Mod Podge Magic: The Nightstand

So, it’s been about a month since I moved to my new apartment in Virginia! I still can’t afford to splurge on furniture because of bills and trying to adjust to the working life, but I have been trying to think of ways to be resourceful and my new space cheery. One way is to creatively revamp and fix a few pieces from my old Philly apartment.

First one up is a stand we used to put our cable box and remote controls on. I was using it as a temporary night stand, but it look so drab and boring, I couldn’t take it anymore!

Figure 1. A pretty close representation of a “before” work picture. I would have taken an actual before picture, but when I do that to projects, they tend to not work out in the end. Superstitious? You bet!

With a little paint and stuff around the house, this finished project only cost me 88 cents for the acrylic blue paint from Walmart!

Figure 2. Tadaaaa! The finished project!

So, what do you need to get this look for your room?

This is what I needed:

• An old furniture piece
• Sand paper
• Paint brushes
• Sponge brushes
• Primer paint
• Acrylic paint
• Mod Podge
• Scrapbook paper

This is what I did, which took me about 4 days to complete since I took my time:

1. I prepped the nightstand by sanding it down with sandpaper to smooth out the surface and wipe away the dust.
2. I used a paintbrush to apply 2 coats of primer paint to the table, allowing each layer to dry overnight. The purpose of this step to allow the color paint coat a surface to easily grab onto. I had this primer around the house for another project, but you can get at Walmart for about $6.

   

3. I added 2 coats of this Turquoise acrylic paint by Apple Barrel, allowing each layer to dry overnight (though this paint dries quickly and can probably be layered after an hour or two depending on humidity).

   

4. I tried using a spray on glossy coat, but it failed and left splotches of discoloration on my newly painted table So I coated the entire thing in two layers of Mod Podge with a sponge brush for a shiny finish!

   

5. For the little drawer, first I removed the knob that I primed, painted, and glossed like the table.
6. For the little drawer design, I cut about 1 inch strips of scrapbook paper. I then painted 1 layer of Mod Podge on the entire surface of the drawer face and applied each strip one by one, coating each strip with Mod Podge after. After drying, I put the entire thing back together!

   

Figure 3. Action shot!

Hope this gives you some DIY inspiration Here’s the link to mine!

Source of inspiration:

http://twigandtoadstool.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-mod-podge-fridaylets-decoupage-old.html

What causes one’s stomach to grumble?

So I’ve started doing a 12 hour shift at work for the past two days, so I was kind lazy this morning when I had to go to an 8 hour training  today. I basically ran out of the house with no breakfast and nothing but coffee in my stomach. Unfortunately for me, my stomach decided to be super obnoxious about it (maybe because I’ve been good about not skipping meals?) and growled SOOOO loud during the first 2-3 hours of the class. To make the situation worse, it was a tiny class with only a few people an the instructor, so it was pretty apparent where the awful noises were coming from.

Figure. Rumbly in your tumbly, Pooh? I know that feel, bro.

One hour before noon, it finally stopped embarrassing me long enough to make it to the lunch break, where I consumed a buffalo chicken wrap heartily.

So what makes a stomach suddenly grumble or not grumble? Obviously, it is known to be a sign of hunger, but what is the the physiological reasoning?

According to the Mayo Clinic, hunger triggers the stomach’s nervous system to throw a shout out to the hypothalamus in the brain, which feedbacks a signal to back to the stomach and intestine muscles to contract and release digestive fluids (like the ever acidic pH of 2 stomach acid) in preparation for incoming food! This response by the stomach and intestines causes those unsavory noises to emerge from my your tummy.

So next time you have an ever awkward situation like me, beg your brain and NOT just your stomach for the noises to cease.

Source:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stomach-noise/nu00189

The Science Behind Exercise Induced Itch

I have never really ran per say on a treadmill before. Whenever I exercise, I would either fast walk on one of those bad boys, use the elliptical, weights, or a group exercise class. I don’t have very much time, energy, or resources to do some of my favorite fit friendly activities ever since I moved, but my complex does have a treadmill. After a week of practice and learning how to balance, I can say I have conquered my fear of slipping and falling on a treadmill while running! What I did notice was that my thighs and stomach itched like crazy after exercising, and I didn’t know why!

Of course I did a Google to this, and I found that this answer was commonly posted on forums, one of which was Health Central:

“Itchy skin usually occurs during exercise performed after a long period of inactivity. The itching is not on the skin, it’s inside the actual limbs. There are millions of tiny capillaries and arteries inside our muscles which expand rapidly due to the demand for more blood that is brought on by exercise. When fit, these capillaries remain open allowing maximum blood passage, but when unfit and inactive they tend to collapse, allowing only minimal blood passage (which is sufficient for a sedentary person however). The rapid expansion of these vessels causes adjacent nerves to send impulses back to the brain which are interpreted as an itch. That’s why after a few sessions the sensation tends to go away. Just another indication of increasing fitness levels.”

This sounded pretty plausible to me, considering I’ve been pretty lazy for the past few months with respect to visiting the gym, but I still wanted to find where this information came from! I have had to tried to search a source for this quote, but I couldn’t find a direct one. The closet one I found is this LiveStrong article on how exercise can cause itching. They mention that irritants or chemicals on your clothes or equipment that you come into contact with may cause your skin to get upset. Also, funky fungus might find it opportunistic to grow with all the moisture building up from sweat. Finally, the article mentions there is even an “allergy” to exercise that increases nerve activity.

Image source: 
http://scientificallydelicious.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/running-playlist-installment-1/

If you find a solid article or related information on the exercise-itch phenomenon, please leave a comment below

TED Talks: The Power of Vulnerability

I can’t believe it’s almost been a month since last blogging! Well, since then tons of stuff have happen, but I will update more on that next time. While huge changes have been coming my way and tons of adjustment is in order, I stumbled upon this TED talk via a friend’s Facebook post. It talks about the pros and cons of vulnerability, and it’s necessity in life. I really enjoyed the speaker because she  is funny while still having that profound researcher tone. I think anyone on the brink of big decisions (or wanting to) should take the 20 minutes out to watch. Enjoy!

“When I watch my sports team play, they ALWAYS LOSE” Theory

FINALLY. The New York Knicks have finally defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the first round of NBA play offs. First time in 13 years that our darling Knicks have gone on to the second round. I have no idea how far they will go this year in the play offs, but I’m glad they were able to pull it through for at least this round. I was soooo convinced they would sweep the Celts in 4 games because the Knicks won Games 1-3 with relative ease (minus JR Smith being ejected).

Now, I have a stupid theory. I’m the worst sports fan in the world. I HATE watching my own team play. I will look at highlights or coverage of the game online, but not the actual game. While in school I did this because I didn’t have cable, but the real reason I avoid watching the Knicks play is because I think I’m bad luck for them. When I watch, they perform horribly. Coincidence? Perhaps.

Then, while sitting and waiting in the car dealership on Sunday, lo and behold, what was on the tv in the lobby? Game 4 of the Celts-Knicks game. I tried to ignore it while going through the specs for my potential new car, but my sister and I couldn’t help but gaze upon the tv. What I thought to be an easy victory for the Knicks ended into defeat.

So, I’ll go back to avoiding the tv when the Knicks are playing again for the rest of the play offs, thank you very much.

Figure. From ESPN Facebook. GOOOOO KNICKS!

How to Make A Research Poster

As I mentioned earlier, my abstract got approved for my school’s Research Day! I attended last week and had my poster scrutinized by 2 judges. I didn’t win anything cool, and to be honest my poster was probs a lot weaker than others, but I’m really glad I got to participate.

For one, the experience was really good because I have never done anything academic research related before, and it was great to present it to a university-wide event. Secondly, I got a lot of good criticism on how the the poster presentation and future experiments better, like how the data could have been displayed to emphasize that the significance of the results as compared to what is known already. Thirdly, I got to go and check out other research posters by students in different departments, as well as pop in and show some support for friends and fellow lab mates

Here’s me being a dork in front of my poster. Sadly, I didn’t feel too good that day, but made it through for a couple hours.

Figure. Me looking derpy in front of my research poster at my university’s Research Day. I was right front and center of the presentations wearing a bunny printed shirt for good luck. haha.

So what exactly is on a research poster? Well this is what I put on mine:

• Title
• Authors & Coauthors (aka students, advisors/ profs)
• Logo of affiliates/departments involved
• Introduction or Abstract
• Background Research
• Purpose/Aim
• Experimental Setup
• Procedures
• Results (really wished I could have thrown photos on here, too)
• Conclusions
• Future Experiments
• References

I got my poster printed for free by the Biomed Dept., and they provided us with this cool video on constructing your own poster via PowerPoint. You can then convert the final product into a PDF so no matter if a Mac or PC or whatever else opens your doc, it won’t mess with the formatting.

Good luck

Green Giant Veggie Snack Chips

 

Introduction:

Long time no post about Bzzagent, hm? Well no fear! This time I had the opportunity to talk about Green Giant’s new Veggie Snack Chips for free thanks to Bzzagent.  I really love chips. They are a godsend, especially when studying. However, they can get really salty, and I know they are bad for me. So who wouldn’t want to try a veggie snack with the potential to satisfy my cravings while being a bit healthier?

Figure 1. The official Bzz campaign image for Green Giant’s Veggie Snack Chips.

Figure 2. The Bzz package containing two large sample bags, a few small sample bags, and a bunch of coupons to share.

Results:

I got to try two flavors: 1) Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips with Sea Salt and 2) Veggie Tortilla Chips Zesty Cheddar. I wish I could go into detail about what I thought about each of the flavors, but my parents actually devoured all the snacks within a day or two! I was really happy considering my Daddy is a diabetic who hates diet foods, even though he needs to watch what he eats, and my Mommy is a cardiac patient who is fussy with snacks because she doesn’t like even a small amount of salt on her food.

Apparently both flavors passed the palate test for both my parents, along with myself. In terms of appears, the chips are very appetizing like any other chips out of a bag. I feel like they are more light in weight as compared to normal chips. I really liked the Sweet Potato chips with the Sea Salt out of the two because they remind me of sweet potato fries haha. These are definitely not too salty and has a simple taste. As for the Veggie Tortilla Zesty Cheddar, I was surprised how much it looked like a Dorito. Of course, it didn’t taste like a Dorrito exactly, but it definitely had a stronger seasoning than the Sweet Potato chips.

Conclusion:

From someone who really loves eating SunChips, I think it would be worth a shot to try out these Green Giant chips, especially if they are on sale in your grocery store or if you are on the hunt for a new healthy snack.