The 5 Best Blackjack Dealer Costumes in Time For Halloween (or Casino Theme Party)

You and your friends love getting together and heading to the local casino; spending hours on the reservation sitting down at the poker table, playing the slots, putting some cash down on roulette and getting free drinks. All that’s great fun, but what you all really enjoy is parking yourself down and getting comfortable at the Blackjack tables.

You can’t even count how many hours you’ve spent elbow-to-elbow with your buddies trying to get as close to 21 as possible. Now that September is coming to a close, it’s time to think about Halloween (or perhaps it’s a casino themed party) and you’re set on some form of casino theme costume.

Be a Real (Fake) Blackjack Dealer 

So what better, more-appropriate costume than dressing up as a blackjack dealer? You know all the nuances and motions and phrases that blackjack dealers do, so it shouldn’t be hard to get into character. Even if you’re not familiar with the twenty one card game, you can still be a Blackjack dealer, though you would definitely need to learn how to play blackjack online so you can be as convincing as possible.

Blackjack on the surface isn’t hard really: it’s adding up your cards in an attempt to get to 21 without going over (busting) and having your total be more than the dealer’s hand. Of course there’s nuances, but that, some basic blackjack vocabulary, and the right costume is all you need.

The Best Blackjack Dealer Costumes

Depending on how authentic you want to seem, you may have to get your education and vernacular elsewhere, but we got you on the blackjack dealer costume. We’ve scoured the net, Amazon, Party City, Etsy and Pinterest to find the best and most-convincing costumes for you to consider.

 

1. Blackjack Dealer Sequin Vest 

This leisure silk jacquard waistcoat may not actually be silk, but we love this one the best because for $30, you get 5 pieces including the vest (available in multiple colors), cufflinks, bow tie, neck tie, and cuffs. Just add shirt underneath (or not).

2. Blackjack Dealer Sequin Vest Costume 

The best costume is a combination of standing out and affordability. This shiny sequin vest will get you started. All you have to add is a white shirt underneath and standard bowtie. And it comes in multiple colors. All for approximately $30.

3. Playing Card Queen Women’s Halloween Costume

Who needs to be so straightforward? Let’s hit ’em over the head, get a little weird, and have a little fun. Be a playing card that’s also a dealer. Kind of like a cannibal dressed a human being or something like that. Pair this with a visor and ask them if they want to “hit” or “stay?”

4. Casino Dealer or Old School Gangster Costume 

What sucks about Halloween is that you spend all that time and money for what can be worn once. After that? It goes into a box somewhere maaaaaaaybee being resurrected four years later. Well this set allows you to use it a couple times – what’s the difference between a Blackjack dealer and a gangster from the 1920’s? A gun?

Not sure, but you get the point – there’s a lot of overlap going on. Check out this multipiece set that includes suspenders, a bow tie, pocket watch,  armband, garter, tie clip, cane and even a fake mustache.

5. Suspenders for Blackjack Dealer Costume (1PC)

Don’t want to invest in something too elaborate; you want to keep it simple and cheap? Here’s simple suspenders you can wear over a white or black shirt and most everyone will get the vibe you’re trying to give off.

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How Long Is Chinese Food Good For If I’ve Properly Stored It?

Food waste is a major concern in the United States today. According to the Department of Agriculture, this accounts to around 30% to 40% of the country’s food supply. Most of the food waste can be attributed to grocers and retailers throwing away produce, meat, and dairy products that have surpassed their expiry dates. But food waste affects consumers as well. Many of us have felt guilty about tossing leftover Chinese food into the trash because we weren’t sure if the food was still safe to eat. 

There comes a time when it’s no longer safe to eat your leftover Chinese food and it should be thrown away to avoid illness. 

Below, you’ll find more information about when it’s best to discard your Chinese leftovers to avoid an upset stomach.

How Long Is Chinese Food Good For?

First off, “Chinese food” isn’t just one dish and it’s not definitely not limited to what you see at the steam table buffet at Panda Express; it’s a cuisine. Chinese cuisine is diverse – subtle and spicy, salty and sweet, sour and savory — Chinese cuisine is well-known for its great tastes and flavors.

It includes a wide variety of popular dishes such as fried rice, General Tsao’s, Orange chicken, chow mein, beef and broccoli , dumplings, kung pao chicken, dim sum, ma po tofu, noodles of all types, so take our advice and apply it carefully depending on what kind of Chinese food you’re referring to. 

That said, Chinese foods are like any foods that contain vegetables, meats and seafood – they’re very perishable, so you should put Chinese foods in the fridge as soon as possible.

When stored correctly, Chinese food can remain fresh for 3 to 4 days in the fridge. However, most people store it for up to 3 days only depending on the type of food and the ingredients used.

After that, spoiled Chinese food can cause food poisoning. Food-borne bacteria do not usually affect the look, smell, or taste of the food. Therefore, it is difficult to tell if the Chinese takeaway you ordered last week is currently safe for consumption.

To be on the safe side, avoid keeping your Chinese food in the refrigerator for longer than this period.

Food kept in the fridge does not go bad immediately after four days. The risk increases due to bacteria growth. You can freeze the food only if you want to eat it within the recommended time period.

However, just knowing what time to throw away Chinese food leftovers is just scratching the surface. It’s also important to learn how to store Chinese food properly so you can safely eat it again.  

Why Throw Away Spoiled Chinese Food

You run the risk of foodborne illnesses if you consume Chinese food that is infested with harmful bacteria. These pathogenic manifestations occur with the temperature between 4°C and 60 °C. Therefore, your aim is to protect your food from this danger zone. Make sure to store your food in the fridge within two hours. Otherwise, the bacteria would grow immensely, making the food unsafe for consumption.

How to Store Your Leftover Chinese Food

Let’s face it; most of us simply store Chinese food in the refrigerator just the way we bought it from the restaurant. However, this is not the best way to store the food if you want to extend its shelf life.

This Reheating Method Keeps Leftover Chinese Food Crispy

Store your Chinese food in sealed or airtight containers. Never store your Chinese food in the takeaway container. It is not ideal for long-term storage. Takeaway food containers allow in air that makes the food stale and create a good environment for harmful bacteria to grow. 

Avoid leaving your Chinese food on your kitchen counter. Instead, put it in the fridge once you have finished eating. 

You should put food in the fridge as soon as possible to lower the risk of ingesting food-borne pathogens.

Conclusion

If you have spent top dollar on your Chinese food, you’d hate to throw it out. To store your Chinese food leftovers properly, follow the above tips to enjoy eating it again. That way, you can save time and money. And if you’re not sure about the safety of your Chinese food, throw it away. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

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4 Factors Contributing to the Growth of the Online Gaming Industry

Image Source: Pexels

There’s no question that the online gaming industry is on a winning streak right now, with impressive growth forecast for the foreseeable future and audiences expanding internationally.

So what are the reasons behind this meteoric rise, and will it really continue to enjoy such a compelling trajectory indefinitely?

New innovations breed player interest

The gaming industry is always evolving, and this helps to keep people engaged with whatever it has to offer, because people crave novelty and multiplayer titles deliver it in spades.

Whether you’re interested in competing in fast-paced action titles like Call of Duty and Fortnite, or you’re eager to learn how to play poker online for money, the amount of variety combined with innovative ways to play, such as virtual reality and augmented reality, means there’s never a dull moment as a gamer.

The cloud is changing up access for everyone

Perhaps the biggest shift that’s going on at the moment in online gaming is the move away from being reliant on end user hardware to determine the quality of the experience.

Instead, cloud computing is taking up the burden of crunching the numbers and storing the game files, while the results are streamed directly to players on any device they prefer. Services like Google Stadia have offered cloud-powered gaming for a while now, and while they are not perfect, the future does seem to be going in this direction.

Microsoft is arguably pushing for a cloud-based gaming future more than any other company, and its latest Xbox consoles look like a step towards eventually embracing games-as-a-service as the only future for the industry.

This is also turning games into a subscription rather than a one-off purchase. Renting access to a huge library of titles, as well as eliminating local hardware limitations from the equation, is ultimately making high end gaming more accessible and affordable for the average person. The one caveat is of course having fast internet access to minimize game streaming hiccups.

The social aspect is compelling

Another catalyst of online gaming’s success is the way in which it is innately social, and thus taps into the human need to communicate and engage with other people.

Multiplayer titles have built up huge communities around the globe for many years, and yet it is in the age of social media dominance that the true value of this connectedness can be seen.

From direct in-game voice chat to text-base conversations, to the simple act of working together with other players in teams, it’s easy to see why gamers get an endorphin hit from picking up a controller and logging on for some cooperative or combative entertainment.

In turn this is feeding into predictions about how the Metaverse will expand in the coming years. The idea of people living their lives in a fully virtual world, while still remote in the mainstream, is already becoming a reality through the use of VR, in combination with live services from various developers and platform providers.

Mobility still makes a difference

Mobile gaming is a major contributor to the market as a whole, and there’s plenty of proof that portability is a driving factor in the current era.

From cost-conscious consoles like the Nintendo Switch to hardcore-focused machines like Valve’s Steam Deck, there are dedicated hardware solutions for every niche. Then there are smartphone games, which again cater to the casual players as well as to the more serious acolytes of this pastime.

All of this means that even the most pessimistic outlook for the industry anticipates continued growth, particularly in developing markets.

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How do I access my stock clipboard on my Google Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL?

I just moved away from the Samsung Galaxy line and bought the new Google Pixel 2 XL and one of the more useful features that I am missing on the Pixel is the clipboard functionality. Continue reading “How do I access my stock clipboard on my Google Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL?”

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Why the hell is my Tivo reading everything on the screen? (and how to turn it off)

The other day, my Tivo started talking to me. My new Tivo Bolt was audibly reading every word on my television screen. I mean speaking everything out loud. Like every single word from top to bottom, left to right. Continue reading “Why the hell is my Tivo reading everything on the screen? (and how to turn it off)”

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How to keep track of AdSense performance and earnings from AMP pages

When you’ve actually figured out how to add Adsense ads retroactively to your Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), the next question is how will you keep track of AdSense ad revenue and performance from these mobile pages? Continue reading “How to keep track of AdSense performance and earnings from AMP pages”

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How to disable “WhatsApp Web is Currently Active” notification on Android

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How to force Chromecast to recognize video files on your Android phone

From movies to TV shows, downloading video has never been easier or faster. Earlier today, I downloaded a 600 MB one-hour video in fewer than seven minutes… on my phone. Continue reading “How to force Chromecast to recognize video files on your Android phone”

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Disable Pushbullet desktop notifications for WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram (and other apps)

I was recently turned onto Pushbullet by a friend. Pushbullet is an app and browser extension that allows you to easily transfer files and respond to messages to/from your laptop. Continue reading “Disable Pushbullet desktop notifications for WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram (and other apps)”

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How to do a ZARA stock check to see if another ZARA has your size

ZARA’s policy is to not do stock checks on sale/clearance items — that’s what I’ve been told when I asked an associate in-store. Continue reading “How to do a ZARA stock check to see if another ZARA has your size”

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How to choose the best Citi Bike at the docking station

Picking a Citi Bike is a crap shoot. Other than kicking the tires, there’s not much you can do to ensure you chose a good or bad bike until you actually start riding the bike. Continue reading “How to choose the best Citi Bike at the docking station”

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Here’s how to freeze glass jars without them exploding/breaking

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Google Docs: How to automatically sort form responses so new entries are always at top

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How to turn off camera sound, disable shutter sound on Android phones

Not only am I bad at selfies, I am also not very good at posting on Instagram. All this comes from a self-consciousness around snapping pics in public. Continue reading “How to turn off camera sound, disable shutter sound on Android phones”

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How to register .ly domain name? Any cheap options?

Another day, another idea for a niche website. I really have to stop doing this. I have more personal projects that I can handle, but this one? THIS ONE IS THE ONE   Continue reading “How to register .ly domain name? Any cheap options?”

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Behind on news? Use IFTTT for auto-curated content

I’m a big online news reader, as well as a news “saver” — meaning I love going through dozens of articles and saving several (to Pocket) so I can read them later in the subway, in bed, or waiting in line. Continue reading “Behind on news? Use IFTTT for auto-curated content”

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Spend more time watching TV, use Shortcodes Ultimate for WordPress

What I Found Out Today: Bloggers have it so much easier nowadays.

Ok, not today, but I was reminded of it recently just last week, that there was a time when there weren’t any blogging platforms or WYSIWYG editors: if you wanted to publish a blog post, you coded everything Continue reading “Spend more time watching TV, use Shortcodes Ultimate for WordPress”

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How to stop those annoying Whatsapp server notifications

What I Found Out Today: How to stop Whatsapp server notifications without blocking all messages or turning off push notifications. Continue reading “How to stop those annoying Whatsapp server notifications”

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Restricting a WordPress widget to only display on the homepage

What I Found Out Today: Hello WordPressers, there may be a time in which you want to display a widget only on the home page of your site while not showing up on other pages. Continue reading “Restricting a WordPress widget to only display on the homepage”

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How to turn YouTube videos into GIF files

> I’m ashamed that with all the time I’ve spent laughing at, and enjoying the internet, that I have yet to pay my respect to the internet with a proper GIF. Reason being is the GIF-making process just seemed like it was way too involved. That, and I haven’t found anything to ignite my passion.

youtube to gif maker

Then Jeremy Lin went and did something awesome (TWICE) and I wanted an easy way to turn a short clip of a YouTube video into a GIF, so I could spread the Jeremy Lin gospel virally.

First, I tried a bunch of online GIF makers and ran head on into size limitations, websites that timed out, quality issues, and GIFs that were branded with the website name (annoying but I get it). Enter: Instagiffer Continue reading “How to turn YouTube videos into GIF files”

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How to save voicemails to MP3 on Verizon

What I Found Out Today: If you’re like me, then you have a healthy obsession with Jeremy Lin. On top of that, you’ve saved many of your funny voicemails.

Like me, you tire of having to re-save all your funny voicemails every 30 days or so. It only takes 3 minutes to re-save them all, but it’s annoying. If you’re anything like me, you don’t like being annoyed. I’m so glad we get along.

If you’re like me, you have Verizon. And sometime in the last couple years, Big Red disabled the ability for you to save your voicemails (via visual voicemail) as MP3s. Instead, they now recommend a third party company to get copies of your voicemail. Well, fuck that. Continue reading “How to save voicemails to MP3 on Verizon”

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Start an embedded YouTube video at a specific time

Start Embeded YouTube at Certain Time

What I Found Out today: You can embed YouTube videos with a specific start and end time. Something I never needed to do until today.

If you’re looking to embed a Youtube video onto your site and would like to have it start or end at a particular point in the video, don’t follow Google’s instructions, it’s outdated info. Previously, Google/Youtube supported code that looked something like “#t=2m01s”

Don’t do that. It won’t work anymore. Continue reading “Start an embedded YouTube video at a specific time”

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How to Optimize Infographics for SEO

If you’ve been following along with my trifecta of blog post around everything Infographics SEO then so far, I’ve tried to convince you that infographics are great for SEO and why infographics need more optimization than text content. Now, if you’ve been drinking my kool aid, then the next step is to go over how to best optimize your infographic for SEO. That, and I have a bridge to sell you…

Google: “Your Infographic Sucks”

Whoever said that “a picture is worth a thousand words” wasn’t speaking to an SEO.

(I’m sure that clever anecdote has been used before, but it’s brand new to my brain, so it stays.)

Your infographic may distill pages of well-researched, snore-inducing data into the equivalent of a Harry Potter trailer, or your graphic may transform a complex concept into a visually appealing graphic, but when your un-optimized graphic goes in front of a search engines, it’s just another image that can be rendered in less than 40 HTML characters.

Your infographic may literally have 1,000 words on it, but if you’re not optimizing it for SEO, then it’s not worth squat to search engines.

Optimize your infographics for SEO

Continue reading “How to Optimize Infographics for SEO”

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