Perceiving

This is a picture of my maternal grandparents. My brother got my grandpa's long nose and bushy eyebrows. My grandpa doesn't look like your typical Chinese. My dad thinks he has some Arab blood in his ancestry.  Fujian (Fukien) Province was a trading center for ancient China. Long before Britain, Holland, and Portugal brought opium and sailed away with tea and silk, Fujian was a port city trading with Arabs and Persians during the Tang (618 – 907 CE) and Southern Song (1127 – 1279 CE) dynasties. These early travelers brought Islam to China and their mosques are still found in Fujian. My dad also thinks that it's possible that was adopted as it was common for newly married couples to adopt a son before they have one of their own to ensure that they would have at least one heir. (My dad said that his parents also adopted a son after they got married but gave the child back after they had my uncle.) My parents say my grandpa does not look like any of his siblings. Most of his s...

I'm usually low key about my birthday but this year I feel like I've reached a milestone that I want to express my gratitude for the life that I've been given. I was born winning the lottery to wonderful parents, two amazing siblings, an incredible extended family. From living in a small town in the Philippines, to Manila, then Toronto, and now to California, life has opened up so many opportunities. I have met so many good people along the way that I'm blessed to call friends. As I celebrate my 40th, I remember friends who were gone too soon, people who are grieving the loss of a child or a loved one, friends that are going through challenges and tough times. I pray that through God's grace that you'll see through the other side of this. This year started out incredibly with meeting President Jimmy Carter (who shares my birthday - he turns 95 today!) and sitting in his Sunday school class in Plains, Georgia. Shortly after that trip, we found out that w...

This was the first time I've ever cried in an interview. The question was, "Why did you decide to interview with us now?" In fact, I've been trying to find a new job since two years ago while pregnant with my first child. I had completed four interviews by the time I was in the second trimester but ended up with just one offer for a job in San Francisco. It wasn't worth the long commute while pregnant so I turned it down. The year after, I was just trying to survive with interrupted sleep and functioning at work. I started thinking about interviewing again after my son turned a year old. I started talking to a few companies at this time. But then came the second pregnancy, the unexpected diagnosis, the tests and procedures to follow, the grief of loss. This brought a stop to all my interviewing plans. It was thinking about my journey that brought tears to my eyes. Fast forward to February of this year when the hiring manager for Android at Netflix who I t...

Ever since I saw in an article that President Jimmy Carter still teaches sunday school at his home church in Plains, Georgia, the thought entered my mind, wouldn't it be so cool to attend his class? I've been a long time fan. The man is an inspiration, a wonderful example of living out your faith. Fast forward years later, the opportunity came up to go to Atlanta as a family. With excitement, I checked the schedule for when he would be teaching. Yes! Feb 3, 2019 - the weekend that we were going to be in Atlanta. Trip advisor has plenty of reviews of how to plan for this trip.  Get there early and sleep in your car if you want to be guaranteed a good seat in the sanctuary. Our son would not have the patience for this, so the best plan was to go alone. I evaluated the risks of driving in the dark, where there's a possibility of not having good cellular signal, hoping and praying that the car doesn't break down or get a flat tire, sleeping in the parking lot alone, ...

I believe when God gives to us, he doesn't wish for some to have plenty and some to have lack. He invites us to participate in the blessing of giving to others, and in doing so he will multiply what you have.

We decided to sponsor two kids in Haiti through Compassion International .  I was feeling righteous when God's word reminded me, "you gave out of your wealth but [others] have put in everything -- all she had to live on" - Mark 12:41-44

When someone can expense a business class ticket but he choses to fly economy to be with you.

The challenge for wannabe writers is that they wait to be inspired before writing resulting in months going by without a single word published. Instead, why not write often, and maybe some place after the many articles written that you wish nobody read, the flash of brilliance comes and then lingers.

Last night I went to a women's conference at my friend's church. In the middle of the program, they introduced a young lady named Jenn who is battling cancer. She's been through rounds of chemo but the cancer came back. Right now the only thing that is easing her pain and allowing her to enjoy life is this medication not covered by medicaid. Fifteen dollars per pill to be taken three times per day. $45 per day. The price to live a day with manageable pain.  For those who are healthy, never take a day for granted. But don't stop at being thankful because life is not just about you. To this lady, a complete stranger who's been through so much, I am happy to bless her with a few days of relief. http://www.youcaring.com/jennifer-garcia-410949

Some days it's hard to be optimistic about your financial future. There are daily warnings of a housing bubble, stock market bubble, currency devaluation, higher interest rates. The wealth that you have today could potentially be wiped out in an instant based on factors beyond your control, yet you cannot live each day as if the sky is going to fall tomorrow. "The real measure of a person's wealth is how much he would be worth if he lost all his money"  -- Bernard Meltzer That is why this quote is so relevant. Wealthy people are not worried if they lose all their money tomorrow because they know they can gain it back again. The important thing is your ability to create wealth, or put another way, your ability to add value to others.  No one can take that away from you. Being wealthy is a mindset, a discipline. I heard someone say that a wealthy person can lose one million dollars today and make it back the next year. However, give a poor person a million doll...

Until you commit your goals to paper, you have intentions that are seeds without soil -- Anonymous

On the heels of Hurricane Sandy, the most devastating storm to hit northeastern US and eastern Canada in decades, all we can do is stand by and wait. You need to see the pictures to appreciate the magnitude of the storm. http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/10/hurricane-sandy-after-landfall/100396/ Damage to Toronto was minimal however we had booked our flight out to Africa via JFK airport, one of the big three New York airports that was flooded and shut down due to the hurricane. I've been monitoring our flights daily the past few days. The clean up effort taking longer than originally hoped, I see flight cancellations gradually trickle on to the next day. And then the next. The day before our scheduled flight out, our long-haul flight stands to be the first flight out of JFK for this airline after hurricane Sandy hit.  This morning, JFK airport has re-opened with limited service, the first plane touching down on its runways since. If we manage to escape this calami...

Actually, it's not Monday. It's Tuesday. Five minutes ago anyway. I was enjoying an hour of guilty pleasure watching Ugly Betty season 3 on DVD when ET the hiphop preacher's voice rang in my head, "How committed are you? Are you no TV committed?" If you don't know what I'm talking about, you gotta see this motivational talk on how to live your dream. I stopped the DVD after the first episode. Yes, I am no TV committed.

Decided to make some pesto with the fresh basil from my garden. This is everything from my basil plant. After discarding the stems, it yielded to 1 cup of packed basil leaves. Fresh basil from the garden Next, toast 1/8 cup of pine nuts for 5 minutes in the oven. Also prepare two cloves of garlic. Preparing the ingredients for pesto In a food processor, throw in the basil leaves, toasted pine nuts and garlic and pulse until finely chopped.  Then add 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil and blend. Blending the ingredients together  The finished product: 1/2 cup of basil pesto. To be enjoyed at a later time. Basil pesto

Life, Above all is a film about a young girl in rural South Africa trying to hold her family together as they endure a chain of tragedies. You can find the plot summary and spoiler reviews at  IMDB  or  Rotten Tomatoes . I like the choice of title which can have multiple meanings that capture the various themes in the film. First it speaks of the value of every human life. Some quotes from the movie echo harsh realities of how we could perceive people suffering from AIDS. "Those whores, they deserve what they get."  The film conveys that many of those suffering from AIDS do not deserve it, and even those who do are still beautiful human beings with a lot to give. Secondly, it resonates of hope. Where there is life, there is hope. It is a tragedy that in many places in the world, people are so unknowledgeable about AIDS and disease that they can't help but explain it through their own world view. Someone with AIDS is bewitched and they are see...

If you are able to get fresh, clean and drinkable water from a tap like I did, consider yourself lucky! Fresh clean water from a tap Many people turn on their tap and get brownish water, or worse no water. Other people don't even have a tap and must travel far to fetch water. For those who live in the first world, we hardly give any thought to the value of water and its scarcity in many parts of the world. On this day, why not take a few minutes to get more informed? Here are a few good links to get you started: World water day in pictures:  http://gu.com/p/36c88/tw For Canadians, ideas on how you can take action on World Water day:  http://canadians.org/water/issues/World_Water_Day/ Al Jazeera's documentary on Canada's oil sands and its effects on the nearby rivers. These should get the ideas flowing.

As bank profits  continue to rise--already to the tune of one to two billion dollars per quarter among Canada's big five banks--it perturbs me that they continue to make fine print changes to gouge more money from the unwitting masses. This notice came with my monthly MasterCard statement describing a change in policy that any payments made to the outstanding balance will first be applied to items with the lowest rate of interest to the items of highest rate of interest. Basic money sense knows that if you are in debt to various lenders, you pay off the high interest sums first to reduce your total payments. How do banks claim to work for us when they make illogical policies that hurt the customer and not work in their interest?

About a week ago, I read on the  news  that the French senate has passed a bill making it illegal to deny the Armenian genocide that took place under Ottoman rule. Denial is now a crime punishable by a year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. It is objectionable that in a democratic society in which one of the most fundamental pillars is free speech that such a law could even be passed. Never mind that this legislation seemed to come out of nowhere. What had prompted France to get in between this century-old conflict between the Turks and the Armenians at this time? History of all things is never black or white. "History is fables agreed upon" according Voltaire. France may have gained favour with its 500,000 or so resident Armenians, but this is a step back for free speech. The government should not be in the business of legislating people what to believe. Jan. 31, 2012 Latest update to this story:  France's Armenia genocide law put on hold

Upon reading this article today:  The real way to build a social network , I have become extremely aware of how I've completely undervalued my "shallower" relationships. There was a time a few years back when I felt completely overwhelmed by the amount of social obligations that I had--someone's birthday every week, house warming, baby showers, bridal showers, weddings to take up all of my weekends. I was so miserable that I had to consciously take some measures to reduce the social excess in my life. It began by cutting off or severely loosening shallow ties. It wasn't easy and I took some flak for it, but it had to be done. I jumped at the chance to work abroad for six months in a country where I didn't know anyone nor did I speak the language. I missed my close friends and family but it felt so good not to have any obligations--to own my time completely. Since coming back from that, I've changed my approach to friendships. I would invest heavily ...

Finally got a chance to make this recipe from the 2010 holiday edition of the LCBO magazine. Making the cookies are a little tricky. A lot of them turned out cracked or malformed. I got about 60% yield on the 24 cookies I made. Some lessons learned: After piping the mixture out to form the cookies, do not "top up" with extra cookie mixture at the end. Otherwise you get this nipple effect (picture below, left). Flattening the  macarons out with the back of a spoon dipped in warm water is a bad idea. While it is effective in flattening the peaks, it causes ugly bubbles like this (picture below, right) to form on the surface. Malformed cookies: (left) "nipple" effect. (right) bubbling on the surface I had a lot of leftover caramel in the end. If you don't have a super sweet tooth like me, you can get away with making just half the caramel recipe. The final product: Macaron on a plate with caramel oozing out Tin of macarons to share w...