everyone you know, did know and would like to know. I first spotted this through Fooderati who retweeted from Ang Graham who I believe found it on San Francisco Food Blog which was created and blogged by Andy Wright from Food Porn.

And now I give to you to have a laugh and spread the word. BTW I always thought the rule was it's OK to eat food from the floor as long as no one sees you doing it ;-) so here's my updated version below.