I just paid my auto registration for next year. I purchased my car on December 20, 2016, so the car is almost four years old. Unfortunately, the auto registration fee in California for my car has not gone down year-over-year, though I’m certain I’ve lost more then 50% of the car’s value due to depreciation.

Year	Registration
2017	$554
2018	$515
2019	$621
2020	$577
2021	$544

In 2019, I believe the California legislature added $100 to the renewal fees for electric cars so I’m paying almost the same fees in year 5 as when I bought the car. Even with such high registration fees, our DMV and road conditions still suck.

Another thing my dad and I did this afternoon was to put up the LED lights I bought. It took us about an hour to nail plastic wire holders on the wooden eaves of the house to hold the plastic tube housing. The string of lights is battery powered so we installed that on the inside of the garage where we can turn on/off and control the lighting program with a remote. It was barely visible during the day, but it turned out okay when viewed at night.

It’s not very impressive but it’s the first set up outdoor lights that we’ve put up for Christmas, ever. You can’t tell from the photo but the lights alternate colors and blink on and off. Not bad for our first attempt. I’m thinking I’ll just leave the LED light strip up all year, and only turn it on during December. Each year, I’ll spend another $20 and put up a new light strip on the house somewhere. Eventually we’ll go all out like our neighbor:

Okay, probably not.

Alternative title: Can’t Hide From Google

When I got into my car after dialysis this morning, this popped up on my iPhone’s lock screen:

I have tracking turned on so Google knows where I’ve been. I guess I go to Raising Cane’s after dialysis so often that Google thinks it’s a regular schedule or something. In the past, this notification would pop up in the morning for work. Since I’ve been working from home for the past 9 months, this is what pops up instead.

Just to be different, I went to the Santa Ana location since I wanted to go back to Santa Ana Main Place to charge my car. I was down to about 20% charge. To charge to 90% would take about 50 kWh or ~$10 at $0.20/kWh. Since I “paid” for Supercharging and I have nothing else to do, I may as well let Tesla pay for my lunch.

With Apple hardware, there comes a day where the lstest OS update will not install anymore. That happened to my iPad2 and iPad4. They are both running older versions of iOS instead of the latest version 14. This is now true for my MacAir that I bought in 2012. It’s the Mid 2012 version, which means it cannot run the latest Mac OS 11 or Big Sur. The eight year old notebook is a bit slow but works fine so I don’t know if I want to replace it with another Mac that I won’t use too much. For better or worse, my main desk computer is now a Dell/Alienware PC running Windows 10, mainly because of PC games. I keep music and photos on the Mac and occasionally browse the web but most “work” is being done on the PC.

If Macs weren’t so expensive…

I just picked up my new Apple Watch Series 6 from the Apple Store in Costa Mesa. This is the same store where we picked up my mom’s iPhone 11 about two months ago. Since it was a Thursday, there were a lot less people in front of the store. Additionally, I only counted less than 10 customers inside the store. The number of employees easily outnumbered the number of customers.

It took about five minutes to get my purchase from the back room so I chatted with the store employee about old/obsolete Apple hardware and how fast products evolve. He also told me that they are restricted to operating at 25% capacity, which was hard to believe since the store floor was packed with employees. He then said there were a lot of visitors from Los Angeles County since all their stores are shut down. Not in Orange County!

It took about 10 minutes to setup and synchronize the watch. I’ve never owned one before so there will be some getting used to having another apple device. I think I have something from all the Apple product families: iPhone, iPad, Watch, MacAir, Apple TV, and even some old iPods. I think the next purchase, if any, will be a new Mac/Macbook since the one I have is from mid-2012 and definitely showing its age.

Right now the watch is updating its OS from 7.0.1 to 7.1… death, taxes, and Apple software updates.

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Update: 12/5 /2020 6:00 pm

After wearing the new Watch for a few days, I’m slowly getting used to it. The rubber watch band is pretty good; it’s so comfortable that it doesn’t feel like the watch is there at all. I am a bit disappointed at the battery life however. I put the Watch on about 2:30 am this morning, and now the charge is at 35%. I’ll probably need to charge it every night. How am I supposed to use it for sleep tracking if I have to take it off and charge it every night?!

When I first turned on the Watch, it asked to synchronize apps with my phone. I said yes without thinking and it installed a ton of Watch apps. There is a lot of stuff I don’t use anymore so I’ll need to go and clean up. Unlike the iPhone/iPad, the Watch displays all the apps on a hexagonal grid. If you have a lot of apps, then it takes awhile to find what you’re looking for. It looks like this:

Our family has never put up Christmas lights on our house. We would talk about it every year, but never get around to it. We’ve lived in our current house since the end of 2009. It’s in a fairly decent neighborhood with 3-4 bedroom houses so a lot of our neighbors has put up lights. Some even have large elaborate displays that probably uses a lot of electricity to run each night. Anyway, with 2020 being such a sucky year, I decided to buy some lights to put on our house. I’m starting small so I just got a 40′ LED rope that seems easy to install. There were many similar products on Amazon; I’m sure they all come from the same Chinese manufacturer. The one I got was only $20. If it works out, maybe I’ll get more for next year.

I mentioned that I just bought an Apple Watch Series 6 during Black Friday weekend, mainly as an early Christmas gift for myself. I don’t have the watch yet and I’m already checking out replacement watch bands. I originally wanted a stainless steel link band but Apple’s prices are ridiculous. This one sells for $449. That’s more than the actual watch.

If you search for “apple watch 6 steel band” on Amazon, there are a lot of hits, with bands starting under $20. Apple’s products are usually higher quality but in this case, probably not 25x better. I’ll probably wait until I get the watch before replacing the band, but it’s good to know not all of them cost $400+.

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Typically I don’t spend that much on watches and accessories. Actually, I’ve only purchased one watch ever. It was a special edition Tag Heuer Carrera. The list price was about $6,500 and I paid $3,400. It was one of those crazy one-time purchases since all my other 3-4 watches are inexpensive gifts. Later, while in Las Vegas, I purchased a steel Tag Heuer watch band to replace the original leather strap and that cost $550. In comparison, I guess $450 for a steel watch band is not extraordinary, except the “brand” is Apple instead of a traditional luxury watch manufacturer. I hardly wear the watch now since I usually have the Fitbit on. With the new Apple Watch, I’ll probably never wear any of my analog watches in the future.

Ha! I posted something about lucky numbers for post #777 on September 10, 2020. At the time, I was stressing about my sister’s latest donor application to UCLA Transplant Center. I think they were still discussing her case, primarily about the potential presence of a kidney tumor. That has since been resolved and it appears we’re likely headed for a transplant in a few months.

Also since the #777 post, I’ve had other medical issues. The main problem was the presence of pleural effusion. That took about two weeks of “aggressive” ultrafiltration during dialysis, and several echocardiograms to resolve. I also cut my right foot/toe pretty bad that I went to the ER for stitches. All that has been resolved as well so maybe lucky Chinese number > lucky white-people number. Hmm… 🤨

In China, it is customary to regard even numbers as being more auspicious than odd ones. So, gifts are given in even numbers for the celebration of all occasions. No. 8 has long been regarded as the luckiest number in Chinese culture. With pronunciation of ‘Ba’ in Chinese, no. 8 sounds similar to the word ‘Fa’, which means to make a fortune. It contains meanings of prosperity, success and high social status too, so all business men favor it very much. Moreover, in some areas of China, people prefer to pay much more money for a telephone number with 8 in it. They also favor residences on the eighth floor of buildings. In 1990s, a vehicle identification number with 8 was once auctioned off for 5 million Hong Kong dollars.

Related to my weight loss, my waist size had gone done. As a result, almost every pair of pants I have are now too large. Likewise, most of my old belts are pretty non-functional. My daily wardrobe included jeans, mostly straight leg Levis 505s. As long as I could remember, I’ve purchased 38″ waist/32″ inseam, and they would fit fine. After drying, they would be a bit tight but would stretch out again after a few days. Now, if I don’t use a belt, the pants would fall down right away. Even with a belt, in order to get the pants to stay up, there would be so much material bunched up that it was uncomfortable to wear. My mom said she can alter the jeans but that looks pretty difficult since the material is so thick. Usually my clothes end up being too small over time; this is the first time that my clothes have become too large.

I ended up buying a new pair last week. I went with the same style but purchased sone with 36″ waist. It fit a lot better but was still a bit loose. I think 34″ waist would be too tight since I measured about 35″ waist with a tape measure. Maybe if I put it in the dryer at hight heat, it will shrink the jeans a bit. I also found a unwrapped pair of 38/32 jeans in my closet. Not sure what to do with it anymore. I’ll save it for after my trip to Bacchanal Buffet in Las Vegas.

I had a weird dream this morning. I haven’t had that many dreams recently since my sleep times are so short. I usually fall asleep before midnight and wake up at 2:30 am. This time however, I felt like I was dreaming and awake at the same time. I remember I was talking to an unknown person about my ex-wife, except I wasn’t divorced (so I must be dreaming). The room in the dream was very similar to my current bedroom, which added to the illusion. In the last part of the dream, I was wondering why I haven’t spoken to my “wife” for a long time. When I woke up, I was looking for my ex-wife until I remembered I’ve been divorced for 14 years. Still, I was surprised at the emotional jolt I got when reality kicked in. I read stories about people with Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia who forgot that their spouse has passed away. When they find out, it’s as if they heard for the first time and you can see the grief and despair in their face. I guess this morning’s dream was like that but probably less intense. It was the brief mixing of the dream and reality that confused me.

I remember being super anxious post-heart surgery. At the time, I was just starting to recover, and didn’t know what was happening with my potential kidney transplant. Little did I know that 2020 was going to get a lot worse. I was freaking out because I thought it would take a long time to get back on the transplant list. I was also dreading dialysis a lot more than before. Yet here we are twelve months later and I’m still on hemodialysis. The long awaited kidney transplant is closer but not guaranteed yet.

I’m a bit worried about losing a lot of weight this year. I was probably around 235 pounds pre surgery and now I’m about 175. That’s a loss of 60 pounds. It’s weird looking at myself in the mirror. I look really skinny in the upper half of my torso. You can really see my collarbone and my upper arms have stretch marks where I lost a lot of fat and muscle. There are so many complications with dialysis and kidney failure that I don’t know what is normal anymore. I woke up at 2:00 am again this morning after going to bed at 11:00 pm. I probably fell back asleep at around 4:30 am then woke up at 8:30 am again. Now I’m tired so I’ll probably nap until the next event on my work calendar at 2:30 pm. I can’t imaging how life would be like if I had to drive into work everyday. Probably falling asleep at my desk all the time.

I guess I’m trying to say that humans are pretty adaptable. I thought I would go crazy if I had to continue dialysis for another year but we’re past that anniversary. I also thought I could not stand locked up at home and was super glad to get back to work in February. Then COVID-19 hit and bam, I’m stuck at home for the next nine months with no end in sight. I’m trying not to plan too far ahead with regards to the kidney transplant since a lot of things could still happen. One of the things I wanted to do post-transplant was to travel again but that looks like it’s not going to happen soon.

I purchased a Taylor acoustic guitar many years ago. It was a special edition 414ce-L4. I purchased it at a local music store and I think I paid about $1,600 for it.

The EXIF data on the above photo says it was taken in January 2004. That seems like an entire lifetime ago. I was still pretty healthy and still married. The photo was taken in the living room of my house in Brea. I’ve since sold the house and moved twice, but I still have the guitar. For the past 10 years, the guitar has been sitting out on a guitar stand. I helped lead worship at my old church for several years and would practice/play the guitar several times a week so it got a lot of use. When I was in the hospital for two weeks post-surgery, my parents reconfigured my bedroom and packed away the guitar. I haven’t seen it in about a year. I thought about getting it out again during the COVID lockdown but never got around to it.

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I also got some email advertising from Musician’s Friend. I bought some pro audio equipment from them so I guess I’m forever on their list. I just looked at their website and the current version of my guitar is $2,400. Not sure why it’s more expensive at the music store than the Taylor website.

California is a weird state. It’s a solidly blue (Democrat) state in every election. The Democratic Party has a supermajority in the state legislature, and a lot of historically Republican districts are voting Democrat, especially Orange County. However, if you look at some of the early results for ballot measures, the Democratic Party are big losers.

From the California Secretary of State website, results as of 10:40 am on 11/3/2020:

Two of the most contested propositions in terms of funding are 22 and 23. If you look at Ballotpedia, you can see that the Democratic Party were against 22 and supported 23.

Both these propositions have clear union positions, which is probably why it’s heavily partisan. Even worse, proposition 16 seems to be losing as well. Affirmative action is a bread-and-butter Democrat issue. The support list is huge with literally every Democrat politician supporting the overturn of proposition 209.

So what is going on? Why can’t a super-blue state pass ballot measures supported by the super-majority party? An even more fundamental questions is why can’t the state assembly pass these as laws? I guess they did for gig workers but proposition 22 overturns it. Maybe the voters just don’t like the Republican candidates but also don’t like the Democratic agenda.

Here is the Democratic Party endorsements for ballot measures in California. Compared to the partial results above, they’re not doing very well. Looks like it’s four out of eleven so far. Again, that seems weird to me since California is supposed to be a Democratic stronghold in politics.

We have another brush fire here in Orange County. A few years ago, our house was evacuated due to the Canyon2 Fire. Today was one of the windiest days this year and of course, a brush fire pops up nearby.

Map shows where the fire started and the current burn area. The orange/peach area is under mandatory evacuation order. My house is just off the map to the north of the “North Tustin” label. It’s pretty crazy how fast the fire spreads when there is 50-70 mph winds.

I got an emergency notification on my phone from the city of Irvine about a mandatory evacuation early this morning. I was actually on my way home from the podiatrist. He removed the stitches in my toe and said to come back in a few weeks. Anyway, since we weren’t being evacuated immediately, I packed up a few things into five duffle bags/backpacks and placed them near the door. I also plugged in my car so I’d have a full charge if the evacuation order came. It’s been 5 hours and it looks like the fire is headed more SSW than East so I think we’re okay for now.

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A few friends texted me about whether my dialysis center is still open. The center is more to the west so it’s not even on the map above. I think the clinic and the hospital complex will be okay. There is no brush anywhere near the hospital. So regardless of what happens, I’ll be going to dialysis at 5:30 am tomorrow.

I completed my ballot and will drop it in the mailbox as I leave for dialysis later this morning. I’ve always voted by mail in the past so this is nothing new. I don’t know what Trump is complaining about.

The only vote I’ll disclose is that I voted no on Proposition 23; that’s probably very clear from this post.

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OK, I voted Libertarian for president. It’s like four years ago; both the major party candidates suck, and my vote for president doesn’t count anyway in California.

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One more. No on Proposition 16. If that makes me a torch bearing white supremacist according to the Democrats, so be it. Fight me.

I’ve been getting a lot of scam or phishing emails lately. Almost one email per day from “Amazon”, “Paypal”, or “Apple Store” asking me to log in and verify my password. Some of the fake emails are pretty good, but then there’s this gem:

Greetings From Amazon.

Your Amazon account where placed on hold and all pending order.
We took this action the billing information you provided did not match the information on file with the card issuer.

To resolve this issue, please verify now with the billing name, address, and telephone number registered to your payment card. If you recently moved, you may need to update this information with the card issuer.

Verify Account

If you are unable to complete the verification process within 24hours, all pending orders will be cancelled. You will not be able to access your account until this process has been completed. We ask that you not open new account as any new order you place may be delayed.

We hope to see you again soon

Amazon.com

C’mon. Fake email is not believable if there are typos and strange grammar. I think the scammers should at least hire a good translator or editor to fix the wording. I thought I was getting scammed by Google Translate or something. I’ve been tagging them as phishing emails in Outlook.com since they’re coming to my hotmail.com account. Hopefully Microsoft is doing something with all these reports.

Why the increase? Maybe all these people lost their minimum wage job in India or Russia or wherever and now turning to phishing scams to make money?

Since I’m heading into work tomorrow and it’s about 42 miles one-way, I was going to charge up my car at the Supercharger. The battery is currently at about 45% full which should get me there and back. However, I went to get some lunch first and got lazy. Since I was denied yesterday, I went to Raising Cane’s and just got some chicken fingers. I’m not getting combo anymore since I don’t eat the bread and coleslaw, and I shouldn’t be eating fries (potatoes) and getting a large fountain drink. I ended up eating all six chicken fingers in the parking lot. They are so much better hot right out of the fryer. Once they cool in the box, the breading gets soggy. If the restaurant was open for seating, I would probably order one or two chicken fingers at a time so I would always get hot/fresh ones.

The usage at the Santa Ana Supercharger is very inconsistent. Before COVID-19, it would be always crowded during the day. The usage totally dropped off after the pandemic lockdown but hasn’t really recovered yet. I thought most people would be driving again but most of the time, there are several open charger spots. Today, it was about half-full, which means probably sharing a circuit and have slower charging speeds. After eating my chicken fingers, I drove home and will charge up my car overnight.

I’m a bit upset with my mom. In late August, she started complaining about her phone again. At the time, she had an old iPhone 6S+ and wanted to replace it with an iPhone 11. I told her that Apple usually introduced new phones in the Fall so let’s wait a bit. It turned out Apple introduced new iPod and iWatch models, but no iPhone 12. Again I told her that the introduction will be in October, and prices on the iPhone 11 will drop. For some reason, my sister convinced her that prices won’t change so she wanted to replace the phone right away. A few weeks ago, I ordered her a red 64 GB iPhone 11 for $699 and picked it up from the Apple Store.

Guess what? Apple introduced the iPhone 12 today and the iPhone 11 model I just purchased two weeks ago is now $599. I told everyone it’s typical Apple behavior to keep the top model at the same price point but drop the prices on older models. Well, I hope my Apple stock does better with the $100 extra revenue.