Patrick's Diary - 8/7/2015

Drinking a cup of coffee, having onion rings/fried chicken strips, then finishing up the day with a bottle of diet coke, though these cost my own money, I still felt very relaxed. It's much better than assembled sandwiches I made by myself for almost every lunch. Grande Latte at Tully's on our site is much better than free coffee we made by ourselves definitely. Just like I shared with that girl on board the flight from Stockholm to Amsterdam two weeks ago, in addition to Starbucks, we have Tully's and Seattle Best Coffee in Seattle as well, not mentioning hundreds and thousands of coffee kiosks by the streets. Coffee Capital is definitely not fake. 

Before dinner, I watched BPL Pre-show on NBCSN and was so excited that it would kick off on Saturday morning. Though I wasn't sure if I could get up at 4:45am to catch the full match of the first one, I would watch as many as I could anyway. BPL will last till next May, so almost every weekend will be my holidays. 

FOX Sports will televise Bundesliga starting from next week, though most of the matches will be played on FSN2 & FSP, I will still be able to catch some on FSN1, which is one of the channels covered by XFINITY I subscribe. Checking schedules on Fox Sports website, I figured that I can watch Wolfsburg hosting Frankfurt at 6:30am on next Sunday, then I probably will give up one BPL match. 

Next Sunday, August 16th, I will have full day events planned: 

First, I will watch BPL & Bundesliga matches on TV until 11:00 am;

Arriving at Centurylink Field at noon, I will eat something in one of the restaurants close to Occidental Park, then participate the parade to go watching Sounders to take Orlando. Sounders added another international striker, hopefully both new additions can get the visa in order to play then. Valdez will be a new Designated Player. I watched several clips on Youtube I wasn't allowed to upload onto my blog here, Valdez seems a typical productive striker. Hopefully he will be able to keep the same level of competitiveness as he had a couple of years ago.

From 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm, an event will be held at Cheney Stadium for free. One of my favorite bands: For King & Country will perform. After Sounders' soccer match, I plan to drive to Tacoma to attend this event. Free of charge is always great but hopefully I will be able to find a seat. 

During the dinner, I, my dad and my son discussed about Calculus. I shared with my dad that my son isn't very good at Algebra, so it's not very easy for him to do the exercises because eventually the solution of either differentiations or integrations comes down to algebra. My son didn't agree, then I asked him if he remembered the formula of X^(3) + Y^(3). I do remember:

X^(3) + Y^(3) = (X+Y)*(X^(2)-XY+Y^(2)) 

My dad probably was very good at mathematics when he was young since he was a very respected and honored civil engineer. He thought Calculus was so easy but I didn't agree. However, he said that each different section of calculus is not really related very much, so when he learned it, he could do bad for one section but great for another, then caught up the bad part later. I didn't think so and I contended that it's my son's issue that he didn't understand Differentiations thoroughly and would be challenged a lot by Integrations because the latter is inversion of the former. An example in his textbook tells it very well:

Indefinite Integral of X^(2)dx = X^(3)/3 + C

Due to: d/dx (X^(3)/3 + C) = X^(2)

If you remember this: 

[X^(3)/3+C]' 

= 1/3*[(X)^(3)]'+C' 

= 1/3*3*(X)^(2)+0

= 1*(X)^(2)

= X^(2)

You will understand this thoroughly. 

Patrick's Diary - 8/6/2015

Following the vehicles' streams during heavy traffic on my way home after work, I actually appreciate the girl's actions in the car in front of mine all the way through. She made her pretty face up through the rearview mirror in the first 15 minutes after I started noticing her, then kept playing with her long hair for the rest of the hour before I took the exit of North Creek to gas station because tank seemed almost empty. I wish I could have such a pretty girl in any car in front of mine every day. Anyway, it's not my intention to follow her all the way, I generally don't switch the lanes. 

Dennis had his truck carrying two big piles of fresh soils for my dad per his request in the last two days. My dad planned to plant some flowers in our front yard. Hornets built a big nest on one of our trees and my dad got stung by one of them yesterday. Dennis applied a kind of spray to the hornets in the nest first then took it down. I told him that I remembered we burned something to generate the smoke to kill the hornets then took the nest down when we were kids. Nowadays, everything becomes more modern.

Republican candidates' debates seemed pretty interesting, though I only caught the last several minutes. As I chatted with someone, modern politics is a totally different game because of the social media. Every trick the politicians traditionally played can be deciphered immediately by others publicly. So, in most of the cases, even politicians have to be honest and very competitive as soldiers in battlefields. 

This swiss watch often draws others' eyes because it seems a valuable. Actually it cost me 250 bucks several years ago on Overstock.com. I had put it into a drawer for quite a long time until last week because the cover of another watch given by my employer as 5-years service souvenir was broken. I guess the size of this watch may cause others' confusion. As a matter of fact, I didn't pay attention to its size when ordering online then. It's not as cheap as 50 bucks but definitely not a Rolex, and it may be only worth 25 bucks now after 6 or 7 years' depreciation. Ok, I will wear it for another 25 years if I can. 

After reviewing Section 5.4 - Indefinite Integrals, I will go to sleep.  In the table, there is a group of useful formulas:

Patrick's Diary - 8/5/2015

Going to work this morning, I happened to listen to the traffic report on Spirit saying that it had become a parking lot from Bothell-Everett Highway to Kirkland. Therefore, I went through the local to get onto I-405 at entrance at 116th Street. Though traffic was still congested, I avoided most of the problematic sections. 

Coming back home around 5:00 pm, I took a nap then had a big dinner - two big bowls of Chinese noodles my mom cooked.

I planned to watch Sounders taking Whitecaps in first round of CONCACAF Champions League, but fell into sleep from time to time. I did catch the goal Vancouver scored but missed the one Sounders tied the match. It gave Sounders a comfortable position to come back home with a point and a goal. 

Keeping reading Section 5.3 of my son's Calculus textbook, I recall the relationship between Differentiations and Integrations discovered by Newton's mentor at Cambridge. Issac Barrow realized that they were inverse processes. 

g(x+h) - g(x) = hf(x)

[g(x+h) - g(x)]/h = f(x)

g'(x) = Lim (h to 0) [g(x+h) - g(x)]/h = f(x)

Practicing the following example, I figured that I probably need to go back to the chapters of Differentiation to review some rules:

Find d/dx Limit from 1 to x^(4) sectdt

Use Chain Rule:

Let u = x^(4), then

d/dx Limit from 1 to x^(4) sectdt = d/dx limit from 1 to u sectdt 

= d/du [limit from 1 to u sectdt] du/dx

= secu du/dx

= sec(x^(4))*4x^(3)

Yes, since my son doesn't want to stick with his plan of previewing Integrations before Autumn Semester starts, I probably will go back to the beginning of this book to go over Differentiations. 

It's fun to me even just reading calculus textbook. Though, I still miss the days I drove that VOLVO XC60 with Swedish License Plate of FTP 239 through Scandinavian Peninsula. In 90s, I never drove through the freeway between Stockholm (Uppsala) and Oslo but did it this time. However, as soon as getting onto E6 from Oslo to Goteborg, I was so excited because I had done this back and forth once before.

Oh, this clip was filmed on July 8th, my 49th birthday. Wow, I still miss there. As I said, I will try to go back to watch Eurovision in May next year and find out another time to drive up to Haparanda, then cross the border to Finland. It will be even more spectacular and memorable, for sure. 

Patrick's Diary - 8/4/2015

I had been indecisive if going to gym tonight or not after dinner until an hour ago. No, I didn't go, instead, I will go there at 5:00 am tomorrow, then come back to take shower and shoot for arriving at office around 8:00 am. Wow, it's already 10:45 pm now.

Sounders acquired an attacking midfielder from Levente of La Liga. The Austrian sounds an experienced international soccer player and may be able to contribute positively to the club. However, it's still disappointing that Sounders club doesn't have a plan to pull in an international soccer star such as Kaka, David Villa, Pirlo or Gerrald. Though they are aged now, you can still tell their performances and influences at MLS. I know importing a star, I am not talking about super stars, must be financial sounding to the club, in addition, the stars may prefer living in big cities. However, I didn't know this guy, so can't say he isn't Sounders' solution. Viewing the video clips, I noticed he is a pretty good left-footed. Hopefully, he won't become another Tiffert.

Ok, nothing needs to be elaborated tonight, I am going to go to bed to fall in sleep.  

Patrick's Diary - 8/3/2015

This Monday was the first working day of the month, especially I took almost 3 weeks vacation in July, so I went to work early and wouldn't come back home until 10:00 pm. I kept working for almost 16 hours, which I hadn't done for many years. My record was back in 1997 when I kept doing things for 72 hours without much sleep. However, that only happened once and generally my working hours stayed within 12 hours even when I was young. Diminishing efficiency happens at any age. Actually, it is more horrible that you need to work 7 days a week even only 8 hours a day. 

I did eat two croissants at breakfast but skipped the lunch entirely. I did have 4 pieces of bread and a cup of soup close to 5:00 pm. Coming back home at 10:00 pm, I ate two burgers my dad bought at 7-11. While drinking the beer I bought at Costco, I was watching TV for 10 minutes and caught a hot girl eating burger as well, it's a commercial. 

My son told me he did read several pages of calculus book. Let's see if he really can do it for the rest of the summer break or not. I doubt it. 

I will take a day off to sleep or catch up my diary for the last 3 days in Stockholm. 

BPL will start this coming Saturday, I seem be able to watch 5 matches during this weekend. 

Patrick's Diary - 8/2/2015

On Sunday morning, I went to gym to workout for an hour but hadn't stopped by McDonald's because I wasn't very hungry. It's Seafair weekends and Blue Angels' performances always draw locals' attentions. Since we went to Genesis Park to watch last year, we didn't go this year but may go next year or the year after. We generally participate this big event once every three years.

I planned to have my son catching up 2 sections of Chapter 5 of Calculus textbook, but I hadn't had chance to walk him through one section before we went to watch Ant-Man. There are two movie theaters at Alderwood Mall, one is AMC we generally go, another is Regals, which is older and smaller we used to go a lot. Ant-Man was only played at latter, so we went there this time. I had checked out a 3D show to be on at 3:50pm, but we were confused by the term of RPX on the panel and almost left. This wasn't our first time to watch 3D movie at this theater, our minds were just wired abnormally at that moment. Eventually, we bought the tickets and sat in the auditorium. 

We were the only two audiences sitting in the auditorium until the play time was very close. It's a very fun movie and the environment in the auditorium was super. Tiny creatures can be as the same great heros as giants. This is sort of anti-Iron Man or Hulk. 

After coming home, we had dinner and took rest. When I was ready to walk my son through Section 5.2, he was too distracted to follow my instructions. I didn't think he wanted to study and would be able to keep doing this everyday during this summer break though he proactively asked me to help him. Desire is always great but action is hard to take. I dismissed him for the night and told him that he didn't need to do this if he felt suffered.

However, I had gone through the text and formulas for Section 5.2 myself and been interested in the contents. Reviewing the book, I recalled that the first time I studied Differentiations & Integrals was at my first college as Civil Engineering major, I didn't have any clue and hated them, but second time was for pursuing economics/finance degrees, I started loving the theories, especially the practices; Third time was for the preparation of PHD in Economics entrance exams, I even thought about to utilize the knowledge to save the crisis all over the world. This time, I purely appreciate the beauties of calculus. 

For instance, I wrote down the procedure of this example on a piece of paper myself to practice:

f(x) = x^(3) - 6x, taking the sample points to be right endpoints and a=0, b=3, and n=6.

DeltaX = (3-0)/6 = 1/2, then X1=0.5, X2=1.0, X3=1.5, X4=2.0, X5=2.5, X6=3.0

So, Limit from 0 to 3, (X^(3)-6X)dx = (0.5^(3)-0.5*6)*0.5+(1^(3)-1*6)*0.5+(1.5^(3)-1.5*6)*0.5 + (2^(3)-2*6)*0.5 + (2.5^(3)-2.5*6)*0.5 + (3^(3)-3*6)*0.5 

= -3.9375

In addition, these algebraic representations are very useful in real world:

Sum of positive integers: 1+2+3+......+n = n(n+1)/2 

(Knew this as teen)

Sum of square of positive integers: 1^(2)+2^(2)+3^(2)+......+n^(2) = n(n+1)(2n+1)/6

(Learned this when I was in college and remember it all the time)

Sum of cub of positive integers: 1^(3)+2^(3)+3^(3)+......+n^(3)=(n(n+1)/2)^(2)

(Might learn it when I was in college but totally forgot until on this Sunday)

However, the most practical knowledge I learned for my professional jobs was from my MBA.

Patrick's Diary - 8/1/2015

It was such a disappointing match last night. I can't believe that Sounders lost 0 to 3 to Whitecaps. It looked like Sounders didn't have any combative capabilities. Strikers weren't sharp, Midfielders couldn't control and Defense was disorganized, though I can't blame Frei for all of the lost goals, he didn't perform extraordinarily anyway. 

Anyway, it's fun to be there pre game. We planned to have a decent dinner around Centurylink Field but couldn't find a table at an Oyster restaurant, probably with Finns' cuisine. We walked along the streets, eventually arrived at Yesler and decided to eat at Cafe Bengodi, a Seattle Little Italy one. The foods were big and delicious, the tastes were very authentic. 

We went back to Occidental Park where we had got free sunglasses earlier and got free water. A guy stopped my son to ask him to cheer, so I took a picture for them. That guy told my son he was from Jamaica. 

A band was performing in the center of the park, we missed the most of their performances, probably only caught the last piece and I even didn't have a chance to film. 

I had heard about Sounders fans' parade starting at this park prior to every home match but never got a chance to participate. It's exciting and fans were creative too.

It's a very nice evening for a soccer match. Sitting on the stands, I felt very relaxed but excited. I hadn't watched a Sounders' match in person in this season and this was the first time I came to Centurylink Field in this year. 

The traditional Sounders' opening ceremony is always cool, fans' enthusiasm is generally illuminated at this moment. 

Though the result was so bad, fans came for fun anyway. It's just another match and we will still have a lot of fun in the next two months by watching their playing. 

Yesterday morning at 7:00 am, I drove to gym to workout. After coming back home, I took a nap then had an early lunch because I told my mom that we would have an early dinner before the Sounders' match. 

Not having washed my van for a year, I decided to do it this weekend. It's a wonderful sunny day to do it anyway. After washing it, it looked like a brand new to me. With 211K mileage and 15 years old age, it still works very well. Of course, I spent 8,000 dollars at dealership three years ago to have it thoroughly repaired. I plan to keep it for another five years. 

I did plan to give one box of chocolate I bought at Duty-Free shop at Arlanda to Jonna, our neighbor on our right side but hadn't seen her until yesterday while I was washing my van. Though I haven't bothered her as frequently as bothering Dennis, she has been very helpful as well. For example, every time, when my parents didn't pick up the phone, especially when I traveled out of town, I called her to check for me because I was worried. I hadn't noticed that her old brother's family coming to visit her until her brother came over to chat. They live in Fullerton where I often drove there to have dinners in several of my favorite restaurants when I briefly lived in Cypress in Southern California in 2005. His son will go to college next year and University of Washington is one of his options. I guess Jonna's family probably lived in East Washington when she and her brother were teens because her brother went to WSU and as I remember, she went to Eastern Washington. I hope her brother's son can enroll UW. His aunt and dad are all Washington's graduates, it's natural for him to come back to Washington to get education. 

Ok, it's already 8:22am, I will drive to gym to workout. After coming back, I need to guide my son to study two sections of Integrals because he didn't do one yesterday. He also wanted to go watching Ant-Man today, so we will have a very tight schedule on this Sunday.