"It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice." After today, I will only have 2 weeks left here and then I won't ever have to put up with this smashed up crackerbox again.....I am glad another month has passed here finally, it seemed to be the longest one yet, but I'm just glad it's over with....Still the rest of the summer to drudge through...I hope that it flies by faster than I can imagine...I am soooo excited from just moving to another house cause I've been soooo sick of this one, and have begged numerous times to move over and over and over cause I got into with these psycho-head neighbours I'm forced to be around and their stupid disgusting human-sized dogs....It was always some excuse before, and now I finally got my wish to forever get away from them....I've never met such rotten^&*%&* people in my entire life until I got into this lifestyle....No I am not just saying that to be difficult, they would have their nuisance of a dog make a mess all through our yard then just leave it when they have their own yard, then just go off like they didn't do anything...I had my husband ask them over and over to stop, cause I wouldn't talk to anyone like that with such a nasty attitude, and they would agree and yes us to death to the face, then go and do the exact same thing all over again when we weren't around...I couldn't plant flowers out front, or add more plants to the lonely one I have when I first got here nothing..I wasn't going to do all that and have some dog dig it up and have the brats that were in charge of it happening think it's funny...So weeds it was, I ignored everything from the parking lot to my front door...the gopher holes, rat traps they put all around, mice running in front of us on the sidewalks at night when we came home in the winter time here....I decorated up in front of my front door with lawn ornaments, but nothing else....I think I will never be free of this until we get our own yard again like we had in Italy, but still that will be total freedom once I break away from such hateful people here....So 2 more weeks..I hope it's a total blur that I don't have much memory of once it finally does pass....I'm tooooo excited even if I won't have my internet for a few days until the end of that week, I am willing to go through anything to be free of certain people and certain things around me here...it's hard to explain to anyone who doesn't seem to have a problem with anything, or otehr people never get on their nerves...Let's see, they are throwing a sports day at us on Friday, the start of our holiday weekend....funny how I should have a major dental procedure that very same day incase I'm pestered about going...that would be total hell on earth for me trying to go around playing sports in front of like 400+ people...honestly I really would rather die than do something like that ever ever ever...I get in a huge group like that, and I feel like all eyes are on me...hate it hate it hate it....no matter what it is going on....so hope no one else has to put up with what I have to here, it's really really miserable and just plain aggravating esp. if no one seems to understand your frustrations
and tells you that you need to get along with other people...huh I get along just fine with my friends we've never had a problem, of course we would never treat each other that way either...just really sick of dealing with others who are always taking the other person's side and never listening to mine.....one day I will be free of them and won't be one bit sorry.... good night everyone last day of this month finally finally finally...... I love this little animation I discovered whenever I was back in Italy...tooo cute..I got one of these movies, but haven't seen it forever....I saw something on the tv today how they came up with all those cutie characters and constructed them and it reminded me finally of them...I don't think it's so big for Americans as it is for British...hmm I think the day I actually start getting along with Americans is the day I will actually enjoy sitting still and wanting to count and rearrange floor tiles....okay, good night for real this time... 2 more days until weekend!!! xoxoxo here's a bit of inside info on Shuri Castle that I went to..I could never remember all of this ever, but it was still so nice to go to even though it was burning up hot....Shuri Castle
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Shuri Castle
首里城
Naha, Okinawa, Japan

Seiden (main hall) of Shuri Castle
Type Gusuku
Built 14th century, last rebuilt 1958-1992
Construction
materials Stone, wood
In use 14th century - 1945
Demolished 1945, numerous times previous
Current
condition Reconstructed, UNESCO World Heritage Site
Controlled by Chūzan (14th century-1429), Ryūkyū Kingdom (1429-1879), Japan (1879-present)
Occupants Kings of Chūzan and Ryūkyū Kingdom
Battles/wars Battle of Okinawa (1945)


ShureimonShuri Castle (Okinawan: Japanese: 首里城 Shurijō) is a gusuku (Ryūkyūan castle) in Shuri, Okinawa. It was the palace of the Ryūkyū Kingdom. In 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa, it was almost completely destroyed, with only a few walls standing as high as a few decimeters. In 1992, it was reconstructed on the original site based on photographs, historical records, and memory.

History
The date of construction is uncertain, but it was clearly in use as a castle during the Sanzan period. It is thought that it was probably built during the Gusuku period, like the other castles of Okinawa. When King Shō Hashi unified the three sections of Okinawa and established the Ryūkyū Kingdom, he used Shuri Castle as a residence. At the same time, Shuri flourished as the capital, and continued to do so during the second Sho dynasty.

For 450 years from the beginning of the 15th century, it was the royal court and administrative center of the Ryūkyūan Kingdom. It was the focal point of foreign trade, as well as the political, economical and cultural heart of the Ryūkyūs.

According to records, Shuri Castle burned several times, and was reconstructed each time. Before the war, it was designated a National Treasure, but during the war, the Japanese military set up its headquarters underground at the castle, and beginning on May 25, 1945, the American battleship Mississippi shelled it for three days[2]. On May 27 it burned.[3] After the battle a Confederate Battle Flag (the only one available, which personally belonged to the company commander, who was from South Carolina) was hoisted above the castle by the Marine self entitled "Rebel Company" (Company A of the 5th Marine Regiment). It was visible for over two miles and stayed above the castle for three days until being removed by General Simon B. Buckner, Jr.(son of Confederate General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Sr.) saying Americans from all parts of America helped win the battle.

After the war, the University of the Ryūkyūs moved to the castle site, where it remained until 1975. In 1958, the Shureimon gate was rebuilt, and in 1992, the main building of the castle was reconstructed. At present, the entire area around the castle has been established as Shuri Castle Park. In 2000, along with other gusuku and related sites, it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2008, it was featured in the video game, Call of Duty: World at War.
Sites of interest
Because of its central role in Ryūkyūan political and religious life, Shuri Castle is surrounded by various sites of historical interest. Featured in their own articles are Shureimon, the main gate to the castle, and Tamaudun, the royal tombs located adjacent to Shuri Castle.

Stone Gate of Sonohyan-utaki

Sonohyan Utaki Shrine with Ishimon GateThis stone gate to the left of Shureimon gate was erected in 1519 by King Shō Shin, the third king of the second Shō dynasty. Here at the Sonohyan-utaki, the king offered prayers for order throughout the kingdom and safety at the outset of all his travels. The stone gate reflects the kingdom's advanced limestone masonry skills. It is designated an important national cultural property, and is itself also registered as a distinct element of the collective UNESCO World Heritage site designated as Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu, alongside Shuri Castle itself.

[edit] Shikina-en
Built in 1799, the royal gardens and villa were not only where the royals relaxed but was also used to host the investiture envoys who came from the Great Empire, China. The garden's circle layout resembles plans used in modern Japanese gardens, but the villa itself with its red tile is uniquely Ryūkyūan, and pond and bridge to the miniature island is in the Chinese style. This is a rare, historically valuable example of Ryūkyūan landscape gardening, and Shikina-en is also registered as a distinct element of the collective UNESCO World Heritage site designated as "Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu", alongside Shuri Castle itself.

Kankaimon

KankaimonFirst built around 1477-1500 during the reign of King Shō Shin, the gate was burned down during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 and restored in 1974. Kankaimon is the first front gate to Shuri Castle, kankai (歓会) meaning "welcome". The gate was named to express welcome to the investiture envoys who visited Shuri Castle as representatives of the Chinese Emperor.

[edit] "Bridge of Nations" Bell
The "Bridge of Nations" Bell (万国津梁の鐘, Bankoku shinryō no kane) was cast in 1458, during the reign of King Shō Taikyū, and hung at the Seiden (main hall) of the castle. The 721 kg bell is today in the collection of the Okinawa Prefectural Museum; a full-size replica hangs on the castle site[4].

The inscription on the bell describes Ryūkyū's prominence in maritime trade in the South Seas and prosperous trade relations with China, Korea, Japan, and the various states of Southeast Asia; the bell's name derives from this.



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Wow, I had no idea anyone else out there was as frustrated as I was having to live over here in Asia....Only I found this post, and they live over in Beijing, China..I'm glad I"m not the only one who goes off on this thing and to other people and everyone else here looks at me like I"m crazy...I totally understand how this person feels cause I get this all the time..I got some dope guy the other day, I'm thinking this last weekend chatting loud enough to his friends when I was nearby, and made some remark to me about speaking Gaelic cause I had red hair or being Irish some junk like that (??????) what is up with that???? I don't even know that language, I can barely understand some people when they speak English, cause everyone has different accents coming from all over...Junk like that really gets me mad cause I have a certain look to me that no one else has here, so I'm always the one picked out of anyone....Really though, I am thilled to pieces that I"m not the only one on this planet who feels so frustrated having to be over here....."I live smack dab in the middle of Beijing. The problem with Chinese drivers is that for them, the red light is just a suggestion to stop. The yellow light is a warning to speed up and get through the intersection. They justify it by saying that people who own cars are richer, and therefore have more power than pedestrians and bikers.
People in cars sometimes drive really fast, then cut into the bike lane right in front of me and slam on the brakes, laughing wildly when I crash into the backs of their cars. Then they drive off really quickly.

The police are afraid to hand out tickets, just in case they accidentally hand one out to a city official or someone with an even higher political standing. My dad is a professor in my university, so we don't need to buy a car; he lives about 5 minutes away from his office. But to Chinese people, this is a clear sign that we are poor, which means they are allowed to look down on us "poor Americans" and get to run us off the streets.

But it's not a lack of respect for just foreigners. Chinese people don't even respect each other. I'm sick of this country. I can't wait to finish college and return to a country where people SAY THANK YOU after you do something nice, reply with YOU'RE WELCOME after you say thank you, DON'T SPIT ALL OVER THE GROUND, the children aren't PEEING ALL OVER THE SIDEWALKS.

I can't wait to return to a country where STRANGERS DON'T LOOK AT YOU LIKE YOU'VE JUST HAD A LOBOTOMY AFTER YOU SMILE AT THEM WHILE PASSING THEM ON THE STREET, where people DON'T POINT AND STARE AND SCREAM "HALLO, HALLO" AT YOU WHILE YOU'RE WALKING DOWN THE STREET WITH A CAUCASIAN PERSON, where people chew with their mouths closed and don't smack their lips and spit bones and seeds all over the table and floor.
Where people DON'T DENY THAT YOU ARE AMERICAN EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE ASIAN (yep, every time I say that I am American, they say, "But you don't look American. You look Chinese."
I reply "Americans don't have to be white" and they say "Of course they do. You are pretending to be a foreigner. You are Chinese. If your parents are Chinese that means you are Chinese."

Sorry, Martin Luther King Jr., looks like the Chinese deny your existence. Sorry all minorities in America. According to the Chinese, you are not American.
And if you even dare tell them that people evolved in Africa (they want nothing to do with Black people), then they will get really angry and start yelling at you in the street and tell you that YOU are the African one, so there!

It just all stems from a lack of respect. I can't tell you how many times I've almost been run over by someone in a car speeding through a red light, laying on his or her horn, the whole time cursing the pedestrians for getting in his or her way even though it's their green light.

All the taxi drivers hate the police officers. The taxi drivers follow a lot of the rules, because their jobs are on the line. So all day, they see the police officers ignoring people who break the rules and speed through red lights, sometimes stopping right in the middle of intersections, blocking traffic from all directions. Because they have cars and are rich, and therefore might be someone important in the government. Which means they are immune to traffic tickets.

But so far, out of the five years of living in Beijing, I have not gone through one day of not seeing one person put on speed even after the light has already turned red and people are starting to cross the street, just to lay on the horn, scare pedestrians back onto the sidewalk, and cause more traffic for perpendicular roads. I have not gone through one day of not seeing one person cross the street even though the light is red and risking his or her life instead of waiting 30 more seconds for the light to turn green. Probably never will, though."

Has anyone else seen this crazy video?!?!?! I was playing around on here, and found on FB, this number 2204355...it said to type that in Google, and hit I'm feeling lucky, and that would come up....it didn't work for me of course, but it is like all over the internet now, so it wasn't hard to find this, and then it just keeps playing and playing and playing!!! it doesn't come to an end until you stop it!!!!! I thought it was funny, not to mention gross gross gross cause I won't touch chicken like that you have to knaw off the bone....=p not sure why he wants everyone to watch him eating though....he's obviously become an internet phenonmenon just like other videos on here have...I found out today I have about 2 weeks left here where we are at now, then we're being made to move in the complete opposite direction to a different housing area....=p only to move permanetly from Japan 4 months later...I"m going to be stuck decorating after all even for that short of time, cause I don't do plain and boring.....I am not in the mood to pack up and have everything of mine lost in a pile along with everything else...I don't know why they decide to do this the last year we are here cause they are bored with everything but won't admit that like ever, and want to go around renovating every place they can and forcing people to move...Oh well, at least I'll be in different area and have some sort of view of a forest across the road instead of just parking lots and the highway outside the fence here...Hope everyone is having a good week, it's a major holiday for us this weekend, so I can't wait until this week is over with....Good night!!!

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/06/28/the-baffling-2204355-google-search-what-does-it-mean/

"The world is a book and those who do not Travel read only one page!!!!" "How can I miss u if you won't go away?!?!?" That was in a magazine here they said was on the wall of a Travel Agency years back...how funny and true is that...wish I could go around talking that way to people here, but I know I could never get away with something like that!!! =p I've been busy trying to sort things out to get ready to move soon, so I'm not sure how much I will get to be on here...Not much is happening here now...I should have my new pics on here this weekend...not sure where the time went, but I hardly got anything done over 2 days time...I can't help wishing this year was already over with and I was on my own back home...I really really can't wait to get away from this pathetic life style and back to normal society even if it is for a year...hopefully longer than that because I have absolutely no desire to come back to living this way...=psorry just how I feel and I can't change that!! don't like the crappy junky attitudes I get from people around me, and everyone is against everyone else...not the kind of people that I wanna be around!!! good night everyone have a good week!!! xxxx

It was another hot day here, and I had to spend most of it going through junk to get rid of or sell...That is the most boring thing on earth for me to do, cause I"d rather just shove it somewhere I don't have to see it or look at it....I am already preparing to move in about 6 weeks from now because I have been through that before, and it's not exactly fun for me...I can't stand everything of mine being thrown all over the place and I lose half my stuff in boxes stacked up on top of more boxes then shoved in a huge crate and nailed shut only to be moved about 12 blocks from here...How annoying is that???? Not my choice though...I just came home one day and found a notice thing slapped on my door saying that we were being relocated just like that...something about remodeling these buildings...I have no idea, but I don't have a problem with it...It's just a pain moving so much stuff...I"m too excited for the change though cause I"ve been at this place long enough and I just feel like it's closing in on me sometimes...We have a long weekend coming up because of the holiday this next weekend, so I doubt anything will happen between then and now...It was nice going to the beach this evening and walking along the wall there once everything was cooled off enough to do that...I'm guessing that nearly everyone went diving today since that's what I saw...something I'm not able to do cause I can't go down that far.....I hope to go there more this summer since this will be my last one here, even if I have to go in the evenings....I can't believe how fast this weekend flew by...I remember getting news about them finding us a new apt, and us going to look at it, me dragging it out staying there nearly 2 hours I was sooo happy with how much bigger it is there...and now Sunday night once again...=p another hot week to deal with...We came home and watched this movie we ordered...I saw this in the theatre whenever it came out last year...Soooo scary since it's a true story, and I also have the 1974 version of this one, but I like the 2009 one much better...I can't watch some parts cause it just makes me feel sick, but another reason I don't go hanging out in the woods since that is where all this happened....Those girls meet up with that one guy about their age where one of them is working, asking for drugs, and then are dumb enough to go back to his hotel room and go inside with the door shut when the other people come back... they are all drug dealers, and just committed several murders... the movie doesn't really go into details, but it mentions it a few times and it shows newspapers with them being wanted....They won't let them leave, and then end up taking them into the woods and beat and rape them and kill one of them, and keep on torturing the other girl....this was sick sick sick...and it's hard to tell what really happened, because the first one was a little different than the newer version....I had a hard time watching this cause growing up we would go and stay in condominiums surrounded by the forest that looked exactly like that...I believe it really happened up in Connecticut...there is really nothing up there honestly..you can drive through the whole state within just 30 minutes...there's some things of course...but it's not hard to find deserted areas like that...pretty scary I don't ever want to run into anything like that, but I don't go around asking people for drugs and following ones I barely even know to unknown areas....well I haven't been paying attention to the time and it's well after midnight now...hope everyone has a good week...talk with u all soon...=)

Shuri Castle was sooo much fun...I just had no idea they were remolding one side of it and it had all kinds of plastic and other things draped all over it...I'm glad I got some pictures of it but it didn't look as impressive as the ones that I pulled off here...It was sooo much walking, and it was dead hot here of course...I can't stand that slick and slimy feeling all over me...It really doesn't help much either other people rubbing up against me who are also slick and slimy...=p I took so many pictures I can't even remember them all, and I"ll try and get them on here tomorrow...We also went to a shopping mall for lunchtime, one I didn't even know was that far out there, and then to Chinese Gardens somewhere out in the middle of nowhere...Very exhausting day, but totally worth it...I at least want to see everything one more time before we have to leave here...I found out yesterday they found us a new place we'll most likely be moving to here in about 6 weeks from now...They are forcing us to relocate along with I don't know how many more others to renovate these buildings..That is a huge pain considering how we will only be there for 3 months only to pack up and move again...Our new place is better than here, and I was so happy and excited to see something different other than this place that I have for the past 3&1/2 years I wish that I could already start moving stuff so I won't have so much to worry with....I"m thinking about towards the end of summer almost when they will finally give the okay and set up everything to have us moved just to the opposite end from where we are now...We are on the north end, and are moving completely to the east side...Just a straight shot, but still a long stretch...Not my choice but still a huge pain to have to have everything thrown together again just to move less than 20 minutes away.....It is a nice location, and the forest is right out my front door...Not sure how much I will go around it, or if I will even go near it cause there are snakes and all kinds of things running around here....I keep getting bit by some kind of bugs they only have over here in Okinawa, and it's already sent me to the hospital cause it was a huge red and pink circle...now it's disappeared, but I have no interest to try and make friends with nature when I don't even get along with nature since it's always trying to attack me...I am a nature person at all...someone who can survive the wilderness...not even close!!!! I can't wait to move finally and get everything set up just to take pictures to show on here, only to have everything ripped down again....I don't think I can stand to live around bare walls even if it is for 3 months....That is just too boring for me....=p Can't wait for these changes to finally take affect..I just wish they would hurry up...I"m sooo tired of waiting.....

Tomorrow I am going here to Shuri Castle!!! I am too excited to be getting away from here even just for a day...I have been here before not too long after I got here....This is what it looks like...a red castle with gold trim.. I love how this looks I don't know who came up with this design but I"ve never seen anything like this before...This was around and in operation when they had emperors and everything like that over here in Japan... I will find the historical points of this, since I can't remember everything....I enjoyed this so much we are going again before we leave...and I just want another trip of course...I will write more later on, I"m sooo tired after this whole week!!!! xxxxx


**I love this painting by Van Gogh "Starry Starry Night.." I'm anxious to get a print of this painting and have it framed to put with my others I've been collecting up since Italy...I think one day, I will have an entire roomful of nothing but just framed prints of famous paintings and monuments....sounds allright to me though, I couldn't think of a better way to add style and flair to anything...=) Just would love to see it all come together finally and not be all spread out...I think I can finally hang up my Sydney Opera House print in our new place at the end of the summer...I never stop with any of this stuff....=) **

After hearing my WestLife for 2 days in a row outside my house....I do believe they are looking for me...=) I wish I had that kind of luck with music groups as obsessed as I am with bands!!!! One more day this week and I will be on another trip on the weekend..Just a one dayer but still looking forward to going even though I"ve been before....just hope it doesn't pour down in sheets of rain like it did today, so much that we couldn't even see through the stuff...For the first week of summer, this one has gone unbelieveably fast...hope the rest of the summer is like that too...here are some pics from the town I lived in back in Italy...it looks just like it did when I was there..That statue thing is the middle part of our town where we had a clock tower, and if you kept going in front of that statue down a sidewalk was an ice cream place and a street they had markets on every week...I took walks up to that part every day almost...I had that part of town memorized...the way that statue is pointing if you kept going to the right, there was a small coffee shop thing to sit outside and just enjoy everything. This was a really really really small town, I'm surprised they even had stuff like this. It was just a few blocks from where I lived and I loved it there...We have nothing like this here at all....I found a creek and everything just going around. I loved it, cause I didn't get to experience nothing like that coming from a big city. That part of a forest looking thing I could see from across the street a little ways... I never went down it, I have problems with going into any kind of woods or certain parts of a forest...I loved it there, and can't help wondering who is now living in the house I found for us to live in, and what all happens in that town day by day..there was also a store that I went to across the street from a park I found... I went in there everyweek as well, just to see how different everything was from the ones back home. I couldn't find it on here of course, but it was there and just nice to go to to get away from everything else...We don't have anything like that here, (parks) that's why I was so crazy about them when I went to Australia. I had no idea how nice they looked there, and they actually stayed that way...not sure where we will end up after here, I'm pretty tired of this guessing and waiting game..not for me....=p talk with u all soon, have a good night....*****I finally finished my movie...I'm tempted to watch it all over again since I got interrupted so many times, then finally had to go to bed....guess I will start on another one since I"m still working on artwork....=) one more night and I should be done with it I"m sooo excited to show everyone this weekend once I am finished..it's my first one of the thing I"m on now....so excited I"m actually doing it right and you can tell what it is...last time I promise!!! sorry just really bored tonight and ready for this week to be over with so I can go on my trip and forget everything around here....I live and breathe music videos..I never stop honestly...I still have music video channel I watched every morning getting ready in Australia I still have to put on here...really miss that!!! we don't get it here of course, but loved it....hope everyone is doing great...until tomorrow!!!=)

So it is summertime here....=p everyone else around me is about 5-10x darker, or has at least some kind of color to them...I am not from here at all, not anywhere over here nothing....try the other side of the globe and we all look just alike...So for the next 4 months I am going to be told by total strangers here that I"m "too white" or I "need to go tanning..." hmm nice try guess they haven't seen me in my worst when I had those bad sunburns in my earlier years with blisters...=p not sure what the big deal is..I don't care really anything about that esp. since I can't do anything about it....So the next time someone starts in on me about how they "think I am too white...." I think I will just pull out a bunch of card things of paint samples and let them choose which color they think that I should be. Maybe then they will stop with that and I won't have to hear anymore once they are presented with my kind of sarcasim...Really I'm tired of hearing about that...it's not like I went to the store and picked out my skin or whatever...I really wish some people would get a life....mostly over here=p have a good evening everyone....☺
**** I just spent the last 2 hours or so watching my movie...I think I put it on mostly for the music and so I could look this up later in Italian if that even exists...The most I can do is pick up words, but I know the whole thing in English, so still would be a nice change I think....2 of my most favourite songs ever in this...wish I could have been a part of this when this was thought of...I was in Italy at the time this movie came out...Still love it just like I did the first time i saw it...Guess I will watch more tomorrow night since it is so long, but I don't mind that at all....good night everyone talk to u all soon....=)

(I got this exact same pic on a t-shirt!!!=D ) hey everyone, check out this disgusting story I happened to see sometime last week, and I'm just now getting around to putting it on here, cause I finally rememebered it....this made me so sad, considering how we don't have Mexican food here at all hardly, just like 2 restaurants, half an hour, and the other one is nearly an hour away...the Taco Bell here was only 10 minutes from where I live....Uggghhhhh as many things as I can't stand, I never thought I would be saying that Mexican would be one of them depending on how it is made...sorry but I am not ingesting SAND of all things...that is just sick...I never knew this either, and I"m sure a good part of the world still doesn't...the ones who never read anything ever and just go along like everything is fine and dandy...Guess some people just don't care and want to keep on eating SAND...I never had this pizza, toooo many ingredients for me to have guessed at or picked off, I would've still been there until midnight fussing with that thing, but I did have the chicken before......=pthat just grossed me out, I'd rather have things with only ONE ingredient and I don't have to worry...my fruit and water where I"m not sitting there guessing what's in it, or picking everything apart for 30 minutes wondering what's in it....I think I'm just as bad as a kid sometimes with these picky eating habits that won't seem to leave me...this just made my skin crawl and my stomach turn when I read it...Never again for me ever ever....=p What's Really In … TACO BELL MEXICAN PIZZA http://njuice.com/Vo1sN-Truth-About-Your-Food

It's Italian, it's Mexican, it's ... well, it's got a whopping 64 different ingredients, so it's hard to tell just what exactly it is. On the face of it, this meal doesn't look too bad. There are two pizza shells, ground beef, beans, pizza sauce, tomatoes, and three cheeses. Nothing alarming, right? Even the nutritional vital signs, while high, compare favorably to most fast-food pizzas. It only gets scary when you zoom in on what it takes to stitch those pieces together. That's when you see all of those 64 smaller ingredients, including an astounding 24 in the ground beef alone. Yikes.

Now, some of those ingredients amount to little more than Mexican seasonings and spices, but there are also loads of complex compounds such as autolyzed yeast extract, maltodextrin, xanthan gum, calcium propionate, fumaric acid, and silicon dioxide. Any of those sound familiar? That last one might—if you've spent any time at the beach. But chances are you normally refer to it by its common name: sand.

That's right, sand is made from fragmented granules of rock and mineral, and the most common of them is silicon dioxide, or silica. This is also the stuff that helps strengthen concrete and—when heated to extreme temperatures—that hardens to create glass bottles and windowpanes.

So why exactly does Taco Bell put sand in the Mexican Pizza? To make it taste like spring break in Cancun? Not quite. As it turns out, Taco Bell adds silica to the beef to prevent it from clumping together during shipping and processing. The restaurant uses the same anti-caking strategy with the chicken, shrimp, and rice.

Is it unusual to add silica to food? Yes. Is it dangerous? Probably not. The mineral actually occurs naturally in all sorts of foods like vegetables and milk.

Even so, you can save hundreds of calories if you just make your pizza at home, with this simple recipe from our latest book, Cook This, Not That! Kitchen Survival Guide. ******* WOW, I didn't know this either!!! I'm not going to be left with anything considering how disgusting everything really is once you pick it apart...never again for me on this one either!!! anything!!!!! that about makes me want to throw up knowing they put plant fertilizer in that stuff...does anyone know what plant fertilizer REALLY is!?!?!?!! I gotta stop thinking about this stuff and find something else to do before I actually DO throw up....=p

What's Really In … SUBWAY 9-GRAIN WHEAT

Okay, so you're probably not in the habit of ordering a la carte bread loaves at Subway, but there’s a good chance you've eaten at least a few sandwiches built on this bread. The good news is that Subway actually delivers on the nine-grain promise. The bad news: Eight of those nine grains appear in miniscule amounts. If you look at a Subway ingredient statement, you'll find every grain except wheat listed at the bottom of the list, just beneath the qualifier "contains 2% or less." In fact, the primary ingredient in this bread is plain old white flour, and high-fructose corn syrup plays a more prominent role than any single whole grain. Essentially this is a white-wheat hybrid with trace amounts of other whole grains like oats, barley, and rye.

So outside of the nine grains, how many ingredients does Subway use to keep this bread together? Sixteen, including such far-from-simple ingredients as DATEM, sodium steroyl lactylate, calcium sulfate, and azodiacarbonamide. But here's one that's a little unnerving: ammonium sulfate. This compound is loaded with nitrogen, which is why it's most common use is as fertilizer. You might have used it to nourish your plants at home. And Subway does the same thing; the ammonium sulfate nourishes the yeast and helps the bread turn brown. What, did you think that dark hue was the result of whole grains? Hardly. It's a combination of the ammonium sulfate and the caramel coloring. Seems like Jarod might frown on that sort of subterfuge.

I hope everyone finds happiness in their life....I have already found mine....(below this one!!!!) it is just not here....I finally got the pics from my cat on top of my stove on here...they just have to be sized down and reversed. For some reason they are all facing sideways....Ahhh another week and tomorrow is first day of summer....not my thing at all I wish I was in freezing cold winter stormy weather now...I can't stand this heat we're having!!!! =p good night everyone!!! have a good week anyways!!!

Places that I am missing toooo much tonight I can hardly stand it....=( wish I could go around to each one of them to visit and give a hug and kiss and come back by morning, or maybe not...I"d rather stay forever is Venice or Rome where I was before!!! =(

wow, I can't believe this is actually a cake....I was just there in Sydney 2 months ago..Why didn't they have anything like that when I was there?!?!? There is always something going on there in Sydney day and night around the Opera House..Another reason why I couldn't stay away from there.....Oh, I miss it sooo much there now!!!=(

sorry I just had to do it...these are some of my most favourite ones and it's like I'm seeing them for the first time everytime I look at them... =D too crazy but love them!!!!




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I couldn't find any pics of the Jazz Festival we had over the weekend back home, just ones of people I didn't know, and others that weren't very interesting....Hopefully next year I will be able to go to that and take all the pictures I want and not have to worry about where I'm going to find any whenever it's over with...Here's some of my downtown area back home...This is what I have to look forward to after I leave Okinawa, and what I can't wait to join in with again every weekend....I love it downtown I can't ever seem to get enough of it....There is way more than this, but some of these pics turned out weird and teeny tiny so it's hard to see everything...When I am there, I am going to take pics of everything that moves and doesn't move.....This is just a very very small part of it, but soo much is always going on...miss the water rides sooo much at nighttime!!!!! =(