.
Someone who has put one foot on the Path is a star.
And some one who is advanced is a moon.
And some one who has arrived is a sun.
But the one who has not put
his foot on the path is like a stone.
-- Imam Ghazali
note: stole from my friend, Zhulixin's page 
Life has no meaning any more does it?
The wine has no taste, the food sickens you, there seems no
reason for any of it, does there?
But what if I could give it back to you.
Pluck out the pain, and give you
another life,
one you could never imagine,
and it would be for all time.
And sickness and death could
never touch you again.
Don't be afraid, I'm going to give you the choice, I, never, had.
-- anne rice
wise men say: in time of sickness the soul collects itself anew ....
Coffee anyone? Hmmmmm .... coffee smells like freshly ground heaven!
I am making myself a cup of cappucinno!
..... with caramel of course! 
Or do you prefer your creamy cappuccino with chocolate fudge?
Come, join me before the coffee gets cold. But then, don't laugh at the coffee. Some day you too, may be old and weak. 
I came accross this article while reading the Science Briefing column in Financial Times this morning:
If you feel you have a closer relationship with your granny on your mother's side than on your father's side, it is no surprise to researchers at the universities of Newcastle and Antwerp. Based on studies in the Netherlands, they claim that maternal grandparents are likely to make greater efforts to maintain frequent contact with their grandchildren than paternal grandparents.
They speculate that psychological mechanisms related to human evolution are involved: women, because of maternity, are always sure of their relationship to their sons or daughters, whereas men can never be wholly certain they are their children's biological fathers, they suggest.
Furthermore, maternal grandparents are always more certain than paternal grandparents that a grandchild is related to them: "Thus maternal grandparents, especially maternal grandmothers, may go the extra mile to visit their grandchildren."
The study, carried out by Thomas Pollet and his colleagues found that for grandparents living within 30 kilometres of their grandchildren, more than 30 per cent of maternal grandmothers and 25 per cent of maternal grandfathers had contact daily or a few times a week. In contrast, this fell to 15 per cent for paternal grandparents.
Mr Pollet said: "Even in families where there has been divorce, we found consistent differences. Grandparents on your mother's side make the extra effort."
How true it is in your case? For me, all I can remember is that I (in fact all of my siblings - when we were small) was so scared of my late grand mother.
Few years back, a Johorean friend introduced to me "Asam Tumis" or "Asam Pedas" Johor with pickled cabbage. I used to eat Asam Pedas Johor that is cooked with ladies finger and/or eggplant (aubergine). So, pickled cabbage is something new ... but I fall in love with it ever since. Every now and then whenever I have pickled cabbage, I'll sure cook 'Asam Pedas'.
Today, I explore my Asam Pedas with something else ... gerkhins! I don't know much about gerkhin until last August when I was on the flight to Manchester. During breakfast this 'small cucumber like' thing was served - I didn't ever know it's name! But I enjoyed the taste. So, later I asked Herb .... and that's how I was introduced to gerkhins - when I was at Herb's house, we ate gerkhins almost everyday! 
When I am back in Malaysia I've been trying to look for gerkhins at the nearby hypermarket but couldn't find any until yesterday! So, here I am today cooking 'Asam Pedas' with gerkhins and egg plant!
Life is just a bowl of cherries,
dont take it serious, its mysterious.
Life is just a bowl of cherries,
so live and laugh and laugh at love,
love a laugh, laugh and love.
~ Bob Fosse ~
I love it when someone massaging my head or scalp. Massaging the scalp helps keep your hair healthy and can also promote hair growth. Nourishment is sent to the capillary vessels in hair papillae to activate the hair cells. Not just that it will also helps to release tension:
> Take 10 minutes .... at your local hair salon to really enjoy your shampoo by having a scalp massage at the same time. I just did that this afternoon! 
> Take 15 minutes .... to give yourself a scalp massage at home. Start lightly at the front, then apply more pressure as you reach the hairline. Use your thumbs to move your ears towards your temples.
OR,
Start from the forehead hairline along the arteries in the front, side, and back of the head, making small circles with your fingertips. Work your way toward the top of the head as if drawing a circle.
> Then, gently tug at large sections of hair to bring the blood to the surface. I normally will have this hair pulling technique as part of the massage before my facial. It is said that the hair pulling technique is good especially for headaches (including migraines and sinus).
There are so many ways to perform scalp massage. What I just shared with you are those that I am familiar with during either my facial or body massage. I also found another tips of how to do scalp massage on this page.
Of course it is even better if someone is doing it for you! 
Your Keepers
By Author Unknown
I grew up in the fifties with practical parents -- a Mother, God love her, who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. She was the original recycle queen, before they had a name for it... A Father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones.
Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand, dish towel in the other.
It was the time for fixing things -- a curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep. It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, reheating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more.
But then my Mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more.
Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away... never to return.
So...while we have it...it's best we love it.....and care for it.... and fix it when it's broken..... and heal it when it's sick. This is true... for marriage...old radios...and old cars... and children with bad report cards... and dogs with bad hips... and aging parents... and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it. Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away -- or -- a classmate we grew up with.
Who are the keepers in your life?
Americans, by contrast, do not agree on just one major worry - they spread their top concern among loss of energy, trouble caring for themselves, memory loss, and weight gain. And Egyptians face the oncoming years with aplomb, reporting relatively few concerns.
These are the findings of an international survey, conducted by GfK Roper Consulting, an international market research firm, that shed light on cultural differences in views of aging. Increasingly, scientific research shows that many problems that people associate with growing older can be postponed or avoided with proper health care, exercise and diet. But that has not stopped many people from worrying.
"There's fascinating global variation in what concerns people," said Michael Gusmano, a director of the World Cities Project of the International Longevity Center, which compares health and aging in New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. The results "really highlight the need to understand the institutional and cultural contexts of aging," said Gusmano, who was not involved in the poll.
Surprisingly, he said, people's expectations for their lives don't seem to match up with their nation's economic or health status. For example, nations with healthier populations and more financial resources might be expected to have fewer worries about aging, but that's not necessarily true.
More than 39,000 people in 31 nations, age 13 and older, were interviewed in person for about 70 minutes on a variety of topics related to consumer issues and lifestyle, according to Diane Crispell, executive editor of the consulting firm. On the aging question, they were asked to identify which of 18 conditions they worried most about. When the views of those 50 and older were separated out, they showed higher concerns overall about independence and mental sharpness, but less about appearance. For the most part, however, views within each country were similar across the age spectrum.
Concern about aging was widespread in several European nations, including Sweden and Spain, as well as in Japan. Gusmano found the Swedes' worries particularly surprising because of the overall health of the nation and its generous health care benefits.
Egyptians' lack of concern left researchers guessing. Crispell said the surveyed population in Egypt was more urban and upscale than in some Western nations, and may reflect the view that residents have the resources to ward off problems. Or perhaps a family-based culture and a relatively young population promotes a positive view, she said.
Gusmano had another thought: Perhaps Egyptians think problems with aging are inevitable, so why worry.
The survey also turned up interesting cultural quirks. In Belgium, 41 percent were concerned about incontinence, the highest level of concern in any surveyed nation about that problem. Brazil took the prize for most concern about losing sexual drive and losing teeth. The greatest concern about losing hair or having it go gray was recorded in India.
Hi everyone,
I have been having this problem for almost a year - upper back and shoulder tension after sitting for 30 minutes or so. It is not so painful but it does makes me feel uncomfortable. I always end up going for massage when it becomes unbearable. (shhh, isn't that a good excuse to be pamphered by 1 hour body massage? 
)
Lately I have been reading and collecting facts of why's and how's, the do's and the don't regarding 'how to sit in a chair'! 
Do you know that when we sit it is harder on back then standing? This is because when we stand the spine is in a state called 'lordosis' - with pressure evenly distributed along the 24 vertebrae of our backbone. Blood flow along the spine is free and unobstructed. When we bend our body at a right angle in sitting, we flatten the lumbar (lower section) of our back. This causes a state called kyphosis, or uneven pressure on the disks in our back. This state strains the muscles in that area and causes lower back pain.
Most people think our backbone supports our body. It doesn't. Our body actually supports our backbone. Our back's 24 vertebrae and its jelly-like disks offer us flexibility, but not much strength.
The less we move while sitting, the less our bodies are able to supply parts of our bodies with vital nutrients. When our lumbar area is nutrient-deprived, those fluids-filled disks harden. As they become less flexible, our body is more vulnerable to injuries caused by motion. And sitting incorrectly, essentially crunching our lumbar area, will gradually erode the disks in our back over time.
The best bet for our bodies is to maintain lordosis, which helps make sure that nutrients can reach vital areas of our spine. Sitting for just 20 minutes can so reduce the flow of nutrients to our disks that they begin to harden (errrrrr, Honey .... from now on we must take 5 minutes break after 20 minutes webcam session 
). So, if our chair is too soft and fluffy, our body doesn't really move much. It's almost like being encased in a foam-rubber body cast. No movement. No nutrients. And our disks pay the price.
So, the goal is to continually allow our muscles and bones to find the most stable, most healthy position as easily as possible.
Below are tips from Neutral Posture Ergonomics, work for just about anyone. An ounce of "adjustment consciousness" can protect our body from long term stress injuries.
I hope you find it useful!
Love - Larra
| If you experience this problem | Caused by: | Try this: |
| Neck tension, tightness, upper back and shoulders tension. | Head too far forward while you type or view your monitor | Elevate your monitor so your head and trunk relationship is more vertical. |
| Hands and arms not supported while keyboarding. | Adjust the chair's armrests. | |
| Head is too far back during monitor viewing. | Tilt the seat and backrest forward so as to keep the head and trunk relationship more vertical. | |
| Hand, wrist and lower arm discomfort | The wrist is deviated (turned) in an unnatural position. | Set the keyboard or calculator to produce a neutral (straight) position. |
| Excessive application of force to the keys | Train yourself to reduce excessive keystroke force. Excessive force is not needed or efficient. | |
| Lower back pain discomfort. | Lumbar curvature is not being maintained or supported. | Bring your chair's backrest in closer to your back, tilt it forward, or change your lumbar support by increasing or decreasing the air pressure on the chair's air lumbar support (if you have this.). The backrest should be placed just above the pelvis to provide lower back region support. |
| The major thigh muscle is pulling on the spine because your feet are dangling or unsupported. | Lower your chair and or use a footrest so that the feet support both their own weight and the weight of the lower legs only. | |
| Increased disc pressure because vertebrae do not have equidistance spacing. This results in stretching the muscle, tendon and ligament system. | Open up trunk/thigh angle towards the neutral position. | |
| Buttock discomfort | Sitting too far forward in the seat pan and not using the footrest. | Sit deeper in the chair. It may be necessary to adjust the backrest by tilting the angle. |
| Pressure is too great on the buttock/ischial tuberosities (the bony parts of the pelvis where we sit on. | Raise the chair height and increase the pressure naturally for the thigh. Back of the thighs should touch the seat pan. | |
| Thigh discomfort | Too much pressure on the thigh because the chair is too high and legs are dangling | Lower chair height so the feet support themselves and the lower legs only. |
| Too much pressure on the popliteal area (the soft tissue area behind the knee) from the seat pan. | Sit further forward in the seat pan and adjust backrest further forward. | |
| Lower leg/foot discomfort | Too much pressure in the popliteal area (soft tissue behind the knee) from the seat pan so that circulation is restricted to the lower leg and feet. This puts pressure on the nerves to the lower legs and feet. | Sit further forward in the seat pan and adjust the backrest further forward. |
| Infrequent posture changes in the feet and lower legs. | Utilize a well designed footrest to promote movement and frequent posture changes. |
