Blog

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

Deep blacks

First world problems: I am surrounded by top-notch quality displays that when I use one that isn’t so good, the contrast is annoying. My iPhone 13 Pro is OLED, my television is also OLED, and my monitor is the infamous Apple Pro Display XDR. It’s a feast for the eyes. The problem then lies with my poverty-spec basic iPad. The LCD panel on that tablet is fine in it of itself, but when used amongst these other displays, it’s leaves a bit wanting. Something about comparison being the thief of joy.

What I’m spoiled by are the deep blacks that OLED and Apple’s Display XDR technologies offer. The resulting picture quality is deep, clear, and vibrant. Sometimes I would turn on the TV just to watch whatever, because the image is so enjoyable to look at.

Watching Youtube videos - in the common 16:9 aspect ratio - on the iPad’s 4:3 ratio display reveals the flaw. The black bars above and below the video aren’t really precisely black. Because an LCD backlight is always on, the most black the bars can get is a very dark gray. Again, this wouldn’t be noticeable if everything else in the house is also LCD. But black bars on my phone, the TV, and the monitor can achieve absolute black, so every time I use the iPad I’m aghast at the difference. The LCD “glow” at the top and bottom is rather obvious.

Of course, there is an iPad that solves my first world dilemma. The iPad Pro in then biggest 12-inch size has the Display XDR technology, offering the same deep blacks as the monitor. If I were loaded with money (despite appearances, I’m not), I’d upgrade in a heartbeat. However I only use the iPad during dinner and for piano practice, so dropping a thousand dollars just because the display doesn’t look as good is not a justification.

My tax return is going towards renewing insurance on the BMW.

Spring cleaning time

Lunar New Year is next Tuesday, so you know what that means: I have to clean house and get a haircut before then. Good news is my in-law studio apartment is relatively tiny, so a bit of spring cleaning should be quite easy. I’m the type of person to dust my floors every other day, so that should give you an idea how much work I actually have to do before the auspicious holiday.

I will have to deep clean the bathroom. Primarily the few months’ worth of soap and water stain accumulation in the shower/bathtub. Whoever is first to invent a shampoo and body wash that, when used, will also clean the shower walls (when the suds are flung) should get the Nobel Peace Prize.

But at least I only have one bathroom! I wouldn’t want to be my friend who recently moved in to a two-bed two-bath unit. To live by herself. Imagine having to do the spring cleaning for that space! Or even just keeping it tidy on the regular. Good thing we live in an age of robotic vacuums. And said friend also make enough money to pay for a monthly housekeeper. No need for manual labor when you can afford to throw money at the problem!

It is a lovely place though. Such a vast apartment for one person makes me wonder whether or not I would want such a space. Honestly it would be ideal to have at least a one-bedroom, to have defined and separate spaces (living room, kitchen and whatnot). That said I’m pretty satisfied with the studio I have now. It’s got everything I need, all in one room (plus a bathroom).

Whenever I travel to Asia and rent in one of the typically tiny apartments, I’ve always wished there was such a thing here in the States. The efficient use of space is something to admire, driven by sheer population density and high real estate prices. Turns out, that’s sort of what I have now: a tiny apartment with all the features. I’ve even mimicked another feature of Asia: walkability to almost everything. There’s a mall a few blocks from where I live with all the shops I’ll ever need.

I really don’t even need to own a car. Not that I’ll ever do that…

Are you not entertained?

What a wonderful weekend of football. All four games going down to the very last play. It’s great to see the San Francisco 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers in the frozen tundra to advance to the championship round. I didn’t think the team would be in this position when the season started, but here they are. And how crazy was that ending to the Bills versus Chiefs game? The final two minutes of regulation and overtime was absolutely insane. What a treat for us that we get to see quarterbacks Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes duke it out for many many years to come.

I’m just glad that both of them are in the AFC instead of the NFC, where the 49ers are.

Having bought a 4K television recently, I really notice how poor the broadcast quality of free over-the-air local channels are. I don’t think any of them (FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC) are even doing 1080p quality, much less 4K. The result is that the football games of this past weekend don't look quite as good and sharp as they really should be. Worse, even when I use the broadcaster’s own streaming app to watch (in this case, NBC’s Peacock app), the maximum quality is still only 1080P. Why on earth is America’s favorite game not in 4K already?

The Super Bowl - the most watched event in this country by a huge margin - will not be in 4K! That’s unacceptable.

Of course this is indeed a first world problem. Remember how stunning 1080P looked compared to the 480i signals we’ve been seeing for decades? Such is the progression of technology that 1080P have become the sort of baseline. I would say the ideal signal for the televisions you can buy these days is 4K HDR. Movies in Dolby Vision quality on Disney Plus look incredible (I rather enjoyed Eternals). Honestly if something is only 1080P at the maximum, I rather watch it on the smaller display of my computer.

I washed the car

This past weekend I was reminded why I don’t wash my BMW M2 often: it’s those damn wheels. The “Style 788M” factory alloys looks amazing (clean or dirty, honestly), but that multitude of spokes is horror on the fingers. I actually tore a piece off my right ringer finger, and as of writing it’s still hurting rather nicely. What I really need is my old set of wheel woolies. However I just don’t have to mind to spend hours on car detailing anymore.

In fact the only reason I even washed the M2 this past Saturday was because it’s been over four months since the car last got one. That I didn’t even do:: a neighbor borrowed the BMW for a bit, so in return he cleaned it and gassed it up before returning (a gentleman always hand back a borrowed car with a full tank of gas). The neighbor did a fantastic job because up until recently the paint was still beading water nicely, indication of a layer of wax.

Well that layer was completely gone. I don’t detail my car as often as a I used to (once every two weeks!), but I’m not negligent either. Time to bring out the single bucket, many microfiber towels, and that bottle of Optimum No Rinse Wash with Wax. It was actually kind of nice: a beautiful Saturday afternoon, warmish weather, with a slight breeze. Perfect conditions to spend some time with the M2, podcast playing in my ear. If I weren’t so lazy about it, I’d probably do it more often.

I could pay a professional detailer to do it periodically, though I don’t mind a bit of manual labor. It humbles the mind, and it’s great exercise. The best workouts are the ones that have utility, the everyday tasks. Squatting to clean those aforementioned difficult-to-clean wheels sure beats squatting at a gym rack. My thighs get the burn, and the M2 gets clean.

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!

I can't watch

Ever since I’ve sold my Porsche 911 GT3 over a year ago, I cannot bear to consume media about the car anymore. I skip right over video reviews of the latest generation 911 GT3. It’s just too painful of a reminder of what I used to have. My god that was an amazing car. The 991 generation GT3 was one to hold forever and take to the moon. Sadly I had to move out of my parents’ house, and therefore lower my monthly expenses. It had to go.

My BMW M2 Competition is not a bad consolidation in the slightest. I’ve adored it on the very first weekend drive. But an M2 is no 911, never mind a 911 GT3. The mystique of the weird rear engine layout and the side silhouette bourn out of a Volkswagen Beetle is utterly unique in the automotive world. Every car guy aspires to own a 911 at least once in their lifetime. But they forgot to tell you how much you’ll miss yours when you sell it and move on.

It was the correct decision. The M2 is a far better fit for my current lifestyle, even if I disregard the money situation. The extra bit of ground clearance and utility compared to the super pure 911 GT3 mean I can use the M2 for the daily errands far easier. An IKEA run to get a kitchen table would have been impossible in the Porsche. Would have made for an interesting Youtube video, but I don’t do that kind of media.

The one thing I’m most proud of in owning the GT3 has to be my GT3 diaries. I can’t believe I found the motivation to write about the car every month for nearly two years. From a writing perspective, it’s an era of creativity I’ve yet to find again. Notice that I don’t have an M2 diaries. The BMW just isn’t that interesting of a car, and I drive mine so seldomly that there wouldn’t be much to write about on a monthly basis.

Hopefully there would come a time I’d be able to get over my bitterness and enjoy content about the GT3.

Separation of spaces

One of the reasons I actually like physically going in to work is the separation of spaces. There’s zero chance of mixing up whether I’m working or doing home stuff. The different location allows me to mentally switch to another mode soon as I enter or leave a space. I know I’m done for the day when I depart from campus. I don’t get triggered by Slack notifications when I’m home because I know for sure those hours are outside of work.

Due to the omicron strain of COVID because super virulent, our campus operations got shut down last week. We all had to work from home, something I haven’t done since last September. There goes keeping work and home life separate! I tried my best, however: instead of logging into work portals from my own MacBook Pro, I took home a 13-inch MacBook Pro from campus. Even though I have a gorgeous 32-inch Pro Display XDR, I rather stare at a much smaller screen than integrate work back into my home tech ecosystem.

Working from home also meant eating lunch at home (again, something I’ve not done since last Fall). That’s when I realized I really should stop eating at the same computer desk - I don’t have a dining table. It’s cumbersome to have to move my computing peripherals off the desk in order to have the room to put the dishes and bowls. Eating noodles (which I often do) can get a bit splashy, too, which doesn’t bode well for the monitor in front of me.

To have separation of spaces, it was time to get a table specifically to eat on. As I’ve written before, I’m one person living by myself, so I don't need something huge (not that I have the space anyways). A small kitchen island, plus one singular high chair will suffice. Off to IKEA! But there’s a problem: due to the never-ending supply chain issues, the closest IKEA location with the items in stock was in West Sacramento. Three hours roundtrip, $50 in gas, and $14 in bridge tolls wasn’t going to stop me. The sad thing is, I had already made the same trip a week ago to buy the stands for my new TV…

Hopefully I’m done needing stuff from IKEA for a long time!