Blog

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

Unfathomable money level

Today I was reading a thread on r/sanfrancisco about a two-bedroom two-bath rental in the Sunset district costing $6,500 per month. That is both incredible and unfathomable. That amount of money is a bit more than my own monthly take-home, and I honestly do not view myself as making peasant money. A reality where people can spend that much on rent alone is difficult to conceptualize. $78,000 a year just to put a roof over your head.

But obviously there are plenty of people capable of spending those amounts. You watch enough Caleb Hammer and you begin to believe there’s lots of folks out there struggling financially and making stupid decision. On the flip side, there’s lots of folks making really good money and can spend with impunity. Look at this guy who casually spent $635K on a special edition Acura NSX, a practical museum piece because each additional mile is ruinous to its now record-setting evaluation.

Imaging spending house-level money on a vehicle you won’t drive! Meanwhile, I don’t think I’ve made that much money total in all my years of working. I might as well be on a separate planet.

I can see how someone in similar financial situation as me can easily get nihilistic about it. Cost of living is insane, housing prices are beyond the stratosphere, and then there’s social media indicating that it’s only you who is the broke one. Given those circumstances, I too would YOLO what little money I have into options markets or prediction markets. At least that gives me a puncher’s chance to attain the life that seemingly everyone else have. Because working a normal job isn’t mathematically going to get me there.

Maybe I should start lining up at Target on a weekday morning for the latest Pokemon cards release, hoping to score a card worth reselling. Or line up at Harbor Freight for the latest limited tool drop to then resell on eBay for profit. What’s the quickest way to multiple X my money so I can afford life.

I understand those that do. What are we supposed to do when the median rent price is higher than our take-home?

Another heat wave done

San Francisco Bay Area just finished its annual heat wave around Labor Day. As I type we are basking in the foggy coolness once more. Thank the heavens for our natural air conditioning.

You know when hot weather rolls around, the official puts out a spare the air alert? That’s purely symbolic, right? Someone isn’t going to see the alert and then go, “You know what? I don’t need to drive today. In fact, I don’t need to go to work!” Especially not in our American individualistic culture. Especially not in the current climate of: “I got mine, fuck you!”

Besides, in this region, a significant percentage of cars are electric. No emissions to begin with. But I’ll have you know I personally decided to not drive my car during yesterday’s 90 degree deluge, even though I needed to move my car back to its typical parking spot post street cleaning. Because I am a citizen of the world. Where is my Eagle Scout badge?

The problem with heatwaves in this region is that it is completely sun. Soon as you go outside, you are beaten down by the ceaseless rays. There’s not a cloud to be found. No momentary shade to salve the heat. I’ve been less miserable in hotter and more humid climates in Asia, because there were plenty of cloud cover to be found. An enclosed oven is more bearable than one with an open flame right above your head.

Good news is there’s only but about two weeks’ worth of days out of the entire year where it is truly uncomfortably hot. No wonder San Francisco’s homeless population is so high. If I were to shack up somewhere out on the streets, the mildly cool year-round climate here is the most logical option.

It can be done!

This past Saturday I needed to get down to San Jose from where I am at in San Francisco. A 50 odd mile trip that would take about an hour by car. But I couldn’t do the drive. You see I was heading down to San Jose to buy a car. That meant I couldn’t arrive with a vehicle, lest I call a friend to come with. Hashtag lonely driver.

The Bay Area isn’t metropolitan Asia, but the public transportation infrastructure around here is reasonably passable. I wouldn’t rely on it to get you to work at a specific time (if you can avoid it), but for the odd getting around on the weekends at a leisurely pace, it’s quite alright.

So I hatched a plan to get down to San Jose using purely public transportation. First I took a bus to the nearest BART station (the regional subway network, for those of you unfamiliar). I then took the subway southbound to Millbrae, a transfer point to Caltrain. I took the local train for the majority of the miles down to San Jose, then transferred again to the local light rail (VTA) for the final leg to the dealership. In total, the trip took two and half hours door to door.

What do you think? I reckon that’s a decent time for a 50+ mile trip using public transportation. The fares in total for the single way trip was about $18. Compared that to hailing a ride-share: Lyft quoted me $75 for the same distance, plus tip. No thank you.

I think we are fortunate to live in a region where such a trip is even possible, sans private car. On weekends when you are not under any time pressure, it might even be more enjoyable than driving. The views on the train down to San Jose were rather interesting!

We're going to need a finer screen

While I am happy that San Francisco isn’t burning up like Europe is currently, nor are we experiencing record heat waves like rest of America, global warming for us is a bit more insidious. We may not get the extremes - thank god, but our overall summer temperatures have definitely been trending on the higher side in recent years.

Five years ago - when I first moved to this current spot on the west side of town - I didn’t even have to change out of winter blankets. Flash forward to the present, and there’s definitely a distinct summer season where the thinner material of duvet is absolutely required.

Mosquito season was never a concern in the years prior. Thanks to climate warming mixed with San Francisco’s renowned humidity, mosquitoes have become proper foes. Because I am on the first level of a house, I am particularly vulnerable to these critters coming in during the night to disturb my sleep.

Which revealed another problem. Because my windows are mesh screened, I’d thought it be fine to keep them open - you know, to cool down during the night - and not have to worry about mosquitoes. Not true! The typical bug screen installed on home windows isn’t fine enough to keep out the blood suckers. According to the Reddits, mosquitoes can squeeze through as fine as 2 millimeters of space. Damn buggers.

The solution was simple: get an even finer mesh. I bought this from Amazon that is dense enough to block No-see-ums. Because of that, it will defend just fine against mosquitoes.

First world climate problems, of course. I would still rather be in San Francisco weather-wise than anywhere else in the world.

Ineffective god

I guess I should’t complain about my room getting into the low 70s in temperate when there’s people out there in spaces reaching into the high 80s. San Francisco is experiencing an unseasonal heat wave this week, and we’re all just trying to keep cool as best as possible. If I lived in a place that gets up to high 80s indoors during heat waves, an AC unit is a must-have purchase. The extortionate PG&E bill is worth the ability to fall asleep.

The 2026 World Baseball Classic championship game was last evening. Venezuela defeated the United States in a classic pitching duel. Can we call it just revenge for America kidnapping the Venezuelan President from earlier this year? As much as some of you want to keep separate sports and politics, the sports gods often times have a perverse sense of humor. Every time Great Britain faces Argentina in football should be for ownership of the Falkland Islands.

Speaking of god, it was weird to me seeing Venezuelan players thanking for god for their triumph. God was with you? It doesn’t logically make sense. If your Christian god is supposedly all benevolent and all loving, why would he favor one team over another? Surely there are many god-fearing believers rostered on team USA. Did god flip a coin and decided to give one team the push? Maybe it’s about the cumulative amount of prayers…

If all glory is to god, then so is all failure. To say otherwise means god abandons you right before the moment of loss, absolved him of any responsibility. An omnipotent deity is actively picking winners and losers. His almighty love is not granted the same equally. Maybe the ancients got it correct in terms of making sacrifices. It seems logical that there’s a balanced scale where the good and the bad equals out. If we ourselves create the bad - killing animals and people as tribute - then we’d receive only good in return.

A truly benevolent god would eliminate all suffering and negativity from this world. Partly why I am drawn of zen buddhism is that it doesn’t hide the reality we can all see: life is suffering.

Our civic duty

Today was the first time in a long time I actually got summoned to jury duty for San Francisco. I’m old enough to remember when there weren’t a $6 travel stipend. You can even get financial assistance if your employer doesn’t pay you for taking time off for jury service. It seems the City really wants to incentivize participation as much as possible.

Fortunate for me, I am an employee of California, so there’s absolutely zero issues with taking time off for public service. Because I’m already a public servant.

The Hall of Justice in San Francisco is a really old building. Though since it withstood the 1989 earthquake, citizens inside the building should be safe for the next “big one” that’s supposedly coming soon for the past two decades. I’m old enough to also remember when the jury reporting room had tiny CRT televisions showing a VHS copy of the narrated jury duty guide. It’s good to see it’s now large LCD units with an updated digital copy.

I wonder: the fact they make potential jurors sit through half an hour of seminar before anything fun begins, there’s no reason to show up on time, is there? The punctuality stickler like me can afford to be leisurely with the bus schedule when deciding on a departure time. A tacit accommodation for unforeseen commute issues? Again, the City really wants to maximize the number of people for jury selection.

More fortune for me: I didn’t even get selected to go into the court room. The clerk called the names of about 50 people, leaving about a dozen behind to be dismissed. I was amongst that dozen. Some of us even cheered as we heard the new that we’re done with this civic duty for at least one calendar year. I really wouldn't mind serving on a trial, though getting to the Hall of Justice, when I live on the other side of the city, is indeed a pain.

Until next year?

That will do it!

Word on the street is OAK - Oakland’s airport - is renaming once again. After the failed attempt to lure unsuspecting travelers to think it is SFO - San Francisco’s airport, OAK is now named Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport.

People will absolutely do everything but fix the reputation of Oakland.

There’s a reason we avoid flying into and out of OAK. The city’s high crime reputation is not worth the risk of whatever savings we get on the plane ticket. Now that Southwest - of which OAK is a hub - is just like any other airline, there’s absolutely no reason to choose Oakland.

Heck, why stop at changing the name of the airport? Rename Oakland to something else so that tourists would mistake it for a place that’s actually safe.

My friend was recently in Oakland for a concert, and his car got broken into. Coincidental as it may be, the town can’t escape its reputation when it gets constantly reinforced. Instead of rearranging the deck chairs, it needs to patch the gaping hole left by the iceberg.

If it isn’t for tourists, at least do it for people who actually live there. Oakland residents deserve a community free of quality-of-life harms.