It's always interested me there is no percentage listed next to the protein value on Nutrition Facts labels. The values of other items, such as "Total Fat" or "Total Carb," are listed based on an assumed caloric intake - usually 2,000 calories, or so. When it comes to protein, however, there is nothing. Even obvious percentages (e.g., corresponding to 0g protein in bottled water) are ... Read this and 4 comments.

Albums I purchased in April ... Read more.

Albums I bought in March ... Read more.

It appears famed guitar maker Gibson decided to sue Activision over it's insanely popular video game, Guitar Hero. Back in 1999, Gibson allegedly came up with (and patented) an idea for a platform that "simulates a musical performance." Activision responded by claiming the suit only came "after it became clear that Activision was not interested in renewing its marketing and support agreement with ... Read more.

I think I might have found that for which hundreds have sought and failed: the nerdiest band ever. Yes, contrary to popular belief, they exist ... and they are still together. Who are these nerds and where should I have their name tattooed, you ask? They're "The Advantage" and your left knee pit will do just ... Read this and 4 comments.

It looks like people are slowly starting to understand affirmative action is just as wrong as good ol' fashioned racism was in the 60s. Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma will soon have the opportunity to vote on initiatives to ban the preferential treatment of minorities in government-funded projects and public schools. The "Civil Rights Initiative," as it is called, has already passed in California, Michigan and ... Read this and 5 comments.

Albums I purchased in February ... Read more.

Now that Mitt Romney, my choice for PUSA, has suspended his campaign, I am faced with one very critical decision: What do I do with the Mitt Romney for President bumper sticker currently stuck to the side of my office filling ... Read this and 1 comment.

I've heard it said the goal at tax return time is to owe the government a small amount of money. While this advice stung at first, seeing as I was receiving large refunds each year, I eventually came around. Why should I pay the government extra money throughout the year and then get excited when it's given back later without ... Read this and 9 comments.

Super Tuesday has come and gone and it appears my earlier prediction of McCain being destined for the GOP nomination is closer than ever to fruition. While this is disappointing for a Romney supporter, I must admit Huckabee is getting under my skin more than anyone right now. I can identify at least two ... Read this and 17 comments.

Albums I purchased in January ... Read this and 1 comment.

They're opening a new fitness center at my office, and the governing agency (MediFit) is providing health checks for all potential guests. I've had a number of these checks in the past, but this one was interesting for a couple of ... Read more.

The U.S. federal tax brackets for corporations break down as ... Read this and 6 comments.

I don't know how many times I've had my driving impaired by significant fog on the inside of my windshield. My car has the ability to blow air on the area, of course, but this sometimes actually seems to make the situation worse. Luckily, I recently was informed of the secret: hot, fresh air. In other words, the key to dissipating that annoying fog is to change the air temperature to as hot as it will go, as high as it will go - and to use fresh air by de-selecting the recycle air ... Read this and 4 comments.

Unless you believe only the first announcement from Michigan Republican Party officials in Michigan, Mitt Romney won the fourth state caucus/primary. Although it was his second win, the Wyoming primary was overshadowed by the Huckabee victory in Iowa and the McCain victory in New ... Read this and 3 comments.

At first I thought it was just people like my parents who called wireless cellphone headsets by the wrong name. Slowly I started hearing teenagers say it - and then last week I actually heard it used incorrectly in a radio ad. I have to clear the ... Read this and 11 comments.

I love my (uh, I mean our) Wii. Perhaps my only complaint is the destructive tendency of playing involved games in tight spaces. I've smashed my fingers a couple of times on various surrounding objects, given neighboring players a good whack or two in the elbow, and even watched my TV endure a hardy-yet-incidental smack from my mother-in-law. As of yet, there has been no permanent damage, but Wii Remote Jackets did start to look more and more appealing. (Because they're safe ... not because ... Read this and 1 comment.

Albums I purchased in December ... Read this and 6 comments.

After some top-level online discussion of general banking issues for very small businesses, I hit the streets to investigate business checking options. I certainly didn't look into all of the potential banks, but I think the five options detailed below (in alphabetical order) provide a good cross-section of what's out there - at least as far as free business checking goes. The information is also available in a public spreadsheet ... Read this and 3 comments.

This probably looks like an odd question, so let me give it some context: I haven't watched a rated R movie in a long, long time. (I don't think it's been 10 years, but it's close enough.) Why? Because I'd rather avoid the things that make movies rated R - even though it pains me to miss out on movies like Matrix that seem to have very little in them to worry ... Read this and 34 comments.

GMail recently integrated the following new features (listed in order of complete awesomeness, from most awesomest to least ... Read more.

Being the wonderful relatives they are, my wife's paternal grandparents recently sent a check to start our new son's savings account. The "pay to the order of" field included my son's name, as well as an appended ... Read this and 3 comments.

Albums I purchased in November ... Read more.

I used to track this in my profile, but I decided it would be easier to post it in my blog. I'll still track the current month on my profile page, but will move it here at the end of each ... Read more.

The word "import" should be spelled with an "n" instead of an "m." It just makes more ... Read this and 2 comments.

A line in a post on LendingClub.com, quoting The Millionaire Next Door, mentions the tendency of most millionaires to use financial advisers and tax consultants. This stuck out to me because I do my own taxes and make my own investing decisions. It's not without help, of course, the help is just free - or at least much cheaper than paying a ... Read this and 5 comments.

I learned a few things when my 2003 Honda Civic hybrid car battery went dead last week (beyond the obvious "don't leave your headlights on ... Read this and 2 comments.

I hate credit checks - specifically, the "say-it's-free-but-really-it's-not" kind. I went on to freecreditreport.com to get, surprisingly enough, a free credit report. Although I'm usually aware enough to identify the catches, one must have slipped by, as a couple of months later I realized an errant recurring charge had been on my credit card statement starting from a month after I secured the credit report. Luckily, my wife peruses our statements for things like this and once she ... Read this and 7 comments.

One of the first steps in getting a business rolling is establishing "business banking." After securing a state-issued Franchise Tax ID from the State Comptroller (in Texas, at least), and then a Employment Identification Number (EIN) from the Internal Revenue Service, a corporation can open checking and savings accounts specifically tagged for business (i.e., not available to ... Read this and 7 comments.

I recently opened two Roth IRAs (one for me, one for my wife) at Fidelity. Although I will roll a good deal into mine (from a 401k with a previous employer), according to a Fidelity agent, both funds are still considered at ground zero as far as contributions are concerned. This means we are able to put $4,000 in each account still this year (i.e., before January 1, 2008) without ... Read this and 8 comments.

Yes, I'm the one who asked if a hybrid was worth it and concluded it wasn't (not from a purely economical standpoint, that is). And yet, as of last weekend, I'm a hybrid owner - a 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid, to be ... Read this and 2 comments.

There are two ingredients I try to avoid whenever possible: partially hydrogenated oils (PHO) and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). They are everywhere, and they are horrible. Trying to find foods without them can be difficult - especially when noting the price difference - but removing these two from your diet can go a long way towards improving your health, in my ... Read more.

I've been sent my share of well-intended spam, but today I received probably the most ill-advised message I've ever seen. Hoping to save a missing 13 year old girl, a contractor working for Shell (my employer) forwarded this email along. Not just to me, however, but to everyone in the company working in Houston. We're talking thousands and thousands of Shell employees, here. And over company ... Read this and 1 comment.

After years of research, I've finally stumbled on the secret ingredients for health and ... Read this and 7 comments.

Most music reviews concentrate on what's new or popular, and while I might get into a little of each, my main purpose here is to review the albums I purchased the previous month. That's right, the previous month. (I need time for them to sink in, don't I?) So, in the September edition, published at the beginning of November, I will review - in alphabetical order by artist - the albums I bought in September, be they ten years or ten months ... Read more.

Just in case you haven't been forwarded one of the warning emails, there's a new children's movie coming out this December entitled The Golden Compass. Based on the first book of a hugely popular fantasy series written by British author Philip Pullman, the forthcoming flick has been steeped in controversy. Fans of the book series are, of course, concerned about the screenplay straying from the book on which it is based - but this movie is bringing out deeper held alliances than any book series ... Read this and 54 comments.

My high school ten year reunion having occured this past weekend, I took time to look back into what pop culture was like when I graduated in 1997. Here's what I ... Read this and 1 comment.

Google Docs has rolled out more new features to ... Read more.

I recently ended my 14-year streak of no accidents when I inexplicably wrecked my 1996 Camry into the back of a Suburban. I'm looking to buy a 2-4 year old Honda Civic to replace it, and found one on Ebay in which I'm interested. There's only one problem: It has a salvage ... Read this and 16 comments.

One of the perhaps lesser-known uses of OmniNerd is its ability to help users self-promote (i.e., bring traffic to an external project or website, such as the site on which I sell my paintings). Here are some tips on how to best go about self-promotion on ... Read more.

There are a few reasons why starting a blog on OmniNerd would have advantages over one hosted ... Read this and 5 comments.

I started a Google Spreadsheet to start systematically deciding on a name for Superbaby when I noticed Google has rolled out new features. Most notably, in my opinion, the perpetually-beta online document repository now supports presentations, as well as auto-fill in spreadsheets. (Further language support and the ability to import data from various filetypes and feeds round out the new ... Read more.

I used to enjoy Whole Fruit Sorbet quite often, but recently have been unable to find it on grocery store shelves. When I tried to do some research online, all I found was J&J Snack Foods acquired the manufacturer at back in April - a date that seems to correlate with when my favorite treat went ... Read more.

The usual deodorant/antiperspirant is horrible. It doesn't work well, it stains clothes, it clogs pores, it's difficult to wash off, etc. Due to an odd set of circumstances I won't get into here, I discovered mineral salt deodorant a few years ago and never looked back. More recently, I find it coming up frequently in conversations and it's more obvious to me now than ever how much better it is - even though it doesn't keep me from sweating and doesn't smell like anything related to mountain ... Read this and 2 comments.

Now that there's a place to leave random stuff on O-Nerd, I thought I'd let the nerdy community know my wife is 39 weeks pregnant with our first - a son currently known only as "superbaby." I can't wait to suit the little fella up in one of ... Read this and 6 comments.

I recently changed jobs and am deciding what to do with the funds in my 401(k) at my previous employer. As far as I can tell, I have the following ... Read this and 6 comments.

September Dawn, a film about the Mountain Meadows massacre of a wagon train of 120 emigrants in south Utah by local Mormons and Indians, hit the box office this week, no doubt seeking to cash in on the ultra-controversial topic (and perhaps to take advantage of the heightened profile of Mormonism lately due to the presidential bid of Mitt Romney). As expected, LDS apologists and anti-Mormons alike have already begun forming arguments concerning to the movie's content. Even the Church magazine, ... Read this and 18 comments.

Recently I changed jobs and my new employer offers a stock purchase plan. According to this plan, employees can elect to have a certain percentage (up to 25%) of their salary withdrawn which is used to buy company stock quarterly. At the end of one year, the employee is given a bonus (in additional stock) of 15% of the purchased shares remaining. In essense, I would elect to use X% of my salary to purchase stock, and as long as I didn't sell it (and assuming the stock value didn't change), I ... Read this and 5 comments.

In order to determine the best place for my money, I've developed the habit of using a simple interest rate comparison. For example, if I had a home loan with a 4.5% interest rate, a savings account with a 5.27% rate, and a credit card at 18.0%, I would apply my uncommitted funds towards the credit card. (Although it wouldn't actually pay me interest, it would effectively "increase" by preventing me having to pay interest.) If I didn't have a credit card balance, however, I'd put the ... Read this and 15 comments.

Those who believe in the deification of man are often accused of being "un-Christian" or polytheists. Critics point out how arrogant it is to think one could supplant God, and allege a lack of biblical foundation for the belief. This sort of exclusion from the ranks of Christianity is prevalent in works such as Ed Decker's The Godmakers or Walter Martin's Kingdom of the Cults, but is it justified in Christian tradition or ... Read this and 71 comments.

When I switched to DSL from cable, my IP address began changing almost daily (as opposed to maybe once a month). This is quite annoying as I have to go in and update any and all domains I've registered which point to websites served from my home Mac - log-on to the domain provider, select each domain and individually update the DNS to my recently assigned IP address - only to repeat again the next day. I looked into obtaining a static IP address from my ISP, and it appears such would require a ... Read this and 11 comments.

I hate Wells Fargo. Not only do I feel cheated out of the money I've paid them in PMI, I feel cheated by using their savings and checking accounts. A few weeks ago, O-Nerd nickfranklin recommended a search tool on bankrate.com to locate a high-interest savings account. I was blown away to see multiple Internet banking savings accounts offering interest rates over ten times what my money was earning at Wells Fargo. Not only that, these accounts had no minimum balances, no fees, unlimited ... Read this and 12 comments.

My 1999 Accord is fond of throwing a "maintenance required" warning light at me every so often. After being worried the first time, comments from various mechanics have convinced me this is something time/mileage related rather than car health related. It is, nevertheless, rather annoying to drive around with an "idiot light" glaring at ... Read this and 11 comments.

An odd combination of two media experiences got me thinking about which I would find more devastating: the death of my beautiful and talented spouse - or a divorce. First, the new Fall Out Boy album contained a song called The Take Over, The Breaks Over with the line: "Wouldn't you rather be a widow than a divorcee?" Next, a General Conference talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in theChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entitled ... Read this and 4 comments.

A Guitar Hero frenzy over the July 4th holiday has me more seriously considering an existing desire to purchase a Wii game console. Other than a Nintendo 64, I've never owned a game console, preferring PC RTS games to console-dominating FPSs. What brought about the change of heart, you ask? Surprisingly enough, my wife. Games like the tennis/golf ones on the Wii, or Guitar Hero for that matter, seem to be "wife-friendly," meaning they make for a suitable solution to the inevitable ... Read this and 2 comments.

During the 2004 Presidential election, the "flip-flop" term became extremely popular among conservatives to describe/defame John Kerry. It was even chanted during speeches at GOP rallies. Leading up to the 2008 Presidential election, the same term has again become popular, this time by those opposed to Mitt Romney, the former governor of ... Read this and 11 comments.

The traditional family lacks serious momentum. "Family values" are still high on the list of critical issues for many conservative voters, but these values center on in-your-face issues such as abortion and homosexual marriage. Not to downplay the importance of those, but such an agenda neglects the every-day family values which are also of great consequence - values that include particularly unselfishness (for women) and diligence/responsibility (for men). Why the gender delineation? ... Read this and 5 comments.

Parental attitudes towards teaching children about the "birds and the bees" range from advocating strict abstinence until marriage to encouraging experimentation. Timing is also an issue, with some parents avoiding the issue indefinitely while others choose to debunk the "stork" myth very early ... Read this and 23 comments.

The recent shooting in the Amish community and some of the ensuing conversation somehow led me to develop my very own welfare reform plan - something I actually did discuss in a coffee shop this past week. My thought process starts by wondering how many of the Amish have died of starvation because of they refuse to accept welfare or unemployment. Or, how many have died prematurely because of the lack of state-sponsored retirement? I don't have a positive source, but the fact that an Internet ... Read this and 19 comments.

Cosmetic surgeries, both major and relatively non-invasive, are on the up and up. In my experience, the reason given most often by the recipients of such procedures is "for myself." No one wants to admit they are undergoing surgery because they care so much about what others think, right? However, I doubt women go under the knife (or the Botox needle) to impress their husbands, boyfriends, or even men in general. I think the real motivation is betrayed by observing when women dress up. ... Read this and 27 comments.