Blog

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

It's great to be back

It is wonderful to be back in the land of the free, home of the gun shooting at a Super Bowl parade (the price to pay for said freedom). But anything is better than the highly surveillance state of China, am I right? I’ll have much more to write about my two weeks in Guangzhou at a later time. In long form, with many pictures.

Not so pro trip: what really helps alleviate jet lag symptoms is drinking plenty of water during the flight (I must have drank over 2 liters), and wearing compression clothing (better blood circulation or something). It’s been 36 hours since I’ve landed yesterday at SFO, and I feel completely fine. 12 hour plane rides suck no matter what, however. Especially in the cheap seats. It’s all I could afford as a public servant.

I did watch the Super Bowl whilst in China. At a bright 7:30 AM Monday morning, I awoke to turn on the game. Unexpectedly, the local Guangdong sports channel was televising the Super Bowl. I didn’t even have to perform any elaborate VPN magic to get my free trial of Paramount Plus (it is definitely not available in China) to work in order to see our San Francisco 49ers lose to the Kansas City Chiefs.

The bad feeling started when the Chiefs blocked the extra point try in the fourth quarter. That feeling turned into inevitable doom when the 49ers decided to kick the field goal in overtime, instead of going for a 4th and short. When you’re up against Patrick Mahomes in extras, a three point lead might as well be a tie. Mahomes then did exactly as I expected: drive down the length of field to throw the game-winning touchdown.

Disappointed? Sure. But I was in my birth home of Guangzhou, with plenty of activities to look forward to still. The sadness was brief.

The most expensive Rolls Royce.

I'm going to miss it

While I am extremely happy the San Francisco 49ers made the Super Bowl, I am extremely sad that I will miss the big party. Because I am due to fly out to Guangzhou, China at the end of this week, and scheduled to return after a fortnight. Indeed I will be at the opposite end of the globe whilst friends gather here in the States to cheer on our local team. The fear of missing out is incredibly strong right now.

It will be early morning in Guangzhou - the Monday after - when the Super Bowl is happening in Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon, February 11th. As far as I know, American football is not big at all in China. Finding an establishment over there showing the game will probably be impossible. Especially not during that hour of a work day. Perhaps there's some die-hard NFL fans (dozens of them!) in Guangzhou doing a viewing party? Or maybe the NFL is blocked wholesale over there. Because, you know, too much western values. (Huge American flag and military planes flying over.)

I got to find a way to watch it somehow. Hint hint, wink wink.

Funny enough, the last time San Francisco was in the Super Bowl, it was back in February 2020. That was just before the COVID-19 pandemic effectively shut everything down worldwide. The opponent in Miami then is the same as it is now in Las Vegas: the Kansas City Chiefs. Sports can be coincidentally weird that way. It is going to take the maximum best effort on the 49ers to beat Patrick Mahomes, who is well on his way to becoming the greatest quarterback of all time. He will be playing in his fourth Super Bowl in the past five seasons.

I think Patrick should be kind and let the 49ers have one. Please.

If you steal my sunshine.

Superb thoughts on Super Bowl

Man, that was an anti-climatic end to the Super Bowl, wasn't it? (Am I going to get fined for using the word “Super Bowl”?) An iffy holding penalty against the Philadelphia Eagles basically sealed the game for the Kansas City Chiefs. As a fan of the game, that is not how you want a match to end. The Chiefs was more than likely to score the go-ahead field goal there. What we were robbed of is a chance to see the Eagles try to fight back to tie under desperation minutes. From an objective standpoint, however, the holding call was correct, much like going 70 MPH in a 65 MPH zone is still speeding.

I was rooting for the Chiefs, and happy they won. I remain sour that the Eagles beat our hometown San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game. That game was practically sealed the moment Brock Purdy of the 49ers injured his elbow in the early first quarter. After that, the 49ers had no viable quarterback. It just wasn’t a proper matchup, and we never got to see the full potential of two juggernauts of the conference go at it.

Is Patrick Mahomes the greatest quarterback of all time? He’s certainly on his way there. He’s already got two Super Bowl championships and he’s still only 27 years old. Mahomes beat the Eagles on one good ankle, after suffering a high ankle sprain only three weeks ago. At one point during the game before halftime, Mahomes was tackled down and it appear to have aggravated the injury. But he came back out in the second half and led the Chiefs to scores on every possession. It’s a legendary and gutsy performance.

I’m glad the greatest quarterback of this generation plays in the AFC and not the NFC. The road to the Super Bowl for the 49ers never has to go through Mahomes and Arrowhead stadium.

It’s back at Costco!