I'm a chocolate lover and when I came across the website of Vosges Haut-Chocolat, my taste buds were tingling uncontrollably... I mean I really love chocolate. I've heard of people thinking outside the box and eating chocolate covered insects, but I think I'd rather not stray too far outside the box and stick with this unique haut-confectionary.
Owner/Chocolatier, Katrina Markoff, infuses worldly inspirations of rare spices and flowers into her premium chocolate. I've never heard of truffles made with curry or wasabi but I'd have to say the combining of east-meets-west ingredients makes these delectable treats as worldly as they come. The lure of these treats, whether they be truffles, candy bars or liquid chocolate, is that you never know what kind of taste explosion is going to come out of that first bite! Adventurous yet?
The company is green, utilizing methods and materials in the manufacture and packaging that serve to keep the environment healthy. They also provide good information on their website on how to eat a truffle, candy bar and sip liquid chocolate. This is for your own good so you can experience chocolate, spices and flowers in all their glory individually and harmoniously - as one.
Miss Markoff please send me a box so I can review your creations please!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
This Is For Chocolate Lovers With Adventurous Taste Buds
Sketchable Refrigerators Are Cool
I'm not sure it's a great idea to have a fridge-a-doodler that will keep kids near the food (and junk food) for an extended period of time, but hey if you look on the bright side, they'll be sure to read the list of chores you left for them to complete by the time you get home.
GE's sketch-a-fridge, the Risque Rabisque (scrawl & scribble), is covered in a special coating similar to dry erase whiteboards. This playful and convenient idea replaces the need for letter magnets and post-its to leave your message or reminder. Your drawings, messages, quote for the day, and tic-tac-toe games can easily be wiped off. Yes, working in the kitchen just got a whole lot funner.
For some reason this fridge is only available in Brazil. What's up with that?
A Place Where Ideas Can Become Reality
Got an idea? Then pitch it at Vator.tv. It's a web channel where people can share ideas about new services, products, etc., to fellow entrepreneurs and maybe land that much needed seed money from investors.
Signing up is free and after building a profile, you can pitch your ideas by uploading a video, PPT or PDF for users to see and comment on. You can build a network by inviting friends or browsing through the online community and joining groups of like-minded individuals. Additionally, the website provides excellent tips like making a compelling three-minute pitch and more. Here are a few other suggestions/tips from their website:
- No more than 3 minutes
- Be original
- Demonstrate your value proposition
- Make it fun and entertaining
- Explain the market size/opportunity
- Avoid interview style presentations (boring!)
- Tell us what keeps you up at night
- If you're a budding business or existing one, tell us why you are better than your rivals? (And don't say you don't have any!)
- How are you going to make money?
- What was the original need that sparked the idea?
- What if it fails?
Friday, August 10, 2007
Filipino Martial Arts In Bourne Ultimatum
As a Filipino Martial Arts instructor, it's always pleasing to see more and more of the art being utilized in the action choreography of movies. The moves are efficient, brutal and flow nicely. Movies like the Blade series, Die Hard 4, Out For Justice, The Hunted and the Bourne series have all included some FMA fighting techniques.
A few fight choreographers in Hollywood are students at the Inosanto Academy in Monterey, CA. The owner, Guro Dan Inosanto, was the best friend of Bruce Lee and starred in his movie, The Chinese Connection. Students of Dan, like Jeff Imada and Damon Caro, have shared their expertise in the arena of fight choreography for a number of movies.
In the Bourne Ultimatum, Damon Caro was the fight choreographer and did a pretty good job. I saw a lot of moves that we use in the FMA and especially the use of improvised weapons. I saw a lot of counters to counters that were efficient, fluid and damn sneaky. The improvised weapon in Bourne Ultimatum was a towel and book, in Bourne Identity - a pen, and in Bourne Supremacy - a rolled up newspaper. Although we train primarily with sticks or blades, the movements can be translated to everyday objects lying around and empty hands. Damon Caro's work can also been seen in the fights scenes of Fight Club, 300 and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Jeff Imada also had a hand in fight stunts for Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy and also did a great job creating the dynamic action sequences.
From what I've heard from contacts at the Inosanto Academy, Matt Damon really worked hard to make the moves effortless and exacting - like he's been studying the art for years. He really brings the Bourne character to life and I'm happy to say, presents the Filipino Martial Arts perfectly in the Bourne series.
The Bourne Ultimatum - Bourne And Desh Fight
Posted Aug 02, 2007In the new chapter of this espionage series, Bourne will hunt down his past in order to find a future.
♦DiggIt! ♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Technorati Faves ♦Stumble ThisProtect Mp3s On Your Computer
We all enjoy keeping music in our hard drive. How would a music collector feel when all of music files have been eaten up by a mischievous worm? That’s exactly what W32.Deletemusic worm does, if it makes its way onto your computer.
It will delete all your .mp3 files from your computer without your notice. The worm infects all machines running on Windows (Windows 95 – Vista). Once infected, the worm copies itself on all your drives (including portable flash drives) and spreads from one computer to another.
The worm doesn’t care if the music is legitimate or not. It straight away deletes all mp3 files, include those which you’ve ripped from CDs, legally downloaded, or self-created music. Of course, it can be removed from your system, but you won’t be getting back your music if it’s too late. So next time you plug-in a flash drive from your friend, make sure that you run a virus scanner on it. Go update your virus definition before it’s too late.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Broadcasting Religion At Godtube.com
So I was watching the news and learned about this website called Godtube.com. I checked the site out and on there you can find readings, Christian music, funny moments caught in church and Christian believers sharing their testimonies. Apparently the creator of the site obtained some funding from private investors and I'm thinking they hope the site will go big and give them a good ROI... all in the name of God of course.
One of the reasons I'm not a religious person is because I'm spiritual - I believe in a higher power but I'm not biased towards a particular religion. I think each religion has its own "ministry" or specialization and you can learn and take from each one - for each has something to offer. After growing up Christian, I've learned and researched history on my own with respect to the wars started by religions and the hate and animosity you see and experience inside religious denominations. I strongly feel that there's something about organized religion that restricts you in terms of finding truth in history - like it's taboo to do your own research and you should take everything they say as the "God's Honest Truth." But in my opinion, you can't do that to people. The human mind is always curious, always searching - it's hardwired into our brain; like there's something missing from us - a history of the world before the great flood that we need to know about but religion suppresses, and instead, gets us caught up in trivial pursuits and debates that keep us too busy, too angry, too hateful to even bother about questioning things that need to be questioned.
One particular clip that bothered me was about undercover reporters who went into a mosque and made claims about how extreme the Islamic religion is - based solely on that one mosque. That's like saying Christianity as a whole is extreme and evil because of overbearing, extreme Christian fundamentalists. When you read the comments, it gives you a sense of how ignorant a lot of people are when it comes to other people's religious leanings. A lot of them don't bother to do their own research before posting a comment and the way I see it, they're not helping and promoting Godtube.com for reasons of winning souls to Christ. If a curiosity seeker goes there, they'll probably get scared off and take up Taoism, hehe. The next thing you know, there's going to be an Allahtube.com and then the real fun starts. A freakin' holy war online!
God help us all!
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Are You Having A Wii Old Time?
I recently purchased the Wii and I don't regret it at all. This thing is too fun - and a good cardio workout too! I read somewhere that playing for about an hour for a week can burn 1,875 calories. I don't play everyday but when I do play, especially when it's tennis, it's a good two to three hours. I guess it's addicting. The controls take some getting used to, but once you have the hang of it, you've just got to work on timing and it helps if you have some good dexterity too.
It seems that fitness experts are espousing the health benefits of the Wii too. The International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) has released results of a new survey into exercise and video games, finding that technologies such as Nintendo's Wii "may prove to be just what fitness experts are looking for to help their clients get more active." Studio 55, a fitness studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, is adopting the Wii into their fitness program. Their clients love it.
Traineo.com, the web's fastest growing fitness community, has launched a contest to award an 'Ultimate Wii Fitness Package' and other prizes to users who submit the best motivational health and fitness video(s) via the Nintendo Wii Group at traineo.com (http://wii.groups.traineo.com).
The contest allows members of the Wii Group at traineo to submit a motivational video entry via the free video sharing website YouTube.com (all entries must be received by midnight March 1, 2007). Traineo's judges will then pick ten videos that best encompass the themes of motivation, exercise, self-improvement and achievement for the Grand Final. Traineo Wii Group members will then have a chance to vote for their favorite video. The lucky winners of the contest will be announced on the Wii Group page at traineo.com shortly after the close of the competition at midnight on March 22, 2007. (editor's note: I didn't see any winners posted yet as of this post.)
The first prize entry, based on the largest number of votes in the Grand Final, will receive an 'Ultimate Wii Fitness Package', which includes a Nintendo Wii Console bundled with Wii Sports, traineo T-Shirt, traineo Digital Fitness Scale and Polar FS1 Heart Rate Monitor. Other prizes will be awarded to the runner-up and to videos ranked through to sixth place.
I think the Wii is great fun for kids and seniors as well. Kids won't be sedentary - sitting around watching TV and gaining weight or playing the other game consoles that have them sitting still. I think it's just added value that the Wii brings in allowing you to become part of the game while learning some good health habits. ♦DiggIt! ♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Technorati Faves ♦Stumble ThisMonday, August 06, 2007
SeaLife Ecoshot Goes Deep Down For Photos
Some outdoor and watersports enthusiasts couldn't care less about taking photos while they're savoring an adrenalin rush. But some do have an artistic side and would love to record the precise moment when their buddy reels in that marlin or their kid snorkeling for the very first time.
While the Olympus 720 SW underwater digital camera does the job for most people, it does have its drawbacks for when you want to head down deeper to capture photos of sea life. It's depth tested to only 10 feet and shockproof tested to five feet. It has 28 shooting modes, 3x optical/5x digital zoom, 2.5 inch LCD screen and 7.1 megapixels to name a few of its features - which are many.
For those who aren't too interested in all the fancy features but in a camera that can go deep down with th
em and is durable to boot, the SeaLife Ecoshot Digital Camera fits the bill. It's tested waterproof to 75 feet, shock tested to six feet and has a SPY mode. This lets you capture hard-to-get pictures when you can't get close to the subject by taking continuous shots at set time intervals. It has a 6 megapixel CCD sensor for sharp images, 4x digital progressive zoom, is rubber-armored for durability and a sure grip, and runs on 2 AA batteries. It has a 2 inch LCD screen and can take a 1 GB SD card.
While the SeaLife Ecoshot lacks many of the features of the Olympus 720 SW, it should be durable enough to shoot in any condition and take you deep underwater for crisp, clear images that you wouldn't otherwise get with the Olympus.
