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