Dreams From My Father - Barack Obama

This book chronicles Barack Obama's life up until just before he enters Harvard Law School.  The book is divided into three sections - his early life growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia, his short stints at Occidental and Columbia and his later work as an organizer in Chicago, and his visit to Kenya to discover his roots.  The theme of the book as he goes through these different places is race, and the legacy of his father.

Though I had a hard time following the various family tree relatives in Kenya, it was a great read that described how he formed his opinions on race, social justice and civil rights.

Early 90s New York thrash

I "discovered" this >30 year old band watching a documentary on YouTube.  I had never heard of them until this past week, and decided to check them out.  I wish I had heard them back when this album came out in 1991.  It's stylistically very similar to the thrash I'm listening to these days from that same era - Sepultura's "Beneath the Remains" and "Alive", and Slayer's "Reign In Blood".  This is a great album that I'm sure will influence my songwriting.

Checking out the Wikipedia page for Demolition Hammer - it appears that two of their members left to form Deviate.  I went to iTunes and found this album, though I don't know if it's the same Deviate.  The time period would be appropriate, as this album came out in 1998, and their sound seems to be very NYC hardcore.  Regardless, this is a great album.

Homo Deus

Harari's "Homo Deus" theorizes mankind's endeavors in the 21st century, not so much as a manifesto but as a prediction of what we need to think about in order to change the direction we head into.

He first talks about the impediments to mankind's progress - war, famine and disease.  Next, he talks about conquering those problems, and what mankind will turn our attention to - specifically divinity, immortality and bliss.

He then turns to evolution and the existence of God, and describes the concepts as being mutually exclusive.  Then he talks about consciousness, the soul, and whether or not animals have either.

The following chapter discusses the artificial constructs that allow mankind to co-exist - money, religion and nationalism, which is repeated from Harari's last book "Sapiens".

Next, he discusses global warming, economy vs. the environment, and how the rich suffer less than the poor when either the economy of the environment suffer.

In the following chapter he talks about Humanism in it's different sects.

He talks about liberalism, socialism and evolutionary Humanism...  where the latter is described in terms of Nazi-ism, which I find a little strange that the Israeli author finds some agreement with.

The latter part of the book discusses dataism vs. humanism, and how homo sapiens will be taken over by dataism, and how mankind will transform.  He says this not as a premonition, but as a warning about where homo sapiens will evolve given our current direction and reliance on technology and social media.

It was interesting and food for thought.

Romeo and Juliet

After reading "Shakespeare Saved My Life", I think I'll try reading Romeo and Juliet, which is supposedly one of the works that is easier to understand.

The Power of Kindness

This is a great book that helps one to find peace through the power of kindness.  The author breaks the book down into different sections, each describing a different kind act.  He often references stories that teach a lesson applicable to each section.  The sections are:

Honesty
Harmlessness
Warmth
Forgiveness
Contact
Sense of Belonging
Trust
Mindfulness
Empathy
Humility
Patience
Generosity
Respect
Flexibility
Memory
Loyalty
Gratitude
Service
Joy

I really love this book and its teachings.

Shakespeare Saved My Life

This was a really cool book!!  It's about the author's experience teaching Shakespeare in the solitary confinement ward of a maximum security prison, and highlights her experience with one particularly enthusiastic and brilliant prisoner.

I loved this book and it was so easy to read.  And I'm thinking if Shakespeare could be read and analyzed by criminals, maybe reading Shakespeare isn't as daunting as I think it is!

Star Wars: Rogue One

I watched this movie on DVD this weekend.  I saw it in the theater when it originally came out, and really enjoyed it then.  I enjoyed it even more this second time.

I thought it was one of the best Star Wars movies made so far.  Part of that was the connections to the very first movie (Episode 4), and the frequent use of the word "hope" was a prelude to "A New Hope".  I enjoyed the few monologues about rallying the rebellion, as they portrayed the spirit of the rebellion in a way that the original didn't capitalize on.  Scenes like those definitely set a context for the rebellion.

The scenes alternating between the aerial dogfights and the hand fighting on land were really great war scenes.

Spoiler alert.....

The concept of hope and the transition of that from this movie to episode 4 made the death of the all of the characters that much more significant.

The Universe In A Single Atom - The Dalai Lama

My studies into the teachings of the Dalai Lama continue through this book.  It is very interesting, though difficult at times to understand.

I was surprised at the Dalai Lama's level of understanding of science.  Some of the comparisons of Buddhism to scientific inquiry resonated in me, whereas others left questions in my mind.  I appreciated the comparison and contrast of scientific thinking with philosophical questions, while recognizing that science has philosophical components of ethics and morals.

This is another book that I'm having difficulty comprehending, so I think I'll need to listen to it again.

A Profound Mind - The Dalai Lama

In "A Profound Mind", the Dalai Lama teaches the cultivation of wisdom and peace through Buddhist practices.

Unlike "The Art of Happiness", "A Profound Mind" focuses on Buddhist spiritual teachings and concepts in achieving inner peace and reducing suffering.

I found the concept of emptiness of self to be difficult to understand, so I think I'll need to read this again.  Typically when I don't understand something in a book, I'll continue reading in order to grasp the other key concepts.  Fortunately, one need not understand this concept completely in order to continue his teachings.  Still, I think to grasp the concept would probably reinforce the rest of the book.

Buddhism is interesting to me.  It touches upon facets of religion but is more a philosophy.  It's more inward facing and teaches compassion towards the world around us.  And though I don't know much about Christianity or Islam, it appears much more inclusive in the sense that Buddhism doesn't talk about "sins", doesn't talk about repenting, or doesn't weigh heavy with guilt.... rather, it advocates for the reduction of internal suffering.

I'm not sure about the concepts of lack of self or reincarnation, but I definitely incorporate facets of Buddhism into my life now.

As I said before, I will read this again.

Qingming

Qingming is an annual Chinese tradition of honoring our ancestors.  This past weekend, we went to the graveyard to honor my Chinese grandmother.  It's a very ritualistic experience that starts with the presentation of food, symbolically.  We offer our prayers, pour tea and/or whiskey near the grave, then offer more prayers.  Next, we burn simulated money, which we call "hell notes".  The significance, or so I'm told, is to give our ancestors money to keep them out of hell.  Next, we pop fireworks, presumably to ward off the bad spirits.

It's a fun tradition, gives us an opportunity to get together with family and reminisce about grandma, and keeps our culture alive.

On the thought of keeping our culture alive, I watched a video of "The Oldest Dim Sum in San Francisco", and laughed when the host talked about making potstickers on New Years and wearing bread on their faces with holes cut out while cutting onions to prevent crying.  Then I thought about how Qingming, Moon Festival and Chinese New Year are the three cultural practices we enjoy, and how I don't know enough about the meaning behind them, nor do we have fun traditions like that.

For Chinese New Year next year, I think we'll make potstickers with bread masks.  I also think it would be fun to pound mochi on New Year's Eve to keep our Japanese culture alive.

Culture and traditions are very important in establishing your identity, and I think I need to cultivate this more in my kids.

Vices & Virtues - Panic! At The Disco

My daughter is slowly converting me over to all of the albums she loves, with Twenty One Pilots and My Chemical Romance already in heavy rotation on Apple Music.

Vices & Virtues is an amazing album.  As with all Panic songs, the songwriting is super catchy, and sung and performed with so much energy.  There's something a little more serious about this album compared to their other albums, and I think that's what has drawn me to it.

There are lots of string arrangements, synths, and cool little parts.  The album starts with "The Ballad of Mona Lisa", a catchy song that's more a romping anthemic pop song than a ballad.  Catchy songs follow, maybe not concise and simple enough to play on pop radio, but definitely easy to listen to. 7 songs in is "Always", a soft acoustic number that is one of my favorite songs on the album.

I believe the album was partially produced by Butch Walker, who is, IMO, a genius producer and musician.


I've heard of people dismissing Panic as emo, or saying their music is background mindless music.  I feel that if Brendan Urie (who basically at this point IS Panic) continues putting out such diverse and incredible albums, they have the potential to achieve the same kind of legacy as the Beatles or Queen.

The Law of Attractioon, Plain and Simple

I heard about the Law of Attraction recently.  I thought it sounded interesting, so I looked it up on the internet, and found a lot of skeptics.

I fancy myself as a critical thinker, so I wanted to find out for myself what this was all about.

LOA uses a lot of the techniques that the books by The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu teach, namely forgiveness, letting go of the past, harnessing positive energy, etc.  In some respects, it's also very similar to Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.

However, the fundamental premise is getting all that you desire, rather than finding inner peace.

That general premise seems to be contradictory to me.  Finding inner peace implies being satisfied with what you have, but getting all that you desire almost suggests dissatisfaction with your current situation.

I believe in moving forward, and I do believe that the positive energy that LOA suggests is a great way to move forward.  I just think there's a fine line between moving forward and getting more and more.  The Dalai Lama teaches you to be happy with what you have and not to place your happiness on material things, on money, on the perfect spouse, because with the disappearance of those things, you will lose your happiness.  On the other hand, if you find peace and happiness, and can eliminate suffering through the compassion that you share with people, then you will always have inner peace.

I will take the message that this book presents with proper context.  But the whole premise is a bit counter intuitive to me, in terms of finding peace and happiness in your core.

I still feel like I can learn from anything.  And in this case, the LOA and the seeming lack of calm and inner peace associated with wanting more, reinforces the teachings of the Dalai Lama.

Phantom Limb - Pig Destroyer

How can you not love a band named "Pig Destroyer"?  I don't know how to classify them, but I've always been a little confused about genre labels.  Their songs are pretty short, some just over a minute long.  The songs are fairly complex, which reminds me of Cryptopsy's "None So Vile", but somewhat more hardcore like Nails' "You Will Never Be One Of Us".  In fact, they sound like the connection between those two albums.

Those two albums are full of memorable riffs and vocals.  I'm not quite sure how this Pig Destroyer fares in that department, but time will tell.  It has promise though - stylistically, I love what they are doing.

The album cover art is cool too!!

The ultimate

I love heavy metal.  Music with fast drums, distorted guitars, and most of all, the energy of metal is like a drug to me.

There have been lots of bands that I love who have a combination of musicians that write / play magically together.

For me, those rare bands that have made magic are early Metallica, the mighty Pantera, Vivian Campbell-era Dio, Ozzy's original Blizzard of Ozz band with Randy Rhoads, Vital Remains with Dave Suzuki and Glen Benton, Cannibal Corpse's current line-up, Angela Gossow-era Arch Enemy.....

But the ultimate band for me is the original Slayer line-up.  Dave Lombardo is just about THE sound of Slayer, and his drumming is so musical.  Tom Araya's voice and swagger is the face of the band, lyrically and sonically, and Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King's riffs and ridiculously unmusical leads propel their songs forward with aggression and drive.  Their song structures are complex enough to weave them through different forms of aggression, but have the simplicity of hardcore punk that get delivered with more evil than hardcore that brings a brutality to the music.

Sadly, the passing of Jeff Hanneman means that the original Slayer line up will never play together again.  And unfortunately, Lombardo will probably never get along with Araya and King.  Fortunately, I've recently discovered the entire World Painted Blood album, which update the sounds from the classic three albums (Reign, Seasons, South).

I finally got to see Slayer in 2015, and though Gary Holt and Paul Bostaph were fucking excellent, it still wasn't the classic Slayer, even though they were still mighty.

I didn't forget pi day yesterday

I made a peanut butter and chocolate pie and had a slice last night.  As you can see, my piping wasn't so good.  I should have made more chocolate to pipe, but I would have wasted some.  Is it more important to look nice, or not to waste?  :)

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

The format of this book is very simple.  The author lists each spiritual law, then gives examples of how to put the laws into practice.

1. The Law of Pure Potentiality: Take time to be silent, to just BE. Meditate for 30 minutes twice a day. Silently witness the intelligence within every living thing. Practice non-judgment.
2. The Law of Giving: Today, bring whoever you encounter a gift: a compliment or flower. Gratefully receive gifts. Keep wealth circulating by giving and receiving care, affection, appreciation and love.
3. The Law of Karma: Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind. Choosing actions that bring happiness and success to others ensures the flow of happiness and success to you.
4. The Law of Least Effort: Accept people, situations, and events as they occur. Take responsibility for your situation and for all events seen as problems. Relinquish the need to defend your point of view.
5. The Law of Intention and Desire: Inherent in every intention and desire is the mechanics for its fulfillment. Make a list of desires. Trust that when things don’t seem to go your way, there is a reason.
6. The Law of Detachment: Allow yourself and others the freedom to be who they are. Do not force solutions—allow solutions to spontaneously emerge. Uncertainty is essential, and your path to freedom.
7. The Law of Dharma: Seek your higher Self. Discover your unique talents. Ask yourself how you are best suited to serve humanity. Using your unique talents and serving others brings unlimited bliss and abundance.

After contemplating this book and meditating on how this book is put into action, I've started to see that the core premise of a lot of these books imply a certain degree of dissatisfaction with what your current state of life is.

Certainly, none of the above laws imply that, but examples given in the book point out that people can apply these laws, as the title suggests, to the end of "fulfillment of your dreams", and the subtitle of the book is "Creating Affluence".  I believe in constantly improving oneself, but when the pretext for a methodology is somehow garnering more for oneself vs. cultivating happiness, satisfaction and altruism, then I'm a little more cautious about that methodology.

Still, I believe one can put these laws into practice in a non-selfish way.

Busy cooking weekend

I had lofty ambitions for cooking this weekend, and am proud to say I made everything I wanted to.

Saturday's lunch was a different kind of nikujaga, made with chicken wings (supposedly the collagen is good for your skin), and kabocha.  It's kind of like nishime.

For dinner, I made a Thai beef salad, with a savory tangy sweet dressing of fish sauce, sugar and lime juice.

Next I pickled two things - mustard cabbage (below), and (not pictured) escabeche, a Mexican pickle consisting of radishes, cauliflower, carrots and jalapeno.

For lunch on Sunday, I made Taiwanese gua bao.  I braised the pork belly, and made the buns.  I knew that I hadn't used enough yeast because after an hour, the dough hadn't risen much, but it was too close to lunchtime to make a new batch.  It was still good, though the buns weren't fluffy and airy.  Here it is, topped with cilantro, mustard cabbage, and peanuts.

Next, I started the first and second steps of making a Jewish deli-style pastrami.  I took a big corned beef and soaked it in water to remove as much salt as possible.  After a day with a few changes of water, I removed it, dried it off, and rubbed it with a mixture of black pepper, coriander, garlic, onion and brown sugar.  Next, I smoked it until it reached 150 degrees on the inside.  I'm still working on getting my smoker's temperature stable and accurate, but it's hard to keep at 225 degrees while still having smoking wood provide the smoke.  After it came off the smoker, I let it cool, then wrapped it and put it in the refrigerator.  The next step will be to steam it for 2 hours, and then I can slice it and serve it on rye bread.

I made two pies on Saturday afternoon.  The first was a peanut butter pie, which I'm saving for 3/14/17=3.1417 (close enough), pi day.

The second pie was for dinner, a British style meat pie filled with a savory filling of prime short ribs, carrots, celery and onions, wrapped in a super flaky butter crust.  I managed to crisp up the top and bottom crusts and it was very rich.

You Are a Badass

You Are A Badass is a motivational self-help book, and reads exactly as the title suggests.  It's written like a girl talking to her girlfriend.  It seems geared towards women, though she sometimes suggests more gender universal things.

The book is separated into 5 parts.  The first explains why you're not badass, and the next 4 focus on how to become a badass.  In general, the themes revolve around increasing self-esteem, forgiveness, and motivation, as any good self-help book will advocate.

She lost me at the end though, when she overly emphasizes the importance of money, and the need to hire a coach (if I'm borrowing a book from the library, obviously I'm too cheap to hire a coach).

Overall it's a good message, but if I bought this book, I'd probably review the second through fourth chapters and skip the beginning and end.

When Breath Becomes Air

This book was Paul Kalanithi's story of his career as a neurologist and the time he spent between being diagnosed with lung cancer and having his child.

Paul states that "You can't ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote towards which you are ceaselessly striving", and this philosophy was reflected in the things that he described in the book.

I have mixed feelings about this book.

On the one hand, I thought that certain sections were a little too pedantic and focused on the prose of poetically describing the technical details of surgery, with graphic details of slicing skin open and removing skull portions.  Much of the book focused on the uncertainty of Paul's life expectancy, and his decisions to work as a neurosurgeon vs. becoming a researching faculty or becoming an author.  I was expecting to read about some kind of transformation, but the book read more like a personal memoir than a lesson on how to live life.  Nonetheless, my expectations for the book aren't a fair standard to judge it by.

On the other hand, as the fulfillment of a man's dying wishes to become an author, I was very happy for him.

A few years ago, I lost two friends to cancer.  They were both the same age as me.

One was one of my best friends, Shirley.  After meeting her, we quickly became good friends, often having lunch together.  My barometer of friendship is how much I know one's family and friends, and though I hadn't met her brother and sister, I knew about them and the details of their lives.  I met her mom and dad, and some of her closest friends, and knew them all by name, if not by face.  She had given me two books to read, both of which focused on the platonic but intimate relationship between two people, and the death of one.  The books were Tuesdays With Morrie and The Little Prince.  It was a little odd to me that the only two books she gave to me foreshadowed our friendship and her death, as though she was telling me that it would be okay for me after she died.

The second of my friends to die was Pat, who I had only befriended and came to know after his diagnosis with terminal cancer.  We had sleepless nights where we'd text and e-mail each other, talking about mortality and our dreams.  He wanted to learn how to play three songs on guitar and asked me to teach him.  He came over to my house, and we spent hours together, probably talking more than playing.  When he left, I walked him to his car and we made plans to go out to eat shabu shabu.  We never got to have that meal together, and he got too busy for another guitar lesson.

I sometimes wonder about the journey that both Shirley and Pat went through, as they discovered their cancer, to their passing.  Though I had lots of conversations with both of them as they dealt with their cancers, I couldn't possibly know everything that went through their heads.  "When Breath Becomes Air" shares one man's experiences and thoughts as he deals with his terminal illness.

Listening to the book and not thinking that I was getting a feeling of personal attachment towards Paul Kalanithi, I thought in my mind that I wouldn't cry the way that I cried after reading one of Mitch Albom's books.  Then this morning, while listening to Lucy Kalanithi's epilogue, I found tears streaming down my face.

New microwave

I installed a new microwave above my stove this weekend.

I like installing things and fixing things, and this was a relatively easy installation.

I had to prepare the microwave by rotating the exhaust fan 90 degrees, also cutting the sheet metal holes on the back by removing the tabs on the plates.

A bracket on the back against the backsplash holds part of the weight.  This bracket was screwed into two holes, which I drilled through the Corian and drywall, and into the metal studs.  I drilled pilot holes and then used self-tapping metal screws, and the bracket was firm.

Next, I drilled holes using the provided template into the cabinet above the microwave.  It took two of us to mount the microwave to the rear bracket, then screw the bolts from the top of the cabinet.

Fortunately this is the second microwave I've installed so I knew how to do it and saved $70!

You Will Never Be One Of Us - Nails

This is one of my favorite albums of the past few years.  It clocks in at 21 minutes, which makes it sort of like a modern day "Reign In Blood".  It's an amazing album, and as the band puts it, really takes out all of the extraneous stuff and just gets to the good stuff.  No guitar solos, and the production is gritty and distorted (in a good way, not in an old black metal way), but the songs and riffs shine, as do the incredible drumming, replete with blast and thrash beats.

As far as extreme metal goes, it's probably in my top 10.

In fact, if I were going to list my top 10 extreme metal albums, they would be (in no particular order)

Demigod - Behemoth
None So Vile - Cryptopsy
Stench of Redemption - Deicide
Icons of Evil - Vital Remains
You Will Never Be One Of Us - Nails
The Wretched Spawn - Cannibal Corpse
I, Monarch - Hate Eternal
Xenosapien - Cephalic Carnage
AssassiNation - Krisiun
Antithesis - Origin

Apple Music finds

I love Apple Music.  I can listen to most anything I want to, and discover a lot of music I haven't heard before.  It's perfect for someone like me, who likes to find new things.

This week, I'm listening to Make Them Suffer's "Neverbloom".  It's blackened death metal with breakdowns.  I like the classical style piano.  They remind me of a cross between stuff like Abigail Williams and Chthonic.

I'm also listening to "Snyder" by Feared.  Once again, I discovered a band because of the guitar player's endorsement of musical instruments.  Ola Englund is the guitar player, and while I've watched his YouTube gear videos, I've never heard his band.  This week I decided to check out Feared and they are really good death / thrash metal.

I'm pretty sure that my musical tastes are not very popular, especially among my age group.  :)

Many of these bands I like are from all over the globe.  Make Them Suffer is from Australia, Feared is from Sweden, Sepultura was originally from Brazil, Behemoth from Poland, Chthonic from Taiwan, Fleshgod Apocalypse from Italy, Carcass from England, etc.

The Food of Taiwan

My fascination with Taiwan (and food) continues.

The author, Cathy Erway, is an American born half-Taiwanese.  She visited Taiwan in college and became fascinated with the food.  When deciding upon the recipes for her cookbook, she wanted to include only recipes that had a deep cultural foundation in Taiwan.

I love that much of the book talks about the history and people of Taiwan, setting up the context for her recipes.

She talks about the history of Taiwan, from the original aborigines, to Dutch settlers looking for sulfur for gunpowder and establishing forts in the early 1600s, to the Ming Dynasty transplants forced from China by the Manchurians (the founder, Koxing, was half-Japanese and half-Chinese, like me!) in 1660 and ousting of the Dutch in 1662, to the defeat by the Qing Dynasty in 1683, to the ceding of Taiwan to Japan after China lost the Sino-Japanese war, resulting in Japanese rule from 1895-1945, and then the People's Republic of China's ousting of Republic of China's supporters to Taiwan after a long Chinese civil war.  She talks about the changing political climate leading to the first presidential election in 1996.

In the next chapter, she talks about the diversity of the ethnic groups in Taiwan.  She says that there are 23.3 million people there, divided into 4 major groups.  She says the majority are of Hoklo descent and originally from the Fujian province in China.  There are another group that came over after the Japanese ceded Taiwan, and these people are from all over China.  She says that the aboriginal Taiwanese only account for a small percentage of the population, while the Hakka people from China represent another large group.

She then talks about the geography and the resulting agricultural practices.  She says it's wooded forest and jungle over about 50% of the island, and there is an overall hot and humid climate.  She says that the island is well suited to grow sugar cane and rice, and tea in the high mountainous region.  There are also tropical fruits that are major exports.  Fishing is abundant, and they raise their own livestock with imports making up for any demand not met locally.

She has very nice recipes in the book, from the very popular dishes like three-cup chicken, beef noodle soup, pork belly buns, and minced pork on rice, and there are also dishes I've never seen before like Taiwanese burrito, coffin cake, and deep fried sweet potato balls.

I read this book on my phone, borrowed from the library, and last night I went to my mom's house and she had the hard copy.  I love this cookbook and I plan to buy the hard copy!

Fast Food Nation

Fast Food Nation talks about fast food, and a lot of negative aspects of its production and cultural impacts.

Given that the intent of the narrative implies the negative impacts, I found some of the discussion on the various entrepreneurs to be politically charged.  While it doesn't bother me, it makes me wonder if there is a political slant to the information provided, and if conservatives would be turned off to this book.  There also seems to be a presentation of fact as negative, when perhaps some of the connections or implications are tenuous.

Regardless, a lot of the information is very interesting and revealing to the uninitiated.

Update 3/1 - I finished the book, and I take back most of what I said above.  As the author states at the end, he is just stating the facts and allowing the reader to draw his or her own conclusion.

The subject matter was very interesting.  He started by writing about how McDonalds started and changed the way food was made and marketed.  He wrote about fast food workers' rights and wages, and the political lobbying to maximize profits at the top while keeping costs low.  Next he tackled the subject of the science behind the mass production and standardization of the food, primarily the beef and fries, and then the consolidation of the meat cutters industry and the dangerous conditions in the slaughterhouses, and how the translate to foodborne pathogens that become widely dispersed through mass distribution.  He concluded with the globalization of McDonalds and other fast food chains, and the resistance that some countries have to McDonalds, as McDonalds represents American imperialism.

I thought it was a good book that touched upon how a free market society can go bad when left unchecked, the political lobbying and corruption of politicians by large corporate interests, how agribusiness destroys small, more environmentally friendly food production, the potential for public health outbreaks attributed to cost cutting, and the resistance of other countries to McDonalds, while the American public (literally and figuratively) eats up McDonalds.

Regarding the last subject, the popularity of this book does give me some hope for America.

Paul Gilbert

Paul Gilbert is an incredible guitar player.  I love the fluidity in his playing.  He is a true fan of music, and isn't shy to express how much he loves other people's songs.  He's one of my most humble and personable professional guitarists that I've ever seen.  Though he can rip incredibly fast, he also has beautiful phrasing and his timing is great.

I don't know what's more influential to me - his playing or the fact that he's such a cool guy.

The ending of this next video is probably my favorite 30 seconds on YouTube, ever, where Marco Minneman drops a stick but still plays in perfect sync with Paul:

Yesterday was President's Day

In honor of President Trump's taking a phone call from the Taiwanese president at the start of his presidency, I made Taiwanese food all day.

Is that a tenuous connection?  Trying too hard?

Nah, the actual reason was that I had a nice free day, so I decided that I wanted to try some Taiwanese recipes.  In my mind, I had this romantic notion that I'd just constantly cook and constantly eat all day, but my meals ended up following more conventional meal times.

I started in the morning with sheng jian bao, which are pan fried ground pork filled buns.  They were like a cross between bao, siu mai, and Japanese gyoza.  Bao because of the milk flour outer wrapper, siu mai because of the ground pork filling, and gyoza because of the fry/steam preparation.  These came out really good - the tops and filling were cooked nicely, and the bottoms had a nice brown seared caramelization.

 Next I made Taiwanese popcorn fried chicken with deep fried basil.  These tasted a little like Japanese chicken karaage with five spice.  They were yummy with the fried basil.

I also made a bouncy pork ball in soup.  This was good too!!  The meatballs were very bouncy and springy, and I'm sure if you threw one on the floor, it would bounce.

I made Ching He Huang's Three Cup Chicken, and served with baby bok choy, pickled mustard cabbage, corn and rice.  This was really simple, but tasty.

Finally, I made Taiwanese shaved ice, with lychee jellys, mango, pineapple, peach preserves, condensed milk, tapioca pearls, and shaved ice.  It was actually very light and refreshing!

The Way The News Goes

I need to learn how to play this...  such a beautiful guitar riff

Too much to do.....

I have way too many things I want to do, and I need to find a way to balance all of these things.  I think I need to schedule my free time, after doing chores and spending meaningful time with my children.  Here's my list of things that make me happy (insert Candy Crush sparingly :)

Read library books
Review "The Art of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama
Continue to listen to "The Book of Joy" during commutes
Exercise
Cook new recipes
Work on guitar assembly for various guitars
Finish up album
Learn difficult songs with tab

The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank

I finished this book this weekend.  It was an interesting read....  though at times, I was confused because I wasn't keeping track of all of the people that were coming to help them.

At times, the book got very mundane, but I understand why - in hiding, the only things that she could talk about were her relationships with people in the house, her fears every time they thought they might be discovered, and what they were eating.  Between these entries, though, she was discovering her independence, and her self-awareness regarding happiness.  Those parts were very inspiring.

She figuratively wrote to Peter, though she was just writing in her own diary:

"This morning, when I was sitting in front of the window and taking a long, deep look outside at God and nature, I was happy, just plain happy.  Peter, as long as people feel that kind of happiness within themselves, the joy of nature, they'll always be able to recapture that happiness.

Riches, prestige, everything can be lost.  But the happiness in your own heart can only be dimmed;  it will always be there, as long as you live, to make you happy again.

Wherever you're feeling lonely or sad, try going to the loft on a beautiful day and looking outside.  Not at the houses and the rooftops, but the sky.  As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you'll know that you're pure within and will find happiness once more."

She also contemplates love, where she says:

"Love, what is love?  I don't think you can really put it into words.  Love is understanding someone, caring for him, sharing his joys and sorrows.  This eventually includes physical love.  You've shared something, given something away and received something in return, whether or not you're married, whether or not you have a baby.  Losing your virtue doesn't matter, as long as you know that for as long as you live you'll have someone at your side who understands you, and who doesn't have to be shared with anyone else!"

And again, regarding happiness, she says:

"At such moments I don't think about all the misery, but about the beauty that still remains.  This is where Mother and I differ greatly.  Her advice in the face of melancholy is:  "Think about all the suffering in the world and be thankful you're not part of it."  My advice is:  "Go outside, to the country, enjoy the sun and all nature has to offer.  Go outside and try to recapture the happiness within yourself; think of all the beauty in yourself and in everything around you and be happy."

I don't think Mother's advice can be right, because what are you supposed to do if you become part of the suffering?  You'd be completely lost.  On the contrary, beauty remains, even in misfortune.  If you just look for it, you discover more and more happiness and regain your balance.  A person who's happy will make others happy;  a person who has courage and faith will never die in misery!"

This third passage was interesting.  On face values, it seems to go against the Dalai Lama's teaching that compassion is the key to happiness.  I think her mom was not saying that she should feel compassion for the people that were being sent to the gas chambers; rather, her mom was saying just be glad you're not being sent to the gas chambers.  Whereas Anne was saying that rather than counting her blessings for what she wasn't subjected to, she was counting her blessings for finding the beauty in the world.

I believe that her philosophy did follow what the Dalai Lama says - that happiness within will lead to happiness around you.  Anne discovered this at such an early age, and given her close quarters to people she didn't get along with, the constant fear of being caught and sent to concentration camps, and her confinement in hiding and inability to grow up free, I'm inspired by her character and spirit.

Though the book was long and at times mundane, it inspires me in many ways.

The Rainbow Comes and Goes - Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt

My digital holds from the Hawaii State Library have all become available within the past few weeks!!  It's almost too much to handle.  Fortunately this is a really easy read, and it's relatively short.

The first half of the book (what I've read so far) focuses on Gloria's early life, and how her inheritance money was a source of struggle between her grandmother and mother, with her nanny and Aunt thrown into the mix.  She was unfortunately caught in the middle of all of that.

The book is a series of e-mails between Gloria and Anderson, and though the primary focus is on Gloria, Anderson also reveals details about his upbringing, his disappointments and accomplishments, and his feelings about his family.

2/17 update:  There is a wonderful passage where Gloria explains that forgiveness comes with understanding the reason why something happens, not accepting full responsibility, and acceptance of  others' failings.

Another passage echoes what the Dalai Lama says:  "It is very easy to simply define yourself by your job, your title, your salary, but these rarely give you feelings of long-term success and happiness."

In her final letter to Anderson, Gloria says "We are told the fable ends with a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  But does it?  I have no answer, except to say, the rainbow comes and goes, and really, isn't that enough?"  What a beautiful outlook.

Select Difficulty - Periphery

Here's a band that I rediscovered after looking at guitars and amps.  The leader of the band, Misha Mansoor, has a new import signature Jackson guitar coming out, as well as a new amp called the Peavey Invective.

The specs on his guitars look awesome, and his new amp looks like something I'd want too.

Anyway, I've heard some Periphery before and liked it, but since I was listening to much heavier music at the time, I didn't listen to them much.

I recently started listening to Select Difficulty, and it's such an amazing album.  The vocalist reminds me a little bit of Chester Bennington from Linkin Park, Brandon Boyd from Incubus and Corey Taylor from Slipknot.  The guitar work is incredible.  Misha, Mark Halcomb and Jake Bowen are super creative guitarists and composers.  I love the orchestration and the super melodic guitar lines.

"The Way The News Goes...." has a beautiful and difficult intro guitar part that I'm trying to master.

Between this album, the latest Chthonic, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu audiobook, and Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt's book, I have way too much media to consume, but I'm in a blissful state of sensory inundation!  Lucky thing it's a three-day weekend!!

Update 2/22 - I'm now completely obsessed with Marigold and The Way The News Goes...  I think I've listened to those two songs about 5 times a day.  Everything about those two songs is perfect.

Bù-Tik - Chthonic

I have to admit, I discovered Chthonic only because I was researching buying a new guitar, and the specs on Jessie Liu's signature model E-II JL-7 seem very close to what I want (and different from all of my other guitars).

The only thing is that I had no idea who Jessie Liu is.  A quick google search revealed that he's the guitar player for Chthonic, so I decided to check them out.  I know that Doris Yeh, the bass player, also has a signature model, and I figured they must be pretty influential if they have their own signature model guitars.

In the past week, I've been listening to their latest album, Bù-Tik.  To my ears, they sound like a cross between melodic death metal like Arch Enemy, newer black metal like Abigail Williams, and symphonic death metal like Fleshgod Apocalypse, while incorporating what sounds like very classic ethic Chinese instruments and melodies.  I find it to be a very sophisticated and "smart" sound, for lack of a better word.  They are very talented musically.  Lyrically, they are very political, and touch upon historical events in songs like "Supreme Pain For The Tyrant".  In fact, the lead singer, Freddy Lim, recently won a seat in the Taiwanese legislature.

Bù-Tik is a great album from start to finish.  I love the melodicism in the instrumentation, contrasted with the extreme metal vocals.  I think this is what sets me apart from most musicians that I know....  they usually hate extreme metal vocals and dismiss them as Cookie Monster.  It's with a deeper ear that one can hear melody in extreme metal....  and I think that comes from shifting the focal point of the vocals as melody, onto the instrumentation.  I also think that's why I can appreciate the musicality of non-melodic instruments like drums.

Anyway, this album makes me want to explore Chthonic's back catalog, as well as read about the history of Taiwan as reflected in their songs.  I love how music can expand your horizons.

My Taiwanese obsession continues

....through tying together disparate things that have influenced me....  Ching He Huang, who I discovered via her cookbooks, and Eddie Huang, who I discovered primarily through Huang's World on Viceland, and also Chthonic, the politically charged Taiwanese metal band.

I'm not sure if there's a big Taiwanese metal scene, but I'll have to look it up.  It seems like the international bands that I love are pretty isolated geographically - Sepultura/Max Cavalera from Brazil, Behemoth/Nergal from Poland, unlike some other areas where there are huge scenes, from Swedish Melodic Death Metal, Norwegian Black Metal, Northeastern U.S. Metalcore, or Bay Area Thrash.  I'm guessing Chthonic falls squarely in the former camp.

Reading (actually listening) to the Dalai Lama talk about Chinese annexation of Tibet, and President Trump taking a phone call from the president of Taiwan being a breach in protocol, in addition to the recent news of territorial control of certain islands near China, make me reflect on China's influence and geographical / political domination.  I think it's important that bands like Chthonic write about historical events and take a political stance.

On a completely lighter note, I had Taiwanese beef noodle soup for lunch yesterday!  Food is unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) the easiest way to experience other cultures, short of traveling.

The Book of Joy

I just got downloaded this audiobook from the library and am really looking forward to listening to it on my car rides to and from work!

Update 2/17 - this is a really good listen.  I'm about halfway through the audiobook, and it's very easy to listen to.  It's kind of funny that the book is subtitled "Lasting Happiness in a Changing World" because early on in the book, a distinction is made between "happiness" and "joy", with "joy" being much more spiritual and a state of being that engulfs "happiness".

The first half of the book talks about the Dalai Lama's struggles with suffering related to his exile from Tibet, and Desmond Tutu's struggles with the atrocities of Apartheid and his battle with prostate cancer, and how they both achieve joy through compassion and the recognition that we are one with the seven billion sentient beings in the world.

Listening to this book brings me joy.  I think about how the subject matters relate to the things I'm going through, and I find myself smiling as I'm listening to this.

Update:  3/13 - I've been practicing  meditating upon waking about how I want my day to be filled with doing nice things or at least not harming anyone, and also exercising thoughts of gratitude just before I fall asleep.  They are very good lessons and help to bring me peace of mind and happiness.

Since it's Valentine's Day, here are a few of my current "crushes"

Music is life, and right now I'm obsessing over Periphery's "The Way The News Goes...", Letters From the Fire's "Worth The Pain", and the Bu-Tik album by Chthonic.  I don't know where I'd be without music.

My obsession with cooking Korean food has waned a little, and I've cooked a lot of Japanese dishes that I've wanted to, so my cooking obsession is moving towards Chinese food.

I just discovered Ching He Huang, an ethnically-Chinese Brit that grew up in Taiwan.  I happened upon her by borrowing one of her cookbooks from the library, and love her recipes, many of which have a Taiwanese influence.  I also watched her YouTube series on finding the best chefs in Hong Kong.  It's always cool when someone that knows how to cook appreciates other good chefs.

A Man Called Ove: A Novel

I rarely read fiction.  I can't remember the last fiction I read.....  I think it might have been Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet In Heaven".

I also can't remember if I borrowed this book because a friend recommended it, or because I saw it on the New York Times list of must-reads.  I put a digital hold on this book months ago, and it finally became available.

It's a pretty good story....  as I read it, I kept picturing how it would translate to a movie.  The story bounces chronologically in a way that (I think) was started in movies like Pulp Fiction and Memento.  Overall, I found myself liking the main character.....  and in the end, I think I found the character relate-able to my life....  but at the same time, I wasn't moved so much by the significant events that happened.

I would give this a 4 or 5 stars, but I don't think I'll look up more books by the author, and I'm no more inspired to read more fiction than I was prior to picking up this book.

I actually read this book a long time ago.  I love Max Cavalera's voice and his songwriting and guitar playing, but didn't know much about his life other than the fact that he formed Sepultura in Brazil with his brother Iggor.

What I find interesting and inspiring about Max is that despite his stature and influence in the history of metal, he is always interested in the ways that metal is constantly changing and evolving, and like his friend Dave Grohl, is always interested in promoting the music that he hears that he loves.

This autobiography tells the story of his privileged background getting ground to a halt after his Italian embassy father suddenly passed away, growing up in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and spanning his career with Sepultura until he ultimately left the band over disputes about band dealings because of his marriage to the manager, his time with Soulfly, and his reuniting with Iggor in Cavalera Conspiracy.

I love the energy and enthusiasm this guy has, and he's definitely one of my biggest heroes and influences.

Dave Lombardo

Dave Lombardo is not only one of my favorite drummers of all time, but he's actually one of my favorite musicians of all time.  For a non-melodic instrument, he plays his drums with so much passion, energy and creativity that watching him play is so inspiring.  He has a great sense of time, his tempo is steady, he hits pretty hard, his thrash beats are so driving, and the parts that he plays in the original Slayer songs are so creative.  I wish I could write music with this guy!

Pinch harmonics

(Warning:  guitar geek alert)

A week ago, I finished up enough of my black Les Paul guitar to make it playable (I've since completed everything except for screwing on the truss rod cover, but I'll tweak the truss rod for a little while before I put the plate on for good).

When I first plugged it in to give it a good play through, I immediately started playing Dio-era Vivian Campbell licks, because Vivian played a black Les Paul in Dio.  As I played through his licks, I started playing through the licks of his contemporaries like Warren DiMartini from Ratt, Jake E. Lee from Ozzy's band, George Lynch from Dokken, etc.

It occurred to me that the one technique that unified a lot of those guys was the artificial pinch harmonic, that they incorporated into a lot of their leads and rhythms.  Because these guys came out just a few years after Eddie and Randy, I consider them to be sort of disciples of Eddie.  But though none of them really copied EVH's tapping per se, they all used his pinch harmonics as an expressive tool.

I noticed that in my playing, pinch harmonics are very prevalent as well, no doubt because I was so heavily influenced by both EVH and the guys influenced by him.

I believe that guys who are only sort of moderately interested in EVH get the whole tapping thing, but the guys who have really studied that style incorporate the pinch and artificial harmonics way more as an expressive tool....  so much that when they say tone is in the fingers, this aspect drives the point home.

Hiroshima okonomiyaki

Most people I talk to don't like okonomiyaki.  I've had regular okonomiyaki and I'm not a big fan, but I love Hiroshima style, which is different.  The cabbage is not incorporated into the batter, and there's a lot of finely ground katsuo bushi, which gives the okonomiyaki a very smokey flavor.  Thinly sliced pork belly provides the meaty flavor, and yakisoba gives it body.  The okonomiyaki sauce adds a rich tartness, and kewpie mayo makes the whole thing creamy, with aonori providing more umami.