Blog

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

Forever homebody

To be interesting, one must do interesting things. I try to go do interesting things, but it seems I usually end up staying home. A homebody to the end! My life is as interesting as the video games I play, and the books I read. Which is to say, those things are interesting to me! Just perhaps not to others when they ask me what am I up to lately. Videos games and books, while they have good stories, don’t make good stories.

I thought moving out my parents’ home will free me the dictates of their schedule. I am free to plan my days how I want and when I want. Go on a mini trip at a moment’s notice? Sure! I don’t have to inform anybody else. No need to tell my mother I won’t be home for dinner for the next few days. Sounds great in theory, but in practice I’m as much a homebody as ever. The only difference is I can eat dinner when I please.

And why wouldn’t I stay home most of the time? It’s got everything I could possible need to entertain myself. Even my beautiful BMW M2 is parked right outside my window for me to look at from time to time. It’s as close to a car-in-the-living-room-as-an-art-piece as I will get. And because I live two blocks from a mall with absolutely everything else - food, shopping, a movie theatre - why would I think to leave and go on adventures?

But really, I should. What I need is an extended road trip somewhere to nowhere. I haven’t done one of those since way before the start of the pandemic. I’m taking the first week of August off from work, and I probably should take that opportunity to go somewhere. What I shouldn’t do is stay home, no matter how fun - to me - home can be.

FF7 Remake is a masterpiece

Hard to believe it’s still nearly impossible to buy a PlayStation 5 without paying a markup to scalpers. Supply drops from major retailers are still few and far. We’re nearly two years into this new generation of consoles! Even with supply chain issues, I didn’t expect the shortage to last thing long. Naively, perhaps. I’m definitely lucky to have snagged a PS5 early this year on a chance encounter with a flash in-stock situation at Best Buy.

No such luck yet for my friend who’s been trying to buy one. Without markups, obviously.

The console isn’t just sitting next to the TV doing nothing. I’ve been steadily playing through some games on the weekends. Can’t play on a school night! After Ghost of Tsushima and finally finishing Grand Theft Auto 5, the latest game on the list is Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I guess you can say my gaming preference skews towards role-playing games with a long runtime.

FF7 Remake is absolutely breathtaking. I’m glad the producers chose to expand upon the first arc of the original FF7 into a fully realized game. Even though we will have to wait many years more for parts two and three to complete the story (hashtag sad face). The city of Midgar shines and awes, especially on a giant television in 4K. Often times I would pan the camera around just to look at the surroundings. It’s surreal to see things we’ve only imagined from the original game come to life in full digital detail.

I would akin it to seeing the pages of The Lord of the Rings come to fruition in the Peter Jackson movies. It’s pure wish fulfillment.

The voice acting adds a layer of drama and emotion to the FF7 story in Remake, one that’s missing in the 1997 version’s endless wall of scrolling text. The player is more attached to the characters, more invested in their journey and what motivates them. The infamous and impending death of Aerith later on in the story will be extra emotional - if it happens!

But that’s something to find out in the sequels. As it stands, Remake is a fantastic start to retelling the beloved Final Fantasy 7 story. I enjoy playing it immensely.

Late night airport run

Late last Wednesday (or very early Thursday, now that I think about it) I had to pick up my friend from the airport. In Oakland. A roundtrip of well over an hour. As an avid early sleeper, being out that late in the night is a scarce occurrence. And with the roads seemingly as crazy and dangerous as ever, there were some trepidations in performing this good deed. The freaks come out at night!

Good thing that I absolutely love to drive my BMW M2 Competition. Truly a fun and spunky little coupe. I’ve not driven it much at all lately due to high gas prices, so each opportunity is worth savoring. The other good news is that there’s actually not that many cars on the highways during those night hours. Cruising at 80 miles an hour was easy and comfortable. Even the giant semi trucks were going way above their supposed 55 MPH speed limit.

Like most airpots (I presume), Oakland International has a waiting lot just outside of the terminals. For 30 minutes you can park for free and wait for your love ones to be done with baggage claim. Unfortunately for me it took more than 30 minutes because of a delay in baggage transport. I have to assume it’s because there just aren’t that many workers at an airport pass twelve o’clock in the morning.

Much easier to pick someone up flying into SFO: I can leave my house right when the plane lands. Usually that will match up perfectly to them walking out of the terminal. But with high ticket prices these days, it’s well worth the savings to fly into Oakland if the option is there. Just make sure you have a friend who is willing to come pick you up in the dead of night!

Wedding bell blues

This past Sunday was the wedding day of my very good friend. For reasons I’ve detailed in a previous post, I was not able to attend the festivities. And honestly I was quite down about it, because the whole situation was kind of arbitrary. Superficial reasons prevented me from going. The fears of missing out was completely real.

I felt slightly better once I found out another groomsmen also could not make it to the wedding. Misery loves company, you know. It was also due to something beyond his control, but somewhat more tangible than my situation: he caught COVID. There wasn’t enough elapsed days to not be contagious. So unfortunately for my good friend, he was down two out of the original three groomsmen.

A mad scramble ensued to find replacements. And then there was the matter of getting suits remeasured and altered with a week’s notice. Thankfully the suit rental shop accommodated the sudden changes with zero issues. As for the replacements, another friend of ours stepped up - in my place - super clutch. The duties of a groomsman were considerable, so to pinch-hit like that in such short timeframe was hugely commendable. Paradoxically, I babysat for that friend on wedding day, freeing him to actually perform those duties.

I guess in that way I got to participate and help out after all.

Happy independence

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! America is indeed one of the great countries on this planet. The epicenter of innovation and entertainment. Opportunities abound, so long as you are willing to put in the long hard work. This country is also home to a uniquely deadly gun culture, and unreasonably high crime rates - depending on where you go. A trade-off worth making? I bet plenty of people think so.

I arrive at this year’s Independence Day having taken the previous week off from work. I didn’t go any where, because honestly who can afford the hefty inflated travel costs these days. Even a roadtrip is prohibitive with the still historically high gas prices. That said, I still managed a glorious time staying home and not really doing much of anything. I slept about nine hours each day, and just sort of milled about, relaxed into the present moment.

But now I’m ready to return to regular life. Back to reading books, studying Korean, piano practice, and writing on this blog. There’s also going to work, obviously. You know, the thing that makes all of this leisurely stuff possible. As ever I remain super thankful that I am able to walk to work. I would be far less cheery today if there’s going to be a long car commute awaiting tomorrow. After not walking anywhere at all for one whole week, I’m actually looking forward to moving the legs again.

The second half of 2022 is upon us. Let’s make it count!

Death of a grandmother

Thursday night, my maternal grandmother passed away. It’s something the family have anticipated for awhile now, so the news wasn’t too shocking. Probably more relief than anything: grandmother is not suffering anymore. Ever since she took a nasty fall back in early April and then later diagnosed with lung cancer, she’s been in a palliative care situation ever since. She’s a fighter for sure, a long and tough 89 years of life. May the deity in the sky rests her soul.

I largely owe my current existence here in America to my grandmother. She brought my mom and dad over here from China on a family visa. How completely different my life would have been had we stayed in China instead. An alternative timeline not worth pondering about. I’m just grateful and thankful my grandmother made this timeline possible.

Due to ongoing COVID-related restrictions, I’ve long said my official goodbyes to grandmother some months back. The facility permits one visitor at a time, no longer than 30 minutes. Said visitor needs a same-day negative rapid test, and has to fully suit-up with protective gear. Because of that, it was more prudent for my mother and her siblings to do a rotation of sorts. Most of the grandkids visited once and that was it.

Due to Chinese cultural superstition, I now cannot attend my good friend’s - who is Chinese - wedding next Sunday. It is considered very unlucky to partake in celebratory events, until the deceased is properly buried and funeral rites performed. That won’t happen for my grandmother until the Sunday after next. So it is with great disappointment that I had to inform my friend I will be bowing out of wedding party duties.

He and I probably don’t care at all about superstitions, but our parents certainly do. It’s a shame and slightly unfair that I have to miss once-in-a-lifetime (you’d hope!) life milestone of a good friend. Simply to appease the spirits of our dead ancestors. Honestly, I am a bit mad about it.

I slept just fine

Yesterday was the type of day that I am glad I live at the bottom level of a three story home. The upper two levels absorb all the heat from the sun, leaving my place relatively nice and cool. It was said that yesterday was the hottest day in San Francisco since October of 2020. Which is to say it was the hottest days I’ve experiences in this new place since I moved here back in November of that same year. Upper 80 degree day? No problem!

I do feel for my housemates upstairs who were absolutely roasting. At least they’ve got a portable AC unit for their office. After work they should have shut it off and turn the room into a sauna. No need to pay heftily for a monthly gym membership!

Joking aside, I too would be running portable air conditioning if my room doesn’t stay as cool as it does. Not for during the day, mind you, but for the precious sleep hours. The body needs to cool down a few degrees in order for us to fall asleep. With indoor temperatures above 80 degrees, it’s nearly impossible to cool down. You’re already sleeping without blanket; there’s nothing more to remove! I know this deeply, because my previous bedroom was on the third floor.

Obviously, sleep is one of the most importantly things to do daily, so the cost to run an AC overnight is completely worth it. I bet my friend, who bought a new house last year and had to take some convincing to install central AC, was loving the decision last night. Even though it only gets that hot for a handful of days per year in San Francisco, it’s only going to get worst, right? Hashtag climate change.