Blog

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

No TouchBar is okay with me

It’s a new year, so we’re all looking forward to what sweet Apple products are forthcoming this calendar. The introduction of the M1-powered Macs late in 2020 was an absolute game-changer, and we eagerly await the Apple silicon to proliferate to other models. A MacBook Air is nice, but for my purposes I need something more substantial. As a current user of an Intel-powered MacBook Pro 16-inch, the eventual M1 equivalent to come is what I am anticipating highly.

I thought I’d want an iMac with Apple silicon instead. The vast screen real-estate is not to be ignored, especially now that we are mostly working from home. However, the romance of being a “digital nomad” - being able to go and be anywhere at any moment - holds large over my psyche. The biggest Mac laptop - in dimension - that Apple sells remains the right product category for me. An iMac is rather difficult to take with you.

Lots of rumors are abound on what the M1-powered 16-inch MacBook Pros will be like. There’s talks of the return of MagSafe charging, though the lack of it currently hasn’t been that bothersome for me. There’s talk of the return of SD card slot, which would be very welcomed for a hobbyist photographer like myself that deals primarily in that storage format.

Finally, there’s talks of the eliminating the TouchBar, the controversial touch surface that replaces the function row on the keyboard. The advantage of the TouchBar is that it allow for content-aware, app-specific keys, rather than a fixed set that cannot be changed. Sounds great on paper, but personally it’s not something I use at all (much like shortcuts on iOS). Perhaps I’m a bit of a simpleton: all I need from the function row are the basics adjustments for screen brightness, and the media controls. The rest of the time I largely ignore the contextual keys that pops open. Emoji keyboard? I never use it.

Like the controversial “butterfly” keyboard, I would be happy to see the TouchBar go into the Apple museum of tried but unsuccessful ideas.

Weekend drives

Well, I hope your car is properly washed now after this noisy rainstorm (greetings, readers in San Francisco!) You did move it outside, right? Even my friend with a garage knows to move his Teslas outside when it rains, just to get it wash by nature. Alas, I’ve become that lazy as well, even though I’m a card-carrying car enthusiast. Ever since I bought the M2 Competition back in October, I’ve washed it myself a grand total of once.

I am at a stage where anything that doesn’t involve actually driving the car, I’m not all that enthused about. Spending an afternoon changing the oil? Not me! I rather pay the money and take it to the dealership. Good thing about new BMW cars is that the first three year’s maintenance is free. That’s partly why I bought the car brand new, instead of saving on depreciation in a used one. It’s not about the money: it’s about saving time.

With COVID lockdowns still in effect, I didn’t really do much outside this weekend. I went to Costco for the usual groceries, and that’s about it. I took a circuitous route to get there, though, because the M2 doesn’t get driven during the week, and I wanted to give it an appropriate amount of running time to get everything mechanically warmed up. That’s the only piece of driving I’m doing these days.

It was the weekend, so I encountered a few drivers taking their weekend sports cars out for a spin. A mint first-generation Acura NSX, a really orange Honda S600, and an early-model Porsche 911. All three were driven by seemingly older fellows, which leads me to believe those are cars they’ve kept for a very long time. It makes me wish I had the (mental) ability to keep a car for similar periods. Sadly, my record thus far is only three years.

The Porsche 911 was suppose to be my “forever car”, but “adulting” got in the way. I’m not yet sure if I want to keep the M2 for a long time. BMW’s spotty history of reliability is not conducive to that once it’s outside of the warranty period. Besides, these days I’m pining for something truly JDM: going back to my roots and getting a car produced by a Japanese manufacturer. With a manual gearbox.

Let’s see what happens after I’m done paying for the lease on my dad’s Hyundai Tucson in October…

Tough week

How can it be a “short week” - due to the holiday on Monday - and yet it still feels interminable? The stress from work that I wrote about last week has not abated, though not that I expected it to. In the grand scheme of things, I should be happy that I am still employed, and free of the coronavirus.

And indeed it’s been a rather joyous week. The Biden inauguration signals a return of competence to the executive branch, putting an end to four years of Trump craziness. My littler brother - in some trouble with the law - found out he won’t have to serve time in prison during his sentencing hearing. An absolute act of mercy by the judge. Hopefully my brother can truly begin to turn his life around from the transgression. His debt to society will be paid, just not in a jail cell.

I shouldn’t let the burden of work overshadow such happy events, but it’s tough.

What I really want to do this weekend is take the M2 out for long drives. Problem is, we are still in a stay-at-home lockdown situation. While the chances of me contracting the virus is very slim - it’s just me alone in a car; what happens if I get into a heavy accident? I’d be taking up a precious ICU bed from a hospital system that’s already running dangerously low. Besides, I’ve heard that people who live near the mountain roads are quite sick of us enthusiasts blasting through them in our fast sports cars. The BMW badge screams douche, doesn’t it?

The vaccine can’t be proliferated fast enough. I’ve signed up for San Francisco’s COVID vaccine notification. Working in education, and having to physically go to work, means I’m in the tier just after the initial one. Difficult to say when Phase 1B Tier 1 will get our shots, but I’m optimistic it will be soon (we have a competent federal response now, remember). I eagerly await the email.

Until then, I’m staying put at home. Seeing my friend utterly struggle with COVID symptoms have reaffirmed my thinking that the risk of going outside is not worth the momentary rewards.

Morning in America

Ah, how nice is it to wake up in the morning and not have to worry about what crazy stuff the President has done this time. It’s a liberation that we have not known for the past four years. The sense that actual competence is in charge, and that ordinary citizens shouldn’t have to constantly worry about the country’s executive branch. Character matters. Kindness matters. And it’s welcoming to see integrity return to the highest office, the leader of the free world.

As we celebrate surviving the four years of Trump, we have to recognize the many that did not. The hundreds of thousands of Americans that didn’t need to die, if only we had a proper response to the coronavirus from the federal government. Folks of rural America, believing a con man can save them from their misery, but with only overdose death to show for it. The friends and family members, figuratively lost to the conspiracy rabbit hole, egged on by the self-affirming mechanisms of social media platforms.

The economy was going great, until it wasn’t. The one excuse that Trump supporters point to to explain away the many deficiencies of his presidency got utterly upended by COVID0019. How Trump must rue the misfortune of the pandemic. A better person would have seized the moment and lead with conviction. Trump only made it worse for himself by each misstep, doomed by the destiny of character that he so lacks.

That’s all over now, turning the page to the Biden presidency. After four years of sycophancy and nepotism, it’s such a relief to see capable people put back in charge. Normal has returned to Washington DC. Hopefully, with renewed effort on the vaccine rollout, normal will soon return to the rest of us as well.

God speed.

Around the block

As a bleeding-heart introvert, this whole pandemic business isn’t without some silver lining. I’m used to staying home all the time anyways! The fact that a contagious virus has turn home confinement into something mandatory is not really a big change for me. I’m just sad that the rest of you extroverts have to suddenly join my lifestyle. Of course, I’m also devastated that over 400,000 Americans have lost their lives to COVID.

Hopefully the incoming Biden administration - to be sworn in today - will be far more competent in combating the coronavirus than the departing administration.

Even the most ardent introvert needs some socializing. I was reminded of how nice it is to hang out with friends this past weekend. Properly socially distanced, mind you. A friend brought his kid over to deliver some things to me. During that time we got to stand around and chat for a bit, while the kid got to play with my housemate’s dog. Having a conversation in person: what a novel concept! The unseasonably warm and sunny day provided a perfect backdrop.

We then took the dog out for a walk around the neighborhood. Part of the allure of living in a suburbia-like area - houses with proper front yards and back - is how great it is to take a stroll just around the block. Vehicle traffic is minimal, and the air is wonderful thanks to the multitude of greenery. It was a cute scene with the kid holding onto the dog’s leash as it wanders through the neighborhood. Us adults following close behind, enjoying the sun.

It’s a shame I myself haven’t done enough walks like this; because, you know, pandemic. This brief hang out with friends provides a small taste of what we’ve missed, and what’s to come once everything goes back to normal. I am cheering for you, vaccine!

Sleeping through a typhoon

It’s the middle of January, and there’s wind gusts in San Francisco at more than 50 miles-an-hour. What a time to be alive. Climate change is real and tangible, whether or not your politics agrees with it. To have such harrowing wildfire conditions in the dead of winter is highly unprecedented. I’m glad (as of this writing) there aren’t any fires that have sprouted out due to this dry and windy conditions. The rain that we did get in December likely helped.

I am glad I moved my car to the covered garage of my work before the winds came. The immense amount of tress and shrubs where I live (gorgeous things on a nice and sunny day) likely means plenty of debris getting blown onto the car. Given these circumstances, and the prevalence of windy conditions going forward, I’m not giving up the parking permit at work anytime soon. Not that I’m precious with the M2, but I do want to preserve the paint as best as I can.

I shudder to think what it would have been like if the BMW was still parked outside in the elements.

Trying to sleep continously through the wind gusts was impossible. The ghoulish howl, the crashing tree branches, and the loud protest from anything that isn’t securely fixed, meant awaking multiple times throughout the night. It’s like sleeping through a typhoon, except there is no rain. Recency bias aside, I don’t think there’s ever been this bad of a wind event that didn’t involve rain. I should have slept with earplugs on.

At least I don’t have to commute to work. Imagine all the debris and crap littering the streets right now, not to mention out of service traffic lights. Safelite should be expecting a quite a few busted windshields, and insurance is going to be paying off a few more accidents than normal. This reminds me some years ago when it was also a spectacularly windy day: an entire tree collapsed onto a parked car. Thank god it wasn’t a moving one! This is why I avoid parking under trees as much as possible.

It’s nearly 7 AM now. I hope the rest of today goes great for you all.

MLK 2021

Happy MLK day! For those of us in education, MLK day marks the unofficial beginning of the Spring semester. Of course, this year is unlike any other year. We’ve been living in a Groundhog Day-like simulation since the start of the pandemic (Difficult to believe we are only two months away from the one year anniversary of that). The turn of the semesters hasn’t really changed how we work, especially those that don’t have to physically go to campus. Every day is the same, and so is the work.

It won’t be normal until a sizable amount of people are vaccinated. I sure hope the incoming Biden administration does a far better job at distribution. Though the departing Trump administration have set a very low bar. I think the aim should be this: to be able to properly reopen by the Summer months.

In the meantime I’m obviously not going anywhere. Even on such a nice weekend when it is unseasonably warm and dry. It’s relatively safe to be outside and in the sun, right? I saw lots of cars parked alongside the roads near the Pacific Ocean, so lots of people have the same idea. The new mutant strain of COVID is giving me pause, however. Best to stay home until I myself get the vaccine needle.

As I said last week, my best fried caught the coronavirus, and is struggling mightily with the many symptoms. Thankfully, it’s not bad enough for an ICU trip, but it’s not any version of what you would call fun. He hasn’t even got the energy to watch the football games yesterday, which is quite severe for a rabid sports fan like him. Again, it could be worse, but it’s going to be a struggle until the symptoms pass. It’s been a solid two weeks already.

Suffice it to say, I’m not taking any undue risks until vaccination.