ignite your creativity.

i am letting go

nobody@vox.com(Cher Cabula) — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:26:25 +0800

This morning my mom asked me why I looked so sad, well I couldn't answer. Was it that obvious? Maybe finally they've noticed my puffy eyes. It was wet pillows again for me last night. Two nights ago, my boyfriend decided not to go out with me anymore. Our relationship was complicated and I can understand why he had to do it. We've been down this road before and it's nothing new. It was still the same cultural issue. There was nothing I could do about it. I could choose to fight for our love but I don't want to fight for it alone. Well, that was it, it was over. I feel so empty and so sad. Everything I see around me, triggers a memory and it never fails to bring tears back to my eyes. I know I'll be ok and I'll get over this, but for now I'm still wallowing in the pain and the loss. I am going through the phase when I dread going to bed at night because I couldn't sleep and getting my butt out of bed to go through my day. I'm afraid the sadness is really taking over.

For one thing though, I am thankful. Thankful that he stayed with me for one year and a half, even though there were a lot of risks involved. I admit I wasn't ready to say goodbye and I had hoped that we had a future. This relationship made me grow as a person and it made me have a more mature outlook in life. I am grateful that he gave us a chance, brief as it is, and that is something that I will cherish for a lifetime. I wish that I didn't fail to make him feel how much I loved him when he was with me and how happy he used to make me. I hope he can now sleep soundly at night. As for me, for the time being, wet pillows will be my comfort.

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dogs and chocolate

nobody@vox.com(Cher Cabula) — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:24:35 +0800

Dog-sniffing

This was taken off http://www.dogtopics.com, for all the questions dog owners have about the toxicity of chocolate.

Why is chocolate poisonous?

The cocoa tree contains two naturally occurring substances - theobromine and caffeine - both of which are toxic to dogs. Cocoa beans contain theobromine a higher concentration than caffeine.

Dogs metabolise theobromine very slowly - it can stay in your dog's bloodstream for up to 20 hours. During that time it interferes with the body's functioning mainly stimulating the central nervous system and affecting the heart and kidneys.

What is the toxic level of theobromine?

The lethal dose for theobromine is between 100mg to 200mg per kg of bodyweight ; the lethal dose for caffeine is the same.

However, severe symptoms of theobromine poisoning may be evident at much lower doses .

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' Animal Poison Control Center, mild signs of poisoning occur in animals ingesting 20 mg of theobromine and caffeine per kg of bodyweight, severe signs are seen at 40-50 mg/kg, and seizures occur at 60 mg/kg.

How your dog reacts to swallowing chocolate will be a function of his size, general health, sensitivity to theobromine and caffeine, and the type and quantity of chocolate eaten.

How much theobromine and caffeine is there in chocolate?

The level of theobromine and caffeine in chocolate varies between the type of chocolate, the brand and the fact that the natural occurrence of these substances in cocoa beans is variable.

Broadly:

White chocolate - 1.1 mg of theobromine and caffeine per ounce of chocolate;
Milk chocolate - 64 mg of theobromine and caffeine per ounce of chocolate;
Dark sweet chocolate - 150 mg of theobromine and caffeine per ounce of chocolate;
Instant cocoa powder - 151 mg of theobromine and caffeine per ounce of chocolate;
Unsweetened baking chocolate - 440 mg of theobromine and caffeine per ounce of chocolate; and
Dry coca powder - 808 mg of theobromine and caffeine per ounce of chocolate.

So how much chocolate can my dog eat?

White chocolate does not contain very much theobromine and caffeine, and your dog would need to eat a very large quantity before he would be at risk from theobromine poisoning.

Dogs get a taste for chocolate - they find the flavor of theobromine addictive. Even if your dog can eat small amounts of chocolate without any ill effect, don't give him a taste for it because he'll then try to sniff out and eat chocolate at every opportunity.

If you really want your dog to eat something that's like chocolate, you can always use carob which is a good alternative; here a link to a recipe for carob biscotti which your dog with love just as much as chocolate biscotti!

What are the signs of poisoning?

The symptoms of theobromine poisoning generally show within four to twenty four hours of your dog having eaten the chocolate.

The early symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, excessive thirst, increased urination and restlessness .

As time goes on, and your dog absorbs more theobromine into his system, symptoms such as lack of co-ordination, muscle twitching, hyperactivity, increased heart rate and raised blood pressure will be evident .

These can lead on to seizures, coma, heart arrhythmia, hyperthermia, and ultimately death .

Even if your dog eats a small amount of chocolate, he may show signs of vomiting and diarrhea due to the high fat and sugar content of the chocolate.

What do I do if my dog's eaten chocolate?

The first thing you should do is to call your vet and describe the symptoms your dog is showing (if any) and the type and quantity of chocolate your dog has, or you think he has, eaten.

Your vet will need to treat your dog, but may advise you to make your dog vomit before bringing him to the surgery. This will reduce the amount of theobromine that's in your dog's body that he can absorb.

Most dogs recover within 24 to 72 hours of treatment by their vet .

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Vox Hunt: I've Got My Eye on You

nobody@vox.com(Cher Cabula) — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:27:17 +0800

Show us your gorgeous eyes.
Submitted by [Susan].

cher's eyes

These are my eyes...(when I get a lot of sleep!) They've been called anything but gorgeous, but hey I'm not complaining. These are the ones I got and I'm very happy with them.

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the cartoons that I miss most from my childhood

nobody@vox.com(Cher Cabula) — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:04:16 +0800

Flashbacks from my childhood memories will always include these… (I actually started out with a long list but finally narrowed down my selection to these)

These are the cartoons that I now seldom see and I wouldn't mind watching them over again.

Tigersharks

tigersharks

I used to watch this particular cartoon at 4pm everyday. It was about a group of humans who do missions in a ship named SARK and uses a fish tank housed within the ship to transform themselves into aquatic creatures. My favorite was Mako and Walro. The setting was in a fictional place called Water-O which was overrun at that time by an evil overlord name T-Ray.

The Flying House

flyinghouse1

"Professor Bumble has fumbled again!"

While seeking refuge from the rain, Justin and his friends Angie and Corkey stumbled upon the house of Prof. Bumble whose house was a time machine. They travelled back in time living through the events in the New Testament, hoping one day they could get back to the present. I used to watch this at around 10am during summer vacation.

Superbook

superbook

Of course, I can't mention The Flying House and skip Superbook. Superbook was made alongside The Flying House and it took Christopher, Joy and Gizmo through the events from the Old Testament.

Mr. Bogus

"He's wild, He's cool, he's Bogus!"

bogus_561

He was a yellow-gremlin like creature living in the walls of Tommy Anybody usually causing mischief and chaos in his own world. Heck, he was entertaining anyway.

Sailormoon

Smoon

"I am Sailor Moon! I stand for love. And I also stand for justice. And in the name of the Moon, I will punish you!"

I remember this anime very well. I used to have a sketch pad full of sketches drawing the main characters. Hmmm I wonder what happened to it? The story mostly is of a normal high school girl who was found one day by a talking cat named Luna. The story goes on to progress revealing her past life and her destiny. She is joined by allies named after the planets of the solar system, namely Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus. This anime is very complex and very diverse, spinning several sequels and musical adaptations.

Jem and the Holograms

1

I like my girly cartoons. I loved the sassy costumes, the outrageous make-up and fantastic sets! Although this cartoon was short-lived, I enjoyed the Holograms battle it out with the Misfits.

The Carebears

"Carebears countdown…54321"

top

Who would believe that these cute bears started out just as characters for greeting cards? Well that's what American Greetings did. Each cuddly bear sports an insignia on their tummy which shows what personality they have and what duty they have to perform. The main duty of the bears was to protect Care-a-lot and monitor the Caring Meter. Whenever the Caring Meter goes down, Care-a-lot suffers a series of thunderstorms and the aura of cartoons become grayish and gloomy especially when villains like Professor Coldheart and the Wizard No Heart manifest their powers. If the Caring Meter reaches zero, Care-a-lot will be gone forever. Fortunately the carebears were always there to save the day.

The Smurfs

"Smurftastic!"

Smurf1

We love these little guys don't we??? These little critters look alike sporting the same white pants, blue skin, a white cap and short tail stubs. They love to eat smilax leaves and smurfberries. To identify one smurf from another, they usually brandish an accessory depicting a trait or profession. They live in houses made from mushrooms and are generally fun-loving and adventure seeking creatures except when Gargamel threatens to interrupt their carefree lifestyle. Gargamel is the Smurfs' sworn enemy. He is an evil wizard who usually plots to capture one of the smurfs in order for him to make a potion that can make gold.

She-Ra: Princess of Power

"By the power of grayskull…I am She-Ra!"

She-Ra

Thus Princess Adora transforms into the heroine, She-Ra by wielding the magic sword: the Sword of Protection above her head and utters the words above. She's part of a group of rebels who vowed to free the land of Eternia from the evil rule of Hordak and Horde Prime. She is also the twin sister of Prince Adam who is also known as He-man. She possesses superhuman strength and agility when transformed, as well as a healing touch and telepathic communication with animals. One of the main allies of She-Ra is her horse Spirit. When Adora transforms, so does Spirit. Spirit becomes a unicorn named Swift Wind and gains the ability to speak. Primarily the difference between both the animated series of She-Ra and He-man is while the storyline of He-man tends to be more of a mix of science and technology, She-Ra's storyline has an approach gearing towards fantasy and sorcery. As an added plus, throughout each and every episode, a very colorful character is carefully drawn into the background for the children to find. The character's name is Loo-Kee. At the end of each show, a cut scene is shown to show his hiding place.

He-Man: The Most Powerful Man in the Universe

"By the power of grayskull…I have the power!"

o_HeManPic

Much like Princess Adora, Prince Adam utters these words and transforms himself into He-Man with the help of his Power Sword and Castle Grayskull. He has a cowardly green tiger named Cringer who transforms into Battle Cat. Like She-Ra, Prince Adam protects Eternia from the evil hordes of Skeletor, the main villain of the series. One of the most loved characters of the show is Orko, He-Man's man-at-arms. He-Man's variety of powers include superhuman strength, super breath, ability to become a human tornado and speed.

It was fun when He-man and She-ra often crossed over and had storylines tagged along with each other.

Beavis & Butthead

beavis-788025

Last but not least, I remember staying up late each night waiting for this show to come on MTV. Kinda miss these duo converse sarcastically about the world and voicing out their fantasies. I even remember playing their video game.

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QotD: It's Too Late to Apologize

nobody@vox.com(Cher Cabula) — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:33:09 +0800

Has anyone ever done something so horrible to you that "I'm sorry" couldn't fix it?

Fortunately for me, this hasn't happened yet and even if something did, I am always willing to forgive. For me to be able to forgive that person, I have to understand him or her. There were several instances in my past when I have been betrayed by a friend or by somebody I love and after the pain has gone away, I begin to understand the reason behind their actions. I'm not the type of person who holds grudges.

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fun fun towel art

nobody@vox.com(Cher Cabula) — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:35:20 +0800

Late this afternoon I was browsing for towel pics for my 3d rendering and I came across these great pics of towel art and I found them very creative and very nice. I never knew there was such thing. I know of origami, but towel-folding?

towel-design-elephant

Hmmm, this one's very simple and although it lacked some detail but you can still distinguish the basic form of the elephant.

towel_lobster

This one's cute as well.

IMG_1296

Aaw, now this took a lot of imagination and patience. Cute dog with nice fluffy ears and cute snout. It was my favorite until......

handtowel

I found this one! Hehe yeah this doesn't have anything to do with the art of towel folding but this had a lot of humor in it and it made my day. :-)

Copyrights belong to their respective owners.

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QotD: My First Car

nobody@vox.com(Cher Cabula) — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:28:37 +0800

What was your first car?

1_329415525l

I bought my first car August of last year with my own money. I got it on loan though and I'm paying for it monthly but hey I'm still proud I bought one. My car is a red Honda civic and I've named her Vicky. :-)

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Vox Hunt: Dream Pet

nobody@vox.com(Cher Cabula) — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:48:59 +0800

Show us a picture of the pet you'd most like to have in your life.

IMG_0007

This photo was taken last December at a zoo where you can feed milk to a baby tiger. Yes this tiger is still a baby. She was so heavy on my lap. My being there at the zoo was a surprise from a friend who knew I loved tigers. This was like a dream come true for me, I never thought I could actually touch one. And yet there I was, cuddling up to it, feeding her the milk bottle, and actually petting her.

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simpsonized

nobody@vox.com(Cher Cabula) — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:47:45 +0800

homerusb

I found this cute cute usb task light of Homer. I want one!

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drinks on the go...anyone?

nobody@vox.com(Cher Cabula) — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:40:37 +0800

shoedrink

No, no I didn't photoshop the picture on the right. They really do have a product out right now where you can store a small amount of drink in your slipper. It's called Reef. The product tag line claims that it's for people who like long walks and craves for a drink right after. What more convenient place to store your drink than right at your heel right? Well, I'm not so sure. In the culture I grew up in, it seems pretty gross. Wouldn't it be weird to be pouring yourself out a drink from a slipper that's gone places and is very dirty?

I checked out the product link and yeah they sell it at Swell. The slippers are designed in a way that they have a small vacuum sealed space on the heel, this is where you store your liquid drink. I mean no offense to the designer or design team who cooked this idea up but I really hope they put their creative efforts to much more important use.

For now all they have are slippers for men, they don't have any designs out yet for the ladies. But would you seriously want one?

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