Until the end of time

There is an ancient, well-documented rumor that cockroaches can survive a thermonuclear blast. Science tells us they can withstand up to fifteen times the radiation dosage of a human being, making them the undisputed heavyweight champions of the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

What science forgot to mention, however, is that their corpses are equally indestructible. They are entirely immune to the specialized gaze of high-end apartment maintenance crews.

Welcome to the Enzo apartments in Irvine, where luxury living meets permanent, chitinous installation art.

If you stroll down the parking structure, wander past the pristine pool, or step out of the elevators, you will see a masterclass in modern facility management. The ground practically gleams. The maintenance team treats the concrete with a level of industrial devotion usually reserved for cleaning up biohazard zones. They are out there regularly, armed with pressure washers, blasting away the sins of the world with the force of a thousand suns. The parking stalls look immaculate. The pool deck is pristine.

Yet, step into the residential hallway carpet right near my room, and the grand illusion of the luxury tier crumbles into a funny little pile of six-legged irony.

There he lies. A robust, deeply tanned American cockroach, profoundly deceased.

He didn’t just pass away yesterday. This little guy has been occupying his premium square inch of hallway real estate for a few weeks now. At this point, he has outlasted typical guest parking limits, a few news cycles, and certainly the patience of anyone paying Orange County rent. He has achieved a state of mummified permanence that local museums would envy.

It has become a genuine geometric mystery. How does a cleaning crew meticulously power-wash an entire multi-level parking garage and scrub the elevator tracks to a mirror finish, yet somehow develop a localized, blind spot exactly where this carcass rests? It’s as if he’s protected by a cloaking device. Perhaps the industrial vacuums possess a sensor that automatically steers around anything resembling a prehistoric relic.

Every day I walk past him, expecting the great scoop-up that never comes. I’ve started treating him less like a pest and more like a stubborn, unbilled tenant. He doesn't pay amenities fees, he completely ignores the community guidelines, and he has successfully evaded the broom for a fortnight.

If the bombs ever do drop, I have a feeling the Enzo parking structure might take some structural damage, but this hallway carpet—and its permanent, amber-colored resident—will remain entirely unchanged, quietly mocking the pressure washers until the end of time.

Our k-trip

South Korea:  A highly developed nation with a shrinking population of 51 million known for lots of cultural exports with 'k' in front of them to denote their global premium label; k-pop, k-drama, k-

food, k-fashion, k-beauty surgery.  One of the noticeable aspects of their culture is politeness which is deeply rooted in Confucianism, emphasizing hierarchy, respect for elders and social harmony.  This is in stark contrast to U.S. individualism that produces the entitled Karens of the world.  South Korea is also a nation of intense competition, particularly in business and education.  The economy is highly concentrated within a handful of massive conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai, LG, where all the high paying and prestigious jobs are.  To land a position at one of these conglomerates requires a degree from one of the top three universities in the country, in what can only be described as a zero-sum game rat race.  A huge breath of fresh air is their no-tip custom. 

Seoul, the capital of South Korea that houses approximately 9.6 million people in just 605.21 km². This small area accounts for only 0.6% of South Korea's total land but holds roughly 20% of its population.

From the moment we approached the Incheon airport in the outskirts of Seoul, we were take aback by the number of high rise buildings in such a densely populated city.  I took the picture above from the North Seoul tower observation deck on the Namsan mountain in central Seoul.  The photo displays a dense urban landscape featuring a mix of modern skyscrapers and older residential neighborhoods.  And this is the epitome of the city; a mixture of old school vs. ultra-modern, where centuries-old palaces and Hanok villages exist side-by-side with dazzling skyscrapers, neon-lit streets, and cutting-edge technology.  Even within the posh areas of the city, there is ghetto tendencies on display, such as the spaghetti of wires in back alleys, HVAC units and the cell towers in full view - the Koreans expend zero effort in hiding these.  The picture to the left is Elin marveling at the beauty of old Seoul in one of the alleys near our Airbnb in CentralViewSuite Residence Myeongdong, we stayed for a few days upon our arrival.

All of these unremarkable aesthetics seem to be in conflict with Korea's cultural obsession with physical beauty as well; South Korea is a country with the highest rate of cosmetic surgeries per capita globally, whereby attractiveness is a form of social capital linked to professional success.  Many job applications  require a photograph.  And for all these reasons, it's quite understandable that I got multiple requests from family and friends in the U.S. to bring back skincare products laced with salmon sperm, developed first in - you guessed it - South Korea.

Transportation:  One of the first things we noticed upon arrival was how cheap transportation was via taxi and Uber.  The cost of rideshare in Korea is easily 1/3rd of that in the U.S., so we decided to take taxis, later switched to Uber for all our transportation needs beyond walking.  Subway was a cheaper option, but not by a lot, plus travel time with subway was longer.  Koreans use a popular taxi app called Kakao-T - the foreigner version is k.ride, which failed to function at least half the time we attempted to hail a ride, hence the transition to Uber which worked 100% of the time.  Most taxi/Uber drivers were aggressive drivers, so much so that Elin threw up once after a ride to Seoul station on our last day there.  And the cell phone GPS the drivers used would voice directions incessantly; I'm talking non-stop instructions.  I will forever remember "kilo meeta", the Korean pronunciation of kilometer.  Only one driver muted the GPS voice, and may God bless him for our only peaceful ride.

Currency exchange:  I purchased $600 worth of Korean won at LAX prior to our departure flight, in what turned out to be a colossal mistake.  The exchange rates at LAX blow.  To further make this decision a debacle of sorts, I learned later converting the remaining Korean won to USD post-trip would result in further losses since the conversion rates are different from and to USD, i.e. if I convert US dollars to won, and immediately convert back to USD, I lose a chunk of my USD in this transaction.  WTF??!!  Lesson learned is, convert money anywhere but at the airport, and spend all of it during your trip, i.e. don't put yourself in a situation of having to reconvert to your local currency.  Through a Google search after the trip, I learned the best exchange rates are offered in Korean private exchange booths in tourist areas, using crisps $100 bills.

Weather:  Lots of cloudy days, a little on the chilly side, 1-2 days of sun the entire week, offset by the cherry blossom trees in full bloom.  Picture to the left is in Busan, South Korea's second largest city.  We stayed a couple of days at a luxury hotel (Paradise hotel Busan) in Haeundae, the most famous beach in the country featuring long sandy stretch lined with high-rise hotels and a lively boardwalk.  This part of Busan reminded me of Miami.  Across the street from our hotel was SEALIFE Busan Aquarium that Elin had forcibly targeted for a visit, which we did.

Addresses in Korea:  Fuhgeddaboudit.  Our Airbnb was in a building with multiple businesses and signs.  We had to figure out where to enter the building to work our way to our suite, which was through a part of the parking structure and a left turn.  I found myself repeatedly feeling like a dumbass from my inability to locate street names I was following on Naver Map, Korea's GPS app.  And for some reason, Google Maps was another Fuhgeddaboudit - near complete useless in navigation help.  To add insult to injury, the address you enter in Naver Map had to be perfect for the map to locate.  Even a misplaced comma would return an error.

Seoul:  There are coffee shops everywhere, chain and independent, sometimes four to an intersection.  There seem to be no "exclusive use" provisions in commercial lease agreements in Korea, prohibiting similar business from operating in the same shopping center.  It's basically a free-for-all.  There are four chain stores we came across everywhere, even in Busan:

1.  Lotte which can take the form of a department store, mall or outlet
2.  CU, the largest convenience store chain in the country with over 18k locations

3.  Olive Young, #1 cosmetics, health and beauty product chain store with over 1,300 locations across the country.  This is where I found an abundance of facial products with salmon sperm

4.  Paris Baguette #1 bakery-cafe chain with over 3,000 locations.  I bought a truffle egg sandwich there, a first for me, and kept wondering why there's something wrong with the taste (it was the truffle).  Consequently, I only ate the first half.  I threw the other half away, which brings us to the next VERY important topic:

Lovely scenery in busy part of Seoul

Trash:  There are no public trash cans anywhere in at least Seoul and Busan that I'm aware of, ANYWHERE!  The half truffle egg sandwich I wanted to get rid of in our Seoul Airbnb had to be transported to the trash dude (this is the guy in charge of sorting out the trash into a plethora of different trash categories) downstairs.  Separately, I bought and ate a soft-serve ice cream with honeycomb in Busan, only to find it impossible to dispose of the cup in the next 3 hours of walking around.  Eventually, when we passed by the same ice cream stand I bought this godforsaken ice cream from, I held it out to the girl behind the counter, and she immediately understood what to do as she grabbed the empty cup from my hand and trashed it behind the counter.

The other peculiar thing about trash in Seoul is, trash is left in bags on the sidewalk en masse, and collected every morning.  No trash cans to speak of.  Just pure, unadulterated trash bags on full display like the main attraction at a land fill's Met Gala.

You're #1!

 After waiting my turn in line at Omomo Tea Shoppe in Irvine today, I paid for a couple of milk tea beverages, and the cashier smiled and told me "You're #1".  Following a momentary bliss that must've lasted less than a second, my dopamine levels crashed when she handed me this:

It's all about dopamine y'all

 What's the purpose of life?  If you subscribe to a major religion such as Christianity, the purpose of life is to know, love and serve God, and to prepare for an eternal life as His child.  If you subscribe to philosophy, you live according to reason and virtue to achieve inner peace and freedom from suffering.  And if you subscribe to science and evolution:

Who said there has to be a purpose to existence?  Each of us is born not because of our choice.  We simply landed on earth because someone else's egg dropped, and another person's sperm out of 20-200 million swimming upstream managed to penetrate and fertilize the egg.  Then as we grew, four happy chemicals pretty much motivated everything we have done and will do.  We live and act to pursue happiness or avoid pain.  Happiness is a feeling we experience because of four chemicals in the brain, and they are, according to Google Gemini:

Dopamine (The Reward Chemical):  Associated with motivation, pleasure, and the brain's reward system.  It is typically released when you achieve a goal, complete a task, or anticipate a pleasurable event such as procreating.

Serotonin (The Mood Stabilizer):  Helps regulate mood, sleep, and appetite while promoting feelings of well being and emotional stability.  Low levels are often linked to depression.

Oxytocin (The Love Hormone):  Essential for social bonding, trust, and relationship building.  It is released during physical affection, such as hugging or skin-skin contact, and acts of kindness.

Endorphins (The Natural Painkiller):  Released in response to stress or physical discomfort to alleviate pain and create a sense of well-being.

The catch is, all these chemicals and their inducements must remain in balance.  You cannot short circuit the system and attempt to generate excessive dopamine for extended periods, for example.  The brain's natural defense mechanisms will kick in to reduce the number of dopamine receptors as you continue in activities that flood dopamine release, e.g. the use of heroine, cocaine, fentenyl.  This is a process called homeostasis.  Whatever good thing happens to you that makes you feel like you can touch the sky, your party pooper brain will fight to bring back your stable mental state because too much dopamine and its metabolic byproducts will kill your brain cells.  This is why drug addicts develop a tolerance to their drug of choice, and why you constantly need new material things, and can't feel content from whatever material things you already own.

Of these four chemicals, dopamine is by far and away the leading hormone that motivates action.  Serotonin is a distant second.

In the The Dopamine-Deficient (DD) Mouse Experiment, researchers, notably Richard Palmiter and his team at the University of Washington, conducted a series of studies (starting in the 1990s) using genetically engineered mice that could not produce dopamine. 

Behavioral Observation: These "DD mice" appeared normal at birth but gradually stopped eating and drinking after about two weeks. Despite being surrounded by palatable food, they would literally starve to death because they lacked the motivation (or "wanting") to initiate eating.

The Key Discovery (Wanting vs. Liking): The mice still enjoyed the food if it was placed directly in their mouths—they would lick and swallow it with pleasure, a reaction known as "liking". This proved that dopamine is not required for the pleasure of food, but is essential for the drive to get it.

The Cure: When researchers injected the mice with L-Dopa (a chemical precursor to dopamine), the mice would immediately become active and eat voraciously until the chemical wore off.

There you have it folks.  You exist because dopamine motivated a couple of people to produce you, and you continue to exist because of your own dopamine.  Pure and simple.  There's really nothing more to it.

Forrest Gump's got nothing on this dude

Some time in early 2025, I finally tracked down this homeless dude near my house who is on a Forrest Gump-like mission.  For those who watched the movie, you may recall Forrest begins running across the country for no particular reason for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days and 16 hours.  Except, this homeless dude, whom I will refer to as HD hereinafter, shows no signs of slowing down after years of walking up and down Laguna Canyon road every day, all day, even in the rain.

For a while, I'd been looking for the opportunity to ask HD about his shoe size since his shoes were torn and in awful condition from all the mileage.  I wanted to buy him a durable and comfortable pair of walking shoes, and maybe keep doing it, given that he'd likely go through any pair of shoes in a hurry from all the walking he does every day.  I finally got my chance one day, and I parked my car a little past the Anneliese elementary school by Laguna Canyon Road and El Toro Road.  If there was ever an example of no good deed goes unpunished, this fateful day would be the one.  Where I stopped my car are multiple mogul-like bumps on the road asphalt that are not particularly visible to the eye.  So when I stopped my car on top of one, the bottom of my car hit the bump.  This caused damage to the undercarriage panel made of plastic composite called "aeroshield", and it cost me $400 to replace a couple of weeks later when the damaged part came loose and made loud machine gun-like sounds as it dragged on a freeway offramp.

Small price to pay for a good deed, but alas, I failed at obtaining HD's shoe size because he refused to give it to me.  Instead, he asked that I give him the $100 cash and he'd purchase the shoes himself. And during this fruitless conversation, he barely made eye contact with me and kept walking on his pathless journey.

This picture of HD is from yesterday, on March 29th, 2025, when he walked past me as I was about to leave my condo.  This time he turned his head and looked at me sideways for a good 2-3 seconds.  He was wearing black sandals, which are also ill-suited for long walks.

A relevant Forrest Gump quote:  "My mama always said you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, where they going, where they been."

I am your 45th and 47th president (and the grandest experiment)

 November 5th 2024 election night was hardly over when it became painfully obvious Trump had won.  Political pundits like to cite a plethora of reasons for this colossal democratic failure, but once again, as is always the case, it's the economy stupid, and in this case the runaway inflation.  Since Biden took office in January 2020, prices are over 21% higher.  Then to fight the inflation, the Federal Reserve added insult to injury by raising interest rates and made financing anything more difficult.

And here's the catch:  There's nothing anyone in power could've done about this.  The inflation was largely triggered by supply chain issues from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Trump lost the election in 2020 because of the tectonic shock of the pandemic, and Harris lost yesterday because of the aftershock of the pandemic (inflation), and neither candidate was responsible for these events.  This election result is not a verdict on immigration, abortion rights, Israel's war with Hamas, the funding of transgender inmate operations or other sideshows.  Put anyone in office during these two election periods and they'd have been one-term administrations too.  Jair Bolsonaro lost the Brazilian presidency in 2022 because of the pandemic, and the popular Jacinda Arden didn't even bother to re-run for the New Zealand presidency in 2023 because of the pandemic.

Now, let's turn to all the crazy shit that can happen in an unrestrained second Trump administration, because Trump will undoubtedly apply lessons learned during his first term to accomplish what he wasn't able to the first time around and then some.  Below is a list of some of what he has said or is likely to enable.  Let's revisit in four years to assess how close he came to fulfilling them.  Before we get to the list, it's important to note Trump will push any agency or system that gets in the way of his agenda to its limit or breaking point. With the senate now in Republican control, and the House to follow, plus a sympathetic Supreme Court we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to observe the impacts of a few or more unprecedented and sometimes whacky - like two standard deviations from the mean - policy actions in what can only be described as a grand experiment.  

And now, without further adue, what will or may happen in the next four years emanating from our unpredictable and impulsive 47th president:

o  All DOJ cases against Trump will vanish, and he will not get a jail sentence for his Manhattan case hush money case convictions either

o  The January 6th rioters/convicts will receive presidential pardons, and others too, as far and wide as Trump's pardoning power reaches

o  Retribution against political enemies "from within"

o  13 million illegal immigrants shall be deported

o  Ukraine war will come to an end with a peace treaty that cedes occupied territory to Russia

o  Tariffs on all foreign imports, especially the ones from China and Mexico

o  More abortion and/or abortion pill restrictions

o  Resumption of cronyism and wholly unqualified and at times bat shit crazy people in top government jobs, e.g. RFK Jr. in charge of people's health

o  Gutting of federal agencies and massive government spending cuts, aka cleansing the deep state

o  More tax cuts and cuts in regulations that ultimately create bubbles and recessions again

o  Control of federal reserve and other federal agencies under the executive branch.  This could mean faster and steeper interest rate declines

o  The presidency turned into a caliphate.  The senate is already controlled by Republicans.  If the house stays under Republican control, the magnitude of shit show multiplies by 10x.  And this time around, Trump will have loyalist in his cabinet and as advisors. There will be no John Kellys to restrain him.

o  More inflation and government debt

o  A more empowered and unrestrained Israel - strikes against Iran's nuclear sites perhaps?

"And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God"

San Francisco; there goes the neighborhood...

 The last time I traveled to beautiful San Francisco was before the COVID-19 pandemic.  All the popular areas in downtown were bustling then; Union Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square.  This time around - August 2023 - it's sayonara to large crowds, businesses, and konichiwa to the homeless and smash and grab crimes.

Monday, August 14th, Han and I flew to SFO (San Francisco International Airport), deplaned and took a while to retrieve my checked carry-on.  Unbeknownst to me, the cheapest tickets do not allow carry on bags in the cabin, so I was forced to check in my carry-on in JWA (John Wayne Airport).  This delay almost made us miss our minibus tour of the city at 2 p.m.  From the airport we took the Airtrain to the Bart, and exited a station near the Love Tour pick up spot and Ubered the rest of the way there just in time for departure by the Fisherman's Wharf.  The Love Tour was aboard a 70's VW hippy bus with stops at the Golden Gate Bridge, neighborhoods such as Mission, Castro, North Beach, Chinatown, and a drive down Lombard street, while our guide/driver told us about the city's history and culture.

The following morning we boarded the ferry on Pier 33 to Alcatraz Island.  En route, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the city, the Golden Gate and Oakland Bay bridges, plus some dude in track pants who completed a dozen consecutive flash kick backflips to the applause of Alcatraz visitors on the top open air floor of the ferry.  I had to do extensive research to find the name of this variation of backflip.

While on the island, we bought souvenirs, a couple of which are pictured here, and a biography of one of the reformed inmates I'm reading now.  The inmate's name was Jim Quillen.  He was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942 at the age of 22 after his escape from San Quentin and capture.  Surprisingly, he was not a violent criminal.  He had served 2 years of his 3 year sentence at San Quentin for multiple stupid robberies, many at gunpoint, and became an officially categorized "incongerrible" (unreformable) inmate because of his escape.  He never explained why he acted as such a dumbass for not finishing the last year of his 3 year sentence.  I mean, how imbecilic can one be?  But what's most surprising is one prison escape on a rap sheet that was otherwise relatively benign landed him in the most infamous maximum security prison with the likes of Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, James Whitey Bulger and the who's who of society's most violent scumbags and psychopaths.

Day 3, or maybe a part of day 2 we hit Chinatown in what appeared to be the only place we could find boba milkteas.  Of the 3 places over a couple of days we visited, none compared to Omomo in Irvine, not even Yi Fang there to the Yi Fang in Irvine.

The rest of the trip was to Union Square, the most delicious Gelato twice, a couple of okay restaurants and this funny haircut sign - click to enlarge:

And the following day (Friday) after our return, this visit to Ruth's Chris for my birthday dinner: