The Power Nap

I’m a night owl, to begin with. And I know I’m not alone!
I notice that most of teenagers and adults nowadays are suffering with this common issue. SLEEP DISORDER it is! Whether it’s insomnia, sleep inertia, or sleep deprivation, which is simply speaking that they’re struggling with their distorted body-clock. Resulting in difficulty to hit the bed earlier in the evening and wake up at noon instead of in the early morning like a human being should. Yet however, this is one condition that hardly to overcome. Some people didn’t choose to be a night owl. The environment and psychological conditions are several of many factors that might made it happen.

 If you’re one of those guys who have ever experienced sleep deprivation before, you would agree if I say that sleeping less than 4 or 5 hours practically makes you to to feeling grogginess upon waking up. This is can be a problem if  you have to start your activity such as go to work, school, or classes in the early morning. In that case, there’s nothing you can do but immediately hitting the ground and make your way throughout the day with the energy that hasn’t even fully charged. Although some caffeine can actually support, but that’s not what you want to always do for lifetime, am I right?

 I will share my experience about how power nap can effectively benefited me for these past two weeks. Yes, I’m a newbie in it! I knew about power nap since long ago but hadn’t got the willingness to give it a try until recently. So, I’m a night owl, just as I said before. I tend to sleep around 4 or 5 PM and have to wake up 3 hours after due to my activities which are mainly started in the morning. Meaning that I only have approximately 3 to 5 hours of sleep a day. Such condition made my stress hormone levels peaked up and not rarely caused me depression and anxiety during the day. Resulting in bad performance at school and workplace. Power nap did just wonder for me. I can already feel the benefit instantly ever since I put it in my daily ritual. During the break time, I always took a nap about 70-90 minutes despite the fact that I only had couple of hours of sleep last night and sometimes I just feel like crashed (just like an over-heated computer! — bad humor).  And that 90 minutes snooze in fact, has successfully made me feel like I’m fully charged right when I hit the ground upon waking up!  But there are some rule for an effective nap. It’s all about the duration you take during the nap !

Okay, so here are some scientific fact that I managed to find about the time setting of power naps:

10 to 20 Minutes Nap

This power nap is ideal for power boost in alertness and energy. This lengths usually limits you to the lighter stage of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Making you easier to hit the ground running after waking up.

30 Minutes Nap

Sleeping this long may cause sleep inertia. A hangover-like groggy feeling that lasts for up to 30 minutes after waking up before the nap’s restoratives benefits become apparent.

60 Minutes Nap

This nap is best for improvement in remembering facts, faces, and names. It included slow-waves sleep, the deepest type.

90 Minutes Nap

This is a full cycle of sleep. Meaning the lighter and deeper stages including rapid eye movement (REM)  sleep. Typically linked to the dreaming stages.  This leads to improved emotional and procedural memory and creativity. Making it easier to wake up.

Those are some fun facts about nap. So, next time if you happened to having little sleep, why don’t try one of these nap techniques to gear yourself up back instead of grabbing another caffeine.

Green Tea & Oolong Tea: Why I Started Drinking Them

So here I’m blogging again. Like it’s been years I abandoned this blog (I even forgotten the login password and had to undergo so many steps to get it back again).

Well, this time I’m going to post about Tea!

I’ve been a huge coffee lover all this time and the reason I love coffee is not just because it tastes fantastic, but it’s mainly because it gives me energy-boost that made me feel like a million dollar every morning. But ever since my Insomnia gone worse, I decided to cut my caffeine intake from coffee as much as I could. I used to drink 3 mugs of coffee per day and decided to cut it to one cup per day so I can at least a bit less energized at night. But lately, I’ve been losing touch with coffee for about two weeks. I replace coffee with Green and Oolong Tea for my daily beverages. And surely I got obvious benefits from Tea since the firs day I drank them. Guess I’ll cheating on coffee start by now.

My family are always been Tea drinkers. I remember when I was about 8 years old I lived in Makassar with my big family. Grandparents, aunties and uncles, they always gather and chitchat while drinking a cup of tea every morning. Tea is just as staple as salt and rice here in my home, and I rarely see my family drinking anything else besides Tea and water on their daily basis.

Raised in a huge “Tea-drinker” family doesn’t make me a tea lover to begin with. I’m a huge sweet tooth, and the main reason why I less liking the Tea is probably because it  tastes flat unlike coffee which is more rich of flavor. My family don’t add sugars or anything else into their tea and I’ve been experienced to drinking tasteless tea since I was a child. I know you can add some addition to your tea like milk, lemon or sugar to make it tastes better but at the same time, I prefer to get the best out of tea by drinking them bare without any addition of other substance. It’s a family hereditary I guess…

Green Tea

While most of my family having a cup of black tea every morning, I prefer go for Green Tea and Oolong Tea. Unlike Black Tea, I find Green Tea has richer and better flavor than the conventional black Tea. It also has very nice smell, it’s really calming and relaxing. And just like I’ve mention that I prefer to leave the sugar and milk aside and just drink it like that. Green tea has a natural wonderful flavor already, and adding other substance like sugar or milk would just ruining the natural taste. I drink Green tea every morning before I start my day, and also drink it right after I get back to home. It’s just really relaxing to have a cup of it after a very hectic day. It soothes and calming the nerves, very refreshing,  and good for blood circulation, and not to forget that Green Tea is the boss of Antioxidant properties which is beneficial to prevent any form of dangerous diseases. It’s a shield to protect you against so many illness from influenza, skin problems to cancer. So what to deny? Get a cup of it right now 🙂

Besides Green Tea, I also drink Oolong Tea on daily basis. Basically, it has similar flavor to black tea, I

Oolong Tea

personally can’t tell the difference of both flavor. While Green Tea has soft green yellow-ish color, Oolong tea is more like light brown color and less bitter than Green tea. Just like Tea in general, Oolong Tea has Antioxidant properties and of course a very relaxing smell which is really calming you down. I drink it with my meals or with my snacks and also after I finish jogging every Sunday morning (Yes, I only workout on Sunday morning). Oolong tea is very beneficial for those who are willing to lose weight because it boosts your metabolism so that you’ll feel more energized all the time. Drinking Oolong Tea basically decrease your appetite over fatty food and since it boosts your metabolism so well, you would feel less hungry and that way you won’t be overeating during meal time. But the greatest benefit that I ever got from drinking Oolong Tea is, it gives me energy more than when I drinking coffee and also it’s really refreshes my body and mind. Made me fully concentrate on my job and at class.

Just like I have mentioned before that I’ve been trying to consume less caffeine considering my sleep disorder. And ever since I stop drinking coffee and taking some sleeping pills, my sleep pattern started to getting better and I that I’m now capable to fall asleep at night (with some help from Nobuo Uematsu musics and mint aromatherapy). At first I was kind of afraid about Tea since it contains caffeine just like coffee has, and I don’t want to ruin my recovered sleep pattern which I’ve been struggling with for so long. But however, drinking Tea doesn’t affect my sleeping habit so far. I drink Oolong tea around 8 PM after I done working and it’s basically just relaxes my body, so it’s really a bless. But I’m not going to recommend it for people who are struggling with insomnia to drink their Tea before bed, because however, it contains caffeine which means it’ll prevent you from getting quality sleep at night. So please be considerable on your caffeine intake. Drinking Tea abusively would give you none of its benefits, moderation is always good and wise.

Anyway, in case you want to know about the brand of tea products that I use, here I’m going to show you the products of tea that I drink on daily basis:

Tong Tji Green Tea

It’s a local Green Tea product. I wonder if they sell it outside Indonesia but however you can still purchase it online on Java Trade House. The reason I decided to buy this product is because it’s considered as the best selling tea in my country, and from my friends recommendation who’ve been consuming it. This product is affordable in low price since it’s a local product, but however it’s definitely not cheap in quality. And speaking about tea products, my country (Indonesia) is one of the biggest Tea producer in the world, so I think that’s the main reason why Tea in here are generally low priced (less than 1 USD). And anyway, I’ve tasted Lipton’s Green Tea which is already known as England’s Tea brand, but Tong Tji for me has a really natural Green tea taste and nothing can beat its wonderful calming scent. But of course Lipton tastes good too, especially the chamomile tea 🙂 Tong Tji available in tea bag form and  powder form. I prefer to buy it in tea bag because it’s less of work for brewing them.

Tong Tji Green Tea, Black Tea & Jasmine Tea

Shen Long Oolong Tea

I bought the Tea in a local supermarket but actually it’s a Chinese product. So I can’t really tell much about what’s written on the back of the box LOL. This tea is wonderful, it tastes really good and the color is beautiful, and also this Shen Long brand has a wide range of tea choices. So I might try to buy their Pu Erh Tea soon. They have the Green Tea product but too bad it’s sold out when I want to buy them. It has chamomile tea too and other types of tea which are still quite sound alien for me. I guess China does drink more that 3 types of tea apparently. Anyway, this product available in box package and tin package.

Shen Long OolongTea & Tong Tji Green Tea

So, that’s it for today. I hope you enjoy your tea as well. Cheers. (^_^)

The Use of ‘masu’ form and ‘suru’ form

‘masu’ Form

The masu form of a verb is used in formal or polite situations. Before you can convert a verb into its polite form you must convert it into what is often called the masu stem.

eat/will eat
食べます tabemasu

not eat/wont eat
食べません tabemasen

ate
食べました tabemashita

didn’t eat
食べませんでした tabemasen deshita

 

John didn’t drink = jon-san wa nomimasen deshita (ジョンさんは飲みませんでした)

I will read = ore wa yomu (俺は読む)

He read book = kare wa hon o yomimashita (彼は本を読みました)

People wont eat trees = hito wa ki o tabemasen (人は木を食べません)

 

‘suru’ form

The verb “suru (to do)” has many extended uses that occur quite often.

(a) Adverb form of I-adjective + suru

To change I-adjective to adverb form, replace the final ~i with ~ku. (e.g. ookii —> ookiku)

Terebi no oto o ookiku shita.
テレビの音を大きくした｡
I turned up the volume of the TV.

(b) Adverb form of Na-adjective + suru
To change Na-adjective to adverb form, replace the final ~na with ~ni. (e.g. kireina —> kireini)

Heya o kireini suru.
部屋をきれいにする｡
I’m cleaning the room.

 

Noun (of Chinese origin) + suru

It is combined with nouns of Chinese origin to make a noun into a verb.

benkyou suru
勉強する
to study
sentaku suru
洗濯する
to do the washing

ryokou suru
旅行する
to travel
shitsumon suru
質問する
to ask questions

denwa suru
電話する
to telephone
yakusoku suru
約束する
to promise

sanpo suru
散歩する
to take a walk
yoyaku suru
予約する
to reserve

shokuji suru
食事する
to have a meal
souji suru
掃除する
to clean

kekkon suru
結婚する
to get married
kaimono suru
買い物する
to shop

setsumei suru
説明する
to explain
junbi suru
準備する
to prepare

The particle “o” can be used as an object particle after a noun. (e.g. “benkyou o suru,” “denwa o suru”) There is no difference in meaning with or without “o.”

Meet Voice Actors of Gintama

 

I believe every anime fandom knows about Gintama, at least you ever heard it somewhere. Because I believe this Anime is quite popular nowadays.

Well, now we’re not going to paraphrasing extensively about the story of the Anime itself, but now we’re going to reveal the actors behind the characters’ voices.

So here we go, the voice actors of Gintama!

 

Tomokazu Sugita  Seiyuu of  Gintoki Sakata

 

 

Daisuke Sakaguchi   Seiyuu of   Shinpachi Shimura

 

 

Rie Kugimiya  Seiyuu of  Kagura
Rie Kugimiya is also Seiyuu for:

–Happy (Fairy Tail)

 

Satsuki Yukino   Seiyuu of   Otae Shimura

 

 

Akira Ishida   Seiyuu of  Kotarou Katsura

 

 

Susumu Chiba  Seiyuu of  Isao Kondou

 

 

Kazuya Nakai   Seiyuu of   Toushirou Hijikata

Kazuya Nakai  is also Seiyuu of :

– Roronoa Zoro (One Piece)

– Mugen (Samurai Champloo)

– Masamune Date (Sengoku Basara)

 

Kenichi Suzumura  Seiyuu of Sougo Okita

 

 

Yuu Sugimoto   Seiyuu of   Katharine

 

 

Kujira   Seiyuu of   Otose
Kujira is also Seiyuu of:
– Orochimaru (Naruto)

 

Yuu Kobayashi   Seiyuu of  Sarutobi Ayame

 

 

Miki Shinichiro  is Seiyuu of Tatsuma Sakamoto

Miki Shinichiro is also Seiyuu of:

– Kisuke Urahara (Bleach)
**TRIVIA : Miki Shinichiro was the 2004 Award-winning Voice Actor.

 

Takehito Koyasu is Seiyuu of Takasugi Shinsuke