10-minute pasta


Spaghetti with green peas

It's really quite easy to whip up a delicious pasta in just 10 minutes. When I was in Italy, I learnt that green peas are one of the basic ingredients used in pasta. Instead of just plain tomato sauce, the addiiton of green peas gives a nice color contrast to the pasta.

OpenCourseWare

One of the courses that I enjoyed most in college was Music 101. I've forgotten most of what I've learnt and am interested to take a similar course again. I found this music course from the Yale University. The course is taught by the prof who wrote the textbook which was used during my course. I've started lesson 1 and it looks like it's going to be a fun course.

One way to waste time productively. Haha. What an oxymoron! :p

Anyway, if you're interested in obtaining college level course materials, check out OpenCourseWare. I think the most famous site is from MIT. There are a wide range of courses available; Arts, Medicine, Engineering, Literature, etc. One can still follow classes without having to be enrolled in the university and also not be physically there at the university. Isn't that great! :D

Oh I forgot to mention that it's all free!

Alice for the iPad

Throw tarts at the Queen of Hearts – they realistically bounce off her

Shake your iPad, the Mad Hatter gets even madder!

Play with the Rabbit's pocket watch.


Source: http://www.atomicantelope.com/alice/

This is the coolest book ever! And I want it.

Ooohh...I wished I've pre-ordered the iPad. Now I have to WAITTTT. :(

Carbon footprint


As I have guessed, most of my carbon footprint is from transportation. I was hoping that my recycling and water and energy saving activities would be able to offset a substantial amount of it. Apparently not. Sigh!

I drive to work 5 days a week, doing about 25km per day. That will be about 3.75 kg of CO2 a day, for a car with CO2 emissions of 150g per km. (You can find your car emission rate here.) If I drive 10,000 km a year (a very modest figure), there'll be 1500kg of CO2 a year! Besides driving, I also take flights when I go on vacation. Just one intercontinental flight would emit about the same amount of CO2 as driving ten thousand kilometers in my car!

So, I started thinking if it would be better if I work from home instead of driving to work. I have to turn on the a/c for about 8 hours and that would be about 8kWh. With the cost of electricity at about 420g of CO2 per kWh, that will be 3.36kg of CO2 a day. (Source: Power sources & Carbon Emissions)

So, 3.75kg of CO2 from driving and 3.36kg from a/c. The difference is less than half a kg. I guess working from home is not a very feasible option. Well, I'm already doing my best here. I don't want to be a vegetarian and live like a hermit.

100 days

When I met up with friends whom I haven't seen for a long time, the usual questions I get from most one of them are:
  • Why did you come back and work here/Why don't you stay there?
  • Am I getting used to living in Malaysia?
  • Am I'm back for good?
And my short answers are; This is home, it's ok/not bad, and for now, yes. Even the long answers could be summarized as such. But I haven't considered how I feel. Am I happy? Excited? Disappointed? Frustrated?

It's been a hundred days since I started my "new" life. I'm back to being a responsible adult, going back into the workforce, and contribute to the country's economy. I also started to participate strongly in family matters. On the surface, everything seems like how it used to be. The going to work, going home, going out routine has made the transition easier, due to familiarity.

When I 'look' closely, I noticed all the little details that are different. I work for the same company, but about half of my colleagues are new to me, and I have different job responsibilities. Well, even the office is located at a different place now. I actually quite like this mix of something familiar with something new. I guess I'm pretty much exhausted from all the completely new experiences that I got in the past few years.

I'm also glad that I now play a larger role in my family. I feel less helpless now that I can physically be around for them. I spend a lot more time with them and there's more communication going on. So far so good but still a long way to become one of reasons for me to stay put.

I'm not exactly used to living back in Malaysia yet. I hate the hot weather but I can tolerate it better now. I have to consciously remember not to fill my cup with water from the tap. I feel displeased when I see people who carry lots of plastic bags and when I come across trash that's filled with recyclable stuff in it. Anyway, all these do not annoy me enough for me to consider moving away.

I'm currently open to the possibility that I would stay in Malaysia for the long term and I've finally discovered one thing that I would stick around for. However, I still have no idea whether I would be able to obtain it.

These first hundred days have mostly been about adapting to living with family, living in Malaysia, and holding down a job. I think I have fared pretty well so far. Next, it's time to think about what I want to do with my life.

SMS text from unknown number

"Hello when u free? We meet up. R u Dating lately? :)"
When I received the message, my first thought was to reply and ask who sent it. Then a second later, I realized that the person could be a total stranger since I don't think I left out anyone's number on the contact list. Then I thought if it could be a new way of picking up girls. Just send a message to a random number and hope for a positive reply. I think it can get quite costly though.

Well, if the person really do know me, they'll contact me again so I didn't do anything about it. This was about a week ago and I have completely forgotten about it until tonight.

Tonight I know who the person is. She sent me another text stating her name first and that she ran out of credit on her phone. Hahahha.

Favorite dessert - "il gelato"


I love gelato!!! When I was living in Italy, my place is about 15-20 minutes away from the center of town. And I would surely go and buy gelato almost every time I'm there, except when they're closed during the winter. I even developed a very nice routine. Every Tuesday and Thursday after my Italian classes in the evening, I would go and treat myself a scoop of gelato at the gelateria closest to the bus stop. This shop is in between two bus stops so I usually walk towards the next bus stop while eating gelato. At times, I managed to finish when the bus arrives and I got on the bus. Other times, I just continued to walk home.

When my Italian classes for the semester ended, I only eat it when I'm in town for a pizza or shopping. I also had a pizza-gelato routine. At first, I would get a drink together with my pizza. And when I walk past the gelateria, I'm already too full and feel sad that I couldn't have any of the nice-looking gelato. One day, I realized that I could just skip the drink and have a gelato after the pizza! Yay!!! So after pizza, I would head directly to a gelateria and ask for "una palina di [flavor]" (a scoop, although literally palina means ball. I have heard Italian friends saying "balls of ice-cream". Weird isn't it? Hahahhha).  


There are so many flavors to choose from and they are usually in two categories: fruit-based and non-fruit based. I prefer the fruit-based ones. Some of the flavors that I like are stracciatella, pistachio, strawberry, mango, kiwi, almond, chocolate, honey, raspberry, and mixed berries. I don't usually like strawberry ice-cream because they taste more like cream with a hint of strawberries. However, the strawberry gelato is without cream! So it tastes like fresh strawberries in your mouth. The best one I've had is in Sorrento, a town near the Amalfi coast. Except for mango, kiwi and honey, I think the rest of the flavors can be found in every gelateria.

The mango gelato is similar to the Haagen Dazs's mango sorbet, which was a permanent resident of my freezer in Chicago. The honey gelato is very special. I've only seen it in a shop in Rome. It was just so good! My sister and I kept returning to the gelateria every day that we were in Rome. The kiwi gelato is my favorite of all. Very few shops sell it (could be seasonal too) and from my experience, the quality varies quite a bit so it's not easy to find good ones. The one in my town is just so-so. The best kiwi gelato I've had is at Malcesine, one of the small towns along Lake Garda.


There are other common flavors like yogurt, fior di latte, coffee, and melon. I've also tasted special ones like champagne and other alcoholic flavors, and weird ones like Zuppa Inglese (literally translated as English Soup). All the flavors I mentioned earlier are available in single scoops or mixed in multiple scoops. You usually buy them and eat standing outside the shop. If they do have seats, it's usually very limited. If you want to sit down and enjoy your gelato, you can either to go restaurants that serve gelato as dessert (limited choices)  or a big gelateria. At the big gelateria, they have a colorful menu, its pages filled with a variety of different combination of gelati. These big "cups" with multiple scoops usually costs around, if not more than, the price of a pizza/pasta main course. I've tried one with amarena (dark cherry) and it came with pieces of cherries inside. I absolutely loved it! :D


I've seen a few places selling delicious looking gelato inside the shopping malls in KL. I shall try them when I'm ready. :P