Olivia Munn leaves Attack of the Show

Attack of the Show loses one of its most popular and attractive co-hosts, breaking geeky hearts all over the Internet and the cable world.

What made G4’s weekly live television program “Attack of the Show” so special and lively over the past four years since 2006 was not only that the show covered topics like new technology, pop culture, daily news, prodigies, previews of movies, games, and digital media, but was the fact that it had a special chemistry between the host Kevin Pereira and Olivia Mann.

AOTS’s popularity grew as co-host Olivia Munn became every geek’s dream girl fully manifested as a half Chinese-Irish descent chic that seems to really like cool nerdy stuff, and hang out with the guys. Munn was born in 1980, raised in Tokyo, Japan, went to the University of Oklahoma, and began her acting career as Lisa Munn and has professionally changed it to Olivia Munn since 2006 as her rising star and popularity have grown. She replaced host Sarah Lane in 2006 and resides in Los Angeles, California.

Olivia Munn’s increasing popularity on AOTS was getting noticed by Hollywood and fashion magazines. Featured on the cover of Maxim magazine and commercial endorsements. Film roles were now offered to her and TV guest spots. Munn was gaining a huge fan base following and some speculated they would only watch AOTS as long as she was there co-hosting and occasionally wearing a scantily clad superhero outfit. She promised her fans that she would always stay with AOTS feeling a family bond with the G4 network.

That became her famous last words as she became more famous over the next few years. In the 2008 horror film Insanitarium, Munn had a significant role as a nurse at an insane asylum and more recently, starting with Robert Downey, Jr. in Iron Man 2. The NBC network, announced in May 2010 that Munn will star in a half-hour comedy television series called Perfect Couples to begin broadcasting on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. time slot on Jan. 20, 2011. Munn appeared on the Daily Show as a new correspondent on June 3, 2000. On July 6, 2010 Munn became officially a published author with her book, titled, Suck It, Wonder Woman: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek. After July 2010 Munn was suddenly absence from the AOTS.

For the next several months, nobody at the G4 network gave any clues about Olivia Munn’s extended absence. Instead, host Kevin Pereira had to make do with a variety of attractive female co-host and lightheartedly acknowledged Munn’s noticeable absence from the show. Despite inquiries by fans and people of interest, there was no official announcement from G4 about Munn coming back to the show. Interestingly enough, photographs and posters of Munn still dominate the studio sets and websites. The lack of a no-show was becoming quite obvious to most people who could tell the wheels of fame were definitely rolling for Munn.

Host Kevin Pereira finally broke the news on December 6, 2010 about a startling revelation. Candace Bailey will take over as the new co-host for AOTS. Kevin Pereira will officially welcome Candace Bailey on Attack of the Show, starting January 11, 2011. Bailey beat out other popular condenters for the co-hosting gig like Alison Haislip, Carrie Keagan, Morgan Webb, and Sara Underwood. Many fans wish her luck, but often worried about the chemistry between herself and Pereira. Bailey is considered eye candy by fans and a bit too skinny for their preferences.

Some fans don’t blame Munn for going on to bigger and better things. Diehard geeks will always follow Munn wherever she goes. But some disgruntled fans have stopped following her on Twitter and Facebook and recall her promise to appear on the show one last time before ever leaving, but instead phoned in her last appearance on AOTS. Munn never officially said goodbye to her fan base on G4. It is quite obvious that when your career and popularity is skyrocketed by fortune and fame, that ultimately you have got to ride that train to whatever direction it takes you, and leave the past behind. Olivia Munn is doing just that and is working on publishing her own magazine called Hey Olivia, which is scheduled for publication by MYMAG.


Suck It, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek
HEY OLIVIA! (MYMAG, Volume 3: Olivia Munn)
Maxim January 2010 * Wet & Wild Olivia Munn Hangover Survival Guide * UFC's Rachelle Leah * Hometown Hotties Champion Stephanie Pratt (Volume 145)
Jedi Junkies
Playboy July/August 2009 Olivia Munn
Insanitarium
Iron Man 2 (Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)


T.S.Garp © Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved.

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Personality Development and Behavior Patterns (Part Two)

Our personality and our behavior are based on patterns from past experiences that have affected us on the emotional level.

Ultimately, we have to take an assessment of our own developing personality and discover what’s motivating us. When psychologists research this type of question regarding what drives us, the answer usually comes up to be on an emotional level. Emotion can greatly affect your motivation in so many ways. Your mind may be the builder, the thinker, the architect, but your emotions express your true feelings, your dreams, and your desired goals. Emotions and motivation can play a pivotal part in how you conduct your life and experience of it.

To paraphrase the late great, Eunice Kennedy, “Never try to stop someone in pursuit of their dreams, only try to encourage them to do the best they can, completed in a reasonable amount of time, and move on to the next journey”. This is truly words to live by, most parents and teachers get this, but there are still those few, friends, rivals, and certain relatives, that fail to impart and encourage you to actively pursue your dreams. This could be a tragic mistake in the development of a young personality into adulthood who suffers from a lack of needed encouragement to pursue a dream. The world would surely lose a future doctor, scientists, humanitarian, actor, artists, writer, philosopher, and perhaps future president of a great nation.

Statistically it is known that a great majority of people are not living out their desired goals and dreams. There is a sad but true consensus that nobody is truly happy with their present job. Many people are disconnected emotionally with the jobs they find themselves doing and realize they are not satisfied or happy with it. Finding yourself in a career that is only motivated out of necessity, in an unhappy environment, stifling your individuality and creativity can only lead to depression, dissatisfaction, and disillusionment. Positive action is needed and fears need to be gone. Associating with other people that have similar goals and ideas can be a great motivator. Working with similar minds and attitudes in an environment that is advantageous to success and emotionally fulfilling can only lead to accomplishing your goals quicker.

Understanding your own personality traits and what truly motivates you can help determine your true purpose and unlock the fear of goals and endeavors that truly moves you. Look at the real reason why you’re inspired by something. Is the reason an emotional one or by something else? Are you motivated by a love? Money? Self worth? Competition? Having a healthy competitive attitude is a good personality trait to have that helps give you a needed push for growth, but having an overly aggressive competitive nature can be misguided, and often very costly.

Deciphering the real reasons that make up your personality and motivation is the key. Why did you decide to buy that particular house? Why did you buy that particular car and color? Why did you decide to marry that person and not the other? What characteristics are you attracted to that you see in other people that affect your emotions? How did you decide to pick this particular career versus doing some other kind of job? These are the types of questions you need to ask yourself, in an open and honest manner, regarding personality traits, self-worth, self-esteem, and self-motivation. Discovering what truly inspires your personality on an emotional level, can guide you to a more satisfying outlook on life and personal endeavors.

There are many psychological theories that debate on what really motivates people and how they are affected by internal drives that determined their choices in life. On a completely emotional level, what really motivates us in achieving a desired goal is based solely on what’s beneficial, pleasurable, and gives us a feeling of accomplishment that is comforting and rewarding at the same time. Nevertheless, it is your indelible personality and your emotional state of being, that will ultimately decide how you view your past, how you live in the present, and how you see yourself in the future.


Perfect Phrases for Motivating and Rewarding Employees, Second Edition: Hundreds of Ready-to-Use Phrases for Encouraging and Recognizing Employee Excellence
Motivating People to Be Physically Active - 2nd Edition (Physical Activity Intervention Series)
Infinite Possibilities: The Art of Living Your Dreams
Living Your Dreams, inspirational affirmations to empower your thinking, relieve stress, and deepen your spiritual life while you drive! Give a unique gift, under $10, that uplifts with positive, faith-filled affirmations!
Healing Your Emotional Self: A Powerful Program to Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem, Quiet Your Inner Critic, and Overcome Your Shame
The Self-esteem Companion: Simple Exercises to Help You Challenge Your Inner Critic & Celebrate Your Personal Strengths
The Courage to Be Yourself: A Woman's Guide to Emotional Strength and Self-Esteem
Living Your Strengths: Discover Your God-Given Talents and Inspire Your Community


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Personality Development and Behavior Patterns (Part One)

Our personality and our behavior are based on patterns from past experiences that have affected us on the emotional level. Our unique personalities can actually dictate how we live and think, and even how successful we might become in life, business, and interpersonal relationships.


Everyone walking around us has a certain personality that is derived from temperaments, attitudes, environment, character, and experience. There are several components and reasons why people act the way they do and have unique personalities that are different from anyone else‘s. Some of the major components are social patterns, characteristics, and behavior learned since childhood. Some personality development can come from genetics that give us specific personality traits. There is also stimulus coming from the surrounding environment as to the development of a person‘s attitude in that environment that attributes to the development of the distinctive personality. Even social status and trends can impede or excel developing personalities.

Behavior patterns developed early in life and constant interaction with the world produces character and temperament. As we gain knowledge and experience, our personality can actually shift and change into responding patterns and develop recognizable traits from those experiences. Everyone has a unique personality and characteristics that is as much similar to others as they are distinctive. One of the key essentials to have at an early stage in life is developing behavioral patterns that are beneficial and cordial to an individual who is going to be inundated with other highly developed personalities that are very different from their own. In other words, a more amiable and positive temperament personality is more likely to benefit in the social and business world that an overly exasperated one.

There are many psychological aspects concerning with the subject of personality development such as perception, sensation, behavioral patterns, intelligence, and memory. There is of course a social psychology aspect that affects our own personality development. There is a term called peer pressure that greatly affects how some people behave and think. This can fall under a need to be heard, self-worth, low self-esteem, and simply wanting to fit in with the current or local social environment.

Giving in to peer pressure can be a terrible mistake and can lead to a mob mentality that has no control or any desire to be an individual with a unique idea. If you become fully affected by peer pressure and always bow down to other people‘s ideas then you have lost your individuality and a certain level of self respect. Having to compromise greatly depends on if this is going to be a positive or negative outcome, leading to either a benefit for all or a hinder to some. In life this can be a very important characteristic trait that separates the leaders from the followers. The movers and shakers in the business world, the doers and the procrastinators, the entrepreneurs and starving artists in the world all have a certain level of drive that started from early development of their personality that either pushes them forward or holds them back.

The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back: Overcoming the Behavior Patterns That Keep You From Getting Ahead
Dynamic Patterns: The Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior (Complex Adaptive Systems)
Social and Personality Development
Personality Development: A Psychoanalytic Perspective


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The Self-Motivation Fundamentals (Part Two)

Understanding how self motivation can help you succeed in all your endeavors and help you follow through with completing your ideas and goals that you have set to accomplish in your life.


Throughout our entire lives we are motivated by everyone around us. When we are young, we are motivated by our parents and teachers. We learn about words of wisdom and applied knowledge to help give us a solid platform to work on and grow with our own experience in life. We begin to learn about ourselves, our strengths, our weaknesses, and discover our own abilities. As we get older, we begin to admire and respect certain people that have made an impact in our lives. For some this could easily be your parents, teachers, mentors, and then the shift will focus on highly profiled individuals such as famous celebrities, religious figures, certain government elected officials, and successful entrepreneurs.

Having the ability to motivate yourself when others around you do not is crucial for your own success to continue. These moments of doubt, despair, and lack of faith can strike any moment and at any time. There are many naysayer’s out there, and jealous individuals, who will try to stomp on your parade, and your own success. Look at these encounters, as small steppingstones and obstacles, and ignore them, and push aside their sad commentary as you go boldly forward to the goals that you have set for yourself in life. They are not on the same path that you are traveling on and they are not your friends. Friends on the other hand are great allies, eagerly pointing out your skills, achievements, and praise you when you’ve done well.

The best way to motivate oneself is to discover your skills and abilities. What are your interests and what are your likes and dislikes? You can easily assess your own characteristics of personality and discover what type of person you are. It is true that certain people are born with a splash of character, but most people know and agree that character comes from gained knowledge, time-tested experience, and observation which lead to an amount of insurmountable wisdom, mixed with your own personal characteristic traits about how you view life and your place in it. Your personality alone can greatly determine how successful you are going to be in motivating yourself.

Discovering what your interests are, experience, long-term goals, and understanding the key strengths of your personality can help motivate you even in the darkest of times. Self-motivation is what keeps us going and is a must-have tool for entrepreneurs who want to be successful, organized, savvy, and strive for excellence. Determining your skills, strengths, room for improvements, and really tapping into your creative side can greatly fuel your motivation level, and guide you to the optimum platform to release your ideas and sets all your goals in motion.

The road to self-motivation starts with you and keeps you on your desired path to reach your final destination, which is the creation of your goal, dream job, artistic endeavor, finishing that novel, building that house, saving and investing your hard earned cash, tuition for college, helping the needy, the poor and the sick, imparting wisdom and knowledge to others, to reaching as far as the moon, anything is possible, and most importantly to yourself and your own entrepreneurship of life in general. Having self-motivation is very much like having faith in your own abilities to see your creation fully accomplished. It is said that motivation and faith can create a paradise where there was once a desert, and that is surprisingly true. Self-motivation is a push that keeps you focused and faithful to your desired goal.

 Motivation and Self-Regulated Learning: Theory, Research, and Applications
Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior (Perspectives in Social Psychology)
Motivation to Move! Hypnosis Exercise Motivation
Exercise Fitness & Motivation


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The Self-Motivation Fundamentals (Part One)

Self-motivation can greatly increase all aspects of your life, including business and personal endeavors that all successful entrepreneurs and goal seekers need to realize desired dreams and business related profitable outcomes.

Entrepreneurs know in order to have success in their dream business is to have self-motivation and a strong desire to make that dream a reality. Self-motivation can be a highly satisfying and emotional push when the desired goal is the creation and completion of specific task that you have sent to complete; especially if the goal in completion involves a very specific personal one. But more often than not many people lack self-motivation when setting certain goals that they want to complete in their life. Usually most people’s intentions are good and constructive as they list every necessary task that needs to be completed for their self assigned goal is to reach realization.

This kind of assessment is beneficial and saves time. Writing down a “to do list” is a good exercise and a solid reminder of certain accomplishments that need to be done in order to reach the final goal. Some people fail to even get this far and fall into a state of entropy and are unable to tap into their “getup and go” attitude and move forward with their plans for their own success. As you map out your plan for your own future endeavors and get a clear look at the feasibility of making your goal or dream a reality. This written reminder, as a plan of action will give you a basis to visualize on, and a clearer idea of how to go about it in the real world sense.

Everyone needs a plan, a rough idea, and a direction on which way to go. Even business entrepreneurs must have a business plan and basic idea of what they are trying to accomplish. Scientists are motivated by the questions of why, what, and how does that work, and why does it work that way? Doctors are motivated to find a cure for their ailing patients. Artists are motivated by nature and the wonder of life all around us. Writers and philosophers are motivated by trying to understand and capture the essence of life itself poetically expressing it down on paper. Whether your idea is to make music or create a new company, you need to assess your knowledge of that particular subject and know that you have what it takes to create that and make it work.

You should take a good look at your idea and your plan. Is this idea new? Has this idea been on the back burner for a long time? Is this idea a benefit to you and to others? Is this idea realistically feasible? What is driving you and indeed fully motivating you to completing this goal or idea? What are your full intentions with this idea? What are the benefits of this idea? How much will it cost and how long will it take to complete? What exactly will you be getting out of this idea? First look for the “need” principle. Does the need meet the demand?

This assessment for self-motivation can either work for personal use or for business entrepreneurship. Basically, does your original plan fulfill the need for yourself and/or for others who might benefit from this finish goal; in business terms is this endeavor profitable. Answering these questions can give you a clear understanding about what really motivates you in your life and plans for your future.

The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life
Who am I? The 16 Basic Desires that Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personalities
Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation
100 Ways To Motivate Yourself: Change Your Life Forever


T.S.Garp © Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved.

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Maple-Roasted Chicken with Vegetables

Here is a wonderful dish for autumn I ran across a few weeks ago that I like to share with you. This recipe is very easy to do and is remarkably tasty. The ingredients are perfect for the fall season, with colors and taste to match, giving you that warm, satisfying, feeling during the coming colder months ahead.

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds chicken thighs and/or drumsticks

Poultry seasoning, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

(Optional seasoning): Add a pinch of Curry power, Garlic powder,

2 cups carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces

3 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
½ red onion, cut into 1-inch pieces

½ cup of chicken broth

¾ cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons (or to taste) fresh thyme, chopped

1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes

Directions:

Arrange the chicken in an 8 x 13-inch baking dish or slightly larger if needed. Sprinkle with the poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Place the sweet potatoes, carrots and onion in the dish. Drizzle the entire dish with maple syrup and olive oil. Sprinkle with thyme, and toss to coat.

Cover with foil and bake at 375°F for 30 minutes. (Whenever I cook with this type of recipe I usually use a roasting pan with the cover, and add more vegetables than the recipe calls for, and I raise the temperature and add to the baking time.) Remove the foil, stir and cook for about 15 minutes longer or until the chicken is golden brown and a meat thermometer registers 165°F. (If you want more tender chicken than add a little water and cover the chicken tightly and cook longer until the meat is falling off the bone.) Let stand, covered with foil, for 5 to 8 minutes before serving.

101 Autumn Recipes
Autumn: Recipes Inspired by Nature's Bounty (Williams-Sonoma Seasonal Celebration)
Quick & Easy Autumn Recipes: More than 200 Yummy, Family-Friendly Recipes for Fall...Most in 30 Minutes or Less!
500 Seasonal Recipes: Making the Most of Fresh Produce Through Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter

T.S.Garp © Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved.

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Happy New Year 2011!!!

Happy New Year!!! Peace & Love & Light!!!

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

Cheesecake is one of my favorite dishes to make and it can be made in a variety of different ways. Here is a great recipe for pumpkin cheesecake. This cheesecake recipe can also be used for both butternut squash and sweet potato instead of pumpkin. Any season is good for cheesecake, especially during the holidays.

Ingredients:

8 ounces of cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (Optional: 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon ground cloves)

2 eggs

One can (15 ounce) pumpkin (Optional: butternut squash or sweet potato)

1 Keebler, Ready Crust, Graham Pie Crust

Directions:

In large mixing bowl beat cream cheese and sugar on medium speed of electric mixer until fluffy or by hand. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until combined after each addition. Stir in pumpkin. Pour into crust. Place crust on baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for about 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool for 1 hour on wire rack or countertop. Refrigerate at least 3 hours. Garnish as desired with any topping you prefer. Store in refrigerator and makes 10 servings.



T.S.Garp © Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved.

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Cranberry Sauce for the Holidays

Here is a great home-style recipe for holiday cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and can be used for any season. Once you try cranberry sauce made this way you will never go back to store bought or canned again. This recipe is fairly easy to do and is extraordinarily tasty. The fresh ingredients are all natural and beneficial bursting with flavor and color.

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh cranberries

1 ½ cups of water

1 cup of orange juice

2 cups white sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon Amaretto liqueur, (Optional: Brandy)

5 whole cloves (Optional: Clove powder)

½ teaspoon cinnamon, (Optional: 3 cinnamon sticks)

½ teaspoon ginger

Directions:

In a medium pan over medium heat combined water, orange juice, sugar and lemon juice. Add fresh cranberries, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. (Note: If using whole cloves and cinnamon sticks wrap them in a spice bag. Place in the water with cranberries.) Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until cranberries have popped. Remove from heat, stir in the liquor, and allow cooling as cranberry sauce thickens. Chill in refrigerator for 8 hours, or overnight, before serving.



T.S.Garp © Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved.

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