What’s all the fuss about Hoodia? Well, how many other plants do you know of that help with weight loss? With the obesity rate climbing in our country, a plant like Hoodia gordonii can make a huge difference for people. Most overweight people who try Hoodia report a 10 pound weight loss over the course of 28 days. TEN POUNDS! Compared to most other weight loss plans, which give you a loss of a few pounds a week, that’s a big deal! Even better, hoodia is all natural, and has no side effects. It tricks your brain into thinking you’re full, and you don’t overeat.

Hoodia can be ordered online – try it for yourself and see!

Popularity: 2% [?]

I am woefully uncool.

I try to be cool, but when my choices of stores are limited to Old Navy, Kohl’s, and mall department stores, it’s hard to stay on top of the trends. I drool when I see people on What Not To Wear shopping at the stores in New York, where a pair of dress pants will run you $150 – easily. Not that I want to buy $150 dress pants (I would if they were well constructed and fit right) but because of the choices available to people who live in big cities. While I live near Tampa, I do not live IN Tampa, and being near is not the same as “in”. Fine dining in my town is a night at the Red Lobster. You might hear of a big day out spent at the little league field and the Wal-Mart. If there’s one thing that watching these style & fashion TV shows has taught me it’s that living in a more rural area is not an excuse to “dress down”. I can still be hip and “with it” and dare I say – trendy? I need not wear sweats to walk the dog, but I don’t need to wear capri pants and a kitten heel, either. There’s a middle ground, but sometimes I just need a little help, and for people like me, you’ll find that your personal lifestyle guide at HerFabLife.com is the push in the right direction you’ve been looking for!

When you join the site, you’ve got instant access to other young hip and trendy women who are interested in styles, hot new clubs, the best salons in town, and the new stores you’ve got to visit. How many times have you asked friends where they go to get their hair cut, or to get waxed? This site allows you to poll hundreds of friends in your area to find the best of the best! For us bloggers, you can contribute to your fav lifestyle guide by adding your own content, voting on content you’ve read, and networking with new fab friends across the US. Break out of your rut and be inspired, and get a fab life!

This is a sponsored review.

Popularity: 2% [?]

A lot of college kids started school this week. I wanted to swing by Harvard while I was in Boston, you know, to grab a sweatshirt or something, but didn’t have time. It’s probably for the best, because one of my Boston coworkers said that the college campuses are a madhouse right now, and it’s UHauls as far as the eye can see. The long lines and constant hurry up and wait – that’s the part of school I hated. (Besides the studying and reports and tests.)

To add insult to injury, when you’re done standing in a long line, you’re rewarded with another bill. There are fees to park, fees for classes and labs, and let’s not forget one of the biggest fees of all – textbooks. Regardless of whether you go to an Ivy League school or your local community college, you’ll spend hundreds of dollars each semester on textbooks, with the promise of being able to sell them back to the bookstore once the semester is open. How many times have you done that, only to receive $20 on a book that cost you $100? Or to be told that book won’t be reused, so you can’t even sell it back?

A new site called socialbib is hoping to put a stop to the textbook madness that most college students deal with each semester. Socialbib is a textbook trading posts where students can exchange textbooks they no longer need for new books. It’s completely free too! The idea is simple – you create a listing with the textbooks you no longer need, and give them to someone who does. If you need books, you can browse the listings people have created, and get your book for free. It’s so simple, yet genius!

The creators of the site have put in a few safeguards to eliminate fraud, for example, students are required to create their profile with their school email address. You can rate the users you deal with to help others avoid bad eggs. If you can’t meet someone in person to exchange books, they suggest using media mail, which is super cheap – even for a college student living on a diet of raman noodle.

I wish something like this had existed when I was still in school!

Popularity: 2% [?]

I was watching Psych on USA earlier today – have you ever seen the show? It’s very funny. The premise is that the “psychic detective” is actually just hyper observant and has a photographic memory. He fakes a lot of psychic episodes in order to keep up her psychic persona. It got me thinking about how in general, people aren’t typically observant. Have you ever heard of the police using hypnosis on a witness to determine what really happened? People see things, but they don’t really NOTICE things, and hypnosis can help to determine what the suspect really looked like, or what the license plate read – things you saw, but didn’t notice.

Of course, you can’t just get anyone to fall into a hypnotic trance by waving a watch in front of their face like in the Tom and Jerry cartoons. You need to have someone with hypnosis training to do it correctly. Hypnosis has more than just a forensics application as well. It’s been used to help people stop smoking, lose weight, and change bad habits. Hypnotherapy is now commonly used to help people who have been in a accident or through a traumatic event. It’s definitely an interesting an evolving field, with a lot of applications!

Popularity: 2% [?]

When I sit in my office at work, I hear our recruiters on the phones, having length conversations with our applicants. They seem to do a lot of career coaching – giving interview tips, assisting people with their resumes, and in general, acting as a go between for the applicant and our clients. Career coaching isn’t really what our people are supposed to do, and for a lot of them, it’s not something they’re good at. McSourcer is a new company founded by recruiters and HR professionals who think that career coaching is a huge part of personal career development, and they offer assessment to each candidate to figure out where your interests and strengths lie. When you visit the McSourcer registration page, you’ll be able to register for the site and see their unique approach to career change and job placement. It’s definitely a lot more specialized than what I see in my day to day dealings.

Popularity: 2% [?]

When I was younger, I was really into saving the Earth. I started at a young age, going on trips around towns with my siblings to collect aluminum cans to recycle. I was routinely lowered into dumpsters and shallow bodies of water in order to collect an elusive can, which we bagged up and returned for cash. (My sister kept the cash, despite me being a key part of the can collecting organization.) Later in life, I participated in Earth Day and coastal clean ups on more than one occasion. As an adult, I’ve recycled cans and glass and newspapers at my home. And since I bought a new phone a few weeks ago, I now have the opportunity to recycle that! Did you know you could recycle your cell phone and get paid for it? CellForCash.com will pay you for your cell phone and the matching accessories, provided the phone is in good condition and still working.

Why should I recycle my cell phone? Why not? Instead of tossing a working phone into the trash, where it takes up landfill space, you can sell it and allow someone else to make use of a good phone. There are literally 100 million unused phones floating around out there. Why not let someone else use your old cell phone if you’re done with it?

It’s easier than you think to recycle your cell phone – just look up your phone model at the CellForCash website and you’ll see a price. Drop your phone into the mail, collect your money, and you’re done. It’s easy, you MAKE money, and you’re keeping one more thing out of the landfill!

This is a sponsored review.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Who doesn’t like a great contest? Now that my contest is over for the month, I’d figure I’d direct your mouse clicking finger to another site for a chance to win. I hate to say it, but the prizes that Keith is offering are even better than what I’ve given away! Winners can take their pick of either an Apple iPod 5G, an Microsoft xBox 360 Console, or a ViewSonic Q191WB BLACK LCD 19″ Monitor. Sweet, right? He’s making me look bad!

To enter, just click on over to the Charlotte web design blog contest – he’s got instructions for you there, but all you really need to do is blog about it, like I’m doing right now! (Gosh, I wonder where he got such a great idea?) The contest is open until 9/22/07, so you’ve got plenty of time, and Keith is going to do a video drawing to pick the winner. Suspenseful!

Popularity: 2% [?]

I’m not good with money. Making it, sure. Spending it, definitely. Investing it? Not really. I’d invest in the stock with the cutest name, or the mutual fund with the hottest representative. Real sound decisions, eh? TheBuyList.com is for people like me, as well as serious investors, who want to know what the mutual fund managers are buying. It’s like getting a sneak peek into the market, and it’s done with a lot of research and statistics that would bore me if I had to do it on my own! But in this fashion, you can just see top picks, what’s selling, what’s not, and make your decisions based on the action you see, without having to go over a lot of facts and figures. So…it’s like easy money? (Easier money?) One would hope!

Popularity: 2% [?]

I’ve been laughing about this website ever since I discovered it a few days ago. Black People Love Us is freaking hilarious. You’ve got to take a minute to check it out, and visit every single page of the site. Just when I thought I was done laughing, I got to the letters section. There’s a whole bunch of letters from people who should look up the definitions of “sarcasm” and “irony”.

You go girl!

Popularity: 2% [?]

As much as I love real estate (and would love to be an agent) I think the commission structure for agents is whack. I’ve seen sales that have literally taken days to complete, from offer to inspection, and then watched as the agent collected a hefty 7% commission for a few hours of work. Yes, I realize part of that money goes to the broker the agent works for, and part goes to marketing, etc, but as a homeowner, it’s painful to see a real estate agent walk away with your profit like that, especially if they didn’t do right by you.

eperks.com would like to change that, by offering you up to a 20% rebate when you buy or sell your home. The catch? Just use one of the agents listed on eperks.com to seal the deal. This isn’t some kind of sub-standard real estate agency gimmick – these are the same agents who are charging everyone else 6 or 7% in commissions. But they’re SMART agents, who realize you’ve got to spend money to make money. By offering to share the commission, those agents get great publicity, happy customers, and NEW clients. Why wouldn’t you pick someone who is going to offer you a piece of the pie?

Popularity: 2% [?]