Today I rediscovered this kickass song from the 90s- "Walkin' on the Sun" by Smashmouth. It is just, so, totally... bad ass! Listening to it makes me feel like I can knock anything out of my way.
Soooo... what's new with me this weekend? I feel more confident about the future, now that I know what I am going to do. Its the uncertainty in this world that makes you scared, not things by themselves. I am afraid of the dark, not because of what is hidden, but the fact that I can not see it.
Keeping the philosophizing to a minimum, I am pretty glad of the way things have turned out. =)
I am turning 21 on Tuesday. Yay, I can officially be served alcohol in this country. Big whoop. I think that alcohol law is the only reason I don't feel like an adult yet. If I had lived in India, I would have begun the process of mentally feeling like an adult when I turned 18. I have no excuses anymore =)
Alright, I am off to go knock out some stuff from my agenda, Smashmouth-style.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Hedonist Diaries Pt.1
Considering that the first word I used to describe myself in this blog is food-lover, I thought I might jot down my adventures with learning how to feed myself.
My adventures began more out of necessity to feed myself on the cheap, and grew to accomodate my irrational desire to host dinner parties, once every new moon, for those of my friends unfortunate enough to place their faith in my culinary skills.
Let me start with the first ever meal I discovered by accident.
Stir-fried Veggies in Italian Pasta- Cooking time: 20 mins
Ingredients
1 cup of elbow pasta
Frozen green peas
Any sort of lettuce
1 carrot
Vietnamese chili sauce
Soy sauce
1/2 an onion
1 egg
This is my own take on chinese food, I don't think I follow any of the rules to call it a fried rice or stir-fried noodle recipe. I use the most budget veggies- large uncut carrots, frozen peas and uncut romaine lettuce. Ramen noodles are quite close-knit and dont mix very well with others, so I prefer friendly elbow pasta.
What I lack in propriety and finesse, I make up for in time. I can have this meal done in under 20 mins.
1. Fill up a pan with hot water from the tap, set it on high to bring the water to boil.
2. In the mean time, put a saucepan on medium heat, add a bit of olive oil (I'm very stingy with this, maybe 1 tbsp).
3. Chop up the onion, pop it in the saucepan.
4. Peel carrot, chop.
5. Water must be bubbling up, add the pasta. Scatter some salt in the water.
6. Add carrots and peas to onions.
7. Drizzle in some soy sauce.
8. Wash lettuce, tear it up in handfuls and add to the saucepan.
9. Stir, stir, stir till pasta is done in the other pan (I use the universal method of pinching it to see if there is any white inside).
10. Drain pasta, add to the pan. Add desired amount of chili sauce. Stir, stir, stir. Pasta should look a bit darker from getting coated with the sauces.
11. (If you eat eggs) Make some room in center of the pan, crack open an egg in this space. Add some black pepper, and scramble it. Its okay if a couple of peas wander in and get trapped in the egg.
12. When egg is half-done, mix in with the rest of the pasta and veggies in the pan.
13. Turn off the pan, and give your spatula a break- its nice to let the meal crunch up a bit in the residual heat at the bottom of the pan. As your food cools, this is also the perfect time for fixing a nice cup of tea to go with your meal.
It may not look or sound very appetizing, but trust me, if you are anything like me, you will love it. Especially after a day of sustaining on granola bars.
My adventures began more out of necessity to feed myself on the cheap, and grew to accomodate my irrational desire to host dinner parties, once every new moon, for those of my friends unfortunate enough to place their faith in my culinary skills.
Let me start with the first ever meal I discovered by accident.
Stir-fried Veggies in Italian Pasta- Cooking time: 20 mins
Ingredients
1 cup of elbow pasta
Frozen green peas
Any sort of lettuce
1 carrot
Vietnamese chili sauce
Soy sauce
1/2 an onion
1 egg
This is my own take on chinese food, I don't think I follow any of the rules to call it a fried rice or stir-fried noodle recipe. I use the most budget veggies- large uncut carrots, frozen peas and uncut romaine lettuce. Ramen noodles are quite close-knit and dont mix very well with others, so I prefer friendly elbow pasta.
What I lack in propriety and finesse, I make up for in time. I can have this meal done in under 20 mins.
1. Fill up a pan with hot water from the tap, set it on high to bring the water to boil.
2. In the mean time, put a saucepan on medium heat, add a bit of olive oil (I'm very stingy with this, maybe 1 tbsp).
3. Chop up the onion, pop it in the saucepan.
4. Peel carrot, chop.
5. Water must be bubbling up, add the pasta. Scatter some salt in the water.
6. Add carrots and peas to onions.
7. Drizzle in some soy sauce.
8. Wash lettuce, tear it up in handfuls and add to the saucepan.
9. Stir, stir, stir till pasta is done in the other pan (I use the universal method of pinching it to see if there is any white inside).
10. Drain pasta, add to the pan. Add desired amount of chili sauce. Stir, stir, stir. Pasta should look a bit darker from getting coated with the sauces.
11. (If you eat eggs) Make some room in center of the pan, crack open an egg in this space. Add some black pepper, and scramble it. Its okay if a couple of peas wander in and get trapped in the egg.
12. When egg is half-done, mix in with the rest of the pasta and veggies in the pan.
13. Turn off the pan, and give your spatula a break- its nice to let the meal crunch up a bit in the residual heat at the bottom of the pan. As your food cools, this is also the perfect time for fixing a nice cup of tea to go with your meal.
It may not look or sound very appetizing, but trust me, if you are anything like me, you will love it. Especially after a day of sustaining on granola bars.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Nightmare on Blake Street
Nightmares have got to be the world's lamest way for a subconscious to manifest itself.
I have heard somewhere that disturbing, bloody dreams happen when a person is stressed. Early this morning, I had a double whammy- horrible things happening to two different people in my life, at the same time, in the same place.
Bruuugh. Waking up with a scream is not very nice. Especially to the person sleeping next to you.
Thankfully, instead of being greeted with alarmed concern (which would have made me dwell on the dream) I heard a sleepy voice say, "Its okay, its just a dream." When my blurry eyes adjusted, the owner of the voice was peacefully asleep again. Hmm... was he even awake when he said it?
Later on I jokingly told the contents of my dream to him. He said I needed to chill, have fun, go crazy, and stop worrying about random shit happening to random people. Its true. I was researching the Nigerian civil war at work this entire week, empathizing and tearing up in response to horrible stories and images in archived newspapers. I read a memoir by Ishmael Beah, called A Long Way Gone, in which he talks about losing his family and becoming a child soldier in Sierra Leone. He was so LUCKY to get out of that. I wonder if he still has nightmares.
So, my project for the next couple of weeks is to sweep away negative events and readings from my psyche. No more fuming about Sri Lanka or feeling sad about Partition. Hopefully, that translates to sweet dreams.
On a lighter note, something that HAS been cracking me up lately is this quip by Steven Colbert, which, in true Colbert fashion, is incredibly offensive and not at all true.
"...rainbows are God's way of frowning at gay people."
I have heard somewhere that disturbing, bloody dreams happen when a person is stressed. Early this morning, I had a double whammy- horrible things happening to two different people in my life, at the same time, in the same place.
Bruuugh. Waking up with a scream is not very nice. Especially to the person sleeping next to you.
Thankfully, instead of being greeted with alarmed concern (which would have made me dwell on the dream) I heard a sleepy voice say, "Its okay, its just a dream." When my blurry eyes adjusted, the owner of the voice was peacefully asleep again. Hmm... was he even awake when he said it?
Later on I jokingly told the contents of my dream to him. He said I needed to chill, have fun, go crazy, and stop worrying about random shit happening to random people. Its true. I was researching the Nigerian civil war at work this entire week, empathizing and tearing up in response to horrible stories and images in archived newspapers. I read a memoir by Ishmael Beah, called A Long Way Gone, in which he talks about losing his family and becoming a child soldier in Sierra Leone. He was so LUCKY to get out of that. I wonder if he still has nightmares.
So, my project for the next couple of weeks is to sweep away negative events and readings from my psyche. No more fuming about Sri Lanka or feeling sad about Partition. Hopefully, that translates to sweet dreams.
On a lighter note, something that HAS been cracking me up lately is this quip by Steven Colbert, which, in true Colbert fashion, is incredibly offensive and not at all true.
"...rainbows are God's way of frowning at gay people."
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
A Totally Green Day
St. Patrick's Day - an annual feast that celebrates St. Patrick, one of the patron saints of Ireland.
Americans use it as an excuse to (1) dye their local water body with green food coloring (2) wear green t-shirts that say something corny like "Kiss me, I'm Irish!" and (3) give roaring business to pubs, Irish or otherwise, that serve Coors Light dyed with... green food coloring. Yep, green beer.
Where I live, the Downtown canal was a respectable shade of parrot green, a street performer played Irish music on his violin, people wore all sorts of ridiculous green accessories like leprechaun hats and tights, and of course, pitchers of green beer flowed like water and tasted like piss.
I went to a bar with my friends close to my university. There was a rock band playing covers of popular rock songs. I got sufficiently pickled to bob my head to the tunes without much difficulty.
A good initiation to the American St. Patty's Day tradition.
Americans use it as an excuse to (1) dye their local water body with green food coloring (2) wear green t-shirts that say something corny like "Kiss me, I'm Irish!" and (3) give roaring business to pubs, Irish or otherwise, that serve Coors Light dyed with... green food coloring. Yep, green beer.
Where I live, the Downtown canal was a respectable shade of parrot green, a street performer played Irish music on his violin, people wore all sorts of ridiculous green accessories like leprechaun hats and tights, and of course, pitchers of green beer flowed like water and tasted like piss.
I went to a bar with my friends close to my university. There was a rock band playing covers of popular rock songs. I got sufficiently pickled to bob my head to the tunes without much difficulty.
A good initiation to the American St. Patty's Day tradition.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Other Side of the Bathroom Sink
There is nothing you can do to sufficiently prepare yourself for sharing a bathroom with a guy.
I recently had a friend move in temporarily to my apt, and we both have to share a bathroom. Let me describe the first morning after he moved in.
As I opened my bedroom door I was greeted by a furry ball of energy. No, I didn't get sucked into an alternate universe where energy takes the shape of balls covered with white and grey fur. It was Minnie, my friend's Shi-Tzu. She is so tiny and excitable she may as well be just pure energy that emits a whiff of doggie powder as it zooms by.
In a circus feat that would make Britney Spears proud, I navigated the short distance from my bedroom to the bathroom with Minnie weaving in and out of my way. I spent a few minutes trying to cajole her to get out of the bathroom. In the end, I managed to shut the door behind her as she whizzed past it with blind fervor.
Alright, surveying the bathroom. As expected, I found a stack of, ahem, magazines stacked near the closet. It was right next to my reading of choice in the can- a novel by Amy Tan. Difference number 1, noted.
Next, he had stacked all my bottles and brushes neatly off to one side of the sink. He had a pink hair dryer plugged into the socket and resting comfortably among his bottles and brushes. Huh? Even I don't have a hair dryer- not one that works anyway. He also owns a whole range of products to take care of his skin, and I have my one bottle of Olay to solve everything. Difference number 2, cute and unexpected.
Difference number 3. This is the one that made me laugh at myself, because it so symbolizes the difference between him and me as people. Not gender differences, just as people. We have a little cabinet suspended to the base of our bathroom mirror. On his side, the stack of bottles ran as follows- Davidoff Blue, Armani Code, Guess, Ferrari Black (I have no idea about men's fashion, so you know I'm not making this up). On my side, a half-burnt candle that doesn't smell of anything, a full candle that my other roommate donated to me as she didn't like the smell of pine and I just thought smelled better than what my bathroom normally did, and a yellow rubber ducky that my roommates got me as a joke once to cheer me up about something. Yep, thats the difference between him and me.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Conakry
My new favorite word is Conakry. It just rolls off the tongue so nicely. Its exotic. Its mysterious. Its the capital of Guinea.
My previous favorite word was chicanery. I came across it while cramming vocabulary words for the GRE, which, by the way, is anything but an aptitude test. Chicanery is an action done to trick, deceive or evade. I also visualize "chicanes" on formula one tracks. I think its a very cool word.
I have also recently fallen in love with this picture of a Malian fusion music duo called Amadou et Mariam.
I will leave it to you to figure out why, if you are interested in knowing why I love this picture.
One final thing that always manages to put a smile on my face these days - Important things with Demetri Martin.
Check it out. Its pretty important.
My previous favorite word was chicanery. I came across it while cramming vocabulary words for the GRE, which, by the way, is anything but an aptitude test. Chicanery is an action done to trick, deceive or evade. I also visualize "chicanes" on formula one tracks. I think its a very cool word.
I have also recently fallen in love with this picture of a Malian fusion music duo called Amadou et Mariam.
I will leave it to you to figure out why, if you are interested in knowing why I love this picture.One final thing that always manages to put a smile on my face these days - Important things with Demetri Martin.
Check it out. Its pretty important.
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