X'mas 2008

Well, first of all, Merry Christmas! I know it's late by 2 days, but nonetheless I should at least write something about Christmas.

I didn't send and receive lots of Christmas messages this Christmas because not everyone knows that I'm back at home and am still using the old cellphone number. I feel like I really should send them at least a text message, but... yeah, I didn't do it this year.

Perhaps being months apart with so little contact loosen the urgency to send greetings.

On the other hand.. I received 3 Christmas cards from my friends this year. Yay :)

I was ill from Dec 23-24. I was still sick on 25th, but I felt slightly better. And on 26th, I kinda worked since morning to prepare for a huge Christmas party at my house. About 60 people came yesterday. Whew. Felt tired and hot, but nonetheless fun because my gaming partners (my dear cousins!) came over!

Met an annoying person whom I'd never met before. She is... extraordinarily impolite even though I kinda know that she didn't mean it in the mean way (meaning that she's probably joking). Still, her attitude last night was outrageous enough to make 6 people unconsciously shared the same thoughts: she's annoying.

Anyway~

I have a really bad sore throat today. Ergh.

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No more finals!

I only have 1 "true" final exam, so I'm done for this semester!

My mum told me to call JAL and ask for earlier flights, and I got them! I just changed my bus ticket to O'Hare, paying $10 cancellation fee. But going back earlier by 3 days is worth $10!

Psych 100 final exam wasn't as hard as I expected. At least I find that the questions in the workbook are much more demanding. One thing I love about psych exams is that they always give out funny questions, and they made me laugh in the middle of the exam. At least they alleviate my exam anxiety by a little bit.

I didn't spend as much time studying for psych exam, which made me somehow worried. On Saturday, Julie (my roommate) started reading Hana Kimi, and because of that, I began reading it too! And I couldn't stop! I read the entire series (143 chapters) on that particular day. Oh gosh. And I didn't do much on Friday either. I watched When The Earth Stood Still (which I mistakenly thought was "When The Earth Stopped"). Not a really good movie; I slept while watching it. I was sleepy to begin with. LOL.

I don't know what to buy for souvenirs... Everything in America is so expensive. The cheapest keychain was around $4.65, excluding tax. And it's not aesthetically pleasant. Urgh. Might as well buy something from Japan when I transit later...

Anyway, I had a weird dream last night. Perhaps it's because I read too much Hana Kimi (I even re-read some of the chapters on Sunday).

There was a girl (I don't know who, but she's my best friend in my dream anyway) who ran away from her parent's match-making plan. She then somehow got along with a boy (whom I seemed to know very well, but apparently he's just another character I created in my dream), and they planned to get married! I don't know why, but later on she went back to her parent's place and then saw the match-making photo. Oh gosh, their parents were trying to match-make her with the boy she likes! So it should be a happy ending... not. Somehow her parents changed their mind because there's a rich/famous/seemingly powerful guy who liked their daughter, and he's a... monster. Maybe. He has such a pale face, as pale as paper. He was sitting in front of his desk, and his face blended very well with the mountain of papers stacked on his desk. Eew. It was freaky. His facial features somehow appeared to be black in color. Aaahh....!! So freaky!!

But I guess I know why. I've been studying psych too much yesterday, and there was a chapter on sensation and perception. I guess I was paying too much attention to lateral inhibition, which is responsible for the contrast of black and white in our eyes. Yes, that must be it. LOL.

Anyways.. yeah, she was kind of dragged to the white man's castle/mansion/dungeon (?), and I came to rescue her. Yes, I took the role of the boy she likes. I don't know where the boy went after the white guy took her away. And... I heard beepings.

It was my alarm clock. Darn.

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Yet another commemoration!

I love this semester. I have 3 courses with similar policy: get an A or A+ (whenever applicable) before the finals, and you're exempted from the finals.

So, yeah, I skipped 3 finals this semester, leaving me with one final exam next Monday.




I love the last line:
Do you have to take the final?: NO.

Happy :)

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Evil Laughs

It started because I watched Code Geass, and I spread the addiction virus to my roommate.

1st rank on my list: Lelouch from Code Geass. He ROCKS! Well, this is EXTREMELY AMUSING. Try watching this:


I extracted the audio from the video using Vixy, and both my roommate and I made this our MORNING WAKE UP ALARM TONE. Woo-hoo! I bet I'm gonna stay asleep having nightmares instead of waking up. LOL.

This is how a person snapped out of his mind would laugh:



Seriously, Lelouch's voice dubber (a.k.a. seiyuu) Fukuyama Jun is terrific! His laughs give me chills!

Here's a transformation from normal, happy-life laughs to... sinister, psycho, evil laugh of Yagami Raito from Death Note (anime). LOL.



And someone made a techno version of this sinister laughter.



Which turns out to be pretty... cool?

This is... creepy. Very. Very very very creepy. If you don't have the guts to watch gory, disturbing scenes, don't watch this. I don't even know the title of this anime, but... yeah, I don't think I'll ever watch it.



And the last one is Prince Laharl from Disgaea. Alf sort of recommended me to check it out.

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Another Commemoration

Gehh. Too small. You have to click the picture to see the bigger version!

Before the grade can possibly be destroyed by the final exam next Monday, I'm gonna paste a screen shot of my psych grade. Hehehe.

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Slippery time

Snow on the ground = beautiful
Ice on the ground = hateful

Went for a work out today because it's warm. Yay.

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Awesome Assignment!

Just to commemorate. LOL.

50/50.

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Fools in Snow

I self-declare that I was a member of F4 (Fools 4 / Freshmen 4 / Freak 4 / whatever... we're not Flower 4 or Fantastic 4 :P)



When everyone was desperately trying to be home as soon as possible, we were standing in the middle of the snow storm, taking photo.






P.S: I love my coat and my hat!



Mogi + Andrew




Found some ice sticks underneath cars. So childish... tsk tsk :P




Snowball fight! I had it in Korea... my hand froze but it was fun!












An elf and two hobbits? Ahahaha...




Cold but beautiful winter. The snow disappeared after the rain today. Well, it makes the air warmer, but... the snow on the ground is now gone. For now...

:P

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More from Thanksgiving :)

Before start posiyng pictures of the dishes again, I want to post a picture of me with my red coat that I like so much :)



A self portrait of myself. Well, there was practically no one on the streets of Urbana on Thanksgiving day. I had the streets to myself. I could even try to stand in the middle of the road for a more than 15 seconds without getting afraid that a car would hit me!

Well, these are the photos of the "dead" town :)



The view I see every Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays:


And this is the Alma Mater statue of my college. The effects of acidic rain makes the facial expressions a bit scary :P



Okay, food time!


Shrimp Chap Cay! Unknown green vegetables with bean sprouts and mushroom slices, and shrimps!



Itadakimasu!

Next, the food I ate on Sunday. I didn't want to make something complicated, so I thought of making pasta. I tried mixing half-and-half milk with butter and tomato, hoping to make a cream of tomato, but... I used too much milk, and somehow there was a raw taste of tomatoes :( Didn't taste so nice.



And because I poured too much milk, the sauce was very watery. Nyahh. Initially it tasted good. I regretted adding more milk to it :(

Discovered another way to present bananas! Peel 1/6 part of the banana skin, and pull the skin wide open so it looks like a sheet. Then cut the bananas!

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Baked Rice with Egg

Made something out of the blue again. Was actually inspired by the baked fish.



Well... I forgot to add the tomatoes. Hmph. I totally forgot of its existence in the bottom compartment of the fridge. Because of that, I feel that "something's missing". I used hams, slices of red peppers and sharp cheddar cheese. And a home made white sauce which has too much salt in it. You know, I don't really like the taste of the salt they frequently use here in the US (the brand is called Morton Salt). Yes, it's more fine, unlike the coarse granule salt I used in Indonesia or Singapore. Again, it feels like "something's missing". It's just a salt, but... I don't know, it just doesn't taste nice. Hmm :(

Anyway, I discovered that if you bake strong cheddar cheese, part of it will become watery. That can be a nice sauce for baked rice :)

And baked eggs taste weird. It's like eating a crisp of egg - the same feeling when I tried to cook fried eggs using microwave.

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After Thanksgiving

Lonely? No problemo! I enjoyed having a personal lab session in my own kitchen!

Had a nice Miso Ramen with shrimp for breakfast. Normally people don't use shrimps for miso ramen - more often than not, I always eat miso ramen with chashu (sliced pork). LOL. But I DON'T HAVE THE INGREDIENTS!! I just made up something with anything left in my fridge. Haha.



Yummy~

Okay, and for lunch, I made something simple that my mum used to cook for me whenever I'm home: steamed ground pork filled into big, red chillis!

They don't have the same type of red chillis here, so I used long peppers instead. Unlike the big chilis I use in Indonesia, the big peppers have very little seeds inside, so there's not much of cleaning the inside :)




But, I'm too lazy to take out the steamer, so I decided to put it in microwave instead.


Doesn't look really appealing, so I sprinkled some spring onions (or onion greens, as people would say it here).


The red peppers were actually not bad, but the sweet taste makes it different from the original. And using microwave to steam it was actually not a good idea. Unlike the steamed version, the meat taste somehow hard. It's not tough, but it's far inferior compared to steamed one.

Next, desserts!

I have nothing but yogurt and strawberries left in the fridge, so I just made "fruit yogurt". LOL. But I figure that doing that is very boring, so I added chocolate dip and condensed milk and cereals. Hohoho...


This is the 3rd layer of the dessert. The first layer was diced strawberries. The second one was strawberry yogurt. I sliced the strawberry thinly for the 3rd layer. Then I added a bit of chocolate dip over the 3rd layer strawberries and some bits of cereals before I added another layer of blueberry yogurt.

These are the yogurts that I used:


Yeah, I was kinda addicted to Activia. It tastes great! Not sure about the laxative effect they promote in their commercials, though.



The reason why I used this cereal is because my brother bought it, and he doesn't like it. Knowing him, he'd probably throw it away later. Knowing me who doesn't like food to be wasted, I used it in my dessert experiments. And, yeah, those are the condensed milk and the chocolate fruit dip I was talking about.

So this is the side view. It's like seeing a layer of purple and pink stuffs.


And this is the top view:



Hoho... and this set became my lunch menu on Black Friday!

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Free Thanksgiving Dinner

Dinner! Dinner!

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Dangerous Catfish

This is my first time baking at a place with a smoke detector. I forgot to open the window and turn on the smoke fan. I went into a huge panic when the smoke detector alarm beeped so loudly. I thought water would sprinkle in an instant, or worse, firemen would come and spray this apartment with their hose. But, no, thank God. Nothing happened. Phew.

I tried to blend in tomatoes, lemon juice and strong cheddar cheese this time.

But first and foremost, I found a treasure at Walmart yesterday:



My favorite chrysanthemum tea! Aahh!! They sell it for $0.54, which is considerably cheap in the US but considerably very expensive in Singapore. And I found a can of Milo powder there too! I LOVE WALMART, THANK YOU!! *smooch*

Okay, this is what it looks like before baking:


I marinated the catfish fillet in lemon water and sake for a couple of minutes before putting them on the baking tray. Then, as you can see, I put slices of tomatoes on it. Then I put 4 slices of Kraft's strong cheddar cheese on it.



10 minutes on 425F, just before the smoke alarm beeped ^^; Looks more like a casserole to me now. The part of the melt cheese in contact with the lemon slices curds, and it tastes so yummy!

BUT! Thanks to the smoke alarm and my stupidity, I didn't manage to get the fish cooked thoroughly. The middle part of the fish is left uncooked :(



The leftovers (the uncooked part). Now it looks kinda... disgusting. I'm gonna fix this again before I eat it for dinner.

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Bulgogi

Time for Korean food! :)

Cooked this on Sunday (3 days ago), but hadn't had the chance to post it.



Sorry for the pathetic presentation. LOL.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 kg sliced beef
- Kalbi (ribs) / Bulgogi sauce (I don't mean to advertise, but this brand is pretty good)

- 1/2 onion (Bombay)
- 1 packet of mushroom (depends on variety)
- 1-2 tbs cooking oil

Instructions:
1. Marinate the beef. The longer, the better. At least, the directions at the back label of the marinade sauce I bought says "Marinate short ribs for an hour or longer or longer". Hahahaha!



2. Slice the mushrooms. I like it sliced thin.


3. Slice the onions into thin stips.


4. Heat the oil. High heat is recommended. Put in the onions first, then the beef. Keep on stirring it or otherwise the beef won't be cooked evenly.

5. If you use fresh mushrooms, the it's best to put in the mushroom when the beef is half cooked. Otherwise, you'll need to wait for the mushroom to be cooked well and the beef will be overcooked. A good way to tell if the mushrooms are well-cooked is to see if they have shrunk. The texture changes, too.

Takes about 30 minutes to prepare :)

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Fruit Dessert - Banana, Strawberry, Grapes

It's Thanksgiving break, and I'm kinda lonely sitting down here in the apartment, so I decided to create stuffs :)

Today's menu is a fruit dessert!






Materials:
- 1 strawberry
- 1 banana (not too ripe - difficult to cut)
- 5 pieces of grapes
- condensed milk
- chocolate dip / chocolate flavored condensed milk

Instructions:
1. Peel off the banana, slice it horizontally into 3.
2. Take 2 parts of the sliced banana into 4-5 thin slices. Leave the other one as it is.
3. Slice the strawberry vertically into 8-10 thin slices.
4. Arrange the thinly sliced banana and place each sliced strawberry on each slice of banana.
5. Arrange the grapes.
6. Splatter the chocolate dip / chocolate flavored condensed milk. Use it as you like it, but don't put too much on it.
7. Time for condensed milk. Since the white condensed milk cannot be seen on the banana, just pour a little on top of the chocolate dip / choco flavored condensed milk to add the color. Don't add too much or it will be too sweet.

The reason why I add grapes is to make the entire dessert taste not so sweet, since grapes have a strong taste that can't be easily killed by condensed milk and chocolate. I'm not sure if the strawberries are sweet or sour (still can't really tell by smell and appearance), so I put quite a lot of condensed milk on it and it was a big mistake.

Banana and condensed milk taste good. Just need to be careful not to put too much condensed milk on it, or everything will taste super sweet :P

And, yeah, don't ever use banana peels as a decoration. It oxidizes as I leave it in open air, and it turned out to look rather disgusting. LOL. I wanted to create a decoration like how people can create flowers using carrot peels, but... yeah, it didn't turn out good. At first it looked pretty decent, though.



Look. What do you think of the banana peel tower?

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Foie Gras and Fine Dining

It started yesterday. Actually, a lot of people have been gone since Thursday night. On Friday, generally there were only half of the class present. I kinda want to skip some of the classes on Friday, but I decided to just go. I will be staying in town for the rest of the week, so there is no point skipping class - I won't be able to go anywhere. Yes, probably I could just sleep and take a rest, but by doing that I have to spend extra time reading the materials that should have been gone through during class.

I'm being diligent, that is :)

Went out to try foie gras (fat duck's liver in French) in a fine dining restaurant called Everest in Chicago with my brother. No walk-ins: you have to reserve before going there. It was really, really expensive: the two of us spent $300 in total for a 4-course menu + dessert.

Sautéed New York State Foie Gras, Pineapple, Mango and Gewurztraminer. Yes, that was the complete name of the menu. Sadly, I don't have a picture of it

Foie gras was banned in Chicago because of the brutality involved in production of the raw material: force feeding. Basically, the ducks were forced to become abnormally fat. Yes, the breeder make them obese. Well, this time I'm on the animal rightists' side: I agree that it's overly too cruel. But again, as a food lover, I want to try all sorts of food out there.

Just for trivia: the trend of eating foie gras originated in Egypt, and then was spread to the Mediteranean. The dish was finally made into a distinct food by the Romans under the name iecur ficatum, which means "liver" and "figs".

The foie gras I ate was prepared as hot food and medium-cooked. When I tried to slice it, it feels as if I was slicing tofu - smooth and tender. It certainly didn't look like any kind of liver I like to eat, even though the greyish appearance somehow reminded me of pig's liver.

It melt perfectly inside my mouth. It was even better than eating high-quality chocolates with lots of cocoa butter content. It was tangy, with slight bitter taste of liver.

It was a WOW.

The serving size is rather small - about 5 cm square wide and 1cm thick - but I think that is what makes it addictive. I bet that if you eat more than that, you'll get sick of it because its flavor is so strong and it's just so fatty.

I'd love to eat it again, but considering the cruel production method and the ultra high price (I'm not a billionaire), I don't think I would be eating a lot of it for the rest of my life.

And I don't think I'd like to sit for a fine dining - it's so tiring to keep up with the proper table manners when you're so not used to it. I had to be self-conscious at most times. I have no problems with remembering the positions of the cutleries and the proper eating manner, but to refrain myself from expressing my enjoyment of the dishes presented in an open manner is probably too difficult for me. LOL.

I feel like licking the plate till it's clean when it's overly delicious, but I certainly won't be able to do that in high class restaurant, right? That would be a great embarrassment to myself.


Sources: our beloved Wikipedia

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Gmail is transformed!

Wow, my Gmail has different layout now! Haha... I was kinda surprised. Somehow I prefer the old one. The new one looks a little stiff to me.

But again, I'll just get used to it like how I'm getting so used with the new Facebook layout. I don't get why so many people are so fussed about the new Facebook layout. They're like saying things like "boycott Facebook" and setting up "anti-new Facebook layout" groups online. LOL!

They have so much pleasure time in their lives. I mean, come on... the new Facebook layout is still considered user-friendly enough.

It would be even better if I can change the color layout in Facebook, though. I like customizing my pages, like my Yahoo! mail for example. It gives me the "IT'S MINE!!" feeling :)

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Prove Myself

Yesterday I asked my roommate to help me think of my ESL final paper topic, since it was left to be an open topic. She started suggesting a lot of stuffs, but I bet such topics are somehow unsuitable to the "taste" of ESL - it has to be an academic paper.

Well, there was a really interesting topic about proving my existence. She was talking about Descrates and his famous "I think, therefore I am".

I tried to read his philosophical ideas online, and guess what? I'm fumbled up! I don't understand a single thing he talked about! And I told this to my roommate. She then replied that I should come up with my own points.

I thought about it again, and it seems so impossible for me. At least, I probably need more than one year to complete a paragraph about it. The deadline for the outline is this Saturday, and coming up with an essay outline about proving my existence is just impossible.

But as a side dish, I guess it won't hurt if I start thinking about it. I mean, I want to know how I can prove that I exist.

I can't imagine if we are really living inside The Matrix. And someday perhaps I would wake up, finding myself being put into a deep sleep inside a machine, and I would discover that everything that happened was just an illusion or a dream.

Just like how sometimes a cut on your skin is not painful till the time you look at the wound, it is possible that the laptop keyboard that I'm typing on is just a hallucination. What if in reality, what I'm doing is just moving my fingers in the air? What if all the letters that appeared on the screen as I typed this blog is just my mind's play?

Scary, huh? That would make me schizophrenic.

Let's see if I can prove that I exist within the next couple of months. Not by mathematical method, though. Hahaha :P

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Hare Hare Yukai

I'm a little slow, but... yeah, now I'm addicted to this song (and dance).



Okay, Hare Hare Yukai is the ending theme for the anime Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi). The ending animation includes a dance of the main characters in the anime.

Well, the song is now kind of stuck in my head. The dance movement is cute, too, but they're not as cute as I thought it would be when danced by real people:



I prefer the animated one :P

And here are some people cosplaying while dancing Hare Hare Yukai:



I think I know why. The "people" in the animation smile a lot, while the real people don't smile while dancing. That's probably why I like the animated version much, much better.

The guy at the right is a little weird, though. The dancing style and his hair, that is ^^;

And there are also weirdos too:



Their movements are expressive, but too energetic at the same time. It gives me the feeling that they're dancing too fast. But, yeah, they're pretty good :)

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It's snowing!

So beautiful... this is the second time I saw snow flakes falling upon me. The first time was during Outward Bound Korea, winter 2006. I remembered that I was so excited about seeing snow, but I began to hate the snow when we had to break through the pile of snow and hiked in the middle of a blizzard. Not to mention that we had to set up a tent on top of newly piled snow where it was still soft and we had to step on it over and over again to make the snow hardens.

Yes, this morning as I walked out of my dorm for my 9 am psychology class, I noticed tiny but noticeable white flakes blown against my face. They looked like tiny pieces of pure white paper. I tried catching some of the flakes, and as the flakes landed on my hands, they vanished as if I had some kind of power to make things disappear into emptiness.

It was cold, and is still cold out there, but it was much warmer compared to my first encounter with those seemingly innocuous yet pretty deadly flakes. I have not much experience with snow - I did snowball fight and made some snowballs when I was in Korea for the hike, though - but when it start to pile up, the inconvenience beats the beauty aspect of it.

Yet, the dancing flakes today brightened my mood!

My brother's nosiness just somehow ruined my mood, though. =__=; Shouldn't have let him read my blog. I'll make sure I sign out of my gmail account whenever I use his laptop so he can't view the sushi blog >:)

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Top 10 Baby Names in North America

Sometimes I just wonder: there are so many people in this world with the same name! Within my circle of friends, there are at least 4 Rachels, 4 Samanthas, and 3 Nicholases. My name itself is pretty common - sometimes mistaken as an Indian name - within the Indonesians.

Well, here are the top 10 most popular baby names:

Girls

• Emma – This name usually tops the list for girls. It means whole or complete.
• Emily – Emily is the feminine form of the French name Emile. It means industrious or hard-working.
• Sarah – A variety of meanings have been assigned to this name. In the Bible, the name is understood to mean lady or princess. Sarah was the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac. The Muslim origin defines “Sara” as pure and happy.
• Madison – This name is based on a surname derived from the name Matthew (gift or reward) or Matilda (strong fighter).
• Hannah – In the Bible, Hannah was the mother of Samuel. The name means gracious and merciful, or “God has favored me.”
• Olivia – This name is a variant of Olive, which means peace.
• Hailey – Typically used as a surname, this name has become quite popular as a first name. It means field of hay.
• Ava – Ava is a variant of the name “Eve”. In the Bible, Eve is well-known as the first woman and wife of Adam. Eve means breath or life.
• Kaitlyn – The name Kaitlyn is a derivative of Catherine, which means pure. This particular spelling is a modernized version of the traditional “Caitlin”.
• Abigail – In the Bible, the wise and sensible Abigail married King David after the death of her first husband. The name means father’s joy.

I didn't know Olive means "peace" :)
And I didn't know Matilda is associated with a powerful girl :S Woohoo... I always thought the name Matilda suits someone who is soft and kindhearted!


Boys

• Ethan – Usually tops for boys of late, this name means strong, valiant and constant.
• Matthew – In the Bible, Matthew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and was the author of one of the gospels. The name means gift or reward.
• Joshua – Joshua was the warrior who succeeded Moses and led the Israelites in their journey to the Promised Land. The name means a savior or deliverer.
• Jacob - The name means “heel” or one who supplants or undermines, but the Jacob in the Bible eventually redeemed himself and became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.
• Nicholas – Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of children, sailors and, strangely, pawnbrokers. Saint Nicholas is best known as the basis for Santa Claus. The root of the name is the Greek word “Nike”, meaning victory. In Slavic cultures, Nikolas is known as a victor or conquerer.
• Aidan – This popular Irish name means little fire or ardent. The name comes from a 7th century Irish monk named Aidan.
• Ryan – This was originally a Gaelic name meaning little king. The Irish name means, simply, kingly.
• Logan – Logan is another Gaelic name, meaning “from the hollow”.
• Noah – Anyone familiar with the Bible recognizes this name as that of the famous ark builder. The name signifies comfort and repose.
• Michael – This name is from the Biblical saint who conquered Satan and was charged with the protection of Israel. Michael is the patron saint of soldiers.

Joshua is a savior/deliverer, and Ryan is king/kingly. OMG. I have a friend called Ryan and he's unkingly (if there is such a word)... no, I'm just joking. I don't mean to belittle him LOL :)

Pretty interesting. I don't know the credibility of this source, though, coz I don't seem to find many people called Aidan, Ava and Hailey. I know Emily is pretty common, though.

Probably if I make a list of common names of Indonesians, I'd say:
- Stephanie/Stefani and all the derivatives
- Felicia and all the derivatives
- Priscilla/Priscillia and all the derivatives
- Melissa
- Amelia
- Franciska/Fransiska and all the derivatives
- Anthony/Antonius and all the derivatives
- Albert/Albertus and all the derivatives
- Andre/Andrew/Andreas and all the derivatives
- Leonardus/Leonard and all the derivatives

Recently names have been going more exotic, though... It's like they kind of fall under Enlgish names, but they're not English either (meaning that they are derivatives or some sort). There is even someone named Radian. Even though theoratically it should be associated with the word "radiant", I keep thinking that it's the mathematical radian (180 degrees). No offense - I just think it's interesting. Probably someday there will be a math fetish who named his/her children Sine, Cosine and Tangent.

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Understanding Onion!

Okay, I've been nicknamed as Onion when I was in junior high, but I got this huge problem when I cut onions: it makes me cry as if a huge, tragic event just occurred.

The acid produced by the enzymatic reaction in onions is the root of all evil (well, not all). Basically, when the acid is dissolved in water near our eyes, it will irritate our eyes and we'll start crying!

Some suggestions are rather unrealistic, like wearing a gas-tight goggles or masks (we're not dealing with a biochemical warfare, for goodness sake!). Adding salt water or acids to denature the enzyme would probably alter the taste of the onions, so that wouldn't be wise. I want to try cutting it underwater, though. I bet it will be damn difficult, since the movement of the knife will be slowed down because of the water and I won't be able to judge the depth of the water well (I'll end up cutting my fingers instead of the onions!).

Or perhaps the better solution is to cut the onions while sticking out my tongue so that the acids will dissolve in my tongue instead of my eyes. That being said, I'm not cutting onions in front of anyone! That's so embarrassing!

Alternatively, I can freeze the onion before I cut it, but I don't know if it's good for the onion. And it will be probably difficult to cut because my prediction says it's going to be hard with most of the water inside the onion frozen. It's like cutting a block of ice :S

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Stink Removal

A nice article how to remove the smell from your hands right after you eat. You know, sometimes after you entered a Korean restaurant, you smell of Bulgogi smoke, and it's really annoying.

I got these tips from Wiki How:
1. Take a tablespoon or more of everyday table salt in the palm of your hands. Mix with cold water into a paste, then rub all over your hands. Rinse off and dry. Not only will the salt get rid of the odor, but it'll also exfoliate your hands, making them much softer! If you don't have salt, or if it doesn't work, try baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) or coffee grinds.

==> I guess salt kinda works like facial scrub. I don't know how baking soda works, but I've definitely heard of coffee grinds used in perfume stores to eliminate the overly strong mix of fragrance.

2. Dip your hands in tomato juice for at least five minutes. Then, rinse your hands with liquid detergent in cold water. If it works for skunk smell, it'll probably work for onion odors. Just make sure the tomato juice or paste isn't expired.

==> It's funny to carry a tomato or tomato juice around to the restroom, though =P

3. Rub your hands against stainless steel metal (a kitchen sink works well) under cold running water for about a minute; rubbing with a large metal spoon works, too. It's suspected that the sulfur molecules that create the distinctive onion smell react with the metal(s) in the stainless steel and become neutralized.

==> I wonder if the metal gets corroded over time because of this... that will be bad :(

4. Squeeze some lemon juice into a bowl. Dip your hands in for 3 minutes, then rinse off. Your hands will smell like fresh lemons instead of onions! If you don't have lemon juice or it doesn't work, try vinegar or mouthwash.

==> Ah! It's quite a common practice in Indonesia (kobokan!). But I always use the kobokan (what's the English word? Hand wash bowl??) before I wash my hands under the sink, so the lemon fragrance doesn't really remain afterwards.

5. Rub your hands in peanut butter. They'll feel a little greasy afterwards (and moisturized!) but the smell will be gone, and you can wash off the remaining peanut butter odor. If you don't have peanut butter or if it doesn't work, try toothpaste!

==> Eww... peanut butter? I'd rather eat it than to use it to wash my hands :S And I'm not carrying my toothpaste EVERYWHERE!

6. Peel a large orange, cut into or break the outer skins and rub into hands for 2 minutes, wash under tap and repeat as necessary..lovely citrus smell remains

==> Well, this doesn't solve the problem when your hand smells because you just peeled oranges for dessert. I wonder how we can remove the citrus smell... Does soap work?

7. Wear a pair of non-latex protective gloves. Rinse any powder off of the gloves before cutting the onion. Rinse gloves well afterwards, peel them off and throw them away.

==> This is like the most unthinkable thing to do. LOL. It's so freaking troublesome.

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Anin is here!

Hehe. It's all brand and new :)

There is a certain reason, but... yeah, I feel that I need to change some stuffs. I don't know if this change is going to be temporary or permanent, but now I have 2 blogs. So, for those old readers whom I haven't given any invitation to read the other blog, just post a comment and hopefully I still have your e-mail address with me so I can invite u guys!

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