The end of the world

The movie 2012 gave us a pretty good idea of the disaster described in the Mayan Apocalypse in a very graphic and dramatic way. When the movie was released in 2009, I put the idea to the back of my mind thinking we still had a few more years.

So as we approached closer to December 21th, 2012, my emotions changed. Would it happen or not? I was not ready to die whether from disease or natural disaster, sadly, we would not be in the small group who survived, no matter how good and deserving we had been.

The day before the said apocalypse was a normal working day. After work, I went to the gas station to fill up my tank, thinking if the disaster did happen, at least I had a full tank of gas so we could run away in my car. 

Delivery at the door

Jack needed to replace the ice cream machine's wooden bucket as it was worn out over the years. After a long time researching for different options and talking with the welder, he came to a decision to try a modified beer keg as a replacement. So he ordered the beer keg online, and it was to be delivered on a cloudy Friday by Fedex.

Whenever there was an important delivery like this one, Jack became pretty anxious starting at the beginning of the day. Since we live on the coast, we were almost always the last stop for Fedex, so patience was required.

Before we left for the 3 Zero Cafe for a hearty lunch, Jack called Fedex to check on the status, and was instructed to leave a note at the door authorizing Fedex to leave the delivery at the door in case they came when we were out.

When we came back from lunch, the note was still there, untouched, covering the center of our L.L. Bean coastal theme Christmas wreath. So we went back to work and continued to practice our patience.

Time went by slowly and it was dark outside, so it felt like it was late in the day all afternoon. Needless to say Jack checked online for the delivery status every so often, and at 4:30 PM, the status was changed to "left at the door". He checked but there was nothing at the door.

Very annoyed, he grabbed his jacket and took off to look for his delivery.

Finally Jack came back with his precious delivery, and said: "they left it at Tim's porch!"

May I add that this was not the first time Fedex conveniently delivered our packages to our neighbor Tim's door, because his door was right off the path and much more visible.

Jack's new beer keg unscratched

Frozen broccoli with cheese

For years I took pride in making tasty stir-fried vegetables and many different home-made Chinese dishes. I never understood the idea of frozen vegetables, and didn't have the slightest interest to try them.

Back in July when I prepared to go to South Carolina for a week-long silence retreat, I went to the grocery store to buy some food for Jack so he didn't have to spend too much time cooking yet could still eat something healthy. Granted he is a good cook for Holiday meals, during the year, he spends most of his time by the computer, reading or watching movies.

I picked up some frozen Brussels Sprouts, frozen spicy chicken wings and frozen broccoli with cheese thinking perhaps they were more nutritious than canned soup. And Jack is probably better acquainted with them than me, since he is an American boy growing up in Michigan.

The frozen foods were left in the freezer for the next few months untouched.

One night in October, I decided to eat the frozen broccoli. I opened the bag, put the content in the frying pan, and cooked it in medium heat for 20 minutes while stirring it patiently, just as it was mentioned in the instruction. I even spiced it up with salt and pepper. The efforts to cook this frozen broccoli was no less than cooking fresh vegetables.

At dinner, Jack took a bite of the broccoli, looked at me quizzically, and said: "This doesn't taste good." He had a couple of bites, then went to the kitchen to find something else more edible. I couldn't help but laughed. This is probably the only time when I wasn't saddened when someone criticized my "cooking".

Workout

Among the many benefits of exercising, a notable one to me is it gives me a peace of mind. 

Human being is not designed to be sitting at the desk for 8 hours a day, and then sitting some more to watch TV at night. Over a few years, one can develop stiff neck and back, carpal tunnel disease, premature slouching, or worse, weigh gain. So we were told that we should go and do some exercises at least 3 times a week, e.g. Swimming, running on a machine, or some stretching exercises such as yoga or Pilates, to stay in a reasonable health.

Jack and I had been trying to keep up with our every other day workout regiment, and we reward ourselves with a nice steam bath afterwards. Then we can sit to watch the all episodes of The Big Bang Theory in the right order without guilt or reservations.

Hunger Games

I hate this movie. I hate the book. I didn't even pass the second paragraph. I cannot accept the idea of making children killing each other until one person remains. It is so wrong and unacceptable. What kind of sick person would write something like this and how can so many enjoy it?

The book is morally wrong. It doesn't matter how magnificent the movie is, as I can't watch it without being sick.

Do something, anything!

I was having coffee with Jack this morning, and we talked about the government again, and he said I should blog about my opinions. Even though I don't usually post my more serious opinions, I thought I give it a try.

Our constitution should be changed so that no political party be allowed to take the government and the people hostage as a political game. It is OK to have constructive debates about what methodologies are theoretically better for the country, but the time allowed for debate should not be exceeding a reasonable period, such as 2 weeks. After that, someone, such as the executive branch of the government, should be allowed to implement its proposal. Doing something is better than not trying at all.

We can't allow the two political parties to play tug of war, while millions of citizens are struggling to get by.

It is like my job. When I am working on a customer issue, I do all of my investigations, and propose a solution.  It is unacceptable for me to spend my sweet time without coming up with any kind of resolution. This is how I can keep my job.

We yearn for politicians who take ownership and responsibility for the country over power and individual gain!

I'm computered out

Almost every Friday afternoon around this time, I get so bored with the computer, and totally lost interest.

I feel like a sprung spring. Hmm, wonder why nobody else uses this phrase? Is it because nobody feel the same ever, or is it just poor grammar?

Temptations

If you received as many junk mails as I do, you will probably understand and sympathize the difficulty to resist all the emails about holiday sales! Everyone is trying to sell something these days. I receive about 20 such emails everyday. At the same time advertisers bombard us via TV ads, annoying website popups and glossy mail catalogs. This is just too much and distasteful.

I have been doing really good so far, of course the minute I say this I would start to break, but I have not done any online or real shopping since black Friday started.

It's not like I don't open emails from vendors such as Bare Essential to see their up to 70% sales items, and certainly the 25% off coach coupon is ever so tempting, but I delete every such email everyday and put it behind me. I am not going to participate in fueling the American economy.

Does it work? It had been working so far, but I have no idea how long it will last, so I'll just roll with it.

At this point, I think buying more stuff for myself will not bring me as much happiness as the bitterness and depression I will get when I pay my credit card bills. So there is the motivation!

News worthiness

Today's lesson learned is very simple. As I'm sitting in front of our 70 inch TV set, and typing on my laptop, I wanted to remind myself to leave the TV off if I ever want to get anything done, anything at all.

This is in fact a simple yet powerful message.

There is an illusion that if you are doing multiple things at one time you would achieve multitasking. Based on my own experience, and this time I am pretty sure I am right, there is no such thing as multitasking. If you are trying to watch TV and work at the same time, you would be missing the fun of TV, and you mind as well turn off the TV, until you can give it your full attention.

Today I attempted to watch the news and worked on my blog posts. But so far, I "watched" the 5 o'clock news and the 10 o'clock news and the only thing I heard from the news was: "blah blah blah, rain, blah blah blah storm, blah blah blah..."

Jack later explained to me: "We are in a storm now, and there will be a bigger one coming starting tomorrow night."

The Hodges' Family Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

It appeared to me on Thanksgiving day, while we were busy preparing for our meal, that it would be nice to make a menu for our guests. But there wasn't any extra time for us to do it then.

So here it is:

Appetizers:
Home-made salsa with chips
Spiced pumpkin seeds
Mixed nuts: cashew, almond, peanuts, etc

Main dish:
Roast turkey
Wild rice casseroleNoodle casserole
Garlic mashed potatoes with gravy
Cranberry sauce

Seasonal vegetables:
Garlic stir-fried asparagus
Brussels sprouts with mushroom and black bean sauce

Home-made Desserts:
Apricot up-side-down cakes
Sour cream cheese cakes
pumpkin pies
Cookie & Cream ice cream
Coffee & Heath bar ice cream

Drinks:
Martinelli's Apple soda
Reed's Ginger beer
Coffee
Various Teas

It's going to go somewhere

I have this theory that, since Thanksgiving is the first feasting holiday in our holiday season, we tend to pour our hearts and souls into cooking, baking, feasting, and gatherings. And we are so happy doing so. This might be a known fact, and I just got so excited about this year's Thanksgiving that it became my new discovery.

Isn't it great to discover something on your own even though it is a known fact?

I became so spoiled these few days. I would eat a piece of apricot up-side-down cake for breakfast with my coffee, a piece of delightful gulab jamun after my lunch, and some home-made cookies & cream ice cream for dessert after dinner. That doesn't even cover all of the desserts we made this Thanksgiving. We also have pumpkin pies and sour cream cheese cake in the refrigerator that were untouched for a few days now.

Along with the delicious and decadent desserts, we are still feasting the left over Thanksgiving meal. The wholesome turkey soup still takes up most of the precious refrigerator space even though we had been eating it for lunches and dinners. Up to today we still have a big box of turkey leftover.

Instead of drinking water or tea, we are drinking Martinelli's and ginger beers. Hmm, life is good. 

So where is all the food going to go? Of course, it will be months of hard working at the elliptical machine or in the pool trying to get rid of the Thanksgiving meal, or not, but the truth is, we do it happily every year.

2012 Election night observations

Ying: Even BBC called it.
Jack: BBC would have called it a year ago.

Ying: The camera man likes big boobs.
Jack: All camera men like big boobs.

Ying: If Florida wins, it'll be BIG!

Ying: Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia went blue. Come on already Florida.

Ying: people who should be voting for Obama:
99% occupy people,
Women,
Minorities,
Gays & Lesbians.
That make up how many %?
Romney actually did really well getting so many conservatives to vote for him considering how poorly he and his party did, and the mistakes/mis-speeches they made.

Ying: What happen to the tea party this year?
...

Ying: Is it just me or is KQED cheering for the Democrats tonight?
Jack: They should be since Romney said he would cut their funding.

Opinions

Like every other election, we heard a lot of opinions the last few months about the candidates and propositions, yadi yada... This year, I am much more at peace with the election than other years, while Jack has been pulling his hair out struggling against opinions people boldly voiced on TV, radio and by signs on the side of the road. Yes on 32, no on 32?

I read the voting material last Sunday, and as soon as I stopped reading the augments for and against, my mind cleared out, and it was so much less struggle to find out what I really wanted.

We live in a democracy, so there are always people for and against anything. So we will have to learn how to be responsible citizens yet keeping ourselves at peace with the reality.

It's difficult, very difficult.

It's election night. I opened up to read news and I feel like I'm going to faint.

The Giant's games

Jack: "If the Giants kept losing to the Reds like this (0 to 9), then they don't deserve to go the World Series."

Ying: "Well, the good news is, Siri is working well on understanding your questions and giving good answers."

Jack: "Yeah, that's true. Siri is working well."

Taking Monday Off

I told my friend Ray that I was taking Monday off, so that maybe we could take our boat out.

Ray said: "Oh, but it's going to rain on Monday. You don't take a day off when it rains."

Nice. That's the story of my life.

Learning to use Xcode

Last night after my 9:15 pm call with a group, I went to the living room to find Jack working on his MacBook Pro.

He said: "I'm writing a new iPhone app, do you want to learn?"

Usually I would say yes, but I was really tired last night, from accumulating fatigue. I felt kind of numb.

First we tried to download the new Xcode on my own MacBook Pro from the AppStore, but my operating system was too old. So he started showing me how to create a new project on his computer, and said I should take notes.

So here we go:

Step one, open Xcode.

Step two, file->new project.

Step three, give the project a name: MyGreatProject

"Can I go to bed now?"

"No, you haven't even started yet."

Step four, create a new folder so that you can save your archives into different versions.

Step five, go to view controller and select the views you want to add to your application. Add a "Date Spinner" on the UI.

"I'm really tired, and I need to go to bed."

"No, we're not done yet."

Step six, you can also add other UI components, such as button view and labels. Then save the project.

"OK I'm going to bed."

Boston is a nice place

Last Christmas (Christmas of 2011) Jack and I took a train ride to Denver Colorado to visit his sister, Karen, and snowboard with them.

To me, train rides were very classy and romantic, as I only saw them on classic movies. It represented movies like Holiday Inn and Thin Man. We spent more money to ride the train one way than to take a round trip flight, just to get the experience.

In reality, a train ride was a kind of social experience. Even if you stayed in your cart all day long, you still had to come out to the dining cart to eat your 3 meals. Since we were a couple and all of the tables were for parties of four, we shared a dining table with two other people in every meal.

That night we were riding into Salt Lake City, we shared the table with an older man and a middle-age woman who were sitting next to each other. We were all very polite, but Jack and I were not the most social people. The man who sat across from me were more talkative. As per usual, we all shared where we came from and where were going and our train riding experience. Jack and I usually told people how this was our very first train ride and we were very excited about our private cart. As the food came we went out of topics, so we started eating.

It was until we got our bills when we found out the man and the woman were not a couple, because they paid separately. I looked at the woman and said: "Boston is a nice place." She gave me a blank look and said: "Yes, Boston is a nice place." Then we went quiet again. The man picked up the topic, "Yes, Boston is nice. I went to school there." He told us a little about going to school in Boston, which I now forgot the details.

Back in our cart, Jack and I were reflecting on our dinner experience, and how quiet everyone was. I said: "Well, I contributed to the discussion, but nobody picked it up."

"How did you contribute to the discussion?" Jack asked curiously.

"I said, 'Boston is a nice place.'" I replied.

"Yeah, that. What was that all about?" Jack asked.

"Well, I said it because the woman was from Boston."

"No, she was from Baltimore." Jack said, and he couldn't stop laughing.

What's today?

Story on Saturday morning.

I woke up to my doggies running around the house and jumping on and off the bed. Jack brought me my morning coffee. Still fighting to keep my eyes opened and my mind cleared, I asked: "What date is today?" I glanced on my iphone.

"I think it's the 29th." Jack replied.

"No, it's the 27th." I was quite convinced as I just checked on my iphone. I looked at my iphone again, and started laughing. What I saw was 9:27. "Oh, OK, it's the 29th, you're right."

Now I'm awake.

Today I drove from Winter to Summer, and back

My story from Thursday 9/27/12

I had a team lunch today at noon. My morning started early, with a few important meetings back to back, and some busy work in between, i.e., multi-tasking. Around 11 AM I packed my computer, put on a T-shirt, pants and a denim jacket, and jumped in my car. The dense fog felt like drizzle, and since I didn't eat anything except for my morning coffee, I was chilled to the bones, so I turned on my heater.

In a rush, I punched the address into my GPS on the iPad - I can't go anywhere without my GPS. Here were the directions.

Start driving on highway 1 south bound for 8 miles. I drove by pumpkin and brussels sprouts farms, some beaches and coastal restaurants.

Turn left onto CA 92 east bound and drive for 12 miles. I drove on a winding road, passing by nurseries and flower fields.

Exit to highway 280 south bound and drive for 28 miles. I drove by the beautiful reservoir and mountains. The weather became sunnier and sunnier the further south I went, and the hills changed from green to brown. Somewhere around there I turned off my heater.

Exit on highway 85 south bound and drive for 21 miles. There was nothing significant here, just office buildings and residential areas connecting various shopping malls.


Exit on highway 101 south bound. Guess what, pumpkin and vegetable farms on both sides of the road.

I drove pass the Silicon Valley Lab IBM campus, which was the furthest I went in this part of the neighborhood and on this direction. As I drove into another narrowed two lane winding country road, up the hill, I drove into the unknown.

I started to doubt the directions, but as I already drove over 50 miles to here, there was no turning back without putting some food into my stomach.

Following the GPS direction, I drove up the hill for 1.5 miles, and finally I saw a field of green. In the middle there was a ranch style building, where I found a parking lot. I parked and walked out of the car to find the piping high 80 degree temperature. At around 12:20, I found my group of 15 sitting at the patio facing the golf course under 2 big umbrellas.

Two hours later, we left the restaurant. The inside of my car felt like an oven, so I rolled down all the windows, and sett up my GPS. I drove the same way back. When I saw the thick fog rolling down the mountains around Crystal Spring Reservoir, I knew I was almost home.
 

Get a life

and shut down the computer.

Enjoy your weekend. Outside.

Thank you, but no thank you.

Thank you, but no thank you to your soliciting phone calls, letters and emails.

Thank you, but no thank you. I don't need to shop for a new coach bag, some fancy new outfit, or shoes.

Thank you, but no thank you, I don't need your exclusive membership, discounts or free samples.

Thank you, but no thank you, I don't want to join your organization, donate to a cause or answer your survey.

Thank you, but no thank you, I don't want a chance to win a big price, or receive a discount on some getaways.

Thank you, but no thank you, I don't want to hear disturbing news of the day.

Thank you, but no thank you for your free advice on finance or home loan.

Happiness is knowing how to find contentment and peace from within.

Balance restored

Life, if not balanced, might result in stress. Diet, if not balanced, might result in poor health. Finances, if not balanced, might result in deficit. If we are physically out of balance, we might fall.

The last couple of days, Jack and I feel unusually balanced while we are at home. Our house was cleaned for the first time after 2 months, or was it 3? I don't remember, but it felt like eternity. Thanks to my housekeeper, Viry, who just came back from sick leave on Wednesday. Without Viry, I could barely keep up with laundry and putting dishes in the dish washer.

The dust and dog hair gathered the last few months are gone. The stove and the dishes cleaned. The mess in the house is sorted out, and we can walk bare-footed without dirtying our feet!

I wish I have a magic wand, so that I can give it a wave, and my house will be cleaned! That would be perfect. 

Life balanced. Peace and joy!

Melting away

Last night was Thursday Yoga Night. I walked into the yoga room with my mind obsessed with a particular person's impression on me. What he did, how it impacted me in this way or that, what I wanted to do.

I thought about it from top down, bottom up, and every other directions. Once I was done thinking about it that way, I dissected the big problem into smaller pieces, and then started the same process for those smaller pieces. I could not shake it off of me.

Jean started the yoga class with a very mild note. The whole class was effortless yet powerful. We did Vinyasa, and wew perfecting our worrier poses striving for relaxing the neck and shoulders. Then we did balancing poses, and I was so effortless and still. The whole class was harmonious and flowing naturally.

Slowly, I started to turn my mind inward. More and more I focused on me and my own practice. My body was so nurtured and my mind became so focused. It seems ridiculous for me to be so obsessed with a person, giving him so much power to consume me. I replaced my troubled mind with a big SELF.

I left the class with a big smile and was glowing when I got home!

Conversation of a random morning

Ying: Good thing I slept well last night, otherwise I'll be a dead horse.

Jack: Or a raving lunatic.

Smile... and have a nice day.

I found my watch

Last Sunday morning (yesterday), while Jack was making hummus, I was busy clearing our mails, which were piled up on the kitchen table for 2 months. This is truly one of my least favorite activities, but it has to be done.

I first sorted out the soliciting mails from the business mails, and separated Jack's and mine into 2 piles. For the soliciting mails, I put the ones with our address into the grinding pile and the rest in the recycle bin. I also opened up Jack's mails with a letter opener, while reading my own mails. I found a few bills but they were not time critical. Finally after 2 hours, I got to a point where I could see my dining table again, and there laid my long lost watch.

I was on a roll, so I went to reorganize my desk for the very first time in 8 years. I put away useless papers and outdated magazines. This time, I found my phone card and a nice wool glove, which was lost many years ago. Only now I don't know where the other one is.

Oh well, I'm sure it will show up sometime.

My memories of September 11th

I am sure you must have your own memories 9/11/2001 no matter where you were that day. To me it was a very very sad day.

I lived in Austin, Texas back then, and was a new college hire working in a big computer technology company. It was an ordinary September morning, where the only thing I had to worry about was the 100 degree summer heat.

Around 10 AM we heard the news and people started to gather around the TV to watch the unbelievable story unfold. We saw repeating scenes of the twin towers crumbling down as if they were built with sand, and each time there was a little more detail. We saw people jumping off the buildings. The analysis of when the first plane hit the first tower and we heard the emergency calls. On the streets, people were running away for their lives from the debris and thick dusts, those scenes could only be seen on movies.

As I watched on, I felt very sad and I wanted to cry. The only thing on my mind was: "Oh my God! How could this happen?" I looked at others around me, and nobody said a word. They stood stern faced with their eyes fixed on the TV monitor. I felt that the country was under attacked and that we were at war. It was just so unreal that it was so close to home, or should I say, right at home.

After a while I couldn't stand it anymore, so I went back to work feeling heavy in my chest.

In the box?

One day Jack came home and saw an empty amazon.com box sitting on the dining table, he asked curiously: "What was in the box?" It reminded both of us of what Katharine Hepburn said in "Bringing up Baby." - In the box? We both chuckled.

When I told him it was a book and a hair drying towel I ordered for myself last week, he was visibly disappointed.

In this household, deliveries bring a certain kind of excitement. Just like in "The Music Man", the whole town was singing and dancing when the Wells Fargo Wagon came with deliveries.

Now I can totally see Jack doing the UPS dance.

Another perfect day

How can it be possible? Two perfect days, back to back. It is so unreal!

We kiteboarded at the sunny San Mateo bay, it was challenging, thrilling but fun. Then we let the doggies run, swim, and fetch the ball in the water. All of us got physically exhausted, so that our minds don't get troubled by unimportant things.

It sure feels like Autumn

It's only the beginning of September, but I already feel the change of the season in Half Moon Bay.

The sun finally burns through the clouds and warms up the coastal town;
pumpkins are peaking from their big, bushy leaves;
green peas are growing healthy and strong;
fields of colorful flowers are blooming along the side of the road;
the air is brisk and windy but not too cold.

It sure feels like the Autumn to me.

The white boy proxy

A recent story:

Over the years, Jack has been working very closely with this small technology company in the heart of the Silicon Valley. This company, like a lot of the other technology companies in the area, it is very diverse. Their employees in the Silicon Valley headquarter comprise some Indian programmers, a British CTO, who is Jack's main collaborator, and a lady Russian CEO.

This one week Jack was terribly sick with a cold, and needed very much to stay in bed to fight the nasty virus. However, on Wednesday the company had an interview with a U.S. government agency about some contract, and the CTO insisted that Jack go to their office no matter what.

Jack grumble about it: "I can't believe that I am the white boy proxy."

That night when he got home, Jack said the company also rented a receptionist, bought some ceramic coffee mugs and nice cookies for the occasion. And then they didn't even need him.

Little miss perfect

I believe some of us, especially city girls, were brought up to be little miss perfects. Even for those who might have had some rebelliousness in us, all our lives, everyone expected us to be just perfect.

We had to have our perfect daily schedules, wear clean and neat cloths, speak only polite words, eat the best food mom put on the table, be the most studious kids in the class. Undoubtedly we would become the most tender caring and nurturing people, who would carry the chaos and roughness of mankind on our shoulders.

When I was little, even whistling was out of lines. Good Chinese girls just don't whistle! Not to mention climbing trees or playing Kung Fu.

Over the years, we could have grown into very different people from those expectations, but secretly and in quiet moments, we still measure ourselves by those rules and standards, which, sadly, were carved into our deep consciousness.

But kindness and niceness are boring! Sooner or later, we got so fed up with all the invisible restrictions and pressure we could scream. Why do we have to be perfect when the rest of the world doesn't seem to give a damn?

So now, I whistle to get my dogs' attention. I kiteboard, and occasionally got swept off my feet doing so. I plant my tree deep and strongly on the yoga mat. And I cook the most delicious wholesome food. I'm who I want to be, not whom I'm expected to be, and I am happy.

I hope you are happy too, because we deserve it!

What do you think of my new thinkpad?

I asked Jack what he thought about my new thinkpad.

He looked at it for a moment and said: "It looks just like your last one. Just cleaner."

Revelation #2

Childhood story:

One time I went to swim in a public pool with my younger cousin during a summer break. The pool was quite packed, since the Cantonese summer is hot and humid, and we lived in a very populated city. The lifeguard teased me that my breaststroke was wrong and very inefficient. He said in order to be more efficient, I should close my fingers so that my palm could scope the water and help move the body forward.

First of all, breaststroke is the only swimming style I can ever do, without drinking too much water (freestyle and butterfly) or going zigzag head-first (backstroke). Ever since that childhood experience, I was very diligent about closing my fingers every time I swim, though I didn't feel any tiny bit of improvement.

During the last Summer Olympic Game, which closed not a month ago, I saw gold medalist Rebecca Soni's breaststroke, and guess what, her fingers were OPENED, and she swam like a dolphin!

I don't know why but I still remember that swimming pool incident like it happened yesterday.

Homemade, dine-in or takeout?

This Labor Day long weekend, we ate out a lot. We went to dim sum, a BBQ with friends, went to restaurants, or have food for to go. Just because we could, and we didn't have much food in the fridge ... so I said.

After a few days of eating out, our taste bud felt stagnant, and we felt bored of it.

It's like homemade food gives us better Prana, because it's so fresh. When we cook, we pick good ingredients, clean them well, and put our energy into making the dish tasty. That makes the big difference.

Homemade food is the winner!

A sequence of events

Last night around 3 AM, my dog Amy was barking in the garage. After a few minutes of her barking, I went to check on her, because I didn't want to wake the neighbors. Amy and Jake came to the door to greet me, and I asked: "What's going on? Why are you barking?" Amy kept her head low, went back to her bed, lied down and looked at me. I closed the door and went back to bed.

Today I found that the garbage bin at the drive way got knocked over by wild animals.

9-10 Update:

We noticed that the once healthy home-grown potato plant was no longer green and bushy. Today we decided that maybe the potatoes were ready. I took a large grocery bag to collect the potatoes, and first I found a hole where the plant used to be. When I dug for the potatoes, I couldn't find any. How could it be? I told Jack to come and double check. He looked at the hole and pointed at the 2 marble-sized potatoes, and said: "There they are."

Revelation

I used to enjoy having revelations. Recently though, some of my revelations unfortunately reveal my ignorance. Especially when you consider someone being in some kind of misconception for over 30 years, now that is not funny.

Growing up in China, I used to be told, and was proud of our ancient culture, long history, technologies and literature achievements. After all, China is one of the four ancient cultures. We had our Gods and Traditional Chinese Medicine, with herbs that mothers put in soups to keep the family healthy.

Recently, I found that some Indian cultures and history have amazing parallels to the Chinese. I was told about the jaw-dropping hundred million Hindu Gods and the Ayurveda ways. I suspect that the Chinese got our religion from India, obviously: Buddhism came to China and the rest of Asia from India. In addition, the Hindi Gods are also similar to Roman Gods.

http://www.helium.com/items/1570778-similarities-between-the-hindu-and-greek-gods

So, who is the most ancient culture? :) Does it matter?

Silence

Since I came back from my Silence retreat in the blue ridge mountains of Boone NC, I has been enjoying driving in silence.

We get so used to "multi-tasking" that we can't stand doing one thing at a time. For instance, when we drive, we have to be listening to something - if NPR is on pledge drive, we switch to a music station; if the music station is on commercial, we switch to CD. When we read or run, we put on our headsets.

I used to think highly of anyone who listened to NPR, and became a loyal listener myself. But stop listening to NPR keeps me a peace of mind, and I believe ignorant is bliss. It helps to stop being anxious about current events and politics.

Bye bye NPR. Thanks for freeing up some space in my mind.

Life is good

Today is a perfect Saturday for me. There is no special activities or parties, and that makes it perfect.

I slept in and did my morning Kriya right after morning coffee. I didn't do much house chores, and the the family went over the hill to the sunny peninsula. We hang out around the bay, where the dogs ran, swam and rolled in the sand to their hearts' content. We chatted with friends, then we ran our errands. We had a good home-made dinner, watched an old movie and the Big Bang Theory.

It's so nice to be able to spend time with the family on weekends!

Poppies

When my friend Anne came to stay with us in June, we planted lavenders, jasmines, and other colorful flowers in the yard. She also sowed poppy seeds and replanted the tiny ice plants. She said it's probably too late in the season for the poppy seeds to grow, and we didn't think too much about it. It was just a great way to spend time together and for me to learn about gardening. By the way, I am a hopeless black thumb.

Over the few months, most of the colorful flowers except for the lavenders got dig up by the resident rodents, but surprisingly, some poppy plants were peaking out of the soil! Everyday I walk pass the yard, I couldn't help but appreciate the simplicity of life and power of the ecosystem. You sow the seeds, provide some water, and the Sun will help the plants grow. Our ice plans are growing 3 times bigger too!

Life on earth is such a miracle.

This is the 100th post, yippee!

Work

Do you notice that when you work a lot, you can't stop working?
Do you notice when you are working on something interesting, you don't feel that it is work?

Already September?

Wow, it's September 1st today. I have mixed feelings about this September 1st. August seemed to be too long. Last month I was way too busy at work, like every other summer. Yet I managed to fit in a 4 week yoga workshop with my favorite Yoga teacher on every Monday, and a weekend Chakra yoga retreat at Stillheart.

On the other hand, there are only 4 months left for the year of 2012!

The matters of right and wrong, good and bad

We almost always get caught up in the right and wrong. It is hard to for us to look at something without applying certain kind of judgement, analysis and comparison. This inevitably leads to competition, troubled minds and disappointment.

It's like the moment we open our eyes in the morning, our minds start to ponder about the truth of the world, and planning for success. This is how the world operates, so it's just a force of nature for us to pick up this habit.

Right and wrong boil down to what works for the person himself. If he is doing the right thing, then great, but if he is doing the wrong thing, but incapable of doing the right thing at the time, then what can he do? Shoot himself or someone else? I don't think so. It's better just for him to give himself some time and space to be happy with who he is, and he will grow and learn over time.

When I was doing my Chakra yoga retreat during the last weekend, there were times I felt my mind wondering. Not too far, just in, around and outside of the yoga studio. For example, there were times when I was thinking about the person in front of me, whose Pilates mat not being suitable for practicing yoga, because it's not sticky. Other times I was worrying about the perfection of my posture and checking out other peoples'. When the mind wonders, I lost my balance.

How could I focus  on my own yoga practice? I think this will take me some time and more experience. For now, I will just be who I am, do what I can and hope for the best.

Chakra workshop at Stillheart

I like the fact that you emphasize on personal experience, and warn us not to be restricted by what was written in books, which are totally experiences written by other people.

Activities like Yoga and meditation is a personal journey. No two people's experience is the same. So teaching such a topic is so abstract, and it could be challenging.

Thank you for demystifying the Chakras, and allowing us to discover our own path and our fire within.

Photograph curtsey of Ms. Peiying Mo.

August 28, 2012 4:50 PM

I like my blog

Even though nobody reads it. :)

I got tickled whenever I read it, but of course, every time I read my own postings, I found something that I wanted to change.

I like "Seinfeld"

Very recently, I had a revelation about myself: I started to understand the humor of the TV show "Seinfeld". I actually finished the half-an-hour show and enjoyed it, and even made an effort to look for the rerun of the shows every night.

When I told my friend Gayle about this, she laughed and said: "Now you are officially in two cultures: American and Chinese."

Back in high school, I watched TV shows to learn English and the American culture. We were under the misconception that TV shows and movies were the real representation of what American life was - which explains why new immigrants' views about America is very likely to be skewed.

My favorite show was: "Third Rock from The Sun". It was a show about a group of aliens landed on earth, pretended to be a family, and lived amongst people. They were finding out all kinds of strange things and behaviors that people do. I found it fascinating that someone knew exactly how I felt to live here, and actually made a TV show about it.

The next show I enjoyed was "Friends". Who didn't like "Friends"? I mainly enjoyed watching cute girls and handsome guys, but didn't pay too much attention about the plots. But I never enjoyed "Seinfeld". I couldn't take Seinfeld's New Yorker humor and the loud and obnoxiousness of Elaine and George.

What I learn from the dogs

The benefit of being a dog owner, above all the usual suspects such as: loyalty and companionship, is there are 3 things I can learn from my dogs.

1. Go after what he wants
In order to get his bone or scratch on the belly, he will do anything: he will play tricks, whine, let you pet him, look at you with his droopy puppy eyes while leaning his head on your chest. And believe me, it works every time.

2. Live here, now
Enjoy every moment of life. Enjoy the food they eat, the treats they get, and the moment they are let out of the house.

3. No bad feelings
Dogs don't hold grudges. No matter how late you get home, they are always happy to see you, and give you the welcome dance for 5 minutes. They can be whining and scratching behind the door to get your attention, but when you open the door, they are always happy to see you and ready to play.

These are the things I learn from my dogs, and they are wonderful traits that I need to be reminded once in a while.

Our dogs

My golden retriever Jake is better looking than any other golden, even better looking then the one on the large milk bone box. I am not kidding! My female, Amy? She is the feisty one.

The dogs go in the back seat of the SUV when we go out for a ride. We leave the windows opened so that they can look out the window and "drink the wind". They would shuffle around in the back, exchanging places with each other while panting with excitement. In our car, Jake is truly the head-turner. Sometimes both of them stick their heads out of the same window, and they bring a smile to the passers-by.

It is as if Amy is saying: "come look at this handsome and fluffy male golden, and I'll bite your head off.'"

Entertaining the TV

While Jack went on a business trip, I realized how lonely it is living by myself. I got home, locked the door, turned on the TV and browsed through the channels. Last night there were 2 programs on public TV about Steve Jobs, so I watched both of them while eating dinner. All of my plans about playing with the dogs or reading a good book, and doing some yoga was out the window once I was drawn to the TV.

Sometimes it is hard to say if we are entertaining the TV or being entertained by the TV.