What you really want

A day off during the middle of a work week is a great opportunity to reveal to yourself just exactly how you spend your time. No work responsibilities, no weekend errands: you’ve got eight solid hours dedicated completely to you. How you choose to spend those hours is a good indication of what you really want to do.

This Veterans Day holiday, I spent the majority of the day reading. (The Red Rising trilogy is a fantastically good read.) In between two meals and a workout session, the rest was proper couch time with a book and a few cups of coffee. Eat, workout, and books; what more does a person need?

This list of things I chose not to do shatters the illusion that those things were something I actually wanted to do. Videos games? I’ve yet to play a single hour of games on the PlayStation in 2025. I pretend to be an avid gamer, but really it’s the idea of it that’s interesting to me. In hindsight, I should have never bought the PS5 at all.

Go outside and take photos? It turns out I’m not that type of hobbyist photographer. I want to be, but again it’s the ideal of it that I fancy, not the actual process. I enjoy taking pictures during my travels, that remains. Going around locally, hunting down moments and scenes? I am and was never that kind of photographer. It’s time I stopped pretending to be.

Take the car out of a spin on the mountains - for the fun of it? I’ve not done that since the beginning of the pandemic, and I never resumed. The magic of an open windy road is not as alluring as it used to be. I’m okay with admitting that I’m the sort of car enthusiast that enjoy cars as a static museum object. This might be sacrilege for some that consider mileage as a badge of enthusiasm.

Sometimes I watch YouTube car repair videos, and think to myself that’s something I would like to do. If only I have a garage. I should get a garage! Then I can be the DIY car person with chests full of tools and hours to spend tinkering. I could spend a ton of money pursuing that ideal, but I have to remind myself that I’m not even inclined to wash the car these days. What makes me think I’m want to spend a free afternoon wrenching, instead, of say, reading?

To quote the great DJ Khaled: “Never play yourself.”

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Light it up.

Wonder

Yesterday was the first Juneteenth holiday that we, as employees of San Francisco State University, got since it became a federal holiday a few years back. A day to commemorate the emancipation of slaves - it doesn’t get much more American than that.

So what did I do my day off? My friend has a membership to the California Academy of Sciences, in the heart of Golden Gate Park. He intends to bring his two young boys there regularly. One perk of the membership: you can bring along two adult guests for free. I’ve not been to the Academy of Sciences since its renovation, so I was eager to tag along. Besides, my friend did all the driving and parking-finding, which is a headache I’m glad to outsource.

It seems everybody with kids in the single digit of age - and had the day off - was there at Cal Academy yesterday. There were strollers everywhere, mothers in yoga pants, and dads carrying the diaper/snack bags. A pandemonium of children staring in wild-eyed wonder at the exhibits. It’s really lovely to see. That is what it’s all about, isn’t it? To excite the curiosity of kids, to introduce them to the wonders of science. My friend’s youngest son was more interested in the repairman fixing a broken elevator up on the rooftop garden. That little guy just might become a mechanical engineer.

Having young children seems to be a lot like having a dog. You take them outside to do activities - like visiting the Cal Academy - so it would tire them out. Your evening will then be way more pleasant while they are placated and satisfied in their corner. Cooped-up children - much like cooped up dogs - are no good for anyone. Go outside! Get some vitamin D.

Thanks to my friend, I got glimpse into a slice of the parenting life pie. Granted, with a selection bias towards couples that have the Juneteenth holiday off work.

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The lost world.

Laundry day off

As a public employee, I got the day off yesterday due to it being Veteran’s Day. It’s rather nice to have this mid workweek break on a Wednesday, and today feels more like a second Monday than a regular Thursday. Nevertheless, because there’s a still a pandemic raging on - with drastic upticks in cases in many parts of the country - having a day off just doesn’t seem as awesome as it used to. Even though you can go out to places, you really shouldn’t if it isn’t something essential like getting groceries.

What about hanging out with friends? Well, you probably shouldn’t do that either, though the fact most of my friends don’t have Veteran’s Day off sort of solved that conundrum for me.

So what I did yesterday was just hung out in the new-to-me studio apartment, enjoying a quiet day of solitude. It was also a good time to do my first load of laundry at the new (again, to me) premises. The place has got the latest fancy and eco-friendly front-loading washers and dryers, very smart and super quiet in operation. It’s such a stark contrast coming from my parents’ apartment, with its nearly two decades old top-loading units that make a horrendous racket - everybody in the house knows when laundry is being done.

Advancement in technology is lovely indeed.

Another point of difference from my parents’ is that I no longer have to hang-dry my clothes. Even though there is a dryer at the old house, for the sake of saving a few dollars of energy cost, my family have hung-dry our clothes since forever; the dryer is there only for sucking up the lint afterwards. So to go from that to immediately transferring freshly laundry into the dryer and using that machine as intended is rather awkward at first, though the end-result of slightly warm and fresh-smelling clothes is such a luxurious feeling.

Surely some of my stuff that’s never seen a proper mechanical drying session will shrink from the heat; I guess I’ll find out which ones eventually.

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Now that I’ve sold my 911, of course I’m seeing them everywhere. Like a taunt!

The Ohana Floor

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day, and as a public employee, I was lucky to have the day off. Not so fortunate is one of my friend who works in the private sector: she definitely did not get a three-day weekend. It was just as well, because that friend happens to work at Salesforce, and through her I can gain access to the observation deck - 61st floor - of the shiny new Salesforce Tower. The free Monday yesterday was the perfect opportunity to finally make the visit since the tower opened for business, because a bunch of us had the day-off, and she didn’t.

Honestly, I was surprised the observation deck of the tallest building in San Francisco is not open to the general public. The gleaming towers in other cities usually offer a chance - often times for a fee - for the public to go high up and see the respective city from a totally contrasting perspective. Most famous of towers has to be the Empire State Building in New York City. I guess Salesforce can’t be bothered to take the public’s cash: it’s too busy raking in the money from its “day job”. Besides, having the masses of people queuing to go up would interfere with the coming and goings of actual employees.

Therefore, to have the privilege to go up to the 61st floor - “The Ohana Floor” - one must know a Salesforce employee. And I’m really happy that I do, because the views up there at the highest point in San Francisco is expectedly spectacular, truly a perspective you cannot get anywhere else. On a day when Karl the Fog takes a break from blanketing the city, you can see as far as the Golden Gate Bridge and the western end. To have such a view to enjoy while slowly eating our lunch was an absolute highlight of yesterday. There’s also coffee and tea on offer; gratis, of course.

I have to say it’s somewhat of a shame that not everyone can have the experience of going up to the top of Salesforce Tower. A private company can do what it wants, obviously, so find yourself a friend who works there. Preferably someone who can defer about four hours of work on a Monday to hang out. Thank you, Hannah!

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I’m very high.