Fanatic (광신도, 狂信度, 狂热者)

 Netflix just dropped a Korean reality TV series called "Devil's Plan" which is similar to "The Genius Game" with a lot of group games and strategy puzzles....and of course I'm heavily absorbed into it, watching the first 2 episodes the first night it dropped and the next 2 episodes on the 2nd night. What can I say, I guess I'm a sucker for that kind of programming, it's like my Star Wars: I would wait in line at the theater and dress up as Chewbacca or something if need be. MJ was into the game too, but for different reasons: she liked commenting on all the Korean celebrities who popped up on the show: who she liked, disliked, who's a nepo-baby, who's well-respected, etc. The social aspect of the show of people interacting with each other, whereas I'm just more interested in the strategic aspect of what's the optimal way to win the games and maximize one's winning chances. I approach these shows like chess analysis videos; MJ approaches them like watching "And Just Like That" (the Sex in the City sequel). I suspect due to her more frequent interactions with older people at the hospital, MJ would like "The Golden Bachelor, featuring 60-year-old and 70-year-olds finding true love. 

But yes Devil's Plan immediately started off with a variation of one of my favorite games ever (Mafia) and introduced some characters with different spins: they basically divided the traditional "sheriff" role in mafia (who can figure out who other characters are in the game) into a "reporter" who had that ability and a nominal "sheriff" who absorbed the power of the masses by being able to kill anyone else in the game (usually that's a role for the whole group in a vote to see whom to kill). Oh and they introduced a "virus" and "vaccine" aspect of it since it was filmed after the pandemic and all. (I feel like now that we're 3 years removed from the epicenter of Covid, people want to think about anything BUT Covid, but hey that's just me). They also introduced a character called the "Fanatic" (hurray for different subtitle choices on Netflix) called the 광신도 or 狂信度 in Kanji characters, which are divided into "crazy," "belief" and "degree." Someone who believes in something to a crazy degree. The role was depicted on a card with a crazy clown figure with crazy/evil eyes, and the character's special ability was to gain points for being killed off as soon as possible, so basically someone who was a suicide fanatic. Now I get why they named "fans" after this word; you have to be really crazy about something to the point of caring about nothing else. It's the trait in some humans that gets manipulated unfortunately into religious fanaticism or cult fanaticism, all the Church of Scientology believers and zealots; usually not a danger to society until they cause mass suicides like Jonesboro and Heaven's Gate, etc. I fear fanatics of anything, even if it's rabbits, baseball, chocolate, or cartoon characters; being obsessed with anything makes others wonder how far you're willing to go to get what you want, and going too extreme makes you wonder if they're "crazy." I'm like the opposite of a fanatic: I do almost everything in moderation, and just when I feel like I'm starting to get pulled in to something too far and might be too late to pull back, I pull back to a normal base and count myself fortunate for not going overboard, even for shows like "Devil's Plan" where I understand I need to go to sleep and wake up the next day to go to work. In that sense, MJ is a TV series fanatic.......last Friday nigth she binge watched a Korean TV show right through all 12 (maybe 13?) episodes without stopping and claimed she went to bed "very late" or "sometime early in the morning." Sure signs of fanaticism, as well as the crazy eyes with bags from staying up late without sleep.  

Netflix kind of curbed my fanaticism for Devil's Plan by releasing only 4 episodes per week; one game was a memory game with a Where's Wally-like photo of a hospital with numerous people walking around like patients, nurses, doctors, people who needed surgery, and the contestants had 20 minutes to memorize the photo and then answer questions about the photos. Not exactly a game for memory experts who memorize sequences of hundreds of numbers; this game was more visual, good for more "photographic memory" people who could see a photo and remember all the details of it, like what color outfit people were wearing, etc. (Again, it was hospital-themed to remind us that yes, there was a pandemic, I guess). But I appreciate the amount of details needed to draw a painting like that; someone had to really commit to drawing all the rooms, the layouts of the beds, the detials on the walls...I wish I could be doing that all day long really. Bring on more fun drawings! 

Skip (건너뛰다, スキップ, 跳过)

 I'm usually an anti-technology luddite, but even I can admit that the greatest thing the 21st century ever invented: The skip button. Allows me to watch 2-hour movies in about 30 minutes, watch whole TV series in a few hours (depending on the number of episodes), and saves a bunch of time that I'd previously spent just waiting for the plot to develop. I feel sorry for my 12-year-old self sitting at home on the couch having to sit through (gasp) commercials. Sure I could channel surf and change the channel to something else, but there was no way to speed up an episode of live TV at least. Kids nowadays might not know about the 1990s way of watching movies, which was VCR of all things, and you could actually fast forward, but it was just a clunky way of doing things, you didn't know how long you were skipping ahead (a problem now solved by the "skip ahead 15 seconds" button). People nowadays have it so good. 

MJ is a BIG proponent of the skip button especially due to her obsessive patterns of watching TV series: Once she gets hooked on a TV series, which is not that often, but when she does, she can't wait to finish it, so she has to finish THE WHOLE SEASON in one night. In one sitting. That's like eating a whole 16-oz party size bag of chips in one sitting, or drinking a whole gallon of milk in one sitting. It's a lot. 

The other valuable technology in watching TV shows (Netflix, Max, Hulu, Disney+, whatever is your poison) is the subtitles settings and cc (closed captioning). Having basically taught myself Japanese (and very basic Korean) from watching Japanese TV shows and turning on the English captions, I know how valuable watching TV is (it keeps you entertained while you're learning) so I try to keep my mind active even while doing a very passive activity like watching TV. There's 2 different but (almost) equally effective ways to do this: listen to the English audio and turn on the subtitles for the foreign language of your choice, OR set the audio to the foreign language of your choice, and set the CC to English. Not available for every show on the streaming networks, of course, and the more obscure the show is (smaller audience), the less likely it is to be available. But if we're talking mainstream stuff like "The Mandalorian" or re-runs of "Breaking Bad" or MJ's favorite, "And Just Like That" (a Sex and the City sequel series after Sarah Jessica Parker essentially forced Kim Cattrall out of the show) there is an impressive list of options available and many languages to choose from. Apparently a lot of people tune in to see (spoiler alert) Mr. Big pass away on a Peloton. 

The other day at the platelet donation with the Vein Whisperer, I was reminded of how important it is to have the remote control available and both "Skip" and "language settings" tools available- donating platelets means both arms are unavailable, so I couldn't change the movie once I had started it, but I also couldn't change the settings after the needle went in, so when one episode finished (did I mention platelet donations can go on for 2-3 hours?) the language settings reverted all back to English and I didn't have the captions anymore: my instinct to always need to be studying or learning something and not just wasting time kicked in. One of the nurses unfortunately told me she couldn't help with the device because then she'd have to recalibrate all the remote controls, but then the Vein Whisperer came back to fix the remote and just placed the remote literally in my hand, and the remote was bluetooth, so I didn't have to point it at the TV, which is difficult since bending one's arm is difficult when you have a needle sticking into it. Just kind of goes to show the disparate treatment that healthcare professionals give to patients; I realize that some patients are needy and overdemanding, but I'm usually not like that! (Just realized that asking for the remote to change the language settings for my personal studying needs is probably a little needy and high maintenance, but like, I literally cannot move my arms, so it'd be nice for the nurse to show a little compassion and help?) Maybe she wished there was a "skip" button to skip my demand and go on to the next person. 

What we Do in the Shadows of Anonymity

 The title is a "catchy" title that I just thought of playing off the hit Hulu TV series about vampires. It's one of those names that trivia people like to use for bar trivia teams, like "Forrest Grumps" or "DumbleDo Re Mi." Come to think of it, a lot of band names (and pretty successful ones) got their names form worldplay, like "Bowling for Soup," or "Avenged Sevenfold" or AC/DC getting their name from a sewing machine, "Death Cab for Cutie" was named for a newspaper headline about a woman in a taxi accident, "Motley Crue" was taken from someone calling the band "a motley crew of people." Names like that stick. 

Anyway, I'm still hung up on how some people get fame and with it the rewards of being rememberd in history with a good name forever, while others just live and die in anonimity and the memories of them die with the last person who ever knew them (the theme of the Pixar movie "Coco.") I read the latest Time Magazine article today (it's become a biweekly publication now, meaning it doesn't get enough circulation to be published weekly so it only does one magazine every 2 weeks, a far cry from the hay days of the Nineties when at I at least regarded them as the premier magazine for understanding the pulse of the country, back when being on the cover of Time magazine really meant something. Nowadays they rely a lot on doing features on famous people, you know the people who the general public cares about deeply and would actually pick up the magazine for, and it feels like every other edition is a "Top 100 people of young up and comers" giving them an excuse to write about already-famous people, thus making those famous people even more famous, and also allowing other famous people to write about their famous people friends, like Peyton Manning (football player) writing about young blossoming superstar Jalen Hurts, or Jamie Lee Curtis (from Everything Everywhere All at Once) writing about her co-star in that movie Stephanie Hsu, with predictable starts to their blurbs like "when I first met Stephanie Hsu, she was so engrossed in her work as to stop me in my tracks with awe and admiration." It really feels like fame is just a great big club that everyone aspires to, and once you get in the club the existing members pat you on teh back and act like they always knew you were going to be a star, but until then it's one big club and you're not in it. (George Carlin quote). The exclusivity of it all and the hierarchy of it and climbing the ladder makes me think fame is a lot like......you guessed it, a pyramid scheme. 

My grandpa passed away 2 years ago, and he was my biggest hero; he didn't need to be famous or recognized by others, he just lived his life quietly, without advertising himself like everyone in this generation so shamelessly does to market themselves...he thrived in anonymity. Every day (at least since I knew him) he woke up at 5AM to do his morning exercises, ate the same thing for breakfast, read newspapers for at least an hour or two per day, did math calculations for a few hours a day, just him and his numbers, had dinner with our family, and when I was a kid, taught me math, Chinese, made me recite Chinese poems repetitively enough that I still remember some poems from memory, and basically just shaped who I am today, teaching me to be humble, to value integrity and respect of others and have a hunger for knowledge. I'm pretty sure I was motivated to read so much by my grandpa also reading all the time. 

For everyone like my grandpa, there are plenty of people out there who are similar, living great lives in anonymity without having a camera guy around them to document every "good deed" they do or to post on social media something to make themselves look good or self-advertise. I live in a building with neighbors who are blind and some other neighbors who are also handicapped and need to use a wheelcahir, and another neighbor who is deaf. These are some of the people we should be hearing about more, or checking in on, or learning more about their lives to give ourselves perspective on life, not just seeing the newest fashions on social media and getting jealous of the supermodels. Everywhere I look are pictures of Beyonce in her visors doing the Renaissance tour, Taylor Swift's new boyfriend football player Travis Kelce, pictures like 10 million plus likes, at least. How about some love instead for the guy who works the night shift at the hospital, or single mother who provides for her children, the lonely elderly who fought in wars or had society-enhancing jobs during their working days but are now generally ignored by everybody in their old age? 

I recently read a memoir by a lesser-known NY Times writer, a very well written story of her life and the death of her father and eventual death of her mother during the pandemic. They were very poignant stories with real depth and compassion and room for me to feel like I was there too and participated in her life, and got emotionally invested. I guess I'm a sucker for these types of books because they're so personal but because they bring attention to people I didn't know about existed yet now feel a real connection to, people who otherwise would have been left in the shadows of anonymity but are allowed to leap off the page of the book into the spotlight for just a little bit and let their best moments be shared with the world, without having to advertise how great it was on Facebook. 

Shoutout to my grandpa, I both miss him already and still miss him after 2 years. I hope to see him again one day in one form or another! 

The Vein Whisperer

 I've written many times on this blog about the death of American culture through popularity contests, so it's not suprising to learn I'm not a fan of the general public obsessing over who the greatest basketball player is of all time, or who the fastest guy is, or who has the most views on Tiktok, who wore it best at the Oscars, or any of those celebrity-related metrics. Seeing the greatest sports star ever is great once, but what utility does that have to one's life? Can that basketball star use his skills to battle evil? Solve world hunger or the climate crisis? (Some celebrities do use their fame and wealth to support good causes, but that's not what made them famous in the first place). I wonder how many people out there are the best teachers in the world (or in their local area, and unders subjective analysis since there's no quantatitive metric as to who the best teacher in the world is) or the best doctor in the world who's saved the most amount of lives, or the best social worker who's gotten the most unhoused kids off the streets, or the best nurses who've made the most elderly people die a little more with dignity. These are the people who we should be celebrating, but all of the collective public's concentration is focused on the most basic-instinct aesthetics like beauty, physical prowess, music ability, etc. 

Which is why I want to shout out possibly the best phlebotomist in the world, whom I met today during a blood donation at my local American Red Cross Center. My donation journey has taken me to several states and cities across the U.S., but maybe all those donations paid off to finally find him, "The Vein Whisperer" as I call him, because he has the magical ability to stick a needle in my vein without me barely even feeling it. Usually I'm a mess the day of a blood donation because I stress out about that feeling of the vein going in, the millisecond (or longer sometimes, previous bad experiences have had the "nurse" working there feeling around the vein with the needle in my arm to find the right spot! It's the same feeling of anxeity and dread I have if I know I need to go on a roller coaster soon, the anticipation is worse than the actual thing. When the needle does go in, sometimes it's relatively smooth and a weight is lifted from my shoulders, but sometimes it DOESN'T go smooth and I'm scarred all over again for the next time it has to happen. Today was the same: I do platelets now, so I knew there would be double-arm apheresis, meaning TWO needles going in, one in each arm, so I was bracing for it and hold my breath when Andre (not his real name) The Vein Whisperer looked at my arm, told me to squeeze and hold, looked at my bulging vein (my vein has always been easy to spot), and just went in with one swift motion. Notice that he didn't fudget around, waste time, draw pictures on my arm (some nurses do draw to triangulate the spot, I always thought it was unnecessary at least for me) or give a brief spiel right before going in like "There's going to be a pinch and a squeeze, OK?" which makes it worse for me waiting with baited breath......Andre just went in with a professional, practiced swift motion, not too firm, but determined and smooth. Vein went in, and alarm bells didn't sound in my mind; everything was at peace. I audibly heard myself saying, "Wow, that wasn't bad at all." Andre just smiled, a man seemingly possessing the confidence of someone who has done plenty of needle sticks before and had been complimented about his skills before. But wait, there was a second arm.....Did it also go in painlessly? The second one was not as silky smooth as the first one in which I almost felt nothing (I definitely felt the needle), but it wasn't like a sharp pain! It's that sharp jolt like jumping in a tub of freezing water that we blood donors all dread (at least I imagine so, most other blood donors I see all just sit there and take it calmly while I'm a squirmer) but no sharp pain! It was as if the needle knew it was in the hands of Andre and just accepted its fait of piercing the skin effortlessly, like diving into the swimming pool (of my skin) without a splash. Man what a feeling.

Am I addicted to blood donations? I don't think so. I can stop any time! Haha, I think about this recently because I'm rewatching Breaking Bad, a genius show some consider to be the best of all time (another one that has no practicality, but it's definitely addictive!) and the show is not only about drug addicts and the powers of addiction, but also POWER addicts like Walter White who is addicted to the thrill of crime and POWER to feed his pride. Maybe I'm like Walter, I'm addicted not to the feeling of the needle going in (definitely don't like that) but to the idea of helping others out and feeling that little bit of moral brownie points and imaginary intake of good karma? Nah. Unfortunately Walter White has the gift of knowing chemistry and being able to produce the best methamphetamine products in the world, which......has a practical effect but just in a very, very negative way. Breaking Bad also has the concept of being the best in the world and the best quality product in the world, something that is actually pretty valuable in this wide world we live in......I think MJ would jump at the chance to drink the best coffee in the world every day, as I would jump at the chance to be the best fantasy baseball player in the world, or know the most languages in the world. 

It'd be really good to be the best at anything and have the knowledge that I was. Maybe I am in small, unnoticed ways that don't really matter? I know I'm not the best translator, language expert, trivia player, dodgeballer, husband, son, lawyer, or camp counselor in the world. I guess I'm pretty good at driving long distances in a car and putting other people in the car to sleep (and many times, almost myself while driving to sleep).... I have a rhythmic way of driving I guess. I also have some of the best veins in the world, at least I've been told my the Vein Whisperer and other phlebotomists. I continue to have this vein notion that I have the best blood in the world that might help patients recover faster (I also tend to recover really quickly like Wolverine). Maybe one day I'll do something as good as the Vein Whisperer does at his job. 

Gimbap (김밥, 紫菜包飯, キムバプ)

 I've never had a bad gimbap. That's an important statement because I've had plenty of bad (insert other food items): bad hamburger, bad hot dog, bad taco, bad Chipotle burrito. Of all the Chipotles in the world, I bought a condo above the worst Chipotle location in the world: no fajitas EVER, often running out of sofritas (the only type of burrito MJ usually eats), often gets the order wrong, often has boned chicken (you bite into the chicken and feel something bony, an indication of lower-quality chicken), often is too salty, and something is just off about their sauce and Chipotle mix. I know how bad my "home base Chipotle" is because when I go to any other Chipotle in the world, I rediscover the magic of what made made like Chipotle in the first place back in college and then more so during busy nights at law school. So yes, Chipotles can be bad, which is all the more reason that I appreciate the consistency of kimbap: very simple ingredients of rice, vegetables (apparently something known in Chinese as "purple vegetable), and rolled up in seaweed and served in bite-sized shapes). Healthy, nutritious, and consistent in flavor; no hidden doses of salt, just a little hint of egg (for those that use it, don't have to), and a great combination of all major food groups. And if we're talking about presentation, aesthetically it looks pleasing to the eye: at least 6 different colors in a kimbap squeezed together in an orderly fashion, not all collapsed like a burrito often ends up for me. 

Recently I discovered something about my enjoyment of sport: I like when 2 evenly matched teams are giving it their all and it's a close, back-and-forth matchup. "Well, duh," one might say. I don't know if that's such an obvious statement. There are those out there who prefer watching 60-3 beatdowns in a ballgame. I also think that even if I was a player participating in one of those games, I want the more competitive games rather than the one-sided matchups. One-sided matchups are joyless for both sides: the winning team that's dominating thinks it's too easy and wants better competition, the losing team is getting beat so mercilessly as to feel helpless and give up for having no chance to win. The sweet spot is trying to get equally-matched opponents; it's why most combat sports are organized by weight divisions: you don't want a 250-pound man fighting a 130-pound man. It's just not fair for either competitor. I had this revelation when playing chess today against some evenly-matched competition: it's even more pronounced and obvious in chess how good your opponent is, and I'm usually able to tell within about 7-8 moves how good the opponent is, with more information coming in as more moves get played. Obviously as a competitor I want to challenge myself and play better people, but it'd just be a throwaway to play a grandmaster (or gasp!) the smartest chess computers because I'd just get crushed; it's like mathematically impossible for me to win. Those type of matches are for learning and research only; The real sport and excitement is playing someone who's just like yourself, and both players start getting into the rhythm and playing exciting moves to the best of their ability, all the while complimenting each other for making good moves. That's what chess (and other competitions/sports, whatever you want to call it) is all about, bringing out the best in both teams/players. There's something magical in those games, like a weird synergy or flow where even though I know the game could come to an end at any time due to a blunder or something, it just feels like we could continue playing forever, like that heaven-like scenario of an infinite library or infinite baseball game that I wrote about long ago. Maybe the afterlife is just playing 10-minute speedchess over and over again and going through infinite variations of moves in chess. 

You know what's almost/just as/more than (I can't decide which one is more fun) than playing chess against level competition? Driving on the road on a clear day down an uncrowded highway. I think my early days of driving poisoned my experiences with driving, having to slog through traffic every day and being pressured to get to work on time, raising my blood pressure along the way. Driving in itself with a clear destination and no traffic ahead can actually be therapeutic, lowering blood pressure and allowing one to just enjoy the open road. MJ likes it too when I drive, she gets to ride what's called "business class" on the Bobby Express, taking her shoes off and putting her legs up, her favorite position when driving. Maybe that's what heaven is too, just an endless drive on an interestate without traffic, passing through tunnels, bridges, exotic locales, deserts, forests, (but no mountain roads because I get dizzy on curvy and winding streets) and just enjoying great days in the world before climate change takes over. With endless gimbap packed to be eaten in the car. 

Watermelon (西瓜, 수박, スイカ)

Nothing to me marks the beginning and end of summer like the purchase of watermelons. Like the seasonal items at large department chains marking the beginning of certain seasons like Halloween, Thanksigiving, or Christmas, the way I know summer is on the way is when Costco puts out large crates of watermelons all stacked on top of each other in a prominent location and bargainhunters (pretty much everyone who shops at Costco) gather around and start tapping watermelons to try to pick the best one. I've never really understood the art of tapping and listening watermelons, I just see other people do it and I do it too to look like I'm discerning, when I'm pretty satisfied with any watermelon that I get, however it seems from a brief Internet search that a dull sound from a watermelon means that it's overripe, whereas a "deep sound" means it's ripe and ready to eat. What does a deep sound sound like versus a dull sound? Beats me. I once walked up to a watermelon crate while a couple had been evidently tapping watermelons for several minutes, whereas I walked up to the first one I saw, put it in my cart, and went on my merry way. I was proud of myself that day. 

Watermelons are the perfect summer fruit because well, they ripen during the summer and taste the best, but they also contain the most water, like 91% water, 6% sugars. A great summer cookout food, my parents insist on cutting watermelon to serve guests when any arrive (very few nowadays because of the pandemic but also just losing contact with friends, etc.). I always envisioned adulthood as one big party of inviting all the people I ever knew to gather around and be merry and reminisce on good times and play board games (nostalgia from my youth when my parents did actually go to a lot of parties hosted by their co-workers and graduate student friends) but as the years passed they started to get more isolated and less social, especially my dad, and now live an empty-nest life with kids out of the house and no grandkids yet. I am worried that my life is going that route as well, just being at home and no social life to speak of. No one told me as a kid that adult life is kind of like high school (high school never ends! - Bowling for Soup song) where the popular people always have people who want to hang out with them, but people like me easily lose friends because I'm always a backup plan, never the priority. This means no big parties, no catching up with friends you haven't seen in awhile, and importantly, no serving of watermelon. 

Not sure how it became a depressing post, but outside of watermelon's ties to social activities for me, it also marks the end of summer: yea right now mid-September would kind of do it. When the weather gets cold, I lose all motivation to eat watermelon, I don't get the same sensation getting it straight out of the watermelon and biting down and essentially getting hydrated if you're thirsty. I do lament one fact of watermelons, which is that cutting it into slices normally makes it so the first bite becomes the sweetest and best bite (due to that part being near the center of the watermelon), then gradually as you keep biting into it it gets less sweet, until you get to near the rind and it almost loses all sweetness. That's not a good lesson for life: one should try to do the hard work first, get it out of the way, then gradually build up and let it get easier and sweeter, delayed gratification and all of that. It's why I try to read books and deep learning early in the morning and leveling off in the afternoon to finally taking it easy and watching TV at night. Watermelons are like what society is today; everyone wants to frontload the good stuff like phones, entertainment, all the time, and then after that initial sugar rush life gets more bland as you keep living it and not as sweet anymore. Sad, kind of like the fact that summer if ending and fall is here now....and watermelons are going out of style. Goodbye, watermelon season. 

Travel Broadens the Mind

 I've alwayed enjoyed traveling not necessarily because it takes me to famous places I've heard about or that I'm particularly enamoured with getting on airplines or other modes of transportation, but because it's a new experience and makes me enjoy new things and as with most good things, the first time doing it is the best time. Constantly enjoying new experiences is the name of the game. That's a similar mindset as the popular phrase "travel broadens the mind," and actually scientific studies have supported the fact that there's a physiologically change for people who travel a lot: it allows more opportunities for new things, and a broarder vocabulary, more stimulus so that the synapses can fire off mroe things: it can literally broaden the mind. 

Travel also reminds me of how the ordinary American lives. MJ and I often visit big, urban American cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and especially New York, large cross-sections of citydweller America, and I've noticed that one day hanging out around in NYC can surpass many months of me being at home in terms of interactions with other human beings. Most Americans are not like the people you see on Tiktok or Instagram or Twitter; most of America is taking a subway on their way to work, or going to a Yankees baseball game even though there's a rain delay in the Bronx that's causing sheets of rain to fall down; or hanging out by the NYC 9/11 Memorial Pools marking where the towers stood. We did pass by some Youtubers of course who were "yeppeuncheok," or acting pretty as MJ puts it, to look good for the camera, but all in all most people just want to go about their daily lives and enjoy themselves without letting the world know about it. Also, I always get the most FOMO around 7PM on Saturday nights, when I feel like the whole world is doing something other than me, and I'm stuck doing nothing and letting my life pass me by. That's not true! There's apparently plenty of people around 7PM ET even in "the greatest city in the world" (according to some) who are not doing much of anything then, or have to work, or stuck on a PATH train out of New York to New Jersey, or stuck in the rain. Or....they're eating at a A2B Indian Veg Restaurant, eating Impossible Chinese Szechuan Fried Rice with different "Chinese sauces" like soy sauce and ketchup. So glad it wasn't just us having to spend Saturday night finding something to do; the restaurant was completely full and no one was coming from a Bruce Springsteen concert (unfortunately Bruce has been sick during his tour and had to cancel his September events), or came from an awesome wedding, or just attended a raucuous college football game, or a Charity Auction for a grand event......they were just spending a normal weekend and having tasty Indian food at a local restaurant. No need to put so much pressure to do too much on a weekend.

I do translation work as part of my job, and there's many quarks in different languaages that I notice during the course of my work, but the one big pet peeve I have is when native Chinese speakers use the English word "Besides" in situations that they should be using "In addition." Chinese speakers will often use "Besides" to begin a sentence, and I'm looking for some sort of contrast to the last sentence because "besides" usually implies some sort of divergence from the previous sentence like "I wanted to go to the movies but didnt' have enough money. Besides, I have to wake up early in the morning." Chinese speakers are using it after everything like "There are 2 types of whales, baleen whales and toothed whales. Besides, whales are mammals." That's a situation where "in addition" is better; there is no connection in that second section to the first section. There are times "Besides" would be the appropriate conjunction, of course, but Chinese speakers use it almost exclusively when wanting to say "in addition," and it wreaks havoc on editing a document or just trying to read through a document. I get why, of course: there's likely a universal curriculum Chinese speakers use when learning English that gives the primary translation of the Chinese word for "in addition" as "besides," and it just catches on. What they don't know is how cringeworthy it is, like fingers on the chalkboard every time I read it, kind of like when people use "um" or "uh's" and other throatclearing while speaking: it's fine to use it once or twice (heck, I do it too) but using "um" after every single sentence or at the beginning of every sentence, just gets distracting. Rant over because I can't do much about it. Besides, I can't change a whole nation's understanding of English by myself. 

Hiroo Onoda

 Another Omnibus episode I found profoundly interesting that aired recently was the one on Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese second lieutenant who spent 29 years on Lubang Island in the Phillippines after World War II was over not believing that the Japanese had surrendered. Imagine living 9 years with another army officer after the war was over, then another 20 years alone, just by yourself on an island with other people looking for you trying to kill you (Onoda was not welcome on the island and often caused problems for people there), and just seeing your life pass by all in dedication of a cause that was instilled by you by other people. That seems like blind faith. I wouldn't have lasted 3 days, and not just because I don't do well in the outdoors, just the fact that I'd be too skeptical and too self-serving: the whole idea of war is for old men posing as leaders of a country or movement to force ,many young men to sacrifice their lives for the cause of something that isn't all that clear. Following the chain of command is a lot like religion: believing in something bigger than yourself that you can't really prove is really valid or justified, you just have to believe it. I'm too cynical now to believe in any of it, which might be why I've never really absorbed any religion, although I understand its usefulness and believe in most religions' moral standards; I just don't need to pledge allegiance to one true deity to follow those moral standards. 

Also, I just don't do well on islands; I'd feel trapped. I once interviewed a job 5 years ago to work at a law firm in Saipan, in the Mariana Islands. I didn't know much about the position except that I saw it on Craigslist and it was a chance to get away to an exotic locale; the job required a one-year commitment. I now kind of get why that commitment was required: people probably left before the one year was up. Lot of these Pacific Islands are REALLY far away, like twice the distance to Hawaii kind of far away, like you might as well travel to New Zealand or Australia kind of far away (I wasn't that big on my geography back then) and places like the Mariana Islands don't have all the cool stuff that Australia does; it's just an island, and everyone on the island kind of know each other and know that YOU don't belong to the island (kind of like Moana, except without tricksters like Maui and fishhooks that can turn into anything). To put it in context, Saipan is an island of 43,000 or so, and the city of Camarillo, CA, where my parents live, is 70,000 people. So I'd be trapped on an island thousands of miles away from everything to be on an island smaller than Camarillo where gossip is everywhere, and I'd be expected to practice law there. In hindsight, a good decision not to pursue that opportunity. Also interestingly, the Battle of Saipan was fought there in 1944 and gave the name to some geographical features called "Banzai Cliff" and "Suicide Cliff" where Japanese civilians were forced to jump off a cliff by the Japanese soldiers (according to the Americans) because they would not be captured by the "evil Americans." Yes, the Americans did wrong by imprisoning the Japanese Americans during WWII in internment camps like Manzanar, and they also probably erred by dropping the nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the Japanese regime during that time was really brutal and bullheaded (again, these are Japanese leaders we're talking about, not the general populace, I don't bear a grudge against the Japanese people in general) by forcing their own people to jump off cliffs and indoctrinating them so much as to stay loyal to the cause 29 years later. Crazy. 

Makes you kind of wonder what it takes to be a leader of a country or a leader of an army, having to make decisions like that or be so arrogant and wrongheaded as to force ordinary people to suffer like that. Truly makes you question who gets to make decisions like that and why they get to decide, and why certain people have power over others (not trying to be an anarchist here, I've often tried to argue for a benign dictator theory of government........which doesn't work because the benign dictator would just be overthrown by a power-hungry or brutal dictator. It's like the ultimate paradox; those in power by definition cannot be good and moral people; once they become good and moral people they're no longer good leaders. Catch-22.)