Tasty Flan

flan, a photo by Icubed11 on Flickr.

Flan is an amazing delicious dessert that is heaven to my taste buds.

Flan is a custard dessert with caramel on it and is very similar to creme brulee. It is sometimes referred as creme caramel in Spanish speaking countries and in North America. In the United States, it is known as a Latin American dish though it originated in Spain.

Some Latin American countries such as Argentina and Mexico eat it with dulce de leche. Dulce de Leche is sweetened milk heated so much that it becomes very thick. In the Philippines, they make it with more condensed milk and egg yolks. It is very similar to the Spanish version because Spain has a big influence in the Philippines.

If you have not tried it, you should because it's delicious and amazing. I'm posting about flan because I'm eating flan. (You can also see a glass of milk in the background).

I can't fall asleep, but I sure can dream.

Photo by PhotoSteve101

One thing that fascinates me is the art of Lucid Dreams. Lucidity is a dream that a person is aware of. While doing so, a person can decide what they want to dream about and it is said to be quite vivid and realistic. Frederik van Eeden was the man who named this term. Imagination is very important in these dreams because it makes for a better lucid dream.

An ordinary dream can shift and transform itself into a lucid dream when a person's consciousness changes from a normal waking state into a dream state without fully knowing what is occurring. During regular dreams, you're not aware you're dreaming until you're awake. In lucid dreams, you are aware while you're sleeping. It all sounds confusing, but maybe this YouTube video can help you understand better.

I find this very fascinating because usually dreams are weird and you wake up going, "What just happened?" I usually find my dreams weird and the images are fuzzy, and as in the video says, "In dreams, these images are usually blurred..." and all day I have to try to decode my dreams.

In lucid dreams, it's like being an author or an artist- you decide what happens. As one of my favorite song states, "She ran away in her sleep, and dreamed of Para-Para-Paradise... Everytime she closed her eyes."- Paradise by Coldplay (I bet she was lucid dreaming.)

NOODLES vs pasta

Photo by: cibomahto


Most people in America think noodles and pasta are the same thing with different names. However, they are very different in many aspects. Also many are debating on which one is better and healthier. In my opinion, noodles rain supreme over the common pasta.

Noodles and pasta differ in shape. Noodles are very skinny and sweet while pasta is big. The noodle originated from China, while the pasta is from Italy. Although some people think the pasta dates all the way back to China.

Spaghetti is made only from wheat and flour, while the world famous noodle has an assortment of ingredients. Pasta is typically eaten with the common house hold utensil, the fork. Where as the noodle, it is eaten with the more unique tool, the chopstick.

As you can see, the noodle beats pasta any day. The noodle comforts people while the pasta makes people feel like a monster. If you want to find out more information regarding this debate, you can check out this website.

News: Mass Effect 3

Photo by Vassilena

So I had an assignment that was to wright anything that was in the news or newsworthy and it just so happens that i think Mass Effect 3 is newsworthy.

Mass Effect 3 comes out on March 6 2012. The game has a demo  and from personal experience it is AWESOME!

Mass Effect's are 3rd person shooters combined with RPG (Role Playing Game). In number 3 there are options to play Story, RPG, or Action. if you pick RPG then its a basic Mass Effect game.

If you have Kinect you can use it to shout out commands at your team.

Jazz Festival

photo by: Angela Hawkins

Every year the Upland high music program hosts an annual jazz festival. Not only is it a competition, but they also have guest artists perform with the jazz band.

The next competition is going to be on March 2nd and 3rd. The junior high divisions will be competing on the 2nd and the high schools will be on the 3rd. It will be held from 8am to 6:30pm, and on the third it will be from 8am to 8pm.

The guest artist that will be performing is trombone player Alex Iles. Iles has performed with the world famous jazz band Big Phat Band. Now he gets the chance to perform with the Upland High jazz band.

If you want to find out more information about this event you can visit this website.

Clean Your Yard or Go to Jail

cells, a photo by andreakw on Flickr.

A man named Robert Biel was given many chances to clean up his yard or suffer the consequences.

His yard was filled with boats and cars. He says he makes a living off that, but that didn't matter to the police. He says that no one had the right to take his property or do any of this. The county charged Robert with illegal dumping.

He was on probation where he was supposed to clean up but didn't do it. He is now sentenced to one year and a day in jail. When he gets out he has to clean up.

To me his punishment is a little extreme, but he was given many chances to clean up. It's funny though. It makes me glad that I don't go to jail when I don't clean my room.

You can see the video right here.

Singers, Witchdoctors, and Zombies. Oh my!

Photo by This is Awkward

Recently, while browsing the internet for some inspiration on recent news articles, I found a story that struck to me as very strange. A man, who was impersonating the South African singer Khulekani Kwakhe "Mgqumeni" Khumalo (who died in 2009) claims he is Khulekani, and that he is not really dead. 

His story was that he was kidnapped by a witchdoctor. He states that the witchdoctor then put him under a series of spells and kept him locked in a cave- with zombies. Zombies? How much of a phony do you have to be to make up a story that is set to be true and throw zombies into it? 

Well, police noticed that this impersonator's fingerprints don't match to the real singer's and he doesn't have the same scars that the real Khulekani had when he was alive. Get the full story here and try not to get snatched up by witchdoctors' and imprisoned with zombies and such.