5 fascinating facts about sex

1. Sex CAN help you fall in love

Close your eyes, little kiddos

Throw everything your mom told you about sex and love being two completely different things. 

According to Susan Kuchinskas, Author of The Chemistry of Connection, “Nature designed sex to forge those bonds of love. During sex, men and women release the bonding chemical dopamine—it’s a highly potent combination that not only makes you crave more sex, but actually ties that craving to your partner.”

Not confused yet? Good.

“Dopamine is the key chemical,” explains Susan. “It makes males repeatedly seek reward. The longer they go without reward, the more they repeat attempts to get it—and repetition forges a strong connection.” For women, however, oxytocin is the primary love glue, stimulated by touch, trust, and being protected. The longer you hold back from actual intercourse, the more the trust can build—and the more oxytocin gets released via all the lovely touching. 

Go figure.

2. In certain countries, women are allowed to kill their husbands.

I Kung Fu you back to China, you cheating bitch

In Hong Kong, women are legally permitted to "do off" their spouses if the men are caught cheating - but only using her bare hands.

The Other Woman however, is completely at the wife's mercy. Regardless of her weapon of choice.

3. Guys looking at guy porn actually produce more sperm

Alien guy...watches porn!!!

A study has shown that men looking at porn of two men and one woman produce more sperm than men who look at just women.


Scientists figured that watching other men doing the deed steps up their own baby-making capabilities. 


4. There's prostitution in the animal kingdom too

Humans aren't the only ones to sell their bodies apparently.


Believe it or not, in the wild, certain female penguins will exchange sexual favors with male penguins for the pebbles to build their nest even if they're already in a relationship. According to Dr Fiona Hunter (a zoologist): “It tends to be females targeting single males, otherwise the partner female would beat the intruder up.” 


And if that isn't interesting enough, there are times when the female penguins would carry out their elaborate courtship ritual and as soon as they bag their stones, dash off. Sounds familiar?


5. Sperm is good for your skin

Is that...oh god...really?

This caught my eye in particular since I have pretty bad skin. When sperm is left to dry on skin, it evaporates to leave behind proteins which help prevent wrinkles. Besides that, they also have a tightening effect which reduces the wrinkles you already have.


The only downside is that you'll have to walk around with sperm on your face.

11 points of randomness to ponder

Sometimes people ask me really mind bonging questions...

Like, if it's a shoe store, why do they call it Nose?

(Answer: Because they both run)

(You know...noses...and shoes)

(Oh, you do get it)

Take Nana for instance. She's one of the friendliest, nicest, sweetest bloggers I've met ever since I was just a wee naive blog girl (Oh come on, you know you are too! Friendly, nice and sweet I mean. Not the naive blog girl part. But you can be if you want...and have boobs.)

So Nana tagged me a few days ago and I am now compelled to answer 11 ridiculously theoretical questions. Why the heck not, right?

1. If someone held you at gun point, what would be your first thought?

"If I wet my pants, they will find me here. Dead. With pee in my trousers. *Must hold it in*"

2.And if they ask you 'Any last words?' What would it be?

Can I go to the toilet?

3. What animal do you think best represents you and why?

Gee I don't know, but I sure do love Elephants. (You can save them here)

4. Is there any animal you wish you could keep as a pet?

Huh...either a Siberian wolf or a hedgehog. Sam has a hedgehog and I'm jealous as hell. I also wonder why he never named it Sonic.

5. Name one thing you vowed never to do but kept on doing anyway

Pick at my pimples. The shame.

6. Name me one blog you always visit because it's your favorite

Yours!!!

7. Did you manage to complete this year's resolution?

No. Hah!

8. Do you have a new year's resolution or are you just reusing old ones?

Recycle. It helps save the planet.

9.Have you ever met me? What's your first thought when you saw me?

I haven't lah, sayang. Somebody couldn't attend Nabpas xD

10. Do you act, sing or dance?

Yes. Not well.

11. What is your biggest fear ever?

Initially it used to be zombies but now I'm terrified of turning into Forever Alone Guy.

My turn to tag eleven people!!! (Muahahahaha...) I couldn't narrow my list down so I just chose the last few people who commented on this blog.

So if your name happens to be 

1. Vince (Because I love reading the hilarious crap you come up with) 
2. Joshua (Just another word to the nerd) 
3. Cal (Your awesome beard prompted me to put down your name)
4. Anne (Let me climb into your attic)
5. Matthew (You know you want to do this)
6. April(Chickenzunited) (Draw lots of pretty pictures for me okay?)
7. Kirsten (Elissiam) (Because we're online lesbian wives)
8. Eric Lee (Because I never got the chance to meet you at Nabpas)
9. Suresh (Just humor me please)
10. Ben Ditty (I know it's not a poem but...)
11. DWei (Because your blog never fails to make me laugh) 

Riddle me this:


1. If you could ask God (or Santa Clause) one question, what would it be?


2. When did you start/stop believing in God/Santa Clause?


3. Why?


4. When was the last time you cried?


5. What was the stupidest thing you've ever said?


6. Do you think you're awesome?


7. Do you think your friend's would call you awesome?


8. Pick one word that describes you then pick the opposite. Does that word describe you as well?


9. You're stranded on a desert island. Name the one thing you'll bring.


10. The one person you'll bring.


11. Are you my friend? Do you want to be?

Go forth, my brethren.

Broga Hill on a very Buddist Christmas Morn

It pains me to say this, but you have been deceived.

It's true. You have been misled and tricked and - although it wasn't necessarily intentional - lied to.

You see, in the last post, I put up pictures and pictures of a glamorous life where I attended blog awards and laser tag tournaments and events and won lots of cool stuff.

Because I wanted to look cool.

But the truth is, that wasn't really my life.

This is.

And it's so sad.

So I couldn't really be surprised when the going out at night with friends stopped and  the going to Buddhist camp started.

They say that you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl, which, in a way I suppose, rings true. I mean, who was I kidding? I don't drink. I don't even like drinking. But there I was, sitting like a lou sai, drinking Coke like a boss.

Give me a book. Give me a nice guy. Give me, maybe, some hot chocolate on Christmas morn.

Where were you on the big Xmas morning?

Oh, me? Shucks, you shouldn't have asked.

I was here.

Me and a total of 33 other participants of ages 12 to 17 (Yes. I was the oldest. *Sob*) attended the Nalanda's Institute Young Person's retreat on the 23rd of December. Of course, I only realized afterward that I wouldn't be spending Christmas Eve partying. But HEY, at least I didn't spend it alone. Right? Right?

Bhante Amaranatho [Our monk in charge (What else can I call him?)] being the awesome dude he was -

This is him, by the way

- decided that staying indoors was too depressing for Christmas. So we loaded ourselves onto a bus and headed to Broga Hill at after breakfast.

I'm not going to lie.

I was pretty pissed at having to do any form of exercise at that hour (This is what staying in Kuala Lumpur does to you, little kiddies). Pissed, and tired as fug.

The night before, me and the more rebellious teens had ourselves a little Christmas eve party of our own. I won't go into details, but it ended pretty late.

But then we saw this:

As we climbed higher, the trees and typical Malaysia shrubbery just fell away to this beautiful sea of long grass and cattails.


 
You don't see this kind of scenery in a tropical country everyday. You just don't

Bhante looking all mellow and monk-ish in his robes and awesome hat

If you can't spot me, I'm sorry but you're very blind.

On the way down

The night before, I was thinking about this crush I had on a guy I liked. Sort of. And it bugged me how much it bugged me (if you get what I mean).

Because I used to be happy until I met him.

Then I became even happier and even more depressed. And sucky. And the ups and the downs and the round and rounds.

What the fug man? I'm supposed to be in a Buddhist camp and all I could think of was Why hasn't he replied my text yet? Do I look like just a kid to him? Oh god, great. Now I feel ugly and stupid. Which is something a girl (Or a guy) should never think.

At the peak of the mountain, we had a short session for meditation and everyone kind of scattered off in their own directions to find a comfy spot of their own.

There is this beauty in just sitting and closing your eyes. In the sound of grass rustling one after the other like they were passing on a secret. In the ground pressing against my ass. In the wind blowing against my face and hair. The comfort and the discomfort.

That's when I finally arrived.

Even though my eyes were still closed, I could sense the people around me. They were all locked in their own world just like how I was in mine. But we were breathing the same air. Sitting on the same grass. And even though I couldn't exactly see them, I felt more connected than I ever had with anyone at that moment.

Because right then, I wasn't with anyone else.

Then I heard it, this voice. And it said I'm here

I don't know where I heard the voice from, but it was the kindest, most loving voice I'd ever hear and my heart sort of gave a jolt. That was the happiest I'd ever felt in a long time. The feeling you get when you meet an old friend, the closest of friends, after a long time. I was hugging that feeling in my heart.

I didn't have to think about the past, because really, he was in the past. Or the future. And just thinking about the fact that I didn't have to think about them was beautiful. The rest of the camp just flew by after that.

But look at me, talk about getting sappy and going off topic.

We had our own Facebook wall for posting crap

Or wisdom

Or to ask questions

We practiced for our drama (Where I had to play a blond bimbo)

Putting together pieces of the puzzle

A big hand to the facilitators who helped shut us up when we needed silence the most. (From left: Vincent, Do, Jean, Rachel and Paru.)

That night, after being blackmailed oh fine, persuaded by Alisha, I decided to call said crush just to know where we stood. He said...

Oh gosh, this is mortifying

He said no.

Nope. Nada. Neh, Next time perhaps.

It stung, of course it did. But not as much as I expected. Life goes on, I have incredible friends. And he's a really nice guy when it comes down to it.

Also, it helped that I had 12 other people listening in to the conversation (Heh heh heh. I'm a coward like that.)

*Oh yeah and if anyone's interested in joining next year's camp, you can always add Nalanda's facebook profile or Bhante Amaranatho's

Till then, Ciao!

The not so blessed party girl

Okay

So I haven't really been blogging as often as I'd like to. But the important thing being: I would have LIKED to.

I was just too busy living my life in Kuala Lumpur, doing things like...

Attending the Asia-Pacific Nuffnang Blog Awards

Looking all hot and dapper and so not me with Vince and Sam 

(Who's pictures I stole. Heh Heh.)

Making puffy fish faces

(Like this)

Meeting the illustrious Xia Xue

Getting sick of puffy fish faces

Attending the Puma Social Finale Party @ Cosmic Bowl

Joining a random dance off

Trying to pull off my pathetic dance moves (This is the best you'll get since I din't let Sam post any pictures of me actually dancing *shivers*)

 

Going wild with the crowd

WINNING (Actually winning)

Meeting my Public Speaking MACHAS

And then hiding from them

Playing laser tag...

...LIKE A BOSS

Did I feel like I was blessed? HELL YEAH.

At least until I was told I was going to join a Buddhist Meditation camp held by Nalanda entitled "I am blessed".

I did not want to go to a Buddhist Camp. I did NOT want to leave my friends and my new, super fun KL life. I did NOT want to meditate every day.

I did not feel blessed. Not at all. Not me.

But that's a whole other story altogether. I guess I'll save it for the next post. So hold your horses kiddos. As old aunt Clarissa starts warming up her Blogging Fingers and gets ready to tell you

How I ended up wanting to become a nun. (But that's for later)

Till then, Ciao!

Full moons, bitches, money and oil massages. My last day in Koh Lipe, Thailand

[Caution: The following post has exceeded the recommended length for those with short attention spans. Boredom may ensue. Read at your own risk. And for those who didn’t give a shite in the first place, dropped by to leave their link, feign interest, get my hopes up and leave, just…just go you, you meanies]

So.

Two days ago was a full moon eclipse.

It was awesome. It was epic. It was definitely better than a movie of a similar name.

Where were you when it happened?

Question aside (you can tell me later), when the full moon eclipse happened, I was here:

That's me

Looking at this:

Take THAT Bella

And it was awesome.

The sky, streaked in purple and blue like swathes of cloth. The sound of waves hitting the shore, roaring, whispering. The cool press of bamboo against my back. The moon as huge as a silver dollar hanging in the sky and of course, the sound of my brother cursing at me, practically near to tears.

"Why the fuck did you have to say that??? Whats wrong with you, why couldn't you have kept your mouth shut. Now you're making me feel bad, dammit!!"

"You know you wouldn't feel bad if there wasn't anything to feel bad about."

"Shut up, just SHUT UP"

"That's not fair, look-"

"I said SHUT UP, BITCH."

But once again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Heh. I guess in order to fully understand what the flying fug is going on, I'd have to start from where I left off in the last post [Check it out here].

So in the end after scouting the entire island, we did find a place to coop up for the night. A very, very nice place in fact. The only problem with it was that we had to trek the ten meters up The Slope (Don't know what The Slope is? That's probably 'cause you didn't read that last post huh, bub?) in order to get there.

That, coupled along with the twisty turny, up-and-downy nature of Walking Street (Remember: the road goes ALL the way up and down the island), made for a lot of walking in the sun, especially to get to and from our hotel.

One reason why this is a bad thing is because as an Asian, I don't like the sun. I don't like walking in it, sitting under it or, heaven have mercy, taking off  my bikini and lying under it. Unfortunately, because my plans of filling the bathtub with SPF infused lotion and taking a bath every five minutes didn't sit too well with my dad, I ended up with a horrible tan just one day before I'm leaving to Kuala Lumpur for the Blogger Awards.

Ah well, at least I'll have buns of steel. And nice teeth, there's always that.

The first time I saw Amanda, our hotel manager, she was sitting in front of a chalet, painting what looked like a wooden board with the name of the hotel on it and I was thinking "This can't be right, first off, she's white."

But it was right. And yes, she was white. Amanda and her partner, Christian, hail from Barcelona, Spain and decided one day (Five years ago to be precise) that they wanted to visit Thailand on a whim. That trip turned into another trip the next year. And the next. And the next. And soon, they became chummy with the owner of the hotel they were living in - Krom.

So Krom had a proposal for them. Why not open up another branch of his small hotel on another side of the island? He'd provide the land and they could help run it to garner revenue and lengthen their stay on the island. 

Geek points to whoever can figure out the inspiration of the name

Amanda and Christian were ecstatic, and so was Krom. But before I go on, I want to make one thing very very clear, these three peoople were the nicest, warmest, friendliest people I met on the island. Case in point:

After we checked their place out, my dad wanted to talk shop.

"So how much is the rate?"

"600 baht per night." She answered smiling. She's got this smile that could light up an entire room. It's bright, it's boundless, it's got none of the edges or limits you see in most people Oh I'm smiling all right, but not too much or else you'll think I'm easy. Don't want to spoil my photo. It makes my nose look big. I don't really like you. None of that crap. Oh no.

But I was a hesitant. Our family isn't on the rich end of the money making spectrum per se. Which is why you don't see me writing awemazing lifestyle posts about clubbing or meeting celebrities or how to dress fantastic or where I eat and shop and pee like the rest of Malaysia's famous bloggers. My parents just don't have the moolah. Plus I've got college to worry about next year.

"Can it go any lower?" My dad asked.

Amanda shook her head apologetically "I'm sorry, no. Only if somebody stays three nights."

"And if we stay two nights?"

"I'm sorry, really, it cannot go any lower."

My dad grinned, or at least I think he was grinning, and turned to us. "So what do you think? Two nights? Or three?"

"I don't know, pa, whatever's cheapest." I was thinking about the two teachers who's just resigned before we left (My mom owns a kindergarten).

Amanda looked at us then back at my dad and then shrugged, smiling. "Maybe...550?"

Our chalet!!

That's it. I want a hammock in my room.

To all girls: He's available!!!

Small but cosy

The toilet! It's...it's open air!!! *Falls in love*

From left: Amanda, Krom, Christian, my dad

Christian and Krom

The very sweet, very hot Amanda

Who knew, of course, that my dad would choose to take three nights instead of two.

That bothered me. It did. A lot. 

In fact it bothered me so much that that night, as were looking up at the moon waiting for it to disappear, I had (just had) to screw things up by opening my fat mouth.

"I thought we were supposed to be saving money." I mumbled, looking up at the dark sky, half wishing my dad and brother would hear me, half hoping they hadn't. 

"What?" My dad sat up. 

Whoops. 

"I mean...aren't we supposed to be scrimping for this trip? The teachers just quit and I've got college next month and I'm going to KL in three days..." I trailed off. 

"You know it's too late already right?" 

"Right." 

"What's your problem?" My brother who was sitting in another chair away from snapped at me irritably. 

"I don't want to stay another night." I grumbled. Because I was in a bad mood. Because it had been eating up inside of me all day, I don't know. I have a pretty big guilt complex, it comes with the Asian upbringing. 

"You should have told me earlier." My dad sighed. 

"Why the hell didn't you tell him? Now we're all going to have to feel bad." My brother blamed me and to be honest, it seemed pretty unfair.  

"Fine, I'll stop saying it, okay?" 

"It's too late. Shit lah, ah chen, you just ruined our vacation."

Aaaaaaand...you know the rest. I stormed off after that feeling miserable. But at least I'd finally decoded the reason why I wasn't having the time of my life on that island: It was a bubble. A fake, plastic paradise bubble that only doesn't pop as long as you have money. The thing was, we don't have that kind of money. Not for 15 ringgit a smoothie. I'm not ashamed of it. 

In a way, it gives me the kind of motivation I need to start this new chapter of my life, turning 17 and all. I realize, heck, I'm not half bad. I'm a  national public speaker. I'm pretty damn talented. I don't look half bad either. I used to be a voice talent for a television series. I'm writing a pretty darn tootin good book. I've got a decent blog. I've got really really amazing friends on the web. I'm going to the Asia Pacific blog awards! I'll work hard! I'm young! I can make it!

I was on my way back to the hotel room when I bumped into Krom.

"Hey!" He greeted me. Krom's got this incredible smile too. Maybe it comes with the island. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this kind of lifestyle.

"Hey, Krom."

"Where are you going to?" 

"Going to?" I asked, completely perplexed "Uh, my room. Gonna grab some shut eye." 

"You not coming out later?"

"Probably not...why? What's going on?"

 "I'm going to do fire dancing."

 "Wait, as in real, live, fire dancing? Dancing? With fire? You can do that?"

As it turned out, he could.

We made plans to meet up later at a beach front bar to watch his act and I went back feeling pretty pleased and less, well, guilty.

My brother was already in the room by then.

"Why did you freak lah." I ruffled his hair, he hates it but he really doesn't. On thing about my brother: he's a real softie, a softie that used to ask for hugs when he was 15. A softie that spends all night chatting with me about his love life and the problems that usually came with it. A softie that is so in tune with his sister we break into song at the exact same time, with the exact same song.

The only problem with this softie is that he's got an even bigger guilt complex than mine.

"I feel so bad now." He was still moping, after all that time. "Now no matter what I do, I'll be thinking...I'm wasting mami's money."

Welcome to my world.

"Then ask papa to change the return ticket." I said.

"I did" He moped "He thinks that I'm only doing it because of you."

"Then we'll go and tell him to change it now."

"You think we'll make it? It's really late."

I stopped. Brother there had a point. It was late. What if it was closed? What if we couldn't change our return ticket? We'd be stuck there for one extra day, miserable. What if I really did ruin our trip?

My brother must have sensed what was going on through my head (I mean, come on, we were mentally connected) because he said "At least we'll have to try." So we got up and went back to look for our dad.

At one point I stopped and said - just for the sake of saying it "Hey ah yin, what if we just, you know, enjoyed ourselves?" We stopped walking and actually considered it. What a thought. Just enjoying ourselves. Really, what a concept. For a second at least.

"No way." Again with the talking in sync. It just wasn't us. We couldn't do it.

So we spoke to our dad. And our dad went and changed the ticket. After he did, it finally sank in - that was our last night on the island. So what did I do? (Besides watch Krom's awesome fire act)

I had an oil massage.

I've never had an oil massage before, never liked the idea about someone touching me in..*giggles* places. But after seeing Sam's post about how great it feels and yadayadayadayada (Or you could read about it yourself here) I figured, why the heck not? Of course, it was only afterwards that I realized I had to strip down in order to have one. Whoops.

Pictures!! (Prepare to be grossed out by my outrageous lack of decency)

"By strip, you mean take off all my clothes? Here?"
"Yes. here. Now."
I am such a hick.

Fantasizing about all the things she will do to my body

Skip back massage

Skip

Skip

Skip

You're still here!!

And it feels....so good

Yes. I have armpit hair. No. I am not mortified with myself.
Maybe just a little. But that just means I am all woman.

A great way to  finish off our vacation.

Sorry for the long post, I'll be hopping on the midnight train to Kuala Lumpur tonight for the blogger awards tomorrow so no guarantees when's the next time I'll be posting. Wish me luck! Anyone who'll be in KL at the time call me up! We can yum cha.

Okay. now tell me about your full moon eclipse experience (If you had any).