Shape Ups Skechers: Shape Up While You Walk

This revolutionary shoes is shaping up America just by walking. Shape Ups by Skechers was designed to get people fit while walking, shopping or doing anything anywhere.

It's a fashionable fitness shoes that's suppose to tone muscles, reduces stress on knees and joints, improves back posture, reduce cellulite, tone thighs, firm buttocks and calf and reduce weight.

The science behind this stylish shoes is based on the premise that we typically walk on hard surfaces.   This gives stress to our feet, knees and especially our lower back.  Skechers created the Shape Ups technology to turn walking into a hard surface feels like walking into a soft and comfortable ground.  It's like walking in the sand or in a luxurious carpet.  The dynamic rolling bottom, the soft foam and the dual density kinetic wedge midsole makes it happen.  It strengthens muscles and increases the blood flow in your feet.

Shape Ups are worn by celebrities who attended the Sundance Film Festival 2010. 

Lady Gaga Has the Most Famous Facebook Profile

The American musician Lady Gaga is the first living person to have the most fans in the social network, Facebook. As of to date, she has 11,383,104 million fans. Her profile is more famous than President Obama. Michael Jackson has 14 million fans on Facebook.

Lady Gaga is 22 years old. She came from a good Italian family in New York City. She learned to play piano by ear at 4. She loves pop, rock and theater. She's an artist, song-writer, exhibitionist who has a flair for theatrics. Her goal is to funnel pop record to the world in an interesting way. She looks at artists as an icon of art. And that's how she looks today. She believes it's not just about the music but also the performance, the attitude and the looks.

Watch out for her performance live on Today Show's Summer Concert Series, this Friday, July 9 at Rockefeller Center from 7am ET/PT.

You can download her famous songs:
The Fame Monster (Deluxe)
Alejandro
Poker Face

New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees' Book "Coming Back Stronger"

This is what Americans are made of when it comes to overcoming adversities.   

This is a story of a man that brought hope and victory not only for himself but also for his team, the Saints and his devastated community, New Orleans.

Drew Brees is an American professional football player.  He  proved that a person can overcome any obstacles that life throws in his way if he has faith, determination and heart.

Brees is the Super Bowl XLIV Most Valuable Player.  Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the premier association of professional American Football.  In the last game of 2005 season playing against Denver Broncos, Brees injured his shoulder that nearly ended his career. Also in 2005, the deadly Hurricane Katrina left 85% of New Orleans underwater.  Brees, the team and the whole community were in despair.  It will take strong character and a miracle to bring back an injured player to play again professionally and bring hope and glory to the community.  In February 10, 2007, Brees' recent victory did just that.  He threw 288 yards and 2 touchdowns.  It was the first league championship of Saints.  The whole community supported the team and Brees with the team made the community proud and victorious.  They all came back stronger.

He wrote an inspiring story about this comeback.  The book is called Coming Back Stronger: Unleashing the Hidden Power of Adversity

Here's a video of that emotional and victorious moment with Drew Brees holding his son, Baylen.



Brees generously shared part of his winnings to charities in New Orleans.

The Star Spangled Banner

Six years and a naturalized citizen later, I still haven't really memorized the USA national anthem. I got a book mark from the library with the lyrics. I look at it everytime I read a book.

When I learned about the story of the song, it became more meaningful to me. The song was written by Francis Scott Key after a critical battle in Baltimore, Maryland. Key was a lawyer and an amateur poet. He was sent to Baltimore to secure the release of Dr. Beanes, an American prisoner of the British.

The mission was completed on a British ship. But the British was about to attack Fort McHenry, the American fort guarding Baltimore. After twenty-five hours of battle, the Americans withstood the attack. It was morning of September 14, 1814. Francis Scott Key peered through the clearing smoke. He saw the American flag waving proudly in Fort McHenry. He was so inspired by the sight that he wrote a poem to commemorate the occasion. The poem was sung to the tune of a popular British song, "To Anacreon in Heaven."

The Star-Spangled Banner was so popular and it became the official anthem of the United States of America.

Star-Spangled Banner

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light?
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight;
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the nighth that our flag was still there.
Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Rainy 4th of July

It's post "4th of July." We had rain in the midwest yesterday so most of the fireworks display were postponed for next week. For me, fireworks display in the small town of Humboldt is the culminating of our celebration. Fireworks in synch with music works everytime.

Anyway, we spent most of our day in a friends house. I didn't really feel any partiotic ambiance in the air aside from my friend wearing a patriotic shirt and me wearing a shirt with a print of 1 million dollars.

We're supposed to go to a lake and have picnic. We had picnic food ready. We had barbeque baby back ribs, steamed rice, hotdogs wrapped in bacon, brownies, soda in can, fresh fruits, etc. But it rained, so we just stayed inside the house. We ate, chat and watched chick flick. It wasn't boring at all. We had fun. The kids were running around the house and going back and forth in different bedrooms. Ha, clutter! My friend from New York called from my cell phone. She said it was hot and steamy there.
Oh well...

We got home all stuffed up. I turned the tv on and looked for some Independence Day Celebration program. I didn't find any but a short clip at the "Weather Channel" showing the Washington DC celebration and someone singing the end part of Star Spangled Banner. So I guess, that's a little better to end our 4th of July.