"the Notebook"

I watched the movie "the notebook" on DVD last weekend, and although this is the second time I am watching the movie, but I still couldn't stop myself from tearing up, especially given that I know what the eventual story plotline is like.

I am just so awed by the steadfast love Noah felt for Allie, the kind of pure emotional bond they shared during the summer of 1940. I have always known that a good relationship is supposed to propel both parties involved to be motivated, to become a better person. But the amount of drive that Noah derived from the relationship is immense, it's the sole propelling force behind his renovation of the old house and for going on in life. And Allie, when she saw the newspaper ad. about her childhood dream house, her fainting is the most suitable reaction to such a tremendous emotional upheaval.

The most difficult part is when she had to make her decision between the former lover and the current lover. I don't think she can go wrong either way to be honest, but at the end, she went for what her heart desired; no considerations for money, social status, future career, etc., she just went for her first love. How beautiful this love story is ... I am a hopeless romantic at heart, and I question which I would choose at a fork in the road of life?

First Love, brings me back to my favourite Utada Hikaru song from her very first album... First Love, pure and innocent as the cherry blossom in early spring...

Trust Part II

So I did some more thinking on this topic last night... I mean, breach of trust comes down to the element of "surprise".

See, only someone who is close and dear to you can hurt you the most. When a stranger backstabs you, although it's definitely negative, but you probably are mentally prepared to face the challenge.

But when someone you trust completely, and all of a sudden they turn on you, sometimes the hurt from that betrayal can be even greater than the actual damage done. What could be worse than the pain in the heart? to be betrayed by someone you thought that were so close to you and is completely on your side?

all I can say is "Et tu, Brute?" -- Wikipedia's story.

trust

TRUST: what does it mean to trust someone? at what point do you say that I believe this person's honesty and sincerity? how do we look beyond the superficial mask of another individual and detect their true thoughts/intentions?

some times I have been surprised by people whom I thought I knew well, their actions completely not in accordance with their words. So are the things they uttered complete lies? or do they just not have the courage or the discipline to live up to their words? I truly wonder....

{random babbling in the middle of the night because I am filled w/ new anxieties, other than my tax form} I will post more thoughts on this topic....

--- btw, read this quote in a Chinese story book I was reading last night, beautifully written and pretty thought provoking:
"只是爱情会挖掘出人心最光明和最黑暗的层面。我们都想好好去恋爱，因为只有透过爱人，我们才能认识真正的自己吧！无私的自己，自私的自己，漂亮的自己，丑陋的自己。。。 爱情就像一面镜子，让我们被逼面对真实的自己。"

procrastination...

(I finally finished filing my tax for 2005, I am so relieved... like a heavy weight lifted up from my shoulders, and a dark cloud removed from my eternally blue sky. It makes me wonder, does it all feel this way when I meet someone who will share the burdens in life with me?)

read an interesting topic from a friend's blog:
is finding something worth living for the same as finding something worth dying for?

Perfection...

{except taken from an online article, not exactly Christian based, more secular, good point still.}

Happy New Year! (While making New Year's resolutions, it) is a time for serious introspection. It is a time for considering one’s wrongdoings during the previous year and for making amends (now). A lot of us make New Year’s Resolutions on January 1st. Many students resolve to study better when a new school year begins. And the beginning of a new Fellowship year might inspire some of us to join that committee, or take that Religious Education class, or volunteer like we were meaning to last year. I don’t know about you, but I can use all the help I can get to encourage my most worthy aspirations. Unfortunately, sometimes I set myself up for discouragement or failure by aspiring to too much.

Now, a lot of people have told me that I am a perfectionist, and I used to reject that notion because I could plainly see that the results of my efforts were far from perfect. But being a perfectionist is not about being perfect; it’s about trying to be perfect or expecting perfection from others. As a matter of fact, procrastination, which is one of my preferred modes of action, often begins with an attitude that says, “If I can’t do it perfectly, I won’t do it at all.” I think I finally recognized my perfectionism when I took one of those self-assessment quizzes you find in self-help books. This particular book was titled When Good Enough is Never Enough, and the quiz was designed to evaluate perfectionist temperaments and behaviors. Well, if getting a 90% on the quiz didn’t convince me that I tend toward perfectionism, my disappointment that I didn’t get 100 did – if I must be a perfectionist, I want to be perfect at it.

Maybe that’s not such a good objective, though. Our first reading declared what I’ve always believed to be true – at least when it comes to other people – “Perfect is boring!” and “Good people are a lot more fun that perfect people any day of the week.” But, thankfully, that’s not something I need to worry about, because I also believe what artist Salvador Dali had to say on the subject. “Have no fear of perfection,” he wrote. “You’ll never reach it.”

I suspect deep down most of us know that we can never reach perfection. And that we pay a heavy price in trying to. For the elusive, yet seductive goal of perfection in our life’s work some of us pay the price in high blood pressure, neglected families, or an absence of simple fun. Trying to raise perfect children some of us forget to simply enjoy them. Or we demand so much of them that they rebel – even more than is natural and healthy. In search of perfection in a partner we may cycle through relationship after relationship and still end up lonely.

But by not settling for anything less than perfect – even if we could ever decide just what is perfect – we can miss out on so much. A Sufi story tells of Mulla Nasrudin’s conversation with a friend who was about to get married. “I’m very excited,” said the friend. “Mulla, have you ever thought of marriage yourself?” Nasrudin replied, “I did think of getting married. In my youth in fact I very much wanted to do so. I waited to find for myself the perfect wife. I traveled looking for her first to Damascus. There I met a beautiful woman who was gracious, kind, and deeply spiritual, but she had no worldly knowledge. I traveled further and went to Jerusalem. There I met a woman who was both spiritual and worldly, beautiful in many ways, but we did not communicate well. Finally I went to Cairo and there after much searching I found her. She was spiritually deep, graceful, and beautiful in every respect, at home in the world and at home in the worlds beyond it. I felt I had found the perfect wife.” His friend questioned further, “Then did you not marry her, Mulla?” “Alas,” said Nasrudin as he shook his head, “She was, unfortunately, waiting for the perfect husband.” (Soul Food 217)

One of the most widespread casualties of the search for perfection is self-love. How can (we love others) when we can’t even love ourselves? Sometimes I think it would be a greater challenge to try to love ourselves as we love our neighbors. Imperfections that we can accept in others torment us when we observe them in ourselves. When we strive for perfection – and inevitably come up short – we begin to feel unworthy and unlovable.

In her book Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha, psychologist and Buddhist teacher Tara Brach recounts many stories of friends and students and clients whose experiences illustrate what she calls the “trance of unworthiness”. It’s a feeling that I am all too familiar with myself. “Feeling unworthy,” she says,

goes hand in hand with feeling separate from others, separate from life. If we are defective, how can we possibly belong? It’s a vicious cycle: The more deficient we feel, the more separate and vulnerable we feel. . . [The] quest for perfection is based in the assumption that we must change ourselves to belong. . . [But] imperfection is not our personal problem – it is a natural part of existing. We all get caught in wants and fears, we all act unconsciously, we all get diseased and deteriorate. When we relax about imperfection, we no longer lose our life moments in the pursuit of being different and in fear of what is wrong. (10-21)

Brach’s book goes on to describe how complete acceptance of all parts of ourselves cuts through this trance and ultimately enables us to change those things about ourselves that really are maladaptive or destructive. This phenomenon has been noted by secular and religious thinkers alike. Humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers observed, “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." And spiritual teacher J. Krishnamurti wrote, “If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation."

Change doesn’t happen when we shame ourselves or someone else, but when we seek transformation without judgment. In his ministry Jesus of Nazareth modeled just such a non-judgmental attitude. In the Gospel of John, after he sends away the crowd about to stone a woman for committing adultery and he is left alone with her, he doesn’t scold or shame her, but simply advises her to change her ways, saying, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:11) Wouldn’t it be nice if we could be that gentle with ourselves?

I always used to think that criticizing myself for coming up short would motivate me to do better. But it doesn’t seem to work that way – it is just plain discouraging. It is such a deeply ingrained habit that I do it without even thinking, but something changed when I began studying meditation. First of all, learning to meditate was acknowledged as a difficult thing to do, and I began with the expectation that it would take a long time to master and that I would likely take one or two steps backward for every three forward. And then a gentle approach to the inevitable backsliding was both taught and modeled. The phrase that stuck with me and became sort of a mantra was “Bring the puppy back,” referring to how you should treat a puppy you are paper training. When he has an “accident” you don’t yell and beat up on him; you just gently bring him back to the newspaper. This meditation instruction teaches students to be as gentle with their own mistakes and shortcomings as they would be with a puppy’s.

Along with this kind of explicit instruction, I saw my teachers being gentle with themselves, and because I learned meditation with this attitude from the very beginning, I have never been hypercritical about my own progress in meditation. Things just seem to go better when I meditate regularly, and sometimes when I haven’t been, and I notice a growing anxiety or impatience, I just recognize that my sitting practice has been missing, and I start it up again without scolding myself for my lack of discipline. And things start going better again. This works so well with regard to my meditation practice that I am trying to learn to apply it to other activities, and when I hear myself being overly critical I try to think, “Bring the puppy back.” I try. And sometimes it even works!

Sometimes what we see as faults – in ourselves or in others – don’t really need fixing at all. Remember the children’s story? Without you being just the way you are, there would not be your unique beauty to grace the path.

How did this “trance of unworthiness” become such an epidemic? Many human emotions are universal, and all people feel disappointment when they make a mistake or lonely when they are rejected. But the degree to which those emotions have gotten out of control seems to be largely a Western phenomenon. The Dalai Lama was a guest at a gathering of Western Buddhists some years ago, when a member of the audience asked him to comment on self-hatred. The Dalai Lama did not understand the question – the concept of self-hatred was incomprehensible to him. He thought it must be a rare mental illness and was aghast to hear that it was a relatively common feeling among Americans, even among American Buddhist practitioners. Assimilating the Buddha’s teaching that all beings are at their core whole and good and wise is a monumental task in a society whose guiding myth begins with the story of Adam’s and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

The impact of the doctrine of original sin is ubiquitous. The message is that we are born flawed and must spend our lives making up for our defects so that we can be worthy in the eyes of God. Never mind that there are gentler understandings of the Jewish and Christian myth – I will come back to this in a minute – an attitude of innate deficiency is rampant in our culture. It is exploited by the advertising industry that implies that you would be a better person if you drove a better car, if you were thinner, if your hair were not so thin, if your clothes were more stylish, or if your grass were greener. It is exhibited in the trend of trying to get into not only the right college, but in recent years also the right high school, middle school, elementary school, or preschool. It is displayed in the shelves of self-help books in the bookstores and by over-programmed school children who spend their afternoons and weekends and summers at piano lessons, soccer practice, cotillion, and painting class and don’t have time to stargaze or daydream.

Ironically, it is also evident in the decline of that part of the Christian myth that says that God loves us unconditionally. Oh, how often, in the midst of some self improvement project or another, I have wished I could believe in such a God. A God who would love me just the way I am.

And even as we are intent on seeking perfection and improving ourselves, we also seem bent on doing the same with others. Our neighbors. Our partners. Our children. Shouldn’t they enjoy the benefit of our wisdom when they are deciding how to live their lives? And other societies. Should they not welcome our exports of Coca-Cola, luxury cars, infant formula, and democracy? Should we not want a leader who declares perfect certainty of his decisions – even when the known facts change – rather than one whose flexibility hints at imperfection? Our society’s wont to shun imperfection and bow down at the altar of so-called perfection can be costly, indeed. Perhaps we need have no fear of perfection, but I think we should be deathly afraid of claims of perfection.

That brings me back to the Christian myth. Some Christians claim that their doctrine – even their particular version of that doctrine – is an expression of the only true and perfect religion. Some Muslims make a similar claim. And some Buddhists. And Unitarian Universalists. Of those claims I think we should be very skeptical, if not downright afraid. But remember the story of Mulla Nasrudin’s search for a perfect wife? By not settling for anything less than perfect we can miss out on so much..

...

If the goal of perfection is unreachable, and trying to reach it causes us so much trouble, then for what can we aim? What goal can we pursue that will enhance our lives, the lives of those around us, and our society? I believe that a higher goal than to be perfect is to be real. And according to our second reading this morning, to be real is to be perfect. Recall what Kaaren Solveig Anderson said of her grandmother. “She wasn’t a model with flawless features. She wasn’t a Nobel Laureate, distinguished, astute, or brilliant. She wasn’t even the nicest, kindest, gentlest person I knew. She was perfect because she knew how to be her – Sylvia Anderson. She knew how to be human, not a facade of one. There was no pretense about her, you got what you saw. She fit into her skin, and her skin fit her.” Being real doesn’t mean we don’t have flaws. It means we are not ashamed of them. When we are real we don’t avoid mistakes, we admit them and correct them when we can. Being real doesn’t mean we won’t ever hurt someone we love. It means we will ask forgiveness and make amends whenever possible. When we are real we don’t escape loneliness or humiliation, failure or fear. We unmask them and let our vulnerability show. It is a gift to those who receive it, and it gives them permission to be more true to themselves.

When we are real and when we allow others to be real we can love ourselves and others in spite of our imperfections. There is a hymn in our hymnal that I love, but a line is missing that I think makes the message even more powerful. Sometimes this line is sung in the background by a soloist or a small group. The entire poem by Rumi goes: “Come, come, whoever you are, wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. Ours is no caravan of despair. Though you’ve broken your vows a thousand times, come, yet again come.”

Being real is a goal to which I can aspire that is consistent with my religious beliefs. I believe that the basic nature of humans, and all beings, is good. That we are at our core compassionate and wise. That when we are mindful of ourselves and of our fellow beings and of our planet earth, and compassionately accepting of what is, we will grow into that goodness and wisdom. These beliefs come out of my understanding and experience of Unitarian Universalism and Buddhism, but they are not exclusive to those two traditions.

I believe that our inherent goodness and wisdom can lead us to see all beings as brothers and sisters and to be compassionately accepting even of those with whom we disagree. Unitarian poet Samuel Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” When we know ourselves enough to care for our welfare, we will move toward self love and inner peace. When we know the other enough to care for his or her welfare we will love our neighbor and ourselves and move toward world peace.

May it be so.

First Reading

Congratulations! You're not perfect! It's ridiculous to want to be perfect anyway. But then, everybody's ridiculous sometimes, except perfect people. You know what perfect is? Perfect is not eating or drinking or talking or moving a muscle or making even the teensiest mistake. Perfect is never doing anything wrong - which means never doing anything at all. Perfect is boring! So you're not perfect! Wonderful! Have fun! Eat things that give you bad breath! Trip over your own shoelaces! Laugh! Let somebody else laugh at you! Perfect people never do any of those things. All they do is sit around and sip weak tea and think about how perfect they are. But they're really not one-hundred-percent perfect anyway. You should see them when they get the hiccups! Phooey! Who needs 'em? You can drink pickle juice and imitate gorillas and do silly dances and sing stupid songs and wear funny hats and be as imperfect as you please and still be a good person. Good people are hard to find nowadays. And they're a lot more fun than perfect people any day of the week.

~Stephen Manes, Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!

Second Reading

Round, brown, doe-like eyes rested near the edge of her glasses. Best described as stout, there was nothing unhurried about her. The skin under her arms swung in pendulum force when she moved. My grandmother. Far from a slave to fashion, she nonetheless cared about her appearance, wearing a full-corseted girdle daily. She wasn’t ugly of beautiful, yet she sported a quick, one-sided mischievous grin that always kept her guessing as to her womanly guises. She was a klutz of enormous proportions. . . . A woman who looked like a grandmother at thirty.

My grandmother was a misfit of sorts. When I was a child, she was my icon of paradox. On one hand she was the mother of comfort. Her house always smelled of overcooked vegetables and well-used wool. When feeling out of sorts, she would promptly offer you her favorite food: Cheese Whiz on toast. On the other hand, nobody could embarrass me as a kid like she could. She would be deep in conversation with someone while concurrently and unabashedly scratching her large bosom, oblivious to the obvious misstep in propriety.

This odd woman could weave beauty into lives like none other An avid, voracious quilter, she was a binder of pieces and parts. . . . My grandmother died ten years ago now. I miss her oddness and her quirky character. The older I get, the more I realize she had a lot to teach me – not in family history, or in how to be a quilter, or how to make carnage out of fresh vegetables. No, the older I get, the more I think she was perfect. She wasn’t a model with flawless features. She wasn’t a Nobel Laureate, distinguished, astute, or brilliant. She wasn’t even the nicest, kindest, gentlest person I knew. She was perfect because she knew how to be her – Sylvia Anderson. She knew how to be human, not a facade of one. There was no pretense about her, you got what you saw. She fit into her skin, and her skin fit her.

~ Kaaren Solveig Anderson, Ms. Perfect

the Kite Runner

I continue to procrastinate doing my taxes, and this time around, I buried myself in books, an endless list of good books.

I mentioned in my previous entries about how I luved Anne Frank's story, yet am struggling to continue with "Prozac nation". Last week, by chance I picked up the audio book of "the Kite Runner".

At first I wasn't too interested, I mean, life in Afghanistan is very far from modern day reality and my own personal social circle. But I really enjoyed the previous few books of heard on audio, including "Lady with the Unicorn" and the "DaVinci Code", so I thought I try it out during my daily commute. What an awesome book it turned out to be. I started listening to it while driving, but then took the disc and played it all night at home, then played it today in the office via my workstation (I had to struggle to find a decent CD player, since workstations are not built for multi-media purposes). O, because of that, I was overjoyed to find my SONY Walkman still works fine, when I thought it was broken a few months back.

I am not going to post a synopsis of the "Kite Runner" here, you can easily find that on Amazon or another site. What I wanted to address was undying loyalty, and the strong friendship between Amier and Hasan. Amier, in my eyes, has inherited all the negative traits due to his rich upbringing. It makes wonder if it's the universal truth that giving your child material wealth is a sure sign to not only spoil them, but to make them weaker in character? is a financially depraved background a necessity to ensure a person's inner strength later on in life? So that they are prepared to brave even tougher storms in the unforseeable future?

What about Hasan? do we praise him for his unwavering loyalty to Amier? or do we condemn him for his "stupidity"? As for Amier, surely his father is of a totally different breed, but does he appreciate the other, more sensitive, poetic, softer side of his son? Surely those are positive admirable qualities if Amier were a daughter.

I like the "Kite Runner" because it's a book that illustrates principles, not that everything is Black and White, but it had strong morale values, which is something that is missing in a lot of the TV shows, movies and books we have encountered nowadays, everything in American society is a different shade of gray. We have been trained to be PC about those gray, not having absolute values of right and wrong, to "respect" everyone's differences, to be "sensitive" towards individuals "preferences"... Books like Anne Frank and the "Kite Runner" got people to think and they stir up certain emotions within them. The purpose of books is to communicate, to share ideas, to teach values, and these books have fulfilled just that.

Laws of Anime =)

so true.. ^_^
LAWS OF ANIME
1. LAW OF DIFFERENTIATED GRAVITATION whenever someone or something jumps, is thrown, or otherwise rendered airborne, gravity is reduced by a factor of 4.

2. LAW OF SONIC AMPLIFICATION in space, loud sounds, like explosions, are even louder because there is no air to get in the way.

3. LAW OF INHERENT COMBUSTIBILITY large cities are the most explosive substance known to human science. Tokyo seems to be the most unstable of these cities.

4. LAW OF HEMOGLOBIN CAPACITY the human body contains over 12 gallons of blood, sometimes more, under high pressure.

5. LAW OF FOLLICULAR CHROMA VARIABILITY any color in the visible spectrum is considered a natural hair color. this color can change without warning or explanation.

6. LAW OF PROBABLE ATTIRE female characters wear as little clothing as possible, regardless of whether it is socially or meteorogically appropriate.

12 THINGS YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT ANIME
1. the good guy always has the BLUE glow
2. the coolest weapon is the sword
3. the hero is never really mad until you hurt their girlfriend
4. you can never have too much spiky hair
5. it is possible to incorporate martial arts into any aspect of life
6. all major villians either want to take over the world or blow it up
7. a samurai sword can cut through anything
8. the hero always loses the first fight with the enemy
9. weapons of impossible length and weight can be weilded with finesse
10. the bad guys are always defeated in the status quo
11. cool poses are always done after defeating the enemy
12. you can have a whole conversation when fighting to the death

Winnie gets the STAR!

I woke up bright and early this morning, ready to go meet and catch up with my friend from Aussie-land during lunch, and I come across this article, "Oh Bother, my Hunny!" -- how exciting! =) p.s. hUm.. I was wondering why Piglet is missing in the picture?!

Winnie the Pooh gets star on Hollywood Walk of Fame Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:31 PM BST, By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Squealing fans lined up ten deep on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on Tuesday, a few hurling themselves through a phalanx of minders to get close to their idol -- who wore only a red T-shirt over his yellow fur.

"Nobody went this crazy over Britney Spears," a photographer marvelled, as he and others snapped off shot after shot of the star. "Winnie -- to your right!" another yelled.

The scene was the unveiling of the Hollywood Walk of Fame star for Winnie the Pooh, who is marking the 80th anniversary of the publication of his story in the London Evening News with an 18-month-long celebration hosted by the Walt Disney Co.

Pooh is among about a dozen animated stars, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Snow White, to merit a star on the famous sidewalk, where it joins nearby markers for Tim Allen, Rod Serling and Jane Russell.

"They're an important part of the industry now," Hollywood's Honorary Mayor Johnny Grant said of cartoon characters like Pooh. "Some of the movies (the studios) are putting out don't do so well, but animated characters are doing great business."

As a brass band played the "Winnie the Pooh" theme song and confetti fluttered down around Pooh and his pint-sized fans, Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger assured the shy pot-bellied star that "you really are worth all the bother."

Pooh generated $6 billion (3.4 billion pounds) in retail sales for Disney in 2005 -- topped only by Mickey Mouse.

Long-time pals and castmates Rabbit, Eeyore and Tigger flew in from the Hundred Acre Wood to attend the star ceremony and a screening of the 1997 video "Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin," was held at the nearby El Capitan Theatre. A digitally remastered DVD of that video was also released on Tuesday.

But there were a couple of no-shows -- Piglet and Christopher Robin. Presumably they had "other commitments."

Chinese Sweet Rice recipe

Chinese Sweet Rice (thanks to lane8 for the posting on her blog)

This dish requires cooking meat over a stove, and then dumping all the ingredients in a rice cooker. Please note: some measurements are estimates only. Also, the recipe can be altered according to your preference. Dried scallops can be used, or barbecue pork, frozen veggies, coconut, oyster sauce, scallions, cilantro. The sky’s the limit.

Prep Time: 10 minutes (does not include waiting for dry ingredients to soak)
Stir-frying time: 3 minutes
Rice cooking time: 45 minutes (includes waiting 5-15 minutes after rice is cooked before opening cover)

Ingredients:

* 1 cup sweet rice (also known as glutinous rice)
* ½ cup long grain rice
* 2 Tbsp Chinese dried shrimp
* 4 Chinese dried mushrooms
* 1 Chinese sausage
* 4 oz ground pork
* 1 tsp Cooking oil
* 1 tsp Soy Sauce
* 1 ¼ c Chicken Broth
* ½ tsp Salt
* ½ Tbsp Dried shallots
* ¼ tsp Sugar
* 1 tsp Rice cooking wine (or white cooking wine)
* 1 tsp Sesame oil (optional)

Instructions:

1. In rice cooker bowl, wash rice in several changes of cold water until the water runs clear. Discard water, and leave rice alone. The rice will absorb the excess water while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. Place shrimp and mushrooms in separate bowls. Pour ¼ c cold water over shrimp. Pour ½ c cold water over mushrooms. Soak for about 30 minutes to soften.
3. When softened, cut shrimp if larger than ¼ inch. Later you will stir-fry the shrimp and mushrooms with the pork without the liquids. You’ll keep the mushroom liquid, but discard the shrimp liquid.
4. Finely chop sausage and set aside separately.
5. Prepare pork to your liking. I like salt, so I cover the pork with say ½ tsp of salt. Add a pinch or two of sugar (maybe ¼ tsp), a little bit of cooking wine and sesame oil (optional).
6. Heat wok or skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking. Add oil and pork, and stir-fry a minute or two until the pork is mostly cooked. Add Chinese sausage, and stir-fry for 30 seconds or more. Add shrimp, mushrooms, and shallots, and stir-fry 30 seconds or more. Add soy sauce, stir to combine. Season to taste. Remove from heat, and set aside.
7. Pour mushroom liquid into measuring cup (should total to ¼ c). Add chicken broth. Total amount of liquid to pour into rice cooker bowl should be 1 ½ c.
8. Pour mushroom liquid and chicken broth mixture into rice cooker bowl.
9. Dump cooked pork mixture into rice cooker bowl. Stir.
10. Cook rice in rice cooker.
11. When rice is finished, do not open the cover. Let rice stand in rice cooker for 5-15 minutes.
12. Open cover, and stir to combine.
13. Add salt or soy sauce if the rice needs it.
14. Serve immediately.

Makes about 6 cups. Serves 6 to 8 as part of a multicourse meal. Serves 3 by itself.

Yummy NooOoOooodLes...

• a search on Google for the noodle shop near my place where I've been on episodes of addictions with came up with this article on the Stanford Daily, which is also posted below for your instant enjoyment. ^_^
• another article from the Wave magazine, our local free publication on what's going on around the town sort of thing.
• these are the results of a search for "noodle houses" near my zipcode.
• next, I want to try out this place, I don't think I've been there before: RamenRama

Noodles on Tap
Luu Noodle: 520 Showers Dr., Mountain View; (650) 947-8888
By Shelby Martin, Friday, January 13, 2006

It has not been a good day for my belongings. I started out the day with two earrings and by noon only had one. I’m not certain when I lost it, and this concerns me. Earlier, I had a meeting with a biology prof. to discuss research opportunities. When I spoke with her, did I have an earring in each ear or not? The question haunts me.

This evening, I’m off to drown my sorrows in won ton soup with Adam. As I’m biking to meet him, my phone rings and I drop my new glove in my haste to answer it. The black glove falls into the black night, never to be found again. It was worth approximately 50 cents, but I had owned it for less than two hours and I was irked.

Adam gets the full story of my missing possessions.

“I feel like I’ve lost one of everything I had two of,” I complain. “I’m concerned about losing my limbs.”

We drive to San Antonio shopping center, home of Luu Noodle. This Chinese eatery has seven locations, but five are (inexplicably) called New Tung Kee noodles.

Luu Noodle is speedy and efficient, a veritable assembly line of Chinese cuisine. Five servers are there while we’re eating, but it feels like there’s more because they seem to be everywhere at once.

Our food arrives within three minutes — no joke. I think their kitchen must dispense food like soda fountains dispense drinks. Push a lever, you get chow mein with tofu. Chinese food on tap.

I am eating vermicelli duck curry soup and Adam is eating crispy fried noodles. The noodles have a tendency to shatter and fly everywhere when he tries to take a bite.

“Sorry if I blind you with a noodle,” he says. I become very worried. Today has proved dangerous for things that come in pairs.

Luckily, I hold on to both eyes and use them to scope out the room. The restaurant feels like a cafeteria — “168 persons” reads the occupancy capacity sign. But the tables are lacking nothing — a bucket of chopsticks, a bucket of forks, sauces, napkins. Luu Noodle is a well-oiled machine. On the walls are large pictures of every menu item, numbered for ease of ordering. The restaurant has all your Chinese staples — noodles, chow mein, soups, rice plates — with pad thai thrown in for good measure.

I’m drinking Thai iced tea, which costs 55 cents more if you order it without ice. “Aha,” Adam says. “They know just who’s eating here — people trying to get every penny.”

A few drinks on the menu pique our interest; “Fresh young coconut” is one. Perhaps the name lost something in the translation.

The other perplexing beverage is “Three course of beans drink,” available in pink and green. What could conceivably be in that? What makes it pink or green? I vow to order it next time.

Adam notices something: “Luu Noodle doesn’t follow the Chinese Restaurant Naming Algorithm.”

“What is the algorithm?” I ask, bemused.

“I figured out that all you need to do to name a Chinese restaurant is choose one of three adjectives. The adjectives are: golden, lucky or happy.”

Adam is beaming as he continues to spell out the formula: “You follow the adjective with one of three nouns. The nouns are: garden, dragon or lion. There are exactly nine Chinese restaurant names. This is the tenth: Luu Noodle.”

I want to end this article by talking about the philosophical importance of Luu Noodle. I’m certain it’s emblematic of postmodernism, or a microcosm of the American experience, or something. I ponder this aloud on the car ride back to Stanford.

“Why are you so hung up on this?” Adam asks.

I suppose he’s right. Sometimes a noodle is just a noodle. And if that noodle is a Luu noodle, it’s a good one.

The verdict:
Quick, tasty, cheap. I expect to become a regular here in my Stanford career.

Article URL: http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&repository=0001_article&id=18919

"Our chestnut tree is in full blossom"

I luv reading books, especially if they are easy reads that I can just finish in a day or two. Last week, I came across a Chinese copy of "Anne Frank" a.k.a. "The Diary of A Young Girl" at the local library, since the original was probably written in Dutch, it doesn't matter so much if I read it in English or Chinese.

Interesting thing is that the week before, I started on "Prozac nation" but didn't really go beyond chapter two. I just couldn't stand that girl in the book, I don't understand how she can think in such negative ways, especially when she's considered from an "average dysfunctional family". (side note: I guess nowadays, most of your average American families can qualify for the description of "dysfunctional" to a certain extent, such as the Simpson's)...

Reading Anne's diary is a completely different matter. The perspective from this 13-15 year old teenage girl is of such stark contrast to the likes of E. W. of "Prozac Nation" generation. This book is about perseverence during times of hardship, finding hope and joy amongst desparity and losses.

When I first toured the "Anne Frank" Museum in Amsterdam in 2004, I have never read the book. From the guidebook I gathered information about why this old house holds extraordinary values, and why there is a long line wrapping around the corner. It's with that mind set I toured the house, mentally comparing it to a run-down old aptment at the Tenent Museum in NYC, or Ellis Island. However, now that I have finished reading this book, I cannot even begin to comprehend the loneliness and the suffercation Anne experienced in her early teenage years. To be virtually locked up in this space with 7 others for over 25 months, not able to step outside or even make a lot of noises, constantly living in fear, in consideration of the others, in hopes of the war ending ... I can only imagine (beyond imagine) of the fear and loneliness she had to live with. However, it's the positive tone of the her diary that makes this book a worthy read. It's not another account of the horror of that time period, but it's educational value is in the hope that this little girl has, her inner-strength that shines through at this extreme time of difficulty.

In comparison, at least the beginning of the book PN focuses solely on the discomforte (somewhat self-induced, if I may add) of a selfish girl, who ignores the love from family and friends, and just feels sorry for herself. Especially since I took up AF on Saturday and finished it in 10 hours, I just really couldn't bear going on reading PN.... They should make AF the required reading at school and for young kids who are depressed, I bet it will work much better than Prozac or Lithium!!

-----

Quotes from the Diary

Anne Frank wrote the following entries about the chestnut tree in her diary:

23 February 1944
The two of us looked out at the blue sky, the bare chestnut tree glistening with dew, the seagulls and other birds glinting with silver as they swooped through the air, and we were so moved and entranced that we couldn’t speak.

18 April 1944
April is glorious, not too hot and not too cold, with occasional light showers. Our chestnut tree is in leaf, and here and there you can already see a few small blossoms.

13 May 1944
Our chestnut tree is in full blossom. It is covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year.

story of a fisherman

NOTE: Read this story and you may find that what you are always hoping to achieve, you may already have it. Just "food for thought"

There was once an American businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Mexican village. As he sat, he saw a Mexican fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore and noticed that the fisherman has caught quite a number of big fishes that is known to be a delicacy. The American was really impressed and ask the fisherman,"How long does it take you to catch so many fishes? "

The fisherman reply; Oh, just a short while."

"Then why don't you stay longer at sea and you could catch even more?" The businessman was astonished.

The fisherman simply does not agree, "This is enough to feed my whole family?" he says.

The businessman then asked: " So, what do you do for the rest of the day then? "

The fisherman reply; "Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fishes, then I would go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I will take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I will join my buddies in the village for a drink, we played guitar, sing and dance throughout the night. My day was ever so complete and carefree.?"

The businessman does not agree with his way of life and offered a suggestion to the fisherman.

"I am a PhD holder graduated from Harvard University, specialises in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you have to spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fishes as possible. And when you have save enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fishes. As you go on, you will be able to afford to buy more boats, recruit more fishermen and lead a team of your own. Soon you will be able to set- up your own company, your very own production plant for canned food and do direct selling to your distributors. At that time, you will have moved out of this village and to Mexico city, and then expand your operation to LA, and finally to New York city, where you can set-up your HQ to manage all your other branches."

The fisherman asks, "So, how long would that take?"

The businessman reply: "About 15 to 20 years"

The fisherman continued, "And after that?"

The businessman laugh heartily, " After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, by then you will be rich, your income will be coming in by the millions!! "

The fisherman ask, " And after that? "

The businessman says " After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning and catch a few fis hes, then return home to play with the kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!!"

The fisherman was puzzled, " Isn't that what I am doing now?? "

So, what does one really hope to achieve in life, do we really need to work so hard in life? What do you hope to accomplish in the end? ...

Heaven on Earth

a few weeks ago, I was browsing in a little paper stationary store down in Santa Barbara, when I came across this insightful quote on the cover of a simply designed notebook:

"You've got to...
dance like there's no one watching,
love like you can never get hurt,
sing like there's no one listening,
live like it is heaven on earth,
and teach from the heart to be heard."
-- Bill Purkey

--- another quote (food for thought)

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
- Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 A.D.