Blog

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

Pandemic spending

Now that I’ve moved out of my parents’ house and on my own, the extra monthly rental cost looms large over my overall spending budget. To have a sizable chunk of my income that I once could squirrel away for something super fun (like a Porsche 911 GT3) now just utterly gone every first of the month is a huge change indeed. Priorities have shifted, and I definitely cannot be as cavalier with money as I used to.

Budgets, then, is something I now how to keep a keen eye on. For the few months since I’ve moved out, I’ve done rather well. However, we are still in the middle of the pandemic, and therefore spending levels are depressed. The inability to go out and do stuff quite naturally saves a bit of money. No doubt that once the world returns to normal, my monthly spending on restaurants and whatnot will certainly increase dramatically.

Obviously I’ll have to make that adjustment.

That said, I am very excited for the day I can spend a Friday evening hanging out with friends at a restaurant. Even a homebody like myself have reached a toleration limit with the lockdowns. Deprived of the option to socialize, there’s nothing I want more now than to call up friends to see what’s happening on the weekends. Funny how that sort of psychology works.

So it’s going to be okay when my monthly spending inevitably goes up. That means the pandemic is over, and we’re back to our regularly-scheduled programming. Having been essentially locked inside of my house for nearly a year, I am most ready for the pendulum to go the other way. To hang out with friends and going places every weekend. Perhaps, even weekday nights!

Everything is colder in Texas

A historic and unprecedented winter storm has hit Texas, causing below-freezing temperatures and massive amounts of snow. The power grid utterly failed, and millions are left without power for many consecutive hours into the night. Extremely cold weather with no way to heat the house is a potentially lethal combination indeed. Thankfully, my lone friend in the Lone Star State - in a suburb of Austin - is doing fine and has power.

My thoughts are with the millions who aren’t so lucky. I hope everyone can stay safe and get through this.

It’s not without some schadenfreude to see Texas politicians, who have mocked the misfortunes of California in regards to our own weather nightmares, now having to eat massive crow. Goes to show that one, no single area is immune from extreme climate patterns, and two, karma is an absolute bitch. If California’s trouble with wildfires and the electric grid can be blamed on the government run by Democrats, then logically we can blame Texas’ Republicans on their current predicament.

Not so good when the shoe is in the other foot, is it?

It’s best to be kind and considerate at the misfortune of others. The pendulum of luck won’t always be on your side. Some day you too will need help, and the grace - or lack thereof - you’ve shown others previously will be remembered. We’re all in this together; we should be able to debate infrastructure policies without viciousness. More importantly, when others are suffering, we offer a helping hand and words of encouragement, not snark and mockery.

Extreme climates are here to stay, and I’m reminded to be prepare for it. I really should get that emergency kit together…

Morning in America

It’s Monday, and you know what the means? It’s garbage pickup day. Why does the garbage man have to come so early? 6:00 AM is usually when the truck comes through the neighborhood, and as always, the process makes a racket loud enough to wake everyone that’s asleep. Why not come at 8:00 AM, like the street-cleaning crew does?

Good thing 6:00 AM is my wakeup time anyways. Not that I purposely synced it to the coming of the garbage truck, mind you. Going to sleep and rising early has been staple habit since the start of the coronavirus almost a year ago. The morning hours of solitude and calm - before anyone else wakes up - are super precious to me. Usually I start the day with typing a few hundred words on this blog.

Today is the Presidents Day holiday, which I almost forgot about. I absolutely do not have the day off today, so it’s not really something I’d pay attention to. While most of my friends are still sleeping soundly, awaiting a peaceful off day from the grind, I’m at the beginning of yet another work week. It should be a relatively quiet day though, because inevitably a bunch of students will think the university has Presidents Day off, so they don’t show up to class.

This was true even before this whole COVID online class madness.

On Sunday, I washed the M2 Competition for the first time since I bought it back in October. The seasonal rain have made it easy to just keep it as is, but it has reached a point of dirtiness that not even heavy rain can wash away. As I grow older, I am definitely less enthusiastic about the parts of car ownership that isn’t driving. I used to detail my cars every two weeks like clockwork. Nowadays I’m perfectly content to not wash it so long as it looks decent from five feet away.

It’s driving that I like, not car washing or changing the oil.

Saturday morning, rain has fallen

Saturday mornings are great. You get to decide whether you want to wake up at normal time, or stay in bed just that bit longer. There’s absolutely no rush to do anything. A second cup of coffee? Sure, you have time for that. Spend an hour on twitter before you even physically get out of the bed? Sure, you can do that. You shouldn’t, but you perfectly can.

Sunday mornings don’t feel that way, because you know you’ve got to prepare for Monday. You can’t afford to be lackadaisical and wasting time. There’s stuff to do, errands to run, groceries to buy. On Saturday, however, all of that can be pushed to Sunday. You shouldn’t, but you perfectly can.

I don’t envy my friends who has two kids. They don’t get to enjoy this blissful period of no responsibility on Saturday mornings. Their young rug-rats probably wakes up before they do. So what are they to do? Not get up and feed them? For the many joys there are in child-rearing, I am in no speed to join my friends in taking on that responsibility.

I rather like my Saturday morning of solitude. Once the clock hits noon, however, it’s time to get to the weekend work. While I can indeed do absolutely nothing today and procrastinate all of the errands to Sunday, I know I am going to feel crap about that once Sunday actually arrives.

Best to split the load between the two days of the weekend. Take care, everyone!

Attack on Asians

The recent rash of robberies and attacks against Asian Americans is (finally) receiving some attention in the news media. Every year around the time of the Lunar New Year celebrations, there’s an increase in robberies because the perps suspect that Asians are carrying around more money than usual. That’s been a trend I’ve noticed for as long as I can remember, especially having grown up in the southeastern side of San Francisco.

So it’s rather interesting to see people having discussion about the latest attacks and utterly dancing around the real problem. Lots of finger pointing at former President Trump’s rhetoric vis a vis the coronavirus. Lots of blame on white supremacy, and how the model minority myth breeds resentment towards Asian Americans from other minorities group.

All of that is fairly bullshit. The issue is, and have always been: young African Americans targeting Asians. I’ve seen plenty of it growing up, and have had it happened to me personally. Chicken or the egg: what came first? Asian American’s negative - often time racist - attitudes towards Blacks, or Blacks harassing and robbing Asians? I reckon those two things are innately intertwined.

Solving the problem is easy (in theory): alleviate poverty. These crimes are more about economics than pure racial hate. Asians are seen as easy targets with lots of money - especially our seniors, an attractive prey for those who have no life choice but to rob for sustenance. If they are otherwise gainfully employed and have the resources for a fulfilled life, I think the instances of crime against Asian Americans will drop dramatically.

That said, those who have perpetrated the crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent.

Lowell as we know it

Last evening, the San Francisco school board voted to end merit-based admission to Lowell High School. The nationally-recognized public school offers a rigorous, college-preparatory education for free. I am immensely proud of my own four years at there. As a poor, first-generation immigrant living in San Francisco, Lowell was the only chance to study at private school-like learning institution.

I'm just sad that it will no longer be the case for future kids like myself. Sure, students from rich families can go to an actual private school. But the smart kids from non-affluent backgrounds lost a golden opportunity at something otherwise reserved for the wealthy.

And I thought we were trying to narrow the wealth gap.

The school board eliminated the Lowell meritocracy in the name of “equality” and “racial justice”. The ethnic composition of the Lowell student body has been a sore-spot for the district for as long as I can remember. Confusing equality of outcome with equality of opportunity, the powers at be saw the low Latino and Black enrollment at Lowell as something inherently prejudicial. Because us Asians don’t count as a true minority in the educational arena.

Instead of solving the problem at the cause - by providing way more resources to schools in underserved, low-income neighborhoods - the school board went about rejiggering the numbers by sheer manipulation. I don’t like the outcome, so let’s get rid of it! They leveled the playing field by lowering the standards, rather than working to bring those behind up to the same standards. All to feel better about themselves for a symbolic job well done.

Turning Lowell into any other high school in the city will do nothing for the education gap. It only does to take away an opportunity for kids from impoverished families to get a top-notch education, one that doesn’t require money to buy. A very sad day indeed.

Be generous

With the coronavirus still raging on - even though we are at the endgame now with the vaccine rollout - there were to be no Super Bowl party this year. We simply cannot take the risk. Getting COVID now would be like getting shot after the war has been declared over. Just need to hang on until we each get our date with the vaccine needle.

So I was fully content with watching the big game alone, until my housemate said our neighbor is having a party. He - the neighbor - pulled the TV from his bedroom, placed it on a stand in his driveway, and circled it with various folding camping chairs. Since it’s not wise to have an indoor party, our neighbor brought it outside. Turns out I watched the Super Bowl with a crowd of people after all. It was a good time.

What struck me most was the sheer generosity of the neighbor. Along with the television setup, he had the barbecue going with various meats, and coolers full of beer and soda. All this out-of-pocket money just to serve others, to give them a good time. I have to say, enjoying this generosity humbled me to do better myself. To be kind, and help make the lives of others better and happier.

This same neighbor let us borrowed his absurdly tall ladder to string up our own Christmas lights last December. That is someone you are glad to have to live by you. A person you can count on in case of emergencies.

I endeavor very much to be that type of person as well.