I'm glad Hatandcoat saw fit to update us about his whereabouts. More frequent updates would be appreciated, or else the hating will continue.
I don't hate, though. I only seethe.
I ate no meat today, although I'm cooking a Japanese curry meal for tomorrow that has one chicken breast in it.
This was a very productive, good-food day. I woke up early, started making oats, and while I waited for oatmeal I cut up lettuce, radicchio, carrots, sun-dried tomatoes, a couple pepperoncini, and a quarter of a green bell pepper for a salad for lunch. I topped the salad with half an avocado (salted) and a hard-boiled egg (made last night).
I made the dressing next: olive oil, red wine vinegar, Spanish rosemary, a little Spanish thyme, salt, and pepper. Interesting results, but the key was to use not very much on my salad. It ended up going very nicely together. I used the dregs of my dressing to jazz up my morning hard-boiled egg. Interesting results, again.
Today's Meals
Breakfast: steel-cut oats w/milk and honey, and a hard-boiled egg with the above dressing.
Lunch: salad and dressing as described above, white rice and half a Punjab Eggplant curry packet from Trader Joe's.
Dinner: rice and the rest of the Punjab Eggplant, a whole grapefruit, and 4-5 tbs of plain yogurt.
UNNECESSARY SNACK: one piece of black Aussie licorice, offered me by my roommate.
Today's Exercise
Biked both SS-UMD and UMD-SS by way of the roads (a route that is steep and strenuous at some points, moreso than the trail)
Monday, February 9, 2009
My Coblogger Hates Me
If this blog were my child it would be on drugs and homeless at this point. Yes, I neglect it. I have a problem set to do for tomorrow's class, and the last one took me like 4 hours. My grad class is scaring me because it's so over my head, so I need to study, study, study. I also have tango tonight. Thus, I will have to do entries such as this one if I'm to keep the thread alive. Well, Aak the eater does that. For this I am grateful.
Someday I want to design my own house and include a secret room. At least a secret room.
Someday I want to design my own house and include a secret room. At least a secret room.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The Program
Success!
From hardly ever biking in November and December, and from overeating on the holidays, I got a bit... chunky. As I don't weigh myself, my best way to express this is in pants sizes. I went from my normal tight-34 waistline to a medium 36. I even had to put on my loose-fit 36 pair for a few weeks to breathe.
I implemented a plan to decrease my waist: no snacking.
For over a year, I'd been snacking between meals pretty frequently. This was okay for me since I was exercising at the gym as well as biking a lot. But the idea of snacking between meals is designed to make your big meals a little smaller. I never did that part of it. Plus, my "snacks" ballooned into little meals, or "prandicles." I never had much impulse control.
So I decided this January to cut out all the snacks. Exceptions only to be made when there would be a stretch of 6 hours or more between meals. My three meals are reasonably-sized; I try to stick to single-servings. I've also been biking at least two days a week for the past three weeks, and, when I am not biking, I'm walking quite a bit of the day (to the shuttle, to classes, and back.
As of this week, I've been able to fit back into the 34-size jeans without problem.
I'm excited about this, but I also realize that it took me over a month to get back down. I'm planning on implementing more exercise every week. And, since this blog seems so vacant these days, I guess I'll document my progress here.
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: a bowl of Puffins with plain yogurt.
Lunch: one slice of french toast, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad
Snack: a cube of parmesan and a handful of raw almonds
Dinner: leftover chicken/spinach/paneer curry w/rice, 8 gyoza (steamed then fried)
Today's Exercise:
Walked for 20 minutes or so down to Sligo Creek and back.
From hardly ever biking in November and December, and from overeating on the holidays, I got a bit... chunky. As I don't weigh myself, my best way to express this is in pants sizes. I went from my normal tight-34 waistline to a medium 36. I even had to put on my loose-fit 36 pair for a few weeks to breathe.
I implemented a plan to decrease my waist: no snacking.
For over a year, I'd been snacking between meals pretty frequently. This was okay for me since I was exercising at the gym as well as biking a lot. But the idea of snacking between meals is designed to make your big meals a little smaller. I never did that part of it. Plus, my "snacks" ballooned into little meals, or "prandicles." I never had much impulse control.
So I decided this January to cut out all the snacks. Exceptions only to be made when there would be a stretch of 6 hours or more between meals. My three meals are reasonably-sized; I try to stick to single-servings. I've also been biking at least two days a week for the past three weeks, and, when I am not biking, I'm walking quite a bit of the day (to the shuttle, to classes, and back.
As of this week, I've been able to fit back into the 34-size jeans without problem.
I'm excited about this, but I also realize that it took me over a month to get back down. I'm planning on implementing more exercise every week. And, since this blog seems so vacant these days, I guess I'll document my progress here.
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: a bowl of Puffins with plain yogurt.
Lunch: one slice of french toast, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad
Snack: a cube of parmesan and a handful of raw almonds
Dinner: leftover chicken/spinach/paneer curry w/rice, 8 gyoza (steamed then fried)
Today's Exercise:
Walked for 20 minutes or so down to Sligo Creek and back.
Grapefruit and Avocado Salad
(Where the F is Mr. Hatandcoat? His last post here was 1/27. That's almost two weeks ago. I'm close to saying this is a defunct blog. I might just take it over as my own food blog.)
I saw a grapefruit and avocado salad recipe somewhere in my million-strong Google Reader feeds. Then I saw grapefruit (really nice-looking and -smelling grapefruit) on sale for 50 cents each at Giant. I decided to give this salad a go.
Grapefruit and Avocado Salad (beta)
The rest of the ingredients were for the dressing. It was about 40% olive oil, 30% honey, 15% lemon juice and 15% red wine vinegar, with a small sprinkling of kosher salt and pepper. When I tasted the mixture, it was like BAM vinegar BOOM honey BAP salt ZING pepper. After a few minutes, the flavors settled into sweet citrus with a tang.
Know Problems and Bugs (with the beta version):
I saw a grapefruit and avocado salad recipe somewhere in my million-strong Google Reader feeds. Then I saw grapefruit (really nice-looking and -smelling grapefruit) on sale for 50 cents each at Giant. I decided to give this salad a go.
Grapefruit and Avocado Salad (beta)
- 1/2 grapefruit, no white bitter stuff
- 1/2 avocado, diced in kinda big chunks
- three leaves of red lettuce
- one knife's shredding of radicchio
- handful of walnuts
- olive oil
- honey
- red wine vinegar
- lemon juice
- kosher salt
- pepper
The rest of the ingredients were for the dressing. It was about 40% olive oil, 30% honey, 15% lemon juice and 15% red wine vinegar, with a small sprinkling of kosher salt and pepper. When I tasted the mixture, it was like BAM vinegar BOOM honey BAP salt ZING pepper. After a few minutes, the flavors settled into sweet citrus with a tang.
Know Problems and Bugs (with the beta version):
- The dressing was not quite what I wanted here. Too sweet.
- The avocado was practically nonexistent. I couldn't taste it at all with all the flavors competing around it.
- Try a saltier dressing to contrast with the grapefruit's juicy citrus and to bring out the avocado. I'm thinking something with a soy sauce base.
- Try putting less of the dressing on it. My leaves were swimming by the end of it.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Shhhhhh
Today in linguistics class, I learned about a difference in the Japanese pronunciation of "sh" and our American pronunciation of "sh".
It's difficult to describe in words, and I can't find good examples online. The Japanese "sh" is tighter, efficient. The American makes "sh" with a less-tense mouth and a lot more air against the teeth. The Japanese version makes your tongue's tip point down as the air becomes strained between the palate and the high-point bump of the folded-down tongue. The American version, the tip of our tongue is higher and kind of rounded, funneling air against and through the teeth.
(I'm using layman's terms above. You don't really want to know the technical terms for these kinds of articulations.)
It's not an important difference, meaning that the meaning with be clear to either Japanese or American if you use the wrong "sh."
When the teacher mentioned this, though, the whole class was kind of astounded. They, like I, had always heard the slight difference, but they'd been unable to pinpoint what made the sh-sounds different. So, for the next five minutes, the teacher continued to speak, but everyone in the class was going "Shhhh, shhhh."
It's difficult to describe in words, and I can't find good examples online. The Japanese "sh" is tighter, efficient. The American makes "sh" with a less-tense mouth and a lot more air against the teeth. The Japanese version makes your tongue's tip point down as the air becomes strained between the palate and the high-point bump of the folded-down tongue. The American version, the tip of our tongue is higher and kind of rounded, funneling air against and through the teeth.
(I'm using layman's terms above. You don't really want to know the technical terms for these kinds of articulations.)
It's not an important difference, meaning that the meaning with be clear to either Japanese or American if you use the wrong "sh."
When the teacher mentioned this, though, the whole class was kind of astounded. They, like I, had always heard the slight difference, but they'd been unable to pinpoint what made the sh-sounds different. So, for the next five minutes, the teacher continued to speak, but everyone in the class was going "Shhhh, shhhh."
Monday, February 2, 2009
Things Change
I made a small mistake in my previous post about karate. "Karate" in Japanese is written "η©Ίζ", which means "empty hand." But this is misleading, because originally the word "karate" was written with an old character for China: εζ. Thus, the name itself once showed clearly that karate had its roots in China, despite being a very Japanese art form.
Things change. History is whitewashed. The roots of an art form are obscured by language. And a grisly story is forgotten (by the victors). I read the following tale in Japan: A Modern History, and was struck at the brutal forgetfulness of it.
In the last decade of the 1500s, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had conquered Japan and united all the regions militarily. Then, with this huge army on his hands, he decided to send them offshore, to Korea. Initially, he'd just aimed to conquer China (!), and he'd thought that Korea would be cool with letting his troops attack from their peninsula. The Koreans said no, that would not be cool. So Hideyoshi made war on the Koreans.
It didn't go well. The Korean military was terrible on dry land, but in the wetlands and on the sea, the Koreans were formidable. Korean boats cut Hideyoshi's armies off from their supplies. Then China swooped in and beat the Japanese back away from Seoul. The Japanese surged once more, but they never even got to Seoul the second time. Hideyoshi died before there was a third surge.
But the Japanese were pretty much disastrous to Koreans. They burned Seoul, they killed (on Hideyoshi's orders) civilians, women, and children, and they cut off each killed Korean's nose. They pickled the noses, tens of thousands of them, in jars and brought them back to Japan. Hideyoshi dumped all these noses into a pile near his own future tomb. The pile became a large hill.
The hill is now called "Mound of Ears." It's a popular place for picnics and cherry-blossom viewing.
Things change. History is whitewashed. The roots of an art form are obscured by language. And a grisly story is forgotten (by the victors). I read the following tale in Japan: A Modern History, and was struck at the brutal forgetfulness of it.
In the last decade of the 1500s, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had conquered Japan and united all the regions militarily. Then, with this huge army on his hands, he decided to send them offshore, to Korea. Initially, he'd just aimed to conquer China (!), and he'd thought that Korea would be cool with letting his troops attack from their peninsula. The Koreans said no, that would not be cool. So Hideyoshi made war on the Koreans.
It didn't go well. The Korean military was terrible on dry land, but in the wetlands and on the sea, the Koreans were formidable. Korean boats cut Hideyoshi's armies off from their supplies. Then China swooped in and beat the Japanese back away from Seoul. The Japanese surged once more, but they never even got to Seoul the second time. Hideyoshi died before there was a third surge.
But the Japanese were pretty much disastrous to Koreans. They burned Seoul, they killed (on Hideyoshi's orders) civilians, women, and children, and they cut off each killed Korean's nose. They pickled the noses, tens of thousands of them, in jars and brought them back to Japan. Hideyoshi dumped all these noses into a pile near his own future tomb. The pile became a large hill.
The hill is now called "Mound of Ears." It's a popular place for picnics and cherry-blossom viewing.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Karate Is Japanese
(I wasn't sure whether I should relegate this post to my Japanese blog or not, but I figured the fighting trivia belonged here. So many blogs, so little time...)
A new Karate Kid movie has been in the works for quite some time. Will Smith is helming it, Will Smith's son will be the Kid, and Jackie Chan will be Miyagi-esque. This has a lot of people upset for many reasons. First, their childhood memories will be chewed up into a pulp. Second, Miyagi was Japanese. Third, karate itself is Japanese. Fourth, the original movie helped bring Japanese culture to American attention yadda yadda yadda.
Smith defended his choice of making the Miyagi character Chinese by saying that "fortunately, karate is originally a Chinese art form" in this old news article.
Karate is Japanese. The word itself means "empty hand" in Japanese. This is true, but I had thought it had been a brand new invention created by the Japanese. Not so, apparently. The Japanese took the style from the Ryukyuan people of Okinawa.
Okinawa hangs out in the ocean between China and Japan and was for centuries a way for both countries to trade with each other without having to officially open trade. The Okinawans learned martial arts from the Chinese; they even went to study it in China for a while. The term for the kind of martial art it was at the time is "kenpo."
The Japanese codified it and created the martial art called "karate." I'm sure the details are all very interesting, so you can read about it more at the wiki.
Later, China kind of forgot about the techniques. They had to relearn it from Japan. So to say that it won't matter whether you place your movie about karate in China or Japan is still bullspit, Will Smith. Don't call it Karate Kid is all I'm saying. Call it "The Kenpo Kid" or something. Leave Ralph Macchio out of it.
(On second thought, put Ralph Macchio in it! That would be awesome!)
A new Karate Kid movie has been in the works for quite some time. Will Smith is helming it, Will Smith's son will be the Kid, and Jackie Chan will be Miyagi-esque. This has a lot of people upset for many reasons. First, their childhood memories will be chewed up into a pulp. Second, Miyagi was Japanese. Third, karate itself is Japanese. Fourth, the original movie helped bring Japanese culture to American attention yadda yadda yadda.
Smith defended his choice of making the Miyagi character Chinese by saying that "fortunately, karate is originally a Chinese art form" in this old news article.
Karate is Japanese. The word itself means "empty hand" in Japanese. This is true, but I had thought it had been a brand new invention created by the Japanese. Not so, apparently. The Japanese took the style from the Ryukyuan people of Okinawa.
Okinawa hangs out in the ocean between China and Japan and was for centuries a way for both countries to trade with each other without having to officially open trade. The Okinawans learned martial arts from the Chinese; they even went to study it in China for a while. The term for the kind of martial art it was at the time is "kenpo."
The Japanese codified it and created the martial art called "karate." I'm sure the details are all very interesting, so you can read about it more at the wiki.
Later, China kind of forgot about the techniques. They had to relearn it from Japan. So to say that it won't matter whether you place your movie about karate in China or Japan is still bullspit, Will Smith. Don't call it Karate Kid is all I'm saying. Call it "The Kenpo Kid" or something. Leave Ralph Macchio out of it.
(On second thought, put Ralph Macchio in it! That would be awesome!)
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