I dislike it when people use these words: “This is nice but…” or “I like it but…” because the “but” implies otherwise. If you don’t like it, tell me, don’t give me such inconclusive answer, you know what it does to me. It irritates me and next thing I know, my Fitbit will tell me I’m stressed.

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A few weeks ago, I finally invested in a standing desk for my home office. My back was in pain after 9 months of working from home that there were days I found myself not being able to get out of bed. Anyway, I bought a brand-new desk for $250 – the kind with a motor and button to raise the desk up or lower it down.

Excited, I put it together with manual tools and as I put together my brand-new desk, mom was criticizing. “The material is so cheap. How much did you pay for this? For these composite boards?”

“Why do you care?” I told her, “the most important thing to me is whether it works.”

A week later, while shopping at Costco, she pointed out a white desk similar to my black one. It was $50 more expensive, was white with a glass surface with a USB plugs on the side. “See how nice this is?” She said. “Much nicer than yours. The material is much more steady.”

“Then why don’t you buy it?” I snapped.

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I spent a few hours last Sunday looking at cars online. It wasn’t for me. I have a car which I still love. The car was my uncle which has to be the most sensible man I’ve ever met. He’s very picky about a lot of things – too many to even name.

He wanted a Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo but thought was too expensive. He wanted me to find him a cheaper Jeep. I don’t know where people get this idea that I know where to find cheap things.

There are only so many Jeeps on sale within the 25-mile radius. I’m not a magician. I cannot produce more result with a snap of my fingers. “Keep looking.” He said.

After an hour of exhausted effort, mom convinced him to look at Fords instead. Sighing, I typed the word “Ford” into the search box. The first one popping up on the screen was a Ford Edge. “What’s the ??” I turned to mom questioningly. What the heck did he say? My uncle was talking “cars” in Chinese. I barely understand “cars” in English. What made the family think I understood cars in Chinese?

It turned out he was asking how many liter was the engine. “1.5 Liters.” I said. He pinched his face, not enough power. “My car is 1.6L.” I pointed out for reference.

“And that’s why it has a hard time climbing a steep hill.” My aunt said.

I inhaled a quick breath, just ignore her. You can do this.

I went to the next car – Ford Escape Titanium – “Okay, how about this? 2.5 Liters engine.”

“What’s included?” Mom asked. I proceeded to read the entire list and translated one-by-one in my head. By the time I finished, my voice was coarse, my throat was parched, and I could feel my hands shaking. “This is a nice car,” mom said, “why doesn’t your car come with these features?”

This made me angry. Stop bagging on my car. The voice in my head screamed. Who cares if my car didn’t have these features? All it matters is it works. All it matters is that it’ll get me from one place to another without breaking down. All it matters is that I don’t have to spend a ton of money fixing it.

Who cares if there no sunroof? Who cares if there’s no parking assist? Who cares if there’s no blind spot detector? Everyone has different standards and my standards happen to be low. I just don’t want to buy a broken machine nor do I want one with too many bells and whistles to the point I’m relying on these features to drive.

Haven’t you heard of a robot apocalypse?

I like functional and easy to use.

Stop bagging on my stuff!