Posts Tagged ‘behavior’

Texture trumps taste

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
05 February 2012
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When I eat foods, the most important factor tends to be the texture of the dish rather than its taste.  That’s why I don’t eat calamari and why I love soup.  I’ll go for almost anything if it’s moist!  It’s very rare that I would like a dry dish with no sauce, so soup is generally a safe bet, since it has to have some liquid content at least.  I don’t know if other people care as much (I doubt it) and I think that usually people care more about the taste of their food.  However, it doesn’t work that way for me and I’d rather have a tasteless dish that wasn’t dry than a really flavorful dish that left me with cottonmouth.

For the most part, this isn’t really an issue – I love things that are smooth, crispy, crunchy, or any variety of textures as long as it’s not rubbery.  Something about the elasticity of a food (usually seafood) just doesn’t appeal to me at all.  Luckily, most things aren’t like that.  As for dishes that are very dry, I’ll still eat them if I have plenty of water.  I can’t stand it if I don’t get enough liquids to mask the dryness, which is why hot chocolate and tea are my friends when it comes to cookies and crackers.  Maybe my body’s trying to tell me that I’m not hydrated enough?

Whatever it is, I’m always looking for a place with great soup or noodle soup.  Yummm…

The cold drink phenomenon

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
30 January 2012
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I’ve never been a fan of cold drinks, though I have enjoyed some here and there.  Usually iced drinks are too cold for me, so I opt for room temperature or even hot water.  Luckily, this seems to be a growing trend and I no longer get the raised eyebrow when I ask for hot water at a restaurant.  I’m glad that my beverage choice is something that more people are adopting, especially since it’s probably easier on your body.

I remember reading once that contrary to popular belief, ice water is not more thirst-quenching.  In fact, it said that warm water is the best for absorption and therefore more thrist-quenching.  However, through media portrayals, it seems we have learned that only cold drinks can satisfy our needs after a strenuous workout or on a hot day.  I think that cold water feels refreshing and it wakens you a bit, which gives the impression that it is better when you’re thirsty.  In addition, if you’ve built up a lot of heat from working out or are already too hot from the weather, you want to feel the coolness of the drink to help lower your temperature.

Still, I usually prefer at least room temperature water in those situations when my body is hotter than it would like to be.  I find that cold drinks numb my mouth and freeze up my insides, which isn’t comfortable at all!  I’ve always been sensitive to temperature changes, so when it gets cold or I cool down too much, my stomach and intestines throw a fit.  Perhaps that’s the real reason why I avoid really cold drinks.  Who wants to have a stomachache after they drink a cup of water?

Anyways, this whole cold drink popularity thing has always baffled me, since it’s not really the same in Chinese culture.  I don’t think the Chinese would have iced their drinks if it weren’t for Western influences.  Whatever makes cold drinks so appealing just isn’t worth it to me.  I’ll take the drink in the box over the one in the cooler any day.  And watch me quench my thirst better.  😉

Ostrich mama

laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: , , , ,
27 January 2012
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I am amazed that she can bend her neck all the way down for a scratch and that her knees bend the other way. Sitting like that doesn’t look comfortable. Is she even keeping the eggs warm?

My context

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , ,
24 January 2012
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How do you remember things in your life?  I’ve always found it to be a roundabout process to recall what year something happened.  First I think what I was doing at that time and tie it back to a location – walking to the bus stop while reading (St. Louis, MO), riding my bike into town (Brewster, NY), or playing in a beautifully large backyard (Topeka, KS)?  Once I pinpoint the location, I am able to identify what grades I must have been in: preschool (Pennsylvania), 1st/2nd/4th (Kansas), 3rd (China), 5th-7th (Missouri), 7th-10th (New York), 11th-14th & 16th (California), or 15th (England).  I then need to think of what year it must have been based on what grade I was in.  What a mess!

Similarly, when I recall what age I was when something happened, I think of the situation based on location, tie it back to a grade level, then calculate how old I was .  I’m not sure why it’s such a lengthy process, but that’s always how I’ve drawn on memories in my life.  It makes me wonder how other people who don’t move as much do it, since much of their memories would tie back to the same location.  They seem to do it much better too!

Today someone put on 90’s music at work and one song came up that was of particular interest.  Each song that I recognized put me back to a place and time in my life when I heard that song most prominently.  Backstreet Boys took me back to the summers I spent in China with my cousins and extended family.  Destiny’s Child took me back to the fun I had biking down a huge hill by my house in New York.  TLC took me back to getting driven to swim practice at the YMCA over in Connecticut.  Tupac took me back to the lounge I studied in my first year at UCLA (yeah, I learned of him later in life).  I wouldn’t be able to place a year on when those songs came out, but I could definitely get close.  Somehow other people seem to be able to remember just what year it was though.

I’ve never understood that ability and I wonder how I will remember things if I don’t continue moving around a lot.  When everything merges into one physical space, what cues will I use to differentiate between time periods?  The way I’ve put my life into context for over two decades would become irrelevant.  I’m sure I would adapt, but at this moment I can’t fathom how.  So I wonder, how do you do it?

Inbox overload

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
22 January 2012
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I have accumulated over 11,600 unread emails in the past couple of years and I’ve found that the larger that number gets, the less I want to look at any of it.  I’ve unsubscribed to a bunch of newsletter that I found I never read, yet still I get overwhelmed with the ones that I did decide to keep.  I tell myself I’ll get around to them when I have time, but really, when do I have time?  Any free time I have is generally spent unwinding with a mindless game or show.  It’s certainly not time that I’d want to look through emails!

Still, I really do want to go through and clean out my inbox so I can actually tell when I have new mail.  Once you start getting thousands of unread messages, it’s really hard to remember if it was 10,502 messages when you last checked, or 10,507.  So do I actually have some new emails to look through or did I just remember the number wrong?  Who knows.  I’ve completely given up looking at how many unread messages I have.  I check infrequently enough that it’s basically guaranteed I’ll find some new ones each time I log in.  Perhaps whenever I am waiting around in line, I will check old emails and get rid of unnecessary ones rather than play a few seconds of a game.

I’ve always had a preference for spring cleaning rather than a daily ritual, and my inbox is no exception!  Problem is, my inbox has yet to see a springtime that inspired me to clean it…  Well hey, I guess I’ve got myself a resolution for this year then.  In fact, I think I’ll tackle some of it right now.  Wish me luck!

Silly superstitions

laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: , , , , , ,
13 January 2012
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It didn’t even occur to me it was Friday the 13th until a guy at work said it today.  The number thirteen has actually been my favorite number since fifth grade, when we had numbered cubbyholes and I was #13.  My second favorite number is 19 because that was the box that the guy I liked had!  Haha, funny how some things really last in your life.

Well, since it was a day of superstition for much of this country, I thought I’d share a video of one of my cats.  When I was choosing them this summer, I specifically went for the dark ones because they don’t seem to get adopted as much.  I now have a gray and a black cat, both with some white accents.  I don’t know why cats get a bad rap, especially black ones, but at least they are lucky and respected in some cultures.  In this video, Missy (the gray one) was really enjoying the tag on my new Victoria’s Secret shirt.  She’s a curious and playful one!

Best pet EVER

laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: , , , , ,
23 December 2011
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This little fish is SO awesome! I wish I could just bring it home.

Cat and mouse

laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: , , , ,
15 December 2011
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Missy is a playful cat who just wanted to chase around the mouse. Of course the mouse wasn’t aware of this, so it was frozen until it saw an opportunity to run. I was able to help get it outside, but Missy still wanted to have some fun.

Afternoon fevers

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
12 December 2011
1

I used to experience a phenomenon I called “afternoon fevers” in high school.  Every afternoon around 4 o’clock, I’d get a bit flushed, my temperature would rise, and I’d have the chills.  It felt like the onset of a fever that would result in me shivering until I could climb into bed to sweat it out.  Yet, if I kept about my day, I found that it would burn off before it ever became anything.  It was a strange thing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was partly mental too.

I had kind of learned to dread swim practice, which started right around that time.  I was a sprinter, so all the distance swimming we had to do in practice wore me down.  So, as school was ending and it was time to head over to the pool for practice, my body would react.  Most of the time I’d suck it up and go through practice, which was probably what both made me sick and cured from it.  After all, being wet on a brisk afternoon made it easy to feel sick, but then the intensity of a practice session would heat me right up and burn off any illness.

It was an interesting period that was all but forgotten until I started to feel it again.  Perhaps my immune system is weakest in the mid to late afternoon, so I start to feel the effects of stress more vividly.  Last week, I began to feel sick a couple of afternoons in a row and I learned to suppress it just like I had back in high school.  It’s been awhile since I felt that way, so I bundled up and have been staying warm to stave off any virus that might be trying to bring me down.  I can’t be too weak to prepare my applications!

Mischievous Molly

laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: , , , ,
10 December 2011
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molly the cat keeps warm on top of the laptop's keyboard

Mischievous Molly likes to sit on the keyboard to keep warm. Unfortunately, that doesn't bode well for getting work done and it screws up the keys.

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