I have long wanted to get into the habit of writing, and so here is my first attempt. Nothing major; I just want to remind myself of the things that have been going well in my life.
The world is chaotic and uncertain enough as it is. As corny as it sounds, there is no better time than now to appreciate what you already have, and how fortunate you are to have them.
My car finally got fixed!
It has been almost two months since our little accident on the freeway; basically we got rear-ended and the entire backside of the car had to be replaced. It was my first car accident, and I am glad I got out of it with my limbs and wallet (hopefully) intact.
In the event of an accident, our insurance subsidizes car rental costs for 30 days; we took this chance to try out a Mini Cooper which is very different from our Honda CR-V which was damaged.
Verdict: the Mini Cooper is a joy to drive, with great acceleration on flat ground and a posh interior. That is…as long as you don’t care about the lack of safety features e.g., blind spot detection. It also takes ‘premium’ gasoline which makes it more expensive to take on road trips.
I understand that Minis are meant to recreate a certain vintage ‘feel’, but I don’t identify with that era and am very glad to get my own car back. It has blind spot detection, lane keep assist, and automatic cruise control (ACC); all are conductive to safe highway driving and I would rather not do without them.
But hey, Mini Coopers do look pretty cool.
I almost halfway through with Kevin Rudd’s new book!
The book is called The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict Between the US and Xi Jinping’s China. Quite a mouthful, right? It is written by a former Australian PM, who is fluent and literate in Chinese, has much to say about the PRC’s motivations and strategic goals, and how the US may respond to them.
It is a great primer to China’s policy priorities — — domestic and international, and how the two intertwine. While ideologically Rudd is a liberal democrat, his book is able to put China’s totalitarian policies fairly into their context — — and remain critical of their human costs.
Highly recommended over the scribblings and pontifications of pundits who live on eyeballs caught. This is a man with practical diplomatic experience in the subject, and he is unique among Western politicians in having the linguistic skills to dissect it.
