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3月13日 Need a Hobby? What about Weather Spotting?For those of us whiling our life away surfing the internet, watching meaningless TV, or sorting through bills and junk mail, here's a thought: pick up a hobby. Hopefully that choice of hobby is meaningful and rewarding. Here's an idea, how about weather spotting?? There was an article about how the National Weather Services were searching for trainees in weather spotting in last Saturday's SF Chronicle. Not only would it be contributing to the overall well-being of the American public, it could also serve a more selfish purpose -- the ability to expand beyond the normal icebreaker "Isn't the weather great today?" Just imagine, you would have all the meteorological knowledge to divulge with such a boring conversation starter. Furthermore, you can impress your audience with the breadth of natural weather related calamities you were trained to identify. You may even bask in a few moments of glory when the Weather Services calls you up for your key eye witness reports. This would be the ultimate hobby...
To be perfectly honest, I found this article on weather spotting quite amusing, which is the primary reason why I even read the entire article from start to finish. I guess everyone has a quirky hobby about which they are absolutely passionate. It's just that weather spotting just screams "boring" than hip and cool. Picking up a hobby based on the cool factor may not work out for everyone because that motivation may not be sustainable long term. You actually have to enjoy the hobby and learn/grow with it to make it meaningful and rewarding.
Anyways, for those closet weather spotters, here's your chance at making your dream come true! 3月5日 My Newspaper SubscriptionThere are plenty of subscriptions addicts out there and I am, unfortunately, one of them. One subscription that causes the most headaches is my subscription to the San Francisco Chronicle. Yes, I do know that there's a free online version too. As far as my direct contact with the newspaper goes, I pick it up at my doorstep in the morning, take it the office, throw out the classifieds/sports/misc ads, and glance at some headlines. Sections checked include the following:
1. Business: Dilbert (Dogbert is the best) and misc business news.
2. Comics: Peanuts
3. Datebook:
--> Dear Abby -- Limited to only 3 questions a day, and I just can't get enough of those wonderfully astute advice!
--> I also like the pull quote "Overheard" on Leah Garchik's column.
4. Food & Wine: Just in case I need to demonstrate knowledge of some level of fine dining
5. Gardening: They may have good material on plants in the SFBGS. I'm sure I won't remember the botanical name anyways...
It's usually on Sunday when I finally decide that there's just no way on earth I'll find the time to catch up on outdated news items. Then, I chuck the newspapers.
Next question here is why don't I just terminate my subscription? I don't know. Maybe because I secretly look forward to this dysfunctional process of accumulate-and-dispose (I'll blame it on the wasteful society we life in, that's an easy one.) I'm sure there's a website out there listing the 5 steps to a subscription-free life. I don't want to find that website just yet. It'll for sure include the $$ saved, the hassle of dropping of the unread newspapers in the recycling bins, and the mental relief that you don't have to deal with these newspapers anymore. In the meantime, I shall continue my love-hate relationship with my newspaper subscription... 2月24日 Yelp-Worthiness...Given the fact that I've been spending some of my time on Yelp for every review-able item under the sun, I'm slowly coming to the realization that maybe I need to be somewhat selective about what I yelp. Am I going to yelp about a boring place just so that I can up my review counter by 1? Or should I concentrate my efforts on places/things worthy of my deep yelp-thoughts? I definitely don't want to be one of those useless one-liner yelpers nor do I want to write some 10-page paper about a place and dilute my impression/message. The other issue is finding an un-Yelp'd place, which are scarce these days with Yelpers scouring the Bay Area. However, it serves as an incentive to go to untried places, beyond my comfort zone, and discover pleasantly surprising new places. On the flip side, that also means that there is a risk I might be disappointed with the outcome and just leave the place with the sense of, "I wish I just went to my regular Korean BBQ place, at least I'd know what to expect..." Maybe I'm having Yelper's Crisis? 2月20日 Writer's BlockEvery once in while, I get these absolutely random but brillant ideas of what to write on the blog and just as I ready myself to commit these ideas into words -- absolutely nothing comes up. What were once well put together sentences are nowhere to be found. To remedy this occasional lapse in memory (?) I decided to keep my notepad open to jot down these flighty thoughts so that I may fall back on them on days like today. Now, as I examine the list of what seemed to be interesting thoughts, they have temporarily lost their luster and I don't even know why I wrote them down. I didn't just take a glance at the list, I scrutinized each individual entry of the simple phrases hoping to conjure up the initial thoughts. Maybe today is just not the day...given that I've been pretty forgetful already. Or, this could be one of those days where just a few boring sentences would suffice. |
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