I taught my son how to make homemade pizza crust this weekend

My son is taking culinary class.  To give him a leg up on class, I taught him how to make a BBQ chicken pizza this weekend, which is also his favorite pizza to eat at CPK.

He made the dough himself, and let it rise all day.  He learned the temperature of water to activate the yeast, and saw how hard it was to work with dough.  He also learned how hard it is to roll it out.  We used precooked grilled chicken and bottled BBQ sauce to make it easier, but he developed his knife skills cutting the chicken and onions.

He had a hard time transferring the pizza from the peel to the sheet, but on his second try he mastered it.

He did a great job and I'm so proud of him!

I won the workweek challenge last week

for walking, against 6 other competitors!  These challenges are good for me because they motivate me to walk more.  In fact, I walked a total of 32.96 miles from Monday to Friday.

All Time Low

I took my kids to see All Time Low in concert this past weekend, and it was a great concert!

I used to love listening to "Dear Maria Count Me In" from 2007's "So Wrong, It's Right", but really didn't give them much of a listen after that.

Their catalog is pretty diverse, from the generic (but still good) pop punk of "Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don't)", to the anthemic "Backseat Serenade", the plaintive "Therapy", the modern pop of "Dirty Laundry", and the acoustic "Missing You".

In fact, I'm not sure how much they are influenced by other artists, or if they influence artists, but they sound like a blend of Jimmy Eat World, the Plain White Ts, the Chainsmokers, Yellowcard, and Bowling For Soup.

Great band and a great concert!!

Emotional Intelligence - Daniel Goleman

I was inspired to read this book after reading Daniel Goleman and the Dalai Lama's "A Force For Good".

Like Howard Gardner's "Frames of Mind", the first few chapters are very technically oriented, talking about the frontal cortex and the amygdala, and their respective roles in regulating emotional hijacking.  Goleman references Gardner's accomplishments and research in multiple intelligence, which I thought was pretty cool given that I hadn't thought of a connection between the two authors.

Goleman talks about mastering one's emotions by understanding the thought processes that go into why we respond the way that we respond to things, and to accept that it's okay to feel a certain way but to really reconsider our reactions.  He talks about conflict resolution through empathy and managing our emotions.

He talks about how trauma affects people, and how temperament is not destiny.  He postulates that emotional intelligence can be learned and developed.

Throughout the book he talks about different scenarios - work, relationships, health, and finally education, and the benefit of developing one's emotional intelligence and the positive effects on each facet.

This book was part educational and part self-help, and reading it, everything seems logical and obvious.

I would love to revisit this book again later.  There's a lot to take away from it.

Aux jack

My auxiliary jack in my car allows me to plug my iPhone in and listen to music, audiobooks, podcasts, etc.  A few days ago, my car's audio control wouldn't allow me to switch to the auxiliary mode, instead only allowing me to listen to AM/FM1/FM2/CD.

A search on the internet revealed that the circuit board in the auxiliary jack's enclosure shorted out.  There are three wires that go to the stereo - two for the audio, and one that tells the head unit that there's a cable plugged in.  This is a stupid design - why wouldn't one just be allowed to select the auxiliary mode even if there's nothing plugged in?

The easy solution would be to either buy a new circuit board, or fix the existing one.  Apparently, you can jumper the leads that close the circuit that sends the signal to the head unit, and the head unit will be tricked into thinking that there's something always plugged in.

I tried removing the center console to access the back of the enclosure to pull out the cables, but it was really difficult, so I just shimmied the enclosure out with a screwdriver and it popped right out.

Next, I pulled out the circuit board, and located the leads that I'd have to solder.

The leads that I had to solder are those two silver strips running the same length as the circuit board, kind of in the center.  This was a really small piece, and my soldering skills aren't great, so I ended up just putting a big blob of solder on the four leads.  Didn't matter though, it worked like a charm and everything is fixed!

I don't think people understood my urgency to fix this.  Every day, I listen to audiobooks on my ride into work, and I do Japanese lessons on my way home.  My daughter also loves to go on long car rides with me and listen to music.  And this coming weekend, we will see a band in concert, and I want to make sure that we listen to the setlist so that we are familiar with every song.

I love the fact that whenever you have a problem, you can pretty much figure out how to fix things on the internet.

Mongolian cuisine

I saw a video last week talking about North Korea sending work parties to Mongolia.  It got me wondering what kind of food they eat in Mongolia.  Being situated between China and Russia, I thought the food might be interesting.

I've never had experience with Mongolian food.  I've eaten at Mongolian BBQ restaurants and enjoyed them, but they are neither Mongolian, nor are they BBQ.  I've also had Mongolian beef at Chinese restaurants, but I don't think that these dishes are Mongolian either.  I ate at Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot this weekend, but I don't think they are very Mongolian.  It appears adding the term "Mongolian" is a way to make Chinese food seem more exotic.

I read about Mongolian cuisine online, and it seems rather dull - boiled or roasted mutton, horse or marmot, simply seasoned stews and dumplings and soups.  Most seasoning appears to be very simple with just salt and pepper.

Maybe because I'm not used to eating mutton, horse or marmot, and also because I like interesting seasoning and technique, Mongolian food doesn't sound particularly interesting to me.  But I'm sure there's a Mongolian restaurant somewhere that could change my mind.

Weekend cooking

I tried making a few things this weekend that I've never made before or never mastered.

The first thing was sweet potato scones with blueberries.  I made this with an Okinawan sweet potato.  This came out kind of dry - maybe next time I'll add some cream cheese to add moisture, but other than the dryness, it was pretty good!

The next thing I made was okakiage, which was featured on Ochikeron's YouTube channel.  It's fried chicken pieces, similar to karaage but coated with kaki no tane (without the peanuts).  I modified the recipe by marinating the chicken in shoyu, sake, sugar and garlic, but it still needed salt.  It was really good!

I also made shumai.  I had never had much success making these with pre-ground pork, but this time around I used pork belly, pulsed in my food processor, and the resulting mash was much stickier than ground pork.  As a result, when steamed, the meat didn't separate from the wrapper, and it turned out really good!!

Multi-tasking

I hit a good stride this weekend, averaging a little less than 10 miles a day.  I did a total of 29.30 miles over the 3-day weekend.  What I really enjoyed was listening to an audiobook on the first half of my walks, and then doing Japanese lessons on the second half of my walk.

I was able to exercise physically and mentally, packed into 2-hour segments, which freed up my time to spend with my daughter, which fulfilled me emotionally as well!!

I cooked like crazy too, making ganmodoki (tofu patties), okakiage (arare encrusted chicken), peach skillet pie (again), char siu bao, shumai, turkey roll-ups, and sweet potato/blueberry scones.

And I played guitar in preparation for rehearsal with my band in two weeks.

And I visited my mom and dad.

It was a good weekend of multitasking!

The deeper meaning behind art

I've learned a few interesting things this past week.

First, that Car Radio by Twenty One Pilots is about Tyler Joseph's depression.  I thought this was a pretty good analysis.



The second thing I learned was that the Wachowskis, the brothers who wrote and directed "The Matrix", later came out as transgendered women.  This might imply a deeper meaning into alternate realities and the choice to take the red pill or the blue pill.

I'm pretty impressed with my Fitbit's accelerometer

That was pretty cool.  I went for a bike ride with my daughter on Saturday, and my Fitbit knew I was riding a bike.

The technology on my Fitbit is pretty amazing.  It knows when I fall asleep, and what my sleep cycles are.  It can tell when I go out for extended walking, it knows when I run, and it knows when I ride a bike outdoors.  The only thing that it doesn't detect is a short nap - I have to manually log those in.

17.68 miles

If I'm only counting Saturday and Sunday for miles, I did 17.68 miles this weekend.

I was able to finish the Midnight In Broad Daylight audiobook, and start the Tao Te Ching.  Spiritual books like the Tao Te Ching aren't necessarily conducive to pushing yourself walking.  :)

Given that this coming weekend is a 3-day weekend, I intend on trying to get at least 26 miles in.

But What If We're Wrong - Chuck Klosterman

In "But What If We're Wrong?", Chuck Klosterman talks about different subjects, and wonders if we got things wrong about the past, wonders if we're getting things wrong now, and wonders if our view of the future is misguided.

His opening chapters discuss books and music, and initially I was skeptical because he sometimes presents his premises and both exclusive and mutually exclusive.  For example, he posits that rock and roll will die, and will be remembered by either Elvis Presley or Bob Dylan.  This is a preposterous proposition, not only because rock and roll will be defined by more people than just those two, and why can't those two embody rock and roll together.

Klosterman's position that his, or any critics opinions matter, doesn't have much weight to me.  I've never thought that Rolling Stones' One Hundred Greatest Guitar Players was a definitive list that made any sense to me, and I don't place a lot of weight where any art is put into competition - like the best movies of all time, or the most influential writers.

But later in the book, he delves into some interesting topics, some of which still irritated me, but some of which made me think.  I didn't like his challenging of Neil DeGrasse Tyson's view of science - Klosterman doesn't seem to understand that knowledge is kind of like a parabolic curve, where knowledge and learning are a very steep curve in the beginning, and the more something is studied, verified and validated, certain assumptions can be rooted more firmly.

He also talks about politics, history and global warming.  There were some interesting ideas there, so I'm glad I didn't stop this book in the earlier chapters.

Still, I think I'd only give this book a 6 of 10.

Tao Te Ching - Lao-Tsu

This version of Tao Te Ching is translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English.

The first hour of this audiobook is the translation of the original text.  The second half is interpretation.

I enjoyed the original text, but didn't fully grasp the entire idea.  I think I will buy this book and read it over and over and ponder its meaning.

Lao Tsu's saying "Those who know are not learned, the learned do not know" reminds me of the Socratic paradox that says that "I know that I know nothing".  The Tao Te Ching is filled with seeming contradictions that make you re-evaluate what you think you know, and shows that humility in the form of a quest for knowledge is preferable to arrogance in the form of ignorance and dogmatic belief.

I read this in college, but it has more meaning in my life at this point.

Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid - Edited by Robert J. Sternberg

This book is a collection of writings about the various ways smart people can be stupid.

One of the first sections talks about how people who view intelligence as fixed limit themselves, while people who believe in malleable intelligence progress farther.  It was interesting to note that people who are praised for their effort do better than people who are praised for their intelligence.

The next section deals with managerial incompetence - specifically how there are biases and per-dispositions that hinder managers' abilities to solve problems.

The other chapters deal are highly academic, and somewhat difficult to read.  I was expecting that there would be a division of intelligence into scholarly and emotional intelligence, but those weren't made.  One chapter talked about mental retardation and referenced a lot of Hollywood films' representation of handicaps, and I thought that was irrelevant to the title and spirit of the book.

The 1000+ pages of the book was misleading, as many chapters consist of about 10% references.

I didn't really enjoy this book, but got a little bit out of it.

Join A Force For Good

I love this message.

Join a Force For Good is the companion website to the book by Daniel Goleman about the Dalai Lama's call to engage in compassionate behavior.  I joined.

Mochiko chicken salad and a peach skillet pie

I really love a mochiko chicken salad.  The combination of the warm mochiko chicken, the crunch of the rice cracker "croutons", the saltiness of the nori, and the different textures and flavors of the various vegetables (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, beansprouts and soybeans) combined with the wafu dressing make a really satisfying meal.

My weekend foray into baking went moderately well.  I tried making a shortcut puff pastry crust and it just tasted like a regular pie crust.  The peach filling was good but I'd have preferred my peaches a little less cooked.  Baking desserts is something that I don't have enough knowledge about, so I intend to shore up my baking skills.

Batteries (sigh)

I took the batteries out of all of my idle instruments and effects pedals yesterday.  Unfortunately, the AA batteries leaked acid and got stuck in my wireless in-ear monitors and ruined the battery enclosure.  They also got stuck in my tuner and broke the terminal off in the battery lead.  And worst of all, the battery is stuck (again) in my Taylor 814.

I have to remember to remove all of my batteries in my idle instruments.  In my main guitars that I play every week, they'll be fine provided I keep playing and change them when they die.

I'd recommend to everyone to check idle electronics that have removable batteries, and take them out.

26 miles

I accomplished my goal of walking the equivalent of a marathon, though it was over three days.  I did 6.48 miles on Friday afternoon, then 9.85 in two segments on Saturday, and then 10.72 over two segments on Sunday.  I think I have the strength to do it all in one day, but it would be probably 7 hours or so, and I rarely have the time to dedicate 7 hours a day to walking.

Midnight In Broad Daylight - Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

My dad recommended this book to me.  It's the story of a Japanese American family, split between America and Japan during World War II.

The book details the struggles of the various family members - Harry, a Kibei (Nissei who was educated in Japan), his mother Kinu, and his siblings Victor, Mary, Pierce and Frank.

The children experienced different hardships through the trials and tribulations of having dual identities - as Japanese with American culture, they were treated as second-class by the Japanese, and as ethnic Japanese they were discriminated against by Americans.

They also struggled during and after the war.

There was some redemption and forgiveness in the end.

It was a great book, albeit long, and described the war with the unique perspective of the Kibei.

Beatles binging

I binged on early Beatles yesterday, listening to the entire Red Album.  I used to prefer the rawness of the production and songwriting of the early Beatles, and the very basic rock and roll of songs like "Love Me Do" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand".  I still really love these songs, and I know them all.

Today I'm listening to the Blue album.  I have a new appreciation for the complex arrangements and orchestration of later Beatles.  I'll always have a soft spot for "Let It Be" and "Hey Jude", songs that I used to listen to with friends when I was in high school (I'm not that old - by the time we were listening to these songs, they were easily 15 years old).

Forward progress

I feel more centered and balanced than I've ever felt in my life.  As a result, my energy and focus to better myself are strong.  There are so many things that I want to work on, from optimizing my physical, mental and emotional health, to exercising my creative energy, and then doing what I can to  better the world around me.

Mindfulness
I see two key components that I want to work on to develop a strong sense of mindfulness.

The first is meditating on my center and the balance in my life.  I've been pretty successful at the relaxation of both my mind and body.  I rarely ever wake up and let my thoughts keep me awake.  Rather than my thoughts being in control of me, I am in control of my thoughts.  I have a practice of repeating the mantra "my body is relaxed, my mind is clear, I am at peace" over and over.  It's pretty cool because I always fall back asleep pretty quickly when I repeat that, and I wake up wondering how many times I actually said it to myself before I fell asleep.  I find my center by focusing on the things that I love.....  reading, music, cooking, and spending time with my kids, and focusing on people that inspire me, keep me grounded and share positivity.  By focusing on those things and people, I feel gratitude, which puts me at peace.

The second is continuing to develop my compassion through empathetic thoughts.  I know that the people who I have problems with have their own problems.  With that in mind, I don't try to ignore the emotions that I have as a result of my problems with them, but it's easier to let go of my negative emotions, and that puts me further at peace.  Compassion really is the key to a sense of internal joy, and I hope to always optimize my compassion, empathy and happiness.

"The Art of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama, "The Power of Kindness" by Piero Ferruci, "A Force For Good" by Daniel Goleman, and "The Beginner's Guide to Meditation" by Shinzen Young have all been key in helping me to figure out who to develop my mindfulness.

Physical wellness
I know that mental and emotional health go hand in hand with physical wellness, so there are several things I'm working on to keep my physical health as best as I can.

The first is making sure I get enough sleep, and the mindfulness keeps me from staying awake too long in the middle of the night.  I also need to try to achieve at least 7 1/2 hours of sleep every night, or supplement with naps.

The second is making sure I get exercise as often as possible.  My new Fitbit helps by reminding me to get up every hour and walk during the work day because it's been proven that sitting all day is bad for you.  I also try to get 10,000 steps a day, which amounts to about 5 miles, and I try to walk at least 15 miles on weekends.  It's easy when I have audiobooks to listen to!  In fact, listening to "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed and "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand really motivate me to push myself.

The third thing is making sure I eat healthy.  I try to eat fish when I can, and I also try to eat vegetarian as much as I can.  I make sure I have a lot of vegetables, and try to eat a fruit with dinner.  Dr. McDougall's "The Healthiest Diet on the Planet" has influenced me a lot.


Knowledge
I love learning!  Reading has been a huge part of that, and I feel like my world has really opened up as I've been reading.  I also love podcasts, especially Terry Gross's "Fresh Air", "Outlook" on the BBC, and "Hidden Brain" by Shankar Vedantam.  YouTube's Vox and Eater channels really expand my mind.

I love learning about people's perspectives through personal journeys - "To Hell and Back" by Charles Pelligrino, "Shakespeare Saved My Life" by Laura Bates and "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou have given me really different perspectives.

I need to put some more time into learning to speak Japanese, and continue to read and educate myself.

I know I can never know enough, and I will never be the smartest man in the world, but that doesn't mean I can't try!

Creative energy
I really need to continue to exercise my creative side by writing music, cooking, and maybe even doing some writing.

I'm constantly inspired musically.  Decapitated, Nails and Iron Reagan are really inspiring me to write.  My band is finally starting to get a footing - we jam with the new drummer in a few weeks and I need to compile a few cover songs to jam before we start writing.  I need to select a few songs that won't be too hard for me to sing and play at the same time.  I hope this band can gel and we can write an album and play some shows.  I respect all the guys in the band and their abilities, so I'm excited about this coming together.

I'm also fortunate in that I have a creative outlet in cooking every day.  Every time I see a new recipe, it makes me think of new ways of doing things that are outside of the conventional box, and I feel really happy when I combine things in a way that they've never been combined before and come up with something new.

Efficiency
I want to try to be efficient with my time and resources, but also recognize that down time is necessary to achieve personal balance.

I want to be efficient and not wasteful - especially with food, because as a whole, our society wastes too much food.  I know that I can throw a lot of food away at the end of the week, and it's so wasteful.

I want to make sure that every minute of my day is spent efficiently and to the end of achieving all of the things I've written about so far.  Finding a balance between my creative endeavors, keeping a tidy house (Marie Kondo's "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" inspires me), exercising my physical body, reading and listening to various things to develop my knowledge, getting enough sleep, and especially the next section, in addition to having some down relaxation time, will be the key to having a balanced and satisfying life.

Making my surrounding world better
Along with making myself a better person, it's also important to me to make my surrounding world better.  This comes with compassion, and a positive outlook.  I can only optimize this by achieving my inner balance and peace.

Perhaps the most important thing is to give my kids unconditional love and attention that they need to grow and thrive.  I think I've done a pretty good job so far.  Whenever my kids come to me, I try to physically turn to them and give them my full attention, and reflect on what they say.  They seem pretty happy, and they have achieved so much that I couldn't ask for more from them.  I also think it's important for me to communicate how much I love them, how much I think the world of them, and how much I support the positive things that they do.

I love the time I spend with my daughter - we have our special time together, and we have become like best friends with inside jokes and routines.  She is so important in my life and she inspires me to be the best I can be.

My son is such a positive and wonderful person, and he radiates such a joy that he inspires me every day.  I love the young man he has become, and feel happy when I think about him.

I have such a wonderful relationship with my parents and want to continue to be the best son I can be for them, and I have so much gratitude for the time I spend with them.

I know that with positivity and compassion, I can make a difference in the lives of my friends and people I work with.  That's an important message in "The Power of Kindness" and "The Art of Happiness".

I'm a work in progress, but as my counselor told me, "good enough is good".  If I always strive to be my best, I might not be perfect, but I can find my happiness while making a positive impact in the world.

Something I'm excited about

I love extreme metal for its combination of brutality and technicality.  When those two elements are perfectly balanced, it is aural perfection to me.  This balance is what I see in bands like Cannibal Corpse, Vital Remains, Decapitated, Behemoth, and in a more classic sense, Pantera.

Sometimes I stray more towards the brutality and less towards the technical, in bands like Slayer, Sepultura, or more recently, Goatwhore and Hatebreed.

I've really kind of turned away from more technical music without brutality, but something about the supergroup Sons of Apollo really appeals to the more classic music that I grew up with.  The band consists of Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian from Dream Theater, Ron Thal from Guns and Roses, Billy Sheehan from Mr. Big, and Jeff Scott Soto from Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force.

They sound like an incredible combination, and each guy brings something amazing to the table....  though they sound more than a little like Dream Theater, I much prefer Soto's vocals over James LaBrie's.

I'm really looking forward to this album!!