Diabetes (糖尿病)

One of the many words that is written the same in Chinese and Japanese, it's pronounced differently in Japanese, as "Tounyoubyou."

I've never known much about diabetes, even though it's a very common disease in America and the world; my mother has it and has to take blood measurements before and after meals, in between between, pretty much all the time, it seems. Seems like a pretty difficult process too, having to prick her finger every once in a while and draw blood to take the measurement. My mom says she contracted diabetes while having my sister (she was 40 when my sister was born) and that may be true; it's much harder to recover as one gets older. Ron Santo, a childhood hero because I listened to Chicago Cubs radio broadcasts all the time, contracted diabetes and eventually lost his fight to the disease, which impacted me more than I thought becasue Santo was such a likable guy and just wanted the Cubbies to win.

I count my blessings every day that I don't have diabetes (yet; diabetes is genetic so I'm definitely at risk) ; I assume I don't have it because I donated blood 3 times last year and they probably would have told me if I had it (maybe a bad assumption to make?) I recently was made to worry about it though, after someone mentioned that I should check to make sure I don't have it due to my "dumpling diet." It's a good warning, though, as I had always assumed naively that diabetes is caused by having too much sugar, limited to sweets, colas, etc. Turns out, having too many carbohydrates can cause diabetes as well (the carbs convert into sugar). Man, so many things to watch out for in this world. Symptoms seem to include frequent bouts of peeing (I sometimes experience this, although I  don't know if it's caused by the weather or what). Diabetes also has a lot to do with living a sedentary lifestyle and not exercising enough, which I try to avoid by running every day.

I'm often reminded that being young is such a privileged life: bodies are functioning properly, physical features are the best, mind is fresh and can still learn things. I am terrified of getting old, for many reasons but add "easier to get diabetes and many other diseases" to that list. One day, I won't be able to get away with my diet, my lazy lifestyle, and my body wont' be able to fend off almost any and every disease that comes my way. One day, I'll get something terrifying like diabetes. But until that day comes, I'll have to enjoy my life, and also watch out for things that might cause diabetes, as well as learn more about the disease and how it affects the lives of everyday people.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

Taxes (税金)

Japanese for taxes is Zeikin. (I may have done an entry on this already, at some point I imagine I'll repeat an entry just because I forget the titles that I do).

Today I did my taxes for the 2015 year, and it was pretty alarming I pay. I empathize with those who support Bernie Sanders and like the idea of free public education and universal healthcare, but as I grow older and more time in the work force (and out of school) I realize why Republicans are Republicans and want to keep more of their money instead of let it go to unknown government projects, public works, etc. Not that I'm complaining, but I learned that I gave $900-plus forced dollars to the California disability fund this year, quite a lot for each person to giving but from my volunteering I learned that there are lots of disabilities and lots of people needing those accommodations, so what's an able-bodied guy who's never experienced hardship to complain?

Doing my taxes was also personally beneficial to get a sense of how I'm doing financially, how much a year I can make, how much I'm spending, what I should expect to be spending next year, finding old tax receipts and keeping records, it's like a nice reset to the year in terms of money. It's really actually where we should make our New Year's Resolutions, at least financially: spend this amount of money only, get into this tax bracket, etc, etc. My family always uses a joint TurboTax account, and the questions the software asks always gives me hope: Did you own a home in 2015? (No, but maybe I'll buy one this year and enjoy whatever treasures are under the rainbow of home ownership?) Were you still single in 2015? (Sadly, yes, why you gotta bring that up? Who are you, my parents?) but also, but if I got married, what kind of prize do I get? Etc. Donating to charities does bring the taxable income down. It's actually not exactly like this mathematically, but I think of it as, for every $100 I'm giving, I'm saving $20-30 (whatever my tax bracket is) in taxable income, so I'm really only "losing" $70-80. And hey, maybe the charity actually does what they say they do with the money and it goes to a good cause.

I keep donating $5,500 to my IRA account! I always get this minor fear sometimes that this whole "IRA" and "retirement" myth gets hacked into or blows up somehow, my money all goes away, and I've just been losing a big chunk of change every year for nothing! Or, I die prematurely before withdrawing my IRA. THAT would be really bad too.

Any advice? Maybe do you taxes early if you think you're getting a refund? Re-invest that money into money right away and maybe get 2-3 months of interest rate? Oh, also, put as much money from checkings into savings. Finally, those dividends from stock investments look pretty nice (Hey, I got money just for owning stock!) but they get taxed pretty heavily cuz they're capital gains essentially, and as we've seen from Bernie Sanders, big government HATES capital gains. Speaking of which, the individual/ personal finance/ tax ramifications if Hilary or Trump become president: Trump would be possibly good for business but might destroy the country (win the battle but lose the war), Hilary might keep Obama's taxes the same, and if Hilary gets indicted leaving the presidency for Bernie, and we should just say goodbye to our paychecks forever. (just kidding but somewhat true)

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

The Mike Trout theory

Some people are just better at certain things/skills/activities than others. Doesn't mean they're better people overall necessarily, or that they deserve those special set of skills, but when viewed objectively, they are just better. Mike Trout is one of those people. He is one of the most gifted athletes in the world, but he happens to play baseball and be really good at it. He is the definition of an all-around athlete: he can throw, he can catch, he can run, he can hit a ball really really hard. For those reasons he is regarded generally as the best player in baseball.

In fantasy baseball, Mike Trout is also generally regarded as the best player. Unlike real baseball, however, it is easier to quantify how much Trout is better than the rest of the field. Whereas real baseball needs to take into consideration leadership qualities, morale, defensive runs saved over replacement value, and some other aspects, fantasy baseball is purely statistics and numbers based, and can be viewed analytically. Which is where the fun begins (and my fun with fantasy baseball takes root- the numbers, how good a player really is). Last season, Trout hit .299, scored 104 runs, hit 41 homers, had 99 RBI, and stole 11 bases. He contributed in all of the 5 categories he could have, but he was just the 12th best player based on ESPN player rater, and 8th best hitter. What happened? Mostly Trout didn't have as many stolen bases as some others, and hit for a lower average (.300 is a good batting average for major league hitters, but the best hitters can hit .320 and above). However, at the height of Mike Trout's game, the 2012 season (his first full season when he was just 20 years old!) he hit .326, scored 129 runs, hit 30 HRs, 83 RBI, and stole 49 bases (in just 139 games, not a full season!) . Amazing statistical numbers, and the 49 stolen bases definitely boosted him statistically to the best fantasy player on earth. That is why Mike Trout is rated No. 1 among most fantasy baseball analysts as well, because he has the highest ceiling (the 2012 season line) and theoretically the best chance to get to that ceiling (since he's only 25 years old still and in his prime). It's easy to say Trout is No. 1, but people sometimes miss how far ahead of the field he is, or at least his 2012 season was. (Btw, his .323-109-27-97-33 2013 season wasn't too shabby neither). Statistically, the 2012 season was miles ahead of anyone even close to him, and since there's only one person achieving that feat, his value for that season was astronomically high. In a snake draft (a traditional draft where everyone takes turns picking players) he was the obvious number one and the teams with the No. 1 pick got an obvious advantage, while in auction drafts (players are awarded based on bids, highest bidder wins) Trout should have been worth maybe DOUBLE the next player. That's something that should not be missed in an auction draft.

I wish I was worth DOUBLE what my closest competition was worth! I would feel so valuable and so wanted! I really enjoy analyzing numbers and how the numbers interact with each other, especially in terms of sports where the numbers are based on a real game and the numbers manifest themselves. But if it was just a simulation and there was no actual baseball being played (there are actually leagues like that) I'd still be interested. Well, actually, there's also something called the stock market where one can make money off of mathematical patterns and data analysis, but hey it's not as fun and it's not like I majored in finance or anything! (I did)

If only we could create statistics for dodgeball!

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

Moving (引っ越し)

I've moved (Hikkoshi in Japanese) a lot of times in my life. Ever since college began, I've been on the move. I changed residences each year from dorm to dorm, sometimes an apartment, sometimes living in someone else's home, sometimes living in a B&B. I've lived by myself, with a roommate, with several roomates, with a whole family of people, with pets in the home, with a garage and without a garage, with big party people and with people who stayed in their rooms all the time. But always, even when I went to college in Illinois, I've been able to fall back on my home away from home, my parent's home in Camarillo, CA.

Moving can be challenging: it's a hassle to pack and unpack everything, take everything that one owns from a place and move it to the next. It's also a pain to learn everyone's house rules: have to share a garage space, have to take out the garbage, the maid comes on certain days, etc., etc. There's also the matter of security deposit, ending the lease on the previous residence, arranging to move in, etc. etc. So why do I move all the time?

1.) I love running in a new neighborhood. It doesn't matter if it's downtown LA, South Central LA near USC, downtown Philadelphia (I've lived in all those places) I always carve out a path to run and enjoy the sights and sounds of the surrounding community. I usually try to run around in a one-mile radius to scope out the area, then branch out and try to find paths.

2.) convenience to workplace- We talked about Tsuukin (commute) last time, but each area offers its own advantages: Redondo Beach allows me to use the FastTrack to downtown, living in West LA is close to everything I do (lot of dodgeball gyms), but then again living in downtown saves me the hassle of even driving anywhere, I can just walk to work. Each place offers its own little quirk and its own unique challenges. Camarillo is probably the toughest for me convenience-wise since it's so far from everything, but it's got the best weather!

3.) Changing my lifestyle- one of my worst fears is living like a rat in a cage: repeating the same day over and over again, no change. I like to feel free, create new memories, absorb new stimulus. It's like writing a book and ending a chapter and going on to the next one, knowing it'll be related and written by the same person but a change in the topic, a fresh start.

4.) I like to bond with new people. I get a little tired of people and people probably get a little tired of me, and I've noticed by the end of a year of living with someone, some of the habits and quirks get a little annoying, the things that I thought were pretty cool now just seem lame, which can be time for a change.

5.) Give housemates a chance to miss me. When living with someone every and seeing every single day, it's sometimes a little too much- meeting less often can often enhance the experience and make it seem like a special thing!

6.) I like the feeling of just packing up and go- (aka "I'm a nomad")
Thankfully, I don't need too many material possessions in my life, and haven't owned a TV for a long time. All my things usually fit in one, tops 2 trips in my Honda Accord, and I can move it all myself all in a few hours (I welcome any help though for my next move!). The heaviest things I own are probably my dumbbell set, a 40 pounder and a 35 pounder (my right arm is probably a little bigger than my left). Thankfully the places I've moved to usually have furniture like bed and lights (I've never moved into a totally new space that was just recently built).  It's liberating knowing that I have the ability to go where I want to go, anytime, and I take advantage of it.

Eventually though, I know I will have to settle down, buy a house, start a family (and get some furniture of my own!) But for now I'm enjoying nomad life! Yay for still being in my twenties! (not for long!)

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

Commuting to Work (通勤)

In Los Angeles (and many other cities I'm sure but especially Los Angeles), commuting to work (Tsuukin) is a big deal. Having lived in various parts of the city, I can attest that certain parts of the city are definitely harder to get to than others. You have the "Bermuda Triangle" of the 101/I-10/I-405 highways (named because once you go in, you can't get out) where it takes a deceptively long time, and I pity those who work in there but don't live there. Mostly, professionals like myself work in 2 main areas, downtown Los Angeles and Century City (both have tall buildings as the icon of LA but barely make up a presentable skyline)

Keys:

1.) Find a home near a highway. This is essential to being able to get anyway, as side streets contain seemingly thousands of possible red lights where one can get stopped, plus pedestrian walkways, random construction, street closures, etc. etc. Highways get closed once in a while too, but at least when they're running you can get through (when it's not peak rush hour of course)

2.) Not all highways are the same: Certain sections of highways 10, 101, and 405 are ALWAYS congested, almost no matter the time of day.

3.) Go countertraffic- if most people go one way, try to go the opposite. On the I-10, it's astoundingly easy (well, proportional to LA traffic) to go east from Santa Monica to downtown in the morning whereas the opposite is a parking lot, whereas the opposite is true in the afternoon. I had the easy commute for a year and loved it.

4.) Have a contingency plan. Traffic can happen anytime, anywhere in LA- have some books on tape ready, music, etc. just in case.

5.) Rush hour is seemingly between 6AM-10AM and 3PM-7PM in the afternoon. as long as you avoid these hours (haha), you'll be fine.

6.) Find the Fasttrack highways and get a FastTrack device in your car. Actually extremely useful, can use the express lanes during peak traffic time and cut down significantly on your commute, as long as willing to pay each time for use, OR Carpool!

7.) People in other big cities like New York and Tokyo give great attention to their train station, to the point of Tokyo-ites (? I think) ask each other where they live based on what train station they get off at. LA.....actually does have a train system, and for all the bad reputation a lot of people I know actually use it, as it runs from downtown LA to Pasadena, Orange County, Long Beach, Redondo Beach, etc. It's just longer, and the trains seem really slow. And there are some unsavory characters on the train. Almost no options for those in Century City area unfortunately.

8.) Biking- trains, planes, and automobiles, I guess. Some people do bike to work....probably a little easier in the suburbs, I almost get run over sometimes by bikers and skateboarders, who in turn are almost run over by cars and buses....it's a very free-for-all driving situation in L.A.

9.) Especially in the summer, even if one gets off work earlier, just go outside, take a run, walk the dog, enjoy the weather until 7PM, then go home......lot better traffic then. Secret for those who in downtown: Dodger Stadium and Elysian Park is not that far away, and driving the 5-10 minutes there can sometimes be worth it.

10.) Uber-ing to work...is that a thing nowadays? Haven't tried it but seems feasible.

11.) Watch out for cops....for some reason they seem even more active for rush hour, maybe cuz people are rushing to get to work, make bad decisions, etc.

12.) The best thing to do (saving on parking, etc.) is to just have someone like my excellent gf drop me off at work. Yay! And carpooling is cool to spend some time with someone you (hopefully) enjoy being in the company of.

Today a construction worker fell from the currently-under-construction Wilshire building in downtown LA to his death (53 floors!) It gives me pause to first of all be thankful that I work on a job where there are no inherent work hazards, nothing that could potentially kill me, and I can work comfortably at such job without risking physical injury. Doubly sad (other than the mere fact that the worker passed away) was that it was his 3rd day on the job, where he was just getting used to the conditions, lot of time in front of him to work. Unfortunately, probably explains why he wasn't familiar with some safety instructions, etc. It also means he probably woke up this morning expecting to go to work, come home afterwards, have dinner, maybe talk to family, friends, go to dodgeball (or other social recreational activity to blow off steam), or like most people today, join in some St. Patrick's Day celebrations. If I do pass away, I'd like to have some mental preparation, some hint that it was coming, so that I could say some goodbyes, etc., but unfortunately that doesn't always happen (see The Sopranos's TV show ending).

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

North Korea (北朝鲜)

What a weekend! My wonderful gf and I attended the wedding of my law school friends Lee and Lauren (an inspiration for all lawyer/law student unions out there! Find true love in law school!) in Santa Barbara and went all the way up the coast of California through Big Sur to a town south of San Francisco called Monterey, home of the Monterey Aquarium and Pebble Beach Golf Course. Great piece of land, great trip, met a great Caucasian/ Korean couple who are friends with my gf's mother and got into a great conversation about Bernie rallying in key swing states Ohio, Illinois against Hilary, the future of the U.S. educational system, ancient history (do you know that every living person today probably somewhere up the lineage had an ancestor who brutally murdered other peoples? History is written by the victors, but that had never occurred to me.....but it's probably true, humans conquer other people and do savage things to each other- basically the theme of The Walking Dead). I could write a whole article about just this weekend it was so awesome.

But what struck me out of all those wonderful things this weekend was a story I read called The Girl with Seven Different Names, a true story written by a North Korean defector, Hyeonseo Lee who left her home country under dangerous circumstances and then was able to go back and get her brother and mother from the country as well, through a thrilling, intricately detailed set of procedures and dangerous tactics. She really was a survivor and was able to overcome so many obstacles and challenges in her life by the time she was 25, I really have to admire her determination and spirit. This included changing her name 6 times for 7 different names. Plus she had to learn 2 separate languages (Chinese and English) after she had already become an adult including the impossibly complicated (in my opinion) language of Mandarin Chinese! As well as the slightly altered version of Korean South Koreans speak as opposed to North Koreans (didn't know that they had different accents and native speakers could tell).

What really struck me, however, was what the author, Ms. Lee, described everyday life in North Korean in vivid detail, from growing up in the North Korean education system which indoctrinated the values of loving the North Korean country and their dear leader (the Kim Jungs), as well as learning to be secretive and wary of neighbors as anybody might spy on one's neighbor and report them to the authorities. A very dangerous society where a small slight towards the higher-ups might result in heavy fines or worse, imprisonment and eventually death. According to the author (as I have no way to verify the facts but it certainly sounds like they are true, and it is very difficult to verify since the country is so closed off to the outside world) North Korea operates on systems of bribes and knowing who was above one in position and loyalty above all else. One could commit crimes and be fined or do jail time, but if one was suspected of dealing with the South Koreans or worse, the Americans, they'd be shot and killed in front of the public. Pretty brutal concept, and disallowing those who wish to leave to leave. Anyone found to have escaped to China would be captured and brought back and either imprisoned, tortured, and/or killed. Really feel for the North Korean people as they are trapped in a society they were born into and have no ways of getting out. I live in the best country in the world, but as spoiled as I am, I constantly think about vacationing in other countries, or if going to China and working a while there could break up my boredom. The people in North Korean want to escape their country, but boredom is the least from their mind: it's to escape the fear of death and need to conform completely to the society, a matter of life and death. Really opened my eyes up to a different country and how backwards and corrupt some parts of the world still are, even in a part of the world that I had naively assumed was becoming more developed and not in need of that much attention, Asia. (There's a few chapters that make Laos and China look pretty bad along with N. Korea).

What really bothered me about the story (among 15 other things) is how the N. Korean kids were brainwashed or raised: Schools had the habit of holding assemblies where a classroom would go around and have kids criticize each other for constructive criticism and how better they could serve the state, like an intervention peer-to-peer to get kids not to trust each other and keep each other in line. Really the polar opposite of the free-thinking, independent ideas society that is the ideal system. I'm so appreciate that I grew up in one.

It's really amazing that Pyongyang, capital of N. Korea, and Seoul, capital of S. Korea, are only 120 miles about. That's a little more than how far it is from Redondo Beach, where I currently live, to Santa Barbara, where I drove 2 hours to for the wedding. Incredible how worlds apart those 2 countries are despite their proximity.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

Geography (地理)

I grew up liking geography; I've always liked to know where I am on a map, where I'm going, the different ways to get there, and also understand my place in the world in general. The Japanese call this "chiri," or 地理. I thought I was pretty good at it too, growing up being able to recite the 50 states and capitals of the U.S., until knowing absolutely nothing during the "geography" sections of the local bar trivia games.

Recently, I got interested in Japanese geography, as Japan, despite being what some might consider a small banana-looking island, has quite a few prefectures ,major cities, islands, etc. I've only been to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and some other major cities, so I don't know the difference between Saitama, Aomori, or any other distinct areas of Japan. Tokyo itself has a bunch of districts and small cities that encompass the total city of Tokyo that's pretty famous in Japanese history, and it's really part of the culture to know all those areas.

Interest in geography also probably sparks my interest in getting to all the different places in the world, as well as all the different baseball stadiums across America: the want of going somewhere new coupled with the interest in that place from having studied in geography. That's really part of traveling, I think: putting a face/ image with all one has heard about in the maps, stories, etc.

As I follow both the GOP and Democratic Presidental nomination races, I'm reminded of all the states in the U.S. and the demographics of the U.S. in general: how many people reside in Michigan (surprise win by Bernie Sanders tonight!) and how many of those are clustered around the Detroit area, that Iowa is predominantly white, how much rural area some of those states have compared to one central, metropolitan region. Mostly, I just like how the one demographic expert on CNN points out all the different counties of a state and which ones are going for each candidate. That's classic. It's also an important point that's really becoming an issue in this year's presidential election: state maps. Candidates need the delegates to get elected, and those delegates are more plentiful in big states like Florida, New York, Illinois, California, etc......all states that have not yet had their primary/ caucus. Still a far way from Donald Trump/ Hilary Clinton clash that most people are expecting.

Finally, I'm a little saddened that yet another piece of my childhood and nostalgic thoughts (along with reading books at the library, Blockbuster, and doing mental math) is being swallowed up by technology: really being able to read a map has become a thing of the past. Nowadays one can get by without a map, just type in the address on a GPS/ smartphone, and it will direct you on how to get there, just make right or left turns. What I really liked about my visit to the Boston Library was the map exhibit they had: I used to pore over maps as a kid to know where we are and plan how to get there, and look at maps of fantasy worlds like Redwall, Harry Potter, and Clue, really study them to get lost in that realm and fully immerse oneself, to know how the environments the main characters found themselves in fit in with one another. I guess one can still do that today, but not with the amount of urgency and enthusiasm as before.

In summary, geography's a big part of my life. Especially on days when I'm stuck in the office with nowhere to go and daydreaming about going to sandy beaches and majestic mountains, when I find myself staring at maps and picturing other places of world in my mind, geography comes in pretty handy. I'm gonna go pore over a map of Japan now.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

Feral and Stray Cats (野良猫)

My gf and I are both decidedly cat people (if given the choice between cats and dogs, we would prefer cats). Dogs are fun and friendly and lovable and loyal, but way too much work for me and too much of a commitment (shhh....I'm not big commitment guy!) and from what I understand, a little dirtier than cats (certainly smelled like it when I went to the animal shelter with my gf. The dog cages were almost unbearably bad smelling). Not sure I could handle a dog. And walking the dog all the time and pooper-scooping? Not worth it. Also going on vacation and finding a dogsitter? Wow it sounds expensive just thinking about it.

Cats though......seem a little more manageable. And I've now been humbled in that I know close to nothing about animals and adoption and whatnot, so I'm open to learning. My gf and I recently started running by a group of feral cats (野良猫) around where we live, and it's been pretty interesting......the cats live near a dumpster and run away behind a caged area as we approach, so we never get a really good look at them. I now know the difference between a feral cat and a stray cat, being that ferals live out in the wild and don't approach humans (and are active largely at night, which is when my gf and I have seen them) whereas strays were raised among humans and do approach humans. It's almost all about how the cats were when they were kittens, whether they were raised by humans or not. 

I didn't even think about the ramifications of feeding feral cats, just how cool cats are and aren't they hungry and let's feed them!, but apparently Los Angeles has a pretty big problem with feral cats, in that they are bad for the ecosystem, killing birds and mice and disturbing the food chain in that you have these wild predators out there eating little things. But sadly, the feral cats can't become housecats as they don't work interact well with humans anymore, so if they're caught and picked up sometimes they get euthanized, which sounds pretty horrible. Seems pretty unclear through my research so far whether people should catch them and allow them to be killed or just leave them alone out there (even though it's damaging to the environment), but what seems like a general consensus is to not feed the feral cats at least.....it attracts other predators like raccoon and coyotes, etc, if you're not careful, and property owners don't like it (if it's not you're property that you're leaving the food)  because it keeps the feral cats coming back for them. It's a tough situation. I totally understand why some people would want to feed the feral cats (they look cute and just like normal housecats!) to the point of there's a woman in LA who goes around to different spots around LA to feed feral cats, but on the other hand science shows it's not a good idea, and there's laws in different areas prohibiting feeding the feral cats (we saw a sign in San Pedro explicitly banning feeding feral cats).

One day it's pretty likely I will end up adopting a cat (or two!) and share and love the cat and feed it all the food that it wants (I'm all about having a fat cat) but for now I think I will use my head and not my vulnerable sentimentality to stop feeding cats out in the wild.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

Scenery (眺め, ながめ)

I've been to a lot of places in the world in my 28 years of life; I consider myself very fortunate to have visited almost all the 50 states of the US (including Alaska and Hawaii), both America's neighbors, stopped by in England (at the airport), visited Germany, Poland, Greece, Turkey, and definitely stopped by my birthland of China, Japan, etc. There's been a lot of great sites with great scenery (Nagame) in all those areas, and it's actually one of the reasons I go on vacation: travel far and wide to find new places with new views, change my perspective. So many different colors in those various "nagames" including the blue skies and blue waters of the Bosphorous Strait in Turkey, the white buildings lining the hills of the Greek isles's Santorini Island (I had a fun time last summer!), the orange and red hues of the autumn leaves in Kyoto, to the icy white glaciers of Alaska, to the luscious greens surrounding Vancouver's excellent Stanley Island, to the endless brown sands of the Phoenix desert (actually, not much to see there, don't have to go all the way to Phoenix to see those).


If you want a snowy ski paradise, Park City, Utah is the place to be. The site (along with neighboring Salt Lake City) of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, it's perfect for all kinds of winter sports like sledding, bobsledding, luge, etc. (those things go fast!) but especially for skiing, it's a skiier's paradise. The mountains were almost made for going down a mountain at a high rate of speed. And everyone there's friendly: it's like the luxurious vacation spot for city slickers. There's little visibility and usually wind (or worse, snow) blowing in one's face, but when you're up in one of those mountains in Park City, Utah, you feel like you're in a white winter, mountainous wonderland. Excellent snapshot.

However, sometimes what they say is true: the best places are sometimes in your own backyard. Well, especially if that backyard happens to be in Los Angeles, CA. I thought I'd been to almost all the places in L.A., but boy was I mistaken: just in the last few months I've been to some awesome new places in LA (less heralded but definitely worth seeing after your top choices of Getty Center, Disneyland, Hollywood, Santa Monica Pier, etc.) including the glorious coastal drive in Palos Verdes: the cliffs there and shores lapping against the rocks remind me of Big Sur or other mountain-drop-off ocean areas, and there's a new lookout spot every half-mile or so. Sunset is especially wondrous (here on the West Coast where our coasts all face towards the west, we give more attention to sunsets) due to the vastness of the coastline. Lots of possibilities, looking out into the ocean as the sun sets and the night settles in (I don't know how many times that sentence has been written about sunsets in the history of time, but it's probably enough to make it a cliche).

Also notable is Muholland Drive (I know, right, how have I not visited these places!) especially Runyon Canyon Park, where the top of the hill goes down towards the city almost like the iconic view of Rio Di Janierio (if only there was something as majestic as the Christ the Redeemer statute up at the top of Runyon Canyon). It's unique because it has so many hills surrounding it that look like multiple peaks, and it's closer to the surrounding areas of Hollywood and WeHo than the neighboring Hollywood sign/ Grifftih observatory hills that I go to. Driving down Muholland Drive also is a reminder that L.A. isn't just cities and fame and beaches, there's a quite mountain village in there cutting right through the heart of the city and somehow in 20 minutes one winds up in Brentwood near UCLA (site of the OJ Simpson chase).

And finally, Venice canals! Houses, an artificial river running through, and bridges! And it's not in Vegas! Open to the public! Sometimes one just needs to give the eyes some new stimulus and to feel part of the world and not just someone staring into a computer screen or Iphone screen all the time. These places do just that. Enjoy the views. (Nagames)

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

Newspaper (新聞)

I never worked on a newspaper or anything in college, high school, not even a Chinese school Saturday bulletin. But I've always read newspapers, been interested in newspapers. Maybe it's the crisp feeling I get from opening up a fresh copy of the Chicago Tribune back when I lived in the Chicago suburbs, going outside in the morning trying to find it (sometimes the newspaper guy missed the mark), bringing it in, sometimes it was wet because it had rained before, scanning the front page, and then.......going quickly to the sports section. Much more than the feeling and texture of the newspaper, though, was the content of the information itself. I felt much more connected to the rest of the world than living in the small suburb of Darien, IL.......there was more out there, more people out there doing interesting things, words I didn't know the meaning of yet, things I couldn't even explain yet or grasp the concept of yet....which was probably pretty exciting as a kid, except I wasn't cognizant of this excitement, I just felt that it was something I wanted to do every day.

Over the weekend my gf and I watched "Spotlight," the semi-documentary movie about the Boston Globe's reporting on the Boston area Catholic priest molestations, the reporting taking place around 2001 and finally being reported in early 2002. Coincidentally, we also watched Spotlight win the Best Picture award at the Oscars on Sunday night. What's striking about Spotlight is that it's not very dramatic, there's no HUGE, dramatic plot twist or any murder involved, it's just a story that slowly develops, has a few developments, but genuinely portrays the events that happened leading up to the revelation of the sexual crimes Catholic priests had committed against young Catholic boys. It showed journalism at its best, reports diligently pursuing leads and working tirelessly against the grain it seemed like for most of the movie to get to the truth, with a payoff of getting the top story in the Boston Globe and making a huge difference worldwide in how one of the biggest organizations in the world (the Roman Catholic Church) conducts itself. 2001, a time when print journalism really made a difference. Since then newspapers have gone the way of books and other print media: like dinosaurs, they rarely exist. It's sad really: nowadays everyone including myself has a lower attention span because there's so much out there, the acronym "TL: DNR" (Too Long: Did not read) accurately sums up most people's attitude towards long text-based articles. People need pictures, videos, graphics, jumping out at them. Facebook walls are most people's newspapers nowadays: no need to get out of bed, go out the front door, grab the paper, all those little steps that made my childhood newspaper reading days special.

Spotlight oddly reminded me of the 5th and final season of the Wire: garned mixed feelings but had a very important message about journalism: "The fishes are scared and just looking for a bigger pond." Unfortunately, newspapers are declining so much due to the Internet that journalism has devolved into just grabbing people's attention and trying to win prizes (like the Pulitzer) in order to survive. It shouldn't be like that: As Spotlight showed, journalism at least in 2001 didn't use to be out getting the glitz or the glamor, it used to be about getting to the truth and allowing readers to form an opinion and informing the readers of what's out there in the world, of informing 8-year-old Robert Yan in Darien, IL about all that the world has to offer.

Luckily for newspapers, my parents still read newspapers, my grandparents still read newspapers, and I imagine many people born in the newspaper generations still like the nostalgic feeling of getting the newspaper (like myself). However, I'm concerned about future generations: will they even know that newspapers existed, and more importantly: will newspapers (and other media) be able to get those big stories like the ones in Spotlight and affect social change that make a positive difference in the world that we live in?

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan