Fermaloo's recent activity
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Comment on Struggling with nihilism and the inability to enjoy things in ~health.mental
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Comment on Fast-food owners, squeezed customers test limit of value meal economy in ~food
Fermaloo Link ParentSomething else that I'm not seeing anybody mentioning: for some strange reason, everyone seems to have forgotten that we just had a global pandemic. Essential workers and food services were where...Something else that I'm not seeing anybody mentioning: for some strange reason, everyone seems to have forgotten that we just had a global pandemic. Essential workers and food services were where the highest transmission rates hit: people who worked minimum wage in order to stay afloat and could not afford to miss a single day of work. Companies are complaining about the price hikes in labor costs and pointing the finger at regulation, when in reality they've been forced to raise wages because a not insignificant portion of the minimum wage workforce died. And now they're passing their terrible pandemic-era decisions down to consumers. At this point it's not even surprising anymore, but frankly speaking: how is it possible that everyone's managed to collectively forget so quickly? And now bending over backwards to headcanon corporate justifications?
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Comment on A cheap week in LA/SB in ~travel
Fermaloo Link ParentIf you're really up for an adventure, you might also consider hitting up Cluck2Go in Pasadena. The LA county metro reaches all the way out there with a few bus transfers, but it will be a huge...If you're really up for an adventure, you might also consider hitting up Cluck2Go in Pasadena. The LA county metro reaches all the way out there with a few bus transfers, but it will be a huge endeavor. That said, it's one of the few establishments where I've enjoyed the Hainanese chicken rice (which is Singaporean, not actually Hainanese per my dad and grandpa lol) outside of Asia. Yes, it's better than what I've had in the Bay! I usually go all the way out there just to pick up an order to deliver to my high school friend when we go yumcha; it's that good for scratching that particular itch!
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Comment on A cheap week in LA/SB in ~travel
Fermaloo Link ParentHeh, I am oddly proud of my fellow unioners hearing that from a European (ye olde train heaven). Actually, I should disagree about Din Tai Fung and Hai Di Lao. Insanely expensive for pretty...Heh, I am oddly proud of my fellow unioners hearing that from a European (ye olde train heaven).
Actually, I should disagree about Din Tai Fung and Hai Di Lao. Insanely expensive for pretty average fare; not to knock the flagship locations in Taipei and Shenzhen though! If you're interested in cheap Chinese food, wait until you hit Santa Barbara and get some near UCSB. They keep prices lower to serve the university students there.
In Los Angeles, you should prioritize Japanese and Korean food instead. Little Tokyo has already been mentioned and, alternatively, the Sawtelle mini-Japantown if that's more accessible to you. In terms of Korean food: it's the season for sullangtang! I believe Hanbat Shuul Lung Tang has been family-owned and operated for 30? 40? years. Hangari Kalguksu is another one of my favorites; you should only go if you're hungry though because they give you a lot of food (get the boiled pork if you have a fridge at your hotel). It's not exactly the season for guksu, but since you're in town!
I hear you when you say that nothing you've mentioned above matters to you. I'm sorry to hear that you've had to force yourself to go through the motions.
Consider, for the sake of possibility: you were right all along and society is wrong? Society's definitions of value, and by corollary what things have no value, are suspect. We live in late-stage capitalism, where it's perfectly normal for an insurance company to assign a numeric value summarizing one's life. Maybe going to the movies (spending money to feed into some asset holder's coffers) isn't the answer? Maybe holding down a steady job, while providing stability as a means to lessen cost of living anxiety, doesn't extinguish the creeping dread imposed by a system that solely attributes value to your productivity as a member of its workforce while whipping you along with bills and deadlines to meet its inexorable demands?
It's incontrovertible fact that nothing ultimately matters. Someday relatively soon on the cosmic scale, humans will no longer exist. Any scrabbling attempts we make to leave marks of our existence behind will almost assuredly fade. Our glories and our mistakes both.
Since I had this realization as a younger adult, my who cares? Has turned into a stubborn who fucking cares. I for one don't give half a rats ass about my assigned value. I couldn't care less if I were to be brutally murdered tomorrow. I don't even care if I'm in pain or mildly (again, on the grand scheme of things anything on the scale of me, personally, is mild and meaningless) inconvenienced.
This small shift, for me, has given me the freedom to figure out what I do care about, even when it doesn't matter. Me, personally. I read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and have decided that hey, her words resonated with me enough that I planted a bit of native mint at the corner of the sidewalk. Somebody dug it up and stole it from public property (now, since it's on the sidewalk) yesterday, so it's likely halfway to China as part of some silly plant black market scheme. And I don't care. I say good, that serves the original purpose of selecting a native plant. I say, I did my part and got a sense of satisfaction out of my own actions. Me, not whatever society has told me is worthwhile or worthless. It's my middle finger up to the shitty lottery of existing. I'm here only because the universe made a cosmic mistake so the wibbly system of late-stage capitalism can go suck itself off. Despite despite despite.
I don't know what it'll be for you. But I don't think you'll find it in what somebody else keeps telling you.