Chinese Feast!

 

So I felt like cooking today...2 hours later, here's my results. From the top of the picture down (for any of you reading this on Facebook, I'm not sure if the picture will syndicate properly), the dishes are: Ma po dofu, Indonesian Fried Noodles, Gan bian si ji dou, and Gong Bao Ji Ding. (Forgive the bastardized names, that's what I know them as and I don't want to look up whatever the prevalent translation is over here).

Lots of left-overs...I can take a break from cooking for a couple days!

The Ma po dofu was a little disappointing in that I accidentally added some Lee Kum Kee branded spicy garlic sauce (the characters on the jar were 鱼香酱 - fish flavor sauce - usually very tasty in China when done properly but this crap was NASTY). The aftertaste is still lingering unpleasantly in my mouth.

The Gong bao ji ding (Kung Pao Chicken) turned out pretty okay. I used the recipe from the book "Land of Plenty". It turned out to be fairly tasty, although not quite the same as I remember the dish to be when prepared in the best kind of dive restaurants in Beijing.

Anyway, the wife was very happy to come home and see most of this stuff ready.

plans aren't firm yet, but....

Probably will do a little bit of international traveling in the relatively near-ish future.

The amount of time I'll spend on it is a little up in the air at this point, but it seems very likely that I'm at least going somewhere.

Woot.

Good to have something to look forward to.

We'll see how this goes.

While I do appreciate having time to myself, adequate time to go to the gym, myriad chances to cook, and many opportunities to prove to my cats that I'm a worthy host, the prospect of getting away from all that sounds pretty sweet.

things overheard a little more - suckas...

At a coffee shop again, trying to do some writing on a book that I've been kicking around for a long, long time.

I guess things aren't flowing, creatively speaking, as I'm suddenly hyper-aware of everything going on around me. Even as I type things out and surf the net and listen to music.

Right now, there's a lady to my right (who frequently uses the never-cool phrase "cool beans") who is starting to pitch some guys on some sort of comission-only sales job position.

I can't tell if it's for a position as a real estate agent, mortgage broker, or financial planner.

I want to tell the people getting this spiel, "IT'S A TRAP!!!"

They said they did not finish high school and are exploring their options.

Having been down this road myself (a long, long time ago, and will never be on my resume).

The whole thing is just rubbing me the wrong way...lady is dropping a bunch of TLAs that describe various positions in the scheme, and how one earns points, and how these lucky people who are "empowering" themselves will soon be providing this kind of "training" to others in the very near future and how they can start getting instant promotions if they just make a commitment and stick to the simple plan...

Where's the market for this now??? Who's in a rush to buy insurance and investment plans and home loans and Arbonne stuff?

I guess I better move tables or something.

(I know that this sort of commission-only sales stuff can really work for some people, but I am just not in the mood to hear it)

Nicely done

Took me an extra couple days to finally watch the battlestar galactica
finale. But I am pleased. Very well done ending to what was a very
well done series all-around.

in case you missed this re-tweet

Funny (and sad) since it rings so true:

RT @goldkorn: Employer of Holocaust deniers, homophobe, telling Africans not to use condoms: is the Pope actually evil?

http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=20428

I don't go to church anymore, nor do I really give a shit what the pope says or does.

Yet, given his position, authority & influence over the masses of people who do listen to him, how irresponsible of him is it to be keeping up with these outdated, ass-backwards agendas?

Things overheard

So, much like my life two years ago, I'm at a starbucks in a mall,
surfing the Internet and looking for a job.

Different continents.

But not much is different.

Well, I guess that there is much more English being spoken and far
less Chinese. I overhear the Chinese conversations, understand what
people are saying, but keep holding back at saying anything (unless
someone strikes up conversation). I mean, merely understanding what
others are saying is not an entitlement to chat with them. (it would
not usually be kosher to do that with people who natively speak your
language, right?)

But still, it's interesting hearing chinese people comparing starbucks
here and at home much like I am too. Did not learn anything special,
but I guess if one acquires a taste for lattes, you will feed that
hunger whenever and where ever you can.

Brewed coffee for me. Black, like I like my men. :p

we're already living in a revolution, in a way

Read a very interesting article comparing the spread of internet publishing, its implications for newspapers & traditional media.

It's probably the most similar to when the printing press first emerged in 1500 - and the implications of that were very widespread indeed.

Not to say that people back in the 14th century wouldn't have understood the significance of the printing press, but they may not have been able to see the full extent of its influence...probably very much like people now trying to deal with the impact of the networked/"interneted" society we're creating.

Anyway, the article is long but I found it fascinating.

http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/

Thanks to Charles Stross' blog for pointing me towards this article.

(If you like sci-fi books, then you would probably find his work very interesting)

stupid monkey!

Tried out this site - you can make your own machinima movies for free; and have lines delivered in a Radiohead-esque (or new ipod shuffle-esque) artificial voice.

Just did a test run; it seems to work well.

hindsight is 20/20

I took my PMP exam today. Passed. (yay)

But this story is about prior to taking the exam.

I showed up to the test site about an hour early (was a little jittery and there wasn't much else to do at home).

Nothing in the way of a starbucks or somewhere else to hang out prior to the test in the immediate vicinity, so I went out for a walk and came across a small-ish doughnut & espresso shop.

There was nothing else comparable around so I went in. The proprietor had maybe 3 dozen doughnuts left (he starts business at 4:30 am each day and it was already 1:30 pm when I walked in).

I got a few things and we started talking. It turns out this guy's family was originally from somewhere in Guangdong province, China, somewhere outside of Guangzhou. Of course I was interested as I cannot easily forget my life over there (but I'm really not living in the past either).

When we got to discussing the topic of China & the rapid economic growth & changes there, he mentioned that he had the opportunity to go in on an investment with some of his cousins, who had remained in China and not immigrated to the US. Their business? Selling gravel.

If I were in this man's shoes, in the mid-80's, hearing about an opportunity to invest in a Chinese cousin's gravel company, I would have been suspicious, to say the least. As the guy I was talking with had been back then.

However, it turns out that his family's business turned out to be wildly successful. Sounds as if they have more money now than they know what to do with. They ended up selling gravel on a lot of gov't contracts for train & subway development...and infrastructure spending was certainly going on with reckless abandon in China in the 80's and 90's.

I had to pause and reflect how I'd deal with a missed opportunity of sorts like that if I were in his shoes.

The shop owner seemed to have some pangs of regret, but on the other hand did not seem to be a broken man - far from it; he was jovial and spoke proudly of his sons, who are gainfully employed doing jobs they really like (both involving computers & software) around Seattle. He was also very proud about his business, which had been running strong for 22 years.

I guess that there could always be missed opportunities in one's life, but if you let that eat at you then you would miss out on what you were actually living.

Meh. I guess it is late for me (finally getting used to the time change) and I'm reaching to find something profound in what was just a random conversation.

(but hey, talking with the dude was both interesting and cleared my mind prior to taking the exam).

flawed logic

Mean people suck.

Everybody is mean (sometimes).

Therefore:

Everybody sucks (sometimes).

I was pleased enough with myself for putting that together (or remembering it) in the midst of cleaning the house earlier. Now...well, whatever - it's a post.

gotta recommend a game - on sale for the rest of this weekend

If you love simple, but beautiful games as well as being thrifty, then this is totally worth a look.

(Assuming you read this blog, and see it on march 8, 2009 within a US-based time zone).

http://store.steampowered.com/app/22000/

World of Goo is an engrossing game, and $5 is a very good deal for it. I had heard about a lot of critical love for the game, but I had not tried it...at $5, I gave it a whirl & I must say it's excellent...great casual game.

Enabler

Nightly ritual of drinking wine and providing some to cat.

Science Tattoos

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/science-tattoo-emporium/

In case you were wondering - do the scientifically-inclined get body art?

Certainly, some do, and the photographic proof is here.

Every day

I make sandwiches like this every day for the wife and myself.

This one has wasabi mayonaise.

Getting ready for the test

I'm studying to take a test to be a certified PMP - Project Management Professional.

Have been reviewing the material nearly every day for the past week and a half; and for the rest of the coming week I plan on taking one practice exam per day.

It's been nice having a clear goal to work towards (and sometimes slack-off from :) ) during my otherwise amorphously-defined free time as I search for a new job.

Not sure what I'll do after I finish the exam (and pass) - I'm hoping this will be one extra thing to help me  land a job.

In the meantime, I like having some time just for me during the day and getting to explore the neighborhood on sunny spring days and spend time with our cats when I'm at home...not an unpleasant existence; it's just that requirement to have continued steady income for survival seems to be at odds with it.

I'm not usually a dog person, but...

Was at a party last night and a friend brought his newly adopted puppy.

Gotta say, indeed very cute!

Very friendly, and even though he peed in places he shouldn't, he was
a big hit. People liked the dog too. Ha ha. :)

I am liking the itunes genius feature

I am kind of lazy about making playlists on my own; I tend to either listen to everything on shuffle or specifically narrow down to an artist or album. So, the "auto-playlist" feature that Genius provides in iTunes is much appreciated. My experiences with it thus far are solid.

Unfortunately, it's not too solid with anything too obscure; sucks if I'm feeling like listening to punk-rock from east Asian countries. Oh well. I can deal with that.

novelty of studying all the time is wearing off

Glad that my cats are around to keep me company at home. Also glad that the exam I'm studying for is now less than two weeks away. Studying all the time at home is growing a little old & isolating.

Maybe it's just that I overdid it yesterday.

Bedtime cat

We always have company in bed. We are not allowed to move much.

study helper

I'm trying to get some studying done, and someone at home is giving me her special brand of "help".

I appreciate the company, but she does make it difficult to read.