Blog

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

Don't worry about it

There’s a fine Chinese tradition of fighting over the restaurant bill. Every Chinese kid has sat at the dim sum table while the parents argue with relatives on who gets the honor of paying the entire tab. When my parents meet up with their friends, there always has to be a discussion on who gets to treat who.

I am a fan of this culture. Breaking bread with others is probably the oldest bonding practice in the history of our species. Treating others to a meal is a show of tenderness and care. I do think our parents’ generation tend to go overboard with the arguing. (The smart and sly move is to go the front desk during the middle of the meal.) Sometimes they forget that it’s suppose to be kind gesture, and not about “winning”.

Money is tricky when it comes to relationships. For sure there are people that use treating others to food as a flex, a sort of “I am better than you” card. On the other hand, the person being treated to may feel somehow inferior. What is suppose to be heartwarming can easily turn into resentment.

As I grow older - and have money - I like to pay the whole tab for my people every so often. The problem is, our generation has technology. The ease of sending money to others (apps like Venmo) means even if I am first to grab the bill and pay it all, it’s stupidly easy for friends to pay me back. The only defense would be to block them on the money apps, which just isn’t feasible. So long as someone disagrees with your gesture, you cannot prevent them from paying you.

Might technology ruin this great Chinese tradition of fighting over the bill?

Can't be trusted

It occurred to me why people run to catch the bus or train. Because they understand that if they miss this particular one, when the next one will arrive is an absolute crapshoot. Sure, the schedule says one train every 10 minutes during rush hour, but we all know that’s not reliable at all. I too would risk traffic impalement to run across an intersection, chasing after the bus.

This isn’t Japan, where trains arrive every five minutes during commute times. And you can be damn sure it’s going to be on time. If there are any delays, the train conductor apologies profusely over the PA system. It’s very sad when you see proper standards of what is possible, and then you return to your own country and see that it can’t be had. My advice: don’t visit Japan or other modern Asian countries.

I read on the Reddits that a majority of San Francisco’s school children gets driven to campus. The article points out it would be better for congestion and the environment if more kids take public transport or bike. No shit, but has the author done either of those things back in his schooling days? I’ve taken the bus to school, and I wouldn’t want that for my (hypothetical) kid if I can help it. The amount of crazy and violence I’ve seen (and been done to) on city buses is enough to give PTSD.

Biking might be worse. Anyone that’s driven in San Francisco since the pandemic would agree the driving quality has utterly deteriorated. A tiny kid on a bicycle is a huge gamble against the laws of physics.

I get it: parents want as much control as possible. If you can eliminate any doubt that your child will get to school safely, you do it. Zoom zoom.

Pure envy

Youtube personality MKBHD is in some hot water for his recently released Panels app. It’s a $50 per year (introductory price) subscription for wallpapers. You might be thinking, “Who actually pays for digital wallpapers?” And you’d be right! I personally don’t remember ever paying for a piece of art to adorn the background on my laptop or smartphone. Pictures of Kpop girl group members are very free on the Googles.

That’s what the hubbub is about: MKBHD is daring to charge money for something that people think should be free. Lament all we want about the devaluation of the arts, but you simply cannot force people into paying customers. Do people care about supporting their favorite music artists? Clearly not: give me millions of songs available to stream at any moment for a low monthly subscription. Would you pay to watch your favorite Youtube channels? I at least pay for YouTube premium.

Obviously, MKBHD is free to make an app and charge however much he wants. The complainers aren’t likely to be customers anyways. Whether or not there will be enough customers for a $50 per year wallpaper app? The capitalistic mechanism will sort it out soon enough.

What is surprising to read on the Reddits is people saying mean personal things about MKBHD. He’s out of touch! He’s greedy! His reviews are just shilling for the big tech companies! I think this is all plain jealousy. Here’s a guy making millions of dollars doing Youtube videos, and also happens to own a few material things in the six figures of dollars. MKBHD has reached escape velocity into being rich. He’s no longer the humble everyman that you and I can relate with. You either die a hero, or live long enough for people to see you as an asshole.

Same thing happened to automotive YouTuber Doug DeMuro. Soon as he sold his car auction website for tens of millions, he crossed the threshold into rich asshole-dom in the eyes of some fans. All of the sudden, his car reviews are no longer entertaining. And his opinions are “out of touch.”

It’s not really about the wallpaper app. It’s a reflection to those who did not chase their dreams to success. So when the guy that did messes up, well then, time to knock him down a peg.

Waning enthusiasm

I guess gas prices (in the San Francisco Bay Area) is just going to stay in the five dollars per gallon threshold? We’re never going to see the number 3 again in front of the decimal point are we? Unless of course we move to other parts of the country where not only do they have cheaper gas than California, but they also have higher octane! (93 versus 91.) If I’m getting reamed in the butt on petrol price, at least give me the best gasoline possible.

It’s a good thing then that I’ve only driven 4,000 miles since the previous September. Paying over $70 to fill up the BMW M2 is so not the business. As much as I like driving, the cost of gas adds up very quickly. At least that is something I can control. The higher insurance premiums that we all received in our last renewals? Nothing I can do about that.

Perhaps my car enthusiasm is waning? I don’t know. I took the M2 in to the dealership for service last week, and I keep thinking what a hassle it is. Even though I’m not removing a single bolt myself, it’s still time out of my day to drive it to the dealership (on the other side of the city). Imagine if I didn’t own a car at all - how much simpler it would be. No gas price shocks, no insurance premiums, no maintenance costs, no worries about parking it somewhere and risking some asshole damaging the car.

Of course, it’s not tenable to not have a car. I rely too much on Costco trips to fight the ongoing inflation. But I’m thinking maybe I don’t need to own a high-strung sports car. It would be cheaper and less stressful to instead own a car an old man would drive. Something boring, something dead nuts reliable. That can only mean one thing: a Toyota.

Change is the only constant, right? I’ve like cars since I was a kid. Who knows, maybe that enthusiasm does come to an end.

I'm here. I'm back

After six years of using the standard sized iPhone, it’s really nice to be back to the one with the bigger screen. Not since my iPhone XS Max got unceremoniously taken away by the Feds for reasons totally not of my fault (no sarcasm) have I bought the larger iPhone. This iPhone 16 Pro Max I got last Friday, sitting at a 6.9 inch (nice) diagonal screen, is just about the biggest I would want a smartphone to be. Anything more and it’s a tablet.

The increased screen real estate is instantly better for typing. I’m noticeably making fewer typos tapping away on the larger keyboard. Another plus is reading books on the Kindle app: more space for text, less page flipping. The experience is so good that I can forgo using the iPad for reading. Content from the web and Youtube fills up the larger canvas beautifully. Why did I go so long in between giant iPhones? Oh right, I didn’t want to pay the $100 price premium. Hashtag broke boy.

Obviously, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is not as pocket-able as the non-Max version. Even as a manly man with manly pockets in his never-skinny manly jeans, the Max iPhone is cumbersome to carry. Before doing any motion that involves bending over or squatting down - like tying my shoes - I must take the phone out. Otherwise I risk it slipping out of the pocket, damaging that pristine titanium frame. The best way to carry the iPhone 16 Pro Max is in the hand, but don’t do that on public transportation, because some thug will for sure snatch it out of your hand and exit swiftly at the stop.

Another con with the Max iPhone is the difficultly of one-handed operation. I have to perform this juggle with the phone in order to position my fingers to reach the stuff at the top half of the display. Apple has a solution for this since the iPhone 6, but for some reason I prefer to do the finger juggle than the simple swiping shortcut.

Smartphones with giant screens: I like it a lot. It’s good to be back using one.

First time?

BMW drivers have the infamous reputation of being assholes on the road. We completely disregard proper road manners. Turn signals? What are those? Add to that the magnificently instant power of electric motors, and the asshole intensifies even more…

I recently took my BMW M2 to the dealer for its annual service. For loaner vehicle I was given a BMW i5 - an all-electric BMW 5 Series. It’s the first time I’ve ever driven an electric car, never mind that it’s my first service loaner to not be powered by dinosaur juice. I was instantly a fan: unlike a gas loaner where I have to refill the amount I use, for an EV loaner there’s no expectation of charging back to the initial level! As a fan of decreasing the amount of hassles in my life, this development is lovely.

Back to the BMW i5. The instant torque of electric motors is indeed very intoxicating. No naturally-aspirated gas engine can match the response of an electric motor. With such accessible power, electric cars invite drivers to be aggressive. It’s too easy! Anybody that’s in front of you can be passed in an eye blink. Any gap in traffic can be filled before other drivers can react. Even for me, someone who prefers to do the speed limit in the slow lane, the i5 loaner egged me to test out its capabilities. The fastest car in the world is a rental EV.

Not that I wasn’t of this opinion before, but having driven an EV finally, I am more convinced that you should absolutely buy electric if you are able to charge it at home. The power is nice, yes, but so is the negligible maintenance cost (brakes and tires, mostly). And if you believe in the whole better-for-the-environment mission (let’s skip over the mining materials for the batteries part), even better.

If I actually had a commute, I wouldn’t look at anything but an all-electric car.

The digital driving you

Apple iPhone users in California can now add their driver license onto the wallet app. Supposedly, we can use this mobile license at TSA checkpoints at select airports (including my local SFO). I don’t know about you, but I will for sure still bring my actual driver license. I wouldn’t want to miss a flight on the off chance that TSA refuses to accept the digital version (or the scanner goes down). The same way I still carry at least one physical credit card with me, just in case the digital cards momentarily stop working. Or my iPhone dies a sudden death.

It’s kind of iffy, isn’t it? To put everything important into one singular failure point. A thing that runs on battery is liable to fail at anytime, without rhyme or reason. I can understand those who would never take an electric vehicle on a long road trip. Let’s say my iPhone stops working while I am out driving. But my driver license and insurance information is stored on the device! Does that mean I can’t legally drive - whilst carrying a nonfunctioning phone?

That’s not going to be a problem until a time when law enforcement accepts the digital California driver license. As of right now, we still have to bring the physical card with us out on the road.

Not that anyone should hand over their smartphone to a cop so willingly. I think the idea is to eventually have officers be able to scan our digital licenses? The same way we tap our phones at pay terminals in a store. This would be great a car dealership. No longer can sleazy salespeople hold your license hostage while they browbeat you into buying a car at their price. You want to see my driver license? Here, scan the this. I think that would be brilliant.