Which wines should you consume to reap the most benefits?

Researchers at the University of California, at Davis tested a variety
of wines to determine which types have the highest concentrations of
flavonoids. Their results concluded that the flavonoid favorite is
Cabernet Sauvignon, followed closely by Petit Syrah and Pinot Noir.
Both Merlots and red zinfandels have fewer flavonoids than their more
potent predecessors. White wine had significantly smaller amounts than
the red wine varieties. The bottom line is the sweeter the wine, the
fewer the flavonoids. Dryer red wines are your best bet for a flavonoid
boost.

It's all about the Cabernet Sauvignon. My homies.

Live long and prosper.

Switched to Winamp from Windows Media Player 11. So much lighter, so much easier to use. Embedded Shoutcast radio tool gives instant access to streaming music. A good way to find new songs and explore new genres of music.
http://www.winamp.com/ Microsoft done fucked up w/ WMP11.

Still feeling a bit weak, but the cold I created on MLK weekend is finally done. I've been sick on and off for months now. lol Wth is this. This time, I'm really determined. I'm not gonna smoke ever again. Even if it's a special day, even if I get mad peer pressure, it's not worth getting sick like this. So, I'm done with smoking. It also seems like each time I smoke it is right after I drink beer. So, maybe beer / alcohol at social gatherings should be axed too. I dunno. Still, undecided. Also, I reflected on the other times I caught colds and I realized, the cold is my enemy. No ski trips, no cold camping adventures, no sleeping in the stock room in freezing temperature, and no jogging at Almansor park during winter. Smoking & the Cold are my enemies. Haven't worked out in about 1.5 weeks. Everyone seems to be hitting new plateaus in their workout regimen. I need to catch up! Frack. I'm gonna come back stronger than ever tho. Watch out.

OH yea, hey... $14.95/year for unlimited calls to anywhere in the US/Canada. Good deal, don't you think? http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/ Offer ends, Jan. 31. Watch out.

One of the 2 buck chucks' corks wouldn't come out, no matter how hard I pulled on it. So today I bought a cork opener at Bed, Bath, and Beyond in Pasadena. OMG this thing is the best. It took out the cork like nothing. Exciting stuff. Watch out.

Why am I repeating  "Watch out" at the end of each of my paragraphs? Hm. I think it's from a movie called Blood in Blood out. One of the Mexican gangsters in the film said, "Watch out" in a very enthusiastic way. Maybe it's from there. Or, one time when I was donating blood at PCC a mexican dude was picking up on a girl there and he said, "Watch out" in a very enthusiastic way, maybe it's from there. "Watch Out" It's definitely a Hispanic American thing.

Totally random but, I went to In-and-Out on Atlantic Blvd today. I realized that 9 out of the 11 workers there were Hispanic/Mexican. Maybe they put an Mexican aura around me. I can't stop saying "Watch Out." Does that ever happen to you? When you hang out w/ a certain ethnicity some of their aura or group behavior kinda rubs off on you for a few days? It's weird how that works huh? It's like your mental cache gets temporarily hijacked and your mind is put on their ethnic loop. Watch out.

Wth am I talking about anyways. See, after I recover from a sickness I talk a lot  of gibberish. Another reason to stop smoking and staying away from extremely cold temperature.

Do any of y'all use the Google Bookmark Toolbar? It's really useful, don't you agree? Your favorite links are up there in icon form for you to press on for instant access. But, it is limited to one row. Once you fill up the row, the excess links are hidden and can only be seen by clicking the drop-down menu on the very right. I tried to get past this by deleting or shortening the description of each icon. But there is a limit to what that can accomplish. But I found a nice trick this morning! Here is the solution: "Multi-row Bookmark Toolbar" script. You can add it by installing a firefox extension called Stylish.You can find it here... https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2108/ Then, you add the script by visiting here and clicking the install/stylish button... http://userstyles.org/style/show/70
Now, I have 3 full rows of bookmarks I have instant access to. I read some user comments that sometimes it doesn't work, but so far so good for myself.

"If there is a will, there is a way."

I don't totally understand Cingular's campaign plan, when they advertise, "Fewest Dropped Calls." Shouldn't there be NO dropped calls? Isn't a high quality product not supposed to have any flaws? Why do they flaunt the fact that their service does indeed have a flaw? It's like a cigarette company saying, "Our cigarettes have the fewest  deaths, Buy It, and Smoke it." It's kinda dumbass right? Why not advertise something positive about your product instead of making your whole sector of business look foolish. If your product has a flaw in it, lower your price, give us back our money. It's sorta nonsense to brag about it.

Dude, my financial situation has improved drastically. I am no longer in debt and have a positive balance in my checkings account. My investment I made in December worked! I am very happy about this. Huge, massive thanks to those who made this a possibility.

Last week I worked out about 5 days. I was on such a roll. My body is looking like it's reached the next level because I upped all my work out regimen by 10 pounds. It's made a huge difference in mass & definition.

This weekend tho, I made a foolish mistake and allowed myself to catch a cold. Damnit. I will have to learn from this experience and not repeat it again. I already knew what I did in the weekend would effect my body negatively. Man! It's so hard to be disciplined sometimes. Most important thing is my health and my happiness. Anything that leads me away from it, is my enemy. I shall not repeat this mistake again.

Vegetables have become a stable part of my diet. About 50% of each meal is vegetable or fruits. This really rocks. I am sooo glad I switched to this diet. I will thank myself bigtime when I'm 65. ))

Hope you all are doing well in your lives. I read your posts, but lately, I haven't been feeling the xanga aura from within. It's coming back tho.

OH YEA! I borrowed a hella helpful book at the Santa Monica Public Library. It's called, "All Your Worth." Written by an MBA & Harvard Law Graduate. I've always felt guilty when buying things and I could never figure out how people enjoy their money carefree. The answer was BUDGETING my money. The 2 authors recommend that 50% of your monthly income be designated for NECESSITIES/NEEDS(food, utility, etc.) 30% for JUST FOR FUN(splurge, enjoyment money and finally 20% for SAVING. It was a godsend for me to learn this system because now I can save intelligently, enjoy my money and have all necessities accounted for. Really, really great thing. But I have a feeling I will adjust these %s so that I save a lot more, but the general concept is now mine! Hellz yayuh!

Basil & Mints, you know the type of leaves they have on top of Pho Soup Bowls? OMG I love this stuff. The first time I ate Pho, I remember smelling the mints, closing my eyes for a brief second and seeing myself in the rice patties in vietnam, a green mountain in the background w/ clouds rolling by. Anways, today, I went to SHUN FAT on Atlantic and bought some Basil and Mints to add to my veggie arsenal. Things were starting to get pretty boring w/ just black pepper and garlic flavoring. So I explored my options and Sto recommended Rosemary, Thyme, Basil and Mints. SHUN FAT didn't have rosemary and thyme so I will have to try them some other time. I am really loving adding veggies to everything I eat. I get this warm fuzzy feeling that I am doing something right for my body and the food tastes extra good. I tried Ralphs and Whole Food store on Rosemead but they only carried HELLA expensive organic types. Forget that, SHUN FAT rocks, so cheap!

ballys notes: legs 45s x 3 x 3 & neck.

Thanks everyone for wishing me a happy birthday. It really made me feel good.

On Thursday night, George invited me over for dinner at his pad in Alhambra. Phil & Soko, George & Emi, Bob & Jean were there. Emi made a hella healthy dinner including asparagus, white corn, yellow corn, trout, salmon, cheese bread, white wines and blueberries. So good! Emi thanks! Then we chilled in the the backyard garage and smoked hooka and chatted for several hours. George busted out some Don Perignon champagne that Phil had given to George as a present. Reason being my birthday was coming up on Sunday. Thanks George & Phil! We talked about Phil & Soko's puppies, the UCI days and other topics randomly. It was a good time. Jean, let's study Japanese and pass that test in December!

Friday I worked out at Bally's at Bundy in WLA. I realized that I might start working out everyday now. But instead of cramming 2 body parts a day, I'll just do one. This way I'm alway in the gym and never slacking, while the work load is very mild and doable. I walked down 3rd St Promenade on my work break and found Old Navy and Guess having 50% off clearance sales. At Old Navy, I bought these brown loose pants for $7.00! O hellzyayuh, that made me happy. I also bought a brown ski beanie for $2.99 and big-ass white flip flops for 99c. LOL What a deal. I'm gonna try to only by at clearance from now on. It feels so good to save money.

Saturday, after work, Calvin, Dae, Sto, Andy, Tim, and Victor took me to the Newport Seafood restaurant on Valley Blvd in San Gabriel. Food was epic. So much volume, so tastey. OMG. I drank a bottle of French beer too. I was a little drunk and made a bad decision and smoked some afterwards at C's pad. I was hella messed up, and wanted to just chill the rest of the night, but they yanked me out of the house and took me to a strip club. LOL I will spare you all the details, but it was a very fun night out. Thanks Calvin for setting it all up. Thanks Dae, Sto, Andy, Tim, Victor for coming out. I had an awesome time. Victor & Dae, Thanks for spotting me. Sto, thanks for the tshirt, but I don't think I can wear that thing in public. LOL Alex, I wish you could have made it out too.

And tonight, BB set up a berfday party for me at Thai Paradise on Las Tunas. BB & Debby, Phil & Soko, Tony & JJ, Gmoney, Angeline & Jean Do were there. I had eaten hella cha-siu ramen w/ BB beforehand so I was already full. BB, I think Debby is a keeper. But, the food was delicious and the atmosphere at the restaurant was wonderful. Thanks everyone for being there and Thanks BB for setting it up! I realized that Phil & Tony are really funny at the dinner. They really know how to keep the energy high and fun. I wish one day I can become like that too. When we finished eating dinner and it was time for dessert, the whole restaurant's lighting went dim and they brought out a cake for me. It was intense and I never really experienced something like that before. When I blew out the candle, the lights all came up and everyone was clapping for me. Intense. After this, Jean Do, said, "Speech" dude, Jean Do, you know I just came out of social anxiety, so much pressure, but I'm glad you did because there's a first time for everything and it was cool. )) It was a highly memorable night. Tony we gotta go rings again soon!!!

I realized I am very fortunate to be surrounded by people who are so kind and generous. )) I am very grateful and will try my best to make sure I don't go MIA anymore and keep improving myself so I can sustain my friendships. I love my friends. Around the same time last year, I was probably in front of my PC in Yahoo Japan chatroom fighting w/ strangers in the fightroom. LOL So much has changed since mid 2006 till now. Really, I'm thankful to have reunited w/ the 2 best groups of friends. I'm so glad I found them again. It's really amazing. Finding one person on Friendster and bumping into 2 of my friends at Bally's Fitness really changed the course of my personal, social life in 2006. Miracles do happen. It's freaking amazing.

2007 is starting off pretty strong. LOA. I'm so thankful and do my utmost to keep improving and gaining momentum.

Oh yea, after dinner tonight, I stopped by Focus Plaza and bought a bootleg of "Densha Otoko" Only 20 bucks for the whole series. So amazing. I love it.

So Very Thankful,

Mukai.

[edit] omg this dvd box set is amazing. the picture quality is so good. i was so used to watching this series in bad quality. i rented them at a japanese video rental shop in little tokyo. even their voices sound different because it is an original copy. yay!

I used to really despise bootleg DVD smugglers. I thought it was really bad for the Japanese economy and just bad business practice in general. But now that I'm temporarily lacking in cash, I really see the value in these types of sales. Hellzyea, I love pirated bootlegs DVDs. I bought a DVD box set that includes 10 Mahjong movies for $23. I bought it at the Focus Plaza on Valley Blvd. If I were to buy the original Japanese movie, this set would prolly cost me over $400. What a deal, $23! I wanted this series for the longest time but never had the cash for it. It really pays to be more open minded about buying opportunities. I'm gonna frequent this store and buy all the movies I ever wanted for cheap.

then,

I walked over to the Ranch 99 in the same plaza and bought 2 fat free blueberry yogurts for 79c each. Once my parents get back from Las Vegas, I'm gonna ask my father to buy these yogurts at wholesale price @ around 40c each. I'm adding yogurt to my daily diet list w/ veggies & 1 shot of red wine.

[ballys notes]
chest/arms 25s. Goal 155lbs, current 150lbs. Add a little mass.

[gratitude]
thanks calvin for telling me about the 2 buck chucks. Once my current red wine stash runs out, I'm headed out to Trader Joe's. ($2 per red wine bottle, what a deal.)

I was watching morning KTLA news while eating left over "Osechi Ryori" (Special Japanese New Years Food in Lacquered Boxes) The food was good. On the show, there was a guest psychologist or therapist giving advice on how to improve relationships between husband and wife. One of her advice really caught my attention and I think it will come in handy in 2007 and beyond. No, I have not been slacking on my healthy diet regimen of veggies, fruits & red wines as this blog title might suggest. The therapist's technique was called, "Oreo." Basically, when giving criticism to someone, it is helpful to sandwich the criticism with positive energies, ideas, or compliments.. to soften the blow, to make the criticism more palatable. This made a lot of sense to me. It's much better than being really blunt and hurtful because some people cannot take criticism too well. So + , - , + . I haven't tried it yet, but I remember my friend Dae giving me some constructive criticism in a similar fashion. It didn't even feel like criticism because it was packaged so softly. I watched TV all day today while watching over Chisaku-kun(my puppy w/ broken leg). So much to be learned, even from silly TV shows. I was watching a TV show marathon of "American's Next Top Model" hosted by Tyra Banks.

She is so hot!!!

But I digress.. I consider Tyra Banks to be very wise. She's experienced so much in her career as a model and has learned the ins-and-outs of how to survive psychologically. She gives great advice. Today, she was criticizing a black model named Robin. The model was a highly religious girl and refused to strip naked in one of the competitions, and was therefore disqualified, booted from the show. Before kicking her off, Tyra Oreo'd some advice to Robin. She of course complimented & showed respect for Robin's faith and unwavering commitment to her religion. But she slammed her with the comment, "Human is Beautiful, Perfect is Boring." When Tyra said this it sorta opened up a new perspective for me. I was schooled early on w/ strict Catholic religious beliefs and traditional Japanese customs. I can't say with certainty that these 2 things played the main roles, but it had a huge impact on my personality and way of thinking. I believe myself to be a perfectionist, sometimes to a flaw... let's call it, Rigidity. Tyra's words were liberating because it showed me a way to think outside of the perfectionist box. I don't have to feel guilt or ashamed when I don't perform, act, or think perfectly. "Human is beautiful. Perfect is Boring." Hellzyea, Thx Tyra! You know, Vh1 has many lessons to offer. 2 of my top 15 affirmations for 2006 came from Vh1. They were, "Don't hate, Congratulate." and "Fake it till you make it." Woa, getting late. I'm gonna go eat some yogurt (L. Acidophilus - the friendly bacteria, good for intestines) that I bought at Ranch 99 on Atlantic & Garvey, after working out earlier tonight. And.. go to sleep, lates!