Chairman Bao Says, "只有現金" (Cash Only!)

What Is This?
Chairman Bao food truck, my lunch destination

Hate It Or Love It?
Don't you hate it when you're planning on paying with a credit card and realize the place is cash only?

It's lunch time so some coworkers and I decide to try out a food truck called Chairman Bao. I check my wallet and I'm out of cash, but whatever, I'm starving and decide to use the plastic. We get to the truck and right off the bat I can tell this place is going to be pretty good just by the length of the line (this post could also be about waiting in really long lines for food when you're hungry). After about twenty minutes I reach the front of the line and I'm more than ready to order my pork belly steamed bun with pickled daikon.

That's when I see it. A little note that has two words that can kill a hungry man with a credit card. "CASH ONLY!!!"

It feels like someone stabbed me through the heart. Or the stomach. At this point I can't really tell anymore because I'm so hungry. I kind of linger at the front of the line for another split second, hoping some supernatural being (or really nice person) will drop a $20 into my pocket. But it doesn't happen, so I get out of line and begin my scramble around San Francisco to find the nearest ATM. I find a Bank of America about a block away and I'm about to withdraw some cash when it shows me a notification that I will be charged a $3 withdrawal fee. I guess that's what I get for being a member of Star One Credit Union. So my search continues. Another block, another ATM, another $3 fee (this post could also be about ridiculous ATM fees). Finally, I find an ATM that has a $2.50 fee and that works for me because, according to Russell Peters, "Fifty cent a lot of money". I head back to Chairman Bao and 30 minutes and $10 later I get my food.

And boy, was all that trouble worth it. The steamed buns were awesome. Chairman Bao is one of the best food trucks I've eaten at so if you're ever in SF, look it up. Who would've guessed that 3 hate-it's would have such a happy ending?

Yasukawa's Theory of Relativity

What Is This?
This is me trying to pass the time and stay awake at work.

Hate It Or Love It?
Don't you hate it when time slows to a crawl when you're really bored?

About a century ago, some guy named Einstein came up with a ground-shaking idea. He said that time is not absolute, but relative. I guess I can go with that. I mean, who am I to disagree? Bear with me: Einstein explained that time is relative to the warping of space-time around mass and energy. Time moves slower around large bodies of mass, like Earth, than in space.

That's where Einstein's wrong. The answer is much simpler. Yasukawa's Theory of Relativity states that time is relative to your boredom level. The more bored you are, the slower time moves.

I guess some of you science and math people may demand a proof. Well, I have plenty of proof from my experiences sitting in a lecture hall or in my cubicle while bored out of my mind. I'll look at the clock. It's 2:34. I decide I won't look at the clock for as long as I can because I know (as another law of physics) that the clock doesn't move if you stare at it. After listening to my friend point out that our professor looks eerily like the Sith Lord, staring hard at my professor and realizing it's true, trying to follow the Sith Lord's lecture on transistors and then dozing off for a while, I decide I to look back at the clock. At least 2:50, right? No. 2:39. Only five minutes!? There's your proof. It's got to be Yasukawa's Theory of Relativity.

Reading Comprehension

What Is This?
This is a picture of my linear algebra textbook.

Hate It Or Love It?
Don't you hate it when you get to the end of a page and then realize you haven't comprehended a thing?

After hours of reading my math textbook for my midterm tomorrow, I began to glaze over pages without realizing it. The end of a page would snap me back to reality and at that point the only thought I had was:



To be fair, it's linear algebra, and I probably would have that exact same thought even if I was concentrating.

Buffering...

Hey guys, it's been a while. Four months to be exact. I was actually thinking about stopping Hate It Or Love It altogether, but I figured that it might be fun to do posts every once in a while when something during my day sparks my interest. Nothing regular, because regularity creates pressure to write about lukewarm material, but check back from time to time to see what's up.



What Is This?
This is me trying to watch an episode of Family Guy on my laptop

Hate It Or Love It?
Don't you hate it when you're trying to watch a video online and the video stops to buffer every 5 seconds?

Here's the rhetorical question of the day: How frustrating is it when you're trying to watch an interesting video or your favorite T.V. show online and it constantly needs to buffer? I mean, how are you supposed to enjoy what you're watching when you have to worry about those little bars on the bottom of your video (see Figure 3)? It's like a horse race between the "current position" bar and the "percent loaded" bar. And if the "current position" bar catches up, you lose. Stop. Wait. And repeat.

Fig. 3:


Also, shout out to UCLA_WEB_RES (our network) for its horrible bitrate.

Life Is A Highway

What Is This?
This is a nighttime view of Interstate 280 from the driver's seat of my car.

Hate It Or Love It?
Don't you love it when you're cruising down the highway on a clear summer night?

Driving in the summer can be a drag. If you've ever been on the road during an 85 degree rush hour you know what I mean. A long commute in bumper to bumper traffic on the same sticky stretch of concrete as a hundred other impatient drivers will stress you out like few other things can.

But as the traffic thins out and the hot afternoon turns into a cool night, the dynamics of highway driving change completely. I love everything about those nighttime summer cruises. The emptiness on the road. The perfect temperature. The white headlights on one side, the red taillights on the other. The good music blaring from your speakers. The dashed lane lines flying by on either side. There is something truly relaxing about that kind of open road freedom. You're going somewhere but the scenery around you remains the same. You experience a kind of detachment from reality; your instincts take over the driving and your mind is free to wander.

Ain't nothin' like them summer nights.

Get Your Own Food!

What Is This?
This is a picture of Selena devouring my entire McDonald's meal.

Hate It Or Love It?
Don't you hate it when someone asks to share food with you and they end up eating almost the whole meal?

Me: "I'm gonna get a chicken strips meal. What do you want?"

Selena: "I'm not that hungry. I'll just have one chicken strip and a couple of fries from yours."

Me: "Are you sure? I know what that really means..."

Selena: "Yes I'm sure. I don't know what you're talking about."

After we get the food, I go back to get some honey mustard. When I get back I find two chicken strips. That's funny, I thought a combo came with three...
Then I look over at Selena who looks like she is trying to see how many french fries she can stuff in her mouth at once. She grins.

Me: "Okay, that's your one."

Selena: "Nope."

And before I can do anything else, she grabs another one and eats it. It's okay, though, because I think I've deciphered her code. "I'm only going to eat one chicken strip and a couple of fries" actually means "You're only going to get to eat one chicken strip and a couple of fries".

Repost: Free At Last

It's a little old, but this has never felt more true than now:


Free At Last!

Hello, summer vacation!