My Stroke of Insight

Oprah's guest today: a brain surgeon who suffered from a stroke that left her without the use of her brain's left hemisphere, leaving her without her memories and her language.


On the morning of December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. As the damaged left side of her brain--the rational, grounded, detail- and time-oriented side--swung in and out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realties: the euphoric nirvana of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace; and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized Jill was having a stroke, and enabled her to seek help before she was lost completely.

Jill was in a world where emotional baggage doesn't exist. Where there is no such thing as loss, for she has never known to have. The only thing she feels is the present, and for her, her present is a very happy one. She has no worries about what has happened and what will happen, and is simply contented with what she has at present. It's such a wonderful thing, to be able to be content just for that moment. People are always worrying, fussing over what has gone and what will come. We all know that worrying about things doesn't make it less painful or less horrible when it does come, but we still can't help but to stress over it. We can make a conscious effort to just be happy for 'now'. When you're in the 'present', then there's no need to worry about the past and the future.

Also, when she was only capable of using her right brain, she was extremely intuitive. She was unable to understand what people were saying, so her thoughts were not clouded by their words. She was able to feel a person's 'energy' just through seeing how they moved or responded to her. When a nurse comes into the ward, she was able to tell if a nurse was really caring or not, depending on if a nurse looked her in the eye, or just through a bit of contact. Jill said that when emotions are all that you are capable of experiencing, then small stuff like that really does help a lot. It is important, not just for nurses, but for anyone to make an effort to make others feel more welcome and valuable. It's difficult enough that they have to go through though times, it makes it much worse if they had to go through it alone.

So what should you do when someone is having a stroke? Well the guest doctor on Oprah (well, not on the person, obviously) said that you should ask a person to smile and raise up both his hands (no, don't give him a high-five. Please! It's hardly the time!). Well the rationale behind it is that the brain controlling your smile and your hands are through different channels, so if he is capable of doing both, it means that most of the brain is still intact (I know, that doesn't sound as reassuring as it's supposed to).

Also, a stroke is definitely an emergency! If someone is having a stroke, dial the emergency number for an ambulance immediately, cause every second counts when the poor guy's brain is bleeding on the inside. Would knowing that make you run a bit faster to the phone? Good.

Today, Jill is convinced that the stroke was the best thing that could have happened to her. It has taught her that the feeling of nirvana is never more than a mere thought away. So, people, step into your right brains today!

Purchace a copy of Jill's book, My Stroke of Insight here.

American Idol: Who's Staying, Who's Out and Who's On The Way

Two have been eliminated so far from American Idol. Jorge the weird eye guy and Jasmine Murray. Both correct predictions on my part. Boy, am I getting good at this! I should be an AI producer. I'll make the show much more interesting. We can include Japanese game show styled games and make them dodge eggs while running on a treadmill while singing. Naked. Now that's a show I'll watch.

As it turns out, the big secret Ryan was talking about turns out to be some kind of 'Judge's Save'. The judges can choose to save a person if he or she as been eliminated, but they can only use it once in the entire competition. The whole point of them doing this even though the voting is not real is to make the eliminated people still try their darnest even though their fates have already been sealed. Ryan will go 'And now, Jasmine will try to convince the judges to keep her' or something like that. The sad thing is, the judges probably already know who's gonna be in the final 4. I'm guessing something 'totally unexpected' will happen. Probably Danny will be voted off (I wish) and they'll save him and he'll go far and they'll be all "Thank god we included that rule! O the genius of me!"

Needless to say, the save wasn't wasted on Jorge and Jasmine. Now, the judges are the one who has to tell them if they've decided to save them. It's like it's the judges' fault now for not saving them. At least now the contestants have a chance to give the 'fuckyoufuckyoufuckyou' look to the judges. In the past, the judges can just pretend that it's the voting that kicked the contestants out, and they can all give the 'we wish we could save you but we can't' look. Ha! Try doing that now, Simon!

And the checkboard:

How I'm itching to put the sign on that smug face of Gokey...

Tyra Banks gets bitten by Edward Cullen

Britney's New Music Video!

Britney's brand new single, If You Seek Amy

American Idol's Top 13 Performs!

Finally, we've moved on to the more glamorous stages of American Idol. Gone are the mediocre and tedious performances of those hit and misses. Today we finally get to see the creme of the crop, this season's top 13.

Ooh.. someone's job is in trouble.. Ryan was sooo persistent in telling us to be extra careful when voting, cause, as it turns out, the number for contestant 13 links to a phone sex line. So They told people to call the number for contestant 36 instead. The lame ass reason they gave was that there used to be a top 36. Yeah. That totally makes sense.

It's Michael Jackson night! Looks like the producers are feeling evil lately. Thankfully, no one decided to attempt 'Thriller'.

Lil Rounds starts of the show with 'The Way You Make Me Feel'. Absolutely fantastic! She's looking more and more like Mary J Blige every week. Totally changed the song to suit her personality. Wouldn't be surprised if she sails all the way through to the finals.

I love how Simon's finally back at his game. The mean comments just keep coming on and on this week, even though Kara was the one who promised she would be harsher. Simon even managed to piss off Kris Allen's wife. He said that Kris should keep her hidden longer, and not bring her out so early. Rationale being; if girls think Kris is still single and available, they'll want to vote for him more. But don't people all think being unavailable makes someone even more desirable..? Anyhow, his comments made his lovely wife look so displeased. As if she caught Kris cheating on her or something. Randy then said that he loves the wife, which was an even more inappriate thing to say.

As expected, there was great hype about Danny 'I Miss My Dead Wife So Much' Gokey. Enough with all that nonsense already! Even Danny's learned to move on after his wife died. Seems like the ones who can't get over it are the producers and the judges (and the thousands of idiots who jabbed their phones frantically, thinking the voting line works). Danny's an average singer and a below average dancer. In fact, I found his entire performance verging on spastic. What with the jerking about and waving his arms around. Funny how Kara calls him full of joy ("There's just so much joy when you come on stage!") when he should be mourning the death of his wife.

Adam Lambert, as usual, was completely amazingly mindblowing. He chose one of the biggest MJ songs to sing, 'Black or White'. Paula went into this whole drunken-stupor-monologue about how he's so fantastic.

"ADAM! TAKE IT! TAKE IT ALL IN! WOW! HUH! Okay, alright, Adam. I’m gonna say this and this, this is my opinion. Never in the history of “American Idol,” all 7 seasons leading up to now have we ever, and I believe this truthfully, ever seen somebody so co- [choking for air and grasping her throat] comfortable, seasoned on that stage, I don’t even notice the stage because my eyes are transfixed on you! [Does the eye and the finger thing] Your innate ability to know who you are as an artist and marry fashion and music as we do that, you got the whole package going on. ANNND I believe with all my heart that we’ll be seeing you running [does a running hand gesture with her fingers] all the way to the finals.”

Even Simon was blown away by Adam. According to him, it was in a totally different league from all the other contestants. All this praise is well deserved, of course, unlike Danny.

Then, there are the low notes. Which, for a sadist like me, are the highlights of the show. Anoop, whom I never like that much cause he looks arrogant, make the perfect mistake of choosing a song too big for him. Hello.. If you're not Adam Lambert, avoid the big songs at all costs! Didn't Cook and 'Always Be My Baby' teach them anything? Anoop Dawg (which I think is a very degrading nickname) sang 'Beat It', and was ruthlessly beaten down by the judges. Paula completely hated it. If even Paula thinks you're bad, then seriously, dawg, it's time for some self reflection. Simon says he regrets putting Anoop into the top 13. Oooh.. Harsh..

Scott the blind guy finally was able to bring out the piano, and Paula was glad that he had his instrument at his fingertips. I bet Simon struggled not to burst out laughing. I didn't think it was too great, but the judges weren't harsh on him at all. They're always like walking on eggshells with this one. It's a level playing field, people! Just being blind doesn't make it a fantastic singer. (Kara: "Wow! Did you learn that this week?!") Okay, obvious much? He's a mediocre singer, and they better realize that before they get rid of some of the better ones in order to not hurt his feelings.

The other one I didn't like was Jorge, cause he has a weird eye thing going on. Maybe it's his eyebrows, I don't know. I didn't want to look at his face too long to find out. He did some tuneless song and was criticized to the death by the judges.

Two will be eliminated tomorrow, which is kind of stupid. It totally defeats the purpose of having a Top 13. Simon says there will be some big change revealed tomorrow, and it's all about the judges. My guess is that they would pick the loser from the group of bottom 3, like 'So You Think You Can Dance'. At least they're not trying to pretend that it's still authentic.

And the prediction for elimination: Jorge and Jasmine.

All I Ever Wanted

Got Kelly Clarkson's new album today! Today's the release date of her fourth studio album, All I Ever Wanted. Kind of an ironic title, since the world knows that this is not the kind of music she wants to record. But a singer's gotta do what she's gotta do to survive in this industry, and sad to say, our music industry is ruled by cutesy pop. It's such a harmless and adorable album that the cover art is pink, purple and orange. I see it as Kelly blatantly proclaiming "You want pop? I'LL GIVE YOU POP!!" (Coincidentally, Pink, Orange and Purple's abbreviation spells out POP!)

Even though it's not Kelly's most honest work, it's still a pop force to be reckoned with. Kelly's vocals are still fantastic, as she yells and screams all her fury towards Clive Davis into the song. Her first single, 'My Life Would Suck Without You', has broken Britney Spears' record fo the biggest jump to number 1.

True to Kelly's style, most of the pictures on the album booklet looks nothing like her. Not to say that they don't look great, just that it doesn't look like her. However, one of them looks like a young version of Bette Midler, which was not so great.

What the critics are saying:

"An album unabashedly stuffed with second-generation "Since U Been Gone" rewrites - each one more brilliant than the next."

"The album is a determined effort to put Clarkson back into everyone’s iPod. It appears already to have succeeded spectacularly: the first single – “My Life Would Suck Without You” – has leaped into the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart and sold more than 290,000 downloads in a week."

"Not much beats the feeling of having a Kelly Clarkson album live up to your expectations. In fact, the ridiculously talented artist offers up this time around a well-rounded pop effort that just brings it!"

Well, all that pop-ness is great, but the thing is, Kelly does have a great aw-shucks quality and a great personality that wasn't reflected in the album. After her not very sucessful attempt at shedding the typical cookie cutter 'Idol' image, she seems to have been completely reined back and kept under close supervision by Clive. At least she has Kara's contribution on the album. I would die if everything was with that mean bully Ryan Tedder (bully cause when he sung with Arch he tried to do all those high falsettos. What a bastard.)


Kelly performing 'Cry' from her new album!

Chinese Version of Breaking Free

I don't know why, but I find this hysterically funny. I almost died in laughter when I tried to sing along.

Surprise! 13 Is The New 12!

Ooh how unexpected and mind blowing! American Idol has changed their top 12 to top 13! Wow now everyone should watch the show cause they have one more potential target to reject. Simply amazing!

Yup.. So that's the big surprise American Idol has planned. Seriously, people.. Just watch the damn show and save them the trouble of having to think up so many desperate harebrained schemes to increase viewership. It's starting to get very painful and sad. And here I was, thinking that including Tatiana in the wildcard round was their last attempt at increasing viewership, but surprise! They played a very cruel prank on Anoop (he sang Britney's My Perogative) by announcing that he's not in the Top 12, but in the Top 13. Should he feel honored or insulted? They made it sound like he barely made it through, and only through the grace of the very benevolent judges.

The others who joined him include Jasmine Murray (who sang a very strangled version of Christina's Reflection), Megan Corkey (she sang Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, acompanied by spastic but mesmerizing dancing) and Matt Giraud (sang some unknown song. He's bound to be kicked out soon anyways).

The final 13:

-Anoop Desai
-Lil Rounds
-Kris Allen
-Matt Giraud
-Adam Lambert
-Jorge weird eye guy
-Scott the blind guy
-Danny the dead wife guy
-Alexis Grace
-Michael Sarver
-Allison Iraheta
-Jasmine Murray
-Megan Corkey

Hilary's Fucking Obama

He's Just Not That Into You

Just watched another amazing Jen An movie. This woman is incredible! So many movies in so little time. This one is called 'He's Just Not That Into You' (hence the title, silly!), and is about the love and life of a group of people. The interesting thing about this movie is that it does not just focus on one or two leads, and make the rest extras. It's an ensemble cast, meaning everyone is equally important to the development of the story. Kind of like Friends. Definitely not like Romeo and Juliet.

The movie also focuses on different aspects of a relationship. Jen An and Ben Affleck is in one of those where Guy is super caring and good towards Girl, but Guy does not believe in marriage while Girl does. Girl wants to get married, and hence leaves Guy. In the end, they get back together, of course. Who could do such a terrible thing to Jennifer Aniston?

Jennifer Connelly and Bradley Cooper is a married couple who's lives are shattered when Bradley has an affiar with yoga instructor (and aspiring singer) Scarlett Johansson. I realize she's always playing the role of the slut. In 'Match Point', she's the one who left the husband for an affair with another guy. Anyhow, the marriage gets ruined after he admits he had an affiar and the three of them ended up with nobody. And kids, that's why you should never admit to having an affair.

The other kind of relationship explored is the cyber kind. Drew Barrymore very accurately pointed out how difficult dating can be in the modern world, what with all the funky and cool but utterly unessential new gadgets.

"I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It's exhausting."

Here's a hilarious video of the male stars of the movie explaining the 10 Chick Flick cliches you will NOT see in 'He's Just Not That Into You'. Enjoy!