So as finals time rolls around, I’m sitting on my bed, typing this blog entry, lazy as ever… I took my first “final” today (although it technically doesn’t count as one) and will take another one tomorrow, and yet the actual “Finals week” hasn’t even started. And yet I’m lazy, tired, and kind of overrrr it!

It’s hard to motivate myself to study for certain subjects in school sometimes because it feels like the material I’m learning will hardly help me in the “real world.” I think that’s a problem most students face nowadays, and I wonder: is the disconnect between “book studies” and “real world application” actually there, or is it something us students make up?

I guess I’d say it’s both – for some material taught, it really is all “book studies” and yet for others it can be very applicable. I can see students (like myself too, sometimes) using the “it’s not even going to help me in real life” excuse to get out of studying, even though in the end it probably doesn’t affect anyone but themselves…

Or, I could view this “disconnect” another way: the lack of motivation for me to study for certain subjects/classes is manifested in me spending my time doing other things, such as participating in the #SocEntChat May 2009 that happened yesterday afternoon. Let’s digress for a second– What is #SocEntChat?!

#SocEntChats is a Twitter-based real-time discussion on social entrepreneurship themed around specific issues/areas/events each month. It is designed for current and aspiring social entrepreneurs, funders, media and supporters to share their ideas, discuss the state of the field, identify the latest innovations and pinpoint areas requiring more exploration… (more information is provided here)

I spent the next hour or so reading and particpating in some really great discussion about social entrepreneurship (see my previous blog entry on social entrepreneurship) at universities and also touched upon the very topic I just talked about – the disconnect, and whether or not school/education/grad-school prepares one for going into the field of social entrepreneurship.

After the chat, I spent one more hour just reading other articles/browsing Twitter/more web stuff on social entrepreneurship instead of studying..

It seems so paradoxical (not sure if this is the right word to use here…) that I’d rather engage in conversation about topics I’m actually interested in rather than spend my time studying for a class that seems like it’s not going to help me much. But people don’t go to school and get “an education” for no reason, so I’m sure one way or another it’s supposed to help me down the line, but it’s just hard to see how in the moment…

Anyway, at this point I think I’m just rambling, so I’m going to stop.

Meanwhile, feel free to share your thoughts on this!

I’ve come to realize that in the past year or so, I’ve seemed to have adopted some type of “purposeful ambivalence” towards my relationship with others, family aside. I seem to not care as much about the relationships I have with others, and whether or not those relationships are maintained.

It’s not that I don’t want to care about people, because obviously I do. But I think I care about people in a somewhat detached manner, partially I think from my past experiences that have “taught” me to become this way. The status of which I regard my relationships with other people around me does exist in my mind, but I think there is always that sense detachment to which I hold myself and my connections to others.

In the end, I think I may just be tired of investing so much of myself into other people. It almost seems a bit sad, because this “tiredness” is, I think, dragged over from my high school years… And I’m not sure how to pull myself out of this ambivalent regard I have for my relationships with other people (and, in turn, theirs with mine). It’s a give-and-take either way; a balance is hardly ever reached, because the balance exists independently in each individual’s mind. What I’d regard as a balance could very well be extremely off-balance in another’s viewpoint.

I’m not even sure what it is that I’m trying to say. I guess I am just openly acknowledging my ambivalence in regards to social relations, and that I think this has to change some time or another (of this I am still unsure, though), or I may never build lasting relationships with others.

But then here is the plausible paradox of them all — do lasting relationships really even exist? Aren’t they all relative as well? All of this leads me to question the point of building “strong relationships” with others when most (not all) are built based on convenience. But this is actually one fact that I am okay with. Friends of convenience are friends nonetheless, right? What is the big difference between a friend I meet at x place in my life versus a friend I met at c place in my life earlier on, besides the so-called “history” that exists/existed between us?

Alright, that is enough rambling for me. All of this is done pointlessly anyhow–

“Life has no meaning a priori . Before you come alive, life is nothing; it’s up to you to give it a meaning and value is nothing else but the meaning that you choose.”–Jean-Paul Sartre

I am definitely not one to call myself a “good cook,” or even a “cook” at that; however, in the past couple of months, I’ve learned (finally) to cook some “dishes” to survive at my place in Berkeley. Anyhow, that’s not the point. The point is, in the past few weeks, my sister and I have tried making some things from recipes. Normally when I cook at school I kind of just do whatever..but these days, I’ve been trying to follow recipes. I figured I might as well share some of things I’ve made. Too bad I didn’t take pictures. Guess you’ll just have to use your imagination!

First off — my sister, a friend, and I made banana muffins, although they actually taste more like banana bread instead. Either way, they came out DELICIOUS! I made these twice. Here is the recipe, courtesy of CC:

Makes 12 servings
Low calorie, low fat muffins from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together banana, sugar, egg and vanilla. Stir in the applesauce and vanilla. Stir banana mixture into flour until just combined. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool before serving. For best flavor, place in an airtight container or bag overnight.

Notes: Instead of using plain sugar, we used brown sugar.

Next up, my sister and I made Veggie Burger Patties. The recipe (also courtesy of CC) –

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 zucchini, grated
• 1 potato, peeled and grated
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1/4 cup onion, grated
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 2 egg whites

Directions

1. Combine ingredients, mix well.
2. Pour 1/2 cup batter on hot griddle.
3. Fry 2 to 3 minutes on each side.

These were..quite interesting. I’m not sure I’d make it again, but they turned out similar to those “potato pancakes” I see in the grocery stores that I always want to buy but never do. The inside of the patties didn’t seem to get fried; only the outside did, but maybe it’s supposed to be that way? My sister and I ate them with ketchup and mustard. If we didn’t, the patties really didn’t have much taste.

Two nights ago, my sister and I made “Stuffed Shells with Red Sauce,” a recipe from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. This recipe was basically pasta shells, home-made red sauce, and “Tofu ‘Ricotta’”. We put a bit too much garlic in it though (this seems to be a problem for me..I always do this) so it came out a bit too salty but it was very delicious nonetheless. The coolest part of this recipe was the Tofu “Ricotta” — it was: extra firm tofu, garlic, oregano, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and a food processor/blender to blend it all together that actually did taste like ricotta cheese!! It’s craaaazy! I would definitely make that again, although it kind of took us forever.

My most recent endeavor with cooking was tonight, when I tried to make mashed potatoes and failed miserably. I attempted to make “healthy” mashed potatoes (see recipe here)  but it definitely did NOT turn out yummy. I think it’s most likely because I didn’t use butter as you’re supposed to in actual mashed potatoes..instead I just used chicken stock (?!). Maybe I don’t cook enough to know the actual recipe of mashed potatoes or whatnot, but anyhow, my mashed potatoes turned out too dry and again, I put too much garlic. Dammit!!! I think I was probably supposed to add more chicken stock to make the consistency better but by then I gave up since we ate KFC and had mashed potatoes anyway. Mission failed!!

Alright, well there are my most recent cooking adventures (if you could call them that). At least they all mostly succeeded!

View from the hotel in Papeete at 6am in the morning.

My family and I went to Tahiti for vacation this winter break…we got back on Christmas day; a 5-day vacay. It was definitely relaxing and very nice to have some summer weather! We went to two islands: Tahiti Nui and Moorea. Moorea was a 30 minute ferry ride from Papeete (which is in Tahiti Nui). The beach was beautiful (as you can tell) and the water was quite warm..and the waves were perfect to play in!

We spent 2 days in Tahiti Nui. We went to a museum to look at some cultural aspects of the Tahitian island. The Tahitians were mainly polytheists but were also influenced by the French with monotheism…The museum also introduced the history of coral reefs and volcano/lava (which is why there was black sand in Tahiti) as well as Tahiti’s main exports– vanilla, coconuts, and pineapples. Everything in Tahiti was EXPENSIVE as hellll because basically everything was imported. All meats are imported; they have cows locally for the milk and that’s basically about it!

Botanical gardens in Tahiti. Beautiful!

We spent the next two days in Moorea, which is a very tiny island as I said just a 30 minute ferry ride from Papeete. Moorea seemed more touristy but at the same time had a very small-town-like feeling. I’m sure those who live in Moorea all know each other. There honestly wasn’t much to do in Moorea except stay in the resort and play in the waters…Well, they have some pearl shopping but I definitely cannot afford that! I wished we had gone to their local shopping markets..they looked like flea markets, but we didn’t get to go since they are closed on weekends and everything closes down on Christmas eve!

The bungalows we stayed in. There is a ladder to get in the water!

These bungalows we stayed in were absolutely amazing! This is what I imagined when I thought “Tahiti.” You are basically free to go in the water whenever and snorkel. These bungalows are in a lagoon so the waters are quite shallow. But let me tell you: there are sharks, eels, stingrays, and other dangerous fish that come out at night! Definitely creepy and scary. There are TONS of fish in the waters, especially since there are mini coral reefs everywhere. We would take back bread from the restaurants and feed the fish. Once you drop a couple pieces of bread in the water, all the fish come rushing. It’s pretty cool.I only snorkeled once becuase I tend to get scared of the too many fish…but my dad and a family friend found tons of sea urchins and oyster-like clams! Pretty cool!

All in all, my trip to Tahiti was really great. Here are some interesting things I learned –

1. In Papeete, there are almost NO traffic lights. Everything is traffic circles. But, there are tons of auto accidents that happen. Some roads are right by the waters but have no protective wall/barrier so when people drunk drive and cause a car accident, cars fall into the ocean..quite scary.
2. According to one of our tour guides, the population in Tahiti–about 50% of them are under 21, so there is going to be major problems with their form of “social security.”
3. A large portion of the population there is also obese..why, we don’t know. My dad guessed it was because they used too much coconut oil. Don’t know if that’s true..haha.
4. Moorea seems to have no waste management system implemented. Those living by the resort in Moorea burned their trash. Every. single. day. It smelled like shit and it is so damaging to our atmosphere. THANKS A LOT!