self-experimentation

seth roberts came to my games class yesterday and spoke about self-experimentation and games. seth is a UC Berkeley psychology professor who experiments on himself to learn more about how the mind works, and has published his results to quite stirring successes (one being the shangri-la diet).

anyway, he spoke to us about omega-3. he found that taking three tablespoons of flaxseed oil (high in omega-3) in the morning had a huge effect on his ability to: balance, perform well at certain memory games, aim at targets, sleep.

he also told us to stop eating breakfast (he eats nothing before 10am) and see life-size faces in the morning.

anyway, with nothing better to do, and intrigued, i bought flaxseed oil today and took three tablespoons. that's a helluva lot (you could do less fish oil, i'm told, but i am starting from his observations + flaxseed may have other magical benefits). i'm going to see what this does to me. in reality, we are constantly doing crazy things to our body and very often experimenting, but not consciously. so i'm going to try and be conscious about this move. brain tests, here i come :)

oh and games: seth takes a lot of self-measurements. in some cases, he needs to take many measurements a day, and that gets very, very tedious. he came to the class to show us a game he had developed to make it slightly more fun to take measurements. he then asked us if we could help him improve the game.

as a final note, of course i looked up what others were saying about taking flaxseed oil (didn't want to miss any research that says what i'm doing is completely nuts). found this article that talks about potential danger of taking flaxseed oil for men. anyway, author recommends flax seed oil with lignans. that's what i got.

blood

strange oddball characters have been emerging in my writing of late. here's something i quickly wrote up recently. warning: it's somewhat bloooody

untitled (and unfinished.. but it's what i have now)

imagine a survey question: why don't you floss everyday?
a) laziness
b) forgetfulness
c) don't care
d) other

99.9% of the non-flossing adults select one of the first three options. i select (d), other. my 'other' is 'blood' -- if i flossed everyday there wouldn't be blood, and for me, the joy of flossing is the taste-my-blood experience.

your jaw that has dropped in horror? push it back up. there is a rational reason for this behavior, and you will be convinced when i'm through.

you, the snob you are, drink wine. you wax on about the buttery flavors, the caramel, the big mouth, the hint of cardamom. if i told you there was a liquid finer than wine you would laugh and look at me as if i were a child drinking grape juice. silly boy, you'd say. one day, you'll come around.

well, i did come around, but not to wine. i learned that i make my own sweet nectar. it happened many years ago. i just had the most fabulous rare steak in my life -- pink, tender, juicy. that steak brought me near heaven. five days later i found it.

in the bathroom, i looked in the mirror and saw a bit of swelling around my upper front teeth. 'hmm, not good,' i thought, 'time to floss.' so i wrapped the waxy string around my fingers and went to work. i watched in the mirror as the blood started to trickle down my tooth -- it fell and hit my tongue and the most wonderful taste of aged beef, iron and caramel enveloped me. i was shocked. my tongue darted to my front teeth and voraciously scrubbed the blood off -- more heaven. what was this? i panicked. could i be safe in the wilderness if i tasted so good?

indeed, this tasty blood may sound wonderful -- the best liquid to drink on earth is coursing through my veins. but all i could imagine, at first, was the horror of knowing that i would be feasted upon by my fellow humans if only the knew. for the next two weeks i walked around with band-aids and a strong fear of being discovered.

but then i flossed again, after two weeks, and the blood was mediocre, even bad -- the worst two buck chuck ever! what had happened!?!

....

the peanut farmer

last night we chatted about tantalizing voices. those voices that lure you in and, regardless of what they're saying, make you swoon. people from india with british accents do that for me, shashi tharoor being a good example. i love how he says "ramparts" -- i'm not listening to the concepts, just the flow. supposedly L has ample proof that her voice enters this category. i don't know..

musically, i think billy corgan has such a voice:





then, my mind wandering, i imagined the peanut farmer test. imagine you are severely allergic to peanuts and you flip on the radio and hear this melodious voice. the voice is talking about the farming of the peanut, your arch-nemesis, but it doesn't matter. that voice! you resolve to meet this peanut farmer, even though the farmer will likely be oozing peanut oil. sure death! but the peanut farmer's voice. the voice.

that would be the voice.

now i need some nuts.

Bea's of Bloomsbury: eat tasty food in London

i am so proud to say i'm an investor in my friend bea's new cake shop in london: Bea's of Bloomsbury. doesn't it look tasty?



the shop just recently opened, and i am salivating for a cupcake, and hoping i get there soon! i know some of my readers may be in london soon, and if so, run, don't walk, and sample the wonderful food. bea is a culinary wizard and tireless worker who got the business going almost singlehandedly, entirely from scratch. here's a quote from the londonist review:

What makes Bea’s cupcakes so damn good (as well as the rest of Bea’s menu for that matter)? Well, in addition to applying their Michelin-Star pedigrees, Le Cordon Bleu training and prior experience at yum factories such as Asia de Cuba and Nobu, the folks behind Bea’s intend to use fresh produce and the finest ingredients in an attempt to “redefine the concept of takeout as quality, indulgence and style.” From what Londonist tasted, Bea and crew have more than a fighting chance at achieving such a lofty goal.

and here's another review from the randomness guide to london.
UPDATE 2/29/08: another great review at view london.

firebrand: the best commercials

i have a soft spot in my heart for excellent commercials. i found firebrand.com today, a site that aggregates wonderful commercials from around the world. i browsed around and found the following brilliant commercial. i love it:



i'm actually seriously thinking about getting a smart car in the future, if i need a car. this ad made me feel that choosing a smart car would be a safe decision.

the juno soundtrack

the juno soundtrack is fantastic. i will post the whole thing at some point, but here's the first track. love it. i haven't felt this stoked about a soundtrack since pulp fiction. you have a favorite movie soundtrack? let me know.

cnn disgusts me

today we went and saw some of the super tuesday election results (go hillary!) at a group gathering on the berkeley campus. the organizers had put cnn up on the screen. after an hour i was about ready to throw up all over wolf blitzer.

why?

well, are we mice or .. er ... people? mice want cheese. that's what cnn gave. they'd give you a nibble of new york, then a nibble of georgia (but not a peach!), then a nibble of another state. but no aggregation! none! eventually we pulled out a piece of paper, and started writing down the candidate names and the states, and the associated percentages, to get our own aggregate sense. very much like the graphic on the nytimes.com homepage (or for that matter the cnn page):


when did tv viewers become so illiterate that we aren't allowed to have the global picture?

all that wolf blitzer had, amusingly, was his reference to huckabee as a "burgundy" (the color of the red on the map). that got a good laugh -- i wish someone would call me a burgundy, that most refined pinot.

this song, from the juno soundtrack, seems quite appropriate for cnn:

babysitting fun

today i babysat my cousin's son. despite being two, he was not terrible. in fact, he was pleasant. that is, until he started grooving to my daft punk but refused to dance with me. hope you enjoy his alternative dance partner suggestion, shown in the video below:



also, while babysitting i constructed some situations which amused me to no end. below you'll see alien vs predator :)

and here's alien vs predator requiem:

aimee mann: "different"

i love how she says "different" at 0:50ish in this song. listen below.



sends chills through me. sounds and scents! i promise a post on that very topic soon. i was smelling my forearm and realized i had so much to say about *that*

boston trip soundtrack

i cannot sleep on planes. so i took this time to go through my ipod, which i hadn't done in quite a while. i compiled a list of songs that reflect my mood and musical taste (that's right, i love prince). i wanted to share this playlist with people, and this desire eventually landed me on this site which reviewed blog playlist embedding.

the author recommended imeem, which i used. it was still not easy! this could be way easier. but perhaps "they" don't want people making these playlists? anyway, listen to some of it below while it's available.

oh, and i put in the sitting meditation track i followed while on the plane. it's long but nice to follow if you have time. i don't expect many people will listen to that!



Link to standalone player

raja, my beautiful black cat

lately, a number of people have been surprised that i have a cat, raja. now, i keep a picture of him in my bag, have him on my thoughts often, but i guess i don't really talk much about him.

so, i wanted to rectify that, at least a little, by featuring him here. isn't he cute?

then i found this video of raja getting angry at me. the anger is very very rare, i assure you! the most disturbing thing in this video, in my mind, is my disembodied, bony hand. am i really that death-like?



wouldn't you hiss at such a hand?

despite his hiss, he loves guests and would be happy to have you over for tea and treats.

postsecret interview online

as promised, here's the link to my full interview with frank warren.

you can find the "secrets" issue this is part of here.

one fun article is:

Tampons and Taboos
Hsiao-Yun Chu

quotes from "my name is red" by orhan pamuk

i could not describe red any better:
"My dear master, explain red to somebody who has never known red."

"If we touched it with the tip of a finger, it would feel like something between iron and copper. If we took it into our palm, it would burn. if we tasted it, it would be full-bodied, like salted meat. If we took it between our lips, it would fill our mouths. If we smelled it, it'd have the scent of a horse. If it were a flower, it would smell like a daisy, not a red rose."

here's a description of a picture a character stumbles upon while examining a book:
"the capture and hanging of a decitful shepherd dog who presents a sheep from his flock to the she-wolf he mates with each night"

on seeing, memory and painting:
"To know is to remember that you've seen. To see is to know without remembering. Thus, painting is remembering the blackness."

my interview with postsecret founder frank warren

i think many of you have seen postsecret, a site where people send anonymous postcards to an artist revealing deep secrets and he posts them online. i had a chance to interview the site "curator" frank warren recently for ambidextrous, the stanford design magazine. i'll post a link to the online content of the issue (the theme is "secrets") when it becomes available.

but my interview is available now in pdf format. here's a quote to entice you:

omar: Can some abstract secrets just not be doctored onto a postcard?

frank: I think that the postcard format creates limitations but also wonderful opportunities… A postcard is usually six inches by four inches. It’s a very finite amount of space to express your secret on. Because of that, you can’t waste any words. Each word has to really pull something out of your heart that exposes what you’re trying to share. I really think, in every case, each one of those postcards in its own way is incomplete. It’s imperfect. Because of that, it allows you, the viewer, to draw upon your own experiences, values, hopes, desires, and fears to interpret the secret you’re reading in a way that makes sense to you—to complete the story in a way that doesn’t just show you something more about somebody you haven’t met on the planet, but can also invite you, the viewer, to discover something new in yourself by projecting on somebody else’s postcard … (pdf)

i'm going to write more about the topic of form and content in another post. my ideas have been percolating. stay tuned!

plastic bags: why so bad?

after reading that australia plans to phase out plastic bags by the end of 2008, and a multitude of other anti-plastic bag initiatives (like here in san francisco), i decided to do some research: why are plastic bags so bad?

the answers didn't completely surprise me. the main problem with plastic bags is likely the negative impacts if they are disposed of incorrectly (essentially a human behavioral failing) -- and that might be surprising to you!

ok, so we want to analyze the life cycle of plastic bags. let's compare plastic bags to paper bags, which is often what people do. here are a few things to consider:

• energy to create, and environmental impact of creation: plastic wins. plastic bags are a derivative of the oil refining process, whereas paper bags are made of trees, and sometimes from forests that are not sustainably harvested
• transportation energy: comparing the bags by carrying capacity, it'd take about 7 trucks of paper bags to transport the equivalent of 1 truck of plastic bags: plastic wins
• disposal: this is the kicker
• effects on natural environment: plastic bags, if not disposed of properly, can harm wildlife when ingested. paper bags don't have this problem
  
• effects on built environment: plastic bags can clog drains and have caused floods in numerous places. you, like me, likely see the plastic bags swirling around everywhere as a blight on our environment
• garbage dumps: plastic might win here. from what i've read, neither paper bags nor plastic bags do much decomposing in land fills, and since plastic bags are quite compressible, they actually don't take up that much space. BUT, a lot more plastic bags end up at the landfill than paper.. which leads to:
  
• recycling: generally people are far more likely to recycle paper bags than plastic bags. the plastic bag disposal programs are typically cumbersome (isn't it annoying to take that plastic bag back to the store!) and hence not utilized by individuals

in fact, on this recycling point i want to show you a figure from a relatively old study that, while the numbers may not be right, does a good job of conveying the importance of recycling in deciding if plastic bags beat paper:


Table 1 - Choice table. Determines bag preference at varying recycling rates. Either was used when the difference between energy efficiencies are inconsequential. (from Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment: Paper vs Plastic Bags)

now, we should also note that governments and stores banning plastic bags aren't in love with paper, but instead are also trying to get out the message that paper vs plastic is a false dichotomy:
- what about reduction: using neither, instead using your own bag
- what about reuse of paper and plastic bags?
- what about alternatives: biodegradable plastics?

my overall conclusion is that we wouldn't be very concerned about plastic bags if people properly dealt with them. that's why i think biodegradable plastic and programs that make it easier to recycle plastic bags are important (like new york is doing). you could just ban them, but then you have to think about what is filling the void. of course, getting people to use their own cloth bag would be fantastic -- but causing that kind of behavior change, namely getting people to have the cloth bag around right when they need it, is likely quite difficult.

here are the resources (they are few, sorry only have so much time!) i examined:

• The Environment Literacy Council: Paper or Plastic?
• Plastic Shopping Bags in Australia: National Plastic Bags Working Group Report to the National Packaging Covenant Council
• Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment: Paper vs Plastic Bags
• How Do You Say "Plastic Bag" in Australian?

Google Queries:
[what's wrong with plastic bags]
[environmental impact plastic bags]

Cooking in Toronto

while in toronto, i decided that i needed to become a better cook of indian food. so i enlisted my dad and mom to show me the ropes. i prepared three dishes: chick peas, lentils (soft), and mixed rice. it was quite an ordeal! but i learned a lot by trying to keep track of my dad's intuitive movements, and the choice of spices. i'll post recipes one of these days, but i just wanted to post some pictures up here as well.

here are all the spices that we used:



the wine was stricly consumed to keep me sane during the process:

glamor shot with me and the food:

another one

and here are the happy people eating the good food:

omar, circa grade 1

while digging through old boxes at my parents' home, i found this classic depiction of the four season by your's truly, circa grade 1. notice my lack of drawing talent. and what exactly is fall? a green circle? notice that the missing season, summer, is really "yellow" to me.

i've also interpreted what i meant in the final paragraph. it says: "i like fall because i can jop in the leaves" where "jop" i believe equals "jump." anyway, a fun stroll down memory lane.

i sewed on a button

woohoo i sewed on a button. i haven't sewn in a very long time, mainly because (1) it was so traumatic when i took home ec back in grade school and (2) i haven't really had the need. yes, in grades 6-8, i took unified arts, a class divided into 3 sections: woodworking, arts and crafts, and home economics. i loved woodworking and arts and crafts (well, "love" might be a strong word for arts and crafts) but i loathed home economics. the teacher, ms. donovan, had some pretty strange rules, like no salt *AT ALL* in any dish. if the recipe called for salt, you'd skip it. we produced some bland, bland dishes.

the home ec final sewing project required us to sew a complicated pattern and create something wonderful. being into basketball at the time, i chose to sew a plush basketball. it was supposed to turn out something like this:



but instead it turned out looking more like a deformed pumpkin. i think ms donovan, with her sense of humor, told me that it was the most original plush basketball she had ever seen. i tried to find it in my parents' house so i could share with you, dear reader. but alas, it seems to have bounced off (or maybe it was mistakenly carved).

ANYWAY, sewing. so i needed to sew a button on a jacket. what did i do? i went to my good friend youtube and found this video:



it was exactly what i needed. my button is back in service.

Audio of "This Is Just to Say"

for those of you that like to hear poetry, here's "This is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams (posted previously), read by the author himself.

sick but with poetry

i am sick. but i have poetry. i've been reading a new anthology i purchased recently. many of the poems have really moved me, but i'll start out with some humor:

This Is Just to Say, by William Carlos Williams (1934)

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
--

and in the same anthology the editor posts a poem in response:

Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams, by Kenneth Koch (1962)

1

I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do
and its wooden beams were so inviting.

2

We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.

3

I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

4

Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!