Blog

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

I can't watch

Ever since I’ve sold my Porsche 911 GT3 over a year ago, I cannot bear to consume media about the car anymore. I skip right over video reviews of the latest generation 911 GT3. It’s just too painful of a reminder of what I used to have. My god that was an amazing car. The 991 generation GT3 was one to hold forever and take to the moon. Sadly I had to move out of my parents’ house, and therefore lower my monthly expenses. It had to go.

My BMW M2 Competition is not a bad consolidation in the slightest. I’ve adored it on the very first weekend drive. But an M2 is no 911, never mind a 911 GT3. The mystique of the weird rear engine layout and the side silhouette bourn out of a Volkswagen Beetle is utterly unique in the automotive world. Every car guy aspires to own a 911 at least once in their lifetime. But they forgot to tell you how much you’ll miss yours when you sell it and move on.

It was the correct decision. The M2 is a far better fit for my current lifestyle, even if I disregard the money situation. The extra bit of ground clearance and utility compared to the super pure 911 GT3 mean I can use the M2 for the daily errands far easier. An IKEA run to get a kitchen table would have been impossible in the Porsche. Would have made for an interesting Youtube video, but I don’t do that kind of media.

The one thing I’m most proud of in owning the GT3 has to be my GT3 diaries. I can’t believe I found the motivation to write about the car every month for nearly two years. From a writing perspective, it’s an era of creativity I’ve yet to find again. Notice that I don’t have an M2 diaries. The BMW just isn’t that interesting of a car, and I drive mine so seldomly that there wouldn’t be much to write about on a monthly basis.

Hopefully there would come a time I’d be able to get over my bitterness and enjoy content about the GT3.

Separation of spaces

One of the reasons I actually like physically going in to work is the separation of spaces. There’s zero chance of mixing up whether I’m working or doing home stuff. The different location allows me to mentally switch to another mode soon as I enter or leave a space. I know I’m done for the day when I depart from campus. I don’t get triggered by Slack notifications when I’m home because I know for sure those hours are outside of work.

Due to the omicron strain of COVID because super virulent, our campus operations got shut down last week. We all had to work from home, something I haven’t done since last September. There goes keeping work and home life separate! I tried my best, however: instead of logging into work portals from my own MacBook Pro, I took home a 13-inch MacBook Pro from campus. Even though I have a gorgeous 32-inch Pro Display XDR, I rather stare at a much smaller screen than integrate work back into my home tech ecosystem.

Working from home also meant eating lunch at home (again, something I’ve not done since last Fall). That’s when I realized I really should stop eating at the same computer desk - I don’t have a dining table. It’s cumbersome to have to move my computing peripherals off the desk in order to have the room to put the dishes and bowls. Eating noodles (which I often do) can get a bit splashy, too, which doesn’t bode well for the monitor in front of me.

To have separation of spaces, it was time to get a table specifically to eat on. As I’ve written before, I’m one person living by myself, so I don't need something huge (not that I have the space anyways). A small kitchen island, plus one singular high chair will suffice. Off to IKEA! But there’s a problem: due to the never-ending supply chain issues, the closest IKEA location with the items in stock was in West Sacramento. Three hours roundtrip, $50 in gas, and $14 in bridge tolls wasn’t going to stop me. The sad thing is, I had already made the same trip a week ago to buy the stands for my new TV…

Hopefully I’m done needing stuff from IKEA for a long time!

I'm only one person

In the fabulous TV series Hawkeye, Florence Pugh’s character Yelena had a funny interaction with Hailee Steinfeld’s character Kate. In Kate’s apartment, Yelena cooked some mac and cheese for the both of them. She went to look for spoons for the both of them but only found one. Yelena then asked Kate why she’s only got one singular spoon, to which the response was, “I’m only one person!”

I felt that innately! I’ve been renting by myself for over a year now, and I too only have one spoon. I don’t even have a fork, preferring to use chopsticks. Due to the coronavirus, I hardly entertain guests. There isn’t even another chair in my studio apartment. Any visitors would have to sit on the floor (a very clean floor, mind you). It’s just as well because it’s rather tiny for more than one person. Besides, most of my friends know my landlord/friend/housemate as well, so when they come visit, we just hang out upstairs.

It is interesting some of the quirks of living alone in your own space. Like having only one set of utensils. I also drink straight out of liter bottles of drinks, because honestly who else is drinking it but me? I pay top dollar for the expensive toilet paper and the most organic of eggs. Unlike a family of four, it takes me a long time to go through one giant Costco package of Charmin Ultra Softs. The extra few dollars over the Kirkland brand is insignificant.

As I always say to my friends, “Come on, guys, we make money now!”

I’m definitely going to lose lots of money to this place.

I got a new TV!

Late last week I wrote that I was finally able to purchase a PlayStation 5. On that Sunday, I picked up the notoriously scarce gaming console at my local Best Buy. Was I a bit self conscious carrying the PS5 to the car? You bet! With the rampant retail crime going on in the Bay Area, some thugs could have rolled up in a Honda Accord sedan and rip the PS5 from my hands in a flash. In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have parked at the lot on the roof. By myself.

Thank providence I made it home with the console unscathed. But now there’s another problem: I don’t have a television to plug the PS5 into. It’s been more than a year since I’ve moved to this new spot, and yet a TV still hasn’t materialized. I’ve always planned to buy one, but it’s definitely been on the back-burner, seeing as I don’t really watch that much TV. Other things I used more often were worth spending the money on, like a new MacBook Pro.

Because if I’m getting a TV, it’s got to be a good one. None of the poverty-spec models that costs in the hundreds. So it’s going to be spendy. The best in the business right now is the OLED televisions from LG. Dubbed the best TV for the PlayStation 5 by RTINGS.com, the LG C1 OLED is the one to purchase. 65-inch is the size I bought; could have gone bigger but alas I’m not made of money, despite appearances.

I’d thought about returning to Best Buy to buy the TV, but the 5% back at Amazon with my Chase Amazon card is too irresistible. What’s another few days of wait? Besides, I didn’t have to bug a friend with a large enough vehicle to transport the thing. It was white-glove delivery by a third-party contractor from Amazon. I know this because afterwards, Amazon emailed me a customer satisfaction survey regarding the delivery. I gave the team high marks as I’m sure their pay would be docked otherwise.

Needless to say I am loving the LG OLED TV. The picture quality is expectedly amazing. I’m happy to see the display has a glass cover, which enhances contrast and it’s easier to clean. Cheaper units would have been polycarbonate. Indeed the LG wasn’t cheap, but much like my Pro Display XDR, I’m looking to keep this for a very long time.

Be generous

Back in my high school days, the Initial D anime series was all the rage amongst us car enthusiasts. Drifting - the act of deliberately power-sliding a car - was fast becoming the rage, even for those us of an age who can only dream of driving. Youtube wasn’t yet a thing then; media distribution was still largely on physical media. That’s precisely how I watched Initial D, popping in a disc one episode after another. Kids have it so much easier nowadays.

One particular day after school, an older friend of a classmate was visiting from another school. Sadly, I’ve completely forgotten his name. It was probably Henry. Like me, he was also enthusiastic about cars, so we naturally got to talking about various automotive-relate topics. Initial D and drifting came up, and Henry mentioned he has a DVD called Drift Bible. The premise is simple: the drift king of Japan - Keiichi Tsuchiya - teaches you how to drift.

Seeing as Henry and I (I’m pretty sure that’s not his name) have only met a few times, I was totally undeserving of the kindness that was about to happen. He offered to drive me to his house, give me the Drift Bible DVD to borrow, then drive me home. As someone who lives an hour bus ride from my high school, the generosity of a lift home was overwhelming enough (no such thing as an UBER back then, kids). Lending a DVD to practically a stranger? That is above and beyond.

I’m writing all this because I feel tremendously guilty: I still have that DVD! I’m looking at it right now as I’m typing these words out. The jerk that I am never returned the borrowed item. An olive branch utterly cut off, a possible long friendship over cars completely disregarded. I can only say thank you to Henry for his massive generosity. If he’s somehow reading this, you can find me via the contact links at the bottom right.

And I know, your name is not Henry.

Here we go again

The omicron variant of COVID 19 is contagious as heck!

I am confined to working from home until the end of this week. In fact, our entire department has paused in-person service on campus for the same duration. On a similar vein, classes at San Francisco State is going completely remote for the first three weeks of the Spring semester. It seems like we’re going backwards in terms of progress, but it’s the correct decision given the amount of infections and close-contacts.

Both my housemates tested positive last week, which is why I am staying home this week. San Francisco Department of Public Health guidelines state that if you’re vaccinated (in any capacity) and you’ve come in close-contact with a COVID infected person - but you have zero symptoms, you actually don’t have to quarantine! Wear a proper mask and you can go about your business as normal. I guess we’re playing it more cautiously when my supervisor told me to go home last Thursday.

I would have been perfectly okay with continuing work on campus.

Anyways, I’m getting a PCR test later this morning. Thankfully it’s the saliva method and not the one where they stick a thing way up your nose. My friends who’ve had the latter said it was not a pleasant experience in the slightest. Fingers crossed it returns negative.

It’s another weird start to yet another year. 2020 we were looking at bad news from Asia and Italy, and doing nothing ourselves to prepare for the eventuality. 2021 we were rejoicing at the availability of the vaccines, (falsely) thinking we were going back to normal fairly soon. 2022 looks like it’s pseudo lockdown part two, electric boogaloo.

A rare sight: a clean first-generation Ford Focus!

How the turntables

I was writing yesterday about how difficult it still is to buy a new-generation gaming console. The PS5 and the XBOX Series X is out of stock everywhere, and the periodic drops the retail stores do are infrequent enough to miss unless your’e super lucky. I even wrote at the end that I reckon my gaming days are over!

Well, I was super lucky shortly after that. Just as I was done with breakfast, I saw on my twitter feed a post by The Verge saying the PlayStation 5 is in stock at Best Buy online. Without getting my hopes up, it was a worth a shot, so I got in on the virtual line. Meanwhile, I created a Best Buy account as that was a prerequisite for purchasing. The stars must be aligning, because soon as I was done with account creation, it was a my turn to finalize a purchase.

I’ll be picking up a PS5 this Sunday at my local Best Buy store. What a surprising turn of events!

Sadly I won’t be actually playing on the PS5 anytime soon. I will need to buy a TV as well. The most suitable unit would be the 42-inch LG C2 OLED that was just announced this week at CES. That is scheduled for release in the Spring, so I’ve got a bit of waiting to do. It’s been a relatively long time since I actually had a gaming console, so what’s another few months of waiting? No need to compromise on the TV I want simply due to impatience.

Besides, there isn’t yet a truly next-gen game out that I’m desperate to play. Gran Turismo 7 isn’t out until March. If anything, I will probably be playing PlayStation 4 titles that received quality updates for the PS5. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is one such game.

Anyways, I guess if you shout at the universe enough, sometimes it will give you what you want.