Marinated Mozzarella Pearls, Mozzarella, Avocado Sandwich

20240725 #breakfastdiary 1127, 00°C/cloudy, 00min/exercise(P) I could have sworn I had some — dug it out of the freezer early this morning, the last remaining piece of baguette, topped with #marinatedmozzarellapearls In a bowl, add mozzarella pearls (bocconcini), olive oil, mixed herbs, 1 clove minced garlic, lemon zest, pink peppercorn, green olives, black olives, and salt, and mix thoroughly. Probably even better if left to marinate in the fridge overnight. Chopped sun-dried tomatoes would probably be a nice addition too. Anyway, breakfast 1. The act of making breakfast The relativity of breakfast time The quiet perseverance of breakfast pancakes Oven cooking We'll find the answers. We always have. Like the catchphrase "Pass the civil service exam with EduO, pass the real estate license exam with EduO too" that made you wonder which cram school's ad copy this actually was — the movie Interstellar had a famous line that, perhaps unintentionally, made 400,000 exam-takers' hearts race. The protagonists, on a journey to find humanity's new home, decide after fierce debate on Miller's planet as their destination. There's no time to spare, not even a moment — because one hour on Miller's planet equals seven years back on Earth. But contrary to hope, engulfed by a massive tidal wave on Miller's planet, the protagonists come away empty-handed, having wasted a staggering 23 years, 4 months, and 8 days of Earth time, heading back to the mothership in sorrow. And there they reunite with a companion who has aged alone, in solitude, for that same 23 years, 4 months, and 8 days. Morning commute prep time = time on Miller's planet Since the global pandemic there have been many changes, and thanks to that, great systems like remote work and flexible hours have been introduced — but even now, roughly 00% of office workers who still have to commute at a set morning time every day always wonder: why does the time spent getting ready for work fly by so fast? According to a reliable survey, apparently a whopping 00% of office workers skip breakfast — and that's not even counting the time to make or eat it. How about this: you think you woke up at your usual time, but suddenly the morning air feels oddly different, sending a chill down your spine, and then you confirm you woke up exactly one hour late. From that moment, your own personal 100m dash begins. Only those who've experienced it know. Just as one hour on Miller's planet equals seven years of Earth time, the time zone of your morning prep is different. It's relative. It flows by incomparably fast. There's the temperature the weather service announces (that's one thing) and then there's something like a separate "feels-like" temperature. The immersive time that begins with breakfast prep, and relative time There's a hidden trick to making and eating breakfast during this kind of morning rush before heading to work. It's immersion. You'd think immersion would make time fly faster, but unexpectedly, when you get absorbed in preparing breakfast, time tends to pass more slowly. There's a saying about losing track of time doing something, but that doesn't seem to apply here. Of course, getting immersed while making breakfast doesn't happen smoothly every day. On days when an ingredient you were sure was in the fridge turns out not to be there, or has gone bad, or there's not quite enough — those are the days time flies unusually fast. And on those days, it's not just time that flies — things get knocked over, spilled, and you even end up cutting yourself with a knife. So on days when breakfast goes well, it feels like something out of a physics textbook on relativity. This is how I proved the relativity of breakfast. Of course, there's no way to prove it to anyone else. People call this a mental victory. My breakfast's kick: So do I set aside time for this every day? Sometimes I do take a taxi. After all, getting immersed every single day isn't easy, is it? This holds true even if you swap out "breakfast" for something else. You'll get the strange experience of time flowing relatively slowly. And that's something Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who wrote about the joy of flow, passionately argued as well. (That part's a lie) Generally, digging deep into or getting absorbed in something is called "flow." ----------------------------------------- Murphy's Law doesn't mean bad things happen. It means what can happen, will happen. Considering weaving in more famous Interstellar lines this way Doing breakfast in the face of relativity means Using time efficiently And from the moment you wake up, check the digital clock, get ready as leisurely-but-quickly as usual, then suddenly notice the leading digit has gone up by one — - 20210831, #breakfastdiary 196, 22°C/rain shower Toast thick-cut slices of bread on both sides in a pan with olive oil. Since I'm having it anyway, go heavy on the mayo, make scrambled eggs and place on top, add sliced avocado, then finish with lemon juice, lemon zest, a little salt and pepper — #avocadosandwich The Endurance, on its journey to find humanity's new home, arrives at Miller's planet, where the crew, engulfed by a massive tidal wave, wastes a staggering 23 years, 4 months, and 8 days of Earth time, Just as one hour on Miller's planet equals seven years of Earth time, one minute on the morning commute feels like a normal hour. And it's even more so if you think you woke up at your usual time, but the morning air suddenly feels oddly different, sending a slight chill down your spine, only to confirm you woke up exactly one hour late.