Blog

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

Food for thought

The tricky thing about ordering Chipotle online for pickup is that the amount of food you receive varies wildly - for the same order. You’re obviously not there in person to watch the worker build the burrito bowl. The physical presence does something psychological: the worker can’t be too stingy to the live customer without risking potential wrath. You’d better give me the proper amounts, or I’m going to say something not nice!

There’s also the factor of them not knowing your entire order beforehand, whereas ordering online, the entire ingredient list is on the printout. The bowl (or tortilla) is the same size, right? So if me the worker knows exactly what needs to go into it, I can apportion appropriately as I please. For a live customer, I have no idea if they’re going to want to add guacamole in the end (always pay for extra guac). I can only fill each ingredient as the customer dictates.

This is a problem only at Chipotle. I expect the same McChicken no matter if I order at the a restaurant, or through the McDonald’s app.

If I wanted to maximize the amount of food possible, I would order in person every time. However, I tend to get Chipotle after working out (the best/easiest way to hit your macros, non cooking for yourself division). For expediency of getting to eating as quickly as possible, I order through the Chipotle app for pickup. Therefore I leave in the hands of the Chipotle gods how much food I get in each bowl. Some days it’s a bonus, and others I can make legitimate claim of getting ripped off.

What’s most important is feeding the body after strenuous workouts. A Chipotle bowl is just about perfectly filled with protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Sodium is a bit on the high side, typical of restaurant food, but post-workout you kind of need the extra bit of sodium - as electrolytes - fed back in anyways.

Do the work

One thing I don’t see talked about in the ‘how to get better sleep’ discussion is the importance of a good day’s work. I don't know about you, but when my day is full of action and getting things done, the satisfaction at the end acts as sweet melatonin. Also helping is that I tend to be more tired, compared to, say, laying on the couch all day. Kind of like how on the days that I workout, those nights I sleep extra well.

Procrastination is only a salve for the moment. The future you will most certainly be happier the current you just did the thing already. No one ever regrets doing the stuff they are supposed to do “early”. Damn it! I should have washed my car today instead of yesterday! More importantly, it contributes to better sleep because I’m not thinking about what I still have to do tomorrow. It’s already done.

Often times when I go to fast food restaurants, I would see workers at the end of their shift leaving. The sense of relieving joy on their faces can be readily seen. They’ve just done a shift of endlessly supplying food to paying customers, on their feet the entire time. Now they get to switch off and relax, and not have to think about work at all until the next day. Can you - with your six figure job - switch off your work brain so cleanly? I think not.

It’s really about putting in the work. Those fast food workers can’t slack off like us white-collar folks can (often on Slack). Many hours are not being lost to Internet browsing. At the end of a work-day, they are tired (it’s hard labor for sure), but they can be satisfied with the output. And I bet they sleep well at night too, the stresses from minimum wage pay notwithstanding.

Roast duck is how much!?

Hypothetical: if you were on death row, what would you choose as your last meal? (Also: what crime did you commit?) Easy decision for me. It’s got to be fried chicken. Funny enough, I actually don’t often eat fried chicken, given its problematic nutritional value. But when I do, it’s got to be KFC. That’s right, I don’t need anything fancier.

A close second to fried chicken would be roast duck. I loved roast duck when I was a kid. Anytime my parents bring home from a Hong Kong restaurant an entire roast duck, that dinner was special. I loved it so much that I vowed to buy and eat a whole one myself, when I become an income-earning adult.

Also funny enough, not once have I bought a whole roast duck and ate it by myself in one sitting. Similar to fried chicken, the nutritional value of roast duck is… not the best. These sort of fattening cheat foods are best reserve for just a few times year. Even though I’ve got enough money to buy all the fried chicken I want. That my friends is called self control.

This past Sunday I was at a Hong Kong restaurant for breakfast (I love porridge). Hanging near the window into the kitchen is the requisite BBQ selection. And then I saw the shocking price for a whole roast duck: $34! There’s inflation, and then there’s inflation. The current price for roast duck is the latter. I can remember a time not long ago it was half the price I saw. Are people still buying these days? I surely would hesitate, or buy way less often.

Things are not great in fried chicken land, either. $20 won’t even buy you a bucket of chicken at KFC. As of this writing, $23 only gets you eight pieces.

Good thing I seldom eat these two food items!

13 miles from home

New year, new challenge. Word on the street is the annual Giant Race in 2024 will mark the return of the half-marathon. That race distance has been absent from the event since the pandemic years. I was disappointed in 2023 to see its continued absence, having done the 10K in 2022 and ready for something slightly more challenging. Better late than never: 2024 will be the year I challenge myself to run a half-marathon.

And then that would be it. I have no desire to run a full marathon after that (sorry, SF Marathon). Spending many hours to run 26 miles doesn’t spark any joy in me whatsoever (hashtag Kondo). And the training required would be detrimental to my set schedule. I would have to run almost every single day of the week, at about five miles per run. To prepare for such a long distance, it’s all about getting enough cumulative mileage - you don’t really run marathons to prepare for a marathon. Speed and intensity is secondary.

Training for the half-marathon entails a similar program. I’m going to be running at least 10 miles a week, every week leading up to the event. That is way less onerous of a time commitment, since I already run a little over four miles every weekend. I think I will simply add another day of running to accumulate the necessary mileage.

I am excited to finally tick running a half-marathon off my list. Let’s get it.

The greatness of Costco

Even though I live within walking distance to a Whole Foods, Target, and a Trader Joe’s, I still make the pilgrimage (in relative distance) to Costco every few weeks. It’s one of the few reasons I still own a car (other than, you know, being a huge car enthusiast) - to drive there and carry all the stuff back.

Because Costco cannot be beaten from a price per unit standpoint. I may have to buy more than I really need at that time (four pounds of oranges compared to one pound at Whole Foods), but I am paying significantly less. The key then is to have enough space to store the extra stuff until it is time for me to use it. My favorite is buying many pounds of Alaskan cod, separating them into half pound pieces, and freezing them for long-term keeping.

Fitness guys and girls: don’t forget about the sale on Optimum Nutrition whey protein at Costco. 48 dollars for 80 servings is a superb deal, from a hugely trusted brand. (Though I can remember it used to cost $48 un-discounted before the pandemic.) I took great advantage of this and bought four bags (had to go to Costco twice, since the sale limits two per customer per visit). Suffice it to say, I am set for much of 2024 on protein. (Yeah buddy! Light weight!)

Another awesome thing about Costco: clothing. For your everyday basic items, Costco offers excellent quality and low prices. Every time I visit, I take a look at what’s newly available at the clothing section. (Would that be compulsive?) I own many pants, shorts, shirts, sweaters, et cetera - all bought at Costco. It is fantastic.

I am admittedly lucky in that I get to bum off my father’s Costco membership (one account can have two cards). But even if that weren’t the case, I would happily pay the $60 for the basic Gold Star membership. Much like an Amazon Prime membership, I easily make back the annual fee in either savings or credit card points.

Of man and pants

I don’t always buy jeans, but when I do, it’s got to be Levi’s. (Sponsor me!)

Now that I’ve returned to a more rigorous workout schedule (three times a week), my current pairs of jeans - Levi’s 502 in 31x30 size - have become a bit loose. What was once possible to wear without a belt, now requires one to hold the pants up properly. Out of curiosity, I went back to look when I last purchased these jeans, and it was May of 2021.

That is right smack in the middle of the pandemic. The reason I bought new Levi’s jeans then was the reverse of now: the current pairs were too tight. Indeed, the COVID weight gain comes for us all, and during the middle of 2021 I was at my heaviest in a long time. I can remember that September, when I absolutely struggled to fit into a suit that was tailored back in 2014. Suffice it to say, I got back on a weight cut after attending my friend’s wedding with said suit.

Back to the present day. With high inflation touching seemingly everything, I was surprised to find that Levi’s jeans (the 502 style, at least) have not increased in price. The $70 for a standard pair is the same today as it was back in 2021. Of course, no one should be paying full price for a pair of Levi’s. Their website has an automatic 20% off, plus free shipping, when you give them an email address for their newsletter. (Goes to show how absurdly high the margins are.)

Third-party retailers often have sales, too. I bought four new pairs of 502 jeans from Amazon at around $50 each. Hopefully, I won’t have to buy replacements in larger sizing for a very long time.

Perfect example why you should buy a Tesla over any other brand of electric vehicles.

What's new for 2024

A running joke amongst my friends is that I change one - and only one - big thing about my rental studio every year. 2022, I bought an LG OLED television (that’s right, no TV at all in my room before then). In 2023, I bought a couch (from IKEA, of course). As a matter of fact, I am sitting on said couch right now typing this, while the LG TV is on in front of me. Absolutely luxurious.

The thinking is: one changer per year keeps it fresh. We all crave novelty, don’t we? We get something new, we get used to that new thing, and then we want something else - in addition, never replacement. By slow-playing these (let’s call them) upgrades to my room, I hope to avoid change for the sake of change. And obviously it’s way easier on the wallet to buy these big ticket items year over year, instead of all at once.

For 2024, the new thing for my studio space is: black-out curtains. My friends are baffled at how long I’ve gone without curtains. As they saying goes: it worked, until it didn’t. Curtains were not needed previously because early my sleep schedule did not warrant it. It was dark when I go to sleep, and it’s dark when I wake up. Window blinds alone were just fine for the task.

Recently, I’ve shifted to a later sleep schedule. Now, the sun is actually out well before my designated wake time. The problem then is the sun would often wake me up before it is time. And that is not a good thing in terms of maximizing sleep. Black-out curtains are now needed. It’s nothing fancy: I bought these curtains from Amazon, and this simple and inexpensive curtain rod from Home Depot.

That’s it! I am done for the year.