It's only slightly dried up. It has gone into the oven for roasting now.

I am planning to make a pumpkin and lentil soup like this one:

Noticed some interesting new shops on the strip...

I like the concept of Off Beat Emporium. Most of the furniture near the display window had tags that announced "SOLD". Guess the shop must be popular.


I somehow never walk past it when it's open.


The O3 café is ready to open (or maybe already open) in the block before Spot Coffee.


There's something fresh but industrial about a kitchen done up with grey, green and stainless steel. The grey makes it somewhat cold but the spring green is fun. And of course stainless steel is my favourite accent for any kitchen. 2/3. Not bad. Plus I really like that hanging lamp. I want that for home.


A million salads, sandwiches and wraps are on the menu. I need to check this out some Wednesday after Yoga. Wonder if they will be open for dinner though... The menu looks very breakfast-y/lunch-y. Click on the menu for a HUGE version.


The coop is still selling the original herbmare salt but the orange discontinued tag has moved to the next item on its left. Makes me suspect that they might be using the "discontinued" orange tag as an innovative sales strategy.

Are more people likely to think that a discontinued item is always at a steeper "discount" and thus, a better deal than a regular item on "sale"?

In this cases organic is not better than natural.

The Organic variety has some crazy preservatives and additives while the natural variety doesn't. If Annie's can successfully create and market the "natural" variety, why do they even need the "organic" version with preservatives anyway? Why not just sell the natural line? Doesn't make sense.

Solé has made creative use of that wall...

Some conversations I had with (e:Paul) yesterday sparked off a series of thoughts about my inherent resentment with the whole gift-giving culture that exists around weddings, birthdays, baby-births and all sorts of other sundry milestone "occasions". It made me recall one of the numerous reasons why I rejoiced in my move to buffalo and left my "mandatory gift-giving" baggage behind.

When I was in Rochester, it seemed that everyone except me was getting married, having kids, throwing kid and pet birthday parties and ALL I was stuck with was trying to appear decently interested by getting them, their spouses, their kids, their pets (yes, their pets!) and their extended family some decently priced gifts or just writing them cheques for hard cash.

You might argue that I had free will in these matters. But I don't think free will ever factored into the mandatory-gift-giving culture at all. Deviation from it was often viewed as an equivalent of me saying that they could go to hell with their milestones because I couldn't care less about them. I don't think that was true.

I sometimes genuinely felt happy about their milestones when they told me about it. However, I am not sure that my elation at their having achieved that milestone translated into voluntary gift-giving. I often faced unwritten pressure from my fellow-students/acquaintances to get random department-mates mandatory gifts. It reflected the insidious face of consumerism that most of my "friends", coworkers, acquaintances assigned to my relationships with them.

It was never enough to wish them well, enquire after the well-being of their loved ones, donate my time to help them out in random everyday situations and continue on without my relationship without being weighed by the price or grandiosity of my expected gift or favour to them.

So I am very thankful and super-glad that I am not in such a terribly awful position anymore here in Buffalo. I genuinely like around 98% of the people I know and interact with here. My "gifts" come from my heart and are not always about a price-tag. However, it was never the case where I was before (read: parent universities and workplaces) so I know the oppression of forced gift-giving all too well.

In my case, I just took the step of walking out of such relationships before the undercurrents of gift-giving resentment and unequal expectations undermined them completely into open hostilities. Looking back now, I sometimes think this is why my quality of life in Buffalo is heads and shoulders above any I have ever had elsewhere.

PS: And yes, the worst was Rochester. I have very few fond memories of the duration of my stay in my parent uni and almost every single of my sparse favourite moments came from what I did with people completely unconnected to my academic life. I disliked that place for so many reasons and in so many ways. Every day I spend in Buffalo highlights the wide abyss between my experiences in Rochester and my polar opposite experiences in Buffalo.

And since I am thinking about it now, out of the 500 odd people I interacted with on a regular to semi-regular basis during my stay there I guess the ONLY real person I miss from Rochester is my landlady who was like my second mum and unconditionally gave me her love and help all throughout my stay in that wretched "city" right up to my last day. It was probably my only relationship in Rochester that was completely devoid of any pressures or even convention...

Have any of you had non-trauma-related ear bleeds before?

I had some minor bleeding yesterday from my right ear. I am a bit concerned. It did happen immediately after I turned up the volume on my headphones to drown out some annoying noise in my office. So that gives me a clue that my tympanic membrane might have ruptured a bit.

However, apart from a ruptured eardrum, the second most common cause of ear bleeds is malignancy... I need a consult soon. (e:Paul) suggested the Buffalo otolaryngology group on Delaware. I wonder if they take Aetna.

PS: I now absolutely hate Rochester accents. :/

I have not been able to sleep for more than 2 hours at a stretch for the past couple months. I was a very light sleeper to begin with but my insomnia has reached an abysmal low this month.



I now envy people who can sleep an unbroken 8 hours. All this lack of sleep is swinging a wrecking ball at my already feeble efforts to put on any muscle whatsoever.

I hope this phase passes soon. I feel like an unsatisfactory ghost of what I really want to be.