Blog

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

Weekend routine

Saturday mornings are the best. I wake up well-rested because I got to sleep in. Mind you that means waking up at around 8:00AM instead of the usual 6:30. Even if I wanted to, my body won’t allow me to sleep deep into the morning like before. Unless of course I absolutely had a very late night on Friday, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve gone out on a Friday. What with the pandemic and everything.

Upon waking up, I head straight for the iPhone. Not to browse twitter, because I’ve deleted that app from my phone (it’s the only New Year’s resolution I have). Instead, it’s the McDonals app. I’m ordering breakfast before I take the leisure stroll to the mall that’s three blocks away. Buy one get one free of the breakfast sandwich is always a good deal.

The walk is super lovely. Blues skies, early sunshine, and breaths of fresh air. There’s not a worry in the world. Because it’s Saturday; the Sunday evening panic won’t arrive for another earthly rotation. So I’m the calmest I can be over the two days of the weekend. Errands can be done later. My friends are still in bed at such an early hour. The Saturday morning is sacred, and mine alone.

I see grocery shoppers heading into Trader Joe’s. A silent high-five to fellow early risers. As I grab my order from McDonalds, I notice a woman also getting breakfast to go. However, she’s not heading home, but rather she’s off to work. McDonalds is the reward, a treat for herself before she has to face the arduous work day. I silently wish her well, and count myself lucky to have a job with proper weekends off.

So I can have these Saturday mornings.

I miss Asia so much

On the work iMac I use the Aerial screensaver. It’s an open source app that allow users to run the same stunning 4K screensavers found on the Apple TV. These majestic slow pans of amazing cities and earthy locales can be yours without paying the hefty entry price for an Apple TV unit. I’m surprised Apple hasn’t shut it down since Aerial downloads directly from Apple’s servers.

Anyways, a screensaver that popped open last week was of a flight view of Hong Kong island. Starting from just behind the mountains from the south side, it slowly flies over island towards Victoria Harbor, right into the heart of the super dense city. It was beautiful to watch, though with a bit of sadness. It’s been two years since I’ve last step foot in Hong Kong, and I miss it so so much.

It doesn’t help that it’s Lunar New Year, so my family in China are gathering for the annual dinner. Seeing their posted pictures on WeChat brings a bittersweet feeling. It’s great to see everyone healthy and well, but man do I wish I could be there to celebrate with them. Hong Kong/China’s relatively draconian COVID policies mean foreigners - no matter the vaccination status - have to quarantine for a substantial amount of days before allowed entry. I simply don’t have that kind of vacation length to do it.

Other parts of Asia also have such requirements, prohibiting me from visiting some of my favorite places. Japan as far as I recall is completely shut down to foreign entry. I would love to go back to South Korea and Taiwan, taking in the Asian style of living and atmosphere I adore so much. At this point I don’t know what to think in regards to the possibility of traveling to Asia this year. All I know is, soon as quarantine requirements go away, I am absolutely there.

Starting with Hong Kong, and to see my family in China.

Deep blacks

First world problems: I am surrounded by top-notch quality displays that when I use one that isn’t so good, the contrast is annoying. My iPhone 13 Pro is OLED, my television is also OLED, and my monitor is the infamous Apple Pro Display XDR. It’s a feast for the eyes. The problem then lies with my poverty-spec basic iPad. The LCD panel on that tablet is fine in it of itself, but when used amongst these other displays, it’s leaves a bit wanting. Something about comparison being the thief of joy.

What I’m spoiled by are the deep blacks that OLED and Apple’s Display XDR technologies offer. The resulting picture quality is deep, clear, and vibrant. Sometimes I would turn on the TV just to watch whatever, because the image is so enjoyable to look at.

Watching Youtube videos - in the common 16:9 aspect ratio - on the iPad’s 4:3 ratio display reveals the flaw. The black bars above and below the video aren’t really precisely black. Because an LCD backlight is always on, the most black the bars can get is a very dark gray. Again, this wouldn’t be noticeable if everything else in the house is also LCD. But black bars on my phone, the TV, and the monitor can achieve absolute black, so every time I use the iPad I’m aghast at the difference. The LCD “glow” at the top and bottom is rather obvious.

Of course, there is an iPad that solves my first world dilemma. The iPad Pro in then biggest 12-inch size has the Display XDR technology, offering the same deep blacks as the monitor. If I were loaded with money (despite appearances, I’m not), I’d upgrade in a heartbeat. However I only use the iPad during dinner and for piano practice, so dropping a thousand dollars just because the display doesn’t look as good is not a justification.

My tax return is going towards renewing insurance on the BMW.

Spring cleaning time

Lunar New Year is next Tuesday, so you know what that means: I have to clean house and get a haircut before then. Good news is my in-law studio apartment is relatively tiny, so a bit of spring cleaning should be quite easy. I’m the type of person to dust my floors every other day, so that should give you an idea how much work I actually have to do before the auspicious holiday.

I will have to deep clean the bathroom. Primarily the few months’ worth of soap and water stain accumulation in the shower/bathtub. Whoever is first to invent a shampoo and body wash that, when used, will also clean the shower walls (when the suds are flung) should get the Nobel Peace Prize.

But at least I only have one bathroom! I wouldn’t want to be my friend who recently moved in to a two-bed two-bath unit. To live by herself. Imagine having to do the spring cleaning for that space! Or even just keeping it tidy on the regular. Good thing we live in an age of robotic vacuums. And said friend also make enough money to pay for a monthly housekeeper. No need for manual labor when you can afford to throw money at the problem!

It is a lovely place though. Such a vast apartment for one person makes me wonder whether or not I would want such a space. Honestly it would be ideal to have at least a one-bedroom, to have defined and separate spaces (living room, kitchen and whatnot). That said I’m pretty satisfied with the studio I have now. It’s got everything I need, all in one room (plus a bathroom).

Whenever I travel to Asia and rent in one of the typically tiny apartments, I’ve always wished there was such a thing here in the States. The efficient use of space is something to admire, driven by sheer population density and high real estate prices. Turns out, that’s sort of what I have now: a tiny apartment with all the features. I’ve even mimicked another feature of Asia: walkability to almost everything. There’s a mall a few blocks from where I live with all the shops I’ll ever need.

I really don’t even need to own a car. Not that I’ll ever do that…

Are you not entertained?

What a wonderful weekend of football. All four games going down to the very last play. It’s great to see the San Francisco 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers in the frozen tundra to advance to the championship round. I didn’t think the team would be in this position when the season started, but here they are. And how crazy was that ending to the Bills versus Chiefs game? The final two minutes of regulation and overtime was absolutely insane. What a treat for us that we get to see quarterbacks Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes duke it out for many many years to come.

I’m just glad that both of them are in the AFC instead of the NFC, where the 49ers are.

Having bought a 4K television recently, I really notice how poor the broadcast quality of free over-the-air local channels are. I don’t think any of them (FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC) are even doing 1080p quality, much less 4K. The result is that the football games of this past weekend don't look quite as good and sharp as they really should be. Worse, even when I use the broadcaster’s own streaming app to watch (in this case, NBC’s Peacock app), the maximum quality is still only 1080P. Why on earth is America’s favorite game not in 4K already?

The Super Bowl - the most watched event in this country by a huge margin - will not be in 4K! That’s unacceptable.

Of course this is indeed a first world problem. Remember how stunning 1080P looked compared to the 480i signals we’ve been seeing for decades? Such is the progression of technology that 1080P have become the sort of baseline. I would say the ideal signal for the televisions you can buy these days is 4K HDR. Movies in Dolby Vision quality on Disney Plus look incredible (I rather enjoyed Eternals). Honestly if something is only 1080P at the maximum, I rather watch it on the smaller display of my computer.

I washed the car

This past weekend I was reminded why I don’t wash my BMW M2 often: it’s those damn wheels. The “Style 788M” factory alloys looks amazing (clean or dirty, honestly), but that multitude of spokes is horror on the fingers. I actually tore a piece off my right ringer finger, and as of writing it’s still hurting rather nicely. What I really need is my old set of wheel woolies. However I just don’t have to mind to spend hours on car detailing anymore.

In fact the only reason I even washed the M2 this past Saturday was because it’s been over four months since the car last got one. That I didn’t even do:: a neighbor borrowed the BMW for a bit, so in return he cleaned it and gassed it up before returning (a gentleman always hand back a borrowed car with a full tank of gas). The neighbor did a fantastic job because up until recently the paint was still beading water nicely, indication of a layer of wax.

Well that layer was completely gone. I don’t detail my car as often as a I used to (once every two weeks!), but I’m not negligent either. Time to bring out the single bucket, many microfiber towels, and that bottle of Optimum No Rinse Wash with Wax. It was actually kind of nice: a beautiful Saturday afternoon, warmish weather, with a slight breeze. Perfect conditions to spend some time with the M2, podcast playing in my ear. If I weren’t so lazy about it, I’d probably do it more often.

I could pay a professional detailer to do it periodically, though I don’t mind a bit of manual labor. It humbles the mind, and it’s great exercise. The best workouts are the ones that have utility, the everyday tasks. Squatting to clean those aforementioned difficult-to-clean wheels sure beats squatting at a gym rack. My thighs get the burn, and the M2 gets clean.

These damn fingers

One obstacle in my ongoing practice of learning the piano is that I have a bad tendency of hitting the key adjacent to the one I want. The problem is especially acute when I’m going left with my motion. My hands and fingers aren’t particularly big, so I’m not sure what’s going on here. All I can do and have been doing is stop and start over every time I hit a key errantly.

I don’t remember having this problem back in high school. We all had to take a year of art classes, so I chose the piano. Perhaps my fingers weren't as mangled as they are now, with an additional decade of knuckle cracking and surely ligament damage. Trying to learn the piano in my thirties was always going to be a challenge vis a vis the condition of my fingers. Much like learning a language, it’s far easier to do when you are young and malleable.

But then again I taught myself Korean in my late twenties, so it’s not impossible. It’s all about the amount of hours put in (read: a lot). It took me about five years of studying to be able to listen to Korean language radio station and understand about 80 percent of what they are saying. I’m only on year two (pandemic years, no less) of my piano learning journey, so I’m not too worried about my bad tendencies just yet.

If I have to practice a simple piece for a whole week just to play it perfectly, so be it. I’ve got all the time in the world. Besides, I’ve spent way too much money on this Yamaha keyboard to give up so quickly. Money is always a good motivator!