Blog

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

Gratis finis

Well that is it. Today is the final time that maintenance on my BMW M2 will be paid for by BMW. Every new BMW vehicle comes with three years’ worth of free maintenance. That is the perk you receive in paying so handsomely for Bavarian engineering. It’s wild to realize it’s been three years since I bought the M2 back in October of 2020 - during the heart of the pandemic. Taking it for its third annual service also signals the longest period I’ve kept a car bought with my own money.

And honestly I do intend to keep this M2 Competition for as long as possible. I know I said the same thing about the Porsche 911 GT3 (letting that car go still hurts), but hey, the intention is there, okay? Sometimes life throw you unexpected curveballs - especially the financial ones - and you just have to adjust. There’s plenty of residual value tied to M2; if I ever need to sell it in order to facilitate some big life decisions, I totally would in a heartbeat.

What I won’t do is sell the BMW in order to buy another car. The days of swapping out vehicles every few years is over. The M2 is just about the perfect car for me: powerful and sporting enough to easily get into trouble, yet practical enough to do a major Costco run. To move on from that for the newest flavor in automotive town would be silly. Besides, with interest rates at historic highs (for my lifetime), I want to avoid taking out a loan, or withdrawing money from the savings account.

Cheers to many more years with the M2. Time to start saving up for not-free maintenance service that begins a year from now.

Good to have healthcare

How’s everybody in the Bay Area handling the smokey air conditions? AQI reached the 180s yesterday (read: unhealthy), and it’s hovering in the 150s so far today. Thanks a lot, wildfires burning up in Oregon! I haven’t worn a mask outdoors since the early days of the pandemic. Remember those days? In hindsight, it was rather needless to mask-up outdoors. So was wiping down packages and bags with disinfectant.

The horrible air quality did not stop people from exercising outdoors. I saw plenty of people working out at the Marina Green yesterday. And all I have to say is, “Why!?” I can’t perceive any net benefit whilst breathing in this bad of air. This is what indoor gyms - with proper air filtration - are for.

Our health is too important, and so is having quality health care. It’s open enrollment period at my work, and it’s a good annual reminder how fortunate I am to have health care paid for by the employer. It’s the good stuff, too: my friend and I are both with Kaiser Permanente, but her emergency room deductible is $150, while mine is just $50. This low deductible tier do not come cheaply: my employer pays over $960 a month for the privilege (that’s $11,520 a year). I can’t imagine having to fork over that much money myself. Good thing the healthcare mandate, part of the Affordable Care Act, was struck down in court…

I can totally see why people stick with a job they may not like too much, all because of maintaining healthcare coverage. In America we sadly don’t have universal healthcare like rest of the first world. Our healthcare is dependent on employment, or being so abjectly poor that you qualify for government assistance. It adds degrees of difficulty for those wanting to take a leap of faith in pursuing the arts, or going freelance. Especially so if you’ve got dependents relying on you having health insurance.

It would be fantastic if there were universal healthcare. Instead of paying Kaiser $11,520 a year, my employer can pay that money directly to me instead. That would be lovely.

Sunset Night Market

It’s National Cheeseburger Day! I hope you all went to your local McDonald’s and got a double-cheeseburger for only 50-cent (apparently, the original price for one when it first debut on the menu). A single day promotion only available on the McDonald’s app. I saw a kid trying to order from the counter and got declined. They really want to harvest your data!

I made the mistake of going to McDonald’s after work. Thanks to the promotion, it was absolutely packed with people ordering the $0.50 double-cheeseburger. Especially in these inflationary times, who can say no to a sub-dollar sandwich (with cheese)? Nutritional value be damned, we just want to save a buck or two. Regular price for a double-cheeseburger (San Francisco, mind you) is $4.19. I’ll take the nutritional deficit hit, thank you.

The first ever Sunset Night Market this past Friday was also absolutely packed with people. The local district supervisor had visited Taiwan and drew inspiration from the famous night markets there. The somewhat quixotic attempt to replicate it here in San Francisco (we can’t have nice things) was a rousing success… if you only count the sheer number of visitors. It was so packed that one could not see what a booth was selling without being right next to it. I haven’t been in such a dense crowd since rush hour subway in Guangzhou, China.

Prolific crowd number aside, there’s much to improve upon if the Sunset Night Market wants permanent staying power. Firstly there needs to be way more food vendors. The draw of the night markets in Taiwan is numerous food stands. By my count, the amount of food vendors at the Sunset Night Market was less than ten. This in turn worsened the experience of getting food, because the lines -for the vendors that were there - were super long.

The organizers didn’t allocate enough space for the lines (they’ve closed down only three blocks) so it was a mess of people in line blocking the general flow of the crowd. They need more space for everything. The next night market should close down at least six blocks for the same amount of vendors. Sadly, plans for the next one won’t be until Spring 2024!? I am rooting for its continued success, though.

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.