[wtH] Vegan Confessions

For those who may not know yet - I made this pseudo-religious attempt to become a full time vegan. Here are some horrid confessions:

- I relapse on average once a week. Yes I am weak!

- The greatest temptation I faced ever was during Lai's wedding (my cousin) whereby there was a huge stack of "siew yoke" looking sublime. I slurped back all the drool that was dripping out before a small stream of saliva flowed out of the door, took a deep breath, and took huge strides out of the main door.... Only to find one seduce-a-rama of a roasted swine right at the entrance!! Happy to say, I remained steadfast, righteous, holy, and celibate that day.

- When I ignore (pseudo) religious guidelines, and do sink my teeth into flesh, I relish the tenderness ~ the soft slightest hint of resistance, that eventually succumbs to my powerful jaws ... a slight tug as the meat tears up obediently, and the master revels in the sweet the juiciness of sinful meat*.

- The lines between "tofu" and "them corn bred, outback raised, proudly BBQ'ed prime ribs" are slowly blurring away.

- Having watched "Resident Evil 3" and "I am Legend" recently, and having whimpfully stayed true as a vegan in 2 Japanese restaurants in 2 days a row - something was just building inside me but I couldn't put my finger to it..... UNTIL I was passing by this place selling cheap salmon skin & salmon bones. And I nearly errupted into this frenzy borne of a deep carnal bloodlust to rip out the salmon pieces and devour them on the spot. Zombies .... I emphatize, I do understand how you feel ;)

* I still am referring to actual meat. No symbolism applied.

[Self] Historical devils in the details

Been listening to contemporary intepretions of historical battles recently and boy-oh-boy do the historical "facts" (with historians' perspectives) take out the romanticism of epic battles.

Battle of Chi Bi
- It could have occured but not in the scale as mentioned in Romance of The 3 Kingdoms (RO3K). Instead of the 800,000 army raised by Cao Cao, it could have been just merely around 100,000~200,000 which was a mix of troops, cavalry (5,000) and Liu Biao's army that surrendered. Hence
- And what the heck! A lot of R03K tales which were mini-archlines in the Battle of Chi Bi supposedly did not happen at all! >_<
For example: Zhuge Liang's "loaning" the East Wind*, Jiang Gan getting tricked by Zhou Yu, Zhuge Liang using a boatfull of scarecrows to get arrows from Cao Cao. All great fables but just ... fables.

*The historian I listened to mentioned there was an actual change in wind direction but not due to Zhuge Liang's antics. BUT this is totally contradictory to this slab of stone I saw at Chibi itself - the Chibi museum had these fragments which were supposedly part of the alter which Zhuge Liang used to call forth the East Wind.


Waterloo
- Napoleon's surge to attack the 7th Coaltion Army first nearly worked. Due to a bungle, one of his generals did not decimate the Prussian army (The Frenchies defeated them but did not obliterate them). The Prussian army later regrouped and joined forces with Wellington's and became a key reason for his defeat.
- Wellington actually did not have much of an idea what the heck Napoleon was up to (supposedly). In fact Wellington attended a dance, and a cricket game several days before the great battle.

So the "real" details are interesting, sometimes they do shatter that element of valor in mighty tales, and sometimes they make you just ponder and scratch your head.

[Self] Radio Time

I've found radio (including podcasts) a much better avenue for leisure as opposed to TV*, some great things you can get either via podcasts, or BBC Radio. Some picks although there are others not listed below.

Politics
- MSNBC's Meet The Press with Tim Russert (he is a master of whacking politicians! Wish we had a local version to grind the oh-so honorable cabinet headcounts)
- MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews (Democrat)
- MSNBC's Tucker with Tucker Carlson (Republican)
- NPR's It's All Politics (A Democrat pundit and A Republican pundit who crack a lot of jokes)

Comedy / Entertainment
- NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me (Clean and smart fun, style is a throwback to radio in the 40s-50s)
- BBC's Just A Minute (Nicholas Parsons!)
- PRI's Fair Game with Faith Salie (A babe with a sweet voice)
- BBC's The Now Show (Crazy brits!)
- NPR's Fresh Air (Decent stuff)

Smart Stuff
- TPN's Napoleon Podcast (Very very addictive, an American old-timer and an Ozzie dude who have this camaraderie that's geeky and fun)
- BBC's In Our Time (Melvyn Bragg)
- BBC's What If ... (Melvyn Bragg again! But not always on what the heck!)

Jazz
- NPR's Jazz Profiles
- TPN's The Jazz Show

* With some exceptions of course that include Boston Legal, and that stack of Chinese historical / philosophical stuff I bought.

[wtH] Weekend In Penang

Been at least a good decade since was back in Penang. Anyway, went back this weekend to attend a cousin's wedding.

To digress: Been to too many weddings recently have resolved to stop after Kth's and Jittos'; and will try not to attend any more coz its getting monotonous.

Which was not the case in Penang yesterday. To sum it up - an interesting cultural difference in how a conservative Christian (Chinese) wedding is held from normal ones.

And more interestly having to at first pacify a cousin who went drunk (another cousin) >>> later pinning the chap down so he could do no more harm to himself >>> taking care of him pretty much of the night when the chap progressively moved on to hurling >>> sleeping and reviving (alternately) on the toilet floor >>> finally sobering up at 0430hrs >>> hurled some more >>> took a bath and KO-ed.

To say the least - kindof fun, though I got some vomit on myself. And with many thanks to Xiao Fong Fong (another cousin).