How long should a package take that is sent from West LA to be delivered to downtown LA? According to this USPS package tracking, six days. Per the tracking, it goes from West LA (90025) to Long Beach (90809) to Central Alameda (90052) to McArthur/Westlake (90057) to Westlake/Financial District (90017) back to McArthur/Westlake (90057) to downtown LA (90014) and then finally delivered.
Why does it even go to Long Beach? And why does it bounce back and forth around DTLA like that?
This Ted Talk is fascinating.
His final thoughts are definitely worth pondering.
“be a ferocious mama bear and a humble advice seeker. Have excellent evidence and strong allies. Be a passionate perspective taker. And if you use those tools — and each and every one of you can use these tools — you will expand your range of acceptable behavior, and your days will be mostly joyful.”
So I finished the 6 season, 54 episode show. Overall I found it to be very good. Thinking about the show, a number of social themes emerged that are relevant even in today’s turbulent society.
Despite a patriarchal society where male successors are prized, the show ultimately focuses on the women of Downton Abbey especially that of Mary. The show presents situations that highlights some of the prejudices and difficulties that women faced during 1920s (and probably still face today). One of the more glaring difficulties is related to the love life tribulations that Mary faces with her “Wheel of Suitors” and their continuous intrusions into her life despite her repeated deflections of their romantic advances. Another difficulty that the show tackles is the way women are perceived by men. It’s portrayed quite well with Mary and her suitors, with Isobel and Dr. Clarkson, with Edith and her editor, with the Crawley sisters and their father, with Anna and her ordeal, and even with Violet and her antiquated views.
The show also hints at the potential for upward mobility gained from greater education. It was much more prevalent with Mr. Mosley and teaching credential storyline in the final season. But throughout every season, there were tidbits of hope where someone learning a skill will eventually allow them to leave “service.” Even as early as season 1 with the Gwen (a chamber maid) and Sybil (a daughter of the house) storyline where Sybil helped and supported Gwen move out of service even when Gwen herself felt all hope was lost. It was only fitting that the final season devoted a few minutes to show what happened to Gwen and her upward mobility as well as the hint of the start of the demise of “service.” Even Mrs. Hughes foresaw the future direction of maids and butlers in a household.
The show answered “what is family?” with the many of the storylines. The one I liked most was that of Mr. Branson marrying into the family, feeling confused and lost after the death of Sybil, leaving to Boston and then returning back to Downton Abbey. A rags to riches story where internal conflict and subsequent growth made him very likable.
Despite the social themes, the character growth of certain characters also made this show popular. In particular, I initially didn’t like Rose. Her portrayal was very similar to that of the modern millenial where she only thinks of herself and does what she wants. But the show evolved her character into a much more likable person where she used her quick thinking and wit to de-escalate conversations and situations. Honestly, I sometimes wish I had the same quick wit to read and assess the situation and act accordingly.
I am super impressed at the intrigue political drama known as House of Cards (wiki). I’ve heard it was good but didn’t know how good until yesterday. So far there’s 4 seasons with a confirmed 5th season to come out sometime this year.
But that got me wondering… how does Netflix fund these shows? I’ve been told TV/Movie shows are expensive. Here’s an interesting infographic from a google search. And another. And another. Subscription content is here to stay.
Does anyone watch The Daily Show? To me, it’s a quasi political and mainstream media satire show. The comedian Jon Stewart used to host the show on Comedy Channel and retired not too long ago. Occasionally I still see his commentary from time to time on The Late Show with Colbert.
Anyways, Trevor Noah took over the duties at The Daily Show. Although I haven’t watched the show in great depth, I’ve watched a few YouTube clips and found the short clips to be a hilarious commentary of the day’s news. Remember the Carrier “deal“? Here’s the Daily Show’s commentary. Commentary aside, Noah is great comedian as well.
Now with Netflix and having seen stand up comedian Ali Wong perform her routine, Noah apparently also has a few shows that’s on Netflix. I’ve seen all three (first, second, third) and they are funny! The third one though is more documentary with funny moments. Time to binge on other stand up shows on Netflix.
So I signed up for Netflix recently. I’m finding that there’s just so many shows there that it’s impossible to start. Does that sound familiar? Ya… the paradox of choice. I literally don’t know where to start. There are these TV shows that people talk about like Breaking Bad, Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. All these were suggested by other people at some point in time. I haven’t started watching them mainly because I’m currently engrossed in Downton Abbey (season 4 now).
But of what Netflix shows I’ve seen so far, there is a hilarious Asian American comedian Ali Wong who did a comedy show for Netflix. If you’re Asian American, it’s worth watching.
I recently started watching Downton Abbey on Amazon Prime Video. Yes I know it’s a pretty old show but strangely enough I find two story arcs to be very compelling. The first story is the one that follows Mary Crawley. The writers so far has made her out to be a selfish, strong willed, stubborn, cold and calculating yet petty as only the rich can be. But despite all that, I can’t help but want to root for her to prevail. The second story that I find fascinating centers around Anna May Smith. The writers have made her to be loyal, honest, and compassionate. In some ways, she represents the complete opposite of Mary yet at the same time, you see how both women support the people they care about in their own ways. Aside from these two main story arcs, the servant political intrigue is pretty amusing as well as the bickering between Isobel and Violet.
This show is supposed to last for 6 seasons and I’m already on season 3. Egads!
You might be asking yourself, how do I make my latte? It should be stated as a fact that variance in process can ruin the taste of a latte. So if I try to minimize this variance, then the taste of the beans should be standardized and comparable regardless of the coffee roaster. So in the past 5 years, I’ve come up with a standard approach.
It should be obvious that the strength of the espresso liquid is dependent on the amount of milk used. For Cafe con Leche, I find a 1x the weight of the recovered espresso liquid to yield a good strong coffee.
After being gifted with Ritual Coffee subscription, I looked and join a coffee subscription service called Angel’s Cup. From an old reddit post I stumbled upon via Google (now turned into wiki guide), Angel’s Cup seemed to have the best variety (different roasters) for the price (~20/bag) and frequency (once per month) that I was looking for.
Coffee roasters like Blue Bottle, Intelligentsia, Stumptown, and even Starbucks all roast their coffee beans differently resulting in unique flavor profiles in the lattes that I drink. After being with Ritual Coffee for so long, I really wanted to try different roasters in order to taste the different profiles. And Angel’s Cup seems to fit that bill.
So for March I received this…
A Guy and His Thoughts... 