Archive for the ‘lifestyle’ Category

Sep 25 2011

Wilderness First Aid Course (WFA)

Posted by JacQ

Jeremy and I normally do outdoor sports with just us – hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, and snowboarding. After watching 127 Hours and read some stories about wilderness emergency, I really wanted to take some survival and First Aid classes because we will most likely depend on each other to rescue the injured one.

Luckily, there is one in town - SOLO Wilderness First Aid Course (WFA) presented by Central Arizona Mountain Rescue Association (CAMRA) a partner of SOLO Schools.

We immediately signed up for the 16-hour long, 2-Day WFA Certification Course and try to learn as much as we can about WFA. The classes were held at North Mountain Visitor Center. The classes focus on the basic skills of: Response and Assessment, Musculoskeletal Injuries, Environmental Emergencies, Survival Skills, Soft Tissue Injuries, and Medical Emergencies.

One of our instructors, Mike Englund, offered lots of on the field rescue examples to explain how important it is to have these basic skills to self rescue or help others.

We spend lots of time in the classroom going over the literature, then we will do outdoor hands on training to see if we can run through the essentials of things to look for to help someone who might be in need of a rescue or as simple of some water.

The course covers mostly situations in the desert that deals with heat and dehydration and we learn to recognize if someone is in shock.

We both passed the written test and earned our 2 Year WFA certifications. Now we just have to sign up for First Aid/CPR and other wilderness survival course~

No Comments » // topics: do it yourself, health care, outdoors, photo gallery //

Sep 21 2011

The Eighth Parallel – a documentary by Darcy Turenne

Posted by JacQ

I have been a sporty girl all my life. Being a tomboy who loves to play sports outdoors is not a supported form of activity in most Asian culture. Being naturally tan and physically fit makes me happy, but gets me negative remarks from my friends and family from Taiwan.

I am fortunate to meet my soulmate, Jeremy, who supports and encourages me to try new sports and be more active. He loves me for me and I am lucky to have someone to share my passion for outdoor activities.

Today, I came across a beautiful documentary, The Eighth Parallel by a pro mountain biker/film maker, Darcy Turenne. It is a 28 minute short film shot in Bali and Java, Indonesia. The cinematography is fantastic and I love the soundtrack. Take a short break from work and enjoy this~

No Comments » // topics: climbing, fitness, mountain biking, movies and films //

Apr 09 2011

Review: Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color – Light Intense Auburn R3

Posted by JacQ

Garnier Nutrisse Permanent Hair Color – Ultra Color: Light Intense Auburn R3 Jeremy has been encouraging me to dye my hair red. And I have been curious about how red hair looks on me. So I started looking for potential DIY hair dye from stores.

We went to Fry’s last week for grocery shopping and I saw the Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color – Light Intense Auburn R3. It states that it is designed specifically for naturally dark color hair.

Like most Asians, my hair is really dark and thick in volume. My hair is medium in texture but it does not really take in color very well. So I normally have to leave hair dye in for 2+ hours to get some color… which is really bad for my hair.

Jeremy was promoting me to try it, so we got two boxes since from previous experience I need to use double or sometimes triple the amount for the amount of hair I have plus the length. There was even one time I used two boxes and needed a third so Jeremy had to run out and get me another box.

I had already tried to lighten my hair color with Kao Prettia Soft Bubble Hair Color in Sweet Pink a few days ago, and ended up not really liking the color too much. It ended up looking a little too flat against my complexion, so I am looking forward to give it a little more boost.

This series is exclusively designed for naturally dark hair people to get a intense red color. It does not work on hair that has been colored to a black or dark brown shade. Also not recommended for predominantly gray hair.

The mixing of the chemical is pretty standard, easy to follow instruction and a pretty good quality set of latex gloves, not the thin, cheap plastic ones.

As soon as I saw the main bottle, I know I needed a second box so I was glad we got two. One box was enough to cover about 2/3 of my hair. Since I have already lighten my hair to more of a medium brown, the red really showed through, almost exactly like they showed on the box. I had several highlights from some bleaching done last year, so I ended up with some really bright red highlights, which was a happy accident.

I think a combination of this product designed specifically for dark hair and I have already lighten my hair a little a few days ago, helped with the really impressive result for just one hour of coloring time.

It was really messy doing this by myself, it would have been much easier to have this done by Jeremy or a friend. It also had a strong smell, so some people might not like that.

It took me about 15 – 20 minutes to rinse the chemical out of my hair and it still was not completely clear… I assume that is what it takes to get this intense red for dark hair. The conditioner that came with it was not bad, but it definitely left my hair much healthier compared to the Kao hair dye.

I highly recommend this to my fellow dark hair peeps, but I don’t know how the color would fade and how long the color will last. So I am curious to find out.

Here are the before and after photos.

Before: Right after I colored with Kao Prettia Soft Bubble Hair Color in Sweet Pink