Advice 2 Love

I’m guilty. I love shark fin soup. Growing up in Hawaii as a Chinese American, shark fin soup was considered a delicacy as well as a important cultural tradition. It was always present during an important celebration such as wedding, grandparent’s birthday parties and even baby’s first luau. 

In the recent weeks with Senate Bill 2169 which is aiming to protect sharks. If the bill passed, it would be a misdemeanor to buy, sell or posses shark fins in Hawaii. According to Carl Meyer, a University of Hawaii researcher, over 70 million sharks worldwide are killed annually for their fins. Shark-finning is a cruel way of slicing fins from live sharks and dumping their bodies back into the ocean. Without their fins, the shark is unlikely to survive resulting in a unbalance marine environments food chain. Every animals or organisms are important to maintain a balance within our systems. Unfortunately for the sharks, they do not reproduce fast enough to sustain this measure of slaughter. 

With the support of shark organizations and millions of Chinese around the world, many of them are stopping their habits of eating shark fins to protect the sharks. It would be a world wide nightmare if the next generation would not have any idea what a shark is. If we continue to kill off sharks for their fins, our children might be the one suffering without any knowledge of this beautiful creature that helps to protect our waters and assist our marine environment in keeping a balance. 

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Love. It is such a magically word. Some people take a while to fell in love, while others jumped right into it. We often see beautiful wedding on TV or even on the Internet, but now-a-day, there are quite a number of divorces too. Take for example, our Americans sweetheart, Sandra Bullock who recently won an Oscar for her role in Blind Side, is splitting from her husband. We also have golf’s sensation, Tiger Woods, heading to divorce court with his wife. With all these Celebrity Couples News, where does it leave us and who can we turned to as a role model for our youths?

There is one celebrity couple that I greatly admired. Every since they met in 1995 till now, the relationship is still going strong and their marriage is what most people called “rock solid”. This mega-superstars couple is Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. 

They both met when Jada first auditioned for the role of Smith’s girlfriend on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. Although she didn’t get the role, she caught the eye of the leading actor and the rest is history. They both tied the knot in a secret New Year’s Eve Wedding that was held in Baltimore, Maryland at the Cloisters Mansion. Together they raised 3 talented kids and lived on a 100-acre ranch in California. 

Many people over the years have interviewed them on their secrets to a successful marriage. On what will worked and what will not worked. Below is a few quotes that they have said about each other.

Will about Jada: “With Jada I stood up in front of God and my family and said, ’till death us do part’. Divorce cannot be an option … I honestly believe there is no woman for me but Jada. No-one can handle me the way she does … Once you feel someone locked in on you, it’s no contest. This is it. I can’t imagine what anyone else would offer.”
Source: East London Advertiser

Jada: “I will throw my career away before I let it break up our marriage. I made it clear to Will. I’d throw it away completely.”
Source: USA Weekend

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At the local community college which I am currently taking my cooking classes during the weekend, this summer they are offering a new program with a total of 16 classes that enable one to get a certificate in wedding planning. It’s definitely sound like a lot of fun and was quite interesting.

I thought for a moment, what makes a good wedding planner? At my wedding last October, our wedding planner was an expert in her field for it was everything I imagined and much more. She timed everything prefect and the whole event was flawless. I was luckily to already be best friends with her, yet she insist on meeting us once a week to get to know my husband much more. We constantly communicated via phone, e-mail or face to face. Many questions were asked, but I remembered one of the things she kept telling us to purchase was Wedding Insurance. With Hawaii’s weather, we are prone to hurricane and tsunami, but no matter where you are located, getting insurance is important to protect your “biggest day”. It’s one less stress to worry about. 

Enjoy the wedding!

Being someone who lead an active lifestyle, I am always on the go whether heading to Costco, taking my dog for a walk or driving nearly an hour to see my parents on the other side of the island. This constant movement definitely take a toll on my poor vehicle as the miles on the car sky rock. 

As a owner of an a Acura TSX and not a Acura Integra, it is important to not only update your safety check for the vehicle but to also check on the oil change and tune up. You can step into any auto repair shop from Honolulu all the way to Houston auto repair shop. Remember that to insure safety and a good ride, a vehicle that is in property working order is equally as important. 

Enjoy the ride! Comments?

One of the things I love about living in Hawaii besides the beautiful, sunny weather is the friendliness of the Island people. There always “Aloha” where ever you go. It could be at the local supermarkets, restaurants or even at the gas station. Islands folks are always smiling, saying a friendly “good morning” or even offering to help you out. Life in islands are relaxed, casual and a bit of “Aloha” mix all together. 

This is not the case when you are driving especially on the freeway during rush hours. People somewhat panic and there is an urgently to get there as soon as possible. It scary to see other drivers multi-tasking whether it is putting on makeup, talking on the phone or even text their friends. There are some of us that follow the rules and even let other cars go before us, but for a handful of other who may put our lives in danger because of their carelessness. 

I am happy that the words are getting out even on network like Oprah who constantly promote the “No Phone Zone.” We see it on the local news, on the internet or even in the newspapers, families and friends are torn apart because of a death related to careless driving. So the next time you leave home, make sure you have a blue tooth headset or just don’t pick up the phone. And remember, it always fun to read the license plate in front of you. Can you guess what it said?

**This picture was taken at the parking lot of a shopping mall. 

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On a lazy weekend, I was watching the Travel Channel and noticed that people’s demand of leisure or business travel has changed dramatically. It is rather different from the good old days of traveling cross country with the family via a station wagon. With the advance of technology, everything needs to be fast and efficient. It also need to cater not only the adults, but the kids too! And of course, the price should be reasonable.

Welcome to the world of all inclusive holidays also known as all inclusive deals where everything is taking care of and you don’t need to bring your wallet on any of the trips. Tipping is strictly unnecessary as everything is included in the packets from golfing, spa, eating out or dining in, adventures, live entertainments and a whole sort of others things too. It’s one of the best vacation package deals out there. Imagine a relaxing vacation where you can enjoyed the company of loved one and friends, eat whenever and wherever you want, play as much round of golf as your heart desire and drinks as much alcohol as your body can take. All of this is possible at Breezes Resorts in the Caribbean where always bright, beautiful blue sky, crystal clear sea water with a rainbow of fishes, the adventures of horse backing riding, mountain biking or leisurely sun-bathing can all be within your reach.

A perfect time to escape the harsh city life, the demanding boss and the crazy co-workers and come to a paradise full of fun, food and fabulous adventures. Remember to leave your wallet behind!

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Can you believe it? Tomorrow is the deadline to turn in your tax return if you were living or working in the United States. Most people waited till the last minutes as live TV station broadcast long line at the post office, as everyone is trying to mail in their return or others would be sitting in front of their computer into the wee hours of the morning, trying to e-file their taxes. I must admit, it is definitely a stressful process and what’s worst is if you owe. With the high rate of unemployment and many people struggling to survive, it is rather difficult to dig into their savings to pay the government what they owe.

Yet, on the other hand, if you were to receive a huge refund from the government, what would you do? Go traveling, buying a new TV or dining out? A friend recommended going to La Jolla seafood restaurants to celebrate. Dining out seems like a good idea, hopefully the refund is large enough to cover airfare too. Comments?

Music has always been a big part of my life. I am extremely fortunate to been given the opportunity to participate in Marching Band for Oregon State University as their clarinet players. Not only did it provided scholarship funding for school, but open up my eyes to many different things. For one, we were able to traveled to different locations for sports events and got to meet many new friends from all over the globe. I must admit, it was difficult to wake up at 5AM every morning for practices which often times would last a few hours as we were all freezing from the cold, but at the end, it was all worth it.

If you ever thought about learning to play an instrument, now might be the time to do so. There are many private music lessons available all over town at an affordable rate. Give it a try and let me know how it work out? As they say, you never know unless you try.

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It is so wonderful to live in an era where technology helps bridge the gap between individuals. Growing up and moving to different locations, I’ve found myself losing addresses and phone numbers of my friends, but am so thrill to have social media network such as Face book. Not only can I reunited with long lost classmates, but I can share in their joy whether it is a new job promotion, a wedding, a baby shower or even traveling around the globe. I noticed many of my friends would upload tons of pictures, journals, videos and notes of their travel and run into a similar problem — not enough disk spaces on their computer. Most people like myself tend to save everything on our beloved computer. As I google and search the local newspapers for an answer, my computer was alerting me of an new e-mail. An e-mail for portable USB drive deals pop into my inbox. What perfect timing! Problem solve at a great low price. Isn’t life wonderful?

It’s alarming to see half of the US populations are obese and 1/3 of them are children. With the demand of daily life, we often do not have the time nor money to educated ourselves on what good for our body and what’s not. Gym membership can be an alternative, but with the growing number of unemployment, it’s more essential to get food and shelter then spend hours on the tread mills. Often times, you’ll see what is label as “junk food” being a whole lot cheaper then “organic food” in supermarket. Where does that leave us?

According to my doctor’s friend, besides the common cold and flu, headaches are one of the most common reasons why people seek out medical’ advice. Stress is the most obvious trigger, but skipping meals, not getting enough sleep, poor posture and eye strain (from watching too much TV or staring at the computer system too long) can lead to tension headaches. Also, foods high in sugar, salt, nitrates (found in meats such as SPAM and hot dogs) or caffeine can also trigger tension headache. You can help minimize these headaches by exercising, eating healthy, drinking enough water (at least 8 cups per day), taking a warm bath or just stopping what your doing at the moments and relax for 10 minutes if you feel a headache coming on. Ibuprofen are usually quite good in relieve headaches. If your problems continue, seek out a health care providers.

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