Blog

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

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.

Arrowhead.

Be generous

Back in my high school days, the Initial D anime series was all the rage amongst us car enthusiasts. Drifting - the act of deliberately power-sliding a car - was fast becoming the rage, even for those us of an age who can only dream of driving. Youtube wasn’t yet a thing then; media distribution was still largely on physical media. That’s precisely how I watched Initial D, popping in a disc one episode after another. Kids have it so much easier nowadays.

One particular day after school, an older friend of a classmate was visiting from another school. Sadly, I’ve completely forgotten his name. It was probably Henry. Like me, he was also enthusiastic about cars, so we naturally got to talking about various automotive-relate topics. Initial D and drifting came up, and Henry mentioned he has a DVD called Drift Bible. The premise is simple: the drift king of Japan - Keiichi Tsuchiya - teaches you how to drift.

Seeing as Henry and I (I’m pretty sure that’s not his name) have only met a few times, I was totally undeserving of the kindness that was about to happen. He offered to drive me to his house, give me the Drift Bible DVD to borrow, then drive me home. As someone who lives an hour bus ride from my high school, the generosity of a lift home was overwhelming enough (no such thing as an UBER back then, kids). Lending a DVD to practically a stranger? That is above and beyond.

I’m writing all this because I feel tremendously guilty: I still have that DVD! I’m looking at it right now as I’m typing these words out. The jerk that I am never returned the borrowed item. An olive branch utterly cut off, a possible long friendship over cars completely disregarded. I can only say thank you to Henry for his massive generosity. If he’s somehow reading this, you can find me via the contact links at the bottom right.

And I know, your name is not Henry.

The shame!