Strawberry Shortcake

This is probably the best strawberry shortcake I have ever made so far. Same cake and same strawberry from the other day. But this time we cut in cake in half, and put a lot of strawberries between the top and bottom layers. I still can't believe frozen strawberries work so well to make this dessert.

Google Doc New Features!!

I have used Google Gocs for my personal documents for a while. It's mainly for non-critical purposes. For example, if I just want a simple spread sheet to do some repetitive calculations, or just need to write down some notes for my personal reference, I use Google doc. Although I probably have Microsoft Office somewhere in the computer, I'd like to store the information on the internet, so the same information is accessible to me wherever I go. However, I won't hesitate to dig out Office if I need to update my resume and send it to the company I'd like to work for.

Another nice thing I like about Google doc is that it is simpler to share information. All I need to do is to click share and choose from there. There is no need to attach anything manually. Friends will receive an email with the link. It saves time and precious space in inbox.

Google doc was not perfect. Although it had the import function, but it was only limited to import the file format it accepted, that is, documents, spreadsheets, and slides. Other than that, it did not accept anything else. Not photos, not music, nothing else! Thus I was not able to back up some other data.

This morning I was clicking around, and click 'new feature' on the top right corner in Gmail, and was surprised to see the announcement from Google that Google doc now accepts all file format. That's the feature I have been waiting for for so long. I no longer have to look for alternative for file sharing, and file backup. I used Microsoft's Skydrive but was not impressed.

The upload is easy. I tried to upload a screenshot and share it with another yahoo account of mine. Everything went smoothly without a glitch.

Of course, it's not that easy to satisfy me. Now that an important need has been met, I want something more. The capacity for Google doc is only 1G, so that is not enough for me to backup all my photos, which requires about 5G of space. I want more space. I also want a program running in my local computer, so whenever I update any file in the local computer, the program can upload and backup the file on Google doc automatically. Apple's iPhoto is already equipped with the same feature. If I share a photo in iPhoto to my Facebook account, then whenever I change the photo on my local Mac, iPhoto updates the changes to Facebook directly. I love that feature.

Cake

Nothing was originally made tfor the cake.

Strawberries were on sale last week. We bought a lot, cleaned them, and put them in freezer bags and stored them in the freezer. Yesterday I took one bag from the freezer to thaw, and thought I would really like to have some strawberry shortcake, so I opened the white cake mix and baked the cake, cut up some strawberries and added lots of sugar, and whipped some cream. The expiration date on the cream was 3 days ago, so there was no point of saving it. I whipped all the cream left in the box and ended up with a big container of whipped cream.

This morning I was chatting with a girl friend on plurk about dessert, and it just suddenly dawned on me that I could actually make a cake. The white cake is there, cream is whipped, there is some fruit in the fridge, I don't need anything else for now.

So I cut out one cube of white cake from the pan, sliced the cake into 3 slabs and put a handsome layer of cream on each slab, put them together, and put another layer cream on all 5 visible sides. I grabbed a few slices of strawberries and cantaloupes from the fridge and cut them into smaller pieces and put them on top, grabbed a freezer bag and cut a small corner off and filled some whipped cream in, squeeze and decorate.

So here is the funny-looking cake. It was such a fun little project in the early morning. It is so so far from perfect, the cake being too dry, the whipped cream unsweetened, cake not cut in perfect shape, whipped cream warmed up too much that it started to drip out of the plastic bag, nozzle not used to make cream the artistic looks, but when Fred woke up and we shared the cake and have morning coffee, it was so nice. Something different for today.

Get a nozzle for the cream? Maybe. Another cake any time soon? Maybe not, especially not when I realized how much whipped 35% cream I used on that little piece of cake. I would definitely think twice before I order any cake from coffee shops.

Paul Giamatti

The first time I saw this guy was on the movie "Sideways". Paul plays an English teacher, who wanted to write but could not be a published author, who divorced his wife few years earlier but could still not rebound from the marriage. His friend from college would get married in a week, so they went out for a wine tasting tour, and had romances of their own. His friend wanted to get married because the marriage could promise a stable life with spare time to continue with his show business, which leaves nothing more than narrator of TV commercials. He was waiting for the verdict from his publisher if his new book would be published, and during the trip, he learned his ex-wife, whom he wanted to reconcile with, re-married. Very nicely told story about how men face their middle-aged crisis and how they cope with it (well, just to face it really). I saw this movie few years before and really loved it. This is when I know about this fine actor Paul Giamatti.

Of course there are big starts in Hollywood. Gulia Roberts, Brangelina, to name a few. Movies may be blockbusters simply because their names are on the posters, but there are still so many fine actors out there who contribute just as much. They probably do not have the look to shine on the silver screen, their faces not shown on the posters even, but whenever I see them on the movie again, it was a nice and familiar feeling, like "hello Paul, here you are again, how are you doing lately. No matter how you disguise, I can still tell it's you.".

This is how I felt when I saw Paul Giamtti on Duplicity last year, and on the Last Station this year.

2 Months

I was a bit worried before the trip that I may not be able to pass the immigration. 4 trips within a year with the third stay being 2.5 months sound fishy. Although I am a darn fine visitor, the bad experience with immigration just could not go away.

So I arrived at YYC yesterday. The lady at the immigration looked nice. She asked me the purpose of this visit. I replied, my friend had open heart surgery, so I'm here to spend some time with him. She asked immediately which hospital did he go to. Well, I'm glad I know the answer and responded without any hesitation. She then stamped the report card and asked me to go to another office marked as immigration where I saw quite a few people stand in line. Calgary airport is not a large international airport, and probably does not have that many international flights, so when I went to the office and saw 4 or 5 persons in front of me and 7 or 8 when it was my turn, I thought they were being pretty cautious at the immigration.

Anyway it was my turn, and I was asked a few questions:

A: Were you here before?
Q: Yes, I was.
A: When was the last time you were here?
Q: Last December.
A: Why are you here this time?
Q: My friend had open heart surgery, so I'm here to spend some time with him.
A: Oh, how's he doing? Is he still in the hospital?
Q: He's doing fine. He was discharged 2 weeks ago.
A: Is he going to pick you up at the airport?
Q: No, he cannot drive for 2 months. I need to find my own transportation.
A: Are you going to work here?
Q: Nope.

Then he stamped on my passport and wrote something. I had not seen any writing the previous few times, so I specifically asked him what he wrote on my passport. He said you can still until early July. 2 months for you.

I said thanks, and sat on the chair nearby and find out where and what he wrote. It took a while to find it, with too many stamps here and there. The passport will expire early next year, so I'll need to get a new one once I go back.

The way immigration thinks is kind of strange. If I go shopping and spend a lot of money, I may get the VIP status, and enjoy lots of conveniences, free parking, discounts, etc. But if I go to a country too often, they keep an eye on me and give me restrictions. Is the picture a bit strange when I'd like to visit this country for 10 days and they let me stay up to 6 months, but if I come here too often, then they only let me stay 2 months.

So the original plan was to check how recuperation goes at the end of 4th or 5th week, and see what the arrangement can be done, I guess it's okay to remove this hassle.

Debt

It's not easy to explain Chinese philosophy, but still let me anyway.

Chinese understand the concept of afterlife. People believe after they die, they don't simply disappear. Instead, their souls are taken to a place for judgement for everything that they have done in their lives. There are several outcomes for the judgement. If they do good things when they are alive, their souls are sent to heaven and enjoy eternal happiness. Otherwise they may need to start another human life. Or if they are mean, they may need to start an animal life and end up being eaten by humans. Or if they are really bad, they are sent to hell. There are 18 levels of hells, the first for the less evil and the 18th for the worst kind of people.

But my focus is just on the concept of re-starting another life after we are dead.

We also believe relationship does not come easy. Any kind of relationship. There is an old saying that all Chinese know: Do good things for 10 years, and you get to share the boat with someone to cross the river, do good things for 100 years, and you get to share the pillow with someone. Connection does not just happen. You may travel alone, and feel like talking to someone. You do and that person responds kindly. That connection seems to be coming out of nowhere. You guys just happen to be at the same place at the same time. But you may have done so many good things in your previous life, so thus deserve to have this connection.

Relationship can be bad, too. There are homicides every day, domestic violence is also not uncommon. People believe that's because something happened in their previous lives, so the relationship did not end just after they died. They must resume their relationship again. Those who owed in previous life must pay back in this life.

I still remember when I was a kid, I was so determined to do something stupid. My mom would try her very best to talk me out of it. I would not listen and get into really big trouble. She would be so upset and said something like, "I must have owed you a lot in the previous life, so I am paying back as a mother right now, raising, suffering and worry".

That's a concept that most Chinese share. We may not believe it, but have heard about it somehow at some point in our lives. I am not a superstitious person, and believe I am who I am because the way I was brought up, because what I did and what kind of person I really am, nothing to do what happened before I was born, which I had no clue about and no control over

But then I just realized I may have carried some debt as well. I'll need to do something that I know I probaby should not do but shall still do any way, with total devotion and no expectation for any return. If I really owed, I'll pay back. Let the life move on.

Fareware

This is quite an old song. I've probably known this song all of my life, lyrics, music, everything. I thought the original rendition is too good to beat, until today when I saw the other one, album released on April 1st. Maybe the MV really helps by giving a heartbreaking story.

Lyrics:
I'm drunk, my love, in your flickering eyes.
How much do I wanna fall ssleep this way, deeply.
Tears drips into my dream.
No more retrospect when I wake up.
After the journey we have been through together,
yours is yours, mine is mine.

Please listen,
please lean against me.
Please do not fear the silence between us.
One more look.
One more look and I'll be old.
One more smile,
One more smile and I'll be gone.
After the journey we have been through together,
we'll be lonesome separately (have separate stories)
what happened in the past is buried in the past,
what happened in the future belongs to the future.



This is the original version. The male singer composed the music.