a funny sketch: Black Lady Courtroom

This is uplifting and hilarious.

zen interior design style

I'm very impressed by people who can do interior design. I've read many books and watched videos, and I'm still unable to do it.

I did figure out that my preferred style is the Zen style.

Camino plans: Porto to Santiago

I've been talking a lot about the Camino. Finally I decided to do it. 

I bought plane tickets to walk the Camino Portuguese this May. Hopefully there will be wildflowers. I'll be walking 173 miles from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Aff will walk the final 63 miles with me.

I hope it will be meditative, with trees and ocean and port wine and audiobooks.

white-glove manipulation

During the pandemic, I read "Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels". The author went undercover and worked at two luxury hotels for a year, to assess how workers felt about customers spending $500 or $800 per night on a room. This book is from the mid 90s, so it would be equivalent to something like $1000 per night nowadays.

The workers were earning around $20 per hour. They used mental techniques to deal with witnessing the wealth differential up-close every day. Some workers looked down on the customers for being uncouth or being unable to endure any hardship due to lifelong pampering. They passive aggressively left rude customers on hold for 15 minutes, and then apologized profusely when taking them off hold. This made the customers frustrated and helpless. Other workers identified with the wealthiest customers and saw them as buddies. 

The customers wanted approval from the workers. These 5-star hotels cultivated an extremely complex and undocumented set of etiquette, to create insecurity in their rich customers. If you don't tip your bellhop, you're a jerk. If you try to tip the receptionist, you're also a jerk. If you tip too little, you're a jerk. How much is the right amount to tip? That depends on many variables and is not posted anywhere, but if you get it wrong, you're a jerk.

The customers end up in a state of insecurity, hoping they don't breach etiquette. They probably also sense that some workers may look down on them secretly. The hotels serve as a finishing school for the rich, teaching them the arbitrary rules. Customers sent flowers to the workers, brought them gifts, and remembered their names. The workers served as judges of who is exuding upper-class behavior and who is an impostor.

I like reading about manipulative systems, to give myself some defenses against manipulative tactics. 

Earning dough vs unlimited breadsticks

Me: "So many work leaders like to say 'We're not just a work team, we're a family.' That's just a way to manipulate employees into working free overtime. I prefer if we just stick to setting clear professional expectations. What are the deliverables? When are they due? What will employees be paid? I don't pay my actual family. I don't assign titles and promote my family members."

Rebecca: "Maybe some people don't take the idea of family as seriously. It's like Olive Garden. When you're here, you're family."

History of Sugar

I listened to an audiobook "The History of Sugar". I had no idea that sugar plantations were even crueler than cotton and tobacco plantations. The average life span of a slave on a sugar plantation was 10 years. It was so hard on the women's bodies that it made them infertile. 

Sugar led to the creation of sugar bowls, for rich Europeans to show off. They whitewashed the ways in which the sugar was produced.

This audiobook actually led me to have less desire to eat sugary foods.

Also, these old-timey sugar advertisements are evil.

Wizard of Earthsea

I am having a good day. 

I'm 66% through "A Wizard of Earthsea", which I'm reading for a book club. I first read it in 2008 and didn't understand the ending. I could tell that it was about a journey toward maturity and wisdom, and I figured I would appreciate it better one day when I myself reached greater maturity. 

Fourteen years have passed. I have forgotten most of the plot, so this read still provides all the pleasure of discovery. I am listening to it on audiobook.

It is such a delight to experience a masterful work, to witness so much competence and skill. 

Perhaps this time I will understand the ending. If not, in 2037 I will try again. 

Update: I did understand the ending this time. But I'll probably understand it even better in 2037.

a fragile encasing

Me: After reading that Twitter thread about people who feel an impending sense of doom and then die shortly after, I really feel aware of my mortality! Our bodies are just a meat encasing that will decline and one day die.

Aff: Stupid meat. [looking up at the sky] Why me...at?? 

Quiet Antarctica

One unexpected cool thing about Antarctica is knowing there are almost no other humans around, as far as the eye can see. 

It is quiet. There are no sounds of traffic. Just penguin noises and ice breaking off. 

We passed another ship yesterday and it was shocking to see another sign of human life! 

It is also interesting to look out and see vast mountains that probably no human has set foot on.

Antarctic snow

Antarctica is making me appreciate snow. 

Snow in cities is inconvenient. Shoes track sludge into the house. Going inside or outside requires minutes of changing clothing. I need to keep track of so many additional accessories: hat, scarf, mittens, socks. 

Snow in nature is awe-inspiring. It is silent, but alters the landscape. 

When it comes to oceans or lakes, I encounter them in their full form, after driving out of the city. My memories of them involve amazement. Most of my memories of snow involve half-melted snow on the roadside, mixed with dirt and leaves. 

I've been seeing a domesticated form of snow, and now I am seeing it in its natural habitat.

Antarctica!

I'm going to Antarctica in a month!

I previously tried to go in 2009, but that boat sank before my trip. (All the passengers were rescued.)

When friends hear of my Antarctica plans, their reactions are divided. Some immediately say it is a dream of theirs. Others say it sounds cold and unappealing. There are few reactions in the middle. 

I started packing already and reading about historical expeditions to Antarctica. 

Currently I am reading about the Belgica ship from 1897. To my surprise, there was mutiny, mass firing, and the ship getting stranded on rocks before they even rounded past Argentina. 

I have also been binging Great Courses audiobooks in the past month. My favorites were about the Berlin Wall, Japan, the Civil Rights movement, and Beethoven.

I will download so many audiobooks for the days at sea through the Drake Passage!

Mint ice cream

I made mint chip ice cream from real mint leaves! 

It's good. 

New York is noisy

I am visiting NYC after a work trip to Connecticut. 

NYC is so noisy! There is movement from all directions, honking and talking and sounds of objects being moved. 

No wonder people here are cranky. Their nerves must be frayed. 

And yet people pay huge sums to live in NYC! 

I like the large number of ethnicities. I heard so many languages spoken around me, and saw so many types of food. That part was cool. 

I once thought NYC would be a stimulating place to live, because of all the museums and diversity. But now I think the noise is a deal-breaker. 

walking 2023

I am increasingly captivated by the Camino de Santiago. It is a walk across Spain that was started in the 9th century by pilgrims.

The most popular route, the Camino de Frances, is 800km. You start at the border of Spain and France, and then walk westward across Spain. 

Over 100,000 people walk the route each year. I'd like to stay at the communal albergues (hostels devoted to walkers), so I'll need to wait until covid subsides more. 

The most appealing aspect is the endorphin rush. When I did survival school a decade ago, I felt ecstatic for hours each day from walking 15+ miles. It was probably runner's high, which I've never had while running. 

My fear is what if the endorphin rush doesn't happen? Then it'll be just drudgery, physical discomfort, and loneliness. 

However, it will be pleasant to see castles, forests, mountains and little quaint towns.  

Carbon dioxide

Aff got a CO2 monitor, so that we can see the ventilation levels of indoor spaces, for covid safety. It's quite convenient!

I like Go

Aff and I have been programming together in GoLang. It's a well-designed programming language!

I'm still taking covid precautions by avoiding indoor gatherings and indoor dining. Sometimes I feel a bit stir-crazy. It is nice to have GoLang as an enjoyable joint activity.

climbing role model

It took many years, but I'm finally starting to get interested in rock climbing. It's mainly because we met a woman Jane who is a Chinese climber 2 years older than me. 

She's obsessed with climbing, traveling all over the place (Montana, Mexico, New Hampshire) just for rock climbing. She climbs every day that she can. 

It's rare to meet a middle-aged Chinese woman who is obsessed to this degree with rock climbing! I found it very intriguing. I asked her 200 questions about her life and how she got into climbing. Then I became newly interested in rock climbing.

I like Rio de Janeiro

Aff and I visited Rio de Janeiro. I had a feeling of awe as soon as our plane circled the tree-covered hills and landed on an airstrip next to the ocean.

Rio has a plethora of sidewalk and outdoor dining, which is convenient during the pandemic. 

We stayed at an inn run by a German ex-psychologist. He started visiting Brazil in 1991 and loved it, and then opened the inn in 2009. Like many Germans, he valued being punctual and organized in our interactions. At one point, he needed repairs from a Brazilian repairperson, who had a much more relaxed relationship to punctuality. Every day, the Brazilian repairperson pushed back the appointment by another day. It was interesting to see the clash of the two cultures. 

Rio also has great bike lanes. We did a 7-hour bike tour that covered 25 miles across the city. Nearly all of it was on bike lanes. 

Our bike guide was Brazilian and grew up in Germany between ages 7 until after college graduation. Similar to the innkeeper, he also was a German/Brazilian blend of cultures. The bike guide moved back to Rio after college because he missed the ocean and nature. 

I noticed that the Rio population is diverse, which I liked a lot. Our bike guide told us, "The Brazilian passport is popular as a fake passport because there are so many ethnicities. No matter how you look: Japanese, Black, German, you could be from Brazil." 

I would like to return to Rio someday, for a couple weeks. There is rock climbing within the city, for Aff. Food and hotel prices are quite reasonable. We could take a boat to nearby islands, and also go see the Amazon forest and Iguazu waterfall. 

Pie

Aff baked me a birthday pie! 

It is a coconut cream pie. I am very happy about it! 

Taos tree

Saw this awesome art in Taos! This is a cool tree painting.