jadanzzy

It has been a very long time since I last updated my blog. So consider this a vomitus of life updates and random musings.

1

Amy and I will be upon our 4th weekend in our new home. We very much enjoy our new home, but have spent the majority of our mental and emotional focus on selling the old home, which is officially on the market as of yesterday, October 10, 2019. Whatever amount of relief I've felt hitting this marker is now partially lost to the anxiety I feel about how long it'll sit on the market, especially with the winter holidays approaching.

Some wonderful things about where we live now:

• Amy's commute has been significantly reduced from 1.25-1.5 hours to 30 minutes, and that makes me feel a ton better.
• We lived close to friends at the old house, and we can still say the same at the new house—even closer.
• We're surrounded by living and shopping convenience. Decatur, for its hip charm and intown delights, is short on convenience. This place has it in spades.
• It's always been hobby of mine to shit on Buckhead, a “neighborhood” littered with high-rise corporate buildings and expensive condos, mansions, luxury cars, douche-y rich people, and bad traffic. I somehow did not realize, until I moved here, that I'm about 10 minutes away. Life is funny.
• Our neighborhood is quiet and pleasant, and our neighbors are sweet. We live in a cul-de-sac, and everyone in it seems to be fairly interconnected in each others' lives? We're not so used to that.
• Louie refuses to walk more than 5 minutes in our new neighborhood. It's frustrating. New environment, maybe?

2

You know what I've been thinking about for a while now? What's the difference between Americans exaggerating/impersonating Italian, Russian, or French accents and us exaggerating Chinese or Japanese ones? Why is it distasteful or offensive to impersonate the latter but not the former? I'm not making any value judgments yet..

3

Speaking of judgments, it's one of the most “misspelled” words I see written. In the U.S., it's judgment. In the UK, it's judgement. But I see a lot of Americans spelling it the UK way. So then is it actually misspelled if you're in one country and spell it the other way? Or are our arbitrary differentiations ultimately meaningless aka who gives a fuck?

4

Elizabeth Warren continues her in rise in popularity, the polls, and prediction markets. It makes me very happy. But politics is fickle, so I'm looking to see when she has her first big political blunder. The pundit class speaks often of her inability to attract Black and Hispanic voters. I'm not worried yet. They're a cautious bloc and want to stand behind someone who they can feel safe about winning. The first four primary contests will be a major deciding factor.

5

Donald Trump is a waste of human flesh. A disgrace of the highest order. A historic stain on the office of the Presidency. The GOP is an abhorrent party, led by a loathsome Senate Majority leader in Mitch McConnell, and a toothless House Minority leader in Kevin McCarthy. And their support of Donald Trump only stands via self-preservation and their supposed fear of “the base.” If the Republican base really stands behind Donald Trump, then the Republican base is some combination of uninformed, misinformed, and unpatriotic. And the thing that kills me the most is that I fear it does not matter. We'll see. Here's hoping that a coalition of liberals, progressives, libertarians, Never Trump-er conservatives, moderates, and independents can do the right thing in 2020.

6

American Evangelicalism: what a pitiful and irrelevant expression of Christianity it has become.

7

Succession. What a show. Will be the #1 show for me in 2020. No contest. The acting is stellar, and the writing superb. But I've realized something about TV and film that I love. There's a much greater chance I'll love the show if the plot centers around characters' story than conceptual exploration. Why did I love Arrival? It wasn't because of the aliens and their novel language. It was because of Amy Adams' character's emotional arc and journey. Everything else is window dressing. The character must always be the main focus.

Back to Succession. It's in its second season. And it's still really good. Again #1 of 2020. But it's not as good as season one. Why? Because season one was an exploration of the people's relationships to one another, their own struggles, etc. Season two focuses on the family's business much more, and it loses steam a bit for me.

8

The new Terrace House is cool too.