- Swedish researchers said drinking 6 (or is it 4?) cups of coffee or more will have a lot of benefits to the body, range from good for cardiovascular health, high in antioxidant, to even extend lifespan. From the book "The Girl with Dragon Tattoo," I learned that Swedish drink coffee all day long. I was amused by sentences like this throughout the book: "[It was 3 AM], Michael made himself a pot of coffee."
- Indian researches found lots of health benefit of turmeric intake, including high in antioxidant, cancer fighting, etc.
- Italian researches found lots of health benefit of drinking red wine, such as cardiovascular health.
- Chinese researchers found health benefit of eating white rice.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Researches said
Various researches from different countries found lots of health benefits on the following food intake. (Excuse me for not able to quote the exact researches.)
Love
Last year I wrote some posts on how to help relieve muscle pains, and here is an example: http://finewaves.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-human-head-is-weight-of-bowling-ball.html. Recently I was talking to a colleague who was also facing the same issue of neck and shoulder pain, and needed some advices. Just when I was going to refer her to my blog post, I realized there were some additional points which could be added to make it a little more complete.
First of all, severe muscle pains don't develop overnight, but it is likely to be built up over a long period of time with poor postures, lack of stretching and strengthening, or intense physical demands. Though intense pain could be aggregated by certain sudden events.
It is our body, so it is our job to love it, cherish it and take care of it. Therefore the first thing to do is, love your achy physical body, for it is the only one you have for this life, so pledge to take care of it from this point on, and do not neglect its well-being ever again. Just remember, no matter how bad you may feel right now, it will only get worse as you grow older, if you don't start to take care of it now.
Secondly, if the muscle pain is quite severe, it is hard to work out the tightness by stretching, so I would recommend to get a good massage. You can also try using devices such as foam roller or ma roller to do self massage, but you must know how to use them properly, and trust that they work even though it may take time.
Thirdly, apply heat therapy on achy muscles periodically will help relieve the pain. Do up to 15 minutes for twice a week. More if you want to pamper yourself.
Finally, develop a routine to stretch your muscles and stick with it. Find useful stretching postures, and use them for different kind of muscle pain. For neck and shoulder pain, you can start with stretches I showed in the link above, and you are always welcome to develop your own.
Well, I often say: nobody said life was easy. That's why I said the first thing to do is love your own body, once we established that, you will be able to start the journey of healing yourself by using the tips I provided above.
First of all, severe muscle pains don't develop overnight, but it is likely to be built up over a long period of time with poor postures, lack of stretching and strengthening, or intense physical demands. Though intense pain could be aggregated by certain sudden events.
It is our body, so it is our job to love it, cherish it and take care of it. Therefore the first thing to do is, love your achy physical body, for it is the only one you have for this life, so pledge to take care of it from this point on, and do not neglect its well-being ever again. Just remember, no matter how bad you may feel right now, it will only get worse as you grow older, if you don't start to take care of it now.
Secondly, if the muscle pain is quite severe, it is hard to work out the tightness by stretching, so I would recommend to get a good massage. You can also try using devices such as foam roller or ma roller to do self massage, but you must know how to use them properly, and trust that they work even though it may take time.
Thirdly, apply heat therapy on achy muscles periodically will help relieve the pain. Do up to 15 minutes for twice a week. More if you want to pamper yourself.
Finally, develop a routine to stretch your muscles and stick with it. Find useful stretching postures, and use them for different kind of muscle pain. For neck and shoulder pain, you can start with stretches I showed in the link above, and you are always welcome to develop your own.
Well, I often say: nobody said life was easy. That's why I said the first thing to do is love your own body, once we established that, you will be able to start the journey of healing yourself by using the tips I provided above.
Walk and chew gum
How is the saying go? "One cannot walk and chew gum at the same time." Recently I was thinking about this saying and was slightly confused. Is it "talk and chew gum," or "walk and chew gum?"
I thought, how could it be? Everyone can walk and chew gum at the same time. What's the point of that saying? If one cannot walk and chew gum at the same time, that person must be pretty uncoordinated, wouldn't you say?
As far as I know, people nowadays not only can walk and chew gum, but also can walk and talk and chew gum while texting and gaming at the same time. In restaurants, public transportations, parks and streets, we see people, walking or sitting, immerse themselves in their devices like zombies, as if the rest of the world doesn't exist.
Electronic gadgets are ruining people and their lives as we speak. Handheld devices and gaming consoles enable and encourage people of all ages to mindlessly shut out the the world and the people around them. Deeply attached to the manmade devices, pseudo social update snippets, and virtual reality games, those people behave like dull machines.
If nobody tells you so, then let me be the first one to say that such behavior in public is offensive and rude. Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it's right. Likewise, just because you can do it doesn't mean it's a good thing to do. Parents, take up the responsibility to teach your children the right behaviors right now, otherwise they will be spanked by the society sooner and later.
I thought, how could it be? Everyone can walk and chew gum at the same time. What's the point of that saying? If one cannot walk and chew gum at the same time, that person must be pretty uncoordinated, wouldn't you say?
As far as I know, people nowadays not only can walk and chew gum, but also can walk and talk and chew gum while texting and gaming at the same time. In restaurants, public transportations, parks and streets, we see people, walking or sitting, immerse themselves in their devices like zombies, as if the rest of the world doesn't exist.
Electronic gadgets are ruining people and their lives as we speak. Handheld devices and gaming consoles enable and encourage people of all ages to mindlessly shut out the the world and the people around them. Deeply attached to the manmade devices, pseudo social update snippets, and virtual reality games, those people behave like dull machines.
If nobody tells you so, then let me be the first one to say that such behavior in public is offensive and rude. Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it's right. Likewise, just because you can do it doesn't mean it's a good thing to do. Parents, take up the responsibility to teach your children the right behaviors right now, otherwise they will be spanked by the society sooner and later.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
The blue screen of death
One morning Jack sent me an email which I read in bed, saying: "I'm sorry but this morning I found your computer had the blue screen of death. I don't know what's wrong with it and what caused it."
I was like, great, so it begins my journey with a clunky PC. I know once you start getting it, you'll get it often, and sometimes you have to get your hard disk replaced or even replace the whole machine.
If you don't know what it is, then you are lucky. It's just when your Windows computer all of a sudden crashed, and it shows a blue screen with some text on the screen saying something like this: there is something wrong with the computer, it could be caused by newly installed hardware or software, but it didn't know the cause. You can restart the computer from safe mode, and figure out what the problem is. What is the safe mode anyway?
Since that first time, I have had the blue screen of death 2 other times within weeks. I think leaving the machine on over night with Eclipse, Lotus notes, Lotus Symphony and Microsoft Excel running is not a good idea.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Silence and reflection
Today I have a rare moment of free time after doing the dishes. I pull out my Yoga notebook and text to do some reading, while U2's Joshua Tree playing on my iPhone. The sun is shining this morning, and we all know we are expecting rain to start again later today, so we will go out later to enjoy the nice sunny day between the storms.
I read these notes I took from my silence retreat last June, and they bring back warm memories of my second silence retreat with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar from the Art of Living Foundation. I'm inspired.
Let me first talk a little about the state of silence. Many things were said about silence, e.g. from the East: "Silence is golden." from the West: "Silence is like a cancer grows." (From a Simon and Garfunkel song?)
I now understand that those kinds of sayings are by no means the real representation of silence. In Yoga, one of the 8 practices are the state of withdraw or you may know it as fasting. Fasting can mean going for a period of time without food, but it can also be the practice of the absence of speech.
Our silence retreat went for 4 days. We lodge in hotels in Santa Clara walking distance from the convention center where the venue was run. We got up early in the morning to do Yoga asana and Kriya practice, then had breakfast, and then we sat for a few guided meditations a day, while having lunch and dinner together in between. At night after dinner, we had Satsang and Q&A with Sri Sri. We were also separated in groups to do service (seva), such as serving food at various meals. The event had 1000 participants, but everything was so well organized we hardly had any issues with the crowd.
All I have to say is, being in silence is really a treat. The flowers were more vibrant, the air was clearer and things around me were more positive. The mind was calmer and more opened to kindness. The simple vegetarian food was more tasty and flavorful.
So we didn't talk to nor acknowledge one another, and to my curiosity, people looked so serious. I found it humorous, since I didn't think silence means serious at all.
Based on Sri Sri, there were three types of silence:
1. Keep the mouth shut.
2. Withdraw senses, not interested in seeing, tasting, smell, etc.
3. Blissful, total satisfaction. Absolute inner contentment.
I enjoyed the Q&A with Sri Sri toward the end of the day after Satsang. Sri Sri answered questions written in pieces of indexed cards that were dropped in the basket throughout the day.
Here are some examples of the wisdoms shared:
Q: What to do when people criticize me?
A: When someone criticize you, let it bounce back, shake hands tomorrow, and you are a bigger person. Behave as if it doesn't matter to you at all.
There are two possibilities when someone criticize you:
1. Because they are attached to you. They point out your mistakes, risk friendship. They want you to be better. True friends show your flaws.
2. They are tense, ignorant, jealous. In this case, be compassionate to them. They are suffering, why be upset with them?
Q: How do I find my soul mate?
A: No soul mate because you are a bundle of thoughts, no moment of clarity and spontaneity in action.
Once you meet your soul, then you can meet anyone as your soul mate.
Every day in the evening, the basket was full of questions, and every evening he would answer a few questions from that day. In the last evening, when the basket was brought to him, Sri Sri looked at the pile of questions and said: "Again?" We laughed. He sat there holding the full basket in his lap, and asked: "Does it really matter?" He sat in silence with his head rested in his palm, and just looked around from right to left, from the front to the back of the auditorium, with his usual smile on his face and a hint of a tease.
I wondered what he was thinking. Was he upset? The the guru can't be angry. Was he searching for some jokes or wisdom to talk about? His talk yesterday was so excellent, how could he top that?
Finally after 20 minutes or so, he spoke: "This is the latest technology, all answered in silence. Come and download your answers." I laughed!
He smiled and spoke softly: "Each of you are so complete. Like the bud of the flower, just need to blossom, need silence, dispassion, contentment, clarity, spontaneity."
I read these notes I took from my silence retreat last June, and they bring back warm memories of my second silence retreat with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar from the Art of Living Foundation. I'm inspired.
Let me first talk a little about the state of silence. Many things were said about silence, e.g. from the East: "Silence is golden." from the West: "Silence is like a cancer grows." (From a Simon and Garfunkel song?)
I now understand that those kinds of sayings are by no means the real representation of silence. In Yoga, one of the 8 practices are the state of withdraw or you may know it as fasting. Fasting can mean going for a period of time without food, but it can also be the practice of the absence of speech.
Our silence retreat went for 4 days. We lodge in hotels in Santa Clara walking distance from the convention center where the venue was run. We got up early in the morning to do Yoga asana and Kriya practice, then had breakfast, and then we sat for a few guided meditations a day, while having lunch and dinner together in between. At night after dinner, we had Satsang and Q&A with Sri Sri. We were also separated in groups to do service (seva), such as serving food at various meals. The event had 1000 participants, but everything was so well organized we hardly had any issues with the crowd.
All I have to say is, being in silence is really a treat. The flowers were more vibrant, the air was clearer and things around me were more positive. The mind was calmer and more opened to kindness. The simple vegetarian food was more tasty and flavorful.
So we didn't talk to nor acknowledge one another, and to my curiosity, people looked so serious. I found it humorous, since I didn't think silence means serious at all.
Based on Sri Sri, there were three types of silence:
1. Keep the mouth shut.
2. Withdraw senses, not interested in seeing, tasting, smell, etc.
3. Blissful, total satisfaction. Absolute inner contentment.
I enjoyed the Q&A with Sri Sri toward the end of the day after Satsang. Sri Sri answered questions written in pieces of indexed cards that were dropped in the basket throughout the day.
Here are some examples of the wisdoms shared:
Q: What to do when people criticize me?
A: When someone criticize you, let it bounce back, shake hands tomorrow, and you are a bigger person. Behave as if it doesn't matter to you at all.
There are two possibilities when someone criticize you:
1. Because they are attached to you. They point out your mistakes, risk friendship. They want you to be better. True friends show your flaws.
2. They are tense, ignorant, jealous. In this case, be compassionate to them. They are suffering, why be upset with them?
Q: How do I find my soul mate?
A: No soul mate because you are a bundle of thoughts, no moment of clarity and spontaneity in action.
Once you meet your soul, then you can meet anyone as your soul mate.
Every day in the evening, the basket was full of questions, and every evening he would answer a few questions from that day. In the last evening, when the basket was brought to him, Sri Sri looked at the pile of questions and said: "Again?" We laughed. He sat there holding the full basket in his lap, and asked: "Does it really matter?" He sat in silence with his head rested in his palm, and just looked around from right to left, from the front to the back of the auditorium, with his usual smile on his face and a hint of a tease.
I wondered what he was thinking. Was he upset? The the guru can't be angry. Was he searching for some jokes or wisdom to talk about? His talk yesterday was so excellent, how could he top that?
Finally after 20 minutes or so, he spoke: "This is the latest technology, all answered in silence. Come and download your answers." I laughed!
He smiled and spoke softly: "Each of you are so complete. Like the bud of the flower, just need to blossom, need silence, dispassion, contentment, clarity, spontaneity."
Friday, December 12, 2014
Year-end specials on TV
Last weekend Jack and I went to his colleague's house warming party for a couple who just moved to the states from Europe. I was talking to the nice hostess about everything from household items to her career. She told me they were in the market to buy a new car, so I told her I saw a lot of car advertisements on TV showing many manufacturers have the biggest sales of the year now.
"Toyota, Volkswagen." I enumerated, feeling slightly self conscious about speaking for those companies.
Let me add a little context, it was our tradition to watch Christmas movies starting the beginning of December. We happily watched the first two "Santa Clause" movies that week.
The week after the party, we continued to watch the recorded "Santa Clause III," when I had a discovery in the middle of the movie, and I started laughing.
"You know, I told Ms. A that so many TV advertisements were showing car sales for the end of the year. But I got the idea from watching movies with advertisements recorded LAST YEAR! Oops, it seems like I gave my new friend last year's information."
So for the whole week, I paid special attention to the real time Colbert Reports just to confirm that indeed car companies are still having year-end specials, and I updated Ms. A the whole story yesterday when I met her in a holiday party.
I wonder if I'm the only one who has so many goofy stories to tell, but this one is pretty funny and very "Ying."
"Toyota, Volkswagen." I enumerated, feeling slightly self conscious about speaking for those companies.
Let me add a little context, it was our tradition to watch Christmas movies starting the beginning of December. We happily watched the first two "Santa Clause" movies that week.
The week after the party, we continued to watch the recorded "Santa Clause III," when I had a discovery in the middle of the movie, and I started laughing.
"You know, I told Ms. A that so many TV advertisements were showing car sales for the end of the year. But I got the idea from watching movies with advertisements recorded LAST YEAR! Oops, it seems like I gave my new friend last year's information."
So for the whole week, I paid special attention to the real time Colbert Reports just to confirm that indeed car companies are still having year-end specials, and I updated Ms. A the whole story yesterday when I met her in a holiday party.
I wonder if I'm the only one who has so many goofy stories to tell, but this one is pretty funny and very "Ying."
Publish yourself
Since the dawn of social media, lots of experts surfaced to share their advices online. Facebook, LinkedIn, pinterest and youtube (just to name a few) were flooded with constant updates.
In the good old days, you read news from newspapers, but nowadays you find news from Facebook or you read news from blogs of reputable publication agencies. I personally don't equate blogs as news. Blogs are opinions or simply personal experiences, but news are facts without bias.
It is becoming essential for one to read everything online with a grain of salt.
Information is power, or is it? We are being forced to look at every aspect of our lives with a microscope. Do this, but don't do that. Is information helping us to be smarter, or are we being forced into a corner with less and less choices and more fears?
Worse yet, some people's ego-feast can consume your precious time and energy, which can be better spent elsewhere.
If you ask me, the internet brings more harm than good, but the chaos is unstoppable. It depends on the person to manage and control the mess of information that is coming through.
In the good old days, you read news from newspapers, but nowadays you find news from Facebook or you read news from blogs of reputable publication agencies. I personally don't equate blogs as news. Blogs are opinions or simply personal experiences, but news are facts without bias.
It is becoming essential for one to read everything online with a grain of salt.
Information is power, or is it? We are being forced to look at every aspect of our lives with a microscope. Do this, but don't do that. Is information helping us to be smarter, or are we being forced into a corner with less and less choices and more fears?
Worse yet, some people's ego-feast can consume your precious time and energy, which can be better spent elsewhere.
If you ask me, the internet brings more harm than good, but the chaos is unstoppable. It depends on the person to manage and control the mess of information that is coming through.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Cooking with ChefWatson
Last week I was invited to be a beta tester of Chef Watson. Here are some articles about Chef Watson: http://www.bonappetit.com/tag/chef-watson.
The idea is, you put in ingredients of your choice and type of dish (e.g. Italian, Mexican), the cognitive computing application (Chef Watson) will search through recipes database and create a recipe recommendation for you based on its analysis of food chemistry, which could be different from the conventional cooking methods or ingredients.
So I searched: chicken, potato, broccoli, and it gave me about 5 choices. I found one which I have all/most of the ingredients, and cooked it for dinner. I didn't have saffron, but I decided to skip it.
Here is the recipe for New Year's Day Broccoli Potato Chicken Tagine.
All in all it was a pleasant experience.
The idea is, you put in ingredients of your choice and type of dish (e.g. Italian, Mexican), the cognitive computing application (Chef Watson) will search through recipes database and create a recipe recommendation for you based on its analysis of food chemistry, which could be different from the conventional cooking methods or ingredients.
So I searched: chicken, potato, broccoli, and it gave me about 5 choices. I found one which I have all/most of the ingredients, and cooked it for dinner. I didn't have saffron, but I decided to skip it.
Here is the recipe for New Year's Day Broccoli Potato Chicken Tagine.
I had no idea what a tagine is, nor did I know if the dish would be edible when I started cooking. See, that's what I call have faith and being adventurous.
I followed the recipe. First, I put the chicken, chopped onion, water in my earthen pot. I started to feel uneasy when I put in 1 1/4 tbs ground cardamon, 3 tsp ground black pepper, 4 tsp ground ginger and 1/2 oz of ground cinnamon. That's a lot of spice, I thought. I had no idea how this kind of mixture would taste, and I could totally destroy our dinner.
While the chicken was being cooked with the spice and onion, I chopped potatoes and broccoli. Then I was worried again, as there were a lot of potatoes and broccoli, and my pot wasn't big enough for everything. So I had to transfer the food into a big soup pot. Note, the direction did say: "heavy large pot."
When in doubt, search the internet, right? I looked up tagine online to found this link to another recipe to chicken tagine, and it was a little reassuring. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/chicken-tagine-recipe.html
I just let the food cook and followed the recipe the rest of the way. Two hours later, I had my finished product.
When Jack came home, he wasn't pleased to know that I cooked a dish based on Watson's recommendation. For an AI guy as he is, he thinks ChefWatson was bogus. I made brown rice to go with it. The combination could become an unpleasant dinner, and dinner is very important for this household.
"Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine. The food taste pretty good, actually." I said, while promised to keep ChefWatson's creativity off the Thanksgiving dinner menu.
My dish came out better than I expected. I was happy to have made this totally foreign dish and enjoyed the wholesome spice. In addition, most of the ingredients are cancer fighting: cardamom, chicken, broccoli, ginger, pepper.
If I were to cook it again, I would make the following modifications:
- chop potato in large pieces.
- since boneless chicken is used, I can shorten the cooking time.
- broccoli can be put in later so it's not overcooked.
- broccoli can be replaced by Brussels sprouts, or even add daikon. I like daikon.
- use ground cardamon instead of whole cardamon to avoid the cardamon seeds.
All in all it was a pleasant experience.
Monday, November 24, 2014
All I can remember about American Hustle
American Hustle had been playing repeatedly on TV for a couple of months, but we never had the motivation to watch it, because it was an Oscar nominated movie, which meant it had the potential to be super dramatic. And we don't need drama.
When I finally got to watch it last week in a stormy morning, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It was a crime movie minus the depressing drama, and replaced it with interesting characteristics plus humorous dialogues. There is also a good selection 70's classical songs, which made it super classy.
Like all other criminal movies and dramas, we tried to make sure we watch them during the day instead of in the evening, so it wouldn't impact our sleep. To some, it is not an issue.
I happily recommended the movie to Jack, and we watched it on Saturday morning. As expected Jack also enjoyed the movie.
One of the few things I could remember was the dialogue between Rosalyn, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Irving, played by Christian Bale:
Rosalyn: You loved me, remember? You loved me.
Irving: I loved you because I thought you were mysterious, but then I found out you were just depressed.
The casting of Jennifer Lawrence was excellent, because she was the youngest, most beautiful, and her superb outshone all of her co-stars.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Wolverine v X-Men
Last week we watched X-Men, Days of Future's Past, on Wednesday evening, then watched The Wolverine on Friday evening. They both came from the X-Men blu-ray pack.
By the time we watched The Wolverine, I have totally forgotten the story line of the X-Men movie. All I remember was, I enjoyed X-Men.
I couldn't say the same thing about The Wolverine. I really don't like the fact that just because he could heal himself quickly, so people keep trying to kill him or blast him into pieces. What kind of life is that? Unfortunately, for Logan, it was an immortal life, which made it even more sad.
What kind of sick person would try to get the power from the person who saved him from nuclear bomb explosion, and said: "I know you lived a long and painful life, and I can give you a chance to die a normal person's death, to end all of this. And in return, I will take your powers from you." What is this sick and twisted logic?
All I can say is, The Wolverine is not a movie for me. It's too violent and bloody.
Yesterday, Jack and I were both trying to piece together which story happened before the other, and we decided The Wolverine happened before X-Men, Days of Future's Past, although we weren't exactly sure. I kept saying, but Logan lost his adamantium claws in The Wolverine, though. Did he have his adamantium claws in the X-Men movie? We couldn't be sure. Then Jack had a discovery, well, in X-Men, Logan went back to 1975, and then he changed the future since then so maybe that's why he had his claws.
Finally we both laughed. Some silly screenplay making things so confusing, and we spent our nice weekend figuring things out. Maybe someone just made a series of mistakes in the scripts to make a quick buck.
Shortly after, we dropped the topic.
By the time we watched The Wolverine, I have totally forgotten the story line of the X-Men movie. All I remember was, I enjoyed X-Men.
I couldn't say the same thing about The Wolverine. I really don't like the fact that just because he could heal himself quickly, so people keep trying to kill him or blast him into pieces. What kind of life is that? Unfortunately, for Logan, it was an immortal life, which made it even more sad.
What kind of sick person would try to get the power from the person who saved him from nuclear bomb explosion, and said: "I know you lived a long and painful life, and I can give you a chance to die a normal person's death, to end all of this. And in return, I will take your powers from you." What is this sick and twisted logic?
All I can say is, The Wolverine is not a movie for me. It's too violent and bloody.
Yesterday, Jack and I were both trying to piece together which story happened before the other, and we decided The Wolverine happened before X-Men, Days of Future's Past, although we weren't exactly sure. I kept saying, but Logan lost his adamantium claws in The Wolverine, though. Did he have his adamantium claws in the X-Men movie? We couldn't be sure. Then Jack had a discovery, well, in X-Men, Logan went back to 1975, and then he changed the future since then so maybe that's why he had his claws.
Finally we both laughed. Some silly screenplay making things so confusing, and we spent our nice weekend figuring things out. Maybe someone just made a series of mistakes in the scripts to make a quick buck.
Shortly after, we dropped the topic.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Laughed twice
Y: Actually, even though the newer Big Bang episodes are not as funny as the first few seasons, they are still pretty funny compare to other sitcoms.
J: Yes, I laughed twice in last week's episode.
J: Yes, I laughed twice in last week's episode.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
What's for dinner?
Last night we wanted to go out for dinner, but couldn't decide where to go, so we kept asking each other: "What's for dinner?"
At Smart & Final when we talked about it, Jack said, "well, I don't want to have Cantonese food or Italian food. The choices can be Indian food or Sichuan."
I said "OK. Or Sushi."
Then we kept thinking while going for other errands.
At Petsmart, I said, "well, I don't really want to have Indian food nor Sichuan."
"Oh, now you are making it difficult." Jack said. I smiled.
When we were done with all the errands, we were both hungry. I told Jack we should go for dinner before I start eating snacks, and I suggested that we could go to Korean tofu house. Jack agreed. It was a good compromise to the expensive Sushi, and the cool weather was suitable for hot soup.
When we got to the restaurant it was only around 5 PM, though it was already dark and chilly. We saw a lot of people waiting at the door, so we were a little worried. Luckily the people who were waiting had big parties, and there were still empty tables in the restaurant. I put our name done for 2, and we waited. The staff were doing their best to prepare the tables for dinner rush. We didn't need to wait for long to be seated.
I really enjoyed my tofu soup with pork dumplings, as well as all the small dishes that accompanied the meal: kim chi, various marinated vegetables and seaweed. I also watched the waitresses dashing around from table to table. The patrons were mostly Asian families.
While enjoying dinner, I was marveling how lucky we were living in an area where there were so many choices of ethnic foods for our picky taste buds. "Is it not like this everywhere else?" Jack asked. Actually no. I recalled, the very first time I had Korean food, I was in Austin, so as Indian food to think of it. I guess Austin was an interesting diverse town. But elsewhere is not so much. For instance, one of my coworkers said there was no decent Indian food in Portland where he lived.
When we left the restaurant, it was a full house, and there were people waiting.
At Smart & Final when we talked about it, Jack said, "well, I don't want to have Cantonese food or Italian food. The choices can be Indian food or Sichuan."
I said "OK. Or Sushi."
Then we kept thinking while going for other errands.
At Petsmart, I said, "well, I don't really want to have Indian food nor Sichuan."
"Oh, now you are making it difficult." Jack said. I smiled.
When we were done with all the errands, we were both hungry. I told Jack we should go for dinner before I start eating snacks, and I suggested that we could go to Korean tofu house. Jack agreed. It was a good compromise to the expensive Sushi, and the cool weather was suitable for hot soup.
When we got to the restaurant it was only around 5 PM, though it was already dark and chilly. We saw a lot of people waiting at the door, so we were a little worried. Luckily the people who were waiting had big parties, and there were still empty tables in the restaurant. I put our name done for 2, and we waited. The staff were doing their best to prepare the tables for dinner rush. We didn't need to wait for long to be seated.
I really enjoyed my tofu soup with pork dumplings, as well as all the small dishes that accompanied the meal: kim chi, various marinated vegetables and seaweed. I also watched the waitresses dashing around from table to table. The patrons were mostly Asian families.
While enjoying dinner, I was marveling how lucky we were living in an area where there were so many choices of ethnic foods for our picky taste buds. "Is it not like this everywhere else?" Jack asked. Actually no. I recalled, the very first time I had Korean food, I was in Austin, so as Indian food to think of it. I guess Austin was an interesting diverse town. But elsewhere is not so much. For instance, one of my coworkers said there was no decent Indian food in Portland where he lived.
When we left the restaurant, it was a full house, and there were people waiting.
Caffe Mezza Luna
After a lazy start this morning, I managed to convince Jack to go to Caffe Mezza Luna for brunch.
There was some sun in the morning, and it was especially comfortable. The cafe is located in the Harbor village, around the harbor, of course. We stopped by the bakery stand at the farmer's market at the parking lot just to wet our appetite.
When we got to the cafe, there was a long line, and I was a little worried that Jack would become impatient and wanted to go. But there wasn't any time sensitive activities we had in plan, so we stayed.
Jack told me what he wanted, then went to take a seat and I waited in line to make order. The pastries at the display looked so yummy. It was good that it was a bit of a wait before I got to order, so that I had enough time to make up my mind about what I want.
At the cashier, I ordered the two egg over easy with bacon, quiche, tiramisu and a pumkin spice latte. I got a number and my tiramisu, then went to our table. It was a nice day, and a lot of people chose to sit at the patio, so there were plenty of tables for everyone. I enjoyed looking out the window, at the people waiting outside of the other restaurant, Flavor California Comfort Food, and Jack enjoyed watching the Niners game on TV.
We waited a little, and our food came. I really enjoyed my quiche, as it was SO fluffy and light. The salad was OK. Jack was OK about his breakfast. He said the eggs were just the way he liked it, bacon was delicious and the toast was good. The latte was delicious and it was not too sweet. We ate the tiramisu last, and it was a little too sweet for me, but I think it would be better with some coffee.
I'm glad we went there for brunch in this nice morning. I can still feel quite relaxed. I would call this cafe a local charm.
There was some sun in the morning, and it was especially comfortable. The cafe is located in the Harbor village, around the harbor, of course. We stopped by the bakery stand at the farmer's market at the parking lot just to wet our appetite.
When we got to the cafe, there was a long line, and I was a little worried that Jack would become impatient and wanted to go. But there wasn't any time sensitive activities we had in plan, so we stayed.
Jack told me what he wanted, then went to take a seat and I waited in line to make order. The pastries at the display looked so yummy. It was good that it was a bit of a wait before I got to order, so that I had enough time to make up my mind about what I want.
At the cashier, I ordered the two egg over easy with bacon, quiche, tiramisu and a pumkin spice latte. I got a number and my tiramisu, then went to our table. It was a nice day, and a lot of people chose to sit at the patio, so there were plenty of tables for everyone. I enjoyed looking out the window, at the people waiting outside of the other restaurant, Flavor California Comfort Food, and Jack enjoyed watching the Niners game on TV.
We waited a little, and our food came. I really enjoyed my quiche, as it was SO fluffy and light. The salad was OK. Jack was OK about his breakfast. He said the eggs were just the way he liked it, bacon was delicious and the toast was good. The latte was delicious and it was not too sweet. We ate the tiramisu last, and it was a little too sweet for me, but I think it would be better with some coffee.
I'm glad we went there for brunch in this nice morning. I can still feel quite relaxed. I would call this cafe a local charm.
Digital evolution
Aaa, Sunday morning, people used to read newspaper over breakfast, or like Jack and I, bouncing interesting ideas off of each other over coffee. And now what do we do? Each of us having an iPad and separately dwelling deep into the cyber space. I really miss the good old days.
Jack spent an hour looking for a heavy duty tool to move big logs from one place to another for a land preservation project. It makes me think. With the rate the eCommerce grows, what's going to happen to the retail stores. Sadly, some of them will go out of business. And what's going to happen to the vacant spaces? Perhaps more new restaurants, or yoga studios.
Jack spent an hour looking for a heavy duty tool to move big logs from one place to another for a land preservation project. It makes me think. With the rate the eCommerce grows, what's going to happen to the retail stores. Sadly, some of them will go out of business. And what's going to happen to the vacant spaces? Perhaps more new restaurants, or yoga studios.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
European wax
We drove by a shopping area with different kinds of shops.
J: What is European wax?
Y: It's a way to remove body hair.
J: Oh, I thought it was a kind of car wax.
Y: Haha, I don't think so.
J: What is European wax?
Y: It's a way to remove body hair.
J: Oh, I thought it was a kind of car wax.
Y: Haha, I don't think so.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Run for fun or run to win
Amy and Jake are very different dogs, even though they live together all Jake's life. From these two, I learned that every dog is different.
While Amy eats everything, all the food in her bowl and what he splashes around, Jake is selective, and he spits things out if he doesn't like them, such as pretzels or banana. He eats slower, and stops when he is full. He leaves the food in the bowl for later.
Even though Amy is nine and a half years old, and 4 years older than Jake, Amy still out runs Jake, and when Amy runs after the ball, whether it is in the water or on land, Jake would give up running after it, and roll around in the mud instead. Half of the time, we hold Amy back, and let Jake have a head start on fetching, then let Amy go after Jake is 100 feet away. When he runs or swims, he is more relaxed and well paced, while Amy is more rush and aim to reach the ball first.
We concluded that Jake runs for fun, and Amy runs to win.
I figured, if you are born to be one type, you cannot live any other way.
Happy or sad
Once a while I listen to CDs while driving. I have Train, Lady Gaga, Music and Lyrics sound track, and a few Chinese CDs.
I have a CD that is a concert of this Taiwan singer, and he sings the sweetest love songs. With a beautiful clear voice, he was crowned prince of love songs in Taiwan. I really liked to play his songs, because they made me haopy... well, until I couldn't stop singing these songs in my head.
I have two other CDs from two female singers, one from Hong Kong, and the other from Singapore, and they both sang sad, sad breakup songs. The depressing songs weren't great, and I only played their songs for sentimental reasons.
Comedies or love songs can bring people happiness, and sad breakup songs can really put people in a sad frame of mind.
The good thing is, we have choices of what to listen to and what to watch based on our taste and the moment. Just remember, when it doesn't work for you anymore, you can always turn it off or change the station.
I have a CD that is a concert of this Taiwan singer, and he sings the sweetest love songs. With a beautiful clear voice, he was crowned prince of love songs in Taiwan. I really liked to play his songs, because they made me haopy... well, until I couldn't stop singing these songs in my head.
I have two other CDs from two female singers, one from Hong Kong, and the other from Singapore, and they both sang sad, sad breakup songs. The depressing songs weren't great, and I only played their songs for sentimental reasons.
Comedies or love songs can bring people happiness, and sad breakup songs can really put people in a sad frame of mind.
The good thing is, we have choices of what to listen to and what to watch based on our taste and the moment. Just remember, when it doesn't work for you anymore, you can always turn it off or change the station.
Follow the leader
Has it ever happened to you when you drove in a strange neighborhood, slightly lost, and wished the car in front of you were going to the same place, so you could just followed him? Being a poor navigator, I hate to get lost, so GPS is my best friend, because it helps me get un-lost.
My mom used to tease me that GPS is my blind man's stick. I once drove my mom around Kauai with the help of GPS, and impressively found our way back to the hotel every night.
One Election Day a few years ago, Jack and I left home early and drove separately to the polling place because we were going to drive to work afterwards. As per usual, I followed Jack's car and turned right into the street past the gas station, then turned left, following the grey SUV. Still following the grey SUV, I turned right into the auto shop, and that's when I realized the car I had been following was someone else. I had no idea when I lost Jack. Exiting the auto shop parking lot, I was on my own.
Fortunately, I could remember to turn right on the next street to find the community center where the polling place was. Jack laughed when he found out what happened to me.
Following the wrong person could have been much worse than what happened to me that day.
My mom used to tease me that GPS is my blind man's stick. I once drove my mom around Kauai with the help of GPS, and impressively found our way back to the hotel every night.
One Election Day a few years ago, Jack and I left home early and drove separately to the polling place because we were going to drive to work afterwards. As per usual, I followed Jack's car and turned right into the street past the gas station, then turned left, following the grey SUV. Still following the grey SUV, I turned right into the auto shop, and that's when I realized the car I had been following was someone else. I had no idea when I lost Jack. Exiting the auto shop parking lot, I was on my own.
Fortunately, I could remember to turn right on the next street to find the community center where the polling place was. Jack laughed when he found out what happened to me.
Following the wrong person could have been much worse than what happened to me that day.
Friday, October 24, 2014
My Saturday with AT&T and Apple - part II
With Apple
Jack dropped me off at the mall in which the closest Apple store was located. We planned to have me camp out there all day if needed to resolve my iPhone blank screen issue.
The Apple store was not particularly crowded as it was still relatively early as far as malls were concerned. I walked up to the first unoccupied blue-shirt store agent (?) and explained the issue with my iPhone. When he heard that I didn't make an appointment, he directed me to talk to Ms. C. standing in the middle of the store, who was surrounded by a crowd. I didn't have to wait for too long to talk to Ms. C. Of course I had to explain the issue to her again. She searched the calendar and asked if I could stay in the store until 12:50, because that was the first available time slot. I said sure, it was only 45 minutes away, and I had the whole day. She put my name down and asked me to wait at a particular bench in the next row marked "Genius Bar."
I happily read my book with my iPad.
Not too long later an Apple genius greeted me. He seemed technical and respectable, and I didn't get his name. After checking, he carefully evaluated the phone, tried a few things, then said he needed to take it back to have a technician run some troubleshooting on it. But first I had to turn off the "find my iPhone" app. He left me alone to set and reset my iCloud password, I was in panic mode, cause I never remember my iCloud and iTunes passwords. Finally after 30 minutes of struggling, I did it. The genius came back and successfully turn off "find my iPhone" from his computer. He told me to come back after 30 minutes. I asked: "What do I do when I come back? How do I let you know I'm here?" He asked me to talk to Ms. C. know when I came back to the store.
I left and shopped around at the mall a little, then I came back to the Apple store. I announced myself to Ms. C. She then asked me to go to the back of the store and wait at the bench there. I went to the back and find another "Genius Bar." So I continued my reading there.
15 minutes later another genius came back with my phone and a box. He explained that they tried replaced the screen twice but it didn't work, so they decided it's broken, and they would replace my phone. It was easy as that, I was relieved. The genius also reassured to me three times that the data on my old phone was not backed up anywhere by them; the old phone was wiped, and to be recycled.
This friendly genius started helping setup the new iPhone 5S, but then I got stuck yet again on the iCloud backup. After failing a few times, I bet he wished that I would just disappeared. I got the clue and said I would do backup later when I got home. I thanked him for his assistance, and left.
It was close to 2 o'clock, and I was starved. I went to have a nice lunch as Nordstrom cafe and continue to read my book there until Jack came back to pick me up.
So, not too bad after all, but I still haven't figured out my passwords.
Jack dropped me off at the mall in which the closest Apple store was located. We planned to have me camp out there all day if needed to resolve my iPhone blank screen issue.
The Apple store was not particularly crowded as it was still relatively early as far as malls were concerned. I walked up to the first unoccupied blue-shirt store agent (?) and explained the issue with my iPhone. When he heard that I didn't make an appointment, he directed me to talk to Ms. C. standing in the middle of the store, who was surrounded by a crowd. I didn't have to wait for too long to talk to Ms. C. Of course I had to explain the issue to her again. She searched the calendar and asked if I could stay in the store until 12:50, because that was the first available time slot. I said sure, it was only 45 minutes away, and I had the whole day. She put my name down and asked me to wait at a particular bench in the next row marked "Genius Bar."
I happily read my book with my iPad.
Not too long later an Apple genius greeted me. He seemed technical and respectable, and I didn't get his name. After checking, he carefully evaluated the phone, tried a few things, then said he needed to take it back to have a technician run some troubleshooting on it. But first I had to turn off the "find my iPhone" app. He left me alone to set and reset my iCloud password, I was in panic mode, cause I never remember my iCloud and iTunes passwords. Finally after 30 minutes of struggling, I did it. The genius came back and successfully turn off "find my iPhone" from his computer. He told me to come back after 30 minutes. I asked: "What do I do when I come back? How do I let you know I'm here?" He asked me to talk to Ms. C. know when I came back to the store.
I left and shopped around at the mall a little, then I came back to the Apple store. I announced myself to Ms. C. She then asked me to go to the back of the store and wait at the bench there. I went to the back and find another "Genius Bar." So I continued my reading there.
15 minutes later another genius came back with my phone and a box. He explained that they tried replaced the screen twice but it didn't work, so they decided it's broken, and they would replace my phone. It was easy as that, I was relieved. The genius also reassured to me three times that the data on my old phone was not backed up anywhere by them; the old phone was wiped, and to be recycled.
This friendly genius started helping setup the new iPhone 5S, but then I got stuck yet again on the iCloud backup. After failing a few times, I bet he wished that I would just disappeared. I got the clue and said I would do backup later when I got home. I thanked him for his assistance, and left.
It was close to 2 o'clock, and I was starved. I went to have a nice lunch as Nordstrom cafe and continue to read my book there until Jack came back to pick me up.
So, not too bad after all, but I still haven't figured out my passwords.
My Saturday with AT&T and Apple - part I
With AT&T
A couple of weeks ago, my iPhone 5S had a blank screen. I could still receive and answer phone calls, and even used Siri, but the screen was just blanked. We researched and tried many different ways, but none worked, so I had to spend a beautiful Saturday trying to fix the issue.
Leaving home earlier than usual, we first went to AT&T store. At the door, we were greeted by a very friendly and knowledgeable store manager. She patiently listened to my problem, and asked if we tried the suggested troubleshoot steps. When we said yes, she put our names down on a shiny iPad, and told us we were number 7 on the list.
We walked around the store looking at different kinds of phones and tablets. When we got bored, we took a seat around a nice counter high table, chatted and people watching. After 30 minutes, a sharp looking young man, Mr. I, came to us. We shook hands, and I explained to him my problem. He checked the phone to decide there was nothing he could do to revive it.
I explained that I was in the Next program, which entitled me a new phone every 12 months. Here came the bad news, which delivered in the kindest way possible by Mr. I. He said with the Next program I was indeed entitled a new phone upgrade, which would be 1 month away from now, but at the time I would have to return a fully functional current phone, but since my phone was not fully functional, in order to get an upgraded phone, I would have to pay off what I owe for the current phone.
Then I mentioned that I had bought AT&T insurance, would that entitle me a new phone? He said, yes, with AT&T insurance, they could give us a replacement iPhone 5S with a $199 deductible. I stared at him to see if he was joking, but he was sincere and courteous.
"I am confused," I puzzled, "didn't the $9.99 per month insurance with AT&T qualify me with a new phone when it broke?" Since I expected to walk out the door with a shiny new phone, $199 was really a bad news.
"It did qualify you with a new phone with a $199 deductible." Said Mr. I. matter-of-factly.
"I wasn't aware of any deductibles when I signed up." I frown and maintain eye contact.
"There has always been a $199 deductible for replacement with the insurance." Said the polite and well-practiced Mr. I.
"Did you know about the deductible?" I helplessly check with Jack. He shook his head and was very sympathetic.
When I was thoroughly disappointed with this conversation, Mr. I. suggested that I took the phone to Apple store and see if they could fix it. If they fixed it, then I could still do an upgrade next month and turned in a functional phone. If they couldn't fix it, then they would replace it with a new phone because my phone was still under the 1 year warranty with Apple.
"You have to go to Apple store by the 20th though, because that's when your warranty went out with Apple."
With my mind still clinging on the disappointment with AT&T, I didn't totally understand Mr. I.'s life-saving suggestion, and was still dazed about all the additional fees I have paid over the last 11 months.
Luckily, Jack understood it perfectly, and asked some more questions to ensure the plan could work, while I slowly caught up with the conversation.
"I'm sorry I'm slow about these plans, insurances and warranties with Apple and AT&T. So you are saying Apple store maybe able to fix this or give me a new phone if they couldn't?"
"No problem, I totally understand." Said Mr. I. "Yes, but you have to go to Apple store before the 20th."
We thanked him and left the store.
The corporations never lose doesn't matter how good their programs may seem, Jack and I concluded.
To be continued.
A couple of weeks ago, my iPhone 5S had a blank screen. I could still receive and answer phone calls, and even used Siri, but the screen was just blanked. We researched and tried many different ways, but none worked, so I had to spend a beautiful Saturday trying to fix the issue.
Leaving home earlier than usual, we first went to AT&T store. At the door, we were greeted by a very friendly and knowledgeable store manager. She patiently listened to my problem, and asked if we tried the suggested troubleshoot steps. When we said yes, she put our names down on a shiny iPad, and told us we were number 7 on the list.
We walked around the store looking at different kinds of phones and tablets. When we got bored, we took a seat around a nice counter high table, chatted and people watching. After 30 minutes, a sharp looking young man, Mr. I, came to us. We shook hands, and I explained to him my problem. He checked the phone to decide there was nothing he could do to revive it.
I explained that I was in the Next program, which entitled me a new phone every 12 months. Here came the bad news, which delivered in the kindest way possible by Mr. I. He said with the Next program I was indeed entitled a new phone upgrade, which would be 1 month away from now, but at the time I would have to return a fully functional current phone, but since my phone was not fully functional, in order to get an upgraded phone, I would have to pay off what I owe for the current phone.
Then I mentioned that I had bought AT&T insurance, would that entitle me a new phone? He said, yes, with AT&T insurance, they could give us a replacement iPhone 5S with a $199 deductible. I stared at him to see if he was joking, but he was sincere and courteous.
"I am confused," I puzzled, "didn't the $9.99 per month insurance with AT&T qualify me with a new phone when it broke?" Since I expected to walk out the door with a shiny new phone, $199 was really a bad news.
"It did qualify you with a new phone with a $199 deductible." Said Mr. I. matter-of-factly.
"I wasn't aware of any deductibles when I signed up." I frown and maintain eye contact.
"There has always been a $199 deductible for replacement with the insurance." Said the polite and well-practiced Mr. I.
"Did you know about the deductible?" I helplessly check with Jack. He shook his head and was very sympathetic.
When I was thoroughly disappointed with this conversation, Mr. I. suggested that I took the phone to Apple store and see if they could fix it. If they fixed it, then I could still do an upgrade next month and turned in a functional phone. If they couldn't fix it, then they would replace it with a new phone because my phone was still under the 1 year warranty with Apple.
"You have to go to Apple store by the 20th though, because that's when your warranty went out with Apple."
With my mind still clinging on the disappointment with AT&T, I didn't totally understand Mr. I.'s life-saving suggestion, and was still dazed about all the additional fees I have paid over the last 11 months.
Luckily, Jack understood it perfectly, and asked some more questions to ensure the plan could work, while I slowly caught up with the conversation.
"I'm sorry I'm slow about these plans, insurances and warranties with Apple and AT&T. So you are saying Apple store maybe able to fix this or give me a new phone if they couldn't?"
"No problem, I totally understand." Said Mr. I. "Yes, but you have to go to Apple store before the 20th."
We thanked him and left the store.
The corporations never lose doesn't matter how good their programs may seem, Jack and I concluded.
To be continued.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
New word I invented
Yesterday I was furiously coding while chatting with my co-worker on Sametime (like instant messaging) when I invented a new word:
Y: give me 1 minur
D: is that an hour or minute? lol
Y: give me 1 minur
D: is that an hour or minute? lol
Have faith
If people told you when you mix blue with yellow, you get green, do you believe it? All you need is try it out to find out.
Similarly if you were taught, two plus two is equal to four, do you believe it? It could be explained in many ways. Such as, if you have 2 apples, that is two fingers, and Tony gave you two more apples, that is adding two fingers, then how many apples do you have totally? The answer is four. Do you have to be convinced further? Initially when we learn, we have to have faith believing things work the way we were taught, and we then could learn to reason with other more complex problems out as we go.
In Yoga. If your teacher said twist poses such as twisted chair helped strengthen the muscles around the spine, and helped with digestion, and you experienced the effect of the poses over practice, would you believe it? If you do believe it, then would you know to do the poses when you have the need for it? So on and so forth.
And this is the similarity of math/science and Yoga.
Similarly if you were taught, two plus two is equal to four, do you believe it? It could be explained in many ways. Such as, if you have 2 apples, that is two fingers, and Tony gave you two more apples, that is adding two fingers, then how many apples do you have totally? The answer is four. Do you have to be convinced further? Initially when we learn, we have to have faith believing things work the way we were taught, and we then could learn to reason with other more complex problems out as we go.
In Yoga. If your teacher said twist poses such as twisted chair helped strengthen the muscles around the spine, and helped with digestion, and you experienced the effect of the poses over practice, would you believe it? If you do believe it, then would you know to do the poses when you have the need for it? So on and so forth.
And this is the similarity of math/science and Yoga.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
When there was water
Oh wait, I posted this picture last year already. But I just found it in my iPhoto, and figured out how to put it on here with difficulty, so it stays.
Go Giants!
Is it amazing or what? Giants are going to compete in the World Series again! We won in 2010 and 2012, and now there is another chance to be a champion!
This team is unstoppable.
This is what I call legendary.
This team is unstoppable.
This is what I call legendary.
Responsibile citizenship
Today we witnessed a tree falling onto the highway, almost hitting a passed by car. The 3 cars in front of us swirled to avoid hitting the tree, and Jack managed to move into the next lane to avoid it. An innocent, smallish looking cypress tree fell. I don't know why.
I called 911 to report the incident. I was being connected to the highway patrol, so I repeated my report giving her the location of the incident. The nice lady patiently listened to me, and said: "Oh, someone already reported this. Thank you very much. Have a nice day."
I was quite amazed that someone already called, when we just witnessed it and passed the location ourselves.
What was that saying? If you are being responsible for the well-being of the society, you are a citizen; if you act as a bystander, then you are a civilian. Something like that ...
Just in time for voting season.
I called 911 to report the incident. I was being connected to the highway patrol, so I repeated my report giving her the location of the incident. The nice lady patiently listened to me, and said: "Oh, someone already reported this. Thank you very much. Have a nice day."
I was quite amazed that someone already called, when we just witnessed it and passed the location ourselves.
What was that saying? If you are being responsible for the well-being of the society, you are a citizen; if you act as a bystander, then you are a civilian. Something like that ...
Just in time for voting season.
The 50 steps laughing at the 100 steps
This is a Chinese saying: "50 steps laughing at 100 steps." 以五十步笑百步
It's kind of interesting, so here's the gist of the story.
Two armies were fighting in a battle. One army defeated the other, and the soldiers of the defeated retreated. The retreated soldiers who ran away for 50 steps were laughing at the soldiers who retreated 100 steps, telling them they were cowards, because they ran away so fast.
In fact the 50 steps people were no different from the 100 steps people, because essentially they were doing the same thing.
It's kind of interesting, so here's the gist of the story.
Two armies were fighting in a battle. One army defeated the other, and the soldiers of the defeated retreated. The retreated soldiers who ran away for 50 steps were laughing at the soldiers who retreated 100 steps, telling them they were cowards, because they ran away so fast.
In fact the 50 steps people were no different from the 100 steps people, because essentially they were doing the same thing.
Dear Anonymous
Last Thursday morning I was waken by a low and beautiful alarm ring on the iPhone at 7:30 AM. I switched off the alarm, and closed my eyes, while in my mind contemplating a thousand reasons why I didn't want to get up. All of them pointed to the complex business logic yet to be coded, which had been haunting me in my sleep.
Lazily stretched in my comfortable bed, I reached for my cellphone, and started checking my emails. My eyes were brightened when I saw a new comment in email from Anonymous for my last blog post! I was very pleased to find that it was a legitimate email, v.s. phishing email, and I read one of the best compliments about my blog. It said:
You ought to be a part of a contest for one of the greatest blogs online.
I most certainly will highly recommend this blog!
Thank you, dear Anonymous, for your kind message. To be acknowledged by a reader about my blog posts brought me immense pleasure and gratitude. I was beaming that day, even though it had been a tough one.
Lazily stretched in my comfortable bed, I reached for my cellphone, and started checking my emails. My eyes were brightened when I saw a new comment in email from Anonymous for my last blog post! I was very pleased to find that it was a legitimate email, v.s. phishing email, and I read one of the best compliments about my blog. It said:
You ought to be a part of a contest for one of the greatest blogs online.
I most certainly will highly recommend this blog!
Thank you, dear Anonymous, for your kind message. To be acknowledged by a reader about my blog posts brought me immense pleasure and gratitude. I was beaming that day, even though it had been a tough one.
Friday, October 10, 2014
The importance of counting
My Yoga Teacher Training was very fruitful. There were a few basic things I learned which were beneficial to my day-to-day life. Among them was learning how to integrate stretches with my work and life, to relief stiffness and relax the mind. Believe it or not, one of the keys of doing yoga on your own, other than accuracy of the poses and building the sequences, is knowing how to count. If you don't hold the pose long enough, you may not be able to feel the effect of the practice, and you may give up on the home practice too soon.
Yes, to me, stretches and Yoga only work if the pose is held for a certain amount of time. As for how long, it varies. In the gym aerobic or body sculpt group class, some teachers count to 8, others count to 12, some others count backwards, 5, 4, 3, 2, and then 3, 2, 1, just so you hold a little longer. For Yoga poses, you can hold 5 counts to begin with, then later on hold for 1 to 2 minutes. If you are worried about how to make sure the length of each count is equal, just remember on average, 10 to 12 breaths takes 1 minute. You can see a Yoga home practice will also build your patience, because your mind can be easily distracted while doing Yoga at home.
In addition, to develop a home practice, you must allocate time in the day for the practice; build a sequence which works for you, so you can always rely on it to achieve your goal of the practice. Initially you can "borrow" your teacher's sequences, if you can remember them, then you can modify them for your own needs.
Some people just do headstand before going to bed, others do a few restorative Yoga poses. Yet others do a full practice with warm up, Sun Salutations, main sequence and cool down. If you do a practice for more than 30 minutes, I learned that it is important to finish up with a short 2-5 minutes Savasana, otherwise you can feel dizzy or queazy when you are done. The length of the Yoga practice is not as important, as long as it works for you and that you can do it everyday. Actually, it's not important that you do it everyday, as long as you know what to do when it is needed. Remember, it is a tool that works for you and your lifestyle.
The more I think about it, the more I realized how important counting is in our lives.
We count down to the new year or other important dates.
I count the throws for Jake to make sure he has enough fetching exercise in a session. That is 10 times per session, 3 sessions per day for Jake.
The healthy tooth brushing is 30 seconds per quadrant, two minutes total.
Some people count calories.
One maybe instructed to take certain medicine or do a certain regiment 2 or 3 times a day. Have a facial once every 6 weeks, a hair cut every 6 - 8 weeks, etc.
If we can't fall asleep, we count sheep.
Can you think of other examples?
Yes, to me, stretches and Yoga only work if the pose is held for a certain amount of time. As for how long, it varies. In the gym aerobic or body sculpt group class, some teachers count to 8, others count to 12, some others count backwards, 5, 4, 3, 2, and then 3, 2, 1, just so you hold a little longer. For Yoga poses, you can hold 5 counts to begin with, then later on hold for 1 to 2 minutes. If you are worried about how to make sure the length of each count is equal, just remember on average, 10 to 12 breaths takes 1 minute. You can see a Yoga home practice will also build your patience, because your mind can be easily distracted while doing Yoga at home.
In addition, to develop a home practice, you must allocate time in the day for the practice; build a sequence which works for you, so you can always rely on it to achieve your goal of the practice. Initially you can "borrow" your teacher's sequences, if you can remember them, then you can modify them for your own needs.
Some people just do headstand before going to bed, others do a few restorative Yoga poses. Yet others do a full practice with warm up, Sun Salutations, main sequence and cool down. If you do a practice for more than 30 minutes, I learned that it is important to finish up with a short 2-5 minutes Savasana, otherwise you can feel dizzy or queazy when you are done. The length of the Yoga practice is not as important, as long as it works for you and that you can do it everyday. Actually, it's not important that you do it everyday, as long as you know what to do when it is needed. Remember, it is a tool that works for you and your lifestyle.
The more I think about it, the more I realized how important counting is in our lives.
We count down to the new year or other important dates.
I count the throws for Jake to make sure he has enough fetching exercise in a session. That is 10 times per session, 3 sessions per day for Jake.
The healthy tooth brushing is 30 seconds per quadrant, two minutes total.
Some people count calories.
One maybe instructed to take certain medicine or do a certain regiment 2 or 3 times a day. Have a facial once every 6 weeks, a hair cut every 6 - 8 weeks, etc.
If we can't fall asleep, we count sheep.
Can you think of other examples?
Friday, October 3, 2014
What would the Queen do?
A few weeks ago, one of my childhood friends in China posted my high school graduation picture on wechat. When I saw it in the morning I was upset. I moped for a couple of hours, then sent her a message asking her never to do this again without my permission. She was very apologetic, but I couldn't stop thinking about it for a few days, because I felt slightly violated.
Around the same time, I heard this news from England: David Cameron was talking to someone (Bloomberg?) in private about the Queen's reaction when he told her the Scotland voting result. "She purred down the line ... I have never seen her so pleased." Said the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, this private talk was caught on tape by a TV crew, and was made known to the world.
This inevitably made a big deal in the British media considering how much people like scandals involving politicians and Royalties. BBC was talking about this incident for weeks, and finally one day, two weeks later, they said the Prime Minister would meet the Queen in person. Then they spent 30 minutes analyzing how the Prime Minister could apologized to the Queen for this mishap.
Jack thought the Prime Minister didn't do anything wrong, but people misinterpreted what he said, and made it a big deal. I thought perhaps the Prime Minister shouldn't have used the word "purr" to describe the Queen, which undercut Her status, but people definitely overreacted.
The Queen, who has been through a lot of ups and downs in her life - the wars and Diana's death for instances, would do just the right thing. Perhaps, she would smile and graciously say: "No apology is needed."
All of a sudden, I felt so much better about my little disappointment with this friend.
When you are annoyed by little things and can't shake it off, just think: "What would the Queen do?" Or in Jack's case: "What would Llywelyn Fawr do?"
Around the same time, I heard this news from England: David Cameron was talking to someone (Bloomberg?) in private about the Queen's reaction when he told her the Scotland voting result. "She purred down the line ... I have never seen her so pleased." Said the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, this private talk was caught on tape by a TV crew, and was made known to the world.
This inevitably made a big deal in the British media considering how much people like scandals involving politicians and Royalties. BBC was talking about this incident for weeks, and finally one day, two weeks later, they said the Prime Minister would meet the Queen in person. Then they spent 30 minutes analyzing how the Prime Minister could apologized to the Queen for this mishap.
Jack thought the Prime Minister didn't do anything wrong, but people misinterpreted what he said, and made it a big deal. I thought perhaps the Prime Minister shouldn't have used the word "purr" to describe the Queen, which undercut Her status, but people definitely overreacted.
The Queen, who has been through a lot of ups and downs in her life - the wars and Diana's death for instances, would do just the right thing. Perhaps, she would smile and graciously say: "No apology is needed."
All of a sudden, I felt so much better about my little disappointment with this friend.
When you are annoyed by little things and can't shake it off, just think: "What would the Queen do?" Or in Jack's case: "What would Llywelyn Fawr do?"
Let go
Jake is a playful golden retriever, and he is great at fetching. He can fetch non stop until we got tired and bored. However, sometimes he loves the ball so much that he keeps the ball in his mouth for a long time and wouldn't let it go, and his grip was so tight we couldn't pull it out of his mouth.
If he doesn't let go of the ball, how can we throw it for him so he can play?
This is simple truth which can apply to our lives.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Note to self
If you have a back pain that you can't shake off even after yoga, don't be despaired. Use the foam roller, and it may well solve your problem. First you need to keep faith.
Here is a great video on how to use the foam roller.
http://yogainternational.com/article/view/self-massage-with-foam-roller
Here is a great video on how to use the foam roller.
http://yogainternational.com/article/view/self-massage-with-foam-roller
Bossy girl, naggy wife
We made Japanese curry tonight. I cut the veggies we already have and waited for Jack to get more mushrooms from the store.
Jack got home with the mushrooms, and found me doing foam roller in the living room. I went to the kitchen with him, and watched him take the button mushrooms out of the bag.
Y: these mushrooms need to be washed.
J: I wasn't born yesterday!
Y: haha,"I'm not leaving the cage."
I picked up the piece of jalapeño on the counter and said: this piece of pepper needs major surgery.
J: I know that. Go back and do your yoga.
Y: OK.
I almost forgot that we have been living together for over 10 years now, and my man is well trained.
Weekend
I don't want this blog to become movie and book reviews, because there are tons brilliant reviewers out there. But since I switch to working from home full time, I haven't gotten much inspiration other then the movies and books.
So, tomorrow, I'm going over the hill, drive by the beaches and through the mountain roads, and hopefully I'll have some real world inspiration.
So, tomorrow, I'm going over the hill, drive by the beaches and through the mountain roads, and hopefully I'll have some real world inspiration.
Asking nicely
Last November I went to China to visit my grandmother and relatives on my mother's side. One day my older cousin, Hui, or he called himself "Chandler" based on his favorite sitcom character, which I didn't care much about, took me to tour the new hip area of Guangzhou, an old factory converted artist galleries. It was nice to have someone drive me around to experience the city, which has changed so much since I left 20 years ago.
I thanked him for taking me out for lunch and driving me to sight see, and he told me to stop thanking him, because there was no need. He observed: "You thank people a lot." And I was like, why not? That's the right thing to do.
When I first left China to come to the U.S. en-route Hong Kong, my first impression about the people of Hong Kong was on a crowded bus, people say: "excuse me"when they need to get by you on the bus. I still remember what a revelation it was to me, because that was not what we used to do in Guangzhou, though we were brought up to be polite. Let's just say we were not as verbal.
I was pleasantly amused when I heard our friend's 2-year-old daughter enthusiastically said: "more please, more please" after finishing the food in her plate, and said: "all done" when she finished.
We need to learn our magic words such thank you, please, excuse me, pardon. If you ask polite, you'll get what you want.
I thanked him for taking me out for lunch and driving me to sight see, and he told me to stop thanking him, because there was no need. He observed: "You thank people a lot." And I was like, why not? That's the right thing to do.
When I first left China to come to the U.S. en-route Hong Kong, my first impression about the people of Hong Kong was on a crowded bus, people say: "excuse me"when they need to get by you on the bus. I still remember what a revelation it was to me, because that was not what we used to do in Guangzhou, though we were brought up to be polite. Let's just say we were not as verbal.
I was pleasantly amused when I heard our friend's 2-year-old daughter enthusiastically said: "more please, more please" after finishing the food in her plate, and said: "all done" when she finished.
We need to learn our magic words such thank you, please, excuse me, pardon. If you ask polite, you'll get what you want.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
At Middleton, the movie
In case you are wondering, the way we choose movies to record on TV is nothing scientific. Once a while, I scroll through TV guide a few hours out, pick mostly comedies, our favorite actors and actresses, and based on the very short abstract shown in the guide. When I have free time, I would go and watch those movies. The selection is very random, and once a while, I do find interesting movies. I much prefer this kind of selection rather than getting recommendations from Netflix.
This movie, At Middleton, is another good find on TV. Without commenting on the mechanics of movie making, I think the story is exceedingly close to truth. It's so close to truth, it's sad and scary, especially for people that are at middle age, approaching middle age or older, which is probably most of the adult population. Hmm, thus the name "Middleton"?
A man and a woman, who apparently had nothing in common, drove his son and her daughter to Middleton for the college tour intending to have the last bonding moments with the children before they leave home. The man and the woman were separated from the tour, and after a sequence of interesting encounters and events, they found laughter in each other, and they fell in love. At the end, nothing happened; they did the "right thing" and went back to their unhappy lives. It certainly left me feeling melancholy.
This is one of the rite of passages in life, kids going off to college, and leaving parents behind (possibly) living like strangers, and wondering what happened to the last 17 years. I honestly hope this is not the case for everyone.
In modern life, it is next to impossible for a married couple to be in love for all their lives, without any kind of attractions to other people. Not only that two people came from different backgrounds, but they also could easily grow apart, and when they do, their hearts are opened for others to enter. Can't we honestly acknowledge the truth that change is life?
Yet, the law of marriage dictates married couple to remain faithful with each other "till death do us part." I just think this is totally unrealistic, hypocritical and unfair. If people are unhappy in their marriages, why can't they separate and find happiness elsewhere without being severely punished financially and emotionally?
This movie, At Middleton, is another good find on TV. Without commenting on the mechanics of movie making, I think the story is exceedingly close to truth. It's so close to truth, it's sad and scary, especially for people that are at middle age, approaching middle age or older, which is probably most of the adult population. Hmm, thus the name "Middleton"?
A man and a woman, who apparently had nothing in common, drove his son and her daughter to Middleton for the college tour intending to have the last bonding moments with the children before they leave home. The man and the woman were separated from the tour, and after a sequence of interesting encounters and events, they found laughter in each other, and they fell in love. At the end, nothing happened; they did the "right thing" and went back to their unhappy lives. It certainly left me feeling melancholy.
This is one of the rite of passages in life, kids going off to college, and leaving parents behind (possibly) living like strangers, and wondering what happened to the last 17 years. I honestly hope this is not the case for everyone.
In modern life, it is next to impossible for a married couple to be in love for all their lives, without any kind of attractions to other people. Not only that two people came from different backgrounds, but they also could easily grow apart, and when they do, their hearts are opened for others to enter. Can't we honestly acknowledge the truth that change is life?
Yet, the law of marriage dictates married couple to remain faithful with each other "till death do us part." I just think this is totally unrealistic, hypocritical and unfair. If people are unhappy in their marriages, why can't they separate and find happiness elsewhere without being severely punished financially and emotionally?
Friday, September 12, 2014
Epic
The second "Hobbit" movie was Jack's movie choice of today. The Lord of
the Rings is truly an epic story, wouldn't you say? Epic, is exactly the
word I use to describe my new favorite historic novel, Here Be Dragons!
The story took place in 1200s in England and Wales. It is a true story about King John, his bastard daughter Joan (Joanna in the book), and the Welsh prince, Llewelyn Fawr (Llewelyn the great). It was the best way to explore England and Wales in the Middle Ages, the king, the queen, their barons, their children and their enemies. The wars, schemes, and marriages between England and Wales were all told in lengthy details with superb writing.
Thus, Llewelyn became my new hero. Like the heroes in those Chinese Kung Fu legend stories, which I was so intrigued with as a teenager, I am now fascinated with this Welsh prince who not only was the great warrior and strategist who united the Welsh to fight against the English Crown, but also a great lover to his young princess, Joanna. What a story with so much ups and downs of wars, calculations, blood and love. The most amazing thing is, the dramatic story is mostly based on real people and events!
I have been researching everything Welsh, their people and features, e.g. red hair or dark skin tone, culture, the Welsh laws and genealogy. Every night we watch movie, I would curiously look up actors/actresses to see if they have Welsh ancestry. For example, Catherine Zeta Jones, Michael Sheen, Anthony Hopkins are Welsh, and Mary Steenburgen has Welsh ancestry on her mother's side. Every time I found such information, I chuckle with joy.
For a few weeks, I can say I am having a sort of "Welsh Fever". There are two other books after Dragons, but everything goes down-hill after Llewelyn the great.
One may complain that the book is too wordy, and it can be. Others may also complain that this is more of a romantic novel, and it is in some ways, but I am a girl who enjoys great romantic stories, so there you have it.
The story took place in 1200s in England and Wales. It is a true story about King John, his bastard daughter Joan (Joanna in the book), and the Welsh prince, Llewelyn Fawr (Llewelyn the great). It was the best way to explore England and Wales in the Middle Ages, the king, the queen, their barons, their children and their enemies. The wars, schemes, and marriages between England and Wales were all told in lengthy details with superb writing.
Thus, Llewelyn became my new hero. Like the heroes in those Chinese Kung Fu legend stories, which I was so intrigued with as a teenager, I am now fascinated with this Welsh prince who not only was the great warrior and strategist who united the Welsh to fight against the English Crown, but also a great lover to his young princess, Joanna. What a story with so much ups and downs of wars, calculations, blood and love. The most amazing thing is, the dramatic story is mostly based on real people and events!
I have been researching everything Welsh, their people and features, e.g. red hair or dark skin tone, culture, the Welsh laws and genealogy. Every night we watch movie, I would curiously look up actors/actresses to see if they have Welsh ancestry. For example, Catherine Zeta Jones, Michael Sheen, Anthony Hopkins are Welsh, and Mary Steenburgen has Welsh ancestry on her mother's side. Every time I found such information, I chuckle with joy.
For a few weeks, I can say I am having a sort of "Welsh Fever". There are two other books after Dragons, but everything goes down-hill after Llewelyn the great.
One may complain that the book is too wordy, and it can be. Others may also complain that this is more of a romantic novel, and it is in some ways, but I am a girl who enjoys great romantic stories, so there you have it.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Movies to be deleted
A year ago when we upgraded our direcTV package, we got a huge amount of DVR disk space for recording movies. So we thought. I have to say I enjoy to be pleasantly surprised by finding interesting movies on movie channels, so we use the DVR a lot.
Now we only have less than 30% space left, so we were forced to delete some movies. What to delete and what to be kept went through some sort of negotiation between the two of us, even though we agreed about some of them.
I'm writing down the deleted or to be deleted movies for the record.
Blue jasmine
- Recent Oscar winner. Good movie, but I won't have the mood to watch it again, because it is too depressing and intense.
Lloyd
- We watched it twice. A classic kids movie where there are popular kids v.s. nerds. The end is kind of like Napoleon Dynamite. I guess Napoleon copied from Lloyd because Lloyd is a much older movie.
Out towners
- One of the first Goldie Hawn movies I have ever watched. She is a good actress and good comedian.
Exaggerated and funny, easy going, good for late night entertainment to fall asleep.
The banger sister
- Another Goldie Hawn movie, good plot.
Guess who is coming for dinner?
- Classic. Sydney Poitier, Katherine Hepburn, Spancer Tracy. Need I say more? But it is very serious and intense, so I don't expect to watch it again.
Hysteria
- Hmm... Only watched part of it, and go the gits of it, and never had the interest of watching the whole thing. Something to do with medical method in older times to give women orgasm. I'm sure it's not everyone's cup of tea.
Flipper
- Nice movie, but I can't watch movies about human hunting or harming animals, on land or in water.
Stranger than fiction
- Interesting story, but the writer is too depressed for me to watch the movie again.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Listened but not heard
Yesterday I drove for an hour to have a group lunch in Mountain View. I tuned in to NPR during my drive.
On the way out of Half Moon Bay, my wondering mind was caught by a story of the conviction of the Michigan man, who shot and killed a black woman when she knocked on his front door around 4 AM in the morning. But since I wasn't close paying attention, I missed the part where they said what the man was convicted for.
On the way back home, the PBS News Hour was on. The same story was told, and I listened this time. The short description of the story was repeated, and that the man was convicted in court. The anchor again brought up the comparison of this case with the Trayvon Martin case in Florida. When it transitioned to the next story, I was puzzled, and asked: "So what was he convicted for, again?"
Is it just me, or is the respectable Gwen Eiffel missing the key part of the information in this news item?
Later on I finally found out that the man in this case was convicted of second degree murder.
On the way out of Half Moon Bay, my wondering mind was caught by a story of the conviction of the Michigan man, who shot and killed a black woman when she knocked on his front door around 4 AM in the morning. But since I wasn't close paying attention, I missed the part where they said what the man was convicted for.
On the way back home, the PBS News Hour was on. The same story was told, and I listened this time. The short description of the story was repeated, and that the man was convicted in court. The anchor again brought up the comparison of this case with the Trayvon Martin case in Florida. When it transitioned to the next story, I was puzzled, and asked: "So what was he convicted for, again?"
Is it just me, or is the respectable Gwen Eiffel missing the key part of the information in this news item?
Later on I finally found out that the man in this case was convicted of second degree murder.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Divergent, the movie
The society separates people into 5 groups based on the personality traits: bravery - dauntless, selflessness - abnegation, intelligence - erudite, honesty - candor and kindness - amity. Once people come of age, they get tested to see which group, faction, they belong to and they can choose the faction, which they will be part of, for the rest of their lives. Each faction performs duty for the society. They believe this system keeps a peaceful society.
So this totally doesn't make sense to me. How can anyone belief a person can only possess one characteristic exclusively? It's a silly system that will surely create rebellions and revolution.
Another dystopia movie, like Hunger Games, Aeon Flux, and Gattaca. To my surprise, I liked this movie. It's not so violent; has good actors; and things weren't too exaggerating. Overall, it's an entertaining movie.
What I don't understand is, why anyone feels the needs to make duplicate efforts to portrait dystopian stories? Don't they all end the same way?
So this totally doesn't make sense to me. How can anyone belief a person can only possess one characteristic exclusively? It's a silly system that will surely create rebellions and revolution.
Another dystopia movie, like Hunger Games, Aeon Flux, and Gattaca. To my surprise, I liked this movie. It's not so violent; has good actors; and things weren't too exaggerating. Overall, it's an entertaining movie.
What I don't understand is, why anyone feels the needs to make duplicate efforts to portrait dystopian stories? Don't they all end the same way?
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Turned off
I have a bone to pick with Yoga Journal. As much as I like the information provided by the magazine, I am totally turned off by its advertisements. I feel strongly that YJ is taking advantage of Yoga practitioners' passion to influence them in terms of what they should wear, eat, give as gifts, use as makeups, and even on supplements. The ads made YJ seems unjustifiably shallow and unsatisfying. In this way, YJ is just the same as the rest of our capitalistic commercial businesses.
You may ask, why so negative? After all, the magazine is in the business to make money, and its number one source of income is advertisement, just like any other lifestyle or hobby magazines, such as Fitness, Cooking or Golf. It maybe obvious to some, that money making againsts Yogic ways, which advocate simplicity and inner contentment.
Does one really need a new pair of Lucy Yoga Pants or Gaiam mat to deepen the practice?
You may ask, why so negative? After all, the magazine is in the business to make money, and its number one source of income is advertisement, just like any other lifestyle or hobby magazines, such as Fitness, Cooking or Golf. It maybe obvious to some, that money making againsts Yogic ways, which advocate simplicity and inner contentment.
Does one really need a new pair of Lucy Yoga Pants or Gaiam mat to deepen the practice?
Talking dirty
Here are some examples of me "talking dirty". If you don't use this term to define being technical in certain professional areas, then just think of it as a private joke.
Work -
One day in recent months, I was working with a client trying to figure out what in his Java program could cause the error we saw in our product. We had a web session to discuss my findings, as I tried to explain to him my theory of what could cause the issue, and what was my proposal to resolve the problem. From the top of the program, I discussed the constants, which were labeled "public static final", constructors, and then how multiple threads were created. As I talked my way through the program making sure the client understood and agreed with me, I found myself smiling inside, because I felt that I was: "Talking dirty."
At the same time I was amused that 10 years after working at the same job, I still feel out-of-place when talking like a software engineer.
World Cup -
I watched the semi-finals and the final match of the World Cup. After the first game, I found myself talking about off side, and forward and Messi. I was really talking like a pro when I wasn't even fan.
Kiteboarding -
Last year, I only kited one day in March, so I felt disconnected with the sport this May when I had my first kiteboarding day. After one day in the water, I was talking to my fellow kiteborder friends using terms like: gusty wind, overpower, how easy it was to go upwind, and how big the swells were.
I guess the only time I didn't feel like I was "talking dirty" was when I was talking Yoga. I can naturally tell people to relax the shoulders; take the attention inwards; inhale belly to chest, exhale chest then belly; release the tension through the forehead and let it flow into the earth.
~~> SMILE
Work -
One day in recent months, I was working with a client trying to figure out what in his Java program could cause the error we saw in our product. We had a web session to discuss my findings, as I tried to explain to him my theory of what could cause the issue, and what was my proposal to resolve the problem. From the top of the program, I discussed the constants, which were labeled "public static final", constructors, and then how multiple threads were created. As I talked my way through the program making sure the client understood and agreed with me, I found myself smiling inside, because I felt that I was: "Talking dirty."
At the same time I was amused that 10 years after working at the same job, I still feel out-of-place when talking like a software engineer.
World Cup -
I watched the semi-finals and the final match of the World Cup. After the first game, I found myself talking about off side, and forward and Messi. I was really talking like a pro when I wasn't even fan.
Kiteboarding -
Last year, I only kited one day in March, so I felt disconnected with the sport this May when I had my first kiteboarding day. After one day in the water, I was talking to my fellow kiteborder friends using terms like: gusty wind, overpower, how easy it was to go upwind, and how big the swells were.
I guess the only time I didn't feel like I was "talking dirty" was when I was talking Yoga. I can naturally tell people to relax the shoulders; take the attention inwards; inhale belly to chest, exhale chest then belly; release the tension through the forehead and let it flow into the earth.
~~> SMILE
Fear factor and mental block
I was brought up in a sheltered environment. Since I was very young, my parents did not let me do many things, such as jumping around, or climbing trees, fearing of scraping of skin or breaking bones. Therefore, P.E. classes were my biggest fear. I hated climbing rope, high jump, or even plain old running.
Intellectually, for some very odd reason, I also grew up as a person with low self esteem, and it took me until the recent years to shake it off. There could be many reasons why I had such a low self esteem, and many of them point to being a Chinese girl growing up in China. My parents just didn't want to let anything (harmful) happen to me.
It also took me a while to stop blaming the society or my parents for my 'weaknesses', and focus on growing out of my own shadows. By the way, I strongly encourage anyone over 30 to start doing so, and taking responsibility to oneself.
Obviously there were many things that were told to me, which were wrong, but I erroneously absorbed them like a sponge. I would call them "myths". Luckily, in college, I took this class called: "critical thinking", which I enjoyed very much, even though I took it as credit/non credit, because of heavy computer science course work. Let's apply "critical thinking" to the following myths I have heard since childhood, and discuss briefly why they were merely myths, nevertheless they could bring adverse impact to someone's upbringing and adult life.
First and foremost, and this I still hear today among my relatives. "Girls are not good with math, physics and science." Many years ago, when I heard my cousin said that to my girl cousin, I protested furiously, "you should never say such things to a girl! Girls can do math and physics as well as boys." I heard the same from my own physics teacher in middle school. Back then I believed him, so I didn't try at all to learn the course, because, "obviously I'm not good at it." Luckily, when I came to the U.S., I sort of had a second chance to try things I normally didn't dare when I was in China. I found math and physics easy to understand when I studied them in college, which encouraged me to learn other challenging subjects.
As far as my lacking physical abilities. It was changed since I started hanging out with Jack. He got me to go snowboarding, kiteboarding and scuba diving. None of which I would have done on my own. Back in college, my physical exercises were limited to jogging, aerobics classes, and the occasion Tai Chi. If it weren't for the purpose of weight lost, I would have been a perfect book worm, aka, nerd.
My conclusion and lessons learned? Fear factors, however they were ingested into us, create mental blocks. Apply critical thinking to everything in life. Question everything you heard and check the sources. Don't let your fear impair and limit you. Go out of your comfort zone once a while or you will never know what you'll find. If you ended up not liking what you found, then move on. For example, I now find out I'm afraid of heights, and am still unable to do Yoga inversion poses because of fear.
So like Dory said in the animation, Finding Nemo, "Well, you can't never let anything happen to him (Nemo). Then nothing would ever happen to him. Not much fun for little Harpo." I also like this quote I heard somewhere: "People say 'you can't do it' just because they can't do it themselves."
Intellectually, for some very odd reason, I also grew up as a person with low self esteem, and it took me until the recent years to shake it off. There could be many reasons why I had such a low self esteem, and many of them point to being a Chinese girl growing up in China. My parents just didn't want to let anything (harmful) happen to me.
It also took me a while to stop blaming the society or my parents for my 'weaknesses', and focus on growing out of my own shadows. By the way, I strongly encourage anyone over 30 to start doing so, and taking responsibility to oneself.
Obviously there were many things that were told to me, which were wrong, but I erroneously absorbed them like a sponge. I would call them "myths". Luckily, in college, I took this class called: "critical thinking", which I enjoyed very much, even though I took it as credit/non credit, because of heavy computer science course work. Let's apply "critical thinking" to the following myths I have heard since childhood, and discuss briefly why they were merely myths, nevertheless they could bring adverse impact to someone's upbringing and adult life.
First and foremost, and this I still hear today among my relatives. "Girls are not good with math, physics and science." Many years ago, when I heard my cousin said that to my girl cousin, I protested furiously, "you should never say such things to a girl! Girls can do math and physics as well as boys." I heard the same from my own physics teacher in middle school. Back then I believed him, so I didn't try at all to learn the course, because, "obviously I'm not good at it." Luckily, when I came to the U.S., I sort of had a second chance to try things I normally didn't dare when I was in China. I found math and physics easy to understand when I studied them in college, which encouraged me to learn other challenging subjects.
As far as my lacking physical abilities. It was changed since I started hanging out with Jack. He got me to go snowboarding, kiteboarding and scuba diving. None of which I would have done on my own. Back in college, my physical exercises were limited to jogging, aerobics classes, and the occasion Tai Chi. If it weren't for the purpose of weight lost, I would have been a perfect book worm, aka, nerd.
My conclusion and lessons learned? Fear factors, however they were ingested into us, create mental blocks. Apply critical thinking to everything in life. Question everything you heard and check the sources. Don't let your fear impair and limit you. Go out of your comfort zone once a while or you will never know what you'll find. If you ended up not liking what you found, then move on. For example, I now find out I'm afraid of heights, and am still unable to do Yoga inversion poses because of fear.
So like Dory said in the animation, Finding Nemo, "Well, you can't never let anything happen to him (Nemo). Then nothing would ever happen to him. Not much fun for little Harpo." I also like this quote I heard somewhere: "People say 'you can't do it' just because they can't do it themselves."
Monday, July 14, 2014
Another world cup post
First there was the World Cup, as early as I could remember, then I learned about the continents and countries on these continents. Countries, big and small, as long as they have good football players, they have a chance to participate in the World Cup football tournament. The teams, the players and the countries shine in the World Cup.
Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Ukraine, Scotland, England, Spain, Italy, West Germany, East Germany, Russia... Practically, the World Cup gave me my first and only childhood world geography education. It was in the World Cup where I first saw foreign men with curly hair, skin light or dark. I even got to learn the country flags!
When I was still a little girl, in China, once every 4 years, the whole country, which was the world for me back then, went crazy about the World Cup. It was the only topic everywhere you go, and people were excited about the matches and their favorite teams and favorite players. My father and brother would get up in the middle of the night watching the matches live, which was almost always played in the other side of the earth. Yes, it was the prove that the world is round, and people of the world live and operate on different timezones. The rest of the time, one, as little as I was, didn't really have to be bothered by such complicated reality. No, the China team was never good enough to get into the World Cup, but it didn't change the people's passion with this sport.
Today, I watch the recorded World Cup final, Argentina v.s. Germany. I am not a football fan, and I don't really watch sports. I prefer doing something or reading a book in my free time. But something as big as the World Cup, or the Olympics or if SF Giants went to the final, then I would watch the games. There should be a name of someone like this. There must be, because English has a name for everything, so I just have to find it.
Anyway, at the beginning I firmly believed Germany was sure to dominate and win, because of their defeat of Brazil; then I was greatly impressed by Argentina's strong defense and tight maneuver, and their Messi! Then I thought about how Germany made Brazil bleed, and how sad it was for the host country. For the first and only time in my life, I switched to root for Argentina 30 minutes into the game. How fast I turned. Hey, the match was exciting and tight, the players both side were aggressive and physical, and nobody would care about my opinions, so why not? I had so much fun, even though Jack quietly fell asleep after 70 minutes of no score, and that the recording didn't finish the last 10 minutes or so of the overtime. And even though Argentina lost the game, I think they should be proud of themselves, because they fought hard and made it very, very difficult for the Germans.
It was The World Cup Final. Both teams should be very proud.
It was The World Cup Final. Both teams should be very proud.
Friday, May 30, 2014
The role of the stars
We enjoyed the movie, An ideal Husband (1999), so much that we watched it many times since we recorded it from DirecTV.
In fact, I like the movie so much that I am reading the play written by Oscar Wilde. I enjoyed reading more details about the characters, but I was quite amazed by how the movie stars transformed the characters in their own ways.
Julianne Moore played the devious Mrs. Cheveley, and she did a superb job. I have never seen her played such a nasty personality at all. But her beauty actually made her likable in the movie. However, the book magnified her character's nastiness. If you have never watched the movie, I wouldn't be surprised if you hate Mrs. Cheveley immensely from reading the play.
Her compatible opposite, Cate Blanchett as Lady Chilton, also did a great job. She was so righteous and idealistic. She reminds one of a cold goddess, in a Katherine Hepburn kind of way.
I am very curious, just for the fun of it, how about if Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett exchange roles, how will the movie come out?
Imagine, the great Elf Queen, Cate Blanchett, as Mrs. Cheveley. It will be very interesting, indeed.
As we are watching "Golden Compass", Jack said Mrs. Coulter, played by Nicole Kidman, was a very sleazy person in the book. But how can one be upset at the beautiful Nicole Kidman? Sleazy or otherwise.
In fact, I like the movie so much that I am reading the play written by Oscar Wilde. I enjoyed reading more details about the characters, but I was quite amazed by how the movie stars transformed the characters in their own ways.
Julianne Moore played the devious Mrs. Cheveley, and she did a superb job. I have never seen her played such a nasty personality at all. But her beauty actually made her likable in the movie. However, the book magnified her character's nastiness. If you have never watched the movie, I wouldn't be surprised if you hate Mrs. Cheveley immensely from reading the play.
Her compatible opposite, Cate Blanchett as Lady Chilton, also did a great job. She was so righteous and idealistic. She reminds one of a cold goddess, in a Katherine Hepburn kind of way.
I am very curious, just for the fun of it, how about if Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett exchange roles, how will the movie come out?
Imagine, the great Elf Queen, Cate Blanchett, as Mrs. Cheveley. It will be very interesting, indeed.
As we are watching "Golden Compass", Jack said Mrs. Coulter, played by Nicole Kidman, was a very sleazy person in the book. But how can one be upset at the beautiful Nicole Kidman? Sleazy or otherwise.
Developing a taste
Being raised in Southern China, I am not big with bread or any baked goods, or so I believe. Jack never believes me and always tease me of making this up. See we mainly eat steam rice as starch.
In truth, I didn't really know how to use the oven until 10 years ago.
This one time many years ago when I lived alone in a nice apartment, I tried to bake by reading a cookbook. That was before the Cooking Chanel. Unfortunately I got stuck at the very first step: "Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees." I turn the oven on "bake", then set the temperature to 350, and saw the light went on. I was puzzled when the light was turned off all by itself. I was like, what's wrong with this oven? So I gave up.
I found out, accidentally from Jack, that the oven light automatically turns off when it reaches the desired temperature. See I could have found a manual to read and learn, but I just didn't have the passion for baked goods nor desserts, which would have driven me to learn baking on my own. Even today, I leave baking to Jack. All the measuring and mixing are just too much trouble.
Lately I've realized that the key to good tasting bread was the freshness. (Isn't it true for all food?)
One day, I exclaimed: I am developing a taste for bread.
Jack said: Sounds like a bunch of bullshit.
Whenever I told people I didn't like dessert, Jack would remind me immediately how much I like fresh donuts with my coffee. Yes, I admit, fresh donuts are good, it's so dangerous that I stay away from them.
In truth, I didn't really know how to use the oven until 10 years ago.
This one time many years ago when I lived alone in a nice apartment, I tried to bake by reading a cookbook. That was before the Cooking Chanel. Unfortunately I got stuck at the very first step: "Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees." I turn the oven on "bake", then set the temperature to 350, and saw the light went on. I was puzzled when the light was turned off all by itself. I was like, what's wrong with this oven? So I gave up.
I found out, accidentally from Jack, that the oven light automatically turns off when it reaches the desired temperature. See I could have found a manual to read and learn, but I just didn't have the passion for baked goods nor desserts, which would have driven me to learn baking on my own. Even today, I leave baking to Jack. All the measuring and mixing are just too much trouble.
Lately I've realized that the key to good tasting bread was the freshness. (Isn't it true for all food?)
One day, I exclaimed: I am developing a taste for bread.
Jack said: Sounds like a bunch of bullshit.
Whenever I told people I didn't like dessert, Jack would remind me immediately how much I like fresh donuts with my coffee. Yes, I admit, fresh donuts are good, it's so dangerous that I stay away from them.
Fixer upper
I don't care much about the movie "Frozen". I first watched it on an airplane, then watched it a couple more times after we bought the blu-ray DVD. I guess I'm not big on musical and cute pricess stories. I enjoyed the musical, "Pitch Perfect", though.
There is a song in "Frozen", which I just started to appreciate, when I'm watching the movie right now. The one when the trolls sang about Kristoff and Anna, and I'll just call it "Fixer upper".
It's so true that everyone is a fixer upper, boys and girls, to each other. No one is perfect to each other initially, right? But that should not stop people from falling in love.
The big lesson of the story is: Love will thaw. This is so Yogic! We are ultimate love and we are infinity.
There is a song in "Frozen", which I just started to appreciate, when I'm watching the movie right now. The one when the trolls sang about Kristoff and Anna, and I'll just call it "Fixer upper".
It's so true that everyone is a fixer upper, boys and girls, to each other. No one is perfect to each other initially, right? But that should not stop people from falling in love.
The big lesson of the story is: Love will thaw. This is so Yogic! We are ultimate love and we are infinity.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Listen to your mother
This happened many years ago, but it's actually an embarrassing story, so I kept it to myself. I'll make this a special topic to honor Mother's Day.
One morning I got in my car preparing to head to work. I took a sip of water from the coffee mug, which was left in the cup holder in the car for a few days. When I open the mug, I was shocked to find a live spider crawling under the cover. I rushed into the house to have the mug washed instantly.
That's when I realized, some rules of mom's must be followed, because they make sense: rinse the bottles and cups before drinking out of them; don't leave the cups in the car for too long; clear the clutters; keep your house clean ......
One morning I got in my car preparing to head to work. I took a sip of water from the coffee mug, which was left in the cup holder in the car for a few days. When I open the mug, I was shocked to find a live spider crawling under the cover. I rushed into the house to have the mug washed instantly.
That's when I realized, some rules of mom's must be followed, because they make sense: rinse the bottles and cups before drinking out of them; don't leave the cups in the car for too long; clear the clutters; keep your house clean ......
Why blog?
Y: Do you know why people blog?
J: No, why?
Y: It's because their significant others stopped listening to them.
Of course, J didn't hear this part...
J: No, why?
Y: It's because their significant others stopped listening to them.
Of course, J didn't hear this part...
Regimen
I just got over the worst sore throat ever. My throat on the left side felt like having acid burn. The worst time, the neck area was swollen, and swallowing would bring stabbing pain. At some point, I couldn't even open my mouth. Imagine living under such pain for 3 days? It is something I don't want to experience ever again.
I went to the doctor's office, she gave me a checkup and a test, then told me to go home and take some pain killer and drink a lot of water. She said the test results from the lab would take 2 days, so she would contact me then if I actually needed some antibiotics. I didn't share her optimism, but there was nothing else I could do.
Following the order, I took the pain killer, but it didn't help at all. So I kept my mouth shut and moped in pain. It was troublesome, because the pain did not reduce a bit. I could only eat soup and drink water. It felt like I was going to live like this forever, so I started get used to it.
Finally yesterday morning, I started a regimen. In addition to drinking water like a fish, I gurgled with light salt water and used sore throat spray every 2 hours since the beginning of the day. It seemed to be too simple, and it was hard to believe some salt water would actually did anything to diminish the gigantic swelling pain, but in the late afternoon, I actually started to feel better.
Who would have known?
Finally yesterday morning, I started a regimen. In addition to drinking water like a fish, I gurgled with light salt water and used sore throat spray every 2 hours since the beginning of the day. It seemed to be too simple, and it was hard to believe some salt water would actually did anything to diminish the gigantic swelling pain, but in the late afternoon, I actually started to feel better.
Who would have known?
Self healing
To me, self healing is a self discovery and self realization, which is awesome.
Not only my neck and shoulder pain wasn't worsen after I started kiteboarding last weekend, I actually felt better.
Yoga and foam roller everyday are actually doing the magic to my physical pain!
Yoga is a good complement to any sports activity. Give yourself a good stretch on your legs, arms, upper body, neck and shoulder. Hold each stretch for 3 long breaths to start, and up to 5 later on. Do this in the morning before your sport, it will help lessen the stiffness of the body, and get it ready for the sport later in the day.
Here are some of stretches I do. Don't worry, you don't have to do sun salutation if you don't want to. Sun salutations help warm up the body, you can replace it with anything, like dancing or whatever works for you. Pick some of your favorites and work on them.
shoulder roll, neck stretch
cat and cow, 5-8 reps
warrior I, II, triangle, revolve triangle
standing forward bend
high lunge, low lunge, sideway intense stretch
pigeon, low cobra, down dog
tree
seated twist, such as half lord of the fish
bridge, shoulder stand, plow pose
knees to chest
Finally to cool down, use the foam roller for the upper back, shoulder area, and lower back.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Teaspoon
Y: I put less tea in the chai, so that it is not too strong.
J: Oh really? How much did you put in?
Y: Instead of 3 teaspoons, I put 1 tablespoon.
J: But 1 tablespoon is 3 teaspoons.
J: Oh really? How much did you put in?
Y: Instead of 3 teaspoons, I put 1 tablespoon.
J: But 1 tablespoon is 3 teaspoons.
A kiteboarder's yoga retreat
Wake up coffee 9 - 9:30
Yoga in the morning 9:30 - 10:30
Brunch 10:30-11
Dog walking 12-2
Kiting 2-4
Take nice sunset photos if available
Dinner
Movies
Yoga before bed
Repeat for 3 or more days
Life is good
Yoga in the morning 9:30 - 10:30
Brunch 10:30-11
Dog walking 12-2
Kiting 2-4
Take nice sunset photos if available
Dinner
Movies
Yoga before bed
Repeat for 3 or more days
Life is good
Thursday, May 1, 2014
A wholesome belief
In a group, we studied Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's commentary of the ancient Hindi text: Ashtavakra Gita.
Sri Sri said:
You are complete, now.
You are all that you need, don't undermine yourself. A Guru is here to show you who you are. Whatever I am, that's who you are.
I often feel incomplete, because my knowledge is incomplete. I'm always searching, seeking for more knowledge and skills, as I feel my life so far has been on a path of learning and growing. I attend to classes, workshops to learn from others and to find ways to make me happier, stronger and wiser.
To hear this from the Guru was an eye opener. I have never thought of myself as complete, therefore I have not been freed.
The Guru said: growing is like removing the husk to let the rice show. You are already complete.
Sri Sri said:
You are complete, now.
You are all that you need, don't undermine yourself. A Guru is here to show you who you are. Whatever I am, that's who you are.
I often feel incomplete, because my knowledge is incomplete. I'm always searching, seeking for more knowledge and skills, as I feel my life so far has been on a path of learning and growing. I attend to classes, workshops to learn from others and to find ways to make me happier, stronger and wiser.
To hear this from the Guru was an eye opener. I have never thought of myself as complete, therefore I have not been freed.
The Guru said: growing is like removing the husk to let the rice show. You are already complete.
Birthday rituals
Birthday rituals? I have none.
Today I wake up, nobody is going to ask me for any status or how to solve certain software problems, and I will not be looking at certain error stacks or sending emails.
Today, I am off.
My birthday rituals are:
chai making and drinking
yoga
blog until I drop
book reading
ukulele playing
love song singing
dancing, Zumba, in the bedroom
And I may even go kiting,. I did, and it was awesome!
Not sure why, but I thought I would watch "You've Got Mail".
Today I wake up, nobody is going to ask me for any status or how to solve certain software problems, and I will not be looking at certain error stacks or sending emails.
Today, I am off.
My birthday rituals are:
chai making and drinking
yoga
blog until I drop
book reading
ukulele playing
love song singing
dancing, Zumba, in the bedroom
And I may even go kiting,. I did, and it was awesome!
Not sure why, but I thought I would watch "You've Got Mail".
The Chinese in me
America was a strange place for me who was 16 when I first got here. Luckily my family settled in the best place possible, as we lived in this melting pot or salad bowl, depending on your opinion, called San Francisco. I made friends with people from all over the world, and some of them still my best friends till today.
You may ask why I thought S.F. was the best place for me. The top reason is that it's such a friendly place for people of other ethnicity and I just love it.
I treasure the opportunities to introduce my American friends to dim sum; learn to make chai from my American brother-in-law who in term learned it from an Indian friend; self taught cooking Indian dishes from the videos recommended by my Indian co-workers.
Now I have been living in America for longer than I had been in China, the Chinese in me is still there. Through my accent, and the occasion incorrect use of words or phrases, which brought harmless laughter to my marriage. Jack is my pronunciation, grammar and spelling police, and I'm so grateful.
There were times when I felt out of place, especially in my younger days, as I had the so called identity crisis, but slowly I have learned to accept who I am. Without putting on a certain label for everything I do or say, I just go with it.
Yesterday on the drive home, Jack was explaining to me some "serious" hardware project he had been working on: putting a new 24-inch windsock on the pole at the kiteboarding site. He tried to explained to me the use of rivets.
I was like: "Can you first explain what a rivet is?"
He explained how you have this small piece of metal with a long stem and bigger on one end, which can be put through the holes of two or more pieces of thick metals, then you put a rivet gun through the rivet to press the metals together, and cut the excess stem. He said all airplane pieces were riveted together.
This morning he showed me how the whole thing works, and I finally understood.
"Oh, we just call it a nail." I said casually.
"But it's not a nail, it's a rivet." Jack protested.
"OK, it's a nail for metals." I compromised.
It's been my observation that we use Chinese language in a more relaxed way, while in English, there are very specific names for everything.
For example: we may be happy to call a bird: "a black bird" or "a big black bird", whereas you may call it a crow. Yes, we do have a name for crow, but at least I am not used to be that specific, because I couldn't tell between a crow and a raven.
Do you know what a kaleidoscope is called in Chinese? We call it: ten thousand flowers in a tube (万花筒).
You may ask why I thought S.F. was the best place for me. The top reason is that it's such a friendly place for people of other ethnicity and I just love it.
I treasure the opportunities to introduce my American friends to dim sum; learn to make chai from my American brother-in-law who in term learned it from an Indian friend; self taught cooking Indian dishes from the videos recommended by my Indian co-workers.
Now I have been living in America for longer than I had been in China, the Chinese in me is still there. Through my accent, and the occasion incorrect use of words or phrases, which brought harmless laughter to my marriage. Jack is my pronunciation, grammar and spelling police, and I'm so grateful.
There were times when I felt out of place, especially in my younger days, as I had the so called identity crisis, but slowly I have learned to accept who I am. Without putting on a certain label for everything I do or say, I just go with it.
Yesterday on the drive home, Jack was explaining to me some "serious" hardware project he had been working on: putting a new 24-inch windsock on the pole at the kiteboarding site. He tried to explained to me the use of rivets.
I was like: "Can you first explain what a rivet is?"
He explained how you have this small piece of metal with a long stem and bigger on one end, which can be put through the holes of two or more pieces of thick metals, then you put a rivet gun through the rivet to press the metals together, and cut the excess stem. He said all airplane pieces were riveted together.
This morning he showed me how the whole thing works, and I finally understood.
"Oh, we just call it a nail." I said casually.
"But it's not a nail, it's a rivet." Jack protested.
"OK, it's a nail for metals." I compromised.
It's been my observation that we use Chinese language in a more relaxed way, while in English, there are very specific names for everything.
For example: we may be happy to call a bird: "a black bird" or "a big black bird", whereas you may call it a crow. Yes, we do have a name for crow, but at least I am not used to be that specific, because I couldn't tell between a crow and a raven.
Do you know what a kaleidoscope is called in Chinese? We call it: ten thousand flowers in a tube (万花筒).
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Sri Yoga Teacher Training Grads, 2013
I love this picture we took at the day of our 200-hour Sri Yoga Teacher Training.
Tonight I look at it again and proudly show it to Jack. He said: "Looks like a bunch of yoga people."
Got a call
After 6 months of teaching Yoga for free, I decided to end my free classes and take a break.
Last few weeks, I have been doing yoga at home especially targeting my own problem areas: neck and shoulders. I developed a great sequence for myself and I'm so proud of it!
Today I got a call to sub for a yoga class for tomorrow evening, and I'm actually going to be paid. Seems like finally my piggy bank will have its first Yoga pay check! I am so excited.
When I told Jack the great news after he came home from kiting, he said: "well, just make sure you don't screw the pooch."
That's my lovely husband.
Last few weeks, I have been doing yoga at home especially targeting my own problem areas: neck and shoulders. I developed a great sequence for myself and I'm so proud of it!
Today I got a call to sub for a yoga class for tomorrow evening, and I'm actually going to be paid. Seems like finally my piggy bank will have its first Yoga pay check! I am so excited.
When I told Jack the great news after he came home from kiting, he said: "well, just make sure you don't screw the pooch."
That's my lovely husband.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Left at the airport security
The day we left Kauai wasn't particularly cheerful, because we didn't want to go. As per usual, Jack and I got to the airport 2 hours early, and we sat at the gate reading, or doing nothing.
Once a while, the PA made the following announcement with a slight Hawaiian accent: May I have your attention please, a ______ was found at the security area! Would the owner please claim your belonging at the lobby.
Fill in the blank with the following items.
a green fishing reel
a pillow
a watch
a gray bag
a car key
By the time we lined up to get on the plane, I started to appreciate the humor, imagining families rushing back to the lobby to pick up their belongings.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
In a hurry?
I was waiting in line at the Costco deli in Kauai. It was drizzling on and off, and the temperature was in the mid 70s. I just got off the 5 hour direct flight from SFO with a splitting headache. The comfortable temperature felt especially stuffy for my stressed mind.
First I thought my line was moving too slowly compared to the next line. I looked at our cashier, and thought everyone in this line seemed to order sundaes, so it took extra time, and I wished he could speed up a little. Then I thought: relax, I'm on vacation in Kauai, what's the hurry?
I wish I could be more relaxed and at ease under more circumstances.
First I thought my line was moving too slowly compared to the next line. I looked at our cashier, and thought everyone in this line seemed to order sundaes, so it took extra time, and I wished he could speed up a little. Then I thought: relax, I'm on vacation in Kauai, what's the hurry?
I wish I could be more relaxed and at ease under more circumstances.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
2014 Sochi Olympics
Quotes of today:
** Jack: he can't be proud of that (ski cross competitor fell, and slide across the finish line, but excited to qualify).
** Ying: you don't score until you score (quote from American Pie) referring to ski cross importance of winning across the finish line instead of leading at the beginning of the race.
** Ski cross announcer: here comes the Russian.
Jack: ohhh
Ying: what happened?
Jack: the French is going to sweep the podium (for ski cross).
Ying: what's wrong with that?
Jack: but i don't want them to.
Ying: the Americans swept the podium two days ago.
Jack: well that's ok.
** Jack: he can't be proud of that (ski cross competitor fell, and slide across the finish line, but excited to qualify).
** Ying: you don't score until you score (quote from American Pie) referring to ski cross importance of winning across the finish line instead of leading at the beginning of the race.
** Ski cross announcer: here comes the Russian.
Jack: ohhh
Ying: what happened?
Jack: the French is going to sweep the podium (for ski cross).
Ying: what's wrong with that?
Jack: but i don't want them to.
Ying: the Americans swept the podium two days ago.
Jack: well that's ok.
Rosemary Jake
Jack is proud of his five year old male dog, Jake. I'm the one who adore Jake the most.
My other favorite - zigzag Jake, which refers to the way he walks on a wheel leash.
I gave him a few nick names such as goofy Jake, bouncy Jake, handsome Jake.
My favorite one is -
Rosemary Jake: after playing at the front yard, he would come back happy with the smell of rosemary. That's because he ran around and pee'd around rosemary bushes and the smell stayed with him for a while. I like it because it sounds like the name of a KongFu legend.
My other favorite - zigzag Jake, which refers to the way he walks on a wheel leash.
Dirty shoes and muddy dogs
Our dogs love the weekend as they get to go to the beach to run around and swim in the water. They are always the first to be ready to go, while I am last, since I have things to pack.
One of Jake's favorite is rubbing himself in the mud. Sometimes he would give up going after the ball to rub in the mud. He looks so very happy and content when he does that. Neither of the dog think twice treading mud in low tide, not until they got exhausted, anyway.
Muddy dogs are happy dogs. Dirty shoes, happy life.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Judging
As we are here enjoying the special entertainment: 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, I picked up one bad habit. Or I should say, this habit was magnified during these twenty plus days.
I am judging. I credit it to the NBC commentators. The figure skater's turn was too slow causing deductions; the ice dancers were not synchronized; the snowboarder crash-landed because his body shifted too far back; the speed skating team was too slow because of poor uniform design.
Bad influences. Here I go: her dress is too sparkley, and her eye makeup is too smokey; the guy is too cute. Davis and White are too synchronized and too effortless. The judges are unfair. This doesn't make sense... That's harsh...
We all have our favorites. We are only human.
I am judging. I credit it to the NBC commentators. The figure skater's turn was too slow causing deductions; the ice dancers were not synchronized; the snowboarder crash-landed because his body shifted too far back; the speed skating team was too slow because of poor uniform design.
Bad influences. Here I go: her dress is too sparkley, and her eye makeup is too smokey; the guy is too cute. Davis and White are too synchronized and too effortless. The judges are unfair. This doesn't make sense... That's harsh...
We all have our favorites. We are only human.
Monday, February 3, 2014
My shop
Whenever I talk of opening my own restaurant or coffee shop, Jack always plays the devil's advocate and tells me numerous reasons why I should not think or talk about it. But I am my father's daughter, and he had this dream of having his own business. I still remember him walking the neighborhood looking into shops for rent surveying the spaces, and like the memory of him, it became my dream too.
In reality, I don't think I can run my own shop, and I don't think I will give up my day job. Maybe like the game second life or farmville, I can build my shop in a game or I can dream about it in my blog.
So here is what I'll have in my shop, for my own entertainment.
I'll offer the following food and beverages on the menu:
In reality, I don't think I can run my own shop, and I don't think I will give up my day job. Maybe like the game second life or farmville, I can build my shop in a game or I can dream about it in my blog.
So here is what I'll have in my shop, for my own entertainment.
I'll offer the following food and beverages on the menu:
- special home-made chai with ginger and spices, choices of green tea or black tea;
- coffee and various espresso;
- ginger and honey water;
- banana muffins;
- thai green curry, red lentil curry, vegetable curry;
- quinoa side dish;
- stir-fried vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, brussels sprouts, mushrooms and seasonal vegetables;
- shave ice, home-made icecream of different flavors;
- cookies (peanut butter, chocolate chip, etc);
- cakes;
- baked sweet potato frieds;
- sorry no meat or unhealthy food
Saturday, February 1, 2014
This is for me
I was frustrated about myself one day, and I found this from a book "Celebrating Silence":
"Desire kills joy yet the goal of all desires is joy. Whenever happiness has disappeared from your life, look deep within and you will see it is because of desire.
yet all that we desire is happiness. No creature desiring unhappiness is ever born; never has it happened before and never will it happen in the future.
When your small mind gets tired of running here and there, of wandering everywhere, it reaches the conclusion, "My desires have killed my happiness."
Then I felt more at ease. Thanks Sri Sri Ravi Shankar!
"Desire kills joy yet the goal of all desires is joy. Whenever happiness has disappeared from your life, look deep within and you will see it is because of desire.
yet all that we desire is happiness. No creature desiring unhappiness is ever born; never has it happened before and never will it happen in the future.
When your small mind gets tired of running here and there, of wandering everywhere, it reaches the conclusion, "My desires have killed my happiness."
Then I felt more at ease. Thanks Sri Sri Ravi Shankar!
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
The biggest loser
My dog Amy is the biggest loser today. She lost all of her stockpile of bones!
See, we gave each dog a piece of real bone to chew on once a while. Amy loves the bones, and Jake? I'm not so sure. Sometimes Jake took the bone with hesitation, held it in his mouth, and looked at us, as if he didn't know what to do with it. We closed the door behind us, and could hear both of them gnawing at the bones.
When we heard Jake barking at the garage shortly after receiving the bones, we told each other: "Oh, Jake lost his bone." We always went to his rescue. We would go to the garage to find Amy with both bones, if any left, and we would take one and give it back to Jake, encouraging him to guard it well.
Today we washed the dogs' blankets and swept out the dogs' living area. Jack threw away over 20 pieces of old dog bones in and around Amy's bed! She had been hoarding them and sleeping on them.
Poor Amy, I wonder what she is thinking right now.
Hopefully she can sleep tonight, as tomorrow is a new day, and a fresh piece of bone awaits!
Sunday, January 19, 2014
42
Though I am not worried about my recent absence from the social media, I can't help but feel strange, as if a part of me was missing or different, not in a bad way.
In fact, it is a real treat, since I only just came back to my normal life for 2 weeks, after all the vacations, festivities, cold and germ fighting. I feel that my life and my mind is still chilling. I read other people's postings, and generously liking and maybe cheering them on or reposting. That's pretty much what I have been doing and taken a liking to. How I enjoy keeping a low key!
From my observations of some postings and my own reflection about my (former) self, I feel that we are "living too hard". It's as if life is this gigantic puzzle that requires us to endlessly deep diving into, to seek the answer. Put in another way, as if everyday is a new challenge, a battle, so to speak, and we must put on the best of ourselves, the game face, so that we don't get "creamed". Yeah, everyone else is out there to get us, so we must be prepared and fight. Life is a Pandora's box for us from the moment we were born. So? Is it true?
The word for this phenomenon is: chill. Just live and be. Life is not that complicated. Live and enjoy it rather than fight it. Maybe your battle is with the perfectionist self who has this thing called ego. We are living in a world of chaos and constant change. What seems to be perfect today at this moment - a person, a tool, a piece of equipment - may and most likely, not be perfect in another circumstance, or in the next day with things being changed.
Learning to kiteboard took me an embarrassingly long time. I watch others, and listen to friends' instructions. I tried very hard, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get on the board to ride. Every time I was out in the water, I was literately battling with the wind and waves, helpless, frustrated. I did become expert in body dragging and became stronger, though.
There were two advices, among others, given to me by two different people, which eventually helped me get on the board and ride. The first advice was from Ms. P, and she said: "When I first learned, I tried very hard to control the kite, fighting it against the wind and I got so tired. Someone told me to instead let the wind take the kite to where it should be, and work with it." It really helped me to spend less energy wrestling the kite, but I still couldn't get on the board and ride for a long distance.
This other day, Mr. J saw me bobbing in the water trying to get on the board, he told me after I got back to shore: "You can try to point the board toward the kite when you dive the kite and tug the back foot in, let the kite bring you up from the water and ride." The next time I tried it, I got it, and I was able to kite a longer distance! In order to get on the board, I have to first go downwind, then I lean back and point the board upwind, so I can ride upwind!
So this is my own story about working with nature as oppose to against nature (outside of "Zhuangzhi Speaks" http://www.amazon.com/Zhuangzi-Speaks-The-Music-Nature/dp/0691008825)
In fact, it is a real treat, since I only just came back to my normal life for 2 weeks, after all the vacations, festivities, cold and germ fighting. I feel that my life and my mind is still chilling. I read other people's postings, and generously liking and maybe cheering them on or reposting. That's pretty much what I have been doing and taken a liking to. How I enjoy keeping a low key!
From my observations of some postings and my own reflection about my (former) self, I feel that we are "living too hard". It's as if life is this gigantic puzzle that requires us to endlessly deep diving into, to seek the answer. Put in another way, as if everyday is a new challenge, a battle, so to speak, and we must put on the best of ourselves, the game face, so that we don't get "creamed". Yeah, everyone else is out there to get us, so we must be prepared and fight. Life is a Pandora's box for us from the moment we were born. So? Is it true?
The word for this phenomenon is: chill. Just live and be. Life is not that complicated. Live and enjoy it rather than fight it. Maybe your battle is with the perfectionist self who has this thing called ego. We are living in a world of chaos and constant change. What seems to be perfect today at this moment - a person, a tool, a piece of equipment - may and most likely, not be perfect in another circumstance, or in the next day with things being changed.
Learning to kiteboard took me an embarrassingly long time. I watch others, and listen to friends' instructions. I tried very hard, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get on the board to ride. Every time I was out in the water, I was literately battling with the wind and waves, helpless, frustrated. I did become expert in body dragging and became stronger, though.
There were two advices, among others, given to me by two different people, which eventually helped me get on the board and ride. The first advice was from Ms. P, and she said: "When I first learned, I tried very hard to control the kite, fighting it against the wind and I got so tired. Someone told me to instead let the wind take the kite to where it should be, and work with it." It really helped me to spend less energy wrestling the kite, but I still couldn't get on the board and ride for a long distance.
This other day, Mr. J saw me bobbing in the water trying to get on the board, he told me after I got back to shore: "You can try to point the board toward the kite when you dive the kite and tug the back foot in, let the kite bring you up from the water and ride." The next time I tried it, I got it, and I was able to kite a longer distance! In order to get on the board, I have to first go downwind, then I lean back and point the board upwind, so I can ride upwind!
So this is my own story about working with nature as oppose to against nature (outside of "Zhuangzhi Speaks" http://www.amazon.com/Zhuangzi-Speaks-The-Music-Nature/dp/0691008825)
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