Beauty Moments: Make Up, Nails, Hair, Skincare, Fashion
Click on the image above or Click Here
for my beauty blog

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Names Influence Who You Are?

A lot of people scour the web and baby books to find suitable and meaningful names for their newborns.  Does it really make a difference whether your child's name means beautiful, honest, wise, and so on and so forth?  Do names actually play a part to determine or rather influence who you are?  Your personality, the way you view the world?  Or is it a matter of nature vs nurture?

Personally, I have no idea.  But from observation, I have noticed some similar traits in people with the same names (which unfortunately examples elude me at the moment).

Many many years ago (when I was in secondary school), I was acquainted to a website introducing the Kabalarian Philosphy which studies first names since 1930 and for a fee, provides you with an analysis report of your name based on the research they've done.  I am not endorsing the accuracy of this website or this method or philosophy but it's always fun to explore.

So here's what they say about my first name:

  • You have a great love of nature and the out-of-doors.
     
  • All the finer things of life and beauties of nature are an inspiration to you and you are attracted to the mysteries of nature.
     
  • Difficulty in expression results in your being too positive, blunt, and candid in speech and although you are easily offended by others, you do not show it.
     
  • You crave affection and understanding, but rarely find it as others do not understand you and accuse you of being cool and aloof.
     
  • The average person would never realize the true depth of your nature.
  • Although first name creates an interest in the deeper aspects of life, we emphasize that it causes a blunt expression that alienates others.
     
  • This name, when combined with the last name, can frustrate happiness, contentment, and success, as well as cause health weaknesses in the lungs, heart, bronchial area, and tension or accidents to the head.

There is also a free standard name report service that provides evaluation of your first name, last name, the combination of both names and birth date analysis (purpose of life and inner potential).  But for that you will have to fill up another form and they will email the results to you.  I personally have never tried this service despite it being labelled as "free".  With all the marketing gimmicks implemented on the internet these days, even free means "it's free if..." and you start getting spam in your inboxes (no bueno).

Personally, I see some truth in their brief analysis of my first name above.  But I wouldn't be too sucked into the whole concept though.  It's interesting that there even is a study of names since a lot of names were given because they sounded nice/beautiful, from an ancestor, trendy, religious... and the reasons go on.  More often than not, the decision to name a child isn't scientific.

Have you tried the website to check your name?  How close were they to your personality?

For those who know me in person, how true do you find the above description to be of me?

Monday, November 15, 2010

One Step At A Time

These days my time has been filled with work, home and gym.  Of course I try to make time for friends as well and was glad that I got to do that last weekend.

I'm still in the process of reorganizing my room and it has been taking longer than I'd planned.  I've bought the new pieces except for one big piece and am just excited to start putting everything together and be done with it.  Haha.  Hopefully I'll get everything done by month's end.

Work has been draining me still and no longer fun for me as it used to be.  I believe that you should love your job.  When you no longer do, it's time to move on and take on other challenges.  I really wish that my mum was here for me to talk to her about my concerns.  I could definitely use her wisdom and advise right about now.

OK.  I'm kinda getting off track here.  Anyways, I've started another blog that follows my thoughts and experiences while losing weight, being healthier and improving my fitness.  I'll also be talking about other related topics there based on my own experience, observation and literary research.  If you'd like to read more, you can check it out here.  I've also put a link up top so you can easily click on the image to head over to that blog.

Need to get me some food now.  So, til next post!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

30 Day Challenge... Can I Cope? (Post #9)

This was a pretty ambitious and rather tall order to fulfill and I'm beginning to find it to be quite a chore to be honest.  So, here's what I'm going to do.  Instead of a 30 Day Challenge, I'm just gonna look at it as a 30 Post Challenge and it will come along in order but not on a daily basis.

I've been quite overwhelmed lately with everything going on.  And I will have to take this at a slower pace than is entailed by this challenge.

For the 9th Post: A photo I took...


I'm not really sure what bird this is but if anyone of you out there knows, drop me a comment and let me know.  This was taken quite recently at Pacific Sutera during my BFF's pre-wedding photoshoot.  The poor bird supposedly had broken its wings and couldn't fly off.  You could seriously get super upclose and the bird won't budge.  And the colors were so vibrant.

For the 10th Post, I'll have to go digging in the family photo album or something to share.  Til then (and posts in between).

Here are a few updates:


  • My online boutique which launched some time in February this year will be closing its doors very soon.  I'll be having a clearance sale very very soon when I get the chance to sort through everything.  At present I'm unable to make the boutique as I'd want it to be and I'm not much for half-hearted ventures.  I had a blast with the boutique and thank everyone for the experience.
  • Since I've started embarking on improving my fitness level (and losing weight in the process), I'm going to finally come through with my fitness and weight loss blog.  That will be up soon.  I feel it might help as motivation as well as a means to track my progress and hopefully inspire some of you to increase your fitness as well as be healthy.  I'll also be posting some things about weight loss supplements and slimming centres and share some of my experiences with you.
  • My beauty blog 30 Day Challenge will also be following in the footsteps of this challenge.
  • I've been posting a bunch of reviews on my Luuux website (link here) which you can go and check out.  So far there's been a bunch of elf product reviews there which I'll be listing on my beauty blog soon.
So that's all for now.

Much luv,

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Day 8: A Photo That Makes You Angry/Sad

For Day 8, I'm supposed to share a photo that evokes anger and/or sadness for me.  For me, I don't generally have a photo that gives me that effect.  But looking at a photo of my mummy for instance when she was happy regardless if she was already sick or not makes me (wanna) cry because I just miss her so and I do feel sad that I can't spend time with her anymore like I used to.

Other types of photos that makes me sad are photos of abuse.  It just freaks me out.  Seriously.

What kind of photos make you feel angry or sad (or both)?

Day 7: A Photo That Makes You Happy

This is a bit tough since I don't really know which photo makes me happy.  But anything with my baby brother definitely puts a smile on my face.  I can't really describe it.  Haha.  Imagine me lost for words.  This might be the shortest post in the history of my blog and I'm contemplating actually putting a photo here with good reason.

A more general type of photo that makes me happy will have to be a photo with 2 people completely and madly in love with each other, they needn't say a word to prove anything because their skin glows and their eyes sparkle.  It's kinda cliche but yes, if you look closely, you may just catch that glimmer.  It just makes you remember all the beautiful things in the world.

P/S: Would you believe that this is my 100th post for this blog?  So happy.  Thanks to everyone who've supported me here.

Love.

Day 6: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

So Day 6's challenge is to blog about anything I feel like blogging about -- in other words freestyle blogging.  There are gonna be a few of these posts coming up (Day 12, 18, 24, 30) and I'll get to them accordingly.

Now I'm going to be talking about something that has just caught my attention and that's this really cool online photo editor called "Picnik":


Since Blogger saves it's images on PicasaWeb, I was clicking around and as I clicked on the "Edit" button on the somewhat top right corner above the images, a new window (within the site) emerged and up came Picnik.

So what exactly can you do with Picnik?  Here's an idea:



Click on the images above to enlarge
(Hold down the "Ctrl" or "Command" key to open in new tab)

You can also download the editor as a plug-in or add on to your browser (click here for a list of supported browsers).

More fun stuff you can do with Picnik:



If you haven't tried this out yet, definitely give it a shot.  You can use the editor on photos from a host of websites (PicasaWeb, flikr, facebook, photobucket, myspace, webshots and web) as well as your computer.  And guess what?  This service is free, no registration required!  (Of course if you like, you can opt for the Premium account at $24.95/year)

Day 5: Your Favorite Quote

Okies.  For my Day 5 post, I'm supposed to write about my favorite quote.  This will require some extra thinking since off the top of my head I can't really recall any particular quote deemed a favorite of mine.  I know usually when I do hear or read it it'll totally hit me to be a quote that I love.  Let's see.


I've lived by this quote for the longest time.  I believe that if you don't like other people to do something to you or to act a certain way towards you, then you should keep in mind to not do those things or act that way towards other people as well.  It's a very simple concept but is very very important to practice in my opinion.


Another one that I've come to believe and have been proven true time and time again is that everything happens for a reason and usually when you're faced with a sad event, adversity, problems and generally depressing things, when you feel like your world has gone gloomy and you can't ever imagine the days will get better and everything will be OK, just keep pushing through and something good will await.  In a way it's saying don't give up hope and faith and just keep at it.

So yea, those are my I suppose top 2 quotes that I live by.  What's yours?

Monday, November 8, 2010

Day 4: Your Favorite Book

So the Day 4 topic was my fave book.  Wow.  Honestly.  I haven't read a lot of books lately to even be able to have a fave.  Nonetheless, for this challenge, I'll share a few of the books that I'm loving:


Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual by Bobbi Brown (RM127.81 from Kinokuniya)
I absolutely love this book.  I think if you're starting out with make up and want to learn tips and tricks and improve your make up application skills as well as the types of products to use for your skin (and others), then this is a must have book.  I have a couple other Bobbi Brown books that I've recently purchased but have not had a chance to fully appreciate the contents yet.  I love Bobbi for her simplicity and her philosophy of bringing out the beauty inside a person without having to hide the person under a ton of make up.  Her style is very laid back yet concise.

Generation T by Megan Nicolay ($10.37 from Amazon.com)
I'd originally read this book when my mum picked it out for me at the library while we were browsing for books to borrow (actually she was browsing, I was the person who carried the books).  I loved it!  There were just so many ideas to transform a regular T-shirt and I just had to get my own copy.  It totally introduced my to the T-shirt reconstruction community on LiveJournal (I'm not a member, just a viewer) and to an awesome fashion student (then Biology student) called NinjaToshiba (now known as ricesushi02).  There's a sequel to the book with more projects but I think I still like the first one.

The Right Moves by Tina Schwager and Michele Schuerger (RM62.65 from Just 4 You)
This book I've had for 10 years (bought on 6 November 2000).  I was having terrible self-image and body issues when I was in school (and am still struggling with now) and this book is simply amazing.  I totally recommend this to everyone whether you're a teen or a young adult (heck, or a full blown adult).  It's divided into 3 main sections addressing mental preparation/positive mindsets and motivation, food and working out.  It helped me a whole lot during that time and it's a book I need to get back to now to remind me about feeling good about myself.  This is definitely one of the best books I've read so far.



Thursday, November 4, 2010

Day 3: Your Favorite Television Program

I have a whole lot of fave TV shows and I'll list a few here for today's topic:

Bones
- Photo from Don't Call Me Bones! -

Glee
- Photo from Season 8 -

Ghost Whisperer
- Photo from DVD Collects -

Criminal Minds

Day 2: Your Favorite Movie

I know I said I was gonna post Day 2 late yesterday but I was so exhausted from training and other stuff it just didn't happen.  So it looks like today will be Day 2 after all and this challenge should end on Dec 1st.

Anyways, to the post of the day: My favorite movie...

Cruel Intentions
- Photo from Similar Movies -

The movie was the modern interpretation of the movie "Dangerous Liaisons" and featured younger talent.  The movie is a classic for me.  Love it.

Again, I can't really say that this movie is my only fave because it isn't.  I love watching movies and a lot has impacted me one way or another.  A few other movies that I've recently love:


  • How To Train A (Your?) Dragon
  • The Expendables
  • Inception
  • The Backup Plan
  • Twilight Saga
  • Harry Potter
And believe me, the list goes on and on.  *smiles*

See you again tomorrow!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Day 1: Your Favorite Song

Some time in July I had put up a post on the 30 Day Challenge (Click here for the post) and since it's November I thought what better time to do it than on a 30-day month?  OK, I admit I'd actually forgotten all about the challenge until recently while browsing Luuux.

So here's my first entry for the challenge:

Enrique Iglesias & Juan Luis Guerra
"Cuando Me Enamoro"
- Video from EnriqueIglesiasVEVO YouTube channel-

The song title translated means "When I Fall In Love" and is a beautiful and sweet song about the feeling of falling in love.  Here's the lyrics to the song from elyricsworld.com:
Ohh, oh, ooh, oooh


Si pudiera bajarte una estrella del cielo
lo haria sin pensarlo dos veces
porque te quiero, ay
y hasta un lucero


Y si tuviera el naufragio de un sentimiento
seria un velero en la isla
de tus deseos, de tus deseos


Pero por dentro entiende que no puedo
y aveces me piedro...


Cuando me enamoro aveces desespero,
cuando me enamoro,
cuando menos me lo espero, me enamoro
se detiene el tiempo, me viene el alma
al cuerpo, sonrio, cuando me enamoro


(Ohh, oh, ooh, oooh)


Si la luna seria tu premio,
yo juraria hacer cualquier cosa,
por ser su dueño, ay, por ser tu dueño


Si en tus sueños escuchas el llanto
de mis lamentos,
en tus sueños no sigas dormida,
que es verdadero, ay,
no es un sueño, no


Y me alegro que aveces al final
no encuentres un momento, ooh no...


Cuando me enamoro aveces desespero,
cuando me enamoro,
cuando menos me lo espero, me enamoro
se detiene el tiempo, me viene el alma
al cuerpo, sonrio, cuando me enamoro


Cuando me enamoro aveces desespero,
cuando me enamoro,
cuando menos me lo espero, me enamoro
se detiene el tiempo, me viene el alma
al cuerpo, al cuerpo, sonrio,
sonrïo, cuando me enamoro.
I wouldn't say this is my fave song of all time but this is my most current favorite song.  I heard it in a taxi on the way to the airport while I was in KL recently and absolutely fell in love with the song.  Honestly, I love so many songs I can't even decide which are my favorites for sure.