Blog

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

Daily break life

During the winter break, unable to travel anywhere, daily life wasn’t all that different compared to working-from-home. Obviously, I didn’t have to keep tabs on the work portal, but that’s about it. I’m still sat in front of the computer for most of the day, starring at a refreshing screen, hoping to be entertained. This is why I didn’t request additional time off: there’s only so much YouTube videos to watch before I’m really just wasting time.

On a few of the days, however, I did get a pseudo experience of what it would be like to be a freelance writer. I had two big pieces to write: reflections on 2020 (insane), and December update for the M2 Competition. The inertia of laziness is strong; I was surprised at my own discipline in finishing those articles on time. It all starts with getting the daily tasks out of the way. I’d wake up (not so) bright and early, and studying Korean for an hour. Then it’s reading for another hour (The Gulag Archipelago volume 2. Fitting for our times, am I right?).

With the two daily tasks out of the way, it’s time for breakfast. After the stomach is fed, then it’s time to start writing. One trick that really helps me stay focused is to set some soft boundaries: how many words in total? How long am I writing before breaking for lunch? These soft goals makes the project seem manageable and less daunting. It keeps me concentrated on the process: let’s just write for two hours; lunch will be the reward.

After lunch, I’d write for another two hours, before breaking once again. This time it’s to workout. There’s truly no better antidote than the euphoric high that comes after exercising. With that done, I would then write some more until it was time for dinner. By that point, I was already (largely) done with an article. A night’s supper is extra sweet when you’ve had a productive day.

Perhaps someday I’ll find a way to get paid for this sort of work. In the meantime, it’s all for fun; exercising the creative mind.

Should I learn the piano?

The calendar may have turned to a new year, yet sadly the coronavirus pandemic is still raging on. Multiple vaccines have been approved and are being distributed throughout the country, but the rollout have been slow and inefficient. Daily U.S. deaths are hovering around the three thousands, and local ICU bed capacity is in the single digits percentage. San Francisco has extended a stay-at-home order indefinitely.

What I am trying to say is: we’re going to be stuck in our homes for a longer while still, likely longer that we’d hoped. Approving the vaccines was the beginning of the end, but it’s going to be a gradual descent back to normalcy, rather than the drop of a rollercoaster.

With yet more free time on the horizon, unable to go anywhere, I pondered on a new hobby to pick up. A new practice that would take about an hour each day. Hopefully by the proper end of the pandemic, I’d learned a new skill. Even if it’s only for self enrichment, it would be a worthwhile endeavor to fill up the free time productively.

Recently, I narrowed it down to (finally) learning the piano, in what was a childhood aspiration. I took a semester of lessons back in high school, but I never kept up the practice. Back then I wasn’t a fan of learning for learning’s sake, more focused on the fun parts of being an adult.. It’s different now, obviously: I am the person that self-taught himself Korean, a project that’s still ongoing. So reckon I have the discipline now to follow through with a dream from childhood.

What’s stopping the great? Costs. I like to buy quality things, and the price of an excellent stage keyboard is in the many thousands (I am not going to buy the hundred-dollar kids specials they sell at Costco). Furthermore, I’d also need an iPad, so I can plug that into the keyboard and take lessons via an app.

Nobody said hobbies were cheap. I should know: gestures at car and camera kit.

First

Hello, friends. Welcome to this side of 2021. Consider yourself lucky - as I do - if you’ve made it through the pandemic 2020 with your health and job intact. The onus is on us to give those that have lost plenty a helping hand. For example: those in a position to not really need the $600 stimulus check should donate it to a charity. Consider a local food bank, or the Barstool Fund.

Because I work in education, I got the week and a half between Christmas Eve and New Years Day off. The white-collar winter break, if you will. While it sucked that I couldn’t travel back home to China as it’s my usual during this time, it was still nice to have some solitude at home. The weather was rainy for the most part as well, which is just about the perfect backdrop for some quiet contemplation.

Of course, it seems to be impossible for me to do absolute nothing, even when I’m on vacation. I feel best when I’m productive, so over the winter break I kept on reading books and studying Korean for a few hours per day. I also wrote a personal reflection piece on 2020, and a December update to owning my BMW M2 Competition. Please kindly give those a read.

I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions anymore, preferring consistent processes and habits. Sometimes the end goal can overwhelm the brain into failed submission. A small daily habit is much more palatable. Read 100 books for the year seems like climbing Everest; read for a half hour every day is infinitely more doable. Let your daily habits compound, and by the end the year you might as well end up reading 100 books.

I have no new habits to make for 2021; not yet, anyways. One mental goal I am working on this year is to truly ignore the opinion of others, to not give a crap what other people think. Too often I’ve let how I think others will react dictate my actions. This doesn’t mean I’m going to be a narcissistic asshole to people; the point is to be completely myself. I’m not going to restrict who am I and what I do just because I’m afraid what people will say.

Last of the year

Yesterday the was the last time I had to physically go into campus for the rest of this crazy year. Now it’s just a few more days of working from home until we are off for Christmas Eve until New Years. One of the many perks of my public sector education job is that we get this small reprieve at the end of December, without needing to dig into our vacation hours. Campus is closed, and so are the workers.

In some ways, it’s amazing that we are nearing the end of 2020 already. The COVID circus that began back in March doesn’t seem like that long ago, until you start counting the months. It’s like we’ve been stuck in suspended animation for going on nine months. At least the thawing process have begun: the vaccines are here.

I am immensely grateful that my immediate circle of family and friends have weathered through this pandemic with our health and employment intact (so far). A great too many Americans do not have that privilege. It’s important to remind myself of this: yes, it sucks that I can’t travel back home to China as I typically do during this time of the year, but things could be much worse. Just got to hunker down for a bit longer; it’ll be over soon enough.

So instead of meeting up with family back in my hometown of Guangzhou, the plan during this break is to sit at home and read many books. The goal is to whittle down the list of unread that are currently sitting on the shelf. After which I will be free to buy even more from my Amazon shopping list! Who said reading books can’t be equivalent to mindless media consumption?

I am signing off from this blog until 2021. There’s still two more things to come on this website, though: my year-end long form on 2020, and the December update to the BMW M2.

Take care, everyone. I’ll see you soon.

Shipping tip

A quick word of advice: before you head to the local post office/Fedex/UPS location to ship a package, make sure it is prepaid and ready to go. That way, you can skip the long lines and simply drop off the package at the counter. You’ll thank me later for the massive time saved.

Yesterday, I had to ship a package to a friend via USPS, and the service line snaked out of the post office and down the block. Of course, the need for social-distancing probably caused the line to appear longer than it really is, but I would say there’s still significantly more people than a typical year. Due to COVID, the demand for shipping presents this holiday must be tremendous. In lieu of being able to gather, you’ve now got to ship presents out to multiple places. No wonder the wait at the post office is so long.

I had to drop off a package at Fedex as well, encountering a similar situation. Honestly, I did feel a slight smugness, being able to walk pass everyone in line and put the package down at the front desk. Caveat: you’ll have to be okay with not getting a receipt. There isn’t a clerk there to print one out for you. If you insist on a receipt, maybe because it’s a particularly expensive item, then you’ll have to wait in line like the rest of them.

Kudos and shoutout to everyone working in logistics. Surely it’s been tough year, with people buying stuff online more than ever before. The workload right now must be crazy, since everybody is buying presents as well and shipping them out. Despite that, I am still getting my Amazon Prime packages in the promised two days. A great testament to the efficiency and skill of workers and machines.

Healthcare professionals deservedly get most of the publicized glory, but delivery personnel should get a lot of the credit as well for keeping this whole thing together.

I am bullish

In recent weeks, both Hewlett-Packard and Oracle have announced they are moving headquarters to Texas. The companies seemingly are joining the massive exodus of people out of California, moving to other parts of the country. Areas where the cost of living isn’t so massively skewed, and taxation isn’t so punitive. The COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated the trend, with remote work freeing people from the confines of their workplace location.

My question is: wouldn't some of the problems we have in California follow these people and companies to places like Texas? If there’s a sudden spike in demand for housing, wouldn’t the prices go way up? Wouldn’t a relatively drastic population increase in cities like Austin cause a commensurate uptick in traffic congestion? What I am saying is: some of the issues that are causing people to flee California are just going to follow them to their new spots, provided enough people are going with them.

I remain bullish on San Francisco and California. This byzantine city of ours may be maddeningly inefficient, but the quirks and beauty within and without are worth the hefty price of admission. My friends and family all live here, and my job is returning to physical come next Fall (god willing the vaccines rollout is wildly successful). This many people and companies leaving the area means our cost of living and congestion are going to go down. I just hope there will be enough of us left to have a sustainable tax base. I’m bullish on that, too.

Besides, If I ever were to move out of the Bay Area, it would be to an Asian metropolis, not somewhere else in the United States.

We're in the endgame now

Late last week, the FDA gave emergency authorization to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. This is great news, one that that provides a bit of hope and a proverbial light at the end of this strange tunnel. It’s just a shame that we as a nation are crashing and burning to get there. Right now, over 3,000 Americans are dying every single day due to COVID complications. San Francisco is back in lockdown, and ICU wards across the country are on the brink. The vaccine that can’t come soon enough has arrived, but it’s fighting the aftermath of a war, rather than a building fire.

I am optimistic for a quick rollout, and for other vaccines to join Pfizer’s relatively soon. That said, there are still many more months to go before we start our descent back to normalcy. I’m afraid we haven’t yet crest the wave. A friend of mine that works in the health industry says she personally doesn’t expect to the get the vaccine until April of next year. It will likely be well after that for me, a healthy person in his 30s, working in a non-essential job. I took the New York Times’ “Find Your Place in the Vaccine Line”: 260 million Americans, and half of San Francisco, are ahead of me

What I am saying is that while the vaccine approval is absolutely good news, we shouldn’t get complacent. The coronavirus saga is far from over, though we can take solace that the end is in sight.

That means Christmas is and should be cancelled. I didn’t blame people for gathering for Thanksgiving after a long and arduous year, but do you really need to get together again after less than a month? I think if you saw family and friends during Thanksgiving, it’s only rational and right that you don’t do so for Christmas. The hospitals are already at capacity; the vaccine rollout won’t be quick enough to stem the rise in cases if people gather for Christmas in significant numbers.

Honestly though, I’m not expecting any collective breakthrough. This country has too much freedom, not enough selflessness.