Chinese New Year 2010
Chinese New Years
Like it or not Chinese New Year is upon us. February 14th is the first day of Chinese New Year for 2010 and marks the beginning of yet another Lunar year, this one represented by the Tiger. To see a great explanation of Chinese New Year and it’s influence and importance see Wikipedia.
What does it mean today?
Asian culture is amazing how over the centuries it’s traditions have endured through so much war and genocide. Even today watching friends of Asian descent born in the states or raised in the states, they carry on the traditions as the dutiful descendants they are. Some of them the children of families that fled Mainland China, Vietnam, or Cambodia’s communist regime carrying with them this tradition of Chinese New Year and passing it on to the next generations.
For some it is the commercial, family get together that Christmas has become to the world. It is hard to change this notion when the media and businesses have so much to gain from promoting it as a “reason to spend money for gifts”. Ironically money is the number 1 gift at this holiday in those famous little red envelopes.
The most important thing
If you take anything away from this in regards to Chinese New Year remember this, it’s about family. It’s about honoring our ancestors for paving the way. It’s about honoring our living relatives for supporting us now. Lastly it’s about giving to the children to be here to support us in the years to come. In the homes I have been fortunate enough to celebrate Chinese New Year in around the world this is what I always saw.
Food and Chinese New years
The feast of the first day of Chinese New Year is the really big event that I have always enjoyed every time I’ve been included. In one home the meal was prepared and then presented to the door step and incense burned to offer to the ancestors first. Then a place was set for those not present and the rest of us devoured a glorious meal of roasted chicken, steamed fish, noodles, soup and always an assortment of many more foods.
One home I was fortunate to be at in California one year was blessed to have a HUGE family of 15 children to the matriarch and patriarch that had fled Vietnam in the early 70’s. The food of all those families coming together. I remember tasting every kind of flavor and feeling so full afterwards that I shamefully undid the button to my pants as we rested. Needless to say that turned to be quite a compliment to all of the cooks that one that towered almost a full foot over them could feast to the point where his clothes could not contain them. Truly the Prince’s clothing — Sihk Duhk a FOOK, Jeuhk Duhk a Luhk.
How I observe it today
Today my wife and I observe Chinese New Year every year by taking time to go to Dim Sum at one of the local restaurants with friends. This year we’ve added two new friends to the mix and we’re going to Imperial Garden here in Columbus. While being run by a couple that immigrated here from Taiwan, the Chef is from Szechuan in Mainland China and his cooking is some of the best I’ve had in the world. No exaggeration there. I look forward to unbuttoning my pants to make breathing easier on the drive home. Sunday when the day finally comes my boys and I will sit down and talk about our ancestors and what they mean to us. Then when we can we’ll talk about our family today and what we mean to each other.
What does it mean to me today
Chinese New Year is a part of who I am. A quarter of my life I spoke, ate, thought, and breathed in Chinese more than I did in English. Many friends have invited me into their homes to share with them by all accounts the most important 5 days of the year. It signals the coming Spring and coming hope. It is a time to remember the past and look forward to the future. In my own English/American/Chinese way I will be passing this onto my children hoping that it will make an impression on them and they will learn a little of who I am, who their ancestors were, and who they can become.
GUNG HEI FAAT CHOI! — GUNG TSI FA TSAI!
Favorite Tweets of the Week
I am going to start posting my favorite tweets of the week and it may become a page that just updates.… but for now we’ll post it.
Inggrie_Tehku: Don’t let other people’s opinions burn holes in your dreams… 1/14/2010
TigerTree: Coffee just tastes better when you are drinking it out of a thermos… 1/16/2010
TheOnion: Opinion: Kids, Your Mother is ready to start F**king again.… 1/12/2010
SassyTinATL: That’s y my motto is: “The butt u kick 2day may be the butt you kiss tomorrow” It’s a small small world. 1/11/2010
TheSDCowGirl: Making elk tenderloin quesadilla’s for supper! Yummy 1/11/2010
lizlessner: When nerds marry. My husband just told me I look good sitting in front of his mac 1/11/2010
You can see some of these are quite obviously funny. Some good advice. TheSDCowGirl I’m just jealous.
Website Review of Localharvest.org — WORTH EVERY PAGE
I love to find cool informative sites on food, bbq, books, writing.… you get the idea. I especially like the sites that I don’t have to follow every day to stay on top of but are more an information hub around a particular topic. I have found just such a site. A site I find myself checking second to google in some cases.
What is this amazing site? Why Local Harvest of course. What does this site have that other sites don’t have? It is a hub of information on organic local agriculture and the businesses that support them. From their map it has what appears to be hundreds and maybe even thousands of these types of enterprises.
Want to find a local resource for yarn production? They have it. What about a restaurant or market that uses locally grown produce or raised meat? They have that too.
What if you wanted to get involved in a CSA to augment your own garden production or as an opportunity to get really fresh vegetables. They got that.
Then there’s the forums where people talk about questions, concerns, events, rates, etc. Next tab over and it will show you events. For us it helped us find a local farm that we are considering participating in a csa with this year. Now we can do something with them to get to know them.
It’s a veritable cornucopia of locally grown and supported food. So go to the link, bookmark it, and use it. Who knows it might just change your life. At the very least the way you eat.
Managing Information Overload In the Age of Twitter and iPhones
Today I woke up and checked the weather. Then I looked at the overseas markets and international headlines for financial information. I did this without getting out of bed on my iPhone, of course. This is a fairly normal ritual for me these days. By 6:30AM every morning I have gauged what my boys day is going to be like based on the weather, and what my day is going to be like based on my Bloomberg feeds.
After the ritualistic rush of getting the boys dressed, breakfast started, and myself cleaned and ready for work I check my email. Then my rss and finally twitter feeds. It’s a huge volume of information and it can send me into hyperfocus hell if I’m not careful. I have literally been sitting in my car for an hour just reading everything trying to soak it in. It makes me wish my commute to work every day was on a train or bus.
What information of value could possibly come from all of this reading? How can one brain possibly contain or manage all of this information? I don’t. My brain is full. It’s overwhelmingly full. It’s so full it feels like it’s exploding some times. Ok you get the picture. What I’ve come up with is a system. It’s my own personal information management system.
At the heart of this system is a great if not the greatest information gathering-storing-retrieving system on the web today. it’s called Evernote. I forward emails, I cut and paste links, save pages, quotes, ideas, anything and everything. It rocks. How much it rocks is another post in a future date.
So we have the destination of the data, now how do we find the time to read, filter, and store? Twitter, Google RSS Reader, Facebook, etc. They all have a way of marking something as a favorite or starring it. As I peruse the feeds through the day I star the ones that are of significance one way or the other. Then each day I review the starred posts, tweets, articles, pictures, and I forward the ones I want to hold onto into Evernote. Assigning tags for their purpose and content. If something becomes a TODO I follow up with it at the next chance.
So now you have this growing volume of data in your data store. How do you find it? How do you recall what you stored? Easy. Evernote’s search engine not only searches the text in your notes, it searches the text in your pictures. All I worry about now is making sure when I see something I store it. Technorati Tags: iPhone, Evernote, Overload
My Love Affair
People that know me know at least one thing about me, I love my iPhone. I mean I LOVE my iPhone. I take it to bed, I take it into the bathroom when I’m getting a shower. I had a special stereo for it specifically in my car so that I would never be without it or it’s cool features.
What is it about this device that has caused such a dramatic love affair? There are millions of iPhone users that don’t have this type of love and devotion. Besides the obvious thought going through yours and everyone else that knows me of “he’s a freak” there are some simple things about the iPhone that just make it superior.
Reason number one, “It’s a phone, it’s a computer, no it’s iPhone!“
A lot of phones out there can play music. Some can get your email. Some have web browsers. Some have games. Some have productivity apps and can sync with your computer. The iPhone does it all and a whole lot more. Plus it’s an ipod, an online store, an exchange client, network tool, home automation control tool, notebook, recipe book, kindle, check register, shopping tool, inventory tracking, medical tracking, calendar, mail, contact, facebook, twittering, office, pdf, streaming audio playing handheld computer. That has the ability to be used for a phone.
Reason number two, I can customize it any way I want.
I have about 24 different apps on my iPhone that I use somewhere between every day to once a week. Next week I might take some off and put some new ones on. I might rearrange the order of the apps today. Maybe I’ll download some more “useful” apps. I can set it up anyway I want.
Reason number three and probably the biggest reason, I’m an information junkie. Learning new things is a high to my ADDled brain. Between my twitterlator, facebook, email, sms, rss reader, kindle, readitlater, Evernote apps I can’t stop getting information. I’m hooked.
Reason number four and the last reason for this discussion is it’s really cool. It has changed the “smart phone” world forever. It has changed the phone world forever. It has given access to people that didn’t have it before and that’s kinda cool, but it’s just really cool to have. If being cool isn’t a good reason then I’m screwed. That’s always my backup excuse for anything.
Do I love my iPhone? No. I LOVE MY IPHONE! Ok, that’s all. Thanks for tuning in and see you sametime later this week.
What does it mean to be a foodie?
Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. - Wikipedia
I am a foodie, but I’ve never thought of myself as an aficionado. More as an avid, almost maniacal love of food and the beverages that go with it. Many people like food. Most people enjoy some food. I love food. I love tasting, smelling, and feeling it. The funny thing about my love of food is that I do not eat everything. I can walk into a store or a restaurant, eat what I want to, and then leave sometimes still hungry as it was less than I wanted.
I enjoy talking about food almost as much as I enjoy eating it. Writing about it, taking pictures of it, working on recipes, cooking some new dish that I have just read about. I’ve walked a mile in a down pour of sleet and snow on the possible chance I would get into a restaurant for a chance to try their steak.
This week I am going to Chicago on one of my food adventures again. The opportunity to eat at a steak house that will be one of those rare opportunities. Followed by a day and a half of pure indulgence at stadiums, local dive bars, and then a tribute to German Americans.
Did I mention I get to do it while enjoying the company of friends? That’s important too, right?
Riding Trains
I am sitting on the second floor of a metra train leaving Chicago to the ‘burbs to see friends. I’ve ridden the train dozens of times all over the world, yet I feel oddly different on this trip. It’s almost a giddy excitement of thrill and fear, like the first time you get on a roller coaster.
Then I realize it’s not the excitement of me riding a train, but the thought of how amazingly excited my boys would be if they were riding it. How it would be all new and different to them. My oldest would want to understand how it all worked. My middle would immediately equate it with Thomas the tank engine. My youngest would. Attempt to climb every scalable surface.
As a father of boys it is very easy to imagine and appreciate their excitement. This trip with us so far apart i think of them and how much they would love and enjoy it.
Don’t worry boys, we’ll go on one soon!
Home Improvement — The Beginning
When I embarked on the journey that has become a massive undertaking in remodeling the outside of my house, I never realized what that would mean to my family, my neighbors, my personal time, or my savings account. It started as a simple exercise of wanting to get rid of the 10 inch wide vinyl siding that had covered our 80 year old house for the last 40 years.
In doing that we discovered many wonderful and frightening things. The first discovery that the wood siding hiding under the monstrosity of vinyl was mostly in good shape was exciting. This was followed by the horrific discovery that all of the window and door trim had been destroyed to accommodate the siding.
A brief discussion with my friend and brother in smoke(bbq) led to the discovery that this could be repaired or replaced entirely with his expert help. This in turn involved a fun filled week of replacing the window moldings and trim work to represent what it most likely looked like when it was built 80 years ago.
The work was just begging there as we discovered asphalt shingles over asbestos shingles on the gables and side overhangs. This frightening discovery was quickly followed by the even worse discovery that the shingles were 4 and 5 layers deep with multiple nails in every one. It was weeks to remove all of them as it was exhausting work of the nature that I was not accustomed to performing.
Weeks and months later these shingles have been replaced with either siding or cedar shake stained a beautiful redwood color. The cracking paint striped, sanded and repainted a beautiful gun metal grey with a bone white trim. Now as we approach the sides and attempt to complete the removal of the last remaining pieces to begin the priming and painting I look at it as a sign of hope to complete something prior to the end of this year leaving only the back to finish next year. Over the coming weeks look I will attempt to document the progress we’ve made and document the trials we’ve encountered and what I’ve learned through others or by my persistence that I will complete this Everest.
I have enjoyed the work and hope that someone will benefit from my experiences in their own attempts at taking on the impossible.