The measure of my tastes (2012)

I grew up a foodie.  I am not exactly sure how that happened.  Perhaps because my father would take me to formal dinners to which he was invited and to which my mother would not attend.  Perhaps due to having a cook who could and would cook anything we requested - no dish was beyond his reach.  By the time I was 7, I had already learned to cook a complete meal, and had tasted various dishes from caramel custard to deep fried crickets.  My later years, however, were formed and influenced by several people whom I never met.

Tea vs. Coffee

The choice of these two as alternative drinks has always been a source of puzzlement for me.  Living part of my childhood above "Ko Aye's tea shop" at my grandmother's downtown building  - one which always had a huge cauldron of "milk tea" - and smelling the fantastic aroma of that tea,
I had no real concept of coffee until I arrived in America - the ultimate land of coffee drinkers.  My early working life's memories consisted of trips to the place where coffee was provided as part of the company benefits.  In those younger days, it was not unusual for me to ingest six to ten cups (mugs actually) of coffee within the short span of about 6 hours.  The subsequent effect was sufficient to provide a certain perceived level of energy - which I am not quite sure was actual.

Re-grouping and rethinking this blog site.

It has been a while since I last posted to this blog, and I owe you my readers an apology and an explanation.

After taking an initial stab at writing, I realized that there are many things I want to say - but much of those have already been said by many writers on the internet - some of whom are held in significant regard.  Repeating those would be a waste of your time (and mine).  So I took some "time out" to reconsider my approach to this blog space and to think things through.  Particularly to consider if there was anything which I might write which in some way would provide a personal and different, if not useful, perspective on things.  For example, I love food and drink (and photography and travel and a few other things).  And so do (practically) millions of others who write in blogs.  Some write about restaurants and dishes they have had, or about food and drink they have a personal interest in (my favorite is Hobbes - a British Mathematician who writes mostly about "sheng puerh" - which is also known as "raw" puerh tea) or, in general, on some "focused subject" such as family, God, politics, etc.  Most are reviews of things.  I would be doing them all a disservice if this blog was yet another repetitive experiment reviewing things!  Many of those who know me also know that I am not quite that focused! My contribution to your entertainment would definitely require a representation of the "true me".  This would require me to write a blog that varies in focus from article to article - yet provide some thread of continuity over time. Of course, there is no way to totally avoid a "review type" blog  - so I will have to justify that writing style when using it, by adding the "personal aspect" of photographs and so forth.

Super Bowls

The city with the winning team is probably energized.

The city with the losing team is not motivated to get to work early.