Super moon cakes

Has everyone recovered from the excitement of the super blood moon lunar eclipse?  In spite of less than ideal conditions, I managed to grab this shot:

But other than this astronomical phenomenon, I was super excited yesterday because it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, which means . . . moon cakes!  The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second biggest celebration in Chinese culture after the Lunar New Year.  One tradition during the festival is the sharing and eating of moon cakes with friends and relatives.  As someone whose holiday preferences seems to revolve around food (Thanksgiving's my favorite US holiday!), it shouldn't be a surprise that my favorite part of this holiday is being able to eat moon cakes.

Moon cakes are delicious pastries that have a pie crust-like outer shell and fillings of different varieties.

My favorite filling is red bean paste (pictured above).  Other fillings I also like are lotus paste and green tea paste.  Another common aspect of fillings, although I'm not a fan, is including hard boiled egg yolk along with the paste.  I just generally prefer my desserts to be sweet and not have anything savory added.

This year I had quite a journey to Chinatown to find my beloved red bean paste moon cake.  I went to at least five bakeries, a grocery store, and two impromptu street stands, not having much luck finding what I wanted.  The vendors either didn't have what I wanted, had what I wanted but the way it was made didn't seem like what I'm used to enjoying, or were sold out of the red bean variety.  Finally I found a place that had what I wanted (I got the last one!), although the moon cake was square rather than round and they charged more than any of the other stores, but I only have this treat once a year, so I splurged.

Then I was looking around online and discovered that there are kits to make moon cakes!  I like baking, but I don't know if I'm that dedicated.  Who knows.  If it continues being this difficult to find the ones I want, maybe I will try making my own one day.  Or I can plan better and not wait until the last minute to go searching for red bean moon cake.

Autumnal bliss

Autumn is here!  Not only is today the day of the autumnal equinox but also it's feeling like autumn - with a cool breeze in your hair, pumpkin spice lattes in cafes, and candy corn on store shelves.  It's my favorite season of the year.

It makes me happy just strolling outside, where the temperature is ideal and the sky is usually overcast.  You really feel the crispness of the air.  When I was a child, my dad and I would go on hikes, and I'd collect the most beautiful fallen leaves and acorns (don't worry, there were plenty left for the squirrels).  I still love seeing the leaves change color, but it's a little more difficult now that I live in a city.  At least it's better than when I was living on the west coast, since I can at least go to a park that has trees . . . or enjoy a stranger's bike decoration on the street:

Thinking about autumn, my idealized autumn, brings about a calm.  I'm ready to relax with a cuppa tea and listen to one of my favorite jazz standards, Autumn Leaves.

A tale of The Writer's Tale

Lately, I haven't been posting as frequently as I'd like to on this blog.  I've been a bit busy with other things, and to be honest, when I don't have to be doing something else, I've been reading The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter.

I definitely wasn't planning to write another Doctor Who-themed post, but I've become slightly addicted to this book.  And season 9 of the show is starting tomorrow (!), so maybe I'll allow myself this indulgence?

The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter is a book that features email correspondence between Russell T. Davies, the Doctor Who showrunner for seasons 1-4 of the rebooted version, and journalist Ben Cook.  The correspondence takes place while RTD is writing and running season 4 of Doctor Who, and it gives very honest and candid insight into his writing process, what happens behind the scenes of a highly successful and much loved TV show, and the truth of how the show's stories and characters went from an idea to our TV screen.

For those of you not familiar with the TV show, I give a rough overview of it in my previous Doctor Who post.  I would recommend watching the show that was rebooted in 2005 (at least season 4) before reading this book, since it references those episodes, and it will allow you to get the most insight and enjoyment from reading it.  Also, there are spoilers about Doctor Who seasons 1-4 and another show, Torchwood in this book.  If you don't plan on watching the show but are interested in writing and TV show production, Amazon lets you "look inside" to see a bit of the book so you can decide if you'll enjoy it without being familiar with the show.

For anyone that has already seen the show and is a fan, you will love this book.  Did you know the 10th Doctor's last companion was almost going to be someone else?  You learn how it all changed. Some episodes were originally going to be completely different than what was aired, and some characters were going to be played by different actors.  You can read the early stages of scripts and ideas that were never brought to life.  For those that love gossip, you'll also see the seemingly mundane moment that gave RTD the idea to give the 10th Doctor a daughter, which eventually led to a real-life marriage.

This book is fun to read and insightful and let's me re-live the RTD years of Doctor Who.  I've never really enjoyed reading non-fiction books, but I'm actually enjoying this one more than some fiction books.  Frankly, I can't believe I put it down to write this blog post.

The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter is available on Amazon, Kindle, and iBooks.  (Right now the Kindle and iBooks formats of the book are only $4.99!)

For more Doctor Who fun - check out our friends at http://rebootwhovian.blogspot.com, and for Who-themed t-shirts visit http://teespring.com/stores/rebootwhovian.

Musicals - because life is better with a score

Since middle school, I have loved performing in and watching musicals.  Some people may find them cheesy and unrealistic because characters will be talking and then break into song and dance.  But I say, we need to break into song and dance more in real life!

In a way, we do break into song in our everyday life, but it may not be as melodic or entertaining as in a musical.

In a good musical, songs don't just come up at random.  There is always a motivation and a reason for a song.  It highlights something significant and is a vehicle for characters to express something that spoken dialogue can't do as powerfully.  It heightens the level of storytelling.

In everyday life, we all have those moments where we're trying to convey something, but we just can't find the words to make the other person really understand what we mean or how we're feeling.  Our voice and speech changes from what we use for normal chit-chat.  We might repeat ourselves or use words that don't entirely make sense at face value.  We may even get so animated that our body's doing a badly choreographed dance.

In those moments, wouldn't having a lyracist and score with an appropriate tempo, instrumentation, and melodic progression help?  In our most devastating and joyous moments, don't we connect more deeply with the moment if an appropriate song is playing at the same time on our iPod?  I know I always feel better after blasting a song in my apartment and singing at the top of my lungs - although my neighbors may not appreciate it.

So I say again, life should be more like a musical!  At the very least, it's nice having a soundtrack playing in the background as you go about your day.

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Here are some of my favorite musicals and songs, available on iTunes, in case you'd like to check them out:

Evita

• Buenos Aires
• Another Suitcase in Another Hall
• You Must Love Me

Jekyll & Hyde

• Once Upon a Dream
• In His Eyes
• Someone Like You
• This is the Moment

Les Miserables

• I Dreamed a Dream
• One Day More
• On My Own

Miss Saigon

• Why God, Why?
• The Last Night of the World
• I Still Believe
• I'd Give My Life for You

Once Upon a Mattress

• In a Little While
• Shy
• Yesterday I Loved You

Ragtime

• Goodbye My Love
• Your Daddy's Son
• New Music
• Wheels of a Dream
• He Wanted to Say
• Back to Before
• Make Them Hear You
• Wheels of a Dream (reprise)

Rent

• One Song Glory
• Out Tonight
• Another Day
• I'll Cover You
• Take Me or Leave Me
• Without You
• What You Own
• Your Eyes

West Side Story

• Tonight
• One Hand, One Heart
• Somewhere
• A Boy Like That/I Have a Love

Wicked

• Defying Gravity
• For Good

Doctor Who?

In 15 days, a show that has been airing for 52 years (ignoring a brief break in the 90s) returns to our screens.  Yet another recent discovery for me due to mini marathons on BBC America.  Any British person will know I'm speaking of Doctor Who, but since the show relaunched in 2005, it has become a worldwide phenomenon.

Doctor Who is classified as a sci-fi show, although due to the nature of the show, it can be a drama, comedy, romance, thriller, action adventure, period piece, mystery, western, and any other genre that exists.  This range is due largely to the main character, an alien called The Doctor, and his time machine, the TARDIS, that can travel through all of space and time.

It's a bit difficult to describe - "timey-wimey," if you will.  But here goes. There is a non-Earth being, who's called The Doctor (not Doctor Who).  He happens to look human, but he is actually a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.  He has a time machine that looks like a 1960s London police box on the outside, but it's much bigger on the inside.  This time machine is called the TARDIS, which stands for "time and relative dimension in space."  Using the TARDIS, he can travel to anywhere in the universe and any time past or future.  He usually has a traveling companion, often a human.  They go on adventures that seem to always turn into them saving someone, a planet, or humanity.


How has this show been in existence since 1963?  Another core part of the show that provides flexibility - the Doctor is not human.  His species happens to have the ability to regenerate when they are about to die.  They just happen to change the way they look when they regenerate.  To date, the Doctor has had 12 different faces (and been played by 12 different actors).

Doctor Who is incredibly well-written and very well-acted.  These days, the special effects are quite impressive, especially considering the budget of the show.  The show is family friendly, although similar to Harry Potter, there have been some bits that would be scary even for adults.

Many people say, if you're new to the series, you should start by watching the episode Blink.  The odd thing is the Doctor isn't very central to that episode, but it is a self-contained story that deals with monsters and time travel, so it is a good way to get familiar with how the series works and feels without needing any background information.  Some other good ones could be The Girl in the Fireplace, Voyage of the Damned, The Fires of Pompeii, A Christmas Carol, and Vincent and the Doctor.  You can purchase single episodes on Amazon Instant Video and iTunes to see if you like it before committing to the whole series.  iTunes also gives you a 30 second preview clip of each episode.

I actually started with a complicated two-parter (Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead), and I was still able to catch on and fall in love with the show, so it doesn't matter too much how you start - just start.

For more Doctor Who fun - check out our friends at http://rebootwhovian.blogspot.com, and for Who-themed t-shirts visit http://teespring.com/stores/rebootwhovian.

Cash back and offers from Amex

As mentioned when I wrote about my Discover card, I love getting cash back for behavior I was going to do anyway.  Another one of my favorite cash back credit cards is the American Express Blue Cash Everyday Card.

There are certain brand associations people have with American Express that the company is trying to adjust, and the Blue Cash Everyday Card is one of the vehicles they're using to break false perceptions.  There is no annual fee for this card, and the rewards structure encourages everyday smaller purchases, not just the large travel-related purchases people used to associate with Amex.

The Amex Blue Cash Everyday Card gives you:

• 3% Cash Back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%)
• 2% Cash Back at U.S. gas stations
• 2% Cash Back at select U.S. department stores
• 1% Cash Back on other purchases.

And because it's an Amex card, you can participate in the merchant offers that Amex arranges with different companies.  For example, I just redeemed a deal for getting $10 back on a purchase of $10 or more on iTunes.  Offers like that are available from local businesses and big brands alike if you register and use your Amex card.

Now is also a good time to get the card because Small Business Saturday is coming up.  Every year since 2010, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Amex has encouraged its Card Members to support local businesses.  So far, they have added an incentive by providing cash back on purchases ($X back on $X+ purchases) made at a local business using a registered Amex card on that Saturday.  I'm guessing they will have some sort of cash back incentive again this year, but you can only get it with an Amex card.

As you can probably tell, I use my Amex Blue Cash Everyday Card differently than my Discover.  Because the Amex percentages are constant, I use my Discover in certain quarters for the 5% categories, and I use the Amex for groceries and department stores when they aren't one of the 5% categories.  Since I don't have a car, the gas category doesn't factor in for me, but if you do have a car, the 2% may be useful.  I also use the Amex for specific offers as they come up.  Because neither of these cards has an annual fee, I have the freedom to pick and choose whether to use a card and for what.

Right now, if you apply through one of the Amex links in this post and are approved for the American Express Blue Cash Everyday Card, you can get $100 back in statement credit after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.