FILL: Ruminating on Breakfast

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Original Posting 4 December 2008

Breakfast in China

At the conference, I'm staying at a local hotel -- with what people assure me is a Chinese-style breakfast buffet.  So this morning, for example, there was a sweet rice cake, a folded bread chunk with some vegetables baked in, a pancake with chunks of sweet potato inside, a soft tortilla-like thing filled with spring onions (scallion pie?), boiled eggs, egg drop soup, bean soup, slices of apple, 4 kinds of cookies, and about 5 varieties of pickled stuff.

No tea, coffee, or juice. I think the soup substitutes, sort of?

And the bread and others from that end are oddly bland, almost boring. But with pickles, not bad. So at the start of the line, pick up some bulk, then at the end, add the pickles for flavor.

And the cookies are all a sort of shortbread, heavy on the flour. Not really sweet. A bite of lightly flavored flour, basically.

Aside from the boiled egg, most of this isn't what I think of as breakfast stuff. And no tea has been hard for me -- I really like my cuppa after eating.

But it is fun to try a different style, and notice my own reactions to being knocked out of my breakfast rut. Would you like a cookie? jette, jette, jette

rock around the clock

[Are we doing 6X6 soon? I don't know that I would make it this week . . . ]

FILL: And today, our Chinese breakfast includes . . .

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 5 December 2008

Saturday morning, with a bit different flair. A doughy ball that turned out to have sweet beans or perhaps pumpkin paste inside. A triangle of dough -- I would call it a scallion pancake without the scallions? Fried bread - the long sticks that are reasonably common in Chinatowns. Goyza, egg drop soup, boiled eggs, baked sweet potato. Pickles and cookies.

But for me, the interesting one was the hotpot of soup. Instead of bean or watery rice congee, today it was yellow. And when I started to try it -- yellow corn grits! Watery, but definitely corn. No salt or butter, but . . .

And the monks were there, too. One older in a grey robe, loudly talking to the waitresses, eating several eggs and going back for more food. One younger in a brown robe. I guess they are Buddhist. Shaved heads, but heavy builds, not thin. And watching the older one eat, I know why.

Fun for breakfast.

[An ad on the TV seemed to be about mongolian songs -- with a woman yodeling away as she caresses a bison in the snow? Do I really think that DVD singers live in the wilds with snow and wild animals? Interesting times . . .]

TECH: Twist that suit of clothes

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Original posting 7 December 2008

The Handsome Suit

This was one of the movies on the flight. I didn't watch it, but the blurb in the movie guide was:

"In this comedy-drama, a homely restaurant chef/owner finds a magical suit that makes the wearer more attractive ("Handsome Suit") and hopes it will improve his chances with the object of his affections."

I did get to pondering that description. My somewhat garbled notes hint...

I think I've heard that story before? Someone wanted a white suit, I think. And as for aids for love -- I'll bet there's a recipe for that somewhere in the cave paintings along with some tales about how it goes wrong!

What's the underlying story?

A wants something (affection!)
A looks for help -- some artificial aid -- and finds X
Should A use X? Does X really help? What happens if the object of the exercise finds out? And so on...

Possible aids? Twist and turn

• Magic objects -- suit, shoes, etc.
• wig, makeup, clothes, jewelry
• Car, house, boat, etc.
• pheromone perfume
• love potion
• Cyrano gag - adviser
• Pet
• machine
• restaurant
• "e-puppet" digital avatar

Resolutions?

• Learn to trust self -- honesty is the best policy
• B goes away, with aid? -- speak for yourself
• What's the cost? Blackmail, addiction -- some things cost too much
• Taking off training wheels -- Doing it yourself may be scary, but that's when you fly
• Everyone does it -- No they don't
• Fake aid -- cheated, but a placebo is better than nothing
• What's she doing? -- two can play at this game

What fun! There's a stack of stories waiting to be told. Twist that movie summary, paste in your characters and setting, and let the words roll. Come on, I'll bet you have a really fun version of this lurking right there in the grey cells just waiting to get out. So set it free.

Write!

and when the Saints come marching in . . .