Food for Thoughts

Whenever I was having toasts for breakfast, I often wonder why toasted breads are such a common fare on our kitchen table. The very first reason I can think of is that toasts are the simplest food to prepare. It is a very versatile one as well. The delicious way to dress a piece of golden-brown toast is endless. A working toaster is all we need to make perfect toasts any time of the day. The others, sliced breads, even the day-old ones, butter, and jams or jelly whichever we fancy, are easily accessible. Besides being tasty, they are inexpensive sources of many basic and beneficial nutrients such as carbohydrates and fibers. Toast is also portable and a good finger food. In the morning when we are late for office, we can always grab a piece of toasts and run. To sustain me till noon, all I need are a couple slices of well toasted and buttered bread with two eggs and a hot beverage.

Since I love to eat and always pay attention to nutritious foods, I did look into the health attributes of the lowly toasts have to offer. I find psychologically the burnt and crunchy surface of my favorite bread sates my need to chew. Lastly, the ubiquitous brown crumbs from the toasts also act as a friendly cleansing agent that sucks out any harmful toxin from my digestive tracts. - Ayee

Make Sure It Is Plugged!

Contrary to what I thought that it would never happen to an infrequent surfer of the cyberspace like me, this time last year, a virus contaminated my computer.

Of course, I felt violated and helpless as well. I cannot imagine some persons would deliberately mess up other people’s computers. This criminal activity is not unlike some uninvited strangers ransacked through our personal belongings. This incident made me feel even more vulnerable while using the computer.

Fortunately, there is anti-virus software we can install to protect us from the hackers. So in this case I was not as helpless as I thought. However, I was told before installing a new firewall in my computer, I must first get rid of the offending virus from the hard disc. If one has never had to evict intruders from his or her computer, the process to do so can be very onerous. To the credit of some smart engineers, they helped clean my desk top after my numerous calls to their far away call-center. My final call with an extremely patient techie lasted more than an hour. After at least two trying days, my computer was restored. But my task to prevent my computer from being infected again was far from over.

The protective program I installed last year expires soon. Although I was warned that installing a new anti-virus software can also be a frustrating business, I decided to do the installation myself. This time I was diligent and proactive. Before down loading a new spy ware to my computer, I asked family members as well as salespersons about the particular software I was about to purchase.

Since I had done what I could to prepare myself, I was ready for the upcoming challenge.

Before copying the new program, I removed the soon-to-expire program from the memory first. Then I made sure there was sufficient virtual space left in the hard drive. These steps seemed to be logical and easy. Therefore, the loading of the new program was a breeze except one unforseen glitch. With the new firewall, my computer could no longer get access to Internet. Certainly, it caused a havoc to me. So I had to call my ISP’s remote help-center. After nearly an hour long of probing, poking, booting and rebooting, finally, it was detected that there was a bad connection in my desk top. And you guess it! I was the trouble maker who plugged one of the ethernet cables into a wrong phone jack! - Ayee

Horse Business

Over the last few weeks, there were a lot of media coverages on a female racing horse. Due to their bigger physique, it appears that mares do not run as fast as their male counterparts. That is why the six-year at 1,200 pounds Zenyatta is so impressive. She made history in thorough breed racing. Her curriculum vitae, besides enjoying a strong and dark beer a day, include a record of winning all 19 races in which she had entered. Her jockey said of her a fierce horse on the track but a gentle soul off the course. Last week at Hollywood Park, California, she added another Breeders’ Cup pennant in her crowded trophy case. She finished her illustrious career with a second place in that race. Now, as I heard, she is to retire from racing to concentrate on motherhood.

The winning story of this special horse reminded me of the days I was at the oval.

There was a time when I thought rooting for the horses I had picked was fun. The fun doubled if the ones I picked also won. But after I read in the papers on what some ruthless horse owners did to their injured racing machines, sort of like boycotting, I quit betting on horses for good. The terrible stories of burning the stables down to collect insurance money on the dead horses are something I can never bear and tolerate.

Years ago, "60 Minutes" had a story on the US government’s Land Management Department. This government agency was allowed to round up mustangs in the West. Sadly, instead of getting the corralled creatures adopted to good families, many of them were shipped to slaughter houses in the most deplorable and inhumane manner. Since lately there was not many news on that government branch’s horse gathering activities, hopefully, the Land Management Department has since made their business a humane and caring one.

Now, Zenyatta have an extra Guinness for me! - Ayee

Hurrah to the Chilean Miners

We have just witnessed the seamless execution of the rescue at a remote Chilean gold mine. The plan that saved the trapped miners was a resounding success. In this unfortunate case, the advanced technology had played a pivotal role in the safe return of 33 miners. Without the timely and learned input from NASA and mining industry engineers in drilling and designing, the miners might still be in their dingy underground refuge waiting to be rescued. But common sense, decisive leadership and cooperation had also prevailed and attributed to a favorable outcome of a life- and- death situation. And lastly I bet God pitched in too.

I just learned the reason why the search for live miners was not called off days after the mine had collapsed. This badly maintained mine did not emit any sign of lives. But it did not exude the "smell of death" either. Thanks to this smelly indicator, the search and rescue work for live miners continued.

The other reason the rescue was a success was their top politicians’ caring vow to save the trapped miners at any costs. Both the Chilean president and his minister of mines had personally followed up on the logistics side of the various rescue plans to ensure the work-in-progress proceed as envisioned. Incidentally, both of them are accomplished businessmen before entering politics. Evidently, with them they brought much needed business acumen in undoing this disastrous event.

In addition, we should not overlook the leadership of the miners’ foreman either. It must take him some doings to ensure all his fellow workers survive both mentally and physically 2,000 plus feet below the mine site.

Working side by side as a team of various groups also played an indispensable role in this rescue effort. Good helps were from all around the world when the disaster struck. Now we know when we cooperate with each others, everyone wins!

And having some faith in God is not a bad idea when we are in distress. Without their unwavering confidence in God, I do not know how the miners and their families could survive the many days they were waiting to see their loved ones again. - Ayee

Amazing Kitties (II)

Middy, short for Midshipman, is an amazing seafaring cat.* And the story of this stubborn but self-reliant feline goes like this:

The crew of a small schooner, "Eyvor," was ashore one day. On their way to town, they spared a defenseless cat from the sticks and stones of a group of abusive boys. When the yachtsmen were back at their dinghy to return to their yacht, they found a small grey and white cat they saved already aboard the tender. It appeared this furry creature decided to return the favor by joining his two-legged saviors to sea. After many pushes and shovels with hisses and outreached claws, the yachtsmen gave in and decided to have this persistent pussy with them on the cruise.

Once on board the yacht, a meeting was called to decide what this new recruit's duty would be on board the ship. While no one knew what exactly a midshipman was, they appointed their newest crew member Midshipman, and named him Middy.

After the initial induction had been said and done, Middy started to flex his paws with a vengeance.

First, he made friends with two most important persons on board: the captain cum professor, and the ship cook. Middy followed the skipper around during the day and bedded with the boss in the night. However, to show his impartiality, each night before hunkered down next to his beloved benefactor, Middy would run over to all the berths in the cabin to ensure that each and every one of his loved mates was tucked in and was ready for bed.

Obviously, Middy’s trust in the captain was insurmountable. When he invited himself to accompany his best friend target shooting one day, Middy was not at all fazed by the loud shots flying all over him. To show his unwavering faith in the shooter, Middy, as cool as a cucumber, took his beauty nap right in the shadow of a boulder from which the marksman fired his shots.

I think Middy was a seaman in his previous life. He never got sick from the ups and downs of a tumbling sea. In one instance in a rough sea, thanks to his seafarer’s instinct, this taciturn kitty  had single-pawed rescued himself from being part of a ship wreck.

His know-how on staying afloat on the sea got him to where he wanted to be. I bet Middy would never tell a lie. But he must have an extra long nose. His keen olfactory ability might be his GPS that led him to his rescuers’ dinghy on the very day they met by a woodpile. He also knew who were the most important persons on the ship. Last but not lest, acting on his own reconnaissance he jumped into the cold sea water and fast paddled to a nearby yacht where two adorable kittens resided.

When the summer cruise ended, Middy was boarded with a lady artist in the Boston area. But he disappeared after a few months from the pleasant studio. Sadly no one had ever heard of him since. But John Coleman Adams, one of Middy’s mates on "Iyvor", believed his furry friend ran away to look for his old mates and the little schooner. Since he could find neither of them, being a born sailor, Middy once again stowed himself away onto a tall ship in yet another voyage on the open sea. - Ayee

*"Midshipman, the Cat," John Coleman Adams (1849 -1922),The Best Loved Cat Stories, The Reader’s Digest, 1997.

Recipe for Success

Recently I got myself a pleasant surprise when I went to a neighborhood laundry mat to wash a few area rugs. It was the same one I had used before. The proprietors there were pleasant but their service area was poorly lit. Its Spartan facility could also use a coat of fresh paint to spruce the place up a bit.

On that day the moment I walked into that shop, I was taken aback by what I saw. The place is bright and spotless. The shining chrome frame on many washing machines gleams with the soft lights from the many florescent tubes above. A coat of pastel blue-colored paint also emits some pleasantry in the air.

I learned later that this essential business provider has a new owner. Obviously, the simple improvements the new owners made to their investment over the last two months have brought them the expected results. While one of the mild-manner owners took care of the drop-off business, the other patiently explained to a customer of the different features an oversize washing machine provides. It is certain that their newly acquired business is booming!

As a consumer, this much improved laundry mat is a good news to me. Now I know there is a pleasant place to bring my future laundry business to. Unlike the many businesses, small and large, that I have known, invariably their services deteriorated after there was a change of the ownership. - Ayee

Amazing Kitties (I)

I thought my cats are smart ones until I read about "Eponine" in "The White and Black Dynasty."*

I will not go into the details on why this petite female kitty was so named. Perhaps growing up in the household of a literary family has something to do with a name like "Eponine."

Theophile Gautier, a renown nineteen century French poet, writer and critic, kept a pair of Angora cats with ermine like pure white coats. This handsome and gracious couple bestowed upon the prolific writer three jet black kittens. One of them was named Eponine.

Eponine must be the great poet’s favorite. She adored her famous keeper a great deal as well. Eponine always followed her master around when he was home. To return the many favors he had for her, she kept him accompanied whenever he was at his desk writing his next book. Furthermore, to earn her keep, Eponine became a page for the house. When the door bell rang, she would go to the door greet the guests, then usher them to the drawing room.

Unlike other cats, this endearing furry ball ate at the dinning table instead off the kitchen floor. Imagine a little black cat sits on an oversized dinning table chair for supper! Sitting next to her most beloved, she polished off her three-course meal with a half glass of water in style.

We all know cats are crazy about fish. When Eponine detected that delectable seafood was in the air, she would try to skip her soup. Her feline rationale on skipping the soup is no different from any of ours: less soup means more room for fish. Unfortunate for her, her master read her smart logics, and told her if she was not hungry for soup, she was not hungry for fish either. Eponine somehow got the message loud and clear and would finish her soup quickly whenever there were fish in the offering.

Eponine also knew when she was not invited for dinner. When silverware was placed by the dish on the table at where she normally sat, she knew to retreat to other place in the house during dinner time. However, Eponine would still get a few tasty morsels under the table from the guests who she knew had a few soft spots for her.

Such an amazing kitty Eponine is. It is no wonder that her dear master cast her as the star in one of his many short stories. * - Ayee