I had an dream about a kung fu movie a month ago after visiting some exhibitions of Bruce Lee and Jin Yong. The main concept was that the characters were in a world where physical disputes are illegal and enforcement is immediate. However, it is possible to bend the rules if the disputes start from an argument over food. So, there are two rival gangs that meet for dinner at a Chinese restaurant and they both are polite and start eating together. Then, at the “signal”, the henchmen throw some food at each other and then the gang fight begins. All the people at the table start fighting besides two people – one person from each gang. They are the designated “eaters”. If the food on the table runs out or if no one is eating, the police will crack down on both gangs. So, the two “eaters” need to ensure that no one is arrested for the fight. If they think that their side is winning, they may want to order more food to ensure the victory. If they think their side is losing, they may want to finish the food quicker so then the fight ceases. The “loser” of the fight not only loses the dispute, but they need to pay the bill for the food and damages.
Invention idea – transparent airplane luggage compartments
My default method of transportation when traveling to foreign countries is flying on an airplane. I only fly economy and each time I board the plane, I have to put extra effort to ensure that my carry-on luggage will be able to fit in the overhead compartments. Typically, there is just enough room for everyone’s luggage. However for the packed flights, the luggage tetris takes a bit of time to complete, with flight attendants opening and closing numerous different compartments to find a suitable spot. If it was possible to have the closed overhead compartments to be slightly transparent, then it might speed up this process. Perhaps it is not a big enough deal to worry about optimizing, but in a recent flight, I swear they spent at least five to ten minutes trying to find a spot. If people are uncomfortable with seeing the luggage during the flight, there could be a function to turn the compartments opaque.
Taxi drivers during vacation – March 2024
During my vacation in March, we took a bunch of taxis for getting from place to place. My parents enjoy talking to the drivers, so I was able to learn more about some of them
1. Retired sniper turned golf course co-owner, who works as a taxi driver on his free time
In Singapore, we met a taxi driver who served in the Singapore military and won a number of awards. One of the awards he was most proud of was awarded to just 100 people. He was trained to be a sniper and a demolitionist, and he didn’t see combat when active. He mentioned that he could shoot a coin from 300 meters away and that he once got arrested from a shooting range in Vietnam because he was too accurate and was a potential risk to society.
2. Taxi driver who listens to One Direction “Live While We’re Young” on repeat
When going to the train station in Taiwan, we got into a taxi with a guy who was playing One Direction. A few of the taxi drivers in Taiwan and Singpore played Western pop music, but this one in particular seemed to only play this song as it played at least twice during the trip
3. Taxi driver who is an extra cautious driver and left the windows open while it was raining
I’m not sure what this guy was thinking, but it was raining and he was driving really slow. This guy kept stopping every few seconds and took his time turning, changing lanes, and going straight. Thankfully, we did not get into an accident, but I did get a little wet due to the open window. I was thinking maybe the window was open to increase visibility, but all the other cars on the road seemed to be driving just fine.
4. Taxi driver / tour guide who met his wife on the street while riding a motorcycle
We hired a driver to take us to a few places in Taiwan, and during the trip, he talked about how he met his wife. When he was younger, he was riding his motorcycle and saw a beautiful girl walking across the street. So, he pulled up and asked for her number. She mentioned that she was a mother of three and refused. But, I think he was persistent and convinced her that if they run into each other again, then it would be fate and she should go on a date with him. Later, he teamed up with his friend to deduce which streets would be the most likely for him to see her again. He was able to see her again, they went on a date, and eventually got married. It turns out she lied about having three children when he first met her, but now they are happily married with three children.
Travel photos
I went on a vacation with my parents to a few places in Asia. Here are some of the pictures of the trip.
Singapore
Taiwan
China
Welcome to Sandal-ri Review
I got sick recently so I wanted to watch something while I was recovering. So, I opened up Netflix and remembered that a girl on a dating app mentioned that her brother was recommended “Welcome to Sandal-ri”1. I started watching the show and there were some familiar cast members. The main lead, Ji Chang-wook, was in a few kdramas I’ve liked in the past and similar story with a couple of the main supporting characters, Kim Mi-kyung and Lee Jae-won2.
The story is about a village in Jeju island called Samdal-ri and a complicated love story between a guy named Cho Yong-Pil and and a girl named Cho Sam-dal. Their mothers were best friends and they had both of the children on the same day. While chatting about the future, they promised that they would raise each other’s children as their own and that the children were soulmates bound to get married together. However, a terrible accident occurs that severs the the mothers’ bond for good.
The kdrama skips from present to past frequently, but it is mainly set in present day Korea where Cho Sam-dal is a reputable photographer that is preparing for an important exhibition for a fashion magazine in Seoul. A couple scandals emerge that rock her to her core, causing her to flee back to her hometown. The drama slowly reveals the pain that she and the two families have dealt with throughout the years and how Cho Yong-Pil and Cho Sam-dal work together to mend their families’ relationship and to clear her name.
I thought that this was a solid kdrama. The cast was well picked. I thought that the girl playing the younger sister of Cho Sam-dal was so pretty. There were a bunch of great shots of the ocean and the sky and the landscape. I’ve seen at least a couple kdramas about Jeju Island and this one had similar focuses – a focus on protecting the environment, a focus on haenyeos, a focus on fresh seafood. One thing I appreciated about this kdrama over the others was how the story kept tying back to this Jeju Island village. I feel like the others touched on a surface level or snorkeling level of Jeju Island culture, but this one went a bit deeper. I thought that this kdrama would be a bit more funny and lighthearted, but there were a lot of heavy topics. Perhaps that is part of the reason I was so invested in the story and why I finished the sixteen episode series in two days.
- Now that I’m looking at the receipts, the brother actually recommended “Castaway Diva”, so that might affect the review haha ↩︎
- Now that I’m looking at these actors’ IMDb pages, I mistook a bunch of the actors. I thought that Ji Chang-wook was the guy from “The King” kdrama, but that was Lee Min Ho and I thought that Lee Jae-won was the guy from “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay”, but that was Oh Jung-se ↩︎
Singles Inferno Season 3 Review
Seasons 1 and 2 were entertaining, so when season 3 dropped, I had to tune in. The people in this season were very attractive, and some of them had really fun personalities. One of the guys, Gwan-hee, basically carried the entertainment value of the whole show. The other guys had some love interests, but they were rather straightforward, liking one or two of the girls. Gwan-hee was weighing his options between basically all the girls until the very last episode. Even though he got on the girls’ nerves, he was charismatic and effortlessly bantered with the girls. Even though he was the main character of this season, I think that Jin-seok and Min-kyu were my favorites out of the guys. It was unfortunate to see Ha-bin and Won-ik get so little air time. I’m sure they are good people and what not, but it seems like they got overshadowed by the other members of the show and was not able to develop a strong connection with any of the girls. Maybe the production crew did them dirty, but they seemed more boring than I would’ve thought.
In this season, I think each girl had a good amount of air time and developed a love interest. It’s too bad that there were multiple girls going for the same guy, but I feel like in dating reality TV shows, that’s bound to happen. I was surprised to learn that so many of the girls were Miss Korea contestants.
With this season so entertaining, I find it hard to believe how the producers will be able to top it next season.
Superpower idea – putting food in your stomach
I’ve had this idea for a while, but wouldn’t it be cool if you could put food in your stomach without having to eat it or use a tube. You grab the food, and then open your belly like a locker room locker, and then put your food in. Maybe this power should be called having a locker in your belly 🤷♀️. Anyways, it would be pretty convenient for eating faster or just storing things in general
Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani Review
Warning: This review contains spoilers of the movie
Earlier this month, I was talking to my coworkers about an Indian movie that I saw recently called MRP, which is an acronym for Most Responsible Person. I thought it was a funny and over-the-top movie with this fat software engineer trying to find a suitable marriage partner. My coworkers had not seen this movie, since they don’t know the Kannada language, I also don’t know that language – I just read the subtitles. So, one of my coworkers recommended Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, which translates to Rocky and Rani’s Love Story. I didn’t come in with much knowledge – just the fact that it was a romantic comedy.
I thought the movie was interesting. There were tons of funny parts, mostly surrounding the main character Rocky. He is such a good character. He is lighthearted, caring, attractive, upbeat, and optimistic person. Rani is more of a normal career woman type of character. I thought that she was ok, but Rocky’s personality and uniqueness really made the movie for me. This story had multiple love stories. Rocky’s grandfather and Rani’s grandmother had a brief love connection a few decades ago, but they decided to not pursue it because they didn’t want to break up their families. Rocky reached out to Rani to reconnect them and during those meetings, they also developed a love connection. There were ups and downs due to differences in individual values, family values, and societal values, but they were able to overcome them at the end.
The first third of the movie was pretty entertaining, but the movie got relatively serious afterwards. There was a progressive theme of women empowerment and promoting individualism / what makes you happy versus a conservative theme of doing what’s best for the family and following the orders of the head of the household. At times, it seemed that Rani was forcing her values onto Rocky’s family. The intentions were good, but in general, I do not think it is correct to do so. Obviously if people are being disrespected and are abused, then you should speak up, but there needs to be some grace about how you go about it. The movie did a good job at the end to try to reconcile the differences in values and reach some understanding between the families.
Would I recommend this movie? Sure. I thought it was a good movie. A bit long, like 2 hours 40 minutes. The sets and costumes were elegant.
One thing that I thought was coincidental was that I had a separate conversation with my coworkers talking about marriage and the role of the immediate family. I prefaced my opinion with the fact that I’ve never been in love. I said that if I ever wanted to get married and my family did not approve of the girl, then I may try a little bit to convince them, but I would ultimately respect their decision and break up if it came down to that. And vice versa if the girl’s family didn’t approve of me. Some of my coworkers thought that this was crazy, but then again, I haven’t been in love so perhaps I just didn’t have enough perspective. This movie had this scenario twice in the movie. The grandparents broke off the love relationship when they were young and already married and Rocky and Rani pursued the love relationship and convinced both their families. In the end, the families were convinced they were a good match, so they got married.
Superpower idea – picky eating
What if it was possible to eat food and choose which nutrients get absorbed into your body? Like if a meal has 40 grams of salt, you decide that you only want to digest 10 grams and then the 30 other grams get discarded. This would be more of an individual superpower, but it would be pretty helpful for people trying to maintain their health.
Olive Garden Review
I’ve been going to Olive Garden for a while now. I used to go more often when I was younger, so I recently felt the urge to go back again. The spot near my parents’ place was relatively busy for a Friday night based on the wait times. I realized that was because they closed half of the dining area. Perhaps they didn’t have enough wait staff to cover the full restaurant. Eventually, we got seated, and the menu was smaller than I remembered. They also didn’t have a menu of specials – just the normal menu. I was upset that they didn’t have my favorite mushroom ravioli any longer. The food we ordered was fine. The calamari was pretty good. Both the sauces were tasty and combining the sauces tasted good as well. I didn’t expect there to be that many pieces, to be honest. Some of the plates were dirty, so the waiter got us new ones. I was too excited and got full on the bread and wasn’t able to order extra soup or salad. I also wasn’t able to finish my entree. I felt really bloated when I left. One thing that was a bit odd was that the manager kept walking around to tables, letting customers know that she was the manager and giving people her business card. I’m not sure what a restaurant manager does, but this was a first for me.
I don’t plan on going back to Olive Garden any time soon – I miss the old Olive Garden.
Jeffrey's Thoughts 