trying to improve my western omelette game, one big mistake i seem to be making is adding the "stuffing" ingredients as is without first heating them. that makes for a cold omelette. so this morning i tried cooking the ingredients first (diced ham and sweet peppers) before adding them to the omelette. i also used a bigger pan to created a larger omelette. but that made the omelette too thin (almost a crepe) and when i went to fold it in half it broke apart.

with my second attempt at using the aeropress, i opted for the inverted method. i also wet the filter to create a barrier so the water doesn't leak through the aeropress so fast, although using the inverted method makes that a non-issue. i made the mistake of adding too little water though (the direct i saw online said to fill it to the 1-2 mark) so when i eventually plunged the aeropress, it only gave me a little bit of coffee. i added some hot water to make up the balance and filled the rest with half & half and sugar. it didn't taste all that bad, very mellow, with the dilution and half & half added.

immediately after finishing my lunch i left via bicycle to the belfer case study room at harvard CGIS south to attend a 12pm panel discussion about the recent taiwan election. i suppose that's one of the perks of living next to harvard university, the chance to attend many lectures in all sorts of topics, all free, and sometimes even including food. i've been to to enough of these lectures to run into familiar faces, but i didn't recognize anyone this time. it's also the first lecture i've attended this semester (all the others weren't that interesting), which ironically is the last lecture of the year before everyone goes on winter break.

besides the two announced speakers (both visiting scholars at harvard), there was a third speaker, a young graduate student who recently returned to school after helping out with election campaigns in kaohsiung. the first speaker - a woman - spoke succinctly with a slideshow presentation. the second speaker - a man - basically just read from his paper in an accented monotone that made it hard to understand what he was saying. it also didn't help that he had no visual aid, just the mumble of his voice. the grad student spoke last - i was most impressed that he had no notes, basically spoke at length all from memory. the room was to capacity, and i felt a young woman tap my shoulder as she tried to squeeze in between me and another seat. i thought maybe she knew the other person but they were strangers. she was kind of weird, didn't seem to be paying attention to the speakers, checking social media on her phone, bouncing her leg, and twitched violently a few times. she left during the Q&A, couldn't quite handle the boredom anymore.

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