Love of Learning is the Spice of Life

I've been keeping myself busy these past few months with some very interesting free online courses:

Stanford's Digging Deeper - Parts I and II 

Coursera's "Sagas and Space - Thinking Space in Viking Age and Medieval Scandinavia" from the University of Zurich and "Magic in the Middle Ages" from the University of Barcelona

I would rather take the courses one at a time to get the most out of each course, but since the guided courses are only open for a limited time, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to participate.

My favorite courses are the Digging Deeper courses, Parts 1 and 2,  offered by Stanford University. The first part was an introduction to medieval manuscripts: how they where made, how to find them online and how to read the scripts. The second part of the course explored Chinese and Arabic manuscripts, as well discussing the current state of manuscripts today. Again, there are transcription exercises to test letter form recognition. The instructors did a wonderful job in putting the courses together and I am very grateful to have the chance to learn something I may not have had a chance to learn otherwise.

My favorite activity is transcription. Most of the text is in Latin, but there was at least one on Old English. I really enjoyed using my knowledge of both of these languages to see if I could make sense of the passage. Fortunately, the English translations were thoughtfully included in the exercises, so whenever it was difficult to make out a letter, I could always look in the dictionary to find out what the letter might be.

Milestone: Shao Bing

A new Chinese restaurant has opened up at Hudson Eats food court today—Northern Tiger. It's the last restaurant to open in Hudson Eats' initial offering and I've been waiting for months to try it. What a surprise to see that it has opened today!

It's nothing like I imagined it would be—a typical Chinese fast food on hot steam trays. It's a Chinese fast food joint with a small menu focusing on northern Chinese fare, some of which I've never heard of, like shao bing and a noodle dish called Beijing zha jiang mian. I after a few minutes of deliberation and researching on my smartphone, I decided to try the shao bing which is a thin sandwich made of scallion pancake type "bread" enclosing chopped beef, onions, Anaheim peppers and cilantro.

The Verdict

Although it was made fresh and served immediately, it wasn't hot. The texture of the beef might also give pause to those who are accustomed to western food. There were pieces of something chewy in there which I couldn't identify. It was OK, but a bit too greasy for me. Supposedly it is one of the more popular items, along with Beijing zha Jiang mian, which I'll try next time.

Winchester Bible

Visited The Met Museum to see the medieval Winchester Bible since this is the last weekend of its NYC stay. I wish I had sone pictures to share, but unfortunately, since it was temporary exhibition, photography was not allowed.

It was fun and exciting to apply the terminology and knowledge I gained from taking Stanford University's online MOOC, Digging Deeper, when I was explaining to C how the book was made.  I was able to see the faint pricking right along the edge and ruling with C's help.

Anchors Ahoy!

I finally finished The Purl Bee anchor hat for my coworker's baby. Hopefully the hat will fit, if only for this season. I wanted to complete it sooner, but didn't want to work on it when I was sick for fear of putting germs on it. I also hit a milestone with this pattern. It is the first time I made a pompom and also the first time I used the duplicate stitch needed for the anchor pattern.

Happy New Year!

It's January 1, 2015. Welcome to the new year!