Oh, thank god I was wrong last week about "summer heat kicking in". We're in a veritable, this-is-no-drill heatwave, government declared with warnings raised island-wide of consecutive days of 100°+ temps and to look out for pets and grandmas in distress. If this was something normal I'd have to say again fack-fackity-fackaroo! Very big NÖPES on the bearable scale. We've already had the hottest day of the year so far and the 2nd hottest day in June ever. Sleep has even been unsettled and I keep the A/C remote next to my pillow along with my stereo remote (I still can't fall asleep without background music, such is the drama in my life).

Something about a stationary front off the north coast of Taiwan locking in hot weather for the rest of the week with developing moisture allowing for possible afternoon showers. Oh, and I misspoke about daily afternoon squalls related to the plum rains. Plum rains are just copious and unpredictable through May and June. Daily afternoon squalls are regular summer patterns in some years. Afternoon rain could mean respite, but in a heatwave it might mean humidity to clear all plans and find some place air-conditioned and hunker down. Humidity to hope for a CCP virus outbreak that sends the country into lockdown just to sit in front of A/C or a fan all day. The worst is when it rains in the morning during the summer but then the sun comes out and all the water on the ground evaporates into a 10-foot thick invisible pall of humidity that just hangs over the ground.

There was an annular solar eclipse this past Sunday during the heatwave-when-I-didn't-know-yet-it-was-a-heatwave that wound its way from Africa all the way to the Pacific O ending after crossing Taiwan. My brother actually sent me an email last month before I knew anything about it, but it turned out to be a southern Taiwan event. As small an island as Taiwan is, journeying to the south from Taipei still requires logistics and planning beyond the scope of my daily life. Although I didn't expect anything in Taipei, right when annularity occurred I just happened to be in a store looking out glass panes and noted that it looked like I was looking through tinted glass. Then I realized I was looking out an open door and it was an eerie darkness outside with sunshine and shadows still clearly delineated. I stepped outside for the few minutes it lasted. Other people had also noticed and had their phones out as well as cars with automatic headlights that turned on. I'm not sure what to make of it. Was it a partial eclipse in Taipei that wasn't covered anywhere in the news? The sun was bright in the sky, but on the ground everything darkened for just a few minutes. It must have been a partial eclipse, otherwise there should've been no effect at all. Such are my powers of logic.

Summer heat has officially kicked in and the early hints suggest it's gonna be another ridiculously blazing hell hot summer. I managed to not turn on the air conditioner until June. By then I was already suffering the heat at times, and even then I'd only turn it on for short periods to take off the edge. And that's what I've been doing until today – I'd reach a point of misery that I felt justified in turning it on for 15-20 minutes.

Today was the first day of summer pattern air con usage whereby I turn it on and set the timer for an hour. I'll still usually turn it off before the hour is up, and that will be sufficient for the next hour or two until I fire it up and repeat the process, balancing comfort with saving energy. Again, I remind myself how lucky I am to have air conditioning and the liberty to turn it on at will, which may be why I also try to show restraint.

I look at the 10-day forecast and note that the plum rains with their daily (but unpredictable) afternoon squalls are probably done and the stretch of clear, sunny days and roasting temperatures are just plain scary (every day highs in the high 90°s (feels like over 110°) and no lows below 80°). I'll need to be wary of heat-related health issues when I'm out and put a strict limit on the radius I can ride my bike to go anywhere, beyond which I have to take public transpo. I need to activate the app in my brain to recognize when I need to take a hydration stop at a convenient store to avoid getting into trouble. This is all very obvious to regular people possessing "intelligence", but I like living on the edge, surprised I haven't fallen off of it.

Taiwan has reached 56 days without any domestic spread of the CCP virus. That's four consecutive 14-day quarantine periods, eight weeks, without any domestic cases. A single quarantine period was deemed sufficient for any cases of the CCP virus to manifest, although a further 7 days of self-health monitoring was recommended to be sure. So after four quarantine periods, who is there in the population that may unknowingly have it and could still be spreading it? Logic and the numbers, admittedly I'm weak at both, should indicate ZERO. There is no one in the general population who has it, so no one can spread it. With no one to spread it, no one can catch it, such are my powers of logic.

Theoretically, ALL restrictions across the board could be immediately dropped and people can fully return to life as normal. Where would a new case come from? Only from abroad, and indeed the only new cases have been returnees, and in the past 56 days I think they were all caught during the mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival and isolated for treatment.

I just gotta say, DAMN Taiwanese are a patient lot! In some countries which have pampered and privileged portions of their populations, people would have revolted after one quarantine period with zero cases of domestic spread. Of course Taiwan never went into lockdown and restrictions haven't been too onerous. I think people were just so grateful to avoid the suffering the CCP unleashed upon the rest of the world that they were willing to put up with the meager restrictions beyond what logic dictates. And if government action has kept us safe, might as well keep listening to them.

And as promised, the government has loosened many restrictions after 56 days of no domestic spread. Practically speaking, not ALL "restrictions" across the board are being dropped. The fact that many parts of the world are still grappling with the pandemic makes it wise and acceptable to maintain baseline disciplines and vigilance. Social distancing, mask wearing and proper hygiene are still strongly encouraged. I'm good with hygiene. I take a shower once a week whether I need it or not.

This is a K-pop post I thought of composing two years ago, but decided against it because of the likelihood I wouldn't "feel it" in the long run. It would be dated and I would be embarrassed having posted it. And it's still an embarrassing post, it's K-pop, but two years later I came across the videos and still liked the idea of the post, so maybe not something I'd regret. 

I imagined myself going back in time to my younger self in 2003 when I was living in the Mission District in San Francisco and all about indie rock: Modest Mouse, Versus, Death Cab for Cutie, Rilo Kiley, etc. And I would say to my younger self: watch this video and pay close attention to it and tell me what you think of it (I, of course, would know exactly what my younger self would think of it). 

My younger self would say, "Holy fucking shit, what the hell was that?", and I'd tease, "It's a 'K-pop' song (appropriate finger gestures). This song is hot in South Korea this very year, what'dya think?".

"Just 'what the hell?'" I'd reply, "It's pretty fucking weird, why are you showing me this? And what happened to your hair?!"

"Because", I'd say with a dramatic pause, ignoring the jab at my thinning hair, "15 years from now a K-pop girl group is gonna cover this song and you're gonna be all over it watching it dozens of times, geeking out about how super fun and cool it is. You'll even read the lyrics. And not only that, but you'll also already be into the entire genre by that time".

"Aw, that's fucking lame. Whatever. Well if you say it's gonna happen, then it's gonna happen. I know things change and I'll change, but it doesn't matter to me now, it still looks pretty stupid. Oh alright, show me the clip 15 years from now."  I knew I would take the bait (the two older gentleman in black in the audience are the original artists.)

I honestly have no idea how my 2003 self would have reacted to this video. I was a real snob, all about real musicians writing their own songs and playing their own instruments and I would have resisted this concocted pop confection, but I knew a hype beat and cool groove when I heard one and I think I couldn't deny it was pretty infectious from the get-go. I hope I could've managed a conciliatory, "Actually not that bad".

It's possible – I don't know how possible – that I might have thought if my future self traveled all that way to show me these videos, I may have been hinting something to myself. Maybe to not be closed-minded about music and be open to what can be done. Beyond that I don't know if my life course would've changed any. Probably not much, except knowing that time travel was possible *yawn*. And that I'd still be alive 15 years later *sigh*. Not that I'd change anything since I know I'd be stubborn like that. I probably wouldn't have figured out I wasn't hinting at anything at all and was just using time travel for inter-dimensional geeking out.

May 3, 2004, 2:28 p.m. - My San Francisco apartment in the Mission District. Band posters for Versus, Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse and Rainer Maria. The cat's name is Ransom, sitting atop a first generation Bose AM-5 satellite speaker cube. I'm told those original design Bose speakers are much better than what came later.