August has been a long month, which makes sense considering it has the maximum amount of days, 31, but also because it has such long days (sun is up all the time). The old Japanese name for it is 葉月（はづき, , or Month of the leaves, because apparently it used to be associated with the time leaves started falling, but for me it's more appropriate to call it the long month, which was assigned to September of all months. August 31 was the last day this year for fireworks at Durham Bulls Stadium, significant because we live right outside the stadium and can see the fireworks going off on Friday and Saturday night, free entertainment and a reminder that this is one of the only things that goes on in a small town like Durham.
Visiting Bulls stadium reminded me of why I engaged in a 10-day baseball stadium trip in 2014: it's fun to go to each and every stadium, and each stadium has its own identify, its own unique characteristics, and minor league stadiums are even more intimate, and you can get much closer to the players than major league ballparks. Also, the $9.50 price of a ticket (on Saturday night no less!) is nice. In my opinion the best time for a baseball game is an evening game, right before sunset times. That way you can enjoy the feel of both day baseball and night baseball, you can see the lights come on and take effect, you can get awesome views of a glorious sunset from all parts of the stadium, and you can avoid the unrelenting heat of the sun bearing down on you in your seat. And you can possibly have fireworks at night! A perfect experience, which is what MJ and I got today on the last day of August. Oh, I should mention I don't like actually "sitting" at a baseball game, I view my ticket as just an admission ticket, not an assignment to a seat, because at any baseball game I'm active, I'm outside, it's like a walk in the park or a trip to Disneyland, I want to get to different angles, see the different concessions, etc. MJ and I didn't sit down a single time today at the game, nor did we use the restrooms, which probably would have ruined the experience. And we weren't the only Asian people in the stadium!
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Hardboiled
What has 4 letters. Sometimes 9 letters, but never has 5 letters. - A riddle I saw on someone's facebook post, which was also written on a signboard in front of a restaurant. Pretty clever marketing tool, to get people to think for a minute and attract eyeballs. Unfortunately sometimes provocative ones can get negative attention, like a restaurant's signboard here in Durham writing "Veganism is a big mi-steak." This sent off our vegan friend who cursed the restaurant and I'm pretty certain put a hex on the whole establishment, and we won't ever be going to that restaurant. Because of a signboard. Which is also why I take care when I post anything online anymore, including this blog, but especially on instagram and Facebook where anybody in the world can see it within seconds of posting. It's kind of an inhibition on free speech, but also attracts those who have strong opinions to broadcast their opinions, so that eventually only the strong opinions remain, and the moderate opinions stay in the background for fear of antagonism, and all that's left are neutral "I'm doing great!" posts, vacation posts, and pet photos.
MJ and I recently were unpacking in our new apartment and organizing our book collection, and I found books she owns very interesting, including "Hardboiled; Hard Luck" by Yoshimoto Banana. Banana is a great female writer whose works I read when I was just learning Japanese, so I have vivid memories of sitting in the library or at home reading one sentence of English and one sentence of Japanese to match the translations, all the while trying to follow the plot at the same time. Not an easy task if you're reading something mundane or boring. Luckily, Banana's (not her real name) writing really fits my tastes and usually has a very natural way of introducing her characters as well as delving into their mindsets and what they're thinking, as well as a bit of supernatural element (Hardboiled has ghosts and dreams), and also some flaw of the main character that they acknowledge. Great story-telling which makes me keep flipping the pages even when I'm getting tired of having to read the same page twice, in 2 different languages. It's one of the more memorable experiences of my language learning time, first in Japanese and now in Korean. (I once read Jurassic Park like that, which was quite a time trying to figure out all the dinosaur and DNA science names in Japanese).
Also, I like hardboiled eggs. MJ doesn't eat much meat nowadays which has rubbed off on me, but eggs are a nice replacement for protein and just for taste. Hardboiled egg and soy sauce (depending on the soy sauce) is one of my staple meals now. However, just like those vegan meals, they are not improving the smell of my farts any, and I feel like MJ and I have both worsened in that department since we met.
MJ and I recently were unpacking in our new apartment and organizing our book collection, and I found books she owns very interesting, including "Hardboiled; Hard Luck" by Yoshimoto Banana. Banana is a great female writer whose works I read when I was just learning Japanese, so I have vivid memories of sitting in the library or at home reading one sentence of English and one sentence of Japanese to match the translations, all the while trying to follow the plot at the same time. Not an easy task if you're reading something mundane or boring. Luckily, Banana's (not her real name) writing really fits my tastes and usually has a very natural way of introducing her characters as well as delving into their mindsets and what they're thinking, as well as a bit of supernatural element (Hardboiled has ghosts and dreams), and also some flaw of the main character that they acknowledge. Great story-telling which makes me keep flipping the pages even when I'm getting tired of having to read the same page twice, in 2 different languages. It's one of the more memorable experiences of my language learning time, first in Japanese and now in Korean. (I once read Jurassic Park like that, which was quite a time trying to figure out all the dinosaur and DNA science names in Japanese).
Also, I like hardboiled eggs. MJ doesn't eat much meat nowadays which has rubbed off on me, but eggs are a nice replacement for protein and just for taste. Hardboiled egg and soy sauce (depending on the soy sauce) is one of my staple meals now. However, just like those vegan meals, they are not improving the smell of my farts any, and I feel like MJ and I have both worsened in that department since we met.
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Chinese Buffet
Cream cheese- an innocent looking item, useful for eating with bagels in NYC and can actually do wonders including their "strawberry" flavor that supplements most bagel flavors well, but can be a liability at the airport when going through security. Is it a liquid or solid? I think of it as a solid because I have to spread it over cheese and make sure it stays so it's not flowing everywhere, but apparently airport security considers it a liquid like toothpaste, and stopped me from bringing it on the flight and thus preventing me from making my flight on flight. Ah, the fateful moment when your bags go through the screening device and you find out if it got through safely or not. There's often a fork in the road for bags after they've been placed under the hood, one leading to safety and the waiting arms of its owner (like a baby!) and the other leading to neglect, isolation, and the hostile arms of the local TSA security officer, who is tasked with strewing brusquely through its contents looking for the offending item at their own leisurely pace, while the bag's anxious owner paces to an forth to get the bag back.
For many years in my childhood, I was a veteran of Chinese buffets, those large buildings sticking out like a sore thumb in a the strip malls of large suburban areas, usually with a very generic name like "Grand China Buffet" or "Great Wall China." The one here in Durham is called, most simply, "China Buffet," like an invitation to any and all with no strings attached. It's $11.99 per person, all-you-can-eat, do as you like. There really is an art to eating at buffets if you want to, as my parents do, "get your money's worth" or at least get the best experience out of a Chinese buffet.
1.) take a quick tour around the buffet area before you begin selecting items onto one's plate. Sometimes there's a section hiding near the back you didn't know about, and you'll be sad if you missed it. It's ok if it's just another extra salad bar (cuz who likes salad when it's all-you-can-eat), but if it's a sushi bar or noodle bar or some other higher-quality item, you nee to know all the information!
2.) Work up an appetite beforehand. The whole needs to be planned around a buffet! Don't eat too much beforehand, and not much afterwards. Exercise is advised beforehand because the subsequent food coma won't be kind to moving around vigorously.
3.) Go during lunch, or a very early dinner. Don't want all the food you're about to eat to affect your sleep or be digested and passed through as fast while you're sleeping. Some, like MJ, can eat buffet during lunch and not eat the rest of the day.
4.) Even if you're SURE you will like an item, only grab one of each item on your first go. You don't want to overindulge on just one item, and you don't want to get stuck with an item you don't want to eat, as most buffets ask you to try to finish everything on your plate and charge if there's too much, but also you don't want to waste food in a society that already consumes too much, do you?
5.) Light items first, heavy items later. Try to get some veggies, sushi, fruit, etc. almost like an appetizer, let your body adjust to all the food being stuffed in there.
6.) Health disclaimer: most believe (validly) that Chinese buffets are bad for one's health. They definitely can be, as my parents took us to China buffets (and other types of buffets!) profusely during my youth, and I built up some bad eating habits, some unnecessary cholesterol, excess fat, and unhealthy foods that were fried, excessively oily, etc. But now that I'm an adult, I understand food groups much more and don't just get double servings of ice cream, pizza, and look more towards the bak choi, and avoid too much rice and carbs. Basically, going to Chinese buffet doesn't mean you have to give up your whole sense of the food pyramid and health! Still can portion the meals, ration yourself, and balance the idea of "eat the whole restaurant out of business.' Just do you, and do it slowly, despite the restaurant giving us our check after our 3rd trip, implying that we should leave. I made 3 more trips even after they did that, just not getting too much each time.
Happy eating at your local generically-named Chinese buffet!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
For many years in my childhood, I was a veteran of Chinese buffets, those large buildings sticking out like a sore thumb in a the strip malls of large suburban areas, usually with a very generic name like "Grand China Buffet" or "Great Wall China." The one here in Durham is called, most simply, "China Buffet," like an invitation to any and all with no strings attached. It's $11.99 per person, all-you-can-eat, do as you like. There really is an art to eating at buffets if you want to, as my parents do, "get your money's worth" or at least get the best experience out of a Chinese buffet.
1.) take a quick tour around the buffet area before you begin selecting items onto one's plate. Sometimes there's a section hiding near the back you didn't know about, and you'll be sad if you missed it. It's ok if it's just another extra salad bar (cuz who likes salad when it's all-you-can-eat), but if it's a sushi bar or noodle bar or some other higher-quality item, you nee to know all the information!
2.) Work up an appetite beforehand. The whole needs to be planned around a buffet! Don't eat too much beforehand, and not much afterwards. Exercise is advised beforehand because the subsequent food coma won't be kind to moving around vigorously.
3.) Go during lunch, or a very early dinner. Don't want all the food you're about to eat to affect your sleep or be digested and passed through as fast while you're sleeping. Some, like MJ, can eat buffet during lunch and not eat the rest of the day.
4.) Even if you're SURE you will like an item, only grab one of each item on your first go. You don't want to overindulge on just one item, and you don't want to get stuck with an item you don't want to eat, as most buffets ask you to try to finish everything on your plate and charge if there's too much, but also you don't want to waste food in a society that already consumes too much, do you?
5.) Light items first, heavy items later. Try to get some veggies, sushi, fruit, etc. almost like an appetizer, let your body adjust to all the food being stuffed in there.
6.) Health disclaimer: most believe (validly) that Chinese buffets are bad for one's health. They definitely can be, as my parents took us to China buffets (and other types of buffets!) profusely during my youth, and I built up some bad eating habits, some unnecessary cholesterol, excess fat, and unhealthy foods that were fried, excessively oily, etc. But now that I'm an adult, I understand food groups much more and don't just get double servings of ice cream, pizza, and look more towards the bak choi, and avoid too much rice and carbs. Basically, going to Chinese buffet doesn't mean you have to give up your whole sense of the food pyramid and health! Still can portion the meals, ration yourself, and balance the idea of "eat the whole restaurant out of business.' Just do you, and do it slowly, despite the restaurant giving us our check after our 3rd trip, implying that we should leave. I made 3 more trips even after they did that, just not getting too much each time.
Happy eating at your local generically-named Chinese buffet!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
First day of school (학교 첫날, 上学第一天, 学校の初日)
There's no day of the year more filled with alternating emotions than the first day of school. There's the excitement of new beginnings, the eagerness to meet new classmates or see old friends from the previous year, the smell of the new textbooks, the crisp feel of the new school supplies, the crowded feeling of all students actually attending class so far unlike towards the end of the year, but also mixed in with the dread of an intense class schedule (at least, for intense programs like engineering, medicine, law, etc.) and the burden of what's ahead, knowing what one has to do to complete the school year. It can be kind of daunting.
MJ is facing her first "first day of school" in a while, and an intensive one at that: the accelerated bachelor's in nursing program at Duke University. I can sense that a lot of emotions are hitting her (along with sleepiness, as she's hit the sack pretty often the last week or so. Guess she's getting it in while she can!)
My most memorable first day of school was law school (and the most recent). There was a convocation by the class president, the meeting of so many new people, a flood of new stimulus. I remember seeing everyone as a new opportunity to make a friend, or eventually be an enemy, with the added element of competition that comes with law school, trying to get to the top of the class. I also remember loaning a guy ten dollars for a lock to lock our brand new lockers downstairs, and that guy turned out to be a lifelong friend. The mood back then was hopeful, as in 2008 the economy was still strong (or so we thought, just a couple months before the worst financial crisis in a century would hit), hiring was pretty good especially for a big market like L.A., USC Law still had a pretty good reputation, it was summer, and I had just gotten off my last "fun summer" as a camp counselor. It would be a long journey ahead, but a fun journey. I would definitely do it again despite all the anxiety and anguish I would go through for a couple years. Nowadays I would probably be a little more reserved and try to "find my lane" and dedicate myself to just a few friends and people I'd want to hang out with or trust, but back then I was trying to be Mr. Popular, Class President type. Turns out not everyone wanted to be sociable especially before something as grueling and competitive (and kind of cutthroat) as law school. It was really a competition to get a 6-figure job at a big law firm and good career prospects for the rest of one's life vs...........something else, so it wasn't that necessary to "make friends." Which is kind of what adult life and law school people are like.
I think the most "eye-opening" first day of school for anyone is the first day of college. undergrad, right out of high school. The parents drop you off at school, help you move in, and then you're suddenly......COMPLETELY ON YOUR OWN. It was a thrilling feeling (a little too thrilling for some who turn to alcohol and live the wild life), but it's like a ritual into adulthood.......how one handles oneself when you just have to life your own life and make your own decisions. I remember the first day of school at University of Illinois with literal crowds of people (one of the disadvantages of a large state public school is just being lost in all the humanity) and trying to understand what I would be, who I would become, and a "Quad Day" with so many different clubs and activities to join......would I be a juggler, a reader, an ultimate frisbee player, a board game guy, oh and there's chess that's always fun, maybe a fraternity? So many different choices to make one's head spin. That's what I'm dealing with while driving through Duke University here, lots of undergrads getting their first taste of life, but also their first taste of COLLEGE life, which is probably one of the best times of one's life. For some, it's an extreme: getting through the rigors of high school trying to get to the best college one can with SAT prep courses and college admissions under the strict watch of one's parents, to living a free life and doing whatever one wants with the world before you, could be a huge contrast that one can't adjust to, but also passes by really quickly. So many firsts for me like first time going to a gym every day, first time taking a bus to classes, first time eating school cafeteria food all the time, first time going to a college basketball game (aw man I'm gonna get to go to Cameron Indoors! Like a college student again!) First time living in a college town. All of these things MJ and I will be able to kinda live through again.
Hope MJ has a great first day of school experience! I am living vicariously as a college student again through her experience with the program!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
MJ is facing her first "first day of school" in a while, and an intensive one at that: the accelerated bachelor's in nursing program at Duke University. I can sense that a lot of emotions are hitting her (along with sleepiness, as she's hit the sack pretty often the last week or so. Guess she's getting it in while she can!)
My most memorable first day of school was law school (and the most recent). There was a convocation by the class president, the meeting of so many new people, a flood of new stimulus. I remember seeing everyone as a new opportunity to make a friend, or eventually be an enemy, with the added element of competition that comes with law school, trying to get to the top of the class. I also remember loaning a guy ten dollars for a lock to lock our brand new lockers downstairs, and that guy turned out to be a lifelong friend. The mood back then was hopeful, as in 2008 the economy was still strong (or so we thought, just a couple months before the worst financial crisis in a century would hit), hiring was pretty good especially for a big market like L.A., USC Law still had a pretty good reputation, it was summer, and I had just gotten off my last "fun summer" as a camp counselor. It would be a long journey ahead, but a fun journey. I would definitely do it again despite all the anxiety and anguish I would go through for a couple years. Nowadays I would probably be a little more reserved and try to "find my lane" and dedicate myself to just a few friends and people I'd want to hang out with or trust, but back then I was trying to be Mr. Popular, Class President type. Turns out not everyone wanted to be sociable especially before something as grueling and competitive (and kind of cutthroat) as law school. It was really a competition to get a 6-figure job at a big law firm and good career prospects for the rest of one's life vs...........something else, so it wasn't that necessary to "make friends." Which is kind of what adult life and law school people are like.
I think the most "eye-opening" first day of school for anyone is the first day of college. undergrad, right out of high school. The parents drop you off at school, help you move in, and then you're suddenly......COMPLETELY ON YOUR OWN. It was a thrilling feeling (a little too thrilling for some who turn to alcohol and live the wild life), but it's like a ritual into adulthood.......how one handles oneself when you just have to life your own life and make your own decisions. I remember the first day of school at University of Illinois with literal crowds of people (one of the disadvantages of a large state public school is just being lost in all the humanity) and trying to understand what I would be, who I would become, and a "Quad Day" with so many different clubs and activities to join......would I be a juggler, a reader, an ultimate frisbee player, a board game guy, oh and there's chess that's always fun, maybe a fraternity? So many different choices to make one's head spin. That's what I'm dealing with while driving through Duke University here, lots of undergrads getting their first taste of life, but also their first taste of COLLEGE life, which is probably one of the best times of one's life. For some, it's an extreme: getting through the rigors of high school trying to get to the best college one can with SAT prep courses and college admissions under the strict watch of one's parents, to living a free life and doing whatever one wants with the world before you, could be a huge contrast that one can't adjust to, but also passes by really quickly. So many firsts for me like first time going to a gym every day, first time taking a bus to classes, first time eating school cafeteria food all the time, first time going to a college basketball game (aw man I'm gonna get to go to Cameron Indoors! Like a college student again!) First time living in a college town. All of these things MJ and I will be able to kinda live through again.
Hope MJ has a great first day of school experience! I am living vicariously as a college student again through her experience with the program!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Veganism (素食主义, 菜食主義, 비건)
MJ's vegan friend came to visit us this week, and for 2 straight days I ate vegan meals! Bought vegan bread for breakfast, drank oat milk (Oatly, which is apparently so popular it's placing ads in New York subway stations), ate a restaurants that had vegan substitutes for classic American dishes like hamburgers, Macaroni and cheese, fried chicken (they used cauliflower instead of chicken), and had vegan Ethiopian food! Actually quite tasty, one and all, as plants and soy and other materials can apparently generate some good tastes that are not quite meat but can replicate the texture pretty closely.
It's really hard for me to be a vegan. I've tried many days to have "meatless Mondays," a couple days without having any meat......it doesn't last very long. But on top of that, vegans don't eat eggs or diary, which I find difficult to understand as those have been staples of my diet for a long time, and actually I don't feel that bad about eating.......I may have a limited understanding but my reason for not eating meat would be because I feel bad for ending the life of an animal who had to die for my meal, but eggs and milk don't involve killing anything........right? Well, MJ and MJ's vegan friend have differing opinions on that. I personally think that eggs are one of the foods closest to being "perfect..." it packs a nice protein punch without containing sugars, too many fats, etc......I guess it's not great to have too many in one day but other that next to bananas on my list of things to eat when I just "need a little bit to get over."
To me, being vegan is just like donating to charity: I know my own personal contribution won't make that much of a difference in the world, but it's more on principle, and selfishly it does me feel good about myself, like I get a "credit" for doing something to benefit society, while also slightly detrimenting myself (financially, or in taste, and in being somewhat hungry after the meal). The environment, though, does desperately need more people to become vegan, so the science says, as carbon emissions from meat farms and from cows generate too much pollution and cause climate change which is damaging the world. So much so that our vegan friend thinks the world will end in 50 years and we'd be irresponsible to bring children into this world. I am a bit more optimistic about the world's future, but I do think it's an underrated social problem that needs more resources devoted to it. Also it doesn't necessarily that EVERYONE become vegan, just that EVERYONE consumes less meat, so if I consume like 50% less meat, and a lot of other people do the same, it can probably make a difference. Also MJ interrupts what I'm doing sometimes and shows me pictures of animals being slaughtered and meat farms, and we've watched Okja (the Netflix movie partially in Korean). I get it; animals receive brutal treatment at these farms and undergo unsanitary conditions, as well as watch their friends and family get killed one by one in order to be eaten by humans. It's a pretty graphic image and effective for me to think twice when I order my lunch. But then, is it better to kill hundreds of small-fry fish like sardines to satisfy my hunger? Ten times the fish have to die than a chicken or pig to fill me up in a meal, is eating small fish worse because I've killed 10 times the amount of living things? Or are sentient beings like pigs (who apparently have a great memory) more precious in the life cycle?
Having eaten vegan foods, I can say confidently that it hasn't improved the smell of my farts.......in fact, they may have gotten worse, maybe because of the substance of the veggies and soy that I've been eating instead of meats......there's definitely some science to it there too that needs thorough investigation.
All I know is the Impossible Burger is pretty damn tasty, and I'm looking into buying some Impossible Foods stock when its IPO hits the stock market, seeing how well Beyond Burger did. These meat substitute companies may be the future of meat, much more than Uber is the future of transportation or Tilray (marijuana) is the future of drug consumption.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
It's really hard for me to be a vegan. I've tried many days to have "meatless Mondays," a couple days without having any meat......it doesn't last very long. But on top of that, vegans don't eat eggs or diary, which I find difficult to understand as those have been staples of my diet for a long time, and actually I don't feel that bad about eating.......I may have a limited understanding but my reason for not eating meat would be because I feel bad for ending the life of an animal who had to die for my meal, but eggs and milk don't involve killing anything........right? Well, MJ and MJ's vegan friend have differing opinions on that. I personally think that eggs are one of the foods closest to being "perfect..." it packs a nice protein punch without containing sugars, too many fats, etc......I guess it's not great to have too many in one day but other that next to bananas on my list of things to eat when I just "need a little bit to get over."
To me, being vegan is just like donating to charity: I know my own personal contribution won't make that much of a difference in the world, but it's more on principle, and selfishly it does me feel good about myself, like I get a "credit" for doing something to benefit society, while also slightly detrimenting myself (financially, or in taste, and in being somewhat hungry after the meal). The environment, though, does desperately need more people to become vegan, so the science says, as carbon emissions from meat farms and from cows generate too much pollution and cause climate change which is damaging the world. So much so that our vegan friend thinks the world will end in 50 years and we'd be irresponsible to bring children into this world. I am a bit more optimistic about the world's future, but I do think it's an underrated social problem that needs more resources devoted to it. Also it doesn't necessarily that EVERYONE become vegan, just that EVERYONE consumes less meat, so if I consume like 50% less meat, and a lot of other people do the same, it can probably make a difference. Also MJ interrupts what I'm doing sometimes and shows me pictures of animals being slaughtered and meat farms, and we've watched Okja (the Netflix movie partially in Korean). I get it; animals receive brutal treatment at these farms and undergo unsanitary conditions, as well as watch their friends and family get killed one by one in order to be eaten by humans. It's a pretty graphic image and effective for me to think twice when I order my lunch. But then, is it better to kill hundreds of small-fry fish like sardines to satisfy my hunger? Ten times the fish have to die than a chicken or pig to fill me up in a meal, is eating small fish worse because I've killed 10 times the amount of living things? Or are sentient beings like pigs (who apparently have a great memory) more precious in the life cycle?
Having eaten vegan foods, I can say confidently that it hasn't improved the smell of my farts.......in fact, they may have gotten worse, maybe because of the substance of the veggies and soy that I've been eating instead of meats......there's definitely some science to it there too that needs thorough investigation.
All I know is the Impossible Burger is pretty damn tasty, and I'm looking into buying some Impossible Foods stock when its IPO hits the stock market, seeing how well Beyond Burger did. These meat substitute companies may be the future of meat, much more than Uber is the future of transportation or Tilray (marijuana) is the future of drug consumption.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Friday, August 16, 2019
Good person card (好人卡)
I recently came across a blog that laid out 110 words used in Chinese slang (mostly Internet slang) which was really useful because I don't live in China, don't have the opportunity to talk to many Chinese people other than my parents, and they themselves have lived in the U.S. for the last 30 years, so they're not caught up on the most updated Chinese slang words neither, with the possible exception of my dad who goes on websites discussing the Taiwan independence issue. The list can be found at http://carlgene.com/blog/2019/01/top-111-chinese-slang-from-2008-to-2018/.
The list was compiled by a "foreigner" US citizen who moved to China to study Chinese and now presumably speaks better Chinese than me, going to show that studying can trump being born into a country's culture or at least raised in it. Some of the highlights include "eat watermelon" to mean sit back and watching a fight or argument as a bystander, the English equivalent of "eating popcorn." 妻管严 means what it says, which is "managed strictly by one's wife," as in "henpecked" or whipped.......MJ will probably love that phrase. 弹幕 means "bullet captions" which are the comments that appear on the screen during TV shows, something Asian TV shows have in common (apparently viewers have a lot of opinions and thoughts they have to share when watching shows!)
But the best one was "good person card," or a card that one gets when he or she gets rejected by a romantic interest, like "you're a good person, but I think we should see other people." Classic, and I'm surprised that the U.S. doesn't have a word like that. That universal feeling of rejection and being told you're a nice person really hurts, and apparently some people keeping getting the card and have amassed a substantial quantity of them, and are still single. Sigh, it's one thing to want to be single and left alone, but to be seeking a partner but be turned down over and over again and receive "good person cards," that's a pain I hope few have to experience.
Others include 房奴, which is a slave to one's mortgage, something I'm sure I'll have to experience one day. Haven't bought a house yet and already worrying about how to pay for a home, especially in certain areas of the country. I wonder how inflated the housing market will be by the time MJ and I move back to L.A., or will there be another housing crisis where inflated prices pop like a bubble and go down substantially? That'd be a good time to buy, like in 2009. However, just like the stock market, where the inverted yield curve signaled this week that a recession will hit in the next 2 to 17 months, causing the stock market to dip significantly and many thinking about pulling money out of the stock market, you can't really time the market, and it's too much to try to "call a bottom" and buy in, you never really know until it happens. Stocks were doing quite well before this inverted yield/ China news hit recently, and could easily surge up in a straight line with some positive news.
1 week in the books here in Durham, I feel like I'm still on vacation! Everything's new including our apartment, there's thunderstorms every day because it's summer that come and go, I feel like a heavy jacket of humidity is heaped upon me every time I walk outside, SO MANY TREES and SO FEWER PEOPLE than New York City. There's Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Costco, art museums, all those things that MJ can't live without, so so far she hasn't complained about being lonely in a small city yet! (Crosses fingers)
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
The list was compiled by a "foreigner" US citizen who moved to China to study Chinese and now presumably speaks better Chinese than me, going to show that studying can trump being born into a country's culture or at least raised in it. Some of the highlights include "eat watermelon" to mean sit back and watching a fight or argument as a bystander, the English equivalent of "eating popcorn." 妻管严 means what it says, which is "managed strictly by one's wife," as in "henpecked" or whipped.......MJ will probably love that phrase. 弹幕 means "bullet captions" which are the comments that appear on the screen during TV shows, something Asian TV shows have in common (apparently viewers have a lot of opinions and thoughts they have to share when watching shows!)
But the best one was "good person card," or a card that one gets when he or she gets rejected by a romantic interest, like "you're a good person, but I think we should see other people." Classic, and I'm surprised that the U.S. doesn't have a word like that. That universal feeling of rejection and being told you're a nice person really hurts, and apparently some people keeping getting the card and have amassed a substantial quantity of them, and are still single. Sigh, it's one thing to want to be single and left alone, but to be seeking a partner but be turned down over and over again and receive "good person cards," that's a pain I hope few have to experience.
Others include 房奴, which is a slave to one's mortgage, something I'm sure I'll have to experience one day. Haven't bought a house yet and already worrying about how to pay for a home, especially in certain areas of the country. I wonder how inflated the housing market will be by the time MJ and I move back to L.A., or will there be another housing crisis where inflated prices pop like a bubble and go down substantially? That'd be a good time to buy, like in 2009. However, just like the stock market, where the inverted yield curve signaled this week that a recession will hit in the next 2 to 17 months, causing the stock market to dip significantly and many thinking about pulling money out of the stock market, you can't really time the market, and it's too much to try to "call a bottom" and buy in, you never really know until it happens. Stocks were doing quite well before this inverted yield/ China news hit recently, and could easily surge up in a straight line with some positive news.
1 week in the books here in Durham, I feel like I'm still on vacation! Everything's new including our apartment, there's thunderstorms every day because it's summer that come and go, I feel like a heavy jacket of humidity is heaped upon me every time I walk outside, SO MANY TREES and SO FEWER PEOPLE than New York City. There's Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Costco, art museums, all those things that MJ can't live without, so so far she hasn't complained about being lonely in a small city yet! (Crosses fingers)
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Where is my Friend's Home? 내 친구의 집은 어디인가
Individual lives are so unique because at any given time, I can be doing something with my life that is totally separate from what the mainstream is doing, what the whole rest of the world is up to. There can be a thousand things other people are focused on right now like going back to school (MJ and I officially moved to Durham, NC and joined in Move-in Week at Duke University this week), the stock market trending down and possibly falling off a cliff today due to this arcane concept of "inverted yield curve) (Dow down 800 points!), the Hong Kong protests becoming even more violent and the Chinese government possibly needing to send in government troops, the advent of the dog days of baseball (literally nothing going on in the world of sports nowadays except baseball, and even that is dragging on. Meanwhile, Durham, NC has a great baseball team, the Durham Bulls, and free fireworks that we can see out of our building! The atmosphere and size of Durham Stadium is worthy of a major league team, and it possibly outdraws the MLB team it caters to, the Tampa Bay Rays). There's a whole world of minor league affiliates in minor league baseball and smaller towns around the U.S. that have these teams and actively root for them, they're not just farm development grounds for prospects.
Gavin DeGraw is in concert! Just came by Durham tonight. And MJ and I have discovered the wonderful benefits of being a member of Costco, and were sucked in to becoming Executive Members, despite my distaste for hard sell marketing at the door. And U-Haul moving was a difficult experience! I wish moving were easier, but it's a necessary cost for preserving the comforts of home (same bed! Same shelves! Same clothes) even though the physical location is moved. I've realized again the value of having a home.....as in most things, the value of home only stands out when you don't have it for a long time. I hadn't been home for quite a long time while working in New York, and coming back to a home, even a new home, was comforting rather than feeling like I'm on the run all the time (not sure who I'm running from, the law, the loan sharks, the mafia?) I've been pretty spoiled as I've always had my parents' home in Southern California as a fallback for "going home" and feeling at home, but it's also being able to see the people at home, like my family, or like MJ in our new home, knowing that there will be someone to share the home with. I think I didn't really appreciate the value of the home during my bachelor days because I usually lived alone, so it didn't really matter where I was, and I could move around without feeling too different. Sure I had roommates (and I do miss some of my roommate experiences) but they're nothing like seeing one's family at home and restoring a part of one's life that's missing.
That feeling of home is the premise behind the Korean show Where is My Friend''s home? (available on Netflix under "The Homecoming." I started watching as a way to hear casual Korean conversation with Korean captions (Korean shows are good about that!) to study while being entertained and keeping my attention span focused on something for more than a few minutes at a time, but the show is really good at showing a group of gentleman from different ethnicities representing different countries (but all speaking Korean) going to one members' home and meeting their families. There's something authentic about watching someone meet their families that draws one in and draw tears out of one's eyes (Survivor the reality TV show always had a family episode each season), but I really like that they explored one's home to really build character development (drama writers can really take a page out of that). So yes, in the dead heat of summer (thunderstorms billowing all around), in Durham, North Carolina, there is an Asian guy born in China and grew up in the U.S. binge-watching the 2015-2016 Korean television show "The Homecoming" on Netflix. Don't think anyone else is doing that, nor will anyone else do that for a long time. Which is kind of cool, how our individual stories involve our own lives that are personalized for us. Just like our homes.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Monday, August 5, 2019
雨にもまけず 風にもまけず (Rain or Shine)
The famous lines of a poem by Japanese poet Kenji Miyazawa, who had other great works like Night on the Galactic World, but the lines above are recognized by most Japanese speakers, kind of like "Five score and seven years ago" (the opening lines to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address). Miyazawa's line literally means not failing to the rain, and not failing to the wind, so basically, rain or shine, I'm doing it. It could be used to describe some sports like soccer and football, where the game proceeds rain or shine, but not baseball, where games do get delayed or postponed outright due to the weather conditions.
On a more metaphorical view, I suspect Miyazawa meant that no matter how difficult a challenge is, no matter how many obstacles stand in one's way, to keep battling and strive for one's goals. I also use it when I think about taking a day off work, where I took pride in getting perfect attendance for so many years during elementary and high school that I lost count. Despite the advent of "sick days" and vacation days in the workplace and employee-favorable employment laws allowing employees more leeway to take breaks and paid days off, I still think it's important to try to show up every day that you're expected to work at a job, just to show reliability and consistency of work ethic and to give a good impression to team members, co-workers, and especially the bosses. Especially if I'm being paid hourly for work, I'm definitely coming in if I have leftover hours that can be converted to money.
It's also an apt metaphor, I suspect, for the stock market, to not be disheartened by down days like today where the Dow lost more than 700 points! 700! At times it was even worse than that, down almost 1000. There are few worse feelings in life than losing money in the stock market, and recently it's been weeks of slow, slow gains making me feel good and luring one into a false sense of security and then a fierce slaughter of selling......it's really kind of unfair, really, how fast the action happens on the downside, how quickly everyone takes their money out and tries to get profit.......very volatile conditions. Luckily, the stock that I recommended MJ buy for her own portfolio last week, YUM, reported great earnings and is still hanging in there despite the rest of the market crumbling around it, which is exactly the type of stock you want to buy: those that stay strong in the face of a bad marketplace, meaning in normal conditions the stock should be ripping higher. I don't know which way the market is going now after another escalation of the trade war with China that's now devolved into a currency war as well and the US calling China a currency manipulator, but I do know that I've learned how to stay strong in the face of adversity, despite strong (head)winds and rain blowing in my face.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
On a more metaphorical view, I suspect Miyazawa meant that no matter how difficult a challenge is, no matter how many obstacles stand in one's way, to keep battling and strive for one's goals. I also use it when I think about taking a day off work, where I took pride in getting perfect attendance for so many years during elementary and high school that I lost count. Despite the advent of "sick days" and vacation days in the workplace and employee-favorable employment laws allowing employees more leeway to take breaks and paid days off, I still think it's important to try to show up every day that you're expected to work at a job, just to show reliability and consistency of work ethic and to give a good impression to team members, co-workers, and especially the bosses. Especially if I'm being paid hourly for work, I'm definitely coming in if I have leftover hours that can be converted to money.
It's also an apt metaphor, I suspect, for the stock market, to not be disheartened by down days like today where the Dow lost more than 700 points! 700! At times it was even worse than that, down almost 1000. There are few worse feelings in life than losing money in the stock market, and recently it's been weeks of slow, slow gains making me feel good and luring one into a false sense of security and then a fierce slaughter of selling......it's really kind of unfair, really, how fast the action happens on the downside, how quickly everyone takes their money out and tries to get profit.......very volatile conditions. Luckily, the stock that I recommended MJ buy for her own portfolio last week, YUM, reported great earnings and is still hanging in there despite the rest of the market crumbling around it, which is exactly the type of stock you want to buy: those that stay strong in the face of a bad marketplace, meaning in normal conditions the stock should be ripping higher. I don't know which way the market is going now after another escalation of the trade war with China that's now devolved into a currency war as well and the US calling China a currency manipulator, but I do know that I've learned how to stay strong in the face of adversity, despite strong (head)winds and rain blowing in my face.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Saturday, August 3, 2019
The Richest Man in Babylon
Recently I realized so many of the places I've lived in are depicted in movies and written about in books, and I wonder how much the literature/media I consume influences my choices about where to live, or at least my perceptions and expectations of the places I've chosen to place. I've always had this idea of New York City in my hand, whether it's from the old Spiderman cartoons I watched, to watching the romantic comedy "When Harry Met Sally," set in New York (still one of my favorite movies, to Home Alone 2's depiction of Home Alone 2, I've heard so much about New York City through watching TV and reading books without experiencing it for myself. And don't get me started on Los Angeles! Watching the HBO television series "Entourage" right before law school made me want to be Ari Gold the talent agent, and partly drove my decision go to USC.
It's always interesting to experience a place firsthand after seeing it in fiction. Recently my co-worker tipped me off to a book called "Primates of Park Avenue" by Wednesday Martin and it depicts the life of a mother and family living in New York's Upper East Side, a place I frequent often after work and just went today to see the Met. (If the Met qualifies as being there, even though it's really in Central Park). The Upper East Side itself is a pretty nice place and away from some of the "grimier" places of the Five Burroughs that I've visited, and the easy access to Central Park is definitely a perk, as are nice views of Roosevelt Island and Randall Island, 2 gems on my running path. Did I mention that runners in New York City are fast? They run past me, especially in NYC, and
I also saw a movie today called "The Farewell," about a Chinese American 30-year-old whose favorite grandmother is dying of cancer but the family has decided not to tell her about her diagnosis (a difficult premise, certainly, for the patient not to know her own condition, but in China apparently it's common to not let the patient herself know about cancer because it's the awareness of the sickness that kills, not the sickness itself). That cultural clash between Western values and Chinese values is central to the movie, but so is the mindset of the main character, who's the opposite of a "Crazy Rich Asian," she's a "Crazy Broke Asian" who is 30 and unmarried and can't get her career on track, living paycheck to paycheck in New York City, not a place (as understood from Primates of Park Avenue) that you want to be living paycheck to paycheck. It's so refreshing to see basically someone like me represented, and not in the glitzy glamor of lavish weddings and extravagant lifestyles, there's a lot of Asian people who have to grind out a living too, who don't have wealthy parents who made it rich in China or can buy wealthy houses in America at the drop of a hat (I was once asked by a Chinese interviewer for a legal job why my parents weren't helping me buy a house, and I was like, "Is that normal?") And not all Chinese Americans know Chinese fluently, which makes understanding their own culture more difficult and speaking to native Chinese speaker relatives and preserving their Chinese culture more difficult, exactly the reasons why I try to maintain Chinese fluency as well as encourage my sister to keep it up. (Awkwafina's Mandarin Chinese in the movie is..........not great). A very revealing look into Chinese American culture, but not 99% good like Rotten Tomatoes gave it.
Speaking of not being a Crazy Rich Asian, a very useful book to accumulate wealth is called "The Richest Man in Babylon," basically the Bible of Personal Finance descibing what it takes to accumulate wealth, even in writings in ancient Babylon they describe such things as "savings" (MJ says some of the people she has "have no savings," which seems pretty financially irresponsible to me depending on how much they're making). I understand people who can't make much to begin with and therefore have no savings, but a big problem in America IMO is that people don't priortize their spending and don't have any savings, and as Democratic candidate for President Andrew Yang is quick to point out, many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, thus not having enough to pay for any unexpected events that come up. It's a sad state, and The Richest Man in Babylon details steps to keep "one's purse fat" and describes money as the medium of which success is measure and makes possible the enjoyment of the best the earth affords. I would like MJ and I and our family to enjoy the best the Earth provides! Which is why I'm cheap. Forget all those required reading like the Great Gatsby, the Odyssey, To Kill a Mockingbird, those are great books, sure, but The Richest Man in Babylon is critical reading for high school students and adults entering into into society. Must read!
It's always interesting to experience a place firsthand after seeing it in fiction. Recently my co-worker tipped me off to a book called "Primates of Park Avenue" by Wednesday Martin and it depicts the life of a mother and family living in New York's Upper East Side, a place I frequent often after work and just went today to see the Met. (If the Met qualifies as being there, even though it's really in Central Park). The Upper East Side itself is a pretty nice place and away from some of the "grimier" places of the Five Burroughs that I've visited, and the easy access to Central Park is definitely a perk, as are nice views of Roosevelt Island and Randall Island, 2 gems on my running path. Did I mention that runners in New York City are fast? They run past me, especially in NYC, and
I also saw a movie today called "The Farewell," about a Chinese American 30-year-old whose favorite grandmother is dying of cancer but the family has decided not to tell her about her diagnosis (a difficult premise, certainly, for the patient not to know her own condition, but in China apparently it's common to not let the patient herself know about cancer because it's the awareness of the sickness that kills, not the sickness itself). That cultural clash between Western values and Chinese values is central to the movie, but so is the mindset of the main character, who's the opposite of a "Crazy Rich Asian," she's a "Crazy Broke Asian" who is 30 and unmarried and can't get her career on track, living paycheck to paycheck in New York City, not a place (as understood from Primates of Park Avenue) that you want to be living paycheck to paycheck. It's so refreshing to see basically someone like me represented, and not in the glitzy glamor of lavish weddings and extravagant lifestyles, there's a lot of Asian people who have to grind out a living too, who don't have wealthy parents who made it rich in China or can buy wealthy houses in America at the drop of a hat (I was once asked by a Chinese interviewer for a legal job why my parents weren't helping me buy a house, and I was like, "Is that normal?") And not all Chinese Americans know Chinese fluently, which makes understanding their own culture more difficult and speaking to native Chinese speaker relatives and preserving their Chinese culture more difficult, exactly the reasons why I try to maintain Chinese fluency as well as encourage my sister to keep it up. (Awkwafina's Mandarin Chinese in the movie is..........not great). A very revealing look into Chinese American culture, but not 99% good like Rotten Tomatoes gave it.
Speaking of not being a Crazy Rich Asian, a very useful book to accumulate wealth is called "The Richest Man in Babylon," basically the Bible of Personal Finance descibing what it takes to accumulate wealth, even in writings in ancient Babylon they describe such things as "savings" (MJ says some of the people she has "have no savings," which seems pretty financially irresponsible to me depending on how much they're making). I understand people who can't make much to begin with and therefore have no savings, but a big problem in America IMO is that people don't priortize their spending and don't have any savings, and as Democratic candidate for President Andrew Yang is quick to point out, many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, thus not having enough to pay for any unexpected events that come up. It's a sad state, and The Richest Man in Babylon details steps to keep "one's purse fat" and describes money as the medium of which success is measure and makes possible the enjoyment of the best the earth affords. I would like MJ and I and our family to enjoy the best the Earth provides! Which is why I'm cheap. Forget all those required reading like the Great Gatsby, the Odyssey, To Kill a Mockingbird, those are great books, sure, but The Richest Man in Babylon is critical reading for high school students and adults entering into into society. Must read!
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