Happiness is something that comes

in all different shapes and sizes,

but the secret is that

it's not hidden somewhere that far,

it's all in your heart.

-wishstar87

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"Happy World"

Kang Ik Joong

http://www.ikjoongkang.com/

cooking 2

Other than just delicious lunch dishes, I've also tried making some dessert treats for myself. Started off with muffin making and even to biscotti and chips. The first muffin I started off with a all-ready-to-go mix from JiffyMix for the corn muffins. This turned out pretty good, but I hoped to make my next one from scratch, which I did succeed. For my second muffin, I made carrot muffin made with carrot, walnut, cranberry, and semi-sweet chocolate. The outcome was wonderful. My third attempt was with biscotti, a favorite snack for tea and coffee drinkers. The only thing that surprised me is how much sugar this dessert needed. Nevertheless with the chocolate, walnut, and cranberry mix the result turned out pretty nice too. Today, I even tried making vegetable chips based on the online recipies. The process wasn't hard but it required a lot of time. Still, I'm pretty satisfied with the results. I think I'm ready to make a different kind of dessert, any suggestions? :)

1. Corn Muffin

2. Carrot Muffin

3. Biscotti

4. Vegetable Chips

Summer Cooking

June, 2009

Although I had the opprotunity to enjoy good food, I never took the chance to cook good food for myself. This summer will be a change in this pattern, though. Not only have I started cooking for myself starting with salad but also started backing desserts. I am proud to say I have a little library in my room full of books about cooking, baking, mixing drinks, wine, and other different interest that I have long had but never had much chance to work on. Now this will be the chance. Here, I will share some of the dishes I have been making and treating myself. If you were here, I would have loved to share them too. Because the othe joy of cooking that I realized is not just thinking and knowing what you can make, but also the pleasure of knowing that you can share this with someone else and make that person happy. I'm learned the pure pleasure of cooking and sharing!

1. Salad Mix

2. Bagel Sandwhich v.1

3. Potato Salad with Grilled Tomato and Squash

4. Grilled Tomato and Squash

5. Veg. Roll with Beans

6. Bagel Sandwhich v.2

Baroque Art

Baroque Art

16th -17th cen. in Europe

Capturing the peak moment of movement was one of the characteristics of Baroque art. Unlike the previous Renaissance art that highlighted idealized and perfect presentation, Baroque art prioritiezed naturalism and realism. The few paintings and statue share below are some examples that I enjoy the most. The moment we set our eyes on them, as if we were thrown back to their time and space, we see them come alive in front of us. Additionally, every painting tells a story, and not just one story but several stories! Under each layer, the painting brings up a multi-layed story in action, right in front of our eyes.

I would love to have the chance to visit Europe agian to see these masterpieces in person. Now, having studied a little of it, I would be able to appreciate them more. Europe, here I will go someday!

The Fortune Teller (second ver.)

Caravaggio, 1595

Louvre, Paris

Susanna and the Elders
Artemisia Gentileschi, 1610
Schoborn collection in Pommersfelden

The Calling of St. Matthew
Caravaggio, 1599-1600
San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

Apollo and Daphne
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1622-1625
Galleria Borghese, Rome

The Cardsharps
Caravaggio, 1594
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

Good Morning, New America!

"The road ahead will be long," he said. "Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America — I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you — we as a people will get there."

Barack Obama
2008 US President
victory speech at Chicago's Grand Park

01 Beijing

I would like to start that this Middle Kingdom (中國) is really an extraordinary place. (Please do not misinterpret my meaning in my former blogs ending.) My passion and curiosity for China, the mother and center of Asia, will stay as long as I know. But it is just that this trip was very different from all my former trips that I have made in the past few years, and, thus, my effect after the trip turned out to be different too. In the past I have visited Beijing before to do the major toursites- Tiananmen, Forbidden City, The Great Wall, ext-, or for a conference at one of the CBD(Central Business District). So of course, the image of Beijing I had before was completely positive, rich, and large. And having visited twice, I naively believed that I knew China quite well. Er. Completly wrong. In the next three weeks during my stay in Wudaokou, the region in which most of Beijing's top university exist, I meet Beijing, China again. But this time he was different. Now looking back, I think this was the real China.

00 China

So I have been telling people that I will update soon about my month trip at Beijing, and, alas, after a month of delay I am here at last. One excuse I would immediately like to point out would be that, oh since I have started school, I have been very busy to keep myself updated with my summer adventures. Which is in some sense true, but I feel like some greater part of me had intended to delay this step - writing about China. It was not going to be easy.


Despite the fact that China has been a country that I have always known and learned about all myself, and even as a student studying Chinese and East Asian studies, there has been something about China that is making me become more careful and cautious. Not only is China the big new thing that everyone talks about -whether that is politics, economy, culture, religion, or language-, but also China itself as a nation has rapidly marketed itself to the global community. It seems like the word "China," though the message and meaning differs to different people, simply excites everyone - I mean literally EVERYONE. You name anyone, anything and they will all talk, "oh yes, China, the big player."

As a student who is studying Chinese and IR, of course, I was eager to find anyway to learn more about China. I would search through my University to find any ways I could practice my Chinese. I would look up in the Internet to search any opportunities of studying abroad or working abroad in China. And after more than a year worth of research, I have finally made myself back to this country, this central place.

But what did I saw there, and felt? Well, lets just say that I am no longer in the rush to seek China as I was earlier. Do not ask me why, because that is what I hope to understand too.