Blog

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

Not acceptable, Squarespace

The “archive” page of this website, nested under the “Words” category is where I show a list of everything I’ve ever written thus far. A easily readable index for my entire back catalog of writing. Mainly for my own personal satisfaction, because let’s face it: who would be interested in reading something I wrote five years ago? Not even my mother, because she doesn’t understand English.

Anyways, I’ve noticed from time to time that the index block for this blog would disappear completely. For no reason at all. In the CMS it still shows the correct link to the page, but outwardly on the site it’s a whole blank of nothing. To get the content back, I would have to unlink the blog page to that index block and relink it again. A slight pain in the butt to do every few days.

So I finally got off my butt and wrote to Squarespace support. The response:

This issue shows up specifically on archive blocks using the "index" layout - essentially, if there's too much content for the block to render, it'll "crash" and not show up on the live site. To fix this, you could either change the layout by editing the archive block to be something other than "index", or you could break the content up into multiple archive blocks.

Basically, it’s a known bug, and there’s really no fix for it currently. Only workarounds. It’s rather disappointing that the index block can be defeated by a page with “too much content”. Keep in mind that Squarespace site hosting is something I pay for every year to the tune of over $200 dollars. This is an incredibly bad look for what is suppose to be a professional product. Many out there make their living from their Squarespace websites. I don’t, but I pay just like everybody else, and I expect a working product.

I wonder if there is a different host that has a working indexing function, and would allow me to transfer this site over easily…

Spring breaking

Last week was spring break on campus, so I decided to have my own sort of spring break as well. That meant taking a short hiatus from writing on this blog and not doing any of my usual studies. After coming home from work I basically just chilled and played video games. Wasn’t that the dream of a young Healy anyways? Make money to play videos games all the time. It was as hard core of a gaming week as I’ve had in probably a decade.

And I really don’t know how gamers find the time to play so many games! These open-world role playing game take absolutely forever to finish. I’m still in the midst of playing Ghost of Tsushima, and I’ve only barely gone into act three (of three) after nearly 50 hours of play time. At this rate I’ll be done by end of April. Then I’ll finally move on to another title. I’m not the type of gamer who can juggle multiple games at once, especially of the storytelling variety. I reckon I can make an exception for sports titles.

Nevertheless, it’s back to regularly scheduled programming this week. I’m excited to finally start reading Pachinko, right on time for the TV series that’s coming out on Apple TV+. It’s nearly one year since I started learning the piano, and there’s still plenty of work to do on that multi-year project. Perhaps taking a week off from the keys was not the wisest decision in relation to finger familiarity. Playing the piano is definitely not like riding a bike. Too much dexterity involved with the upper extremities.

But we all need a break from our daily routine from time to time. Spring break was a great opportunity to not do anything. I did get a tremendous amount of sleep, because I’m not waking up early to type out a blog post before breakfast. Good timing, too: I think I’m completely adjusted to the clock moving one hour forwards for daylight saving time.

Back on the rocks, baby.

Hats for big head

All my life I’ve always had a larger than normal head. That in it of itself is no great bother. It would look better proportionally if my head were smaller vis a vis my body. But that’s not something I had control over. Though I guess I can be mad at my parents and their genes.

Anyways, what is a bother with my atypically large head is when it comes to hat wearing. You know those one-size-fit-all hats? The ones you get for free just for visiting a booth at a street fare? Yeah, those never fit my giant melon. Which is I why I always decline those giveaways. Even at the most widest position, those one-size-fit-all hats will simply sit atop my head like a Jewish yarmulke.

The only hats I’ve been able to comfortably wear are the bespoke fitted hats that baseball players wear. Those I can actually buy in the size that fits, all the way up to even larger sizes for heads bigger than mine. However, the problem with those hats is that they are made of either wool or polyester. On a particularly hot day, it’s rather uncomfortable to wear those for long periods of time. Conventional hats made of cotton has more breathe.

I’ve long suspected there’s apparel companies out there that cater to dudes with big heads. I’ve just been procrastinating on actually searching for them. Last week I finally did the google search, and the first thing that came up was an ad for the company called Oddjob Hats. The company offers all sorts of hat styles, specifically designed for large noggins. Oddjob did well on the advertising buy, because I end up purchasing two of the “Dad Hats” to try.

The hat is made of 100% cotton, which is exactly what I wanted. Quality feels good to the hands, and I’ve been wearing it all day with no comfort issues. For the first time in my life, I actually have to adjust down on a hat to fit my head. So that’s what that feeling is like! I should have done this way sooner.

Mask on unlock

The latest iOS 15.4 release brings a super welcomed feature: the ability to unlock Face ID with masks on. Ever since this pandemic became a thing, it has been a real pain in the butt to unlock our iPhones whilst masked up. Sure, lucky Apple Watch owners have been able to unlock their iPhones with it for some time. But I obviously don’t have one. Smug friends with Android phones simply use their fingerprints to unlock, a feature Apple abandoned a few years ago in favor of Face ID.

Not ever expecting the world to mask up entirely for over two years and counting.

Anyways, finally I can unlock my iPhone with my mask on while I’m on campus. No more waiting for the phone to reject the face scan, then punching in the backup PIN numbers. How does it work? It seems the camera is scanning more closely the areas around the eyes. I did have to do a full Face ID rescan in order to activate this new mask-on feature. It’s still rather sensitive: it doesn’t work with sunglasses. If I wear my hat low or my mask higher on the face, the phone rejects the scan.

I bet if I were to get punched in the eye, it wouldn’t work either. Not that I’m aching to test that hypothesis. I’m sure Face ID with masks on will only continue to improve.

But it may be too little, too late. The Bay Area no longer have an indoor mask mandate. There’s still one at San Francisco State University - where I work - but that’s likely to go away in April as well. Pretty soon I won’t have wear a mask daily for eight hours. It’s not that I mind wearing a mask (us Asians have had a masking culture long before the advent of COVID), but long-term usage makes my face break out in pimples. Given the option to not wear one at work, I would definitely choose to do that.

I don’t always drink coke. But When I do.

Good for you, my friend

Recently, one of good friends announced he has accepted a position as associate dean of students at a local private university. The hard work of getting both his masters and doctorate (in education, I’m guessing) is finally paying off. Also needs paying off are his student loans, though surely that’s quite more doable now that his salary is in the six-figures.

After expressing congratulation and happiness to my friend, I immediately followed it with self-reflection on my own situation. Perhaps I too should look for greener pastures and higher yearly pay. Amongst our friend group, I would now be making the least by a considerable margin. Comparison is the thief of joy indeed. Look at the professional success of my friends! Oh god I am falling behind…

Upon further reflection, however, I once again realized I am very happy with where I work and how much I make. Would it be nice to make more money? Sure; who doesn’t want to be ever more comfortable, to buy the expensive things, or have the fun experiences. But there’s trade-offs in earning more, and usually that means time. Take my good friend for example: those years of post-undergraduate school was a significant investment in time.

Most importantly, a larger paycheck and more things aren’t going to make me any happier. Take it from me: I’ve spent six-figures on my dream car. The euphoria from monetary and material achievements lasts only a few weeks. Then you go back to your previous baseline. As my favorite page in Chuck Palahniuk’s Consider This (that’s the guy who wrote Fight Club) reads:

DST blues

Another March, another move of the clock one hour forwards just so we can enjoy some modicum of sunlight past 6:00PM. Losing an hour on Sunday absolutely sucks, and the following workweek to come is even worse. At least on the Sunday of time change you can sleep in a bit to ward off the DST-induced “jet lag”; no such luck on Monday!

Good news for me is I typically wake up way earlier than I really need to for work. Therefore I have the option of sleeping in a little, if waking what is effectively one hour earlier than usual proves to be too challenging. I understand that most people are not like me, so ruined sleep patterns for the rest of you it is! At least for the first week after the clock change anyways.

I am going to keep complaining about daylight saving time until the powers at be get rid of it. I don’t care which timezone configuration they use: just pick one and stick to it! Why must we torture ourselves for two days out of the year voluntarily? I’ve yet to meet a single person who actually likes it when we forward or retard the clock on hour.

Since I’m a morning person, I actually would prefer we keep constant standard time, as opposed to always daylight saving time. My circadian rhythm is better suited to an early sunrise and early sunset. I hate it during the summer when the sun is still up past 8:00 PM, delaying the signals to my body that it’s time to wind it down. Again, I realize I’m in the minority here. I bet if there’s a public vote on which of the two to keep forever, daylight saving time would win.

But please, no more changing the clock. Pick one!

Waiting for class

On my daily walk to work, I would see students parked along each side of 19th Avenue. Now that 50 percent of courses are back in physical session, there’s quite a few of them every morning. I would see the students sit in their cars whist waiting for their classes to start. It brings me back to my own college days. Instead of 19th Avenue, I would park at the other side of campus on Lake Merced Drive. I too have to get there early in the morning just to snatch a parking spot.

But I wouldn’t sit in my car to wait for classes to begin, however. Partly because I didn’t have a smartphone until my fourth year of college. The kids these days have it easy! Super fast Internet device at the palm of their hands. I too would chill in my Toyota Corolla if I had an iPhone back then. Instead I went to the library or the student union and sat there, listening to music on my iPod. Remember those?

Speaking of music, a few days ago the streaming service Spotify had an outage. One of my friends texted the group saying he now has to listen to his own MP3 collection, which only dates out to around 2010. I of course don’t have such problems. Unlike everybody else, I have not made the transition to streaming. To this day I continue to buy and download my music, stored completely on device. Not as a defense against Internet outages, but more like I’m a digital hoarder and prefer to have my curated collection.

179 gigabytes and counting…

But that’s the thing with streaming: there’s always this theoretical possibility that the services will go out of business and then you wouldn’t have access to your music anymore. Or your TV shows and movies. Videos I tend to watch once and forget about it, so losing access wouldn’t hurt. Music, however, I listen to constantly every single day. Therefore I would like some modicum of insurance in case shit happens. So long as I can still buy individual songs and albums on the iTunes Store, I will continue to do so.