The Gift of the Magi

 Part of the joy of watching Jeopardy episodes with MJ is making connections about facts in life that were all jumbled up in my brain, people, places, words, historical objects, fictional characters that I had heard of but really didn't piece together or inquire further into. Today I read about Cool Hand Luke, a movie I had always known for the famous phrase "what we have here is a failure to communicate," but there's a reason the movie received a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. I've caught up on so much geography and reminded myself how little I know about the world outside of the U.S. and maybe a handful of touristy areas I've visited over the years; there's a whole vast world out there, and Honduras is a country in Central America bordering Nicaraugua and Guatemala, not somewhere in the Caribbean Islands as I had always thought. And the Tower of Babylon wasn't an actual place. Recoleta is a famous cemetery in Bueno Aires. (I actually kind of like cemeteries, I would walk through them if it wasn't frowned upon/bad luck/kind of creepy. But I also was reminded of an awesome short story I'd read before in Japanese, didn't finish because it was pretty long, called "The Gift of the Magi" by O Henry (it's a pen name for William Porter). It's a story about a very poor husband and wife team who are preparing for Christmas and want to give each other a gift, but don't have much money. ($1.87, apparently, to be exact, which even before inflation is not a significant sum). Spoiler Alert! The wife sells her hair to get the husband a watch chain to match his watch, but what she doesn't know is that the husband sold his watch to buy the wife combs for her hair. So neither of them can use the gift that they got each other, but it shows that they really cared about each other and how much they were willing to sacrifice. A touching story and a reminder of the good things mankind is capable of (at least in fictional stories, but I can imagine somewhere some time a similar story happened. But I wouldn't trust it if it was a story that popped up on Facebook or Instagram nowadays, it'd likely be a ploy to get attention unfortunately). I'd like to think that MJ and I have the same kind of relationship as in the Gift of the Magi, but I don't even wear a watch. Marriage goals. 

That's the kind of story people should aspire to even in today's society, but unfortunatley the stuff we read nowadays is far from the romanticized version of humans and more of the "clap-back" insult, and salacious news variety. Reputable news organizations like the New York Times and CNN have even caved to the pressures of what people want (gossip, spin, and stories that make people feel emotion, even anger) instead of giving neutral writing, not to mention all the new media, Youtube channels, TikTok videos, twitter trends, etc., that usually focus more on what the latest bad news or mean tweet is rather than positive, inspiring news. I feel like there's a need for people to read more short stories with parables and lessons, or at least get a refresher course on Aesop's fables (ex: The Fox and the sour grapes, the Boy Who Cried Wolf- aka STOP LYING!, and Hans Christian Andersen's "Emperor's New Clothes." - perfect metaphor for Trump right now who employs plenty of yes-men to tell him he's the greatest. It's almost like the more people grow up from the innocence of a kid and the natural inclination to do good acts and be nice to others (at least most kids) the more adults screw it up distrust each other, causing rifts in the world. Aka we all get worse as we age, a frightening prospect. 

One of the complaints I've had recently is while running around outside, a fairly innocuous act that isn't bothering anyone (I even mask up when I approach others on the sidewalk!) I frequently encounter people who make comments about me running. It's usually something like "Yeah" and "Keep running!" nothing too offensive (except one non-Chinese child looked at me and yelled "Chinese!") but it's very obviously directed at me and not in a friendly way, more like a demeaning way or pointing me out for doing something so foolish as to run. I've never really understood hecklers' ire for runners, am I making them jealous for trying to stay healthy, or distract them from some monumental discovery while they were looking down at their phone while walking? I've noticed that a lot of times hecklers are with their friends and want to say something to look cool, kind of like a bullying mentality so that they seem strong and not weak within their group. Sometimes it's also just people being drunk.  Many times in the moment after it happens I instinctively think about shouting something back, but then just move on as running nowadays is one of my stress relievers and one of the only opportunities to get out of the house and get some fresh air. Plus the November cool area coming through is one of the best times to run, feeling the crisp clean breeze of an impending winter, with the drawback being that it gets dark around 5PM every day, before I get off work. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Frost Month (霜月)

 November is "Frost Month" in Japanese, likely named due to the frigid temperatures arriving in that month over the years. I've been spoiled living in L.A. not to have cold temperatures any time of the month, but there was one November it got so cold living in the Hollywood Hills that I had to bought a space heater, which I used for 2 days.....and promptly never used again. Living in L.A., though, also deprived me of the changing leaves that happen throughout most of America, although this year being an election year it's been heralded as the changing of political colors at least in the White House from RED to Blue......Joe Biden officially became the President Elect on Saturday, although as with most things related to Donald Trump, it's pending litigation. Without getting too much into politics (which has become a problem for many people in this country), it will be a welcome change not to have to react to a new outlandish, hard-to-believe story coming out of the White House that's stranger than fiction, or have stock prices fluctuate immensely based on every tweet, or even just keeping track of all the new White House Press Secretaries and other positions seemingly with a revolving door. And the big thing is that Joe Biden (who might not necessarily be better than Trump on some issues) is definitively better on climate change, something denied and consequently pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement. MJ and I watched David Attenborough's latest documentary "A Life on Our Planet" recently and were alarmed by the climate change issues threatening the world, even though the documentary was full of nice videos of animals that kind of softened the blow a bit, but still it was quite eye-opening. 

Oh and now that November 3rd has passed, I'm relieved that we're no longer inundated with political ads and we just have the garden variety car, cereal, mattress, and movie ads (I didn't think I would miss them). I'm bothered how much America is pressured by different kinds of groups into consuming things, whether it's a product, a food item, an experience (Travel), a lifestyle, an institution of higher education (lots of ads from Grand Rapids University recently), and especially in election years, a political party. Everything seems like an ad, even things that I thought growing up were genuine, organic things to care about, like Presidential activities, or charities, or eating 3 meals a day, or having a social gathering friends by going out to eat/ drink. These are all things that are pushed to the general populace as "normal" things that everyone should do, but is really just benefiting the leaders of the country or a coporation .Why do we even care about politics so much? Because politicans want power, and they need votes and attention to give them that power. What they're selling is a "better vision of America," or nostalgia to a better time ("Make America Great Again") or some promise that they can make all the troubles disappear. Even hospitals, as MJ is finding out, long having a positive reputation of helping people, sells that image but really is all about just giving patients enough drugs to help them get better and trying to get them home as soon as possible to reel in the next patient and charge them beaucoup dollars for drugs from the pharmaceutical companies. It's sometimes difficult to even know who the villains are anymore, (other than the greedy CEOs! Always those guys) which may be because it's in their best interest to stay hidden and continue the status quo while normal people suffer and get taken advantage of without even knowing it, continue buying material things as well as consuming pre-packaged information, consuming promises of political reform while willingly paying taxes (Where do those taxes go to, by the way? taxpayers have to itemize their own deductions but we don't get an itemized receipt for what the government spends stuff on. Can we direct our funds to the causes that we care about like education and building of roads and infrastructure, but not to political campaigns and election litigation? I don't think so). It's sad, and I sound really skeptical, but if nothing else the 2020 election happening during a worldwide pandemic where politicans are vying for power even while normal people are screwed by the disease and by the economical affects of that disease really made me question the whole democratic system of America. 

But hey, at least we can look forward to Thanksgiving (Cyber Monday! Black Friday!) and Christmas, 2 of the biggest consuming times of the year. CONSUME! 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

The Biltmore

 On the eve of Election, MJ and I visited Asheville, NC to check out Biltmore Mansion, built for George Washington Vanderbilt in the "old money" days of late 1800's, part of America's "Gilded Age" (learned that from Jeopardy!) Slaves weren't mentioned in the history of the mansion nor in its wikipedia entry, which doesn't mean there were none, but it's a good sign. We concluded that the mansion was similar to Disneyland in many aspects: the giant castle in the middle of the attraction, kid-friendly, emphasis on Christmas inside the mansion, beautiful entrance gate taking you inside the grounds of the mansion, and Disneyland prices: $94.00 a head on the weekend we went, although it varies depending on the season and weekday/weekend. Animals spotted included sheep, horses (and horse poop), chickens, donkeys,and a koi pond; we even saw a black bear waltzing around the campus! Not sure if that's safe for other tourists. 

The Biltmore is a bit overpriced in that regard, and I think many people overlook some free places to tour around: colleges! Other than airports, tall buildings, and baseball stadiums around the country, I also like to visit college campuses.....many of them are picturesque and designed to lure prospective 18-year-old fresh minds to their campus for 4 years, so plenty of money has been poured into the architecture and they're ideal for walking around like enjoying a garden! I've compiled a list of colleges in various areas of the country, with the most memorable being Columbia University being in a tight-knight area in Upper West End Manhattan, Peppderdine being built on a huge hill overlooking Malibu and the Pacific Ocean (how does anyone get any work done there?). There are even some local college surprises like Santa Monica College being a quaint community college where MJ took some classes, IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) where my parents did their graduate school when they first immigrated to the US, as well as where I memorably first learned how to ride a bike). I'm also adding hospitals now to my list as MJ starts to look for work upon graduation. 

Markets have taken a huge leg up since a week ago, when AMZN was down under $3,000 and I tried to convince MJ to put some extra money to use in the market (my exact words were, this stock could be over $3,300 by this time next week). Well, it arrived early: AMZN and the rest of FAANG ripped higher after Joe Biden took the lead on election night, his candidancy virtually assured, but with almost similar assurance of a Republican Senate, preventing any quick passage of higher corporate taxes and capital gains taxes. Other stocks I'm checking out recently: Mercado Libre, the South American version of AMZN, Shopify, the Canadian version of AMZN, and Pinduoduo, the Chinese version of AMZN not named Alibaba. And Bitcoin's over $14,000, worth keeping an eye on. It's sad to see stocks benefitting so much (especially AMZN) from small businesses failing and the average American citizen unable to get a share of the profits, but if I'm not getting into the market, someone else will anyway.

(Voting) Polls 投票民意调查, 투표소

 Here we are on election night 2020 at 11:37PM EST, and we don't have a winner! And a winner may not be determined until Friday, as the race has boiled down to the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania (from the results I've seen), and those states' antiquated vote count methods make it so that they won't yield a conclusive winner tonight. Whatever happens tonight, though, it's pretty clear to me that there's a big loser: voting polls. Like the horse and buggy, Sony Walkmans, and Blockbuster Video stores, polling has become a thing of the past and just are not reliable in this day and age. 

As I understand it, polling occurs similarly to how MJ cold-called people at home on their landlines back in the summer as part of her nursing program: you have a list of people who are registered, and a volunteer or polling worker calls them and tries to initiate a conversation about how the person who picked up is voting in the upcoming election. As someone who a.) does not have a registered landline, b.) never picks up the phone to a number that I don't recognize, I will never be someone who gets polled. Even if I did get a phone call about polling, I don't think I would engage with the caller about who I would vote for; it'd be a waste of time. I'd ask them to email me or do something easier, like just voting on an app or something where I could enter my selection with a click of a button. The people who are getting polled are a very select portion of the population who still respond to the old methods polling companies use, and it just doesn't work in presidential elections. For a 2020 election that will ultimately cost more than $14 billion (money that we probably could have spent on any of schools, hospitals, environment, infrastructure, disaster relief, campaign reform, HEALTHCARE, etc., etc.) it seems ridiculous to still be using ancient polling methods to gauge what the likely outcome will be (most had a 90% probability Biden would win, which seems laughable now in what is at best a dead heat for Biden) and also ANCIENT vote counting methods: stories about Wisconsin needing until 6AM tomorrow morning to count all the votes, Pennsylvania needing until Friday, etc. 

Remember when fantasy baseball/ fantasy football was played by snail mail where players sent their selections of players to the commissioner each week by envelope and the commissioner tallied the results and then sent back the results each week back to the players? Sound terrible? Yea that feels like what the US polling and voting process is like right now. Welcome to 2000, except instead of Florida (which was projected to be a swing state, but went for Trump early in the night) and dimpled chads/ hanging chads it will be mail-in votes + early voting votes v. day-of voting. Yikes.