Scribbles

Came across this idea while reading through blogs and thought I’d share it with you. It’s simple, pick 3 independently owned stores that you really like and are local, and spend $50 there every month. Like a pyramid scheme, but without the deceit, by executing the simple plan and getting others to follow, we can all help our local economies. It’s not a lot of money, and it keeps those businesses we love stay afloat. What an elegantly effective idea. Go check out the site and spread the word, the 3/50 project.
 

The following is a snapshot of my FB feed after I complained. (Note I don’t mean to single out Steph and her cute family).
 

 

My family keeps complaining to me that my 10-day detox is too long. They keep cautioning me to be careful. I keep reassuring them that I had done the Master Cleanse just a few months ago, and there’s nothing to worry about. To review on what the duration is supposed to accomplish, I re-read the book today. It opened up at a chapter titled, “Can I do 5 days instead?” The answer was clearly no, and the reason is that it really takes time for one’s system to get rid of all the toxins and heal.
 
Today, the 5th day, I woke up feeling like my system in full detox state. My tongue has turned a fuzzy white that many people experience while detoxing. And my expulsions resembled what they were during the latter part of the previous cleanse. Luckily this time around, I didn’t feel any sort of tiredness or irritability. However, my workout today felt a bit tiring, most likely due to a lack of caloric intake, caused by my growing wariness to the lemon-syrup-cayenne pepper concoction. Weight-wise, I’ve dropped about 8.5 pounds, which I feel neutral about since it’s not a goal for my and knowing that I’d gain it back quickly.
 
The real nagging thing about the cleanse is that I’m bored. The novelty of it wore off last time, so now it feels like work. Getting up, drinking the salt water flush, making lemonade throughout the day, all that combined with the hit on my social life, has been somewhat trying. But I’m almost halfway through, feeling fine, and looking forward to the promised land of mental clarity and invigorated health. Until then, more lemonade.
 

Today I’m starting another 10-day master cleanse. I promised to do another one within 6-months, so what better day than the first day of spring right? What really bums me out is shutting down the social activities for the next two weeks. However, that leaves me without much excuse to be unproductive or unfocused. I definitely won’t make the same mistake of day-dreaming about food. Time to get a lot of work and reading done while my body expels bad stuff, and by bad stuff, I mean crap.
 

I’m still kicking myself for waiting this long to read Crypto. Not that I ever doubted Neal Stephenson’s genius, as I have read much of his other work. But as somebody with such a fascination with WWII and computer science and hacker culture, I’m way behind the curve. Better late than never, but sure could’ve been sooner.
 
The extant reviews and acclaim more than describe its content. As to how I got into it is where this post comes in. After years of reading non-fiction, I decided to switch back to some fiction for a break. In picking a book, I went through my long list of “must-reads” and stumbled across this massive novel. Wanting to put my eReader to work, this tome was perfect for saving trees, not to mention being on sale. Besides, does it get any more appropriate than reading a geeky book on a digital reader?
 

Reading Stephenson on my eReader
 
Does the device displaying the book seem rather unfamiliar, especially compared to the iPod-esque Kindle? It’s actually a Sony PRS-500, one of the first reading devices using electronic paper. A wonderful hand-me-down from my gadget friendly uncle, this svelte toy has been the perfect companion on the plane, subway, and coffee shops. While I still drool over the Kindle 2, like when I saw it on the subway the other day, I don’t feel so bad after learning about Amazon’s draconian methods for restricting where one can get books from. Regardless, you’ll find me in the camp of happy eReader owners.
 
Over the past couple weeks, Crypto managed to entertain on many a late nights, and tickled my inner geek with ingenious hacker stories and reviving some great times in my past. I’m certain that non-geeks would still enjoy this book tremendously. So don’t procrastinate like I did and give yourself a treat.
 

Last summer, after a series of unpleasant events that involved deceit and disrespect, I had a huge falling out with my troubled cousin. So angry at the time, I de-friended him on Facebook. Half a year later, I login this morning to find a message in my FB inbox titled “Really!?!” In it, said cousin makes a one-sided rehashing of past events, most of it accusatory, and concludes that other families have put up with worse and we should put things behind us, all with a lack of contrition or acceptance of blame. Pretty heavy stuff for breakfast.
 
Well, forgiveness/absolution issues aside, FB has become a medium for me where I share my thoughts and social life with, um, friends. Like many people who get friend requests from their mothers or colleagues, I have a reluctance to share many of the things about me that are on this social network. So it would seem perfectly reasonable for me to not want this part of my life to be an open book with somebody I have nothing in common with other than some DNA sequences. For once the adage, “You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family” gets turned around for the good – I can choose my friends, including those online.
 
So it took him half a year to discover this act of Internet dissing. Looking back on that post about him, the very first post of this blog no less, I realize that back then I overlooked his clueless-ness, attributing it mostly to youth. But four years have passed already. Some things never change.
 

The topic of today: time. Having lost an hour today due to daylight savings adjustment, reinforced my perception on how quickly time has passed, especially the short month of February. As expected, my trip to NY was too short, but extremely fruitful. While I haven’t blogged much last month in my usual broadcast, I had the opportunity for some very pleasant one-on-one catch up sessions.
 
The first catch up session was with New York City itself – bitterly cold, expensive, still amazing. Running around, catching the subway, riding the taxis, made me feel like I never left. I missed out on the remainder of DineLA week but more than made up for that in the now extended indefinitely DineNY specials. Some of the restaurants were so superb, Compass in particular, they made screwing up healthy eating totally worthwhile. The city offered more than its share of activities, food, bar scenes. If it weren’t for being so short on time, I would take advantage of the cheap transcons fares a lot more often.
 
My individual sessions with friends turned out more numerous and intimate than expected. Credit the tight schedule and my 5-month absence for that. We had a few larger gatherings, but the private times talking about life, love, and career gave me the reconnection I needed. The best friends are the ones that always let you pick up exactly where you left off, no matter the time in between.
 
I don’t foresee time becoming abundant the next few months. I’ll use that as my reminder to cherish it and spare plenty of it for the important things, like friends, good travel, and the occasional great eats.