Update AT LAST

Photos have been added to my rooftop excursion on 5/1/2008. Finally!
Thanks for checking in :)

I've moved into a new apartment and am making it cozy. Some sort of nesting for winter, I suppose. Only thing I'm missing now is a good closet. So I'm converting one of the rooms into a walk in one. Going to do this conversion project right after I get all my work done. Very excited about that.

The bliss of lazy mornings

is so inviting that I decided to stay an extra hour later in bed than I did yesterday. And yesterday I stayed in bed more than 4 hours later than I have all summer. That, my friend, has got to one of the most blissful things in life. Sweet indulgence of a lazy morning. Can't be beat. Can't be duplicated.

I spent all night watching reruns of SATC, season 2. And was munching on chocolate covered fruits by the Davenports, a long line of chocolatiers and patissiers who go way back with their craft, and, oh, the crown heads of Europe.



The back panel reads:

"Dilettante Chocolates
FRUIT MEDLEY
Cherries, Blueberries, Strawberries, Apricots
in Premium White, Milk & Dark Chocolate
Here at Dilettante, third generation Master Chocolatier Dana Taylor Davenport creates our cherries, blueberries, strawberries, and apricots in premium white, milk and dark chocolate in special revolving kettles using only the finest couverture quality chocolate and premium dried fruit.

The master formulas used to create Dilettante chocolates are selected from the notebooks of Dana's grandfather, Earl Remington Davenport. Master Candymaker, and his great uncle, Julius Rudolph Franzen, a Master Confectioner and Pastry Chef to the crowned heads of Europe."

Only problem was that little old myopic me spilled some on my sheets and then didn't realize it until this morning, when I found an orange one under a pillow. Let's just say that I'm no modern-day princess and the pea.

Of Olympic-sized Weights, Million-dollar Wait Reduction, and Missing Pictures

Life has been pretty decent lately.
Summer is in full swing. My work is winding down and shifting gears. I’ll be engrossed in a bit more book learning. And the Olympics are on :)

One of my friends from college said it best, “I’ve watched more TV in the past two days than in the past two YEARS!” Watching the Olympics can seem like full-time work. When I last checked the medal count, China was ahead in both number of gold (9) and total (14), but that will probably change as the track and field events start, or so my dad says. It struck me how China’s medals in weight-lifting are all gold.

But then again, it makes sense when I think back to how I was lifted up Emai Mountain in Sichuan when I used to weigh 150lbs for one of my trips to China. There were these tiny little southern Chinese men, scrambling up the greenery-plentiful mountain with a bamboo-stick chair, on which I sat, with the chair creaking all the way and my muscles tensed anticipating the moment when they might lose their footing climbing the steep incline carrying such a heavy load as me. So maybe Chinese people are built for carrying heavy loads. But maybe heavy also runs in my family, as bamboo chair carrying my dad actually broke and the porters carrying his dad said in the Sichuan dialect, “Woah, that’s a big load.”

So besides the Olympics, I had a doctor’s appointment today to certify that I am properly immunized for the major infectious diseases that I might catch from patients of my own. I had to wait a whole hour before seeing this doctor. I knew the wait issue was bad in the clinic where I worked this summer. But I really had no idea that this problem was so pervasive! I really hope that I won’t have to make anyone wait that long for their appointment. One thing I absolutely can’t stand is late. Punctuality, I think, is a matter of respect.


Surely, these people who are late can’t all be doing it on purpose. After all, they can’t leave until they finish with all their work, so maybe it’s the system that’s bad.


As I sat in the car on the way home from my appointment, I was thinking, maybe if someone came up with a way to decrease wait time or inform patients ahead of time about the wait such that they could plan around it, it might be a million dollar idea. And the concept of increased punctuality wouldn’t only apply a doctor’s office, but could extend to waiting for buses, restaurants, and anything else that doesn’t respect starting precisely at the time of appointment.

So give it some thought, will you? And with the collective brain power, we can work out a wait reduction.

Also today, I looked for pictures from my roof-top adventure to secure a new home for my basil plant. No such luck. I’m still a-searching and hopefully they’ll turn up so I can share them!

Mid-Summer Day in the City

It has been too long since my last visit here. Thanks for still checking on me :)

So yesterday, several somethings unusual happened.

Item 1:
On the morning train, the world's most shriveled-up-looking little old man tapped me on the shoulder when I reading my BRS. He said, are you studying psychology? Turns out that Little Old Man's brother studied psychology in New York and then didn't finish the degree but ended up as a cop. The little old man was quite happy for me that I am in school and encouraged me to finish so that I can pay back all my student loans. True story.

Item 2:
After work, I walked to Red Line Chicago stop like always. While waiting to cross the street at the intersection of Chicago and Michigan, I noticed this guy in the front passenger seat of the car in the right lane staring at me and smiling. He was a young guy. Brown hair. Medium build. No glasses.

I didn't think anything of this at first. Maybe he was just looking at something else in my direction and not me. So I looked away into the traffic in the distance.

When I glanced back, he was STILL looking at me. And I'm thinking, maybe I have something on my face or clothes. So I look down and pull out my cell phone to check.

Then the light changed and the car could turn onto Chicago from the right lane. The guy rolled his window down and made a 'W' with his hand and said "Wash U! YEAH!!!!"

I chuckled a little and said hi back.
Turns out he was fixating on my RED ALERT t-shirt.

Go Bears.

Item 3:
Not so much of an unusual thing. But, CTA, you really need to work on your public announcement system in your train stations. Yesterday there was a very long delay during rush hour and some announcer came online to explain to all the people who were waiting. A silence fell over the large crowd of people waiting on the platform as the announcement came on. But with all the pops and crackles and the muffled voice, all I could hear was "Red Line" and "emergency." And the guy next to me did no better.

Yesterday was a good day though apart from item 3. I got all my work done on Tuesday and got some good reviews. And even got to take some photos on the train.

Speaking of that, there's another item.

Item 4:
As I was sitting on the train (window seat, next to last car) going home, a girl walked really fast and sat down in a huff next to me and whipped out a journal and started scribbling furiously. I was reading at the time, but was REALLY REALLY curious about what she was writing about. I've definitely seen my share of lunatics on the train, so I had to proceed cautiously. I pretended to look at my book's left page and then looked at what she was writing out of the left corner of my eyes. I caught only bits and pieces, including words like "f*** you?" and "she came in and sat down," and "he looked at her cleavage."

Weird.

When I had to get off at my stop, I put on my BEST smile and said excuse me. I was quite grateful that she smiled back as she moved aside.

R

With warm weather

[Updated photos on 11/12/2008, with no more warm weather, but better late than never :)]













come longer days for the Northern Hemisphere, exams for me, and opportunities for people to parade outdoors championing their favorite causes. In just the past week, there have been 2 such groups walking by my window.

I've hit on a good stride in my studying, the pattern of which renders me every bit the vampire -- of the non-blood sucking variety.

I study best under the dark cover of night and in solitude. As I said in an earlier post, that's when everything is nice and quiet. Uninterrupted time is precious.
I sleep a bit during the early morning and evening. The sleep has been averaging 5 per 24 hours.

Exercise has completely gone out the window. I had been swimming 3 times a week, but now all my exercise is walking really fast outside when I have to go or to whichever restaurant I decide to eat at. I don't regret the sedentary lifestyle though. It seems that vigorous exercise makes me eat a little more, which I can do without.

Last weekend, I was snooping around school while on study break and went up to the top of the building again. The top is equivalent to something like the 11th and 12th floor -- two levels as the top is not 1 flat level. I arrived there by taking a spiral staircase from the 7th floor to all the way up and kicking open the door for roof access. At the rooftop I took some gorgeous photos and will post them shortly.

Meanwhile, I think I'm going to sleep again.
Nothing makes me happier than sleeping and eating.
Getting up to study is okay too because things can always be worse.

2:21 in the AM

and I'm not sleepy. I've been on and off this weird sleeping schedule for awhile now. The other day when I was awakened from my 3-hour nap in the afternoon for a scheduled work out, fast as lightening, I just snatched up my blanket over my head and blocked out the world. And sleep reclaimed.

Maybe this sleeping cycle is what has been giving me some of my weird dreams lately?
But then again, I regularly remember my dreams. They're usually unusual and in full Technicolor.

I have a feeling though I won't be dreaming about cooing turtledoves soon. I closed the windows extra tight just for them :)

As an aside: If ever you are trying to remember your dreams in the early morning right when you wake up, try not to move! Staying still is key. Besides, surely we can all use a little more rest in the morning. I read that a very famous chef of our times (who is known for his cursing and very deep wrinkles) eats his breakfast before bedtime to save himself 15 minutes of shut-eye in the morning.

My Crazy Dream This Morning

Around 8:45am today, some stupid turtle doves woke me up with their rather loud cooing on my window sill -- windows were open but screen up, thank goodness. I was still tired, so I fell back asleep. Betwen then and 9:30am, I dreamt that the turtle doves had babies on my sill and they were cooing too. The cooing so disturbed my-dream-self that my-dream-self flicked off the dream baby turtle doves from the sill, where they left big wet spots. When I woke up to my cell phone alarm, I was kind of worried and so I went over to the window sill to look. No babies on or below :)

No more raw!

I think it was pretty easy to see by day 3, yesterday, that I cannot handle the raw food diet. At least not now. I've been getting so very antsy with the huge restriction on food. The worst thing was I thought about food even more than I normally do, which is a lot!

I am a little sad that this diet died so quietly. Maybe the lesson here is that I am an adamant creature of comfort, at least food-wise. Rather than telling myself that I can't have stuff, maybe I'll allow my body what it craves and live to 100 rather than 125 :)

Day 2 of "Raw" Food

got a raw deal. I didn't actually eat any raw foods :) That was a smile for guilt, not pleasure. Well maybe guilty pleasure since it was really good cooked food. But all that food was cooked food I already had that I was supposed to have anyway. Oh boy. That sounded like guilt if I ever did hear of any! Well, since my stock of cooked food is dwindling, I suppose only time will tell whether there will be day 3 of raw food or this diet is already over. Oh boy oh boy!

So today, I had

No breakfast = forgot to eat breakfast due to early morning meeting)
11:00AM Brunch = 2 cans of hearty beef soup (240x2=480Cal)
6:00PM Dinner = 1 slice of yellow cheese (70Cal), 1 cup of noodle soup (290Cal), 1 bag of steamed veggie buns (600Cal)

1440Cal is total intake.

Tune in again tomorrow folks.

Day 1 of Raw Food

I got up nice and early at 7:30am. And thus started my first day of raw foods.


~8am Breakfast = 1 medium-sized banana
12:30p Lunch= 1 large Golden Delicious and 1 small red, pie apple
5:30p Dinner= 12oz of tomato and eggs, 18oz of asparagus and pork, 1 cup instant Lunch maruchan noodles and 0.5oz Stella parmesan cheese.

Yeah :( Dinner didn't go quite as planned. Even though I was planning to finish the rest of the cooked food from my fridge, the load was much more than appropriate. I just got so hungry in the afternoon. Looks like I gotta pack better snacks than just apples. The first apple was great, crisp and sweet. The second apple was alright -- after that larger than fist-sized Golden Delicious apple though, I could not eat anymore apple, especially since the apple was warming up to room temperature from fridge temperature this morning.

I also had another weak moment at lunch, when I dreamt of dancing gyros with big fat mounds of sour cream and toasty warm pita bread. Oh boy!

So my score on this first day was one temptation conquered and one succumbed.
Onwards to day two!

Moral for day 1: There's a reason that the just ONE apple a day keeps the doctor away. It seems like that more than one may spur a rebellion from the body and yield a tummy ache! VARIETY is the spice of life.

New Season, New Times, New Habits, New Crowds

It's SPRING!!!
Yay for longer days and more sunlight. I can already see my hair sun-bleaching to a cheeky shade of deep auburn.

I'm getting out of hibernation as the weather is more inviting. And going outside definitely is a morale booster. Perhaps the best thing of all is going into stores again and seeing what things I'd like to buy.

I had always like clothes shopping, but after such a sedentary spell of sitting and working at a desk, I've gained much more weight than I should ever be allowed to. So much so that clothes shopping is no longer the shiny sparkly motivator at the end of a long tunnel of work.

That said, venturing into the shops also has a motivating effect of its own.

Because I truly do enjoy swimming between the racks, I've decided to go on a raw food diet to make the swim more enjoyable. I will start after I've finished eating the cooked food in the fridge. No definite end date in sight. We will see how I survive it.

My inspiration is Carol Alt, retired mannequin and recent reality TV star, who is looking fabulous at 50.


According to what I've read online, the raw food diet consists of
- veggies
- fruits
- nuts
- nothing cooked above 116degF (which rules out usual meats and eggs)

Out of all the articles that I read about eating raw foods,
this one offers the most advice -- from one who has tried it for 30 days
this one is the funniest -- "microwaved bacon" anyone?

I anticipate that my little food adventures will begin sometimes between middle of this week, which is rapidly approaching, to the weekend. And for as long as possible, without developing noticeable health deficits, I will continue my raw food experiment and hopefully report the results here :)

Here's to hopefully some happy eating. According to some sources, one can eat ~8.5 lbs of food per day on a raw food diet. That sounds like a lot of food to me. And a lot of food is just fine by me! Just looking at the images below makes me drool a little, which seems like a very promising start to me :)

The Bewitching Hour:

It's late at night again. And I'm up again :)
I truly think there is something magical about being up all alone while my part of the world sleeps. It's the kind of magic that makes you go pause and savor when you see a spider's web or take in the crispness of a cool, clear autumn day.

Now, more practically, I'm up because I'm studying. That also makes me take pause. But in a good way too. It's interesting stuff. Just like the spider's web or the autumn day. You can see it once, and see it again, but everytime there seems to be something a little more to see.

The moon over the Swiss Alps matches the tranquility of the bewitching hour perfectly.

I just wanted to say

You know who you are :)

Thanks for reading!

Cleaned House

today. In shining up the floor, I gave myself chafed hands and maid's knees.


And the vacuum cleaner did go poof, with the odor of burnt rubber :(


BUT... now it's all said and done, everything is SPARKLING CLEAN :)

Several Things Wiser :)

I.Melancholy revisited

So previously I had written about Trade (2007), the movie.
Through conversation with other people and a bit of reading on the web, I've come to a few conclusions:

A) Crimes like human trafficking are so complex that one person cannot ever hope to fight them alone. Instead, one person can spread the word about the existence of these crimes to as many people as will listen. By the power of a group of people -- by increased vigilance, pooled resources -- then something more substantial can be done.



B) One can educate themselves about this crime. Knowledge is truly power. When you know, you can then plan go to proceed. After being exposed to that human trafficking still exists and how, in Trade (2007), amateur porn footage can be produced by using these sex slaves, I can make a difference by encouraging people to boycott porn or at least porn of unknown sources.



C) Keep updated with other breaches of human rights. By creating an worldwide atmosphere of respect and justice for fellow human beings, we can decrease tolerance for such crimes. One good (and very prominent) website that I stumbled upon is Human Rights Watch -- news posted here is current and well researched.


II. A story for thought

So today I ate dinner with a peer, who is about the same age and socioeconomic standing as me. As we sat at dinner, this person started to belittle the achievements of a very accomplished and much older and worldlier person (who has traveled extensively because his work is very much in demand and also has one of the most respected positions in his line of work). After trying unsuccessfully to reason with my peer about the merits of the person being belittled, I very quickly finished dinner and left.

Some things about this peer of mine had been bothering me all day. The fact that this person does not like to read, does not like to study for betterment, expresses very little interest in anything even when explicitly asked. To add insult to injury, this person asks for my recommendations and then does not follow up on them. All of these things, I do not understand. I especially do not understand someone not wanting to be the best that they can be by educating themselves.

And so I googled "Why do people not want to be educated," and I found an article by RC, entitled "Do You Want a More Educated Mind? Seven Common Traps You Need to Avoid" at the following site



The article starts with
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
- Aristotle

That made me think. Sure, I was judging this person for judging someone else. But maybe I should have withheld my own judgment and heard them out.

And the first of the seven common traps was "1) You gravitate toward people that agree with you and reject those with differing viewpoints." By leaving this person quickly at dinner, I was doing exactly a corollary of trap one. Because we were in disagreement, I headed off.

And then there was trap three, "3) You label people who don’t match your way of thinking. There are two extremes for this… Labeling people as crazy, loony, far-out, or the other extreme, labeling people as close-minded, “asleep,” or lacking awareness." While this person was labeling someone else as boastful and untrustworthy, I was labeling this person as close-minded and unappreciative of others.

By doing so, I fell directly into trap six, "6) You don’t make the effort to understand an issue from other people’s perspectives."

As I read this article, I realized that while I thought of myself as pretty educated, perhaps a portion of my education is yet incomplete. I can still be much more open-minded.

Like James William Fulbright, US Senator, said,
"We must dare to think unthinkable thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world."

The saddest thing in the world

After seeing this movie, I cried more than I have with any other movie. The movie is

Trade (2007)


Based on
The New York Times > Magazine > The Girls Next Door
By PETER LANDESMAN Published: January 25, 2004.

Please be advised that below the movie poster, I write a bit about my thoughts, which may contain spoilers to the movie.



Trade (2007) explores the trafficking of human sex slaves, captured against their will and/or tricked into slavery with false promises of a better life in America. Trade weaves several tales into one -- that of Veronica, a young Ukrainian woman who traveled to Mexico in hopes of better income in America; that of Adriana, a teenage Mexican girl who is kidnapped from the streets of Mexico City while riding a bicycle
bought by her brother with money he swindled from a US tourist with the false promise of prostitutes; that of Jorge, Adriana's brother, who goes across the continent to rescue his kidnapped sister; that of Raymond, the US cop who meets Jorge on his own mission to find his lost daughter, last seen some 10 years ago before being sold by her own junkie mother into the untraceable, unfathomable sex slave trade.

Women of whom Veronica was based had no more understanding of America than what little they extrapolated from the impossibly romanticized and distorted lens that is Hollywood movies. The promise of a faraway country brings hope and dreams, as it had before with so many generations of immigrants. Based on the pureness of hope that had built entire countries of immigrants, Trade explores how that hope is distorted and exploited into the most unimaginable nightmare.

Incredibly strong and faithful through the very end, Adriana delivers possibly the most memorable line of the movie, "Veronica te mira. No es demasiado tarde." She appeals to the common faith that binds her and her captor, Manuelo. With these simple and poignant exchange, the rawest of human emotions is captured -- fear, faith, hope, remorse, and forgiveness.

Unlike the two women protagonists in the film, the two male protagonists are depicted more multi-dimensionally. In addition to being victims, they are also victors and perpetrators of related crimes. Jorge pedaled images of prostitutes to men while his sister was being captured to be sold as a sex slave. Raymond committed adultery against his wife and produced a child who was forsaken by her own forsaken mother, his mistress.

In the last scene of the movie, Jorge angrily stabs the Russian leader of the trade ring. The Russian's prostitutes and customers scatter in a flurry of fear and confusion. And finally, the Russian's son yells, "Papa," in the street stained with his fathers blood. We see Jorge's face once more, now with anger tinged with uncertainty.

Post-script:
I normally don't write about things this serious in blogosphere, but this movie on the trade of sex slaves has particularly struck me. I have started to research this topic a bit. I've found several articles highlighting this issue since this decade's start, but haven't yet found anything that may lead to some change in this problem. I will continue to research this issue and report what I find here. Please stay tuned.

I'm so looking forward to my sleep-over

!!!!!!

Haven't had a sleep over since 3rd grade, when I slept over at Mrs. Walker's house (3rd grade teacher). She had the whole class over -- well, divided by gender. One night it was all the girls. The other night (which I wasn't around for) it was all the boys. And Mrs. Walker's husband, Barnacle Ben -- yep that's his real name -- hosted. Good times.
For the girls night, I painted my nails for the FIRST time :) This icky sparkly color of iridescent white. Sounds kind of nice, but really different in reality. Cheers to sleepovers.

This week

is Exam Week. Dun DUN DUNNNNNNNN.....

And I'm feeling very much like an ostrich, wide-eyed and alert. And always ready to bury my head in the sand.

More realistically, sometimes I WISH that I could put my head in the sand. And my behavioral manifestation of that wish is to put my head on the pillow and snooze. With sleep, I feel justified. Although it's not studying, it's making me more alert FOR studying. Moreoever, studies show that sleeping strengthens the desired mental connections.

Please allow me to present, the outrageous bird known as the ostrich:

Still ringing in my head

is the somber melody from yesterday. But it's been transposed from a minor up to a major :)

The lovely line yesterday came from the poem, Auguries of Innocence. Auguries is derived from the Latin, augur, which means soothsayer or omen. Penned by William Blake, the poem in its entirety can be found here. Now this is a man who really understood BEAUTIFUL.

A more somber melody might go like this:

"To see a world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour."

I just remembered this line from Tomb Raider.

There is something so timeless and beautiful about a grain of sand that this truly lovely rhyme may not do it proper justice.

Today was kind of like just another a day in a perfectly ordinary string of days, and yet it was not. Somehow, just going through a simple day as today seemed strangely extraordinary. I got up. I looked at the brightly lit sky. I shivered in the deceptively bitter cold. I walked. I read. I listened. I talked. I learned. I laughed. I welled up with emotion. I smiled. I grew wistful.

I contemplated becoming a day older and hopefully wiser. I wonder how many people in the world had the exact same thought as I did today? How many people had it ever?

Good people of the world: Raise your hands please if you have.