Facial Foam and Eye Roll-on

Han Hyo-ju and Mun Chae-won are so cute.  Brilliant Legacy is one of my favourite series

I have an unhealthy obsession with Korean Dramas.

Like very unhealthy.

So much that I'm upset at my parents for not making me Korean.

Lolz.

The thing is, I went for almost a year without watching Koreans.  Then I bought two K-drama series for my parents in KL.  I wanted to spend time watching these with them but I ended up being super hooked instead!  

And when I get hooked, I get hooked bad!  Late nights, neglicting house work - I've even neglected my PS3!

*shudder*

The late nights are especially bad because I feel tired and lethargic the next day.  And don't even mention the bags!  The puffy dark circles around my eyes - they are my testament to late night K-drama and gaming! 

Thankfully I bought some Men's facial products when we were in KL.  I'm not really a big fan of cosmetic stuff (especially for men), but these products had me wanting to try it out.

The facial cream I wanted to try out because its got whitening!  I don't think they sell this Australia because eryone here is trying to tan themselves instead lolz. 

But the thought of being white enough to be Korean did cross my mind when I bought this.

And eye roll-on I wanted to try if helps with my raccoon eyes.

After a few weeks of using them, it felt like both products were working, but I wasn't entirely sure.  I thought I'd better get evidence before I start proclaiming their wonders.

So I used both diligently for two weeks.  Applying both in the morning and both in the evening.  Then I compared before and after photos for myself.

And the results? 

Well..  I'm not really sure if the skin whitening worked.  The photos didn't turn any conclusive evidence because taking photos a week after changed a lot of settings.  

I'll continue to use the skin whitening foam until the tube runs out.  When someone mistakes me for Korean it's definitely working  (although someone did tell my fiancé that she looked pale and she's using a similar product so maybe it is working).

What I will attest to is the eye roll-on.  You can see the before and after shots after a week of use.

I stayed up watching Koreans for this experiment! Left photo the result of a few sleepless nights.  Right is a week later after using the eye roll on.  The dark lines are still there but the puffiness is gone. Its in black and white so i could match the photo contrasts better.

But then I thought, what if my puffy eyes disappeared just because I slept better that week?  

Hmmm. Good point.

So I improved my experiement and applied it only to one eye!!!

Anh begged me to stop the experiment because she didn't want to marry me with one funny eye (she doesn't see the sacrifice I do for science?) 

But anyhows I agreed to her request and only tried the one-eyed experiment for a few days.

I also agreed not to do the skin whitening test on only one half of my face.

Slight fold on my left eye which I didn't use the roll on.  Why are my eyes so sleepy? And how come my eyelids are not symmetrical? Lolz

Anyways that ends my product review.  Quite good I reckon.  I need to do more extensive studies so I'll get more of these roll on things.  They're like $15 here in Australia but only about half the price in KL.

Cuddlee

I got my Cuddlee blankets!!

Oh Yeaaah!! Who's your daddy!!!!

For those who don't know, Cuddlees are blankets with sleeves. Why sleeves?

Here's a scenario - Its a cold evening and you're watching TV snuggled under your blanket. You want to change the channel because the show is finished and now they're showing discussion time in Parliament. To change the channel you need to take the blanket off because you can't see the remote buttons. So what do you do?!!! Lose the warm coziness or watch three hours of parliamentarian debate?

WHAT DO YOU DO?!!! PANIC?!!

NO!

The answer is Cuddlee!! YAAAAY!!

Blanket with sleeves! It lets you do stuff with your hands whilst staying under the warm comfort of your blanket.

The Cuddlee is quite big. It wraps my girlfriend twice over.

I know, I know. You're thinking "oh gawd.. how dweeeby!"

And you might be right. The Cuddlee is definitely 'different looking'.

Its like a backwards cape.... with a pouch.

But for what it lacks in fashion, it certainly makes up for cozy warmness!!!

Its sooo warm and gooooooood.

It makes you feel loved :)

My girlfriend didn't' want to take it off after watching a movie with it. And I'm using it right now as I write this post! I use it all the time when playing games or watching movies. Definitely a good buy!

Now I saw a guy in a suburban shopping centre sell one of these for $20. Good thing I stopped myself because Catch of the Day had them on sale. I got two delivered for 20 ducks!

You have to be careful where you buy it though. There's a few fakes going around. The fakes have no pouches. And you simply can't have a Cuddlee without a pouch! That's just plain weird. :)

So yeah, get yourself a Cuddlee now! And may the warmth be be with you! Amen!

Eargasm

Yay!! My brother has dropped off my birthday present and I couldn't be happier (don't tell my girlfriend).

I LURRVE my new Bose On-Ear Headphones!!!!

Please excuse this blatant plug on Bose products but if you're a try-hard audiophile like me - then you'd definitely want a pair of these babies.

I've been listening to music with the bass up for three minutes and now I need to do #2.
Now thats what you call stomach turning bass!!

For me, a good sound source is one that lets you identify each musical instrument when you're listening to a song. And I'm not kidding you - the sound quality on this thing is DA BOMB!!!!

There's three types of Bose earphones - an in-ear model (the pluggy things you shove in ear), on-ear and an outer ear one. I think the on-ear is the best cause its really comfortable plus its not directly shoving sound into your ear. The outer ear is a bit biggish for my liking.

In my last overseas trip I bought a Sony Noise canceling Earphones (MDR-NC22). Does a great job in removing noise, but the sound quality was only so-so.

If I would grade it out of 100 - 10 being ultimate-cream-your pants - eargasm, 0 being no sound at all, ill give the Sony a 55.

Ipod earphones get a 43.

The bose gets an 85.

If you enjoy listening to music, you should get these.

Once you hear music through this thing, you'd want to listen to your music collection again.
Because you haven't heard it until you've heard it through these!

Book Review: Blink

I’ve finally finished my book! So proud of myself.

My new year's resolution was to read one book! Now I've finished three!

Ok.

Fine.

Maybe my goals are set at low - at least i'm an over achiever :P

But seriously , I thoroughly enjoyed reading: Blink - The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.

I picked up this paperback from Borders. I had no clue what a good book was so I scooted over to the best seller shelf. Surely the millions of readers of these books couldn't be all wrong.

Oddly, of all titles there, Blink had something that appealed to me.

Maybe it was the simplicity of the cover, the baby blue and pink fonts or the catchy title. There was something about this book that drew me and I couldn't figure it out.

And that was precisely what the book was about!

Malcolm Gladwell explains why we behave in such ways during the first few seconds when doing something.

It could be when we meet someone or taste something or drive a new car. He claims our brains have already gone through lots of processing and decisions have already been made - and we didn't even know it!

He explains that our instinctive first reaction is right….. most of the time.

We just need to be aware of our limitations and the pitfalls of prejudice and discrimination.

As a demonstration - sit by a busy street and look at the faces of the people passing by. You’ll only need one second to decide if someone is attractive or not. In that one second your brain has already analysed so much about that person - the eyes, hair, freckles, nose rings, spacial features. Yet it will take you a little while longer to 'consciously' notice all the features you dislike.

Heres another example. You're out shopping and someone presents you a shirt or top. Straight away you say - 'nope' i don't like it. Then they say 'how come?' ONLY then do you consciously have to think about why you don't like it.

And not just that.

You know sometimes when you get this awful feeling that something is wrong. Like you’re driving away from the house and you get this nagging feeling that something is not right.

The unaccessible super computer part of your brain that does clockwork, routine calculations is saying "hang on, wait a minute.... somethings amiss here. Based on what I know and experience, there's suppose to be something here... .... "

You weren’t thinking about things that you forgot, but there was just that nagging feeling.

Something in you was thinking about what you just did.
So you were thinking without thinking.

Only then do you realise that you forgot to wear underwear.

Happy Feet

I'm so shocked.

"Don't push me, coz I'm close to the edge"

I saw the movie "Happy Feet" with the expectation that it was going to be another feel good kiddy movie like Disney's Cars or Toy Story or Ice Age.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Sure it had the elements of a kiddy movie - ultra cute characters, catchy tunes and lots of funny, comical moments (the visuals and the musical score in this movie is superb by the way).

But no way did I expect the movie to sparkle discussion about traditional versus modern day thinking.

I think the movie touched on the upbringing of disabled children. But I think they were talking about homosexuality, because they placed quite a bit of importance in conforming to norms of reproduction and traditional family structures.

Evangelic worshipers were prodded with "Lovelace" and his mindless followers. And the movie even threw shots at the Japanese whaling fleet!

I was just so shocked by the underlying message that I found it hard to enjoy the sugar coating of this thematically deep movie.

I wanted a simple movie with a nice fuzzy-wuzzy, warm bring home message. But Happy Feet ain't that kind of movie.

I think children who watched this movie will grow up as activists.

Book Review: Freakonomics

A study was conducted on ten day-care centres in Haifa, Israel. Economists kept track of the number of parents who came late to pick up their children.
After four weeks, a fine was introduced. Any parent who picked up their children late had to pay an extra $3 on top of their monthly bill.

After the fine was put up, the number of late pickups promptly... went up.

When I read this in the introducing chapter of Freakonomics, I said - what da? Surely nobody wants to pay an extra three bucks. You can (almost) buy a burger with that! But as it turns out - by introducing such a dismal fine (on top of the $380 monthly fee), it allowed a channel for parents to feel not so guilty when they are late in picking up their children.

Before they introduced the fine, parents picked up their children because they felt guilty about leaving their child in the day-care centre. The $3 penalty vented that guilt and thus parents were a lot more relaxed (and late) in picking up their children.

Last year I failed to read a single book.
Lots of magazines (with lots of pictures), but no books. Nadda.

This year, I told myself 'I should at least read one book'. Doesn't matter if it’s thin, thick or pink or gold covered (thou shall not judge a book by its cover!!) as long as I read a book. That was my new year's resolution.

I finished my second book this year and I'm glad I've gotten back to reading.

I think I was just being stubborn from all the Harry Potter attention that's why I've stayed away from books. Or maybe because I didn't make time to read books. But who was I kidding. My brain needed a work out just as much as my body did. So off to Borders I went.

Freakonomics was a non-themed book which was dry in some parts and interesting in others. I say non-themed because it was really hard to put a finger on what the authors were trying to say.

But I'm glad I read it. Now I'm walking away with some pearls of wisdom on why drug-dealers still live with their mom and why claiming to be single, tall and wanting to be in a long-term relationship will maximise my hits in Yahoo! Personals.

The message I took home from this book was that people are driven by incentives. Be it economic, social or moral. Positive or negative - rewards determine who we are.

And although that may sound trivial, it made me realise the type of people around me by looking into what their goals are. I could have figured that out. But it took a book for me to think it.