Current Addiction

Completely wasted a whole day playing PvZ. Who knew a game with a premise of having an army of plants protecting your home from brain-eating zombies can be so addicting? Delikado...

Cute Random Things Everyday

Everyone likes to learn something new everyday no matter how trivial it is.

Birthday Chap

It was C's birthday yesterday! I surprised him at midnight while watching True Blood with red wine and cheese and blueberry muffin. The next day (his actual birth day) we ate dinner at Terriyaki Boy near my place and tinkered his gorgeous new toy, Lulu the Minx. I took pictures of our food and I can't help but giggle after every shot because Lulu the Minx makes everything prettier than real life (but C is still prettier in real life). Here are the food photos:

Happy Birthweekend!

Announcement

it's plan your life day tomorrow

thinking outside the box isn't enough anymore

outside the box from joseph Pelling on Vimeo.

Post-it Love

i miss the beach

choco banana pops

mmmm....

suspension of classes

it took me two suspension of classes to have a productive day. the department of education suspended grade school and high school classes today and yesterday because of a typhoon that didn't show up. yesterday i just puttered around at home, did the laundry, watched how i met your mother with bf and one of my bffs and then saw transformers 2 (awesome movie! i want my own bumblebee). but today, these are the things i accomplished:
+ one reading for one of my MA classes
+ room cleaned
+ miscellaneous stuff sorted out
+ ate spicy tuna yogurt sandwich i made for myself
+ watched one episode of HIMYM
+ signed up and went to the gym
+ went to the waxing salon (details will stop there)
+ had a paraffin treatment (ouch!) and mani and pedi
+ ate dinner with bf while watching HIMYM

sometimes the best days come from unexpected suspensions. you only realize how many things you can do if you just pay attention.

hiatus

I've been a negligent blogger these days because I've been busy doing other things lately like going to the beach during the weekends, preparing for the school year and my MA. Life's been good but it'll get better. Speaking of better, praying that C will get well soon.

It's rainy season again not because of global warming.

Cookie Monster <3

Ear Plugs to Lasers: The Science of Concentration

Article written by John Tierney

Imagine that you have ditched your laptop and turned off your smartphone. You are beyond the reach of YouTube, Facebook, e-mail,text messages. You are in a Twitter-free zone, sitting in a taxicab with a copy of “Rapt,” a guide by Winifred Gallagher to the science of paying attention.

The book’s theme, which Ms. Gallagher chose after she learned she had an especially nasty form of cancer, is borrowed from the psychologist William James: “My experience is what I agree to attend to.” You can lead a miserable life by obsessing on problems. You can drive yourself crazy trying to multitask and answer every e-mail message instantly.

Or you can recognize your brain’s finite capacity for processing information, accentuate the positive and achieve the satisfactions of what Ms. Gallagher calls the focused life. It can sound wonderfully appealing, except that as you sit in the cab reading about the science of paying attention, you realize that ... you’re not paying attention to a word on the page.

The taxi’s television, which can’t be turned off, is showing a commercial of a guy in a taxi working on a laptop — and as long as he’s jabbering about how his new wireless card has made him so productive during his cab ride, you can’t do anything productive during yours.

Why can’t you concentrate on anything except your desire to shut him up? And even if you flee the cab, is there any realistic refuge anymore from the Age of Distraction?

I put these questions to Ms. Gallagher and to one of the experts in her book, Robert Desimone, a neuroscientist atM.I.T. who has been doing experiments somewhat similar to my taxicab TV experience. He has been tracking the brain waves of macaque monkeys and humans as they stare at video screens looking for certain flashing patterns.

When something bright or novel flashes, it tends to automatically win the competition for the brain’s attention, but that involuntary bottom-up impulse can be voluntarily overridden through a top-down process that Dr. Desimone calls “biased competition.” He and colleagues have found that neurons in the prefrontal cortex — the brain’s planning center — start oscillating in unison and send signals directing the visual cortex to heed something else.

These oscillations, called gamma waves, are created by neurons’ firing on and off at the same time — a feat of neural coordination a bit like getting strangers in one section of a stadium to start clapping in unison, thereby sending a signal that induces people on the other side of the stadium to clap along. But these signals can have trouble getting through in a noisy environment.

“It takes a lot of your prefrontal brain power to force yourself not to process a strong input like a television commercial,” said Dr. Desimone, the director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at M.I.T. “If you’re trying to read a book at the same time, you may not have the resources left to focus on the words.”

Now that neuroscientists have identified the brain’s synchronizing mechanism, they’ve started work on therapies to strengthen attention. In the current issue of Nature, researchers from M.I.T., Penn and Stanford report that they directly induced gamma waves in mice by shining pulses of laser light through tiny optical fibers onto genetically engineered neurons. In the current issue of Neuron, Dr. Desimone and colleagues report progress in using this “optogenetic” technique in monkeys.

Ultimately, Dr. Desimone said, it may be possible to improve your attention by using pulses of light to directly synchronize your neurons, a form of direct therapy that could help people with schizophrenia and attention-deficit problems (and might have fewer side effects than drugs). If it could be done with low-wavelength light that penetrates the skull, you could simply put on (or take off) a tiny wirelessly controlled device that would be a bit like a hearing aid.

In the nearer future, neuroscientists might also help you focus by observing your brain activity and providing biofeedback as you practice strengthening your concentration. Researchers have already observed higher levels of synchrony in the brains of people who regularly meditate.

Ms. Gallagher advocates meditation to increase your focus, but she says there are also simpler ways to put the lessons of attention researchers to use. Once she learned how hard it was for the brain to avoid paying attention to sounds, particularly other people’s voices, she began carrying ear plugs with her. When you’re trapped in a noisy subway car or a taxi with a TV that won’t turn off, she says you have to build your own “stimulus shelter.”

She recommends starting your work day concentrating on your most important task for 90 minutes. At that point your prefrontal cortex probably needs a rest, and you can answer e-mail, return phone calls and sip caffeine (which does help attention) before focusing again. But until that first break, don’t get distracted by anything else, because it can take the brain 20 minutes to do the equivalent of rebooting after an interruption. (For more advice, go to nytimes.com/tierneylab.)

“Multitasking is a myth,” Ms. Gallagher said. “You cannot do two things at once. The mechanism of attention is selection: it’s either this or it’s that.” She points to calculations that the typical person’s brain can process 173 billion bits of information over the course of a lifetime.

“People don’t understand that attention is a finite resource, like money,” she said. “Do you want to invest your cognitive cash on endless Twittering or Net surfing or couch potatoing? You’re constantly making choices, and your choices determine your experience, just as William James said.”

During her cancer treatment several years ago, Ms. Gallagher said, she managed to remain relatively cheerful by keeping in mind James’s mantra as well as a line from Milton: “The mind is its own place, and in itself/ Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.”

“When I woke up in the morning,” Ms. Gallagher said, “I’d ask myself: Do you want to lie here paying attention to the very good chance you’ll die and leave your children motherless, or do you want to get up and wash your face and pay attention to your work and your family and your friends? Hell or heaven — it’s your choice.”

chanel no. 5

i like this commercial but the ending is disappointing. I would never let a stranger sniff my neck no matter how gorgeous he is. would you?

stalking cat <3

my credit card has to stay away from malls

I covet the following and I really should avoid going to any mall this weekend:

I'm seriously obsessed with this

I'm just curious if it really works that well 

Sell-out

Hello Kitty in YouTube

A segment about Hello Kitty in a French show



Alice in Kittyland (MAC)


I was supposed to write a lengthy post analyzing why a lot of women like Hello Kitty, myself included, but my brain's not yet fully functioning so I'd do that next time. 

I also checked out a MAC store and asked about if the Hello Kitty line is sold here. They said that the collection was already SOLD OUT but there's a waiting list for the eye shadow and lip conditioner and I could sign up if I want to. But I didn't. Yay me!

do not try this at home

you're so two thousand and late

food=happiness

this weekend was excellent and well worth the obesity that came with it because c and i celebrated our 5th (!) anniversary exploring south of manila, where malls close at 8:30 pm even on fridays. we ate our way through the weekend starting with burger king (one large apple juice isn't equal to one pack of fries!), deli sandwiches and salads, oysters and pork barbecue with red wine, room service cakes, hotel breakfast buffet, my all-time favorite insalata di mare + red grape shake and chicken liver spread, potluck dinner and more bbqs, buffet lunch @ pampanga and spending GCs on yummy-looking cakes and sushi, and finally a balikbayan lunch. 

and now, saltwater, coffee, and otap for breakfast 

farewell portable music

I'm back online! A few days ago my mp3 player went kaput on me after I uploaded my summer OST. Sucks. C offered to lend me his when we go to the gym but it's not the same!!! Boohoo. 

Rest in peace

I hate throwing out gadgets because I know that they're as biodegradable as plastic bottles and rubber tires. But what will I do with old and unusable cords, mice, cellphones, and mp3 players? I have to find out. I also have to start looking for a new player because I won't survive going to the gym without my power songs (from Great DJ to Du Hast to Jai Ho). I'm thinking of going mainstream and get an Ipod. 

The Lost Tribes of New York City

The Lost Tribes of New York City from Carolyn London on Vimeo.

Pride and Prejudice: Facebook edition

I confess, I've never finished reading Pride and Prejudice and my knowledge of this novel are based on the different movie versions of this story including Bride and Prejudice. Maybe this summer (when I finally have some time!) I'll try to read it again but for now, a version of this classic is available in Facebook newsfeed form.

somewhat coping

Since start of March until April 5 is Hell Month and Five Days, one of the downsides of being a teacher and a student at the same time is that all deadlines ride on the same train. I'm thankful that I only have one person who makes me stressed out since her motto is "Panic before doing anything" and  I guess that's her way of coping with her own stress so I try to ignore her so I don't get annoyed much. Ever since I compile songs that will get me through stressful moments and play them all the time to rev myself up and I got kind of lazy now so I just listen to Lady Gaga and Ting Tings but these never fail to keep me going (plus caffeine).





 

Chanel 2.55 bag giveaway!

Bag Snob is giving away the bag of my dreams! Click here to join the raffle but it should be miiiiiineeeeeeee.

you goat maya art uno

Metronomy - A Thing for me

A Thing For Me from Metronomy on Vimeo.

Marimekko Spring 2009 Catalog

Some of my favorite pages from Marimekko's new catalog

Rest in Peace Francis M.

Band on treadmills!

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

Cheapest way to detoxify

I have read a lot of articles about how to detoxify such as eating 3 apples a day for 7 days (that is a lot of apples!), drinking fresh fruit juices everyday, and also through colon cleansing (which basically means having someone put a tube into your behind to suck out your impurities, yuck). 

What I have deduced since then is that detoxification is time-consuming and/or expensive to cleanse because I have to juice a lot of fruits just produce a few cups of my nourishment for the day or check-in at a health  spa where they feed you almost nothing and get tubes inserted in the most uncomfortable places.

But when I went to my doctor last month I discovered the cheapest way to detoxify when she told me to do it at least once a month. She told me to drink 1 liter of water mixed with 1 tablespoon of rock salt (not the iodized kind) before eating anything in the morning.

That's it. Today is my second time to do it and it really works! Amazing what salt and water can do to your body.

I used Himalayan Pink Salt I bought from Legaspi Street Market. I did not just buy it because it looks cute but they say that it contains the highest amount of minerals. Ok, I bought it because it looks pretty.

Pink!

Hello Kitty Cake Pops

Yum!

I've always dreamed of having a Hello Kitty-themed birthday party.

A dream decades too late.

I would want to make this for my friends!

(even the boys.. I bet they'd want to bite HK's head off!)

Origami Pigeon Pillow

I want

Hot Air Balloon Festival 2009

The Boyfriend

Snow Cones in Cups

Marching Band

Parachutes

Kites

Hot Air Balloon

More Hot Air Balloons

Free Paper Dolls

When I was a child, I would ask my parents to buy me a paper doll book whenever we go to National Bookstore. Many years after, I tried looking for them in the same branch where I used to buy these books but they don't sell them anymore. I'm puzzled why, because how could children today lose interest on dressing up paper dolls? It's a cheaper and easier alternative to dressing up actual dolls, so why can't I find them anymore? Thankfully, one site (sorry I forgot the name of the site!) directed me to this website where you can print out absolutely wonderful vintage Betsy McCall paper dolls.  

Coraline, are you afraid of the dark?

Can't wait to watch this on 3D! I loved the book, it actually reminded me of one of the books I read when I was a pre-teen (we weren't called "tweens" then). It was based on Nickelodeon's "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" and its plot was similar to Coraline's but instead of a mysterious door, the parallel world can be visited through mirrors and everything was the opposite of the real world.



The TV show also rocked. One of the most memorable episodes was "The Tale of the Pinball Wizard" because I had a fondness for malls and pinball machines. Wouldn't want to be stuck in a machine though.

Save Bookmark

You can never have enough quirky bookmarks

Download PDF

Source: icoeye

H&M Home Collection and some musings

H&M will launch their home collection this month but will only be available online and in Europe. Now I'm so much more inspired to fix our apartment and nag my mom about changing the flooring and kitchen! Maybe during our (very short) break from work I'll do what I can with the place and check out the piles of stuff in my maternal and paternal grandparents' home and "recycle" them. Old stuff becomes new again! Sometimes the best place to shop around is in your house since it costs next to nothing and you already like the stuff available.

Sources:

At Home At Home

Apartment Therapy

Princess Bride