... The Personal Website of a California Latina

Hello all! Today I just wanted to share some information on acne treatments. I was a loyal ProActiv Solutions user since high school. I received the ProActiv Cleanser, Toner, and Repairing Lotion in the mail every so often. And the products were great, don’t get me wrong. But since I am older now I felt I didn’t need the whole ProActiv system anymore. So I cancelled my membership and decided to just get the Repairing Lotion when I needed it for the occasional pimple. But I never did buy it separately because I found something better!

It is AcneFree Clear Skin Treatments Acne and Blackhead Terminator 10. Why is it better than ProActiv Repairing Lotion? ProActiv’s Repairing Lotion contains 2.5% Benzoyl Peroxide (for acne treatment) while AcneFree’s Terminator 10 has maximum strength 10% Benzoyl Peroxide. It is one of the strongest acne medications available without a prescription and I bought it at a local grocery store. So when I do get an annoying pimple I use Terminator 10 in the morning and at night on the affected area and it dries the pimple right up! Loves it!

I definitely recommend Terminator 10 for people who do not have sensitive skin. If you have sensitive skin I think this product might be too strong for you and could irritate your skin! This happened to a relative of mine who tried it for a pimple she had, her skin got irritated after applying it about three times. So I do not recommend this product for those with sensitive skin.

There are many things I want to learn or do (see my To-Do list on my About page), and learning how to shoot and handle a gun was one that I have had in mind for a few years. My Dad is a retired sheriff so yeah, we have guns around the house which made me feel safe when my Dad was there, but what if he wasn’t at home? The thought of myself holding a gun scared me. I felt like if I were to be put in a situation (heaven forbid) where I’d have to use a gun to protect myself… I would not know what to do.

Lucky for me, my Dad felt the same way and signed me up for a NRA Basic Pistol course. My boyfriend and I attended the course together. The pistol course is designed to give students the basic skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for owning and using a handgun safely. We learned about safe firearm handling, firearm parts and operation for both revolvers and Semi-Autos, ammunition and it’s function, and the fundamentals of pistol marksmanship. The instructor also covered how to select, clean, and store your handgun and ammunition.

He also explained the California gun laws and told us situations where we should or shouldn’t use a gun. Basically if you are at home and someone breaks in, you should try to get out safely. Using a gun for defense should be your last resort because unfortunately there have been cases where the homeowner was sued for harming the BURGLAR! Imagine that? So if you could get out, get out. If you’re trapped, then you have reasonable cause to protect yourself. I hear courts are more lenient with women, but more strict with men. I guess because guys are stronger and have more options or something? Who knows.

So anyways, after the lessons the whole class went to the firing range to practice shooting! I was really nervous in the morning. But during the day the instructor was so thorough with everything he was teaching and made sure that we understood all of the information we were being given. So that eased my nerves. By the time we were at the range I felt comfortable holding and handling the gun. I really had a great time and plan on going back to the shooting range just for fun.

I recommend the NRA Basic Pistol Course to anyone who wants to learn how to handle and shoot a gun. Not only do I feel comfortable with guns, I also received a HSC (Handgun Safety) Certificate which is required to purchase a handgun. The class met the standards for the training and our instructor was DOJ certified to issue the test and certificate.

Once again - highly recommended! For information about NRA courses, including the pistol course, click here for NRA Basic Firearm Training info. I definitely plan on taking other classes in the future, especially the rifle one! If you want to know where I took the course and who my instructor was, feel free to contact me.

Just in time for summer!

I just got the heads up about using Motions Foaming Wrap Lotion to get that wavy beach hair look. It’s really simple and if you’re on a budget like me you’ll appreciate the fact that Motions Foaming Wrap Lotion is only like 4 bucks! So if you’re looking to get the sexy beach waves look (like Kate Hudson) try this out:

• Towel dry wet hair and start by working in a quarter size amount of Motions Foaming Wrap Lotion throughout hair, scrunching as you go. Add more lotion as needed.
• Leave hair to hair dry or use a diffuser to shorten the process. For tighter curls twist hair into a bun and secure with a scrunchie.
• Loosen waves with fingers and ta-da! Beautiful sexy beachy waves!

(Now I’m just waiting for all this June gloom to pass so I can finally head to the beach!)

Guess who’s baaaack!

Some of you know what has been going on with me, most of you don’t. I have been dealing with a lot and decided to finally put my foot down and take control of my life again. Not to say the past few months have been completely bad - it hasn’t. If I had to do it all over again I would do the exact same thing. I have more experience in the career field I want to enter and met some great people. Heck, someone I respect and admire greatly agreed to write a letter of recommendation for me and he is even supporting my decision.

Something I like to keep in mind: it isn’t necessarily always about the destination, it’s about the journey. And I am very happy to report that I am living my life with no regrets. Everything happens for a reason and I am glad to have made the connections I’ve made these past few months… but it was time for me (as a coworker put it) to move on to bigger and better things.

Small sacrifices now, bigger payout later. Right?

By the way that means I now have time again to continue working on this site and projects. Possibly start streaming live again, etc etc. This next upcoming week is my final one. Then I’m back

FREEDOM! lol

During my day off on Saturday morning I was laying in bed and looking through Star magazine when I came across an ad that made me chuckle. The article showed a rather nice derrière and in huge bold letters it read “Want a Sexy Butt?” and below that I saw the product that was being advertised… the Butt Lift in a Box kit.

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Ok you crazy P90x people. Sorry for the delay - life happens. But here is the rest of the schedule for P90 Classic, Doubles and Lean routines. It is for weeks 9-13. Pay attention to the sheet! In the first section there’s the schedule for week 9 and 11, below that is for weeks 10 and 12, and finally the last section is week 13.

I know quite a few people starting P90x either because of my recommendation or by word of mouth through others. Something that most of them don’t know is that they have a choice of how they want to use P90x. You can do P90x Classic, which I believe is popular for men because it includes heavy strength training, pull-ups, push ups as well as a bit of cardio. Or you could be like me and go for the Lean Routine which is mostly cardio but has some strength training (weights or bands) as well. The third option is the P90x Doubles routine, which is for those who want the serious strength training of Classic with more cardio exercises. The Doubles routine has you doing two different P90x workouts in a day, which they recommend that you do one in the morning and the second workout in the evening.

To give you an idea of what the routines are like so you could compare and possibly come up with routines of your own, I created a pdf file of P90x Classic, Doubles and Lean workout schedule for weeks 1 through 8. As you can see from the workout schedule, Classic and Doubles are identical for the first 4 weeks, but starting in the 5th week we begin to see an addition of cardio workouts for P90x Doubles (hardcore!)

As you all should know by now, most of the sites or applications I recommend are just things that make life a bit easier (like Digsby and Ping.fm). Well today I’ll be talking about something else that makes my life a whole lot easier… Evernote.

Before Evernote, everytime there was something on the internet I found useful or wanted to remember, I’d highlight and copy the text, open up Notepad, paste the information and try to cleverly name the file so that I could find it later. I have a folders full of these notes. This was a fine way of handling notes, but guess what makes note taking even easier? Yep, Evernote.

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I love getting my nails done. At one point in time I visited the nail salon religiously, it was a way to pamper myself. I loved the look of french tips (acrylic nails) but realized I was doing more harm then good - the acrylic nails were making my nails thinner and weaker and these routine visits to the nail salon ended up costing me a pretty penny.

Now I do my nails at home. If you want white tips, try painting them on manually or do like a friend of mine suggested: use tape to help you line your white tips, just tape it over your nail and paint over it!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing your nails at home. The only thing missing is that nail polish drying spray that is at every nail salon spot out there. They don’t sell these quick drying sprays at any store and the only options you have are to (1) buy one of those “quick drying” nail polishes or (2) spend $8-12 on small bottles of drying nail sprays like OPI Rapidry Spray, Avon Nail Experts Liquid Freeze Quick Dry spray, or Gotta Go Quick Dry Nail Polish Spray. (I haven’t tried any, that’s why I’m listing these so that if you’re interested, give it a go and let me know your opinions!)

But why limit yourself to those “quick dry” nail polish colors when you could get any color you want, then buy a $4, 6 ounce bottle of Pam Cooking Spray (say what now?!) to spray on over your nail polish for a faster drying and shiny finish. (Just make sure to spray a few inches away from your nails and don’t go overboard with the spraying… be quick!)

This model, Tierney, swears by it!

Sorry no blog this week, but I have really good reasons for not posting!

1) I have a NEW JOB! I’m so excited to finally be working in the career I have had my eye on for years. I’m happy because I feel like I got all of my “general” education out of the way, and now I can focus completely on what I want to do. That includes this career, and hobbies of mine.

2) I updated my blog! Some of you might not notice the changes but I made the layout wider… it’s more roomy! I also added tags, and Gravatar enabled comments. I still need to make minor tweaks on the blog here and there and I need to make the rest of the site “wider” as well.

3) Projects! These are the hobbies I mentioned above. I have 2 projects I’m working on, and a 3rd one in my mind. During my free time I’m going to try to get the first 2 projects completely set up and I’m excited about that.

So these 3 things together kind of got me away from here for a bit, but we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week. Take care all, and have a great weekend!