Blog

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

That's my spot

I’m lucky to live in a neighborhood where street parking is abundant. There’s no war here to preserve spots, or perform car musical chairs on street cleaning days. I don’t worry about not having a spot to park when I return from from errands. It’s a complete contrast to my previous abode (read: my parents’ house), where street parking is at a premium. Even now, when I go back to visit, I often have to park blocks away.

There’s so much street parking here - and large, useable driveways in the homes - that there’s really no “dibs” on any space. Typically, the space directly in front of a home is assumed to “belong” to that household, an unwritten rule of sorts. Neighbors know to respect that arrangement, because they wouldn’t want someone taking the spot directly in front of their home either. There’s no need for such rules in this neighborhood. Someone took the space directly in front? The space next to it is almost always open.

But, it seems one particular neighbor is surprisingly specific about where he like to park his Lexus sedan. So much as that he would move it to the prefer spot soon as it gets vacated, even though the Lexus is parked literally one spot further down. Fire up the engine simply to move the car 20 feet? I guess not everyone is as sympathetic to a car’s mechanicals as I am. Worse thing you can do to a gas engine (electric is exempt from this, obviously) is to cold start it up and then shut it off again in a very short period. The condensation from sitting for a long period never gets a chance to burn off.

This is why when I move my BMW M2 for street cleaning, I actually drive a loop around the neighborhood to get the engine up to temperature. I would never start the car only to drive to the other side of the street. Nor would I get angry that someone have taken “my” usual spot.

Finally, the Apple Watch

Here I am on a Thursday evening, super relaxed in knowing that I won't be waking up at 5:00 AM tomorrow morning to preorder the new iPhone 15 Pro. Because I am not making the upgrade this year, as I’ve written yesterday. TLDR: not enough improvements in the 15 Pro to entice me out of my 14 Pro.

The money I am saving by not upgrading will go towards buying the Apple Watch Series 9 (announced alongside the iPhone 15 Pro this past Tuesday). This will be my first smartwatch ever, and I’m excited to do one exact thing: be able to go on a run without my iPhone. I look forward to loading my playlist onto the Apple Watch and playing music off of it. No more clumsily holding onto the iPhone in one hand while I run. It can stay in the car for the duration.

Pro tip: if you’re leaving any computer electronics in the trunk for a period of time, be sure to shut down the device completely before tossing it in. Doing so stops the device’s bluetooth and WiFi antennas from broadcasting, thus preventing detection from thieves. Perps troll around parked cars with signal sniffers - that’s how they know to break into your trunk even though your computer bag isn’t visible.

Obviously, nothing you can do if they actually see you put stuff in the trunk. Eyeballs emoji.

Other than tunes whist running, I am also excited about the Apple Watch’s health tracking capabilities. It’ll be nice to constantly monitor my heart-rate, and get notified when there’s abnormalities (knock on wood). A more accurate step-count, too, will be interesting to keep track of. Just when I thought I was saving some money by not getting the newest iPhone, I go spend that cash on something else. Of course!

I’ve still never ridden on one of these.

No upgrade this year!

On second thought, I am not upgrading to the iPhone 15 Pro. First time in seven years I won’t be getting the latest iPhone upon announcement. My current iPhone 14 Pro will solider on for a second year of service.

As a hobbyist photographer, the primary attraction in buying the newest iPhone every year is the improvements to the cameras. This year, the improvements are minuscule to unnecessary (for me). All three sensors sensors carry over from the 14 Pro the 15 Pro unchanged. The larger 15 Pro Max gets a new 120mm equivalent 5X zoom, which is not a focal length I want to use. I’m sure there’s subtle improvements to the imaging software, but I reckon not enough to warrant spending to upgrade.

If it were the new 5X zoom in addition to the 3X zoom, then it would be enticing. Sadly, the 5X replaces the 3X in the 15 Pro Max. I use the 3X zoom (76mm equivalent) so frequently on my 14 Pro that I do not want to give it up.

In previous years, the latest iPhone have had (largely) carry-over camera systems. However, there were always another killer new feature to make me want to upgrade. Like the physically larger screen of the XS Max, or 120-Hz refresh rate of the 13 Pro. The newly announced iPhone 15 Pro doesn’t have any new feature that’s killer enough. Titanium replacing the stainless-steel outer band is nice, but not a must-have. Same with USB-C charging (finally replacing the Lightning port): I’m not in a hurry to toss my Lightning cables just yet.

If the 15 Pro promises better battery life, then it would be enticing. But it doesn’t: same quoted battery life as the 14 Pro. No sale! I am quite happy to use this 14 Pro for another year.

I'm not a drug dealer

It always feels weird making a large cash deposit at the bank. First of all, it’s nerve-wracking these days just to carry large amounts of cash with you. We’ve seen the news videos of people being robbed of their money whilst on their way to make a deposit. Granted, they’re typically small business owners, and the perps tailed them from their respective establishments. I on the other hand do not have a symbolic loudspeaker advertising how flushed with cash I am.

Seems like a proverbial rock and hard place for those business owners. Pay the 5% to credit card companies for the security of digital banking, or keep that profit margin and risk the (albeit small) chance of getting robbed on the way to the bank.

Anyways, once I get pass the nervousness of getting to the bank, then comes the awkwardness of working with the bank teller. Here is a large stack of 100 dollar bills, and no I am not drug dealer. (Honestly, what drug dealer actually uses establishment banks?) Another bout of nervousness comes when the teller feeds the bills through the counting machine. Sure hope there aren’t any fake bills in that stack!

After that comes the standard questions anytime a person is depositing over $10,000: am I currently employed, where, and what is my job title. By law, the bank have to report this information to the feds, though it’s more procedural than anything ominous. If you ever write a check larger than $10,000 to buy a car, the dealership also have to report that transaction. I’m told this is to catch money laundering. Obviously, you only have worry if your money comes from illicit activities…

As a person who almost never cary cash, I definitely rest easier knowing most of my money is deposited in banks (got to have some spare cash on hand for emergencies). It’s a sense of security, you know? That’s why I’m nervous anytime I have to make a deposit, fearing something can go wrong before that money is safely in an FDIC insured account.

Saturday morning cup

That first sip of coffee on a Saturday morning is the absolute best. It’s the weekend, and I have no concrete plans to be anywhere (certainly not work). That alone makes the coffee taste extra sweet. The rest of the day can wait; let me finish my cup of coffee first.

Mind you this coffee isn’t some fancy pour-over stuff that I’ve painstakingly measured-out to make. I don’t want to invest the time to grind fresh beans, and boil water to an exact temperature. The coffee I drink is simply K-Cup pods from San Francisco Bay Coffee (Costco has them in boxes). That’s right: it’s made on a Keurig machine, nice and easy. The coffee coming out of it tastes just fine.

Not to say I’m unable to savor a well-made “artisanal” cup. I simply don’t want to do it myself. If a gourmet cafe wants to open up at the nearby mall, that would be lovely (currently, there’s only a Peet’s and Starbucks). I definitely would walk the five minutes to have a freshly-made cup of coffee (of the non-franchise variety). Maybe sit down to read a book while I’m carefully sipping it down.

But no! Instead of a nice coffee shop, a bowling alley is coming to the mall. That does nothing to improve my Saturday mornings! Granted, we will for sure patronize that establishment on certain evenings. I haven’t gone bowling since Serra Bowl was still in business.

Alright, cup of coffee is finished. Time to get onto weekend business.

Does it still overheat?

Yesterday, I saw GoPro announcing the 12th version of their venerable action camera. The first thing that pops to my mind: “Do they still overheat and malfunction easily?” I’ve a friend who uses a GoPro for his video blogs, and that thing is effectively useless when he takes it to the heat of Southeast Asia. It’s hilarious and sad to see when he says in his videos that his GoPro died, necessitating a switch to the bigger Sony camera to finish filming.

As an owner of a GoPro HERO 7 myself (five years old, if you’re counting), I can sympathize with my friend’s predicament. Even on just warm days (read: not hot at all) the unit cannot last more than half an hour of continuous shooting. GoPros have been overheat-prone since they’ve combined the waterproofing-function into the same housing. In the early days, the GoPro unit and the waterproof housing was separate. Simple laws of physics: water not getting in also means air not getting in. No airflow means the processor runs hotter. Ergo, overheating.

The GoPro HERO 12 promises double the recording runtime of the 11, which sounds good on paper. I will need to see reviews that really put it under stress testing in hot environments. Otherwise, I am completely fine to continuing using my HERO 7.

Not that I would call myself a videographer - far from it. I’m first and only a photographer. Making videos is a whole other art in it of itself. The storage and processing horsepower needed for videography is exponentially more than just pictures. One minute of 4K60 video off an iPhone - not even that high a bit-rate compared to dedicated cameras - is about 400 megabytes. If you’re still counting, that space requirement adds up very quickly. Not to mention the hours of work just to make a video in the minutes. At this point, that’s not something I want to invest in.

Big spending season

It’s September already, and that means big spending days are coming ahead. The $250 annual fee to host this very website on Squarespace is coming due. So is the $1,100 six-months insurance premium on my BMW M2 Competition (I’m just glad it didn’t increase). On top of that, the $600 California license fee is due on the BMW. A surprise to nobody: it’s expensive to own a high-dollar sports car. At least maintenance is still free this year (also this month), the final one of three.

Traditionally, September is new iPhone month as well. As a person who’ve bought a new iPhone ever year since the iPhone 7, I’m staring at yet another thousand dollar outlay (spread over 24 months, whatever, all the same) on top of the aforementioned. But perhaps not? I’m kind of considering not making the upgrade this year.

The reason I’ve been buying new iPhones annually is because of the camera improvements on every new model. I’m sure the forthcoming iPhone 15 will be no different. However, this year I bought a Fujifilm X-T5 camera, and I’ve simply fallen in love with using that wonderful device. I’ve fallen back in love with photography, too. Now that I’ve unencumbered myself of any arduous editing, my desire to go out and shoot photos have increased dramatically.

What does this have to do with the iPhone? Well, I’ve come to dislike the photos taken with my iPhone 14 Pro. The iPhone’s over-sharpened, high-dynamic range look compares poorly to the warm and sultry tones of the Fujifilm. It’s a throwback to the early days of smartphone cameras: for the serious stuff, you want to take the photos with your “real” camera. Nowadays, I want to take photos with the X-T5 as much as possible.

It’s not the iPhone’s fault: computing power can only do some much against the laws of physics (much larger sensor in the X-T5, obviously). Apple will have to wow me plenty come next Tuesday to entice me enough to upgrade this year.