MY 1st BLOG ANNIVERSARY

Oh my! What a slip-up! I just realized that my blog has already turned 1-year old just last week (May 20th) and have completely forgotten about it. Well, it's never too late to write a post and celebrate...

Wow, my blog journey this past year has been exciting! I can still clearly remember that day I created this blog where I didn't know exactly where to start and what to write. All I knew that time was that I want my little voice to be heard somehow, broaden my reach and make new friends through this experience.

There were days when I couldn't contain myself in sharing what I have in mind and keep posting away like crazy, and there were also those extremely busy (or lazy) days where keeping the blog updated is a struggle. But overall, my blogging experience has been so fun and enjoyable -- I have learned a lot of things (from HTML to blog promotion), met a lot of people along the way, and have been motivated by the great feedback and very encouraging comments I get from friends and even from complete strangers who drop by.

This blog also opened the way for me to create another blog, one which I share with my hubby and focuses only on photography which is our shared passion. The direction for this blog became much clearer when I decided that Reflections by Mariz will serve mainly and specifically only as a podium for my musings and views, while Mix Pix - my other blog, will be a photo gallery.

This past year wouldn't have been so wonderful if not for everyone who took the effort to visit this blog, and some even leave their mark by commenting/dropping a note at the chat box which I tremendously appreciate, and even more special thanks to those subscribing to this blog -- you guys are the best!

Thank you so soooo much to everyone for making this home warmer with you visit, readership, love and support! Most importantly, thank you LORD for seeing me through this past year and making this experience possible.

More years to come for this blog!!!! Woohooooo!!!!

Beautiful Crowning Glory

It has always been said that a woman's hair is her crowning glory, and who doesn't want to wear a crown everyone will admire, hence we must make an effort to maintain and keep our hair well-groomed, beautiful and healthy. Here are some tips to do just that:

1. Proper washing keeps hair shiny and healthy. Do not use shampoos with strong chemicals, test the effectiveness of each brand you want to try and stick with what is compatible with your hair.

2. Massage your scalp. While shampooing your hair, treat yourself to a scalp massage. Spread your fingers over your scalp and give the scalp a two minute massage. Massage stimulates the scalp and increases blood flow. The hair is nourished by the increased blood flow to the scalp.

3. Rinse thoroughly. For shiny, glossy hair rinse completely and then rinse again. Hair that is not completely rinsed has a dull film on it. A tablespoon of vinegar in the rinse water gets the residue out of the hair and helps it shine.

4. Condition. After washing and rinsing the hair, put conditioner on, starting on the ends. Concentrate the conditioner on the ends, as the older hair on the ends is older and more damaged. Rinse the conditioner out thoroughly before drying.

5. Drying Hair. The hot air blowing from the blow dryer is damaging to the air. When possible, let the hair dry naturally. When necessary to style with the blow dryer, use a cool setting so that it is not as damaging on the hair.

6. Brush Hair. If there are tangles in the hair, start at the bottom and get the tangles out gently. A natural bristle brush works best to distribute the hair oils and stimulates the scalp. For curls use a small round barrel brush. Straight hair benefits most from a broad paddle brush, to give it a sleek look. For very curly hair, a pick or wide toothed comb separates the curls and gives definition. It is important not to brush hair when it is wet, as it stretches and breaks when it is wet and at it's weakest.

7. Trim as needed. Keep the ends fresh with regular trims. Trims are the best way to get rid of damaged, split ends.

8. Adequate diet. Just like the rest of your body, hair needs proper nourishment to be at it's healthiest. Proper diet will benefit your body, skin, brain and hair. Hair is a protein and especially needs protein rich foods. High protein foods include fish, chicken, lean meat, eggs and soy products. Fatty acids are also important for hair health. Good sources of fatty acids include nuts, especially walnuts and almonds. Fish and flaxseed oil are also great sources of fatty acids. B Vitamins, particularly B6 and B12 are important to the health of the hair. B Vitamins are found in whole grain foods, fruits and vegetables.

9. Vitamins. Vitamin supplements for the hair include B Vitamins and minerals, as well as other vitamins. A good multiple vitamin may give just the boost you need to supplement a good diet.

Here's a short survey about maintaining beautiful hair...

American Idol Mania

Hubby and I are among those who watch American Idol consistently, since we enjoy seeing fresh young talents about to be discovered. Throughout this season, our top favorite has been Adam Lambert, next to him we like Kris Allen. So having both of these guys in the finale was really exhilarating to see.

American Idol had certainly put out their best in the finale show (the AI crowning was way better than the top 2 performance show though), the coronation show was fantastic! We were simply blown away with the the performances from the guest artists and their stints with the contestants. It was indeed the best finale show out of all the 8 seasons.

We had high hopes for Adam Lambert to win, as he is the most talented among the pack, and most deserving of the title (in my opinion, he is even the best contestant to step foot on Idol stage, he's a total entertainer). Week after week, Adam wowed the audiences with his unique and brilliant performances. People just couldn't get enough of him and everyone, especially the judges, are always excited to see what he is going to do next on the show since he always surprises audiences with great renditions.

But when the moment of truth arrived, like the millions of disheartened Adam Lambert fans out there, we were shocked with the results! Like everyone else, we were expecting Adam to take home the title, but sadly that didn't happen. And although Kris Allen was also an outstanding contestant (and a very nice and humble guy I must add), Adam was obviously the perfect fit for the crown - his vocal skills, stage presence and star charisma have definitely earned him the attention which outshadowed the other contestants. Nevertheless, despite this biggest "AI upset", Adam is surely guaranteed of a huge career ahead, this fact we can definitely see to be crystal clear.

Sad as it may be, things like this happen for a reason. Perhaps Kris needed the title more to propel his career, while Adam can survive and still shine even without a title. But what's truly amazing to note is that Kris and Adam have both been so humble and gracious in their victory/defeat. In their post-Idol appearances and interviews, you can see the love and respect they have for each other, their genuine friendship emanates, which only proves the point that although much has been said (many controversies arise) about Kris' win or Adam's loss, these two have remained to be good and true gentlemen and very sincere people. Here's a video to show this...

Bottomline in all these is - what's most important is that their talents have been showcased for the world to see and enjoy, and we'll look forward for more of what they can offer.

Loving Thai Food

I really find Thai food irresistible. Besides the fact that their way of cooking is similar to Filipino cooking techniques and the ingredients they use are what we commonly use as well, the hot & spicy twist in most of their dishes is what would make anyone desire for more.

I found this video in YouTube which is I think is an excellent cooking video reference. Let me share it with you.... (this recipe is very famous in Thailand, and very easy to prepare so get your pen and paper ready to take notes or better yet, save this video as well for your future use).

THAI BASIL CHICKEN FRIED RICE

Enjoy!

My Linux Ubuntu Miracle

Since last night and up to this moment as I am writing this, my face is gleaming with joy because of a computer problem breakthrough I had last night. You see, hubby's laptop has been in operational hiatus for several months now because of a sudden mysterious breakdown it had (up to now we still couldn't figure out the cause of it, but I was suspecting it was an erroneous Windows Update, I hear that PC breakdown happens all the time because of this).

Anyways, the PC just went bizerk and Windows Vista does not load, all you'd see after it unsuccessfully boots is a black screen, the rescue and recovery tool has also gone haywire and has disappeared (corrupted too I guess). So, being the trying hard techie geek I am, I've tried all sorts of solutions to fix the problem, I did a lot of googling to see similar problems and how they were solved, but all of these to no avail. Since Vista comes loaded with the laptop and we do not have the installation and recovery disks, I've turned to other available options like using NeoSmart's Vista Recovery CD - a promising solution which worked wonders for others (but sadly didn't work for ours), rescue and recovery re-installation which didn't work either, and many other techie exploits.

Like anyone having this kind of dilemma, hubby and I were most concerned for the files (more importantly the photos) which would be lost and wiped out completely if we are to do a re-installation of Windows which seemed to be the only possible solution, so we were looking at that step as a final resort. We've put aside the laptop for a while, stubborn as we are, we still didn't turn it in to a repair shop (since I was still hopeful I could do something about it and I knew that the technician would most likely do reformat and re-installation just the same, so why bother sending it to one when I could just do that myself anyway should worse comes to worst). Well, that stubborness proved to be a good thing after all!

As the saying goes.. never say die! So, I gave the laptop one last shot these past 2 days before finally surrendering, and woohooo! this is where Google really comes in handy. After having to research many hours and (reading tons of posts in PC troubleshooting forums), I came across this "heaven sent OS" (operating System) - Ubuntu!!! (can't hide my glee, huh!).

I've heard about this Linux OS before but have dismissed it as I was under the (wrong) impression that it's designed only for programmers and that it's too hi-tech or too far-fetched as far as user-friendliness is concerned. Like many "brainwashed" users of Microsoft Windows systems, I never once considered any other existing OS out there to be at par with Windows, and boy was I very wrong!

Ubuntu is a FREE operating system, no need to spend a dime on downloading and using it (unlike Windows), and it proved to be our "PC-life saver". From my researching, I gathered that Ubuntu can save a dead PC and its installation disk utilities can help recover files from a PC that no longer boots properly. So what I did was I downloaded Ubuntu installation disk into a DVD, and used it for our laptop boot-up and presto! I was able to recover and save our lost files from the previously inaccessible hard disk. Hubby and I were so ecstatic about this, we almost lost hope of saving our valued photos (never mind the other files! by the way, big lesson learned - back-up, back-up, back-up!)

We got so excited that we decided to do away with Windows Vista on hubby's revived laptop, so I installed Ubuntu OS instead, I'm so glad I did! After exploring this new OS, which comes with built in free software applications too (like OpenOffice, in place of Windows MS Office), I discovered how user-friendly it is, how simple and straight forward the OS is, and how easily we can adapt to this OS. It proves to be a very efficient and easy to use OS (I realized it's even more preferred by many after having been to many tech forums).

Most definitely, we're giving this OS a try for hubby's laptop. I'm not doing away (yet) with my own laptop's preloaded Vista, so hubby and I can have 2 different OS to compare and evaluate side to side, but having discovered Ubuntu really provided the desperately needed fix we were looking for to bring back hubby's dead PC to life, it proves to be an excellent and impressive OS alternative. Big thanks to the developers! (If you want to check it out for yourself, click on Ubuntu's logo or link above).

New Superstar: Susan Boyle

Much talk has been going around about this "now very famous lady - Susan Boyle". She is currently a contestant for Britain's Got Talent show, and would you believe that this audition video has received over 140 million views (all uploaded videos like this) in YouTube to date. She has been interviewed already by Oprah, invited by President Barack Obama himself for dinner (although for some reason she turned down this big opportunity), have been extended public admiration by many Hollywood celebrities and have been featured in many newspapers and magazines.

So what exactly is the public clamor all about? What opened the door to her fame? Check out this video and you'll know the answer...

Awesome Facts

Got this from a friend and found a lot of these awesome facts very interesting and amusing, quite a read, but it's worthwhile...

New York’s Central Park is nearly twice the size of the entire country of Monaco.

A watermelon is a vegetable, not a fruit. Eggplant is not a vegetable, it is a fruit.

Traces of cocaine were found in 99% of UK bank notes in a survey in London in 2000.

Every hour, one billion cells in the body must be replaced.

There are no penguins in the North Pole.

Karate actually originated in India, but was developed further in China.

The faster a kangaroo hops, the less energy it burns.

Dating back to the 1600’s, thermometers were filled with Brandy instead of mercury.

Giraffes are unable to cough.

Beavers can swim half a mile underwater on one gulp of air.

Most cell phone antennas have no purpose other than to make people believe that flipping up a two-inch antenna just gave them better reception.

A rat can fall from a five storey building without injury.

Penguins can convert salt water into fresh water.

35% of the people using personal ads for dating are already married.

The average human body contains .1 mg of uranium, .2 mg of gold, and 7 mg of arsenic.

President George W. Bush was once a cheerleader.

A rainbow can only be seen in the morning or late afternoon.

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.

One quarter of the human brain is used to control the eyes.

When a person dies, hearing is usually the last sense to go.

80% of 10 year old girls in the US go on a diet.

Drivers kill more deers than hunters.

Pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than new cars.

The first product that Sony came out with was the rice cooker.

First cousin marriages are legal in Utah, as long as they are both 65 years old or older.

Nearly 22,000 checks will be deducted from the wrong account over the next hour.

The Australian $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 notes are made out of plastic.

The odds of being killed from falling out of bed is one in two million.

A pound of potato chips costs 200 times more than a pound of potatoes.

James Bond is also known as Mr. Kiss-Kiss-Bang-Bang.

Pearl melts in vinegar.

The number of births that occur in India each year is higher than the entire population of Australia.

It takes about 63,000 trees to make the newsprint for the average Sunday edition of the New York Times.

The Japanese commonly put ketchup on their rice.

Wearing yellow makes you look bigger on camera, green, smaller.

In older people, memory is best early in the morning and then declines during the late afternoon.

Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk.

In its ancient form, the carrot was purple, not orange.

Do The Math

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." -Eric Hoffer

I couldn't agree more with what this wise man has said. At times, when we are faced with difficulties, when our expectations are not met, when we get disappointed by people and everyday challenges, it becomes easy to magnify these negative things and forget that there are still many things to be thankful for. We need to remind ourselves that happiness is a decision -- it is a state of mind one chooses to be in, it is not just a result of experiences or things that happen. In good or bad times, we can choose to be happy and stay happy.

No matter how hard it may be, let us not forget to do the math -- to count our blessings, for when we do, it will surely multiply our joy and contentment.

Getting The Groove Back

Hi! I'm back.

Hubby and I have settled and adjusted pretty well in our new place, but had to wait quite a while for the internet line to get up and running. I really missed blog hopping and visiting friends, now it's time for me to do a lot of catching up.

Thanks to everyone who still came by my site though I was on a break, special thanks to those who left comments and wished us well on our move.

Ok, time to pick up the momentum and get some nice articles posted...