sunday blog post

Northwestern, 6-1, rebounds from only loss with win over Purdue

grr.

Writers are such egomaniacs I can't stand it.

(Myself inclusive.)

Over the past few months I've tried to read various books but haven' t been satisfied or able to finish any...

How to Read Literature Like a Professor--
This one has OK information, but the writing is terrible. It's actually subtitled "A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines." False. This professor is obviously a skilled reader but crappy writer who I find to be patronizing. And totally boring. He's not clever as he fancies himself to be. It's the worst thing when a writer tries to be clever but just sounds lame.

The Art and Craft of Feature Writing--
I love this book, but it's not something you can finish in a few sittings. You'll get your money's worth though with all the insights. The stories used as examples are great reads in themselves. And this one is truly written in a lively and entertaining fashion, but that is to be expected since he is the expert on feature writing...

and other books not worth a mention. I've resorted to re-reading the Virgin Suicides. Off to Dymocks now!

Tasted on Monday...

And couldn't think straight or write about anything yesterday every time I looked at this pic. Vietnamese coffee-flavored creme brulee with yummy crunchy things. OMG. Mouth watering. Should've complimented the chef more on this one. White dude from Boston makes Vietnamese food. We talked about Red Sox and Patriots.

new reason to feel like an idiot

[In MTR station on the way back to office] The following conversation is not verbatim (but close). Changed for dramatic effect.

Me: I bought a plant last weekend and discovered there's a worm in it.

Coworker: [gasp] ew!

Me: But it's really cute.

Her: What?

Me: Yeah it's really cute, all tiny and fuzzy and crawly.

Her: ... you should get rid of it, it will kill your plant.

Me: That's OK.

Her: [laughs] So you actually bought a worm and are feeding it a plant.

Me: Yes exactly.

Her: [laughs]

Me: I mean, it's really small. It's like this [shows her about an inch and a half between fingers]

Her: That's big enough!

Me: But it's really nice because it won't leave the plant.

Her: Yeah where would it go?

Me: Well I've already named it.

Her: [Laughs] V------! I'm getting goosebumps.

Me: Yeah it's name is Ah Mo.

Her: Ah Mo. Are you afraid your cat will see it?

Me: He won't see it, but I'm afraid he will get jealous of it. Because I'm always looking at the plant now. He might get jealous of the plant.

Her: What kind of plant is it?

Me: I don't know. But doesn't matter, it was only HK$15.

Her: That's pretty cheap. The one on my desk was $20.

Me: Yeah.

Her: You should take a picture of it.

Me: Yeah but my camera gets fuzzy when I try to take close-ups.

Her: You're supposed to use the "flower" function.

Me: [dumbfounded] REALLY? THAT'S for close-ups?

Her: Yeah.

Me: I feel like an idiot, all this time I didn't know what the flower meant. I thought it was for outdoors or something.

Her: Well yeah it's for close-ups but they use the flower symbol because...

Me: Most people use it to photograph flowers.

Her: Yup.

I really feel like an idiot, because I have been frustrated about this FOREVER: why can't I take close-ups with any of my cameras? This is especially troubling because I went through 3.5 years of origami photographing without knowing about this function. How lame is that? Well I've been taking all kinda of pics now that I know about the flower function

And I can't keep plants alive except cacti, so my plant is almost dead. The flowers are really cool though, they have a wish bone-shaped membrame inside.

1. I mailed in my absentee voter registration last week...
2. Which is actually quite pointless.
3. I don't want to be all whiny about "my vote doesn't count"...
4. But it actually really doesn't.
- - a) I mean it will not affect anything.
- - b) Because I am an Illinois voter.
- - - i. And Obama is going to win in Illinois.
- - - ii. And I am voting for Obama.
- - - iii. But that doesn't really matter because Obama is still going to win in Illinois without my vote.
- - - iv. So my vote isn't going to help him become Prez.
5. See? The electoral college system is whack.

My last blog post made me really want to play the piano. I found a youtube vid with a girl who teaches the entire "Spell" accompaniment by demonstration, it's cool.

I'm also traumatized because my mom said she went to the restaurant I blogged about (two posts ago) and said it was really bad. Now I'm all paranoid that they normally suck and were just good when the magazine went.

It's heresy.

Marié Digby, I bow down to your brilliance.

I'm obsessed.

And if I had a keyboard in my apartment I wouldn't sleep until I figured out how to play the "Spell" accompaniment.

Writing about food makes me... so hungry.

What I want to write about this dish: Best. Gnocchi. Ever. OMG.

Food writing is so hard for me. How many adjectives can one use to say something is delicious? I'm so not a foodie. This particular restaurant I am reviewing (or featuring, which is diff), located in Discovery Bay, called M---- R-- (don't want it to be searchable to my blog!), which is not very pricey, also had the best tartar ever (tuna and crab) and REALLY good mussels, amazing desserts, amazing prawn soup, wish it was more conveniently located than Discovery Bay though, but maybe that's asking too much.

My mouth is watering just from thinking about it, which makes it hard to write, and makes me eat more for lunch, which makes me feel gross (since it was a recent revelation that the reason I'd been able to be skinny for like the past 5 yrs but is a struggle now is because I NEVER ate breakfast or lunch until now that I have job with normal hours).

Typhoons crack me up

Received this by email today because of the suspicious/funny projected typhoon path... notice the very sharp angle at the blue dot. In case the legend on the left upper corner is too small to read, we are currently at the green dot. The red, blue, and grey dots are the projected path for the next 3 days. The red star, right next to the grey dot, is HK.

My initial thought was Yay, typhoon! But my next thought was BOO!!! Can't this be on a weekday??? Our last typhoon 8, which was a week ago I think, occurred between 6pm and 6am over a weeknight! Stupid typhoon, stop defeating your PURPOSE! Which is to help me get out of WORK!