Where are the affordable performance SUVs?

The big trend in the automotive world recently is the sports-utility vehicle: customers are buying them in droves, so much so that even purest of the pure sports car makers like Lamborghini has come out with one, and their crosstown rivals Ferrari is widely believed to be developing one as well. Few buys the traditional sedans anymore; everyone wants an SUV.

This may sound antithetical to a car enthusiast's ears, and perhaps it's because I'm properly #adulting these days: I absolutely get the allure of the SUV. These hopped-up station-wagons are more compact than the equivalent car so therefore easier to park (have you seen the latest Camry class of sedans? They're longer than minivans now). They've got plenty of suspension travel/tire sidewall so speed bumps and potholes are of no issue (some days are more tiresome than others in the Miata). Armed with all-wheel drive SUVs can practically go anywhere in most weather conditions - with a proper set of tires, of course. 

Modern engineering have enabled SUVs to achieve roughly the same gas mileage and driving dynamics as the typical sedan, so with none of the old drawbacks it's no wonder they've become leading sellers. Honda sells more CR-Vs per year in America than the entire BMW brand. 

I've been looking at SUVs recently, though naturally the models that catches my fancy have more of a sporting bent, however oxymoronic that may be. But there's a problem: SUVs with above average power and driving fun all costs at least $50,000; the offerings below that threshold are more of the mundane grocery-getting variety. In particular a BMW X3 M40i would fit my bill nicely with its 3-Series based chassis and a 355 horsepower motor, but it's starts in the mid $50,000s. 

Though I bet it leases tremendously as do most BMWs.

I think - and hope - it's only a matter of time before automakers produce sporting SUVs for more plebeian budgets. If Subaru puts the 2.0-liter WRX motor into its compact Crosstrek SUV, I'd be first in the line at a dealership tomorrow. The general motoring public is buying SUVs by the shipload, but to attract enthusiasts like me to the party we've got to have some mainstream performance offerings. Not all of us have 55 grand to spend on an Audi SQ5. 

If indeed people are buying less and less sports-cars and sedans, then why not put those exciting ingredients and engineering effort into the SUVs that are selling well? A Chevy sports-utility with the chassis character of the alpha platform would be tremendous, wouldn't it? Or what about the brilliance Ford Performance has done with the Fiesta ST and Focus ST but in a Ford Escape?

What I am saying is: a sports-utility is high on the list of vehicles for my next car (I'm still shocked this is the case), but said SUV will need to have a proper level of move and agility to satiate the sports-car driver in me, and at a palatable price. Sports-utility vehicle with a capital S: an Ariel Nomad with the body trappings of a typical car. Isn't too much to ask, is it? 

The Last Jedi is a brilliant movie

When I came out of the theatre after seeing The Last Jedi the first time, I was hugely confounded and frustrated. How could director Rian Johnson so cavalierly toss away and disregard plot-points set up by The Force Awakens? Rey's parents were nobodies!? You're not going to explain how Snoke - an all-powerful being of the Dark Side - came about? What of the Knights of Ren? How Luke's lightsaber came to be in Maz Kanata's vault?

Nothing. 

Honestly I was so disgusted with the film I couldn't bring myself to see it again in the theatre. A roman numeral Star Wars saga movie ought to follow the strings left by the preceding film, and hardly the proper place to "go a different route". For all the crap tossed at Episode 7 for being formulaic: well, it worked, didn't it? Us fans lapped it up to it becoming one of the highest grossing movies of all time. 

That was my thought process heading into a second viewing of Episode 8, which recently came out on home media. Instead of looking for satisfactory answers to questions asked by the previous film - which I knew The Last Jedi would not provide - I tried to see The Last Jedi for what it is, and not through the harsh fan-boy prism. 

The Last Jedi is a brilliant movie. 

Indeed my fan-boy expectations colored my thoughts during the theatrical release, but with those out of the way, I found the themes presented in The Last Jedi to be some of the deepest and most thought-provoking. The Force isn't some special talent bestowed only to few: It's the lifestream innate in the entire Universe. It takes no special DNA or Skywalker lineage to wield it, a concept showcased nicely in in the film by the tragic insignificance of Rey's parents.

Luke Skywalker isn't a messianic figure we've all known him to be: he's a fallible human, full of doubts and mistakes. The Jedi myth blinded him into a hubris that ultimately led to the turn of Ben Solo into Kylo Ren. Luke's self-imposed exile isn't an act of weakness, nor does it diminish the Skywalker mythos - because it's a sham. He explains to Rey that his canonization is how they got into the present mess. Yes, he supposedly brought balance to the force by rescuing his father from the Dark Side, but the Force isn't localized to such an event: it will always seek balance, with or without a Skywalker. 

Which explains the existence of Snoke. The Empire's destruction actually left an imbalance in the Force: Snoke was conjured up by the universe to counteract the immense good Luke represented, just as Rey is the counterbalance to Kylo Ren. There's no need to give Snoke a backstory: he exists because of Luke, and when Snoke got killed by Kylo Ren, Luke was then free to leave as well. 

I think The Last Jedi is definitely the most "human" of all the saga films, which I guess can be disappointing for those looking for Star Wars to be this epic space opera with fantastical provenance. I was that person, but after seeing the film a second time I can appreciate the new paradigm to the story Rian Johnson is telling. 

Of course I still would've liked further information on the Knights of Ren, and how Luke's lightsaber forsook him (or did he forsake it?) into the hands of Maz Kanata. Something for Episode 9, perhaps. 

#DeleteFacebook

Where have you all been? I've long deleted my Facebook account! 

I quit the platform because I felt it to be a massive time drain with no real intrinsic value. I really didn't need or want to know how an old classmate from elementary school is doing, and the majority of people on my friends list were of that ilk. For sure it was novel to get in touch after a long time at first, but that quickly wore off. The friends I truly value and converse with on a daily basis I already do so outside of Facebook. 

The fact that Facebook mines user data with potential for nefarious acts wasn't even a factor in my decision to quit. I didn't put too much mind towards cyber-security back then, contrasting to the present where every front-facing camera on my computing devices gets covered, and I two-factor authenticate the heck out of all web accounts. 

I've been reading with great humor the mess Facebook have gotten itself into recently with the news that an outside firm has collected huge amounts of user data (through then legit means) and used them to put out targeted adverts and posts to sway opinions. I'm failing to understand the outrage: isn't that how the Force works? Facebook is built upon exploiting (too strong?) its culled data to sell advertising!

Sure there's an implicit trust we give to these companies to safeguard the information, but these scales are so massive that unintended consequences are sure to materialize, nor can these companies police absolutely every single piece of ones and zeroes. As long as the spigot is open, it may not be entirely clean water that will flow through. 

Which is why people need to be cognizant about precisely what they share on these platforms, and that any data they input can potentially be used however which way by first and third parties. That's the price of entry for an otherwise "free" product. If that notion frightens you then perhaps do as I have done and pare down the number of social media accounts to bare minimum (I found it difficult to quit social media completely). 

But it isn't only social media accounts, is it? Most other online web services we use operate on the same business model. Amazon surely profits from owning the purchasing patterns of millions of shoppers. Our search history in Google's battery of applications fuels most of its revenue stream. Unlike quitting Facebook, it's really difficult to stop use of these platforms.   

I think it's futile to put complete faith in these companies to not ever do us harm (read: Equifax hack). It's up to the individual to do periodic audits on the information we have out online and adjust accordingly. 

Rest in peace, Professor.

“One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don’t throw it away”

— Stephen Hawking

Quality healthcare is something to behold

As any healthy person in his twenties are wont to do, I've been neglecting to perform my yearly health checkups, even though my work covers all three major facets of health, vision, and dental. Why waste precious time to visit the clinic only for them to tell me exactly what I already know: I'm completely healthy. 

Well, one of the numerous side-effects of turning 30 is that it has you reevaluate many things, one of which is I probably should go see the doctors to get everything checked out - you know, just to be sure. One likes to think that this side of 30 as another fresh starting point, and I wanted to know my baseline - and to fix any problems - before I embark on the next great life journey (corny isn't it). 

So the past couple of weeks I've been to the eye doctor and my primary care physician - both for the very first time in my adult life (in two weeks time it's the dreaded dentist!). One of the big discoveries in doing so wasn't related to my health at all, but rather I realized how incredible my health coverage is. Not only does my work cover all three major items, but the quality of the coverage is in a word, superb. 

I've now seen with my very eyes the quality hierarchy in healthcare.  

During my impoverish childhood I was relegated to free/low-income clinics, and to contrast that experience with the level of care I got these past weeks, they are quite literally opposite ends of the spectrum. For example I thought blood test results would take a few weeks - because when I was young they did - but just two days ago Kaiser turned it around the same day, with a message from my doctor discussing the results from the very next. I was pleasantly stunned.

How lucky am I to have health benefits that cover me so completely?

People say all the time "The rich always get richer" and I think it doesn't only apply to money: proper healthcare also have compounding benefits to a person's life. Those who don't have or can't afford quality health insurance to deal with long lines, less attentive doctors, and subpar facilities. I know, because I've lived through it. Whether the system is "fair" or not is not for me to debate, but I think it's definitely an additional disadvantage to have to overcome. 

I guess I'm glad and grateful to have done so.   

Lots of questions, no answers

Hilarious how life works: when plans come to fruition, goals achieved, and things come to their places, instead of being satisfied with the outcome, the mind immediately moves on to other and newer things.

Isn't that how people get into the materialism debt-trap? 

How hard is it to simply be content with the present? Then again, if we were all like that, where would human progress be? Somewhat retarded, wouldn't it? 

There seems to be fine line between being ambitious and being disrespectfully ungrateful. Many people "under" me would love to be in my position so there's no reason at all for me to be dissatisfied. Yet, is it not a disservice to myself to not keep chasing the new and different - to improve?

Feign as we might, we do the things we do in service of the great ego. 

It's too easy to be content with what's already there once you've attained a certain level of monetary and lifestyle "success". For me I could easily work my current day job until the working years expire; my life would be relatively comfortable and I'd have no worries. That's the kind of endgame my parents' generation toiled so hard for us to get to. 

But is that fun? Is that enriching? Would I be slapping my parents in the face? 

People say the best things happens when you are not comfortable i.e. outside of your comfort zone. Should we then constantly strive to be uncomfortable? As soon as we get to some sort of stasis we should impel ourselves to leave or shift focus? 

Lot's questions like that are swimming in my mind lately, and I've don't have much answers for them.

For now I think I'll just keep asking. 

What can the HomePod do?

Does anybody have any solid idea what Apple's upcoming HomePod can do? Anybody? Cause I've got zero idea and preorders starts at the end of this week. For a device that costs $350, I'm not about to plop down that much cash until I know exactly what it does. 

There's so few information out there and no concrete details from Apple outside of the fancy splash-page. Will the HomePod at its most basic work like my UE Boom i.e. playing music off any device via bluetooth? If I'm reading stuff correctly, it looks like it can't: the device is intrinsically tied to the user's iPhone, which I would assume is what enables the HomePod to have Siri function.

I've got an iPhone, but what if I want to stream from my iMac - where all my music is stored? From what I've read about HomePod thus far it seems that's not possible. Are people really going to pay that much money for a device that needs an iPhone to function? Probably! Just have a look at the Apple Watch: literally cannot use it without an Apple smartphone.   

I wish Apple would hold a small demo showcasing the HomePod functions, cause as of right now I'm going to wait for people's reviews before deciding whether to purchase the thing.

Too bad, Apple: I might've preordered the HomePod otherwise.