Will You be the Lucky One?

Tonight is the Mega Million Lottery drawing. Not just any Mega Millions drawing either. It is the most Mega of all Mega Millions in history! The record-smashing $640 million jackpot will be played by just about everyone in the country, including a handful of our neighbors in the Great White North who traveled to upstate New York to play. Lottery officials have estimated that more than $1.46 billion will have been spent on ticket purchases by tonight's drawing.

Of course, though someone may in fact win--maybe even a pool of co-workers, the odds are stacked against us. Currently, there is a 1 in 176,000,000 chance of winning. To put that into perspective: there are 313,269,000 people in the United States as of today. More than half the nation's population is competing against you to win. But on a brighter note, you have a 1-in-88,000 chance of dating a supermodel, a 1-in-20,000,000 chance of being canonized, 1-in-13,200,000 chance at becoming an astronaut and 1-in-10,000,000 chance of becoming president. For once, the odds are in my favor of becoming an astronaut after purchasing my lottery ticket. Then again, if I hit the jackpot I'll commission Richard Branson to build me a private Virgin Galactic space craft with that cool mood lighting they have on Virgin America planes. I can daydream...as I'm sure most of the nation is daydreaming about what they would do if they hit the Mega Millions. But alas, only one or a few--maybe even a large group of people-- will win and that elite group will most likely not include me or anyone else reading this. That doesn't mean that I'm going to feel defeated. Whether I or anyone I know who likes me enough to cut me a check for a substantial amount should they win the Mega Millions doesn't in fact win, I (we) still have plenty to celebrate this weekend. Besides, isn't the lottery, like, cursed or something?



Then again, if any of you do win some money and want to buy me a gift, I would like a brand new GOgroove BoomBUDDY High-Fidelity 2.1 Stereo Speaker with a 4 inch Subwoofer, a GOgroove BlueGate Wireless Bluetooth Audio Adapter & Receiver and a GOgroove SolaceAIR Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Headset so my BoomBUDDY and I can go sit and wallow somewhere far away while he blasts beautiful music into my ears so at least I don't hear my own cries of $640 million lost.

Magic hour, magical images

According to the weather forecast here in L.A., tomorrow will be mostly sunny becoming clear in the evening with winds SSE at 7 mph. The sun will rise at 6:50 am and set at 7:08 pm. Sounds like the perfect day to shoot some pictures to me! For all you self-proclaimed shutter bugs or those of you just starting to experiment with photography, I provided you with the weather report to encourage you to take advantage of Magic Hour! Magic Hour is just that, the hour or so just before sunrise or sunset in which the natural light and therefore your photographs are simply "Magical".

This is the time when the sky and your photos go Technicolor. When the light blue sky turns to gold, to orange, red, pink, purple, faded layers of each and finally indigo providing your subjects and images with warmer light and colors. This much sought after and limited time is the result of a phenomenon called Alpenglow, which is when the Earth's shadow produces a scattering of red light across the horizon. And, trust me, the result is phenomenal! Magic Hour is an amazing time to shoot any type of photography. Because of the long shadows cast, landscape shots are amplified, as are all of the natural colors. Portraits are softened by the warmer light when you have your subject face the downward sun, which unlike overhead sunlight, doesn't cast harsh shadows. This is also the only time to capture those classic silhouette shots--where shots taken facing into the rising or setting sun, with your subject directly in front of the light, come out stark black.

Whether you decide to take your camera up into the mountains, the lake, the beach or to the city to get those amazing reflective shots of the skyline make sure to pack your camera in a snugly padded case or bag like the CaseLogic Compact Camera Bag. Or if you like to have options, attach an Easyswitch Lens Case which allows you to easily interchange lenses. However you end up spending your weekend, we hope it's a "magical" one.

Take adavantage of that extra hour of sun

Pacific Standard Time started last Sunday so we've all been running through the week minus one hour of sleep, maybe even more. While the loss of such a precious commodity is never an easy one there are plenty of perks that come with that extra hour of sunshine. For instance when you leave work, the sun is still high in the sky making us feel like we can go out and do things, get things done in the window of time between work and home without the dreaded feeling of being surrounded by darkness. In turn, this frees us to do all those menial errands that would otherwise gather and snowball throughout the week until we had no choice but to give up our weekends to the bank, post office, grocery store, dry cleaners, etc.

Another perk of that extra sunshine is FREE POWER! Yep, you read that right. FREE POWER. How you may ask? By using all that extra sunshine and loading it up in our new ReVIVE Solar Restore XL USB Battery Pack which will soon be joining the growing list of amazing gadgets on Accessory Genie. When fully charged this amazing little dynamo houses and stores enough energy to fully power a Smartphone 3 times over. Or you can share and power 3 Smartphones one time over. But that's not all it can do, after all it is a dynamo.

This compact, lightweight device has a built-in dual-mode LED flashlight which can shine at full beam or in S.O.S. mode for up to 36 consecutive hours on one charge. It also comes with 2 dual-window suction mounts, a carabiner and a USB-charging cable. Use the suction mounts to charge your ReVIVE Solar Restore on the inside of your windshield during the week then pack your gear and go have an adventure on the weekend. Or, hook the Solar ReStore onto your backpack with the carabiner while hiking or mountain biking to charge and have all the backup power you need for your agonizing Smartphone that lost all its power tirelessly trying to get service in the great outdoors.

The Solar ReStore can be used to power MP3 players, tablets, eReaders, portable speakers, digital cameras, camcorders and more, so much more. So thank the Sun god Ra for that extra hour of free power and take advantage of no more missed photo ops, videos, favorite songs, urgent status updates or whatever else powerless devices deny you. Harness the power of the sun! It's FREE!