How Much Money Is Love Worth?

  So we all know that you can't literally buy love.  What if you paid a machine that could make you fall in love for the rest of your life?  If so, how much would the machine charge?

  Love has many meanings but let's clarify which type of love we're trying to focus on.  It's not the type of love that you have for learning (Ha!), or friends, or food, or family.  This isn't talking about lust, where there is an immediate attraction triggered by hormones such as tetostorones or estrogens.  It's the type afterwards where there is an associated reward with another person, like obsessed newly weds, called passionate love.

  Passionate love is a great example of Limerence, where one is in a state of mind regarding of their surroundings only to achieve greatness in the presence of another person.  It sounds creepy, because I can't really word things well, but take this example: You wake up pretty early because you are going to play tennis with somebody, and even though you are missing class, that's how badly you want to see them, therefore you are exerting limerent behavior.  This sounds great and all but in order to sell love, you would have to measure it.

  But how?  It's a pretty difficult task, but there is a tool called The Passionate Love Survey, developed by psychologists, and it turns out to be reliable when it comes to other behaviors associated with passionate love.  Click here if you want to check the survey out.  For instance, it turns out that both men and women exert the same amount of passionate love when in a relationship.  It's also been found that men tend to fall in love faster and sooner than women who are more cautious.

  Let's bring money into this interesting idea.

  There was a case study done with people who were told that someone loved them, hearing the words "I love you" for the first time, those sick twisted people.  The amount of happiness people felt was compared to the happiness gamblers feel when they win large sums of money.  The conclusion was when people who hear the words "I love you" for the first time is equivalent to the happiness level of receiving $267,000!

  But beyond passionate love comes committed long term love, and there are benefits that marriage brings.  That includes tax breaks and health care cost all together, it has been estimated that being married is equivalent to receiving an extra $100,000 a year!  Don't believe it?  Click here to see an article from CNNMoney about happiness and marriage.

  We have a lot of ways of visualizing the effects having money has on a person.  For instance, we know that people in wealthier countries, report feeling respect more often.  Also, people report eating tastier foods.

  Look at this graph of wealth against love:

It turns out that love is really democratic, and is common in poor countries as it is in rich countries. Encouragingly, it doesn't mean that having more money should necessarily make you more happy, you know with the saying "love buys happiness."

  Guess what, there's a term for this!  It seems like there is term for everything nowadays.  This is called the Hedonic Treadmill.  Getting more money helps with the happiness but only to a certain point.  In the United States, that point is $75,000 a year where more money diminishes the amount of returned happiness it makes on you.

  I guess you aren't satisfied with what you don't have until you have it.  Another thing that accumulates to more money is living a longer life expectancy, but you know what's another thing that relates to living longer?  Love.  Not just passionate love but committed long term love.  In fact, people who form strong long term bonds with another live 15% longer.  This results to an extra $30,000 to $40,000 a year in a pair bond that is achieved for life, assuming all things are equal where no one is already super rich.     

  You should also pay me $400,000 to find you love.  Jk.  But seriously, that would be nice.       

  Interestingly enough there are chemicals that are exuded in people's brains when they see pictures of people that they committed long term relationships with.  These chemicals are called Oxytocin and Vasopressin.  Funny enough, we also see these levels rise in dogs who have been petted for a really long time.

He is so CUTE and fluffy I'm gonna die!  Hint, hint, that's what
 my next "Interesting" article is going to be about.

  We also know that people who have higher levels of these chemicals resolve their conflicts faster.  However, people who struggle to produce these chemicals also struggle in relationships.  So to raise those levels you can just look into someone else's eyes.

  Wait that means looking into the eyes of someone that you like, is the administration of a psychoactive chemicals that's addictive, and the long term consequences are living longer.  Hmm interesting. 

I hope you enjoyed that and would love it if you could comment below!  Again check out Vsauce for interesting things!   

     

Mobile Uploads Moments: This has to be a sign

  Late last night I was staying up to finish my chemistry lab that was due today. So it was 3AM and I dozed off here and there but still got some work done (give me credit). I tried desperately to finish the damn lab...still not finished and due in half an hour. I'm not sure what exactly happened but all the sudden I wrote the words "is have a gif card lol". Wtf? When I saw that I just laughed because it showed how pathetic everything was...me staying up late, sitting in the hallway, half dazed when your head slowly drops down, and sitting in an awkward position where my legs started cramping.

I was suppose to write: +(6℃) x (81.01 J/℃).

I didn't even spell "gift" correctly Haha.

This is becoming a terrible habit ...

My Language Barrier

Just warning you that this is very unorganized and may contain grammar mistakes.  I will fix it later :)


 If you didn't know, I'm part Chinese and Vietnamese.  My parents are from Vietnam and my grandparents from China.  However, I was born in Colorado and I have been cultured by the American lifestyle to the point where a typical Asian lifestyle is out of my reach.  Did that make sense?  So I fully believe, to this day, that I am "white" inside.  In other words, I'm pretty much a banana: yellow on the outside and white in the inside.  I know it's difficult to differentiate Asians from one another, but that's why I like to troll with people telling them that I'm from Ireland ;)

  My parents speak unbelievable amounts of languages, at least six from what I remembered.  Now that I think about it, I can't even speak English properly, but again rarely anyone does.  Anyway, they were forced back in school when they were young and it's basically how the system worked.  It's just like the stereotypes we hear about Asian culture, the system is very strict with education and behavior.  Their work ethic is phenomenal though and often I wonder what it would be like if the schools here in America were different.

  When I was little I was gifted with the ability to understand and speak Cantonese (Similar to Mandarin but it is a different dialect often spoken in Southeastern China) at home.  My family would speak basic Cantonese to me with simple words such as "Go eat rice = Sec-Phan", "Clean your hair = Sigh-Tao", "Wash your clothes = Sam-Foo", or my personal favorite "Pee = Aww-Knew".  I was able to grasp what they wanted me to do and was able to speak little back.  I pretty much learned something new each day.

  That was until I started to go to preschool school where English was pretty much the only way to get the toys you wanted or go "Aww-Knew" and "Aww-See" (you can figure that out) when I needed to.  I didn't realize that I was losing my insight in Cantonese as the years continued.  It's funny to think, I went to a small school in Denver where I was practically the only Asian in my Hispanic school.  Fun fact, Frank was one of my good buds back in my days, Ha!  So I began to wonder why my friends, like Frank, spoke differently to his parents.  Oh good times, good times.

  I admit I am not fluent in Cantonese or any language.  This concept is weird to imagine:  I understand Chinese and Vietnamese but I can't speak it.  For example, Vietnamese is a popular language my parents like to speak, but often to each other and relatives.  Because I picked up Vietnamese so well after all these years, the period when our brains develop and mature, my parents like to switch to Chinese when they don't want me to know something.  I thought it was hilarious because I understand a good amount of Chinese too.  

  I was in Chinese school every Sunday when I was young but my parents put me in the class late so I was pretty much the older child in the class.  Also, I didn't know anyone else in my class, talk about a major bummer.  I never appreciated it when I was younger but I regretted that I never kept up with this amazing opportunity.  It was boring and I wasn't motivated enough to do my homework.  I thought of another solution but no matter how much I try to tell my parents to speak to us (my sister and I) in Cantonese, it only lasts for one night.  People like to speak Chinese to me asking me questions and I would respond in English.  It's pretty awkward if you ask me.  I also learned Spanish from seventh grade to junior year of high school.  That never went well and don't ask me why I didn't take Mandarin because 1. It wasn't so great at my school and 2. I don't know.  I will hear people speak Spanish and honestly I just want to contribute to their conversation throwing them off that some Asian girl knows you're talking about food without her.

  I'm jealous of all the people who are able to speak foreign languages.  Especially those who can speak fluently though a phone.  One day, a friend of mine called her mom asking if she could attend this event and all the sudden she was speaking Japanese.  I thought to myself, "Since when did you speak Japanese?"  Believe it or not, I tried to impress my friends whenever I was on the phone with my mom highlighting some Cantonese vocabulary of mine.  But we all knew I was only limited to it because my mom would reply with confusion as to what in the world I was trying to say.

  This is why I wanted to write a post about language: I'm afraid my sister will lose an opportunity like I did.  I know I am young but the best way to speak a language is through home and visiting the home country.  I am able to access these but I can't find the time in my life, yes blogging is now essential to my everyday commitment don't judge me, and it's just inconvenient.  I miss the days when you could sleep randomly in school or play recess three times a day just so your attention span doesn't berserk you and your teacher.  I would rather learn a language honestly.

  Now I can't go to legit and delicious Chinese restaurants and order typical family meals because I don't even know what the dishes are called and let alone know how to describe them.  Sometimes I won't be able to tell if the ladies at the nail salon are talking crap about me.  Trust me most of the time they are jealous something of  you, so you should be flattered.  I can't even talk to my grandma because she doesn't understand English at all.  All I know about her is that she enjoys watching WWE wrestling mania and UFC, but that's acceptable to me.  Most importantly, I won't be able to get around legit China towns.  Sad day.

  I find white and black people who can speak Chinese fluently to be bad ass.  Maybe it's because you don't see it often but seriously it's just awesome.  Be thankful for what you are able to use your language for.  You could pick up guys or girls with pick up lines, or order amazing mouth watering food, or succeed in the business world, or even better star in a Chinese soap opera.  If you are given the opportunity to learn a language, cherish it and work hard for it.  A language will serve you better in the long run because again, what happens if you want to go "aww knew" in the middle of a foreign country? 

Mobile Uploads Moment: Potential Lunch Winners

I'm dedicating a part of my blog to mobile uploads because there is only so much I can do on a phone. You could think of it as twitter. What can I say, my blog is pretty much all social networks combined! Woah.

Today I received a call from Noodles and Company. We, Jill and I, are lunch winners! I totally forgot that I put our business card in that never-ending-sea-of-intimidating-real-business-people-jar. Who would have known the odds were in our favor? So were going to dine classy in our illustrious opportunity of free noodle tasting. Be jealous.

Interesting Movie Facts

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since we're all coming back home to see our family members, movies are typical traditions in this gatherhood.  Let's not forget, they are obviously going to ask us what we've done in school and what we've learned.  You know to see if their money is really worth spending (mmm here and there...).  If you can't seem to think of impressive facts or that you are simply stumped on school, well considered yourself saved.  You can use these random facts to blow your families away (I guess figuratively or literally, you pick)!  They'll forget why you have been mostly eating your sorrows away in your dorm-cave.  Your welcome.  

        

Was that not enough to kill time?  If you want more random and interesting facts visit Quick Movie Facts by Clicking Here!

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare.  They are consumed in twelve minutes.  Half-times take twelve minutes.  This is not coincidence.” ― Erma Bombeck

10 Things I Am Thankful For...

Thanksgiving is coming soon and I thought it would be a good idea to write some things that I am thankful for.  I don't want to make this a bragging excuse but it's honestly what I am thankful for.  It's meant to be silly but I'm pretty much serious for all of them.

1. My Asian genetics for basically having hairless arms and legs (Don't get me wrong I still grow hair like every human, if you look close): I don't have to worry when my legs accidentally comes to contact with another person.  Although I have a strange fetish for that...I promise it's not as creepy as it sounds. 
2. Music: Enough said.
3. Trash collectors: Because someone's gotta do it especially when everybody goes all out for Thanksgiving.  I just can't have flies lay their execrable maggot spawns on my food, I just can't.
4. Not being allergic to anything...that I know of...: My six year old cousin is allergic to chocolate.  CHOCOLATE!  She is missing out on her childhood big time and you know it.
5. That my parents aren't divorced: "[I] get the best of both worlds.  Chill it out, take it slow.  Mix it all together and [I] know that it's the best of both worlds." - Hannah Montana
6. Being able to eat practically anything in any amounts: Looks are deceiving.  I can probably eat three times as much as what you normally eat.  Just saying.  
7. Socks: I hate it when my feet are cold.  I'm also self concious of my feet so to have fabric over my feet is the best therapy I could ever ask for.
8. Gummy worms: They are my best friend when I'm stressed and upset.  Well they are pretty much there when I'm hungry, which is practically all the time.  Refer to number six on my list.  
9. That the toilet in my dorm room has not clogged up (put on your helmets and grab your weapons because we're in war): It would be super awkward and it's not like we could leave it there expecting someone to clean it.  Because we (my roommates and I) have our own bathroom, we have to clean it.  Well more often I have to clean it, so it's on mother nature.   
10. People who are willing to crack my back: Because I can persuade them into giving me massages afterwards.  I'd like to call it a genius guilt trip.  Think about it, once you're on the ground and compliment on their extraordinary magic, they can't help but be flattered by rare occasions.   

So if you know me pretty well you're probably laughing from this.  I'm curious as to what you guys are thankful for!  Let me know by commenting below :)  You don't have to have an account with Blogger in order to comment!!!

“Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more.  If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.” ― Oprah Winfrey

What is Humor? Why Do We Laugh?

You should know that I am a serious YouTube addict.  I'll watch a tutorial video "How To Do a Waterfall Braid" and end up watching a video of  "Spider VS Scorpion."  It happens.  Yes, I have YouTube accounts (Themediversion and TheAccutaneDiary) and I subscribe to my favorite YouTube users.  One of my favorite YouTube stars is Michael Stevens, better known as Vsauce.  He answers interesting topics like the one I'm about to discuss.  He also shares information on items one can buy online and interesting stories.  I highly recommend subscribing to him! Vsauce Channel

Just know that most of what I'll share comes from him and that I don't claim any of these information :)  I'm just spreading the knowledge because it's free!  Well...not like we are spending thousands of dollars for college classes or anything.

Anyways, think of this as SparkNotes or Cliffnotes for videos, your welcome.

So back to the question: What makes something funny?  Why do we laugh in response to something funny?

There are people who study this phenomenon called Gelotologist.  It's said that you are 30 times more likely to laugh when in a group of people because it acts as a social and bonding function.  There are two parts to laughing: the good where "laughing with" is conforming to a new idea or the bad where "laughing at" is a way to cast away the person.  

Laughing can be thought as a form of language.  We don't have to learn it because it occurs unconsciously meaning we were born with the capacity to laugh.  Take babies for example.  Babies laugh just as Swahili men or Portuguese women would.  So I guess we all laugh in the same way to some sort of "trigger."

Our brains are looking for patterns in understanding what is happening and predicts what will happen next.  This particular function of our brain is considered to be our evolutionary advantage.  So when we expect something to occur and all the sudden it changes, we often react with laughter.  We have just learned something that is a logical order.

This theory is called The Incongruity Theory of Humor.  This theory says that things are funny because there is a consistency between what we expect and what happened.  For example, a chicken dressed as a French man holding wine or clever memes. 

  

 

Comedy is a form of learning.  Once you learn the new logical order of the joke it ceases to be funny.  That's why jokes are funny the first time but not every other time after that.  You already learned something from it so you don't laugh.  Did you know that we laugh to ourselves even less than we talk to ourselves?  

Let's see if I can use my school knowledge to good use.  In chemistry, elements can be represented in many ways.  The elements in the periodic table are complicated but lets face it they are fascinating.  Some transition elements, like iron, have two or more commonly occurring charges due to oxidation states.  In other words, there are different "versions" of the element to balance the rest of the formula.  Iron can be expressed as Fe2+ or Fe3+.  So with different chemical compositions comes different names.  Ferrous (Fe2+) indicates a divalent iron compound while ferric (Fe3+) indicates a trivalent iron compound.    

So even though this may be new information to you, it's not funny because it falls in line with the logic of the iron element.  However, if I show you a picture of a "ferrous wheel" depicting the Fe2+ then it should surprise you.  The two dots you see around the Fe represents the 2+ charge in ferrous.

         

This is also why shows like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are successful.  That's why more people learn politics better when the information presented to them is comical than in a classroom setting.  Let's stay away from this controversial topic, I only brought it up to prove a point :)

But we don't only laugh when something is funny.  We also laugh and smile when we are tickled, but we don't even like it.  Why is this the case?  Tickling helps teach children at a young age proper defensive behaviors.  Think about it, the most ticklish areas are the most vulnerable and the ones we cover when startled.  That's why you can't tickle yourself because you know it is coming so you aren't learning anything from it.  

Physically, laughing involves the epiglottis (a flap that prevents us from swallowing unwanted things into our lungs) because it constricts the larynx.  There are taste buds on the epiglottis which means comedy is a matter of taste.  Ding!   

I hope you find this to be interesting!  I certainly did.  Now you won't laugh the same way again, whoops!  I need to start doing productive things now, sigh.  

    

 “I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.” ― Woody Allen

My 6 Favorite Songs of All Time

1. Everybody Wants to Rule The World - Tears For Fears
2. Into The Ocean - Blue October
3. Pretty Young Thing (P.Y.T) - Michael Jackson
4. I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
5. This Is War - Thirty Seconds To Mars
6. Fast Car - Tracy Chapman

“The earth has music for those who listen.” ― William Shakespeare

Being Spontaneous Me

Look down at your feet.  Are you wearing socks?  Are you confused?  Are you asking yourself, "Why in the world was this blog created?"  Well I can answer that, I think.

I write to get my ideas out.  It makes me feel better about myself because there are things that spill out that I don't even know existed.  I guess that could be good or bad, whoops.  But I want to share my thoughts with everybody else because I feel like one of the best ways to learn about yourself is through me.  Woah, what?

Yup!  If you find certain things or traits in a person, you automatically compare that to yourself and others without noticing it.  Come at me haters!  It's an automatic process and it is a very fascinating one.  It's what I like to call "THE CONNECTION."

Boom.  Now I hope you can see how this is all coming together.  Slowly but surely.  

My goal for this blog is not to be scored on content, spelling, fluency, organization, and grammar.  I admit, writing is not a forte of mine and I sombrely accept that fact.  But I want to reiterate that words are words,  ideas are ideas.  Moments are shared differently and this is a raw one that you are witnessing.  So why can't words be pure for goodness sakes?

I'll be focusing on three parts of this blog: fun random facts, life stories, and post those meme-moments-when-you-look-at-a-picture-on-Facebook-and-exclaim-Yes!-awkwardly-and-randomly-because-it's-true.  It's fun to be diverse with content and I wouldn't want to lose your attention.  Call me, attention hog.

Ultimately, there's always something to learn from one another where this CONNECTION will always be alive.  It's whether or not you dare to humiliate yourself at life's greatest gifts.  Enjoy! :)

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” ― Herman Melville