non sense

Relationship with a Wall - Xmas

2011-12-23T18:38:00.000+01:00

Hey Wall I wish you a very Merry Xmas but I also wanted to tell you this:
You wall are hard! I keep hurting myself every time I try to deal with you.
I think I may let you go, Wall. You're not much of a company anyway.
You stand there and put all the responsibility of this relationship to me. You damn wall! You just stand there. I wonder if there will be a day when you may reply or show any of those things you whispered in my head. You lied. You promised me lots of things and never moved a finger... and yet you have no fingers so I could have just trusted my guts on that. I thought it was okay for me being here and talking to you. I am getting bored now. I want something more than just a relationship with you, wall.
I am going to ask Father Xmas to bring me a talking fence or something else than the hardcore bricks you show me all the time. I need air. Your bricks don't let any new air come through.
I hope you're listening to me wall, cus my wish will be due tomorrow....

Yours truly,
that little voice beneath You!

Single Xmas Menu

2011-12-23T18:05:00.003+01:00

This Xmas is the first that I will be passing on my own. I don't really mind because Xmas to me is the time you spend with family, so not having one of my own and not having the possibility to travel to mine, it is okay this way. Also, I wouldn't like to spend Xmas day with people I don't really intimately know. I like a familiar Xmas and familiarity means you can be yourself with people who love you and care for you. The last years have been testing many of my relationships, enduring some of them and hindering others. Xmas is also food time, everywhere. And everywhere there are different food traditions. I'll keep close to those I grew up with- as they remind me of my grandma and my family. We used to spend Xmas eve (the 24th) at my grandma's place. All my mum's family would be there that evening: adults and children reunited to wait midnight together. That dinner was a big event, lots of food had to be cooked so I remember my aunts going earlier to help my grandma cook. The menu was every year the same, for you can't eat meat (or shouldn't according to Catholic traditions) the night before Jesus is born. Finding fresh fish in December was certainly a challenge, lucky one of the aunts lived on the sea-coast and she could get fresh fish the very same morning. Only now, that I am an adult and I go shopping on my own, I can understand the exaggerated Xmas shopping hysteria and think "poor aunt!". So the menu was quite simple. I like to write in in a old fashion menu way so here it is.

As you can see no meat on the menu.
Lobsters were not served to children who usually don't like them because they are alive when they come in the house.
So simple code fish for the little ones.
This was the main menu, of course next to it there would me many appetizers, little finger food that would change every year and that usually has no space on menus. Finger food is one of my favourite type of food.
As tradition my grandma used to make a sweet cornucopia to represent and wish the family abundance.

This was the dinner presented to the whole family (we used to sit approximately with 10-15 people).

Midnight came and Xmas days brought me and my family to the village where my dad's family resided. We used to pack the car on the 25th and drive 2 hours to my dad's village. The village was in the mountain, so we used to always have a white Christmas. I used to love it there, outside of the city, we children could play with the snow and fires were on in the houses. Fireplaces leave such a peculiar odour in the city, I love it very much. It's a cosy scent.
Xmas day at the village was another food-de-force. The menu was much richer in meat, as from the 25th on meat is allowed on the table.

Here it is, I did not include potatoes and veggies and bread... In Italy bread comes by default on the table and potatoes usually as well. No need to mention them on menus. I love the way some cultures, like the Italian one, truly enjoy food.

Both grandmas made the pasta from scratch and both dinners were for min. 10 to max of 20 people. This means a lot of hand and hard work. But the result was worth the job. I think I rarely had such great Xmas dinner and lunch as those respectively proposed by each grandmother.

It was clear they both were family women whose main job was to take care of the family. Traditions like this are gone, women cook less and less. Maybe Xmas and some other holiday's spirit allow women to explore their kitchen capabilities as usually great food is expected on those occasions. I myself didn't wait to have my own family to start the great cooking. I love eating so much that if I don't experiment and learn to cook for myself the way I want it I'd end up spending all my money eating deliciously prepared food. I can learn. Years ago, when I had a boyfriend, I started making food according to the Italian tradition (24th no meat, 25th meat) - challenging myself to some of the best dishes. Since some years though I am alone and I have usually been flying home for the holidays. This year, due to some house renovation, I can't. I'll spend Xmas alone and because some of my friends are busy with other people and some are too lazy to move or think of cooking I decided I will celebrate Xmas on my own in the way I want it; with lots of good food. It isn't true that cooking for one is not fun. It is actually nice because even if you fail no-one except you will know. Good room for improvement and actually to serve the delicious newly learned dishes when guests are/will be around. So since a couple of days I am around looking and buying food so tomorrow I can start cooking without further research.
I also made menus, both for the 24th and the 25th. I even have some food spared for the 26th - you never know!! Now I am going to make you jealous and some may think: why haven't you invited no-body to eat the deliciousness?! ... moving from this thought, let me introduce you to MY FIRST CHRISTMAS MENUs.
As you can see I do not keep the tradition of NOT eating any meat the 24th. I don't like fish so much, so I opt for "white" meat.... the meat factor is because no blood should be eaten, ok I'll clean the chicken. Fish has blood too. The biggest challenge will be the mini Wellington's and the stuffed chicken - both dishes I have never made before. They don't look terribly difficult thou.
The ravioli are already made and I will prepare fresh pesto to go with them. Here's a simple Genovese Pesto recipe. I'd say use only one garlic and no more. I suggest you making your own- it's way more delicious that any you can buy. I will not say cheaper because pine-nuts are freaking expensive! Slavinken are a typical Dutch meat dish consisting usually of ground meat wrapped in bacon or beef. I prefer them wrapped in beef, they're a little less fatty.
Just to mention: I make the brownies myself (I have made some and for sure will have them tomorrow eve too) but the chocolate cake is pre-made. I am not a huge fan of sweet-dishes. If I could choose between having a chocolate cake or another piece of lasagne for dessert, I'll go with the lasagne. I love savoury food so so much!!! I made this post so tomorrow morning I have NO excuses but to wake up and COOK!!!

I believe everyone should spend one Christmas alone because it does truly make you think a lot.
Maybe good intentions for Next Year will be a bit more coherent and close to what I truly need.
I wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS ♥ lots of love to everyone who come to read this.

Relationship with a Wall - my Wall VS Facebook's Wall

2011-08-18T19:56:00.000+02:00

My wall is better because it can keep secrets.

Relationship with a Wall - preface

2011-08-18T19:54:00.000+02:00

I have started a relationship with a wall. So far it's the nearest and most responsive object next to the computer. The wall doesn't talk back. It reminds me of many relationship I had. So instead of talking to any person who can respond and hurt, then why not use a wall?!

Relationship with a Wall

2011-08-18T19:50:00.000+02:00

Today I've been crying to the wall. No answer. I told him how much I would love to hug him. He didn't seem to respond.

A Day for Pride

2011-08-06T22:36:00.000+02:00

Be proud of the person that you are, be proud of it wholeness. It doesn't matter what sex, gender, color, age you are. Labels just minimize and limit the infinite possibilities. Be proud of your uniqueness in its whole.

Dreaming the munchies

2011-06-16T12:26:00.000+02:00

This is just a crazy theory that I have been thinking about one morning after waking up from a suffered dream in which I was hungry and trying to feed myself. Nicely enough when you're hungry in dreams you also find yourself next to the best options you could have in real life, like 5stars hotel buffet or all you can eat places, restaurants and so on.. all happy and satisfied because you're going to suppress the hunger feeling that you are perceiving in the dream. Often after waking up from those dreams, you still feel hungry and in need of food. This makes me hypothesize that we can dream what we feel, if the feeling is strong enough. I have been looking for research papers on dreams, however I didn’t find anything yet where particular emotions / perceptions are discussed in relation to what subject remember to have dreamed. I may understand that the research data could be discussed as non-valid because subject could be biased by the nature of the research and could add personal touch and feelings to what they really remember of their dreams --> asking someone to recall a dream focusing on the emotions, body sensations, could bias what the subjects recall from their dreams. One option could be to wake up the subjects during REM activity and ask them to write down what they recall without thinking too much about it as brief awareness = unconscious mind response.
I am really interested in emotions like fear, despair and such negative emotions as I always believed that the representation of those in dreams are just the representation of feeling we are bearing inside (overt or covert) and we suppress with our conscious mind. Unconscious mind wakes at night when the conscious mind is less responsive and fires the same info to the brain.
Studies on the content of dreams are very difficult because they rely on what the subject recalls, I will still look around for research papers to add to this post. This is merely a little hypothesis, based on the fact that hunger is present as a sensation and feeling in dreams that many people recall to have. Another way to approach the subject could be asking: is the hunger we dream of real hunger?
It's a couple of days that I have been thinking about emotions and feelings represented in dreams and how these could be scientifically studied, however I could not find anything scientific to back this up or relate this to (yet). - TO BE CONTINUED -

Essay on Altruism

2011-06-04T10:31:00.001+02:00

Every action is a selfish one and thus true altruism does not exist. Discuss in relation to research on pro-social behaviour.

Helping another in need or having the feeling of wanting to help someone in need is something that usually happens in everyone’s life. It is a common thought that animals help each others reciprocally expecting to gain something in return. However in some cases, helping is not linked to immediate returning benefits or these are inexistent. This type of prosocial behavior has caught the attention of psychologists interested in understanding the processes and motives behind it. Can this be considered real altruism? Psychologists have been investigating this issue proposing different hypothesis to explain altruistic behavior. This essay will discuss altruism and some of the more dominant thoughts over the debate whether altruistic behavior generates from real altruistic motivations (helping with the goal of benefiting others, without any self benefit) or selfish motives (helping the other with the ultimate goal of self benefit).

The discussion over the real essence of altruistic behavior is not a new subject and has been present in literature for long time, from Aristotele to Freud (Batson and Shaw, 1991).

The common view of psychologists, philosophers and biologists was, until some time ago, that egoistic motivations are a common denominator for most human behaviors. Prosocial behavior is considered and studied differently than other human behavior, because it is the only one that is apparently independent from reinforcement (benefit or punishment). Altruism is considered part of prosocial behavior (Hogg and Vaughan, 2008). Auguste Comte coined the word altruism when writing about the two different motives (egoism versus altruism) which are simultaneously present in an individual and that shape the individual’s behavioral responses. Altruism refers to those social acts that are “an expression of an unselfish desire to live for others” (Comte, as cited in Batson and Shaw, 1991, p108). Despite the promising prosocial definition, most psychologists through all times have held the idea that real altruism cannot exist because all behaviors are originated by selfish or evolutionary motives.

Evolutionary psychologists like Rushton (1991) argue how altruism is part of evolution that originates from genetic purposes. Many studies show how people would rather help a relative, or a person they can mirror with, than someone they are not related or don’t feel a connection with.

It is understandable how helping a relative or someone we are attached to could be a normal response and bring benefit to the helper in some ways, but it is difficult to explain when people and non-humans show compassionate feelings for complete strangers. This apparently altruistic behavior suggests that real altruism could indeed exist.

To further investigate this option some tried to analyze the emotions and cognitive processes happening to an individual prior to manifesting the helping behavior.

Piliavin et al. (1981, as cited in Vaughan en Hogg 2008) suggested that the act of not helping someone in need could result in costs for the bystander. These could be of either emphatic or personal nature. That is, the helper may feel remorse if choosing not to help. In this case, the effort of minimizing the costs does result in helping behavior that is anyway considered selfish. They put down a model outlining three cognitive stages a bystander goes through before formulating what outcome will be the most effective. First the bystander suffers from physiological arousal, which means to feel distressful or uncomfortable feelings from perceiving the other person’s trouble. Secondly, the bystander needs to label this state of arousal. As explained by Vaughan and Hogg, arousal alone does not produce an emotion. Individual cognitive processes play a significant role in determining which emotion needs to be allocated to the arousal state. (Hogg and Vaughan, 2008). The last stage is evaluating the consequences, losses and benefits; hence the person will make the choice of helping or not helping.

During the second stage of this model one can start focusing on the emotions that generate either the altruistic or egoistic motives behind the resulting action. It could be argued that the bystander, who feels empathy, namely to have compassionate feelings for the other person and being able to feel and entering into another’s feelings, aims the helping behavior at alleviating the person in need and thus altruism is generated by altruistic motives . Empathy, therefore, is the emotion that could generate real altruistic behaviors (Batson and Shaw, 1991). Batson and Shaw proposed in 1991 the empathy-altruism model, suggesting that in order to understand which motive drives the action, it is needed to ascertain someone’s ultimate goal because if the ultimate goal is to relieve the other’s suffering, unintended benefit could be a consequence of the helping action but not the goal itself and thus the motives can be considered altruistic. But when the ultimate goal is to receive self benefit from helping another, the behavior can be considered selfish. They designed experiments appositely to try ascertaining the real motive behind an action and to test the empathy-altruism hypothesis against all opposite theories. Their results suggested that the empathy-altruism hypothesis was a valid and researchable one. But their study was as promising for the altruism versus egoism debate, as questionable. Cialdini and his colleagues (1987) contested their hypothesis saying that empathy can generate sadness in the helper, therefore the action of helping another could be motivated by the willingness of the helper to relieve his/her sadness (as cited in Breckler, Olson, Wiggins, 2006) even if they agreed to the new pluralistic approach proposed (Cialdini, 1991). Other critiques were instead against the methodology of the experiments, complaining that the results could lack of natural validity because of the way the experiments were designed (Wallach and Wallach, 1991; Dovidio, 1991). Wallach and Wallach also suggested that it is empirically impossible to test whether the motives behind helping someone else are truly altruistic (aiming only at relieving the other’s pain) or egoistic (aimed at relieving self discomfort) because “one goal is the necessary consequence of the other” (1991, p.154). They claimed that trying to prove this would be like trying to solve the null hypothesis and that altruism does not seem to be demonstrated by psychological experimentation (Wallach and Wallach, 1991).

This could sound pessimistic for scientific research, but the studies by Batson and Shaw gave rise to a new era of thought about altruism, suggesting that a pluralistic view, including both egoistic and altruistic motives, should be used when interpreting and researching prosocial behavior, pushing away the monistic view of human egoism. In the last years, evolutionary psychologists such as De Waal, have included the empathy-altruism hypothesis as part of their researches on altruism, empathy and evolutionary approach. De Waal suggestes that empathy is the proximate behavior that on the long term gives birth to the ultimate prosocial behaviors, such as altruism. This is an evolutionary point of view. In comparative studies it is shown how other animals also engage in prosocial acts (e.g. chimpanzees). De Waal believes that empathy can be the only answer to why animals and humans are able to dispense assistance according to need (De Waal, 2008, p.289). Supported by clinical research (2002a), he introduced the Perception Action Mechanism (PAM) model according to which humans have a mechanism from which empathic capacity generates. PAM provides a person to perceive the subjective state of another through neural and physiological representations (De Waal, 2008).

Supporting PAM, MRI studies on human subjects have demonstrated an activation of the ventral insula both when we feel disgusted or we see someone who is disgusted (Wicker, 2003 as cited in de Waal). According to De Waal, the PAM is at the core of the helping behavior, whilst cognitive processes are on its outer layer. De Waal argues that cognitive processes are too long to be part of every pro-social action, as they may include very quick reactions, as for example in emergency situations.

His research, which includes also clinical experimentations and comparative studies, provides a better understanding of why people and other animals feel the need of helping others. It also proposes prosocial behavior to be a more spontaneous impulse instead of a mechanic and controlled cognitive process and it highlights the mediating role that emotions have on behaviors.

Other studies show that infants already show compassion at a very young age (1 to 2 years old), when complex cognitive processes are not developed yet. This is an empirical critique to the Pilivian cognitive view of altruism, as demonstrated by Warneken and Tomasello (2006), babies who understand when their help is needed will try to help the person in need (an unknown person) even before help has been requested.

All these results suggest that altruism exists independent by evolutionary theories and can be independent from direct or indirect reinforcement, leading us to the idea that true altruism can exist free from egoistic motives.

Why some altruistic behaviors exist in the animal world has not been discovered yet, but the debate on the true core of altruism is challenging and still goes on. It is intriguing how it has involved so many disciplines, from philosophy to biology and still continues to receive interest and be researched. Today it is fair to accept the coexistence of both altruism and egoism behind different pro-social behaviors and, as suggested by Wallach and Wallach (1991) as well, the fact that it is very difficult to demonstrate which motive prevails on the other doesn’t preclude us from accepting the existence of altruism, as it is, for the fact that is part of our natural human being.

References:

Batson C.D. & Shaw L.L. (1991) Evidence for altruism: toward a pluralism of prosocial motives. Psychological Inquiry, 2(2), 107 – 122

Breckler S.J, Olson J.M. and Wiggings E.C. (2006) Social Psychology Alive. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth

Cialdini R.B. (1991) Altruism or egoism? That is (still) the question. Psychological Inquiry, 2(2), 124 – 125

De Waal, F.B.M. (2008) Putting the altruism back into altruism: the evolution of empathy. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2008(59), 279 – 300. Retrieved from http://www.annualreviews.org/ by EMORY UNIVERSITY on 01/23/08.

Dovidio J.F. (1991) The empathy-altruism hypothesis: paradigm and promises. Psychological Inquiry, 2(2), 126 – 128

Hogg M.A. & Vaughan G.M. (2008) Social Psychology (5^th Edition) Essex: Pearson Education Limited

Rushton J.P. (1991) Is altruism innate? Psychological Inquiry, 2(2), 141 - 143

Wallach L. & Wallach M.A. (1991) Why altruism, even though it exists, cannot be demonstrated by Social Psychology experiments. Psychological Inquiry, 2(2),153 – 155

Warkeneken F. & Tomasello M. (2006) Altruistic helping in human infants and young chimpanzees. ScienceMag, 311. Retrieved from http://wwwsciencemag.org

- Analysis of how language affects cognition and viceversa -

2011-06-04T10:27:00.003+02:00

Valeria Scimia - Student # 100156703 {University of Derby}

Essay Cognitive Psychology

Analyse and evaluate the view that language affects cognition. Refer to relevant empirical evidence in your answer.

Language is considered to be a human gift. It allows people to communicate their thoughts to one another and it is essential for living a normal social life. It is a cognitive capacity that has always interested psychologists of all times. There are many languages spoken in the world, people from different countries speak different languages, each of them differs from another. In the recent years psychologists and linguistics have been interested in understanding whether those differences may represent also differences in the way people perceive the world. It has always been a common thought that it is our cognition to shape the way we speak but recently studies are showing results that encourage the hypothesis that language plays a more important role in shaping the way people think and perceive reality. This essay will focus on reviewing the history behind this idea and some empirical researches that were carried out to understand whether language can affect cognition, an hypothesis often considered empirically untestable therefore scientifically incorrect (Boroditsky, 2009).

The study of how we come to speak and learn language has populated psychological literature of all times. The fact that children speak their thoughts aloud led behaviorists, observing this particular behaviour, to believe that language and thought could be the same thing. Studies have shown that thought is often accompanied by covert speech (Harley, 1995), but the relationship between the two has been debated amongst philosophers and linguistics. Some, like Chomsky, believed that language and thought are independent from one another, others like Piaget argued that cognitive development accompanies language development (Harley, 1995). Eve Clark (2004) reported observations made upon the developing of space concepts by children. She concluded that the cognitive experience is acquired by the children before verbalization. They adapt their acquired cognitive representation to the reference language only later in their years. Humans therefore retain the full cognitive experience about space, while language represents just few of its aspects. The use of language can provide a diversity of perspectives used to describe an event or object, but it is the full cognitive representation of the event or object that is used when verbalization is not needed (e.g. when thinking about something). But verbalizing cognitive concepts is important for the perception other people may have of one another.

To first raise the question that words could indeed change the way people perceived reality was a fire insurance engineer, Whorf (1956, as cited in Harley). During his employment he noticed of how big importance were the words used, and how an incorrect use of terminology could actually cause errors in judgment and therefore accidents (Harley, 1995). Together with linguistic Sapir, they generated the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis stating that language determines the way we think and perceive the world, therefore it is the language we speak that determines our cognitive processes. This was a strong hypothesis, and a weaker version was later proposed by Miller and McNeil (1969), stating that language does affect perception. This latter version was the only one to be empirically testable (as cited in Harley, 1995).

To test this hypothesis many studies were conduced on different areas of human perceptions, like the perception of time, space or colors.

One interesting study about the perception of time and space was made on English native speakers and native Mandarin speakers. Because Mandarin language arranges the concept of time in a vertical way, the research was performed to understand if language did indeed influence the way Mandarin speakers differed from English speakers on the perception of time. Laboratory tests showed that English speaker were unable to perceive time vertically, as English language has a horizontal representation of time, but Mandarin speakers had no trouble with the vertical representation of it (Boroditsky, Fuhrman, McCormick, 2010). Other studies have been made on gender loaded and non gender loaded languages to better understand if grammatical gender could influence the sex categorization in speakers. Gender loaded languages are those like Italian, Spanish and Russian, where all parts of the sentence need to reflect the gender of the object or noun, so the determines, verb and adjectives will all be presented in a gender form (masculine or feminine) depending on the noun. Other languages, like English, are not gender loaded and the sentence does not need all elements to reflect the gender of the noun. There are also languages that have two grammatical genders for the referent (like Italian and French) and others that have more than two genders, like German that has also a neutral grammar category (Elieff, Burch, Forbes, Rodriguez, Dubois, 2002). Many studies have tried to understand if grammatical gender can also influence the way people semantically think about the world. A more recent study has confirmed that for those language with only two genders and that are gender loaded (such as French or Italian), grammatical gender influences the categorization of semantic representations, but the same result could not be found for languages that had multiple gender categories or none (Vigliocco, Vinson, Paganelli, Dworzynski, 2005). This result suggests that grammatical gender does affect “thinking for speaking”, that is it is crucial when forming a sentence because all parts need to reflect the referent’s gender. It could be that a native Italian speaker needs to categorize the object or person into grammatical gender in order to obtain proper syntax in the sentence (Vigliocco et al., pag.513). Studies like the latter suggest indeed that language does have an effect on the semantic of the people speaking it. More studies on second language acquisition should be carried on to understand whether people that learn a different language will also start perceiving the world according to the new language (Boroditsky, July 2010).

But if the case is indeed that language does affect the way people perceive the outside world, what about the use of violent language or misleading words? In nowadays society it can be noticed a large use of language aimed at obtaining a certain purpose, thinking for example about advertisement where wrong information may be given out in such a way that the viewer starts believing it as real. One may think about the war on drugs, made by the US government against marijuana. The use of improper terminology and its association with heavier and more dangerous drugs was so heavy, that in some States it was wrongly classified as narcotic, a medical term used to classify opiates (Pinel, 2007, pag.379). It was already medically known that marijuana was not to be considered a narcotic, but the use of the word next to it made the population scared and confused to the point that still to this day people are not aware of the real chemical differences between marijuana and narcotics. This example suggests how the wrong use of labels and categorization may lead people to act in a certain way. There have been studies focused on the way people use words to categorize and label others. Hoffman, Baer and Mischel (1984) researched how the use of language was connected to trait categorization. They carried out a research aiming to see whether people tended to categorize more when they were expecting to engage in a conversation regarding a subject than when they expected not to. The result was that people who expected to engage in a conversation about someone tended to list more trait categories about the subject than those who expected not. This suggests that the idea of talking about someone or something reinforces the way people use trait categories and labels about it. So, it can be imagined in a school environment, for example, how this may influence the way peers talk and use word categories against each others.

Poteat and DiGiovanni (2010) studied the relationship between sexualized (or homophobic) talk and bullying, and the relationship of this biased talk with personal prejudice. Teenagers tend to use sexualized talk against their peers or against objects, inducing fear into sexual minorities. The results of this research showed how the use of biased talk was linked to high sexual prejudice amongst teenagers, especially boys.

They suggest in their paper how crucial it is to include teaching of the proper use of language and to tackle biased language when working with children in rehabilitation programs in order to minimize verbal bullying.

A last example of how the improper use of language could cause people to act and shape their cognitive perception of the world could be the terrorism debate. Politicians, mass-media and newspapers some years ago have begun an anti-terrorism campaign often referring wrongly to certain religious and cultural groups. A study that took place at Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust discussed the way UK ministers were using misleading language regarding terrorism, as it included nuances that could be interpreted as supporting the terrorists as soldiers instead of criminals. It was also mentioned how certain remarks about religious and cultural groups could lead the population to treat and perceive those groups in a racist and discriminating way (Politics.co.uk, 2006).

All these examples, supporting the weaker version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, that language does affect perception, lead to new questions and evoke new ways the hypothesis should be tested. A pioneer in this field, Lera Borodistky, suggests that new studies should be directed at the manipulation of language and its effects on cognition, as it is not clear at this point whether the correlation between different languages and the difference in its semantic are due to cognitive capacity depending on the language or simply to the culture that speaks the language. MIT studies have shown that when people are taken off the ability to use spoken language during nonlinguistic tasks, like counting and doing arithmetic tasks, their performance drops severely. This shows how much humans need language to support a number of activities besides speaking. It could be crucial to the understanding of human behaviour if the structures that are present on our language determine so profoundly the way we perceive reality and the way we are perceived by other human beings in the world. (Boroditsky, 2010).

The differences in languages could point to much deeper differences amongst cultures and the people that speak certain languages, thus the importance of understanding this relationship is strong, as it could help people live a better life based on better communication patterns. If language can really shape the way we perceive the world and we are constantly submitted to many inputs, it is each one’s responsibility to pay attention to the appropriate language to use and to be open to always double check the sources before making up the mind about something, as the improper use of words and labels could bias the perception of reality for us and for the people around us.

Language is a gift but it is also a communication tool that should not be underestimated and should always be nurtured from childhood. These new researches could help develop education programs aimed at children and teenagers to improve and appreciate their use of language.

Reference:

Boroditsky L. (2009) How does our language shape the way we think? In Brockman Max (Ed.) What’s Next? Dispatches on the future of science. Retrieved from the WordWideWeb 18 December, 2010: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html

Boroditsky L. (2010) Lost in translation. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from the WorldWideWeb 18 December, 2010: http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~lera/papers/

Boroditsky L., Fuhrman O. & McCormick K. (2010) Do English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently? Cognition, 118(1), 123-9

Clark E.V. (2004) How language acquisition builds on cognitive development. Trends in Cognitive Sceinces, 8(10), 472 - 477

Harley T. (1995) Language, thought, and the precursors of language. In T. Harley (Ed.) The psychology of language: From data to theory (pp. 311-350) West Sussex: Hove Books

Hoffman C., Mischel W. & Baer J.S. (1984) Language and person cognition: Effects of communicative set on trait attribution. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(5), 1029 – 1043

Pinel. J.P.J (2006) Biopsychology (6th Edition), USA: Pearson Education

Politics.co.uk (2006) Terror talk “exploiting politics of fear”. Retrieved from the WorldWideWeb 30 December, 2010: http://www.politics.co.uk/News/domestic-policy/crime/terrorism/terror-talk-exploiting-politics-fear-$457526.htm

Poteat P.V. & DiGiovanni C.D. (2010) When biased language use is associated with bullying and dominance behavior: The moderating effect of prejudice. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39, 1123 – 1133

Sera M.D., Elieff C., Forbes J., Burch M.C., Rodríguez W. & Dubois D.P. (2002) When language affects cognition and when it does not: an analysis of grammatical gender and classification. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 131(3), 377 – 397

Vigliocco G., Vinson D.P., Paganelli F. & Dworzynski K. (2005) Grammatical gender effects on cognition: Implications for language learning and language use. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 134(4), 501 – 520

Poison Call

2011-03-25T10:56:00.003+01:00

I didnt feel nothing when my mom told me that my dad had injested poison by accident. She said it was okay and she was laughing about it, just a simple little accident. She had no idea of the reaction that started growing inside me. It was just a little accident, nothing had happened. Nothing had happened that day. But what if?! Nothing could have been done. I would have been left here alone to cry in silence over the loss of my father. What would I do?! Do I really want to live in this far place? Why do we have telephones? They make everything so real and quick to know.. and I feel so powerless and slow. It would take minimum one day to catch a plain to go there. In panic, assaulted by desperation. Do I really want that?! Don't you find it harder to think when you feel empty? Don't you feel powerless too? I am a very strong person but I am worried I could feel empty inside if the phone would give me such a news. Then I think, I have chosen my path. I have made this real. It's nobody's else doing. I felt like Dante in his Inferno. I watched Dante's Inferno. I watched funny movies that supposed to make me laugh and they managed to make me cry. Absolute disaster. I should have watched David Lynch, I felt like it. I need to get some. Sometimes the weirdness in my head can be similar to his, I dont understand his movies same as I dont understand my thoughts. Interesting analogy. Maybe he is also a schizoparanoid like me. I like schizoparanoids. Even if I feel sorry for them/us. It really feels like Dante's Inferno, only you make your own demons. Funny how they can become the scariest of all.

The immune system, social life and modern society

2011-03-24T17:04:00.000+01:00

I have been studying neuropsychology lately for my University and lessons often referred to stress and immune system. Now, I am due to my exam, next week actually, but the more I read about the immune system, the more I see the relation between our social life and our health. Researchers have found a strong link between how happy and non-stressed a person is and his/her immune system response. But before diving deep into the subject with critiques and ideas, I quickly explain how it works. In stressfull situations, our immune system first shuts down, to allow the animal (us) a safe and quick escape. Our immune system in fact slows down to allow quick reactions to take place, it then start working and repairing the "damage". Why does this happen? As explained in my book, because of evolution. Stress in animal land is only lasting few moments. Only in human land we carry on stress for days, months and even years. Of course in nature, a stressful situation, e.g. being attacked, does not last forever. So it makes sense that our brain first sends signal to our body to escape, find a safe place and the heal. During the healing process our immune system comes in place. But we humans, so uphight individuals, we like to stress over period of times, deteriorating our poor immune system. In fact, it has been prooved that when we are stressed our immune system slows down and doesn't work properly anymore. So Sapolsky in 1992 made a list of the first physiological responses to stress and its consequences after a prolonged time {here}. Furthermore it has been found that isolation and other social factors can lead to a longer recovery from stress and thus could lead people in isolation or depression to a earlier death {here}. And here come my thoughts: I have been previously writing an essay about altruism in our society, one thing that I will never forget is the fact that many social psychologist think that empathy is nowadays avoided because our society is actually an individualistic society. So: am I doomed to die early if I stress to fit in society? I always thought so, but in this moment it feels really like I have the sicentific proof that I should notstress to meet "any" society's standards. The problem is: I am also convinced that this society has been programmed to isolate individuals, it promotes anti-empathy and egoism and it certainly does not promote helping sick individuals. Actually, it seems quite the opposite. If you're not a winner, but a loser, than you should die earlier o_0 !!! Hmkay... I always asked people to tell me their definition of winners and losers applied to our society, because everytime their answers crack me up. I am however "very" scared that this is not going well. My book ends the chapter on immune system with the following sentence: "So perhaps one of the best ways to deal with stress is to build strong friendships and a happy family" (Breedlove, Rosenzweig & Watson, 2007). Mr Breedlove, that is a very nice sentence and I think you're right. However, how can you do it?! It is not "that" easy nowadays to find trustable friends (real ones) and a mate that wants to actually be with you everyday. I still have troubles finding any of the two... Jee. This sentence seems like a death sentence to me. I live in a foreign country, isolated from my family and dear ones, with a chronic pain that I had to deal on my own, without work... Yes, the above seems like a death sentence to me. So what do I have to do?! I won't stress about it. It's the only possibility to keep alive! Don't be stressed cus it f**ks you up! Don't be depressed, cus then the immune system doesn't work. Don't isolate yourself, but also keep out from those people that f**k you up because they stress you more than you think and stress may kill you (prematurely! Be aware and please note that we are ALL going to die sooner or later! it just pisses me off to read the death sentence now!). Be aware also not to be hostile, cus that means you're a Type A personality and may develope cardiac problems sooner than the rest of people... So, don't be mad, don't get angry, find someone to love, surround yourself with friend who love you and support you, live in peace...... and, if I may add, good luck with it!
Thanks Biopsychology book.... There's a great lesson inside you.

The shadows of Hiroshima

2011-03-22T10:07:00.001+01:00

Only yesterday, after more than 33 years of life and after 66 years from the Hiroshima bombing (1945), I came acrross pictires of the Hiroshima shadows.
Well to get a detailed explanations of how that worked (A-bomb, radiation, heat and exposure of shadown on the groud) there are other webstes you can visit like this.
Here I want to concentrate on the effect I received looking at them. I am a photographer so I was quite impressed. I also felt quite historically ashamed that I didnt' know about them before.
I imagined what I would be looking at before the A-bomb, and you see really the shape of people standing, hugging, sitting. In less than a second, and hopefully without pain for them, they've been wiped away forever. But their shadows remained. This is not coincidence. It is not to remember the a-bomb. Those shadows are there for us to remember the moments. One moment is enough to make an impression that will last forever. Moments are what compose a big event. Moments, like details, are important to create a bigger picture. Each moment is sacred, for it exists only in that moment. One moment is enought to change everything, to cancel, restart, move on, move back, just move, to turn things around, to see someone's birth, or death. And we so much take all moments for granted.......
For photos and history: here

The power of I and I

2011-02-13T11:43:00.000+01:00

I was not creative for a long time... usually when the spring is due to begin my creativity comes back after the long winter and hibernation. This year should contain some secrecy about what I do. Not that I don't want to say, but I prefer to wait for things to be done to cheer about them... otherwise I spend lots of time cheering and not enough doing. Hopefully this time I will manage the "doing". It has been not such a nice beginning of year but I already understood what needs to be changed to improve it, so let's say a big step is already done.. and I have to work hard with myself to reach my goals. So wish me a lot of luck and lot of creative days because that is the direction I am heading at.....
Yours beautifully,

Me, Myself & I ♥

A call from silence

2011-01-15T13:27:00.000+01:00

The phone rang. I answered. No voices, no sounds, the silence creeped me out. It was empty, no silence like that exists in real nature. I hung up, thought it was a cut off line, some eletrical mistake. The phone rang again.
I let it rang some time and picked up. Again the silence. The scary silence wanted to tell me something which I did not understand, I heard something, but it was too far of an echo. "Is this a joke?" I asked serene, but nothing answered. "It's not funny, I am getting scared", I said and then I heard someone breathing, a melanchonic breath. It was not intimidating, but I didn't understand. It was the sound of hope, the one that is leaving you behind. "Please dont get scared" I then heard "It's the silence of your life". I paused, it paused. "Uh?!" I moaned, "since when silence has a voice? it's a joke I am sure". A grin. "I wanted to hear your voice, I got told you want to get rid of me, I needed to know why" "Because I dont want silence in my life". "But, how will you live without me?!" It asked in a serious tone. "I am the one that protects you from pain, I am the secret story you haven't told nobody, I kept your secrets and watched you without judging you. I will tell you something. You need to be happy if you can hear the silence in your life, because when you hear silence you know you're alive! Many think that is the noise to differentiate life from death, but it is the appreciation of the latter being part of your life that will remind you to be alive. If you live a world full of noises and never pay attention to the silence in your life, then you're dead already because I am gone with your body and mind. Then you'll only hear the chears, the sadness and the tears, of those around your body. You'll remember of the silence, the one that was just yours, the one you asked to leave and didn't want to go."

Monday

2010-09-27T20:40:00.005+02:00

There's an italian song called "Monday"by Vasco Rossi: Lunedi. It speaks about how he hates Mondays, and then a bunch of other things about his girlfriend who left him. It happens to me as well, to not like Mondays. They are not always the best days. I try do the most things on Mondays, so I can organize the rest of the week better, but usually I dont have the energy and mess up or snap. It's like the day that reminds you someone/thing is controlling our lifes. Everyone has his/her own Mondays. Even if the days is not on an actual monday. The day after your time off, the day you need to go "back on track".
I am wondering what's my track right now. Is it what other people/society or the governement is planning for me or expecting me to do?! Nope, I must take ownership of everything. Then I can say I am bored. I am mistaking something, mostly I need to begin spending lots of money to do what I want. And at this point I think I will. I'll spend them all - fakkit. They're needed to do what you like when you're alive, I was saving them for a house, a baby, and I am almost 33 and don't even have a boyfriend. Which is kewl but then I should re-set my priorities.
Why do you write it over here?! You may ask.
Well... cus then I know it's for real. It's like there's a little revolution beginning inside me and if I'll stir it up it's going to explode = changes will happen. They say in life you need to "invest", money, time, whatever you have and can, to get a profit. Maybe this is true. I always played it quite safe (that is do what is expected me to do, or what should be best to do). But now I am really quite bored.

N.B. this post may not apply to people who have the perfect job and love to go doing it, or people who really don't care about what they do with their time. Unfortunately for me, I do.

Lullaby

2010-09-17T01:26:00.003+02:00

I am tired. I suffer from insomnia sometimes. Too many thoughts for the highly sensitive person that I am.
I need a lullaby. I am in the process of singing one to myself.

Lullaby of my dreams
Singed to me by myself
Bring me into the stream
Of life where I can swim

Fly me up in the air
I will unfold my wings
And go where I don't dare

No matter what I'll sing
Lullaby of my dreams

☆ FakKit ☆ Part#3

2010-08-30T14:34:00.003+02:00

Since I wrote the first post about the easiest and cheapest way to be happier in life {{Fakkit}}, I have been keeping my ears open and discovered lots of funny things I am now going to share with you. I didn't fully watch the video when I uploaded it in the previous post, so I didn't notice the website it was referring to: www.thefuckitway.com >> Awesome!! I had no idea this whole thing existed.
Browsing the website, another amazing thing popped out: the F**k It Retreat in Italy!!
So, as you can see I am not the only one advising this as spiritual therapy :)
In my Economizer opinion, I think I'll apply the Fakkit theory in the comfort of my home or at the nearest beach or wood. For me walking in the nature or engaging in any crafty/creative activity are good ways to get detached from the daily routine. Cheap.

☆ FakKit ☆ the Economizer way to be happy in life - Part#2

2010-08-29T12:43:00.003+02:00

I told you I was going to look for info to back up my Fakkit theory.... well this morning a supercool friend of mine {{check his website for lots of funky stuff}} has posted this video on Facebook. When I saw it I thought "It can't be! It says the same sh*t I vomited in my Fakkit post!!". Thus I am not the only one embracing the ☆ FakKit ☆ philosophy, which I am really glad about. Of course now that I am aware of the existence of this discipline I will look for more info and support it as much as I can!!

Happy to support my thoughts, I wish all of you a very happy Sunday ☆

Blue Strings

2010-08-27T22:45:00.007+02:00

The sea had big waves
Kitesurfers were riding along the shore flying like birds without home.
Silent steps besides her, walking with a stick in the hand,
plowing the sand leaving behind a wake of strings and curls and shapes.
The noise of a camera shutter, a pose and a smile, laughters.
A forgotten umbrella buried in the sand, pieces of a torned apart flag,
the beginning of a moment that would never end.
Hidden in the dunes, forgotten by the time, rocked by the wind.
Lovers, accompained by the sound of the sea,
tight, intertwined, creating blue strings.

© non sense 2010

New banner ♥ kawaii !!!

2010-08-20T01:23:00.007+02:00

Step by step I will completely change my blog look.. as promised. I have been looking around for templates, but I really don't like any. I noticed the nicest one are on sale which is ok for people that can't design a blog, but I can, I am just too lazy to get around it. So I thought... ok, what is the first thing I can change without too much complication?! The banner. Yes because I have lots of ideas for the background, but I need to work on those, while the banner was easy. I used photoshop brushes from people I will now give credit to, one by one. I know PS quite well, as you can see from the very first posts in this blog (2005 or so) were mostly links to PS tutorials, and web sources. Fact is, because of my RSI I usually don't get to spend much time on graphic as I used to. But here it is, my first kawaii banner. I decided I wanted a kawaii - anime banner because I have been looking at manga cartoons since I am a little child. They shaped the way I think and therefore play a huge role in my non-sense. They are probably even the cause of it... I remember a specific cartoon, named Arale Norimaki where everything talks, even a poo! Yep.. a talking poo. A quite cute one too. Just to make you understand where some non-sense can come from. This said, I love anime, manga, kawaii and whatever cute thing that is produced in Japan.
Back to the banner credits.. {{always credit back the nice people that share their creations and ideas with you}}
♥ super cute piggy from Gray Megumi
♥ kawaii cloud from Mistress Mariko
♥ nice windy dandelions by e.derby
The rest was pretty much made by me.. I should download some cool font, used to have many but then formatted my PC and lost a lot. But so far I like it, and it can be a nice temp-banner, till I figure out the final blog look.
Hope you like it! ☆ Shine On ☆

Bathtubbing

2010-08-14T23:09:00.005+02:00

As you may have learned from the previous post, my water boiler broke down, and it took one week to be repaired. As I was getting angry about it, my landlord agreed on letting me use the bathroom of the "penthouse", that of course has a bathtub. Ohhh the bathtub, I was so happy because I could finally took the bath I always wished to take. I don't know about you, but I have a sort of a wishlist of things I'd like to do in my life. There are many things in the wishlist that relate to water and taking baths. Either in a tub or at the sea, lake, river.. let's be honest any natural spring clean water, I'd bath in it. "I wish to bath a lot in my life" I thought when yesterday I finally took the ultimate bathtub experience. Candlelight, to start, soft music and aromatic oil (lavander to be precise). I had never taken a candlelight bath before. It's awesome. As I only had two small candles and it was already night, the water seemed really dark and the pale light reminded me of the moon light. As no artificial light hit the water, I could see the vapours coming up.. I felt like being in a hot spring out in nature. It felt great. What a nice way to handle the missing hot water in my house, I say....
Of course I took another one tonight ;-)

☆ FakKit ☆ the Economizer way to be happy in life

2010-08-09T12:49:00.008+02:00

Ok - sorry - but some days I just want to scream it to the world: FAKKIT!!!!

We're too kind with the people that hurt us when we don't ever say it or think it.
We believe, or we've been taught, it's bad and that you should always give your offender the other cheek o_0 ... and that's when I say: Fakkit! Not always!!

To say Fakkit doesn't mean you're swearing at the person, it means you give power to yourself to move on in life without ever thinking about those hurting feelings or the person who causes you those feelings. It means that when you're angry hoping to get something from the anger, instead you realise it's a waste of energies. To do so, just remind yourself the word: Fakkit!

You may think: why is she writing this?! I don't feel like saying it... Ok, I give you the reason why today for me this word is useful.
I wake up to know my water boiler is broken, I can't shower nor clean the house, my landlord is going on holidays this week so we better fix it soon. Then I see my on FB that my ex bf is happy and never ever thought back about what he had said to me before leaving (lies) and lives his life like nothing happened, it's OK but it hurts. The government asked me back some taxes money because they realized they made a mistake when giving back to me a year ago, so they'll take them back with interests.
Well - you know what I say to all this?! Fakkit! I am still alive, I am healthy and smiley, life still goes on, people who don't deserve me are not near to me, those problems are only very small bureaucratic issues....

Don't Worry Be Happy, Bob Marley used to sing, which I translate into the Fakkit motto. It's hard to remind, so I say it loud. Make some fun over it and understand that we give priorities to things or facts, we give them importance. We can also move that importance to other things and not overlook always what seems to us more important. Try to switch point of view - sometimes it helps. Watching the same things from different angles will show you different perspectives, so try take the Fakkit way as an alternative point of view- it shouldn't be applied to all things you do - but can be used to your benefit when you need to switch perspective.

I have written this out of my mind and thoughts - but I am sure if I search the net I can find something to back this up - I'll be updating this post. Non sense is about the non sense in life, today I believe that worrying can be a non sense. We could worry so much less... we could try at least. So I'll back this up with proper references and facts, but if I don't then you know now what you should say ...... ;-)

Have a peacefull day ☆

Goodmorning World!

2010-07-27T10:43:00.004+02:00

Hi all ~ so the blog is still under the same background, without banner, looking half ready, but I keep on updating because I am realy not sure when I'll be able to fix it graphically. I am even thinking to ask a friend for a customized backgroud... the blog speaks non-sense and it should appear as such. In this blog we talk about nature, psychology, the mind, beauty and femininity. We talk about crafts, cute creations, cooking and poetry. When you think about it, I have no clue what this blog is about. The more I surf the web, the more I notice one topic blogs / website. It is the only way to commercialize your ideas: channel them. True. I can't channel anything... I am the floating! So, one of the "must-do" of the new look is to give it a topic sense... mmmmm I'll see if I can manage that. For now, I share with you my latest creations, something I know how to do.
Following the Youtube channel of Carlita Dolce - also listed in my fav links on the left - I made some homemade body butters:

Body Scrub
60gr Shea butter
10gr Bur de Sal
Grinded amandels and rice
E.O. Lavander (5 gtts) and Orange blossoms (8 gtts)

Body Muffins x5
16gr Shea butter
10gr Beewax
30gr Coconut paste
Vanilla aroma
4 gtts Lavander

I also made some flaxseed hair gel, for the very first time in my life, it is great on my hair! They really needed it, and it is sooo much cheaper to make it at home than buying it! I advise it to anyone who has frizzy and curlyish hairs.

I am also keeping on felting soaps, my aim is to make really cute ones, the one I am felting now still look like wool-stones, but still. I found some mini-soaps so I can practice without too much waste. I'll give them together with my little creations... they should look nice together ^^

I wish the world a good morning and day and week.... ♥

Blog Under Construction

2010-07-25T20:49:00.002+02:00

Today I found that my old blog template was gone, so I had to replace it.
I changed the design and for now I chose this one, I am not too happy about it but it's ok for a temp-template =)
I also lost the translation tool. So let's consider the blog "under construction" until I can fix it.
Thanks for understanding ♥

Lady in White

2010-07-14T23:44:00.008+02:00

She was sitting together with me in the waiting room, that lovely woman dressed in white. She had a cute skirt made of white st. Gallen embroidery with black flowery inserts, very nice, with a white st. Gallen top. The whole was accompained by exquisite details, dark red painted nails and a red little pendant, black purse and black shoes matching the skirt. She immediately caught my attention because I live in a country where, she later also admitted, feminine dresses aren't so popular. Femininity is not considered cool, instead is considered weak. This is a mistake, it is not necessarly true that if a woman likes to appear like a woman and likes to act like one it means she is weak. The lady in white started talking to me about something when I had to ask her where she was from and where she got her clothes from. She was dutch, but had bought those clothes in Spain. She told me how important it should be for all women to get in touch with their feminine side, without being scared of looking weak. In a way I am a kind of conservative-like woman, even if I believe of myself to be modern, open-minded and absolutely never thought of being politically or religiously conservative. It is a kind of preservation of the femal species, away from what modern society tells women what and how they should look like: always strong, never tired or emotional, always sexy and ready to enjoy every moment of their lives. I heard lately many guys being down with the "philosophy" of the so called dudeism. Well, my question to the dudes is: how does a feminine woman fit in a world of dudes? We are not genetically predisposed to think in certain ways men do, and this does not mean that women are racists against men-kind and want to feel and therefore be different. We are different. But different is good. Once we can appreciate each other differences, then there would be a better understanding. I say this to men, but could tell the same to women. Men are different from us, we should appreciate the differences, not blame them or expect them to become women. I feel, and the woman in white agreed, that in modern society the globalization effect is spreading also in direction it shouldn't. So that, we should not think of being all equal and the same, there are differences amongst individuals, genders, races, cultures, and so on. And we're trying to destroy them. Well women should be proud to be women. Women that have a passion for any type of science or profession should pursue it. Women who feel their best achievement would be having a family and live their life for it, should pursue their dreams too. No one should feel better than the other. Both entities are part of the same thing: being a woman-being. We're humans, so we have dreams we should try to pursue. For centuries women have been considered inferior and have been denied human rights. Now that we have those rights, we're forgetting about being women. Why? I am a woman. I do not feel ashame to be feminine and I actually like it very much. I like to treat my person and I learn how to do it in the most convenient way. I am learning how to cook, how to sew and how to make homemade things, because I think it is one interest of we women to make the world a better place, more welcoming and cute for everyone to live in. Besides that, I also study psychology and I have worked for many years as coordinator, so I have not been sitting at home sewing and scrapping, eating all day. I enjoy doing that though... I found it relaxing! I just say this to give an idea of who's writing what. Anyways, this "little post" was kind of a femininity call. I have wanted to do this since ages, wanted to put up a website for it, but I never get around doing it. The white lady today was a real inspiration, a reminder of who I am too inside.
In the name of it, I attach a picture of my latest homemade creations: felted soaps, body oils and a lip-butter.

Thanks to who ever gets to read this ~ it's the outpourings I needed to have ^__^

Economizer Kitty Lake

2010-07-12T12:44:00.014+02:00

I have a very fussy and ingenious cat, Ozio. He gets bored with normal toys and usually needs me to play actively with him once a day, which is fine when possible, but sometimes it is not possible. I already bought him "intelligent" toys, that he gets still bored with, he has feathers, homemade catnip toys, pluches, a racing track with a hidden ball he needs to take out, balls, and so on... I am not very keen in buying him anymore toys because I know that if I don't actively play with him like if I am a cat he doesn't like them. His fav game is me running behind him so he can "escape" and jump everywhere.

However yesterday someone sent me the link for a smart toy, something that indeed cat should appreciate: the kitty lake. Look at those cats and how they seem happy fishing the toys... true, cats love fishing!
So I was asking myself if I should buy one for Ozio, when someone said: put some plastic toys into a bucket with water and you have managed the trick for much less money.
This morning I tried, and of course it works like the Kitty Lake...
Ozio was happy and playing with the balls I made him, and was happy that he could play with water without me being mad at him.

Look at his face.... at first he did not understand what was going on... few moments later he was fishing the balls. I then moved the bucket into the bathroom so he could splash water all around.. and so he did, as soon as he was alone I heard splash and saw him running away, he put his paw on the side of the bucket and being not too light he knocked it over and water splashed out and on him! LOL.... It was a very interesting game, and can be done in the warm weather. You may just need to dry your floor once your cat has finished splashing and fishing, but is fun-guaranteed even for the fussier cats!!

Cheap, eco, tasty remedies for quinsy

2010-07-12T01:26:00.007+02:00

One evening was warm, the night was colder, I felt sick had high fever and a terrible throat ache, the next day I had quinsy. Bad for me because in Holland the doctors won't prescribe you anything more than ibuprofen. Not very helpful when you have quinsy. I have been a fan of herbal cures since ever, my mum used to cure me with homeopathy when I was little, so I know a few tricks on my own. Immediately start spraying and taking propolis (both in spray and tablets) that helps a lot with throat infections and is considered a natural antibiotic. Then I reccomend you doing throat wash with water and calendula tincture (20 drops in half glass water), also put some drops on a cotton swab and try touch your throat directly with calendula.. if you even manage to remove some pus with it then you're a winner (pardon for this gross description but it's really helpful!). I have now done propolis and calendula since it started and it is already better, 5 / 6 days max the big pain should be gone. Of course, I reccomend you seeing your doctor for any throat infection, but the above are always reccomended and don't hurt.
Now the other problem (for me at least) when having quinsy: how to eat properly without hurting your throat... I have made myself ice cubes in all flavors and ate ice-creams, but I am not a sweet tooth and I prefer savory food when I am hungry. Oh.. by the way, I have the "luck" to be allergic to red/orange fruit, so no fresh fruit possible for me :( that could save you some time reading on. So cold, tasty and liquid... what?!

Gazpacho! That's a nice one, I made it today.. to my taste, awesome!

Potato puree with melted cheese - you don't have to eat it super cold, but room temperature is still tasty.

Pasta fredda - small pasta with meat sauce (or four cheeses sauce) and melted mozzarella, a bit cream. grill it in the oven. when cold it still tastes nice (if you like cold lasagna, you'll love this!)
Tuna cream - blend tuna, mayo and some olives like to make a bread spread, refrigerate.

Cesar salade or any salade containing meat, fish, or if your vegetarian some beans, lentils and granes. Also cold grilled veggies, like courgettes and peppers add a nice touch.
Baby food or any veggie / fruit puree's.
Mini-meatballs - prepare the minced meat with one egg, parmisan, parsley, bread crums, salt and the spices you like, make very small meatball and fry them in hot olive oil (not too much, 1mm), let them cool.. they'll be super tasty and you can use the oil for some rice or so (also nice at room temperature).

I should have mentioned that some of those cold recipes may not be to your taste, but the meaning of this post is: try out your fav food cold, it may not be sooo bad as you think. If you have quinsy you need to eat small, liquidish and cold. The main point is not to stress your throat. Eat in small doses and often. Use ice blocks instead of water in between meals. It will really easen up the pain. This of course when a doctor will only prescribe you paracetamol for the fever.....
Peace up ladies, I wish you a lovely night ♥

Mistakes Can Become Good Things

2010-05-30T19:23:00.006+02:00

Yes... I will tell you soon all about it, first I'd like to say sorry for the long pauses between posts.

I have continued economizing my life style, it has actually become fun and source of new ideas. I've discovered many things, which I'll tell you in details later, and I am testing new economizing solutions for the beginners like me.

The first thing I'd like to talk about it's actually a cooking recipe. I really like brownies, I love chocolate and there is a bakery in Amsterdam that makes the most delicious ones. They're quite expensive though, and considering that I can eat two per evening when I have the cravings, I decided that they were too expensive and I had to find a solution to fix this.
I can't make normal brownies at home, because I don't have an oven, I only have a microwave combi, which can hardly cook a pizza. So I decided to look for "raw food" recipes and try to create something similar to hard(core) cold brownies.
I am generally not a sweet tooth so I hardly know any sweet/candy recipe. I had to look online to find what I thought could me the most suitable for me.. when I found two.
The first you can find here and the second here. The second was easy enough but I loved the crumb mixture idea of the first. So I decided to combine the two recipes. BIG mistake. Never combine two recipes when you're making something for the first time: I had no idea about what texture I had to achieve and using two different recipes didn't help. Story made short - the brownies did not come out, instead a super nice chocolate mousse did. It's an hyper-caloric sweet and I think each person should be allowed to eat only a small quantity of it. I will now give you my "altered recipe" and you can try make the super nice mousse at home!

Chocolate Dreams

Cookies, chopped (any cookie is fine)
Almonds and walnuts chopped
3/4 spoons cacao powder
4 spoon sugar
1/4 cup cashewpasta
1 tbs honey
Pure chocolate nibs
3/4 cup butter
1 .5 cup milk

Mix in a blender cookies, nuts, 1 spoon sugar, the cashewpasta, 1 spoon milk.
In a pan melt nibs, cacao powder, 1.5 cup milk, butter until a cream is made.
Pour some of the chocolate sauce in the mixer, add it to crumb mix, and mix together. If someone is allergic to nuts, use dry fruit instead.
I was trying to make brownies so I layed the crumb mix in a container and poured the chocolate over it, BUT as it became a mousse, I advice you to place a little bit of crumb mix in a little glass (for desserts) and cover it with the chocolate sauce. Put it in the freezer for a couple of hours then allow to unfreeze before serving. When serving you can then add some whipped cream or a strawberry to each individual glass. I guarantee you a super chocolate dream!!! I will try make the raw food brownies again, I need to get the right texture... I will succeed. But in the mean time this was a nice discovery and is cheap to make, I'll probably do it for my next birthday instead of buying the cake. With the indicated doses you serve about 8 people. Easy, quick, bio, effortless and cheap! Best combination ever!!

I am happy about my mistake, it was a delicious one, I will talk about other discoveries in a new post or this becomes too long.
Take care and stay good everyone ♥

Selling ART

2010-04-22T14:19:00.005+02:00

I never believed into making art for sale. I always wanted to make it for myself. Because I love the way my emotions become a creation, and the fact that they'll stay there.. sticking to whatever media was used. For me to be watched and forever captured out of myself. I find this amazing.
What I love about true art is that that idea is transformable in everything a viewer wants to see in it. It becomes subjective and it is not more objective, the object, paint, whatever art is, becomes a part of you. This is what I think it's art. It's not just something "beautiful to look at", it must be able to be transformed and become the subject.

I know that I am not able sell my concept because the main concept in art should be not to have just one concept but to feel free to express something and let the viewer discover something else in it too. I love that moment when people tell me what they see in a picture or the emotions they feel looking at it. That is the beauty of art. It should be evoking to anyone looking at it. Mysterious and enchanting.

I don't do art to sell it. But sometimes I think I should try to sell mine.
I don't like to "describe it", I don't like to call myself an artist because I think all humans are artists. Art comes from that latin word "ars" that litterally means "skill, handicraft, trade, occupation", art is everything a human being is able to create or generate from nothing. From that word, generate the words "artisan" and the word "artist".

Internet defition for the two words is the following:

artisans create objects with a sense of utility they are carpenters or potters who make goods for a variety of people. the work can have beauty or artistic merit

artists create from the point of view of imposing their vision on to the materials. They may make things that can be used but the work is one of creativity

Another person in a forum "creativecat" says: <<"To me, the difference between art and craft is has nothing to do with the media or the finished product. Art is the idea and concept. Design is the plan. Craft is the process. You can do just one of these, but most of the time, they all work together.>> Another one "oscine" thinks that <<The difference is the EGO>>. [full text here]

I believe it too. EGO makes a huge difference in how different people think of themselves.
It also depends a lot on if you want to "become somebody" with your art. Be known, gain popularity, knowledge, respect, and so on.... This said, I respect artists that do their own art mainly for themselves, without having in mind the goal to "be somebody" or "just sell".
I see too many of them.
I remind that everything you make, from a new recipe, to a handcraft, new ideas to experiment, it is already art. Appreciating every moment and every little thing around you, makes you an observer. Artists must first be observers, because one has to learn to observe his/her own mind to be able to grab what's inside it.
I have found this journal regarding the "search of identity for adult people" and I think I'll read it further.. because psychologists have studied the need people have of becoming somebody and could be interesting to see the results found till now.
Just to get an idea of why so many people are eager to be somebody and to cross you over to be that somebody.

I wish you a peaceful day ♥ and to continue giving some economizer tips check the youtube channel of Carlita Dolce, an italian girl - she only speaks Italian - but if you can understand it, she has a LOT of homemade beauty recipes! She is just wonderful!!!

Peace and blessings !!

More Funky Layers

2010-04-18T13:19:00.004+02:00

I am thinking about some projects to bring and sew outside.. I cannot knit (I have RSI and knitting is bad for my wrist..) but would love to go out and do some projects when taking some sun....
I'll try today and see how sewing-in-the-park feels... Hopefully it's not too windy :)
I will make more of the Funky booklets... Because I love the softy way the come out.... I live in Amsterdam, and soon will be Queensday (National holiday when everyone gets drunk and free markets are allowed).. and I'm thinking to try sell some. Just to see if people like them ^__^

Happy sunshine !!!

Summer Ideas

2010-04-17T13:11:00.005+02:00

Ciao all, the lemon mask works perfectly.. I just got told not to use it more than once per week as it can burn your skin :/ I read somewhere else you can use it every day.. My advice is: test it yourself! Lemons are yellow and make us think of the yellow summer ahead... I would like to prepare and have something home made before the spring comes, so I was looking around the net for summer patters and found this.. isn't it wonderful?! Unfortunately I cannot link the picture but it is a salad/fruit bowl made out of an old LP! Fantastic! I have a bag like this and it looks super!
I have also noticed in shops that this year "shirring" dresses are up in fashion.. and those should really be easy dresses to make.... I have found this tutorial on how to shir and I may get some elastic thread today to try do some shirring myself.. Here's another good one.
I am even thinking on shir some old shirts... maybe without starting from scratch, or an old dress I have. Well.. I go get the elastic thread and maybe will post an update later!!!

Happy shirring!! ♥

The Economizer

2010-04-12T00:50:00.007+02:00

Well .. they better be! I started using lemon juice as face tonic. After all it's full of Vitamin C and I have heard around that it makes a cheap but good skin supplement. You should wash your face good, remove all the make up, then apply some freshly squeezed lemon juice. I put my cream or oil after, but for extreme cures it's best to live uncovered over night. It does itches a LOT when you put it, so don't get scared. I did, but apparently it's normal that it stings, your skin needs to get used to it.

I still need to find out what I can use in place of Vitamine E oil, it's too expencive to buy, and I am sure I can find that vitamine or anything else to prevent wrinkles somewhere out there in nature.. so if any of you know, please tell me!!!

As you may have understood, I am trying to economize as much as possible so this is the first step: home-made creams and stuff. I am thinking of sewing a summer bag, I'll think of a crazy pattern and we'll see. It's a work in progress (in my mind at the moment). Also, I am not sure if you noticed but this year denim shorts are again in fashion! What a better way to transform your old jeans you were probably going to throw away? I remember doing this when I was more or less 14, fashion is funny, the 90s are back!... but we love it, don't we?! (Yes, in our own way)

Well, lemony face is going to sleep.... finger crossed, I hope not to find any surprise tomorrow! :) Ciao ciao

My Jim

2010-04-06T12:13:00.004+02:00

My Jim (aka the perfect guy) left. This was one moth and two weeks ago. Exactly one month and one day ago, I saw him for the last time, when I said that it was just a temporary thing.....
Today I still have his stuff laying around the house... actually now they're packed and waiting to be picked up. But when? I don't know and he doesn't say. The saddest thing, because when a story finishes it's nice to understand why, so you can gain some new perspective for the next one. And anyways, it's just sad to not see someone like this anymore. I asked myself why and how is it possible for people to change their minds overnight, without telling you any reasons. Then I stoppped asking questions I will never have an answer for.
Maybe I mistake and he wasn't my Jim. Jim would not leave like this. But Jim is also very fictional. I love him cus he is the perfect guy for the weirdest situation and he never questions it. He is just happy to be in it.

Thumb up for Jim Clancy.

Following Instructions

2010-02-08T14:51:00.005+01:00

Howdy!!

I am happy because I had finally time to follow the project from Elena Fiore's blog - the handmade little pocket book. It is fantastic!!!

I add the pix of the finalized project:

I began studying Psychology therefore I have less time for the sewing and crafts projects... but I'll get back soon with a new blog that me and some friends are working on.
It will be a female ezine where we can share tips, links, etc..

If you're curious have a look here!!

Great day ♥

HELP:: Koalas in my mind

2009-10-09T12:57:00.004+02:00

H U L P please all blogger that read this! I need a suggestion / advice...
Soon is my beloved birthday and I have already got a nice present for him.. but I wanted to hand craft the card (of course). Now my original idea was to have some pictures of us on a card around a birthday message.. but some thoughts came up and I am not more sure about it..
1. I know the guy since a couple of months only, unsure if giving "our" pictures could be a bit too soon
2. I am not sure about the pix of us we have.. as they were made at a party with many people

So I am thinking alternative solutions, as we both love koalas and we love to hug as koalas, I thought about making him a koala card.
Searching through different koala sites, I came accross a very nice one I suggest all crafters to have a look at: koalabrains.blogspot.com >> such a cute one!!

I could
1. make a photo of me with my kawaii koala eye mask in picture here
as LOLCat saying smthing cute
2. just get a pix of hugging koalas....

What do you think?
Pls save me ... thanks!!!! ♥

New Kid On the Blog

2009-09-19T15:01:00.006+02:00

Salve - Hello - Konbawa

I have new stuff to share with everyone!!
First of all is my "just finished" mini laptop case.. it was the second attempt after the diaper. Not very successful either, but at least has a better consistence than the first.
We must keep trying to reach perfection - so I tried again.
This time I didn't skip anything:
1- used ironing lining to make outside cotton harder
2- quilted my own lining using batting material
3- used elastic to close case (unfortunately placed as garnishment)
4- hand sewn biasband before machine sewing ... but still doesn't look perfetct
Well my main problem was the pattern.. I drew it myself using the laptop as shape and I am not sure I made a good job. In fact, I don't think it look symmetric. However this case is ok to do what it was intended to do, and it looks cute as well. I just need to understand how to perfect match the biasband with the corners and how to close the top layer.

Dream Sewing

2009-08-13T10:58:00.004+02:00

Good day all ♥ Long time don't write - well different reasons, mainly the summer kicked in Amsterdam so :) time to be outside. But since yesterday the rain come back and I went online to look at projects and things to begin the new season with...

I came across this spectacular machine, I just adore Hello Kitty so I'd kill for one of these:

I am a freak when it comes to have designed objects.. even if I cannot afford them, they're so nice to look at, check the BelOga machine:
It looks sooooo slim.

Let me also share with you this collection of projects shared online:
http://sewingrepublic.com/projectIdeas.html#/all/

Have fun everybody ✿

Ugly BUT Useful

2009-07-24T15:30:00.005+02:00

I managed to follow a couple of tutorial mistaking them both :P

N°1
Thumb Pin Cushion Ring - FREE Tutorial HERE
It came OK but I didn't use glue... I sew the yoyo to the elastic directly (see tutorial) and I wasn't able to fully decorate the plastic cap. I need GLUE and lots of patience. So, UGLY but useful as it's very handy to have your pins there.

N°2
EcHOE PAD - FREE pattern HERE
There was only the pattern without instructions so I managed to make a mess... It's because I don't understand how to sew the 3 parts together.. is not very clear to me from the pix & pattern, probably cus I am a novel, so if any one has some idea let me know!!!
So despite its UGLY look it is still usable and ecological!!

♥LAPTOP DIAPER♥

2009-07-22T12:52:00.005+02:00

I needed something to put my laptop at safe when traveling etc. I wanted to use this table cloth for garden tables, thus waterproof, plus a soft lining. The result: a laptop diaper.. same consistency of a diaper!!! It's still funny & cute though - I love it.
Also bought the BURDA winter accessories pattern - I am soo happy and will start creating some winter goodies that I need as in Holland the summers looks almost finished...

Ok - off to do some sewing - I am quite slow but I need to progress slowly as this are my first month sewing :) I am already happy with the things I need.
I also found lots of free cute patterns on Burdastyle.com - I know many of you don't use patterns anymore, for me is a good start!

Lots of LOVE ♥ have a wonderful day!

Cute ♥ Aprons

2009-07-07T13:59:00.006+02:00

I just love the idea of old fashioned cute little aprons. It looks like we don't cook anymore of we have lost the pleasure of being a girl in the kitchen. So I have decided to make all little custom made aprons. The colors, the lace, everything is chosen by the client. The red one is the first made. The blue apron was custom made for my friend. It includes a little label on its left side.

The label was printed on the same fabric of the apron and looked like this:
I used the transfer iron paper and I must say I am getting pleased with the results.
I like the idea of printing on the same material I have used for the whole thing. That way it is not going to "mess" the look of it.

This is probably the product I like the most... and I include an exclusive recipe in each apron made.

I hope girls will remember how fun it was to cook and be cute in the kitchen ;-)
♥

Dutch Spaghetti all'uncinetto

2009-06-14T16:26:00.006+02:00

Scrivo questo post in Italiano direttamente perche' volevo presentarvi una cosa abbastanza carina: un materiale d'invenzione olandese per uncinetto. Ieri sono stata a questa fiera ed hanno presentato il tutto a prezzi scontati. Visto che gia' e' tutto scritto in Olandese farei tripla fatica a tradurlo in inglese per le mie amiche italiane :)
La loro web page: http://hoooked.nl
Le balle di zpaghetti (si scritto con la "z" all'olandese!): http://hoooked.nl/index.php?option=com_morfeoshow&task=view&gallery=2&Itemid=111
Le idee presentate ieri: http://hoooked.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=60&Itemid=112
I cartamodelli scaricabili: http://hoooked.nl/index.php?option=com_rokdownloads&view=folder&Itemid=127
Ieri vendevano un set per la borsa basic si puo' comprare lo "starter packet" per 10€, incluso anche l'uncinetto in bambu' leggerissimo.
Io non ho mai lavorato all'uncinetto ma mi e' piaciuta quest'idea all'italiana e ho deciso di provare... spero di riuscire a finire la borsa o almeno riuscire a farci qualcos'altro...

Poi ho comprato questo pacchetto di stoffe deliziosissime ♥

.. E questo e' un fiorellino che ho fatto ieri! Lo usero' come chiusura o abbellimento.

I needed this...

2009-06-04T17:58:00.002+02:00

Ciao. Today I went again to ther hospital, I get crazy sometimes from what they tell me, so I need distractions... I had 2 pices of felt laying around ... I held them for some time, first thought about making a card holder, but then again I do not need it... so I thought: what do you really need for yourself? A mini-camera case... YES... for my Minox Leica M5 - it is a miniature, and I really want to preserve it while using it. So here it is.. but I noticed that it needs something inside to make it stronger.. some sort of hard lining. Then it could be perfect ^_^

Ghost Whisperer Jim's Death scene - SADNESS

2009-06-03T05:47:00.001+02:00

=( OMG... yesterday they aired this episode and made me sooo sad. I know it is just a TV serie.. but may be that me too I miss love, when I saw this I cried myself to sleep yesterday..........

Glasses Holder - cure for sadness

2009-06-02T14:31:00.006+02:00

Good Tuesday... I woke up with a weird sadness feeling today. It may be because I am going through a physical rehab and it is hard to do everything on my own in a foreign country... I hope this period will pass soon. BUT - before I couldn't cope with sadness and used to feel very dark about it. Now I understand that is part of being a highly sensitive person (HSP - I am one!).. and yesterday I didn't help myself watching 2 very sad things on TV... I need to watch funny stuff - avoid the melancholic ones. So, I knew it was just a moment and I tried working with it... and I made this prototype for a glasses-holder. It includes a pocket on the side (clip button to close it) that can hold pencils, pens, little card, etc. There's no lining as I still need to master how to sew it. I will make more, change the front pocket - different pockets of different size can be applied. It was happy and fun to make, a good medicine for sensitivity!

I am allergic so I build fabric flowers

2009-06-01T11:50:00.007+02:00

Good Monday everyone ♥ last days it was super hot here in Amsterdam city.. pity that I have allergies during spring so I must basically stay locked inside otherwise my eyes and nose get very itchy and annoying. It is very sad because here there are maybe 3 weeks of warm weather, and they usually combine with the pollination. Pity. This year though I thought about making fabric flowers.. I am surely not allergic to those ehehe....

so I finally finished to make the scarf for my friend's birthday and made the first flower into a pin:
After I went crazy and made a couple more flowers.. I was not so productive yesterday but it was Sunday - so very allowed to be completely lazy.
I am very proud of my flowers ♥

Today I discovered another cute blog Pane, Amore e Creativita' super cute and pink! I hope to learn more in the coming months... Thanks to all the girls who share their creativity and tips!
You are all great!!!

Owwwwwwww cuteness

2009-05-29T17:34:00.007+02:00

Today I experimented my first fabric flower: owww the cuteness!!
I followed the super nicely done tutorial by Pink Paper Peppermints I cannot thank her enough for this gorgeous and easy technique!!

Ok here's my first try.... I didn't have fabric glue so I just used a all-glue and waited..... I think I will make it into a brooch and pair it to a similar colored scarf ^^

Printing Labels with Ink Jet: the beginning

2009-05-29T13:00:00.008+02:00

Today I have tried printing labels on a sheet using the tutorial from Elena Fiore - only I encountered a problem when using ink jet printer.

I need to find a way so that the sheet doesn't get dirty from the printing process, and only the printed pattern will appear.

Any suggestion anyone?

Update: I purchased the print to iron paper... and discovered that:

- Epson ink jet printers are better than Canon, that's why I could get the same effect as Elena...
- Print to Iron paper is OK but maybe not the best choice for labels... in fact it seems like plastic and the effect of fabric basically goes away - it's a good way to begin anyway, maybe with some additional stitches the labels can look nicer. I still prefer the direct print on textile.

Blog Updated!!

2009-05-23T12:50:00.003+02:00

Ciao all!! I will start a showcase of works I do on this blog therefore I thought of giving it a fresh new look.
This is the second version of this Non-Sense blog.
I didn't change the title because it is still all non-sense... drawings - photos and now even hand-crafts...
I am following some precious blogs and as soon as I found the way to show it on my front page they'll be popping out.
Delicious creations.
Thanks to everyone who shares their passions online with tutorials and tips: you're all great artists!

So if you have more tips on how to customize blog appearences, how to show my fav blogs, my links etc. pls leave a shout

Thank you ♥

More Snap & Stitch !!!

2009-05-21T12:28:00.003+02:00

Mobile holder created for a friend - pink felt with ribbon/gem to close.

Glasses bag - dark pink felt plus decorative ribbon. Closes with a push-button.

City Scape

2009-05-04T11:42:00.002+02:00

Please see here
Wish me good luck ♥

Denim Poche

2009-05-03T15:50:00.003+02:00

My first creation ever - denim little purse - passport size.

Pink Lace Scarf with Rose

2009-04-30T23:10:00.009+02:00

First work ever

Pink Lace Scarf with Rose

Can be used as a belt
The rose can be moved/removed

The rose was easily transformed into a pin by me:

RSI

2008-09-30T23:54:00.000+02:00

:( Due to my RSI I cannot keep the blog up to date - I hope soon I will be more able to ^_^

Everyday Project Smile - Day 7 -

2008-09-14T21:42:00.003+02:00

Day # 7 - Today 14AUG2008 -

♥ I definetely learned the alpha channel. Luv xxx
♥ Made the vest in the picture.... took me ages to make the knitted neck by hand, but it was worth it [my avatar though really does not suite as model lol]

Everyday Project Smile - Day 6 -

2008-09-13T16:48:00.004+02:00

Day # 6 - Today 13AUG2008 -

Now now now... I am missing one day - am I not?! Well let's say that I have done nothing much yesterday to be written on here. Made my boy comfy - yeah yuppie - how lucky is he?! Lucky as I am not :/ so there.

♥ I finally understood this alpha channel - I did it before as well, but was saving the file wrongly. Be aware of always saving 32bits for a .tga file type or you'll loose the alpha settings - you probably all now that but me got to learn it the hard way -
♥ Created a button - yes yes - and after that a hat ... that looks also quite nice for a first time hat. Specially because the button is a prim ^^ yes yes - see pix below - model is Deliziosa
♥ The mouse trap isn't working - mouse is eating from it and probably thanking me for all the nice food and treats :-0 ... and I nicely decided to gave that thing up (for now).

Everyday Project Smile - Day 5 -

2008-09-12T13:28:00.004+02:00

Day # 5 - Yesterday 11AUG2008 -

♥ I've finally got my phone contract which should save me some money each month - hopefully... it took me 2 weeks to have this finalized!
♥ Learned how to alpha-channel clothes fr SL : it didn't work :P but then found out I do not need this for what I need to do and created my first nice pullover - see pix - complete with sculpted sleeves.
♥ Learning PS treatment on SL pixel characters - any good tip is welcome!

Tutorial: Create Sculpted Prims with PloppSL

2008-09-12T13:17:00.004+02:00

Thanks to Shiny-Life.com

Everyday Project Smile - Day 4 -

2008-09-11T21:02:00.004+02:00

Day # 4 - Yesterday 10AUG2008 -

+*✰*+*'*•.¸(*•.¸♥¸.•*´)¸.•*'+*✰*+
¨˜”°º•º°”˜¨ ¨˜”°º•º°”˜¨ ¨
˜”°º•º°”˜¨ KINA ¨˜”º•º°”˜¨
¨˜”°º•º°”˜¨ ¨˜”°º•º°”˜¨
+*✰*.¸.•*(¸.•*´♥`*•.¸)`*•.¸.+*✰*

♥ Yes as you can see I finally learned to save in unicode - yuhu !!

Everyday Project Smile - Day 3 -

2008-09-10T13:49:00.002+02:00

Day # 3 - Yesterday 09AUG08 -

♥ Lunch with MonyArt - yes she gave me bread for my brain.... she showed me how intimate 2 people could ever be... I wish to reach that intimacy too one day.
♥ No mice trapped in my tiny trap - BUT they went for the cheese, oh yeah! Didn't work.. I'm such a sissy and probably made it too easy for them not to get trapped :( But still ... no blood found this morning ^_^
♥ SL: I saw Deliziosa's new photo lab: a w e s o m e - I am dyin' to try it!!!

Everyday Project Smile - Day 2 -

2008-09-09T11:29:00.006+02:00

The project continues!!

Day # 2 - Yesterday 08AUG08 -

♥ My friend Ash is getting married!!! He asked me to be the translator at his wedding 'cus he will marry in Italy ^_^ so cool! He even made a website - so kool -
♥ Finally bought the aluminum trash bin anti-mice and also the classic mouse trap that I had to set (funny I had to watch YouTube to see how as I never used one before!) - no mouse was caught yet... maybe I need nicer cheese than Parmesan (!!!!! fussy mice) .... I hope to kill one soon as the smell of death will repel the others (muahahahahahaha! <-- evil laugh)
♥ I was looking for a camera in SL and met Anamkhai Sodwind, a super cool guy who owns a cute little store with some nice funky equipment! He gave me the supernice camera you see in the picture - just a w e s o m e ^^
♥ Mamsen Mayflower baby Sage is born and she is well (rofl)

Everyday Project Smile - Day 1 -

2008-09-08T15:18:00.004+02:00

Everyday we complaint about negative things, why?! It is because good news = no news, it is because we forget to appreciate the positive things in life, and of course we only see the negative part.
Project # 2 Smile --> after kinasai now is time to remember the good things in life.
I do this to prove that everyday we should be smiling for something, of course negative things will always happen, bu if we move our point of focus maybe we will see a different picture ^_^

Day # 1 - Yesterday 07AUG08 -

♥ Took a wonderful snapshot InWorld [SL] - layered it in PS with another one and got this picture which I am kinda proud of - above -
♥ Got a kitty kat Romeo - also this in SL: which means I will get one soon in RL too.. I need it for mice in the dutch flat and to keep me some company. I think a cat, Carmelo, should do it.
♥ Thought I really like my cutie-love, however he needs to grow a bit... but who doesn't need that?! I gotta grow up too
♥ Went to bed at 4 am! Proper holiday night!!

8 ball

2008-08-24T03:12:00.001+02:00

Magic 8 Ballgreat free widgetsWidgetbox

Let's try this

2008-07-19T11:50:00.001+02:00

Ok... I added this gadget on the iGoogle startup page... so if I wanna blog smthing quickly I can from here. and I wanna post this:
Is YOUR glass half empty or half full? .. cus mine seems full to me ..

Hajimemashite Yashi

2008-06-16T02:28:00.010+02:00

This is my new toy.. I just love it!!
Yashica D builded before I was born... functional and inspirational :)

I purchased it with CLA'd lenses from pablofocal, I will post some shot soon on my flickr page.

....

2008-05-27T11:29:00.002+02:00

There's going to be another day
Before the end of time

I am, therefore why am I upset?

2008-05-12T14:35:00.002+02:00

I am, therefore why am I upset?

They should be wanting to be with me. I just shouldn't care. The pages are white for me to write not for they to make dirty inside.

excellent visual prank

2008-02-22T13:37:00.000+01:00

By definition.......

2008-02-03T14:34:00.000+01:00

Definitions of positivism:

noun: a quality or state characterized by certainty or acceptance or affirmation

noun: the form of empiricism that bases all knowledge on perceptual experience (not on intuition or revelation)

Definitions of optimism:

noun: a general disposition to expect the best in all things

noun: the optimistic feeling that all is going to turn out well

Definitions of negativism:

noun: characterized by habitual skepticism and a tendency to deny or oppose or resist suggestions or commands

Definitions of pessimism:

noun: a general disposition to look on the dark side and to expect the worst in all things

noun: the feeling that things will turn out badly

I AM BY DEFINITION AN OPTIMIST WITH NEGATIVISM NUANCES

litl sunday poem

2008-02-03T13:23:00.001+01:00

Open my eyes laying still,
Get some aspirin for the pain to be killed
Listening to Bob Marley's tunes
I still think of you
Rollin my spliff for a good day to come,
pump up the volume so I can't hear my heart,
still clumsy in every move,
and I still want you.
How often I change radio station
cus there's a song that troubles my mind
Now punching my heart from inside:
why is it still thinking of you?

Beautiful ^__^

2008-01-20T16:17:00.001+01:00

Never

2008-01-20T15:23:00.000+01:00

Never forget who you are - remember the dreams are not real.

L.E.A.K.

2007-10-06T14:32:00.001+02:00

Dark days I need to feel better tomorrow
Dark days for me to take out my sorrow.

What do you do when love hurts?

2007-09-29T12:48:00.001+02:00

What do you do when love hurts?
Who will you go crying to?
And what if there's no-one there for you?

That's the moment when you realize, that maybe there's something better in life, than spreading tears over somebody, who's never there for you... who was never there for you.
No tears left in your body, just the strenght within you, passions of years, past emotions and fears. Logical thoughts mix with the whole, finding a way to get to your brain.
Soul is frustrated, seeking some peace, asks all the time: where's the end? Are we due to the end? Maybe fighting inside, I'll get to that end.
Furious flow, starts building up power, the revolutionary flow, can bring down a mountain. You didn't think that, the strenght you posses can be such empowered just by your head.
Now you feel like a soldier, hero of yourself, you'll bring the peace fighting within. Against the black daemon, that seeded inside you, planning to take over the purity bit, pushing so much that you were forced to quit.
But the hero resist.

different

2007-09-01T15:23:00.001+02:00

Don't ever dare to think something different...

Photoshop Basics: Selective Color - WCI Pixel Podcast

2007-06-24T15:39:00.001+02:00

U S E F U L L

The half complaint

2007-06-20T18:22:00.000+02:00

I don't go out enough
I don't want to go out too much
I should go out more
so maybe someone will feel me
I should stay home more
so crazy people won't hurt me
Loneliness makes me crazy
and I wish I had someone to talk to
Loneliness makes me happy
and nobody will judge me

JUMPSTYLE.... yeahhhhh crazy dutchies!!!!

2007-06-17T14:55:00.000+02:00

My friend yesterday introduced me to something new that I have never heard of before....
Look at this awesome dance.... Lovely toch?! ^_^

As we live in a wonderful world, new things are always there to surprise us ........ and this is one of those!

Aim: learn how to Jumpen... looks easy, but give it a try !!!!
PS I used to breakdance that is why I find this cool... there are always new urban styles around! Y E S ^_^ !!!!

Uffa

2007-03-29T16:47:00.001+02:00

Uffa... I feel stupid because I fell for stupid men.

Explanation

2007-03-27T23:57:00.000+02:00

I want to comment on my own post, the one where I scream at the world because everyone is selfish and because society has built us as we are... I think I didn't make the point, instead I pointed the finger at everyone, missing the fact that I just wanted to point it at someone in particoular. If you're reading this (which I doubt), you know who you are.
So I want to analyze the last sentence I wrote: "I am what I feel... and because of this I am alone". This sentence contradicts a bit my life philosophy, and I'll tell you why. "I am what I feel", we know that "feelings" are relative to each individual. So saying that "because of the fact that I am different from all the other people, who are as well different from each others, therefore I am alone" is statying a fact. We are all different from each others, are we're all individually alone, in a certain way. Which is a positive thing, because it gives each of us the possibility to be. But, what I meant was, I am a very emotional person, and probably because of this I can feel lonely, sometimes. It was stupid of me to write that post out of anger and spite, but I am not going to delete it, because that was a moment of anger, and I am also made of those. I am made of those, because I still have to understand many things. But also because I tend to understand myself and give an explanation to things that sometimes just don't have an explanation. >_<

cuties

2007-03-11T01:39:00.000+01:00

I spent the afternoon with these cuties... ^_^
[they're basically mostly asleep cus the lil one is crazy nut and after jumping all over got tired!]

carlitos y lulu:

moods

2007-03-10T12:35:00.000+01:00

am I fine?

2007-03-09T19:52:00.000+01:00

am I fine...
even if apparently no-one wanna share an happy moment with me?
even if no-one seems to care about the things they say and do to me?
even if I always smile and make everyone else do the same?

am I really fine? or is it just my illusion?

I think I am fine, but no-one gives a crap. People are always too busy thinking about their own things: when they're happy cus they're happy, when they're sad cus they're sad.. I kinda understood u gotta deal with ur own things but how come I do care about other people too?! I do care about making that 1 call, saying that 1 thing that I know they'll appreciate? why? why am I like this? and why no-one ever cared about the semplicity of my actions?

Why when things are easy people wanna make them difficult? and / or the opposite?
I sound like a teenager going through a crise, don't I?! but yes, I feel like shit. Like everything I did till now didn't bring me any good, like I always mistook, misunderstood, overthought, dreamed... Don't dream: it is a mistake! Then it all goes wrong and u are lost in the dream of urs. Don't.. even if it is the most beautiful thing, people have forget about dreaming. They forgot about being a child, they forgot about being honest, about the humanity we have. and I am not f*cking religious.. but I was sure that we, as humans, had more capabilities, that are inside our nature. instead the more I grow older, the more all become superficial, the magic has no sense no more, mistery don't exist anymore.
It's only about this thing people call 'society'. Waz that? It's just a thought: how can they live on a thought and forget about dreaming? I will die one day, everyone will, and I can't care less what society thought of me, I just wish I lived my most: risking, changing, and taking my chances.. I lost, I won, I drew. I found happiness in all of these, therefore I am crazy. I am crazy only because I do not care what television says, or what clothes I wear, I only care about what my body feels, because that's the only thing I can be sure about. All the rest could be fake. Or unknown. But in my 29 years I mostly met people who prefer to listen outside and never inside. Never...
and this makes me feel so freaking alone.

I wish someday people will have to understand (an this will happen when they'll also finally destroyed our Earth) that all this was just a Big Bullshit. That clothes, parties, money aren't the most important thing, that there is only one important thing: to be alive. To have the chance of breathing fresh air and enjoying the view of the sky. To have the chance of treating other animals (people included) respectfully. Because the smile of someone can give u back life.

I am what I feel... and because of this I am alone.

visit me ^_^

2007-03-05T01:17:00.000+01:00

These days I am always getting around taking pictures.. work some of them on photoshop and upload them on flickr...

I want a prince with a blue car.....

2007-03-05T00:31:00.000+01:00

I want a prince with a blue car
that understands my little dreams
and that will drive me away from here
into the magic, indeed so far
where in the blue our fuels will burn

mmmm... sundays

2007-03-04T14:33:00.000+01:00

Ok.... I think maybe is time to write something on this thing... anyways I am not using papers and pencils since a loooong time now. But still. ^_^

It's sunday and I am lazy to do anything. I can't hold my repression much longer. I am living in this place and I am getting sick of it. I am asking myself what made me move here 7 years ago.... It is a strange question that I didn't expect to ask myself. And now I have to answer it... Strange question. I wonder why this happens so often, not being able to answer my own enigmas... It used to be simple. It used to be much easier than it is now. Now my head is cloudy, there's not much serenity and answers have to go through a long dark tunnel before coming out. I can feel their pain while they struggle to reach the exit of my brain. It's strange. Another sunday morning asking questions. This is what I call relaxation. Crazy. That's what most people think about me. But I don't care, while I am giving birth to my freedom, what other people think of me. I cannot care now.

Imaginary Origin: 06/01/2006 - 06/30/2006

2006-12-10T00:10:00.000+01:00

Imaginary Origin: 06/01/2006 - 06/30/2006

Il Palazzo delle Tende e dei Lumi

2006-11-05T22:14:00.000+01:00

Il Palazzo delle Tende e dei Lumi
Originally uploaded by kina me.

Every floor a different courtain, a different light, a different life.

Internetworking

2006-07-31T23:29:00.000+02:00

It was far, far from my mind
the thought of you showing off
to the simplified world
I could think, all night long
that you did it with some sort of intention
but then soon came to my attention
the thruth
of you
softened by all the dreams I went through
still I had to reveal you my thoughts
cus I really believed you had a soul.
I was wrong
Deceived by the image I put up
of you
who is nothing more than a picture
saying 'I am internetworking and free'
from me.
That was the hardest thing to believe.
So be free, in the network and world please be free
so I can break that myth I built up
of you
and let it lay down in this blues.

We Fight Feelings With Art

2006-04-09T23:15:00.000+02:00

broken wing

2006-02-03T23:10:00.000+01:00

Misunderstandings...
... and now I have a broken wing.

THE Method Man concert....

2006-01-14T15:43:00.000+01:00

find more pics here .... conert @ Melkweg, Amsterdam 13-01-2006
all pics were taken by me... ^_^

Tomorrow

2005-12-03T14:39:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow I'll born again....

babe

2005-10-21T23:17:00.000+02:00

if nothing else, we can dream...

Useful Links 1 - Web Design

2005-10-16T23:13:00.000+02:00

As promised some useful links:

- Excellent tutorial site [pootato.org]
- HTML/CSS [W3Schools Online Web Tutorials]
- Icons links [Icon Links]
- Freeware > real-time discussion [Tag-Board]
- Font editor [Double Type]
- Free fonts [1001 Free Fonts]
- Photoshop tutorials [Phong]
- Web Graphic tutorials [Tutorialized]
- Free tools, Add-ons, tutorials [GUIStuff]
- DHTML Scripts [DynamicDrive]
- Visual Basic tutorial [VisualBasic]
- Pixel People [Kirupa]
- ASP tutorials and scripts [ASP]
- CSS complete guide [CSS]
- Free HTML/CSS scripts [Scripts]
- PHP [PHP]

That's it for now... more will follow. Cheers ^_^

Thanx

2005-10-16T23:11:00.000+02:00

Thanx to the person that made the avatar I use in the profile. It is a very cute picture.

ehhm ehhm

2005-10-16T00:33:00.000+02:00

Hmmm. I apologise for all this crazy poetry or however you want to call them, I'd call them 'thoughts'.. It is just because I am going through a rough period and sometimes things like this come out. At this particoular moment this is not a "cool" happy blog. I surely could give you some useful links, starting from graphics tools and tutorials to anime sites and utilities. I just need to make a list of the best. Will be soon online. I promise! Mata ne, Kina.

....

2005-10-16T00:30:00.000+02:00

You live life like a big party cus you know there's only one
But don't forget the party could be different for everyone.
People and their affinities, we're still studying them
Only with love you don't need that, it's just a feeling in the air.

Raining

2005-10-14T00:12:00.000+02:00

It's raining
drops that come down like the tears on my face
figures run by but I stand still
to get wet, or just to think

sguardo attonito, perso nel nulla.......

2005-10-08T01:08:00.000+02:00

sguardo attonito, perso nel nulla.......

Astounded expression, lost in Nothing
I can see the wounds, I can feel them in you
They're too hot to be cured.
Memories will not be forgotten
Dreams came true but then they disappeared
They faded away and they left us behind them.

bastards

2005-10-05T17:29:00.000+02:00

the bastards refused me... always getting upset for work issues, stupid me......

whatever you try you will not regret it