Back when I just return from China early in the year, I mentioned the auditorium at Lingshan. While visiting the site of a huge Siddhartha statue, we watched a show in this massive room. It’s hard to believe, but each row has the same number of “petals” and each each petal is the same exact size! Looking up, it definitely looked like it tapered off, but this was designed to fool you…
rainbow lights at lingshan auditorium from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Ever since this term “foodie” entered my vocabulary, I’d wondered about it. I saw the people who loved to go out and eat at nice places, with small portions and beautiful presentation styles and weird ingredients. You know, those who get dubbed experts in this and that and usually end up becoming food critics, whether professionally or as a hobby. There were food shows abound, from the traditional cooking shows to the reality/competition shows. I’d watch as they consumed all manner of things that I was not interested in trying, and wonder if that’s what made a foodie. You’d eat just about anything so you wouldn’t miss out on the amazing variety available. Oh, and of course everyone was a sucker for a wine or cheese tasting.
Then “foodie” things on the internet caught my attention, like Yelp and Foodspotting. So then I thought, “Ok, maybe being a foodie means you try all kinds of places and review them and/or post up pictures (preferably artistic) of the food you ate.” Maybe foodies were a middle-class food critic of sorts. Sometimes hitting the high-end places, but usually going to accessible restaurants and reflecting on the taste of the dishes ordered and the level of service provided. Or maybe it’s the people who almost seem to enjoy turning an image of the food into artwork more than eating the food itself. Oh! OR, could it be that it was those people who would find that one gem in the strangest of places, that has the best [fill in food type] in the area.
Yeah, I was pretty confused by this so-called identity of being a foodie, since I love food, eat a lot of it, and have a pretty diverse palette. But I just didn’t connect with what it seemed “being a foodie” entailed. My friends would probably consider me to be a foodie, but what does it really mean? I never really cared for being like those other people – the ones who paired wines with their meals and got dishes barely big enough for one bite. I also didn’t feel like the type to sit around over-analyzing the food or turn it into a creative thing. Was a a different class of foodie? Was I even in the category of foodie?
So, I decided it was time to look it up. Unfortunately, much like the term “hipster,” I’m still struggling to really grasp what people mean by the term. On Wikipedia, I found a helpful blurb to let me know that the fancy schmancy people I was thinking of are considered “gourmets.” At least I can rule out my first impression of what foodie could mean.
“…foodies differ from gourmets in that gourmets are epicures of refined taste, whereas foodies are amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news…” ~Wikipedia
I am an amateur and I love food for consumption. However, I don’t really study it or prepare it, or study the preparation of it. Apparently foodies can really get into restaurant openings, cooking classes, and (surprise) wine tastings or beer samplings. I’m not really into those things, though I would consider trying them at some point. You know what, I’ve figured it out. I’m just a plain old food lover. I don’t get crazy about the details of food; I basically like to enjoy tastes. Still, I like sites like Yelp and Foodspotting, since they allow me to discover great places to eat at, so maybe there’s a little foodie in me.
At the Dole Plantation, we spotted this little green lizard (an anole, I believe).
It froze on this leaf and I got distracted by a rooster, only to look back and find...
...it turned brown on me! Ah I wish I had noticed/caught it, but I had no idea it could morph like that.
In retrospect, I can see that it was already starting to turn brown in the middle picture. Alas, I figured it was just a green lizard so I never thought to watch it so closely.
Today I got around to learning how to surf after talking about it for the last 10 years. Wow, how did that happen?! Time sure does go by fast. Luckily, there are still plenty of years left for me to continue to try surfing. As for this first try, I joined two other girls for a group lesson in the morning. Panda stayed in shore to watch and take pictures for me.
It was extremely busy at Waikiki Beach, but Erik our instructor showed us the “sidewalk” that you paddle up, which is sort of a safe zone to the right of most of the surfing action. If you head up that channel, it’s pretty safe. Once you get far enough in (there were visual cues for us to line up to make sure we were positioned correctly), you’d wait in the “parking lot,” staying aware of your surroundings so you don’t run into anyone who may be coming in on a swell. When the coast was clear, we’d paddle towards Erik and he’d send us off on a wave.
We had practiced how to get up on the board back in the shop, ensuring we could keep a strong stance and maintain our balance. While the sensation of this force pushing you from underneath and behind was strange, it was relatively easy to get up and not flail around.
My first wave was a short ride and as I tried to get back on my hands and knees for greater stability, I fell over into the water. The second attempt wasn’t much better – my timing was a bit off. But by the third try, I was able to catch a wave almost all the way back to shore! On my way back I had one mishap where I wasn’t straight enough heading into a wave so I got turned around right next to a guy surfing. Thankfully, he was an instructor, so he was incredibly skilled at keeping us from colliding. Other than that, I was pretty proud of how well I was able to avoid any accidents, even getting out of the way of a fast-moving outrigger canoe (if you never had one charging at you before, it can be intimidating).
For some reason, my breastbone feels bruised from the experience. At first I thought that it was due to my bathing suit, but I just had a soft string there, no knots or pieces of plastic to dig into the flesh. Long after I got out, it was still hurting too. I thought I’d be more sore since I was feeling it getting out of the water, but I feel good so far. My triceps hadn’t gotten that kind of workout in awhile! I’d expected paddling to be easier than it was since I’m a good swimmer, but boy did I feel weak and inefficient.
Ultimately I’m so glad I finally took a surfing lesson and I can’t wait to try in the California coast sometime. Hopefully next time, Panda will be confident enough to join me.
First official view of a Hawaiian island (for this trip anyway).
First view of Hawaiian civilization!
And here we are, approaching Oahu.
During the landing, we fly by Pearl Harbor.
And also get a glimpse of some jets on Hickam AFB.
A big ALOHA from the airport! Off we go to our vacation adventure.
Tomorrow I head off to Hawaii, and leave behind my cats. So here’s a clip of Missy doing her thing and massaging my childhood blanket…
Also not to be left out, a picture of Molly lounging in one of her favorite spots.
I was walking by Rocket Fizz in Westwood one day when I noticed a gigantic box of Quality Street sitting in the window. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to find some of my favorite candies from England available in the US! When I saw the price, I was pretty shocked, but the next time I was there I got one because it made me too happy to see them (and get to eat them).
Oh Quality Street, how I love to snack on you. Who can resist your vibrant colors, variety, and delicious chocolate morsels?
In this day and age, idleness is often seen as the enemy. We push forward at breakneck speeds and look down on people who aren’t insanely busy. “Oh, they must be lazy,” we think, passing judgement on their life. It’s pretty crazy when people feel proud that they’re sleep-deprived or brag about the long hours of hard work they put in.
Somehow being overworked and over-stretched is regarded as being more productive. Rather than balancing our lives, work (including schoolwork) tends to take over. I know this feeling – I’ve studied all through the night and stayed way past dinnertime at work. Both of these situations made me feel like I was working “hard enough” and anything less made me question my dedication, drive, or industriousness. If I didn’t work hard enough, I felt like people would judge me.
Now that I am working on my own ventures, I constantly struggle with self-judgement. Am I ever working hard enough? Should I be sleeping less? Should I be more stressed? While I’m at home letting the hours go by as I sit in front of my laptop, others are doing the daily grind. Wake up early, drive to work half asleep, zombie through the morning, grab a quick lunch, struggle through the afternoon, finally call it a day, drive home in rush hour, chomp down some dinner, take care of personal chores, and crash before it’s too late to get a decent night’s sleep.
Meanwhile, here I am sleeping whenever I get tired, waking whenever my body says so, and lounging around all day snacking and spending time online. Am I wasting my days away? Do I need more structure? It’s hard to say. Based on societal norms, yes, I should be busier. But who’s to say that those norms aren’t horribly skewed?
After all, being idle has many benefits:
1. You get a chance to recoup so you can be more, next time
2. It’s better for your creativity and allows space for free-flowing thoughts
3. You finally start to notice the world around you (and hopefully appreciate it too)
People meditate or go on retreats for these very reasons. I really think a certain amount of idleness in our lives can really enhance our quality of life. It’s the whole “stop and smell the roses” concept and it’s good for your health too. Why should a bit of peace in our lives be a coveted gem instead of an accepted norm?
As for me, I’m still looking for a better balance between nothing and too much something. The difficult part is differentiating what is work and what is not. Much of what I do is of personal interest, but enhances my knowledge and ability to improve on the businesses too. It doesn’t feel like work, so I often forget to count it. I’m just fortunate to have this kind of flexibility to adjust my workload if I do find it to be too much or too little. If only the American culture didn’t emphasize work-work-work-stress-work so much. Maybe we’d be a happier bunch.
If a plane saw its own shadow, would it get scared like a groundhog? 😛 I don’t usually catch the shadow of the plane I’m in, but this time the angle was just right.
One day, Blue got really excited and alert. He strained against his leash, trying to get at the window. As it turns out, there was a squirrel out there.
That squirrel was lucky there was a wall of glass between it and Blue, or else it'd be running for its life.
