Plan for Progress  

In places such as stadiums, arenas, concert halls or even roads, confetti is used to celebrate an occasion. Some of these units are large and throw confetti up to 100 feet in the air.

Confetti blasters are simple units. You have a funnel into which you load the confetti. The funnel ends in a box. On the other end, the box is connected to large CO2 tanks. When operated, the compressed CO2 blasts the confetti into the air. Blaster capabilities are measured by the quantity of confetti they can throw and to what distance they can throw.

Some of these blasters have double barrels to throw larger amounts of confetti. The CO2 blasts also make a loud popping sound, something like a cannon blast. The CO2 blast can also be backed by a second blast of air or CO2 to push the confetti even further and wider.

Confetti blasters come in two varieties. The first one is a single shot that sends a pre-determined load of confetti into the air. The second variety has lesser capability in terms of quantity and throw distance. But, that can throw confetti continuously for a period of about 60 seconds and to a fixed height.

Confetti blasters come in all shapes and sizes. From small hand held units to large blasters that fill a complete stadium. From small units that throw a few ounces, to gigantic blasters that can fill a stadium with confetti.

Confetti blasters can also be hung from the ceiling and remote controlled. There are electric version available that throw up a storm of confetti using a powerful fan.

My girlfriend and I are going to wear Sonny and Cher Halloween costumes this year, but I strongly considered going with a costume based on a movie character. The link between Hollywood and the costume industry is becoming stronger every year, so you can find outfits for even the most obscure characters. If you’re having a hard time coming up with ideas, why not give one of these a try?

Costumes from Hollywood Motion Pictures

• Captain Jack Sparrow – You don’t have to look like Johnny Depp to pull off this costume dedicated to everyone’s favorite bumbling, stumbling pirate. The three-cornered hat is pretty cool, and make sure you purchase a cutlass to complete the outfit.
• Princess Leia – The most traditional costume is the white outfit she wore in Star Wars. If you’ve got a great body, though, you might consider the slave girl get-up she sported in the opening scenes of Return of the Jedi.
• Optimus Prime – The leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime has an alternate form as a semi-truck and wages a non-stop battle against the evil plots of the Decepticons.
• Harry Potter – If you have the right look (and glasses), you’ll be the hit of the party as The Boy Who Lived. Get a couple of pals to go as Hermione and Ron.
• Darth Vader – When it comes to movie villains, nobody is more popular than this lightsaber -wielding master of the Force. Too bad these costumes can’t duplicate his distinctive breathing sounds.
• Wicked Witch – Dorothy’s nemesis from The Wizard of Oz gets to wear a pointy witch hat, but make sure to apply plenty of green make-up for maximum effect.
• Cruella De Vil – The dog-hating villain from Disney’s 101 Dalmatians can be a pretty sexy costume on the right woman. The black-and-white wig will also allow you to stand out from the crowd.
• Woody – Your kids will get a kick out of this costume devoted to the lovable cowboy (voiced by Tom Hanks) from Toy Story and its sequels.
• Babydoll – Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch disappointed at the box office, but you can still be a big hit as a waif with big swords and even bigger guns. If you’ve got a number of hot gal pals, you can attend as the whole gang of female butt kickers from the movie.

My girlfriend is obsessed with Cher, so I suppose we could always drop the Sonny and Cher gimmick and dress up like characters from her many movies. Maybe a Moonstruck angle would be appropriate, with my gal dressed as Cher’s saucy Italian and me made to look like Nicolas Cage’s one-handed Ronny Cammareri.

There are thousands of choices in Internet casinos out there. Sometimes they are called virtual casinos and Internet casinos. It is hard to make a choice and sift through the thousands of options out there. Each casino claims to offer the most games, the better graphics, and the biggest sign-up bonuses, but you also need to pay attention to the deposit and withdrawal options to see if they are amenable to what you are trying to do. Always avoid brand new casinos when picking one out because the old established online casinos have the most players and the most credibility. If they’ve just launched in the past few days, they could be a fly-by-night casino that is just trying to steal your money. Some casinos also offer deceptive bonus packages that aren’t really accurate. If the bonus is too hard to clear, it is in effect, just like stealing your dough. Some online casinos accept all players from all over the world. Excellent support teams are a boost at most good online casinos. Third-party software powers many online casinos, and a standard piece of software may comprise up to 100 games. If you’re familiar with the software at one casino, then you can migrate over to another consumer, and you will still feel at home with the software. Many online casinos have daily promotional deals, cash for comp programs, and fantastic customer support.

Online casinos should operate on a transparent and clean basis with a lot of credibility and trustworthiness behind them established over several years with a client base from all over the world. That threshold is not too high to reach because many online casinos have reached it. Avoid casinos with poor odds. Online casinos should be very upfront about the kind of odds they offer. They should offer odds that are the same as offline casinos. The odds should adhere to the basic rules of the game. Brick-and-mortar casino odds should apply.

Bad online casinos will generally have few user reviews. If you run a search on Google and try to learn about it, it may have very little information pertaining to how well it treats its clients. You want to stay away from those casinos that don’t have any ratings because there’s no way to tell if they’re trustworthy. A good online casino should at least have a Wikipedia entry or some general comments from users on forums.

Women I Would Cheat With

I’m a happily married man, but even I have my limits. There are a select group of women out there who would force me to cheat on my bride, if only they would turn up on my doorstep one rain-soaked night. I’m sure my wife has a similar list filled with named like Clooney and Pitt, but this one belongs entirely to me. And for those of you who are actually considering an affair, you might want to take a look at Ashley Madison. While I don’t endorse such behavior, their Ashley Madison coupons will allow you to save a little money while you’re rolling the dice on your future.

• Anne Hathaway – Ms. Hathaway has no problem getting naked in her movies, and I wholeheartedly approve of her curvy young body. Those massive doe eyes are also a big plus, not to mention the fact that she seems like she could hold a conversation.
• Maggie Q – Asian women have always appealed to me, and this American/Vietnamese mix is one of the hottest things going today. She is a little on the skinny side, but that traffic-stopping face is enough to warrant her inclusion on this list.
• Penelope Cruz – I wasn’t a big fan of Penelope Cruz for years, but in retrospect I don’t know what I was thinking. This Spanish beauty is long and lean, and she’s held up well over the years. What’s not to like?
• Megan Fox – While a lot of people like to slam her acting, only a fool would scoff at her porn star looks. Even better, she claims to have only slept with one guy in her life, which is always a nice bonus.
• Natalie Portman – Do I even need to explain this one? Jewish women have always held a special place in my heart, and this diminutive hottie would make me consider converting to Judaism and wearing a kippah for the rest of my days.

So there you have it: women I would cheat with. It’s never going to happen, of course, but it’s nice to occasionally daydream about all the ladies listed above. If you’d like to have a little real-life fantasy fulfillment, you might want to give Ashley Madison a try. They have millions of members, and their Ashley Madison coupons allow you to save several bucks on a membership.

Cool Movie Psychics

The next time you rent a movie, go ahead and give one of these cool movie psychics a try. From head-exploding madmen to dark lords of the Sith, you’ll be amazed at what these characters can do with the power of the mind. Not surprisingly, you won’t find any of these psychics in Michigan, but that shouldn’t stop you from watching.

• Professor X (Patrick Stewart) from X-Men – He may be bald and in a wheelchair, but Professor X is the most powerful psychic in the world of X-Men. He also gets to hang around a bunch of women in tight leather outfits.
• Darth Vader (David Prowse) from Star Wars – A master of the dark side of the Force, Darth Vader can choke people with his mind, hurl objects, and use a number of other powers to crush those rebel scum.
• Gillian Bellaver (Amy Irving) from The Fury – Held captive by a shadowy government agency, this young woman has a habit of making those who threaten her bleed to death.
• Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) from The Dead Zone – While he’s not a very good shot with a rifle, Johnny can touch a person and see important events in their future.
• Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) from Scanners – A madman bent on world domination, Revok can cause a man’s head to explode just by looking at him.
• Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) from Carrie – When her classmates douse her in pig’s blood at the prom, young Carrie White unleashes her psychic powers and teaches them all a lesson.
• Tetsuo from Akira – This animated gang member has the ability to make an entire city crumble into dust. He’s also got fine taste in motorcycles and capes.

That concludes our look at cool movie psychics. If you’d like to get advice from a real-life person with mental powers, click on the link and check out some of the psychics in Maine.

I’ve loved horror movies ever since I was a kid, and 2011 is shaping up to be a good year for the genre. I’ve included a few of the horror movies to see in 2011 in the list below, and you should be able to catch them at all major theatres (I suggest using Cinemark coupons to save a few dollars).

Scream 4- Wes Craven’s latest installment in the Screamseries finds Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returning home on the anniversary of the first brutal killing in a long series of murders. As you might imagine, the death toll starts up again. Courteney Cox and David Arquette also return.

The Thing – Meant as a prequel to the John Carpenter classic, this tale of terror focuses on what happened at the Norwegian base prior to the 1982 film.

Piranha 3DD- Last year’s surprise hit continues with more piranha action and plenty of camp and nudity. Ving Rhames even returns, despite appearing to have been devoured in the previous film.

Fright Night – A remake of the 1985 horror classic, Fright Nightrevolves around a teen (Anton Yelchin) who believes his new neighbor (Colin Farrell) is a vampire. He’s right, of course, so he turns to a famous magician (David Tennant) for aid. While I’m willing to give it a try, there’s no way it will be as good as the original.

Final Destination 5 -The latest film in the franchise about young people sidestepping the Grim Reaper and then getting hunted down in unique ways.

There are plenty of other horror movies to see in 2011, but this list should get you started. You can also wait until they come out on DVD. If you choose the latter option, I suggest making yourself some hot dogs and popcorn (I like to use Oscar Mayer coupons to save money) and calling some friends to come over. Nothing says friendship like watching movie teens get butchered.

It seems that Lindsay Lohan is in trouble every time I turn on the news. In order to see if that’s a true assessment, I’ve put together a list of her legal problems over the years.

Despite her erratic and immature behavior, Lindsay Lohan still has the potential for a promising film career. To check out her previous work, become a member of Netflix. Thanks to their Starz Play option, many of these works can be streamed right to your computer.

May 26th, 2007- After running up on a curb in her car, Lohan was arrested on DUI charges and entered rehab. A “usable” amount of cocaine was also found, but she was not charged for this.

June 24th, 2007- Lohan was arrested for DUI prior to starting filming on a movie called Poor Things. A small amount of cocaine was found in her pocket. She was charged with felony possession of cocaine, driving with a suspended license, and driving under the influence. Afterwards, she entered rehab for the third time and would be sentenced to one day in jail and three years probation (extended by another year when she failed to attend court-ordered substance abuse classes).

May 2010- After failing to show up for a court hearing, the judge ordered a warrant put out for Lohan’s arrest. The warrant was rescinded after a representative posted bail.

July 6th, 2010- A judge determined that Lohan had violated the terms of her probation and sentenced her to 90 days in jail. She was released after 14 days.

September 24th, 2010 – Her probation was revoked after failing a drug test. She was released on bail after spending part of the day in jail, and she spent the next three months in court-ordered rehab.

February 9th, 2011- Lohan was charged with felony grand theft for failing to return a $2,500 necklace to a jewelry store. After her probation was revoked, Lohan pled not guilty and rejected a plea deal. The first hearing in the case is scheduled for April 22nd.

Make yourself some popcorn (I like to use Orville Redenbacher coupons to save money), pop in a DVD, and watch Lindsay Lohan on the small screen. Whether you like her or not, you’ll be amazed at how someone with such a bright future could allow themselves to get into so much trouble.

According to director Richard Linklater, “There was once a god who walked the Earth named Warren Oates.” I’ll second that opinion.

Warren Oates carved out a niche playing tough guys, and his easy charm and non-traditional Hollywood looks have ensured him of a lasting legacy. Sadly, he passed away from a heart attack at the age of 53, depriving fans of even more quality movies.

Speaking of movies, be sure to try out some AMC coupons the next time you head to the movies. Not only will you save a few bucks, but you’ll feel good about yourself in the process.

Stripes(1981) – Oates plays Sgt. Hulka, the straight-laced foil to Bill Murray’s wisecracking soldier. And when the band of misfits strays into enemy territory, it’s up to Hulka to mount a rescue mission.

The Wild Bunch(1969) – A band of aging outlaws head into Mexico to pull a job in this Sam Peckinpah western classic. Oates joins Ben Johnson, Ernest Borgnine, and William Holden as the doomed group.

Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) – Musicians Dennis Wilson and James Taylor play a pair of drifters who meander from town to town and make money challenging the locals to car races. Oates is memorable in the role of G.T.O., an individual who takes them up on their challenge.

Dillinger(1973) – Oates stars as notorious outlaw John Dillinger in this action-packed movie. He’s joined by a young Richard Dreyfuss, who co-stars as the psychotic Baby Face Nelson.

Race with the Devil (1975) – Oates teams up with Peter Fonda again, this time playing a pair of vacationers headed to Colorado with their girlfriends. But when they come across a group of devil worshipers making a human sacrifice, it leads to a desperate chase across the highways of Texas.

That wraps up our look at Warren Oates movies. You can rent many of these films online, and the wide array of Netflix plans makes it affordable for people of all economic levels.

Poker is unlike most other gambling games, because your decisions have a mathematical effect on your chances of winning or losing. When you spin a roulette wheel, for example, the odds are fixed. Your chances of landing on black are a little less than half, so an even money bet provides the house with an advantage, and that’s how the casinos make their money. But in poker, you can decide whether or not to put more money in the pot based on what cards are in your hand and what cards you think are in your opponent’s hand. And if you’re better at making these kinds of judgment calls, then you can put more money in the pot when the odds favor you, and get away from pots where the cards don’t offer you an advantage.

So to learn how to play poker well, you need to learn an approach to the game–the poker strategy basics. The approach I recommend is a tight aggressive approach. This means that you fold often, only playing and only putting money into the pot when you have good quality cards in your hand. This way you’ve got a good chance of winning a showdown with an opponent. The other aspect of that approach is aggression. When you DO play a hand, you should bet and raise with it, rather than just checking or calling. You want to increase the chances of your opponents folding, so that you can win pots without having to go to a showdown. And when you have good hands and they do call you down, you want to win a lot of money from the pot. The way to get that money into the pot is to bet into it.

Those are the basics of poker strategy. But what are good cards and bad cards? I’ll use Texas holdem as an example, but it varies depending on what kind of poker game you’re playing. In Texas holdem, any pair is a potentially good starting hand. The higher the rank of the pair, the stronger it is. A pair of aces or a pair of kings is as good a starting hand as you could hope for. A pair of queen, jacks, or tens is pretty good. Pairs of nines or lower are often playable, but you need a favorable flop later to make them worth it to continue playing.

Other playable starting hands in Texas holdem include suited connectors. These are two cards which are consecutive in rank, like the nine and the ten, and that are also suited. These are speculative, because in order to win a showdown, you’re probably going to need to hit a flush or straight.

The best way to learn poker strategy is by playing, thinking about what happened, and reading. Start by playing micro stakes poker, if it’s legal to play Internet poker where you live. At a micro stakes poker table, you get a real poker experience. Even with only a penny or two per bet on the line, people behave differently than they do when they’re just playing for play money poker chips. When you get more confident in your abilities, you can move up to low stakes and mid stakes and beyond.

Ever wonder what the most popular card games and most popular board games are? I don’t have any scientific insights to share about which card games and board games are most popular, or even about which games appeal to which demographics. But I have looked at a few card game and board game names in Google, and I’ve seen how many results are returned for each of them. My hallucination is that if a lot of people have published pages on a subject, then it’s popular. So here’s a list of the most popular card games according to that criteria:

1. Bridge – 285,000,000 results
2. Poker – 218,000,000 results
3. Hearts – 193,000,000 results
4. Blackjack – 56,800,000 results
5. Solitaire – 32,000,000 results
6. Go Fish – 25,800,000 results
7. Spades – 9,830,000 results
8. Canasta – 7,200,000 results
9. Old Maid – 4,550,000 results
10. Crazy Eights – 3,600,000 results
11. Chinese poker – 2,400,000 results
12. Cribbage – 1,570,000 results
13. Whist – 1,560,000 results
14. Euchre – 1,160,000 results
15. Gin rummy – 559,000 results
16. Pinochle – 558,000
17. Badugi – 166,000 results

There are a lot of problems with my methodology. For example, blackjack has an inflated number of results because there are pages on the Internet about Blackjack Pizza and Blackjack brand cell phones. Hearts is also inflated, because it’s such a common words. My guess is that if you ever did a professional survey, poker would win out amongst all of them. Also, there are a lot more than 17 different card games in the world. And I didn’t even try to rate the popularity of games like Magic: The Gathering or other proprietary card games.

Here’s another totally unscientific list of popular board games:

1. Chess – 58,400,000 results
2. Scrabble – 12,300,000 results
3. Checkers – 10,800,000 results
4. Backgammon – 8,300,000 results
5. Candy Land – 4,120,000 results
6. Trivial Pursuit – 2,120,000 results
7. Stratego – 1,800,000 results
8. Chinese Checkers – 1,050,000 results
9. Settlers of Catan – 712,000 results
10. Parcheesi – 257,000 results

Of course, I didn’t list every board game ever made, or even search for every board game ever made. For one thing, that would take an enormous amount of time. And since Monopoly is such a common word, it wouldn’t even make sense to include it here.

You can also find lists of popular board games and popular card games.