Blog

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

There's no China in team

I love the Olympics. It’s a great reminder that there are no shortcuts in life. Because shortcuts, also known as cheating, is explicitly not allowed in Olympic competition. To reach a goal, there’s only the consistent grind. People love to see the end results of a triumphant victory, but behind that are countless sweaty sessions in a training gym. Successes are overnight only because on the television is the first time you’ve seen of some of these athletes.

The running joke regarding my mother country of China is that they perform superbly at individual events, but fail completely when it comes to team sports. If an event involves more than two people at once, it’s not going to go well for China. Doubles ping pong and synchronized diving? Not a problem. Football and basketball? A country of 1.4 billion souls can’t even qualify.

I have a theory on why this is so. In a way, Chinese culture is kind of selfish. For very good reasons, to be sure. The devastation wrought by the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution created an ingrained atmosphere of not enough to go around. The zero-sum pie is very small. Therefore, for the common Chinese citizen, whatever you can get for yourself, you hang onto it for dear life. There’s no honor is sharing, because that means you yourself won’t have enough to survive.

There was a time when public bathrooms in China did not have toilet paper. Any stock would be stolen very quickly. You’d have to bring your own.

The saying goes: there’s no ‘I’ in team. A team of selfish athletes isn’t going to go very far. When the glory of personal accomplishment (and the financial rewards) overshadow pride for country, it’s obvious to see how China continues to fail at team sports on the world stage.

Vote local

Who I vote for to be the President of these United States really doesn’t matter. Not because the California delegates will vote Democrat regardless (all those tech bros voting for Trump is kind of just pissing in the wind), but because whoever is the President doesn’t really affect me much materially. Now, who is going to be the mayor of San Francisco - that’s the most crucial race as it pertains to my life.

Because the citizenry might elect the wrong person, one who turns out to be super tolerant towards homeless camping on sidewalks, and petty theft done by teenagers. It was only a few years ago when we recalled a district attorney who didn’t want to persecute criminals. Imagine that! That’s like firefighters coming to the front of your burning home and just standing there. The fire has rights too, am I right?

The current San Francisco mayor - London Breed - knows it’s an election year so she is stepping up efforts to clear homeless encampments. The Supreme Court of the United States did our city a solid by allowing municipalities to ban people from sleeping in public spaces. Where will the homeless go, you ask? How about your house? If you’re so concerned about their wellbeing, why don’t you give up your resources?

See: it’s easy to virtue signal when you don’t experience any of the downsides. I bet the residents of the Tenderloin district is happy to finally see some enforcement action towards the homeless problem.

The local elections matter tremendously. Act accordingly!

Not for a snack

A friend was introducing a Korean restaurant to me. The first thing I wanted to know was: how much? Readers of this blog would know I am price-sensitive like that. But then again, it’s difficult to pay $14 for a roll of kimbap (Korean-style sushi roll) when I know for a fact that same roll sold in Korea is around $2. It just seems wrong.

Moreover, kimbap is more like a snack food, something filling you take to-go. Think of as the Korean equivalent of a home-packed American sandwich. Would you pay $14 for a peanut-butter and jelly sandy? Sounds absurd, doesn’t it?

With the recent high inflation, you really can’t take numbers at face-value. Deadpool and Wolverine had an $211 million opening weekend at the box office. That’s a properly large number. However, I paid $19 for a Saturday morning matinee showing. Yes, just like everything else, the price of a movie ticket has gone up. It’s easier to get to $210 million when the cost of each ticket sold is higher than ever.

As for the movie itself, the third Deadpool film is fantastically fun. The story is super basic, but the ceaseless action and comedy more than make up for it. I’m not saying you should definitely see it at a theatre for the visuals. More like you would want to see it as soon as possible to avoid spoilers. There are a ton of surprises jammed into Deadpool and Wolverine. To have them spoiled by a random YouTube commenter for a video that has nothing to do with the movie whatsoever would be unfortunate.

At least movie tickets are tax inclusive. So are gas stations: the prices on the big board is what you pay. I like that a lot. The aforementioned $14 roll of kimbap still has to factor in tax and tip, adding at least 25% to the cost.

A quicker way

Whoever invents muscle protein synthesis in a pill form is going to make many billions. Who the heck would want to workout many times a week just to be in decent shape? Even the most insufferable lovers of the gym will have lazy days, when they much rather lie on the couch with a laptop. But, until the day the muscle-making pill becomes reality, I shall continue pushing these weights on a consistent basis.

Fitness is tough work, multiplied over many months and years. I can see why people are quick to hop off that train. Shortcuts - what’s what we want, right? Shortcuts for everything. Social media has shown us the fantastic end results that we all want right now. How can I get as rich as Warren Buffett without putting in the decades of work and patience? (Crypto, obviously.) How can I lose fat without the immense willpower needed to eat less over a long period?

Ozempic. Kind of crazy to realize that we essentially have an effective diet pill. (Yes, I know these semaglutide GLP-1 agonist drugs are needle shots - you get the idea.) If I weren’t already skinny and lean, I’d be shooting myself weekly with that drug. Why put in the work when there’s a shortcut? Sure, there’s no free lunch, especially when it comes to drugs. But there’s downsides to exercising, too: time loss, working out becoming your entire personality.

I think semaglutide drug for weight loss is great news for folks in the higher BMI ranges, the people who have struggled to lose weight. Even the absolute lazy ones deserve a chance to lower their all-cause mortality by getting leaner. These drugs will only get better - in terms of mitigating side-effects - and cheaper. Thereby more accessible by more of the population. Health insurance companies should be very happy to cover Ozempic, because that open heart surgery down the line costing cost way more will be obviated.

Pharmaceutical companies: please do muscle-protein synthesis next. Because some days, working out is a total chore and a half.

Spend spend spend

The 2024 Summer Olympics starts this week in Paris. If it seems like it’s only been a short while since the Tokyo Olympics, that’s because it was held in 2021. Thank you, Covid pandemic. We hardly think about you these days. Due apologies to the long Covid sufferers.

I keep hearing the term “revenge travel” these days. Coming out of the pandemic, people are eager to travel, to make up for the lost time. My only question is: “How the French are people affording to travel?” I flew out the country twice this year (already, though no more plans to do so) and honestly I had some trepidation about spending the money. It was all worth it, obviously. In these days of high inflation I would prefer to have a bit more buffer in the bank account. You just never know when the cost a thing (that you absolutely need, of course, like YouTube Premium) will suddenly spike in price.

Though, word on the street is that Japan is currently relatively cheap to travel to. Because the Japanese yen is weak point against foreign currency. Weeaboos rejoice: your American dollars will get you more things in Akihabara.

Maybe the revenge part of revenge travel is on bank accounts. Swipe it on credit cards, pay it (much) later. If a chance leak at a lab in Wuhan, China (allegedly, probably) can trigger a global death event without any warning, wouldn’t you live life with a more short term view? Let’s cram all the fun things we want to do now. Who cares if we don’t have the means to pay the tab - we might be dead in a few years anyways. (DJ Khaled voice: “Another one.”) In America, debt of the deceased dies with them - next of kin bears zero responsibility, unless they (stupidly) co-signed on the debt.

Sometimes I feel like a crazy person, still concerned with thinking for the long-term. YOLO is a good BTS song, not a protracted life strategy. Travel to Paris for the Olympics? Not in this economy of the $200 per night common hotel room.

It's inside the house!

Pour one out for the IT support homies out there having to deal with this CrowdStrike fiasco.

If I understand the situation correctly: CrowdStrike is a Microsoft Windows security software that lives in the kernel (read: deep) level to protect systems from outside attack. The company rolled out an automatic update last Friday that broke any computer it is installed on. (The threat is coming from inside the house!) PCs all over the world restarted to the infamous blue screen of death. What’s worse: IT support has to essentially go to each and every endpoint to resolve this massive problem. CrowdStrike can’t simply roll out a fix en masse.

That’s why as of today - three days later - flights are still being cancelled. It will take quite some time for things to return to normal.

I am in the IT support business, but thankfully our organization does not deploy CrowdStrike. Last Friday was just a normal Friday for us. Praise be.

You know who’s got to be having a bad year? Lloyd's of London. The UK company is famous for selling insurance to cover extraordinary events. If you ever wonder how a sticky situation plays out in terms of insurance, Lloyd’s is probably behind it. Like the container ship that ran into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. That is a hefty, hefty insurance bill that the likes of State Farm would never dare to underwrite.

Similarly, this CrowdStrike disaster is affecting hospitals, airlines, banks - a ton of crucial businesses. Whoever underwrites CrowdStrike's insurance policy - probably Lloyd's - got to be sweating bullets.

No presidency for old man

Ladies and gentlemen, our national nightmare is over: President Joe Biden will not seek reelection this November. Thank you for your multi-decades of service, Mr. President. Think about this: Joe Biden retired from politics before Grand Theft Auto 6 comes out.

Anybody who watched the (first and only) debate between President Biden and Donald Trump can tell that Biden is simply not mentality fit for the job. Not right now, not for another four years. Democrats are no better than Trump supporters if they bury their heads in the sand about this. Trotting out a senile old man and pretending everything is going to be just fine. Hey, vote for our caricature of a fully functioning human, because, you know, the other guy is truly horrible!

Cognitive decline for someone in his 80s is fine, normal, acceptable. You simply cannot expect President Biden to serve competently for another four years. Have you seen how eight years of the presidency has utterly aged Barrack Obama? It would be cruel to make Biden continue on, honestly. He deserves to retire and live the rest of his life as peacefully as possible.

Good news for Americans: our Sophie’s choice between a convicted felon and a senile grandfather is no more! Short of nominating Bernie Sanders (who is even older than President Biden), any candidate the Democratic Party nominates will seem like a breath of fresh air, a ray of excitement. Maybe it’ll be enough to sway those who otherwise would not vote for either Trump or Biden.