Saturday, September 8, 2018

記念日(Anniversary)

Tomorrow is the anniversary of our wedding ceremony! MJ and I were super happy on the day of 9/9/2017 and it's amazing that a year has gone by. I've recently tested my "genkai" (review from last blog almost a month and a half ago! It means "reached my limit" when doing a 6-week work assignment in San Francisco. Worked 60 hours per week and 70 one particularly busy week! I've found that 60 is about the max my body can take before getting tired of working and wanting to live my life in some other capacity than sitting in front of a computer looking at a screen. Especially in a scenic city like San Francisco with great mountain and bay views and where the summers are extraordinarily temperate (No days above 70 degrees Fahrenheit even in the dog days of July and August!) it's tough to be stuck in an office building, ESPECIALLY one in the middle of the bustling tourist area know as the Embarcadero, right by everything. If I was stuck in Oakland, I feel like I could stay and do some more work. Just kidding Oakland, you're OK. I liked Lake Merrit.

70 has been my limit for number of hours worked in a week and that's really pushing it. I've had a chance to reach 80 before and it is not easy (yes there are as many as 80 hours in a week). The difficulty with 80 is that one needs to work ALL 7 days of the week (assuming 12 hours a day,


I've reached my limit with the recent phrase on everyone's lips, "Perfect." It's like this new thing that people say instead of "Understood" or "got it" or "Great!" when acknowledging something or confirming news of some kind, like if I schedule someone for 3PM on Monday, the other party accepts by stating, "Perfect!" It's fine if it's actually a perfect situation, nothing could be better, it's literally the best time in one's life or the best thing in the world, but I think people overuse "perfect" to the point of diluting its meaning. Perfect should be reserved for when everything aligns, there are no complaints, no flaws, nothing better. There's actually very few things in the world that are "perfect," and as a society we're taught that no one is perfect. The worst thing is to say "perfect!" and then 5 seconds later go, "Oh, actually, I have a problem......." I try to reserve my utterances of the word to avoid devaluation. No, someone giving you back your change when you pay for your coffee in cash is not "perfect." No receiving a routine business email from a co-worker is not "perfect!"

I'm at "genkai" with Netflix stock. It's been a great performer but definitely not in a straight line. It's a roller coaster and many times the dips are tougher to stomach than the rise up (much like an actual roller coaster). I'm the type that takes losing money a lot harder than making money through stocks, and the emotional hit I take when I wake up in the morning to see NFLX in the red and down 5% to double digit % (happens more than I'd like!) is just not worth it. It's like the psychological study where people were found to have much more profound memories of losing and the agony of disappointment than the joys of winning. Winning seems temporary and almost expected because that's what everyone's after, everyone's goal is, but losing is usually unexpected and shocking and triggers the memory cells.

Anyway, Happy anniversary! Make sure you celebrate once in a while the "perfect" moments in life (cuz there's not that many of them contrary to what everyone says)

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