Sex, Drugs, and Crime

http://www.rollingstone.com:80/culture/news/17389/233391

I recently stumbled upon this article from Rolling Stone magazine and it got me thinking. The article, titled "Sex, Drugs, and the biggest Cybercrime of All Time" was about a young man, Albert Gonzalez, and his posse who decided that they wanted hack into the databases of about 250 companies- including Barnes and Noble and 7-Eleven. The 25-year-old Albert thought he had everything under control. He was working as an informant for the secret service for four years. He helped federal agents identify and bust rogue hackers. The double-life he lived gave him all the information he needed to know how the feds try to safeguard the the nation's computer data. All of the information he gained just reinforced his sense of confidence in the crime he and his friends were about to commit. Although the story itself is extremely interesting, the one thought that kept coming up in my head was, "How does that much greed overpower one person?"

I'm sure there are plenty of people who, like myself, see things sometimes and want them. I know how I feel when a new Marc Jacobs bag comes out, but my reaction to it is not to go out and steal it or someone's credit card to purchase it. And although I want to believe that Albert Gonzalez was just born with a heart filled with greed, I know that he had to have had instances growing up where he had the choice to fulfill his own pleasures rather than care about how it would affect others. Luke 12:15 says, "Then he said to them, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.'" I think that people forget that sometimes. We live in a society where presenting yourself in a specific way is more important than the person you are. It's not all about the things we have but our relationships with others and with God. It's interesting when you meet people who don't have very much and see how happy and giving they are. They don't care about their material possessions, but would rather make sure that their guests are happy and that they are enjoying each others company. They do it without reward and are not boastful or even sad that they no longer have whatever it is they gave away. It's kind of sad that there have to be promotions so that people will go out and do something kind for others. Like Disneyland's "Give-A-Day, Get-A-Day" promotion. Yeah, it was a good idea because then they'd have helpers, but people shouldn't have to get something in return to want to help someone. Perhaps one day people will stop to think about how they can help someone else without having to receive something in return to do it.

Asia in my kitchen

I've had this obsession with food growing up, probably because the majority of my youth with spent with my mother and grandmother in the kitchen. My mom loves being in the kitchen. She even owned a kitchen supplies store when I was young. She had everything you needed and some, but my favorite thing about the store was that they would have cooking classes on Thursday nights. My mom wanted to have a big cooking event to bring publicity to the store, so she called Julia Child to ask her to come host a cooking class one night. It didn't end up happening, but she actually got to have a conversation with the woman! It's funny how she recalls the story as nothing out of the ordinary (she does that a lot). Like when she met Anthony Bourdain at the Arabic supermarket in Anaheim she told us the story like it was something that happened everyday. When I got older, I would experiment with my own recipes then take them to school to have my friends taste test (which none of them complained about). But anyway, what I'm trying to get to is that recently everyone in my family is so busy that we don't even sit together for dinner anymore. That bothered me so much, but it was kind of hard. For one, my dad's a doctor and usually has to work urgent care until about 9 p.m. and on the nights he's not working urgent care he still won't be home until 8 p.m. The only day he actually comes home at a decent hour is Thursday. So I decided that would be the day I would get the family together for dinner. I would decide on a type of food, pick out some recipes that sounded good and make a meal. Last night, I decided that we would have an Asian feast comprising of Dan Dan Noodles, Hot and Sour Soup, and homemade Sushi. Here are the recipes I used:
Dan Dan Noodles
Hot and Sour Soup
Oh yeah, I'm a vegetarian and the recipes call for things like chicken broth, which I just used vegetable broth in place of, and chicken, which I pretended was never in the recipe. hehe
And the sushi, I kind of just threw together of my own accord. I started my endeavor at 2:30 and figured it would only take me about an hour and a half or so to complete the meal. I mean, I had my little helper there to give me a hand. My dog, Captain Morgan (yes, he is named after a bottle of rum, but it's only because it makes people laugh when they learn what his name is) likes to help me in the kitchen. He's like my own little Ratatouille, except for the whole being able to cook part. He probably only does it in hopes or receiving some scraps in the process. Anyway, I started to prep everything so it would be ready to use. I seriously chopped more onions, cucumbers, garlic cloves,mushrooms, and fresh ginger than I wanted to. After all of that I wanted the meal to prepare itself. Luckily, my boyfriend came over to help me complete everything. After I left the soup to simmer on the stove, I moved on to making the sushi. Now, it might look easy, but rolling it tight enough and slicing it without ruining it is so difficult. We snacked on a few of the "bad" pieces during the process. I decided to start on the noodles while my boyfriend finished the sushi. I got the sauce ready like the recipe asked, but then it said to heat the wok and I was stumped. It said nothing about a wok in the ingredients list. Then I realized it was talking about the pan that I was supposed to cook everything in (duuuuh!). Poor little Captain (a.k.a. Ratatouille) got caught in the snow storm I created when I spilled corn starch everywhere.

After I cleaned him up, I finished putting the last touches on everything and setting the table. My family enjoyed everything, and so did I (except for the soup. Except for the soup. I'm not sure why, but at least my family liked it =] Well, except for when my brother started choking on it because he didn't realize it was spicy. He did end up finish his cowl though). Here's what everything ended up like: 

Dan Dan Noodles

Hot and Sour Soup

Sushi

CBU

I shoved the last piece of peanut butter and banana sandwich in my mouth, grabbed my sports bag, and rushed into the car. My mother backed out of the driveway and quickly began our drive towards the California Baptist University campus. When we arrived, I barely yelled a goodbye to my mom as I ran to the pool for swim practice. My friend Megan was there to greet me with a smile and a "late again" look on her face. We found a spot for both of us to sit together as we began our stretches. CBU played a large role in my life growing up. I remember how every weekday was spent in the pool learning techniques, gaining speed, and laughing with friends and coaches and on Saturdays we would partake in swim meets. We had all become our own unique family and spent so much time together. After I graduated high school, I left swimming behind to focus on my studies, which meant that I left Cal Baptist behind along with it. I spent my first year at UCR dreading my time there. I couldn't bare to be on campus and rushed off whenever I got the chance. After my first quarter, I realized that I truly did not belong there so I left, took a quarter off and tried to figure out what I needed to do. During that time, I reunited with my friend Megan. We reminisced of old times together and about all the laughs we shared and I was surprised to learn that she was attending CBU now. It got me thinking about what I wanted to do, so I logged onto the website to figure out what they had to offer. Before I knew it I was enrolled and the first day of classes was quickly approaching. After my first few classes, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this university. The professors were knowledgeable and helpful, the students were friendly and polite, the campus was nice, etc. But the one thing that truly stuck with me was the faith I saw in each person. They were all truly walking as examples of Christ and it profoundly changed me. I wanted to be like them-on fire for God. I had always been a Christian, but I never really did anything about it. It had always been a mere title, but I wanted to show God's light just as the other students I'd seen had. I slowly began to change. At first, it was difficult as I didn't see a lot of my old friends anymore, since I didn't want to put myself in situations that Christ would not want me in. But soon, I was making new friends. I was learning new things about myself, about my faith, and I was enjoying my life more than I ever had. I've nevr been as involved in a school as I am at Cal Baptist. I know God wanted me here and I'm thankful that I listened.