The Youtube blackhole

This past weekend was one of those where attempts at productivity was futile. I succumbed and collapsed into the Youtube blackhole and spent much of the days watching car videos. The doldrums of mid-summer and the laziness it breeds is strange and potent indeed.

This was the second consecutive weekend where I sat on my ass in front of the iMac for much of it, though it wasn’t a complete failure: through the haze of idleness I still managed to get in a workout, finished reading a book (Ray Dalio’s Principles), and edited photographs from a shoot a few weeks earlier. 

That’s right, even on weekends where I take a vacation from my responsibilities I am unable to commit fully. My conscience wouldn’t allow such blasphemy like it did back in college. Even for super productive people (as I like to think of myself), a proper weekend off is a net positive: it clears the mind and put things into perspective.

What's important when we run into these fits of laziness is not to reprimand ourselves for the supposed fault and instead be ready to get back after it in short time. That’s what Mondays are for.

Monday is attack mode. I love Mondays.

Amongst the unproductiveness I managed to squeeze in a movie as well, and it’s one I haven’t watched in a very long time: Titanic. It used to be my favorite film back when it first released in 1997 and I was but a kid not yet in teenage. I remember fondly the multitude of hours spent at the local library (Internet access wasn't a thing for most people back then, kids) soaking up any and all information I can find about the famous ship. 

Strange then with my fascination with ships that twenty years later I still haven’t yet gone on a cruise, or even visited the Queen Mary that’s berthed in Long Beach. Time to remedy both situation rather soon, I reckon.

Titanic (the movie) may be two decades old but the computer graphics in the film still holds up. It’s a testament to James Cameron’s singular vision and perfectionist artistry, and a sad commentary on the state of CG in today's cinema in which they can’t even convincingly remove a mustache off Henry Cavill’s face. 

What are the chances I conk out for a third weekend in a row? I guess I'll find out. 

Surprised to find artificial turf used on the campus recreation fields. I guess they couldn't be bothered with maintained real grass. 

Learning can be expensive

Frequent readers of this blog (have I got frequent readers?) will know that I am actively saving up for a car, which obviously entails not spending my monthly paycheck on anything other than the necessities (it's going well). However I am bumping up to a metaphorical wall because I’ve just finished up with my Korean studies (the textbooks portion anyways) so I’m in search of the next thing or hobby to learn. 

The problem is that most of what I'm inclined towards cost significant money. Money I rather not divert from the car objective. 

Ever since I was a teen I wanted to learn the piano, and while I did take a year’s worth of classes during high school, I lacked the motivation and focus to continue on then. Fast forward a decade and armed with a new learning mindset I think it’s appropriate time to finally accomplish a childhood goal. Youtube videos are aplenty and music theory textbooks are cheap. 

Sadly an electric piano isn’t. A suitable unit I’d need is nearly $2,000 dollars. Now you may say I don’t really need such an expensive keyboard to learn how to play the piano but then I'd reply that I am not the type to half-ass anything I set off doing. A proper digital piano with the correct graded hammer action is naturally quite costly but well worth the money over a cheap plastic version one can buy at a Costco (I had one). Learning a craft requires multiple years (took me two with Korean) so I want a piano that feels excellent to the hand and last a long time. 

But to borrow from my savings goal in order to pay for this extravagance is a difficult decision indeed. It’s a choice between one of the other, really: I can buy the keyboard now and delay the car purchase by some months, or keep to the current savings trajectory and not start piano learning until after buying the 911. I’m reluctant to choose the former option because ultimately a car is more important, but in picking the latter I’d still need something to work on in the meantime. 

The search continues. 

Looking down on the evening commute. 

Why are used car sales taxed?

It’s occurred to me that California charges sales tax on used car sales, and it makes absolutely no sense. I understand if a dealership is selling the used car, but why must I pay tax even if its from a private party? Surely I don’t have to pay the State anything if I were to purchase a flat-screen television sold by some dude on Craigslist who’ve probably stole it. 

Maybe we are obligated to report and pay sales taxes on those sort of purchases and it's just that nobody does it and it isn't at all enforced. We are however forced to do so for cars because each motor vehicle is required to be properly registered with the localities, ergo the government knows everything. 

Well, that really sucks, because the State is essentially double (or triple) taxing a product. Hasn’t a merchandise done it’s duty to society already (in form of the sales tax) when it was first sold? I think it should be illegal for government to double-dip on this, and yes it’s mainly because I don’t want to pay. My next car will likely be used and priced into the six-figures so the tax bill - especially when registered in San Francisco - is going to be enormous. 

I understand the other side of the coin: by instituting sales tax on used cars, not only does California reap the revenue benefits but it also prevents auto dealerships from titling their inventor (thus converting new cars into used) thereby lowering the out-the-door price for customers. Imagine the adverts of “pay no sales tax” plastered in front of dealer lots next to the giant inflatable figures.

Perhaps I'm in a truly small minority: people that care about taxes during car shopping. I bet the majority of consumers simply look at the sale price and regard taxes and license fees as something insignificantly tacked on afterwards. You can afford to do this in Oregon where there is no sales tax, but for me living in San Francisco the final tax bill when buying a car is nearly 10 percent of purchase price. 

10 percent of $100,000 is $10,000, and that’s all going to the State on a car they’ve already taxed at least once. I consider that to be thievery in the highest contemporary order. 

Follow the light. Climb! 

Should I return to Instagram?

I quit Instagram a few months back but lately I’ve been itching to get back in. For a hobbyist photographer like myself Instagram is a tremendous platform indeed to a connect with and draw inspiration from other photographers in the world. I really get a kick out of seeing people take amazing pictures and I use that as motivation to get off my ass. I'd thought I could live without this mechanism when I deleted the app but withdrawal symptoms are strong.  

And admittedly the sweet dopamine hit from photos of beautiful Instagram models isn’t the worst thing in the world. 

But every time I’m inclined to reactivate the account, Instagram gives fresh new reasons to deter me. In the never-ending bid to sell more advertisements, the app recently launched IGTV, allowing users to upload long-form videos up to one hour in length. For all practical purposes it’s a Youtube-like  ecosystem within Instagram; yet another feature I couldn't care less about much like the Snapchat-copying ‘Stories’. 

Whatever happened to the simple app of yesteryear where the only thing on the feed were squared photographs with filters applied? Instagram have morphed into a photo-centric version of Facebook, replete with ads and algorithms (rest in peace, chronological feed). I guess it makes sense: the founders made it out like bandits after selling Instagram for over a billion dollars so naturally Facebook is heavily incentivized to monetize the heck out of the app to recoup the investment. 

So now we’ve even got people launching a car magazine using Instagram as the main platform. The app isn’t purely about photographs anymore, and that is very sad. The more media appendages they add the more I don’t want to go back. Complexity killed the cat. 

Google preparing their annual week-long takeover of Moscone Center. 

Nice and cool over here, but

Here in San Francisco we’ve been enjoying a nice cool spell (as per our summer usual) in recent weeks, with constant fog and temperatures in the high 50s and low 60s. It's really lovely indeed, and something we pay dearly for, isn’t it? This comfortable weather is partly why housing prices are still, sadly, through the proverbial roof. For those not fan of scorching climes like me, San Francisco weather is heaven. 

I do feel slightly guilty when I see record temperatures happening in other parts of California, especially so during fire season. While we are over here relishing a hot mug of coffee and snuggled underneath a blanket, our neighbors up north in Redding is battling against raging fires. It hasn’t even been a year since the Napa fires destroyed many neighborhoods and now we’ve got another one endangering homes and lives. 

Didn’t help at all that daytime temperatures in Redding over this past weekend was in the 110s. Hell is probably hotter but what’s happening there I imagine is quite close. Major credit to the brave firefighters having to endure those conditions. That’s an enormous amount of gear to be wearing under severe heat and triple-digit weather. Heroes; all of them. 

For sure San Francisco isn’t immune to maladies of mother nature: the next big earthquake is just a matter of when. I work in building basement so I hope this new library of ours is up to earthquake standards. It’s just what we’ve had a calm run for decades now, and it’s off-putting to see other towns get ravaged whilst we enjoy nature’s air conditioning. A few weeks ago it was absolutely beaming hot all over California, with many locales hitting record temps, but here in San Francisco it was chilly and fog as usual. 

I guess I’m worried about the karmic pendulum swing that will inevitably hit us back. I really should get that emergency kit for the house together... 

The divding line. 

Got knocked off my stringent sleep schedule

Sleep is supremely importantly to me, and having a consistent sleep schedule is paramount to my proper functioning. I go to bed and wake up at the same time every single day - no snoozing even on weekends, a habit that helps me fall asleep quickly and wake up really refreshed.

When social situations interrupt that flow, it takes quite a few days to get back into on track. Gone are the college days (man I miss those) where I can pull all-nighters with impunity. This past Friday I went to see the latest Mission Impossible film with some friends, and by doing so I completely missed my regular sleep window (11:30pm to 7:30am). I didn’t return home until well pass midnight, and wasn’t eyes shut until 2am. 

Sidebar: Mission Impossible: Fallout is a fantastic movie. Felt its length at times but the action is expectedly spectacular and the slow human bits decently executed. Tom Cruise is an action movie legend, as great as ever at age 56. Just look at this showreel of the crazy stunts he had to do for Fallout. The man truly is the Jackie Chan of American cinema. 

Anyways, by virtue go going to sleep late on Friday (or rather, early Saturday), I naturally woke up much later on Saturday morning. This created a negative cascading effect on my sleeping schedule that as of today I’m still trying to recover from. Last night I attempted to sleep at usual hour but it proved difficult and I dawdled in bed for a long time before success at rest. 

Having to wake at the usual 7:30am for work today meant I am of course tired and not at 100 percent. I resorted to buying a cup of coffee as soon as I got to work instead of waiting after breakfast as I usually do. Whatever voodoo recuperative energy I had back in college, if someone could bottle that into an ingestible vial I'd pay excellent money for it.  

Until that happens, perhaps the solution is to suck it up, take the hit, and wake up at usual time no matter when I went to bed the night before. That way I won't still be affected a few days later. 

Take me to church. 

Public transit supplemented with ride-share

This morning as I walked to the usual bus stop to begin my commute, the LED information board indicated the next bus would not arrive for another half hour. In the scant two months since I’ve started taking public transit to work, it's the first time there was such a severe discrepancy. More than a few drivers must have called in sick today, as SFMTA drivers are wont to do.

Normally I would simply wait it out and kept on listening to my podcasts. However today I was tasked to open up shop at work, so punctuality was absolutely paramount. A 30 minutes late bus would have been detrimental, so out came the iPhone and an UBER was called.

Is it politically correct these days to hail an UBER car, what with the company's problems of diversity and sexual harassment? Should I have gone with Lyft instead? Probably, but alas convenience trumps virtue-signaling propensities; I'm familiar with UBER and have yet to set up an account with Lyft.  

Those Bird electric scooters everybody in San Francisco is talking about and using haven’t gotten to our “poor” neighborhood just yet, if ever. 

I fully understand the various negative externalities emanating from the advent of ride-sharing, so let's focus on the positives! It is such a relief and convenience to be able to quickly hail a car in case of emergencies like today. I can remember back in high school, way before ride-share and smartphones, if a bus was late there was no option but to keep standing at the stop until it comes. Now I can call an UBER. I mean Lyft.

The events this morning reinforced my belief that public transportation supplemented with ride-sharing is the best option to commute in a major city. I see no practical need to own a car unless you've got young kids. 

Not sure if dungeon in hell or the first floor of the campus Administration building.