Patrick's Diary - 6/29/2016

Weather Report telling a fully sunshine Wednesday,
Why did I see a completely cloudy midweek?
Quick lunch leading a timely escaping of reality,
Where would I take care of this totally different task?
In the harmonious neighborhood hiding the park,
On the field several co-workers playing the football.
Burgers served as main course and hotdogs being snack,
Sun popping up to remind far away from raining fall,
Throwing practice becoming my first time at all,
Rolling big ball to small ball to simulate golfing.
Warm breeze pinning through fresh green you smell, 
Joyful girls hanging with happy boys we cheering.
Youngsters going to classes the day still not ended,
All back to work a dozen hours later without rested. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/28/2016

Markets rebounding on Tuesday morning,
Fingers crossed to wonder if a turnaround,
Preference being forever on stock over bond,
Desire being held on indexes never drowning.
On way home appreciating sun rays shining,
In the shortcut route avoiding jammed crowd,
Dozens cars slowly moving on Filbert Road,
She in front staring me through rearview smiling.
Was she flattering me because of my coolness?
Or was she trying to tell me life not being so fast?
She anyway barely moving Prius to keep me stuck. 
The Beauty turning before 7-11 onto a narrowness, 
Emotion almost driving me to chase her like a Beast,
Dreaming to ride with her on the bike in dark. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/27/2016

Monday assumingly to turn the week to a new page,
Markets driven by UK Referendum again to drop a bunch.
Traders remaining to look for fat meat to fetch,
Several falling angels targeted to my plate.

Sitting in the office to calculate the percentage,
Not being able to watch Round of 16 match,
Taking a break searching on ESPN website to catch,
Learning England defeated without any advantage.

Texting my son to remind him following Expedia,
Predicting to make 2% at the opening bell tomorrow,
It would be proved a wise recommendation.
Promising my son to drive him catching mania,
Watching Warcraft at 11:00 PM in an empty row,
It ended up with such a wonderful fascination. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/26/2016

Griezmann's goals leading France to Saint-Denis,

Gomez's inspirations sending Germany to next round.
Hazard's runs ensuring Belgium to face Wales,
Messi's attempt pushing Argentina to hit the ground. 
Arguably The Greatest of All Time to be forever argument,
After the super Barca star missing the penalty goal.
Agreeably The Best of This Century to be never agreement,
Before the fellow Arsenal peer raising the golden ball.

Coming to the battlefield to experience a heartbroken tragedy,
Retiring from National Team being understandable.
Returning the kingdom to glorify your majesty,
Healing the severe wounds being recoverable.
Life always going on even without soccer,
Fans would still like to see you two years later. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/25/2016

Copa Centenario kicking into the final weekend,
EuroCup 16 still hanging on the middle stage.

Poland in Round of 16 to face off Switzerland,
Swiss not being able to hold Pole's challenge. 
Having to buy grocery at Ranch 99 in a drive,

Wondering if Welsh to overcome Norther Irish.
Coming back to figure out Bale to advance,
Crossing fingers to witness CR7 to accomplish.
Acquiring many youngsters Sounders to re-establish,
Losing another home match to risk a failed season.
Expecting Men's National Team in full gear to astonish,

Following Colombians to 4th place driven by a reason.
Soccer in US soil to be a long term project,
Independence Day to take us over the midnight. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/24/2016

Pound Sterling depreciated 11% against US Green,
Nikkei 225 dropped 7.9% to two years' weakest.
Forex loss approaching the magnitude of Trillion,
S&P dropped close to 3 digits in the market. 
Global businesses at NASDAQ suffered severely,
Expedia with large Europe exposure down to 100 bucks.
International operations in London impacted significantly,
Morgan Stanley dismissing the rumor of moving to Paris.
Traders taking the opportunities of making money,
UK exiting EU not being the end of the globalization.
Virtual operations possibly expanded on this story,
Chinese Enterprises probably benefiting from the separation. 
The date printed for my mom's next test being insanely incorrect,
Was the lady who scheduled it an Anglo Saxon descendant? 

Patrick's Diary - 6/23/2016

What had been politicians' forecast of Brexit?
What was the outcome of UK Referendum?
What had been the rest of the world's optimism?
What was a result of the devastating defeat?
Had the public favored establishment?
Was the sentiment turned to reform?
Had markets been positive on every platform?
Were all indexes dragged down by disappointment?
Leaving EU definitely a shock to the world,
Prime Minister's resignation being inevitable,
Global CEOs' strategies being reexamined.
Scotland to be independent with Northern Ireland,
EU stars to be restricted at EPL being unavoidable,
Still irrelevant to the storms on my road. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/22/2016

Busy Wednesday behind the clock, 
Jammed freeway still not to the end.
Popping a question on my mind,
Wondering if Quarter Final in Kick.
On remote control with a click,
On FSN1 with the players not yet on field.
Prediction by me had been in hand,
Those closer to us would be off the hook.
Chileans dominating the first chapter,
Goals ensuring them to the final,
Scenario almost turned around by thunderstorm.
Colombians wishing the team to be terminator,
Resilience propelling them to approach the goal,
Victory finally locked by the better team.

Patrick's Diary - 6/21/2016

My original plan was to start as early as possible to wrap up a task, which would be due the end of the week, then took a long lunch break to go to the dealership. As I shared, my van was so old. I had been hesitating if trading it in to buy a new car or having it maintained comprehensively one more time and keeping it until next summer. Of course, trading value must be pretty low but I did spend a couple of thousands dollars on it four years ago, so you can't assess its value based on Blue Book, which I just checked out as $699. I estimate my van's trade-in value to be around $2,000. 

Since I had my van repaired at Dodge Dealership in Renton, so they knew its conditions the best. I planned to buy a Jeep Compass. They might be able to give me a reasonable deal.

If I made $5,000 down payment, I probably would add $260 car loan onto my monthly obligations. Thinking about it from time to time, I decided to go with my original Plan A. My neighbor Dennis could have the maintenance done at his friend's workshop. I definitely will replace it next summer.  

Yesterday, I went to Safeway to refill the medications for all family members but my son whom didn't need any. Most of the medications needed to have family doctor renewing, so I told the technician that I would come back to pick up two days after. On my way home, I received the automatic voice mail from them to tell the refills being ready, then I drove there to pick up before going home. 

Yes, the big event tonight was USA taking Argentina. The result of the match was disappointing but what do you expect to face No.1 team in the world? Yes, our players treated Messi a bit softly, but for the sake of soccer, fans got the chance to appreciate beautiful performances in this match. Had we won this match, it would have been an unfair match spoiled by referees. Copa America is South Americans' tournament, did USA or Mexico win the championship, I don't think it would be very respectful anyway. Winning 3rd place will be a very spectacular achievement no matter if we face Chile or Colombia. Only Messi could make that left foot free kick to score at that spot in front of 18 yards box. Just like guests on FSN1 praised, the window was so small and narrow, he drove the ball going through it. 

Going to the gym after the match, I finished another routine. I recommended this book to my son to get basic investment knowledge. After two years' academic studies, he should be able to read through it very easily. I feel happy that he proactively comes to me to discuss his future every night. He has been doing research online everyday to figure out the path for his potential career since taking summer break. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/20/2016

Stock Markets would open higher but I left home much earlier before the opening bell. I stopped by Property Management Office to drop the check for homeowner due of my rental townhouse first, then drove through I-5 to switch onto I-90, eventually turn onto I-405 to arrive at our parking lots around 6:30 AM. 

Coming back home in the evening, I took a long nap before the dinner. There wasn't any soccer match tonight, so I watched Don Lemon Show for an hour. Trump fired his Campaign Manager and he has only raised 1.3M campaign fund so far. The CNN Poll indicated that he was 7% behind Clinton. I just read a piece of news that some GOP delegates were trying to take his nomination away. However, he does have a lot of supporters. The real battle hasn't started. 

Copa Centenario and Euro Cup16 are my focus now, so I won't jump into the campaign until late July. As soon as I kick it off, I will invent historic landslide win. 

Going to the gym, I worked out a routine. Now, I have come back home with a sweaty body. 

Yesterday was Father's Day and I was glad that Fathers were remembered as well. However, we didn't celebrate anything at home. My parents live with me, so I see my Dad everyday. My son is taking summer break, so he sees me everyday as well. It's just one of normal Sundays. 

Citibank Costco Card is ready to use today, I just set up my online account. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/19/2016

The first televised match wouldn't start until 11:30 AM, so I got up to drive to the gym to work out. However, the gym wouldn't open until 8:00 AM on Sunday, so I stopped by McDonald's to have McMuffin, McCafe and Hash Brown first. It's very sunny on this Father's Day and a dozen people came to the restaurant to have breakfast as well when I left. Driving under the strong sunshine, I got across the street to turn my van into the parking lot at LA Fitness at Canyon Park, it had opened 20 minutes earlier. 

Finishing the routine, I drove back home. As planned, I turned into the parking lot at Lynnwood High. A guy had bumped ball on one of the fields, so I took another one to practice penalty kick and free kick.

When I was making the free kick, that guy came over to ask me if I wanted to play with him and he would like to be the keeper. I told him to let me make 10 shots, then we could exchange. He agreed and asked me where I came from, I told him I was originally from China and he told me he was from Sweden when he was 4 years old. Wow, it's a surprise. Definitely I had a lot to chat with him in the next hour. Yes, we talked a lot of about Sweden. I should say the time we spent for chatting more than playing soccer. He is only 28, 22 years junior than I am, so some of the things I talked about Sweden he didn't really know. However, he said he would ask his Dad. He has gone back to Stockholm every two years, so I suggested that we hang out to have a beer on Kungsgatan if we can be there the same time next time. I bet he knows much more about Stockholm than I know, especially nowadays. Exchanging the cellphone numbers, we agreed to practice the soccer together whenever we would have chances over the weekends.

The match between France and Switzerland ended up scoreless. Albania won over Romania 1 to 0, so they are still in the game. Euro Cup16 got into final round of group stage, so in the next several days, teams for Round 16 would be determined. 

MLS matches resumed after the disruption of Copa Centenario. First one was between Sporting Kansas City and FC Dallas. It's not fair for FC Dallas not to have an own goal made by confused SKC defender credited in the first half. That goal  absolutely crossed the goal line. However, lineman showed sympathy to the player who obviously was in a bad mood during that period of time. The temperature might be too high. The same player helped host score the first goal, then he became the clear hero of his team. The following televised match was Sounders visiting New York Red Bull. Though Sounders controlled the match very well and created many more opportunities, but the winner was the host. Sounders was still one of the teams at the bottom and there is no sign to show when they are going to turnaround. 

Weekend ended. I would start a new week tomorrow. Week after week, the life is a routine. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/18/2016

Again, five soccer matches were on the pipeline on this Saturday. I started with the first televised Euro Cup16 Belgium taking Ireland. Highly ranked Belgium National Team owns several stars playing for EPL: Hazard, Lukaku, De Bruyne, Fellaini, Benteke, Kompany, you name one. Two star midfielders were very active and created goal opportunities for Lukaku one by each. Fellaini had never been performing very well since being transferred from Everton to Manchester United, he didn't play in this match either. Kompany couldn't play in this tournament due to injury. Benteke didn't play a turnaround role at Liverpool, so it might be the reason he wasn't a starter in this team either. With so many stars, Belgium won the match easily. 

My Dad asked me to drive him to Costco to buy some necessities for this week, so I only watched several minutes of the second match of Hungary vs. Iceland. After grabbing all the stuff, I went through one of the registers to pay for the groceries. The cashier asked me if I had received the new Visa Card, yes, I got it last week. She reminded that I start using it from next Monday. I promised to put the new card into my wallet. We needed to buy cat litter, which only was sold at Costco Business Center in Lynnwood, so we drove there to pull two big bags from the shelf. Coming back home, I caught the last minute of the 2nd match. Hungarians seemed abnormally excited because they tied the match in the last several minutes as I would learn later and Icelanders were so disappointed. 

The next match was supposed to be very entertaining, but Ronaldo missed the penalty kick he created by himself. Though he made several scoring opportunities but wasn't able to nail anyone down. Austria forced Portugal a draw at the end. It's not a surprise because Portugal isn't a dominant team. 

Before the next Copa Centenario match would kick off, I could go to the gym to work out but decided to stay in bed to take a nap. Argentina led by Messi without injured Di Maria and rested Aguero easily beat Venezuela. However, Venezuela created quite a few opportunities. Next Tuesday night, USA will take Argentina in Semi Final. I hope it will be an exciting match, though it will be a steep uphill battle for USA. 

The highly anticipated best match for the day became a massacre. My observation was that Chile played like a German team with Latin Americans' skills. Mexico totally gave up after they had lost 2 goals, so eventually they were defeated by 7 goals. 80 thousands plus fans on the stands were truly embarrassed. From a different perspective, it might not be a bad thing even to rational Mexican-Americans. Some Mexican fans had been trying to convert USA to be Mexico in any soccer match involving Mexico National team in the past. This is ridiculous. I believe Mexican players don't feel comfortable either. However, I had expected Mexico to win the match because I hadn't realized Chile National Team was so good, no wonder did they win the champ last year. 

Patrick's Diary - 6//17/2016

I had known Sweden would play Italy on Friday morning and I could watch the entire match because it would be broadcasted around 6:00 AM and probably end at 8:00 AM. Even after watching it, I still could arrive at work around 9:00 AM, which would be still normal. However, I only watched first 15 minutes, then left home. As I shared, I really can't get rid Euro 92 of my memory. Hadn't I become a US Citizen, I would most likely be living in Sweden today. In this week, we probably had driven from Goteborg to Paris to support Swedish National Team. Later on, I would learn that Sweden lost the match to Italy and they would have only slim chance to advance even as one of the best four 3rd placed teams. Ibra is a great player but he isn't able to bring an average team up to the next level. 

Wrapping up the stuff, I came to the parking lot close to 4:15 PM. Why can't I find my car? Where did I park it? I asked myself. One of my buddies in the office happened to start his car to leave, he shouted to me from distance to ask me what was going on. After learning my story, he asked me to get into his SUV to drive me around the parking lots to look for it. I kept telling him that I did drive to another office in the morning and then stopped by Uwajimaya to buy lunch after coming back. He actually triggered me to realize that I probably left the car in the parking lot over there. When he drove me out of our parking lots to approach Uwajimaya, I saw my car parked over there remotely. It's a stupid misconception in my mind because my routine was broken this morning but my mind didn't follow. 

Arriving at home at almost 6:00 PM, I caught the second half of the 2nd quarter final of Copa Centenario. Peru got Colombia into the trouble and they had to go through brutal shootout. Two Peruvians missed the shots and Colombia advanced to Semifinal. James Rodriguez was full of tears. This match was so important for him given his dicey situation at Real Madrid. 

The stock markets dropped again today but Zillow kept going higher, Gopro also got upgraded by JP Morgan and Twitter was still in the scenario of being acquired soon. My SeaPower Index dropped below 100. Several stocks seem in the trend prior to Q2 earning release in next month. I will keep watching Alaska and Expedia. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/16/2016

An important review was waiting for me this morning, so I had to take care a lot of stuff. However, I managed to wrap up all critical tasks right before noon. After eating the delicious sandwich I grabbed at Uwajimaya, I was on the road back home to pick up my son.

After chatting with Denis, my neighbor next door, for a minute, we were on our way to downtown Seattle. Again, the traffic became congested when we approached Northgate and it wouldn't be improved until we got out off the freeway to James Street.

Parking in the public lot near New Star Restaurant, I paid at the meter. Every time when we came for lunch, I didn't need to pay because the restaurant provided free parking in this lot. However, this was for a soccer match.

It's still too early, we decided to walk around downtown for a while. Before arriving at former WAMU Tower, we turned to the direction to the Sound. I used to work in downtown for several years 2 decades ago, so was very familiar with almost every corner there. However, why had I never paid attention to this supposedly famous spot - Harbor Steps? It's very close to former WAMU tower in which I worked on 18th floor. I am not sure if this spot was the same back then as today. It might be renovated in the past 10 years after I had stopped coming to downtown frequently.

Stepping down Harbor Steps, we were approaching Alaskan Way near Pier 55. Noticing a hog dog stand named Frankfurter, I ordered a Polish sausage and my son ordered German sausage. Sitting at the stone table beside the stand, we enjoyed the flat water in the Sound while tasting the hot dogs. 

Wandering back and forth around Pier 55 for a minute, we started walking toward Centurylink Field. 

It's already several minutes past four when the gates had been opened. Getting closer to the Field, we could see many fans had been around there. Most of fans wore USA jerseys but there were many Ecuadorians as well. Soccer is always the most popular sport amongst all Latin Americans. In front of the Field, a soccer camp was operated in which a bunch of fun activities were being conducted. A lot of kids were playing various games there. Taking several photos for my son, we went through the security and ticket checkpoint to get onto the small square outside the game field. It's still early, there weren't many fans coming in yet. Sitting on a bench, I raised my head to observe the sky and pleasantly noticed the sunshine trying to break cloud through. It would be a good match under a clear sky. 

While climbing the ramp to the club, I filmed a clip of the soccer camp from the higher elevation. The view looked more complete and I could feel the joys from the fans down there. 

Going through the entrance to access the club, we were greeted by two guards and one of them said to another: "See, these guys are truly patriotic!" He saw my USA jersey. Hot dogs were just snacks, we ordered Hot Italian Grinders at the stand in the club. Of course, beer was a necessity too.

Not very long after we settled on our seats, both teams walked onto the field and National Anthems for both countries were played. Yes, patriotism can be expressed to the most extent during an International tournament like Copa America. I was wondering why so many people had tried so hard to pursue US Citizenship but didn't support US National Team in the tournament. 

As soon as I entered the stands, I wasn't able to upload photos and clips online, so I couldn't share anything in real time while the match was played. Dempsey made a timely header to help USA lead into the halftime break.

Dempsey assisted a goal made by Zadres in second half and Ecuadorians pulled back one goal. Toward the end of the match, USA seemed pressured very badly and the match could be equalized any minute. A tall Russian with his kid sitting next to me kept chanting for Ecuador and an extended family sitting in front row fully covered by Ecuador's jerseys and flags also supported the visitors very enthusiastically. The Ecuador players became very offensive as well. Actually, earlier on Alaskan Way, a South American teenager shouted to me from a car passing by with F word but I didn't catch clearly. I was irritated by this environment around me. Though soccer is not the top sport in States, fans must support National Team to lock the victory in the last minute, we couldn't grant rivals to turn our home field into theirs, it's humiliating. I shouted F & A words, which could be heard by so many fans and even players. Fans in a soccer match in States rarely heard dirty words because those were the copyrights of football games. Though I wasn't really raised in a blue collar environment, soccer is a tough sport all over the world except in States. When I was a teen and youngster, I played very clean soccer on the field because I enjoyed skills instead of physicals though very few defenders could tackle me down and I could run very fast too. However, I probably almost always the worst player in terms of dirty mouth. Since I earned the respects from other players with my skills, they always forgave my dirty words on the field. In the last several minutes, fans all stood up to chant "USA" repeatedly. Team USA held the lead to the end and won the quarter final to move onto semifinal in Houston. 

It's a wonderful night without rains at all. The temperature at night was actually pretty warm because I didn't even need to put my Sounders' jacket on. On our way home, we stopped at Taco Time to wrap up the joy with Burrito and Chalupa.

Cheers!

Patrick's Diary - 6/15/2016

It's been a busy day because I would take half a day off on Thursday to go to support US Men's National Team in Quarter Final of Copa Centenario at Centurylink Field. The weather report kept indicating the rains to come during the match, but I did cross fingers to hope a clear sky, at least, not raining then. 

Matches at Group Stage had ended, so there wasn't anyone on this Wednesday. Matches of Euro Cup16 were all played in the morning and I didn't have appetite to catch replays. There are hundreds of soccer matches being televised live each year, it's less entertaining to watch the replays. Being high school students back in early 80s, I and my buddies constantly talked about two things with excitement daily: one was girls, another was soccer. 

Coming back from the gym, I planned to write my diary. My son came to the study room to ask me about stocks. I started giving some lectures about basic trading knowledge. Unfortunately, Ameritrade account wasn't accessible due to system glitch. I opened an account several years ago by the name of my LLC with the purpose of establishing hedge fund as soon as I would get my compensations for my property in Beijing my parents acquired under my name in early 90s. As I shared, the initial estimate 8 years ago was still no less than 2 million but the settlement they convinced my Dad to accept when they asked him to go back to Beijing to nail the deal down two years ago became 600K. After the approval process of payment went to the last bureaucratic organization - National Land Administration, the assessment company it hired refused to put the rubber stamp on. So, the settlement has never been executed. I am pretty sure they are playing the game with us. With 600K, I can build up a hundreds millions portfolio with my son in 10 years, I am confident. I filmed the clip in 2004 when I went back to Beijing to visit my parents and my son. The property was still very beautiful then. Another clip filmed in our front yard in the same year in Seattle happened to be stored in the same disc just right after the one filmed in Beijing. Yes, the houses in Seattle are much more beautiful for sure. 

However, I was able to access my IRA account at ETrade to show my son how a stock account looked like and bragged my 40 times gains in this account since it was opened in 1998. Meanwhile, I explained why frequent trading could make 20K as millions because of the quick turnovers. Even he makes 2%, he still can get tens of thousands dollars a year realistically if he will ensure to lock the profits and cut the loss decisively. I also asked him to start paying attention to financial news on CNBC and other media. Taking three economics classes in the first two years also helps him understand the financial world, I could tell it while he was talking. He should learn more financial concepts. 

Ok, I was tired and would have a lot to wrap up before going to the match on Thursday, so I stopped the conversation with my son and went to bed. It's why I am still catching up the diary for Wednesday at 12:36 AM on Saturday now...

Patrick's Diary - 6/14/2016

I got up at 4:30 AM because I would need to come back home early to pick up my son to go to Centurylink Field to watch Argentina taking Bolivia in the evening. Though I could have taken a day off, I had something to complete. In addition, I still planned to buy the tickets for USMNT facing Ecuador on Thursday evening, then I would take at least half a day off. 

Before driving out, I watched CNBC for several minutes. It might be too early, the guest was talking about more politics than financial markets. However, I did notice the major index futures being down again. Twitter's price jumped two-day-in-row. That Google might be acquiring it surfaced again. 

When I started my van's engine, the sound was abnormally low, which indicated the gas might not be fully circulated. I parked my car outside the garage last night and the temperature was low. As I shared, my van had been 16 years old and I had noticed somewhere from gas tank to pipeline must be congested especially after it was parked in cold weather. Fortunately, it didn't cause any problem on my way to work, so I started working on the stuff at my desk even before 6 AM. 

The issue came back to haunt me in the afternoon. After backwarding my van, I wasn't able to drive the car going forward for a minute. Even after driving on freeway for a mile, my van was suddenly turned off to force me having it sliding to the shoulder. Pumping the gas harshly for several times, I drove it back onto freeway. The problem would never recur. Coming back home, I realized that I hadn't eaten anything since last night. Telling my son to hold for 10 minutes, I ate a piece of sweet bread and two eggs. Assuming the van should work effectively, we left home for Centurylink Field. The road had been pretty wide open until we reached Northgate. It took us almost 45 minutes to get out off the freeway at the exit of James Street. 

Not getting through the security and ticket checkpoint first, we went to ticket office at Northwest side because I had planned to buy the tickets for USA facing Ecuador in quarterfinal at Centurylink Field on Thursday night there. I had checked on ticketmaster earlier to look for two tickets in Club but asked the sales lady if she could find a better deal for me. However, she couldn't do anything about the price but located two seats in Club 237 closer to the middle of the field where the views of the match should be great. Anyway, I already saved almost 40 bucks in service charges on two tickets if I had ordered online. Taking the advantage of coming to watch this match was the purpose to buy the tickets at ticket office because we needed to drive through heavy traffic to downtown and spent 20 bucks parking fee no matter if or not. 

Buying pizza and Italian Grinder at the counter in the club, I told the lady that I was the father, so should be old enough when she checked my Driver's license for buying the beer. She was a very nice lady and laughed. I always bought the tickets for the seats in the club because it had a better view and atmosphere was great. The ticket price was more expensive but I only came to watch three or four matches a year. I had probably overspent my budget on sports events after watching these two Copa Centenario matches. My son generally didn't come with me in the past but he was bored staying at home during the summer break, so our cost would be doubled. Anyway, I am glad he enjoys the events and Copa Centenario is not held every year and next time to having it coming back to Seattle may be a decade later. 

Beautiful DJ led pre-match show got fans warming up, I could tell so many fans were on the stands despite this was a Tuesday evening match and irrelevant given Argentina's advancement and Bolivia's elimination. Later on, I would learn 45,000+ fans coming to support the match. You couldn't deny most of fans buying the tickets for watching Messi, but even he wouldn't play, we would still be able to appreciate other talented stars' performance, such as Aguero, Di Maria, Lamela and Higuain. Later, I would recognize that PSG's forward as well but can't recall his name. 

It's such an easy match for Argentines. They had led 3 to 0 in the first half. Di Maria didn't play and fans kept chanting Messi's name. We did see him walking across the field before the match kicked off. Messi did give the fans in Seattle a warm response, he was subbed in the very beginning of the 2nd half and tried very hard to please the fans on the pitch. However, Bolivians played their final match for their pride, so didn't work with the arguably best player in the world. Though Messi dribbled ball skillfully and made a free kick a yard away from the post, he wasn't able to score as he had made a hat trick within 20 minutes in the match against Panama last week. Once upon a time, he even argued with No. 10 of Bolivian team, which triggered both teams crowding together for a minute. Obviously he wasn't happy that Bolivians didn't give him a chance to show his skills in front of so many fans in an irrelevant match. However, I guessed fans had been satisfied that we could watch him on the field for the entire second half and this was a competitive match.

During the match, the weather worked pretty favorably despite it became a little bit windy in the last 15 minutes. On our way home, the harsh rains came down for a while. My son wanted to eat something after the earlier meal 4 hours ago. I drove to Kong Tofu House next to Ranch 99 we hadn't gone for almost a year. The foods were always tasty and we closed the night so joyfully.

Now, it's Wednesday morning, I can tell it may be a day with more sunshines. Hopefully, the sky will be kept clear tomorrow night even the weather report said it would be raining. USA will take Ecuador then and we all hope they can advance to semifinal. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/13/2016

Before leaving home for work, I checked news on CNN first. Orlando Shooting was still the most concerned news. It's the worst in US history: 50 people died and 53 were severely injured. I don't know how this kind of terrorism can be prevented from happening effectively. We just have to be very precautious whenever we sense or smell any oddities. 

Turning onto CNBC, I was surprised by the news of Microsoft's bidding for Linkedin. It would be all cash acquisition and cost 26.2B at $196/share. Microsoft's price dropped because potential negative impact on its cash flow and earnings in short-term but Linkedin's price shot up almost 50%. I had noticed Twitter's price in pre-market bumped up on the platform of Ameritrade Trader but hadn't known the reason. It's the chain reaction. Twitter will be acquired, it's just unknown when it will happen and who is going to buy it. Social Media platform has played a very influential role on global stage. Governments are not able to control it. Now, the establishing groups put the hopes in giant enterprises to absorb and digest it, eventually transform it. I don't worry about Facebook's valuation because it has become a giant enterprise itself and its massive customer bases is invaluable for any extended businesses. Another indicator was Seattle to become the most important technology hub in US even in the world. If you are laughing at me, let's see how things will be rolled out in the next five years. As I predicted several years ago, actually on my Linkedin page, Seattle will become the center of the sophisticated economic region down from Eugene up to Vancouver, BC. The lands are inexpensive. The living conditions are favorable. The resources are plentiful. The education systems across Oregon, Washington and BC have the potential to be upgraded to higher level. 

The match between Spain and Czecho was televised on ESPN. I saw Ramos and Rosicky on the screen. Spain was leading 1 to 0. Later on, Sweden would play Ireland but I wouldn't have chance to follow it. Hopefully, Ibrahimovic would perform as great as he played for PSG and AC Milan. 

It's cloudy and a bit cold. I had hoped that the sky could be sunny in the whole week because of two Copa Centenario matches to be played at Centurylink Field. My son and I would go to the one Argentina playing Bolivia on Tuesday night. I am still weighing if I will buy the tickets for the one USA taking Ecuador on Thursday night. 

On my way home, I planned to stop by Best Buy to buy inks for printer but the road was heavily congested, I had to take the exit to go home directly. When I arrived at home, the match Mexico playing Venezuela had kicked off for a while and the weaker team was leading. Later on, I appreciated the wonderful volley the venezuelan created on highlight. Toward the end of the match, No.10 of Mexico National Team dribbled through 6 defenders to make the equalizer. Mexico would avoid to face Argentina in quarterfinal. 

Uruguay and Jamaica had lost the hopes to advance but both of the teams expected to end the tournament gracefully. Uruguay was apparently a better team and won the match with 3 goals.

Though I still had time to go to the gym, I decided to stay at home tonight because I wanted to sleep earlier. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/12/2016

There would be five soccer matches to be broadcast again. I went downstairs to the living room to start watching the first one on big screen. Croatia was part of former Yugoslavia and players from that region are very skillful. Turkey is a country across Europe and Asia but its soccer association belongs to UEFA, so they always have chance to participate higher level competitions. Medoric who plays for Real Madrid as a regular starter scored a decisive volley out of penalty box and Croatia held the lead until the end of the match. 

Poland owns star striker Lewandowski but he didn't perform very well in the following match. Milik who played for Ajax scored a goal. Northern Ireland made several opportunities but were all called off by Polish defenders and keeper. 

The third match was supposed to be a charm but Germany National Team performed mediocrely. After scoring a header, they didn't have many flashing points. Ukraine almost scored twice if Boateng hadn't saved the first one on the goal line and one Ukraine player had backwarded several steps to avoid the offside. Ozel was an attacking midfielder who played fine but Schweinsteiger hadn't played until the last 10 minutes. He was more like a holding midfielder. Without him, it's much easier for Ukraine players going through the midfield to pressure the defenders. The match getting into the extra time, Ozel made a perfect cross to have the ball bounce onto Schweinsteiger's right foot to score the 2nd goal. Muller is one of my favorable players but he didn't perform productively and accurately as he usually can do. 

Again, figuring out the window being wide enough, I drove to the gym to work out for an hour. When I sat back into my van, I was totally sweaty. The sky became completely clear today and hopefully the nice weather would be kept for the whole week because two Copa Centenario matches would be played at Centurylink Field. 

Missing the first 20 minutes of the match between Ecuador and Haiti, I caught the rest of the first half, then went to the bathroom to take shower. Coming back to my bedroom to keep watching, I witnessed Ecuador to win 4 to 0 over Haiti at the end. Their fate became very certain to advance as 2nd placed team to the quarterfinal to face USA in Seattle. 

It's not a totally surprise that Brazil still couldn't secure a spot in quarterfinal before the last match at group stage. They didn't send most of their best 11 starters to this tournament while others did such as Argentina and Mexico. During the halftime break, I went downstair to have fresh fish head soup my mom just cooked for dinner. It's very delicious because the ling cod fish head was given by our neighbor Joanne on the right. She and her boyfriend Darin went out to fish this morning and apparently came back with full of joys. 

Though I wasn't impressed by Brazilians' performance in this tournament, I still would expect them to advance. Unfortunately, a handball by a Peruvian broke their dream. Brazil National Team being eliminated at group stage in any tournament is always a shock anyway. 

My son had asked me to take him to watch X-men Apocalypse. Right after the match, we drove out to AMC Theater to catch the show at 8:10 PM. When we sat into the auditorium, it's already 8:20 PM but fortunately the movie hadn't started. It's a very entertaining sequel with amazing special effects and the story was relatively sophisticated. I liked the connection between Ancient Egypt and X-men. A group of teens sitting at the back were very disturbing, they kept whispering each other and walked in and out frequently. This rarely happened in this theater. However, they just distracted us a little bit, so we didn't say anything. 

It's a very joyful weekend: 10 soccer matches and 1 wonderful movie, what else could I expect? 

Patrick's Diary - 6/11/2016

I did watch five soccer matches on this super soccer Saturday as planned. Starting with Euro Cup16, I missed first 20 minutes but watched to the end of the match Switzerland taking Albania. Both sides missed so many scoring opportunities and Swiss should feel pretty lucky by taking the advantages of Albanians' lack of experiences and critical shooting skills as well as their own keeper's extraordinary performances. As I shared before, last time I watched Albania National Team play was back in one of the years in early 70s when I was younger than 9 years old. My maternal uncle took me to an international friendly between Albania National Team and China National Team at Worker's Stadium Beijing. In those years, China as a country only had two friends: one is Albania, another is North Korea.

Staying in bed, I watched the second match between Wales led by Bale and Slovakia captained by Skrtel. The host of pre-match show reminded that Wales present on major International soccer stage the first time since 1958, which triggered me to recall the significant soccer tournament in that year must be World Cup being held in Sweden. I learned this the first time from Pele's autobiography in late 70s because the first couple of words in that book were: Place: Stockholm, Sweden. In early 90s, when I had chance to go to Sweden, I chatted with friends over there about Swedish soccer, they also mentioned that piece of history they were proud of. Actually, the final was held in Solna. 

As far as I observed, Wales hadn't been a complete team, which might be the reason of being missed in major international tournament for so many years. Back to 80s and early 90s when I was young, they did own several great players, such as Ian Rush, Mark Hughes and another one less famous of whom I only remembered his last name Saunders. Giggs was very young then. These players were all strikers. To get a better result, they need to have better midfielders and defenders. Before the match, I hadn't expected knowing any players of Slovakia National Team but I recognized their captain whom I watched a lot at Liverpool's matches. A viewer of my broadcast on Periscope mentioned Hamsik as the star player in that team but I had never known. Googling him, I figured him the captain for Napoli. Since my TV package doesn't include Serie A, I haven't watched any Napoli's match for 20 years. However, Bale helped Wales lead the match by scoring a fantastic free kick. I fell into sleep in 2nd half but learned Wales winning the match at the end. It's a memorable victory for this country of United Kingdom.

Russian Thugs and English hooligans clashed in the streets of Marseille. As I read, some French hooligans from Paris were also involved. In recent years, Violence in soccer has been growing in Russia and Eastern Europe, which is a very bad trend. If Russian government can't deal with this, it will overshadow World Cup 2018. Of course, English hooligans have had obnoxious reputations for a half century, so they must be blamed as well. I wasn't sure if the clash influenced the match, England National Team dominated the match but couldn't score. The match was a draw at 1 to 1.

Figuring out the window would be wide enough between Euro Cup16 and Copa Centenario, I drove to the gym to work out a full routine. It had been cloudy but the sunshine popped out when I walked out of the gym. I hoped the weather would be nice in the next week because two matches would be played at Centurylink Field and I already bought the tickets for the one Argentina to play Bolivia.

Stopping at 7-11, I bought two big cans of beer and a bacon cheeseburger for my dinner. USA would play Paraguay in a crucial match for their advancement to quarterfinal, so I didn't plan to eat dinner my parents cooked. USA played a good match in the first half. Brooks made a smart tackle to save a 3 to 1 attack. He was voted as Man of the Match. Dempsey scored the only goal comfortably after receiving an accurate and timely pass from Zadres. Yedlin disappointed me with his emotional reaction after the doubtful 1st yellow yard was issued to him. He was sent off one minute later due to the second yellow card issued to him driven by his reckless tackle. He would regret very much because he would lose the opportunity to play in front of home supporters at Centurylink Field in Quarterfinal on next Thursday. 

The next match wasn't televised on FSN1 but Univision. I followed it from the beginning to the end. It's a surprise that Costa Rica played such an aggressive match and won over presumed 1st placed Colombia in Group A. James Rodriguez was subbed in but wasn't able to do anything to save Colombia. USA snapped top rank in this group and will come to Seattle to play possibly Ecuador. Now, USA will have a big chance to advance to Semifinal. It's a bit dilemma to me because I had bought the tickets to the match between Argentina taking Bolivia on Tuesday night given the chance of USA coming to Seattle being so slim. Now, I have to think about if I can afford to buy two tickets for the match on Thursday night. It will cost me 400 bucks more. However, I am happy USA to get a better chance to advance even further and fans in Seattle will witness this historic moment. 

After watching five matches in row, I fell into sleep subsequently and immediately. 

Patrick's Diary - 6/10/2016

I didn't need to leave home earlier because I would leave the office late to pick up my son at his dorm. His dorm inspected time was schedule at 6:00 PM, then he would move out to close his sophomore year. 

Getting up around 6:00 AM, I took shower then started catching up my diary for yesterday while watching CNBC on the platform empowered by Thinkorswim. The markets were still in profit taking. Twitter dropped almost 4%. Ok, I will ignore other social media platform but Twitter and Periscope for my Presidential Campaign to beat Clinton and Trump. How does this sound? A discussion was between Kudlow and Santelli about negative interest rate or another round of quantitative easing to be brought in. Kudlow mentioned Trump to have solutions of curing the economic problems as a successful businessman but Santelli sounded not be convinced. I will put forward my new business model to beat Trump as a businessman; Resolving global issues is just playing games, I am the best of doing it amongst all politicians, so I will defeat Clinton as politician. 

Leaving the office at almost 5:00 PM, I drove through I-90 floating bridge on Lake Washington in the heavy congestions. Arriving at my son's dorm, I saw cars parked along the streets, parents like me came to pick up their children. My son carried all his stuff down and I loaded them into the trunk. After the room was inspected, my son got into the car to leave his home on campus. However, he will move back into the same dorm in fall. On the way home, he complained to me that his biology grade in final exam was only 1 point lower than average mainly because he was trying to catch a girl he wanted to chat with, didn't spend more time to finish a question. I laughed at him why he hadn't made more efforts to please girls he liked when he had plenty of time during the quarter but waited until the last minute. He told me that he even didn't find that girl after he turned in the exam and rushed out of the test room. What a worthless loss! However, we talked about the things he planned to accomplish during the summer break and my suggestions: Learning how to trade stocks and capture financial information; Finishing the novel based on my memoir published on facebook and this blog and publishing it online that may start his writer's career or at least can ensure him to provide valuable writing sample to apply major in Creative Writing in Winter Quarter; Building his Ricky's Show on Periscope. 

Arriving at home, I missed the first match of the double headers but caught the second from 25 minutes in first half when Argentina was leading Panama 1 to 0. After dinner, I came back to my bedroom to keep watching. Messi was subbed, which made the whole field excited. I bet all fans in front of TV were the same too.

Messi didn't disappoint the fans who made hat tricks within 20 minutes and Argentina beat Panama badly with 5 goals at the end. A fan rushed into the field to worship him and he hugged the fan before he was kicked out by the security guards. 

I just bought the tickets to the match Argentina to play Bolivia on 14th at Centurylink Field and my son would go with me that night. Though it wouldn't be a competitive match because Argentina had advanced and Bolivia had been eliminated, we still would like to watch Messi. Hopefully he would play for dozens minutes. 

I watched Messi playing twice in person but both were in international friendly, one was in 2010 at Centurylink Field when Barcelona visited Seattle to play with Sounders. Another was in 2012 at Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt when Germany National Team hosted Argentina National Team. This would be the 3rd time but in a competitive match. The photo was snapped at Commerzbank Arena in August, 2012. My son and I dressed Sounders' shirt, which might cause all Germans' curiosity that night. However, why we took train from Paris to Frankfurt then drove the car to the arena was to watch Germany National Team. Messi's Argentina National Team won the match 3 to 1 if I recall correctly. 

Ok, I will watch five soccer matches tomorrow because Euro Cup 16 kicked off today. France won over Romania in the opening match.