Explore the possibilities.

Never be afraid to choose a road that nobody chooses.

Challenge new boundaries

Nobody knows what lies beyond.

There is always something new every day.

Pay attention to little details in your life and appreciate them.

Share the knowledge.

It is always fun to talk to someone who knows the subject as well as you do.

Be excited, and remember the excitement.

Never say you're too old to do something.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Over with the presentation!

YEAHHHHH----!!

It's finally time to relax a little. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, but I forgot to use the laser pointer. A nutritionist who attended my presentation came up to me and asked me more details about my project. She told me that my presentation was clear and even someone who is not familiar with the topic could understand my project, so that made me happy. And she actually thought I was a PhD student! I told her I'm an undergrad and she was like, "Wow, really?"

I don't think I'm at that level yet, but I'll gladly take that as a compliment! :)

Made a new friend from WSU. She's also one of the award finalists like me, and she's a cool microbiologist. We plan to go to Disneyland tomorrow! My professor told me that the American Chemical Society actually sells discounted tickets for Disneyland, so I'm gonna check it out tomorrow. Yay!

I have to finish my Ikebana midterm due on Wednesday >.<

Can't wait to get back to my apartment.. Before that, the result of this competition will be announced on Tuesday night. I think the nutritionist's praise worth more than anything. I'm not too confident I will win the competition because I think the other finalists did a great job and I actually enjoyed some of their research projects. I'm just glad I've been selected as a finalist, and I did my best. Whatever happens, happens and I'm proud of myself for giving it all today!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Not Ready

Okay, today's Friday and I'm so not ready to leave New Jersey.

I drove back and forth to Philadelphia on Thursday (supposed to be on Wednesday but the weather sucks and my brother didn't let me drive his car under such a bad weather). Took me a total of 4 hours of a round trip there. Managed to find two different apartments that I kinda liked but I still can't decide which one I should lease.

One choice: in the middle of the city, Philadelphia. It's much more expensive for a smaller size apartment. The facilities aren't that great since it's an old building but it's very accessible. I have to pay $295/mo for parking as well. The view's kinda great (if I decided to get the one on 23rd floor- and the windows can be opened too). But on the other side, it's a really crowded city. I'm not a big fan of a crowded city. It's a little far from the workplace but I don't really mind that since I will be driving anyways.

The other choice: kind of at the outskirts of a town, in New Jersey. It's cheap, the space is big. I don't have to pay for parking and the lease term is very flexible but my greatest concern is the safety. I mean, it's rather close to Camden, the most dangerous city in the US (ironically, that's where I'm gonna work!) and there's no security guard or anything. I'm not sure about security cameras but everyone is free to come in and out of the complex. The apartments are kinda apart from each other, too. You need a key to enter the building but hey you can get robbed outside the house too :(

So, I don't know :(

Anyways, I'll be flying to Anaheim tomorrow to attend the American Chemical Society Annual Meeting. I'm going to present my research results as an Undergrad Research Award finalist, so I'm rather scared. Well, first of all, English is not my native language. I speak pretty fluently but I still have a weird accent which no one could figure out which country I'm from. So I hope it will go well on Sunday >.<

I'll be skipping classes until Wednesday so I have a lot to catch up as well.

Once this is over I will have to start packing my stuffs and sell some of them so I won't be having so much trouble when I move over to NJ/Philly later.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Spring Break!

Spring break doesn't feel like spring break when you have lots of stuffs to do.

I'll have to look for housing in Philadelphia simply because after reading the news Camden (the town I will be working at) is rated the most dangerous town due to the unbelievably high crime rate. Beh.

Tried using SAI to draw. It's a pretty gloomy fanart :(

Hetalia Axis Power: Japan and his bloody path of Greater Asia

I suddenly remembered how in WW2 Japan actually came to South East Asia and liberating those countries from the hands of the European, calling all Asians "sibling" but in the end tortured them for the sake of their expansion.

Aaaand.. I've been quite addicted watching Mind Your Language, a British satirical comedy on how foreigners speak English. It's a relatively old series (1977... not THAT old but I wasn't born yet) but it's really interesting.



Due to some unforeseen circumstances today I was in a very bad mood and decided to create another song.


It's about a friend who had a broken heart (below is the English translation):


Why are you so quiet today?
Your smile disappeared from your face
Don't cry anymore
Let's just laugh together!
Tomorrow will definitely be bright and clear


Being broken hearted is suffocating
Everything tastes really bitter
But the world still revolves
So keep walking
Tomorrow will definitely be bright and clear

Friday, March 18, 2011

Pastaaaa

Unexpectedly bumped into my friend and then somehow ate lunch together and all of the sudden the conversation became monstrously heavy. It's enjoyable; it's definitely a food-for-thought conversation for me. I left home with depression after that, and I fell asleep although I was supposed to calculate some statistics using SAS for my presentation tomorrow. And yes, I have never used SAS throughout my life so it's like figuring out codes. It's not that hard, it just takes a little time to learn what the code does.

I finally figured out how to do some of the stats that I needed by 6:50pm and ran to see my professor at 7pm (I was supposed to meet her before 4 but I couldn't make it). After this and that, things pretty much settled down.

My mum's been sending me texts asking why my brother and I haven't congratulated them for their wedding anniversary (okay to be honest I did forget about that). Whew. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!

For no reason I ate pasta again today.

Spaghetti in garlic, olive oil and ponzu, with slices of ham, capers and black olives

I used to hate black olives but now I love it.

So, my conclusion for the day is that you may reject some ideas that seem absurd to you but one day you may come to an understanding of that idea.

One day I will understand how to love and accept myself despite what people think about my physical and mental states.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Freedom! Haiku Haiku Haiku Haiku!

Glad to know that my professor's relatives are safe in Japan.

This Ikebana arrangement was made out of the following haiku (Japanese 5-7-5 poem):

Yellow flower of spring
The sun in the west
The moon in the east



A difficult poem indeed. Should have chosen a simpler one >.<

Ponzu Pasta

I tried making spaghetti with soy sauce as the base flavor, and it failed miserably. I thought pasta was never to be prepared with soy sauce, but I was so totally wrong. So the problem was that I used whole grain thin spaghetti. I always thought whole grain pasta has pretty much acceptable texture with increased health benefits, but no. No, the texture was completely different than durum semolina (or the normal) pasta.

Even though I still have the whole wheat thin spaghetti, I decided to buy a normal pasta. It's the best decision ever.

Gli spaghetti con calamari alla ponzu (?)

Or we can call it spaghetti with squids cooked in ponzu sauce. 

So this pasta recipe creates a slightly tangy dish from the yuzu citrus flavor from ponzu sauce. The squid, black olives, capers and tomatoes add different textures to the dish as well, so I think they form good combination. Surprisingly, the flavors from black olives, capers and ponzu kinda complement each other as well.

Recipe:
- 1 serving boiled spaghetti (I don't know how many grams because I always use intuition)
- 1/2 Tbsp butter
- 2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
- 1/2 C cut squids
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2+3 Tbsp ponzu sauce
- 200 mL white wine (I used pinot grigio)
- 1T grated Parmesan cheese
- black olives (as desired)
- capers (as desired)

Steps:
1) Heat 1/4 Tbsp butter in a pan on medium heat.
2) Sautee sliced garlic for about 1 minute. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
3) Add squids, black pepper and 2 Tbsp ponzu sauce into the pan and cook until they are cooked (i.e. no longer transparent).
4) Add white wine and let it evaporate.
5) Increase the heat to high and add the rest of the butter. When the butter melts, add cooked spaghetti and mix well with the ingredients.
6) Add the rest of ponzu sauce and grated Parmesan cheese and mix well. Cook for another 30 seconds (not too long so the pasta won't get too dry) and remove from heat.
7) Serve with black olives and capers.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Beef Tataki


I bought Ponzu sauce quite some time ago so I tried cooking beef tataki with the wrong ingredient. I used beef stew meat, which is waaaay too chewy.


The texture is definitely wrong :(
And somehow using frozen-thawed meat makes the color of the meat rather ugly (deoxymyoglobin! Heh!).

But the sauce is good. Yum.

Anyways, just a little thought on the earthquake disaster in Japan. I shouldn't say it's surprising but it's still a little surprising to me that despite all the sad news about casualties and the safety of the citizens, the news about how businesses in Japan will be affected floats around pretty much on every news website.

I guess people care a lot about business and their munny, huh?

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Pray for Japan

"Last night when I was tired out waiting for the train at the station, the homeless people gave me one of their cardboards to prevent the cold... even though we usually ignore them in daily life... So warm."

I read this from prayforjapan.jp/tweet_en.html

It moved me to tears.

I checked out the twitter channel, and it's really encouraging how people don't give up despite their terrible situation. It moved me a lot, and I feel like I should be praying for them more and more. But it got me thinking again. When my country was hit by earthquake, tsunami and volcano eruptions, what did I do?

I didn't cry. I said "let's pray for them" on Facebook, but that's about it. I don't trust some organizations who said they would help those affected because I just don't trust them. I had a bad experience with fundraising for a so-called non-profit organization without thinking much about where the money goes to.

I didn't cry because I didn't see pictures of a mother crying while holding her dead daughter. I didn't see houses getting burned, and I didn't get that much updates about what's going on in Indonesia when those tragedies occurred. I simply turned away and thanked God that my families were not affected.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being so heartless. 

Ikebana

Oh yes I forgot to tell you guys that I'm taking Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) this semester!

It's an awesome class, and I am learning great deal of information about fine arts and Zen Buddhism ideals. As a Christian, I feel that I have to agree with some Zen teachings. The nature is great, and that's why we have to respect them. Although in Zen Buddhism it is believed that each natural existence has its own god, I believe that we have to respect nature because God created nature. And perhaps if we combine both Christian and Zen Buddhism together, it will be something like "God created nature and sent the spirits down to earth to protect nature". And we shall have less conflicts over religion ( ´▽`)

Isn't it awesome? A world without conflicts, that is...

People just refuse to accept each other's beliefs. They don't want to compromise. What is the great deal of defending your religion when you have to burn each other's houses, shedding blood and tears?

Just as I think cow's tongue is delicious, I don't want to force someone to eat it if he/she clearly doesn't like cow's tongue.

Enough with my stupid sermon (I'm not even qualified to do that but I hope to see peace within everyone of us one day). Let us enjoy the flowers, shall we? :)

Tools for Ikebana: kenzan, vase and scissors


My first arrangement






The simplest arrangement I've done so far: Chabana


Putting flowers on my study desk brightened my day a lot!

I have an arrangement on top of my fridge!

My Jiyuuka (freestyle) arrangement. Fancy, isn't it?


This is my classmate's Jiyuuka arrangement. I like it a lot :)


I tried to do another Jiyuuka at home because I don't have the exact fancy vase I used in class.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Earthquake in Japan

I received a call from my mum in the morning and she said there was a huge earthquake in Japan. There were wsunami warnings in Southeast Asia, Australia, Russia, and several other places including San Francisco, US. And that's where my brother is right now. Just for today.

She asked me if my friends in Japan are okay. I know at least one is safe, but I don't know about the rest. And this stupid me doesn't remember her friends' email addresses and sending text messages cost a little too much so she decided to go to Facebook even though she's not supposed to open her Facebook page until April 18th. 

So she thinks that while she's on Facebook might as well post some stuffs and say hi to some other people she hasn't talked to for so long. She thought it was fine until her friends started asking why I'm online even though I'm not supposed to be online. 

I think, more than anything else, I need encouragement so I can pull through this period of lent. Well, I have no one to encourage me to not open the Facebook because I live in a single apartment and self control is the only way to stop me.

I wish there are people cheering on me not to give up on this cause >.<

However, it doesn't change the fact that I broke my promise. BUT it doesn't mean it all ends here. I'll re-start the no-Facebook-until-April-18 again.

Well anyways.

I tried cooking Finnish food this time.

Lohikeitto

Graavilohi

So I assume "lohi" means salmon in Finnish.

I got both recipes from http://www.finnguide.fi/ and I think it worked pretty well so far. I'm a little scared of eating my Graavilohi because I live in the middle of a continent and getting fresh fish is quite a problem. Graavilohi is cured salmon - and unlike cheviche, it doesn't use any acids.

I ate the Graavilohi today and I think I'm still in a good shape. But we'll see >.<

Friday, March 11, 2011

Restaurant Crawl

It was my last Restaurant Crawl before I graduate. We went to Seven Saints for appetizers, Jupiter's for main course and then to Cakes at Walnut for dessert. The weather's been a little harsh during the day, but it wasn't that bad during the crawl so THANK GOD! :)

This year, I went with a totally different group of people. Which is good to see that there are many non-senior club members who are still active and are still looking forward to participate in the club events.

Me, Pablo, Eileen, Edwin, Fransiska, Rosemary, Kara, Sam, Ariel, Christine, Disha, Eric, Kathleen, Donny, Amanda

The event turned out to be awesome ^ ^

Anyways, a couple of days ago I tried making Moussaka (a Greek casserole). I've been wanting to make this since the first few days of this semester but for some reason or the other I keep missing some ingredients at home.


I bought a new Pyrex casserole dish (yes, my mum's probably gonna be mad at me for adding a new family member to my piling-up cooking wares) just because I think I need one. I only have a really small casserole dish that fits into my toaster oven. So, this is probably a good investment.


The overall concept is actually similar to Shepperd's Pie, but instead of using mashed potatoes on top, it uses Bechamel sauce baked in oven. And of course, eggplants as well!

Turned out a little strange but it tastes good so I have no complaints.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

MMD Project Hetalia


And so finally it's done up till the end of the chorus!

Took me Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Wednesday... So that was 5 days. Yes. I didn't spend that long during the weekends just because I have exams and homework to do.

The song is called "I Heart You" (instead of I love you, yes) by SM*SH. My friend suggested me to use this song when I asked if there is any Indonesian song that is catchy enough to be used in a modern dance choreography.

So, here it is!

Hetalia Effect

I got the wrong idea when I first saw Hetalia on YouTube. There are so many BL and yaoi things going around Hetalia and I thought it was just another harem anime. But it isn't. In fact, it's probably one of the most interesting manga / anime I've ever encountered.

So I came to know a lot about the cultures of other countries (even though they may not be really accurate), including the foods. There was one Drama CD where Lithuania said "Russia always dump everything into the soup" I became interested in knowing what Russian food is like.

After browsing the Internet (thank you Bill Gates for making life so much easier), I found some Russian recipes and I thought Solyanka would be the first to try because the ingredients are simple and from reading the recipes I feel that the taste would not be so wrong.

Glad I tried this recipe:


I changed this and that a little because I like to keep the serving size small. I think I needed more onions next time, but I love the taste of pickled cucumbers in this soup. It's like hot and sour and fresh!

Lapcheong Craze

For the past week I've been intoxicating myself with all the fats from lapcheong (Chinese pork sausage). It's so good, and it reminds me of my days at home.

It goes well with rice, egg noodles and kwetiaw (flat rice noodle). It's full of flavor. And if you can get the good quality ones, it's also juicy.

Fried rice...

Fried kwetiaw


And fried rice...


And fried rice again...



I love lapcheong!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Fasting and Abstinence

This is a really tough challenge for me. In my whole life, I always failed.

This year I promised to skip Facebook for 40 days. It's one of the greatest challenge for me. Somehow I always have time to post something on Facebook, be it just a wall post, a comment, video, pictures... I wasted so much of my time being online.

I haven't told my parents but I've been going to bible study sessions. I know I've been pressing my switch on and off; sometimes I'm really eager to search the light and sometimes I just prefer to be in the dark. Right now I'm trying to switch it on again.

So, pray for me so I can abstain from Facebook during this 40 days!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Braised eggs and my ego

This event was last month. I did indicated that I wanted to help out with cooking for the event, but 4 days before the event, I was suddenly asked to be the coordinator of all volunteers in the cooking section.

I couldn't turn down the request because of several unspoken reasons, so I did become a coordinator.

By the way, I was in charge of making telor kecap (hard boiled eggs braised in sweet soy sauce). Pretty easy to make when you have 20 eggs to make, but it's quite a hassle when you have 180 eggs to boil, peel and cook. I got two people helping me out to peel and cook them so it wasn't so bad.


The eggs above took 8 hours to become this brown. Heh. Took me the whole Febreeze to neutralize the smell of my room afterwards.

Anyways, long story short, since I was so busy with food preparation, nobody took my photos so I was like a shady ninja walking around with trays of food. Which I think was pretty cool.

I used to be (or maybe I still am) a little thirsty for acknowledgment. But somehow I had some kind of enlightenment this time. I felt it was kinda fun to be in the shades. I smelled like hydrolyzed cooking oil and my hair was all messed up (unlike some people who decided to leave the kitchen and take a good shower before they meet everyone). Some people approached me and said they were satisfied with the food (which made me really happy even though I didn't cook all of them), so I'm happy enough.

I felt so blissful that God gave me the patience to be humble!