K-Pop Demon Hunters

MJ and I spent a "Friendsgiving" of sorts with my friend's family who was having their Thanksgiving, so it was like dropping in on their family reunion with us being added as extended family. MJ, as expected, was the star of the show, or more accurately, the baby in her belly was the star in waiting, the baby on her way to joining us. We're really going to miss this pregnancy time, not because MJ has trouble walking around (she has to waddle around) or because she had nauseau all throughout the hot summer months in the first trimester and weird cravings for pizza, cheese, beef, watermelon, all kinds of different items at sporadic times, no the thing we will likely miss the most is all the attention that people give us, either in the elevators, or at Costco, or going into a concert, or flying business class like MJ did: people pay more attention to moms with babies, or at least they pretend not to notice in case mom's actually not pregnant and just.....looks pregnant. Once it's been established MJ is pregnant, though, people are quick to offer congratulations, ask when we're due, if we know if it's a boy or girl, all the standard questions: it must be what it's like to have a dog and walking around it: a great conversation starter and makes everyone pay attention. The Friendsgiving we attended, though, was also remarkable because of the decided pasttime after dinner: the collective watching of Kpop Demon Hunters (which just happened to be a clue on Jeopardy that very night, perhaps the Jeopardy writers sensed the collective nature of the movie and its unparalleled power to bring people together in a united activity? I just never have much time to do anything together with people anymore, and the few parties I attend people are usually separated into different groups talking into each other; this Friendsgiving was the only time people actually sat and watched TV together where everyone was watching the same screen at the same time, especially after the football game came to a conclusion, a rather exiciting affair between the Cowboys and Chiefs. Other years it might have been the hot new movie of the year (Minecraft movie was the highest grossing movie next to Lilo and Stitch, if you don't count the Chinese movie Ne Zha 2) or maybe a recent Saturday Night special.....we were even close to putting on the most recent episode of Jeopardy together with Harrison Whitaker going for his 13th victory....it was discussed at dinner but a consensus didn't materialize. Nope, this year, as I'm sure it was in most living rooms, it was KPop Demon Hunters taking center stage, a movie that we learned Netflix bought after Sony Studios passed on it in probably one of the biggest mistakes in entertainment history; there will likely be several movies of this franchise after the epic success of the first one. It's also the epitome of KPop emerging from the Hallyu Wave victorious in capturing the hearts and minds of America, understanding what Americans want (great songs and a movie version that allows for kids and family members alike to sing along) and a message about being alienated and keeping something a secret and battling one's demons. I think personally the story line wasn't what did it, it was the songs. I'm humming it in my head now. A Friendsgiving, though, reminded me that as important as it's been for me to work as hard as possible, and work by myself to achieve my goals, life is not about just the relentless pursuit of those goals, it's sharing those goals with good company; camaraderie and companionship is a great drug (the word "companionship" has the same root "pan" in Latin as the bread you're breaking with those companions- everything I've learned recently I've learned from Jeopardy). For someone who's been starved for attention and human contact for awhile now living in my own little bubble of remote work and little interaction with the outside world, Friendsgiving was a Thanksgiving feast of communication and companionship, and I ate heartily. (I actually regret a little bit that I didn't eat more actual food heartily, I came home actually a little hungry sadly for a holiday where it's actually socially acceptable to splurge and eat as much as you can). Here's hoping the hard work that's keeping me from companionship will also pay off too though, and that one day I'll be going Up up up and it's my moment, together we're glowin, gonna be gonna be golden.

Periodic Table (元素周期表, 周期表, 주기율표)

As the son of two research scientists who attended graduate school in chemistry and worked in the pharmaceutical industry based on their knowledge of chemistry, I really should know about chemistry. You'd think I would at least know the Periodic Table backwards and forwards, right? Nope. I mainly know the first 1-20 (the important ones), some weird symbols like Au (gold), Ag (silver) and W (Tungsten), but the treachorous climb up to No. 118 Oganesson is a rocky one full of rare metals and trans-uranium elements. There are no "guideposts" in that journey neither like the order of Presidents from 1-46 like knowing Lincoln is No. 16 and building around there, JFK is No. 35, at least some midway mile markers. Nope, the elements from 20-100 are an unforgiving mass of "you either know them or you don't," and you often don't even know how to pronounce Molybdenum (Mo, No. 42) nor Ytterbium, Yb (No. 70, much less what they do, what their atomic weight is, what color they are, etc. Until now! Thenaming of periodic table elements is pretty fascinating because it has to do with the search for elements; scientists like Glenn Seaborg won Pulitzer Prizes in physics specifically for finding new eleements, and it was really a race between the U.S. and Russia to leave a legacy as to how to name elements and make sure they stuck in the books forever: a lot at stake. For example, Berkelium 97 and Californium 98 were named for the Berkley lab that Seaborg worked at, and the group of scients there wanted to dedicate the name of the element to the place where they "discovered" the atom (they just blasted electrons and particles at existing elements like plutonium using a particle accelerator/cyclotron to see if they could create any new elements, and it worked to create a bunch of elements after uranium, hence the trans-uranium elements starting at 92, Uranium. The names really provide a good history lesson, like the names "Neptunium" and "Plutonium" (93 and 94) were named because Uranium was named after Uranus, and Seaborg and company wanted some continuity. Fermium (No. 100, maybe the mile marker we needed like the list of presidents) was named after the Chicago-area renowned physicist Enrico Fermi frmo Italy, Mendelevium at No. 101 was used to appease the Russians during the Cold War by naming an element after one of the most famous Russian scientists of all time and Father of the Periodic Table. (Lot of scientists in the later stages of the Period Table, if you've never noticed, including the only element named after a woman scientist, Meitnerium No. 109 named after Lise Meitner who discovered nuclear fission but didn't get the credit (this is if you don't include Curium at No. 96, which was named after both Pierre and Marie Curie). For a trivia nerd like me, this great stuff, both a history lesson of scientists as well as a fun way to learn all the elements without getting bored; it's hard to pay attention when it gets too technical with specific terms, but the Period Table doesn't! It's like a historical novel; I can imagine the Scientific Community equivalent of Forest Gump being invovled in all of these elements and having a story where he lives through history meeting all of these namesakes. I will present this in a fun way to Baby Girl Yan.....in a few years. One of the more exciting things about having a kid is what I'm going to teach Baby Yan. Nothing for the first year or so, I suppose, although MJ already started reading Dr. Seuss books to her while she's still in utero, MJ claims that the "baby is listening" and moves based on the voices and whether we're watching K-Pop Demon Hunters or not at that moment. I'm not sure the baby is reacting to the content of what music or book is playing, but I do think they do pick up on the rhythms of our voices and tone, so yea not a bad idea to get started on reading. We have this dream of Baby Y becoming trilingual right away with Mandarin, Korean, AND English (we'll just bombard her with languages at a young age), but I'm also anticipating being able to answer a lot of basic questions that I didn't really know 4 years ago, mainly because I refreshed my understanding in some cases or learned for the first time in some cases, a lot of scientific facts. Like why is the sky blue? (Rayleigh scattering causes blue waves of sunlight to be reflected more than other colors of the sunlight), what are the layers of the Earth, the levels of Earth's atmosphere, the difference between El Nino and La Nina, different cloud formations.......Science is actually really interesting if you keep it a "explain it to me like I'm 5 level," which is coincidentally what I will do to Baby Yan when she's 5 (or maybe 4, hopefully she's a quick learner/ precocious). Hopefully my explanation will be better than those given on TikTok or at least be more intimate and more memorable because it's coming from her father. Science!

Bassinet (摇篮, かご型ベッド, 요람)

In these last few weeks of MJ's pregnancy, we finally caved and bought all the essentials that the baby products industry peddles to all expectant mothers and fathers: at the center of that being the bassinet, French for "little basin" reflecting its appropriate physical shape of a basin, or a really, really small swimming pool: at least the Halo one we got looks like one, with frills on the sides for aesthetic effect even though the baby won't have any idea where she is. It makes for a good picture. Other "must-haves" we've shelled out for include carseat, diaper changing station, babybjorn (a baby carrier), a high chair for baby feeding and as MJ says, letting baby sit while we watch her (babies don't have really good vision so she'll barely know we're there, much less watch us). Of course the minimalist side of me asks when getting all these products, "do we really need everything?" It makes me wonder what people hundreds of years ago did for babies, or even just 200 or 100 years ago. They probably didn't have the most ergonomically sound sleeping arrangements or white noise makers on demand, the most chemically balanced creams for preventing diaper rash, Frida nose pickers, etc. Kids were likely born from their women's womb and given the bare minimum, and getting through infancy was considered a job well done, as it's a battle of attrition due to all the diseases that existed. So close to Thanksgiving Day, it's appropriate for me to give thanks for all of the amenities we DO have. Like one of the basic questions is, how did people get their babies home from the hospital? Did they even have hospitals back in my hypothetical time period I'm comparing to? Back then mothers probably gave birth at home, maybe with a mid-wife, but likely just with a maid or something holding their hand waiting for the baby to be pushed out, and the mother subject to all kinds of risks including death. Little did those mothers know, probably just 200 years or so later, that human beings now can skip the whole process of going into labor process through C-section, have anesthetics to numb the pain, have nurses monitor the baby for any problems right after the C-section, etc. (Of course this is mostly in first-world countries, there are still some areas of the world that this technology does not exist and it's really a shame for humanity that all of these resources aren't extended for all mothers and babies out there). Having a carseat is the epitome of luxury, implying that you have a car, a home to drive your car home to, and being able to transport baby places using that carseat while rocking her to sleep. I really would not have survived in any other time in the history of mankind. When I think about the daunting task of the babies' first few weeks where she won't sleep through the night and neither will MJ and I, that seems difficult but not as difficult as it could be: we have Youtube or the Internet to answer almost any eventuality that might come up, from Tummy time to blowout diapers to burping the baby to doing CPR if needed. It's almost tough to screw it up, and I hope I won't for the baby. And man, just from reading some of the sections about labor that I browsed over because MJ almost certainly won't have to go through labor, thank God for C-sections, or for the scientists who invented C-sections, which isn't really care when the first successful one was, possibly as early as 223 BC. I guess it's pretty intuitive process, the stomach is right there and you know the baby is inside, so just cut! But imagine doing it without use of drugs or anesthetics! Especially since even now, with all of our scientific advancements, C-sections can still take between 45 minutes to an hour. Could any mother actually endure an hour of that without painkillers? (probably not, which is why the mothers undergoing C-sections likely all died). An incision of 6 inches is.... a lot. And THEN they have to sew it back up after that! In a word (that's not crazy), that sounds INCREDIBLY excruciating. By the way, the term Caesarian has nothing to do with Julius Caesar (I had to throw in a trivia fact) but for the Latin term "caedare," to cut. As the dad, I wish I could do more! But will willingly do the skin-to-skin contact that is needed after the C-section in place of mom because baby needs the touch of human skin,

Outrageous ( 不像话, 法外な, 터무니없는

One of my pet peeves for my generation of people (other than the fact that we love to complain about everything, which is exactly what I'm doing now, the irony of my statement does not allude me) is we learn all these fancy words in school and for the SAT and in college, but daily discourse gets dumbed down to very basic words and "new slang" terms that are nonsensical and aren't actually words. The prime example that Gen Z (or is it Gen Alpha) just came up with in the last few months just to troll the older generations is the phrase "6-7" and its accompanying "weighing of the scales" hand gesture that really makes one wonder if we've reached the end of civilization as we know it, when a whole generation of young people will participate in the dumbing down of civilization just because "it's funny." 6-7 actually isn't the earworm that annoys me the most, it's this blanket use of the term "crazy" in today's conversations of adults that makes me cringe every time I hear it. It used to be "at the end of the day" used in front of every sentence that began to make the phrase meaningless because its intended use as a conclusory statement or contradicting specific prior sentences doesn't make sense when it's used in every sentence, there's nothing to sum up nor to contradict. "Crazy" is for me starting to lose any value whatsoever because of similar factors: anytime anything happens that anyone thinks is notable, they say "crazy." Any news story on the internet, in the paper, no social media, etc., can be considered "crazy." What someone does in traffic like cutting off someone else is "crazy" (I'd argue that people driving badly or recklessly is actually pretty mundane and not out of the realm of expectation so as not be "crazy") Even highly educated colleagues of mine or law school alumni from a Top-20 law school routinely use it to mean anything like a baseball highlight or how much money a movie lost at the box office or the last thing Donald Trump did in the White House. The ubiquity of its use is also cutting into its meaning: "crazy" can mean both good (that dunk in last night's game was crazy) or really bad (the crazy fascist policies), it can be used in normal life or talking abstractly.... it's just a word people use when they can't think of anything else to describe a sitution, aka being lazy. Good news for those overusing "crazy"... That's what a thesaurus is for! Way back in 1852 Peter Mark Roget created Roget's Thesaurus specifically for this purpose distinct from a dictionary that lets people look up words and instead of their definition, get synonyms of the word, and sometimes a large quantity of synonyms, such as the entry for..... yup, the word "crazy" has 30+ entries, everything from absurd, preposterous, ridiculous, ludicrous, harebrained, senseless, shocking, unthinkable, unreaslistic, unbelievable, monstrous, wackadoo, and wackadoodle. What's more, it has antonyms, so opposite words like "sensible," so the natural conclusion is that the OPPOSITE of those antonyms would also be synonyms one can use. And the great thing is these entries can actaully provide more specific definition of what you're trying to say, like "astonishing" (you couldn't believe something happened") is different to me than "bizarre" which just means strange and away from the norm, something can be astonishing but not bizarre, and bizarre but not astonishing, like Dennis Rodman getting some bizarre tattoos whould not be astonishining, it'd be pretty par for the course. So I encourage my generation of people, from the top down, Donald Trump stop using "CRAZY" in tweets, to the common person posting on social media to being tempted in general conversation just to use it as a blanket term to describe every situation, please for 2026 let's have our resolution be to use more description in our words and not just make "crazy" more meaningless. Maybe if we do that we'll also be able to get rid of the MONSTROUS trend that is "6-7." Alternative purpose: if we insist on using just one word to cover everything, let's give CRAZY a rest and go with something that's more fun for me to say and can give the English language a little more flair, OUTRAGEOUS. Four syllables, there are rises and dips in the pronunciation, the kids will really love using a new part of their mouth to say it. It's not an OUTRAGEOUS idea, it's OUTRAGEOUS not to try it!

Polaroid (宝丽来, ポラロイド, 폴라로이드)

Nowadays anyone with a smartphone can take a picture of anything with their phone and have a digital copy instantly available to send to anyone on earth, a stunning technology that I wouldn't have imagined just 30 years ago when I was 8 years ago. There was a whole process of taking pictures including having a camera that's not your phone, taking the film to a one-hour photo place, and then getting those photos back in an envelope. Before getting those photos back, (gasp for all the Generation Z and younger people) you didn't know how the picture looked! It was all a mystery, the film was inside the camera and you couldn't just open it up and look at it, they were negatives that had to be developed in a dark room. Photography was an art. I remember having something called a "one-time use camera" on my first international trip to China when I was 14 years old, I could only get 24 pictures total on the camera and if I ran out, that was it. Was that limiting? Yes, definitely, it cramped my style, but also it taught me how to ration and cherish the pictures I did take, almost like not overeating or budgeting my finances. It was a wild time, the 1990s and early 2000s when I came of age. Then there was something called Polaroid, which I didn't really use much but I knew was an instant camera that spit out the image "right away" (even back then "right away" was still 1 minute or so, unlike nowadays kids want everything "instantly." It was like dial-up internet variety of cameras: you took the picture, the camera spit out a small square, you shake it a little bit (shake it like a polaroid picture.... Outkast song "Hey Ya") and the picture just magically showed up. The first Polaroid was sold starting in 1948, invented by Edwin Land, a nice trivia fact. Nowadays despite the prevalent use of smartphones, it's encouraging to me that Polaroid cameras and photos still are in use; you can buy sleek design Polaroid cameras for $100 or so, and you have limited film. It's like being brought back to the 1990s for me, almost like going to libraries or visting Blockbuster video stores ( I REALLY miss Blockbuster/Hollywood video by the way, just the excitement of looking at all the selections that I could choose from, and finding that one perfect movie that I wanted to watch that weekend. (Nowdays I'm drowned by selection when browsing through Netflix, I imagine having trouble explaining to my 15-year-old self why having the whole universe of movies at my disposal wasn't necessarily a good thing). I like the feel of the Polaroid cameras, the responsibility needed to take a good picture, and that small noise of shutter closing to take the picture and the film sliding out. Some feelings just stay with you forever, like a home-cooked meal or smell of fresh baked cookies. MJ and I found it very refreshing to take pregnancy photos using Polaroid camera, and forgoing a professional photography shoot (this was a big step for MJ, she knows that I'm not into photography as much as her but will go along with it if needed, but she resisted the urge to splurge on someone just shooting her with a big belly). Some prospective parents do want to memorialize this time pre-pregnancy "because you might never have that big of a belly again), assuming of course you aren't having another baby, but also I think it's somewhat awkward to take photos because the mother has likely and justifiably...gained a few pounds. Might not be the best time to be taking photos, and if I had to choose between pre-pregancy photos without baby and post-pregancy photos WITH baby, of course baby photos win out. So Polaroid it was, and kind of symbolic of imes changing and the passing of an era, MJ and I turning from married people with no kids to parents for the rest of our lives, from the instant camera Polaroid age to the digital age. Hopefully our parent stage will go the way of cameras, the newer versions are more an upgrade, faster, and get more done, but once in a while we can look back at our Polaroid selves and reminisce about what we had back then.

Virtuoso (大师, 名手, 거장)

MJ and I went to see Itzhak Perlman recently, a living legend of the violin and one of the top classical musicians in the world. I'd compare him to Paul McCartney or Cher from the pop world, a multi-generational talent who needs no introduction, when Perlman's name is on the ticket event people don't read the rest of the program, it just sells out the venue (and that's saying a lot for classical music nowadays). Itzhak played his normal program, then came out to do 4 more pieces with explanations of each. He was the consummate musician, explaining the peices that he would do (his voice is still a nice steady baritone even at 80 years old) and threw in jokes about how Brahms should be named "Brahm" for composing the Hungarian Dances because there's only one dance. I also appreciated when Itzhak played violin pieces that I've played before in my high school days, with various fingering exercises, pizzicato, and those all-so-difficult harmonic notes that I never mastered how to get enough contact on the string to achieve the perfect high-pitch notes. Perlman pretty much showed us how the piece is REALLY supposed to be played, with emotion, and Perlman played the the theme from Schindler's List (the sad violin music that hits your soul) like he owns the song, to me that was the best piece of the night. I'm sure he's an inspiration to innumerable young musicians out there, but he's especially loved by my dad, who loved playing the violin and still plays it now even in retirement (I guess whatever you do in retirement is a good indication of your preferences, what you always wanted to do with your life but never got the chance to). I think my dad would have loved to be a violin virtuoso, someone who plays in front of huge audiences like Itzhak Perlman does, and my dad gave me a chance to do so, it's just too bad I didn't have the talent for it neither, and moreover didn't have the same passion for violin as he did. I like sitting in the back of the violin section covered up by much better players and contributing to the orchestra, pretending at the end of the night performing in front of the audience that they were clapping for me, but I never wanted to do solos in front of an audience, there were just too many places I could trip up playing violin, every note could be the one that scratches, or be off-tune, or be an upbow instead of the required downbow, my personality was just never to be violin virtuoso. However, that's not to say I don't love the applause and performing; I think everyone at some level would like performing in a big music hall or stadium or football field and having people watch and applaud. I got a little taste of that in dodgeball, and I realize now that's partly why I did it: I was good at it, and other people watched and applauded. It's a pretty simple concept and adrenaline high; I'm sure Itzhak Perlman is used to it by now, night after night of standing ovations, but for commoners like me who don't have any special talent, it's a special treat to stand in front of an audience and have people applaud. In the profession I've chosen, you don't get audiences with any applause, if you win a case or get a favorable statement you get an "attaboy" from the partner or some form of monetary compensation, followed by maybe promotions, but never do you get an audience of people watching and appreciating your work; it's not artwork. Even when you argue in front of a judge and you win the case, jury declares the verdict in favor of your client, judge slams the gavel down, no one in court is going to applaud your effort. That's just the profession I've chosen. Art is just a completely different animal, and I understand why so many people pursue their craft: it's risky because you don't know if what you have is going to be good and appreciated, but if and when it is appreciated the audience REALLY appreciates it. Music stars have the highest popularity ratings in the world. Being a parent is one of those jobs that.....does not get appreciated. No one gives parents a standing ovation for changing a diaper, no one asks for an encore for getting your baby to fall asleep, those are just understood as a parent, and that's the job we as parents sign up for: it's a forever job that isn't going to get that adrenaline of applause that people like me seek. It's a different feeling, and I hope I achieve it. But maybe one day, I'll be able to stand in front of an audience, look up at the rafters to all the people clapping, and know the applause is for me.

Boyhood (少年时代, 소년기)

No one has time to watch a 3-hour movie anymore, especially me who doesn't watch the movies, I mainly see the first 5 minutes of a movie, see who the main characters are, read through the credits (director, top 4 actors/actresses, NAME of the movie), general plot, and........move on. Take it from me, it's not the most enjoyable experience, it's like getting a hot bowl of ramen served to you but only getting to take one bite before it's wrested away from you, only I'm doing this willingly to myself because I know I won't be able to watch all the movies I ever want to watch why my life ends, but can learn about almost all of them, or at least the key ones that deserve my attention. And with comments like "Boyhood is one of the best movies you'll every see," or "my favorite movie of the 2010s," I gave it a shot. After all, I also had a boyhood, and it was mostly in the United States. Minor quibble: I wish the movie had spent more time of him as a boy! In my mind my "boyhood" was from like 5 years old (coming to America) to about 14 years old, and then high school is a whole another dimension of surviving in between boyhood and adulthood. The movie is great about showing Mason's life shuffling between living with his mom and some weekends with his dad, but then.......halfway through the movie he's already grown up! I don't consider those emo days of doing art and photography in high school boyhood necessarily, and his whole face had changed by then from the innocent angel of a boy to a hairy beard-wearing teenager. I root for boys growing up like "Stand By Me," by the time they're in high school I think most are stupid with lack of purpose... I was one myself! Otherwise I loved the movie and how it felt like a real person's life growing up, not some sensationalized "raised by wolves" or other Hollywood trope of something traumatic happening and a deep dark secret..... this movie was like Forest Gump living through the 2000's and seeing everything happening around Mason. I recognized so many of the things that Mason went through with video games, not understanding what the meaning of life was, why adults have so many flaws, having a mother that is doing her best amidst all the circumstances. Mason was a little bit too cool of a dude for me, though; I kept thinking when I was a boy how unfair everything was, how public schools are like these miniature animal kingdoms with social hierachies that certain students who have all the power dominate the ones lower on the pyramid, and the adults don't do anything to change that dynamic, so boys like me at the bottom of the hierarchy never had a chance to fix that, and could never break out. Well, once I turned into an adult I realized that social dynamics don't really end when you turn into an adult, but some part of me still is trapped in that boyhood time of awkwardness and not knowing how to act, but amplified by other kids who made the experience much worse. There was a little of that in Boyhood, but I don't know if Richard Linklater (director) wanted to depict Mason as the most even-keeled, calm kid ever, but he never raised his voice, fought back, or yelled or anything. There was a LOT of yelling and being frustrated at the world in Robert Yan's boyhood, and the movie of my boyhood would have some seriously cringey scenes of me breaking down crying or throwing fits or saying something really regretable at school. I hope our baby has a great girlhood! ( I looked it up, there IS a female equivalent of boyhood). There won't be a sequel because the actresse who played Mason's sister already grew up (Lorelei Linklater, director's daughter), but a sequel with a different set of kids to look at Girlhood, or just trying to know how the Mason's sister navigated through that time as well focused on her, would be something I'd watch, if only to get the female perspective and to know what I'm in for!

Latin (拉丁, ラテン, 라틴어)

The word Latin itself comes from the region of Latium, somewhere in Italy near Rome. The language of Latin is one that gives me fits on Jeopardy clues, especially when they come up in a whole categories of clues (that's 5 clues in language that I don't know how to speak!) and the double-whammy, in a category that I'm supposed to know a thing or two about, "Legal lingo in Latin." I was able to nail down "ipso facto" from tort class, and "pro bono" (volunteer work for lawyers that I don't do nearly enough of), but just couldn't pull the easiest clue on the board, defendants who were tried although not physically present, as "in absentia." And then the scary $2000 clue was actually pretty scary, a vague clue about legal opinions given "by the court" that doesn't show who dissented from the majority opinion, "per curiam." Latin was generally derided in high school as a "dead language," but somehow to get better at the SAT (of course my parents made me go to summer school to get better at the SAT!) I enrolled in a summer school Latin class all about learning the Latin roots and what they stand for. I remember I really liked the class! I memorized all of the roots that we were assigned to that week of Latin class! But then after taking the test and getting through summer school, just never thought about Latin ever again. Ironically, that Latin teacher was also the guy who ran the Scholastic Bowl (a high school version of trivia league) which I would have really enjoyed in high school, but I just never got into it, choosing to spend my time with Chess and Orchestra, one of the crossroads of my life that could have led my life in a direction. Little did I know how big a role Latin would play a role in later life, and really in everyone's lives: Latin is just everywhere in the English language. As I write this, the root "scrib" means to write, and scrib comes up in "scripture," "scribe" for someone who writes, and "script" for a movie script. I think about when we were prompted to select a foreign language to take in high school, it was generally French or Spanish, and then a few brave souls took German or something else (no Asian languages were offered back then, which is good because at least I took French and learned a thing or two about Romance languages), Latin had the best advertising because all it would have to do to persuade kids to learn would be show how many words have Latin roots in any sentence. Especially science (medicine, body parts) or law (legal terms love old dead Latin words), two of the "model careers" people would have loved getting into back then. And maybe adults did advocate for studying Latin in this way, I just ignored it. I'm paying attention now; plenty of Jeopardy champions have had great success with a Latin background, notably Amy Schneider. Clues this year that are purely Latin: "in vino veritas," the word in Latin for "a bad condition" is malady, pomegranate is "an apple with many seeds" in Latin, "succulent" is Latin for Juice, in media res means starting a story from the beginning. Alas, there is no going back to high school and learning Latin (iacta alea est, the die is already cast). But there's still time to learn some of it now!

Diapers (尿布, おむつ, 기저귀)

This post is probably premature, a couple months before I REALLY have to deal with diapers, but just wanted to give my best impression of what changing diapers are like before I fully get into them soon. Up until now it's been a vague concept of "oh sure, that's just something you do when the baby comes," like maybe one day having to climb a large mountain or go skydiving, not something I have to worry about in the moment but a tremendous challenge if and when it comes. Having never owned a pet and had to clean up after a dog, it's a bit of a leap to have to care for another living being and be responsible every single time they pee and/or poop, so it's going to take some getting into. I'm not necessarily turned off by the smell of poop, so there's that, I smell farts all the time without gagging or losing my composure, so I don't think I'll be disgusted or anything by the constant smell of poop, it's just the fear of messing up the diaper and getting poop everywhere and making a mess everywhere. I distinctly remember a time when I was really little (like 2 or 3, a very small kid) remembering pooping in my pants on the way home from school and continuing to walk home after pooping my pants until my babysitter finally found it. This was probably one of my first memories...hopefully baby doesn't have too many of these episodes! MJ and I just built a diaper changing station from the DIY box we bought from IKEA.... success! I don't like assembling furniture and in fact caved and paid someone else to assemble some drawers earlier this year, but simple screws and wood plugs are A-OK for Bobby! There's definitely a sense of accomplishment after assembling something like, "Hey I did it, what was once a pile of wood and screws is now an actual piece of furniture that we will be using to change the baby's diaper. I didn't even know these stations exited! I always thought baby changing stations were the ones installed into public bathrooms at the airport, which MJ is loathe to use because they're...public restrooms. I still have a lot to learn about baby wipes, getting the new diaper ready before taking off the old diaper, diaper disposal. Being a parent, as I'm finding out, really is a whole new world. A whole new world must be what New York City finds itself in, as the mayorial elections today yielded a new mayor set to take over: Zoran Mamdani after Eric Adams departs at the end of the year, 34 year old Progressive candidate who seemingly came out of nowhere through social media and running on setting rent controlled housing, free childcare, basically a more affordable New York City. Sounds like a great plan but also a tough task, not sure anyone, much less a newcome to politics and government, can make New York City affordable. I live there in NYC......the whole place is like Vegas, designed for you to spend a lot of money, and a lot of it. It's got some of the best amenities on Earth and great restaurants, theater, all the amenities of one of the most modern cities on Earth, but to be near all of that it really takes a toll on your wallet, and if you can't afford it, you don't have to live there. It's the epitome of capitalism: business have to make money, they charge a lot, there's tons of demand from people who want to live in New York, so prices go up. Not sure how the economics of that can change, but should be interesting seeing Mamdani try. For now I'm content with staying away for awhile, I appreciate the gesture of trying to get free childcare but New York City is not the best city for children and parents, at least to live (MJ wants to go to art museums with the baby eventually, which is a great idea once baby learns how to read, understand what she's seeing, and not.......poop into a diaper all the time).

stroller (婴儿车, ベビーカー, 유모차)

One of the downsides of having a child (fortunately for our baby, outweighed by the upsides) is having to make all the buying decisions for another person who has no way of expressing their likes and dislikes but has an immense amount of needs at the early stages of life. Combine that with someone like me who doesn't like having to make purchasing decisions, and it's a bad combination of reluctance, apathy, and "why is this thing that looks and feels exactly like the other $200 more expensive?" It's true, I've never been one to shop around, haggle, try to get the latest technology like the new brand of iPhone, etc., I've just gotten whatever is the most popular or will get the job done. Like buying a Honda Accord 2013- it runs fine, it has large trunk space, it seats 5 people. 'Nuff said, and almost 170,000 miles later, I'm still enjoying its "tank-like" longevity, as the car shop I took it to for aligning the wheels told me the other day. Today, the first day of November, MJ and I went to go shop for something I've never shopped for before: stroller and a corresponding carseat. Apparently, they can come in a package as a "travel system" because carseats can fit on top of a stroller. We went to a warehouse to shop around with all of the strollers and personally get a feel for all of them, with the sales associate comparing the strollers to buying a car, with terms like "all-wheel drive" and "handling.' My approach is probably different than MJ's: I ask what will get the job done most efficiently with the least amount of hassle and highest likelihood of longevity. MJ's priority (and I'm not saying it's wrong)....is different. She does more research, looks into what others have said about the product, looks at Youtube videos of how other people evaluate the product, what the latest trends are.....when for me, it's like, it's just a baby car to drive the baby around. If it has 4 wheels and a seat, we can make it work. (At least we don't need to get oil changes and tire alignments for the stroller!) I get that this is just the start of a lot of decisions we have to make on behalf of the baby: where the baby sleeps, what clothes the baby wears, starting with the most basic step: The baby's name! The weight of responsibility is just now starting to creep in: not only do I have to supply money for the child (I'm doing OK on that front), I have to make decisions on what to do with that money to make the baby happy, not knowing any of her preferences or what she wants, just making educated decisions on what's best for her. This is a little daunting but the upside is the baby will not give mixed messages like certain adults might about wanting one thing but actually wanting a more expensive model, the baby will not know about the price tag (for now) and will just vote through her crying and/or laughing (hopefully more laughing or grunts of joy). Or maybe she will be a very low-maintenance baby like her dear old dad Bobby. (Please be like that, please, it's not easy being a non-picky person trying to satisfy a picky person! So much easier the other way around). I guess the thing with buying products is, it doesn't EXCITE me. I know it does for some, that's why they like doing it. I buy things to fulfill a need, to get it over with, because I am compelled by the government (health insurance), etc. I didn't even feel excitement buying my first car! It was just, "OK fine now I have the ability to drive myself to work." I can't even pick out a movie to watch on Netflix, I don't really get excited by anything anymore. I don't get excited going on Amazon prime and seeing 1000 choices of what to buy for a baby seat or a diaper changing station, for example, I would actually just prefer ONE (two, tops maybe) so I don't have to choose. Choosing doesn't excite me; buying something I need and checking it off my to-do list excites me. That's the illusion of choice being a good thing: sometimes we drown in choices, especially when we only need one of something (some people online are saying you need 2 strollers, one to travel with and one to wheel to the park. Some people even say to get 4 strollers over the life of the baby!) Sounds like the same people peddling Christmas gift-giving and Valentine candies to me: a pyramid scheme.

Fetal Heart Rate (胎心率, 胎児心拍数, 태아 심박수)

MJ and I have gone together to regular checkups during this pregnancy process, and I've always been impressed by how real it is to monitor the baby's heart rate, and how fast the baby's heart can beat, anywhere from 110 to 160 beats per minute is healthy. Our as yet unborn baby has stayed right within the 150 bpm, which is right around normal. I'm a pretty callous person all things considered, I don't give hugs, I don't gush emotionally about happy moments or cry tears of happiness at the end of Sleepless in Seattle when Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan finally meet at the top of the Empire State Building, but even I can feel something when the stethoscope (or whatever they call it to put on mom's belly to monitor baby's heartbeat) detects a steady heartbeat. It's the first proof of life in a child after the weird ultrasound at 6 weeks showing a tiny something in the uterus, and the heart beat just makes everything feel real, that the baby is coming and the clock has started on when we get to meet her. I will also miss putting my hand on MJ's belly feeling for baby's kicks and movement; it began with very subtle little ripples on my hand, to now I can guess where the baby's head and foot are based on how hard certain areas of MJ's belly feel. It's kind of like in science class at a young age and knowing a chick might hatch out of one of those eggs any day (or kind like the Jurassica park scene of a dinosaur breaking through the huge dino egg shell) where you know something's inside and just incubating until the day they're ready to come out. Maybe this is how Daenyrus Targaryen felt in the first season of Game of Thrones carrying around her dragon eggs, knowing the potential of how powerful they can be. MJ and I just missed having a dragon baby in the year of the dragon but are having a snake (baby dragon) baby! They say babies grow up really fast, but I'm already feeling that the pregnancy is going by so fast! This is the one and only time the baby will be attached to MJ (it's easier for me to say not having to carry her around) but even this time of nausea, tightness, and feeling heavy all the time for MJ may seem like a pleasant memory and "the good ol' days" later on, especially when baby starts to cry. I always wonder, is baby not crying in the womb? Is baby feeling anything, is the brain already starting to pick up on language and voices? I guess they feel pretty comfortable in the womb, otherwise they wouldn't be crying so much when they get forcibly pulled out of there when they're ready to join the world. I did notice them before, but the imminent arrival of our baby is making me focus much more on other people's babies: I see them in strollers outside, being walked around at Costco, even at a football game! I saw a newborn that must have been tops 2-3 weeks old at the Illinois- USC football game recently. Guess some mothers really want their children to attend their first football game early and often! I notice some mothers carrying them facing forward, some facing backward, and most of the kids look.....peaceful. Cherubic. Angelic. Healthy. I also have a couple who had their child very early and spent 2 months in the NICU, but turned out OK and recently went home! That would be anxiety-inducing for me; so far I haven't yet started to feel the burden of all parents worrying about their children every minute of the day for the rest of their lives, partly because baby is resting safely and soundly in MJ's womb, but I'm sure that will start very soon. But it's a good anxiety; I hope to be anxious about baby for a very very long time, not just their fetal heart rate but their real heart rate, their growth pattern, their first steps, their first words, their first football game (not for awhile). This is real; it's happening, and I'm very happy to be there for her, unlike Khal Drogo who died prematurely and left Daneyrus Targaryen to be a single mother of dragons. I'll be there.

Warehouse (仓库, 倉庫, 창고)

The best lunch deal in America. The language capital of the world. Calvin Klein "rack." The depository of new books to read standing up. I never anticipated that the place I look forward to visiting the most on weekends would be a giant warehouse with giant shopping carts, but that is what my social life has devolved into: looking forward to the $1.50 hot dog and drink combo special, delving through the clothing aisle full of discount shirts, shoes, and pants in preparation for the coming winter, and standing in the middle of up to 1000 people (what's the max capacity at any given Costco? I wonder) reading a hardcover anthology called "Taylor Swift: All the Songs" while people speaking various languages like Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and unidentified Indian subcontinent language (likely Hindi) talk around me. Costco has become a cultural experience like no other for me, an all-in-one experience that stimulates all my senses (the smell of the free samples of pirogis and breaded tilapia and whatever cuisine they're hawking that week, the sounds of hundreds of people seemingly talking all at once among sounds of warehouse workers stacking carts and making machinery noises, sights of all kinds of the world's most commericialized items, the touch to feel how "soft" the produce is (one guy today who was fondling the zucchinis gave me a helpful thumbs down on all the squash/zucchini packs, noticing they were all too soft and likely not fresh, and touch, and taste... you gotta hand it to the samples, they're just yummy especially after you've fended off various other vultures who are just waiting their turn to get some free food before they run out and it takes 20 minutes to make another batch. Costco, once called Price Club (fun fact) really succeeds by appealing to all the most basic things people want, in business paralance known as "consumer staple," not "consumer discretionary." I'm definitely more of a "consumer staple" shopper (and by the looks of Costco customers, I'm not the only one of my ethnicity who is), and for the low low price of $65 per year, I can go into the "Warehouse," as I like to call it, as many times as I want, when I want (as long as it fits into the Gold membership times of entry, Executive membership allows a full 30 minutes earlier to enter!) and as long as I can find a parking space in the football stadium-sized parking lot outside. You can even play games of bumper carts inside the mall as it's just a crazy maze of navigating people, carts, Costco employees, little kids running around, spilled fruit just lying on the ground, it's amazing more accdients don't happen like some of the Youtube videos I've seen of people bumping into others and causing altercations. Costco cart drivers are like vehicle drivers on the open road: there are some good drivers who stay in their lane and let others move, and then there are some bad drivers who are oblivious to others, clog up the key entry way, leave their carts in the middle of a busy lane to go grab some Lady Godiva chocolate, it's a jungle out there. But I love it. I will miss Costco if it ever closes down or changes its model; it's in its own little world. Preparing for Jeopardy is also like being in different world all the time. You think that trivia should just be its own corner of the universe that you can just all that knowledge as one complete package, but then I realize as I'm studying that there are some major categories that are just entire worlds in of themselves. History of the world is its own world of rulers, presidents, continents, wars; science is its own world with sub-worlds of human anatomy that delve into muscles, bones, cardiovascular systems, endocrine systems, organs, but the world that confounds me and excites me more than any others: the wide wide world of pop culture, just the entire catalogue of every movie that's ever been made, TV show that all seem to have 7 seasons each (sometimes more, Criminal Minds on CBS is entering its 19th season called Criminal Minds: Revolution, the Simpsons still chugs along with its loyal fanbase and continuously creates more quotes and running gags that people need to keep up with, and General Hosptial the soap opera continues the drama in Port Charles, NY (how much drama can there be in upstate New York)? By the way rest in peace to June Lockhart, a General Hospital alum and Lassie, Leave it to Beaver who was the celebrity fan of the Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic and turned 100 years old earlier this year! But yea the world of pop culture is somewhat unique to other trivia categories because it is constantly changing as things become more "popular" and fade out of being "popular," TV shows get cancelled, new shows spring up all the time so that it's the most dynamic category, requiring like a system update every year to incorporate all the new Oscar winners, Grammy winners, Tony winners, No. 1 Billboard Hits, Songs trending on TikTok, etc. It's exhausting, and you can only fully appreciate the sheer monstrous volume of it all if you binge watch "Pop Culture Jeopardy" on Amazon Prime as I have.......twice. Now on a 3rd watch, I'm still learning new stuff, most of which will probably be useless very soon like expired milk, if I haven't forgotten it already by then. Sigh.

Tarzan and Mowgli

There are too many movies in the world. I say this with the utmost respect to the filmmakers who make them, the actors who star in them, the makeup crew, the lighting staff, the costume designers, the sound effects guys, the gaffers, the extras who play background: there are way too many movies to remember. Often when watching Jeopardy there will be certain books or certain countries that get used over and over in clues and you can just guess that they'll come up once or twice a month, like there will be a reference to "Moby Dick" all the time or "Liechtenstein" in geography or the moon "Titan" (Saturn's moon) in astronomy......movies almost never repeat, and there are an endless array of movies to ask about. I'm reading a book right now that lists all the filmographies of the major movies stars, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Helen Mirren, Judy Dench, Brad Pitt....it's impossible to remember every single movie. And yet people do....there are just movie buffs out there who can get every single movie question right (Yogesh Raut has played about 30 games of Jeopardy, including the most difficult Masters level, and I've never seen him miss a movie clue ever) and also Ken Jennings's best category during his 74-game run was movies. My problem with movies is they're too repetitive, plots get recycled and reused, often a clue will describe one movie and I'm thinking it's another and you have to choose one of two: Is the movie about a young boy raised in the wild who swings around on trees Mowgli or Tarzan? Kind of hard to tell, right? Both Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote those books about the same time period and with the same idea of a half-man, half-animal boy. I confuse a whole lot of gangster movies like "GoodFellas" and "Casino," is Sixteen Candles substantially different than Pretty in Pink? And you're telling me West Side story is just the plot of Romeo and Juliet, just in the streets of New York City? Good luck naming the right Dracula movie about vampires, and there's no way I can differentiate between To Russia with Love, Thunderball, Dr. No, You Only Live Twice, and also be expected to remember which English actor played in all of those movies. It's a hero's journey to try to learn all those differences if you haven't actually seen the movie, and therein lies the other problem: There's no time to watch the movies now, there's just too many of them. I could watch 5 movies a day for the rest of the year (75 days left) and still not make a dent in the movie "must-know" list for trivia purposes. Even if I DID watch the movie there's no guarantee I get it right: Jeopardy (not Pop Culture Jeopardy) asked about a Princess Bride scene with Billy Crystal talking about a MLT (Mutton lettuce tomato). I watched Princess Bride once, on a plane going somewhere, I remember Cary Elwes, I remember Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Andre the Giant, Inigo Montoya......where the heck did Billy Crystal come from? Pop Culture Jeopardy season 2 is coming out, and this problem doesn't exist if I don't try out for Pop Culture Jeopardy, but you have to know very specific things that happened within a movie, no way of knowing without having watched the movie. But maybe that's the intent of Pop Culture Jeopardy, to root out all the casuals and go for the hardcore enthusiasts who have dedicated their lives and time to knowing all about everything in pop culture. Ideally that's where your 2 teammates come in, to help bridge those gaps in knowledge, but I feel like most friends watch similar things, have similar tastes in movies, and are generally around the same age group, so not a whole lot of diversity of viewing interests, it's not a perfectly symbiotic relationship where what you know perfectly matches up with teammates' weaknesses, lot of overlap involved. And the worst thing is, there are still more movies coming out to remember! At least with countries there's a relative finite number of them, rivers, moons in the solar system, books (kind of the silver lining to the death of the book industry is you have to know fewer book titiles), but movies? Every year there's a new batch of Oscar front-runners, box-office leaders (it's The Minecraft movie this year), cult favorites, viral sensations (K-Pop Demon Hunters is everywhere). Good luck to everyone gearing up for PCJ season 2!

Algorithm (算法, アルゴリズム, 연산)

Today, on one another divided day in Trump's America where on one side of the country Trump pardoned fraudster George Santos, and on the other side the No Kings rallies around the country protested against the president's policies, I heard one of the more inspired speeches by Bill Maher on my favorite show: Real Time (other than Jeopardy of course, which is so ingrained in my Youtube feed that anytime anything drops remotely related to Jeopardy it hits the top of my feed). Bill Maher told everyone the algorithm is dividing us as a country into 2 different camps and that we should just mess with the algorithm: Don't let it dictate which side of the aisle you are on, so you get both sides of the viewpoint. Funny he mentions that, because.......I already do do that. Sometimes I'll click on a Joe Rogan video or Ben Shapiro video, but then.......I'll click on a New York Times video or Daily Show episode, or mainstream news outlet. My algorithm is probably weirded out by my political affiliations, but it does know I like chess puzzles and highlights of soccer goals: it continually feeds those to me all the time, and I mindlessly click on them to further cement their place in my queue. This is probably happening to millions of Americas right now who are powerless to stop it, and unfortunately those who have clear political leanings get the most extreme, one-sided material and believe the other side is the enemy. This is one of the worse parts of living in Trump's America and one of the more urgent problems facing us right now. Algorithm comes not from an Arabic word or Greek word as I had thought, but actually the Latin version of a Persian mathematician's name. (This may come up on Jeopardy, especially final jeopardy one day, as the writers love to ask about word origins). That's pretty much the extent of my knowledge about how it operates, but it works off of data, and we feed the algorithm data every time we click on anything. It's scary, makes me want to trade down to get a "dumbphone" or "flip-phone" and hope that our baby will never have a phone. Just like when I wake up and feel like my brain is fresh and uncluttered with junk from the phone, but over the course of the day as I hit "Youtube" or "Facebook" almost mindlessly to take a break from work, I suddenly see myself watching another video even though I had told myself just 10 minutes earlier I'm done with videos for the day. The algorithm is so powerful because it knows what you really like and filters to only those kind of videos, so it's hard to put the phone down, it's just right there for you, like eating ice cream and pizza at the same time. I feel a baby's brain is still fresh and can be molded how we want, feed it fresh veggies and fruits and none of the junk of the algorithm. That's partly why I actually feel more comfortable watching a channel with just ONE view than one with 10 million views, and I have been tuning into a Twitch live feed called "TriviaDragon." TriviaDragon is probably one of the best non-professional Jeopardy players out there right now who hasn't been on Jeopardy, much faster and much more prepared for Jeopardy than I am. He has a set of flashcards that he just runs through for the whole episode and answers them quickly, usually totaling 500 clues within 30 minutes. I know, thrilling, right? It's great for me, brings me a sense of peace, no ads, no links to different videos, no loops where the video plays again after you get to the end......it's just Taotao the host dispatching clues over and over again, like an old school study session I had in high school where we locked ourselves in a room and just studied, no phones no distractions just learning. After each video I feel defeated and feel my mind ready to explode with all the new facts that I just absorbed, many of which I'll probably forget soon, but it's a good feeling of exhaustion, of having accomplished something, rather than letting the algorithm lead me into oblivion and endless Mr. Beast videos or disc golf videos (those just recently popped up into my algorithm for no reason, it's weird sometimes what the algorithm decides to push even if you don't click on it, it just makes educated guesses on what you might like). Focusing on trivia is like going out into the wild and only having the great outdoors around me, no connection to the internet. I'm focused, I'm entertained, and I'm set on a goal- to be not embarrassed on Jeopardy if and when I get onto the show, especially by trivia superchampions like TriviaDragon or Dargan Ware, the guy who just became champion on Friday, whom I'm predicting to be a multi-multi-game champion. In his first game he pulls 5 out of 6 $2000 clues (supposedly the hardest clues in the bottom of the board) and also knew the 6th one just got beat by another contestant. Solon, Hokusai, Hegel's dialectic, TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, and Terrence Malick's 1995 "Love! Valor! Compassion!" Unbelievable.

Flies and Butterflies (苍蝇, ハエ, 파리 and 蝴蝶, 蝶, 나비)

Every once in a while MJ and I will be annoyed by an unwelcome houseguest or 2: the fly. Not sure how it gets in since we have all the windows sealed and doors shut, maybe flies follow us home from the outside, but once they're in they make themselves well known, buzzing around the home like they own the place and whizzing by our ears as if taunting us that we can't catch them. And it's true, it's really hard to catch them at their speed while flying around, but if they land and pause for a little bit, it's a different story. When I was a kid living in suburban Illinois I made a habit of killing flies in our home, getting whatever piece of paper was closest to my hand and swatting the flies as they landed. Maybe certain flies have evolved, or different regions of America have different flies: the ones MJ and I deal with seem bigger, faster, and just a tad smarter: they don't land in convenient places for us to swat them, and they sense our hand movements just a nanosecond because it comes crashing down upon them. I even tried to anticipate their escape path and swat away from where they are to where I anticipate them to be, but flies sometimes can fly away from where their heads are pointing towards. I'm not sure why I have such a bloodlust for killing flies: they're actually pretty harmless, as long as you don't put food out for them to infect. MJ doesn't like them because they're around dirty things and don't want them to touch our food; fair point, but they definitely can't sting or bite or cause any pain, something that can't be said about mosquitos and/or other creatures that can get into the home. I think it might be a bit of OCD too: something just seems off when the home has a fly in it, like something stuck in our teeth that we need to extract, a pimple on an otherwise blemish-free face, a literal "fly in the ointment" as the idiom goes which actually comes from a Bible phrase from Ecclesiastes about fly ruining something otherwise perfect. The Bible, turns out, is the source of a lot of vocabulary and phrases that we still use today. Breaking Bad even had a whole bottle episode with Jesse and Walt in the meth lab trying to excise a fly from the lab, a kind of metaphor for their relationship. Butterflies, on the other hand, are the exact opposte of flies, despite having its name in their name. MJ and I went to a botanical garden today and most gardens have a butterfly preserve or some sort of hothouse/greenhouse indoor component for when the winter months come rolling in. The butterflies were free-roaming, and it just put us into such a better mood than the flies. Butterflies are like the calm classical orchestra concert to the heavy metal flies or "Ride of the Valkyries," butterflies just want to be left alone and flutter up to you unassumingly, not making any noise exact the tiny pitter-patter of beating their wings. They have such exquisite patterns on their wings that we forget that the center of their bodies look kind of like house flies, they just survived through evolution through their beautiful wings, and now human beings cultivating them, whereas flies survive through sheer will of crowding into people's houses, surviving on other organisms' junk. It'd be so easily to kill a butterfly just by clapping your hands around them, yet they're so precious no one in the butterfly house even thought of doing something like that. There's a reason there are no houses full of flies (maybe iguanas or frogs would get a kick out of that though). The relationship between flies and butterflies is kind of symbolic of human life too (I always try to relate it to myself, selfish human that I am ). Some people are born butterflies, some people are born flies. Everybody just naturally gravitates towards butterflies and they can do no wrong, they're like gods' gifts to the world and they act like it, just going about their day as they please without worry of predators, they become soft. Flies, on the other hand, get no positive attention for others, they're just on their own to survive, yet they still manage to survive and make a living out of it. There's something admirable about it; it's not like they can just turn into a butterfly, and they didn't ask to be flies, they were just born that way. Maybe something us humans should consider at least when treating other human beings. As for actual flies though? No mercy if you've entered the Yan household! You know that phrase "wouldn't hurt a fly!" that does not apply to me.

National Blood Donor Day

TIL that there's a national blood donor day, every June 14. I would probably NOT go to donate blood or platelets on that day, as it's probably packed to the gills with willing donors. I also learned today that there's a man named Mark Vinson who's trying to donate platelets in all 50 states.... he already completed the task of donating blood in all 50 states this year! Missed the video. It's the kind of story that would have went more viral in something like.....2008, when one man went around the country doing "50 jobs in 50 states" and got on CNN for the interesting idea. In 2025, though, with so much more content and Youtubers and streamers and content creators, and people not caring about the news as much, it got a few thousand views on Youtube and an Alaska Airlines promotional spot. Sigh.....that's the state of the world: people will jump all over a story about Bad Bunny performing at the Super Bowl or celebrity gossip or the latest Taylor Swift album (Life of a Showgirl) or the latest ICE raid video, the good stories about humankind go unnoticed; good people doing good things don't get as much attention as someone seeking attention doing stupid things. In Mark Vinson's case, he's been donating blood and platelets for 37 years, he's an ambassador for the American Red Cross, he's encouraging other people to donate. I wish I came up with this idea; I almost did the 50 jobs in 50 states challenge in 2011 after law school when I couldn't find a job; it really ties together my love of visiting new places and my (wouldn't say love) my commitment to donating and doing something good for the world. So far in my blood donation journey I've donated in 6 different states and various different cities, and I used to seek out new donation places around L.A. and other cities I lived in temporarily just to check out new areas of the city. So I envy Mark Vinson and the life that lets him go to various states on business and otehr occasions especially with a family. Some of those smaller population states can be tough, and have less occasion to go to Montana, Idaho, North Dakota.......he even made it to Alaska and Hawaii, where "blood donation" is not one of the first things to come to mind about what to do there. (But that actually make it more important to donate if there are less donors there). The logistics of going to a new place is also tough: transportation is one thing, but also learning the new rules of the donation place, getting to know the nurses, finding out if there's a vein whisperer or not.....blood donation anyone can do, but platelets: you migth want a familiar face doing both arms. I think the best thing that American Red Cross does in getting repeat donors is NOT to keep spamming me with phone calls and texts about the "critical shortage" of donors and the free shirt giveaways, hoodies (although those are nice), I can get equivalent quality ones for $20 or so and not be forced to take an extra large shirt is they track your donations for you, so you can look back at your whole donation history and where you've been, how often you did it, where the blood went to, what your hematocrit and other health signs are (A1c tests for diabetes, etc.) It gives the donor a log, a ritual, and gives people like Mark Vinson a history of their life, where they've been to, where they might still want to go, that you matter in this world and others notice your sacrifice. So often in today's world our accomplishments go unnoticed: I paid my mortgage this month, yay! There will be one for next month, or at work bosses don't acknowledge your work, or you let someone in on the highway but they give no acknowledgment of your kindness. Instead selfish people who do relatively dumb things get likes and views on Youtube. It's frustrating and can be ungratifying in this "only attracted to cool stuff" world. It's valuable when someone pays attention, and that's likely why American Red Cross can get repeat donors like me. Even though they get money and have an incentive to recruit you too, at least they let you know someone's keeping track. I still won't go in to donate on National Blood Donor Day though.

Recharge Battery (电池充电, 배터리 충전)

Last week I was caught in one of the most dire situations imaginable in today's modern world: being away from home with a cell home that was out of battery. Seems inconceivable, but a confluence of issues contributed to my battery situation: No charging stations on the train to the airport, not enough time to charge my phone in a socket at the airport before getting on the plane, no charging port ON THE PLANE (thanks United Airlines) and being delayed on the flight for an hour sitting on the tarmac (by the way, tarmac is a word created from the 2 materials in its name, tar and macadam), and finally, THE RENTAL CAR I BOOKED DID NOT HAVE AN OLDER CHARGER, just the newer USB-C charging port that any versions of Apple iPhone 15 and newer have.......I have the iPhone 14 Pro, which I got in late 2022 but might as well be from the Triassic Period before the wheel was invented, and I couldn't charge in the car while driving, which I was counting on. Turns out life is difficult without technology, and the romantic idea of driving cross-country with just a car and a full tank of gas is not practicable if you're still living in the 20th century phone-wise. I really don't like relying so heavily on technology and batteries to save me since I like to be all-natural and free, but that kind of living hits a snag when your ability to use the magic wand in your hand appears. The modern smartphone really shouldn't be called a "phone," such an outdated use of the term because no one really calls anyone anymore, it should be the anything device because it can get you anything you want: it acts as a wallet, paying for anything, you can get a car to come to your exact location and pick you up in less than 5 minutes almost anywhere in the world, food arrives anytime, and you can watch any movie or show that's available for streaming from anywhere in the world. Just as long as you charge your battery! MJ and I are making some decisions on baby furniture and what to buy....she seems calm and collected, maybe from taking classes discussing healthcare for the baby, but I'm a little stressed and overwhelmed at the coming storm, no matter how many Youtube videos we watch of influencers and "certified pediatricians" smiling and telling us it's going to be OK.....one mother apparently had a baby that slept from 8PM to 7AM through the night almost starting from brith. That is probably the dream scenario, dream baby, legendary baby you only hear stories about but never have met, like the Loch Ness monster. I suspect we'll get a well-behaved baby, and between MJ and I we both sleep pretty well, so maybe we'll get lucky too, but so much of what to prepare for depends on the baby: what they'll wear, if they like baths or not, if they like being in a bassinet or crib, if they sleep well with the lights dimmed or in total darkness, just so many variables, they're so diverse just like human beings are. In real life some people would never consider taking a flight to another city in the morning and coming back in the same day without even staying a night in that city, but that's what I've done and enjoy doing now. That's kind of the beauty of it, we don't know. I suppose we might look back on these pre-baby as the "good ol' days," not knowing what we will get and enjoying our pre-baby life without the constant stress of being responsible for another human being. I felt a similar burden the summer before law school way back in 2008, knowing there was so much to do coming up and I was entering another phase of my life with unknown variables and things that would totally change me as a person, looking forward to those changes as a natural part of life and moving up a level, but also desperately clinging on to the last vestiges of the life that we have now that's all things considered a very good, comfortable life: I could do this forever if given a choice, but the high-risk, high-reward endeavor of having a child makes life so many more flavorful, like variety being the slice of life (and apparently, bread is the staff of life, just learned that today). I need this variety in life to make life worth living, and instead of hardcore recreational drugs or getting a dog, or taking on a second career, traveling the world, something else, I have chosen the more traditional path of having a baby. Maybe it will be very difficult and very cranky. But maybe it'll be like that fast charger (instead of the slow charger I brought with me) I needed on last week's flight: Give me a boost in enjoyment and satisfaction and recharge my outlook on life.

Precautions (预防, 予防, 지침)

The Canadian band "Men Without Hats" had their only major hit in 1983 with the song "Safety Dance." Unfortunately, that song wasn't actually about doing anything safely, it was actually protesting the safety measures at a nightclub and preaching dancing however you wanted to do, apparently with reckless abandon. Not typical of rock bands or any type of music to preach caution, it's usually "love," rebel, fight the power, we won't take anymore of this, you only live once type of stuff. No one sings about safety because it's not cool, it's not sexy, and it doesn't sell. The whole US economy is predicated on people taking chances, spending unwisely, throwing caution to the wind and living just for today. "Safety" is for cops, condoms, and parents, some of the most uncool things there are. MJ might disagree when I pick up food from the floor I just dropped and eat it, but I live a pretty safe life....no drugs, not much alcohol, no skydiving, no alligator feeding, no guns, and I drive barely past the speed limit. Which is why I cringed today when I drove past a guy on his bicycle in the middle of traffic, driving in the opposite direction of traffic, without a helmet...and looking at his phone. This really took the cake for me in an environment where I see pedestrians crossing the street in front of cars regularly, people stopping in the middle of the road and putting their hazard lights on as if that fixes the whole problem, and pedestrains "taking a head start" (previously complained about here) walking into traffic and coming inches away from having their feet run over by the passing car's tires. I cringe both for their lack of care but also for myself in having to deal with these situations because it makes it so much more dangerous for me as well. I'm about to one of those 3 "safety" categories (a parent) trying to bring up a baby and take precautions by getting vaccines, buying the safest car seats, having the most precautions delivering a baby....and here are these bozos singlehandedly making the world a more dangerous place. I've also learned a lot about precautions to take when having a baby: like I didn't know babies shouldn't drink water; hmmm, seems like the lifeblood of human life and my life (I drink almost only water every day) but apparently that's not recommended until 6 months old. Carseat should face towards the rear of the car, not supposed to kiss the baby (we have a lot of germs in our mouths), don't put jacket on a baby in a carseat, lots of things to avoid. This is in addition to all the normal things in life that we have to worry about like being too hot or too cold, sharp objects, being turned upside down, etc. I realize learning about all the precautions to take with a baby, that this is like a forever thing: parents are always going to try to keep the baby as safe as possile, and it's always going to be anxiety-inducing worrying about what these babies do. Even as an adult, there are still concerns about safety: getting into a car accident, getting sick, life is pretty delicate, we're all just delicate flowers traveling through the world with so many pitfalls lying in wait that can trip us up. Probably good to avoid the actual pitfalls in the road......especially when riding a bicycle in a car lane in the wrong direction...while checking your phone, without a helmut. Aigu! (the Korean equivalent of English exclamation "OMG")

Weight Gain (体重增加, 体重増加, 체중 증가)

On the night of my high school's 20th reunion (didn't go after the 10-year reunion was underwhelming), a new source of stress has reared its ugly head, something I hadn't had to worry about since high school: weight gain, especially unexpected weight gain. Working out the same amount (in fact, my health tracker says I moved 300% more than my target, doesn't happen every day), eating roughly the same amount, but.....weight is persistently high. For the last 20 years or so, ever since I started a daily routine of doing about 5 miles of cardio at least a day, I've been able to keep a steady weight, and even if I let myself go and got a little overboard (maybe 10 pounds over), I was able to gradually whittle that down without anyone dramatic changes). Not this time; this time I'm dreading getting on the scale for fear it will tell me some bad news; whereas usually I get on as a form of routine just to check myself like checking the weather or checking the stock market, recently checking the scale has been painful, a daily reminder that I'm not where I'm supposed to be. I can see why people struggle with weight issues or self-image issues; it's not necessarily that I can tell I've put on 7-10 extra pounds, it's that sinking feeling that I'm at my upper limit now without any room to spare, and I need to watch myself; getting any heavier is not acceptable. Except I'm not sure what's causing this most recently episode of weight gain, with the main culprit maybe something we all dread: aging. Perhaps my body just doesn't have the same metabolism anymore. It's not breaking down the same amount of food as fast anymore so more of it is staying on my body. Which means: I have to eat less. I have to curb myself so I don't overeat, and watch it with the high-sodium, high-calorie, high-fat foods. Aka everything tasty in life. I've never been THIS heavy before, hopefully my knees are doing ok, the rest of my body isn't breaking down and buckling under all that weight? I'm now worried about life after baby (not just the lack of sleep, the constant attention you have to give) but also not being able to run outside for too long to burn off all the calories. I might have to prevent weight gain by (gasp) watching what I eat, which has never been my forte for controlling weight gain. Ideally I would go into parenthood at the lower threshold for weight; have a couple months to work on that! Or maybe the cause was the saline that they pumped in me for my platelet donation today, or waking up early in the morning not allowing my body to fully burn off pounds at night. It was a Snoop/Peanuts cartoon T-shirt giveaway today, a blatant marketing gimmick to get more people to donate blood, and of course when I showed up at the site...only XL and XXL t-shirts left. I've always wondered why large corporations giving out giveaways don't make more Medium and Larget T-shirts....why are there always XL's left? I used to go to L.A. Clippers games and they'd give out all XL shirts. Not everyone is XL! In fact, most people are not XL! Only people like my mom encouraged me to wear XL's as a kid because "maybe it'll shrink in the laundry" or "it's more comfortable and it won't be too tight." I've since come to realize, even with my limited fashion sense, that wearing baggy clothing isn't aesthetically pleasing for most, and MJ has pretty much rid me of the nation of going outside wearing something too big. Maybe it's too much to ask for when you're getting a free shirt, but the giveaway only has value (and acts as another incentive for people to come give blood) if the shirt can be worn. Oh yea, and this means I've now lived more years after high school than before high school. They say that life begins after high school.......I guess I'm 20 years old now! I hesitate to go to high school reunions because even if people are cordial and nice now, I feel like they'll always remember in the back of their mind their image of Robert Yan during high school, which was not a version that I'd like people to remember, the awkwardness, the lack of social awareness due to not having parents or older siblings telling me how to behave in American society. I was such a babe in the woods ripe for reputation slaughter. I wish I could get another chance at doing high school over again, but going to the high school reunion is not going to resuscitate my image or allow me to relive those years. And I had weight gain in high school.

Tuberculosis (结核病, 결핵)

I often, like most humans, lament and complain about what I don't have (a big car, a big house, a bigger bank account, a more athletic body, the ability to throw a baseball 95 MPH, etc.), but it's important to take a step back and reflect on what I do have, or to put it another way, what bad things I don't have: I don't have tuberculosis. And according to John Green and his latest work "Everything is Tuberculosis," that's definitely something to celebrate. Tuberculosis has been around for centuries and was highlighted in many famous works by Shakespeare, Jane Austen, etc., it's been very present in human life for centuries but doesn't get the top billing of other more lethal and contagious diseases like Ebola, Covid, HIV/AIDs, etc, but it's definitely there and it's definitely deadly. The most common symptom is coughing up blood and having your napkin turn red, which we're all familiar with in movies and other media, and John Green does his usual excellent job in describing all the horrors of it, including how it just decimates families and villages and whole communities of people in Africa, who suffer due to cramped living conditions (where tuberculosis can spread the fastest and most easily) and bad healthcare. I think people in the U.S. are extremely lucky tuberculosis is just not that much of a problem here (although there were some breakouts this summer as a wake-up call), so much so we don't even vaccinate for it. Let's hope that continues and that everything doesn't turn into tuberculosis like John Green's book. I recently heard that humans are still at our infancy about understanding the human body, and there's still so much go to go about understanding diseases, how they interact with the body, how the body tries to heal itself, and how everyone's body is different. So doctors don't have all the answers (just ask my mom who's going through a difficult situation with medical professionals right now), but the answers they do have have made a profound effect (vaccines, surgeries, anesthesia). I still feel like the best way to go through life is all-natural, let the body heal itself and do its thing, don't subject oneself to too many medications and being dependendant on artificial stuff. But to the extent it's needed, do rely on medical help: for childbirth, for example. I think I've become very naive and complacent about diseases: I've never once had a surgery, had to use anesthesia, had any broken limbs/arms, never had to go to a hospital except to visit others. Never had to worry about tuberculosis. It's almost like my parents just wished upon a healthy baby and put all their energy in giving birth to a health kid, and I was the beneficiary of all those well wishes I feel like I have a circle of protection around me (not to say I'm invincible and I like to think I drive cars to maximize safety and make sure I don't test the physical limits of that circle of protection). I think every parent probably wants that for a child and it's one of the No. 1 things that they prioritize (MJ might prioritize being pretty and cute over this), but it's health for me. Just be healthy, be free from disease, be able to live like I have, pain-free. But of course the baby will get sick in the first few years, like all the time, is what I've heard, because they have the immune system......of a baby, it hasn't been tested and it's prone to everything. So I'm anticipating some really bad grossness and being sick a lot....one of the things that has probably kept my relationship with MJ alive is that I don't get sick very often and don't really get her sick, so we're both relatively healthy most of the time (except those Covid bouts everyone had to get over)......that's about to be tested with the arrival of a baby. As long as it's not tuberculosis!

Encyclopedia (百科全书, 百科事典, 백과 사전)

Playing chess. Going camping. Going surfing. Taking a road trip. Going to a baseball game. Going to a music concert. Watching TV. Sleeping all weekend. Reading a book. Going to a wedding. I hear a lot of fun things that other do in this wild wacky world of ours, but of all the activities I've heard friends say they are actively doing, I've never heard anyone say they are busy reading the encyclopedia. I suspect this is partly because of the nerdiness associated with reading dictionaries and books that never really went away after grade school where you just don't want to be outed as the nerd who is in the library reading references books for fear of getting your lunch money stolen or just bullied by other kids in your class, but it also could be that encyclopedias seem boring. They don't have a plot like novels do, they don't have a famous actor or actress on the cover marketing their tell-all memoir, they don't prepare you for any particular test like the LSAT or the GRE or the MCATs. There's really no purpose especially in our internet age of reading physical encyclopedias like the Britannica or the World Book Encyclopeda (my go-to encyclopedia). And yet, I must be a special breed because whenver I go to a new library, I always wonder where their encyclopedias are, and often crack open the A section to check out where all the familiar sections of "Alaska," "atoms," and "aardvarks" are and what they say about them (a lot of John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Samuel Adams action in the first few pages of the A's in the encyclopedia, by the way). I often find that these encyclopedias are in near-mint condition because nobdy has read them; it's like cracking open a new book and the pages still kind of stick together, and pages turn crisply with a little "whoosh" sound. I get enjoyment out of taking an adventure into those pages, but also of the content of the encyclopedias: they've really made an effort (probably to attract any readers they can) to put in more pictures, make the entries more reader-friendly, full of stats, quotations, fun facts, etc., so that it's not pages upon pages of full text. Still....reading an encyclpedia front-to-back is pretty hard work, I like the overviews of states with their capitals, populations, landmarks, famous peoples, famous universities, largest cities, etc., but in between are entries that you can only take so much of like random species of trees, plants, bygone technology, books you've never heard of, old medieval instruments, yet another type of antelope native to Africa. One really is incentivized to skip ahead to something that you're interested in. I've just never ever in my life been interested in fashion and clothing, and it's just a bore sometimes reading about all kinds of shoes, fabrics, styles of the 1930s, etc. It doesn't help that each tome is 800 pages or so, depending on it's a meaty letter like "A" or "M" or even if they have to divide certain letters like C (C-Ch is just one tome). It really doesn't help that encyclopedias are characterized as "reference books," so they're for libary use only and can't be checked out. In this day and age, who's going to steal an encyclopedia? I wonder each time I go to the library and have to put the book back for the next time. Luckily, there are encyclopedias on various topics that CAN be checked out like Space encyclopedia, dog encyclopedia (I really like that one, shows a lot of pictures of dogs and gives the illusion that I have one of those dogs, without actually having one). Yup, reading the encyclopedia is difficult, which is why I give props to an author named AJ Jacobs (I've discussed him before) who took on the monumental project of reading the Encyclopedia Britannica from cover to cover in about 2003-2004. This was before iPhones and just the beginning of the Internet, so people had more uses for encyclopedias back then as a source of knowledge, but still his story inspires me that others have done it before. He didn't even read the read-friendly World Book version, he did the Britannica all-text black and white copy version. Yikes. I honestly don't know if any normal person would do that in today's day and age without some serious monetary incentive now. There's just too much out there. I'm able to go to the library and sit down for a solid hour without checking my phone (and actualy my eyes thank me for letting them read a physical piece of paper instead of a screen, either phone or computer) but it's just too tempting nowadays with a device smarter than any encyclopedia just sitting in your pocket and beeping all the time with new alerts, new information, new communication from friends, there's just too much to do nowadays to read encyclopedias. I wonder how college kids read textbooks, to be honest. But Jacobs's book about reading the encyclopedia is great: he describes trying to use the facts he learned in normal conversation, to no avail; he just sounds kind of weird at parties, he lugs the book around the New York City subway and other inconvenient places to have a 5-pound brick of a book with you at all times, and he discusses important entries he learns about Descartes (liked cross-eyed women), gagaku (Japanese music), all very relatable to an encyclopedia reader: so much human knowledge that is right at our fingertips everyday that we just brush by without a second's thought. Before reading the encyclopedia and getting into trivia (more like general knowledge), I was naive like a babe in the woods. Now after having read the encyclopedia, there's still a world of information I don't know, but I at least know a little about the stuff that I don't know and how much else there is to know. The more you learn, the more you understand how much more there is to learn. In 10 years when all human beings will be programmed with a microchip with all the knowledge in the universe or there's a magic pill that increases your IQ by 100 points, and encyclopedias including digital encyclopedias become obsolete, I'll always look back on those days spent leafing through an encyclopedia and getting endorphin hits each time I learned something new, as "those were the good ol' days."

Caesarean section (剖腹产, 帝王切開, 제왕절개)

What a time to be alive: we have the internet at our fingertips, indoor plumbing, personal showers available at any time, food stocked in neat categories to shop from, almost anything you could ever dream of available upon a click of a button on Amazon, and....Caesarian sections don't require the mother dying. Of all the things you learn about childbirth, one of the many things is how common mothers died during childbirth before modern scientific advances, so to give birth was literally risking your life, and in case of C-sections, it was a death sentence back when it began in the B.C. era: they just cut the mother's stomach, pulled out the baby, and left the mother to die. Pretty disturbing stuff. Nowadays, C-sections are pretty common and come with a very minimal chance of adverse damage and certainly death is not on the table, but it's still a big sacrifice for the mothers as the recovery time is much longer than natural births. And why do they call it Caesarian section? Supposedly Julius Caesar was born from one, but that's not been confirmed, more of an apocrophyl story like Hannibal crossing the Alps with elephants. I was born through Caesarian section, not that I remember it happening. I do remember a little bit about my sister being delivered through C-section, and my mom spent 2 days in teh hospital afterwards. The doctor who performed the c-section also made a mistake and made a small incision into my sister's head, of which she had a scar for the first few years of her life, without causing any brain damage or developmental issues luckily (that we know of). Still, it's not the easiest of processes, and intuitively it seems pretty daunting: There's a human being somewhere inside the mother's stomach, and your job is to cut around the baby without touching the baby with the scalpel. Maybe one of the things that we might entrust AI with in the future, the precise cuts. I can barely figure out where the baby is now when I touch MJ's belly, even though MJ is pointing out where the kicks are coming from. I'm just looking at a sea of belly, no indications of any human life anything (life walking on the surface of the moon). And how do you know if the baby is head first or feet first? if the baby is moving around during the C-section? She's moving around a lot now, what if she gets nervous and starts thrashing around because suddenly a hole has opened up to the world? The answer is probably ultrasound and other scientifcally proven techniques, which is why the doctors get paid the big bucks, I guess. Philosophically, that's a pretty significant moment and metaphor for one's entry into this world: The baby is in a dark place in the mother's belly, kind of existing in this world but not yet, kind of a limbo before wherever we all come from and this world, can't see anything, can't hear anything, can't go anywhere, and then when you're ready to join the world, suddenly.......you go through the portal of your mother's belly into the next world, our world. It's really like the movie The Truman Show, once you go through those doors, you can't go back: the world is a wonderful, delightful place but also a dark, dangerous place...apparently we're starting with generation beta now, not even generation alpha, and this new generation of people are going to be growing up in a world of AI, robots, something we could never have imagined......maybe one day they'll come up with something more advanced than C-sections, like the baby will just be teleported out of the woman's body, or some sort of womb-simulated area that babies grow in instead of the mother's womb.... who knows? Although, childbirth seems like one of the only things left that is not totally explained by science, there's an aspect of magic and creating life out of seemingly nothing is one of the few miracles humans can perform. It doesn't make sense, but it happens, and now the C-section part makes a lot of sense scientifcally, but the numbing the pain part and stitching the scar up, that's also miraculous. Hoping for a great c-section!

Loyalty (忠诚, 忠誠心, 충의)

Loyalty- one of the most cherished values in our society, often preached but executed less, it's the idea of staying true to something or someone, or in the business world, it means keeping a customer for life and not having them go to a competitor. A truly sacred idea for big corporations, as loyalty means a steady cash flow, like signing someone up for a subscription or getting them to apply for a credit card. It's why Costco makes so much money every year and will keep having me back as a customer: loyalty, and the promise of $1.50 hot dog combo and $1.99 pizzas. It's also why MJ books Delta almost every time she flies, avoiding all other airlines if she can help it, and why she just scored one of the best things airline loyalty can get you: business class international flight. Ahh the Holy Grail of travel that I have yet to experience. I imagine it's like getting into the VIP club or being the guest of honor, or how you're treated on your wedding day.....except better. The flight attendants raise a curtain for you as you enter, they write a handwritten note to you wishing you the best of luck, the drinks come often and abundantly, the snacks are healthy and desirable. And the best thing of it all.......the ability to lie down and sleep on the plane over a long transocean flight. One day, if I'm feeling really good about myself and I have all my ducks in a row and my big boy pants on, I might book a flight like that for myself. But for now MJ has gotten it, mostly from her undying loyalty towards Delta Airlines. May they keep rewarding her and keep buying Airbus planes, because Boeing planes are the ones that are having some major issues recently. I consider myself loyal in the ways that really matter, like to family and close friends, but in terms of business I am NOT loyal at all. Whatever is convenient at the time, at the location where I am, is good for me. I will take the cheapest flight or cheapest option that I can get at all times (except Spirit and Frontier) and will always give something new a shot, until it screws me. That's why I tried this new airline called Breeze (from the same people that gave us JetBlue) from Huntsville to L.A. recently, because (you guessed it) it was the cheapest option and the most direct option (Delta only had flights back to Atlanta then to L.A., which for anyone who knows geography, that's going backwards east first and then doing a U-turn and going west. I don't like that; I never doubling back like that and will break loyalty to avoid that. Breeze....is totally fine, happy to report. Everything operated as expected, I was offered an exorbitantly expensive $4 for a Spindrift sparking water that I could get at home for a unit price about $0.25, so I refused and just got regular water, which was still $0 (at some point I feel like this might change, and at some point I feel like airlines will start charging tip for their flight attendants, I just have a feeling) but otherwise I was not charged a fee for my "laptop bag" that I brought with me, no surprise charges, the flight took off on time and landed on time, and I even accessed Wifi for $8 to summon some trivia study materials while on the plane. My thing is, I'm not the biggest fan of unpredictability, but taking a chance on something also brings me unexpected joy sometimes that I somehow got a good deal out of it, maybe the gambler's mentality of trying something new and adventuring out into the unknown. When I stop on a long road trip to get gas, I don't really care if it's a Mobile, Chevron, Speedway, 76, Shell, Sheetz, whatever is pumping out unleaded fuel, I will get, preferably the cheapest option available. I am definitely not the type of person corporate executives are targeting when they send out loyalty plans and subscription models; I am very very fickle about what I buy (if anything) and have walked out of line at a Subway before when the line was longer than I wanted it to be (one person). This kind of "whatever works" approach has probably saved me a lot of money over the years and given me a lot of shall we say "different" experiences as a customer (I was once stuck in Durham, NC for the whole night waiting for a Greyhound bus that never came, and I had to book a 5AM flight instead), and it has also made me not ever get close to anything MJ can do with her loyalty points on airlines, I've always been her guest at airline lounges, the riffraff from "Group 6" boarding zone who somehow is with the Silver Medallion Gold Star status that MJ has. I don't need to be loyal to Delta; I just need to be loyal to MJ.