Waste of time...

I was reading someone's post in which they were trying to define love, or telling you how to treat others, sometimes more like how to have a better attitude or how to love your family...for some reason everytime I read such stuff I am annoyed.
I always get annoyed when people use most of those old quotes to define love. I mean come on, love is a feeling towards another person and I always find it worrisome when people try to define human emotion and classify them. If Keats or Shakespeare wrote/portrayed it in a certain way it needn't be the same for everyone else and you should also consider the fact that times have changed.
Every time when some tells us to practice tolerance, how to love others, how to sacrifice and what not, I could for the most part clearly hear the tone of a hyprocrite. Well, I guess I feel this way because in case of the posts I read I do know the real person who's writing such posts.
Well I understand that everyone wants to look good in the eyes of others but the way to do it would be to practice it yourself, in most cases the genuinely nice people never tell others what to do. They mostly take people as they are and just deal with them.
Another important thing to understand is that you can't treat a patient when you don't even know what their illness is. You should also understand that people have been writing out such posts forever so you don't really have to go ahead copy and paste those...instead just practice what you preach. If you analyze yourself and post about it that would atleast encourage the reader to look at themselves.
Well, honestly its good to think nicely of ourselves but in reality when most people think you are a fool, I think you are better off trying to see if there really is something wrong with you than simply walking around thinking that you are the greatest.
I really wish people's education taught them how not to be shallow and go around writing such stuff and instead just be good and do their part.

Origins White Tea Skin Care Guardian Review

I tried out the Origins White Tea Skin Care Guardian, this product falls in the "A Perfect World" category. Now about the product, this product is one of the most mild products I've tried. It felt a little greasy and had a very very mild fragrance. Upon application, I could clearly feel that it was very mild on the skin and helped plump up the skin and created a more smoother look without much shine. I have a few scars on my face and the very first time I used this product I really saw a difference. Since I'm used to applying this kind of serum and applying a moisturizer on top, I certainly didn't have any trouble with the routine.
If you have sensitive skin and are looking for a nicer product that won't harm the skin, this might be a perfect candidate. Skin definitely felt very nice, soft, supple and on top all that it did make my scars less visible :)
Right now I am using Modern Fusion and I'm just waiting for it to get over so that I can go ahead and start using the Skin Guardian cream.

Oakland zoo

I happened to visit Oakland zoo last weekend and I really liked it a lot. I honestly felt it was better than the San Francisco Zoo. The entire layout of the zoo was very kid friendly and the exhibits were pretty nice that the animals were clearly visible. The bug and reptile display was also very nice. I loved the fact the zoo had nice meadows where families can have nice picnics. It took me about 3-4 hours to cover the entire zoo, I did a lot of walking but wasn't completely exhausted. Here are some of the pictures that I happened to take at the zoo.

My new laptop!!!

Aw!! I wanted to write this review for a while now but couldn't get to compose it for a while. So, here's the story. I bought a new Compaq laptop from Best Buy for $500 and it came to $538 after taxes.

The laptop has the following components: I'm only listing selective components

1) AMD Turion 64 X2
2) 2GB DDR2 Memory
3) 250 GB Hard Disk
4) Nvidia GeForce 7000M
5) 5-in-1 Memory card reader
6) Double Layer DVD burner

and the laptop runs Windows Vista Home Premium. (For detailed spec, use the link above).
My fiance suggested that I buy this laptop as he was convinced that this is a wonderful configuration for $500. The other laptops with similar configuration were clearly at least a $100 more. Anything that had Intel Core 2 Duo was even more expensive.
First of all I had a Sony VAIO with a Core duo processor, it was an elegant looking laptop even though I found Core duo processor's performance to be average. I loved the screen and also the fact that it never got hot despite using it for longer hours but it had lousy speakers and was super heavy. Anyways, I decided to give the Sony laptop to my parents as a replacement for our older PC as I thought it'll fulfill all their needs.
Now about the new laptop I think it justifies every penny that I spent on it. It looks nice and has a black chassis unlike my Sony that was white. I love the fact that it has Nvidia GeForce video card which kinda makes the display look better. The laptop performs really well but then I don't really use it for playing games and stuff...I use it to work from home for the most part. Initially I was skeptical about buying this laptop as I was unsure about having the Turion processor and also wasn't sure about the build quality of the laptop.
I still decided to buy this laptop as I felt that it would be impossible to get any other branded laptop for the price that I paid. My old Sony costed me $700, which made me think that this laptop was quite a steal.
The most interesting stuff that really made me love the laptop was that when we were looking at the performance score using Vista OS, we found out that Vista gave AMD Turion X2 processor 0.1 more than Intel's C2D and the DDR2 RAM also is comparatively faster than a similar Dell Vostro laptop. So, basically better processor with comparatively better memory really sold the laptop for me and the clean sounding Altec Lansing speakers are a plus. I should also mention the fact that this laptop doesn't get hot despite using it for long durations. I left it on for more than 24 hours and it didn't get hot one bit :). I also love the keypad as its really flat. The charger for the laptop is really small and the length of the cord is pretty generous :) This laptop's wireless connectivity is way better than my old Sony.
I guess I'll end this post here as its getting pretty long, so overall in all fairness i'll give this laptop a 5/5 and yes, I'm extremely excited and happy about this purchase.

SYTYCD does Bollywood dance

I was pleasantly surprised to see a bollywood dance on So you think you can dance. I thought it was cool and funny. In case if you missed yesterday's episode, here's the video.

Zoooooooooooo

I happened to go to the zoo last weekend, I really love going to Zoos ever since I was child. I've had a wonderful time every time I visited a zoo and this was no different. Here are some pictures that I took using my new camera (Shall review it sometime soon).

Keeping Busy: Part II

This is in conjunction with my previous post "Keeping yourself busy". I came across this article today that talks about the how stay at home women can work from home and make a handsome amount of money.
If you need ideas on "How to make money at home" this article might be of help.

Choosing the right sunscreen

If you had watched the news today you would have seen them reporting about how effective sunscreen creams and lotions are.
Here's the ABC News' version of this story.
As you can see most of the commercial products have performed very poorly in the study done by the EWG. Well, don't lose heart yet, they did recommend some 140 products in the market that could serve as effective sunscreen. Here's the EWG's webpage that describes what to look for in a sunscreen and how to use it.
The bottom line is that you need to use a sunscreen that has zinc or titanium dioxide. Therefore remember to look at the ingredients to see if the sunscreen really has something that counts.
Do exercise caution especially during summer time, remember that you need to use atleast 1 oz of sunscreen to cover your body. If you have small children try to keep them away from the sun as much as you can. If you would like to take your children outdoors then remember to apply a lot of sunscreen on them as well.

Nature's Plus Spirutein Chocolate Shake review

I have been consuming Nature's Plus Spirutein Chocolate Shake for a couple of years now. It's a great product without doubt and you could see for yourself that all the reviews on the web suggest the same.

I never like eating cereals for breakfast, I'll always start feeling hungry in about an hour and would have to run to the vending machine or drink something. Not only was it not filling enough, but it was also not giving me enough nutrients that my body required. My doctor had always recommended me to have a high protein diet. Once when this topic of breakfast came up, a colleague of mine recommended me to Kashi's protein shake that she was using as her breakfast.

So, I did my own research on finding a good protein shake that would fit my needs and I settled for Nature's plus' Spriutein. Not only does this supply enough protein, it supplies all the other vitamins and minerals that our body requires, which kinda makes it a one big solution for all my problems.

I should admit that I don't feel hungry for a solid 3-4 hours after consuming this protein shake irrespective of whether I have it with Milk or Orange juice,in addition to that this satisfies the golden rule of starting your day with a high protein breakfast to promote healthy metabolism. It's also low on calories.

I should also mention that this product is not one of those muscle building protein shakes, this is for everyday use for normal people with a normal amount of activity. Most people choose to have it either for breakfast or before/after their workout.

The protein powder comes in a variety of flavors, I've tried the vanilla,chocolate and cappucino flavors. I loved the vanilla and chocolate flavors. Cappucino wasn't great but was still very much edible. One important thing to note is that these powders don't have the chalky smell that other protein powders have.

Now talking about the ease of use, I feel this powder mixes well with the liquids more than any other protein powders I've tried. I've tried making my protein shakes using both Hand shakers and Blenders. The powders blend well in both cases (Blender is a little better, in terms of cleaning). It usually takes me about 2 mins to make the shake and drink it, that's a lot less time compared to eating cereals in the morning. You can also use your imagination and add berries and other stuff to the shake if you'd like.

Stores like GNC and Vitamin Shoppe sell this product. I usually buy it from "The Vitamin Shoppe's" website. That's usually the lowest price I could find and they have the free super saver shipping which is about $2.99 compared to the $5 shipping from other vendors.

Overall, I've been very happy to drink this shake every morning :)

Barack Obama's church search - Stephen Colbert Show

I watched this video yesterday on the Stephen Colbert's show, I really really loved it. So, I decided to post it on my blog. If you are Hindu and can have a laugh...you should watch this...