James Bao

Joined September 2018

20 stories

Bio

Fulfilling my childhood dream of being a “published” author through Vocal Media Plus #gohuskies

Stories (20)

Filter by community

Sort by (Optional)

Is it really a strike if you aren't scheduled to work that day?
I don't remember when exactly I became a tree-hugger. The first memory I have of caring about the environment is when my parents had a National Geographic subscription. I was really quiet and introverted as a kid who spent a lot of time flipping through magazines filled with interesting maps and colorful photos of scenery and wildlife. It instilled in me an intense curiosity to learn more about the different places and peoples around the planet. And it opened my eyes to the moral conundrums and injustices of climate change and environmental degradation, even before I knew what any of those words meant. A 2004 issue framed CO2 emissions and climate change in terms of a mystery novel, as if fossil fuel companies were murdering the biosphere by mining oil and coal, and the Earth was unwittingly hiding the evidence by letting CO2 dissolve into the oceans. Nine year old me didn't know what some of the words meant, but they knew that this was a really big problem that would affect everyone they knew and everyone those people knew and all their descendants for hundreds and thousands of years.
By James Bao3 years ago in Earth
Turquoise Curaçao
Turquoise Curaçao Wish I could drown my sorrows in your cocktail blue
By James Bao3 years ago in Poets
The Dolphin of Fate
Takumi woke up to the smell of Núi Và Sông instant coffee emanating from the dining room. "Bailu must've made me a mug before heading to work", he happily thought to himself. The fragrance brought back happy memories of his childhood in Prey Nokor, on the other side of the ocean from gloomy Shirabad. Somehow fate had brought both Takumi and Bailu across the ocean, to this strange land where people from all walks of life were united in their love for caffeinated beverages, guns, and self-help talk.
By James Bao3 years ago in Geeks
An Offering of Chili Mango
Back in 2019, the December sun shone weakly through post-rainstorm clouds on the Embarcadero boardwalk of San Francisco. Me and two of my college friends were visiting our mutual high school friend Phil* in the Bay Area, who had graciously offered to host us at his studio complex in the City for the weekend. After Ubering around to Chinatown for dim sum and Twin Peaks in the early afternoon, the four of us moseyed on over to the Embarcadero to walk around amidst the tourist crowds before taking our bus back to Davis.
By James Bao4 years ago in Confessions
The One About Trader Joe's Chili Spiced Dried Mango
DISCLAIMER: I personally have nothing against raisins- in fact I enjoy eating them as a snack. I only used raisins as an example because I know a lot of people don’t like them and I figured it would make it easier for other people to relate to my story. More importantly, I love mango and almost anything that has mango in it, and chili spiced dried mango is one of my favorite things about Trader Joe’s, so I wanted to give a shoutout to TJ for their dried fruit products.
By James Bao5 years ago in Confessions
Among Us, Serendipity
A flash of emerald zoomed past Min-hyuk's line of sight as he fiddled with his Nikkou camera. He absentmindedly flipped through the photos in his shutter, examining the shots he had taken of cosplayers. Seeing the life and expression in their imitative poses made him smile. They provided a fleeting respite from the sense of existential dread that came from being recently laid off.
By James Bao5 years ago in Geeks
The Baklava Dude
My first memory of eating Greek food was during a childhood family road trip through California, at a Daphne franchise location in San Diego. The clear blue summer skies made for ideal outdoor dining weather. There was slow, vaguely operatic vocal music playing in the background. Every bite of golden rice pilaf and zesty Greek salad felt like I had been transported across time and space to an bucholic Ancient Greek meadow. For dessert, we ordered a piece of their baklava, which was refrigerated and wrapped in a cupcake wrapper. The smell of buttery, flaky pastry dough mixed with honey syrup and chopped nuts cemented my memory of Greek food. I've been fascinated with Greek and Mediterranean food ever since.
By James Bao5 years ago in Feast
Mailbox Peak
Mailbox Peak is one of those daredevil hikes people go on just to brag about it on social media. 4000 ft of elevation gain in 3 miles (or 6, if you go on the new trail), and there's a colorful mailbox on top that's plastered with a bunch of stickers you can take a picture with. It seems like the kind of thing you'd put on your college bucket list to tackle while you're still young and reckless. I first heard about the trail through seeing a couple ladies I knew post about it on social media-- and my young, reckless college brain vowed to one day trace the steps of those pairs of suave Gore-Tex boots clad in tight yoga pants. (I was and still am a connoisseur of yoga pants and the shapely beings that don them.)
By James Bao5 years ago in Wander

James Bao

Bio

Stories .css-1svwz57-Text{display:inline-block;color:var(--text-default-mute);}(20)

Filter by community

Is it really a strike if you aren't scheduled to work that day?

Turquoise Curaçao

The Dolphin of Fate

An Offering of Chili Mango

The One About Trader Joe's Chili Spiced Dried Mango

Among Us, Serendipity

The Baklava Dude

Mailbox Peak

Stories (20)