Blog

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

Tay Tay and football

I never thought that Taylor Swift and American football would crossover, but here we are. Because Taylor’s new beau (in an illustrious line of many) is Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Travis Kelce, we now cannot watch a game of football, or any sports show about football, without hearing about America’s favorite pop star. I think it’s fantastic she went to the game in Kansas City to cheer on her boyfriend. We should all be so lucky to have such supportive partners.

That said, I really just want to watch football. I don’t care about Taylor being at the game, nor do I care that Kelce’s jersey sales have increased 400 fold since they started dating (hope he gets a cut of that). Why the heck Taylor Swift on the front page of ESPN dot com? Worse of all are the puns using the titles of Taylor’s multiple hit songs during commentary. Ha-ha, Kelce found a blank space in the end zone and scored. Hilarious.

Taylor Swift need to tread carefully. I remember back when Tony Romo - then quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys - was dating music star Jessica Simpson. When the Cowboys - some would say inevitably - lost in the playoffs, some fans blamed Jessica for cursing the team. If this Taylor-Kelce relationship have legs, then the Chiefs had better win the Super Bowl! Otherwise, it might be the start of the Taylor curse (see: Kardashian curse) - should she continues to date sports stars.

Revelers.

Let's get after it

I am definitely not a spring chicken anymore. Three nights ago - due to assisting a friend with Taylor Swift concert logistics - I got only about four hours of not-so-great sleep. Three days later, I am still feeling the effects, even though on subsequent nights I got the proper eight hours of slumber. Imagine had I pulled an all-nighter: I would be a wreck the entire week following.

It doesn’t help that I am returning to work today, after taking the prior week off. It was a rather eventful vacation. Barbenheimer happened: I saw both Barbie and Oppenheimer in theatres. Later on in the week I also saw the latest Mission Impossible movie (the seventh(?) film in the franchise). That is also a film I recommend seeing. Tom Cruise is still at the height of his powers; Dead Reckoning Part 1 is the perfect, prototypical action movie for the summer.

I’d plan to finally do a write-up of my trip to Angel Island a few months back, but my MacBook Pro took a complete dump midway through the week. $850 dollars lighter wallet later, as of this writing the MacBook Pro is restored and back to as it were before it died unceremoniously. This is a friendly reminder to make sure you keep solid, up-to-date backups of your computers. Other than the financial hit, it was otherwise not stressful at all that my laptop went down: I knew I have everything backed-up safely.

The aforementioned excursion to pickup my friend from the Taylor Swift concert at 2:00AM was part of a weekend dog-sit for that same friend. She had a party to attend to down in San Diego. I stayed at her place for two days to watch our dog. I particularly enjoyed the morning walks. Nothing will force you out of bed quite like being responsible for a pet. As an early-riser anyways, it was lovely and peaceful taking our dog out for a walk before anyone else have even woken up.

I for sure miss doing that this morning.

Meal well eaten.

Took the midnight train

San Francisco Bay Area folks: did you attend the Taylor Swift concert at Levi’s Stadium? I sure didn’t, because who can afford the thousand dollar get-in price on the secondary market? You’d have a better chance of hitting the billion dollar Mega Millions jackpot than acquiring tickets through official channels.

Nevertheless, a friend of my friend did manage to score Taylor Swift tickets, and my friend got invited to join. The logistics of getting down to Santa Clara from San Francisco is, in a word, challenging. Nobody in their right mind would drive, unless you plan to get there super early. So public transport it is. My friend rode the BART train to Milpitas, then took the local VTA light rail to the stadium. So far, so straight forward.

Leaving the stadium, however, was apparently quite the nightmare. The concert did not end until 11:40 PM (Taylor really gives your money’s worth: a three hour plus jam-packed show). VTA trains were running after hour to ferry folks to either the Milpitas BART station, or the Mountain View Caltrain station. BART was not an option for my friend, as the special late-night train did not go all the way to San Francisco. So Caltrain it is.

Unfortunately, there’s but one special train heading northbound to San Francisco. It was scheduled to depart 75 minutes after the concert ends. That proved to be hugely optimistic. Due to the sheer number of people, my friend didn’t even get to Mountain View station until 1:45 AM - two hours after the show ended. At that point, the lone train was still there, looking less than half full, awaiting more passengers before departed. Our guess is it wouldn’t depart until after 3:00 PM at the earliest.

Lucky for my friend, I was there at the station to pick her up. What the heck did people do before the invention of cellphones? The peace of mind afforded by modern communication is really appreciated in situations like this.

A decision was made.

Downsides of driving a Mazda Miata

Taylor Swift has a new album coming out this November, and my ear chambers are ready for the magnificence. Red and 1989 was such spectacular standouts that I expect no less greatness from reputation, though someone please explain to me why the letter r isn’t capitalized in the album cover.

One of the downsides to owning a minuscule car as the Mazda Miata is that other drivers in modern behemoths such as the typical sports-utility-vehicle or Toyota Camry absolutely cannot see me alongside them. Worse, because of the MX-5 diminutive size, I can hide completely in another car’s blindspot, where even with an over-the-shoulder check the other driver cannot see me at all. I’ve lost count on how many moments I had to do emergency evasive maneuver simply due to people merging directly into me. 

Perhaps a 2,300 odd pound car isn’t meant to be daily-driven when the average vehicle weights nearly 1,000 pounds heavier. Needlessly to say, I run a dash-cam - as the Russians do - at all times, though I’m not sure how useful the camera footage would be if I’m squashed dead by another car. The Miata is a convertible, after all. 

Excellent choice of car, Healy. Simply masterful.