Science (科学, 과학)

Ever since junior high when my parents started asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I knew that my parents were supportive of my decisions, but also that there was an answer to the question that I knew would make them happy: something related to science. My parents both studied science in college, they both attended the Illinois Institute of Technology as foreign students coming from China on a visa, they both received advanced degrees in chemistry, and they both worked at pharmaceutical companies their whole lives doing.....you guessed it, science. So they knew that science was a reliable field to go into and had plenty of practical application. I agreed with them then and I still agree now: science is a great route to go into for anyone.......if you're good at it. 

I liked biology as a freshman in high school, memorized ATGC as adenine, thyamine, guaraine, and cytosine, discovered meoisis and mitosis, memorized the parts of animal cells and plant cells, and actually quite enjoyed myself, as much as a freshman in high school who's at the bottom of the social ladder with glasses and acne and chess team participant can. Chemistry and physics were harder for me, however, and whether or not it was that the teachers weren't great (they didn't have a great attitude towards teaching when I struggled) or I just wasn't into it like I was into English literature or European history (the other classes I was taking at the time) I just never got into chemistry nor physics, and resolved right then and there not to go into either of those fields. I wonder what would have happened if I had a different teacher, had a more engaging curriculum, applied myself more to those classes, whether it'd all be different, but I don't think so: I didn't do well in computer science neither, much more related to chemistry and physics than social studies.  I finally realized why: I like facts and memorizable things, easy chunks of knowledge to know and associations, which is why I like history, presients, state capitals, geographic locations, etc. It explains why I still sort of liked biology, with so many body parts to learn, anatomy, animals, living things, and even some history of Watson and Crick, evolution, etc., etc. Even on Jeopardy and other tv shows I find myself liking the science categories like outer space exploration (learned about the Gemini and Apollo missions), body parts like the fibula and the tibula, diseases like Ricket's disease or bones breaking like greenstick fractures, and even like the Table of Element questions.....I could look at the Table of elements all day and try to memorize it. 

In short, I had a Ken Jennings- like affinity for knowing just a bit about a lot of different things, but not in depth about how things worked, like explaining how a computer is structured, or deciphering and/or creating my own computer code. I was more fit for Scholastic Bowl, not Science Olympiad. It wasn't that I wasn't curious, like my parents diagnosed, but that I didn't understand the deeper nuances of science and the processes, and because it was frustrating not getting it while others did (my friend liked building bridges in his free time- he's now a mechanical engineer) I naturally tended towards things I DID understand, like history and the various casts of characters and conflict in true events and fiction (literature). It helps me feel better about my Achilles Heel on the ACT testing, where I would routinely do well on math and verbal sections but struggle mightily on the science sections, where there would be questions about conducting experiments and variables and process questions. 

Knowing I have a weakness in science, I've checked out some books from the library: encyclopedias about science and nature from DK, Bill Nye, National Geographic, etc. They're great books, and get me engaged with pictures and captions. I just couldn't handle all the nitty-gritty of chemical formulas and physicas equations. I even checked out the amazing true story of NASA's female human calculators: Hidden Figures, by Shetterly, starring African American math geniuses Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan, who explained things to NASA engineers. Wow! 

Soccer (足球, 축구, サッカー)

 It's amazing what associations I made with certain things and ideas that probably no one else in the world makes. Soccer is the most played sport in the world, except it's called football in other countries, and the World Cup (happening this upcoming year, 2022, all of a sudden!) creates excitement for countries all over the world. Everyone has an exciting soccer story, whether it's watching soccer at a bar, playing soccer as a kid or at higher levels, and Southern California has a lot of soccer fields due to the ubiquity of the sport and climate conditions. I used to play soccer as a kid too, except I was really bad, I scored like one goal in my entire 3-season playing career of combined indoor and outdoor soccer, and I learned some hard lessons about letting down teammates if I didn't pass to them, or kid league soccer coaches putting their sons into the game instead of me even though we were all supposed to get the same amount of playing time. Some of the worst tendencies of human beings come out in sports, whether it's cheating, being too competitive, being a bad sport, bullying other kids (like me) who weren't as good .

The thing that sticks out for me most about soccer, though, are the chocolate round balls of candy wrapped in socce ball foil that I used to eat as a kid. I liked the taste of them even though they were just the plainest milk chocolate possible and they also had basketball and baseball-themed chocolate balls that tasted exactly the same, but for some reason I now associate seeing a soccer ball with eating chocolate, and it makes my mouth water, plus I get a happy feeling of nostalgia. It's indicative of how much of our lives are shaped by our childhoods, whether it's having a traumatic experience, associating certain items with a particular feeling, not liking certain foods because we didn't like it the first time we try it, or knowledge that stays in our heads indelibly even to this day. I'll forget something I swear I memorized a week ago when I actually need to use it like the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet, (the next one after Omicron is Pi, then Rho, hopefully we don't get too far after that!) and even though they're roughly the same order as the English alphabet....Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, etc., but I'll remember things I learned when I was 10 years old vividly like that Arcadia National Park is in Maine, or the name of P.T. Beauregard, a Confederate general during the U.S. Civil War (I really liked reading about the Civil War and Revolutionary Wars as a kid. I just liked wars, I guess). Now I wish I would have read more useful things when I was a kid, like SCIENCE ( I disliked science for some reason, a choice that baffled my chemistry professional parents). 

I also lament that I didn't learn some of the sports I needed to learn as a kid. I played soccer but never learned how to keep the ball up in the air without touching it, a useful skill for hackysack and fitting in with the local soccer guys......I never learned skiing, something that has burdened me on the slopes every time a friend sends out an invite to the next ski trip in Big Bear, Lake Tahoe, Colorado......and I never truly learned a martial art, even though I took some karate lessons... it was more for the camaraderie, not the skill, and my parents pulled up out so I can concetrate more on violin lessons. Sigh. 

TL; DR: Childhood soccer memories: not great, but salvaged by mind association with chocolate to make it seem fun for me! Yay! 

Hospital (ホスピタル, 医院, 병원)

 Since I was a young lad I've had a misconception of hospitals; I associated them with the clinics that doctors opened in the suburbs where I'd go to get a shot or a check-up, or eventually to a dermatologist. Easy mistake for a kid: there are nurses at those clinics, there's the nice fun Highlights magazines in the waiting room, there are some brief tests like taking temperature, measuring blood pressure, and I eventually (after waiting a while) see a doctor. 

Really only until MJ became a nurse that I really understood what a big, internationally-renowned hospital looks like, with various wings and various buildings filled with armies of doctors, nurses, support staff, technicians, volunteers, clincial assistants, and unfortunatley, patients. And the patients' loved ones. Advice for all parents who want to nudge their kids into the warm embraces of the medical field and to become a doctor: maybe get the kid to go to a real hospital and feel out the place, understand what the doctor does, maybe even job shadow someone for a day. Solid advice for any career option, actually, as I really didn't know any lawyers before deciding to go to law school. Only at one of these mega-hospitals did I get a sense of how closely hospitals resemble a large corporation, except the employees are working amongst the clients/customers. 

Over the holiday, my mom had successful surgery at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in L.A., one of the premier hospitals in the L.A. area along with USC, UCLA, City of Hope (world-renowned cancer hospital) where I got a first-hand experience (well, luckily for me, it was more second-hand since I wasn't the patient and wasn't sick) of how one of these runs: it is a very corporate experience in a good way for the patient, as the attending nurses were all very nice and took care of everything. Of course the hospital likely is getting paid a pretty penny for that exceptional service and is contributing to the exorbitant costs of health insurance nationwide and the "pyramid scheme within a scam within a scheme" that some describe the healthcare system is, but at least at the tail end of that scheme there's a bit of good that comes out of it: my mom agreed that her surgery was done very professionally by the doctor, who explained the surgery every step of the way and kept her informed with phone calls about what the procedure would entail. Mom's first doctor she visited in a non-descript local hospital was highlighted by doctor telling her she needed to operate within the month "or she might die." Seems like an unprofessional, coercive thing to say and.....setting himself up for some sort of lawsuit down the road. Glad we didn't go with the first doctor. 

Cedar Sinai's campus is what I imagine Google, Facebook, or some other big tech firm's campus is like: 10-story buildings filled with beds and hospital rooms, but also office spaces where doctors and other staff had their own offices to do research, just like white-collar workers would have in their respective office buildings (except white-collar workers are mostly all working remotely right now and who knows, maybe for the foreseeable future). There were sky bridges linking building to building and building to parking lot (even the parking lots were 10 stories high, that's how many people occupy the buildings) and even outdoor plaza areas to walk around either on the ground or on an elevated plaza area, whichever you feel comfortable with. (I always compare high-tech architectural places to the scenery in the movie "Her," which was filmed in L.A. and Shanghai). I did find myself kinda wanting to work in a kind of environment like Cedar Sinai, until I realized all the actual work happens inside the buildings on the busy floors where nurses have to push themselves to take care of all the patients they have to see, especially with Covid. 

There are operation floors where surgery takes place, post-op rooms, floors with a specific body part like "heart," or "kidney," North Towers and South Towers, check-in gates where visitors had to show ID and Covid vaccine cards (monitored more closely than New York restaurants and United States customs agents!). a cafeteria open to employees and the public alike, and......the hospital's very own blood donation center on the ground floor. The proximity was so convenient, so I gave back to the hospital what the hospital hopefully gave to my mom: I donated blood, and there the center has full-time employees just drawing blood there everyday, called "phlebomitists" who specialize in puncturing veins with needles and drawing blood. Everything about Cedar Sinai struck me as being a smooth operation, an engine with a greasy wheel that's facilitating as many patient visits as possible and serving the area during one of the worst public health crises in the history of the world. The 70's were the eras of the hippies and protestors, the '90's were the new computer age, the 2000's were the dawn of smartphones, the 2010's social media, maybe 2020's the hot and happening places in the U.S. are.......hospitals? 

Christmas songs

 I knew from a young age that I liked Christmas songs, but I didn't know how much tradition and trivia were contained in all of them, like "12 days of Christmas"- 12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers piping, etc., "The Christmas Song" with Nat King Cole and "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire....." , "It's a Holly Jolly Christmas" sung by Burl Ives.... the original king of Christmas Songs Bing Crosby with White Christmas..... (doesn't look like we're getting many white Christmases around the U.S. this year, even in Chicago where it's not snowing until 2022....) I often berated myself for being so sucked into the Christmas spirit and the commericialization of a holiday that forces everyone to buy a present for everyone else whether they actually need that present or not, but it's kind of easy to see why now: I'm very influenced by songs and whether something literally strikes a chord in me or not, so I've never been that interested in Thanksgiving (best weekend to travel internationally) because there's no song attached to it! New Year's is just one classic song, nothing for Valentine's Day, Easter, or any of the other 11 federal holidays of the year. I don't see too many people dancing and being jolly or kissing under mistletoes for George Washington's birthday or Labor Day. 

Christmas is always an interesting for the stock market, as there's always this fabled "Santa Clause rally" that brings presents to long-term investors with gains leading up to Christmas most of the time, but one memorable Christmas late in 2018, when the market was hemorrhaging and I was in the negative amount of dollars for the year, the Santa Clause rally came a little late on December 26, the day after Christmas; I was sitting in jury duty and the market zoomed up that day, never looking back and continuing its run well into the new year. That was a memorable Christmas, more than the last 2 Covid-marred Christmases for sure. 

I took the opportunity of the holiday to do some house cleaning around my parents' home in Camarillo, and it made me realize just how much dirt and soot cakes around the bottom of the window sills. Every window in a home is filthy, and a 4-bedroom home with both upstairs and downstairs has a LOT of windows. It's amazing how much soil I remove, and as scary as it is coming to the realization that we've been breathing in the residue from those black dark streaks on the windows, it's just as cathartic to wipe them up with a paper towel and throw them in the garbage. My hands were even getting painted black from scrubbing the whole day, bringing new meaing to the term window washing. Check your windows! There might just be a big dark suprise in there, and it's not a lump of coal or Santa's bag of toys, it's a bag of black mold. Maybe they should make a Christmas song about that: "Last Christmas, I gave you my mold... but the very next day, the mold came back again. This year, to save you from tears, I have to wipe it special...." (inspried by Last Christmas by Wham!- did not know George Michael was the voice behind all of those Wham! Christmas song CD albums.) TIL. 

Performance Anxiety or Stage Fright , (무대 공포증, 怯场, 舞台負け)

 I couldn't find an appropriate term in any of the Asian languages for "performance anxiety," but a similar concept of stage fright had hits. I recently applied to a trivia game show on a whim and got a call from a casting director with trivia questions to see if I would get a "call-back." I was excited about the opportunity, but then I had a day to think about the call-back, which allowed me to think about it and psyche myself up about it, going over all possible scenarios and putting a lot of weight on it. When the call actually came, the first question came up, and BOOM! It was a geography question right off the bat, supposedly one of my better categories, but I didn't know it... about which island in the world is divided into the North Island and South Island. I suspected that I'd heard about it somewhere before, but I just couldn't come up with it on the spot and reach deep in the crevasses of my mind to pull out where I'd heard that before, and gave up and guessed......Greenland, which I knew wasn't it. 

The rest of the quiz went similarly, where I was almost sure I'd heard about the answer to the question, but the clues weren't clicking. One answer was right at the tip of my tongue and in a Yan family slip of the tongue I answered "Judas Priest" to "What 2021 movie had consultants from the Black Panthers." Obviously Judas Priest (the band is not it) but I just couldn't get the full movie title. Some answers I just definitely did not know, and some questions I knew the answer to before the question had even finished, but it was those 50-50 questions that I didn't get which sank me, questions that I wonder if on a differnet day where I'd gotten more sleep, or felt more relaxed, or didn't psyche myself about it, I would have gotten in the nick of time. There was even a question that I guessed wrong during the call, but as soon as the call was over I came up with the right answer. Really wish I'd gotten that one back, but hindsight is always 20-20......hearing the answer changes everything even if you think "Oh I definitely would have gotten that," there's a reason why I didn't, whether it's I didn't know the answer well enough or think about it in the right way or misheard the question. 

Stage fright is weird that way, and different people have different experiences with performing in the limelight. There are some studies that propose the Hawthorne effect, in which people actually perform better when people are watching them. Others think that it's the opposite, because of the psychological stresses of people watching, you don't perform as well. It's hard to gauge because I can't go back and perform the same test without people watching. I will say during this test I felt a weird sense of embarassment each time I didn't answer a question, as each passing second went by I felt like I was showing how dumb I was not knowing the answer and making the casting director wait. Maybe an irrational thought for me, but that's definitely something I wouldn't worry about if it was a written test. I've definitely felt that type of pressure not to look dumb in front of others, as during my chess-playing career I was often the last player on my chess team with players from both sides watching the game. Luckily, that pressure didn't cause me to lose the game, but there have definitely been times in chess I feel like it's so easy when watching someone else's game to know what the right move is, but when actually playing the game, you're blind to it because you have so much invested and involved in it that you can't think it about it calmly. Playing violin and playing dodgeball in front of others was different because they were just peformance-based activites, my body is always on the move and something is happening, adrenaline is rushing anyway. For trivia and chess, there's also the time factor of the clock ticking, and the more I think about it the less time I have, building up the pressure even more. 

I can only imagine what it's like to fight in a UFC fight on live national TV, or be in a national spelling bee with the lights and cameras on and having to deal with the dreaded "schwa" sound knowing that there's a good chance you get it wrong. My heart would be pumping extra hard and be extremely nervous to say the next letter. 

One other thing I learned about trivia......I do much better with the questions written out in front of me. The call I did was just like a phone call with no video, so I had to process the questions by voice only, not my strong suite. I'm used to looking at flashcards, writing things down, and probably associating certain words as they are written to others, a strong indication that I'm a visual learning and why I like to read so much. When I watch Jeopardy on Youtube during my long runs (one of the best parts of my day) I do significantly worse trying to get the clues without also seeing the clues in front of me, partly because there are so many small parts of a Jeopardy clue that might lead to the answer, I need to focus on all the words like a detective to dig up the right answer. 

One last valuable lesson! Take a deep breath before any nerve-wracking endeavor, whether it's skydiving, asking someone out on a date (I don't have to do that anymore, thank God) or appearing on Jeopardy just to put your mind at ease and operate as close to normal as possible. 

Early Dawn in Paris

 One of my flexible fantasies in Paris was to re-enact the strolls that Owen Wilson's characters took in "Midnight in Paris" around the streets of the City in Lights, but MJ and I were so tired by the time we got back to our hotel every single day of a whirlwind 3-day adventure that we conked out and were in bed way before midnight. We did get to romp around in the dark, though, on our way home: walking from our hotel with our bags halfway around the city to the nearest train station, the Chatelet les Haulles that would take us to Charles de Gaulle airport. Since our flight took off super early in the morning before the subway even started running, MJ was flexible enough to embark on this journey, a rather risky one since there were armed guards on the streets apparently guarding against Covid protesters and/or guarding President Emmanuel Macron's mansion at Elysee Palace. 

Paris.....is definitely still lighted at 4:30AM in the morning, but much less quiet after all the party-goers and weekend warriors have went home. Luckily the homeless problem that San Francisco, L.A., and a bunch of U.S. cities are experiencing hasn't spread as much to France (although there were a few dudes camped out- relatively friendly and didn't smell too bad or be in danger of being stepped on), it was a great chance to reminisce on our trip, passing by the Opera district, going parallel to the Champs d'Elysee and the Gardens of Champs d'Elysee. A brisk November cold that didn't melt our faces off or blow our hats off, it was a reasonable temperature as long as we wore the winter jackets we were ready with, and I did what I love to do in big cities: walk around for a long time imagining the history and culture of one of the most famous cities in the world. It may be home to millions of residents and overrun with visitors during the day, but at 4:30AM in the morning, the city really belonged to MJ and I, and the presidential security guards with assault rifles of course. No wonder Owen Wilson felt the urge to ramble around. 

My urge to ramble and be on the move is a double-edged sword: It helps me enjoy big cities, but it also is a killer for getting on the wrong train heading in the exact opposite direction, which is what happened this past weekend as I tried to commute to the airport to catch my plane to Los Angeles. I got down to the train platform, but since the platform allowed access to trains in both directions, I got on the first train that pulled up only to find within seconds of getting on.... "next stop, Wilmington, Delaware," in a completely different state, but my desperate attempt to hop on was met with the iron-fisted door of disappointment of the Amtrak train moving already......and wouldn't be stopping for another 45 minutes to the next location. No way I could make my flight now. Whereas I have made plenty of mistakes getting on the wrong subway or taking the wrong turn while driving my car, those are relatively salvageable and correctable......getting on Amtrak, not so much. The bad thing about not panicking and freaking out normally about small mistakes on the road and getting lost is that....I don't experience the pain and learn from those mistakes, settling in to a sense of complacency that even if I'm wrong I can salvage it, I'm invisible, haha! And makes big mistakes like this one all the more possible. Just a small split-second decision to get on the train without knowing exactly where it was going can lead to huge errors. Even when I realized my mistake, I still held out hope that maybe my flight would be delayed, somehow things would work out.......It eventually did, where I could cancel my flight and apply the funds to another flight later, but the prices would be double the bargain basement price I had paid for my original flight. A 3-figure mistake. Big for a guy like me who tries to squeeze every penny. Lesson learned now, I guess......and at the very least I felt like Amtrak Joe all those years ago earning his nickname....enough to etch his name in history at the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Railroad station, aka Wilmington station, aka where I had to get off with my tail between my legs and take a train back the way I just came. 

Parent (親, 父母, 부모의)

 MJ and I have recently started seriously contemplating becoming parents and have had some deep discussions about starting a family (having a child). It's one of the most serious discussions a couple, maybe even any human being can have: bringing another child into the world. While we sometimes argue over some details, we are generally aligned in a desire to become parents, but it's a little more complicated than that: when to have a child, are we having children for the right reasons, are we ready to have a child, is the world we're bringing the child into a world worth living in? 

I have to admit that one of my motivations right now is that I'm falling behind: a lot of my friends and peers are having children if not already have children, and I feel like the guy in 2nd grade all over again who's watching everyone else figure out how to build a volcano but I'm the last one. It is a legitimate reason due to age being a factor and fertility, but it shouldn't be the primary reason obviously: shouldn't just rush in to do something because you feel like you're running out of time or that other people are all doing it. 

I've always just assumed that I would become a parent, as my parents had been: it's just the natural cycle of life, and all my friends naturally were part of families that did choose to have children; it never occurred to me that some couples decide not to have children. So I stated off biased, but I had such a great time working with kids in summer camp that I always thought I'd have them myself one day. 

Biggest risks: Lose a ton of sleep which I value highly, and it would affect my moods/ emotions. Lose free time to do the things that I want to do, as taking care of a child is a full-time job in itself and takes over as the No. 1 priority for most parents (no more dodgeball, less time to go jogging, no time for my own). It's easy to say I am willing to make these sacrifices on this side before having a kid, but the permanence of having a kid and not ever being able to go back to this life definitely gives me pause, as it would anyone. Looking at it one way, it's kind of crazy why any adult would give up the life they had (assuming it was a desirable, nice life) and take the risk that it will add a whole lot of responsibility and problems/ issues, disrupting the previous nice life irrevocably. Not to mention financial costs and burdens of having a kid. You'd have to really value that thing to make the sacrifice, and the kid had better be worth it. On the other hand, if we DON'T become parents, we risk forever not being able to have a child join our lives, to feel the love and caring of our own family that we created. Most people throw caution to the wind at the prospect of life and love, trumping other desires and wants. 

Whenever I think about all these factors and considerations, I come back to the principle that: Life and love are expensive. Maybe not necessarily expensive financially, but for time, energy, spiritually, everything, they sap time and energy. But just as MJ and I are both willing to add another person in our lives even though there's so much risk of arguments, things getting dirty, and things we don't agree on, we're ultimately willing to commit to each other despite those risks, which in a way cements our relationship that we're willing to continue on despite all of these challenges, and becoming parents will just be the next step in that risk-taking, albeit an ever bigger step. 

Easy for me to say, I'm the man who doesn't have to carry the baby. The current process is the most difficult for MJ and all mothers out there, who have to carry the baby for 9 months and go through the birthing process full of hospital visits, weight gain, nauseau, and all types of things happening to their bodies, then actually give birth (or do a C-section, both of which have their own challenges and pain) and THEN the baby finally comes out, and then the hard part starts! Of breast-feeding, diaper-changing, holding-in-arm, dressing them. Having had the serious discussion, it's much more than seeing cute baby pictures on social media and having the fun times at a summer camp; as an African idiom says, "it takes a village," and the parents have to be the chiefs of that village. It's something I look forward to so much but also with almost equal amounts of apprehension. One giant step for mankind: Becoming parents. 

December 8

 December 7 is a big day in the U.S. because it is the day in 1941 that Pearl Harbor was attacked many members of the United States Navy died in the raid. A sad day indeed. I will always remember December 8 because it was my grandpa's birthday, and he would have turned 96 on this day. It's been about 2.5 months since my grandpa passed away, but I still remember all the events leading up to his leaving us, and now I can fully appreciate the pain that people carry with them of loved ones passing away. The instant reaction afterward is difficult, but the mind is still processing and digesting as the information hasn't really sunk in, the 5 stages of grief sets in, and there are quite a few emotions flying around. It's the time afterwards, as time goes on, that the loss fully creeps in as I realize I won't be flying home this Christmas to see my grandpa, I won't be studying Chinese and reading newspapers with him for an hour each day (or every other day), and I won't be celebrating his birthday with him and wishing him another year of health. There's 2 lives: the life I had before my grandpa passed away, and the life now afterwards, and there's no going back to that other one. It's kind of related to the sadness/joy I feel when I see a sad movie or someone achieve success or accomplish their goals on TV or in a movie (I know, kind of conflicting emotions) but it's because I know that life will not always be like that, and to enjoy that moment of triumph and elation. 

The other day I learned about Pascal's wager, an idea by French philosopher Blaise Pascal that a rational person should live as though God exists because the upside is greater than the downside: The upside being eternal bliss in heaven (AND avoiding eternal in hell) as opposed to downside just losing out on some time or material pleasures like living hedonistically. As with any theory there are arguments for and against Pascal's wager, and it seems paradoxical to act a certain way for your own self-gain since the whole idea of God is something bigger than selfishness, but I know that people's ideas change as they grow older, and especially older people tend to believe more in God (possibly for selfish reasons as they know death is more imminent the older one gets). I know my grandfather started to get solicited by door-knockers who handed out pamphlets about joining church and literature about religion, and I know he always believed in a 上帝, or God in Chinese, just maybe not necessarily Jesus, Muhammed, or any of the other gods in other religions. The more i read about metaverses and matrixes (new Matrix movie coming out this month) the more I start believing that the world we live in could be another dimension or simulation, that there mght be something else besides this world we're in, maybe not a God or Higher Being but some other sort of living and existence outside of life. And if there is one, I'm pretty sure my Grandpa would be there now, doing math using old school pen and pencil or reading a newspaper on a lazy Sunday morning or taking a walk out in the garden with the rejunevated energy of his youth. Maybe my grandma is there with him too. 

Happy Birthday, grandpa! Hope you are enjoying it wherever you are. 

The Blue Period

 Tucked away in a quieter part of the Paris and a significant walk away from the nearest train station, the Picasso Museum is by comparison to other attractions in Paris, quite reserved......it seems like a quaint 3-story building where people could live.......but inside is perhaps one of the best exhibits dedicated to the life of one Pablo Picasso, a titan of 20th century art. Befoe a year ago, Picasso didn't mean anything to mean other than a famous painter whose art work could sell for 7 digits at art auctions; I didn't even know what he looked like! And unlike the masters of classical European art like Michaelango, Da Vinici, Rembrandt, etc., Picasso was of the age of the modern age, living until the 1970's..... I was almost born early enough to have my life coincide with Picasso's! The Blue Period was one of Picasso's most famous series of art work between 1900 and 1904 where he just went through a phase; he must have been in one of his moods and mental states that I'm too familiar with......there are stretches of my life that I feel just distinctly different than other times of my life until one day, I just snap out of it and move on to something completely different.......I wish one day someone will look back at Robert Yan's "Dodgeball Period" of 4-5 years or give out fancy names like "the Pandemic Sitting at Home Years." I WON'T have a list like Picasso did of "Picasso's women" and all the wives and relationships he was in. I guess an artist might think differently or have different standards of relationships with people, so it's hard to be judgmental, but Picasso sure did milk something many other famous artists didn't have: fame during his lifetime, success and ability to attract women to his side. 

I'd say MJ and I enjoyed the Picasso and Rodin museums the most, museums dedicated specifically to one artist's life and displaying how he dedicated his life to art, his workshops, the subjects that he picked, etc. As one can imagine, lots of statues in Rodin's museum to peruse, although one fellow visitor memorably walked up to a statue and started rubbing her hand on it to enjoy the work! I'd think it's pretty universally understood not to touch the artwork at art museums, but maybe there's some Paris corollary to that rule we didn't know about? MJ was shocked. I found it funny. I also found it memorable to see the "Thinker" and "Burgers of Calais" statues outside in the garden, especially since it was a rainy day and the misery of the prisoners depicted in "Burgers" seemed even more evident as if they had to add rain to their list of troubles, like being imprisoned and sacrificed to the enemy forces. As "Midnight in Paris" the movie described in, Paris can be beautiful in the rain as well. The Thinker might be able to concentrate better in the rain. 

No matter how many "Rick Steves" guidebooks or "Paris in 3 days" itineraries you consult, I always find that actually making the trip allows for underrated places to pop up that don't get the "3 stars" or "3 diamonds" or whatever the tour books say are the best attractions. MJ and I got a tip from a local not to get too crazy at the Louvre just standing in line for hours to get a picture, but instead enjoy the absolutely free Petit Palais (Little Palace) which had almost no line and displayed some of the best artwork of the trip. It's a good lesson for wherever we end up next time: don't be afraid to take a chance on something that others haven't rated as highly. 

On the Covid front, I suspect we got a little lucky with timing as we went just ahead of the Omicron variant and new waves of Covid, but there's a pretty strict system of QR codes tracking one's Covid status at every establishment that we went to, with the establishment scanning in the code instead of just the flippant glance at restaurants in New York when we went in October. Getting in and out of the country seemed like much more of a breeze than advertised.......Paris welcomed us in, and the US didn't really ask too many questions when we came back.... neither checked our vaccine cards at all or negative Covid tests that we went out of our way to get at a Paris pharmacie (they're making quite a pretty penny from charging tourists for converting their Covid cards there PLUS the negative covid tests, a double hit for each tourist in a big city for tourism) where I got my first Covid up-the-nose test: Let's just say I'm happy I didn't have to do too many of those all throughout Covid. It made me be in a different type of "Blue Period" for a half hour afterwards. 

Bobby and MJ in Paris

 Inspired by the Netflix hit series "Emily in Paris," I hereby name our short 3-day 2021 trip "Bobby and MJ in Paris." The most lasting impression for us was how nice Paris locals were to us, contrary to what we had heard about Parisians, that they didn't like "stupid American" tourists or were rude and snobbish. At least to us tourists, they were very accommodating, ready to help, and all spoke English! Turns out the cram sessions of watching French language videos and "Lupin" on Netflix weren't needed after all, although they did come in handy reading road signs or announcements on the subway. 

So much of Paris actually, in a weird way, reminded me of my first visit to Tokyo, getting off at a remote airport location an hour away from the city (Charles DeGaulle v. Narita Airport in Tokyo), taking a train into the big city passing by small villages and gradually picking up commuters going to work until reaching a huge metro area, and a huge center tower overlooking the city and constantly reminding us of its presence as we walked throughout the city (Eiffel Tower v. the Tokyo Tower, which look surprisingly similar to each other). I'm also a huge fan of subway systems and figuring out how to get from one side of the city to the other, and Paris's metro system didn't disappoint: tons of crissrossing lines and maze-like stations, but trains were digitally synchronized to arrive on time. We even ran up against the rush hour trains or "hell trains" as MJ puts it, but they weren't as bad as that of Shanghai, Tokyo, or Seoul likely because Europe is just less densely populated than the aforementioned cities. 

The real treat though, was definitely walking the city. One of the most eagerly anticipated highlights of a trip for me is that first saunter into the heart of the city to explore the surroundings, and Paris didn't disappoint. The River Seine, as promised, points the way through all the major parts of the city like the Notre Dame cathedral, Arc De Triumph, Eiffel Tower, Shakespeare and Company (a bookstore with tons of English titles cuz well, it's Shakespeare), one could really just spend the whole day watching up and down the left and right sides of the river bank. Even on cloudy/rainy days they were refreshing, I can only imagine (or just boot up any Emily in Paris episode) what it looks like on full, bright, sunny days. A bit away from the action is the "Sacre Coeur" church on Montmarte, the highest point of the city, and that's exactly what my idea of a European village is: long winding mountain roads filled with shops and small houses and small crooks and alleys that seem to go forever. I could have wandered those streets forever if MJ's legs weren't hurting. To be honest, we did so much walking that my pandemic-softened body wasn't used to, I was hurting too and often relished sitting down in a subway car. 

The museums were......as expected. Lots of people, even with Covid, and they were the cultural hubs of art like I expected them to be. Quite a bit of a line forming at certain areas, unfortunately unnecessarily at some spots like the Pompideau Center, even with Covid, seemed like they were very deliberate about letting people in and MJ almost got into an altercation with one of the peace-loving French people who was trying to cut us in line! Things get testy waiting outside in 30-degree temperature, I guess. The Louvre Museum was the one that surprisingly didn't require a long wait in line, as the place is so big that they can accommodate football stadium amounts of people. The wait was definitely longer though to get to take a picture with the Mona Lisa....you woulda thought a famous rock star, sports star, or the queen was signing autographs or something...I guess it pays to be the No. 1 most recognized face in the whole art world (people theorize it was Da Vinci himself that he painted... hhmmm) Once you got to the Louvre you realize every other museum you've ever been to is like a mini version or maybe a wing of waht the Louvre has......classical paintings, check. Gems and jewels room, check. Egyptian exhibit, check. Islamic rugs and paintings, check. It's no wonder it's so popular... I compared it to the art world version of Disneyworld.......there's Epcot in the Denton wing, Magic Kingdom in the Richelieu Wing, the huge pyramid designed by I.M. Pei serving as the entrance is just as magical........And of course you have the crowds, waves of people from all cultures and different parts of the world who gathered at that one spot. And we were there in late November........it must be really as much of a tourist mecca as advertised during pre-covid summers. 

A Whole New World!.......In First Class

 Musee D'orsay, the Louvre, the Champs Elysee, the Arc de Triumph, the Eiffel Tower.....a whirlwind of activity in just 72 hours amidst Covid lockdowns! was the theme of our trip during Thanksgiving weekend this year, but the most striking thing for me was not the destination, it was the journey getting there....in first class! 

MJ has achieved Gold status at Delta, which apparently is like a cheat code in a video game or opens a key to a secret level as it allows access to the Delta SkyLounge, which I as a Southwest passenger in my late-teens and early 20's never even dreamed of. The SkyLounge is the equivalent of a VIP room at an airport, where just flashing that gold status QR code grants access to nice seats, cool views of the airport, a cleaner bathroom (actually very underrated considering some of the general public restrooms I've been subjected to at some airports), a bar just for guests, and.......free buffet-style food. I wouldn't say it's like a crowning achievement to reach the SkyLounge, as anyone with enough money to spend accumulating Delta AmericanExpress points plus enough miles flying with the airline can get it, but I did feel my sense of self-worth ballooning as I indulged in all the fancy perks (short for perquisites) in both Atlanta (our connecting airport on the way to Paris) and JFK in New York (on the way back). I almost forgot the AirFrance lounge in Paris that partners with Delta but most importantly also let us in! Just when we thought our baguette and croissant eating days were over, we splurged on more right before leaving Paris! Food, glorious food! I wasn't so sure about a layover instead of non-stop flights for such a short span of time, but with SkyLounge the layover is almost as good as the vacation itself.....(I'm gonna try to exaggerate as much as I can the benefits of it and sell it as all that and a bag of chips). Chocolate fountains were flowing while unicorns flew over them and sounds of champagne popping could be heard throughout! And the attendants were nice and friendly! I didn't find the Fountain of Youth or the Holy Grail, instead I found the Delta SkyLounge! 

The trick I've found on any airplane is to try to sit as close to the front as possible (or alternatively the closest to the nearest exit as possible), but I'd never been the FIRST person to get off the plane before, but that's what happened on our flight since MJ and I BOTH sat in the front row in first class. As Barack Obama remarked in his memoir "The Audacity of Hope," (except Barack was describing the amenities at Air Force One, quite a few steps up), it was quite nice. Served first for drinks, our choice of snacks, extra leg room, no need to fight for empty bin space.....what a time to be alive. Now I know what's behind that deftly planted curtain that usually separates me, the riffraff in the main cabin, with the elites up at the front, Titanic movie style. The flight attendant, working on Thanksgiving Day, even took the time to write us a handwritten note wishing us luck on our trip to Paris. They really care about us (and our allegiance towards spending more money at Delta)! They really do! I'm not a man who needs too many nice things in life (no fancy clothes, no fancy cars, watches, accessories), I'm just a plain vanilla guy who's easy to please, I guess, but once in a while it is nice to get stuff other people don't get and not feel guilty about it, which is what Delta and oher flights are trying to incentive I guess. As in life, being at the top pays off in a capitalist airline like Delta, whereas everything's the same in the Socialist Southwest. I pictured MJ and I cruising along at 30,000 feet to the tune of one of my favorite songs (and one of the few I can play by memory on violin), "A Whole New World" from Aladdin, where Aladdin and Jasmine fly off literally into the clouds on the magic carpet and sail over oceans, palaces, herd of animals, etc. It really is a whole new world, first class. 

It also sometimes pays off to spend a bit more money for hotel rooms, especially in foreign countries and unfamiliar destinations! More on that next time!