Blog

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

Let's get on with it

I think it’s time to treat COVID like the seasonal flu: a virus we simply live with normally. Look at how Britain has opened back up completely about a month ago - zero restrictions - and they don’t seem to be any worse off. Right now, it’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated: look at the data out of Texas and Florida. With vaccines widely and freely available in the United States, the choice is merely personal if someone wishes to die.

Those of us who are vaccinated, who have followed every guideline and restriction since the start of the pandemic, are getting rather tired of it. I know it’s only temporary, but to have to show ID and vaccination proof just to eat inside a restaurant is kind of insane. Breakthrough cases are ultra rare for those who got the shot(s), and at worse we likely to only feel some flu-like symptoms. Let us go back to our previously normal lives!

San Francisco State University - with a Fall semester on-campus population that’s 98 percent vaccinated - still inexplicably doesn’t allow public indoor eating. All the campus eateries are open, but you’d have to bring it outside to eat. This is fine and good during this time of the year when the weather is warm (for San Francisco anyways), but what about when it gets cold? I don’t see any heat lamps. What if it ever rains again? Where are the students to eat their lunch?

It all seems a bit draconian given nearly everyone on campus is vaccinated. It’s not the university’s fault: local policy dictates people have to be vaccinated to eat indoors. I suppose SFSU don’t have the resources to perform checks at the entrances to places like the student union building. Much like our local McDonalds, it’s cleaner and simpler to forgo any form of indoor dinning, and do carry-out only.

I hope the rules on that change soon. San Francisco itself is 80% vaccinated! It’s time to get on with it.

Crazy car market

The lease is ending on my dad’s Hyundai Tucson, so we’re in the process of finding a new vehicle to (once again) lease. If you didn’t know, the automotive market is absolutely crazy right now. Due to the semiconductor chip shortage, the inventory of new cars is really low. In turn that pushes used car prices up sky high. This is a great situation if you’re looking to sell, but those looking to buy are in a world of hurt.

Those Labor Day deals you see advertised on TV? Yeah, they don’t actually exist on the ground. Markups are the norm, and you’d be lucky to find a vehicle for MSRP. We contacted the local Hyundai dealership hoping for an easy return and pickup transaction. Sadly, literally every car on their lot have additional makeup on top. The salesperson would not budge from the prices, even though we are turning in an end-of-lease car.

Which ought to be a nice profit maker for the dealership, because of the aforementioned high used car prices. CarMax is offering several thousand dollars above our lease buyout for the Tucson. We were completely willing to let the Hyundai dealer have this profit if they would simply give us a good lease deal on the next one. Shame. Instead, we're planning to sell the Tucson to CarMax, and pocketing the nice difference.

As for the replacement car, thanks to my brother’s contacts at a Toyota dealership, we are able to lease a poverty-spec Toyota Corolla at MSRP. Monthly payments will actually be slightly lower, which is nice. A compact sedan is indeed a step-down from the reasonably nice Tucson SUV, but that’s the best we can do in this crazy market. The goal was to not spend more on the monthly bill, and to that end, job done.

Once my dad retires, we’ll actually buy him the Lexus that will last him for the rest of his life.

Doing nothing

Well, I did it. I managed to do absolutely nothing for about four hours yesterday afternoon, and I don’t feel one ounce of guilt about it. All I did was sat in the chair and listen to music, periodically glancing at the twitter feed, or chatting with my friends on text. Normally on a holiday like yesterday’s Labor Day, I would be taking advantage to do more. Even if it’s just watching the backlog of subscribed shows on Youtube, in my mind that’s way more productive than getting lost in music for a few hours.

Finally, some progress.

I’m the type of person who uses busyness as a gauze for any mental anxiety I’m dealing with. So long as I’m being productive, I won’t then have the time to face any internal demons. Obviously it works for awhile, but then I’d have to keep going always. If I ever stop, then I will have to think about those other unpleasant things. For better and for worse, the feeling of accomplishment salves the pain.

It works, until it doesn’t.

Of course then even when I’m otherwise mentally okay and feeling content, the urge to keep productive remains. This is why I generally cannot relax and do nothing; weekends are for more stuff, not less! This is the toxic side of “time is your most precious commodity” that people seldom talk about. We try to cram as much life in as possible, not allowing any moments of stoppage. As with anything in life, too much towards any extreme is bad for you.

What’s all the toil during the workweek for if I can’t lounge around in daydream for half the weekend day? Life is enough of a cyclical hamster wheel as is. No need to make it worse. Daze on, my friends.

Almost one year

Today I woke up to an email notification from Progressive stating my insurance premium is due for the next six month term. This means I’m nearing the one year anniversary of purchasing my BMW M2 Competition (and selling the beloved Porsche 911 GT3). However, owning the BMW through one whole year is not really an accomplishment for me. Let’s see if I can make it past three - the longest I’ve ever owned a car bought with my own money.

For a pure weekend leisure vehicle, I still managed to cover over 5,000 miles in the M2 over the past year. That’s about the same annual mileage I managed with the 911 GT3. This includes zero road trips, obviously, because the COVID pandemic is still very much ongoing. And I don’t suppose I would take my personal cars on road trips anymore anyways. It’s far simpler and less messy to rent a car. Windshield replacement - with a genuine BMW panel - is definitely not cheap!

That is, unless I’m taking the car on a road tour with fellow car enthusiasts. But with gas prices touching five dollars per gallon, and rural California burning with wildfires, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. The last thing the people living in the affected areas want to see is rich guys driving their car toys in decidedly unsafe speeds. It’s been a long time since I’ve even gone to the local mountain roads to drive the M2 in a spirited manner. The optics just aren’t great.

Good thing, then, the M2 makes an excellent urban runaround. It’s small enough to go anywhere, but have more than enough punch to cause a bit of trouble. It looks pugnacious, a gentleman thug who keeps a consistent gym schedule. I have loads of fun just putting the M2 around the city, going slow or fast. The trunk swallows all the groceries I need. As far as a capable weekend car is concerned, I really can’t ask for better.

And I don’t intend to.

I get it now

A few nights ago I found myself in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Arguably the roughest neighborhood in the whole city, it has everything the naysayers warn about. Massive amounts of loitering, likely drug deals, homeless population living on the streets, littering everywhere, and a general cloud of loud noises. Paradoxically, sprinkled in between all of this are new condos, the symbol of gentrification.

Honestly though, who would want this status quo? It’s nice to see some signs of improving the situation. I understand why NIMBYs get up in arms whenever there are talks of low-income housing or housing for the homeless getting build in their neighborhood. For better or worse, the Tenderloin shows that looks like, and people are afraid that if such housing gets built in their proverbial backyard, the negative externalities get brought along as well.

No one wants to live near loud noises, drug use, and loitering. I grew up in the poorer parts of San Francisco so I’m familiar with all those things. Moving to the west side of the city was in part to get away from those public nuisances. It’s probably dubious to equate low-income/homeless housing to having those negative qualities, but that’s the perception! That’s what I grew up with, that’s what everyone see when visiting the Tenderloin (excellent Vietnamese food there).

This isn’t a defense of outright NIMBY-ism. Surely there’s a non insignificant amount of NIMBYs whose fears are exactly as I described above. The character of the neighborhood they want is quiet, clean, and unobstructed. You can argue those fears are irrational, but how can you see what’s going on in the Tenderloin and not draw some similar thoughts and conclusions?

I couldn’t.

Loaning out my car

I’ve written previously that most of the time, my BMW M2 Competition just sits parked outside of the home. I walk to work so it practically never gets driven during the weekdays. And because gas prices are so high these days, I limit fun driving on the weekends as well. What I’m saying is: I’m pouring money down the drain with licensing and insurance costs. The car is a mere sculpture, something (really) nice to look at.

But a car enthusiasts can’t go car-less, can he? Besides, the M2 Competition is such a potent little thug. All that power in a short, condensed package. I remain determined to keep it a very long time.

Though putting more miles on it would be nice. A few weeks back, a fellow enthusiast neighbor messaged me about borrowing the M2 for a few days. The five year ago me would have declined instantly: no one drives my car but me! The present me isn’t precious about any of it. At the risk of sounding nihilistic, none of this material stuff lasts forever, and neither do we. So might as well enjoy and use while it’s still here.

Two hours after affirming, I handed the key to said neighbor. I should have filled up the tank before doing so, but the gas station is only two (long) blocks away. Not enough distance to properly warm up the engine (I try to avoid short trips on a cold engine). Impressively, this 19-year-old I loaned the car to knows the code well: always return a borrowed car with a full tank of gas. At nearly five dollars to a gallon, this is not cheap to do. This gesture alone guarantees another borrowing opportunity, should he asks.

The kid also washed the M2, which I’ve neglected to do for the past months. This means I don’t have to wash it again for another few months, which is just lovely. 500 miles of driving in exchange for a full tank of gas and proper bath? Now that is a fair trade in my book.

Back in session

Fall semester is back in session on campus, and so are physical classes. Even though two thirds of course are still online, the campus is once again bustling nicely with activity. People are queuing up outside of the library before it opens at 8:00AM! Students lost in buildings not knowing where their classrooms are! Teachers complaining about the audio and visual equipment! San Francisco State is back, baby.

As someone who did very little working from home during this pandemic, it’s really nice to see other people around campus again. It’s no longer a ghost town lacking in amenities. There was but one eatery open during the last 18 months, and now there’s variety again. Personally I’m happy the Peet’s coffee upstairs from us in the library is back. I bring my own coffee, but some days you need that additional pick-me-up after the initial supply runs out (he says like a drug addict).

On the IT support side, we are absolutely strained to capacity in supporting both online learning and physical classes. Compounding matters is attrition in personnel (of their own accord, thankfully, rather than lay offs). The built-in excuse is that we are still in a pandemic; sorry if the supreme service you were used to is no longer the case. Things that take two hours now takes two days. Thankfully most people are very understanding, but of course there are the unfortunate few who are too selfish to realize what’s going on.

Services are short-staffed everywhere, including at a university.

What is comforting however is that our campus is 98% vaccinated, which is kind of amazing, given San Francisco as a city only just reached above 80%. It does put me at ease with being in rooms full of people again. Masks are of course still required indoors, because we’re not idiots. if things continue to progress in a positive direction, I can see even more in-person classes happening during the Spring semester.

It’s good to be back!