Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge
The votes are in – based solely on sheer volume, I am crowned Queen-of-the-Sunrise. It’s a question of location – I am presented with the perfect opportunity almost daily (not, like today, when it is haze from horizon to horizon) and I take it.
Sunsets, however, are another matter. I rarely see the sun go down and think “oh! I have to get a photo of that!”
For example:
How pathetic is that?
Here is my challenge to you, Kuwait bloggers. Find a Kuwait sunset. Shoot a photo. Post it on your blog and come back to tell us here that it has been posted. I want to see Kuwait sunset through your eyes. Make it speak!
WOOO HOOO! Hope in a Bottle That Works!
Fresh from The New York Times: An Article on Wrinkle Removers, Backed by Science. You can read the entire article by clicking on the blue type.
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: August 18, 2008
Nostrums that promise to smooth wrinkled skin are a staple of snake-oil salesmen everywhere, but now there is strong evidence that certain kinds of treatment are effective. Over the past decade, researchers have been learning which treatments work, and why.
The key is a growing understanding of the skin’s connective tissue, called the dermal collagen, and a recognition that damage to the mechanical properties of the collagen outside the skin cells, and not necessarily genetic damage to the cells themselves, causes wrinkled skin.
A recent review in The Archives of Dermatology concludes that three anti-aging treatments are proven clinically effective: the topical application of retinol; carbon dioxide laser resurfacing; and injection of hyaluronic acid, a moisture-retaining acid that occurs naturally in the skin. Each depends on the same mechanism, the interaction of skin cells called fibroblasts with the collagen they produce.
“This is an area where there’s a lot of hype and not much substance,” said David J. Leffell, a professor of dermatology and surgery at Yale who was not involved in the review. But, he said, this study is “good science.”
Theory and experiment back these treatments, the authors write. Fibroblasts — connective tissue cells — secrete a complex group of polysaccharides and proteins that creates collagen, which gives the skin shape and elasticity and supports the blood vessels that permeate it. The network of collagen tissue is maintained by its mechanical tension with these skin cells.
Skin deteriorates as it ages, but its exposure to sunlight inhibits the ability of fibroblasts to produce collagen. The hands, face, neck and upper chest all suffer more than unexposed skin, and light-pigmented people wrinkle more readily than others. This damage, the authors write, is essentially an accelerated version of chronological aging. Ultraviolet radiation induces production of the same enzymes that degrade collagen with age.
Collagen fibers last as long as 30 years. But with age and ultraviolet exposure, they deteriorate and fragment, and fragmented collagen impairs the collagen-producing function of the fibroblasts that created it. As the fragmented collagen accumulates, new collagen production declines, the connections between the fibroblasts and the collagen weaken, and the skin, now lacking support, begins to wrinkle.
But there are treatments that counter this process. Topical application of retinol, a form of vitamin A, was the first to be proved useful. Although the molecular pathways are not well understood, retinol causes new collagen to form in chronologically aged skin and in skin damaged by ultraviolet light.
Hope in a Bottle
Holy Smokes, I notice I am just about out of my trade-mark Smog eye shadow, totally unavailable even in the Sephoras in Kuwait and Qatar, but fortunately available in a nearby Sephora here in Seattle. Sparkle introduced me to Smog, and Maui Wowie, by Urban Decay. If you know me, you know how funny that is. The name is so Goth. I am so not.
As I am perusing what else I might need and not even know it until I see it, a very strange man comes into Sephora with a patter and a handful of red, white and pink balloons.
Honestly, I thought he was like a singing telegram, and maybe it was somebody’s birthday, but the gals working in Sephora were sort of brushing him off and his patter was, well, unattractive when not profane. One gal, working on a makeover, was kind but firm, and said good-bye to him and he seemed to take the hint and left. He comes by almost daily, she said.
As I was checking out, I asked the Sephora lady if she had any little samples of face cream, so that when I go back to Kuwait I can put them in my little plastic sack and use them so my face won’t get all dry, and she very graciously gave me several. It wasn’t until I got home that I took a good look and started laughing. In my family, we have always called all face creams “Hope in a Bottle.”
Breathtaking Morning and The Olympics
What? You think I am going to talk about the China 2008 Olympics, but you are wrong, wrong, WRONG. After slogging through two days of on-again-off-again drizzle, light showers, and downpours, the sky cleared late yesterday, the sun broke through, and this morning, we had a breathtaking view of the Olympic Mountains. You might even notice there is a trace of SNOW on the mountains.
You gotta dress in layers. One minute you will be shivering, the next, when the sun comes out, you will be sweating. None of that matters – once the sun comes out, this place is gorgeous.
Everett Marina Park
This weekend there was an Arts Fest in the Everett Marina Park, drawing people from all over the area, as there were a lot of hands-on demonstrations and artists who encourage people to try developing a new skill. I saw this fabulous sculpture in the Marina Park:
I love it because it looks like a whale, playing in the surf. It is made of like seven different slices of (wood?) (metal) bolted together, so that if you look from one end, all you see is flat slices, but the sculpture seems to move as you move around it. So creative!
Seasonal Change Sunrise
More clouds! Beautiful Tiepolo clouds! A Turner sunrise! And look, you can see almost all the way to the horizon. That nasty yellow-black band of (whatever it is) that hangs over the horizon on some days is gone!
It is 91°F / 33°C at 0530 in the morning – and it was still 98°F at 0300 this morning – imagine! No wonder most of the flights take off at night!
Melanoma Rates Increase Among Younger Women
This is bad news from The Washington Post. You can read the rest of the article by clicking on the blue type.
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 11, 2008; Page A01
Increasing numbers of younger women continue to receive diagnoses of the most dangerous form of skin cancer even as the rate of new cases has leveled off in younger men, federal health officials reported yesterday.
An analysis of government cancer statistics from 1973 to 2004 found that the rate of new melanoma cases in younger women had jumped 50 percent since 1980 but did not increase for younger men in that period.
“It’s worrying,” said Mark Purdue, a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute, who led the analysis published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. “What we are seeing in young adults right now could foretell a much larger number of melanoma cases in older women.”
The new research did not examine the reasons for the trend, but Purdue said it could be the result of such factors as women spending more time outdoors and engaging in indoor tanning. Young women are much more likely than young men to frequent tanning salons, Purdue and others noted.
Arte Y Pico Award
My friend Lofter, over at Life at the Foot of the Stairs has honored me with the Arte y Pico Award, “given to those who are creative and have a penchant for art.” I am truly honored, Lofter, and I thank you.
There are responsiblities that go with this award:
1. Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog.
3. Each award winner (upon acceptance) should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4. Show the link of Arte y Pico blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. Show these rules.
So here are my selections:
1. Suresh Gundappa and Meditation Photography. I don’t know how I found this blog, but I find myself returning to it often. We don’t share the same religion, but we share similar values. His photos knock my socks off.
2. In a move of flagrant nepotism, I choose my niece, Little Diamond, at A Diamond in Sunlight because she also has lots of photos, describes daily life in the turbulence of Beirut living, and did I mention she is my niece?
3. Because they are also here, there and everywhere, writing about any and every interesting thing from technology to food to sky photography, and because they have only been blogging since October and have had amazing response, I choose Some Contrast, with bloggers Yousef and Mishary.
4. The Queen of all Kuwait Bloggers, Jewaira because her Jewaira’s Boutique delicately manages to introduce controversial topics without setting the blog-world aflame, because she has the most amazing headers and because she is smart and savvy and a great writer.
5. This last one is a stretch, but I select Purgatory because, like VanGogh, he is an original, people don’t always “get” him, I don’t always get him, but he does original works of art, he thinks way outside the box, and he lets Jacqui give him a new, and usually very artistic look from time to time.
Again, thank you, Lofter, for selecting me for this award.
It Gives Me Hope
You know who I am, I’m pretty consistent in what I have to say. I believe we all have a lot more in common than we have differences, and I want us to find ways to get along. We, as a species, spend so much time and energy and resources fighting over the pettiest differences. How will we ever call ourselves civilized until we can treat every fellow creature with respect?
I bet Cupertino has problems, too. I know for one thing it is incredibly expensive. Most of what I saw there, I really liked. Whole Foods. High Tech Engineering. A wide variety of people, all working together in peace.
At our hotel, there were five weddings taking place the same day as “our” wedding. I came down in the elevator with one couple and their parents, and I got a photo of them in the hotel garden area before their wedding:
The groom is from India, and the bride is Chinese. The parents, and all the relatives are gathered, and dressed in gorgeous, flowing silks, and the bride and groom are just amazingly in love with each other and it is so beautiful, they are all so happy.
Cupertino takes a lot of pride in being beautiful, and the buildings they build are beautiful and they have “campuses” where lots of related buildings are connected with winding garden paths and ponds full of ducks.
I particularly love this sculpture:
Which looks totally different from the side:
There were flowers and plants everywhere. Many I couldn’t even recognize. I would have to learn a whole new world of gardening in California:
The Grande Finale
Here’s the problem. Our weddings are SO much fun. We all get there early, and as Maurice Sendak says – “Let the wild rumpus begin!”
I think many of you have the same families – we raise our children as a village. My sisters’ children are precious to me, and mine to them. They have visited back and forth between our houses since they were little. When we gather, you never know who will be with what family, which room people will gather in – it is one constant high-energy party.
And, it can also be totally exhausting!
Yesterday was the grand finale, THE wedding. It took place at Ainsley House, in Campbell, CA:
The weather has been unseasonably cool, so there was concern about rain during the wedding. Fortunately, it never rained, the sun came out, the bride was gorgeous and everything came off without a hitch. The bride and groom took their vows:
And then they exchanged rings:
After rings were exchanged, and the couple declared man and wife, the guests went on to the reception hall, while the bride and groom and family and attendants had a lengthy photo session. When we gathered for the wedding dinner, it was truly a night to remember!
I loved her table decorations; restrained, elegant, perfect for a beautifully planned wedding:
The wedding dinner:
The Greek side of the family danced, and the Iranian side laughed and said they were dancing Iranian style. The Iranians showed us all how to DANCE, and Sparkle is very very good at it. I think she had some coaching from her new daughter-in-law. Everyone had great fun comparing the different styles of dancing:
Our children are marrying into other “villages” and our own village just keeps expanding. It gives me such immense joy to watch this happen; the world grows smaller and smaller. Our children are choosing their mates with care – and joy! And they are choosing well, uniting us with tribes and clans who share the same values, if not nationalities.
We wish you all happiness, Earthling and Bride!
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