Tired.

Really tired. I had a very long long weekend before and daylight savings time happened. We all lost an hour. Fuck. Let’s just say that this week sucked.

It wasn’t like I was busy at work. I did what I had to do, but I didn’t go back to my SharePoint project. I put that aside as I let it gestate in the back of my mind some more to try and figure out how I am going to build that damn thing. The current version works. It works well albeit that it is not very cohesive. Flat form. Database somewhere else. Too many mistakes. I want something done one fell swoop. Easy peasy. Let’s hope I figure it out.

But no, I decided not to do much this week because of the stupid time change. That one fucking hour. It’s dark when I get up and I rise with the sun. I still get up around 6 in the morning, but man, it’s tough.

* * *

Tired.

This week had been tiring and it just wasn’t the time change either. The wedding. Not my wedding, thankfully, but a wedding none the less.

A few weeks ago Mom called me up and asked if I wanted to go to Kathy’s wedding in Sacramento. I asked who’s wedding it was and she told me it was Kathy. I don’t remember Kathy. Her Chinese name didn’t ring a bell, but my mom assured me that I know her and talked to her. I know her mom and have a vague recollection of that whole time we visited them a few years back, but yeah, the bride, no recollection.

It wasn’t until I talked with Cloud that I figured out who it was; the girl that participated in my photography project. So, done and done. I agreed. I was going because it is family and that my mom asked and that I get to hang out with my mom, Cloud, and Aunts. Family. They mean a lot to me.

The night before I was to drive up to Sacramento, the bride called me up and asked if I could be their wedding photographer. Very last minute and I was totally surprise that she would ask, out of the blue. Very surprised, but I agreed. #yearofyes.

Year of yes indeed.

So, the plan was that mom, aunts, and Cloud would catch an early flight and get into Sacramento at about 10:30AM or so. I would get in town around 1-2PM, so things would be good. Things would be awesome. When I get there, I would know some people and have my mom to hang out with, but…no. Not the case. When Sinh bought the tickets, he booked it where they come in at 10:30 at night, instead of the morning. So, when I got there, I didn’t really know anyone and just chilled.

Thankfully, First Auntie and Uncle from Philly came shortly after I arrived, so it wasn’t that awkward.

But yeah, it was an interesting Friday. I chilled, had dinner, and then went back to the hotel until they landed and then drove to my aunt’s to meet up with my mom.

For the most part, the wedding went off without a hitch. It was exactly how one would expect a Chinese wedding to go down. Tea ceremony in the morning and the banquet at night. There was some miscommunication with me shooting the wedding party pictures after the tea ceremony, but all in all, done and done.

I took a shit ton of pictures at the wedding. Party after party lining up to have their photos taken with the newlyweds. I would say that I was the second shooter, but it felt more like I was the first shooter. The other shooter seemed like the groom’s uncle or something. An older gentleman with an entry level camera and a kit lens.

So, in the morning, I dropped mom off at aunts and then I just drove straight home. I came back and napped. I needed sleep since I didn’t sleep too well at the hotel. Sleep. I miss sleep. I need sleep.

Sleep is my friend. I miss my friend.

* * *

I took about 2400+ pictures of the whole wedding. Many of them were duplicates. I took on average about 4-6 shots for each picture/pose because I just used my high shutter speed. I wanted to get the most pictures with the least amount of time to get good coverage, just in case someone blinks or it was out of focus or any other thing that could possibly go wrong.

It took me until close to midnight Wednesday night (early Thursday morning) to finish curating and processing out the pictures. I uploaded the pictures and sent them off. Done and done.

So, I really didn’t get to relax until Thursday. With the many late nights, my whole circadian rhythm was out of sync and in a way it is still is. But, I’m glad that that is now over and I can go back to my regularly scheduled program of just being a couch potato. Going to bed at my designated bedtime and just chill and relax.

* * *

Which now brings me to Daredevil, Season 2. Netflix just dropped it yesterday and this weekend is just me binging the show and cooking. I need to relax. I might get some wine with dinner. I just want to not do anything, even though I have laundry to fold and clothes to iron. But all in all, not much planned this weekend and I am so happy because of it.

* * *

Cooking project.

I took a hiatus on it for the past couple of weeks after my flurry of desserts. I needed a break, plus I needed to detox from sugar. I got one more dessert to make and I’m going to just put that aside for now and focus on better things, apps and entrees/sides.

The next thing I’ll make is a Turkish Pide. The closest thing that can be used to describe it is a Turkish pizza or flatbread with a lot of toppings. The plan is to make it tomorrow, so I need to research how to do it. Plus, I need more yeast.

Which brings me to the Netflix show Cooked. It’s a great documentary by Michael Pollan, the man who wrote The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It is a documentary that looks at food, but not in your typical shows like Bourdain or Zimmern, but more from an anthropological, sociological, and scientific side of cooking. It was very very interesting and it just solidifies my ideas and ambitions of just wanting to cook everything from scratch. No chemicals, just whole ingredients to make food.

One line that struck out to me in the documentary was, “You can eat anything you want and as much of it as you want. You just have to cook it.” It is true. If you cook your food from scratch, you know exactly what goes into your body. You have that control. There are very little to no chemicals. Much healthier living, even though I do cheat and eat out or eat some processed food once in a while, but yes, it is healthier.

I’ve had that idea and philosophy for a few years now and it seems that my mom has the same idea. She, like me, wants to make everything from scratch too, just so she knows exactly what she’s eating.

I’m sure I have a lot more fun than her in terms of cooking and experimenting, but it’s all the same.

I would like to think that I’m healthy for living this type of lifestyle. I think I am, compared to most people, but yet, there are a lot of things that I love to eat that isn’t that great for me, particularly my heart. My cholesterol is a little high and the doctor recommends that I cut out red meat and other foods that can increase that. I haven’t. I’ve been eating and cooking the same food that I had always been, but I do understand and see that I need to slightly change my diet and include more vegetables. I need to reduce my intake of red meat, meat, in general.

Slowly, I’m changing that. I’m tweaking my diet left and right and soon, maybe it’ll be better. Maybe. We shall see.

* * *

After watching the Cooked documentary I had the idea of starting my own yeast culture and start baking my own bread. Again, everything from scratch. My boss watched the documentary also and loved it and had the same idea.

I just started my sourdough starter yesterday and hopefully I can make it work.

I love bread. I love a nice crusty and soft airy bread. Sometimes a good crusty and a little dense wheat bread is great. Give me some good butter. Even better. Add in some liver pate, just pure awesomeness.

I made a loaf of no knead bread this morning. I haven’t had it yet, but hopefully it is good. The yeast I used wasn’t the best, but hopefully, my next batch would be better.

Gluten sensitivity.

I’m not gluten sensitive. I don’t have celiac disease. But there are times when I eat bread, it just makes me bloat and gassy.

Now, the idea is that gluten is the issue. Gluten is fucking with our stomachs and it is evil. It the reason why we are having so many digestive issues.

But, I don’t think that is the case. From the documentary, and this make sense, is that the bread we are eating, isn’t bread. Bread is made up of four ingredients: flour, salt, yeast, and water.

People have been eating bread for millenniums and never had any problems. It wasn’t until industrialization started and we started to mass produce bread at the biggest margins that these sensitivities came to be. As bread companies make bread, using cheapest ingredients and chemicals, to make bread; bread is no longer bread.

It is mostly chemicals and maybe, just maybe, these sensitivities are from these chemicals and not gluten.

I’ve had straight-up gluten in stir-fry dishes before and that shit was good.

There are quite a few people who said that when they start to make their own bread from scratch, that they never had any problems that they normally would when they eat gluten. When my boss started to make his no knead bread, he never had any issues.

Maybe it is the chemicals that we are ingesting.

Moral of the story, the moral of this rant, scratch food is great food. Know exactly what’s going into your body.

* * *

Cook more.

That’s what I’ve been focusing on the past couple of years. I’m trying to learn new tricks and learn new recipes and trying to push myself to cook things that I have never cooked before. I’ve learned so much along the way. I’ve built up my repertoire of quick go to dishes.

I love it.

I love food.

* * *

My special day is coming up. It’s just a few days away and then I’ll be another year older, another year wiser. I already decided that I’ll continue my tradition of going on a trip around my birthday. I’ve been on a hiatus with this for the past couple of years because of the bigger trips I planned that took place in lieu of it, but this year, it’ll be back.

I have decided to finally go to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon to go hiking. I hope the weather will be good, el Niño and all. Hopefully.

The next weekend, mom, aunts, and uncle will be back from their Mexican cruise and I’ll be hanging out with them and be their chauffeur for the day. I don’t mind. It’s always good to see family again.

But, yes, I think in the next coming weeks, I’ll have to think about my yearly entry and figure out what to write. It’ll come a few weeks late, but there will be one.

I have to find time and fit it in with my short story writing project for this year. I’m so behind on it. I need to get on it.