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.