Blog

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

No rest for the wicked

For me It doesn't literally mean no rest, though I bet many who utters the cliche is themselves in the midst of a heavy bout with sleep depravity, all the while performing some meaningful work or task. Me being an intense admirer of sleep obviously refuses to brave such frontiers, but rather the cliche of 'no rest for the wicked' is a sort of motivating cry to keep moving it along. It's to combat laziness that I admit creeps into my inner thoughts with far too frequency.

No I should not watch that movie I've already seen a hundred times, nor should I skip exercising for today. We've got a finite amount of time in this world and it's paramount to always be moving forwards, improving constantly, and having different experiences. Revisiting what I've already been and done is a tremendous waste of time. 

Rest is important, however. Sleep eight hours per day. At least.  

Spring break day one

Filed under 'things you didn't think you need until you had it': fast high-speed Internet. I recently switched from 6 Mbps AT&T DSL to 25 Mbps Comcast cable because I was absolutely shattering through AT&T's data caps (Comcast hasn't got any). All I can say is, wow: the speed delta is amazing. If I ever have to go back to slower speeds I'm going to despise it with great intensity. Perks of the first-world, for sure. 

Music is immensely important to me so I spent much of the day backing up my iTunes library onto an external hard-drive that will then get transported offsite. That way if for some horrible tragedy my place of living turns to wreckage (knock heavily on wood for this one), I'd still have my music. Yup, it's that crucial. 

The penultimate How I Met Your Mother episode aired tonight, and wow the amount of feels just keep increasing as we get towards the very end. I don't think I can handle the series finale next Monday.  

Getting addicted

I used to hate running; I've always been adverse to exercising outdoors because ah, the sun! It's too bright. Plus, in Asian culture lighter skin is considered more beautiful so I can't risk getting tan. Only half joking here. 

Well I am absolutely addicted to running these days. I've only started a couple of weeks ago, but I can tell it's going to be a staple workout for a very long time. Breathing fresh air is quite beneficial, isn't it? Why hasn't anybody told me that before. Best part about running is listening to uptempo musing and blasting through it in no time. With mild climes year round here in San Francisco, it's the perfect exercise. 

Now I have to go and ice my ankles. Ouch. 

mapmyrun_app.jpg

Last day of Spring break

Thunderstorms, lightning, and torrential rain. I thought I was back home in equatorial China, but nope, it's right here today in San Francisco. This sort of weather is very rare indeed amongst the usual fog and mid 50's weather year round. Even when it does rain, it never gets to such an intensity where ponds and rivers start forming all over the place. Naturally, the driving public haven't the slightest clue how to drive in these conditions. Good thing I got to stay indoors all day. 

I was going to wash the car, but the sky did that for me. Lucky. 

So I stayed indoors the whole day and watched automotive videos on YouTube - as you do. It's the kind of productive day I've always dreamt about (it's true). The main event hasn't yet happened, though: it's baseball's opening day! For the next six months there's going to be awesome on the television every single day, and the subsequent drop in productivity to go along with it (good thing I'm not in school anymore). Suffice to say, go Giants!

Tonight is also the series finale of How I Met Your Mother. I might not make it through all the feels in this one. Consequently, I'm anticipating and dreading it at once. 

First day of Spring

It's the first day of spring for those of you that actually experienced winter. For us here in San Francisco, we got no such luck. Felt like spring has been here ever since January to be honest. That's why the rest of the nation hates us (especially the East Coast people and their experience with the frozen tundras), and our land value is shooting up sky high (I'm likely to never buy a house here) - San Francisco is definitely the city to be if you hate the thought of having four distinct seasons. 

No complaints from me, obviously. Perhaps it's the decades plus of living here, but I have a real dislike of weather extremes. Anything above 75 fahrenheit is considered too hot, and it's entirely too damn cold once the mercury drops below 50. Spoiled, yes, but t-shirt, jeans, and light-jacket weather all year round? Can't beat it. 

Working in academia has it's perks (it isn't the paycheck; really), and one of them is I can actually take a week off for spring break. And I thought I was done with that sort of stuff upon graduation. Time to discover what it's like to have nothing to do for an entire week, starting this Saturday. Getting paid to go on vacation; that's how it's properly done.  

One of those days

When it comes to writing, there are good days, and there are bad ones. You'd hope it all just flow from your brain to the keyboard as smoothly and quickly as possible, but sometime that just isn't the case. Today, was one of those days. Took me far too long to churn out a mere 1,200 words, and the subject (cars) wasn't even remotely complicated.