while making some sausage and scrambled eggs for lunch, i noticed some scratches on my brand new ceramic pan. brand new is kind of misleading, as i bought the pan back in june 2012. but here's the thing: i've never used it. maybe i used it once when i first got it to test it out, but otherwise it's just been sitting in my house. there's a chinese saying, 舍不得, which is the feeling you get when you have something really good but you don't want to use it because it'd spoil it, or you want to save it for a future occasion. that's how i felt about this pan. it was just too good to use.

normally i'd hide it, but for some reason it's been sitting out in the kitchen. all my recent roommates have ignored this particular pan simply because it looks new. but not karen. and i don't know what she did, but she scratched the shit out of it, like she was trying to scrape off something with the tip of a knife or fork. THIS IS WHY I CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS. it's not a big deal, and the pan itself only cost me $10, but why doesn't anyone know how to use a simple frying pan without scratching it all to shit? and as i recall, it took me a long time to find that particular pan, and i haven't used it for half a decade, and it takes simple god-damn karen one day to scratch it up. so the next time i'm at marshalls or tj maxx, i'll be looking for a new frying pan. because i'm sure once karen is gone, i'll use this pan and see the scratches it'll make me so upset i won't be able to cook.

i walked down to rite aid in the afternoon to pick up my three prescriptions. i almost stocked up on some almonds and chocolates on sale. i walked when i could've biked because it gave me a chance to play some pokemon.

it's the pokemon water event for the next few days, which means an abundance of water-related pokemons. i caught a remoraid this morning thinking it was rare, but then caught a few more the rest of the day. it's weird, but a remoraid (which looks like a fish) evolves into a octillery, which is an octopus thing. i also evolved 3 new pokemons: starmie, marowak, and noctowl. i just need two more first generation pokemons to receive the gold kanto badge, which is 100 pokemons discovered.

in the late afternoon (3:30pm) i went to another china-related lecture at harvard, building energy efficiency regulations in china: policies and trends presented by barbara finamore. it's sort of an esoteric topic, but one that i felt i also have experienced first hand, having seen the rapid building growth in china, and having worked in a construction company building a new factory. it was in pierce hall, which is right across the street from the natural history museum. i always thought that building was a dorm, but turns out it's actually a classroom building. the people here were different from the ones i saw at the china sex economy talk, with the except of an old professor, but he didn't seem to recognize me, even though we chatted in the elevator a few days ago.

this lecture was interesting, but i was hoping to learn about specific examples of how china is going green in the construction business, but the talk was more about policies and figures (no false advertising, the lecture was true to its title). one thing i learned is while civil buildings (any structure built to house people, including commercial and residential, but not including industrial) are built to be energy efficient (with aggressive government-issued efficiency targets, though still falling short of western world standards), once the projects are complete, the management of the buildings don't particularly follow or maintain the energy efficiency, so it sort of negates any of the positives. it's typical chinese 差不多 mentality.

afterwards there was a Q&A session. of the chinese students asking questions, i couldn't quite tell what field of study they were involved in. perhaps urban planning? some of their english was good, other not so good, and many had a british accented english, which i find annoying. a lot of the chinese were also from beijing, judging from their accents.

i stopped by the community garden to see if my old plot (34) had thawed out yet and to check out my new plot (22). it was almost 5pm, and i was dismayed to see that my new plot was in the shadows. this will improve as the season progresses and the sun is higher in the sky. but it's not as sunny as my old plot, which is a bummer, but still a pretty good plot. it's also smaller, but the reason why my old plot was bigger was it was underneath the mulberry, and all the side plots seem to be much longer for some reason. there were still plenty of larkspurs, i will dig them up as soon as possible before the city tear up my old garden in order to pave a road.

some of the habanero seeds have germinated. i noticed this morning, but there was enough seedlings to finally turn on the second bank of fluorescent lights. 240+ watt of illuminating power! it also gave me a chance to inspect all the cups, make sure the seedlings are okay and water them. some of the eggplants have also germinated, but not yet emerged from the soil, i can just see the curve of the stems. my transplanted mallow ('zebrina') had died. i will need to take another mallow from a different cup and try again. as for the other mallows (growing under LED lights), they have started to sprout their real leaves. the stems are rather delicate, i think they need some air circulation to stimulate stronger stem growth.

i finished watching last night's episode of the expanse. i'm also reading the books but currently slowly working on book one, leviathan's wake, so it's still going to take a while before i start seeing any spoilers. i've managed to avoid future spoilers for the most part from online discussion boards, but i do know one spoiler (a belter attack on earth).

today the house was supposed to vote on the american health care act AKA trumpcare AKA republicare. partly as a bill that repeals certain aspect of the affordable care act AKA obamacare, it would result in the loss of health insurance coverage for 20 million americans over the next few years. it's a strange animal, drafted haphazardly, and one where the trump administration seems to be in a hurry to pass, without taking everything into consideration. that everything includes the ultraconservatives who don't think the bill is doing enough in repealing obamacare. should the bill be changed to satisfy them, it would in turn upset the moderates, which think an outright repeal is too much and would hurt their constituents. it's quite the predicament, so i wasn't surprised when the vote was delayed, then cancelled for today. the vote is back on tomorrow, but nobody is sure if it'll pass. if that happens, obamacare would still remain. for once, liberals have the ultraconservatives to thank for scuttling the bill should it die in the house tomorrow.

i made risotto again tonight. this time besides italian sausages and frozen broccoli, i also added some roasted asparagus (half a pound). mixed in the risotto, the asparagus had an earthy mushroom flavor, and on several occasions i could've sworn i added mushrooms by mistake.

karen came home around 8:30pm. she was out at a farewell dinner for her advisor at some boston tapas restaurant. at 9:30pm she had a video chat with a patient. she also ate some of my risotto, despite already having had dinner. she said this batch tasted even better.