Blog

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

Precious times

They say time is the most valuable asset we have, and we should try our best to not squander any of it. Sounds great on paper, but have these people ever try to get out of a warm bed in the morning? The eternal fight between the comfort and protection of the covers, and the dreadful cold of a morning bedroom. Keep the heat on during the night? I’m too Asian and not rich enough for that.

Instead of getting out of the bed promptly after wake, I waste about an hour scrolling through twitter on the phone. Having my phone within reach of the bed is probably one of my worst habits, but I simply don’t have the willpower to quit. Reading through twitter in the morning is like reading the morning newspaper for people back before the times of the Internet. It’s informational and entertainment. The real enemy is infinite scrolling: there’s no natural stopping point, unlike an actual newspaper. The dopamine drip can be as endless as your capability to stay in bed.

The productive thing to do would be to actually get out of the bed, and then check twitter on the MacBook Pro. This preserves the value of checking the news in the morning, but crucially, it also gets me out of bed. Crossing the physical barrier is what releases me from the intense hold of that warm cover. Back when I lived with my parents, feeding the cat was what got me out of bed immediately. I think I need something similar to that to serve the same purpose.

Ultimately, I can’t be wasting an hour plus stuck in the bed every morning. What’s the point of waking up so early if I’m just going to squander away those precious morning hours? Perhaps it is time: I shall charge my phone overnight on the drawer across the room. I’d have to get up and out just to turn off the alarm.

I need new clothes

The reason I can afford a six-figure sports car on a decidedly not-so six-figure salary is because I don’t spend much in other areas of life. One such area is clothing. Most of the stuff I wear are close to a decade old, and the amount of clothing isn’t great either. I can fit every single piece I own into two reasonable sized suitcases. I know this, because I did just that when I moved last November.

Back in college, there was a brief period when I bought a few too many sneakers. I am glad that phase was brief and gone, because spending over $100 dollars on a single pair of shoes is just not my idea of a good time. A rotation of about four pairs - including one for running - is about all I really need. Some of the shoes I bought back then, I still have, and in the coming years I hope to finally wear them out.

And I don’t plan to buy any more shoes until I do.

What I have started doing is replacing my wardrobe piece by piece. Any items that looks tattered are getting tossed. There’s also a hygiene factor: hats that are worn regularly and more than five years old are probably not the freshest thing. So recently I’ve completely replaced my aging hats with brand new ones. Thankfully I am not sentimental about having old hats around when I’m old and retired. I have no problem throwing away the SF Giants hat that commemorates the 2014 World Series victory.

My philosophy with clothing is to try to buy items that last, and I reckon I’ve done a pretty good job. Enough so that my relatives in China remarked that I’ve worn the same things that previous six years I’ve visited. Perhaps that was the signal to start changing it up. Slowly but surely.

I am humbled

It’s always fascinating to receive comments from people reading my GT3 diaries. It’s humbling to know that people looking for information about the 991.1 generation GT3 would arrive at my tiny corner of the Internet. Everything I write and do on this website is for my own enjoyment and for the sake of creating itself. Nothing was ever done in hopes of attracting an audience or turning this into a profitable enterprise. Therefore any interaction I do get from readers are super genuine, for which I am incredibly grateful.

Interestingly, the GT3 diaries attract most of its readers from the United Kingdom. If I had to guess (speculate, really), I think car enthusiasts across the pond have a different aspiration of owning the level of cars such as a GT3. Over there, guys and gals from middle-class backgrounds have no qualms about spending close to six-figures on a specialty sports car. That mirrors closely with my situation: I don’t make close to six-figures annually, yet I finagled my financial capacity to buy a GT3. Simply because I love that car, and wanted the experience.

American buyers of expensive sports cars tend to only be of the 1% earners, at least in my experience. I’ve yet to meet another enthusiast of my ilk, though perhaps that’s because no one would waste the amount of money on a car, as I did.

The GT3 diaries was my journaling of a working man’s dream of owning a super car. I am happy that it resonates with others, even if they from another continent. My only regret is I didn’t do more with the car, a year of ownership largely stolen by these COVID times. I endeavor to do better with M2 diaries, chronicling my current ownership of a BMW M2 Competition. That car is not nearly as special as a GT3, so I don’t reckon I’ll be getting a lot of correspondence on that in the comments.

I thank any and all for reading and perusing this website.

Yup, that’s a 3080. Too bad it’s from work.

One year of the pandemic

March 9th, 2020: a day that will live in infamy. Well, infamous at least to me. It was on this day last year when San Francisco State University sent every student home. The coronavirus has arrived to our shores in full-scale. Learning will be entirely remote for the foreseeable future. Here we are one calendar year later: instruction is still remote, though we are nearing the end of COVID, with vaccinations happening nicely.

Remember when we thought this thing would be over by the summer of last year? That was hilarious.

Cliche as it may be, it certainly doesn’t feel like a year has gone by. The interminable Groundhog Day-like experience of everyday feeling exactly the same as the previous doesn’t offer much signs that the days are progressing. We’ve all at some point or another got utterly sick of being suck inside our houses, lacking any social contact beyond the Zoom meeting screens. It’s a fortunate miracle indeed if you’ve made it this far in the coronavirus saga with your health and employment intact.

Because we are rapidly on the descent towards normalcy. One in five adults in San Francisco have gotten at least one shot of the vaccine. Public places and commercial districts are looking as alive as its been since last March. Traffic has returned to the pre-pandemic levels of bad. America may have botched the overall response to COVID (half a million people dead is appalling and criminal), but damn it are we kicking ass in producing and disseminating the vaccines. It’s an absolute achievement that we have three viable vaccines within one year of the outbreak.

It probably won’t be that easy, after one year of this tremendous and involuntary lifestyle change, to return back to the way it was. But that’s one of those good problems to have. I am beyond ready to meet up with friends, to travel again to foreign countries. It’s been one long year of the pandemic, but the end of it is within reach. Take care!

Going back to work

As we march towards the finish line of COVID, and normalcy is (finally) in our sights, we start to ponder about what work will be like once we physically go back. Those of us with the immense privilege of being able to work for home - and keeping employment - have enjoyed the positives rather nicely. Going back to the regimented eight-hour work day is going to be quite the shock.

No longer will you be able to do a load of laundry while you work, or run some errands whilst monitoring from the Slack app. It’s so nice to sneak a workout in during the times of the day when things are slower. The freedom of completing projects at your own pace, without the prying attention of your colleagues and senior report, is very nice indeed. Perhaps you want to clock in and out earlier on a particular day; working from home allows you to do that with ease.

All of that will be gone once we physically go back to work. The clock will seem interminable now that we are forced to be there for the full eight hours (plus lunch). Of course, from a macro level we should count our lucky stars that we still have jobs. But problems are still problems, no matter how first-world they may seem.

I think employers would do well to keep some of the flexibility brought on by working from home. For example, I should be allowed to go home if the day’s work is done, no matter what time it is. There’s no reason to wait out until 5:00 PM simply for the sake of it. Or let me go home period, if a particular project can be done entirely remotely. Introduce some asynchrony whenever possible, and I think the transition back to physical work will be much smoother and happier for all parties.

Practically since the pandemic began, I’ve been working on campus for about half the work week. Therefore, there isn’t going to much of a transition for me to make, which is nice. The days I can work from home are indeed more leisurely, I have to say. I’m going to miss them.

My back hurts

For much of this week, my lower back has been hurting. Not enough to be debilitating, but definitely painful to be of constant irritation. And I am not sure what caused it. Perhaps it’s just old age? I’m only in my early thirties, but you never know when the aches and pains that comes with age strike. I already have what seems to be early signs of arthritis in my hands. It’s only going to get worst.

Come to think of it, I think it might have to do with driving. Since taking stewardship of my brother’s Mazda Miata, I’ve done twice the miles as I typically do, all within the two days of a weekend. Since I don’t have a commute, it’s on Saturdays and Sundays when I take my car out to drive and get the oily stuff warmed up. It’s never good for a car to sit for a prolonged period. Now that I have two cars to take care of, the mileage has increased commensurately.

Sitting in a car for that amount of time cannot be good for the lower back, no matter how excellent and adjustable the lumbar support is. In the M2 Competition, it’s rather okay, but the seats in the MX-5 are not the best. It’s a tiny convertible sports car, after all.

Hopefully then, my lower back pain is just something to get used to. It is muscles being sore from being used like that for the first time. Honestly, I am far too young to be seeing a back doctor or going to physical therapy for such things. Also, I should probably get out of the car every hour on so on these drives. Do some stretches, take a sip of water, and then get back to the fun.

May is the endgame

Yesterday, President Biden announced the United States will have enough vaccine supply for all adults by the end of May - two months ahead of the previous projection. It seems the emergency approval of the third vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson is an absolute game-changer. If we all play our cards correctly, the Summer of 2021 will surely be memorable and spectacular.

I know I can’t wait. Due to happy circumstances, most of my friend group are either already fully vaccinated, or on our way to our second shot. By the first week of April, we will have group immunity against COVID. So of course we are planning a get-together to celebrate the occasion. A proper redo of the Thanksgiving gathering back in November that happened over Zoom. There will be many hugs, and not a mask to be found.

The smugness I have in being one of the lucky ones to receive the vaccine will be short-lived, and that’s a very good thing. Honestly, I do enjoy the playful arrogance that comes with being amongst the special caste of people that got vaccinated first. That said, things aren’t going to get back to normal until way more people get the shots. I am happy to hear that this will be soon. May is a mere two months away!

The U.S. developing three vaccines in such a short period of time is downright a miracle. A testament to the science and engineering might that’s possible when failure is not an option. The tragedy of over half a million Americans dying from COVID shouldn’t take away from this amazing feat. We can mourn and celebrate both separately, respectively.

I’ll see you all soon on the other side. God speed.