Jay Lagare

General

Maximizing Coffee

By on Wednesday, July 4, 2012

This is interesting if you’re a coffee drinker or planning to start soon:

  1. Consume in small, frequent amounts. Between 20-200mg per hour may be an optimal dose for cognitive function. I used to drink a small cup for breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks. But since I lost my insulated bottle, I’ve only been drinking for breakfast. Maybe it’s time to look for a new one.
  2. Play to your cognitive strengths while wired. Caffeine may increase the speed with which you work, may decrease attentional lapses, and may even benefit recall – but is less likely to benefit more complex cognitive functions, and may even hurt others. Plan accordingly (and preferably prior to consuming caffeine!)
  3. Play to caffeine’s strengths. Caffeine’s effects can be maximized or minimized depending on what else is in your system at the time. The beneficial effects of caffeine may be most pronounced in conjunction with sugar. Unfortunately, I like my coffee black.
  4. Know when to stop – and when to start again. Although you may not grow strongly tolerant to caffeine, you can become dependent on it and suffer withdrawal symptoms. Balance these concerns with the cognitive and health benefits associated with caffeine consumption – and appropriately timed resumption.
  5. Finding good sources of caffeine. Black coffee for me.

Source: ScienceBlogs

 

0
General

How To Raise A Grateful Child

By on Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Life won’t always gift your child with exactly his heart’s desire. But there are ways you can make sure that, underneath it all, he learns to appreciate what he has.

  1. Your 9-year-old keeps a running — and growing — list of toys he has to have. He’s up to number 23 this season.
  2. Your 5-year-old grimaces at the stuffed Elmo her aunt gives her and says, “But I wanted a Barbie!”
  3. You can’t even take your kid to get socks or lightbulbs without him whining for you to buy him something — seemingly anything.
  4. Your 6-year-old gobbles down the Teddy Grahams that another parent at the playground gives him. But when you prod him to say “Thank you,” he won’t.
  5. When you say no to a DS that, according to your daughter, “everyone at school” has, she complains that all her BFFs get cooler stuff than she does.

Sounds familiar? Here‘s how to handle it.

Source: Parenting.Com

0
General

One Awesome Dad

By on Monday, July 2, 2012

We met a guy yesterday. As usual when Jeanne’s around, the conversation veered towards Jeanne (we love talking about Jeanne) and kids in general. So somewhere there, he mentioned that he’s a a single dad. That he raised his 2 kids, now age 10 and 11, from the time they were babies. Being a parent is already a tough job. Doing it alone is like 2x as tough. And raising 2 kids? That’s like 4x!!! If that’s not awesome, I don’t know what is!

0
General

2012 June 30 to July 1 Tagaytay

By on Sunday, July 1, 2012

Yesterday was our anniversary (Happy Anniversary, mommy!) and we went to our customary Tagaytay trip. I was actually planning a surprise drive past the Sta. Rosa exit (the expressway exit to Tagaytay) and proceed all the way to Batangas and then Laiya. Unfortunately, last minute events led us to  just go to Tagaytay.

We first tried Discovery Country Suites (where we stayed for our wedding). It was fully booked (Note to self: Book for next year already). We then went to Moon Garden (where we had our wedding reception). Again, it was fully booked. Michelle researched for other hotels and we ended up at Lake Hotel. Good choice. Nowhere near as good as Country Suites in my opinion but still quite good.

The Lake Hotel is not too big so it’s not as busy as, say Chateau Royale. But there’s a good range of rooms to choose from. Some even have a view of Taal. But even if your room doesn’t, you can simply go to the lobby or the pocket garden for a good view. The staff was nice, friendly, and very accommodating. There’s also WiFi (common these days) in the rooms and lobby, but it’s slooow (also common unfortunately). Overall, the hotel has that nice and upscale feel.

For dinner, Michelle, suggested Bag of Beans which has branched out to more than just coffee and dessert. It’s actually rated quite highly in some reviews but personally I found the food (we ordered porterhouse steak and pink salmon steak) to be just average and the crew not very well-trained in protocol (e.g. how to inform the customer that a table has a time-based consumable rate without sounding condescending). Transition pains, maybe.

Back to the hotel, buffet breakfast is complimentary and they let kids below 5 years old for free. There’s a wide choice of good dishes to choose from and you can eat to your heart’s content. Unlike, say Chateau Royale :P

Overall, it was a good weekend. Tagaytay remains one of the best places to spend a weekend. Probably even one of the best places to settle down. And I’m not the only one thinking that: Fully booked.

0
General

Jelly Bean

By on Friday, June 29, 2012

Jelly beans are Jeanne’s favorite treat. And it could just be my favorite… mobile OS. Maybe :P Along with the Nexus 7 (and a host of others), Google has announced the latest version of Android: Jelly Bean. It’s an incremental update, carrying a version number of 4.1, but it offers a lot of updates:

  1. Project Butter has brought smoother and faster feeling user interface
  2. Improved notification center with expandable and actionable notifications
  3. Updated widget behavior
  4. Improved camera and gallery apps for easy photo snapping and sharing
  5. Improved keyboard behavior with with word prediction
  6. Added Accessibility options with support for external Braille input
  7. Enhanced Android Beam allowing transfer of photos and video
  8. Offline Voice recognition and typing
  9. Google Voice search is more intelligent than ever
  10. Updated Google Search user interface
  11. Google Now adds automatic information feeds to your device (weather, traffic, sports, etc)
  12. Bi-Directional text and additional language support
  13. Truly high-resolution contact photos
  14. USB audio output and HDMI multichannel audio output
  15. App encryption and Smart App updates

Source: GSMArena

0