Blog

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

Can you DOGE this?

I am glad I finally got new tires on the M2, right before another pair of rain storms is due to hit the San Francisco Bay Area. Not that I will be doing any driving during that time. It’s just nice to know that in an emergency, I don’t have to treat the accelerator pedal with the smoothest of care. The original set of rear tires were truly at its end of life.

It’s been interesting to see Elon Musk’s DOGE running through Federal agencies looking for redundancies and waste. Legalities aside (I’m not a Constitutional lawyer so I’ve no idea whatsoever), any fiscal conservative worthy of the claim should welcome a culling of the largesse. (Please don’t forget the Pentagon, Elon!) Indeed, why should billions in taxpayer money still go to other countries, when the referendum for last year’s election is the ill economic feelings of Americans?

President Trump wishes to cull the actual number of Federal workers. He probably saw Elon getting rid of 80 percent of the Twitter workforce, and what is now known as X doesn’t seem to be worse for it. I’ll take some of that! DOGE probably can’t go that far with the Federal workforce, but there’s stuff to be cut for sure. The stereotype of the lazy public worker who does nothing but collect a paycheck (and protected by a union) is based on some reality, no? We all either know a person (raises hand), or know a person who knows a person.

With San Francisco facing a fiscal cliff, the new mayor might need to pull the layoff lever. Some in the San Francisco subreddit hilariously wrote the city can use a DOGE-like makeover. Surely our weathly scion of a mayor can ask some business tycoon friend of his to spearhead such endeavor.

Actually, an entity that we can all agree that needs to be way more efficient: the Department of Motor Vehicles. Elon is more than welcome to get his team of twenty something software engineers to hack into the DMV system.

Ready for some football

It is Super Bowl Sunday. (I think the NFL will send me a bill just for using that term.) An American tradition unlike any other. Except in other countries during their team’s matches in the World Cup. I’m sure the Argentinian television station responsible for broadcasting the World Cup final sold some significant advertisements in Argentina.

One day last week I forgot to bring my own coffee. It’s been awhile since I’ve purchased from Peet’s, and wow has the pricing gone up yet again. This particular franchise seem so embarrassed about the prices it’s charging that they are only displaying the price for medium size. How much for a large cup of vanilla soy latte? Spin the wheel to find out.

There’s been this age old battle between two camps. One side says buying the daily coffee from Starbucks is keeping you poor. The other side says (what was) $3 per day is but a drop in the ocean in the face of immense housing cost. There’s truth to both sides. In areas such as our San Francisco, you definitely cannot save your way towards buying a house by abolishing store-bought coffee.

On the other hand, many little things can indeed compound into significant sums. What makes the high inflation of the past years so pernicious is that it’s kind of death by a thousand cuts. It’s fine if only the grocery haul is (for example) 10% dearer. But when everything else went up also, it’s really easy to look at your monthly statements and wonder where the money’s gone. Five dollars extra here, five dollars extra there, five dollars extra everywhere.

And so it is with the Peet’s medium drip coffee I bought for nearly $4. The Keurig life is for me. I rather have the $1000 ($4 x 21 workdays in a month x 12 months) extra at the end of the year.

Paper or plastic

One month into year 2025 and I hope I’ve gotten all the sickness out of the way. Earlier in January I had a bout with the common cold. Just now I am recovering from a stomach virus. That certainly should be it for this year in terms of illnesses. Please, I cannot handle any more away time from lifting weights. I can imaginarily see the gains melting away in front of my very eyes.

Due to the stomach virus, I was on a semi-liquid diet for about a day. Fruit smoothies to the rescue. The location on campus gave me a paper straw for it (thanks a lot, San Francisco). Predictably, the straw utterly disintegrated before I was even halfway done with the smoothie. Happy to save the environment by not being able to finish my drink! If we are serious about this paper straw business, someone has to invent a stronger solution for thicker dinks. (Shark Tank opportunity, I reckon.)

Coincidently, President Trump plans to sign an executive order overturning President Biden’s pledge to ban plastic straw usage in federal agencies. Those lucky bastards! The masses shouldn’t have to suffer with an inferior product in order to make some virtual-signaling environmentalist happy.

I agree plastic waste is a problem. But how do you propose a fruit smoothie be served without a sturdy straw? Sippy lids works for thin liquids, not milk-shake levels of consistency. Give customers a (compostable) spoon? Who wants to “drink” a smoothie with a spoon? You know what, perfect solution: ban smoothies altogether. No need to solve a problem if the problem doesn’t exist anymore.

Sorry, I’m cranky from being sick. Nothing will make you value health more than suffering through illness.

Dopamine nation

The WiFi has been spotty at work this week, so my iPhone is effectively useless during work hours. (There’s no cellular network in our dungeon of an office.) Be that as it may, I still find myself reaching for it to check stuff, even though there’s nothing that can be checked. It’s like unlocking your phone during a flight: you know there’s nothing new to see, yet reflexes that’s been honed for over a decade is difficult to pause.

I like to think of myself as a mindful person, but I guess I’m not immune to the smartphone dopamine addiction. Every second of downtime must be filled with brand new information. The latest sports news on ESPN, or the latest nihilistic banter on Reddit. Boredom has been extinct since the first iPhone introduction. We did it!

Everybody does it, though. If anything, you look like the weird one if your face isn’t plastered to your phone. Imagine waiting with a crowd for an elevator, and you’re the only one staring into space. The strongly introverted me is not ready to stand out like that.

A coworker’s car failed, so he’s been walking to work. The obvious perplexity is: he doesn’t live anywhere near walking distances from work. (Otherwise the car failing would have zero bearing.) Instead of replacing the broken car, he’s choosing to commute on foot for over an hour. I admire the grit, but I have to wonder at his financial situation if he can’t easily replace the broken twenty year old car. Our State government job doesn’t pay extravagantly, but it’s sufficiently middle-class.

I get it: needing to replace a suddenly out of commission car is a huge blow to the wallet. But that’s why you keep an emergency fund. You know, for emergencies. I can’t fathom the stress living with such thin financial margins. Yes, right to privileged jail, right away.

Let him cook

President Trump has enacted tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China. Begun, the trade wars have. For what reason, it’s not immediately clear. For the general public, the salient thing is prices will be going up. If you’re looking to buy a car this year, pray that it isn’t manufactured in Canada or Mexico! You really think automakers are going to eat that tariff costs entirely?

The best thing to do right now is to let Trump cook (as the kids say these days). Whatever he’s got planned, be it Project 2025 or whatever, let him execute. The good ideas will work, and the bad ideas won’t. You have to allow people to directly feel the consequences. Otherwise the lesson never gets learned. I wonder how Trump-voting Federal employees are dealing with the freezes and return-to-office mandate. Your vote, your consequences…

What’s disgusting to see is people appealing to Democrats to do something. First of all, it’s extremely pointless to badger the minority party. Secondly, the party that has been pilloried for their empathy (the path to DEI is paved with very good empathic intentions) can’t then be asked to utilize that same empathy to save you. It’s like the woman who rejects the nice guy but yet wants the supportive benefits the nice guy provides.

You cannot have it both ways. Democrats ought to turn off their empathy muscles for the time being. They should not let their tendency to want to limit harm be used to save the same people that rejected it. Like the nice guy that refuses to leave, at some point you’re just allowing yourself to be abused.

I’m for letting winning Presidents to implement their agenda. The market (read: U.S. population) will determine whether they are good or bad. High inflation knocked out Biden/Harris; if Trump - due to the tariffs - causes another high inflation period, the Republican Party will surely be in a precarious position in the next election cycle.

Hassle free

I think what I value most these days is the lack of hassle. I just want to sit and be at peace. Now obviously there are some difficulties to achieving that, as I gesture at this thing called adult life. Too many responsibilities, not enough free time. I wake up in the morning with a list of must-dos, and I don’t feel good about it until that list is done. It’s definitely neurotic.

My BMW M2 is due for new tires, which presents a new hassle. I now have to research, order, and take the car to the tire shop. Another item added onto my list. I am a car enthusiast, but I am not enthusiastic (or no longer) about the parts of ownership that aren’t actually driving. If I could afford to pay a guy to come wash it every few weeks, I totally would do so. But because I cannot, the BMW gets a wash once a change of season.

Ever since the M2 got paid off last year, I’ve been toying with the idea of buying second car. The more I ponder about it, the more I’m leaning towards no (the wallet rejoices). The fleeting moments of enjoying what a second car would bring will not outweigh the additional hassle. I already don’t enjoy moving the M2 during street cleaning days (a San Francisco tradition), so why add to that hassle voluntarily by needing to move two cars? There’s going to be twice the car maintenance, too.

If I cannot have mental peace until things are settled and done, then the point of attack should be to limit the amount of things to be done. Pare away to only what’s important (like grocery shopping), and avoid adding stuff on the whims of fancy. I would love to buy a new set of wheels for the M2, but then I’ll have to deal with storing the original set. I’m not going to give myself that burden.

Feeling my age

You know you’re old when you prefer to read on an iPad - as opposed to a printed book - because you’re able to adjust the font size larger. Some of the fiction novels I’ve bought have absolutely the tiniest font possible. (Shrinkflation?) When it becomes painful to read a book, it’s time to switch the medium. I’m just happy to live in a era where digital is a possible alternative.

This must be the beginning of retinal deterioration from old age. I should order myself a set of readers soon…

Sometimes I forget I am heading right into the meaty parts of middle-age adulthood. I just don’t feel it, you know? Which is a good thing because I rather not have my body be the notifier of my current location on the lifespan spectrum. If anything, I am trying to maintain my mobility and strength for as long as possible. Though nothing to be done about the oculars. I’ve needed glasses since I was then.

I reckon part of the reason I don’t feel like I’m a middle-age adult is because I haven’t yet done the traditionally middle-age adult things. No house, no spouse, no kids. I’m effectively living out a prolonged early adulthood. The only responsibility I’ve got is to me. All the childhood trauma and anxieties are still there stewing in the background. Because my mind isn’t completely preoccupied with raising a home.

Sometimes I would talk to people in their twenties and it would seem like I’m the less mature one. That I’m the one lacking in lived experiences in comparison. Then sometimes I really feel my age when I realize I’m older than everyone on an NFL football team. I guess laps around the sun doesn’t automatically confer confidence or worldliness. There’s got to be many action to make those sort of growth happen. Age can be just a number.