Farewell to my first car

A petrol-head’s first car is something special indeed. It’s your first moments of absolute freedom, the feeling of possibilities, the ability to take off and go anywhere. Upon getting your first car, the world is your absolute oyster; just grab the keys and go.

My own first vehicle was a 2006 Toyota Corolla sedan. It wasn’t anything remotely sporting or fun-to-drive, but back then I couldn’t care less. I’ve been dreaming of driving ever since I reached my teens; 16 seems so incredibly far away when I found out early on that was the minimum age to attain a driver license. Some things don’t change: the wait to purchase a Porsche 911 next year have been at certain times excruciating.

I indeed may have gotten my license at 16, but the Toyota Corolla did no materialize until college, a generous gift from the parents. The reason we elected to buy the typical compact sedan was because insurance was going to be astronomical on anything fast, and I had zero income to support that. Nevertheless, I adored the Corolla; it was equipped with the five-speed manual, upon which I learned the intricacies of driving stick-shift, and thankfully the clutch was super forgiving.

Fast forward to post college, and I itched for something quicker on the feet. In came a 2013 Subaru WRX STI, bought with my own money this time, and the Corolla got bequeathed to my younger brother. He also cut his teeth in learning the manual gearbox with that car, and suffice it to say the clutch did not last much longer. I was glad the car stayed in the family, because in some distant future I had intentions of getting it back (no doubt my brother will upgrade at first opportunity), keep up on maintenance, and driving it from time to time for nostalgia.

Unfortunately that was not meant to be. A few weeks ago the Corolla’s notoriously weak C59 transmission completely shattered its third and fourth gear. My father was commuting on the car, so a reliable fix was needed very quickly. To fix the gearbox would cost roughly the same as the entire worth of the car, so instead we chose to lease a new Hyundai Tucson, and the Corolla got put out to the pasture.

A salesperson at the dealership my brother worked at bought the entire car for spare parts. Must be nice.

In an ideal world where I have a garage with proper space, I would’ve kept the Corolla and simply worked on it myself bit by bit. Being the first car I ever owned it was somewhat sad to see it disappear into the ether as a parts car for someone else’s revival project. Circumstances prevented me from being one of those car enthusiasts that kept their ur-auto in perpetuity because it was indeed something significant, even if the car in a vacuum, isn’t.

I think the next order of business after buying the 911 would be leasing a warehouse somewhere far and cheap; a place where I can work on cars at leisure. Hashtag goals.

Circa 2017, when the Corolla last looked as I had intended.

The pivot to video

I very much enjoy writing. Writing on this blog everyday is never a chore, though as with anything in life there are good days and there are bad days. Sometimes the lines flow one right after another, and sometimes the words just can’t seem to materialize and form together cogently, but still I must solider through. The goal is consistency, a daily habit I shouldn’t skip unless there’s truly compelling reasons to (like being debilitatingly sick).

I don’t ever concern over the amount of views this website is getting, and I wouldn’t care if the number is zero. Not once have I clicked on the analytics tab on the Squarespace console; I write (and take pictures) for myself, and if there’s some of you out there that happens to enjoy the content I put out, that’s simply icing on the cake. This isn’t some hopeful launching pad to a freelance career, but rather a genuine gesture at putting myself out there to the (Internet) world.

Of course it’d be incredibly nice to get paid to write and do photography, but that is not that endgame here.

As an avid viewer of Youtube, I’ve been noticing more and more people doing the “pivot” to video. It’s assumed that no one like to read anymore (if periodical circulation is any indication), and vivid visual media is where the money’s at. The barrier to entry is certainly minimal; anyone can start a vlog channel with their smartphone or laptop. With enough hustle and charisma, money from Google AdSense will start rolling in massively.

And there’s plenty of people chasing those AdSense dollars. Within the automotive genre alone are seemingly hundreds of Youtube channels with a bloke, a car, and a camera putting out videos everyday. Due to sheer volume of output, the production value is not that great; the content can be best described as disposable. You can tell their ultimate goal is monetization because in every video they’d pander the audience to click ‘thumbs up’ and subscribe.

Not everyone is like that obviously. Some truly do it for the art and passion, where view counts don’t matter at all. A particular automotive channel I highly respect is SavageGeese.

Far be it for me to criticize people for thinking only in dollars and cents; it doesn’t interest me how another person choose to make a living, as long as it doesn’t interfere with my business, or harm society. When the time comes for me to produce video content, the ethos will be the same as my writing and photography: for the enjoyment of creating art, and sharing a piece of myself with the world.

And yet the floor still sparkles.

Quality is worth paying for

I’m in the camp of hobbyist photographers who seldom do actual prints. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that the initial investment to procure the necessary equipment is relatively enormous. Why spend thousands on proper photo printer and paper when I can put that towards a new lens instead? Therefore the scant few times I needed to print something out, I outsource to the typical online printing platform (I use Mpix).

Tangent: now that Apple have shuttered their printing service, I’ll need to find another place to print my annual photo Calendars.

I recently went on a family trip, and we took a rather lovely group photo together. Figured it’d be wonderful to hang in the living room, I went on Mpix to order a framed 8x10 print. Even without going too crazy on the options (standard mat board and glass, cheapest frame material), the total price for the single photograph came to around $50, not including shipping. For some reason, I was surprised at how expensive this is.

Me, a photographer, can’t appreciate that a custom framed print ought to cost more than, say, 10 dollars. For shame; I should to be banished from ever selling prints of my own.

Perhaps the low prices of online retailers like Amazon have indoctrinated me to expect things to not cost a lot of money. It has certainly done so to the price of shipping, as in there shouldn’t be any. Adding to my frustration with the price of the print was that I had to pay another 13 dollars to have it delivered. I’ve been so acclimatized to not paying for shipping - and items arriving within two business days guaranteed - that honestly I had second thoughts about completing the purchase, on principle.

As I’ve written before: free shipping is not free, because there is no free lunch.

So I did end up buying the framed photo, because items of quality and craftsmanship are worth paying for. As an artist myself, that is the kind of sentiment I hope everybody carries with them. A race to the price bottom hurts everyone: ask musicians for their thoughts on streaming services. We must fight against the desensitization of online shopping and easy price comparisons, because more often than not, we indeed get what we pay for.

Now this is my kind of tranquil living.

There's always more to do

A conundrum I’ve been grappling with lately: if I get done early with the day’s schedules, should I take a break until the next day, or attack what’s to come and keep piling it on?

On a theoretical level, I think it’s healthy to take a breather, especially after I’ve already executed everything on the day’s docket. Why shouldn’t I take advantage of the well-earned leisure time? Go on; open up Youtube and drown myself in automotive-related videos. Rinse and repeat when tomorrow arrives.

The problem is that often during those downtime, the utter lack of productivity leaves me with a sense of anxiety. Perhaps my daily checklist isn’t rigorous enough, and that’s the reason I even have time leftover to begin with. Or perhaps I should get a head start on the following day’s schedules: the faster I finish, the more I can do and learn.

I’ve become so preoccupied with maximizing learning that I can’t allow myself to have satisfactory moments of mindless activity. That’s now how it’s suppose to work! I set goals for what’s to be accomplished for the day, and when those are done, that should be it: no fretting, no anxiety of inadequacy.

Think back to school days: when I got done with the night’s homework, I didn’t yearn for more or agonize over whether or not it was enough; I was only ecstatic at being able to turn on the Playstation for some Grand Theft Auto action. As far as I was concerned, the goal of homework wasn’t to reinforce learning (even though it did), but rather it was to finish as quickly as possible so that I can have free time to play games.

Why can’t I replicate that now? When I get done with the day’s task I feel like I should be doing more instead. Already studied Korean for an hour? How about another more: I’m need to study again the next day anyways, so might as well get ahead on it.

Perhaps that’s the price to pay for progression; I understand taking breaks are important, but these days I absolutely detest idle time. It’ll be a rough road, but I think I need to gradually reacclimate myself with the notion of being perfectly fine with not doing anything productive.

Shudders.

The many faces of San Francisco Chinatown.

The combustion engine is here to stay

The internal combustion engine is forever… at least until the electric motor proliferates fully and take over the automotive landscape. For now, like fervent NRA gun owners, you will take the gasoline engine from my cold and dead body.

An enormous factor to driving enjoyment is the sweet sounds emanating from the engine bay (preferably from a natural-aspirated motor), and as we all know, the electric motor merely hums; it’s so quiet that the government have to implement in sound regulations just so blind persons on a sidewalk are able to detect an oncoming vehicle.

The lack of noise is not a knock against electric cars: having ridden in a Tesla I think they are fantastic, and crucially far kinder to the fragile environment. For a car enthusiasts however, electric is a bit of a one trick pony: its accelerative properties are face-tearing and world-beating indeed, but in terms of driving fun, that’s really about it. Until they’ve engineered more energy density into the batteries, these two-ton electric cars can’t possible dream of handling like a traditional sports car.

Not that that matters to the general public. It’s been reported that in the last quarter, Tesla outsold the venerable Mercedes-Benz in America, so there’s proper appetite for these lumbering electric barges. Mercedes-Benz have taken notice, and will soon produce the EQC, the company’s first ever completely electric car. Audi will be entering the market as well with the e-tron SUV. BMW isn’t likely to delay much longer in delivering an electric SUV in its “i” family of vehicles.

Jaguar is wondering why isn’t anybody noticing their all-electric I-PACE that’s on sale now.

No surprise the big three German luxury automakers have elected the SUV as platform of choice for their respective EVs. It’s a smart move: sports-utilities of all shapes and sizes are flying off dealer lots, leaving the traditional sedans in the rear-view. Also important is that Tesla currently hasn’t got an SUV in its lineup (the Model X is a glorified minivan), so that’s a market opportunity to capitalize on.

With mainstream auto manufacturers joining the Tesla market, does this signal the beginning of the mass proliferation of electric-vehicles? Will the combustion engine soon be relegated to the halls of automotive museums? I reckon it is indeed the beginning of the shift, but the trajectory will be immensely long. The technology and infrastructure is not yet competitive against the typical gas station. Until a car can be fully charged from empty in less than 10 minutes, and one doesn’t need to strategically plan just to find a station, the electric car will remain a very nice novelty.

Because there’s also the matter of entry cost: the current crop of electric cars capable of going beyond 200 miles on a single “tank” (sorry, Nissan Leaf) are beyond the reach of the typical customer. Over 17 million cars are sold in America each year; it’ll take quite some time and effort before electric-vehicles will show up on the pie-chart.

My beloved internal combustion engine will be here to stay for a long time.

Weekend recreation.

Is the correction coming?

Of course it is. It’s just that none of us know when that is going to be. I’m actually looking forward to the upcoming correction because it means things (stocks or otherwise) can be bought at huge undervalue.

That’s assuming I keep my job through the next recession.

Yesterday the stock markets took a huge dump on us investors: both the Dow and S&P plunged over 3%. Nothing to really panic over (yet) seeing as the S&P merely returned to August (of this year) levels, and the index is still up 9% year-to-date. Smart people advises one shouldn’t pay attention to the daily fluctuations of the stock market anyways; given a long enough time horizon, all the ups and downs aggregate out to constant growth over decades.

Should your time horizon be short, then that money shouldn’t be in the equities market. The yield on savings accounts have finally crept back into respectable levels (my Ally account just got bumped up to 1.9%), so it’s a wonderful time to store funds there risk free (up to the $250,000 FDIC limit anyways). Readers of this blog know I’m planning to buy a car soon, so that allocation of capital is safely in my savings. The precipitous drop of yesterday’s stock market didn’t register there at all.

Where it did register was on the recent deposits into my investment accounts. The money I put in these past few months have completely taken a bath due to yesterday’s shenanigans, and as I’m typing these words it isn’t looking too spectacular today, either. Yes it’ll all even out eventually, but it still hurts on a surface level. I’m optimistic the remainder of this year will round out positively, and ultimately none of this matters much as my time horizon is quite long indeed.

So I shouldn’t be looking at the market’s daily machinations, but my human nature prevents me; stocks are simply too intriguing to not follow. It’s super fun when it’s up, and utterly dreadful when it’s down massively like yesterday.

I found Santa Cruz street in Santa Cruz. Oh and a supremely clean NA Miata as well.

Limousines are not safe

The horrific news from this past weekend of the limo crash in NY that killed 20 people keeps sticking in my mind. The stretched Ford Excursion allegedly blew a stop sign, then ran right into a tree, killing all 18 onboard and two innocent pedestrian bystanders. What an awful, Final Destination-like way to die. Most of the deceased where young adults in their early 30s, so it’s doubly tragic that a whole chunk of productivity and promise gets removed from the population.

When I was a kid I used to think limousines were some of the coolest vehicles on the planet. There’s something awesome about taking a typical passenger car, split it into two separate pieces, and then rejoin them with a body extension. I’ve always wanted to ride in a limo, and figured that as I became an adult I’d get the opportunity. However to this day I’ve yet to tick that box on the list, but having read about this tragedy in New York, I’m not sure I ever want to now.

It never once crossed my mind how dangerous limousines can be: essentially a structurally compromised vehicle that was never engineered for such extreme modifications. Ford didn’t produce the Excursion with limousine duty in mind: it’s raison d'être is to be an all-capable, absolutely massive sports-utility vehicle. What is the likelihood the companies in charge of hacking it into a limousines have the same battery of engineers and crash-testing methodology as an auto manufacturer?

None, that’s what. I’m not sure a single thought have been given to passenger safety when stretching standard cars into limousines. Comfort is first and foremost, isn’t it? The utter lack of safety belts and proper crash-tested seating was probably a huge factor contributing to the death of the people sat inside that Ford Excursion. What a stomach-turning sight it must have been for the first-responders: 17 bodies mashed together and piled up at the front. Surely a day that makes the job almost not worth it.

It’s been reported the particular Excursion limousine was deemed not road-ready during its most recent inspection, but the rental company flaunted that decision and operated it anyways. There’s also the lack of clarity on whether or not the driver was properly licensed to commandeer a vehicle of such mass and length. The myriad of lawsuits to to come out of this will be most interesting indeed.

The main lesson to take from this is to not get into a “limousine” ever, unless it’s a vehicle that’s meant for such capacitive duty such as a bus. Also, if your personal car isn’t road-worthy (like having super old tires), don’t tempt fate; you’re seriously endangering yourself and others on the road.

Heading out to the surf in Santa Cruz.