On track, finally?

The end is near. One month left! Okay, less than a month since I finish exams on 25th rather than 29th...

The weekend has been ridiculous. I surprised myself by reading and understanding ALL (actually except one) the chapters of ECON326.. I totally went through the lectures in the past 2 months in a daze and had totally no idea what was going on...

And I have finally caught up! YAY! And I don't feel like dying yet, which is a terribly good sign.

DON'T GIVE UP!

Lemon Sugar Cookies!

Lemon Sugar Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup solid vegetable shortening
2 eggs
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Additional granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease baking sheets. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In large mixer bowl, beat sugar and shortening until fluffy, beat in eggs. Stir in dry ingredients, then lemon juice. Mix well. Drop onto prepared baking sheets, 2" apart. Sprinkle with additional sugar. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Changes I made:

1. I replaced the all-purpose flour and baking powder with SELF-RAISING FLOUR.

2. I skipped the salt.

3. I replaced the shortening with canola oil. I think it works with butter as well, and it will just be richer.

4. Don't see the need to sprinkle additional sugar as it is already sweet enough.

5. I halved the recipe.

Result: Rather sweet, but still cookie-like. SUCCESS!


The sugar and oil mixture, looks like sorbet.


At first the sight of the dough scared me cos it looked so dry, but it was also very greasy when I moulded it with my hands..


I baked off 2 large ones for about 10 minutes and it turned out cake-y, maybe not long enough.. And then I proceeded to bake off 12 small ones, and they turned out great!!


Froze the rest of the dough for another time..

Ta-da!! Enjoy!

Deprived Children

A thought occured to me.

If my future husband is also an only child, and if we have children, those poor children will have NO cousins, NO aunts and uncles..

Like that how can?!?!?

Note to self: If I am getting married, better marry someone with SOME siblings rather than NO siblings. =)

*That is, if I am even planning on getting married in the first place.*

Short-term goals

Time flies. The final exam of the course will be just in a month. To help you prepare well for the final, I have posted two sets of sample questions for the final exam and their solutions. See the examination section on this page.

Wah, thanks ar ECON326 prof. Exactly a month. Great reminder. 25 April will be my last final exam! ECON326, no less. Then I will be free!

Thanks to an email from the English department and Ryan's updates on the latest technology, I have formed myself an achievable goal. Hopefully it can be done! I can only rely on myself to do it.

If it does, it will be a dream come true. Apart from the dream mentioned in a previous post, this has been a goal which I have set out to attain at the end of last year, or at the beginning of this year. But this goal is different from the goal mentioned in the above paragraph.

So if you are following me closely (or rather getting lost), there are 2 specific goals stated in this entry. Which means I now have 1 dream to fulfill and 2 goals to attain.

I never considered myself to be a goal-oriented person. NEVER. But now, I want to work hard and these 2 goals are my top priority now. I hope to come back in a few months and be able to say, "I DID IT!"

Wish me luck.

Oops!

Oops. Was my roommate tweaking her heater or was she having sex?

I started hearing these banging and tweaking noises from my heater and they seemed to be coming from her room.

I thought she was fiddling with it but it went on for a long time.

I knocked on her door to ask if her heater was giving her problems.

Nobody answered the door. Only heard her letting out a giggle.

There's a dude in there.

OOPS. SORRY!

Chocolate Tax 0_0

Scottish doctor urges "fat tax" on chocolate
Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:54am EDT

By David Brough

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Scottish doctors came within a whisker of passing a motion calling for a "fat tax" on chocolate last week, and the doctor behind the move said chocolate was a root cause of increasing obesity.

"Certainly the U.S. and the UK are affected by rising levels of obesity," David Walker, a family doctor in Airdrie, western Scotland, who proposed the motion, said.

"If the British government is serious, they should tax chocolate in the same way as they tax alcohol," he said in a telephone interview.

Walker said on Wednesday that Britain had witnessed almost a doubling of cases of type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity, in the past 15 years.

In Scotland, nearly one in four people are obese, he added.

He said British people's fondness for chocolate must explain in part the growing obesity problem, because chocolate is high in calories, fat and sugar.

Chocolate was one of a number of factors, including growing affluence and more sedentary lifestyles, that had contributed to Britain's fatter society, Walker said.

The Scottish doctors' conference in Glasgow on March 12 defeated the motion to tax chocolate by just two votes.

Walker's call attracted vigorous debate in the national media as healthy lifestyle becomes an increasingly hot topic.

The UK Food and Drink Federation, the voice of the companies in the sector, lambasted Dr Walker's message.

"Introducing regressive taxes on the foods that consumers love would result only in lighter wallets, not smaller waists -- particularly as we already have to pay VAT on all our chocolate purchases," said Julian Hunt, director of communication.

"While good for grabbing headlines, there is no evidence to suggest that such 'fat taxes' would actually work in reality."

Walker said the positive health benefits of chocolate, such as the antioxidants in dark chocolate, which cut risks of cardiovascular disease, are counterbalanced by chocolate's contribution to obesity due to its high calories.

"Chocolate should be treated with respect -- it should be treated as a luxury item, a special treat," Walker said.

"It should be eaten quite infrequently."

Walker said he admitted to feeling guilt over the impact a chocolate tax might have on impoverished West African cocoa farmers if demand for chocolate fell.

"That is certainly something that has pricked my conscience," Walker said.

"It would take a very brave government to tax chocolate," he added.

Wei, CANNOT! How am I gonna live?!?!?!?! Hahahaha. Sigh, okay la fine, should cut down on chocolate. I wonder how much weight I'll lose if I stop eating chocolate? :D

Culinary Complaint

I would certainly like to think that my culinary skills exceed those of my peers exponentially.

At least I can cook smooth velvety mashed potatoes. Not like lumpy goop looking ones.

At least I know how to marinate a steak. I do not know how we ended up with old tough non-crusty non-golden-brown steak. I don't know if I can actually cook it, since I haven't tried. But I've seen everyone else around me do it all the time. I would like to try.

Don't mind me, I'm feeling a tad bitter. Just bitter that I didn't get a ride home.

Which half?

Chunz: I WANT A BOYFRIEND!!!
Chunz: But I'm only half serious...
Shumz: Go find one la.. Or rather, find half...
Chunz: Hahaha! That's a good way to do it!
Shumz: Hahaha, say "Hi, would you be... HALF my boyfriend?" and he says, "Sure! Which half do you want? The right or the left?"
Chunz: The better half, of course!

*OMG I LOVE MY OWN PUNS*

Car Alarms

It's 2nd time the car alarm has been going off tonight.. Nonstop irritating beeping.

STOP STEALING CARS, for goodness sake.. What time is it? I want to sleep..

Edit: I swear the alarm stopped right after I pressed "Publish Post". Except the beeping is still ringing in my ears. I'm hearing things...

What is this?!?

OMG another dream.. Maybe you're bored by all my weird dreams now..

This one is most likely influenced by Momma's Boys which I was crazily watching yesterday..

I had a dream, where I had 3 potential guys to date or something.. The first one was dunno who, the second one was someone I know in West Vancouver and currently still talk to occasionally, and the third one is someone from a long time ago..

Ahaha I was actually gonna wake up at 7am and record this dream but wasn't sure if I'll survive on that much sleep.. So most of it is broken..

I only remember it's like my parents were both at the shop, quite busy and they were staying late or something.. Then forgot what happen about the first dude.. I think it was because he's at my house and my dad comes home and sees him and kicked him out 0_0

And then dunno why the 2nd guy was at my house, and he was boiling a pot of water over a very funky coil and I was complaining he's wasting my electricity.. And then he was wondering where's my parents and I said they won't come home so early. And then the next thing I knew we were kissing. EWWWWW I cannot imagine that happening in real life!!! Nothing happened after that so don't worry.

And then the 3rd dude.... NOTHING happened cos I woke up. But got potential leh LOLS. What a pity.

I Miss...

I had a dream where I was at my paternal grandma's house, and we were talking about talking over MSN.. Damn high-tech man, if grandparents have MSN too..

Then I was supposed to add myself to her contact list cos she didn't know how to do it.. And then the funny thing was that I couldn't find the computer in her house! Hahahaha.

While searching for where the computer might be, I remember flashbacks of her house, especially the TV cupboard.. And also the "bedroom".. That's about all I remember..

My fondest memories growing up have always been at my grandma's house, even at the tiny age of 2-4 or something like that, in Hong Kong.. I cling on to these memories which comes flooding back occasionally out of nowhere and I am so afraid that I will forget them one day..

I think the person I miss most at this point in time, and probably the last few years as well, would be my grandmother.. How I wish I can just see her and throw myself into her arms again, seeing her jolly smile...

This dream makes me miss her even more...

My professor knows me by name and remembers my request for office hours and sends me an email on his own apologizing that he can't make it! This is one prof that I wouldn't like to whack on the head; can't say for sure about the others! ;)

Dreams are made of these...

I had several strange dreams last night.

I dreamt that I lost my HK identity card.. *touchwood!!!* probably cos I lost my UBC card and have been going crazy applying for the HKSAR passport..

I dreamt that I was horseback riding, on a beautiful strip of sand with oceans on both sides, and it was a wonderful purple, orange, yellow sunset all around me, felt so calm and serene and I was surprised I could actually ride a horse properly, albeit it was a REAL live horse with weird wooden "controls" instead of reins..

This dream was probably because I had seen some sunsets recently, and saw someone's horseback riding pictures yesterday or something.. Also dreamt that we (dunno with who) went horseback riding and did not get lost and got back safely, another surprising thing.. LOL..

Also dreamt something about modelling (damn random) but I wasn't one of the models, because someone was calling me about meeting up to do assignment and I had nearly forgotten about it.. This person was likely to be Robin since he called me to ask if I had completed the assignment on Sunday.. LOL..

See I can't differentiate between dreams and reality again.. Sigh stress time!!!

A Letter...

To Roommate #4:

Why can't you just simply clean up after yourself? I'm sick of seeing the counter littered with coffee powder, especially near your BIG space-wasting COFFEE MAKER which you only use like, once a week or less anyway.

And this morning I watch you prepare a sandwich and after that there are bread crumbs ALL OVER THE COUNTER... The dustbin is right there so can't you just at least SWEEP all the crumbs INTO the bin? Is it that hard??? Gosh..

Seeing the coffee powder on the floor was the worst.. You know you are the only one who makes coffee like this in this house, and obviously we all know YOU spilled it.. It's UNDER the bin somehow, and can't you just pick it up??? What's with leaving your coffee powder EVERYWHERE.. I haven't even counted the times it has spilled onto my pot lids..

And last week was YOUR turn to take out the garbage. True that you are not home much, but when you are actually home, you don't even do your duty to simply empty the garbage and I HAD TO TO IT FOR YOU when it was overflowing! Don't just pretend you are not here, just because you treat this place like a hotel and you only come home to SLEEP and SHOWER.

I HATE YOU.

Lots of HATE,
Roommate #2

A Lifetime Desire

One of my lifetime goals...

I don't want to reveal it. Until I finally achieve it.

I know the Internet has pictures, but I want to see and feel it for myself..

I can only imagine how magnificent it will be. How lovely it would be, to be surrounded by one of nature's most amazing miracles...

For now, I can only dream... And maybe save up to attain this goal...

I wait each and every day longingly, until the time comes when I can finally experience the magic.

Chocolate Brownies!!

Brownies are by far the most decadent chocolate dessert ever!

And surprisingly easy to make!

I just followed the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips and halved the recipe but added 15 minutes of baking time because my dish was deeper.

And it rose up like a souffle and sank back down again, lookin more like a moon crater.

I tried portioning it into small sliced but it was gooey and moist inside and crunchy on the top so basically it fell apart and I have a tupperware full of brownie mini cubes and crumbs.

And I'm finishing the crumbs on a dish. With a spoon.

Sigh it's greasy. And super chocolaty. I have to make brownies again. Note to self: Must add nuts next time.

But it will be next (school) year. Because if I open a new pack of 1kg chocolate chips I will never be able to finish it by end of April.

Mmmmm. Chocolaty.