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Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

And another one

As much as I enjoy going to Asia for vacation, one thing that always suck is the absurdly long airplane rides. Supposedly, the way to do it for us plebs is to swap credit card points for business class seats. However I do not spend the way my friends do - what points are you talking about? At least the Asian airlines (non Chinese division) have reasonably decent seating room in economy. Never book a Boeing 777/787 (or Airbus 350) that has a 3-4-3 seating arrangement in coach (looking at you, United). 3-3-3 is where it is at.

Actually, maybe avoid Boeing planes in general until they can figure out exactly what is going on.

So while I am excited to head to Thailand at the beginning of June for a friend’s wedding, what I am definitely not looking forward to is the 20 hours of plane ride to take me from San Francisco to Bangkok (with a stop in Incheon, South Korea in between). After having only returned from Guangzhou (China, a 15 hour flight) last month, I’m not exactly enthusiastic about yet another long flight in a few months’ time.

I have zero doubts Bangkok will be a fantastic time. It just sucks that I lose practically two whole days in the sky just to get there and back. Airlines really need to bring back the Concorde - airplanes faster than the speed of sound. Granted, what makes me think that I can afford to pay for such speed - because you know airlines would charge a lot more for it - when I can’t even afford business class (credit card points or straight cash).

I shall be happy once I am there. But not a moment before!

We can have nice things

The APEC summit is happening this week in San Francisco. Honestly, I’ve never heard of APEC until I started to see news of street closures and movement restrictions a few weeks back. Of course, when world leaders representing nearly half of the world’s economic output come together, security is of utmost importance. Especially in a country - the United States of America - where the second amendment exists. If the locals who live and work here are inconvenienced, so be it. Literally the price of doing business.

I sure hope the supposed increase in local spending from all the foreign visitors is worth it!

Because I am sure San Francisco is spending a significant sum in hosting, and its various logistics (Federal government is chipping in, surely). I was surprised to read the organizers literally built a 14-foot high security fence surrounding the Moscone Center area. Access is highly controlled and monitored, no doubt. (Who says we can’t built walls here in America?) Entire subway tunnels are shut down for the duration of the event. Freeway exits near the conference area are blocked, and entire lane of the Bay Bridge is closed to normal traffic.

There’s apparently a 30-mile no-fly radius - commercial aircraft excepted. Leisure guy flying his recreational Cessna better stay away, lest he wants fighter jets for company.

Another surprising thing is seeing the city actually enforcing laws! Sidewalk homeless encampments getting cleared out, and illegal street vending stopped. I bet the tacitly-allowed drug trade in the Tenderloin is also put to a pause. The Department of Public Works must’ve worked overtime to clean the downtown area. I love how shambolic it is that San Francisco only (literally) clean its act up when cameras and eyes from the outside world are upon it. Count me as one of the locals asking: why can’t we have this year round, all the time?

I wish APEC a successful summit in this city of ours. It’s wild to think I will be in the same 7-by-7 mile piece of land as Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Spring cleaning time

Lunar New Year is next Tuesday, so you know what that means: I have to clean house and get a haircut before then. Good news is my in-law studio apartment is relatively tiny, so a bit of spring cleaning should be quite easy. I’m the type of person to dust my floors every other day, so that should give you an idea how much work I actually have to do before the auspicious holiday.

I will have to deep clean the bathroom. Primarily the few months’ worth of soap and water stain accumulation in the shower/bathtub. Whoever is first to invent a shampoo and body wash that, when used, will also clean the shower walls (when the suds are flung) should get the Nobel Peace Prize.

But at least I only have one bathroom! I wouldn’t want to be my friend who recently moved in to a two-bed two-bath unit. To live by herself. Imagine having to do the spring cleaning for that space! Or even just keeping it tidy on the regular. Good thing we live in an age of robotic vacuums. And said friend also make enough money to pay for a monthly housekeeper. No need for manual labor when you can afford to throw money at the problem!

It is a lovely place though. Such a vast apartment for one person makes me wonder whether or not I would want such a space. Honestly it would be ideal to have at least a one-bedroom, to have defined and separate spaces (living room, kitchen and whatnot). That said I’m pretty satisfied with the studio I have now. It’s got everything I need, all in one room (plus a bathroom).

Whenever I travel to Asia and rent in one of the typically tiny apartments, I’ve always wished there was such a thing here in the States. The efficient use of space is something to admire, driven by sheer population density and high real estate prices. Turns out, that’s sort of what I have now: a tiny apartment with all the features. I’ve even mimicked another feature of Asia: walkability to almost everything. There’s a mall a few blocks from where I live with all the shops I’ll ever need.

I really don’t even need to own a car. Not that I’ll ever do that…

To vacation or not

Summer is nearly upon us, and for those of us working in education, that means we can plan for some vacation time. 2020 was obviously a lost year, but with the vaccines proliferating nicely throughout the country, we can indeed entertain the thought of going away to places. Just recompense for being stuck at home for more than one year.

And it seems the proverbial floodgates have opened. My friend is heading off to Hawaii around Memorial Day, and the cost to rent a car is utterly extravagant relative to what it should be. Vaccinated people are planning to travel in droves, and prices for the touristy stuff are reflecting that demand. I haven’t checked, but I bet a plane ticket to Hawaii for the summer months is decently above average in price.

I’m in a conundrum, because while I do want to take vacation and travel somewhere, the places I want to go are all outside of America. I would love to go back to South Korea or Taiwan. Sadly, as of right now, traveling outside of this country is still prohibitive due to two-week quarantining requirements in most other countries. I only ever take two weeks of vacation at a time total, so I can’t spend all of that stuck in safety limbo.

The vacation I want to have is not a possibility, therefore should I even bother requesting time off this summer? I guess it would be prudent and healthy to take the time anyways even if I’m just staying home. It’s too early to say right now: if the aforementioned Asian countries relax their quarantine requirements in the coming months, I would definitely quickly make a change of plans.

But so would everyone else. I reckon traveling this year - especially outside of America - is going to be an expensive endeavor. Come on, guys, we make money now…

Well well, how the turntables

As an Asian person who’s had a habit of casually wearing face masks when going outside, it’s funny to see that America has finally embraced it as a mechanism to decrease the chances of catching the coronavirus. Who’s the weird person wearing a medical mask now? I’m not saying I’m enjoying the schadenfreude of western countries finally accepting something that’s been a part of the culture in Asian countries for longest time, what with these dire circumstances and what not, but I’m not saying I don’t enjoy it, either.

It seems so basic and obvious that wearing face masks helps to decrease the spread of viruses and flu strains: otherwise, why are officials giving us tips like sneezing and coughing into our shirt sleeves, and to avoid touching our face? A face mask does brilliantly to preempt the need for those preventive actions, doesn’t it? Not only am I not spreading my own germs towards others, but I’m also (somewhat) shielded from the expelled particles of other people. This was especially useful when taking public transportation, and screw those who gave us Asians weird stares and hateful looks during the infancy of the COVID-19 outbreak for having face masks: we’re protected - that’s what matters most.

Anything that may help against a coronavirus that doesn’t discriminate between age or health status is worth doing; like playing the lottery, you can’t say for sure how severe symptoms will be should you be unlucky to catch it.

The example set by Asian countries like Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, how they didn’t have to shut everything down because one, they had enough testing, and secondly, there’s a fierce habit of mask wearing already ingrained into the population. What did the western would do with this information? Much like their preparation for the coronavirus outbreak overall: absolutely nothing. It’s was only recently did the CDC reversed their stance and began to recommend face covering when heading out in public.

I get it, we should do everything we can to provide enough stock of masks and other protective equipment to frontline medical staff. That said, the general public should’ve be reprimanded for buying them for ourselves. Good thing though I already had a stash of face masks from before the virus hit our shores; I’m Asian, after all.

Eggs, bacon, and seaweed: the lunch of quarantine champions.

Flying is not so fun

I was never one for flying; my superb fear of heights simply won’t allow me to enjoy being in a metal tube 30,000 feet in the air completely. That said I was never one to complain about the experience in total, and in fact I quite rather like being on a plane, blasting through five consecutive movies I otherwise would not have watched ever.

Somehow that all changed during this last trip to China just a few weeks ago. For whatever reason the time spent on the plane felt like the longest slog ever. The dryness, the compression, the turbulence, and the hours remaining to destination that seemed endless: it all pummeled me into abject misery this time around. What the heck happened? I was the guy that used to get off a plane after a 12 hours journey and headed straight to work.

Perhaps it’s old age: my aging body simply can’t deal with the adverse conditions any longer? I don’t think being stuck in economy class mattered much: I’ve flew first class before, and the the extra space doesn’t negate the negativities of the sealed-off environment high up in the atmosphere. You’re not all of the sudden going to feel less dehydration just because your seat can lie completely flat, even with the bottomless champagne.

I hate to admit this, but maybe the days of 15 hour flights not effecting me are gone. I won’t be able to get off the plane afterwards and be ready to tackle the day. I am going to need time to recover after these long-haul flights, which will encroach on the actual vacation time itself (one day of rest means one less day of travel/sightseeing).

Airplane manufacturers really should take a look at supersonic again.

Convenient stores in Asia are awesome

Why can't America have convenient stores like they've got in Asia?

The 24-hour convenient store like 7-Eleven is ubiquitous in Asia, and for good reason: they are fantastic. The stores offer a selection of actual real food (and junk food too, of course) and any sort of daily household items one would need. Most have a dedicated sitting area for people to eat their meal, and some even have bathrooms should the particular 7-Eleven not be one close to home. One can literally live only frequenting a convenient store, no supermarkets, with no adverse health effects.

Contrast that to the convenient stores we've got here in the States: when's the last time you felt safe going to a 7-Eleven? All they stock is junk food, and the best hot food they can offer you is a bloody hot-dog. Where's the amazing selection of ramen? 20 flavors of tea? Fresh breakfast and dinner food? Can I make it to my parked car without getting robbed?

When I book AirBnb on Asia trips, I make sure to stay at a place that's close to a convenient store, which isn't difficult because they are everywhere. Just this past Taipei trip there was a 7-Eleven right around the corner, and I would visit it every morning to stock up on tea drinks for the day. Late night cravings would be satisfied with a a quick ramen run.

Laugh all you want, but one of the big draws Asia has for me are their 24-hour convenient stores. I miss them very much when I fly back home.