Blog

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

No more taking the bus?

One thing I definitely don’t miss about normal work life is the commute. During this current quarantine situation, it’s been really lovely to simply roll out of the bed each morning and login to work on the computer. No need to wake up two hours before official work start time: an hour to get ready to head out, and then an hour to take the bus. The time saved has been tremendous, though my amount of podcast listening have decreased dramatically.

One thing I do miss being physically at work is interacting with my coworkers. Zoom is great for teleconferencing, but you cannot replace face-to-face collaboration, at least in our line of work. Some tech problems need multiple heads banded together to solve, and it’s much easier and more effective to do so when we’re all in the same place. It’s what I’m most excited to return to - work-wise - once this shelter-in-place order is over.

Of course, that would mean the return of the commute, and up brings a conundrum: do I go back to public transportation? Lockdown being over doesn’t mean social distancing won’t still be required; the coronavirus won’t abate anytime soon, and once we’re back outside we will need to take the utmost precautions. A crowded bus then is to be avoided if possible, which means I'm going to need to buy another car to commute with (it’s not happening with the Porsche). As of this moment, I’m heavily leaning towards doing that.

Good news (somewhat perversely) then that used car prices are projected to be down in the foreseeable future. Circumstances stemming from the coronavirus have absolutely cratered demand for automobiles, and with a glut of inventory sitting at dealership lots, those with the means to spend are in a good position. I’m on a casual hunt, for now.

Sneaking out for a drive

Even the homeliest of homebodies need to get out of the house sometimes, and that moment for me was this past weekend. I have the utmost respect for our medical first responders fighting the good fight against the coronavirus, so I’ve been strictly adhering to the shelter-at-home order - it’s been weeks since I’ve put on a proper pair of pants. That said, some essential errands you simply have to leave the house to do, and one such thing for me is to take the Porsche 911 out of a drive.

Mind you it’s not because I desperately need to take the car out for a spin; I’m perfectly okay with letting the 911 sit for the entire duration of however long this lockdown ends up taking. However, for the good of the car, I cannot let it stay stationary for too long, because the battery will die. Where I have it parked, there are no provisions to plug in a tickle charger, so these periodic drives to keep the battery and mechanics in top shape have to done.

The maximum I’ve gone between moving the car is three weeks.

I won’t lie and say it wasn’t nice to be on the road and driving again. In fact, it was absolutely sublime; I’d forgotten what fresh air smelled like. Due to the quarantine conditions, there was far less traffic on my usual mountain routes too, though I kept it at a far slower pace than usual. Last thing I want to do is to bin it off a sharp corner because I was going to fast, and then requiring emergency personnel to mend me - personnel who have way more important things to tend to at the moment.

It was eerie to see the usual parking lots and recreation areas all cordoned off, with signs of no parking and health warnings plastered everywhere. On a good and normal day, the parks in the mountain would be teeming with hikers and outdoorsy people. I guess it’s a testament to how well overall the Bay Area has done to keeping it locked down and at home, patiently waiting out this coronavirus peak.

If the shelter-in-place order is still in effect in three weeks’ time, it’ll be the next opportunity the 911 gets its required exercise.

You're a window shopper

A problem I have during the idle times being cooped up at home during this coronavirus business is that I’m finding myself on Autotrader looking for cars to buy. Indeed it’s not the wisest of decisions to be spending relatively big sums of money on anything right now, what with so much uncertainty about the future. Now is the time to be enacting hard austerity measures and shore up that rainy day fund in case the economy turn worst than it already has.

Of course, those of us fortunate enough to still be able to draw a paycheck should donate and help out those in need whenever and wherever we can. In the past month I’ve ordered more food to go from local restaurants than I ever have combined. I hope these neighborhood food staples can pull through this pandemic.

Nevertheless, it’s a huge dopamine rush for a car enthusiasts to go car shopping, even if it’s merely the window shopping variety. The mind starts imagining the what-if possibilites, all the potential fun to had in a new-to-me car. Naturally, the mind also starts to perform permutations and rationalizations, trying to self-convince that I should totally buy a particular car - it’s never been cheaper!

With most of the country on lockdown, there’s obviously not a lot of car buying happening at dealerships. With over 20 million Americans newly filing for unemployment, the demand for automobiles will likely go down significantly. The general consensus amongst the petrol-head crowd is that this glut of supply, combined with decrease in demand, means there should plenty of deals to be had, should you be in the lucky position to have a job and the cash on hand.

I’m extremely privileged to be in that position, which is why I’m constantly on Autotrader these days. I’m not going to actually buy another car though, because I’ve already got one to play with (not so much these days, sadly), and that one is quite expensive to handle as is. That said, prices for a 2016 model-year Mazda Miata - my old car - have dropped down into the teens of thousands, and that’s highly tempting…

I'm made for this

It seems plenty of my peers are taking this coronavirus lockdown opportunity to binge on many televisions shows or plays lots of video games. I am genuinely happy for them because god knows we can use a bit of levity in this current situation. It’s just that I guess I am the odd one out, because even though this quarantine has been going on for over a month, I’ve yet to watch one extra show, or play one single new video game.

The reason is simple: this shelter-in-place living arrangement is absolutely normal for me. Normal in the sense that it’s what I would being doing anyways: staying at home most of the time. My daily routine as an introverted homebody hasn’t really changed: I still have books to read, blogs to write (hello!), and Korean language to study. There’s barely any additional time to fit in a TV series or begin playing Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Admittedly, saving on the commute time to work has allowed me to watch more car-related Youtube videos, but that’s it.

The coronavirus upended things for the rest of you guys, and I hope you will all be able to return to your regularly scheduled programming as quickly as possible. That’s the part that feels abnormal to me: the fact everyone else suddenly converted to my lifestyle. I greatly empathize: I’ve been training for this lockdown scenario my whole life, and the rest of you are mere amateurs. Reports of people getting cabin fever is a foreign concept to me; being cooped indoors is wonderful!

This too shall pass, my friends.

I do miss going outside and doing this, though.

The rise of racing games

With the coronavirus going on all around us, there’s obviously no professional sports happening at the moment. The main source of entertainment and escape for plenty of people, it’s rather cruel that there aren’t any sports to watch during this banishment to the confines of our homes. I get it: the reason we have to shelter in place is the same reason there aren’t any major league baseball games happening right now. It doesn’t diminish how much I am missing sports, and surely I’m one amongst many.

One discipline that seems to have embraced the situation quite well is that of motorsports. It’s uniquely able to adapt to the world of gaming, the simulation of which offers a convincing translation that it suffices to keep us entertained. Unlike a basketball video game where you don’t physically toss around a ball to play, a car in a racing game can be controlled with a wheel and pedal set-up, offering a decent enough facsimile that pro racers actually use them for training. The more extravagant setups can even offer some modicum of motion and g-force simulation, though those are prohibitively expensive for mere mortals like me who don’t have million-dollar contracts.

But I have been playing racing games with a wheel and pedal (shoutout to Logitech) since the days of Gran Turismo 4 in the early 2000s, and it’s deeply satisfying for me to see how much the “real-life” motorsport community have embraced driving simulators like a Gran Turismo or iRacing during this coronavirus episode. There’s still lots of racing happening on the weekends, just all in the virtual world. Honestly I’m quite thankful for it because it helps to break up the utter monotony of every day being exactly the same as the last.

Of course, I’m eager for real racing to return to real race tracks. There’s no replicating the sights and sounds of drivers man-handling actual cars through a corner, displaying acts of athleticism most of us can barely imagine. I’d also like to go outside and attend races, and indeed there’s no more intoxicating smell than the burning of petrol (sorry, Formula E).

In the meantime, I’m glad we have a pretty good substitute.

When this is all over

As we go pass over a month of being under the shelter-in-place rules, the mind tends to wander into the many possibilities once this coronavirus business is over. What would I want to do first once I am able to go outside freely? Anything big I would change about my life now that this once-in-a-generation pandemic has put a mirror to our current lives?

Lots to thing about, honestly. The exercise also provides something to look forward to, that there’s light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, that this too shall pass, and we will get through it relatively okay.

Of course, I speak as someone supremely fortunate enough to have a job where I am able to work from home. The countless people who were laid off these past few weeks certainly don’t have the ability to indulge in the pleasant what-if thinking of the post-coronavirus world. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to have to worry about finding gainful employment once the lockdown is over, and the other tangential things that comes along with a job, such as paying rent, and having health insurance.

I have pondered about the negative possibilities with my job, steady as it may seem to be working for the State of California at a public university. It’s already a forgone conclusion that the Spring semester will remain completely remote and online; the mystery is what will happen in the next school year beginning in September. No one can say for sure what the situation will look like by then, and regardless I think enrollment will be significantly lower than usual. Less students means less funding for the college, and those of us working there just might have to bear some of that.

We all remember the furloughs following the financial crisis, though from a different perspective, that might be of some assurance. No one (that I know, anyways) got fired; we simply took a 10% pay-cut collectively. I hope it won’t come to that, but it’s certainly something to think about.

Whether good or bad, the best we can do is be ready.

We got a cat

What do you do during these trying times when you are stuck inside the house all day everyday with seemingly no end in sight? Well, if you’re my brother, you adopt a cat. Indeed, our family gained a new member today as the adoption of our black cat named ‘Oreo’ was completed. A two-year old that was formerly kept by another family that had to let it go, Oreo comes already highly domesticated, very docile and free of commotion. It’s like getting a baby after the phase where you don’t get any sleep because it’s crying the whole time.

I’m sure you’ve read the articles about how during this coronavirus quarantine, there’s been an uptick in pet adoption. I think it’s a really good thing that these animals are finding a home that wouldn’t have otherwise during normal circumstances. My brother’s been in a bit of funk since being laid off from the car dealership (obviously not a lot of car selling happening these days), so hopefully having a cat to occupy his time and mind will be a huge positive for him.

I always had the notion that if I were ever to get a pet, it’d be a cat over a dog. Not that I don’t like our canine friends, but a cat is far lower on maintenance, and they simply keep to themselves most of the time. There’s no need to take them for walks, and about the only sort of fuss with cat raising is trying to give them a bath, and trimming their claws. I never got around to adopting a cat, even as I entered deep adulthood, because I rather spend the money and time towards cars. Surely you’ve all kept up with my GT3 diaries.

Now that my brother did adopt one, however, I get to somewhat live the pet ownership experience through him. I think it’ll be nice to have a furry little monster running about the house, and a good distraction from what’s going on in the outside world.