One night in Bangkok...

I just returned from a last-minute trip to meet the hubs, returning from a business trip to Europe, in Bangkok this past long weekend. Cashed in some miles (that were expiring soon) and flew in style. I've been working so much that it slipped my attention that we would have a 4-day weekend owing to Mid-Autumn Festival. Anyways, the trip was a welcome respite. I did my usual do yoga-eat yummy food-get massages routine.

On my flight back, I started reading the September issue of GQ. Skip the girls and the silly fashion spreads - go directly to the cover story on Barack Obama, which is one of the best written political profiles I've read. It doesn't just profile a candidate, but goes into the strategy and calculus behind the long march of a presidential campaign. Also very good: an article on early-onset Alzheimers - an article I thought I'd just skim while trying to find the continuation of the cover story in the back pages of the magazine - turned out to be an incredibly moving portrait of not just a man, but of his incredibly selfless wife as well, as well as a philosophical discussion on self and identity. Good reading, folks.

Of independence, IDs, birthdays, and cakes

July and now, most of August, has blurred in a haze of multiple birthdays and farewells. Certainly time has never passed more quickly, or been marked as multiple periods end.

So here's a quick visual summary of my summer:

Perhaps ironic, yet somewhat fittingly, I got my Taiwan ID card on Independence Day, and a few days shy of my birthday. Certainly, for me it means freedom from the bureaucratic rules that shackle foreigners here.



Then it was a combined mass birthday celebration and farewell dinner at Din Tai Fung, followed by a quiet weekend that included hiking.

The following weekend was a farewell party, art show closing, and another friend's birthday. Plus, we mustn't forget Harry Potter mania!

More farewells, and birthday parties followed. (Will people stop being born in the summer, and stop leaving Taiwan?) ;-)

I made a surprise birthday cake for Neil:





Complete with crushed coconut cookie "sand," palm trees, a surfboard riding a cake wave covered in foamy "ocean surf" frosting, and Goldfish crackers frolicking in the sea.

Diamonds Are a Girl's Worst Friend

As usual, long overdue in posting, and much of my posting lately has been of a political and social commentary nature. Here's another, from Slate magazine, on how diamond engagement rings are, besides being one of the greatest marketing ploys ever pulled on the public, but also a symbol of a man's financial commitment to his prospective bride and "the status of a woman's sexual currency."

Writes Meghan O'Rourke, "it's telling, for example, that in many parts of Scandinavia, where attitudes toward gender are more egalitarian, both men and women wear engagement rings." Huh. Now that's a thought.

the end of the seas...coming soon

I just read this fascinating article on overfishing at Salon.com - read it if you want to be shocked at how poorly managed fisheries are around the world. And, if you want to do something about it, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Oceans Alive have great guides on better choices at the fishmonger. And, if you're like me and live abroad, fishbase.org is an amazing fish database. If you've ever wanted to know what grouper is called in Chinese, as well as all the various grouper species, fishbase is the place.

Now I just need to make my own handy guide for the fish market...

Buy One, Give One

Help light the world - with this great concept, you buy one solar-powered flashlight for yourself, and they will send another one to the developing world to help kids study at night, keep women safe, and make providing or finding health care easier. Check it out.

Food blog recipes

I just made a lemon banana cake because I've got my baking itch. We'll see how it comes out (it's in the oven now), because I got the recipe from a food blog. The recipe seemed to check out okay—a mix between a pound cake and genoise—and I realized she forgot to put the measurement for the melted butter (likely 3/4 cups). No problems there. But, BUT, when I poured the batter into the specified 9" round cake tin, I realized she probably meant a springform pan. Way too much batter. I've baked enough to know this was going to spill over and cause disaster in the oven, so I quickly grabbed my ice scream scoop and a small muffin tin. So now there's 6 little cupcakes waiting it's turn in the oven...

I'll let you all know how it turns out.

We love tag sales

Yesterday I took the High Speed Rail (for the first time!) to Hsinchu to check out a moving sale. We scored some nice stuff, including a lovely mid-century modern walnut china cabinet for about a third to half the price of a particleboard item from IKEA. It's nice getting quality furniture at bargain prices. And infinitely better than having the same IKEA as everyone else, although this site, IKEA Hacker, has some creative ideas for personalizing that ubiquitous and affordable IKEA stuff (much of which I love, btw - design for the masses!).