Saturday, September 29, 2007

why do i worry so much?

I worry all the time about too many things. Maybe this is why.??

Why Women Worry So Much
By Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Writer 28 September 2007 10:15 am ET
Scientists have known that on the whole, females of all ages tend to worry more and have more intense worries than males. Women also tend to perceive more risk in situations and grow more anxious than men.
Now we know why.
Women are more likely than men to believe that past experiences accurately forecast the future, according to two new studies.
The research, involving both 3- to 6-year-olds and adults of both genders, tested the extent to which participants' thought that worry can be caused by thinking that a bad event that happened in the past could happen again in the future. (This skill, in its simplest form, is critical to social understanding as it is important to making decisions and assessing risk.)
For the first study, subjects listened to six stories that featured characters harmed by another person or animal in the story. Many days later, the character felt worried or changed their behavior when confronted with the same wrongdoer who had hurt them before. (For example, if one little boy stole a toy from another, the child might be worried when he saw that boy again and hide the new toy he was playing with.)
The second study was the same, except that the person or animal the character ran across later only looked similar to the one that had harmed them before.
At the end of each story, the participants were asked to explain why the character was worried or changed their behavior.
Females, both children and adults, were more likely to use uncertainty to explain the character's reaction, that is, they tended to explain the reaction in terms of events that might happen versus those that will happen, the researcher reported. They also tended, more than males, to predict that the characters who encountered the new character who looked similar to the wrongdoer would feel worried because they thought the new character would also do them harm.
The studies, detailed in the Sept./Oct. issue of the journal Child Development, also found that children increasingly made these kinds of past-to-future connections as they got older, which yields insight into their cognitive development.
"These results are significant because they reveal that knowledge about the impact of past-to-future thinking on emotions and behaviors develops during the preschool years," said study author Kristin Lagattuta of the University of California, Davis.

An older but related article:

Men and Women Really Do Think Differently
By Bjorn Carey, LiveScience Staff Writer 20 January 2005 02:12 pm ET
Men and women do think differently, at least where the anatomy of the brain is concerned, according to a new study.
The brain is made primarily of two different types of tissue, called gray matter and white matter. This new research reveals that men think more with their gray matter, and women think more with white. Researchers stressed that just because the two sexes think differently, this does not affect intellectual performance.
Psychology professor Richard Haier of the University of California, Irvine led the research along with colleagues from the University of New Mexico. Their findings show that in general, men have nearly 6.5 times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence compared with women, whereas women have nearly 10 times the amount of white matter related to intelligence compared to men.
"These findings suggest that human evolution has created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior," said Haier, adding that, "by pinpointing these gender-based intelligence areas, the study has the potential to aid research on dementia and other cognitive-impairment diseases in the brain."
The results are detailed in the online version of the journal NeuroImage.
In human brains, gray matter represents information processing centers, whereas white matter works to network these processing centers.
The results from this study may help explain why men and women excel at different types of tasks, said co-author and neuropsychologist Rex Jung of the University of New Mexico. For example, men tend to do better with tasks requiring more localized processing, such as mathematics, Jung said, while women are better at integrating and assimilating information from distributed gray-matter regions of the brain, which aids language skills.
Scientists find it very interesting that while men and women use two very different activity centers and neurological pathways, men and women perform equally well on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as intelligence tests.
This research also gives insight to why different types of head injuries are more disastrous to one sex or the other. For example, in women 84 percent of gray matter regions and 86 percent of white matter regions involved in intellectual performance were located in the frontal lobes, whereas the percentages of these regions in a man's frontal lobes are 45 percent and zero, respectively. This matches up well with clinical data that shows frontal lobe damage in women to be much more destructive than the same type of damage in men.
Both Haier and Jung hope that this research will someday help doctors diagnose brain disorders in men and women earlier, as well as provide help designing more effective and precise treatments for brain damage.

lol... or not!

I think this would just piss me off.

Youm Wara Youm

I love this song!
Samira Said (originally from Morocco, now living in Egypt) and Cheb Mami

temple food and traditional Korean entertainment

A couple of weeks ago, Sergeja and I went to Sanchon Restaurant in Insadong. We had been planning on going there for a couple of weeks and were really looking forward to it. We were not disappointed. It was so good. Worth the 35,000 per person. It is set menu of 20 vegetarian temple food dishes (I've added my comments in brackets):
1. porridge of the season (plain but sooooooo good)
2. watery plain kimchi (I always love water kimchi)
3. radish, mushrooms, peppers and other vegetables, wrapped in thin vermicelli pancake (Couldn't really taste or see what it says is in it. Tasted like a cinnamony paste in the wrap. yummy)
[#4 in center and #12 bottom right]
4. seven wild vegetables, each with its own seasonings (almost all greens of some sort, some okay, some I can't stand as they have very strong distinct tastes)
5. kimchi
[#7 top left, steamed and seasoned peanuts (#15?) center, #6 bottom right]
6. seasoned fresh lettuce (very good. vinegary with a bit of red pepper powder added)
7. cooked roots of ballom flowers and fernbraken (I really liked it. Apparently fernbraken is great for women's health but is bad for male stamina - say several Korean friends of mine)
8. fried kelp (yuck! so fishy. very dry)
9. steamed beancurd with burdock, mushrooms, carrot (tofu with sauce and such on top - I like tofu but not this sauce as it had some sort of mountain berry with a very strong anise/licorice taste)
10. jelly (fairly plain; always like it; I think acorn or millet jelly)
11. small potatoes glazed with soy sauce and millet jelly (soooo yummy, but only one small potato each)
12. seasoned wild mountain roots (I loved it, Sergeja didn't)
13. special chopsuey made with various vegetables and mushrooms (I always love japchae)
[#14 bottom left, #16 center, (#15?) right, #11 bottom right]
14. three kinds of fritters of fried seasonal vegetable (tuikim - battered and deep fried snacks - long green peppers, lotus root and eggplant. I loved all but the peppers.)
15. seasonal Buddhist monk's favorite vegetables
16. three kinds of pan fried seasonal vegetable pancakes (very good)
17. rice with beans, millet, etc (just a dish of sticky rice with a few things added)
[#8 bottom left, #18 center]
18. soybean stew with mushrooms, radish, red peppers, beancurd, etc (dwenjang chigae - one of my favorite Korean soups that is fairly simple to make- served with a cool bamboo scoop)
19. tea (some sort of grain tea - barley or millet or something like that - nice)
20. sticky rice pastry (yugwa, a puffy rice cake. I got a box of this for the Lunar New Year. I do really like it. light, slightly sweet, fluffy)The entertainment during our meal was great. It started out with a buddhist monk playing a jong (a giant bronze bell; a very deep resonating sound) and a traditional chinese calligraphy demonstration.
Then there was a variety of traditional Korean dance performances (for some other pictures of a variety of traditional Korean dances including some of the ones I'm listing, check out lifeinkorea.com):fan dancedrum dance "Sogo si a small drum used for farmers'music either with or without a handle. Also referred to as maegubuk, it is often used in creating farmers' music and folk dance music" (ureuk.or.kr)something like the Seungmu (?) - "With a strong Buddhist aspect, this dance is performed wearing a indigo skirt, white top, and white pointed hat" (tour2korea.com) followed by an awesome drum performance - Jwago (a barrel drum in a wooden frame)- A few times during this performance, he was drumming so fast you could barely see his hands; and he was not just drumming the center of the drum but was alternating hitting the top edge of the drum and the center of the drum and then the outside edges of the drum with the backs of the drumsticks."Hwagwan-mu was performed in the court for state-level visits or during a joyous national event. Ladies-in-waiting performed this dance for the King. The performers wore magnificent dresses with delicate embroidery and long sleeves that covered their hands and draped down almost to the ground. Originally, the dancers wore flower cornets, but they have been discarded in modern times. The dance has a sense of gravity in all of its movements." (lifeinkorea.com) another drum dance accompanied with another drum anda gong
The restaurant has been in the news and around the net several times (I'll only post a couple):

KOREAN TEMPLE COOKING WARMS THE BODY, SOOTHES THE SOUL
(August 6, 1986) By SUSAN CHIRA (NYT)
DURING his 18 years as a Buddhist monk, Kim Yon Shik grew into an ardent fan of temple cooking, the distinctive cuisine based upon fresh vegetables gathered in the country's woods and mountains. And when, at the age of 32, he left the monastery in which he had lived since he was 14, he decided taht this cuisine deserved a wider audience.
The result is Sanchon, an attractive restaurant offering temple fare for lunch and dinner with nightly samples of Korean dance and music.
Temple cuisine grew out of Korean religious history. Mr. Kim said. During the Yi Dynasty (from 1392 to 1910), Confusianism edged out Buddhism as the predominant religion in Korea, and Buddhist monks were ousted and forced to live in remote mountains. Without much money, Mr. Kim said, monks had to forage for their meals, and they discovered many wild, edible plants.
Temple cuisine's emphasis on fresh vegetables and herbs reflects a tradition in Korean cooking of closeness to nature. Many of the wild vegetables and herbs served at Sanchon are eaten for their medicinal qualities, or because they are supposed to warm or cool the body. Although Korean food is famous for its liberal use of garlic and red-hot chilies, supposedly introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century, much of the food served at Sanchon is comparatively mild, a reflection of an earlier tradition of indigenous Korean cooking. Many of the mountain vegetables served at Sanchon are parboiled and lightly seasoned with sesame oil, garlic, soy sauce and toasted and ground sesame seeds. Other dishes - particularly the thick soup, the spicy kimchee and a few of the vegetables and roots - include thick clumps of chilies.
His project has been a decided success. The main branch is tucked in a small alley in the center of Insadong, one of Seoul's antiques districts.
Guests enter Snachon by way of a courtyard filled with stones and large ceramic jars of Kimchee, the fiery pickled cabbage that is a Korean staple. After leaving shoes at the door, one enters a large room with wooden beams and several low tables with cushions. True to Korean custom, the floor is heated from below, a system known as ondol, and it feels toasty on chilly nights. Maps, carved chests, Korean flutes and painted doors decorate the restuarant. ...
[There is quite a bit more but it basically just describes the food and I dont' want to type it all. I've actually typed up most of this from the little copy of the article on the menu from the restaurant, as you can only access the full article on the net by paying for it.]

Sanchon as Asia's 10 Best Veggie Restaurants (September 2007)

Monday, September 24, 2007

Sunday, September 16, 2007

passed out in the rain

A couple of weeks ago walking home in the rain (I can walk past her home on my way), Sergeja and I noticed this on a little side road and decided it was photo worthy.I see all sorts of things thrown out here. Garbage is placed outside the gates of the homes and is picked up 3 times a week. In the areas with small streets or big hills, guys with little motorized carts go around to pick up the trash and then deposit it in a bigger pile along one of the truck routes.

grannies and baby strollers

A while back I wrote about grannies and baby carriages and about smoking grannies. I never had a chance to get a picture of what I was talking about.
A few weeks ago, while sitting on a little Starbucks patio having coffee (or was it iced chocolate?) Sergeja and I kept seeing a grannie pushing a stroller past, each time with something different in the stroller. I took my camera out, but then she didn't come along again.Another day, we were wandering home after a coffee and came across that same grannie and another one having some big conversation. As I had assumed, they were collecting cardboard and such.The one in white is the one I keep seeing going up and down the streets in that area, always wearing the same thing. I still wish I could have gotten a picture of the grannies pushing towering stacks of cardboard down the street where I used to live.

walking home

Just some random pics along the route up the hill towards my home. I find the area very interesting. A bit dirty, yes, but interesting none-the-less. There are a four ways I can take to get up the hill (up two different sides). Which way I take depends on where I am coming from and how I am feeling. This is but one of them; one of the more interesting ways in that it is partly little paths that no cars can go on. I live on a hill, right near the top. It is like a little maze of streets going every which way. In a car, I only know one way to get up as it is all one way streets.going uplooking backa little set of stairs up aheada bigger set of stairshanging over the wall just before the stairsa Gingko Biloba tree above the stairs - I love Gingko trees!a vine growing up the wall beside the stairssome sort of squash plant hanging over another wall past the stairsKeep going.up some more

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Green Pasta

Last Sunday Revo and I wandered around my area and had dinner at a little a spaghetti restaurant called Green Pasta.It was cheap but decent. Actually, we both really enjoyed our meal. Revo had seafood tomato spaghetti and I had tomato herb spaghetti. The drinks (cola, cider (like sprite) or a Fanta variety) are self service (free refills) as are little freshly made side dish pickles.
The bill came to only about 11,000Won for the two of us (about US$10).
Revo would like to go back. He is sick of Korean food and so many of the western style restaurants are quite expensive. We shall see. There are so many other places to try.

Mr Pizza

A fire equipment storage box in a subway station in Bundang.Um... Nude pizza? I guess that would be without cheese. Shrimp pizza? yuck (I can't stand seafood). "made for women - Mr.Pizza"
What?????

out in Bundang

Last Saturday evening I went to Bundang for a bit of a get-together. Chris' parents were visiting and he had organized a bit of a dinner party for them and his friends - the visit corresponded with his parents' wedding anniversary and his father's birthday.
The original plan was to go to Carne Station (one in Bundang), an all you can eat and drink restaurant, but it apparently shut down recently. So, we went for some kalbi (meat).

I love kalbi restaurants here. It is basically just meat that you cook on a little grill in the middle of the table.

There are always a variety of side dishes to eat alone or with the meat. Lettuce (to wrap the meat in, garlic, kimchi, some sort of green onion dish and a somewhat spicy dwenjang (bean paste) dip are fairly standard. At the place we went, there were also mushrooms, squid, tofu and some sort of egg dish. We also ordered rice, which is VERY cheap and comes with a hot dish of dwenjang chigae (bean paste stew). I LOVE IT!

At the end of the meal, they also brought out complementary dishes of an egg soup type thingy - well, more like a bowl of steamed egg. The dinner, of course, was accompanied by drinking - beer, soju

and some sort of Korean wine (called Cheong-ha).

After dinner, the parents went home and the rest of us, about 18, mostly foreigners, bought some drinks at the local convenience store and headed down to the river to enjoy them.

Once we had all run out of drinks, we went to Jared's apartment nearby to hang out some more.

A few of us ended up staying there for the night, as the public transportation into Seoul ended at 12 midnight and a taxi would have been too expensive. I got up very early in the morning (7AM) and left before the others were up as I had company coming in the morning.

To get to the subway staion, I walked along the way we took the previous evening along the river. There are bike and walking paths all the way along the river that follow the river all the way to the Han River in Seoul. Where we were sitting the evening before is just to the left of the far tents on the right. The little area has a couple of little water features and a long stretch of textured path:

sections of different textures (soft small round rocks, larger round rocks, sharper rocks, bars, etc) that you walk on in bare feet - it is supposed to help the accupressure points in the feet which are linked to the rest of the body.