Blog

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

Out with the old

The problem with buying and replacing furniture is the waste that’s left behind. The sheer amount of cardboard and plastic that have no chance to fit in the ordinary household recycling bin. The old furniture that’s being replaced: how the heck do you throw away an old desk?

Part of the reason I’ve been hesitant to replace my desk and buy a couch (respectively) is dealing with the waste byproduct. I definitely do not want to spend the time putting the old desk on Craigslist and dealing with tire kickers. That thing has been with me since my end of college days, so I feel like I’ve gotten the full monetary use out of it already. Naturally, none of my friends are in need of a desk - we’ve all got our own.

The proper thing to do would be call the garbage collector and schedule a bulk pickup. Households around here get two of those for free, per year. Each time you get to throw away 10 bulk items. And the collector is militant about this: the workers will leave any item over the 10 count right out on the street. They wouldn’t even do you the solid of taking the bulkiest items. Hashtag PSA.

The improper thing to do, aside from driving to an empty highway and dumping the stuff to the side, is to have parents living in an apartment complex with large communal trash bins. All I had to do is ferry the old furniture - broken down, of course - and cardboard waste to my parents and have them dump it. This saves me the pain of storing the old stuff in what little space I have. No matter how generous my landlord is, the garage space is already rather full.

I’m the type of personality that the sooner something gets done, the better. Especially when it comes to getting rid of clutter. For a homebody like me, the home space is sacred, and must be kept pristine as much as possible. I’m glad this new furniture episode is completely behind me now.

Something with more utility

I always thought that if I were to ever get a second car, it would also be something of the sporting variety. Something to compliment my rear-wheel drive BMW M2. Perhaps a front-wheel drive Honda Civic Type R, or an all-wheel drive Toyota GR Corolla. Because every car guy should have examples of each drivetrain style, am I right? I’ve already done the engine in at the back of the car thing…

Lately however I’ve been slightly frustrated by the lack of utility with my M2. Sure there’s a normal size trunk at the back, but the opening is on the small side. Bigger items that would otherwise fit inside can’t get through the aperture. I completely understand why the sport-utility vehicle is the most popular type of car sold in America. It’s nice to go to IKEA and not have to worry about jigsawing those furniture boxes to fit. Simply open the hatch and dump it all in.

So I’m thinking maybe, if I were to get a second car, that it should be something on the utilitarian side. I already have a sports car! It makes sense for the other car to be able to take care of the everyday life stuff. An SUV that can haul stuff in the back with ease, carry pets and their dirt without care, and be able to park it anywhere with no worries. The M2 will then be relegated to pure, occasional pleasure driving. No more Costco runs for the little BMW.

This is all a big if, obviously. A second car is way down on the priorities list. Insurance cost for one car is expensive enough as is. It’s just something nice to think about. Unlike sports cars, the availability of SUVs is vast and varying. There’s so many options to choose from that doing a bit of window shopping and comparing is fun in it of itself.

First of the 2023 season

Yesterday I attended my first Giants baseball game of the season. It’s been a while since I’ve stepped foot in Oracle Park for baseball-related activities. The last time I was there was for the annual 10K run last, I want to say, September? Coming out of the pandemic, attending baseball games is so far down the list of favored activities that it may as well have disappeared entirely. Of course it doesn’t help the Giants hasn’t been doing well. Who wants to sit in the San Francisco cold for three hours watching a mediocre product? Not a lot of people.

But when your friend is in town from New York City and asks if you’re free at short notice to go to a game, I had to oblige. Besides, this season the league have implemented a pitch clock (and various rule changes to promote a faster game). Basically the pitcher have a limited amount of time to throw the next pitch. The batter likewise have to be ready in the box to receive. Games that used take more than three hours to play the full nine innings have now been finishing in just two and a half. We can now go to an evening game and still get home before 10:00 PM!

And indeed the game last night felt like it went by super quickly. I was actually surprised when the 7th inning stretch arrived. The game that started at 6:45 PM was over well before 9:30 PM. Say what you want about putting a clock on the game without a clock, but on first experience, I quite like the new rules. The game felt natural to watch as it did before. Hitters and pitchers have obviously adjusted to the new speedier pace. Those of us watching can no longer fit in whole conversations in between each pitch.

It was a sparse crowd for a Tuesday evening game against the St. Louis Cardinals. So sparse that they didn’t even bother announcing the attendance figure. That said, heading to the park on 280 northbound is as congested as it ever was once you get near the ballpark. I did the usual and parked near the Hall of Justice (free street parking, naturally), then walked the 10 minutes to Oracle Park on 3rd and King. That part of the Giants baseball experience has not changed in a decade plus.

New flex in town

For the rich one percent, the vehicle to buy right now is no longer the most expensive Tesla Model S or X. No, it’s a high-priced product from another electric-vehicle maker: Rivian. Those things are absolutely everywhere. I literally see at least one Rivian R1T or R1S (all-electric truck and SUV, respectively) every day driving through the neighborhood. Rivian is the new symbol of cool car flex. Teslas are too common, so is the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon (the unofficial rich-person vehicle of Southern California).

Granted, I live in arguably the center of EV adoption in America: San Francisco Bay Area. So it’s not really surprising to see this many Rivian trucks rolling around. It’s so easy to buy one, too (provided you have the money). Like Tesla, Rivian sells directly to the customer. A few clicks on the website and it’s done. No haggling, no need to visit a dingy dealership with douchebag sales and finance persons. Sure, you’ll have to wait a few months for the thing to arrive, but at least you can get on a list. And you can be sure there won’t be additional shenanigans upon delivery.

Meanwhile, I can’t even get on a list for a Honda Civic Type R without agreeing to pay a hefty sum over MSRP. And the finance manager is going to insist I get financing with Honda, because they get a kickback. Paying cash? The price just went up.

As the automotive industry transition to electric, traditional automakers really need to figure out a way to efficiently sell online. Millennials and younger don’t want to visit a dealership and talk to a guy. We want a set price and simple buying. Do the entire transaction over smartphone, and just let us know when the car is ready for pick up. The additional friction of having to work with a dealership is going to drive people to the likes of Tesla and Rivian.

Only the most compelling of products can make people willingly go the dealership route. Like the aforementioned Civic Type R…

Patience, young Padawan

It’s funny to see a package to be delivered by USPS reach the destination facility, only to be diverted away. The package is in San Francisco, I’m in San Francisco, why then did it go up towards Eureka? Some intrepid sorter must have put my purchased item into the wrong bin. Granted, the thing I bought is rather small. I’d be amazed if, say, a television set would have gotten erroneously diverted. The post office is footing that fuel bill, not me.

Good news though: the package has since diverted back to San Fransisco, and I should be getting it today. God willing.

It goes back to the my main theme of 2023: have patience. The lack of patience have time and time again prove to be detrimental. Speeding up the process (the illusion of it, anyways) instead of letting things take their natural course have led to some huge mistakes. Like that time I wiped a whole hard-drive with user data - and no backup whatsoever to support that mistake. I’ve seen the lack of patience cause my friend to get physically injured. It can be quite pernicious.

The hubris is in that we think we can control the future. That getting to the desired outcome as quickly as possible will (finally) make us happy. What we need to remember is that’s a never-ending hamster wheel. You’re always going to be looking towards some future event for satisfaction, one after the next. Let’s say your impatience did get you the result faster: you’ll only be momentarily happy before something else on your list of wants need fast-forwarding.

I was for a split second annoyed that my package was not coming on the originally specified day. But I reminded myself it’s going to be okay to wait the extra few days. The boost of joy from receiving the thing is vanishingly ephemeral.

I got a couch

Recently I finally bought a couch for my studio space - after over two years of first moving in. FYI: the inflation crisis have reached the furniture space as well. I had no idea simple armchairs are so expensive. Even the vaunted IKEA value pricing cannot salve the situation. You’re looking at $400 starting for a typical chair. Get additive like I did - I bought a chaise-style lounge chair with side armrests - and the final bill was over $900. This thing had better last a very long time.

The primary reason for getting the chaise is so I can relax in front of the television. Now that I’ve converted to sitting on the floor for my office/workstation desk, I need an actual chair for entertainment watching (I no longer have an office chair). It is indeed nice to be able to lounge on a fat couch after a hard day’s work, or on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Perhaps I can even take a nap! I loathe to get in bed without first showering, so I could never take naps on my actual bed. I realize most other folks don’t have such quirky idiosyncrasy.

A comfy couch does introduce a new problem: utter laziness. Soon as I collapse into the chaise’s warm embrace, I really don’t want to get out of it. Just this past week alone, I missed two days of morning writing, simply because I lounged on the chair first to drink the morning coffee. It’s too easy to zone out and be lackadaisical. Which is why I’m typing this out right now, on a Saturday - got to make up for the missed days!

I think the strategy going forward is to only be on the couch after I’ve done the day’s work. The enjoyment of doing nothing should only come after having done something. There should be no reward without first the work!

A scourge on civilized society

I really want to support my local Target store. I try to buy stuff there (instead of Amazon) as often as possible. However, when the thing I want to buy is locked up behind security boxes - requiring the assistance of a store clerk to open - I immediately give up and order that same item from Amazon. Sorry, I really cannot be bothered to talk to someone just to buy something.

I remember a time visiting Austin, Texas. The local CVS there has no such funny business. Every item was out in the open, not a security case to be seen. What a revelation that a well-functioning society should not subject its local populace to rampant retail thievery. Worse, there’s hardly any consequences for that sort of crime in the San Francisco Bay Area. Go to the 24th and Mission BART station and you can see vendors selling goods stolen from the likes of Target, Walgreens, and CVS. It’s madness.

I was at a Walgreens recently. Three young teens that looks to be of high school age walked in, and I immediately knew they were trouble. They took their sweet time to find items they wanted, stuffed them into their bags and jackets, then simply walked right out. Nobody working at the store paid any attention, not one person said anything.

And I don’t blame them. This is America, after all: you have no idea who has a gun and can shoot you for speaking out. Fellow shoppers just want to be left alone in peace. The minimum-wage store clerks definitely do not get paid enough to deal with this shit. Even for dedicated loss-prevention officers, potentially losing your life over theft is absolutely not a worthy tradeoff.

I don’t know what the solutions are. Smarter people have to figure out a solution to retail theft. It creates a wholly unpleasant situation for anyone. People coming into stores to steal utterly terrorize other shoppers while the act is being committed. Stores, in order to stem the tide, erect barriers that inconveniences otherwise law-abiding citizens. Eventually, it spirals into the store closing, like the Whole Foods in the heart of downtown San Francisco.

For the teens doing retail theft, I ask: “Where the heck are the parents?”