Monday, November 30, 2009

Cool YouTube Videos

So I don't surf YouTube. Whenever someone sends me something, I wonder how did you come across such video?? But there are two that caught my eye today. One was actually something that got featured at ABC World News. It was a story about how all the hospital staff of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center at Portland, Oregon decided to promote pink gloves (for breast cancer awareness) danced to music and wore pink gloves. This is the video.


And then a friend of mine forwarded this... it's just WAY too cute and amazing. How does a kitty know to act like a surprised baby??



These 2 videos made my day. =)

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Year End Giving

It's getting to the end of the year. All year long, I ignore phone calls, emails, and mail asking me to donate money to various charities. Then at the end of the year, I sit down to figure out where I want to donate, I kid you not. Last year I donated on 12/28/2008. No one can guilt me into donating any earlier than that because my charitable donations come after I figure out how well I did on keeping up with my budget for the year.

For the last couple of years, though, I seem to slowly expand my list of charitable organizations to donate (my list doesn't necessarily stay constant from year to year depending on what I want to do). The list grows because with the downturn in economy, charitable organizations are also suffering from decreased donation like this article says. And this year, about 50 million Americans, including almost 17 million kids, were struggling to have enough to eat according to the USDA study as reported by Washington Post.

So, it's not as if I am infinitely wealthy. In fact, even the extreme rich folks focus where they want their charitable contributions to go. But I am lucky enough to be working, and unlike some folks who are worried about job security, I am in a relatively secure position. Thus, I feel that when others are decreasing their donation, I can and should increase mine.

Based on the economic climate, my priorities for picking charity are: (1) ease hunger for the community; (2) allow medical access; (3) education and schools; and (4) art/music non-profit organization. This year, I'm throwing out environment as one of my priorities to make room for other priorities. I add #3 because I strongly believe we should always make education our top priority. Unfortunately, whenever there's a downturn, education seems to be the first area government cuts. So, I include in my priorities to donate to offset in my small way the cuts education endures. I add #4 because art and music have a place in our lives. Music touches lives and is part of what defines our humanity. As a musician, I simply feel it must be part of our lives. So I include it in my list of priorities.

With these priorities I set for myself this year, I need to pick which charities fit my priorities to donate. I generally check American Institute of Philanthropy to see which charities are efficient in using donations for their mission. I also check various charities I have bookmarked throughout the year to review and see if any of them fit what I set out to donate. I also look at my list from last year. I have about 8 organizations that I can list after reviewing all of these. Do I keep donate a little bit to each or pick 4 and donate more to each? That's a decision to make after Thanksgiving.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Trading Moto Q for Palm Treo Pro

So I have a long history of using Palm (or Handspring, when that was an offshoot). I got the first ever "smartphone" which was a Handspring, with a huge device that when you add, converted PDA into a phone as well. It was awesome to use... but had awful reception. I got it in early 2000's. After it broke (because I inevitably dropped it), I also lost all my contact information. So I got a Palm PDA... going from black and white and eventually colored Tungsten. I still carry it.

So about three years ago, when I decided I needed a phone with data plan so I can actually check my personal email from work, I was debating whether to get a Palm Treo or Motorola Q from Sprint. Frugality got the best of me, and I ended up getting a Moto Q. It was functional -- I could check my personal emails. But I thought, what if I got a Palm?

With Palm Pre out, I have been wondering how to get my hands on it. It would be perfect -- get rid of my old Palm Tungsten, have a great phone, and not follow the herd in buying an iPhone. Because my Sprint plan expired earlier this year, I went to see if I could get it without losing my plan. No dice. I have SERO plan... $30 per month, 500 minutes, unlimited data and text messages. Sprint doesn't allow these plans for Palm Pre.. and it wouldn't even let me pay full price for it. So, after looking around and talking to the sales rep, I decided to get Palm Treo Pro.

It's rather funny because it's the only Palm phone that does NOT use Palm's operating system. So, that also means, I cannot get rid of my old Palm Tungsten. But so far, I really like Treo Pro. I was able to download Opera Mobile and Skyfire. I like Opera Mobile for getting quickly to my email sites... but Skyfire for getting to just regular sites such as Lala.com... and listen to my mp3's! How cool is that? It also has Mobile Office so that I can edit Microsoft documents if I wanted to, storage card space that would allow me to expand up to 32 gb, camera (which I'm still trying to figure out), ability to move between different open applications, and more stylish phone.

In all, I'm glad I traded up from Moto Q (the battery was dying on me so it had to go). And maybe by the time the 2 year contract expires, I can trade up for Palm Pre.

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Chef in My Kitchen

A couple of weeks ago, a chef graced his cooking skills at my kitchen for a delicious (and incredibly filling) dinner.  Mike, a friend of my friend Benny, graduated from a cooking school and just started working at a hotel in Coronado.  I challenged him to cook dim sum, and he whipped up ridiculously tasty dim sum I definitely couldn't get anywhere else.  Below are some pictures.  


Potstickers made from scratch, including the sauce.  

Chicken satay, with a hint of Jamaican influence in the sauce for a great kick to my taste buds! 



Coconut shrimp. 

Midnight rice -- spicy Thai fried rice with beef and red chilies. 

Mike the Chef!