How is everyone doing these days? I’ve been quite busy, but all of you are never far from my heart. Tonight I have been busy looking for other unique places in this world to share with all of you. This planet of ours holds such amazing sights and beautiful landscapes. Let’s begin shall we?

Zhangjiajie,Hunan province in China:  Apparently, Pandora exists in China! Who knew? A photographer spent 4 days in China shooting pictures in Zhangjiajie for the movie. A lot of the scenes in the movie were inspired by the “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain” named by the local people.

Zhangye Danxia Landform in Gansu Province, China: These are spectacular for anyone visiting here. It’s like someone had fun with many colored pencils and created a colorful mountain side. Imagine having this view every day and watching the sunset and sunrise over the mountains. This is what dreams are made out of. They win the award for the most colorful mountains in the world.

Fly Geyser in Reno Nevada: This unique place sits on a private ranch called Fly Ranch. Good luck trying to get a closer look of this little gem because there is a high fence surrounding it with a locked gate. The geyser came to life by accident as it was created in 1916 when they were drilling for a well. If you are driving on State Route 34, the geyser is big enough to see from the road.

Mount Roraima shared by Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana: Books such as “The Lost World” were inspired by these cliffs. They are considered one of the world’s oldest landscapes and formations. The dark layers on top are formed by algae. Once you reach the top (after 2-3 days of hiking), you will find many ponds, bogs, streams and lakes. If you are lucky, you’ll find miles of fields of crystals.  It is also said you will find many weird and beautiful plants reminiscent of Pandora which you will not find 400 feet below the cliffs. Believe it or not, you will find mice, frogs, worms and sparrows at the very top which you will not find on the ground below. People may want to climb Mt. Everest, but for me, it would be Mt. Roraima. Even though I am terrified of heights, I would go on an adventure of getting to the very top and see what unique sights that await up there for me.

Socotra Island in Yemen:  Imagine waking up after a wild night of partying and your friends thought it would be funny to fly you over to this island and drop you off for a few hours. Upon waking up, you see the craziest and alien looking plants all around you. I think it would be a fun place to just get lost in or at least for a great fashion photo shoot.

I like making music when I have time, but lately I haven’t had the much wanted free time. When I make music, I take forever because I am so picky of what instruments I want to use, the tempo, sound, genre and beats. Once I have everything in order, I then begin the long hours of composing a song. Granted it’s not Grammy worthy, but it is fun to make. It is a small labor of love that I like sharing with people. Here are two songs I made a while ago.

Click the two links to hear the songs!

The French Flute Player

The first song was inspired by a French friend and art. I used to play the flute as a teen, so I had to incorporate that sound into the song as the main instrument. I have to tell you a little secret. The French Flute Player was one of my first songs and I was still using the 3 minute “quicky” software so I was a bit conservative in only making it 2 minutes long.

Dance of the Fireflies

This song was inspired by memories down in Brazil. I’m always fascinated by the little things in life and fireflies are right up there. This song is 3 minutes long and I finally was able to get the offline software that allows you to compose a song as long as you want. I’m pretty proud of the little “ping” sounds in the background as I thought it reminded me of the fireflies who blink off and on whilst flying around at night. Towards the end of this song, I use the same flute that I used for “The French Flute Player” as a “nod” to it-my little secret in connecting the two songs. Another reason I like “Dance of the Fireflies” is because if you listen to it with headphones, it is as if the music is circling your head from one ear to the other in stereo. Pretty cool in my opinion. I chose that function because I liked how it sounded in my ears.

I miss making music. I think it’s about time I make another song. I have a feeling it will be inspired by my friend’s wedding next month that I will be going to. I have known this friend since we were both 5 years old and I couldn’t be happier for her!

August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012

What sad news today for me, New Jersey (she was born here) and for the world. I had just finished watching a movie on tv when I got a text message from my coworker which read “RIP Whitney Houston”. I was shocked. Whitney, despite all her troubles, has always been one of my favorite American singers. Her songs have been a soundtrack to my life growing up which would take me to those hallways of memories whenever any of her songs came on the radio. Let me take you down some of her famous songs and how they related to my life at that time.

1985 THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL: This song reminds me of elementary school where life was simple and fun down in Brazil. Times where happy and I just liked her music as a kid. When I’d hear The Greatest love of all, I’d be in my room hanging out by myself or with friends. I remember how amazing her voice sounded the first time I heard it.

1985 HOW WILL I KNOW: As I was starting to like the boys, I could identify with song. My heart would beat just a little faster when I’d hear this song as I wondered if the boy I had a massive crush even noticed me.

1985 SAVING ALL MY LOVE FOR YOU: This song made me think as a kid because in this song she says “you’ve got a family” which made me think that it was a song about an affair. I also knew this was a little beyond what my little innocent ears should be listening to because of the lyrics.

1985 ALL AT ONCE: This song always made me cry. I don’t know why. Perhaps because this is such a sad song. Such a descriptive and longing love song. Worst song to listen if you ever break up with someone. Moving on…

1987 DIDN’T WE ALMOST HAVE IT ALL: A sad song, but still very beautiful in how she sang it.

1987 SO EMOTIONAL: I LOVE this song! This reminds me of Junior High and me continuing to be boy crazy and liking boy. Good times! My favorite line from the song is when she says “I just watch your mouth”. The electric guitar which was so popular in the 80′s is the staple sound in this song. “It’s shocking what love can do!” I’ll always love this song because I can’t help but get a huge smile on my face upon hearing it.

1988 ONE MOMENT IN TIME: This song reminds me of the Olympics which I thought was appropriate with the lyrics. I’d also listen to this song when I’d feel down and just need a little boost to continue on. I was pretty active in sports as a kid. This is a great song to listen to before going on stage, job interview or before doing something which entails going in front of many people. The video to this song is really touching. Go check it out.

1992 I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU: This song was a soundtrack of my first serious relationship in High School. I honestly thought I’d always love my ex-boyfriend back then. Not true as life goes on. But being such a beautiful and sentimental song, this song has been used in numerous videos on YouTube. Perfect song for the movie “The Bodyguard”.

1996 I BELIEVE IN YOU AND ME: I heard this song during the college years. Being in the USA and getting to know more people and dating around, I started to believe in love again. This song is incredibly sweet and warms my heart. The movie with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston is sweet. I really enjoyed this movie.

2001 THE STAR BANGLED BANNER: So many singers have sung this gorgeous song of our country, but none have come close to the stunning voice that Whitney Houston had as she sang this song. When I hear her sing this particular song, I feel incredibly proud and my heart bursts with love for my country, the United States of America. She will be missed singing this song live.

Normally, I don’t write blogs about singers or celebrity deaths, but Whitney was one of my favorite singers. I decided to write this blog to remember a significant singer whose music was a soundtrack to so many memories growing up. I leave you with one of my favorite songs of hers where she sings with her real life friend Cece Winans (who is another favorite singer of mine).

This is dedicated to all my new friends here on WordPress who have taken the time to comment and be my friend. Thank you.

This one is for the ladies. Men are welcomed to read, but I’ll be talking about girly things if you’re curious.

Ladies,

It’s girl time. I wanted to analyze Audrey Hepburn’s quote which I abolutely love. I searched for a picture of her smiling, but I only came across photos where she was demurely smiling if not smiling at all. I saw a few where she was smiling real big and when she did smile, it would light up the universe! I love this photo of her as she knows a secret or is awaiting for something good to happen. Let’s begin with her first sentence.

“I love pink“. Pink is good. Not my favorite color, but I like to associate that color with cupcake icing, cotton candy and roses. It’s sweet.

“I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner.” Yes, indeed! Lately, I’ve laughed so hard my belly hurts and I beg for mercy for the person to stop tormenting me. Laughter is a great natural workout for the stomache. A few nights ago, I had a very bad case of the giggles and anything anyone said got me get into a fit of laughter. I love those moments.

“I believe in kissing, kissing a lot.” Who doesn’t? This can mean romantic kissing or just kissing a baby, pet or greeting an old friend and giving them a harmless kiss on the cheek. Down in Brazil, we greet friends, family and strangers (that we are introduced to) by one kiss on each cheek. It’s culture and no one starts raiding the wedding magazines just because a random guy kisses us on each cheek as they introduce themselves. Three kisses means more. There’s a whole kissing etiquette down there, but that is for another time. That first kiss is always special because it is the first time you allow someone to invade your space and trust them enough to kiss your lips. I like holding hands just as much. I think it’s cute and a real connection with someone. I have no one to hold hands right now, but that’s beside the point.

“I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong.” Being and feeling strong is sometimes very hard to do as a girl. We allow little things to get us down and we give up. I know this past month was incredibly hard for me. I can blog about it now, but I was dealing with some serious issues behind the scenes of blogging. My mom’s cancer health concerns me and a good friend of mine attempted suicide this month (they are doing better now). As a professional in my field who is trained to deal with serious situations such as suicides, it was too close to home when it was a good friend of mine. I had to look within myself to find that inner strength to keep going on not only for me, but for my good friend. It’s ok to admit the feelings of defeat too. No one is perfect, but equally, it’s important to regain your inner strength and know you will get through this tough time. It does pass. After all the tears I shed this month, I am glad to say I have ended this month with a lot of laughter and giggles. Things are looking up.

“I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls.” Isn’t that so true! Everyone has their down days and sad days. Believe it or not, even the happiest girls will be sad once in a while. However, the prettiest girls are the ones who do have a nice smile on their face and who come across as genuine. You could look like a model and have all the right measurements that tv and magazines say you should have, but if you are constantly frowning and unhappy with life in general, you are not that attractive. I remember one place I use to work at and this one girl was always so mean to me. I never did anything to her but be friendly, happy and smile. In fact, she said loud enough for me to hear one day, “Look. She smiles so much it’s like she is on meds.” This hurt my feelings as I am naturally a friendly person and always greet people with a smile. I often wondered what kind of world she lived in. Did she think people that smiled were “abnormal”? Personally, I think she was jealous because I had a lot of friends at work. Smiling and friendliness attracts people.

“I believe tomorrow is another day.” I believe she meant as in a brand new day. You can start fresh with a clean slate. Not going too deep with this one.

“I believe in miracles.” I truly believe this last one. Miracles happen everyday, every hour and minute all around the world. Some are global news and others are never mentioned except those that they touch. I hope there will be a cure for cancer. The faith and hope that goes into believing a miracle will happen.

Just a quick blog with a beautiful video from Vimeo. When I first saw this video, it almost brought tears to my eyes to think what a gorgeous planet we live in and how lucky we are to enjoy it. In a fast paced lifestyle some of us live, it is easy to forget that nature is moving in a fast pace too. When we actually take time to stop and look all around us, we can truly appreciate the daily show nature presents to us. This is a timelapse of a place in Spain. Please visit the vimeo site of this video for more details as it is very interesting to read what all was done to capture it. Enjoy your weekend and don’t forget to stop and listen to nature and enjoy the sunshine, stars and all it brings to you. See you next week!

Video credit: TSO Photography at Vimeo

Today’s blog is about dinner and definately for the nonconventional. Why, yes I have found the craziest restaurants in the world you can take someone to just for kicks. Some restaurants are international (and move) and others are strictly within a particular country. Underneath each named restaurant is the website link if you want to find out more about them. Just click on it.

Let me begin with this one here. First of all, I am terrified of heights and to have dinner strapped to a seat where I can’t walk around would be a nightmare! If I wasn’t terrified of heights, I think I may give it a chance. However, I’m sure the city and mountain views are spectactular!

DINNER IN THE SKY
Dinner in the sky

YELLOW TREEHOUSE RESTAURANT
This is located in New Zealand, unfortunately, this was just a time limited project and it is no longer in service. However, almost would appear it comes straight out of a Lord of the Rings trilogy movie, don’t you think? Very whimsical I might add.

MARS 2112 DINING WITH ALIENS
Located in NYC
Earthlings click here to eat with aliens

Earthlings of the world! If you so happen to be in NYC and want to experience an out of this world service by aliens from Mars, head over to this place! You’ll eat delicious seafoods and be surrounded by alien life forms and landscapes. This looks like a family friendly place to eat.

SPINNING FOODS SERVED HOT TO YOUR TABLE BELOW
's Baggers Restaurant in Germany website

In this restaurant located in Germany, your food is ordered through a touch screen computer on your table. Once it is ordered and cooked, the food is served down to your table from the kitchen above. Patrons can be amused as they watch their foods spin down to their table via twisted steel or be horrified it might catch a bump and spill all over them. Hopefully, the latter has never happened.

SURROUNDED BY NINJAS
Located in NYC.
Ninja Restaurant in NYC

Last but not least, since I love anything Japanese this place looks like a fantastic place to dine in. I am definately putting this place on my to eat list when I’m in NYC again. Fortunately, I don’t live far from the Big Apple, so it is feasible to achieve this wish of mine.

That is it for now my dear blog readers. Which ones would you try to dine at?

Hi everyone!

A special welcome to my newest subscribers! I wanted to share with everyone about something that has enlightened me recently. Everyone knows that you need sleep. Your sleep and blood pressure go hand in hand. I read somewhere that sleep is important because that is the ONLY time your blood pressure is lowered and your heart can take a rest and recharge. Say you work 9-5 (nice 8 hour day) and depending on what you do during your work hours, your heart is pumping and pumping taking in all the extra stress you have that day making your blood pressure rise. You come home and stay up until midnight or even 3AM when during that time your heart and body is needing that rest time to recharge. I’m guilty of this too. Then your heart has then a few hours to recharge and “rest” before it has to run a marathon again without that needed sleep your heart needed! Your blood pressure drops only for a few hours with little sleep. By the next day, your body is pleading and begging for mercy for you to just collapse on the sofa for a snooze.

I never saw it quite that way. When I went to the doctor recently, I had gotten plenty of sleep a week before and my blood pressure was lower. That theory of getting more sleep, if not more sleep than the hours I work in a day, helped lower my blood pressure-it gave time for my heart to recharge and take a rest from a hectic day. They say, the more hours you sleep during the night, it lowers your risk for a heart attack or stroke and provides a longer life because your heart is not constantly running a marathon all day and night. I truly want to live longer, so hence the more sleep hours. Bring it on Mr. Sandman! For my international readers, “Mr. Sandman” is a mythical man who gives good dreams to people.

Just a quick health tip for those who have high blood pressure or a slight elevated blood pressure such as myself. I’m only saying all this because of some changes I’ve had to make this year. Always remember to research anything you may have questions about. Remember though, all medical questions and concerns should always be directed to your doctor. So, no more midnights for me unless it is New Years Eve or I am able to sleep in real late the next day!

I’ll be back with something else to blog about. Yes, I decided for the “vintage” old photo look this time. I don’t think my hands make a heart, but I tried! Thanks for checking in and sweet dreams!

Love always.

JavaGirl

Sorry for my absense. I’ve had to take care of some business. It’s raining outside as we speak and I feel so tired these days. I’m already looking forward to Spring as this Winter hasn’t exactly been a winter wonderland, much to my dismay. Albeit, it we did have a freak snowfall back in late October, but my Christmas tree still wasn’t up so it doesn’t count. By the way, I still have my Christmas tree up. I love looking at it and feel sorry for the trees tossed to the side of the road; it’s like they were used for a week or so and then suddenly tossed away without any thought. Do people really go through Christmas that fast? Out of sight? Out of mind? Everyone is hurrying to the next holiday so they can buy all the decorations…which would be Valentines Day. Ugh. I actually hate that holiday and not because of what it means, but because of all the commercialization of it. Girls get upset if their man doesn’t take them out to a fancy dinner when an order in Chinese food is just as romantic with some scented candles and a good movie. Everyday should be Valentines Day in my opinion. Just like everyday should hold Christmas cheer and a giving spirit. Sometimes I wish my name was Holly.

Thinking of resolutions this year, I don’t have any. What! You may gasp. Yep. I actually have life goals I carefully think about each year and combine them with the year before. Last year was “balance” in every part of my life. This year it is to make all things “good” in my life “better”. I’m not saying things in my life that are “ok” or “meh”…things I am not excited about. I’m talking about things and people who truly mean a lot to me and making those a whole lot better. Three weeks into this thought process, it already has made a difference. Life is short. Why spend it on things and people who just drag you down all the time? You spend all your energy trying to make things better.

I leave you with this quote which my cousin, Sarah, posted on her Facebook. I think it applies with negative and positive actions. You never know how your actions will deeply affect those dear to you. So please be careful.

Until next time. With lots of love as always.

JavaGirl’s Life

‎”Watch your thoughts;
they become words.
Watch your words;
they become actions.
Watch your actions;
they become habits.
Watch your habits;
they become character.
Watch your character;
it becomes your destiny.”
- Anonymous

So, I know I did an unofficial JavaGirl blog summary a few posts ago, but here is the official summary by WordPress. WordPress’s “helper monkeys” (their words, not mine and besides monkeys creep me out) did their little magic and produced a cute summary with graphics, fun little stat facts and cool designs. They even included fireworks!

As I lift my glass, here’s to a cool new year in 2012 and hope to write about some cool things, thoughts, travels and places I’ll be going this year! Stay tuned and thanks for always taking the time to read things I write about!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 31,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 11 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

My computer has been acting up lately, so when it’s not acting stubborn, I come online and check mail. I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years! I’ve been sick with a bad cold and cough, but am feeling much better now. This wasn’t exactly how I wanted to spend my 2 week vacation being sick and with a fever, but it is better then working and being sick. I’m already planning on things to do this Spring and even planning a vacation. I saw a great price for a cruise to Bermuda and am hoping I will be able to go on it.

Other than that, I’m determined to read more this year. Right now, I reading a novel considered one of the hardest literatures to understand called “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. I like to challenge my mind and thoughts now and then. The “Forward” of the book was very interesting in analyzing the author and to read some of her journal entries. I understand what she was saying, even though she tended to repeat or even “clarify” her thoughts on paper numerous times which drove me crazy. I could write a whole essay on her just by what I gathered on her thoughts by the forward. The reason why I can understand her way of thinking is because she uses analogies and creates with her words just as an artist or photographer emotes their “reality” by what they write, paint or photograph. Does that make sense? I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the novel. I thought it appropriate to read this book in times that we are living in relations to how the world functions and all the “movers and shakers” within the circling society in this world of motion. Then to balance intellectuality to watching total stupidity (you have to have balance), I thought it would be random to watch “The Bachelor”. They have a lot of crazies on there and it’s so obvious the producers force the bachelor to leave the psychos on there. Nevertheless, a new show I like now is called “The Layover” on the Travel Channel—-love that show! Ok. Enough of a quick update on my life. Hope everyone is doing ok. I’ll be back soon!

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I saw a documentary last night that just blew my mind. You know how most documentaries are raw and show you things that you can’t believe happens? Well, this one blew all other documentaries of living conditions out of the water.

Welcome to the Walled City of Kowloon in Hong Kong. I never knew about this city until yesterday. Even in High School, I never had to study about it. I’m not going to write an essay tonight about this unique community city, but if you ever get a chance, google it.

A quick synopsis of this community once known as the “City of Darkness”. Once considered as the world’s most densely populated place on earth, it no longer exists after April 1994 when it was torn down. When the Walled City of Howloon did exist, it was inhabited by thousands of residents all packed together in an extremely tight space. The city itself was once a military fort.

What I’m still trying to wrap my mind around was the living conditions of the residents. If you take some time to watch the video I include at the bottom, you will understand what I mean. The residents lived in a community where there were no laws. Senior citizens who lived at the 10th floor had to walk up 10 flights of stairs several times a day. If you a “rich” tenant, you were able to tap into the main water pipe, however; if you were not rich you had to walk down to the main water pipe to get your water on a daily basis. The apartments were built on top of each other with no regards to building laws. For all the 50,000 residents, there was one noodle factory (with three workers) and one weaving mill to name just a few businesses. Some of the apartments were built so close together, the tenants never saw light unless they walk through mazes and mazes of allies. If you can imagine Gotham City, this is it. The residents complained of constant water dripping from everywhere. If you lived in an apartment, there was a very good chance you would live with water running down your walls or from the ceiling. The mold situation and closed rooms that had absolute no ventilation must have wreaked havoc on the lungs and immune system. One Social Worker who lived there said she never knew what time of day it was because she never saw the sun from her apartment. Despite the incredible living conditions of the residents, they were hard workers (it was typical to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week) and passed this down to many generations who ended up living in their ancestor’s residence.

I’ve lived in Brazil and have seen Favelas in Rio, but even their living conditions were much better compared to what I saw in the documentary of the Walled City of Kowloon. This documentary has haunted me in my mind of how people could live because they had nowhere else to go. You could find remote villages in the desert, jungle and caves, but they at least had sunshine. Imagine living in the dark all the time?

Small model of all the apartments.

This city does not exist anymore and a park has been put in place of where the city once stood. Many still have good memories of the place while others say it was their worst nightmare. There are many books out that talk about this city that society has forgotten. People who have heard about this place and looked at the photographs come away with a new appreciation of the animalistic way of living these people had to live just to survive.

The 4 part video below is in German with English subtitles. The last part of the video does not include subtitles so I have no idea what they are saying. If you can understand German, please leave a synopsis of what the last video talked about. That would help me and others a lot more in understanding this city. Please let me know what you think of the documentary. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Video credit goes to Tuschan168. It is there you can see the rest of the documentary.