Day 508: family

flew back to LA today to see family for a few days before flying to hawaii

my parents just talked at me for several hours straight as we drove home and then went out for dinner. i felt super fatigued from having stayed up until 4:30am last night hanging out with my vegas friends, but i tried to stay engaged because they just seemed so excited to have me around and talk with me.

there are always little surprises when i come home and hear about what they’ve been doing/thinking about/watching, and this time was no exception.

• my dad called me a “digital nomad”

  • given that his english is not very good, i have no idea where he picked that up. i asked if he learned it from youtube (my parents apparently watch a lot of travel vlogs) and he said he had read it in a book or something

• my dad asked me if i knew about bitcoin and if i’d made any money off of it

  • almost choked. i guess crypto is mainstream now

• i asked my stepmom if she’s been watching any korean dramas or shows and she proceeded to tell me the life story of some korean christian couple who have been adopting kids and sharing their lives on youtube.

  • this is a topic for a whole other post but the popularization and normalization of parasocial relationships via the internet is concerning

  • from what i can tell, my parents spend an insane amount of time watching youtube

    • this is what happens when tech companies pursue endless growth using easily defined metrics without enough reflection on the question “what is the world we want to live in?”

my stepmom told me that my grandpa recently got acupuncture on his fingers because he was experiencing too much pain from typing. she said that it reminded her that they are all getting older.

it’s sobering to remember that my grandpa probably doesn’t have much time left. it makes me want to spend more time at home with him because i’m sure i’ll miss having the opportunity to do so.

at the very least, i can call him more often.