Disgust/Dead Skin Cells

Some people think it's funny, some people think it's quirky, and some people think I'm just exaggerating. It just disgusts me. Really. It does.

Dead skin cells, I mean.

"Most humans naturally shed up to 3 grams of dead surface skin a day, some males make an extra contribution of 0.3 g/d in the form of dust from electric shaving. Although it may seem contradictory, it has been found that frequent showering increases skin cell shedding. Other research indicates that the majority of dust in a domestic bathroom is dead shed skin cells, especially after energetic towelling. "--> http://www.vent-axia.com/sharing/dustmite.asp.

As I was saying, I loathe dead skin cells. It doesn't mean I shower less. I'm fine with people shedding dead skin cells. What I hate is when it scatters in closed places, i.e. fully-airconditioned homes, the metro, airconditioned buses. And people think it's just dust from the air, but it isn't. It's DEAD SKIN CELLS.

"Skin is alive. It's made of many thin sheets of layers of flat, stacked cells in which you'll find nerves, blood vessels, hair follicles, glands, and sensory receptors. Older cells are constantly being pushed to the surface by new cells which grow from below. When the old ones reach the top, they become wider and flatter as they get rubbed and worn by all your activity. And, sooner or later, they end up popping off like tiles blown from a roof in a strong wind. In fact, every minute 30,000-40,000 dead skin cells fall from your body! In approximately a month's time, your body has made a whole new layer of skin cells! "--> http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/noflash/body/pg000146.html

Crikey.

As I said, DISGUSTING. But no, I don't think it's going to kill me, and no, it hasn't made me socially paralyzed. I'd just rather ride an open-aired vehicle than the metro. And I'd rather see clean countertops and shelves than dusty ones. So no, I don't think it's creeping paranoia. But you are right. It's a blech-ugh-yech-eew-feeling. And this from a supposed tomboy.

From http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/disgust.htm

"DISGUST
--> Usage: Disgust shows a. in a curled upper lip; b. in digestive vocalizations, e.g., of repugnance; c. in narrowed (i.e., partly closed) eyes; d. in lowered brows of the frown face; e. in backward head-jerks and side-to-side head-shakes; and f. in visible protrusions of the tongue.

--> RESEARCH REPORTS:

1. Signs of disgust include guttural sounds (e.g., "ach" or "ugh"), a retracted upper lip, and mouth movements "preparatory to the act of vomiting" (Darwin 1872:256).

2. In "disgust-revulsion," the brows are slightly narrowed, the upper lip is raised, the lip corners are drawn down and back, the tongue is moved forward or protruded, the nose is drawn up and wrinkled (i.e., the procerus muscle draws down the medial angle of the brows to make transverse wrinkles across the bridge of the nose; Izard 1971:243).

3. Disgust shows most clearly in the lower face (Ekman, Friesen, and Tomkins 1971).

5. Additional signs include a wrinkled nose, raised nostrils, and lowered inner corners of the eyebrows (Ekman 1998:256)."

I can almost imagine Calvin, the perfect cartoon that embodies gagging when his mom makes him eat food that she cooked. Makes my whole disgust seem a little funnier.

In a dark, dusty, twisted kind of way.

If you can't apologize, stop acting like an ass.

Makes sense?
GGgggrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Belle de jour

[Spinderella cut it up one time! Hit me Come on]
CHORUS Let's talk about sex baby Let's talk about you and me
Let's talk about all the good things And the bad things that may be
Let's talk about sex
Let's talk about sex
Let's talk about sex
Let's talk about sex
Let's talk about sex
for now to the people at home or in the crowd It keeps coming up anyhow Don't decoy avoid or make void the topic Cuz that ain't gonna stop it Now we talk about sex on the radio and video shows Many will know anything goes Let's tell it how it is, and how it could be How it was, and of course, how it should be Those who think it's dirty have a choice Pick up the needle, press pause, or turn the radio off Will that stop us, Pep? I doubt it
All right then, come on, Spin
CHORUS

This song just felt appropriate for Belle de Jour. Check her out. I spent 4 hours reading through all her posts. Just because it was sooo real, yet so different from how we (Pinoys) talk about it. Our sex lives, I mean (if we ever talk about it at all).

Love it, hate it, adore it, curse it, but read it, before judging it. Her commentaries make one smile and laugh. I laughed quite a few times reading it.

But, then again, if you are on the conservative side, like I know some Filipinas seem (i.e. pretend, appear) or really are, then just move on along to the next link on my sidebar.

PS. It's subtitled 'The diary of a call girl'. She lives in UK, and she loves what she does. Quite the eye-opener, if you ask me. Go on, read it. We'll turn around, and pretend you didn't click that link ;D

Arguments and Fights

"I dunno. Let's stop this conversation right here," Guy says. "I've have had more fights with you than with any other girlfriend I've had," he said to Girl, who was sitting beside him on the metro. 

Now, a normal observer might agree with Guy. But I don't. I think they were arguing at best, disagreeing at worst. Not fighting.

They weren't speaking in elevated tones, their faces were not registering anger, and neither one was even gesticulating.

Now, I've had my fair share of arguments and fights with ex-boyfriends, friends, and family.
And the way I see it, arguments are non-emotional (logical) arguments put forth as facts and/or reasons by either side with the intention of persuasion of the other party. Fights, on the other hand are always more emotionally driven, and meant to persuade the other party, not always by reason, but by emotion, in an attempt to gain power (i.e. "Who won the fight?") over the other.

Arguments can lead to win-win solutions and/or reasonable ends, but fights, mostly just lead to hurt or resentment by one --- if not both--- parties. Most younger people fight, because emotions are misconstrued for convictions. And adults argue, because they actually want to get the facts straight. (Aside: Now don't get all technical with me, because I know you might point out that some adults act more immaturely than teens . But you know what I mean).

So what am I saying? Nothing, I guess. Now, alt-tab your way out of this post because if you disagreed with what I said, I'm sure you didn't understand my point. And that's fine.

Really.

Quick Question

Okay, okay. Blogger's downtime is over. And I went to the link to download the damn thing to be able to post pictures, but it's not freeware!!! (says it's good for only 15 days).
Call me cheap, but I don't want to spend a single cent on this blog, only because it's already time-heavy. To add one expense to upgrade it means it's just as easy to add another one, and then another, and so on. Time and money, what all relationships need. But I don't intend to have a relationship with my blog...I just wanted to share some thoughts was all.. Can anyone help me get freeware? Email me at zhinesade@yahoo.com....

In the meantime, I've tried out the free account at pbase.com. I've added a link to my 'gallery' (4 pictures, cahm ohn, jeez, stop being so critical :P).

Sahmbahdeh help meh, pretty, pretty puhleeeeeeeezzzzzzzzz.

Update:
I also added my humble ofoto portfolio hekhekhek. Feedback, anyone? :D

Photo Cheat

So I'm not the biggest expert at photography (yet hahaha), but this guy(owner, I presumed) in a store in Orlando (corner Sand Lake Rd) sold some tourists a digital camera that he said was 6 million pixels. In my head, I think '6 million pixels??? Does that mean the memory card's total amount of pixels available for use or what??? Maybe he meant megapixels.' But then, I had never heard of 6-megapixel cameras selling for 199 dollars (a sale from the normal 350 dollars cost, he said...I later looked it up, and there were indeed 6-megapixel cameras, but not this brand). The folks, father and daughter took the bait and bought it. I remember that I saw them looking at the box briefly. In my head, I thought maybe the guy was telling the truth. But something seemed fishy.
I commented on the quick sell and the owner, being all chatty, told me about the good deal. He said the 6 million pixels had very high quality. And then he commented that he looked at the pictures I took (I was in the place to have pics transferred from my digicam to a CD) and said they were 'OK' quality. Then, he asked me how many 'million pixels' my camera was. 3.2, I said, again correcting him in my head, but trying to act polite. He rambled about what much better quality the camera he was selling had, etc, etc. But I looked disinterestedly at him, and maybe a little disgustedly (hey, the guy had the Razor Ramon hair, but had a very ghetto-looking face, and a hawaiian shirt on) and he moved on to the next customer, as the other sales guy was figuring out what was wrong because he couldn't successfully copy my pics to the CD.
Anyway, as the man walked away, I asked this other sales guy to see the box that the camera they were selling came in. Sure, he said. I looked at the camera, and it said 3.0 megapixels.
WHAAAAATTTTTTT!!!!!!!! Those folks were cheated. And the camera wasn't even from a known brand.
And so I started getting pissed for the father-daughter combo, and then Mr. Razor Ramon faker came back over and commented to the other sales guy that it was not his laptop that was broken (yes, they were using a laptop that was actually for sale to copy my pics into a CD), but my memory card. I could feel my ears heating up. Mustering my last sense of decency, I politely asked the other guy if I could take a look at it. After they spent almost an hour trying to copy the pics over, it took me all of 10 mins to do it. And I paid them 19.99 for it.
Photo Cheat.

And so many people think these things only happen in Manila.

They might have more spending power than us, and speak english more clearly than us, but values are values and an honest day's work is an honest day's work, wherever you go. A camera is a camera, and a lying cheat is a lying cheat.

Pictures never lie, mostly, whether they're 2 megapixels or 6. People do. But then, again, as photographers say, it's all a matter of perspective.

Kokomo....

Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya to Bermuda, Bahama, come o pretty mama....

Nuninuninu...

Nassau, Bahamas was excellent....I literally swam with the fish. For at least 50 meters. Continuous. Do you know how good that feels? To have fish swim right beside you for at least 5 minutes in sea? Awesome. Got me a freshly carved dolphin and some trinkets for my sistahs. Went parasailing and saw the whole Blue Lagoon island (if you've heard of it --- yes, this is where they shot those films...). 5 minutes of heaven. No other way to describe it. Send me a message and I'll send you the 15-second video fo the panoramic view from the height we were at :D

Orlando was a different story.
SeaWorld
Orcas and dolphins, otters and sea lions, manatees and mermaids, alligators(only upper teeth are visible when mouth closed) and crocs(upper and lower teeth visible when mouths closed). We rode the 2 rides that they had. Kraken was a lot of fun! You will not be let down.
Islands of Adventure
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a kid at heart, what can I say. And you know how people who TRY to follow the straight and narrow, how we loathe people who try to butt in the line? ( in Pinoy terms, mga singit :P) Well, here, it's legal. When you get the express pass plus, of course. So we got there at 1. And rode all the rides worth riding with a maximum wait time of 10 minutes (this one was at Poseidon's Fury --- a walking tour, not even a ride). ha. Ha. HA. HA.

Back to work.