serene’s posterous

Reading this article from the New York Times made me think about the various random stuff I have bought on our travels.  Eu-Jin frequently complains about my shopping habits.  I usually can't resist getting more tchotchkes hawked by the vendors in the various places we have visited.  It is fortunate that we try to travel light, and therefore everything usually must fit into our carry-on baggage.  I am also quite cheap, so at least I don't waste all that much money. 

I think the one souvenir item that I have used the most over the years is my favorite baby alpaca woolley hat from our first trip to Peru in 2004.  It cost about 3 bucks from a store right by the main square in Cuzco, and it has kept me warm over many vacations and camping trips.  The photo (taken by Eu-Jin) from several years ago shows me wearing that hat at the summit register of Mount Whitney.

We have a "travel shelf" too, filled with figurines (eg. llamas made from salt, wood, stone, and wool) and other random stuff (windchime, glass snail etc.) that were bought or picked up over the years or were given to us from our friends' travels.  And we have a small box filled with various sling bags (I can't seem to resist getting more bags), scarves, coin purses (a particular favorite of Eu-Jin's), woolley hats.  We have also bought food items, such as biscuits (lots of interesting varieties in the grocery stores), teas (anis tea!) and candy, but those have long since been consumed.

Saw this article on NYtimes.  It seems it is now fashionable to wander around New York sipping from a freshly opened young coconut.  Eu-Jin used to buy coconuts from the Chinese supermarket and hack them open for us to enjoy.  And now the coconut water is a health food too?

I was pretty excited about taking this new fitness class at school - Functional Integrated Training.  I like the teacher and it seems interesting to learn about exercises and movement that help develop functional strength.  There's also a recent NYTimes article about developing functional fitness.  Unfortunately...it seems that there is a far higher demand for an Abs and Glutes class - over 70 persons showed up for it versus less than 10 for the F.I.T. class.  After 2 reasonably interesting classes (amazingly, tennis balls are really good at working out the tightness in my hip area), the F.I.T. class is going to switch to Abs and Glutes to reduce the load on the other class.  Are Abs and Glutes workouts the in-thing these days?

Troy Chin of drearyweary created 3-part web comic based largely on his life and how he felt like a "resident tourist" returning to Singapore after many years in the US.  Since it is National Day in Singapore, it seems vaguely appropriate to post this. 

Eu-Jin sent me this article from WSJ.

Children with difficult temperaments, who were later placed in high-quality care, had fewer behavioral problems and teacher conflicts and better reading skills by sixth grade, compared with easygoing children in similar care, says the study, co-authored by Dr. Belsky. Those placed in poor-quality care showed the opposite: more behavioral problems and teacher conflicts, and worse academic skills.

and

Surprisingly, laid-back kids didn’t show any lasting impact of high- versus low-quality care.

I think I was the classic difficult kid..."marked by excessive crying, fussiness, emotional volatility, fear of strangers and clinginess".  Apparently I cried for 3 days non-stop when I was placed in nursery school when I was 3, at which point my parents gave up and took me out of school.  I didn't fare that much better in the early weeks of preschool at the age of 5.  Good thing I had great personalized care and love from my family and nanny...

Photo taken by Eu-Jin

Saw this article in WSJ today.  When Eu-Jin and I were in Turkey in January this year, we spent many hours in the archaeological museum in Istanbul.  A lot of the time was spent peering at the Alexander Sarcophagus, walking around it and observing details that weren't apparent on the first look.  It was probably one of the most beautiful classical antiquity I have ever seen.

While the burial chamber depicts Alexander the Great, the sarcophagus was probably carved for Abdalonymos, one of Sidon's kings.
 

Saw this.

I don't eat beef.  It was therefore somewhat disconcerting to realize that there is beef flavoring in KFC's grilled chicken.  At least I don't eat fast food often, and I haven't tried this new grilled chicken from KFC.  I guess on the grand scheme of things, KFC isn't doing anything really wrong, since they did declare the beef ingredients on "Page 14 of a 37-page ingredient document on its website".  And it is possible that there is beef flavoring on the chicken items of other fast food brands.  It is just that I haven't bothered to look it up yet.

This is probably also less terrible than realizing that in the US, McDonald's fries has beef flavoring (labeled as natural flavor before the complaints/lawsuits).  McDonald's had touted that their fries are fried in pure vegetable oil, which caused people to mistakenly think that the fries are actually vegetarian.

Saw this article on NYtimes on sriracha sauce.  I love the garlicky chili taste of the sauce, because it reminds me of the garlic chili sauce we get in Singapore, kinda like the cousin to tomato sauce.  I got a bottle of the sauce recently from the Chinese grocery store, and have been using it liberally on all sorts of stuff.  I recently mixed some sriracha sauce with plain yogurt to make a weird egg salad.  It was strangely satisfying to have a pinkish slightly spicy egg salad.

via foxtrot.com

Something nerdy to do on a Sunday morning.  No calculators!

Time waster alert: http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

It is a:

Simple sinewave synthesizer triggered by an ordinary 16step sequencer. Each triggered step causes a force on the underlaying wave-map, which makes it more cute.