The Secret Yumiverse How-Tos
How To: 9 Beer-Spiked Recipes for Your Next Cooking Adventure
If you're a beer lover, you can enjoy your passion even more by incorporating your favorite beer flavors into your next cooking experiment. Beer can be included in recipes for meat marinades, frying batter, chili, soups, bread and even dessert. And if you're concerned about getting drunk from these recipes, fear not—most of the alcohol will evaporate in the cooking process. But your dish will be left with a rich, earthy flavor that can only come from beer.
How To: Throw the Perfect Punch
Marital arts master Bruce Lee had his famous one-inch punch technique. He knew that putting all of your weight and energy into one inch of movement had far more power than moving your arm one foot.
How To: Make a Smoke Bomb with Sugar and Potassium Nitrate
Surprisingly, making your very own smoke grenade is pretty easy—and cheap. All you need is a saucepan or skillet, piezoelectric lighter, sugar and some potassium nitrate (easily available online and in most gardening stores).
How To: Survive a Deadly Animal Attack in the Wild
Whether it's a shark in the ocean, a crocodile in the swamp or a swarm of angry bees, trekking through the wilderness always comes with its fair share of perils. To prepare for the worst case scenario, equip yourself with the right knowledge—then the worst that can happen to you is an awesome bar story when you tell your friends about your close encounter.
How To: Make Realistic-Looking Fake Blood
Store-bought fake blood isn't too expensive, but the consistency and color are always the same. Real blood varies, from bright red when oxygenated (arterial blood) to deep, dark red when deoxygenated (venous blood), and it can be either thick or thin. So to achieve the best special effect, you're better off making a batch of DIY fake blood yourself to get the look and texture you're going for. And it's very simple to do.
How To: Effectively Disguise Yourself and Keep Your Identity Secret
The art of disguise is a very important skill to master, no matter if you're a hounded celebrity trying to ditch the paparazzi or just someone who'd like to step out of the house without being recognized. If you think simply throwing on sunglasses and a hat is a good disguise, you are so wrong.
How To: Collect Safe Drinking Water from the Wilderness
Without water, human beings can only survive for a few days. When you are out in the wilderness, knowing how to collect safe drinking water can be a matter of life or death. Large plastic bags are extremely handy for collecting condensation from grass and tree leaves, as well as creating a solar still. Dew water can be collected very easily with a clean towel and a small bowl. Large waterproof vinyl sheets are especially good for keeping your belongings from getting wet—and for collecting cle...
How To: Unlock Your Car with a Shoelace
Locked out of your car and need to break in ASAP? Unlace a shoelace from one of your shoes and you've got yourself the only tool you need to open your car door from the outside.
Cool Bar Trick: How to Freeze Beer in 2 Seconds
Here's a simple bar trick that you can pull off at your next alcohol-fueled gathering. Tap one beer bottle against another to freeze both beer bottles into solid ice in 2 to 3 seconds.
How To: Make Invisible Ink
Need to pass along an important message on paper without having it accidentally discovered by your archenemy? Using very common household products, you can easily whip up an invisible ink recipe and write out your secret message with the solution. All the recipient needs to do is heat up the paper using a stovetop of light bulb, or brush the surface of the paper with a simple iodine mixture to read the message.
How To: Relieve a Jellyfish Sting
What should you do if you ever get stung by a jellyfish? First things first—do not urinate on your jellyfish sting. Contrary to popular belief, human urine can aggravate any stingers stuck onto your skin, causing more venom to release. Your best bet for relieving your jellyfish sting is to get yourself some vinegar, shaving cream and a razor.
How To: Your Ultimate All-Nighter Survival Guide
Pulling an all-nighter for school, work or an important project is never fun. That being said, if you take the time and effort to prepare an ideal work space, minimize your distractions, and stay physically and mentally stimulated, you can maximize your productivity level without making your pre-dawn tasks too miserable or exhausting.
How To: 11 Non-Alcoholic Uses for Vodka
Who would have suspected that vodka had so many practical uses? Vodka can alleviate the sting of a jellyfish, treat poison ivy rash, and help relieve toothaches. For using vodka around the house, soak a clean rag and use it to get rid of bathroom mold, clean your kitchen and bathroom fixtures, and keep your clothes smelling fresh.
Extreme Frugal Living: Tips For Living In Your Car
Whether you really need to pinch pennies for a long road trip or are really at the end of your rope with your financial and living situation, desperate times call for desperate measures--and sometimes that involves living in your car for an extended period of time. It is certainly not easy, but with the right equipment and know-how, making your car your abode is certainly possible if you make the continuous effort to keep things clean, be smart about where you park your car and avoid arousing...
How To: Make an Origami Water Balloon
If you want to prank someone with a water balloon, but don't actually have any water balloons lying around, just use some paper instead. Yes, I know... paper doesn't sound like something that will work, but with you'd be surprised what can be done with a little origami.
How To: 8 Sneaky Tips for Lying Effectively
Last week, we explored nine signs to watch out for if you suspect that somebody is lying to you. In this week's slightly more evil edition, we present the flip side: eight sneaky tips for lying effectively.
How To: Start a Fire with Water
Need to start a fire and have no lighter? All you need is a clear water bottle or jar, some water, and kindling—and for the weather to be very sunny during noon time. Tilt the water bottle or jar at an angle so that the water in the container can focus the sun's light into as small of an area as possible. Keep the container at this position for as long as possible until enough heat is created to start a glowing ember.
How to Detect Liars: 9 Signs to Watch Out For
You suspect somebody is lying to you. What are the signs you should watch out for? Listed below are nine common indicators you should look out for when you suspect a little truth-bending. While a display of one or more of these signs does not automatically indicate guilt, they can be helpful in pointing out something fishy or suspicious in the way the other person is behaving.
How To: Make a Heart-Shaped Hardboiled Egg
Add a little love to your next bento box or afternoon snack with a heart-shaped hardboiled egg. Other than one freshly cooked and peeled hardboiled egg, all you need is one milk carton, one round chopstick and rubber bands. Perfect for brightening up your special someone's day (and much more original than a dozen red roses!).
How To: 7 Methods for Concealing Valuable Items from Thieves
Want to keep your money and valuables safe while traveling abroad? Play it safe and outsmart thieves by placing your money, passport, jewelry and other expensive things in unexpected places. Sew a secret inner pocket in your pants, or if that's too much work, try cutting open a tennis ball, using empty film canisters, or simply placing a small amount of money in a spare wallet while your real wallet is more concealed within your luggage or purse.
How To: 10 DIY Hangover Cures for Your Upcoming New Year's Eve Festivities
Unfortunately, many of us will be celebrating New Year's morning with a post-New Year's Eve party hangover. Avoid this common misfortune by taking some basic hangover-prevention precautions: eat a full meal before drinking, stay hydrated, and limit yourself to 1 to 2 drinks for every hour.
How To: 9 Cheap Shaving Cream & DIY Toothpaste Alternatives
Let's face it: most commercial bathroom products are overpriced and loaded with weird chemicals. So how about a 2012 resolution to go completely DIY with two bathroom essentials many of us use on a daily basis: toothpaste and shaving cream?
How To: Free Print Out Holiday Gift Cards! (+5 Ideas for Making Your Own)
Christmas is nearly here and you've run out of your holiday-themed gift tags. What do you do? Got old travel coasters or paint chips lying around the house? Punch a hole through them and thread a string or ribbon through the hole. If you have time to get a little crafty, the possibilities are endless—dig up old Christmas cards, leftover felt, card stock, and ribbons.
How To: Make Colored Snow Spray & Other Cool DIY Winter Weather Tips
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! So you can make some awesome stuff with it. Yes, snow is icy cold and a pain to shovel, but it's also what classic holiday memories are made of. Build a snowman or a snow penguin. Or if you're feeling ambitious, build a huge snow cave you can hang out in with your friends.
How To: 6 DIY Gift-Wrapping Ideas for the Holidays
The possibilities are infinite when it comes to DIY gift wrap. Instead of the usual Christmas-themed wrapping paper, make your packaging look funky with old maps, music sheets, calendars, and other material to encase your loved ones' presents.
How To: 9 Easy DIY Holiday Decorating Ideas
Want to add a little holiday cheer to your living space without breaking the bank? Get a clear glass bowl, fill it with extra Christmas ornaments or clementines, and you have an instant holiday-themed centerpiece for your table. Ta-da!
How To: 10 Thrifty DIY Christmas Gift Ideas
When you can't quite figure out what to get someone for Christmas, turn to your inner creativity for a more personal, homemade holiday gift. To help give you some ideas, here are some DIY presents that never fail.
How To: Cheap DIY Home Remedies for Relieving Dry Skin
Is your face shriveling up from the dry winter air? Do your hands feel all scaly and gross? Are the heels of your feet shedding skin flakes? If moving to Hawaii for the winter season is out of the question, you can relieve your dry winter skin with some quick and cheap DIY home remedies.
How To: 7 Home Remedies for Relieving Common Cold Symptoms
The next time you find yourself with a stuffy nose and the beginnings of a sore throat, breathe in warm air through your nose while holding a hair dryer blowing 18 inches away from your face. (Be sure the hair dryer is set to "warm" and not "hot.")
How To: 8 DIY Home Remedies for Relieving Chapped Lips
As the weather gets colder, you may be experiencing more irritating dryness on your lips. Thankfully, if you've misplaced your favorite lip balm stick and don't like using Vaseline, you can use many common household items to relieve your kissers to make them feel soft and smooth once more.
How To: 13 Delicious Ways to Reuse Your Thanksgiving Leftovers
What's better than stuffing yourself during Thanksgiving dinner? Gorging on leftovers the next day, of course. Everybody loves a good turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich, but what are some other creative ways to re-purpose all the leftover turkey meat, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and everything else sitting in your refrigerator?
How To: 8 Last Minute Fixes for Common Thanksgiving Cooking Disasters
Lumpy gravy? Gluey mashed potatoes? Dry turkey meat? So many things can go wrong when you are bestowed the honor (and burden) of cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Thankfully, some culinary mishaps that you encounter in the kitchen can be reversed or craftily disguised right before your guests sit down to eat.
How To: 4 Cheap & Easy Ways to Unclog Your Kitchen Sink Without Any Nasty Chemicals
Oh, boy. A stopped-up drain. It'll inevitably happen with any home plumbing system and your kitchen sink is no exception. That clog won't go away on its own and will require immediate attention to keep any standing water from rising. But you don't have to resort to calling an expensive plumber or using a bottle of hazardous chemicals. Using simple kitchen staples or common household objects, as well as some determination, you can unclog your kitchen sink on your own without paying a dime.
How To: Make Hanging Dried Persimmons (Hoshigaki)
A seasonal tradition brought over from Japan to America by Japanese-American farmers, making hoshigaki (as they're called in Japanese) is a fun outdoor autumn project you can do before the winter season really kicks in. Hang a bunch of peeled persimmons on a string outside, wait for three to five weeks, and harvest yourself some naturally dried persimmons during the winter months. Though peeling the fruit and then regularly massaging the fruit every few days after hanging may be more labor in...
How To: 9 DIY Tips for Staying Toasty in the Winter
How do you stay toasty warm for the winter season without having to overexert your heating bill?
How To: 7 Non-Rice Dishes You Can Cook in a Rice Cooker
As far as cooking appliances go, rice cookers are pretty fabulous. All you have to do is add rice grains and water, press a button, and wait for the magic to happen. You don't have to worry about the food burning or the pot boiling over. But what if you can apply those same lazy steps to cook other things, too?
How To: Tips for Keeping Your Flowers Fresh & Long-Lasting
Someone just gave you a bouquet of freshly cut flowers... how do you enjoy them for as long as possible before they start wilting and drooping?
How To: Your Illustrated Guide to What Does and Doesn't Need Refrigerating
There are only so many things you can store in the refrigerator, especially if you are sharing it with other people. So, what are some things you absolutely have to store in the refrigerator? And what are some things you can get away with storing at room temperature on your pantry shelves?
How To: Carve the Perfect Halloween Pumpkin
It's not too late to carve yourself the perfect pumpkin for Halloween. This year, be fully equipped with the know-how on picking out the right pumpkin from the local pumpkin patch, having the right carving tools, tracing a stencil onto the pumpkin before carving, and keeping your pumpkin looking as fresh as possible in time for the night of October 31st. Boo-ya.
How To: 5 Easy Tips for Keeping Your Smile Pearly White
Keep your smile pearly white without buying a teeth-whitening kit or making an expensive visit to the doctor's office. One popular home remedy is to add a little bit of baking soda to your tooth paste on a weekly basis when you brush your teeth. (Do not do this more than once a week, as too much baking soda can permanently erode the enamel on your teeth).