Understanding Introverts

Right, I wrote this purely based on my own experience as a super-introvert.

If you take a look at Facebook posts, you'd probably think I am an obnoxious loudmouth who never shuts up. But then you see me in real life - I hardly speak two words to you.

It's not that I am ashamed to be face-to-face with you. As an introvert, I greatly enjoy my company and I value my privacy/alone-time.

I am always thinking about something, always have little 'projects' to be completed.

An Introvert is knowledge-seeking. She is constantly reading a book or looking at some form of information fuel. She is what the judgmental society calls 'nerdy'.

I do enjoy a bit of quality time and socializing with friends. I have no problems going up the stage and present something. I may not be the best presenter but unlike common misconception most people have - introverts are not shy. Maybe to a small degree, we are indeed shy, but not too much.

We are definitely not snobbish, arrogant or anything like that. Our lack of enthusiasm in communication may turn you off but really, we do appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. I know it's not easy to keep a conversation going with an introvert and if you can keep a conversation going with an introvert, you'd be surprised with the knowledge we have got to offer. [Yes, we "Silent Lambs" revel in reading and collecting knowledge and like to share it to whomever that asks].

We are very loyal and devoted to our interests so if you insult it, expect us to be cold with you.

Another common misconception about introverts is that we are 'boring'. Well, just because we don't prance around in our trophies and medals and certs doesn't mean we have nothing to talk about. For all you know - that quiet girl you sit next to runs a well-received blog(ahems, ahems) and apparently is the most sought-after person in times of need(my friends often tell me this ehehehehe).

Really, as an introvert my achievements are something that is privy and special to me. I don't see the point of exposing it and seeking social validation of sorts. I just...don't. We prefer to keep it silent because really, sudden fame is an introvert's worst nightmare. We can't handle all the love.

Unless you're a Hot Topic shirtless model then yeah sure why not. XD

ps: the hot anime guys are just for your eye candy. Sorry guys, most of my readers are ladies, so...XD ahaks.

Rape: Not Limited To Only Girls

The word 'rape' almost instantaneously elicits rage among people, stronger in women as women are the most prevalent victims of this heinous crime.

These are the statistics collected on the number of rape cases involving women.

When a woman is raped, ample of assistance if available for her. She, most of the time, gets the sympathy of others and her support system is most of the time, good. People around her help her recuperate from this traumatic chapter in her life. In short - help for a female sexual assault victim is readily available.

...

Have you ever heard of the myth that men get raped in the prison? Well, brace yourselves. It is not a fable, it is a FACT.

Yes, men get raped too. 

Consider this story that my dorm mate told me 4 years ago.

Many years ago, a 14 year old boy was tied to a pole and was raped by three construction workers in an industrial area. Upon finishing this sentence, my dorm mate burst into a fit of laughter. I sat there, horrified that she can even laugh at the poor boy's unfortunate circumstance. She proceeded to say that the boy must've been a sissy if he got raped by men. Again the horror juice continued to spew from her mouth. it was only then I realized, that people by default become protective over female victims but not male victims.

 Only then I realized that there are many, many ignorant people like her who doesn't know that rape, regardless of the gender of the victim, is still serious no matter what.

I wish I could have told her that a scrawny 14 year old teenage boy have no way to defend himself against three men who are hard laborers, honed by working long hours and can you just imagine the strength of a man who is used to handling heavy materials? Can you imagine that strength by three? Can you imagine trying to fight them off?

Yeah, I don't think so.

...

Don't think just because a man is expected by society to be able to defend himself because he is deemed superior in physical strength doesn't mean he'll kung-fu chop whenever he's attacked. Men get overpowered too, men get assaulted too and the impact of this trauma is no different than a female victim.

Unfortunately, there is almost NO HELP for male sexual abuse victims and boys/men who were violated are forced into silence, dying a little each day at having absolutely no one to turn to for help. Just try Googling about male rape victims, I was appalled at how little information I found in my google search for help for make sexual abuse victims.

There is almost none to scarce! Malaysia once had a facility for battered men but it was closed down from severe lack of finances and lack of support. The facility had only 2 inmates and God knows what happened to them now.

I just want to urge male sexual abuse victims to not be quiet about their suffering and seek help. You deserve as much help as a female sexual abuse victim. It's gonna be hard, dealing with people who are not understanding but trust me, there are MANY, MANY therapists out there who are compassionate towards your unfortunate circumstance.

Someone out there cares.

Dogs in Shelters: Just Waiting To Die

WE KNOW IT'S LONG BUT PLEASE READ AND SHARE.

WORDS FROM A SHELTER MANAGER

"I am posting this (and it is long) because I think our society needs a huge wake-up call. As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all - a view from the inside, if you will. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don’t even know - that puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it’s not a cute little puppy anymore. How would you feel if you knew that there’s about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at - purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are “owner surrenders” or “strays” that come into my shelter are purebred dogs. The most common excuses I hear are:

We are moving and we can’t take our dog (or cat).
 Really? Where are you moving to that doesn’t allow pets? .

The dog got bigger than we thought it would.
 How big did you think a German Shepherd would get? .

 We don’t have time for her.
 Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! .

She’s tearing up our yard.
How about bringing her inside, making her a part of your family?

 They always tell me, “We just don’t want to have to stress about finding a place for her. We know she’ll get adopted - she’s a good dog”. Odds are your pet won’t get adopted, and how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off, sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn’t full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run / kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers that day to take him / her for a walk. If I don’t, your pet won’t get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the “bully” breeds (pit bull, rottweiler, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don’t get adopted. If your dog doesn’t get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn’t full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed, it may get a stay of execution, though not for long. Most pets get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles, chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don’t have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.

Here’s a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being “put-down”.

 First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk - happy, wagging their tails. That is, until they get to “The Room”, when every one of them freaks out and puts on the breaks when we get to the door. It must smell like death, or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there. It’s strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs (depending on their size and how freaked out they are). A euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the “pink stuff”. Hopefully your pet doesn’t panic from being restrained and jerk it's leg. I’ve seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood, and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don’t just “go to sleep” - sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves. When it all ends, your pet's corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back, with all of the other animals that were killed, waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? You’ll never know, and it probably won’t even cross your mind. It was just an animal, and you can always buy another one, right?

 I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and can’t get the pictures out of your head. I do everyday on the way home from work. I hate my job, I hate that it exists and I hate that it will always be there unless people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter. Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes. My point to all of this is DON’T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE! Hate me if you want to - the truth hurts and reality is what it is. I just hope I maybe changed one person's mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say “I saw this thing on craigslist and it made me want to adopt”. That would make it all worth it.

Until there are none ... rescue one."

Better to light a candle for one lost animal
than to curse the darkness of man's indifference.
Saving just one animal won't change the world
but it surely will change the world for that one animal."

Anonymous

Acuvue Advance Plus with Hydraclear Review

I had been seeing a lot of articles on the dangers on circle lenses from my Facebook newsfeed to MSN and Yahoo mail/news. I took that as a sign and ditched my very last pair of circle lenses.

I guess it's goodbye to pretty doe eyes. =\

Never fear! I have thought long and hard about this and decided that I have only one set of peepers all my life and it deserved to be well taken care off.

I did my thorough research and decided that I would settle on clear lenses instead because a) it's healthier, b) it's retains moisture and c) it's so fucking comfortable you won't even know you wearing them.

I settled on Acuvue because they have a few products for dry, tired eyes and astigmatism and is said to be affordable.

I had seriously considered Bausch and Laumb because it is the top brand but seeing my finances I simply went for second best thing. =)

I settled on Acuvue Advance Plus with Hydraclear because it is said to be the shitzeh for retaining moisture for people with dry eyes.

The water content is fairly low at 47% is made from Silicon Hydrogel that provides optimum breath-ability for your eyes[that are covered by the lens]. The diameter is 14mm, just ngam-ngam sits around your pupil of your eyes.

It boasts to have superior ingredients that makes the eyes feel like it's wearing nothing. 

Let's see to that.

I opened the very slim package to see 2 strips of lens packaging. Surprised me actually because I was truly wondering how in the hell does a 3 month supply of lenses fit in these?

Well, surprise, surprise.

It works, the back and front view of the lenses packaging. Neat, huh?

I opened the a pair and inserted them into the lens case and let them sit for a while before insertion.

As you can see, the lenses are tinted blue so as to allow you to locate the lenses easily from your lens case =) It also claims to have a 123 mark embedded on the lens to guide the wearer on which side of the lens is the 'correct' side. =)

I had a little bit of difficulty inserting these as they were so goddamned delicate and soft. Seriously, it was like touching water! it felt cool to the hands too. =D The lenses glide smoothly on the surface of the eyes and after blinking a few times to remove any trapped bubbles I was thoroughly amazed how comfortable this is.

It was like wearing nothing at all! \(o0o)/

Here comes the creepy eye! 

No lah, this is just my eye with the lenses on! See? It's like you're not even wearing any it looks so natural but at the left corner of the pupil you can see the lens lining and it's a little bit blue. =P That's the tinting. My eyes gave this healthy gleam, shining and moist like water and I was VERY satisfied at the comfort. It took some getting used to looking through these but i'll come around. =D

I have 3 complaints about these lense:

a) They were kinda hard to take out due to extreme softness, I accidentally made the inner corner of my eyes red trying to get these out[note: only on one eye, the lens in the other eye came out flawlessly] and 

b) Upon removal, my eyes were blurry. More than usual. There was no decrease in power as my glasses of the same power showed no significant difference in vision. I tried to find explanations for this but most simply said it was the eyes getting used to it and change the solutions frequently.

c) I was told by the optometrist that these lenses are monthly disposable. That surprised me as my research showed these lenses are bi-weekly(2-weeks) disposable. I know from experience that one should never push the expiry date of a lens. I have asked a few people about this and they have yet to give me answers. I hope my readers who are wearing this exact same lens series can enlighten me on it's usage periods.

I would recommend this but seeing all the 3 things posted above I would ask you go to a reputable eye care practitioner.

PS: I wore them for 7 hours straight and my eyes did not feel dry or strained at all. They were as comfy as I had put them in.

A Note To Bullies

Monster High

Monster-Monster High, Monster High,

The Party Never Dies!

I love, LOVE everything about this show. Although it is aimed at girls between preteen and teenagers - I have to admit that the concept for Monster High was brilliant! I love the puns and the references that which inspired and based on the characters of this shows. This is basically all your well-known horror creatures(their offspring, to be exact) collected in one place and doing awesome things!

Hmmm Ghoulia's missing and Deuce is in it...

It follows 16-day old(yes, she was created very recently) Frankie Stein, daughter of Franskenstien's monster going to her new school, Monster High. All she has are misleading teen magazines on how to make friends and mingle with people - oh sorry - GHOULS. Yeah, the characters in this show are monsters they aren't really...living, so to speak.

She befriends 6 girls and experiences crazy adventures! It's funny although it can get a little bit annoying at the girls are kinda shallow. Forgive them, they are, after all - teenagers.We have been there.

Character introduction!

A) Frankie Stein

She's the daughter of Frankenstein's monster and we can assume her mother is the Bride of Frankenstein. She's very naive, sweet and friendly. Out of all her friends, she's the 2nd most sensible one. Unlike her mish-mash of a father, Frankie turned out quite well. The bolts on her neck helps her channel electricity to recharge her.

B) Cleo De Nile

Cleo is a thousand year old teenage mummy. She is the most popular girl in her school and heads the fearleading team with Frankie and a few of the ghouls in the school. Her boyfriend is the clueless and oblivious yet friendly Deuce Gorgon, son of Medusa. At first she has a fierce rivalry with Frankie but soon warms up to becomes quite nice. The diva attitude still lingers and her catch phrase is "OH, MY. RA!" Get it? She's Egyptian, her God is exactly that. See? This show is so intelligent!  She often whips out crazy Egyptian idols to help her but it has all only ended in disasters. Which is sometimes - deserving. Cleo is my least favourite character.

C) Clawdeen

Clawdeen is a werewolf and goes 'freaky' in full moon. She is said to come from a large family of litters. Her big brother Clawd, is a senior in Monster High. Clawdeen is aggressive and badass and fearless!

D) Draculaura

She is Count Dracula's daughter and is 1600 years old. She can't date until she 1700 years old. She sports a Lolita image and is the shortest among them all. She's a hopeless romantic and a little bit of a airhead. She's also a vegan vampire - very rare from the classic vampire. The thought and sight of blood and meat alone makes her queasy and faints.

E) Lagoona Blue

Lagoona Blue is a sea creature from 'Down Under' - the Deep Blue Sea. She is said to be the daughter of Creature from the Black Lagoon. I guess the Black Lagoon creature managed to find a female mate after all(if you watched this movie, you'd understand =P). She has an Australian accent and is on the track team. The most calm and relaxed among the 6 girls, she also sometimes acts as a 'mother-figure'. She has a complicated relationship with Gill, her on-and-off freshwater creature boyfriend. She is my favourite character!

F) Ghoulia Yelps

Ghoulia is a zombie. She's the 'brain' of the school and is the smartest ghoul in school. She doesn't speak like the rest of the girls, limited to only moans and groans - Zombie language. 

Zombies are discriminated against in her school for being slow and creepy but Ghoulia always managed to outsmart the naysayers into their place.

There are many minor characters like Spectra(a ghost who can walk thru walls and likes to spy on people), Jackson & Holt(a play on Dr.Jekyll & Mr.Hyde), Operetta(she's a Siren. Consequently, the character exhibits talent in songwriting as per the mythical creature she's based on), Torelei(a nameplay on Lorelai) and her feline cronies and Slow-Moe(Ghoulia's love interest).

This show is absolutely cute and smart and BRILLIANT! Such an original concept. They were actually a series of Halloween-esque dolls created by Mattel, the same company famous for it's Barbie dolls! One would think after a mega-successful line of the super-girly Barbie dolls, Mattel would be cautious in releasing Horror-themed line of dolls and I LIKE IT! Yeah! Thank you Mattel for releasing Monster High dolls! 

Definitely watch this show. All the 3-volume episodes are available online in their Youtube channel - the webisodes are short animation ranging from 1min-3minutes. 

I hope you too enjoy my new-found love for the Monster High girls!

The Secret of Kells(2009)

 This is an Irish movie, so you'd see stunning Celtic artworks like this throughout the film!

If there is a movie you need to watch before you die definitely tick this in your bucket list. Never in my life have I watched a stellar and stunning animation that could rival my favourite super-fantasy creator Hayao Miyazaki. The animation in The Secret of Kells is the European counterpart of Hayao's works. 

Brandon and his mentor Aidan

The Secret of Kells is a movie based in medieval Ireland(Celtic) and about the Book of Kells. It's a richly illuminated book that contains the four gospels of New Testament that dates back to 6th-8th century Celtic culture and Dublin's greatest national treasure.

Brandon is a boy who lives with his uncle the Abbot Cellach in a monestary. His uncle is building a wall surrounding the villagers to protect from the attacks of the Vikings who wants the Book of Kells as their own.

Brandon's talent for art caught the eyes of Master Illuminator Aidan who subsequently took him under his wing, honing his talents to one day succeed in completing the book.

The Vikings eventually attacked and the walls was not able to hold the Celts in, killing a good many people.

Brandon and Aidan manage to escape and Aidan continued teaching Brandon the art of illuminating.

After the attack, Abbot Cellach became depressed, thinking he had lost his nephew.

The now adult Brandon came back to his home and pleasantly surprised his uncle, who opened the Book of Kells and swam in it's wonder.

Did I tell you about Aisling(pronounced Ash-lingh), the wolf spirit who Brandon befriends? You have to check out the movie to find out. 

The animation is breath-taking. I'm serious, I re-winded a few parts many times to drink in it's gorgeousness!

If this picture didn't convince you, you're missing out on a lot of aesthetic beauty. 

Here's a clip to ILLUMINATE you on the screenshots taken above: