Archive for the ‘Interesting Info’ Category

I just finished watching the Japan Foundation’s Yan san’s series – well basically I cheated, I fastforwarded most of the videos to see what happened to Yan san. .

To be honest, after watching a great series, be it on television or through learning dvd’s like this one, you would get yourself a little attached to the main characters. Wanting to know how they are these days. I bet, if you are like me, you may have even tracked down Yan san. To Japanese students who have seen the series, he is like celebrity.

I’m glad that he is still alive and kicking, enjoying life in Japan. I even get the chance to play Mafia wars with him on Facebook.

When you read, watch or listen to the news, seldom there are good news. It is all about the problems that we, or some other people in another part of the world are facing. It is disheartening. So much so, I seldom read the news (although I read the headlines everyday as to not to be totally cut off from world events) and nearly never watch the news nowadays. You can’t help but get the feeling of hopelessness in humanity when you read bad news all the time. Which makes it all the more refreshing to be reading about organization, or a group of individuals striving to overlook the bad and find the beauty of life. Extending hope where it is in need.  One such organizations  is like the Sing For Hope – a New York non profit organization .

Sing For Hope is a group of talented artist – from opera singers to musicians to photographers – who uses their talents  for work of charity.  Be it visiting communities or schools to introduce to the arts in the hopes to bring positive social change, live performance to health care givers and patients, or contribute to events for charity. All of which, the idea is to bring the beauty of art in all forms and hope to people who needs it the most.

The organization is still open for volunteers or contribution be it in the monetary form or talent and time. If I have some sort of artistic talent in me, I would be honored to contribute my talent since I don’t have the money. But I’m sure there are organizations to help people in need that only requires time and energy. It is good to know that there are people who are doing something to make this world a better place. We indeed need more organizations like this.

From time to time, whenever I have some moments to spare, I do love to browse online reading articles on business sites or personal blogs. You never know when you are going to stumble upon and interesting website or article. Which exactly what I did when I came across Mark Sanders Tampa website. I have always thought that Florida is a cool place to visit or live in as they are quite well-known for their beaches,as mentioned in his blog, and also for its beautiful Everglades.

For Mark Sanders, growing up in Tampa was anything but boring. Well, that was then and Tampa has grown and become even more exciting. When one thinks of Florida, they of course picture the gorgeous sugar sand beaches stretching for over 200 miles but what else does this unique city by the bay offer? Well, it has become home to world class attractions that might not have existed when Mark Sanders was a boy. It is the home of various sport teams and family fun activities.

The site is indeed a must visit if you are interested to know more about Tampa,Florida with its beautiful landscapes and nature.

Remember the caterpillar in Alice in wonderland? Well, when ever I see a caterpillar it will remind me of that hookah smoking caterpillar. As a child, watching the caterpillar in the story puffing away with his hookah, I used to wonder how it was like to smoke one of those. It looked so exotic and it didn’t look like any of the cigarettes that my father smoked, I thought.

In my early 20′s, with some friends, I tried to smoke a hookah for the first time. I tried it with some friends to a restaurant where you can pay to try. One hookah base with 3 hookah pipes that we smoke together the 5 of us. Unlike cigarettes, hookah tobacco also comes with flavours. There were a selection and one of us, who were more experienced than others, chose for us. I don’t really remember what it was, but it was an exciting experience. Although smoking hookah is a popular past-time in the middle east but it is now it is gaining popularity world wide now that it has become cheaper and easier to obtain. For me, it was fun hanging out with friends, chit chatting and relaxing while smoking the hookah. Further more, unlike cigarette smoking, you don’t have to be afraid that you will get addicted to hookah. It is not addictive.

Once we are settled down somewhere, with our own place, I think I might want to buy hookah set for the house. Believe me, even if one does not smoke, a khalil mamoon (a famous hookah manufacturer brand) hookah set looks exotic enough even to be put in a room as a decoration. But of course, when you have the set at home it would be such a waste not to use it once in a while. Especially when entertaining close friends at home.

As a teenager I used to love to read about anything and everything about vampirism. I still can remember how I had a crush on Brad Pitt when he acted on ‘Interview with the vampire’. I even did a special report on vampirism in English class at the University – the history of possible origin, myths, legends and also the scientific explanation and such.

I’m not sure why actually I like all things vampirish. Perhaps the mystery of walking the earth and seeing through all the historical events, or perhaps because of the beauty and forever young look – no need for the best anti wrinkle cream (Well, at least that’s how they romaticised the vampires on Western television).

From where I come from – South East Asia – vampires are not potrayed as beautiful, flawless skinned, walking dead. But a woman with long, ugly, wiry hair, wearing a soiled white robe, and have a white faceless face. They don’t mingle with people like the western vampires do, but fly around, sitting on trees, laughing and screaming in an eerie way. Not at all like Anne Rice’s vampire. When in Europe and America, some people even dream of turning into a vampire, but nobody would want to be a South East Asian vampire.

I like the western vampires better I think. They are much more interesting. And the fact that they look somewhat human, they aren’t as scary.

People say that it is easy to fall in love, but hard to maintain it. It’s not easy to maintain a happy marriage. I know, I’ve been in one for 6 years now. Plenty of ups and downs that were led together. That is why, for every anniversary milestone a couple celebrates together they should be proud of themselves for having reached that far.

Although I love getting presents for loved ones, choosing gifts isn’t really something I am good at. I’ve always had a hard time choosing an anniversary gift. Hence, any help I could get is always appreciated. A list of anniversary gifts by year in particular may be something that people find rather useful in helping them choose an anniversary gift.

If a couple celebrates their second wedding anniversary for example, the gifts that they should get for each other should be made of cotton or has cotton in it.

# 1st: Paper
# 2nd: Cotton
# 3rd: Leather
# 4th: Fruit
# 5th: Wood
# 6th: Candy
# 7th: Wool
# 8th: Bronze
# 9th: Pottery
# 10th: Aluminum
# 11th: Steel
# 12th: Silk
# 13th: Lace
# 14th: Ivory
# 15th: Crystal
# 16th: Wax
# 17th: Shell
# 18th: Feather
# 19th: Chili Pepper
# 20th: China/Porecelain
# 25 Year Anniversary Gifts: Silver
# 50 Year Anniversary Gifts: Gold

An anniversary gift doesn’t have to be something expensive since the good thing about being happily married, there is a gift of love every single day of married life.

Living in moderation is the way to go. Being addicted to anything can be a bad thing regardless of what one is addicted to. Even when when somebody is addicted to eating can be dangerous yet alone being addicted to drugs. Reading about the various methods of drug rehabilitation, it is a little bit harsh. Like the cold turkey method where one will be locked in a room alone and let to suffer the withdrawal until he or she no longer has the cravings.

However, nowadays there are more and more humane and safe way to overcome addiction. One of them is opiate detox. As explained on the rapiddetoxlasvegas.com website, the method for opiate detoxification that they actually uses advanced medical technique where the withdrawal process of the patient is speed up under anesthesia. I suppose this way, the patient wouldn’t have to go through all the pains of physical withdrawal yet get rid of their addiction quicker.

It is all good that we have such advance humane medical techniques nowadays, but in my opinion, nothing beats, ‘prevention is the best medicine’. Staying away from addictive substances is the best way to go.

One of the few websites that I frequently visit is Yahoo Answers. Ask questions and help people by answering their questions. I came across a question asking, how come skinny people have cellulite. Well, I used to be one of those people who thought that only chubby and obese people have them, until I saw a skinny friend who was having it as well. Interesting.

I believe many people don’t really know what cellulites actually are, that’s why, just like how I was, they only related cellulite to fat people. Cellulite is actually collections of fat that push against the connective tissue beneath the skin which makes the skin looks lumpy. Though of course chances of having cellulites is higher when one is obese, but being skinny does not mean the person doesn’t have any body fat at all.

Factors that contribute to whether or not a person has it or how much or how visible it is are genes, age, amount of fat in body, gender and thickness of skin.

So I suppose that explains why they use slim models to promote cellulite cures on commercials. Since it isn’t impossible for slim, skinny people to face cellulite problem as well.

Just as usual I am multitasking – reading about irvingia, checking and processing some pictures we took last weekend, posting replies in forums, and blogging. Last weekend I took hundreds of pictures on our visit to the transport museum and the park. Looking through some of the pictures, here is a couple that I like. The renaissance car.

Rope operated renaissance car.

Car moves when the rope is pulled.  Sure would need a lot of hard work. No wonder it never gained in popularity.

Being a consumer that tries to shop smart, I have often checked out reviews by other consumers before I decided on buying anything. So much so, I can say that my shopping experiences are good most of the time. In return, I also like to  contribute my reviews of products that I’ve tried, on review sites and also online shopping websites.

The same goes when it comes to weight loss products, if not more important, to read reviews of the products before you buy. There are various review sites out there, but the ones I like most are those that allow real users to give their opinions on the products. Just like what getdietsolutions.com is doing. You can read loads of weighloss product reviews not only by professionals but also users. If you have any opinions on any weightloss products reviewed on the website, you can post your opinion directly on the review page. As an example you can click here for lipozene information and check it out for yourself.

Be generous to share your knowledge, you may be helping many others in making a better choice.