Food hangups

I'm truly fortunate to grow up in Singapore. Because of her location's integral ties to maritime activity, historical and present, we have the luxury of influences from all over the world, including our gastronomy. That said, it is of little wonder that most Singaporeans are inclined to try almost any food once.

Sure, there are some items I will never voluntarily eat again. But let it not be said I never gave it a shot. Tripe, chitlins, chicken feet, Beijing street food, to name a few.

So, it was with great delight a friend gave me some bacon-flavored toothpicks and bacon mints the other day. I admit it's certainly not an appetizing concept, but it's fun. I doubt I'll be finishing up the mints anytime soon. But I at least I gave it a shot. It wasn't bad, you can actually taste the slight hint of mint after the coating of 
bacon flavor wears off.



I offered it to colleagues the other day. One I simply told him what it was, and he instantly turned his nose up. The other one, I opened up the can, revealing the white mint contents, and offered her the mint, not telling her it's bacon-flavored. Only when she popped it in her mouth, I asked if she tasted something different about it. Aha. She stopped sucking and with it still lying on her tongue, asked what it was. When she learned it was bacon mint, she spat it out right away.

Now, if something tastes good or even all right, why the hangup when you know what you're eating? If it's poison (and even if I truly detest you, I doubt I'll be feeding you that), such action will be understandable. But why not give everything a shot?

In every instance, if it had been told to me what it was, I would actually tasted it more discerningly, and determine the results.

Same thing with chitlins. I had known for a long time what it was and though, curious, never wanted to attend a darn festival celebrating it. Then a roommate brought it home, and it smelled horrible. But I thought I'd give it a shot. The instant it touched my tongue, the flavor was so rancid I should've spat it out. Instead, I bit down on it, and the juices of whatever just oozed into my mouth. Never in my life had I spat and gagged at the same time. It was truly repulsive.

But hey, to each his own, and don't let ME influence you all THAT much if you had to try it or not. With chitlins, liver, tripe, chicken feet, or even bacon mints.

Return of the Ex

The idea with Facebook or Myspace is so we'll reconnect with present and past friends. As usual, my criteria for friends request and acceptance bear no consistency. I've added those I was never close with, but with the desire that through the add, there'll be a concerted effort from both ends to start the friendship that was barely there. Then, there are those I refuse to add and likewise for them, have no inclination to ever reconnect.

And there's always that one past that will return to find you. The Ex.

I've only had 2 "real" boyfriends my whole life. Him and my husband. There're the frivolous dates, but I don't consider them monumental individuals. Yes, every one of them has helped shaped my perspectives and matured me slightly.

So yesterday an email popped up in the inbox asking if I was the person he thought I was. I was stunned he contacted me, but I wasn't shocked that he would find me. Afterall, we all came up with almost every name we could remember from our past when we joined Facebook, just to see where the heck they are, and what they look like now. Disclosure: I did a search on him as well. HOWEVER, I NEVER thought for a second to send him a message. Hence, his check mate move.

In fact, about 10 years ago, he called me at work in Kansas. At that moment, I was caught unprepared and felt stalked. I lashed out at him for tracking me down. And I remembered this. He got the defensive (why wouldn't he) and told me not to flatter myself, that he is happily married to some Israeli woman. Well, good, I said, I'm glad. And that was it.

So when he tracked me down again a day ago, I had about 10 years of maturity since and having talked to the husband about our pasts, I was wiser to handle the situation this time.

I responded immediately and acknowledged it was I, and proceeded to ask how he and the family, which includes his, his mom, and sisters are. That's it.

What I would get out of it, was a laundry list of what he had been doing the last 10 years.

I'm glad I didn't respond in kind. In fact, I'm playing the waiting game. I needed the time to evaluate what an immediate response is going to do to his fragile psyche.

I relayed the incident to a colleague today. And as always, she ties her thoughts up in a neat little package. She agrees that a needy personality like his is going to leap if I am quick in my correspondence, and opens up an unintended invitation back into my life. And she said there's a fine line between civility and friendship, and I don't have to offer him friendship if I don't wish to. But there's certainly no need for cold shoulders.

So I don't feel bad. I should be polite and kind, but I don't need to offer or accept his friend request.

There goes the vacation plans

This afternoon, late of course, I received a call from my tenant in Augusta, that only a few electrical outlets are operational, and no electricity is available in the house.

How long has it been, I asked. Turns out he had been battling it since the weekend. Poor things.

He wasn't stressed, and I'm grateful for it. So I shouldn't either.

But at 4 p.m. CST, 5 p.m. EST, how on earth am I able to find an electrician to head on over? I called the contacts I have and had a couple of recommendations. But one of them couldn't go over until morning. Of course.

It sounds like one heck of an expensive job. The circuit breaker is not working, and I fear the entire old house has to be rewired. Ouch. I may have to take out a home equity loan. I don't even know how that works.

Home ownership is overrated and sucks. But if I should take away any lesson all these years from home ownership is that repairs are going to happen, sometimes they are affordable, sometimes not. There's nothing to do but be responsible landlords and adults, and take care of business.

I'm almost semi-famous

Many moons again, when I was working in Wichita, Kansas, I aided Rod Pocawatchi, a colleague and friend, as a script supervisor and a continuity "editor" in his movie "Dancing on the Moon".

Rod(rick) worked his butt off, working through the weekends and nights on every aspect of production. He wrote the script, shot, acted and edited. He also held a Hollywood Red-Carpetesque premiere of his movie in a downtown Wichita theater.

I had no idea his movie information was posted in IMDB, the movie database of authority until Mark told some friends that my name was in there, too.

Today, I did a search, and sure enough, there I am!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1473973/

Original McDonald's

We were driving around the other night and stumbled upon the original location of McDonald's in Des Plaines. It is a museum now. The video is not top quality as it's shot from my digital print camera. But it'll do for now.

Pets at play

I have absolutely no energy to post anything new. Here're a couple o videos of pets at play in our dog park in Illinois. And yes, there's my Bentley, with his Napolean complex, wanting to join the big boys.

I ... can't ... keep ... up

Myspace, Facebook, Yahoo, hotmail, gmail, yelp .... HELP.

There're too many socializing I'm doing these days, that like my messy house, I need to start cutting back on collecting stuff.

I know the day would come that I will be giving up one of these, and myspace is it.

Some of my friends have defected long ago. Blogger has been the drawing power to Karen, Gen V, Jeremy, Amber. It's time I make the move too.

I think you guys will like it. We are able to link to each other's blogs, and more importantly, stay connected to each other's lives.

I don't think I'll be as illustrious as Jeremy to be posting digests in myspace. For one, I don't roam the Web enough to cull interesting bits of news. Secondly, I'm not as diligent in my blogging. So I hope my loyal friends who want to continue to be filled in on my sometimes exciting life to continue giving me your feedback in http://thenewllow.blogspot.com/
I'll be checking in every once in a while, but I'll be phasing myself out and cancelling my account before long.

See you in blogger.