Cooking, Music, Radiology

2020 Personal Review

Originally I had planned but one post to transition from national to personal matters, but once the other post surpassed 3000 words I couldn’t shoehorn this in anymore. So, for my now annual tradition, a self-centric recap:

Personal Matters

Now three eighths through a diagnostic radiology rotation, I’m now reasonably useful with a dictaphone. 

I became a patient myself. I had a stress echocardiogram, which was fun and thankfully resulted as normal. I wrestled with cystic scarring acne, which has left semi-permanent pocks on my cheeks. Triggers are likely ‘rona-related stress and dairy. Isotretinoin has helped tremendously.

I donated my coronavirus relief check to public radio and podcasts. As a perk, I became a subscriber to The New Yorker, which offers online crosswords. As a consequence, I now solve crosswords.

In quiet quarantine hours, I retreated into the worlds of video games, the most I’ve played in eight years. I played through four platformers: Ori and the Blind Forest, Hollow Knight, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and Celeste, each of which I recommend wholeheartedly. In addition, I played digital versions of board games like Scythe, Terraforming Mars, Carcassonne, Splendor, Small World, Potion Explosion, Mysterium, and Twilight Struggle. 

Katie and I moved in together. Hurrah!

My commute is now a 15-minute bike ride through Central Park. Beautiful, but sometimes blustery.

Katie and I managed to escape for a trip to upstate New York and Maine when the pandemic was quietest in the northeast. We made a couple trips to the Botanical Garden in the Bronx.

chrysanthemums at NYBG

During the monotony of eating in constantly, we’ve explored a view foods in more detail.

  • Chocolate chip cookies: on my earlier post I studied some popular online recipes. I still stand by the one my Kenji Lopez-Alt.
  • Scallion pancakes: Undocumented, but I rolled out so many. This included sampling four rolling techniques, four formulations for the lamination concoction, several dough add-ins, and various levels of hydration.
  • Peanut butter: we tried peanut butters by Santa Cruz Organic, Smucker’s Natural, Teddy’s, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Jif, Skippy, Justin’s, Peanut Butter & Co. We tried some non-peanut nut butters too.
  • Dark chocolate bars: Please refer to Katie’s ongoing in-depth documentation at katiequan.com of her exploration therein.

Here’s to a better 2021! I hope we can start hanging out safely soon.