So I took my new Lomography Fisheye Camera that I talked about earlier for a whirl and below is what came of the photographic adventure. I must say I was somewhat disappointed by the quality of the photos taken (almost half of my film was too dark to even show up :/), and definitely ripped off by Ritz Camera who charged me $19 for two rolls of film!

I find that things always happen unexpectedly, in other words: a watched clock never runs. When I want something to happen, and I think and think and think about it, I just drive myself nuts. But the moment I stop thinking and anticipating is the moment things go my way. For those of you into The Secret, this probably sounds blasphemous, but for me it's what seems to work. Maybe my instincts are just off. For example whenever I go into a job interview and think I nailed it, I never get the job, but when I come out of it having doubts I always seem to get the job. Maybe I was just granted the same lame instincts as my lame sense of direction or visual spatial abilities that make putting food into different size tupperwares a challenge.

I love photography, so I was uber excited when I started browsing the funky Lomography cameras that Urban Outfitters has on their website. Lomography ROCKS! They make pretty reasonably priced cameras that create cool effects as seen below:

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The Oktomat Camera, $40

It takes 8 mini pictures on the same photo!

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The Diana, $50

In the 60's Diana became a favorite with avant-garde and lo-fi photographers. They loved its soft & dreamy images, super-saturated colors, unpredictable blurring, and random contrast. Diana shots were raw & gritty, with a character all their own

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The Fisheye #2, $70

This Lomography camera has the standard 170 degree fisheye view that compacts everything into a distorted circular image, making whatever you are shooting look extra awesome, PLUS it has the ability to create long exposures and more than one exposure on the same frame

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I scoured ebay and think I might be able to snag the Fisheye for around 55---we'll see in two hours at least!!!

The world is filled with fantasy people. These are the people we create from the magnetic strangers we meet. Our minds begin to spin up hypothetical ideas of who they are, and what it would be like to be with them. As the movie plays out in our minds, we become better acquainted with these fantasy people who become less of strangers each time we see them. We see the person they could be, based on our expectations and ideals--and they slowly become that perfect other. It's not this intriguing stranger that we truly become infatuated with--it's the transient identity we attach to them. They become the host to our dreams and desires, and their true identity becomes lost in our desperate search for what we want them to be. But who are these people really--can they really meet our expectations of them, or are we creating a false sense of reality that no one can live up to? In the moment of desire it is as if anything we dream is possible--like we have the power to read people authentically without even speaking to them. However although dreams can be a healthy escape from day to day life they are also dangerous, because they skew our expectations of reality, causing confusion and disappointment.

I have Monday and Tuesday off from school for Fall Break, so my friend and me decided to take a spur of the moment trip to NYC. Here are some travel guide tips from me to you:

Where to eat:

Cafe Lulu

We went walking along and randomly decided to eat at this cafe which turned out to be fantastic! I highly recommend going here. We had brunch and the entrees were around $7-$9, which was a great deal for the quality of food we were served. We ate in the back courtyard which was pretty quaint, perfect for a sunny day :)


My friend had the spinach ravioli which she enjoyed very much.


I got the spinach and goat cheese omelet which was spectacular. I officially love goat cheese. It came with a small arugula salad which I was impressed with since the dressing seemed to cut the bitterness of the arugula. The fries were pretty good too :P

Cubana Cafe

We were walking along the street and I saw this cafe and couldn't help but take a picture since I'm half Cuban. Unfortunately we already ate so I couldn't try it out, but my friend's sister said it had really delicious food :P Maybe next time!

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

On our way to Chinatown we stopped by this ice cream shop, but it was mediocre compared to some ice cream shops in San Francisco and of course gelato in Italy. I had the Lychee ice cream which I have had before, its sort of fruity--but not disgustingly sweet. My friend's sister had the Black Sesame which was surprisingly tastey. It was savory yet sweet and I would highly recommend it if you go here.




What to do:

Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge

We stayed at my friend's sister's house who lives in Brooklyn and decided to walk across the bridge to Chinatown in the morning. The walk is about 3 miles but it's pretty nice--we were lucky to have perfect weather. Walking across the bridge is really fun because you get to see the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty.

So in Part II of my summer "adventure" I will present to you the wonders of a Gay Bars and Burma Superstar!

El Rio is this awesome bar my sister took me to one afternoon. It's a gay bar by night but transforms into a salsa dancing mecca in the afternoon. Here you'll have fun gay or straight because everyone dances with everyone, plus this way you know there's no pressure to give em' your number after! They feature a live band that sounds straight out of Habana--think Buena Vista Social Club in person. Don't worry if you can't salsa either, the people there are SO amazing at it they'll give you your own private lesson in one dance. I was lucky to have my mom meet us here later, and teach us the basics, she's a salsa pro! Definitely a must see if you're into swigging a couple shots of tequila and then making a fool out of yourself on the dance floor!



EndUp is another gay bar that is full of techno and house music, along with half naked men and lots of people high on ecstasy. I don't promote drugs, but I gotta say it's pretty entertaining to watch people dance to themselves in the mirror. The bartenders are awesome and will hit you with really cheapest Petrone shots. Great music to keep you dancing all night, and it's open til 6am so the later it is the more people migrate in from other bars that closed.



Burma Superstar! will change your outlook on foreign cuisine. This reastaurant made Burmese food my #1 favorite! Everything on the menu is packed with an array of spices that explode with flavor. I've been here about three times, and I've never been disappointed.

Top Picks:

• Tea Leaf Salad * Salad prepared with imported Burmese tea leaves, tomatoes, lettuce, dried shrimp (or vegetarian), fried garlic, sesame seeds, peanuts, and split yellow peas.

This salad is so full of flavor it'll make your mouth water, the taste of the tea that they add and mix right in front of you is unexplainable, a must do.

• Burmese Style Curry (beef or lamb)Burma SuperStar’s special curry. Choice of beef or lamb

This is one of the best curry dishes I've ever had, I'm not much of a lamb person so I stick with the beef. They make it so tender that it just falls apart on your fork!

• Coconut Rice (per person) * Aromatic jasmine rice cooked with coconut milk.

This rice amazing. The coconut milk makes it creamy and smooth, who knew rice could be such a delicious dish on its own!

• Ginger Infused Beer

I'm not exactly sure what the name of this is, but it's not your regular corona or bud light. It is light, airy, and tropical. The ginger and lemon make every sip refreshing and delightful!

Overall if you're in the San Francisco area, you cannot pass up Burma Superstar! It may look small from the outside but it is always packed with people and a long waiting list, just a reflection of its addicting and delectable cuisine.

So what do active excersise, listening to music, smoking marijuana, and undergoing electroshock therapy have in common? Well according to the following articles they all stimulate brain growth.

Build Your Muscles, Build Your Brain

An active lifestyle has benefits beyond the body. A new study suggests that being active can stimulate brain cell growth and lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
German researchers put 30 adult female mice in an ''enriched environment'' that included toys, a running wheel and unlimited food and water for 10 months.
Compared to mice kept in cages, the active mice grew five times more new brain cells and showed fewer sign of age-related brain degeneration. They also were more curious about their surroundings and better able to learn new things.
''Our study suggests that, in mice, we can reduce the effects of aging on the brain with a sustained active and challenging life, even if this stimulation is only begun in middle age,'' writes Gerd Kempermann, M.D., lead author of the study.
While study results in mice don't always transfer to humans, Kempermann suggests that people who change their behavior because of this study ''will certainly do no harm'' and that ''they might even do something good for the brain cells that are involved in learning and memory processes.''

Source: Annals of Neurology, 2002; 52, 135-143


Listening to music to create new neural pathways
Click the link above to read this article.

Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain
22:00 13 October 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Kurt Kleiner

A synthetic chemical similar to the active ingredient in marijuana makes new cells grow in rat brains. What is more, in rats this cell growth appears to be linked with reducing anxiety and depression. The results suggest that marijuana, or its derivatives, could actually be good for the brain.
In mammals, new nerve cells are constantly being produced in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is associated with learning, memory, anxiety and depression. Other recreational drugs, such as alcohol, nicotine and cocaine, have been shown to suppress this new growth. Xia Zhang of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, and colleagues decided to see what effects a synthetic cannabinoid called HU210 had on rats' brains.
They found that giving rats high doses of HU210 twice a day for 10 days increased the rate of nerve cell formation, or neurogenesis, in the hippocampus by about 40%.
Just like Prozac?
A previous study showed that the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) also increases new cell growth, and the results indicated that it was this cell growth that caused Prozac’s anti-anxiety effect. Zhang wondered whether this was also the case for the cannabinoid, and so he tested the rats for behavioural changes.
When the rats who had received the cannabinoid were placed under stress, they showed fewer signs of anxiety and depression than rats who had not had the treatment. When neurogenesis was halted in these rats using X-rays, this effect disappeared, indicating that the new cell growth might be responsible for the behavioural changes.
In another study, Barry Jacobs, a neuroscientist at Princeton University, gave mice the natural cannabinoid found in marijuana, THC (D9-tetrahydrocannabinol)). But he says he detected no neurogenesis, no matter what dose he gave or the length of time he gave it for. He will present his results at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington DC in November.
Jacobs says it could be that HU210 and THC do not have the same effect on cell growth. It could also be the case that cannabinoids behave differently in different rodent species - which leaves open the question of how they behave in humans.
Zhang says more research is needed before it is clear whether cannabinoids could some day be used to treat depression in humans.
Journal reference: Journal of Clinical Investigation (DOI:10.1172/JCI25509)



More Evidence For Brain Regeneration From Electro-Shock Treatment
9 May 2007

Columbia University researchers, writing in the latest issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, say that experiments with monkeys have confirmed earlier findings that electroconvulsive shock treatment can stimulate new nerve cell growth in the brain.
The new nerve cells were observed in the dentate gyrus region of the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in learning and memory. If a similar process occurs in humans, it may help explain the modus operandi of electroconvulsive shock (ECS) therapy.
While similar results have been seen previously in rodents, this is the first time the effect has been observed in nonhuman primates. It suggests that the creation of new nerve cells - known as neurogenesis - is an important component of ECS therapy.
Whether a similar process of neurogenesis occurs in humans remains a controversial topic, but the researchers believe that these latest findings could help explain why ECS is such an effective treatment for depression.
In the latest experiment, researcher Tarique Perera treated a group of monkeys with an animal version of the clinical ECS antidepressant treatment. They saw an increase in new nerve cells in the hippocampus and over four weeks, a majority of these cells became mature neurons.
"The clinical relevance of this action has remained controversial, in part, because of uncertainty as to whether similar neurogenesis occurs in humans," said Perera. "This finding further supports the potential clinical relevance of changes in neurogenesis seen in rodent models." He stressed that the brain changes were not a response to tissue damage, because no evidence of increased cell death was found in the ECS treated animals. In fact, the researchers found that the ECS treatments increased production of a protein (BCL2) that protects neurons from damage.
"These findings support the hypothesis that induction of neurogenesis is a necessary component in the mechanism of action of antidepressant [ECS] treatments," Perera concluded.

Source: Society for Neuroscience