Here is my take on places I have either visited or would like to visit.

#5:  Chicago, Illinois

A great and lively city with 50 acres of parks, entertainment, attractions, restaurants, and shops! The city is well known for their acclaimed regional theatres, also notoriously known for the home of 1920′s gangster, Al Capone, who fought the law enforcement during the Prohibition era.

#4:  New York, New York

The city that never sleeps, better known as the ‘big apple’, has incredible architectures such as the Chrysler Building, and  the Empire State Building, just to name a few.  You can also visit Times Square and twirl around as your fascination grows immensely as the shining lights twinkle, and the roaring honks grow weary.

#3: Las Vegas, Nevada

The city of sin! Well acknowledged for the active night clubs and casinos that is on-going 24 hours a day! A great treat for all adults alike! Most hotels on the strip feature a theme. My favorite is Bellagio; the dancing fountains outside the hotel are absolutely remarkable!

#2: Honolulu, Hawaii

A romantic trip for two, or an entire family. There are plenty of things to do such as water activities, luaus for delicious meals, and of course a pleasant nap on the warm sands of Hawaii.

#1: San Francisco, California

The home is where the heart is! Of course I may be bias since I reside in California, but I must say San Francisco has it all! From the gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge to the Alcatraz Island, San Francisco has many places to visit and many things to do. There are several museums, night clubs and tourist attractions that are must see!

The first social search application based on shared web content..

PALO ALTO, California – August 31, 2010 – The importance of “word of mouth” on the Web is gaining speed, and Sharetivity is fueling the engine.

Sharetivity is launching a new service that will allow users to achieve personalized search results based on what they and others in their network have deemed worth sharing. The service, known as Sharetivity Social Search, allows users and their network to bring their Facebook shared content and likes into their own personal search engine.

“Users share pages they like,” notes Ankesh Kumar, CEO of Sharetivity. “Sharing is an army of a few hundred million people daily filtering the web. We let users filter the web, providing search results based on what Sharetivity users have already found interesting and relevant.”

Kumar provides a couple of scenarios: Since we often bookmark and save web content, imagine being able to go to your Sharetivity widget on your browser and easily conducting a search for piece of content. Or say you’re looking for a restaurant in Palo Alto, wouldn’t it be nice to come up with search results of restaurants that all of your friends within your personal network suggested?

Personalized search results are achieved by aggregating content shared via Sharetivity and Facebook Connect and pushing those pages to the top of search results. Rather than prioritizing pages based solely on relevant keywords, users can easily find content that has already been filtered through a human network. Sharetivity Social Search provides a side-by-side view of both traditional and social results, allowing users to re-share selections from either side and further customize the search experience.

Users can register directly through Sharetivity or via Facebook Connect, which will allow them to consolidate their Sharetivity links with their Facebook account to further personalize search sessions.

To access Sharetivity Social Search, go to http://www.sharetivity.com

Take our Survey and win an iPhone 4 or iPad, you chose. Yes, we’re giving away a free iPhone or iPad for the best feedback on this survey. Also for the top 3 runners up, we will give an iPod shuffle.

Just follow the instructions below and then complete the survey with your email address.  The quality of the feedback will be judged by us and it does not have to be all positive. September 30^th we will announce the winners on our blog. So you will be contacted before, and we’d like for you to send us a photo so we can share it with our community. We will also publish the winner’s comments on our blog.

Instructions 1.    Go to Sharetivity.com and connect via Facebook. You’ll be registered and all your Facebook shared content will be deposited in Sharetivity making it to you, your friends and the larger Sharetivity network.

You will be dropped to the Search results page, where we add a default search (pizza).

2.   You can try different search queries to see what the network has found interesting. All your Facebook shares should be in the MyShares tab.

3.    If your friends joined, you would be able to search on their shared links too. Invite 5 to 10 of your friends that you feel would most benefit from being able to save and search on shared links.

4.    Download the browser plug-in. This allows you to save all your shared links in Sharetivity and also allows you to search for them within the browser plug-in.

5.    Use the browser plug-in when you are normally surfing the web for a few days. We’d like you to share at least 10 to 20 links via the browser and search for them.

6.     At the bottom of the browser plug-in, you can upload your saved links from Digg, Delicious, Reddit. If you have any accounts try uploading your links into Sharetivity.

7.    After that please go to the survey at … http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GYNFDWQ

Let us know what you think..

Cheers

Who would have thought a drink or two after work would actually extend your life?  A fascinating article done by Time magazine, suggests that those who abstain from alcohol with no previous intake of alcohol, may have a shorter mortality rate than those who are heavy drinkers and moderate drinkers.  Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, led by psychologist Charles Holahan, found that over a 20-year period, the highest mortality rates were from those who had never been drinkers, second-highest were those of the heavy drinkers and the lowest  rate were the moderate drinkers.

The individuals in the study ranged between the ages of 55 and 65 who had outpatient care in the years before. There were 1,824 participants who were followed for 20 years. However, there were more men than women. The findings were astonishing, more than 69% of the never-drinkers died, 60% of the heavy drinkers died and only 41% of moderate drinkers died during the 20 years.

There is one reason that may coincide with why non-drinkers have shorter life-span than drinkers, alcohol has a strong connection with social interactions, in return socializing is important for maintaining mental and physical health.  Many non-drinkers may find themselves juggling the stresses of life in balancing work life and home life, and have little to no time interacting with others to obtain a sense of relief.

Another indication could be that non-drinkers are prone to depression than those who do drink.  A study done by the Journal of Addiction, formed by Jens Christoffer Skogen of the University of Bergen in Norway, asked the 38,000 participants how much they had to drink two weeks prior to the study; the team compiled an array of questions to find their levels of anxiety and depression. They found that the drinkers had a high level of anxiety, but the non-drinkers had a higher risk of depression. A reason, as the study may suggest, is that most of the non-drinkers had chronic illnesses such as osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia, making them abstain from alcohol consumption. Also, the study indicates that the non-drinkers had fewer friends than those who do drink.

Although it may seem like drinking may promote a longer life, it can be quite dangerous. I believe the whole premise of both articles is to promote a social lifestyle. Life can be stressful, it is important to take some time away from your day to day activities and relax. Engaging in some social activities such as art festivals, and sporting events can make life a bit more fulfilling. Perhaps you can find a delightful conversation with a person whom you never met before.

During my high school years, the active use of Twitter, Facebook, and text messaging were little to non-existent.  While I still consider myself to be a fairly young member of the Y generation, I never thought the age of digital technology would have teens suffering from a lack of sleep.  I spent a lot of school nights cramming for tests, eventually falling asleep in my textbook because I was exhausted from the long hours of school and lacrosse practice.  Even though balancing school and extracurricular activities was tough, I assumed most students had to go through it to get into a decent college or university.

These days most teenagers don’t get enough sleep because of the constant barrage of Facebook feeds or Twitter updates that they are receiving, not necessarily because of schoolwork.  While I realize how addictive these sites can be, especially with the rise in the popularity of smart phones, I believe these teens will gain several advantages from knowing the current trend of social media.

The Washington Post recently published a great article on teens and parents who suffered from sleep deprivation due to digital diversions.  A study conducted in April by the Pew Research Center found that four out of five adolescents would sleep with their cell phones near their bed. Most would wake up every time their phone would receive a notification with a new text message. The students would come to school sleepy and groggy from the night before.  The students’ parents would normally be up making sure their child was asleep.

Although this is a problem for adolescents now, they will soon learn a great skill at hand from acquiring knowledge from these social media sites. Some of these prospective teens can make a career out of the social media realm.  For instance, Ashley Qualls the creator of WhateverLife.com, a site targeted for young girls looking for a design layout, or to customize their own layout on Myspace.com, got much publicity as a young teen entrepreneur ringing in more than 1 million dollars of revenue from her website.  Her site is remarkably user friendly and designs and layouts are free to use with no costs. She receives a large percentage of audience in comparison to magazines like Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and CosmoGirl. She attracts more than 7 million monthly visitors, as well as 60 million page views.

Young adults can also gain an advantage of excelling academically. The more teens read articles, blog and social network, the more they are exposed to reading and writing. In return, teens are motivated to want to learn how to read and write well.  A study done by The National Literacy Trust conducted a survey of more than 3000 children.  They searched for an association between children’s active involvement with social media and their literacy. The results found that social media does in fact help children become more literate.

Nevertheless, there are critics who believe the social media frenzy may induce the amount of drug prescriptions to alleviate ADHD, since most individuals are now engaged to their computers. However, the amount information on any subject matter is at the reach of our fingertips, which is quite useful for all of us. Social media in my opinion marks a great advantage for teens and adults alike,  from attaining recognition for businesses to helping  to increase the rate of literacy, I see more advantages than disadvantages for social media.

I have always tried my best to cut down on the amount of sugary drinks I consume each day.  The fresh and alluring taste of such soft drinks as Coca-Cola can really bring someone to their knees.  Just the sound of a can being opened, as you hear the bubbles fizz out, is intoxicating.  However, knowing that these beverages carry a large amount of sugar, I usually opt for a tall glass of water instead.

I recently came across a neat article by Discovery News that discusses studies conducted to determine if individuals lost weight by drinking water.  One study, conducted by the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, found that adults middle aged and older, who were told to drink two glasses of water thirty minutes before breakfast, ate 13% less than those who did not drink water before their meals.  Both groups consisted of overweight individuals, and each person was allowed to eat as much food as they desired.

The next experiment in the study examined each participant’s behavior, and allowed researchers to observe if it would lead to weight loss.  The researchers started by splitting the group in half and having all of the participants eat healthy meals that did not go over 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day.  One half of the group was to follow a regimen of drinking a 16-ounce bottle of water before all three meals, while the other half was allowed to drink water as they pleased.

Within twelve weeks the first half lost an average of 15.5lbs, while the other latter half lost an average of about 11 lbs.  Although, the same experiments were conducted in a study on young adults and researchers could not recreate the same results.  This could be due to biological effects, since water tends to keep us fuller as we get older.  Nonetheless, there is still hope for young adults looking to shed a few pounds.  There is some evidence that indicates greater water consumption might produce more heat, which can then boost metabolism.

Although in hundreds of studies done by Barry Popkin, director of the Interdisciplinary Obesity Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, prove that people eat just as much no matter how many calories they consume from drinking. So it may not be a definite assumption whether water can lead to weight but it is the healthiest beverage out there!

Over the last decade Women’s sports have become tremendously popular. One can just  look at women’s basketball and tennis as an example. An interesting article in the NY Times by Michael Kimmelman, exemplifies the point of how strong women’s athletics have become. The notorious sisters, Venus and Serena are praised for their strength, and powerful hits against their opponents. Serena with a height of 5ft 10 inches, and Venus slightly over 6 ft, have reigned champions in both singles and Women’s doubles.  The sisters have raised the bar for everyone in the championships, making players work their best at a 85 to 95% rate.  Venus agrees by saying, “Serena and I did change the game, and it’s interesting to see people on court now trying to do all our moves. To be that person, the one who changed the game, wow, that’s too good to be true.”

As for basketball, Cynthia Cooper has been considered  one of the best women’s basketball players of all time. She played for the Houston Comets for four years, and received 3 medals for Pan of American Games in 1987, the Olympic Games in 1988, and FIBA World Championships in 1990. The next wonder star might as well be Candace Parker of the Los Angeles’ Sparks. She is known as the first woman to dunk in the NCAA tournament, as well as dunking twice in college basketball. She plays many versatile roles, but mainly as a forward. She was a member of a team that won both 2007 and 2008 NCAA championships. She also won Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Award for favorite female athletic.

The rising stars of women’s sports are driven by passion and power. The competition is raised and players and teams are working harder to receive recognition. These known stars are giving inspiration and hope for young girl athletes, who want to be the next Serena or Candace.

Let’s face it, we are our own worst critic. We create expectations for ourselves and find that people are most hard on themselves when it comes to how they perform certain tasks, or when it comes to their appearance. This article, Body Image Concerns Hardwired Into Women’s Brains, got me thinking about what the definition of beautiful is to women in the U.S.  In this country, some of the most beautiful women in the world are Angelina Jolie, Adriana Lima, or Heidi Klum. These women all have long luxurious hair, perfect skin, strong features, and very thin, between a size zero or four. You won’t find other gorgeous women who are more voluptuous making the list like Jennifer Hudson or Queen Latifah. “To be an American woman and feel good about your body requires a powerful inner strength and the will to resist an unrealistically skinny social ideal.” Society has ingrained into our minds that if you’re skinny, then you’re considered beautiful.

I wasn’t surprised to find that women who are already naturally thin, are still concerned about their weight. Mark Allen, who is a neuroscientist at Brigham Young University, says that “most women are teetering on the edge of an eating disorder.” To prove this, the following test was conducted:

“Allen and colleagues looked into hidden feelings about body image by using fMRI machines to scan the brains of 10 healthy women. The women were thin, but all had passed eating disorder screening tests with flying colors. So, theoretically, they felt just fine with their bodies.

While hooked up to brain scanners, the women looked at images of avatar-like models in skimpy bikinis: some overweight, some skinny. With each image, the women were told to imagine that someone else was saying the model looked like her.

When overweight images popped up, the medial prefrontal cortex lit up in all of the women, the scientists reported in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. Simply imagining that they might be overweight seemed to make the women question their sense of self, even though they claimed afterward that the test was boring or meaningless.”

It’s strange for us to think that hundreds of years ago, women who were a size 8 or bigger, were praised and set the standard of what was considered beautiful. When did we choose to sway away from this and preach that thin is in? It’s scary to think that “based on the new results, it now appears that there is a finer line between women with and without eating disorders than scientists previously suspected,” and that just one trigger statement can set off an eating disorder.

As a former gymnast, I have learned that if you want to excel in the sport, you have to already be naturally thin, strong, and flexible. Fortunately, this wasn’t a problem for me and I was able to consume whatever foods I wanted to. I remember a couple teammates of mine had to watch what they ate, and every so often make a comment that they couldn’t eat one more slice of pizza or piece of cake because they were fat. The problem with this is, we were only about 11 or 12 years old. When I got older, I became a gymnastics instructor and almost all of my colleagues were very thin. There was one colleague in particular who was at least 10 years older than me with a 3 year old daughter. I remember her saying that at my age, when she was 18 years old, she weighed 95 lbs. And even though she was pushing 30 and weighing between 105 and 110, thought she was fat and needed to lose more weight. Everyone has their own definitely of healthy, but if you’re eating a lot less and not getting all of the proper nutrients you need to make sure you’re body is functioning properly, then there’s a problem.

As a society, we need to set a precedence and push people to live a healthier lifestyle. We shouldn’t strive to be abnormally thin like the celebrities we see on television, because everyone’s body is different. Live your life, eat healthy, exercise regularly, and treat your body like a temple.

Can you recall the last time you read a book? And I mean fully read a book-page by page, beginning to end, and predominantly containing more words than pictures. For me, it must have been a few months ago. I find myself learning about things I’m interested in via the internet, digging for current and valuable information, from credible news sources. I have to admit, I think the only way I would feel compelled to go to the nearest Barnes & Noble or Borders and purchase a book, is if it were some type of self-help book. Most of the self-help related material is only given to me in doses and there’s a reason why novels such as “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz or “The Tipping Point” and “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell, are one the bestseller list.

Although it’s been a while since I’ve finished a paperback novel, I do read up on relevant articles and/or blogs on the internet everyday. In the post by Erick Schonfield, “No, The Internet Won’t Make You Stupid”, he points out that the well-known author, Nick Carr argues, “The more links in a piece of writing, the bigger the hit on comprehension.” I support Schonfeld’s rebuttal that “An article with links is a living text, which exists in relation to other texts and thoughts on the Web. They let you go as deep down the rabbit hole as you care to go.” In my opinion, including links within an article, is similar to conducting your own research on a specific topic over the internet from difference sources, and synthesizing what was conveyed to you, in order to form your own opinion.

Seems like the entire planet has had World Cup fever! Have you fallen a victim to the plague, this year? It is hard not to see why you haven’t. I have to admit, in previous years I never had an interest in involving myself with other World Cup fanatics. However, the contagion of excitement from my friends and colleagues, has influenced my decision to make time out of my day to watch the world’s favorite sport.

Throughout major new sources, social media platforms, trending topics and the like, you cannot escape the World Cup.  I came across an article on CNN, titled “How much do top soccer players earn?” Most of the well-known, international players earn between $8 to $14 million per year. Although the article mainly discussed the comparison between how much each player earned, according to their rank within the sport, it got me thinking about achieving your childhood dreams. Soccer is one of those sports that you can easily learn, and play recreationally at any age, no matter what your skill level may be.

Some of you may or may not have seen or heard about the famous YouTube video “Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” that went viral and moved millions of people. If you have some time to watch it, I highly recommend this video. In a nutshell, the moral of Randy’s lecture is to persuade us to not stop trying to achieve our childhood dreams. With that said, how late is too late to try and make it in the professional soccer league, whether in the U.S. or overseas? If we look at the players who are ranked worldwide, the 15th best player is Michael Ballack from Germany who is 33 years old. The number 16 player, Raul from Spain is 32, and the Rio Ferdinand from England is 31 years old and ranked number 17. Sports critics agree that in most sports, athletes who are younger perform at their peak. But then there’s that saying “if you can dream it, you can do it.”

In Randy’s last lecture, he talks about one of childhood dreams, which is to play in the NFL. What he didn’t realize is that he actually did, by participating in practice with his favorite football, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Although Randy never officially played professionally for whatever reason, any brick wall that came his way, he hurdled over and achieved a dream that he had as a child. I have personally encountered a guy who has a similar story. He played basketball his entire life, throughout college, and after receiving his undergraduate degree, he worked for a couple years. Then one day he decided he wanted to go back to playing basketball, and took his shot at making the European league, and he made it.

I am aware that it is physically impossible for a 65 year old man to still have the same athletic ability as a 20 or 30 something year old, but I’d say the main point I am trying to make in this post, is that to a certain degree we are all able to achieve some aspect of a life-long goal or childhood dream, because it is possible.