Commented Blogs

Devin's More is better: http://dshort44.blogspot.com/2009/10/more-is-better-truth-about-serving.html?showComment=1256676447418#c5925475534487395938

I do believe that in America there's better chance at getting self-serve in the yogurts and buffets. After all, humans are all greedy in some way, so the more we can possibly get, we thrive to achieve that. It gives us a sense/feel of accomplishment. Other than yogurt stores and buffets, fast food restaurants like Dairy Queen offers the ''Sweet Deals'': different choice of three-four combination under five dollars-- from chocolate ice cream to blizzards to fries and hamburgers. Even in In-N-Out, where we normally would not notice when we order our burgers, you can tell them to get rid of the lettuce or the tomato, or add an extra packedge of mustard or ranch sauce on the buns.

Coming back to the self-serving yogurt, I love the idea how you can choose what kind of flavor and toppings you want to add. Though in some other yogurt stores I've been to, such as KiwiBerry, where you cannot self-serve, the containers are small, and the cashier is all running around taking money and checks, while running back to help another person in line with their yogurt and toppings. It can become a bit unsanitary in my opinion.

On the other hand, can we really have the stomach finish what we get? Such as the giant bowel of frozen yogurt with three different flavors, and eight different toppings literally as large as Mt. Everest. If we cannot, wouldn't they be just going waste?

Sooyeon's Coca Cola Happiness: http://sooyeonluvu.blogspot.com/2009/10/coca-cola-happiness-factory.html?showComment=1256677192994#c5646726336255764686

I've never seen the commercial like this on coca cola. And even though I'm not a big fan of coke, or any soda for that matter, I actually like this ad. Probably because I love art and design in general, it's what attracts me to it. The overall computer generated designs of the characters and colors draws the viewer's attention, because that's what draws in our focus-- the color. The many variety of colorful combination makes us want to continue viewing the advertisement, and see where it will lead us. Eventually it leads to the coca cola, and the sudden urge of wanting to go downstairs to the vending machine strikes in. I guess this advertisement works on children more than adults, because cute little cartoon characters attracts a child more. And when they go up to their mom or dad asking for a bottle of coke from Seven Eleven-- can the parent say no?

As much as I love this ad, I tend to think more on a negative side of things. This ad about coca cola is so perfect-- hooking the viewer's attention and visually telling them through the images that if you drink coke, you'll be in this sort of fantasy land, away from all the stress and fatigue. To be, it is quite unrealistic, because I know that coke is made from a factory, not in some fantasy world full of cute little characters.

Do you like the taste of "Blood"?

Think vampires only exists in the fantasy world, and in movies such as Twilight and Van Helsing?

Yes, I know that the title might already make some readers sick to the stomach. But I thought it will be interesting to write about, since I just came back with my family from ''yin cha'' at Diamond Bar. We ordered, or rather, my parents ordered pork blood cakes-- or puddings, or whatever it was but in that kind of shape and form. For some reason I could not even reach out and take just one piece with my chopstick. It sickened me and I could not finish my meal for the rest of the lunch period. It is rather odd because when I was little back in Taiwan, I ate pork blood cakes all the time, lingered with sweet and sour sauce. But nowadays I find it displeasing to my appetite-- not to say, disgusting, even.

Before, I only thought that people living in the Asian countries eat exotic foods such as animal blood. However, I soon discovered that Europeans stuff animal blood-- such as cow's blood, pork's blood-- into sausages. The most common blood sausage is the German Blutwurst, made from pork rind, pork blood, and stuffed with different ingredients and seasonings. Eating animal blood exists also in South America as well. In Spanish they call it the morcilla, which contains pork blood and its fat, rice, onions, and of course, salt and seasonings. Not only do blood sausages exist, but different countries create different sorts of meals ranging from soups, puddings, cakes, tofu, or cooked together with meats and vegetables. It can also be fried or eaten fresh. In China's mainland, there are blood tofu, or ''red tofu'', which are cut in bite-size rectangular pieces and cooked.

For some culture, though, consider eating animal blood as taboo food because of religious reasons, such as for the Jewish and Muslim religions. They perceive is as uncooked and explicit, so they refuse to eat. For some households, the pre-butchered and pre-packedged meats one buys in supermarket, they would open the packedge, wash the blood off the meat before preparing to cook it. But in other cultures, because food is scarce for them, they will try not to leave any parts of the animal to waste. Therefore, for most of us, where we only eat the outside-- the meaty parts of the animal; ribs, breast, thighs, they eat both the outside and the ''insides'' as well. And that ranges from the heart, intestine, and of course-- blood as well.

Now I understand where the legendary creature ''vampire'', came from; someone witnessing another human being consuming blood. Think that it turns your stomach upside down when we watch a horror movie, and the vampire sink its fangs into a human's flesh, sucking blood out from the person's neck? Well, since we humans consider ourselves as the smartest living being on earth, we find ways to make what we do more appealing to the eye: like our eating habits, for example. We don't just chop off someone's head and drain their blood onto a plate to make it a blood soup. We actually add other ingredients into it, stuff them into sausages, or make them into tofu's and cakes, so they don't appear like blood on the outside, if at all. Even so, we are still vampires. We simply just made our ways of eating manners more pleasing to ourselves, and the people around us. Imagine the world where everyone is dragging a random somebody and gnawing on their blood and all; it would be chaos.

Personally, I cannot stand just seeing this kind of food in any form. And the reason for that is because after I came to America, my living style adjusts, and so becomes the way I eat. In America, you do not find small stands or carts selling foods out on the street like in Taiwan. Here it is mostly consist of fast food hamburgers and fries, many American-style restaurants. And as time goes by I started to grow accustomed to the foods here. Next time my parents order something like that again when we go to ''yin cha'', I'll just leave go to downstairs for a breath of fresh air, or buy boba and wait until they are finished.

Citation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_as_food

The ''Activia" Challenge

Remember Dannon's Activia Yogurt commercial, featuring Jamie Lee Curtis? I recently saw the commercial coming back on television. I am pretty sure that almost every single living human being on this planet has at least tried a dairy product call ''yogurt''. And I am sure that when ask what kind of health benefits do yogurt have, most people can answer right off the bat that it contains calcium and protein and helps to reduce lactose-intolerant, and helps regulate digestive system to prevent diarrhea. Other brands like Yoplait and Stonyfield Farm do not point out on their commercials that ''it helps regulate your digestive system in two weeks if you consume it every day." and "clinically proven to build up your immune system."

Not only does Activia claims that its yogurt will ease your digestive system unlike any other brand, but its main source of target is on women. Notice the illustration of a woman's stomach, with the arrow pointing down? It suggests not only will the product helps ease digestive problems, but also slim you down. And that curve line at the waist area is what all women want to shoot for-- "Yes, I want a slim waist and a flat tummy so I can actually fit into the size of my number four jeans and go to the beach without having to hide the fats in my stomach."

By indicating "clinically proven to regulate your digestive system in two weeks", consumers will no longer have to buy stomach reliving products like Tums and Pepto-Bismol-- because Activia yogurt not only cures the irregularity like two other brands above, the yogurt itself is healthy for you. Therefore, would you rather buy a product that offers only one benefit, or two-in-one benefit? Most people will definitely choose the second option. But, just in case they do not, they will at least have some degree of curiosity and buy the yogurt to try it out for two weeks.

I find Dannon's Activia commercial ridiculously funny, because we all know that yogurt have special probotics that helps build our immune system. But it is their job, for food companies, to invent something creative on their brand new product, launch it on commercial in order to have the viewer's attention into purchasing it. Their goal is to outdo other companies selling the same product by making their own more not only extravagant in appearance, but promising good health benefits in return because these days, many strive to eat healthy. And what is not considering as healthy food besides fruits, vegetables, and grain? Yogurt. It comes in many shapes and sizes and form; you can either drink it from a bottle, or eat it with a spoon. Nowadays there are even yogurt chips-- small bite size chips that are shape like white chocolate chips. Oh, and they can be sprinkled on ''frozen'' yogurt. Yogurt is everywhere.

I believe that Dannon's Activia commercial is just like any other ''weight loss'' commercials, promoting that their yogurt will slim down your tummy fat-- and the "help ease irregularity" is just an understatement. Similar to the Jenny Craig and the NutriSystem, it will help you lose weight. But unlike those two, you don't have to pay much for it. Simply go to the dairy section in a grocery store, pay less than twenty-dollars for a pack of Acvitia yogurt, and you are good to go~ No vigorous exercising needed~!

I think it is quite a disappointment that eating yogurt is no longer for an afternoon dessert enjoyment.

<-- This image probably even have some sexual preferences to it.