Every Once In A While Cricket Produces A Gem

The US Open is Still Unwatchable

So this year I once again made the annual Labor Day weekend trip to New York to eat food and watch tennis, though as the years have gone on it's become more food-focused and much less tennis-focused. This has primarily been to the American fan base that shows up to the US Open.

I understand that the home crowd will support the home player, but the behavior of American fans borders on rudeness, especially in the sport of tennis. Fans will applaud when the opposing player faults on the first serve, and will continue to call out during the service motion or unnecessarily during the point. This year was the first time I went to Louis Armstrong Stadium as opposed to Arthur Ashe Stadium, and the atmosphere was significantly better. All those loud casual "I want to do the prestigious stadium and only see the top players" fans will go to Ashe and as a result, fans who follow the game more closely will end up all over the complex instead of just one stadium. Even when John Isner was playing at Armstrong, the crowd was much more respectful for his opponent, Milos Raonic. As a side note, Armstrong also has much better air circulation than Ashe, as anyone who watched matches on Ashe saw players dripping sweat (Coric, anyone?).

Otherwise when I'm watching on TV or streaming it, the US Open is the only grand slam I watch on mute all the time.

Slow Dinner

So recently I went to Germany and Austria, and one thing that struck me was the overall slow pace of the meal. While I realize that's generally a European thing, especially compared to the faster pace of American dining, it's something I really payed attention to since I was traveling and dining alone.

It may also be a function of eating at a lot of beer gardens and related establishments with extensive outdoor seating. Oftentimes you seat yourself and a waiter will eventually notice you and ask if you want a beer. When you're ready for the menu (or another beer), you eventually wave the waiter over and then order a while later at your convenience. After the dishes have been cleared I was never asked for the check, and I was generally let be to nurse my drink and look around. Eventually whenever I felt like leaving I'd go settle the bill and leave. I personally enjoyed this style of dining, when everything happened whenever I wanted to and the establishment didn't dictate the pace. Of course there were always Americans complaining about how slow the service is, since they wouldn't take the initiative to have their meal at their desired pace.

What I also enjoyed was that at these places there would be many large tables, so oftentimes you'd be sitting near other people and it's a great way to chat with the locals. Usually it would involve all of us laughing at me for being an idiot in some way or another, but always in good fun.

The Big Game

For the most part I generally don't make plans for big sporting events-no viewing parties, bars, etc. Usually I'll watch games by myself at home or the office, mostly because other people are annoying and I don't really do large groups. Every year during the Super Bowl I try to go skiing since there are fewer people on the mountain (yesterday on the other hand...). Going to work during home football games requires some planning to avoid crowds and traffic.

Occasionally I'll end up somewhere by chance during big games and it is curious to gauge how people react to them. Several times big games have been broadcasted on flights I've been on, most notably the Alabama vs. Clemson national championship game in 2017. During big moments of the game you could hear some cheering (or unhappy reactions) throughout the plane. During this year's Super Bowl I was at the gym, and there was absolutely no audible reaction to anything. The only sounds that could be heard were standard gym sounds-no cheering, and not even a gasp.

Browsing Homes

Recently when I get bored or want a distraction during the day, I've been browsing through the local house listings. Given that we've been seeing a large influx of people and with a lot of money coming into the area some of the listings are pretty impressive. Naturally all of that is currently a dream, but browsing through all the listings has reinforced certain preferences in living quarters. As an example I strongly prefer below-counter sinks versus countertop sinks and rainfall showers that aren't directly above the drain. I've come to realize a whole host of preferences I have for every aspect of a home, including materials and layout. Unfortunately this kind of comes with my picky nature. Naturally inspired by architectural design, I went ahead and started playing Prison Architect, because I'm a terrible person.

That C-Pop Kick

So somewhat recently I've been on a bit of a mandopop/C-pop kick (though I did post a track a couple of years ago). For the longest time I didn't listen to Chinese music, especially while growing up (though to be fair I didn't listen to much of anything growing up outside of classical music).

Towards the end of undergrad and the beginning of grad school I started to travel a bit more and thus had the unfortunate circumstance of passing time by watching movies on airplanes. After exhausting the classics (because honestly nothing new from Hollywood is really that great), I ended up turning to Chinese movies (though to be fair they're not much better). The soundtracks of the movies were pretty catchy (much more than the movies themselves), and I was able to find the tracks pretty easily. Eventually I ended up finding (now defunct) 1g1g, which functions as a Chinese version of Pandora and the rest kind of went from there. I'd stumble upon new artists and playlists, and now my phone is starting to fill up with Chinese music. Oops...

Some of what I'm currently listening to: