Duolingo finally offers Korean

Language learning app Duolingo finally released today the highly anticipated lessons in Korean. Even though my Korean fluency is decent enough, Curiosity got the best of me and I downloaded the app to have a look. The interface is supremely slick, and while I can’t immediately judge the effectiveness of it’s teaching methods, I like the fact it’s got actual pronunciation of words and sentences. That is an advantage it’s got in spades over the traditional textbook. 

And it was with textbooks indeed that I started learning Korean a year and a half ago, the good old-fashion way. During that time Duolingo already announced plans to offer Korean, but it was stuck in incubation until today. Honestly I really could have utilized such an app back when I was just starting out - I think Duolingo makes a great companion tool for the traditional textbook. Plus, the app resides in a smartphone so it’s highly portable and convenient.

I intend to go through the Duolingo Korean lessons to see if the later parts offer something more commensurate to my level. 

I think everyone should at least learn a second language. Trilingual would be even better. Plaudits to Duolingo for creating a fun and easily accessible way for folks to learn. 

Air-con and missing my old WRX STI

In chatting with people today about the Labor Day weekend heat, many have offered anecdotes to support my premise that the reason San Franciscans so loathe the heat is due to the fact our buildings haven’t got air conditioning. The keyword here is respite, and when the temperature is blazing, San Franciscans can’t get any.

Colleagues who hail from southern California all said it felt weird for the weather to be this hot yet when they entered buildings there weren’t any climate control. As I’ve stated in the previous blog post, 100 degree heat is indeed bearable if one is able to avoid prolonged exposure by seeking shelter in air-conditioned buildings. 

Don’t suppose it does the environment any good to sit inside a car for hours with the engine on and AC cranked high. 

With Hurricane Harvey doing damage to the oil refineries (among other destructive behaviors), I guess we should prepare for higher gasoline prices soon. It’s been awhile since I’ve paid over four dollars for a gallon of premium, but with San Francisco being San Francisco and 91 octane already currently sitting at the mid 3′s, I would not be surprised to a see a 4 in front of the decimal point in the coming weeks. 

It’s during gas price surges where I don’t miss my old Subaru WRX STI; averaging 18 miles to a gallon was an absolute pain to the wallet in good times, much less during heightened prices. These days I can romp on the Mazda MX-5 to heart’s content and still manage MPG in the high 20′s. Do I miss the power of the STI, though? Of course, all the time. I don’t miss the 90′s era turbo lag, but once the tach needle is past the number 4, the surge from the EJ257 motor is amazing. 

Cheap horsepower was once the province of WRX STIs and Lancer Evolutions, but if I were to buy today I’d take a serious look at a V8 Mustang or Camaro with their respective performance packs. 400+ horsepower for mid-$30,000 is a mega bargain. 

Record heat in San Francisco

The classic San Franciscan tradition of complaining whenever temperatures goes above 80 is one I disagree with because as I’ve said before, it does the body good to have some variations in the weather. This past Labor Day weekend however, was beyond anything we’ve seen before.

For two consecutive days, the temperature for much of the daytime was in the 100s, and in the night hours the scale never dropped below 80. San Francisco simply doesn’t experience Fahrenheit in the triple digits, and the infrastructure is not built for it, namely the utter lack of central air-conditioning in homes. I’ve live in hot climes before, and it’s eminently bearable if the home is air-conditioned because that limits the amount of exposure to only the hours people are outside. Lacking conditioned air whist the mercury is in the 100s, we were basically hot and sweating for the entire day, right through to bedtime. 

I can’t remember the last time it felt too sweltering to fall asleep, but now sadly I’ve got a fresh place-marker in my memory. 

Thankfully, this recent bout of high heat occurred during the weekend (it’s significantly cooler today), which afforded me to leisurely do absolutely nothing but watch automotive videos on Youtube - as planned. I watched it all on the tablet, of course, cause it was indeed best to avoid turning on the iMac lest adding to the already sauna-like room temperature. Thanks to the heat, I was able/forced to to properly honor the spirit of Labor Day. 

If San Francisco is to see more and more of these 100 degree day weather - climate change or whatever - I think it prudent to finally invest in that portable per-room air conditioning machine. Perhaps soon, since San Francisco haven’t even got to its traditional ‘Indian Summer’ of late September and early October.

I shall gladly and unashamedly complain about 100 degree temperatures.  

Labor Day plans

For those of us working in education, Labor Day is quite possibly the most welcomed public holiday on the calendar. The fall semester has just started, and everything is a mess, hectic, with about a millions things on the to-do list. The first few weeks of a new semester is the busiest time of the year, and Labor Day provides the perfect respite, even if only for a little while. This year the holiday arrives on the third week of classes - next Monday - and I’m beyond ready to shut off the mind for the long weekend. 

And I do mean shutting off the mind. In recent years I’ve been so caught up with productivity and being productive that I’ve essentially given up most of life’s frivolous (to me) pursuits. For example, I don’t play video games nor watch television shows anymore (Mondays are awkward when everyone’s discussing Game of Thrones). Abstaining from both have given me the time to study Korean and read a solid book/novel every two weeks. It’s wonderful, don’t get me wrong, and I’m not about to go backwards, but I think it does the mental state lots of good to schedule back some mindless fun into the mix. 

So here’s what I’m going to do all Labor Day weekend: belatedly watch all the saved automotive related videos on Youtube. 

Well, maybe not entirely: perhaps on Saturday I’ll still get in some photo-editing work. Can’t help it. 

High megapixel cameras are awesome

High-megapixel count cameras are not superfluous, and I’ve come to absolutely adore my Sony A7R2. 

There was a time when megapixels in digital cameras finally got into the 20s, I thought “this is it, we can’t possibly need anymore than that.” Indeed, with the best mobile phone displays barely broaching 10 megapixels and instagram downsampling uploads to 1080x1080, Mid-20s megapixel cameras ought to suffice quite nicely for many years to come. Unless a professional and shoot to print/adverts, the average consumer of content haven’t got the medium to fully appreciate all the million of dots a photograph. 

I’ve held onto the above paradigm for the longest time, even as Nikon released the 36 megapixel D800 and Canon came out with the 50 megapixel 5Ds. Niche machines for a niche consumer; I was fully content with my 24 megapixel Sony A5100. 

Enter the 42 megapixel Sony A7R2. I finally made the jump to a full-frame sensor, and since I’ve moved from Canon to Sony, the logical step-up within the alpha family is the A7R2. It’s been a revelation ever since. 

42 megapixels is simply glorious. it’s so detailed that I can zoom in tightly anywhere on an A7R2 produced photo and it’s like looking at yet another capture. Creative cropping can be freely done; I’m no longer limited by the reach of my modest zoom lens. A photograph taken full-resolution at 70mm can be turned into an equivalent of 200mm at around 16 megapixels. It’s absolutely magic and cheating/cheap at the same time. 

Making the jump to high-megapixel have given me a sense freshness and excitement akin to making the jump to proper lenses with four-figure price tags. Photo optics are a truly wonderful science. 

Hurricane Harvey

In a game between man and Mother Nature, the latter always wins.

I’m simply horrified and disheartened at the destruction Hurricane Harvey has done to Houston and its surrounding area. It’s utterly unbelievable that there can be enough rain in such a short amount of time to flood a city up to the height of traffic lights. Most swimming pools haven’t got water that deep. Whilst countless people are stranded with flooded homes, at least the city was seemingly well prepared for the catastrophe, and therefore the casualties are but a handful. 

God bless the brave and heroic first-responders, volunteers, and journalists canvassing the area to rescue, tender, and bring us the news, respectively, and sometimes not so mutually exclusive.

As I sit here in San Francisco, I can’t help but think what would it be like when the big disasters hits home. By the virtue of sitting on an active fault-line and being surrounded by water on three sides, it’s a matter of when, not if. While the house we live in is built after new seismic regulations so it should withstand quite the shake if it were to occur, a tsunami coming in from the Pacific Ocean would be bedlam, and unavoidable. 

Evacuations? Our traffic system can’t handle the vehicle load on a good day; imagine all near million of us trying to leave this 7x7 square-mile space all at once. It’s practically impossible, I reckon. 

All of this reminds me, I’d better get started on that emergency kit we’ve all procrastinated on. 

Weather variations forge a strong body

Sometimes I wonder if all this constant good weather in San Francisco is actually a detriment to my health.

In this perpetually air-conditioned weather of ours, San Francisco doesn’t really enjoy temperature extremes. The joke is there’s but one season (that one sliver of mild chill between autumn and winter) here and it’s absolutely true. Therefore, whenever we leave for other cities with proper weather variations, we can’t handle it. Anything above 75 is too hot, and anything under 50 is too cold.

But variations, and enduring ups and downs, is what forges a strong body and mind. After all, that’s the principle on why and how we exercise. Temperature extremes, too, ought to have a similarly positive effect on the human body. Through the unbearable hot and humid summers and withering colds of winter, the body gets hardened and sharpened, as does the mind. If global warming is indeed real then the citizens of Phoenix Arizona have a leg up on all of us in dealing with the heat.

If I were to ever move out of the city, I think I’d prefer a city/country with proper four-seasonal weather. I may and probably will hate it the first year, but just like wishing death upon exercise the first time I truly dedicated to working-out, weather fluctuations are simply a thing to get used to.