Never clip a coupon again

Am I the only person under 40 who looked at coupons? As I enter my fifth year as a grocery-shopper, I’ve come to realize that the coupon inserts in the Sunday paper exist primarily as a vehicle to advertise new and/or improved products rather than to save you money. The amount you save with almost any coupon in the insert is less than the amount you save by simply buying the identical store brand version of the product.

But like everything else, the Internet makes it better. Online coupon codes actually can save you some decent change, or at least get you free shipping. I saved about $100 by Googling ‘Helio coupon codes’ before buying my phone last year. But now you don’t even have to do that.

Install this Firefox plugin. Then when you go to buy something, it will display a little notice at the top of the page if a coupon is available for that store.

Or if you can’t figure that out, go to http://retailmenot.com when you’re about to buy something and type the store into their search box.

If you want to thank me, one-click me some MarioKart.

DC Public Pools (and hours)

When I signed up for this triathlon, I expected fundraising $4,200 to be the biggest challenge. Or learning to swim a mile. And while neither of those were a breeze at a picnic, the most difficult thing has just been getting to a pool that’s a) open b) open for lap swimming and c) ideally, free.

But I can’t blame my still-mediocre swimming ability on pool access, because I’ve accrued a nice list of pools I can go to depending where in the city I might be that day. Sleeping over the girlfriend’s and want to spend $6 (which includes access to a water slide)? Hit North Bethesda. Feel like taking two trains and a bus to practice with the rest of the Team? Go to Georgetown Lab School (the only one on this map that probably won’t let John Q. Public in). Grabbing coffee in Eastern Market and not afraid to change in front of some real characters? Rumsey Aquatic Center is right around the corner.

So being the nerd and Google fanboy that I am, I made a map of these pools and their hours. I’ve referred to this constantly since I made it, so maybe it will be handy for you, too.



View Larger Map

Link

Special Summertime Note: The pool in East Potomac Park (aka Hains Point) is outdoors!

Instant Guilt: Text ‘Diet1′ (34381)

Text restaurant name and menu item to 34381 for instant nutritional stats. Who knew Dunkaccinos had 10 grams of fat??

hullo hulu

OK so in lieu of blank empty space, I’m going to feature a few online tools that are awesome and that you should use.

First up (forgive me if this is terribly old news) is Hulu.

I originally wrote Hulu off when it came out because I assumed the traditional media players behind it would mess it up, and I hated the name, which is a pretty forced attempt at sounding like a scrappy startup. But Hulu’s pretty amazing. The ads are short, although I do wonder why companies like Priceline intentionally show you the same terrible William Shatner ad 4 times in 22 minutes. The site includes Arrested Development and The Office Season 4, as well as some full length movies, like The Big Lebowski. Finally, the player is very usable, with prominent links to embed, go full-screen, or dim the rest of the screen.

Better than tvlinks?

Opening Day Japan

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Opening Day Japan

6am EST