So I watch cooking shows, cook and read books
My life does involve other things beside studying Japanese. I just write about it more than of other things so the picture that my blog paints is that all of my time goes to either studying Japanese of whining about how difficult and awful studying Japanese is. So today I'll write about the other things that I've been doing besides that thing, which we shall not mention again in this post. :pI've been following several cooking shows on television. I think that ~60% of what I watch from telly consists of cooking shows. ^^; My favorites are on the Jim channel, which is kinda funny since it's aimed at men. There was a show where a punch of men drove across the States and ate local food at roadside restaurants. That ended a while back and now there's Anthony Bourdieou (sp?) No Reservations -show where he travels to different countries to eat food there. Apparently they've been to Scandinavia as well, but Anthony said that they're not coming back because, compared to Mediterranean and many other places, the culture concerning dining together is pretty pathetic around here. xp Sadly that's true.
Eating good food together is usually not the way that people here choose to spend time together. At least you can't really compare it to how people in Mediterranean countries can gather with the family in the evening and spend a couple of hours just eating together and enjoying each other's company. So I'm actually a bit strange in how I like to gather with my friends and/or family to cook dinner and then eat it together and socialize while eating. I think that cooking and eating together is a great way to spend time together because everybody has to eat and most people enjoy good food.
Today I did some experimental cooking based on a cooking show that I saw... last week I think. I forgot the name of the show, but there was an Italian woman who lived in the States and she made easy Italian food that looked really tasty. She made this version of French toast (köyhät ritarit = poor knights :p) and I made my own version tonight of that based on what I remembered of the show. I used slices of toast that I dipped in milk, then put some mango mash in between two slices, dipped the toasts then in some egg and fried it on a pan. They tasted a bit like pancakes and took less time to prepare. I also made a couple of versions where I mixed the milk and egg together and added some sugar (like how you make French toast), but I think that the first versions tasted better.I watched True Blood a couple of weeks ago during one weekend. It's a series about vampires and it was quite addictive. I think that I watched two seasons in just a couple of days. >.> I think that Jiji would like True Blood. It was a good show, which just happened to have vampires in it. I also happened to be alone at home that weekend and the pipes made wierd sounds and the lights flickered so bad that I was afraid that the lights would go out and a vampire would come out and eat me! XD
I also tried to watch Defying Gravity a while ago, but I only watched maybe the first 4-5 episodes before it became apparent that the show was not going to get interesting any time soon. I just figured that a show about astronauts on a long space voyage would be interesting, but it was too much about relationships and too little about science fiction. And they gave the lamest name ever to the show in Finnish: Rakkauden painovoima (Gravity of love). I wonder whose bright idea that was.Today I went to the biggest bookstore in Finland, the Akateeminen kirjakauppa in Helsinki, to look for a book about attachment theory (kiintymyssuhdeteoria), but they didn't have a single book in English or in Finnish about the subject and I checked the psychology, self-help, child raising and education sections. I also cheched at Suomalainen kirjakauppa (the second largest bookstore in Finland), but they didn't have any either. I guess that the University library is my next destination unless I want to order a book from the UK Amazon.
But I found something else: Sexual Fluidity, Understanding Women's Love and Desire by Lisa M. Diamond. I didn't have to think long about buying it, because I have a personal and academic interest in the subject and this is the first book on the subject that I've seen, and that includes online searches. The book was published in 2008, which would explain why I hadn't heard of it before now. The idea that sexuality could be fluid and change over time first came to my head around 2004, but there is sadly very little information on the subject anywhere, because it hasn't been researched much. I think that I was in a bit of book euphoria for a couple of hours after getting my hands on this book. xpYesterday I wrote a three pages long summary (referaatti) of this article about Japanese Buddhist home altars, Butsudans, in contemporary Japan. Writing that was surprisinly easy. One of the companies producing the butsudans that the article concentrated on was Yagiken, and I also visited their website yesterday. If I had an extra 1000-3000 euros laying around, I'd buy one of their butsudans because they're absolutely gorgeous. The butsudans are used to ancestor veneration and Buddhist rituals that take place at home. And no, I'm not Buddhist, but we do have a place at home where we keep photos of our dead loved ones to remember them.Also, since the people coming to my room have commented on it, here's my current wallpaper. It's a digitally done painting by Jezebel. It looks even more gorgeous in full screen, even if it gets a bit pixely.
Eating good food together is usually not the way that people here choose to spend time together. At least you can't really compare it to how people in Mediterranean countries can gather with the family in the evening and spend a couple of hours just eating together and enjoying each other's company. So I'm actually a bit strange in how I like to gather with my friends and/or family to cook dinner and then eat it together and socialize while eating. I think that cooking and eating together is a great way to spend time together because everybody has to eat and most people enjoy good food.
Today I did some experimental cooking based on a cooking show that I saw... last week I think. I forgot the name of the show, but there was an Italian woman who lived in the States and she made easy Italian food that looked really tasty. She made this version of French toast (köyhät ritarit = poor knights :p) and I made my own version tonight of that based on what I remembered of the show. I used slices of toast that I dipped in milk, then put some mango mash in between two slices, dipped the toasts then in some egg and fried it on a pan. They tasted a bit like pancakes and took less time to prepare. I also made a couple of versions where I mixed the milk and egg together and added some sugar (like how you make French toast), but I think that the first versions tasted better.I watched True Blood a couple of weeks ago during one weekend. It's a series about vampires and it was quite addictive. I think that I watched two seasons in just a couple of days. >.> I think that Jiji would like True Blood. It was a good show, which just happened to have vampires in it. I also happened to be alone at home that weekend and the pipes made wierd sounds and the lights flickered so bad that I was afraid that the lights would go out and a vampire would come out and eat me! XD
I also tried to watch Defying Gravity a while ago, but I only watched maybe the first 4-5 episodes before it became apparent that the show was not going to get interesting any time soon. I just figured that a show about astronauts on a long space voyage would be interesting, but it was too much about relationships and too little about science fiction. And they gave the lamest name ever to the show in Finnish: Rakkauden painovoima (Gravity of love). I wonder whose bright idea that was.Today I went to the biggest bookstore in Finland, the Akateeminen kirjakauppa in Helsinki, to look for a book about attachment theory (kiintymyssuhdeteoria), but they didn't have a single book in English or in Finnish about the subject and I checked the psychology, self-help, child raising and education sections. I also cheched at Suomalainen kirjakauppa (the second largest bookstore in Finland), but they didn't have any either. I guess that the University library is my next destination unless I want to order a book from the UK Amazon.
But I found something else: Sexual Fluidity, Understanding Women's Love and Desire by Lisa M. Diamond. I didn't have to think long about buying it, because I have a personal and academic interest in the subject and this is the first book on the subject that I've seen, and that includes online searches. The book was published in 2008, which would explain why I hadn't heard of it before now. The idea that sexuality could be fluid and change over time first came to my head around 2004, but there is sadly very little information on the subject anywhere, because it hasn't been researched much. I think that I was in a bit of book euphoria for a couple of hours after getting my hands on this book. xpYesterday I wrote a three pages long summary (referaatti) of this article about Japanese Buddhist home altars, Butsudans, in contemporary Japan. Writing that was surprisinly easy. One of the companies producing the butsudans that the article concentrated on was Yagiken, and I also visited their website yesterday. If I had an extra 1000-3000 euros laying around, I'd buy one of their butsudans because they're absolutely gorgeous. The butsudans are used to ancestor veneration and Buddhist rituals that take place at home. And no, I'm not Buddhist, but we do have a place at home where we keep photos of our dead loved ones to remember them.Also, since the people coming to my room have commented on it, here's my current wallpaper. It's a digitally done painting by Jezebel. It looks even more gorgeous in full screen, even if it gets a bit pixely.