Rant: Gingerbread "People"

It's the holidays so I'm getting ready to do my annual Christmas baking. I generally do a lot of baking during the holidays and it involves pies, cookies, cakes, etc. It helps me get into the festive spirit and I like to share my baked goods with friends, family, and my neighbors.

I always make gingerbread men cookies but I never remember where I get the recipe from. I think that each year's recipe is always a little different since I invariably get it from a different source. This year I searched for "gingerbread men" and returned a few recipes. I searched again for "gingerbread people" and returned results also. So here's the part where I have to rant: this PC thing has gotten out of hand. It is hard enough trying to find a good recipe for anything and now I've got to look at two different sets of search results to try to figure out which recipe sounds like the best one. Granted, these are cookies and aren't that hard to mess up but do we really have to get make an effort to call these guys "people" instead of men?

I think the woman's lib thing has gotten out of control. It makes life so much harder since you never know what you'll find something filed under. If you take a group of people, you grammatically always call the collective group by the male plural. It's like this in all languages (Roman-based languages, etc.) If we can call human beings by the male plural form, why can't we do the same thing for something as simple as a cookie? Damn liberals. Tar and feather them I say ... then you can call them tar-and-feathered-people. :)

So what have I decided to do? To spite all the women's lib fanatics out there I'm going to make all gingerbread men. ^_^

The Golden Compass

The previews for the Golden Compass looked pretty intriguing so I wanted to see it in the theater. The movie did not disappoint me. It was much better than anything I could have imagined. The CGI was really amazing and the sets were detailed intricate. The genre is fantasy and is a bit like Harry Potter although the storyline is vastly different.

All the actors looked good but the movie is really about the plot. I found out that this is actually a book (a trilogy!) and I set out immediately to buy the whole set from Amazon. I can't wait until the sequel comes out, which is hopefully next year. If you thought about seeing this movie, you should!

Major League Gaming

Major League Gaming. You've heard of major league baseball and other sports ... but gaming? Really? I was flipping through channels on the TV and I suddenly found myself on a channel about major league gaming. Apparently this is a very serious thing. It is exactly what you think it is: people playing games against one another. I imagine they must be playing for money and/or bragging rights.

The major league gaming logo looks like the one used for baseball except it has an xbox controller in it instead of a batter. Stupid? Yes. Very.

The show that I saw showed a Halo contest between two teams ... complete with play-by-play commentators! There were two teams trying to win and the guys on each of the teams had the most serious concentration on their faces. They wore huge headphones and had lots of collaboration among the team members. The teams even had matching t-shirts. Apparently I must have gotten lucky because I got to watch "the best sniper on the circuit" playing. Woo.

I really cannot believe that people actually play this seriously and that it's a big enough thing that it makes it on TV. I really wish I could have taken a video of this because it really was hilarious. The teams even have coaches and regular practice sessions. It's a pizza-faced nerd's wet dream come true.

Not surprisingly, all the players were guys and they all looked ... a bit lacking in social skills.

Major League Gaming

Gucci for Coco

I found out that Gucci sells a backpack for dogs.



I think that its pretty funny; I've never seen a backpack for dogs. I wonder how much a small dog can carry on it's back. Nevertheless it's an interesting idea, particularly now that Christmas is around the corner.

From Gucci's website the description reads:
dog backpack with side-zip pockets and signature web detail.
beige/ebony GG nylon fabric with brown leather trim and green/red/green web.

Gucci Dog Backpack

Post Gluttony Weekend

I had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Let's face it: who wouldn't have an awesome weekend eating wonderful food and spending quality time with the family? The turkey was beyond awesome. We had 30lbs of turkey (2 turkeys) and it's all gone. We finished the last bit of it and I'm already looking forward to Christmas when we get to make more turkey with my mom and dad (aka my in-laws.) We had a host of wonderful sides to go with the turkey and all turned out really well.

Unfortunatley, with the indulgences of the long Thanksigivng weekend now I've got to pay my penance. I had a ton of food, way more than I'd normally eat, and now I'm paying for it. The pants are a bit tighter, shirts are a bit harder to button up .. *sigh*

This week we'll try to eat more limitedly to pay the piper for our raving food rampage last week. Yesterday we had a surprisingly satisfying salad. It was comprised of all very healthy stuff: lettuce, red bell pepper, tomato, carrot, celery, bits of turkey breast. Maneesh brought a really healthy and addictive dessert: Fraiche frozen yogurt. I've never had Fraiche for anything other than a mid-day snack. Having it for dessert hit the spot and made me not feel guilty. We had toppings of raspberries and strawberries -- also really wonderful. Eating healthy doesn't have to be unsatisfying and unrewarding; last night was a prime example of happy and non-pudgy eating. ^_^

Gaming Weekend

I had a very lazy weekend. I spent it getting to know my Wii. :) I spent the better part of the weekend playing Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 and Super Mario Galaxy. I don't know which one I liked better but I do know that I logged in more time with the Wii this weekend than I have in a long time. Both games are super addictive and multiplayer. In fact, I'd be willing to bet my turkey weekend be spent continuing my gaming with my best friend: the wii.

Live.com Maps

Sometimes I get incredibly irritated with Google maps. Because it is a beta, just like all of Google's products seem to be, there are lots of bugs that exist, then get fixed, then come back. Irritating to say the least. One such feature that always is buggy is the print feature. When I try to print something sometimes it works and other times print doesn't show the map the way I've placed it on my screen. The satellite view for Google Maps is also bad. It shows very out of date footage. Some areas in the South of Market look like construction zones on Google Maps but in real life it is a completed building complete with commercial residents.

I finally found a solution to my problems: Live.com maps, or maps.live.com. They fix all of the aforementioned bugs that Google Maps has and also has a few neat features. I asked for driving directions from Palo Alto to Redwood City. The last direction listed was as follows:

Arrive at 1185 Broadway St on the right
The last intersection is Bay Rd If you reach Broadway St, you've gone too far

Not only do they tell me which side of the street I should expect to find my destination, but they also give me indications of when the destination is coming up and when I've likely passed it.

I give this two thumbs up and Live Maps is going to be my go-to mapping product.

Din Tai Fung

Din Tai Fung is this really yummy restaurant chain from Asia. They are really well known and have a branch in SoCal which has lines out the door. Previously it had been mentioned that Din Tai Fung was going to open at Vallco mall. I just found out, however, that the rumor was a lie. The owner of Vallco mall made the rumor up in a bid to attract new tenants to Vallco. Grr ... got my hopes up for nothing.

Gardening

This weekend I decided to play gardener. In the backyard we have a plant bed which used to house flowers until we decided to rip the flowers out. The previous owner had planted some flowers in it that neither Ming nor I really liked. I decide that this weekend I'd plant some fall vegetables in the plant bed.

I labored for what seemed like forever, but was likely more like around an hour and a half, preparing the soil and planting my precious seeds. I know nothing about gardening and have no idea if what I did was right or not. I ended up planting chinese celery, napa cabbage, and spinach. All are reputed to be fall vegetables so in theory they should all be ok to plant at this time of year.

I didn't take any pictures of my garden-to-be since it's really just dirt right now. I've been diligently having Ming water my garden so we'll see in a few weeks if anything sprouts up. If not, I can always try again since I've still got a ton of seeds leftover :)

Sprinkles Cupcakes

I had the pleasure of tasting a Sprinkles cupcake this past weekend when my sister's boyfriend brought me back some from SoCal. I'd never had a Sprinkles cupcake before but had heard a lot about them. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes served them at their wedding. Oprah has mentioned them on her show. I took a bite of the cupcake and was in instant heaven. The cupcakes are so good. My sister's boyfriend brought me 6 on Sunday evening ... by Tuesday it was all gone. Yes, they are that good.

I just found out that Sprinkles is going to open a location in Palo Alto. Hurray! I can't wait until it opens and I'll be among the first in line to buy them.

Haagen Dazs Green Tea Ice Cream

Recently Pat and Anita asked for green tea ice cream with red beans. I had never heard of that combination before. I had had each item separately but never together. I did some research and found out that Haagen Dazs has a product with the two items together:



If Haagen Dazs mixes green tea and red bean together, then surely this must be a good combination. Sadly, I can't find this item on neither the US nor the Japan version of Haagen Dazs' website. I think this item must have been discontinued. :(

Weekend Warriors Part II

It has been a very long time since we have been weekend warriors. Ming finished his project a long time ago and I’ve been lagging on mine. I don’t have a good excuse for it other than laziness and me forgetting that I still had to do it.

My project is to make placemats for our dining tables. I bought the fabric a long time ago and it’s been sitting in a corner, collecting dust, waiting for me to make time to use it. I was finally motivated to get my placemats done when I realized that we were having a lot of people over and I wanted to be able to use our new dining table (but we currently don’t have enough placemats for everyone.)

The day I realized that I needed to get the placemats done was the two days before the party … so I had to get my act together. I stayed up really late on Friday cutting all of my fabric. The next night I attempted to sew all the placemats together. I spent 4 hours sewing it together and I still didn’t quite finish all 18 placemats (but I came close.)




The placemats turned out really well and I am happy with the way they turned out. The placemats did so well that I, unintentionally, inspired others to also create placemats for their homes. Placemats are an exceedingly easy sewing project and as long as you don’t try to create 18 all at once, it’s something that can definitely be finished in a weekend.

Now that I have finished my placemats weekend warrior project my next project will be to make a table runner. Hopefully the next weekend warrior project won’t take another month before it happens.

Gimme More

As I sat in traffic yesterday on my way home from work I happened to catch Britney Spears' new single, Gimme More. I was happy to hear a new track on the radio (instead of listening to the same thing over and over again) but I was disappointed by the song. It wasn't catchy and I got really bored listening to it. The beginning caught my interest (the first lyric being "It's Britney bitch") but then my interest quickly waned. I was hoping from something more from Britney, something along the lines of amazing new work, like Christina Aguilera. Britney's song has disapointed me and I hope it isn't one of those incessant songs played over and over again on the radio.

On the other hand, maybe I am getting old and just don't know what an "it" song is anymore. O.o No! Say it isn't so! I'm not old. I've kept up with the new songs .. and to prove it maybe I should go grab my dancin' shoes and hit up some club this weekend. ^_^

What's for Lunch?

What do you have for lunch? I'm working at home today so I had leftovers for lunch. What did Ming get for his lunch? He wasn't relegated to eating leftovers like me. Instead, he came home for lunch and had a taiwan toast sandwich with slices of slow roasted pork tenderloin and heirloom tomato. Hmm ... I must be doing something wrong if I had leftovers (from 2 days ago no less!) and he got such a tasty sandwich. O.o

Adina Juices

Last night I went to a launch party and they mixed drinks with a mixer I'd never heard of before: Adina. Adina has now become one of my favorite drinks to consume. I found out it is made out of all natural ingredients and only has 70 calories per serving. Excellent! I found a tasty drink that actually doesn't contain a bunch of nasty corn syrup or added sugar. My two favorites are the Pomegranate-Mangosteen drink and the Chai. Mmm ...

Definitely look up this drink if you haven't. It is totally worth it. The website is: http://www.adinaworld.com. Adina was started by one of the guys who started Odwalla, to give you an idea of how good the drink tastes.

For the lushes out there, Adina is really good if mixed with Vodka. :)

Dog For Rent

I've started walking Coco daily. She needs the exercise and I could stand to lose a few pound myself. ^_^ I've noticed that wherever we go, we never fail to attract a ton of attention. Kids, senior citizens, and even people in the car stop to take a second look. I've had people in cars stop and, from their car, start talking to me about her. Timid children come up to me, in Circuit City of all places, and ask to pet her. Coco is a chick/men/kid magnet! Everyone wants a second peek and many people even double back just so they can stare at her for a little longer.

Given that she attracts attention from everyone I think that I should start renting her out to my single friends. She is guaranteed to attract the attention of some lovely lady or a hottie guy. ^_^ Coco could totally be used as the ultimate pick up tool. I should totally start my own business renting her out. She gets exercise and someone else gets a new way to pick up someone -- and I can sit at home and watch more TV. ^.^

French Fry Cravings

For some odd reason I have a craving for french fries. I was all set to run out to McDonald's last night AFTER dinner and go pick up a large order of fries. I didn't give in to the impulse but this morning I am still left craving fries. Does anyone know of a good place for fries in downtown Palo Alto which willl satisfy my cravings?

New Toy - dSLR

I got a new toy yesterday. I got a Nikon D80 - a dSLR camera. I stayed home all day waiting for the UPS man to arrive with it and, when he did, I promptly ripped the package open and got the battery charger out to charge the battery. 2 hours later I had a charged battery and a camera ... but no way to take pictures. I didn't know where Ming kept the memory cards so I had to wait at home with my new toy but no way to use it. Is anything more unfair than a new toy sitting in front of you but you being unable to use it?

Ming finally came home and showed me where the memory cards are and then I promptly began to snap pictures. It is such a cool new toy. I haven't had a new camera since I bought a new one on my 2003 Japan trip. That camera has since completley died and is in some pile to Goodwill. The new Nikon, however, is a happy little thing and has a huge lens. The zoom is incredible and I can't wait until the weekend when I'll have time to properly play with it in the daylight.

Alma Mater Makes Bendable Battery

My alma mater, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has prototyped a bendable battery. That sounds so cool ... here's the full story:


It's a battery that looks like a piece of paper and can be bent or twisted, trimmed with scissors or molded into any shape needed. While the battery is only a prototype a few inches square right now, the researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who developed it have high hopes for it in electronics and other fields that need smaller, lighter power sources.

"We would like to scale this up to the point where you can imagine printing batteries like a newspaper. That would be the ultimate," Robert Linhardt a professor at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at RPI said in a telephone interview.

The development is reported in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Unlike other batteries, Linhardt explained, it is an integrated device, not a combination of pieces.

The battery uses paper infused with an electrolyte and carbon nanotubes that are embedded in the paper. The carbon nanotubes form the electrodes, the paper is the separator and the electrolyte allows the current to flow.

Students at the school in Troy, N.Y., were the inspiration for the work, said Linhardt, whose students were working on methods to dissolve paper and cast it into membranes for use in dialysis machines.

Meanwhile, students of Pulickel Ajayan in RPI's materials science department were trying to make carbon nanotube composites using polymers.

The two groups got together and realized they could use paper instead of polymers and combine the two projects.

Then came Omkaram Nalamasu's students, also at RPI, who said the project — a thin sheet black on one side and white on the other — looked like an electrical device.

And over about 18 months, the groups developed the projects, into a battery, a capacitor, which stores electricity and a combination of the two.

Ajayan sees potential uses in combination with solar cells, perhaps layers of the paper batteries that could store the electricity generated until it is needed, he said in a telephone interview.

Perhaps it could be scaled up and shaped into something like a car door, offering moving electrical storage and power when needed.

That might be an expensive proposition, however, cautioned Peter Kofinas, an engineering professor at the University of Maryland.

"The advantage of a flexible device would be that you could roll it in a film or a sheet. However, carbon nanotubes are very expensive," said Kofinas, who was not involved in the research.

"So from the commercial standpoint, this would be very expensive if you want to make a large sheet out of this material," he said via e-mail. In addition, he said, "It does not look like it performs better than currently available batteries and supercapacitors in the market."

Because of its flexibility, however, it does have potential, Kofinas said.

The research was funded by the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research and the National Science Foundation.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070813/ap_on_sc/paper_power;_ylt=AsZ8r161EVftxDeuRxfIFLZj24cA

Dinner for 1 -- It's Lonely

Tonight I had dinner on my own since Ming had a work outing that included dinner. Normally I make a pretty decent dinner when there is two of us. I guess that having dinner with someone else really motivates me to make a presentable and tasty dinner. Since I had dinner by myself I wasn't really in the mood to cook anything. I wanted some quick and that wouldn't take a lot of time. What did I eat for dinner? I cleaned out the leftovers in the fridge and whatever I could find in the pantry. My dinner turned out to be kinda sad:

- Rice a Roni (don't ask why I have this in my pantry)
- frozen won ton that I'd made a few weeks ago
- left over ground pork dish

Yes, that was a very sad and lonely dinner. I'm glad I don't have dinner by myself very often otherwise I'd probably end up withering away to nothing since my meals would all be a bit sad and pathetic.

Caveat Emptor when Buying Appliances

Appliances come in a dizzying array of color, sizes, and features. These days whenever you set out to buy something simple, let's hypothetically say a refrigerator, you are faced with an onslaught of marketing material. All of the literature out there is from the manufacturer trying to convince you that his product is the best because it has a tons of bells and whistles.

Now, hypothetically, say that you just want a refrigerator that keeps food cold and lasts a long time -- not too much to ask right? This isn't as easy of a hypothetical task as it sounds. The biggest problem lies in that all of the refrigerators are actually all made by the SAME company. O.o Yes, Whirlpool is the "mother ship" and owns all of the other little brands (excluding the European and Korean brands.) How is one to decide which refrigerator is the best one when they're all made in the same factory and seemingly the only difference is the brand-name badge?

I don't have an answer to this hypothetical buying situation. The only thing I know is that Sears brands Kenmore as their own and it used to be a brand of quality. In this hypothetical situation I was trying to avoid buying any Korean made stuff because they have a bad reputation for breaking down, etc. -- think Japanese products 20 years ago. Korean appliances aren't there quite yet and were one of the types of products that I was trying to steer clear of.

Uh oh ... I mean steer clear of in my hypothetical situation. ^_^

So the hypothetical situation ends up in me purchasing a new refrigerator made my Kenmore (I even bought the Elite brand since I got suckered into a few of the bells alnd whistles like tilting drawers). When I got home I, being the curious person I am, wondered who made Kenmore appliances. Does Sears actually have a little factory of elves who make them or do they contract it out? It turns out that Sears contracts their work out. Uh oh. Not good. I quickly did more research and found out my beloved new refrigerator is made by none other than LG. Ahh!! The very refrigerator maker I was trying to avoid is the one who made my fridge. grrr!!

Caveat emptor. The next time I buy any major appliance I'll have to take along this handy website about appliances to help me make my buying decision.

Fresh Fish

I went to the supermarket this weekend to buy some fish for dinner. I've been trying to eat more fish because it is healthier and less fatty than the other land roving animals (although it doesn't mean that I'm going to turn down a side of ribs.) I was appalled at the poor selection of fish at the supermarket. Even at my favorite fish market, the selection of fish was very poor. I have decided, instead, to try to buy fish directly from the source. I am going to take advantage of our proximity to Half Moon Bay and make a trip out to the fishing docks and buy some fish directly from the fisherman. I'll let you know how my outing goes ... TBD

Peeping Tom

I am such a peeping tom. I derive great pleasure from looking into the lives of others . My latest obsession is watching my target through a webcam. Who am I watching? Get your head out of the gutters people. I am watching Coco of course! We got a webcam to watch her movements throughout the day and it is highly addicting. I can sit and watch it for long periods of time, just seeing what she finds to do to entertain herself when we are away during the day.

This is what she is doing right now:

It appears she's just sleeping in the corner. Ah well, not that interesting but you just have to catch it at the right moments when she is moving around her pen

Edit: Ok, here is a better photo of her playing around

Donkeys

Gordon Ramsey of Hell's Kitchen fame has a penchant for calling all the contestants donkeys whenever they make a dumb mistake. I've always thought him a bit peculiar for using that terminology but that may be a normal British colloquialism? Perhaps donkey is one of the few acceptable words which can be broadcast over network TV, as opposed to calling the contestant a dumb ass or some other choice vulgar words.

True to the donkey-nature of people, I found it really funny to find this site http://www.stumblingdonkey.com/. It is a website about all the happy hour spots in SF. You may be a donkey in Gordon Ramsey's eyes but at least you know how to find the local watering hole. :)

BBQ Pork Buns - 叉燒包

There's been a huge uproar in the Asian community ever since the article about cardboard buns came out. Nearly everyone has heard about it and everyone is incredulous, myself included.

On a related topic, I have been looking for my favorite brand of frozen BBQ pork buns (cha siu bau) in the supermarkets and I haven't found it. It looks like there has been some distribution problems because it's been a few months now and the Weichun brand of BBQ pork buns is no where to be found.

What's the solution? Well I don't feel like venturing out to another sub-standard brand of buns -- they might contain cardboard in it! -- and I'm getting tired of finding other things to eat for breakfast. The only thing left to do is make them myself. I made them once, a long time ago when I was in college. It's time to pull out the recipe book and try to make them again. At least with this batch (which probably makes like 30+ buns) I'll know that there isn't cardboard in it. With that many BBQ pork buns I'm sure that I'll have lots to spare -- who wants to come eat them with me? ^_^

Misbehaving Baby Deserved to be Kicked off Plane

The media has turned the whole story about a woman kicked off a plane because of her baby into a huge deal. The short story is that a woman's baby kept saying "bye bye plane" and the woman refused to make the baby stop saying those words. The stewardess then told the woman that she had to take the baby and get off the flight.

I completely agree with what happened. How many times have you had to endure a long flight with some disruptive kid or baby kicking and screaming during the whole flight? It is really annoying and you want the flight to be over as soon as possible so that you can escape from a kid who is making a huge scene. When the mother refuses to try to make her kid behave, then the mother is at fault. Flying on a plane is a privilege, not a right. Just as when you go into a store, the store has the right to refuse service to certain patrons. The airlines, in my opinion, were refusing the woman the right to service.

While "bye bye plane" seems innocuous enough, it could have serious ramifications in today's world. Now that 9/11 has happened everyone is a bit more paranoid and anything which is said which can be construed as related to terrorism will be heavily scrutinized.

I don't feel bad for the woman and I am actually sickened by how she doesn't understand that her lack of consideration for others caused her to be booted from a flight.

Airlines won't let you have liquids on the flights; do you really think that you will be allowed on the flight if you or members of your party are causing a scene?

Jamba Juice Secret Menu

We all know that In and Out has a secret menu. They don't try to hide it and you can find plenty of references to it on the web (I always like my burgers animal style.) I was just made aware of Jamba Juice's seret menu. O.o Yes, Jamba Juice has a secret menu of smoothies. Whoa..

* White Gummi: peach juice + soymilk + lime, raspberry, orange, and pineapple sherberts + one scoop of mango
* Pink Star (tastes like the pink starburst): lemonade + soymilk + raspberry sherbert + frozen yogurt + sorbet + fresh strawberries
* Strawberry Shortcake
* Sour Patch Kid: lemonade + lime, pineapple, raspberry, and orange sherbert; fresh blueberries
* Fruity Pebbles: soymilk + orange, raspberry, pineapple, and lime sherbert
* PB & J Sandwich: soymilk + frozen yogurt + strawberries + blueberries
* Tropical Tango
* Pacific Passion
* Now and Later
* Berry Depressing
* Apple Pie
* Skittles
* Lemonade Lightnin'
* Raspberry Dreamin'

If you do some research on the web you will find there are even more than the ones I've listed above. I think I'm going to have to make a pit stop over at Jamba Juice to see if any of the secret menu items are worth my time (and calories)

Weekend Warriors - Part I

We had a very productive weekend. Ming wired the entire house with Cat5e (internet) cable and coax (TV.) I'm so proud of him. He did a lot of research beforehand and this past weekend he put it all to use and ran a ton of wires everywhere. We now have internet and TV abilities in every room.


Ming in his work gear.


Ming fishing. Note the coax cable at the end of his fishing line.

The job looks totally professional and he did an excellent job. I was his helper and did little things here and there. I helped hook up the cat5e cable and did some hooking up of the patch panel.


The connectors in the wall


The patch panel which is ultra neat and tidy

Ming also put all the stereo speakers into the walls. Now we have speaker wire in our walls rather than running everywhere on the floor. Yay! One day when we upgrade to some Definitive speakers we'll be all ready wire-wise

This was weekend warrior part 1 because it was mainly Ming doing his thang. Part 2 will be me *gasp* sewing. I've decided to sew some placemats for our new dining table.

Ratatouille Recap

I've finally seen Ratatouille and, unfortunately, I must say that I am disappointed by it. It reminded me too much of the Incredibles and did not seem like it would appeal to kids.

The drawing of the humans in Ratatouille is exactly the same style as that used in the incredibles. In all of Pixar's other movies the humans look different due to different styles of art being used and it has always made the characters refreshing and easily identifiable. If I were to take one of the human characters from Ratatouille and place him in the Incredibles, I'd have no idea that that character wasn't in the original Incredibles movie.

The antagonist is always the same. The chef in Ratatouille contains the following characteristics which match that of the antagonist in the Incredibles: short, arrogant, and evil(a given.) The continuous usage of short characters (also with Edna Mo in the Incredibles) is getting really tiring. Brad Bird, the director of both movies, is starting to lose his edge of creativity and is re-using the same concepts over and over again.

The beginning intro of Ratatouille also contains a small flash segment of the characters. In the Incredibles they did the same thing with introducing the various supers.

Overall, the movie seemed to be geared towards foodies rather than towards young children. I consider myself a semi-foodie (I try to keep up with what's happening in the food world) but even I was a bit tired of all the excruciating detail they went into for the food. Yes, I get it. You guys did your research about food but stop talking about the food and get back to the plot of the movie! I am sure most of whats in the movie went over the top of kid's heads (do they really care that ratatouille is considered a peasant's dish?)

I am sadly underwhelmed by Rataouille. It is true that I had high expectations of the movie but not so high as to be unattainable -- Pixar has done so well with its other movies and I've always been impressed by the uniqueness of each.

If you must see this movie, wait until it comes out on video

Kwik-e-Mart

The Kwik-e-Mart is in Springfield Mountain View. 7-Eleven and the Simpsons have partnered together to transform several stores into Kwik-e-Marts. I was really excited to find out that my neighborhood 7-Eleven will become a Kwik-e-Mart.



I plan to make a pilgramage there and have a
- pink donut with sprinkles
- squishee
- Krusty-os cereal

I will pretend that neither of the aforementioned items have any calories. ^_~

This marketing gimmic is one of the more innovative ones and I'm glad to hear that people have a sense of humor about it. It's a great marketing tactic and shouldn't offend anyone (it isn't as though the cashiers of the 7-Elevens sound like Apu.)

Transformers the Movie -- Too Commercial?

I was a kid in the 80s and, as everyone else, grew up with Transformers. I used to have a lot of them and my brother and I would play with them for hours. We used to watch Transformers on TV. Transformers, like GI Joe, was a childhood favorite toy.

With the CGI version of the Transformers movie coming out (the cartoon version of the Transformers movie came out in the 80s) I am definitely looking forward to it. I read an article on yahoo however that has made me start to have second thoughts. GM is the sponsor for the movie and they have "premium" mentions in the movie. Does this mean that my beloved autobots and decepticons will basically be nothing but a 2 hour commercial advertising GM cars? I hope not!

These days it seems like advertisers are wrangling their way into everything. I love watching Top Chef but this season seems to be nothing but dropping sponsors names. It gets very distrating hearing Kenmore Kitchen and storing things in Gladware over and over again.

I hope the Transformers movie won't suffer from this blatant commercialization and will be a respectable movie.

Tiffany for Dogs

I keep Coco with me in the mornings when I get ready for work. Apparently she got a little too close to me when I was putting on my perfume and, consequently got some on herself. Ming came home around noon, 4 hours after she had the perfrume put on her, and she still smelled like it. Oops.

I guess the upside is that Coco smells nice with the Tiffany perfume on her (and I didn't really waste any perfume since she caught the residue of my spray.) I think Tiffnay should go into the perfume market for pets. I am sure they'd make a lot of money on it!

Skincare Regimine Change

I have been using Shiseido products for years. Shiseido has always been a good solid company and I never had any problems with the products. The "problem" with the Shiseido lines, however, is that they just don't do anything to wow me. I didn't see any major changes or improvement since using them -- and I have used 3 or 4 different lines of Shiseido. Now that I am coming close to using up my supply I have decided that I want to give another brand a try.

After reading numerous forums I decided to go with Decleor



With an Amex card (thanks Ming) I ordered a new regimine for myself. I also found a very helpful forum which had a lot of reviews and product critiques: Essential Day Spa forum
In ~10 business days I will have my new skin care line and I'll report back how it works out.

Tiny Url Rant

I really dislike tinyurl.com. It is a site which allows the user to basically create a Unix synonym. For those who don't know what that is, a user can enter a URL address for any site and tinyurl.com will generate a smaller, more compact URL which links to the original URL address.

I am not sure why anyone uses tinyurl.com. Do they really find long URLs that difficult? When you use tinyurl you are basically:
1. hiding the real location of where you are trying to send someone
2. giving up that user's internet habits since I am sure tinyurl has a bunch of tracking metrics encoded into the tinyurl.

I find it annoying whenever I see a tinyurl. I want to know where I am going, particualrly if the user didn't exactly disclose what the URL is. A description of "check this out" doesn't really tell me where the URL goes to. I do a lot of web surfing and I try to be careful about where I go and clicking on a url who's true location has been hidden is just asking for a lot of trouble.

Also, I find my privacy valuable. I don't need any more metrics collected on me than there already is (e.g. Google urchin trackers are everywhere now.)

Ratatouille

I am huge Pixar film fan. With the exception of a Bug's Life, I love every single one of their films. Their latest endeavor is a film called Ratatouille. It is about a rat who has dreams of becoming a world class chef. The website has previews of the movie and, as always, the details never fail to amaze. I'll be one of the masses who stand in line on June 29th when the movie comes out

Blog for Coco

I've created a blog to chronicle my adventures with Coco
http://puppylover54.blogspot.com

Italy: Photos

I've uploaded our photos here

BTW, I love smugmug. If you don't have an account, you should get one

Italy Blog: Return

Return 5/30-5/31

In order to get to the Milan airport from Florence we had to take a train from Florence to Milan. From the train station we had to take a 1 hour shuttle to the airport. Because the shuttle doesn’t run late at night and we had an 8am flight, we decided to finish our trip up by spending the night at the airport.

We got to the Milan airport at 5pm and proceeded to find things to amuse ourselves until we could check into our flight. We talked to the representative for British Airways and he told us how we go about redeeming our VAT (European sales tax). He also told us that for you cannot check into the flight until about 6am. We had 13 hours to kill at the airport with a cart full of luggage (we ended up buying a lot of souvenirs.)

To pass the time we read various books we had bought, surfed online, watched downloaded episodes on Ming’s laptop and generally just walking around the airport to keep us from sleeping. I did sneak in a 20 minute nap but Ming was a trooper and stayed up the entire time.

6am finally rolled around and we checked into the flight. We then talked to 2 other people who all gave us conflicting answers on how to redeem the VAT. So, we have talked to 3 people who work at the airport and not a single one of them gives you the same answer – you gotta love Europe. Bleh. Ultimately we figured out what to do and then went to our gate and waited for boarding time.

The rest of the trip passed by in a blur because we slept the entire trip. We were so happy to come back to the states and I couldn’t wait until I could sleep in my own bed again. Even our shower, which has absolutely no water pressure, was a welcome sight to me after having to put up with the European showers.

I’m glad to be back in the states and it’ll be a long time before I want to go on another plane ride.

Italy Blog: Florence

Florence 5/27-5/30

The only train tickets that I was able to buy ahead of time (while still in the states) was between Venezia (Venice) and Firenze (Florence.) When we arrived at the Venice train station we realized that I bought the wrong tickets. I had bought train tickets for another train station in Venice and not the one we were at. Ouch. I had no idea that cities had multiple train stations and I thought that Venice was small enough that it should only have 1 train station – boy was I wrong! The Tren Italia website certainly wasn’t very helpful either since it simply asked me what city I was departing from, not which train station I wanted to depart from. Ultimately we ended up sneaking onto a train (and risking a fine since there wasn’t enough time to buy an actual ticket) which would take us to our actual train station that I had tickets for. We had approximately 2 minutes between the time from when the train [that we snuck onto] got into the station we had tickets for and for us to high tail it onto the train. It was definitely a lot more stress than we needed at 9 in the morning.

Finally we made it to Florence and the weather forecast was for rain. This time our hotel was close enough to the train station that we were able to walk. By the time we got to the hotel the sky looked ominous and we were so tired that we didn’t want to do anything except eat lunch.

We had lunch at the restaurant next to our hotel and that was probably the best meal we had in Florence. Ming had a pasta dish with duck and I had a pasta dish with porcinis. We shared the most amazing steak: a 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) bisteca alla fiorentina. It is basically a huge porter house cooked medium rare (they cook all steak that way in Italy) and extra virgin olive oil is drizzled on top of it. We thoroughly enjoyed the steak and it helped to put is in a better frame of mind.

By the end of the meal it was raining steadily and we went back upstairs to grab our umbrella. After having gone to Hawaii and getting caught in the rain season (on our very first vacation together) we have learned to always bring an umbrella. I am glad that we brought it b/c it made all the difference when we were in Florence.

The rest of the day we meandered around for various site seeing and shopping. Florence is definitely a walking city. Everywhere you go is about 10 minutes by foot. Florence is like a real city, e.g. people live on the upper levels of buildings and commercial stores are at the bottom.

Towards the end of the trip, when our feet started aching and my back was begging for me to sit down and rest we decided to head up to the clock tower near the duomo (yup, Florence has a duomo too.) The clock tower is 414 steps and it doesn’t have an elevator. We thought that 414 steps was easy (considering we had already walked nearly 50 miles for the entire trip by that time.) We failed to realize that the steps were incredibly steep, there weren’t any hand rails and it was basically a very steep ascent up several meters. Finally, huffing and puffing later, we made it up to the clock tower and saw Florence from a bird’s eye view. The city was breath taking. I love the terra cotta roofs and it makes me want to get one for my house – just kidding Ming!

On the day of the wedding we were dressed to the 9s (it is a wedding after all) and took a taxi to the rental car company. We had to drive a rental car to the wedding since it was on a remote estate in the middle of the countryside. The wedding was great and Ming saw a lot of old acquaintances. We had a fabulous cocktail hour followed by a 5 course meal. The biggest bummer of the evening was that it was cold and I hadn’t brought a jacket (it had been in the high 80s the entire trip) because I didn’t think I’d need one. That night ended up being very chilly and heating lamps had to be brought out to keep the guests warm. I borrowed Ming’s jacket for the entire evening to stay warm. Dinner lasted until 11pm and that’s when we had to head back to return the rental car … that’s where the excitement began …

We got back to Florence ok and decided that it’d be best to return the rental car to the same location we picked it up at because they had a garage attendant who could call us a cab back to the hotel. Originally we were going to return the car to another location so we only had driving directions to that other location. The exciting part of this trip occurs now since it is a near nightmare trying to navigate the streets of Florence. Basically we had to deal with the crazy motorists (who create lanes on their own and don’t follow what’s marked on the roads) and we didn’t have any directions to where we were going. We drove around for about 40 minutes trying to find the car rental return and a gas station. Everything in Italy closes early and there wasn’t a single gas station with an attendant open at midnight. Finally we drove into a gas station that had a pay machine and had the lights on. We couldn’t use our credit card and had to pay in Euros to get the gas. Once we filled up we couldn’t figure out how to get our change back. Apparently the pay machine only knows how to take your money and not give any change back. Ahh! After struggling for a few minutes we decided to forgo our change and got back on the streets to try to find the car rental return. Around 1am we gave up (since that is when the gas station attendant would have left to go home) and we got back onto the freeway again to go to our original car return location.

We found our original car rental return location easily enough and dropped the car off. Now we had to find a cab to take us back to the hotel. It was past 1 in the morning and we were both sleepy and tired. The problem now was: how do we hail a cab when we were in some remote, industrial area? We didn’t know the phone number of the cab company and they don’t have any yellow pages for us to find the phone number. We were about a 40 minute walk away from our hotel so we started to make our way to the hotel, hoping to find a free cab on the way. We’re dressed to the 9s, in a strange city, and it’s late at night. Do we feel safe? Nope. I clenched Ming’s arm the entire way because I had this ever present fear that someone would come up to us and mug us. Eventually we made it to the hotel, the entire time never seeing a free cab. We then proceeded to drop into bed and snooze soundly since we were leaving the next day.

We were so ready to go home at this point!

Italy Blog: Venice

Venice – 5/24-5/26

We took the train from Milan to Venice. Tren Italia (the system which runs Italy’s trains) is pretty comfortable but it doesn’t come close to comparing with Japan’s ShinKanSen (bullet train) system. Overall, I was happy enough with Tren Italia and the trip between Milan and Venice flew by, particularly since I was asleep for most of it.

Venice is a beautiful city. The buildings are amazing and architecture is astounding. I can see why people call it a romantic city. It is a city with many canals and the only way to get anywhere is on foot.

From the train station we took the vaporetto (a water bus – a big boat) to the hotel. We originally thought we’d take the varporetto everywhere since it was the only option to get anywhere (other than by walking.) The varporetto we took ended up being very crowded, slow because it made every stop, and thoroughly unenjoyable. Once we made it to our stop (45 minutes later) we decided that we’d walk everywhere rather than experience the vaporetto again.

Venice has a lot of alleys which are great to explore and a ton of piazzas (plazas). After 3 days of exploring the alleys and piazzas, however, they start to look alike. There are gift shops on every block (multiple on a single block) and you cannot go anywhere without running into one. Venice is truly a city for tourists. All of the gift shop owners speak English and they are prepared for you (meaning high prices for everything.) All of the restaurants have English menus and the waiters all speak varying degrees of English.

The most negative memory I have of our Italy trip occurred in Venice. We had one particularly pompous waiter who demanded that we pay him a tip. In Italy there is a cover charge to sit at a table. It is understood that you do not pay servicio (tip) unless you feel that the waiter has earned it. We paid our bill and upon seeing that we did not leave him a tip (we didn’t think he had done anything to earn it, and he routinely made us go out of our way to get his attention for simple things including getting the check) told us that servicio wasn’t included in the bill and waited at our table until we gave him some Euros. I was too surprised at his audacity to put him in his place like he deserved. We gave him a servicio just to get him away from us and we will be sure to never go there on any return trips.

We explored the city a lot and walked around aimlessly. The biggest downside to Venice is the amount of tourists it gets. Because there are so many tourists it makes it impossible to enjoy the city just as it is. Anywhere you go you bump into a handful of tourists, making it impossible to enjoy the city for its true character. The number of tourists kept us from enjoying Venice and we were ready to leave before all 3 days were up.

As we were leaving Venice we learned a regatta was taking place on the grand canal. It would have been something exciting to see but we were too tired of Venice by then to care and we were happy to be moving onto the next city.

Italy Blog: Milan

Milan 5/22 – 5/24

After we checked into our Milan airport it was about 9pm and we were ravenous. Ming and I walked around the neighborhood surrounding the hotel to try to find somewhere where we could eat dinner. We stumbled upon a place called Rendez Vous and this restaurant ended up being the place we have the fondest memories of.

Rendez Vous is the neighborhood watering hole. A watering hole in Italy is not some dark, dreary, dive-like bar. Their watering holes are actually quite nice. Their patrons dress like Europeans (generally dressed in nicer attire that is a step below semi-formal.) We saw plenty of patrons who were dressed in clubbing attire but they were simply going to eat and not go to a disco (the European word of club) afterwards. People came in and out of the restaurant and it was obvious they frequented the restaurant a lot since they’d chat with the restaurant employees for a spell before leaving.

The employees of the restaurant made us feel very welcome and acted very warmly toward us. They made excellent recommendations to us for entrees and even came by our table strike up side conversations with us while we were waiting between courses. Giovanni and Luigi were the two most memorable employees who started talking to Ming about football (in America we call it soccer) and even told him that the championships were taking place the next day. After showing him the back dining and entertainment room, they even gave him a trick pen to shock him as a joke. It worked at first, but the pen seemed to break after a few shocks. Ming must have been stronger than they thought. They invited us to come back for dinner the next evening and go in the backroom to watch the football game on one of the large LCD tvs they had set up. They told us that the entire room was going to be full of football fans and that we should join them. Since we loved our meal there we agreed that we’d come back the following night and watch football with them.

The next day we explored as much of Milan as we could. We saw Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. It is truly something which you need a tour guide for. You do not realize the amount of creative genius Da Vinci had until you listen to the tour guide dissect each part of the painting and look at it from afar. It was very enlightening to see the Last Supper since I don’t know anything about art – I’m an engineer, not a liberal arts major! ^_~

We did a lot of shopping around Milan since it is one of the fashion meccas of the world. Unfortunately, we didn’t buy anything in Milan since prices were too high and I wasn’t willing to pay for any of those price tags that the designers were commanding.


Milan has a Duomo. All of the Italian cities have a Duomo which is unique. The Duomo in Milan is amazing. It is very large both in height and area. It has many intricate carvings in it and it’s something that only pictures can describe. Look at the pictures area to get a better idea of what I am talking about.

We found out that Italians, and perhaps all of Europe, are very lazy. The shops and restaurants close down for a siesta in the afternoon. I don’t know what the Italian word for siesta is so I will continue to call it a siesta until someone corrects me. They close down anywhere between 2pm-5pm. As a shopper it makes it very hard for me to do much when the city has virtually shut down. We went to a store similar to Filene’s basement (but with names like Gucci, Prada, etc) only to find it closed for its siesta. Ming and I sat on the sidewalk and had to wait for it to open up again. Coming back to it at a later time was not an option because the store was in a part of town which was completely removed from where we were staying and sight-seeing.

The whole day we tried to buy football jerseys to support the Milan team. The football championship was between Italy and Liverpool, England. The Italian team happened to be from Milan so the whole city was cheering on its home team. We tried to find a street vendor who had a Milan jersey for sale but couldn’t find any. We found a few vendors but they didn’t have any cool jerseys for sale; all of theirs were boring and had uninteresting patterns on them. Apparently most vendors come out at night, prior to the game’s start. Dejected we headed to Rendez Vous without a football jersey to cheer on the home team.

Upon arriving at Rendez Vous we found that the back dining room was indeed filled with football fans. We all ate together, cheered together, and shared great comraderie. It was my first time watching a soccer game all the way through and I find that I enjoy watching it more when I’m surrounded by passionate fans and when there aren’t annoying commercials in between plays. Italy ended up winning the championship, although the end of the game was a close one. Giovanni strolled back into the room waving a flag and wearing a jersey shouting “fuerza Milan” (roughly meaning something like Milan’s force kicks butt.) Everyone was happy and we all sucked down limoncello and port to celebrate. All and all it was really fun and we met a lot of great Italians whom we practiced our Italian on … but they kindly switched to English for us to improve the conversation flow. Giovanni even gave Ming the flag and jersey as a momento to take home so that we’d always remember that Milan kicks butt. I think that Ming may start wearing that jersey once we get back to the states. ^_^

Italy Blog: Arrival

Arrival 5/21-5/22

We chose to fly to Italy on British Airways. Neither of us had previously flown on this carrier before and had heard good things about it. The flight was uneventful but comfortable. The flight attendants were nice and the food was much better than United. We each had the obligatory alcoholic drink aboard the flight. ^_^

I watched The Holiday movie on the first leg of the flight (SFO to Heathrow.) The movie was a chic flick and one that was best watched for free. I probably wouldn’t see it again but it was an entertaining enough movie on a very long flight.

Once we arrived in Heathrow we had a 4 hour layover until we boarded the connecting flight to Milan. The Heathrow airport is huge. We walked around the food and shopping area and it was much larger than I would have anticipated. I saw a lot of wine and alcohol stores as well as many name brand stores. I cannot remember all of the stores that are there but the most memorable one is Pink. I have been told by several people that Thomas Pink makes terrific button down shirts. The shirts are pricey (70+ pounds each) but it is well worth it because the cut of the shirt is vastly superior to any other brand. Ming and I wandered into this store and we should have walked right out. We were both running on very little sleep and hunger – not a good combination for shopping. I decided that Ming should try on a Pink shirt since he always wears button down shirts to the office. He ended up loving the shirts and knew immediately that Pink’s reputation as a purveyor of finely tailored shirts was well deserved. He chose a couple of shirts that he liked and then, being the great guy he is, encouraged me to look around the store. I found a shirt that I really liked and found cute. $500 dollars later we walked out the store and went in search of nourishment before the flight. Note to self: love the Pink shirts but I can only indulge that love once in awhile else I won’t be able to pay my mortgage.

We ate at a bar/café and, since this was my first time in England, I had to try something which was uniquely British. The menu had bangers and mash (mashed potatoes and sausage) and I promptly informed Ming that that was what I wanted to eat. I found it very tasty and I can see why the Brits like it so much. Next time I find myself in England, hopefully for a vacation and not a layover, I will have bangers and mash again.

We caught the connecting flight to Milan and then took a train from the airport, Malpensa, to downtown Milan. We had easy directions to take the bus to the neighborhood of our hotel and walk a few blocks, or so we thought. When we got off the train, everything was closed. Apparently, Italy shuts down after 7 pm with the exception of some restaurants and entertainment venues. We asked a few policemen where the bus stands were and they pointed towards an intersection across the street. After a good 20 minutes of wandering in that direction, we realized that their “directions” were way off, and the map that we had of “downtown” was a POS. The map didn’t show any bus stops and only displayed major streets.

By now, our luggage had grown pretty heavy and we decided to ditch the idea of doing it the Italian way and tried to hail cabs. In Italy, people are either friendly, indifferent, or rude. The first handful of cabdrivers ignored us. A few stopped in front of us at stop lights and what we thought was an invitation to hop in turned out to be a wagging finger saying “no-no”. With few options left, we stumbled across a cabbie who was dropping off his fare and agreed to take us to our hotel. On the way, we even provided reverse translation services for a song on his CD which he forgot to credit us for on the fare!

Back from Vacation

I'm back from vacation and still pooped. The next few entries will chronicle my Italy vacation ... stay tuned!

Allergies

Now that it is summer-like weather, the pollen count is extremely high. I had no idea how high it was until I stumbled upon this graph:



It's no wonder that anyone who suffers allergies has been and will continue to be miserable. I don't have allergies but the pollen is bad enough that I have near allergy symptoms. :( All I can say is that everyone had better load up on Benadryl, Claritin, etc. and pray for rain -- rain after I move into my new house :)

New Addition to the Household

Now before all of you think that we're having a baby, we're not. We have decided to get a puppy. Tonight we drove to the East bay to see a breeder and her puppies. She had a ton and we fell in love with all of them. Ultimatley we decided on one. We decided to get a female maltese. Isn't she cute?

Kimono Chocolates

These chocolates are so cute. They are being sold at Dean & Deluca. If my diet allowed it, I would probably order a box.

Spare Change

If I had some spare change lying around I'd get this ring:


Alas, I think I need to save my pennies for a long time before I can save enough for a new play ring. ^_~ In case you are wondering, that is a 2ct emerald and 1.49 carats in diamonds.

The full ad is here

Moving on Up

Space has gotten to be a bit too cramped in our 2 bedroom condo for Ming and me We have way too much stuff. Between the two of us we have:

• 2 beds
• bedroom furniture (night stands and dresser)
• desk
• desktop and laptop computers (too many to count)
• 2 orchids, 1 ficus, 1 planter box, 1 japanese maple
• snowboarding gear (snow boards, boots, goggles, helmets, etc)
• 2 bikes
• a ton of kitchen stuff including formal china, various gadgets
• a complete filled tool box
• and the list goes on ...

A two bedroom just wasn't going to cut it for us any longer so we decided to take the plunge and buy a single family home. Yup, we are moving to a larger place up north. We're moving to Belmont, which is really close to the city so expect us to be less lame and make it up to the city more often.

We thought we were really smart to buy a 3 bedroom house ... we've now made drawings (on the computer since we're dorks) of furniture layout and we've already completely filled up all the rooms! Somehow we managed to cram all of our stuff in a 2 bedroom but when we moved to a 3 bedroom we still filled up all the space. O.o I think we need to learn to stop buying stuff

Regardless, I'll be really busy during the next month while we pack, move, jet off to Italy, come back and attend Pat and Anita's wedding. We've got a whirlwind next couple of months ahead >_<

Sleep Deprived

I've been waking up early to go the gym and I've keep it up for 3 (maybe 4) weeks now. I feel much better when I wake up early to go to gym rather than going after work. When I wake up to go to the gym I'm up at around 6:45am. Today, my non-gym day, I was uanble to sleep past 7am. Try as I might, I just couldn't get back to sleep. It's Friday morning and I was awake and wondering what to do. Going in to the office wasn't an option (I just didn't feel like getting in before 8) so I had to find something to do to occupy my time. I ended up making myself a real breakfast and I ate it while watching the morning news.

It is now in the mid-afternoon and I am starting to drag but still holding up. I hope that this morning wasn't an indication that I'll also wake up extremely early on the weekend. >_<

Salad Week

In the continued effort to try to be better about what I eat, I have deemed this week salad week. I am trying out mbhide's advice and eating low carb meals for dinner. It's just past mid-week and Ming and I haven't gone crazy yet (but we are definitely tired of lettuce.)

Monday: Salad with romain lettuce, shredded carrots, sliced cucumber, tomatoes, orange slices, pan fried chicken breast
Tuesday: The same as Monday except with extra chicken breast
Wednesday: Laab Gai accompanied by mint leaves, lettuce, and shredded cucumber.

Laab Gai is a Thai preparation of chicken. Wednesday was, by far, our best and most enjoyable meal. We ate 3 chicken breasts between the two of us and savored every bit of it.

The scale hasn't reflected any difference in weight nor do I feel any different from eating salads all week. A visual inspection of myself doesn't show any loss in my tummy fat. :( Nevertheless, I will ride out this whole week and continue to eat salads/low carb meals at dinner. I don't have any more energy (nor less energy) but I'm sure that we're at least eating at least one meal which is healthy.

Tonight is Atkins burgers (hamburger patties wrapped with lettuce) and more salad. After this week I don't think I will buy lettuce for a long time.

Are You a Red Sox Fan?

If you are a red sox fan then you might want to start buying some furniture. There is a store which promises that any purchase made between March 7 and April 16 will be free if the red sox wins the world series. It's a great marketing blitz and they will actually follow through should the sox win the world series. I have no idea if the furniture is stuff that I'd consider buying (e.g. is it my style?) but if I was in the area, I'd definitely stop by and take a peek.

Here's the full story: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2007/04/06/jordans_is_betting_sox_wont_win_series/

Puppies On the Brain

Isn't that such a cute maltese puppy? We aren't ready to have a puppy yet but I thought this one was so cute

Vegetarian for 3 Days

Do you think you could (or would want) to become a vegetarian for 3 days? I was recently made aware that devout buddhists will eat strictly vegetarian for 3 days after a fortuitous event has happened. They believe that because something good has happened (e.g. a raise, bonus, getting a new job, baby) they will celebrate by sparing the lives of animals by not eating them.

While I respect the belief system that buddhists observe I am not sure I could live by it. I am not buddhist but I have friends who are buddhist. Giving up meat for 3 days seems pretty hard to do, particularly when it could happen at any time. I happen to like my pig, cow, and chicken and preventing at least one of them from appearing on my plate (and not completely overloading on carbs to compensate) isn't easy -- it sounds like the equivalent of a diet to me.

Could you do it? Would you do it -- give up meat for 3 days everytime a "lucky" event happened to you?

Cucumbers

I hate cucumbers. For some reason I just cannot get myself to like them. I don't mind cucumbers in water or cucumbers as garnish (since I never eat them) but I don't like to eat slices of cucumber. They seem like a waste of my space on my plate. I don't care for the taste of cucumbers and they don't seem "refreshing" to me. I am generally not a picky eater but cucumbers is where I have a problem. I will pick cucumbers out of my salad and put them to the side so that I don't have to eat them.

Enter the food processor. I love my food processor and have extolled its virtues many times over. I used the food processor to shred the cucumber and, voila, all of a sudden I was ok with eating cucumbers. I think there is something about eating a cucumber in large chunks (e.g. a slice) which doesn't agree with me but somehow eating cucumber shreds is ok. Voila. I can suddenly eat cucumbers without wincing in dismay. I no longer have a food which I'm picky about (only picky about its preparation.)

Lesson to be learned: never rule out a food unless you've tried it prepared several different ways. I have, in fact, become enamored enough with shredded cucumbers that I am willing to eat it in salads (shredded of course) next week and it will be an item on my grocery list.

Camera is Ka-Put

My poor d-cam is done for. It no longer works. I found this out yesterday when I wanted to take a picture. *sigh* I bought my camera when I was in Japan 3 years ago and I loved it because it is blue. It can no longer take pictures, however. It's screen always shows black (even though you can still see all the sub menu items on the screen) when trying to take a picture. I think something is wrong with the lens. :( My poor camera .. I loved you but it's time to move on.

I now need to decide what my next camera will be. Since my last one was a Sony I will likely not get another one -- I don't want it to fail on me after only 3 years again. I might opt to get an SLR (Tony and Ben have them and they look amazing) but I'm not sure how much I will actually use it. If not an SLR then it will be a point and shoot again.

Good Way To Start Your Day

A year or so ago I used to wake up early to go to the gym before going to work. Today I was finally able to motivate myself to wake up early and get an "early" morning work out. I was out of the house by 7:30am today and got an hour in at the gym. After all is said and done (including time for makeup and hair ^_^) I was in the office by 9:20am today. *woohoo* I feel really energized and like I've accomplished a lot already. I hope this accomplishment bodes well for my Monday and for the rest of the week.

I already know of at least one bummer this week: having to commute up to the city for work. Grrr ... well hopefully I won't have to do it too many times this week. Commuting to the city is such a pain in the rear. You waste so much time sitting on the train (takes me about 2 hours for a total commute time) and I'd much rather go back to my normal 3mi. commute.

New Blog about Food

I have decided to create another blog which chronicles my adventures in the kitchen:

Strawberries and Blueberries

Farm Animal Truffles

These farm animals are just too cute. I'm not someone who celebrates Easter but I may just need to pick up a few of these cute guys. Williams Sonoma is selling these chocolates for Easter. The chocolates are almost too cute to eat. My favorite ie either the piggy or the cow ^_^

Prius is Worse than a Hummer

March 7, 2007
Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage
By Chris Demorro
Staff Writer

The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.

Before we delve into the seedy underworld of hybrids, you must first understand how a hybrid works. For this, we will use the most popular hybrid on the market, the Toyota Prius.

The Prius is powered by not one, but two engines: a standard 76 horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine found in most cars today and a battery- powered engine that deals out 67 horsepower and a whooping 295ft/lbs of torque, below 2000 revolutions per minute. Essentially, the Toyota Synergy Drive system, as it is so called, propels the car from a dead stop to up to 30mph. This is where the largest percent of gas is consumed. As any physics major can tell you, it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The battery is recharged through the braking system, as well as when the gasoline engine takes over anywhere north of 30mph. It seems like a great energy efficient and environmentally sound car, right?

You would be right if you went by the old government EPA estimates, which netted the Prius an incredible 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were, which consisted of highway speeds limited to 55mph and acceleration of only 3.3 mph per second. The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the Prius’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.

However, if that was the only issue with the Prius, I wouldn’t be writing this article. It gets much worse.

Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.

All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?

Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.

When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB. The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot.

One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses.

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I guess everyone who thinks they are doing well for the environment should think again >_<

St Patty's Day Saturday

For some incomprehensible reason I woke up at 8.30am today. It is Saturday. I woke up earlier today than I normally do for work. I should go back to sleep but can't. I decided to wake up rather than toss and turn and inevitably waking Ming up. He's been working really hard this past week (waking up early and sleeping late) so I want him to get as much rest as possible.

I decide to wake up and start my day. Yesterday all the weathermen had forecast a beautiful day -- high of 80 in San Francisco. It is mid-march and we were going to expect summer weather? I was nearly giddy with joy thinking of all the things I could do to enjoy the lovely weather. As I walked into the living room (the curtains were open) I saw, with much dismay, overcast skies. Nooooo! Where was my beautiful sunshine that I'd been seeing all week? Gloomy clouds don't translate into warm breezes and sipping mai tais (ok, so maybe I'm stretching the mai tai thing) on the porch. Grrr... Maybe it will burn off and the skies will be sunny again. I hadn't, afterall, seen the sky at 8:30am all week so this could be considered normal.

I woke up and started to do some random things around the house killing time and waiting for my french bread batard to rise. I haven't blogged in awhile and I forgot to mention that last weekend I made french bread (for the first time) and Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef.)

Here are some photos of those cooking endeavors:






I am pretty happy with the way the french bread turned out and the shaking beef. These are definitely two items to be added to my repetoire. The shaking beef was really good and we gobbled it down immediately. I served it on a bed of lettuce instead of watercrest, no matter, it was still delicious. For more info about shaking beef, go here

Fast forward back to today ...

I made a huge batch of dough last weekend so today I am using up the rest of the french bread dough. I am going to make another batard since Ming really likes them and we bought some fixings last night to put on top of the bread (for our breakfast/brunch.)

It is now nearly 10am and I think I have come to grips with the realization it will not be beautiful and suny 80 degree weather. It will be dismal and overcast and we've got dinner in the city tonight for Pat's birthday. Damn, there had better be some green beer to make up for the lack of a sunny day

Adieu to Snow Season

We've had record (well, what I believe is record) high temperature lately. It has been in the high 70s for the past few days and it will continue to be warm. In Truckee, one of the more popular cities in Tahoe, it is in the mid-60s. By now I would normally have gone up to the snow 6-12 times. This season I have not been up to Tahoe at all because there hasn't been any snow up there. The few storms we did have didn't pile on much snow and it has all melted away. With the warm temperatures around I doubt that we'll get enough snow to make it worth my while to make the drive to Tahoe.

*sigh* Well I must bid adieu to Tahoe and wait until next season to make use of my boarding equipment

Milk Bread

With my previous mention of bread I decided that I wanted to try my hand at bread making. My first foray into the world of bread would be to make milk bread. Milk bread is something I ate as a kid. It's a very soft type of bread, individually portioned out. It is topped with a sweet glaze and I used to eat it for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.


The ingredients for milk bread. Excuse the skim milk, we normally buy low fat but all the low fat milk at the store had an expiration date which was too close to today


Me forming the bread into individual rolls


The rolls in the pan, shaped and waiting to proof some more. Proofing is when the bread grows larger in volume


The finished milk bread


Milk bread -- before consumption

The milk bread ended up turning out pretty well for my first try into breads. I didn't do such a great job forming the dough into perfectly portioned rolls but all and all, I am happy with the end result. The next question is how long it will last before we consume everything

Artistic Bread

We all know what artisan bread is: bread which is hand made (so it's got a few bumps and isn't quite as clean cut as Wonder bread) and is generally a lot more expensive but also more tasty. A few of us know what artistic bread is. Artsitic bread is bread which is shaped into creatures or some simple shape. The japanese are probably the most well known when it comes to artistic bread. Their love of beautiful foods has lead them to create cute little creatures out of bread. I have seen turtles, porcupines, etc formed of bread in various Japanese bakeries.

I recently stumbled upon a picture that puts the Japanese artistic breads to shame:



Those creations are actually bread O.o This is made by some shop in Paris. The full article can be found here. I think I should go to Paris now to try out this artistic bread and see if it is as tasty as it looks

Daylight Saving 2007

This Sunday is daylight saving time. Everyone in the US loses an hour. :( The rules for daylight saving changed this year in order to try to conserve more energy and ... blah blah blah. For some background on the changed date:


On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. The Secretary of Energy will report the impact of this change to Congress. Congress retains the right to resume the 2005 Daylight Saving Time schedule once the Department of Energy study is complete.

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The one bright side to all of this is that we are expected to have a high of 78 degrees on Sunday. It'll be a beautiful day and even though we all woke up earlier we will have a gorgeous day to enjoy. What will you do to make the most out of the day? If I am feeling particularly motivated I'll wash the car and perhaps even BBQ again