MinnesotaSportsScene.com

When it comes to pharmaceutical companies, most people think of big corporations who charge “too much” for medicines people need to survive, and that’s about it. One of the big surprises for some people when they review the new Johnson & Johnson Web site is that there’s a lot more to Johnson & Johnson than the roughly 40 medicines they produce.

Johnson & Johnson are also well-known for their home health products, from baby care products like lotions and shampoos, to skin care, oral health, women’s health and over-the-counter medications like Tylenol. Heck, they’re even the parent company behind Splenda, the most recent sugar substitute to hit the market.

When it comes to brand recognition, Johnson & Johnson is already top-notch, but the mind boggles when one starts browsing their new company site and you get a handle on just how many things we take for granted in our daily lives come directly from Johnson & Johnson.

I’ve been thinking about how some sports bloggers get invited to do local radio interviews and the like, and why I always seem to be left out of the fun. Granted, my blogs are relatively new - haven’t been around for a decade or more like some folks - but still, it’d be nice to be prepared if that day ever comes, y’know?

So, I recently had a chance to try out LogoYes.com and try my hand at creating some branding for myself. I kind of like the results. Using LogoYes.com’s logo design and business card creation tool, it was quick and simple to get the elements of my logo together and start fiddling around with them until I found a look I like. (I did the same thing recently over at ProWrestlingViews.com, with terrific results.

What I like about their tools is that there’s plenty of clip art, a decent amount of flexibility, and so the limits, really, are more about creativity than anything else. I was able to get a look I like put together in about 15 minutes or so, and I like that I was able to incorporate both Vikings purple and Gophers maroon into the gold card design that both teams share in common; gives the card a real “MinnesotaSportsScene” look, which is what branding is all about.

If I had had the money to invest, I would have ordered a set of 100 on the spot.

People who read my blogs tend to know that I’m not in favor of Al Gore-style weirdness when it comes to environmental issues. However, that doesn’t mean I’m against eco products that help folks save energy and manage resources better at the same time.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a “the polar ice caps are melting and the sky is falling” type to appreciate the things GreenAndMore.com are doing. For example, a lot of people have gardens and like to keep some lights on out there at night; GreenAndMore.com offers some solar-powered lamps that store energy from the sun so you can turn on those lamps when you need them and not just when it’s sunny out and such lighting would be without a practical use.

Then there are recycled products, such as lawn chairs. No harm in that, and no Chicken Little element to it, either. Just a solid use of reusable resources.

I do have some problems with the price of some items; their energy and water-saving showerheads, for example, start at about $55. Surely there has to be a way to make a showerhead smart on resources and easier than that on the pocketbook. I mean, sure, ultimately what you save on your water bill will make the investment worthwhile, but you still have to afford the investment to start with. We can do better, folks!

I like saving energy as much as anyone; not because I thiink I’m saving the planet but more importantly because I think it saves my pocketbook. Fortunately, some items are more affordable than others. Take their air purifiers, for example. My wife and I both have allergies and on top of that, she has asthsma; but neither of us can afford to pay a fortunte to breathe cleaner air.

That’s where GreenAndMore.com is good; their prices range from as low as $99 to as high as $1,595, so there are a large number of choices, one of which will fit almost any budget. When you add in that GreenAndMore.com are good stewards of their profits, supporting charities like Oceana and Healthy Child, Healthy World, you have an appealing retailer to do some business with.

Don’t worry, faithful readers; I’m still anti-extremist and anti-Algore; but that doesn’t mean I’m anti-conservation. Being good stewards of our resources is just common sense; why waste? You don’t have to believe the sky is falling to see the sense in that.

I had a chance recently to try out the Pure Water 2Go water bottles, and I was surprised by what I found. It’s been a long time since I’ve regularly consumed unfiltered tap water; usually I buy carbonated bottled water by H2Oh!, largely because it contains no sweetners or sugar, yet has that carbonated fizz that makes it fun to drink. It also tastes a lot cleaner than regular tap water in the Twin Cities, MN, where I live.

A few year ago, I did drink more water, back when I had a sink installed with a PUR water filter right over the faucet. But now, as I am starting to work out more, I’ve been needing something I can take with me over to the workout room in my apartment facility. That’s where I expect to use this product the most; to keep myself hydrated as I work out.

The bottle came in a well-cushioned cardboard box and is of nice, durable plastic construction; there’s nothing flimsy about it, which is nice and helps me think it’ll last a while. The water bottle filter included with this system is a Level 2 water filter that relies on charcoal-based construction.

Just like my old PUR water faucet filter, the Pure Water 2Go water bottle promises to reduce and filter out tons of contaminant types, including offensive taste and odor, chlorine, salt, cryptosporidium, giarda, volatile organic compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls, trihalomethanes, agricultural synthetic organic compounds, detergents, pesticides, DDT, aluminum, asbestos, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, and mercury, just to name a few.

That impressed me long ago about my PUR system and it impresses me now with this water bottle, because even the trace amounts of such things that can show up in or seep into tap water can, even if it’s not enough to harm you, certainly ruin the taste. Heck, most water travels through old copper pipes; just filtering that out can improve the taste of water incredibly.

And while environmentalists tend to hate plastic, if it’s a choice between one water bottle that filters the water you drink regularly, or using 2-3 “disposable/recyclable” bottles of store-bought water, I think a Pure Water 2GO water bottle is the less offensive option.

What I like is the longevity of the filters. Each Level 2 filter is supposed to be able to last around three months or 80 gallons of water, 16 ounces of water at a time. And I looked it up, and a packet of two filters is only another $13 or so on the company’s Web site, so for what I could probably stretch out to a full year’s worth of filtered water, this is financially a lot cheaper that getting a bunch of store-bought bottled water.

About the only complaint I have in my early use of the water bottle is that, thanks to the filter, the water comes out a bit slower than it does from an unfiltered water bottle. It’s a minor inconvenience, but an inconvenience nevertheless. Other than that, it does produce clean-tasting water, which is what I was looking for from it. I expect to keep a full bottle in the fridge, chilling, whenever I’m not actually drinking from it. Hopefully, it can spur me to drink enough water to help my diet. Sure, it’s not carbonated so I doubt I’ll give up my H2Oh!, but it’s better than unfiltered tap water by a measure!