Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Alone in my thoughts

Last week for two days the Internet at home was out of service. We suspect it’s due to all the digging that PG&E has been doing in the neighborhood. So who is responsible for the bill credit? The beleaguered energy company, or Comcast?

Nevertheless, the total lack of Internet access provided an excellent opportunity to do some digital detoxing. I couldn’t even rely on cellular service from my phone. Verizon is a dead-zone in my first floor dungeon of a studio.

As a reader of many books, it would be too easy to grab the next one on the shelf. I wanted to challenge myself: can I truly do nothing for the few hours before bed? Heck, can I even eat a meal without looking at anything that’s on the Internet?

I’m not some luddite that think we should abstain from the glorious dopamine drips that a modern Internet connection provides. I greatly enjoy spending countless hours on Youtube, and that’s never going to stop. A cabin on Walden pound without Internet is not some badge of honor. The online world is a wondrous place to be enjoyed.

Though I think it’s an important exercise to be able to sit still and do nothing for an extended period. I’m not saying you have to "raw-dog” a plane ride. But if you can’t do it at all - your fingers itches for the smartphone in less than a minute of nothing doing, then there might be some negatively addictive tendencies to look into.

Given the option I would take having an active home Internet over deadness every single time. But when the network does go down, it’s good to know that I remain capable of not going stir crazy.

And another one

So the United States went into a foreign country and kidnapped the sitting President. Seems like we all just forgotten about it. When you are one of the few preeminent super powers on this planet, they just let you do it. Grab them by the Maduro. The Russian Federation is drowning itself in celebration because there’s now another direction for the finger to point at. The war in Ukraine is de-facto justified because, well, what are you going to do about it?

And if there’s nothing consequential you can do about it, is that not a de-facto sanction to continue? America certainly understands that message. Kidnapping a foreign President is tables stakes now! We’ve gone into Iran and essentially assassinated the country’s supreme leader. The rest of the world can only put out statements. Let’s see what the U.S. Congress does in terms of wrestling back their sole right to declare war, but let’s not hold our breaths.

At least we used to be subtle about this sort of stuff. History is allegedly littered with the CIA covertly influencing leadership changes in foreign countries. Should agents get captured in the act, there’s plausible deniability from the reigning administration. I know this because I’ve watched all of the Mission Impossible movies. Regime change is the United States’ speciality.

You mean to tell me Khamenei couldn’t have been knocked off more silently than what transpired? A Jason Bourne type wasn’t available?

Because what Americans don’t have the stomach for is yet another war in the Middle East. It’s partially why Trump was voted into office. The messy withdrawal from Afghanistan during the Biden administration was supposed to be a bookend to billions wasted and thousands of American lives lost in Mesopotamia. That didn’t last long because now the current administration just put us into direct armed conflict with Iran. American lives are already on the lost tally. Who voted for this? Congress certainly did not.

You know who looks the most ridiculous right now - not that they care? FIFA. The peace prize that already looked stupid is now downright comedic.

I'm once again asking for competence

When you trade you hard-earned money for a service or item, you expect to be treated correctly. No need overly slobber over my knob, no: I’m just asking for mere competence. Do the job properly! Return emails and phone calls in a timely manner. You know, basic customer service stuff.

In the never-ending journey of fixing my used 2019 Volkswagen Golf GTI back up to my standards of acceptable quality, I’ve been buying quite a few parts. In order to save as much as possible, certain items I’m okay with buying used on eBay. It’s already a used car: there’s no point to making it perfect.

The previous owner of the Golf must have frequently hauled large items in the hatch. Which is great, because I love seeing cars being used for its intention. However, that means the inner hatch cover of the GTI is a bit too beat up for my liking. One side doesn’t even fit flush anymore.

I bought a replacement panel on eBay off a wrecked car. However, the seller failed to cover the entire piece in cardboard. When the shipping company - doesn’t matter who, really; they all don’t give a crap - inevitably drags the part on the ground, the exposed corners got marred. Not the end of the world, but annoying nevertheless. You’d think a seller of used car parts would know how to package them properly for transit.

From a different seller I purchased a used rear door skin. This seller actually covered the entire thing in cardboard. It’s a sad state of affairs that I have to be impressed at mere competence, but here we are. At least I’ve now found a known quality seller, should I need additional replacements parts for the VW.

If you’re looking for car parts off of wrecked cars, look first at Enthusiast Car Parts.

Make phone calls for me

I am not an AI doomer. Just like anything else, AI is a tool to be used. Humans remain the master, at least until AI can think for itself.

For now, there is one thing I want AI to do for me: make phone calls. For whatever reason, I never like making phones calls. Remember when you had to actually speak to someone on the phone to activate a credit card? Man am I glad we can just log into our bank accounts online for that. Call to schedule a doctor’s appointment? There’s an app for that now.

But of course there are some things you still have to pick up the phone for. Like calling 911, though I’m not here to suggest AI call 911 on my behalf. I’m talking about stuff like calling the parts department of a dealership to check on a backorder I placed months ago. Email probably could have sufficed, but I wanted an order update immediately.

Whoever invents an AI agent to make phone calls will get all my money. I can train it to imitate my voice by reading to it a few paragraphs. It doesn’t have to be a perfect facsimile: these calls are made to complete strangers. (I’m not using AI to call my friends!) So long as the AI can carry a conversation in a normal speech pattern. If it sounds more like Stephen Hawking (rest in peace), that’s probably not going to work.

Possible, right? I mean, AI can make a song with Drake on the track - without Drake the actual singer being involved at all. Voice imitation is already nailed. The Siri assistant on my iPhone talks back to me fairly naturally, so we know computers can do colloquial speech. I think the major hurdle is creating a fast enough generative loop between input from human voice - on the other side of the line - and output by the AI telephone agent.

All you Chinese AI software engineers getting paid half a million a year better get on that!

The number one spot

In this inflationary economy where eating even at fast food joints costs nearly $20 (got to love high cost of living San Francisco), it’s important to find deals where possible. Especially for us weightlifters seeking easy protein gains. A surprising candidate has emerged in the number one spot: Hawaiian food. For about $13, I can get a BBQ combo plate at the local Hawaiian BBQ restaurant, and it’s got nearly a pound of meat! The normal eaters of you can likely split that one plate into two meals. A fantastic deal.

Chipotle used to occupy that top spot, but lately I’ve soured on the brand. For whatever reason, the Chipotle closest to me puts in way too much salt. It’s not a good feeling to eat a meal and then have to endlessly drink water in the hours following. If it were a one time thing where the staff person may have been a bit heavy handed with the shaker, sure. Sadly it’s been a pattern.

Hawaiian BBQ it is. Best of all, you don’t have to give the staff a death stare just to ensure they don’t shortchange you on the protein portions.

High school was 20 years ago for me, so I don’t expect people that I haven’t seen since then to recognize me. At least not immediately. Recently I ran into such an acquaintance, and she did not remember me at all. Flummoxed! Do I really look that different from my high school years? You know, apart from the normal aging process.

Apparently I was on the chubby side in high school. I’ve either forgotten about it, or it’s been too long since I’ve started to worry about my health back in college. The acquaintance I ran into finally did recognize me, and mentioned with a rather crude hand gesture that I was missing an entire chin. I guess that’s nothing to complain about. How many looksmaxxing folks out there wish they could develop a proper jaw line like I’ve apparently done.

Pour one out

I am sorry to hear about the untimely passing of James Van Der Beek. 48 is absolutely too young to be dying of colon cancer. As a matter of fact, no one should be dying of colon cancer. So long as it is detected early, colon cancer - and prostate cancer - is imminently treatable.

Two things have to happen. First is not wait so long to have regular colon and prostate exams. I am getting both done soon as I hit 40 solar orbits. If insurance doesn’t want to play ball, there’s way too many tele-health companies out there that will. A few hundred bucks to potentially catch a cancer early is chump change.

Second is fighting the stigma of these exams. Sure, it’s super funny to joke about taking a finger up the ass, especially for heterosexual dudes. But if that fear is preventing men from getting screened, something’s got to change. The culture must shift to where taking something up the butt isn’t a demerit against someone’s masculinity. It’s not gay, and it’s not going to turn you gay.

Given a long enough lifetime, the cancer reaper will come for us all. As us millennials age into the middle chunk of our allotted time on earth, I think there’s really no excuse not to get screened. But I get it: we feel fine now. Kicking the can down the road is too easy. Much like I don’t visit the dentist as much as I should.

But the downside of not visiting the dentist regularly isn’t potential death. If not for yourself, you owe it to your dependents to stay as healthy for as long as possible.

The math is not math-ing

The San Francisco Unified School District teachers are on a historical strike. Tomorrow will mark the third consecutive day that schools will be closed. As a member of a union myself, bully to those fighting for wages. We understand that in this economy, any increase will immediately get wiped out by inflation. Everybody knows this, except for the reigning President of the United States.

However, from a pure mathematical standpoint, it’s difficult to square away the conflict of a school district that is facing a 100 million deficit for the current fiscal year, and its employees asking for a raise. The math cannot possibly be math-ing here. If labor is already the biggest pie of the expenditure, and it’s set to increase in size, not decrease, that’s not a good start to balancing the budget.

Of course, the school district can increase revenue, but demographics is against that. There are fewer school age children in San Francisco than ever. Furthermore, those with the means to - hello, tech bros - send their offsprings to private school, rather than be at the mercy of SFUSD’s notorious lottery school assignment system. Short of the State of California adding more funding per pupil, you just hope the revenue pie doesn’t continue to shrink!

As a person who works at a public university, I am very familiar with the downstream pains of decreasing enrollment.

Nevertheless: if this were the private sector, asking for a raise when the company is fiscally performing poorly who never fly. You’d know better than to even ask. It doesn’t make sense to further jeopardize an already precarious situation. Salary increase is rather meaningless if the company itself doesn’t survive long enough for you to reap the benefits.

Public sector education is Lindy enough to last forever, right? That’s probably true. But again, it’s just simple math: it doesn’t make logical sense for a district that’s already in the hole - that they must climb out of, to make the hole bigger. Alas, if it’s like anything San Francisco has done previously, I’m sure it’ll be yet another tax measure on the ballot. Should we save BART, or should we save public schools?