Practice, practice, practice

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"
"Practice, practice, practice."

I used to only think of "practice" in the context of playing musical instruments, because of this quote. From practice, you are able to master the skills in playing the musical instrument, so that you are good enough to perform in such prestigious places as the Carnegie Hall.

Recently I realized that "practice makes perfect" is not only limit to playing musical instruments. It can be applied to anything you do, sports, drawing, and any of your skilled crafts, such as programming, writing or design. Whatever it is, the more you do it - practice - you get better at doing it.

Not everyone is born with certain talent like Mozart. The rest of us are not totally hopeless, we just have to put our heart into what we are doing, and keep practicing to get better at our craft. Just don't give up, and keep trying.

With that said, I remember in my earlier years, I used to think the sky was the limit. I thought I could do anything and be successful in everything I tried. Nowadays the sky is getting lower and lower, maybe because I am able to understand and accept my own limitations.

Playlists

Sometimes I marvel how many gadgets the iPhone has single handedly replaced. GPS, camera, MP3 player, notepad, calendar, alarm clock, and the list goes on and on with the apps on the App Store. In addition to that, we can now play our music or watch videos, how cool is that?

Today I played one of my playlists while making dinner, and I realized how much I enjoyed it. For any given album, I only have 2 or 3 favorite songs, so the ability to create my own playlist with all my favorite songs and play them back to back is just awesome. Especially with the shuffling option, I never know what's going to come next, and am always pleasantly surprised.

In this playlist, I have a big variety of songs. Don McClean, Billy Joel, Lady Gaga, Dido, Train, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Michael Bublé ...

Dinner was delicious, we had Brussels sprouts with black bean garlic sauce and fried rice.

Humorous headlines

I found these funny headlines and thought I share them.

Red wine could help slow dementia onset (but you'd have to drink 1,000 bottles a day)

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/red-wine-could-help-slow-dementia-onset-but-youd-have-to-drink-1000-bottles-a-day-10498719.html

Universal urination duration wins Ig Nobel prize 

http://nation.com.pk/snippets/20-Sep-2015/universal-urination-duration-wins-ig-nobel-prize

Sun Zse's top strategy

Jack told me he had been reading Sun Zse's Art of War during his commute, and "so far, it's pretty boring."

I said: "Well, I haven't read the Art of War, but I know Sun Zse had thirty six strategies. Do you know what was his top strategy?"

Jack: "No."

I laughed and said: "Run away!"

What we do for good health

Honestly, how many of us like lemon water, whole wheat bread, kale or brown rice? I heard lemon water is great for detox and digestive system; whole wheat bread and brown rice are healthier than white bread and white rice. Kale, high in fiber and vitamins, is a healthy food, (though I was told by a Safeway cashier kalr is out, water crest is in now). Most super foods are not tasty, but for the sake of health, we alter eating habits and compromise the tastes.

We also spend the little spare time we have to exercise, or sometime starve ourselves so we could keep our weights down. We drink lots of water because it's Important to stay hydrated, despite the annoyance of frequent bathroom visits. 

Living a healthy lifestyle is such a pain sometimes. 

Life, in perspective

I read "How much land does a man need?" by Leo Tolstoy in high school.

Have you read it? It's short and sweet, unlike his other epic novels. Here's what I can remember about this story. The farmers were given a chance to run from dawn to dusk around a piece of land, and if they could come back to the spot where they started by dusk, they would own that piece of land. So this one farmer, wanting a bigger piece of property, kept running farther and farther through the day using all his strength and might. Eventually, he did get back to where he started by dusk, but he was so physically spent that he die. They buried him in his own piece of land, "six feet from his head to his heel is all he needed."

I heard different ways which convey the same idea by different religions and philosophy, but still, the message in this story was loud and clear, and it really put my life in perspective since my early years.

So, what is the point of life? You may ask. I'm afraid this is not something anyone else can answer for you. Live, explore, and find what makes you happy and stick with it. When you have mastered it, keep it with you and explore something new. There will be lots of choices and people who can give you ideas, but in the end, the decision is all yours. Don't do things because that's what others want for their lives. Know that no matter what decision you make, you will come out alright. Just as long as you don't do something illegal, and more importantly, try not to harm other beings along the way.

This is my gift to you today.

Some free advice to Jimmy Fallon

I only "discovered" the Comedy Central last year, so I have missed the prime of two Comedy Central popular talk shows: The Colbert Report and Jon Stewart's Daily Show. A few months before Stephen Colbert concluded his show, I started to watch and enjoyed the Colbert Report and the Daily Show in a daily basis (thanks to TiVo). Shortly after I "lost" the Colbert Report, I watched Jon Stewart announced his "retirement" on the show, and I was both disappointed and concerned. Who would pick up the political satire talk shows, and could do as good a job as these two? If you ask me, it seems very much like a drought season for the TV comedic talk show business. Of course, Stephen Colbert is going to succeed David Letterman, and Jimmy Fallon already picked up the Tonight's show, so I started recording the Tonight's Show and catch up with them whenever my time permits.

Let me first say that every comedian has his or her special authenticity. It is a personal taste for the audience to like or dislike a certain style. Jimmy Fallon is young and relatively well established in the show business, because he was already doing the Late Night show for years before filling Jay Leno's big shoes. Jimmy Fallon is a likeable and humble person, at least that's how it shows anyway. He has talents in many areas such as lip synching, dancing, and very quick on his feet like a perfect New Yorker. As I was watching him, I couldn't help but wonder if there were room for improvements for his shows.

So here are my observations and thoughts.
Is it me or is it true that Jimmy Fallon's monologues are not as long or funny as the others? From most of the shows I watched, and I didn't watch many, his monologues were relating to politicians. His jokes basically start with Hillary Clinton, and end with Ted Cruz. I almost felt like there weren't enough monologues and I wanted to hear more.

I like "hashtag", because it shows that he embrace modern social media to reach out to his audience. Always a smart thing to do.

He has to work on his interviews. Most of the time he talks too much and didn't allow the guests speak. There were times when he kept talking (about the guests) while the guest sat there nodding, because there was no leading question. The one I could think of is the nice and happy Taylor Swift. I thought she might be wondering, "Why am I here?" Other times when the more proactive guests would interrupt him. His recent interview with Mrs. Obama was a perfect example, he was talking about her healthy campaign and didn't leave any room for her, so the skilled First Lady finally interrupted him and said the purpose and achievements of her campaign. Remember, when you interview someone, it's not about you, it's about them. Some other times Jimmy was definitely flustered when beautiful actresses flirted with him, his recent interview (two days ago) with the Geogeous and fun Scarlett Johansson, for example. I guess it's natural that he was flustered, but the fact that I could see it is not very good for Mr. Host of the Tonight's show.

He introduced games with his guests, it is an interesting concept, but honestly, most of them were not funny. Some of them, at least, I could tell the guests were caught off guard and weren't having fun. The one came to mind was his interview and game with Colin Firth. I no longer remember the details, but I thought it was kind of boring. Games with guests is tricky because actors when they are off the stage, they are not entertainers anymore, and they bring their own personalities to your show, and not all of them are so fun or upbeat or entertaining or quick. Right?

So what else, oh, he really has to work on expanding his vocabulary. Every time he introduces a guest, she is always "the greatest, and he loves her." He uses the same lines of introduction for "hashtag," and it makes me feel like I was watching a rerun of the show. Is it out of laziness or other reason? I don't know, but it's better if he doesn't do this.

Constructive advice maybe hard to hear, but I wrote this down because I like Jimmy Fallon and I think he could definitely get better as he matures in his job. If he listens to me, he may improve sooner, and make me a happier audience. If I don't care about him, I wouldn't spend time to watch his shows nor waste time to write this down on a perfect Saturday morning.

Rock bottom

Last Sunday on our way home we saw three police cars parked by the side of the road, and it turned out that they stopped one car. For some reason, the driver of that car got out to talking to the police.

The first thing came to my mind was, "Oh, good, at least he is not a black guy."

I have to say, the reputation of the police departments across this country has hit rock bottom. I am sadden to hear endless police killings of black men, by accident, negligent or other reasons.

There is definitely room for improvement in this area, and I am hoping someone very strong will come out to fix this mess.

Working too hard

This topic has been on my mind for a long time, but this is the first time I ever wrote it down.

There are people who are hard working and there are people who are relatively lazy, but here, by "working too hard," I mean using our bodies too much while performing certain tasks or being in a certain posture. For example, when I brush my teeth, I have the habit of brushing too hard, which could be harmful to the teeth over time. When I taught yoga, the first thing I checked on each student was if there was unnecessarily used the body muscles, such as shrugged shoulders for warrior I and II, or even in mountain pose.

If you pay attention, you can find much more examples where you unnecessarily stress your body. Like if you are very focused while typing, your shoulders and neck could be strained, and over time, it would develop pain. You can also chew too hard, do you notice?

Now is the time to pay attention to these little trigger points of pain, and correct them if you can. Try to be effortless instead of working your body too hard.

Like my physical therapist, Mr. M, said:
Less is more,
No pain, no game is false.

Being tourists

On the second leg of our Hawaii trip, we went from Kauai to the Big Island of Hawaii. It is the first time I have been to the Big Island. I "arranged" the trip as far as booking for hotel and flights. I put a quote around arrange because I totally dropped the ball in terms of research and prepare for the trip. So I knew Kona was on the west side and Hilo east of the Island, and that's pretty much all I knew at the time, well I might have sort of looked at the map a little.

First of all, where we stayed and where we were going to was completely opposite in my mind's plan then it was in reality. This island is very big and still growing - lava flow expansion into the ocean. When I booked the hotel, I was told - most likely by someone who had no clue about the island - that I would stay on the Kona side. Now we wanted to go to Hilo to check out the neighborhood and go to the botanical garden, so it would be a drive, I got that. But in my mind, I thought we would drive from west to north to the east - Kona to Hilo. Mind you, I had no clue of the biggest attraction, the volcanoes.

So you could imagine my surprise after landing on Kona, hopping in the piping hot rental car, and punching the hotel address into the GPS, we were directed to hwy 11 and would drive south bound for 60 miles. Then I read the hotel information in the car and found that the recommended airport was Hilo airport. OK, this is not good.

Along the way, there were signs for 100% Hawaiian coffee estate everywhere, and I intend to try some good Kona coffee while we are here. Outside of the Kona area, there was pretty much a road in the middle of the jungles and deserts with no businesses and very little residential area. I felt concerned to discover what was to come.

Two hours later, we finally reached our hotel/condo. It is in the southernmost of nowhere. The condos were built into small huts, which was very cool. I went to check in. The receptionist gave us the room keys and some paper work, and charged my card for tax, then she asked, "did you get any groceries?" And my said alarmingly: "No." It didn't surprise her a bit. She said matter-of-factly, without sympathy, I should add, "we usually recommend doing shopping on the way here from either Kona or Hilo. There is a small store 6 miles from here to the west, and there are some restaurants there as well ......" I didn't get everything she said, because she went very fast, perhaps out of practice. But I got it that in order to eat anything and buy grocery, we have to drive back to where we came from for 6 miles. She also told us there were restaurants 8 miles from us to the east, Hilo direction, and the town of Hilo was 1 hour and 10 minutes away, which was quite exact.

We found our way to our tiny studio facing the golf course, and unpacked. Then we had to decide what to do about food and water. The decision was easy. We went back west bound to look for food, and found Hana Hou, who claimed they were the southernmost restaurant in the U.S.A. Which was impressive. The food was good.

After dinner, we stopped by the store across the street looking for coffee creamer and fruits, but they didn't have much of anything, tho they did have two freezerful of ice. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the 76 gas station, which looked sparkly new compared to every other building in the neighborhood, to look for water and creamer, etc, and I was pleasantly surprised to find plenty of choices of milk and drinks. I grabbed a couple of bottles of Hawaiian water, a bottle of milk, and some yogurt as if I was afraid that they would vanish. The cashier was very kind to give my extra sugar packages for making coffee in the morning as he was apologetic that they ran out of creamer.

Serendipitously, because of my poor trip planning we found the southernmost "thing" - restaurant, bakery and bar, of the U.S.A.

A bad patch

On 92 East Bound exiting to Foster City, there is a pothole which was recently patched. I know because every time I drove on it, I hit a bump, and it was worse than before it was fixed. I noticed many people, including myself, tried to avoid droving on it if we could help it, which in high traffic hours could have been dangerous.

I wonder if it and how it could be fixed up again.

Sometimes, a bad patch is worse than not patching at all.

Vintage

As we were in our rental Nissan Altima driving around the Kauai Island, I took a look at the three-button car key laying in the cup holder, and thought that key-less cars were becoming the norm nowadays.

"Pretty soon my car would become vintage." I marveled. I drive a 2004 Honda Accord, which still use the traditional car key.

Jack said: "Vintage would be over 25  years."

He thought about it and continued, "I remember when people used to drive those cars such as Chevelle, Impala, Corvear, and they were pos (piece of sh**). Now people drive them as if they were vintage. They are vintage pos."

Photos of the past and present

Found these photos from the computer.

Lake Tahoe

Fetch

Me and my toy fox

Looking this way

Ocean blue

Spring poppy

Kauai coast

Have you ever

Been so fatigue that you don't want to read anything, write anything or do anything productive? You Just want to veg. That was how I felt last night after a week of hard work. I felt, somehow that, I earned the privilege of doing nothing.

I was fortunate to have worked with many very smart and good people along my career. Some of them I call my mentors, and we became friends.

One afternoon long time back when I was still a new college grad, I was chatting with our architect, Mr. E.,  who was one of my mentors. Mind you, most new college grads are super chatty because they have so much to learn about everything.

I said I couldn't stand my cousin, because he was so lazy.

He asked, "How was he lazy?"

I said, "on weekends, he would sleep until noon. It's such a waste of time, because when he got up half of the day is gone."

Mr. E. said something like this (which I couldn't remember exactly): Why was it a waste? He needs to sleep, then he should sleep. Life is a dance. Take it slow and enjoy as you go.

At that time it was an eye opener to me, because all my life, people were telling me to work hard and don't waste time. I guess it was just a different perspective.

Napoleon's army and the Italian flag?

Jack found "War and Peace" the 3.5-hour movie on Amazon, and one weekend evening we watched it on our bedroom TV. Jack was half way through the book and he said the reason why the book was so long was Tolstoy described every little thing in gory details, like how a general gets on a horse. I'm still hovering around the 12% mark of the book, and it'll probably take me 5 years to finish if ever.

How one could pack a 1300-page book into a 3.5 hour movie, I don't know. The screenwriter and director must have done a great job, because all along the movie, Jack said it was very close to the book.

When Pierre went to the battle field with the army he funded and witness the battle. We saw that the French infantry was charging toward the Russians, and I saw something strange. Why were the French Army carrying red, white and green flags?

I was pondering that I was pretty sure the French flag was red, white and blue, and Jack said: "Why are the French Army carrying the Italian flags?" 

I said: "Yes, I was just wondering about that."

Jack said: "Oh, it's the TV light bulb messing up the color. It turns blue to green!" Since the new blub was installed, we tried spending hours adjusting the color of the TV in vain.

I was inspired to read the book after watching the movie and read a couple of pages the next day.

Our Valentine's Day experience at Flavor

Why blog about Valentine's Day dinner a couple of weeks later? It does feel like it was so long ago. Turns out programming is very exhausting, and hence I haven't had time nor energy to blog since I changed my job. Such is life.

This past Valentine's day, we decided to have dinner at Flavor, our new found/rediscovered local favorite. I reserved a table two weeks before that. It was super simple, I just had to go online and reserved on OpenTable. Confirmation emails were sent right away and a few days before the reservation.

Since it was a nice and sunny Saturday, all or most of the Bay Area population decided to go to Half Moon Bay to spend the special day. It took us over an hour to get home from the Peninsula. 

We got to the restaurant a few minutes before my reservation, and we got to our table just in time. It wasn't overly crowded. They might have turned people away if they didn't make reservation though. 

I ordered the seafood pot pie, which I remember being very delicious with melt in the mouth pastry and lots of seafood. Jack ordered his favorite, all-in seafood chowder. We also share an order of sauté Brussels sprouts. 

We came here a couple of weeks before and had a great experience. I was impressed that it was so casual, and the waiting staff were very friendly.  

The food was not what we remembered. Well, Jack's seafood chowder was still super delicious. However, the Brussels sprouts was like half of what we had two weeks before. The seafood pot pie had too much potatoes and not enough seafood. I vaguely remember being very impressed how much seafood they put in the first time I went to Flavor a week after they were opened, when they were still in the old location. The pastry on the pot pie was still very delicious, but it seemed like it was put on after it was baked, as I could take it right off the top. Also, they didn't have bread as they normally do.

I did get a red rose when we got our bill, which was nice.

It was a small disappointment about the food, but we think we would give it another chance before I consider taking them off my local charm list. Since it was Valentine's day, and they might be too busy. I may not want to try the seafood pot pie though. 

Forgive me since I sound like a Yelper.      

Divas

Seven years later, I discovered Adele! She is so amazing, and yes, she is truly a diva like Whitney Houston and Celine Dion before her.

It all started with Katy Perry's 2015 Superbowl mid-game show, which was a wow, and so was the second half of the Superbowl.

I really enjoyed the lavish performance, especially the song "Roar," where she was riding a golden lion puppet. American's really know how to entertain!

So I went online to buy a couple of Katy Perry's album, and I also bought Adele and Taylor Swift. It's a spur of the moment thing. I've been enjoying all of them.

Dragons and snakes

(Started writing this last Sunday when it was stormy.)
Stormy Sunday, time to blog about some Cantonese slang. I don't know why it propped up in my mind all of a sudden today while I was doing the dishes.

"The dragon that crossed the river is not as good as the local snakes." Yes, it does sound weird when I translate it this way, but let me explain. Here, the dragon that crossed the river means people from out-of-town or other countries. "Dragon" shows that they are hardworking and industrious. "Local snake" means locals, who maybe less industrious.

Early years when China's coastal towns were opened and started booming, a lot of people moved from the country side or the north to the south for better opportunities. This phase was being used a lot when comparing the success of out-of-towners with locals.

To be fair, a lot of industrious out-of-towners did make it well in the south, so no, this saying is not definitive at all. It was just used to say that locals have the initial advantage knowing the town and connections, but after that everything is fair game, and whoever work hard will make it doesn't matter where they are from.

Let's talk business ... or not

At the end of the day after watching "The GodFather."

Y: I guess "The GodFather" is pretty intense.
J: You can't say you want to watch "The GodFather," and not expect things like horse head in the bed, people get shut at, and women get bitten.

I didn't remember much about any of the "The GodFather" movies, cause I always only remember highlights of all the movies I watched but not any details. So every time I watch a movie which I watched before, I enjoyed it like I was watching a new movie.

The trilogy "The GodFather" is in a class of it's own. The acting, the directing, the plot, sound track are really above and beyond others. So many movies use quotes from the "God Father," and modeled behind it, it's unbelievable. Most prominently to us: "You've got mail." Such as, "go to the mattress." Tom Hanks told Meg Ryan: "it's not personal, it's business," and she said, "what do you mean it's not personal, of course it's personal, you put me out of business!"

The line "It's not personal, it's business" makes me think. I guess everything is business. There is the music business, the movie business, the high tech business, and the yoga business.

There is a difference between doing business and making a living, that's for sure. I have this suspicion that whenever you put the word "business" behind something, you are in it to make money more than anything.

I think I would never be a business person, because I put my emotions behind things I do, whether it is to earn a living or as a hobby.

Now I understand that being emotional is not the privilege of artists, writers, or performers. One is emotional doesn't matter what he does for a living. Emotional people can be programmers, engineers, doctors or any other professions. Just because they are not in business doesn't mean they are not successful. We put so much of ourselves in whatever we do, it is really a part of us.

So yes, we take things personally, and don't tell us it's just business.

Hidden and not so hidden local gems of half moon bay

Disclaimer. I am not paid by any of the businesses mentioned in this post. All experiences are personal, and I'm a real paying customer. I do not see myself as a critic.

Now that the devils' slide tunnel is opened, there are lots and lots of weekend traffic coming from the north. The coast is now unstoppably crowded on weekends and holidays. Here are some places you can visit while you are here.

Via Uno
A relatively new Southern Italian restaurant off of Highway 1 in Half Moon Bay. It is next to Cowboy surf shop, where Gin Wan was used to be. They have authentic Italian food, good pizza and home-made pastas. I love their local Tuesday special, which was a four course meal with soup or salad, a pasta dish, a meat, chicken or fish dish, and dessert. We went last Tuesday, and we love everything!

Flavor
Healthy comfort food with organic and natural ingredients. They have a lot of vegetarian choices and lots of delicious side dishes. We love the all-seafood chowder, and seafood pot pie.

Mezza Luna and it's caffee
Good Italian food. The caffee has very good dessert, tho a little too sweet. I liked the quiche and the coffee.

3zero
Traditional American style breakfast and good selection of lunch choices.

Sandra's massage and Shana's facial at Ujuva

Posh moon
Half moon bay downtown. They have a great selection of cloths and gifts. Carol is super nice.

Rouge
My other favorite boutique. Good selection and good price.

Half moon bay Hallmark store, and Bookstore
Both of them are in the Strawflower shopping center. They have good coastal selections.

New leaf Community Market
Great bakery/deli. Lots of nice products and organic/natural selection.

Arghhh

Tuesday morning, it was still dark, and I was still in my sweet dreams, when I was hit by a strong odor that's like the strongest burned coffee. I continued my sleep believing it was just burned coffee. I got up 20 minutes later, and found yellow PostIts on my computer screen and the kitchen door. Oh, notes from Jack in the morning? That's the first. My pleasure was short lived and instantly replaced by slight annoyance, as the PostIts read: "Jake/Amy got hit by skunk. Don't let them in." Oh great.

I had my almond butter jelly sandwich and coffee, then started to join an early call.

After my morning meeting, I called a local mobile pet groomer to see if anyone could come to bath my dogs. I left them an urgent message. After an hour nobody called back so I took matters in my own hands. Why not? They are my dogs, so it's my job.

I searched the internet for de-skunk methods, and found a useful link from the humane society.  http://m.humanesociety.org/animals/dogs/tips/de-skunking_dog.html.

After reporting the incident to my team, I went shopping for a quart of hydrogen peroxide and two quarts of tomato juice as a backup. While waiting in line to pay at the cashier, I could smell the skunk on myself. Arghhh ... I rushed out of the shop and head back home.

When I got home, I let the dogs out in the yard. I mixed the hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soup together in a bucket. I put a leash around a tree branch, and hook it up with Jake. I wet a towel with the solution, and bath Jake with it. Jake stood there and let me do what was needed, and I was slightly surprised how well behave he was, since he usually wasn't fond of baths. After rising off the de-skunk solution, I bath Jake with the "all natural" dog shampoo. Jake was very happy when I was done with him, and he rolled around in the green grass to muddy himself up! I then bathed Amy, who normally was very good a taking a bath.

After I was done with both of them, I let them played in the yard for a while, and they seemed especially cheerful.

Then I sprayed the house with air freshener, lit some candles and open all the windows to let the air out. Finally, I took a shower before I went back to work ... 3 hours later.

 

Pick your battles

One Saturday we jumped in the car to head out to our weekend activities. While Jack was backing out of the driveway, I exclaimed: "oh, I forgot to bring the shopping bags and we need to of grocery shopping!" Then I started to recall how I gathered all the shopping bags in a pile, and left them next to the door, but in a rush to leave I forgot to take them with me. I then continued to complain how I always forgot about this, and it was so frustrating.

Jack said calmly: "take it easy, it's just some bags, they cost 10 cents each."

I thought about it and said: "That's true. It's not a big deal."

In our lives, it is really important to choose what to put our energy in, and focus on what's important, because we don't have energy for everything.

Quitting is easier than I think

I'm taking on the task of detaching myself from the internet. I had been doing so since last Tuesday when I saw a friend's Facebook posting saying she would be off from Facebook for a month.

Let me first mention that I'm basically addicted to the internet since my college years. Nowadays, I use email, Facebook, check news on Google news and Yahoo! I also shop online too much. I found that I had been too attached to my hand-held devices, and the ability to get online anytime, anywhere is too distracting for my work and life. Quitting the internet for me is difficult, like quitting any other kinds of addictions such as coffee, it may result to a nasty headache or other ailment.

However, I'm happy to report not only that I survived this challenge, I found the experience liberating and I truly believe I can continue to do it and improve my lifestyle.

First I wrote down my resolve:
No internet usage except for urgent emails and anything work related.
Duration:
Start with 1 week.
How is it done?
What is not allowed:
1) No blogging or reading blogs including no reading my own blog, which I do a lot.
2) Minimal email, only check and respond to urgent ones.
3) Absolutely no Facebook or wechat.
4) Absolutely no reading news from the internet.
5) No reading with ebook (this will lessen the temptation to do other stuff online.)
6) Absolutely no online shopping.

What is allowed:
1) Reading real/physical books, papers or magazines.
2) Writing notes on physical notebook.
3) Can use iphone for the following:
    - as a clock, alarm or timer;
    - listen to music from iTunes or radio;
    - calendar, notifications (should use calendar book if possible)
    - spending application
    - phone calls
4) Use the phone to call people instead of using email. Meeting with friends in person instead of using social network apps.
5) OK to check bank account information online to make sure it's balanced, but should keep to minimum usage.
6) Can access the internet and use email for work related tasks.

What to do instead:
- stretch, yoga, pranayama, meditate
- play with dogs
- walk/exercise
- pick up the house, cook, etc
- write notes down
- watch news on TV, watch movies
- think, and hang out with friends

I feel like I'm sealing up the leakage of energy this way. It helps stop my mind from wondering, so that I'm not being obsessed by news or anything else flowing on the "net", and stop news from chew me up emotionally. I had so much more time to spare and do the right things with it. Hack I'm sealing up my wallet too!

Now, back to la la land.

Why do I enjoy cooking?

 

Picture above: I made taco spice seasoning with garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, chili powder, paprika, chili flakes, and ground cumin. How I feel like a chemist when mixing the spices together according to the recipe, then cover the bottle and just shake it to mix the spices evenly.

The kitchen is like a lab for cooks, everything is possible, and anything can happen. The final results also vary greatly, and that's part of the excitement.

Today, after weeks of slacking off, I made dinner. I've been craving for baked spicy sweet potato fries for days, and I finally get to make it today. I like the recipe from allrecipes.com. I also made a spicy zucchini soup (from Rachel Ray via the food network.)

Sweet potato fries called for taco mix, so I made myself some by combining the individual spices I had.

The zucchini soup is very much like an Italian soup, but I had to make roast red bell pepper for the first time. I cut the bell peppers in half, cleared the seeds and stems, then put them on the cookie sheet face down. I was supposed to "broil it until the skin turn char," and I was patient to wait for it to happen, even though I was very doubtful about the method judging by the unfamiliar smoky smell from the oven.

The bell pepper turned out alight to my pleasant surprise. The rest is just sauté vegetables with Italian spice mix, then add tomato and roasted bell pepper to cook. Then I added chicken stock, more spices to taste, which include garlic powder, chili powder, salt and pepper.

Impressively, both dishes were well received! Even tho zucchini can be blend and sweet potato is not our household favorite. The key is in the spice, I guess.

On forget and forgive

I used to think its a general saying to tell people not to hold grudges for something others did to them, forget about those bad experiences, and forgive the enemies.

Some personal experience let me to augment this to: if I cannot remember the incident in which lead me to be upset at the person, then it's time to forgive that person.

Of cause that can also mean, if you cannot forget then you don't want to/have to forgive.

I'm sure everyone has his or her own interpretation. That's the beauty of living and learning.

Books which blew my mind

Last night on the way home I looked up some facts about novels, because I am venturing to read "War and Peace," and we were wondering what was the longest novel ever written. Something interesting I found was that Tolstoy didn't regard "War and Peace" a novel. I also got a link which showed the BBC big reads, which was a readers choice on novels. I looked at the top 200 and was amazed that I have read a few of the top 200 on the list and more in the list of 20.

Reading this list brought back fond memories of reading some of those books which blew my mind at the time I read them. They certainly shaped the way I view the world and how I live.

Here is my unordered list and my memories about them. It's hard to pick one or two favorite ones, they are so different!

Brave new world - read it for college humanities class. Amazed by the vision of the author.

Gone with the wind - one of the first English novels I read. Fascinated by the strength of Scarlet. Learned a lot about the civil war, the south and slavery. Quote to remember: I will not think about it now, I'll think about it tomorrow. One of my first favorite English book.

Grapes of wrath - love, love the writing. I remember reading some paragraphs out loud over and over again and enjoyed the beautiful writings as well as the imagery. Learned a lot about America during the Great Depression. Sadden but amazed at people's strength to survive.  My first favorite English book.

Call of the wild - love the passion in writing and in Jack London's style.

I read the following shortly after I started working and when I have free time to make up some reading assignments which should have been done in high school.

 1984 - Amazed and amused.

 Animal farm - Very intrigued. I remember finding the Chinese version of it online and asked my mom to read it.

 Catch 22 - I remember lying in my cheap costco futon reading this book and rolling around laughing until my belly started aching and had tear in my eyes, yet it was not a happy laugh. It was funny but sad. How could one write something that has such impact in people? Black humor it is.

 Atlas shrugged - Astounded for months. Fascinated by Rearden and Dagny and strived to be like them. Joined Atlas shrugged online fan club, but people in the fan club were biggots and had super ego who like to equate themselves to be the hero and heroine. After struggling a while, I realized that the book was too black and white when judging people, and did not allow any human flaw or weakness, which is not realistic.

 The fountainhead - fascinated by Howard Roark.

 The ugly American - liked it very much, amused.

 Ender's Game - first science fiction I read.

 Harry potter - beautiful writing, fascinating imagination. Good read.

 The hobbit - amazed at the author's imagination.

 Jane Eyre - very difficult to read with lots of unfamiliar vocabularies, but love the super romantic story.

  Slaughterhouse five - amazing writing style the flows like no other.

I read the following more recently and love them.

A brief history about nearly everything (none fiction)  - learn a lot. Humorous writing style. Fascination about the universe and how some of the scientific discoveries whereby mistake.

Clan of the cave bear - beautiful writing and use of words. Some good facts about prehuman existence. Fascinating.

Guns, germs, and steel (none fiction) - when I entered into a period of curiosity about Archeology, this book is satisfies my craving and more.

The girl with dragon tattoo - liked to read about Swedish (as I never know anything about them). Good read, very tough story. I rather enjoyed the last book in the series because she finally won.

Here be dragons - my recent favorite which was recommended by a local bookstore owner when I told him I was interested in European history. Epic love story!

There are various Chinese historic legendary books I read when I was a child which were amazing too.

Then it brings me to "War and Peace," which I'm only 10% done.

The Hobbit 3

Happy New Year! This happens to be my 300th blog posting.

Today's main event was dim sum at our favorite restaurant, which was delicious and long missed. Then we went to see "The Hobbit 3." The 3D showing was the perfect timing so I reluctantly agreed to go for it, thinking I could get dizzy. Actually that was a double reluctance, because I wasn't so excited about more Lord Of the Rings type of fighting, which was totally made up to be a contrived third movie just so some film makers can make more money. But I went.

Actually the none fighting part, which was basically the first half of the movie, wasn't bad at all. There was good character development, good plot, and the 3D graphics were excellent. As the inevitable fighting scenes start, I was very nervous and did not enjoy it.

I kept thinking, "OK, I get it, there is this big and impossible war, where lots of heads being chopped off. Why don't we skip to the end, where the Orcs defeated and Bilbo goes home?" Then I thought, "whoever in the right mind would enjoy any kind of fight like this?"

Oh, if you are going to watch the movie, don't miss out the awesome sketches at the credit. I'm still wondering if they are real hand sketches or computer generated. If they are hand sketches, someone REALLY did a good job! Note, I rarely use all caps in my blog.