Thoughts on the Star Wars 8 trailer

So, about that Star Wars Episode 8 trailer...

Shut up and take my money! The trailer is spectacular; not that it was needed to get my butt into the theatre, but my interest is piqued to the maximum. I plan to watch it at least a thousand times before December arrives. 

Obviously there's tons of obfuscation and misdirections in the trailer. It'd be too on the nose if Kylo Ren kills his mother after killing his father in Force Awakens, though I wouldn't mind if that's how they send off Carrie Fisher's character. The last shot of Kylo offering his hand to Rey means there's almost zero chance Rey is the one to turn dark, cause why would the producers spoil the movie's major shock point at the end of a trailer? The scene was also a bit too reminisce of Empire Strikes Back, what with Darth Vader offering his hand to Luke to join him. 

Rian Johnson really need to do all he can to avoid any call-backs to Empire. 

Anyways, not to say I don't want Rey to turn dark, because that would be awesome. My ultimate fan-dream for the next two movies is for Rey and Kylo to team up, destroy the First Order, and then go their separate ways. Rey will then form a new Jedi academy, while Kylo will restart the Sith Order. We shall then have balance in the Force. 

The only flaw in the trailer is the Porg. I don't care how adorable it is, unless/until proven wrong by the movie, to me the Porg is nothing more than a blatant merchandise grab by a franchise that don't need it. Guardians of the Galaxy got to it first with Baby Groot; Star Wars is merely copying it. 

Ferrari building an SUV is not sacrilege

The automotive world is in a tizzy due to reports of Ferrari in serious consideration for producing its first ever SUV. If there's one marque in the world where an SUV would be seen sacrilege by the petrol-head gallery, the Prancing Horse is it. For a company dripping with racing and speed for over 70 years, an SUV, well, simply isn't. I counter that a production Ferrari SUV wouldn't be breaking anything sacred - it actually honors the tradition. 

What's the point of Ferrari as a road-car manufacturer? Back in the early days it sold cars to the public not because Enzo Ferrari wanted to, but rather to finance his lofty racing ambitions. That was the ethos. These days, what are the best money-makers in the automotive world? The sports utility vehicle. Ferrari producing one makes sense - maximize revenue from the road-car business to fund it's racing. Perhaps with an SUV the Scuderia will then have the resources to design a reliable engine for Vettel.  

People griped hard when Porsche first introduced the Cayenne SUV, but without its sales bolstering the company's bottom-line we probably wouldn't get all the delicious GT cars and the 918 Spyder. Even Lamborghini, Ferrari's eternal rival on public roads, will soon have an SUV on sale. It's a business, and there's immense pressure on these publicly traded companies to steer towards the hot item in the market. 

A Ferrari SUV is a complete positive: the extra profits can be diverted back to developing its more sporting road-cars a la Porsche, or pump additional resources into the F1 or GT3 program. Purist need not be alarmed because those with the means and in the know will ignore it entirely and buy the "good" ones. 

Give it the full beans

I don't drive my car hard enough.

For whatever reason, I tend to baby my cars; it took me a long time to realize this, but it's true. Doesn't matter when I had a 305 horsepower all-wheel drive machine, or the current Mazda Miata: taking the tach needle past 3K is a rare affair. Cars are meant to be driven, I would tell myself; I guess I forgot the other part: give it the full beans as often as I can. 

It makes perfect sense. The 2-liter motor in the Miata is an absolute joy to rev out, and it pulls all the way to redline with gusto, unlike its chief rival the Toyota 86. The fact it's only got 155 horsepower means visiting the upper reaches of the tach won't necessarily mean immediate jail-time, unlike my previous car the Subaru WRX STI. That car had an engine that too, begged to be revved, but for an entirely different philosophy. The EJ257 motor carries so much turbo-lag that belong 4,000 RPM it is utterly gutless. However, in the STI by the time second gear is over I'm already in vast illegal speed territory. 

The fact the car got piss-poor gas-mileage also didn't endear me to prod the accelerator pedal for long before upshifting.  

On the Miata though I have no such excuse. No matter what I do with the gas pedal, the car dutifully returns miles-per-gallon in the upper 20's. Therefore give it the Italian tuneup often I shall.

Changed up my typing regiment

Autocorrect have made me a worse typist that I already am. 

Typing is a large part muscle memory, is it not? Not having to look down at the keyboard whilst typing is all in our fingers remembering each and every key position. Autocorrect disrupts that memory because even when my fingers betray me momentarily, I never have to go back and correct the mistake - the computer does it for me. This happens enough times and suddenly my muscle memory on how to type a particular word is completely out of sync. 

I was never that great of a typist to begin with - thanks for nothing, Mavis Beacon - and autocorrect exacerbates it. Therefore I've turn it off on all my computers. 

On the same tangent of typing, I've recently had a nasty liquid spill on my desk and my old Corsair mechanical keyboard took the brunt of it. Water and electronics never mix so I had to purchase a new one. I've own the Corsair K70 for five years and to be honest I was hoping to get plenty more mileage out of it.

That thought escaped my mind as soon as the replacement arrived: a Das Keyboard Model S Mac edition. This unit is pricey indeed but the haptic typing experience is supreme. I hadn't realize there's a hierarchy in the realm of mechanical keyboards, and apparently I've bought the Ferrari of them all. The Model S has a tactility and response that feels mega on the fingers, rendering the other keyboards I use for work completely inadequate. 

Pray I don't end this keyboard's life prematurely with misuse liquids as well. 

AirBnb is Great, but...

AirBnb is doing wonders for traveling groups larger than three people. Hotels generally cater to groups of two or singles unless you pay through the nose for suites at higher floors. For those of us who aren't willing to share a double bed, AirBnb is simply awesome. I select entire houses, pick the appropriate number of beds, mark the self check-in option, and off I go. 

And in my experiences AirBnb places have ended up cheaper than a hotel for two. Brilliant. 

What isn't so great about AirBnb though is the sheer amount of time I need to invest to find a good spot. Unlike hotels where the star rating can at least guarantee a certain level of decency, when you are staying in a stranger's private home, due diligence is a must. First I look at location - is it close to public transport, then the facilities - if photos show a place more run down than the typical hotel I skip it. After that I look at almost all the reviews: does the place match the description, and is the "landlord" trustworthy. 

All that can easily take many hours just to select one spot. I admit that this may be a situation unique to me seeing as one could easily pick the first spot that looks decent and then put faith in the goodness of the landlord that everything will work out as written. I am not that person. I must look at all the variables and weight all the options. Tedious it may be, I've yet to have a bad AirBnb lodging experience. Knock on wood. 

Fear and sadness in Las Vegas

Another day, another mass shooting here in America. 

My heart breaks for the dead, the wounded, the first responders, and their respective families and friends. People were simply enjoying a great Sunday evening in Las Vegas, rocking out to a country music concert. To then suddenly get massacred like fish in a barrel by a gunman perched high up in a Mandalay Bay room; disheartening. 

it's unconscionable, yet constant gun violence is a resigned reality in America because a majority of our political class lack the moral decency to do the right thing. Proper gun control/restrictions should've already be enacted after the Sandy Hook elementary tragedy, but it didn't, and if literal babies getting shot up didn't move the needle one bit, adult concert goers isn't likely to, either. 

Obama once warned us to not fall trap to despair and hopelessness, and to keep fighting for what's right. Some days are for sure more difficult than others. 

I was vacationing in South Korea earlier this summer, and it's a stark contrast to go from the most gun-happy first-world country to one of the most strict. In Seoul I travelled around with a subconscious sense of security that was incredibly comforting. It's so liberating to be able to walk in any parts of of the city at the wee hours of the night without the fear of getting robbed at gunpoint. Partly due to the utter lack of guns, in South Korea there are no metal detectors or security checkpoints to go through when boarding cross-country trains, or heading into a baseball stadium. It's amazing.

I can only hope that someday us Americans can enjoy the same sort of peace and tranquillity. It starts with gun control. 

Hugh Hefner dies at 91

Hugh Hefner passed away last night.

I'll be honest: I hadn't known he was still alive. Such a terrible thing to say, sure, but he has been properly old for as long as I can remember. That said, what life live! Hef is most definitely not "going to a better place" in death; he lived every man's heaven on earth for decades. 

Rest in peace, Hef; thank you for the, uh, articles.

In truth, I grew up at a time which Playboy magazine wasn't the only outlet with nude photographs of women, so Hef's magnum opus wasn't seminal to my life as it were to those of generations older. I grew up with the Internet, so written articles wasn't obstacles I had to flip through before getting to the good stuff. However, "stuff" on the Inter-webs wouldn't be what it was and is today if not for Hef opening the door for sexual expression - of both sexes, and for that I salute him. 

If there's a side to Hef I find perverse, it's that he seems to only find merits of physical beauty towards woman of in their 20's and early 30's. Evidence is obvious in his marriages and dating history, plus later in his life effectively running a harem of young buxom blonds in their 20's at the Playboy Mansion. It's sick, and counter to what his Playboy empire has done for feminism otherwise. 

Safe to say in these modern times there will never be another person like Hef.