The Ego Episodes

Thursday, Feb. 08, 2007

Renaissance

Hear me speak. This is to hear me speak. I talk and talk a lot but do I really hear myself? It doesn't seem like it. Not hearing myself -- nay, not listening to myself -- is starting to affect how I interact with others. Is it because I am required to listen to a lot of things, absorb technical concepts like a sponge, like, 99% of the time AT WORK that I am having difficulty carrying a decent conversation OUTSIDE WORK?

So I need to hear myself. Again.

I need to be able to talk and analyze things via the split-self method. This method.

On a way more cheery note, hooray! For another renaissance!

I do consider myself like a sponge. Think Peter Petrelli -- although I do not think I will explode in the near future. If, however, I do explode, there will be a lava of chocolate and books and food and yarn ... because I've been absorbing a lot of addictive hobbies lately. Once I gain enough skill in one, I move on to another because I see a great need to make use of what little "free" time I have for fostering my creativity and artistic abilities before they atrophy. It is pretty scary when you think about it.

Here are my accomplishments thus far:

1) Knitting - knitted 1 green scarf (Nov'04), 1 light-pink cabled scarf (Nov'06), 0.92 Suss designed kid's sweater (unfortunately, sewing the pieces together was left out), and 1 Clapotis shawl (Dec'06). Coveted by some, the Clapotis is the largest project I've ever completed so far!

2) Making handmade chocolate truffles - 2 attempts. The latest attempt was so much better than the first one but again, I failed to control my tendency to exaggerate. Those bite-sized truffles? It is almost the size of a ping pong ball. Needless to say, they do not fit in the cute petit fours I specifically bought --searched far and wide -- for this project.

Let me just list down a list of lessons learned to get me a breakthrough at attempt #3.

1. Buy heavy cream - not canned Nestle cream

2. Always buy the best chocolate you can afford (with cocoa butter instead of some other fat/oil).

3. Follow the recipe, e.g. if the recipe calls for 4 oz of chocolate, you do not put in 3.5 oz because 0.5 oz does make a difference. Do not be stingy!

4. Make bite-sized truffles.

5. Ensure bite-sized truffles fit into petit fours.

I think I got it all covered. And I have cooled down enough from my 30 min run -- okay, 26 min run + 2 min walk --to get me some hot shower before hitting the covers.

Feels good to write it all down!

{ joycie at 9:43 p.m.}