The Power of Laziness

I'm astounded at how many people don't like to read anymore. I've heard countless statements, including "I was always taught to make webpages simple, because people are too lazy to scroll down," or "If there aren't any pretty pictures, I won't bother reading this article." Where's all the fun in that?

Take video games, for instance. The good ol' text adventure games require you to memorize and to envision a world that has a limited number of consequences. They're pretty nifty. On the other hand, it's all text, and so warrants a little more attention than, say, swinging a sword with the WiiMote.

It's not fair to the author, who's obviously (or not so obviously) spent a lot of time writing about this-and-that for the reader. A few pictures of okay quality are easy. The written part is much harder, both to create and, apparently, to digest.

Persimmons

For those of you who knew me in high school, you'd probably know that I had an odd fascination with mangoes. Those yellow, succulent fruits (that's right - none of the red-green ones) with their easy to peel skin and sticky innards were perhaps the epitome of my existence. "Mangoes are the spice of life" was even in the yearbook for senior year. So many of you ended up believing that, well, mangoes were my favorite fruit.

That's a sham.

You see, though I love mangoes and their generic savory-ness, I have a favorite fruit that I've never really told anybody: persimmons. Yes, persimmons. These things taste God awful when they're unripe, but so darn sweet when they are. And they're orange. (For the time being, orange is my favorite color.) They've always trumped mangoes in terms of my favorite fruit, and I even ended up naming two blogs after it. (Loserish, perhaps, since the fruit has had nothing to do with my posts until now--but I'm not too good with names.)


So, hello, persimmons, and hello, my mangoes. I've been having mangoes for the past few weeks, but the other fruit is few and far between. I hope, though, that I'll manage to taste one before the end of summer.

IMAGE REFERENCE: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/images/persimmons.JPG

My Favorite Milk Chocolate

I just love milk chocolate. It's not too sweet like white chocolate (although, frankly, that's my second most favorite), but not that bitter, like dark chocolate. Sure, it might not exactly be "the real thing," but I'm fine with that.


My favorite milk chocolate has to be Chokladljus, from IKEA. This little baby is just rich enough to warrant enough of that umami feeling in your mouth, but not too much to leave lingering, weird texture in your mouth like Hershey sometimes does. The "bite" is just right, too--and let's not forget the taste. Chokladljus warrants just enough sweetness to quickly give you that savory sensation in your mouth.

I had the opportunity to go to IKEA the other week, and I got three bars. I'm eating my first today--and though I was convinced I could restrain myself, it's apparent that I can't. Chocolate and Big Bang Theory--a bit of physics comedy and a nightly indulgence. It feels just right.

The Waning Allure of Anime

After a long love affair with anime, I've finally realized that there's nothing really for me there. There are boundless numbers of series that focus on fan service or just a horrible, run-of-the-mill storyline, and the few that don't have those aspects are few and far between (especially the fan service). Then we have the popular series, which I can't bring myself to watch because of, well, popularity (or just the length). These usually have a very generic storyline and focus on subplots to keep viewers' attention. Unfortunately, the only one I ever took an interest to was One Piece--which isn't popular here in the States but popular everywhere else. (Understandably so, because the dubs ruined the loyalty and belief that was the hallmark of the series.) So whenever I tell someone I like the series, they scoff and say Bleach is better or something.

Add that to the fact that Japanese animation companies just don't have the budget that US companies do. In fact, the animation companies often have to make the animation before the voice actors act, which is the opposite of what US companies do. People have argued that this makes the voices sound more believable and spontaneous. But it's not without some drawbacks. Take Avatar: The Last Airbender, for instance. The company making that was able to hire real martial artists for each of the respective races. And people complain about repeated action scenes in anime when there's just not enough money!

Then I started watching sitcoms. Regular ol' American TV shows. And I found that these were so much funnier, wittier than anime ever was. That's a sad fact, really.

I think I may bid "Adieu" to anime soon, but not yet. As it is, though, my interest in it is fast disappearing.

Ha...! No More Tongue Twisters.

Ever since my mistake a week ago, I made sure not to pick Fox in Socks or any other Dr. Seuss book anymore. The trouble is, the other books were less memorable. There was one dinosaur pop up book--and I think it's Dinosaurs Galore!, but I'm not completely sure.

One book was called Duck on a Bike. As the title suggests, it is about a duck on a bike, and other animals' reactions to it. Watch out for the cliffhanger at the end, though. (Wait--am I offering a synopsis for a book like that? Strange.) Then I finally got to read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. An awesome feat, I say, because usually the kids are scared of all the white. I'd forgotten what it was all about, but it still has the same moral oomph it must have had when I was young.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Work, games, books (no, not just for volunteering), and all that.

HTML Coding

I'm trying to code now for the site Anime-Source. Needless to say, it's a hassle. I've never done coding before except for the simple stuff (br, b, and i, baby), but I'm pretty proud of what I've done. Well, not really, since a lot of the code is copy-and-paste.

It's hard to be HTML-illiterate in a world that is increasingly becoming tech-savvy. Heck, I'm sure even four-year-olds can do all of this stuff. Not that it's very hard.

I remember trying to learn HTML for Neopets, then giving up. This time, though, it's probably a necessity. Because I need to learn how to code all this Anime-Source stuff for some upcoming articles.

Italian

As some of you might know, I started taking Italian this past year. It was a hot contender with German, but in the end, it won.


I'd promised myself in first grade that, as soon as possible, I'd take German again. What could take precedence over a childhood promise? "Just Around the Riverbend" from Pocahontas. Yes, I admit it--YouTube and Disney finalized the decision for me.

A stupid decision? Maybe, maybe not. But I ended up loving Italian, and I haven't regretted it at all. Well, that's not really the truth. Sometimes I do have regrets.


Take the fake Italian accent, for example. A lot of people expect Italians to go up and down and up and down when they're speaking English, which some do. But a lot don't, as well. It's just really annoying when you tell people you're speaking Italian and that's what they end up saying.


And it's frustrating when you figure out that the proper term is one panino, and multiple panini. So now I can't order a panini without thinking that I'm ordering a single when in actuality I mean the plural, or vice versa. (It's quite confusing, as you can tell).

I now have problems with cafe vs. caffe (put the accents on yourself), and I finally understand what latte means. Okay, so maybe I didn't need to take Italian for that, but you can never be sure.

Never mind the practicality issues. I get the whole "Why not take Spanish? It sounds so similar" spiel all the time. Which it does, in some cases. But I really love how Italian both looks and sounds--and the fact that the language is considered (snobby) "fashionista" and (snooty) "classy" doesn't hurt either.

I've never really "fallen" for a language before--French was just too hard to pronounce--and I'm actually interested in taking as much as I can. Provided my schedule allows it, of course.

IMAGE REFERENCES:
http://taioo.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/dz5ox.jpg
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/291400/291400,1238418424,2/stock-vector-illustration-of-an-italian-cartoon-chef-with-a-freshly-baked-pizza-27610309.jpg
http://www.chicagomag.com/images/2007/October%202007/table_panini.jpg

A Good Meal Indeed

Okay, I realize this is my third post about food and it's not even a food blog (in fact, this blog's not even an anything blog--it's just for "non-reviews," whatever that means). BUT--at least I can argue that it's actually about "food," not some junk food or some dry cereal.

Today, I wanted to surprise my parents and cook (along with my sibling) a good meal for them. The menu? Crab cakes and Thai beef salad.

Allrecipes has always been my favorite recipes site. With the exception of one dish which I won't mention here, I've always followed the recipes to a, well, half a T, because there are always reviews giving their own suggestions and because I always use less sugar.


The crab cake recipe I used was pretty darn good. One container of lump crab meat from the seafood section of the grocery makes about six well-sized pancakes. It's safe to say that that's a great price compared to what you pay at a restaurant. They're much tastier, too--especially with the Worcestershire adding a bit of its soy sauce-like constituency. Nevermind the Creole seasoning substitution I used in place of Old Bay.


The Thai beef salad was just as scrumptious. Going with what I said before, I used less sugar--about two thirds the amount, in this case. I also messed around with the proportions of the fish sauce and lime juice (mostly because I couldn't squeeze a lot of juice out of the limes), and I froze it for about ten minutes instead of refrigerating it for three hours (when you cook just before dinner, you don't really have the time). If you don't like the smell of lime, you might not like this, but even though I was missing two ingredients, lemon grass and green onions, the salad ended up being just right. And I didn't need to eat it with rice, either, as I usually do with that kind of salad.

All in all, it was a great meal, especially when you consider the price of crab nowadays.

I'm now off to eat some Cupcake Pebbles.

NOTE: All images are from AllRecipes.com.

Chicken Nuggets All Around

I just came back from one of those late-night indulgences where you buy food and gorge, even though you know that it's not in the least bit healthy. It doesn't help that what I ate was Chicken McNuggets and fries.


Ah, chicken nuggets. I can't help but like their crispy exteriors and the way the oil diffuses throughout your system. Okay, so maybe that's a little weird. But doesn't fat help to make the gustatory response more full?

I got to thinking about McNuggets and one of my Chinese fast food favorites--sweet and sour chicken. That's right, the chicken bits that may as well be called nuggets, even though you're supposed to dip them (not too much sauce, per favore--I really love Italian) and (hopefully) eat them with rice.


There are two noticeable differences between McDonald's and Chinese-y chicken, though: the oil and the amount of batter. In sweet & sour chicken, there's just way too much oil (surprise, surprise--McDonald's doesn't have the most grease). It forces you (well, at least me) to eat a lot of rice, and to get just enough sauce to cover up that oil and forget about it. The batter, on the other hand, just covers up those blobs of chicken and makes it extra crispy.

My preference? I really have none, though I must say I do enjoy things with rice.


IMAGE REFERENCES:
http://in10words.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/mcnugget.jpg
http://www.lotuschinesefood.com/Sweet%20&%20Sour%20Chicken%20Balls.JPG

Latch Hooking

From the end of May to the beginning of July, I worked on and (miraculously) managed to finish a 30 x 50 inch latch hook rug. It took at least few hours a day, and I developed a bad back because of it (I hope it's not too bad--I'm not that old yet), but in the end it was all worth it.

The kit I worked on is called "Sierra," by Caron International. Besides the whole satisfaction-about-making-something-yourself aspect, the price (about $50) was a good enough reason to actually try to complete the rug. You can check it out for yourself on Amazon.




What is latch hook, you might ask? Well, as the name implies, you just knot on, or "latch," individual pieces of yarn onto a canvas in order to create a picture. You can do this with any picture--even with your own design--provided you cut the pieces of yarn yourself. Luckily, there are kits for the lazier types like myself. These have legends, (sometimes) pre-colored canvases--a good motivation since you're working towards "filling in that skeleton of a picture--and, most importantly, pre-cut yarn. I don't think I would've been even a quarter completed if it weren't for all of this.


I made my first, and only other, latch hook kit several years ago. It was a simple design, Winnie the Pooh, and also much smaller. The only problem was that I lost some of the yarn, and so didn't get to finish the entire picture. I mean, most of it was covered, but those five or seven pieces of yarn really bothered me.

That wasn't the case for "Sierra." This kit contained at least three more bundles of extra yarn for the "just in case" scenarios, something I was really thankful for. Imagine how much more frustrating it would be if you were about to finish a 30 x 50 inch rug, only to find out you don't have enough pieces. That wouldn't be good at all.

Doing this really taught me something about the meaning of perseverance and patience. And also that I shouldn't bend over for too long of a period.

It is now in my parents' room as a decoration. They're planning to hang it up as soon as possible.

The New Pebbles

We all know Post's Pebbles Cereals (try saying that five times fast). Over the years, there have been two main types--Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles--with variations of Fruity Pebbles in between. I don't know about you, but I've loved both cereals since I first tasted them. All those little pieces forming a big crunchy, tasty, mass inside your mouth can only make you want more. It's kind of like how mini M&Ms work, just not as sweet or dry (provided you eat the cereal with milk). Now, there's a new member joining the family: Cupcake Pebbles. Does it merit its place?


Cupcake Pebbles features the prototypical shape of the cereal--flattened, crinkly crisps--speckled with tiny, multicolored sprinkles. Think birthday-cake-ice-cream-turned cereal (okay, I admit that wasn't the most witty comparison, but I couldn't think of anything else). When you open that plastic bag full of the stuff, you immediately smell cupcakes. Very sweet ones, at that. In fact, the scent is almost overpowering (and, most certainly, mouthwatering). Post has successfully created a cereal that smells like the real thing.


Now on to the big question: does it taste like the real thing? Yes, and no. Put these little babies in your mouth and your mouth is, again, flowing with all those tiny things culminating into a whole (and thus proving the concept of holism). But it's not really much. It does taste like cake with frosting, but a blander one than you'd think. That's one definite thing; it's not as sweet as it smells. Which is good, because I'm not sure I'd like too much "frosting."

It's not as sweet as Cocoa Pebbles--which was able to balance the flavor quite a bit without going on overload--and definitely not as tangy as Fruity Pebbles, which tend to taste weird (and too much) sometimes. I personally liked it, moreso than I do Fruity Pebbles. It might, however, be too tasteless for others, especially when you add in too much milk.

That's a good balance to add to the "spectrum" of the other Pebbles. It smells like a cake, and you can pretend like you're having one. Additionally, it doesn't taste a little too much like frosting like other "cakelike" products tend to do, and instead focuses on the actual "cake" part. Cupcake Pebbles is now a personal favorite, and I'm sure that it will stay that way.

Too Many Tongue Twisters!

Every Monday, I read books to kids. Big books, cardboard books--they're happy as long as they can eat them and there are lots of colors. The kids themselves are pretty sweet; they don't scream, though do they get bored easily. Some of them stare weirdly, some like to talk about themselves, but all of them give you their full attention when you start reading. It's very different (and a relief) from my other volunteer groups. As much as I love the kids there, they're really rambunctious and like to pull pranks. Or just don't talk to you at all.

Usually I only have time to pick three books that I'll read to about three
or four kids (I only volunteer for an hour, so I don't really have much time --
any more, and I might just lose my voice every week). Today, I made
the unfortunate mistake of picking Fox in Socks as one of the books.
Now, I love Dr. Seuss and I love his rhyming, but he strings along tongue twister after tongue twister about the box on Knox or the stacks of clocks or the fox in socks. It was also the kids' favorite after Clifford's Don't Wake the Puppies (the other two books, Goodnight Moon and one about weather, weren't quite as popular), so I got to read the book in its entirety to two of the three kids.

That might not seem a lot to you, but it dried up my mouth much too quickly, and the kids were, shall we say, very entertained at my constant sputtering and general inability to say the right sentences. And I didn't think it, but reading aloud a kid's book is much harder than reading it in the head. But I got the hang of it (I'd be surprised if I'm not able to beat box the book now), and it was all in all a very fun experience.