Christian Louboutin... dream

Bikki 140 Pony Mary Jane Pumps, $581

Bikki 140 Leather Mary Jane Pumps, $581

Pampas Pumps 150mm, $551

Lady Daf 160mm Pumps Amethyst, $581

Aveeno?

I'm not sure if this winter is extra drying to my skin, but I have been noticing that my sensitive skin has been ultra itchy... dry... and here's something new: I have suddenly begun to develop painful cracks/cuts and uncomfortable tightness. These painful cuts have been driving me nuts. :( I saw that reapplying lotion several times a day helps, so that reassures me that it's just skin dryness. I've also learned today that AJAX dish soap aggravates my skin and makes it more painful.

Since Palmer's cocoa butter doesn't work anymore, I'm thinking about switching all of my lotions and body wash. :( As a kid, my parents always bought me Dove soap, but I've decided to try Aveeno. I had no idea that they were a company that was sensitive to people with skin issues. A lot of their products are made with oatmeal, lanolin, and are fragrance and dye free. They also have a body wash that is "soap-free," which is a total mind fuck for me. o_O I'm not gonna lie, their "hydrating fig + shea butter" body wash is taunting me. But since my skin is so bad right now, maybe I'll get it another time. Nonetheless, I'm a bit skeptical by all the claims Aveeno makes, but I read a lot of reviews and customers with painful cracked skin mentioned how surprised they are by its efficacy. Apparently their secret is colloidal oats (an oatmeal protein that soothes and protects skin) and dimethicone (skin protectant--which of course the nerd in me found out that it works well because its molecules are too large to penetrate the skin).

SHOPPING LIST!

fragrance free, soap-free, dye-free, hypoallergenic body wash

I think I'm going to get this instead of the regular daily moisturizer because of its extra dry skin claim, extra oats, etc. and customers say it works well during dry winter seasons. I'm kind of skeptical about the menthol part, I've never used it on my skin before. :\

WTF. I'm overwhelmed, apparently Cetaphil and Eucerin are also good products for ultra dry sensitive skin (although I think Eurcerin might be better than Cetaphil based on reading ingredients). Oh well, Aveeno serves as the first trial.

Rant done. :p

Hind-what? For Di. :D

If it wasn't for that giant honors history project back in 9th grade, I probably would never really know Indonesian history.

Ok--so mom is from Balikpapan, Indonesia and dad is from Freeport, Bahamas.

Mom

Today the dominant religion in Indonesia is Islam, but before Arab merchants immigrated in the 14th century, the dominant religions were Buddhism and Hinduism. Indian traders brought Shaivite Hinduism around the 4th or 5th centuries while Buddhism came maybe a century after. If you encounter Indonesians, you'll notice that although they practice Islam, they all still have Hindu names and mannerisms lol. For example mom's first name is Sri which is the Hindu Javanese goddess for prosperity, also known as India's Lakshimi (Vishnu's consort).

Dad

Currently the Bahamas is Catholic (which explains why dad was Catholic first and then converted to Islam in his early teens, thanks to the Nation of Islam and the Black Panther Movement). The Bahamas was originally inhabited by the Lucayans/Taino who are basically a mixture of what we know as modern day Haiti, Dominican Republic, and South America. The Hindu history basically came from East Indians who came to Trinidad, thus "Indo-Trinidadians" and they had spread it around the West Indies. What's sad to me about this whole thing is that no one on dad's side has record of anything and there really isn't any information online. I feel like there is so much back and forth. X_x I guess it's complex because a lot of countries and cultures are meshed in. As of this morning, I learned that you can only find the names of his ancestors in England's family registries. I would ask dad, but I don't feel like hearing his emotional rants because of his intense grudge against white people. -_-' So yeah, dad's history is not recorded as well as mom's and learning about it is a work in progress.

Cool point: I learned that in addition to my Irish, Native American and obviously Bahamian/Haitian blood, I'm also from Barbados. WHOA.

Honestly I think I'm more and more like a mutt because of his side.

Ok bai.

irony.

not to be a prude, but i think it's interesting how we're all expected to say "merry christmas" yet when eid rolls around, i don't recall anyone else wishing me a happy eid ul-fitr or eid ul-adha. and don't start that bullshit about "this is america" because i don't remember history ever depicting white christian people to be natives. honestly, if you're not white, i'm sure christianity wasn't your ancestors' original religion. and yes, eid is on all the damn standard calendars.

oh snap, time to digress.

now that i think about it, my "original" religion is hinduism. which is interesting because even though my parents' countries are seas apart, they both were historically hindu. O_O

whatever. since i'm supposedly liberal and into the equality thing. fuck it. merry xmas to those who celebrate it.

Not sure if being "home" means it's worth feeling hurt everyday.

Well I haven't balanced equations in like. Forever.

I guess ShoutMix is going out of the window

So I got a long ass e-mail from my shoutbox provider...

"I have two choices. One, allow ShoutMix to become unsustainable. This is bad news for everyone. The other choice is to stop our free service. It is becoming obvious that this is where ShoutMix should go. And so, ShoutMix is not going to be free any more.

Existing users will be able to continue using their accounts at no cost right now. The transition will begin within a few weeks. Eventually, users with free accounts will need to switch to a paying plan or stop using the service. The date is set at January 1, 2012. After this date, free accounts will stop working unless upgraded to a paid plan."

Oh well. Goodbye shoutbox area. I was getting annoyed of deleting posts from spammers anyway. Fuck it. o_O

Paranoid? Can't even trust my damn apple juice. Why does America think consumers will never catch on?

Are America’s Kids Drinking Arsenic and Lead in Fruit Juice?

• by Jaelithe Judy
• December 2, 2011
• 11:00 am

Are U.S. children who drink fruit juice at risk of exposure to potentially harmful levels of arsenic?

No, said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September, in a paper titled “Apple Juice is Safe to Drink,” released by the FDA in response to an episode of the Dr. Oz Show that claimed tests commissioned by the show had found potentially unsafe levels of arsenic in certain U.S. apple juice brands. The FDA roundly criticized the Dr. Oz Show for its testing methods, claiming that the show did not take steps to distinguish between inorganic arsenic — which is a known carcinogen — and organic arsenic — which the FDA considers to be a less harmful form of the naturally occurring element.

Yes, says a Consumer Reports study released this week, in which ten percent of the samples of popular apple and grape juice brands tested came back positive for inorganic arsenic levels above the U.S. legal limit for safe drinking water. And it gets worse: one in four of the juice samples also tested positive for levels of lead above the legal drinking water limit.

In July of this year (months before, I should note, the Dr. Oz episode on arsenic in apple juice aired), I wrote that a study commissioned by the Empire State Consumer Project found potentially alarming levels of poisonous arsenic in certain brands of fruit juice that are commonly marketed to children. The Empire State study revealed that certain samples of Mott’s apple juice to be more than five times the U.S. legal limit for safe drinking water.

It was a small study, with a limited sample size, but the Empire State results echoed findings revealed in a March 2010 expose by the St. Petersburg Times: independent scientific tests commissioned by the newspaper showed that out of 18 samples of popular apple juice brands, more than one quarter contained between 25 and 35 parts per billion of arsenic — also well above the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency’s limit for safe levels in drinking water, which is just 10 parts per billion.

Where is the arsenic in fruit juice coming from? Some arsenic exists naturally at low levels in soil and water, but arsenic has also been used for decades as a wood preservative and as an ingredient in agricultural pesticides. Many pesticides that contain arsenic have been banned in the United States, but some soils here are still contaminated. And arsenic-based pesticides are still in heavy use in China — which now exports most of the apple juice concentrate used by U.S. juice companies.

In that same July post on arsenic in juice, I also noted that testing by the Environmental Law Foundation conducted on juice drinks and snack foods commonly marketed to children found significant levels of lead in 85% of 150 brands tested.

Lead contamination of plants and trees can occur where soil has contaminated by lead-based paint, industrial waste or leaded gasoline.

Arsenic and lead are both poisonous in large doses to humans, and chronic exposure at low levels can be harmful to both adults and children; both chemicals are linked to cancer, damage to the nervous system and heart disease.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/are-americas-kids-drinking-arsenic-and-lead-in-fruit-juice.html#ixzz1gesdsceQ

Tired and moody. Finals week makes me want to go on a bitch slapping spree.

raaawwrrr <(~_~)>

Friendship is fleeting. Networth is permanent. When you visit King Tut's tomb, what do you see? His friends? No. His gold.

my favorite new saying^

...JOKINGLY, this is taking a jab at acquaintances.

"fuck people, get money." -http://twitter.com/harvardasianguy

sure there's always a more sincere way to do things, but GET REAL. money defines what you have, just pray that it doesn't change you and your so-called morals.

When you realize you can actually learn things in school. Mind blown.

Microwave cake, guys.

Okay... so in the midst of studying for finals, I was really craving some chocolate cake. Any cake really, I just had a sweet tooth is all. I felt like I had most of the ingredients necessary to make a cake from scratch, ...just no means of a real oven. Balls.

BUT OH WAIT. Lightbulb. They call them microwave OVENS for a reason, riiiight?? Right.

And here we are, surfing hand-in-hand with le'Google. BAM. Microwave cake recipes...

apparently I wasn't the only one who considered it. Anyway, I took a midnight break and decided to experiment despite the negative "bitter" and "tough" comments people left about the idea in general.

The original recipe called for...

4 tbsp. all purpose flour

4 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa

1 egg

3 tbsp. milk

3 tbsp. oil

1 large mug :D

Combine ingredients in large mug and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Let it sit in the microwave for an additional 2 minutes, then remove and enjoy.

And the results...

The texture was a little stiff and was more bread like. It wasn't bitter because I tasted the batter first and it was indeed bitter (my guess is the cocoa powder ratio) and so I added 2 tsp. of vanilla extract. Tasted so much better. But I was still unhappy with its stiffness, if I wanted chocolate bread...this would be the ultimate recipe. So I decided to try again and edit the recipe.

My tweaked recipe (so far)...

4 tbsp. all purpose flour

4 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
1 egg

3 tbsp. milk

3 tbsp. oil

2tbsp. apple butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

*reduce cooking time by 30sec to 1min.

And the results...

It definitely tasted better and was a lot more moist. I think I'm not done experimenting until I find a texture that I like the most and a flavor I like. This kind of came out a little too sweet for my taste, I think I'll reduce the sugar if I'm going to add something like apple butter. I kind of want to try a light lemon version.

Today's lesson: when you're broke, don't own an oven and you're too much of a penny pincher like myself to by a table top convection oven... nothing is ever impossible! Yay for microwaves lol.