Blog

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

Just fix the podcast app

For all the new features coming to each iteration of iOS for the iPhone, you know what I wish Apple would fix? The god damn podcast app. Podcasts are as popular as ever, so it’s difficult to understand why the Apple podcast app continues to suck so much. I don’t care what amazing thing Apple shows every WWDC; please simply fix the stuff that are still broken to this day.

I am sick and tired of the podcast app not remembering my playlist. It seems that adding more than 10 shows to the upcoming list is enough to flummoxed it. The app remembers for a time, until one day you go to listen to a show and everything is lost. It would usually queue up a podcast I’ve already listen to, with nothing to follow. I would begrudgingly build out the playlist again, awaiting the next rug pull.

What I hate even more is when the podcast app lose my place on a particular show completely. How the heck is this acceptable? Is system memory so precious that the OS can’t spare a few bytes to keep the place on a podcast? It doesn’t seem to have any problem leaving songs where I left off in the music app! I am this close to switching to a third-party podcast app, if I weren’t so lazy.

So keep your customizable home screens and shared iCloud photo libraries. When is the podcast app getting revised? It’s been broken as I’ve described above for years now!

Free car wash!

The trick to getting your car washed for free: loan it out to other people!

These days I'm not as consistent in washing my car as I would like. 10 years ago I would religiously take out the bucket and soap once every two weeks. Nowadays I thank the weather gods when it rains because that's a free car wash that I don't have to do. The key is to use wax when I do wash my BMW M2. The waxed surface repels dust and foreign debris quite readily, allowing the rain drops to do most of the work.

This is what happens when you get old, kids: you start caring less and less about keeping things in pristine condition. Not to say you should go the other end of the spectrum and actively neglect on maintenance. The goal is to maximize the utility for as long as possible. I certainly don't make the sort of money to be disposable with the expensive things I buy.

So that means I would have to wash the car every once in a while. There's only so much rain water can do, especially when California has been in drought conditions for the longest time. But recently I've noticed something: the last two times I let a fellow car enthusiast borrow the M2, it has returned to me freshly washed and fueled. That's the code: a gentlemen always return a borrowed car (or anything, really) in cleaner condition and a fully filled tank.

Obviously I try to also loan my car out in somewhat clean condition, and fill up on gas before handing the keys over. Courtesy begets courtesy. A free car wash, however, is something I can happily live with in this quid pro quo situation.

The Giant Race

With the pandemic practically over, it’s time to get back to doing things we did before the whole fiasco. One of those things for me is running. Building up cardio is an important part of an exercise regiment. I just happen to find running the easiest and cheapest - not because I particularly enjoy doing it. Swimming is better for my joints for sure, but there’s the cost of entrance, and having to do laundry immediately afterwards each and every time.

Back in 2014 and 2016 I participated in The Giant Race. It's an annual run event put together by the San Francisco Giants organization. Runners start and end at iconic Oracle Park stadium on a summer Saturday morning (enough alliterating for you?) Traditionally there’s race distances of 5K, 10K, and a half marathon. Having done the 10K twice previously, I was kind of psyched to attempt the half marathon this year.

Sadly that will have to wait because the half marathon is not an option for 2022. The longest distance on offer is the 10K. That’s a distance I can do tomorrow with zero training (not so humble brag). It would be nice to be able to challenge myself; surely the half will return in future years. If I have to guess, cost is the reason the organizer have pruned the half marathon: shutting down the Embarcadero along the pier all the way to Pier 39 can’t be cheap!

Even though I can do a 10K tomorrow straight out of bed, ideally I still should start back up running in preparation. Good thing I live much closer to Lake Merced - my running arena of choice - than I did pre-pandemic. Far easier to get up on a Saturday morning to do the 4.5 miles round the lake. It’s only been two weeks thus far, and the key for me is not so much the distance, but the pace. I am quite far away from the 8 minute 30 seconds per mile the last time I did The Giant Race.

There’s work to do!

Everyday I ruck

These days I’ve been carrying a 30-pound weight in my backpack on my walks to and from work. It serves to add a bit of exercise to my otherwise normal routine. To get a modicum of strength and cardio training during those 20 minutes of walking. And all it takes really is a few taped up bricks. I of course did not go the cheap route. I instead spent nearly $300 on a new backpack and a weight that fits in it perfectly.

I don’t do things half-arsed.

Rucking the 30-pound weight made me realize one thing: people of a larger size (read: fat) essentially carry around this weight all the time. They don’t get to take the weight off once they arrive at work like I do. The increased pressure on the joints and the back is significant. I certainly feel it in my knees and shoulder area. This is what it would be like if I were 30 pounds heavier. Which I was, way back in my college days. The freshman 15 gets to us all.

And I’ve been determined since then to live a lean and healthy life. Sort of ironic that in finding a new way to exercise, it has also reminded me of how I used to be. That is some built-in motivation! What I am looking forward to is taking the 30-pound weight on long hikes. It’s a great and easy way to add some difficulty to some of these hiking trails that lack heavy elevation.

Might not make it

Last week, a good friend of mine had a running high fever along with stomach pains. It necessitated a trip to the ER. she ended up staying at the hospital for about two days. Her entire reproductive system was inflamed to the point of a needing a full round of antibiotics. More bad news: the doctor looked at her blood results and said quite pointedly that if my friend doesn’t change her lifestyle, she won’t make it pass age 40.

You know how for the longest time we looked at age 40 as some life event that’s far out into the distant future? Well that’s no longer the case for me and my group of friends! When I heard the doctor’s grim warning for my friend, I internally calculated, “Wait a minute, 40 is only six years away!” It goes to show just how drastic of a condition my friend is in. The situation is dire.

The solution is simple - on paper. For a healthy lifestyle, all you need is a combination of good diet, exercise, and proper amounts of sleep. Everybody knows this. But much like the smoker who understands he merely has to stop smoking, the execution is exponentially more difficult that the prescription. I mean, if it were so easy, we would all be fit and healthy.

I sincerely hope this health scare is the appropriate wake up call for my friend. From talking with her, she seems to understand the precariousness. She knows what she must do, so fingers crossed the process gets followed through. Slowly!

All in perspective

A good friend of mine had his bachelor party at the local go-karting place. To see who can go the fastest in one lap: a great way to get the competitive spirits out. It’s been a long time since I’ve last sat in a go-kart. Back then the cars were powered by gasoline lawn-mower style engines. Nowadays the karts are all electric. It’s for the better, honestly: petrol fumes are some of the worst things to breathe in.

Other than the change to electric motivation, the karts are largely the same as I remembered. No adjustments possible to the seat and wheel (I wish for a closer wheel), and purely manual steering. My arms definitely got a workout from thrashing the car through the bends. There were eight of us in the group, and I ended up placing second fastest. Even though I had a weight penalty! The smaller of the guys have a weight advantage, I would say. The person in first place is lighter than me, I am sure of it!

Jokes of a sore loser aside, it was a fun morning at the track. I did notice however that there weren’t that many people staffing the place. There were only two guys manning the whole of the track area. And from the first race onwards, I did not see them stop for one second. Federally-mandated breaks every four hours? That’s hilarious. There would be lots of impatient customers if the workers paused just to use the restroom. Would they even eat lunch at all?

It’s a hard life our there for people in the service industry. We have a duty to be kind to them, especially during this period of great staffing shortage.

It puts into perspective how grateful I am to have a job where for most part I simply sit in a front of a computer. Tapping on the keyboard is the extent of any hard labor. I can use the restroom whenever I want, and I can leisurely eat lunch with not much of a time limit. As much as it would be nice to get paid more, it’s important to keep in mind how lucky I already have it.

So fucking sad

There's an implicit contract to living in America: we have to tolerate a decent amount of violent crime. In cities there are neighborhoods you know not to venture into. We have to pass through security just to attend concerts and ballgames, because the chance of someone bringing in a weapon is non trivial. The bad guys have easy access to lots of guns, so our police force is armed like a branch of the military.

A latent sense that some shit can go down at anytime when we're out in public is the mental price we pay to live in this great country. And indeed the United States is a wonderful country, full of opportunity and creativity. There's no better place to elevate your station in life, so long as you're willing to put in the work. I am forever grateful to my parents for bringing us over here from China back in 1996.

But even back then, the young me was warned about the violence and guns that permeate American society. Walking around the neighborhood is not the same here in the States as it was back in China. I didn't really think much of it back then. Because I was only a kid.

It wasn't until my travel to Asian countries in recent years that opened my eyes. It's entirely possible to live in place without the latent backdrop of violent crime potential. You can go absolutely anywhere in a city at any time without fear of something bad happening. I would then fly back to America and get depressed, as the subconscious cloud of danger returns.

It doesn't have to be this way, but those in the seats of federal power keep refusing to do anything. Literal babies getting massacred by bullets in Sandy Hook didn't move the needle towards gun control. I don't expect yet another one to either. That's an incredibly sad and defeatist thing to say, but a freedom - right to bear arms - once granted is supremely difficult to take back. And this is a country that loves its freedoms, for better and worse.

If we could just stop being so individualistic for one moment, and think more of our fellow men, women, and children. Be less selfish, and more selfless. I try hard to not be numb to these mass shootings, but there's so many of them. To care deeply about each one just hurts too much. I can only have immense empathy for the grieving parents that soon will have to bury their young children. It’s so fucking sad.