bayarea Pergola and California Yesterday, one of my colleagues said that he had tried to build a pergola in his backyard, but he learned that he needed a permit from the city as the structure could be seen from outside his home. I won't disclose the city (at least, it's
politics State of the Union 2023 This Tuesday, my daughter brought a bingo paper. Her history teacher proposed an extra credit for a bingo game predicting what words would be in Biden's State of the Union address that night. It was a fun experience listening live to the State of the Union with all
life New York I attended Programmatic IO 2022 NY last month. It was my first time in NYC and even my first in the US East. I arrived at SFO around 5 am, a little tired but also excited. The airport was already full of people. It's already normal; I couldn&
politics Student Debt Forgiveness I think the hottest topic in the US last month was the Student Loan Relief Plan (not the Mar-a-Lago raid). I knew it was Senator Elizabeth Warren's one of the important agendas of the last presidential primary. I thought Biden took the idea reluctantly, and he would not
book The Dispossessed On a Saturday afternoon, a friend of my daughter (who met each other at the summer camp) visited our home and occupied the living - and I pushed into the backyard. Under the sunshade of the backyard, I thought it was the best time to write a review for a
game Elden Ring In the aftermath of the Twitter frenzy, I learned that there had been a debate about a New York Times article. Interestingly, it was an article about a game, maybe the hottest game these days: Elden Ring [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elden_Ring]. It seemed that several Tweets (of
politics Behavior Yesterday, Yishan Wong's (the ex Reddit CEO) long Twitter thread was popular in my network. I learned it from a newsletter (only Korean) [https://otterletter.com/elon-has-no-idea/], and I thought it was an essence or at least the most crucial factor of social network affairs nowadays. > I
politics The Remains of the Day A few days before the Korean President's election, a famous general partner of a Korean VC firm mentioned that one in a leadership role in a company had better not mention their political preference. And some arguing followed. There have been several similar arguments in the US. One
politics A Ride I'm not sure where or whom I heard it from first, but I have a political principle when I support a political figure. > "Do not buy their words, but see what they have done." So, "I need ammunition, not a ride" is not
politics Birds Aren't Real Last week, I heard about the "Birds Aren't Real" movement from The Daily (the NYT podcast) [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/podcasts/the-daily/why-would-anybody-claim-that-birds-arent-real.html] . It is a movement that posits the US government massacred all birds in the 1970s, and all the birds
politics Hillbilly Elegy I got to know the word 'Hillbilly' from a newsletter [https://otterletter.com/wwjdd/] (Korean only). Frankly, as a new migrant, it is so hard to catch the nuance of such words; I might just learn or acknowledge it. But the story of J.D. Vance caught my
tvshow The Problem I'm not sure how many people are enjoying Apple TV+, but there are a lot of gems. Recently, my favorite show is "The Problem - With Jon Stewart." [https://tv.apple.com/us/show/the-problem-with-jon-stewart/umc.cmc.4fcexvzqezr25p9weks6sxpob] The show pounds bitter criticism on America'