Week in summary and catching up

Had a pretty tiring week last week. Worked all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Drove to LA the night of Wednesday. Woke up at 8:15 to take my mom to the LAX for her 3-week trip to China. Of course whenever my mom travels, the whole family (maybe with the exception of my brother) is nervous as hell because 1. my mom doesn't speak English 2. she panics in any deviations from norm. I got her through check-in and tried to make her security check as easy as I can so she doesn't lose anything by telling her to put her electronics/metals in a zip-lock bag at the entrance. As soon as I got the call that everything was ok and she's headed to the gate, I went home. Came back to SD late Thursday night after going grocery shopping with my brother and sharing a limon-lime Jaritos from Valu-Mart just like the old times. Worked almost 9 hours on Friday.

Things are going well as a personal assistant. As I learn more and more about his tastes, I am better able to make decisions on his behalf, something I am also getting good feedback on, which makes me extremely happy. I always feel very productive when I'm working with him. It's a good outlet for all my planning and detail obsessions so I don't have to stress so much about it at home. Interesting I even have that. Something new I learned about myself.

Saturday was Butters day since I didn't have time to take care of him all week. Took him to OB for 2 hours then a 5 mile hike around Miramar lake. The little guy is doing better and better on hikes. He wasn't too tired at all.

Sunday, L & I woke up at 7:15 to meet the Perkins in LA for a day trip. We spent most of the day in downtown exploring Chinatown (where I got some pretty good deals on household goods), the flower district (8th & Wall, between Alameda & Main, found cymbidiums for $11), and the fabric district (a totally awesome store that should be a first stop: LA Alex Inc. 416-418 East 9th St. Between Wall and Maple). Had Chinese food, danger dogs, and fruit box. Because of the traffic, decided to forgo other tourist plans and head to John's place in Orange. We had dinner at Zito's and walked home afterwards. It felt so good to take a leisure after-dinner walk while slowly savoring a chocolate truffle. Old town Orange is filled with quite a few quaint little shops that looked promising for future treasure hunts. The building structures are pleasing, as well as the yards. Most of them are landscaped and well maintained. Definitely a change from Mira Mesa yards.

Today was the first day of non-training. By non-training, I meant that we spent 7 hours filling out paperwork. So it was training, but not really. HQ rescheduled training to next week. Unfortunately, six out of 30 people did not get a call letting us know about the change. At least I'm flexible, so it doesn't affect me too much. Still, one imagines that with so many rules and people, information will at least be consistent. But that I guess that's the problem with bureaucracy. Everyone's overpaid for their narrow duties and no one checks on what's really happening. To give them the benefit of the doubt though, I suppose it is hard to hire and train so many temps and have them train more temps. Nobody really knows what's going on or why we have to do something, just that we have to do it this way. Hopefully, it fulfills someone's well-thought out vision somewhere.

Had a pretty good time meeting different people. Everyone was quite friendly and helpful. I actually got a round of applause during introductions because I told everyone that since naturalization as an American citizen, I wanted to be a part of the political process by at least taking my civic duty seriously. The Census is one way of doing that. I don't want Nebraska, Texas or Utah or another backwards red state to take even a seat from California. Ok, I didn't mention the last part. One of the work came by and told me that she was very proud of what I'm doing and that to her I am "the definition of a true American." I felt like I could fly during that moment. Looking forward to meeting the group again during real training next week.

Since training plans fell through, I suppose I will have a few days this week for rest and time with Butters. It's supposed to rain this week, but hopefully it either doesn't rain too much or it pours. I hate the medium type where it traps me at home, unsure of what to do.

What an awesome week. =)

Hiking at Miramar Lake

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Went for a walk around Lake Miramar today with Butters in the afternoon. The weather was perfect, cool and cloudy. I am so proud of him for finishing the walk with his tail still waving tall and dignified.

I, on the other hand, almost passed out from low blood sugar. Everything was going beautifully before the half-way mark. Before that point, we walked briskly, Butters finally settled into a good pace. After a brief water break at 2.5 mile marker, I felt a bit light-headed. Hoping it will go away and knowing there was no point turning back, we kept going forward. I felt hungrier and hungrier. I began picturing all the food present anywhere in the fridge, pantry, and living room. Then I felt weak in the legs and arm and really light-headed. I regretted not bringing any food. Strawberry jam sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly. Roast beef. Yogurt covered pretzels. Anything. Can't think of anything. I only had water. I pictured me passing out on the trail. I looked around to see if anyone will stop and help. What if I stopped someone to ask for anything with sugar in it? Will they have it? Sports drink? Will they look at me crazy? At the 3.75 mile mark, I once again mentally went through all my backpack contents. Wait, I have dog treats! And the jerky is made ingredients that's all natural. One of them is cane juice. I quickly stopped and took out two small pieces and popped them in my mouth. Not too bad. Much like beef jerky with a sweet aftertaste. At the very least it mentally made me feel better. Needless to say and much to my relief, I made it back to the car and to the house, resisting the temptation to stop at any food place along the way to buy something to eat. Once at the house, I stuffed myself with anything I could find.

I wondered while I was worrying about passing out why we have two types of hunger? I remember going the whole day without eating. I felt hungry, but didn't feel like I would pass out. Then there's hunger that comes on really quickly and makes me feel like I'm going to die if I don't eat. Why the difference? I have fat. If my body lacked blood sugar, then goddamn it take some fat and convert that to sugar. I wonder what the mechanism is for the two?

Funny and stupid stories from IL poison control center

Illinois poison control center updates a blog with stories to raise awareness of their importance in order to save their funding. There are some pretty interesting stories that happens to real people.

If any one party takes drugs, it can be passed on to the other partner through sexual contact with undesirable effects such as allergic reaction or hair in random places.

Coffee with extra kick. (#10)


Lube or toothpaste? (#1)

酸菜 (Chinese sauerkraut)

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I'm not sure why, but recently I've been craving 酸菜. It is fermented Napa cabbage made in the northern China style. Cook it with green bean thread and pork in soup...yum! Anyway, I'm not much of an expert in different processes of fermenting cabbages to tell the difference between regional styles, but it is definitely not kimchee nor the Singapore or southern Chinese kind. The real stuff is really hard to find in America, so I thought I will try looking for the recipe on the internet to make it myself.

Here's the recipe I'm going to try (roughly translated, with my own notes added below):

1. Prepare a non-metallic container. (The acid released during the fermentation process will affect the metals.)
2. Get rid of the bruised leaves. When putting the Napa cabbages into the container, do your best to place them in such a way as to get rid of all the air bubbles. If you have a hard time putting them in, you may half or quarter them.
3. Add boiling water, add some salt. Place weight on top of the lid to keep cabbages from floating/exposed to air.
4. Place in an area 50-70 degrees Fahrenheit for more than 20 days. Try not to disturb it in the first few days.

Important note! The most important thing in making good 酸菜 is making sure there's no air in the container. The bacteria that ferments the cabbage are anaerobic bacteria. The ones that rots the cabbage are aerobic bacteria. Hence, we add boiling water to kill off bacteria and create an environment that only anaerobes can grow. The acid helps preserve the vegetable.


Here's a site explaining the general concepts of fermenting cabbages.

Law and order: capital punishment

Though capital punishment, like abortion and gun control, seems to be one of those national hot issues, I've never thought enough to have an opinion on it.

I was watching Law & Order: SVU (I love the show. I can write a post on why I love the show.) and capital punishment is brought up a lot for the especially heinous crimes. During those shows, the various detectives argue about why it's a good or bad thing for society.

After thinking about it (maybe I'm still not done thinking about it), I still don't have an opinion on it. On one hand, it costs more to society, in a purely monetary sense, to incarcerate a prisoner for life. However, this way, supposedly, every single day that they are alive, they can think about this punishment of why they are there. Plus, this eliminates the chance of executing an innocent person.

On the other hand, if the convicted is truly a sociopath who doesn't care and won't repent, then it's better for society if we just kill him/her.

It then comes down to what is the nature of crimes? What are the statistics on different type of crimes, especially those that leads to execution? Are there more crimes of passion than premeditated murder? Are there more premeditated murders where the person is not likely to repeat the crime than serial killers? I wonder if those who work in the justice system, including law enforcement and prison guards, have different statistics than the general population on capital punishment?


Is it better to let 1000 criminals off than to kill 1 innocent man or woman?

I say no. Well. I lean towards no. Plus, ever since DNA testing, I find it hard to imagine mistakes of that magnitude making it through the justice system.

Competency for execution

Window farms

I saw this really cool concept on NPR, called window farming.



It attempts to alleviate the problem of the lack of fresh food in cities using by growing plants using recycled bottles, air pump, tubing, and hydroponics. It looks like a pretty cool way to grow some small plants. Probably is not effective with bigger plants. I wonder how plants with extensive root systems do?

While we are on the subject of food, NutritionData is fairly comprehensive website on nutritional facts of a lot of foods, such as sunflower seeds (which I've been eating non-stop. Until I ran out. Sad.)

Cute picture of the day

From A Cup of Jo. It looks like it's posing for picture day at school.

It is soooo cute. I don't know why I like giraffes. I never had a favorite animal before I got my Wild Animal Park pass. I think they look very graceful and serene. Did I mention I have a giraffe mug? It's also very cute. Also from Wild Animal Park.

Update on the earthquake

We found out on NPR that border crossing closed at 5pm that day. If we didn't cross at the time we did, we might not have been able to come back to this side without a lot of frustration and brainstorming. Trapped in Mexico. Scary thought.

Calexico Roadtrip Part II: the 7.2 earthquake

The other three's perspectives:
John's
Lauren's
Luis'

After crossing the border, we picked up a few more items on Calexico's main street before heading home. By this time, most of the stores were closing anyway.

We were walking past the clothing store Benzene and Lauren asked John whether he wanted to go in and check it out. He thought about it and replied, "I do like their stuff...but no." We pondered on the decision as we strolled past the windows. My mind mulled on whether John's tone. Was he being sarcastic? Then, a rumbling and shaking broke me from my thoughts. The next all happened within 40 seconds even though it felt longer.

At first I dismissed it. Then I looked up and saw the two storeys worth of window panes shaking and bouncing light like they don't normally do. That was when my brain decided it was officially an earthquake and a strong one at that. My mind immediately flashed back to elementary school earthquake education to seek cover. No desk or anything to hide under. Fine. Doorway. Nope. Or arch. I see arch. Move sideways a foot or so. Now I'm under arch. Wait. Reservation. Why? Sheets of glass still shaking. Not good. Need to move somewhere else. I looked in the streets. Vision only a half step behind a still-forming mental checklist. No tall buildings. No tall trees. No power lines directly overhead. With the last check complete. (At this point, the brain no longer formed words. Concepts flashed one after another. It barely even bothered forming pictures.) I immediately moved to to the middle of the street. I hear Lauren behind me. I reached for her, grabbed her arm, jacket, hand, I don't know what, and took her with me.

The four of us stood in the streets, breathlessly waiting for the shaking to end. It felt like only the concrete beneath us was solid. Whatever was beneath the concrete behaved like a liquid and was strangely not holding still. I knew I was not moving, yet everything was else was. Alarms went off. People clustered. Glasses crashed. We waited.

When the shaking finally abated, I laughed in relief and bear-hugged Lauren, glad that everyone I cared about right then was okay. In that moment, L ran back in to Benzene to check everyone got out of the store. John followed. I hesitated before walking back and anxiously waited under that archway. He appeared a few seconds later with another man who thought his daughter was inside. He found her outside waiting and ran to hug her.

With everyone together again, I took stock of the scene around. People still gathered in the middle of the street. A few women cried. Many were still hugging their loved ones. Everyone seemed dazed and shaken up by the whole ordeal, including us.

The fateful store.

As we walked back to our car, we took a few pictures of the damages to the shops that lined the street.

 JC Penny's

Our parking spot. Thankfully, nothing hit the car.

Luis' home.

His aunt was home alone. The gigantic TV moved. Paintings skewed. Mirrors fell. The thing lying diagonally is a picture wall. On the most left-hand side were pictures and figurines. Most pictures fell also, except for the one of me and Luis in the picture frame from Hawaii.

Even though the power was out and water leaked in the bathroom, the important thing was that everyone was alright.

Luis took off with John to check on his friend's grandmother. Lauren and I stayed with his aunt and rode out the ensuing aftershocks.

We tried checking for emergency supplies as far as El Centro, but everything closed, we weren't the only ones with the same idea.

After coming back from the fruitless trip, we decided to head back to SD with still an hour of sunlight left. Just in case the earthquake shook loose some rocks that blocked the freeway, we will have time to act accordingly.

Instead of taking the scenic 98, we just took the 8. On the way up to the mountains, we had to slow down. It turned out a ditch formed on a small bridge over a finger of Sunbeam Lake. Luis later found that a section of the 8 had to be closed because the bridge later collapsed.

A few things I learned from this whole experience:
1. As soon as possible, Luis and I are going to put together an emergency pack with 15 MRE's, 3 days worth of water, candles, matches, lighters, utility knife, flashlight. Just for starters.
2. Luis is crazy. I can't believe his good Samaritan instinct told him to run in to a store right after an earthquake. At this rate, he just might die before I do.

In laughing about the whole crazy experience, we came up with a theory of why females have a longer life span than males. During the earthquake, both Lauren and I thought about each others' safety and knew in the back of our minds that the boys will be able to take care of themselves. We grabbed each other and went to safety and didn't really think to check on the guys, assuming they followed us. While after the whole thing was over, Luis ran back in to a store, putting his own safety at risk.

Looking back, we were incredibly lucky. Yes, we chose this day to come to Calexico. However, we crossed the border about 10 mins before the earthquake hit. I don't know how long it would have taken us to come back if we just decided to keep walking a bit longer. We left and drove past the ditch on the 8 before it sank and that section had to be closed.

Everything turned out well. Quite a road trip and Easter Sunday.

And random Butters picture. I gave him a haircut last week. He had been playing with Mona the whole day, so excuse the unbrushed look.

Calexico Roadtrip Part I: the foods

 "So what's the cheapest way to have an adventure?" Lauren asked on Friday night.

In answer to that, we took a trip to Calexico because Luis has been itching for some time now to show the Perkins his hometown.

We left around 10 in the morning after dropping Butters off at their place. Since we didn't have any breakfast, we stopped by Los Compadres near El Cajon for some of their delicious pollo asado tacos.

Our first stop was at Luis' house to visit his aunt. Then we walked around downtown Calexico to peek in all the little shops with trinkets, baubles and other shiny objects. The boys found 99 cent airsoft handguns in an electronics shop while Lauren and I visited an accessories store. I then found some lucky bamboo (to replace the ones that I killed) at a big, general all-purpose store.

Off to Mexico. After walking through the two clanging rotating doors, we came up two stop lights and a new sign with the table on the left side. I tried to make out what the sign said, but to no avail. Luis told me to just keep walking. He explained later that the men sitting behind the table were actually Mexican border agents checking bags coming into Mexico. They seemed nowhere as stringent as their American counterparts.

After crossing, we immediately hit up the taco stands and ordered sixteen tacos among us. I love Mexican tacos because they are so simple and fresh. They give you the tortilla with meat and we decide what to put in them, guacamole, salsa, hot sauce, lime juice, etc. We payed 200 pesos (a bit less than $20) for the tacos and four drinks.

We continued our strolling along with streets just taking in the sights. Being Easter Sunday, quite a few shops were closed. It seems like whenever I'm in Mexicali, there has never been a time when the majority of the stores were open. However, little vendor carts still lined the sidewalk.

L and I next got some corn in a cup. I couldn't finish mine because of all the tacos. They didn't seem to be the best anyway. Right next to the corn vendor (who also sold cut cacti, fried pork rinds, potato chips, and drinks) was a man who sold freshly made churros and pineapple drinks (along with other flavors, but pineapple caught our eyes). We promised ourselves to come back to taste the two.

Further walking did not lead to novel discoveries, so we decided to start back. Lauren got the pineapple drink and a bag of churros. The man took the freshly fried dough, put them in a paper bag, spooned some of the cinnamon sugar mixture and carefully shook the bag. He then ladled the pineapple juice with the correct proportions of ice, juice and pineapple chunks into a big cup. The churros were sweet, warm and crunchy, with no dryness whatsoever. The juice was incredibly refreshing, not too sweet but tasted of genuine pineapple.

Luis also bought a mango ($1.50), skinned, cut into flower shape, and stuck on a stick. It was so sweet. I loved it. Unfortunately, I didn't get to finish it because on the way back across, the Dept. of Agriculture guy told Luis, who was holding it, that he must throw it away. Immediately. He didn't even get the chance to eat it!

Anyway, on our way back across the border, Luis found an old-fashioned raspado (shaved ice) cart. They had a 1 to 1 1/2 ft by 3 ft block of ice under two layers of cloth. The guy uncovered it and used a metal instrument to manually shave the ice (think planing wood). The ice is held in the metal container until he puts the ice bits into a cup. He then pours whatever flavor you choose on it. Though the texture of the ice is not as soft and flaky as the one on Oahu, I still liked it because it was like eating flavored ice chips. Totally refreshing on a hot day.

Me? Organized?

In fifth grade I went through a phase rolling my eyes at anything that frustrated me which frustrated my teacher to no end so she brought it up during parent-teacher conference and somehow the parent and the teacher concluded that I need to be more organized. Ever since then, and with the birth of my brother, I am the disorganized one in the family. My mom sighs about it to this day.

I have been trying to get better at it. I even bought a book on housekeeping so I can get some tricks on cleaning faster.
(I found that I like using vinegar as a general counter cleaner and degreaser. I mix water and white distilled vinegar 50/50 in a spray bottle. It's easy to use and to wipe. Using bleach, I have to wipe three times before I'm satisfied the bleach is gone. Vinegar, I wipe once. The cleaned surface only smells faintly of vinegar if at all. It's cheaper and less harsh than fancy commercial cleaners at the store.

The only commercial cleaners that I do use are toilet bowl cleaners and Lysol for the toilet rim. I don't really need to state the reason for the latter.)

Anyway, when I came back from my shopping on Friday for B,  he told me, "You are more organized than I am. And that's a compliment." I was extremely happy to hear that because I really don't consider myself organized. It's just one of those things that you say in interviews and put on your resumes because it looks good.

I thought about it on the drive home and realized I definitely spend a lot of time planning and trying to anticipate the future in every little thing. This actually keeps me awake in the mornings at times thinking about "What needs to be done? What I should have done? Why haven't I done this yet?" It's tiring because every little noise that wakes me up, neighbors walking upstairs, lawn mower outside, kids going to school...however brief or loud or not, my mind transitions from drowsiness to full tired consciousness running at full speed creating and organizing that list of things to do with all the accompanying details in my head. Yet, I'm too tired to really accomplish anything.

I shared this with G because he was talking about his occasional insomnia. He does the exact same thing except at night. Seriously, sign of mental problem?

I hope it'll disappear once I get my life on track.

Lady Gaga's Telepone parody by Key of Awesome

This is hilarious and so well done.

From JM, I thought it was too good to not post.

Lasagna recipe

This is the recipe I based the lasagna on with a few changes in the future.

For the meat sauce
In a big pot,
+ 1 lb ground beef
   1 lb sweet Italian sausage (may need to cook first before quartering & slicing)
   1/2 cup chopped onion (1/2 onion)
   2 cloves chopped garlic
Sweat the onions & garlic till soft. Brown the meats.

+ 28 oz crushed tomato
   16 oz tomato sauce
   12 oz tomato paste
   1/2 cup water
Stir together.

+ 2 Tbs white sugar
   1 tsp fennel seed
   2 tsp chopped fresh basil
   2 Tbs chopped fresh Italian parsley
   1 tsp salt
   1 tsp Italian seasoning
   1/2 tsp ground pepper
Cover & simmer on low for 1 1/2 hours.
Do a final seasoning.
Can be made the night before.

Ricotta mixture
   23 oz ricotta cheese
   1 container of cottage cheese
   1/2 tsp nutmeg
   1 egg
   2 Tbs chopped fresh Italian parsley
Mix with spoon.

Cook 11 lasagna noodles according to instruction.

Other ingredients
   1 lb shredded mozzarella
   1 cup grated Parmesan

Putting everything together
Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
In a 9 x 13in dish, layer (x2)
   2 cups of meat sauce
   layer of noodles (5-6)
   ricotta
   mozzarella
   Parmesan
Top with rest of meat sauce, rest of cheese.

Bake covered for 25 min.
Bake uncovered for 25 min.
Let rest 15 mins., before serving.

Serves 12 people.

My 1st book club night: Brave New World

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For book club, I chose Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

The world created by Huxley has haunted me ever since I read it in high school. I can't help but be sucked in by the invitation to examine our basic values and norms.

What if freedom isn't all it's touted to be? How to maximize happiness in a general population?

This novel is obviously supposed to be a dystopian novel. However, if we all grew up conditioned to like our station in life, never desiring more than what's beyond our reach, with the magical soma as a backup if we feel even slightly unhappy, is that such a bad thing? No disease or aging either.

To be honest, that world does appeal to me. Freedom has its consequences. We can choose happiness but unwittingly choose our suffering as well because we don't know what's best for us (think relationships). In fact, half the time we don't even know our wants. What we hope to achieve in life are all values ingrained within us by society. You need to make lots of money. You need to follow your heart and realize your dreams. You need to take care of your parents, etc. In the book, the society tells the individuals that happiness is not desiring to be a part of the other castes, enjoy your work, enjoy the entertainment available to you, enjoy promiscuity, enjoy consuming, enjoy not worrying about the younger and the older, etc. One has choices, but they are limited. Without knowing what life could otherwise be like (for example, how can a person who's only used a chamber pot all their lives and have never seen a toilet desire a toilet?) I think it's very feasible to have a high percentage of happy people in this type of society. Afterall, what is gained by the freedom to choose?

The only good thing that might come from freedom is the range of existence available for humans to experience. The tragic, the heroic, the dramatic, the comedic. To use my high school English teacher's words, they bring out "the greatness of the human condition" (as he described Frodo in The Lord of the Rings) or the worst. Is this greatness of human condition worth seeing if it means all this suffering in the world?

I'm glad everyone read the book and is now in our common canon. The meeting helped me clarify some thoughts.

Oh and I also made my first lasagna. I'd post pictures, but most of it is gone. I'm happy to report that it was a success. I'll post the recipe with my modifications tomorrow.