Free is a verb

Viva la sous vide!

2009-11-24T07:20:14Z

Thank you

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Thank you <lj-user=armchairshrink> for this tip!

I may never poach an egg again.

It'll be like I'm on Star Trek

2009-11-07T21:15:55Z

just ordered a kindle. I can still cancel in the next few hours I think... I'm having that "I just bought something really expensive I've wanted for a long time and I'm not sure if I regret it yet" feeling. On the one hand, I think it would be great not to have to worry about what reading material to bring on to BART. On the other hand, the two periodicals I actually do read on BART are not yet available for Kindle (Harpers and NYRB). Then again, NYT and The Nation are available. Nation is more political and less snarky, and I've often enjoyed it but didn't want yet another paper publication in my house. I'm also looking forward to getting free ebooks from Project Gutenberg. Poetry in my pocket!

Oh Carols!

2009-10-13T04:41:02Z

It's getting a little bit colder, which of course means it's time for me to start humming and singing Christmas carols at the drop of a hat. Why do I love carols so? I really have no idea.

Make the yuletide gay!

A poem that made me cry a little

2009-10-03T21:22:01Z

Try reading this aloud really slowly. I choked up in the third stanza.

Theme for English B
by Langston Hughes

The instructor said,

Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you--
Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me--we two--you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me--who?>
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records--Bessie, bop, or Back.

I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white--
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
I guess you learn from me--
although you're older--and white--
and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.

At least McCarthy was elected

2009-09-07T00:29:59Z

What is with the blatant redbaiting and racism going on in Fox News that pressured Van Jones to resign? WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Bike comic FtW

2009-09-06T15:18:17Z

Beautifully drawn and well written comic about a bike store. Not *too* bike-geek-y.
http://www.yehudamoon.com

Getting lucky

2009-08-18T02:45:40Z

There's an isolating point of view
that love's a game of making do
with anything that gets you through
someone else's defense.

Through manipulation and romances,
impressive paychecks, strong advances,
through anything but taking chances,
at least that my sense.

My alternative's benign neglect:
disingenuous and circumspect,
I disengage, dismiss, deflect
to avoid feeling defeated.

I'm sure that it's within the range
of our capacity for change
to expand our metaphoric range
and rule out being cheated.

We'll evolve,
let's resolve
that all of us get lucky together.
Yes, I said yes
the soul's redress:
that all of us get lucky together.

Utopia

2009-08-03T06:33:11Z

What would life be like if you:

1) Knew there would be adequate and pleasant food, safety and shelter for you, your friends, and your family, no matter what you did or didn't do?
2) Knew you, your friends and your family would have appropriate, reliable health care, no matter what work you did or didn't do?
3) Knew that you would never experience violence or the threat of violence against you from institutions or the state, no matter who you were or became, or what you did or didn't do?
4) Had never been told that you had to do something, couldn't do something or were worth inherently more/less than other people because of some trait that you couldn't or did not want to change?

Media fast reportback

2009-07-24T00:17:48Z

So far so good. I've been sleeping earlier, overeating less, cleaning the house more, and reading a lot more. It's incredible what shutting off the noise machines for half a day every day can do.

The thing I miss the most is the radio and my morning commute podcasts.

At first it was difficult to clean the dishes without NPR on in the background. I was afraid that I'd get bored just standing in silence over the sink, or that I'd be grossed out if I truly had to pay attention to what I was doing (and what else is there to do when you're doing the washing up other than be bored or really examine the half-rotting-half-dried food particles on your dinnerware?).

But then I remembered that old Buddhist cliche about when you clean the dishes, clean the dishes. So I did it, and I paid attention, and yes, it was a bit gross, but it was also a little bit like meditation, and no, I did not become enlightened, but that itching itchy feeling that I needed my mind scratched by chatty NPR personalities did subside a little.

In the mornings I no longer block out the world by plugging my ears with podcasts. Instead, for the duration of my 10 to 15 minute walk I notice my neighborhood, the weather, the children being dropped off at kindergarten, the children gathering outside their middle school, joggers old and middle-aged. I also noticed that I was more alert to my internal world - this really was the biggest change. Without that intimate conversation from my ipod that feels like it's happening right inside my head, I actually noticed what was going on in my mind.

Then on the BART, almost the opposite experience, reading a book. It's so different reading a book, from listening to a podcast. With a podcast your eyes are still unoccupied, so your attention is divided. With a book, you dive in and you're just in that world and in that world, and you don't really come back out until the train starts to empty and you realize you're in the city.

At night, without television, my body is more able to assert itself and declare that it's time for sleep. Television's addictive "just one more episode" demand gone, I can feel the weight in my neck, the strong urge to lie down, the drive to not do any activity (I think this is the lure of TV - it seems to be a non-activity, and something easy to do when your body is trying to tell you to just stop doing stuff and go to bed).

Media fast part 2

2009-07-21T07:54:21Z

Inspired by the Russian River trip, I've decided to try to give up electronic/electric media between the hours of 9pm and 9am for the next two weeks. I tried this once before and I liked it, even though I didn't stick with it. So from today until the 4th of August, no television, computer, radio, music between those hours.

Wish me luck!

If this goes well I may also go back to being vegan.

Summer reading list

2009-07-09T00:53:34Z

Summer is a time of getting round to doing those things that you never got round to doing. Like eating better, taking a vacation, joining a CSA and of course, reading (and re-reading) those books that you've always meant to read. Here's my summer reading list:

White Noise by Don Delillo
fuwang lent me this book years ago, and I've been meaning to finish it ever since. I keep starting and starting over again. This time I think it will take. I'm in just the right kind of mental place for a snarky postmodern apocalyptic romp.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
I've always thought that I should read something by Octavia Butler, one of the more celebrated authors whose speculative fiction that deals with issues of queerness and race. I've started on Parable of the Sower and am liking it so far.

The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth
I read this during a phase in high school where I was reading almost anything I could get my hands on that was about or set in San Francisco. I was also going through a Samuel Beckett phase. I think I was caught in a place where I was delighting in the brutal fact that there was nothing other than this absurd life, but also sublimating my internalized need for a heaven (thanks largely to Christian primary and secondary school education) into a mythic San Francisco where gay beat poets made free love all day and all night in bay windows with views of the golden gate bridge. This book was one of my favorites from that period of my life, and I want to re-read it now to see how I react to it having now lived in the bay area for almost 10 years.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare
I haven't read this since high school, and I want to revisit it. It was the first Shakespeare play that I read without taking a class on it, and I loved taking my own time and developing ideas about the play that I could keep to myself instead of having to trot them out for the approval of an instructor or my peers.

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
One of the if not the biggest (in size) book in our house as a child. I was impressed that my mother read the whole thing, and even more impressed that somebody with a clearly Asian name could write such a huge novel and have it be a bestseller. I think it's time for me to read it. Also I think I might be ready for a South Asian/diaspora writers phase, and this and The Golden Gate might be just the thing to jumpstart that.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
I've loved everything else she has written, and also, South Asian writers phase.

Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton
I'm almost done with this and just need to finish it. Some non-fiction also to round out my list.

Secret Identities edited by Jeff Yang, Jerry Ma, Keith Chow, and Parry Shen
I've been meaning to pick up a copy of this for a while. I like comics and I'm interested in the minds of straight Asian American men (I think these editors are all straight. Someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Nut milk chronicles

2009-06-28T20:58:45Z

Here's a first world problem. I'm on another nut milk making kick, which leaves me with tons of leftover nut meal which I have NO idea what to do with, other than bake into cookies somehow, and it is way too hot to bake.

In case you didn't know how to make nut milk, it's ridiculously simple, especially once you have a nut milk bag (really just some kind of fine mesh nylon made into a bag, I think). With cheesecloth, it's still not that hard, but cleaning the cheesecloth is a pain (or you could throw it out, which is not a pain, but gets expensive). It's a 4 step process:

1) Soak nuts overnight
2) Blend nuts with fresh water, a bit of salt, and some sugar (or other sweetening agent, or not)
3) Filter out nut meal
4) Chill resulting liquid & ENJOY

I got my nut milk bag last weekend, and this week I have made hazelnut milk, almond date milk (the tastiest of the lot), pistachio-cashew-date milk, and today I will be making Hazelnut milk again, because it is a good middle ground. The only thing in the milk is nuts, dates, water, salt and a bit of sugar (and in the case of the milks with dates, no sugar, just dates). With the nut milk bag, it's so easy it almost feels like cheating.

Added bonus: I'm sick and this is pretty much an entertaining, low physical effort, low mental effort activity I can do to create a food that is delicious and also good for me (I hope). Also, I can listen to NPR while doing it AND if I feel like I need to lie down half way, it's not like it will burn or spoil. Plus it takes about 10 minutes active time tops, so I haven't had to lie down half way.

Happily (or not?), the nut milk is so tasty and drinkable that I finish each batch soon after I make it meaning that at least one of my two bottles is cleaned and ready for my next batch as soon as I get the urge (which admittedly, then gets a 24 hour waiting period as I soak the nuts). I may have to go buy some TJ juice so that I can drink that up and have a third bottle, though.

Really I just made this post so I could write "nut milk" in the title.

This made my whole evening better

2009-06-01T06:45:34Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA&feature=player_embedded

Let's do the food swap again!

2009-05-23T04:06:24Z

Got a Calzone and chickpea curry in foodswap this week. Calzone below. I made lasagne. Pictures of other things to follow if I can get some sunlight.

Going to bed at eleven!

2009-05-19T06:49:04Z

Yesterday I went to bed at ten. What's that? Am I becoming a morning person? Perhaps, dear reader, but really I'm just excited to go to 6:30AM swim at the awesome Temescal pool. At some point the novelty will wear off and I'll go back to the nocturnal shabbiness we all know and love/hate. But for now, I'm riding the wave of early to bed, early to swim; makes a man full of win.

Sunday funday

2009-05-18T01:36:15Z

Tried and loved the Temescal pool today. 25 glorious outdoor meters.

Also, wontons (from LS) and croquetas (from me). Woot! The croquetas actually were a little overbreaded. The recipe I used called for a flour-egg-breadcrumb breading, but I think next time I'll just do breadcrumbs (perhaps with some parmesan mixed in).

Good food swap week!

2009-05-13T07:18:40Z

In this week's food swap I got:

Cheese and chive scones!

Homemade pork and cilantro wontons!

I made lentils n beef, which is much less glamorous, but I think tasty and nutritious nonetheless.

Photos to come if I can get some daylight hours.

United States of Asian America - We Are Family

2009-05-10T09:50:25Z

Saw a short film program at SOMArts, Asian filmmakers who were part of QWOCMAP presenting short films. L. joined me. There was also a gallery with some fantastic art. Overall, a good evening in Asian art world.

Later we went for dinner at Daimo with C., after being thwarted by Spices! newly reduced hours (they close at 11p.m. now, not midnight!), then back to Shooting Star in Chinatown for dessert, sine Daimo disappointed.

Considering this as my next project

2009-05-04T07:45:49Z

Apparently there is this food in Spain called a croqueta that is basically a deep fried bechamel.

I had no idea that such a thing could be done. It seems almost as magical as Wylie DuFresne's deep fried mayonnaise, and doesn't call for any ingredients I'd have to go to a chemist to find.

Any guinea pigs? I do NOT want to eat this by myself. I think.

Bagels and Granola

2009-05-03T02:32:05Z

Inspired by this article I decided to try something new (making bagels) and revisit something old (a modified version of Alton brown's granola recipe).

inexplicably funny

2009-05-01T07:06:42Z

A bizzaro world version of those English educational videos they used to play on channel 12 when I was a kid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpnifWHZYEg

I have bonded with the new laptop

2009-04-29T07:53:49Z

The posthuman condition. Next up: taking the laptop for walks.

Paul Schneider <3

2009-04-27T05:25:32Z

I don't know if I'm regressing or something, but I'm totally crushing on Paul Schneider. Check out his website which is both bizarre and defiantly difficult in its layout, and awesomely anti-war and anti-celebrity in its content.

Can somebody give me a primer on how to start a fan club?

Heterocentron Transform!

2009-04-20T02:33:36Z

Saw this at the SF Botanical Gardens, a lovely place for people watching and strolling on a sunny day. It was definitely heterocentron, though.

There's a storm gathering

2009-04-18T00:12:08Z

There's a storm gathering. The clouds are dark, and the winds are strong, and I am afraid. Some who advocate for women's rights have taken the issue far beyond women-sexed people. They want to bring the issue into my life. My freedom will be taken away. I'm a California doctor who must choose between argyle socks and stripes because my wife won't clothes shop for me. I'm part of a New Jersey church group punished by the government because we can't support women baring their ankles. I'm a Massachusetts parent helplessly watching as public schools teach my son that girls can play baseball too.

But some who advocate for women-sex equality have not been content with women-sexed people living as they wish. Those advocates want to change the way I live. I will have no choice. The storm is coming.

But we have hope! A rainbow coalition of people of every creed and color are coming together in love to protect the people who matter. Which is to say, men. Join us.