Blog

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

Of man and pants

I don’t always buy jeans, but when I do, it’s got to be Levi’s. (Sponsor me!)

Now that I’ve returned to a more rigorous workout schedule (three times a week), my current pairs of jeans - Levi’s 502 in 31x30 size - have become a bit loose. What was once possible to wear without a belt, now requires one to hold the pants up properly. Out of curiosity, I went back to look when I last purchased these jeans, and it was May of 2021.

That is right smack in the middle of the pandemic. The reason I bought new Levi’s jeans then was the reverse of now: the current pairs were too tight. Indeed, the COVID weight gain comes for us all, and during the middle of 2021 I was at my heaviest in a long time. I can remember that September, when I absolutely struggled to fit into a suit that was tailored back in 2014. Suffice it to say, I got back on a weight cut after attending my friend’s wedding with said suit.

Back to the present day. With high inflation touching seemingly everything, I was surprised to find that Levi’s jeans (the 502 style, at least) have not increased in price. The $70 for a standard pair is the same today as it was back in 2021. Of course, no one should be paying full price for a pair of Levi’s. Their website has an automatic 20% off, plus free shipping, when you give them an email address for their newsletter. (Goes to show how absurdly high the margins are.)

Third-party retailers often have sales, too. I bought four new pairs of 502 jeans from Amazon at around $50 each. Hopefully, I won’t have to buy replacements in larger sizing for a very long time.

Perfect example why you should buy a Tesla over any other brand of electric vehicles.

What's new for 2024

A running joke amongst my friends is that I change one - and only one - big thing about my rental studio every year. 2022, I bought an LG OLED television (that’s right, no TV at all in my room before then). In 2023, I bought a couch (from IKEA, of course). As a matter of fact, I am sitting on said couch right now typing this, while the LG TV is on in front of me. Absolutely luxurious.

The thinking is: one changer per year keeps it fresh. We all crave novelty, don’t we? We get something new, we get used to that new thing, and then we want something else - in addition, never replacement. By slow-playing these (let’s call them) upgrades to my room, I hope to avoid change for the sake of change. And obviously it’s way easier on the wallet to buy these big ticket items year over year, instead of all at once.

For 2024, the new thing for my studio space is: black-out curtains. My friends are baffled at how long I’ve gone without curtains. As they saying goes: it worked, until it didn’t. Curtains were not needed previously because early my sleep schedule did not warrant it. It was dark when I go to sleep, and it’s dark when I wake up. Window blinds alone were just fine for the task.

Recently, I’ve shifted to a later sleep schedule. Now, the sun is actually out well before my designated wake time. The problem then is the sun would often wake me up before it is time. And that is not a good thing in terms of maximizing sleep. Black-out curtains are now needed. It’s nothing fancy: I bought these curtains from Amazon, and this simple and inexpensive curtain rod from Home Depot.

That’s it! I am done for the year.

I would like a better keyboard

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is happening right now in Las Vegas. The particular segment I always enjoy to read about is PC laptops. A bit of window shopping, you know? My daily-driver laptop is a 202116-inch MacBook Pro (M1 Max), and it’s interesting to see what the Windows side has to offer. Can there be a compelling enough PC product to sway me out of a decade plus loyalty to team Apple?

I am still waiting.

There is one component in modern PC laptops that I do wish Apple offered on its MacBook line: a better keyboard. As an often typist (see: this blog), a laptop with a solid typing experience is a must for me. After the butterfly keyboard debacle, the MacBook lineup has finally returned to a keyboard with good feel and reliability. I still have not found another non-Apple laptop than can match a MacBook for key-deck solidity.

What certain PC laptops do offer though, is better key switches. Mechanical keyboards are super popular these days (except for your office mates who have to hear all that click-clacking from your typing), and certain laptop-makers offer laptops with really thin-profile mechanical keys. My dream typing-focused laptop would be a 13-inch MacBook Air fitted with such keys. Most dreams never come true, obviously.

Other than that, I do not want for anything else with my 16-inch MacBook Pro that the PC camp can sway me over. The build-quality is absolute precision, the 120 Hz mini-LED display is bright and gorgeous, and the M1 Max still chews through everything I need it to do. Best of all, the battery life is unparalleled. In terms of performance per unit of energy, PC laptops have yet to be in even the same neighborhood ever since Apple switched over to its own silicon. It remains amazing to see that after a full work-day, there’s still half battery left on my work-issue M2 MacBook Pro.

I’ve literally heard users complain about the drastically reduced battery life when we give them an Intel-era MacBook Pro, whilst their Apple Silicon MacBook Pro is in service. Horrible batter life is a feature, not a bug, sir.

Mad MAX: loose bolts

What is going on, Boeing? I can’t believe I am reading about issues with the 737 MAX again. This time, it’s the MAX 9 model: an entire side panel of the plane just blowing out in mid-air. That is some scary stuff. Thank heavens no one died this time.

Because the 737 MAX 8 debacle back in 2019 was supremely deadly. Two such planes stalled in the sky, and plunged everyone onboard to their deaths. You’d think Boeing would have thoroughly learned from those tragedies. Apparently not, I guess! The same generation of 737 is now back in the news, and the entire world fleet of MAX 9 planes are currently grounded.

Perhaps the MAX 10 will finally be the sweet spot!

Or more likely, Boeing will have to rebrand the 737 entirely. The MAX designation is forever tainted with horror and engineering incompetence. (Fool me twice, shame on me.) Heck, maybe even the 737 numbers might require changing. Next time you get on a domestic flight and see the 737 MAX designation on the safety pamphlet: wouldn’t you get slightly nervous? I certainly would. I want to be sure the airplane has got the sufficient amount of phalanges before takeoff.

Good news for me: the planes I am taking to China next month is made by AirBus.

As a person with immense fear of heights, a plane plunging into the ground (mechanical fault or otherwise) is one of my mortal nightmares. I understand that flying is statically super safe, and that I would be in way more danger driving a car on the road. But the emotional brain still sends those nervous signals nevertheless, every time I get on an airplane. I’m the guy who claps when it lands safely.

I like eggs

Are there eggs available for purchase at your local grocery store? Reads like there’s an Avian flu outbreak amongst the chickens in California, and the supply of eggs is threatened (and chickens-related food products too, presumably). All appears to be fine at our local Whole Foods this past Saturday, and supply at Costco looks to be healthy that Sunday as well. But, as a daily eater of eggs, I bought more than usual at Whole Foods, just in case.

Eggs are obviously an excellent source of protein. Since my high hemoglobin A1C results from last October, I’ve been eating scrambled eggs as a substitute for white rice (mostly the dinner meal). At a rate of at least two eggs per day, I go through the supply quite quickly. Be that as it may, I still do not buy in larger bulk from Costco. I greatly prefer the eggs from organic-fed, free-range chickens. Those are only available at the likes of Whole Foods. It may be the money talking, but I can definitely taste the difference.

Not that I am the stuck-up picky type. I don’t go to my friends’ homes and lament they only buy non-organic eggs. I’ll eat them all the same.

I asked my mother whether or not she stocked up on eggs, in case of imminent shortage. She said they (my parents) do not eat much eggs, so didn’t feel the need to do so. I reminded her that eggs are great for protein, and that she and father should eat more protein now that they are both retired. I feel like I’m going to be a broken record, the nagging parent (how the turntables) when it comes impelling my parents to eat more protein (and less carbs). It’s such a crucial nutrient as they age into their golden years.

We have to eat our proteins, too. Sure hope the egg supply stays consistent through this mini crisis!

No water for work

Nothing makes you appreciate first-world amenities quite like having them taken away suddenly. For example: running water. I went to work this morning (as one does every weekday morning) and turns out the entire campus has lost water pressure. This is not because of any maintenance fault of the university, but rather the City and County of San Francisco. Our facilities staff had to call public utilities for assistance. I know you're staring at an enormous fiscal hole, San Francisco, but shortchanging SF State on water is not the way to save money.

When there isn’t enough water pressure to flush toilets, it becomes enough of a biohazard to send everybody home. Thank heavens for modern work safety regulations! (Apparently, OSHA states that if there are working bathrooms within a 10 minute walk, then it is okay to continue working.)The modern us have it so incredibly nice. Think back to when even the highest of kings and queens do not have access to such luxurious plumbing. We are literally living better than royalties of old. No amount of money back then could buy the standards we have now. It’s humbling to think about.

I greatly appreciate automatic hot water out of every faucet tap in the home (here in America) whenever I go back to China. There, it’s typical for older apartment buildings to only have hot water for the bathroom shower head. Can you imagine washing your face with cold water in the dead of winter? (I don’t have to imagine it, because that is exactly what I will be doing a month from now.) Meanwhile, here in the States we open the faucet and wait for water to get hot in the morning…

The living standards are pretty high here, and I think it’s useful to not take it for granted once in a while. And perhaps, to not be so wasteful of it either.

What is sleep?

As I’m listening to this podcast episode about sleep this morning, I am reminded of just how little my housemates have been getting these past months. Ever since their twin boys were born last September, both parents have been running on four hours of sleep per night. I cannot comprehend how they do it. The last time I only got four hours of sleep (had to pick up a friend after the Taylor Swift concert), I was in a suboptimal daze for the entire week following.

Either I am weak, or, you know, proper amounts of sleep is the best thing for our body that pharmaceuticals can’t hope to replicate.

But, as new parents, my friends got to do what they got to do. Though it’s not really good advertising to entice others to have kids. So you’re telling me: the babies will cry every few hours (like PTSD), I only get few hours of sleep a night - therefore my body don’t have the necessary time to repair itself, my stress levels are through the roof, and my diet is absolute super-processed shit. All for the privilege of bring a new life into this world. Honorable, but damn if it looks like not so good a time.

Life is a big game of tradeoffs. That aforementioned is the sacrifice required to have kids. Just like if you want to date and get married, then some of your leisure activities will have to go. One quite literally cannot have it all. You drill down to the few things most important, and then focus on them solely. Once kids arrive, then obviously something - a lot of something - else is no longer in the “most important’ category. Like sleep, or traveling to foreign countries for fun.

Thankfully (and hopefully soon), my housemates will get some sleep hours back. Once the twins reach a stage where they are able to sleep overnight consistently. Surely other parenting challenges await after that. But, a well-rested and well-slept parent is better adept at meeting those challenges.