Blog

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

The world together

The 2026 edition of the World Cup is over. Congratulations to the Spain national team on a truly dominant showing. Ignore the low final one-nil score: Argentina got utterly spanked in the Final.

Congratulations also to the stadium food vendors. Selling beers for $22 is just excellent business. Exploitive capitalism will continue so long as there are willing participants. Consumers have clearly shown a high price inelasticity, no matter how much they may grumble externally.

The magic of the World Cup happens when the games are on during the workday. The collective attention is drawn to the games. Productivity drops down as close to zero as allowed. (Sorry and thank you, bus drivers.) Even the casual sports observer is glued to the screen. The best games are those that go on to penalty kicks as the decider. During which the entire office comes to a screeching halt to watch the nail-biting tension.

Seismic sporting events like the World Cup and Super Bowl are truly awe-inspiring when you zoom out and think about just how huge a population is tuning into the matches. So it’s no wonder FIFA instituted a hydration break in the middle of each half: the advertising dollars for those three minutes of stoppage must be profitably enormous. Who run the world? Girls marketing.

But for us Americans, it’s back to ignoring the sport of soccer for another four years. I think that’s a good thing. America’s Major League Soccer should remain the relative niche that it is: for the die-hard football fans. This keeps the matches accessible and affordable for attendees. Can you imagine how much tickets would be if El Trafico had the same cachet as El Clasico? Capitalism will get its grubby hands on MLS and price out the peasants.

Until four years later, world.

Sweat stinks, but Arrid works

If you are like me and have sweaty extremities at the mere hint of any kind of bodily motion, it’s quite a chore to handle the water-fest that comes. After, of course, you curse at your awfully unlucky genetics. Because like that famous deodorant commercial, a sweaty guy is not in the least attractive.

A sweaty head is easy enough. Anytime I am doing anything active, a sweat band goes on. It doesn’t stop the sweating obviously, but the primary function I need it for is to prevent the droplets from interfering with my eyes.

Sweaty hands just means frequent glove changes when I am involved in any dirty jobs. Partly why I buy single use nitrile gloves on Amazon by the 1000s. Environmentalists please don’t come for me. I have a monthly donation to the NRDC since 2016. Think of it as buying carbon credits, but on an individual level.

Drippy feet are a more difficult issue to solve, unless I literally don’t go outside ever (read: wear shoes). On the regular, I absolutely must wear wool socks. Cotton or synthetic (or both) socks would soak up the moisture and utterly stink up the proverbial joint. Painfully, wool socks are hilariously expensive. The Darn Tough ones I bought are $20 for a single pair. At least there’s an unconditional lifetime warranty…

However, I’ve found wool socks to not be the best for running - it isn’t thin enough. How to avoid the stink then when wearing cotton blend? Foot powder. I’ve had great success using Dr. Scholl's. It is hugely cumbersome to use: you’re essentially sprinkling it on the feet before putting on socks. The powder gets absolutely everywhere, so the best place to apply is in the bathtub or shower area. Other than that, it does the job fantastically: soaks up the sweat, no stink.

I might try dousing my hands with the product before using gloves…

Don't hate the young

Recently I’ve been sleuthing on the Miata.net forums. Because I may or may not have one of those incoming on a boat from Japan. What better way to learn all about the MX-5 - again - than to read the mountains of discussion materials.

Needless to say, the demographic of Miata owners skews older. That is why the car itself is so cheap to insure, despite the fact it's a properly pure sports car. The Mazda roadster shares this distinction with the Chevy Corvette, which is also famously cheap to insure, despite the mega amounts of horsepower. Demographics is king when it comes to insurance. The premiums for my previous BMW M2 was astronomical, thanks to modern M cars being widely popular with the younger crowd. A crowd that’s statistically crashing at a higher rate.

That’s the cost of doing business, as far as I am concerned. Perhaps it’s a tale as old as time, but I’ve seen a divide in the car enthusiasm sphere: older folks seem to carry disdain for the younger enthusiasts. Case in point: Miata Reunion is one of the biggest annual MX-5 gatherings. This year the event will be held at Laguna Seca in conjunction with Gridlife. For those who don’t know, Gridlife is basically a Forza Horizon festival come to life. No surprise then the attendees skew young.

Which presents a problem for a quite a few MX-5 owners - on the older side, obviously - considering attending the 2026 edition of the reunion. They prefer a classier experience, and rather not intermingle with the “unwashed masses” of the typical Gridlife crowd. Understandable, but ultimately a close-minded way of looking at things. Even if things naturally silo themselves into categories, car enthusiasm should be one giant tent that is welcoming to everyone. It’s sad to see preconceived notions can prevent some people from the opportunity to experience something different.

Besides, haven’t we - those of us on the other side - all been a young enthusiast at one point? If anything, we should be super welcoming and happy that car enthusiasm continues to survive onto the generations proceeding. You don’t have to agree with their style and methods, but this whole thing of ours is dependent on future generations joining in on the fun. The cool cars that we want to buy, and for the manufactures to continue making, is predicated on demand.

Toyota has plans for a next generation GR86 coupe precisely because so many young guys are buying the current version and crashing them. Bully!

It should not cost this much

Used car prices are kind of insane.

On occasion I like to window browse on Carvana and CarMax. Just to see if anything weird and interesting pop up. Recently there was a 2016 Toyota Corolla with a manual transmission up for sale. It brought me back to my very first car: a 2006 Toyota Corolla, also in stick shift guise. It’s very rare to see the common commuter sedan with a manual gearbox. Good on the owner(s) of the 2016 Corolla to have put over 70,000 miles on it. We like to see cars driven.

What we don’t like to see is ridiculous pricing. The listed price on CarMax for that 2016 Toyota Corolla is $16,000. Keep in mind the original MSRP of the car 10 years ago was $17,300! Even if you account for inflation - $24,155 in today’s dollars - 16 grand for a decade old poverty spec sedan is laughable. Especially when it’s equipped with a manual gearbox that nobody wants. This isn’t some Porsche sports car with a stick.

Even if you account for the CarMax premium for let’s say $2,000, a 2016 Corolla still isn’t a $14,000 car. It’s not even a $10,000 car. A gut-feeling fair price for a 10 year old compact sedan is around the $7,000 mark. $8,000 perhaps if the mileage is sufficiently low. Is this simply the era we are living in? Just like how there are zero new cars available for under $20,000, the reasonably conditioned used car for under $10,000 - that every personal finance guru says is available - has also disappeared into history.

I used to have a 2016 Mazda MX-5. That same model year of Miata in today’s market looks to be hovering near $20,000 for a low mileage sample, which is insanity. A decade old MX-5 should be less than $10,000, no matter the miles. It’s not a rare car; Mazda has produced plenty, and continues to do so to this very year. Used examples should not be encroaching on the price of a new one.

Because then why wouldn’t you throw in the extra thousand for one with zero miles and zero farts on the seats? You’d get better financing terms buying new, too. The lower interest costs might even make the price delta disappear completely.

Press F for physical media

There seems to be an uproar on the Internet at the news that Sony will cease making physical game discs for its PlayStation console starting in January of 2028. High speed broadband Internet is so ubiquitous that it doesn’t make sense to waste resources on physical media, packaging, and shipping. Sony certainly has data reflecting gamers’ preference for digital downloads. Steam has perfected this on the PC side for decades. When is the last time you bought a physical copy of a PC game?

Of course, human nature is such that it’s painful to take away something from them. Even if that thing is something they seldom use. You may not have purchased a physical game in years, but you quite like the idea that the option is always there. Now that Sony is taking that away, you write loudly on the Internet at the injustice.

Even taking on Sony’s reasoning for this move to be true, it’s absolute a background ploy to make more money. Digital-only distribution means games cannot be shared. Nor can there be a secondary market for used games. The reason Rockstar is charging only $79 for Grand Theft Auto 6 is because anyone that wishes to play, has to buy. The physical version is only a glorified case with a code to download the game. Surely that code is one time use.

There other loss here is the inability to showcase your collection of games. Bookcases full of game titles will have a definite cut-off point in terms of newness. As someone that prefers analog and tactile, I can understand that pain. Half the reason I buy physical books is to display them on the shelves. You can tell I am a learned man when you see my stocked bookshelves in my Zoom background (tongue fully in cheek).

The one real concern for physical disc aficionados is that when games are solely in the digital realm, the distributor controls the access. You don’t really own the games - you’re at the mercy of Sony in continuing to support the PlayStation platform. It’s a fair question to ask whether or not PlayStation 5 games will still be active when the PlayStation 6 or 7 era come around. Even if you are fully trusting of Sony’s intentions, it doesn’t sit well with people that the potential will soon exist.

But honestly: how often have you gone back to replay a game?

That said, I am optimistic that our friends on the high seas will ensure copies of games will exist outside of Sony’s walled garden. And if that garden ever goes away, coders will surely whip up emulators to replace. It’s the same mechanism that’s been supporting retro gaming for many many years.

I shall still proverbially pour one out for the physical game disc.

Using the proper fluid

A dirty front windshield is very annoying to me. Because I am an obsessive psychopath. That is why every time I get into the car, I hit the washers to remove the previous day’s detritus off my field of view. It isn’t perfect, of course - only the sections covered by the wipers get cleaned, but it’s good enough.

The constant washing presents a problem: I go through washer fluid by the gallons. (I was amazed to read that some drivers use so little windshield fluid that their cars are still on the factory fill!) Throughout my car owning history, I have bought distilled water at the local grocery store. Distilled because it’s doubly free of minerals, so there’s no chance of leaving water spots on the paint. So far, so easy.

Modern cars have sensor in the washer fluid tank that notifies drivers via the dash when the levels get low. The sensor achieves this by utilizing the water as a conducting loop. When the fluid level is no longer high enough to complete the signal, it then trips the warning light. Pretty intuitive and easy.

On my Golf GTI, however, the warning light remains on even when I’ve just refilled the tank. Turns out, distilled water - lacking any sorts of minerals - isn’t conductive enough to complete the signal loop. Sure there’s water submerging the sensor points, but it’s effectively doing nothing.

The solution is simple: use proper windshield fluid. Therefore, for the first time in my 20 years of driving, I actually filled store-bought washer fluid into one of my cars. A bit of a hassle, since the auto parts store is further away from me than the grocery store. Also, a gallon of windshield fluid is some two dollars more expensive than a gallon of distilled water. Inflation continues…

Colorful foggy Fourth

What did they think was going to happen?

I understand wanting to do something special for the 250th birthday of this great country. But having Fourth of July fireworks over the Golden Gate Bridge was ill-advised at best. The famous San Francisco fog is ever constant on the west side of the city, and like clockwork, it showed up yesterday fiercely as usual. What you expected to be something spectacular, turned out to be just a bunch of colored clouds.

What a waste! The organizer should have cancelled the fireworks soon as they learned of the antagonistic weather. Treat it like the Mavericks surf competition: if the waves aren’t humungous, the contest is suspended.

San Francisco should recoup the costs by installing more speeding cameras. Because they absolutely work to slow down insane drivers. Just today someone was tailgating me heavily as I was heading to my parents. The road opened up to two lanes, so the impatient driver moved over to pass. However, we were approaching a known speed camera section. Right on cue, even the mad driver slowed all the way down below the speed limit. It was amazing to see.

More of that, please. The stretch of 19th Avenue next to San Francisco State can definitely use a speed camera or three. Because every night I can hear cars and motorbikes treat that road like a timed drag strip. I’m trying to sleep here!