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Coolest Job EVER

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:22:27 +0000

I’m sure that when you read the title of this post, you thought that I was talking about my job here at Spintacular. Well, you are right, in a way, but I am actually talking about my new hero, Matt. Matt is a “33-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut“, according to his website, who quit his job as a video game designer and tester and used the money that he saved during that time to tour Asia. During his travels, one of his friends asked him to “do the dance” (a dorky jig that is apparently his signature move) in front of a geographical point of interest, on video. Well, he compiled all of the footage of himself dancing across Asia, and put it on YouTube. The video became popular, and the people at Stride Gum decided to pay him to travel the world and “do the dance.” He made two videos of himself travelling the globe and dancing, by himself on the first one and with people on the second, and now tours the globe on the lecture circuit. See what I mean? COOLEST JOB EVER. I do get to travel for my job at Spintacular and I am so thankful that I get to do so, but it would be mighty awesome to get paid to kick it in India for a little while . Here are some of the videos of Matt for your enjoyment.

The Best Picnic I’ve Ever Ben-to

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:01:04 +0000

Most of us here at Spintacular Entertainment bring our lunches to work. It saves money, time, and, most of the time, calories. Some of us have brightly colored lunch bags, but that it about as crazy as it gets as far as lunch decoration. Why aren’t we paying more attention to how our food looks? Maybe it is because we are just going to eat it and the ephemeral nature of our hard work makes it seem futile. Maybe it is because we don’t want to put that much time into our food. Whatever it is, these pictures made me think twice about how I pack my lunch. Courtesy of buzzfeed.com, these bento box pictures function of a glimpse at what lunchtime could be.

Fall-ing in Love

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:18:21 +0000

Happy Labor Day, everyone!! Around the United States today, people are celebrating this holiday that was started by President Grover Cleveland as a national tradition in 1894. While it is nice to celebrate how hard we all work, it is more commonly thought of as the day that marks the end of summer. Some people mourn the end of summer and are simply resigned to sit and wait impatiently through the coming seasons until summer comes around again. I, however, can not WAIT for fall!!! Fall is one of my favorite seasons; Halloween is in fall, the leaves change in fall, and fall is also the time where you get to break out your favorite sweaters again. During this season, I will be posting little lists and cool things about fall so that I can hopefully get some converts that get excited when Labor Day rolls around. Today’s list is the 10 Best Forests to go hike around in during fall – and our own little Asheville made the list!! Enjoy!!

Top 10 Fall Forests

Get ready for Fall!!

Back to School

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:42:22 +0000

My favorite part of every school year was the back to school shopping. Part of my excitement definitely stemmed from my love of shopping, but there was so much more to it! Not only did you get the chance to get TEN different colors of highlighters to play with, but there was also the organizing! Oh, the organizing ! And, if you could do it while your mom wasn’t looking, you may get the chance to come away with sparkly unicorn stickers to decorate your pencil box. Okay, maybe that’s just me. I have gotten to spend my fair share of time at Staples this month preparing for the season to start, but it is simply not the same. So, today, I am finding the coolest stuff out there in the school supply market and bringing it to you!! Enjoy!!

NOON Solar Powered Messenger Bag

"Bouquet of Freshly Sharpened Pencils"

Crayon Rocks!!

Bring Shark Week to school this year

I guess this is how you get a Prince tape dispenser? Kissing this one?

Smee's Pencil Case

Turtle Power!

Wild and Wonderful?

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:29:18 +0000

It is truly rare in our society today that someone makes a documentary film that gets the publicity and audience that scripted films get. That is why it was such a huge deal that the movie Food Inc. had the impact that it did. Food Inc. is inspired by the books Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemmawhich explore where our food comes from and what the acceptable ways of “doing business” are in the food industry. Around the Spintacular office, and in Asheville in general, we are always talking about where our food comes from and how we can support our local farmers who farm organically and sustainably. Not only is this food far better for you and for the environment, it is also just better. So today, when I read this article from the Organic Authority blog, it made me worry. Apparently, students from the University of Arkansas traveled all the way across (up?) the country to North Dakota testing canola flowers to see if they contained the genes of a genetically modified strain of the plant created for its use in Canola Oil, a popular vegetable oil used for cooking. Their findings? EIGHTY PERCENT of the plants that they tested had at least some modified genes. This means that even our wildflowers are affected by our need for mass consumption! What does this mean for us? Well, if you are found to have GMOs growing on your property, you could be sued by the company that made the original seed. Mass, genetically undiverse populations are also subject to the possibility of mass extinction. And, in the United States, our food is not marked if it is genetically modified. You don’t know what you’re eating!!! In short, support your local farmer’s market. It’s “thousands of miles fresher.”

Life’s A Picnic

admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:53:46 +0000

One of the great things about living in Asheville – aside from the music, the people, the art, the food, and the beer – is that it is a beautiful place. We are in the middle of the Appalachian mountains, so pretty much anywhere you look, you can see the ridges in the distance. And, because we have so much rain, it is a very green place. There are a lot of random wooded lakes around, which is such a treat. The reason that I am bragging about our city so much today is that it is beautiful and I want to have a picnic today!! So this post is simply to share some awesome picnics and picnic supplies with you guys…. now get outside!

Pretty amazing picnic pic I found from lunching in Peru

If you forget a picnic table...

Elementary, my dear picnic

That's my kind of picnic!

Sailing, Sailing

admin — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:39:53 +0000

Here at Spintacular Entertainment, we are always traveling. However, we very rarely travel by boat, which was why I was so interested to find out about this next story. The Crafton Family, from Anchorage, Alaska, just got back from a little trip around the world. How long were they gone, you ask? SEVEN YEARS!!! Apparently, the BLANKS were fortunate enough to have successful careers and achieve a certain level of wealth, but were not satisfied with what that wealth afforded them. They didn’t want the big house or all the stuff. So, in 2001, they sold all of their properties and assets and purchased a small sailboat. For seven years, they traveled absolutely everywhere, staying mostly in the very small cabin of the boat, but venturing into every port they came across to get at least a brief picture of what the daily life was in that area of the world. Their three children grew up on the voyage, the youngest being eight when they started and the oldest 15, and seem to miss the boat now that they are on land. What a cool way to grow up!! Just wanted to share this with you guys, let you know how other people are seeing the world!!

For the full text of this story as well as a timeline and pictures, please click here to see the article at The Washington Post.

TAILGATE!

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:17:56 +0000

GREAT NEWS!! Spintacular Entertainment is offering a new special on some of our novelty items for tailgate!! Every tailgate has food and fun, but no tailgate has ever been this much fun! Check out the different items that can come with this deal:

1. Car Flags for flying your school spirit high
2. Bobble Heads for realizing your dream of being a football player or cheerleader (and so much more!)
3. Fun Photos with custom backgrounds to commemorate your event
4. Can Wrappers to keep your soft drinks cold while supporting your team
5. Airbrush Tattoos to instill fear into the hearts of the opposing team
6. Magnetic Signs to further pimp your car out in school spirit
7. License Plates to make sure that the first thing that people know about you coming down the road is that you are a DIE HARD FAN!

CALL TODAY to book with Spintacular Entertainment!! In the meantime, here are some pictures from awesome tailgates around the world.

Just For The Spill Of It

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:58:26 +0000

So here’s the deal. I was going to refrain from commenting on the major BP oil spill at all on this blog, and stay away from controversial matters in general, but I can not help myself. Why now, do you ask? Oh, just because of the SECOND oil spill of this year in the Louisiana gulf. A tug boat pulling a barge hit the well yesterday, causing it to spew oil and natural gas twenty feet in the air. Apparently, it could be capped quite soon, and then focus will shift back to BP, but I can not believe that we could write this up to sloppy boating and move on. It’s time to take a long, hard, critical, and constructive look at the oil industry and decide what is important to society as a whole so that we can make some serious changes. On a lighter note, here is one of my favorite videos about the oil spill from one of the funniest comedy troupes of all time.

Have Recycling, Will Travel

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:46:51 +0000

If you know Spintacular, you know that we are in the business of travel. From August to April, we are everywhere all the time. One would think that this would make us want to hibernate like little summer bears in Asheville when May comes around, but, in fact, we are still going! I think it is because we all, in our hearts, love to travel. The thing that can really drive you crazy about being away from home, however, is changing your lifestyle for just that little while. People are creatures of habit. We like to make our bed the same way every day, take the same way to work, and drink the same tea every night before we go to bed. When we are not in an environment that allows us to do these things, we get fussy. One of the things that bothers me most about traveling is the waste of it all – especially airports (well, that and the security checkpoint!). Seeing all the tickets being printed out, the two or three unnecessary pages from printing from home, hundered of water bottles a day being thrown into the trash before going through the aforementioned lovely checkpoint – it makes me cringe! It seems that in order to travel via airplane these days and not be completely wasteful, you must either a) starve and deal with your unquenched thirst, or b), become a crazy hoarder lady who has 12 pounds of recycling crammed into your regulation size carry-on. However, on my last trip, I was proved wrong. The Atlanta airport, which is known for being crazy and huge and unpleasant, was the airport that turned my whole cynical world upside-down. There was recycling everywhere! Every trash can, in fact, is a sorting trash can that decided for you if what you are putting into it is, in fact, recyclable, and, upon determining its fate, sorts it into either its appropriate recycling category or into the trash section! What?!? I was so excited!! There is not even an option not to recycle. The first thing that I did when I got home was research the trash cans (…nerd). Apparently, they were only a small part of a recent “sustainability overhaul” in the most heavily trafficked airport in the United States, which, according to this article by the Hartsfield-Jackson News, also included:

New fixtures and plumbing in terminal restrooms, which save almost 7 million gallons of water per month.
Water-conserving chiller plants.
A water conservation and recovery system, which recaptures more than 145 million gallons of water per year.
Energy conservation efforts, resulting in power savings of more than 7 million kilowatt-hours of electricity in only a 10-month period.

Hooray!! It also created 28 jobs! If you would like to learn more about the program, click here. In other air travel recycling news, it seems that some flights have started to recycle. My mother always asks what the flight attendants do with the empty cans on the flights, and got her first answer of “we recycle!” Small victories, people. That was a Delta flight, by the way. Here is a picture of the marvelous trash can – go do something “green” today!

The trash can that does your work for you!