Pedro and Rib-Eye Roast

Pedro is doing great. I cleaned his tank over the weekend, replaced the bedding and put in some moss and got him a dozen more crickets. He's a big eater. Last weekend I got him a dozen and he finished them all in less than 5 days. I took some pictures but he was always hiding. I'll try to poke him out of the moss tomorrow morning and get a nice picture of him. Boss comes back tomorrow.

I made rib-eye roast tonight. A little too well done for my taste but my dad loved it. He doesn't like raw meat. Next time I'll cook it to just 130­F instead of 140F. I brushed on some Dijon mustard... and sprinkled on some pepper, rosemary, and thyme... and salt and garlic powder of course... Only took about 1.5 hours. I also made a red wine sauce for it. Turned out pretty nice.

Pedro

iPhone

I got an iPhone today. Finally I buckled under peer pressure... well actually more of my own desire and couldn't resist the temptation to own a phone that I had been longing for for so long. Anyway...

iPhone is cool. The ONE concern I had was with the reported low call volume. BUT, I don't think that's the case. Well.. it isn't very loud even I turn the volume all the way up. But I don't have any trouble hearing at all. The headset that comes with phone works well too. The speaker is very limited however and is not very loud. So the speaker phone function is kinda useless if the background noise is loud.

Otherwise... everything works as advertised. Typing is actually not too bad. The software does a very good job of correcting errors. The browser works well... except for some websites. Navigation and interface are just short of amazing.

I got the phone working in less in 5 minutes. Got my gmail set up in less than 1/2 min. I am very happy with the phone so far.

Dad's apology

My parents hadn't been speaking to each other for 4 days. Finally my dad redeemed himself today with a letter to mom. At the end of that letter... his sign-off. Hahahaha!!!!!!!

Do we know?

Do we truly know what we want?
I doubt that is ever true.
Yes, maybe, for an instance,
we know what we want for a moment
and we get what we want;
but the next moment,
we want something else or
what we have wanted is not enough any more
and we want something greater and better.

Pedro the frog

I have a frog in my office now. My boss is gone for vacation... fishing in Canada with his entire family and relatives. And I have to take care of his daughter's tree frog--Pedro. I got a dozen of crickets from Petco yesterday and dumped all of them in the little aquarium where Pedro lives. Pedro only comes out in the evening and at night. During the day he just hides under the moss. I'll take some pictures of him later. He'll be with me till next Monday.

On relationships (2)

Continuing from a previous post...

Then in the secondary school, which I thought I could start over, making new friends... But I seemed to run into similar problems. I found that I didn't fit into any of the "groups" in school. One of the problems was that I didn't get to hang out with them. My family was poor -- I didn't have the means to go out with them. I had a couple of really good guy friends though whom I regret that I didn't really keep in touch with them. But if I look for them now, we'll be still be good friends. Anyway, other than those 2 friends... the rest of the classmates didn't really like me all that much. But as I remember right, it was ok. Life was good, most of the time. Then after the HKCEE exam, I left Hong Kong for a student exchange program. And I came to the States.

To be continued...

Running

I never liked running. I remembered back in the college days... ooh.. the number of times I did any serious running can be counted with one hand. But I have been running pretty regularly in recent weeks. Hurt my foot when I started about a month ago coz I didn't have proper shoes. Now that I bought a pair of Nike... I run about every other days for about 2.5 miles each time. I run about very slow... a little more than 10 min/mile. I think I have gotten better now. My breathing is better now, except my legs still get tired towards the end. My goal is run a half marathon, oh, maybe next year... just maybe.

I start to like running... coz it gives me some quiet time that I can think and meditate. I realize that you don't have to sit still to meditate, you can run while you meditate... hah... I never sit still and therefore could never really do any meditation. But I found that running gets you into this trance state that you can actually forget that your legs are hurting and your lungs are running of the air. Anyway running really helps me to clear my thoughts and get me focus on my priorities again.

Blueberry Picking

Took a day off yesterday and took my parents blueberry picking. We got 7+ lbs of blueberries. I have been munching on them since yesterday at the field. Mom made blueberry muffins. Yum!

Blueberry Picking 2007

On relationship with others

I was never a person who was well like by others. Even when I was in primary school, I knew some of the classmates really didn't like me. Part of it was probably because I always did well in exams... and ppl thought that I was a smart-ass... always wanted to show off. I was probably a smart-ass then, and probably still is. But I never intended to be one and I certainly don't want to be one. The consolation was that in primary 6, a group of girls accepted me into their circle. I know... sounds weird... for a guy to be with a group of girls... yeah I was attracted to one of them but that was another story... nothing really happened. The friendship with those girls were genuine, however. They told me that they thought I was arrogant, but then once they got to know me... they told me that I was actually quite nice to them. Yup... that was my consolation of being rejected by some of my peers at that time. And I knew I was arrogant at times... and I tried really hard to be humble and meek and be really nice to ppl I know. Whether it worked or not I wouldn't know.

To be continued...

Parents

The weather is so nice today. Dry and breezy. This is the kind of summer weather I like. Too bad that I had to stay in the office all day.

There are advantages to my parents being here. Dinner's always ready when I am hungry. My dad is doing most of the cleaning. Haha.. yeah he does. And it's quite entertaining sometimes listening to mom yapping at dad, "counting" his wrongdoings. My dad is getting really forgetful these days---leaving keys stuck on the door knob, forgetting dishes in the microwave. And he is too lazy to remember things too.. that's part of the problem. Funny and sometimes annoying and also sad to see that my dad is developing some old man's habits---slurping soup, making unnecessary noises while eating and even while sitting idle, being really stubborn and not listening to others.... Oh well... it is more sad to see my parents grow older. I have to take good care of them, making their lives as joyful and carefree as possible. So far, I don't think I am going too good a job.

green monochrome

On the way home, I saw fireworks all over the place. But it couldn't beat the display of the fireflies. They dotted the fields with dancing green dots---nature's monochrome fireworks---reminding me of those old greenish monochrome computer monitors. hahaha

July 4

I will pick up my parents from the airport this evening. Tonight my 6-month prison term begins. Oh... ha... just kidding. I love my parents. I guess it is a good thing for them... and for me as well that they are here half of the year. Things are a little different this year. We'll see how it goes.

Serious Addiction

I think I am addicted, addicted to my cloud 9. Hahaha.