It's a typical Monday. Coming back home, I greeted to Dennis when he walked out of his truck on his driveway. Well, he handed a bag of bread to me and told that it was homemade by a lady he knew. I will share it with my parents.
On CNN, the outcome of Super Tuesday was being predicted by the guests. It seemed Trump leading national poll by a big margin. Clinton was expected another landslide win. Sanders has been a great campaign rival who has generated a lot of positive sparks.
Sleeping for several hours, I got up to update billing information in my Kylintv account. My parents had enjoyed Chinese Platform they serviced for 7 years. A guy from their customer services called my cell phone to remind me that I updated information in a wrong module. After the conversation, I decided to upgrade the package to 2.0 but drop one box because only my parents watched it everyday. However, the nice guy wasn't able to upgrade for me at that time, so I would call them tomorrow morning. I had planned to leave home at 8:30 am because I would stay late anyway.
I set up an account for 2015 tax filing and should start filling in my information. I should be able to get a couple of thousand dollars refund.
I did plan to watch Manchester playing Arsenal but didn't do it though I already woke up. I don't know the result but will find a clip to post here... United won 3 to 2.
Stopped at McDonald's, I had a long breakfast of eating the entire Big Breakfast with Hotcakes. Then, I drove toward the gym. Every Sunday morning, a big church activity is held in this park. I was lucky avoiding the traffic of coming cars.
I felt a bit headache, so only worked out for 40 minutes, then got into my car to go back home.
Taking a shower, I was called by my dad to have lunch. Going downstairs, I felt very full due to the late big breakfast. Coming back to my bedroom, I watched later part of Furious 7 again because I hadn't focused on it yesterday.
Oscar on red carpet started at 2:00pm and I started watching it. I actually followed the entire Oscar for almost 10 hours today. Leo won the Best Actor, which many fans had longed for. I need to watch The Revenant. I did like Damon's Martian as well but Leo deserved the award.
I was happy to see Vilander from Goteborg winning the Best Actress in Supporting Role and tweeted: "Congratulation, Gamla Ullevi." Again, I need to watch The Danish Girl too.
It's already 10pm on Sunday night, I am really tired today. It's not a very inspirational weekend.
My mom wanted to stay at home because she was scared of falling onto ground again as she had done three weeks ago at Ranch 99. She had weak legs, which didn't support her body very well but didn't want to sit in a wheelchair. After quickly buying the groceries at Ranch 99 and Costco with my dad, we drove to my son's dorm to pick him up for lunch. He really loves living on campus now, so only was willing to go out for a lunch without coming back home. The first phrase he said to us when he got into the car was (in Mandarin): "Did I have a girlfriend, I wouldn't even go for this lunch with you." I actually really want him to have a girlfriend because he doesn't drive without a girlfriend at age of 20 & a half, which represents his sort of immaturity. However, I warned him not to be too serious for first date, otherwise, he might be disappointed and even scared if it wouldn't go long and well.
We drove back to Lynnwood to Szechuan Garden where we hadn't gone for a couple of months. The foods were as delicious as usual anyway. The leftover was well enough for my mom too.
Dropping my son back to his dorm, we came back home and I took almost two hours nap. As soon as I woke up, I turned TV onto CNN to find out Clinton's landslide win in South Carolina. Now, mainstream put all hopes on her given Trump's probable nomination and Sanders' anti-Wall Street sentiment.
Switching to HBO, I was happy to catch Furious 7 I generally would have watched at Theater. It's a wonderful production. Walker is one of my most favorite actors and I don't know if this series will go further. By the way, I love the song at the end of the movie, which had been on Chart for many weeks at I recall.
Next, San Andreas was presented and I had watched it once before but wouldn't mind watching it again. It's another great production. The special effects were breathtaking.
I exchanged some chats in our USA alumni group on WeChat but the contents were private, so I wouldn't feel comfortable to share in public because other alumni might not like it.
It was supposed to be an easy Friday and I went to attend a team meeting in the afternoon to relax. It ended up with a lot of hassles. I didn't expect to receive salary notice today but did get it. It's so unfair and I should say it a discrimination given my real performance. The increase is much lower than inflation rate, I actually will have less real buying power than last year. My employer is really into a big trouble given so many competitions all over the world. However, at least, I won't feel guilty to take Hawaii Airlines to go to Honolulu for vacation next month.
Talking about vacation, I could sense many people thinking I might get compensations from some other organizations, otherwise I wouldn't have needed to promote for them on social media. In addition, an average middle class man like me shouldn't have had the behaviour to spend almost 15K for 20 days vacation in Scandinavia in July, 2015. First of all, I planned that trip for 10 years; Secondly, I love traveling and am willing to spend money for this hobby; Thirdly, I used to be a relatively rich kid compared to others around me, even today, my life is so mediocre, I still can't get rid off my spending behavior for something you might not think worthy.
I started checking my credit card history for my trip back to Scandinavia after 20 years. I paid every penny out of own pocket:
4/23/2015: 2 tickets for me and my son - 2 x 1,006.9 = 2,013.80
4/27/2015: Hotel Rooms in Uppsala & Karlstad: 124.03+104.21= 228.24
5/18/2015: Hotel Room in Oslo: 511.67
5/25/2015: Hotel Room in Malmo: 116.88
6/17/2015: Hotel Room in Goteborg: 226.62
6/29/2015: Hotel Room in Copenhagen: 305.44
7/6/2015: Scandic Hotels in Uppsala: 17.13
7/6/2015: Olearys Karlstad: 64.52
7/7/2015: Scandic Hotel Karlstad: 20.55
7/7/2015: Ri Villa Romana: 76.34
7/8/2015: La Sangria: 168.07
7/10/2015: Salt & Sill Deli: 59.15
7/10/2015: Radisson Blu: 151.98
7/13/2015: Apca Parking: 24.8
7/13/2015: Auberge Du Bonheur: 100.15
7/13/2015: Radisson Blu Goteborg: 170.30
7/13/2015: SAS Hotel: 298.26
7/15/2015: Auberge DU Bonheur: 272.81
7/15/2015: Hotel room or meal at hotel (can't recall): 230.08
7/17/2015: Hotel in Odense: 201.71
7/17/2015: Victors Pa Lilla Torg: 123.11
7/17/2015: Crowne Plaza Amsterdam: 55.09
7/17/2015: Meal: 129.45
7/17/2015: Meal: 92.57
7/22/2015: Scandic Klara: 73.10
7/22/2015: Hertz: 882.54
7/22/2015: Seatac Parking: 191.69
8/21/2015: Hertz: 82.08x2
9/9/2015: Hertz: 130.25
9/30/2015: Hertz: 136.87
10/12/2015: Hertz: 47.72
Above listed were charges to my credit card, total is 7,285.05. Majority went through Expedia. As I shared, I have been 14 years long loyal user, they may give me some discounts when I book hotel and air tickets. In addition, I noticed several of their senior officers being Swedes and SSE graduates. However, I am not sure if they were actually hired because of my promotion of Sweden in 2006. Definitely, my passion and appreciation of Sweden aren't because of them but other Swedes I knew back in early and middle 90s.
In addition, I also used my debit card a lot in this trip because my credit card didn't have chip.
Total adds up to almost 3,000 bucks. I also exchanged 2,000 bucks worth of foreign currencies. So, total cost for this trip is at least 13,000 bucks, all out of my own pocket. It's a lot of money and has caused me pretty tight financially in the past half a year but I never regretted. Every time coming back from Sweden, I had a big change and it has been always inspirational. In 1992, I learned what modern economics really was; In 1996, I got rid off the desperation to become so positive, which actually has benefited me till today; This time after coming back home, I suddenly felt walking out of the forests, every puzzle became a kids' toy. I really appreciate several Swedes and Chinese-Swedes I met during those trips, especially her, I met at Sergels Torg in such a wonderful August evening. Anyway, listening what I said in this clip I filmed at Gamla Stan last summer, you will understand.
It is such a shame, you did this to me while Sweden opened her arms to me again... Do you think I will forget? Never.
It's a very long day because I needed to complete two tasks before the end of the day, which had me missing GOP debate completely. However, I would be much more relaxed on Friday and part of the next week. Yes, life is fair, you have to make the efforts one day or the other but can enjoy earlier or later. It all depends.
My dad called me to ask if I was on my way home when I was still in the office. I told him that I would eat dinner outside. I ended up with buying two bacon cheeseburgers at 7-11 after pumping the gas. Turning onto CNN while eating the microwaved burgers, I viewed Anderson Cooper was interviewing Trump. Later on, I saw the highlights of the debate in which Trump was attacked by Rubio and Cruz from right and left on the stage. The scenes looked pretty entertaining.
My buddy who went to the same elementary school in the same class with me from first grade in Beijing texted me on WeChat. We hadn't talked for several months, he would like me to call him. I was pretty tired but called him after 20 minutes nap. I talked about my retirement scenario at age of 65 including pension, 401K, social security benefit and medicare, which will be purely the accumulations of my 32 years professional career in US. Though we won't be as lucky as most of the current retirees who have more pensions and other benefits, we should be covered unless all professional managed investments lose the significant value then. In addition, I also expected to gain on my houses and IRA. My buddy was impressed by Americans' lifestyle, which is pretty predictable if everyone has planned rationally at their young ages. I concurred and recalled that I was wondering why so many American retirees in the novels I read in middle school could own beachhouse and enjoy sunshine in Florida. Were there so many millionaires? They must be very rich. Now, I understand, if I plan well, I will be one of them 15 years later. However, Florida is not the only destination today. For a person like me who doesn't really hate rains and mild coldness in winter, Seattle may be the best even after retiring.
My buddy told me that housing price is surging in China, led by the city of Shenzhen and followed by Shanghai. It also goes up nicely in Beijing but not very much. Foreign currency control is tighten because the country lost significant reserves in last December due to the depreciation of Renminbi. He speculated that the government is scared. He had been trading and investing in stock markets for more than 20 years and was amazed by the volatility in the last two months. Politically, he was even expecting the second "Cultural Revolution" to come. He might be joking or too pessimistic.
His daughter is going to graduate from DePauw and he had filed application for investing immigration for her because she loves living here. It's very difficult for a foreign student to get a job nowadays but may not be hard to get a one year practical training opportunity. She definitely will go to graduate school after the preparation. It's no longer a big deal to travel to States anymore, she may go back to Beijing to prepare for enrolling a US graduate program if the opportunity for practical training doesn't come nicely.
It's in the middle of the week, which meant to be hopeful because weekend was coming. I booked air tickets and hotel through Expedia with which I had been loyal user for 12 years. A co-worker who was a diehard mariners' fan had recommended me to go watching Spring Training in Arizona for this vacation and I was really interested in. However, it's Spring Break for my son and this would be the only vacation for him this year because he would stay at home during the summer break, he wanted to go Hawaii to relax because he had never been there and definitely heard so many fascinations about it.
In addition to staying in Waikiki, I checked out several entertaining packages and might book two of them, each would take a full day and include transportations from hotel to destination. I was even thinking about to buy bus passes good for four days and checked out that I could get them at ABC Stores very close to our hotel. However, it might not be economic if we wouldn't take bus too frequently because the pass costs 25 bucks each and one way bus fare is 2.50 bucks per person. I only planned to take bus to North Shore and Downtown Honolulu, which would cost my son and me 20 bucks in total. Bus schedules looked very convenient on Oahu and I was impressed when I checked out on its website. I plan to save the money on rental car this time and also try to relax by letting bus drivers take care of me.
Our incentive plan would be paid out on Thursday, though it wouldn't be very great this year but still could help me pay for the one week vacation. In addition, I started filing tax return for 2015 and would get refund to cover property taxes in April. My houses have kept appreciating in last year, so have property taxes. A good news came in today, which was actually more related to my current job:
Trump's mania had been dominating CNN and his probable Republican nomination and possible Presidency had put a lot of threats to many incumbents. In my opinion, his potential success has two big challenges: Current systems not only in politics but in many other areas will be challenged; Irish heritage in political circle has been dominating in the last 200 years but Trump is a German decent. These are the two reasons many politicians even business celebrities start attacking and accusing him.
Stock markets were adjusted a little bit today but the bottom had been built higher. I am seeing a gradually rally through the summer.
I had planned to get up to catch up the diary for the last two days at 3:00am, but only could do it one hour later. Yup, it is 4:00am now.
Coming back home, I turned on TV to realize that Sounders was going to host the first round of Concacaf Champion League match at Centurylink Field. I really wanted to watch it but was very sleepy, so missed most of the playtime. It eventually ended up with 2:2 draw. It's not very promising in 2nd round when Mexicans would play at home but let's cross the fingers. Martins didn't play because he might transfer to Shanghai. It's a surprise. He had played a very important role at Sounders but he could have issues to work in a new formation. In addition, he may get a better deal with Chinese club. Dempsey's free kick was beautiful and he scored the second goal in the second half too.
I missed the first part of Democratic Town Hall but did catch Hilary answering several questions. It seemed she was gaining momentum but Sanders were still very competitive.
Close to 11:00pm, I woke up to find out that Trump crashed Nevada Caucuses. As far as I could estimate, he would win Republican nomination. People talked about his comment of "We love poorly educated". Negatively, you could think that he meant this group of people could be fooled easily; Positively, you might guess what he thought was they could be helped by his possible presidency the most. However, I didn't think that he tried to refer to anything at that moment, he was just overwhelmed by landslide victory and so excited, might be very grateful. Making America great again was the most powerful slogan for him to win the nomination. You never know how far he could go.
After turning off TV, I kept reading Chapter 2 of The Rise and Fall of American Growth and almost finished it. However, I didn't have time to write the review and hopefully could do it on Wednesday night.
I bought few shares of Gopro stocks and checked Gopro Hero Session again online. I would buy one and start filming the clips with it wrapped around my head while driving on the road and practicing soccer during weekend.
The first day I drove my van to work on crowded I-405 after it was fixed by Dennis, it worked pretty well. As planned, I went to the salon I had almost always gone to get my hair cut. I had to wait for half an hour before the lady could work on my long hair. Men's hair was easier to take care anyway, it didn't take her too long and my hair became short again. As a result, I felt pretty comfortable as if heavy weight was unloaded from my head. I told her that I would come back in three months.
When I got off the car, Dennis shouted to me from his driveway to check if the car worked well. He was satisfied after I answered his question.
I hesitated for a little bit after dinner if I should go to gym to work out. Eventually, I decided to stay in bed to take a snap first. However, when I woke up, it's already 10pm. I planned to start reading Chapter II of The Rise and Fall of American Growth but still felt a bit sleepy and then fell into sleep again. After several hours, I woke up again and noticed it was already 2am. However, I felt energetic and turned the book onto Chapter II. In general, this book was easy to follow because it was more like a comprehensive report published by government agencies or academic institutions. However, I did want to digest or even memorize all the data provided in the chapter, so sometimes, I repeated reading the same paragraph two or even three times. Yes, there were a lot of numbers given by the author. As I shared when I bought it, it's a very useful reference if you need all the information of US economic history.
I read through half of the chapter by 3:00am, then fell into sleep the third time...
Watching news about Nevada Caucuses and South Carolina Primary on Saturday night, I eventually slept on the couch until 5:00 o'clock on Sunday morning. Afterwards, I went back to my bedroom to sleep in my bed from time to time until lunchtime.
Right after lunch, I drove to Safeway to have my parents' medications refilled. While waiting, I picked up several cans of soup, cheese and bread. I also bought a Grande Green Tea Latte. It's not very busy, Eric handed me all the medications when I came back to pharmacy. I am not sure if pharmacist's name is Chris, I saw her occasionally in this store.
Actually, before I went to Safeway, I had tried to get my hair cut but all the salons were closed on Sunday, so I had to wait till tomorrow.
Not having worked out at gym for almost two weeks, I did a one-hour routine without giving myself too much pressure. Sitting in my van after working out, I touched the muscle on my arms and could feel its softness. I need to come to gym on daily basis starting from Monday night.
Coming back home, I started watching a hockey game between New York City and Detroit. It had been scoreless until triple overtime. Detroit almost scored the winning goal but Rangers subsequently won the game with a beautiful shot.
After the hockey game, I started watching a movie named Magic Mike XXL. It's pretty entertaining.
Finally, I started reading the new book I bought on Saturday and already learned a lot after finishing Chapter I. I couldn't help writing the review on my Linkedin page. My plan is to read one chapter per night while writing the review. I guess I wouldn't be able to do it because I also plan to go to gym every night.
A former co-worker at Everett site sent us a link to a webpage of Microsoft where we could get deep discount of 2016 version of Office. I had forgot to do it at home until tonight. It only cost 10 bucks and seemed working very well. I will utilize it for my academic research in Economics in the next several years. It's a shame that the version I had been using on this personal laptop was 97.
Getting up to wrap up my diary for Friday first, I drove the rental car to Enterprise Rent-A-Car to return it. Bothell-Everett Highway was still pretty quiet, yes, people were trying to take the chance to rest during the weekend.
I hadn't realized that the rental car office wouldn't open until 9 am this morning, so decided to drop the key into its secured post in front of the window outside its office. It's nice experience of renting a car given my previous rental experiences all accumulated at airports when traveling to other cities in North America and Europe. I might not rely on my aged caravan on daily basis, so thought about to buy a used small car for commute. Since I have a hobby to driving across the country, I may rent a SUV at this location for half a month every year to satisfy that need.
Walking back home, I passed by the little square before approaching 164th Street. I liked this small set, which was pretty neat.
Turning onto 164th Street, I even jogged a little bit uphill. However, it might be because I hadn't worked out for almost two weeks, I felt out of breathe. Sitting at one corner of an intersection for 5 minutes to recover, I heard someone asking me if I was OK. A middle aged man driving his car stopped to show his concern to me. Standing up to walk up against the hill for another 100 feet, I still felt a little bit pressure on my chest. Given having a surgery four years ago, I needed to be precautious. A bus stop was right on my left, I sat down on the waiting bench to take another round of rest. A man approached me to talk about nice weather first, and handed me a brochure to ask me to read when I had a chance. He might be a priest because he dressed up with a tie on a Saturday morning.
After taking another 10 minutes break, I walked back home without any discomfort. The earlier issue was apparently caused by the steep slope in that part on 164th street, especially after jogging against it. Anyway, I needed to go back gym everyday. It took me one hour to walk back home from rental office. The actual time was 45 minutes.
Lying in bed, I watched the news and reports about Nevada Caucuses on CNN from time to time before lunch. It sounded a tight race. After lunch, I kept watching it, and eventually learned Clinton winning with a comfortable margin.
Next, votes started counted at South Carolina Primary. With only 3% of total votes being counted, CNN had projected Trump to win. Trump seemed to win nomination positively to me. I forgot if I saw SC governor endorsed Rubio or Cruz on the screen, so Trump was still an outlier inside Republican Party.
I hadn't tested my van after Dennis fixed it, so drove out at sunset. I had planned to go to Barnes & Noble to check the new books on their shelves. In Business section, I noticed some new books, and recently published "The Rise and Fall of American Growth" really drew my eyes. Buying a venti latte, I sat down at a small table to check out more contents in this book. It is about economics history in US but does raise many questions about future growth. To me, it's a very comprehensive reference I need. In my early years, I spent a lot of time to learn European economics history. Having lived in States for almost 20 years, I haven't had chance to learn the past in US enough. Handing the book to cashier at the register, I said that I would like to learn more history when the young man made the comments on this book briefly. He might not agree with me and politely responded that there were a lot to learn. Yes, this book isn't about history but economics, it's why I decided buying it. My van worked very well, though at the beginning when I drove out of our neighborhood, I felt it very difficult to pump the gas. That was totally because I compared it to the rental car, which was much smaller and newer. Driving back home from Barnes & Noble, I didn't feel it anymore, it's absolutely normal.
Taking a brief dinner, I kept watching news on CNN. In general, I supported Democratic, but was also interested in Republican candidates too. I personally saw Bush once in 1988 and felt pretty badly for him to drop out of the race. However, politics is being reformed, my preference is Trump now, especially after Bush dropped out. I am going to start reading this book and writing the review. Whoever can lay out a solution will win General Election in November. Actually, it would be me but I am not qualified.
Reading the posts in our group on WeChat, I learned Chinese communities having successful rallies and protests in more than 30 cities today. In New York City, there were thousands Chinese showing their enthusiasm on the street. It's great.
The traffic became so messy when I approached the exit to our office building. Reading on message board hung over I-405 southbound, I learned an accident having two lanes blocked on Route 169, which drove the congestion. I didn't try to get out of the freeway earlier but just slowly had my rental car moved.
It's a regular day and everyone tried to leave early because we finally reached the end of the week. I managed to leave when traffic hadn't been built up heavily as well. It might be because the rental car was so easy to handle, I missed the turn to our house the first time in my life, so had to take a circle along Bellflower to get back. Several months ago, my neighbors warned me that a block of trees was cut by the side of this street, which might cause the windstorm easily coming through our backyards, back then, I did drive here to take a look and found the foundations of new constructions being established. When I passed here today, I noticed the structures of several new houses had been built up.
The rental car was shining red and was with a California License Plate, which reminded me that I see so many cars on road with these plates. I had wondered why there were so many cars from down south, now I understand those were actually rental cars.
Dennis seemed not at home, I needed to give him the money for my car's repairing.
After dinner, I watched a replay PSG hosting Chelsea in a match of UEFA Championship League. Ibra made a ground PK to score due to a deflection when the ball hit a defender's foot. Mikel equalized in extra time in first half. PSG eventually won by 2 to 1 thanking Cavani's late goal at a hard angle but with an away goal, Chelsea is at a ok position.
At a point of time, I suddenly realized that I forgot to drop the check for February homeowner due for my rental property this morning, so wrote the check and got out of the house. Anyway, I had planned to drive the rental car to somewhere tonight because I would return it early in the morning tomorrow, why wouldn't take the advantage to enjoy the driving experience?
I saw Dennis' truck being parked on his driveway, so went over to their front door. Through the window of their living room, I could see him sitting in an armchair relaxedly. His wife, Jane, opened the door for me and I gave the money to Dennis. I appreciated his help so much. He asked if I needed him to drive me back from the rental car office tomorrow morning, I didn't want to bother him again on a weekend early morning and did plan to jog back home because I hadn't worked out for more than one week.
Dropping the check into the slot at property management office, I called my son to see if he wanted to come out to take a ride with me. He certainly would like to. It only took me half an hour to arrive at his dorm building. However, I had to wait for him for almost 10 minutes because I wasn't able to call in his cell phone and would learn he was talking to a friend.
While driving to further south on I-5 just for fun, my son talked about his studies, friendship with others and his interest of making a girlfriend, though sounded still without any target. Next quarter, he would select three classes: one more psychology, a biology course and an art course. His interest seemed going back to his original field at high school in biology. He made a pretty good friend who was a US born Turkish-American and got along with his roommate who came from DC area whose father was a lobbyist working in political circle everyday. His roommate sounded interested in pursuing a law degree. Actually, my son's desire of making a girlfriend might be triggered by his roommate's activities in Valentine's because he traveled to Colorado to see his girlfriend, which drove my son seriously thinking about dating a girl to be such a pleasure.
The weather was pretty nice at night but after passing downtown Seattle it was raining in that specific area. Arriving at an Exit close to Tacoma, I decided to take a U-turn to drive to Chinatown to have a later night snack. Purple Cafe still kept its English name but I am not sure why its Chinese original name is changed to "Green Island" if it is translated into English. However, the foods were still pretty convenient and delicious.
After the late night snack, we walked on the street in Chinatown under clear sky. It's a harmonious Friday night in Northwest you couldn't expect more.
Dropping my son back to his dorm, I drove back on I-5 to go home. It's almost midnight but road wasn't as quiet as you would think. Seattle is definitely a big city.
Dennis pulled his truck into my driveway on time, he drove me to Enterprise Rent-a-Car well before 8:00 am. However, I pointed him to the old location, so, I walked to their new location, which was just 100 feet north.
The manager, Ryan, went through the process for me and then I waited for 10 minutes to get the car because it had been cleaned. It's a red corolla and very easy to drive. Going through busy I-405 South, I arrived at the office the first time in this week.
I spent 11 hours in the office to catch up all the lost time in the past three days and felt pretty fulfilled. People always think about to stay at home when they are working, me too, but if staying at home too long, they will be bored. We were born to be workers, I guess. However, I still desire to retire as soon as I can afford. I am expecting the retiring life will be also very fulfilled because I will be able to do whatever I love, for example, reading and writing books about economics.
My dad called me right before I left office to ask if I would come home to eat dinner and also told me that my car was fixed because Dennis had parked it in our driveway. Arriving at home, I opened the garage door and drove the van into the garage because I would keep the rental car for two nights, so would drive it to work tomorrow anyway. Sitting in the rental car, I called Dennis to find out if my car had any other potential problems because it was too old. He said many parts seemed starting wearing out but there wasn't immediate risk. However, he agreed with me that I couldn't rely on this car on daily base, it's better to buy a new one. He might notice I had spent too much unexpected money this week, so charged me with very deep discount. I asked if it's fair for him, he joked if I were his brother, he would charge me more. Oh, Dennis is the same as my parents' generation, if required, I would call him uncle.
I am glad to see stock price for both Twitter & Zillow stabilized and project Twitter to jump up at certain point of time in the next two or three months. Price for Zillow probably will be gradually appreciating and I do have a plan to keep it for 10 years. Gopro is still little bit uncertain but I am confident in it.
This has been a pretty boring week for me, I didn't have any desire to read books and watch debates. Hopefully, my life will go back normally through this weekend, oh, we still have Friday to pass through.
Apparently, Dennis had to take a little bit more time to fix the car, so I had to work from home for another day. However, I needed to go out after staying at home for almost 3 days. Getting online, I reserved a rental car at Enterprises. After doing it, I called Dennis to see if he could give a ride to pick up the car in the morning on Thursday. It's on Bothell Everett Highway, not very far but not in walking distance either. I walked there once when my car didn't start a year ago and it took me 45 minutes.
Dennis was a veteran who went to the war for the country in 70s. He told me his first job actually was with our company before joining the army. Today, he was in VA office when I called him, so he didn't pick up the phone but called me back. As always, he was always willing to help me as long as he could. He also told me that he had to wait for a generator delivered to have my car fixed, so it would take another day. Yes, my decision of renting a car was right, otherwise, I would have to stay at home on Thursday, I was really bored.
As I had planned, I consolidated all fragmental postings of my review of Economics Rules on my blog and published a complete one on my Linkedin site. I felt a bit accomplishment and would keep doing it. I also planned to publish my own books.
A Chinese airline, Okay Airways, ordered 737s in Singapore Airshow and Engineers overwhelmingly accepted new contract. These probably were the major good news today while I was offsite.
Trying to catch up the time lost yesterday, I started at 5:00 AM, though it was quite different from normal routine: I was sitting at the desk on which the laptop could be connected to modem directly in my son's room.
Another co-worker I worked with pretty closely due to some old stuff my retired backup left sent me an e-mail in which her son's image was embedded. Oh, I forgot to mention she had started going to her son's baseball games every Friday to cheer for him while filming the video clips and taking the photos. Her son sounded a college baseball star playing first base. Oh, it's easy for me to write but a long trip for her during every weekend: Yes, her son plays for a very good private liberal & Arts school in Southern California.
Working from home was a little bit more flexible because the whole environment was less intense. I did catch up a lot of stuff within 12 hours. At the end of the working, I called Dennis to check the progress, he mentioned that he replaced the parts and belt but heard noise from somewhere he was still trying to find out. He might be able to finish it tonight but I prepared it might roll into tomorrow morning. I probably would stay at home at least for another half a day and asked him to take time.
I shared some general thoughts and observations with my alumni in our chatting group last Friday, which was triggered by Officer Peter Liang's case: some people are very rational, even they are on the verge of losing the games, they can make the rivals feel the opposites, so these people often can survive in the last second because their rivals are scared to flee. However, if you don't care of anything, you always can wait until the last second, then everyone else will lose. Using myself as an example, in my life since childhood, I have almost died five times, the most recent one was two years and a half ago, what else am I scared? how long can't I wait? If my assumed rivals keep trying to test my limit, they will lose very ugly at the end. I won't leave the table until I see all of them fading. This is a valuable experience I learned in my life of 50 years.
Due to the inconveniences I had in the last two days, I hadn't paid attention to the reactions on Officer Liang's case until tonight after I read a string of chats in my alumni group. Chinese communities seemed pumping up. A nationwide rally on February 20th is being proposed and organized. As the epicenter, Chinese in New York City are absolutely the most inspired. However, until today, I still hadn't seen any major media reporting this case. If you guys don't care my concern, I don't care you.
Faris, the cab driver with whom I made the deal yesterday, came to our house on time. He turned GPS on and it directed him to go through I-405 South, I always take I-5 South to go to the airport but may need to reassess in future. Apparently, I-405 South may be a better route.
Because of President Day, the traffic was pretty smooth. I said goodbye to my nephew and his wife, then had Faris driving me to our office building. No, President Day is not our holiday. I had him waiting for me for 15 minutes while I was taking care of one urgent request, Taking my laptop with me, I took his van to go home. During the conversation, I could tell Faris actually was a well educated person. He must have some decent experience back in Ethiopia.
Arriving at our house, Faris wanted to give me 25 bucks discount but I didn't accept it. It's not easy for him to make money. Instead, I paid only 2 bucks short of the total charged fare on the meter. I knew he should be still pretty happy because it was really a long drive. Before getting off, I mentioned I would call him in future if I needed his service. Yes, this probably was the 3rd time I took a cab in Seattle in the past almost 20 years. Hopefull, I wouldn't need to take it much in future, because it would indicate that my car would be frequently broken.
Working from home from time to time before lunch, I also called Dennis to check out what time he could drive me to fix the car. He said anytime and I went over to his driveway at 1pm. Heading to where I parked my car over the night, we kept chatting about politics for quite a while. Dennis didn't agree with the concepts of Socialism of which he thought government would own everything but he did think people should share the opportunities with others. I explained that Modern Socialism tries to fix the problem of inequality. The current system encourages people to maximize the benefits for themselves, which proves people's personal value but inevitably hurts others' interests. I consider this is the main misconception of driving the inequality.
Finding my car in the parking lot, I opened the hood to have Dennis checking. As he had worried, the problem wasn't that easy to fix. He called the towing company, then we left for home.
I didn't keep working from home because I had been so tired after this intensive weekend and busy morning, instead, I went to bed to sleep. Not very long, Dennis came over to knock our door, the towing truck carried my car to his driveway already. The truck driver had the car unloaded and took my credit card to charge the towing fee. Dennis mentioned to me that I could get reimbursement from insurance company. Yes, I remembered that we got 800 bucks fully reimbursed when this van was towed back to Seattle from Pendleton, Oregon right before Christmas Eve in 2002. But it was only 160 bucks this time, I needed to figure out if my premium would be increased due to this claim or not. Anyway, everything was on Dennis from then. He seemed pretty exciting because he loved repairing things. I am lucky to have him as my neighbor.
I kept sleeping for quite a while until dinner time. After eating, I watched news on CNN for a while, then realized Grammy being on tonight. It's almost to the end, but I did catch Lady Gaga's performance and witnessed Swift winning Album of the Year. I was impressed by her dress, which was rated the worst but confused by her comments. However, I learned the background later online.
I wasn't very excited about my life today, and fell into sleep again... Oh, by the way, I really like her song of Love Story.
It's Valentine's Day, though I didn't have a girlfriend or the 4th wife to celebrate with, I was happy to see my nephew and his newly wedded wife enjoying their honeymoon. It might be because I had worked for my employer for almost 8 years, I never thought about to bring any visiting relatives or friends to visit our factory and museum. I hadn't done this for my nephew's father when he came to visit us last year. Hadn't my nephew mentioned it to me yesterday, I wouldn't have taken them there today.
As soon as we parked the car and walked to the entrance of Future of Flight, I suddenly felt very proud of our company. Showing my badge, I got two bucks discount per ticket, which made me feel so close to the company. The next tour would be half an hour away, we went to the cafe inside the museum and I ordered large latte for each of us and a sandwich for my niece-in-law. I had never known if I could have a discount at this cafe as an employee but did ask when I paid. Asking for my badge, the sales girl gave me 5 bucks discount, which was very deep. I was a little bit overwhelmed and more than happy to put 1 buck into their tip jar.
The tour was similar to the one I took my buddy at CUMT who came to Seattle to see me from Australia three years ago. My nephew and his wife were pretty attracted. At the end of the tour, the tour guide ended up with that famous phrase: "If it is not Boeing, I am not flying."
After the tour, we went down to the gallery for 15 minutes, then my nephew and his wife went up to observation deck while I went outside to wait for them. Looking at Paine Field, I still remembered the day we were observing 787 officially taking off. Though we had divorced for a couple of years then, my ex-wife and I sat in a car parked on a road close to the field to witness it together. Yes, it was everyone's excitement. Looking back from now, I realize we concluded our interesting life with a wonderful period at that moment of time. I can't deny it was a happy ending actually.
Arriving at Seattle Premium Outlets, we parked a couple of hundreds feet away from Ram because there were too many cars today. Walking into Ram Restaurants and Brewery, we just noticed the crowds waiting for the tables. Without the patience, we went over to McDonald's to have a quicker lunch. During the lunch, my nephew and I discussed about how to build up Multivariate Non-linear Regression Model for his project at BOE Technology Group Co. Ltd.
While waiting for them to shop, I appreciated a group of artists performing Chinese traditional musical instruments in front of the table by which I sat.
Later on, the performers started lion dancing from that point and paraded through the entire outlets, eventually ended back at food court. It's an amazing show.
My nephew bought some gifts for each of our family members to appreciate our hospitality, then we left for Space Needle. I had a big plan to buy them a memorable dinner at Skycity on top of the needle.
When we drove by Tulalip Casino, I heard very bothering noise spread from the bottom of the car lasting several seconds, then lost the control of the steering wheel. Parking along the road, I called my neighbor Dennis to consult. He figured a belt must be off to driving the system losing the power and thought he could fix it tomorrow. Since it was so close to the Casino, I decided to park the car in its parking lot, then called a cab at the front entrance. A very nice African drove a caravan as mine to pick us up.
On our way home, I had a very pleasant conversation with this young guy. He came from Ethiopia and lived in Edmonds. He enjoyed the life in Seattle and is studying nursing at Seattle North Community College. Since I knew the direction to our house so clearly, he didn't need to use GPS. While chatting with him, I thought it might be a wise decision to hire him to drop my nephew and his wife to the airport tomorrow morning. Because I normally didn't bring my laptop home, I would like to go to the office after dropping them at the airport to take care some urgent requests within 10 or 15 minutes, then bring my laptop back home. I made a deal with this driver when we arrived at our house. At that moment, I thought it might be a good idea to have a wife who could help under this circumstance with a second family car given my parents and son not driving. However, you can't expect to have a wife only for this purpose. Of course, Dennis had promised on the phone earlier he could do it if needed, however, I don't like to bother neighbors or friends for this kind of stuff.
Going over to talk to Dennis, I reached an agreement with him to have him driving me back to the Casino after lunch tomorrow, then he would replace the belt there. It sounded a piece of cake for him.
My son had waited for us to pick him up to go for a wonderful dinner but the broken car failed all of us today. I am seriously thinking to buy a new cheap small car while still keeping this big van. Anyway, I would spend the money prepared for a fancy dinner on cab fares and repairing cost tomorrow. Life is wonderful because you can experience new things everyday, no matter if is it pleasant or frustrating.
I rarely interacted with other Chinese and read Chinese related news, so hadn't known about Officer Peter Liang's case until I learned it from a post in our CUMT US Alumni Group on WeChat. This triggered me to tweet a bunch of complaints because NYPD and US Justice system obviously sold Peter, a Chinese American, out. So many white cops were without charges even their killings were much direct, why was only Peter indicted? It's an insult to me and my fellow Chinese Americans. This also reminded me several months ago, I randomly caught a piece of news that a Chinese cop was killed in his patrol car with another officer in New York, it might be a revenge, so Chinese had paid it off. I found this protest held in March last year, which wasn't covered by any media in English.
I chatted in my group that first, we need to have indictment withdrawn. If it can't be, I proposed to organize 100,000 Chinese American to protest in Brooklyn while forming a political party, which could be named Chinese Social Party.
Unfortunately, Justice Scalia passed away in the morning, which leaves a seat vacant in Supreme Court. I advocate to have a Chinese American justice selected.
I drove my dad to the airport to pick up my nephew and his wife in the morning. I thought I might have problem to recognize him because I hadn't seen him for more than 10 years. However, I recognized him instantly when approaching the carousel where they had picked up their baggages.
As planned, I stopped by my son's dorm to pick him up. It's funny that I drove into the wrong way of one-way street without paying attention. I came here to pick up my son during most of the weekend in the past one year and a half after he moved into his dorm as freshman in September, 2014, how com did I make such a stupid mistake today?
After picking up my son, I gave my nephew and his wife a riding tour around UW campus, then drove back on I-5 to go home.
My nephew and his wife stayed at his wife's parents' home in Xuzhou where our alma mater is located for several nights, then took Delta 588 in Shanghai to fly to Seattle. After a dozen of hours in the air, they were tired, so went to bed to take rest. My son had a dental appointment at 1:30pm, so I drove him to Gentle Dental in Mill Creek. While he was having his teeth cleaned, I drove to Safeway to refill medications for my mom and myself. It's not very busy today, I saw Barbara and Tim being over there today.
After dinner, my son asked me to take him to watch Deadpool. Though I was pretty sleepy, the extreme actions in the movie kept me awake until the end. Since my nephew and his wife took my son's bed, he preferred going back to his dorm. I drove him back to UW and then came back home at almost midnight.
Investors started recognizing TWTR's potential value, so its price jumped nicely on Friday. One analyst at Argus wrote some positive comments, which might trigger the rally as well. To me, it is a no-brainer that investors will make significant gains on TWTR in 2016 given its solid growth of earnings and revenue while users' base at least stabilized. Their three executives were awarded millions dollars worth of stock options, which indicates the confidence in its stock prices by Board of Directors and Management Team. I actually don't prefer it to be acquired because as a stand alone company, the gains on its stock price are unlimited. If Google or Facebook acquires it, Twitter's price may jump to 30 bucks instantly, but afterwards, the investors have to wait for the appreciation of Google's or Facebook's stock price, which could be much slower.
It would be Valentines' Day this Sunday. One of our co-workers received plenty of flowers from her husband. People still treasure romance. However, I have felt so comfortable to be a single on this day every year for quite a long time. I have been able to do whatever I wanted only for myself. This year, it would be a little bit different because my nephew who is my half sister's only son would stop by Seattle for two nights for his honeymoon, so I would show him and his wife the city. Pleasantly, his wife is a graduate of CUMT, so my alumna.
Getting out of the office not too early, I managed to come back home around 5pm. Switching between the channels, I couldn't lock any channel to watch. Anyway, I needed to take care of my nephew and his newly wedded wife, so it's better to fall into sleep.
Oh, by the way, Zillow released disappointing earnings and outlooks to follow everyone's footprints to dump all the garbages in this quarter. However, no one worried about its growth too much given its unique business model and advantageous position. It is a long term holding for 10 years as well.
