Birthdays

For my 23rd birthday, I spent my time at a rather odd place. I said odd because I would not have pictured myself in that setting in the states before. It was actually a tzu ching meeting, which took place at a "senior's" house somewhere near Detroit. I should say that I admire their environmental awareness a lot, and their efforts regarding this issue deserve praises. However, their over-emphasis on discipline and institutional rigidity really turned me off. Imagine sitting, sleeping and eating with certain ways and rules. There might be a hidden reason for that, but on the surface I doubt that conforms with the teachings/recommendations of the Great Teacher.

Speaking of which (which is the real reason I write this post), I received a cute surprise gift that night by Pei Ying:

It is a homemade Oreo cheesecake if anyone is wondering. Though appeared amateurish, that's the best gift I could ask for. And thank you for the sports coat and the soft toy :)

So when it's her birthday, I made her a buttermilk cake:

I slightly overbaked the cake, and the birthday wishes looked like a message from a serial killer, but other than that it appeared much better than I expected.

Again, the conscious me is afraid of turning this blog into a collection of cloying posts, but well, I just want to keep record of stuff. At least it's better than a picture of wisdom...oops. Hmm. Why do I even bother explaining. What a self-conscious bastard I am.