Blog

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

Not for thee

This guy on Reddit is complaining about the prices of haircuts nowadays. I wonder what is his opinion on paying people a “living wage”. (Whatever that means numerically.) According to what he is saying, barbers definitely do not deserve one. Haircuts should remain cheap just like the old times.

Why am I getting the sense the people arguing for a living wage are advocating for themselves only, and not others? There’s this talk of Trump deporting illegal immigrants will cause food prices to go up because there would be a shortage of farm workers. The assumption is that with smaller labor supply, farmers will have to pay more to attract workers. Basic supply and demand.

Well, no one likes to pay more for groceries, right? The high inflation of past years is how (ironically) Trump won the election. But then aren’t we tacitly saying that farm workers don’t deserve a living wage? Fast food workers got a $20 minimum here in California, and enough people balked at the increased menu prices that McDonald’s and others had to start offering $6 value deals to entice customers.

There’s definitely a dichotomy between advocating for higher wages in general but not liking the results. Corporations will always protect their margins, therefore passing the wage increases to customers. Sure it’s easy to skip fast food, but groceries are kind of essential. The populace won’t stand for inflation at the supermarket.

Let’s be honest: what we really want is for us to get paid more individually, but for prices of stuff to remain the same. So we can’t all get a raise, because that would cause inflation. Living wage for me, but not for thee: Californians rejected the State proposition to increase the State minimal wage two weeks ago. At least we are honest with ourselves!

Unconsumed holidays

Word on the street is that with the supposed Trump tariffs looming on goods made in China, people should buy what they need now to save a buck or two. If you’ve been eyeing a dishwasher upgrade and the thing is Chinese made, time to buy yourself a Christmas present.

Anecdotally, sales representatives have warned us at work to put in big orders now, should the tariffs come into fruition, and suddenly that batch of laptops is now 20% dearer in price. I’m sure the representative has an incentive to sell as much as possible before the end of the year for that bonus. That said, our university is not exactly loaded with cash, so any savings on bulk purchases is not nothing.

Maybe Trump is playing 4D chess: threatens tariffs, inadvertently causes the biggest holiday buying season of all time.

It may be the most wonderful time of the year in terms of weather and atmosphere, but the blatant and rampant consumerism of the holidays is kind of disgusting. The combination of Black Friday and present shopping is both a financial burden and environmentally unfriendly. The endless shipping boxes and the energy it takes to get them to customers.

I’m glad my friend group do not have holiday gifting culture. And even if we did, I’d buy everybody stuff they’d actually use. Like toilet paper, or a pack of USDA Prime beef. The last thing I need more of are items that just sits on a shelf to look nice. It would go straight to the trash bin if and when I ever move home again.

Good news: I saved 100% by buying nothing!

Get the fat

This may be stating the obvious, but two percent Greek yogurt tastes so much better than the non-fat version. Much like how whole milk is the only true milk out there. Those of you drinking two percent milk might as well be drinking water, because that’s what you are buying.

It’s a shame the Costco Kirkland brand only sells non-fat Greek yogurt. For the tasty stuff I have to shell out more money for the Fage brand. In an era of everything-cost-way-more-than-it-use-to, I aim to save a buck here and there when I can. Buying in bulk at Costco with its house brand is a great way to execute that strategy. Alas, it can’t fulfill everything. At least I get 5% cash back at Whole Foods (where I buy Fage Greek yogurt).

It’s occurring to me more and more than when I look at (the high) menu prices of restaurants, that perhaps I should make the same food at home instead. For example: I have strong affection for Korean food. When I see my favorite dish - beef short rib soup - is encroaching into the 30 dollars territory, it’s time to learn how to cook it myself. Save a bit of cash, and it’s probably healthier, too (way less sodium).

I’m reminder of my friend who lives over in Switzerland. Eating out prices have always been expensive there, so whatever dish she desires to eat, she learns to make it. Who would have thought that I would come to face the same situation here in America. Or perhaps it’s just me? I guess a lot of people out there are making more money than me to afford restaurant food frequently.

Appointment in Samarra

I have a coworker who doesn’t like the drinking water coming out of a taps on campus. Not even the bottle filling stations where there’s a filter. His explanation is that he ultimately cannot trust the water that are in the (he supposes) old pipes. What does he do to sustain life? The coworker buys bottled water from the campus Peet’s Coffee.

I guess he does not know about the dangers of microplastics. Conventional wisdom is that we should avoid plastics as much as possible when it comes to things that can enter our body. Food and drink containers, specifically. Haven't we stopped leaving the plastic wraps in when we microwave our food?

Sadly, it looks like my coworker is avoiding a (potentially non-existent) harm by embracing another harm. An Appointment in Samarra situation, without the dying.

For a company as successful and beloved as Costco, why is their website and app situation so pitiful? It’s a complete chore to get it to show me whether an item is in stock at a local warehouse. And even if it does show to be in stock, it is not a guarantee to be true. Last week I was looking to buy some fish oil that was on sale, and the two stores I went to that showed to have it on the Costco website, did not. What a royal waste of time that was.

I get it: with all those delicious membership fees that Costco is charging us, what incentive is there to improve online shopping? I’m not sure they feel the need to chase those sales. Besides, the in-warehouse experience is where they can feed us samples to entice us to impulse buy. How many times have we gone to Costco with a list, but came back with twice as many items?

Goes forever on

I think it’s kind of messed up that once you start weightlifting, you cannot stop. There’s really no goal to reach; you have to put in the work continuously, even if all you want is to maintain what you’ve already achieved. Building muscles and strength is one of those if-you-don’t-use-it-you-lost-it type of deals. Wouldn’t it be lovely if once you reach a 300 pound squat (for example), then you can stay there without doing anything else further?

It’s very much like learning a second language. If you want to maintain a decent modicum of proficiency, you have to study/practice almost everyday. I’ve lost all my one year of Japanese skills because I’ve not practiced meaningfully since high school. This is why when I started self-taught Korean back in 2016, I still practice to this day. It can never stop if I want to keep this skill.

I recently put a pause on my piano learning because I simply do not have the time to dedicate to it. I already have too many hobbies that require daily maintenance. To learn this new skill properly I’d have to give one of those hobbies up. Perhaps that may happen in the future, but as of right now, exercise and the Korean language is more important to me.

It can get dark rather quickly when you rail against change. Ever be in the moment of something great and wonderful, and all you can think about is how to best preserve that forever? I certainly have. I can’t even enjoy that fantastic moment because I’m too caught up with making it last as long as possible, which in itself is not possible. Change is a constant in life, and accepting it as a companion instead of an enemy is the way to live with it.

Otherwise is how you see a type of car collector that puts a car in a giant sealed bubble. What is the point? Even if that car can last centuries, you the human will most certainly not.

That's my secret

I’ll be honest, it was not a great week for my mental health. And it’s not because of what happened on election night. I think if who the President of the United States is has material affect on how you feel, then it’s time to shift your perspective on life.

What wrecked my mental health this week was my ongoing cycle with the Accutane acne medication. One of the not too common side-effects of the drug is moodiness, a tendency towards quick to angry. I guess I should go buy a lottery ticket, because that uncommon side-effect found me.

In the movie Avengers, Bruce Banner replied with an iconic line when asked to get angry: “That’s my secret Cap’; I’m always angry.” That best explains how I felt this week. Good news is the short temper did not manifest itself to actual adverse action (good thing I don’t have a car commute). Though it’s equally not great that the anger is bottled up inside. I’d be watching a YouTube video, and suddenly felt the urge to throw something at the TV.

Again, it’s good that there were zero execution to those negative thoughts. I definitely do not want to spend the money to replace my LG OLED.

Exacerbating the issue are some small hiccups at work that really is no big deal when you detach from it. But in my ill-tempered condition, those tiny problems became lumbering boulders on my psyche. It can’t be helped: there’s always going to be problems at work. Being on Accutane is only temporary. It’s not like I haven’t been warned that it’s going to suck for the duration.

Better days ahead.

It's going to be alright

So, how are we feeling? If your presidential candidate of choice won the election, congratulations. I hope America does incredible well under his leadership. I believe nobody seeks democratically elected office to do harm. Because otherwise you’d get voted out the next go around. The winner on Tuesday did lose back in 2020.

If your presidential candidate of choice lost on Tuesday, well, there’s a finite end to your perceived suffering. Four more years is just that: four more. It can’t be anymore than that! And then the pages of history will continue to turn. Spend these next fours years focused on yourself and the people around you. Quit social media and go outside to touch grass often (as the kids say these days).

I read that there was a wholesale shift towards the Republican ticket this time compared to 2020. But I think we have to wait for the total vote tally to tell the full story. If Trump got roughly the same amount of votes as his two previous campaigns, and it’s the Democratic ticket that got less votes, then that’s an entirely different conversation. Where did that chunk of blue voters go? It can’t be entirely California…

Is it as simple as it’s the economy, stupid? The stock markets may be at all-time highs, but inflation is indeed pernicious. Even though inflation supposedly normalized this year, it’s not like the inflated prices then went back down, right? The prices merely stopped going up. The grocery budget is still unaffordably high for lots of people. While the President of the United States can’t really do anything about that, it comes down to this: the vibes are bad, so we need something different.

Wasn’t that the case in 2020? Difficult to believe that COVID was that long ago now.