Drinking makes women smarter?

Well, it’s not that cut-and-dry, but still interesting nonetheless.

A study of 7,000 older women found that those who consume a moderate amount of alcohol have higher levels of mental function than non-drinkers.

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center found that compared to non-drinkers, women who reported drinking up to two or three drinks per day performed better on measures of global cognitive function, which includes concentration, language, memory and abstract reasoning.

Crazy, right? Additionally, when did a few drinks every day become moderate? Lead author of the study, Mark Espeland also makes it a point to say at the end of the report:

"Until we better understand the reasons why alcohol consumption is associated with better cognitive functioning, these results on their own are not a reason for people who don't drink to start or for those who drink to increase their intake.”

Damn!!!

Exiled from Heaven

"Um, good evening...or should I say, good morning. The time is twenty-five to five, and I've been sitting here for some time now, actually...(?) from a party which I quite enjoyed, but you know, it's... One has one's reservations when one has quite enjoyed oneself, but one has to make reservations because, um, the people were particularly interesting...in moments of stress, such as was this journey home, one forgets so easily, the lies, the truth and the pain...and so I'm wavering from the point... What I was trying to say...um, when I sat here I had an extremely pleasant time on the piano actually. I was playing the piano and sort of singing, and I rather fear I may have kept people awake upstairs...one hopes not, but it was pleasant, and it's extremely pleasant sitting here now, because I think there is something extraordinarily nice about seeing the dawn up before one goes to bed, because there's something uncanny about it, when it suddenly becomes light, because one connects darkness with going to bed, surely...um, and when one is still up when it becomes light, and it's a new day, and you still haven't gone to bed, to sleep, because the night equals sleep, so easily, and when one is still up when the new day begins, it is something of an (achieved?) experience, I always find. I can look out of the window now, and that tree over there is green, whereas before one goes to bed, just when one goes to bed, that tree should be black, surely. Everything should be black before one goes to bed, but that is surely the essence of the romantic. Anyway, I think I'm straying from the point. I shall probably stop now because, um, if I don't I shall start sort of surrealating on life histories and things, which will be frightfully tedious. So it's here that I'll sort of say good night, you know... Good night."

-Nick Drake
(June 19, 1948 – November 25, 1974) was a British singer/songwriter.

Thought Piece

Its 5:30 am...and I am up...watching the sun rise over Amman...and working hard on this never ending PhD of mine...and after wasting time playing cards with friends-wasting as in should have been working mish wasting as in I didn't enjoy it-I have decided to stay up as long as I can, with the help of coffee-and just crash when I crash.
Now of course rather then actually working on it...I have spent the last couple of hours looking at blogs...writing in mine...trying to find a picture to put with the last post...well ANYTHING bas not have to open my word document and continue writing. How frustrating it is, and how time consuming it is, I mean rather then try and find all these things to do, I could just have done the one thing I needed to do. And what is even more funny-well in my current state of mind I find it funny-is that all the energy and time spent doing this-the wasting of time-I am sure I would be at least another couple of thousand of words further into my chapter. I think that is the issue-I call it a chapter...I am sure if I called it a section/essay/thought piece...I would not be so threatened/intimidated by it...I mean to think that I am writing a CHAPTER is a bit much...ok...I have wasted enough of your and my time...I shall go back to my thought piece...see what I can come up with before my eyes and brain really shut!

Morally Corrupt

I have always been a cheater...in every game I have ever played in, if I saw a chance to cheat I took it...without looking back aw having a bad conscience about it. I don't see anything wrong with cheating when playing a game of cards, chess, badminton and even games when I play against myself like Tekken on my old PlayStation! You can all point at me and call me a cheater-which I am-bas I am quite sure that most, if not ALL of you have cheated at some point in a game.
The best is when you are playing Tarneeb (Trumps) and you wanna tell your partner which suit to choose, and you come up with lines like, Oh its so true that Diamonds are a girls best friends...or did you hear that Brad Pitt had a HEART attack yesterday...god we really need to plant some TREES in this garden...well those are the only ones I can think of...the heart which a stick ups it's ass is a bit hard to come up with a sentence for!
I have cheated on exams, not only in school bas all the way through University-I used to think that one could hide books aw notes in the toilets...so when you go to the lou you can take a few minutes and read them. I never did it...bas in school my friends and I had a whole system for multiple choice answers, and how to get the answers to each other.
The only thing I have not cheated on, is any of my exs. I have always been loyal to them, and that is the one place/time that I would not find cheating worth doing. I must be honest I have thought about it...you know you see someone goodlooking aw you talk to someone interesting and you wonder...hmmmm...should I...bas I wouldn't.
But to be honest I don't find cheating such a great crime-I mean we are all happy when someone says that they have cheated death! (kidding)
Bas in a game of cards...it can be fun...especially when you do something really really really obvious and no one notices...the feeling IS AMAZING!!!

"Because what's love but an itch we can't scratch,

a joke we can't catch

But still we laugh"


-Jewel

Heartbreak

We have all had our hearts broken at some point in our lives. Here I am not talking about it in the abstract sense, I am talking about when you literally feel your heart going into two pieces-yeah ok it is abstract since the heart never actually gets broken. Heartbreak can be caused when someone you love tells you that they love you no longer, the man/woman you are with leaves you. Bas I have come to the conclusion that the worst heartbreak is when you realise that the person you love is no longer someone you can love. I mean when you realise that the person you have put all that time, energy and just pure belief in them, that they are just not who you thought he/she really is, that they don't deserve to have taken up so much of your time, energy and belief in them.
I don't know if I am making sense, bas I realised yesterday while sitting in my garden having a drink and listening to my ipod, that from all the heartbreaks that I have experienced this is the worst. La2no it is not about that other person, it really is about you, you not being able to make good choices, you put all of YOURself into this relationship-whatever it is friendship aw more, and they not being worth it in the end. Maybe worth it is to strong an expression, or maybe it is the right one.
But I really think that this is the worst heartbreak ever, and it really is completely internal and self-induced, no one but me/I made it happen. When someone else tells you that they no longer love you, or want to be with you, then really it is out of your control, you can't convince them aw force them to be with you aw love you. Bas when it is your own heart that you can't control it makes the sourness you feel at the realisation that they are not the ONE so much harder to bear.

New Motto

UFFAAAAA......MISH TAY2A!!!!

Virgin State of Mind

I am currently going through a personal revolution while reading a book entitled My Mother/Myself, by Nancy Friday, quite an amazing book that every woman should read and then give to her mother to read also.
Anyway, I found an interesting theory in it, that I also remember reading in The Colour Purple. In the book, My Mother/Myself, she is talking about the Virgin Mary, and she states a theory that heard: "Mary and Joseph did have sexual intercourse. What kept Mary chaste was that she wasn't thinking about it. She was pure of mind and with God. Therefore, it didn't count." In the Colour Purple, Celie has had two children, but she knows little about her own body. Shug's response to Celie's ignorance is: "Why Miss Celie you still a virgin." That is, Celie has never experienced orgasm or physical pleasure, or even emotional pleasure when she has had sex. Sex, to Shug, is synonymous with delicious pleasure, and if Celie is ignorant of that pleasure, then she is still a virgin to the world of sexuality.
The power of this theory, and I guess controversy is that it puts the virginity of a woman-which is of utmost importance in our culture-in the mind of woman, which means SHE controls it, and thus empowers her. It means that even if she is raped, married off against her will, or with a man that she does not love-even worse a man that she does love, she is still a virgin until she enjoys the physical act.
I talked about it with some friends of mine, and well as you might imagine, the men made fun and the women agreed...well some of them at least! I thought I would throw this out there for discussion, see what we come up with.