Here is the recipe taken from a book I borrowed from the local library  - Classic Chinese Cooking by  Yan-Kit So (published by Dorking Kindersely)

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts (about 400 grams) or tofu
• 6 tablespoons peanut oil
• 3 or 4 cloves of garlic
• 4 or 5 spring onions (scallions)
• 1.5 tablespoons Chinese wine (Shao Hsing)
• 3 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• Finely sliced carrot, capsicum, spring pears and/or beans
• Sesame seeds

Method

Chop the chicken into cubes about 2 cm in size.

Add  Shaoshing wine, soy sauce,  salt, pepper and sesame oil to the chicken and let it marinate for about 20 minutes.

Heat the wok over a high flame then pour in the oil and swirl it around till hot.

Add most of the garlic and spring onions and quickly stir fry, then add the chicken. Turn and toss the chicken for a few minutes until it is browned, then lower the heat so it doesn’t get tough.

Splash a little Shao Hsing wine around the side of the wok and continue to stir fry.

Transfer to a bowl.

Clean out the wok with a paper towel, return to the stove,  heat  then add more oil.

Stir fry sliced vegetables, add Hoisin sauce, then add the chicken.

Stir, cover and allow to cook for a few minutes.

When finished, transfer to a serving bowl then spring with sesame seeds.

Let me tell you about my favourite Piazzolla compositions.

Libertango

I first heard Piazzolla’s music at a school performance of Libertango played by three girls on piano, violin and cello. I was immediately hooked and got several recordings of Piazzolla’s main works. Here is a recording of Libertango with YoYo Ma playing cello.

Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

Another work I heard performed by another school trio (featuring a friend’s daughter playing piano) is a work titled The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, not surprisingly it is a work in four parts – Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. Here is a performance of Summer performed by the Sejong Soloists. You can probably hear the influences of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons violin concerto.

Milonga del Angel

A slower work isthe sensual Milonga del angel. I was so moved by this music that I bought the piano music. It is rather challenging for my piano playing ability but it is one of my piano-playing goals for 2012. Here is a recording  from  BBC 1989 with the new tango sextet.

Oblivion

Another superb piece is the haunting Oblivion composed in 1982. This is a very famous Tango and many versions have been recorded. Here is an Australian recording featuring Cathie Travers on accordion.

Resurrecion del Angel

The piano music I bought contains Resurreccion del Angel and La Muerte del Angel. The first piece has a beautiful melody and here is a recording from 1985 with Piazzolla and the New Tango Quintet.

La Muerte del Angel

Here is La Muerte del Angel played by a piano trio. I love the fast lively mood, and I hope you enjoy it too!

More information about Piazzolla can be found a the astor-piazzolla.org web site.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Polenta
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 cup raisins – chopped
1.5 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
125g butter

Method

Soften the butter (I use the microwave) then mix with sugar, eggs and
lemon extract. Beat well.

Mix raisins with 1/2 cup of the flour and add to the mixture.

Sift remaining flour with the other dry ingredients and add, mixing
thoroughly.

Prepare a baking tray with baking paper, then drop the mixture in
quantities of a heaped tablespoon onto the paper. You can flatten
slightly with a form, but I found that the mixture flattens out by
itself.

Bake for 10-12 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees C.

Makes approximately 30 biscuits.

The recipe says they keep well, but mine were all eaten within 2 days!

I thought I would make a list of the reasons why I love my Kindle.

• It is easy to carry in my backpack and only weighs 370 grams which is less than a large paperbook. Also, it doesn’t take a lot of space.
• Inexpensive – $129 for the Kindle which is a lot less than an iPod.
• The screen is very easy to read and no eyestrain because of the “digital ink” technology. The Kindle can be read in direct sunlight and doesn’t cause glare like an iPad or phone. Because the screen is not backlit it can’t be used in low light situations like an iPad but that doesn’t worry me.
• A battery charge lasts for about 30 days of daily use.
• No distractions! When I read, I read because there are no other applications like email or Facebook!
• The Kindle can be read with one hand and the page forward button pressed with one finger.
• When I turn it on again, it opens at the page I left off so I can start reading again quickly. No bookmark required.
• I can carry a lot of books on the 2GB storage so there is no danger of running out of reading. Usually I read one book at a time.
• Project Gutenberg has a lot of books available for download  in MOBI format
• The built in dictionary is very useful. Recently I read John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and there were many words I needed to look up. These related to agriculture and no longer in common use.
• I can highlight text and type notes. These are saved in a clippings text file which can be easily retrieved via the USB connection.
• Ebooks can be made in MOBI format using the Calibre  program. This is useful for converting EPUB format. The Kindle can read PDF files but they are tricky to navigate.

The downside

• No colour – not essential but it would be fun. The new Kindle Fire is colour.
• A touch interface would be convenient (like an iPad) but the buttons work for me. My friend has a new Kindle touch and I tried it out. Her Kindle is a bit smaller and a lot lighter, but I am not planning to upgrade. I would prefer to get the most out of my black and white model.

Books

I do read books and will continue to borrow library books and enjoy books from my library. Now I prefer to use the Kindle for reading on the train.

In this article I explore my interest in electronic music and how it has come to be one of my favourite musical genres.  The basis of most of this music is the Moog Synthesiser, invented by Dr Robert Moog (pictured left).

You can hear these recordings on YouTube as well as reading how I discovered the universe of electronic sounds.

Doctor Who – BBC Radiophonic Workshop

The first piece of electronic music was the theme music for Doctor Who created by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. I heard this music every week as I watched Doctor Who on ABC Television. It was my favourite television program and sparked my interest in science as I watched the adventures of the “Doctor” as he travelled across space and time in the TARDIS. This clip shows the room full of equipment needed to make the music.

Messian Turangalila Symphony – Ondes Martenot

I used to listen to a children’s radio program called The Argonauts Club. There was a feature on unusual musical instruments and one instrument I remember well was  the Ondes Martenot an early electronic instrument invented in 1928. This sound is very eery and quite beautiful.

The French composer Olivier Messiaen wrote a symphony called Turangalila (published in 1948) and used  the Ondes Martenot as well as two pianos. The Ondes Marteno instrument looks like a small electric organ.

Beach Boys Good Vibrations – Theremin

Another electronic instrument I heard in the 1960s was the Theremin.  Its sound has been used in many science fiction films (The Day the Earth Stood Still) but best known through the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations.  You can see Brian Wilson operating the Theremin at 0:26.

Tangerine Dream

I became aware of the German group Tangerine Dream. Their music was very rhythmic but abstract and at first was an acquired taste. They used Moog sythesisers, sequencers, piano and Mellotron which uses tapes of prerecorded sounds such as flutes and strings. One of my favourite records is their 1975 release Ricochet recorded live in Rheims Cathedral. Here is the first part.

An early member of Tangerine Dream was Klaus Schuzle who is still active today. In 2010 he released a CD and DVD of his concerts in Japan. I am in awe of the huge amount of equipment he uses to make his music.

Autobahn – Kraftwerk

In 1975 the German group Kraftwerk released Autobahn. The song used rich electronic sounds, electronic percussion, and vocoder processed vocals.

Oxygene – Jean-Michel Jarre

In 1976 Frenchman Jean-Michel Jarre (son of film composer Maurice Jarre) released the album length instrumental Oxygene. This music was made famous in Peter Weir’s film Gallipoli. I like this album but prefer Equinoxe and the Concerts in China. Unfortunately his music has become too techno and dance oriented for my tastes.

Oxygene Part 2

Oxygene Part 4

Debussy interpreted by Isao Tomita

A big discovery  in the early 1980s was the Japanese musician Isao Tomita. I bought a second hand record “Snowflakes Are Dancing” which is Tomita’s interpretations of the piano music of Claude Debussy. This music is sublime, and sparked my appreciation of Debussy. Listen to Arabesque No 1 – Claude Debussy.

Here is an interesting video of Tomita recording “When You wish upon a star” using the Moog Modular Synthesiser.

In this clip form from Japanese television, Tomita demonstrates the Vocoder.

In 1988 Tomita produced a concert in Sydney called Soundcloud. He was in a perspex pyramid suspended above Sydney Harbour. We were at a party in Cremorne and didn’t see a lot, but here is a video.

Chariots of Fire – Vangelis

The last composer I want to showcase is Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou better known as Vangelis – composer of many soundtracks including Chariots of Fire, Soil Festivities, Blade Runner and Alexander . Chariots of Fire is very well known but I have chosen this clip from Blade Runner:

To finish this article, here is the opening of his 1984 album, Soil Festivities:

This article is about a section of the meeting which you either  Love or Hate – Table Topics.

Table Topics is impromptu speaking –  giving a short speech without much time to prepare. We use Impromptu speaking in our daily lives and it is a vital skill for success and growth.

Job interviews. Most us in this room have been in job interviews. We are asked questions and we respond as convincingly and enthusiastically as possible.

We speak impromptu in Social situations – and we  ask questions of other people.
What sort of work do you do?  What did you do on the weekend? Why did you join Toastmasters? How would you answer these questions?

In the workplace we need to speak in meetings with our manager or in a team meeting.

Speaking clearly, confidently and convincingly in all of these situations is a essential for personal growth and success.

What is a table topic?

A table topic is a mini-speech of 40 to 60 seconds. I  call it a speech because your response should have a definite opening,  a body and a strong conclusion.    The body of the speech can be a story – or you could talk about the positive and negative sides of the question  or give an example.

You don’t have to be highly creative, extremely funny or deeply profound – the only requirement is to stand up here and speak for about a minute.

Preparation

It is possible to  prepare for Table Topics. Remember when you went for that job interview? I am sure you researched the company, the job description and rehearsed answers to some questions you might be asked like “Why do you want to work for us?”

Toastmasters  meetings have a theme which is used by the Table Topic Master. For example,   today’s theme is Dreams. You can prepare for today’s session by thinking of five possible questions then practice responding. How about “What is your biggest dream?”.  By doing this, you will activate your memory by recalling things about dreams.   So my first tip is to rehearse possible questions .

Recall

Probably the biggest fear for new Toastmasters is not knowing what to say!   How do we get ideas for a topic? Our memories work by association and the best way to recall something is to ask yourself some questions . When the Table Topics  master welcomes you – repeat the question, pause, then ask yourself “What  images come to mind?” and “What does this question remind me if? “ Maybe you can think of a story or episode in your life.   So this is my  second tip – asking your memory.

Lie like a politician!

So what happens when you really don’t know what to say.  In Table Topics you don’t have to tell the truth – you can make up your response. Be as creative as possible. We probably won’t know if you are making it up anyway.

You can be more adventurous and ridicule the Table Topics  master.  You can talk about a different topic  something in parallel or maybe the opposite. Imagine you are asked to comment about the Australian Open Tennis – you haven’t been watching it so you talk about your experiences learning tennis as a teenager.

My third tip is to Lie like a Politician. Don’t worry about the question – this is Table Topics not a Police investigation!

Fear

A genuine concern for new Toastmasters is Fear – the fear of not knowing what to say – the fear of looking stupid in front of the audience. Fear and worry are going to  paralyse your brain and stop your thinking . If you them into your thinking, you will become like a deer in the headlights  and unable to move.

You need to take a different approach. Approach your Table Topic with the intention of having fun and to enjoy the experience of entertaining the audience with your response.   Allowing the spirit will relax you and enhance your creativity.

In summary, take your time in starting your response. Take a deep breath, think of just one thing to say, maybe a story, restate the question to get you speaking and release some nervous energy, then start speaking.

Embrace the challenge of Table Topics, have  fun and enjoy yourself.  There is nothing to be afraid of and the benefits will be life changing.

This is a Mind Map I made of this material when I was preparing the speech.

Click to view full size.

My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic 104 given to me by my grandparents in Victoria for my 10th birthday.  This present started my interest in photography and using a camera to record my daily experiences as well as my travels and holidays.

The Instamatic camera used a film cartridge (the 126 format cartridge) of 12 or 24 exposures. I used black and white film as color prints were quite expensive, however I did use Kodachrome color slide film several years later.

Looking over my album, most of the photos are of my family, pets and animals on my grandparent’s farm in Victoria, friends, and a few holiday destinations. I am glad that I took photos of people as these are extremely valuable connections with the past. I only wish I had taken more photos, but the constraint was the cost of processing the films.

Once I had been given a camera, I must have been given a photo album, clear mounting stickers to mount the photos, and more films.

It is interesting to compare these photos from the past to modern digital photos shared on Facebook, Flickr and email attachments. Each Kodak photo was a special occasion for a photograph and the subjects are usually formally posed.

This is the first photo in the album, taken on the tennis court at my grandparents’ farm in Geelong. The net is quite dilapidated and the surface of the court was damaged by the roots of the tall cypress trees seen in the background. My brother is holding a racket – my mother in the background, her sister (my aunt) kneeling and my cousin Fiona.

The composition is not too bad but I hadn’t thought of asking them to pose in front of the damaged part of the net!

One of the dangers of being the photographer is not getting many photos of yourself. At least I have a photo taken on my birthday, and I assume my father took the picture.

This is my birthday party. Notice the bright reflection of the flash in the window.

The Instamatic camera had special flashcubes which could only be used four times. After you pressed the shutter, the cube rotated 90 degrees ready for the next cube. You had to make sure the flash cube was attached properly otherwise the photo would be wasted.

One of the downsides of this old style photography (compared to digital) was that each print was almost like a special artefact. If extra copies were needed, the negatives had to be taken to the chemist where I usually dropped off the films for processing.  As well as keeping photos in albums, I kept the negatives in the Kodak folder.

Photographs are a wonderful record of our lives and I would encourage you to print your best digital photos each month and write notes, names and places because in the years to come your memory will fade and details will be lost.

Here is a photo taken on the Christmas morning of my 10th year.

Recently I started following the National Year of Reading web site  and love2read2012 Tweets and #NYR12 hash tags.

Today I read a tweet from @ozpoems about a blog “An Australian Poem a Day“. Inspired by the National Year of Reading, this site promises to post a poem by an Australian poet each day.

Reading some of these poems reminded me of the joy of reading kids’ poetry out loud. Reciting poems is a great tool for voice training as well as entertaining others. A greater challenge is to memorise poems so you can recite them anywhere.

In the meantime I am going to save my favourite poems in a Word document than make a PDF or ebook to keep on my phone. Then I will have a treasure chest of Australian poetry for reading wherever I go with my phone.

I particularly enjoyed this poem featuring a variety of Australian place names:

Mullimbimby to Bondi Beach  by  J. Andrew Johnstone

Mullumbimby, Moree,
Broken Hill and Karalee.
Broke, Yass, Wollondilly.
Oodnadatta, Lilly Pilly.
Maroubra Bay and Parramatta,
Coffin Bay and Coolangatta.
Bronte Cloe’s, Eubalong,
Tamarama and Cooranbong.
Come by Chance and Chukapook
Coogee, Yuna, Mallacoota,
Toorahweenah, Freeman’s Reach,
And flamin perfect Bondi Beach,
Where the tram shoots through
To take you to
Flamin’ perfect Bondi Beach!

Read the Oz Poem a Day Blog and follow ozpoems on Twitter.

Goodreads is a social networking web site for people who love reading. I use the site to keep track of what I have read, to record and report progress on my reading and to build my list of “to-read” books.

Just like Facebook you can add “friends” on Goodreads and find out what they are reading. What is interesting is to compare books with your friends to find out which books you have in common on your read and to-read lists.

What I particularly like is to view other people’s comments on books. You don’t need to be friends with them, but you can read their comments.  Click on the images to view full size.

As I read a book I can record my progress and make comments. These can be seen by your Goodreads friends as well as optionally shared on Facebook and Twitter.

There are discussion groups which are like virtual bookclubs. I joined a Should Read Classics group and in December we read Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol and Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. I was able to join in discussions on the web site.

Goodreads encourages reading and I am participating in the 2012 Reading   Challenge. I have set a goal of reading 50 books this year. As I update my books read with the finish date my “badge” is updated.

I hope you are reader, and I would like to invite you to join Goodreads and add me as a reading friend. Click this link to join Goodreads and join the community!

Tap Log is an Android app for recording time and date based information, transforming your phone into a digital logbook operated by tapping buttons. I have been using Tap Log for two months and finding it a very useful tool for tracking my goals and measuring my life.

Tap Log is driven by buttons that are easy to read and press. You set them up in advance so you don’t waste time typing repetitive information. Buttons can be configured to accept a numerical quantity, text and ratings (1 to 5 stars) giving you a very powerful tool for capturing personal information about your daily lies.

The captured information can be viewed on the phone or exported to a CSV file and sent to your computer for further processing and graphing. The program has some charting capabilities built in, but I never use them as I prefer to process my own data. Tap Log can also record geographic data provided you have GPS switched on.

Here is a view of the screens  I would use to capture my wake up time. Click the image to view full size.

I click the Activity button which opens the middle screen. I click the Wake Up button which then logs the date and time.  The log screen is then shown with the data.

Setting up

The interface of Tap Log is uncluttered and consists of black screens with up to 10 user-defined buttons. Tapping a button can open a second panel where 10 more buttons can be added, and a third level can also be added.

Each button is given a name and assigned an action. The button behaviour  is set to create a log entry or open a sublist. The log entry consists of the date, time, and the button label stored as a category. A button can also be configured for entering quantities (for example capturing expenses or your weight), ratings (1 to 5)  or text. Quantities can be given pre-defined values, for example a glass of water could be assigned 250 and a water bottle 750.

My main screen has 5 buttons – Activity, Capture, Punch In, Punch Out, and Drink. The Activity is my main use and has these buttons: Sleep Time, Wake up, Piano Start, Piano End, Leave and Arrive. The Leave button opens another screen with Home and Office. The Arrive button opens another screen with Home and Office.

The Drink button has buttons for Water, Coffee, Tea, Beer and Wine to track my fluid intake (sounds like a cafe menu doesn’t it?). I just started using these buttons so I can check I am drinking 2 litres of water a day, 3 cups of coffee or less, and no caffeine after 4 pm!

The log file can be exported as CSV format and opened with Excel or read by other tools. I created a database in SQLite and wrote a Python script to import the CSV file into the database. This is what the CSV file looks like (click to enlarge):

You can see the date and time information, and the button labels become categories.

I am currently monitoring four areas of my life:

Sleep time. I record when I go to bed and when I wake up. I have written a Python program to produce a graph of this information. Note to programmers: The graph is an HTML document using Canvas drawing methods.

2. Piano playing. I record when I start playing piano and when I finish. On the Piano End button I prompt for text so I can  enter details of the pieces I played with comments. I wrote a program to read the Piano entries and produce a graph (HTML Canvas).

My daily goal is 45 minutes with 6 sessions a week (a total of 270 minutes). These goals have been drawn as red lines on the vertical grid of 15 minute intervals. As you can see I am not achieving my targets. At least I can quickly see how many days I play piano each week and the duration.

3. Office time. I record when I leave or arrive the office and home, including lunch breaks. This allows me to calculate how much time I actually spend at work.  Am I spending too much time at lunch, and how long it takes to commute? I am working on another graph which will show all of my collected data in one chart.

4. Fluid intake. I record each time I drink a cup of tea, coffee, jasmine tea (Chinese), beer, wine and water.

My programs.

You are welcome to use my scripts to create your own database and graphs. I uploaded my scripts as Word documents as WordPress won’t allow me to add text files.

1. Ensure you have Python 2.7 installed and SQLite.
2. Create the database taplog_cmc.db using this SQL script:  cresql
3. Use this program to import the CSV file: load_csv-py
4. Download the Piano practice graph making program to see how I draw graphs using  HTML Canvas: pianograph  Please note that this program is very rough and I am going to move all the graph drawing code into a separate Python module. This will be the subject of a later blog post.