Simple Sparrow

Premier League race: Man U, Man City and Tottenham

Right now only 3 teams matter in the Premier League: Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. These teams are separated by just 3 points with Manchester City leading the other two by 3 points. Tottenham are a surprise team but when you look at their squad they are strong and are getting key goals by Gareth Bale. 

Tottenham have been consistently good all season up until now to get to 45 points with 20 games played. Manchester United have been inconsistent first starting the season strong then dropping key points while Man City was pulling away with the title. Now Man U are playing consistent football while Manchester City is taking their turn on the stumbling block. 

 

Two teams people thought would matter but haven't are Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea. These teams have had problems this season and everyone expects Chelsea to do better than this but either you can blame the manager Villas-Boas or you could ask why 60 million euros doesn't get you more goals, cough cough Fernando Torres. Liverpool have to deal with Suarez missing games for being a racist. 

If you are a Thierry Henry fan then you'll love his return back to the Arsenal FC as he scores the only goal in the 4th round FA cup match against Leeds. 

Who will win the league?

Prediction: Manchester City

They have too much scoring power and the real threat to a title this season is with Manchester United but they are dealing with so many injuries that Paul Scholes has come out of retirement to help the team. The injuries will add up in the middle of the season and cost them some games.

Customized puppet videos

If you are looking for a great gift idea you should consider getting your own customized puppet videos.  But not just any ordinary puppet video but from Professor Puppet!  You can hire him for longer video projects that are more detailed or if you are on a budget you can check out his Fiverr.com profile page here:

http://fiverr.com/professorpuppet

He has over 1000 satisfied customers and not a single complaint! That is one of the best fiverr ratings ever. 

At fiverr they have over 5 different types of orders including Christmas orders. If you want to see a sample of these puppet videos just visit their youtube channel and we have embedded one of their funny outtake videos. After doing over 1000 videos there is bound to be some bloopers. Well here are the blooper videos featuring lots of swearing.

 

The videos they produced for us were for Christmas and everyone loved them! Actually people begged me to share where I got them from so I decided to do a post to share where Professor Puppet is hiding on the internet. 

You can buy their videos, buy special tshirts from Cafe Press or to contact just add Professor Hons Von Puppet on facebook. 

 

Christmas Cookies from the 1940s

Great Aunt Patty’s Ranger Cookies from the 1940s There were dark days in Europe and Asia during the 1940’s as ideologies clashed around the globe during World War II. A bright moment did occur from time to time as American soldiers received what was called “care” packages from their sweethearts back home. Along with windows and porch railings reflecting the patriotic homemade banners of Service Stars, an American tradition that began during World War I, another homemade idea was being prepared in American kitchens. It was Christmas time and the girls were getting together to send their boys in uniform what they called Ranger Cookies.

On a radio filled with glowing tubes they listened to the Bugle Boy of Company B, Little Brown Jug and many other swing bands of that era as they lovingly prepared the Ranger Cookies in Christmas packages. That’s the history that Great Aunt Patty passed down and here’s the recipe to go with it. Great Aunt Patty’s Ranger Cookies from the 1940s 1 Cup butter or Crisco, 1 Cup White Sugar and 1 Cup Brown Sugar. Mix these three ingredients well. Then add three beaten eggs, ½ teaspoon vanilla, two cups sifted flour, one teaspoon baking soda, a dash of salt, ½ teaspoon baking powder and mix the ingredients well.

Then you need to add one cup chopped walnuts, one cup chocolate chips, one cup grated coconut, and two cups fine oatmeal. Mix all ingredients well. Then stir in two cups Rice Krispies. Drop by teaspoon onto a cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Truly these cookies will bring on smiles and happy faces today just as they did to many soldiers over 70 years ago.

Happy Holidays everyone and have a Merry Christmas.

Where to gamble for Christmas?

Let's face it. Christmas time is supposed to be a joyous time of the year but it is probably the most stressful time of the year. When we should be taken care of ourselves we tend to do the opposite, go to our vices and then try to make up for it with new years on promises that we never keep.

Well lets cut the crap out and talk about what you can expect when it comes to gambling for Christmas. We don't mean to say to gamble on christmas day but rather to take advantage of promotions both online and in land based.

For Las Vegas according to Las Vegas Direct the best discounts happen from Christmas to New Years. So why not spend both there and save a ton! Surely this is one of the best kept secrets around but most people don't plan to spend their Christmas in Las Vegas. If you want to live like a king for a week just splurge and treat yourself right.

For those that don't plan to go anywhere you might want to consider online casinos as a means for getting away. Not only that if you don't want to make a deposit at all, expect no deposit bonuses to come your way as casinos have nothing better else to do than to fight for your attention. Even if you do make a deposit you can expect match bonuses anywhere from 50% up to 500%.

What about slots? Try Christmas slots where you can find christmas themed slot games to play and get custom bonuses along the way. Just watch out for their blog or join their rss feed.

Ho Ho Ho!!!

Information for landlords and tennants

After hearing of a friend where their tennant was trying to screw him over out of overdue rent, I decided to do some research when it comes to contracts between landlords and tennants. 

Tennants certainly need to protect themselves but if you are a landlord there is no excuse for dropping the ball on anything and you must hold your end of the deal up. Also if you have a deliquant tennant then you'll want to make sure you are following all the necessary steps and procedures for eviction and debt collection.

So what information do you need? 

It depends on your state in that all laws are different where some states have more protection for the tennant while other states have more protection for the landlord. Either way you need a propoer contract in place and you need basic and standard forms to get the job done.

http://www.diylandlordforms.com/

You can find enough information about the types of forms available but basically they are the same thing. Now if you need landlord and tennant rental agreements, there is no need to make these overly complicated or having to get something completely out of date. 

You can get it by clicking around the diylandlordforms website or just click on this link here:

http://www.diylandlordforms.com/rental-agreements/rental-agreement.php

What you don't want is a situation where nobody signed any contract which you would be surprised how often this happens. Get everything signed and dated properly and always keep good records.

 

Our favorite blackberry apps

Christmas is around the corner and you can bet that on my Christmas wishlish is a new blackberry phone, cough cough if you are reading this. For those stuck in the bubble of the iphone world or brainwashed by the folks at google and android there is another alternative that for blackberry lovers are happy that the blackberry apps are starting to rise. 

That is thankfully developers are working overtime to produce apps for blackberry in addition to android and iphone/ios. One place we like to check for news on blackberry apps is topblackberryapps.net. 

Now here is our short list of favourite apps in blackberry apps:

Shazam - This app is a must have for listening to the radio and if you want to know what song is playing, just turn on this app and 'Ta Daa'

Drivesafe.ly - This app is a must have since blackberry users are notorious for driving and texting. This app converts text to voice and vice versa. Many countries and states are making driving and texting or phoning illegal so this app will not only save your life but save you some money.

WhatsApp Messenger - this is a better alternative to Viber. Viber is a good app but you cannot trust the people behind it to not steal and sell your data which forums are flooded with these accusations that this company exists only for that reason. WhatsApp might do the same but so far they haven't been called out by the ethical police yet. Save money when you are texting. Most mobile service providers love to rip you off, use WhatsApp to tell them where to go!

Hillarious animated gifs

Start your day right with a good laugh. Laughing is good for you and research shows people who laugh more live longer and also don't suck. So if you are looking for a good laugh here are our top 5 hillarious LOL animated gifs.

First up is the hillarious bad brother. These 2 girls think they are being all cute and getting all the attention in front of the camera. Clearly bad brother doesn't agree and takes matters into his own hands.

This next gif is either too hillarious or too disgusting. Either way the girl wishes he hadn't have touched or startled her dog, which now probably feels embarrassed as to what the dog just did to master. Yes, squirting liquid poop.

Next up is bongo kitty that doesn't disappoint as much as squirting liquid poop dog. This kitty bongo gif is one you can watch over and over.

Super volcano scare

BBC had a news article talking about a possible super volcano and that more activity is happening at the yellowstone national park in the united states. If you don't know what a super volcano is then you should visit the wikipedia page that says there are 7 known super volcanoes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano

Well many documentaries have been made in the past 10 years to talk about Yellowstone being the next super volcano and that it occurs once every 650,000 to 700,000 years and it hasn't gone off in 630,000 years. If one does go off it seems it will wipe out most of the animals living in north america. 

Soap price fixing?

Who knew you could rig the price of soap but now that Unilever and Procter & Gamble have been caught and given a massive fine, it makes you wonder if more of this activity is happening around the world. So how large is the fine? About 315 million euros! or at the current exchange rate of $456 million USD!!!

Now the real question is this, if these companies are being fined for causing consumers to pay more for their product will the fine collected go back to the consumer? It sounds like the answer is probably no and who knows if this money will now end up in the pockets of politicians.

So these are just 2 companies who have been caught and it makes you wonder about the price of oil as well. There is no shortage of supply yet these magical crisis events around the world it seems like when Lady Gaga farts that it is another cause for the price of oil. Unrest in the middle east? Yes we have to increase the price of oil there because ... of uncertainty... yes we are very uncertain so we need to increase the price.

Gbagbo arrested in Ivory Coast

It appeared that Ivory Coast was on the verge of a civil war with the former President Laurent Gbagbo looking to walk over their own people to hold onto power over the people. The elections appeared to show that rival Alassane Ouattara had won a fair election but Gbagbo and his people were looking to cover this up and it seemed at one point that Mr. Ouattara might have been in risk of being assassinated as his hotel complex was being attacked. Surely events like this are only going to cripple the people in Ivory Coast and one has to wonder who holds the real power in this country and will the cycle of corruption continue to hold their own people prisoners?

The price of chocolate and cocoa has gone up as a result as a lot of cocoa is produced in the Ivory Coast. Back in December international football star Didier Drogba called for peace saying the unrest was going to cost lives and more.

Either way you look at it, some damage has been done but hopefully for the people of Ivory Coast they can move forward to the future and not a step backwards.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13056546