pileofcrapola

We've looked at some great paper notebooks before, but Sorta is a new notebook/binder that with removable, rearrangeable, customizable pages that may work great for you.

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Not every gift idea is a good one, both for practical or personal reasons. Before you or someone you care about makes the critical mistake of putting you in debt, trying their hand at something extremely personal when they don't know you, or making a huge faux pas, let's take a look at some of the worst gifts you really shouldn't give this holiday season.

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Chocolate truffles cost a lot when purchased from a candy retailer, but you can make them yourself easily with just two ingredients. All you need is two and a half boxes of melting chocolate and eight ounces of cream cheese.

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Holiday parties are all about hanging out with friends and family, but it's possible that they can be too comfortable. If you're hosting a party this year, MPR News suggests you shortchange your guests on chairs so they're forced to move around.

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The Nexus 7 is arguably the most popular and powerful Android tablet on the market, but if you want your investment to last, you'll want a decent sleeve, case, or folio for it. This week, we want to know which ones you think are the best.

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Nothing puts people off more than desperation and inauthenticity. You don't want to choose what you do in life and who you spend your time with based on a desire to be liked. Author and entrepreneur James Altucher suggests you'll be more productive if you just do nothing.

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Dear Lifehacker,
I love being outdoors, but not in winter. The cold and biting wind turns my face red, tight, and sore. Even my eyes are dry! What can I do to protect myself in this harsh environment?
Signed,
Sensitive to Snow

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Gift cards for everyone! If you want to treat yourself while picking up an easy last-minute gift for someone else, check out these lists of gift card freebies.

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Half the problem with dieting is that what you know is good for you is in competition with what feels good. One way to help is to trick yourself into feeling satisfied with less food by dimming the lights.

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Once you’ve stopped cringing over the terrible pun inflicted on you by the above headline, think about your next mug of hot chocolate: You could be by the fire singing carols or in a half-slouch at/on your desk — hot cocoa is always something to look forward to. It’s liquid chocolate, after all. But it could be better. It could be hot whoa!-coa with a few easy upgrades.

Done cringing again? Moving along! The Huffington Post knows a good list will come in handy and its round-up of hot chocolate upgrades has some pretty lip-smacking ideas. We culled six of our favorites from the pack with their respective instructions linked, and you can check out the rest over at HuffPo.

1. Toasted marshmallow cream: Marshmallows that aren’t toasted are sooo [insert any year previous to this one]! Fire those suckers up and make it creamy before you add’em atop your hot cocoa and you’ll be good, with this recipe.

2. Mini gingerbread house: In case you’re the kind of person who scoffs at unadorned mugs, go past those everyday sugar cubes and perch a tiny house on your next hot cocoa. You know, if you’ve got time for such twee craftiness. Click here for instructions you will definitely need, unless you’re some kind of baking/architecture genius.

3. Nutella: Well OF COURSE. Why didn’t we think of adding more chocolate to chocolate that is warm? Here’s how to do it.

4. Candy canes: Got a dollar or two for a box of candy canes? Then you’ve got ingredients for some pepperminty hot whoa!-coa. Well those and also you’ll need peppermint extract per this recipe, but the canes are essential for decoration and eating purposes.

5. Cookies ‘n cream: Okay now we’re just tossing tasty things into the mug, right? Yes, and here’s exactly how to do it. This trend is totally fine with me because hey, hot whoa!-coa! Just trying to get my quota of bad puns in.

6. S’mores: This is like taking all the coziness of a fireside snack and combining it with another cozy fireside snack. The recipe is basically the ultimate in wintry snuggly snackiness and it’s only right that it exists in this world.

Go now, my friends. Go and share the news of hot whoa!-coa throughout the land.

First of all, yes, Bill Gates could be in multiple Secret Santa exchanges. But only one person in the Reddit gift exchange was going to get a present from Bill and she’s spoken up to let everyone else know that he is hers. You hear that? HERS. So back off.

In an experience that will surely give her bragging rights for at least another week, which in Internet time is like being famous in the real world for 30 years, a Reddit user named Rachel writes that was shocked to find out that the “friendly fellow” named Bill who sent her gift was actually a Bill the billionaire founder of Microsoft.

She writes that when it came time to open her gift, she had decided to document the whole experience. The first thing she noticed was a stuffed animal. Okay, cool.

“I didn’t know I gave off the stuffed animal vibe, but I excitedly added him to my collection of teddy bears and other delightful friendly creatures,” she says. “Next, I found the card. To me, from Bill. This still had not clicked, by the way, that it was Bill Gates.”

He sounded like a friendly fellow, she said, imagining someone peering through her wish list of an iPad, makeup and glittery things, and felt bad. When she opened the card she realized that this nice guy Bill had donated to a charity on her behalf, Heifer International.

Things hadn’t clicked yet, and she kept going, excited that her secret Santa had given such a great gift. But there was more — a bulky, heavy part of the gift, which turned out to be a travel book, Journeys of a Lifetime. As she flipped through the book, she says she at first missed the inscription, message and signature from THE Bill Gates on the first page and went to the next part of the present.

It was a photo of a man, holding a sign. A sign that she now had in her possession, which was signed “Bill Gates.” Aaaaaand cue extreme shock.

“And then it finally hit me. All the presents I just tore open, the charity, then everything– was from Bill GATES. I quickly went back to the book to see a really nice message and note from Bill wishing me a Merry Christmas and a Happy Birthday (not pictured, because I really want to keep one part of this gift to myself) my jaw hit the EVER LOVING FLOOR.”

Gotta hand it to that Bill guy. He does sound like quite a friendly fellow.

Spoiler alert: Bill Gates did not get you, because he got me. [Reddit Gifts]

In northern climates that get a lot of snow, motorists are used to making things up as they go along in parking lots. Can’t see the white lines that are supposed to demarcate parking spots? Doesn’t matter; just use other cars or maybe a lamp post as a guide. However, parking lots covered with ground-obscuring white stuff is not a common problem in Yuba City, California. And there’s no crow crap plow on the market that we know of.

According to CBS Sacramento, the city and local businesses have tried a variety of methods to make the crows go away, but have resigned themselves to cleaning up the birds’ leavings and waiting for them to go away.

It is legal for people to shoot the birds if they have a hunting license for them. The limit is 24 crows per day, which is interesting since it’s the first time we’ve ever heard of a hunting limit with roots in a nursery rhyme.

In the meantime, mall shoppers are kind of confused. “When she was trying to park, she asked me if she was in the spot,” one shopper told CBS Sacramento. “We couldn’t even tell because of how much white bird crap was on the [ground].”

Crows Bomb Yuba City Mall, Blurring Lines In Parking Lot [CBS Sacramento]

We thought it was bad (well, okay, we thought it was awesome) when a reader sent us photos of special Easter candies on display at Kroger in early December back in 2011. While the Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg and Cadbury Creme Egg are magical and should be available year-round, we can’t say the same for these terrifying bunnies.

Reader Ingrid spotted this Easter display at Garden Ridge, a store that does carry crafting supplies. We usually give craft stores a pass when it comes to holiday creep, because you have to start making seasonal crafts at least a few months in advance. These items aren’t craft supplies, though. They’re creatures that emerged from my worst lagomorphic nightmares.

- Officials overseeing holiday displays at the Florida Capitol have allowed a Nativity scene, a Festivus pole and even a chair holding fake pasta with eyeballs and an accompanying "provHerb" from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Looking for a last minute gift?

You know it's important to check food labels when you go grocery shopping. But how much of that information is fact and how much is hype?

- Congressman Trey Radel of Florida said he will not resign despite pleading guilty to cocaine possession charges.

- A federal judge in South Texas said in a recent order that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is assisting in criminal conspiracies to smuggle children into the country when it helps reunite them with parents who are known to be in the U.S. illegally.

Del. Jon Cardin says he will introduce a measure to ban the sale of non-biodegradable cigarette butts in Maryland.

Here are some tips, if you plan to regift.

Sources say police never responded to a break-in at the Savoy Elementary School in Southeast D.C. on November 24th.

Big things that come from small packages and two toys that will brighten up kids play are our final Hot Holiday Toys for the season.

Consumer Reports magazine has released its most comprehensive study on meat and poultry and found potentially harmful bacteria in 97 percent of the chicken breasts they tested nationwide.

Dear Lifehacker,
I know managing money comes naturally to some people, but for me it's just overwhelming and frustrating. No matter how hard I try to budget, I always feel broke. Saving for the future seems impossible, and I hate living paycheck to paycheck. How can I become more financially literate or get help so I don't have to constantly worry about money?

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What makes a great leader makes a great friend. Nobody wants to think of their social life as a business that needs management, but many of the best leadership techniques can apply to our lives outside of work. Here’s a look at some people who have set good examples in their respective professions, and how you can apply those things to your daily social life.

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For an older generation, “business casual” may have meant "no ties required on Friday." But now that less-formal dress is more common in so many workplaces, business casual can be a cryptic term to crack.

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If you want simple, beautiful, compact storage, look no further than the combination of a few pieces of IKEA furniture. The folks over at IKEA Hackers discovered that LINNMON table tops, combined with EXPEDIT storage grid modules, can create a simple rolling library.

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If you follow the news, you’ve probably read a lot about the state of American finances. Between the 1% getting richer, the cost of college rising over 500% in the past 30 years, and even the tooth fairy leaving more under the pillow, it can feel like everyone must be swimming in cash.

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High school is rough. Whether you're stressed about getting all your work done or avoiding all the crazy high school drama, Luke Krasner over at Hackerspace wants to know: how did you survive?

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Dear Lifehacker,
I'm a terrible listener. I want to do better, but I have trouble paying attention. I miss what people say a lot and end up embarrassing myself and offending them. How can I become a better listener for everyone's sake?

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