My Very Significant Short Story

Hi everyone, this may come as a bit of a shock like that surprise Beyoncé album, but I have been working on a short story in my semester sojourn. 

I have finished and published it since barriers of entry are so low that anyone can be a (self-)published author, and I have always wanted to commit time to write and publish something serious since I was a child. Eventually, I will be too busy working to have time to do something like this again. I want people to find their own meaning and be changed, hopefully for the better!

It is a postmodern satire called My Very Significant Short Story. A description can be found in the links.

Also, it's only $3! Check it out, take a chance, please spread the word especially if you enjoyed it, and *cough* buy a copy! It is available at all major eBook retailers.

Available
Amazon (+audiobook available)
X iBooks (+audiobook available)
X Nook
X Kobo

No Name Restaurant

Not shady at all

On 6/14, we went to No Name to celebrate something that happens only once in a lifetime: our lively grandma's 86th birthday. Arriving at the Seaport District, a redeveloped, gentrifying, and magnificent feat of urban planning with inviting public spaces and views of Boston Harbor, we found parking in a fishy-looking pier. With aisles of nondescript businesses only described by a plain sign, this pier looked like something from a mafia movie, where the strong fishy smell probably masked the decay of a bullet-ridden body (just kidding!).

The enigmatically named No Name is apparently a historical fixture from 1917. I don't normally care about the interior of a restaurant since I'm there for the food, but it was appropriately nautically-themed with the typical wooden interior, nets, and rescue circles that try to impress a John F. Kennedy sailing feel. Anyways, our moderately large group sat on the first floor by the glass windows with views of the water and, ironically, Legal Seafood, which was packed and too mainstream.

Simple 1-page menu, I like this over the reams at many Chinese restaurants

There was also a seagull slowly strutting down the pier runway with its strong stick legs, but I didn't take a picture.

The Food - Starting with Appetizers

So, the complimentary garlic bread didn't have much juice and tasted like dry garlic bread, which is fair since that wasn't the main attraction. The cole slaw was also like cole slaw and slightly below par. However, the generous helpings of fries were very satisfying with the right amount of crisp and salt. The seafood chowdah (excuse my half-genuine accent) was also good and mostly runny versus creamy.

The Seafood
Lobster orders came with gently batter-fried shrimp and scallops bedded on addictingly good and tangy-tasting tarter sauce, even if its color is yellowish-green as some Yelp! reviewers described. (I'm not oblivious to the 2.5 stars bad rating, but I like this restaurant overall.)

This lobstah went to Hahvad

The boiled lobstah was teenager-sized and succulent, but, then again, it's almost impossible to screw up a boiled lobster. My brother unwillingly surrendered part of his steak, which was very bland and definitely not this seafood restaurant's forte. The fish seafood platter was good with a variety of oily omega-3 fish, which I like, and went well with the tasty wild rice platters.

The crown jewel of our order

However, the fried clams were the most intriguing and favored item. They were runny with delicious, slightly bitter juice and chewiness that dissolved with the batter on the tongue. I would recommend this.

Well, we left with full stomachs, and tip was included in the receipt, although I felt a bit like I was having a "salt attack" since the fries and this type of food are high sodium to match the ocean water.

The Value of a Day

McDonald's in Times Square, not my photo

I’m sure all of us have experienced some days that are more positive than others, or even some days that are more profitable than others. Not to create stress, but to evaluate the maximum value of day, I conjure thoughts of a large multinational corporation.

Let’s say a company like McDonald’s has around $27 billion in yearly revenue. Dividing by 365 and disregarding holidays off, that’s about $74 million in average daily global revenue with a net profit margin of 17.34% in 2014. This implies that good or bad shocks can be virtuous or devastating especially with how efficient markets are today; I’m sure there is a lot of pressure for an ad launch to be successful and viral, while a scandal or bad earnings can easily take a few notches off market capitalization.

However, with less pressure, let’s estimate the average life expectancy of an American as of now at 79 years. That’s about 28,835 days of which we have lived a varying portion of it. Thus, I think a day is quite valuable! I think of Steve Job’s various enlightening quotes on life and mortality.

A Different Kind of Success

Not me in photo, I'm not that curvy and feminine (I hope)

Is anyone else really inspired by very smart people and/or people who became surprisingly successful from modest means? I feel that drive and hard work are parts of the essence of America. Still, America has one of the highest inequalities among developed nations, so realistic expectations are important since most people aren't likely to become obscenely rich, including myself. Therefore, I think success in happiness and efficiency are important too.

People are relative creatures who think at the margin, so while the average American citizen is much better off than the average citizen of the world, we are surrounded by media that frequently touts wealth and conventional success. Furthermore, friends, neighbors, and strangers may be better off, and people tend to form friendships on similarity despite America being a relatively egalitarian society. Despite these adverse trends, I think success should ideally be personally defined.

I thought this short article by Marilyn vos Savant was an interesting read, and you might too: "Achieving Your Potential"

Ah, the joys of being an idealist millennial whose views may shift in the future…

People As People

I think an important premise of psychology as a scientific discipline is that there are relatively fixed patterns underlying people. Of course, there is a lot of controversy and debate along the lines of nature versus nurture in which the patterns may not be inherent but socially learned; with research largely coming from WEIRD countries (western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic), there may be peculiarities ingrained in individualism.

Nonetheless, I think humans as animals, albeit very special and advanced mammals, have shared basis that is partially elucidated by psychological schemas like Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

This shared basis can be applicable, or some would even say exploitable, in many fields. How does marketing take advantage of instincts? Why are some leaders so charismatic? Why do some social media campaigns succeed and others get lambasted? Why are luxury goods so coveted? I won't provide answers in my opinion, but I think even business-related questions like these can be understood psychologically. This makes psychology an important framework for understanding and interpreting human development despite flaws of its study and how notoriously difficult understanding oneself is.