I have found power in the mysteries of thinking.

Euripides (484 BC – 406 BC), 438 B.C.

Kitty will eated u.

My “Vegetarian for a Month” thing failed.. but I’ve learned a bit from the 2 weeks I consumed no meat. For one, I like how eating less meat feels. Another thing is that strictness doesn’t fix anything, habit does. It’s okay if you occaisionally eat meat, but I think a healthy habit is to avoid it when you can. Once a week or once every two weeks is okay, in my opinion.

I also had soda for the first time in probably 4 weeks. I was tired and was craving sugar. I think the same rule applies to soda. Most of the time, choose something healthy, but a soda a month won’t cause that much damage.

I think people that become to strict with their food turn it into a sort of religious thing, like it’s wrong to eat meat. That annoys me. So once again, strictness is not the answer, healthy habits are the answer.

I use Google Reader to grab RSS feeds, mostly from online stores so I always see when new items pop up. I’m not interested in what people on my contact list are saying, thinking, or linking. Even though I haven’t spent too much time messing with Buzz / Google Settings, I can’t figure out how to disable it from my account. I’m sure Buzz is useful for some people, but not for me. If I want to read random stuff people I know are saying, I go to Facebook, or worse, Twitter.

I think there’s a few flaws with what Google Buzz is doing. After all, there’s nothing wrong with starting something new. Websites go through cycles, some rise, some fall. But the reason I (and others) don’t like it is because it’s just plain boring and unoriginal (think Orkut). Something like Google Wave or Jumpino being integrated into my email would’ve been neater. Something original. Nobody switches from one website to another that does the same thing. People switch because it does it better, faster, or in a new unique way. Every time I start a web project I try to accomplish at least one of these – and trust me, its a lot harder than it sounds. I do find that uniqueness is sometimes the most efficient choice and also the easiest to market. It’s sort of like the genetic mutation of web dev. It might not be a better website, but it’s different, so people try it, other developers pick and choose what they like, and if its a good idea it lives on in other websites.

And that’s how Noemi notices it.

This is not counting the first 5 minutes of the episode where we got a sneak peak. These are from later on in the season (episodes 2-6 probably)

Less than a day left!

To watch the video I got these from, just go to http://abc.go.com/shows/lost click “More Video” and select the second video. It is titled No more questions … only answers!
I have not watched the leaked Episode 1 … I’m not that desperate to see it. It will be fun to watch it in its full HD glory. It seems most people agree with me.

I grew up in America and there seemed to be an age where everyone was poking themselves left and right. When I was younger, it was all about bellybuttons and earlobes. I think most needle-pierced earlobes come out alright (better than the gun) but all those teenage bellybutton rings were disastrous . As we got older, we’d dare each other to do more wacky stuff like liprings. Anyway, a couple years ago in a psychology course, I remember a discussion about how most cultures have a “coming of age” ritual for yougsters that generally comes at the age of 13-16. We read about walkabouts, ceremonial piercings and tattoos, bar mitzvahs … etc. And I was thinking, maybe we have self-piercing in our culture as a coming of age thing too. It has some of the same elements as other cultures. It’s daring, slightly traumatizing, exciting, sometimes permanent changes. The only thing missing is that the adults in our culture don’t guide the teens through it. Anyway, just food for thought.

PS – I think teenagers piercings themselves or their friends is generally a pretty stupid thing to do, but it still happens. I don’t condone it.

PSS – Another thing to think about is the originators of piercings, which I assume are tribal nations. I’m sure they basically self pierced or pierced each other as there were no professionals in those days.

I’ve never used the original Wii Fit, so this was my first experience with the system. Overall I’m pretty happy with it, and I think it’s a great tool for losing weight. It’s as addictive as World of Warcraft in the sense that you spend as much time on it so you can “win”. Forms of winning to me are getting the 30 minutes of workout a day mark, seeing my BMI go down, and getting my trainer to say: “You’re pretty strong, arent you?” I do spend about 30 minutes a day on it, with some off days, but the real magic is when you see a tasty snack, and immediately dismiss it because you have that line chart of your BMI in your brain and you wouldn’t want it to spike. The biggest benefit of Wii Fit Plus is the psychological element, otherwise we could all just go for a run, right?

Now I’ll do some mini reviews of the different features in Wii Fit Plus:

Starting Off – When you get weighed, you get a center of balance graph, your BMI, and you can also do some balance games for your Wii Fit age. I’m convinced the Wii Fit Age and the balance games are just filler. The great part is that they let you skip it. It doesn’t really add much to your workout plus my age fluctuates from 20 to 75 randomly.

Center of balance is pretty useless as well, in my opinion.

Balance Games - These are alright. They help with reflexes, but more than anything, these games provide lots of examples to why the Balance board isn’t even nearly perfected. I think it should’ve been called a Fit Board and throw out all the balance crap. The balance games make me frustrated at the hardware rather than motivate me to do better. The only ones I like are tilt city* and lotus focus. I rarely do them though, because I don’t get a real workout from them. It’s all about the calories.  (Turns out Tilt City is in Training Plus, not Balance)

Yoga - I LOVE Sun Salutation on the Fit Board (That’s what I’m calling it from now on.. screw balance!) but alot of the more advanced yoga positions seem wrong when compared to what my yoga/aerobics trainer taught me. I did it the way my Wii Trainer did it and severely strained my back … no thanks. There are a few good poses here, but this is not one of the fit board’s strengths. I also think you should NOT buy this system for the yoga. A simple local yoga class would be more affordable and more accurate. Heck, even a DVD might be better than this. I do enjoy doing some of the yoga poses I already know sprinkled through my workouts. They help me mentally and are enjoyable when your muscles are sore.

Strength Training - Perfection, perfection, perfection. Jackknifes, planks, lunges, tricep extensions, I love it all. My goal was to actually lose weight, but when I saw the drastic change the strength training did to my body, I decided what the heck. Keep in mind that when you develop good muscle mass, it requires more calories to be sedentary, in other words, with good muscle mass, you burn more calories ALL the time. Other than that, these exercises generally are set up in unique and creative ways with the Board and controller. I use this attachable weight for my tricep extensions.

The “Biggest Loser” kit came with some pretty worthless stuff, but the dumbbells and the wrist weights come in handy to intensify workouts. Here are the wrist weights:

Here’s another tip, when you do planks or any other exercise that requires you to put your hands directly on the Fit Board, put a blanket or pillow between your hands and the board, so they feel more comfy. Before I figured this out, I couldn’t keep up with my trainer because my palms were incredibly sore.

Aerobics – This is another strength of the Wii Fit Plus system. All these games are pretty fun, although some like Stepping seem a bit low-activity for aerobics. Both the hula hoop games are great, especially if you are competing with a family member for the high score. Be thankful you’re not in my family or you’d have to catch up to over 1000 spins. Face it, you can’t touch this. Running seems a bit boring, Island Cycling is much better (more on that later.) Rhythm boxing is a good exercise, although I hate how I waste half the time trying to quickly memorize a pattern. I have unlocked the advanced version, and the only difference is that the patterns are more complicated. I don’t really get a better workout (except for my brain.)

Training Plus –  This is a great section. You can definitely tell the games are newer and they improved ideas from the other sections. Island cycling is a great calorie burning exercise. It’s not as boring as a run, and it seems that your stepping speed directly affects the characters speed. Skateboard Arena is another great game. I definitely break a sweat trying to get all the points. It feels like a skateboard and once again, the interaction between the board and the game is realistic. Big top juggling is fun, challenging, but I’m not completely convinced of it’s calorie burning potential. It’s more of a balance game with upper body movement.

And to finish off, I’ll say that I like the locker room area where you combine workouts and choose exercises based on your needs. (Leaner, Figure, Arms … etc) The workout combination system is primitive. For example I can’t select to do Lunges with a higher rep count, even though I’ve unlocked it.

In the end, Wii Fit Plus is fun, useful, and it does work to help you lose weight or build muscle if you stick to it. I think it’s for people that need a boost of motivation and like video games.

I personally have lost almost 5 lbs. Also, I drink more water, avoid snacks and sweets, I abhor soda all of a sudden, and feel more active overall. I’ve gained a good amount of muscle mass in my arms (They’re still sore from 2 days ago) my legs and my abdominals. Keep in mind that I lost about 10 pounds with Aerobics, and then I started strength training where I gained weight. So, I’m not really sure how much fat weight I actually lost and how much muscle I gained. I definitely feel better, and my arms are much harder and leaner.

xoxo

Noemi

His name is Leo:

Can you measure something that is infinite?

First, sorry for the overblogging, I’m just starting to get a hold of it. Anywalrus, I’m always skeptical when it comes to “premium” beauty products. Alot of times it just seems to be the same thing as cheaper alternatives, with much nicer packaging. I’ve learned alot of the chemistry behind beauty products, so I like to research this stuff. Here goes my try of China Glaze.

For those of you that don’t know, China Glaze is a bit more expensive than regular nail polish, but not too much. Actually if you catch a sale or something at Sally’s it will be almost the same price. Alot of people are all gaga over this stuff, and the colors are phenomenal (they have an entire NEON line, it’s like they made it for me). I bought two colors: Turned up Turquoise and White on White. Here’s what the Turq looked like after 2 coats and a top coat:

If you can ignore my chubby fingers, you can tell the color is very bright, just like I like it. Now, there are other polishes that get this bright/deep/true color effect. Here are the main differences:

Strong Polishes I’ve used Before:

• Needs only 1 coat
• Stains the bed of my nail
• Sometimes causes pain in the bed of my nail (I know … WTF)

China Glaze:

• Requires 2 coats to get the bright color. It’s easy to do this.
• Doesn’t have alot of gloss, so you need a top coat for gloss.
• Really thin, yet intense pigment.
• Dries very fast and evenly.

After trying it a bit, I think I prefer China Glaze. Some people say it doesn’t chip, however I had chipping as usual. I like that it’s thinner because it doesnt feel so thick like I have a fake nail on or something. Anyway, if you’re on the fence, I think you should try it. I’m not gonna go out and get every color, but I’ll definitely try a couple more. I have a really pretty lime green from a brand called ICE (i think?) but it stains my nails every time, even with a base coat. ): so sadzz

Anyway, I had a similar experience when I wasn’t sure if boxed haircolor was really all that bad since salon color ruins hair too. I’ll maybe write about my findings in that domain later… (here’s a hint: it really is all that bad)