Smalti Astra Italian romantic colours

Ciao a tutti (forse è meglio dire "tutte")!

Per una volta un post in italiano, anche perché parlerò di qualcosa che non credo sia facile trovare all'estero! E tra l'altro, ecco un argomento un po' frivolo, che di solito non tratto! Ma credo che l'importante sia riuscire a sorprendere e sorprendersi sempre, o no?

Veniamo al dunque: come avrete già capito dal titolo, vorrei parlare di questa bellissima collezione di smalti Astra chiamata "Italian Romantic Colours", che ho scoperto oggi. Probabilmente arrivo un po' tardi, perché credo che siano usciti addirittura la scorsa primavera, ma devo ammettere che io non sono una grande patita di smalti, perciò non è strano che mi sia totalmente persa questa collezione. A dire il vero il mio è un po' un rapporto di amore-odio (o forse è meglio dire "amore-indifferenza") con gli smalti. Questo vuol dire che alterno periodi di disinteresse nei confronti delle mie unghie, a periodi in cui trovo uno o due colori di cui mi innamoro follemente, e allora ecco che si ricomincia ad usare gli smalti!!!

Oggi è successo proprio questo. All'IperSoap della mia città ho trovato questi bellissimi smalti a 2,50 €, il che mi sembra un ottimo prezzo, così ho fatto incetta (anche se è stata dura scegliere)!

Ecco i miei acquisti:

n.07

n. 10

n.35, che vedete anche sulle unghie

Ora sono proprio curiosa di vedere quanto mi durerà sulle unghie!
Chi di voi ha già usato questi smalti? Potete lasciarmi il vostro parere in proposito? O consigliarmi qualche altro colore a cui vi siete affezionate? Magari vado a fare ancora un giretto all'IperSoap uno di questi giorni...   ;)

Volunteering abroad

I know that holidays have just ended, and it might be too early (and melancholic) to think about and plan your next holidays. But anyway, I'd just like to share with you the experience I had this summer and to give you a suggestion for a different (and cheaper!) way to spend your holidays.

As you've probably read in the title, I'm talking about Volunteering.
It means that you can travel to a foreign country (or to your own country, of course!) to take part in a volunteering project. There are different types of projects, as for example working with children, the disabled, old people, poor people, environmental volunteering, wildlife rescue projects and so on. I'm sure you'll find the best project for your own aptitudes and interests!

Of course, you'll have to pay your own flight or trip to the place you chose. But then, volunteering organisations often provide room and board for free or for not much money anyway.

Volunteering means hard work, no doubts about it. But think about all the positive aspects it has got. You have the opportunity to travel low cost, to visit a new place and meet new, great people from other countries and you are aware of the fact that you're doing something useful and very important for somebody else. And believe me,when you see with your own eyes that you're doing good and that your work is producing some results, it's just sooo rewarding and satisfying!

When you volunteer, if the place is well organised, you should normally have some spare hours to rest or go and visit the area every day and you should also get something like one whole free day per week, but of course it all depends on the specific organisation.

Where I went this summer is a center for wildlife rescue called EKPAZ, on Aegina Island, south of Athens (Greece). If you want more info about it, don't hesitate to ask!
Here's the website (but it's not really up to date...!) : EKPAZ

Other interesting websites:
- WEP Italia (This one is in Italian. I hope you can find a WEP website in your country as well)
- GoAbroad
- ProjectsAbroad
- International Animal Rescue
- WWF
...

Of course, these are just a few links I had checked while I was looking for a project this summer, so I cannot grant for them. Moreover, you can find dozens of other organisations through the search engines on the Net, so I'd be glad if you can let me know about other good projects you know, you've already experienced or you've found while surfing!   Thank you!   :)

Photo sharing with Aminus3!

Are you looking for a place where to share your pictures?
I've tried Aminus3, after reading about it on the Internet, and I must say that I'm sooo satisfied with it!

It is a free Photoblog hosting service whose only limitation is that just one of your pictures will be posted per day.  That means that you won't upload loads of photos as you normally do on Facebook, for example, but you'll have to select your best shots instead.
Of course, you can upload as many photos as you want at the same time, but you'll have to assign each of them to a day of the year, by selecting it on the calendar. On that day, your photo will become available to the other members. Of course after that date, the picture will be shown permamently on your photoblog.

People will also be able to comment your photos, give them a star rating and choose to "follow" your photoblog, if they really like it (and of course you can do the same with all the other members).
The community of Aminus3 is amazing and full of stunning pictures that are renewed everyday.
Moreover, everyday they choose a "Spotlight" and a "Colour Spotlight", that are two pictures posted by two different members which are considered so good to deserve to be shown for some time at the top of the main page of the site. Isn't this challenging?! ;)

Have fun and let me know!  -->  Go to Aminus3 (If you want, you can have a look at the photos even if you're not a member!)

Dedicated to Troy Davis

Another man was killed by the American penalty system. We're talking about Troy Davis, convincted  of murder with aggravating factor and executed at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison yesterday morning.

I must admit that I'm not well informed about his story, even though his name was pretty popular and I sometimes received emails about him and all the different petitions and demonstrations carried out by people in order to get a commutation of death penalty in life sentence.

Anyway, lots of information can be found on the Net, as for example, here (Wikipedia).

There are just a couple of things I'd like to highlight.
I don't want to be too trite, but first of all we should never stop asking ourselves wheter it is legitimate for a State to decide to execute somebody - and pay death back with death - .
After that, Troy Davis was arrested in 1989, which means 22 long years spent in prison, from his adolescence  to his death, at the age of 42. Is it a human behaviour to torture a man in this way, keeping him alive for all this time, when the most probable end of the story will be "execution"? Moreover, Troy Davis had 3 previous execution dates set, before the fourth, last one. How would you call that? I'd suggest "psychological torture".





'Till the end Davis maintaned his innocence. Of course, I don't know if this is true, and I really don't know wheter I'd wish he was guilty, right now. That will not justify death penalty, of course. But can you imagine the embarrassment and sufferings that will be caused if they find out that an innocent was killed? And that wouldn't be the first -and nor the last - time, I'm afraid.

Organic chemistry...

...is not so much fun. It might be interesting of course, but since I've been spending more than two weeks preparing my exam and studying by heart names, formulae and reactions, I must admit that organic chemistry and I don't get along very well together.

Anyway, while surfing the Net for some help / support / suggestions / an escape from reality probably (!) I've found something very interesting and useful.
It's a program called ChemSketch, devoloped by ACDLABS, that can be downloaded for free from HERE .
With it, you can draw all the different molecules and then it can generate the IUPAC name for them (which is very useful when you have to practice IUPAC names). Of course it can do lots of other amazing things that I don't have the time to learn right now.

Another great help is Jmol, an opensourse java viewer for 3D molecules.

Wow, we're so lucky to leave in an era of technology! ;)

Leica 24 x 36 photo contest!

Hello everybody!
How are you doing in this end of summer?

Today I'll use my blog to have some "self advertisement", we can say.
In fact, I'm taking part in a photo contest by Leica Italy. Of course I'm just an amateur and I take pictures for fun in my (not much) free time. Moreover I use a Panasonic Lumix camera, which is not bad at all, but of course it's far from being a professional equipment.

Anyway, this contest could be a great opportunity to get known and learn a bit more about the amazing art of Photography, soooo.. what I ask you to do is: if you have a Facebook or Twitter account, please visit this page: My photos for Leica 24 x 36 and if you like my pictures just "Like" or "Tweet" them.

Of course, if you have a little spare time, it will be worth having a look to the pictures of the other participants. There are lots of great works! Just click on the word "GALLERIA".

Thank you so much! I'd really appreciate your support :)

BookCrossing Time!

I released a book on the train this morning!

It was my first time after ages and I'm happy to feel again this sensation of joy and a little bit of anxiety while wating for my book to be registered on the site by his new, lucky owner.

And you?? Have you ever tried Bookcrossing? If not, you really should!!!

What is it?

It's a funny and free way to share your books with other "Bookcrossers". You register your books on the website and you get a code called BCID. Then you can choose to give the book to a person you know, or to leave in "into the wild" ( = "to release" it). But before you do that, don't forget to write a release note on the site and the BCID together with some instructions in your book! In this way the person who finds it, will be able to register the book in the site again, so that you can keep track of its journey.

If you don't like this way of sharing books you can send them to people who wish to read them (in this case we're talking about a "controlled release", since you altready know your book's destination).

And keep your eyes open!!! Who knows, maybe you'll meet a released book to take with you soon!

To learn more:  click here

ENJOY!