Perceiving

It's been brought to my attention lately that I complain a lot. Didn't really think of myself as much of a complainer, but hearing this from someone who knows me pretty well, I take stock. I do like to comment on a lot of things and I see how my negative comments can be taken as complaining. Like how the steak is overcooked, how google+ randomly inserts unsolicited posts in my stream, how cold it is in my house... In my view, I'm just voicing an opinion. Which got me thinking, is there a difference between giving a negative opinion and complaining? In both cases you are sharing a negative view about something, but I think the difference is that the latter is accompanied with a desire for recompense, whether from the subject or some unknown power. It is told as if someone owes you something. All the same, I will pay attention to what I say over the next few days to see if this is true. 

Something disturbs me about people celebrating the murder of people, no matter how evil they are. Today's news about Ghaddafi reminded me of when Osama bin Laden was killed and all the allies of the west were rejoicing. I could not empathize. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe if I was someone who grew up in that oppressive regime, who witnessed my own loved ones get imprisoned or murdered unjustly, then I would have a different view.

When my siblings and I were young, every year on our birthdays, my parents would always wake up early to cook a big batch of birthday noodles for our family and friends. Before they go to work, the noodles will be packed and ready to be delivered to my relatives' houses. This tradition went on for a few years until we moved to a different city. Then we immigrated to a new country.   Recently feeling nostalgic, I made a request to my parents to revive the tradition. So here's what my parents cooked up: hokkien style birthday noodles and oyster pancake -- both recipes passed down along the generations. Hokkien style birthday noodles with quail eggs, peanuts, and fried onions Oyster pancake

It might seem odd that I entitled this blog "Mountaineering" or go by the twitter handle mountaineer10 . I don't particularly like climbing mountains. Rather, the name came from a show I liked called  Alias where the heroine, Syndey Bristow, a double agent, went by the code name mountaineer. Initially I used the alias to set up a twitter account to play around with that doesn't have any obvious connections to me. But fast forward to present day, I actually like and use twitter now, so I've made my twitter identity known to the general public. Thus, the name has stuck. But maybe it's not a bad name. After all, life can be thought of as a constant journey uphill, like climbing a mountain, where we all are mountaineers. I'm just another one of them.