My First Real Winter

i knew living here on the east coast was going to have its changes...the snobby new england attitude, the dismal supply of asian food (and faces for that matter), the prospect of car-less transportation, and of course...seasons.

and though it has been cold for quite some time now...and i have readjusted my measurements of what is cold. that low of 50 degrees in san diego so no longer considered sweater, hoodie, and boots weather...that has now become brisk, happy the wind-chill doesn't drop it to 40 degree weather. but through a couple of months of that...the mercury has finally dipped into the low 30s and yes, freezing temperature.

the byproduct of said temperature is of course this crazy, white, powdery substance that is unseen and unknown to those on west coast who do not have boards strapped to their feet staring down black diamonds. to those of us who typically remained at the base of the mountains, we tend to not experience the day to day snow fall. but this transplant has now experienced his first real winter.

this would be the image of the front of my house when i left it this morning at around 10:30am...this sight of white mixed with what's rest of the surviving flora already brought the excitement to my day (it may not look it, but it was snowing at the time as well...as it has for most of the day). however, the prospect of trekking through these meager centimeters of powder were not at all appealing, and the prospect of massive slippage on the ice and the perpetual embarrassment was enough to persuade me to take a bus 4 blocks to the shuttle station for school. yes...that is the west coast mentality (why walk when we can add to the pollution)


but after a day's worth of class and work and then group work back on campus, all the while the sky kept drifting snow...my surroundings became gradually whiter and whiter as green (or more orange-ish...as it was fall just a little bit ago) parks turned into snow-covered terrains fit for snowmen and snowball fights. and at my arrival home at around 8:00pm, this is basically the same view.

it is definitely a different sight to see on a winter day...and i for one am quite excited at the prospect of snowball fights with the guy standing next to me at the bus-stop and the possibility of a city shutdown due to the ineffectiveness of throwing salt everywhere. but i'm sure a few more weeks of these types of temperatures and the constant wetness, this winter wonderland may quickly turn into an icy hell. but until then, snow angels abound.

The Little People

it's always nice when the stars can do something for us little people...

sappy story, yes...but it's still nice

Thanksgiving 2007

maybe it's my lack of fresh posts...maybe i've lost my dry wit and whimsical humor (or maybe i never had any)...maybe i was yesterday's news...but whatever the reason, readership of huspot has definitely dropped and comments have dwindled (if you can tell me the other two words in the english dictionary that start with the letters "dw"...you get a voucher for one hu-hug or high-five).

but i will forage onwards with a determination only overshadowed by bush's stubbornness, and tell you about my thanksgiving...

it was supposed to be a small family affair of two, my mother and i...that turned into a throng of relatives, for which i was meant to cook for. never one to fear the stove...flaming pot of oil or not...i accepted the challenge.
though the turkey was premade, the rest of the food you see on that table was all me....bbq ribs (not very thanksgiving-ish, but still good)...green beans and pancetta...garlic mashed potatoes...candied yams...stuffed mushrooms, like olive garden used to make...arugula and endive salad with a white wine vinaigrette

okay...so i'm tooting my own horn...but hey, i'm proud of myself. this is the first time i've cooked for my family since that damp shanghai evening of burrito stuffed goodness. anyways, it was an overall success in the kitchen, on the dining room table....and even a lot of success on the craps table (but that's a separate story all together)

hope everyone else's thanksgiving was great

Oh Heidi

on this day of thanksgiving, i'm thankful for these...



don't worry...i'm sure i'll feel inspired at some point through the day to release my eloquence onto this blog and let all of you know what i'm thankful for.

Positions

get your mind out of the gutter kids...i'm not talking about the "dirty sanchez" or the "rusty trombone" or the "meat spin" (nsfw)...though the political maneuvering of some of these candidates can be considered just a despicable or yoga-esque. but as the latest round of democratic debates passes, i wonder what kind of platform i would run on...

sadly, it wouldn't be on hope, it wouldn't be on change, and it wouldn't be on truthiness...it would be on bitch-slapping Americans to a rude awakening. it would be a warning that we have become complacent, corrupt, and criminal...that we can no longer call ourselves the world's anything except joke. when our currency is trading so poorly that we can't even get supermodels to take it.

but back to the issues of the day...

health care: comprehensive reform and universal health care. mandate insurance for all citizens and access for all people. i'd open up the federal employee health benefits plan to ALL those who want it...creating a major pool to keep costs down. that radical hope would be to eliminate the "over 65" clause of medicare...see how those insurance companies react when they have to compete against the low costs of medicare on the individual.

iraq/iran/afganistan: get the hell out...caught to do it safely, so it might take longer than we'd like. but until we get political stability, we're not going to do any good in that region. not only are we losing money and lives, we've already given up all political respect and legitimacy. i mean, how can we go on chastising iran for supporting terrorism when we feed billions of dollars into saudi arabia only to have its citizens come back and bomb the shit out of us. hypocrisy is our foreign policy prerogative, and we need to step back and become the beacon we once were.

china: free-trade isn't going away anytime soon, and neither is our trade deficit as long as we continue to charge our war credit cards and enjoy cheap goods. sorry blue-collar population, but if you enjoy wal-mart and costco-esque prices, then we just have to face the possibility of losing some jobs. so what we need is to establish better trade laws...enforce the rules of the wto...and work on producing the advanced technological/scientific goods that can still dominate the export market.

taxes: sorry uber rich...you guys have been getting away with a criminally low marginal tax limit. can't tax over $97,500?? thats not as high as it used to be these days...so what do you say huh? how about helping out the little guys a little...improve some education, feed social security, better society.

there are definitely plenty more hotspots and democratic g-spots that could be rubbed...but i'm honestly just too lazy to get them down. my motivation is almost as strong as the democratic congress's backbone...that'll give you a good understanding.