Mood Affect by Drivers and Pedestrians

I have lived in both the greater DC area and the greater NY area for some time. Having been around DC for around 5 years, I can really feel the difference between the busy lives of New Yorkers and the still busy lives of Washingtonians. Tourists often complaint about New Yorkers being mean and rude. When I was in New York, I agree with those New Yorkers. Lives there are just too fast paced. If you rush through that red light, you won't be able to make a right turn for another 5 minutes. And in New York, 5 minutes is a lot of time. It is for similar reasons that people always rush, cut in lines, and do things that are often times unacceptable to people who are not constantly situated under time limits, i.e. tourists. And vise-versa, the slow-dwelling building-gazing eye-wondering tourists in nearby streets of time square can seriously lead to hostility by "people who actually has meetings to attend to". I, too, was embedded in the thinkings of these. I believed I was busy, I believe I had no time to spear, I believe that everything was about competition. My family friend once told me, "If you are not aggressive, you are not only unable to get anything, you are not even going to survive."Even through that was referring to working on wall street, but the quote is a good exaggeration of the pressure I was feeling. I became somewhat depressed, feeling trapped, in the middle of air but hanging tightly onto that only rope of hope.

Places other than New York, for example, Washington DC, is covered in completely different atmosphere. No cars beeping at each other except for rush hours; nobody purposefully walk in front of you on a busy street; and nobody leaves garbage around in a coffee shop because they are "too busy" to throw them into the trash can two feet from them. Believe it or not, people outside of the greater New York area are extremely nice. They even say hi, good morning, good day, etc. to strangers. The longer I stay in DC, the more I adapt and appreciate the local practices of salutation, courtesy, and respect. The  omnipresent cherry blossoms trees also constantly provide nature therapy. And eventually, I felt happier, freer, and more in control of things.

Sometimes I go back to New York to visit my family. And boy do I feel the power of New York. That city can throw me right back into the ugly competition mode just by interacting with drivers and people walking on the street! But this is not to say that I dislike New York, New York has many great shops, architecture, history, etc. many great things but just not those drivers and pedestrians.

Easy Pissy Pizza

As a recent graduate, I do not know how to make complicated dishes, nor do I have the energy to make complicated dishes. Occasionally I like to try out different cuisines after getting tired of my everyday grandma foods. Aside from the New York style pizza, there is the neapolitan pizza that sticks out often. According to wikipedia, neapolitan pizza uses fancy dough and ingredients. My definition of neapolitan pizza is just a small, highly individualized, oven baked thin pizza.

Today for dinner, I made a personalized neapolitan pizza with the last peppers I have. A good reason to read about this recipe: you can make this pizza with any ingredients you have: spinach, peppers, olives, or anything you can think of within a reasonable range.

What you will need:

baking pan (or anything you can support the pizza in the oven)

Tandoor flat bread (I got some garlic flavored tandoori from WholeFoods, works great.)

Topings: Cheese, tomato sauce, mushrooms, spinach, ham, etc. (anything you can think of)

Directions:

-Take out flad bread, place it on baking pan.

-Spread tomato sauce, then cheese, then other toppings.

-Place it in oven, 400°C for 20 minutes. (I never pre-heat the oven when making this, but maybe pre-heating will make it taste better.)

For the example in picture above, it was just mozzarella cheese with orange and yellow bell peppers. Super easy!

Favorite snacks nowadays

If you are like me, who live in the greater bethesda area, you probably don't travel too far for food due to the abundance of local and international markets nearby. Aside from creating new dish and discovering new foods, I am actively hunting down new places for snacks where I can munch on at leisure times. These, are the current snacks, sweet and salty, healthy and un-healthy, that I am crazy about:

Olli Salamini Calabrese

These I only can find in WholeFoods, and are very local to the area. They come in small bags, and are quite pricy, $5.99/bag. They are made with cayenne pepper and paprika, so they are a bit spicy. With only 11% fat content, I consider them healthier than other cured sausages. However, recently I have been cutting down on them, since a close friend of mine nicely warned me that cured meats can cause cancer.

Ka-me Original Rice Crackers

These rice crackers have been on the market for a long time, however, only recently did I look into them. The first time I was offered one of them was at a pleasant multiple course dinner at Komi in Washington, DC. The first course came with a couple of plumpy roe eggs on one of these rice crackers.  Maybe I was under the effect of atmosphere, but that combination tasted delicious. You can find them anywhere these days, a simple American supermarket will do.

Asher's Milk Chocolate Covered Sandwich Cookie

Two pieces of hard cookie with tick layer of milk covered the milk chocolate. Not bad. They are crunchy. I have not gotten sick of them yet. I found them at world market for $0.99/cookie. So far so good!

Joe's Smores

Now let me make it clear, the actual snack does not look like this. This picture is a picture of Joe's Smores with salted caramel. The one that I tried was the classic smores with a pieces of soft graham crackers and a flattened marshmallow together bathed in milk chocolate. It is hard to get smores snacks, so I consider this a good get. I also found these at World Market for $0.99/cookie. The cashier lady was very considerate when she was checking out for me. She told me to cut these smores cookie a half, otherwise it is hard to just eat only one. I agree with her, I am going back tomorrow to get more.

--------
After supplying more of those delicious snacks, I was finally able to snap a picture of Joe's Smores.

Amy Cuddy's ted talk

Amy Cuddy's Ted talk was in 2012. It was about body language, it was about building self esteem, it was about confidence. I remember when I was watching her ted talk, I was especially aware of my body language. I was closed and defensive, just like in some of Cuddy's examples. However, I did not take too much consideration since I was feeling relatively confident at that time. My school studies were doing well, great advancements lab work, occasional social life, etc. I was at the top of my game, there was nothing else I would feel inferior about.

Not until I graduated from college, and started a full time job. There, I encountered leaders whom I respect, mentors whom I sometimes find troublesome to deal with, and coworkers whom I feel intimidated from. It was then I realized that I was not as good as I thought. My team leader seems too far to reach, my mentor has flaws that I could not approve, and my coworkers seems to perfect and knowledgeable.

I went back and re-watched Amy Cuddy's Ted talk, and this time seriously considered her points. I have been closed up all the time at work, I was quiet, and waiting for others approval. However, I started disappearing from time to time to hide in the bathroom, and raise my arms in the air. At the moment it feels uncomfortable, and sometimes these gestures would lead to a stretch. But I always return to my workspace feeling less depressed than before.

It was then I also noticed that maybe my coworkers, whom graduated the same time as me, who has the same life and career goal as me, might just also been faking it. And if they can fake it, so can I.

Beginners in painting: Paint and Wine

Do you want to try out oil or acrylic painting? But don't know where to start?
Are you overwhelmed with the unfamiliar supplies you have to get in order to attend an oil painting class?
Or do you just want to get an idea of the just of oil painting?

These are my questions when I first started seriously thinking about oil painting. I looked online about the prices of oil painting classes, supplies to get, ideal locations to oil paint etc. They do not seem ideal for a recent graduate who's working full time and occasionally working on weekends. Painting classes usually cost in the hundreds for four or five classes, quite pricy. Some oil paints are toxic and should be used in well ventilated areas, so a small bedroom in an apartment does not sound good.

My problems were solved when I was browsing on group on for some discounted restaurants. They have the so called "paint and wine" activity where you can go to a local bar with some friends, and paint a pre-designed canvas with provided supplies. Sounds like a good idea huh? You can get familiar with supplies used, try and see what painting is like, and you get to drink and socialize.

The place I found on Groupon is called PaintNite, which currently offers half price off sessions until June 2014. If you are around the MD-DC-VA area, you should go and try it out.