Blog

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

Island in the sun

What better way to spend the hottest day of the weekend than to attend a baseball game. It was like a sauna sitting out in the afternoon sun. I can feel the perspirations forming on my head, dripping down the back of my neck through the stands of my hair (which in itself had a strange cooling effect). There’s no avoiding the sweaty and the uncomfortable when the sun is beating down on you like that. You just have to bear through it, making sure to have the appropriate sun protection.

Because the point is to watch a baseball game! Granted I’ve definitely got enough vitamin D to last me a week.

Did you hear the Oakland Athletics team is leaving Oakland for Las Vegas? It looks to be a done deal ever since the Nevada legislature approved a boatload of public money for a baseball stadium on the famous Las Vegas strip. For a Bay Area native, it’s sad to see yet another Oakland team leave (first went the football Raiders, also to Las Vegas). At least the Warriors only moved across the bay to San Francisco. As it stands, in a few years’ time there won’t be any major sports franchises in Oakland. The fans there deserve so much better.

Be that as it may, if we want to see the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum, then time is going to run out on that. My friend and I have never been to the Coliseum, so we figured this past Sunday was as good a time as any to do so. The San Francisco Giants - our local team - was in town from across the Bay Bridge for a series, so it’s kind of like killing two birds with one stone. The Coliseum is super easy to get to from San Francisco: park at Daly City BART station, then take either the Dublin-Pleasanton or Berryessa line eastbound. Get off at the Oakland Airport station, then it’s a short walk to the stadium.

The Oakland Coliseum is a decent stadium. Sure it’s really old by modern standards, but the amenities are all there. Improvements can be had, but I would say it’s not integral to the overall baseball-watching experience. I can see why the owners of the A’s would want a new stadium, though: to attract more than just baseball. Across town, Oracle Park - home of the Giants - play host to all sorts of other events such as soccer and concerts. That is revenue that the A’s do not see from the Coliseum, and presumable will from the new stadium in Las Vegas.

Still, sucks for the fans in Oakland.

Signature required

I recently (finally) pressed purchase on the Fujifilm XT-5 camera. Bought it on Amazon, of course, to get that sweet 5% cash back. (Mind you that is only if you are an Amazon Prime member, along with using the Chase Amazon Prime card.) For such a hefty purchase in terms of value, it’s good to see that a signature is required to accept delivery. No need to fear the delivery person dropping it off nonchalantly in the front yard, exposing thousands of dollars worth of camera gear to potential thieves. That would not be ideal.

Similarly, I helped a friend buy a new camera of his own (A Sony A7 Mark IV) on Amazon. (He did not have Amazon Prime.) Receiving that package also called for an adult signature. No big deal; there’s people home most of the time. However, the Amazon-branded delivery person did not adhere to the requirements! He merely dropped off the camera at the front door as if it were a package of toothpaste. No knock, no door bell ring, no signature attained. That’s not very nice.

I would have been rightly pissed if not for that fact my housemate was home and intercepted the package right when it was dropped off. I’ve higher expectations for an Amazon-branded delivery person to actually follow the instructions. Conversely, the Fujifilm XT-5 was delivered by UPS, and they made sure to get a signature before delivery. I know this, because nobody was home to receive it at the time, so I had to re-route the package to a local pickup spot. By the way, that costs $7.99 now at ups.com. That’s extorting pure profit just because they can, if you ask me.

This reminds me of the time I bought my (many thousands of dollar) Yamaha piano. That was also unceremoniously dropped off with nary a signature required. Granted, if you have the strength to steal a 70 pound box of unwieldy length, carry it through a front garden and over a fence, then I think you have the right to keep it. Thankfully that did not happen, and someone was immediately home at that time as well.

Get in the flow

We all want to get in a flow state, don’t we? The feeling where we’re are so in tune and concentrated on the current activity, that everything else on the periphery melts away. Time seems to not be a thing anymore, until of course when it reintroduces itself as the signal for the end of activity. Reality sets back in. Time to be an adult again.

I had such an experience at the improv class yesterday evening. A three hour night class - after an already full day at work - would typically be a slow burn. Anybody that’s taken night classes in college knows exactly what I’m talking about. However, yesterday’s three hours of improv lessons flew by super quickly. I was in a zone, so concentrated on the material and just being in the present there. The class was adjourning when I thought we’d still have one more hour to go.

I’ve really come to enjoy this beginners improv class. It has a surprisingly philosophical bent to it. Improv can only be done in the present. Whatever you’ve prepared in the past and prepared to do in the future don’t matter - the situation can and will shift in an instant. So you’ve got to be ready, pay complete attention, and be vulnerable enough to say (or act) the first thing that pops to mind. You’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to look silly - that’s the point. This class has been incredibly useful for getting me out of my own head, and letting go of social insecurities.

The instructor remarked yesterday, “You have everything you need at this moment.” A fairly zen statement to a student’s question of what if he can’t come up with anything right away. I think that student is still worried about saying the right thing, coming up with something clever and pertinent (I’m not any better). While that is indeed the goal, the flip side is that one cannot be afraid to look foolish. Worrying about what other people think stifles authenticity. At least we’re at the right class to correct this habit!

I should have drove

Yesterday evening I got invited to attend a Giants game at Oracle Park. For once, I decided to take public transport instead of driving. I live two blocks from a light-rail stop, on a line - with a brief transfer at a later station - that takes me directly to the ballpark. It doesn’t get any more door-to-door service than this. It sure beats getting stuck in rush hour traffic driving, only to park many blocks away from Oracle Park (because free parking), necessitating a lengthy walk.

That is, if the light-rail is actually functioning normally. I got on the first train yesterday, only to encounter a completely shut tunnel system. No trains of any line were able to go underground towards downtown. We had to instead get off at West Portal - just before the tunnel - and take a surface shuttle bus. It doesn’t take a genius to realize a street bus is far slower than an underground metro train that’s unimpeded by car traffic. Worse, the bus shuttle got me only to downtown - it didn’t extended beyond towards the ballpark. So I walked the rest of the way.

A trip that at most should have taken about an hour, instead took two. And you wonder why public transportation ridership hasn’t recovered fully from the pandemic. It’s a really bad look to have a major section of the light-rail system closed off during evening rush hour. Folks have already suffered the nine hours at work already! Adding to their already lengthy commute time is kind of unconscionable. It’s a bad deal for the people with responsibilities waiting at home. I at least had the luxury of not being in a hurry (I’ve been to enough baseball games to not care about missing the opening few innings).

Silver lining to everything: it was an enjoyable walk along the Embarcadero towards Oracle Park. The summer evening sun provided a great ambiance. Crisp air and excellent views will make anyone forget about the unscheduled delay.

Let's get after it

I am definitely not a spring chicken anymore. Three nights ago - due to assisting a friend with Taylor Swift concert logistics - I got only about four hours of not-so-great sleep. Three days later, I am still feeling the effects, even though on subsequent nights I got the proper eight hours of slumber. Imagine had I pulled an all-nighter: I would be a wreck the entire week following.

It doesn’t help that I am returning to work today, after taking the prior week off. It was a rather eventful vacation. Barbenheimer happened: I saw both Barbie and Oppenheimer in theatres. Later on in the week I also saw the latest Mission Impossible movie (the seventh(?) film in the franchise). That is also a film I recommend seeing. Tom Cruise is still at the height of his powers; Dead Reckoning Part 1 is the perfect, prototypical action movie for the summer.

I’d plan to finally do a write-up of my trip to Angel Island a few months back, but my MacBook Pro took a complete dump midway through the week. $850 dollars lighter wallet later, as of this writing the MacBook Pro is restored and back to as it were before it died unceremoniously. This is a friendly reminder to make sure you keep solid, up-to-date backups of your computers. Other than the financial hit, it was otherwise not stressful at all that my laptop went down: I knew I have everything backed-up safely.

The aforementioned excursion to pickup my friend from the Taylor Swift concert at 2:00AM was part of a weekend dog-sit for that same friend. She had a party to attend to down in San Diego. I stayed at her place for two days to watch our dog. I particularly enjoyed the morning walks. Nothing will force you out of bed quite like being responsible for a pet. As an early-riser anyways, it was lovely and peaceful taking our dog out for a walk before anyone else have even woken up.

I for sure miss doing that this morning.

Took the midnight train

San Francisco Bay Area folks: did you attend the Taylor Swift concert at Levi’s Stadium? I sure didn’t, because who can afford the thousand dollar get-in price on the secondary market? You’d have a better chance of hitting the billion dollar Mega Millions jackpot than acquiring tickets through official channels.

Nevertheless, a friend of my friend did manage to score Taylor Swift tickets, and my friend got invited to join. The logistics of getting down to Santa Clara from San Francisco is, in a word, challenging. Nobody in their right mind would drive, unless you plan to get there super early. So public transport it is. My friend rode the BART train to Milpitas, then took the local VTA light rail to the stadium. So far, so straight forward.

Leaving the stadium, however, was apparently quite the nightmare. The concert did not end until 11:40 PM (Taylor really gives your money’s worth: a three hour plus jam-packed show). VTA trains were running after hour to ferry folks to either the Milpitas BART station, or the Mountain View Caltrain station. BART was not an option for my friend, as the special late-night train did not go all the way to San Francisco. So Caltrain it is.

Unfortunately, there’s but one special train heading northbound to San Francisco. It was scheduled to depart 75 minutes after the concert ends. That proved to be hugely optimistic. Due to the sheer number of people, my friend didn’t even get to Mountain View station until 1:45 AM - two hours after the show ended. At that point, the lone train was still there, looking less than half full, awaiting more passengers before departed. Our guess is it wouldn’t depart until after 3:00 PM at the earliest.

Lucky for my friend, I was there at the station to pick her up. What the heck did people do before the invention of cellphones? The peace of mind afforded by modern communication is really appreciated in situations like this.

Emergency cash

It was an unceremoniously start to this week of vacation. The latest macOS update - 13.5 - released on Tuesday, and it utterly broke my M1 MacBook Pro. You know the part where an update asks you to restart the device? Well, my Mac laptop did not restart, could not be restarted, and generally become unresponsive. The sucky thing about modern Macs is that there aren’t much buttons to press, no secret reset handshakes. Just about the only thing to do is hold down the power button for 10 seconds, and then press it again. That’s all an end user can do if their MacBook Pro is dead.

Well, not exactly all. If you happen to have another Mac lying around (few seldom do, I would reckon), you can connect that to the “dead” Mac via the included USB-C charging cable. Download and fire up Apple Configurator, press a sequence of buttons on the dead Mac to put it in DFU mode, then maybe there’s a chance the unresponsive computer can be revived.

Fortunately for me, I do have another MacBook Air lying around. Unfortunately for me, reviving the MacBook Pro using Apple Configurator did not work. The macOS 13.5 release so completely broke the machine it necessitated a visit to the local Apple Store. Good thing I live two blocks from one.

Bad thing my nearly two-years old MacBook Pro is out of warranty. When a Mac laptop is dead like it is, it usually means a logic board (otherwise known as the motherboard on PCs) replacement. For a 16-inch MacBook Pro, that means a flat charge of $850. Not an insignificant sum, though for a laptop that costs $3,600 new (I had opted for some upgrades), it’s not really that bad. What sucks is that I am now out the $850, all because of a faulty OS update. Negotiation with the head Genius Bar person did not net me any monetary sympathies, just some personal ones.

Funny enough, the same person asked me if I needed a moment to think about the $850 charge. While I recognize it’s a hefty sum for some people, ultimately I need a working computer! Unceremoniously forking over that money hurts, sure, but it’s not going to wreck my finances one bit. I mean, you’re able to come up with $850 easily in an emergency, right?