Green tea powder
A conversation last week at Laguna Oriental Store, QV:
Bing: *hands over item*
Cashier girl: *scans item* Hey, is this the green tea powder used for cooking? Where did you find it? A lot of people have been asking for it.
B: Oh, err, just in the tea section over there.
CG: Cool, thanks.
B: *pay money and give a feeble smile*
Reminiscent of the mango mousse pocky episode. Yet again, my power of witty one-liners deserted me. 
Written into our physiology
Warning: Uncomfortable imagery. I’m a scientist.
A statement in a new light:
The sperm chases the egg.
As a paradigm for relationships. Think about it.
I Don’t Know Enough About You
Diana Krall in March, woohoo! This one’s from ‘Live in Paris 2001′.
The Venn diagram guide to Chinese music videos
Another Ultimate Guide to Music Videos! I think I’m spending too much time at flowingdata.com. Should probably explain it a bit: Male/Female songs, 
songs and 
/ songs.
Click to embiggen
As you can probably tell from the selection of songs, I’m getting dated in the Chinese music department — been in stasis since 2007. Won’t someone recommend me new songs?
The Venn diagram guide to music videos
I present to you… The Ultimate* Guide to 21st Century Music Videos!
Click to embiggen
Here are some that I thought of after scanning:
- The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
- Savage Garden – Truly, Madly, Deeply
- Third Eye Blind – Semi-charmed Life
- Green Day – Walking Contradiction
- Britney Spears – Oops, I did it again
You could find out where they fit in the diagram. Interactive, not bad eh.
*whatever I could think up last night
Namesake
From a mentalfloss post:
Seth Lewelling first cultivated Bing cherries on his farm near Milwaukie, Oregon, during the 1860s. Why aren’t they called Lewelling cherries, then? Because Lewelling didn’t work his hundred-acre farm alone. Much of the farm’s success stemmed from the hard work of Lewelling’s foreman, a Chinese immigrant named Ah Bing. Bing worked for Lewelling for over 30 years before eventually returning to China, and Lewelling named his new cherry cultivar after his trusty right-hand man.
Not bad, considering that the 1800s was the slavery era. Allowed to go back home some more. Did more reading and found that Lewelling was an abolitionist who named the ‘Black Republican’ cherry as well. Go Seth Lewelling!
—
“Headphones” by Jars of Clay has been on my mind lately. Katie Herzig’s fragile vocals bring a softness to the song. The Long Fall Back To Earth as an album is sad, sweet and serious. But the one that stood out was ‘Headphones’. Just looking around me, there are 4 of them within reach (including earbuds). I’m wearing a pair as I type this. And I guess the theme of tuning in and zoning out resonates. So much happens around us, sometimes you just want to distract yourself. Being left in silence with your own monologue might be detrimental to sanity (one of the reasons why I think asylums are counter-intuitive). We can watch dramas with detachment because in real life, Phantom Planet’s “California” doesn’t play spontaneously after one gets into an argument. The music serves to soften the emotion. Imagine watching a TV show that doesn’t have any sort of background music – it’d be ‘boring’ because it’s no different from what people experience.
Echoing a blog post also about this song, as a musician and headphone enthusiast, there’s an ever-present danger of idolising music: Taking in the gestalt of the sonic landscape and declaring, “This (alone) is the greatest”. Listening has mostly been a solitary pastime – it’s hard to split a headphone, y’know? Group listening sessions are a bit awkward for me. Kinda reduces the songlist for jamming to mainstream stuff that everyone has heard.
There’s a problem when one consistently chooses to be plugged in over human interaction. I’m learning to not panic when I forget to bring my player when going out.
Milo microwave
And now for something different – how to make milo microwave. Just roughly:
- Place 25 g ±0.5 g of Milo into a glass cup with 3 mm ±0.2mm thick walls
- Add 237 mL of Milk at 4 °C ±0.1 °C slowly down the side of the cup. You want the milk to cover the milo and form a layer over it.
- Microwave at high for 57 s ±2 fs
You should end up with semi-dissolved milo bits drifting about in lukewarm milk. Mmmm. I thought of naming it ‘Milo 2.45 GHz’, but thought it was too technical. Wouldn’t stick well in kopitiams.
TL; DR: 2 tbsp milo. Cold milk. Nuke for about 1 min. Stir and gulp.
