[Public Version] March 15, 2026 (Sun) | WBC, Tax Returns, and Tehran (Reading Lolita in Tehran)
I got fired up from the morning, made all the preparations to watch the WBC, and took my place in the middle of the sofa. The semifinals are on Monday, and the finals are on Wednesday. I was thinking about taking time off work, but it wasn't until the game started that I suddenly realized, 'Oh, there's a possibility they could lose.' And then, they really did lose.
In the middle of the game, I felt like it was an even match, or rather, a pretty tough battle. Even though we were still winning by one run, I already felt like we were losing. That kind of atmosphere is probably shared whether you're at the venue or watching through a screen. I thought about how harsh the world of sports is if they have to recover from this, and I felt a sense of awe for them, thinking that might be what it means to be a professional, but in the end, in the second half, the Japanese team slipped away and lost all too easily.
While dealing with WBC loss, I finally did my tax return, which I had been putting off and putting off. A friend I met on Saturday said they had a much easier time this year by getting help from AI, so I thought I'd do the same, but in the first place, the information to feed into the AI wasn't organized at all. I deeply resent my past self for not organizing the necessary information and documents, and for not doing it sooner.
I had forgotten that because I rebuilt my house last year, there were more documents than usual, and I also just realized that my real estate income had decreased last year. Next year, if I track things properly, keep all necessary documents in one place, and write down the tax return procedure somewhere, I won't have to panic like this. If I can categorize unnecessary past documents, store them elsewhere, and save monthly information in Notebook LM, I should be able to do it more efficiently next year without panicking like this. That's right, I think that every year. I finally finished after 6 o'clock, ate the Crisp Salad Works salad that Byrne bought, and watched 'The Fall Guy' at night. Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds look alike.
Finished reading 'Reading Lolita in Tehran' in bed. It was so good that I can't summarize my thoughts. The brilliance of this book lies first in the fact that the power of literature is felt in abundance, and the author believes in it and uses it to the fullest to give a voice to the voiceless. And of course, through discussions with the women who appear in the work, as well as the revolutionary students, we can catch a glimpse of not only their ideologies but also their personal experiences. Because of this, the book refuses to judge them from a simply dualistic perspective. While the author sometimes depicts them critically, she is always questioning herself, struggling, and wondering if she is right. She raises many questions and seems to be pleading with us, the readers, to keep asking them. And above all, she wishes for us to make the unknown people in this book exist by imagining them. The strength of that prayer-like wish strikes a chord in my heart.