Social Policy Molded On Morality?

Spitzer's True Folly

I think this article makes a good point.

While we're on the subject, why not legalize prostitution? You can regulate it (more money for us), it's good for the prostitutes, and it's good for the clients.

For all the moralists out there, just because something is legal doesn't mean you have to do it. You can *choose* to participate, but you don't *have* to.

Something Profound

I need new running shoes. I suspected I needed new shoes earlier this week but last night definitely decided that was the cause of the leg pain I've been dealing with for the past week. Especially when I woke up this morning and my legs definitely didn't want me walking anywhere. I never really liked the shoes I was running in but really noticed last night that my feet were slipping around in them. I'm definitely going to yoga next week.

Wandering around the Runner's World website, I found something profound that I could (maybe) apply to Life in general. I'm all about that.

"There are plenty of great books and training programs out there, but the truth of being a runner comes in finding out for yourself, by yourself, who you are as a runner. It also means understanding that the runner you were yesterday is not the runner you are today. And most of us can barely imagine the runner we'll be tomorrow."

Where am I running to? I honestly don't know, and that's kind of scary. I haven't yet gotten to the point where I can reflect on my life when I'm running. If I focus on anything else besides staying relaxed, telling myself how easy it is to run for 23 consecutive minutes, I slow down and want to stop.

In Life, you can't stop. I guess you can, but then you definitely won't be going anywhere and when you wake up days, months, years later you'll be kicking yourself. Sometimes I want to stop in Life; I definitely think I've lost my focus and whatever post-college momentum I might have had. I'm afraid of trying new things even though I thrive on new experiences.

I can't run back . . . I can't say, "Sorry, I left my sense of indomitability back on that steep hill at Year 22 and my crushed, demoralized heart at Year 24. Is there a shuttle I can take to go back and retrieve those?"

Maybe I can hope that I'll drop my severe insecurity at Year 25 and pick up a sense of peace by Year 30. Hopefully I can find some Self-Respect somewhere in there.

Hug

I need one.

Huggy

Game Playing Boredom

Disclaimer: The "men" I refer to in here is a subset of the male population. "Men" can be defined as "potential suitors". I actually think men in general are not bad people. My experience dictates that potential suitors are distasteful.

I'm tired of chasing what (or is it who?) I want - wait, do I even want that? (or him?) Slow down, take a couple deep breaths, back away from the scene and run the other way.

I'm definitely tired of being chased. Everything just sounds so canned, flat, predictable and typical. Everyone seems so boring, a washed-out clone of the fellow who came before him. Someone please say something original and interesting for once! I don't care how attractive you say you think I am - let me know that you really see me!

I just want a close friend. Someone I could hang out with on the weekends, maybe go to a movie or a museum every once in a while, someone to cuddle with on the couch when we're both feeling lonely. I don't think I could really do well in a "relationship" right now, but it would be nice to have a friend. A real friend who didn't play games or string me along.

Maybe the fellow strings me along because he's bored with me. Huh. There's an idea. I need to stop thinking about him. "I'm busy this week." "I'm busy this week." "I'm busy this week." I haven't told myself that phrase often enough to actually use it when I need to. I see the problem but can't quite implement the solution. Yet.

"I'm too busy taking care of myself that I have no time to devote to being convenient for you."

I just want to weep. Since when did men become so selfish and mean? Since when did I get forced into playing the game?

Dinner Tonight - Salmon Patties

I found a recipe that used stuff I had at home so I wouldn't have to go shopping for food tonight. Loosely follows Rachel Ray's Salmon Cakes Salad.

2 6-oz cans of boneless, skinless salmon
2 eggs
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
3-4 TB chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper (was a happy accident - I put about this much in and they turned out great)

Combine all. Make patties (I ended up with 7 small palm-sized patties. Heat up a frying pan, add a bit of oil, cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. I didn't trust that the centers were cooked through so I put them in an oven at 350 for 10 minutes.

I ate these with steamed frozen vegetables, and will probably repeat this meal for lunch tomorrow.

New Morning Routine

I added something to my morning routine today that I think will require a little extra coordination and some practice.

I tend to drink a lot of tea as my caffeine source, but sometimes I just have to have a cup of coffee. Especially since my exposure to using sweetened condensed milk as creamer.

To treat myself (Don't I treat myself enough?) I bought a small coffeemaker and a coffee grinder. The grinder has an automatic shut-off feature, but I didn't let the coffee grind to that point and it turned out to be finer than I expected. The recommended amount of coffee turned out to be a little too much (for both the grinder and the coffeemaker), so maybe I just like weaker coffee. It's a work in progress.

If I have coffee everyday for a month I'll have paid for the coffeemaker and the grinder with what I probably would have spent at Starbucks. I like that idea. Their drinks are too sugary for me anyway.

Now the trick is to incorporate making coffee into my morning routine so it becomes automatic and I don't have to focus on what I have to do so I can be out the door that much quicker. I just want to have that coffee in my thermos when I'm ready to leave the apartment.

Taking Charge

I realize that my sappy emotional crap is probably bringing everyone down. It's a catch-22 I face when I write about it. It's part of what I'm observing in my life right now, and I feel I should document that somehow. Plus, the bits of feedback I get on those posts *do* help in a positive and constructive way.

On the other hand, the sappy emotional crap is the same sappy emotional crap (for the most part) that everyone faces, and no one wants to relive or be reminded of it.

I will be OK. This is temporary and I'm going to find healthy ways of dealing with it. Hopefully I'll come out a better, stronger, healthier, more compassionate person at the end.

I made a goal yesterday. I decided I wasn't going to check the crazy ex's blog anymore after yesterday. I wanted to check it when I was on MySpace tonight but I refrained. Soon I'll forget that he even writes (until he pulls the next psycho stunt). I honestly hope that I never hear from him again.

As for the guy I'm crushing on, I'm going to be busy for the next three weeks. I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean, but I know that it will mean that folding my laundry and doing dishes will be more important than spending time with him. He probably won't come around, but I like him and I truly believe at his core that he is a good person. Maybe he's just too immature or selfish right now to realize what his behavior is doing to me (and it's not all his fault - I've let him behave the way he does and not have the self-respect to call him on it).

Taiwan - February 3

Today there was a Japanese taiko drum demonstration at the grocery store near my grandmother's. It's similar to the group that was in the Japanese car commercial. It was very cool to see live and they attracted a huge audience.
I also tried sun cakes for the first time - they're a perfect accompaniment with tea. They're a rich, flaky pastry with a slightly sweet, honey filling. Sun cakes are Taichung's specialty pastry and you can't get them anywhere else. Or maybe you can, but it's kind of cool to try food in it's place of origin. If you're not careful when you eat them, you will get flaky pastry everywhere!Tonight I went to play badminton with my cousin and his friends. Afterward we went out to eat fried food and drink ginger milk tea. Fried food is bad for you in any country, but I've never seen a place where you get to pick out the food you want to eat like in the prepared food stalls in the markets. I think I was very fortunate that my cousin invited me to do a lot of stuff with him and his wife. I probably could have gone touristing on my own, and left my parents to hang out at my grandmother's house, but it would have been very rude and my cousin was astute enough to know I needed to spend time away from them and hang out with people closer to my own age every once in a while.
One of my favorite dishes from the food stalls here is sweet potato fries dusted with a pickled plum powder. I can't find it here, so I have to beg my mom to look for it in Taiwan before she comes back or find a way to make my own pickled plum powder.

Movie Review - The Other Boleyn Girl

In a word: disappointing.
In two: bad source.
In three: underutilized actors flailing.

When the best two performances are of Catherine of Aragon (Ana Torrent) and Lady Elizabeth Howard (Kristin Scott Thomas) in a movie about King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, something is gravely wrong.

(Spoilers lurk below!)

Eric Bana, Natalie Portman, and Scarlett Johansson do well with the material they're given, unfortunately it's not very good material! Eric Bana and Natalie Portman both display complex, rich characters for the film's shallowness and simplicity. The film relies on dialog for exposition, rather than "showing the audience" the situations and events described. It would have been interesting to see the scene where Anne chases after the stag the rest of the hunting party gave up on, and Henry falling from his horse. It would have been interesting to see Anne in France. It would have been interesting to see more scenes of Anne and Henry together after he rapes her.

For the most part, the film glosses over the political and religious decisions that were so influential to England's future, summing them up to a couple scenes of Eric Bana brooding and Natalie Portman saying, "everything is going to work out." The film also ignores Anne's contribution to English politics and society (she was supposedly a fashion icon).

I found Scarlett Johansson's character uninteresting, for the most part. You never really figure out what happens to her husband (he dies, btw) and she spends the entire movie doing everything that everyone else tells her to do while wishing she was living a quiet life in the countryside. Definitely not fascinating, and not interesting enough to base a whole book or movie on her. A more literal (i.e. historical, i.e. factual) interpretation of her life would have been far more interesting. Apparently she was somewhat of a hussy, being mistress to both the kings of France and England, and got herself sent home from France in disgrace for being such a trollop.

I knew the film was going to be bad, but I had no idea how flimsy the script was. Normally capable, the leads all struggled to hold my attention. I found nothing to really like about anyone save for Catherine of Aragon and Lady Elizabeth Howard, who both displayed character depth and pointed out for the other characters that, "dude, this dick measuring contest is stupid."

Taiwan - February 2

Today I went to the hair salon to get my hair straightened! What an ordeal that was!

First they rub a chemical to relax your hair, then wrap your head in saran wrap and put it under a hair steamer. When the hair is sufficiently relaxed, it's then washed and dried. Then small sections are smoothed with a special ceramic flat iron. When all the hair has been smoothed, it's then combed through with a heavy conditioner (that also acts as neutralizer) and left to sit for 30 minutes.

After the hair is conditioned, it's again shampooed, rinsed and dried. After it's been finally styled, the client is allowed to go home, with one caveat: the hair can't be washed for three days and it can't be pulled back or put up for a week.
Tonight was my grandmother's birthday. My uncle hosted a party at a restaurant. There was a lot of great food served! One of my favorite dishes was shrimp in a dollop of butternut squash topped with melted cheese in a seashell. The photo above is of "long life noodles", which is a traditional birthday dish. The photo below is a fancy version of stinky tofu.I'm really fond of the traffic in Taiwan. It's almost like the line on the roads are suggestions only, and when making left turns it's okay to hold up traffic. Scooters can pretty much go anywhere, and parking wherever you can find space seems to be the norm, even if you end up parking on the wrong side of the street!

I'm noticing I'm getting quite a few mosquito bites. That's no fun. I should have brought bug spray.