Sportsball Continues

It has to be Gonzaga vs. Baylor, right?

"wisely or not by the attractions of similarity and difference"

"The things that make our lives are so tenuous, so unlikely, that we barely come into being, barely meet the people we're meant to love, barely find our way in the woods, barely survive catastrophe every day.  Your origin is due to two people come together, by accident, whether wisely or not by the attractions of similarity and difference, who survive each other's fears and limits long enough to create the collision of two cells from which you spring.  A million sperm swim at every egg, and somehow the one that makes the journey all the way begets you in combination with that single maternal cell; the faintest rearrangement of that unthinkable coupling and someone else arrives on earth out of that maze inside your mother; or no one comes into being; or your mother neglects one moment in that terrifying vulnerability that is your first few years and you are snuffed out like a candle, drowned in the bath, choked on a button found on the floor."

-- Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby

"they don't seem to have understood"

Shit just got real for some French cheese-making monks:

"The Cîteaux Abbey, just south of Dijon, birthplace of the Cistercian Catholic order, usually sells its raw-milk, semi-soft discs only to restaurants or visitors to its on-site shop. But a drop in demand since the coronavirus crisis erupted last year has left the abbey’s 19 Trappist monks with 4,000 cheeses too many, a 2.8-tonne problem.

'We tried explaining to our 75 cows that they needed to produce less milk but they don’t seem to have understood,' said brother Jean-Claude, in charge of marketing at the monastery, which was founded in 1098.

'Our sales are down nearly 50%,” he said, with French restaurants still closed since 30 October as authorities try to stifle a third wave of cases. 'We need to clear out our stock.'”

Good cheese is one of my top three foods that I'm happy to have access to now that I'm back in America (real bagels, Maryland style crabs would be the others).

Honestly, just send me to this monastery with a fork and I'll take care of it.  Maybe some bread and fresh tomatoes too, natch.

Life Goes On

My beautiful sister Lauren is visiting this weekend.  A few weeks back we thought we'd have to drive the Old Man down to Seattle for his shot, but we managed to find one in town.

Anyhow, it's so nice to have her here.  Dad couldn't be happier.

Being able to talk about something other than what's on FOX News is always nice.

Anyhow, we're doing house / financial stuff today and probably watching basketball all weekend.

This is it.  This is my entire family, with the very glaring exception of my awesome nephew.  He should make it out this summer to help me pick / steal blackberries from the neighbors.

"that is not enough to free us from them"

"'It's the queen of sciences,' he said testily, speaking around his cigarette.  'You really ought to -- well, never mind.  Let me put it this way: There is a logic to the shapes of lives and relationships, and that logic is embedded in the stuff of existence.  The lover does not awake one morning convinced he would rather be an engineer.  The musician does not abandon her keyboard without regrets.  The CEO does not surrender wealth.  Or if he does, he will find it easier to give up everything, find a cave in the mountains and become a philosopher than to simply downscale his life-style.  You see?  We are all of us living stories that on some deep level give us satisfaction.  If we are unhappy with our stories, that is not enough to free us from them.  We must find other stories that flow naturally from those we have been living.'

'So you're saying. . . that I'm living a story in which I don't get financial aid?  Is that it?'

He shook his head.  'It's not you.  The secretary is living a story in which she doesn't give you financial aid.  It's a subtle distinction, but a crucial one.  It gives you an out."

-- Michael Swanwick, The Iron Dragon's Daughter

People, Places, and Food

I knew the thing I'd miss most after leaving South Korea was the food.  But interestingly, my food cravings for han-shik didn't kick in straightaway.  And when they did, they were more based on the restaurants and the people I used to eat with than just the food itself.  Even my weekly Monday lunch meetings, where my boss would tell me and my foreigner co-worker everything we were doing wrong lately, is something I'm a bit nostalgic about.

I guess the fact that now I'm eating (and cooking!) pretty healthy meals for two (including my Old Man, of course) eases the pain a bit.  If I'm being honest, I'm probably eating a bit healthier now anyhow -- I did OK with eating plenty of raw fruit for breakfast in Daegu, but my veggie intake was hurting.  (South Korea is a carnivore's paradise, to say the least.)  These days I'm enjoying the access to incredibly cheap fresh produce, and in some cases just bags of frozen broccoli in a pinch.

The point being, I could name a few Korean foods I miss -- kimchi stew, soy-braised chicken and noodles, even Korean-style fish-and-rice rolls.  But each one goes along with a memory of a certain restaurant, or co-worker, or friend, or even my two regular convenience stores in northern Daegu.

It's not surprising at all, really.  Food memory imprints are directly connected to social ones.

I'd kill for a fried chicken joint within delivery distance, however.  If it isn't clear by now, I really am living in the middle of nowhere.  According my Google Maps there's a Subway about three miles from us, but that would just be sad and wrong, no?

Also, I miss the price.  Here in America five bucks will get you a fast-food value meal at best.  In my favorite joints in Daegu you could eat like a king or a queen.

Work Will Always Suck

This Vox piece does a pretty good job of summarizing how the coronavirus has changed work and the workplace, for better and worse:

"In particular, knowledge workers — high-skilled workers whose jobs are done on computers — will likely see the biggest changes, from our physical locations to the technology we use to the ways in which our productivity is measured. In turn, how we work impacts everything from our own personal satisfaction to new inventions to the broader economy and society as a whole.

These changes represent a chance to remake work as we know it and to learn from the mistakes of our working past — if we’re thoughtful about how we enact them."

Of course, "knowledge workers" is a huge tell right off of the bat -- working service or industrial jobs will still suck, be hell on your body, and / or force you to deal with the American public at large i.e., very stupid and insane people, if not stupid, insane, and well-armed people.

But there are upsides -- more flexible hours, more working from home, less need to rent crappy, tiny apartments in New York or San Francisco.

The downsides?  More part-time contracts.  Less overall job security.

The real question remains -- is any of this sustainable on a decades-long basis?  I'm thinking no, not really.

One Of The Greats

I'm stoked that now I live in Bellingham I'm a Seattle Mariners fan.

Ichiro Suzuki still plays for them, right?

— James (@wetcasements) March 23, 2021

Sportsball Cont'd

UVA shit the bed.

I haven't filled out a bracket in years anyhow.

Still rooting for Gonzaga because they're local, the Old Man likes them, and running the table for the first time since 76 would be cool.

First One Down

My Dad got his first shot this morning.  Gotta say, arranging the appointment was an incredible hassle involving literal hours on hold.  The actual vax site, at a local community college, was very well run with multiple layers of nurses, doctors, and very helpful volunteer staff.

My racist Dad (age 92) let the incredibly patient nurse know that a) the virus came from China and b) Hillary Clinton cut off all funding for American-made vaccines (even FOX isn't this stupid, no idea where he got it).

Anyhow, he's got an appointment for a second shot next month.  I should probably start looking into one for myself.  Then again, my mask discipline is high coming from Korea and I live in the middle of nowhere.

"you are naively puzzled that I should be so wretched and so full of venom"

"Of course you don't want me to be stupid, bless you! you only want to make sure you're intelligent.  You don't want me to commit suicide; you only want me to be gratefully aware of my dependency.  You don't want me to despise myself; you only want to ensure the flattering deference to you that you consider a spontaneous tribute to your natural qualities.  You don't want me to lose my soul; you only want what everybody wants, things to go your way; you want a devoted helpmeet, a self-sacrificing mother, a hot chick, a darling daughter, women to look at, women to laugh at, women to come to for comfort, women to wash your floors and buy your groceries and cook your food and keep your children out of your hair, to work when you need the money and stay home when you don't, women to be enemies when you want a good fight, women who are sexy when you want a good lay, women who don't complain, women who don't nag or push, women who don't hate you really, women who know their job, and above all -- women who lose.  On top of it all, you sincerely require me to be happy; you are naively puzzled that I should be so wretched and so full of venom in this best of all possible worlds.  Whatever can be the matter with me?  But the mode is more than a little outworn.

Any my mother once said: The boys throw stones at the frogs in jest.

But the frogs die in earnest."

-- Joanna Russ, The Female Man

Sportsball In The Country

My dad and I are more excited than I expected by the prospects of March Madness.  We live in the middle of nowhere so I'm guessing that's part of the allure.  Anyhow, I'll be rooting for Virginia (my graduate school) and Gonzaga (my dad's favorite) and just pleased as fucking punch that Duke isn't a part of any of it.

Anyhow, I've got some chicken thighs in the oven and some veggies cooked.  When the old man comes out for lunch we'll be ready.

"They were Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Delania Ashley, Yaun Gonzalez, Julie Park and Heyeon Jeong Park"

Moira Donegan says what needs to be said about the anti-Asian, anti-woman hate crime that took place in Atlanta:

"Why do so many straight men come to resent and hate the women they find attractive? Maybe it’s a question of power. People often experience being sexually attracted to someone as if that person has a kind of power over them, and for a straight, white man like Long, positioned at the top of so many social hierarchies, this is likely one of his most acute experiences of another person’s power that he has ever faced. For men socialized in a sexist culture where rigid strictures of masculinity dictate that another person’s power over a man constitutes a failure of his masculinity, attraction to a woman can be interpreted as a threat posed by that woman – at least, it can for men of especially weak character. It is not hard to deduce how a racist and sexist man, reared in a culture of white supremacy and masculine entitlement, could experience his own powerlessness over his attraction to the women at the spas as a distressing humiliation. To be able to experience sexual attraction to another person without that feeling becoming a source of shame and rage requires a degree of self assurance and respect that Long, and men like him, evidently do not possess."

Easy access to guns, a former president glibly spewing racism, and an American culture awash in misogyny -- this type of violence will happen again.

And sex workers deserve the same rights and protections that anyone else has.

Self Improvement

plan was to study Korean a few hours a week once I got back to US.

hours of Korean actually studied so far since 2.1.2021:

0

— James (@wetcasements) March 17, 2021

COVID Shots For the Old Man

A few weeks ago my sister set my Dad up for his first COVID shot down in Everett, Washington.  It would have been a one hour drive and while that might not sound too bad, you have to understand that even a 15 minute trip into town is a Very Big Deal for him, and wipes him out for the rest of the day.

Through a mix of luck, a friendly visit from my Dad's wonderful neighbor, and some begging on my part we finally got him set for his first dose (Moderna) this Saturday at a local community college.

So, the good news is he'll get his first shot.

The bad news is that it took a fair amount of gnashing and wailing and stress to get this much done.  My sister has spent hours on the phone, on hold, to no avail.

If there's a larger point here, it's don't be afraid to mention your circumstances (Dad is almost 100) and don't expect any progress unless you're talking to a live human being.

The Whatcom County website was a total bust, but staying on hold (after getting cut off twice) and quickly blurting out that my Pop is a nonagenarian did wonders.

Be persistent.  Realize that the layers of websites and apps are CYA bullshit.  Getting someone's ear is the only way forward, as of now.

"I'm for killing that goddamn thing right now"

R.I.P. Yaphet Kotto, one of the great character actors of all time.

More Walking

Bellingham, Washington.

"the pinball machine of your life"

"Stern slid open a desk drawer and took out a blackened pipe.  He smelled it, turned it over while looking at me.  'Psychiatry attacks the onion of the self, removing layer after layer until it gets down to the little sliver of unsullied ego.  Or: psychiatry drills like an oil well, down and sidewise and down again, through all the muck and rock until it strikes a layer that yields. Or: psychiatry grabs a handful of sexual motivations and throws them on the pinball machine of your life, so they bounce on down against the episodes.  Want more?'

I had to laugh.  'That last one was pretty good.'

'That last one was pretty bad.  They are all bad.  They all try to simplify something which is complex by its very nature.  The only thumbnail you'll get from me is this: no one knows what's really wrong with you but you; no one can find a cure for it but you; no one but you can identify it as a cure; and once you find it, no one but you can do anything about it.'

'What are you here for?'

'To listen.'"

-- Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human

Why Is This Hard?

potentially buying a bicycle and very amused by brand / model names:

RAPTOR VELOCITUDE TRAIL RIPPER MARK 78,000

EVIL GENIUS MULTIPRONGULATED ROAD ANNIHILATOR

Dude, market to me like I'm an adult not an eight year-old boy.

— James (@wetcasements) March 13, 2021

"the useful residue of the work of past laborers"

"Yes yes.  Don't interrupt me.  Management is a real thing, a technical matter.  But it can be controlled by labor just as by capital.  Capital itself is simply the useful residue of the work of past laborers, and it could belong to everyone as well as to a few.  There is no reason why a tiny nobility should own the capital, and everyone else therefore be in service to them.  There is no reason they should give us a living wage and take all the rest we produce.  No!  The system called capitalist democracy was not really democratic at all.  That is why it was able to turn so quickly into the metanational system, in which democracy grew ever weaker and capitalism every stronger.  In which one percent of the population owned half of the wealth, and five percent of the population owned ninety-five percent of the wealth.  History has shown which values were real in that system.  And the sad thing is that the injustice and suffering caused by it were not at all necessary, in that the technical means have existed since the eighteenth century to provide the basics of life to all."

-- Kim Stanley Robinson, Blue Mars

What Up, James?

It's hard to believe I've been back in America for almost six weeks now.  Life is moving along and most importantly, despite some bumps, my Dad is doing well.  Today was a "town day" so I drove him in for some shopping.  It's still cold here though -- I really want spring to get to it.

I wasn't totally sure what would happen to this here blog once I left Korea.  Thing is, as much as I yap about Korea, I've always considered this to be a personal, early 2000's era type of thing, i.e., an online diary that very few people actually read.

And I think we'll continue with that!  I'm getting back into taking pictures, and you might notice I've been putting together a series called The Give and The Take.  I'm working on short prose pieces to give any and everybody a sense of what it's like taking care of an older relative -- mostly good things I hope, but inevitably some bad as well.  In addition, I brought a notebook-and-a-half of material from Daegu sketching out my life as a (former) English teacher.

I'm really happy for anybody to come by, honestly.  Sitting down to write a little bit and post some photos at night, even a relatively meaningless little post like this, gives me a fair amount of pleasure these days.

And I'm reading a ton, as well, so expect even more straight-up book reviews.

I should be getting a COVID shot this spring, and as long as things continue to go pretty well I'll be here in Bellingham for the rest of 2021.

A crystal ball would be nice, no?  But I'll settle for this for now.

Will I jinx 2021 by saying it's going OK so far?  For everybody I hope?

Country Life

The mighty Nooksack River.

 A mighty hungry goat.

Bellingham, Washington.

Please Pass The (Royal) Jelly

I watched some of the Oprah interview with Meghan Markle and that guy she married.

As an American, it's hard for me to really do anything but root for injuries here.  But I have no doubt Markle was treated like shit by the rest of the royal family, in no small part because she's black.

(Diderot, or supposedly Diderot, was right all along re: kings, priests, strangulation, and entrails.)

And anything that embarrasses Piers Morgan is worthwhile.

The best argument I ever heard for not nuking the Royals from orbit is that their combined presence brings a lot of tourist money into the UK every year.

Weak tea as they say, but if I squint a little I guess I can see a point there.

"scooby snack jurassic plastic gas booby trap"

I'd like to think I'm the only person in Whatcom County who walked 5 km this morning listen to @GhostfaceKillah 's _Supreme Clientele_.

If not, we should meet behind the Nugent's Corner grocery store.

— James (@wetcasements) March 9, 2021

Civilization!

Dad and I went into town today.  ("Town" meaning Bellingham proper.)

We hit Fred Meyer's (Northwest Pacific grocery behemoth), Rite-Aid (cheapo red wine by the jug), and Walmart.

I haven't interacted with anybody but my Dad, and my sister before that, for over a month.  This led me to saying hi to everybody I came within five feet of.

On the one hand, small-town Washington is one of the places in America where you can get away with this kind of behavior.  On the other, I still feel like an idiot.

(I was happy to note everybody was following mask protocol without complaint.)

The Old Man is wiped out.  I made lunch for us and now he's probably out until bedtime medtime.  He might get up but only for an hour or so at most.

I've probably made Bellingham out to be a weird, lonely place (it is!) but the scenery on a drive is really spectacular, as long as the weather is relatively clear.

"So many of us have experienced it, sometimes for the first time in our lives"

America is seeing a rise in anti-Asian racism and violence.  Of course, it's nothing new:

"Among these attacks, there are notable patterns: Women were more likely than men to say they were targeted, several assaults involved children, and harassment was more likely to occur at retail stores and pharmacies since people have been limiting their activities during the pandemic.

'So many of us have experienced it, sometimes for the first time in our lives,' says Manjusha Kulkarni, the executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, a group that helped set up this tracker. 'It makes it much harder to go to the grocery store, to take a walk, to be outside our homes.'

This rise in anti-Asian harassment has occurred as the US continues to grapple with Covid-19, and it follows months of xenophobic rhetoric by former President Donald Trump, who frequently used racist names for the virus and associated it with Asian Americans.

The broader uptick in racism, however, isn’t just fueled by the pandemic. Although the uncertainty of the outbreak — coupled with the former president’s rhetoric — has amplified it, this prejudice is rooted in longstanding biases toward Asian Americans that have persisted since some of the earliest immigrants came to the US generations ago."

Among the many pathologies of Trump supporters, the one that's always jumped out at me is how quick they are to blame other people for their own anxieties and personal deficiencies as human beings.

A Review of The Beats: A Graphic History

Over the past few years I've tried to open myself up to more graphic novels.  Last year I really enjoyed Ed Piskor's X-Men Grand Design series, but it's definitely for the initiated.  The art is fantastic though, and the writing is solid -- ret-conning the sprawl that is the X-Men franchise into something approaching a cohesive narrative was no small feat.

Unfortunately, The Beats: A Graphic History didn't do it for me.  It really should be called "Kerouac, Ginsburg, Burroughs, and The Less Important Ones."  In less than 200 hundred pages it simply tries to do to much, and it's obvious Piskor isn't too blame here as much as the writers were.

There's some good stuff here though, and as an easy read it certainly wouldn't kill anybody to pick this up.  The definite highlights come in the second half with Joyce Brabner and "Beatnik Chicks."

As our understanding of The Beats continues to grow, warts and all (Kerouac became a staunch conservative later in life who always hated women, Burroughs literally murdered his first wife) this feels like a missed opportunity.  (Although the section on Diane di Prima is also good.)

Back In America Books!

 

Ted Berrigan, The Sonnets

Thomas Ligotti, The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

Karl Marx, Capital Volume 1

Michael Palmer, The Laughter of the Sphinix

Ed Piskor, The Beats

Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby

Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human

Michael Swanwick, The Iron Dragon's Daughter

The Places We Go (And Went)

 

My Dad moved out here to Bellingham in 1994 after he retired from the Department of Agriculture as a scientist.  What I love about this book is that he took meticulous notes ("meticulous" might as well be his middle name, but it's actually Floyd) regarding every hike and trail he did.  My name shows up a few times, as do various clippings from the local paper regarding newer trails that opened over the years.

What's funny is that by far his longest, most arduous hikes were done with his "senior" hiking group, and not with me.

Alas, we haven't been hiking for at least ten years now for understandable reasons of age.

As always, I'm fascinated by books that you can read by just flipping to random pages, and not having to worry about crazy things like successive pages or anything silly like that.

The Old Man has collected beautiful wood carvings and prints and knick-knacks from his travels to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, but this is something I relish as a family treasure.