Counting down…

Jeff Buckley was amazing and his untimely death saddens me.

Must I dream and always see your face
Why can’t we overcome this wall
Well, maybe it’s just because I didn’t know you at all

“Last Goodbye”

or

So I’ll wait for you, love
And I’ll burn
Will I ever see your sweet return?
Oh, will I ever learn?
Oh-oh, lover, you should’ve come over
‘Cause it’s not too late

….She is the tear that hangs inside my soul forever

“Lover, You Should’ve Come Over”

How can I get any programming done whilst bawling!

Every two months, Hook & Press introduces new flavors and Naomi and I just can’t walk by w/o a taste.

One of my 2023 resolutions – cook at home more often. However, I couldn’t pass up Santo Mezcal’s Farmer’s Omelet (egg white, zucchini blossoms, spinach, pasilla peppers, and panela cheese). Have you ever seen a more beautiful omelet?

Yu and Me Books, which opened in 2021, was closed for New Years Eve so I wasn’t able to visit during my stay in NYC. I read about another bookstore that will open in 2023 in Pasadena. She took a leap of faith and quit her job to open Octavia’s Bookshelf. Very excited for her!!

I took a leap of faith once and opened up a pizzeria. Sadly, I had to close it in six months (during the pandemic). I’ve been a bookworm my whole entire life and often entertained the idea of owning a bookstore. Recently, I saw an opportunity to buy a mixed-use building downtown that would have been great for a bookstore (storefront and rental property in the back) but fear (of losing $$$ again) held me back and I doubt we need another book store. We got some great independent books stores already (ex. Chaucers, Book Den, Mesa Bookstore)

Nonetheless, I am tormented by this quote from Robert T. Kiyosaki : “Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed“. [[sigh]]

On the other hand, Elon Musk said “If you need inspiring words, don’t do it“

So happy to be back home where I can still wear sandals outdoors (even in the rain). The wind-chill in NYC was unbearable and it was a bitterly cold Christmas.

Love this video from @itsk1cks

oopsie doopsie pic.twitter.com/VbNQH4TWsh

— k1cks (@itsk1cks) December 28, 2022

I have insomnia and Twitter exacerbates it.

Gary Wang (FTX Co-Founder) and Caroline Ellison (CEO of Alameda Research) plead guilty to fraud (wire fraud, securities fraud and commodities fraud).

Other news – looks like a power winter storm hits NYC this afternoon with strong winds and rain to linger through Friday. Not looking forward to the 30-40° temp drop and sub-zero wind chills.

Delighted to see that ChatGPT considered my feedback and made the changes. I was beginning to doubt myself.

The book is written in an iambic tetrameter form. Iambic is a style of poetic verse where the second syllable is stressed (da-DUM). Each of these iambs (da-DUM) is referred to as a metrical foot. Iambic tetrameter contains four iambs per line containing four feet.

The challenge is how do you know if a one syllable word is stressed. I can use the dictionary for two syllable words but one syllable word will depend on the context. Some basic rules that help:

1. Nouns are usually stressed (“test”, “poems”, “stress”).
2. Action verbs are usually stressed (“test”, “stress”).
3. Less “important” words such as linking verbs (“do” in “how do you determine”, “was”, “is”), conjunctions (“and”, “or”, “but”), prepositions (“on”, “by”) are usually not stressed.
4. Pronouns may or may not be depending on context. Usually you can argue either way.

source

ChatGPT has been all over the news. It’s a AI chatbot developed by OpenAI. I thought I could utilize this to check my consistency – in the meter of verse. But I am not getting what I expected.

example: I thought contractions act as a single word. I assume the below would be an iambic trimeter; it has three iambs. ChatGPT differs.

“Let’s go/, we must/ be quick/”

ChatGPT reasons:

**Sigh… I provided feedback. I will check back in a few days.

During this wet and cold season, I like curling up with a spicy bowl of Tom Kha soup. However, I don’t like paying $10-$17 for a bowl. While perusing in our local Asian market, I ran across palm sugar.

Palm sugar is made from the sap/nectar in coconut palm trees. It undergoes minimal processing so it is rich in vitamins and has a low glycemic index. But the process is labor-intensive and sometimes what you see at the super market is not 100% palm sugar. This brand is actually not bad. I prefer this brand over the others because it doesn’t taste gritty like granulated sugar and you can taste the caramel flavor.

I made my own Tom Kha soup with tofu (I don’t like chewing on meat when sipping soup) and mushrooms along with the other necessities (galangal, lemongrass, lime juice, fish sauce, coconut milk, chicken broth, etc) . Oooh, now I can make some Pad Thai, too.

Haven’t figured out how to get fresh kaffir lime leaves.