Coffee

I used to say "I never drink coffee". Or "I've only drank coffee three times in my entire life". Well, it's the end of an era. Last summer, on the last day of my mediterranean islands trip, I drank a large mochaccino. Now I drink Mochacchinos several times a week, and on some days, more than once a day. Ah well. It had to happen one of these days.

One more song

**I think the date of this blog post got messed up**

MMMmnnnngngngngnngngnnnn why did my dance class have to end??!! I could have danced all night!! During class today, I wanted to pinch myself at least five times --I could NOT believe how much fun I was having!!

Thursday's class is the advanced salsa class, and I still don't look good when I dance (even when I am doing the steps right), but I manage to look ok I think, and boy I am happy to be there!! Today, I got to dance at least once with at least four out of my favorite dancers in the school!!

I'm not sure I've felt this way about an activity since 2003!! Baaaaaaack in the days, I used to wake up on tuesday/thursday mornings and think "yessssss! kali day!" (Kali= Filipino martial arts). Well, now I wake up on Tuesday/Thursday mornings and think "yesssss! Salsa/forró day!".

I wish I could be friends with these people outside of class the way I was friends with the kali people back in the days. But for some reason I have the strange feeling that I don't fit. Maybe this will improve. Maybe it's only in my head. But in any case, the thursday classes especially are like a very intense daydream.

TWICE today I thought the class was finishing. And TWICE today the prof played "one last song". One of them was forró!! I was SO grateful!! But the third time, it really was true: it was the last song. And I had soooo much energy after that, that I could not just sit quietly in the metro. So I went for a walk. And now I have to waaaaaiiiit aaallll the way till Tuesday for another dance.

Dancing faster than light

An email is when I first heard of it. I got home tonight and there was an email in my inbox from my officemate: faster than light neutrinos. And you know what?! I KNOW WHY THERE ARE FASTER THAN LIGHT NEUTRINOS: IT'S BECAUSE TIME ITSELF GETS SHORTER WHILE I AM IN MY DANCE CLASS!!

Let me explain: speed=distance/time. Smaller time means a faster speed. The one-hour-and-20-minutes of my dance classes are sooooo short ((compared to any other one-hour-and-20-minutes)), that anything moving during that time travels at a speed significantly higher than its usual speed. But since neutrinos already travel at near the speed of light, the time anomaly happening during my dance classes made them break that speed and reach their destination a few nanoseconds earlier. See?! QED =oP.

New Comic

New comic discovered!! An awesome one too!! It's called "The way to your heart". I spent the entire night between monday and tuesday reading it!!

Lucky stars

Somebody up there likes me!! Not sure if it's the maker of the universe, or the universe itself, but I am so grateful!!

Forró is a kind of Brazilian music that I've liked for years. At first it was because of the accordion. Then it grew on me during "the days of the old gym". But I had never danced to it. In any case, it so happens that my two favorite dance teachers are appearently into it these days!! The samba teacher played forró music for the warmup on Monday. So today, wednesday, on the way to my last salsa class of the summer ((I am leaving tomorrow for 5 weeks)), I was thinking: wouldn't a forrozinho be niiice as a goodbye to the dance classes?

Yes well we ended with a forró!! Actually more than one!! And you know how I am always sad at 9:20 because the prof is about to stop the music? Well, I had just started to dread what I thought was the impending end of the last song when the prof said "change"!! Meaning, switch dance partners and dance for one more song!! Hurray!! The next guy just happened to be my very favorite dance partner at the school ((I soooo hope he doesn't think I'm annoying)). And I was *already* in dance-heaven *before* that dance because of the forró music. So imagine afterwards. Lucky lucky me. I once again had the idiotic smile on my face throughout the metro ride and all the way to the apartment door.

Aaaaaand I got the chance to say bye to all 6 of my favorite people at the school including the two profs. The salsa prof even hugged me. So maybe he doesn't think I am as annoying as I thought he thought. In any case, I'll really miss these people, but if all goes well, I'll see them at the end of the summer.

My veggies

My veggies in my garden at the family house. My dad will take care of them while I am away travelling. Tiny-tim baby tomatos, mini chili peppers, sugar snap beans, and green beans. I hope there will be some left by the time I come back!

If life were like a melting candle

If living were like melting a fixed-weight candle, and something fun made you feel like your soul was on fire ((I guess I am feeling poetic)), would you die sooner because the crazy fire melts the candle faster??

I was having so much fun in salsa classes today, twirling and stepping and feeling the beat, that when the class ended, I felt like the floor just crumbled under my feet! Was it already 9:25PM already?? Really really?? where did time go?? I had so much energy to spare, I had to take a walk before taking the metro home.

It's the start of the summer session at my dance school, and once again, I am taking two salsa classes in a row, this time on wednesday evenings ((and two non salsa classes on mondays)).

The beginners' class, which I am retaking just because I can't get enough latin dancing, is from 6:45PM to 8PM. Today, everyone was new, except for me ((but nobody knows I am not new and it's better this way)), and except for the two teacher's assistants, both nice people that I really really really like. The girl is my very favorite person at the dance school. She's ammmazingly good and nice and humble. And the guy is my favorite dance partner, and I would dance with him forever if given the choice. Man I wish I could be friends with these two people. In any case, I did not have forever: I had to content myself with one or two dances with the guy because of the partner rotations.

I don't interact much with the girls in the class. I dance with the guys. And I wouldn't want to have it any other way. Some of the new guys were nervous today. As usual, I tried to be friendly. I counted two who were nearly my height and who had clearly eaten cheese before the dance class. Sigh. When the height is more offset, things like that are easier to deal with. I also counted one snob ((ewww)). The rest of the guys seemed normal and friendly. The teacher was great as usual: decent explanations, funny, kept the class as dynamic as he could. Gotta give him credit for his phenomenal energy. I know that dance is dance, and physics is physics, but I could not help but draw various parallels between things that the dance teacher says/does and things that I do in my classroom. And I also kept thinking of my old martial arts teacher. Maybe more on that later.

At 8PM came the time for the intermediate-level class. It was a little crowded. The two assistants had left. There were many guys that I recognized from having taken either a beginner-level or an intermediate-level salsa class with them. There also were several guys that I had never seen before, and among them, wearing a green shirt, this one blondish shorter version of Kimi Räikkönen. The guy has got style! And attitude too unfortunately: I don't like it when someone counts the beat for me (he did) because I *already* have a very high rhythm conscience, and am already annoyed with myself when I happen to not step on the beat.

In any case, in salsa, good or bad, one dance never lasts very long. You either enjoy it or you don't. And then the next dance comes with a different partner. This evening, some of the dances were so enjoyable I felt like I was on a magic carpet. One guy noticed that I really liked a certain move and said, smiling, "shall we do this over and over?". I really wish I could do salsa every evening. But salsa isn't offered every evening. If I found a second good dance school, I could even try alternating the schools on alternate evenings. Maybe then I could become part of the select clique at this school who always seem to know what they are doing. But then, what would happen to my grand plans of returning to martial arts? I really really really really miss punching and elbowing focus pads! And I always dream of turning Filipino stick-fighting partner drills into a dance *sigh*.

Station V3

Station V3 is the name of a minimalistic sci-fi web comic. I discovered it in January 2010, and I liked it. Spinoffs of Station V3 include Z7, Q16, and Ebb's Children.

Since I haven't read V3 (and the spinoffs) for a while, I don't remember where I had last stopped reading. This blog post is just an attempt for me to keep track of what I did or did not read.

COMIC Z7: last strip read is strip14 (20040414). The crew is complete.

COMIC Q16: read all illuminated strips until strip 100 (20070709).

COMIC Ebb's children: Read all 34 strips. Ebb's ch's live on K7.

COMIC V3: Stopped around Sept12 2009 when the V3 system moved from the Milky Way to the Triangulum Galaxy!

World Map

I've been wanting to put up a world map in my apartment for a while. At first I figured I'll just buy one at the annual poster sale (Imaginus) in September. Then I decided that I wanted something better. So I went to the online National Geographic store, and looked at their "Earth-toned Atlantic-centered World Political Map". It turns out this map is available in 10 different formats:

• Paper (46X30in,$12.95)


• laminated (46X30,$24.95)


• mounted (46X30,$249)


• Postersize (24X36,$12.99)


• Postersize and laminated (14X36,$24.99)


• Postersize and mounted (26X38,$149)


• Enlarged (70X49,$29.95)


• Enlarged and laminated (70X49,$59.95)


• Enlarged and mounted (73X48,$499)


• Mural (116X76) $99

I did not get a framed version because they are very expensive. But I did get a laminated version, and I can't wait for it to arrive!

Galápagos Itinerary

Below is the short version of the itinerary of my upcoming trip to the Galápagos. Refer to the map above for the location of each island. I'm looking forward to the wildlife encounters!

• ***
• 01 May21 Arrive to Quito in the Evening
• ***
• 02 May22 Flight to St-Cristobal , all day St-Cristobal
• 03 May23 St-Cristobal
• 04 May24 Speed boat to St-Cruz, all day St-Cruz
• 05 May25 Speed boat to Isabela, all day Isabela
• 06 May26 Isabela
• 07 May27 Isabela
• ***
• 08 May28 Speed boat to St-Cruz, all day on my own on St-Cruz
• 09 May29 All day on my own on St-Cruz. Will try to take a day trip to Bartolomé.
• 10 May30 Bus then ferry on my own to airport, flight to St-Cristobal, all day St-Cristobal
• ***
• 11 May31 St-Cristobal
• 12 June01 Sail to Floreana, all day Floreana
• 13 June02 Floreana, sail to Isabela, Isabela
• 14 June03 Isabela
• 15 June04 Isabela, sail to St-Cruz, St-Cruz
• 16 June05 St-Cruz
• 17 June06 St-Cruz, fly to Quito
• ***
• 18 June07 Depart Quito Early Morning
• ***

Blue Bison

I almost fell off my chair when I discovered this site a few moments ago!!!! Their drawings are UNBELIEVABLY CUTE!!!! Waaaaaaaaaa!!!! And you can get magnets and mugs and mouse pads and clocks and journals with the drawings on them too!!!! There is always room on the fridge for more cute magnets!!!!

Cream of Mushrooms Soup

Years ago, this recipe was found on some yahoo forum I think. One of the greatest mushroom soups in the galaxy! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 8 ounces mushrooms.
• 4 tablespoons margarine or butter.
• 1 medium onion, chopped.
• 1/4 cup flour.
• 1-1/4 cups water.
• 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) chicken (or vegetable) broth.
• 1 cup half and half (that's the "10-12%" cream found in the grocery store).
• some salt.
• 1 teaspoon white pepper.
• Chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

• Slice enough mushrooms to measure 1 cup, chop remaing mushrooms finely.
• Cook and stir sliced mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of the butter in a 3-quart sauce pan over low heat until mushrooms are golden brown.
• Remove sliced mushrooms with slotted spoon and put them aside.
• Cook and stir chopped mushrooms and onion in remaining 2 tablespoons of butter until onion is tender.
• Stir in flour, salt, and white pepper.
• Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture is smooth and bubbly.
• remove from heat.
• Stir in water and broth.
• Heat to boiling stirring constantly.
• Boil and stir 1 minute.
• Stir in half and half and sliced mushrooms.
• Heat just until hot (do not boil).
• Sprinkle with parsley.

The original recipe stated: "Yield-- 4 servings; about 1 cup each; 260 calories per serving; Credits-- Recipe shared by: Andrea Rice".

Bon appetit!

Two Chocolate Cakes

One of the best chocolate cakes that I have ever eaten was made by my aunt M. who lives in the middle east. I wish I had that recipe, but I don't. In the mean time, I found this "Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake" recipe in several places online. I tried it twice (with a scale factor of 1.5) and I thought it was great. Not as great as the super chocolate cake that I don't know how to make, but great anyway!

Cake #1:
Ingredients:

• Butter 0.5 cup
• Sugar 0.5 cup
• eggs 2
• Flour 1.75 cup
• Cocoa 0.5 cup
• Baking SODA 1 tsp
• Salt 0.25 tsp
• butter 0.5 cup
• Milk 1 cup
• Vanilla 1 tsp

Instructions:

• In large bowl, cream butter and sugar "until light and fluffy".
• Add eggs, and start beating.
• Sift separately the flour, cocoa, soda, and salt.
• Add half the dry ingredients, and keep beating.
• Add milk and vanilla and keep beating.
• Add the other hald of the dry ingredients, and keep beating.
• Pour batter in a greased pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

A few days ago a friend made me a birthday chocolate cake that also tasted great. Recipe below.

Cake #2:
Ingredients:

• Flour 2 cups
• Sugar 1.5 cups
• Cocoa 0.5 cups
• Salt -- a dash
• Instant coffee 1 tsp
• Baking POWDER 1 tsp
• Baking SODA 1 tsp
• Milk (or orange juice or water) 1.25 cup
• Eggs 3
• Oil (canola) 0.75 cup

Instructions:

• In a processor bowl, process the dry ingredients for 10 seconds.
• Add milk and eggs and start processing.
• Add the oil while processing.
• Process all for 45 seconds (do not overprocess).
• Pour batter in a greased pan and bake for 55-60 minutes at 325F.

Cartoon Bread

Middle-Eastern bread. Indian Bread. French bread. Round, square, and funny shaped bread. Black, brown, and white bread. Multi grain bread. Whole wheat bread. Thin bread. Bread in slices. Bread in buns. Bread in bagels. Do you like bread? I do. As long as it does not contain any dried fruits that is.

When I was a small kid in the middle east, I grew up mostly with what people in North America call "pita bread". This kind of bread is what every family had around the house, and people just called it "bread". There were many other kinds of bread too, but they were more rare and we did *not* call them "bread". They mostly resembled elongated buns and French baguettes.

But when I watched foreign cartoons and/or the muppet sketches on Sesame Street (the muppet sketches were dubbed), the cartoon characters and the muppets always ate bread in slices. *Square* slices!

Then I came to North America. And what do I see in the grocery store? Cartoon bread! A million and one kinds of cartoon bread!

My favorite kinds of cartoon bread these days are the multi grains ones. This "épicerie" article claims that no matter how many exotic grains the bread is made of, at least 80% of the bread is usually made from wheat flour (not necessarily whole wheat flour), and the funny (ground) grains only make the remaining 20%, otherwise the bread would not rise.

I also like reading the names of the grains on the packages. Example: for the "Bon Matin 14 grain bread" the first ingredient is "whole wheat flour", and the second ingredient is the "14 grain mix". The mix includes: Wheat (blé), Barley (orge commun), Corn (maïs), Buckwheat (sarrasin), Oat (avoine), Sorghum (sorgho commun), Rice (riz), Rye (seigle), Millet (millet commun), Triticale (triticale), Sunflower seeds (graines de tournesol), Flax seeds (lin), Poppy seeds (graines de pavot), and Sesame seeds (grained de sésame). I had to google a whole bunch of those because the words were unfamiliar. But it was fun.

Clocky Runs and Hides

They've now created an alarm clock that runs and hides so you won't be able to hit the snooze button!

Cute Animation

Check out this reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaally cute animation (link updated) that I found while surfing blogs!! It's called "Le plus gros président du monde", and it's made by someone named Benjamin Renner, an animator from France.

A Good Wednesday

Lots of good things happened to me today (Wednesday):

** Little Peter Chum has arrived!!!! I was soooo worried about him. The package he was in was a week late. Peter Chum is a 5-cm tall amigurumi character =o).

** I had a very very very very satisfying kickboxing class. Too bad it was the second to last class of the semester. I am definitely taking it again in January.

** I had a full "knot" of "twisted" cheese, with tons of good bread and brown apple juice. I was in food heaven for the second day in a row (yesterday I was at restaurant "Aleppo").

Note: I just looked out the window and it's all white outside!! First snow storm of the season (not counting the watery flurries we had yesterday). Clean white snow is very pretty, but I'll sure miss going to school while wearing my comfy running shoes.

Chili

I'm not vegetarian. But here's the recipe I use for vegetatrian chili:

Ingredients, part 1:
* 2 lobes of garlic (finely chopped).
* 1 medium onion (chopped).
* N hot peppers (finely chopped. If jalapeños, I use 4 or 5).

Ingredients, part 2:
* 1 large can of crushed tomatos.
* 1 tomato (chopped).
* 4 cans of beans (crush the content of one of the cans).
* 1 can of corn.
* 8 Oz of mushrooms (chopped).

Ingredients, part 3:
* 1 green pepper (chopped).
* A few chopped green onions (optional).

Spices and such:
* 1 teaspoon of vegetable broth.
* 1 pinch of salt.
* 1 pinch of oregano.
* 1 pinch of chili powder.
* 1/2 teaspoon of molasses (controversial).

Extras:
* Grated cheese.

Instructions:

• Fry part 1 of the ingredients in Olive oil.
• In a thick-bottomed big pot over "medium" heat, toss in parts 1 and 2 of the ingredients and all the spices. Stir.
• When the mixture starts to bubble, lower the heat to "low", and let the mixture bubble for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally (play board game during this time!).
• Add part 3 of the ingredients and wait 3 minutes.
• Serve.
• Sprinkle cheese on servings as needed.

The 2014 FIFA Worldcup

In the news: It has been decided that the 2014 FIFA worldcup will be held in Brazil! Imagine the football fever in Brazil! It would be awesome to go watch a game there! But I bet the tickets are already sold out ;).

Giant Lego Man

I found this in August and I thought it was funny! I have always liked Lego.

Long Live my Cell Phone!

I got my cell phone (Nokia 3390) on January (16?/17?) 2003. We now are October 12, 2007 (Friday). Meaning I've had my phone for almost 5 years. The phone claims that in the past 5 years, I have talked for 108 hours, 58 minutes, and 46 seconds... But my phone has been slowly dying in the past few months, and it completely expired a couple of days ago.

After several days of thorough research about the different kinds of Nokia phones available on the market, and after a lot of looking-up of Nokia handsets, I have decided to buy... a new battery!

So I found an e-bay store that sells compatible batteries. I bought 2 batteries for $4 plus shipping (a new phone would have cost me $100 or more). I put one of the new batteries in the cell phone and put it to charge. It finished charging on Wednesday morning. We are now Friday night and the battery is only 25% empty. I think my phone is back to life!!

My phone has no camera, no web browser, no radio, no mp3 player, no video capture, no multi-bands reception, and no colours. But it allowes me to make and receive phone calls (with cool ringtones), to send and receive text messages (with comfortable buttons), and to play 4 games. And that's all I need from a cell phone!

Spiders and Harvestmen

In the class "arachnida" there are many orders.

Only the members of the order "araneae" are "true spiders".

This cute monster isn't a true spider. He's a member of the order "opiliones" which makes him a "harvestman"!