Zillow (齐洛, ジロウ, 질로우)

 I wonder what it was like in the days before the Internet for prospective home buyers- just driving around the neighborhood looking for "For Sale" signs? Then I remember that my parents DID take me house hunting in the Chicago suburbs back in the day, and it was kind of like that, except maybe with a selected realtor who knew what they were doing. Still, I feel like one of the most game-changing websites in the world is Zillow.com, started in 2006 by former Microsoft or Expedia employees, one of those, created the site with the idea of changing the real estate industry. (Side note: Doesn't it seem like most of the best ideas that people use today all spourted right after the Internet came along, and if you were at the right age to capitalize on that, you really made it big? I came along right after that sweet spot I feel like, either that I was too busy playing video games, chess, and doing homework for classes that I didn't really need for my future career while millionaires were being made with just some good ideas). The whole dot-com industry was formed while I was in my teens, and if I was a very precocious 20-year-old college student with foresight for what people would eventually want I could have come up with Youtube, Uber, AirBnB, Instagram, all that good stuff. Alas, I didn't even act quickly enough to get my own namesake email account: Robert.yan@gmail.com was already taken. There's definitely a cost to being late to the party for technology and newest trends: you miss out on the wave. 

Zillow is a great example of it pays to be early on something, and one of its many features, price graph, show why that also applies to housing: all of the homes MJ and I are looking at in Southern California show pricing graphs that are essentially a straight line up, from bottom left to top right, almost without exception, and the ones that do have a blip on the radar or some sort of downward price action, I question whether what problems aren't show on the page or that there was an error in the price data. The pictures on Zillow really help visualize the space; it's almost like viewing tourist attractions on Youtube: you don't even have to actually physically be there anymore, you can just see it from your computer. MJ and I are constantly looking through different neighborhoods and seeing what we could afford, what kind of market is in different areas of the city, if there have been any "price cuts," and suprisingly for the first time in a while L.A. has some homes that are cutting prices, whether it's 1.) they priced their home too high in the first place, 2.) the owner needs to sell quickly so they want to garner more interest and bids, or 3.) High mortgage prices causing prospective buyers to be unable to afford expensive homes, or 4.) the affect of the L.A. fires? It definitely puts a little hesitation in your step when considering that fires could strike your home at any time and you lose everything, and it's hard to get fire insurance in L.A. A tough time to be thinking about these matters when there are still families trying to rebuild and get back on their feet, figure out their next plans after losing everything, but the reality is some of these people will need homes too, and the rental market has been drastically altered by the sudden demand in places for fire evacuees. 

I've read stories about mystery buyers "putting in offers on houses sight unseen" and always scoffed at the idea, but with Zillow that doesn't seem so preposterous; who knows how much research rich people have done on the market and determined exactly what they want and what's a good price to buy it at. Zillow allows one to see the flooring (a big thing for MJ), how the bathrooms like, how high is the ceiling (low ceilings make me feel really crapped), how generous the windows are to letting in light, what the HOA fees are (huge component if you're buying a townhouse/condo, that could be comparable to rent!) shape of the staircase (MJ expressed admiration at a spiral staircase the other day), exterior feel of the home. Honestly they talk about "curb appeal" a lot and it's probably overrated, but just the way a home looks from the curb can make up a big part of whether I want to visit the place or not, much less live in it and pay up to a million dollars and live there for the foreseeable future. You'll be seeing that place day in and day out, so the appearance is a big selling point for us. Don't judge a book by its cover, and don't judge a home just by its exterior (location is also a huge point), but do judge it by its cover somewhat. If only because other people will judge it like that when you sell the home in the future. 

Inside Out 2

 Recently on the plane to Seattle I watched the sequel to the 2015 hit children's movie, "Inside Out." I can't believe that it's been 10 years since the first movie and that I'm now living in the Year of the Lord 2025, but every time I check my calendar, my emails, my Outlook, it's right there: 2025. There's so much I haven't done in my life! But I HAVE watched both Inside Out movies. They're not only funny and smart, but they carry a good message: we all have different impulses within ourselves that take over from time to time, and I see so many traits in the teenage Riley going to high school that I identify in myself looking back at 13-year-old me, but I still see some of those same traits taking over in 37-year-old me. My life is mostly Joy (played by Amy Poehler, which comforts me at least knowing someone older than me like Amy Poehler is still starring in movies) and a general status quo, sometimes with genuine bouts of fear which comes easily and suddenly (what will happen if Nvidia drops below its 52-week moving average?) to Disgust when weaving in and out of Costco lanes but they're all blocked by those giant shopping carts that crowd the space even though it's a giant warehouse, a logjam that backs up even to the parking lot where there are no spots..........anyone, to Anger which happens less often now but when it does escape the bottle it manifests itself in a violent way, sometimes at MJ's expense.....to Sadness, which I'm lucky to say I have a pretty good control over because my life isn't filled with sadness, but on days like today when I find out some difficulties in my mother's health I can feel the blue, shy teardrop-like character of Sadness (played by Phyllis from The Office, an excellent choice to display grief but in a cute way). The Inside Out series normalizes having all of those conflicting feelings at once, which is OK; we can't always be joyful, especially if something external happens, and sometimes we can let one or more of the other emotions take over. Sometimes after a bout of anger, I feel more calm. After fear, I feel a dopamine hit just being alive (this is what happens after a roller coaster, as well as after a favorite character survived in Squid Game). And sadness: it's OK to feel healthy levels of sadness, to know this world doesn't always go according to plan, happiness and sadness feel like opposite emotions but in many ways they are similiar in how strong they are and how much they embody the human spirit...we feel things and express ourselve.s Just as long as Anxiety and Ennui get in the picture and take over one's whole personality like in the second film......there are drugs for that. As I write this there is a fire alarm going off in our building because someone probably burnt their popcorn...I am feeling anxiety right now and want to set a foolhardy plan into motion to escape the noise! 

McMurdo Station

 Today on Jeopardy, a clue popped up that's common on Jeopardy about McMurdo Station, which is commonly associated with Antartica. There's this weird fantasy among the travel crowd of putting Antartica on the bucket list, some sort of completist necessity of going to all the continents in the world, and checking Antartica off the list. My local library even has an "Antartica" feature section like they do for February Black History Month or June LGBTQ month, laying out all the books they have about Antartica. One of the most common places to go is McMurdo Station, a research station operated by the US Antarctic Program, and the island has around 1,500 people. I paused right there when I read about it. 1500 is NOT a lot of people, it's about how many people are in my neighborhood Costco at any one time on the weekends, and I do NOT want to be stuck on a deserted island with just the amount of people that could fit inside a Costco. Just getting there sounds like a pain: first you have to get to one of the New Zealand cities Whitechurch or Auckland, and then take another flight in a special airplane, and land on something called a "Pegasus field" because of the icy conditions. I looked at pictures: it's like looking at one of those run-down houses on Zillow; doesn't really hook your attention, and who knows depending on when you go whether the days will be all light or all dark. 

The other areas to go in Antartica are a little more aesthetically pleasing, but just as difficult logistically: go by cruise ship through the glaciers and then other camping activities. You'd have to start at the southern tip of South America, Ushuaia, then go through the Falkland Islands and down south through teh Southern Shetland Islands towards "areas that few people have ever gone to!" is the ad that I saw making it sound like a good season. Perhaps there's a good reason very few people have gone there: it's not for people. My skin just does not agree with ultra-cold weather: it gets dry, itchy, and tingly, and peels off more than it usually peels. MJ and I just went to Seattle in the winter and I already had difficulty with 40 degree days (actually a really nice weekend in Seattle, sunny but cold) and I didn't want to shower because the shower room was pretty cold. That's the thing they never advertise about cold areas: that brief 2-3 seconds after you step out of the hot shower and have to adjust to the cold temperature outside. Never have I ever liked that feeling. Also, I feel like my body preserves heat during the winter like storing blubber and fat to stay warm, so I naturally weigh more. And what about checking my cell phone? Not just getting no service or WiFi in Antartica, but taking my bare hand out to swipe on the phone feels like it'd be torture. I already constantly stuff my hands into pockets during 20 degree days, imagine when it's negative temperature! No, sir, I believe Antartica will be one of those places I will only go if it's the last place on Earth that's safe to inhabit. 

Which brings me to all the space exploration and finding the next home on Mars or some other planet: Neil deGrasse Tyson has a great point about trying to live on other planets: If we have the technology to build a civilization on another planet, then we should have the technology also to rebuild everything here on Earth to make it habitable again if and when we've messed up Earth long enough that humans have to move. What is this fantasy about going to Mars? It sounds cool, it's never been done before, it's fantasized in the movie The Martian, but even if they figured out the basic problems of oxygen, food, how to get around, how to reproduce in space (how does sex even work up there without gravity?) why would anyone ever sign up to go? My skin feels dry just thinking about it. 

Hypersomnia (嗜睡症, 過眠症, 수면과다증)

 All of those late-night blood sugar issues have been resolved this winter by the advent of cold weather: I've officially got a case of hypersomnia, having a hard time waking up in the morning, feeling sleepy during the day despite getting enough sleep, and generally just wanting to hibernate. It definitely feels better than lack of sleep and walking around like a zombie all day, but it still poses its own set of challenges: nothing like working on my computer on the train, closing my eyes for a second, and then waking up 20 minutes later almost missing my stop. 

MJ is currently showing me various winter clothing choices that she might wear to a baby shower in Seattle (40 degrees in the middle of January is better than a lot of cold weather destinations! Did you know that Washington state does not impose a state income tax? Tempting! Except the housing market is pretty crazy there too and mortgage rates just went back up above 7%.) And winter clothing is another complication of cold weather areas a minimalist like me dreads. I have a hard enough time setting up a T-shirt rotation for a 7-day work week, but winter clothing requires at least twice as much clothing to keep track of, sometimes even more! MJ just showed off an outfit where she was wearing 4 different layers....undershirt, sweater, jacket, and winter jacket. It's like having tea time and 2nd brunch after your first brunch! Lots to keep track of. 

Did you know that the lyrics to John Legend's most famous love song (inspired by his wife Chrissy Teigen) goes "All of me.... loves all of you?" Apparently I didn't and had been singing "All of you loves all of me" this whole time, a rather presumptious lyric and totally changing the tenor of the song (although I think a lot of loves songs nowadays have that sort of I'm better than you vibe like "Single Ladies" If you like it put a ring on it" or any of Taylor Swift's various breakup songs like "All Too Well." 

Jeopardy reminded me of a sitcom that I barely heard about but like the premise of: 10 Items or Less, not the Morgan Freeman 2006 movie but a sitcom from 2006 to 2009 about events surrounding a grocery store. First of all, I am almost always at the 10 items or less counter because MJ and I just don't buy all that much stuff anymore.......MAYBE at Costco or Trader Joe's we'll get more than 10 items if it's been awhile, but definitely 15 items or less. And if it's Whole Foods, I literally cannot afford more than 10 items. I went to a Whole Foods hot bar the other day and tried desperately to get the cost down under the $12 or $13 meal I usually get and got it under $10 (making sure not to pick the heavy items like boned chicken that add dead weight to the total) but I was predictably hungry the rest of the day. Having worked at a grocery store as my first job, I'd say it's the correct setting for a sitcom or other type of comedy.... all walks of humanity walking in and out, the food itself can be funny, and the action might spill out in the parking lot; I had plenty of incidents out in the Chicago cold like letting shopping carts slide through the ice and barely catching them before they slammed into a customer's parked car. By the way, Costco cart workers, you guys are slacking! I know some Costcos are the size of football stadiums now and have the parking lot to match, but almost every time I go carts are spilling out of the carousels into the road. Disappointed! 

Fire Hydrant (消防栓, 소화전)

Fire hydrants are like the interstate highway system: No one thinks about them until they don't work. (kind of like referees of NFL games). And I don't usually think about fire hydrants until the summer, when you see water flowing out of one when the temperature gets too hot, or dogs peeing on one, or you notice them when you're looking for parking and finally seem to find street parking but realize there's a fire hydrant in front of that spot and it's illegal to park there. (I think I once had to go to the impound lot because I got towed for parking at night in front of a fire hydrant I didn't see) One of the biggest themes of the past week with the LA fires was the lack of water in the fire hydrants, a cruel twist of fate that really impeded firefighters and made stopping the fires even more difficult (as well as the strong winds blowing the winds, see last entry). I think I'm echoing what others are thinking that, it's nice fire hydrnats exist and for emergency purposes, so I'll give up on that as a parking spot and respect the rules against parking there, but hopefully those hydrants work when they're really needed! Otherwise what's the point? I realize I've never actually see a fire hydrant put to work in person, but I think in movies fire trucks just come and attach a hose and water shoots out. Makes me want to become a voluntary firefighter, if only because firefighters have a pretty good reputation: no one ever wants to defund the fire department, they fight obvious bad guys of fire and smoke and bad situations of cats stuck in trees, and they're always the first to step up in times of crisis. It's an obvious net benefit to society, but according to some LA mayor Karen Bass did actually defund the LA Fire department so that they couldn't react quickly enough to the fires? It's like paying into an insurance policy: it seems like a waste of money until something really bad actually happens, then it's dire. That's the thing about this fire too: it happened in the dead of winter, when people on the East Coast had the coldest temperatures of the year, everyone's stuck at home, and even in L.A. it's not even fire season yet, no one expected it on January 7. 

Fun facts about fire hydrants: they were invented in 1869 (or at least patented) by mechanical engineer Birdsill Holly (engineers doing good work! Every profession is better than lawyer, and I knew that before going to law school but now I understand what people were talking about, in terms of value of your profession to society) and still looks pretty much the same with the same design nowadays...no iPhone 15 or any newer, slicker versions needed, it's just water coming out of a pump. I did not know that not all fire hydrants are red, and the color actually matters: red ones have a lower water flow and other colors have a higher water flow. 

By the way, there are apparently indoor service dog relief areas at some airports like Baltimore's BWI airport for service dogs to go pee, and there's a green patch there with a fire hydrant to emulate a real place dogs need to go pee. Well thought out! Comes in handy because I often walk past areas that have been HEAVILY visited by dogs on their walk needing to relieve themselves, and during the winter it's pretty obvious which areas are most populated because there's yellow (and unfortunately also brown) in the snow. Apparently dogs pee on fire hydrants not only to mark their territory, the normal reason they pee anywhere, but also because there are dyes on the hydrant that attract them! Never thought of that, dogs' lives are interesting. Speaking of which, the fires have caused many dogs to run loose within LA county after their homes were burned, another negative side effect of the fires, and dog pounds have gotten overloaded during this week with dogs loose in the streets with no homes to go back to. Dogs have homes too! 

Beaufort Scale (蒲福风级, 보포트 계급)

 Many people know about Charles Darwin's famous journey on the Beagle (captained by Admiral Robert FitzRoy) in 1831 to study anmial species in the Galapagos leading to the theory of evolution, but that same ship was the first for another important reason: it was the first use of the Beaufort scale to measure winds, named after Francis Beaufort, a hydrographer for the British Royal Navy. For hundreds of years countries all around the world had been sailing with ships using wind power, but finally they created a scale to measure how strong the wind was, something that's important in weather conditions even in modern times, especially so in light of the LA fires this past week that hit various areas in devastating fashion including Altadena and the Pacific Palisades. The original causes of each individual fire (Eaton Fire, Hirsch fire, etc.) are still being investigated, but the big culprit for why it spread across so many acres (thousands, at last check) is because of the high velocity of winds, categorized as "hurricane level" that swept the fire quickly and rampantly through the mountains and down into residential areas. So unlike various disaster movies that depict earthquakes or fires or something tangible and obviously threatening, the invisible force of wind was the big villain this week. There are various levels of wind starting from "breeze" (the best kind, that warm soothing feeling on the skin) to gale, which start to get into the 20s mph, you don't want to scatter pieces of paper around in gales, to storm weather and then finally hurricane level winds, going over 100mph. I've encountered some tough winds before in my life and I did live for 13 of my adult years in a place called the "Windy City," but I don't think I've encountered 100mph winds before. I can tell you that the windchill makes a 20 degree day feel like negative 5 degree day and bitter cold slapping into your face does not feel good, but I feel like storm winds would be close to sweeping you off your feet and providing near-fatal conditions. 

It's kind of amazing that in these times of modern technology, when we're trying to send humans to Mars, see driverless cars in major cities through Google's Waymo technology, and created AI that has millions times higher processing ability than humans, that we can't solve......wind. Or climate change, or use any of the ocean's water to turn into drinking water. Neil deGrasse Tyson once said about the last problem that it's just a matter of money: it costs a lot to change that ocean water into drinking water. But wind? Is there no way to create windbreaks or barriers or some sort of invisibile field into the atmosphere to slow down the speed of winds? I guess the sky is too large and air covers such a large area to be contained in that way? 

I think these are all 21st century problems; I can imagine sailors now in the 16th century traveling around the world like Magellan or Francis Drake, at the mercy of the winds, thinking how lucky human beings have it now here in the 21st century. At least we're here on land, the explorers then were often in the ocean dealing with real hurricanes, not just hurricane-level storms, without any barriers like trees, mountains, or structures to stop those winds. No wonder you hear so many stories of explorers getting "blown off course" like Pedro Cabral who was trying to go through the African coast to get to India but somehow ended up in Brazil..... that's a pretty big loop, even for me who sometimes opts for huge loops off teh main road to avoid traffic. Whatever the case, whenever it may, Mother Nature always wins, and this week she definitely won against firefighting efforts and humans in one of the most populated areas of the world, Los Angeles County. Not many people died, but thousands of people are without their homes, losing everything. I asked my parents if they have fire insurance in California: they do not, and it's common not to have those covered in California due to the insurance companies knowing it's a big risk so not including it. Some homeowners lost everything. 

Freeze (얼음)

Taken straight out of Squid Game Season 2, "Eoreum" is the directive Gi Heun gives to his fellow contestants in the squid game for them to "Freeze" every time Yeongmi, the large mannequin in the Red Light, Green Light game, turns around and "sees" if any of the players are moving, shooting anyone moving dead instantly. It's fitting that Squid Game was released in the dead of winter here in America because in many places, we're definitely feeling that "freeze." Despite it being a Monday, many offices and buildings in the Baltimore/ DC area were shut down due to "inclement weather" and the trains didn't run at all, and even the library was closed! Basically a day to forget with minimal economic activity...except snowboarders got a workout! The fresh snow allowed anyone within distance of a tall hill to get a board, snowobard, really any flat surface (some people used pieces of cardboard) to go down the hill along the smooth white slopes, not worrying about breaking their fall because the snow is a nice powdery pillow to collapse in. 

The other idea of "freeze" is to tell someone to stop immediately in an emergency situation. I found at an early age that my parents do NOT respond well in crisis situations, usually when it comes to being lost on a road trip or picking me up from the airport, they get tense and frustarted easily. I tried to learn from that and take an "ice-in-the-viens" attitude of not cracking under pressure, as tha's the time that's actually most important to be calm and have all your wits about you. I think that's probably what separates the best performers in teh world from the rest of us: they have adated well to the idea of being in the limelight and actually thrive in it, they bask in the glory of it and want to do well, even when they know one small mistake can be amplified into something huge in front of billions of people. That's the impression I got from watching "Bohemian Rhapsody" for the first time all the way through yesterday with Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury and some other members of Queen I didn't know but should have, astrophysicist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. I was reminded how big of an influence Queen has to my musical experience, as "We are the Champions" was an even bigger song than "Bohemian Rhapsody" during my youth of watching sports movies like Mighty Ducks, it was everywhere. "We Will Rock You" was one of the first band songs I played (I played clarinet.......which I later abandoned to play violin), "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another one Bites the Dust" was everywhere in my youth even though I didn't attribute them to Queen, and we wouldn't have gotten the artist known as "Lady GaGa" without the song "Radio Gaga." (Stephanie Germonatta still would have likely made it big, just with a different moniker). Freddie Mercury, though, was apparently one of those stage alphas who was at his best when onstage, everyone was watching, and had that "eoreum" attitude of being the calmest and most liberated, probably why his performance at LiveAid in 1985 was so memorable. him bouncing all over the place, playing piano, dancing, and flexing in his white T-shirt the whole time. It was the "show stopper" ( a technical term for the piece in a performance that get a lot of applause and briefly pauses the show). I think we all want to be the show stopper on some level, but I think that's what I yearn to be, to finally have my talents displayed and in a positive light; I was born with a Freddie Mercury attitude but with a "average Chinese man's face" so have never made it into the spotlight to allow my inner Freddie Mercury to let loose on the world. But when I do....maybe I'll go gaga like Queen did at LiveAid. (hopefully without the dying a few years later part due to AIDS, I'm not that big into going out in a blaze of glory, I'd rather skip that part). 

Fettucine alfredo (페투치네 알프레도, 阿尔弗雷多意面)

 I ate too many TV dinners in my youth, and especially the one I regret now is Stouffer's Chicken Fettucine Alfredo with Broccoli. This used to be my staple when I went to Ralph's by myself to "stock up" on food for the week, and I was very unoriginal in what I wanted, basically anything edible and quick, which translated to fattening and low-quality. I regret those times because I suspect all those plastic containers and Parmesan cheese mixed in with the fettucine alfredo was probably filled with microplastics, not to mention the alfredo sauce being filled with fattening foods and consisting of 55% of daily intake of cholestrol and 35% daily fat, roughly, plus who knows how much the noodles were doused in butter, etc. Who knows if all of that consumed microplastic content has contributed to infertility. My diet is totally different now and the stores I buy food from vastly different........still some frozen foods, but from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, and my first top on any trip is the vegetable/ produce aisle, something I avoided like the plague back in my bachelor days, probably why I still have trouble with chicory, endive, arugula, fennel, all good trivia material. I went to a Buffalo Wild Wing's recently with a friend and was just shocked at how salty everything tasted, almost unbearably dripping with fat and rich material. (That's the biggest problem with American food: how rich it is). The wings themselves dripping with buffalo sauce, plus what looked like a triple layer of cheese, plus potatoes..... no wonder I had weight problems! I'm glad MJ converted me to the world of healthy eating and vegetables, and what I realized is there's a hedonic treadmill with food too: if you always eat salty or fatty food, you keep craving those kinds of foods, and healthy food tastes bland. But if you eat bland (likely not tasting as good but good for your body) all the time, the really fatty stuff just explodes with flavor and you realize how much sodium + general badness there needs to be to make it have all that taste. Even BCD Tofu, one of the favorite restaurants MJ frequented all the time, has to be a once-or-twice-a-year thing now because I realize in that food is MSG up the wazoo, and it's not an exaggeration that I could be taking a few hours off the tail end of my life each time I consume one. Like fettucine alfredo, it's good but not worth it. 

TIL that Alfredo sauce was created by an Italian chef to satisfy his wife in the early 1900's, a man by the name of Alfredo di Lelio, and adding it to pasta was just a natural combination, especially fettucine, Italian for "ribbons." For a lot of food names like "pizza," Chinese and Japanese don't even have equivalent terms because they're from Italian specific names, so the Asian languages just do an approximate translation of them, especially the -o and -i words ending in vowels are hard to get just right in Chinese. It's lucky for Alfredo and most Italians that his name was so melodious, because I think a lot of food is marketed through names, and in that way French and Italian dishes have such an advantage because you just want to have escargot, or vichyssoise, or bouillabaisse, or pizza, lasagna, mostaccioli, mascarpone cheese, etc, whereas in Chinese we just have "Mu shu pork," "mapo tofu," Chow mein," not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing words that you want to put in your mouth upon first listen, not to mention the Chinese/Hawaiian dish "pu pu platter." I also think Asians don't have a word for fettucine alfredo because it's just too rich; Asians can't deal with all that cheese and lactate, we just have soy sauce for that. Sorry Alfredo but your food is killing America. 

Mayfly (蜉蝣, カゲロウ, 하루살이)

 Jeopardy clue on the last day of 2024 reminded me how quickly 2024 went; it was about the mayfly, which is a famous insect known for being alive for only a few hours (unlike its name which suggests it lives for a month). It's an aquatic insect with relatives like the dragonfly and the damselfly, and it's life is tragically short, but is it that different from humans? In the whole spectrum of the universe our 70 or so years of expected life span might as well be a few hours as it is functionally zero. 2024 definitely hammered that home; I remember distinctly it being 2024 and having to change all my date signatures to 2024 instead of 2023, just barely getting used to it being 2024, filing my taxes a few months after getting all my W-2s, seeing all the Google Year in Review videos of 2023, and then not having to worry about 2024 being over for a few months. But then suddenly......it was over. (although I did get through 104 blog entries, which is a personal high for this blog!) I saw a Facebook friend who posts videos of each year by sharing one second of every day of 2024.....a bunch of baby videos, driving in the car, short clip of playing dodgeball, snow days, etc.... that really hammers home how each day just passes by like a mayfly's life, you get about a few moments that you remember and then the rest passes into memory. 

I ended 2024 by watching Squid Game Season 2 with MJ which is a global sensation, but following the theme of "finding underrated shows that aren't talked about enough," I watched "Man on the Inside" with Ted Danson, Stephanie Beatriz (voice of Mirabel Madrigal in Encanto) but notably a Michael Schur-run show, producer of The Good Place and "How to be Perfect," a book MJ loves and swears by. In addition to all the trivia references and beautiful scenery (Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco), Michael Schur always throws in some wholesome philosophical debates and ideas on life and death, where the Good Place is all about moral decisions but "Man on the Inside" is more just examining the lives of senior citizens at their live-in senior center. It's sad, illuminating, and hilarious at the same time, a stark parallel to that other "end-of-life" examination of Squid Game where players also have only a short amount of time to live but for ddifferent reasons. One of the characters on the show, Calbert played by Stephen McKinley Henderson (almost guaranteed to be a Jeopardy clue at some point) confided how fast his child went from a baby to an adult who was no longer cute and adorable.....that hit home, not only how little time babies are cute and listen to their parents (probably from 2 years old to 10 years old, at which point now they just become terrors and just sit around looking at their phones into oblivion, from what I understand) but also like a mayfly, how quickly we all just grow up and grow old, and eventually end up at the Pacific Living Center, the fictional setting of the show. Pretty soon I'll be ringing in 2026 (maybe after having appeared on Jeopardy, or MJ and I having a baby? Who knows what will happen in 2025, but much like 2024 it's all going happen too quick and feel like the year just went by like a mayfly's life.