Filed under: Cooking/Food, Cool Stuff | Tags: farmers market, Otsuji Farm, veggie tales
Sometimes I evaluate my diet and realize I’m almost a vegetarian. And I feel guilty. You see, I take pride in being a meat eater. My grandma made me nothing but a big plate of tasty meat with a bowl of rice for lunch everyday when I was in elementary school. (Uh, yes, I was chubbidy fat kid, but very cute, must I add...) One of my favorite t shirts now from threadless.com reads “Vegetarians are eating the rainforest.” But because I’m too lazy to cook raw meat, I rarely buy it. Unsure of how prepared meats at the supermarket are prepared, I never buy those either, so I unless I eat out, no yummy meat goes into my tummy.
As a result (of my laziness), I have learned to love veggies. I like it so much that I don’t use dressing in my salads because it masks the sweetness of the lettuce and other vegetables. And as a result of this love for veggies, I am constantly seeking out places to buy fresh vegetables, which turns out to be local farmers markets. I have, then, indirectly learned to understand eating local, reducing carbon footprint, and community supported agriculture to be not just trendy-sounding buzz words but my responsibility to my community. Even though it’s more of an investment, the produce is much fresher compared to the airflown ones in regular supermarkets.
So this week, when people at my school co-ordered fresh picked vegetables from Otsuji Farm, a local farm in Hawaii Kai, and although it is not organic, I was excited to try out a case for $15. We were told that the variety of veggies in the case will depend on what’s ready for picking that day. The element of surprise makes the whole experience even more fun. The possibilities!
Today the first thing on my to-do list was to pick up veggies. Once in my hands, I opened the box like it was Christmas morning. The sight of the vegetables made me realize I’m not such a veggie expert after all as I had the slightest idea of what some of them are, let alone how to tastefully eat them. How many can you identify??
I feverishly looked up recipes for each of the vegetables, and I’m excited to try out everything. Stay tune to see what I end up putting on the table in the next couple of days!
It was a dreary, rainy morning. I am a little sick and jet lagged, involuntarily waking at an obscene hour. The thought of hopping on a moped to work in the rain did not appeal to my achy head. Looking at my cereal, I suddenly remembered that Moped has been sitting in the garage downstairs well over a month untouched, ignition unfired. I gulped down the rest of my cereal, realizing it may take some time to kick start the engine. After all, she’s an old bike.
“I’m gonna be late, I’m gonna be late. Please please please, Moped, be good. I’m sorry I forgot to ask someone to fuel and fire you up while I was away…and for so long. But I need to get to work, please please,” I mumbled as I waited for the elevator door to open. Through the glass door I saw Moped sitting staunchly, with her head tilted longingly awaiting my return, to unchain her and to put her to use.
Releasing the heavy chain from her back wheel and fumbling through the routine of packing my bag, putting on my helmet, I gave Moped a sincere yet slightly admonishing pat on her back. “Don’t fail me,” I thought to her.
I hopped on, turned the key, revved the famished engine with fuel and waited for a response. I expected Moped to whine a little with that teasingly prolonged start up sound she makes when refusing to actually start, but to my great surprise and joy and gratitude, she hungrily guzzled the fuel and growled a powerful cry as if screaming “let’s go!”
Moped and I dashed out of the garage into a different day as the sun had peeked out and scorched the rain away. As we rode into morning traffic, I understood why her previous owner had lovingly named her Sunshine.
Epilogue–
Sunshine is a modest Rexy 50. Her years is unknown to me although I can probably check her registration to find that out. I am her third owner who admittedly sometimes wished I had a prettier bike, like this Italian-made one:
If there’s a lesson to be learned today from my modest yet utterly loyal and reliable bike, however, it is that I’d wish my life to be as achieving as hers–to unreservedly fulfills the purpose of her being made.
Filed under: Cool Stuff | Tags: documentary film, independent films, kickstarter, Nathaniel Hansen, The Elders
This post is simply to plug my friend’s documentary film project. I have nothing to do with it except donated a very small amount in support of this worthy undertaking. Nathaniel Hansen, an independent film maker currently living in Boston, is working on a documentary film about aging that will take him across the country.
Synopsis:
A feature-length documentary, The Elders uses stylized interview portraits of elderly individuals to tell a universal story about life’s most important lessons. Thematically organized around life lessons that reflect a wide range of human emotion and experience, the film seeks to reveal a larger more complex portrait of our shared humanity.
The project is funded through Kickstarter.com, a site that allows artists to test the viability of their ideas through “crowdfunding.” Nathaniel, like other artists proposing their idea on the site, had a fixed amount of time to raise a predetermined amount of money to support his endeavor. While I’m sure it was nail-bitingly nerve wrecking for Nathaniel as he watched the clock clicking, it was rather easy for many of his friends, like myself, family, and even strangers to see its value and contribute. At the end of the pledging period, $12,600 was raised through Kickstarter, sending Nathaniel on the road to interview various elderly individuals “to tell a universal story about life’s important lessons.”
To find out more details about this exciting project, or to follow Nathaniel’s journey, please go to The Elders. You can also follow the progress on its facebook page.
Filed under: Cool Stuff | Tags: amy, Bobble, hill's kitchen, reusable water bottle
I love a good invention. Who doesn’t?
And having just been to a baseball game and paid $4 for a bottle of Dasani, which is just tap water, I wish there was an alternative.
NOW THERE IS.
Introducing BOBBLE REUSABLE WATER BOTTLE–Filter water as you drink.
