Fear No Evil, Except For Your Lack Of Courage.

I don't like Valentine's Day.
Note that I said, "I don't like".
That doesn't mean I hate it.
I think it's just another excuse for Hallmark and Candy Companies to make a lot of money.
The whole concept of the holiday makes little sense to me.
That you are supposed to be nice to these people on this particular day.
Apparently a box of chocolates and a card it's supposed to signify to that person that you love them.

Well to be quite honest, I don't need a silly lovey dovey day to tell my family and friends that I love them.
I'm perfectly content with telling them everyday, about my love.
I would like to think I bombard them with love and attention all year around, to the point where Valentine's Day would just be considered overkill.
Bottom line, I think Valentine's Day is a tad bit superficial.
It's like "here Hun, I got you crappy chocolate, a 18934k gold necklace and a stupid card that someone made a boatload creating. This tells you that I love you."
What happened to the good old days when people just said I love you out of the blue, just because?
That's what I'm trying to do.
I don't use one day to tell someone I love them.
I try to use 365 days.
So no, I don't hate Valentine's Day, I just love and appreciate everyone all year around instead of just a single day.


Chef Smythe is okay.
He is actually really funny in a strange, morbid sort of way.
He is very philosophical.
He knows a lot about a lot.
And he knows it.
And because of this he talks for a very long time.
Very long..... to the point where his voice is monotone and what he says starts traveling in one ear and out the other.
But that only happens during lecture, thankfully.
He doesn't exude the warm and fuzzy feelings.
Instead he is firm and frank, but understanding and fair.
Very fair.
I like him so far.
I think people were wrong about him.
He isn't mean, he is just realistic and fair.
I guess people are too sensitive.
I imagine that he will get much tougher as we progress, but that's just the nature of the machine.
I want him to get tougher, I want him to push us and make us better students.
The last group of kids that was in his class, the block in front of us, didn't open and serve on their first day because they ruined the white rice so Chef shut the kitchen down.
He spoke to us on the first day for 3 hours, stopped at about 4:30pm, pushed the open for service time from 5:30 to 6pm and we still managed to open, albeit 15mins late at 6:15, but we opened.
I talked to Chef Walsh today (my cuisines of Americas chef) and told him that and he was very impressed with us.
I sorta miss being in Americas.
I do like Asia but, it's not the same.
I just feel like we'll be doing a lot of the same kind of technique because everything is practically cooked in Woks.
Eh, whatever.

So Stephanie got me a Valentine's Day gift.
It was a pretty card saying that she loved me and that I was her best friend and telling me good luck in Asia.
And yummy candy!
Goodness I love this girl.. probably one of the nicest people ever.
No joke.
I'll miss her when she leaves to go to Georgia for the weekend.

Fear no evil, except for your lack of courage.
- Chef Smythe