'Dear Apple'
35 minutes ago
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
rant: gratitude
@sirbentley.thedood will do the hibernating now
A couple months ago I wrote that I am taking this blog out of hibernation. I sorta did. I wrote here to help clear my head and heart. But everything I wrote was so...scrambled, like my brain and emotions. Things in my life have been a little wonky. Nothing earth shattering, just meh. In many ways it feels wrong to me to feel the way I do. I am healthy, I have family and friends that love and support me, I have a roof over my head and many of life's luxuries. I have plenty to be grateful for. What more do I need? I felt petty complaining about what was happening in my tiny little bubble. So I chalked a lot of those emotions up to stress, hormones, lack of sleep and a bruised ego. What has pushed me to reflect on my mental/emotional well being is watching friends and acquaintances bare their own heartaches and struggles. I admire their bravery. And I am grateful to see that broken and flawed is more the norm than Instagram perfect. AND more importantly, you can come out of the trials stronger than before. Other people's honesty have been a wonderful reminder everyone is a work in progress.
For me, when things get tough, I get overwhelmed. It feels like I'm drowning and free falling all at the same time. It is easy for me to go down a rabbit hole of self-pity and despair. I tend to focus on the what I'm lacking. I look back and question what I could have done differently. It never leads to anything good. And if I go too far down that rabbit hole, it takes some hard work to get out. But I try to only have these moments in private. It's very Asian of me. In Chinese, it's called saving face. You don't show how broken and beat down you are. You don't ask for help. You bury the pain and repress those feelings and keep pushing forward. You never let people know how shitty things really are. I am well aware that this isn't healthy. And I will say, as an almost 40 year-old adult, I'm much better at seeking help and reaching out for support. But the tendency is still there.
So to help with what I've been going through, I've been reading up on self-care, gratitude and mindfulness. These are things my kick-ass yoga teacher, Laura, incorporates in our practice. There's been studies and articles that talk about the benefits of being grateful and focus on the positives in life. It can be something as simple as being thankful that you got the last blueberry muffin at breakfast or something as grand as receiving a cancer-free diagnosis. I am choosing to see the silver lining in shitty situations. I'm also learning that it helps to set myself up for little wins and accomplishments. It does wonders for my bruised and battered self esteem. I like being able to cross items off a to-do list. And sometimes a little win is taking stock in the positives and being grateful for all the things I have.
So today I am grateful for:
- Having the luxury of time to spend with my family and helping my parents move into their new home
- Being healthy to do the heavy lifting and move things so my parents do not have to
- Having wonderful friends that encourage and support me even when I'm being irrational
- A husband who's got my back
- A house full of doggos to love me unconditionally
My Accomplishments
- Washed the dishes in the sink
- Wrote a blog post for my long hibernating blog AND posted it
rant: out of hibernation
So, this blog has been in hibernation for a bit. 😂 (complete understatement)
Possibly it was because I had nothing to say.
Possibly it was because I had too much to say.
Possibly it was because I had nothing going on.
Possibly it was because I had too much going on.
Possibly it was because I was too scared to write down what I wanted to say.
Possibly it was because I didn't think anyone wanted to read what I had to say.
But most likely, it was the fact that I focused my attentions elsewhere. Other things became my priorities. Other things occupied my time.
I started this blog years ago to work on my writing skills. I wanted to be better at communicating my thoughts. I wanted to be able to say what I meant clearly. I wanted to make sure when I spoke, verbally or typed, that people understood me. Part of this exercise was for professional reasons; part of it was personal.
So, after several years away, I've decided to come back and revisit this space. I'm under no illusions that people stop in and read what I have to say, but that was never the purpose. I created a space where I could put my thoughts down for my own reasons. Selfishly, this is my space. If I'm able to help someone along the way, great! That would totally be icing on the cake. (yum....cake!) But I know it's a big pond out there. There's a lot of information being shared on the interwebs daily. Maybe I just want a tiny sliver of that.
Therefore, if you've stopped by randomly or miraculously still follow my blog, welcome...and thank you 😄 Bear with me as I get back into putting my thoughts on "paper". I hope you enjoy yourself here, or at least get a chuckle out of it.
💛,
M
rant: goodbye my pup
view full image
Yesterday I had to put The Pup to sleep. It was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do. His tumors were causing him too much pain and strain on his body. He out lived his prognosis by about 1.5 years so I'm grateful for the extra time together. He would have been 12 this November. I could not have asked for a better dog. I'm gonna miss you my love.
rant: mckayla maroney = mini posh spice
i have been obsessively watching the 2012 summer olympics. i have always loved them and watched religiously. my favorites are gymnastics, diving, volleyball, basketball and swimming. so this past week has been crazy exciting and emotional (more on that in a later post) and all the royal sightings have been fabulous too.
but just on a quick note on mckayla maroney. she is a mini victoria beckham! the whole time b and i watched, i just couldn't get over how much mckayla resembled posh spice. she even has the bitch stare down. maybe they will get to meet at the closing ceremony when the spice girls reunite...
rant: tom colicchio's spicy fish stew
just saw tom colicchio post this on his twitter...think i'm gonna try this later in the week. hope he post an actual recipe one day :)
Tom Colicchio's Spicy Fish Stew
Sweat Pancetta
add chilies, cook gently for 2 minutes
Add two bunches green onion, white part only, reserve green top. 1 knob ginger julienned & 3 cloves of garlic. cook for 3-4 minutes
Add 1 cup white wine
Add 2 dz. title neck clams, cover cook on medium until the clams open
Remove clams set aside and keep warm add 6 oz flaky white fish, I used cod.
add sprig of basil, cook covered 2-4 m
Add small cherry tomatoes
add bay scallops gently place clams back add chopped green onion tops.
Add blanched bok choy
Finish with chopped basil and dill & a generous squeeze of Lime
rant: dvf *hearts* gapkids
i don't know how i missed this, but i'm glad i saw it in my inbox yesterday. gapkids and dvf are collaborating. i love dvf! although i'm surprised she is doing a kids line, i'm so happy she is. they clothes are precious and so bright and fun. i can't wait to see them in person since my friend j is having a baby girl later this year. and selfishly, i can some times fit in xl kids clothes so i'm excited to see if there's anything that would fit. i mean, how cute is this collection? i love the gray and green dress and the blazer...adorable!!
rant: rest in peace, leslie cochran
rant: invisible children
have you seen this? if you've been on the internet the last couple days (especially twitter, facebook and/or instagram) i'm sure you've come across invisible children, stop kony, or make kony famous. this video is very powerful and definitely brings to light the horrific things this man is doing and the situation in central africa. there has been an outpouring of support from all over, from celebrities to the younger generations that thrive in social media. there has also been quite a bit of opposition and criticism about the organization and the founders. with anything that explodes in popularity, scrutiny and condemnation is inevitable. people have lambasted everything from what they are doing isn't helping central africa at all to the salaries of the founders.
invisible children has drawn a lot of attention to the situation in uganda/central africa, who joseph kony is and what the lord's resistance army (LRA) is doing in a very short amount of time. people are gaining more knowledge. and that is the point, right? organizations and causes are always looking for exposure and a way to get their message out. with society today being very information savvy, people do their own research. so with all this information at our finger tips, we are given lots to chew on. some times causing a big splash with something flashy is the only way to get noticed, to get people hooked in. and once they are interested, it is much easier to engage them.
in my last job, i was having a discussion with the ceo about a marketing ploy gone slightly wrong. we were issued cease and desist orders and all sorts of not so positive press. i thought i was in some serious trouble. but what he said to me has stuck. press is press right? good and bad press both brings us to the forefront and brings exposure. people are intelligent and will make their own decisions. but the fact that we are being talked about and recognized is what's important right now. once they know who we are, they are more likely to listen and know more.
there's no doubt that kony is a horrific person doing unfathomable things. i can say with full confidence most 99% of the people tweeting, supporting and sharing the video above had no idea what the LRA or who kony is before this video. and without the work of the invisible children organization, we would have gone on being ignorant of the situation. so whatever your feelings are about invisible children organization, what they are doing and how they are doing it, watch the video above. if you choose to support them, (or any organization in fact) i encourage you to do your own research and dig deeper. so do they.
Let's focus on what matters, and what we DO agree on: Joseph Kony needs to be stopped. And when that happens, peace is the limit. This is the beautiful beginning of an ending that is just the beginning. We are defending tomorrow. And it's hopeful." - invisible children's website
rant: early spring and indian spiced cauliflower
we had an extremely warm day for february today...yes, even for texas. we hit a high of 92 today! crazy i say. if this is a preview of weather to come, we're in for a brutal summer. to be honest, it was nice out. i spent a couple hours late in the afternoon working from the back patio. the pup hung out with me while i tinkered away. but no worries, a cold front just made its way through and we're now at a comfortable and breezy 61 degrees.
while sitting outside, i realize that my backyard is kind of like that movie enchanted. there are a ton of little birds and squirrels running around. i've recently noticed that a mockingbird is always hanging around the house. i am by no means certain it is the same bird, but it looks like it to me. the funny thing is, i rescued a baby mockingbird that was stuck in our texas sage bush in 2010.
part of me wonders if this is the same bird. it is not freaked out by me and just hangs out either in oak tree in the front yard, along the gutters of the house or in our backyard. either way, this little guy hung out with me also, chirping along to whatever was playing on my itunes.
soon it was time to head in and start dinner. tonight i wanted to use the cauliflower that i picked up at sprouts last week (for $.99!). so i tried a recipe my friend k has made a couple times for us before. i always love it when she makes it so i figured i should try :) the recipe comes from one of my favorite cooking blogs: smitten kitchen. there's not a bad recipe...seriously. everything i have made from her recipes are always yummy. some of my favorite recipes are from there and it's definitely my go-to place when i'm looking for something. go check it out!
so it was no surprise that the indian spiced cauliflower and potatoes were great. i paired it with some quinoa and herb crusted chicken tenders. in the recipe, she serves the cauliflower with a cucumber scallion raita. i had neither cucumber or scallions so i used mint, parsley and lemon in the greek yogurt and that was tasty too. it was just nice to have a cool creamy contrast to the spices. b had no complaints and scarfed dinner down. so i'll definitely be making this again.
indian spiced cauliflower and potatoes
from smittenkitchen.com
1 1/4 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons minced fresh jalapeño, including seeds
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 cup water
Accompaniment: lemon wedges
Put oven rack in upper third of oven and place a shallow baking pan on rack. Preheat oven to 475°F.
Toss cauliflower and potatoes together in a bowl with 3 tablespoons oil, cumin seeds, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Spread in hot baking pan and roast, stirring occasionally, until cauliflower is tender and browned in spots and potatoes are just tender, about 20 minutes.
While vegetables are roasting, cook onion, garlic, jalapeño, and ginger in remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until very soft and beginning to turn golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Add ground cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Stir in water, scraping up any brown bits from bottom of skillet, then stir in roasted vegetables. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes.
Makes 4 side-dish servings.
Cucumber Scallion Raita
1/4 cup finely chopped English (seedless cucumber)
1 thinly sliced scallion
3/4 cup yogurt
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix!
rant: rest in peace whitney
with whitney houston's recent passing and her "coming home" memorial service this weekend, many have honored and remembered her with the song she's most known for. from the grammys to glee, i will always love you has been sung as a tribute to whitney. as i was surfing through some blogs today, i came across a performance that i wasn't expecting. chris cornell, front man of soundgarden, audioslave and temple of the dog, played a solo show fundraiser for president obama in san francisco a couple nights ago. and as an encore, he played i will always love you - which he only just learned. check out the video of his live performance.
as a fan of soundgarden and audioslave, it was a treat to hear cornell play acoustically. and to hear a song not usually in his genre or gender. i have to say i am amazed to see how many are affected by whitney in her short 48 years. at her memorial service this weekend, it was only fitting that kevin costner, her co-star in the bodyguard, gave her euology. at the end, he could not have sent her off with better words:
rest in peace whitney.
rant: current obssesions
1. cross body bag for traveling, 2. darren criss, 3. joesph gordon-levitt, 4. smash, 5. chevron print, 6. grey & yellow, 7. red skinny jeans, 8. green coats, 9. ipad 3, 10. wedge heels, 11. french bulldogs, 12. making xiao long bao, 13. louis vuitton sofia coppola bag in jasper, 14. one piece swimwear, 15. interesting backs, 16. wide leg pants, 17. games of throne, 18. downton abbey, 19. spiced brownies, 20. neil patrick harris, 21. extremely loud, incredibly close, 22. salted caramel
rant: skin care & technology
as i've gotten older, i've become more diligent about taking care of my skin. okay, diligent isn't the right word...obsessed? militant? indulgent? as a teen i had acne and my mommy was awesome enough to send me to a dermatologist. treatment ranged from using dial soap to wash my face to antibiotics to salicylic acid gels. the best thing that came out of all that was the habit of washing my face twice daily no matter how tired or late i was.
over the years, i have tried many products, from grocery store products to doctor prescribed. I'm a believer in switching around and trying different products. i'm lucky to have a sister who is also obsessed with facial care so we're always sharing info and products.
in the past i have used some full systems and some times i mix and match. some systems/products i have tried are:
patricia wexler m.d.
- acnescription
- mmpi 20 skin regenerating serum
- fastscription instant de-puff eye gel
- dual action foaming cleanser
- intensive night reversal & repair cream
- intensive 3-in-1 eye cream: lifting, firming, anti-wrinkle formula
neostrata foaming glycolic wash
(at some point i will write about these products too. if you want my opinion about any of them let me know.)
the last system i finished was the obagi nu-derm and it was good. according to their website, "the obagi nu-derm system is an anti-aging therapy that penetrates below the skin’s surface to transform skin cell functions at the cellular level and correct the damage within... revealing healthy, younger-looking skin." my skin did look and feel healthier. the main reason i wanted to use obagi was to lighten/eliminate some of my freckles. don't get me wrong...i love my freckles. i just didn't like that more were appearing and some were joining forces to look more like age/sun spots. being a regular runner, not being outside was not an option. and even with spf 70+, the freckles were gaining. obagi did help with the freckles but my skin felt a little thinned out.
so most recently i've been using a glycolic face wash, cerava lotion and avene retrinal. and it's been great. but my skin has been acting wonky for whatever reason. so at my last visit to costco, i walked by all the beauty/skin care stuff and i see a line of products and noticed they have all be marked for clearance (when things end in $.97 at costco, that means they are marking them down to move the item.) so i used my trusty iphone to google what's up with this stuff and if it was a good price. and this is what i found.
the skin care line is somme institute. a couple basics about the company:
- founded on a simple premise: "skin care companies should deliver the claims they promise."
- there's over 7 years of testing, development and tracking
- they developed a proprietary technology called MDT5 - molecular dispersion technology 5
so i googled and researched reviews and results and people have raved about it. so i've decided to try it out. usually, there's 5 steps, but most people did not like or were ambivalent about step 5 so i've decided to stick to my own sunscreen. if you are a fan of the product/line, check your local costco. here in austin, the prices are amazing:
step 1: nourishing cleanser - website $40, amazon $23.99, costco $9.97
step 2: transport - website $58, amazon $37.19, costco $19.97
step 3: serum - website $82, amazon $55.97, costco $27.97
step 4: a-bomb - website $70, amazon $31.99, costco $16.97
step 5: double defense - website $48, amazon $22.99, costco $9.97
Total kit: website $298, amazon $172.13, costco $91.85 (including 8.24% texas sales tax)
i've also invested in a sonic face brush. i wasn't willing to pay the $$$ for the clarisonic, nor did i think the battery operated ones, like olay, were worth while for me. i was lucky enough see a groupon goods deal for one priced at $59 including shipping. reviews from one user said they liked it better than their clarisonic. the main reason this won over the olay one was that it is rechargeable and it has a body brush head.
so here's goes nothing. i'll let you know how this all goes. wish me luck!
rant: 2012
happy new years!
i hope everyone had a wonderful, fun, & blessed last day of 2011
i apologize for ignoring my poor little blog for most of 2011.
i have no excuses. just ignored.
so for 2012 i will try to be better at sharing my random rants and raves.
if you're interested in more photos less words, please check out my posterous photo blog. That is where i've been posting my photos from instagram.
or if you use instagram, you can follow me at myw13.
here's to a spectacular, memorable, love-filled,
exciting, yummy and awesome 2012!
love,
m
rant: rest in peace steve jobs 1955-2011
rest in peace mr. jobs. thank you for changing our lives with your innovation, vision, and relentless pursuit of perfection.
if you've never seen/heard/read steve job's 2005 commencement speech to the graduating class of standford, please do. I've posted the video and prepared text of the speech.
This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
rant: asian + alcohol = red faces
my BiL brought home some yummy cheese and salami from hubble and hudson tonight, which worked out perfectly because my sister and i wanted to try a bottle of sparkling wine we picked up at costco today. so before dinner we noshed and enjoyed the yumminess.
just now my mommy was trying to cap the bubbly and i told her no need because we'll finish it tonight. she mentioned that whenever my BiL drinks alcohol he gets all flushed. i said yes, most asians have that reaction and hence the name asian flush. my smart-ass self had to add, thanks to paupau (her mom), my sister and i don't have that issue. she use to give us shot glasses of guinness when we were kids.
my mom the proceeded to tell me i'm terrible...and i'm forever grateful to my paupau that i don't look like i just ran a marathon or have to pop a pepcid ac every time i drink.
rant: random thoughts for the day
i want a fennec fox as a pet
i want to play with a big pile of puppies
i'm craving something, but have no idea what
i've neglected my blog
i really should run since i have a half marathon in 1 week
my next dog will be a shiba inu
not working a 9 to 5 job has turned my brain to mush
my feet are very cold
i'm kinda obsessed with bruno mars right now...
rants: 100 books to read
Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here*. I saw this on one of my friend's Facebook notes and thought it would be interesting to see how many I've read. To be very honest, most of these books I read in high school as they were required reading. So, I don't know how fair that is. A few I have gone back and read as an adult and I really enjoyed re-reading them so maybe I will try to re-read them all. The list was also a great reminder of some books I've always wanted to read but never have.
So here is what you do:
Copy this into your BLOG/NOTES IN FACEBOOK.
Bold those books you've read in their entirety.
Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.
Tag other book nerds.
Tag me as well so I can see your responses.
1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41. Animal Farm – George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47. Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
*I have seen several posts/blogs stating that no one can find where the BBC stated that they thought most people have only read 6 of the 100 books.
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