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The American Guide

Business/Investment, Style

This $4000 Car Will Get You Dates

Go get yourself a 16 year old Subaru Outback and watch your life get better. Sure, Subaru is the car company that has made “Love” a central part of its advertising, but this car sells sex. It might not appear sexy from the outside. Hell, it probably even looks ugly, but one thing is certain — this 4000 dollar car will get you dates.

It’s less of the car getting you dates, actually, and more of how the car will allow you to get dates when you drive it. First of all, the car is already pretty old so you’ll be able to drive it with confidence. Forget about worrying if you’re going to scratch the thing because it probably has 20 dents all over the body already. You spend a lot of time in your car. Americans spend hours everyday in their car, so you need to be sure that it will make you confident. A Subaru Outback will allow you to do that because you’re basically saying “it’s all right here — take it or leave it.” Translate that car confidence into your daily life and you’ll be living up dates left and right.

When you pick your dates up and they get into your car, they’re going to feel totally at ease. This care oozes relaxation. Subaru initially made the car back in the 90s to cash in on the SUV craze but they couldn’t actually make an SUV for whatever reason. What resulted was a weird looking utility vehicle that hits all the right notes. They’re comfortable to sit in, they can fit everything you need, and you’ll never have to put on false heirs when you’re sitting in the Outback. Millionaires in the Pacific Northwest are known for driving these cheap cars for precisely that reason.

Back when the car first came out, the millionaires driving these cars didn’t have the money that they have today so they had to buy a Subaru. What they realized, over time, is that this car does not quit. If you buy a 16 year old Outback for 4 grand, chances are you’ll be driving that car for a few years and get more than your money’s worth. This equalizes the playing field. You won’t have to worry about if you car screams “I’m broke” to anyone looking at it because the car is meant for everyone. Rich people and poor people alike drive this car because it just works, on some weird level.

Sure, if you only have 4000 dollars, you won’t have your pick of the litter. If you go with this car though, you won’t need any of the other ones. The Subaru Outback is the perfect investment for you because you’ll be able to be your true self which will lead to more self-confidence, resulting in more dates. People are attracted to the real you and the Outback shows that better than most cars on the market.

Entertainment, Real Estate, Style, Travel

Five Places to Visit in Fort Collins Colorado

Fort Collins, Colorado is a wonderful place and one of the best cites to visit. It has the best blend of everything you could want in a small city. It has the highest concentration of microbreweries in America. A beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains can be seen from anywhere in town, and a fishable river flows right through. Colorado State University is square in the middle of town which means a bunch of hot 21 year olds, bars, and things to do. There are many places you should visit while you’re in town, but you’d be crazy to miss these five:

  1. Choice City Butcher

Choice City Butcher is an amazing place to go for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They’re regularly touted as one of the best breakfast places to get a beer because they have a revolving tap collection that features some of the most iconic names in craft brewing. You’ll immediately have access to the best beers you’ve never tried and the selection is constantly changing. After you order drinks, you’ll have a huge menu to choose from that features delicious food that includes meat from: beef, buffalo, rattlesnake, antelope, and more. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried some of Vinny’s rattlesnake sausage so get going.

  1. The Yeti

The Yeti is a club in Fort Collins, Colorado which is split between three different entrances. The main entrance up top is a regular bar that fills up every weekend. The bar has typical bar food and a good selection of drafts, drinks, and cocktails. Overall, it’s nothing special, but it’s a really fun place to drink because the energy is infectious. The side entrance leads you to a completely different bar. This one is more upscale and almost hipsterish in feel. The electronic music and moody ambient lighting make it for one of the unique experiences in Fort Collins. The basement entrance is where the magic happens, though. Every Monday you can get pitchers of beer for one penny! That’s right, penny pitchers! Located in the heart of Old Town Square — The Yeti is the place to go.

  1. Tour De Fat

Tour De Fat is a bicycle an annual bicycling event led by the Fat Tire brewery. Every year people put on ridiculous costumes, get rowdy drunk, and then ride through town all day on their bikes. The brewery makes sure to include plenty of tables that local business can rent out to sell their goods and beer gardens everywhere. Get your bracelet early and drink all day at Tour De Fat!

  1. Universal Wellness Center

It wouldn’t be a list about Colorado if it didn’t include a story about weed! The Universal Wellness Center is pretty much the central hub for marijuana in Fort Collins. They have the biggest selection in town and lovely “budtenders” to help you make the right selection. You can’t help but love the creepy Alice in Wonderland paintings and overwhelming smell.

  1. Coopersmith’s Brewery

Also located in Old Town Square, Coopersmith’s is a huge brewery and eating establishment that offers exceptional taste at a fine price. The atmosphere is easy going but dark. You’ll fall in love with Coopersmith’s as soon as you go in and be ready to visit another famous Fort Collins brewery when you leave.

Business/Investment, Entertainment, Style

The Best Comic Book Events in the Last Year

The last year has brought some truly terrible comic book events to the fold, but we read them anyway. For this list, we’ll be discussing Marvel and DC exclusively; there is nothing wrong with Vertigo, Valiant, Dark Horse or some of the other publishing houses. Marvel and DC allow for an accessibility that others do not, and are more easily explained. Anyway let’s get this party started! Here are the best comic book events in the last year:

1. DC Rebirth

It can be denied by nobody that DC’s new publishing line, Rebirth, is a runaway success. Following the response of fans everywhere when they created the Flashpoint Paradox which thrusted the entire DC comic book universe into the New 52, DC knew they needed to come up big for their readers. What resulted was a meticulously detailed roadmap for how the executives at DC were going to fix their comic book lines. They did 3 key things differently: double shipping, few comic books, actually made a plan.

While Marvel is raising their prices and putting out an unprecedented amount of title relaunches, DC decided to do something completely different. They decided to slap the Rebirth banner on all of their titles, but they didn’t launch 52 new titles like their last publishing line. Instead they launched around 30 which resulting no cancellations. Prices also went down. Now you can get two books from DC every month for $6 dollars when compared to $5 dollars from Marvel for one book. Even if you’re a Marvel fanboy, you can’t help but be impressed by what DC is doing.

2. All Star Batman

After the Fiasco that was All Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder by Frank Miller, most fans gave up hope on the All Star line. The All Star line was created after Grant Morrison gifted the world All Star Superman, a 12 issue event that is considered one of the best Superman stories of all time. All Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder had moments that have been lampooned by fans for years like when Batman kidnapped a 12 year old boy and called him retarded or confessed to eating rats. The series also created the “I’m the goddamn Batman” meme which has plagued the character since its inception.

So famed Batman team Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, a team which won awards and fans after their New 52 run on Batman, decided to put out an All Star book for Batman that wasn’t absolute garbage. All Star Batman has been one of the undoubted successes of DC Comics in the past few years and is putting the All Star line back on top. Not much can be said because the series is still running, but it’s an instant classic.

3. Monsters Unleashed

This is the only Marvel book to make the list. When you have Secret Wars, Civil War 2, Clone Conspiracy, and Secret Empire to contend with, it’s to come out on top. Monsters Unleashed was a 5 part series written by Cullen Bunn and featured the classic monsters of the Marvel universe in a way they had never been featured before. It’s a crazy trip through memory lane, but also a fun way to introduce new characters.  The story follows a young man that can summon great beasts through his drawings, but they’re linked to the core of his essence so they’re never expendable. If you’re a fan of monster movies or just interesting character development then this is the recent Marvel event for you!

Business/Investment, Entertainment, Travel

The Best Odd Jobs For When You’re Hitchhiking Across America

If you’re on a shoestring budget, hitching across the US then you’re probably looking for some work to earn some extra money. The trick thing about odd jobs is that you want to find a place to work that meets your requirements: pays cash, starts immediately, nearby. You’ll be able to find all kinds of work out there but here are the types of job I relied on while forking my thumb out into the road.

Get Your Odd Job Online

WWOOF It!

Okay, so with WWOOF, you don’t actually make money unless the people there are really cool, but you will get a memorable experience. WWOOF is a worldwide opportunity for travellers and volunteers to work on organic farms. Most farmers and growers will allow you to live on their property and feed you, in exchange for work on the farm. WWOOFing is a great way to meet people and get a good, home cooked meal while out on the road. You won’t make any money,  but you will have a place to crash.

Taskrabbit

In most major cities, there are opening for Taskrabbit workers. Taskrabbit is an app that allows anyone to name their price for a service they can provide. Most of the time, you’ll be picked to arrange furniture or pick up groceries, but there are a varied amount of jobs on Taskrabbit and you’ll be able to pick and choose which services you’ll perform at a rate of your choosing — pretty much the best option.

Freelance with Craigslist

If you have a particular set of skills, then you can post your willingness to use those skills for someone’s project on Craigslist. This option is last for a reason, but you’ll find all sorts of jobs in the area. One tip: look for gigs at events as those are more like to pay you cash on the spot.

No Internet, No Problem

Okay, so you don’t feel like posting everything about your life on the internet but you still want to make money on the go. You do have some options. You can create and sell trinkets as you travel. One thing that’s great about hitchhiking across America is that you’ll meet all sorts of people that haven’t done anything as interesting as what you’re doing — they’ll gladly pay a few dollars for an interesting story if it means they can walk away with a trinket. Another good option to learning an instrument and busking. Busking is easy but in some towns can provide the police with a reason to get in your business. If you see others doing it, chances are you’re good to leave your guitar case open on the sidewalk and play Wagon Wheel three or ten times.

There must be a thousand ways to make money while hitchhiking across America. You might end up in the North or the South, but you’re most likely to find work online these days. If volunteering your services on an organic farm with WWOOF doesn’t pique your interest, then you should definitely check out Craigslist and Taskrabbit for local jobs. Otherwise, you could always make little leather statues and sell them on the side of the road with a guitar in your hand.

Entertainment, Style, Travel

Who Parties Harder? Bachelors or Bachelorettes

Pre-wedding parties have been tradition since anyone can remember. The groom and his guys all get together to have a bachelor party which the bride and her bridesmaids get together for a wild bachelorette party. Both parties typically include a mountain of alcohol, sleazy strippers, and dirty hotel rooms but which party is more wild for the night? There has been much discussion in the past about which group parties harder, and there’s evidence on both sides of the aisle. Here’s my take:

Bachelor Parties and How They Rage

Bachelor parties have long been famous for complete debauchery. Most parties will include insanely drunk groomsmen, strippers, and a location that inspires madness. Forget about The Hangover, no one is ending up with a tiger. Most parties start with a road trip to an unforgettable location and fills the guest list with best friends, strippers, and bartenders. It has been said that sometimes the groom figures out that he doesn’t want to be married following a bachelor party, because he has found that all he wants is meaningless sex, but that’s typically not the case. With most grooms, they’ll be so happy to escape their wild friends and get back safely to the woman that they love. Sure, everyone loves a lap dance, but you’re more likely to see unbelievable bachelor parties in a movie than in real life.

Bachelorette Parties

Bachelorette parties are comprised of the bride and her bridesmaids, but they shouldn’t ever be considered innocent. These parties also can include strippers, booze, and friends but they also have something else: tons of penis shaped paraphernalia. Bachelorette parties are almost famous for being covered in neon colored, plastic penises. Hollywood has shown that bachelorette parties can get just as crazy as the male counterpart. However, in real life, you’re far more likely to see a party that starts strong with strippers and shots and then winds down with a couple of friends discussing their futures. The bride will usually pass out in the hotel room before most of her friends because she’s been fed shots and kept close.

So Who Parties Harder?

Bachelorette parties definitely go harder than bachelor parties. Most bachelor parties are grooms and their groomsmen just getting together for a relaxing night when, all of a sudden, a stripper shows up. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a lot of fun, but it doesn’t really pass for a wild night of drunken shenanigans. This is because bachelor parties are typically just a way for the groom to sit down with his friends and enjoy a final night of being unaccounted for while the other kind of party is more of a free-for-all. Bachelorette parties go super hard because there is, most times, a dangerous amount of alcohol being given to the bride. She’ll get so drunk that some members of the party might think of alcohol poisoning. Anyone that drunk is liable to do some crazy stuff, especially when a huge life event is on the horizon.

Business/Investment, Real Estate, Travel

The Best Cities to Invest In Real Estate in America

If you are looking to invest in real estate, then you should consider cities which are on the upturn so that you can have the largest return on investment possible. There are some cities that are in ruin, yet millennials run to them for cheap housing. If you weigh all the data, it will be easy to see that some of these unconventional picks are worth your attention.

Bozeman, Montana

You probably didn’t expect a city from Montana to be topping a “best of list” unless it was for “Best Cities to Go to Montana State University” but there is a method to this madness. Bozeman, historically, has been a small, working class city. The local university brings in a quarter of the town’s population every year but there have been others coming to the city for the past few years. It seems that the way Montana’s tax system is structured has created a haven for startup technology companies who can’t compete in Silicon Valley. These companies are moving to Montana instead and picking off the fresh engineering students from the university. The city is becoming more affluent and many fly fishers from the northeast are starting to buy up real estate.

Detroit, Michigan

Another unconventional pick, yes, but Detroit is one of the best cities to invest in real estate in America lately. A few years ago the city was bankrupt and there are hardly any jobs. However, there are a bunch of jobs starting to open up just 30 minutes north of the city and many millennials are moving to Detroit for dirt cheap housing. Neither the native locals nor the millennials can afford to purchase real estate which is what makes Detroit a sleeper hit.

Dallas, Texas

Cost of living in Dallas is poised to become one of the highest in the nation of the course of the next few years. Advising that figure is 6.2% three-year populace development, 3.9% employment increases a year ago and 9% yearly home cost picks up. Homes in Dallas are additionally underestimated; notable midpoints compared to adjacent city’s cost of living make Dallas a sure thing.

Seattle, Washington

The weed trade has turned Seattle into the crowned jewel of the Pacific Northwest. In the past year, prices have raised 12% and there is no end in sight. Restaurants in the city are doing so well, in fact, that they have done away with tipping waitstaff and restaurateurs are now paying them an overly rate. The population of the city is booming and more companies are moving to, what could be, the hottest city in America right now.

Those are four picks that probably were not expected for most real estate hounds, but the reality of the situation is that America is bouncing back. There were so many cities which were devastated back in the 2008 recession that are starting to do very well as a result of intelligent policy making. While other cities in America fall deeper into debt, the ones cited on this list are becoming major metropolitan hotspots.

 

 

Entertainment, Style

Top Restaurants to Visit in the American South

The South has some of the best eats in the country. You can get comfort foods, diverse plate arrangements, and family recipes that have survived many generations. You can’t help but want to visit these restaurants:

The Homeplace

Catawba, VA

The Homeplace is one of those magical restaurants that you imagine to litter the American South. It’s a family owned establishment in the middle of a farm. When you first pull up, you’ll wonder if you’re in the right place because The Homeplace is seriously just a house in the middle of a farm. It is only $18 dollars for an all you can eat experience that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. You’ll be seated at a table and then you’ll only have to stand again to leave. That’s right — they bring the food to you! Your table will fill up with plates of fried chicken, biscuits, green beans, casseroles and all sorts of fatty comfort foods that you’re only going to want more of. As soon as your plate is empty, they’ll bring more until you say stop. Wash it down with some of their house blend sweet tea and then prepare for a home cooked dessert. This place is seriously amazing.

Rhubard

Ashville, NC

Gourmet specialist John Fleer appears to have the golden touch. He can practically bring home credit for that last nibble of in vogue Benton’s bacon you had in Los Angeles or New Orleans or Brooklyn. He brought the Tennessee smokers’ porky merchandise out of the Appalachian foothills and onto, for all intents and purposes, each and every menu that includes bacon. What’s more, talking about those mountains, Fleer was the gourmet specialist at Blackberry Farm for a long time (he cleared out in 2007) and lifted the district’s natural Southern cooking of to be today’s go-to popular nourishment all through the nation. Rhubarb, opened in 2013, is the freshest expansion to Ashville’s heritage.

Franklin’s BBQ

Austin, TX

Of course Franklin’s is making this list. If you want amazing barbeque and you find yourself in Austin, one of America’s best cities, then Franklin’s is the only place you’ll want to go. Be prepared though — you could be waiting in line for 3 hours or longer to get a taste of Franklin’s famous brisket. This restaurant has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and countless other shows, it’s reputation is legendary.

Dooky Chase

New Orleans, LA

Dooky Chase is another legendary place to eat in the south. This organization started life in 1941 as a bar; from that point forward, it’s facilitated social equality pioneers, celebrated artists, no less than two U.S. presidents, and countless favorite New Orleanians like Lil’ Wayne. Leah Chase assumed responsibility of the kitchen in 1946 subsequent to meeting and marrying Edgar “Dooky” Chase, Jr. The restaurant is known for its famous creole cooking.

These are just some of the restaurants you can find in the south that will beat your palate into submission. You’ll experience some of the best foods you can ever find and have a memory which lasts a lifetime. If you eat at one of these places, you’ll be telling the story for years to come.