100 day miracle

Korean people celebrate when a baby has surpassed the 100-day threshold, as the first 100 days are the most vulnerable for a newborn: they're susceptible to diseases, they're just adjusting to the new world, and MJ was constantly stressed out about SIDS, or suddent infant death syndrome, and also whenever I would sleep near the baby she would make sure I didn't roll over and trample Baby Girl Yan and prevent her from breathing. But we made it! It's well past 100 days now, but right around that 100 day mark baby's sleeping began to normalize and she behaved very consistently, acting in patterns and allowing us to plan ahead and not always scrambling to figure out what's the next step. Some call this the 100-day miracle, that somehow the baby will turn into an angel and be much more well behaved, cry less after 100 days. So far, it's been pretty true! And also she started social smiling now, knowing when to smile and not just smiling randomly. It's probably one of the things that's keeping our marriage alive/strong, (both alive and strong!) as MJ will pretty much forgive everything that happened as long as baby smiles like an angel. That's probably our best form of therapy right now: let the baby smile. There's currently a Jeopardy champion on a streak right now named Jamie Ding who feels like he might be on his way to a 100-day miracle, or at least the 74-day mark held by Ken Jennings. Jamie looks....very Chinese, but I'm happy for him and proud of him because he's making Chinese men like myself look good, like we're not just nerdy introverts who just know random facts......oh wait, that's exactly what he looks like, but he's doing it with style, his own style, and not coming off too cocky or gathering a lot of haters.The last time Jeopardy had a male Chinese superchamp (defined as having a streak longer than 10 games) Arthur Chu in 2014 was villified for his mannerisms and attitude, so I think Jamie is doing a little better, although his anecdotes might need a little work. He's at 26 games now, so he's reaching the true elites, enough to put the mainstream media on notice and not just famous in Jeopardy circles. I've always wondered what it'd be like to be Jeopardy famous, which is like very famous in the Jeopardy subreddit, but also picking up some steam in news articles and online web sources, social media........enough that his high school class in Detroit (or Grosse Point, a suburb) has daily updates about him, people are writing opinion columns saying "this is why you should be watching Jeopardy right now...." Basically, Jamie is living my dream, which I will never be able to achieve..... a wonderful month-long (now more than a month) magical ride where everybody is talking about you and wanting to know how long your streak can continue (or end abruptly, there are always haters like that). I can't help but think his chest is puffed out a little as he walks in the street, he's fielding calls from everyone he's ever known, maybe even get an agent for publicity and appearing on local news networks (my dream was always to speak at my high school, or go on CNBC to talk to Jim Cramer on one of the programs he appears in, or to throw out the first pitch at a major league baseball stadium). Jamie has the chance to do all of that now, and good for him, he is one of the best players ever and much better than me at Jeopardy. But for every streak and win, I always think of the people whom Jamie beat along the way: Jeopardy does a great job covering the winners and telling their stories, but losers are never heard of again. And Jamie produces exactly 2 losers every time he plays, people who earned their way onto Jeopardy only to come up against one of the best players ever and have their dreams shattered without even putting up much of a fight (Jamie's victories have mostly been runaways, some close calls, but mostly games where he is leading throughout and never relinquishes an insurmountable lead). Those contestants had hopes and dreams too, but they had to give up those dreams all in service of keeping this one streak going. So my point is, (I think), enjoy everything Jamie, you deserved it, but also keep in mind all the people who had to be disappointed for you to win.....dont' take winning for granted, that kind of combination of opportunity and luck and execution only comes once in a lifetime. And for most people in the world, it never comes: that thing we desire the most that we'd be working for for so long, comes and goes by like sand through the hourglass: slips right through the fingers. For every one story of extreme wealth and accolades, there are so many stores of loss and missed opportunities and regret.