Mind control (your own, actually)

I've always been told to think about what you want to dream about, and this has pretty much never, ever gone well. On top of it, I have a weird history of dreams. Beginning in 2006, I was plagued by dreams involving Jeff Goldblum. He didn't even have to be the central character in the dream; sometimes he'd just walk by. And I usually irritated him half to death. (Yes, folks, you may use this as blackmail.)

I had about 13 of these dreams altogether, 8 of them in a row.

Needless to say, I didn't watch many of his movies for a while. (That didn't help, considering I was thinking about him all the time, now that he was invading my brain at night.)
But trying to control what I dreamt was not working out. So my own personal experience is: don't bother. Either your dreams will just get weirder, or you'll stop dreaming and experience a real-life version of this Star Trek episode.

However, there are websites that supposedly teach you 'the art' of lucid dreaming, meaning controlling your dreams, using them for problem-solving (Yay! Thinking in my sleep will take off two whole work days!), and being able to stop nightmares. On my part, I think it would be great fun just so I can stretch out those dreams where I'm hanging out with Joe Strummer or piloting a spaceship.

My verdict: you may as well try to control your dreams. But don't get your hopes up. (Also, if you run into Jeff Goldblum in there, tell him hello.)

Have any of you ever managed to control your dreams?

Benefits(?) of Green Tea

Okey-dokey, here goes:
Apparently, green tea is supposed to help you with weight loss, cholesterol, mental alertness, aging, cancer, and being an all around cool person.
The reason is mainly the antioxidants in the tea, which basically corrals all the free radicals. Free radicals just potter around in your body, not really contributing anything but being a bother nonetheless, stealing other cells' electrons and setting off a nasty chain reaction.

This is bad.

(Hey, this science stuff is easer than I thought. Woohoo!)
All right, so antioxidants fight against... um... something to do with the cells that are oxidized. This is where it all gets a bit confusing and I begin to bungle up my science. (Einstein, I am not.)
However, I do know that green tea contains the polyphenol EGCG, which is a wicked cool antioxidant that you will be glad you found out about, when the rest of your friends are fat, have high cholesterol, cancerous, aren't alert, and really aren't that cool anymore, either.

Anyway.

Green tea helps take care of those nasty little radical cells. A lot of people say you should drink a ton of green tea a day; other studies say only two or three cups will do. I like tea, so I'll probably be having about twenty three cups a day. Everyone is different. :P
Also, I was watching TV this morning and a doctor was saying that green tea is also super for your skin. Makes sense; if it renews the stuff on the inside, it'll help what's on the outside, too.

But a new study came out recently, informing people that antioxidants can't slow aging. As far as I'm aware telomeres are what really control aging and if the scientists want to throw their money at something, that'd be what to throw it at. But that's another blog post.

Also, I've seen it mentioned several times that the people used as studies for the benefits of green tea usually have healthy lifestyles, anyway. Yes, it'd be a bit silly to see if green tea is good for marathon running, pilates practicing, all organic vegans. But this is how the world works, in case you've forgotten. Scientists don't solve starvation in third world countries; they build supercolliders and threaten the existence of the known universe, giggling all the way.

So, my verdict: drink green tea. It can't hurt, as far as I know, and you might even like it.

So, that was fun. Next topic! :D

(This post sponsored by Joellyn. Hug her. Love her. Bake her cookies.)

I'm supposed to be doing SOMETHING....

What was it?
Oh yes.
Cleaning the house.
So in the spaces between blog posts, here's a job for you people: what would you like to see most in my next blog post? Ninjas? Muppets? Muppet ninjas? Swedish pirates? Tacos or turfurky? Dinosaurs? Anything you can think of, silly or serious, and I'll write about it.
Comment, let me know, and I'll make your (blog) dreams come true.