Seoul - South Korea - Gyeongbokgung

Seoul - South Korea - Gyeongbokgung

I was browsing through the Wikipedia and then I found this beautiful image in Seoul, South Korea. It caught my attention especially because this semester I made a new and great friend and he is from South Korea.

Se, here is my hommage to our friendship. I hope we can keep it for years to come.

SPAM

Hi. Today I'm talking about SPAM. And here is one recipe with it, provided by RecipeSource:

Title: Gingered Spam Salad
Categories: Salads, Go-withs, Misc.
Yield: 1 Servings

1 cn Spam, sliced matchstick size
1/4 c Finely chopped ginger root
1 ea Small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 ts Garlic powder
1/4 c Freshly squeezed lime juice Zest of 1 lime
1/2 ts Oriental dried chili powder
1/4 c Chopped cilantro leaves
8 ea Cherry tomatoes
Thai bird peppers and
Cilantro sprigs to garnish

Combine all ingredients in a sealed glass or plastic container to marinate.
Refrigerate at least two hours or preferably overnight.
Stir or shake occasionally to evenly coat.
One hour before serving, stir in cilantro.
Serve on a bed of torn lettuce of your choice.
Garnish with quartered cherry tomatoes, Thai bird peppers and cilantro sprigs.

Ah, that was not the spam you were thinking, huh?

However, did you know that the terminology SPAM for the tons of unwanted e-mails we receive everyday came from the spam above? From this website, I got the best description of the first use of the word:

Most people have some vague awareness that it came from at first from the spam skit by Monty Python's Flying Circus. In the sketch, a restaurant serves all its food with lots of spam, and the waitress repeats the word several times in describing how much spam is in the items. When she does this, a group of Vikings (don't ask) in the corner start a song:

"Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, lovely spam! Wonderful spam!"
Until told to shut up.

Thus the meaning of the term at least: something that keeps repeating and repeating to great annoyance. How did the two get connected?

Well, I like SPAM, not spam. How about you?

G.B. Stern

Well, I don't know in which category I would put these sentences, but when I first read them, I became very interested in reading this lady's oeuvres.

I tried to find her photograph to know her, but I couldn't find any. If you have one and can share with me, I'd thank you a lot. This picture is just to illustrate one of ther quotes below. I found it at the NYPL Digital Gallery (worth a visit).

"One thing that's good about procrastination is that you always have something planned for tomorrow."

"Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute."

"Man is a complex being who makes deserts bloom and lakes die"

"Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone."

Sombrero Galaxy

Sombrero Galaxy (Hubble Photograph)

Sombrero Galaxy (Viewed in Infrared)

I was wondering if we could call this galaxy of "God's Hat"?

The wonders of the universe have always enchanted me, since I was a kid. By universe I mean either the macroscopic or the microscopic. We can always see Gods perfection in His marvelous work!

May He bless us all everyday!

What are we doing to our children?

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

Everybody these days know that most of what the children learn from their parents and colleagues is from mimicking their movements. And this happens not only at early ages. Even as adults, independents as we are, we mimick the big stars, either their look, or their way of behaving.

And even knowing this, we keep asking ourselves why the world is not yet a better place. The answer is one of the following: either we choose to mimick the wrong acts of people around or we are the ones that keep doing the wrong things to be mimicked around by the others.

Why don't we try to mimick the right actions of the right people for a change? Or try to do the right thing to be mimicked by others?

Reading some news the other day, I found that this mimick thing was taken a step further. Well, not too further, but to make cimpanzees mimick our bad habits is like teaching kids the wrong things when they are very small. They will carry the burden of vice or mistreatments for the rest of their lives.

I'll copy here the beginning of the article: "A South African zoo is trying to persuade its star chimpanzee to kick a bad smoking habit".

To invite others to share your vice is the worst kind of vice around.

Be healthy. Think right.

Ah, and by the way, the picture of the smoking chimpanzee is not an actual photo. It was treated by some image processing software. I got it at the internet.