It goes against my principle of "I'm in my 30's now, I can't fool around too much," but my friends and I had a great time at an escape room this past weekend. An escape room, for those who haven't had the pleasure of experiencing one, is a game where you and a group of your friends (or just random strangers) get locked into a room and try to escape from it using clues, solving puzzles, and looking for hidden pieces. For people who are fighting wars and truly trying to escape from their environments, it may seem like a waste of time (and when I think of it in that depressing way I do feel a bit uneasy), but it can be quite a lot of fun! Apparently the escape room phenomenon has caught on in various areas of the world, too, because the big Asian countries seem to have it too, with their own unique names for them. (Luckily all similar to the concept of "breaking out" or "escaping with your life," so not too difficult of a concept). The escape rooms are like puzzles or riddles or things you just need to figure out, the ones I've done don't need players to be super smart or knowledgeable like for trivia, just to use the information given in front of you and try to piece things together, like noticing different pieces hidden/laid out in a room and piecing together a puzzle.
In my life I've done 4 escape rooms, and they've progressively been getting better because I've been more selective about the ones I do. Anybody can create an escape room, it just takes some imagination, (and I'm not talking about the Ariel Castro kidnapper kind) materials, and good theme to draw people in, but some seem to be done hastily, without much variety,
Signs of a good escape room:
1.) Have a good theme to the room: not just a story of "Oh you go locked into the room, you need to escape!" It has to be like Greek-themed, or lunar space mission-themed, or you're in a magical kingdom and you need to bring life back to the kingdom, something that can be used in the puzzles.
2.) More than just one section of a room. Just being stuck in one room isn't as fun as "unlocking" new rooms as you go along. The most recent one we did involved starting in a really cramped room, having to figure out how to get out of there, then emerging into another larger room, and then discovering new layers upon layers of that, even rooms that we didn't even know existed! Adds to the mystery.
3.) Token economy- at our core humans are just seeking rewards and like rats in a maze, so we like it when we get something cool for our efforts. So lots of effects should happen when we solve something, like a magic sound, explosions, advancement in the story line, etc.
4.) hints: inevitably people get stuck. (you want the room to be challenging so people don't solve it too easily and feel unsatisfied, but not too challenging so as to be hopelessly stuck in the same spot). I tend towards liking harder rooms to really stretch your abilities, but then obviously have an operator or some sort of person helping in case you really just can't get it. The good escape rooms have a cool way to get a hint, like "feeding the oracle" or something to really get in the mood.
5.) Costumes!- it's all about that picture evidencing you went to an escape room. MJ and I did one with Harry Potter-looking costumes on and wands, and it'll be a shared memory for a while.
6.) Sometimes it's on the players themselves- gotta work together and don't just solve everything by oneself! Try to share with the group all the hints, and when you think you're about to do something, let everybody join in on the fun! And get everyone involved in a big group if a few people don't seem like they're getting it and don't feel like they're contributing. That's kind of the idea of going with friends and having considerate friends who try to allow for the full experience. Cuz for the really good escape rooms, I'm not doing it just to solve puzzles and get through mazes, I'm also doing it to observe the process of the escape room, the story develop and the thinking that went behind it.
7.) I'm not that there to escape! If I've escaped too early, that means I didn't use up the full time, and it was too easy! The ideal scenario is for us to get through almost everything, be just on the verge of getting out, and get stuck on the last clue before time runs out. Getting only halfway is just embarrassing, and just missing out means we used the full time and get the full experience, plus we could see the finish line and see what we needed to do.
Fantasize on,
RobertYan
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Saturday, January 12, 2019
To Kill a Mockingbird (앵무새 죽이기, 杀死一只知更鸟, アラバマ物語)
There are some books that almost EVERY American teenager reads while going through the school system, and although they're not as sexy or talked about than popular movies, it'd still be hard to find someone who hasn't heard of the classic Harper Lee novel "To Kill a Mockingbird." The American classic novel has become so popular that it's been translated into various languages for distribution in various countries, including into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. While Korean and Chinese translate the title literally, "to kill a mockingbird," Japanese inverts it to "Alabama Tale," which isn't wrong and does give the setting of the book, but why? For marketing purposes? For some reason I couldn't recall why the book was called "To Kill a Mockingbird," but upon re-reading the book again recently it became crystal clear, and showed I didn't really read books very well back in high school, or at least didn't have a good understanding of the significance of books.
Asian languages will, by the way, translate American book and movie titles into weird titles, and they can often be pretty interesting.
Why I read books back in high school, I was more interested in a good plot, good dialogue between characters, and character development.......I got immersed into the lives of the characters. (this is still pretty much my appeal for reading any fiction book). I didn't see the many allegories, metaphors, social commentary, and historical background so present in classic books like To Kill a Mockingbird. Heck, for me to the takeaway from Hamlet was "Prince's father dies, prince goes kind of crazy, prince avenges his father, but goes kind of crazy and everyone dies at the end." That's why I liked the Redwall series as a kid, it was what kept me going reading a book instead of just turning to Sparknotes or a plot summary like some of my classmates did.
I just recently read a manga version of To Kill a Mockingbird, and it was a really enjoyable 2 hours to go through the whole book and rehash a lot of memories of reading. The adventures of Jeb and Scout, the dignity of Atticus, the unjust racial atmosphere in Alabama in the early 1900's, the empathetic feeling of having nothing to do in the summer, the public spectacle of a court trial, all came flooding back to me like I was back in 2002 again, when I first read the book. I hate to say it for book purists out there, but I think the manga animated version would improve any classic book and put the words into pictures and make the reader keep flipping the pages. I think of all the classic literature books of 200 to 300 pages and sometimes more and wonder how kids or adults nowadays can get through them......you have to be a really dedicated scholar or bibliophile (lover of books) to traverse through them all, nowadays with all the media and distractions that we have around us.
And yes, I finally was able to understand what mockingbird had to do with the book. I'm not sure if people know that a mockingbird just flies around not harming anyone and sings for society? And that it's a sin to kill a mockingbird? When I go to a zoo or somewhere where there's animals I don't necessarily look for a mockingbird. But I guess that's the genius of the metaphor or the mockingbird itself: we don't pay attention to it, and it doesn't seek attention, but it provides a great service for society nonetheless.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Asian languages will, by the way, translate American book and movie titles into weird titles, and they can often be pretty interesting.
Why I read books back in high school, I was more interested in a good plot, good dialogue between characters, and character development.......I got immersed into the lives of the characters. (this is still pretty much my appeal for reading any fiction book). I didn't see the many allegories, metaphors, social commentary, and historical background so present in classic books like To Kill a Mockingbird. Heck, for me to the takeaway from Hamlet was "Prince's father dies, prince goes kind of crazy, prince avenges his father, but goes kind of crazy and everyone dies at the end." That's why I liked the Redwall series as a kid, it was what kept me going reading a book instead of just turning to Sparknotes or a plot summary like some of my classmates did.
I just recently read a manga version of To Kill a Mockingbird, and it was a really enjoyable 2 hours to go through the whole book and rehash a lot of memories of reading. The adventures of Jeb and Scout, the dignity of Atticus, the unjust racial atmosphere in Alabama in the early 1900's, the empathetic feeling of having nothing to do in the summer, the public spectacle of a court trial, all came flooding back to me like I was back in 2002 again, when I first read the book. I hate to say it for book purists out there, but I think the manga animated version would improve any classic book and put the words into pictures and make the reader keep flipping the pages. I think of all the classic literature books of 200 to 300 pages and sometimes more and wonder how kids or adults nowadays can get through them......you have to be a really dedicated scholar or bibliophile (lover of books) to traverse through them all, nowadays with all the media and distractions that we have around us.
And yes, I finally was able to understand what mockingbird had to do with the book. I'm not sure if people know that a mockingbird just flies around not harming anyone and sings for society? And that it's a sin to kill a mockingbird? When I go to a zoo or somewhere where there's animals I don't necessarily look for a mockingbird. But I guess that's the genius of the metaphor or the mockingbird itself: we don't pay attention to it, and it doesn't seek attention, but it provides a great service for society nonetheless.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Monday, January 7, 2019
肝試し (Test of Courage)
Today I engaged in something I haven't ever tried before: I went through a full job interview in Japanese. It was for a job I didn't really want, I didn't do very well at it, stuttering through many sentences and searching in my mind for the right words to say in Japanese, but I'm glad I did it.
Tests of courage, or "kimodameshi" in Japan, means literally "testing one's liver," but it's usually like a dare where kids challenge each other to do scary activities like go into a haunted house, or go on a really scary roller coaster. In a way, it can be beneficial: kids are pressured into doing things they normally try due to peer pressure and leave their worries behind (like alcohol for adults!) But just like alcohol, if taken too far, it can have disastrous results.
I remember when I was a kid I did a bunch of things because the other kids did it, and because I was a kid, I could afford to take the risk of getting an injury or something due to jumping a fence, joining the cross country team, doing a backflip into a pool, etc. The adrenaline rush alone makes us remember those times and leaves good, if somewhat painful, memories. Nowadays, as adults, we don't have people pushing us to do something courageous due to something called "laws" and "punishment." Without that extra impetus, we back away from challenging ourselves. Every start to the new year, though, people do get a little more courageous and try out something to change their new luck in the new year.
I started at a new gym with a basketball court! I also went to a new barber that's $5 more expensive than the one I normally go to, but it's a Japanese barber so I brazenly asked him if he was Japanese upon meeting him and launched into a conversation, therefore getting about 30 minutes of Japanese conversation practice during the haircut when I normally wouldn't say anything anyway. I now, real courageous.
But doing a full job interview in Japanese, that's a big step for me. Job interviews in general are not that easy; I struggle sometimes coming up with answers for interviewers in English, much less Japanese. Chinese is kind of in between, I can fill in unknown Chinese words with their equivalent in English, too. I felt that the same strategy in Japanese would work, but there's just certain things about rhythm in language where I could fill in all the small gaps in a sentence naturally without thinking in English or Chinese and catch myself in the middle of a sentence if necessary to change it into a different tense or different meaning altogether, but it's tough when I get stuck in Japanese. I also talk too much in a job interview! Sometimes I'll try to explain something using flowery language and insert a joke in there, but it gets much too involved in Japanese, I panic, and then it's all over. The difference, I guess, between full fluency and proficiency ( I know all the words but can't put all the puzzle pieces together just yet). It epitomizes my language learning though of not being afriad to fail: Each time I open my mouth, I'm susceptible to making a mistake (and often do), but by not being afraid to try it, I get a little stronger each time I take a test of courage.
The stock market is rebounding at the beginning of the new year after bottoming out on Dec. 24 last year (Red Christmas 2018), but it's a true test of courage to see how long the rally can last, because the last few rallies have been beaten back down and actually preceded the market going lower than before.
Cody Parkey just took a test of courage yesterday when the Bears played the Eagles.....and failed, as his field goal in the final seconds missed and the Bears got eliminated from the playoffs, 17-16. It was a 43-yarder, so not exactly a gimme, and sports fans everywhere are being way too harsh on the kicker, when a bunch of other plays in the game, if they went differently, could have made the difference. The kicker just had the unfortunate distinction of being the last to fail and have sole responsibility for the kick (as often happens in football), whereas the Bears could have also won if they got a little closer to get the field goal, their defense stopped the Eagles, the coach managed the time better with timeouts, etc., etc. Sports fans don't really think it through, in my opinion, and often find someone to blame for games that are .
To think, every time humans try something new we are taking a test of courage. Luckily for me, a lot of tests have ended in success and it's snowballed into allowing me to take new chances. Here's to a courageous 2019!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Tests of courage, or "kimodameshi" in Japan, means literally "testing one's liver," but it's usually like a dare where kids challenge each other to do scary activities like go into a haunted house, or go on a really scary roller coaster. In a way, it can be beneficial: kids are pressured into doing things they normally try due to peer pressure and leave their worries behind (like alcohol for adults!) But just like alcohol, if taken too far, it can have disastrous results.
I remember when I was a kid I did a bunch of things because the other kids did it, and because I was a kid, I could afford to take the risk of getting an injury or something due to jumping a fence, joining the cross country team, doing a backflip into a pool, etc. The adrenaline rush alone makes us remember those times and leaves good, if somewhat painful, memories. Nowadays, as adults, we don't have people pushing us to do something courageous due to something called "laws" and "punishment." Without that extra impetus, we back away from challenging ourselves. Every start to the new year, though, people do get a little more courageous and try out something to change their new luck in the new year.
I started at a new gym with a basketball court! I also went to a new barber that's $5 more expensive than the one I normally go to, but it's a Japanese barber so I brazenly asked him if he was Japanese upon meeting him and launched into a conversation, therefore getting about 30 minutes of Japanese conversation practice during the haircut when I normally wouldn't say anything anyway. I now, real courageous.
But doing a full job interview in Japanese, that's a big step for me. Job interviews in general are not that easy; I struggle sometimes coming up with answers for interviewers in English, much less Japanese. Chinese is kind of in between, I can fill in unknown Chinese words with their equivalent in English, too. I felt that the same strategy in Japanese would work, but there's just certain things about rhythm in language where I could fill in all the small gaps in a sentence naturally without thinking in English or Chinese and catch myself in the middle of a sentence if necessary to change it into a different tense or different meaning altogether, but it's tough when I get stuck in Japanese. I also talk too much in a job interview! Sometimes I'll try to explain something using flowery language and insert a joke in there, but it gets much too involved in Japanese, I panic, and then it's all over. The difference, I guess, between full fluency and proficiency ( I know all the words but can't put all the puzzle pieces together just yet). It epitomizes my language learning though of not being afriad to fail: Each time I open my mouth, I'm susceptible to making a mistake (and often do), but by not being afraid to try it, I get a little stronger each time I take a test of courage.
The stock market is rebounding at the beginning of the new year after bottoming out on Dec. 24 last year (Red Christmas 2018), but it's a true test of courage to see how long the rally can last, because the last few rallies have been beaten back down and actually preceded the market going lower than before.
Cody Parkey just took a test of courage yesterday when the Bears played the Eagles.....and failed, as his field goal in the final seconds missed and the Bears got eliminated from the playoffs, 17-16. It was a 43-yarder, so not exactly a gimme, and sports fans everywhere are being way too harsh on the kicker, when a bunch of other plays in the game, if they went differently, could have made the difference. The kicker just had the unfortunate distinction of being the last to fail and have sole responsibility for the kick (as often happens in football), whereas the Bears could have also won if they got a little closer to get the field goal, their defense stopped the Eagles, the coach managed the time better with timeouts, etc., etc. Sports fans don't really think it through, in my opinion, and often find someone to blame for games that are .
To think, every time humans try something new we are taking a test of courage. Luckily for me, a lot of tests have ended in success and it's snowballed into allowing me to take new chances. Here's to a courageous 2019!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Saturday, January 5, 2019
住めば都 (Wherever you live, you come to love it)
Last September marked the 10-year anniversary of me moving to L.A. for good from Illinois in 2008, so I've lived almost my entire adult life in this city. And as the Japanese proverb I've listed here says, (Sumeba miyako, or literally "if you live there, it becomes the capital), I've come to love L.A. And not just for the weather, which of course is the first thing I bring up when people ask me how I love L.A.
MJ and I have a friend Nathan who hosts a show called Lost L.A., where he explores the hidden secrets of the history of L.A. Fascinating show, and a fascinating dude: he sure knows his stuff about how L.A. was built, grew up as a city, and interesting historical places in L.A. He's also a librarian, something I found interesting because it was one of jobs I was considering when I was in high school......but ultimately decided against it due to well, duh, the internet. But apparently libraries still exist even nowadays with smartphones and the internet, and some would say thriving or at least co-existing with the internet in what some would say is the physical location of a global knowledge hub. Did you know that the Los Angeles city library system has a $183 million annual budget. That's spread out over 72 different branches throughout the sprawl that is Los Angeles, but still, not a sum to sneeze that, and if you've ever gone to L.A. library, they have quite a few
I do appreciate the history of L.A. from the story of Chavez Ravine and Dodger Stadium to Koreatown to the NEW Chinatown and the OLD Chinatown ( I always get them confused, but MJ and I just went to eat at the OLD Chinatown right next to downtown L.A., featuring a restaurant that was used in the filming of Rush Hour, the Jackie Chan movie). The L.A. public library central branch has its own interesting history, mostly stemming from the fire of 1986 that nearly wiped out the Central Branch, leading to a mystery of who set off the fire and the restoration project that turned it into what it is today, all chronicled in a book called "The Library Book" by Susan Orlean that's a fascinating read, and which I ironically checked out to read from the library today. It's not just a history of the Central Library of L.A., it's a history of L.A. itself. If you're anything like me and go to other branches of libraries like the Little Tokyo Branch and even the Chinatown Branch, you'll love this book. I actually quite like the Central Library branch ever since I walked into it on a whim during law school one day; it beckoned me and has beckoned me to come back ever since anytime I am lucky enough to work near the building. It's like MJ when she goes to a souvenir shop: something always catches my eye, and I always have to come out of the library with something.
Generally, I love non-fiction history and interesting accounts through history (go back to my fascination of Forrest Gump), and reading the book made me appreciate being part of the history of L.A., specifically downtown L.A. Despite only living here for 10 years, I can sense the change in the city, whether it's the change from when parking was just $8 to like $15 nowadays, or when the apartment I currently live in was just a parking lot, to when downtown L.A. became a ghost town on weekends when people left to go home after work to now being a true urban city with a Whole Foods and Target! To having worked in the U.S. Bank Tower building when it was the tallest building this side of the Mississippi, to having stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel which became the new tallest building this side of the Mississippi. I've kind of grown up with this city, and if I plan on moving away for awhile, I'll be happy to change it up for a bit and get some new stimulus, but I'll appreciate the history I'm leaving behind.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
MJ and I have a friend Nathan who hosts a show called Lost L.A., where he explores the hidden secrets of the history of L.A. Fascinating show, and a fascinating dude: he sure knows his stuff about how L.A. was built, grew up as a city, and interesting historical places in L.A. He's also a librarian, something I found interesting because it was one of jobs I was considering when I was in high school......but ultimately decided against it due to well, duh, the internet. But apparently libraries still exist even nowadays with smartphones and the internet, and some would say thriving or at least co-existing with the internet in what some would say is the physical location of a global knowledge hub. Did you know that the Los Angeles city library system has a $183 million annual budget. That's spread out over 72 different branches throughout the sprawl that is Los Angeles, but still, not a sum to sneeze that, and if you've ever gone to L.A. library, they have quite a few
I do appreciate the history of L.A. from the story of Chavez Ravine and Dodger Stadium to Koreatown to the NEW Chinatown and the OLD Chinatown ( I always get them confused, but MJ and I just went to eat at the OLD Chinatown right next to downtown L.A., featuring a restaurant that was used in the filming of Rush Hour, the Jackie Chan movie). The L.A. public library central branch has its own interesting history, mostly stemming from the fire of 1986 that nearly wiped out the Central Branch, leading to a mystery of who set off the fire and the restoration project that turned it into what it is today, all chronicled in a book called "The Library Book" by Susan Orlean that's a fascinating read, and which I ironically checked out to read from the library today. It's not just a history of the Central Library of L.A., it's a history of L.A. itself. If you're anything like me and go to other branches of libraries like the Little Tokyo Branch and even the Chinatown Branch, you'll love this book. I actually quite like the Central Library branch ever since I walked into it on a whim during law school one day; it beckoned me and has beckoned me to come back ever since anytime I am lucky enough to work near the building. It's like MJ when she goes to a souvenir shop: something always catches my eye, and I always have to come out of the library with something.
Generally, I love non-fiction history and interesting accounts through history (go back to my fascination of Forrest Gump), and reading the book made me appreciate being part of the history of L.A., specifically downtown L.A. Despite only living here for 10 years, I can sense the change in the city, whether it's the change from when parking was just $8 to like $15 nowadays, or when the apartment I currently live in was just a parking lot, to when downtown L.A. became a ghost town on weekends when people left to go home after work to now being a true urban city with a Whole Foods and Target! To having worked in the U.S. Bank Tower building when it was the tallest building this side of the Mississippi, to having stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel which became the new tallest building this side of the Mississippi. I've kind of grown up with this city, and if I plan on moving away for awhile, I'll be happy to change it up for a bit and get some new stimulus, but I'll appreciate the history I'm leaving behind.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
可愛い子には旅をさせよ (Let Kids learn from their own mistakes!)
Welcome to 2019! Yet again in 2018, I fell short of my goal of 100+ blog posts, but in my defense I was out of town quite a lot especially in the 2nd half of last year, I took an online computer science class that took up a large chunk of time, and just generally, as an adult there's less time to do pretty much everything, from sleeping to eating to reading to playing my favorite sports, etc., etc., etc. Not to mention the hours and hours we're attached at the hip (almost literally) to our smartphones now.
I don't really have any New Year's Resolutions for 2019, other than I need to lose 5 pounds like now. Not for the whole year; just now. ASAP. New Year's Eve and New Year's is usually a back-to-back double whammy of parties and yummy but fatty food for MJ and me, and this year was no exception. Writing 100 posts here would be nice; I haven't set any financial resolutions for the year because who knows if they're attainable or not, and I find that setting financial goals based on the stock market is folly; the great god of the stock market doesn't care what your portfolio says, it doesn't just stop rising or falling just because you "hit your low number" and "hit your high number." Only drives you to make bad/irrational decisions.
The above proverb, meaning, "Let's let cute kids take trips!" is a Japanese one that rings true to me. The background is that the Japanese, more than any other country, allow their children to go off to school and on other journeys from home at almost incomprehensibly young ages, something like 5 years old or kindergarten-level kids. By themselves! I don't think growing up in America I was ever allowed to do that until I was like in 4th grade or so to walk home, and even then I lived really close to home on a well-light, suburban street where it's impossible to get lost. Some of these 5 and 6 year olds are taking the subway and getting on buses to get to school, like a full-grown salaryman going on his daily commute. I think I would have done something pretty stupid if I was walking by myself at age 5,
The real issue in America, and apparently a lot of countries other than Japan, is the safety issue: lots of stories of child abductions and kidnappings (Jon-Benet Ramsey, Elizabeth Smart come readily to mind but I'm sure there are others) that prevent this from being realistic in America, whereas in Japanese society the odds of that happening are so low (I guess even criminals in Japan don't resort to the low of going after kids) that they can let kids go off into the streets. And it's an interesting philosophy, as long as it's safe: let kids make mistakes. As parents and teachers and camp counselors (me), adults try to make kids do what's right for their own good ,and they have the kids' best interests at heart, but the method is not always the best. For example, I learned quickly from watching 10-year-old kids, they often do the exact opposite of what you tell them to do, and the more you tell them NOT to do something, the more they want to do it. That's just the way kids are. My parents once told me about a story of a parent who instead of telling the kid not to reach his hand into the oven all the time, they just let him do it one time, the kid predictably got burned, learned from it, and never did it again. Not everything works as perfectly as that example, but the philosophy behind it, I feel, is true. Kids, and really all humans, learn by experience. I can learn as much Japanese vocabulary as possible but forget it, yet if I use it once in a real conversation I've got that down pat (ESPECIALLY if I make a mistake on the word, because I'll be embarrassed enough not to make that mistake again!)
Human beings, and especially people like me, are too afraid to fail. I often convinced myself I couldn't do something and prevented myself from achieving something, like asking a girl out, or just asking a "stupid" question because I thought it would be embarrassing. Kids, though, don't care about being embarrassed! And don't know what embarrassment is! So maybe that is the best time to have them experience things and get it wrong, so that they'll get it right in the future. Cuz when they grow up to be old and cranky like me, they'll have learned from their mistakes. A great lesson from the Japanese that everyone can learn from.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
I don't really have any New Year's Resolutions for 2019, other than I need to lose 5 pounds like now. Not for the whole year; just now. ASAP. New Year's Eve and New Year's is usually a back-to-back double whammy of parties and yummy but fatty food for MJ and me, and this year was no exception. Writing 100 posts here would be nice; I haven't set any financial resolutions for the year because who knows if they're attainable or not, and I find that setting financial goals based on the stock market is folly; the great god of the stock market doesn't care what your portfolio says, it doesn't just stop rising or falling just because you "hit your low number" and "hit your high number." Only drives you to make bad/irrational decisions.
The above proverb, meaning, "Let's let cute kids take trips!" is a Japanese one that rings true to me. The background is that the Japanese, more than any other country, allow their children to go off to school and on other journeys from home at almost incomprehensibly young ages, something like 5 years old or kindergarten-level kids. By themselves! I don't think growing up in America I was ever allowed to do that until I was like in 4th grade or so to walk home, and even then I lived really close to home on a well-light, suburban street where it's impossible to get lost. Some of these 5 and 6 year olds are taking the subway and getting on buses to get to school, like a full-grown salaryman going on his daily commute. I think I would have done something pretty stupid if I was walking by myself at age 5,
The real issue in America, and apparently a lot of countries other than Japan, is the safety issue: lots of stories of child abductions and kidnappings (Jon-Benet Ramsey, Elizabeth Smart come readily to mind but I'm sure there are others) that prevent this from being realistic in America, whereas in Japanese society the odds of that happening are so low (I guess even criminals in Japan don't resort to the low of going after kids) that they can let kids go off into the streets. And it's an interesting philosophy, as long as it's safe: let kids make mistakes. As parents and teachers and camp counselors (me), adults try to make kids do what's right for their own good ,and they have the kids' best interests at heart, but the method is not always the best. For example, I learned quickly from watching 10-year-old kids, they often do the exact opposite of what you tell them to do, and the more you tell them NOT to do something, the more they want to do it. That's just the way kids are. My parents once told me about a story of a parent who instead of telling the kid not to reach his hand into the oven all the time, they just let him do it one time, the kid predictably got burned, learned from it, and never did it again. Not everything works as perfectly as that example, but the philosophy behind it, I feel, is true. Kids, and really all humans, learn by experience. I can learn as much Japanese vocabulary as possible but forget it, yet if I use it once in a real conversation I've got that down pat (ESPECIALLY if I make a mistake on the word, because I'll be embarrassed enough not to make that mistake again!)
Human beings, and especially people like me, are too afraid to fail. I often convinced myself I couldn't do something and prevented myself from achieving something, like asking a girl out, or just asking a "stupid" question because I thought it would be embarrassing. Kids, though, don't care about being embarrassed! And don't know what embarrassment is! So maybe that is the best time to have them experience things and get it wrong, so that they'll get it right in the future. Cuz when they grow up to be old and cranky like me, they'll have learned from their mistakes. A great lesson from the Japanese that everyone can learn from.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Monday, December 31, 2018
유튜브 (Youtube)
One of the most game-changing inventions of this century, in my opinion, is the advent of Youtube. Curiously, though, even though Google is the parent company of Youtube, it's really not doing a good job raising its kid because Google Translate doesn't spit out translations for Youtube to Japanese or Chinese, I only got the Korean version. Good thing to research, and good thing to keep in mind now that I own GOOG stock.
Youtube has single-handedly changed my TV-watching habits!
1.) I don't watch sports games in their entirety anymore, or any of the game. I now just watch for highlights to come out when the game is scheduled to end, making sure of course not to spoil myself by checking in on social media (I'm off of it a lot anyway nowadays). It's like watching a condensed highlight reel of the game, and instead of spending 3 hours watching football I spend about 6 minutes getting the best stuff. Sorry NFL!
2.) Especially now that I have unlimited wireless on my phone (Finally, right? Welcome to the 21st century, Robert!) I can watch videos anywhere I go, and basically use it to play podcasts, and language videos where they just incessantly repeat Korean or Japanese grammar words, or sentences. 6000 common words, 6 hours. Play it on a loop.
3.) The advent of the idea of a "Youtuber" allows anyone to be their own star! when I was in high school, my dream was to be famous, a reality TV star and show up on screen so that everyone would see me! But I thought you have to be an actor or someone famous to do that, and I would have to change myself A LOT for that to happen, like build a lot of muscles, or become a genius, save the president's daughter or something, or worse (be known for a crime). Turns out though, I didn't have to change, the world changed! The world allowed each person to be his or her own star and have their own marketing campaign, ads, and content to try to attract people's eyeballs. You are your television show! And there's a wide audience for people who make their own channels, where if you make the right edits, have good content, catchy music, you can have a million + subscribers! A million is a pretty significant number! Perfect for the millenial "me" generation which is apparently very self-absorbed and into themselves and each one is the hero of their own story. We're all "special" and can be whatever we want to be, and definitely anyone can be a Youtuber.
4.) Unlike TV channels, you don't have to have a cable subscription, have to have wires plugged into the wall, or be in the right area of the country, etc., etc. While the TV stations that I grew up watching (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) are still stuck with basic TV and the whole television medium, NFLX and Amzn are moving on to digital and subscription service, you can watch anything you want anytime when you want it, without commericals (for the most part). Youtube has the same idea. It's really not a comparison anymore, Youtube and cable TV. My friend Babak was complaining the other day about having to pay for a cable service. My question is, why pay for a cable service at all?
5.) Great place to put videos of things that happened in the past! It's like a free photo album/ video album (as long as you're OK with everyone seeing it, but apparently nowadays most people are!) - or just use the "private" settings. I pull up old dodgeball videos of myself 3 years ago (ever since I started recording dodgeball games, what a great idea) and it brings back memories of glory games, and eventually will be "the glory days," once I retire from dodgeball, which might be sooner than later, I've been feeling less powerful and worse, maybe because of my time away and decreased schedule of games, but we'll see. Hope to capture a lot of memories too in the future of great trips MJ and I take or at least great moments.
6.) Speaking of which, we just got back from London and didn't make it to a couple spots, and I was anxious but then I thought, why fret? Someone out there must have gone to the same spot and taken some video, and sure enough, it's out there. MJ and I went to Descanso Gardens in La Canada (not pronounced like the country) this afternoon (great place, by the way) and they have a night lights celebration going on called the Enchanted Forest, and I really wanted to see it (pretty expensive), but then just caught up on it on Youtube, like I was really there! And since I had the other senses covered already (smell, feel of the fresh air), I felt like I was there!
Thanks to Youtube, I found a channel where the host compares words between English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. LOTS of stuff I didn't know about Chinese, like how to say "Burger King" in Chinese, or "Louis Vuitton," or a bunch of other things that are commonly known terms in English but don't show up in my everyday life for the other languages, and Google translate apparently doesn't know!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Youtube has single-handedly changed my TV-watching habits!
1.) I don't watch sports games in their entirety anymore, or any of the game. I now just watch for highlights to come out when the game is scheduled to end, making sure of course not to spoil myself by checking in on social media (I'm off of it a lot anyway nowadays). It's like watching a condensed highlight reel of the game, and instead of spending 3 hours watching football I spend about 6 minutes getting the best stuff. Sorry NFL!
2.) Especially now that I have unlimited wireless on my phone (Finally, right? Welcome to the 21st century, Robert!) I can watch videos anywhere I go, and basically use it to play podcasts, and language videos where they just incessantly repeat Korean or Japanese grammar words, or sentences. 6000 common words, 6 hours. Play it on a loop.
3.) The advent of the idea of a "Youtuber" allows anyone to be their own star! when I was in high school, my dream was to be famous, a reality TV star and show up on screen so that everyone would see me! But I thought you have to be an actor or someone famous to do that, and I would have to change myself A LOT for that to happen, like build a lot of muscles, or become a genius, save the president's daughter or something, or worse (be known for a crime). Turns out though, I didn't have to change, the world changed! The world allowed each person to be his or her own star and have their own marketing campaign, ads, and content to try to attract people's eyeballs. You are your television show! And there's a wide audience for people who make their own channels, where if you make the right edits, have good content, catchy music, you can have a million + subscribers! A million is a pretty significant number! Perfect for the millenial "me" generation which is apparently very self-absorbed and into themselves and each one is the hero of their own story. We're all "special" and can be whatever we want to be, and definitely anyone can be a Youtuber.
4.) Unlike TV channels, you don't have to have a cable subscription, have to have wires plugged into the wall, or be in the right area of the country, etc., etc. While the TV stations that I grew up watching (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) are still stuck with basic TV and the whole television medium, NFLX and Amzn are moving on to digital and subscription service, you can watch anything you want anytime when you want it, without commericals (for the most part). Youtube has the same idea. It's really not a comparison anymore, Youtube and cable TV. My friend Babak was complaining the other day about having to pay for a cable service. My question is, why pay for a cable service at all?
5.) Great place to put videos of things that happened in the past! It's like a free photo album/ video album (as long as you're OK with everyone seeing it, but apparently nowadays most people are!) - or just use the "private" settings. I pull up old dodgeball videos of myself 3 years ago (ever since I started recording dodgeball games, what a great idea) and it brings back memories of glory games, and eventually will be "the glory days," once I retire from dodgeball, which might be sooner than later, I've been feeling less powerful and worse, maybe because of my time away and decreased schedule of games, but we'll see. Hope to capture a lot of memories too in the future of great trips MJ and I take or at least great moments.
6.) Speaking of which, we just got back from London and didn't make it to a couple spots, and I was anxious but then I thought, why fret? Someone out there must have gone to the same spot and taken some video, and sure enough, it's out there. MJ and I went to Descanso Gardens in La Canada (not pronounced like the country) this afternoon (great place, by the way) and they have a night lights celebration going on called the Enchanted Forest, and I really wanted to see it (pretty expensive), but then just caught up on it on Youtube, like I was really there! And since I had the other senses covered already (smell, feel of the fresh air), I felt like I was there!
Thanks to Youtube, I found a channel where the host compares words between English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. LOTS of stuff I didn't know about Chinese, like how to say "Burger King" in Chinese, or "Louis Vuitton," or a bunch of other things that are commonly known terms in English but don't show up in my everyday life for the other languages, and Google translate apparently doesn't know!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Bridge (다리)(桥)(橋)
Bridge is one of those words that is completely different in all 4 of English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. They share nothing in common and sound nothing unlike. Maybe the Asian scholars back in the day were confused at the concept of a bridge? "How do we get from one side of the river to the other?" We have to have something to get over it, a boat is not practical, can't swim across......what is a magical invention that can do the trick?
Luckily for us our ancestors figured it out, and bridges came into existence. And now I love bridges. I love walking over bridges, I like being on top of bridges looking down, I like the view from a bridge, I like the idea of a bridge bridging the gap between 2 places. On our most recent trip to London, MJ and I crossed many of London's famed bridges, mostly across the Thames River, like the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge, the Westminster Bridge. I personally liked the Millenium Bridge, it was the first one we crossed upon arriving and has a futuristic, artistic design to it. And it led up to one of our favorite spots in the city, the Tate Britain. All the bridges did have their unique design and peculiarities about them though, to the point where it got me wondering why they needed so many bridges; it was almost excessive. Back home, I love the bridges in downtown Chicago, really brings the city together and connects the Loop to other great areas like River North. In San Francisco, the obvious Golden Gate Bridge is the historic icon, but the Bay Bridge is the one that gets the most traffic and the one that I saw the most often this summer working in downtown San Francisco, connecting SF to Oakland, in one of the busiest areas of the world, the Bay Area. Back home in LA, there aren't a whole ton of bridges because there aren't many rivers or bays, just one large beachfront, but the Venice Canals features some nice European-style bridges and the Manhattan Beach Pier kind of is a bridge between the land and the ocean, as it stretches into the ocean to give one the idea of what its like in the open sea, which is what a bridge usually does too. I love bridges.
I love physical bridges, but also other kinds of bridges, from being able to bridge the understanding between English to Chinese/Japanese/Korean (kind of why I like my job). There's a vast ocean of difference between those languages, but I can construct bridges to connect those understandings, and artfully too through the use of historical background, context, similar words, etc. I like being the "bridge" between being on the defensive end of basketball and passing it up to the offense on a fast break. And I like building temporary bridges from the current to the future (what's going to happen?) or from the current to the past. Really could help with the stock market; right now we're in a low-dipping jungle-like rope bridge (with jagged rocks in shark-infested waters underneath threatening to eat our portfolios alive if the bridge falls) between the all-time highs in late September to the next phase of the stock market (hopefully new highs, but also possible it could be really low lows if we falter). It helps sometimes though to take a bridge to the past like in 2011! Even in February 2011 (2/13/2011, to be exact) I was recommending on this very blog! buying AMZN, AAPL, and GOOG. All 3 stocks have at least quadrupled since then, AMZN has like gone up as much as 10x since then .What was I doing not following my own advice???? I should have a button like the one Jim Cramer uses on Mad Money every time he reminds his viewers he was right that one time in 2008 when he told everyone to sell. I was confident in 2011, and I'm confident now: I think AMZN and AAPL are still the future of technology and the future of the economy, and they're going back up despite the recent pullbacks. (GOOG, not so much, but still good!)
My twenties were a great bridge from knowing-nothing-and-being-mad-about-everything teens to the now-I-have-a-lot-of-responsibility-and-need-to-make-the-most-of-my-life 30's. That bridge of the 20's had a lot of nice views of places I visited, lots of nice locations I worked in, lots of great languages and cultures I learned about, lots of great friends I took the journey over the bridge with. And 2018 has been a great bridge year from bull market to the 2019 bear market! (Jk). Anyway, as with crossing the Millenium Bridge that first time in London, hope to arrive at somewhere really great and worth visiting!
Luckily for us our ancestors figured it out, and bridges came into existence. And now I love bridges. I love walking over bridges, I like being on top of bridges looking down, I like the view from a bridge, I like the idea of a bridge bridging the gap between 2 places. On our most recent trip to London, MJ and I crossed many of London's famed bridges, mostly across the Thames River, like the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge, the Westminster Bridge. I personally liked the Millenium Bridge, it was the first one we crossed upon arriving and has a futuristic, artistic design to it. And it led up to one of our favorite spots in the city, the Tate Britain. All the bridges did have their unique design and peculiarities about them though, to the point where it got me wondering why they needed so many bridges; it was almost excessive. Back home, I love the bridges in downtown Chicago, really brings the city together and connects the Loop to other great areas like River North. In San Francisco, the obvious Golden Gate Bridge is the historic icon, but the Bay Bridge is the one that gets the most traffic and the one that I saw the most often this summer working in downtown San Francisco, connecting SF to Oakland, in one of the busiest areas of the world, the Bay Area. Back home in LA, there aren't a whole ton of bridges because there aren't many rivers or bays, just one large beachfront, but the Venice Canals features some nice European-style bridges and the Manhattan Beach Pier kind of is a bridge between the land and the ocean, as it stretches into the ocean to give one the idea of what its like in the open sea, which is what a bridge usually does too. I love bridges.
I love physical bridges, but also other kinds of bridges, from being able to bridge the understanding between English to Chinese/Japanese/Korean (kind of why I like my job). There's a vast ocean of difference between those languages, but I can construct bridges to connect those understandings, and artfully too through the use of historical background, context, similar words, etc. I like being the "bridge" between being on the defensive end of basketball and passing it up to the offense on a fast break. And I like building temporary bridges from the current to the future (what's going to happen?) or from the current to the past. Really could help with the stock market; right now we're in a low-dipping jungle-like rope bridge (with jagged rocks in shark-infested waters underneath threatening to eat our portfolios alive if the bridge falls) between the all-time highs in late September to the next phase of the stock market (hopefully new highs, but also possible it could be really low lows if we falter). It helps sometimes though to take a bridge to the past like in 2011! Even in February 2011 (2/13/2011, to be exact) I was recommending on this very blog! buying AMZN, AAPL, and GOOG. All 3 stocks have at least quadrupled since then, AMZN has like gone up as much as 10x since then .What was I doing not following my own advice???? I should have a button like the one Jim Cramer uses on Mad Money every time he reminds his viewers he was right that one time in 2008 when he told everyone to sell. I was confident in 2011, and I'm confident now: I think AMZN and AAPL are still the future of technology and the future of the economy, and they're going back up despite the recent pullbacks. (GOOG, not so much, but still good!)
My twenties were a great bridge from knowing-nothing-and-being-mad-about-everything teens to the now-I-have-a-lot-of-responsibility-and-need-to-make-the-most-of-my-life 30's. That bridge of the 20's had a lot of nice views of places I visited, lots of nice locations I worked in, lots of great languages and cultures I learned about, lots of great friends I took the journey over the bridge with. And 2018 has been a great bridge year from bull market to the 2019 bear market! (Jk). Anyway, as with crossing the Millenium Bridge that first time in London, hope to arrive at somewhere really great and worth visiting!
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