The long anticipated wait is finally over!

Introducing:

Meal Loop has been an ongoing pet project of mine that was conceived back in the fall of 2007. I created Meal Loop because I was tired of going to the grocery store on Sunday trying to think of everything I was going to need for the upcoming week. I was always to busy (or lazy) to create a list, and it would never fail that by mid week I would end up running back to the store for something that I had forgotten.

Enter Meal Loop — problem solved. Meal Loop takes ordinary recipe repository sites a HUGE step further. The magic of Meal Loop starts with custom meal generation. By choosing user specific preferences, Meal Loop will generate a meal plan for each meal of the day, and each day of the week. Meal Loop will also use the weekly generated meals and create a grocery list of all the ingredients that are needed for the upcoming week. These features compose the core functionality of Meal Loop, but is only just the start. There are many more features to be added to make Meal Loop even more helpful in all aspects of nutrition. I encourage everyone to go check out the site and give it a try. If you have any questions, comments, criticisms, or ideas please dont hesitate to drop me a line at admin@mealloop.com.

DownloadHelper is a Firefox plug-in that allows you to download videos and images from the web to your local hard drive. DownloadHelper works with many popular sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, DailyMotion, and others. Videos stored locally are more accessible and available. Nothing is worse than spending time digging through your bookmarks to find a video only to find the site hosting the video is down, or the video has been removed.

If you need a flash (flv) media player check out VLC.

Ever had one of those days where everything seems to be going okay when suddenly your realize you’ve forgotten to pay off the credit card bill? It can definitely ruin your day, not to mention ruin your bank account with late fees. These days most people have caught onto online banking and bill pay, but a lot of people haven’t caught onto the friendly email reminders available on most banking sites. Some sites will even text message the reminder to your cell phone. Among the available options, there is usually a reminder that will notify you when a new statement is available, or when a payment is due within x number of days. This can be a lifesaver especially if it means saving you 50 bucks in late fees, or that low interest rate. If you really like the idea of e-reminders be sure to check out Google Calendar where you set up email and text message reminders for any event scheduled on your calendar. Oh, Don’t Forget is another convenient site to check out that lets you send free text message reminders at a date and time you specify.

Good Mechanics are hard to come by, and if you dont already know of one, word of mouth is probably your best bet. But if you’ve recently moved, or cant find a good referral you may find it hard choosing where to get your car repaired. One solution to consider is www.cartalk.com. Cartalk is a radio show on NPR that gives out advice on everything auto (they obviously have a website as well). One of the features of the website is a mechanic rating board where you can find repair shops by zip code that have been rated by users. The obvious correlation from the results is that the shops with the highest amount of feedback have the best service. While this theory isn’t foolproof, its definitely a good starting point when trying to make a decision. I’ve compiled a list of shops with the highest rating in the Alexandria, VA area.

Backlick Road Service Station
# Surveys: 33

Sam’s A-One Auto Service, Inc. [owner - Tim]
# Surveys: 26

Joyce Motors
#Surveys: 25

Pham’s Car Care Center
# Surveys: 20