Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

The grand return

Hey, good news: they let me back into this country! I guess that bus fare evasion ticket from over a decade ago isn’t enough to have me deported to a foreign country. (Tongue in cheek obviously, but for the record I am a full citizen of these United States.) It’s always lovely to hear the immigration officer say “Welcome home.”

It’s indeed great to be home. Over the course of two weeks in China and South Korea, I somehow managed to lose 10 pounds. You’d think with the overwhelming amounts of delicious foods over there (cheaper, too) that I’d return home with more flubber. I was fully ready to work off the extra poundage until I stepped on the scale and found out I’m actually lighter. I guess cardio is a very effective weight-loss lever: 25,000 steps every single day is enough to overwhelm all that I ate whilst on vacation.

Good to know that next time I can eat even more.

What isn’t so pleasant after my return is the intense jet lag. For the week afterwards I was struggling to stay awake past 10:00 PM, even though my scheduled bed time is 11:30 PM. Multiple days of sleeping over 9 hours wasn’t enough to break the spell. It probably didn’t help that soon after I came back to America, I contracted a nasty cold. A double whammy.

Happy to report I am now mostly recovered.

Whenever I go on these multi-week excursions outside of the country, I carry with me the gratitude of being able to take paid time off. To be able to go on vacation without worrying about the job, and knowing that any slack left behind will be taken up by my colleagues. That’s worth everything. In a time of great uncertainty and change, I try not to take for granted the fortunate position I find myself in vis a vis employment.

Many more happy returns.

They got him

It appears the alleged UnitedHealth CEO killer has been captured in Pennsylvania. That didn’t take long, did it? What a blatant showcase of class disparity. A CEO of a multi-billion corporation gets assassinated, the authorities spare no expense and manpower to hunt down the killer. A random guy in the inner city gets gunned down, nobody freaking cares. In a capitalistic society, the value of a life is pegged to how much he earns and produces.

I’m not anywhere near anti-capitalist, mind you. It is, what it is.

It reads to me like the alleged assassin wasn’t hiding all that intently. He’s still got the weapon, fake identifications, and manifesto with him when he was captured. Any other smart criminal would have dumped those items as soon as possible. Perhaps having his day in court is part of the killer’s plan. Take the stand and go on a diatribe, while the entire country is paying attention. The jury selection process alone will be fascinating to watch. It seems impossible to find 12 + 2 jurors without any bit of animus towards health insurance.

The killer is apparently from a prominent and wealthy family in Maryland. He really is living up to the name people have given him: healthcare Batman. The movie to be made out of this saga is already cooking in some Hollywood studio, I’m sure. Timothee Chalamet is a shoo-in to play antagonist. Or is it the protagonist?

I’ve not seen Americans from both side of the political spectrum so united since 9/11. Health insurance is a universal suck for everyone; the death of UnitedHealth CEO offers a modicum of justice, a helping balm of schadenfreude. You know who’s only got positive experiences with health insurance? The people putting out op-eds morally shaming the positive reaction. No skin in the game!

The finding out phase

I think it’s morbidly fascinating that the reaction to the CEO of UnitedHealthcare getting assassinated in New York City is mass jubilation. The Reddit pages are full of good riddances, and cheers to a deserved death for all the suffering the CEO and his company have caused. It’s a good thought exercise: if a million people become happy at the news of your death, perhaps you haven’t lived so honorably while you were alive.

It goes without saying, but murder is bad. Very bad.

The motive in killing the CEO of a private health insurer cannot be more obvious. Either the killer, or someone close to the killer, was done wrong by UnitedHealthcare. Most likely a denial of coverage for critical, life-saving aid. We cannot condone the how, but we can empathize with the why. In a country famous for gun violence and a lack of universal healthcare, It’s kind of surprising that something like this hasn’t already happened before. I think almost everyone has had - or knows someone who has - negative experiences with health insurance. You mean it’s only now that someone felt aggrieved enough to take premeditated revenge?

I guess the John Wick-type revenge plots are movie storytelling, not real life.

Because the pool of aggrieved UnitedHealthcare customers is so large (the company has the highest denial of coverage percentage of all health insurers), the number of suspects can literally be in the thousands. And because common sentiment is so against American health insurance - and healthcare in general, that even if the killer is caught, assembling an impartial jury just might be impossible. So many people on the subreddits I’ve read are applauding the actions of this healthcare Batman.

No matter what happens to the killer, the guy is already a historical legend. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield - another health insurer - announced today they are rolling back plans to limit anesthesia coverage. No doubt the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO is making substantive waves across the healthcare industry.

It's going to be alright

So, how are we feeling? If your presidential candidate of choice won the election, congratulations. I hope America does incredible well under his leadership. I believe nobody seeks democratically elected office to do harm. Because otherwise you’d get voted out the next go around. The winner on Tuesday did lose back in 2020.

If your presidential candidate of choice lost on Tuesday, well, there’s a finite end to your perceived suffering. Four more years is just that: four more. It can’t be anymore than that! And then the pages of history will continue to turn. Spend these next fours years focused on yourself and the people around you. Quit social media and go outside to touch grass often (as the kids say these days).

I read that there was a wholesale shift towards the Republican ticket this time compared to 2020. But I think we have to wait for the total vote tally to tell the full story. If Trump got roughly the same amount of votes as his two previous campaigns, and it’s the Democratic ticket that got less votes, then that’s an entirely different conversation. Where did that chunk of blue voters go? It can’t be entirely California…

Is it as simple as it’s the economy, stupid? The stock markets may be at all-time highs, but inflation is indeed pernicious. Even though inflation supposedly normalized this year, it’s not like the inflated prices then went back down, right? The prices merely stopped going up. The grocery budget is still unaffordably high for lots of people. While the President of the United States can’t really do anything about that, it comes down to this: the vibes are bad, so we need something different.

Wasn’t that the case in 2020? Difficult to believe that COVID was that long ago now.

Good to have healthcare

How’s everybody in the Bay Area handling the smokey air conditions? AQI reached the 180s yesterday (read: unhealthy), and it’s hovering in the 150s so far today. Thanks a lot, wildfires burning up in Oregon! I haven’t worn a mask outdoors since the early days of the pandemic. Remember those days? In hindsight, it was rather needless to mask-up outdoors. So was wiping down packages and bags with disinfectant.

The horrible air quality did not stop people from exercising outdoors. I saw plenty of people working out at the Marina Green yesterday. And all I have to say is, “Why!?” I can’t perceive any net benefit whilst breathing in this bad of air. This is what indoor gyms - with proper air filtration - are for.

Our health is too important, and so is having quality health care. It’s open enrollment period at my work, and it’s a good annual reminder how fortunate I am to have health care paid for by the employer. It’s the good stuff, too: my friend and I are both with Kaiser Permanente, but her emergency room deductible is $150, while mine is just $50. This low deductible tier do not come cheaply: my employer pays over $960 a month for the privilege (that’s $11,520 a year). I can’t imagine having to fork over that much money myself. Good thing the healthcare mandate, part of the Affordable Care Act, was struck down in court…

I can totally see why people stick with a job they may not like too much, all because of maintaining healthcare coverage. In America we sadly don’t have universal healthcare like rest of the first world. Our healthcare is dependent on employment, or being so abjectly poor that you qualify for government assistance. It adds degrees of difficulty for those wanting to take a leap of faith in pursuing the arts, or going freelance. Especially so if you’ve got dependents relying on you having health insurance.

It would be fantastic if there were universal healthcare. Instead of paying Kaiser $11,520 a year, my employer can pay that money directly to me instead. That would be lovely.

This is embarrassing

Today is one of the days I am glad my car has an automatic transmission. The day after running a 10K is not the time to be operating a car using both feet (as one must do in a vehicle with a manual gearbox). Not only did I run the 6.2 miles in the morning (freedom units!), but I also then walked another 13,000 steps in the afternoon, doing the usual photowalk in San Francisco’s Chinatown. My legs are a bit tired today, to say the least. Single-foot driving is definitely a luxury worth having. Long live the manual transmission, but these tired old legs prefer a car that can shift gears itself.

The day before the 10K run, I went to the Oakland Coliseum to watch baseball. The Los Angeles Angels was in town to face the Oakland Athletics, and that means the phenomenal Shohei Ohtani is also in town. While it’s sad he’s injured his elbow, and therefore won’t be pitching for (at least) the rest of the season, the two-way star is still serving duty with the bat as the Designated Hitter. Never one to pass up watching greatness in-person, we made the trip across the bay to Oakland.

And it was immediately clear that Ohtani is blockbuster in drawing a crowd. I’m fairly certain that half the people at the Coliseum was there to see him play. A sizable of number that continent was Japanese - some from here locally, some from Japan on travel. We were lined up at security behind a few Japanese travelers, and it was somewhat embarrassing to see them go through bag searches and metal detectors. Embarrassing for us Americans, and for America. Because back in their home country, security checks before entering a stadium is not a thing.

Crime is so low in Japan, and communal trust is so high, that people can freely go into sporting venues as if it’s a grocery store. I know this for a fact, because I’ve been to the Tokyo Dome to watch the Yomiuri Giants play. Meanwhile, here in the land of freedoms, we can’t even bring backpacks into venues now, because god forbid some maniac might sneak in something explosive. For a country that’s all about freedoms, the United States sure have a lot of movement restrictions. We ought to be embarrassed, honestly.

Happy independence

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! America is indeed one of the great countries on this planet. The epicenter of innovation and entertainment. Opportunities abound, so long as you are willing to put in the long hard work. This country is also home to a uniquely deadly gun culture, and unreasonably high crime rates - depending on where you go. A trade-off worth making? I bet plenty of people think so.

I arrive at this year’s Independence Day having taken the previous week off from work. I didn’t go any where, because honestly who can afford the hefty inflated travel costs these days. Even a roadtrip is prohibitive with the still historically high gas prices. That said, I still managed a glorious time staying home and not really doing much of anything. I slept about nine hours each day, and just sort of milled about, relaxed into the present moment.

But now I’m ready to return to regular life. Back to reading books, studying Korean, piano practice, and writing on this blog. There’s also going to work, obviously. You know, the thing that makes all of this leisurely stuff possible. As ever I remain super thankful that I am able to walk to work. I would be far less cheery today if there’s going to be a long car commute awaiting tomorrow. After not walking anywhere at all for one whole week, I’m actually looking forward to moving the legs again.

The second half of 2022 is upon us. Let’s make it count!