Best Inexpensive Religious Confirmation Gifts for Teens and Adults

Gift-Giving Guides: Best Religious Confirmation Gifts for Teens
Several Christian denominations celebrate the sacrament of Confirmation. The confirmand is confirmed by the Holy Spirit. It is customary to give gifts as a token of remembrance. Here are reasonably priced gift suggestions.
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Dip/Spread to keep on hand: Edamame Hummus

If you have been reading the Full Plate blog for a while, you know that I enjoy making healthful foods for my family. But as a busy mom, I am also short on time. Lolling around in the kitchen, chopping things perfectly isn’t happening these days. I mean, I could do that. But given the minimal amount of "free time" I have in a day that would mean missing a yoga class, a volunteer meeting, or spending time with a friend. So, to keep things running smoothly at home, but to also make sure I get a little time to myself each day, I rely on a couple of quick and easy recipes that I can make ahead and have stored in the fridge and freezer. This way, I can whip up healthy snacks and meals for my family quickly and easily. Here’s a protein-packed spread/dip that everyone likes. It’s great as a dip served alongside chopped veggies or pita chips. And it also does double duty as a sandwich spread, packed into a whole wheat pita with some cucumber or bell pepper slices, for a nice quick lunch or snack.

Edamame Hummus

2 cups of edamame, cooked and shelled*
½ block of silken tofu, drained
3-4 cloves of garlic
¼ cup on olive oil
½ cup lemon juice (add slowly until it’s the taste you like)
1 teaspoon cumin
Optional: fresh cilantro and/or fresh parsley

Combine all ingredients in a Cuisinart. Blend until smooth. Feel free to add more garlic, lemon juice, cumin or cilantro to get it to the taste you and your family will like. Store in fridge, in a covered dish, until ready to serve.

*As a time saver, many markets sell them this way in the produce section.

The Recipe for Truly Simple Homemade Bread

I have to laugh that I am trying out baking bread. As a child, my mom baked bread. I don’t remember specifics about the bread, but I do remember jealousy at lunch time when my friends would whip out Ding Dongs and fluffer nutter sandwiches (on perfect, crust less white bread). And here I am baking bread for my children. Hmmm. But neither child is complaining. Yet.

Anyway, for those of you who would like to whip up a quick, healthy loaf for your family, as promised, here is Mark Bittman’s recipe. I personally thought the loaf I made last week with sunflower seeds (which we then smothered in veggie cream cheese) was best. But the kids happily snacked on this loaf all day yesterday. This go round, we added ½ cup of pecans and ½ cup of dried cranberries.

Almost No-Work Whole Grain Bread
Recipe from Food Matters by Mark Bittman (pages 156-7)
Makes 1 hearty loaf

3 cups whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
Optional: up to 1 cup chopped nuts, seeds, dried fruit or proofed whole grains

Combine the flour, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl. Add 1 ½ cups warm water and stir until blended. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest in a warm place for at least 12 hours. The dough is ready when it is dotted with bubbles.

Use some of the oil to grease the loaf pan. If you are adding nuts, raisins, cranberries, etc, fold them into the dough with your hands. Transfer the dough to the loaf pan, and let it settle in evenly. Cover with a moist towel and let it rise until doubled, an hour or so. When it is almost ready, preheat the oven to 350.

Bake the bread about 45 minutes, or until deep golden in color and it sounds hollow when you tap it. (If you have an instant read thermometer, usually kicking around since Thanksgiving, it should read 200 degrees when inserted into the center of the loaf.) Turn it out of the baking pan and let it cool before slicing.

Here are photos of the bread recipe in action for those who find them helpful:

The photo at the top of this post shows the bread the morning after, when it has risen. Hopefully the photo is clear enough that you can see it's more airy and there are tiny little bubbles dotting the top, compared to the dough I prepared the night before. So ideally, that's what you should wake up to. Then I simply tossed in 1/2 cup of pecans and 1/2 cup of dried cranberries;

and (lightly) kneaded them into the dough with my hands, until the pecans and cranberries were incorporated.

Next, I popped the dough into a lightly oiled loaf pan. You'll see that the dough didn't fill the pan, so I just centered it as best I could by shaking the pan a bit.

When I left the dough out to rise for the night, I just left it on the kitchen counter in the bowl covered with Saran wrap, as the recipe says to do. But, our home is really old, and really drafty, so the warmest place to do the second rise is in the oven. (This also guarantees that the second rising would only take an hour, since I knew the space would be warm and condusive to rising.) To do this, I turned our oven onto 200, let the heating process start, then turned the oven off after a couple of minutes. I didn't want the oven hot, just warm. Then I put the loaf into this warm oven and closed the door for the hour. As you'll see above, I also wanted the space to be slightly moist, so I covered the loaf with a damp (ran it under warm water then rung it out) kitchen towel.

And here's what the loaf looked like after rising for 1 hour in the warm oven, covered in the damp towel. Nice!

So, then it was ready to go into our second oven, which I had preheated to 350.

And here it is after baking for 45 minutes. Hollow sound when I tapped the top. Couldn't find our kitchen thermometer, so had to assume it was ready to come out. Bittman's recipe says to turn it out of the pan right away, then let it cool before slicing.

Here it is, ready to offer up as a snack on a snowy filled day!

I Guess You'll Do

Insert random post.

Saw this and want to share.




Haha.

Feisty Clown Fish

I've been wanting to show this video to you guys for a while now, I recorded it during one of my muck dives in Lembeh.

It's a video of this male dominant clown fish trying to protect his nest where his wife and baby were resting.

In the video you will see the clown fish keep charging at big old me and the camera to try to fend me off and protect his home.

Couldn't resist staying on to watch and record because the little bugger was just too cute!


(just posted the video, so if it's not loaded yet, wait for 10 mins and load again)


The shakiness (diving and recording at the same time is not an easy task) might not show it, but Mr Husband was charging back and forth at me. I've never seen a tiny clown fish being so brave in front of a human before.

Awe....


I left them alone in the end. Too cute to resist, just wanna tease the fella a bit by staying on for a bit.

Truly Simple Homemade Bread

I just put dough out up to rise. Yes, you read that right. I’ve never been a baker. Baking requires precise measurements, and usually having the right ingredients on hand…two things which often aren’t the case over here. I much prefer cooking, and relying on my sense of taste, texture as I create a dinner for my family with whatever we have in our fridge, freezer and pantry. But, there was a bread recipe in Mark Bittman’s book “Food Matters” that caught my eye. Maybe it was just the title that wooed me: Almost No-Work Whole Grain Bread. Whole Grain: super. Almost No-Work: I’ll give it a try. I first made this bread last week when I was meeting some friends for coffee. They are good friends, so I didn’t worry that I’d never made bread before. The verdict? Not only is this bread super easy, but it’s delicious. If baking bread is this easy, then I just might say I like baking too.

Because the dough needs to rise for at least 12 hours, this is a perfect recipe to throw together before you go to bed, letting it rise while you sleep. In the morning, add in the extras (raisins, walnuts, etc.) by kneading them into the dough with your hands, and then let it rise again for 1 hour while you workout, read the paper, shower, etc. The first time I made this bread, I added sunflower seeds. This time, I’ll let the kids choose what they want to add from our pantry stash.

Tomorrow I will jot down the recipe and share photos of it after it has risen so you have a visual in case you feel like making your own super easy loaf this weekend.

(Effortless) pancakes and frittatas on a snowy morning

It’s a snow day today! So, with a little luck, I can pull out the Play Doh, sticker mosaics, pipe cleaners, felt, markers, glue and popsicle sticks and catch up on posts. This morning was another reminder that on the busiest-- or laziest-- of days, it’s so great to have meals made ahead. In today’s case, the boys wanted pancakes so I heated up some protein pancakes with vanilla yogurt and organic (frozen) strawberries on top. And I enjoyed a wedge of the frittata I’d made earlier in the week. Now, if only my children could have slept in, it would have been the perfect, cozy morning! Here are the recipes for the Protein Pancakes and frittatas, or you can always click here for the original post:

Canyon School’s “Cosmic Cookery for Kids” Protein Pancakes

1 lb cottage cheese (1 tub)
6 eggs
pinch salt
1/2 cup flour
2 t vanilla (or more)
dash of cinnamon
lemon zest (optional)
butter (optional, for fry pan)

Blend everything in the blender until the batter is smooth with a consistency of sour cream. Bake small pancakes on hot griddle, turning once. Serve warm. These pancakes may be made ahead, cooled, and stored in a Tupperware in the fridge for several days. They reheat beautifully.

Veggie Frittata

About 2 cups of your choice of vegetables
9 eggs
½ cup of milk
½ cup any type of shredded or finely chopped cheese
+ another ½ cup of shredded cheese to go on top

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and cheese. Set aside. Sauté the vegetables in a bit of olive oil in an oven-proof medium-sized skillet, until tender. Spread this veggie/meat mixture evenly on bottom of skillet. Pour egg mixture over it, and lightly stir with a spoonula or spatula so the egg mixture is evenly distributed underneath.

When the egg & veggie mixture is about half set, sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top of the frittata and put the skillet in the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until frittata is puffy and golden. Remove from oven and let cool on the counter for several minutes. You may serve it directly out of the skillet, or invert it onto a plate. If doing the latter, be sure to use oven mitts as the handle will still be very hot!! I recommend making frittatas on the weekend (or a lazy snow day!), and enjoying it that morning. Then let the remainder cool completely and slice it into individual servings, which can easily be heated in the microwave later in the week.

Video-game exercise bikes - not just a gimmick

Exercise is going techno. People are playing Wii fit sports games in their homes and gyms are full of ever more interactive exercise machines. But is this trend anything more than gimmickry? Yes, according to a new study by Ryan Rhodes at the Behavioural Medicine Lab at the University of Victoria, and his colleagues.

Rhodes' team had 29 previously inactive young men embark on an exercise regime, involving three half-hour cycling sessions a week for six weeks. Crucially, half the men trained on GameBikes wired up to a Playstation, such that their peddling speed and steering interacted with in-game events. The remaining participants trained on standard low-tech exercise bikes, although they were allowed to enjoy their own choice of music over an ipod. Exercise intensity was equalised across the two groups.

The bottom-line: the men who trained on the GameBikes were more likely to stick to the exercise regime. They attended an average of 77 per cent of the sessions compared with 42 per cent of participants in the low-tech control condition.

Rhodes' team also took some psychological measures in line with the well-established theory of planned of behaviour. Only 'affective attitudes' were found to differ between the two exercise groups. That is, men in the GameBike condition expected the exercise regime to be more enjoyable, pleasant and exciting than control participants, partly explaining their greater adherence. Attitudes in both groups had declined by the end of the six-week period, but they remained more positive in the GameBike group than the controls.

The researchers said more research was needed with other participant groups (the men in the current study all had personal experience of video games), over a longer duration, and with different control conditions - for example, how does video-game based exercise compare with low tech outdoors exercise?

'In summary, exercise videogaming appears to have potential efficacy as a physical activity intervention,' the researchers concluded.
_________________________________

Rhodes, R., Warburton, D., & Bredin, S. (2009). Predicting the effect of interactive video bikes on exercise adherence: An efficacy trial Psychology, Health & Medicine, 14 (6), 631-640 DOI: 10.1080/13548500903281088

Extras

Eye-catching studies that didn't make the final cut:

Psychologists who study babies need to consider whether their little participants are weighed down with too much clothing or equipment.

The executive secretarial task - an ecologically valid test of executive function.

Theory of mind, or being able to think about other people's mental states, continues to improve between late adolescence and adulthood.

Children raised bilingual show superior conversational awareness and understanding.

Hypnosis as a research method.

A light touch from a doctor on the arm of a patient improves adherence to drug treatment.

Fathers, like mothers, show a bias for holding babies on their left-hand side.

People's Facebook profiles reflect their actual personality, not an idealised version of it.

BPS Research Digest reaches awards finals

I'm delighted to report that the BPS Research Digest has reached the finals of the Research Blogging Awards, in the categories of Best Psychology Blog and Best Research Twitterer. Thanks so much for all your nominations. Fingers crossed for March when the overall winners will be announced.

Better

I think my mood is getting better.

Finally.

:)

Brues, Q's, and food at the Tasting Room

At The Bruery, we love good food almost as much as we love good beer. Of course the beauty of that is we can have our food and drink beer too. This weekend at the Tasting Room, we'll have plenty of both.

Friday night, Piaggio on Wheels will be in town with their Argentine cuisine. Piaggio's been by before, bringing with him delicious interpretations of South American specialties, and we've always enjoyed it. If you haven't tried it yet, this is definitely a good time to do it. Look for the truck outside the Tasting Room on Friday night for dinner.

Saturday our friends at Kogi BBQ will be bringing the truck down to dispense the wonderful Korean barbeque that we all know and love. I know I can't get enough of that Blackjack Quesadilla (my favorite!), so as always we'll be looking forward to their amazing food.

Sunday, we're going to try a little something new. We think good beer is a great compliment to a fun game, so we'll be hosting Brues & Q's this weekend. We've got trivia from lots of different categories, including beer!

For example, do you know which US president was once a pitch man for PBR? Or which US state has never had a brewery?? You'll have to play to find out! Don't worry though, if you're not super beer savvy there's other categories as well. So bring your your wits - and your witty friends, because we'll be playing with teams - and see what kind of goodness we give out as prizes. We'll get this going at 2 pm.

This weekend, we're pouring:

Orchard White (available for growlers)

Rugbrød (available for growlers)

Saison Rue

Saison De Lente (Reserve Society growlers)

Melange No. Sechs (Reserve Society growlers)

White Oak & Oude Tart - bottle only

See you there!

Become a Fan!

We restarted our facebook page (again) and this time we've done it the right way. Clearly we're better at beer than technology because it took us until now to figure out how to make a page where you can click that cool "become a fan!" button. We'll be using the page to let you know about releases, events, specials at the Tasting Room and give you some insight into our daily lives. So, without further ado.... become a fan of The Bruery on facebook!

www.facebook.com/TheBruery

Found the One!

I think I might have the found the place.

As in THE place.

It's quite pricey. But the place is so divine!!

Spacious, tastefully furnished, and really clean.

Love everything about the place, wanted to stay there the moment I walked into the place.



Let's see if this time nothing will go wrong.

Pray hard guys.

No bad lucks. Shoo shoo bad lucks, go away.


I've seen the agents, I know his office location, so no more running away.

The owner can't MIA either cause I know where she works. Hehe...

Seems to be trust-able source. Enough communication establish.

So cross your fingers guys. If I'm lucky enough, you will get to see my new place by next week! OMG!

Just in time for my birthday. ^^

When doubt about doubt leads to confidence

Can confidence ever be a bad thing? What if it happens to be confidence in your own self-doubt? In a pair of mind-bending experiments Aaron Wichman and colleagues show that doubt layered on doubt doesn't lead to more doubt but rather to increased confidence, as the initial self-doubt is undermined. The researchers say their findings have clinical implications - for instance, by turning a belief that one is definitely going to fail into a belief that one might fail, a therapist could help inspire a client to overcome the paralysis of hopelessness.

First off, Wichman's team measured the chronic uncertainty of 37 participants (by testing their agreement with statements like 'When bad things happen I do not know why'). Half these participants also completed a sentence unscrambling task designed to surreptitiously sow doubt. They had to organise jumbled words into sentences and many of the words, like 'uncertainty', pertained to doubt. The other participants performed an almost identical task but without any doubt-related words. After this, the participants read some imaginary scenarios, such as an employee getting a raise, and rated their confidence in the different possible causes of these scenarios. The key finding here was that the doubt-inducing sentence task led usually uncertain participants to be far more confident in their judgments about the imaginary scenarios. Participants appeared to be doubting their own doubts, leading to confidence.

A second study built on these findings, showing that one doubt-inducing task followed by another led to more confident behaviour. Participants first wrote about real-life instances of doubt and then completed a coordination task that required them to shake their head from side to side, as if saying 'no' (past research shows that this instills doubt whereas nodding increases confidence). These double-doubt participants subsequently rated an imaginary character Donald as more confident and certain - the opposite of what you'd expect if the two doubt-inducing procedures had added together to make more doubt. By contrast, participants who wrote about a real-life instance of doubt and then completed a nodding task, subsequently rated Donald as unconfident and uncertain, consistent with the idea that the secondary nodding task had reinforced the doubt sown in the writing task.

'One might speculate that the difference between being certain of one's agonising insecurity and lack of worth and being uncertain of it may mean the difference between suicide and scheduling an appointment for psychological therapy,' the researchers said. 'Sometimes, self-doubt reduction might be achieved by instilling doubt in one's doubt.'
_________________________________

Wichman, A., Briñol, P., Petty, R., Rucker, D., Tormala, Z., & Weary, G. (2010). Doubting one’s doubt: A formula for confidence? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46 (2), 350-355 DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.10.012

New Diaper Cakes Added!

Check out our brand new designs of diaper cakes!!

photos

Once in a while we whip out the camera and take some photos, but then we tend to forget that we took photos and they sit on a memory card in a lonely camera in a drawer for a while. Well, here are just a few of the cooler photos from the past month or two. Enjoy.

Doug and Kevin getting our hop vine down so we can use it to dry hop a cask of Humulus XPA for the Tasting Room.

Just a few of our Reserve Society members lining up to try Papier aged in bourbon, brandy and rye barrels.

Tyler examines a glass of what would eventually be blended and dubbed Oude Tart

A line up of several barrels of Flemish red ale, we would blend these to taste. The outcome became Oude Tart.

Jay somehow organized a monstrosity of hoses in order to clean the brewhouse after a hard day's work.

Viewing today

Right.

So I managed to call out to @#$$^@xxx numbers of agents and owners for the past two days and later I'm finally heading out to view more units.

Episode of the never ending search of a home in KL continues.


So apparently the landlord of which previous unit I wanted to rent really went MIA. Now trying to get a refund of the lawyer's fee of the tenancy agreement. Stupid landlady.

Okay. Be back tonight. Will let you know what I think about the places then. And maybe some nice updates then.


Ciao ciao!

At what age do children recognise the difference between sarcasm and irony?

People hold strong feelings about the meanings of irony and sarcasm. Just look at the reaction to Alanis Morissette's global hit 'ironic' - despite commercial success, the apparent misunderstanding of irony conveyed by the song provoked a chorus of derision (at least everyone agreed that this state of affairs was ironic). So I'd say it's with some courage that Melanie Glenwright and Penny Pexman have chosen to investigate the tricky issue of when exactly children learn the distinction between sarcasm and irony. Their finding is that nine- to ten-year-olds can tell the difference, although they can't yet explicitly explain it. Four- to five-year-olds, by contrast, understand that sarcasm and irony are non-literal forms of language, but they can't tell the difference between the two.

So that we're all on the same page, here's what Glenwright and Pexman recognise as the distinction between sarcasm and irony. In both cases the speaker says the opposite of what they mean, but whereas an ironic statement is aimed at a situation, a sarcastic remark is aimed at a person and is therefore more cutting.

Glenwright and Pexman presented five- to six-year-olds and nine- to ten-year-olds with puppet show scenarios that ended with one of the characters making a critical remark. This remark could be literal, aimed at a person or situation, or it could non-literal, again aimed either at a person (i.e. sarcastic) or situation (i.e. ironic). To illustrate: two puppets are playing on a trampoline, one falls on his face. 'Great trampoline tricks,' the other character says, sarcastically. Contrast this with two puppets playing on a saggy trampoline with little bounce. One of them says 'great trampoline', an ironic remark.

To gauge the children's depth of understanding, the researchers asked them to rate how mean the utterances were (using a sliding scale of smiley to miserable faces) and asked them which character they most identified with - the idea being that in instances of sarcasm they would, out of sympathy, identify more with the target of that sarcasm.

The children's responses showed that both age groups recognised the non-literal utterances as intending to mean the opposite of what was said. However, only the older age group showed a sensitivity to the difference between irony and sarcasm. They, but not the younger children, rated sarcastic utterances as meaner and were more likely to identify with the target of sarcasm, presumably out of sympathy. The older children's comprehension was not complete, though. In open-ended questioning they were unable to explain their differential response to sarcasm and irony.

'By nine to ten years of age, children's sensitivity to the distinction between sarcasm and verbal irony highlights their impressive understanding of how people's feelings are affected by others' speech ...' the researchers said. 'We investigated one distinction here, but there are other non-literal forms that should be examined, such as understatement and hyperbole.'
_________________________________

Glenwright M, & Pexman PM (2010). Development of children's ability to distinguish sarcasm and verbal irony*. Journal of child language, 37 (2), 429-51 PMID: 19523264

The Digest blog is five years old today!

It's five years to the day that the first ever post was published on the BPS Research Digest blog. Although the Research Digest began as a fortnightly email newsletter in 2003, it wasn't until February 2005 that the blog was born. The first post was on the topic of driver and car stereotypes and how these can influence people's judgements about culpability in car crashes - more on that later. Since then, the Digest has covered more than 700 peer-reviewed psychology studies (nearly 1000 if you count from 2003!).

My aim has been to trawl the world's journals, including lesser known titles, looking for the most thought-provoking, intriguing, ground-breaking and fun studies from across the whole breadth of psychology. I've attempted to provide journalistic flair to the reporting of psychological science, hopefully marrying an engaging style with a depth of detail that you won't find in the mainstream media.

Along the way the Digest blog has hosted some occasional special features, including bloggers on their favourite studies, guest contributions on the most important psychology experiment Never done, a series of posts for students, and most recently, some of the world's leading psychologists on one nagging thing they don't understand about themselves. As well as the regular study reports, I've also introduced the Special Issue Spotter, providing you with links to the latest journal special issues, and Extras - a round-up of links to eye-catching studies that I couldn't cover in full.

This is a timely opportunity for me to thank the journals publishers who give me access to their articles; Dr Jon Sutton for his advice; other bloggers who link to and promote the Digest; everyone who has contributed to the guest features; and finally, thanks to you, the readers, who continue to visit these pages in ever increasing numbers. Please do tell your friends and colleagues about the Digest and maybe together we can raise the profile of psychological science still higher. Don't forget that the Digest now has its own Facebook fan page and I also Tweet about psychology-related articles, public lectures, TV shows etc (these Tweets also get piped through to the Facebook page). Of course, we've got to pay the bills somehow ... if you'd like to find out more about advertising here on the blog or in the Digest email, please do get in touch.

To mark the Digest blog's fifth birthday, I contacted the author of the study that was the focus of the first ever Digest post - Prof Graham Davies at the University of Leicester. I asked him to look back at the research of his that I covered, and to reflect on his field more widely. Here's what he had to say:

"Introductory texts tell you to start research by reading the literature and only then design your experiment... There is another way: look around you, see an interesting phenomenon and ask ‘Has anyone done research on this?’ Not so much bottom-up, as top-down thinking. This was the approach advocated by the great British psychologist, Sir Frederic Bartlett, and one which I followed in exploring car and driver stereotypes.

In my academic career, I had reached a mid-life crisis which only a BMW might resolve. On the test-run, we nosed out of a side road into traffic and an obliging driver let us out. The salesman commented that this would be the last time this would happen if I drove a BMW! Rather surprisingly perhaps, I went ahead, bought the car and began to wonder whether other cars might hold equally strong stereotypes. I had kept a perfunctory interest in stereotype research through the career of Neil Macrae, an old student from my Aberdeen days and was struck by his finding that stereotypes could have a positive function in making quick decisions, which form the essence of driving: ‘Will this young guy in the red Mini-Cooper stay in his lane or pull out in front of me?’

My initial study demonstrated that undergraduates could consistently rate the potential aggressiveness of different makes and models of car and this extended to car colours and drivers. To see if these stereotypes could influence judgements, I mocked up a vehicle insurance claim form supposedly filled in by two drivers involved in an accident who were driving contrastingly rated cars. I reasoned that in the absence of detailed information, stereotypes might colour readers' judgements. Sure enough, there were powerful effects in a student sample and Darsharna Patel confirmed these findings with a more representative community sample.

The reaction to the published paper was initially disappointing. The stereotype people yawned and said ‘we know this’ and went back to their esoteric ways. Among the more applied researchers, only Dan Wright picked up the ignition keys and won three years of ESRC support for his research (damn!). I did some further studies on estimating the speed of contrasting stereotypical vehicles, also reported in the Digest. Cars are so central to modern living, yet research on their significance remains limited - a great opportunity for the next generation of researchers!"

--
I'm considering asking the authors of other studies covered by the Digest to look back and reflect on their research. Please let me know via comments if you think this would be a good idea. Here's to the next five years!

-The Research Digest is brought to you by the British Psychological Society, the representative body for British psychology and psychologists since 1901. Join here.

Jibberish

I feel like drinking tonight. Though I have been on a very strict diet recently.

Partly due to my two back to back diarrhea incidents, I have to be more careful with what I put in my mouth.

On top of that, for the past two months I have also religiously been taking collagen and placenta extract on a once every three and two days respectively. Not sure if it's working.

But I've been losing weight, though that could have been resulted from the two cases of food poisonings which resulted in continual lost of appetite, and my complexion has been better, I doubt I have changed my nocturnal insane sleeping pattern much, and I haven't experience water retention after my period (which normally would happen) for the past month so I guess something is working, right?

What's more impressive is that I've been really emotionally stressed out these weeks and normally that would affect my appearance tremendously, but no dramatic changes have occur, thank god for that.

Let's just keep drinking and see how it will work out.

Maybe I might even reach my ideal weight in half a year's time and by then would, hopefully, have a way better complexion than how I was a year back.


Back to wanting to drink.

I know I shouldn't.

But I haven't for a long time and I feel like I really need a drink, and a company at that. One of my best friends has returned from China recently, which is good news, though my best bud Gerald has just returned to Brunei, I had wished I could have stayed back in Malaysia during CNY just so we could catch up. It's sad when you can only see your best friends twice a year. Sigh.

I miss our drinking sessions. Though normally we just drink and talk about nothing. It's those sort of friendship where you know what either one of you is thinking and words are unnecessary. Gerald preferably loves the ocean to do these sort of drinking sessions, probably because our friendship (and his first real backpack trip, or his first taste of freedom even) blossomed at one of the islands overseas, by the beach.

My third best friend is a Muslim, so drinking is out of the question. Apart from the fact that she's a thousand miles away from here. sigh

Where have the years gone...

What I'd give to be able to wake up seeing this...




and sleep at night with views like this..




That was what I would say if I were single and young.

How I craved those days when I have nothing but me and my own to worry about. Nay love nor responsibility.

A day of instability was a day of comfort for me. Come as I go, meet and greet and later part. I have nothing but I to worry, to think, to take concerns in.

The years have not done me kind, and freedom has all but become a liability than luxury. Youth the keys to true freedom. Yet at this turning point, I'm seeking a sort of stability, the sort of comfort zone that one at my age yearns to establish. I do wonder if I'd owed certain people in my previous life. For these people has done me poorly as of recent years. They might not have realised so, but like a curse, they're poison to my happiness and peace of heart.

They come and think they can intrude someone's personal life like they own it. And use whatever logic and so called wisdom to "teach" and manipulate others. I'm sick of these words and sayings, or their so referred as "teachings", all of which to me were but mere pointless angry disapproving words.

Speak of love for all and praise of god, yet they spit vile to those they claim to love. Manipulate their hearts with words and twist their minds with "reasons".

They can own all the branded goods in the world, and be satisfied with meaningless worldly competition among their peers, but they will never gain satisfaction from loving another, giving another, and providing what even god cannot provide - care for others. They use thy words and pass on to others, yet never really implementing the actions, mere words I'd say, and see.

Then they accuse, base on no grounds, only personal judgment, for they think they wise enough. for they think they solely can love, think, and care. What selfish act, for they couldn't see themselves, and no amount of mirrors can help them reflect the image as they are. They are blinded, ignorant of their own eyes and thoughts, and thought no better of others but themselves.

What has the world come to?

Believe in karma? Believe in good prevails? or stand to fight?

I no longer believe in waiting for miracles to happen. Karma is but for the weak to seek consolation in.

What is wrong with this country?

I'm tired of waiting.

I'm trying to get this accommodation sorted in KL so I can move in asap and this stupid landlady is playing MIA at the moment. Can't call through to her phone, text also no reply and the RM400 lawyer fee has been paid to draft out the terms contract bla bla bla...

In fact, I've been trying to move in since mid last year, and for some god knows what reasons, shit keeps happening every time I try to move in.

The previous case involved this incompetent agency company who gave the keys to the electricians to fix the electric box which broke down two days after moving in, and the Malay electricians brought the keys home for Hari Raya, yes! They freaking brought the keys balik kampung! which rendered the house vacant for two weeks despite having paid FIRST month rental!!

Then there was another case of this condo which has also already paid for first month plus all the deposits, half an hour before moving in, the agent texted (not call, but text!) to inform that the unit has been rented out by the owner to other agencies. like WTF?!

Really. For money, Malaysian property agencies are willing to do anything. Professionalism? What is that eh?


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Today I have been struck again by diarrhea. God knows what food Malaysia serves us, but this is the first time in years that I am puking and suffering from diarrhea at the same time.

Which explains why this blog has been left un-attended for quite a bit now.


If I stay in this country long enough, I think I might even end up a skinny stick.

Thanks to copious amount of dirty food and numerous food poisonings.

The funny thing was, I didn't even go out to eat at mamak or random hawker places. Despite being cautious, food just gets more and more dangerous here.

The last diarrhea I had was just but half a month ago. A yearly occurrence of food poisoning has just been reduced to a monthly case. Hail Malaysia and its wondrous delicious food. *gag*


Maybe tomorrow when I feel better, I'll write something happier. For now, I'm going to try to rest.

Sigh. Stupid landlady, faster show up! Shit man. This sucks.

Your left brain has a bigger ego than your right brain

Psychologists have used an inventive combination of techniques to show that the left half of the brain has more self-esteem than the right half. The finding is consistent with earlier research showing that the left hemisphere is associated more with positive, approach-related emotions, whereas the right hemisphere is associated more with negative emotions.

Ryan McKay and colleagues used a version of the self-esteem 'implicit association test' (IAT). This compares how readily participants associate themselves or other people with positive words like 'capable' and negative words like 'boring'. Forty-six participants used keyboard keys to categorise words as self-related (e.g. 'me', 'myself'), other-related ('they', 'themselves'), positive or negative. To take one example, people with high self-esteem should be relatively quicker when the same response key is used to categorise self-words and positive words, than when the same key is used to categorise other-related and positive words.

A key twist to this study is that McKay's team used an auditory version of the IAT - the first time this has ever been done. Specifically, they used so-called 'dichotic presentation' such that when a word was presented via headphones to one ear, the same word was played backwards to the other ear. This has the effect of ensuring that the word is only processed by the hemisphere opposite the presenting ear, thus allowing the participants to perform the IAT test with just one hemisphere at a time.

As you'd expect, a participant's self-esteem as measured via one hemisphere tended to correlate with their self-esteem as measured via the other hemisphere. More intriguingly, however, a consistent finding was that participants clocked up higher self-esteem scores when hearing words via their right ear (processed by the left hemisphere) compared with via their left ear (processed by the right hemisphere).

Critics may point to the language dominance of the left hemisphere as a major confound, but actually this is not relevant - even if the left hemisphere were faster overall, there's no reason it should have shown a specific advantage for associating the self with positive words.

The researchers said further investigations are needed to build on this initial discovery, including lesion studies and brain imaging techniques, which 'would be useful in providing a more fine-grained assessment of the relative activation of the left versus the right hemisphere in the representation and processing of self-esteem and in providing detail concerning anterior/posterior and cortical/subcortical involvement.'
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McKay, R., Arciuli, J., Atkinson, A., Bennett, E., & Pheils, E. (2010). Lateralisation of self-esteem: An investigation using a dichotically presented auditory adaptation of the Implicit Association Test. Cortex, 46 (3), 367-373 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2009.05.004

Boy Or Girl?

The new parents want to keep the gender of the baby a surprise? No worries, Finest Expressions has a beautiful selection of baby gifts in neutral colours. We have Baby Blossoms (Baby Clothing Bouquets), Baby Blooms (Baby Sock Bouquets) Baby Diaper Cakes and Baby Gift Baskets. We have recently added adorable Onesie Baby Cup Cakes and Crochet Blanket Gift Sets.

We can also customize any of our Baby Shower Favours in neutral colours of your choice! Email us for more information at info@finestexpressions.com

The Oven-Baked Meatballs I always come back to...

A couple of years back, a now defunct (but very cool) local kid’s store lured the gals from Kitchen Cabinet up to Fairfield County. I forget the topic they were speaking on…I think it was “healthy kids meals” or something timely like that. I’d closed my personal chef business, and was keeping busy cooking for my family and friends so I went, excited to learn from these foodie parents and entrepreneurs. I remember leaving the presentation with some localvore knowledge, and some paranoia about dairy (or was it meat, or was it produce…I can’t remember). Anyway, in my mind, the most helpful thing that came out of that meeting was their recipe for Oven-Baked Meatballs. Meatballs are easy to make. I make meatballs several times a year because I can make them in a big batch and freeze them. And depending upon what I have on hand, I’ll add grated veggies or some soaked whole grains which makes them even more moist and healthy. But I always come back to this recipe. There’s something about the addition of lemon and cinnamon that makes them special…

Oven-Baked Meatballs from Kitchen Cabinet
Makes about 20 Meatballs

Olive oil
1 lb ground beef
1 or 2 garlic cloves, pressed
½ cup bread crumbs*
1 egg
1/3 cup whole milk
Zest of 1 lemon
¼ teaspoon of cinnamon
½ cup shredded Parmesan
Dash of salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375. Pour a drizzle of olive oil on rimmed baking sheets. Set aside.

Put the rest of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and combine with your hands until blended. Form into ping pong-size balls, and then place them on the cookie sheet.

Bake the meatballs for 25 minutes, flipping them halfway through the cook time. The meatballs with be nicely browned when done…but light and fluffy, with the slightest crispy edge, when eaten! These meatballs freeze beautifully, so go on and make a double batch. These are perfect to have on hand for busy nights, eaten as is or served with spaghetti.

* I usually use whole wheat breadcrumbs in recipes, but today I was yakking away with my dear friend, Leslie, when I realized I didn’t have any in the house. The kids were playing quietly (truth be told: one was watching a National Geograhpic show about the moon and the other was napping for the first time this week), so a trip to the market was the last thing I wanted to do at 4pm. “Just throw some crackers in the Cuisinart” Leslie suggested. And so, I ground up equal amounts of Saltines and Ak-Mak. Perfect substitution!

This weekend at the Tasting Room...

We hope everyone had an enjoyable Valentine's Day weekend and if you joined us at the Tasting Room, thanks for coming!

For those of you who tried the Sechs & Chocolate pairing and were interested in procuring some of those delicious chocolates, you can find them at www.xuanpatisserie.com and order some for yourself now that Valentine's is over.

If you missed out on Melange No. Sechs last weekend, don't worry - we will still be serving it this weekend. It's our Valentine's Day blend made with beets, cocoa nibs, rose petals, and of course, love (as our bartender Jarred pointed out in his display for the beer). It's just as tasty after Valentine's Day, so come give it a try.

Louk's Greek Gourmet to Go will be returning this weekend as well. They were a big hit the last time they visited us and they'll be serving their tasty Greek specialties from the truck this Saturday for dinner – 6 to 10 pm. Try their delicious gyros, feta fries and Louks (mini Greek donuts drizzled with honey, nutella, and other tasty toppings) with your Bruery beer.

The 2010 Winter Olympics are well under way, and you don't have to miss the games to have your beer. In fact we think they compliment each other well. You can catch the Friday & Saturday night on our big screen at the Tasting Room – Go USA!

Finally, we are getting to the end of the available bottles of Oude Tart and White Oak for sale. If you've been holding out for the right time, that time is now! Both of these beers are rare special releases for us and would make great gifts for your beer geek friends, a nice addition to your own beer cellar, or you can just enjoy them immediately!

This weekend we'll be pouring:

Orchard White (available for growlers)

Saison Rue

Rugbrød (available for growlers)

Saison De Lente (Reserve Society growler fill)

Melange No. Sechs (Reserve Society growler fill)

White Oak & Oude Tart bottles available for sale

Hope to see you there!

Vodka Spray?

Back from Thailand and managed to catch one last day of Chinese New Year celebration with all my relatives before coming back to reality, and of course, this blog. Keke


Sorry I've been absent. But I bet so was everyone else.

How's Chinese New Year for you? Lots of Ang Pows?

Anyway, just a quick one.

Saw this really funky thing in Bangkok Airport yesterday.




It's a spray bottle of an Absolute Vodka Peach flavour! With test paper for you to spray on!

How quirky!




I know the idea of letting people have a "smell" of the vodka flavour, but this idea of a perfume-style tester is just so cute!




I wonder if I can drink from it...




er... I mean.. spray from it.

Kakaka

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Okay. Gonna go out to play mah jong with mom and brother.

Gimme back my RM35!!!! T_T