Blog

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

At least the roads will be nice

One of the silver linings I’m seeing with the whole State of California on lockdown is that the roads are getting some much-overdue maintenance work done to them. With an exponential decrease in the amount of cars on the road, what better time than now to fill in those potholes and repave a major thoroughfare. No need to worry about the coronavirus, because workers would be outdoors where the air naturally circulates and it’s very easy to socially distance.

A few weeks ago I was a part of a skeleton crew for my job that physically went to campus for work, and to my surprise, 19th Avenue was down to one lane from the normal four. Crews were taking the opportunity to repave the busy boulevard while traffic levels are historically low. Ironically closing it down to a single lane caused a traffic jam of its own with the few remaining cars: it took me a good 15 minutes just to get out of the area and on my way back home, which was slightly annoying because with shelter-in-place happening, I had expected to commute in record time (traveling at normal speeds, mind).

This Summer there was to be a planned shutdown of the super busy section Highway 101 at the Highway 280 interchange for three whole weeks. The need for seismic retrofit to the aging elevated structure is paramount, no matter the absolute traffic hell that is for sure to happen as a consequence of shutting down the freeway. I mean, it’s not like our region is famous for earthquakes or anything. Nonetheless, the fear of massive congestion during construction can now be allayed because the city have moved the project up by months; work actually starts this weekend.

I am greatly looking forward to some beautifully smooth roads once things return to normal.

No travel for the wicked

Needless to say, there won’t be any traveling happening for me personally for the rest this year, if not into the next. It’s a sad thing to say really because a part of what I enjoy most is traveling abroad and visiting places I’ve never been; last Summer’s trip to Japan was in many ways a high watermark in my life. Unfortunately due to the current circumstances, being stuck in a metal tube many thousands of feet in the air is probably not the smartest thing to do.

For the past five Januaries, I’ve flew back home to China to visit family, and I’ve already resigned to that fact that the streak is over: I won’t be making the same trip this year. Even though it would be right at the end of December as usual, it’s hard to predict what sort of normalcy the world will return to by that time. Never mind the dangers of being clustered together with hundreds of people inside an airplane: I don’t want to return to a hometown that’s still dealing with the affects from the coronavirus. As much as I wish to see family members, if Guangzhou is lacking its typical vibrancy, it would be a wasted trip.

I think this would have been the year I finally make it over to Europe, perhaps a trip surrounding the legendary Le Mans 24 hours race, or the 24 hours of Nurburgring (both races have been rescheduled from their usual July slot to September). That’s obviously out the window now, but being that I never been to Europe, there’s an absence of longing for and fondness that I carry for my beloved continent of Asia. The “old continent” can will have to wait a bit longer.

Had it not been Europe, I would have probably gone back to South Korea this year for the second time since the trip in 2017. With another two years of Korean language learning under my belt, I was ready to experience the Korean culture fully and unreservedly. More importantly, there’s the numerous variety of Korean food I’ve been missing since the last trip, dishes that I simply cannot find here back in the States. There would’ve been lots of eating going on, but alas there will be no beginning-of-Summer trip in 2020.

To quote the Terminator: “I’ll be back”.

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.