Important information about food.

1. A good article on chai, from the Chronicle:
"The basic definition of chai is spiced black tea mixed with hot milk, usually sweetened. The spice mix, called chai masala, is generally made up of ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper and cloves. Bechar describes how in India, where he travels frequently, chai wallahs, or tea vendors, brew chai outdoors in large pots, then pour the frothy tea and milk into rough-hewn clay cups. As trains pull into stations, they rush the cups to passengers, who drink the tea, then throw the cups to the ground.

Chai's popularity is raging in Northern California, yet the drink has drifted far from its origins. . .

The problem with these products, including the commercial concentrate used at most cafes, is they tend to result in chais that are too watery, too sweet or dominated by cinnamon or -- god forbid -- vanilla. "

Ok, they said it themselves. God forbid--vanilla!

But people are stupid:

"Although customers can request soy milk, iced or decaf versions of espresso drinks, Bechar insists that each chai be made the same way.
"They'll ask for vanilla syrup, whipped cream," says Bechar. "I say, 'No, no!' " "

This man is fighting the good fight, and I wish him much luck. Although I wonder if he would make it with skim milk and sweetener? His version is all whole-milk and a lot of sugar.

2. Chinese take-out food isn't really Chinese, and there's a museum exhibit about it.

" Lee speculates that East European Jews, themselves marginalized, flocked to Chinese restaurants as a way of forging a new, modern, identity—as a way of becoming American. Not that things "Chinese" were generally recognized as American; it took outsiders to see the obvious. Visiting Chinese anthropologist Fei Xiaotong, for example, was amused and amazed by a restaurant he visited in the early 1940s. "It was called a Chinese restaurant," he wrote, "but ... nothing made me feel the slightest at home."

After the Second World War, mainstream Americans, too, began to see the Americanness—eureka!—of some "Chinese." And Chinese Americans celebrated this: On a menu from the 1950s, a man smilingly paints characters on his "Chinese Easter Eggs." By this point, though, Chinese restaurants were about more than East Meets West. They were sites where not only Chineseness but ethnicity in general was made and made fun of. "

Food anthropology you can sink your teeth into.

A non-food thought

Well, lately I've been listening to a lot of NPR while I do my filing and data entry and I'm just getting the feeling that I'm missing something. For one thing, although NPR is better than many other news sources in this, I still feel like I'm not getting enough depth and background information. (OTOH, it's great that they often have supplemental info on their website: I know they had a lot of web stuff on Syria/Lebanon in the last few weeks. That's one of those situations I felt like I didn't know enough about.)The other thing is that maybe I just don't know enough going in. I think it's problematic if I have a collge degree and a lot of the news still doesn't quite make sense to me. I have catching up to do.

And then sometimes I feel like the news story doesn't answer a very basic question that I have and I don't know where to find the answer. I'll have to find some examples.

So of course this weeks with the new guidelines there's been a blitzkrieg of talk about stem cell research and ethics, but I still feel like I'm missing basic background. I'd like to know more about the technologies and processes that are involved so I can make my own decisions about what I think is ethical, but I don't know where to find it. If I could find it, I feel confident I could understand it (I know what a blastocyst is, and pluripotency, and so on and so forth). I mean, how feasible are nuclear transplants? And what other applications are there? Is there a 10-page Scientific American article with diagrams that I can read? If you know of something, please send me a link or how to find it in the library. I don't want an ethical debate, I just want information so I can form an opinion.

In still other news, I have some sort of thought simmering (about stem cells and Terry Schiavo and the new pope and teaching evolution in Kansas and humanism and separation of church and state and ridiculous discrimination against gay people), but I don't know what it is yet. More information and more simmering needed.
- posted by k @ 1:03 PM

 
Quick job-hunt-related thoughts.

1. The career counselor was helpful. She gave me the kind of advice I needed on my resume, and also a better sense of what to expect when job hunting. Also, she alerted me to an upcoming (as in "the next day") job fair and showed me how to search the list of prospective employers who would be at the fair. That was good because if I hadn't looked at the list I might have either not gone at all, or gone and not known what to look at/for. It turned out that there were more possible employers for me than I expected (i.e. greater than zero). Some of the companies/organizations I had targeted from my pre-screen turned out not to have the kind of opening I was looking for (I don't want to do sales if I can avoid it), but there were some definite leads. I have already had two interviews as a result, and I have another one coming up next week. This is good news. Also, it was really a nice feeling to be courted and recruited by prospective employers at the job fair. That was completely and bizarrely opposite of any other thing I have done in my job search.
Finally, the last good thing about the job fair was that I realized that the student/volunteer leadership positions I have held really were a good thing career-wise even though they weren't in my field because they show prospective employers that I have leadership and management experience and so two of the positions I'm interviewing for are director/manager positions right away. Good good good. cross your fingers for me.

2. I want a job. You know why? So I can have my own desk. Where I'm temping now I get to use the cubicle of the person who usually does this job. I would love to have my own cubicle. Look at this! It has a desk and a computer and a table and its own trash can and walls! Wow. I want one. !
- posted by k @ 9:19 AM

 
Coming to you live from...The San Francisco Public Library (Main Branch)!

This is like the coolest places ever. Libraries make my heart pound anyway, and this one ranks right up there with the main stacks at UC Berkeley. Actually, the layout seems a little similar, because it has a large, sunny atrium with a spiral staircase in the middle. There are different "centers" in the library for different groups (including a Chinese center, a Filipino-American center, a teen center and the James Hormel Gay and Lesbian center--how cool is that?) and best of all free wireless internet (don't even need a library card) and lots of outlets at tables. There's a big section on job hunting and education (maybe a good place to come when I'm comparing grad schools) and the international section even has books in Hindi and Gujrati. The only complaint I have is that it gets a little noisy, I think with noise from the atrium echoing and wafting in. But other positives include a wide variety of clientele (it's good to see the library serving all the people--or at least looking like it does) and interesting artwork.

So here's a question: Is it clear on my blog when links are included, or should I fiddle with my settings so the color is more dramatically different?

In other news, I went to the UCSF temp office this morning for intake stuff. My typing speed only registered as 71 WPM today. :-( I think the time I clocked in at 80 I was having an exceptionally good day, and today I was a little off, but also the keyboard was sticky and I couldn't adjust the angle for maximum ergonomicity. Anyway, good news is that 70% of their temporary placements can turn into permanent ones, so it's good that I turned in my (new and improved) academic/research resume instead of my general/temp one. Also, their placements tend to be full time, which is also good news.

You know, somebody, or maybe a couple of people told me a while ago that a) I should register with temp agencies b) temping at UCSF can be a foot in the door to a permanent position. But it's taken me that long to get there. It's like I have to learn everything the hard way. Oh well. I guess you don't forget when you learn it the hard way.
- posted by k @ 3:33 PM

 
Hope for Rajan.

Found this via an email from Badmash (is it just me, or is the comic less funny since the character got married and the strip went to a weekly 4-panel format?).

Anyway, there is a nation-wide bone marrow donor drive for South Asians. Last time I gave blood I think I put myself into the national bone marror registry, and today I updated my contact information at the National Marrow Donor Program. If you are of South Asian descent, I urge you to attend one of these donor drives if you can, and to pass the message along to other people you may know. Being registered as a donor puts you under no obligation.

I remember a few (10?) years ago there was a similar problem because there weren't sufficient donors of African descent, and there was a story in Reader's Digest about a girl who had leukemia and couldn't find a donor. She died, but the good news was that because of the publicity her case created about the lack of African-American donors led to an increase in African-American donors and in fact a year(?) later Reader's Digest ran a story about a girl whose leukemia was cured because of a donor. The donor's courageous journey was also described. Hey, it was Reader's Digest after all. (And then they were all chased by a secular gay shark when their boat capsized.)

Questions about being a marrow donor? Look here. Did you know if you have a baby, you could also donate your cord?
- posted by k @ 10:35 AM

 
New Pope: Benedict XVI.

My reaction: That reminds me...I want to go to Rome! Someday... the sun setting on St. Peter's Square (?) looks lovely.

In other news, did you hear about the nuns and laywomen who blew pink smoke from a church in Chicago to urge the Catholic church to open leadership roles to women?
- posted by k @ 10:05 AM

 
Surprising Results(?)

OK, my resume, CV and references have been updated, posted on Monster and/or sent to potentially interested parties. Now I'm hungry and I have to pee. Also I have to do groceries later.

I did the Belief-o-Matic, which is more like what I was expecting when I did the "What's your Spiritual Type?" quiz. I might re-take it later when I have peed and eated, because I didn't really take advantage of the "how important is this question" feature.

However, here are my preliminary results:

1.
Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2.
Theravada Buddhism (90%)
3.
Liberal Quakers (85%)
4.
Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (81%)
5.
Mahayana Buddhism (77%)
6.
Secular Humanism (77%)
7.
Neo-Pagan (69%)
8.
Taoism (65%)
9.
Hinduism (64%)
10.
Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (61%)

My reaction:
The Pagan, Taoist and Christian Science showings are a bit odd. At least Hinduism is in the top ten. (btw, in case anyone's interested I had 52% for Jainism and 48% for Reform Judaism, I think).
- posted by k @ 2:01 PM

 
I would like to play the Belief-O-Matic and post my results, and I would like to do today's Friday Five, but I have to update my resume first. I have to. Sorry! Stay tuned...
- posted by k @ 10:24 AM

 
Maybe I shouldn't give up caffeine, after all.

So today would have been day 10 of my having given up coffee and soda and sticking to no more than 1-2 cups of tea per day (excluding herbal teas which are caffeine free). But I had a cup of coffee this morning.

I haven't really gotten enough sleep the last two nights. Usually if I'm not drinking coffee regularly and I have some (especially on an empty stomach, especially if I haven't slept enough) I'll feel kinda buzzed/wired. But today actually I just feel kinda normal. And I think I have a better attitude/energy than I've had in a few days (that post down there is yesterday's non-caffeinated thoughts). Better attitude/energy--> greater productivity. hmm.

I mean, clearly this indicates that I was more hooked on the stuff than I had thought--when I was in school and would have coffee to stay up and study during midterms, then it would take me about 2 weeks to "detox" and feel normal again after giving it up.

On the other hand, I think my skin cleared up some (both in terms of pimples and rashes/general irritation) right after I quit and there is a link now between caffeine and diabetes. hmm. Not really good for your teeth either, I think.

Is it worth the risk? Should I go back to detoxing, or go back to moderate (1 cup/day) coffee intake to keep up productivity and morale? I could quit again when I have a job (and after the first couple months/years of the job when they know I'm a good worker...)
- posted by k @ 10:50 AM

 
Bastards.

You know, I meant to say in the posting below that I identify as a Humanist because even though I pretty much don't believe in supernatural business, I do think that it's possible to "lead meaningful, ethical lives capable of adding to the greater good of humanity." But you know what, some days it's harder to believe that than others.

In case anyone really wants to keep track, here is a chart of my attempt to find a job.


Name ----------Type of Job---Status---Date I found out
Closed
UCSF Mac Job#1 --In my field ---Filled ---Jan-05
UCSF Mac Job#2 --In my field ---Filled ---Feb-05
UCSF Neurology job -Near my field --Job may not exist---Apr-05
Baja Burritos ---Cashier ----Never heard back--Mar-05
Le Boulanger ---Cashier/food prep --Filled --Mar-05
UCB Job -----In my field ------Filled ---Apr-05

Pending
PLoS ---Maybe near my field---Not hearing back
SciLearn---In my field---May not exist/not hearing back
Mama's Royal Café---Dishwasher---May be filled

(see, if I had learned HTML when I had the chance, I could make a pretty chart and maybe I would have a job by now, though on the other hand now everybody and his mother knows HTML. and his dog. and XML)

I guess nobody really ever gets a job in their field of interest which is why the economy is so bad and we have so much corporate corruption--people don't like what they're supposed to do, so the do it badly, or screw around instead of working, or try to find perks i.e. embezzlement. ha-ha.

[edit: I'm not suicidal or anything, just venting; don't worry.]

So if none of these comes through, that'll be 10. Only 1/10th of the way to that 100 mark. I better apply for more jobs.

Anyway, I paid a lot of money yesterday to get alumni access to the UCB Career Center. Appointment with a career counselor next Tuesday...
- posted by k @ 10:33 AM

 
What's your spiritual type?

So, I was googling for a nice blurb from the Pope on consumerism/materialism (esp. as he relates it to sexual morality) and I came across this website, BeliefNet. (more info here, thanks to JF)

How weird. Ok, maybe not that weird in a world of Cornerstone Mega-Churches [Thanks again to JF] and whateverall. I mean on the one hand it's weird because it's a commercial site for, you know, religious and spiritual stuff. I find that a little icky in general, especially given how certain religious groups that we won't name have all kinds of strange influence and bedfellows in this country. But on the other hand, I skimmed the site and it seems to be pretty fair and balanced. Fer reelz, yo! So that's cool. I even found stuff that I could related to and didn't make me twitch. In fact, on the quiz "What's your spiritual type?" I actually found some answers offered that I could agree with (though in some cases the phrasing of the questions was somewhat unsympathetic to atheists and there wasn't much discussion of meditation or other mindfulness techniques as spiritual practices). There was even someone on one of the discussion boards who identified as a Buddhist Humanist, which is about what I've been calling myself (well, a Buddhist-Humanist-Atheist/Agnostic, though I'm sure my family will get on my case about the Buddhist part)

ANYWAY....they have a quiz. Take it! I dare you!

Here's what I came up as:

Active Spiritual Seeker – Spiritual but turned off by organized religion

Post your results on your blog or in my comments. I think some of the questions would actually make for great discussion topics and to have them multiple-choice is only slightly bizarre. I guess this is really just another result of [what's it called?] you know, that thing where they put everyone in a demographic/cultural box (like "Blueblood estates") so they can market things to them. Hmm. Ick.

But I wonder what the Belief-O-Matic is? That looks somewhat entertaining...
- posted by k @ 10:24 AM

 
The Wiggles: I approve (I think)

Well, the 11am West Wing episode was--bizarrely--replaced by an old Queer Eye episode, so I did a little channel surfing and found The Wiggles, a children's show that I have almost heard of (well, I heard Adam complain about it on his blog and I saw a sign on the Oakland Coliseum for "The Wiggles: LIVE!") .

In case you are unfamiliar with this phenomenon, basically it's 4 Australian guys in black pants and different solid-colored t-shirts doing the twist. One of them looks vaguely Asian and plays the keyboard and another one plays a guitar, though there's no drummer. The reason for that, of course, is that a drummer would have to sit. The Wiggles do not sit. Neither do they stand still. Nope. In fact, as far as I can tell, their "songs" are just thinly disguised aerobic exercise routines for tots. Yup.

Not that I object to tots doing age-appropriate cardio, mind you. I think it's great to encourage kids to dance and sing and be silly and get some exercise instead of sitting blob-like in front of the TV. Also, I have to say that the Wiggles' cardio moves look like fun. If I hadn't been drinking a cup of tea at the time, I very well may have joined them.

Ok, but the thing is, isn't that the same idea behind the weird and psychadelic (and mildly disturbing) Boohbah show (from the makers of the weird and psychadelic and somewhat disturbing Teletubbies show)? But Boohbah and Teletubbies have these intense bouncy costumes and sets and colors and scarysmilingbabyburningsun! And there's all this "well, babies don't perceive the world the way we do, so we should make a weird psychadelic world in order that the little wee ones can relate to it. You wouldn't understand because you're an adult and you don't have a focus group. Trust us, we need the scary baby acid bird costumes or else the kids won't get it."

But The Wiggles are just some guys in t-shirts. Like probably a bunch of dads who used to have a Monkees cover band or something. This is a bargain basement show. It is guys doing the twist. And apparently they're a big hit.

Ok, in the interest of full disclosure, there are some costumed characters on The Wiggles' show. There's a guy in a dog suit, a guy in an octopus suit (2 arms, 2 legs, and 4 extra things), someone in a Dorothy the Dinosaur suit (kind of sub-Barney, but not nearly as annoying--she eats roses and makes soup with too much garlic) and Captain Feathersword, the the friendly pirate. (aside: I have to say that as much as I like pirates with swords, I really, really, really like that Captain Feathersword has a feathersword and no other form of weapon or discernible weapon or means or interest in aggression. Kids DO copy what they see on TV and this way I guess you avoid kids swordfighting in the living room. Until they see a not-so-friendly pirate swordfighting, I guess. But I like that the feathersword is more of a prop than a weapon.) Dog, Dinosaur, Octopus and Pirate are all energetic dancers, as you might guess. But they look like guys in suits, not like giant blobs of play-doh with antennae.

So what's the big deal? Have you seen Sesame Street lately? It's got some good old-fashioned numbers-letters-cultural sensitivity-emotional awareness-muppets stuff, but then there's all this flashy flashy hoo-hah and then a half hour of super-lame-O Elmo's World. What is that all about? I suspect that the folks over at CTW have taken a hit off the Teletubbies pipe and are thinking "We need to keep the show hip and cool so kids can relate to it and be interested in it and so we can compete with DragonballZ. Um, the way to do that must be to use a lot of animation and funky graphics and flashing lights, and then slow everything down for Elmo's world so the wee tots can relate to it. The kids of today are not like the kids of yesterday, you know. These younguns are post-MTV generation. They don't relate to the media the way previous generations did. They're cynical and have short attention spans and parse images differently blah blah blah blah."

So under that model, kids wouldn't like The Wiggles or at least not enough for them to be commercially successful (my only major complaint about Wiggledom, so far: they're doing promotional cross-ties with Mott and are on the Disney channel. But OTOH, there's no brand-name applesauce on the show. And at least it's applesauce and not candy, breakfast cereal, violent toys or games, etc.) But clearly, they seem to be commercially viable.

Ok, so you still wonder why this matters? Wouldn't it bother you if the people who are 2 and 3 now are really these sort of proto-transhumans? It would bother me. Also, I mean if the tots now are that different, then if I decided to have kids at some point, how different would those beings be from me?

The success of The Wiggles reassures me because it suggests that perhaps the tots of tomorrow will be people I can relate to, and that the shows my kids will watch (assuming we have shows and TV then...for all I know they'll be wired or have chewable cell-phones or something) will be shows I can understand and guess at the reasoning behind, and also quite frankly will be shows that won't give me nightmares. Also the feathersword thing.
- posted by k @ 12:09 PM

 
Hi everybody!

Well, I worked Wednesday and Thursday in San Franciscothis week and the super-good news is that they liked what I did and they need the same thing done at their Oakland facility, so I'll be working Monday and Tuesday next week. It was data entry in Excel. Not interesting, but the good news is that because of my high typing speed and decent results on my Excel test, I was qualified. Plus it didn't require so much concentration that I couldn't listen to NPR on my headphones. My co-temp had an ipod that he was listening to. You know, Phillip.

I'm sure something will go wrong. Maybe they'll forget to pay me or lose my timesheet or after the withholding taxes

In case that isn't shocking enough, I think I'm actually going to do this week's Friday Five. Yes, today IS Friday! But it IS also April first...

here's the question:written on an empty stomach. name five snacks that your mind immediately turns to when the need or opportunity arises.brought to you by Rob.

These are the things that come to my mind when I'm hungry; it might be if I had to run out the door without breakfast, or if I've been tied up with stuff and missed lunch or dinner and it's late. This is what I start fantasizing about:

1. Toast. When I'm snacky I want toast. It's quick, it's in the house(usually), it's warm and crunchy and carbtastic. mmmm, carbs. So satisfying and good for producing serotonin! And soaking up stomach acid. Toast with butter; toast with cream cheese; toast with butter and dal mot, toast with butter and jam, toast with cream cheese, toast souffle, toast etouffe, creamed chipped veggie beef on toast, etc. etc. or--BAGELS! mmm, bagels....bagels with butter, bagels with jam, bagels with cream cheese+tomato+cucumber, pizza bagels...

2. Pizza. mmm, pizza. Real pizza from a pizza place, or pizza toast/english muffin. It's just like toast but with two of my other favorite things: tomato sauce and cheese.

3. cheapo quesadilla. I used to make these late at night at the co-op before I started watching my weight. Cheddar and/or pepper jack and jalepenos. mmm. Even better if you stick it in the toaster instead of microwave (but you have to make sure no one's looking because everyone gets mad if you get cheese on the heating element) because then it's crispy outside.

4. Chinese takeout. If it's good, it's got crunchy bits, and spicy bits and sweet and sour bits and there's rice so that's carbforting and it's hot and sticks to your ribs. mmm-mmm. I realize that "Chinese food" is no more of a culinary entity than "curry" and that Hunan, Szechuan, Mandarin and Mongolian etc. cuisines are each art forms when practiced by masters--I mean no insult to these. But I'm talking about cheap takeout. Though I wish it were cheaper.

5. I guess some sort of pastry like a danish or very rarely a donut. This happens usually if I'm very very hungry and in a hurry and a bagel isn't available.

Most of these things are baaad for you, so I try to have them rarely, but not never. I guess with the pizza and Chinese I would say I have them occasionally. Pizza unfortunately as frequently as once a week and Chinese on average maybe every couple of weeks, though sometimes it's longer in between. Toast I have for breakfast most days, but I try to have only one or two pieces and to stick to wheat toast with at least 3 g fiber/serving and to use only a moderate amount of butter or cream cheese (Neufchatel).

The other Friday Fivers can be found here.
- posted by k @ 11:31 AM