Tokyo Olympics 2020, Men's 10M diving

Still savoring this competition.  A lot of people have seen the adorable Tom Daly crocheting by the pool side, but I'm talking about the competitors that knew they were definitely not going to win.  The Americans, the Australians, the Brazilians, etc.  They just sat around the hot tub, chilling.  What a yummy sight!

Mr. Tom Daly got bronze!

The gold medalist and the silver medalist were both from China.  The silver medalist did not look happy.  He wore a pissed-off expression as soon as he knew he was getting silver.

What happens when a country sends multiple athletes to the same event?  How does jealousy work?  It is a dangerous thing.

Marvel Themed Restaurant

Saw on the news that Disney Cruise is coming up with some Marvel-themed restaurants.  This got me thinking.  Marvel has so many themes.  Which ones would I do?  (COPYRIGHT!)

Curated destruction scene from Avengers I, where the Avengers sat around eating shawarmas at the end of the movie.  The restaurant would serve shawarmas and all of the delicious food associated with it.

In the center of the restaurant would be wax figures of the Avengers sitting around the table, eating shawarmas.

We would have rental costumes and movie props (Captain America's shield, Thor's hammer, etc.) that people can dress up and take pictures among the debris.

People love this scene.  We would make lots of money.

Disney, call me!

Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Fashion

I noticed a lot of athletes wore mismatched socks and mismatched-color shoes.  That should totally be a fashion.  Why don't we do more of this?

BASEL ajirochaya, #2

Black Tea and Apricot Mousse from BASEL ajirochaya.  It was creamy, sweet, fragrant.  I love this place sooooo much!

Black Tea and Apricot Mousse

Buldak hot noodles

My hot noodles are here!  I'm at least 5+ years behind the trend.  When I ordered it online, I was worried the noodles would be smooshed.  When the box arrived looking like this, my worries were confirmed.

Smooshed box for the hot noodles

When I opened the box, however, the noodles looked intact.  I was happy!

Intact hot noodles

Then when I opened the actual noodle pack, it was just a bit smooshed.

Smooshed hot noodles

I followed the instruction on the pack.  Boiled noodles for five minutes.  Added eight tablespoons of noodle water to the spicy sauce and mixed everything together.  It was above medium spicy for me.  I had a few sniffles.  No hiccups.  No watery eyes.  Maybe the noodle water diluted the spicy sauce.  I will try again with straight up sauce.

8/22/2021 Update 1:  I tried the second pack of noodles without diluting the sauce.  It sure was hot.  I couldn't talk for five minutes.  I had the sniffles.  I didn't cry, but I needed a few sips of milk to mellow the spiciness out.  Wow, that was awesome!

8/23/2021 Update 2:  So I tried the third pack of noodles with straight up sauce and mixed in veggies and hard-boiled eggs.  It was still VERY spicy.  I still couldn't talk for five minutes and needed milk.  So this was the way to do it.  Healthy-ish spicy instant noodles.

Side note:  milk is the way to go to mellow out the spiciness.  I tried ice water.  All it did was fool me thinking, "Oh, it's cold."  When the coldness subsided, the spiciness returned.  DO NOT try green tea.  Not only it didn't take away the spiciness, it somehow intensified it more than doubly.  That was soooo uncomfortable.

Smooth Criminal (2010)

I've heard this song over and over, mixed in with various anime.  I just never heard the original version.  Finally I saw the Vevo official video of Smooth Criminal, and I was completely blown away.

No wonder Michael Jackson was the best and revered.  The music was awesome; the dance was awesome; the choreography was awesome.  I had no other word to describe it.

Homemade Bread

I've tried several different "2-ingredient bread" recipes for homemade bread, but all of them failed.  I wondered if it was the problem with climate/humidity/longitude/latitude/magic.  I was unhappy that other people could do it, and I just somehow couldn't get it right.

The naan from the previous post was good, but it involved too many ingredients for me to start on a whim.

Then I saw this roti recipe; it required only whole wheat flour, water, and avocado oil.  I wouldn't call mine "roti", but it wasn't bad.

So today I decided to do it on my own, by guessing all the ingredients and their ratios.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more
• 1.5 tspn baking powder
• 3/4 tspn salt
• 7 ~ 8 tbspn Greek yogurt (the yogurt and its water combined)
• Butter, melted
• Garlic powder
• Italian seasoning

Steps:

1. The first three ingredients make up the self-rising flour in the 2-ingredient bread.  Sift them together into a bowl.
2. Then I started adding one tablespoon of Greek yogurt at a time to the flour.  Mix them well.  I didn't level off the tablespoon.  I just scooped up the yogurt and its water and dumped it into the flour.  By the time it got to 8 tablespoons, the dough finally took shape, but it was very wet.  So I should have stopped at 7 tablespoons 😛
3. I added 1/4 tspn of flour to the dough; I didn't level it off either.  Then I added another 1/2 tspn flour.  Then I added another 1 tspn flour.  Finally the dough was not wet and sticky anymore.  It looked and felt like an actual bread dough.
4. Knead the dough for three minutes and wrap it in wet kitchen paper towel while washing up.
5. Mix melted butter and garlic powder together.
6. Divide the dough into nine balls.  Somehow by magic my unmeasurable ratio of flour and yogurt turned into nine equal size balls 😆.  Roll six out and make them into doughnut shape.
7. Bake them at 180℃ for 15 minutes.  This was pure guesstimate because of the Japanese convection oven in the rental property.  I have no idea how "convection" works.  I have no idea how to preheat the oven because I couldn't figure out the Japanese instruction.
8. When the doughnuts were done, Math Teacher took one bite and said they were good!  I was happy! 😇
9. Roll the remaining three balls into flat shape.  Brush with garlic butter, sprinkle with Italian seasoning and cook them on stovetop.  They actually bubbled up and looked so cute!

The breads were perfect when they were just out of the oven and off the stove.  After they cooled down, I didn't quite like the doughnut-shaped ones.  They felt too doughy.  Math Teacher, on the other hand, said the flat ones were difficult to bite.

Homemade Bread

This experiment worked!  I can make homemade bread anytime with just flour and yogurt.  Then I can add on any toppings.  Garlic butter makes anything better.  Next time, I will not roll out the flat ones too thin, and I'll try cheddar with jalapeño or pizza sauce with basil 😋

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD

Just tried my hand on publishing to various bookstores.  Still not quite sure how any of this works.  So anyway, FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, is available at these stores.

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD

I didn't plan this well.  FROM THIS DAY FORWARD is book 2 in the series, and I published to various bookstores.  However, I TAKE THEE, book 1, which is on Amazon only.  This is quite confusing for me.

Jurassic Park (1993)

Revisited this movie.  To be honest, I only watched this movie once before.  Upon the second viewing 28 years after it came out, this movie still held up.

The plot still flowed smoothly; I still got scared at the same moments.  The dinosaurs still looked real.  T-Rex still looked badass!

Oh my gosh, I just realized a baby born in 1993 would've been a grownup by now.  Could've been married.  Could've had own children.  Could've shown Jurassic Park to his/her own children.  Where did time go!

The Wedding Vow, Book 1 & Book 2

Book 1, I Take Thee, is available on Amazon for sale!

Free with Kindle Unlimited!

A centuries-old vampire, she wanted to marry him on the second date. When he said no, she found someone else. What should he do to win her back?

I TAKE THEE

Book 2, From This Day Forward, is available on Amazon for sale!

What was the price of first love?  What was the cost of growing up?  Vivian was about to pay with her life to find out!

This is the prequel to book 1, I TAKE THEE.  The historical background of this story was loosely inspired by the Dutch East India Company's occupation of Taiwan in the 1600's.

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD

Now, let's move on to writing book 3, TO HOLD & TO CHERISH!

TO HOLD & TO CHERISH

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, book 2 of the series The Wedding Vow, is available on Amazon now!

What was the price of first love?  What was the cost of growing up?  Vivian was about to pay with her life to find out!

The historical background of this story was loosely inspired by the Dutch occupation of Taiwan in the 1600's.

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD

八月八日父親節快樂

以父之名
到 Doutour 悠閑過一上午
數學老師看書📚
我打電動😛

Doutour mocha, fruity iced coffee, peach cake