Blog

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

Monk mode running

So you’re all psyched up to go on this run. You’re in the car and heading to the running spot. But then you realize you forgot your earphones. What? Running without any tunes - are you crazy? So what do you do? Of course make that u-turn towards home to get the AirPods.

Unless you’re a psychopath like me. For me it’s more important to not waste time detouring home. Just how mentally soft am I if I can’t even go on a 40 minute run without any musical assistance. Lifting weights, I can understand. Sometimes those personal bests are easier to hit with something inspirational in the ear to provide that extra little mental pump. Running, however, it’s one feet in front of the other. Look at it as a bit of digital detox.

I’m slightly sad that I am unable to work on the Golf GTI this weekend. The problem? Parts that are in shipping haven’t yet arrived. The second worst thing for a DIY car enthusiast to see is parts taking a long time to ship. The first worst thing is the part is no longer available. Some enthusiasts dream of a big garage full of variety. I dream of a humble garage, housed with enough spare parts to build a whole other car. Never have to wait for delivery!

One important thing for the DIY wrench head is to have another car at the ready. (Or, like me, don’t have a vehicular commute.) (Two cars - in this economy? Right to privilege jail, right away.) That way you are not under the can-be-severe time restriction of a weekend. Snapping a brake caliper bolt for which a replacement won’t arrive until next week isn’t disastrous at all because you don’t need to use the car you’re working on come Monday.

Unless you’re a psychopath like me who loathes open loops. Yes, I don’t need to drive to work, but that unfinished job is going to haunt my sleep until it is done.

Not down with NLA

One of the worst things DIY car enthusiasts hate to see is the word “NLA”. Short for no longer available, it signifies the part you’re looking for is out of production. And that could be a big problem.

YouTube channel Top Dead Center’s latest project car is a C6 generation Audi RS6 Avant. As per usual, the guys bought just about the roughest version they could find, so they can fix it up and show us the process. It’s the sort of nerdy car repair/restoration content that I love.

One fault of that particular RS6 is the perished shock absorbers. Sounds normal, right? Suspension parts are regular wear items that need replacing every so often. However, the C6 RS6 features a trick hydraulically linked damper system. There is no aftermarket/third-party replacements available. You’re forced to buy the full-fat original part from Audi.

Except Audi no longer makes that part! It’s the dreaded NLA. For a car that’s not all that old - only 16 years - it’s morbidly amazing that owners are kind of SOL moving forwards. The existing set of shocks on the car, plus whatever is left stocked in warehouses around the world, is it. Past a certain point, owners will simply have to live with a worn out suspension.

Or, use stop-gap aftermarket dampers made for an Audi S6. Which is what Top Dead Center did.

I have similar concerns when it comes to keeping my MK7 Golf GTI fit for the long term. Anything mechanical and oily I’m not too worried about. Volkswagen Group has produced millions of MQB platform vehicles. A replacement, let’s say, control arm can always be found.

What I am worried about is body and interior pieces. Some stuff is already NLA - for a model that was last sold in 2021! Spilled something unsavory in the trunk area and you need to replace the spare tire well carpet? Well you can’t, at least not directly from Volkswagen. You’ll have to scour the junk yards and eBay.

Granted, interior stuff are far less likely to need replacement compared to mechanicals. So I can see why original manufacturers cease producing parts relatively quickly after end of production run. But if you’re the type of enthusiast that likes to purchase used cars and restore them up a bit, NLA parts can potentially stop the fun completely.

Don't cry for Argentina

We’re all aware there's been a slew of tech layoffs in the past few years. The latest victims to the great culling is 10% of the META workforce. What I don't understand is how on earth then are rents in the San Francisco Bay Area still so god-damn high? You'd think with all the tech firings, there's got to be a net negative pressure on demand in the region. I guess not!

For those of us in the peasant class, it's difficult to muster sympathy for these highly-paid workers losing employment. It's simply math: a software engineer with a total comp of $250,000 getting fired is not the same as a Target team member losing all his shifts. Above a certain sustenance level, the amount of extra money earned allows for plenty of leeway. I would generally say that any laid off tech worker that don't have at least a year of runway money stored up is doing it wrong.

Of course that is predicated on spending discipline. A deep six-figure earner who lifestyle inflates is in no better position mathematically than someone making $50,000. However, it's far easier for the high earner to shut off the spigot and reverse the deficit. The high inflow is such a strong lever to tackle debt. $25,000 in credit card debt means differently for someone earning $250,000 compared to $75,000.

To quote Andrew Yang: "It's just math."

I'd argue that any software engineer, after a decade of work, who does not have at least $1 million socked away in equities, has done it incorrectly. You’ve got a generational opportunity at earning an outsized income! It's just smart of save a chunk of it for much later. Besides, isn't the FIRE movement largely made up of tech workers busting ass for a solid decade and stocking up enough to last for the rest of life?

The extravagant compensation comes at the expense of job security. This isn’t public government work, where you expect to stay all way to retirement on that sweet pension money. Therefore the onus is on the tech worker to absolutely save for a rainy day. And if you didn’t, and you got laid off in recent times? Again, don’t expect sympathy tears from the peasant class.

Proud of my people

One of my favorite genre of YouTube videos is car restoration. Channels like M539 Restorations and AutoAlex Cars, where the hosts buy used cars with many problems, then fix them up to be reliably running machines. And sometimes they throw in some tasteful modifications, too. It’s kind of like what I am doing why my Golf GTI that was purchased used. Suffice it to say, there were plenty wrong with it that needed fixing.

A term that's come up rather often in these car restoration videos is “Chinesium”. This references car parts purchased for cheap from China. Perhaps there’s some sort of defending-the-motherland in me; I’m taking the terms Chinesium rather negatively. Yes, there’s plenty cheap quality stuff from China, but in the year of our lord 2026, I hope the stereotype of disposable Chinese junk can be cast into the history books.

Think of the Apple iPhone. Arguably the most important consumer device this century. Where is it made? China. The iPhone certainly does not have a reputation for junk, now does it? Contrarily, it’s one of the most beautifully made products on the planet. Open one up and the inside is just as immaculate as the outside. All of it is put together by the hands of my people. At least until Chinese labor is no longer cost competitive compared to Southeast Asia, and Apple moves product out of the Middle Kingdom entirely.

In reality it simply boils down to supply and demand. There’s whole exhaust systems from China for $150 with questionable quality because customers are buying. Ask China to produce something nice, and the country can deliver with the best of them. The aforementioned iPhone is one example. Another is the slew of lithium battery powered products from the likes of Fanttik and Wolfbox. My Fanttik Slim V8 APEX portable vacuum gets used all the time.

Car parts from China isn’t an automatic negative. Plenty of well-respected brands contract out production there. The TDD magnetic paddles I installed on the GTI is fantastic, and bought on AliExpress. It’s all about having standards. When you ask for quality from China, you can and will get it.

Don't live this way

Ever since I bought a used 2019 Golf GTI back in October 2025, I've been having a grand ole time spending weekends fixing it up. Performed some much needed maintenance and general cleaning. Bought quite a few replacement parts to get the Golf up to my personal standards of correctness.

But my compulsive obsessiveness is indeed a double-edged sword. I’ve come to completely understand the enthusiasts who keep cars stored in climate-controlled bunkers, never to be driven. Because that is the only way to preserve perfection. Anytime a car is driven or gets worked on, it opens up opportunity for blemishes to get introduced. And that is chaos to our psyche.

Yesterday I had to loosen up the front seat of the GTI to add back in a storage drawer. (Long story short, Volkswagen did quite a few cost-cutting to later model years of the MK7 Golf. Because the company had to pay a historically massive fine for dieselgate.) The rear outside bolt came out terribly, with quite a few rings of mangled thread. I cleaned the bolt up best I could, and thankfully it threaded back in - not completely smoothly - and tightened to the correct specification.

Job done, right? Not if you’re an obsessive psychopath like me. All I could concentrate on afterwards was the offending bolt, and the potentially cross-threaded hole. I should buy a replacement bolt! But what if I take it out a second time, I won’t be able to thread the new bolt back in? Oh man, does that mean I can’t ever take the driver seat out in this Golf again? Is it really safe, even though the problem bolt torqued properly?

See, a normal person would recognize the bolt tightens just fine and moved the heck on with life. For whatever reason, my brand of car enthusiasm involves a fervent want to keep things perfect. Flaws are a personal challenge. I greatly do not recommend living this way.

And sadly, I don’t have climate-controlled bunker money. Because I totally would, purely for mental health reasons.

Should not be dying from this

It’s always tough to see the people you grow up watching on television - and who are around the same age as you - die. It’s doubly tough when the person died of complications from pneumonia. Fucking pneumonia? Haven’t we solved that shit already? It seems so… preventable.

Age 41 is way too young to die. As someone who is 38 this year, it hits way too close to home.

I’m not an avid follower of NASCAR. I prefer racing that involves turning both directions. But on the weekends when I do turn on the TV to a race, for more than two decades, Kyle Busch was sure to be running at the front of the pack. He won two Cup championships whilst driving a Toyota branded car. As a fan of the Japanese brand, that’s very cool indeed.

We feel most awful for Kyle’s children, of course. To lose a father when they are still so young is unfathomably difficult.

And again, because of pneumonia. There’s something about this seemingly bad flu that somehow can turn into death very suddenly. Taiwanese pop star Barbie Hsu died back in 2025 from also a case of pneumonia turned horribly. She was only 48 years old.

If there’s one habit we gleamed from the pandemic, it should be proper hygiene practices. The constant hand-washing and sanitization since 2020 meant I’ve yet to catch a serious cold since that time. The preventative for pneumonia is largely the same. More importantly, if flu-like symptoms lingers on for a few days, for god’s sake, go see a doctor!

No toys store for kids

You know what kids these days miss out on? Giant, physical toy stores. Fantastical, multi-level paradises filled with everything a kid can dream of. I’m old enough to remember the FAO Schwarz in downtown San Francisco. The jingle went: “Welcome to my world, welcome to my world, welcome to my world of toys.” What an experience just being inside that building; my parents certainly cannot afford to buy me anything housed within.

The likes of Amazon has killed that joyful, magical experience. The closest substitute these days is the puny toys section at your local Target. What a joke!

What I don’t miss these days is having a commute. It’s been a little over five years since I ceased driving to work. Not because a fortunate remote work opportunity has fallen upon me. But rather I moved so close to work that I can simply walk.

As is human nature, the more you’re used to a thing, you start to take it for granted. I try really hard to remind myself everyday what a privilege it is to not spend any hours a day on the road. That only 15 minutes after I get off work, I am already in my home clothing and chilling on the chaise. Meanwhile, my colleagues have barely just circled out of the parking lot.

There are tradeoffs, of course. San Francisco housing is notoriously not cheap, and that means my rental is tiny. It is not more living space I pine for, however. I want space to work on cars. The aim is to have a home with a suitably large garage. To afford that on my meager salary means buying/renting one really far away from work. Is having space to fiddle with cars worth the cumulative 10 hours per week lost to commuting? It currently is not.

It may be some day, but right now the answer is no. The lack of a commute still reigns supreme.