In Honor

In honor of the purpose of my blog, which is to think big and outside of the box (neither of which I have done), I've decided to include all things BIG. Some of it is nerdy, some cool, mostly random and silly. So here goes. THINK BIG EVERYONE!

BIGgest Land Mammal:
Hellooo African elephant. Did you know that female elephants (cows) remain pregnant for about 22 months?! Us humans complain about a measly 9 months. Imagine morning sickness for about a year..yum.

BIGgest (tallest) building : (For now. They're building an even taller building in Dubai)

Taipei 101 , Taiwan. Height: very tall. lots of stories filled with things to do and shop (especially for women)

BIGgest mall in the world:

South China Mall (where else?) in Dongguan, China. 7 million sq ft. That's roughly a small country in itself.

BIGgest University (in terms of enrollment):
Allama Iqbal Open University (1.9 million enrolled) in Pakistan. This picture is just a small section of the campus.

BIGgest blog (as rated by Technorati.com with the most number of fans. They also received an award for Lifetime achievement (err why?) and Best Group Blog in 2006) I should include Tila Tequila or something but even spelling her name out makes me feel dumber so I'm not going to do that.

www.boingboing.net


Shall post more BIG facts later. Any burning desires for big things? I like to ask questions like that even though roughly 2-3 people have read my blog so far.

-edit-
More BIG stuff

Best Websites of 2008 (so this would go under the category of BIGest / popular websites of 2008)

Times magazine has listed the Top 50 Websites of 2008. Some of them like the one above are very useful. The image above is of Gasbuddy.com where volunteers post updated gas prices in their area. Very useful for travel and such. Others include AfricaGadget where interesting things that are happening in Africa are written about (there's a lot more to Africa than Darfour, and Mugabe) I also highly recommend Omiru.com. Fashion at a value (it's designed for both men and women)

According to the Times article:

"Focused on "real style for real people," Omiru doesn't just tell you what the fashion trends are — it helps you figure out what actually looks good on you. High-waisted pants aren't flattering on most people (in fact, 70% of people polled by Omiru won't be wearing them this year, even though they're back in style), but horizontal stripes can be (they don't make you look fat if they're narrow). The site recommends dresses for curvy petites and accessories for your little black dress. Sure, tips like these are sprinkled throughout more mainstream fashion sites like Glam and Style, but Omiru's laser focus on practical fashion advice makes it a don't-miss."

That's it for this post. I'll look up other cool big stuff later on (again to my many readers :) )

Are we simply programmed?

Why do I feel like women are sort of programmed these days? Even the young ones, especially the young ones. We live in an age where choices are countless; career, clothes, hair styles, breast sizes, and of course men. But, why does it seem that most young women seem pressured to accomplish something instead of doing it by choice?

I'm talking more specifically of marriage. At the ripe old age of 21, or 22..I have seen girls worry about marriage. Some are already married by this age but that was their choice and they're happy with it. But why do the girls that aren't married feel stressed when they hear about someone else getting married? It's not everyone, yes but why has the ring become so important?

I feel like times have changed somewhat. Back in the day, women didn't really have much of a choice when or to whom they got married. Being unmarried in your late 20's meant something was definitely wrong with you. Now, that women DO have the choice and you are NOT considered a leper if you're not married by 27, it just seems that women freaking about about marriage has just become more VOCAL.

College Graduate: 21
In a Relationship: ~21-22
Engaged: 22-23
Married: 24-26
Babies: Between 28-33

I've fallen prey to this 'programmed timeline' as well. I have definitely thought about it. It seems like the young women who aren't necessarily following this are freaking out. If you're in it, it's ok. If not, well...something might be wrong with you.

I truly am happy for my friends who have chosen to get married because it's about love. But the rest of us are not falling off nature's 'plan'.

Learning to differentiate between a programmed decision and a personal one might be the challenge of my generation (or at least to me)

Intelligence IS sexy

I could go on forever about how looks are valued more than anything else in this society (aka for WOMEN) so I'm not. But check out Hot for Words. She's a Russian girl who loves to study the origin of words. Subscribers can ask her questions on how the word 'tit' came about, etc etc. The subject is boring but she's made it 'titillating'. Looks AND intelligence!

She's figured it out. Men will listen to ANYTHING as long as it looks good. Well, at least she's spreading knowledge and proven that most men think with only ONE of their heads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Qm5H_8wL0

watch it. i personally like what she teaches. p.s her boobs look good too so that's an extra incentive.

p.s obviously intelligence is sexy no matter what you look like. so FUCK YOU MAXIM MAGAZINE for saying Sarah Jessica Parker is one of the un-sexiest celebrities because she's VERY intelligent.

A cultural expansion

This post is dedicated to my Italy trip last year. My sister and I went to Venice, Rome, Siena, Florence, Viterbo, Orvieto and the Tuscan region . I could write paragraphs and paragraphs about the wonderful things I saw and ate in Italy, but I can pretty much sum up my trip in 2 sentences. Ok maybe 5.


So this is the outside of St.Peter's church in the Vatican:
(This is not our actual picture we took when we were there)

And then we went inside which looks like this:


I swear to you, I'm not joking but when my sister and I walked in, I almost cried. It sounds really silly and cliche but it was so true. You think Italy, and you readily think of the renaissance, Michaelangelo, and all the wonderful art and history. But when you actually see it, it's a completely different experience. But yes, I had tears in my eyes because it was just too beautiful and majestic for words.

Have you ever seen a piece of art or a historic building or city that's literally moved you to tears? If you have, then you're very lucky to have experienced it.

Isn't that the ultimate cultural expansion? To experience something of another culture that doesn't necessarily relate to yours, but be completely in awe of it and appreciate it for what it is?

Superficial women? NO WAY!

So, the new sex and the city movie is out. After four long years of wait, the sequel came out and everyone was waiting with bated breath. I saw it. It was so lame in comparison to the series. The writing sucked. No witty one-liners, or sarcastic remarks. The plot was trite and the ending was terrible. A lot of critics wrote all this as well.

But, the one thing I didn't like was the constant mention of FASHION. A lot of the critics wrote about how FASHION was everywhere in the show and it came off as really superficial.

Yes, the focus on fashion was teeny-weeny bit excessive with labels shoved down your throat every other minute. But, everyone knows by now that SATC established lots of trends, and designers were everywhere..etc etc.

But how come no one says anything about James Bond movies? It's filled with cars, cool new gadgets and Bond treating women like disposable napkins. Soo....how come no critic ever mentions "James Bond is a superflous asshole who treats women like ornaments"

So it's ok for men to be materialistic..but not for women.

LAME. this hellish patriarchal society needs to die.