Blog

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

Hate hate hate

If the item you are selling is in any way limited or “collector’s edition”, I absolutely do not want it.

I think it’s anti human to purposely restrict any thing you are selling. Artificial scarcity is the worst manifestation of young children unwilling to share. False status awarded to those who have the special thing, to the exclusion of many others. It’s also anti capitalism. Isn’t the whole point to sell as much of an item as possible? Imagine if the Louvre refuses to sell prints of the Mona Lisa. Because only the original painting is deemed worthy.

Oh, this awesome t-shirt design is restricted to 50 copies - get it why I still can? Nope - it’s not for me. This perfect wheel design is available only to the first 100 orders? Sorry, I will actively boycott your wheel company on principle. When I want something and you won’t sell it to me because of non-technical reasons, the curse is on you. You’re the bad guy.

I derisively laugh at the Pokemon cards craze. Fully grown adults without proper employment waiting in line for hours at Target on a weekday morning. All in the hopes of scoring that special card. I don’t hate the player, though; I hate the game. The incentives are created by The Pokemon Company. Again, it’s anti human to purposely restrict production of the most popular cards. Nothing technical about this at all. It’s all just fancy ink on cardstock.

If there’s a specific card I want, I should be able to go online and buy that precise card directly from the producer. Making your customers jump through hoops for the opportunity to get the card they want is downright hateful. The Pokemon Company actively detest their customers.

You get a layoff! You get a layoff!

Word on the streets is that Amazon is cutting 14,000 personnel in its vast corporate offices. That is a lot of people soon to be out of work. The greater Seattle area is in shambles, as the kids say these days. This news comes only a few days after Target announced similar corporate job cuts. All of this coming right before the (hopefully) busy holiday shopping season. Who has money to spend right now, honestly.

The pending Target layoffs hits close to home as my cousin works there in corporate. The problem is, he’s nowhere near the company headquarters in Minnesota. A corporation looking to trim down will certainly look first at folks working off-site, no? I hope the best for my cousin.

The best did not happen for my friend who got laid of from Stanford earlier this year. Even education, the once believed lead-pipe lock of job security (especially at a world renowned university like Stanford), is not immune from the current economic headwinds. I somewhat worry for my position, because I too work for a university. An institution that just this week forecasts dire budget straits for the coming fiscal year. Not great!

We’ve seen so many layoff news throughout 2025, and yet the U.S. stock market is currently, as of writing, sitting at all-time highs. One suspects, basing on sheer mathematics, the bottom has to fall out eventually, no? Folks out of a job aren’t wont to keep on spending.

I’m glad I recently downsized my car to something cheaper, netting a solid difference to add to the rainy day war chest. The current economy is too uncertain to be making daring money moves, at least for someone in my lower middle class position. If I do get unfortunately laid off, I want to have at least 12 months of money runway. I know, right to privilege jail, right away.

I am priced out

I was walking through my local Target store when I noticed a 20 ounce bottle of Coke now costs $3.19? And that is before tax! I am old enough to remember when 20 ounce bottles were 99 cent. A dollar bill at the vending machine was enough to obey your thirst.

Talk about things I am priced out of. Buying soda drinks at a store is one of them. Filtered water is just fine, thank you very much.

But then people would argue that saving that three dollar on a daily soda (or four dollars on a daily coffee) is not going to get me to buying a house. The math on that in the San Francisco Bay Area is indeed tragic. Those people are right: keeping that $3 in my pocket is merely pissing in the wind of houses that start at a million dollars.

A better use for that $3 is to buy the lottery. At least there’s a infinitesimal chance!

In the grand scheme of things, buying a soda bottle here and there is not going to monetarily affect me one bit. But it’s the mindset that counts here. We can all agree that spending money is easy. The American credit system is fantastic in that regard. Therefore I think we have to train our resistance muscles (not to be confused with resisting a certain presidency). The calculus has to be more than: can I afford it, if yes, then buy!

Saying no to the $4 coffee helps me say no to a new iPad Air I’ve been eyeing, or a newer laptop to replace this “aging” M1 MacBook Pro. Those are the money decisions that really slice chunks: the hundreds and thousands of dollars at a time. Money that can otherwise grow significantly if put to proper investing.

If I really want to drink soda, I’d go buy in bulk from Costco.

Why must it be difficult?

Earlier this week I got blister on my hand (insert joke). This annoying bugger was definitely going to interfere with my weightlifting. No worries; pop that sucker, then tape it up before handling the barbell.

I needed a roll of athletic tape in a hurry. Shouldn’t be problem, given I live within walking distance to a Sports Basement. Except… the store did not have any athletic tape in stock. How is that possible? Even if us weightlifters are a niche within a niche, other activities that are popular in the Bay Area surely create a demand for tape? Rock-climbing gyms! Crossfit was invented right down the street in Santa Cruz.

Anyways, my friend clued me that Target may have athletic tape in stock. And indeed it does. Wonderful. I joked that I sure hope it isn’t locked behind a glass partition (to prevent theft), whereby I would need to call an associate to open. Surely the hottest item on the stolen goods black market isn’t a roll of athletic tape.

So of course it was locked behind a glass cabinet. Why can’t we have nice things? Target is lucky I was in a rush. Otherwise I would have left immediately and ordered the same item on Amazon. Vote with my feet, as it were.

When the authorities fail to punish crime, it ruins it for everybody else. Who wants to go a store where everything is locked up, and the items that aren’t are frequently stolen with impunity? (I definitely saw some shady characters while buying the athletic tape.) When enough people opt out of that shopping experience, the particular store will close. And people will then blame the “greedy” corporation instead of pointing the finger at the actual problem.

It’s long past time to hold the criminals accountable. And if they are under adult age, hold their parents/guardian accountable.

Well, that shipped quickly

The Bay Area is experiencing its usual winter rainstorms. Two mornings ago I woke up to what seems like an overnight power outage. My white-noise machine (it really helps me sleep) was off, and the clock on the microwave was incorrect. (Internet connected microwave coming up?) So much for buried power lines in this subdivision! Could be worse: at least we didn’t break off into the Pacific Ocean.

The power outage did claim one casualty: the tiny dehumidifier in my bathroom. (I’m on the first level of a house, so it can get mighty humid.) As an avid practitioner of austerity, I initially cursed at this misfortune of having to spend money to replace the device. Then I realized the humidifier was a cheap unit I bought at Costco for like $25, three years ago. I’m surprised it lasted even this long, running all the time, 24/7.

Amazon to the rescue, right? There’s a Target within walking distance to me, but the dehumidifiers there are probably locked behind security glass. That’s what happens when you let thieves get away with crime. Stores’ preventive measures instead inconvenience law-abiding customers. Sorry, I can’t be inconvenienced, especially when Amazon is so convenient.

Because my Amazon-ordered (in the morning) replacement humidifier was delivered three hours later. Free same-day delivery, baby! On the week of Christmas, too. Surely the busiest delivery week of the year. Jeff Bezos and the folks at Amazon deserves all the billions for revolutionizing our shipping expectations. Those who complain of Amazon as this shady and evil corporation: are you willing to give up this convenience?

You get handsomely rewarded for providing a service/product that (a lot) people want. That’s how it should work in a civilized society.

Consequences must follow

What really grinds my gears is going to Target and finding the thing I wanted to buy is locked up behind plexiglass. The introverted me will definitely not call for an associate to unlock the damn cabinet. Target often leaves me no choice but to buy the same item from Amazon. Sure I would have to wait two days to get it shipped for free, but at least I don’t have to beg someone to allow me the honor to make a purchase.

It’s a real shame that it has to be like this. Those tasked with making and enforcing laws have abdicated their duty to the public. When criminals can steal with impunity, the law-abiding majority suffers. The few ruins it for the many. We all have to take our shoes off at airport TSA checkpoints because one person nearly snuck a shoe bomb through one time. We all have to pay higher auto insurance premiums to cover the few who do not.

There has to be sufficient punishment to act as a deterrence. America cannot be like Japan: the orderliness, the cleanliness, and the utter lack of common crime is because of the Japanese culture. Lacking that, government must then create strong incentives. Take a look at China: pretty crimes are nonexistent, not because the population is overwhelmingly benevolent like Japan, but it is because there’s surveillance cameras everywhere. Who would be stupid enough to steal anything? Especially in a country with a somewhat arbitrary judicial system.

Not that I am advocating for mass surveillance here in the States. I’m just saying we cannot get to Japan from a bottom-up cultural standpoint. We must catch and punish those who do not follow laws. There’s no room for laxity. Oh, you can’t afford that red light ticket because you’re poor working class? Easy: don’t run the freaking red light in the first place. Choices were made, consequences must follow.

My fellow San Franciscans: you ever go to other parts of this country and be amazed that merchandise at a Target aren’t locked up behind glass? I have. It’s fantastic and sad to see at the same time. The powers at be in San Francisco are actively choosing to not have nice things.

Book 'em, Danno

Today, in things you love to see: a notorious retail thief was convicted last week of stealing from our local Target store. This is a win for those us who follow the rules and pay for the stuff we buy. I sure hope San Francisco will continue enforcing laws and put some actual consequences to offenders. (Please do traffic violators next.) The citizenry deserves to live in a civilized society that is free of these nuisances.

I point any defeatist attitudes towards the island nation of Japan. There I can leave stuff in the backseat of our rental car, with the full expectation that the items will still be there upon returning. We - the United States - can and should also have such nice things. To say otherwise is simply tyranny of low expectations.

To the people who say Target’s insurance will make the company whole - therefore the few thievery should de-facto be tolerated: do you actively try to get into car accidents? Your auto insurance will repair your vehicle fully, am I right? That asshole in a truck not merging properly: I’m going to let him hit me. That will teach him! I am in the right!

Retail-theft is not a victimless crime. Regular, law-abiding shoppers are victims when we have to summon a staff person just to buy a tub of detergent. The workers are victims when they witness the thefts happening, and can do nothing about it (nor should they, from a safety perspective). The community can potentially be victims when the problem becomes so bad that entire stores shut down.

I don’t know about you, but I rather enjoying have a Target within walking distance.