Blog

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

Can't have everything

I read on Reddit about this guy who wants to be a competitive bodybuilder, but is lamenting his inability to hang out with his friends. In order to get lean and jacked, the guy cannot go out to eat, drink alcohol, or smoke weed. He wants to have his cake and eat it too, though honestly, who buys cake to not eat it?

What I am reading is the unwillingness to sacrifice. What you’ve heard about life is incorrect: you cannot have everything. You have to choose. The amount of effort and dedication required to be a stage-ready bodybuilder is immense. Those who go on that journey will have to forgo many things in order to achieve the goal. There are no shortcuts, you cannot have both.

It’s the wanting to have it all that leads to upset, depression, or raging against the night. People are pining for the impossible. The new parents who can’t stand to see their single friends hanging out and traveling. Sorry, the tremendous lack of sleep and non-existent social life is part of the deal. The bargain may feel Faustian, but one really can’t be resentful of their kids ruining the life they once had.

I too have felt the misery when I have to choose. For example: I love cars. I’ve been toying with buying another car to compliment the BMW M2. However, it would absolutely crater my long term financials. (I’ve already done it once.) I simply cannot keep two cars and hope to have money for other things I enjoy, such as travel, or expensive camera gear.

I can of course switch careers and get a higher-paying job, but that comes with its own trade-offs. Work-life balance would surely go to shits. Is it worth that just to feed the car enthusiast side of me?

Maybe. I don’t think there’s a wrong answer here. You make a choice, and a door opens while other doors have to close.

Not twinning

Frequent listeners of podcasts (or followers of gym girls on instagram) have undoubtedly heard of EightSleep pod covers. A cooling layer between you and the bed so that you can sleep better during the hot summer days. It’s rather expensive, and the latest version even requires a subscription. But, if you live in Texas and your summers are three months of 90 degree nights, a pod cover for the bed is likely much cheaper than running air conditioning for the room.

Here in San Francisco, we really only have one week of “true” summer. And it’s during October. The one week that makes me pine for a cooling solution so I can actually sleep at night. But even if I’m willing to pay the high price, there’s a problem: EightSleep’s smallest size offering is a full. I have a twin mattress, of which I just purchased two years ago. There’s no way I am changing (read: paying even more money) that arrangement just to sleep better for a week out of the year. Maybe. Thinking about it.

To the fine folks at EightSleep: why discriminate against broke boys like me? I can’t afford a place in San Francisco with enough space to fit a full size (and above) bed. Not in this economy! I want you to shut up and take my money (thousands), yet you guys refuse to make a twin size version of your product. Or perhaps you’ve done customer studies, and people who have twin size beds (children, and space-efficient adults like me) aren’t likely to be customers. Either way, I am very disappointed.

At least my Helix mattress has a sewn-in cooling top layer. No, I don’t have a discount code for you. A website with dozens of readers is atomically insignificant to receive brand deals.

The final tour

The Grand Tour (this iteration, anyways) has come to an end. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May have done their final motoring program after two decades of collaboration. An absolute end of a glorious era. Their final episode - aptly titled One for the Road - is up to the usual standards: spectacular cinematography, mixed in with many pre-planned ridiculousness.

It’s a firm reminder that things change, and things come to an end. Nothing is static, good or bad. In a (fake) ideal world, car enthusiasts would love to see Clarkson, Hammond, and May continue on making car videos. Like your favorite pint of beer, you don’t want it to end ever. Every February there has to be a Super Bowl. But even with the NFL’s immensely enormous popularity, who can say for certain American football will still be around in a few decades?

Father Time is undefeated, of course. No one wants to see an obese Clarkson on these prolonged road trips in third world countries. He himself probably can’t handle the stress any longer. People age out of their profession (like NFL players), it is what it is.

Clarkson did remarked in One for the Road that one of the reason he is retiring from the job is that he cannot get excited about electric cars. And those are the future, isn’t it? I very much agree with Clarkson. I think electric vehicles are fantastic for urban driving duties. The fact they don’t emit any greenhouse gas in our city environment is a huge win.

However, there’s no romance in electric cars.There’s no quirks to give them flavor, unique mechanical layouts to bring about varying dynamics. They all sound the same, too. The whirl of an electric motor doesn’t exactly tingle the spine. A crescendo that never arrives.

Clarkson and co can’t do an epic road trip in used EVs. Soon as one breaks down, you have to call a tow truck, and that is the end of the program. There’s no fixing it on the side of the road like an internal combustion car. The fire risk with batteries is too huge to perform stunts with EVs. The amount of water to put out an electrical fire is apparently way too much.

Never mind that plenty of countries and locales don’t have the infrastructure to support vehicle charging.

With these two headwinds of advancing age and lack of enthusiasm for modern new cars, it’s no wonder Clarkson, Hammond, and May are hanging up their proverbial hats. Hang their jerseys up on the rafters; these three (and their entire crew) have provided us with many tremendous hours of motoring entertainment. Cheers.

Don't worry about it

There’s a fine Chinese tradition of fighting over the restaurant bill. Every Chinese kid has sat at the dim sum table while the parents argue with relatives on who gets the honor of paying the entire tab. When my parents meet up with their friends, there always has to be a discussion on who gets to treat who.

I am a fan of this culture. Breaking bread with others is probably the oldest bonding practice in the history of our species. Treating others to a meal is a show of tenderness and care. I do think our parents’ generation tend to go overboard with the arguing. (The smart and sly move is to go the front desk during the middle of the meal.) Sometimes they forget that it’s suppose to be kind gesture, and not about “winning”.

Money is tricky when it comes to relationships. For sure there are people that use treating others to food as a flex, a sort of “I am better than you” card. On the other hand, the person being treated to may feel somehow inferior. What is suppose to be heartwarming can easily turn into resentment.

As I grow older - and have money - I like to pay the whole tab for my people every so often. The problem is, our generation has technology. The ease of sending money to others (apps like Venmo) means even if I am first to grab the bill and pay it all, it’s stupidly easy for friends to pay me back. The only defense would be to block them on the money apps, which just isn’t feasible. So long as someone disagrees with your gesture, you cannot prevent them from paying you.

Might technology ruin this great Chinese tradition of fighting over the bill?

Can't be trusted

It occurred to me why people run to catch the bus or train. Because they understand that if they miss this particular one, when the next one will arrive is an absolute crapshoot. Sure, the schedule says one train every 10 minutes during rush hour, but we all know that’s not reliable at all. I too would risk traffic impalement to run across an intersection, chasing after the bus.

This isn’t Japan, where trains arrive every five minutes during commute times. And you can be damn sure it’s going to be on time. If there are any delays, the train conductor apologies profusely over the PA system. It’s very sad when you see proper standards of what is possible, and then you return to your own country and see that it can’t be had. My advice: don’t visit Japan or other modern Asian countries.

I read on the Reddits that a majority of San Francisco’s school children gets driven to campus. The article points out it would be better for congestion and the environment if more kids take public transport or bike. No shit, but has the author done either of those things back in his schooling days? I’ve taken the bus to school, and I wouldn’t want that for my (hypothetical) kid if I can help it. The amount of crazy and violence I’ve seen (and been done to) on city buses is enough to give PTSD.

Biking might be worse. Anyone that’s driven in San Francisco since the pandemic would agree the driving quality has utterly deteriorated. A tiny kid on a bicycle is a huge gamble against the laws of physics.

I get it: parents want as much control as possible. If you can eliminate any doubt that your child will get to school safely, you do it. Zoom zoom.

Pure envy

Youtube personality MKBHD is in some hot water for his recently released Panels app. It’s a $50 per year (introductory price) subscription for wallpapers. You might be thinking, “Who actually pays for digital wallpapers?” And you’d be right! I personally don’t remember ever paying for a piece of art to adorn the background on my laptop or smartphone. Pictures of Kpop girl group members are very free on the Googles.

That’s what the hubbub is about: MKBHD is daring to charge money for something that people think should be free. Lament all we want about the devaluation of the arts, but you simply cannot force people into paying customers. Do people care about supporting their favorite music artists? Clearly not: give me millions of songs available to stream at any moment for a low monthly subscription. Would you pay to watch your favorite Youtube channels? I at least pay for YouTube premium.

Obviously, MKBHD is free to make an app and charge however much he wants. The complainers aren’t likely to be customers anyways. Whether or not there will be enough customers for a $50 per year wallpaper app? The capitalistic mechanism will sort it out soon enough.

What is surprising to read on the Reddits is people saying mean personal things about MKBHD. He’s out of touch! He’s greedy! His reviews are just shilling for the big tech companies! I think this is all plain jealousy. Here’s a guy making millions of dollars doing Youtube videos, and also happens to own a few material things in the six figures of dollars. MKBHD has reached escape velocity into being rich. He’s no longer the humble everyman that you and I can relate with. You either die a hero, or live long enough for people to see you as an asshole.

Same thing happened to automotive YouTuber Doug DeMuro. Soon as he sold his car auction website for tens of millions, he crossed the threshold into rich asshole-dom in the eyes of some fans. All of the sudden, his car reviews are no longer entertaining. And his opinions are “out of touch.”

It’s not really about the wallpaper app. It’s a reflection to those who did not chase their dreams to success. So when the guy that did messes up, well then, time to knock him down a peg.

Waning enthusiasm

I guess gas prices (in the San Francisco Bay Area) is just going to stay in the five dollars per gallon threshold? We’re never going to see the number 3 again in front of the decimal point are we? Unless of course we move to other parts of the country where not only do they have cheaper gas than California, but they also have higher octane! (93 versus 91.) If I’m getting reamed in the butt on petrol price, at least give me the best gasoline possible.

It’s a good thing then that I’ve only driven 4,000 miles since the previous September. Paying over $70 to fill up the BMW M2 is so not the business. As much as I like driving, the cost of gas adds up very quickly. At least that is something I can control. The higher insurance premiums that we all received in our last renewals? Nothing I can do about that.

Perhaps my car enthusiasm is waning? I don’t know. I took the M2 in to the dealership for service last week, and I keep thinking what a hassle it is. Even though I’m not removing a single bolt myself, it’s still time out of my day to drive it to the dealership (on the other side of the city). Imagine if I didn’t own a car at all - how much simpler it would be. No gas price shocks, no insurance premiums, no maintenance costs, no worries about parking it somewhere and risking some asshole damaging the car.

Of course, it’s not tenable to not have a car. I rely too much on Costco trips to fight the ongoing inflation. But I’m thinking maybe I don’t need to own a high-strung sports car. It would be cheaper and less stressful to instead own a car an old man would drive. Something boring, something dead nuts reliable. That can only mean one thing: a Toyota.

Change is the only constant, right? I’ve like cars since I was a kid. Who knows, maybe that enthusiasm does come to an end.