Sequels (续集, 続編, 속편)

I recently caved after seeing this movie pop up on Amazon Prime and suggested for me and trending and every other buzzword to get me to click and watch it: I finally watched "Gladiator 2," starting Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington and Connie Nielsen.... but no Russell Crowe, who wasn't even asked by director Ridley Scott to appear in the movie because Maximus died in the first movie. Sounds like Crowe and Scott didn't like each other, is what it sounds like. No dream sequence where Maximus wife's sees him in a dream? Flashback scenes? Hallucinations? Nothing? It's just one of the many things that was off about Gladiator 2, with the main thing being that it just wasn't Gladiator the original movie, the live shots of the colosseum, fights with live animals, the whole epic quality of it was just missing, despite them admittedly putting some really cool graphics into it and even having a naval battle in the Colosseum. That seems to be a general rend in Hollywood: the sequel of hit shows just doesn't capture the magic like the original does, and no amount of marketing, cliffhangers, new cast members, etc. to capitalize on the previous movie's success can mask how difficult it is to like the movie, and give a sinking feeling that they've cheapened the original. Gladiator 2 was OK, it didn't completely sink the ship, but The Matrix: Resurrections definitely brought down the reputation of the whole series, and it was a triple stumper on Jeopardy with no less than Ken Jennings dunking on it by sympathizing with the contestants, "I didn't see it neither." When I'm on a plane and have so many options to watch, (and really it's the same at home now too with the amount of movies available through streaming platforms) I will always get lured to the original, more flashy movie with new concepts and new characters than the sequel. Even Disney has the same problem: I heard Frozen 2: (no subtitle) came out but really didn't go to see it, and same with Moana 2: (also no subtitle). Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir's project after the Martian, kind of feels like a sequel to the Martian, and..... has a lot of great concepts, but I do think it suffers a little because it's too close to the original, it's the same plot of man gets stuck in space by himself, has to find a way home. I think it'll be bought as a script (the book pretty much reads like a film script already) and they'll definitely want to stay away from calling it "The Martian 2" or anything suggesting a sequel. My dislike of sequels, however, doesn't extend to TV shows for some reason: sometimes the first season is the best season out of the 5, but oftentimes it takes the showrunners a couple seasons to get into the characters, form a bond, and season 3 becomes the best season. Why do human beings dislike sequels? For me, at least, it's the constant need for new stiumulus, the hedonic treadmill of needing new things all the time. As much as I loved going to new art museums and new sports stadiums and visiting new cities or checking out new restaurants, the second and third times, inevitably, lose a little luster. They could still be great experiences because the first time was so epic that there's plenty of room down from the top, but you never really get back to experiencing that for the first time, it's like your body adjusts to it and it's never as excited or stiumulated anymore. I wonder if it's the same with parents who have their second children, that the first time was so unique and so special (and traumatizing) and so unforgettable that the second kid just becomes old hat, with slightly newer challenges but the same baselilne needs. I bet the moms, though, feel every bit of that pain and turmoil giving birth. It can't be easy going through childbirth again! I wonder if the body just shuts down all memories of the problems of childbirth so that the mother will want to procreate again, and that's how the human race continues and life finds a way. That may actually be similar to how sequels get made, the studios block out all the negative experiences and knowledge that the second movie will not measure up to the first, but makes it anyway for the sake of art, the franchise, and the lifeblood of everything that gets made: Money.

Three-child policy (三孩政策)

Ever since I was a child, I was aware of the "One Child Policy" in China because my parents were subject to penalties if they went over one child, and I was that one child. Talk about pressure! Recently though, due to declining fertility rates around the world and especially in China, they changed their policy to encouraging prospecive parents to have kids, upping the number not from one to two but jumping up to "three is best." (There was a brief period in parts of China were they had a "two-child policy" where any parents who had more than 2 children would be subject to penalty, but that's now been scrapped for three kids. It's a lesson in not trusting the government to stay committed to one policy, as the government needs to adjust its policies based on how the world changes, but the Chinese government especially looks foolish now for limiting parents to one child for such a long time. Basically, if you go for a radical policy that goes against incentive structures and human behavior, you might regret it later: all those only children in my generation lived rather lonely lifestyles and in my opinion made us less likely to have children because we experienced what it was like to be lonely as a kid without a big family and the joys of having a big family, so we don't need it. (I do have a sister but our relationship is not a typical sibling relationship due to the age gap). There's also wacky stuff about the one-child policy: what if you have twins or more? (probably a provision in there that said you could keep the babies if there were unexpected multiples). And a big problem in America is unexpected pregancies: Parents with a kid already: You get drunk one night, make some bad decisions, and boom you have a second child: do you get punished for that? The financial punishment and socially the second kid could not be put into the national system, so they didn't technically exist and wouldn't get benefits, education, etc. Pretty intense, and you have to wonder how many children were aborted due to those looming punishments. The ironic thing is, now that the one-child policy has been lifted and the "three is best" philopsophy has been adopted and encouraged when it's convenient for the government now to have more children (it's blatantly just a social welfare thing and nothing individually beneficial for the parents like say, mothers get healthier if they have more children or anything), it's the financial incentives that are keeping people from having children, this time not imposed by the government by worldwide it's the looming cost of having another mouth of feed but also daycare, education, owning a home, gas prices, just everything: I can't be the only one who frets about inflation doubling prices every 10 years or so, meanwhile what the jobs be like in 10 years? Will there even be jobs? People are ALREADY worried about not having enough money to have kids now while there are jobs, what will it be like when there aren't jobs? Maybe every generation has the same worry and it all works out 30 years later that having kids was a good decision and worth it financially ("it all worked out in the end") but during my parents' generation there was still optimism about the future, computers weren't even generally accessible yet, you could think of more jobs coming, growth industries, various fields in science and technologies needing people to help guide them into the new century. (Ironically, the time when people were optimisic was when China clamped down on their birth rates, while now people are pessimistic but the government wants them to have more kids. Going against the grain). And yes, three kids seems too ambitious. I polled my friends who have had kids: There are not really any "savings" to be had after the first child, it's not like you can recycle everything from the first kid and give it to the 2nd kid and 3rd kid and so on. Each kid has their own costs, own lessons (you don't get a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 deal in most places), they have to pay for each seat they take up in the airplane, you have to buy a bigger car, each has their own dance lesson classes, tennis classes, etc. (Unless you do what I plan to do is give my kid a book and tell them to read, everything costs money). So many scams and things you don't need (the American economy and probably the Chinese economy thrives on people paying for these!) are lumped on you when you have a kid whereas I can avoid it now: daycare, going to Disneyland, getting games and phones for the kids (if one kid at school has it, all the kids want it), food, the coolest clothes and shoes, baseball games, it's like opening up a Pandora's box of temptations and guilt trips for parents thinking they might not be doing their best for the kids. And parents are supposed to be saving for college during all this time of supporting the kids, who are negative inputs into the household income? Another big thing I thought of just writing this: healthcare, maybe the biggest scam of them all. Need a family plan! It's all pretty daunting. I know China wants everyone to think "three is best," but most sane people and their bank accounts think, "zero is best, but we'll settle for one if you really need one." One of my friends with 2 kids said he'd gladly have a third kid.......if he could afford it. And then there's the lingering fear of what our world will be like in just 10 short years. I just watched Terminator from start to finish for the first time: we as humans can take all the precautions and preventative measures against rogue AI that we want, and do a good job 99% of the time (given the current political climate and what world leaders are doing, doubt the number will be as high as 99%), but all it takes is that one rogue machine that's a super-intelligent being higher than all of us to go out of control and then you get Arnold Schwarzanegger marking us all for elimination. The machines will think for human babies "Zero is best."

Bar Tab (바 탭, バータブ)

The world is fascinated by the lives and spending habits of Gen Z, and the New York Times just ran an article this past weekend about Gen Z closing out their bar tabs after each drink they order even if they might order more, giving themselves more flexiility to leave whenever they want (and possibly curbing their spending) but leaving the bartenders and bar ownership miffed because they have to process the credit card more than once, give a receipt, have them sign, whereas before there was this concept of "running up the bar tab" where you just left the tab open all night until you were ready to leave. This doesn't happent that often, but I am totally on Gen Z's side on this one; the idea of the bar tab was almost as bad as tipping as a way to force customers to spend money; it's a deliberate ploy by the bar to make customers spend more money because if the tab is "open" it's super easy to order something else, so you keep spending without knowing how much you actually owe. Ever notice how the bartenders are super happy when you leave a tab open but super bummed when you close out? Always asking you if you want to start a tab, but reluctant to have you close it out? It's these little games they play (like at Jiffy Lube telling you to change your filters once every 2 years) and it's effective. It's part of the reason I don't go to bars, that and I never liked alcohol, I don't socialize with people anymore, and I just never fit in at a bar, it's always loud and people tend to be rude and......drunk. I once went to a bar, accidentally knocked over a drink a lady had been holding in the tight confines of a bar, and another dude approached me later "suggesting" that I buy this lady another drink. I didn't think I was really at fault, but I did it anyway and just left the bar life for good. And it's not like I was trying to "meet people" at these bars. Bars are like Disneyland: they mark everything up in price just because they feel like you "want to be there," there's often a cover charge just to get in the place to get the privilege of spending more money there, and it's often hot and crowded, you wait in lines to get the bartender's attention to have them serve you a drink for $15 that you could have made for $5 at home. Seriously, I have a solution for bars and the Gen Z bar tab problem: don't have bars anymore. I don't think anything in society is lost by not going to bars anymore, maybe people would go to church more or more places beneficial to society, there'd be less drinking and driving home from the bar, people migth actually stay home on Friday nights and read books. The bar tab story was one of those stories I kept yelling in my head at whoever wrote this, "OF COURSE GEN Z is doing this!" Talk about a generation who has no respect for prior generations' customs, but also has no money! My sister (on the cusp of Millenial and Gen Z) complained to me about how she has no money and spends her whole paycheck and had to finance the purchase of a mattress out of her own wallet and also pay gym fees and can't afford a trainer anymore........but then of course at lunch she goes ahead and orders the "pink lady" vegan drink with kombucha that's $7.99 on top of the lunch that I was treating her to. They really don't want to spend more money than they have to because THEY'RE ALREADY BUDGETING IT ON STUFF THEY DON'T NEED. And also they have no attention span, so why would you expect them to stick around a bar for more than one drink? They probably spend their time in the bar on their phones looking for the next place to go to. There are actually genuine victims of this phenomenon that I feel bad for like libraries, certain schools (not necessarily elite colleges), hospitals that need nurse, but it's not bars. It's like feeling bad for taxi drivers before Uber and Lyft came into the picture: they're just mad someone else came along to take their ludicrously profitable industry that rewarded price gauging and ripping off unsuspecting customers. Speaking of Taxi drivers being replaced by rideshares, I feel like most of our industries are like the taxi business in 2009 right before Uber took off, or Kodak in 1999 right before the digital camera, or The Pony Express before the US mail service: it's the dying days of some jobs, we just don't know it yet, except unlike previous labor revolutions where one service went out of business and replaced, it's going to be whole plethora of industries, maybe more than half of all jobs getting replaced within a few year span. Actors....do we need actors anymore? Teachers... do we need teachers anymore? Do we need politicans anymore? (We definitely want to get rid of politicans if we can). Do we need lawyers anymore? (Gulp). Everything I'm hearing is that AI is here to stay, unlike a lot of jobs. So don't worry bar owners, you're not alone: everyone else is feeling the pain of new attitudes and new technology.

Slip and fall (滑倒, 滑って落ちる, 미끄러져 넘어지다)

"Slip and fall" is another term of art that only English and specifically America has usage for, it doesn't really make sense in Asian languages because they don't have that giant segment of the law, so the translatino would just be "slipped down" without anyone in Asia knowing that we're talking about an area of the law. In America you say "slip and fall" and I think most people would know you're talking about accidents that might require lawsuits; it's a litigious society and lawyers rely on it being that way. Today at Costco of all places I was witness to a typical Slip and fall accident, when someone loses their footing due to dangerous conditions on the floor resulting in injury. This type of accident is so common in the world and contributes to so much of the workload for personal injury attorneys that there's a special segment of the law for it, called "slip and falls." I remember my first semester of law school torts class dedicated a large part of the curriculum to negligence, the theory of the law that covers slip and falls and who is at fault, what kind of causation can be drawn (direct cause and proximate cause), the reasonable man standard, eggshell plaintiffs, and strict liability statutes. I caught myself thinking too much like a lawyer and didn't like that I could only think about law school while someone got injured, but there was nothing else I could do; it was a big store with lots of people, and the Costco staff attended to the situation. Law school also teaches future lawyers, unfortunately, not to help if you're not sure you can provide adequate support because you would then take on a "duty" as a care provider and that opens you up to liability if someone else goes wrong. A bystander who does nothing, conversely, assumes no duty, just a moral kick in the butt for not doing anything. I wasn't paying close attention to the fall, but the Costco patron apparently got bumped by another customer (happens often on weekends at Costco just due to the sheer mass of people who crowd into their warehoues looking for deals and free samples), slipped on something (she didn't look like she was wearing the most comfortable shoes), and the fell down on her back, possibly the back of her head on the pavement. She stayed down for the entire time after that and didn't get until an ambulance called. She also didn't speak much English; her husband spoke Chinese to her when she was struggling on the ground. Just a surreal situation; could have happened to my parents, they definitely go to Costco too. A more enterprising personal injury attorney might have introduced myself to the husband and todl them about what remedy they might seek from a huge corporation like Costco, but I find that sort of business unsavory, and I hope never to have to stoop to that level; I try to make as much money as I can now at my job to make sure I don't have to do work I'm not good at (there are so many jobs I wouldn't be good at, like mechanic, computer engineering, doctor) but also also jobs that I might be good at but involve being shameless and openly making people spend money they really didn't have to, like what salespeople do or personal injury attorneys do (sue everyone!) Having people spend money on things they don't need is what keeps the American economy booming like it has, but doesn't mean I have to conribute to it unless I have to, I arguably eceive paychecks from law firms that do that by proximity already, so I don't want to double-dip on the money-grabbing. I do wonder sometimes, though, about personal injury cases and they day-to-day grind of dealing with multiple cases at a time, explaining to clients why their case won't be as lucrative as they thought, hearing about people's injuries and misfortunes. There are a LOT of lawsuits out there people don't care about, don't know about, it's the underbelly of society that doesn't show up in the news or on true crime podcasts or Netflix special like the Amber Heard v. Johnny Depp case (high profile cases like the P-Diddy case are what people tune in for, but there are millions of regular cases for that one special case). I used to go to the Los Angeles Superior Court civil division and there are whole halls of courtrooms filled with people suing for civil cases, then more floors upstairs with criminal cases, etc. I know it's useless turning a blind eye to these and digging my head in the sand like an ostrich, but I feel a profound level of sadness at all the time and energy going into some of these disputes when the world is just passing by. I guess me being a risk averse peron who's never been in a physical confrontation nor a legal confrontation, nor even really a verbal confrontation (although I have gotten angry at some folks on the sidewalk, and MJ has shown some darkness against bad actors) I just let it go and move on with my life, never even getting anywhere close to being involved in a lawsuit. I just wish there was a better way to resolve disputes rather than go through a long drawn out process full of legal fees, paperwork, talking to lawyers, negotiating, getting health checks (in the case of personal injury, getting a doctor to check you injuries is the first thing to happen), going to court, I personally would just try to avoid all of that if I possibly could, even if it meant gettig less money or paying a little more money. For the couple today at Costco, they might be able to pursue some sort of legal remedy depending on the customer's injuries, but going against a big corporation that has experience handling slip and fall cases would be tough, with an army of attorneys working for them and drowning you in a storm of paperwork. I just hope she gets better and avoided a concussion, and left with just a headache.

7 sisters (7 姐妹, 7人の姉妹, 7자매

Wellesley, Smith, Radcliffe, Vassar, Bernard, Mount Holyoke, and Bryn Mawr. Those are the proverbial "Seven Sisters" colleges established to rival the Ivy League and their "male counterparts. I've never been to any of these schools, but in law school a couple of classmates had gone to Bernard, and another one to Vassar- liberal arts colleges, and the alumna from there seemed just very Northeast Liberal arts schooley.... I get the feeling I would not have fit in one of those schools, not just Seven Sisters schools because they are female-only, but just the vibe, the culture, the elitism, the fancy nature of the schools, the intellectualism; I don't consider myself really an intellectual, I identify more with the masses than the high classes, I don't aspire to be a CEO, I'm just trying to make it in this world. University of Illinois was right for me. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to visit all these schools! I don't have cravings for many things (MJ has a LOT of cravings for different food right now) but my craving is to get out in the world and experience new things, anything but sitting at my desk all day and doing the same mundane thing over and over again, staring at a screen. And I crave being on new campuses; every time I go somewhere knew I try to check out the local university, because at least I know there will be some fancy buildings, and I'll feel like I'm in college again, even though I'm not. The best thing about walking through college campuses: it's free to everyone, despite being exorbitantly expensive for some who actually attend the school. Like casinos, like a positive externality for the rest of the world, funded by the students' tuition, except unlike casinos the students who graduate also get something out of it too, so thanks all the students and former students of every college I've ever went to! Sometimes college campuses are the best places to just walk around. MJ and I (don't ask me why!) visited the campus of Old Domininion University, the location of which I would not have known before visiting Old Dominion University (just like the other day on Jeopardy I didn't know where University of Vermont was located- it's Burlington, the largest city) and Voila, they have an excellent art museum with a Barbie/ dolls exhibit, and a centerpiece every art musuem needs: a Dale Chihuly glass piece. Worth whatever price they paid for it, that's what draws me to art museums. (Old Dominion is in Norfolk, VA, by the way, and not the only major university there, next to Norfolk State). Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Celaeno, Alcyone, Sterope, and Merope. Those are the Seven Sisters aka the Pleiades, a star cluster located in teh constellation Taurus, and a cluster named after Greek mythology, daughters of Atlas (yup, the guy who had to hold up the world on his back). I've never seen the Seven Sisters, never yearned to find them, never looked at a stargazers' map, never took too big of an interest in astronomy until learning trivia facts.......but now I find myself devouring books like "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir about outer space, science fiction, and wondering about the great beyond. MJ got me a free book from the local library here that's doing a Summer Reading Program (an excellent program for kids but even for adults! Adults should read more too during the summer, we just get swept up in going places and summer concerts and being outside that we forget the joy of long days reading outdoors as well).... we each got a free book out of a selection of contemporary popular books and our selections reflected our preferences: she took "Braiding Sweetgrass" about indigenous knowledge and alternative theories to traditional Western scientific technologies, while I chose the fictional book but outer-space related "Project Hail Mary" that I'd heard about for a few years now but never attempted to read based on focusing on actual factual books for trivia study (but you can learn trivia through fiction too!) I loved the Martian, though, and it's one of the last great experiences I've had at a movie theater: totally engrossed in the movie, was engaged from start to finish, and was one of the first movies MJ and I watched together (maybe second after The Good Dinosaur). I would not want to be trapped alone in space, but Andy Weir really likes telling stories about people who do first in the Martian and now in this book, and he probably tapped into something readers didn't know they wanted: the journey of a lifetime, alone, but in extreme circumstances, and using science and know-how to survive. It's like 127 hours or Castaway but in outer space, or a more science-heavy and (maybe more accurate?) version of "Gravity" the Sandra Bullock movie.

Muskrat Love (麝香鼠, マスクラット, 사향쥐)

There are too many types of rodents that feature on Jeopardy. Beyond just the generic types of rodents that everyone is familiar with like rats, mice, squirrels, etc., they get specific about "the largest rodent" (capybara), beavers, rodents named "swamp beavers" that are not actually beavers but are nutria (MJ is grossed out especially by this type) but then also porcupines and hedgehods (you have to know the difference between them!- hedgehogs are much smaller than porcupines), and gophers, prairie dogs, chinchillas, civets, cavies, and so many more. Confused yet? I never had a hamster or gerbil as a pet, never had a classroom that just had a gerbil tank for all the students to see, I never saw the appeal of a rodent for a pet. This weekend though on a visit to a law school friend in Denver, Colorado, I saw lots of wildlife, and a rodent floating in Lake Evergreen and I thought: wow that must be a nutria! I will make my trivia knowledge useful and try to identify this rodent to impress all present company with my knowledge of rodents!!! Nope, as soon as I started thinking about it, someone else opened up google and identified the varmint as a "muskrat," a semiaquatic rodent that lives mostly in North America. And as soon as we had identified this rodent, it swam through the lake underneath the bank, and out of sight. It must have established a home somewhere underneath the main embankment out of sight of humans, or else it may have been exterminated already. Smarter than some humans maybe. "Muskrat Love" is also a popular song by Captain and Tennile about 2 muskrats falling in love, 1976 song. That's all I know about muskrats. Lest you think that a muskrat sighting was my only memorable memory of a Denver getaway, it was a wonderful end-of-May weekend with Red Rocks booming, downtown lit up with summer festivals, and the snowy mountains still beaming brightly in the background wherever you happened to be. If only Denver existed anywhere within 1000 miles of the next major city, I'd consider living there. MJ looked it up, they have a Hmart! Lots of different ethnicities congregating there, real estate market is rising but not terribly so, SoCal folks reportedly flock to the ski cities and try to rent homes within range of the slopes every winter, it has actual snow, the roads are not heavily congested, air is fresh and smog-free, there's an art museum that looks modern and stylistic, what more can you hope for? Indeed, as I walked around downtown, someone remarked that downtown Denver is a lot like downtown Washington D.C., just without the serious political figures possibly walking around. The roads.....can get windy, which is a problem for someone like me who threw up my first time driving through Big Sur on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) because of all the twists and turns. Every Day is a Winding Road (Sheryl Crow song) literally for people who live near the mountain suburbs of Denver. Huge college presence too, from University of Denver to Colorado State (Fort Collins) to University of Colorado (Boulder) to Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, to this little-known engineering university I just stumbled upon when meeting my friends in Golden, CO called Colorado School of Mines- they are not literally studying mines, but it's internationally known for its science programs, but I guess not by me. The muskrat sighting was at Lake Evergreen, which is also inhabited by nearby elk which were calving when we were there, which means they're very hostile as they're about to give birth. (Perhaps similar to some human mothers before giving birth?) We saw a wedding conducted at a lake house, there was a waterfall created by a dam, and a nearby golf course. Oh and ice cream shops located conveniently at the end of the a walk around the lake....I swear ice cream shops stay open for business just to lure parents and their kids to reward them for "being good." Remind me never to let my kid (if any) experience ice cream and open Pandora's Box. My friend also is the proud owner of 3 cats, 2 of whom are like family members I reconnected with this weekend because they're 12 and 14 years old, respectively. I've met them at least 4 or 5 times, and each time they greet me warmly. Maybe the golden ratio for starting families is not 2.5 kids and 2 dogs, but 1 kid and 3 cats? The cats never age, at least from their facial features, and they always have energy to at least jump up on a table or ask for neckrubs and purring, even though the oldest one is probably around 80 years in human years, which is an age I really cannot fathom. Then again, when I was 20 I thought 40 was an impossibly old age, and now that I'm approaching that mark it's just warp speed to 80 now, I guess. I've never seen the need for muskrats or rodents as a pet, but cats, at least well behaved ones that don't smell too bad or urinate everywhere they please, would be a welcome addition to our household, MJ and I have just never committed to one, despite always noticing cats lounging on the windowsill in other people's apartment. They all seem cute until you have to be with them day in and day out (and pay for vet fees, traveling with them, etc.) Cat Love!