photos from Miami -- Manatee mailboxes

While in Miami, I took a jaunt to Key West. On the way there, I stopped by Sombrero Beach. The windy road that led up to it was lined with expensive-looking beach houses -- and several of them had these awesome mailboxes. I took some photos on the way back. :D

Yorkshire pudding party!

Some time last week, I made Yorkshire puddings because I've been craving it. It's simple, really. Some milk, eggs, flour and salt. Mix it all together. Let it sit for an hour. Bake in super-hot muffin pan with hot oil. The Brits eat it with gravy with their Sunday roast, but I drizzled it with honey. Yum. And this is one of the reasons why I switched back to Blogger. I have photos!

I'm back!

Back to Blogger. Spent the last two hours manually transferring my posts from WordPress. Hopefully I can post photos properly now.

another kink in the ball of yarn

or some idiom like that.

I got a call Monday afternoon as I was peacefully napping in preparation for my paper extravaganza (which is what I should be doing right now ... I'm almost halfway there!). It is the Boston Globe, telling me that they would like to interview me. When would I be available for two rounds of interviews with three different people? This is the moment I have been waiting for for so long. I've applied to the Globe two years before to no success, so I should be jubilant, right? But this just throws another wrench into the LIFE CRISIS.

life. CRISIS.

I am going through a minor life crisis right now that will culminate in a MAJOR LIFE CRISIS in March. I can't go into too much detail right now because I have a crapload of stuff to do (including worrying about said life crises), but it is about my fork in the road and the way I screwed myself over despite specific attempts not to. I might have burned one or two bridges with more to come. But I'll have to elaborate later. Just wanted to let you all know that I have been in emotional and personal turmoil daily for the past week.

test photo

Top Gear -- a tiny, tiny car!

So "Top Gear" is one of my favorite shows. It's three British guys talking about cars and test-driving cars -- old, new, cheap, expensive (mostly expensive) -- they race them, they build them, they re-build them. They invite celebrities to come and drive around their racetrack and get timed and get their times listed on the celebrities board. It's pretty awesome. This is a segment from it.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=HYtro7PnBA8]

this little girl is too cute! (and "Britain's Got Talent")

So I've been watching old American Idol clips on YouTube, and this little gem popped up on the sidebar. Connie Talbot, a 6-year-old, totally impressed Simon Cowell on "Britain's Got Talent" when she sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." He said she was "pitch perfect." And anyway, there's Ant and Dec, who are pretty famous in Britain. Imagine competing against a 6-year-old. I've known there was a "Britain's Got Talent," but I've never looked into it, and it seems like that was a mistake on my part. Paul Potts, the guy who eventually won, sang operas and was pretty good. He's got amazing, but he's not bad. Videos!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWNoiVrJDsE]

In the semi-finals:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWyile34-Hg]

In the finals:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Uhgm5Ox9Q]

The competition, Paul Potts, singing "Nessun Dorma:"
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA&mode=related&search=]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_5W4t_CBzg]

Stephen Colbert takes over for Maureen Dowd

Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report -- and fellow South Carolinian (woo!) wrote an op-ed column for Maureen Dowd this week. Even though I'm not a big fan of his show, the column is pretty amusing. This is my favorite bit:

Second, winning the Nobel Prize does not automatically qualify you to be commander in chief. I think George Bush has proved definitively that to be president, you don’t need to care about science, literature or peace.

story of a failure on Japan's welfare system

This story is from The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/asia/12japan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

A man who starved to death after his town's welfare system cut him off from benefits was found in his home. He dreamed of eating rice balls. His last diary entry read: “My belly’s empty. I want to eat a rice ball. I haven’t eaten rice in 25 days.” His town, Kitakyushu, has a welfare system that was touted to be the model, but this man's story was not the first. Two others preceded him in the last three years.

Read the second page, where the reporter wrote the neighbors' reactions. This one jumped out:
“He may have starved to death, but I believe he reaped what he sowed,” Mr. Kita said. “He was still young, so he could have taken on any job to feed himself.”

Mr. Kita — who had once seen corpses in his job as a general contractor — had guessed from the stench that his neighbor had died. He had watched swallows fly out of the broken house with greenbottle flies in their beaks.

ketchup fried rice

So this might SOUND disgusting and weird, but it is REALLY good and very simple to make. My mom made this a couple of times, and I've made it several times. It's filling, especially if you add stuff to it. I like corn. You might prefer shrimp or pork or something.

Ketchup Fried Rice
INGREDIENTS:
cooked rice
ketchup
salt
pepper
oil
optional: canned sweet corn, shrimp or a meat of your choice

PROCEDURE:
* Cook the rice according to instructions or taste. I, being Asian, use a rice cooker. Make enough for however many people you're feeding. Leftovers are great even the next day.
* In a hot skillet or saucepan -- this works best in a nonstick pan -- drizzle about 2 tablespoons of oil and wait for it to heat up
* Add your rice. If you have a lot of rice, add it gradually.
* stir around so if doesn't burn, but I like a little crunchiness
* squeeze a liberal amount of ketchup over the rice, until it turns orange-pink
* taste. add more ketchup if needed
* add your extra ingredient. If you're using raw seafood or meat, I suggest pre-cooking it
* add salt and pepper to taste

That's it!

Novak Djokovic -- player impressions

So the world No. 3 tennis player Novak Djokovic (Joe-koh-vich) imitates other players on the tour. It's hilarious. The thing is, he's a great tennis player, to boot.

at U.S. Open, Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKj4PdWrK-o]

U.S. Open, Sharapova:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guvyjrmNJP8]

Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Nadal:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR9pj6Op_KU]

first Woot! -- a Roomba!

I successfully bought my first Woot! product today, and it's the infamous (famous? notorious?) Roomba! I've been wanting a Roomba for awhile, but it seems that they always offer it when I'm broke. Well, no more! I can only afford one right now, so it's going to my parent's place. :D

It's an iRobot Roomba Discovery SE: http://www.woot.com/Blog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryId=2939

Punctuation is powerful. (Please, remember the period.)

Saw this on Digg. As a copy editor, I had to post it. It's too true.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29921412@N00/354975371/

tennis and cello

so two funny (in different ways) stories:

First, I had my first tennis lesson last night since high school. It's free with my membership, so why not? Let me just say that I have really terrible reflexes, and I remember during one lesson in high school, I got hit by a ball three times. So this foray back into the impact sport world is a big step. Last night, we learned the forehand and backhand, and the teacher was tossing up balls to hit backhands. It's my turn, and I stepped up to the service line and waited for the ball. It bounced high. I reached out to get it. It hit me in the left eye. I saw stars. One large, white star followed by smaller, shiny stars. My eye is OK, but I had blurry vision for awhile. And I have a faint black eye, where my brow bone is, which is where it hit. But it was a tennis ball, so it really covered the entire eye.

Today was my first cello lesson of the semester, and since my old teacher went to Honolulu for a symphony job, there is a new teacher. I already knew that she got her master's from USC, and when the music director wrote in an e-mail that she's from South Carolina, I discounted it as a typo. Well, get this. It wasn't a typo. My new teacher's husband's father (her father-in-law), is the president of a local university in my town, and it is the same university where my high school yearbook adviser's husband is a provost. In fact, my cello teacher said, my adviser and her husband sent a wedding present. Crazy, huh?

Family Guys at the Emmys

I actually watched the Emmys on Sunday, and even though I'm not a big fan of "Family Guy," I really loved the opening act that Stewie and the dog did. Hilarious. Here it is, in case you missed it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrzKyopCls4]

Vicente Fox: Bush was "cockiest guy I've ever met"

In his new book, former Mexican president Vicente Fox calls President Bush the "cockiest guy I've ever met" and says that Bush's Spanish was at grade-school level.

chongas

So in Miami, there is a -- how would I say it -- phenomenon called the chonga. A chonga, according to the Urban Dictionary, is:

A girl of Hispanic origin, usually between the ages of 12 and 19, but sometimes as young as 8. Primarily found in Miami (most famously, in Hialeah), the chonga is known for her cheap form of dress, a combination of the so-called gangsta look and that of a prostitute, but can vary between the two. She wears ridiculously large hoop earrings large enough to be bracelets, which are usually gold and have their name written in them, and diamond studs high up on her ears. ...

The definition goes on and on. I was introduced to this thing at the Herald, which apparently had a story about the girls (chongalicious-in-herald.pdf) who had a video on YouTube called "Chongalicious," a parody of Fergie's song. Apparently, these girls are not chongas themselves but are drama students at a local high school. Telemundo also did a rather long package on it. Other chongas (or not?) followed with their own videos.

This is the "Chongalicious" video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVHdqmN7-XE]

And the Telemundo package:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcNrL_HRz0A]

Alex the crazy-smart parrot has died

Alex knew numbers up to 6 and can identify 50 objects and seven colors and shapes. Alex was awesome.

Here is Alex in action:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcLLk-r1aSs]

Leave Britney Alone! (and Boston)

I am back in Boston. I have been for the past week and a half. I've just been having some Internet issues. And I just haven't gotten around to it. Anyway. There will be more of Miami. But first, this YouTube video I saw on Digg. It's a Britney Spears fan's plea to just LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE! Enjoy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc]