Trump goes after universities. He cuts federal funding on grants, contracts, and researches. Across universities, PhD students have been cut. He hates the highly educated and loves the “poorly educated.” Of course he loved the poorly educated because he fooled them to vote for him. The highly educated saw right through his lies, incompetencies, and stupidities. We understood the danger he posed to our democracy.

I didn’t know who Jeremy Pelt was, but the lead-off track, “Prologue: Invention #1,” from his new album, Woven, pulled me right in. Pelt played an astonishing vibrato on him trumpet. With “Rhapsody,” Pelt had woven vocals, electric guitar, and synthesization into a mesmerizing fusion. His trumpet was clear and swift. It’s a great album and I will be looking for more of his work.

I am down with boycotting Target for 40 days starting today. Anything I need from Target I can get at Costco. Fuck Target!

I finally had a chance to catch up on this book from the defunct A Book Apart. It was published 8 years ago, but most of the information is still relevant because Laura kept the code to the minimal. I enjoyed getting some refresh on accessibility practices. Since the book was light, it was a good transition after reading a heavy novel.

The weather is getting warmer. In the morning, the snow was still soft at Liberty. I snowboarded for about an hour and a half. My legs got tired from trying to tilt my board on its edges. I switched to skiing. My feet were so heavy in my ski boots. I could only do one run and had to take them out to give my feet a massage. They felt fine after that, but the snow turned mushy. I almost fell on the double black. It was too hard to carve, even on ski. Nevertheless, I had some good runs.

I recalled Joon-ho Bong’s Parasite won some Oscars a few years ago. It definitely deserved all the accolades for such a dark, twisted work of art. From the outstanding storyline to the superb cast, this is one of the fucked-up Korean thrillers that I enjoyed. Just watch it if you haven’t.

To distract my ears from political podcasts, I tuned into jazz. The Bad Plus’ Complex Emotions is a fantastic distraction. With “French Horns,” the group returns to its funk-jazz vibe, but also expands with rock guitar and fast saxophone. True to his name, Chris Speed blazes his sax solo with such furious speed. Ben Monder sets quiet fire on his guitar. “Casa Ben” kicks off with Reid Anderson’s hypnotic bass and Dave King’s crips drums. Speed joins in with sweet melodic intro. The star is Monder who plays some organic, futurist vibes with such an incredible feedbacks. The whole album is a wonderful treat.

I left my house at 5:30 am and arrived at Whitetail around 7:15 am. I made it to the morning ski clinic. I always loved these clinics. We worked on putting pressure on outside foot.

I went to the line up at 10:00 am. I didn’t get any class. I went to snowboard clinic to learn buttering. It was not my thing. Luckily the training was about 45 minutes. I went riding afterward. I need to relearn to snowboard with my body closed. I have been carving with opening position, which my lead instructor doesn’t like. He didn’t give me any level two class because of that. I am cool with that.

I went back to the line up at 1:00 pm. I didn’t get any class either, which I was glad. I switched to my ski boots and went to the back side. The trails were getting slushy. I didn’t enjoy it too much. I left the resort around 2:30 pm. I was exhausted. Damn, I am getting old.

In the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting, JD Vance killed two birds with one stone. He berated President Zelenskyy and kissed Trump’s ass at the same time. Trump was so flattered that he just played along with his VP. Vance showed the entire world that he had a seat at the table, a real power, and a fucking presidential puppet to back him up. Trump was talking a lot of bullshit, but his VP had a viciousness in his tone. Now that’s an authoritarian in the making and a danger to our democracy.

Today the whole family left the house at 7:00 am so I could make it to the morning line up. We arrived around 8:45 am. I went to the 10:00 am lone up and took a group a lesson. I taught two ladies.

At first, one of them didn’t think she could learn snowboarding. I encouraged her to give it as try. We took it as easy as possible. They turned out to be snowboarding really well. They followed my instructions and made great progress. I was surprised how they could do J turns.

One of the students also signed up for a private lesson and she wanted me to teach her, but her lesson had already been assigned.

I ended up not taking any lesson for the 1:00 pm line up. I went riding by myself a bit then with my wife and then with the kids.

We left the resort around 4:00 pm. It was perfect timing. I’ll be back tomorrow by myself to teach.