Pintmaster

I dont have chronic bad breath. I get morning breath. I also remember Ryan Pacheco telling me my breath stunk in spanish class when we were 13 or 14. I think i have been paranoid since then. Thanks Ryan! Aside from that my breath is ok (as far as I know!). One of the other people in my office was talking about BreathRX. It’s a new product on the market developed by the “Extreme Makeover” dentist, Dr. Bill Dorfman. Well, if that doesnt excite you - then how about this testimony:

The BreathRX system has stopped my breath smelling. I can finally get close to women without making them cringe, and I dont make small children cry anymore.

- Chip Chipney, Boise, ID

I can also give my testimony that the stuff works. The really great part is the tongue scraper. I’ve used tongue scrapers to get the nasty, yellow, smelly plaque-teria (word is my creation) off my tongue. I have used none better than the simple one that comes with BreathRX. Check it out at your local pharmacy - you should be able to pick up a basic kid for $10.

Get your free starbucks. I have used this and it works. Print as many of these off as you want (click on the picture to the right first)! It’s valid until the end of september.

UPDATE: Starbucks yanked the offer!!!! 

Does sugar cause pimples?

I have a zit on my chin. I dont usually get zits on my chin except when I eat lots of sugary foods. Now, let me explore why this could happen. I think there are a few scenarios here that are causing the zit so before I completely blame sugar, let’s look at a few:

1. Sugar It’s the damn sugar!
2. Hormone imbalances make me crave sugar and also cause the zits - therefore attributing it to sugar is a logical fallacy.
3. Dietary Change It’s the other ingredients in the things that contain sugar (I’ve been eating ice cream, chocolate chip cookies and drinking coke).
4. Personal Hygiene - Has my personal hygiene been poor (NO! I still wash my face twice a day)

Alright, so looking at these few options, the one that makes the most sense is Dietary change. Assuming the amount of food intake stays the same, by eating more sugary / junk food, the less healthy diet means that the body is more prone to making evil zits. What do you think?

Playing sports in the Texas summer is brutal. Growing up in Singapore, I used to get heat stroke / exhaustion playing soccer in the summer. I would come home with a headache, often vomit, and require excessive amounts of sleep. It didnt seem to matter if I had enough fluid beforehand, during and after the game, I would still sometimes feel sick!

I think I have found the solution:

Information online tells you to drink water, water, water and maybe gatorade if you like. Well, I am suggesting trying an electrolyte formula - such as the following from Clif. This is probably going to do more for you than the high fructose full gatorade crapola. I’ve purchased some and will be trying it on myself in the upcoming games to see how I fare. I will hydrate myself with this before the game, have a water bottle full during the game and use it after aswell. I’ll keep you updated on how well it works!

Update: The stuff works! I usually drink two pint glasses before the game and then a cooler full during the game and then a pint glass when I get home. I still feel tired - dont get me wrong, but I dont get the immobilizing headaches and vomiting like I used to!

Last night, I came up with a list of things to live by. Im going to carry it around with me wherever I go and add to it when I think of something else. Here it is:

1. Only you have the power to realize your dreams
2. Bulletproof your ideas from the naysayers with guns
3. Think as big as you can. Your balls will have to catch up.
4. Make only the promises you are able to keep
5. Build the reality that you want, but remember you can only do it one brick at a time
6. Failure is when you screw up the same way twice
7. People will follow you into the depths of hell. Don’t be scared - plan accordingly.
8. Recognize your shortcomings and arm yourself with people who compensate for them.

Since I am sick this weekend, I have been watching quite a few movies. I figure that I should try and do something productive with it so Im going to share my opinions of the movies:

The Benchwarmers

The benchwarmers is one of those lame underdog movies. It’s basically about a bunch of losers whose goal as adults is to beat a bunch of kids baseball teams. It has the usual SNL guys - Rob Schneider, David Spade as well as Jon Heder of “Napoleon Dynamite” fame. However, this movie is terrible. It is cheesy, predictable and fails to maintain attention through the movie. It has a few funny parts, but basically it is disappointing. Maybe it works if you are a bunch of teenagers at a slumber party. Anyone else, leave it on the shelf

3/10

Basic Instinct 2

This is the raunchy sequel to the leg-uncrossing Basic Instinct. Sharon Stone is older and raunchier. It is set in London, probably to try and make it more interesting. I can half pay attention to the movie when they start talking dirty or have a graphic sex scene. The car that she crashes at the beginning is pretty interesting. Overall, the movie was more interesting than Benchwarmers, but I would still refrain from giving it good marks.

5/10

Ultraviolet

Decent special effects, poor story and really fails to set the mood to give the viewer the full feeling of the dystopian future. The idea is that there are people infected with a virus who are stronger, heal faster etc… than humans, but they also die faster. The humans are trying to eradicate these infected people from the general population. Violet is one of the infected and wants to prevent the humans from killing all of the infected. It’s another comic book made into movie. It isnt interesting enough in the transfer and I would be pretty bored seeing it again.

4/10

Inside Man

Fantastic Spike Lee movie about a bank robbery in New York city. It has the usual Spike Lee racial undertones.¬† It has a really interesting cast - Denzel Washington, Willem Dafoe, Jodie Foster. The cast makes for a really interesting dynamic. The story reminds of “The Usual Suspects” and flashes back and forth between times as the hostages in the bank robbery are being interviewed. Unlike “The Usual Suspects”, the viewer is more omnipotent, and only the Detective (Washington) has the epiphany moment when he realizes ‘whodunnit’. It’s certainly one that slipped under my radar, and is more interesting than a lot of crud that hollywood has pumped out. Nice one spike!

8/10

By now you’ve read my insanely useful article: How to be popular on MySpace part 1. Well, now we’re gonna start talking to people to see what works and what doesnt when trying to meet people!

By now you’ve got an awesome profile and people are probably sending you messages! If not, dont worry! We’ll get that started right now.

The best way to find interesting people that you may be able to meet is to “browse” for people in your area. Put in your zipcode, and the type of people you are looking to meet. I would just put single women (or men if you are a woman or gay man) within 5 or 10 miles of my zip code that are aged 21 - 27 or something similar. Then, browse the profiles and pick out a few you like.

The Neg
Im going to introduce you to a pick up artist technique called “the neg”. It wont work on everyone, but generally it works well on good looking people (im not sure how well it works on guys). The idea of a neg is that it is a backhanded compliment. A commonly used example is “Nice nails! Are they real?”.

Take a look at the persons pictures, and pay them a backhanded compliment - or say something where they will feel like they have to qualify themselves to you. What most dumbasses do is they will see a picture they like and send the person a message saying “Damn girl, you’re smoking!” or something similar to that. The person will probably not respond to that. What they will respond to is something along the lines of “Why dont you ever smile in any of your pictures? You’re kinda cute like my little sister:)”. Most good looking people on myspace will have some sort of “bitch shield” up to random strangers saying things to them. However, if you point out something that no one else has, they will feel compelled to qualify themselves to you and win you over.

Banter
You can use a neg a few times in conversation to banter back and forth. If you do it too much, they take it as offensive and will stop talking to you. Alternatively, you may want to ask them a question that makes them think, or something that they will feel like they want to share their opinion about. Look at their profile for clues on this. I sometimes say that I am new to houston and I need to know the hot places to go for dancing or something like that. This does two things. It makes them curious about from where you came and also has them think about what cool places they would recommend so as not to disappoint you.

Moving from myspace to the real world
This is probably the hardest step. It is definitely a lot easier if the other person asks you first. Basically, you should at some point start talking about what you like to do. I’ve tried a few things that seem to work. Challenge the person by saying things like “We could never hang out - we are too similar! We would argue all the time!”. Question them about how fun they actually are. You want the other person to invite you to a location where they are going with friends. This is much better than trying to set up a “date” per se. Remember, if you are a guy inviting a woman, the chances of her coming are slim to none by herself. Suggest that she bring her friends to the place you guys will be. It helps if there is a special event going on there that night. If you are a guy and the girl invites you somewhere, the best thing to do is show up with some girls also. This gives you additional credibility as a guy who women find attractive.

Remember… dont take anything too personally. You will get rejected more than you will be invited out. The success rates at a bar / in person are much higher than online, but you can cover a lot of ground much faster online and it is easier to pick out people that you would want to spend time with.

Have fun!

Im not sure where or who I got it from. I think I have been overdoing it with socializing and working out. Working out, partying and getting 4 hours of sleep eventually runs you down and allows sickness to move in. Im taking it easy tonight. In fact, i took several naps in the conference room at work today, got some soup for dinner and am already in bed typing this. Im about to cough up a lung. I got this tylenol cough syrup that has acetaminofen (sp?) in it and that seems to help a little.
There’s much more soccer to watch and play on the weekend so I want to be in good spirits for that! Cheers to relaxing for a few days!

I attended the awesome double header between Houston Dynamo and LA Galaxy and then FC Barcelona and Club America. My Dynamo season tix got some great seats in section 340 of Reliant Stadium looking down on the ants running around chasing the ball. It was a completely different experience than watching them at Robertson Stadium at U of H. The game was fantastic. Club America scored a goal around the 4th minute and was really taking it to Barcelona. They were putting together some great passes, maintaining possession and looking very dangerous in front of goal. In the 75th minute, we left because I was feeling kinda sick and didnt want to get stuck in traffic. BIG MISTAKE! From 4 - 1 down, Barca came back and scored 3 goals to equalize! I heard that Ronaldinho raised his game and showed some amazing skill, drawing a penalty and scoring a goal in the process. Did you find me yet?

What a shame we left early!