Blog

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

Compromised sleep

What I do when I know I won’t be falling asleep anytime soon? Simply go with it. Don’t fall asleep. It’s totally fine. Get out of bed and go do something else. It sure beats tossing and turning for at least an hour! I rather read a book instead. The quantity and quality of sleep would be the same either way. Sometimes there’s too much on my mind for it to calm down and get to slumber.

Last night was such a night. My mind was too preoccupied with the happenings of the following day (today). I knew immediately after shutting the lights that sleep was not coming quickly. So I turned the lights back on and did some work on the computer. Stuff that mainly concerns with the thing of tomorrow (today) that was simmering in my head. If my brain is so eager and anxious about it, might as well get a head start.

Again, this isn’t some tip to preserve sleep: it’s going to be compromised whether I stayed in bed or not. Some nights are just rougher than others. The coffee this morning is especially crucial now that I’ve only got about six and a half hours of shut-eye. Good news is, today is the next day! I’m now free to take action on the items I was ruminating about.

Then hopefully the sleep will come easier tonight. Nevertheless, it’s better to go with the flow of what your body is telling you then fight it. If sleep isn’t happening anytime soon, get up and go do something else. Nobody enjoys lying in bed and being wide awake for hours. Even when the bed is new and super comfortable.

Seven dollar mark

Not even during the height of the initial Ukraine situation did gas prices breach the magical seven dollar mark. Quite a few times the cost of premium at my local Chevron station rested at $6.999, but never above that. Until now. For reasons I can only find as “refinery issues” - it’s always refinery issues - the signpost at that Chevron now reads $7.099 for a gallon of 91 octane. I’m so glad I filled up at $6.959 just the week before.

For a car that sits stationary for most of the week. I’m fortunate that I can walk to work during this period of insane inflation. I cannot fathom what it’s like for people who have to commute by car. What can they do but pay up, honestly? It’s not like they can simply stop using their cars. Public transportation is notorious not great around here. Buses arriving in 10 minute intervals in considered optimal during commute hours!? And that is if the bus even comes on time.

This isn’t Japan, where rush hour trains arrive in three minute intervals, and almost always on time.

No one is going to subject themselves to the public transport experience once they are so used to driving. Being stuck is traffic is still better than longingly waiting for a bus that may never come. Not to mention, you’re going to be late. Grumble they may about high fuel costs, but there’s really no other option. Buying a more fuel-efficient car or a fully electric-vehicle isn’t the solution, either. Because you have to account for the entire cost of the whole car. Imagine how many gallons of gas (let’s say) $30,000 can buy!

Good news is our union have negotiated a one time 7% raise for its members. Bad news is all of that new money will go towards covering the existing inflation. It’s not just gas prices, right? Practically everything purchasable have increased in price. Except for the new iPhones, which curiously have stayed the same price as the previous years. Lucky me.

Sheer convenience

Last evening, I had to pick up a friend from the airport. She was flying in from Singapore on a 15 hour flight. Foolishly she slept on the plane, which meant she will be properly jet-lagged today. From the looks of text messages in our group chat, she was still awake well into 3 o’clock this morning. Today will be rough for her indeed - the friend is already going back to work!

Before picking her up at the airport, we made a detour to the In-N-Out burger nearby in Millbrae. Whoever decided to put an In-N-Out there - right off the freeway exit just after the exit for SFO - is a genius. You can get the west coast famous In-N-Out burger immediately as you arrive into San Francisco. Grab your rental car, then cross the freeway. What, you want to take a bus there? Sorry, this is not Asia. Public transit doesn’t work like that around here.

Opposite to the Millbrae In-N-Out is the combined Caltrain and BART station. We were surprised and delighted to see a whole slew of apartments being built around it. Now that is convenience! I would totally rent a place there if where I work is accessible by train, either up into San Francisco, or further down the pennisula. I’d image those apartments will sell out quick, even in this climate of are we or are we not having a recession.

From the looks of the website, there will be shops and food places at the ground floor as well. As a person who lives two blocks from a major mall, I cannot overstate how valuable it is to be so close to these sort of amenities. Look at food: the reason I can make do with a relatively small fridge is because I can practically grocery shop at any time. The Whole Foods at the mall is open from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM. I just buy what I need for that next meal - there’s no need to stock up.

This kind of convenience is worth everything. You’d have to pay me double for me to even consider moving out of my current living/working situation.

The most depressing place

One of the most joyless place in the world has to be your local DMV office. That’s why we avoid going there as much as possible. My California driver license is due for renewal this year. Normally I would choose the renew-by-mail option. However, I’ve been procrastinating on getting the REAL ID, a Department of Homeland Security identification requirement to board a U.S. domestic flight. This will be fully enforced May of next year, so I had to bite the bullet and visit the DMV.

Even with an appointment, I was not checked into the building until 10 minutes after my scheduled time. The line outside was that long. Coincidentally, the card payment devices at that DMV office were out of a commission, a fact that wasn’t relayed to those of us in line. It would be cash only, a huge bummer for me because I hardly ever carry cash. Luckily my housemate was home and just 10 minutes away. He came through with the cash minutes before my number was called. Clutch!

The paperwork to attain a REAL ID is relatively draconian. Firstly you need another form of identification (can’t be your driver license), which for most of us is our passport. Secondly you need two pieces of official paperwork that has your name and current address. I used a bank statement and the declarations page of my automobile insurance. The second part seems to be tripping some people up. I heard no less than two people while I was at the DMB not having the necessary identifying papers.

Of course, they didn’t get much sympathy from the DMV clerks. No need to be joyous and courteous toward customers when job security is already baked in. Though honestly there’s really not much for the clerk to do if the customer did not come prepared. On the other hand, the customer likely wasted two hours waiting and will now have to do it all over again on another day. I would be frustrated too.

Save for the snafu with needing cash, I had everything in order. The REAL ID diver license will come in the mail soon enough. And hopefully I won’t have to step foot inside that DMV for at least a few years.

Drive-by ticketing

I didn’t know the technology that meter maids carry are so advanced these days! I guess gone are the days of them actually stepping out of the car, taking out a pad, and then jotting down the details onto a ticket. Nowadays they use a scanning device to take down a car’s license plate number. The same device then prints out the ticket, whereby the meter maid then puts onto the windshield. The entire process takes less than 10 seconds, like a drive-by shooting.

I witness this just yesterday. It was our side of the street’s turn for its twice-monthly street cleaning. Our neighbor failed to move their Lexus out of the way - not the first time this year. The meter maid came and ticketed the car in a blink of an eye. I honestly would have missed it if I wasn’t staring directly at it outside my room window. San Francisco State University uses the same technology to police its parking lots. Remember when tickets included a mail-in envelop? Not anymore! All you get now is a some-what waterproof piece of paper with details on how to pay online.

On behalf of San Francisco residents, I would like to thank our neighbor for contributing to the city’s funds. Thank you so much for your service! God knows with the dwindling tax base of empty downtown offices, San Francisco needs all the revenue it can get from other places. My housemate was walking the dog at the same time yesterday and saw a non-insignificant number of cars getting ticketed around the neighborhood. Thank you to those drivers as well for their service. What’s the price of a street-cleaning violation ticket these days anyways?

I can smugly say I avoid getting ticketed by inputing the street cleaning days onto my calendar. I then receive alerts for it the night before. Impossible for me to miss! Besides, unlike our neighbor, my housemate would actually warn me if I forgot to move my car for whatever reason. That’s what neighbors do - if we like you.

Utilitarian longevity

At work we deal with plenty of computers of varying vintage. A constant I’ve seen is just how robust Mac desktops can be. We’re still comfortably deploying machines dating as fast back as 2015! Can’t say the same about Mac laptops, however: those tend to get absolutely abused. Any MacBook Air/Pro with the dreaded butterfly keyboard returns to us fairly useless. iMacs on the hand, because of their unmoving nature, will simply solider on until Apple ceases support in the latest macOS update.

These days I’m all about functional things lasting a long time. Which is to say I’m trying to be the type of person who keeps stuff for an extended period, instead of replacing them with the latest new shiny thing soon as it is available. Today is as good a day as any to start. I’m still going to trade in my iPhone for a new one every year, but at least the old phone goes back to Apple to live another day for a new master. Last week I returned a pair of AirPods Max headphones, instead choosing to keep using a pair of Bose QC35 headphones that’s been with me since the mid 2010s.

There will be no computer upgrade for me this year as well. I’ve trade in for a new MacBook Pro for the past three years, and the trend stops now. I don’t care how awesome the M2-powered MacBook Pros will be this year - I’m not switching! This M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro costs a whole lot of money, and it is still plenty fast for my purposes. I’m looking to get at least five years out of this one. Besides, my general workflow these days involves nothing heavy: a browser to access the Internet is all I need, really. I’m typing this right onto Squarespace’s CMS!

The reason we can still deploy 2015 iMacs into the field is precisely because the typical user only needs it to access the Internet. Add in Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat to the mix, and that’s pretty much all there is to it. I reckon those iMacs can be of service for at least three more years. A decade of use! Now that’s longevity.

Chinatown futures

This past weekend there was a car show in San Francisco’s chinatown. Organizers closed down Grant Avenue, from California all the way to Broadway. A reputed 100 cars of varying price and exoticism showed up for the event. It was a amazing to see. One, because you generally don’t expect to see a car show in Chinatown. Two, it’s great that people are holding events in Chinatown to stimulate the local economy. We absolutely cannot let this historic enclave die.

It’s tough, though. The pandemic have knocked more than a few places out of business. The remaining restaurants and shops are mostly run by people of my parents’ generation. You really don’t see my generation accepting the baton and continuing on the legacy (so to speak). And it makes sense: Asian parents toil endlessly to give their children a better life. They aspire for us to be people of power and influence in corporate America (plus the usual doctor and lawyer). Running a gift shop in Chinatown is most certainly not that.

I have a friend whose parents recently retired from operating a restaurant out in the east bay. My friend and his siblings have no desire to takeover the family business. Because they’ve all got better jobs and a far easier life than sweating in a kitchen six days a week. The family ended up selling the restaurant.

So there is a some latent concern about what Chinatown will look like in a few years’ time. Who will take up the mantel once the current owners and operators retire - if it won’t be their offsprings? I think it will have to be the same type of people who my friend’s parents sold their restaurant to. Working-class Chinese immigrants who’ve been in this country for a bit - so they have some saved capital - and are looking for the next step up in investment.