Tips On Dental Hygiene

This is just a small encore to my previous post 10 Possible Resasons Why the Other Sex May Not Like You, more specifically, the point regarding bad breath.

I'm not going to give you a bunch of educational advices your parents tell you. I and many others don't like going to the dentist's and we have some simple rules to keep us away from that horror seat. 

How often should I change my toothbrush?

Doctors and Google say that you should change it every three months. If it seems too long for you, just check your toothbrush every time you use it– its bristles should be perpendicular to the toothbrush. If you have an electric one, you usually can keep it longer.

Can some microorganisms appear in my toothbrush?

Of course they can, they are everywhere. Most bacteria need moisture to live and toothbrushes are damp. Bacilli can breed there, too. But they are rarely dangerous.

How do I get rid of germs in my toothbrush?

Let it dry out. If you feel this isn't enough as to disinfecting it, I have an advice for you- sink the bristles into your mouthwash or alcohol. But if your goal is not to get them in your body I cannot see the difference between using the mouthwash after you brush your oral cavity clean with toothpaste.

Read more here: How Often Should You Replace Your Toothbrush? www.everydayhealth.com

Biz, 

Ciray

10 Possible Resasons Why the Other Sex May Not Like You

I know this isn't the topic this blog is meant for but I have a strong need to write it somewhere. Because I have mostly teenage friends, their current life goal s to get a boyfriend/girlfriend and when they don't seem to get one, they start asking me why. I usually try to be nice and don't point out directly the things which I consider to be the reasons. So I'll write them here and hope that one day they 1) read it or 2) grow up.

I don't want to be rude, I really can't see the cause of that they cannot get a partner. My friends are just awesome and I wouldn't love them so much if I didn't like their personality, sense of humour, and so on. But I have a theory– people are used to communicating via the Internet therefore they have problems with talking to others face to face because it's easier to type something on the keyboard than saying it aloud. It's also less difficult to avoid getting into an awkward situation. People, just wake up, I don't want this civilisation to live behind the screens... Or, it's better to say "not to live."

The list doesn't need any "prologue", so let's look at it:

• Dry lips – I don't understand, why it's such a problem to drink more water of carry a lip balm. I know there are certain health conditions (I've got them too) which make your body excrete more H₂O than necessary and a good and simple solution for this is eating more salt.
• Bad breath - This can have many, many, many causes and few of them can't even be your fault. Most people don't even know they have it. The most common cause is bad nutrition or diet and bacteria in the mouth that can precede inflammation. So fix the food you eat, brush your teeth more than twice a day, use more tools for the dental hygiene, and make friends with menthol chewing gums. Don't worry, if you keep these rules, nobody will ever notice.
• Awful smell - This refers to a body odour. Deodorants are not a shower in a can! If you don't feel like using perfumes or eaux de toilette you can stick with a scented deodorant, antiperspirant, or body lotion. If you smoke, wash your cloths more regularly and wash your hair every day because most people just don't like that smell. (My trick is to make a ponytail not to get that smell on my hair. But I don't smoke anymore.)
• Hair hiding your face - I had always thought that hiding the parts of face I don't like on me will make me look better. Wrong! I had acne so I used to put on tons of make-up and throw my hair into my face. No wonder I looked terrible. A fringe is alright but it mustn't cover a half of your face. Just make a ponytail, put on some mascara (not too much, you have to be able to open your eyes) and smile. This point wasn't meant for girls only.
• Wrong body posture/ walking - I'm not saying that you should walk like a model but standing and moving with your spine straight can emphasize your ribcage... If you know what I mean. Women who are large on top (or tall) tend to slouch which doesn't look good neither. As regards men, they are usually tall and almost every boy I know slouches or walks improperly. And I'm not being a pedant, in fact, it's unhealthy.
• Bad skin - Now I don't mean acne. It is normal and most people have had/had/will have it. Dry, oily or not healthy looking skin is what I have on my mind. If you have problems with it, don't think it's a banality. If you don't want to do it for others, do it for yourself and buy some cosmetics to help you to solve the problem. I've had a dry skin and since I use cannabis balm it's getting better and better.
• Clothes you wear - If you think that your inner beauty will amaze the man of your dreams, then I have these two words for you: Hell no. The first impression makes the way you look, not your personality. I've noticed that when I wear high heels, tights, skirts or skinny jeans (don't even have to wear make-up, which I rarely do, actually), guys look at me like I was their prey. But not all of them. If I walk out looking like a woman (not that I wasn't one, but baggy clothes and Converse shoes don't make anyone look feminine) men don't look at my body but right into my eyes (and my butt right away I pass them). Same for men.
• The way you speak - Just a quick note– vulgar speech is something you should do when you're with friends. Women, don't speak in a high-pitched voice.
• You act like or you are a child - I have mentioned the clothes and the first impression. If the one you are trying to charm gets the feeling that you have an immature behaviour, you won't fix it anyhow. Additionally, if you are too young to have a relationship, let it go and enjoy your childhood.
• Nails and hands - This is something you should pay attention to. Girls, nails don't have to be polished but they shouldn't be too long or half of them broken. If you play the violin (like I do), good for you, you don't have to care about them too much. Boys, I know you may be a good guitar player but you nails don't have to be that long. And by hands I mean dry hands, especially in the winter. I know that feeling of frozen, red hands, it's horrible. You (and I) should get some hand cream based on oils.

These were my 10 possible reasons, if you have some tips too or have something you really hate about your partner/friend, feel free to leave a comment. :)

love & peace,

Ciray

Lesson 7– Grammar (cases, declension of nouns)

Let's move on. There are lots of things to learn. :)

You don't have to learn anything from this yet. I just want you to understand, what it means. Enjoy!

Introduction: What are the grammatical cases?

Today's lesson is about grammatical cases. I can hear you saying: "I don't need them, they'll understand me anyway." Yes, we do understand but if you put some effort into learning them, it will pay off.

If you speak Finnish, German, Sanskrit, or Latin (or any other inflected language), you will probably find it easier to learn than those who don't even know what "grammatical cases" actually mean.

For those who don't know what they are (yes, they, there's a lot of them):

When you say: "I drank a cup of tea," the subject "I" is in its basic form (nominative case).

If you say: "The cup of tea drank me," (ok, perhaps you don't say this) the object "me" is declined.

English doesn't use the declension of nouns, pronouns, numerals and adjectives (except for exceptions). The German language has four cases and they are markedly easier than the Czech ones because you only have genders as the deciding factor for the type of declension (der, die, das [ein, eine, ein]).

To explain the system in the Czech language, I'll use Latin as an example: When you learn a list of nouns, apart from the gender, you have to memorize their suffixes in the genitive case, too. This is the way to find out how to decline a word. But I'll provide you with some tips to help you with recognizing it.

POI: Both Latin and Czech have 7 grammatical cases.

The Czech system of noun declension

As I mentioned before, the Czech language has seven grammatical cases. Is it too many for you? Try learning Finnish. As you may know, almost every noun (not all!) has a simple form and a plural form. If you can multiply, you already know, that we've got to the final number of suffixes a noun can have. It's fourteen. 

Shall I tell you the total of all of the suffixes? Sure, but if you get discouraged easily, don't read it. It should be 196 plus some exceptions. You don't need to faint right now. Let me finish. 

It's 56 for feminine, 56 for neutrum, and as usual, men just have to complicate everything– so it's 84 for masculine. 

Feminine gender has four paradigms of noun declension. These are: žena (woman), růže (rose), píseň (song), and kost (bone), (škola [school], ves [village]).

Neutrum– four paradigms: město (town), moře (sea), kuře (chicken), and stavení (building).

Masculine– six paradigms: pán (sir, lord), hrad (castle), muž (man), stroj (engine, machine), předseda (chairman), soudce (judge), (kůň [horse],divák [spectator], zámek [lock, chateau], otec [father]); they are divided into two groups: animate (pán, muž, předseda, soudce, host, kůň, otec) and inaminate (hrad, stroj, zámek)– this makes no difference, as regards the noun declension. 

NOTE: The paradigms in brackets are declined the same way as one of the regular paradigms but at least one of the suffixes is different. (hrad– zámek, žena– škola, pán– host).

The seven cases

They have names that you don't have to learn, I'll refer to them as the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh case. But if you're the kind of a language geek I like, you'll definitely find it useful. 

1.     Nominative

2.     Genitive 

3.     Dative

4.     Accusative

5.     Vocative

6.     Locative

7.     Instrumental

How to figure out, which of the cases should be used

Ta žena dostala růži. (= That woman (has/had) received a rose.) As you can see, a subject of a sentence is always in the first (nominative) case. Who (has/had) received a rose? That woman. The object "růži" is in the forth (accusative) case. Unfortunately, there is no way of recognizing the case immediately. One thing you can say for sure is that the object is never in the first (nominative) case (but of course, there's one exception). The Czechs have a list of questions (and prepositions, in some cases) as a "helping tool", but for you, it's useless because it doesn't tell you much. When you start to think like Czechs, (congrats and) you can check it out. The list is consisted of questions you ask about the object, e. g. "What did (or has/had) that woman receive(-d)?" 

1.     Nominative– Kdo? Co? (=Who? What?) (Asking about the object to find out, whether it's animate or inanimate.)

2.     Genitive– Bez/z koho/čeho? (=Without/out of/from whom/what?) 

3.     Dative– Komu? Čemu? (=To whom/what? [Example: Give it to her.])

4.     Accusative– Koho? Co? (=Whom? What? [Example: Do it for me.])

5.     Vocative– Oslovujeme, voláme. (=We address, we call. This is a case for addressing. Ex.: Man!)

6.     Locative– O kom/čem? (=About who/what?)

7.     Instrumental– S kým/čím? (=With who/what?)

For foreigners, there are lists of prepositions for each case.

To be continued...

Biz,

Ciray

Welcome to the New Year 2014, let's make things happen!

Do you know what can perfectly spoil your mood at the beginning of the year? It’s the New Year's resolutions.

Just don't make them. That's my advice.

If you really long to or you are strongly determined to make one and you just cannot live without a goal, I have a great solution for you. Take your biggest life goal and divide it into simple steps that will lead to it throughout the year. Or– the simple one: Get a diary.

I know what you're thinking– 'why should I do that?' Or 'I already have one'.

Yes, I've had so many diaries and find them useless. But I know people who don't (which is incomprehensible to me).

Due to their opinions, I make these basic mistakes:

1) Choosing one with design I like, but too big for carrying it to school or anywhere else. (Deciding whether I should take my planimetry book or my diary wins the more intellectual purpose. Admitting this really hurts.)

2) Letting it become my journal. Despite that I hardly ever get emotional; there are certain types of people whose everyday pleasure is to piss me off. Unfortunately, I call them my best friends. So the result is that I have nobody to talk to about how they drive me nuts and I start telling my little friend– diary. Then I find it not safe to take it to school with me. Therefore it loses its sense and I end up throwing it out.

3) Spilling different kinds of drink on it. This is obviously not a way to make it authentic.

4) Not making it authentic. There is no way to ingratiate with them...

5) Writing in stuff that don't belong there and not writing in those that

do. This explains itself.

There are many reasons why I (or anybody else) should purchase one, too. 

1) Time-management. Ability of maintaining your time is useful. On the other hand, procrastination is procrastination.

2) Idea catcher. I suppose you know the feeling of being deeply sunk in the stream of your thoughts when suddenly somebody disturbs you and you cannot continue. Writing the ideas down could be a good way to progress in your work or self-improvement. This is the main reason why I think about purchasing one.

3) Learning languages. I used to choose few words for each day and write them as little marginalia so that I could memorize them and read them every time I opened it.

4) Keeping your New Year's resolutions. But don't make them. It's for your own good.

I'm sure you will find plenty of reasons to get a diary but remember: It shouldn't be bigger than A6 format.

Love & peace,

Ciray