Mechanism for implementing austerity

I have found the best way for extremely frugality: have something impossibly expensive to save up for. 

My one New Year's resolution this year is heavy austerity in my finances. The past fews years have been a bit overboard on the travel expenses, even though I wouldn't trade away a second of the experiences. Nevertheless it was time to refresh the rainy day fund, in preparation to counter any ill events, should they arise. 

First half of the year the resolution was not going so great. I didn't travel anywhere so that was good, but I put some money down for travel later this year, which required a significant chunk (super counterintuitive, I know). Due to various circumstances my mother decided it was time to buy my brother a car, him of still in college and no real income. So towards that end I've fronted and still fronting (insurance is a bitch) some money.

I also bought a few expensive play things as well. Self control is difficult. 

Now the situation has changed. Looking backwards I realize the only times I was able to implement crazy austerity was when I needed to save for something big. Back in 2012 when I decided to buy a WRX STI and needed many thousands in down-payment dollar, every financial decision, big and small, was run through the filter of will it adversely affect my goal. Utilizing that mental mechanism I socked away nearly over 50% of a paycheck. 

So to force myself into frugality, I've pick another big item to save money for. It isn't a house because I have no interest in ever owning, so naturally it's another car. Not a normal-priced car obviously because I can go and buy one now. It needs to be quite expensive: six-figures at least. 

Won't say what the car is because that'll spoil the fun, but ever since I made the decision my austerity resolution is back on track.  

Do you want to save money effectively? Have a huge monetary goal to save towards. 

The architect drew inspiration from the Death Star. 

WWDC 2018 is software only

Apple's annual WWDC was today and the keynote was all software; the company announced zero new hardware for us to tell it to shut up and take our money. It's quite disappointing, honestly speaking. 

Yes I understand it's a software developer conference so that will be the main focus. Apple has got four interface juggernauts in iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS, and showcasing the new features in their respective new iterations took the entire two hours of the keynote.

But, software doesn't sell things, does it? Not when you're Apple at least. People have come to expect great software from the company, so a dazzling show of cool items coming soon isn't going to move the needle in my opinion. 

The thing we love Apple for best is the shiny hardware, and to have none announced today was a huge bummer. Don't ever forget: the Mac Mini was last updated back in 2014, and Apple is still selling the same four-year old unit at the same original price.  

What about a Macbook with Thunderbolt 3? How embarrassing is it that a $1,200 laptop currently can't plug into modern 4K external displays, or utilize fast external accessories. Granted this one probably isn't Apple's fault because Intel is beyond delayed in bringing out appropriate chips and chipsets for ultrabook-class laptops like the Macbook.

Mac Mini though. Come on, man. 

I am excited about the new stuff coming in the software, though. Most interesting to me was a true system-wide 'Dark Mode' in macOS Mojave. 

One last longing look at the MX-5 before I sign over the papers as sold. 

Was I ever good at multitasking?

Lately I've come to realize that having singular focus is supremely important. Whatever I am doing at the moment needs my complete attention, otherwise the results will be suboptimal. For example, when I write on this blog I can't have music on in the background because I'd have difficultly stringing words and thoughts together. 

Or perhaps my playlists are too good and engrossing for its own good. 

Is this need for singular focus a byproduct of getting old: a deterioration of attention-ability? Back in high school and college I'd multitask the hell out of everything and it turned out fine. Studying while having the baseball game on was a tradition, and I graduated with honors. 

Fast-forward to the present and even a wandering mind can be detrimental. Whenever I listen to podcasts I have to rewind more frequently than I'd like to admit because when my thoughts goes off to a distraction I absolutely cannot pick up any of the podcast's dialogue during.

I thought learning a third language and reading many books would keep my mind tack sharp (mental exercise), but I guess not?

Some people can watch a television show while keeping tabs on social media on the smartphone (or playing Candy Crush) yet they suffer no loss of detail from the particular episode. I am definitely not one of those people. 

Focus on the task in front of me: no distractions, no multitasking. That shall be my process to producing/attaining quality. 

I stuck my iPhone X out of a four-story window to take this, thinking I was going to drop it the entire time. 

Stop if you've seen this before

So for the fourth straight year, it's the Golden State Warriors versus the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals for all the marbles. 

How did we (fans of the Warriors) get so lucky? I can still remember the decade plus of futility that hung over the franchise from the late 90s to the early aughts, where a mere non-losing record would be considered a great season. 

Now, four consecutive trips to the Finals with the chance for a third championship. Ridiculous,. We'd do well to treasure every moment of this because success like this is once in a generation. There's way to many variables in sports to win on simply having the the better team on specs (see 2016 Finals). 

Likewise I'll always cherish the the three SF Giants championships earlier this decade, because It's likely we will never see such a run ever again. 

You have to admire the might of LeBron James, age 33, singlehandedly powering this ragtag Cavaliers team of paperclips and bandaids out of the Eastern Conference. He is the undisputed  best player of this generation, and with regards to the never-ending comparison to MJ... I'll take LeBron's physical body with MJ's mental instincts. 

Even if such a player were to exist and you substitute LeBron with him, there's still zero chance Cleveland will beat the Golden State. In less than a fortnight's time the basketball world will be crowning its newest dynasty. 

Red cafe. 

Do I really need a car?

Is there a thing super low-key bothering you? Is it taking up head-space causing subconscious anxiety, stress, and otherwise in the negative?

It shall do you well to get rid of said thing, even if you have to alter your lifestyle to fit such an arrangement. Having that gnawing feeling taking rent at the recesses of your brain isn't healthy, and you won't realize this until you've done the deed. 

I realized it when I decided to sell my car. What was once my ultimate expression of freedom and joy, vehicle ownership have turned into a something quite unpleasant. 

For someone who have loved cars since I was cognizant of what they were, it's super weird to say that I'm going car-less for the foreseeable future. Public transport and various ride-sharing apps will get me around San Francisco satisfyingly beyond an adequate facsimile. 

How did car ownership sour on me? Ironically (and perhaps not coincidentally) a large part of it is San Francisco. With an extra 200,000 people crammed into this seven square-miles city within the last decade, and many more making the commute from the Bay Area, driving is not an advantage. Our traffic hell is notoriously ridiculed by outsiders, and the lack of parking is so dire that I've known people to have parked some ways from home and had to bus the final part. 

It's practically Manhattan around here. 

I simply don't drive enough to justify the hassle of dealing with all that. On weekends I'm an absolute homebody so the car only gets used for commuting. In the nearly three years I've own the MX-5, it's barely got 17,000 miles on it. 

Commuting in San Francisco is devoid of any driving fun, and when that's the case, the ancillaries to ownership like periodic detailing and taking it to the dealership for maintenance becomes a grinding chore. 

All of the aforementioned have slowly accumulated into a burden that was subconsciously dragging me down. The weight did not fully occur to me until the latest parking violation I received a few days ago and I finally have had it with the whole enterprise. 

So it'll be public transport to work for the first time since high school. The Miata will be sold; for sure there'll be another car in my future, but for now I'll be super happy to get back my peace of mind

The whole stadium to himself. 

People think shipping should be free

Yesterday my boss complained to me about another person complaining to her about the shipping costs on this big purchase the department is making. The person is stunned to find the cost to ship a container's worth of furniture from Wisconsin to San Francisco - including setup - couldn't and shouldn't possibly be $3,000 dollars. 

What did she expect? Free?

I remarked to my boss that Amazon Prime and its free shipping (within two days, no less) have completely ruined people's expectations of what delivery should cost. Just because you can get laundry detergent shipped for free doesn't mean goods of a certain size (say, furniture) can costs equally nothing for UPS to get it to your home. 

I'm paying 10 grand for the television: can't you throw in delivery for free?

Amazon Prime sets a bad precedent in other marketplaces as well. Anybody that have tried selling items secondhand (or even firsthand) knows that offering free shipping is huge incentive to entice customers to buy. 

So they eat the cost. 

I'm starting to think one of the reasons wages have been stagnant is because the poor and lower middle class simply refuse to pay for quality work. They want things done as quickly and cheaply as possible. The rich understands the adage 'you get what you pay for', and have the monetary means to do so. Everyone knows 'Made in U.S.A.' denotes supreme quality but that tool set made in China is half the cost so let's go with that one. 

I guess I'm one of those people because man do I love Amazon Prime. 

Percipitations in May. 

Kendrick and the white girl

During a concert, Kendrick Lamar invites a white girl on stage to sing with him. Naturally his songs contain the N-word and in the moment of joy the girl raps right along to 'M.A.A.D City' and uttered the N-word multiple times. A dismayed Kendrick stops the music to reprimand the girl, putting her on blast in front of the entire audience (that's cold).

So then of course the Twitterverse is having the same ole discussion again about who can or can't say the N-word and whether it should be banned entirely or only black people can say it, suck it white folks because slavery.

This particular episode reminds me of Trinidad James's 'All Gold Everything' a few years back. The song's chorus got a bunch of N-words in it and you can bet non-black people rapped through it without self-censoring (at least privately, or on an all-white party bus). An old white-lady even got into trouble when fraternity kids videoed her singing the chorus. 

I think people should be free do do what they want. Want to say the N-word? Go right ahead; just be aware that depending on the color of your skin and whether you're in public or private, there may be consequences. Don't be so naive to think non-black people aren't rapping the N-word to hip hop songs when there are no black folks around to hear it. 

At the very least, you know the white girl invited up by Kendrick does it. 

It's an MX-5 party at the campus parking lot.