How High School is Like Prison (监狱, 刑務所, 감옥)

I always had this image of my high school as a prison....cold and dreary, a disturbing lack of windows, and completely sealed off due to weather concerns in suburban Chicago, unlike the collegiate, open-air feel of California schools where you could at least get some fresh air walking around between classes. In my high school? You go into the building in the morning and you stay in until you come out. The high school population of people isn't exactly like a prison population, but the amount of hijinks, growth spurts, and teenage identity crises definitely finds some similarities. The most vivid memory I have of my freshman year of high school was seeing a huge food fight breakout in the cafeteria where everyone ate.....just so many trapped in a building looking for trouble that trouble was bound to happen... the hall monitors tried to break it up but even they were having trouble containing all the mayhem. 

Which is exactly one of the iconic images of Orange is the New Black, an iconic Netflix television comedy drama that was about the adventures of a white-collar suburbanite who spent time in prison and described her experiences. OITNB, as it's called, gave some insight into what it's like at an all-women's federal correctional facility, like rival gangs starting up in the prison, lesbian activity, smuggling drugs and trading cigarettes, but it also revealed some of the lighter parts of the inmates and their backstories. I was definitely hooked for 2 seasons and binge-watched, one episode a night. I suspect that the TV series toned down some of the everyday life in prison and romanticized it a bit with "movie nights" and Valentine's day dances, and I'm under no illusion that it's just one big happy family in the slammer, as the series sometimes alluded it could be. I was suprised at the inmates receiving bunk beds, as I've definitely lived in hostels that were in worse shape than those living conditions, and probably smelled worse. (I imagine a women's prison would be big on having at least some nice-smelling aromas). The locker-room style showers and solitary confinement are no joke, but the jobs that all the inmates seem like everyday jobs and have some real-world application: working in the library as a librarian, working in the kitchen as cooks/ assistants, one inmate even drove a van to drive people in and out of the prison to the hospital and other areas....seems like a bit of a flight risk? (Turns out it was). 

The biggest parallel, of course, between OITNB prison and high school, was the lunch area. Finding a spot to sit with people which identifies which "group" you're in, one of the more daunting adventures for any unpopular person. The food...does the best with what they've got, I guess, as I remember plenty of "hot dog days" and "pizza days," but definitely not any gourmet dishes or anything to write home about; I'm just glad I got by. The overwhelming sense that I got looking back was that high school isn't just a place for people to learn and get the basic knowledge they need for the rest of their lives (a noble aspiration but not realistic for some of the folks whom I went to high school with) but also to keep the students/inmates IN for about 8 hours a day or long enough so they can be out of parents' hair and have something function to keep them out of trouble and out of the rest of society. It definitely felt a bit like that with the reporting to classes by the time the bells rang, and asking for permission to use the bathroom, needing special permission to go out to different restaurants for lunch. It's kind of amazing that some students were 18 (as was I) by the time I was ready to graduate high school and still subject to some of the strict regulations and stuck within the confines of a steel block high school. All that was missing was the mandatory lying down on our stomachs right on the spot for when the alarms sounded for a security breach. And the people! It's kind of a jungle in high school, no one to hold your hand to protect you from bullies or social isolation.....the teachers just can't keep up with that. It was tough in 2001-2005 when I was in high school, and the internet was just getting started and smartphones weren't even around back then. I can't imagine what it's like now. A whole new kind of prison, perhaps. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Elderly Care (老人护理, 老人介護, 노인 간호)

 All restaurants and service industries are in need of more workers nowadays, just based on the number of "Help wanted" signs I see hanging outside most stores I drive by, but that's more of a temporary phenomenon caused by a one-time (hopefully) event, but one of the long-time growing sectors of the job market is elderly care, as America and the world as a whole becomes an aging society that lives longer and longer but need more help as they grow older (it's also one of the main reasons I felt confident MJ would get a job as a nurse, even if not necessarily in elderly care). There are nurses and caregivers out there, but are there enough, and can they handle the job? My grandfather is 95 this year, and he's always been a staple of our family ever since I came to America when I was 5, but it's been a slow decline in abilities for him: he used to do morning calisthenics every morning at 5AM, but that's gone; he can't climb up the stairs to our family home anymore to his old bedroom, so he has to stay downstairs in what used to be the guest bedroom, he needs a walker to walk, and he's unable to take long walks outside like he used to. Most of these detriments sprung up this past year as he fell down at home and had to be rushed to the hospital, a sign that his physical body is breaking down. Luckily, his mental capabilities are still there and he can speak and listen, as long as you speak very loudly to him to compensate for his hearing loss. My parents work as a tag team to help him with meals, take showers, taking him to the hospital, and serving general caretaking needs, but it is kind of a full-time job so it's difficult. And they only have one elder they need to look after! I don't know what it's like at a senior home, or a stay-at-home nurse, or a full-time caregiver. Can we really afford to have a one-to-one ratio on caregivers to elderly? Seems like that would require a lot of help. 

Plus, my grandpa has gotten understandably stubborn with old age, along with forgetting things, losing things, etc. But stubbornness and slight paranoia are most noticeable: he worries that the senior center that he goes to twice a week (started going again after a 15-month hiatus due to Covid-19) won't pick him up, and he's stubborn about doing his routine of waiting by the door, wearing his false teeth, etc., etc. None of these are unbearable, but I can imagine where some elderly are more extreme and refuse entirely to do things that may damage their health. They act similarly to kids who don't understand logic and new information, but they have the added downside of thinking they are right and not listening to others because they are older and don't have to. It's a tough situation, and an admirable job for anyone who is in elderly care. Requires a lot of patience, which is not exactly my strong suit. My grandpa doesn't have debilitating dementia or Alzhimer's yet, but it will be very sad and painful if he does; the sad thing about taking care of adults is that their condition usually grows worse, as opposed to when I was a camp counselor and working with kids who are growing and full of boundless energy and have their whole lives ahead of them; it's hard to be optimistic for the elderly, and there are often more diseases and physical challenges to work around. I would venture to think most people wouldn't willingly volunteer to take care of the elderly, which makes it that much harder to find people to be good at it and enthusiastic about it, even though the elderly need it the most. Much like we saw at the beginning of the pandemic, the elderly seem to get neglected by other members of society even though they are at their weakest; they deserve living out the rest of their lives with dignity. 

I also wonder what will happen for my parents when they get a little older (they are in their mid-60's now). Both are active and as of recently still working and very much self-sustaining, even providing care to my grandfather, but eventually they will retire and be in the same condition as my grandfather: in need of care. They've already toured some retirement homes, but as a matter of filial piety I feel responsible for their well-being (at least I have a sister!) and would want to help as much as I could. My dad already makes verbal blunders in English (calling avocados "Colorados" and Lake Balboa "baboon," so I hope he can keep the mental side together, whereas my mom may have some physical issues earlier on. I also wonder about myself when I become an "elder" statesman: will I need help for anything? I imagine nobody anticipates needing help when they are young and invincible, but eventually will I also need elder care? Will I become stubborn and unconvinced and forgetting things all the time? If so, I hope elder care is readily available then, or humans have evolved a way out of growing old/ built some technology to solve it, like robot caregivers (I once saw a robot perform a C-section in the movie Prometheus, which broadened my horizons considerably). Until then, I hope to stay active even at an older age and do everything I didn't have time for as a kid: not just sit and watch TV and go through the same routine every day. But then again, when I'm old, my thoughts will likely change and that'll be what I want to do. That's the tough part of aging: we don't know when it will happen and what I will be like when I do. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Less is More (적은 것이 더 많다, 少ないほうがいいです, 少即是多)

As I become more and more detached from the rigorous beliefs and standards of mainstream society, I realize more and more how the word "more" has been transformed, where actually smaller, compact products that take up less time and less energy is actually "more" or better. It's everywhere in society nowadays, this generally accepted wisdom: get everywhere faster, write less so others have to read less, do a shorter Youtube video so people don't lose attention span, etc. 

As people have shorter and shorter attention spans, my Youtube video feed is full of videos that are 30 seconds or less, and I am much more willing to click on a 30-second video than things longer than that. Not only will this be likely to cause an ad to pop up, but it allows me to commit less time to it. 

MJ uses the 1.5x speed function for the same purpose: condense everything into less time to get it done quicker. This seems to work for her in doing nursing school homework, but I do wonder if I would miss something important if I went faster than the ability to take notes, either physical or mental. Then again, I tend to lose focus if something is slow and dragging on, so maybe fast speeds is the natural combatant of boredom and monotony, and I would have learned more and paid more attention in law school if it sped up. 

There's also a important skill in being concise and being able to express more with less. I'm not just talking about short statements on social media that elicit the most likes just because of the extreme message that they send, like "xx person is a terrorist." That doesn't lend any nuisance, doesn't address concerns with your message, and oversimplies everything about the subject matter. Much more artful ways to express complex ideas have evolved through human history, like symbols, motifs, allegories, and power quotes. It's hard not to admire these artists' ability to summarize everything into small understandale messages, and really nowadays that's what we need in society, where nobody seems to have any free time and is constantly being distracted by the next thing on the queue. Less is beautiful, less gets read more, less gets attention, so being less is an art form in itself that people appreciate. 

It's kind of what Ken Jennings said in his books about being an obsessor of convenience: finding shortcuts, more efficient ways of doing something. That is the new currency of the twenty-first century, and those who master the skill better are best positioned to succeed in the new society. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan 

Globe (지구, グローブ, 地球)

 Suddenly June flipped to July the other day and I came to the sudden and jarring realization that half of 2021 is already over! The next week is a huge vacation week for many Americans, with many using the July 4th holiday on Sunday to observe a normal day off on July 5th but then just giving everyone the entire week off, something most will likely take advantage after a travel-free 2020. The Olympics are still happening later this month despite lots of consternation about the pandemic......America's gotten lucky with the vaccines helping to immunize most people, but it's important to note most of the world still isn't immunized; a lot of developing countries didn't get the vaccine yet, and don't have access to 3 different ones like America has. There is a bit of good news for JNJ vaccine recipients like myself that the delta variant of the virus seems to be contained by that vaccine.....so yay something to counterbalance the risk of blood cots in certain women! 

The Olympics were a good time for me to learn about other countries especially in the Opening Ceremonies when all the countries would parade around with their flag, and as a child I had a globe I would consult to see where that country was (that globe still sits in my parents' home along with ridges for mountain ranges). I was never given this option, but Korean people have a ceremony where they place objects in front of a one-year-old baby and see which object the baby takes, with the objects being symbolic of what profession that baby will eventually grow up to be. (This was actually depicted in an episode of LOST way back when to the character John Locke, who picked the knife). I'm sure Chinese people, like naming of kids "Doctor," might try to give a little "help" to the baby and push them towards a scalpel, or a calculator or something. Depending on the objects placed in front of me, I feel like I would have liked the globe: in a different life, I could imagine myself as an explorer, traveling to all parts of the world and blogging about it like Rick Steves or LonelyPlanet (maybe call it LonelyBobby?) 

Other than being an international showcase of sports talent, I always liked that the games showcased many sports that I wouldn't see normally, a change of pace from the Big Four sports that got coverage in North America (I can only handle so much dissection of baseball and the NBA Playoffs). It was a chance for athletes who didn't happen to choose one of the "money sports" that got the most attention to be in the limelight for awhile, if just for those 2 weeks or so. My parents got me into gymnastics because China usually had a good team, along with diving and some others, but the most exciting had to be the track and field events. I'm "interested" in watching Taekwondo and archery, sports that Korea excels in. 

In Los Angeles, it's a race to get ready for the 2028 Olympics......should be exciting (and crowded), but the best thing about it is is the urgency to FINALLY FINALLY get a subway or rail system to LAX.....the airport is really getting backed up now that everyone's traveling. Wouldn't want to be there for this upcoming holiday rush. Or maybe Elon Musk's Boring Company can get the underground tunnels ready by then. Whatever it is, I look forward to seeing extra roads on a globe/map of L.A.......or at least showing one extra route to get to LAX that's not red all around the airport. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan