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Hot Lunch , linked to The Cosmetic Cop . This great website is the work of Paula Begoun, the author of the book Don't go to the Cosmetic Counter Without Me .

This is a great website, full of makeup advice, skin care tips and product ratings. She even has advice for sensitive skin types!
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Via Courtney , I read this Macleans article which claims that men are turned off by funny women . Apparently, most men like women to appreciate their humour but don't like women to be funny themselves.

I'm not sure how much I agree with this. I think the type of men that I'm attracted to have to appreciate my own humour. I need to laugh at things. I appreciate someone who makes me laugh, and I like to make them laugh in return. I've often been told that I have a rather male sense of humour as I like bawdy, raunchy jokes.

Strangely, I read this article about a week after someone tried to pick me up at the bookstore. I was helping him and his friend, and he returned a few minutes later to ask me out for coffee, "because he thought I was really funny." Take that Macleans!!

(I declined his invite, but wish I'd told him that I'm in a relationship instead of simply saying, "No.". He seemed like a nice guy, and I think it takes guts to ask a stranger out.)

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Yesterday I read an article in the Globe and Mail about some AIDS research happening in Nairobi. Canadian researchers from the University of Manitoba have been researching a group of Nairobian prostitutes who seem to be immune to HIV. They have been taking blood samples from some of the women for around 20 years. Now I realize that this is important research, but the reporter, Stephanie Nolen, raised the very important issue that the Canadian researchers have done nothing to help these women retire from prostitution. One woman is still sleeping with several men a day and may have slept with almost 50,000 men since the start of the study. She thinks that the Canadians could do something to help her get out of prostitution. Frankly, so do I.

I can't access the Globe article, but here's another article on these HIV resistant women .

I must admit that I love Stephanie Nolen's writing. I'm glad that the Globe has devoted so much attention to Africa and covering African issues. I must admit that I do have some of my own guilt towards Africa and AIDS issues. Due to my skin, I know that I can never work with AIDS infected people. I am constantly battling open sores, which means that unless I was to wear a body glove, I couldn't work on the frontline of the AIDS battle.

Also, I have felt guilty because I don't feel the same connection of level of interest in Africa that I do towards other regions of the world. My first area of interest is Asia; I love the continent, the people, everything. I feel alive when I'm there. After that, I'd go for Latin America and the Caribbean, then the Middle East, then Africa. In some ways, I feel like my own interests are prejudiced, and I feel guilty about this. I know that I would love Africa if I visited it. I'd love to see Ghana and Uganda because I've heard so much about them. Yet I'm freaked out by the parasites, because of my open sores.

Where are Europe, the United States and Australia in this equation? Far behind.

I am much more fascinated by the developing world. I think the contrasts make me understand Canada and what it means to be Canadian more. Sometimes I feel like I haven't even seen enough of my own country. I didn't study it in university because I was taking International Studies, and I find as I age, I want to learn more about Canada's history, our regionalisms and our culture.