50 beans | happy international coffee day!

according to the good folks at wikipedia, today is international coffee day! I'm currently not in the states, but I am travelling with a long-time coffee buddy, and we intend on celebrating here in sunny Monaco with an attempt at a coffee crawl! (well, assuming Monaco has enough coffee shops for a crawl...this place is tiny)

the closest thing i could find to a coffee-day bunny

I'm so glad this day isn't as commercialized as other holidays. I cringe at the possibility of one day feeling obliged to buy people Coffee Day presents, or take my kids to the local coffee shop for coffee-bean hunts (presumably with a fictional coffee-day bunny that lays coffee beans).

Of course, it wouldn't be International Coffee Day without a little coffee-day history. Apparently nobody knows where coffee day originated from, but many countries around the world celebrate this day (not always on 9/29). I'm surprised that many of the places that celebrate international coffee day are asian (japan, china, taiwan, indonesia, phillipines, etc)! Anyways, hopefully this day brings a bit more awareness to coffee and coffee appreciation.

We're heading out soon, so I bid you farewell and Happy (or is it merry?) Coffee Day!

like an episode of cheers, minus the bar and wisecracks

I know, I talk about my cousins quite a bit haha. For any of you who've been to tuesday prayer meetings, I try to make cousin updates a weekly thing. As an only child, my cousins are like my sisters, and i try to connect with them whenever i can. Anyways, this weekend, we tried to do a big cousin reunion in boston, and we succeeded in getting most of us out here.

It started with Christine and I moving into the guestrooms at the MIT dorms (courtesy of Julie - thanks for hosting). The wifi here was lightning fast, but given the location, some freshman comp. engineering student was probably hacking into my iPad and changing default language settings to polish or something. After settling in we cleaned up and headed out to the pourhouse for some brunch, followed by a bit of shopping, as we needed a housewarming gift for our cousin Lily (and in my haste to pack I may have forgotten a jacket, socks, and shoes). Part of our Boston adventures included a trip to Bodega, a shoe shop hidden behind a coke machine in the back of a mom&pop liquor store.

We got back to MIT just in time to Skype Kathy, who wasn't able to join us this time, though we lover her nonetheless. Kathy is a pretty cool kid (I know...she'll always be a kid in my book haha) and really REALLY loves her animals. So...halfway through the skype, she busts out Fluffy, her furry little hamster...cute little thing (not as cute as Sparky). Of course, Fluffy makes a break for it at the end of the Skype.

I miss Kathy, maybe next time we'll visit her again when I work up the nerves to go to Cleveland again. We hopped over to Watertown for dinner with Lily (our cousin/aunt...not sure what to call her) and her husband Patrick. Saw their new place and got a chance to hang out with Denny (another cousin/uncle) and his wife Hillary. Since they're a bit more removed from us, maybe I'll save their stories for another post. Well that's all for now, it's boarding time =)

the incredible test drive

A while back, I posted about the fact that i was in quite a pickle. My phone had decided to stop functioning properly at odd times, prompting me to reboot my phone maybe 1-2 times a day, depending on if I was taking a picture or making a phone call. Since I'll be travelling this weekend, I called verizon about getting a temporary global phone plan for this month, which by the way, is totally worth it (well, better than paying the $20.48/MB that they normally charge). The guy on the other end was kinda funny (funny-odd, not funny-haha):

v-guy: sir, with this data plan, you need to have a CDMA and GSM ready phone. what kind of phone do you have right now?

me: a droid-x

v-guy: oh...wow. people still use that phone??

me: -___- **they sold me the phone 2 years ago as the solution to everything but world-peace** why yes, yes i do.

v-guy: ohhh...uhm yea. that's cool. Sir, your phone will not be adequate enough to handle this data plan, but don't worry, we're going to send you an htc incredible2 for you to use for the next 30 days. just pay the return shipping.

me: O_O?! ok.

And just like that, my malfunctioning phone quandary was halted for a month. They took down my mailing address and two days later, a fed-ex package was at my doorstep with a new incredible for me to use/test/abuse. A prima facie glance revealed an aesthetically pleasing phone, much sleeker than my droid, with a screen that was free of blemish. I also enjoy the rubberized-grippy-thingy that they've seemed to wrap around the phone. The droid-x had the same thing, but the large boxiness of it made it kinda blah. So far so good...just the right size, fits well in my hand. Now for the fun part.

As I peeled off the screen protector for the first time (i know...sooo not asian) and turned on the phone, a little green htc greeted me. So pleasant! my droid-x just says "droid" in an awkward sounding creeper voice and has a red mechanical eye. A quick phone-call to verizon, and the incredible was activated and ready to use!

I must say, this phone seems faster than my droid, but that may be due to the fact that it doesn't have two years worth of random amazon apps and text messages weighing it down. I also enjoy the fact that it's been a few days and i haven't had to reboot it to take a picture. Oh, and instagram works again. All in all, very pleased with this phone (although my standards aren't that high).

Some of the functionalities are a bit odd...linking contacts isn't too fun. It also seems that the battery pack is not going to work for a full day of not being plugged in; however thanks to Rob, I was introduced to the gum pro and no longer need to fret. Other things are fairly normal. I like the phone aspect of it. I no longer need to reboot to make a phone call either. We'll call that a win too. Although, all these benefits are only temporary: this will need to be returned in 30 day to avoid incurring a massive fee.

I still remember back in 2010 I was deciding between the droid x and the original incredible. Kinda wish I picked the other one. Why not? Htc makes good phones...and this one is definitely better than mine. Oh well...regret is generally a waste of time. Well, that pretty much concludes this review. Maybe I'll post an update if anything changes during this trip.

meh...work.

Yesterday was a bit of an odd existential-question kind of day for me. These days happen every once in a while, where I question the meaning of life and examine all that I do and yada yada. It’s good, it’s healthy, and it drives me nuts.

While on a coffee walk, I had the realization that I actually care about work. I know I always say I don’t care, and that I’d rather get laid off and travel the world on unemployment (I know…tempting), but I think I’ve got it figured out. I think I just love the idea of not caring about work, of being nonchalant. If people ask how work’s going I just say I dunno…don’t really care, but I suppose I do. I don’t know why not caring about work is such an attractive quality to me (well one that I don’t have apparently). It’s like I want to not care, but I can’t, if that even makes sense.

Then later on last night at small group, we were talking about the wrath of love (tim keller’s words, not mine) and how if we only get angry when we feel emotions such as love. If something crazy happens and it doesn’t make us happy or angry, it’s cuz we just don’t care, which kind of makes sense. Then we tangentially moved the subject to work and stuff. We started discussing the root of sin in work, and how we can seemingly trace much of what we do for work to bad things (i.e. doctors are necessary cuz humans are susceptible to death, accountants are necessary so we don’t cheat each other, social workers are necessary cuz we have social problems, etc).

What struck me as odd is that work itself isn’t a result of the fall of man. It’s not the result of our sin. Humans were charged with the task of maintaining God’s creation from the very beginning, before all that funky stuff with the snake. The fact that our work sucks, however, is a result of our sin. When humans were expelled from the Garden of Eden, man was resigned to toil and sweat to work a cursed ground. Basically, the reason I hate work is because of my sinful nature.

So then I reflect on why I dislike work. I wonder if it was a different job it’d be any different? Maybe it’s just the idea of working? Maybe it’d be the same whether I was a fund accountant or an astronaut. While I’m sure astronauts don’t hate their jobs, there must be plenty of monotony too (prepping for years for a week-long journey) and all that. Maybe at that point in the astronaut’s careers they’d rather be golfing or something…I dunno.

I suppose the point of this is to say that work was meant to be good…meant to be in a perfect world, being good custodians of God’s creation. I suppose maybe that's why I care about work? Too bad we’re sinful…work could’ve been so much better.

what if they were pigs?

At last night's bible study on 1 Kings 17-18, a small thought kept recurring in my head: what if, instead of ravens bringing Elijah bread and meat in the desert, they were pigs? **Logistically I would assume that ravens could carry things in their beak while pigs would have to balance it on their backs...but dude, this is God we're talking about...He could make it happen.**

Granted, both ravens and pigs are non-kosher animals, but pigs are singled out as being particularly unclean (not just regular unclean, but filthy). Would it have made a difference to Elijah? Would he have refused to eat from the swine, but accepted food from a raven? Also, what would the other Jews think of him had he been fed by pigs instead of ravens? Would he still be THE prophet?

I have no answers...just thinking out loud.

simple act

Last night I heard a fairly nice story that I'd like to share:

A few years ago, an American with Gideons International went down to Bolivia to partner with a local gideon group and share at a nearby church. Part of the sharing included a love offering at the end to help the local gideon group fund the purchase of new bibles. A basket was placed in front of the congregation, and members of the church each came up and gave what they could.

After the offering had been collected and counted, the lady at the church handed the American the money collected, and a small pair of shiny earrings. They weren't sure who put the earrings in the offering plate, and they asked around to see who it was. After a while, a young girl came up to talk to the american. She didn't have any earrings on, and it was apparent from the color of her outfit that she was the one who had given the earrings. She said that the earrings were meant to be a placeholder, and asked if the man could wait while she went home to get something else to put in the plate. The man obliged, and she ran home and returned with an elaborate set of magnificently decorated feather earrings. She said, this was her most prized possession, and was all that she could give, as she didn't have any money. The American got choked up, and couldn't really say anything. He graciously accepted the offereing, and thanked her.

Later, he returned to the US, and continued sharing at various churches throughout the country, bringing the feather earrings as an example of offerings that they have accepted, telling the story as part of his brief sharing to churches. Within the next year, the pair of feather earrings had contributed to that Gideon collecting enough offerings to purchase 70,000+ bibles!

At the end of 2007, the man was getting ready to return to Bolivia to share at a few churches again, and he had intended on bringing the feather earrings back to the girl, and let her know how much her most prized possession had contributed to the cause of distributing bibles. As he walked in to the church, apparently the entire church had gathered (they had heard the american was back) except for the little girl, as she was away at school at the time.

He approached the pastor to tell him of the situation over the last year, explaining that the feather earring example had helped him fund the purchase of so many bibles, and had asked him to return the earrings to the girl, as it was her most prized possession. The pastor then told the American that he only knew half of the story. The previous year, when the American had spoken at their church, the congregation was on the decline. People weren't really caring about ministry at church, prayer and reliance on God was at an all-time low, giving was almost non-existent, and the general spiritual health of the congregation was decaying. After the girl had given up her feathered earrings, the story had spread throughout the congregation about her loving act, and the story spurred a spiritual revival within that church. Over that year, the congregation had improved in many ways spiritually, and by the time the American had come to visit and return the earrings, the church was getting ready to send their first missionaries to nearby Ecuador.

I like this story for so many reasons, the most important of which is that through this little girl's act of worship in giving up her most prized possession, God takes it and uses it as a catalyst for something so much greater. I hope this story warmed your heart a bit as it did mine.

blue bottle, a frenchman, and déjà vu (and a chubby squirrel)

chubby squirrel - doesn't really have anything 
to do with the story, just cute.

 This year, I’ve been on a jihad to empty my stockpile of vacation days. It all started three years ago in the back of a Sunday school class. We had finished the discussion questions early (I know…a rare sight to see), so we started making plans for the world cup coming up in 2010. We made a decision to go, and I began putting away vacation days like a chubby squirrel storing nuts in his cheeks for winter. Little did I know we weren’t able to go to South Africa. Well, the two week surplus of vacation days became three and a half weeks, and I was pushing the limit of what I could accrue (California has some dumb law where you can only accrue up to 1.75x of your annual limit), ergo my recent fervor in trying to get my days down to a net zero balance.

And thus, my thursday adventure begins.

Yesterday morning I headed down to san francisco once again in pursuit of a visa. Yep, same SF traffic, same SF frustrations. I got up at the crack of dawn (well…not even the crack of dawn…dawn cracked when I was by walnut creek) and headed down hwy 80 at a modest speed (been driving like a grandpa ever since speeding ticket…story to be told at a later date). I-80 is an interesting beast. It can flow perfectly for miles and all of a sudden you enter Berkeley and nobody knows where the gas pedal is. Then the next 10 miles leading up to the bay bridge is basically idling your car and hoping the traffic gods move it forward.

kyoto drip

Once I got into SF it wasn’t so bad. I made my routine SF pilgrimage to blue bottle for their Kyoto drip, which is cold brew going through this complex Japanese tube system for 14 hours before reaching the bottom…very cool looking contraption. By the time I had gotten there, the line was already out the door, and they had the full staff of hipsters behind the counter buzzing around making the magical elixir that fuels people like me. After a quick stop at the post office (the consulate requires a self-addressed stamped express-mail envelope… *sigh* divas) I was ready to throw myself at the mercy of the visa officer.

I get into the building on Kearny St. where the consulate is, and wait in the lobby until I can get buzzed in to the floor where they sit. I go up, and I find myself in this long beige hallway with two doors, one for citizens, and one for visas. Both are locked. Finally one person comes out of the citizen door and badges to go to the visa side, so naturally I tag along. The guy turns around and looks at me in horror like I was about to rob him and says “no no no no, 9am! It says 9am!!” in a thick French accent. I was so taken aback that I hopped back across the door and close it. The guy behind me chuckles…apparently that happened to him last week.

Little did I know, French guy turned out to be my visa officer. Great…

At promptly 9:00 the door opens, and I hear a heavily accented voice come over the speaker “NOW you can enter.” I make my way inside, and check in on the list of visa applicants. After a quick journey through the metal detector and I find myself face-to-face with visa counter #2 and the thinly mustachioed frenchman with no nametag…we’ll call him Pierre.

P: Please give me the application.

Me: The entire thing including the supporting docs?

P: I said application!!

Me: oo sorry. Here you go.

P: Is this your first time visiting?

Me: yep…very excited.

P: Why is your visa application so late? We require 3 weeks minimum!

Me: Oh sorry…this was kinda spontaneous. Didn’t plan on going until just recently…will it be enough time to get a visa?

P: ok…we’ll let you know in 1-2 weeks. Don’t worry, even if we reject you, we’ll let you know before your flight.

Me: oh…uhm…that’s comforting……

A few more minutes of small talk and I’m on my merry way (btw small-talk with a non-talkative Pierre is tiny-talk). After I left, I marveled at the line that had started forming…apparently there were quite a few people waiting to get visas. I make a beeline back to the garage that I parked in (learned my lesson this time…garage: 2.75/hr…street meter: 3.50/hr). As I got into the garage, I realize that I was blocked in, and I don’t mean one car blocking me in…cars were quadruple parked in this garage. It took 30min for the attendant to move the cars like the iphone game, and then I was on the road again. After a few minor roadblocks/crazy drivers/pedestrians I was back on my way to sac! Hopefully I hear back from the visa folks before the two weeks are up, but maybe that’s wishful thinking. In the meantime, rosetta stone here I come!

adventures with charbilditha

I clutched my caffeinated beverage in hand, backpack in tow, wind blowing through my non-bieber-like hair as we rolled into Monterey like a group of well-manner school children on a class field trip. Labor Day certainly wasn’t going to be the boring sit-at-home-and-bbq day I had envisioned it to be. No…we were on an adventure! Our plan was to grab a quick lunch and head down to the marina and pick up some bikes and invade some of the tourist points along the water. We parked, sunblocked, and grabbed our stuff and headed to town, picking up clam chowder samples along the route like marathon runners filling up on water (only thicker and saltier). We peered high and low for a bathroom first because the search helped us get adjusted to the lay of the land (and the coffee from the car-ride was working its magic).

the hood of monterey - clearly one of the rougher areas

After the pit-stop, we moseyed farther inland to the rougher areas of Monterey and ended up face-to-face with a falafel/swarma/gyro place. While the place looked exciting and new, and had many exuberant review on yelp, it was Labor Day and we were americans goshdarnit (well most of us were…), so we ended up getting sandwiches at a deli closer to the bike-rental place. After an engaging meal over sandwich/soup/fruit/omelette and a lively discussion about youth group and the differences between jam and jelly, we finished up and headed down to Adventures by the Sea to rent our surrey (read: bikepath tank). Ohh yes, this thing was legit. The surrey could fit up to 6 (although we saw 7-8 asian tourists on one), but only four people could pedal. The surrey came with two steering wheels, but only one works (otherwise it’d be bad news).

the guy adjusting our surrey for us

The guy adjusted the pedals for us (we didn’t realize till a bit later why the pedals needed to be bent back to original shape…) and we were ready to storm the tourist spots! As we breezed down the bikepath at electric-wheelchair speeds (we were overtaken by a few pre-schoolers on tricycles), we came up on our first bikepath obstacle: two poles in the middle of the road (presumably to keep cars from driving down the bikepath) just wide enough to fit the surrey with 6” of room on either side, followed by a slight ramp down to the street where oncoming traffic was flowing. This was pretty much at every block. No sweat. As we inched closer to the poles, we slowed to fit our surrey through (chariots of fire going through my head the whole time) and sped-up into oncoming car traffic (who were gracious enough to stop for us – they must’ve been intimidated by our bikepath-tank). We incurred a few battle-scars on our surrey by the end of the trip, but all was well.

Our first stop was Lover’s Point, a nice rocky place that juts out into the water surrounded by sandy beaches, pristine water, and Asian tourists rocking the murse/fannypack combo and DSLRs with lenses slightly smaller than the Hubble telescope. After doing a 12-point turn to park our surrey (it doesn’t maneuver as well as an electric-wheelchair), we made our way out to the rocks to check out the scenery and dodge the birds. We stayed for a while (it was quite windy) before retreating to the safety of our surrey.

We then headed in the opposite direction to visit the Marina and Fisherman’s Wharf (looks kinda like the SF one, but smaller). We go through the same set of obstacles heading back the other direction, avoiding the harrowing perils of the poles and dodging the narrow misses of tricycles cutting us off on the road (freakin kids…). We quickly park our surrey across from the wharf and head down the street where the shops are. After wandering through a few of the shops and checking out the local scenery, we head back toward our surrey, hoping and praying that we didn’t get ticketed or towed. We made the decision to check out nearby Carmel as well, cuz, you know, it’s a wonderful place and, heck, any town that elects Clint Eastwood as mayor must be A-Ok. After a 4-point turn (we were getting better at surrey parking), we returned the surrey and headed back to the car for the scenic drive down to the beautiful city of Carmel-by-the-Sea.

hehe...

mmm...desserts...

so much plaid...

Carmel is an interesting town. Founded in 1902, this town is notable for being long connected to artistic history. Carmel is known for its dog-friendly atmosphere, and apparently has several unusual laws; including a ban on high-heeled shoes unless you obtain a permit from the city first (Clint must’ve gotten that one passed during his term…). As we drove through town, the parking gods smiled upon us, and lo-and-behold, a spot open up right by where we wanted to be. We were able to walk around the town before supper to check out the local shopping area, with shops that had lots and lots of fancy candles and plaid clothing, and the nearby beach, where the people who buy plaid clothing go to frolic along the sand.

post-dinner affogato

For dinner, we headed back up to the main part of Carmel and found a place called Basil (4 stars on yelp), which had pastas and seafood. The wait-staff were a bit confused, but probably because it was early. The menu was fairly simple, but the food was very good. We mostly went with the black fettucine with calamari, with Billy being the adventurous one and going with the prosciutto tortellini. For dessert we went with a gluten-free chocolate cake and a Bailey’s affogato. All in all a good meal, and we all felt satisfied before beginning the arduous journey back home (thanks for driving, Billy!).

le coffee shop

We hit up a coffee place in downtown Carmel featuring an otter logo, and an old probat roaster on display so you know the beans are roasted there. This way Billy was able to get enough juice to get us back to davis safely. The drive back was long and traffic-laden, but we passed the time with lively banter and making plans for future food outings. All in all, it was a mighty fine way to spend a Labor Day holiday.