Winter time!!! Snow is piling up outside, while my body lipids are piling up on my tummy.

It's winter and it's freezing.

Who wants to go outside and play snowball fight!!!??

NOT ME!

I would like a cup of hot chocolate and a few dozens of cookies and good ol' movies, please.

That basically summed up my winter break...

And the result of this cozy time??

A FEW EXTRA POUNDS thank you very much.

A little story about my relationship with my body...(as some magazines call "you should have healthy relationships with you body!!!" "Love your body" ) As I'm writing this post, even Holly Madison is talking about losing weight on E! show. Very timely.

This summer, after 3 months of eating and drinking my days and nights away, I gained quite a few... well in short, got fattest I've ever been. My legs looked plump and my jeans refused to fit me. ok, great.

Even my own mother introduced me to this special diet.

THE ROYAL DANISH HOSPITAL DIET.

for anyone who's not familiar with this diet, it's diet that you have to follow a specific menu for 2 weeks. It's supposed to help you shed 13lbs after 14 days... It's supposed to fix your metabolism, to make stay in shape for a while...blah blah blah. But you're not supposed to do this diet again for 2 years, and once you give up in the middle of diet, you can't start again for 6months BLAH BLAH BLAH. OK, Here's the menu!

DAY 1:
Breakfast: 1 cup of coffee + 1 cube of sugar
Lunch: 2 hard-boiled eggs + 400 g spinach + 1 tomato
Dinner: 200 g roast beef + 1 lettuce with oil and lemon juice

DAY 2:
Breakfast: 1 cup of coffee + 1 cube of sugar
Lunch: 250 g ham + 1 can of natural yogurt
Dinner: 200 g roast beef + 1 lettuce with oil and lemon juice

DAY 3:
Breakfast: 1 cup of coffee + 1 cube of sugar + 1 slice of toast
Lunch: 2 hard-boiled eggs + 1 slice of ham + 1 lettuce
Dinner: boiled celery + 1 tomato+ 1 fresh fruit (apple, pear, orange)

DAY 4:
Breakfast: 1 cup of coffee + 1 cube of sugar + 1 slice of toast
Lunch: 200 ml orange juice + 1 can of natural yogurt
Dinner: 1 hard-boiled egg + 1 rubbed out carrot + 250 g cow cheese

DAY 5:
Breakfast: 1 big rubbed out carrot
Lunch: 200 g steamed code with lemon juice + 1 spoon with butter
Dinner: 200 g roast beef + 1 rubbed out celery

DAY 6:
Breakfast: 1 cup of coffee + 1 cube of sugar + 1 slice of toast
Lunch: 2 hard-boiled eggs + 1 big rubbed out carrot
Dinner: 1/2 chicken + 1 lettuce with oil and lemon juice

DAY 7:
Breakfast: 1 cup of unsweetened tea
Lunch: nothing (drink lot of water, it helps!)
Dinner: 200 g lamb steak + 1 apple 


Anyways, the list goes on for another week. I did this menu for a week.


The  result....I lost good 10lbs!!!! WOW!!! 
And guess what!!


This diet was a total hoax!!!! WOW! Thanks mom! 
Lacking any critical thinking and swallowed by the desperation to gain the acceptance by my jeans, I just did this diet, fighting with hunger and fatigue...


And guess again!!!
My weight is back! yeaaaaay!!!! 


SCREW YOU ROYAL DANISH HOSPITAL DIET!!! 


So people, don't do it. That's all I wanted to say. Thanks.

Baby it's cold outside.... But we've got nothing to eat inside.

IT'S SO COLD OUTSIDE.

Yesterday's lowest temperature was 6 degrees (Fahrenheit) and -14 degrees (Celsius)!!!!
Holy crap. What a great day to start my semester.
I didn't think I would be able to make it to the subway after class, which was only 5 minutes walk.

Well, I made it. And somehow made it home too.
I closed the door of my apartment and that's it.
There was no way I was going to go outside again.
No, I resist.

And then the problem arose. I was starving...!
I had to make an ultimate decision: either freeze to death or starve to death.

Say what? Call the delivery?
You know, I am not trying to be an activist here but look at those delivery guys.
On the bike with baseball cap and very thin polyester jacket... oh tears...
It's -14 degrees and they are biking out the city!!! Have some mercy here.

Well, I'm tight on my budget too.
Actually that was the main reason for not getting the delivery.
I totally would have called the delivery if budget wasn't the issue, what the heck.

BUUUUTTTT!! For my 3rd year in NYC, I have resolved this issue.
I knew this day was going to come.
Cold day, no money and no food.




EMERGENCY FOOD IN FREEZER!!
and I happened to make this amazing "backup" the day before.
Remember people: Prevention is better than cure...

Here,

 From left: Meat sauce, dumplings, base for soup (veggies cooked in stock)

Some samosa wanna be things that I made from beef and filo dough.





AAAAND freeze them in your freezer.






Thanks to those lovely dumplings I made, I prevented myself from starvation, though one third of them are consumed in one night.
But hey, it was an emergency night!

Another way would be stocking up loads of pasta and some instant sauce.
But I just wished that there were tastier instant products...like in Japan... Japan's frozen/packaged food is so tasty that sometimes I would rather eat that than wasting my bills in a crappy restaurants.

So everyone, you should hurry up and stock up your emergency food in your freezer. When nights are cold and so is your checking account, your freezer becomes your best friend!!! How ironic is that?

Remedy for pre-beginning of-semester depression syndrome.

UGH school's starting tomorrow...

I'm experiencing the pre-beginning of-semester-depression (abbr: PBSD) yet again for the 200th time.

But this time it's different. Why? Because I'm finally, yes, finally, graduating this semester.
I will never have this PSD ever again, well, unless I decide to go to grad school, which will most likely happen.

It's a weird feeling, I'm so annoyed that another semester is to start again. But then, I'm also feeling a little melancholic and sad that this is my last semester as a student, but also last few months in NYC.

OH GOD IT'S DEPRESSING ANYWAYS. STOP STOP STOP THIS!

Let me introduce a cure for this to yall.

Here,

Light some candle, drink a glass (or two, or three, or more), smoke a cigarette and listen to Bessie Smith station on Pandora...

and close your eyes...

See... you start feeling...


EVEN MORE SAD GOD DAMN IT.



No but really, try it. I'm feeling relaxed and chilled more than ever. Some may think drinking alone is only for losers and alcoholics, but I actually do it quite often. I like drinking alone, thinking about things, writing like this and listening to music.

What? Yuri, you're a loser? oh...well.... ok.... then.

Anyways, this is the remedy for PBSD for me. Everyone should just try it just once. TRY IT.

If you want to find your love-at-first-sights...

I just found out today that there is a page called "Missed Connection" on Craigslist.

Am I really behind in this online relationship/community thingy??

I was like "WOW" when I looked at this page.

I mean really, there's some quite interesting shit going on here.

So basically, if you want to find "Laura" or "Jordan" that you met/talked/hooked up in a train, or someone whom you just saw on a train, you got a perfect site for that.

Here's an example of a post:

Title: Blond with tats on Dolphin gym - m4w - 35 (East Village)
Message: See you at Dolphin on 4th st lately. You're blond with a big tattoo on your arm(which i love!)and a few other tats-one on your neck too i think,,I wanted to say hi but you had headphones on and seemed like you were being bothered by some other guy there and i didn't want to seem like him..Just think you are cute and unique and maybe single? Hope to see you there more. I'm not creepy I swear! I just find you interesting and wouldn't mind getting to know you sometime. Wonder what you are listening to all the time?


...Yes, you are creepy and yes, you are like the"other guy" that was bothering her too, dude. Really, I had never imagined there would be a day cragslist will become a mean to track down a guy who opened a door at Macy's and smiled at you.

Really people, REALLY???? I have nothing against it. If that's what you call fate, go ahead and be my guest. But if any guy ever put a posting about me on the site, my reaction will be "wow, that's creepy" at the very least. Whatever happened to human interactions nowadays.

JUST ASK THEM FOR THEIR NUMBER IN PERSON goddamn it.

Anyways, if you are looking for "Alex," that were in front of you buying mocha frappecino yesterday, hey, get on the craigslist quick!!! Or maybe you can go back to the starbacks and talk to him. I know- I know- the former is much more romantic eh??

Let's wish for another good year to come...

Many may think that most people Japanese people are Buddhists. Beautiful temples and monks and Kyoto and all that sorts of "Japanese culture" may lure you into thinking that Japanese people practice this almost masochistic religion. If you have thought so, wrong-.

In my opinion, Japan is one of the most multi-religious country, well maybe non-religious country.

Most people do funerals in Buddhist style, but many people get married in a Christian style, but then many people go to Shinto shrine when they want something come true, but then Christmas and Valentine's is also huge... yeah in short, it's pretty messed up.

I'm not saying that Japanese people are not spiritual though. I just think that sudden flow of the Western culture after WWII and the collapse of the emperor-worship (spread by propaganda of military during war) may have been a big factor in the current situation where people cannot clearly claim their religion.

Anyways, being part of multi-religious country, I went to a Shinto shrine nearby my house to wish for a good year to come. Traditionally you should do it (it's called Hatsumoude) in the first 3 days of New Years but oh well. At least I went yeah?

Here's how to do it correctly...

 This is what a shrine looks like typically... This is rather local small one. There is a huge one where there are tens of thousands people go in New Years. I think smaller ones have better chance of getting your wishes heard.

 Before you pray though, you should wash your hands and mouth by this water. Yes, we are all dirty humans. Ya'll should get cleaned up.

 So you bow twice before the alter, throw in the coin, and shake this rope back and forth in order to....

 WAKE UP GOOOOOD to have him make your wish come true...

Now you know what to do next time you go to Shrine, that's only if you are into multi-religion.

Madonna's Must-Have.

HI! WELCOME! to Yuri's Ultimate Random Guide.Here's my very first post for this blog and  I think the topic of this post is quite appropriate for this blog: Japanese Toilet.

It's random, yes, and it has something to do with Japan...back to my roots, yes.

Anyways, many of you may know (if you have visited or lived in japan) that Japanese toilet is geared with automatic bidet...! what is bidet? well, you can wiki it but in short, it's a place for people in the bathroom to wash their bottom after finishing their business (#2). It's been a tradition for many countries (India and Italy, well so far I only know two). But Japan has been practicing this in their ultra modern way since 1980...!!!!

It's widely known as "Washlet," a registered trademark of TOTO (World's largest toilet manufacturer. wow). It was exported to U.S. in 1960s for medical use but was developed to suit the regular household use after the manufacturer seeing its potential. (Source: wikipedia)

Ok, so how does amazing thing work??

This is what a toilet with washlet typically looks like...

Look at how sleek and smooth and pretty it is...

 This is the control panel for the washlet. Each button says, "Stop" "Butt" "Bidet" and "Soft". I'm not quite sure what "Butt" and "Soft" do to you, but I'm sure it's something quite amazing. Latter three has a on/off movement feature, which I think lets the splash of water move up n down for thorough wash.







OMG IT EVEN OPENS!!!!

All these buttons let you choose the temperature of your toilet seat (YES, TEMPERATURE. you know, in freezing winter, you're like "OMG OUCH" when you sit on the cold ceramic toilet seat right? NO MORE OUCH with TOTO)

Last but not least.... THE WATER SPLASHING NOZZLE. (nozzle is the technical term for the parts that shoot out  the water. I'm not sure if the term was created before snoop dogg)

When you sit, finish your business, and press the buttons on the control panel, this nozzle comes out forward to target a particular part between your butt cheeks. It will shower that part as long as you are satisfied, in order to wash off all that crap, literally.




Did you get a glimpse of this amazing machine that's in almost every household of japan?? Even when you are in toilet, Japanese modern culture will not let you down. From what I heard, Madonna fell in love with this machine and she installed it on every toilet she has at home. Don't know how many that is. Probably 2343500 toilets. I would do the same too, if I were Madonna.

Well, hope you enjoy my random guide and hopefully you got some useful random info. See you til next post...