For the past few months, I have been uploading movies to a friend’s Baidu cloud storage. The files were either MP4 or MKV files, plus the occasional SRT file for English subtitles. She lives in Beijing and a lot of movies are not shown in China. Some movies are banned due to censorship, others do not make the quota cut.

At first, all the files were uploading fine. I have a VPN running 24/7 on my PC from Private Internet Access (PIA) for privacy reasons. Having the VPN active did not affect the upload. A few weeks ago, I tried to upload a few movies and the SRT files were blocked, but the large movie files were transferred. I tried uploading a PDF of a translated book (Red Roulette) to test further, but my friend got a warning message about inappropriate content when she tried to open the file. This is extra concerning since the pages were images and not text.

Today, I tried to upload a few more files. This time, nothing would upload, not even the MP4 or MKV files. Thinking this may be more censorship, I disabled the VPN and suddenly the movie files were uploading. The SRT files with English subtitle text were still erroring out so maybe the CCP is blocking everything with characters. I was not sending anything political or subversive. They were just the most recent James Bond films with Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.

Perhaps the restrictions and censorship will reduce after XJP gets his third term as emperor on October 16th.

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Hey, what if I ZIP all the SRT files in a binary…

Nope, that did not work.

I am not a good writer. I can make the excuse that English is my second language, except that my Chinese (first language) is much worse. One measure we used to compare in high school was the difference between your math and verbal SAT scores. If it was really high, you should study engineering; if it was negative, then English or History. Mine was +210. As proof, I have two degrees in electrical engineering.

This lack of verbal/writing skills is more evident after I installed the Microsoft Editor extension in my browser. It unfailingly highlights my poor grammar and word choices. Even after 45 years of speaking English, I still confuse verb conjugation, especially stuff like was/were and has/had. I also write in the passive voice quite often, something that multiple English teachers have mentioned to me. Finally, I use a lot of wishy-washy words (probably, likely, maybe) and redundant adjectives (definitely, positively, totally).

Ever since I installed the extension, I try to correct everything that was flagged, so hopefully the writing quality is a bit better. I did go back a few earlier posts to fix errors (SIEU instead of SEIU for dialysis proposition posts) and it was depressing to see how many words and phrases were flagged for correction.

I should hire a ghost writer if I ever get more than three subscribers to my blog.

Or hopefully, nobody likes Xi Jinping (XJP). A 2020 report from the Pew Research Center shows that since 2002, views on China has trended towards more unfavorable in many countries. Here are the results:

The green line is favorable and blue line is unfavorable. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) likes to blame the U.S. for anti-Chinese racism, but the dislike is widespread, including non-Western countries like Japan and South Korea. Some of the 2020 results can be attributed to COVID-19, but I feel most of the negativity is due to XJP and his wolf-warrior foreign policy. The chart above also specifically calls out 2011. That was when China started claiming the island in the South China Sea in earnest using the bullshit 9-dashed line excuse.

Here is another question that focuses on XJP:

I am unclear why South Korea had confidence in XJP early on, but that has changed, likely due to the THAAD fiasco. Now, with the zero-COVID nonsense, even the local Chinese people are starting to dislike their rulers.

As a Chinese person, I wish there was more accountability within the CCP so one asshole cannot ruin everything. This happened with Mao, and it looks like history will repeat with Xi. However, it does appear that the CCP has entrenched itself through years of fear, corruption, and brainwashing, so I cannot envision a peaceful way for the Chinese people to overthrow the CCP mafia without violence and much bloodshed.

I took my niece to her soccer practice yesterday. The practice was held at Great Park in Irvine. While I was waiting, I decided to go buy some stuff at the nearby Costco. More specifically, I was going to buy a new iPad Pro, but there was no stock (need to order online), so I ended up with $100 of other things, including some mixed nuts.

It’s about 5:30 am and I am awake due to a new neuropathy attack. Since I cannot sleep, I went down to the kitchen to get a drink and some nuts. Walking by the microwave oven, I remembered the story of the Korean nut rage lady. She was the daughter of the chairman of Korean Air. On a flight from New York to Seoul, she got crazy angry at a flight attendant for serving her cold nuts, and made the pilot turn the plane around so she could kick him off the plane. Well, obviously that did not go over well with the FAA. Korean Air tried to cover up the incident, but the flight attendant told the story to the media, and the nut rage lady got a twelve-month sentence, but only served five months.

Warmed nuts are better than cold nuts.

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Back to the nut lady, I believe I kind-of met her before. Prior to the nut incident, I attended an award dinner sponsored by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC). They gave our company an Eddy and we sent our CFO, my boss, to receive the award. We had to “purchase” a table for guests, so I was tasked to fill a seat. The chairman of Korean Air also received an award at the same event, and his daughter was his plus one. I did not talk to her at all, which is probably best in hindsight.

I have heard about Apple slowing down their hardware for older devices. I am specifically talking about iOS updates.

Yesterday, I updated my iPhone 12 iOS to version 16.0.2 from 15.something. Since there are already two minor updates, I am hoping that it will not brick my phone. I have lost some confidence in Apple’s hardware since my iPhone 12 is already showing 85% for battery health and it is really not that old.

I then tried to update all my iOS devices and was only successful with my work iPhone 8S. Both the iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6S Plus only upgraded to iOS 15.7 and not 16.x. The much older iPad Mini 2 is will not even load the update screen, but since it is still using iOS 12.x, I doubt it will upgrade to 16.x either.

I was planning to get a new iPad since the Air 2 was slowing down, like due to Apple’s tampering. Not that the old iPad is also locked out of iOS updates, I think it is time. I mostly want to use the iPad to read eBooks so I am considering the larger iPad Pro, even though it will be bulky to carry around.

It is $1,200 at the Apple Store. If I use my Apple Card, I get a 3% rebate. The same model is $50 less at Costco but with a 2% credit card rebate.

The “Out of Stock” is for online purchase and delivery. It may be available in the warehouse stores so I can go check after work today. I am hesitant since I have spent a lot of money on Apple hardware. This will be the third iPad Pro I purchase since I bought one each for my mom and dad before.

Early this morning, I had an appointment to get my blood drawn for labs. I need to see my nephrologist next week, so I needed some updated lab results. On the way home, I decided to get my car washed. I rarely wash my car since it does not rain in Southern California. However, I did drive it for a bit when the “typhoon” hit, so the car is dirty with dirt streaks.

The hand car wash location I go to gives you a free wash after nine visits. I got the card on my first visit back in April of 2017 (two stamps to start). I only get my car washed at this location so my car only had six washes in the past five plus years, and the last time I visited was before the COVID pandemic. There may have been one or two rinses at the Tesla Service Centers, but my car does not get washed often. I remember the first was about $16. Today, that basic wash is $26. I opted for one level up and paid $31. It included an air freshener scent. They asked me what scent I wanted, and I said, “Surprise me.” I do not smell anything, so they probably just skipped it.

I have a friend in Beijing who is trying to learn English. Her English is decent, but like many English learners, they do not have confidence when speaking. Anyway, she purchased a bunch of stickers (see above) with English and Chinese so you can learn the phrases. She sent me photos of each sticker sheet.

If you are selling language aids, there should be extra effort to proofread everything before shipping products. There were eight sheets overall, and I found errors on all of them. Most errors were just awkward translations, but there were several major mistakes. The worst one is “Whose is this toothbrush?” The Chinese phrase is 這只牙刷是誰的？, which is perfectly understandable. The English phrase, however, is a total mess. Even when you type in the Chinese phrase into Google Translate, it comes back with “who owns this toothbrush?”

With the current effort by the CCP to isolate and reject anything foreign, including language lessons, the level of English proficiency is going to deteriorate in China. Sad.

I got this email from my thermostat today. I installed the Next thermostat many years ago but have never received any emails or notifications from it. Occasionally, the 50A circuit breaker would pop, shutting off power to the compressor. The furnace is on a separate circuit, so air is still blowing from the vents, but it is at ambient temperature. You do notice after a while because it gets hot in the house. Today, my office temperature rose from 78 degrees to about 82 before I noticed. The fix is to turn off the system, go outside to the circuit breaker panel, and reset the dual 50A switch. It has always reset and kept working, but I am afraid it will not reset and it will be the hottest day on record.

I saw an Instagram reel where someone buys a pair of Nike sneakers for $15,000. This was not the only video as there is a large speculative secondary market for sneakers. I guess some of the buyers are collectors, but many are buying to resell at a premium. We learned about this in business school, with the classic example being Dutch tulip bulbs.

The Dutch tulip bulb market bubble, also known as ‘tulipmania’ was one of the most famous market bubbles and crashes of all time. It occurred in Holland during the early to mid-1600s when speculation drove the value of tulip bulbs to extremes. At the height of the market, the rarest tulip bulbs traded for as much as six times the average person’s annual salary.

Today, the tulipmania serves as a parable for the pitfalls that excessive greed and speculation can lead to.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutch_tulip_bulb_market_bubble.asp

Of course, there are many examples of bubbles. People say that there is a housing bubble in Southern California. My run-of-the-mill four-bedroom house built in 1987 has an Internet valuation of ~$1.3M. Is that a fair price? Houses nearby are being sold at similar prices so maybe? Will the bubble burst at some point and send prices crashing? Likely. However, there is an intrinsic value to a house as a shelter so there is a floor to the valuation. Same thing for stock. There have been bubbles too, but there is an intrinsic value to well-established and well-managed companies. Stock in large blue chip companies will go up and down, but are unlikely to drop completely to zero.

What about sneakers? How much are people willing to pay for a (nice) pair of shoes if the collector market crashes? $50? $100? My friend is into collecting basketball cards. He would go to Target on restock days to see if he can get a box of cards cheap, but there are usually a crowd of people doing the same. IMHO, some of these cards have ridiculous valuations, like hundreds of thousands of dollars for a Jordan rookie card or something. Ultimately, it is a small piece of cardboard. The intrinsic value is near $0, and any valuation is due to the artificial scarcity created by the card companies. I have no issues with people speculating, but all market bubbles will burst, and there will be lots of people left holding worthless “investment” items.

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I found a listing for a pair of 1985 Air Jordans in Chicago Bulls colors. My sister had these exact same shoes, and in 1987, she got them signed by Reggie Miller and Pooh Richardson while they were still seniors at UCLA. Imagine what they would be worth now if she kept them pristine in the box.

At the beginning of June, I bought an inexpensive Bluetooth mouse for my MacBook from MacAlly/Amazon. I have a first-generation Apple Magic Mouse. It works fine, but I do not like the touch scroll feature. I would inadvertently swipe back when I am in a browser and have lost several post edits because I “backed” out of a blogpost-in-progress. The brand had many products, and I purchased their $20 Bluetooth wireless mouse. I received the mouse the day before my Europe trip so all I had time for was to connect it to my MacBook to make sure it works.

After getting back from Europe, the mouse worked fine for about a week. Suddenly, the cursor stopped moving. Strangely, the buttons and the scroll wheel still worked. I tried connecting it to my PC and the same thing occurred. Meanwhile, my Magic Mouse kept on working.

As I am fairly sure the mouse is the problem, and it was too late to return it to Amazon, I called the company directly. I misread the address as somewhere in Ontario, Canada when they were really in Ontario, California. There was no one answering the phone, so I left a voicemail. After two weeks with no answer, I went back to their website and filled out a tech support form. This time, the response was very quick, and they gave me an RMA number. The tech support email mentioned that it was likely the Bluetooth chip (why do the buttons still work) and they will send me a new one. I can keep the old mouse due to COVID. Tech support was also trying to locate my voicemail to figure out why I did not get a callback.

The mouse is pretty nice for an inexpensive wireless mouse. I believe they never received my original voicemail, and they responded quickly to my second request. I am supposed to get a replacement mouse in a few days. I will leave them a good review if that happens, even though the original mouse was defective.