Tag: observations

Let’s talk about dying

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I just want to start off by saying that me talking about death and dying is by no means any indication that I’m in an extreme state of depression or contemplating killing myself or anything horrific like that.  It’s just been something that’s been on my mind a lot lately, and to me, it’d be a waste to not at least address it in writing, and try and work the thoughts out and try and interpret some meaning from them.

Anyway, not to get too far into the drama between my separating parents, but there is a particular outstanding conflict that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, and is causing a lot of angst within my immediate family.  It all narrows down to my dad’s paranoia and conspiracy theories, but a new revelation learned over my last visit was the belief that he wasn’t going to live that long.  He’s by no means elderly, but according to my dad, he seems to believe that he’s not going to live to the age in which his parents passed.  Be it cancer or some other terminal illness, he doesn’t think he’s going to live to 80 much less 90, citing such substantial evidence as “I can feel it” and uses that as justification to hang onto the residence that’s really more than what one solitary person really needs.

Continue reading “Let’s talk about dying” →

Sports befuddle the educational pecking order

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I don’t watch a whole lot of ESPN, despite the fact that I fancy myself someone interested in sports, because I think ESPN is basically for the most part utter garbage. But when I’m at the gym, and I’m running on the treadmill, I like to have distractions; I have music playing through my iPhone, but occasionally it helps to have some visual distraction as well. And since all the treadmills come equipped with personal televisions, it’s fairly convenient to seek something to watch to help pass the minutes.

Unfortunately, the gym’s television programming is limited to like nine channels, and at any given time, four of them are Wendy Williams, two are the Kardashian show, the others are chintzy intolerable mid-morning talk programming, and then there’s ESPN. If I’m really lucky, it’ll be a day in which the E! network decides to air old episodes of Saved by the Bell, but for the most part, I end up having ESPN on, because Hannah Storm or Jade McCarthy are easy on the eyes, but then I turn the television off when Stephen A. Smith shows up.

Long story short, I admit that I watch a little bit of ESPN. And in that little bit of ESPN, I’ve noticed something that a lot of other people have probably already noticed long before I did, but whatever, I’m writing about it now.

Continue reading “Sports befuddle the educational pecking order” →

What would the country be like without stores?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I was reading this article about how CVS has decided to ditch selling tobacco products (which I support wholeheartedly), and how supposedly such a radical business philosophy change came about on the idea that Amazon is essentially after their market.  Not going to lie, that’s a terrible description, and admittedly, I stopped really reading it once the initial thought popped into my head upon seeing the line that was along the idea that Amazon was basically killing brick and mortar stores left and right.

Now I can’t say if Amazon is attempting to take over the world of consumer commerce with malicious global domination intentions, but for all intents and purposes I do like Amazon a lot, in terms of what they provide.  These days, there’s pretty much nothing out there that I can’t see, and think think “hm, I wonder what it costs on Amazon,” find it on Amazon, cheaper at that, and oho, it’s also Prime eligible.  It’s the epitome of convenience and cost-effective efficiency these days for things that you do not need to have in your hands in that very second.

Continue reading “What would the country be like without stores?” →

The obligatory reflecting on the year post

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Favorite musical discovery: Postmodern Jukebox

I know that we as people like to encapsulate chunks of time into nice round denominations, like years, but I have to say that with each passing year, I feel like time just seems to fly by, and it’s harder to encapsulate everything as easily as it once may have seemed. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m not really going to try.

Perhaps the difficulty is in the fact that at least in my case, 2013 was a pretty ordinary year. By no means does that automatically imply that 2013 was a bad year by any stretch of the imagination, it just wasn’t one that particularly stands out in my opinion. Otherwise, I think I’d be in the situation of where I couldn’t wait to reflect on the year as a whole, so it would be a convenient excuse for me to get to relive and revisit thing(s) that were exceptionally good.

It’s a good and a bad thing that I’m such a dedicated and consistent brogger when it comes to being able to look back in time. It’s particularly good when I’m capable of finding anything that was particularly good that happened in a year’s time, because I’m a fairly open person, and I’m definitely sure to write about anything that’s made me happy or put me in a good mood. Contrarily, it works both ways, because I’m just as apt to write about the things that upset me or make me unhappy, to varying degrees of clarity and vagueness.

Continue reading “The obligatory reflecting on the year post” →

Why are Asians so fixated on brand names?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Being both American-born as well as the gigantic hypocrite that I am, I believe I have the convenient luxury of cherry-picking when it’s convenient to associate Asian traits to myself, or when I curl my upper lip, take a step back, and say “whoa, I was born in the States.”

A little while back, I was way the hell up in Dawsonville at the outlet mall.  Normally, going to an outlet mall in December, much less all the way up in Dawsonville is about as good of an idea as running blindfolded with scissors, but I was doing my best impression of being gracious and accommodating.

Dawsonville, for lack of a better term, is country as fuck.  The population of the town is like 3,000 people, and it makes me believe that outlet malls are stuck in desolate country towns like Dawsonville, just so that it can stimulate the economies of both the town and the surrounding area.  The most notable people to have ever come from Dawsonville are some former NASCAR driver “Awesome Bill From Dawsonville” Wallace, and apparently former pro-wrestler, Bill Goldberg lived there for a spell.

Continue reading “Why are Asians so fixated on brand names?” →

Atlanta sports fans and the importance of antagonists

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

For the vast majority of the game, his back was to the field, and he instead was facing his fellow attendees in the stands instead of watching the game transpiring on the actual field itself.  Repeatedly, he would pace back and forth through the mostly-empty row of seats in which his own ticketed seat was located, and seek out fans wearing gear of the opposing team.  Whenever he located one, he would either pantomime that he was watching them, make a throat-slashing gesture, puff out his Atlanta Falcons sweatshirt, or all of the above, among a few other taunting gestures, like the “loser” L on the forehead gesture.

It did not matter if those he taunted were grown adults, or young children.  If they were wearing the other teams’ colors, they were fair game for taunting.  A grown man, taunting young children, and essentially calling them losers.

This wasn’t just an Atlanta Falcons fan; this was a typical Atlanta sports fan.

Continue reading “Atlanta sports fans and the importance of antagonists” →

Chalk this up in the “no shit” column

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

POLL: Most Americans don’t want cell phone calls on planes

Most Americans also don’t want increased gas prices and higher taxes.  The sky is also blue, and human beings breathe air to live.  Wet water.  Hot fire.  Ninja Assassin.

Yeah no shit most Americans don’t want people to be able to make phone calls while in flight.  The people that aren’t “most” ARE the inconsiderate motherfuckers who want to be able to make obnoxious phone calls while in flight.

Continue reading “Chalk this up in the “no shit” column” →