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.
Monday, March 5, 2018
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
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.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
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:
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:
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
The US Open Is Almost Unwatchable
As we wind down the final Grand Slam event of the year, I'm almost glad as it means that the upcoming events will be away from US soil. The watchability of the US Open is below that of other majors despite it being in a more accessible time zone. Naturally, the thing that gets in the way the most of the US Open is the fans.
American sports fans are a different breed of sports fan compared to other sports fans. It starts with the sports we watch the most, where being noisy and boisterous are not only commonplace, but encouraged. We don't take kindly to taking orders (yay the American spirit?), and value loyalty to our team above all else, including etiquette. And this lack of etiquette makes Americans poor spectators of sports where fans are expected to be respectful and, at times, quiet.
This is painfully obvious within the US Open itself. During matches featuring an American player, fans will loudly cheer when the opponent faults on the first serve. This is very rude and disrupts the flow of the game with the chair umpire constantly telling the audience to be quiet (for example S. Querry vs. M. Zverev or S. Querry vs K. Anderson). On the other hand, when there is no American on the court there is very little noise between the first and second serve (P. Kvitova vs. C. Murugurza the match before) and what cheers are made are often shushed by the crowd. (for example when Federer is playing). It's also pretty obvious at other slams, where this behavior is minimized when the hometown favorite is playing (like Murray at Wimbledon). While I still go every year, I always hope to avoid seeing American players in my session in the hopes of having somewhat watchable tennis.
I never really understood this blinding sense of loyalty in sport. A lot of it seems to be related to a lowest common denominator, where it's just easy to follow along. For example, chanting "USA" at the US Open is just beyond petty. Or maybe it's just time for me to get a lawn so that I can yell at everyone about staying off of it.
American sports fans are a different breed of sports fan compared to other sports fans. It starts with the sports we watch the most, where being noisy and boisterous are not only commonplace, but encouraged. We don't take kindly to taking orders (yay the American spirit?), and value loyalty to our team above all else, including etiquette. And this lack of etiquette makes Americans poor spectators of sports where fans are expected to be respectful and, at times, quiet.
This is painfully obvious within the US Open itself. During matches featuring an American player, fans will loudly cheer when the opponent faults on the first serve. This is very rude and disrupts the flow of the game with the chair umpire constantly telling the audience to be quiet (for example S. Querry vs. M. Zverev or S. Querry vs K. Anderson). On the other hand, when there is no American on the court there is very little noise between the first and second serve (P. Kvitova vs. C. Murugurza the match before) and what cheers are made are often shushed by the crowd. (for example when Federer is playing). It's also pretty obvious at other slams, where this behavior is minimized when the hometown favorite is playing (like Murray at Wimbledon). While I still go every year, I always hope to avoid seeing American players in my session in the hopes of having somewhat watchable tennis.
I never really understood this blinding sense of loyalty in sport. A lot of it seems to be related to a lowest common denominator, where it's just easy to follow along. For example, chanting "USA" at the US Open is just beyond petty. Or maybe it's just time for me to get a lawn so that I can yell at everyone about staying off of it.
Monday, July 10, 2017
So What?
I, like most of us, spend a lot of time perusing the internet, and my general reaction to most things is just "So what?" and not much else. It almost seems like everyone has an opinion, which they are certainly within their rights to hold, but then feel the need that because they're so important and knowledgeable in everything in which the hold an opinion everyone else is obligated to listen to that opinion. I think the peak was right after the election, where everyone had an opinion on the outcome and made sure that you knew what they were saying, because somehow everyone you knew suddenly became a top-notch political analyst overnight.
Of course, this is slightly hypocritical since anything I write is mostly just random thoughts without much substance, which leads to a lot of "So what?" reactions. There's no real direction here, but for a personal "blog" or collection of ramblings, naturally there doesn't need to be. (Naturally I'm such a renown journalist and as such "journalistic integrity" is such a forte, but the lack of it in the professional world is well...another opinion for another day.) Naturally these thoughts have kept me away for a while, and I'm not really sure what I'm doing with this, though at least hopefully it doesn't seem like I'm shoving words/opinions down your throat.
In other words, no news is good news.
Of course, this is slightly hypocritical since anything I write is mostly just random thoughts without much substance, which leads to a lot of "So what?" reactions. There's no real direction here, but for a personal "blog" or collection of ramblings, naturally there doesn't need to be. (Naturally I'm such a renown journalist and as such "journalistic integrity" is such a forte, but the lack of it in the professional world is well...another opinion for another day.) Naturally these thoughts have kept me away for a while, and I'm not really sure what I'm doing with this, though at least hopefully it doesn't seem like I'm shoving words/opinions down your throat.
In other words, no news is good news.
Monday, October 24, 2016
A Commute
While those of you in the Pacific Northwest understand how poor drivers are, I know some of you don't believe me when I say that drivers here are the worst I have come across in the United States. Sure, folks complain a lot about drivers in New York or Los Angeles, but those are aggressive drivers, and their behavior is pretty predictable-leave enough space for a car to merge into your lane, and it'll happen.
When I do drive to work, it's a 4.3-mile commute each way. With no traffic it takes about 10 minutes to get to work, but when there is traffic, the same route takes about 45 minutes, which can be shortened to 30 by taking an alternate route. I wait until after most of the traffic has died down, but by no means does that mean there aren't poor drivers on the road. For example, my drive home last night (yes I'm a grad student so I work weekends):
Mile 0.4: The driver in front of me stops at a green light for no reason, and stays stopped while the light goes from green to yellow to red 5 seconds later.
Mile 0.9: A driver with a green light waves a pedestrian to cross the intersection in front of the car (Seattle drivers are notorious for screwing up right of way at the expense of safety). There are two left turn lanes at the intersection. I'm in the left one, and the person in the right turn lane always cuts in front of my lane in the turn itself and after the turn starts driving in the lane where the left left turn lane turns into instead of the lane the right left turn lane turns into (2 lanes per direction on that 4-lane road).
Mile 1.6: There's a bus stopped at the bus stop in the right lane, and I'm driving on the left lane. All of a sudden the car in front of me slams on the brakes and allows everyone in the right lane behind the bus to merge into the left lane until the bus moves again. (Seattle drivers are notorious for screwing up right of way at the expense of safety, again)
Mile 2.4: I'm behind a car going 25 in a 35 zone so I move into the other lane to pass, but as soon as I pull alongside the car, the other driver all of a sudden starts going 35.
Mile 3.4: Same as mile 2.4, except someone going 25 in a 40 zone.
Mile 3.8: At this intersection, the road I'm on has a left turn lane in both directions. However, most drivers use this as an opportunity to expand their own lane into the left turn lane while going straight through the intersection and to continue using the opposite direction's left turn lane as part of their own lane.
Mile 4.3: At the turn into the complex I'm living in, the middle turning lane has a clear demarcation for when each direction has a left turn (instead of fair use for both directions). However, this doesn't stop the car opposite me to use my left turn lane to get into their left turn lane while I'm approaching the turn with my indicator on.
While Seattle driving is bad, not everything else is-like these pictures I took when I went to Grand Teton national park earlier this month:
When I do drive to work, it's a 4.3-mile commute each way. With no traffic it takes about 10 minutes to get to work, but when there is traffic, the same route takes about 45 minutes, which can be shortened to 30 by taking an alternate route. I wait until after most of the traffic has died down, but by no means does that mean there aren't poor drivers on the road. For example, my drive home last night (yes I'm a grad student so I work weekends):
Mile 0.4: The driver in front of me stops at a green light for no reason, and stays stopped while the light goes from green to yellow to red 5 seconds later.
Mile 0.9: A driver with a green light waves a pedestrian to cross the intersection in front of the car (Seattle drivers are notorious for screwing up right of way at the expense of safety). There are two left turn lanes at the intersection. I'm in the left one, and the person in the right turn lane always cuts in front of my lane in the turn itself and after the turn starts driving in the lane where the left left turn lane turns into instead of the lane the right left turn lane turns into (2 lanes per direction on that 4-lane road).
Mile 1.6: There's a bus stopped at the bus stop in the right lane, and I'm driving on the left lane. All of a sudden the car in front of me slams on the brakes and allows everyone in the right lane behind the bus to merge into the left lane until the bus moves again. (Seattle drivers are notorious for screwing up right of way at the expense of safety, again)
Mile 2.4: I'm behind a car going 25 in a 35 zone so I move into the other lane to pass, but as soon as I pull alongside the car, the other driver all of a sudden starts going 35.
Mile 3.4: Same as mile 2.4, except someone going 25 in a 40 zone.
Mile 3.8: At this intersection, the road I'm on has a left turn lane in both directions. However, most drivers use this as an opportunity to expand their own lane into the left turn lane while going straight through the intersection and to continue using the opposite direction's left turn lane as part of their own lane.
Mile 4.3: At the turn into the complex I'm living in, the middle turning lane has a clear demarcation for when each direction has a left turn (instead of fair use for both directions). However, this doesn't stop the car opposite me to use my left turn lane to get into their left turn lane while I'm approaching the turn with my indicator on.
While Seattle driving is bad, not everything else is-like these pictures I took when I went to Grand Teton national park earlier this month:
(Click to Enlarge)
(Click to Enlarge)
Edit: and now, for the second time in the last 4 months, someone has managed to hit my parked car...
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Nissan Rogue and Marketing
I recently returned from a trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and while there rented a Nissan Rogue (which was an upgrade over the booked Nissan Sentra courtesy of my National Executive status). Over the 5+ days of the trip, I ended up driving the car 1,349 miles and ended up getting a pretty good feel for the car to the point I had to take a second to figure out how to drive my own car when I got back home from the trip.
The Rogue, in my opinion, is straight up awful, and essentially felt like a crossover SUV based on the Versa or Sentra. If you've driven either of those cars, you know that both of those cars are incredibly weak. A Versa starts at 109 horsepower, and a Rogue starts at 170 horsepower, which is not necessarily ideal for going through the mountains of a national park. Even National straight-up told me that the Pathfinder at 284 horsepower was a much better option.
Through those 1,349 miles there was many challenging points for the car. At its weak power it particularly struggled on hills. At about 6 degree incline the car maxed out at around 50 mph, and at a 10 degree incline the car would not travel above 38 mph (my car, with 228 horsepower on the base model, has no issues getting past 35 on a 24 degree incline near my place). Additionally, the car really struggled on turns, and in general the balance did not feel stable. The center of gravity felt way too high for a crossover, especially since I had previously driven a 2005/6-ish Honda Pilot when I had my permit (and when I initially had my license) and that felt incredibly stable compared to the Rogue. It also didn't help that any time a car passed in the opposite direction on those rural highways the hood would shake profusely as if it would become detached in the front and obscure the windshield.
Now, I understand that not everyone is looking to take this car through a mountain pass in the snow or drive it over uneven gravel to get to a river. However, these cars are marketed as such to the general public, when most of them will never need these cars for those purposes. Of course that's marketing at work.
I believe that this kind of marketing is used to make people feel like their car can do anything; that it's some status symbol of some point (look at me, I'm outdoorsy!) that's easy to display. Obviously this seems to work, as the Rogue is still around and selling. However, the vehicle itself is next to useless in any challenging condition requiring anything beyond basic all-wheel drive functions. I'm not even sure the car would make it up my parent's driveway, which might be 25 degrees, during a snowstorm. While I think the Rogue is much better suited for city driving, advertising it as such isn't going to drive sales as much as advertising it an an outdoors car, which is too bad for consumers who don't look at all the specifications before buying a car.
The Rogue, in my opinion, is straight up awful, and essentially felt like a crossover SUV based on the Versa or Sentra. If you've driven either of those cars, you know that both of those cars are incredibly weak. A Versa starts at 109 horsepower, and a Rogue starts at 170 horsepower, which is not necessarily ideal for going through the mountains of a national park. Even National straight-up told me that the Pathfinder at 284 horsepower was a much better option.
Through those 1,349 miles there was many challenging points for the car. At its weak power it particularly struggled on hills. At about 6 degree incline the car maxed out at around 50 mph, and at a 10 degree incline the car would not travel above 38 mph (my car, with 228 horsepower on the base model, has no issues getting past 35 on a 24 degree incline near my place). Additionally, the car really struggled on turns, and in general the balance did not feel stable. The center of gravity felt way too high for a crossover, especially since I had previously driven a 2005/6-ish Honda Pilot when I had my permit (and when I initially had my license) and that felt incredibly stable compared to the Rogue. It also didn't help that any time a car passed in the opposite direction on those rural highways the hood would shake profusely as if it would become detached in the front and obscure the windshield.
Now, I understand that not everyone is looking to take this car through a mountain pass in the snow or drive it over uneven gravel to get to a river. However, these cars are marketed as such to the general public, when most of them will never need these cars for those purposes. Of course that's marketing at work.
Nissan Rogue Pitch (Click to Enlarge)
I believe that this kind of marketing is used to make people feel like their car can do anything; that it's some status symbol of some point (look at me, I'm outdoorsy!) that's easy to display. Obviously this seems to work, as the Rogue is still around and selling. However, the vehicle itself is next to useless in any challenging condition requiring anything beyond basic all-wheel drive functions. I'm not even sure the car would make it up my parent's driveway, which might be 25 degrees, during a snowstorm. While I think the Rogue is much better suited for city driving, advertising it as such isn't going to drive sales as much as advertising it an an outdoors car, which is too bad for consumers who don't look at all the specifications before buying a car.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Another Year
It's funny seeing all the first year grad students (and undergrads) all happy and excited to be here. It's only time until they have the happiness beat out of them.
Monday, September 12, 2016
The DIY Way
Last week, for the first time, I hemmed a set of curtains. I may have cheated a little bit by using ironing tape instead of sewing the hem, but it gets the job done. I might pat myself on the back and marvel at a new job well done (well, not particularly well done, but a serviceable job nonetheless).
Obviously this isn't about tooting my own horn-hemming curtains isn't particularly difficult. What I am intrigued by is the ebbing of the DIY mentality, where today's young adults seem to possess fewer and fewer handiwork skills (which I had also mentioned with the increase in restaurant spending with the decrease of grocery store spending).
A New York Times Sunday Op-Ed provides some intriguing thoughts, and while I'm not as quick to believe an imminent demise of functional society, it does raise some good points. Many of those "world-changing" ideas exist to create a problem to be solved, and it seems that the primary basis of many of these is the convenience of someone doing something else for you. And of course more time to socialize, which seems to be the only priority outside working hours.
While I understand that we can't do everything and are unable to acquire every skill, the lack of these skills that the previous generation had around the house is quite galling. As the Op-Ed points out, many seek to outsource away "everything their mothers no longer do" to the point that they're completely useless inside the home. This lack of DIY, outside of figuring out how to make someone else do it for you, might also explain why so many seem to have such a hard time putting together IKEA furniture.
News flash: It's not that hard. With a little bit of can-do and some common sense, a lot can be done if only you have the spirit to try.
Obviously this isn't about tooting my own horn-hemming curtains isn't particularly difficult. What I am intrigued by is the ebbing of the DIY mentality, where today's young adults seem to possess fewer and fewer handiwork skills (which I had also mentioned with the increase in restaurant spending with the decrease of grocery store spending).
A New York Times Sunday Op-Ed provides some intriguing thoughts, and while I'm not as quick to believe an imminent demise of functional society, it does raise some good points. Many of those "world-changing" ideas exist to create a problem to be solved, and it seems that the primary basis of many of these is the convenience of someone doing something else for you. And of course more time to socialize, which seems to be the only priority outside working hours.
While I understand that we can't do everything and are unable to acquire every skill, the lack of these skills that the previous generation had around the house is quite galling. As the Op-Ed points out, many seek to outsource away "everything their mothers no longer do" to the point that they're completely useless inside the home. This lack of DIY, outside of figuring out how to make someone else do it for you, might also explain why so many seem to have such a hard time putting together IKEA furniture.
News flash: It's not that hard. With a little bit of can-do and some common sense, a lot can be done if only you have the spirit to try.
Friday, September 2, 2016
Overheard
Overheard at lunch yesterday:
Girl: Having the freedom to do what I want means that I can choose to be outwardly sexual.
Guy: But, that plays right into the patriarchy.
Girl: But isn't feminism all about letting me do what I want to do?
Rinse and repeat for the 10 minutes I was stuck within earshot of them.
Welcome to Seattle, and now a great portion of urban America, where you're free to do whatever you want to do, as long as it fits within the narrow mindset of the hive mind behind movements whose end goals don't actually have anything to do with equality.
Girl: Having the freedom to do what I want means that I can choose to be outwardly sexual.
Guy: But, that plays right into the patriarchy.
Girl: But isn't feminism all about letting me do what I want to do?
Rinse and repeat for the 10 minutes I was stuck within earshot of them.
Welcome to Seattle, and now a great portion of urban America, where you're free to do whatever you want to do, as long as it fits within the narrow mindset of the hive mind behind movements whose end goals don't actually have anything to do with equality.
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