Product placement

[EricShane]

HEADPHONES:
The Koss KSC75 is an engineering marvel. They have amazing sound quality and are cheap ($14.00). The design looks a little strange but they are very comfortable for all day wear. Plus all Koss headphones come with a lifetime warranty. Google them, there are websites devoted to modifying them and tweaking them... they sound that good.
http://www.amazon.com/Koss-KSC75-Portable-Stereophone-Headphones/dp/B0006B486K

ICED TEA:
Stay away from the bottled or instant stuff. It is made from the lowest quality tea leaves. Loose leaf tea is the best; the inferior stuff gets ground up and put in tea bags or used for instant. Flouride is a big concern with tea, since the tea plant absorbs flouride from the atmosphere. Flouride in small amounts is good for your teeth. But in the kind of concentrations we see in tea plants today it is unhealthy and causes a range of illnesses. A very good and reasonably price brand is P.G. Tips. It is made from the tips (the tops) of the tea tree and has the lowest concentrations of flouride.
http://www.amazon.com/PG-Tips-Black-Loose-8-8-Ounce/dp/B001EQ5JJQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304009108&sr=1-1-catcorr

SOAP:
I like to use Kiss My Face olive oil soap because it is all natural and it is not expensive. I have dandruff, but instead of using chemical laden dandruff shampoos I use Grandpa's Pine Tar Soap (I also use it for shaving). One thing with these natural soaps, you have to keep them out of the water when not in use or they will melt. Leave them in a puddle of water overnight and you will have a mess the next day.
http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-My-Face-Olive-8-Ounce/dp/B001E6O8WU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304009259&sr=1-1-catcorr
http://www.amazon.com/Grandpas-Wonder-Pine-Soap-3-25/dp/B0001TO3NA/ref=sr_1_3?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1304009295&sr=1-3

MOUTHWASH:
We have really been sold a bill of goods when it comes to mouthwash. We are led to believe that the alcohol in mouthwash kills germs, but it does not. For mouthwash to kill germs in your mouth it would need to be about 80 proof (40%) alcohol, but instead it is about 15%. Instead, the alcohol in mouthwash serves as a dispersant for the other chemical (it keeps them dissolved). And alcohol has been linked to mouth and throat cancers, so swishing it around in your mouth for 30 seconds every morning might not be a good idea. There are not any great options for mouthwash, but I like Crest Pro Health; it is alcohol free and has an ingredient that actually kills bacteria. Hydrogen peroxide is good too, but you should really order food grade H2O2 since store brands have small amounts of impurities, which are often times heavy metals.
http://www.amazon.com/Crest-Pro-Health-Night-Clean-Mouthwash/dp/B001GBGVW8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=beauty&qid=1304009786&sr=1-1

POMADE:
This will be hard for many to believe, but plain old Vaseline makes an excellent pomade at a fraction of the cost. Vaseline is a brand name for petrolatum, and petrolatum is the main ingredient in most pomades, so if you use pomade you are already putting Vaseline in your hair, you just do not know it. People assume it would be hard to wash out, but Vaseline (petrolatum) melts at around 100 degrees; a warm shower will melt it and make it easy to wash out with shampoo. I like to melt my Vaseline and add other ingredients, like jojoba oil or shea butter, to make my own healthy blend.

TOOTHPASTE:
I do not use toothpaste, but instead I use toothpowder, and Uncle Henry makes the best one on the market. It is all natural and leaves your mouth feeling squeaky clean. It does not taste very good, but you get used to it.
http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Harrys-Tooth-Powder-Ounces/dp/B000E3DX5M

MILK:
I do not know how it is everywhere else, but Dollar General in my city has the best deal in town on milk. You can buy Foremost milk for around $3.35 per gallon; Foremost milk at Wal-Mart costs almost $5.00! Foremost is a premium brand milk, kind of like Borden's, so it might be of higher quality than generic brands but I am not sure. I know the skim milk tastes great.

HONEY:
Like most anything you buy at the grocery store, grocery store honey has been pasteurized. The pasteurization process destroys the beneficial enzymes found in raw, natural honey. Raw, unprocessed honey is the way to go, and it is not overly expensive if you shop around and use it sparingly.
http://www.amazon.com/YS-Royal-Jelly-Honey-Bee/dp/B000Z93FQC/ref=sr_1_2?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1304010694&sr=1-2

There is probably some other stuff I have obsessed over in recent years, lol. I will add to this list if I think of anything else.

wow great post, i thought i knew everything.. But had never heard about tea containing flouride

[Lynx]

Okay so someone help me out here.  I need an Android smartphone with a really good battery life. 

What, ME?  Wanting a smartphone?!  Well... yeah.  See, with a normal music player you have to deal with the onboard user interface, and I haven't been able to find a good mp3 player that will play my whole music collection from start to end ever since my beloved Cowon iAudio 7 went down.  With a smartphone you can download your choice of music player app.  The catch is, most smartphones will not play through a whole work day.  Unfortunately battery life is one aspect most manufacturers aren't too eager to talk about.  I can't find any product information about how long a smartphone's battery will last with no 4G, no wifi, no talking on a cell phone signal, etc. 

[Lynx]

PORTABLE SPEAKER

Altec Lansing's Orbit speaker runs on three AAA batteries, fits in my t-shirt pocket, is loud enough to hear at work )with earplugs, over the noise of the vacuum pump leak-checker,) and will run for three work days on one set of batteries. 

Impressive. 

Go to amazon.com and look for "altec lansing portable speaker."  Yes it's more expensive than some of the other portable speakers. It's worth it. 

[mini]

Okay so someone help me out here.  I need an Android smartphone with a really good battery life. 

What, ME?  Wanting a smartphone?!  Well... yeah.  See, with a normal music player you have to deal with the onboard user interface, and I haven't been able to find a good mp3 player that will play my whole music collection from start to end ever since my beloved Cowon iAudio 7 went down.  With a smartphone you can download your choice of music player app.  The catch is, most smartphones will not play through a whole work day.  Unfortunately battery life is one aspect most manufacturers aren't too eager to talk about.  I can't find any product information about how long a smartphone's battery will last with no 4G, no wifi, no talking on a cell phone signal, etc. 

Look for the Android phones offered on your carrier, then for "extended batteries" for that phone.  Plus, with a quick root and custom rom, you can do much more with your phone.  The problem is by the time you do that, you may be better off getting a iPod. 

[Roscoe]

The problem is by the time you do that, you may be better off getting a iPod. 

  An ipod?!? Ain't that an "Apple" product?!? DON'T EAT OF THE APPLE!! Mini, get away from your wife's phone. It's corrupting you!

[mini]

Actually, I loved my iPod.  Would stay charged forever, I could use it for hours at a time.  I had a old 20 gig one.  Unfortunately, I brought it home at Christmas to listen to a story, and it has disappeared.

[Lynx]

But will it play .ogg?  And will it play for 44+ hours on a 3.5 hour charge?  And is it smaller than the smallest cell phones?  Cowon's iAudio 7 set the bar pretty high. 

[MsJennJenn]

But will it play .ogg?  And will it play for 44+ hours on a 3.5 hour charge?  And is it smaller than the smallest cell phones?  Cowon's iAudio 7 set the bar pretty high. 

I have no idea what an .ogg is...but the best iPod will play for 40 hours on a 4+ hour charge...weighing 3.56 ounces. So pretty sure that's not the way you want to go....why are you doing comparisons when you seem to want the Cowon iAudio 7? lol It seems to be a fraction of the price of an iPod....if that's what you're going for.

[Lynx]

Because they no longer sell the iAudio 7, I can't find them anywhere, and its successors were nowhere near as good.  Cowon should return to its first works. 

Occasionally the iAudio 7 is available somewhere, on ebay or a similar place you can buy stuff used, but someone else always beats me to it.  Too many people know about it, and it's too rare.   

[Nelle]

My battery on my phone lasts okay.. but I don't listen to music constantly. I have a Droid Razr.