Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Key and Peele

I've been reading Judd Apatow's anthology of interviews with various comedians over the years.
The interview with Key and Peele, which I read on the plane, is about what you expect. Peele points out specfically that he got bullied because he was a black guy who sounded white. They say that a lot of their material and unique perspective on culture and class comes from being biracial, from identifying from across a wide band of the spectrum of race and culture in America.

As I was reading, a flight attendant pushed the drink cart down the aisle, pausing on each row with a saccharine "would you like anything to drink?" One guy behind me asked if she could help with the wifi. She turned and summoned over her fellow flight attendant, also black, and gave her a brusque "hey, go flip the wifi switch and, um, wait a minute before you check on it," completely changing her tone of voice.

It reminded me of this BlackPeopleTwitter meme:
To her credit, the drinks flight attendant proceeded to help the man in what I assume was her real voice, somewhere in between her work cant with her coworker and her fake service voice.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

first day after Ramengdan

For lunch, I had a banh mi and some pork on rice noodles. And 2 Skittles.
I also had Coke Zero for the first time in... 34 days? It honestly tasted different from what I remembered. Less sweet, more chemically. Not to say that the Ramengdan food was all natural, but it was bland for the most part.

For dinner, I went over to Whole Foods, planning on getting a ton of beets.
I didn't even know what to do with myself when I saw that the salad bar had no beets. How is that possible?

I got some kale with raw garlic, orzo, 2 perfunctory falafels, and a bit of ratatouille. I also shopped and got some chips and salsa, yogurt, cherries, and blueberries.

I have no idea how many calories it all was. I'd guess between 2000 and 2500. I wouldn't say it distresses me not knowing, but it did throw me off. Several things at Whole Foods didn't have nutrition labeling on them cuz they were store-made. In the past, I've asked about some such items and nobody could tell me what the nutritional info was. I don't care that much, but seems a little weak for a chain trading on a healthy image.

I've gotten one too many compliments at the gym to not keep up the body work. I'm sure I've lost some muscle mass, but I assume most of the 20lbs I've lost is fat. I think I'll target 2000 cals a day and see where that gets me.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Ramengdan 7/20

8.

Last day. Holding up. Not sure what happens tomorrow.

Lunch: chicken, corn

Dinner: oatmeal. That's all I have left at the apartment from the initial supply.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

the sin bin

In the course of shopping for other things, I picked up a few things that seemed really delicious. I never ate it during Ramengdan, but still, it was tempting.


- 2 bags of jerky
- bread sticks
- a box of matzos

Lessons learned

  • my mental arithmetic is not good as it used to be. I realized that part of it is that I'm trying to take shortcuts, like breaking 190 * 3.5 into 3*200-3*10 + 0.5*200-0.5*10. I'd be easier for me to the think through the multiplication flat out
  • in general, it would be a hassle to eat exactly the same number of calories per day. But given food's importance in such a scenario, I'm sure it would become second nature to continously track available calories and consumption rate. It certainly wouldn't be as handy as having a spreadsheet
  • my tolerance for the taste of canned foods is generally pretty high
  • my tolerance for sodium, not so much. I would feel weird after eating some of the salt-heavy stuff. If the Apocalypse really did go down, I would never get spam or any kind of prepared meat for protein. Even the straight beans had added salt
  • the variety I had was pretty good. I can't say exactly how it would extrapolate to the long-term, having the same 10 or so options ad infinitum
  • I really missed not knowing what I was going to eat on weekends and popping into random shops to get a snack
  • I noticed I would stop on food commercials when trying to skip through ads on TV
  • I really missed planning meals in minute detail, working out every dish I wanted. If it was takeout, I'd work out when I wanted to be home, when to place the order, and when to bike over to get it
  • Limiting your calories definitely makes you lose weight. That was not my main goal here, but I liked it nonetheless. I view the healthiness of this endeavor as on the same level as those two profs who dieted on McDonald's
  • The exposure to food all around me made the whole experience feel more like observing the Sabbath than being in the wastelands. There's an abundance of things that you choose to forego for your own reasons. There is no real psychological break from the availability of food. One Saturday, I saw an Orthodox or stricter couple walking down the sidewalk. The man would check out cars parked on the street occasionally. I guess he was a car guy. He just wouldn't let himself be in one on the Sabbath.
A long time ago, I did a fast just to see what that felt like. I had a diet Gatorade in the morning, a caffeine-free diet Coke in the afternoon, and water the rest of the time. I lasted 72 hours. By the end, I was either imagining food smells everywhere or actually being acutely sensitive to food aroma. I would be sitting at my gym trying to work out while being bombarded with real/imaginary Wendy's #6 wafting down the stairs from the street. The Wendy's was really there, but who knows if I could actually smell that food? 

In this month, I've never gotten to that level of intense hunger. Normal food was all around me. I even ate it a couple of times. Why did I set these rules on myself? I guess just to see if  I could make myself do it. I wouldn't say it was about discipline. It was just about accepting.
I think back to what my mom's college classmate told me about growing up in the Cultural Revolution, in those most destitute times. She said it was never that hard to get through it, because there was no other choice. That's a really remarkable attitude to have. 

Ramengdan 7/19

11.

Tomorrow's the last day. Still not sure how I'll proceed after it's over.

Lunch: Chicken, babybel cheese, vites

Dinner: decided, what the hell, let's eat the gefilte fish. Or it'd sit around forever.
The flavor isn't that bad. I've only had it a couple times before, and I've been avoiding it since. It was fine. I'm sure it would be delicious in a real apocalypse.
Finished with a lot of oatmeal and fishoil gummies.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Ramengdan 7/18

9.

Had to do a video shoot with work today, so brought along granola bars for lunch.

Dinner was chicken and oatmeal.

Friday, July 17, 2015

Ramengdan 7/17

8.

Today is the first day of the last 4. I had thought I had 4 cans of chicken left, but it was only 3.
Lunch: soylent, oatmeal, crackers.
Dinner: tanka bites, crackers.

To have the traditional sweet for Eid, I ate some gummy vites.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Things I have craved

  1. french fries
  2. Korean fried chicken
  3. burgers
  4. fish tacos
    • just the fish from fish tacos
    • just the pickled cabbage from fish tacos
  5. spaghetti and meatballs
  6. steak
  7. pad see yew
  8. chow fun, which is really similar in texture
  9. hot dogs
  10. any sub with a ton of mayo on it. Something from Quizno's, maybe
  11. lobster rolls (also with a ton of mayo) http://www.yelp.com/biz/paulis-boston
  12. ribs
  13. biscuits
  14. Thai golden triangles heavily dipped in that sweet sauce
  15. spicy nacho doritos
  16. stuft nacho from Taco Bell. I hope this is still around when I get out.
  17. curry (any curry) on naan
  18. fried cauliflower with cumin
  19. bowtie pasta with marinara and salami
  20. Humpty Dumpty All Dressed chips. I think I might have to find these online and order them. 
  21. really ordinary store pizza. The kind that's two pizzas stacked, shrink-wrapped together.
  22. a Whopper
  23. super thick cut BLTs
  24. 100 samosas with a shaker full of cumin
  25. the really juicy tomato paste in mini pizzas
  26. arancinis smothered in marinara
  27. piping hot tamales
  28. tomato and cheese sandwich
  29. that kind of luncheon meat with peppercorns in it
  30. Rami's falafel and hummus
  31. hot relish or sweet hots
  32. Sichuan shrimp from Zoe's, though of all the things here, it's the one I've thought the most about making myself.

Eid al-Fitr

The day that ends Ramadan is Eid al-Fitr.
Read all about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/dining/eid-al-fitr-recipes.html

I'm not sure I have any sweets in my supply for Eid. I guess I have the fishoil gummies.

Ramengdan 7/16

11.

Big lunch today. A 1100cal can of baked beans and a small stack of saltines.

I now have 1 can of chicken for each remaining day. I could probably plan my meals out the rest of the way. In fact, I'll do it right now:

Friday: soylent, oatmeal
Sat: granola bars, chicken
Sun: chicken, corn, oatmeal
Mon: soylent, chicken

Thanks to the surplus of calories from Hungry Mother and here and there, I think I can get by without eating the whole canned chicken and the gefilte fish.

Dinner: oatmeal and vites

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Ramengdan 7/15

9.

Lunch. 500cal Soylent. Oatmeal. Avoiding taking that last can of corn too early.

I still have one whole can chicken to deal with and one big can of beans.

Dinner. Can of chicken, oatmeal, vitamins.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Ramengdan 7/14

11.

Lunch: 250cal soylent watered down twice my usual amount. Much smoother and lighter this way. Shoulda done it like this from the start. The last can of nice white corn kernels.

Afternoon: I was able to scrounge a half sandwich from a board meeting and a banana. Even the tomato on the sandwich was amazing.

Dinner: 2 cans chicken, some crackers, and oatmeal.

Monday, July 13, 2015

Ramengdan 7/13

6.

Had some gummy vitamins and water for breakfast.

Lunch: 500cal of Soylent mixed with maple syrup oatmeal. This oatmeal is way too sweet. I think I'm gonna water down the Soylent a lot in the coming days. I thought I had 8 servings left, but I only have 4. For the better.
Had a few tanka bites.

Dinner: one more hummus packet, canned chicken, more tanka bites after the softball game, and more gummyvites.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

8 days left

Remaining supplies:
9x 500cal servings of Soylent
7(?)x 250cal cans of chicken
2x 200cal cans of veg
1x 1300cal big can of baked beans
36x ~150 packets of instant oatmeal
1x 1350cal (if you eat everything) whole can of chicken
4x 210cal packs of tanka buffalo bites
4x 70cal babybel cheeses
hundreds of cals locked up in gummy vitamins

I can do this. But the variety is slimming down.

Ramengdan 7/12

6.

Went to get my haircut today, then Matt called to hang out with him and his siblings. By the time I get back home, it's already 6! I basically have a whole canned chicken as a monomeal. Still have a few hundred cals left to pad out. Probably oatmeal.

I read this grim story:
http://jezebel.com/woman-forgives-husband-for-making-wrong-turn-prepares-1717341344

"Bedwell survived [two weeks] on rainwater, eight pounds of oranges, and a butter cream pie."
She's really lucky it was the rainy season.

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Ramengdan 7/11

7.

Light breakfast of some multivitamins and gummy fishoil.

Got some more hummus packets for lunch, and finished off the corned beef hash. Salty.

After I went back into the spreadsheet to correct the servings in the Soylent bags, it turns out that my remaining daily calorie budget is as high as 1590.

Dinner was tuna and oatmeal.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Ramengdan 7/10

3. close call

So a bag of Soylent powder has 2000 cals, and apparently 8 scoops' worth of powder. I was operating on the assumption that 1 scoop was 500 cals and 2, 1000. But no, it's 2 scoops that's 500. Oops. Today, I made the adjustment and had 500 cals of Soylent and a can of chicken for lunch. Scrounged a small squeeze tube of hummus.

For dinner, well --
we have a tradition at work where the interns have to make Spampersand Sandwiches. Cutting an ampersand out of spam and making a sandwich, basically. As the Minister of Cultural Affairs, it's my duty to oversee the process and eat the end results. And boy did I eat. I got a ton of calories, though the salt spike took a while to get used to.
I didn't have anything further for dinner.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Ramengdan 7/9

5.
Breakfast: poptart

Lunch: half can of corned beef hash, oatmeal. The oatmeal was egregiously stickly sweet.
But then -- someone had left out half of a steak and cheese sub, with a sign that it was up for grabs. Heaven in free calories. Scrounging is gonna be a bit boost.

Dinner: I decided to eat those jars of baby food. There was chicken and vegetables, sweet potato and chicken, and pears and raspberries. All delightfully bland, but still better tasting than Soylent. Also got a bunch of vitamins.

Ramengdan 7/8

6.

Scrounged a nice 200cal granola bar. Had soylent and tanka bikes for lunch.

Dinner was chicken, the last of that sunflower seed bread, more tanka bites, and a poptart.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Ramengdan 7/7

7.

The day of reckoning has come. I didn't want to do this, which is why I have to do this, to make this challenge real -- I'm tacking on some days to the end of Ramengdan. I rolled 1 die and got 3. So a mere 3 extra days. This spreads my calories out some more, but I think it'll be ok.

If this were really the post-Apocalypse, could you ever know when relief was really around the corner? In last Sunday's episode of Falling Skies, the focus was finding food, after rationing and starving for days. In the end, they succeed in finding a big cache of nonperishable food, including a sleeve of Pringles. One guy in camp mused that he wondered if he'd ever taste one again.

So I'm adjusting my calories to last me out the extra 3 days. Glad it wasn't 6 more.

Lunch: chicken, corn, vegall
Dinner: vitamins, oatmeal, fishoil

Monday, July 6, 2015

Ramengdan 7/6

3. I think that's the lowest I've rolled this whole time.

Lunch: big can of pinto beans, peas, and some Tanka buffalo bites that came in the mail. Because these meat bites have a known calorie value, I'm gonna swap them in for the deer jerky.

Dinner: chicken, corn, can of sardines. The sardines were good. They took me back to my childhood, where we'd occasionally get sardines in tomato sauce.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Ramengdan 7/5

11.

Had a monomeal lunch of yams, and a sun-warmed caffeine-free Pepsi, since I was visiting friends and having an event.

For dinner, I polished off the spam with some more crackers. Boy, these saltines are really dense, calorically.

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Ramengdan 7/4

7.

Patriotic post-Apocalyptic movies for you to try on Independence Day:
- The Postman
- Red Dawn
- Independence Day (not really post-Apocalyptic, but come on)
- Battle: Los Angeles

Tried to go mountain biking today, but the bike wasn't in good shape. Still rode like 15mi, just not really as hard as I wanted. Ate all sciency nutrition stuff before and during the ride.

Dinner was half a can of spam on crackers. Salty salty salty. The green beans, some gummyvites, and corn.

Friday, July 3, 2015

Ramengdan 7/3

11.

I needed a bit of a cleanser after that whole chicken. Oatmeal for lunch.

I'm catsitting over the 4th holidays, which has enabled me to do a bit of scrounging >:o. Today, I took down some leftover roasted brussel sprouts. Not a lot of cals, but a nice fresh vegetable.
Add to that a can of baked beans, and you got a nice dinner.

For late night, I scrounged some downright sinful homestyle kettle cooked potato chips. I think this mighta been too easy, as far as the hardship ideal was concerned. Calorie count is on the money, but I'm saving by using found cals.

At the halfway point, I feel like I've reached a state where I'm no longer excited by the novelty of eating canned foods, and their taste is just average. Not sure if they'll start getting blander as I go on. As for the calories and hunger, I definitely feel hungry, but in abiding the limits I set for myself, there's nothing I can do. Aditya's wedding was 6/13. When I flew back, I weighed myself at a lofty 216, having gorged for Ramengdan.  Hadn't been that heavy in years, maybe college. Today, I'm 200. I'll probably be in the low 190s when I'm through. 

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Ramengdan 7/2

9. Decided to crack open one of the whole chicken tins. It's rated for 1350 cals, but does that include the very fatty broth? I ate all the meat, and then had a "matzo" "ball" soup with the broth and some saltines. It was just over the salty line to be truly delicious, but was still good.

Dinner was just some granola bars and poptarts.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Ramengdan 7/1

5. Lunch was a sedate beans + corn soup.

Dinner... was supposed to be acai freeze-dried powder watered into a paste. You know, I just thought this stuff would be sweetish. Instead, it's horribly horribly sour and bitter. I made the further mistake of trying to cut it with a can of corn. I valiently ate must of the corn but couldn't deal with the powder itself. Is this what I have to look forward to with the gefilte fish?

Rounded things out with poptarts and babybel.

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Ramengdan 6/30

9. I should really plot these rolls to see if I'm getting a roughly binomial distribution.

1020 cals of Soylent for lunch. I tried to spice it up again with this mustard-flavored honey I found. It made it super-gross when thick. It was tolerable when I really watered it down.

Dinner -- chicken + green beans + carrots. I was undexpectedly fond of the carrots. Then some vitamins.

Tomorrow, maybe another monomeal?

Monday, June 29, 2015

Ramengdan 6/29

10.
Chili and more of that sunflower seed bread for lunch.

I decided to incorporate the deer jerky I have into calorie inventory. Still need to get a better estimate of how many calories it is.

Dinner? One large can of kidney beans.

I have 3 1000cal meals of Soylent left to spread out over 20 days.

Went to Star Market and found a small cache of baby food in jars on the discount shelf. I'm gonna call it scrounged food. 85 cents for 280 cals.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Ramengdan 6/28

5. Woke up really creaky and sore from the ride. Still, feels good.

I ate the beef jerky, all in one go. Only 200cals.
Ton of oatmeal.

I realized I need to eat a lot of gummy vitamins to actually cash in all the calories in my inventory. The other reason to eat those is to get enough Vitamin C, which is lacking in the cross section of tins I have. At least I like gummy vitamins, unlike gefilte fish.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Ramengdan 6/27

6. I went on a 56mi bike ride to Providence with coworker Dan.

We rode the commuter rail back.

I knew it would be tough with the limited cals, but I couldn't really eat up the night before. It was pretty rough despite eating constantly throughout the ride. Still not in my best form this season.

I ate 1200 cals in gels, bars, etc. Worth it. I should really eat more to have my body recover properly, but a limit is a limit.

Taking stock of cals I've eaten and cals remaining, I need to go to 1750 if I want to eat evenly. That'll be tricky given the bizarre assortment of food left. Not to mention the gefilte fish lurking in the cal count.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Ramengdan 6/26

6.

Back on the cans. I feel fairly full off of that feast, so 600 cals for lunch was no sweat.

I have a ton of calories in the for of oatmeal, and I haven't decided if I want to even it out or if I want to have oatmeal-heavy days. Lunch tonight was 5 packs of oatmeal, corn, and chicken. Prettyyyyyy basic.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Ramengdan 6/25

8.

I decided I'd go for scavenging that matzo. Seems fair. More importantly, it seemed fun and in the spirit of surviving in the wastelands.

So how will I spin this whole "eating real food at a real restaurant" deal? I think the scenario I invented is that I'm finally leaving the main survivor camp on an extended mission into the wilderness. I always thought that if I did end up in such a community, that I'd volunteer to become a motorcycle scout. To go out into the wastes and try to find other survivor outposts. To try to negotiate trade deals. I don't even know how to ride a motorcycle, but I'm sure I could learn it if I had to. Roaming the country, sort of like in The Postman.

The story, then, is this: The Apocalypse has happened, we hoarded up all the food we could in the near term, but now we have to figure out how to survive long term. Need to go find farmland, farmers, food crops, that sort of thing. So everyone is disbanding to go exploring. We're gonna have one huge fancy sendoff meal before departing into the unknown.

And I'm gonna drag the rest of my cals with me. Obv, no more outside food after this luxury.

Lunch was the matzo I scavenged and 500 cal of Soylent. I'm going light in anticipation of a feast to honor all feasts for dinner.

Dinner was... amazing. Hungry Mother is almost done, with just 7 services before it closes doors. The chefs were really on their best game tonight. I had the 4 course dinner:
- calamari
- deviled crab
- smoked pork shoulder and some cornbread with sorghum butter on the side
- yogurt cheesecake, which reminded me of Beijing yogurt from my old childhood
Probably 2000 cals or so.

I passed on some desserts with rhubarb in there. It made me wonder, if this were really the post-Apocalypse, if I'd ever taste rhubarb again. As it is, I have it maybe once a year, even though I really love it.

That does it for real cooked food for Ramengdan. Back to doling cals out of the hoard.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Ramengdan 6/24

9.

Lunch -- decided to go in on this exotic halal turkey spam I found in the international aisle. Paired it with a really sourdoughy German-style sunflower seed bread. The bread is one of those things that is not to my taste and will take some effort to finish off.
Oh, and by "go in on," I meant that I thought about this all last night and packed the cans accordingly.

Dinner -- chicken + peas, cold of course. Mildly warm water on instant oatmeal. Nailed the cals limit. Chicken has 45g protein for just 225 cals. The spam is 1020cals but only 42g protein, not to mention 200% of your RDA sodium. Still, you don't always get your choice of nutrition. Some cals is better than no cals. That could be the title of my post-Apocalyptic book.
This reminds me of that hermit who hid in the Maine woods and pretty much ate candy the whole time.

Tomorrow, I'm going to an actual restaurant to eat real food. Yes, I know, such a violation. Hungry Mother in Kendall Sq is going out of business, and I got a reservation when I heard the news, before I'd settled on doing Ramengdan. I have the following thoughts on this whole monkeywrench:
- great opportunity to stock up on protein
- I still have a 3500 cal deficit to close up
- I can prob skip lunch tomorrow, but will I?
- it's probably more realistic to eat real food closer to the start of this than toward the end
- need to come up with a convincing backstory for having this feast fit into my post-Apocalyptic scenario

One more thing came to mind -- can I scavenge? Rooting around looking for a scale at the office, I found a box of matzos with just one matzo left. It feels legit to be able to eat this found food. I'll think about it.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Ramengdan 6/23

Rolled 8. Today my goal was to eat just Apple Jacks and the rice milk I had not opened from before Ramengdan. The idea is that if I have something that needs refrigeration, I eat it as soon as possible to simulate avoiding spoilage. I already cheated on the spam going into the fridge overnight, but I wanted to really keep it honest where possible.

So today I'm having cereal for the whole day. This might have been fun when I was 9, but now I'm really paying for it. The sugar spike is a major departure from the sodium hazes I've been having. Today I'll be under the sodium RDA for once.

Lunch was so unsatisfying. Dinner, less so. Despite being hungry, I didn't pour the sugar dregs at the bottom of the bag into my bowl. I haven't thrown the nearly empty bag out, either. Maybe I'll get desperate?


edit: went to the gym after dinner (suboptimal without any followup cals, I know) and felt pretty good. I guess some kind of cals is better than no cals at all. Good to be on an uptick after that long cold I had.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Ramengdan 6/22

Rolled a 5.

Today, I definitely felt the hunger. Even going easy on the salt today, I end up drinking a ton of water.

For dinner, I finally finished off the spam I started yesterday. Tomorrow I think I'm gonna do the Apple Jacks + Rice Milk as a whole-day meal. It'll be fun, maybe.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Ramengdan 6/21

Rolled an 11, then a 6 for missing yesterday.

Opened up a can of spam (well, store-brand spam). It's 1020 calories with great fat and decent protein content, but 200% of your sodium! I only got into about 1/3 can for lunch. This concerns me a bit, because I have quite a bit of my calorie supply locked up in high-salt canned meat. I think I need to get a ton more of the canned chicken stuff, which isn't quite as salty.

My shopping list looked something like:
5000 cal protein heavy foods
5000 cal oatmeal
5000 cal veg (this will be a crapload of cans)

I ended up getting more meaty stuff and less veg. I got two perishable items to up the risk factor -- this ultra dense pumpernickel and a box of saltines (with reduced salt).
For the real gross-out factor, I got a jar of gefilte fish. Not sure how hungry I'll have to be before I crack that open. Decently hungry, hopefully.

Tonight was the first night that, after dinner, I still felt hungry. Hmmm.

Ramengdan 6/20

Calorie intake is ok, but protein is really problematic. Most canned foods have too much sodium for how much protein they have. Saturday was a miscellany of food.
I decided to decant one of my big bottles of superfood drink. I think I'd taken a sip before Ramengdan started, and this stuff goes fast. I was taking a risk drinking half the bottle, but I didn't end up getting sick.

Tomorrow, I think I'm gonna try to seal the deal and get the remaining calories.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Ramengdan 6/19

Rolled an 8.

For lunch, I brought the corned beef hash tin. 760 cal of super salty (something like 80% of the RDA) minced meat and potatoes. It would have been good heated up. I should try that. As it was, I just felt like a sponge for the rest of the afternoon. The no-salt corn is a godsend, as far as avoiding sodium. I also had a Gatorade protein bar just to try. It was good.

Thanks to a bit of buffer, I had a lot of cals left for dinner. Had the usual chicken+veg stew, then oatmeal. Peaches and cream oatmeal, to be exact. This is the fakest thing I've smelled in a while. I feel like I'm back in elementary school and girls are experimenting with weird fruit perfumes. Also, my "tea kettle" doesn't really bring the water to a boil, so the oatmeal has a wonderful parboiled texture to it.

Re: instant oatmeal --
I got a variety of flavors -- various fruit+cream ones, maple sugar, apple cinnamon. Each packet is 130cal. I always eat at least 2 packets. I've NEVER mixed two flavors together. Even after the apocalypse, I'm sure I wouldn't lapse on that vanity, until it was down to the last 2 packets.

Hunger levels are ok.

I think I need to prioritize what are desirable/tasty foods and what I don't want to eat, so I can mix it up evenly.

unrequited cravewaves

Throughout a normal week, I'll plan out next meals. Like, "I should convince people to do Indian on Friday" or "I could really use some of those chicken medallions at Crave Mad for Chicken."
Now, with only the food supply that I have, those are simply unattainable dreams.

Ramengdan 6/18

Rolled a 10 this morning. Safe.

I had to go to the dentist at 1, so ate a late lunch by my lonesome in the kitchen:
chili, no-salt corn, veg-all (corn, peas, potatoes, ???). The veg-all is kinda gross. I guess I need to stock up on that. The corn and chili reminds me a lot of my diet on the road biking down the west coast. The food didn't taste all that bad, and the TV was on the golf channel. It felt almost indulgent. I think I might have to get more drastic if I want this to be the kind of change of pace I was hoping for.

It was Hack Day, so lots of engineers staying late. A few of us went out to Taiwan Cafe. I just sat there looking at the food and drinking tea. It was a good time, maybe too good of a time if I'm trying to cast myself into some sort of ridiculous Puritan mindset. Sitting at the table and not eating the food is not the most realistic survival scenario. It sorta reminded me of South Africa, in that poor blacks in the service industry could be surrounded by relative wealth but could not indulge in it.

After getting back from lunch, I had a can of chicken and green beans. I promise you that you already know exactly what those two tins taste like. I've found that I have to drink the can water after spooning out all the solids. I don't really mind it, but I can imagine it would be gross to some. I ended up light thanks to doing more work and hanging out more. 300cal "in the bank" for tomorrow.

Finally, I randomized things a bit more. I have some more shopping to get up to the full calorie supply. So I thought, why not leave the exact amount of food I get to have up to chance? I rolled for the last 12k calories with 2 dice -- so I'd get anywhere between 2k to 12k, depending on what numbers I rolled. Got 7, so my final target calorie supply is 55k. I need to shop for 17k more calories. I think I'm gonna double up on some of the meat tins and get the rest in vegetables.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

opening a can of chicken

Tonight's protein was canned chicken. As I cranked the can opener, listening to the ever-rising ringing of the can lid, I remembered how my adopted cat Callie used to flip over the moon for chicken out of a can. I would always give her a few bits. As is typical for a cat, she would be in the kitchen mewing within seconds of the can hissing open. That's how I knew she was really sick -- when she wouldn't come running. I miss her a lot.


Ramengdan 6/17

The first day. Rolled a 4. Decided to ease into it a bit with some Coke Zeros for caffeine. As I'm not a big caffeine junky, and I did fine for several months completely off caffeine, I think I'll make it more realistic by avoiding all sodas. Just water, with flavoring if I can scrounge any.

For lunch, I kept up the indulgence theme by making 500cal worth of Soylent. Same familiar vanilla/salty taste. I spiked it with a bit of garum, but it got too salty. Still, can't afford to turn away any calories.

In the afternoon, the Engineering team went out to CBC in Kendall Square to have a hangout before Hack Day tomorrow. I studiously avoided eating anything, but got a diet Coke before the softball game. I definitely felt a little weak, but I think that was from a minor adjustment from getting back on Soylent.

Softball was 7:45 to 10 or so. We got destroyed, but we'll keep trying. I snacked out of my supply a bit.

I rode back and carefully ran the spreadsheet to figure out what I could eat. Dinner was: oat granola bars, oatmeal, a little cheese, a can of chicken, and some leftover drinks I had in the fridge.

I'm not being hardcore about the fridge -- I'm not gonna avoid using appliances to make it fully realistic. I have the fridge just in case, but I'll try my best not to have leftovers. Whatever I open, I ought to finish on the spot. I also have a tea kettle to heat water for the oatmeal.

Overall, the variety of food was pretty high, so I didn't feel like I was being punished just yet.

wanna see 27,000 calories?

This is about half my total calorie supply for Ramengdan:

I've got Soylent at work and several packs of instant oatmeal elsewhere. I still need to buy the other half of the inventory.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Ramengdan

Last year, I tried to observe the fasting rules of Ramadan. Over the hottest and longest days of the year, I didn't eat or drink in daylight. I'd been intrigued by one of the core principles of Ramadan -- taking time to think about being a better Muslim. Well, in my case, just a better person.
I found the experience a bit lacking -- I had no one to commiserate with during the hungry days, and really no fellowship over the course of the experiment. I wasn't sure if I'd do it again.

Over the year, I watched this movie, Letters from a Dead Man. A small group of survivors eek out an existence at the very bleak end of the world. They struggle daily to come to grips with their impending deaths. There's a scene where they eat an extremely small meal.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqk75f_letters-from-a-dead-man-04_shortfilms
At 8:55, you can see the priest sit down to what looks like a couple spoonfuls of chickpeas and 2 olives.

Having always been a fan of post-Apocalyptic settings, I loved the whole movie, but I was especially moved by that meal scene. Not only because of the farewell speech given by a living dead man, but also the sheer frugality required to survive in the face of nothingness.

This month of Ramadan (6/17 - 7/17), I will build up a stockpile of nonperishable food. My daily calorie limit will be 2000. The rules:

  • I can eat throughout the day; there's no time rules like Ramadan.
  • I can drink as much water as I like
  • if anyone wants to share a meal with me, I'll be glad to include them, but it'll come out of my rations
  • at the start of every day, I'll roll 2 dice. If it comes up snake eyes, I'll skip a meal that day
  • I'll take some multivitamins to try to get normal levels of essential nutrients. I'll also try to balance the fat/carbs/protein calories
Here's a link to my food supply:

I pretty much fatted myself up for this challenge, getting lots of cravings out of the way.

I'll be blogging daily to run down what I eat and what my thoughts are as the month goes by.

See also:

  • Fallout 3
  • Oryx and Crake trilogoy
  • Book of Eli
  • The Night Land
  • When the Wind Blows

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Wireless

It's weird being back in the US and being able to use my phone anywhere. 

Friday, April 3, 2015

Return trip

We're heading to the CT airport soon. From there, to JB, ATL, then Bos. And back to the real world. 

I probably won't post any more on the trip posts. 

So, how was the trip?

This is a post for folks who want to know, in general, how the South Africa trip was. I'll review the 4 parts of the trip individually, and then throw out some general commentary.

All my pictures from the trip, with explanatory captions: https://plus.google.com/photos/105909573807230408134/albums/6134298289176854721?authkey=CJDB3Z-sx7fjdQ

Gabe's (plus a few of Matt's mixed in for continuity): https://plus.google.com/photos/105909573807230408134/albums/6137994156123013665/6138792207093585138?banner=pwa&sort=1&pid=6138792207093585138&oid=105909573807230408134

Matt's blog: http://mmian-travel.blogspot.com

Drakensberg
This hike was physically and technically demanding, but rewarded with views of nature that are nearly undisturbed by humans. The guide we used tailored the hikes to our fitness (purported) and experience (alleged) levels. It was breathtaking to be hiking in the middle of nowhere, getting treated to mountainous landscapes around every turn. 

If you like hikes, you'll love the Drakensberg. 

Kruger National Park
I think I can recommend this visit to anyone. It's as casual or hardcore as you want it to be. I'd recommend self-driving in the day and taking additional guided drives or walks in the evening. The beauty of self-driving is that each animal sighting you make is yours, earned by whatever route you pick on the roads and however well you can spot movement/shapes in the brush.

We saw so many animals in their habitat, up close or at least from an easy viewing distance. It's more real than any nature documentary, though maybe not as loaded with facts.

Living in the various camps' bungalows and eating out of the camp shops has a mildly safariesque feel to it. 

Garden Route
Driving down the Garden Route will reveal what South Africa's climate and geography is really like. The coastal towns and parks are something else. The cities tend to be more developed and tourism-oriented than what we saw driving from Skukuza back into Johannesburg. 

Do this if you like driving, like stopping at beaches, and want to see some penguins. You'll probably want to bring your own music, as the radio stations play a pretty limited variety.
Cape Town
A distinct looking and feeling city. The geography is just as beautiful as other places you could go in South Africa, but it's also a real place with real people living in it. You could get the bulk of what you'd want to see by going to Table Mountain one day and visiting the wineries in Stellenbosch another. 

Final notes
South Africa is a country whose socioeconomic classes are so obviously divided by race. The vast majority of the tourism you might consider is part of the white, fully-Westernized South Africa. You'll be doing things that are offered to those with privilege. 

Everywhere you go, though, there'll be reminders that poor and less-Westernized people make up a very real part of the South African nation. There were signs all around this trip for 20 Years of Freedom. 

I remember when I was at the Delaire Graff winery, I wanted to tip the lady ushering people to the bathrooms. I didn't have small bills on me, so I gave her a R20 bill, which is probably more than her hourly wage (I had to check some charts on minimum wage). The very appreciative curtsy she made upon seeing the tip made me really sad. Wherever we went, random people were hustling us for tips, asking us if we needed help with anything just in hopes of getting some cash. It's an ever-present reminder of the gulf between rich and poor, of these social classes in constant contact but pretty much never merging or integrating. 

In this context, I have some guilt that the bulk of my vacation money fueled only the Western half of the country. Obviously, SA's social problems are not something I can solve as an individual or a visiting tourist. But I did wish I had acquired a more complete understanding of how the country is evolving 20 years after apartheid. 

After a couple weeks of travel, I have bags of clean and unclean clothes in my backpack. When I get home, both bags are going in the laundry basket. For a while, I had this patch of rhino dung dried up in the tread of my boots. As I stomp out of the airport in Boston, even that vestige of the trip has fallen out. 





Things I've seen on South African TV

- one person speaking Zulu while the other replies in English
- a woman coming into someone's home to deliver a message at gunpoint:
- an edutainment show about sexual health and safety called Intersexions
- an accounting lecture
- a slew of bad American TV shows that probably have never seen the light of day in the US
- a lot of rugby and soccer
- a grown orphan visiting his mother's hometown to talk to his long lost relatives
- just one channel in Afrikaans 

It seemed like there was a healthy amount of content geared to the black middle class. I can't presume to know what poor blacks in South Africa would watch the most on TV. 





Thursday, April 2, 2015

CT day 3

Our last day in CT and the last day of our trip. Tomorrow, we fly back to JB and back to the US. 

Breakfast was at a hipster coffee shop, The Power and The Glory. I got a pretzel dog with cornichons. It was good. 

We then made a longish walk down to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront and looked all around. 

There were some lounging fur seals:

In the big food court, there were all sorts of familiar (tarts, cookies, smoothies) and exotic (game kebabs, fresh biltong, African) eats. Here's some local stew next to samosas:

We walked back to the hotel. Matt and Gabe tried out the Turkish bath while
I lounged in the room. We tried out a fancy place for dinner called 95 Keerom. Its chef had apparently won the 2013 World Pasta Championship. As part of my dinner, I got the winning dish, a broccoli orichiette:
It was maybe too subtle for my tastes. The rest of the dinner was good, but not quite as good as a couple of the other places we've been to. In all, it was a bit underwhelming. 






CT day 2

Woke up at 3:30 to catch a long ride out to Gansbaai, which is back up east on the Garden Route. There wasn't a better way to plan the logistics of that if we wanted more days in Cape Town. 

After some standard training, the 20 of us shark tourists got herded into a 12m ship and chopped out over the waves to the sharkiest part of the bay. The water was chummed; the cage was lowered. People took shifts waiting in the cage. Gabe and Matt went first; I went in last.

I don't have any pictures because I left all my valuables on shore. 

The sharks were most inquisitive and active in that first wave. I was viewing from the top deck of the boat, which was  the best vantage point. But the extra height compounds the rolling waves' rocking effect. Picture trying to lean over and peer into the water while the boat is pitching back and forth. It's a bit unsettling to think that a hard wave might send you into the water, or at least into the railing. 

One shark took the bait and thrashed against the cage. The folks inside couldn't see the ferocity as well as they could feel it. It was a bit longer than the cage, which can seat 6 people. Another shark came straight from below and came straight out of the water to its fins. 

I thought the view from the top was better than in the water. You could probably see 15 ft out horizontally and 10 ft down. I couldn't wear my glasses inside my goggles, but I don't think they'd have helped much. 

Being in the cage was an interesting experience, but it was nothing as tense and exciting as driving beside the animals at Kruger.

After we drove back, there was a long nap. We got up and hit up a garden established by the Dutch East India Trading Company, followed by more walking about town. 
Some of the defacings on the bamboo go back to 1991. 

It must be nice to always living in the shadow of so scenic a mountain. 

As usual, there was the ever-present juxtaposition of rich and poor. On Kloof St., there were galleries showing with rich people chatting and drinking white wine out front. Right next to them were kiosks of trinkets being hawked by local craftspeople. It's hard to get away from the virtually compartmentalized society. 

Here's a bad picture of a school next to a sandlot:
People walk through the sandlot all the time, and in the back of it is a dump site that is picked through by people living in the shantytown behind the lot. The trailer housing that makes up the school is on the extreme cheap end of the scale. 

For dinner, we went out to a Cape Malay place. The restaurant overlooks the city, which makes for a cool nightime view. The buffet had a few very Indian-like dishes, but there was a standout fish stew that was spicy and had very soft onions. 




 




Differences between SA and the US

In SA, you can get hot or cold milk for your coffee. The hot milk is sometimes foamed. 

The refrigeration temp for sodas is not as cold.

Expected restaurant tip is 10%. There's a lot of attendant-type jobs that you're supposed to tip, like car guards and gas station employees. 

Powerful cars are very rare, so the hills feel infinitely steeper when you're climbing up at 50mph and losing steam. 

Every food/drink spot has toothpicks. Toothpicks are frequently handed out with your bill. It's great. 

South Africa is in love with skeleton keys for home doors:
I don't get the tradition. 

It's good for burgers to be saucy, not juicy. 

South Africa seems obsessed with puns. A selection:
- Appletizer, a soda
- Ocean Basket's slogan: your sole provider
- an umbrella decorated with "if you're under cover, are you in disguise?"
- High Tea Tighty shop
- Mex It Up
- John Lemon tea
- Out of CurioCity curio shop 
- Nando's promotion Living on the Egg
 







Wednesday, April 1, 2015

CT day 1

We got up later and rushed down to Table Mountain. The hike up was pretty brutal, with the last half almost all steps.
Some cool views at the top:
We went down via cable car, which was a mercy to my ankle. 

For lunch, we went to Hout's Bay, which itself was a bust. The area around it was a bit unplaceble. Less South African looking than the other parts of South Africa, I guess. Though I suppose lots of Cape Town is unique looking. 
That was the view from the lunch Thai place. 

Then we visited the penguins again at Boulders Beach. The African penguin used to be called the jackass penguin because of its braying call. I didn't get any of the pitch perfect donkey brays on video, but I got this:

We had major traffic getting back into town because of the One Direction concert, of all things. My rental reservation was also screwed up, where I signed up to return it at a time when the local branch was closed, which somehow was approved by the system. 

Dinner was on a touristy strip of Long Street, a short walk from our hotel. I had something called a Gatsby's, some kind of sub:
It's a chicken tikka with tomato sauce, which afaict is tomato slices and ketchup. 

Tomorrow, we swim with the Great Whites. From the safety of cages. 


Tuesday, March 31, 2015

GR day 3

Got up and saw a full tire instead of a flat one. That was a relief. We went to see the penguins:
There were also rock hyraxes:
This site was also used by early Khoisan people as a snacking point, piling up abalone shells:


Then we drove to the Stellenbosch winery region, sampling wines in two places and having lunch at the second. 

There was a trash fire or something nearby:

And we were still beset on all sides by gorgeous scenery:

We made a big push to get to the Cape of Good Hope before it got too late. There was a ton of traffic, but we arrived to a foggy west coast. 
There were a couple seals down there. 

The clouds opened up a little bit, so we got a slightly better view:
The Cape of Good Hope isn't the southerly-most point in Africa, but it is an important navigational landmark. 

We then drove into Cape Town for the first time. Our hotel is super posh and in a posh area. 

Our French bistro restaurant's menus snootily reminded us not to bother dining celebs. 


Jack's in Betty's Bay

I promised more pictures of Jack's. This is the view out the front of our room:
And this is the view out the back:

Pretty snugly situated on the coast, hunh?

We aren't staying long enough to take advantage of the huge balcony:
Picture the surf roaring in the muted distance. 

The proprietors are artists, and stock the halls with some cool art. This is my favorite by far:

The whole building has poured concrete floors and high ceilings:

Matt remarked it's the best place he's stayed at all trip, and I agree on the visual aspects alone. 

Some history:

Even though we have to keep traveling, the scenery and setup here at Jack's makes we want to slow down and take it all in. It's hard for me to say that this is the place to come to get away from it all, because it does have good wifi and let's you fiddle on your phone any time, like I'm doing now. Well, except for the power-down load shedding times, like what started just before I was about to upload this! It was supposed to be at 8:30 but happened early, catching Gabe mid-shower.

Breakfast:

Monday, March 30, 2015

GR day 2

Woke up to missing the bag with all my biltong bought at Kruger. While I was able to sample every kind, I'm still devastated at having misplaced it. For the record, impala was my favorite. So while it is a nuisance for spotting more exotic animals, impala is quite delicious as a cured meat.

This is how our Nissan rental (the one we picked up at Port Elizabeth airport) was secured overnight at Knysna Inn:
A powered gate in the back. 
 
We went down to the waterfront area of Knysa to get breakfast. 
At Cafe Throbb,
I had a nice smoothie:
And a chicken liver dish called bunny chow. On the whole, it was a delicious meal and reminded me of the places nearing SF on the bike tour. 

We drove through a few more scenes on the Garden Route before realizing in Mossel Bay that Gabe had left his day pack at the cafe. He and I drove back to pick it up while Matt checked out Mossel Bay more. I snapped a couple random pics on the way:

We got lunch at a place connected to the local branch of the posh Protea Hotel, with this legend of the old Post Office Tree:
My traditional fish and chips were disappointing. 

We headed back down the Garden Route. 

A gas station attendant noticed our left rear tire was deflating. He put in some air, but I verified it was dropping several psi at the next stop an hour later. Our spare is all good, but it's an annoyance. 

We arrived late to Jack's, a very out of the way but beautiful place on an essentially lost coast area. The pictures will be better when I take them in the morning. Betty's Bay is a quiet town on the Atlantic side. A cool survey/planning map of the area hangs at Jack's:

My dinner was a Xhosan dish: mqsho, where q is a click sound. 
It was good. But the highlight were the mini samosa appetizers, where the chef'd swapped egg roll skins in for better frying. Inspired. 

Tomorrow, we take on looking for penguins and poking around Betty's Bay before heading up to Stellenbosch for winery stuff.