Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

December still matters!

We are barely four days into the month of December, and it seems like everyone has written the rest of the month off? I’m already seeing the usual year-end lists and reflection articles popping up online, even though as of this post there’s still 28(!) days left to this year. On twitter, people are already saying goodbye to 2019 and talking about plans and whatnot for 2020, wishing each other well in the new year. It’s madness: this is worst than moving out the Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving (looking at you, America).

Question: why are you guys throwing away the month of December? Last I check, there are 12 months to a year. Hang on to your top 10 lists for just a moment! Things can yet change: what if there’s a movie that will blow your mind later this month? Or a brand new song release that entrances you? I think it’s entirely premature to be writing conclusions about 2019, and an affront to what is my favorite month of the year.

To be fair, not much does go on during December, other than the super slow burn towards Christmas vacation. The weather’s too cold, the skies' too dark, and people stay inside too often for excitement to occur. Besides, like everyone else I also have the urge to begin concluding down the year (I too have my own year-end reflection to write), because the allure of a “fresh start” to a new year is so strong that we want to turn the new leaf earlier and earlier. As always, it’s very misleading: there’s nothing you’re going to do in 2020 that you can’t do right now, or at least start. Why wait?

Lots can still happen in the next 28 days - if we allow it, so let’s not treat 2019 as if it’s over already. Don’t wait for the 2020 if there’s something you want to start or do: get after it now.

A deserted Market Street on Thanksgiving day.

SF Auto Show musings

One of my Thanksgiving traditions is attending the annual SF Auto Show at the Moscone Center, and this year was no different. Being traditionally Asian, Thanksgiving is not really a celebratory holiday for us - I didn’t even know what a turkey is until our family emigrated here - so there’s no big feast at our house. We simply take the few days off to relax, and because the auto show always happens during the last week of November, I take the opportunity to go outside for a bit and look at cars.

The San Francisco show isn’t one of the biggest, and it seems the scale has been shrinking the past few years. It doesn’t help that the major auto show in Los Angeles is around the same time, so some manufacturers aren’t keen to split their resources like that; LA will always get the nod when decisions have to be made. It’s a down year for the overall car market as well, so surely marketing budgets have shrunken down commensurately. This year, there was almost zero presence from European automarkers, though the Jaguar Land Rover group had a sizable display.

Back in my childhood, I would make it a point to see every single car on display at the show, which I’m sure my parents were very happy about. These days I only look at the models that interest me, of which there are a scarce few. Of primary interest this year was to see the new Porsche 911 - 992 generation - for the first time in the flesh, and thanks to Porsche Livermore, there was one on display at the show even though Porsche itself was not an official participant.

So a quick appearance-only verdict on the 992: it’s rather bulbous, but far less offensive than in photographs. It’s smaller in the metal, too. The rear light-bar design language remains polarizing, and for now I still hate it (the rear spoiler in the up position helps it a little). 21-inch wheels are far too big for the car, and the classic 911 “pontoon” front fender shape is largely gone now; the front is nearly flat like the 911 RSR racing car. The 992 is still quintessentially 911, but I wouldn’t put it high on the list amongst its lineage.

It seems it’s not just me who’s keen for the enthusiast cars: even in a time full of SUV popularity, the brands’ more sporting models still get the most crowds. The aforementioned 992 was mobbed by people the entire time I was there, and the same at the Honda Civic Type R and the Hyundai Veloster N displays. This is what a “halo car” is all about: to create excitement and positive association with a brand, even if the customer ends up buying an SUV instead, because that SUV will be of the same marque as the enthusiast car.

It gives me hope that manufacturers aren’t going to abandon the fun cars any time soon. It’s a great marketing strategy.

Yeah this is still a no from me, dawg. Nice shade of green, though.

December to remember

Hello everyone, welcome back to this side of December, my favorite month of the year. The days are shorter, and nights are dark and cozy; it’s utterly fantastic. December is a contracted month, too, with the Christmas break shortening the work month to only three weeks (lucky for me), which after coming off of the Thanksgiving holiday is quite something to look forward to. It’ll be a quick sprint towards the end, that’s for sure.

The weather finally made a turn towards the seasonal cold and rain during the Thanksgiving break, making the festivities that bit more atmospheric, being locked in our homes with the heat blasting, while outside the wind howls and the rain chills and sleets fiercely. It was wonderful: the traditional Thanksgiving meal just wouldn’t feel right if it were 70 degrees and sunny outside. As always, it’s special and rewarding to catch up with family and friends during this time of the year.

The four-day holiday allowed to time to complete some personal work, too, though at a far more leisurely pace. You can read about what the 10th month of ownership is like for my Porsche 911 GT3, in which I write about how the car has depreciated $20,000 in value since I bought it back in January (no need to cry for me, Argentina).

Another thing I finished is the photo calendars I make every year to give out to my friends during Christmas. It’s difficult to pick the best 13 pictures (12 months plus cover page) I took this year to include into the calendar, as the candidates were many (somewhat humble brag). After selecting the photos, I then reedit them to my current tastes, which has slightly evolved throughout the year. Finally, I then agonize over which picture belongs to which month, keeping in mind the seasons and mood associated with a particular month.

What I am saying is: it’s way more labor intensive than the final product looks.

In December there’s two big projects to do before I sign off for the rest of 2019 (I get on a plane to China on the night of the 27th): the December ownership update for the GT3, and the year-end reflection long-form; both combined is easily over 5,000 words. The aim is to have them finished before we break for Christmas; with the weather staying cold and rainy for the month, that shouldn’t be much of a problem to achieve.

Let’s finish strong, friends.

A clean, bone-stock classic BMW E30 coupe parked on the street. What a lovely thing.

The new speed limit is 80 MPH

Last time I checked, the highway speed limit in California is still 65 miles per hour, so how come it seems everyone is going way faster than that these days?

During my weekly errand of taking the GT3 out to exercise its oily internals, I go on Interstate-280 to get to the mountain roads I frequent. Being not oblivious to the fact I’ve got car that stands outs amongst the drab sea of SUVs, I purposely try to not draw extra attention by driving on the slow right lane and following the posted limit. Last thing I want to do is reenforce the stereotype of the douchebag sports car owner flying by everyone and treating other cars on the highway as a slalom course to be navigated.

However, it seems going at a steady 65 on the right lane is considered slow nowadays, because cars on the outside lanes are simply zooming by me, and fellow drivers in the slow lane actually have to switch over to pass me! I’m old enough to remember a time when going at the speed limit in the right lane was considered fast. Now, I’m the slowest of the bunch. From my experience, the present de-facto highway speed limit - the rate at which most cars appear to settle at - is about 80 miles per hour.

That’s quite bit over the standard 65.

I think a large factor that contributes to this phenomenon is that moderns cars are just too good. The typical car have decent amounts of power, and the interiors cocoon the occupants from the outside world really well. Therefore, it’s super easy to cruise at way above the speed limit because the sense of speed is dulled inside, and it feels entirely normal and calm to drive at 80 miles per hour. My 911 is absolutely stable and comfortable into the triple-digits (thank you, German autobahn), which needless to say would be an impound-my-car type of offense.

And it looks like the constabulary of the highways isn’t keen to have 80 MPH as the new speed limit. Last Sunday, as I entered Interstate 280 at the usual onramp, I saw a CHP car cruising along with other motorists. A few miles down at the exit I take to the mountains, I saw that patrol car having pulled someone over for speeding. As luck would have it, moments later I rejoined the highway because I decided on an alternate route, and that same exact CHP cruiser came right on my tail, though obviously I was doing my usual lawful speed on the right lane; nothing to see here.

Soon the CHP car passed me, and later on further down the road I saw it stopped again to the side, having pulled over yet another driver caught speeding. With this many cars going faster than the 65 MPH speed limit these days, it’s the proverbial shooting fish in a bucket for CHP officers.

As someone who at most stay under 10 miles per hour over the limit, it doesn’t concern me that CHP is out there actively enforcing the law on a leisurely Sunday. It won’t be me they’ll catch, because lots of people are going faster than I am, no matter how paradoxically it appears on the surface with my fancy German sports car. I believe that particular CHP cruiser was looking for an excuse to pull me over; sorry to disappoint, but I’m not the stereotypical driver.

Please ignore the fact I don’t have a front plate…

Aston Martin DBX

Porsche was way ahead of the curve nearly two decades earlier when it introduced the Cayenne sports utility vehicle (SUV) to the market. Reactions to the famous maker of sports cars producing an SUV was decidedly mixed; people were incredulous that Porsche would forsake decades of tradition to chase after the mighty consumers dollars. Like Burger King introducing french fries to compete with McDonalds, it was a necessary move to ensure Porsche’s long-term survival, as the market size for SUVs is immensely larger than weekend driving toys.

The profits from the Cayenne also act as a monetary float for Porsche to keep making the 911 ever better with each generation. Indeed, P-car enthusiasts quickly forgot about whatever stain on the legacy it is to have an SUV in the Porsche lineup, so long as the 911 remains at the pinnacle of sports cars. Today, the Cayenne and the smaller Macan continues to print money for the German automaker, and we get to enjoy our GT3s. It’s a win win.

So it’s a slight surprise it has taken this long for other premium sports car manufacturers to copy Porsche’s formula. The Cayenne debuted way back in 2002, and it’s only at the end of this decade that we are seeing SUVs from the likes of Lamborghini and Bentley - the Ferrari SUV won’t be a reality for another few years. The proliferation of SUVs have really accelerated since the start of the 2010s, so much so that steadfast traditionalist brands that are synonymous with fast supercars can no longer ignore the market opportunity.

Even Lotus will be making one. Hard to imagine such a thing just five years ago.

Last evening, Aston Martin world-premiered its very first SUV effort, dubbed the DBX. The iconic British marque, known for its fast GT coupes and association with James Bond, is ready to reap the fat profits that Porsche have been collecting for the longest time. A lot is hinging on the DBX, as the stock prices of Aston Martin have not done particularly well since its IPO, and last quarter it lost 13.5 million pounds. The company is hoping the massive SUV market will turn its fortunes back into the positive.

If looks alone makes a car worthy of consideration, then the DBX will sell tremendously well. It’s the first of these “super SUVs” that I would actually call beautiful, though you wouldn’t expect anything less from Aston Martin. The DBX shames the Bentley Bentayga into common obscurity, and reveals the Lamborghini Urus as the incoherent, offensive mess it truly is. The DBX exudes a flowing elegance that doesn’t offend, yet retains the sense of specialness that spending upwards of $200,000 should get you in return.

Of course, speed and athleticism worthy of the Aston wings ought to be a given in DBX, but I think those attributes don’t matter to the target audience. Brand equity and interior space is what counts; how the DBX takes to a corner is secondary, perhaps tertiary. Because if buyers are looking for something that handles well, they wouldn’t be looking at an SUV.

It’s all about the badge: the forthcoming Ferrari SUV can steer like a pontoon boat and customers will still buy. That’s the game, and premium sports car makers are busily scrambling to follow what Porsche started.

Squarespace was down. Again

It is just me or is Squarespace a bit unreliable lately? I am currently typing this on Microsoft Word because the entirety of Squarespace is down, and I have no access to the main portal (I usually type these short blogs on the portal itself; the wordier stuff like the GT3 diaries are typed on Word before exporting). Needlessly to say, my website itself is currently unavailable, too.

It’s quite frustrating.

Not to say my personal website is of any real significance in the grand scheme of the Internet, but this is unacceptable, right? For a web hosting company to be down for any reason, much less at the frequency Squarespace has been experiencing trouble lately. Just a few weeks back, photo hosting was malfunctioning, preventing me from uploading pictures, which for my purposes is largely what my website is based on, so that situation is far from ideal.

I’m sure there are much larger and more important websites being hosted by Squarespace that can’t suffer to be offline for any period. I think the company needs to seriously reevaluate the stability of its platform if it wants to keep growing and sort of take a chunk of the marketplace dominated by Amazon S3. Remember when that suffered an outage back in 2017? Seemingly half the websites I frequent were inaccessible. That was the only time I could remember S3 being out significantly, and if Squarespace wants to play in that arena, the rate it’s been offline lately is not going cut it.

Small-time freelancers who are dependent on their Squarespace-hosted sites to make a living simply can’t afford to have any downtime. And it isn’t like Squarespace is some basic entry-level platform: we’re paying over $200 dollars per year for an account, and I think it’s only fair that we should have 100 percent uptime in return. These are prime content creating and earning hours of a workday, and not being able to access our websites is an intolerable hindrance.

Perhaps Squarespace should spend less money advertising 10% discounts with creators on YouTube (full disclosure: I did use one of the freely available coupon codes for my first year) and instead move some resources towards ensuring complete service uptime. As the cliché goes: I’m not mad, just disappointed.

Love the process

You ever wake up in the morning and have that sense of dread that you’re going to have to go through the motions of the typical day yet again? The same pattern of going to work and coming home to rest up, only to do it all over the following day. I bet even if your job is super interesting and you love it to bits, the sameness of everyday adult life will still grind on you at times, as it certainly does for me (I quite like my work).

Even the small things can become irritable, like making the morning coffee. Yup, here I am waiting for the water to boil for umpteenth time; got to steep the beans for four minutes for the flavors to soak in; time to press out the grinds and pour the coffee into a cup; ah, it tastes just like it did yesterday; well then, moving on to the next task that I also did the day prior. I can see why entertainment is such a huge part of people’s lives: for most it’s the only opportunity for something different in the day; a new episode of a television show to be excited about and look forward to.

Stretch the horizon outwards, and it can get rather depressing; the fact that you’re largely going to do the same thing every day until you die. The novelty of significant life events such as marriage and childrearing will only be new for so long before they too settle into proper routines. Repetition is all there is, though that’s not necessary a bad thing: doing things day after day and making small improvements constantly is how we grow and improve. Life is a game of compounding, after all: there are no eureka moments without the grueling work. Andy Dufresne doesn’t escape prison without picking at the same cell wall for 19 years.

But some days, the repetitiveness can also become a prison of its own, and it’s on those days that I have to remind myself to love and enjoy the process - at all times. If this life of mine is determined to be so, then I have to okay and happy with every part of it, and stay in awe of the tiniest aspects. It’s easy to push often-performed tasks into the territory of mindless muscle memory, and we must reverse that tendency by slowing way down and really notice each little step.

When making coffee: I listen fondly to the gushing of fresh water as it flows from the faucet into the boiler, and then the randomized, wondrous grumble as the water comes to a boil. I smell the aroma when the hot liquid hits freshly-ground beans; keep my nose to it as they steep, the smell permeating ever stronger. I pay attention to its color as the coffee pours from the press into the cup, and savor every sip as if each taste is a newfound discovery. Coffee-making isn’t at all complicated, but how you perceive the task can turn it from boring routine into wonder.

Because the processes of life will keep repeating, so might as well love every bit of it.