JAPPY MONDAY

WEIRD SCIENCE OF WORK-OUTS

So this week I officially started back on my workouts. I will be officially diciplined so I can officially be back to my super-toned self. However I have noticed how I am way hungrier and way sleepier than usual.

But isn't eating too much and sleeping too much what gets us fat in the first place???

VACATION TIME!

Taking my butt to L.A. for a week vacation today! Hopefully I will come back with stuff to post on here... not that I am very good at updating my blog as it is... hehehe. I got it stuck in my head that I want to be out of town for my birthday. My friend said I'm being stubburn and that's a sign of getting old. Anyways, I'm totally excited to do nothing but layout, get a tan and chillax! Laters people :)

WHY?

Do people enter the freeway at 40 mph???? Are they homicidal and suicidal???

HEART ATTACK

Hollywood is trying to give me a heart attack this week, by releasing a movie with both Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. I don't care about the reviews. You know my eyes will be getting all the visual stimulation needed with those two.

20 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT... DEATH

By LeeAundra Temescu

Provided by Discover magazine

1. The practice of burying the dead may date back 350,000 years, as evidenced by a 45-foot-deep pit in Atapuerca, Spain, filled with the fossils of 27 hominids of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.

2. There are at least 200 euphemisms for death, including "to be in Abraham's bosom," "just add maggots" and "sleep with the Tribbles" (a "Star Trek" favorite).

3. No American has died of old age since 1951.

4. That was the year the government eliminated that classification on death certificates.

5. The trigger of death, in all cases, is lack of oxygen. Its decline may prompt muscle spasms, or the "agonal phase," from the Greek word "agon," meaning "contest."

6. Within three days of death, the enzymes that once digested your dinner begin to eat you. Ruptured cells become food for living bacteria in the gut, which release enough noxious gas to bloat the body and force the eyes to bulge outward.

7. So much for recycling: Burials in America deposit 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid -- formaldehyde, methanol and ethanol -- into the soil each year. Cremation pumps dioxins, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the air.

8. Alternatively, a Swedish company, Promessa, will freeze-dry your body in liquid nitrogen, pulverize it with high-frequency vibrations and seal the resulting powder in a cornstarch coffin. They claim this "ecological burial" will decompose in six to 12 months.

9. Zoroastrians in India leave out the bodies of the dead to be consumed by vultures.

10. The vultures are now dying off after eating cattle carcasses dosed with diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory used to relieve fever in livestock.

11. Queen Victoria insisted on being buried with the bathrobe of her long-dead husband, Prince Albert, and a plaster cast of his hand.

12. If this doesn't work, we're trying in vitro! In Madagascar, families dig up the bones of dead relatives and parade them around the village in a ceremony called "famadihana." The remains are then wrapped in a new shroud and reburied. The old shroud is given to a newly married, childless couple to cover the connubial bed.

13. Sometimes, under the right conditions of temperature and humidity, fatty tissue of a buried body will turn to a soap-like substance called adipocere, or grave wax. Adipocere formation relies on a cold, damp environment and an absence of oxygen; once begun, this saponification can continue for centuries.

14. Well, yeah, there's a slight chance this could backfire: English philosopher Francis Bacon, a founder of the scientific method, died in 1626 of pneumonia after stuffing a chicken with snow to see if cold would preserve it.

15. For organs to form during embryonic development, some cells must commit suicide. Without such programmed cell death, we would all be born with webbed feet, like ducks.

16. In 1907, a Massachusetts doctor conducted an experiment with a specially designed deathbed and reported that the human body lost 21 grams upon dying. This has been widely held as fact ever since. It's not.

17. Buried alive: In 19th-century Europe there was so much anecdotal evidence that living people were mistakenly declared dead that cadavers were laid out in "hospitals for the dead" while attendants awaited signs of putrefaction.

18. Eighty percent of people in the United States die in a hospital.

19. More people commit suicide in New York City than are murdered.

20. It is estimated that 100 billion people have died since humans began.

AWWWWWW....

Watch CBS Videos Online

So nice to watch after watching 2.5 hours of Armageddon Week on The History Channel.

I WAS THINKING PART 2

As I was going through the necessary evil of waxing the other night, I wondered: In the age of men on the moon, cloning and artificial hearts, how is it we still don't have a painless method of hair removal yet?

All methods are painful, tidious and none are permanent. If not technology, by now evolution should just make the female species be born with hairless legs, arms, underarms, face, perfectly shaped eyebrows and bikini lines. Human DNA should of figured out we are going to shave it, wax it, bleach it or laser it all off anyways... so why have it in the first place?

And why stop there? Human DNA should of figured out that men don't like going bald... so why not evolve with unbalding scalps! I guess since the world is supposed to end in 2012, technology and evolution don't want to go through the trouble. But should keep this in mind when creating the next civilization.

GO VOTE!!

I went and voted today during my lunch break. It only took 30 mins. Walking to the building I was bombarded with campaigners handing me flyers for who knows who. One of them gave me a nail filer. As a citizen in the world of advertising, I found it a very clever idea. It actually made me read it, and it's the only campaign piece I kept. All the other gazillion flyers went right into the recycling bin as soon as I found one (BE GREEN!)

Cool! We can do our nails while waiting in line! Awesome idea... thanks Judge Kathy Stone!

CONNECTION OVERLOAD

In today's culture, does being so connected makes us feel lonelier?

I begin questioning this while doing some research for a project at work. Today's youth for example, and even the "not-so youth" are constantly connected to each other via email, texting, IM, chats, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and so many others. Does all this connectivity mean the end of "alone time"? Will people in the future even know the feeling of being alone? And how will they handle it if they ever are? Is this connection overload a reflexion of a fear of being alone?

SEX ON THE FIRST DATE... WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?

My friend (and co-writter of this post) had two experiences this past month with two guys expecting sex on the first date, if not the second... definitely the second. Resulting in these two men shutting down from great behavior after finding out they were not getting lucky that night.

So a question to you guys. Why is this such a common expectation? Is it because there's an increase of interaction with low-self-esteem women willing to sleep with you right away to get the so important approval of a total stranger? Has this majority of women ruined it for the rest of us?

And why is it that at the age of 30 and above, when we're supposed to behave like adults, we're still dealing with this?

That's my Carrie Bradshaw moment.

WHEN WILL THEN BE NOW????

I WAS THINKING...

As I hid in the closet of my house during Ike while listening to the news on a Walk-Man... I wondered:

All this new technology, cool-ass expensive gadgets! We all survive on our iPhones and iPods, cell phones and cordless phones. They are supposed to make our lives easier. And they do... BUT NOT when you are hiding in a closet, with no electricity and a hurricane trying to knock your house down!!!!

At the end, there we were relying on what is now an "outdated" artifact for news and updates. A Walk-Man, and a traditional, old-school telephone. My iPod was of absolutely no use. An iPhone or SideKick would of been of no use either... I mean internet signals weren't working at that time. Cell phone service was practically non-existent, and it's still not working properly.

Haha! And I used to think my parents were strange for still keeping an old telephone when there are cordless phones now, or my mom for using a Walk-Man at this day and age.

So next time you are toying with the idea of throwing away your outdated technology, think about it. Those are our only reliable tech-friends in times Mother Nature decides to "shake-it to the ground".

MISSION COMPLETED!!

Yesterday I finished my body cleansing/detoxing! I feel proud of myself for actually going through with it. It wasn't easy let me tell you. As I mentioned on an earlier post, giving up red meat and taking 12 big pills a day was tough, but the real biatch was drinking 8 servings of water a day. I hate drinking water... I really do.

The suffering was worth it though. My body feels way cleaner now (reason 1 for doing it). But the best is that now I am in the habit of eating less red meat and drinking water all day (reason 2). I been told that all it takes is two weeks of doing something repeatedly for your mind to make it a habit. Funny how I thought I would go straight for a steak when finished but I'm actually not craving it.

I recommend it to anybody. Even if you eat pretty healthy like I do, there's so much processing and crap in our food now and toxins that your body can't get rid of on it's own.

The Chick-Fil-A cows would be proud of me.

MISSING RED MEAT

Ok. So a week ago to be exact, I started doing a body cleansing/detoxing thing. Among one of the "Helpful DON'Ts" is red meat. I LOVE red meat. All I've been hallucinating about for the past week are nice juicy burgers and churrasco steaks. Instead, all I get is grilled chicken, fish and turkey meatballs (ewww on the last one). No fun!!! Now I can truly say I don't understand how people can be vegetarians.

Just one more week....... :P

FRIENDS

I just want to say how much I love my circle of friends. All these very special people in my life that look out for me, slap sense into me, and make me laugh all the freaking time. This past couple of months have had some ups and downs in my life, but it wouldn't have been easy without my crazies there with me. And now many of those close friends are spread out all over the country and world... but it's so conforting to know that the friendship remains the same despite the distance. From Houston, L.A., Memphis, NYC, Madrid, Paris and South Africa you know who you are... me love you long time ;)