Thursday, October 24, 2019

Sun-Maid Sour Raisins Review - Watermelon Flavor

Recently I saw a new take on the classic raisin available in store with Sun-Maid Sour Raisins. They are basically raisins that have added flavor and a bit of sour taste. The varieties available are Strawberry, Mixed Berry, Grape, and Watermelon. I decided to try out the watermelon flavor.

I got them at Target on sale for about $2.50 for a box of 7 packs. Each pack is 60 calories. It has 13 grams of sugar but no added sugar. The ingredients are pretty simple with no artificial flavors or colors.

Upon opening up a pack, they smell like candy watermelon flavor. I was a bit surprised by the appearance because it says they are golden raisins but inside I found them to be a mix of golden raisins and the regular kind of raisins.

The taste was less sour than I expected. It is mildly sour, but if you eat a lot at a time, it tastes more sour. It also has the watermelon flavor as well. Overall I enjoyed the taste. It is a nice upgrade to the common raisin by combining it with additional flavors and the sour taste to give it a little more complexity.

I would recommend them if you like raisins, are looking for a healthier alternative to fruit snacks, or if you would just like to try something new.

Friday, October 18, 2019

Google Search Results Need Improvement

Google has been the number one search engine for a long time and is pretty much the go-to website when looking something up, but lately I have not been pleased with the top search results they are providing. While the results may be relevant, I find that often the top website results are very spammy.

What do I mean by this? Lets say you do a search and click on the first result which may be some kind of blog or news article site. As soon as you get to the website you are bombarded with a pop up to sign up for a newsletter. Or they start auto-playing a video that is not even related to the topic you searched for. Or they have a small section of text about what you wanted to know, but it is surrounded by unrelated content.

Now I use an ad blocker most of the time which at least helps block the ads, but the issues above still get through and make for a poor browsing experience. I get that the websites need to make money and they have these annoying things on their site to try to increase engagement, but this is not what people want when they visit a website.

The trouble is Google is rewarding and encouraging these kinds of things when they give them top rankings in search results. I think Google needs to do some revision on their search results to bring up some higher quality websites that are not just there to make money.

I have dabbled in trying out some other search engines but once you are used to Google, it is hard to change to something else. Also it seems like the results from the competitors are fairly similar.

As for now I am still using Google, but I am more critical of the websites they provide in their search results. If I click on a site and it pops up a window to sign up for their newsletter, guess what, I'm going back immediately and never going to that website again. Same goes for websites that auto-play videos that have nothing to do with the article. Website that want you to click through several pages for one article, also going back and not visiting that site again.

Google if you are listening, please take these kinds of things into consideration when deciding which sites to feature in the top search results.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

In The Dark – Show Review – Best new show of 2019!

A little while back I was scrolling through the Netflix feed looking for new shows to check out. I happened to land on one called “In The Dark” and watched the preview clip. It was of a young blind woman purposely cutting people in line to pay for her stuff at a convenience store. The small clip was enough to get me to check out the first episode.

After watching the first episode, I was surprised at how good it was and I decided to keep watching more episodes. The show kept getting better and I ended up watching the whole season!

It turns out the show actually first aired earlier this year on the CW network, but Netflix picked it up also, so you can see all the episodes now on Netflix.

So what is the show about you ask? It revolves around the main character Murphy who is an attractive blind woman who is a little all over the place with her life and relationships. She “works” at a place that trains dogs to help the blind. I put that in quotes, because she does very little work intentionally.

One evening she goes outside to talk to her friend Tyson only to find him laying unconscious in an alley. She goes to call the police but when they show up they find nothing there. The main arch of the season revolves around Murphy and her attempt to figure out what happened to her friend.

I usually don't like written shows like this, but somehow this one really caught my interest. There are a lot of other good characters in the show as well from her friends and family to the people she works, and even her dog named Pretzel.

The star of the show Perry Mattfeld who plays Murphy does a great job portraying her disability and bringing a wide range of emotion to the character. I had not heard of her before this show, but I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot more of her in the future.

Speaking of which, In The Dark was picked up for a 2nd season! This is great news because the first season was amazing and ended with a season finale that was so suspenseful and had a twist no-one saw coming. I can't wait to see what happens in season 2!

If you are looking for a new show to watch, I highly recommend checking out In The Dark on Netflix and the CW.

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Vitafusion Men's Gummy Vitamin Review

Recently I decided to look for a multivitamin to try out and after doing some initial research I decided to try the Vitafusion gummy vitamins for men. They are one of the most widely available and reasonably priced at about $10 for 150 gummies. The recommended serving size is 2 gummies so that means they should last about 75 days if you take 2 each day.

I chose this kind because they have a good amount of vitamins without going overboard with daily values that are too high like some of the others I have seen. They don't have as many vitamins as some of the non-chewable or some of the more expensive brands, but for the price and convenience, I think they are pretty good.

As for the taste, they are very good and pretty much taste like fruit snacks. In fact, when you first try them, you may be tempted to eat more than just 2 because they taste like candy. But make sure not to take more the than recommended amount because then you may exceed your daily value of some of the vitamins.

It's hard to know if there is any noticeable difference in how you feel when taking multivitamins vs not taking them. I feel about the same either way but it is nice to have the piece of mind to know they the vitamins are helping to fill in any nutritional deficits.

I have had them for several weeks now and at this point I just take 1 gummy each day or every other day. I think 1 gummy combined with a healthy diet provides good coverage of your daily recommended vitamins.

If you are looking for a multivitamin to try out and you don't like swallowing pills, I would recommend the gummy kind like these from Vitafusion. They are available in Men's, Women's, and other specialty varieties as well.