Blog

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

Who's driving the car?

Lake Merced is where I do my weekly running. It is also where I first learned how to drive. Indeed, that concrete parking lot have played host to many a young driver’s first time behind the wheel of a car. It always warms my heart to see one of them out there learning how to drive, all the while I am prepared for my run. Because that was exactly me, exactly two decades ago.

I’ve been driving for twenty years? Jesus Christ that is amazing and sobering at the same time.

I wonder if the kids of the future will even learn how to drive, especially those living in big cities. UBER and LYFT remains ever convenient, plus the looming prospects of self-driving cars. Honestly, who wants to drive when they could be driven? I certainly would rather get chauffeured around. Drivers these days are freaking crazy. I’ve said it before: if I didn’t love cars, I probably wouldn’t own any right now.

California recently allowed “robotaxis” to operate in San Francisco unrestricted, 24/7. Meanwhile I am still waiting to get off the waitlist at both Cruise and Waymo, the two highest profile robotaxi companies. I am actually quite excited to try riding in a true driverless car. Though not nearly as excited as the person who had sex in the backseat of one recently. I want to ride in one just for fun; if I need to get somewhere promptly, I will still call an actual human driving car.

Because you can’t count on a robotaxi to be quick. Its first order of responsibility seems to be safety. I witnessed a Cruise taxi waiting behind a double-parked ambulance for way longer than a human car would have waited. The Cruise vehicle was stationary for such a long time than those of us watching wondered if it were going to move at all (it did, eventually). If that were me in the car, I probably would have gotten out and called an UBER.

Any song

I don’t really have any topic to write about today, so this will just be a train of thoughts. It’s important to keep up the writing even when I have absolutely nothing coming to mind. Often times I would troll twitter to look for news topics and whatnot, but this morning I am drawing a complete blank. I don’t want to write about former President Trump getting deposed in New York today. Hey look, the markets are up so far!

There’s a natural ebbs and flows when it comes to working in education. The middle of August is sort of the deep breath before plunging back into the bustle of the regular academic semester. But we don’t get to relax, at least not for those of us in IT support. We are busy getting things ready: the multitude of computer labs on campus, and making sure incoming new faculty have computers ready to go for Fall. With a week and half to go before classes begin, the deadline is quickly looming.

And then once I get home from all of that, I’ve got my own round of things to do. I imagine most other single people would simply collapse onto a couch and veg out of a bit before even thinking about dinner. Well, I don’t have a couch. Soon as I enter the home and put my stuff down, I start a pot of a rice cooking. In between that 30 minutes of cook time, I put my stuff away properly, wash up a bit, clean the floors, and cook the rest of dinner.

I take my time to eat dinner though, because that is never to be rushed. Not after an already long day at work. Once I’m done eating, then it’s an hour of piano practice. And after that I would get some reading in. Then it’s already time for bed. In a way I’m like a kid that have an evening of homework to do. That’s why I jokingly refer to my weekday nights as school nights.

That’s it for today! Off to work.

These damn fingers

One obstacle in my ongoing practice of learning the piano is that I have a bad tendency of hitting the key adjacent to the one I want. The problem is especially acute when I’m going left with my motion. My hands and fingers aren’t particularly big, so I’m not sure what’s going on here. All I can do and have been doing is stop and start over every time I hit a key errantly.

I don’t remember having this problem back in high school. We all had to take a year of art classes, so I chose the piano. Perhaps my fingers weren't as mangled as they are now, with an additional decade of knuckle cracking and surely ligament damage. Trying to learn the piano in my thirties was always going to be a challenge vis a vis the condition of my fingers. Much like learning a language, it’s far easier to do when you are young and malleable.

But then again I taught myself Korean in my late twenties, so it’s not impossible. It’s all about the amount of hours put in (read: a lot). It took me about five years of studying to be able to listen to Korean language radio station and understand about 80 percent of what they are saying. I’m only on year two (pandemic years, no less) of my piano learning journey, so I’m not too worried about my bad tendencies just yet.

If I have to practice a simple piece for a whole week just to play it perfectly, so be it. I’ve got all the time in the world. Besides, I’ve spent way too much money on this Yamaha keyboard to give up so quickly. Money is always a good motivator!

Fingers pain

It’s only day four of taking up the piano again, and all can say is: ouch. More than a decade has passed since I last consistently touched a piano, and I had forgotten just how heavy those keys are. Maybe I should’ve bought the super entry level 61-key electric piano from Costco, instead of the ultra realistic feel of a Yamaha stage keyboard. I’m sure this is doing wonders for my arthritic future; my fingers are definitely getting a workout.

I’d also forgotten how uncomfortable piano benches are. There’s no back support, obviously, and I’m practically sitting on the edge of the seat. There’s very little cushion to speak of, so I’m getting butt cramps midway through a session. Oh, and I’m suppose to always keep the proper posture: back straight, hands and shoulders relaxed. Easier said than done, of course, after slouching my way through life. I’d surely get beaten by the stick if I were taking lessons from a real piano teacher.

Instead, I am taking lessons from an app, and I am starting right at the beginning. Even though I’ve taken a solid year of piano back in high school, it’s been so long since that it would be good review to start completely over. I vow to learn reading music notes properly this time, and it’s nicer to my mangled adult fingers to start slow and simple.

The Piano Marvel app keeps track of consecutive days I’ve practiced, so it’s also a motivation factor to keep the streak going. It’s early days yet, but I don’t think I’ll be slacking off anytime soon. Unlike the forced learning at school for children, the piano is something I chose to pursue as an adult. There’s an element of joy that keeps me going rather easily. I feel productive as well: learning an instrument sure beats wasting that same hour everyday on YouTube.

Make it easy to start

The thing about creating consistent habits is to make them as easy as possible start doing. Keep it simple and make it convenient to begin. You’re less likely to start if doing that thing takes some setting up. The best way is to make it so that you can just jump right in. That means putting that smartphone away.

Recently, I launch the goal to learn the piano, which entails creating a habit of playing the keyboard every single day. With the aim to make it super easy to get started, I actually spent more money than necessary to create an actual piano station, if you will. Everything is in place, plugged in, and ready to rock. I just have to sit down, put on headphones, and press on the power.

The original idea was to plug the piano into my MacBook Pro to connect with the learning app. However, this involved moving the piano to my desk every single time, along with power and the sustain pedal. While this isn’t exactly cumbersome - takes a few minutes, that’s all - I want to eliminate this hurdle so that I would be more inclined to start playing.

As with most things in life, this means throwing money at the problem. In order to have a piano station, I had to buy another chair, and more importantly, an iPad. The tablet will be permanently plugged into the keyboard, with the Piano Marvel app a few taps of the finger away. Seems a bit overkill to buy an iPad just for this, though I’m sure I can find other uses for it (hello, Kindle app).

I’m still waiting on the chair to arrive, plus other bits and bobs to complete the setup. I think next week is when I can finally start this piano journey in earnest. Can’t wait!

On to the next

Because I’ve largely fulfilled the life goal of learning a third language - I’m on my sixth year of studying Korean - it’s time to move on to another item on the list. Since childhood, I’ve always wanted to learn the piano, so that is exactly what I am going to spend an hour on every single day for the next few years. My arthritic fingers already hate me.

Learning the piano has been a nascent ambition for the longest time. My family was too poor to afford me lessons when I was little. Throughout high school and college, other things took priority over learning an instrument. I took a year of piano in high school as an art prerequisite, but it was so slow going in that class that we didn’t even get to chords. Being able to play an instrument is one of those things that I think everybody should know how to do, like changing a tire, or speaking a second language.

In hindsight, I should have started on this at the beginning of this COVID pandemic, and not towards this tail end where vaccines are available for everybody very shortly. Soon, I’ll have a proper social life outside of the house to occupy my time. But, as they say, now is always a good time to start. I am ready to devote the time and energy that will surely be required.

It seems a lot of people have had the same idea during these COVID times. The piano I’m looking to buy - Yamaha CP88 - is currently backordered for what looks like a few months (the Suez Canal blockage probably didn’t help). A coworkers mentioned there’s a been a great shortage of guitars, and that instrument makers have had the best year in terms of sales during the pandemic. Unfortunately then, this endeavor will be delayed until I can get my hands on the keyboard.

Should I learn the piano?

The calendar may have turned to a new year, yet sadly the coronavirus pandemic is still raging on. Multiple vaccines have been approved and are being distributed throughout the country, but the rollout have been slow and inefficient. Daily U.S. deaths are hovering around the three thousands, and local ICU bed capacity is in the single digits percentage. San Francisco has extended a stay-at-home order indefinitely.

What I am trying to say is: we’re going to be stuck in our homes for a longer while still, likely longer that we’d hoped. Approving the vaccines was the beginning of the end, but it’s going to be a gradual descent back to normalcy, rather than the drop of a rollercoaster.

With yet more free time on the horizon, unable to go anywhere, I pondered on a new hobby to pick up. A new practice that would take about an hour each day. Hopefully by the proper end of the pandemic, I’d learned a new skill. Even if it’s only for self enrichment, it would be a worthwhile endeavor to fill up the free time productively.

Recently, I narrowed it down to (finally) learning the piano, in what was a childhood aspiration. I took a semester of lessons back in high school, but I never kept up the practice. Back then I wasn’t a fan of learning for learning’s sake, more focused on the fun parts of being an adult.. It’s different now, obviously: I am the person that self-taught himself Korean, a project that’s still ongoing. So reckon I have the discipline now to follow through with a dream from childhood.

What’s stopping the great? Costs. I like to buy quality things, and the price of an excellent stage keyboard is in the many thousands (I am not going to buy the hundred-dollar kids specials they sell at Costco). Furthermore, I’d also need an iPad, so I can plug that into the keyboard and take lessons via an app.

Nobody said hobbies were cheap. I should know: gestures at car and camera kit.