Blog Discovery – Zenhabits

I reached out through Google search for something interesting to read and found Zenhabits. I like the overall concept/ idea and find the latest post nice, but it didn’t hit a nerve right then.

On the other hand, I looked through the archives (nice layout, by the way, very easy to scan) and found The Absolute Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Small Online Business which I think is very inspiring for all the future Entrepreneurs out there (including myself and my friend).

Here’s a snipet copied from Leo Babauta’s post (Thank you for the inspiration):

Tip #3: Ask For Help
If you’re a bit introverted like me you might be shy about asking for help.
Don’t let that be a barrier to your success.
In other words, feel the fear and do it anyway.

It is very in all aspects in life. Take a risk, ask someone for advice. Worst that could happen is you didn’t get any useful advice. Nonetheless, at least you showed some initiative for something you cared about. Who knows? That person might be able to reach into his/ her network and find someone who could give you pointers!

To read the rest of the article, go here: http://zenhabits.net/small-online-business

Is it safe to visit

After seeing today’s Bing home page picture of the day, (and since I am clueless when it comes to geography) I went to check out the country’s wiki page. It seems like a country with lots of history and culture and I thought it would be pretty interesting to visit.

Macedonia - Bing Homepage 8.25.2010

But given the country also sounded like it went through some pretty unstable times, I thought I’d do my research before deciding that I’d want to visit. That’s when I have discovered this pretty cool website – Is it safe to visit. The website pulls in “data about the safety rating of each country from the U.S. Department of State, Canadian Foreign Affairs Department, Australia Smart Traveler, and New Zealand Safe Travel. We then compare the ratings and assign each rating a number grade in terms of severity. We then average the rating numbers together to give an average as to the current safety rating for that country, which is the rating that appears at that appears at the top of the page.” (quoted from “How it Works” section in http://isitsafetovisit.com/about/us)

Personally, as I’m Canadian, I like that they include a link to the travel report from the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department (like this one for Macedonia), which gives specific details about the reasoning for the ratings and what to watch out for, etc.

Meanwhile, since the rating is “elevated risk” (and “Exercise high degree of caution” by Canada), I’d probably postpone my travel plans till a later day.

Ice Cream Pie Recipe Trial

Saw this recipe for ice cream pie a couple days back in Ice Cream Pie? Um, Yes Please! . After receiving approval from friends, I decided to give it a try last night, for desert at a BBQ tonight. I don’t have most of the stuff that the recipe asks for, so I ended up buying a bunch of new ingredients (and therefore, having a bunch of stuff that I don’t usually use, for better or worse).

Per the recipe, you’ll need:

• 3 Tablespoon Butter
• 2 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup + 6 Tablespoon Karo syrup
• 2 1/2 cup Rice Krispies
• 1/2 cup Peanut Butter
• 1/2 cup Ice Cream Fudge Topping
• 6 Tablespoon Karo Syrup
• 1 Quart of Ice Cream

*except for brown sugar, I needed to buy everything else.

• I use butter only when I bake (oatmeal raisin) cookies
• I’ve never used corn syrup, and have no idea how I’m gonna finish the rest of the bottle unless I repeat this recipe
• I don’t usually eat rice krispies (or any other cereals, for that matter)
• I don’t usually eat peanut butter (esp not the creamy ones for bread spread); boyfriend doesn’t approve the recipe due to the presence of this ingredient…
• I never use ice cream fudge topping, whether I’m home or outside…

Leah also suggested use of a 9 inch round cake pan. I used my 8×8 square pan and it worked too, and ended up piling on 1.5 quart of ice cream to fill the pan (figures the more the merrier) :p

I’m not a whiz in the kitchen, so this turned out to be surprisingly easy and fool-proof. We’ll see tonight if it gets the nod from the BBQ party.

————Trial Verdict—————
Friends enjoyed it (although the pieces were cut a bit too big, so they probably all got a sugar rush). I personally didn’t like the gooey crust too much, and the peanut butter/ chocolate fudge was a bit too thick, so the dollop just slide right off the top of the ice cream *whooop*. Next time I’ll try another recipe with graham crust (like this one) which should be less gooey. Probably just use the fudge alone instead of mixing it with something else… I don’t know what it’d take, but I’d rather the topping drizzles. And perhaps something less sugar intensive.
——————————————-

Meanwhile, since I have all these rice krispies left and no prospect of eating it like cereal, I’m considering making the “Original Treats” . Very tempting bad goodness…

But now I’d have to buy marshmallows…which I don’t usually eat.

Rowing in Hong Kong!

On Tuesday I finally got a call from the Hong Kong China Rowing Association that there’s a club going out on Wedneday whom I can tag along with. It was very exciting that I got a chance to row just in time before my return to Seattle.

I went out with the Shatin Baptist group of 6. From the very beginning I was noticing the difference between rowing in Hong Kong and in Seattle.

#1 – Salt water rowing: Shing Mun River leads straight into open ocean, so we rowed in salt water in Hong Kong. That implies a few other discoveries:

#2 – TIDES! When one of the guys gave me the prep talk before we took off, low tide was one of the things he asked me to pay attention to. The dock is a few steps below land into the river; and a few extra steps lower when it’s low tide. The exposed steps are covered in moss and may be slippery. The shallow river also means we need to stay further away from shore to avoid damaging the boat.

#3 – STEPS! It’s my first time going down steps from the boat house to a dock. This is just new to me and requires a bit of maneuvering both for taking down oars and boat.

#4 – Side way dock – to launch by having someone push your oars out instead of walking down the dock and paddling away. That was interesting.

#5 – 18 km practice – 2 km down the river, 7 km out to a beach; round trip.

#6 – midway stop in the 18 km practice – NOODLES! lol it’s so typical of all the outdoor activities I’ve been had in Hong Kong. Be it hiking, biking or rowing, there’s always a midway stop for delicious noodles. It’s awesome (although I didn’t have any because I didn’t have my wallet with me; I got a coke on somebody else though).

#7 – Washing equipment – because we were rowing in salt (and very dirty) water, the boats and oars have to be washed with soap and rinsed through.

They were really nice for taking me in for a field trip. It was fun to row with those easy-going folks. I pledged that if they visit Seattle I’ll hook them up with PRC for a try.

Movie Review: Avatar

Went to the IMAX theater in Pacific Science Center last night to watch Avatar. I enjoyed it very much. The graphics are beautiful and the 3D special effects made the movie extra lively. I heard feedback about bad story lines but I don’t agree. It may be a bit predictable and standard, but overall it’s action-packed and adventure-filled, plenty of surprises and climaxes. The story, graphics, and creative details are amazing.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

What is interesting about MBTI is not the type it results in, but the realization of how you identify with questions/ statements as presented.

I just did a few different free versions of the test (http://www.personalitytest.net, http://similarminds.com, http://www.humanmetrics.com). Seemingly I show consistent preference as ‘S’ (sensing) and ‘J’ (judging), while less consistence amonst extroversion and feeling/ thinking. More detailed description about the test and interpretation of types can be found on wikipedia.

From answering some of the questions in these tests, I can recall situations where I am more extroverted (when hosting a social event, or leading activities), and vice versa (sometimes taking more of a listener’s role in meetings, or meeting new people), i.e. my personality adapts to situations and needs.

Specifically Similar Minds provided a breakdown:

ISTJ – “Trustee”. Decisiveness in practical affairs. Guardian of time- honored institutions. Dependable. 11.6% of total population.

and description of personality type:

ISTJ – “Trustee”. Decisiveness in practical affairs. Guardian of time- honored institutions. Dependable. 11.6% of total population.

Personality Test gives quite a surprising description, which sounds very good but I can’t exactly agree it’s 100% accurate:
ESFJ: “Seller”. Most sociable of all types. Outstanding host or hostesses. They may be dependent, first on parents and later on spouses. They excel in service occupations involving personal contact. 13% of the total population.

Should I switch from T-mobile to AT&T?

Background
I’m currently 4 months into a 2-year contract with T-mobile. Been with T-mobile for 4 years now and starting to become very unhappy with what I have. I have an almost 2 years old Motorola W490 which I got for free at the end of 2007 when I signed up to recontract for 2 years. The phone is nice as it’s compact but doesn’t have any smart phone functions that are becoming more and more common in the marketplace.



Problem
I had a ‘loyal customer’ 800 minutes a month up till 5 months ago which I pay $45 – 50/ month for. It includes unlimited week nights and weekend minutes. Since my bill average 300 minutes a month, I thought I could change to a smaller plan and save some money. However, the smaller plan does not include week night minutes, and I have been running ~100 minutes over my plan a month in the last couple of months, and ended up paying about the same when I had the 800 minute plan.



Dilemma
I want a minute plan that would fit my usage needs, I don’t really want to change the plan and re-sign another 2 year contract (which was stupid to begin with). It prompted me to start considering moving away from T-mobile, which doesn’t have as good coverage as AT&T in Seattle area, and perhaps getting a smart phone (like iPhone or Windows mobile) instead. It implies I would likely ended up signing for another 2-year contract, and paying more for minute plan and data plan anyways (which doesn’t solve my initial problems, but makes me happier since I would ended up with a better phone and stress-free minute plan). Another small caviat with moving to AT&T though, is that I will incur early termination fee from T-mobile and activation fee from AT&T.



So, what do you think?

Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling

This song has been on the radio a lot (along with Boom Boom Pow). BEP is HOT lately. I was curious about the origin of its lyrics so was poking around wiki a bit. Haven’t figured out why yet but noticed some controversy about its MV, which I haven’t seen yet.

Turned out to be pretty interesting. The controversy is mainly around its inappropriateness. To me it looks like just another college party, and a crazy but fun one. In reality there will probably be involvement of rape, police, and kids jumping off the balcony.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMxASjxRk1w

Rowing Techniques to Focus On

Last Friday morning Ani and I went for the level 2/ morning session. There were few people in the class so we all got to row in singles and we got plenty of focused coaching while we were out. The water was also nice and quiet so we didn’t have to worry about dodging other boats as much.

Couple of things I have to focus on include: slowing down at the end of the recovery (instead of speeding up), and ensuring the oars are properly placed into the water before pulling.

My middle fingers continue to act funny but I think not gripping as hard would help: something I learned from the web: http://whiterockboathouse.com/rowing-tips/

This is also a good video of how to avoid and care for injuries in rowing:
How to Avoid & Care for Competitive Rowing Injuries

Movie Review: Star Trek

We watched Star Trek at IMAX in the Pacific Science Center Monday night. The movie was amazing. I loved the visual and sound effects. Better yet, I am one of those who have no clue about the original Star Trek series, but I have very little problem with following the plot.

This is a must-watch, preferably at an IMAX theater!