Assorted Ravings of the Slightly-Weird

Funny Cakes and A Re-start to Cooking

I was reading the online version of the NYTimes today when I came across this article.

Hehehe. Some of them are SO BAD, I could have done a better job.

I've also started cooking again with not-so-bad results. Cooking for me really depends on my mood and it's been almost a year since I last felt like stepping into the kitchen. So I guess it's good news that I'm back in the mood to cook :)

I'm waiting on Martha Wannabe to upload photos of the menu I created (cough cough) for her birthday dinner. Other stuff that I've done recently include 2 flavours of polenta balls stuffed with cheese and, of course, my favourite mentaiko pasta. I like to dream up recipes, tweaking stuff that I learn from TV (I <3 AFC!) and from the web. Most of the time I run through my recipes in my head whilst driving, and since my boss is kinda pushing me to come in to the office earlier (ie right during rush hour) I now have A LOT more driving time.

(What is the point of leaving home at 0830 and getting into the office only at 0905, when I could leave at 0850 and get in at 0910?!?!)

Grrr. Ah well, I guess the upshot of all this increase aggro (I totally understand road rage now) is that I can cook up more stuff in my head.

Random Links

What with the new addition and all, it's been a busy time! Maybe this blog should now be turned into the chronicles of a newbie aunt :)

So far I've managed to dodge the hands-on nappy changing, although I have assisted in a few already. Did you know that breast-fed baby poo is bright yellow in colour?? How interesting!

Anyhow, seeing as it's Friday and all I'm guessing most people are in the weekend mood already so here are some links for diversionary purposes.

1) I found this a few weeks ago on the NYTimes website. It's so creative!

2) Staying with the NYTimes, here's a testament to the strength of man's best friend.

3) And finally, there's this. A site worth visiting every day!

Stop That Mail!

This is funny.

If you've ever sent out an email that you almost instantly regretted sending, then maybe you should check out this link. Some bored engineer at Google wrote this program that will ask you a few math problems before sending out the rant that you wrote in an alcohol-inspired flurry to your ex, just to make sure that you are indeed of sound mind and won't wake up with regrets the next day.

Hehe.

I wonder how many times I'll have to use this program! (I also wonder if this is a hoax but I can't be bothered to try to find out.)

Food, Food and More Food

Sorry folks,I know it's been a while but somehow I haven't been feeling the mood to write.

Anyway I was reading the NYTimes online and I saw this article about Ikea-hackers. Sounds like a new hobby for me :) given that I am a total sucker when it comes to Ikea and I never walk out empty-handed. NEVER. Check out this blog for some tips on Ikea-hacking.

Otherwise, I haven't been up to much. Just work and some softball and some cooking. I made a pretty yummy dinner two Sundays ago - pork chops with a honey mustard and thyme dressing, a vegetable tart and a peach cobbler for dessert. And then last night it was beef karubi (just a fancy-schmancy name for short ribs) with a sugar-soy marinade and angelhair pasta with shitake mushrooms and seaweed. Obviously I was trying to go for the fusion angle, haha.

I'm not sure if the pasta was successful (I prefer the mentaiko pasta and the anchovy pasta that I made previously) but the pork chops, the vegetable tart and the beef are definite keepers. The vegetable tart is especially easy even for those without an oven; you just need one of those toaster ovens. The peach cobbler I'm going to trade in for a crumble recipe since I realised that it's crumble that I was trying to make and not cobbler - crumble has a crispy topping whereas cobbler has a chewier, cake-like topping. I'd put up photos if not for the fact that the ones I took didn't look very appetising! Recipes available on request.

Next thing on my to-cook list is jjim tak. It's a spicy chicken stew with tang hoon that I had in Korea and it's super delicious. An acquaintance in Seoul was kind enough to email me a recipe for it so hopefully it works out well :)

Off to run errands!

National Day Dinner

Whenever it's a holiday or when I'm home on a workday, I like to cook. So, since it was National Day on Thursday I decided to make dinner for the folks.

The menu: mushroom soup, pork burgers topped with blue cheese and a simple salad with roasted peaches and a tarragon mustard dressing (donated by my sis since salad dressing is something that I suck at). The pork burger is something I'm especially happy with - I top it with pear slices to add some sweetness and some crunch to the burger. This time around however, I forgot to get pears during the grocery run. Oops.

Photos are here, courtesy of Martha Wannabe. No pictures of the soup cos honestly it looks just like any other mushroom soup :) It's quite yummy though...

Pork burger with sunny side up as requested by my very fussy dad

Salad with roasted peaches

BTW Martha Wannabe is now here. Check out her blog - her cupcakes and cakes are delish and so pretty to boot!

Snippets on Friday

Happy Friday! Just some random snippets today...

First off, thanks to Mr Picky for this link. It's really fun! I've played for 30 minutes since getting into the office today. Hahaha. I haven't got past the damn dog but soon I will... At least now I have another game to play besides Sudoku.

Second, we now all have nicknames! Heh. There's Ms Busy, Mr Picky, Mr Deathwish, Mr GPS, Mr TALOS (figure that out yourself), Ms Educator (although that may change really soon since she doesn't like it) and Ms Kiam Kanna. No points for guessing which one I am.

Germany vs Argentina tonight! I hope the Argentines win.

Addendum: I just heard the funniest ringtone at Borders while shopping over lunch. Pity I can't download it onto my phone, which is yet another reason for me to get a new one!

And here's the JOTD, sent to me by my boss. (Yeah we're not doing much work today.)

In pharmacology, all drugs have two names, a trade name and generic name. For example, the trade name of Tylenol also has a generic name of Acetaminophen. Aleve is also called Naproxen. Amoxil is also called Amoxicillin and Advil is also called Ibuprofen.

Thought for the day: There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

And, finally, to you: I miss you still.

Another Side to Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day folks!

For those who think this is a commercial day meant to shore up the sinking revenues of florists, chocolate makers and Hallmark cards, here's a comic just for you.

This one's funny too.

Hehehe. And for those looking for some distraction from work, Comics.com is a great site for chewing up a couple of minutes a day.

So anyway, apparently in India there are 3 days in the year where you can be arrested from working. (This is according to one of my sources in India.) The 3 days are January 26 (Republic Day), August 15 (Independence Day) and October 2 (Gandhi's birthday). When I heard this I thought "That is so cool, I have to blog about it." But then just now, when I verified my facts with my colleague (cos you never know about your sources nowadays) he said "What nonsense". Which is kinda a downer but still worth wasting about 5 minutes of your time.

Teeheehee. Back to work!

Friday Friday Friday

Who has the mood to work in December??

Certainly not me!

I've spent most of today either playing Sudoku on the web or shopping or doing anything else but working. The closest I came to doing anything that remotely resembled working was when I decided to clear out the piles of research on my desk, which I accomplished by simply carrying them to another table. Oh, and I took a quick nap as well. And I bought a dress during lunch time, just for the sheer hell of it. In fact, I worked more during lunch running someone else's errand than I did at work.

Hehehehehe. They don't pay me enough to do this shit. Or do they??

Anyhow, it's Friday again. Yippee. And since I'm clearing leave on Monday and Tuesday it will be a super duper long weekend for me. Anyone who wants to hang out on those two days, drop me a line. I still have 7 days of leave to clear this whole month, which means that I only need to work 7 more days in December. Woohoo.

I'm toying with the idea of popping over to the Maldives for a quick beach getaway - my tan is slowly fading and soon I will be pasty and pale. Again, if anyone wants in, drop me a line as well. Or if anyone wants to go anywhere else, drop me a line too.

Cheers folks. Off to start getting piss drunk to celebrate my turning 28. TWENTY EIGHT!

Cool Site!

Here's a cool site to visit if you have some spare time:

Eyezmaze

I recommend the "Grow" puzzles. I've solved all 3 of them so if you need tips, mail me. They're fun fun fun!

Note: If you are a PhD graduate to be, or if you are trying to finish your final-year architectural project I'd recommend NOT visiting the site until you're done. It's too distracting. If on the other hand you've just started a new job and are twiddling your thumbs I highly recommend checking it out.

Thanks to CTG for recommending it. It sure whiled away a lot of time. Time that I could have been spending on my notes but it sure was fun.

New Game!

I should be working on my presentation but instead I'm blog-surfing.

And while I was doing that, I found this: Guess-the-google. It's fun fun fun. You're given 20 images and you're supposed to guess what keyword would produce the images. So far my highest score has been 236.

While you're at it, check out Montage-a-google. It's the reverse process, generating 20 images from a keyword that you enter.

Ok back to work. Sigh.

QOTD

Today's non-bitchy QOTD comes from this article in the NY Times, but first, some background information. In my four years at Cal I never ever subscribed to cable TV because I was too much of a cheapskate. Also, there was more than enough content on free-to-air for me to watch, so if I'd had gotten TV I could have flunked out. The only thing I really missed was not getting enough baseball.

But according to the article:

"Everyone who is going to pay for TV already pays for it... The only people without it are Luddites and people too old to appreciate it."

This makes me either a Luddite or someone living in a retirement home. Which I totally resent.

Addendum: Everyone who is remotely interested in baseball/softball should read this article.

"It" Game of the Week

I should be packing and yet I am wasting my time playing this game.

I derive an inordinate amount of satisfaction at getting all 50 states correct, so much so that I reload the page whenever I get one wrong.

This is sad. Pathetic. This has to change by 2005. And I have to pack. NOW.

Fashion No-Nos and Shaker Fries

It's 6pm on Friday! No more thinking about work until 9am on Monday. 63 work-free hours :D

Getting back to the first subject of this post, I was on a bus back from lunch today and I saw a woman in her 20s wearing a long, fairly see-through white skirt. Nothing wrong with that, except that underneath she was wearing black-and-white striped undies.

Tsk tsk tsk. The zebra look went out years ago.

Now on to the second subject.
Blast from the past! Remember this?

Yummy! Mamee Monster Snacks - the original shaker fries. Everytime I eat this I always think of Cookie Monster! And speaking of shaker fries, I used to ask for extra packets of seasoning and bring them back to the US to eat whenever I had a craving. "One large fries and an extra paper bag, please!" and then "Shake shake shake"...

Other tips for students/pple overseas: if you like zhang you can freeze them, pack them into your luggage (inside another plastic bag of course) and then unfreeze and steam them whenever the craving hits. Another thing you can do, though I've never tried, is you can go to your favourite char kway teow seller, pack as many packets as you want, freeze them and pack them into your luggage. According to my friend, char kway teow can keep up to 1 month.

One more thing: If you ever want to figure out how things work this site is GREAT! I've spent two days learning about TV, cable TV, digital TV and other shit.

Happy weekend!

Interesting Site

I found this site while reading another blog. If you've ever wished that you had a nice hand-writing-like font, wish no further for I present the fontifier!

It's pretty cool - you download a template, fill it up with your own handwriting (or someone else's, if your handwriting is crap like mine), scan and upload it, and then you pay 9 bucks for the font. Plus, you get to preview the font first so if it's yucky you can make changes or just decide not to buy it.

Now you'll never need to handwrite another letter!

Additions

Ok, couple of additions to the site since I've been reading up on HTML and stuff...

First, way down in the RH corner of the site, below "Now Screening", "Search" and "Login", there's a new sidebar called "Contact". Pretty self-explanatory, if you ask me.

Second, I've learnt how to put subdomains up on my site. Kudos again to Nat for patiently answering my questions via ICQ last night. And Nat, since you like seeing your name in big font so much...

THANKS NAT!
ooh... check out the cool blue font!

Anyhow, check out the new page. It's half in jest, but if any kind soul really wants to get those things for me, that would be way cool. I'm thinking next time, whenever I see something I like I'll put it up on the site so that people can refer to it if they need ideas. And yes, I know it's very hou lian pi to expect that people will want to get me presents but hey, isn't it a better use of their money? At least they'll know what I want!

Third, I learnt about lists in HTML, so check out the "Links" section on the RHS. Now it's got bullet points :)

That's it for today. Too tired to blog... I think I've come down with something cos today I woke up with a splitting headache and decided to take the morning off. Got into work at 1130am. Yup, that's right, ossbay-omanway is not around today :)

Aside: Anyhow, I figured I deserved a rest for working so damn hard the past 3.5 weeks. My body (and brain for that matter) is not used to this much exertion, I think! Hard work is not for me.

Cool Sites!

Yo! Found a couple of cool sites while surfing. Ossbay-omanway is not around! Por tres semanas! Well ok, one week has gone by but still, there's two weeks left. Oh happy day!

Leading off: This article was hilarious! Definitely worth a read.
Bunt specialist: Want to know if your so-called friends really know you? Send them a quiz!
Third up: Lots of name-dropping in this article about a hostess at a popular NY nightclub. Since the NYTimes has a policy of only putting its articles online for a week, after which you have to pay to read them, go read this NOW.
Clean-up spot: The almost-demise of the Lakers. I hope Shaq beats up on the Lakers every time the Heat play them.

In sports, the Giants won today in dramatic fashion, scoring 4 runs in the top of the 9th to beat the Rockies 7-5 at Coors Field. 4 runs on just 1 hit. Of course, on top of that 1 hit, which was a single, there were 2 walks, 1 sacrifice bunt, 1 run-scoring fielder's choice, one run-scoring HPB (hit by pitched ball) and 1 wild pitch that scored 2 runs. All that excitement is bound to be bad for my heart...

Plus, As hold off the White Sox 4-2 and the Yanks win 5-1 over the Tigers.

Off to test my new toaster oven :D

Cool Gifts

This site has got some really cool (read: useless) gift ideas! I wouldn't mind the Antquariam or the Swearing Punching Bag. The Plantariums are pretty cool as well - maybe I'll have better luck with it than with my window boxes...

Thanks to June for sending this to me :)

Of Tennis and Other Sports

Yo! Wimbledon is here again. The familiar green grassy courts, the purple and green logo, the commentators with the posh British accent... How fun :)

Naturally I'm rooting for JC, who's into the 2nd round. But realistically speaking it would be a miracle for JC to win here, because, let's face it, he's a clay-courter. He could win the Australian and the US Opens, but Wimbledon, I'm afraid, is out of his grasp. (Prove me wrong JC!)

So, I will also be rooting for Henman because a) he's British and b) I'm tired of Federer winning almost everything in sight. Plus, Henman sure looks better than Federer! I just can't stand Federer's ponytail. I'd like to snip it off with a pair of gardening shears, much like what I'd like to do to David Seaman.

P.S.: Good JC site here to keep in touch with whatever he's up to. I'll put up photos after the tournie.

In other sport news, the Giants are in first place! (Check out the photo of Pedro Feliz jumping over a tag.) They're 24-9 in their last 33 games, and with tonight's win over the Dodgers they have a half game lead in the NL West. Not bad for a team that was dead last sometime in May. Better yet, the Giants bats are waking up so it's nice to see everyone contributing. Plus. that should provide some protection for Barry Bonds, and teams should now think twice before walking him. I don't think he'll be able to break the Babe's record, much less Hank Aaron's, judging by the way they're walking him. The stats are ridiculous - his intentional walks so far have been more than some teams' total walks.

Speaking of walks, the Giants have come up with Walk'er to poke fun at all those intentional walks. I NEED TO LAY MY HANDS ON ONE OF THESE. If anyone is going to SF anytime soon, please get me a Walk'er!!

And of course, there's Euro 2004. The last time the European Cup was on, I was backpacking in Europe! All the upsets have made it really interesting, but it's a pity all the matches are shown in the wee hours of the morning. *yawn*

Ok that's about it. Time to go make myself a cup of instant latte with hydrogenated vegetable oil... Happy Wednesday!

Coffee!!

Right now I'm having my first coffee of the day, which is a little late by my normal standards. Rather than being bored to tears with reading some boring annual report, I have decided to blog about the Marks & Spencer's instant coffee that I'm drinking.

It's DELICIOUS! Way better than crappy Nescafe or Super or whatever else there is... There's two flavours, caffe latte and caffe mocha, and you just need to add hot milk to the sachet to get yummy coffee. In fact you can even use hot (not boiling) water as well. Plus, the coffee gets nice and foamy (feature not available in Nescafe) and you even get a little pack of chocolate to sprinkle on top. Yummy! Looks good, tastes good :)

At $8.90 for a 10-pack I think it's pretty worth it cos it's still 70% cheaper than a coffee of the day at Starbucks, and it sure tastes much better than regular instant coffee.

Yummy-licious!

And since I'm plugging products here, I might as well do more. Gamehouse.com has a great new game called Shape Shifter, and Popcap.com has Astropop. Fun fun fun!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Running on a treadmill...

... and getting nowhere fast. This pretty much sums up how I feel about my life now.

Let's see, I have friends who
1) have gotten or are going to get their Master's/PhDs;
2) have gotten married, are getting married, or are getting engaged;
3) have gotten their own apartment and are no longer living with parents;
4) have made significant strides in their careers;
5) are going overseas to work; and/or
6) have significant others.

While I am stuck here in Singapore, with none of the above. Man, I feel like such a failure. If I look at my life two years ago vs. now, nothing has changed except that I now own a car (ah Sam, the light of my life) and I no longer have to take the CFA exams.

My room is as messy as ever, I still swing from loving my job to hating it (right now, surprise surprise, I'm hating it...), my photos are still unorganised, my closet is still unorganised, I still live with my parents (!!), my social life is deader than the deadest of doornails... Yup, things sure have changed.

Anyhow, to celebrate my depressed mood tonight, I've added a new feature - a mood-o-meter. Right now, and appropriately too, it says that I am depressed.
* This icon and future icons from here

I hereby declare that if I do not get promoted by 2005, I will quit my job and go back to school.

Mauritius!

Just taking some time off from reading a 150+ page prospectus, which just keeps repeating itself. So I decided to check out the hotel we're going to be staying at and here's what I found.

Here's where...

...I'll be reading my s and s...

...where I'll be tanning...

...where I'll occasionally be swimming...

...where I'll be dining...

Can't wait man!
P.S: All photos from the Dream Mauritius site.

Random Stuff

Couple of things:
1) Tung Yi Instant Noodles are yummy!!! :)

2) The cat is away so the mouse will play, at least for the rest of the week! Woohoo!

3) is damn cool! Especially with the EP!

4) Trivia of the day: The coldest place in Singapore is my office.

New Photos Up

Hola mis amigos,
He agredado mas fotos a mi website. Si tu tienes tiempo, vaya y mire por favor.

And if you have no idea what I'm going on about, this handy site will tell you.

New Section!

Yo yo yo :) I'm getting good at this!
Introducing "Now Screening..." - movies that I've watched in the recent past. Links are on the RHS.

Up first, Love Actually: a (mostly) feel-good holiday movie with 10 interweaving stories (though I only counted 6...).

I watched it with my sister, and I think it's definitely a chick flick. Having said that, we exited the cinema with smiles on our faces so it couldn't have been that bad!

Most of the stories were predictable, but I think the sappiness wasn't overdone. My favourite stories were that of the writer who falls for his Portuguese domestic help, and the shy girl carrying a torch for her (extremely!!) hunky colleague... hm, sound like anyone you know? And as always, you can depend on Hugh Grant to deliver some (at times bittersweet) laughs.

The only problem was that with so many stories and characters running around, it was difficult to develop all of them fully. I would have enjoyed learning more about the middle-aged woman who tries to deal with the discovery of her husband's infidelity, and I definitely wanted to see more of the Laura Linney-Rodrigo Santoro story. Not just because he's the eye candy but because their story was the most moving.

All in all, it was an enjoyable way to spend a quiet Tuesday night. As for the mushiness, well, 'tis the season, ain't it?

Slowly Getting The Hang of Things

Ok, I've mastered the linking bit of this whole website-thingy. For those not in the know, let's just say I'm technologically-challenged and leave it at that.

Two links for you guys:
1) My photos - always a work in progress... largely dependent on when I can get my scanner set up and when I can find time to scan photos. And no, no digital cameras for me. Right now there's stuff on some trips I took in the past 18 months, as well as a section on mi favorito jugador del tenis.

2) Des's blog - Des is one of my oldest friends and she's always got interesting things to say. Read her blog!

Oh, and I've also included the links in the Links section (how original) on the RHS. And check it out: I've learnt how to put in a picture, thanks again to Nat! Fun fun fun!