binglemumps

Over the last couple years, except when I get really really mad, I’ve pretty much cut swearing out of my vocabulary, beyond ‘damn’ which I don’t think really counts anyway. I don’t have anything against swearing per se (although I do want to throttle kids who swear excessively just for the sake of it); this was probably more a consequence of gradually veering away from language that would be not that appropriate for the workplace.

I realised, though, that I swear a lot to myself. Like when I drop things when I’m cooking. Or when I kick something accidentally. But most profusely when I’m in the shower. Our shower has recently developed the habit of turning the hot water off when I’m trying to turn it up. It drives me insane. Nothing worse than having nice warm water turn cold when you’re expecting the very contrary, especially when it’s already cold outside. And before I know it I’m already on the fourth or fifth ‘f***’ in my string of ‘f***’s. It’s not like I consciously get mad at the shower and start yelling at it. It’s a completely reactionary gut response. Makes me wonder what I’d be saying if I let myself rattle off without any effort at thought.

I hope Germ and Davis can’t hear me when I do that. Bet they’d laugh at me. ._.

Davis: Here’s a toast to wish Germaine Happy Birthday, and to celebrate the fact that I don’t have to fight Japanese girls for her to love me (long story). I could beat them though.

Me: I bet you couldn’t beat Chun Li.

David: No, probably not. But I could make her love me.

In the first of this Cooking With Bingles series, I will introduce this easy to cook and eatable for many days dish.

TJK Salad

So termed because this recipe is attributable to TJK (surprisingly). What I like about it is you get some warm meat with it, so it’s not like you’re eating cold and clammy grass stuff, plus the salad dressing is fairly healthy (I only use 4-5 teaspoons per meal).

1. Marinate fish or chicken. I haven’t been very adventurous so I’ve only used salmon and tilapia so far. Rubbing salt and coarse black pepper on it is usually enough taste, but sometimes I also add my McCormick garlic/onion mix thing. You can also bread the meat and deep fry it, though that makes the dish unhealthy x 9.
2. Cut veggies up (I like romaine lettuce).
3. Toast walnuts and sesame seeds in pan (separately!!)
4. Make salad dressing: I don’t really know what the proportions are here, I kinda dump it all in a bowl and hope that it tastes good. But roughly it’s something like - 4 Tbs soy sauce, 1 Tbs sesame oil, 1 Tbs fish sauce, dash of sugar, add toasted sesame seeds. I usually make enough for 3 meals (that’s how many heads of lettuce come in the Safeway pack).
5. Fry fish/chicken until brown. Usually stinks up the house. Poke with fork to make sure edible.
6. Put fish/chicken on veggies. Add toasted walnuts. Cranberries are a good topping too, and they make the dish look pretty. If you are so inclined you may also add a boiled egg (as pictured above). Finish with modest amount of dressing - don’t add too much because it’ll end up collecting at the bottom of the plate and your last layer of veggies will get too soaked in it.

Tada! Nutritious, quick AND yummy (most food only achieves one of the above!)

I borrowed I Am Legend (book) from Joe and finished it this morning. I’ve heard about the movie and I can understand how you would think the book is the best thing in the world compared to it, but on its own, I thought it was kinda lame. I mean, I think the general concept is interesting, and it did serve to popularise the wiping-out-of-population-via-plague idea. I just don’t like the story. I have a bit of an allergy to bad plots. After I go through a book or movie or whatever with a bad plot, I get this really buay song gut feeling, even if I can’t exactly place why. Not that this plot was bad, it just wasn’t terribly good.

Spoilers inc! Don’t read if you plan to read the book (movie is completely unrelated).

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So good! I’ve been looking forward to breakfast every day now. I can’t believe it took me so long to discover this. Yay for Germ!

Are surprisingly on track. I don’t usually make New Year resolutions. If something needs to be done, it’ll get done, and if I don’t want to do something I won’t do it, regardless of when and whether I resolve to. I didn’t really make any resolutions this year either, I just happened to decide to start doing some things approximately when 2007 turned into 2008.

For example, #1 - Keeping track of expenses. I’ve been pretty on top of this because I’m worried that if I skip it for just one day, it’ll slide into nothingness (kinda like with flossing). Google Docs is very handy for this cos I want to be able to do this at work and at home. It’s not like I’m going to cut down on spending or anything; I was just curious to see how much I spend. And so far it’s looking a lot more than I expected, so I keep wanting to leave out unusual expenses, like presents or signing up for YMCA membership, but I guess some unusual expense or other occurs every month so they end up being not that unusual…

And #2 - Get healthy. This consists of (a) substituting unhealthy desserts with fruit (b) more veggies (c) getting fit enough so that I don’t run out of breath every morning when I climb up the stairs from the Bart station. I know that sounds pathetic, but the stairs at the Bart station are not that trivial ok! I’m pretty sure they translate to at least 3 storeys. And to my credit I use the stairs by choice and not because I have to. So there!

Anyway I signed up for YMCA membership (and got a free duffel bag and water bottle that actually look pretty nice!). I haven’t stepped foot in a gym for years and I never wanted to commit myself to one because I didn’t think I’d actually go, but this time I think it’ll happen. I’ve been feeling strangely motivated, thanks to (i) Germ and Davis signing up and (ii) Chris talking about how he’d been exercising which somehow inspired me to seriously consider it. Which is why sometimes I think the universe conspires to make things happen (where did that come from? Solitaire Mystery?), because without one of those two things I probably would’ve continued sitting on my butt like I’ve been doing the last few years.

Today marked what will hopefully be some kind of beginning - I woke up at 9.15 on a Sunday to go to the gym, and I only worked out for a measley 23 minutes (although I would have done more if I’d been able to figure out how to turn the damn biking machines on!), but it was a valiant start nonetheless! Now it’s only 3.36pm and I’m totally exhausted and I came out to a cafe purportedly to study but am blogging instead…Clearly if I had been a serious resolution making person I would have added #3 - Study Hard and Do Not Procrastinate to the list, but what can you do…

I recently uncovered my old CD collection and started listening to some long forgotten Chinese songs. Most of them sound the same and are invariably sappy, but there’s something to be said about Chinese music. Somehow Chinese lyrics always sound good. If you tried translating them into English, they would sound terrible in any shape and form, but in Chinese they just sound poetic. Unfortunately many songwriters seem unaware of this and spoil perfectly normal songs with the worst possible choices of English words.

In any case, this has always been one of my favourite verses - cheesy but I think the use of words is pretty clever:

I got my package from Amazon Japan today. Here’s what it looked like on receipt:

Seriously looks like some wild animal ripped through it. Thankfully the CDs were bound to a piece of hard cardboard by plastic wrap, so arrived intact. The box itself was also a bit wet, so maybe it got caught in the storm we were having over the weekend? Although why it hasn’t managed to dry itself between then and now is beyond me, plus it doesn’t exactly explain the crazy torn sides. This is what I get for 20 USD shipping?!?!?!?! I’m pretty surprised nothing fell out.

The pictures, by the way, were courtesy of SW’s 4.5 megapixel Nokia camera, so that I could retain evidence to demand my shipping money back. I’ve resized them but jeez, no phone should be allowed to take pictures like this. I want a $650 phone too!

I ordered something from Amazon Japan, and as usual, have been desperately tracking my package. This is what I first saw, when they shipped the item:

Items shipped on 2008/1/4:
- Delivery estimate: 2008/1/3

…Ok. So now the item is shipped and is in the US. And this is how it happened:

I understand that the time difference can get confusing, but still…