More food to help you lose weight ;)

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/20-superfoods-for-weight-loss-212436

Review on Tempur-pedic Mattress

Seeing how the odds of this being seen is actually pretty good with today's search technology, I think I should do a review on the Tempur-pedic mattress that I've tried a few months ago.

A few months ago I started having persistent backpain. It all started when the last pillow top mattress we owned started to give after a measly three years and became too soft for my back. Then, refusing to get a mattress so soon in time after we've spent so much on that mattress, we tried to flip the mattress upside down (never was intended for that, by the way) and it was too hard. Every morning the back pain just got worse. Finally we caved and decided to purchase a new mattress.

When you think about the best mattress for backpain, the first thing that pops into mind is, of course, a tempur-pedic mattress. And I know I wasn't the only one who thought that because I read someone's comment on Amazon.com soliciting information (review) on tempur-pedic mattresses. Interesting enough, of all the researches that I've done on tempur-pedic, nothing mentioned that it's great for back pain/support. Regardless, I already had the pre-conception that this is what I need. So we purchased the cheapest tempur-pedic (about $1,600 when all is said and done) they have at Sleep Train.

Here goes:

Pro (might as well start from the good): absolute zero motion transfer. Sometimes I get in and out of bed some 15 times before settling in, and that used to disturb hubby's sleep. Well, that never happened again. A few times, even a light sleeper like me didn't detect him crawling into bed. Perk: your next door/ downstair neighbor no longer need to know when and how long each time you have an intimate moment.

Con: It did not do a lick of what I thought it was supposed to do -- give my back ultimate support. In fact, it failed in that area entirely. It was too soft to provide any kind of real back support whether I was on my back (I heard that's bad posture for the back) or on my side. If I sleep on my back, my entire lumbar region will curve downward, which was not comfortable at night and gave me severe ache in the mornings. If I sleep on my side (and I don't want to feel that I HAVE to sleep on my side for the next 15 years), my side that touches the bed will be completely flat, and causing over curvature on the upper side. The longest time I can spend in the mattress (any position, awake or asleep) is seven hours. And I don't mean the ache begins after seven hours. I mean the ache became absolutely intorable after seven hours. Forget about sleeping in on the weekends!

Neutral: Do know that a Tempur-pedic is warmer than a regular mattress. You know that nice cool feeling when you first get into bed? Forget about that. I've already read reviews that about 50% of Tempur-pedic owners complainted that it was like sleeping on wet sand. Frankly, I don't feel that way at all and ABSOLUTELY love the no motion tranfer "feature."

In conclusion: if the problem you are trying to solve is that one person tosses and turns too much and/or the other is a light sleeper AND you DON'T have a bad back, this is a great buy. If you do have a bad back, I suggest you try this out for yourself. Be sure there's a return policy where you buy it from.

Flip or Flop

So Hubby went away to his Navy reserve duty this weekend. If I have never mentioned before, I absolutely could not sleep or even summon up enough energy to do anything without him around. (And recently I've learned that a few girls that I work with are the same way [not sleeping] when their husbands aren't around, that makes me feel better.) Anyways, to kill time, literally, I am just playing every little stupid computer games there are out there. And alternating between a hand full, because otherwise I'm afraid my brain will explode.

So lately I'm playing this one called "Flip or Flop." The idea behind it is simple, you want to flip houses and help grandma buy back her $3 million house. Frankly, I think that's an unreasonable request from a family member, but that's not the point here. So you start out with cheap houses, $10,000 - $30,000 and by the time you get up to the "filthily rich" area, you are seeing houses in the $2 million plus range. Why am I blogging about this stupid game, you may ask (and I'm sorry that you are reading my blog, really, there are better things to do out there than reading my mindless rambling)? Because while I'm quite sure the game developer meant to set it at an outrageous (yet achievable?) prices, $2 - $3 million houses aren't uncommon around this area. Unless, of course, the developer is a bitter person living in the Silicon Valley like me, in that case, he/she is just being sarcastic. And mind you, these $2 - $3 million houses aren't even that extravagant... just your regular 2 - 3K sq ft houses everywhere else... Like I said, tragic...

Robotics

Lately I found myself following closely to the newest and latest development in the field of robotics. I acquired the latest article in Popular Science while waiting for my flight to Seattle. Quite frankly, the development of robotics is beginning to get disturbing.

Anyone who are remotely interested in science fiction and have watched a few episodes of Twilight zone or Issac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine have probably seen stories about the origin of mankind. The basic premise goes something like this:

Humans went to a different planet/aliens visited our planets/we travelled back in time to prehistoric earth and tweaked with the genetics of local organisms/taught them how to use their opposible thumbs/tools/start fire and wah lah, we have our humans today. There are many versions but the underlying idea was the same: "devine intervention" wasn't really from the devine, it's from somebody just like us.

So do you see where I am going with this? The Bible says, "God created men in his own image." And us human beings, at least those in the robotics field, have an unexplainable obssession to create humanoid robots. Forget about a ball or wheels for locomotion, after millions of years of evolution, we already know that bipedalism is the way to go -- for obvious reasons, we don't have to clear a track or path for the robots (or ideally, for them to clear a path for themselves), bipeds can simple choose to walk around the objects, walk over the objects, or just jump over it. Did you know there are "purist" not only in religions but also in robotics?? They believe that robots should not possess abilities above and beyond that of humans, i.e. no lasers to assist them in gaging distances between them and an object, they should simply use binocular vision like us. What do we have here, robotic fanatics? O.o

Back to bipedalism. A bipedal robot has already been created, but it simply consumes too much energy and the battery lasts for about half an hour, not the best way to go. Next alternative, actuators that imitate muscles, positioning like muscles. When you only contract those muscles that's necessary for the motion, the rest aren't consuming any energy at all.

So do you see where I am going now? When technology permits, and technology has been improving in leaps and bounds in the last couple decades, why not replace actuators with real human muscles, perhaps developed from stem cells obtained in a moral way. Next, the wires would be replaced with nerves, and tubes that carry fuels can be replaced with blood vessels. Why not go all organics? And next thing you know, God has created men in his own image.

What is the purpose of creating these humanoid robots? Gill Pratt, the inventor of the actuators, said because he wanted a robot maid (sexist? or shall we cut him the slack that his desire was inspired by sci fi back from the male-centered era?). Sure I want a robot maid (let's just go with the flow here), but let's just stick with that. I'd like my robot to be no different than a vacuum cleaner, or better yet, a PC, which allows me to download the newest and latest programs. If a part broke, I replace it. If the robot broke, I replace it. There's not guilt in leaving my PC on 24/7 if I so choose.

But we are humans, will we ever settle for glorified humanoid vacuum cleaner/butler/chef? No. There are always those who'd want to temper with "analytical ability." After all, wouldn't it be better if your machine can learn progressively from his/her newest experience and assimilate information and, better yet, formulate his/her own opinions? Perhaps someone wants more of a companion than a maid!

Now let's be serious here. It's not maids that we are looking for, it's slaves -- we want them to do all the hardwork (household chores and more) for us at close to no cost and preferrably at our beckons. So let's ask ourselves again, do you really want to equip said mechanical slaves with a mind of their own? Perhaps analytical ability cannot equate a hundred percent to a "soul," but since we really don't know what a soul is and how to define one, where do we draw this line? If a machine has a mind of their own, shouldn't they be then given rights? After all, animals have rights. Just ask any of your local animal activists chapter. Now if we are talking about machines that have cognitive ability higher than that of your pets, don't they deserve to have rights?

Even if we drop that whole civil discussion for the time being. Once the machine can think for themselves, how long is it going to be before we hear, "why do I have to work here days and nights for little or no returns?" or for those who seeks companion ship, will the machines have preferences for their own partners?

Regardless, these wild speculations of mind are still pretty down the line. Or, are they just around the corner, but we just don't know yet? It doesn't matter. We can't stop progress, right or wrong, good or bad. The evitable is doomed to come. Perhaps there are fate afterall, perhaps the universe (a.k.a. God) does have it's own plans, and we are just humanoid dummies following scripts in this gigantic book that we have never seen.

Emails

At this date and age, I believe everyone will have at least one webbased emailed account (Yahoo, Gmail, hotmail). Afterall, it's very difficult to maintain a loyal relationship with your ISP provider (earthlink, AOL) and it's a hassle to update your email address with all your friends, families, and acquaintenances each time you switch an ISP.

I have three of these webbased email accounts that I use on a regular basis -- one for when I sign up to questionable websites that I suspect they'll spam me to death; one for casual usage that I give out to friends; and the last one is the official business one that I only use for work (goes on resume) and school. Now that I've secured a job and that school is out, I rarely remember to check that one.

Interestingly enough, the last two times when I remembered to check that email account, I received emails that wasn't intended for me. I would like to mention that I used my real name for my official business email account. Receiving others' personal email is an eerie experience. It's like a quick peek into a stranger's personal life. A stranger that has the same, or very similar name, as you. Sure, we've all have mail sent to our houses that didn't belong to us. But these are not the same. These are names that you've never seen before, and will never remember once you've disposed of the mail. It's in an envelope. Very few people (at least I don't) will open them and read the content. An email is different. It's content so readily reviewing themselves to you and it's just that much more personal.

Whilst I almost never remember to mark "moved" or "wrong address" on the physical mails, I always make a point to email these strangers back to tell them that I've received their emails on accident. "Hello, your mail did not get to the person it was intended for," I'd say.

Personal Race Simulator

Wow! So we went to MicroCenter last week, and they have these two units of personal race simulators there to demonstrate Intel's newest chip. Everybody LOVED the simulator and wanted to buy that instead. And the store employees have to explain repeatedly that the units were not there for sale. I'm like, heck, might as well. If many people ask about a product (although most of us can't afford it), why not just sell them? Afterall, it's a capitalistic society, you can pretty much buy anything with money.

So I did a little search on the internet and found this:

 

And you too can have it for the low, low price of $20,000. And that comes with a 42" HD plasma. :D It's practically a steal. I just hope I hit the next lottery jackpot. I hope. I hope. I hope. 

My Hightech Home Life

So today was the first time (ever) Hubby and I sat down and talked about our finance. I guess with my beta personality (as opposed to alpha?), I tend to trust that "he" (whoever I was with at the time) will naturally know how to make the right decisions and take care of finance. But lately I've been wanting to agree on doing things a bit differently. And in all honesty, Hubby was never the his-way-or-the-highway kind of guy. So we were having this conversation that's SO like any other married couple I was scaring myself. I mean, afterall, we've NEVER really discussed about money before and that money IS the leading cause of all divorces.

But I digressed, the way we were doing things. We each sat in front of our laptop, logging onto credit card accounts and bank accounts, and sharing the excel files that created. I don't think it can get any geekier...

Oh, and after we finished with our finance planning. I made him logged onto my Gmail calender to block out all the days that he is going to be gone. We have separate email address so I had given him access to view AND change my calender events. We get any more high tech, we are going to have to use virtual simulators to hug each other. :D

Love to Cook?

My friend E thinks I like to cook. She couldn't be more wrong. It's not cooking that I like, it's the eating. I only cook when I don't want to go to a particular restaurant just for my one little craving, or when I can't find a place that serves it well. But every once in a while, I do like to challenge something different.

Remember that one time when I made the blooming onion? I even bought the blooming onion making afterward, which has yet to be used. Then I challenged P.F. Chang's lettuce wrap and that was a success. Next on my list are deviled egg, cheese fries (hardly can be called cooking, don't you think?), and Outback's honey wheat bushman's bread. Yum. :D Lucky Hubby brought a breadmaker into the marriage. ^_^

Money Has Nothing To Do With Happiness

http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/moneymatters/7858

 

Of COURSE money has nothing to do with happiness. Sheesh. What were people thinking?

 

And a 600 lb obese woman is about as attractive as a Victoria Secret model, as long as you are not a super superficial person.

 

And obesity is just another horrible disease, like leukemia. It has absolutely nothing to do with fast food and an utter lack of exercise.

Extreme Commuter = The New American Dream?

A couple of days ago I read this article about Extreme Commuter on Yahoo. It was very funny because just the day before, I was toying with the idea of buying a house in Tracy, CA. For my non-California friend, Mike, who reads my blog, Tracy is only a measly 60 miles from San Jose, where I work. To put things into perspective for my non-US resident friend, Helen (if she ever come around to reading my blog again), the average speed limit on a US freeway is 60 miles per hour; meaning, if my driveway IS the entrance of the freeway and I travel at exactly the speed limit and my company locates right NEXT to the freeway exit, it'll still take me a solid hour to work. But that's just not realistic expectation when so many Siliconians has figured out the same thing that I did – the only way to afford a house AND to go to work in the Silicon Valley is to move to Tracy, or any other nearby area. To put things into perspective for all, I've been advised that the commute from Tracy to San Jose is 2 hours, 1.5 if you are VERY lucky.

 

And I am almost willing to do that. It's the American dream, right? To have a REAL house? A small to minimal backyard, no conjoining walls with your neighbors. Heck, that's not even a choosing criteria anymore. I'd be more than happy to have one of those gorgeous condos right next to my apartment complex. Went browsing for the "fun" of it, $1.2 million. Ugh. This is not even about if its WORTH the money. This is about, we DON'T have $1.2 million. As my realist husband had put it, I don't think we even make enough a month to cover that mortgage. Speaking of being realistic.

 

Ah, but I missed those days when Hubby and I could just shop around (houses) for the fun of it. Knowing that if we saw something we really like, we can *realistically* afford it. A real house. A brand NEW house. Get to choose all the options – fireplace in living room, island in kitchen, separate bath and shower, room for a pool table and exercise equipment… and most importantly, don't have to worry about "that's just more stuff to lug next time we move" when we purchase additional furnitures.

Minimalistic?

My cousin said he's a minimalist. Since I don't know any other person who claims to be a minimal, I'll let you decide. I guess it wasn't as noticeable when he was living in the Silicon Valley and renting a room from his friend. I just thought he doesn't need a lot of amenities, but then he moved to LA a couple of months ago, so get this: He go a 300 sq ft bachelor. A bachelor is an apartment *without* a kitchen. I guess kitchen is not really a necessity for a single guy who never cooks.

 

My cousin asked me to send him a video clip. So to me the best sensible way of sending a video clip over 400 miles is via the internet. Sure, it might takes a while, but who sits there and watches for upload/download anyway? So I asked him. He said he preferred to have a DVD instead. I was shocked that he doesn't have high speed internet. To which his respond was, "You were only half right, I don't have internet, period." His logic was that since he was online from work all day long, he doesn't need to have internet at home. Okay....

 

The DVD posted a second problem. I can either dump the video clip onto a DVD in it original format so it's only viewable via a computer, or spend more time figuring out how to convert it so he can just pop it into a DVD player and watches it on TV. Again, the latter sounds like a better option to me. He said watching it on the computer is "perfect" because "I don't own a DVD player." O.o Now if you remember, only a few months ago, materialistic me was telling hubby how DVD players are just disposable nowadays, because a $70 generic one and a $200 name brand one will both break down at exactly one year's point. My cousin said, "My TV is only 19", what's the point?" And here I have a 43" TV in the living room, a 27" in the bedroom, and still a 27" extra one lying around in the computer room....

 

Then he proceeded to tell me, "I've also unplugged the fridge to keep the apartment cool. Having cold water is not worth the electricity bill.".....

 

So, you tell me, would you call that minimalistic or just extreme frugalness?