Is It Worth To Buy Organic?

Since organic food is so much more expensive than non-organic, I often wonder if it's really worth the bucks. After reading this article from Prevention.com, I think it's really worth it after all. The article gives very good advice on when to buy what on organic to stretch the budget.. I love apples and now I learn that apple is on the list of one of those most contaminated by pesticide residues, I am determined to only buy organic apples from now on. To find out what food tends to have the highest level of pesticide residues in order to decide what food item you should definitely buy the organic, click here to read the article.

I Can See Rupert Murdoch's Vote On This Best Dressed List...

I can't believe Old Rupie's hideous communist wife got on the Vanity Fair 2010 Best Dressed List. It just proves that in America, anything from the senate seat to the spot of the best dressed evil queen list can be bought... Wendi Murdoch always has bad tastes in clothes. This is one of her many disasters. She looks like she is dressed to go hunt down snow white and kill her.... That Nija style gloves must be some kind of a joke. Her hair style is just as weird...

Blue Berry Walnut Oatmeals For One

Feeding myself has been one of the challenges I am constantly facing in America. Yes, I am Chinese, but I never cooked. My mom always banned me from the kitchen. I never had to boil an egg...When mom wasn't cooking, I just went grab whatever from the so many choices of breakfasts that were served in any corner in Hong Kong. Waking up and fixing breakfast for myself is really a punishment to me being an alien in America... Nobody did that in Hong Kong... not even my mom or grandma made breakfast.... They just went out and bought the delicious breakfasts from wherever steps away from our condo... They were cheap, delish and convenient.

But in the USA, I see how most Americans have to fix their own breakfasts and make their own coffees in the morning. Many resort to eating cold cereals out of the bowls, others just drink the store bought slim-fast kind of protein drinks. Either practice is not appetizing to me. I miss hot, freshly made breakfasts in Hong Kong. I never repeated my breakfast in the same week when I was living back home. I just don't understand how can the Americans eat the same cold cereals everyday and not peuk.... Yet going out to a restaurant to have the freshly made hot breakfast is expensive, way too expensive. How can they told me America was so great when having delicious, hot, fresh, high quality breakfast is so not accessible to the ordinary folks?

Anyway, being here means I have to follow the customs, so I too started to fix my own breakfasts (even only occasionally, most of the time I went broke and spent most of my paycheck on eating out...) Under the influence of the American culture of "instant mixes", I too resort to boxes of instant mixes.... I love this oatmeal a lot even though I still can't eat it everyday. I need variation every morning....

Ingredients:

• 1 package of Quaker Instant High Fiber Oatmeal in Apple Cinnamon Flavor
• a bunch of fresh blue berries (not frozen, I totally hate frozen blue berries)
• a bunch of toasted walnuts ( no, I am not going to toast them, I will only buy them toasted)

Methods:

1. Microwave the oatmeal according to the package instruction.
2. Add how ever much blue berries and toasted walnuts you want.

Breakfast For One In Redondo Beach

I am always curious about food. Being single in a foreign country doesn't deter me from getting out and checking out the different restaurants in Los Angeles.

This morning, I took my book and went to Creme de la Crepe in Reondo Beach. My goal was to try out this restaurant that all my co-workers were gagaing about and also to get my 20 credit hours of CPEs (Continuing Professional Education) by reading this very lame book my boss loaned me.

I had a great time enjoying the 3-items omelet. I realized that the little container of strawberry jam that came with my omelet was actually the product of France. How refreshing to see a product that was not from China for once! The mere notion that the jam was from France made it just taste all the better. Amazing how our very own preconception about certain things can actually help us like or dislike them more..... I can't help but wonder if my being stereotyping and prejudiced had caused me to miss my soul mate already? Now I have this urge to go through this "Register of Men I Dated" and reflect on what had happened that put them in this Register of mine..... Oh, no, I don't want to go there now, not today because it's such a beautiful Sunday.

Anyway, this is such a wonderful restaurant. It looks like this little sidewalk café one would find in Paris, with the same great tasting food! This has now officially become one of my favorite bachelorette dine out spots. While I was enjoying my wonderful French style omelet, I wasn't able to get much reading done because I was distracted. No, I didn't spot a single handsome dude from the table across me. I was the only single person eating there alone. Everyone else was either with their friends, family, bf, gf, spouses, grandparents, etc, etc... What was distracting me was this table that had a young couple, one baby and one toddler. The couple was sitting with their two children between them. The couple each cared for one kid, making sure their food was sliced, cut up, the kids were eating their food, getting their drink, while picking up the kids' mess and spills. The entire time, the couple didn't look at each other in the eyes, they didn't talk to each other or interact with each other either. Each of them just did their own thing with one of their kids. I was observing them the whole time and they never said a word to each other. They didn't have much expression on their face either. Every now and then they would put on a weak smile at their kids when they were interacting with their kids... But that was all, the couple never interacted with each other all this time or even said a word to each other. It was as if they were strangers who just happened to sit at the same table!

I looked at them and I was sure that once upon a time, this very same couple were locking their hands and eyes, all smiling and all chatty with each other at another restaurant. What had changed the dynamics of the picture? The kids? The reality of marriage and commitment? Did they run out of things to say to each other already? But they were still so young! By looking at this couple with their kids now, I felt almost lucky that I was savoring my breakfast alone on a beautiful Sunday morning.

On the table right next to me, another couple was telling each other about their friends, their childhood hometowns. They seemed to be unable to shut their mouths up... I knew right away this must be one of their first few dates. I saw them locking their hands, neither hand had any ring... and I could tell from the butterflies in their eyes they were having a good time. They were totally oblivious of their surrounding.

Intersting how in one little café in one single morning, there are people at different stage of their relationships, (single, just dating, married and started drifting apart, in stable long-term relationships) having breakfast all at the same time.

Is This What Billionaires Want For A Wife???

Just what's wrong with billionaire Rupert Murdoch? Long time ago when I was still living in Hong Kong, I saw him on the front page of the Chinese Newspaper "Apple Daily", smiling and posing with his new bride who was younger than his daughter. I was surprised cause I knew he was married for decades to his ex-wife Anna Murdoch and even had grandchildren...

My mom bought the newspaper at the newsstand outside the Chinese restaurant and started gossiping this during our dim sum gathering with my grandma and aunties.......My mother exclaimed, "Gwailos (Devil Men) just have bad taste in women. Why did this tycoon divorce his elegant and beautiful wife of 30 years to marry an employee of his? This woman looks like a peasant from Mainland China and she is not good looking. Chinese men have much better taste in choosing a mistress..."

Now, I'm living in the USA and I saw this video:



I just felt embarassed for Rupert Murdoch and Yale University... This woman, supposedly got her MBA from Yale, talks in the same manner and incoherence like an uneducated dim sum lady in a Chinese restaurant... Being a native Chinese myself, I feel embarrassed by her intellectual bearings.. If I only talk like her, I won't be able to keep my job here in America (after all, I don't have a husband who sponsors me a greencard...and the reason I'm here is because of my education and job skills...)

According to Mrs. Murdoch, the reason why it's important to educate women is because they can go see a doctor when they get pregnant...It just cracked me up when I heard that.... It would have sounded better if only she said, "it's important to educate women so they can be secretaries or personal assistants to rich men; and therefore have a chance to have an affair with them...."

I just don't know what Rupert Murdoch sees in this woman, there are so many more beautiful, intelligent and accomplished women in China and Hong Kong if only he wants a Chinese made wife.... But I personally think he should have stayed with his ex-wife Anna. I can't understand why he did such a trade-down.... Grandpa Rupie, your choice of wife is just too hilarious!!! I guess that explains why you made such a bad investment in My Space... Does this have anything to do with aging??? Now you got me nervous about my stock investment with News Corp.

At least that gives single women out there lots of hope. Sometimes we just don't need to have either beauty or brain to land a rich hubby!!! Okay, a much older rich hubby who is old enough to be our grandpa!! lol..... Since I have a career, a brain, my youth and my good look, I think I deserve Prince Williams :P

When Did Sex Without Love Become a Glamourous Thing?

I'm now stucked at the airport waiting to board my flight back to Los Angeles. Out of boredom, I bought the Glamour Magazine from the airport bookstore. (I actually went to the bookstore cause I spotted a really handsome guy wearing a really nice suit, looking real smart, browsing the rack of business section..... however, when I got a close look at his hand, I saw that "ring"....so instead of making my trip completely futile, I bought a magazine, trying to catch up with the latest spring fashion and silly gossips in America...). I just flipped through the magazine and found a piece of advice on "10 Things To Know Before You Sleep With Him" as follow:

1. How many scotches he had before the two scotches you had together.
2. That he doesn’t have the Me ♥ Boobs app.
3. If you like him. Nope? Get out of there!
4. Your birth control and condom plan. So now you can stop worrying about all that.
5. The color of his eyes. (Cheesy, we know… but come on, do you really want to be naked with someone if you’ve never looked in his eyes?)
6. Whether you’d rather be in bed watching GLEE.
7. That he couldn’t possibly be your long-lost cousin.
8. That all the recording devices are in the off position.
9. What your best friend would say if she knew what you were up to.
10. If He’s. Single.

Why is it that "knowing whether the guy is in love with me and knowing whether I'm in love with the guy" not one of the things I need to know before I sleep with a guy??? When does "Love" become irrelevant to a girl when deciding whether to sleep with a guy or not?? The above list is actually shorter than the checklist of my weekly cleaning chore for my apartment..... I just don't get it. Since when, enagaging in sex has become a less serious activity than engaging in the chore of house cleaning........ Only in America....

Technorati Blog Claim

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I'm told by Technorati.com to post the above wierd code here on my blog for verification, just why should I register my blog with them? Can anyone tell me? What can Technorati.com possibly do for me?? I'm a very new blogger and am trying to figure out this blogging thing.....

Do all blogs have to join Technorati.com? Why? What is Technorati anyway? I checked out their site and none of its featured posts interests me, most of them are about Sarah Palin... or Nancy Polosi....