Digression and Regression with Oliver

"Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention." As the voice of Frank Sinatra echoes, my dad and I sit at the corner of an American buffet, I look at my food; then to my dad and ask him, "Do you have any regrets?" I thought for sure he would say no. He's a very accomplished man, getting into TsingHua University, the equivalent of being accepted into MIT. He still remembers how to do algebra, geometry, calculus even yet he has never touched a problem in that area for almost 30 years. "I wish I was less of a 宅男 (zhái nán)." "What's that?" "It's a boy who spends a lot of time at home. I spent most of my day at home or at school studying whenever necessary. I sort of wished I could have played more." To me, this was a huge shock. My Asian dad, someone who has never directly encouraged me to pursue playtime, tells me that he regrets not being more social. "You know, you asked me before if I cou...

First, I want to say something. Our parents have worked hard. They've toiled years to make enough money to pay the $240,000 dollars it costs to raise a kid to the age of 18 in California, probably more if they have more. Our parents have worked hard, and it pains me to see that a lot of people don't appreciate just how hard they work.                                              If you are Chinese, then you might be able to relate to this, but do you happen to know what university your parents went to? Is it Qing Hua, Bei Da, Zhe Jiang, or Jiao Tong? Those universities are basically the equivalent of MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, or Caltech. I'm saying this because although my dad told me where he attended university, Qing Hua, I never really processed how great of an accomplishment this was until the day he told me that the next time I see him drinking with his fri...