Gogirl Cafe

I have moved my blogs to my own domain at:

       http://jennyo.net

Click on either the "Gogirl Racing" or "gogirl cafe" buttons.

Or, you can access my horseracing blog at:

                         http://gogirlracing.jennyo.net

My other stuff is at:

See you there!

My_first_moleskine

Now available at Fully Booked, I was elated yesterday when the kids saw that the Moleskine rack there was stocked.

I finally got the Ruled and Plain Notebooks that I've wanted for so long.

By popular demand (meaning Alex and Ik), I opened the Ruled Notebook first. They wrote good wishes for me in the back pages.

I am so0o looking forward to writing all sorts of nonsense in my beautiful new Moleskine.

Aaaahhh...

It's a feeling only a fellow enthusiast or collector of anything would understand...how some things are prized for their aesthetic qualities and intangible cachet rather than for their mere functionality...

HD_December_Cover_Revised

Horseman's Digest issue #5 (December 2007), is the first anniversary issue and packed full of the latest industry news and photos.

Available at Santa Ana Park and San Lazaro Leisure Park.

Sugar_creek_quilt

When December rolls around, it's usually cool in the Philippines, but this year the climate is unusually warm. Sigh. It's senseless to drag out all the quilts I've made since 1997, much as I want to display them on our beds.

But I can keep on enjoying the visual treat of the interplay of colors and patterns that I find in handmade quilts. The last time I sewed was perhaps three years ago, to make a baby quilt for a friend. After that, I did some applique blocks that have been UFOs (unfinished objects) since 2001. I still haven't completed them.

Lately I've had a little more time after giving up some things in my life that were highly stressful and were making me unhappy. Then, a couple of days ago, a quilter friend (Lani Cabalza) dropped by with a bag of quilt magazines. The eye-popping photos got me all inspired again.

So maybe this holidays, I'll actually get to finish those Rose applique blocks that have been patiently hanging in my closet for what seems like eons. Hey, I might even find enough energy to put them togther with sashing and borders into a top!

Meanwhile, I can looky-looky. Here's a beauty I found on the 'Net, made by the Sugar Creek Quilters. It's an applique quilt made of batik fabrics on a black background. Scrumptious...!

Hearts_notebk_big

Since Moleskines are still out of stock at Fully Booked and PowerPlant, I had to settle for the next best thing - a teNeues notebook that obviously is going for the Moleskine vibe.

What I like about this line? the colorful covers. There are so many  to choose from, from different aesthetics and styles.

They are also reasonably priced, around half the cost of a Moleskine.

This is the one I actually bought. I like hearts and colors.

These lined journals come in two different sizes. The smaller one (like the one I got) is 10x15 cm, has 152 lightly-ruled pages, sewn binding, ribbon bookmark, elastic band closure, and inside pocket  for receipts and business cards - just like Moleskine! gasp!

www.teneues.de

Reese_frap2

Reese Witherspoon returns to sunny L.A. after promoting her new movie "Rendition" at the Toronto Film Festival. She drops by Starbucks for a cold drink.

(Sep 2007, Yahoo! OMG)

Ohana_starbucks_dec2005

Starbucks Rockwell with kids, Dec 2005

I gotta have a cup of Starbucks everyday. I mean, I just gotta. I know their products are outrageously priced, but that's one of the reasons I work so hard - so I can enjoy simple little pleasures like my double tall nonfat cafe mocha with raspberry, no whip.

Anyway, I don't drink, smoke, or gamble.  My only vices are Starbucks and books. That's it. They have a fascinating way of complementing each other, by the way... have you ever tried curling up with a new novel on one of their sofas, drink beside you? It's an experience that calms and soothes and makes you take a step back to relax and renew your spirit.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schulz said that he envisioned their stores to be a "third place", apart from home and office, where one could go and receive a smile and a caring word along with your drink.

For me, it works. We could go into detail and analyze from a management perspective what makes Starbucks a successful business organization, but we won't do that here.

Naah. Here, we chill out. Cool down and let it all out. Reeelax.  Savor that flavorful coffee (once you've gone gourmet, you'll hate the taste of 3-in-1).  Rest. Attain a little bit of peace from the madness and stress of the real world. Escape to a place where the smells of coffee, cinnamon, and chocolate envelope you. One by one the tense knots in your body unravel as you relax in that other place, a place where you can be you for a little while.

Alma_Tadema_Spring

"Spring",  Lawrence Alma-Tadema

In 2002 I was in LA and a friend of mine, Marian Domoje, took me to the Getty Museum. It was an utterly beautiful place. I could have stayed there the entire day, wandering the quiet, well-lit halls, admiring the paintings and photographs, sculpture and antique furniture.

In one of the halls I chanced upon this work. It was hung close to the entrance and reached almost floor-to-ceiling. This and all other photos I have seen do the original work no justice. Up close, it is breathtaking. Each brushstroke is pure genius.

I like my art "traditional realist". Abstract and modern leave me cold - those splotches of color? Ik could do as well, if not better. It takes real drawing and painting skills to create works that live and breathe, that are like windows you could step through to enter another world, the artist's world that he created from his own imagination.

Immerse yourself in art and visit worlds of wonder. Please - you'd be doing yourself a favor.

See more of Alma-Tadema's works and those of other realist painters at www.artrenewal.org

PecanTart.AdamRhude

Wed 30 Nov 2006, 3:05 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Brain scans confirm what many coffee drinkers already know -- caffeine perks them up. The caffeine found in coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate stimulates areas of the brain governing short-term memory and attention, Austrian researchers said on Wednesday.

 Functional magnetic resonance imaging scans performed on the brains of 15 subjects who had just consumed caffeine equal to that found in two cups of coffee showed increased activity in the frontal lobe where the working memory is located and in the anterior cingulum that controls attention.

 "We are able to see that caffeine exerts increases in neuronal activity in distinct parts of the brain going along with changes in behaviour," said Austrian researcher Dr. Florian Koppelstatter of the Medical University Innsbruck.

 Participants who were subjected to a 12-hour period without caffeine and a four-hour period without nicotine, another recognised stimulant found in cigarettes, were better able to remember a sequence of letters after consuming 100 milligrams of caffeine. Reaction times on short-term memory tests also improved.

 Caffeine is the world's most widely used stimulant, according to the research presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. Global daily consumption of caffeine averages 76 milligrams, equal to 1 1/2 cups of coffee. In the United States, average consumption is 238 milligrams per day, equal to that found in 4 1/2 cups of java.