Curious

Every so often when sleep eludes me - this instance courtesy of the delightful white coffee I had at dinner - I simply sit and ponder life. Sometimes, it's life in general, sometimes it's mine specifically. Tonight, I'm thinking of all the people who like, dislike and downright detest me, and the reasons I think compelled them to.

I thought about those so vindictive in addition to cutting me completely off they talk behind my back, attempt to turn mutual friends against me and / or write nasty, slanderous public posts. It hurts, of course, but I am aware, to a good degree, why those who I know despise me feel that way. I have faults and I know what tick some people off, but I don't usually bother to modify my attitude unless the person affected is someone I truly love and care about. Well, I don't go about routinely pissing people off for fun, but as someone once said to me - if one isn't hated by anyone at all, one doesn't have a personality.

It is in this contemplation that I realised that there is one person, whose disapproval of me began a long, long time ago and has since festered into a full-fledged, open hatred, who I never knew how I offended. I couldn't care less now than I have cared all these years past - that I didn't realise I never thought about the reason - but I feel, right now, a pang of curiosity. Of course, I know very well that nothing will be different eitherway, but there is this part of me that really wants to get to the bottom of everything. It is an affliction and a serious one too. Sometimes, even after I get answers by putting together tell-tale signs and all that, I will still pursue the matter until I get a concrete confirmation. So, yea... I'm very curious - I'm wondering what could I have said, done, or been, that could have made someone keep so tenacious a grudge - and it's puzzling because I don't care at all about the said person, and as I said, I will not change a thing, regardless. It is simply much like reading a detective tale and desiring to get to the page where the criminal mastermind is revealed.

Anyway, some things in life will always remain a mystery, and some things are better left as such. Ignorance is not the bliss I want, but sometimes, it is the only bliss there is...

Curry Puffs & Stuff

People who eat curry puffs are generally more concerned with the filling. Beginners at making curry puffs, on the other hand, are concerned with how the crust turns out - or so I'd like to believe. Otherwise, I'm just odd...

I'd never attempted these local breakfast favourite before because they are absolutely found every where one looks! The motivation came from the time the seller of one of the best we had disappeared. One day, he just wasn't there at his stall anymore. A couple of weeks later, the stall itself was gone. I wasn't devastated that I lost the source of a yummy afternoon snack, but it was annoying enough. I decided... what the heck, I can't do worse than the worst I'd eaten.

I started with the shortcrust pastry version (recipe) and yea, they were good, but not impressionable enough that I cared to go for further attempts.

Recently, I mustered enough courage to try these with layered pastry crust (recipe). It was a lot more work, but worth every bit of extra effort.

The crust was delightfully crispy and not exactly horrible to look at... with shortening at that. Imagine if I'd actually used lard!

These days, I get excited the moment I decide to challenge myself in the kitchen. Someone asked if I really do bake every weekend. Well, I don't... sometimes, I just deep-fry curry puffs *Ahem!* Perhaps it's the continuous inspiration from my roomee, perhaps the very satisfying sense of achievement when first (or sometimes, second) attempts turn out great. Or perhaps the narcissist in me needs continuous little culinary successes to remain narcissistic...

Angry Face

Hello, did you see my angry face today?

I don't really want to be angry, for being angry is detrimental to my health and anyone who makes me angry sure as hell isn't worth affecting my well-being for. The body, however, isn't always successful in performing in ways the mind intends it to..... so, I got mad, despite not wanting to.

Did you like my angry face? I'm sure you don't, for it is horrible, and extremely fearful to behold. Surely you prefer my laughs, smiles, my amicable or even neutral facial expressions, to... whatever you saw today. Surely! So, grow some brains and stop infuriating me already!

Foo

The first programming language I learned was Pascal. Then, C came along. I don't remember whether Java or C++ was next, but it was in my C++ class that I first encountered examples of functions called foo. My lecturer never explained the name, nor did anyone inquired - I suppose, an identifier, by any other name (as long as it isn't a reserved word), works just as identifiers should. I admit, although slightly intrigued, I never cared enough to ask questions about it. I simply assumed the "oo" there most likely stood for "object-oriented", or something sensible like that.

Since completing my undergraduate studies, I have, at times when googling for stuff, came across examples with foo in them, and... I know, it shouldn't have taken me so many years to actually google it up. Turns out, its origin has nothing to do with programming.

foo usually appears alongside bar, though why I'd no recollection of the latter, I have no idea. "Foobar" came from FUBAR, which is acronym for F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition, a term used by the US Army during World War II.

I'm not a programmer but I'd once spent about a week coding continuously, with hardly any sleep, because the deadline was fast approaching and my application wouldn't run properly. So yea, I think I get it...

Further reading I
Further reading II