Blog

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

Habits (stay clean)

At my age - a prime 36 years old - the difficulty in traveling is the breaking of my daily routine at home. Like James Clear, I am big on habits and consistency. Traveling does make a stop to that stuff. Take for example: when I am away from home for long periods, I can’t take the usual supplements. Another example: I can’t workout when I’m traveling. Is the temporary pause detrimental? Probably not. But it just feels weird, you know?

What’s also weird is being in hotels. Most of them - expensive or otherwise - do not match up to my standards of cleanliness. Especially so for hotels in America. The western culture of not taking off your shoes indoors means accommodations here in the States have a higher baseline of dirtiness. You can vacuum that carpet all you want, housekeeping. Doesn’t change the fact that many shoes have walked over that surface.

Things are slightly better in Asia, with our culture of taking shoes off before entering an abode. Even then, the level of cleanliness scales linearly with the amount-per-night cost of the hotel (in my experience, anyways). The only experience that lived up to my admittedly high standards is the ryokan around the Mount Fuji area in Japan. That cost $250 a night in 2019 money. Read: that is expensive for me.

If I am to stay in an accommodation for at least a few days, what I do is clean the floors myself (when possible). That might sound insane to you, but the peace of mind is worth it. Plus, I get to enjoy actually clean floors. Can’t beat that!

Another one

Word on the street is that Little Paris - a staple restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown for decades - is planning to close up shop. Among the cited reasons are low customer traffic that never recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and the landlord raising the rent. Jokes on the landlord: he (I’m going to presume it’s a he) went from hopeful increase in rental income, to now having zero income. Congratulations, you played yourself.

According to the linked article, the landlord refused to negotiate. In this economy? Honestly, are folks chomping at the bits to open a restaurant in Chinatown? The problems that are causing Little Paris to close down are not going away for potential new tenants. The landlord would rather risk vacancy than coming to a suitable agreement with the proprietor of Little Paris. I know inflation is wild these days, but I highly doubt the landlord was losing money at the old rental rate. As far as I know, property taxes in California have not gone up.

It is greed. Pure greed. Anyone raising prices for the sake of it alone is shortsighted at best, evil at worst.

I can’t say I have too much memories tied to Little Paris. My family was too poor to afford me an allowance back then. There was no getting a sandwich and sugary drink with friends, no matter how cheap the banh mi is there. For my school mates with spending money, Little Paris was seemingly a popular destination. For them I guess it would be sad to see a piece of their childhood going away.

It's great to be back

It is wonderful to be back in the land of the free, home of the gun shooting at a Super Bowl parade (the price to pay for said freedom). But anything is better than the highly surveillance state of China, am I right? I’ll have much more to write about my two weeks in Guangzhou at a later time. In long form, with many pictures.

Not so pro trip: what really helps alleviate jet lag symptoms is drinking plenty of water during the flight (I must have drank over 2 liters), and wearing compression clothing (better blood circulation or something). It’s been 36 hours since I’ve landed yesterday at SFO, and I feel completely fine. 12 hour plane rides suck no matter what, however. Especially in the cheap seats. It’s all I could afford as a public servant.

I did watch the Super Bowl whilst in China. At a bright 7:30 AM Monday morning, I awoke to turn on the game. Unexpectedly, the local Guangdong sports channel was televising the Super Bowl. I didn’t even have to perform any elaborate VPN magic to get my free trial of Paramount Plus (it is definitely not available in China) to work in order to see our San Francisco 49ers lose to the Kansas City Chiefs.

The bad feeling started when the Chiefs blocked the extra point try in the fourth quarter. That feeling turned into inevitable doom when the 49ers decided to kick the field goal in overtime, instead of going for a 4th and short. When you’re up against Patrick Mahomes in extras, a three point lead might as well be a tie. Mahomes then did exactly as I expected: drive down the length of field to throw the game-winning touchdown.

Disappointed? Sure. But I was in my birth home of Guangzhou, with plenty of activities to look forward to still. The sadness was brief.

Boring is okay

What is wrong with boring? What is wrong with stasis? What is wrong with living the same day everyday?

I don't understand the people who crave novelty and change all the time. Like, I just got here, why can’t I stay here for a little longer? Newlyweds know: soon as the wedding reception is over, everybody is asking when are you two going to have babies. Okay, maybe after you return from the honeymoon. It’s as if staying married with no babies for any period is not allowed.

Everybody knows: you hit certain age milestones and the questions start coming. 20: what do you plan to do with your life - for money? 30: why aren’t you married yet? 40: where are the babies? 60: what are your retirement plans? Honestly, is it your life, or society’s life? Other people are so eager for you to follow along to what everybody else do.

If you’re still single in your 30s and not looking to match up, you’re the weird one. Your parents, who are staring at the face of mortality in a few decades, are thinking: damn, I really want some grandchildren. So they nag you to get on with your life trajectory, to settle down with a girl and start producing some babies. And if you follow along with that, I think you’re foolish. You’d be living your life at the behest of others.

If you yourself want to settle down and make babies, that’s a different story.

Run your own race. So what if it doesn’t conform to the societal norms. So what if things don’t change for a while. Life is often boring anyways. People who can’t stand to be bored are those wont to divorce their wife soon as a younger/prettier version arrives on the scene. Is that what you want?

No burgers for you

Word on the street is that sole In-N-Out burger location in Oakland is closing down. Not because that location isn't making money, but because that location has high crime. I get it: no amount of profit is worth it if your employees and customers aren't safe (or don't feel safe). The staff persons standing outside taking orders for the drive-thru lane must have PTSD from witnessing all the car break-ins. If it's anything like our local Target, the self-serve soda machines at that In-N-Out must be chaos. If you know, you know.

What I am not reading underneath the calls for 'the community to come together to address the issues' - whatever that means - is any concrete methods to deter crime, to stop and hold criminals accountable. In-N-Out management literally told us what the problem is - crime, and yet all people can say is we must come together, that city government must come together. Stop it. Stop the rampant crime from happening, so that people who work and visit that area feel safe.

Our local H Mart supermarket immediately implemented a phalanx of security guards (on electric golf carts, interestingly) on patrol, after a rash of vehicle break-ins in the parking lot. There's security at the front door checking receipts, too. While it is sad that in a first-world society we need such visual deterrents to crime, but at the very least, I feel safe whenever I visit that H Mart. Same with the local mall, where there's security at entrances to stores with high-priced items.

If on top of that, the municipal governments can arrest and prosecute the criminals, I think we'll be just fine moving forward. Because not everyone has the monetary power to hire private security. Let's not wait until bustling strip malls and thoroughfares all become empty ghost towns before the right thing is done.

Parenting is hard

It is the start of the Spring 2024 semester on campus. Nice to see a bustling campus once more, though the only downside is the bathrooms will certainly be dirtier. The flu and cold virus is also going around, so we've got to protect ourselves the best we can. Wash or sanitize your hands often, and try not to touch your face. Even post COVID pandemic, people can’t seem to stay home when they are sick. Supposedly, the area around the eyes are potently vulnerable entry points for viruses.

Was there a chance the Spring semester was going to be delayed? The CFA - the union representing faculty and librarians - were on strike just last week. But on that Tuesday, the two sides came to a tentative agreement. CFA basically got the same deal as we, the employees union - got: five percent raises last fiscal and this fiscal year. Equality is great, isn't it? (The CFA was asking for more.)

Also included in the new contract is an increase of paid parental leave from the current six weeks to 10 weeks. As a housemate to two new parents with five months-old twin boys, I must say parents deserve all the time off they can get from their employers. Parenting is truly another job onto itself. It's not like folks on parental leave are at home playing videos games. In fact, some are happy to return to work, partly to escape the baby responsibilities for just a few precious hours. (Who knew that eating an entire lunch undisturbed can be so precious?)

Anything to encourage and incentivize people to have babies should be pursued. The education industry - the one I am employed by - is predicated on having an endless supply of replacement pupils, year after year. If the population is having fewer babies, then that supply will naturally dwindle. And with it the future stability of this job. So in a totally self-servicing way: good for the CFA in getting an increase in parental leave!

I'm going to miss it

While I am extremely happy the San Francisco 49ers made the Super Bowl, I am extremely sad that I will miss the big party. Because I am due to fly out to Guangzhou, China at the end of this week, and scheduled to return after a fortnight. Indeed I will be at the opposite end of the globe whilst friends gather here in the States to cheer on our local team. The fear of missing out is incredibly strong right now.

It will be early morning in Guangzhou - the Monday after - when the Super Bowl is happening in Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon, February 11th. As far as I know, American football is not big at all in China. Finding an establishment over there showing the game will probably be impossible. Especially not during that hour of a work day. Perhaps there's some die-hard NFL fans (dozens of them!) in Guangzhou doing a viewing party? Or maybe the NFL is blocked wholesale over there. Because, you know, too much western values. (Huge American flag and military planes flying over.)

I got to find a way to watch it somehow. Hint hint, wink wink.

Funny enough, the last time San Francisco was in the Super Bowl, it was back in February 2020. That was just before the COVID-19 pandemic effectively shut everything down worldwide. The opponent in Miami then is the same as it is now in Las Vegas: the Kansas City Chiefs. Sports can be coincidentally weird that way. It is going to take the maximum best effort on the 49ers to beat Patrick Mahomes, who is well on his way to becoming the greatest quarterback of all time. He will be playing in his fourth Super Bowl in the past five seasons.

I think Patrick should be kind and let the 49ers have one. Please.