10 THINGS I THINK
1. It’s always a fantastic time when the San Francisco Giants goes head-to-head against our bitter rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers, especially so when I get the chance to listen to the Dodgers’ broadcast legend Vin Scully calling the games. Don’t get me wrong, I’m massively fond of our very own Giants broadcasters, but as baseball fans all recognize, Vin Scully is simply on another stratosphere.
Every new season could be Scully’s last, so every opportunity to listen must be taken advantaged of. It’ll be a bittersweet day indeed when the great man hangs up the microphone.
2. I love it when people call out Millennials on their frequent entitlement tendencies. As someone that works at a university campus, I witness first hand the disease everyday. Not exactly sure how the latest crop of college students were raised, but never before have I encountered a group of people so expectative of having everything handed to them or go alongside their wishes. Worse, college Millennials don’t seem to handle failure well, if at all.
I’d be a insanely rich person indeed if I received a dollar every time a student came into my office, asking if they could borrow a charger for their laptop. Why do people not bring chargers along with their laptops? It’s common sense, isn’t it? Battery technology hasn’t advanced to a state where you can risk not carrying a charger just yet.
And the students had the gall to complain the university doesn’t provide services for them. Sorry, darling, you’re responsible for your failure to bring a charger with you, not me.
3. Sad news: Chipotle will be raising prices on its steak and barbacoa meat in the near future. Well, sad news for other people, because personally I always select chicken when I frequent Chipotle, because I am a cheapskate, and chicken is likely better for me anyways.
Let me know when they raise the price on chicken, because then I’ll be incredibly annoyed like the rest of you, and subsequently will still begrudgingly eat at Chipotle. Because it’s so damn awesome.
4. The news of that Pulitzer-winning journalist in Los Angeles having to quit his newspaper job because he couldn’t afford the rent on his salary is extremely depressing. The future of the fourth estate is murky indeed if talents are quitting the industry due to finances. People should be alarmed because local news media is immensely more important than national news networks because the stories they cover/uncover directly affects the citizenry. The survival of those entities is absolutely crucial.
On a more selfish tangent, I’m glad I chose not to major in journalism for my college study, though the reason wasn’t because I knew the financial future for journalist is less than ideal. I simply hated grammar and editing; it’s the writing component that I really enjoy.
5. Allow me to fully admit that I am a bandwagon Warriors fan, and now that they are in the playoffs, I’ve now started actually watching the basketball games. Hopefully the Warriors run through the playoffs will last all the way until the end of June, because the Bay Area certainly needs a championship for their sport franchises, am I right?
Unlike most bandwagon fans, I refuse to refer to the Warriors with the pronouns we, us, or our. Doing so would be despicable.
6. The second Star Wars Episode 7 teaser trailer is short, but spectacular all the same. Of course, we still have zero inkling of how the plot will unfold, nor have we even seen all the major characters yet. The producers did throw Star Wars fans a bone by ending the trailer with Han Solo and Chewbacca, and I’ve got to say that brief little sequence was absolutely awesome. “Chewie, we’re home.” My god that was perfect.
It’s going to be a banner year indeed for cinema, what with Furious 7 already broken all sorts of box-office records, the second Avengers movie comes out in less than two weeks, the 23rd Bond film, and of course, Star Wars to bookend it all in December. My wallet is ready.
7. Today is Earth Day, the one singular day out of the year where people whom otherwise couldn’t care less, pretend they actually give a crap about environmental conservation. That is no shade, because society has made it such that the priorities just aren’t there. The poor haven’t got the money or time to worry about whether or not they are recycling properly, because they spend all their energy simply surviving another day. Rich people don’t feel the need to care for the Earth and limit their personal carbon footprint, because I must have five cars and a mansion to park them in, damn it.
As someone who lives on the lower fringes of what is considered middle-class, there’s not much I can personally do. I sort and recycle, try to use as few amounts of water as possible, and keep a careful eye on my monthly energy consumption. Beyond those strategies, I can only entrust on the powerful few to fight the bigger battle in preventing humans from destroying the planet.
8. A few weeks ago (some date in the lunar calendar) were the time most Chinese families visit and pay respect to their respective dead. That means a pilgrimage to the cemetery. Unfortunately for me, the entirety of my deceased relatives are buried in China, therefore I was unable to fulfill the annual duty. It did however led me to a discussion with friends on why did our previous generation spend so much money simply to have a plot of land to be buried in.
My own maternal grandparents are each paying more than ten thousand dollars for their eventual resting place, which I must admit if a bit morbid of an act. For me, I just can’t fathom paying such sums for a thing I won’t even be alive for. I’d imagine my offspring would rather me bequeathing them the money instead. When I’m gone from this world, I shall give instructions to turn my remains to ash, and then ceremoniously scatter into the ocean; the ocean from whence all life originates from.
9. Jon Stewart has announced that August 6th will be his final appearance as host of The Daily Show. His farewell show will no doubt be one for the ages, more so than even Stephen Colbert’s epic final Report. I quite literally grew up watching The Daily Show, and the sixth day of August will one of great sadness and celebration all at once.
10. I’ve been having tremendous amounts of ‘grass is greener’ syndrome with my car lately. Fairly sure I’m not sick of the STI, but more than ever I find myself looking at other cars to buy. It certainly doesn’t make financial sense to trade the car in having only owned it for a little over two years, because the not insignificant amount of taxes I paid in purchasing it will largely be forsaken (not to mentioned I’d have to pay taxes again on the new car.)
But life is about variety, isn’t it? There are times you’ve just got to go for it. There’s a stark difference between financial irresponsibility and financial incapability, and besides, the future isn’t guaranteed anyways. We shall see, but chances are good I might not be in the same car in a few months time.