Chippendale furniture

 MJ has a lot of needs, and one of those needs is for more furniture. I, being the minimalist who wants less of everything, has opposed expanding too much furniture, but I do like walking through the IKEA showrooms to imagine what a room could look like! Cabinets are key.... they store a bunch of the odds and ends that end up on our tables and leave less room to walk and eat (we probably need more or larger tables too). Furniture is kind of like personal fashion.....at some point I should probably expand past business casual or bust: dress pants, or just wearing shorts and t-shirt around the house when I'm not at the office. There's really no in-between. Furniture also needs branching out, and one type that Jeopardy writes about is Chippendale furniture, a style originating from the 18th century London furniture maker Chippendale maker. Yes, of course there's the joke about the male strippers in Vegas, and then there's also the animorphic chipmunks called Chip N' Dale. But yea, apparently my parents own Chippendale style furniture without even knowing it....I believe they just went to a showroom back in the day called Haynes Furniture or something (I remember a lot of furniture stores back in the 1990s that just aren't around anymore, kind of like Kmart or Sears department stores. Sad) Chippendale is apparently characterized by having cabriolet legs, that bend in an S-curve in an artistic way to achieve some elegance instead of just a block. Of course, those curves got traded in later and MJ now prefers the more solid sleek rectangle design without any frills, so Chippendale is out (and if it's out for MJ, it's out for Bobby). Next up: learning more about kitchen appliances! 

Today I turned down one of the best food offers in all the world. It took all the strength in my body to do it, and I knew if I just clicked one button and spent a negligible amount of money (literally the same amount that I spent in 1997 for the same item at Cass Junior High cafeteria), I would in a few short minutes be enjoying the sweet delicious taste of a......Costco Hot Dog. Plus drink for $1.50! A better deal does not exist in America. Seriously, what can you buy for a $1 nowadays? A little girl with her leather-jacket wearing mom pushing her around to attract sympathy on the train took me for $2 for a pack of gum on the subway a few weeks ago. A newspaper is $4.00! (not even the special Sunday Times edition). I sent in my expired CA Fasttrack transponder (a light device you stick on your car) through USPS and it cost me $6.00! Lunches used to have a baseline of $5, now you can't get away with spending less than $10.00/ $12.00 to get full as an adult male. $1.50 is just nothing in this world, and yet I have to remember sometimes that when it comes to food, the best deal for my wallet is not necessarily the best deal for my body, and that's where I drew the line. (Plus, MJ also had a face that said, "You can get it but I don't really want you to get it." It's the opposite of when we got to the furniture store and she says not to get it, but her face says she does want to get it). Regardless, buy Costco stock. I've been handsomely rewarded since 5 years ago, the profits could go towards buying hundreds (maybe thousands?) of those $1.50 plus drink hot dogs. 

Of all the things I could be watching right now with all the subscriptions available to me (Hulu, HBO, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and who knows what other subscriptions I forgot to cancel that are charging me much more than $1.50 a month) PLUS my co-worker endorsing "The King and I" as his favorite musical because there are so many syllogisms in the songs, that I could be consuming, I'm watching a 2015 HBO show called "Togetherness" with Mark Duplass and Amanda Pett and Melanie Lynskey. It's just so realistic of a show, the arguments that they get into on that show almost mirror exactly the "disagreements" MJ and I get into. They also do couples therapy and make it seem funny, which in real life it's probably not but definitely something to look into. 

Cobra (眼镜蛇, 코브라, コブラ)

 COBRA in the US stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, aka Continuation of Health Coverage Act, that allows workers to keep their health insurance that they had while on the job even after they leave the job. It directly applied to our case when MJ left her job, which was providing the health insurance that we were both using, so it was a good idea in theory to keep that insurance and have continuous coverage, but in Exhibit 178 of things they don't tell you in adult life, COBRA was not the right fit for us as we would have had to pay much more for the insurance on our own than just going out and buying some insurance on the open market. A friend who ironically used to do a "cobra" hand motion told us unequivocally not to get COBRA. The plan we have now is not cheap by any means (I just paid the balance for this month and I am giving thanks that I have enough money to cover those costs) but we get the gold plan and we have quite a lot of doctor's visits and fertility clinic visits that it covers (partially, we always still have some co-pay) but COBRA, by all accounts, would have been worse. 

I realize I've never been cognizant of living through the year of the snake, which is coming up in 2025. I guess I was just so caught up in everything in 2013 I didn't even think about it, and 2001 it was that rough transition from 8th grade to freshman year in high school, not a fun time for any kid especially a nerd like me. The sanke in the Chinese zodiac is known for its wisdom, creativity, intelligence. Sounds fine to me! Is there any animal that gets as much negativity for being relativity harmless as the snake, at least in western society? Every movie, TV show, book, story, etc., usually has the snake as the bad guy.... has any story ever started out with the premise of the snake being the good guy, or even the hero's sidekick? MAYBE Jackie Chan's adventures where the snake talisman (based on the zodiac) graned Jackie invsibility? I'll admit, I flinch a little when I see a snake on the ground too, either in the wild or in a zoo.....they don't look pleasant. And the slithering, slimy thing is creepy. Other than that, they seem like cool dudes. Except.....yea the cobra is intimidating, there's no quibbling about it. The hood on the back of their head usually has an eye or something to scare away predators, and the way it coils up to appear larger than it appears can give you nightmares. Apparently, not for the Chinese..... although not as good as having a baby in the year of the Tiger or the year of the Dragon, snakes are considered baby dragons, so just one step down! And the way snakes could shed their skin and regrow it symbolized fertility! (I think MJ would be fine with having that shedding ability to shed a few pounds, not scales). And I imagine (no article linked, just conjecture) that snakes could eat mice and other small animals that feasted on the crops for farmers while eating none of their own (although, watch out if they got into the chicken eggs) so snakes could have been a net gain. Bring on the Year of the Snake! (We just got done with Thanksgiving so still a while away until Chinese New Year on January 29, but "bring it!" anyway.) 

Also, the Cobra design on cars is well regarded, with a sleek design like the AC Cobra driven by Carroll Shelby, the race car driver who designed cars for Ford. 

Risk (风险)

Risk is a board game by Parker Brothers that I used to play with friends, but I never mastered the strategy: something about taking over Australia early on so no one can attack you, and gaining large land masses in Russia like Kamchatka and the Okhotsk. 

America does not understand the concept of risk, or has a distorted view of risk; it's evident all over the decisions people make, what we prioritize, how we spend money, etc., and it's just accepted knowledge. Is it risky to eat a diet full of fast foods that are high in salt and fat (apparently the only 2 ingredients that KFC founder Colonel Sanders divulged as part of the 11-part original recipe) yes, but we do it anyway because of that momentary gratification of mouth pleasure of the food going in and chomping down and satiating the taste buds, and billion dollar industries profit off of that misunderstanding of risk, while millions of Americans risk years, maybe decades off of their life because they consume too much of that type of food, via cancer or other types of diet-related diseases (heart, liver disease come to mind depending on if your vice is food or alcohol).   

I have a fundamental bias in tolerating risk as well: often dwelling on "what if I lose money" on a stock when I should be taking every risk I can for stocks that have potential to go 10x up; even if I have 8 stocks that go to zero after I bought them (I'm looking at you, Luckin' Coffee, Virgin Galactic, Dollar General, Plug Power, and on its way there, a company I never thought I'd say this about, Target)... all I need is one stock that "decadruples up"(my term for being worth 10x its original value) and I've made up for those other stocks plus some more. So the wise bet is to actually invest more in the US Market, damn the torpedos and go for high-risk companies like Nvidia, Tesla, and (recently) Cava, Reddit, and Palantir before they made their big move. It's like Jeopardy daily double wagering: if you're more than 50% right on the Daily Doubles, it's usually correct to go all-in. It's like if you thought your odds of winning at blackjack were more than 50% (they're not)- you should always go all in. 

Neil deGrasse Tyson recently went on Bill Maher's show "Real Time" (great show if you're just a casual follower of politics) and discussed human beings' inability to calculate risk... he doesn't trust humans! And I agree. It's almost impossible to calculate the odds of something happening in the future to the exact degree and then make a decision based on it. It's like you're asking every person to be an actuary and make split second decisions off the cuff. Assessing risk is in every decision we make; lately my biggest risk has been whether I've eaten enough at night to fill my stomach so I don't get up in the middle of the night hungry and have to eat to get back to sleep- but then again I don't want to overeat and gain more weight that I've put on lately.  I also have to weight the risk of typing something on the Discord forum that my law school friends type and getting my opinion through versus alienating one or more of them in discussing politics.... always a difficult calculus. It's almost an overwhelming tasks as human beings to always be assessing risk, but just like the stock market, it can be fun when the rewards come in. I think there's a thrill for human beings that because we're always trying to mitigate risk, be safe, be cautious, that there's a huge rush when going against the grain and taking that big risk and have having it pay off (even if it's actually a reasonable risk to take that we didn't realize until we took that risk), as long as it's not like risking your whole life to chase grizzly bears or something (see the film "Grizzly Man," a documentary by Wernar Herzog). 

So embrace risk! Take a night away from working or studying to see if a night out will refresh your body and soul! Instead of just venturing into the previews of movies and hearing about movies, actually commit to the 2-hour long (gasp! So long!) Deadpool and Wolverine movie! and damn the opportunity costs! You might feel like it's a risk well taken.    

Chicago Pile-1

 I missed a Daily Double in Jeopardy on Friday about the first nuclear chain reaction, which occurred in 1942 at the University of Chicago and credited to Enrico Fermi (although it was a collaboration of various scientists at the time), and which kicked off the Manhattan Project which was needed to beat the Germans who had a head start in creating a nuclear bomb. "Chicago Pile-1 was the nuclear reactor that helped to change the course of history and not some "Man in the High Castle" dystopia where the Nazis and Japanese split the U.S., so pretty high stakes that everyone should know about. It could be a prequel to "Oppenheimer" if Christopher Nolan ever wants to capitalize off of 2023's co-Movie of the Year (unlikely Nolan does it) but like most science movies, it probably wouldn't go forward without some eye-catching actresses like Florence Pugh bring the sex appeal or star power like Matt Damon as Leslie Groves or Robert Downey Jr. as Levi Strauss. More embarrassing than missing the DD question was the fact I wasn't more familiar that Fermi conducted that experiment at the UofC, in my own backyard as a kid, and I distinctly remember going on a class field trip to Fermi Lab, although I don't remember anything and was probably lost in my own world of whatever kids think about. I guess I'm not the only one whom science was lost on. Unfortunately, America doesn't care about science. Science fiction? Oh please, bring on more Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, Star Trek, Aliens, E.T., etc., etc., but when it comes to real science? It's the opposite of sex, it doesn't sell. 

I think part of the problem with science is that it is hard. Truly it is. Computer science is hard; engineering is hard; physics was the hardest class for me in high school and I cut out all science from my curriculum by college, even though my parents both rely on science for a living! It's much easier to explain to other people about Donald Trump or a TV show or what food tastes really good than explain equations, experiments, quasars, etc. But at least, through learning trivia (which is just barely brushing the tip about a subject), I understand the general overview of scientific developments; that's something everyone should priortize much more. Science news should be the front page of every newspaper, newsfeed, news blog, Tiktok video; if we devoted more energy and priority towards healthcare and the environment, we'd be prioritize much more resources and get a better outcome than having everything be about politics, or sports. Ah, sports, the bane of our existence but so tempting to talk about. Bread and circuses. Some movies talk a big game about prioritizing science, like "Black Panther" with using vibranium to create new scientific advances in Wakanda, but no follow through from the general populace, including me. MJ and I have been watching "Millionaire" too and geography and science questions getting a smattering of right responses in the "fastest finger" questions, but when it's about NFL QB's, EVERY SINGLE contestant got the question right. Millionaire also had a bunch of celebrity editions like "Comedians" with Bill Maher, Jimmy Kimmel, Jack Black, and "Classic TV" edition with Florence Henderson from the Brady Bunch and Sherman Hemsley from the Jeffersons, even "Supermodels" got an edition (Heidi Klum and a bunch of other very attractive ladies, perfect for television). Where are the Scientists edition or World Leaders edition? The sports stars, singers, movie stars, and most celebrities all get great reputations for just doing their jobs, but scientists like Fermi never get their due except in academic circles and world leaders are one of the most criticized groups of people, no wonder we can't get any good candidates anymore (see Hobson's choice entry). 

But guess what? Celebrities aren't celebrities forever; the 2000 classic TV version is filled with people who the young generation wouldn't even know today; Cindy Williams (Laverne and Shirley), Adam West (Batman), Valerie Bertinelli (One Day at a Time). They probably wouldn't get recognized in the street today. Science? The benefit of science is that if you do something great, they remember you forever: Galileo, Jonas Salk, Einstein, Goddard, Stephanie Kwolek (kevlar vest). Those inventions last til the end of history, and so might Fermi and Oppenheimer, for better or worse: nuclear chain reaction leading to the nuclear bomb. That effects the entire human race. Gotta know about them. 

White coat hypertension (白大衣高血压, 백의고혈압)

 Also called white coat syndrome, white coat hypertension is when a patient's blood pressure measurements are consistently higher in the doctor's office than at home. MJ experienced this yesterday during a visit to the doctor's office, where her readings were higher than the expected 120/80 (systolic/ diastolic numbers). It was a pretty stressful visit to decide our next step in fertility, so I get it....even the nurse told MJ not to be nurse, but totally understandable that patients would get nervous about upcoming procedure, or impending probe into one's body. I'm not sure how blood pressure works, but I'm pretty sure my blood pressure was high for an extended period of time when driving in traffic to get to work in L.A. (mostly pre-pandemic)... mine was probably blocked-traffic hypertension or bumper-to-bumper hypertension. Oddly, when I go to give blood, I'm pretty stressed too about it because I don't like the needle prick of the finger (step right after blood pressure is to check hemoglobin) and I don't like impending needle or multiple needles going into my arm, but my readings are fairly normal, maybe I'm just dull to it now. Luckily for me, lack of hypertension probably means I don't eat too much salt or have an unhealthy lifestyle, as those would be causes for hypertension. 

Salt.....is not talked about enough in the American health system. Sugar is a huge problem because there's just so much of it in soft drinks, beverages, orange juice, even some type of milk and coffees (a good reason NOT to add sugar to your coffee- MJ is very much a black coffee person but we do sometimes get cappucinos and lattes), but I feel like people are aware of sugar being a culprit in weight gain, unhealthy habits, they just choose to indulge in it (another reason NOT to choose to get a dessert when the waiter offers it at a fancy restaurant). I learned about another beverage the other day I didn't even know about called "Yoo-hoo," which is literally just described as a "chocolate drink," it's just chocolate and sugar and water I guess. At least they're honest. Salt feels more like a silent killer as everything in food has a lot of salt, and restaurants just dump as much salt as they can into food as long as it's tasty. MJ and I often say that certain desserts "cannot be bad" if they're like terramisu or some sort of cream, puff, have vanilla, chocolate, etc. Well a lot of foods get a cheat code if they just put plenty of salt in it, it appeals to people's tastes, and they just keep eating it. I haven't gotten McDonald's fries for a long time, but I now recall seeing their kitchens full of the deep fry machine as well as dumping a load of salt into the fries and just mixing it around, and now understanding why people said to avoid fast food. All fast food restaurants rely on these salty conctions. Talk about white-coat hypertension, this is white-castle hypertension, or yellow-arches hypertension! I wonder how much extra boost on the systolic rating you get just from consuming a meal. "Fancy" restaurants I suspect use the SALT cheat code too, but just not as prominently and blatantly, leaving a little nuance for picky eaters who you know, care about nutrition. At this point, though, I feel only safe eating a raw piece of carrot or kale, at least I know people didn't douse that with salt yet. There's definitely something to be said about having that "fresh" feeling in your mouth after eating as opposed to the sour aftertaste of sugar and astringent aftertaste of salt. 

Hello Jadoo (안녕자두야)

 As the premiere of season 2 of Squid Game inches ever closer (December 26, 2024), I'm reminded that in this day and age the best way to learn a language, Bobby's time-tested strategy, is to watch movies/videos/TV shows in that language with subtitles. Obviously you have to know the basics of the language first to pick up basic words and the structure of the sentences, but starting from an intermediate level the most sustained way to learn is to watch videos, because it keeps you having fun. Human beings learn more when they want to learn something, and they want to learn something if they're having fun doing it. That's why I advocate for any Korean learners to watch Squid Game with the original Korean audio capturing the raw emotions of Gi-Hyun's quest for revenge against the faceless cabal that created the Squid Game and the desperate pleas to unite the contestants, and I also advocate for an animated series on Youtube I've been watching called "Hello Jadoo." Jadoo is "plum" in Korean, but it's a pretty cute-sounding name in any language. Jadu is living the life of a 1990s-2000s young girl going to school with a salaryman dad and "determined" mom (kind of archetype of the scary strong-willed mom) and 2 younger siblings (a rare thing in Korea nowadays- one couple having 3 kids). In a time when there's an overabundance of options to focus your eyeballs on, at least with Korean shows you know you're learning and using your brain to try to make connections between English and Korean, even if you're not actively doing so. (Instead of letting the Golden Bachelorette or the 88th season of Love is Blind wash over you). I think I also like Jadoo because it depicts the kind of family I would want, an ambitious and fun-loving but also considerate daughter who seems to be enjoying her life, despite having to vanquish various conflicts like sibling rivalry, bad grades, classmates who pick on her, and money issues all before the episode is over. Luckily, each episode is only about 10 minutes, so she's able to solve everything in about half the time American sitcoms do (about 20 minutes running time). 

What you watch on TV does have an effect on you (just ask the people who watch political shows like Fox or MSNBC), but especially as a kid. I grew up as a kid watching family-friendly shows like The Cosby Show, Home Improvement, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, etc., come to think of it all shows that have a large nuclear family, something I didn't really have so maybe I was subconsciously yearning for one, or I wanted to be part of that family that looked like they all had each other's backs). I recently have talked to a lot of Americans older than me (either in their 60s or 50s) and they grew up with a completely different set of shows from a completely different time that shaped their worldview and prefernces, with shows like MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) that was set in the Korean war but was more of a reflection of the anti-Vietnam War sentiment back then, or Westerns like the Bonanza, Beverly Hillbillies, and even prime-time soap operas like "Dynasty" was a thing. I really like the title of some shows like "Have Gun, Will Travel" that tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the show. In many ways, looking back as a kid, I probably learned a lot of my vocabulary and expressions from watching American shows, I just didn't know it, my brain just absorbed it as I was watching. Which is why it's important to regulate what you watch, don't just let it vegetate, give it some good foods like language learning and......trivial shows, to learn something. My grandmother on my dad's side once came to America and spent several months with us, and she watched A LOT of American TV, and I'll always remember she told me it was to "get more learning." She was a Professor in China and lived through the Cultural Revolution, had 4 kids.... smart woman, shoulda tried to learn more about her. Instead I was a little too rebellious at that age, like Jadoo. 

Ramona and Beezus

 One of my favorite trivia categories is children's books or children's authors because a.) I'm good at it, and b.) I enjoy being reminded of my favorite books to read as a kid. I read a LOT as a kid, so there are plenty of good memories, something I can't really relate with MJ because she didn't grow up in America and didn't get exposed to that part of American culture at a young age like young age with classics like "Number the Stars," "The Giver," "The Phantom Tollbooth," "A Wrinkle in Time," "Where the Red Fern Grows," "Maniac Magee," "Bridge to Terabithia," not to mention the entire Harry Potter series that hit right in my sweet spot of wanting to become a wizard. Some of these books might not be "children's books" actually, more young adult, which is another category I'm a big fan of. I never got to "Dear God It's Me Margaret" because well.....I wasn't a girl and that book is great for girls finding themselves in their teen years. One of my favorite books series about girls though written by a woman was by Beverly Clearly, the Ramona and Beezus series, which spawned so many different sequels (Ramona and her father, Ramona and her mother, Ramona the Pest, Ramona Age 8, etc......) but Ramona was just so relatable of the typical American childhood in.... checks notes..... Kickitat Street in Portland Oregon. 10-year-old me had no idea where Portland was, but Klicktat street sounded just like Park Crest Drive in Darien, Illinois where I grew up, and Ramona's adventures were like my adventures, and she thought like a child, which I did too. Cleary had a great talent for writing from the perspective of a child. The movies didn't do great (did you know Beezus was played by Selena Gomez in the 2010 movie?) and Ramona was Joey King who is only now just 25 years old and went on to be in something called the Kissing Booth. 

What I miss about being a child is not having to lie so much; I was so free and without stress and pressure. It's not like I'm a compulsive liar, but all adults have to lie to some extent, like if we get stopped by someone trying to sell you something, you lie and say you don't want it, you have to lie to kids about their pets dying, you have to indirectly lie to keep secrets, you have to lie during a job interview that you want to stay at that job forever. And these are just the noes that everyone accepts; everyone has something that they're lying about. Ramona and people in her world would answer the phone when it rang, unquestionably, to see who was calling and want to transfer it to her parents or maybe it would be a phone call for her! How wonderful. Nowadays nobody answers the phone anymore without seeing who's calling, and if it's an unknown number you just don't answer, one step short of lying by representing you aren't there, and for good reason because that unknown number is probably going to try to lie to you, part of the territory as an adult. And also, being a kid meant you could ask to be friends with anybody, and adults are friendly with you, people want to be your friend, you have your whole life in front of you, so many adventures await. As an adult I feel like everyone just trudges along in their life and pass right by you pretending to not notice you. I went to an American Red Cross to donate blood and the nurses there just totally ignored me except for the most standard questions. I've gotten this from grocery store clerks, DMV check-in people, basically any place that doesn't rely on you to give tips or are beyond caring about their job and don't have incentive to be nice to you. This nurse stuck the needle in my arm and then immediately spent the rest of the time I was there talking to another nurse who worked there, complaining about the hours she had to work, being stuck there for too many assignments, etc. Never once did she ask how my day was, though I would have gladly talked and listened to her problems too. It's like I'm not even there, and I was just a fountain of blood to draw from and then just have me go on my way. I often wonder how Ramon Quimby fared as an adult (maybe a sequel called Ramona Quimby, age 38?) and how her life turned out, her inner thoughts about how she viewed the world now, would just be skeptical and cynical of everyone like I kind of am or would she still have that energy she had and treat everything with excitement and as an adventure. Or maybe she'd just be on her phone all the time. Who knows. Maybe I'm just trapped in that child world in Klicktat, Oregon, forever wishing the world was as it was as a kid, answering all phone calls eager to know who's calling me. 

As I write this I'm getting another spam call that I just let go to voicemail. The way of the world. 

Hobson's Choice (霍布森的选择, ホブソンの選択, 홉슨의 선택)

 I may have overstated my position in the last post. MJ pointed out to me that she was offended by my last post about who we elect as President not mattering that much, and that I'm only saying that because I'm a man and don't face the problems that women face. I won't say that I agree totally with this, but I do see it from her perspective: women's rights are highlighted more in this election than others, especially with abortion being a hot topic as well as IVF rights, a topic men like me have the prvilege not to talk about. Just like gun rights though (Harris has steered to the middle on gun control and says she owns a gun too and is not here to take away people's guns), Trump is actually pretty close on abortion issues as the Democratic candidate despite Republicans being traditionally against abortion and trying to overturn Roe v. Wade, which they did in 2022 with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, a decision that was caused mainly due to the Supreme Court being packed with Republicans who had held the majority and actively tried to overturn Roe v. Wade as a stated purpose, something that was attributed to Trump when he appointed justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh during his presidential term. So I can see what MJ is upset about, but also on that particular issue, Trump in the future is not saying he's going to implement a national abortion ban. 

While definitely not meaning to offend anybody including my own wife (and the entire country of woman), I think my rant against the election was generated mostly by the Hobson's choice that I feel we're forced to choose between, a saying that's similar to choosing between a rock and a hard place: neither choice is appetizing. Never in my adult life have I felt less encouraged to vote for a candidate, neither of whom I feel is qualified to be president, for various reasons. (The first time I really got into an election was in high school Kerry v. Bush, then 2 Obama terms where Obama gave hope for the country and spoke eloquently and intelligently about ideas that he was undeniably a good candidate for president, even if political opponents disliked his plans). I think it's partly due to me getting older and realizing the intractability of the world and U.S. politics of being trapped in a loop and consequently becoming more skeptical of anything that goes on in the hunt for power, and partly it's due to elections just being fundamentally different now with the internet, social media, and attitude of the country and the world.The democratic process has now become solely a popularity contest, not a job interview between the candidates and the voting public, which is problematic because there are just too many uneducated voters in the country influenced by various news outlets, lack of knowledge about what's true anymore. In 2004 I used to go down a list of fundamental issues and the candidates' position on those: abortion, foreign policy, economy, the death penalty, gun control, free speech issues, assisted suicide, climate, human rights (use of torture, etc.), education, health care, all of which have become minor issues or not discussed at all because they'e been dethroned by the personality of the person and whether the person is a "threat to democracy." I have a very close knit group of highly educated lawyer friends who often comment on news issues, and even they just end up debating all of the flaws of Trump, everything he gets away with, how crazy he is, etc..... it's too tempting to just focus on all of this flaws, and thus the real issues get obscured). Which, I realize, is a reason itself to vote against Trump is that no matter how you feel about it, he makes it about him and not the issues. 

If during a job interview I realize both candidates interviewing for the job have fundamental flaws, I can reject both and reach out to a larger pool of candidates, but not in an election. I feel like someone else has culled the possible list of candidates to just 2 and then forced me to interview those 2 people and forcing me to choose one no matter how badly I don't want to. So I'm just hoping to survive the next 2 days, watch Jeopardy, go to work without fearing rioters will cause trouble, wait it out in my bunker, stock my freezer with enough supplies (apparently this week many people are bringing back early pandemic times and preparing for the worst) and hope America's collective Hobson's choice isn't as bad as we fear it will be. 

Politics and Prose (政治, 政治, 정치 and 散文, 산문

 I dislike politics. I don't like office politics, friend circle politics, home owner association politics, baseball franchise politics, anythign that has to do with certain people having power over other people, but I ESPECIALLY dislike politics now. And right now, 2 days before the Presidential election, is the epitome of all of dislike, when everything anyone does gets politicized, when all of Facebook (besides the Dodgers winning the World Series and the Dwayne Wade statue memes) is just people discussing all the benefits and downsides to either candidate for President; I think it's talked about so much for the same reason there are office politics: people love to gossip, and the race for the highest office in the country as well as arguably the most powerful position in the world is just an excuse for people to gossip on the grandest stage. It's a way for politicans to give ordinary citizens "a chance to participate" even though your one single vote has a statistical value of zero influence on the election results, but gives you the illusion of doing something, perhaps for a good cause. (I know a few co-workers who instead of working this weekend, spent it in Pennsylvania knocking on doors for the Harris campaign, believing it to be "much more important" than their jobs.) Is it though? Setting aside the fact that knocking on doors to solicit votes seems unlikely to change too many minds this late in the election, are you really doing it for a good cause, or just perpetuating an election process that's too long and too costly as it is? Especially this year with the 2 candidates that are available, the talk is much less about policy than what the 2 candidates stand for and personal issues, so it's taking time up from actual fixing anything, more just talking about 2 individual people. Election propaganda will make it sound like my life is going to be drastically different depending on who wins, that it will be a utopia if one candidate wins and a living hell if the other side wins. I don't think it's going to affect me myself that much if either one wins, personally. Eventually it will affect the United States and which direction we go with climate change, immgration policy, use of A.I., etc., but me personally in the next 4 years? I'm not going to be moving out of the country or anything if one candidates wins or the other. 

Politics and Prose is a witty name for a bookstore in the D.C. area; I just love bookstores. They have a veritable cornucopia of books I want to read, everything, everywhere, all at once. It's like they have the exact blueprint to my mind's desires of what to absorb, especially on an off day at work, and I could just sit there through a zombie apocalypse or something even if the world goes to hell or (even worse for some people) the Internet for some reason just stopped running. The only downside to a bookstore is that people don't talk each other necessarily, it's a place for reading, not conversations, but that's almost better: often conversations at restaurants, the mall, public places just involve people trying to get you to buy something you don't need (extra dessert, extra hand lotion, squeegees) that you have to politely refuse. Bookstores don't want anything; no obligation to buy, no sales pitch about what book they want you to buy (there are definitely books that bookstores make the most money off of, usually the hot new trendy fiction bestsellers by renowned authors that they can mark up higher instead of the bargain book section that they know hasn't sold for a while and that they need to get rid of before the next batch comes in), and importantly no need to pay tip. It's honestly one of the last public places I can go to and feel comfortable (maybe museums) and not feel gross for contributing to the American capitalistic ways. 

Politics and Prose has the right idea, but here's my re-naming based on my preferences: 

"Less politics and More Prose!" Have more people read more books rather than get engaged in politics, have an overload of information and noise through the election, and then it suddenly stops and society doesn't care about it anymore. Prose is forever; elections are temporary. (My sister Emily pointed out a similar flyer on the street advocating for tattoos using similar logic: Tattoos are permanent! Politicans are temporary). And what they have in common for me: I don't care for any of them!