Arrow On-Set Video Interview: Stephen Amell Talks Season 2

We spent some time on the Vancouver set of Arrow last week, getting interviews with several members of the cast. One of those people that we talked to was Stephen Amell, who fans of Arrow know as “Oliver Queen,” the guy who puts on a hood and chases after people with a bow and arrow.

Below, you can find video from part of Stephen’s group sit-down; more will be posted between now and Wednesday, so be sure to follow @GreenArrowTV on Twitter for updates to know when we are posting more. But first, let’s see what Stephen had to say about Oliver’s state of mind when Season 2 picks up. Spoilers are discussed… and we actually start off with what may be a bit of a spoiler — that Season 2 starts with Oliver back on the island of Lian Yu.

“The way that it was pitched to me was that the island, for Oliver, is kind of like his Fortress of Solitude, actually,” Stephen explains. “In that after everything that went down with Malcolm and The Undertaking and Tommy, that there was just nothing in Starling City for him. So, in that case, he goes where he is most comfortable, which is the island,” he says.

Why would Oliver want to go back to a place that brought him so much trauma in the past? “The worst thing that’s probably ever happened to him in his life would be a toss-up between his father committing suicide and Tommy dying, neither of which happened on the island, although I guess with his dad, it was in close proximity,” he explains. “We’ve only seen a very short portion of Oliver’s time on the island, so maybe it gets better,” he hints.

Stephen seems to be very happy with where Season 2 has gone so far… both behind the scenes and for his character. “The show is a lot freer. We’re in our second season. We’ve only had one new director so far, so everyone that’s come in has sort of known the game plan. We’re doing a lot of the things that worked for us last year and not doing the things that didn’t work. I think the storytelling is tighter. But for Oliver, he has much less of a weight on him. There was very little that was heroic about what he was doing last year save for what he attempted at the very end. It was all vengeance and revenge, and the burden of his father, so for Oliver, this year, he’s just much more relaxed. Much more easy-going. Because what he is doing and how he is spending his nights is making him feel good. He’s not really chasing ghosts anymore,” he says.
 By: Craig Byrne
www.greenarrowtv.com/ 

"One Piece"

  

 15 years of anime series and still ongoing. . 600+ episodes and counting. . 

One Piece 

  is a Japanese shounen manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 4, 1997; the individual chapters are being published in tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, with the first released on December 24, 1997, and the 71st volume released as of August 2013. One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a young boy whose body gains the properties of rubber after unintentionally eating a Devil Fruit, and his diverse crew of pirates, named the Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy explores the ocean in search of the world's ultimate treasure known as One Piece in order to become the next Pirate King.
The chapters have been adapted into an original video animation (OVA) produced by Production I.G in 1998, and an anime series produced by Toei Animation, which began broadcasting in Japan in 1999. Since then, the still ongoing series has aired over 600 episodes. Additionally, Toei has developed eleven animated feature films, an OVA, and five television specials. Several companies have developed various types of merchandising such as a trading card game, and a large number of video games.
The manga series was licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media, in the United Kingdom by Gollancz Manga, and in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment. The anime series has been licensed by Funimation Entertainment for an English-language release in North America, although the series was originally licensed and distributed by 4Kids Entertainment.
In 2008, One Piece became the highest-circulating manga series. In 2010, Shueisha announced that they sold over 260 million volumes of One Piece manga so far; volume 61 set a new record for the highest initial print run of any book in Japan with 3.8 million copies (the previous record belonging to volume 60 with 3.4 million copies). Volume 60 was the first book to sell over two million copies in its opening week on Japan's Oricon book rankings. One Piece is currently ranked as the best-selling manga series. It enjoys a very high readership, with more than 280 million volumes of the series sold in Japan as of 2012. One Piece has received wide critical acclaim from reviewers, primarily for its art, characterization, humor and story.

Healthy eating tips - 2. Moderation is Key

Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, stabilizing your mood, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible—all of which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and using them in a way that works for you. You can expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a tasty, healthy diet.

Now lets see how moderation helps.

People often think of healthy eating as an all or nothing proposition, but a key foundation for any healthy diet is moderation. But what is moderation? How much is a moderate amount? That really depends on you and your overall eating habits. The goal of healthy eating is to develop a diet that you can maintain for life, not just a few weeks or months, or until you've hit your ideal weight. So try to think of moderation in terms of balance. Despite what certain fad diets would have you believe, we all need a balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals to sustain a healthy body.
For most of us, moderation or balance means eating less than we do now. More specifically, it means eating far less of the unhealthy stuff (refined sugar, saturated fat, for example) and more of the healthy (such as fresh fruit and vegetables). But it doesn't mean eliminating the foods you love. Eating bacon for breakfast once a week, for example, could be considered moderation if you follow it with a healthy lunch and dinner—but not if you follow it with a box of donuts and a sausage pizza. If you eat 100 calories of chocolate one afternoon, balance it out by deducting 100 calories from your evening meal. If you're still hungry, fill up with an extra serving of fresh vegetables.

• Try not to think of certain foods as “off-limits.” When you ban certain foods or food groups, it is natural to want those foods more, and then feel like a failure if you give in to temptation. If you are drawn towards sweet, salty, or unhealthy foods, start by reducing portion sizes and not eating them as often. Later you may find yourself craving them less or thinking of them as only occasional indulgences.
• Think smaller portions. Serving sizes have ballooned recently, particularly in restaurants. When dining out, choose a starter instead of an entree, split a dish with a friend, and don't order super-sized anything. At home, use smaller plates, think about serving sizes in realistic terms, and start small. If you don't feel satisfied at the end of a meal, try adding more leafy green vegetables or rounding off the meal with fresh fruit. Visual cues can help with portion sizes–your serving of meat, fish, or chicken should be the size of a deck of cards, a slice of bread should be the size of a CD case, and half a cup of mashed potato, rice, or pasta is about the size of a traditional light bulb. 

 info: www.helpguide.org

Cooking Info - Simple Fruit Pie (Cherry)

Fruit pies are always the best dessert on the table after a good meal. Let me reassure you that this is the simplest, unique and delicious. lets celebrate the cherry's unique flavor with this irresistible dessert. it takes about 25mins for preparing and another 40 to 45mins for baking.

Ingredients:

1 Box Pillsbury® Refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

3 Cans (21 oz each) Cherry Pie Filling

1 Teaspoon Milk

1 Teaspoon Sugar 

 

1/2 Lemon Juice 

 

Directions:

 

- Heat oven to 425°F. Make pie crusts as directed on box for Two-Crust Pie, using 9-inch glass pie plate.

 

- Add 3 can of cherries, drain juice from one of them and add lemon juice. Spoon pie filling into crust-lined plate. Top with second crust; seal edge and flute. Brush top crust with milk; sprinkle with sugar. Cut slits in several places on top crust. 

 

- Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. After 15 to 20 minutes of baking, cover crust edge with strips of foil to prevent excessive browning. Cool at least 1 hour before serving. 

 

Note: Two cans of apple pie filling can be substituted for cherry pie filling. 

 

Healthy eating tips - 1. Prepare yourself for success

To prepare yourself for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big harsh change. If you approach the changes steadily and with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.

Simplify : Instead of being unnecessarily worried with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in relations of color, variety, and freshness. This way it should be easier to choose healthy options. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more enjoyable.

Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time: Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or clever. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating to yourself or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking.  As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.

Every change you make to improve your diet matters: You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely remove foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy, and reduce the risk of cancer and disease. Don’t let your missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you make counts.

Tech Info - Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Announced at IFA 2013 in Berlin, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is a worthy successor to its two previous iterations. The Note 3 sports a new design with a leather-like textured back, smaller bezels and larger 1080p display. Inside you'll find either a quad-core Snapdragon 800 or octa-core Exynos processor, along with 3GB of RAM and a 13MP camera.
Naturally you still have the S Pen to work with, along with many new features added on the software side to make it even more useful. The Note 3 will be coming to all major carriers in the US and to hundreds of countries worldwide.

"In the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 the S-Pen has been refined extensively, however, and Samsung certainly intends to continue showing sometimes sceptical consumers why a stylus is a good thing to have. The Air Command radial menu is incredibly easy to use and makes stylus input much more natural while the handwriting recognition continues to improve with every iteration."

"Performance is pretty much flawless, so the user experience is top notch, but add to that a gorgeous display and other excellent features such as the well-implemented camera, stacks of storage, plenty of connectivity options and ridiculously long battery life and you have an overall package which should satisfy the demands of large swathes of the smartphone consumer base. Creativity and productivity capabilities are clearly a big part of the Galaxy Note 3, but it’s equally at home when used for either work or play – as a portable multimedia device it’s up there with the best of them and continues this legacy from its predecessors with gusto. "

Cooking Info - Simple White Cake

There are different varieties of easy recipes for delicious cake, but this simple white cake is exceptional. kids loves the taste. and it takes only 20 min for preparation and 30 min for baking. within an hour you will be eating a cake that most probably will be served again and again at your table in different occasions. so, let's see how recipe goes.
Ingredients:
Serving size: 12 cup cake or 1- 9x9 inch pan

• 1 cup white sugar 
•  1/2 cup butter 
•  2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour  
• 2 eggs 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.