Amy Adams

Unless you live under a rock, you know that last night was one of the biggest nights in Hollywood - if not THE biggest. It was the Academy Awards. Every year at the Oscars the stars come out and sparkle on the red carpet. Over the next few days, Ill be bringing you some of the best looks of this years ceremony. Amy Adams just looked fantastic last night. Her red gown and huge multi-gemstone necklace was simlpy stunning. Its a modern but elegant look. The wide collar necklace looks practically regal. You can get a similar look for under $100 with this 10 3/4 Carat Multi-Gemstone Sterling Silver Necklace for only $82.50. Normally $165, this incredibly piece of craftsmanship is on sale for just $82.50! This whimsical necklace is an enchanting garden of bright colored gemstones. Designed in sterling silver, this charming piece is perfect for warm summer weather and can be worn day or evening.

Do you love or hate your neighbors?

My hubs and I live in a basement apartment with only one apartment above us. Some days are quiet, others so noisy you just want to scream and bang on the ceiling. Most days are quiet until about 3 or 4 pm, then their brother in law and friends come over, the drinking starts and they turn up the same tunes, thump loudly on the floor in beat to the same old music, make corny jokes and laugh very loudly, yell, whoop and holler and generally are just very loud. Luckily, our neighbors are also kind enough to shut everything down at 10:30 or 11 pm, which is great. Some other pet peeves we have are: 1. We put out 1 bag every two weeks of garbage. They put in 4-6 bags of garbage every week so sometimes we have no room for our garbage in their can and we have to take out 2-3 bags sometimes to put ours in or we get charged for our garbage. (each household is only allowed 1 bag of garbage or 1 pail.) 2. If we are doing our laundry, then all of a sudden (even if they just did theirs the day before) they have to do laundry and take the machines up for 3 days to a week at a time. They pull our wet clothes from the washer and dump them either on top of our dirty clothes or place them on top of the dry clothes from the dryer in a basket. Same for the clothes in the dryer. Instead of taking the dryer and turning it back on to finish drying our clothes, they bag the half dry clothes up and leave them on the floor in front of the door. 3. Parking...Until we finally cracked on them one day because my...erm...shapely body couldn't squeeze through the tiny gap they left, they would always park so close together you had to do the limbo under the guys truck mirror. He'd also park diagonally in the drive too, now he has his truck in fairly straight most days. 4. Heat and Cold-they "own" the thermostat and it drives us crazy. We have to ask them to turn on the heat or turn it off. A couple days ago, we had a warm day and they had all the windows in their house open and the heat still blasting. I told them that they were roasting us out because the heat would go on for about 10 mins, then turn off for five, then come back on and we only have one tiny window in our living room right now that opens. Today is a cold day and the heat is off...ugggh So, pardon the lengthy discussion here, but I was just wondering how you feel about your neighbors?

Satisfying my cravings

Till this day, I still find my love of food to be an utter blessing. I'm glad I enjoy eating. It does sound tragically mundane but it's really not. That's because I do know some people who find eating a chore. I find that to be quite a pity though. Look at it this way - we have three meals a day to play with (some say more, especially those who snack, including me) and I would say it can be exciting, the anticipation that creeps up prior to a meal as I ponder, dream or crave the food that I'm to partake. You know me, I'm the girl who thinks about what to have for dinner even before I've gone out for lunch. And there are those times when watching food porn on Tastespotting simply triggers a random food outburst, or yearning. It's no joke. It's dangerous to look at photos of food when I'm hungry. I just want to peel off the liquid crystal layers of my laptop and hope that I can find a sliver of that vividly rich velvet cake somehow.In some ways, I think food cravings are fun. I enjoy the process. To me, it's a game. A game where I try to sense what I feel like eating. At times, it can seem weird. Take for example just now - I was walking home in the pouring rain (with my trusty green umbrella of course) and I passed by a block of flats and just for that few seconds, my nose picked up the comforting scent of curry. Yes, piping hot, and bubbly curry. It was a quick scent so I was not able to pick out what type of curry it was. All I know is that for that split second, I could picture a bowl of that spicy thick broth paired with warm toasted french loaves ready to be coated with that golden sauce of heaven to be consumed by me. You can tell that I was hungry. I make no effort to disguise that. It was nearly 9.30pm and I haven't had dinner, save for some instant miso soup (bought from Daiso) I made in the office at 7pm. You bet I wished the curry smells came from my home. I secretly wished that Dad had cooked curry. I wasn't disappointed to find out that I might have just encountered a pseudo craving because of my hunger. Dad was preparing chicken salad and I was thrilled - both because I was hungry and the fact that his salad rocks. It's a simple salad that's both easy to make and big on taste. More on those wonder greens another time.What I'm trying to say is, when cravings come, don't hide or think that you are simply being greedy. I belong to the camp of people who pursue their cravings, no matter the time or day. Take for example last week. I had recently noticed a stall in Geylang selling bak kut teh. It was not just any normal bak kut teh. The signage said Klang bak kut teh. You could have guessed how intrigued I was. Thing is, I've been to Klang a couple of times because I have family there, but never once have I gotten a chance to taste any bak kut teh while I was there. So I told myself that I would come to check out the herbal soup at this stall one day. Little did I know that that 'one day' was going to be that same week. It's true. I"m not making this up. One evening after work, I was hungry and it was late as usual. My parents did not cook and I was just thinking of what to have for dinner when I suddenly pictured soup. Hot and steamy soup. Then I remembered the bak kut teh stall. And the rest as you know it, satisfactory slurping of soup and all, is the result of my craving.It seems as though my craving encounters will never end. I have one more to tell before I go to bed. This one is the kicker. Why? Well, because you are about to find out what the best mee siam tastes like. Do take note that it is in my opinion so unless you like the same flavours as I do, you might not like the said dish, or rather, dishes.On Saturday, I was on the bus, on my way to meet Dot in the morning to check out some stuff at East Coast Park. I was to meet her at Parkway Parade and on the bus, right smack in front of me was TV mobile (for my non Singaporean readers, this is a mobile TV set mounted in almost every bus all over the island. which literally translates into free TV when you'[re on the go). There was a food programme on the TV just when I was staring at the box, out of boredom. Then I saw close-up shots of carrot cake. Fried carrot cake, yes the oriental kind, in other words 'char tau kueh'. This carrot cake looked immensely sinful yet delicious. It was unique because the hawker uses fried ikan bilis as a topping and he adds extra 'icing' on his fried carrot cake to give it that extra kick - I wasn't sure what that extra ingredient was because the bus was too noisy.Anyway, all I knew was that I had to have some fried carrot cake. I need not have that exact same one featured on the show but I knew that I had to get my hands on some. I immediately sms-ed Dot and told her about the carrot cake. This lass knows me best. She happily replied saying why not we go get some for lunch. That made me smile and you could have sensed my glee if you were right next to me. So I went to meet her at the foodcourt at Parkway Parade. They have a fried carrot cake stall that sold both white and black (white is without soy sauce, black contains soy sauce) versions on a 'yin-yang-esque' dish which cost $5:The fried carrot cake was decent. It wasn't mind blowing but it did satisfy my craving. Dot seemed to like it too so that was good.But of course we didn't just have fried carrot cake for lunch. Both of us have healthy appetites and our latest obesession (or mine for that matter) is this nonya-style mee siam sold at Parkway Parade's food court. I heard that it's been here even before Parkway underwent renovations. According to Dot, she grew up eating the stall's mee siam after mass every sunday. I was really taken by surprise because first of all, I've always seen people eating the huge plate of mee siam but I never thought much of it because I don't really like mee siam all that much. But oh boy was it all about to change. I think it has alot to do with the fact that this version is very Peranakan in taste.This mee siam had a gravy that had a perfect balance of salty and tangy. A true indication of a genius use of assam and I believe fish stock? I hope I am right. All I know is that this watery gravy is meant to be drunk, every drop of it. I also like the fact that they gave plenty of bean sprouts, scallions and tau pok. There's also this wicked sambal you scoop from a huge porcelain bowl in front of the stall and onto your plate as you proceed to return to your table. Trust me, this sambal is IT. It is not your typical sambal. It is a nonya type of sambal, spicy but not too spicy, savoury but not too savoury. There are shallots in it too and you can so imagine eating it with lots of fried ikan bilis. This is only the second time that I am eating this mee siam and it still feels like love at first side. Believe me when I say that this mee siam beats all others hands down. Best part? It's only $3.70. Can you imagine that?Not only do they sell some kick-ass mee siam, there's also curry chicken (which also rocks my socks by the way, but that is for another post), laksa, mee rebus, bean curd and chin chow jelly. Mind you, everything is made from scratch and that includes the bouncy shiny black jelly:At first I was amused that a mee siam stall would sell home made chin chow. But then I realised what a smart idea that was. Topped with ice, this jelly is the perfect foil for those out there who have scorched tongues. It clearly is homemade - the texture of the jelly reveals that. It is neither too synthetic and neither do they use excessive flavouring. The cold dessert is ideal on a hot day.After chowing down our carrot cake, mee siam and chin chow, we were clearly full. But we managed to walk it off with plenty of shopping. How's that for a random Saturday craving? Trust me when I tell you that this is only the beginning.More tales of food cravings coming up soon.

The Riders

I’ve liked what I’ve read of Winton (Cloudstreet and Dirt Music) and this one is no exception. The main character, Scully, is from Freemantle in Western Australia. He’s a big, unattractive guy, a laborer whose skills are currently put to use renovating an old Irish farmhouse which had taken his wife’s fancy on a visit to Ireland. His wife, Jennifer, who’s pregnant with their second child, is in Australia with their 7 year-old daughter, Billie, typing loose ends for their planned move to Ireland.On the day—shortly before Christmas—when his family is supposed to arrive at Shannon, Billie is alone on the plane, scared enough that she can’t even talk to tell her father what happened to Jennifer. The airline shows Jennifer arrived at Heathrow but didn’t continue on to Shannon. Scully, panicked and not thinking clearly, takes off after her, Billie in tow, and they end up on a frantic trip to London, a Greek island where they’d lived happily before Ireland, Paris, and Amsterdam. The third person narrative shifts occasionally from Scully to Billie’s point of view, particularly as the former gets more and more out of control (he’s accused of murder (wrongly) in Greece but runs anyway and in Amsterdam he’s arrested, drunk and dirty. At one point—after he’s stolen money from Irma, a good-hearted but screwy woman who’s clearly attracted to him and wants to help, Billie practically takes control, appropriating the money. Scully gets more and more desperate, chasing women on the street who look like Jennifer, while Billie, devoted to her father, doesn’t particularly want her mother back.Gradually, partly through Billie’s point of view, the reader gets a picture of Jennifer, as a woman, more educated than Scully, with a yen to be an artist, but evidently without the talent. Whether she ever loved Scully is unclear, but during what he sees as a romantic period of living in Europe, with Scully working on house renovations with other illegals to get them money, Jennifer’s been seeking out more sophisticated friends, artists and writers and wannabes like herself. The child she carries may not be Scully’s; in fact, there may not even be a child….Two somewhat blatant associations clarify the meaning of Scully’s desperation. The first is the poem, “On Raglan Road” by Australian Patrick Kavanagh which is quoted in the text. The poem is about a man who “loved too much” and “wooed not as I should a creature made of clay”. An angel who loved like that would lose his wings, concludes the poem. The second reference is to “the riders”, a group of gypsies in Ireland—travelers, that Scully sees and is attracted by early in the novel and then again at the very end when, on New Year’s night he follows Billie out into the snow to the ruined castle near their Irish farmhouse. There some riders have paused, but this time Scully rejects the itinerate life they lead—and presumably the traveling he’s been doing himself.

F.W. Thomas

In our next episode, F.W. Thomas asks the burning question: ARE YOU READY TO ROCK? Don't answer yet. First, let us mention that the quasi-regular live-action series dubbed, "D.C.'s most comprehensive multimedia performance evening," by some blogger who probably by now wishes she never heard of F.W.Thomas, is hosting an evening of performances on the theme of ROCK &ROLL.Now please get ready to put your hands together for:* John Sellers, noted journalist, author and curmudgeon, who will be reading from his new book, "Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life," just published by Simon & Schuster. Mr. Sellers has dined with Gary Busey, played wing-man on an ill-fated babe-gathering expedition with Chris Kattan, and bowled with Weird Al Yankovic. This appearance is a CAN'T MISS event for area rocknerds and music bloggers, because ,unbeknownst to Mr. Sellers, you will all have the opportunity to gainsay this New York hipster's allegedly "encyclopedic" knowledge of music from the era covering (roughly) the demise of Galaxie 500 to the onset of Built To Spill. He is the clown and D.C. is the dunking tank. Please come armed with MADDENINGLY OBSCURE questions to astound and infuriate! To learn more about Mr. Sellers, please examine his blog: http://www.johnsellers.net/* Glenn Dixon, who last spoke to us about the musical career of Leonard Nimoy, will speak on the HIDDEN PORNOGRAPHIC SUBTEXTS of Christian Rock. Sound-clips will be served.* Mike Lowery, the F.W. Thomas artist-in-residence, sharing his innermost thoughts as expressed in deceptively simple line drawings.Mr. Lowery may be fully appreciated at: http://www.argyleacademy.com/blog.html.*Your host, the noted duckpin bowler and right-wing music critic Adam Mazmanian, with a few words on the art and science of ROCKING OUTWe will be convening promptly at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 9, on the main stage at the Warehouse Theater: http://www.warehousetheater.com/The Warehouse Theater is located at 1017-1021 7th Street NW. Admission is the newly-unreasonable sum of $5.

Have You Tried Detox?

Filed under: Diet and Weight Loss Here at That's Fit, we're constantly telling you what we think about things, but sometimes it's nice to know what you think. So from time to time, we'll ask you a question. Don't be afraid to speak up -- we love feedback.If you're looking for a quick slim-down, just look to the stars. No, not the ones up in the sky, I mean all the detox-happy celebs out in Tinseltown. Cleanses are quite popular right now, but they've been around for years. They can lead to some quick (though likely temporary) weight loss and, as Bethany found out, detox diets can leave you feeling quite good (after a few days of feeling kind of lousy, anyway). Proponents of detox diets will leave you believing that your body is full of nasty toxins that have no other way to come out. But many health experts will tell you that your body does a pretty good job of getting rid of toxins on its own. So I wonder what you think ... do you detox?View PollIf you've done a detox diet, what did you think about it?

8 conciertos Norte America

Hoy 6 de abril de 2009, salen a la venta las entradas de 8 conciertos para Norte América. Todos los tickets los va a vender ticketmaster. La venta comienza a las 10am (hora local de cada concierto). Podéis comprobar la hora con esta aplicación: timeanddate.comConciertos U2 360 Tour Norte América:· 2009-09-13 - Chicago, Illinois, USA - Soldier Field· 2009-09-21 - Foxboro, Massachusetts, USA - Gillette Stadium· 2009-09-25 - East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA - Giants Stadium· 2009-09-29 - Landover, Maryland, USA - FedEx Field· 2009-10-06 - Atlanta, Georgia, USA - Georgia Dome· 2009-10-09 - Tampa, Florida, USA - Raymond James Stadium· 2009-10-25 - Pasadena, California, USA - Rose Bowl· 2009-10-28 - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - B.C. Place Stadium

Snippet Designer

I am excited to announce that the Snippet Designer is featured in the April issue of MSDN Magazine. It is featured in the Toolbox column where they highlight useful tools and blogs. Here is a snippet of what it says: Creating Code Snippets is a lot easier when using Snippet Designer (version 1.1), a free, open-source Add-In for Visual Studio 2008 for creating and editing Code Snippets directly within the IDE. Once you install it, creating a new Code Snippet is as easy as going to the File menu and creating a new Code Snippet File. That is so cool! If you are interested go and download the Snippet Designer from the Codeplex website and give me more feedback. Also, in the same article my friend Sara Ford had her blog featured. When I found out the Snippet Designer and Sara’s blog were in the magazine I quickly emailed to ask Sara if she knew about it. She already did and also had an extra copy of the magazine for me!

Vegetarians - More Likely to Have Eating Disorders?

A study came out recently that examined the relationship between vegetarians and eating disorders, and it's stirring up some serious controversy. It found that adolescent and young adult vegetarians, while more likely to be of a healthy weight and follow a healthier diet filled with fruits and vegetables, also "may be at increased risk for disordered eating behaviors, such as binge eating and unhealthful weight-control behaviors (such as forcing themselves to vomit, using diuretics and laxatives, and taking diet pills)." Yikes!Of course, a conclusion like this has been picked up by plenty of outlets. Diet Blog has a particularly lively discussion going on in the comments, and an interesting point is broached. Is it really that vegetarians face an increased risk of developing an eating disorder? Or, is someone with an eating disorder just more likely to gravitate toward a restrictive diet, such as vegetarianism? When you think about it that way, it makes a lot of sense. An anorexic teenager can use vegetarianism to more easily hide his or her unhealthy diet -- Mom and Dad will be far more likely to accept their child's refusal of a pork chop if it's because their child is a vegetarian, and might not notice that far fewer calories are being consumed.

NKKK: Hottest Comics Barely Legal Babe

When I did Sexiest CILF two years ago I lumped all the female characters together which wasn't particularly fair. So for this year's Kinky Karacter Kompetition I have broken then into the young single ladies and the moms. Oddly, this grouping was the harder bracket to fill-out (so to speak), made all the more difficult by my No High School Students rule. Here are the candidates:Toni DaytonaLuannToni ran away with the Hottest CILF last time, but I would hope that in the past two years we have grown tired of her cock-teasing ways. Not that Brad "Box of Rocks" DeGroot has. He still follows her around with those pathetic puppy dog eyes of his. Just remember that despite her hot looks, she is a cold-hearted bee-yotch.Alex DoonesburyDoonesburyThe only actual college co-ed in this Girls Gone Wild division of the comics competition, Alex is young but knows the landscape, at least in theory. While there is on-going debate about how hawt she really is, who wouldn't like to fondly re-enact those days of dorm room lust? Eagerness to try the waters has to count for something.Edda Burber9 Chickweed LaneNobody creates as much comics heat as the recently deflowered Edda Burber. What could be a hotter start into the world of passion than doing it on top of a paino while being secretly web-cammed? And regular comic strip readers can pretend she is obtainable because she is clearly smitten by uber-dork Amos. I mean, if he can hit that, any of us could.LilaThe Meaning of LilaA relative newcomer, Lila is a young woman with dead-end job and an obsession with shoes and meeting cute guys. Think of her as a younger, thinner, hotter Cathy. On the other hand, don't think of Cathy, ever. Lila haunts the bars with her cute gay coworker looking for quick hook-ups and neverending parties. And who couldn't go for a girl like that at the end of the night?Miss BuxleyBeetle BaileyAs the hottest thing at Camp Swampy for the non-don't-ask-don't-tell, Biss Buxley has been around. This fun party girl has gone out with Killer, Zero, and Beetle, so she can't be too fussy. Unfortuntely, she learned her office skills from the Fanne Fox Secretarial School (now there is a vintage pop-cultural reference).The field is wide open. Pick which young thing does it for you.You must enable JavaScript to vote in this poll from Pollverize.

things to consider before marriage

Marriage isn't something that should be jumped into. It is a serious commitment that should be carefully thought through. These are some things to consider...

*Do you love the person enough to stay with them forever?

* Do you like their In-Laws? Do they like you?

* Do we have the finances to support each other?

* Do we want kids? How many?

* Where are we going to live?

* Does this person have drug/alcohol issues? Is he/she a violent person?


These are very important things that need to be looked at before the "I do's" start flying around. More than half of the marriages in the U.S. end in divorce. Divorce is something that can ruin lives financially and emotionally. That is why before you tie the knot, you need to have a talk with your spouse and discuss what you are willing to sacrifice to be with this person.

Is Your Investing Personality in Your DNA?

I consider myself a patient and disciplined investor, so I volunteered as a guinea pig in Ahmad Hariri's imaging genetics lab to learn how my genes and brain activity shape my behavior. The results shocked me.

After I spit into a cup, Dr. Hariri had my DNA analyzed to find out which form I have of five genes that influence the brain circuits that generate decisions about risk and reward over time. His findings: In all five genes, I have a variant, or allele, that is sometimes associated with bad investing decisions.

Consider the FAAH gene. Roughly 25% of people with European ancestry carry the 385A allele of this gene. That tends to damp their brains' fear circuitry and to intensify their brains' reaction to the prospect of making money. I am one of those people.
Or take the DRD2 gene. Some 20% of Caucasians have an allele that can make them respond more intensely to gambles, even when no skill is involved. I have it.

When I had my brain scanned with a functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, machine, that wasn't a pretty picture either.
While I lay inside the fMRI tube, I viewed a card face down and tried to guess whether it was higher or lower than a five. If I got enough of the guesses right, I was supposed to win $10. Whenever my guess turned out to be right, my ventral striatum -- one of the brain's reward centers -- responded roughly twice as intensely as that of the average person in Dr. Hariri's experiments.

That suggests I may get an even more visceral rush out of making money than other investors do. Dr. Hariri has found that people whose brains respond like mine tend to crave the immediate gratification of a quick profit. "Controlling this kind of impulsive response to reward," says Dr. Hariri, "is crucial to success in many aspects of life" -- like investing, where impatience often lowers returns.


There is always a tug of war inside each of us between nature and nurture. But during scary times like these, says Dr. Hariri, "environmental stresses can play a critical role in unmasking any underlying biases determined by your genes." In other words, bear markets give nature the upper hand. It is now harder than ever to stick to the disciplines that can override your genetic impulses, but it also has never been more important.

How to refuse others' pursuit in English?

1. I'm not attracted to you.

2. Maybe I don't deserve you.

3. We don't match each other.

4. He is not my type.

Love your life

However mean your life is, meet it and live it.
It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest.
The fault-finder will find faults in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is.

You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house.
The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.

Left holding bag

Mr Brown ran out of the house boiling mad.

All the kids except Danny ran off and left him holding the bag.

Well, I agree to pay for the window although another boy had hit the ball.

Studying in the US: Where To Live?

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
March Madness is the name for the busy championship season in American college basketball. But March also means another kind of madness -- the nervous wait for admissions letters from colleges and universities.
This week in our Foreign Student Series, we jump ahead to the subject of where to live. Housing policies differ from school to school. Some schools have limited housing or none at all.
Dormitory buildings might house a small number of students or many hundreds. Some dorms have suites. A suite has several bedrooms, a common area and a bathroom. Other dorms have rooms along a common hallway. Two, three or four students might share a room.

Males and females often live on different floors of the same building. Or they might live on the same floor, or in some cases even share a suite if permitted. But single-sex housing is usually also available.

Different groups and organizations such as fraternities and sororities might have their own houses where their members live. And there is often housing for married students.

Some dorms are nice, others are not so nice. But many students say they like the chance to make friends and be near their classes.

Cost is another consideration. Dorms can cost less than off-campus housing. But school-owned housing can also cost more, though the price may include meals.


Kirsten Kennedy, housing director at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, says all first-year undergraduates there have to live in a dorm. After that, they are free to seek other housing.

Students can apply to become resident assistants after living in the dorms for a year. International students can also apply to become resident assistants after a year in the dorms.
Working as a resident assistant in student housing is one way to help finance an education. At many schools, RAs earn money as well as get their room and meals for free or at a reduced price.