Sad news yesterday... Estelle Getty, the actress who played Sophia Petrillo on the classic TV show The Golden Girls passed away at the age of 84. She had endured a long battle with Lewy Body Dementia, a disease exhibiting symptoms similar to Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's, which unfortunately meant she suffered from memory loss. Well, to me she'll always live on as Sophia and be remembered by her wise cracks and brazen remarks, often commenting on her daughter's Dorothy's lack of love life, Blanche's promiscuity and Rose's stupidity.
The Golden Girls is definitely one of my favourite shows of all-time and the funniest sitcom ever. It really was ahead of it's time - it's not everyday that you see 4 elderly ladies discussing their first orgasm, homosexuality, abortion and countless other topics, 20 years ago and always with such humour.
I'm sure that everyone who is at least more than 25 years old will remember The Golden Girls and have watched it at some point. But really, watching this when you're an adult is so different than when you were 10 years-old just for amount of sarcasm or sexually-oriented joke that you would miss. Anyway, let's remember Sophia and the rest of the girls for what they did best: making us laugh. I've chosen 2 clips to post here: the first one "Lesbian Lovers of Miami" is set when Rose (the dumb one) somehow takes Blanche and Dorothy on a TV show she's working on as a lesions couple - how she makes this mistake is hilarious! The second one is a best of some of Dorothy's best moments - her sarcasm never gets old! Sit back, relax and prepare to LOL (a lot!)
My 2 favourite moments on this next one: @2:00 - Rose: I call him Scotty (PUM!) Dorothy: Now you can call him Garbage... @6:40 - Dorothy: Hum, excuse me Rose, may I see that? Spaff! Thank you.
I'm no good with the ladies... My "experiment" yesterday with the scratch cards, how did it turn out? I LOST £15!!!! I spent £20, and ended getting 3 winning cards - £1 and 2x £2. You don't need to be a mathematical genius to realize that it results in a loss of £15...
Things I could've bought with £15:
- At least 2 DVDs - 4 Vodka Red Bull and one beer - A bargain or second-hand Wii game - A t-shirt from this very cool American Site ( SnorgTees ) - A nice meal out - 15 lines at the lottery - ...
And the list goes on and on. No more scratch cards for me, the only thing scratching I'll do now is scratching my head, thinking how stupid I was. Well, at least I tried, and it did bring some excitement and to the office as everyone here was very curious at how this would turn out. 15 pounds.... What a waste :(
Now there's one lady I wouldn't mind getting a lot closer to today! You see, I'm about to do something either extremely clever or incredibly silly. Allow me to elaborate: I keep this glass bowl thing to where I empty my pocket change at the end of the day. It's not like a piggy bank, just a handy place to keep my coins. Anyway, I decided it was time to change them for real money and before I counted it, I told myself that I would spend what I had in coins smaller then 20p I'd spend on scratch cards. Turns out I had just in 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p coins around £20! Well, never one to back off on my decisions, I'm going to buy now £20 worth of scratch cards - at £1 each, so 20 chances of winning!
On the back of those cards it does say that there's a 1 in 4 chance of winning, so I'm going to buy 20 of the same kind, in a row. In terms of just probability, I could get 5 prizes, but of course this doesn't really mean anything. Time to be optimistic then and hope for the best. I'll post the exciting outcome of this here later today or tomorrow (unless I'm busy burning away all the money I won, eheh!).
Oops, how clumsy of me, I forgot to post the answers to those two Prof. Layton's puzzles I posted before going on holidays! So, without further ado, here they are:
Q:There are 15 people stranded on a tourist boat which will sink in 20 minutes. Using the one lifeboat, which can carry a maximum of 5 people, move the people to the nearby island. The surrounding sea is full of man-eating sharks, so swimming is out of the question. If it the round trip from the ship to the island and back takes 9 minutes, how many passengers can be saved?
A:You can make 3 round trips in 20 minutes. But you can only save 4 people at a time as one person has to be the driver, therefore 12 people plus the driver survive, so the answer is 13.
Q:There are 10 jars each with 50 pieces of candy in them. These have been divided randomly into half, just by eyeball estimation, and then placed in separate bags. This made 20 bags. What is the probability that the average number of candies in one bag is 25?"
A:100%. You have 10x50=500 pieces of candy and 20 bags. 500/20=25 pieces per bagon average.
I'm back! Actually, I've been back for a couple of days already, lack of time prevented me from posting here (blame Mario Kart Wii and the stupid cheating AI - I hate blue shells!!). Here's a quick recap of my holidays in Porto:
The baby: I arrived on the 28th of June, and my sister was planning a half-a-birthday party for my niece, which was meant to be a surprise for me. Well, in a fortunate turn of events, I accidently booked an earlier flight (6.30 am!!) so I arrived much earlier than expected and so the surprise was on her! The party was lovely and fun, and even though little Bia had a bit of a fever, she was as nice as ever! Here's how she usually looks, happy and smiling:
So happy in her Bumbo™
Fortunately she got better really quickly and I managed to spend a lot of time with them both (mother and daughter). It's amazing how the difference 3 months make in a baby's life. She was so much more aware and playful and already showing signs of a strong personality. See you again in 2,5 months! :)
The wedding: And what a woderful wedding it was, such a happy day for the lovely couple. Everything was just great - the weather, lots of food, lots of drinking (although not for me as I was driving...) and lots of people! Besides my closest friends, also got a chance to see some old friends - some that I hadn't seen in quite a few years - and it's funny how when we're back together everything still feels the same as before. The jokes are still the same, the making fun of me (in a positive way) is still the same and the gossiping still the same too! And how much fun was commenting on some of the awful outifts on display there... Anyway, the newlyweds are now on their honeymoon, enjoying themselves (in many ways, I would say) but once again to congratulations to them and all the best!
Where's Waldo...
While showing the photo above around the office, one of the girls asked me if the bride (who looked absolutely amazing btw) had a bird stuck on her dress... I was like "huh??" but then noticed it too... Can you see that "thing" below her waist??
I dont' think it's part of her dress, and if it was, who's holding that? You can clearly see where her arms are, not holding anything... Any ideas? Could it be the Spiritual Dove of Love? :)
The Fitness:
Quite a few people asked me if I'd been going to the gym or told that I looked a bit more muscular. I guess that, in a nice way, this validates what I wrote about my experience with Wii Fit :) So, here's to another 50 days! My sister did a few exercises on it and she had sore legs for the next couple of days! It's safe to assume it works then.
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Just another quick tidbit: I did drive along the beach blasting "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time". As I told you before, to me this song has such as fresh, 'summery' feel, and it felt really good driving along the seaside, gorgeous weather, not a care in the world - just driving. And during that same week, Mariah released to video for it, and guess what? It has a summer/beach theme :) I knew it! Here it is for your viewing pleasure ( I guess the amount of pleasure may vary... if you're a straight man enjoy it, eheh!)
The time is finally here to back to my Motherland. It's been 3 (long) months since I've been there, so quite looking forward to go back! Besides all the usual cliches (family, friends, etc) I really miss driving. Just the feeling of driving a car, speeding along , listening to some good tunes (especially this one), oh do I miss that. So in 2 days, room vroom - and on the right side of the road :)
And I'll be definitely be seeing this cute little face lots (and lots) of times! She'll be 6 months on Saturday. 6 months already, can you believe it? Happy half-birthday!! I expect her to be very different from the last time I saw her, 3 months ago. That's a long time in baby-time!!
And about a week from now I'll be attending a wedding! Two very dear friends of mine are getting married (with each other). I've know them for a good 10 years, and they were already together, so about time! I just hope that my weather curse doesn't strike again, or else there will be rain. About 2 years ago, mid-June went to a wedding there, and it rained - A LOT! There was heavy rain and a big thunderstorm. So, my apologies in advance if it does rain on that special day... I'll be positive and predict lovely sunny weather, maybe my curse is still exhausted from all that hard work in Italy! Anyhow, rain or no rain, it will be a really happy day.
Best wedding cake ever!
I hope I don't get asked to read at this wedding. When my other friends got married 2 years ago, I was asked to read a passage from the bible, just a few minutes before the ceremony. Well, somebody forgot to tell me that the lines in bold were meant to be read 3 times with the audience repeating it. Result: the priest behind me, kicking me while I was reading it, until he interrupted me and took over and read it properly. How rude!! :)
See you in a few days ;)
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Because I'm such a nice guy, here's a little something for while I'm away: 2 brand new Prof. Layton's puzzles :) Remember him? Answers when I get back (or you google it...)
"There are 15 people stranded on a tourist boat which will sink in 20 minutes. Using the one lifeboat, which can carry a maximum of 5 people, move the people to the nearby island. The surrounding sea is full of man-eating sharks, so swimming is out of the question. If it the round trip from the ship to the island and back takes 9 minutes, how many passengers can be saved?"
Hint: Your first immediate answer is probably wrong.
"There are 10 jars each with 50 pieces of candy in them. These have been divided randomly into half, just by eyeball estimation, and then placed in separate bags. This made 20 bags. What is the probability that the average number of candies in one bag is 25?"
Yesterday the cute animated on-screen balance board informed that it was my 50th day using Wii Fit. I bet the question on everyone's mind after seeing it in motion was "Does Wii Fit work?" and after 50 days of "using" it the short answer is "yes, it does".
For those unware of what is this Wii Fit, it's a "game" (more on this later) that comes with balance board that can measure a user's weight and center of gravity. There are four categories of exercises to choose from - Yoga, Muscle Workouts, Aerobic Exercises and Balance games. They're designed to improve your posture, tone your muscles, burn fat and improve your balance respectively. To fully understand it, nothing like seeing it in action:
If you're expecting a great and fun game with Wii Fit, then I advise you to look elsewhere. There are some mini-games included, but very short and shallow.
The Yoga and Muscle sections are completely fitness oriented, you'll only see an rather spooky on-screen instructor (they seem to have no mouths!) and he/she will perform the exercise with you. These sections are, at least for me, what Wii Fit is all about.
Wii Fit Yoga, like proper yoga, is all about stretching your body and maintaining your balance - the difference being the balance board is there to measure performance. Some of the poses I can do quite well, others are still impossible! And it is very satisfying to manage to do a pose and maintain your balance on one that you couldn't at first do.
The Muscle Workouts are more traditional exercises, involving lots of lunging and bending and some very hard press-up sequences. Do this properly and I guarantee you'll feel out of breath (I know I do!) and, if you're not used to this whole fitness thing and didn't warm-up properly, with aching limbs the next day. One piece of advice: go easy on the lunges. I wanted to unlock new stuff, so on my first day did a LOT of lunges. Result: my legs ached really bad for the next few days...
Push-up and single arm stand: you won't be laughing after 15 of these!
The highlights of the Aerobic sections are jogging and hula-hooping. Jogging is what you'd expect, except you're standing on the same place. The cool thing is that you see your Mii on the screen going along a nice park and you'll see and meet other Miis on along the way. It's a laugh to run along my friends, Jesus, Einsten, Miss Piggy even Mariah! Hula-hooping is, quite simply put, a nightmare. Yeah, one minute or so it's fun, you look silly, etc. But doing the 10-min workout (5 each way) is completely exhausting!
One of the great thing is that the software keeps track of your progress, weight and BMI. Being able to track your balance does add novelty value and provides enough motivation to play Wii Fit every day - sometimes for ten minutes, sometimes for an hour. I don't know how long I'll keep this up for, but I do know switching on the Wii is a lot easier than going to the gym. Wii Fit is not as beneficial, undoubtedly, but a lot less intimidating and cheaper.
So, what about results? After 50 or so days I have to admit that there are no dramatic changes in my body - I didn't just wake up with Brad Pitt's body (unfortunately...). Having said that, and fully aware of the limitations of Wii Fit, I do feel more fit and a bit more toned as well. My weight is more or less the same, but my body fat index has gone down. Suddenly my legs feel a bit harder, my posture's a lot better and some t-shirts a bit tighter! So, I guess it works then :) One thing I know, between sitting on the coach and a session on Wii Fit, I know which one is better for me.
Conclusion: If you go to a gym regularly, then well done, keep doing that! If, like me, you're a bit less inclined to gyms, then Wii Fit can only help you. It's definitely a case of "Doing something is better than doing nothing."
"I complained that I had no shoes, till I saw someone who had no feet."
Strange Friday night this was. It started with a bit'o drama, as I stumbled upon Superheroe friend's ubber-secret (from me at least) new blog. He had a post regarding that night in Torino and I finally got to see what he really thought of the night and me in general. As I read that, I felt embarrassed, humiliated and disappointed, a whole new world of drama was starting to ensue.
Coincidentally or not, I decided to watch a special edition of American Idol called Idol Gives Back which is a star-studed event, with the purpose of raising money to help children and young people in extreme poverty in Africa and the U.S..
There were many nice performances, and celebrities and fun moments, but what really touched were these segments they showed of real (and tragic) stories in Africa. And suddenly it hit me: here I am, in my comfortable flat, eating a nice pizza feeling sorry for myself for a stupid thing and some opinion of this guy over me on his meaningless blog. Yet, at this precise moment there are people who really are struggling and fighting for survival, people who lost everything in life.
One of these segments showed a lady (or an angel as Bono rightfully described her) who dedicated her life helping other people, orphans in particular, with AIDS. She had already lost her 3 (yes, 3..) children in the battle against AIDS. Watch this:
This next one with Annie Lennox (who also gave a very emotional performance that night) tells of the amazing story of these 4 brothers who lost everyone in their family to the HIV virus. The oldest of these brothers bears more responsibility and faces more pressure than I'll ever know:
So, waking up (safely) in a hospital or worrying about how I embarrassed myself doesn't seem so important anymore, right? And I could keep going, telling about how a child dies every 30 seconds in Africa against malaria and how a 10 dollar mosquito net could save one life, or how 2 dollars could provide medicine to one person for one year.
Yes, our problems are ours and we suffer with them. But still, in our times of "adversity" it's good to remind ourselves how fortunate and blessed we are.
May I suggest you visit the following websites and donate? Doesn't have to be much, even one dollar/euro/pound will make a difference. Reach your pocket. Feel that coin there? You could probably spare that couldn't you? Then donate it and help saves lives.
Spread this to all your friends, and there are so many ways we can help.
Mariah closed the show with a beautiful and powerful performance of Fly Like A Bird. And I think it has a really good message, something to remember in my (your) next difficult time or situation:
The following should be filed under "very silly"! My friend Sara showed me this very cool website that creates cards, but the difference is that it uses text to speech. In other words, you type your text, choose the language and the character and then you hear your text told by that character.
Whats so special about this? It's HILARIOUS!! The best greeting cards ever! In a very silly kind of way.... We were just cracking up yesterday, typing silly things and then hearing it. Hours of (stupid) fun!
" Well, when we got to the club the same body that I repeatedly asked to be touched starting failing on me and that's when the real "fun" began. To make a long story short, there was lots of puking, sweating, puking, unconsciousness and puking."
For obvious reasons, I used an Italian accent :)
And I like to call this one "Naughty Mary Poppins"!! ;) (Link to card!)
If you're as silly as we are and come up with a funny card, feel free to post a link on the comments! The website is called Acapela Greeting Cads, click here to visit it.
Sad news yesterday... Estelle Getty, the actress who played Sophia Petrillo on the classic TV show The Golden Girls passed away at the age of 84. She had endured a long battle with Lewy Body Dementia, a disease exhibiting symptoms similar to Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's, which unfortunately meant she suffered from memory loss.
Where's Waldo...
