Owenskie’s blog

What’s the latest news? With so many depressing advents happening around the globe, I tend to overlook the real news and instead busy myself with the latest about movies, gossips and light-to-bear features. My eyes would rather stray on a good offset poster printing material than the dailies, really.

But this one is not light. This article that I read over at CNN’s website brought chills to my spines. It’s all about everybody’s favorite gadget, cell phones. Although many researches have been made about its negative effect to its users, the popularity of cell phones never seem to diminish.

Come on, nothing has really been proven. What’s the most damage that this can cause us? The fact is that if we stop using our cell phones these days because we have become so paranoid with the studies and all, that is the time when the damage will be done. Imagine the number of opportunities that you’ll be missing for the fact that you cannot be reached.

But to be on the safe side, the article gives tips on how to limit the risks that you may be able to imbibe from too much cell phone use. So be afraid. Be very afraid. Or not. Here are some tips to lessen such risks whether you believe in them or not. Well, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

1.    Let’s start with the most rational idea from the list. But that is only for me. This website (Cell phone radiation levels) contains a list of cell phone brands and the amount of radiation that they are able to emit. This can help you when you are planning on buying a certain model and cell phone brand. You can also look up for the current cell phone that you own so that you’d know if it’s time to freak out or stay calm.

2.    The speakerphone feature of cell phones is there for a reason other than having the people near to you hear all your juicy conversations. The idea here is to keep the gadget away from your head as much as possible.

Magda Havas has a detailed explanation for this suggestion. Havas is an associate professor at Trent University for the Institute for Health Studies in Ontario, Canada. Havas said that the amount of radiation that you will get will be reduced effectively as you increase the number of inches that you hold the cell phone away from your head. For example, with two inches distance, a factor of four will be reduced to the radiation. A factor of 16 will be taken out when you hold your phone out four inches away from your head.

If you want to know more, read the rest of the stuff (Cell Phone Risk). Everything that you do in life involves risks. But if that will include your health, maybe it is really time to put our cynicism aside and get into details. It will not really cost us anything, just our usual habits when using the gadget and our patience in following each suggestion.

Are you thinking of effective designs to match your postcard marketing tricks? If you have the extra bucks, you might as well go find the service of the highest paid actors these days. Anyway, they wouldn’t attain that for no good reason, right?

We’ve all heard about the babes, it is Reese Witherspoon now who had dethroned Julia Roberts on top of the list. But what about the men? Are you wondering who the highest paid actors are these days? What was the last movie you’ve paid to watch? Maybe the leading man on that film is among the list.

Here are the top three for those of you who are interested to know who are making a mark and hitting it big in the world of Hollywood. Here are the top three earners as of this writing.

1.    The most hardworking actor in Hollywood definitely deserves to be in this position. Will Smith has an estimated $80 million earnings through the year. This man who will go from sci-fi, to drama, even comedy and action, never seem to lack the drive to try all the genres. This is one lucky guy, with his movies earning well in the box office, reason why he is being trusted to do what he has done and the projects still lined up for him to accomplish.

2.    Johnny Depp is on number two with $72 million already on his pocket for the year. He should thank his lucky stars that he is still being given good commercial projects like the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels while being part of artsy films every now and then. Such materials will definitely land him on the top earner’s list.

3.    Forget about Scary Spice. Eddie Murphy thrives on intrigues but he also earns well enough to be on number three with $55 million. Thanks to his versatility to do varied roles and do voices to unforgettable characters like Donkey on Shrek.

And tied with Mr. Murphy on number three is Shrek himself, Mike Myers with $55 million up his sleeves for this year. It really pays to have the talent even if you don’t look as good as Leo DiCaprio, who by the way follows on the list with $45 million earnings.

So there you go. That is the list of the actors whose films you may have watched in the past months or so. And they will continue their reign as long as there are people who are paying to watch as they do their best on their crafts.

I haven’t blogged about Britney for a long time. All I was seeing was her ever bulging belly, her adventures with the paparazzi, her unusual driving stunts or her now you have it fuzzy, now you don’t hair days. I still don’t have any update on this has been superstar who had the chance to redeem herself but let it slip away.

Oh Britney, if you only knew how lucky you were.  All together now!

“She’s so lucky, she’s a star
But she cry, cry, cries in her lonely heart, thinking
If there’s nothing missing in my life
Then why do these tears come at night.”

But are you happy now that you’ve lost the stardom? I don’t think so. She’s a mess. But I recently saw her pictures with a new do. She seems to be shaping up. She’s blonde and seems to be losing the excess pounds. Just continue doing that and she’ll soon be prepped up to model for ads, even vinyl signs. The latest about her is that she will be shooting a video to be shown on Madonna’s concert tour, ala virtual Britney.

Her kid sister, or the sister, Jamie Lynn, has given birth last June 19 to a baby girl. The girl was named Maddie Briann. Jaime is now raising her in the Mississippi home she shares with boyfriend Casey Aldridge.

So what’s next with the Spears? Maybe it will be better if we’ll just wait for their kids to grow and redeem their parents’ lost careers. But for now, we should just hope that these kids will be guided accordingly so that they won’t follow their parents’ footsteps.

As for Britney, I think that this girl still has the chance to make it. She’s still young and she’s talented. If only she will learn to put her talents and charm into something good and where she will excel. If only she will learn to prioritize her loved ones before she thinks about herself. Oh well, I think that she knows what to do to straighten out. I just hope that she realizes all these before it’s too late. Come on, Britney. Look at where Justin is now. Isn’t that enough inspiration to strive harder?

As I browse the net for an idea about what to write, I was stuck. I wasn’t interested with the latest news. Even the latest gossips lacked appeal. So I just think about what I have been through recently.

I had a very weird dream last night that when I woke up, I set my mind to find out what that means. But first, do you know what dreams are? According to the very reliable Wiki, dreams are what we see or the images as well as the thoughts and the emotions that we experience while we are sleeping. Dreams are highly associated with the rapid eye movement sleep. Throughout history, interests about this topic never waned although with regards to its contents and the biological purposes, those aren’t yet fully understood.

So now that I’ve gathered some “technical” definition, it’s time to give in to my desire. I want to know what my dream means. You never know but it may be good enough to be used as subject for cheap poster printing.

The weird thing about it is that I dreamt of a part of our old house. Everything was new, the house itself, the backyard, the playground at the back. What was weird is that after the house before you reach the playground, there was the comfort room. It was like what we had before. But what’s so disturbing about it is that it looked filthy, the things inside looked primitive. The water was dirty. In my dream, my mother was asking me to use that. She said that it was okay.

Okay, I found the answers at dreammoods.com. But it only focused on the toilet. There are three types of toilet which were given meanings on the site. Basically, seeing a toilet symbolizes either the release of emotions or getting rid of a useless part of your life.

Cleaning the toilet means that you are opening up and starting to lose your shyness. The clogged toilet means that you are keeping your emotions to yourself. And the overflowing one signifies your desires to express your emotions.

Now I’m still at lost so I looked up the meaning of dirt or being in such state. So there it is, under the word dirt. This corresponds to person’s anxieties and feelings toward sex. Now I don’t think I like that sound of that. Such dream, according to the site, rooted from having low self-esteem and when you have a feeling that you are unworthy.

Between these meanings, I think I can better relate with the toilet stuff. I am going through a personal struggle right now and I think I soon have to release the sad emotion that is gripping me. But that will take time. I just thank the dream for reminding me.

Have you ever thought about what your dreams meant? Dreammoods.com is one effective site that can help you solve your dream puzzles as long as you remember them.

It looks like it is going to rain. During times like this, it feels good to reminisce. When the skies are dark and the weather is cold, there are things that everybody enjoys doing and there are things that we all miss for sure.

The one thing that I enjoy doing the most on this type of weather is drown myself with my favorite addiction, which is coffee. But I love having one while watching my other addiction, which is the hit TV sitcom, ‘Friends.’

Since it ended in 2004, TV viewing habit no longer feels the same. It has yet to be beaten but it seems like no one’s exerting enough effort. Or am I just still bitter and couldn’t accept the sitcom’s fate? It’s still black outside and it’s almost eight in the morning as I wonder where are my favorite ‘Friends’ now?

Of course, Jennifer Aniston has gone from Brad to John who used to be linked with another Jen, the Love Hewitt one. No, there is no connection whatsoever. It’s just too bad for the men to be linked with Jen Aniston now and in the future, they would always be compared with Brad. Maybe she should just settle with someone who is mentally gifted. But I am not saying that Brad is dumb. Look at him, he’s got this whole interracial family going on for him. I am not against it at all. But somehow, I still have to delve on it or experience it myself to understand the whole notion.

Going back to ‘Friends,’ whenever I see Courtney Cox on the news, she’s with her family. Or she’s in a vacation with Jen. She seems to be enjoying her family life now. She’s even announced her plans to go through in vitro fertilization in order to have another child.

The two Matts seem to cease from the limelight. Is Matt Perry still sick? He’s a good comedian. But people will always associate him to his Friends’ character, Chandler Bing. The other Matt, Joey Tribbiani, has tried the marriage route but also treaded the divorce path. He is said to be dating actress Andrea Anders.

Phoebe Buffay, oh, how I miss her songs and her not your oh so typical look at life. Now that I’m checking Wikipedia about this blog entry, I only knew now that Lisa Kudrow and Conan O’Brien sang beautiful songs together before he moved into the Big Apple and made it big.

And the last and my most favorite ‘Friend’ of them all, Ross. And Wiki says, hmm, there’s nothing much new about him. Maybe he’s also looking at the dark skies waiting for the rain to fall. Maybe he is thinking about going into business and considering his options about pocket folder printing.

Got to end this now. The coffee has gone cold. I still miss ‘Friends.’ And it is now exactly eight o’clock but the rain seems to be taking its time before it decides to let loose.

“Sleep deprivation can adversely affect brain function – Wikipedia.” 

So this is why it seems like I have left my brain at home when I headed off to work this morning. Now I know how it feels like to be a star. And I’m not really liking it. I wonder how they can act in front of the camera having only some hours of sleep.

I had thirty minutes of it. I had a deadline that I did until 4:30 in the morning, wanting to beat it to be sent quickly to short run prints, then I woke up at 5:00 to prepare myself for office. I don’t do this often though. I cannot, especially now that I’ve read that entry from Wikipedia.

What is happening to my brain? Well, it is still functioning but not in its usual way. Here in the office, the first thing I did was put cold water to my mug with the coffee and sugar already in it. As a result, the combination won’t dissolve and I had wasted a valuable pack of coffee.

I am browsing through different web sites but I cannot really comprehend a thing. Add the fact that it was so dark outside when my shift was just starting. The rain wanted to fall down hard, but for some reason, it held itself back. I should know what it was thinking, I just stared at the black clouds over the window for the first hour of work.

Let me see the studies now that have been done related to sleep. These are still according to Wikipedia.

1.    The ability of rats to heal wounds is the same for rats who didn’t sleep for five days and the rats who were allowed to venture into dreamland.

Now I don’t know who made the study and why would they make a rat not sleep? Poor souls. If only they knew what was happening, they could have demanded a better brand of cheese. The Wiki entry didn’t say how those rats were able to stay awake that long.

2.    Now bear with me on this as it contains too hard to pronounce and comprehend scientific words for someone who is sleep deprived. The situation resulted in less secretion of cortisol the following day. This is due to the successive slow-wave kind of sleep. I think this is already for humans and no longer for rats.

It also said that sleep deprivation improves the activities on, drum roll, Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis that regulate the mood, immune system, the usage of energy, sex… But with the state that I am in now, the last thing that I would like to do is share the bed with someone. I want my bed. And I want to sleep for four days straight. Anyway that reaction will likewise suppress our growth hormones.

3.    Now this makes me want to drop this act and head off to dreamland myself. Several studies relate obesity with sleep deprivation.

Why do I only know that now? Gotta go. Gotta catch up on my zzzs before my weight starts zooming up.

Every basketball fan would know how intense the rivalry of L.A. Lakers and Boston Celtics was before in the National Basketball League. It was the type of rivalry that every person in the world anticipated, a rivalry that even extended outside the court to the point that even the fans were getting involved in it, literally.  

I was not born yet during the hype of this competition but I have heard of how great the matches were before. I have seen play back of games wherein Magic Johnson’s Lakers and Larry Bird’s Celtics would give their everything just to try to edge each other out. For them, it is not the win that matters most because just like everyone involved in this so-called rivalry what mattered most was the pride they felt every time their team one.

Relive the Moment

Fast-track to almost two decades, these two teams again has the chance to face each other at the finals. Even though they are still currently trying to win their respective division championship series Boston against Detroit and LA Lakers against San Antonio, a lot of basketball fanatics like me are already anticipating the finals series between the two most popular teams in the league.

It is now the turn of Boston’s Kevin Garnett to try and edge out Laker’s Kobe Bryant if ever they meet to battle for the championship trophy. Will they be able relive the hype that was present during these two teams’ games before? Will the intensity spill out to the streets once again and involve the basketball fans? That is what we have to find out.

Fulfilling my Dream

Every time I get to watch the playbacks of the Celtic-Laker rivalry, I always dream of being in the Staples Center in Los Angeles with all the screaming fans, holding my own banner made from digital printing and heckling my heart out in support of both teams. I bet I would have a hard time cheering for just one team because these two teams play good basketball that anyone would be crazy not to admire.

I guess for me, more than what team will win I would just like to feel the hype people felt at the height of the Celtics- Lakers rivalry two decades ago.        

I have been an avid reader of newspapers for the longest time already and I am bothered by the fact that for the past few weeks or even months, news about global warming getting worse could be seen on the spreadsheets every single day. I guess it is a problem that is getting out of hand because not too much people really care about it maybe because they do not see and feel the effects it is already bring to our mother earth.

One example here is the effect of global warming on the Great Lakes in Chicago. These lakes are starting to have water levels which also put to risk other stuff like its health and sanitation.

Effects

The three most common effects of global warming is rising of sea levels, arctic shrinkage and unpredictable patterns in agriculture. Keep in mind that these are only three of the very many effects of global warming. Secondary effects would already include incurable tropical diseases and changes in our seasonal patterns.

Action?

One big question that has always stuck to my mind is that how come government officials all over the world are not to keen doing their own actions to stop global warming. Are they not worried about the effects it could bring in the world they are living in? Yes, they may think that they have all the money and might in the world but they must know that global warming chooses no kind of people. People from all walks of life are affected by this and what is sad is more often than not. People from the lower classes are the ones who care more.

Campaigns

There are some non-government associations who do their part in spreading the word about global warming but the problem is they are getting very minimal support from the government. The funds they get are not enough to change the world but still they are doing the best that they can do.

Is It really hard for the government to focus on this problem? The answer should be know because what they could do is as easy paying a flyer printing company to print flyers that would raise awareness. This could be a small start but at least they would start with something.   

And the rumble was over. David Cook was pronounced the winner on the recently concluded ‘American Idol Season 7’. The number of votes has proven that the more mature David has gained a pack of followers more than enough to make him win.

I admire the two for their abilities, their strengths, even their weaknesses. Both can carry on to successful careers in the music industry. But my prediction is that after the hype is over and a new Idol is crowned, one David will still prevail and the other one may have to choose another path.

The younger David may not have the right numbers enough to make him win. But he has more than enough qualities to last in the business than the other David. This is not only because of the age, Archuleta being 17 and Cook 25. It is with their overall appearance.

One look at Mr. Cook and you will feel like, ‘He looks like someone,’ or ‘He sounds like someone.’ And I don’t think that will do him any good in the long run. But this guy will definitely be famous. His first album will make it big. But for how long he’s going to be able to sustain that, I’ll give it one to three years. I can actually see him as a soap opera star or a poster boy for ads like flyer printing.

David Archuleta, on the other hand, seems to be the type that is full of surprises. It surprised me that he didn’t win, as a matter of fact. But aside from that, he can still go through a lot of transformation through the years. This is not only regarding his looks, but also his type of music and even his style.

After Carrie Underwood, I thought that the Idol could no longer produce exciting talents. I thought that they have lost their magic touch on star building. But they really have proven it wrong this season.

Yes, the winner has been decided. But the game is not over. It is just beginning for the two David. It couldn’t be helped that long after the show is over, they will still be compared. So the pressure is still there for the two. Cook has to prove that he is deserving of the title. And Archuleta has to prove that even without the title, he is a winner.