Patrick's Diary - 4/29/2016

It's 5:10 AM on Saturday, I got up a minute ago to wrap up my diary for Friday, then will kick off my Super Weekend by watching the first televised BPL match. It's not raining at least, and the sky looks dark blue now. 

I had planned to go to work at 5:00 AM on Friday but couldn't do it until 5:50 AM because getting up late. Traffic was pretty smooth, which helped me arrive at the parking lot before 6:30 AM. My targeted arrival time was 6:00 AM, so it's not too late. 

It's supposed a busy Friday, I wrapped up the preparation for Month End Close, went to the building where my team resides. Do you remember I switched the job with my backup after coming back from vacation in Scandinavia in last July before he retired in December? Yes, I worked in that building for almost half a year before I came back to my current job. Having a one-on-one with my manager, I attended the staff meeting we hadn't had for several weeks due to everybody's busy schedule. It's great to eat a lot of fresh fruits and a cup of Greek yogurt our manager brought to the meeting to celebrate one of our co-workers' fifth year anniversary. I had known five years service being a milestone but never learned the term of "After five years, you can't go back". It makes sense because it is true almost all of us to live with the company until retiring after this milestone. 

Eating the fruits, in addition to donut earlier in my working office one folk brought in, I don't know how much sugar I had taken in. Let me test it now...

142, it is not bad. Of course, I didn't eat much lunch and had a healthy dinner later of the day. I am trying to eat healthy, but I can't refuse the temptation of sugar sometimes because it was my most favorite flavor in my childhood. 

Finishing other stuff in the afternoon, I went to the parking lot to witness the sunshine. Heavy clouds still scattered in the sky, but the sun rays were penetrating all of them gradually. Seattleites were all shooting for a beautiful weekend to go to Sounders' match or Mariners' game, hike in the mountains, grill the meats and fishes in their backyards. 

Hesitating for while, I decided to go to gym to work out before it was to close at 9:00 PM on Friday. I didn't go on Thursday night, so must do it on Friday. After an hour intensive exercise, I stopped by Fred Meyer to pick up Italian sausage, German beer and American sour cream. I was ready to grill fish and meat, bake the potato and drink wine in our backyard. Beers would be left for watching matches and games. Oh, my Dad asked me to bake sweet potato for him. 

Reading several tweets, I just realized it being NFL Draft week. I was too tired on Thursday to pay attention to it. Anyway, it's soccer season and I will leave my enthusiasm on American football for the coming fall. By the way, I also just learned Rams eventually relocated back to Los Angeles and to play at Memorial Coliseum, so Seattle will have an even more significant rival in LA than Galaxy. 

Before falling into sleep, I caught the last moment of Mariners' winning over Royals. It's an amazing catch before the outfielder hit the wall badly. I heard 38,000 fans gathering at Safeco Field, is it correct? I hope both Sounders and Mariners' fans showing the enthusiasm for their teams. Seattle is a big sports city, and we don't have top level professional basketball and hockey teams. Soccer and baseball don't need to compete for the fans. 

Now, the day becomes bright and sky is made light blue. It will be a nice Saturday. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/28/2016

It's another beautiful cloudy day without rain, which enabled me to dress my jacket made in Italy I bought back more than 20 years ago. However, the weather has been cool enough during this week, I hope sunshine to be fully spread in Seattle this weekend, then I will grill salmon and bake potato while drinking the wine made in Walla Walla Valley and watching Sounders' home match hosting Crews on Saturday. 

I successfully managed to eat the other half bag of chips to go through the day without going out to buy anything else. My cash outflow today was zero and I checked my credit card transactions online, my son didn't spend any money either, though he must buy food at cafeteria on campus through his dinning account, which had been prepaid in early April. Yes, the cash outflow for the whole family on Thursday was zero. My mortgage payment is always scheduled on 28th but it hasn't be drawn from my bank account. What an accomplishment!

It's been an intensive and long day but I still couldn't nail down one task completely because of overwhelming. I need to go back to the office very early in the morning to wrap it up. The hope is that I may call Friday off very early to embrace the weekend: Barbeque, BPL, Bundesliga, MLS, Mariners, HBO, StarZ and Presidential Campaign. 

Coming back home, I pulled the mail from mailbox to see the renewed business registration for my LLC. I had rarely worked for anyone else when I was young, though constantly dealt with large organizations, so I am an entrepreneur by heart. Too bad, I don't really care money unless when I need it, so I have never been a great businessman in terms of pulling as much money as I can into my own pocket, in this regard, I am actually an excellent employee for others. The original purpose to registering this LLC is to build up my own hedge fund by focusing on betting long term options, which is my expertise. The source of the initial funds was targeted to the compensation of my property in Chaoyang District, Beijing my parents bought under my name in early 90s but demolished by local government for new development. My Dad was requested to go back to Beijing two year ago and stayed there for half a year to finalize a very mediocre deal. Though it was much less money than originally expected, I would still be able to pay off the mortgage, buy a new car, secure all funds for my son's educational expenses through the graduation of a master degree, put the rest of the total compensation into this LLC trading account to make us a multimillionaire family again in 15 years. As I shared before, Chinese local government never executed the agreement. So, I am still waiting. The name of this LLC came from the name of the street where I lived in Chicago when I pursued MBA degree in late 90s. The studies led me to thoroughly observe and research US Markets again after 10 years. Meanwhile I traded so many Internet Stocks daily during that period of time: AOL, AMZN, YHOO, CMGI, EBAY, you name it. I am confident in building this LLC a successful fund in future. AMZN popped nicely after market as Facebook had done yesterday. Though I no longer trade it, may do it again after getting my compensation one day.  I could be a very productive day-trader as well. During the summer in 2007, I took off from consulting projects for a month to take a break for two weeks, within the other two weeks, I made probably almost 20K out of 10K if I recall correctly. When I can't stare at the screen by monitoring the markets constantly, I am not able to make money in fast trade.

Last night, I went to gym pretty late but felt great. This morning, I checked my blood sugar which was 141. Though under 120 was desirable, it was not bad. Tonight after dinner, I was too tired to wake up until 11:00 pm, so didn't go because gym was closed. I need to go there after work on Friday. 

Basketball coach at Indiana University made a very controversial comment while endorsing Trump. I presume him being sarcastic and am not sure if he was trying to help Trump or hurt him. From another perspective of being a basketball coach, he might try to downplay baseball. I had a plan to watch NBA final and broadcast my comments on Twitter, now, to play with him, I won't do it.

It's bad news that Sanders had to layoff hundreds Campaign staff due to unlikely nomination. He must feel so ironic himself being a socialist. Senator, you can't isolate yourself from a model capitalism country. 

It is 2:05 AM now, I will leave home in 3 hours. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/27/2016

My plan was to buy bread, ham, cheese and canned soup at Safeway every Monday morning for the lunch at work for a working week, but didn't do it this Monday. Since I still had a canned soup left from last week, in addition to several slices of salami, I was able to fill my stomach. 

Yesterday, I planned to stop at the Safeway on Rainier Ave. before coming back to the office from another location after a meeting but the time was to run out for the next meeting, so I stopped at Uwajimaya close to our building to grab two bowls of instant noodle. 

It's already middle of the week, I didn't want to buy a bulk of foods for lunch for an entire week, so bought a bag of potato chips at Chevron gas station this morning before Uwajimaya opened. Half bag of the chips had satisfied my needs for the whole day. 

Tomorrow, I will keep eating the other half bag of the chips and may go grabbing a sandwich. My budget for the lunch at work is 30 bucks a week and I should be fine this week. 

It's cloudy but beautiful. I love this weather in late April and expect a fantastic summer. 

Coming back home, I took a nap before dinner. Before going to gym, I watched Mariners hosting Astros for a while. A Mariner hit a solo homer to tie the game at bottom 1st. 

Switching to CNN to watch Cruz inviting Fiorina to be his running mate, which I had learned earlier today, I didn't know what this really meant. I was impressed by Fiorina's fluent speeches but that capability might not matter. Does Cruz want to play "Woman Card" as what Trumps attacked Clinton? While these candidates curse each other, I will be well ahead to put forward the solutions of how to make America greater. 

Switching back to glance Mariners' match, I found Astro leading 3 to 1. Mariners do have home field problem. I don't know if they eventually lost this game or not. 

Wrapping up the diary for yesterday, I drove to gym to work out. Getting a lot of sweat, I felt fulfilled. 

Facebook had another great quarter, my gains on it in my IRA account would be almost 4 times more than the loss incurred on Twitter in my trading account, but I still feel Twitter not being treated fairly by the investment community given its popularity. 

Ok, I am really sleepy now...

Patrick's Diary - 4/26/2016

I didn't go to gym eventually last night but will do tonight. Before driving out, I want to catch up my diary for yesterday.

It's Super Tuesday and Trump sweeped five States while Clinton won four of five. Clearly, Trump and Clinton will prevail. Alliance between Cruz and Kasich actually helped Trump's landslide win because voters sensed the desperations from the other two candidates. Sanders saved his grace by winning Rhode Island but won't have a possibility to beat Clinton. Trump was very cocky again in his victory speech, which made me laugh again and again.

I will publish my Declaration No.2 this week. Not running a negative campaign truthfully, I will lay out all of my solutions to make America Greater. It's so ironic none of the candidates being Asian. As a Chinese American, I should be elected in November. 

As an idiot admitted three months ago, investing world doesn't want Twitter growing. After hours, its price dropped by 10%. Last quarter, the analysts ignored revenue growth but emphasized on users' growth. This quarter, the latter became irrelevant. The real reason is that its platform has been out of control and becomes a real freeland for the people like me. I will keep using it to promote my Presidency and will succeed. 

No matter what, I really love my GOPRO Hero Session 4. This clip reminds me that I ride bike to my middle and high school almost every school day when I was a teen. During summer breaks, I often rode the bike to the parks for field trips in suburb in Beijing. I was very athletic then not only because of playing soccer but due to that kind of practice even more. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/25/2016

I went to gym on a weeknight the first time in the last two months and feel so great now. 

During weekdays, I had been sleeping after dinner until the gym was close to the end of its business hours, so I wasn't able to go to workout every night. It kicked off a promising start tonight to have me coming back onto right track again. My plan is to come back home at 4:30 pm, then take a nap until 6:00 pm for dinner, go to gym at 8:00 pm, come back home at 10:00 pm, watch TV for an hour, write the diary, fall into sleep at midnight. 

The rain was a bit harsh this morning but sunshine showed up toward noon. It will be a fantastic week again. I hope a cloudy day with some rains to be a routine in every week until June. It will ensure that we will have a wonderful summer. 

Cruz and Kasich are teaming up to spoil Trump's nomination. Did Kasich say he would never run negative campaign and turned down Rubio's suggestion to collaborate in Florida and Ohio two months ago? You can never believe what politicians pledge. It's a rule in politics. I don't feel surprised. 

A firm downgraded Gopro again, which drove its price dropping by 8%. I don't really care because I don't have much money on it anyway. However, I do love my Hero 4 Session, which is very slick. I really love using it. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/24/2016

Arsenal didn't want to be a cold bloody killer to Sunderland's fans, so they never made threatening shots. It was goalless and the club of Sunderland is still struggling to avoid relegation though they were out of the zone after this match. For players, relegation might not be the end of the world, some of them could find other teams at BPL if they were capable, some of them didn't mind to go down to Championship League because they might even get more playtimes. The key players whom the club hopes to keep for fighting back BPL might get better contracts. The club will incur the loss, especially for sponsorships and tickets sales. However, if a club has been struggling at BPL for years, relegation may not be a bad thing for resurgency. Anyway, I hope our homegrown Yedlin can play more matches in the next season or come back Seattle. This clip was more beautiful than the match itself.

Leicester was on its way to winning the historic BPL Championship. Ulloa was pretty sharp in this match and that Japanese International I never caught his name had been playing a very crucial role in its front line as a workhorse. Both of them were subbed before the match ended, which gave them the opportunities to be applauded by the fans. 

Right after the match, I went out to get onto my van to go to gym. The house next to Chris' was sold several days ago. I checked on Zillow and figured out the selling price being 420k or so. The properties in our neighborhood have appreciated nicely in the last couple years. Our house could be sold at 420K as well. I bought it in December, 2009 when its price was at the bottom, now it has gained 27% in less than 7 years. However, our rental house had incurred unrealized loss for almost 10 years and it is still a couple of thousands dollars lower than my buying price back in 2006 when it was at peak. Lynnwood High School was so quiet, maybe I should go to practice soccer. It's raining, so I decided to go to gym to workout instead. 

Coming back home to have lunch, I started switching between Mariners at Angels and San Jose Earthquake hosting Sporting Kansas City. One mariner hit a 3 runs home run, which helped Mariners have a great start.

It became an unfair match when referee ignored an apparent foul inside the big box of San Jose Earthquake, however, SKC took a lot of advantages from refs' helps at home in the past, so no one should be angry. Come on, the purpose of professional sports is to make money. Entertaining should be the fans' only objective. Ironically, referee gave San Jose a PK to have them winning the match. 

Switching back to Root Sports, I caught another Mariner hitting a 2 runs home run to lead Angels 9 to 4. 

The following match of Soccer Sunday was between New York Red Bull and Orlando City. The visitor scored a quick goal at the beginning and kept the lead for quite a while, but from certain point of time, they collapsed. Referee missed showing a red card to a NY player, which might have driven a different result if he hadn't missed. 

Before wrapping up my super entertaining weekends, I tried to lock an exciting movie to watch. After searching through all the channels on HBO and StarZ, I decided to watch The Beach acted by Dicaprio. Everyone has been young and crazy. These boys and girls gathered in an island they worshipped as their paradise but eventually the dreams became nightmares. Some of them lost the lives but fortunately most of them came back to reality. 

Ironing the shirt, jacket and pants on the board, I closed the weekends at midnight. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/23/2016

Because I would drive my dad to buy groceries at Ranch 99, I had expected not to be able to watch all BPL matches on Saturday morning. However, I found out only two matches being televised and I did watch both of them. Manchester City beat Stoke City 4 to 0. I guess the latter not having any motivation because the result didn't matter anyway. It's bit more critical for the former because they wanted to keep themselves in top four, which shouldn't be a problem. In addition, they wanted to keep the momentum to meet Real Madrid in UEFA Champion League Semi-final. 

I caught the wonderful goals made by Sturridge and Lallana in the first half in the following match but missed the two goals Newcastle equalized the match in second half because of bathroom break and shower-taken. The result helped Newcastle a little bit, two of Norwich, Newcastle and Sunderland would following Aston Villa to relegate at the end of the season. 

Before going to the supermarket, I tried to fix the wireless connection issue of Kylin TV packages for my parents'. The connection had been broken almost on daily basis as my dad told me. Especially from Friday night after I had Kylin Package added onto Great Wall Package, the connection had never been truly set up. I tried all of the possibilities but it still didn't work. At the moment of driving out of the garage to go to Ranch 99, I decided to try the last option then call their technical support. Hopefully, they would work on weekends. 

Dropping my dad at Ranch 99, I drove to Costco to buy other stuff, such as Wine, Salmon, Toothpaste and Detergent. Going through the register, I was asked if I found everything. Definitely, I made a joke of saying to the lady it is why I love Costco. Not knowing what I was thinking, I almost said Safeco, then had to correct by saying "Not Safeco". The gentleman who helped me load the stuff into the cart smiled while staring at my Sounders' jacket.

Paying for the groceries at Ranch 99, I told the cashier why we only came here once every three weeks recently was that my son didn't come back home as often as in the previous quarters. The cashier's daughter is a senior at UW and will pursue a medical related graduate degree. Though she will stay at school for another 3 years, the job opportunities should be a lot. 

My Dad and I stopped by Taste of Sichuan we hadn't gone for a long time. I ordered Spicy Boiled Fish my son didn't want to eat, so we couldn't order when he was with us. The gal at the restaurant asked my Dad how he was able to keep healthy and make himself look young at the age of 84, my dad shared several experiences I even didn't know before: Active but not athletic; Taking nutritional supplements; Reading to keep brains working. 

I ordered a dish of pork to take home for my mom. The dishes we ordered for ourselves were big, so we also had them boxed to take home as well. While my parents took care of all groceries downstairs, I started trying the last option for the connection of Kylin TV packages. It worked perfectly after I connected the 2.0 box to Xfinity Modem with cable. Its wireless card might not be compatible with Xfinity Modem, I assume. 

Sleeping a little bit, I started searching on Movie channels and locked one named "Golden Diggers", which portrayed Washington State as the background of the story. It was made in 1995 and I permanently resided in this State two years later. It might be why I was interested in watching it. 

Next, I watched the entire movie of "Big Trouble". It based in Florida and an entertaining comedy.

I was waiting for the whole day to watch Sounders challenging Rapids in Colorado. It's not a surprise losing it away home. Morris scored his second goal in MLS matches, which was promising because he was deemed the future of the club; Anderson had several good runs as another promising young player; Ivanschitz wasn't powerful as he had in the previous matches, might be driven by hamstring injury; Freiberg got No.8 Jersey back and was subbed in; Alonso played more actively in offense than in the past. It's odd that none of DP played a minute in the match. To me, after selling Martins, Sounders haven't figured out a solution in effective offense. I don't mean we must keep Martins, whom might be too expensive or there might be other reasons. Midfield has been a bit soft and MLS matches become more intense. Defense is a bit disorganized. You can't rely on a goalkeeper to win the match anyway, though Frei had been performing normally even saved a PK in this match. Sounders had chance to equalize but the 3rd goal, which was obviously made on an offside, killed the possibility. 

Switching to Root Sports, I had hoped Mariners to turnaround in 9th inning but it didn't happen either. However, Mariners had been performing much better on road than at Safeco Field. In 2005, I was working for Epson in Long Beach for almost a year, then I lived in Cypress. One night, I drove to Angels Stadium to watch Mariners visiting Angels. If I recall correctly, Mariners won the game 3 to 0. 

Lying in the couch, I kept watching movies. First, I was deeply touched by Walker's Below Eight. The dogs were so brave, smart and endurant. I will adopt a puppy after I retire and grow him into an adult while I am dying. 

The last entertainment of Saturday was watching a weird comedy: We'll never have Paris. It was referred as a true story based, I don't know who would be involved in such a messy situation. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/22/2016

My biggest issue today was to keep resolving the billing issue with Kylin but had held it until noon. I only worked three hours in the office and took 5 hours off because of the doctober appointments with Holmes and Gillette. Leaving the office at 11:00 am, I stopped by Safeway to refill the medications for all the family members. they were total up to 10 items, so I decided to come back to pick up after the appointments in the evening. 

Getting into my van, I found it still an hour away from my test prior to Holmes' appointment, so made the phone call to the Customer Services at Kylin TV. I spent 10 minutes to tell the story to the gal first and she sounded catching it thoroughly. Though she didn't tell me what really happened at their end, I can guess why they over charged twice within a week even they had promised to refund me for the first one: In March, I had my parents' TV package upgraded from 1.0 to 2.0 per their recommendation, a new account was set for 2.0 and they charged me 100 bucks for April monthly charge for 2.0 and some front fees, so the charge for 2.0 won't come until May. For 1.0, since my credit card number was changed by Bank of America, the information wasn't updated in the old account for 1.0 because I had moved on to 2.0, so they weren't able to collect the charge for March for 1.0, which was legit. After they notified me the issue, I called them to check if I could pay on the phone, they asked me to update my credit card information in the account for 1.0. Then, as I shared, they successfully charged me on 3/23/2016. The story for 1.0 should have stopped there because 1.0 service would be terminated on 3/31/2016 and the account would be closed. I bet they did close the account to me because I am not able to access it any more but didn't do it at their side. The collection from my credit card was set up as automatic charge, one was on 15th of the month, another was added on 22nd of the month after I updated my credit card information. Coming into April, their billing system automatically charged me $42.68 on 15th, which had triggered me to settle it with them last Friday. On 22nd, another automatic setup charged me additional $42.68. Now, they promise me to refund $85.36 within 10 days. I told the rep that I trusted her one more time. 

However, my parents told me that several channels were not included in 2.0 as it had in 1.0. I asked the rep to add Kylin Package in addition to Great Wall Package with 7 bucks additional charges. Since we dropped one box,  the total charge would be 37 Bucks, which would still be lower than before. If everything works out at the end, this will be a better deal. 

I spent several hours at Virginia Mason, saw several familiar faces and had many pleasant conversations. However, medical matters were confidential, so I wouldn't elaborate here even for the personal topics. Coming back to Safeway to pick up all refills, I saw 5 gals working at the pharmacy, which was a record. They must be very busy. On my way home, I enjoyed the cool weather and beautiful scenes without the rains. I never meant loving constant rains but they do help cool down the temperature once a while before the summer approaches. 

When I walked into the house, my dad told me Kylin had called us on landline but he didn't pick up. The message confirmed that they would refund me within 10 days, which I had learned earlier. I tried to hook up the box to TV in my parents' master bedroom but couldn't succeed. I tried an hour after the dinner, the connection was never really set up. I decided to make another try on Saturday morning before I would call their technical hotline. Actually, I would resolve it in my last attempt the following morning. 

Kicking off my weekend fun, I watched the movie named "Blue Crush", which had the background set in Hawaii. It's a beautiful movie and I probably had watched part of it in the past. I hesitated if I should wrap up the diary for Friday or finished my Declaration No.2 for Presidential Campaign before going to sleep finally but didn't do either. 

Honestly, I never knew about Prince much but it sounded fans being very sad all over the world. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/21/2016

It really becomes nightmare. Toward the end of the day, I accessed my credit card account to find another $42.68 monthly charge from Kylin TV. Last week, I called them 5 times to resolve the over charge made on 4/15 and got the confirmation that they would refund to my credit card account as soon as possible. Four days past, it's not a refund but another over charge. Calling their customer services again, I talked the rep whose name was Kay. She was super nice but couldn't figure out the problem. Obviously their system doesn't talk each other and I couldn't talk to their personnel in Finance Department. As a 20 years veteran in Finance & Accounting, in addition to 10 years Marketing Executive heavily involved in financial decisions, this was crazy to me. Did they try to credit me back but didn't know the difference between credit and debit? Did they play the game with me? Was there really a credit card fraud at their side since I wasn't able to access the old account set up for 1.0 and that webpage was labeled as unsafe? Though it isn't a large corporation, Kylin TV has been in the business for quite a while. I trusted their integrity, so emailed scanned copy of my online transaction to their mailbox per Kay's instruction after coming back home. I have wasted too much time on this ridiculous issue and probably will ask Bank of America to dispute the charges or even block any future charges. This incident reminded me that Hertz keep charging to my credit account 3 months in row on the rental Volvo after I came back from Sweden in last July. I had to call and email their customer services every month then. It was a nightmare. But those charges were legit and their staff at rental car return had warned me for those future charges. I spent much more money on that trip than the recent one in Oahu. But I made tens of thousands extra dollars in stock markets in 2014 and going back to Sweden had been in my plan for a decade. After our recent trip to Oahu, which was as great as the other one in Scandinavia last year, I had monitored my expenses very carefully because I lost tens of thousands dollars in the markets in 2015. This kind of over charges really pissed me off. 

Puget Sound Energy sent me a monthly bill through email as well. So far in this week, I have been either billed or charged for almost all monthly fixed expenses: Electric, Gas, Cable/Internet/Landline, Mobile Phone, Homeowner Due. The mortgage will be charged in next week. Wow, I really feel being so poor.

It's 4:28 in the morning on Friday, I will go to work early and then take a half day off. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/20/2016

I am so frustrated now because I just finished my diary for yesterday and published, I even read it on my blog. However, I don't know why it is lost now. Let me briefly recover some of the contents I put it here earlier. I don't have enough energy to rewrite it.

It's been a week for receiving the bills. Comcast updated the monthly bill from $303 to $254, which made me feel better. Their services have satisfied my needs for more than a decade.

Snopud changed their billing cycle to monthly, which triggered me to call the customer services to get my locked online account unlocked. Once upon a time in last year, I was locked out, so had been paying as one-time payor on its website ever since. I never questioned their billed amount shown on the email body every time I received the notification because it seemed always reasonable. This time was different. As expected, I waited for 15 minutes to get through during busy business hours. The customer service rep unlocked my account and told me they had marketed this change for quite a while. I probably didn't pay the attention. 

Waste Management also sent me a link to my online account. I was wondering why the billing was increased by 30 bucks because I remembered the increase should be only 10 bucks for the additional service of yardwaste I added. However, I realized a minute later that was the monthly rate. For the entire 2nd quarter, 30 bucks increase made sense.

I will have to pay all the bills in the next several weeks gradually before each of them hits the due date.

Stock markets performed well in the last two days.

2016 Presidential Campaign Declaration No. 1

How to Make America Greater

Greater Innovation in 21st Century

I declared my 2016 Presidential Campaign across my social media platform on Google+, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook half a year ago and posted several declarations and video clips based on basic economic theories. As far as you can tell, my focus is on economic growth. Having been silent for quite a while, I observed Presidential Candidates’ campaigns from both parties. If elected, Clinton most likely will keep the current policy to have America maintaining her leadership globally with the potential risks of being caught up by other nations within the next several decades; Trump will play devil’s advocate to ensure America’s domination by downplaying diversity and globalization; Sanders will promote his Socialism based on his own understanding by sacrificing beneficiaries of current system; Cruz and Kasich don’t have clear strategies and paths to reach the stage of General Election.

As I have been advocating in the last decade, Hecomism is my core philosophy to having all social issues cured globally. It is modern Socialism to having solutions of how to make America great again worked out with the growth across the countries regionally and globally.

Vision of Heconism is Universal Integration without Boundaries; Mission is Creation & Development of a comprehensive economic theory to have all global issues resolved. It will be applied to our country successfully first through my Presidential Campaign by utilizing the theory of Integration of Dynamic in Capitalism and Stability in Socialism to have US economy growing perpetually at the condition of equality.

Economic growth is not a steady process but in much faster pace in one period than the others. United States had experienced a Special Century from 1870 to 1970 driven by Great Inventions such as Electricity, Internal Combustion Engine, etc. However, in the first 50 years, the growth had been slow until the inventions were utilized massively and comprehensively. After 1970, the growth rates have dropped significantly because developments of entertainment, communication and information technology have been the drivers, which have much less significant impacts in people's daily life than those great inventions in a 100 years ago. In addition, inequality, educations, demographic and debt have caused huge negativities. 

Americans had been leading the world for so many years, Europeans and Japanese only started catching up after World War II, mainly in 1950s. People in developing countries hadn't even been able to compare anything with Americans until 70s. As I recall, my dad bought a 9" black and white TV in 1975, which was the first one amongst several apartment buildings in our neighborhood in Beijing. Kids crowded in our 150 square feet room to watch boring programs with full of joys. Americans probably had already watched much more entertaining shows on much bigger TV 30 years ago. Even in early 80s, we still used scrub board to wash clothes and my family's first refrigerator was bought around 1979.  Nowadays, it's no doubt US overall is still leading the world, but European countries, Canada and Japan have the advantages in some of the areas. For example, Americans bear the highest medical cost amongst developed countries. This has been a constant topic in Presidential Debates. 

From 1890 to 2014, three major factors had driven the growth rates in three periods:

During the first period from 1890 to 1920 and the third one from 1970 to 2014, The three factors: Education, Capital Deepening and Total Factor Productivity drove the growth rates at the similar scales. But from 1920 to 1970, TFP played a much more significant role because of tremendous innovations and technological progresses. As everybody concurs, the major concern today is economic growth and parents are really worried that their kids may suffer lower standard of living than themselves. Given the empirical evidence, innovation is still the key driver to having American growth rising rapidly. The question is where we can innovate to have our overall standard of living increased onto a distinguished higher level. Internet virtually connects everyone on earth in real time no matter where you are and make the whole world much smaller. I am wondering if something can be developed to have people connected physically near real time. I don’t mean Virtual Reality. From another perspective, I consider why the recent innovations on entertainment, communication and information technology are less impactful in human beings' life than those in 100 years ago is that they are more consumption-oriented. We need to invent something more production-oriented. 

To conclude my first declaration, I would like to summarize my campaign philosophy:

To make America Great Again should base on exponential economic growth at the condition of greater innovations in productions through the collaboration nationally, regionally and globally in a peaceful and clean environment.

Patrick's Diary - 4/19/2016

After wrapping up the diary for yesterday, I drove on road to my rental property management office to drop the check for April homeowner due. Though it was only 7:30 am, I had already sensed the warmness. Listening to the weather report, I learned it to be another record breaking day in April up to almost 90 degrees. 

Stopping over at the lab of Virginia Mason Lynnwood Clinic, I took a lab test for my double appointments on Friday. Driving onto I-5 Southbound from the entrance at 44th Ave., I saw two cops monitoring the cars driven through carpool lane. A pretty girl was caught by the cop because she seemed the only person in her SUV. However, the cop must be very pleasant. 

I-5 Southbound was very congested, so was I-90 Eastbound. There wasn't any accident but the cars were just piled before being driven into the tunnel and spread out on the floating bridge. Above Lake Washington, I could view the humidity. 

Coming to the parking lot after work at 5:00 pm, I felt the same heat after getting into my van as I had felt yesterday. Did the temperature hit 89 degrees today? I just double checked the formula online and my memory didn't fail me: 89F = (89-32)*5/9 = 31.6C. By standard in Seattle, it would be a very high temperature even in Summer. 

Coming back home, I had my dinner immediately, then came back to my bedroom to learn the results of New York Primaries. Both Clinton and Trump won big tonight. Sanders lost with a pretty significant margin but wasn't too bad. Cruz even didn't get a vote because voting percentage was under 20%. Kasich hadn't won any after Ohio Primary until tonight, though only 2 votes. As I shared, my Presidential Campaign will focus on How to make America great again by implementing Heconism. Trump raised the issue without a solution and Sanders advocated the ideology without the execution. By human nature, capable, smart and aggressive people love Capitalism because they can maximize the personal gains through the system but incompetent and passive people prefer Socialism because they can share the fruits without making equivalent efforts. My Heconism will neutralize this unsettled problem. It's why I always promote Socialism being a higher form than Capitalism because it is built on a higher level of morality. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/18/2016

The customer service representative at Kylin TV called me this morning to confirm the refund again. She was the lady who actually helped me resolve the mystery on last Friday. She had taken off when their finance department figured out and contacted me later in Friday afternoon, so she didn't know I had talked to them. I was glad it resolved and knowing that 2.0 version would be injected with more entertaining programs. My parents had complained to me that 2.0 version didn't include several channels they had enjoyed watching in 1.0 version. 

The weather in Seattle was unusually nice. It's well above 80 degrees, which actually caused me really uncomfortable. It's mid April. Getting into my car having been exposed to penetrating sun rays for more than 8 hours, I immediately felt the hot wave. Approaching home, I even turned air conditioning on. Because my van was so old, I didn't want it heavily loaded. I had tried not to turn it on earlier. As I shared the weekend before the last in one of my Gopro clips, I hope the summer in Seattle will still be the best in the world.

After observing many people dressing purple shirts several months ago, I bought one for myself. I always have a plan to dressing shirts sequentially on weekdays and this new one was scheduled on Monday. However, wearing anything purple in Seattle is sensitive because of University of Washington. Of course, I dress it for Husky but only for my son, as I repeatedly claimed, who is a sophomore at UW. I did it on this Monday and will do it every Monday going forward. If my son goes to Washington State University to pursue a graduate degree after UW, I will immediately buy a red shirt and wear it on Tuesday. For myself, I could wear Red, Orange, Gold, Green, Black, Blue and Purple, you name it. 

It's time for me to resume my 2016 Presidential Campaign and you will read my declarations and view my video clips every Sunday. My plan is to post 19 in total starting from this Sunday, it will last to the end of August. My focus is how to make America great again. It's not like Trump's Nationalism, to make America great again is based on making the entire world great. My Socialism is also totally different from Sanders', it is based on everyone's maximum contributions in her/his will. Socialism doesn't mean taking the advantages from others but the other way around. Clinton is traditional, so I don't compare my campaign philosophy with hers. 

Now, it's 6:54 in the morning on Tuesday, I will write a check for the homeowner due of my rental townhouse and drop it at the management office before heading to work. I will drive through I-5 Southbound to turn onto I-90 Eastbound then to get back on I-405 Southbound. Cheers!

Patrick's Diary - 4/17/2016

It's almost midnight now, I am wrapping up my diary for this relaxed Sunday to avoid having to catch it up tomorrow night. I plan to go to gym to work out then. 

Waking up at 6:30 am, I was only able to watch the second half of the match in which Leicester played West Ham. I wasn't sure if Football Association would like the championship races to be more dramatic. It seemed to me the referee a little bit bias. I might be wrong because I heard the commentators saying several controversial calls having been made in other matches, so this one might be only one of them. However, it ended up a 2-2 draw. Everything was justified. 

Switching to FSN1, I watched the 2nd half of Dortmund taking Hamburg at Bundesliga. The former eventually won 3 to 1. The last BPL match was between Arsenal and Crystal Palace. I remember Crystal Palace performed pretty well at the beginning of the season but now it is close to relegation zone too. They were lucky to get a point at the end. 

Mariners weren't able to win the last game at Yankee Stadium but lost a very close game. 

After lunch, I started watching Soccer Sunday: Orlando City hosting New England Revolution. The match was playing at Citrus Bowl Stadium and more than 40,000 fans showed up. It was a very sunny day over there. I bet the fans enjoying the match wildly. Checking online, I figured a new soccer-specific stadium to be used in 2017. With only 25,000 seats, I wasn't sure how it would work. The match itself was as controversial as the one between West Ham and Leicester. Referee gave each side a questionable penalty kick to have the match tied at the end. I had to use the word of "Justify" several times for the different matches across the ocean today. 

Instead of going to gym to work out, I decided only to wash my van under the beautiful sunshine before coming back to my bedroom to watch another MLS match between FC Dallas and Sporting KC. I washed my van and mowed the lawn within 40 minutes. When I turned on the TV to FSN1, the match was about to kick off in five minutes. 

Compared to the previous match in Orlando, it's a pity that very few fans were at the stadium. It sounded an earlier harsh rain driving the fans away. Though so many vacant seats could be viewed, fans still chanted very loudly. I was glad to see former sounder Rosales being subbed to score the winning freekick. He was my favorite Sounder when he assisted Johnson scoring so many goals then. He also scored several goals through freekick by himself. 

Not having taken shower since Friday morning, I took a long one after watching the soccer match and also cleaned the bathroom thoroughly. Searching on HBO and StarZ, I eventually decided to watch Furious 7 again. I had never watched entire movie, it's the best time to do it tonight before calling off the weekend. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/16/2016

As I had planned, I started Saturday by watching the first televised BPL match on NBC Sports Network - Sunderland vs. Norwich, both teams were struggling from relegation. Former Sounder and Seattle home grown player Yedlin is playing right back for Sunderland, this probably is the only connection to this match for me. Sunderland won this crucial match to have Norwich trapped into the zone. 

Aston Villa is at the bottom now, so I didn't expect them to do much facing Manchester United. I fell into the sleep most of the time but surprisingly learned they only lost one goal at the end.

Moving down to the living room to turn the TV onto NBC primary channel, I started watching Manchester City to take Chelsea. After watching it for a while, I suddenly recalled that a Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and Schalke was being televised on FOX primary channel simultaneously. Both matches were goalless but when I switched back to NBC, I missed the goal Aguero just scored a minute ago but caught the replay. After several minutes, I switched back to FOX and found on scoreboard that I missed the goal made by Lewandoski. Meanwhile, I figured Mariners at Yankee Stadium being televised on Root Sports as well. I really wished the big screen with Picture-in-Picture function. Fortunately, I didn't miss Lewandoski's 2nd. 

The 3rd one wasn't critical for the match but it's beautiful. 

Switching back and forth, I eventually learned City winning over Chelsea and Aguero made hattricks. 

I baked two potatoes last weekend but only ate one, so I put the leftover back onto grill to have it baked softer. Meanwhile, I fried two eggs again and made three toasts. I should have soaked bread with eggs to make French toast. Ok, let me do it next weekend. 

While grilling, I caught Mariners' home run to lead Yankee in NYC. 

With my 2nd beer of the day, I had a cheap but yummy lunch while catching the rest of the baseball game up. At the end of the game, I still hadn't spent a penny but already enjoyed a wonderful Saturday morning by watching 4 soccer matches and 1 baseball game. 

Sleeping for almost two hours, I got up to check the lube and anti-freezer/coolant of my van. They both were sufficient. Before going to gym, I drove to Safeway to pick up one more refill I wasn't able to get last weekend. Whitney and Tina were at the pharmacy this afternoon, and I spent 5 bucks as copay, which was the only cash outlay on this Saturday.

Finishing a routine with half an hour on treadmill, 20 minutes on bike and 150 times weightlifting, I felt so fulfilled.

Sounders' home match was to kick off when I arrived at home. Quickly having my dinner, I started focusing on their hosting Philadelphia. Dempsey played midfielder in this match, which might help Sounders control the match better and Ivanschitz was really a master of passers. First, his corner kick helped Marshall make a wonderful header to have Sounders' leading the match. In second half, his accurate straight cross to having home grown Morris scoring the first MLS goal. I was glad to see Le Toux still playing for Union and scored a goal for them. He was the first signed player when Sounders were promoted by MLS.

After watching sports on TV for 11 hours, I fell into sleep on the couch after switching the channel to one of HBO's. In and out of the naps, I eventually woke up close to 1:00 am, then went back to my bedroom to sleep more comfortably. I planned to have another joyful Sunday.

Patrick's Diary - 4/15/2016

Everyday is a busy day including Friday. I left work for picking up my son's contact lenses at Optical Reflections at 4:00 PM. The traffic wasn't too bad. 

Earlier, I had sorted out with Customer Representative at Kylin TV that they did over charge me one more month and asked them to credit back to my credit card account. So far, I only saw the charge realized from pending status but haven't seen the credit made. However, it might take them several days to make it happen. Hopefully, I wouldn't need to call them again.

Historically, I have planned cost control for the family from time to time whenever I sensed the needs. On Friday night, I did it again because the cost needed to be monitored for the rest of the year. I made a spreadsheet to having the cash outlay projected on daily basis and had updated the actual incurrence for Thursday & Friday. I felt so encouraging not spending a penny during these two days. Wishfully, I could do it everyday. 

After dinner, I started watching a movie named "Momentum". It was fast paced in which brutal actions and furious races were depicted from beginning through the end. I liked it very much and never fell into sleep while staring at the screen. 

I planned to have another wonderful weekend by watching BPL, Bundesliga, MLS, Mariners, Movies on HBO & StarZ and Presidential Campaigns. In addition, I would go to gym on both days, clean barbeque grill and wash my van. I knew, NBA and NHL were all getting into playoffs, but Seattle doesn't have the teams. The only two sports I watch universally are Soccer and Football. It is why I started watching every MLS match even involving Sounders' rivalries such as Timbers and Galaxy.