Perfect weather, can't get no better - 10 things I think

10 THINGS I THINK

1. Where were you the night Reddit when all to hell? I seldom frequent the website (I personally find it difficult to navigate), but it was interesting to see the uprising of the site’s moderators in protest of the administration. Who knew that underneath the immense success and traffic volume, lays such amounts of discord and dissatisfaction?

Judging from my Twitter feed, quite a few of the people I follow have sworn off Reddit for good. And good for them, because rather than spending inordinate hours of time in front of a computer screen reading message boards, people should go out and take in some of that fresh air while they still can - before climate change destroys it completely.

2. 11AM east coast baseball games should be banished from existence. This past Fourth of July I was extremely annoyed to wake up to a baseball game that has already gone on for a few innings, and it was only 9AM! Whoever did the scheduling for this particular day ought to swiftly walk themselves in front of a moving bus.

I understand baseball’s need to schedule a slew of games for the holiday, but they must take into consideration the home markets of the respective teams. MLB simply can’t schedule an early east coast game for a west coast team. I missed nearly a third of the Fourth of July Giants game, and would’ve been even more incense had the early innings been critical to the outcome. Get it together, baseball.

3. 50 wins might only get a team the 8th seed in the NBA’s western conference next season. It appears the Warriors’ historic season has prompted other westerly franchises to load up and retool. The Spurs became the instant favorites after the acquisition of LaMarcus Aldridge, Durant and the Thunder will be back with a vengeance, and the likes of the Rockets, Mavericks, Clippers, Grizzlies, and Pelicans will only improve from the previous season. There’s the x-factor of Kobe’s final season with the Lakers, too. Of course, with Draymond Green back with a long-term contract, the Warriors are doubly equipped to defend their recent crown.

More so than other years, it’s looking to be an absolutely gauntlet to emerge out of the western conference. And you already know the Cavaliers are coming out of the east.

4. I’m not overly fond of Fourth of July, because living in the hood means all through the night there will be a constant barrage of illegal fireworks from the neighborhood children. It’s literally non-stop bang after bang from around 7PM onwards until hours pass midnight. It must’ve been terrible for normal folks trying to get to their slumber but don’t possess proper earplugs (I’ve got a pack of them for this exact occasion).

Also, it must be said that people who dabble in illegal fireworks during the holiday are being massive assholes towards pets and war veterans with PTSD.

5. McLaren Group CEO Ron Dennis referring BBC F1 pundit Eddie Jordan as the village idiot of Formula One was completely hilarious. No one dishes out insults in the most prim and articulate manner quite like the British do. Big Ron could’ve simply used any of the common, single-word insults to disparage Edide. Instead, the audience gets to enjoy this roundabout yet elegant prose: "I consider F1 a kind of family and a village always has a village idiot and [Eddie Jordan] is the idiot."

6. Many congratulations to the United States women's national soccer team on their World Cup triumph in Vancouver this past Saturday. What a brilliant display of dominance from the first whistle on, with Carli Lloyd doing something (a hat-trick in a World Cup championship game) only done once before in either the men’s and women’s game. What an inspiration the team is for the many young girls in this country; that gender shouldn’t and isn’t an impediment to pursuing whatever they dream to do.

7. Starbucks raising prices on its drinks is coinciding perfectly with my recent decision to stop drinking coffee. Not by choice, mind you. Readers of this blog should know that coffee’s innate acidity is preventing me from enjoying the good cup. Even the less acidic cold-brew method has proven futile to stop the stomach’s protests.

8. Greece and China’s financial sectors better get their shits together, because my domestic and international investments are taking quite the beating thanks to their economic malcontent. Particularly, Greece should leave the Euro, default on their debt obligations, and start anew. For sure there will be immense amounts of financial hardship the first few years, but I reckon by allowing the free market to work, Greece will come out better and stronger than continuously accepting bailouts from European banking consorts.

9. Whatever labor/wage exploitation that Amazon is doing to offer Prime members free same day shipping, I don’t care - I’ve seen the future and it is awesome. I click to buy something in the morning and by the time I return home the item is there waiting.

This past weekend I ventured to IKEA to do some furniture shopping (needed a new bed-side drawer) and eat Swedish meatballs. While there I was reminded how hassling it is to wait in a long line to pay for your purchase. I’ve been so pampered and spoiled by the benefits of Amazon Prime - having stuff deliver right to my door in two days’ time - that Brick and Mortar shopping has largely been relegated to last-resort status. Now with Amazon offering free same-day shipping on certain items, I just might never leave the house to do shopping other than for food (unless I can get on the Soylent program).

10. "Our cars are meant to be driven, not polished." - Ferdinand “Ferry” Porsche   

When you're in sublime - 10 things I think

10 THINGS I THINK

1. It’s going to take all my self-control powers (and there isn’t much to begin with) to not trade in the STI for the forthcoming Mazda MX-5 Miata Club. A lightweight roadster with just enough power (atmospheric, of course), mechanical limited-slip-differential, Brembo brakes, and forged BBS wheels: the recipe for pure driving fun. The amount of want for that car is immensely palpable. Someone please stop me from pouring all the positive equity in the STI down the drain.

2. I’m supremely happy that Duke men’s basketball has won the national championship. I know rooting for Duke is akin to rooting for the Yankees or the Dodgers, but they’ve been my favorite team ever since I started watching college basketball more than a decade ago. Every year I pick them to win the tournament in my brackets, even though I know the likelihood of that happening is next to zero. Duke does have a knack of winning it all once in every decade, so as a fan I can absolutely live with that. Granted, I sure hope this championship won’t be the last in the 2010s.

3. Baseball is back, and the Giants are already in trouble (haha!) Before the first pitch is even thrown the team lost two starters in the rotation, with no timetable for their return. Hunter Pence is still recovering from his spring training injury, so he’ll be watching from the dugout for the first few weeks. It’s going to be tough sledding for the team at the start of the season, with big question marks in the rotation for anybody not named Madison Bumgarner.

I couldn’t care less, really, whether or not the Giants are competitive this year. After winning three championships in the previous five years, I’m more than fulfilled and satisfied as a long-time fan of the team. This year I’m simply going to enjoy the baseball for what it is: a good time no matter what. I will draw zero negativity from the Giants, even if they lose every night in the most stupid of fashions.

4. The ending tribute to Paul Walker at the end of Furious 7 was so incredibly, brilliantly well done. If I were a person capable of crying in movies, I would have (lady sat next to me had full-on waterworks.) For sure that final sequence will be replayed on my computer many, many times once the film is out on home media.

RIP once again to Paul Walker. A good guy, a car guy; he was one of us, and gone far too soon.

5. Food product manufacturers: please stop trying to infuse Sriracha into every bloody piece of food you can find. If I wanted a Sriracha-flavored doughnut, I’d put actual Sriracha sauce on a doughnut (that actually sounds quite disgusting) Leave the flavor as what it originally is: hot sauce.  

6. The blatant murder of Walter Scott by a cop in South Carolina is absolutely sickening. Scott’s family and the American public cannot accept anything less than a first-degree murder conviction - it’d be an epic failure of justice otherwise.

It’s horrifying to think the aftermath of the shooting would’ve transpired completely differently (and the murdering cop likely off the hook) had someone not caught the heinous act on video.

7. You know that phenomenon where you think you don’t need something until you’ve got it, and that once you’ve got it, you don’t know how you ever did live without out it? Well, like a smartphone or Bluetooth in a car, my recently purchased Macbook Air has been a joy to use. Browsing the web while lounging on the couch is such an experience, especially for the massively lazy person like me. Needing a lightweight laptop when you’ve already got a desktop computer is for sure a first-world problem.

8. I’ve found a new favorite font! In place of the previous champion Helvetica, I’ve moved my typeface preference to Helvetica Neue Light (big difference, I know.) It’s the same gorgeous Helvetica, just much more minimalist and elegant.

In fact, this humble blog have just converted from vanilla Helvetica to the evolved version. Looks awesome, doesn’t it?

9. Apple finally rolled out the much-anticipated (by me) Photos app alongside the new Yosemite 10.10.3 update. Finally, I can save my entire photo collection permanently (hopefully, anyways) into the cloud. I’ve been meaning to collate and organize my photos for the longest time (compared to my immaculately maintained music collection, the state of disarray is downright tragic), and now with the transition to the Photos app in OS X, I finally got the impetus to do it. Best of all, I can access to all of it from anywhere on the planet right on my iPhone.

10. All the congratulations in the world to my good friend Charlene for passing her board exam, and is now a certified family nurse practitioner. All my friends are smarter/better than I am, and that’s absolutely awesome. 

Passive aggressive - 10 things i think

MANY THINGS I THINK: SCOTTSDALE SPRING TRAINING EDITION

1. Scottsdale is much smaller that I’ve recognized from looking at it Google Maps. One can literally walk from one side of town to the other in about 20 minutes. The group I was traveling with probably needn’t had hired a car for the trip - everything was absolutely within walking distance. 

2. The Arizona sun is so intense that you cannot venture outside without sunglasses. The brief moments I took mine off to wipe away sweat was enough to sear my retinas to oblivion. 

3. When you travel from bastion of liberalism that is San Francisco, it’s fun then to play the game ‘how you know it’s a red state’ when you visit Arizona. For one, plastic bags are free and available in every store. It’s amazing. 

4. It’s an incredible phenomena for a San Franciscan to see people driving on the freeway in a leisurely pace of 80 miles per hour. Back home that’d be considered highly speeding. Also, nobody on the road is aggressive, and always willing to provide space for other cars. Oh, you want to change lanes in front of me? Here, go right ahead. Take your time. 

5. The word ‘Waterfront’ holds completely different meanings in Scottsdale compared to San Francisco. Their version of a waterfront is simply a tiny man-made canal that cuts through the town. 

6. Scottsdale are is so dry that there’s no use for a hair-dryer: five minutes post shower your hair is already moisture-free. Body-lotion is a must, and lip-balm is best applied on a bi-hourly basis. For someone so used to having moisture and humidity in the air he breathes, the incredible dryness of Arizona is just about the only thing that I wasn’t overly fond of. 

7. Insert your typical amazement at cheap gas prices once you’re away from the San Francisco Bay Area. 

8. Arizona’s obviously got an abundance of land, so parking is never an issue. Plus, it’s usually free, too. You’ve no idea how much of a juxtaposition that is to San Francisco, where parking is never free, and you’re expected to circle round for better parts of an hour simply to find an open spot. 

9. Let’s talk about weather. 90 degrees in Arizona is called warm, while once the mercury drops to the 50s, that’s considered cold. In contrast, I’m used to 90 degrees being unbearably hot, and 50s is just right. Obviously, it’s all about getting used to the climate, though I’m not sure anybody can ever acclimate to over 100 degrees every-single-day during the summer months. 

10. Housing prices in Scottsdale - an upper-income town - is about a third of the cost in San Francisco. That figure is enough to make you weep at night until you succumb to slumber. 

11. Scottsdale tap water is undrinkable, even once you’ve boiled it (there remains an odd mineral-like taste). Stock up on bottled water, because the air is so dry you’ll be drinking lots of it. 

12. It’s difficult to have a bad dining experience in Scottsdale, provided you avoid the obvious national restaurant chains. I ate so well that I gained two pounds over the four-day vacation. I know it isn’t water weight, because it’s so fucking dry there. 

13. The beauty of spring training games is that no matter where you sitting, the stadiums are so comparative small to their major league counterparts that you’re so close to the players and the action. Game results obviously don’t matter, you’re just there to to enjoy the atmosphere and watch your favorite team at such an up-close distance that you’d need to fork over four-figures to do the same at the regular ballpark. 

14. Avoid sitting in the outfield grass sections of these spring training ballparks, unless you really enjoy a dark tan (or a wicked sunburn) and the gnarliest sun-drunk feeling you’ve ever experienced. 

15. Baseball players are generally much bigger in size that they appear on the television. 

16. Concession prices at spring training stadiums are just as jacked-up as they are in major league ballparks. That 16 ounce beer is still going to cost a ridiculous eight dollars.  

17. Arizona is the only state in the Union that doesn’t observe daylight savings time, for very good and obvious reasons. Personally I’m not the biggest proponent of DST (and neither is John Oliver), and wishes California would join Arizona is abolishing the practice. Having to adjust your internal body clock for arbitrary reasons (it’s not like you’re traveling anywhere) is quite inane and stupid to me. 

18. Once you’ve experienced the atmosphere and culture of Scottsdale and the greater Phoenix area, it’s very easy to recognize why the place tend to skew towards conservatism. 

Now I'm on the outside - 10 things I think

10 THINGS I THINK

1. Baseball is back! San Francisco Giants pitchers and catchers reported to spring training today. After winning three championships in five years, I've got zero expectations for this year. I'm merely going to enjoy the games I get to watch and/or attend. Can't wait to head down to Arizona in a little over a fortnight's time.  

2. With John Oliver locked down at HBO for the next three years and Jessica Williams removing herself from the running for host, I'm not exactly excited now about the future prospects of The Daily Show after Jon Stewarts departs.

3. Still haven't yet had the time to watch the nearly three hours of SNL40 show, but that Celebrity Jeopardy sketch is everything. Will Ferrell as Trebek, Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery, Kate McKinnon as Justin Bieber, Alec Baldwin as Tony Bennet, Norm McDonald as Burt Reynolds, Taran Killam as Christoph Waltz, and Jim Carrey as Matthew McConaughey; the whole of them absolutely nailed it. 

4. Even when you don't plan for car shopping to take up the entire day, even when you've done all your due diligence and the negotiations was a cinch, you'll still find yourself at the dealership until the sun goes down. I'm so glad when I bought my car I did it all through email; I merely had to sign and pay the down-payment when I went to the dealership to pick up the car. 

5. Those of you who live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I wholly recommend BMW of Mountain View for all your Bavarian motor shopping needs. On the same token, I my regard cannot be lower for the inattentive and mannerless pricks over at Peter Pan BMW. 

6. East coast is seeing record snow and well below zero temps, and meanwhile me the asshole here in San Francisco is complaining about mid-70s weather in the middle of February. 

Typical San Franciscan, right? 70 is to hot, 50 is too cold, and 60 is just right. You know what though, we certainly pay for the privilege to complain. Those of you who live in places with harsher climate extremes, spare me your consternation. 

7. I've zero patience to sit through adverts at the beginning of videos online. If you want me to watch your product/show/clip you need to show me something first before bombarding me with useless pander. What ever happened to placing the ads on the sides of the webpage?

8. Articles about how unhealthy Chipotle really is have been popping up lately, and I couldn't care less. I'll still eat there every chance I get. Being Chinese my body is accustomed to a sodium-heavy diet so it's no consequence at all that a typical Chipotle burrito has got enough sodium to satisfy an entire daily intake. The point is, sure that burrito bowl may contain 1,500 calories, but when I eat one of those the only other meal I have for the day is a light dinner or breakfast. That's it. Of course you'll get fat if you eat at chipotle and have two big square meals along with it. 

Law of thermodynamics, folks. It's really that simple. 

9. I rather America build the Keystone XL pipeline than risk having to carry oil from Canada on freight trains that's got to travel through communities, towns, and cities. Such a volatile substance should not be carried in large quantities on a mode of transport that is prone to accidents. 

10. I don't subscribe to the notion of "spend money on experiences, not things." I say, why not spend money on both? Deeply trenched materialism is awful yes, but there's nothing wrong with purchasing a few things if it does indeed make you happy. The key is to properly use the items you buy; a $3,000 Mac Pro that you only use to surf the web and watch youtube videos is a tremendous waste.