That just pisses me offfff...!!!

Okay...here is one thing that makes me really mad: the situations when it seems that teachers think that their class is the only class students have. I understand they have a certain program, a system they have to follow. But still this system is usually not student friendly. I wish they were more flexible...I wish somebody came up with a better system...better organization of academics. No, I do not know how to do it and this post is totally based on my momentary emotions, but I'm sure I am not the only one who has had those thoughts... grrrrrrrrr

Mere exposure effect on my taste of music

The other day I read from one of my readings for the class about the mere exposure effect, how people tend to like what they are familiar with and dislike or are afraid of what is new for them and the more they are exposed to new the more comfortable they become with it and the more they start to like it. So, reading this made me think of an example in my own life.
The development of my own music taste and preferences through the time is definitely something to do with particular phenomenon. Mere exposure effect depends on our environment: our friends, family, culture.
Early teens: I remember being a radio music fan. That means just regular pop-music. There was always radio palyin at my house. Besides it was the era of Spice Girls obsession. Probably everyone is familiar with that. So, everybody was listening to them, girls wanted to be like them. Yes, I loved them too :)

Then mid teens: the transformation from pop into punk. At that point I would have never expect me start listening to punk music. My best friend's boyfriend payed in the punk band. So, she listened to punk music. At the beginning I couldn't understand why she likes it. Did not like it at all. But then the more I hung out with her the more I got into it too. Eventually it was the only kind of music I was listening to. I still have some "leftovers" from that period of life in my computer...Blink182, Sum41, Good Charlotte...

Well...that did not last long. After the elementary school I moved and went to high school in another city. I went to a boarding school for athletes, so we had to live in a dorm. My roommate was a total drumm and base fan. She could listen to it 24/7. It drove me crazy in the beginning. I didn't see the music in it. But then again...I learned to listen to it. It didn't take much time for me to become a total D&B freak! The music was playing even during the night when I was sleeping...Aphrodite, Ill Skillz, Future Prophecies, Roni Size would be the keywords.

Late teens, after graduating became an era of jazz, oldies, ambient, chillout music. I am not sure how I got into that. Maybe it was my team mate who I started hanging out with and who kinda exposed me to a new genre. He was 9 years older than me, but we became good friends. He listened a lot to ambient and chillout music. So, I probably explored the charm of it through him. Ambient led me to another style: nature sounds, meditation music. Nina Simone, Amos Milburn, Cafe del Mar, Lamb, Air, Koop, Jose Padilla...

Then I came to America...
Exposed to a lot of black music I started loving it. It is everywhere: radio, people. Back home hip hop, rap, r&b are not popular at all. Not sayin nobody listenes to them, but it's just not common as it is here. So, now that's the only music I'm listening to. And to be honest I cannot stand any other styles. Except ambient and chillout...I can still tolerate these. So...Lil Wayne, Ciara, Nelly, Nicky Minaj, Jamie Foxx, T-Pain, Roscoe Dash....yaiiii!

Funny that I have something left from every stage of my music life in my computer. I shuffle through my music folders and think about the times...it brings out some memories, makes me sentimental sometimes. My computer is like a chronicle of my life kinda...
It would be interesting to get to know how this development will go on...what kind of music I will be listening to in 5, 10, 15 years...

Kushhhh....

No guys, it's not what you think or what you'd like to think. I am talking about Vladimir Kush - my favourite artist. He is an Russian artist who is described as an artist specialising in the use of metaphor as his creative method in the art of painting. He calls his style Metaphorical Realism. We could compare his style to Salvador Dali's creations. I think his work is amazing: the colors, the idea, the hidden meaning...everything.
Take a closer look
RED PURSE

WALLNUT OF EDENAY

FAUNA IN LA MANCHE

ABOVE THE SEA LEVEL

LIFE'S A DREAM

 Not bad huhhh?

Have you ever heard about Kleenex...???!!!

The fall - yes, it's this time of the year: sudden temperature fluctuations, rain, storm and FLU. That means a lot of sick students who despite the flu still come to class. And that's what drives me crazy!! Imagine the situation: you sit in the class, trying to concentrate on the lecture or a test and somebody constantly sniffles. It's just the worst!! Get that damn kleenex boy!!! Every time it happens I so wanna go to this person and hand him or her a kleenex. I don't know is that a difference in the culture, but it seems that others do not care. And what's more the "sniffler" doesn't care either. I would be embarrased, feel bad if I was them. Back home it's socially not acceptable. And you rarely face this kind of situation. It's a basic knowledge of behavior for us that is tought by our parents.

Avocados - my obsession

Yes, I don't spend the day without having at least one avocado. It's like my drug...if I haven't eaten one by the evening all my thoughts start to spin around it: I imagine its thick creamy taste, rich soft texture and the warm feeling I get from eating it. Like a fixed idea...weird huh? I can eat it different ways: in salads, as a guacamole, in wraps or just by itself without anything. But...there is a best way to eat it I discovered: in a fruit salad. Simply cutting all possible kind of fruit including plenty of avocado, adding nuts and honey or plain yogurt. I also found out that it can be perfect substitute to yogurt in smoothies. I usually added yogurt to make my fruit smoothies creamier. Actually adding avocado instead of yogurt had the same effect. Additionally to a great taste it is really healthy.

Avocados are high in valuable fats and appear to have a beneficial effect on blood serum levels. For a typical avocado:

• About 75% of an avocado's calories come from fat, most of which is monounsaturated fat.
• Avocados also have 60% more potassium than bananas. They are rich in B vitamins, as well as vitamin E and vitamin K.
• Avocados have a high fiber content among fruits - including 75% insoluble and 25% soluble fiber.
• A fatty triol (fatty alcohol) with one double bond, avocadene (16-heptadecene-1,2,4-triol), is found in avocado.

High avocado intake has been shown to have a beneficial effect on blood serum cholesterol levels. Specifically, after a seven-day diet rich in avocados, hypercholesterolemia patients showed a 17% decrease in total serum cholesterol levels.
What's more: The Aztecs called the avocado tree ahuacatl or "testicle tree." While avocados can indeed look like that body part, they contain high levels of folic acid, which helps metabolize proteins, thus giving you more energy.  Vitamin B6 (a nutrient that increases male hormone production) and potassium (which helps regulate a woman's thyroid gland), those two elements help increase libido in both men and women.
So benefit and pleasure all in one :)

Money money money, always sunny in a rich man's world...

In other words does money equal happiness. I would say yes and no. No, it does not equal happiness. In my opinion a human nature can never be satisfied. There is always something that darkens our full wellbeing. The difference is how each of us perceives it. People are different you know. Now lets leave all that crap of a rational, moral and so said "right" human being. It's all a fairytale. Once is clear...the more we have the more we want. So, does not matter how much money we have...it's always either not enough or there are other factors that keep us away from reaching the ultimate happiness we all strive for.

I have a family friend who we have known for many years. Lets say he's the kind of person who goes for shopping and never looks at the price tags. Money has never been a problem for him. Then one day he gets to know that his wife has a stage three cancer. He took her to the best doctors, got her the newest medicine and treatment...did everything possible and impossible. She died. Money couldn't save a life. If it can't save a life, how can it make somebody happy?

There was a study made about if money can buy a happiness. People's emotional well-being - happiness - increases along with their income up to about $75,000, researchers report in edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For folks making less than that, said Angus Deaton, an economist at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University, "Stuff is so in your face it's hard to be happy. It interferes with your enjoyment." Happiness got better as income rose but the effect leveled out at $75,000, Deaton said. On the other hand, their overall sense of success or well-being continued to rise as their earnings grew beyond that point. "Giving people more income beyond 75K is not going to do much for their daily mood ... but it is going to make them feel they have a better life," Deaton said in an interview. Not surprisingly, someone who moves from a $100,000-a-year job to one paying $200,000 realizes an improved sense of success. That doesn't necessarily mean they are happier day to day.

Now...probably we've all heard the phrase: "Money doesn't matter to you because you have it". Well...of course...food doesn't matter to us either when we are not hungry. We tend to take things we have for granted and realize the real need for them when we don't have or lose them. What I think...money is not a sole indicator of happiness, it's rather a tool to help us to get closer to it.

Lets call it...SPEX...

Spex...you are wondering what it is, aren't you...well...it's a term I made up by mixing two words : SPORT and SEX. What's about them? Well...they have several things in common. I'm not gonna discuss all of them. Just the one that might be interesting for athletes. Here we go...Sex Before Athletic Competition - Fact or Myth. As an athlete I have been wondering about it, so I did a little research on the topic. Here is what I found.

Athletes have long perpetuated the theory that sex before competition zaps energy. Muhammad Ali, for one, reportedly wouldn't make love for six weeks before a fight. Does sex have any affect on athletic performance? Absolutely not, says Dr. Tommy Boone, a professor of Exercise Psychology at The College of St. Scholastica. Back in 1995, Boone commissioned a study to prove just that. He ran two series of tests on 11 males after maximum physical exertion on a treadmill. One day the subjects had intercourse 12 hours before the test. Another day they didn't. And the results were nearly identical. However there are scientists who would argue that and say there is no physiological evidence to suggest that sex before competition is bad. In fact, some studies suggest that pre-sports sex may actually aid athletes by raising their testosterone levels, for example. After three months without sex, which is not so uncommon for some athletes, testosterone dramatically drops to levels close to children's levels. Having sex increases testosterone levels, which causes an increase in strength, aggression and competitiveness," the Times reported the document as saying. "Conversely, not having sex for a few months causes a significant drop." Perhaps this helps explain the beliefs of Washington Capitols star Alexander Ovechkin, who said: "Sex really does help. Before and after." Or former Brazilian soccer star Romario, once a roommate of Dunga's, who told Brazil's Trip magazine, "When I do it before a game, I feel different. I feel lighter, my legs are more nimble. If I don't have sex on the day before a game, something will be missing."

What's more interesting sexual activity could actually help combat muscle pain or other sports injuries in women, according to Barry Komisaruk, a psychology professor at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. His studies have found that sexual stimulation in women produces a powerful pain-blocking effect. The effect, he says, can last for up to a day in the case of chronic pain such as muscle pain.

Here is what captured my attention as a high jumper, here comes my favorite part: There may be some difference here between the sexes. Israeli scientist Alexander Olshanietzky has said that women compete better after orgasm, especially high jumpers and runners. :))

Now...adding my own thoughts...according to my own experience I can not really pick a side. To be honest no bad or particular good effects on my athletic performance were noticed. Or maybe I just haven't really concentrated on that issue in detail. However my own athletic doctor suggests athletes to have a regular moderate sexual activity. Apparently it helps to keep the good healthy level of hormones that is so crucial for athletes and their performance.