where popular phrases came from

here are some of the most popular phrases that people use often. but what do they mean and where did they come from?

"Houston, we have a problem..."

Meaning

Originally a genuine report of a life-threatening fault. Now used humorously to report any kind of problem.

Origin

John Swigert, Jr. and James Lovell who, with Fred Haise Jr., made up the crew of the US's Apollo 13 moon flight used (almost) this phrase to report a major technical problem back to their Houston base.

Swigert: 'Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here.'
Duke: 'This is Houston. Say again please.'
Lovell: 'Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a main B bus undervolt.'

The phrase was later used as the tagline for the 1995 film - Apollo 13.

"shiver my timbers!"

Meaning

An oath, expressing annoyance or surprise.

Origin

Those of a certain age will remember Robert Newton, rolling his eyes and yarring it up in his archetypal Hollywood pirate role - Long John Silver in the 1950 film Treasure Island.

Robert Louis Stevenson used shiver my timbers several times in the original 1883 book, for example:

"Well, he [Old Pew] is dead now and under hatches; but for two year before that, shiver my timbers, the man was starving!"

Of course, Newton made the most of such 'parrot on the shoulder' phrases and it also appears several times in the film's screenplay. Newton's version, like that of all self-respecting stage pirates, was shiver me timbers, with the occasional 'aaarh, Jim lad' thrown in.

The first appearance of the phrase in print is in Frederick Marryat's Jacob Faithful, 1834:

"I won't thrash you Tom. Shiver my timbers if I do."

One meaning of shiver, which is now largely forgotten, is 'to break into pieces'. That meaning originated at least as early as the 14th century and is recorded in several Old English texts. A more recent citation, which makes that meaning clear, is James Froude's Caesar; a sketch, 1879:

"As he crossed the hall, his statue fell, and shivered on the stones."

So, the sailor's oath shiver my timbers, is synonymous with (if so and so happens then...) let my boat breaks into pieces. The question is whether any real sailor used the term or whether it was just a literary invention. Well, we can't be sure, although the fact that it actually means something and isn't just Newton-style hokum must count in favour of it being an authentic sailor's oath.

"i'm in a pickle!"

Meaning

In a quandary or some other difficult position.

Origin

This alludes to the pickling liquid made from brines and vinegar which is used to preserve food, and presumably to the imagined difficult of being stuck in such. The phrase was known in Dutch by 1561 - ' in de pekel zitten' meaning 'to be in a pickle'.

There are a few references to ill pickles and this pickle etc. in print in the late 16th century, but Shakespeare appears to be the first to use in a pickle, in The Tempest, 1611:

ALONSO:
And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they
Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em?
How camest thou in this pickle?

TRINCULO:
I have been in such a pickle since I
saw you last that, I fear me, will never out of
my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.

oops!! my bad!

Meaning

My mistake - I'm to blame.

Origin

This slang term originated in about 1970. At that time, i.e. pre the widespread use of the Internet, slang terms often circulated at street level for many years before being adopted by anyone who felt inclined to write them down. That's clearly not the case any longer of course and any word or phrase that is widely known is dateable quite precisely via website logs.

The first citation in print is C. Wielgus and A. Wolff's, 'Back-in-your-face Guide to Pick-up Basketball', 1986:

"My bad, an expression of contrition uttered after making a bad pass or missing an opponent."

'My bad' came into widespread popular use in the mid to late-1990s in the USA via the 1995 movie “Clueless”. This starred Alicia Silverstone and contains what seems to have been the first use of the phrase in the mainstream media. The 1994 'Green revision pages' for the movie script has a scene with Alicia Silverstone's character learning to drive:

"Cher swerves - to avoid killing a person on a bicycle. Cher: Whoops, my bad."

Questions that popped in my head today

Have you ever had those moments when a question just popped into your head and you just sit there gazing into the distance? Then after an hour of wondering, you give up and HAVE to Google it? Then after another hour of finding it and reading about it you say to yourself, “ahhh.. now I can sleep easy tonight.”

What? Just me?

Anyway, here are some of those random questions popped into my head suddenly. My curiosities are usually triggered by watching TV, some are sudden realization in things I do routinely. So read on and delve into my weird mind and who knows.. I might answer some of your ‘popped questions’.

Why Apple (as in the iPod, Mac) is called Apple?

This came about while I was playing my iPod, of course.

The reason why Apple Computers are called that is so that it would, symbolically, come before rivals Atari in the phone book.

How did people with poor eye-sight see before glasses were invented?

This question popped into my head while watching Will & Grace.

Now this took me a while to find out but I was too curious to be satisfied with just one answer.

There are a few answers out there. Here are a few that I found and made sense to me.

1. There was no definite exact date of when glasses were invented and by whom. It was a technology that was developed over time. In an old transcript by a Roman, in 4 B.C., said that he was able to read “all” the books in Rome peering through a glass globe of water. Then there was Emperor Nero, watching gladiator matches with an emerald in front of his eye. But since the emerald was green, it could mean he used it to block out sunlight so that he could see well. Kind of like sun glasses.

Around 1000 A. D. the reading stone, what we know as a magnifying glass, was developed. It was a segment of a glass sphere that could be laid against reading material to magnify the letters. It enabled presbyopic monks to read and was probably the first reading aid. The Venetians learned how to produce glass for reading stones, and later they constructed lenses that could be held in a frame in front of the eyes instead of directly on the reading material. The Chinese are sometimes given credit for developing spectacles about 2000 years ago--but apparently they only used them to protect their eyes from an evil force. But even with all this information, the life expectancy in those days was 40 years-old. And sight deficiency doesn’t usually start until after that age.
Now you might be thinking, “I’m way younger than 40! And I have glasses as thick as the Hubble Telescope!” On to number 2.

2. Early sight-loss could be in the genes but most cases can be blamed to lighting. Either there’s not enough, like reading in a dim area or watching TV in the dark; or it could be because of too much light. With all the technology we have now, TV, computers, etc, our eyes are having a hard time coping and get very strained easily. Long hours in front of these artificial lights were not a daily ritual in the old days as it is today.

3.Glasses weren’t really ‘discovered’ until after the 16^th century. So before then, literacy was a rare skill to have and the rich were the only ones that could afford books and if they lost their eye-sight, the Egyptians would used their slaves to read for them.

How much is it to advertise on Facebook?

I wondered about this when I was just checking my account and noticed the tiny advertising. So it got me thinking.. Since Facebook is so popular and costs over a billion dollars, the advert cost should be immense!

On the contrary it could be cheap, even normal people could advertise. I couldn’t find the exact number online so, I wore my journalist hat and went to the advertising section of Facebook. There, you can advertise almost anything. I tried to advertise this blog.

From there, I can choose which type of people I’m trying to target. Here, I chose any ages since my blog is family friendly. As you can see, you can choose your potential ‘targets’. (that’s how they use our profile details to get their money). Over 10 million people. Cool. It’s going to get me a lot of hits. J

Next, you choose your budget. It can be as low as $5.00. Then you choose how much you’re willing to pay per click.

Let’s say I chose to be cheap and will only pay just $5.00 and $0.01 per click, your advert will be on Facebook until your budget runs out. But since I was being very cheap, it could mean, my advert would pop up very rarely, making it rare for people to click on it. Or more often so that I’ll pay again for advertising. Now I get how online networking can be so lucrative. Anyone want to start one with me?

Okay, this post is getting too long now and I don’t like long posts. Look for part 2 in the near future. Hope you had a good read.

how to speed up your computer

there's nothing i hate more than a slow pc/laptop. it just gets my goat when i have to wait more than 5 seconds for a program to start up or website to completely upload on the screen. *cough! my sister's laptop* technology is supposed to be fast! and especially today with all the new high-tech chips and super-powered thinga-ma-jigs.

you might say.. "but, oh wise sham, i have owned my laptop for years now.. so, it can't be as fast as it was once before. surely, there's no way around this other than emptying my wallet/purse buying a new one, is there?"

that's where you're wrong! if your pc wasn't that slow to begin with, then there's hope. i know what you might be thinking.. sending it off to a computer store and have it fixed.. not necessarily.. you can do your own maintenance. i've had my laptop for almost 4 years now and it's not high-tech or anything either.. i'm not even going to post a picture of it because that's how un-high-tech it is.. but it still runs fine with little glitches. it's all because of good maintenance. and today, i shall share my top pc maintenance tips.

NOTE: for pc people only. for mac users (that means you maurina), look elsewhere. i can't help you here.

pc/laptop maintenace 101

1. get rid of your junks!
a full pc means a slow pc. keeping your hard disk space to more than 15% is the minimum. this is important, which i'll tell you why later. and i'm not only talking about files you saved, music, pictures, etc. the programs that you've installed and afterwards uninstalled could still be in your pc somewhere.
say for example, you've installed a game from EA games. you played it for months.. bored of it.. uninstalled it. and yet if you go to :-

• my computer
• then, C:
• then, program files

you'll be surprised to find a folder named EA games with stuff still in it. sometimes, huge ones. this takes up unnecessary space. delete the whole folder. it won't matter that much. if it did, you wouldn't have uninstalled it to begin with. this is especially important to those of you who love to d/l those mini games (feeding frenzy, diner dash, burger island, etc) and uninstalled it after it expired. it's still in your pc! get rid of them!


2. a faster startup!
you turn on your laptop. went away to let it load. make a cup of coffee. finished drinking it. come back. it's still not on the finished loading your desktop. if this is you, i weep for you, you sad sad person. here's the problem...

it's the startup programs that's slowing you down. look at the bottom right at the system tray (next to the clock). if it's almost filling up your whole taskbar, that's the problem. those are programs that are running in the background. these are tiny programs that are robbing you of memory and processing power. some of them you need, while most you don’t. some of the programs you DON’T need are printer icons, CD burning icons, shortcuts to programs (such as video settings), any Instant Messaging Programs, etc. Just because these programs aren’t always running, doesn’t mean that you still can’t print, burn CDs or Instant Message. They can be run when you need them, from a shortcut. get rid of them! go to:-

• start
• run
• type in MSCONFIG
• you'll see the 'start up' tab. click on that.
• here, untick those that you don't need right away. example: ituneshelper, adobe reader speed launch, quick time task. you might have not used it in months! so, untick those and other that you're sure you don't need.
• click apply and on the next start up, it'll make a HUGE difference.

also, check your system tray regularly when using your pc. if you see the msn messenger icon on it even though it says you're offline, just exit it. it just sits there being useless and slows the pc down.

3. clean up your disk!
one of the simplest way to clear up the clutter and make your pc faster. go to:

• start
• all programs, accessories
• system tools
• click on 'disk clean up'

click here for a detail description of what it is but basically, it's just what it says. it cleans up your drive of any useless data you have on your pc. if you're worried that it might clean up something you still need, don't. it'll know what you need and what you won't need. there is also an option there for it to clean up 'temporary internet files'. those are data of past websites that you've visited. it kept a log so that the next time you visit that website, it'll load faster. by default, it'll already be ticked. but if you're the sort of person who can't remember website addresses and depends on the first few parts of the address and let the browser fill up the rest or you want it to load faster, untick this box. but personally, i think it takes up a huge space (in just 3 days, i accumulated about 60mb of temporary internet files ':s ) . and i just bookmark my favourite sites.

4. make your windows basic!
do you have a very impressive looking desktop? colourful backgrounds, a mouse cursor with blinking lights and colourful trails behind it, impressive visual effects and a theme that makes people go "wow.." that's good and all but is it making your pc slow?

just go back to basics people. it's pretty to look at but not very practical. below, an article i found that describes this perfectly..

By default, EVERYTHING is turned on in Windows XP. It isn’t very streamlined for performance, but rather for appearance. You can turn off a few of the unnecessary features, and Windows will still work just fine, and maybe a little faster.

To do this, right-click on My Computer and click on Properties. Click on the Advanced tab. Under the Performance section, click on the Settings button. On the Visual Effects tab, you will see a list of check boxes. By default, these are all on. You really don’t need any of them. If you choose one of the radio buttons at the top, say, Adjust for Best Performance, then all of the check boxes will turn off. This will noticeably speed up your computer. You can go through the check boxes one by one, and determine which ones you can and can’t live without. The one that will make the biggest effect is the very last one in the list. This is the Themes. If you turn it off, it will free up a lot of system resources and give you quite a bit more memory to work with, but Windows XP will look more like Windows 2000. For most people, this isn’t a problem. It is all eye-candy, anyway. Your pretty green pasture picture will disappear; your pretty green and blue buttons and task bar will go to a gray. If you can live with these things, then you will have much more performance. You will find that menus open up much more quickly and everything responds more immediately.

looks isn't everything.. especially when it comes to computers. it's the speed and functionality we want. don't you agree?

5. defragment, defragment, defragment!
i cannot stress this enough. when i see someone's laptop acting like a tortoise, i'll ask if they've defragmented it recently. i usually get a, "i de-what now?" or "no dude.. i don't have that kinda money" or "haha! that's a funny word! did you just make that up?"

here's how i like to explain what it actually is..
(NOTE: no comment necessary on the drawing. i know it's super cool.)

so okay.. here's mr pc working on your file.
then you ask it save those files. mr pc then works frantically and saves it in your hard disk as fast as he can because, that's what he does.. he tries to work as fast as his tiny processor can dish out.
BUT there's a downside to this.. the files aren't always in the same place as one huge chunk. most of the time, it's in pieces. especially big files like, programs or games you installed. mr pc does know where each parts are and when you load them up, sometimes it takes mr pc a few moments to gather everything together.
uh-oh.. here comes mr defrag-man and he is far from happy..
mr defrag-man now has to sort out the mess, so that stuff on mr pc works faster. so, the longer you haven't defragment your hard disk, the messier it is. remember when i told you you need at least 15% of free space? well, here is why.. mr defrag-man needs space to work with.. to place the separated files all together in one place temporarily while it finds a suitable place to place in, in one chunk. the best hard disk space it'll need is 25%. it'll defragment your files much faster.. here's how you do it.

a. To defragment your hard drives (in any Windows operating system), double-click on My Computer. Right-click on the c-drive and click on Properties. Click on the Tools tab and choose the bottom button, to Defragment Now… Click on the appropriate drive, and then on Defragment. This can take some time. Depending on your processing power, the amount of RAM you have available, the size and speed of your drive, and a few other things, this process can take 20 minutes, or hours. It is best to let this one run over night, as well, but it is well worth it.

it'll look something like this...
those red lines on the top bar are the mess.. and the blue lines are the neat sorted chunk of files. the bottom bar is the after picture. see how tidy it is? your pc will work much faster looking like that.

that's it from me but there are a lot of tips on how to speed up your pc. these were some of my easy ones that i very often do. questions are welcomed and i'll try my best to answer them.
click here for 10 top tips!

modern myths

after the last dull post, i needed to quickly amend that mistake with something worthy to write about. so now, i will share my findings on modern myths with you. so please read on and be shocked by the answers.

is it true that a person should drink 8 glasses of water everyday?

FALSE

yes, you read right! it is completely false. i've found that in general, to remain healthy, we do need to take in the water that we lost through exertions, sweat and other bodily functions. BUT water intake varies from person to person. factors includes age, weight, activity level and the climate where the person lives. the 8 glasses per day is a thumb of rule really and interestingly, it doesn't have to be just plain water.

and to add to this myth, there has been a general thought that drinking coffee, milk, tea, soda or other drinks makes you dehydrate more. a research on this discovered that there were no differences at all. one glass of any of these drinks amounts to about the same hydrating fluids as a glass of water. only drinks with alcohol makes you dehydrate but even then, one needs to drink a lot of it to have noticeable difference, doctors say.

so if you have kidneys the size of a peanut (like myself), the best hydrating advice is "drink if you're feeling thirsty. and you don't have to drink when you're not, unless you want to."

by boiling water in a microwave make it explode?

TRUE but very rare

this myth started with an email being circulated:

I feel that the following is information that any one who uses a microwave oven to heat water should be made aware of. About five days ago my 26-year old son decided to have a cup of instant coffee. He took a cup of water and put it in the microwave to heat it up (something that he had done numerous times before). I am not sure how long he set the timer for but he told me he wanted to bring the water to a boil. When the timer shut the oven off, he removed the cup from the oven. As he looked into the cup he noted that the water was not boiling but instantly the water in the cup "blew up" into his face. The cup remained intact until he threw it out of his hand but all the water had flew out into his face due to the buildup of energy. His whole face is blistered and he has 1st and 2nd degree burns to his face which may leave scarring. He also may have lost partial sight in his left eye.

While at the hospital, the doctor who was attending to him stated that this a fairly common occurrence and water (alone) should never be heated in a microwave oven. If water is heated in this manner, something should be placed in the cup to diffuse the energy such as a wooden stir stick, tea bag, etc. It is however a much safer choice to boil the water in a tea kettle. Please pass this information on to friends and family.

many thought this email was just a typical scare-o-gram, it turned out to be true. conditions need to be perfect and you might not even get to see the phenomenon. but if you get it just right, you'll get this:


if you are 'lucky' to see that, chances you'll get hit in the face is very very rare.

does tapping the top of a soda can prevent it from fizzing out?
TRUE and FALSE

to be honest, i found a lot of answers and explanation to this myth. some proved it to be true by experimentation and videoed his findings and some explained scientifically with physics.

Soda Can Lid Tapping Urban Legend - Awesome video clips here

a website i stumbled upon gave me different results with different beverages, time length of tapping and the resulted foaming. click here to find the results in more detail. her final conclusion?

Tapping on a soda can will not decrease the liklihood that it will foam over on you when opened. It will, however, give you something to do while you wait for the contents to calm down. Generally speaking, one minute is a sufficient amount of time to wait before opening a shaken soda can. Of course, these tests were all done in Portland, Oregon and the majority of the soda was cold. Results at other altitudes with other temperatures of soda are unknown.

very amusing.. the best conclusion of this myth is just let can rest on a table for a few minutes before opening it.

i hope that was a good read!

random facts

today i won't post dull ramblings which i have been giving you for the past few posts.. i think, my readers deserves something more. something with depth and won't make them feel like they wasted their time visiting my blog. and today's post will be that. interesting but still very random. insightful and yet some may not even give a damn about. today, i shall bare the truth of the origin of the famous smiley face. where did it come from? why did it become famous? then i try to uncover a part of a male's body part. no need to blush ladies.. it's about the nipples. why do men have them? they're practically useless. next is a personal search of enlightment. i've gotten grief and have been mocked for my middle name. oh yes.. some of you are already giggling right now. but today, i shall find out more about farnie and search for others like me. were they famous? is it a name to be proud of? did i get your attention with the intro? if yes, please read on and learn something today.

just smile :)

if you think forrest gump invented it by accident when he wiped his face on a shirt, then you are very wrong. the smiley face mania was made by two brothers in philadelphia, bernard & murray spain in the early 70's. as you all may know, it was the time of war and hippies. the 2 brothers were trying to design a sort of peace sign but with more appeal. the signature yellow face smile was introduced with the caption, "have a happy day". it became the latest fad with mass productions of button, greeting cards, shirts, bumper stickers, cookie jars, earrings, bracelets and key chains. the fad lasted a year and a half and in 1972, the sale of the buttons ALONE were more than 50 million.

it doesn't end there though.. the 2 brothers made the smiley face popular to the world but they did not invent it. we now travel back to 1963. worcester, massachusetts; there worked harvey ball in a subsidary state mutual insurance company. he was assigned to design a smile button for a morale boosting campaign. harvey, not a man to waste ink, initially drew just the smile. pondering the result, he realized that if you turned the button upside down, it became ... a frown! then he added the 2 eyes, which of course you could also turn upside down, but then it meant ... i'm standing on my head!--a more ambiguous sociopolitical message. he made the thing yellow to give it a sunshiny look, and the company, printed up 100. the buttons were a big hit, the company began handing them out by the thousands, and the rest you know. mr. ball's total take: his $45 art fee. state mutual, not very quick on the uptake, didn't make any money either.

but it goes much deeper still, which i will not go to. some say the yellow face craze originated in the 1930's. but for my sake and for yours as well, i shall leave it at that. on to the next one..

man nipple: just for show?

okay. i've searched really deep in the internet for this and i found no conclusive facts about this. from what i found is that nipples aren't a sex-linked characteristic. in other words, nipples are just one of those sexually neutral pieces of equipment, like arms or brains, that humans get regardless of sex. every human being gets a unique set of 23 pairs of chromosomes at conception. These fall into two categories. One pair of chromosomes determines sex--the XX combination means you become female, the XY combination means you become male.

the other 22 pairs, the non-sex chromosomes (they're called autosomes), supply what we might call the standard equipment that all humans get. these 22 pairs constitute an all-purpose genetic blueprint that in effect is programmed for either maleness or femaleness by the sex chromosomes. the programming is done by the hormones secreted by the sex glands.

for example, the autosomes give you a voice box, while the sex hormones determine whether it's going to be a deep male voice or a high female voice. similarly, the autosomes give you nipples, and the sex hormones determine whether said nipples are going to be functioning (in females) or not (in males).
one interesting consequence of the developmental set-up just described is that during the very early stages of fetal life, before the sex hormones have had a chance to do their stuff, all humans are basically bisexual. among other things, you have two sets of primitive plumbing--one male, one female. only one set develops into a mature urogenital system, but you retain traces of the other for the rest of your life.

human nipples appear in the third or fourth week of development, well before the sex characteristics. (the sex hormones start to assert themselves at seven weeks.) so, after the nipples are developed, then the sex hormones kicks in, rendering nipples on males useless.

i hope i haven't lost you yet cause yours truly is coming up next!

stop laughing! it's not farnie!

my quest to find my meaning was not really a memorable journey. i googled it and the only famous farnie was a henry brougham farnie (1836 – 1889). he was famous for writing the first instruction book on golf. yes.. golf. he did some adaptations on some novels but i shall spare you all from listing them down. i'm sure none of them are known and could not be cared less. ofcourse, when googling something, you rarely get only one result. even then, i just let out a sigh of grief. the other results were from sentences in blogs. apparently, it's a cute way saying/writing the word "funny" as "farnie". sigh..

when all hope was lost, i suddenly stumbled on the meaning of 'farnie'. urbandictionary.com says 'farnie' means someone who wears the same clothes every day.

example: That boy is a farnie because he always wears his jeans and shirt to school everyday.

that's right people.. i'm a definition now. sigh.. i then asked myself how i got the unusual name. who better to ask than the source - my parents. i was hoping for a wonderful story. i was hoping for a funny anectode of how my name was concocted.
alas.. i was dissapointed yet again. my dad said he got it from essays he used to compose as a kid. he remembered that he used the name farnie as a main character in his stories. he liked the name so much, he wanted to use it on his first born son. lucky me.. sigh..

there you have it folks. later days

marrying a princess

had a few interesting conversations with my mom these couple of days, including the post's title. ':s i was watching tv (e! again ofcourse..) when she suddenly came into the room and said that one of the princes was engaged to a normal girl from tutong. still concentrating on the tv, i just nodded and said, "oh ok.."
"wouldn't it be nice to marry royalty?" she continued.
"i guess.." i said, increasing the volume slightly.
"are you friends with any of the princesses?" she asked with a smile.
i muted the tv and turned to her. "what?" i asked raising an eye brow.
"well, if you marry royalty, your life would be so carefree! so, are you friends with any of them?"
i just laughed and shook my head.
"why are you laughing?? syok jua tu.. you'd have a title and a good life"
i told her, 1. no, i don't know any of them but i do have friends from the extended family but she said that that doesn't count. 2. even if i knew one of the princesses, i would respectfully decline because 3. i don't like the attention and public pressure and 4. i don't like a title.. my name is long enough without one already.

she went on a few more minutes with the advantages of being a royal before she went out of the room. i heard her say under her breath how her son is dumb for rejecting a royal. haha!

the conversation about marrying royalty wasn't the part that weirded me out though.. it was that we were talking about marriage. ':s i guess i almost have a job now and that's what my mom keeps telling me to get first before finding a wife. sigh.. i guess i'm gonna start feeling the pressure like most mid-twenties people in brunei do now.

another conversation with my mom last night was another hilarious one.. she wants me to expand the guest room. ofcourse, i asked why.
"it looks fine they way it is!" i argued.
"it's for when you get married! the room is too small! people will be cramped in there!" she answered. i had to ask..
another reason was that it was membari malu masa raya. sigh.. as if we celebrate raya that festively anyway..

i told her it's still too early to even talk about me getting married, much less extending the house. "6 more years lagi ma.."
"what?? tua sudah tu eh!!!" she gasped in horror. (hahaha!) she got married when she was 21 so at my age now, i'm already considered old..
she went out of the room, again, saying things..
"fine.. you can have your wedding in the kitchen.. i don't care.."
hahahahaha! funny stuff man.. that's my mom everyone. a regular comedian.. even though she doesn't mean to be!

anyway, i shall be signing off like ali! watch this.. you'll know what i mean..

kaka better than ronaldo? definitely

wonderfully seedorf!

calm down ronaldo.. you can't blame gattuso for being awesome

manchester left dumbfounded while...

...milan celebrates!!!

like i said in my previous post.. milan liverpool match, AGAIN. sweet sweet revenge.. GO MILANO! ':)

random ramblings

hello everyone! i promised to give you a proper and worthy post. after being back a week now, all i've been doing is running personal errands, hanging out with my friends and tv! i'm not going to talk about my boring errands or my daily hangouts.. i would like to talk about tv!

a lot of useful stuff can be found while watching tv. even though society's outlook on them tends to be negative. most find it useless, a waste of time, too violent and even unhealthy. i completely disagree.. don't get me wrong.. tv can be bad for you IF you don't know how to limit yourself with it. personally, i think tv is one of the best invention in history! even though tv is mainly for entertainment, to me, the box of moving pictures is more than that - it's a source of information. it's a source of learning as well. valuable information is transmitted each day, 24-hours a day to every tv in the world!

so, what have i discovered while watching tv this week. you'd think it'd be something pretty important right? wrong.. here's what i've found out..

KEN AND BARBIE BROKE UP!

yes.. if you're still wondering.. i am talking about the dolls. they actually broke up! maybe some of you know this already because it happened in 2004 but i found it out just a few days ago while i was flipping through channels and a documentary on girl's dolls came up and i was rivetted. (no, not at the dolls.) here's the story according to cnn.com (yes, cnn actually covered the story..)

February 12, 2004
After 43 years as one of the world's prettiest pairs, the perfect plastic couple is breaking up. The couple's "business manager," Russell Arons, vice president of marketing at Mattel, said that Barbie and Ken "feel it's time to spend some quality time -- apart."

"Like other celebrity couples, their Hollywood romance has come to an end," said Arons, who quickly added that the duo "will remain friends."

Arons denied that there was any truth to rumors that the breakup was linked to the Cali (as in California) Girl Barbie, arriving in stores now. To better reflect her single status, Cali Barbie will wear board shorts and a bikini top, metal hoop earrings, and have a deeper tan.

This new style already has attracted a new admirer, Blaine the Australian boogie boarder.

Barbie -- the most popular fashion doll in the world, according to toy maker Mattel -- met Ken on the set of a TV commercial in 1961, and they have been inseparable ever since.

Arons hinted Wednesday that the separation may be partially due to Ken's reluctance to getting married. All those bridal Barbie dolls in toy chests around the globe are really just examples of Barbie's wishful thinking, she explained.
So where does that leave Ken? Said Arons: "He will head for other waves."

i love tv.. don't you?

oh! and btw quote of the month!
"moths aren't cockroaches, right?" - mash
see you thursay mash! ':)

fat

“I’m fat!” my friend keeps saying to us all. As usual, we all stare at her more than gorgeous face and her nice figure. “You are not fat!” we kept saying to her. What she was talking about, I had no idea. She wasn’t the only one. Another friend of mine asked whether I thought she was fat. What?! Of course, I told her she was being totally weird and that she’s cute, which is actually really TRUE! So, it got me thinking. What is the problem here? These pretty girls have worries about their looks, what about other people who really are ‘externally challenged’?

So, here’s my theory on why and how to overcome it. Who can blame you for feeling less than perfect when everyday you are bombarded with images of flawless, thin models with perfect skin and body? There are also countless advertisements for dieting products, which press upon you how great, you can look and feel if you could lose those extra kilos. But before you assume you got your figure figured and jump into a crash diet, learn these facts about body shape and diets. Stop comparing Do you find yourself body parts with models in magazines? “Oh if only I had her hips,” you might wish. But remember that models are helped by professional make-up, flattering light and re-touching to remove any blemishes before the magazine goes to print.

If you had all that help, you’d look great too. Accept your body shape Everyone has his or her own unique body shape, which is pre-determined by your genes. Children with one large parent have a 40% chance of being large, while children with two heavy parents have an 80% chance of being that size also. So while a good diet and exercise can trim your figure, it can’t change it totally. Your body is still changing In your teen years, your body will go through a lot of changes. You are growing taller, developing curves and loosing some of that baby fat. So, don’t let a little flab or a flat chest freak you out. Give your body time to develop. More than looks How you look is only one aspect of you. What about the rest of the great qualities you posses? A wonderful personality, sense of humor and talent are just as important.

Looks can change and wilt with age, but these qualities are for life! Enhance your asset Everyone has beautiful, outstanding features. Yours could be your big eyes, long legs or sexy lips. Learn how to enhance and draw attention to these features with clothes, make-up and hairstyle. Enjoy the compliments Do you tend to brush aside compliments like when someone says how great you look in an outfit? They are just being nice, you might think. Learn to accept compliments graciously and trust that they are true. In turn, find something positive to say about other people. Ignore the insults We all know people who make it their job to put other people down. If you have friend like this, ignore them. Nothing good comes out comes out their mouth anyway so switch them off. So, there it is. At least, that’s what I think. But you’ve got to admit that at least some if not all that what I said is true. So, why not follow my advice and feel good about yourself! Sham, signing out.

soulmate

I was asked by my friend once whether I believed in soul mates or not. That night, it got me thinking so much that I couldn’t sleep. Richard Bach describes soul mates as "A soulmate is someone who has the locks to fit our keys, and the keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we're pretending to be... Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction... Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life."

I totally agree to that. I believe that when you meet your soul mate, this person will have an instantaneous effect on you. A soul mate is someone who makes your knees go weak and you want to catch your breath. With but a single glance they lesson your burden and but a smile, warms your heart. You will feel a sense of connection (affinity) with this person. They will touch you so deeply on so many levels, you will want to share your inner most secrets. For the first time in your life someone will make you feel like almost like a God. Once you have met your soul mate for better or sometimes worse, your life will never be the same.I believe that we tend to attract people or partners to us who compliment ourselves in some way. In attracting these people or partners, we attract exactly what we need in order to grow. What makes a Soul mate relationship so special is the ability to immediately and intimately connect on a much deeper level; we perceive in the other that which we do not have, that which we are lacking. Through this type of symbiotic relationship, something wonderful happens. Through this relationship we confront or become more aware of our limitations. This kind of *joining* transforms the other, and vice versa. I thought for a while and then answered "Yes. I believe in soul mates."
But if he had asked me that a few months before, I would have definitely have answered, "No. Who would believe in such stupid crap? Only naive and foolish people believe in that shit." In the beginning of the year, I was madly in love. My world was perfect. Everything made sense. She was my reason for being in the world. I had found my soul mate. She was my other half... well, at least I thought so...Everything was perfect; everything was awesome until that day when I found out she was seeing someone else... I couldn't believe what I saw with my own two eyes. My heart slowly tore apart as I watched her being intimate with her other. For a long while after I broke up with her, I went into a state of depression. I thought I wouldn't get over her. I loved her so much. How could my soul mate do that to me!

"Everything needs time... This, too, shall pass... "These words got me through that very tough time. Now, I'm stronger as a person and it made me more cautious with people. And it made me realize that she wasn't my soul mate. A soul mate would never hurt you. So, my soul mate is still out there.

Dear soul mate,I long for your love. I long for your hugs and sweet kisses. I long for your presence. I don't know where you are. I don't know what you're doing right now. I don't know what's taking so long for us to meet. But until that special day comes, I want you to know that I love you with all my heart and soul... Good night to you, my special someone...