Some good news

We are going to have one more university student! It could have been a lot better; I screwed up big time. But then again it could have been a lot worse. I haven't even filed last year's taxes, a long story. There's enough loan in the package so finance isn't a problem and there's no other problem.

So I can breathe before attacking the taxes. Maybe I can celebrate by binge-watching and take a break.

Heavenly Binge watch report

After Chuck, I don't have anything that I need to watch connecting me to the past. So I tried something different - Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber.

It turns out that the Asians have been binge-watching since the dawn of their TV. There is 1 season but technically no season. There are 50 episodes, 5 in a week plus 2 on Sat.

If you don't mind reading subtitles, it's highly recommended. Funny that it was the Asians who rely a lot on Hollywood subtitles. I watched half a Korean series once; it's not that bad.

There a lot of lookalikes but this one is based on a very popular modern classic epic, written by a hon. Dr. It was remade once every 10 years or so. The novel is totally unsuitable for movies as you cannot possibly condense an epic into an hr or two. It's not really a TV serious in the American sense but a long epic movie. The plot is perfectly solid; there has been a 2nd edition of the novel to correct and improve.

It consists of cross-generation epic love and martial arts stories. It takes 3 actors for the main character from birth to adulthood. The hero survives against all the odds, becomes number one in martial arts, found a few platonic lovers since childhood, became the head of a cult which is a good cult, won the hearts and minds of the martial arts world, defeated the corrupt King, found true love and retired together from the martial arts world to enjoy some ordinary life.

Basically, there is non-stop fighting every other minute. The fight scenes are competently done. It's hard to be groundbreaking but all the different styles are detailing written in the book so you don't get bored. And every time they fight for a reason.

For an ancient martial arts story, you need a lot of outdoor locations. I don't know if they spend a lot on it but the scenery is very nice - mountain and water, waterfalls and lakes. They don't build many props because they have a lot of the real thing. The novel is based on some real history and some real locations - temples, historical chateaus, palaces.

For 50 episodes with multiple love stories, there are a lot of dialogs and closeups. It's fortunate that the guy is acceptable, the women are nice and the wardrobes help a lot.

After I finished, I can't help but reflect on my own life. I can't say I come from poverty. My parents are great! My mom will do anything for us. Dad got us all the basics we need when we were kids. But that's it. I pity those kids who are struggling for food everyday, school, a place to live.

For some reason, I inherited a great mind. But I could have done a lot worse or a lot better. I attended a public school without a name for a year. Some years later I spotted a schoolmate selling things in the farmers' market. She hid from me and I never know her well. I have highschool schoolmates who are doctors, even head of a hospital, lawyers, architects, aid to local top politicians.

Against all odds, I got a nice house with white picket fences, nice cars, nice job, nice salary, pretty wife and nice kids. And a golden retriever. I never really appreciate all these things because I was still feeling like a loser compared to many of my old schoolmates. I really appreciate everything when I have to struggle to keep everything.

I still remember the moment when I first started changing diapers. I thought I will have my life back after 18 years. And then I thought what would become of me then? It should have been my best 18 years. I should have treasured it.

18 years came and went. I'm fortunate that my life never went away. I kept appreciating beautiful women, sometimes binging on them. I still do now on occasion. It's weird but it's a rite of passage to hit girls younger than your daughter. I never felt that way. I mostly hang out with the younger crowd because of their organic beauty and body perfect enough for human lollipops. So I was doing exactly the same thing as my kids grow up and me growing older.

I could have been more well known and leave more legacy to the world. But it's hard to turn down 10% down payment for a 3 bed house.

Looking forward, I don't have 18 more years for something great. It's just a struggle to keep everything for my kids, and hopefully not to be their burden later. It's always not too late to find great love but I have to get rid of the obstacle, unthinkable. But I can still appreciate beautiful women from time to time as I always do. Hopefully, I can still manage that as the years go by.

Goodbye Chuck

My heart sank when I was in the 2nd last episode. I peeped at the list and saw that the finale is Chuck vs Goodbye. As I have been saying, I have no regrets except that it's hard to say goodbye. If I am gone all of a sudden I'm not afraid. I did it my way. And the way the series is going, it could be a sad goodbye, at least not the fairy tale ending the earlier episodes point to. I was expecting a happy ending all along and I don't really want to leave the series with a sad heart.

I began to accept a bittersweet ending but at the last minute, it turned into a probable happy ending. It's not bad. The others like Five-O or Burn Notice are hard to make you sad. OK, they kill off the grandmother but not the lead actors. There is a couple in Burn but there's no love story. There's nothing in Five-O. And these others are easier to write. So both reached the 7th season.

It's a miracle that the Chuck Sara relationship kept me watching till the end, the 5th season. There is a love story in every episode. I can't imagine the writers can keep it up without boring people.

I mentioned about the old-timer films references and old-timer music. I have to bring up the old-timer guest stars. I remember Five-O must have been spending a lot of money to hire guest stars, who have a lot more star power than the series lead actors.

Not Chuck. The guests they bring are like old-timer music. They are famous, great, but they are have beens. In other words, they don't age that gracefully. At least you feel a little bittersweet for them. Like the old James Bond Tim. He still looks great but he can't do James Bond anymore. Like the Terminator woman. Maybe she's having fun doing it. But if it were me I may hide except for occasional appearance. Acting on TV really exposes your aging.

The exception is Bo Derek. I don't know what went into her head. She is in her 60's now. She is going all out - no wrinkles, no eye bag, no botox lips, laser white skin. Does it worth it?

The most gracefully aged is Ladd, the Charle's Angel. She has all the wrinkles around the eyes but she just looks beautiful. Her new and old pictures are both attractive. This is what I expect from Chanel I. But sadly it will be very unlikely I will see her again.

These old-timers bring back old memories of our own, just like old-timer music.

OK, looking forward to the future, there is an unexpected detour. I had known to try watching Korean drama. I surprised myself that I watched almost a full season of a comedy with a handsome man and a woman with an average face. I don't watch comedies. I like beautiful women. And I hate to read subtitles. So after that, I avoid hooking up on another that I will regret.

I can't find any obvious spy TV series nor obviously beautiful women. I am now starting Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber. They have a decent budget, perhaps big. Nice outdoor shoots with historical backgrounds as props. Nice makeup props. Atmospheric like period drama. Nice music too. Stylish fight scenes that you can do every 2 minutes with infinite variation. Women are beautiful and more organic than Koreans who all look like pop stars or movie stars.

Did I say most of the series are forgettable? When they need to find something that Sara remembers, immediately I think of the sketch of them with a baby. But when it's a place instead of a thing, immediately I thought of the house with a red door and the carving on the supporting beam. That was a few episodes ago. I actually paid attention and remembered.

Are they overdoing the house with a white picket fence thing? Is that even realistic? How can two doctors' salaries not afford a big house in Burbank? I know it's not affordable in major metro areas like New York and when it's not possible to commute like around LA.

When we got off the plane, we were put into temporary accommodation. The condo and apartment neighbors didn't try to make friends because they knew they were of a different class. Soon we move into a big house with 6 ft white fence, not that I wanted but it's HOA requirement. When the neighbors see the moving trucks I can see that they are happy for us and dream about the same day for them. Those are nice neighborhoods and nice condos. People walk their dogs and high school kids will social at the pools when it's getting hot.

Then we started many worry-free years with everything, nice cars, golden retriever, and babies! Our parents and siblings were proud. Perhaps we took it for granted, me not so much. People will say, "Oh I also live up there!", which is some 10 miles away. The younger ones will ask, "What business are you in?". We almost lose it under the hammer and we actually signed it off for a day or two.

I remember when I was practicing changing diapers, I told myself, "There goes my life for the next 18 years.". Those were my best years actually. I feel so lucky now sitting in the same house with all the big babies in their own room, when they are all taller than the height recording chart still hanging there on the wall! I treasure every moment; who knows what tomorrow will bring?

By the way, 18 years came and went. It wasn't that bad. I still have passionate sex with perfect bodies when I choose to. I have to cut down a bit nowadays for the big babies. I'm fully functional and I made an 19-year-old girl moans OMG, OMG all the way. It might be just plausible. But of all the things that she could please me, this is rather unique. Indeed I never had that. Maybe I got better. It was just Christmas last year. And I had to report that I still got it. Last year I met a pretty 17-year-old girl who must have been vying for males' sexual attention. She kept gluing her face to mine and took selfies. It must be the lighting.

Feels defeated

I woke up today having a minor sore throat. In normal times I wouldn't worry about it in a million years. I didn't see any doctors as far as I remember. The only thing that defeats me is coughing. But still, I just need to force myself to rest for a few days and it will go away.

My spirit has been high. I have been stocking up on respirators because some friends needed them overseas. Somebody got all of it in January but the price online is still manageable. I kept two boxes because nobody wanted them because they are still expensive. I even managed to cancel some orders.

The problem at the time was that people will be alarmed if you wear a mask. They think you are very sick and should go to the hospital or stay at home, not on the streets.

That was January. When the mask shortage shows, I actually drove to a local hospital to donate a box. It was actually not that local. My city has almost the lowest confirmed cases per capita in the county, which in turn is very low in the state. Last week or so we have only a few confirmed cases. And my city wasn't even on the map when I moved here. People still used maps then and my friends couldn't find me, not until the maps were updated and they throw out their old maps, which people don't do.

When the mask order came, I was relieved that if I even need to venture out, the stores will be safer. The problem is, they are still effectively public shaming people for wearing N95 respirators. That's not fair for people who are prepared. I have most of a box left since the SARS days. Never used it. It could be somewhere in the garage. I saved two for each one in the family and donated the rest, in case we are forced to go to dangerous places. Two for rotation in case we need to reuse it.

It was a compromise because at the time no reuse method was researched. Now it seems that an oven at 160F will do the job. And that the virus won't live for more than 3 days.

Anyway, I'm not losing sleep on it. I didn't choose to mail my donations to the worst-hit areas because it's like choosing who lives and who dies. And the recipient will probably keep the whole box for his/her family.

And I have the workplace ones instead of the medical ones. The difference is that my N95 have a valve for easy breathing out. It won't protect the patients from the doctors, who are very likely to carry the virus when PPE are far from enough. Ethically, my N95's are useless in hospitals.

The mask order is still a good thing. I have tried to disguise my N95 with a covering mask! The bonus is that the N95 protects me while the cloth cover protects others. But still, people will stay away from me because I look like an unprepared idiot. The other problem is that I only have 1 N95, the rest are N100's. They are very easy to fit over the face but they are too big to disguise.

I have been using grocery delivery services for years. I tried them all. Amazon fresh was decent when I had money. The others aren't worth it. They mark up the prices. They charge a delivery fee and you have to tip.

I signed up for the Walmart pickup service when they were first available. They don't mark up the prices. And surprisingly, not only that it was a free service, the staff aren't even allowed to receive tips! Eventually, I switched over to the delivery service late last year because the time saved for not driving to the store will pay for itself. It's a pity that they don't give preference to loyal old customers but let everybody sign up. It was working properly till March I think. Then the last order was booked a week in advance. Now it wasn't even possible to book anything. I should have my refund for the one-year subscription.

Walmart has surprisingly enough organic and health food. It's not obvious in the stores but you can search for them online. The other service I use now and then PrimeNow. The food is healthy (Whole Foods) and expensive, but I can imagine that they mark up the price as in other stores like Ralph. So it's not that bad. I can't tell the difference between Amazon Fresh other than that Fresh cost some $300 a year. I still use PrimeNow now and then because I can get anything in stock in two hours. When Walmart failed totally, PrimeNow still has delivery windows available if you check often. But now it is as useless as Walmart.

In my desperation, I tried Ralph, because they have a window a few days ahead. And everything was available (other than TP and IPA). I know they markup the price and you have to pay delivery fee and mandatory tips. It becomes attractive when all else failed. But it was a total failure. I think Ralph closed on Easter without telling Instacart, their delivery partner. Ralph didn't try to even fix it; I called support, the supervisor and the supervisor's supervisor. Basically, they just canceled the order and made another order for me so I have to wait a few more days. I could have done it myself without wasting time on the phone. The wait time is like an hour. I refused to call the Instacart support because Ralph should fix that for me without waiting another hour. And they are probably giving me the runaround when I get through.

Finally, the supervisor's supervisor put me on the Instacart support queue before cutting me off. Honestly, it wasn't a long wait. The support staff did give me a delivery window a few days ahead. I was about to be a broken record complaining about that before Easter I received a message promising the first available shopper. The fact is that they never stopped taking orders since then and now giving me the next available window a few days ahead. She seemed to get that and Ralph may have left a note on my account. A 4-hour delivery window was opened that started a few minutes after I hang up.

Ralph is my favorite store because its own organic label is very affordable and the variety is as good as their non-organic counterparts. Just that I have to go to the store to shop myself. Otherwise, it's not worth the price. Even for delivery in the crisis, most things were in stock or have substitutions available. Not so much for the other stores. My tip is not to order alcohol because they don't waive for the sign off requirement. And don't allow substitutions. It's a waste of time. The shoppers won't know about anything. You have to supervise using messaging if you want to get something decent.

Surprisingly, Target wins. But it's a bit confusing. Pickup is you walking into the store. Drive-up is they taking your goods out to your car. And there is delivery that their own Shipt. I have a same-day delivery window when all else failed. They don't have organic food but who cares if you have food instead of nothing. Drive-up is best when they know to just dump everything into the car and let you leave without doing anything. Lowes give you papers to sign off when you just ordered a tape and the girl wasn't even wearing a mask nor gloves. Walmart failed. Pickup is not too bad when there is at most one or two people in line at odd times. But I think both are excluded for wet groceries, that is exclusive to delivery. Again it's not bad when Amazon makes you wait for a week for non-essential goods. You can get a shower curtain in the Target parking lot in an hour or two.

All in all, I haven't been to the grocery store since Jan. Except that I went into a random Smart and Final when I was adjusting to the fact that I don't get next delivery anymore. It was dinner time and no other customers were at the checkout. There wasn't much left but enough New York steaks and fresh Salmon. Also, I found plenty of spaghetti but I was only allowed one. The other store is the CVS drugstore. I check if their website is correct in saying that that was stock. Websites are usually wrong but I just happened to find 3 small bottles. I could have taken them all in the evenings but I asked if there was a limit per customer. Indeed there was.

The other challenge is the disinfection supply. I didn't think I have a problem because I always have some hydrogen peroxide and isopropyl alcohol at home for cleaning other than wounds. I am so disappointed that people don't read labels. Anything else is careful not to use the word disinfection but sanitization instead. The word air is taken out all product names because you cannot disinfect the air by spraying. Most bleach products are hazardous to humans and pets. And that you have to wet hard surfaces for 10 minutes before allowing for air dry. Basically, they are useless; you are better off washing the hard surface with soap. There is no guarantee for anything soft or porous.

So H2O2 diluted to 0.5% is as good as anything else when you can afford to get things wet. But the problem is you cannot apply it to skin. It's a lot less corrosive to the skin compared with 3% straight from the bottle. But it's a bit dangerous when the wet surface is drying. You can apply IPA on skin without much damage and it's fast drying. The alcohol will go first before water. But even 100% alcohol isn't that damaging.

H2O2 isn't easy to get in the shops but plenty at Amazon the time I ordered, a box of it. IPA is impossible. Finally, I settled on one indoor alcohol fuel. It's over 90% ethanol, the drinkable alcohol that is a lot safer than IPA. A few % of IPA and a few % of undisclosed that is not suitable for use on skin. But that's OK. I still have a big bottle of hand sanitizer and a bottle of IPA to make it if needed. But I have soaps. I have one bottle that hospitals uses for surgery. And my own simple formula allow me to wash my hands 10 times an hour without feeling bad on the skin. The box of fuel will last me a long time, only used when H2O2 is not suitable. I have everything I need for months.

And the TP thing. It's not an issue. I have plenty. I ordered one 24 packs whenever they were available. The last packs were from dollar stores. I still have two packs. There are plenty of commercial paper towels. If the worst comes to the worst, everybody can put their used paper towel into a small trash bag and dump it in the big bin in the yard. I don't see any problem with it. It's a lot worse to lineup in the stores to get some.

I was so relieved when school was closed and shops were closed. It's a lot easier to keep everybody safe. I banned take-outs too. There's only one route into the house, grocery delivery. It has been weeks of effective isolation and everybody is well.

Then all of a sudden I got a very mild sore throat. That makes me wonder is it possible something went wrong undetected? The girl at the Lowes parking lot? The time I went into Target to pickup a bottle of soy sauce? Did I not disinfect the grocery packaging enough with an ozone generator? Did somebody touch things from Amazon that I labeled "do not touch"? Or did I eat too much potent stir fry? Tomorrow is another day.

What can be done while social distancing?

(It's strange that Blogger has some minor updates after all these years. Why? It gave up RSS, Google feed Reader, let Wordpress be king. It's not going to be as simple as Instagram or Tikok. Maybe there's something new under Google's sleeves.)

I have seen a lot of girls going online. I think I have seen one porn star going solo on a cam site. It makes a lot of sense. There are no other actors nor crews.

On the other hand, I saw many girls advertise as usual and I think they work as usual. It's risky as you can get it through breathing and people can spread it when they don't have symptoms or very little of it. But I understand if both parties have no family to go home to. They have no unemployment checks and they probably don't file taxes, not going to get the stimulus. 

Maybe they have a future vision. It's the same virus last year and next. We are not going to get a vaccine soon and it may not be like a flu vaccine. It could be less effective and the death rate is still unknown. The economy is under great pressure to reopen. So you have to assume the guys you are working with or commuting with don't have the virus if they have no symptoms, which is wrong. You cannot test people with absolutely no symptoms. It cannot be regularly tested like HIV because you can get the new virus with or without doing dangerous things; you can get it by breathing or touching. So opening up earlier isn't that extraordinary.

I also see girls wearing a mask on their ads. This makes some sense since the virus may be all over you but it only attacks the lungs. You cannot be infected by eating, or very unlikely. It could lower the risk a lot if both wear a mask and take a bubble bath or soapy shower after.

Really I wasn't going to write about any of these. I was thinking about what I can do at home. It's not that difficult to quit the "hobby" until further notice. Every day is a struggle getting the grocery deliveries and the supplies to deal with the virus. 

Of course, many people binge-watch at home. Last time it was Burn Notice for me. I looked for Chuck but it was only available on DVD! I went for Hawaii Five-O instead. I quitted together with Kono.

Spy movies always have a place in my heart perhaps Dr No is probably the first movie I watched. I never missed any James Bond movies with Connery as 007. Watching Chuck again is a totally new experience. I watched it from the 1st episode because I don't remember any details. It was that good (or bad) because you can watch it all over again like new. 

When I first watch it on TV, I don't know what Burbank is. I had absolutely no reason to go to LA and I didn't. Except as a tourist when I first came to USA or showing someone around LA when I am absolutely not qualified. This time around I can drive around DTLA like a local or like a taxi driver. I know the Valley, Hollywood, Pasadena, Silver Lake, Beverly Hills, and Burbank. Julia lived in DTLA and Caroline in East Hollywood. 

When I first watch it, I didn't have my master's in rock history. The creators shamelessly plug in their favorite rock classics, like "Is this love?" I have to wonder, what is their target audience?

There is also a Casablanca reference. But it would be too subtle for the immature. They just cut and paste a video of it. They shamelessly recreate their own Casablanca moment. Running away together in Prague? Propose in the balcony in a perfect French Chateau? BTW, I never noticed until now that Chuck never left USA to make the series. I had no reason to notice it. A Czech stock video followed by filming in a Czech railway station. In France, it was the Chateau. In Russia, it was the abandoned industrial complex. In Turkey, it was an ancient castle/mansion. It dawned on me that they were likely not filming at where they were supposed to, but on sets, imitations or copies of the original place.