https://bsky.app/profile/stealingsand.bsky.social/post/3lhzz7tfzhs2u

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@stealingsand.bsky.social • 56m • she/her
The cats all LOVE these, I have to lock myself in a room alone and hide the bag when I’m done. They’re awful scavengers

stealingsand@stealingsand.bsky.social • 13m • she/her
Nothing like an old cranky Siamese (#PixelBei) with half his head smeared with oily crab-scented potato chip bag schmuz. He HATES being wiped down so I try to keep him out of the bag. This was his response to a birthday hat, IMAGINE the drama with my “attempted bodily harm” (wiping his head down)”

I think these dumplings are better than anything I can buy at the store, likely because I know exactly what’s in them, I can control the quality of the ingredients (chopped meat instead of ground or paste), and because I’ve tailored them to my preference.

It’s a recipe that started as a Vietnamese egg roll recipe my high school mentor Jackie taught me, that her grandmother taught her. Measurements were never actually made, just “pour about this much into your cupped palm” so these measurements are also approximate.

I’ve struggled with ARFID since the pandemic, and a sensitivity to meat flavors, so these are very light on the meat flavors so they taste “cleaner”. A purist would use pork or dark meat chicken, and the fattier the better – when I make these for others I usually choose fattier meats, but for my sensitivity to taste and texture, these are the ingredients I use.

Some tips for you if you don’t make dumplings much:

• Dumplings are an highly variable food, like tacos or burritos, and you should put whatever you want in them, but be cautious about affecting the consistency of the ingredients so they cook up as a consistent, solid mass inside the wrappers. If you add a sauce or liquid flavoring, then make sure that you’re subtracting a liquid somewhere else. If you use frozen veggies, make sure they’re mostly-defrosted and drained of the extra liquid before dumping them in the bowl.
• I suggest they be made the “right way” the first time and that you then modify the recipe to your tastes. But if you hate shiitake, for example, just skip the shiitake, add another type of vegetable or mushroom that’s not too wet. Don’t replace the shiitake with cucumber for example, bc the water ratio in cucumber is significantly higher than in a mushroom. Then you can double up on some other ingredient. But if you’re making a lot of substitutions, you might end up on r/iDidntHaveEggs
• When I calculated this recipe in 2011, they came out as only 28 calories per dumpling (steamed) according to the MFP recipe calculator, but I can’t tell you what the calorie count is now.
• I imagine the wrappers chosen would affect the calorie count as well. I use Choripdong mandu wrappers in 2025, available at my local HMart in the freezer section. They’re thin and shiny and not as wheat-y as traditional Chinese wrappers.
• Admittedly it takes a good chunk of time to make them, but it’s worth it. I’ve also started freezing portions of the dumpling mixture pre-wrapping, so I can make a few now and a few more later, single-girl style.
• You can also deep-fry or pan-fry these, but steamed is faster, less hassle, and healthier. You can also add ground pork instead of shrimp if you’re allergic, or add other veggies instead of edamame. I use edamame not just for the flavor but also for the color (red shrimp + green veg + white chicken = pretty food).
• The black fungus comes in packages of whole mushrooms, or “shredded”. The shredded version is easier, but they’re the same flavor. When I say a “3-fingered pinch” of mushrooms it’s because the shreds are difficult to measure; it’s all dry and tangly and crispy and difficult to portion and impossible to fit in a measuring cup. Take a 3-fingered pinch, separate those from the rest of the tangled mass, and that’s about how much you’ll need. The picture has the correct portion. 
• To do it in a food processor, cut the meats into 1″ cubes or pieces, then put in the food processor in small batches. You want the pieces to be individually identifiable in the dumplings, and grinding them too finely makes them into a gritty paste.
• Soak the bean thread noodles in hot water until soft. Don’t pre-cook the noodles because they dissolve quickly if you overcook them, and since they’ll be steamed inside the dumplings you just want them pliable for now, soaked in warm water, not cooked. After they’re steamed inside the dumplings they have the dumpling flavors infused into them and they taste amazing.  

This recipe makes about 100 dumplings depending on their size, and at 15/person per meal (an “average” adult portion), that’s 10 meals. I don’t make other stuff for dinner when I make the dumplings because it has most food groups in it and why spoil such a good thing?! These cook up in 15 minutes from frozen, without stirring or supervision. Perfect for the “It’s 9pm and I haven’t eaten what food do I have” nights.

Recipe (with Digressions)

Ingredients

• 2-3 large chicken breasts
• 2-2.5 lbs. 26-30 (big) shrimp, peeled, deveined
• a 3-fingered pinch of dried shredded black fungus (wood ear mushroom), soaked in warm water till soft
• bean thread noodles, 2 “sections”, soaked in warm water till soft
• 1 c edamame peas or regular green peas (fresh or defrosted)
• a 3-fingered pinch of dried shiitake mushroom slices, soaked in warm water till soft, cut into ¼” – ½” pieces
• 3 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp monosodium glutamate (MSG – optional but highly recommended)
• 1 c chopped green onions, ½” pieces
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped into ½” pieces
• 10+ cloves chopped garlic (to taste)
• 2 XL eggs, or 3 small/organic/farm eggs
• approx. 100 dumpling wrappers (defrosted in the fridge or on the countertop, if frozen)

Equipment

• steamer or makeshift steamer like a large stock pot w/ a domed lid and a mesh splatter screen coated with nonstick food spray
• large non-porous (stainless steel/glass) bowl to mix the filling in
• for freezing, non-stick aluminum foil (I use the “release” kind, very important)
• cookie sheets, paper plates, or small trays that fit in your freezer when laid flat (I’ve been using Daiso fridge organizer trays bc I have a much smaller freezer than I used to)
• freezer bags for dumplings once they’ve frozen
• knife and cutting board
• food processor (optional)

Making the Mix

The order of ingredients doesn’t matter much here, but try not to add the bean thread noodles with the spices alone, or the spices may not soak in evenly. The component pieces (veggie and meat) should be around the size of an edamame pea – consistency is important.

1. Chop the chicken and shrimp into ¼” – ½” chunks. Drop into the mixing bowl.
2. Squeeze the water from, and then cut the mushrooms (wood ear and shiitake) into approximately the same size pieces as the chicken, drop in bowl.
3. Add cut bean thread noodles to the bowl.
4. Add edamame peas, salt, pepper, 1c green onions, garlic to the mix.
5. Separate one egg, reserving the whites in a small dish. Add whole second egg to the mix. If the eggs are smaller, add 2 whole eggs and split the 3rd.
6. Gently turn the mix, or mix it with your hands with gloves on, trying not to crush any of the ingredients.

Now we’re ready to fold the dumplings!

Folding

If you’ve not folded dumplings before, the first few batches you’ll make are gonna be UGG. LEEE.

But ugly dumplings taste just as good as pretty ones, so as long as they close, and have some filling in them, you’re fine.

My “folding setup” is usually:

• a small plate for folding the dumpling on
• the wrappers, (open but not exposed to the air or they’ll dry out – a towel or the original container are fine)
• cookie sheets or trays covered in nonstick foil
• the reserved egg whites
• dumpling mix bowl
• a long-handled spoon

Since I’m right-handed, I usually put the dumpling mix on the R, the plate and egg whites in front of me, and the cookie sheet to my left. You’ll gradually learn the perfect amount to add to the wrappers, and mine vary between just over a full “teaspoon” (utensil, not measurement), or a blob around the size of the last section of my thumb.

If you add too much, the excess will squirt out the side when you try to fold it, but that’s fine – you can open the wrapper and scoop a little bit out then refold. Try to have consistent amounts in the dumplings so they are about the same size, and cook evenly.

I use method 5 in this dumpling-folding video, with 8 pleats total. If I’m bored, I may go for ten or twelve bc more folds is more challenging. The pleats help to fold the dumpling into a crescent shape, and if you boil them in a soup, the folding helps to keep them closed. Some people get pretty competitive when folding dumplings, or or feel that there are a specific number of pleats “required”, but if you’re starting out, shoot for 3 pleats per side, 2 pleats per side works just fine.

Then I do a little gentle boop / press-against-the-plate when the dumpling is folded, to spread out the filling and get excess air out.

As they’re folded, I place the dumplings on cookie sheets in rows so they freeze individually for 30-45 minutes without using a lot of flour. This does means need enough clear space in the freezer for trays to slide in and rest. The dumplings don’t have to freeze thoroughly, just be a bit solid so they won’t lose their shape, open up, or stick to each other. Then I transfer them to a freezer bag for longer-term storage.

Cooking The Dumplings

Let me introduce you to my Cheater “Steamer”.

I didn’t want to have to find a place in a 500 sq ft apartment to store a 3-tiered stainless-steel steamer, and I don’t like bamboo steamers. I did eventually break down and get a tiered steamer, and I use steamer tray liners under the dumplings to prevent sticking.

But for a long time, I used a ruthlessly-practical flat stainless steel mesh splatter screen, sprayed with cooking spray, over a large soup pot. This pot was 12″ wide, not too deep, and held about 15-18 dumplings per batch.

• Fill the pot halfway full of water, and bring to a boil. You don’t want the water touching the dumplings as it boils, but you want it at a full boil the whole time they’re on the stove for lots of steam.
• Spray the spatter screen with cooking spray.
• Place as many dumplings as will fit on the splatter screen AND be covered by the pot’s lid without touching.

Steam for 13-15 minutes, from frozen, 8-10 fresh. You’ll know they’re done when you can smell them in the air without lifting the lid.

If you need a visual check, you’ll know they’re done when you take off the lid and after a moment, the skins suck up against the dumplings (see that one on the bottom right side in the picture above, all sucked up against the edamame peas).

Slide them off of the screen onto a plate (or two) with a pair of chopsticks, but the skins are still very soft, so be careful.

If you need to make another batch, rinse the screen, spray again, reuse. After the final batch make sure you get alllll of the goo off of the screen or it’ll stick in the little holes and you’ll never get it off, at least not without a lot of elbow grease, toothbrushes, and toothpicks (gah).

Eating!!

Let them cool off a bit, maybe a minute or two, and bite carefully, because they’re REALLY HOT in the middle. And they might be a little drippy. But OMG they’re awesome.

I buy  sauce bowls for dumplings that are the size and depth for a good amount of sauce coverage per dumpling. I don’t add much salt or seasoning to the dumpling filling because I like to play with the sauces afterwards.

Excellent sauces to try:

• soy sauce and pepper (50% fresh-ground pepper, 50% Kikkoman)
• jalapenos
• green onions
• red (Chinese) vinegar
• peanut sauce
• Worcestershire and soy sauce
• Sriracha
• sambal bawang putih, sambaj bajak, or any other Indonesian sambal.

H Mart has the best sauce selection, but I’ve also found great sauces at 99 Ranch.

Optional Soup

I also make a chicken broth with green onions, sometimes egg noodles, and always fried onions (from the Asian store, not French), to accompany the dumplings if it’s a “dinner” thing.

I hope you enjoy these dumplings, I know I do, and they’ve save my dinner-making butt about 1000x.

After midnight Sunday night, technically Monday morning, I couldn’t sleep. I would start a new job today, and excitement and anxiety kept me awake. It’s been over a year since I’ve had a FTE job, and the attendant comforts of a 401K matching and insurance, a stressful year of uncertainty. So this was a BIG deal. And I couldn’t sleep.

Back in 2019, I was living in Portland, Oregon, and I’ll likely write about that someday, when I manage to comprehend that year. It was also a stressful year. I’d moved there to be closer to friends, to create a community for myself, and a “chosen family”. Since the divorce I’ve missed having family (still do), and I wanted to give to people who would give back to me. If I’m honest, my depression hasn’t ever really resolved since that abuse and subsequent sacrifices. Initially, my boss had said I could work remotely from Oregon, same job, no change in pay, just remote like the guy on our team who was working from California. But he changed his mind; “this won’t be a change of address, we’re accepting your moving notice as a resignation notice instead”. The job I had relied on was gone a week before I moved across the country to a much more expensive place. And the people I’d trusted had screwed me over.

Turns out the Pacific Northwest is full of corporate recruiters who don’t care what your qualifications are – if you’re from Texas, they don’t want to hire you. One admitted to me that since “Texas is all over your resume” (like a stain) and “it’s going to be very hard to place you because we don’t like your president up here”.

I barely remember most of my time in Portland because it was survival, not living. I had no money and no prospects, no job, no savings, no hope, no hope of escape, nothing but my pets and the belongings I’d brought with me. A “friend”, the one I’d move there to live nearby, kept pressuring me to declare bankruptcy. There were visits to the food bank, threats of the dealership repossessing my car (I’d tried to trade it in for a more all-weather car, but I was underwater on the note), emergency surgery for Hilo…and in the middle of all of this, I lost my domain name and web hosting.

I’ve been proud of this online identity, and used it consistently for about the past 20 years, wherever I went. If someone’s on a service as “stealingsand”, it’s almost certainly me. The name is unique, evocative, ocean-related, easy to spell, unlikely to already be taken somewhere. There’s also a cute story that I get to tell when someone asks my email address. It’s knit tightly to the fabric of my online life, effectively my “name”. Friends recognize me by it in the spaces where I don’t use my real name, like when I opened a Bluesky account and people started drifting in as well. An identity I created for myself, it’s me currently, and also represents so many personal digital eras that have fallen away.

In 2004, I think, I created my first blog at stealingsand.com. I’d been blogging since 1997 or so, on hand-coded websites, Blogger and a few other iterations of hosted CMS, the early “social media” of webrings. I was a Geocities “Tokyo Towers” resident, hand-coding HTML and reflecting pool applets to go under album art and lyrics as I learned Chinese. Everything I knew about this baby social internet was learned by copy/pasting others’ code until it worked. There was no YouTube, no Google for a good part of it, just what I happened to come across. I miss the simplicity of those times, the experimental energy – it felt like if I just applied myself, I could make anything. The future was full of endless possibilities.

Regardless of the secondhand embarrassment I feel reading some of these old posts, they’re mine. She’s a fresh, unrefined, less-bruised version of me, her experiences inform mine, and provide context. This continuity appeals to me, the unbroken line of this significant effort, thousands upon thousands of hours building sites, creating to be heard, to say what I need to say, to share my life. A digital bloodline of how my soul works.

I’ve been proud of this online identity, and used it consistently for about the past 20 years, wherever I went. If someone’s on a service as “stealingsand”, it’s almost certainly me. The name is unique, evocative, ocean-related, easy to spell, unlikely to already be taken somewhere. There’s also a cute story that I get to tell when someone asks my email address. It’s knit tightly to the fabric of my online life, effectively my “name”. Friends recognize me by it in the spaces where I don’t use my real name, like when I opened a Bluesky account and people started drifting in as well. An identity I created for myself, it’s me currently, and also represents so many personal digital eras that have fallen away.

In 2004, I think, I created my first blog at stealingsand.com. I’d been blogging since 1997 or so, on hand-coded websites, Blogger and a few other iterations of hosted CMS, the early “social media” of webrings. I was a Geocities “Tokyo Towers” resident, hand-coding HTML and reflecting pool applets to go under album art and lyrics as I learned Chinese. Everything I knew about this baby social internet was learned by copy/pasting others’ code until it worked. There was no YouTube, no Google for a good part of it, just what I happened to come across. I miss the simplicity of those times, the experimental energy – it felt like if I just applied myself, I could make anything. The future was full of endless possibilities.

Regardless of the secondhand embarrassment I feel reading some of these old posts, they’re mine. She’s a fresh, unrefined, less-bruised version of me, her experiences inform mine, and provide context. This continuity appeals to me, the unbroken line of this significant effort, thousands upon thousands of hours building sites, creating to be heard, to say what I need to say, to share my life. A digital bloodline of how my soul works.

When I lost the domain name, and the hosting I was using, I wasn’t aware of it for a while. There are domain-squatting companies that buy up whole parcels of potentially-valuable URLs that are “relinquished” back to the marketplace, and attempt to sell them to the original owner for usurious amounts of money, or to someone else who wants to use the URL. Having owned that URL for a long, long time, it must have looked especially valuable to a domain squatter scoop. I couldn’t afford to buy back the URL when I realized it was gone, and once I’d moved back to Dallas for a job, it wasn’t a priority. Demoralized by that year in Portland, and then suffering through the heart-macerating pandemic, I had no mental bandwidth for eating, much less blogging. I wanted it back, though, and attempted several times to retrieve it through domain brokers, constantly hitting walls of no response from the “owner”.

My divorce in 2015 was difficult, and for the last year of the marriage I stopped blogging, stopped sharing, stopped putting my thoughts out there. I was wrestling with the abuse at home, and trying to figure out what to do. I’d loved my extended family of 15 years, and desperately hung on to what it was until things happened that made that impossible. This is relevant because my ex husband was stalking me, harassing me, and generally making everything I did a special kind of hell. I didn’t talk about it online much because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing how hard it was, living through his petty bullshit.

But with this history, from 2019 until this week, I suspected that he was the new owner of the domain, he works in technology and has had search terms monitored, likely other things, too. And if it was a random squatter, why would they ignore my repeated attempts to buy it back!?! There wasn’t a whole lot of demand for stealingsand.com, except maybe him, and over the next 4 years, with the numerous attempts to reclaim it, I half thought I should go back to the house that was mine and ask in person for it back. But that wouldn’t bear fruit, and I desperately didn’t want to go to jail after seeing his smug face telling me no. And maybe if I showed up there, HE would get a restraining order against ME because he’s a petty fucker.

So the only possible route forward was through domain brokers, whether he owned it or not. I tried to find another way but there just wasn’t one. I searched for the domain over the years, but not on registrar’s sites (possibly insinuating additional value for the URL to whoever owned it), mostly by going to the URL in a browser.

It broke my heart to see my name lead me to a hosting-takeover bootleg file-hosting site, and over time SEO distraction sites, parking pages in several languages, and through Whois lookups watching as it changed hands, but never became available to me. Fury that whoever owned it was just wasting my name. I’ve lost a lot of things through the last ten years, but among all of them, aside from the house, this one stung the most.

The content on my blog was also lost. I had a few XML site exports saved on my computer, and a few years ago I attempted to upload a few of them to hosts like Squarespace to hopefully repopulate all the lost words. I have an archive of the images I’d uploaded, certainly, but not the words, apparently. With my swiss cheese memory, those thousands of hours of posts served as a biography, a way to remember what it was like then, a way to remember what I’d been through and the accomplishments I’d achieved. How it felt to work on the motion graphics for the DIFF and see my work on a big screen in a theater. But it’s all gone now. The downloaded files fail every time I upload them. I’ve combed through every USB and hard drive I still have, and there’s nothing.

So I went to the Wayback Machine and tried to recover what I could. But the Wayback Machine didn’t crawl everything, so there were many many hours of copy/pasting text for the posts that I could find (some currently on this blog). It was laborious, and I attempted to figure out if I could download the archived content through some sort of script, but none of the sites I found looked trustworthy, especially considering that I didn’t know if I would still have to piece through it like I was already doing. Overwhelmed, I dropped it and didn’t come back to it because…where would I put all of it, anyway. And who cared, besides me. Who would read it, who cares, what would that effort be for?

The primary verification method on Bluesky for now is a domain name. I wouldn’t want to lose the stealingsand handle, but in the near future, it’s possible that domain verification would allow you to maintain the alias of the original username. I’ve also missed who I was before all of this struggle, the confidence and passion I had. Maybe some of the innocence. You can’t go home again, certainly, but you can build on it.

I decided to try one last time to buy my domain name back. It was owned by this company in China, and they were a domain name vendor. They offered a brokerage and I created an account and submitted yet another request to buy the domain. I stated I would be willing to pay between $250 and $500, and waited for a response. A few days later, a reply.

I am not proud of this.

Me 2024-12-05 23:40:37

Ok I apologize, I’m just angry about this. I owned the domain for my personal blog for 15 years, lost my job, lost my home, and lost my domain. Is there any room for negotiation? Nobody else in the world would want this besides my ex husband. 

The Company 2024-12-06 09:10:54

Hello, I understand your concerns. However, due to our company’s policies, we are unable to disclose the domain owner’s details. If you have a suitable offer, feel free to provide it, and we will communicate with the owner on your behalf. Thank you for your understanding and please stay strong difficult times will pass. Keep going, and things will get better!

I was furious for DAYS. Physically ill, incredibly depressed, couldn’t eat. I didn’t want to get the .net domain, I wanted MY DOMAIN. MINE. I asked friends for help, and nobody was even remotely understanding, none of my tech-savvy friends offered to help at all, nobody said they’d try to help me. This was really painful. I even thought once or twice that if anyone really knew me, they’d understand, they’d help. That if they loved me they would understand even if they didn’t get it, and someone would help me. Or just encourage me. I am a “grownup”, yes, I can do this myself, but who doesn’t benefit from encouragement when they’re down? There’s probably something wrong with this, I’ll ask my therapist next time. But it was lonely-making. How can nobody understand why this is so important to me?? But…everyone, even my therapist, had suggested just getting another domain name. Sometimes I get attached to things, and I absolutely cannot let them go. It’s not fun being like this, but it is what it is. I recognize that most people would be pissed about it, but probably able to let it go. I was pissed and it physically hurt just thinking about letting it go. MINE.

Another visit to the therapist, a lot of thoughts about restarting blogging, and moving on, and letting go, and basic constant soundtrack around and about this topic later, I decided to try to recreate the magic of that username. Hell, maybe I need a fresh start. Maybe I’ll find something and it’ll be even better (brain gremlin: “not likely”). Maybe I’ll buy the .net and get started on the blog project first and marinate on a new name. I’m fresh out of creativity right now, so I’ll do the reconstruction step first, and decide what to do about the name later.

Laying in bed, anxiety-ing myself awake (new job, new rules, new demands that I won’t want to fulfill), I decided to just do this one thing, it’ll give me a sense of closure (brain gremlin: “not likely”), and then I’ll be able to sleep, resolve at least the anxiety that someone (after all this time, who exactly?) would buy it and it would ALLLLLL be gone…I log in to my registrar and type in stealingsand and I get this:

It flashed through my mind that I was just a few days ago offering up to $500 for the damn thing, but now it’s $11.28/yr. So I paid for a decade. Fuckit, I got the .net, .info, and .org as well, I am not going through this crap again. And I WAS ELATED.

It took until well after 2am to finally fall asleep, that was the latest I would allow myself to look at the clock to prevent anxiety about lack of sleep from keeping me up all night. I haven’t felt that good about, well…anything…in a very long time. I felt like I had reclaimed some of what I lost in the divorce, in Oregon, through the pandemic, through all of the losses in the past ten years that have never stopped bothering me. New job with a team that I think will be a great team to work with, AND I GOT MY DOMAIN BACK. This representation of many of those losses almost “fixed me”. I knew the elation would pass, but remembering joy…that was a pretty great feeling.

I don’t know why this happened, what happened, how it happened. I have several theories, but I will never know what happened. Whoever it was could have sat on it waiting for me to come back in another few years for more money, and I would have rejected it, and the carousel never stops turning.

But if there’s somebody out there, who had a part in this, and sees this…you have done more for me than anyone’s been able to do for years. I appreciate you, and I feel like someday I can be whole again.

“Color Theory” as it applies to food preparation is basically is the application of the relationships between colors in dishes you cook.

Have you ever made something that tastes great but looks blah? The first thing I made that looked that way was a German dish called Rahmschnitzel with spaetzle (basically chicken with white wine sauce and pasta). It was all white, beige, and brown and not all that inspiring. Delicious, yes, but pretty, no.

Add a bit of parsley, or other bright garnish? NOW it’s pretty.

power of visuals

I subscribe (learned during my long tenure in Japanese restaurants) to this theory  as outlined in this semi-fawning, possibly orientalist post, that nonetheless has interesting and accurate points, to The Power of Five:

“Food should be enjoyed with all five of the senses: taste and smell are obvious, but sight figures predominately in Japanese cuisine. In fact, it can be considered just as important as taste. The artful arrangement of food on appropriate and beautiful tableware adds so much to the enjoyment of the meal that it cannot be stressed enough…

Touch is also important, not only for the texture of the food itself, which should be varied, but also for tableware, as it is customary to hold vessels and utensils in one’s hands…A feather-light hand-thrown porcelain rice bowl might cost ten times as much as a similar-looking factory-made one, but the enjoyment of touch adds so much that professional chefs and serious home cooks always opt for the pricier option.”

The color of food you eat, order, or prepare is critical to several aspects of persuasion, including perceptions of health benefits; flavor; quality; and connection to value and lifestyle, seasons, holidays, causes and community. If you’ve ever made an error in substitution (using red wine in white wine sauce creates a *lavender* cream sauce that makes it almost impossible to eat, who knew), you may have discovered that color can also negatively affect perception of food:

In [a] study people were given a steak to eat in a dark room. When the lights were turned on, they saw that the steak was blue and half of them literally got sick.
But if you’re trying to cut back on eating, putting a blue light in your fridge or using blue plates will actually suppress your appetite and prevent over-eating. So blue is pretty sick — in both ways, that is.

It turns out teal, blue, purple and black foods aren’t prevalent in nature, but mold and gangrene, and other poisonous things, are blue-green shades, so that may be part of the evolutionary distaste for blue foods. Unless it’s an ice pop and then blue is the color kids fight over because blueberry! Froot Loops’s packaging never said that the cereal bits of different colors were different flavors, but consumers assumed so, and were shocked when it was revealed that the cereal is one uniform flavor (!) A few years ago, a redditor in r/til (Today I Learned) linked to a 1999 article debunking this popular misconception.

“Eating a rainbow” is also nutritionally valuable. Different natural food colors display levels of vital nutrients and the intensity of that food’s color (and intensity of color in general) is indicative of the nutrients in a particular item. This means that to have a balanced diet, you should eat many colors of fruits and veggies.

There are a few levels of better color inclusion in cooking.

The easiest way is to to add parsley or green peas to most savory dishes (fresh if you’ve got it, frozen or dried if you don’t cook often).

A bit harder is to use a diverse set of ingredients, like using red, green, and yellow bell peppers instead of just one color. This is more difficult because you need to know what certain ingredients taste like, and how their texture, cooked color, and flavor impact the final dish.

The third level is using artistic color theory and color wheels to select your palette.

color wheels

You’ve probably seen a color wheel before – it places the “rainbow” in a circle and allows for mathematic-ish comparisons of colors to be selected. 

The placement of colors around the wheel is not random. The arrangement of hues around the color wheel corresponds to the wavelengths of light as was first shown in the original color circle of Isaac Newton.

There are primary colors, and then there are secondary and tertiary colors as defined by their distance from the primary colors on the wheel. These are relevant when choosing naturally-harmonious color combinations to enhance your cooking.

In addition to color, of course, you must carefully weigh the texture or flavor of foods, and other differences in color like tint/shade, aggressive/recessive colors, or color symbolism, as well as the final color of the element. A raw eggplant has the color “aubergine”, but a cooked eggplant does not.

While monochromatic is a color harmony, it’s an easy color harmony for food (a plate full of medium-brown foods, for example, like fish ‘n’ chips), but all of the food on the plate being around the same color doesn’t make the food visually exciting.

Monochromatic colors are very attractive on food if there’s significant space between the colors in terms of tint/tone/shade.  A very dark cocoa brown next to a medium brown, next to a cream color, like vanilla ice cream with chocolate and caramel colors – that’s a pleasing monochromatic food palette.

Think of a slice of medium orange salmon sushi. next to a slightly-less-medium orange carrot, next to a slightly-different-value-of-medium-orange piece of ginger. You ever notice how sushi chefs usually plate the sushi with that little green plastic thing? Usually separating these pinky-medium-orange things from each other?

It’s also a choice to color the wasabi most of us buy a shade of green. The original wasabi plant, Japanese horseradish (Wasabia japonica) is rare, even in Japan, and is very expensive. Real wasabi is a ground-up green rhizome paste. What is affordable, served in most restaurants (and sold in most stores) is a white-ish ground standard horseradish with green color added.

The next most visually-interesting color harmony is that of analogous colors, that sit next to each other in the color wheel, usually in sets of 3. Think about different citrus hues and how well they go together.

Direct complementary colors are where this gets interesting. Opposites on the color wheel, any two hues that are complementary will “vibrate” when seen together. This is bad for text but good for food! This vibrant color harmony makes your food “pop” in an energetic way, making it more appealing and less bland.

Red text on a blue background is difficult to read, but red and green foods together are brilliant and vivid.

this authentic orange chicken dish from First Chinese BBQ contrasts the reddish orange of the deep-fried chicken with the brilliant green of the blanched broccoli…detecting a pattern here?

again with the warm color, green accent combo, this hotpot from Chino Hills’ Boiling Point individual 火锅 restaurant adds chili powder to the mix to create a nice balance of texture, flavor, and visual interest.

this carefully-orchestrated photo of deep golden curry, brown chopsticks, pink shrimp, and a blue-and-white spoon balances the near-analogous gold, brown and pink with the complementary bright blue print.

final tip

I used to buy plates and bowls of all colors, whatever appealed to me, but for now I exclusively purchase white dishes. They’re bright, good for photography as they add light to the image, and don’t conflict with the colors of the food. Also everything matches effortlessly now!

I wasn’t exactly on the prowl for a kitten…but I follow Furry Friends Animal Rescue on Facebook, to share the kiddies they rescue, and one day in my feed, up popped Sapphire:

I’m a sweet little girl, and I look unique. My fur is black with long silver hairs sprinkled over me like sparkly tinsel on a Christmas tree! I’m fluffy and very soft. When I’m relaxed or sleeping and start getting petted, I purr loudly. When I play with my siblings, I’m a little gentler than some of my siblings.

I love people and being petted. I’m beautiful, playful, entertaining, loveable, curious, and snuggly. Since I was born in a loving and healthy home with people and other pets, I’m very well socialized with people, very healthy, and have a great disposition!

My favorite thing to do is wrestle and play chase with my 7 siblings. I love running, climbing and exploring anything new. I also enjoy playing with people fingers and toes, toy mice, string, shadows, and toilet paper rolls!

When I get tuckered out, I usually curl up with a few of my brothers or sisters, or with someone in bed. I like the other adult cats in the house, even though they sometimes hiss at me. Dogs scare me but since I’m so young I would probably get used to one if it was nice to me and I was around it a lot.

HOLY SHIT. SOLD.

So I contacted my cat dealer, Lisa, and asked her about Sapphire. Apparently she’d just been adopted that day, and while I was happy for her, I was (and still am) kinda sad. Not that I don’t love Aoife to pieces, but I was looking forward to this unique little girl, and increasing the size of my #blackcatmafia. I wasn’t in a hurry, though, and decided to hold off on looking for another. Lisa texted me that these black cats with silver-tipped fur usually grow out of that coat, but still. Then she sent me another text.

“I have the perfect kitten for you. What’s your email address?”

And she sent me this pic of a tiny grey kitten, saying “This is not a very good picture, but she says she is a beautiful kitten with a personality to match. :)”

Welp. Yeah. That really is a very uninspiring photo. She looks like she’s either got an eye infection or she’s about to sneeze. And she’s not a black cat, nor is she anything out of the ordinary. Just another kitten. But I trusted Lisa’s judgment, and she trusted the foster mother’s judgment, so…all right. I’ll meet her. I resolved that if she wasn’t perfect or awesome in some way, I’d veto.

Set up a time to meet at the PetSmart in a neighboring suburb, and I got there before they set up the weekend pet adoption fair. The kitten was set aside in a pet-carrying box which in retrospect is great because the dude who was there chatting up the adoption lady and I had a joking exchange about “No, she’s MINE!” I opened the box to look in at this kitten and she pulled this move immediately, squinty eyes and all:

only with this sweet little face and those big anime eyes:

and just like that it was

I’ve gotta say that again: OVER.

She hasn’t ceased to be an amazing kitten, and she’s helped all of the older cats to be a lot more playful, especially Pig, who didn’t play with any of the black cats, but can’t seem to get away from Eefs fast enough (hahahaha). 

She brought Kitty Parkour and crazy four-cat chases to our home, and looks like a walking cloud. 

She does loopy things, and constantly bashes her hard little head into things, and she’s just the best. 

I’m glad I gave her a chance.

Photo: Top row: FFAR/Petfinder pix. Second Row: two days after coming home with me. 

In September 2014, I adopted a kitten now named Tesla. She was the last of her litter because she was a black kitten, and on top of that a polydactyl. Perfectly silky and sweet and teeny and everything I could want in a black cat. A witches’ cat. I have always wanted a black cat because they are more likely to be destroyed, and a black polydactyl because that kiddy would be doubly likely to be destroyed. Also I wear a lot of black and it would be nice to have at least a few pets I could cuddle without everything I’m wearing look like mohair.

So Tess came into our lives. Without my Chicken, I was looking for another lover kiddy. But Tess attached herself to my ex quite readily. She would be in my lap, and then my ex would sit down, and she’d abandon me for his affection quite promptly. OK, fine.

At this time I drank a lot to numb everything, liquid denial. And on top of that, My New Kitten Tesla decided she was actually his. So while I was inebriated, jealous, and angry, I went to Petfinder.com to look at black cats.

Some time during the day at work the next day, someone called me, and I answered the phone without recognizing the number, which is not something I usually do.

L: “Hello! How are you doing?”

M: “Hi there – I’m good!” (who is this???)

L: “Would you like to meet Stovepipe today?”

M: “Is… that a band?”

Yes, I’d completely forgotten everything from the night before. Quickly googling “Stovepipe”, I realized Stovepipe was the name the rescue org had given to him, this giant black street cat. I played it off like I knew wtf was happening, and upon seeing that he was a gorgeous black cat with an epic tail, I thought why the fuck not. I hadn’t asked his opinion, but I was past the point of caring about that.

I agreed to meet Lisa from Furry Friends Animal Rescue behind a McDonalds that night in her SUV, just to see if we connected. (Lisa is now officially my cat-dealer, having helped me get Tabs, and then later Aoife).

I was nervous on arriving, excited to possibly get another kitty. Lisa unlocked the back doors and we hopped in. Tabs was chilling in the passenger seat like he owned the place. After a few exchanges with Lisa, I softly called kiddykiddykiddy and he got up confidently, this skinny, dull-furred, scabbed-up and street-vulnerable cat, and climbed into my lap. He started to make biscuits on my thighs, adopting me immediately.

“How much?”…because I wasn’t letting this angel boy go.

I brought Tabs home, and though he doesn’t get along with Pig, he gets along with, and cares for, all of the other kids, especially the baby girls.

He’s my amazingly lovey companion now, my most affectionate cuddle kiddy, even lets me kiss his floofy belleh…and I’m incredibly glad I found him.

I had bought the gold badge for SXSW, which enabled me to see the film and interactive portions of the fest, and when I heard that Epik High would be playing the fest, I upgraded my badge to platinum – I could not miss this opportunity to see them play, in one of my favorite cities, when I’d already be down there. Easiest decision I’ve ever made.

So why Epik High? I’d been a fan of Korean pop in the mid-nineties, bands such as As One, SES and Jo PD, Yoo Seung Joon and Lim Chang Jung in college. Israel, a friend of mine, gave me reams of KPop music to listen to. Kim Tae Woo’s Love Rain made my Favorite Songs list of 2011, because of its sheer optimism and energy. I speak maybe thirty words of Korean right now, but the genre appeals to me, and I have several friends with similar interests. One day I read an article on Kpop that mentioned BIGBANG, and G-Dragon…that led me to Taeyang, who led me to Moon Swings, which led me to greats like Verbal Jint, and eventually through the Great Recommendation Engine that is the Internet to Epik High – and Tablo.

Tablo, for those who know me and not Korean hip-hop, is a singer in the band Epik High, and I credit his solo album, Fever’s End, with helping me stay sane. During the past year, at times I couldn’t stand to listen to anything but that album, most especially “Home” ft. Lee Sora. I’ve written about that song before, but it came to me when I was at the concert how very much it mattered to me to see him perform live.

His voice became my voice when I didn’t have one – at once disgusted with the world, wounded, angry, but without the ability to change it. Feeling pain, expressing it, giving voice to my thoughts. I didn’t understand the words to the songs for the longest time, but since I have felt better, I’ve been translating the lyrics online or watching YouTube fan videos of the songs with the translations embedded, and it’s scary how accurately the topic of his songs, especially Home, mirrored what I was going through.

I don’t want to say that his music “saved my life”, but it almost kind of did. It sounds hyperbolic but the condition I was in for a while, not wanting to stick around anymore, just wanting the hurt to stop, everything to stop, and finding comfort in his songs…it helped me pull myself back up. Even now I can taste the feelings I felt when I listen to that song, and it breaks my heart, just remembering, but I also commiserate with myself then (not so long ago) and will do whatever I need to do to keep from falling back down.

My depression wasn’t a constant sadness, and I had it better than many who also suffer; I was able to get out of bed, put my clothes on, and go to work, continue to do my part, but I was hobbled by the fact that there was nothing to look forward to, nothing felt good anymore, nothing meant anything. Even trying to give myself some kind of physical pleasure would cause me to cry in frustration and hopelessness. It was awful. I can still feel that numbing creeping around my heart sometimes, when I miss my little Chicken Noodle, or I think too long about the depths of isolated loneliness I felt. I felt like a piece of shit, a useless one at that, and I couldn’t make myself do even simple things like call the therapist to make an appointment, even though I knew I needed help.

I’m working past it now, but it was a very dark time in my life, and I hope Tablo knows how much I appreciate his work. I appreciate it so much I named my new badass lover cat Tablo, too. He’s a sassy, gorgeous black cat, just like in High Skool

Thank you, @blobyblo.

I did not expect to be chosen, and I thought it was silly to even apply since I haven’t made anything in years. But I still have that bug, that passion, and I still want to give it another shot. It’s gratifying that they chose me to participate, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea. Me. Wow.

I’ve included below the application I submitted – I don’t know what made them choose me, or what it was that made me one of the lucky 25, but I’m forever grateful, and beyond excited! Two of my friends have lent me equipment that I simply never thought I’d needed until suddenly I need it two weeks from now. I’ll be spending this weekend ramping up, editing old footage, getting my feet wet again.

Hold on to your hats, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

The Application

Tell us about you and your work?

My favorite pieces to make are ambient pieces, that give a sense of place through visual and audio cues, and music, elegantly timed, and often closely linked. My best work is usually inspired by something that I see and love – I have to have a passion for something to make a good, inspired film about it. I’ve made short docs about things for work, or web release, and they’re OK, but they don’t have as much of my heart as other topics that I relished.

To be honest, I have struggled with the creator’s dilemma, something I have heard other artists struggle with – the incessant desire to make something, but you don’t know what. Sometimes I know what but I don’t know how. Or I am too afraid to mess it up to even start. I want to break out of this tortured self-examination and be fearless again, like I was before. I’d love to dive right in and begin with guidance form a filmmaker whose work I have immense respect for. I actually made a trip to SF and visited the Sutro Baths based solely on Philip Bloom’s video – I deeply appreciate his visual storytelling skills, and I think I could offer something just as magnificent f I took the time to try. And maybe had a bit of guidance hahahaha.

Even after giving up on it so many times, I keep coming back to this incoherent dream – I still want to make documentaries, I still want to represent the world I see through my eyes, and share it with others. I don’t know what my topic will be, but I want to keep learning how for the day I actually find it. And who knows – maybe I wasn’t waiting for divine inspiration, but that the work I would do while waiting to be inspired would inspire me.

How would you rate your shooting and editing skills?

Both need work, obviously, or I wouldn’t need this workshop hahaha, but seriously, I think I’m a better editor than cameraperson. I know my technical skills need work, but my editing, I feel needs less refinement than my shooting does. I would LOVE this opportunity for guidance.

What equipment do you currently use?

I use a Canon 7D to shoot – I used to use a Flip HD in tandem but eventually it stopped working :S I’m looking into a GoPro but I haven’t decided on it.

What do you hope to get from this workshop?

I hope to get advice on refining my skills, guidance and direction in honing my craft. My life has taken a few wrong turns the past few years, with multiple illnesses, one almost fatal, and several heavy emotional losses. I need to get back into visual storytelling, and this would be an amazing opportunity to do so. 2015 is the year I reclaim my life, if that’s not too corny, and I would love to reclaim part of it in this workshop, sharpening my skills as a filmmaker.

Send us a 90 second clip of something you have shot and edited?

My favorite pieces, with times indicated in minutes: seconds. I hope you don’t mind that they’re longer than 01:30 – I can edit down a Best Of if need be…?

• Taiwan: Abandoned 拋棄 (03:29)
• Snow Day (01:45)
• El Centro College Windmills Project (03:26)
• Aquarium Méditation (05:49)
• Manta Rays at Night (00:49)

Interestingly, these were all bought this year — even if I hadn’t bought them all this year – this is all I listened to.

1. 465 plays: Trust (Live In Hong Kong / 2013) Eason Chan 陳奕迅
2. 243 plays: 눈, 코, 입 Eyes, Nose, Lips — Taeyang 태양
3. 238 plays: Stay With Me (feat. G-DRAGON) — Taeyang 태양
4. 218 plays: 새벽한시 1AM — Taeyang 태양
5. 150 plays: Love You To Death — Taeyang 태양
6. 127 plays: Oh No — The Commodores
7. 120 plays: 이게 아닌데 This Ain’t It — Taeyang 태양
8. 117 plays: 링가 링가 Ringa Linga — Taeyang 태양
9. 109 plays: Fallin’ (feat. 박재범) — Swings 스윙스
10. 91 plays: Home (집) [feat. Lee Sora] — Tablo

songs from thisismyjam.com

These songs express my feelings for longer periods of time – the ones that strike me as perfect for that week (month?) or that I listen to over and over that week. These also charmingly display in the sidebar on my blog, a feature I appreciate.

• DOOM DADA — T.O.P. (1/6/2014 – 6 days)
• Nalina— Block B (1/12/2014 – 16 days)
• You Don`t Look Good To Me — Giriboy 기리보이 (1/28/2014 – 1 day)
• 이리와봐 (come here) — Masta Wu (1/29/2014 – 6 days)
• 單車 LIVE – Eason’s LIFE Concert — Eason Chan 陳奕迅 (2/4/2014 – 8 days)
• 愛上你是我眼睛的錯— Eason Chan 陳奕迅 (2/12/2014 – 9 days)
• 任我行— Eason Chan 陳奕迅 (2/21/2014 – 3 days)
• 불도저 (Bulldozer)— Swings 스윙스 (2/24/2014 – 8 days)
• Would You Still Love Me— Swings 스윙스 (3/4/2014 – 3 days)
• Upgrade— Swings 스윙스 (3/7/2014 – 6 days)
• love dominos (obie trice, emin…) — Wait What (3/13/2014 – 4 days)
• 상남자 (Boy In Luv) — BTS (3/17/2014 – 7 days)
• 伤信 (Hurt Trust) — Eason Chan 陳奕迅 (3/24/2014 – 2 days)
• 小方— Khalil Fong 方大同 (3/26/2014 – 2 days)
• 揸緊中指 — LMF (3/28/2014 – 5 days)
• ээжийн бүүвэйтэй хорвоо — Kamerton (4/2/2014 – 6 days)
• Unicorn Vs. Gravity — Girl Talk (4/8/2014 – 10 days)
• Redemption Song (Acoustic) — Lauryn Hill Ft. Ziggy Marley (4/18/2014 – 7 days)
• 피터팬 (Peter Pan) — EXO-K (4/25/2014 – 7 days)
• 關於愛的定義 — Definition of Love Khalil Fong 方大同 (5/2/2014 – 6 days)
• Knock Out (뻑이가요) — GD & TOP (5/8/2014 – 9 days)
• Black Pearl — EXO-K (5/17/2014 – 6 days)
• This Is How We Do It — Montell Jordan (5/23/2014 – 6 days)
• Would You Still Love Me — Swings 스윙스 (5/29/2014 – 5 days)
• 눈,코,입 (Eyes, Nose, Lips) — Taeyang 태양 (6/3/2014 – 6 days)
• Love You To Death — Taeyang 태양 (6/9/2014 – 4 days)
• 娛樂天空 — Eason Chan 陳奕迅 (6/13/2014 – 10 days)
• 피터팬 Peter Pan — EXO-K (6/23/2014 – 2 days)
• Expired (유통기한) — Tablo 타블로 (6/25/2014 – 3 days)
• How Will I Know — Sam Smith (6/28/2014 – 9 days)
• Leave Your Lover — Sam Smith (7/7/2014 – 13 days)
• I’m No Good — E-Sens Feat. Minos, Simon Dominic (7/20/2014 – 0 days)
• Do The Right Rap — Swings 스윙스 (7/20/2014 – 1 days)
• 可以了 — Eason Chan 陳奕迅 (7/21/2014 – 3 days)
• 눈,코,입 (Eyes, Nose, Lips) Cover — Lydia Paek (7/24/2014 – 6 days)
• Black — Pearl Jam (7/30/2014 – 5 days)
• Fallin’ Feat. 박재범 (Jay Park) — Swings 스윙스 (8/4/2014 – 6 days)
• Beggin’ For Thread — Banks (8/10/2014 – 18 days)
• Home 집 (ft Lee Sora 이소라) — Tablo 타블로 (8/28/2014 – 8 days)
• Metronome (메트로놈) (Feat. Simon D) — Jay Park (9/5/2014 – 10 days)
• The Shadow That Looms O’er My Heart — Dark Rooms (9/15/2014 – 36 days)
• Under the Table — Banks (10/21/2014 – 6 days)
• 집 Home (feat. 이소라) — Tablo 타블로 (10/27/2014 – 15 days)
• Semua Tak Sama — Padi (11/11/2014 – 6 days)
• Someone New — Banks (11/17/2014 – 7 days)
• Someone New — Banks (11/24/2014 – 7 days)
• 눈,코,입 (Eyes, Nose, Lips) — Tablo 타블로 x Taeyang 태양 (12/1/2014 – 7 days)
• Loverless Feat. George The Cat — Ayleen O’Hanlon (12/8/2014 – 3 days)
• Loverless — Ayleen O’Hanlon (12/11/2014 – 8 days)
• Fuck Em Only We Know — Banks (12/19/2014 – 1 day)
• Goddess — Banks (12/20/2014 – 8 days)
• For Now I Am Winter — Ólafur Arnalds’ (12/28/2014)

“soundtracked” songs from 2014 (jan – december)

These are songs I posted as I enjoyed them with the Soundtracking app – not every song gets posted, just the ones that speak to me at that moment.

1. The Way I Am — Ingrid Michaelson
2. 南音 — Khalil Fong
3. 謊言 — Eason Chan
4. 因為愛情 Duet With 王菲 — Eason Chan 陳奕迅
5. The Wanderer — Eason Chan
6. Head End, Foot End, Bed Ends — Eason Chan
7. Cat and Dog — Eason Chan
8. 인어의 눈물 (Baby Don’t Cry) — EXO
9. Secret — A-Yue Chang
10. Itoshi no Ellie — Southern All Stars サザンオールスターズ
11. Yume no Tsuzuki — Tamaki Koji
12. Kuchibiru No Katachi — Nakanishi Yasushii
13. Anugerah Terindah Yang Pernah Kumiliki — Sheila On 7
14. Sesuatu Yang Indah — Padi
15. Unavoidable — Dear Jane
16. Can’t Be Crazy (미쳐보려 해도) — Alex
17. 兄妹 (國) — Eason Chan
18. The Wanderer — Eason
19. 一刻永恆 — Leo Ku
20. 岁月已飘远 — 张学友
21. Smells Like Teen Spirit — The Muppets Barbershop Quartet
22. The Parking Ticket — Patton Oswalt
23. Heartless — William Fitzsimmons
24. 给我你的手 — 王力宏
25. I’m Back (feat. Swings) — G-Slow
26. The Wanderer — Eason Chan
27. Tainted Love — Soft Cell
28. Today (feat. Kim Jong Wan) — G-Dragon
29. Mary Says — Leehom Wang
30. Trust — Eason Chan
31. There Is No Other — Eason Chan
32. ээжийн бүүвэйтэй хорвоо — Камертон
33. In the Water — Run River North
34. Hongkiyoung #2 — Swings, GIRIBOY & 천재노창
35. Perfect Life — Eason Chan
36. Perfect Life — Eason Chan
37. ダンスホール — Yutaka Ozaki 尾崎豊
38. Linda — Jacky Cheung
39. Shit Damm Mxxxxx (Feat. VON, 지구인 of 방사능, Swings, BowWow of GoGoBoys) — 영 보이즈(Young Boyz)
40. Upgrade — Swings 스윙스
41. 미쳤네 — Swings 스윙스
42. All of Me — John Legend
43. It’s Tricky — Run-DMC
44. 因為你不是我 — Ronald Cheng
45. 你的眼睛背叛你的心 — Ronald Cheng
46. Closer — 알렉스 (Alex)
47. 미쳤네 — 스윙스
48. 半島鐡盒 — 周杰倫
49. Armada Latina (feat. Pitbull and Marc Anthony) — Cypress Hill
50. Yume no Tsuzuki — Tamaki Koji
51. Separate Lives — Phil Collins
52. (She’s Got) Skillz — All-4-One
53. 상남자 (Boy In Luv) — BTS
54. Hongkiyoung #2 — Swings, GIRIBOY & 천재노창
55. Trust — Eason Chan
56. 불도저 (Bulldozer) — Swings
57. Love Song — Khalil Fong
58. 詩人的情人 — Khalil Fong
59. Lights Up — Khalil Fong
60. Te Voy a Esperar — Marco Antonio Solís
61. 多謝晒 — 大懶堂
62. Runaway — G-Dragon
63. Set It Off — Girl Talk
64. 信任 — 陳奕迅
65. 寂寞奏鳴曲 — 陳奕迅
66. Austin — Blake Shelton
67. You Don’t Really Love Me — Power Station
68. Mud yeah jeah Section Remix — Eason Chan
69. 浴缸 — Stanley Huang 黃立行
70. 要 — Stanley Huang 黃立行
71. This Is What It Feels Like — Banks
72. Alright — AZIATIX
73. Impulse — Power Station
74. Just the Two of Us — Will Smith
75. Knock Out (뻑이가요) — G-Dragon & T.O.P
76. Kiss Land (Explicit Version) — The Weeknd
77. Change — Banks
78. Autumn Leaves — Khalil Fong
79. Mint Candy – Feat. Jo Pd — GaJae Bal
80. Faith In You — P.M. Dawn
81. 나쁜 그대 — 임창정
82. 煎熬 — 蘇永康
83. 別愛我(Acoustic Version) — 鄭中基
84. 寂寞奏嗚曲 — Eason Chan
85. Perfect Life — Eason Chan
86. Mama — EXO-K
87. Expired (유통기한) — Tablo
88. Same Dream (같은 꿈) — Alex
89. Travelin’ Soldier — Dixie Chicks
90. Black Pearl — EXO
91. 나쁜 그대 — 임창정
92. Fancy Cars and Tanks — A-Yue Chang
93. Lights Up — 方大同
94. 因為你不是我 — Ronald Cheng
95. Be With You — A-Yue Chang
96. Natural Born Killaz — Ice Cube & Dr. Dre
97. The Lone Duckling — G.O.D.
98. Trust — Eason Chan
99. Mint Candy – Feat. Jo Pd — GaJae Bal
100. Today — Eason Chan
101. Seem Digital Dog Remix — Eason Chan
102. In the Shadow of Life — Niyaz
103. Yu Le Tian Kong — Eason Chan
104. 미쳤네 — Swings 스윙스
105. 불도저 (Bulldozer) — Swings
106. 綿綿 — Eason Chan
107. Khaylila’s Song — Sheila On 7
108. Prolog — Padi
109. Lithium — Nirvana
110. Olia — David Tao
111. 讲你知 — Jacky Cheung 張學友
112. Turn It Up — T.O.P
113. 첫사랑 — 조PD
114. Lollipop, Pt. 2 — BIGBANG
115. 월광 Moonlight — EXO-K
116. 눈, 코, 입 Eyes, Nose, Lips — TaeYang
117. Stay With Me (feat. G-DRAGON) — Taeyang 태양
118. Home (집) [feat. Lee Sora] — Tablo
119. 새벽한시 1AM — Taeyang 태양30w ago
120. Heartbreaker (Bounce) — 스윙스, 알리
121. Love You To Death — Taeyang 태양
122. Bad (나쁘다) [feat. Jinsil] — Tablo
123. Stay With Me (feat. G-DRAGON) — Taeyang 태양
124. Trust (Live In Hong Kong / 2013) — Eason Chan 陳奕迅
125. Love You To Death — Taeyang 태양
126. 一生中最愛 — Eason Chan & Alan Tam 譚詠麟
127. 阿士匹靈 — 陳奕迅
128. Cloudy Day — Eason Chan
129. I Wanna (Feat. Crybaby) — 스윙스(Swings)
130. The Man Who Sold the World — Nirvana
131. Got Some Teeth — Obie Trice
132. Stay With Me (feat. G-DRAGON) — Taeyang
133. 소문 — Swings, GIRIBOY, 천재노창 & Vasco
134. Await Your Love — Eason Chan
135. Still Not Over (feat. Black Nut & 노창) — Swings
136. Like I Can — Sam Smith
137. 데이지 — Alex 알렉스 (Clazziquai)
138. 煎熬 — 蘇永康
139. 最好的祝福 — 蘇永康
140. Home (집) [feat. Lee Sora] — Tablo
141. Expired (유통기한) — Tablo
142. 미쳤네 — Swings 스윙스
143. If You See Him… 若你碰到他 — Tanya Chua 蔡健雅
144. Miss You Before Bedtime — Power Station
145. Just Want to Talk to Someone — Power Station
146. 새벽한시 1AM — Taeyang 태양
147. Love You To Death — Taeyang 태양
148. 인수인계 — Swings, 기리보이, C.Jamm & 바스코
149. The Shadow That Looms O’er My Heart — Dark Rooms
150. Stay With Me (feat. Mary J. Blige) — Sam Smith
151. Stay With Me (feat. G-DRAGON) — Taeyang
152. Make It To Me — Sam Smith
153. Ode — Padi
154. Tao Dai — Eason Chan
155. 국초세대 — Swings
156. 눈, 코, 입 Eyes, Nose, Lips — Taeyang
157. 새벽한시 1AM — Taeyang 태양
158. Trust — Eason Chan
159. Stay With Me (feat. G-DRAGON) — Taeyang
160. Map the Soul (feat. MYK) — Epik High
161. Tanyaku — Sheila On 7
162. Sesuatu Yang Indah — Padi
163. I’d Die Without You — P.M. Dawn
164. Artsy Remix (feat. the Grouch) — edIT
165. Intro — AZIATIX
166. Cat and Dog — Eason Chan
167. Mary Says — Leehom Wang
168. 星期六的深夜 — Leehom Wang
169. 你和我 — Wang Lee Hom 王力宏
170. 要 — Stanley Huang 黃立行
171. 불도저 (Bulldozer) — Swings
172. 失去了你 — Leehom Wang
173. Black — Pearl Jam
174. 愛我吧 — Khalil Fong
175. Duo Shao — Eason Chan
176. Fallin’ (feat. 박재범) — Swings
177. 身邊有你 — Yi Jet Qi
178. 有你真好 — Yi Jet Qi
179. 失去了你 — Leehom Wang
180. I Will Always Love You — Whitney Houston
181. Beggin For Thread — Banks ealingsand
182. Love You To Death — Taeyang 태양
183. Maybe One Day — Power Station
184. Her Number (feat. Verbal Jint, 40) — Swings
185. Somebody to Love — BIGBANG
186. 나의 옛날이야기 — Jo 조PD
187. The Wanderer — Eason Chan
188. Hingga Ujung Waktu — Sheila On 7
189. Face Again — How to Dress Well
190. Often — The Weeknd
191. Here’s to All the People I Have Lost — VAST
192. A Real Man — Swings & Ailee
193. Back To Life (However Do You Want Me) — Soul II Soul
194. Pusher Love Girl — Justin Timberlake
195. Rain — Monsters Calling Home
196. Kamus Hidupku (Demo) — Sheila On 7
197. Crowd — Swings & C.Jamm
198. Semua Tak Sama — Padi
199. 메트로놈 Metronome (feat. Simon Dominic & Gray) — Jay Park
200. Ladybird — Natalie Merchant
201. Oh No — The Commodores
202. Ka Fei — Jacky Cheung
203. Zhen Ai — Jacky Cheung 16w ago
204. 不走 — Alex To
205. The Shadow That Looms O’er My Heart — Dark Rooms
206. Sanvean – I Am Your Shadow — Lisa Gerrard
207. 讲你知 — Jacky Cheung 張學友
208. 꿈이 뭐야 Dream Chaser (feat. 도끼 Dok2 & 크러쉬 Crush) — GRAY
209. To Make You Feel My Love (Live) — Garth Brooks
210. 歲月如歌 — Eason Chan
211. Fallin’ (feat. 박재범) — Swings
212. 공허해 Empty — WINNER stealingsand
213. Do What You Have to Do — Sarah McLachlan
214. Fallin’ (feat. 박재범) — Swings 스윙스
215. Night at Lake Unknown — Conor Oberst
216. I Love You — Ozaki Yutaka
217. 失去了你 — Leehom Wang
218. 垃圾 — Eason Chan 陳奕迅
219. Each and Every Tomorrow — Eason Cha
220. Adaptation — The Weeknd
221. Under the Table — Banks
222. Home (집) [feat. Lee Sora] — Tablo
223. Expired (유통기한) — Tablo
224. Tomorrow (feat. Taeyang of BIGBANG) — Tablo
225. 일탈 — Jo 조PD
226. Girlfriend (feat. Nelly) — *NSYNC
227. Separate Lives — Phil Collins
228. Sephia — Sheila On 7
229. The Moon — Eason Chan
230. Please Don’t Go — Barcelona
231. You — Eason Chan
232. Someone New — Banks
233. Annie’s Song — John Denver
234. Closer (Acoustic ver.) — 알렉스 (Alex)
235. Dirty Vibe — Skrillex (sfeat. G-Dragon and CL)
236. Fuck Em Only We Know — Banks
237. I Can’t Make You Love Me — Bonnie Raitt
238. Fuck Em Only We Know — Banks
239. Baby Song — Eason Chan
240. You — Eason Chan
241. Stuck On You (feat. Darius Rucker) — Lionel Richie

1. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles – Steven Pressfield
2. Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World’s Most Polluted Places – Andrew Blackwell
3. Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design – William Lidwell
4. Meaty: Essays by Samantha Irby, Creator of the Blog BitchesGottaEat – Samantha Irby
5. The Heart and the Bottle – Oliver Jeffers
6. Cinematic Storytelling – Jennifer Van Sijll
7. Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1) – Kim Stanley Robinson
8. On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind – Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis
9. Motion Graphics: Graphic Design for Broadcast and Film – Steve Curran
10. The Empathy Exams: Essays – Leslie Jamison

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles – Steven Pressfield

I was introduced to this book by my “brainshare” Jamillah, and I have referred to it many times in my battles. It taught me that I am not alone, that many artists face the same kind of struggle, and that there is a way to get past it – the same way that many other books of this kind have espoused. work. Art is work, and if you work at it you will be just fine. If you don’t work at it and wallow in self doubt that’s all you will ever get. Inspiration doesn’t strike the guy who’s reogranizing his closet, but the guy who, every day, sits down and tries to find it.

Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World’s Most Polluted Places – Andrew Blackwell

A story not only of traveling to distant places but the thread of a lost love winding through it, and his accidental discovery of something each of these damaged and disastrously toxic places…well, I’ll let you find out for yourself. An altogether enjoyable read, and completely unexpected in how much I enjoyed it.

Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design – William Lidwell

Recommended to me by a respected advisor Chip Wood (once again), this book is worth its weight in gold for those who know how to use it. I constantly refer to this book when I’m looking for another way to wow in my designs. These are the basic, fundamental ways in which design impacts human perception of it, and I actually bought the expanded edition because I thought 25 more hints would be worth the extra money I’d spend buying it again.

Meaty: Essays by Samantha Irby, Creator of the Blog BitchesGottaEat – Samantha Irby

I haven’t laughed my way through a book like I did this one since…ever. I highlighted like 80% of the damn book on my Paperwhite because it was raw, it was true, and it was real. And really fucking funny.

“Being jealous because some bitch has a dude is like being jealous of a goddamned stomachache: I’ve had one before; and while what I did to get it might have been fun, once I’m actually stuck with it, it kind of TOTALLY FUCKING SUCKS. If I knew one single woman who was marrying UP I might change my tune, but everyone I know is sucking the dick of a regular, broke-ass dude.”

Yup.

The Heart and the Bottle – Oliver Jeffers

This is a short, simple story about grief and loss and the urge to protect yourself. It was given to me by a friend after the loss of my companion, and so profoundly touching and real that I sent a copy to my other friend who had also recently experienced loss. It is a beautiful story, beautifully drawn, and I wept as I read it. 

Cinematic Storytelling – Jennifer Van Sijll

This book was maybe the first one I really “got” about cinematography and storytelling – it’s also a beautifully-photographed, well-illustrated work and taught me so much about videography and cinematography in general. It showed me rather than just telling me – and the wordy telling is so confusing. Take for example this explanation of the 180-degree-rule on Wikipedia:

“In a dialogue scene between two characters, Daniel (orange shirt, frame left in the diagram) and Lucas (blue shirt, frame right), the camera may be placed anywhere on the green 180° arc and the spatial relationship between the two characters will be consistent from shot to shot, even when one of the characters is not on screen. Shifting to the other side of the characters on a cut, so that Lucas is now on the left side and Daniel is on the right, may disorient the audience.”

What.

This book, though, illustrated with shots from the scenes of recent films I have seen, and explains bit by bit what these things mean. To a visual person, this was invaluable.

Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1) – Kim Stanley Robinson

For some reason I am fascinated with the exploration and colonization of Mars. The cold hard reality but the inevitability of it, too. If we go anywhere, we will go there. This book took it as a reality, and extrapolated the future of mars colonization through the series. It’s human, it’s fascinating, and it offers gems of insight that I didn’t expect form a sci-fi book:

“People didn’t understand that true intimacy did not consist of sexual intercourse, which could be done with strangers and in a state of total alienation; intimacy consisted of talking for hours about what was most important in one’s life.”

Caveat: I sent a copy of this book to a friend and they called it sophomoric and shallow, but I found the hard science and sociology fit my worldview rather nicely, thank you.

On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind – Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis

Once a musician, always a musician. And once a researcher into humankind, always a researcher into humankind. Like an extensive journal article about some specific subset of human behavior, this book, in between the difficult articles in esoteric professional journals and the populist Stephen Pinker science, this challenging book explores the intersection of thought and music. I’ve long been trying to figure out how to make a supercut of certain cuts of music form different genres and artists – the thrilling moments and the parts that get stuck in your f=head…I don’t have that path clear yet, but this book provided me some foundational science on the road to discovery that I truly love reading. When I want to escape, I don’t read chick lit, I read this.

Music psychology has been busy looking at the ways in which music might be similar to language, but Richman, Tannen, and others might be understood to be asking the inverse question, when is language processed musically?

This question has been examined in terms of beat structure and intonation, but it might also be considered in terms of repetition structure: highly repetitive forms of language, such as chants and nursery rhymes, veer away from the typical syntactic and semantic modes of understanding speech, and toward modes of comprehension that are more characteristically musical—emotive, social, and holistic.

Motion Graphics: Graphic Design for Broadcast and Film – Steve Curran

This book was my first motion graphics book – bought at HPB on Northwest Highway, it was my first-first foray into discovering what I wanted to do for a living. Although that career hasn’t worked out just yet, it fascinated me, and this now-horribly-out-of -ate book, which chronicled my sub-obsession of title design and motion graphics in detail, brought me one step closer to realizing my love of design in motion. It’s more of a nostalgic pick than a “go out and buy this pick” because every time I see this book I feel the warm fuzzies. Ah, the days when anything was possible…

The Empathy Exams: Essays – Leslie Jamison

I was inspired by this article by Leslie Jamison, author of a book I stumbled upon called The Empathy Exams. I’m not saying go read that book, because it’s a hard heart-rending, devastating read that I can only take in moments of extreme loss and half of you would be dissolved by it. But, I digress.

In the article, Leslie  says [emphasis mine],

Confessional writing often gets a bad rap. People call it self-absorbed, solipsistic, self-indulgent. Who wants to hear another 30-year-old going on and on about her damage? But when I published a collection of “confessional” essays this spring, The Empathy Exams, full of personal material (an abortion, heart surgery, getting punched in the face by a stranger) – I started to feel like confession could be the opposite of solipsism. My confessions elicited responses. They coaxed chorus like a brushfire.

And sometimes that sharing is what we need. It’s been a hard year for me, a hard year after years I thought were the worst, and hearing that someone else had struggled so mightily with their own damn heart touched me in ways I still can’t fathom.

If you wanna see which 30 books I am currently slowly reading or in denial about probably never finishing, find me on Goodreads!