Patrick's Diary - 1/31/2016

Getting up at 6:30 AM, I wrapped up my diary for yesterday within an hour. Coming down to the living room, I drank a big cup of orange juice and a quarter of the cream cake while watching the only televised FA Cup match this morning. Though Chelsea had been struggling in BPL this season, it's far too easy for them taking care of the lower division rival in 4th Round. 

I had planned to go to gym after the match but decided to go back to my bed to keep recovering from the bad cold. I would need to go to work early and it would be another intensive day possibly a long one too, I didn't want to have any energy issue. However, I had slept extended hours than usual during this weekend, so I turned onto HBO to look for a movie to watch. I found two movies to be presented on two different HBO channels in the next 15 minutes, so decided to check Two Nights Stand out first. Watching the first scene, I immediately recalled that I watched it several months ago, so moved to the next one.

I wasn't sure if I watched "Are You Here" before, but if so, I must only watch very few parts of it. I decided to stick with it. It's a funny movie Owen Wilson always played and a very good entertainment for anyone's weekend.

It's not late to switch to ESPN2 to capture USMNT to host Iceland National Team in an International friendly soccer match held at Stubhub Center. It might be because of raining, I was a bit disappointed by so many unoccupied seats. The match itself was pretty exciting. USMNT caught up after being behind in the first half. 

In second half, USMNT was behind again but they made a productive triangle passes in the air to lead a header to score a equalizer again. Two Sounders played in this match, Evans played normally without making any mistakes in the first half. The homegrown newly signed Jordan Morris experienced his first match at National team. 

Within the last several minutes, USMNT made a textbook header to close the match. It's a great start for them in 2016.

USMNT will have a busy schedule in 2016. 2018 World Cup Qualification will be crucial for the program and Copa America is to be held in June at which USMNT will be tested by South American powerhouses. 

UEFA Euro Cup 16 will be held in early summer in France as well, there will be a lot of matches to watch in June. I wouldn't worry about the schedule conflicts because of the different time zones. However, I might not have enough energy to catch all the matches of the two cups. 

NHL Allstar games were so fun though my primary goal was to help Gopro develop its business after I read that NHL renewed the contract with it. However, I only incur paper loss of 7,000 bucks on Gopro stocks, so entertaining myself by watching NHL Allstar was still a key factor as well. Atlantic beat Metro to advance into the final.

Pacific played very aggressively to win over Central to represent West Conference in the final. I was confused by the numbers of the players on the court but realized it was the new 3 on 3 formation for this game. 

The new formation enabled the game being played very fast, but in the final, due to goaltenders' extraordinary performances, the only goal was made in late 2nd half to ensure Pacific's win. 

It's a great combination of sport and music being held in Country Music Holy Ground in Nashville. I would watch 2 or 3 games a week going forward. It's a lot of fun, I had to admit. 

I missed the almost first half of Pro Bowl being held in Hawaii. I heard Seahawks players performing very well. Wilson seemed making several great throws. I got the chance to catch the 2nd half and figured Team Irvin dominating Team Rice under the beautiful sky. The game was entertaining but less competitive. 

Ok, this very relaxed entertaining weekend comes to the end, I need to put the clothes into the dryer now. 

Patrick's Diary - 1/30/2016

Staying in bed from 4:00 pm on Friday to almost midday on Saturday, only taking 15 minutes dinner time, I was recovered from the bad cold. Why it hadn't been gone during the weekdays obviously was that I couldn't have extended bedtime due to busy schedule. 

Of course, I didn't stay in bed with doing nothing. FA Cup 4th round kicked in this weekend, I watched the two matches televised on Fox Sports I, though fell into sleep from time to time. Tottenham didn't have problem to win over Colchester, a lower division rival. The final scores were 4 to 1. 

The following match was between Arsenal and Burnley, which relegated at the end of last season if I recall correctly. So this one was closer but Premier team advanced without a surprise. 

I hadn't noticed a Bundesliga match to be televised on FOX until seeing a reminder on the screen. It's great to capture the entire match Stuttgart hosting Hamburg in the heavy rains. My memory was both team used to be very good at Bundesliga if they couldn't be defined as powerhouses, so I was surprised to learn from the commentaries both teams struggling to survive in this season. Stuttgart had made so many opportunities in this match, they at least should have scored 4 goals. Either they were not lucky or Hamburg's keeper and defenders performed extraordinarily, they only won 2 to 1 at the end. However, it's significant win for them to avoid relegation. 

My original plan was to stay at home the entire weekend but my son called me on Friday to ask me to order contact lenses for him because he ran out of them. In addition, he left his glasses at home after winter break, so I would have to bring it to him. After lunch, I caught up my diary for Thursday, took a shower, then drove out on I-5 to approach to his dorm. The traffic became congested for unknow reason on Saturday, I took Exit to 85th Street to arrive at his dorm. He picked his glasses up and told me to come home next weekend.

I really wanted to eat something sweet after the recovery from bad cold, this was the only appetite I had despite it sounded not healthy. Though there were several supermarkets closer to our house, I knew what I exactly wanted to buy at the Safeway where I had refilled medications for almost 10 years. Walking around for several minutes, I grabbed a pack of orange juice, a cup of strawberry ice cream and a cream cake. As soon as I got back into the van, I sipped a great deal of orange juice in one shot. Arriving at home, I shared a little bit ice cream with my mom and ate the rest quickly. 

On NBC Sports Network, NHL All Stars Skills Competition was being televised. The players' skills were amazing and I enjoyed capturing the moments of appreciating hockey again. This All Stars Event was mixed with Country Music culture in Nashville, it's a great combination. 

Filling orange juice into a big cup, I started catching up my diary for Friday. Coming back to my bedroom, I lied into the bed again to recover. Searching on movie channels, I noticed a movie named Fifty Shades of Grey to be presented in 15 minutes. After watching the beginning of it, I realized that I had watched a very intimate scene of it last week. Because of the headache, I only watched 15 minutes, then turned it off. I would learn that scene was in very late part of the movie anyway, so I didn't lose much last week. This time, I watched it almost from the beginning to the end though taking a 15 minutes bathroom break cost me missing some scenes again. It's a weird but exotic movie and the scenes covered Seattle and Vancouver, WA. I read online that its sequel to be released in February, I may go to the theater to watch it. Kim Basinger would play the role of Christian Grey's first lover and business partner in this sequel. I am not sure if she would have some hot performances as she did decades earlier. 

Patrick's Diary - 1/29/2016

Only working for short hours, I didn't go to the office as early as usual and took off at 2:30 pm, which actually half an hour later than I had planned due to an extended conference meeting. 

Reading on my Ameritrade Trader App, I learned that NHL renewed the partnership with GoPro, so I would follow up NHL Hockey games. I have a plan to support anyone or organization who is GoPro's customer on Twitter. If GoPro can develop all major sports teams and every celebrity to be its customers and have all these customers presenting their photos and video clips through the media, GoPro will be transformed to a successful media company. I will make an example for everyone after buying a Hero 4. I checked GoPro's website and found Session fitting my plan. I just haven't figured out how to wrap it around my head all the time to snap live experience not necessarily only for jumps & turns sports' activities. 

Coming back home, I lied in bed to recover from the cold while watching NHL Network to refresh my mind of this sport I haven't watched for more than 20 years. Coincidentally, NHL All Stars would be held this weekend, which would provide me an exciting entry point. Of course, I still remember the rules and players' skills. As I shared before, I was impressed by this sport through a Group C World Hockey Championship Tournament being held in Beijing in 1981 when I was 15 years old. I remember I went to all 7 games China played in Capital Gymnasium Beijing. China lost to Austria but was still able to advance to Group B the next year as the runner-up in that tournament. As I recall that really created a sort of Hockey mania in that year in Beijing. 

Checking on TV Guides on the screen, I figured that I could watch various sports in bed to recover from the bad cold during this weekend: FA Cup, Bundesliga, US Soccer International Friendly, NHL All Stars, NBA and NFL Pro Bowl. In addition, I would also watch several movies on HBO and StarZ. 

Patrick's Diary - 1/28/2016

Getting up very early, I looked into the mirror in bathroom and found myself still very weak due to the cold. However, I was happy that FB would break new high on this Thursday, though my employer's stock price dropped by similar percent on Wednesday, which would have my 401K account balance dropped as well. However, net gain would still be worth celebrating.

Starting very early to try to meet several deadlines, I drove through very harsh rains on I-405 and arrived at office building at 6:00 am. After the entire day's busy schedule, I came back home exhausted. I hadn't gone to the gym since last weekend, it definitely didn't help me rebuild my strength. 

Trump didn't attend the GOP Debate being held on Fox, but this wasn't the reason I didn't follow it up through the end, I was too tired due to this headache driven by bad cold. 

I planned to buy a Hero 4 and wear it to take photos and video clips wherever I can. With my help as a small investor, they will achieve their goal to become a media company every celebrity wants to be connected with. 

Patrick's Diary - 1/27/2016

I haven't written my diary since Wednesday because of constant headache due to bad cold I caught during last weekend. However, I couldn't take more days off because of routined busy schedule toward the month end. I am an accountant and a financial analyst, though I am actually an economist. 

Football season almost past except Pro Bowl and Super Bowl 50, people started talking about Sounders' 2016 season and I planned to go watching more matches at Centurylink Field. However, Mariners' baseball still had deep roots in Seattle, baseball fans wouldn't give up their loves. I probably will go watching a couple of games as well. 

Facebook jumped back to near historical high in after hour trading. I had expected it but only vaguely tweeting it having become my lifetime nest. Had I posted the recent drop to 90 bucks level being a classical setup, the earning release would have been mediocre, the stock price might have been down to 85 bucks. 

I was so happy that one of my IRA accounts fully loaded with FB's shares would be appreciating 12% on Thursday. Another IRA account opened with another online broker was also fully loaded with FB's shares but very insignificant. However, let me check it now... I bought only dozens shares in this account at the price of 61.91 on 4/10/2014, now unrealized the gain is already 81.22%. 

My optimistic assumption is FB's stock price to appreciate 30% each year until the end of 2025 when I will start cashing out from my IRA account. It will be 130%^(10) = 13.79 folds growth. 

After I post this assumption, you will see many ridiculous downplays will float around because investment community doesn't allow certainty. However, price of dozens stocks have jumped up dozens times in the past 10 years, so I don't think 13 folds in the next 10 years for FB unrealistic. 

Now it is time for me to help GPRO & TWTR turnaround. 

Patrick's Diary - 1/26/2016

Getting up not as early as usual, I started working from home and met another deadline before driving my mom to take a test at the clinic. Doctor, Nurses and Technicians were all very nice and professional, at the end, we were told everything went very well and my mom was pretty healthy. However, after taking the medications for sedation, worsened by her chronicle pains on legs and waist, nurse put her onto the wheelchair to bring her down to the main entrance. I had been interpreter for my parents in the last several visits and we saw Janet who had been my parents' interpreter since my parents started visiting doctors' offices in States two years ago until several months ago her schedules became conflicting with ours. She was very good and nice. We chatted a little bit and she had to go to take care of another patient. She seemed very busy. I might not be as professional as she was, but I knew my parents' situations more, so sometimes I answered the questions directly instead of translating. One thing was interesting that the nurse said the history saying my mom smoking, it's so hilarious because my mom never smoked in her life. Due to my influence in social media, I know some groups must use or discredit me even my family members for their purposes. For example, once upon a time, a group of drug addictors parked beside my van in front of Staples while my son and I were buying school supplies as if they were with us together. I assumed that they used me to promote the images of drug users because then marijuana just became legal in Washington State. However, I never thought medical records could be manipulated as well, it was probably an error or a joke. Recently, I mentioned that I drank beers while watching games during weekends, I might be painted as alcoholic too. 

My mom was warned not to cook today because of the earlier sedation, I decided to stop by Papa John's to buy BBQ Chicken & Bacon. Eating it after coming back home, my mom was impressed by its taste. I agreed, actually, I started liking it while I was working in Southern California for Epson America Inc for a short period of time in 2005. My co-workers at Financial Planning bought it at Papa John's regularly for office lunches. The first night when my son moved to States to live with me in 2007, I bought it for him. Combined with too much ice cream, he got very sick that night, then I had to put him into the hospital to recover until early morning. Afterwards, we had almost always bought The Works at Papa John's. Today, my son is at school, so I decided to try this again. 

While waiting for the pizza to be ready, I drove the van to pump gas at nearby Shell and grabbed something inside the store. The lady I knew her face asked me if everything was ok, I said I just drove my mom for a test, probably would take the rest of the day off. She said to me it was great. She probably knew me as well and had felt odd how come didn't I work at midday on Tuesday. 

My original plan was to drive to the office to work half a day after my mom's test, but since I had worked long hours yesterday, so decided to work from home briefly before calling the day off. It didn't make much sense to drive to the office and drive back during rush hours for just working for another 2 hours. 

After working on several issues, I slept to have my cold recovered. With a thick blanket onto the comforter, I felt very warm even a bit hot. Later on, I watched a movie named Mom's Night Out, which was for women but still pretty entertaining. 

I went downstairs to eat 3 slices of leftover from the lunch, now I am full before going to bed again. 

Patrick's Diary - 1/25/2016

I hadn't realized I did catch very serious cold. Tears came out of my eyes from time to time and I kept sneezing. Coming home to have dinner, I started watching Democratic Town Hall in Iowa. It's not a debate, so candidates were not combative but this didn't kill their enthusiasm. Sanders kept selling his campaign theory, overall populations are concerned with Socialism but younger generations are inspired by the new reformation; O'Malley has the least probability of being voted into General Election but his speeches had been very fluid in each debate in the past, and he seemed pretty relaxed, this might be because he had the least pressures too; Clinton repeatedly took the advantages of her roles in foreign policies when she was First Lady, Secretary of State. She seemed having natural connections with CNN host due to her post of New York State Senator as well. Clinton emphasized in her opening statement that it only matters who is going to be the winner in November. This sounded logically her winning weapon within the party because she might be considered with the best chance amongst the three candidates. 

I started working from home after the town hall and kept doing until midnight. I hadn't done this for many years but I would drive my mom for a test at the clinic on Tuesday morning and I needed to complete something, so decided to do this. 

I didn't write my diary because of the headache. Turning off the light to try to fall into sleep for several minutes, I heard our only survival cat Sunshine scratching the mattress in the reading room, that's where he practices his paws. Looking through the opened door of my bedroom, I could see him standing outside for a couple of seconds in the dark. This was the last scene in my mind before falling into sleep. I actually took this photo on Sunday but forgot to share it earlier.

It might be caused by the difficulty of breathe due to cold, I started dreaming someone putting a pillow onto my mouth, which caused me almost breathless. Then I saw a woman I seemed knowing long ago in yellow both in clothes and under yellow color of lights swinging at the right front side of me. Later on, I saw my late Little soaked by water in the distance of where my left hand could reach, so I grabbed him into my chest, then I saw my late Black running into my way, it's a bit harder to catch him but I eventually reached him with my right hand to pull into my chest too. I was shouting our late Tiger's name but wasn't able to see him anywhere. This might be because he was always trying to hide from me when he was alive to live with the family. However, I woke up in a second with full tears in my eyes. I often thought about Little who died due to that accident when he got mad to run over the handrail on 2nd floor to possibly hit something really hard to have his spinal cord broken. Cats don't have 7 lives. He was put into sleep later that day at Pets Emergency center. That accident could have been avoided if I had taken him to the clinic to put some medicines on him. He had been crazy for quite a while and very active. This clip was taken in early morning of the day Little left the family forever. It's one of Saturdays in April, 2014. I had kept this clip in my cellphone until mid 2015 when I had to delete it to refresh the memory cards. 

Patrick's Diary - 1/24/2016

I got up at 5:00 am though still felt very headache because I caught cold yesterday obviously. Wrapping up my diary for Saturday, I came back to my bedroom to start watching the first televised BPL match - Everton playing Swansea. The match had started for 35 minutes and all of the goals of this match actually had been scored. However, I caught them in the highlights being played during halftime break. Swansea was close to relegation zone, this win helped them meaningfully.

Getting up, I went downstairs to wait for the next match to kick off. Though Chelsea was close to relegation zone too, they still owned many powerful players. It would be still a great matchup between them and Arsenal. Since I got cold, I turned on the fireplace. It didn't light up at my first try, which had never happened before. I had to turn it off then back on, the flame popped up. Hopefully, it wouldn't need to be repaired. 

It's a pretty competitive match, anyway, Arsenal lost the only goal right after their key central defender was sent off. Chelsea won the match with this goal scored by Costa. However, he seemed hated by Arsenal's fans, I guess there must be a history I don't know. 

My son forgot to bring pencil sharpener with him back to school after the break, I found it on the shelf in study room yesterday, so called him to let him know I would give it to him today after I watched soccer matches. My van started smoothly again after being parked outside for another 18 hours, so I wouldn't need to test it any more. Driving on I-5 to approach my son's dorm, I appreciated light sunshine in this chilly winter morning. 

Coming back home, AFC Championship was on the way to kick off. Because I still felt headache lightly, I decided to lie in my bed in bedroom to watch it. It's not a very fast game and Peyton Manning won it as I had expected. 

NFC Championship game was totally different. Carolina crashed Arizona in the first half. I joked that every Panther should be tested after the game. They were insane. Eventually, it became a one side show. 

I planned to finish reading Chapter 5 of Economics Rules tonight but still don't feel very comfortable. Ok, I will go to bed in a minute. 

Patrick's Diary - 1/23/2016

Getting up to watch BPL, I viewed three matches and also switched to catch Bundesliga from time to time. Turning TV onto Norwich hosting Liverpool too late, I missed 6 goals both sides had made. It's a high score match anyway, eventually, Liverpool's Lallana made the winning goal within the last minute. Liverpool came back after having been behind by two goals. Norwich's defender made a very unfortunate mistake to pass back to their keeper but the ball was caught by Liverpool's player who scored an easy goal to lead by 4 to 3. 

Manchester United lost at home to Southampton in the last several minutes. The sub made a free header from a free kick without being marked by anyone. The discussion of the departure of manager was raised again. 

It sounded like Yaya Toure had become a liability of the team, though he was designated as captain. Looking at his size, I could tell he might be less athletic recently. The first losing goal was part of his fault of slow action. The match ended up with a draw at 2:2, wasn't too bad.

While watching the 2nd BPL televised match on NBCSN, I also switched to Fox Sport 1 to glance at a Bundesliga match Hoffenheim playing Leverkusen. This was the first week of the matches being resumed at Bundesliga after holiday break. 

After lunch, I came out to start my van, it worked very well again after being parked outside for 18 hours. Stopping at Safeway, I refilled my parents' medication. It's a bit quiet today, so only Eric and Tina were working at the Pharmacy. Driving to gym afterwards, I worked out for an hour before going home. It's raining and the day would become dark pretty soon. 

Taking dinner, I suddenly felt pretty dry in my throat, so realized that I might catch cold. Covered by comforter in the bed in study room, I slept for several hours before getting up to write review for Chapter 4 - Models and Theories of Economics Rules while drinking a big can of beer I bought at Safeway earlier. It's a new brand to me and taste was a bit different possibly driven by special flavors. My dad came in to chat with for several minutes. I walked him through the history of economics theories he was interested in briefly. I told him after reading this book, I would take a break to read two novels, then read Ben Bernanke's The Courage to Act thoroughly with an in-depth review. 

After finishing Bernanke's, I would buy four books online because three of them were old of which I might not be able to find on book shelves at bookstore. I read Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations when I was in 20s, but this time I would do it word by word.

I read Marx's Das Kapital in Chinese fragmentally, this time I would understand each sentence in English. 

I never read Keynes' The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money but learned his theories through textbooks several times. This would be an opportunity to catch his views completely.

Way overdue reading on Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century would be caught up finally. I would compare its contents with Marx's theories in Das Kapital. It would be even better if I could read in French, German respectively. 

My dad is writing a book about culture, he also wanted to incorporate some of the economics theories into it. My understanding of the development of economics theories is that Classical Theories and Keynesianism have been switching the leaderships from time to time. Both of them are trying to save Capitalism. As I shared, my view is Modern Socialism will come into the play, which requires human beings not setting up a goal of making the maximum benefits for themselves. Human Beings are selfish or  even greedy by natures but they can be influenced to be more self-disciplined. The system of Modern Socialism can make this happen and resolve all the issues such as inequalities. 

Patrick's Diary - 1/22/2016

My van was parked outside for 11 hours and I drove it forward without any problem on Friday morning. It seemed the issue being resolved after Transmission Fluid and Filter were replaced. I love my Caravan and hopefully I will be able to keep it until April, 2018, its 18th year anniversary! My plan now is to let Eric's technicians replace lub every 5,000 miles until the mileage hit 240,000, then I will have another major maintenance to have brake system replaced. This probably won't happen until late fall this year. 

It's Saturday now, I actually park the van outside again and will test out tomorrow morning once more. I did it this morning, after parking it outside for 18 hours, it worked very well when I drove it out this afternoon. Anyway, I may need to try it at 6:00 am tomorrow morning when the transmission system is supposed to be frozen the worst. 

Coming back home to have dinner, I finally watched the entire movie of Exodus - Gods & Kings. I had tried to watch it several times in the past but never could do from the beginning to the end. I was impressed by the last episode of the scenes when tides helped them escape successfully.

I finished reading Chapter 4 of Economics Rules - Models And Theories as well. Per author, Models and Theories are interchangeable but they do have the differences especially in the field of Economics. Theories in Natural Science are generally universal but models in Economics are specific. Three questions need to be asked before identifying the differences:

• What is the effect of A on X?
• Why did X happen?
• Are big questions still relevant in modern Economics?

If you read my statement on my Linkedin Pages, you should know that this author's view actually contradicts with my proposal. I am trying to discover and develop a economic theory and model to have universal economics issues resolved and global economy growing perpetually. The theory I name is Modern Socialism and the model I am testing is Multivariate Nonlinear Regression Model. So, I believe big questions are still valid in modern Economics, Adam Smith and Karl Marx are still relevant. 

The author introduces the theory of value and its distribution. His point is that classical theory focuses on the supply side, which is represented by production cost. His reference to Karl Marx's theory of Residue Value of workers exploited by capitalists reminded me the theory of Marx's Scientific Socialism we learn in high school in Beijing. He also refers to Marginalists who invented the theory of Marginal Cost, which determines the price. The modern economics theories are more balanced from both sides of Demand and Supply. Not only should I but everyone else agree that Demand & Supply model is fundamental to today's global economy. 

Macroeconomics was split from Microeconomics to reflecting economics theories at aggregates per author's argument. Business cycle had become a routine but classical economists didn't think it could be treated differently. Keynes put forward his own theory to rescue Capitalism through government interventions. Though he himself wasn't favorite a model attached to his theory, Hicks did develop a model for him with which he even objected. This demand-side view of macroeconomics had been developed rapidly until oil shock in 70s. UChicago economist, Lucas, started building microfounded models to deal with new issues Keynesianism couldn't resolve. Microfoundation as New Classical Approach had been very popular until financial crisis in 2008. Quantitative Easing was a typical tool of government intervention being effective during the recovery of financial crisis. 

Author considers theories should be applied to specific events, I concur. I also think that universal model can be customized to fit specific events. Theories are models in most of the time.

Patrick's Diary - 1/21/2016

The transmission of my van didn't function very well when it was parked outside in cold condition for hours, especially overnight out of the garage. It took me several minutes to drive it forward because the transmission seemed stuck. Since I hadn't had my van's 30,000 miles maintenance performed, I assumed underperforming transmission oil and filter might cause the issue. However, this didn't happen when I missed this maintenance from 150,000 miles to 180,000 miles, but during that period of time, my van was still newer and it spanned from spring to summer, the temperature was much warmer. 

As scheduled with Eric, who has owned a repair shop for decades and I have known for 15 years, I drove my van to his place in the morning. It was supposed to take a whole day, so I brought the novel I bought at bargaining price at Barnes & Noble during the holiday season with me. Walking around the little plaza Eric's shop close to, I grabbed a large cup of strip coffee at a gas station, then came back to the waiting area to read the book. The Counterfeit Agent was an very interesting story portrayed all over the places globally. 

Eric only had transmission oil and filter replaced by his technicians and mentioned to me if the problem didn't go away, I should think about either having transmission box replaced which would cost $3,500 or buying a new car. I had a plan to buy a sedan with the price under 20K for my son after he would get his driver's license in this summer. Because we wouldn't go for a cross country trip, that plan was being held. If I needed to have my car replaced, I would buy one then and still keep this van. However, I would test by parking it in the cold weather for several days. If the problem was gone, I would stick with my plan on this van to keep it until 2018. As I shared, I bought it brand new at $30,000 in April, 2000 and I had put on 220,000 mileages on it.  

After the maintenance, the van became pretty smoothly. Working for an entire day starting at 11:00 am, I left the office building in darkness. At that moment, I was able to drive the van to leave instantly after parking it in cold weather for more than 8 hours. Hopefully, the problem was gone. 

Parking the car outside the garage, I would test if it would work appropriately on Friday morning.

Patrick's Diary - 1/20/2016

Waking up with heavy headache, I watched celebrities bullshitting on CNBC. No one really knew what was going on and how to fix the global economic chaos. The world needs a decisive leadership.

Twitter's stock price came back due to rumor of being an acquisition target again, this time was by The News Group, which was proved a fabrication. However, even without any quantitative analysis, given its popularity in the sector of social media, I insist it live its life forever without doubt, so it has a perpetual value, which will be recognized at any day anyway. 

Close to 11:00 am, I felt a bit better and decided to go to Home Depot first to have our door key copied because we only had one key for the whole family. When I walked to the store after parking my car, I saw a cop sitting in police car. I wasn't sure if he noticed my tweet about coming to Home Depot, then came here to protect me or not. Waiting for the serviceman for several minutes, I had two keys copied. The gentleman was very generous when I asked him where I could find acid with which I could try to kill the congestion in the toilet on our first floor. He told me the right term for it should be Flash, then pulled a powerful one on the shelf. The cashier at the register was also a nice gentleman at his late 50s. We chatted a little bit about new technology vs. traditional tool while he completed the transaction for me. When I got onto my van, I noticed that police car was just driven onto the main road in which that cop drank something relaxedly. He probably was eased without encountering any trouble made by me or on me. 

Stopping by my rental property management office, I dropped the check for monthly homeowner due through the slot then drove to Batteries and Bulbs to have button battery replaced for remote control for our garage door. 18 bucks covered lifetime replacement, it's not a bad deal. However, I would come back to have another replaced 4 or 5 years later. Hopefully, they wouldn't relocate somewhere far away. 

Receiving a greeting through direct message on Twitter from McDonald's, I changed my mind of going to Taco Time. Having double quarter pounder meal, I went to gym to work out intensively for almost 2 hours. 

My son called me to let me know he had his biopsychology exam. He also mentioned to me that he had been doing well in Statistics as well. 

Coming home to pull the mail from box, I found a greeting card from UIC where I got my MBA back in 1999. Though I had gone to several higher educational institutions and obtained 2 degrees and several certificates, UIC MBA was the one to leading my current profession for making a living. Assistant Dean of Business School and Director of Corporate MBA Program, Shari, interviewed me on the phone when I was the last applicant for that program in 1998. At that point of time, I hadn't decided if I should enroll a more time-consuming graduate program or pursue a more practical graduate degree. When we talked about the opportunities to work for investment banks, I remember Shari reminded me not put too much expectation but this program would help me because she could tell I already had a lot of experiences in business and investment. I think she made the final decision to accept me as the last student in that class. Looking back to the past 16 years, I can reaffirm what I have been confirming: UIC MBA is a very practical program to having a person with a lot of experiences like me transforming her/his career to fit personal life changes. Oh, I recall why she decided to call me by herself was that she questioned if I was a serious applicant who really qualified that program. It ended up that she made a right decision from which I benefited and will benefit in my lifetime.

My son most likely won't pursue Economic major, I have to think about to finish PhD in Economics myself. Did I live in Chicago, program at UIC would be a natural selection for me. PhD Program at U-Chicago was in my plan back in late 90s as well. However, if I can finish it at Stockholm University or Stockholm School of Economics one day, it would fulfill my dream in my 20s. They seemed creating a joint program. 

Actually, I mentioned to my son on the phone, no matter if would he pursue a economic major or not, he still could consider to study abroad either at Stockholm or Uppsala University in his junior year.

Patrick's Diary - 1/19/2016

It's not a very pleasant start of the day on Tuesday. An accident on I-405 had the whole lanes jammed and even the toll lane was changed back to HOV only, though I hadn't taken toll lane for months anyway. After going through it, the road became wide open until the over bridge above I-90. I planned to take local, so got out of the exit of Coal Creek but found the congestion might be just at this exit. I took a U-turn on Coal Creek and got back onto I-405 through its entrance south of exit to avoid the congestion. It ended up with a good choice. 

It's a busy day and I took several minutes break in the parking lot before I entered my office building after coming back from another location. Markets were still dragged down harshly, Stock prices of Twitter and Go Pro I owned kept free falling. The money I left in this trading account was just a fraction of my total assets but it was still a frustration. Markets needed leadership but no one seemed capable of doing it. Drop of Oil price was blamed, but I didn't think it the reason. If I was going to lose sunshine, everyone else' world would be painted with black ink as well. 

Coming back home, I tweeted on my laptop for 10 minutes and even back and forth with a follower for several rounds. I wasn't kidding that I would go to Hawaii for a 5 nights getaway per my son's request. We planned to have a cross-country trip in July after he got his driver's license at age of almost 21 and I would buy him a car, but he might re-take his Integral in summer though he already earned credits at a bad grade, We wouldn't be able to do the cross country, instead, we planned to go to Honolulu during Spring Break. Checking on Expedia, I figured the total cost would be a several thousands bucks with airfare, 4-stars beach hotel and car rental, plus estimated cost for meals and entertainment. I incurred the loss in 2015, so would take 3,000 bucks deduction on 1040. I expected to get refunds from IRS with which I could spend for this trip, maybe even for my dreamed trip for watching Eurovision. However, I might have to stay at home even I had enough money to go in May.

I felt very headache, so sent a text to my manager to request a day off on Wednesday. This was the first time I contacted him through text, so didn't know if it went through. However, I didn't want to call in his personal time at night. He responded me around 9:00 pm after he noticed my request of confirmation. Due to the discomfort, I didn't read Chapter 4 of Economics Rules. Watching Exodus on HBO for 5 minutes, I fell into sleep.

Patrick's Diary - 1/18/2016

Stopping by Safeway to refill my mom's medication and pick up mine of which I hadn't taken for a long time but doctor recommended me to keep taking, I noticed they were pretty busy. 

Coming back home to take a rest on bed, I came down to have dinner. The red bean congee was overcooked, so the taste was a bit odd. However, because I ate my own made sandwich at work around 2:00 pm, I wasn't very hungry. 

Taking another an hour break, I went to gym to work out. At the end, I was totally sweaty and felt so good to drive back home.

I planned to wrap up my diary but sensed exhaustion, so fell into sleep on the bed in study room until a while ago. Now, it is 5:00 AM exactly, I am going to finish my review of Chapter 3 of Economics Rules, then go to work. Yes, I remembered wrong, I only finished reading Chapter 3 rather than Chapter 4 last Friday, and focused on watching soccer and football through the weekend without reading more.

Per author, so many economics models are out there for selections, it is a critical process in diagnosing an appropriate one for a particular issue. He used his own experiences of diagnostics of growth strategies for developing countries to express his theories:

• Neoclassical Model applied to supply of physical and human capital and barriers faced;
• Endogenous Model applied to investment in new technologies;
• Dual Economy Model applied to structural transformations.

After the model is selected, hypothesis is proved through modeling. If the model works appropriately, the targeted strategy is verified. If it doesn't work, the model needs to be modified or even abandoned. This decision tree he and his co-workers developed illustrates Supply & Demand always being the two sides of any factors.

There are four general principles of model selection:

• Verification of Assumptions;
• Verification of Mechanism;
• Verification of Direct Implications;
• Verification of Incidental Implications.

In general, model selection is just like the external validity check for lab and field experiments other sciences perform. 

Reading through this chapter, I was triggered to think about current stock markets' turmoils globally. Are governments intentionally dragging down the markets to push investors to become consumers? For example, Chinese need to transform investment and export driven economy to domestic consumption driven economy, people should foster habits to consume instead of speculations in stock markets. There may be models behind this assumption. This is also applied to current US markets as well. 

Today's markets seem recovered after Martin Luther King's. Maybe everyone should have a dream and believe the dream to become true. 

Patrick's Diary - 1/17/2016

Wrapping up the diaries for Thursday and Friday real quickly, I went downstairs to watch Manchester United playing Liverpool on big screen. It was supposed to be a very entertaining match but actually not that much. I fell into sleep from time to time and missed the only goal. Rooney seemed shooting a wonderful volley ball, which probably was the brightest in this match. 

The next one was Stoke City playing Arsenal, which was also pretty quiet. It ended up with goalless. 

The real exciting game finally popped up, unfortunately, it was exciting for Carolina' s fans. Panthers shutout Seahawks in the first half. Wilson was pressured so hard he might have never experienced; No one expected Lynch to perform after missing so many games in this season, at least, I hadn't; Defense kept the field wide open for Panthers to penetrate. In the second half, Panthers stopped playing aggressively, which made Seahawks catch up easier. At one point of time, I thought Seahawks might be able to turn around. After falling into sleep in the rest of the last quarter because of alcohol's influence, I found we lost the game by a touchdown. I am not surprised that Seahawks wouldn't go further because they were overrated in this season. Our defense wasn't as seamless as it had been exaggerated and offense was pretty mediocre. After briefly shining in the first couple of weeks, we never saw punt or kickoff return TD again. This team needs to get a clear direction on depending on running or throwing. Even Wilson's own advantage actually is running out of the pocket to find opportunities.

The next game wasn't very exciting, actually it was progressed very slowly. Eventually, Broncos won a tasteless game at home. Hopefully, Super Bowl won't be set only for one person's legacy this year. As I shared on Twitter, in the last minute, Steelers still had a possibility mathematically to tie the game to push it into overtime if they could have recovered the onside kick then made a touchdown through Hail Mary Pass after the field goal. However, they didn't make it, which was more realistic. I actually didn't hope that happening because I wanted to go to gym to work out before it would close at 6:00 pm.

After working out for only 50 minutes, I stopped by Fred Meyer to buy bread, Ham and Cheese for my self-made sandwiches at work next week. Instead of Mayonnaise, I grabbed Vegenaise on the shelf for healthy foods Fred Meyer recently set up. It was supposed to be very healthy I'd never heard of before. 

Reading a tweet by CNN, I just learned that Democratic Debate was held tonight. Driving back home, I hadn't found it on CNN, then noticed it on NBC. I was wondering why there wasn't a commercial for it earlier when football game was televised. In general, I don't think it really matters who is going to be the next president unless it is me. I recommend Sanders not use the word of "Revolution" but "Reformation". It could mislead voters to relate to violence, which is why Marx was wrong about modern Socialism and people are scared of his theories. 

As I shared on Twitter, no matter what, I was happy to sip grande latte while watching their debates and would be able to go to work tomorrow morning. 

I will write my review of Chapter 4 of Economics Rules tomorrow night and finish the reading of the whole book next week. After Football Season ends, I will have more time to read books and write more reviews. 

Patrick's Diary - 1/16/2016

I just took a shower and as planned, to catch up my diary for Yesterday and Today before pressuring the shirts, oh, I need to turn washer on now...

One follower on Twitter reminded me through direct message that I not update my blog. I am happy that people read my diaries, otherwise I would not publish here publically. 

It's been a wonderful sports' weekend. I woke up at 5:00 am on Saturday morning and started watching the first televised BPL match Tottenham hosting Sunderland. Though Sunderland scored first, Tottenham crashed them at the end. Do commentators speak in Russian in the video clip I found on Youtube? Tottenham dominated the entire match.

The following one was Manchester City playing Crystal Palace. City managed to crash the rival too. They amazingly scored two of the four goals through beautiful teamwork, however, it might not be necessary in other occasions. I know why they did it. This clip is in English. 

The third one was more competitive. Leicester's Japanese striker scored the goal first but Aston Villa equalized at the end. A draw doesn't help Villa much because they are staying at the bottom. 

I negotiated with my parents that we would have lunch after 1:00 pm so that I could go to gym to work out first. It might be because I didn't eat lunch, it's very easy to get me totally soaked by sweat after only half an hour on treadmill. After biking for 20 minutes, I had become exhausted before weightlifting.

On my way home, I appreciated the sunny sky, though it was still somewhat chilly at midday in winter. 

7-11 at the corner of the intersection before I turned right onto North Road to home is the most convenient station for me to pump gas and buy foods. I also go to Shell and 76 sometimes as well. I grabbed four big cans of different brands of beer, two for Saturday and two for Sunday. However, all four pumps were being used, so I drove away without pumping the gas.

New England led Kansas City to the end of the game without much drama. They would advance to AFC Final to be held on next Sunday. Whom and where they were going to play would depend on the result of another game between Denver and Pittsburgh.

Arizona hosting Green Bay was more dramatic. Cardinals were behind for quite a long time until the last quarter. However, Rodgers threw a Hail Mary Pass as he had done in a regular season game with Detroit again. No matter whether was it a set up, this beautiful throw pushed the game into overtime. Fitzgerald killed Packers' hope by running 75 yards in the first play into their Red Zone, then made a rushing TD by himself to close the game. Arizona would play the winner of another NFC divisional playoff, either travel to Charlotte to play Carolina or stay at home to face Seattle. 

It might be because of a relaxed Saturday, I still had energy to watch an interesting movie before falling into sleep. Unfinished Business was a good movie I recommend you to watch. 

This clip reminds me when we be stuck on Autobahn near Hamburg in last July. The traffic report on radio was in German but GPS I used on my cell was in English.

Patrick's Diary - 1/15/2016

On Friday Morning, I arrived at office very early as well because my doctor's appointment was rescheduled to that afternoon from last Friday. Though it was the last day of the week, I had a very busy schedule without much rest during the day. The nice thing was a someone bringing in two big boxes of donuts, so I took two big ones to skip the lunch. 

Driving to the doctor's office, I didn't have much trouble to get through I-405 because it wasn't in rush hour. My lab test was generally ok but one result was not as good as requested. I need to control my diet and go to gym as frequently as I had gone half a year ago. Yep, I am going to buy wheat bread, ham, cheese and tomato to bring to work to make my own sandwiches for lunch again. In the 2nd half in the last year, I went to cafeteria everyday to grab fried chickens, which was tasty and convenience. Now, I move back to my old location, then I can eat more healthy. Cafeteria does provide a lot of healthy choices, I should say. Meanwhile, I should resume my old workout schedule: 6 times a week at least. 

After the dinner, I did finish the Chapter 4 of Economics Rules and would write a review in this weekend. I got a chance watching Mad Max Fury Road from the beginning to the end. It's an odd movie. 

Ok, I would watch every BPL match and NFL Divisional Playoff game as possible as I could this weekend. Cheer for Football.