Chronotropic
kro•no•tro•pic (noun)
In cardiology, chronotropic describes the properties of heart muscles related to frequency and time dependance that allows the heart to contract with greater force.
~~~~~~~~~~
So this weekend was Chinese New Year, and I had a blast with my sister, my cousin David, and my nephew Nick playing Taboo (c.f. facebook for quotes). However, during the evening, the adults participated in (what was in my opinion) a rather disheartening conversation. It wasn't so much the topic of conversation as the opinions expressed that were disheartening.
Allow me to elaborate. I only stuck around for two small portions of the larger conversation (instead electing to have fun with my cousins downstairs). The one that really bothered me was the discussion surrounding the current gay activism movement. The members of the older generation (my parents, aunts, and uncles) thought that this push for equality represented just one of the ways in which Western culture was weak and inferior to Eastern culture and philosophies.
One of my aunts expressed disdain over the legal ramifications for refusing employment to a person based on their sexual orientation. She, being a devout (and, if I may say, ignorant) Christian, she was talking about this from a religious point of view, her argument being along the lines of "I refuse to offer you employment because we are a religious institution and therefore refuse to employ homosexuals."
I was, frankly, quite appalled at the ethical considerations of such a remark, and pointed out that one would never say that about race; for example, I would never dream of saying to someone "I don't want to hire you because you are Chinese/Indian/Caucasian etc." I said that when it comes to certain jobs like accounting or computer programming, ethnicity SHOULD not play a very large role determining job suitability, because in theory, any person, regardless of gender or age or ethnicity or sexual orientation, should be able to perform well given the same qualifications. She didn't seem to agree, and maintained that in any job, all these factors are important and would influence her decision as an employer.
I think the thing that struck me the most was when my father made this comment: he said that Western people, in general, compared to Eastern people, don't have a lot of inner strength. He referenced the whole movement surrounding mental health issues as an example. He said that people here can't handle the stresses in life, and at every little thing, people are crying "depression!" or "mental illness!", whereas the Asian response is to shove it down and move on. My mother said that Chinese people had to endure the Cultural Revolution, which was an atrocious time in Chinese history, but she wanted to emphasize that the people survived it, no complaints.
Another member of the family remarked that "in Chinese philosophy, one of the 8 Great Virtues is Endurance." They talked about how my grandmother and grandfather hated each others' guts, for the 50+ years that they were married. And at the end, it boiled down to this: my grandmother survived her marriage. She didn't get a divorce. A comment was made about how this philosophy, one of Endurance as a virtue, while excellent for social structure, is not always good for individual health.
Part of me wants to agree; it seems like people I know in Western culture appear to complain about their problems more than the Asians that I know; we tend to shove it down inside and move on. But part of me wants to argue that you never know what another person's experience is, so how is it that you can criticize what they're going through? It's like how I believe that a man can never criticize a woman for complaining about childbirth because it's something that he can never experience, and this something that he cannot understand. In the same way, I can never truly know what another person's life experience is like, so I have no right to discredit or judge another person for having depression.
It made me sad, because I thought, for the longest time, that I did have this endurance. I once thought that I would be able to put my own aspirations aside for the betterment of others. Now however, I find my endurance and my resolve wavering, and I'm sad to say that I am ashamed. I am ashamed because I am no longer able to put my own desires aside. I have failed to endure the hardships that I feel that I have the duty to endure. I feel like I'm taking the easy way out by choosing to do what I want to do, and not what my parents want me to do.
This conflict between my inner conservative Asian and the Westernized part of me. I'm not sure what will happen, but I guess I can only hope for the best. If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's this: things never turn out the way you expect it to.
-T
Monday, February 11, 2013
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Tim Trouble In Little China
See the title is a pun on a movie I've never seen . . .
Anyway, Tim mentioned he was going to start posting here about his adventures in China, but unfortunately, he cannot access the blog due to China's censorship laws.
So, instead, he will be posting on his old livejournal account, which is available here:
http://zeropoint857sec.
Go check it out to find out what he's been up to!
(You don't need to sign in to livejournal to view his posts; they're all public.)
-Clayton
Anyway, Tim mentioned he was going to start posting here about his adventures in China, but unfortunately, he cannot access the blog due to China's censorship laws.
So, instead, he will be posting on his old livejournal account, which is available here:
http://zeropoint857sec.
Go check it out to find out what he's been up to!
(You don't need to sign in to livejournal to view his posts; they're all public.)
-Clayton
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Electrotonus
e•lec•tro•to•nus (noun)
the event that is described as the diffusion of an electrical charge that permeates the fibre of a nerve cell that has been depolarizsed.
Origin: Neo-latin (electro = electric, tonus = tention)
~~~~~~~~~~
It sounds like you have pretty great flat mates! I remember hearing about everyone except Mr. Business; I'm glad that you found so many great guys to room with this year. I remember you telling me about the asian guy; I'm glad that you'll at least be eating well this year, instead of that god-forsaken caf food. You can expect me to judge you on your cooking skill when the year is over ;P
School is starting to pick up on my end; I'm taking 19 credits this term, which is more than I've ever taken at once before, which is a lot, but at the same time, two of them are relatively easy arts courses (PHIL 120: Introduction to Logic and Critical Analysis and ASIA 100: Introduction to Early South and East Asia i.e. India, Pakistan, China, Japan, Korea) and another is STAT 200, which should be relatively easy because I did a ton a stats in my Analytical Chem course last year, but on the other hand I'm also taking PHYL 303: Honours Physiology Lab and the pure Biochem lecture and lab, so this could either be a really, really dreadful term, or a manageable one.
On the social side of life, things are both going well and not well at the same time. The BBQ was absolutely fantastic; it was a lot of fun, and we had a good time. The problems that I was having before are now completely resolved as well (the two of us had decided about 1.5 weeks earlier that we both needed a breather from each other, and so during the party everything was like before again, and after everyone else had left, we sat down and had a quiet chat together. We didn't talk about anything that had happened between us, but we did talk about some serious things, and when I asked about how things were going, I got some rather personal answers back; nothing too detailed, but personal/private enough to reassure me that I am as trusted as I was before. The fact that I am as trusted as I was before restores my own trust in our friendship, and everything is back to the way they were before the whole mess, for which I am glad. Everything is forgiven, and it's all in the past now).
On the other hand, because school has started again, I once again find myself plunged into a state of emotional neutrality, which is a such a contrast for how this summer has been. My life went from an emotional chaos to an emotional desert in a matter of days, and it's taking a while to adjust; this sense of detachment is especially hard after the humongous sense of belonging, love, and family I had over the summer with everyone. Even though we all hung out on Saturday, by Tuesday evening I was already feeling very lonely, and I so desperately wanted to hand out with the Twins, or you, or Froless Soul Boy, or my Old Wrinkly Wifey. The week just seems to have dragged on, and I just can't wait to see people this weekend.
I'm also struggling a little bit with the future. The last three years, this summer especially, has taught me just how dependent I am on my friends for my happiness and well being. I can't imagine life without you guys, and it's really freaking me out because in two years' time, I have to leave this city to complete my graduate studies at a different University. I think I would be able to survive a two years Masters degree, but I don't think I could handle being away for any longer than that. I love you all so much, I can't bear to be away from you all, and I especially don't want to miss out on this part of our lives. I'm trying to work out a way for me to get into the career that I want without having to be away for long periods of time. I'm thinking about the different options that are open to me, and I'm having trouble making a decision. I know that I don't really have to make one for another year or so, and I acknowledge the fact that there are many, many variable that I am unable to account for at the moment, but I still think it's important to think about these things anyways. These things are sometimes so polemical. I'll just keep praying about it and keep my heart open to the possibilities.
Regardless, I don't want to bother you too much with my rantings; sometimes I feel like I'm always just talking about myself and I fear that I am being selfish or inconsiderate.
I hope things are going well out at TWU! I can see that you are having fun writing for the Mars Hill and are excited to be back on campus. What courses are you taking this year? Any interesting electives? Your mini library in the hall made me giggle a bit; perhaps I may be able to contribute a tome or two.
I better get back to my work; I have to do some last minute prep for my Honours Physio lab this afternoon.
Take care and chat soon,
Tim
the event that is described as the diffusion of an electrical charge that permeates the fibre of a nerve cell that has been depolarizsed.
Origin: Neo-latin (electro = electric, tonus = tention)
~~~~~~~~~~
It sounds like you have pretty great flat mates! I remember hearing about everyone except Mr. Business; I'm glad that you found so many great guys to room with this year. I remember you telling me about the asian guy; I'm glad that you'll at least be eating well this year, instead of that god-forsaken caf food. You can expect me to judge you on your cooking skill when the year is over ;P
School is starting to pick up on my end; I'm taking 19 credits this term, which is more than I've ever taken at once before, which is a lot, but at the same time, two of them are relatively easy arts courses (PHIL 120: Introduction to Logic and Critical Analysis and ASIA 100: Introduction to Early South and East Asia i.e. India, Pakistan, China, Japan, Korea) and another is STAT 200, which should be relatively easy because I did a ton a stats in my Analytical Chem course last year, but on the other hand I'm also taking PHYL 303: Honours Physiology Lab and the pure Biochem lecture and lab, so this could either be a really, really dreadful term, or a manageable one.
On the social side of life, things are both going well and not well at the same time. The BBQ was absolutely fantastic; it was a lot of fun, and we had a good time. The problems that I was having before are now completely resolved as well (the two of us had decided about 1.5 weeks earlier that we both needed a breather from each other, and so during the party everything was like before again, and after everyone else had left, we sat down and had a quiet chat together. We didn't talk about anything that had happened between us, but we did talk about some serious things, and when I asked about how things were going, I got some rather personal answers back; nothing too detailed, but personal/private enough to reassure me that I am as trusted as I was before. The fact that I am as trusted as I was before restores my own trust in our friendship, and everything is back to the way they were before the whole mess, for which I am glad. Everything is forgiven, and it's all in the past now).
On the other hand, because school has started again, I once again find myself plunged into a state of emotional neutrality, which is a such a contrast for how this summer has been. My life went from an emotional chaos to an emotional desert in a matter of days, and it's taking a while to adjust; this sense of detachment is especially hard after the humongous sense of belonging, love, and family I had over the summer with everyone. Even though we all hung out on Saturday, by Tuesday evening I was already feeling very lonely, and I so desperately wanted to hand out with the Twins, or you, or Froless Soul Boy, or my Old Wrinkly Wifey. The week just seems to have dragged on, and I just can't wait to see people this weekend.
I'm also struggling a little bit with the future. The last three years, this summer especially, has taught me just how dependent I am on my friends for my happiness and well being. I can't imagine life without you guys, and it's really freaking me out because in two years' time, I have to leave this city to complete my graduate studies at a different University. I think I would be able to survive a two years Masters degree, but I don't think I could handle being away for any longer than that. I love you all so much, I can't bear to be away from you all, and I especially don't want to miss out on this part of our lives. I'm trying to work out a way for me to get into the career that I want without having to be away for long periods of time. I'm thinking about the different options that are open to me, and I'm having trouble making a decision. I know that I don't really have to make one for another year or so, and I acknowledge the fact that there are many, many variable that I am unable to account for at the moment, but I still think it's important to think about these things anyways. These things are sometimes so polemical. I'll just keep praying about it and keep my heart open to the possibilities.
Regardless, I don't want to bother you too much with my rantings; sometimes I feel like I'm always just talking about myself and I fear that I am being selfish or inconsiderate.
I hope things are going well out at TWU! I can see that you are having fun writing for the Mars Hill and are excited to be back on campus. What courses are you taking this year? Any interesting electives? Your mini library in the hall made me giggle a bit; perhaps I may be able to contribute a tome or two.
I better get back to my work; I have to do some last minute prep for my Honours Physio lab this afternoon.
Take care and chat soon,
Tim
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Polemical
po•lem•i•cal (adjective)
of, relating to, or involving strongly critical, controversial, or disputatious writing or speech
~~~~~~~~~~
Tim, I'm glad to hear you're putting all that behind you. It shows both wisdom and courage to be able to set aside the past to focus on what's ahead. We can't change the past, but we have control over how it affects the present.
Actually, I think I said that before. Oh well.
Anyway, I hope you have a great semester and meet some real cool people in all your classes! I know you will rock it because you're a genius. You have brain power that makes mere uneducated mortals crap themselves in awe!
So, I thought I would just give you an update on my first few weeks at TWU, now that I'm living in an apartment now!
I've moved in with three real real cool dudes who, in Vonerdculary tradition, shall remain nameless. I will refer to them by their majors. I'm living with Mr. Human Kinetics who I knew from my dorm last year. He's a fun guy with great taste in music and an even greater sense of humour. He's currently working as the Trainer on the Spartans soccer team, so he's always at practices, ready to jump in to save the day if anyone gets hurt. He also has this thing that looks like it's covered in marshmallows that he uses to give massages to the team.
He gave me one and it hurt like a female dog, but I felt SOOOOOO good afterwards! It was crazy!
Anyways, down the hall in the apartment, we have Mr. International Studies and Mr. Business. Mr. IS was my RA from last year and he's a super cool dude. Together, we have assembled one of the greatest libraries known to man (that is placed next to a bathroom). It's such a cool experience to go to the bathroom and be greeted by my old friends Lewis, Tennyson, Austen, and Norton . . . Anthology of Literature. Also Nietzsche is there.
Mr. IS is also dating B's RA from last year, who is now the CF for B's building, while B is now RA in 4/5U while the RA turned CF GF is now living in F. All initializations aside, the bottom line is: B and this other girl now have weekly meetings together and afterward they are going to come over to our place for late dinner/snacks. I'm really excited!
Mr. Business only moved in a few days ago, but he's really cool! Apparently, he was in my brother's dorm three years ago when S was an RA and the first thing he said to me was that I looked like my brother, without even knowing we were related. He's from China in a town I know I will butcher the spelling of here. He's brought a whole bunch of awesome Asian food and he and I now have a deal where he cooks amazing Asian meals so long as I do the dishes. This is a pretty cool deal, except that I will have few opportunities to actually learn how to cook some sweet Chinese food.
So yeah, that's my apartment full of some cool guys!
Have a great week Tim!
I hope you guys had fun at the last weekend at The Wright's before school really starts!
See ya!
-Clayton
of, relating to, or involving strongly critical, controversial, or disputatious writing or speech
~~~~~~~~~~
Tim, I'm glad to hear you're putting all that behind you. It shows both wisdom and courage to be able to set aside the past to focus on what's ahead. We can't change the past, but we have control over how it affects the present.
Actually, I think I said that before. Oh well.
Anyway, I hope you have a great semester and meet some real cool people in all your classes! I know you will rock it because you're a genius. You have brain power that makes mere uneducated mortals crap themselves in awe!
So, I thought I would just give you an update on my first few weeks at TWU, now that I'm living in an apartment now!
I've moved in with three real real cool dudes who, in Vonerdculary tradition, shall remain nameless. I will refer to them by their majors. I'm living with Mr. Human Kinetics who I knew from my dorm last year. He's a fun guy with great taste in music and an even greater sense of humour. He's currently working as the Trainer on the Spartans soccer team, so he's always at practices, ready to jump in to save the day if anyone gets hurt. He also has this thing that looks like it's covered in marshmallows that he uses to give massages to the team.
He gave me one and it hurt like a female dog, but I felt SOOOOOO good afterwards! It was crazy!
Anyways, down the hall in the apartment, we have Mr. International Studies and Mr. Business. Mr. IS was my RA from last year and he's a super cool dude. Together, we have assembled one of the greatest libraries known to man (that is placed next to a bathroom). It's such a cool experience to go to the bathroom and be greeted by my old friends Lewis, Tennyson, Austen, and Norton . . . Anthology of Literature. Also Nietzsche is there.
Mr. IS is also dating B's RA from last year, who is now the CF for B's building, while B is now RA in 4/5U while the RA turned CF GF is now living in F. All initializations aside, the bottom line is: B and this other girl now have weekly meetings together and afterward they are going to come over to our place for late dinner/snacks. I'm really excited!
Mr. Business only moved in a few days ago, but he's really cool! Apparently, he was in my brother's dorm three years ago when S was an RA and the first thing he said to me was that I looked like my brother, without even knowing we were related. He's from China in a town I know I will butcher the spelling of here. He's brought a whole bunch of awesome Asian food and he and I now have a deal where he cooks amazing Asian meals so long as I do the dishes. This is a pretty cool deal, except that I will have few opportunities to actually learn how to cook some sweet Chinese food.
So yeah, that's my apartment full of some cool guys!
Have a great week Tim!
I hope you guys had fun at the last weekend at The Wright's before school really starts!
See ya!
-Clayton
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Germination
ger•min•a•tion (noun)
to begin/commence growth and/or development; to come into existence, to begin
Origin: Latin (germinatus = to sprout/begin)
~~~~~~~~~~
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back! The Vonerdculary returns for its second year after a long summer haitus! Clay and I decided that since we started this to keep in touch during school, and since we were both home for the summer months, continuing the blog would be rather redundant, seeing as we would be seeing each other all summer long.
Here we are at the beginning of yet another September, the beginning of yet another long school year, fraught with learning, exams, and more grueling work. It's time for part three, my friends!
Clay, to be honest, I was a little hesitant going into this September because of how stressful this summer has been, and I wasn't sure how I was going to fare this term with all of that weighing down on me, but in the past few days, I've just sort of said "You know what, this is ridiculous; I really just could not care less anymore." and I'm just not going to think about it anymore because it's going to cause more harm than good.
So being on Campus for orientation stuff today was rather refreshing, and I'm rather exciting to go back. Of course, I'm not looking forwards to the stress or the exams and stuff, but I'm excited to be learning again, to be exercising my brain, to be thinking about important things and issues; no more of this frivolous personal drama. I'm tired of waiting, because frankly at this point in our lives, we should all me mature young adults; I strongly believe that high school is the time of a person's life in which one should be doing their soul-searching; discovering who you are, who you've been, and who you want to be. It's the time of life when you're supposed to get to know yourself and the people around you.
It's just frustrating to know that there is one among us who did not do this in high school, and as a consequence, there are now high school-esque problems permeating our group when there really should be none at this point in our lives. Emotional immaturity at this age is intolerable, but unfortunately many people in this day in age go through their teens and enter their twenties without ever doing what they're supposed to do, and they go their entire lives with the emotion/mental maturity of a ten year old. I'm very disappointed that one of our friends has turned out to be one of these people.
Regardless, there is not much that we can do at this point, so there really is no point in my fretting over something I have very little control over, so whatever. At this point in time, I'm just going to try to be pleasant and wait and see what happens. Hopefully, the person in question takes this time to do the soul searching that should have been done several years ago, and if that happens, I will be very happy to resume where we have left off. If not, I'm just going to have to wait a bit longer.
The truth of the matter is that the events that occurred over the summer have been a gross betrayal of my trust, and if things are ever going to go back to normal, that trust needs to be earned back, and you are familiar with the extent to which my trust issues extend, so you very well know that it won't be easy. I mean, it's not like we're starting from scratch, because regardless of how I feel now, I can't deny that we've been friends for a very long time and that friendship has been a big part of my life. Because of that, I owe this friendship a second chance, in the name of our past; honestly, if it weren't for our past history, I wouldn't have given it a second chance in the first place.
Anyways, that's my little rant for today. I hope you are well out at Trinity, and that everything is going well. Good luck with your courses and commitments this term!
I can't wait to hear from you! Say Hi to B for me!
Tim.
to begin/commence growth and/or development; to come into existence, to begin
Origin: Latin (germinatus = to sprout/begin)
~~~~~~~~~~
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back! The Vonerdculary returns for its second year after a long summer haitus! Clay and I decided that since we started this to keep in touch during school, and since we were both home for the summer months, continuing the blog would be rather redundant, seeing as we would be seeing each other all summer long.
Here we are at the beginning of yet another September, the beginning of yet another long school year, fraught with learning, exams, and more grueling work. It's time for part three, my friends!
Clay, to be honest, I was a little hesitant going into this September because of how stressful this summer has been, and I wasn't sure how I was going to fare this term with all of that weighing down on me, but in the past few days, I've just sort of said "You know what, this is ridiculous; I really just could not care less anymore." and I'm just not going to think about it anymore because it's going to cause more harm than good.
So being on Campus for orientation stuff today was rather refreshing, and I'm rather exciting to go back. Of course, I'm not looking forwards to the stress or the exams and stuff, but I'm excited to be learning again, to be exercising my brain, to be thinking about important things and issues; no more of this frivolous personal drama. I'm tired of waiting, because frankly at this point in our lives, we should all me mature young adults; I strongly believe that high school is the time of a person's life in which one should be doing their soul-searching; discovering who you are, who you've been, and who you want to be. It's the time of life when you're supposed to get to know yourself and the people around you.
It's just frustrating to know that there is one among us who did not do this in high school, and as a consequence, there are now high school-esque problems permeating our group when there really should be none at this point in our lives. Emotional immaturity at this age is intolerable, but unfortunately many people in this day in age go through their teens and enter their twenties without ever doing what they're supposed to do, and they go their entire lives with the emotion/mental maturity of a ten year old. I'm very disappointed that one of our friends has turned out to be one of these people.
Regardless, there is not much that we can do at this point, so there really is no point in my fretting over something I have very little control over, so whatever. At this point in time, I'm just going to try to be pleasant and wait and see what happens. Hopefully, the person in question takes this time to do the soul searching that should have been done several years ago, and if that happens, I will be very happy to resume where we have left off. If not, I'm just going to have to wait a bit longer.
The truth of the matter is that the events that occurred over the summer have been a gross betrayal of my trust, and if things are ever going to go back to normal, that trust needs to be earned back, and you are familiar with the extent to which my trust issues extend, so you very well know that it won't be easy. I mean, it's not like we're starting from scratch, because regardless of how I feel now, I can't deny that we've been friends for a very long time and that friendship has been a big part of my life. Because of that, I owe this friendship a second chance, in the name of our past; honestly, if it weren't for our past history, I wouldn't have given it a second chance in the first place.
Anyways, that's my little rant for today. I hope you are well out at Trinity, and that everything is going well. Good luck with your courses and commitments this term!
I can't wait to hear from you! Say Hi to B for me!
Tim.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Gastropod
gas•tro•pod (noun)
a group of animals, more formally known as Class Gastropoda under the phylum Mollusca, that are characterized by their slimy foot. Gastropods are invertebrate animals and, as the phylum suggests, belong to the larger group known as mollusks. Creatures in this class include snails, slugs, and nudibranchs (OMG SO CUTE! I love nudibrachs <3).
Origin: Greek (gastros = stomach, pod = foot; gastropod = stomach foot; named thusly for the slimy "foot" they use to move across substrate which leaves behind a slimy trail)
~~~~~~~~~~
I was trying to look for a good word that would work with my topic today, but this is the closest I could come without using endocytosis, pinocytosis, pr phagocytotsis, which I've already sort of touched on. But first, comments about your last post.
Thanks for agreeing to put the blog and Thread on haitus for the exam season; I really needed to hunker down and concentrate on my studies. This past semester has been really wonky for me. Now that I'm done (and you're finishing in less than a week) I feel like we can start things up again.
Your last post was interesting; I have always found the banjo quite, as you say, twangy, but it can be a very nice sounding instrument. I never played Banjo Kazoie, frankly because the characters looks like rednecks, which really freaked me out as a kid (and to be honest, still freak me out), but the intro was fun. Sufjan Stevens' (which, btw, is quite an interesting name; I wonder from which language does it originate?) song was nice, but I felt that the banjo was a tad too twangy for the song, and I couldn't hear the lyrics. I quite enjoyed the Mumford and Sons song, but I really didn't like the last one. For reasons which will be made apparent over the course of our lives, I really have an aversion to these sorts of songs; another topic to add to the long list of things about which we have to converse over the summer.
~~~~~~~~~~
So today, I want to talk about this:
I want to talk about food.
Yes, food.
Being an Asian, food is a very big part of my life. As you know, food is so ingrained into Asian culture that a traditional greeting is to ask not "How are you doing?" but to ask (loosely translated as) "Have you eaten yet?" or "Is your stomach full?" implying that one who is well fed is one whose life is happy/going well.
Food (and tea) is a major part of my life, one of the greatest joys I have in living. The list of (non-living) things that I will never get enough of goes 1) Food 2) Sleep 3) Pokemon 4) Math. Allow me to explain myself.
Food has become the central focus of Asian culture. There are two major reasons for this.
First of all, food was (and still is) a sign of wealth. It makes sense when you consider the historical context: China has one quarter of the world's population yet only about a tenth of the world's arable land, so food has always been relatively expensive. One must be relatively well off to be able to feed one's family well. When it came to the Emperor and the royal family, there are special dishes that are only known to the imperial chefs, passed down in secret from generation to generation. The royal family even ate on special porcelain with special imperial designs that were only allowed to be printed on porcelain used by the royal family; archeologists have found mounds of smashed porcelain in ancient potters' workshops consisting of all the dinnerware painted with imperial designs that developed impurities during the baking/kiln/firing process.
Secondly, and most importantly of all, food is tied to the family.
Asian culture values family very, very highly. In ancient China, one of the only ways for a family to climb the social ladder was to become a government official (such as a judge or a magistrate or a doctor), which was only possible if you were educated and passed government exams. Entire peasant families would work very hard to pay for a tutor so that one family member could be educated in the hopes that if he passed the government exams, the entire family would rise in status (which is also the reason why Asians value education: in old times - and even not so old times; this was still being done in my grandfather's generation) and the entire family would lead a better life. It interesting to note that the government issued many levels of examination, the highest of which was invigilated in the Forbidden City by the Emperor himself.
I speak for Asian culture when I say that to me, food does not hold value JUST in its taste or JUST in its nutritional value; food is valuable to me not because I find pleasure in gluttony. Food is very important to me because it is the vehicle that brings me happiness; it is the unifying factor that brings me closer to the people I love; it is the thing that facilitates the strengthening of bonds.
Of the fondest memories that I have of my family, easily more than half of them occur in the kitchen, at the dinner table, or just before or just after a meal. Easily the majority of the best conversations I've ever been a part of have taken place over a meal or just following a meal. Food is not just something I prepare or eat: it is something I experience. It is not just the act of eating good food, it is the act of eating good food together, the act of sharing good food. I just find that it is much easier to get along with people and talk to people over a meal. Of course, the fact that food stimulates the release of endorphins (chemicals in the brain that signal happiness) helps. But still, I find myself more relaxed and able to enjoy myself while eating or on a full stomach. Conversely, I can be very irritable when hungry.
Food does this in two ways: in both its preparation and its consumption.
The preparation of food is in many ways just as important as the consumption of food, especially for the large dinner events throughout the year. As they say, cooking is a labor of love.
For normal, daily dinners, in my family, cooking is usually done by one, maybe two, seldomly three people. It is usually a quiet affair, but having the house smell like good food puts everyone in a good mood. Cooking for large family events is a whole different story.
When we do family dinners, and we are cooking, we go all out. This year, we celebrated Chinese New Year's on a Saturday. My father began cooking for it on the Wednesday. The day before Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, he begins cooking at about 9/10 pm, cooks until the wee hours of the morning, sleeps for maybe five hours, gets up, and starts cooking again until dinnertime, and even when we have started to eat, he is still in the kitchen cooking for a good 20 minutes, finishing off some of the other dishes while we start on what's already finished.
But cooking is not a solitary activity. At these large dinners and parties, the host will be cooking in the kitchen, and as the other families, arrive, everyone bee-lines into the kitchen: those who can cook (usually the Aunties and myself) begin helping with the preparations, and those who cannot, linger around. There is always a crowd in the kitchen, and there is always a conversation to join. Whether it is because you are preparing the same dish together, or using the same facilities (sink, stove, counter, etc.) there is always someone to converse with, and people who are not cooking usually join these conversations. While white people may quilt together, asian people cook together. It is a great time to catch up with people's lives or discuss recent events. It gives us something to do with our hands while we chat. I find that cooking brings us closer together as a family.
The other factor, of course, is the meal itself.
In the context of normal dinner with my parents and sister, it is a quiet affair. We all sit together and eat and talk about our day/lives. It is a chance for us to bond as a family, to laugh together and be happy together. It is so easy to be home as a family, but not interact with each other that dinner becomes a time when we are together as a family, which is increasingly rare as we get older. I remember that growing up, it was an unspoken rule that the family eat together, and that it was very disrespectful to leave the table in the middle of a meal (the ONLY exception was to get up to get condiments from the cooking area). It was also an unspoken rule that we sat together at the table until the everyone was finished eating. Of course, as I said earlier, the consumption of the food makes it that much easier to get along.
In the context of large dinners with extended families, food, be it lunch or dinner (breakfast is a smaller affair because we, being Asians, are night people and usually not everyone is awake until it is near lunch time) is an extravagant pageant. One the food is served and Grace said, we eat. We cook not only good tasting, food, but very large amounts of food. We will sit down and eat one serving, then two, all the while talking and laughing, sharing stories, our lives, connecting, bonding. The initial meal portion lasts about an hour, followed by about an hour of nibbling at the food, followed by about another hour of just sitting at the table with our empty plates and leftovers on the table in front of us, still chatting, still laughing. Then, after clean up, if we just ate dinner, about an hour later, we get together for dessert, which is just as extravagant as the dinner itself. We usually like making fruit and gelatinous "cake" (for the lack of a better term; they are more like pudding than anything else) dishes. Usually there are three, four, maybe five dessert dishes in all. Sometimes there will be actual cake. And then we all gather and sit for another hour or so to eat dessert.
Family meals are a long, drawn out spectacle. As you can see, easily four hours or more of our gathering is spent revolving around food. Like I said, it is the mode that brings us together; it is the thing over which our family becomes a family, not just a bunch of people who share genetics.
This is something that I've tried to bring to our group of friends. I want to share this kind of experience with you - the wonder and the sheer joy that comes out of cooking and eating together, of working together to create something that we can then all enjoy and experience together. This is why I love food, and why I will never get enough of it. It is not the taste or flavour that I crave - it is the feeling of belonging and the joy of being together with people I love that comes with food: that is what I will never be able to get enough of.
I'm tired and it's midnight, so my writing may not be superb, but it'll do for a blog post. Good luck with the rest of your exams, Clay! I can't wait to see you again (I'm almost going into withdrawal XD).
Chat soon,
Tim
PS - I find it funny that you came back from Trinity for Easter and I left Ladner to spend Easter with my extended family in Chiliwak =P
a group of animals, more formally known as Class Gastropoda under the phylum Mollusca, that are characterized by their slimy foot. Gastropods are invertebrate animals and, as the phylum suggests, belong to the larger group known as mollusks. Creatures in this class include snails, slugs, and nudibranchs (OMG SO CUTE! I love nudibrachs <3).
Origin: Greek (gastros = stomach, pod = foot; gastropod = stomach foot; named thusly for the slimy "foot" they use to move across substrate which leaves behind a slimy trail)
~~~~~~~~~~
I was trying to look for a good word that would work with my topic today, but this is the closest I could come without using endocytosis, pinocytosis, pr phagocytotsis, which I've already sort of touched on. But first, comments about your last post.
Thanks for agreeing to put the blog and Thread on haitus for the exam season; I really needed to hunker down and concentrate on my studies. This past semester has been really wonky for me. Now that I'm done (and you're finishing in less than a week) I feel like we can start things up again.
Your last post was interesting; I have always found the banjo quite, as you say, twangy, but it can be a very nice sounding instrument. I never played Banjo Kazoie, frankly because the characters looks like rednecks, which really freaked me out as a kid (and to be honest, still freak me out), but the intro was fun. Sufjan Stevens' (which, btw, is quite an interesting name; I wonder from which language does it originate?) song was nice, but I felt that the banjo was a tad too twangy for the song, and I couldn't hear the lyrics. I quite enjoyed the Mumford and Sons song, but I really didn't like the last one. For reasons which will be made apparent over the course of our lives, I really have an aversion to these sorts of songs; another topic to add to the long list of things about which we have to converse over the summer.
~~~~~~~~~~
So today, I want to talk about this:
Yes, food.
Being an Asian, food is a very big part of my life. As you know, food is so ingrained into Asian culture that a traditional greeting is to ask not "How are you doing?" but to ask (loosely translated as) "Have you eaten yet?" or "Is your stomach full?" implying that one who is well fed is one whose life is happy/going well.
Food (and tea) is a major part of my life, one of the greatest joys I have in living. The list of (non-living) things that I will never get enough of goes 1) Food 2) Sleep 3) Pokemon 4) Math. Allow me to explain myself.
Food has become the central focus of Asian culture. There are two major reasons for this.
First of all, food was (and still is) a sign of wealth. It makes sense when you consider the historical context: China has one quarter of the world's population yet only about a tenth of the world's arable land, so food has always been relatively expensive. One must be relatively well off to be able to feed one's family well. When it came to the Emperor and the royal family, there are special dishes that are only known to the imperial chefs, passed down in secret from generation to generation. The royal family even ate on special porcelain with special imperial designs that were only allowed to be printed on porcelain used by the royal family; archeologists have found mounds of smashed porcelain in ancient potters' workshops consisting of all the dinnerware painted with imperial designs that developed impurities during the baking/kiln/firing process.
Secondly, and most importantly of all, food is tied to the family.
Asian culture values family very, very highly. In ancient China, one of the only ways for a family to climb the social ladder was to become a government official (such as a judge or a magistrate or a doctor), which was only possible if you were educated and passed government exams. Entire peasant families would work very hard to pay for a tutor so that one family member could be educated in the hopes that if he passed the government exams, the entire family would rise in status (which is also the reason why Asians value education: in old times - and even not so old times; this was still being done in my grandfather's generation) and the entire family would lead a better life. It interesting to note that the government issued many levels of examination, the highest of which was invigilated in the Forbidden City by the Emperor himself.
I speak for Asian culture when I say that to me, food does not hold value JUST in its taste or JUST in its nutritional value; food is valuable to me not because I find pleasure in gluttony. Food is very important to me because it is the vehicle that brings me happiness; it is the unifying factor that brings me closer to the people I love; it is the thing that facilitates the strengthening of bonds.
Of the fondest memories that I have of my family, easily more than half of them occur in the kitchen, at the dinner table, or just before or just after a meal. Easily the majority of the best conversations I've ever been a part of have taken place over a meal or just following a meal. Food is not just something I prepare or eat: it is something I experience. It is not just the act of eating good food, it is the act of eating good food together, the act of sharing good food. I just find that it is much easier to get along with people and talk to people over a meal. Of course, the fact that food stimulates the release of endorphins (chemicals in the brain that signal happiness) helps. But still, I find myself more relaxed and able to enjoy myself while eating or on a full stomach. Conversely, I can be very irritable when hungry.
Food does this in two ways: in both its preparation and its consumption.
The preparation of food is in many ways just as important as the consumption of food, especially for the large dinner events throughout the year. As they say, cooking is a labor of love.
For normal, daily dinners, in my family, cooking is usually done by one, maybe two, seldomly three people. It is usually a quiet affair, but having the house smell like good food puts everyone in a good mood. Cooking for large family events is a whole different story.
When we do family dinners, and we are cooking, we go all out. This year, we celebrated Chinese New Year's on a Saturday. My father began cooking for it on the Wednesday. The day before Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, he begins cooking at about 9/10 pm, cooks until the wee hours of the morning, sleeps for maybe five hours, gets up, and starts cooking again until dinnertime, and even when we have started to eat, he is still in the kitchen cooking for a good 20 minutes, finishing off some of the other dishes while we start on what's already finished.
But cooking is not a solitary activity. At these large dinners and parties, the host will be cooking in the kitchen, and as the other families, arrive, everyone bee-lines into the kitchen: those who can cook (usually the Aunties and myself) begin helping with the preparations, and those who cannot, linger around. There is always a crowd in the kitchen, and there is always a conversation to join. Whether it is because you are preparing the same dish together, or using the same facilities (sink, stove, counter, etc.) there is always someone to converse with, and people who are not cooking usually join these conversations. While white people may quilt together, asian people cook together. It is a great time to catch up with people's lives or discuss recent events. It gives us something to do with our hands while we chat. I find that cooking brings us closer together as a family.
The other factor, of course, is the meal itself.
In the context of normal dinner with my parents and sister, it is a quiet affair. We all sit together and eat and talk about our day/lives. It is a chance for us to bond as a family, to laugh together and be happy together. It is so easy to be home as a family, but not interact with each other that dinner becomes a time when we are together as a family, which is increasingly rare as we get older. I remember that growing up, it was an unspoken rule that the family eat together, and that it was very disrespectful to leave the table in the middle of a meal (the ONLY exception was to get up to get condiments from the cooking area). It was also an unspoken rule that we sat together at the table until the everyone was finished eating. Of course, as I said earlier, the consumption of the food makes it that much easier to get along.
In the context of large dinners with extended families, food, be it lunch or dinner (breakfast is a smaller affair because we, being Asians, are night people and usually not everyone is awake until it is near lunch time) is an extravagant pageant. One the food is served and Grace said, we eat. We cook not only good tasting, food, but very large amounts of food. We will sit down and eat one serving, then two, all the while talking and laughing, sharing stories, our lives, connecting, bonding. The initial meal portion lasts about an hour, followed by about an hour of nibbling at the food, followed by about another hour of just sitting at the table with our empty plates and leftovers on the table in front of us, still chatting, still laughing. Then, after clean up, if we just ate dinner, about an hour later, we get together for dessert, which is just as extravagant as the dinner itself. We usually like making fruit and gelatinous "cake" (for the lack of a better term; they are more like pudding than anything else) dishes. Usually there are three, four, maybe five dessert dishes in all. Sometimes there will be actual cake. And then we all gather and sit for another hour or so to eat dessert.
Family meals are a long, drawn out spectacle. As you can see, easily four hours or more of our gathering is spent revolving around food. Like I said, it is the mode that brings us together; it is the thing over which our family becomes a family, not just a bunch of people who share genetics.
This is something that I've tried to bring to our group of friends. I want to share this kind of experience with you - the wonder and the sheer joy that comes out of cooking and eating together, of working together to create something that we can then all enjoy and experience together. This is why I love food, and why I will never get enough of it. It is not the taste or flavour that I crave - it is the feeling of belonging and the joy of being together with people I love that comes with food: that is what I will never be able to get enough of.
I'm tired and it's midnight, so my writing may not be superb, but it'll do for a blog post. Good luck with the rest of your exams, Clay! I can't wait to see you again (I'm almost going into withdrawal XD).
Chat soon,
Tim
PS - I find it funny that you came back from Trinity for Easter and I left Ladner to spend Easter with my extended family in Chiliwak =P
Monday, April 11, 2011
Chordophone
chor•do•phone (noun)
a stringed instrument
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK, I do want to share my thoughts and hear some more of yours on what you talked about in your last post, but I'd prefer to do that face-to-face, which won't be so long seeing as school is almost over. I liked hearing all of your insightful thoughts on the subject and I'd love to talk to you about it in person.
For now, I'm just going to put in some filler material about something I have recently developed an attachment to:
BANJOS!!!
Yes, this is another musical post, but this time it's specifically geared towards an instrument that I believe is widely underrated. I was inspired by the Sufjan video I posted last time and realized I wanted to focus on this instrument. It's the kind that usually doesn't fit into a group ensemble, but on those strange occasions when banjo playing is appropriate, it's amazing! While the banjo is usually associated with hillbillies, rednecks, yokels, hicks, bumpkins, and all manner of country-dwellin' folk, the banjo can also be used in some fairly creative and unique genres.
For starters, there's one of my favorite video-game intros of all time. I wish all video-games started out this way, especially the more violent ones we play on Xbox and Fatty and Sissy's house.
It's so cute!!!
It reminds me of much simpler time of video-games when you collected puzzle pieces instead of other people's guns and instead of a flame-thrower tank on your back, all you had was a giant bird that pecked people who got in your way. Not that I think about it, this isn't really any less violent . . .
Anyway, I mentioned Sufjan Stevens above and it would be an absolute desecration to write post about the banjo without mentioning him. For me, Sufjan opened up the possibilities of the banjo and what it could be used for. He is able to perform such melodiously beautiful songs with a rather twangy instrument, which to me is amazing.
This song is called "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti".
He plays other instruments as well, but I whenever I think of Sufjan, I always picture him with a banjo, just because of the skill and heart he puts into that one instrument.
Another band that I have recently become attached to is Mumford and Sons, a folk-rock band from England. The also have so much heart and soul in their music, and they deal with some fairly difficult spiritual issues in their music. This song is my favorite of theirs. but unfortunately, the language is a little strong. I felt I should just warn you so it doesn't take you off guard.
If it doesn't let you watch it here, there should be a direct link to Youtube there. The song is called "Little Lion Man" if you want to look it up yourself.
This last one is by David Crowder*Band. They took an old southern revival song by a guy called Hank Williams and adapted it with a few modern changes. The song is a good ol' fashioned hoedown song about being born again in Christ. What I appreciate about the song is that whenever David Crowder plays it anywhere but the south, he always asks if it would be "socially acceptable" for them to break out in a hoedown. It's a fun song and they always get the audience into it. It's so much fun to be a part of a giant group of people all singing and worshipping in the most ridiculous way possible, which is probably why this is my favorite banjo song. Despite the diversity of the instrument, it's always best when used in a classic hootenanny style.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So you may have noticed that most of the songs were either about God, or with some sort of religious issue. I'm not sure why that is to be honest, but I think it's so interesting that the banjo is so closely related to worship and spiritual experience.
Anyway, wish you bonne chance and buena suerte on your next exams and hope all the best for you in the last few days of school! This summer, I'll be more available because I'll probably be working more for my Dad. That means we can have more group parties, late night movie-watching, and even later night discussions. And I'll talk to you about pastoral stuff very soon, don't worry.
Have a great night Tim!
See you soon!
a stringed instrument
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK, I do want to share my thoughts and hear some more of yours on what you talked about in your last post, but I'd prefer to do that face-to-face, which won't be so long seeing as school is almost over. I liked hearing all of your insightful thoughts on the subject and I'd love to talk to you about it in person.
For now, I'm just going to put in some filler material about something I have recently developed an attachment to:
BANJOS!!!
Yes, this is another musical post, but this time it's specifically geared towards an instrument that I believe is widely underrated. I was inspired by the Sufjan video I posted last time and realized I wanted to focus on this instrument. It's the kind that usually doesn't fit into a group ensemble, but on those strange occasions when banjo playing is appropriate, it's amazing! While the banjo is usually associated with hillbillies, rednecks, yokels, hicks, bumpkins, and all manner of country-dwellin' folk, the banjo can also be used in some fairly creative and unique genres.
For starters, there's one of my favorite video-game intros of all time. I wish all video-games started out this way, especially the more violent ones we play on Xbox and Fatty and Sissy's house.
It's so cute!!!
It reminds me of much simpler time of video-games when you collected puzzle pieces instead of other people's guns and instead of a flame-thrower tank on your back, all you had was a giant bird that pecked people who got in your way. Not that I think about it, this isn't really any less violent . . .
Anyway, I mentioned Sufjan Stevens above and it would be an absolute desecration to write post about the banjo without mentioning him. For me, Sufjan opened up the possibilities of the banjo and what it could be used for. He is able to perform such melodiously beautiful songs with a rather twangy instrument, which to me is amazing.
This song is called "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti".
He plays other instruments as well, but I whenever I think of Sufjan, I always picture him with a banjo, just because of the skill and heart he puts into that one instrument.
Another band that I have recently become attached to is Mumford and Sons, a folk-rock band from England. The also have so much heart and soul in their music, and they deal with some fairly difficult spiritual issues in their music. This song is my favorite of theirs. but unfortunately, the language is a little strong. I felt I should just warn you so it doesn't take you off guard.
If it doesn't let you watch it here, there should be a direct link to Youtube there. The song is called "Little Lion Man" if you want to look it up yourself.
This last one is by David Crowder*Band. They took an old southern revival song by a guy called Hank Williams and adapted it with a few modern changes. The song is a good ol' fashioned hoedown song about being born again in Christ. What I appreciate about the song is that whenever David Crowder plays it anywhere but the south, he always asks if it would be "socially acceptable" for them to break out in a hoedown. It's a fun song and they always get the audience into it. It's so much fun to be a part of a giant group of people all singing and worshipping in the most ridiculous way possible, which is probably why this is my favorite banjo song. Despite the diversity of the instrument, it's always best when used in a classic hootenanny style.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So you may have noticed that most of the songs were either about God, or with some sort of religious issue. I'm not sure why that is to be honest, but I think it's so interesting that the banjo is so closely related to worship and spiritual experience.
Anyway, wish you bonne chance and buena suerte on your next exams and hope all the best for you in the last few days of school! This summer, I'll be more available because I'll probably be working more for my Dad. That means we can have more group parties, late night movie-watching, and even later night discussions. And I'll talk to you about pastoral stuff very soon, don't worry.
Have a great night Tim!
See you soon!
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