On the 'Crazy Rich Asians' movie

As soon as I finished reading Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians, I immediately thought that it'd be great if it were adapted into a movie. Fast forward a few years later and it's the opening weekend of said movie this weekend. I've been eagerly waiting for it since the project was announced almost two years ago, and I cannot wait to completely obliterate the film for any deviation or omission from the book.

Kidding not kidding; what do you mean Astrid is a Young and not a Leong? 

Anticipation for a good nitpicking session aside, the Crazy Rich Asians movie is getting massive buzz for being the first major studio-backed film to star a majority Asian cast: 25 years since The Joy Luck Club. 25 years! If you thought African-Americans had it difficult with representation in Hollywood with the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, Asian-Americans are might as well be invisible. I'm still waiting for the first Asian-American cast member to feature on Saturday Night Live, a show that's been airing for four decades.  

So it's a great occasion, and if you are any parts Asian at all we owe it to our culture to support the Crazy Rich Asian movie, because it must succeed: Hollywood simply won't tolerate its failure. We know the chance is high if Crazy Rich Asians bombs at the box office it'll be another 25 years until the next movie with an Asian cast. That's just how it works and has worked. 

I'm especially happy for the people who are moved to great emotion in seeing Asian representation on the silver screen. Personally I grew up watching Asian movies and television shows so the issue of "representation" was never a big deal for me, because I easily recognized myself in the media I was consuming. That said I greatly appreciate what Crazy Rich Asians symbolizes for many Asian-Americans, and I hope the movie opens the floodgates for many more art projects by Asians to come to the mainstream. 

A quick shoutout to Justin Lin and his seminal Better Luck Tomorrow. It wasn't a major studio film, but it was the first American movie that I saw proper representation: Asian characters as every day people I know, and not the usual kung-fu fighting or submissive damsel. Crazy Rich Asians bows its head to Lin's achievement. 

Early morning setups are always fun and drowsy. Good thing there's catered breakfast which means an abundance of coffee. 

Will I get bored with an 911?

I was listening to The Smoking Tire Podcast and the topic came up about dissatisfaction with a car once you've finished building it up. Most people are in love with the journey of modding a car into their vision but once it's completed they instantly get bored with it. What they then do is sell the finished project and start a new one, a never-ending cycle where the joy comes from the process, not the results. 

Or perhaps the euphoria from the results is amazingly fleeting. 

As I've written before, I don't modify my cars because A. I can't afford to and B. if I wanted to make my car better I'd rather buy a better car instead. That said I think the sort of fleeting happiness with a car does apply to my situation: I've yet to keep a car for longer than three years. It's not the most significant reason, but I'd be lying if I say a reason why I sold the WRX STI and the ND MX-5 after it wasn't due to being bored. 

So then what constitutes as my "journey": the part where all the fun lies? The saving up process may be excruciating but it's also rather enjoyable: each cross-off on the calendar and each paycheck into the bank account is a hit of dopamine as I get ever nearer to actually making the purchase. Researching on a car is immensely satisfying, too: reading up on all the details and peculiarities of a particular car is one of the best parts of the entire experience.

I've been holding off on doing that for the 911 I plan to buy because it's still nearly a year from fruition, though you can bet I'm massively looking forward to achieving encyclopedic knowledge on the 991.1 GT3. 

Of course nothing can match the utter high when the car is bought and I'm bombing it down a mountain road, listening to the symphonic wail of the engine. I guess things gets a bit wanting after that as my eyes would wander off to what's mew and different. 

And the GT3 is to be my 'Forever Car'?! It's certainly possible I too will get bored with an 911 within a few years of buying one and then sell it for another car. We shall see if old patterns and habits can die; I seriously would like to break the streak; it would take something incredibly special (and absurdly expensive) indeed to be objectively better than a GT 911. 

Don't go chasing. 

A bridge collapse in Genoa

Photo: Reuters. 

What a horrifying image. 

A bridge deck collapsing while I'm driving on it is just about my worst nightmare (thank you, fear of heights). Every time I travel across the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge, images of the road-deck utterly falling into the water would always momentarily flash across my mind. This is partly why I never leave the house on weekends.

The above horror is the scene in Genoa, Italy, where a heavy storm caused one of the bridge towers to collapse. It's weird seeing actual buildings underneath the bridge, and in the picture towards the rear those sure look like apartment buildings. I understand land is immensely dearer in Europe than America so it's probably out of necessity, but it's still crazy. 

You cannot pay me enough to live in a house built underneath a bridge. I don't care how unlikely bridge failures are: I'd never get a good night's sleep in those conditions. This particular bridge got knocked over from a mere wind storm! You'd think it'd be engineered to withstand way worse than that: Italy is an earthquake-prone country after all. 

And what of the situation here in America? Many experts agree our infrastructure is crumbling and in dire need of repair, but both parties of congress have continually kicked the can on properly funding such needed endeavor. I hate to say it but it's going to take a catastrophe similar to this one in Genoa (dozens of people dead) in order to get any action from the federal government. 

I just hope I'm not on that bridge. 

A productive weekend

I'm proud to say this past weekend was much more productive than the one before. I somewhat successfully avoided the Youtube blackhole and got some proper work done. There were two specific moments where I was at the crossroad of action or inaction and happily I chose the former. 

First of those tasks was putting together a new photowalk article on the Presidio Main Parade Grounds. I'd already edit the photographs a few weeks back but have been procrastinating on posting up the content. Saturday afternoon rolled around and I was desperately close to forsaking it to yet another week. Just as I was ready to watch more Youtube video, I opened the folder containing the pictures for a bit slight peek and then momentum surprisingly took over. Next thing I knew I was hours deep into composition and editing the article.  

The forward progress and dopamine hit of accomplishment must have spilled over to the next day because on the agenda was changing the oil on my father's car. Once again I was dangerously close to letting it slide to the following week until I thought about how awesome it felt to finish the photowalk post on Saturday and it'd be lovely to experience it again when I'm done with the oil service. The sun was beating down (one of the rare sunny Summer days in San Francisco) but out came the tools and half an hour later dad's Toyota Corolla is filled with fresh golden-colored motor oil. 

It's interesting indeed how completing a task begets positive momentum for the next. Just as laziness tends to breed further lethargy, I want to constantly feel good and productive so I keep on executing tasks one after the other. It's a continuous game of "what's next?" One thing I'm super proud of this summer is the consistency in writing my daily blog posts Monday through Friday every week. 

I've had a incredibly busy day at work today yet here I am at home spending the half hour or so typing out these words. I could easily not do that and watch videos on Youtube, but I mustn't break the streak; because I'm done writing this post now and it feels wonderful. 

Freshly buffed and squeeky clean. 

Driving withdrawal

The withdrawal symptoms are particularly strong today. 

It’s been over two months since I’ve sold the ND Miata and went car-less, and overall it’s going great. The amount of podcasts I’ve been able to listen to on buses and trains is stacking up quite nicely, which makes me wonder why I didn’t listen to podcasts in the car back when I drove all those years. 

And some days I really miss the driving, especially the sheer sensation from piloting a proper sports car. Playing Assetto Corsa on the simulator makes for a convincing and fun facsimile, but there’s no replacement for the G-forces exerting on the body and the wondrous smells of machinery assaulting the nose. 

There’s also the singular joy of taking in a car’s design language when it’s parked stationary, as if it’s a museum showpiece. Particularly early weekends with a fresh mug of coffee; those are the best. 

I’ve still got some 10 months to go before I can safely plop down the money for whichever 911 GT3 should present itself as a suitable dance partner. The discipline that’s being required of me to be patient is immense, especially since I can at anytime forsake the Porsche and buy any one of a myriad of sports cars (the Shelby GT350 I mentioned yesterday) and be done with it. 

That would be the easy way out, and I probably wouldn't feel good after the novelty wears off.

It's truly 911 or bust. 

The campus is a veritable jungle. 

460 horsepower for $35K is insane

Just for fun, I pulled up a 2018 GT with Performance Pack 1. MSRP is $39,990. With no negotiation you can get it for $34,396 through the Ford Ready/Shop/Go program and if you get X-Plan by joining a Mustang club that goes down to around $33k. pic.twitter.com/ooMixCR7xJ

— Bozi Tatarevic (@hoonable) August 8, 2018

Is anybody else alarmed by this? For about the average transaction price of a new car, a person can buy a Ford Mustang with 460 horsepower. God bless America and all but that much power in a rear-wheel drive platform, in the hands of America's desperately under-trained drivers, doesn't sound like a solid recipe to me. I guess it explains the Mustang's not so sterling reputation at your local Cars and Coffee event.

Dangers of oversteer and colliding with humans aside, it's a wonderful time to be alive for car enthusiasts if all you want is pure horsepower, and kudos to the American brands for taking the flag. For mid 30 to low 40 thousand dollars, one can buy a Chevy Camaro, Ford Mustang, or Dodge Challenger with horsepower in the 400s. Pony up to the 60 thousands and a Corvette Stingray with nearly 500 horsepower or a Challenger Hellcat with over 700 becomes available. 

A decade ago those levels of thrust cost well into the six figures. 

Japan sadly have not kept pace in the performance-per-dollar arms race (a Nissan GTR is much too expensive). The Subaru WRX STI have had the same 300 or so horsepower engine for over a decade. while the Nissan Z have languished for nearly as long a period. Toyota abstinently refuses to give its 86 coupe more power; it'll be embarrassing indeed if the forthcoming return of the Supra doesn't have at least 400 horsepower in the car. 

So why don't I simply buy an American sports car? Well, because I care about more than just horsepower (it's really nice, don't get me wrong). The trio of sports coupes from the United States are each critically flawed: the 'Alpha' chassis underpinning the Camaro is universally acclaimed but outward visibility from the cabin remains atrocious; the Challenger shares a platform with old European Mercedes Benz taxis so it's not a proper sports car; and the Mustang GT's MT-82 manual gearbox is an Achilles' heel. 

The only way I'd own one of those cars is if I win one from those car sweepstakes they have at the mall.

A Corvette or a Shelby GT350 is a different story; these two cars tick every box on my list of wants: high-revving naturally-aspirated motor, manual gearbox (proper Tremec units), a track-ready real-wheel drive chassis, and a limited-slip differential. For around 60 grand it's a heck of a bargain, but there's one glaring flaw with both cars:

It's not a 911. 

"Summer" in San Francisco is as advertised. 

Saving up for my first DIY computer

Writing about AutoCad yesterday and how it’s best run on Windows PC brought me back to my early years of high school. I was super into computer games but as of sophomore year lacked a proper gaming computer. By then I’d already hacked together my first computer but being that it was the first computer I got blindsided by the components learning curve. 

What constitutes a decent computer processor was easy because it’s revealed in the Gigahertz number (multi-core processors wasn’t a thing yet), but I had no clue that graphics cards too carries a hierarchy. Deficient of that specific knowledge I bought just about the worst graphics card possible. Needless to say playing games on my first computer was far less than ideal, often times impossible. 

Growing up my family wasn’t made of money so they weren’t going finance yet another built computer in such a short period of time. Typing word documents and surfing the web hardly requires the latest and greatest so my parents were adamant that I continue to use the computer I’ve already got until college. Obviously then if I want a new one to game on I would have to pay for it myself. 

Which meant getting a job and saving up gradually, and I mean really gradually. I interned for a department at San Francisco City Hall and the monthly income from that was in the single hundred, often times less. The sum total of the parts I was looking to purchase amounted to well over a thousand dollars so saving was quite the long project, ending up over a year. 

The gaming computer was my first instance of setting a financial goal and actively working towards it. The experience taught me the value of working for money and the patience to wait for the rewards. For motivation I had printed out the list of components on a sheet of paper and stuck it in the top of my school binder. Funny how that habit have continued on: when I was saving to buy my first car I had the WRX STI set as my laptop wallpaper as a reminder to keep going after it. 

As for the present time: