Blog

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

That that I like that

“Pandemic's over, uh”, sings Psy on his latest hit single “That, That.”

Honestly, he’s probably right. Life have largely returned to the pre-pandemic normal. We can even look at international travel plans again, without any quarantine restrictions. General indoor mask usage have decreased dramatically, though that largely depends on where you go. Costco is about half masked. Whole Foods I would put at 80% masked. H Mart is about 99%. Us Asians don’t mess around when it comes to masks! We’ve had a masking culture long before the world met COVID 19.

Of course, my readings are of the Bay Area. I suspect if I leave this enclave, the amount of people masking falls closer to zero. I’ve certainly seen this when heading up north. My friend just returned south from Monterey, and she was practically the only person with a mask on.

Since summer is the best time to take vacation for those of us who works in education, my supervisor asked me about any potential PTO plans. As much as I desire to go to Asia -South Korean and Japan is and will be open, respectively - it’s probably best to avoid the crowd of people who also have similar thoughts of finally escaping on a holiday. All these Koreaboos who got into Kpop during the pandemic will be dying to go to Seoul.

Glad I already made that pilgrimage back in 2017.

I think I’ll stay put during this summer. Enjoy that San Francisco lifestyle for a bit, free of any COVID restrictions. I have everything I need and want right here.

The end of the line

My very first iPod was the fourth-generation model. 20 large gigabytes of raw MP3 storage power. It retailed for $300, which is a hefty sum for a young high school kid who had to rely on his parents to make the purchase. Parents who weren’t rich to begin with, because otherwise I wouldn’t have had to wait until the fourth iteration to buy an iPod. I think I was still rocking a CD player before getting it; the cheaper alternatives simply would not suffice.

20 gigabytes was very well large enough to fit my entire MP3 collection back then. Almost all of it downloaded from infamous peer-to-peer sharing sites such as BearShare and Kazaa. Surely the statute of limitations have ran out on that sort of stuff, right? But what a revelation that was: my whole music library right in the palm of my hands. No more burning and swapping CDs. Music listening was never going to be same again.

Until my iPod got unceremoniously strong-armed robbed from me during junior year. Those days, the white-colored headphone cords - iconic to the iPod mystique - made any wearer an obvious target to thieves. Much like smartphone thefts of today, dudes would come up and snatch the iPod right out from your hands before you can even react.

I didn’t get another iPod until my freshman year of college. When I actually had my own money to spend yet another $300 on one. This time it was the 5th-generation normal size iPod that featured a color LCD and can play video. That thing got me through most of college, until I got my very first smartphone - an iPhone 4, Verizon edition - sometime during year four. The iPhone rendered the iPod redundant and obsolete, just like video did to the radio star.

So that was my experience with the most famous MP3 player of all time. Apple announced yesterday the last of the iPods - the iPod touch - has reached its end of life. The legendary lineage that revolutionized the music industry is no more. A hearty salute to a key piece of consumer tech history.

One life, one love

At a wedding last weekend, a longtime friend said her husband is going on a one year long motorcycle trip. Around the whole world. Solo. He’s already handed in his resignation notice at work, and is set to depart later this month. My friend is incredibly brave to allow the husband to do this. They’re going to subscribe to one of those GPS devices that mountaineers and boaters use, so she will know exactly where he is at all times.

No doubt a year-long motorcycling adventure is something the husband has wanted to do for a long time. The COVID-19 pandemic has a way to alter how people face their mortality. It can all be taken away from you so quickly, so why not live the way you want? And do the thing you want to do? I wish I had the balls to make a move like that. I’ve long wanted to drop everything of this current life and move my ass to Asia somewhere. That would be my grand adventure.

But it would be too drastic, honestly, with very little fall back. Sometimes I wish I can take a year off from work - an unpaid sabbatical - so that I can take up that challenge. Should I crash and burn over on the other side of the world, I can always come back to this current job in twelve months. Campus faculty is able to take sabbatical, why not the staff? They wouldn’t even have to pay me!

Kudos to that gentleman for shouting YOLO and going for it. I’m sure my friend will be latently worried the entire time, but for sure she understands he will come back a better and more satisfied person. There’s only this one life!

Can't I eat first?

This past Saturday I went to the farmers market at the Ferry Building plaza for lunch. Of the multitudes of food options there, I chose a place serving Korean food. The chicken rice bowl I got came with a compostable spoon. And upon the first scoop into the deliciousness, said spoon snapped right in half. It’s so eco-friendly that I can’t even use it! Right to the compost bin it goes.

I went back to the food tent to get a pair of wooden chopsticks. You certainly can’t beat 5,000 years of Asian culture.

I’m all for saving and preserving this planet. But these compostable eating utensils are pretty horrible. Certain boba drink places actually give you two paper straws, because the first one would disintegrate about halfway through the drink. I guess it’s still worth it to save one plastic straw from the landfills, though I do think there is much room for improvement.

The spoon that broke before I can even use it once was the last straw. Horrible pun intended.

I am however a big fan of compostable bowls and plates. In San Francisco we have to separate our garage, so it’s super easy to dump compostable containers right along with the food scraps. Good news is I’ve yet to encounter one of those where it’s so fragile that it breaks down before you’re finished eating. I guess we have take-out culture to thank for that: the bowl or dish would have to withstand a car ride as well, however lengthy.

But we’ve got to work on those utensils!

First time babysitting

I have found the secret to babysitting.

This past Friday, my friends had a wedding to attend, so I volunteered to look after their two young boys for a few hours (ages three and five). I’ve known these kids since they were born, so their familiarity with me should make for a pretty smooth evening. And indeed it was. The boys didn’t care at all that both parents will be gone for awhile. I guess they’ve past that age of separation anxiety.

The secret to babysitting young kids is to provide them with your undivided attention. You can’t be on your phone or stare at a laptop screen the whole time while they’re playing by themselves. This isn’t a time to watch Netflix. My friend’s two boys like to have someone sit right next to them while they play with toys or watch something on the iPad. I was ready to react anytime they had a comment or wanted me to look at something.

Can’t do that while I’m scrolling through twitter endless on my iPhone! I think kids innately know whether you’re paying attention to them or not. It’s not something you can fake. That “uh huh” while you’re still looking at the laptop screen rings very hollow to a kid’s ears.

And that’s the sacrifice to having kids, isn’t it? The world you had previously: the social media, the TV shows, even conversation with your friends - those things are way in the back burner now. Giving time and attention to your kids is rule number one. Everything else almost don’t matter. Don’t be that pet owner who looks at his phone the whole time while walking the dog. That’s the commitment you chose.

There will come a time when the kids get old enough (teenage years) that they can be left alone for extend periods. Until then, the best way to be with kids is actually be with them, fully.

The downside of OLED

OLED televisions have stunningly beautiful picture, an infinite contrast ratio, and perfect blacks. What you usually don’t read about is that OLED technology is best suited for very dark rooms. If you have windows that otherwise cannot be shaded completely, you’re going to have a bad time watching content on a sunny afternoon. Because current OLED televisions cannot get as bright as their LED counterparts. Sports and gaming you can get away with, but for movies and serious TV shows, OLED may not be the best.

This past Sunday afternoon I decided to watch The Batman. Thanks to my homie with a full HBO Max subscription, I get to watch the latest rendition of the cape crusader in the comforts of my own home. But I made a huge mistake: I should have watched the movie during nighttime. The reflections of my windows off of the TV’s glass surface wrecked havoc on the picture quality. It was a struggle to make out the dark details clearly. And for a film that makes an homage to film noir, it was doubly not ideal.

Most new movies and TVs shows these days are mastered in HDR. Meaning, you can’t really adjust the brightness. However well your TV can fight through the glare and reflections during the daytime, you’re stuck with it. For a room with multiple windows, I really should have bought an LED TV instead. Alas, the inky true blacks of OLED got to me. Henceforth I just have to relegate any movie watching to the evening hours.

Lesson here is: if your room have windows that you cannot install black-out curtains for, do not get an OLED TV.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Batman. It’s a nice change of pace to see the character act out his title of the world’s greatest detective. Robert Pattinson offers a fantastic take on the emotions of a young Batman, while Paul Dano’s Riddler provides a mirroring counterpart that’s every bit as intriguing. I honestly don’t understand how the movie got its lukewarm reviews. Sure, it’s not paced like a typical super hero movie, but I greatly enjoyed the immense amount of substance crammed into the hefty runtime.

The cinematography and the score is top notch as well. The Batman theme is so simple yet hauntingly weaved throughout the film.

I drove a large van

Last week I got the opportunity to drive a U-Haul van for the very first time. For work they needed someone to bring a bunch of equipment from main campus to the auxillary campus downtown. I happily volunteered, thinking it would be a nice change of pace from the monotony of the school semester. Great chance to exercise, too. Thankfully, there’s a U-Haul rental location a few blocks from campus. Which makes sense when you think of all the profits to be made from undergrads hauling their stuff to and from the dorms.

I was adamant in not wanting to drive the typical U-Haul box truck: looks too wide and super unwieldy to drive. The cargo vans I was okay with, though that would still be somewhat challenging coming from a small two-door coupe. I might as well be driving a bus. Worse, the U-Haul cargo vans do not have a back-up camera! At least the one I got - a Chevy Express - didn’t! No parking sensors either. It’s kind of stupid: when it’s filled to the brim with cargo, you literally cannot see out the rearview mirror.

Obviously, we made a point to not put any boxes above the driver sight-line towards the rear.

It is surprisingly calming to be driving such a big and slow vehicle. It’s one of the tardiest thing on the road, so I just stick to the slow lanes and mind my own business. No need to stress about getting ahead or worry about holding somebody up behind me - there’s nothing I can do about it! It seems other drivers treat me better as well, because they understand the big van is only ever going to go so quickly. It’s not like I’m the Toyota Prius going slowly on the left-most highway lane. Those are objectively the worse.

Of course, driving is one thing; parking is an entirely different matter. I’m glad I was able to simply pull up to the curb and unload. Any sort of maneuvering in a parking lot (downtown San Francisco parking lots are notoriously tight) would have been disastrous for my nerves. Having a whole normal car’s length worth of van behind me is a very atypical experience, to say the least. So is having to crane my neck and look backwards whilst reversing!

If my current career trajectory ever falls apart, I think can take up long haul trucking as an alternative. One drive in a U-Haul van certainly counts as a successful tryout, right?