Music

As stated in my profile, I'm a sucker for sappy oldies. The reason is because I'm a nostalgic person and these old songs bring back memories of days past. So on the list besides music genres, I listed couple songs, my childhood favorite. Blogger.com enables links on these songs to other bloggers who share similar interest. Out of curiosity, I click on these songs to see what kind of people are into the same semi-obscure songs as I am. For the song Yesterday Once More by the Carpenters, virtually all ten of the co-admirers are from Asian continent. Six from China, HK and Taiwan, one South Korean and a Bangladeshi.
To Sir With Love, an American classic (in my mind), has ONE fan other than myself, a 14-year old from Singapore!

Hmm.... Given that both of these songs can be considered American classics, it was surprising for me to see that there were no Americans other than myself in the fan list. But I'm Asian born-American raised and my love for these songs started when I was a very young girl in Vietnam. So it's my Asian upbringing that gave me the love of these songs. I know that openly admitting to liking these oldies are not exactly a sign of hipness. So I think that many people wouldn't be caught dead admitting to liking the Carpenters. Heavens no! It's much more cool to list off the names of acid rock bands.

I'm not the type who's afraid of being myself and speak my mind. This is sometimes done to my own detriment, but I wouldn't want to change a thing. I would gladly admit to being common. I have some friends who would put down things common. They would refuse to see a movie because it is so "common", as if there are some kind of superiority in seeing a movie so awful that noone else wants to see it. I just tell them that yes I am common, and I love it.

I once confessed to a group of my co-workers that when I was looking for a new car a few years ago, I chose to purchase an Infinity sedan over a cute little sports car because I needed the trunk space for my Costco purchases. This admission generated a roar of laughter from my co-workers. I think the reason for such positive response was because people generally find it's refreshing to hear someone speaks openly and honestly. I know I do.

Itchy no more

Winter is a season of dry-itchy skin. Like most people, I try to alleviate the dryness by using lotion, but the hard to reach spots such as the back pose a challenge. So often I end up spending the day with an an itchy spot on my back. Not too pleasant. Fortunately, I think I've found a way to conquer this annoying situation.

Sometime in past year or so I received a bottle of Avon body spray as a gift. First, I'm not an Avon person. The last time I bought any Avon product was like my junior year in highschool. Second as a residual affect from my tomboyish childhood, I'm not too conscientious about using beauty care products. Of course, unless I'm trying to impress members of the opposite sex. So it had been sitting in a corner of the bathroom cabinet for quite some time. Last week, Mr. Lj., tired of all the feminine products illegally parking on his side of the cabinet, mercilessly expelled them including this spray bottle. So had to take drastic steps to reduce inventory and actually use these products.

I tried this body spray. It is a skin softener but instead in a lotion form, it's a liquid that you spray on your body. I discovered that one nice thing about it is that because of its spray format, I was able to reach the hard-to-reach corner of my back. With the regular lotion, I actually have to touch the skin surface, but with the spray bottle, all I need to do is hold it up over my shoulder and spray down. Voila! That itchy corner is now cover with the softening liquid. So itchy no more!

Cranberries

There is an interesting article about cranberries in the Economist special Christmas issue. There are some interesting tidbits about this cute versatile berries. They were used by the American Navy during the Revolutionary war as a source of vitamin C to stave off scurvy on long voyages. They require unusual soil composition of poorly drain, highly acid combination of peat and clay. I've done some gardening and was amazed that anything would survive in such a soil, let alone flourish. On top of that they do better when covered by a layer of sand! Go figure.

Nevertheless, they are amazing little fruits. They float and they bounce. They are stay chewy when baked. They are "flavoured fruit pieces" that serve as vehicles for other fruit flavors. They are cute little berries with amazing color. I like them a lot. I used buy these humongous bags of dried cranberries from Costco and munch on them all day at work. And they got me perilously close to baking. I almost baked some cranberry almond biscoti once. That's how good these little fruits are.

Treasures

My bf, Mr. Lj. and I are from very different ethnic groups. I'm Asian and he's Eastern European. My parents raised me and my siblings quite liberally when it comes to food. We were exposed to all kinds of food so natural I am culinarily very adventurous. Mr Lj on the other hand, is quite the opposite. When he was growing up, he did not see a non-Caucasian until he was in college. Food wise, bananas were among the most exotic items there. So you could imagine growing up in this very insular culture combined with risk-averse unbringing had made him arguably one of the most unadventurous eaters that I've known.

However, after living in the US for quite sometime, he has broadened his food palete slightly. When we started dating, I was relieved to learn that he can manage some Asian dishes and he especially liked chicken curry. So in my attempt to exploit this miniscule culinary common ground, I made chicken curry from time to time. He enjoyed them very much, and actually went as far as declaring them "exquisite". (But I must disclose that Mr. Lj. is very proned to culinary hyperboles. Perhaps as some sort of compensation for the lack of actual consumption experience).

Two weeks ago, I made a pot of chicken curry. Unfortunately, unknown to me, he had some bad experience with the previous time he ate curry and decided that he no longer wants to eat it. I insisted that he gave it a try, but he refused and ate some boring cold cuts and sterile bread instead. I fumed and ended up eating what I could and stuffed the rest in the freezer thinking that I will have to gradually whittle it down by myself.

The turning point came last week. Last Friday, my company had a Christmas pot luck. I completely forgot about it until late Thursday night. With not much choices available, I pulled the chicken curry from the depth of my freezer and defrosted it. On Friday morning before leaving for work, I furiously added some veggies and chicken to the curry pot and adjusted the seasoning a bit. I put it in a nice looking casserole pot, brought it to work and presented it at the potluck. Well, surprisingly it turned out to be quite a hit. It was consumed without a single morsel left. Couple of my co-workers were inquiring on who was the creator of the "exquisite" curry. One co-worker when learned that I was the creator, said to me: "Karm, you ROCK!"

I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Death

I got a call from my sister tonight. Her father-in-law had just passed away. He had been having kidney problems for the past few months and suffered a heart attack last Sunday. He was not found almost an hour after the attack. His brain was so damage that the doctor said there were little chances he would recover. My brother-in-law's family decided to remove the respirator yesterday and he passed away this morning.

My parents are in their late sixties. They are still quite healthy an active. In fact, they're currently travelling in Asia right now. I'm grateful for their health and happiness, but I realize that I'm in the age group where our grandparents had passed away and our parents are on the edge. Three of my close friends had lost one of their parents. When someone you're closed too loose his or her parents, the touch of death is much more palpable. And you can't help but think about your own mortality. The fear of death drives people to do many things. For me, I hope that I would have accomplished something, made a difference in some way, other than simply take up space.

How do you feel when you think of your own death?

The Peterson's case

Well, he got the death penalty. I have to admit that I was a little surprised when the verdict came out. I know that public opinion favors death, but personally, I think since the case was virtually entirely based on circumstantial evidences, it shouldn't warrant death. Oh, I think he's guilty alright. There were just too many "coincidences" plus the extreme stupidity of the things he did following Laci's disappearance to point to anything but a guilty virdict, but if I were one of the jurors, I would hesitate recommending death. After all, like what I'd said, all the evidences were circumstantial and this is a person's life you're talking about.

Any those juries, I saw four of them on "Larry King Live" last night. There were three men and one woman. I couldn't believe how dumb that woman Richelle Rice sounded. She stumbled and couldn't respond to some of the easiest questions asked. And the ones that she did respond to, they sounded idiotic. There are six women in that jury and they couldn't come up with a better articulated female?!

Sideways

We just saw the movie Sideways yesterday. It was a great movie with lots of humor, drama and poignant moments. I read some good basic reviews on it and took my boyfriend to the movie. He had no clue what it was about. We laughed through-out the movie and afterward repeated funny lines to each other. Yet, it was also a melancholy movie about human's desires, successES and failures. It is definitely one of the best movies I've seen in recent years. Here is one of its reviews.

The main character in Sideways, Miles is a wine connoisseur. I suppose "connoisseur" can be another word for snob. His sometimes bordeline neurotic commentaries on wines were hilarious. I think the thing with these snobs is that the are so off the chart that they often don't realize how amusingly crazy they sound at times.

My boyfriend, whom I will be referring to as Mr. Lj (taking after sugarmama's reference to her boyfriend (now ex) Mr. S, is also a snob. No he is not a wine snob for he does not drink alcohol. He's a what I call a cola snob. He doesn't drink much of anything but cola, and his cola must be Coca-Cola. Pespsi won't do. And definitely RC Cola won't do. He is so religious about this that he's both annoying and amusing. When we go out to eat and Mr. Lj ordered Coke, I don't know how many times I witnessed the taken-back look on a waiter's face when he received a stern "No!" when he unwittingly asked Mr. Lj "Pepsi okay?"

I suppose a man must not compromise his principle.

Bourne Identity

Do you know they are going to make a sequel for "The Bourne Identity"?

It's called "The Korn Identity".

In the new movie, Jason Bourne can not only recall his past, but he can also change it.

Magazines

I'm such a sucker for cheap magazine subscriptions. I love to read so whenever I receive one of those cheap come-on magazine subscription for anything that is remotely interesting, I can't help myself but sign on the dotted line. Ten bucks for 2 year subscription?! Sign me up! The publishers are well aware of this so they keep bombarding me with more and more offers. I had to try hard to refrain myself. In our household, we have: Time Magazine, Fortune, Money, The Economist, Scientific American, MIT Technology, The Skeptic, BH&G etc.... Not to mention various trade journals on Linux, programming and biotech magazines, and a daily newspaper. Oh, I just signed up for Business 2.0, and Traveler magazine. I'm contemplating on a Food & Wine magazine. Our living rivals a dentist office in magazine selection.

I've stopped subscribing to women's magazines a little while back. The ones that I subscribed to the past, I've outgrown them. I haven't found one that I want to sign up with again. When I was in my early twenties living on my own for the first time, I subscribed to Cosmopolitan. Growing up in a sexually conservative culture and family, this was rather a daring step. I was excited about having my own Cosmopolitan issues and not resorting to getting glimpses of them at the supermarket checkouts. However, after six months of incessant, totally ridiculous sex articles and advices, I called it quit. Let's see, as I recall, one of the articles on how to get noticed at work included things like: wear high heels and a short skirt and bend over to pick something, leave your blouse top buttons undone and ask a male co-worker to button it for you. Even at twenty-two I realized that this was certainly not how I want to attract the opposite sex so I promptly cancelled the subscription.

I then moved on the Glamour Magazine. Glamour is a decent well-rounded magazine which I subscribed to for many years. It has a good mix of fashion, social, financial and health articles. However, as I get older and my earning power increases, articles such as "How to create a budget on a salary of $20,000" just no longer appealed to me. I suppose at some point we do outgrow the things we like. So after many years of being a loyal reader, I ended my Glamour subscription. I'm looking for a good women's magazine targetting thirty something professional. Perhaps something like Glamour but with more applicable financial and relationship topics. Any recommendations?

Lately, I'm a bit obsessed with financial investing. I'm quite realistic about this so I don't get involved with the get rich quick schemes. I have fairly simple taste and don't have an extravagant livestyle so having lots of money is not really a major criteria. However, I find the process of investing and making money to be interesting, challenging and rewarding. This leads to the subscription of Fortune, Money etc... I also love reading The Wall Street Journal. I used to read them from my previous employers' subscriptions. Although I really like it, I'm refraining from subscribing them on my own because thiswill completely overload me.

So many magazines, so little time...