I love watches! But after my Tag Heuer died on me, I didn’t buy one or wear one anymore. And I miss it! I remember when I used to go gaga over Swatch, Benetton and Guess watches. I miss those days too! I really love those funky designs and braided leather straps. Yeah, I love anything braided leather… I remember also owning a Benetton backpack with braided leather straps and a braided leather belt too. Anyway, back to watches look at what I’ve found doing online window shopping… I know these are luxury watches but I’d love me some of these!

From left to right, that’s the Tag Heuer Aquaracer 2000 SS Womens Watch, Gai Mattiolo Fashion Dangling Watch, and Gucci 107L SS Charms Bracelet Watch. Aren’t these gorgeous?

And here’s a little interesting fact: Have you noticed that almost all watch ads has the time set to 10:10? I noticed it when I was still working for a magazine as a lyout artist. And here’s the reason why… a watch ad should off all the hands without blocking the brand logo. The 10:10-ish set-up does that while framing the logo, making the face look balanced, and creating a positive-looking, upward-pointing “smiley face.”

I found this from Joy’s blog and I just had to post it here. It’s originally from the Where What How Why site and it’s too cool!

If you are seeing this lady spinning clockwise, then it means you are using the right side of the brain. If you are seeing her spinning counter-clockwise, then you are using the left side of the brain.

Some people are able to see her spinning in both directions, but most of them see her rotating only in one. If you can see her spin in one directions and then make her spin in the other, then you are a part of a handful of people.

Even if it might not seem so, both directions can be seen. Apparently, this fact has been proved at the Yale University, USA, after 5 years of studying the human brain and its functions. Supposedly only 14% of the US population can see her spinning in both directions.

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First I saw it spinning clockwise and had a hard time seeing it spinning the other way. Then I started computing numbers mentally and then it started spinning counterclockwise. Cool! Then while reading the post on the WWHW site, it would spin every other direction after a few minutes. Haha! Try it!

Ever stumbled upon the term HDR or High Dynamic Range Imaging or Photography? I did about a couple of months ago while I was browsing my friend’s multiply site. I was simply amazed by the photo so I did some googling and here’s what I found according to Wikipedia:

In image processing, computer graphics and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.

High Dynamic Range Imaging was originally developed in the 1930s and 1940s by Charles Wyckoff. Wyckoff’s detailed pictures of nuclear explosions appeared on the cover of Life magazine in the early 1940s. The process of tone mapping together with bracketed exposures of normal digital images, giving the end result a high, often exaggerated dynamic range, was first reported in 1993, and resulted in a mathematical theory of differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter that was published in 1995. In 1997 this technique of combining several differently exposed images to produce a single HDR image was presented to the computer graphics community by Paul Debevec.

This method was developed to produce a high dynamic range image from a set of photographs taken with a range of exposures. With the rising popularity of digital cameras and easy-to-use desktop software, the term “HDR” is now popularly used to refer to this process. This composite technique is different from (and may be of lesser or greater quality than) the production of an image from a single exposure of a sensor that has a native high dynamic range. Tone mapping is also used to display HDR images on devices with a low native dynamic range, such as a computer screen.

I really wanted to try this out and I swear that as soon as I get my own DSLR, I’m gonna try this right away. Here’s another link to a great site explaining more about HDR with a few example photos. You can view it here. Hope you learned something new today.

I love anything curry. I even sometimes put curry powder in my chicken or tuna sandwich or when cooking friend rice. But I don’t really know anything else about curry, aside from it’s taste. I’ve read that the yellow color of the Indian curry spice tumeric comes from Curcumin. According to Wikipedia,

Curcumin is known for its antitumor, antioxidant, antiarthritic, anti-amyloid and anti-inflammatory properties. In addition it may be effective in treating malaria, prevention of cervical cancer, and may interefere with the replication of the HIV virus.

There is also circumstantial evidence that curcumin improves mental functions; a survey of 1010 Asian people who ate yellow curry and were between the ages of 60 and 93 showed that those who ate the sauce “once every six months” or more had higher MMSE results than those who did not. From a scientific standpoint, though, this does not show whether the curry caused it, or people who had healthy habits also tended to eat the curry, or some completely different relationship.

Amazing isn’t it? Makes me want to eat curry everyday!

So who doesn’t love coffee? The smell alone would make you crave for one. How I wish I have my own jura capresso machine at home so I can have freshly brewed coffee anytime I want. Enough wishful thinking… here are 13 (the first 11 are from Brian Martell’s list) interesting facts about coffee. Enjoy reading an hopefully you’ll learn something new today.

1. Coffee is the second most traded product in the world after petroleum. World wide coffee production tips the scales at about 6 million metric tonnes.

2. It takes five years for a coffee tree to reach maturity. The average yield from one tree is the equivalent of one roasted pound of coffee.

3. People who buy coffee primarily at drive through windows on their way to work will spend as much as 45 hours a year waiting in line.

4. Of the various botanical species of coffee trees in the world, only two are extensively cultivated commercially; Arabica and Robusta.

5. The average person who buys coffee outside the office to consume at work will spend the equivalent value of a round trip plane ticket to Florida every year.

6. The first coffee house in Europe opened in Venice in 1683, while coffee was available in Europe as early as 1608, mostly for the rich.

7. The expression “a cup of Joe” to denote coffee, was first coined during WWII, when American servicemen (G.I. Joe) were identified as big coffee drinkers.

8. The largest coffee-producing nation, Brazil, is responsible for 30 to 40 % of total world output.

9. In the late 1800’s, Chase and Sanborn put out a flier on how to read the coffee grounds at the bottom of the cup (like a fortune teller).

10. Coffee cherries usually contain two “beans”, except for the single bean peaberry anomaly. Cherries with three beans are deemed to be a sign of good luck.

11. A Belgian living in Guatemala invented the first instant coffee in 1906 and later immigrated to the United States. His name, ironically enough, was George Washington.

12. Hard bean means the coffee was grown at an altitude above 5000 feet.

13. October 1st is the official Coffee Day in Japan.

I posted my Thursday Thirteen on my other blog, which was about MP3s that are currently on my desktop, and somebody commented something that caught my attention. It was about the song I Don’t Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats being inspired by a school killing which happened on January 29, 1979, a Monday.

Brenda Ann Spencer, who was 16 years old then, wounded 8 children and one police officer and killed 2 school officials at Cleveland Elementary School, which was just across the street from her house in San Diego, California. When she was asked why she committed the crime, she replied “I don’t like Mondays.” She pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon, and was sentenced to prison for 25 years to life.

The lyrics of the song is below and you read more about it on The Boomtown Rats official site.

The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload.
And nobody’s gonna go to school today,
She’s going to make them stay at home.
And daddy doesn’t understand it,
He always said she was as good as gold.
And he can see no reason
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?

Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays.
I want to shoot
The whole day down.

The telex machine is kept so clean
As it types to a waiting world.
And mother feels so shocked,
Father’s world is rocked,
And their thoughts turn to
Their own little girl.
Sweet 16 ain’t so peachy keen,
No, it ain’t so neat to admit defeat.
They can see no reasons
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?

Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays.
I want to shoot
The whole day down.

All the playing’s stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with her toys a while.
And school’s out early and soon we’ll be learning
And the lesson today is how to die.
And then the bullhorn crackles,
And the captain crackles,
With the problems and the how’s and why’s.
And he can see no reasons
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to die?

Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays.
I want to shoot
The whole day down.

I love pesto! I love it on pasta, cheese sticks, sandwiches, anything! We keep a bottle of pesto in the fridge and when I get hungry I just whip up a pesto sandwich. Just put cream cheese or cottage on bread then add a spread of pesto, toast it and voila!

Interesting facts:
Did you know that pesto is a sauce that originates in the city of Genoa in the Liguria region of northern Italy. Pesto comes in various forms and the one that we’re familiar with, the one made with basil and pine nuts, is its classic basic form and is actually called pesto alla genovese. Another interesting fact is that basil has been used as a treatment for coughs, skin diseases, and intestinal problems.

Here’s a recipe that I got from Wanda. Two of my favorites together, garlic and pesto! Try it!

Garlic-Pesto Sauce

Ingredients:
3 medium garlic cloves
1 cup fresh basil, washed and patted dry
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon cashew nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Chop garlic, basil leaves, parsley and nuts into small pieces and combine in the bowl of food processor. Continue processing until the mixture becomes fine (according to your liking). Add oil in slow, steady stream. Stop the machine and add cheese, salt and pepper. Turn on machine and process a few seconds to combine.

Did you know that the word “photography” comes from the French word photographie which is based on the Greek words φως phos (”light”), and γραφίς graphis (”stylus”, “paintbrush”) or γραφή graphê (”representation by means of lines” or “drawing”), together meaning “drawing with light.”

I was reading a blog entry about cow facts and one thing that was mentioned was that cow’s gelatin is used in making photographic films. I got curious of course and I did a little searching and reading and here’s what I found out: Photographic film is a sheet of plastic (polyester, nitrocellulose or cellulose acetate) coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts (bonded by gelatin) with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film. Most of the gelatin in photographic film, which I assume is the one used to bond the silver halide salts, is from cattle bones. And here’s another interesting fact, some layers in color films use gel made from pig skins.