Category: Photos

The year-end post, circa 2025

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It’s that time of the year in which I begin to look back on a year as a whole, and determine whether or not it was a “bad year” or just another year.  Not to sound too pessimistic and nihilistic than I already to and serve as just a reminder, but the idea and fantasy of “good years” seems a bit outlandish and not really within the realms of reality, at least when you look at the type of person I am and the state of the world currently.

So when I try and reflect on 2024 as a whole, I don’t have much good to say about it.  Frankly, with a few exceptions and caveats to coming unsurprisingly overarching blanket statement, 2024 was not a particularly great year.  Other than the obvious results of the presidential election and the inane bullshit that led up to it, there weren’t any epic catastrophes that I was really aware of, but the rest of the year just felt like a death by a thousand cuts kind of year, where there was just way more negative bullshit that nicked and jabbed all year long to lead to where I’m feeling beaten and exasperated with life and the state of existence now at the end of it, than had there been a lot less.

The thing is, above all else, I’ve been pondering on whether this was just a down year, or rather just symptoms of being in my 40s, where it seems like the difficulty of life jumped exponentially, from where it was in my 20s and 30s.  There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think to myself, when did life become so difficult to where it feels like every single task in every single day begins to feel like pulling teeth?

I have this conversation occasionally with my sister and some of my similar-aged friends, but I’m curious to whether or not this is just a rough patch in all our lives collectively, or if this is something of a rite of passage for all people who hit their 40s, and things just start taking a turn for the worst more often than not.

Being in your 40s means everyone’s parents are now well into their twilight years, and in the landscapes of our lives, death’s presence grows and occupies a larger space than in our younger years.  I think about if every generation goes through this, which they most undoubtedly do, however, the generations of now and tomorrow live in a way more connected world where information is immediate and accessible, so the news, usually bad news, travels quicker, and it’s way easier now to be exposed and be aware of it all, more than it’s ever been in generations past.

Continue reading “The year-end post, circa 2025” →

Dad Brog (#144) – Watch what you say, lest the sponges absorb

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Among the numerous gifts that the girls had received over Christmas, was this little toy nail salon by Melissa & Doug™, propagating stereotypes of Asian business owners in America.  I’m not the type of dad that’s too manly and too masculine to play with whaterver my kids want to play, so I joined them at the kitchen table to demonstrate what I know about the nail salon business, not to mentioned the set does actually give a pretty detailed ordered list of what is perceived as the typical, getting nails done routine.

Naturally, I couldn’t just play with my kids without injecting a little bit of my customary humor into the scenario, so I would jokingly mention that during various parts of the getting nails done journey, this is where we (the one doing the nails) speak in a different language, not mentioning that the speaking being done, is talking shit about the customer right to their face, among their peers, because everyone knows all these Vietnamese and Korean yentas pull this shit and have been doing so since the dawn of the business model.

I nearly lost it when I switched roles with #1, and she was the one doing my nails, and how she would girl-splain to her little sister the order of tasks during getting nails done, and when she got to the part of primpting the cuticles and drying nails, she said “this is where we speak a different language now” and I actually did lose it, thinking back to the moment.

And then I sighed and had to remind myself that I really have to be careful of the things I say around my kids, because they are sponges and absorb everything they hear from their surroundings, and it really doesn’t take more than hearing something once or twice before they do so, and begin formulating how they can use it themselves.

For years, I’ve always referred to the second Christmas tree that we put in the upstairs landing of my home as “the jihad tree,” because it’s the tree where mythical wife has a jihad against any ornaments that aren’t Disney related for the bigger, fancier primary Christmas tree that resides downstairs, are allowed to be hung and displayed on, and I’ve made it my own personal tradition to deliberately amass the gaudiest and silliest and most unwanted ornaments from the discount bins from the year before to be hung on it.

Considering my kids go to school at a Jewish establishment, I figure it’s for the best that they don’t pick up on the terminology of jihads, and worse off explain it to their peers and teachers that we have a jihad tree at home, so it’s been referred to simply as “dada’s tree” instead.

Unfortunately, the worst was when my kids picked up on the slip up of profanity, and I remember hearing on the monitor during their quiet time, my oldest saying the word “fuck” and my eyes bugging out of my head at realizing what she had said.  Or when the kids picked up on “damn it” and blurted it out themselves.

There was a period of time when I, wouldn’t necessarily let it fly, but I would let it slide, banking on the then-notion that they were too young to pick up on it, or its context, but those days are long behind us.  Now it’s onto “oh poop” or other innocuous remarks, where I still don’t really want them to pick up on the context of them, but at least they’re not going to get us as parents a stern nasty eyeballing if they were to repeat them out in public.

Either way, it’s a good thing that they can’t read, much less know that dada has a brog that’s been up and running for 23+ years.  I can’t imagine the day they eventually realize and learn about it, and if they care to read about the journey of my life through my brog, realizing that their dad sure wrote a ton of shit and profanity, even if he tried his best to suppress it in speech while they were growing up.  But one of these days, that bridge will be built and eventually crossed, but I’ll deal with it when that time arrives; probably with a brog post.

Only What We Do in the Shadows could end like this

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Going into the sixth season of What We Do in the Shadows, I wasn’t aware that it was going to be the final season in the series.  I just figured it would be yet another hilarious installment of the series and that we’d eventually continue to get more Shadows in the future. 

All the same, I wasn’t really bothered by the news; not because I didn’t like the show enough, quite the contrary, but I’m of the belief that even if it means having to say goodbye, it’s always best when a series is able to go out on their own terms and leave while there’s still something left in the tank, versus a series that has been dragged out way too long and crawls to the finish line only to have a metaphorical bullet put in their head, two seasons too late.

WWDITS has been one of the better shows over the last few years in my opinion because it’s just plan hilarious in its absurdity, from writing, to format, and acting, and fewer things are indicative of a show’s influence and general popularity than its ability to pull A-list cameos and guest appearances, and it was always amusing to see the scale and frequency of guests as the series progressed, because it was clear that the popularity of Shadows was rising with each successive season.

But as was referenced numerous times throughout the finale, all good things must come to an end, and although I do think Shadows stuck the hardest thing to do in the realm of storytelling, putting out an ending that doesn’t suck, the whole sixth season really was kind of one long farewell, with each episode allowing for characters to make their last appearances, wrap up character arcs, as well as letting the cast and crew air out some meta jokes and references.

By the time they got to the actual last episode, there was no feeling of rushing or urgency to wrap everything up, and it almost masterfully done how they allowed for the final episode to be an open book where they could do what they did, be playful and creative and tighten the bow that they had worked the entire season tying up.  It was entertaining and bittersweet, because there’s this tongue-in-cheek awareness of what the audience is feeling, and the writing and characters do a good job of navigating between the fourth wall’s fourth wall, speaking to both the documentary’s audience as well as the television viewers as well.

The finale is a fun joyride, the final love letter to the series as a whole, that successfully wraps everything else up, allows for some of the show’s greatest hits and tropes to make final appearances, and manages to weave in multiple endings and teaser finishes in a fun and whimsical manner.

Personally, I wasn’t sure when the final credits would start rolling, because in this day and age, episodic time constraints aren’t as concrete like they used to be, and it’s not out of the ordinary for finale episodes to have longer run times in order to have a little flexibility.  But when they finally got to the final minutes of the series, I thought they ended it magnificently, and only in a way that Shadows could do.  Part bittersweet, part heartwarming, part gotcha, and of course, entirely funny.

By the time the episode was actually-actually over, I was left with a feeling of satisfaction and general happiness to have been able to been witness to what overall was a fantastic show, and I’m happy for the series to go out on top, instead of limping to the finish.

And metaphorically speaking, it feels nice to end the year’s television watching on a high notes as well as this one.

Terry Bogard in SF is basically Sonic in Smash

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I’m not going to pretend like I follow or even care about the state of the video game industry, beyond if there’s anyone I know within it that relies on it to stay afloat for the health of their wellbeing.  But a while back, I heard that Terry Bogard from the Fatal Fury series was going to be made available as a playable character – in Street Fighter 6; and my eyebrow scrunched and I tilted my head like a dog when hearing something confusing.

Why.. is a Fatal Fury character being released in Street Fighter?

Clearly, somewhere along the timelines of SNK, my guess is that business had to go so tits up at some point to where they began to have to sell off or lease off intellectual property, and stronger entities like Capcom are more than willing to invest in established IPs if they’re made available.  And so, despite being one of the Street Fighter franchise’s most prominent competitors, Fatal Fury has basically relegated themselves to being the uncomfortable victim company in a metaphorical merger.

So Terry Bogard, the de facto main character and protagonist of the Fatal Fury franchise, is now novelty DLC character in the Street Fighter franchise.  Supposedly, Mai Shiranui is on the way as well if she’s not already out, and that seems appropriate too, considering she was the pin-up for basically all of SNK, and was their answer to Chun Li as far as having a strong female character with sex appeal.

But it all seems kind of weird and awkward to see the fate that seems to have befallen SNK to where their strongest characters are basically being loaned to the Street Fighter franchise, despite the fact that at one point, they held their own, and existed as a viable and competitive alternate to them.

It reminds me of when I saw Sonic the Hedgehog as a playable character in one of the Super Smash Bros. games.  The main character of the franchise that was spearheading Sega’s determination to overthrow Nintendo’s position in the video game industry, now just a playable character in one of their massive library of titles.  And I’ve read plenty about the history of Sega and their proud and defiant history of trying to compete and defeat Nintendo, which adds to the feeling of sadness and defeat that they’ve gotten to the point where their IPs were absorbed by Nintendo, and at the mercy of their discretion at what would see the light of day in the future.

That’s kind of what it feels like to me, seeing Terry Bogard, Mai Shiranui and any future Fatal Fury or other SNK characters showing up in Street Fighter or any future Capcom title for that matter.  There’s an air of defeat and quite literal ownage, if it is true that Capcom has purchased the rights to their competitors IPs. 

But let’s not chalk this up as a complete win for Capcom here; no, getting ahold of other existing characters just means Capcom can remain on cruise control as far as creating new and interesting characters goes.  The company hasn’t really had an original idea in seemingly over a decade now, leaning consistently on remakes, remasters, re-releases in all of their signature franchises, like Street Fighter and Resident Evil.  Packaging all their old arcade beat-em-ups into these overpriced collections and hitting them with a high pass filter and claiming they’re remastered.

Instead of attempting to create and innovate, Capcom would rather get throw money and purchase other properties, even of their competitors, and just merge them into their existing machines and hope that people continue to spend their cash on their shit.  And that’s how we end up with Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui in Street Fighter.  It’ll be fun to see whom they trot out next, surely guys like Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi need to make their way in, but beyond them it’s anyone’s guess at who and how they’ll manage to shoehorn any other Fatal Fury names into a Street Fighter roster without bloating it up to Marvel vs. Capcom 2 proportions.

Let’s talk about how much mobile-first development sucks

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

This is a topic that has been sitting in my living document of potential writing topics for a while, but never seemed to make it out of the queue, because of well, life.  But the other day, I saw a meme that I’d seen a few times before, but for whatever reason, it bubbled up this topic, and then I found myself in a position and headspace to where I might be able to write about this, finally.

But basically the meme was about how, [paraphrased] my most millennial trait is that large purchases must be done on an actual computer, or whatever equivalent to that general message that exists.  And being a millennial, I wholeheartedly agree, for a myriad of reasons, that large purchases really should be done on an actual computer and not on my phone or any other mobile device that I have.

Flights, vacations, experiences, large expenses, yeah, I don’t want do any of that shit over my phone, because I’ll never fully trust mobile data security as much as I would my own home’s personal wi-fi, not that that’s any better, but it just gives me peace of mind that it is.  Additionally, checking out on my phone leads to all sorts of room for error when pecking in on a mobile keyboard any sort of PII, billing and shipping information, and the last thing I’d want is a critical purchase to fail or bounce, because I entered in something incorrectly on account of being on a little-ass phone.

And then there’s stuff like Rakuten and other shopping plugins that I have installed in my personal computer’s browsers that I don’t have on my mobile devices, that might get me a little bit of cashback here and there; sure, earning 1% back on a $100 purchase might not seem like a lot, but all those nickels and dimes can eventually amount to something in the future, especially if you’re not paying them any attention and they just continue to accumulate quietly.

And finally, I’m old and paranoid, and I like to have records of the things I spend my money on, so I have a penchant to take screen grabs and print to PDF confirmation screens and purchase confirmations, because at some point everyone goes through that paranoia of when a confirmation email doesn’t come immediately, and you’re left wondering if your purchase actually went through, and if you’re actually going to get what you ordered, and that your money wasn’t going to be tossed into the aether, to have to be fought and disputed for in order to retrieve.

So yes, I do believe that big purchases are best done on personal computers, even at the risk of sounding old and dated to a bunch of young shitheads whom I don’t give a fuck what their opinions of me are in the first place.

However the problem is that in this ever-changing and ever-evolving world, is something that I’ve had varying amounts of objection throughout the years, which is mobile-first development – the practice of developing websites and e-commerce platforms that are designed to be optimally used by those on phones and tablets, with the conversely resulting secondary and B-tier performance for those on personal computers.

I’d wager that most people I know have been in situations where they’re trying to do something on the internet, like visit a site, make a purchase or do something at their laptop or their computer, to little success, and then whether it’s themselves or someone within proximity goes “hey, let me try it on my phone,” to where they have instant and easy success – this is a prime example of mobile-first development.

Well anyway, it’s bullshit, and I hate it, that the internet is becoming more and more in favor of mobile-first development, and little by little alienating those people who still use laptops and computers, and gradually phasing out those of us olds who actually like to make purchases of any size on devices that aren’t the same things that we play games on and doom scroll while we’re sitting on the crapper.

Phones are great for making purchases like food orders, or quick rage purchases on Amazon Prime when the store you’re in is out of what you’re looking for.  Tickets, or social media sales platform transactions that aren’t really that big of a deal.  That’s the extent of mobile shopping that I’m interested in.  To each their own, and I’m sure the generations after me are fine with shelling out thousands of dollars worth of travel, electronics and experiences on their phones while sitting in traffic or dicking around on their phone while at work, but my old ass likes the ceremony and ritual of making large impactful purchases from the comfort of my own computer, preferably at home.

Welp, this wasn’t as great of a post as I thought it could’ve been, but whatever.  Mobile-first is bullshit, and it annoys me whenever I identify when companies are obviously putting mobile device commerce at the top of their food chains over all other means of completing transactions.  *coughDELTA

Thanksgiving musings and perspectives

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

For the Thanksgiving holiday this year, my house trekked north back up to Virginia to spend some time with my side of the family.  Such was always something I was pretty ambivalent about in the past, but ever since I had kids, I do feel that there is some importance in having them have connection with my side of the family, not to mention try to build relationships with the litany of cousins they have, as I did growing up.

Overall, it was a very good trip, and I’m happy to have spent a good bit of time with my sister, cousins and parents, but most of all, I was happiest that my kids got to spend time with their cousins and my family members and be able to build relationships and connections with family that they don’t get to see too often.  My happiest memories looking back on the trip were seeing my kids playing exuberantly with their cousins, and I’m thankful for my niece, nephew and the kids of my cousins all being so good to my children, and I’m optimistic that they can have a similar upbringing to my own, where the cousins all were pretty tightly knit growing up.

However, an introduction like this doesn’t happen if there weren’t some things that weren’t positive, and unfortunately for this holiday there were some bad things that definitely put a damper on things.

Firstly, to cut to the chase, I hit a deer while driving, and my car suffered a nasty crack on the bumper as well as the headlight assembly.  I was driving along a road that I’d driven thousands of times in my life while living there, and I’d never seen deer on this stretch of road before.  I was probably going no faster than 25-28 mph while accelerating when the deer popped out of a grassy median and it was so bang-bang fast that I was a good 200 feet past and continuing before it really registered what had happened.

The thing is, while on the drive up, I distinctly remembered having a thought about just how many dead deer I had seen on the shoulders all over I-85 in southern Virginia, and how I really should keep my guard up while driving at night on this trip.  But as I said, this was a stretch of road that was long developed, not very close to any real wooded areas where deer might like to reside in, and where I’d never seen deer before in my life.  So my guard was definitely not up at this moment in time, and it just figures that would be when my premonition came to fruition, and I plastered the poor animal.

I replayed the moment in my head countless times at this point and the thing is, I’m not mad at the deer or the species as a whole, like I might’ve been in the past for putting me in this situation.  Northern Virginia is an endlessly developing area, and it’s a no brainer that the constant sprawl and development in Fairfax county and surrounding areas are displacing the wildlife all over, and next thing I know I’m hitting deer in a place where I’d never seen deer before in my life.

What I am thankful for is the fact that nobody in my car was hurt, and to my knowledge nobody behind me appeared to be hurt, as I was the first car in the line of cars turning onto the road, and it looked like there were plenty of braking going on behind me.  My kids were little zombies watching the iPad, so they didn’t notice anything but the sound of impact and the bump of me running it over, and didn’t seem to care because they were too busy watching Little Einsteins.  This wasn’t a conversation that I would’ve wanted to have had, so I take it as a win, on all accounts.

Additionally, despite looking pretty nasty when I originally did stop, when I got to my cousin’s place, we were able to pop the initial dent back out, which was a big victory, as it was pushing the wheel liner into contact with the tire, and there was initial talk about cutting it off in order to remain drivable.  A little duct tape and a few zip ties, and my car was safe enough to have made the return trip to Georgia, to where its repair is now on the table in coming weeks.

Here’s the thing though-as much as something like this probably would have tanked the entire trip for me in the past, I realized that there were so many other victories to be had given the circumstances, that the main L taken that will cost actual money and likely aggravation of playing car Tetris or a rental didn’t seem so bad.  Plus, when I got back to my cousin’s place, dinner was ready, two beers, a fire pit, reminiscing with my cousins while hearing the sound of my kids having a blast with their cousins really rescued the night and I like to think that this was all one of those, you know you’re maturing, kind of scenarios.

Also, waking up to the worst news possible of hearing of a passing of a loved one to my brother’s family really does knock everything else into a genuinely thankful perspective, on Thanksgiving.  Pretty much nothing can top that as far as bad news is concerned, but again, trying to find the silver lining in bad situations, given the circumstances of the departed’s final days, there’s probably a modicum of relief in knowing that they’re no longer in any pain or having to fight the good fight any longer.

As sad and heartbroken I felt for my brother’s family, it really did help put everything else into perspective about the things that myself and everyone else could genuinely be thankful for.  My kids were safe and unaware of the deer situation, most everyone in my family was in good health.  I got to spend some time with my parents with my kids, and I’m glad that my kids have interactions and memories with them, because I can count on one hand how many times I’ve seen a grandfather in my life.

Even the whole car debacle afforded me a bonus good memory, because when I took the car on a shakedown ride to make sure it was safe at highway speeds and cornering, I took the opportunity while I was alone to pop by a close friend’s house to say hi and wish them a happy Thanksgiving.

The drive back was long, and doing Richmond to Atlanta was the longest stretch that my kids had ever had to endure in the car, but equipped with a lot of snacks and an iPad full of downloaded shows, they did great.  My only gripe is the feeling of being a glorified Uber driver, since I have to focus on driving, and none of my adult passengers can get their heads off of their phones to actually converse or be remotely the types of passengers to help a ride not feel so long.

But as a whole, I still look back at Thanksgiving positively.  My kids had a great time with my family, and I was happy to catch up with everyone who came to dinner, and I can only hope that future family gatherings in the future will be as good as this one was, but hopefully with no more deer incidents.

Strange, but not entirely unsurprising

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

There’s this house I sometimes pass on my way to work, if I decide to take a certain route.  I’ve always noticed it for a variety of reasons; it was clearly a home where the property was purchased, and a lot of money was sunk into changing the landscaping of the property tremendously, as well as some modifications to the home itself.  In short, the landscaping of the property, behind the metal picket fence, is very ornate and kind of looks like Mr. Miyagi designed the property, based on the lush greenery and non-traditional (read: not white people) aesthetics.

There was one day I drove past, and the garage was open, and I noticed that they had a red NSX, which aren’t necessarily my favorite cars, but they are pretty rare in this day and age, so the fact that they had one, which looked to be in pretty immaculate state is still noteworthy and memorable.  Furthermore, they also had a Kei-truck, which I’ve heard are no longer legally approved to be imported to Georgia anymore, not sure how that goes, but again, having one of those also makes a property stand out. 

Because they’re clearly a giant weeb.

So color me a little surprised that one day driving by this home, and there’s a Trump/Vance sign in front of their house, also surreptitiously planted after the election.  It’s just like a, strange juxtaposition of personal interests and political preferences, to see a home clearly resided by a giant weeb who’s all into Japanese automotive, Japanese landscaping and architecture, but then is also into right-wing bigot ideology.

I actually don’t know the nationality of the person who lives in this property, but I have to assume it’s a white guy based on the sign alone, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it were an actual Japanese-American, probably of the older variety who immigrated legally in ancient times and harbors a lot of angst towards illegal immigrants and is drunk on the kool aid. 

But really, I’m thinking it’s probably just some white jarhead who is probably a veteran, lived in Japan for a little while, fell in love with stuff like their cars, aesthetics, but eventually came back to America, got drunk on the orange kool aid, but was still all into Japanese shit, not grasping the irony of their preferences versus their political brainwashing.

Either way, I figured the person living there was just a dorky weeb, but now I definitively know that the person living there is bigot, on top of being a dorky weeb.  Hashtag ‘murica.