Patrick's Diary - 4/6/2016

A co-worker asked me if I still play soccer, I told him that I don't play with others but practice alone once a month. It triggered me to recall my maternal uncle buying a soccer ball as a gift for my 5 years old birthday. I never asked him if he played soccer when he was a kid but I also remember he took me to Workers' Stadium, Beijing to watch my first soccer match in person: China vs Albania. I knew back then he could become an artist in painting.

Well, I don't play soccer much now, but can sing songs to get back another hobby of mine. After sleeping for several hours, I came to my reading room to search a Chinese song - Reading me on Youku.com. This was one of the songs I often sang in Karaoke when I was young. Though I didn't pursue a professional career in singing, I was very popular in several circles then. 

Before I headed to Nassau in 1987, due to family's reason, I was involved in some of artistic performances led by a famous tenor. His students included several future pop stars I befriended with during that period of time. His daughter helped him perform sometimes and she would act in a dozen movies and TV series several years later. She became my lifetime sister eventually. In mid 90s, due to her connection with Mark Rowswell's mentor, we brought Mark into a TV commercial for a short period of time because I signed an exclusive agreement with a Canadian Oil Products' company. I tried to find his mentor - 丁广泉's clip but only found this one Mark in it. He probably forgot after dining with his mentor, my little sister, I drove my Volkswagen to drop him at his home in 方庄。Was then right before I went back to Sweden? I can't remember.

In 90s, I also loved an English song - Casablanca and found it out on Youtube. If I practice more, I may keep this song as my reserved surprise in future occasions.

Ok, Tomorrow will continue, so it's sleeping time again.

Patrick's Diary - 4/5/2016

I wanted to be more energetic at work, so stayed in bed until 6:00 am this morning. Getting up to go downstairs to eat a banana cake and a sweet bread for breakfast, I watched CNBC for a couple of minutes. Before wrapping up, I noticed a Twitter's co-founder promoting his platform - Medium during an interview. I would like to try it, actually, I just posted a note on it several minutes ago.

Coming back to my reading room, I checked my comcast email box and found IRS had accepted my electronically filed 2015 tax return after first submittal. It's wonderful that I would receive the refunds possibly by Friday. Wait, I just checked on IRS website that I should expect the refund coming in 3 weeks later. Ok, I may have to pay my property taxes first because they would be due by April 31st. 

It's another very busy day, you can imagine as a half accountant, how critical the month end close process could be. 

Coming back home through relatively light traffic on I-405 in late evening, I got the call from my dad to ask what time I would be arriving at home. It's a quick dinner for me, then I went back to my bed to watch CNN. Cruz and Sanders both won Wisconsin with comfortable margins. Both parties' nominations would be kept hot until National Conventions, looks like. I wouldn't be seriously putting forward my proposals of how to manage this country until the stage of General Election. 

Falling into sleep until midnight, I started thinking if I should get up to write my diary. I figured my passion is really in writing. It's one of my hobbies when I was a kid and a teenager. As I shared, I was almost always the top writer in every composition class I took then. I won prize by writing a short story titled "Remote Seeking" in a 1982 writing competition for the purpose of Universe Exploration arranged by United Nation. I must get a near perfect score on the portion of Composition in my 1984 College Entrance Exam for the subject of Chinese because my total score ranked top in my class and 3rd overall in our school. Back in those years, of course, I wrote in Chinese, Now, I am writing in English, which is even more convenient for me because I can type the letters even faster than some of the data entry specialists. Yes, I proved this skill 20 years ago to the recruiter at Accountemps. By the way, I also topped my class in 1984 College Entrance Exam for the subject of English leading me to be accepted into the honor class at my first ever college - CUMT to get a valuable opportunity of being coached by an English teacher from Michigan. On the flip side, I don't know how to type in Chinese blindly, so I am less enjoyful in writing in Chinese now. However, I may start writing my diary in Chinese on my blog at Sina. It must be fun as well. 

Traveling and writing combined with photo-snapping and clip-filming may be a life I am truly fond of. I did have talents in several fields when I was a kid: I was trained as a soccer player and could go pro; I was trained as a ballet dancer and could turn pro; I was trained as a singer and repeatedly recommended by my music teacher who was a former actor at my middle school to highest level of teen's performing organization but I didn't join myself. The reason I didn't develop my talents probably was that I had too many options and my parents provided me a comfortable life. Eventually, I let so many opportunities easily go. Do I regret? No, I love my lifestyle. I enjoy it. 

Noticing the viewers of my Blog at G+, I found they were from so many different countries. 

I plan to arrive at work at 7:00 am, so I need to leave home at 6:00, which means I must get up at 5:30 am at the latest. 3 hours more sleep should be well enough, I guess. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/4/2016

Coming back home, I was little bit hungry. Eating an apple pie, I started watching CNN while waiting for dinner. Tomorrow will be a big day for GOP candidates. If Trump wins, he will probably be sure to get nominated, but the poll shows Cruz leading in Wisconsin. 

After dinner, I kept watching CNN and assumed both parties really don't want to have the races ended until National Conventions. Who doesn't want to have such a big show last as long as possible? In addition, commercial reasons matter as well. 

Falling into sleep for quite a while, I heard my cell ringing. It's my son to tell me that he would register a field trip for Biology class. He seemed very serious about this class. As I shared, he was interested in this subject when he was in high school.

Spending the last hour to finalize my tax return, I turned it into IRS a couple of minutes ago. I am not sure if it will be accepted the first time or not. Let's see.

Alaska is bidding for Virgin America and possibly winning. It sounds good news for Puget Sound as I read online. 

Twitter jumped nicely due to positive comments from an executive at Mastercard. Being a frequent user of both, I am seriously thinking about to use my card on Twitter if online transactions are implemented. 

I didn't film a clip with my GOPRO today. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/3/2016

I had planned to sleep for another 3 hours then get up to be ready to go to work, but I suddenly realized that I hadn't moved washed clothes from the washer to the dryer, so jumped off the bed to do it 20 minutes ago. As a byproduct, I am going to wrap up my diary for Sunday. 

I should say it a GOPRO Sunday because I used my Hero Session 4 I hadn't used since coming back from Oahu the entire morning. As a result, I may not need to write too much because of the media contents I created. 

Going down to living room to eat a banana cake, I was watching CNN before going to Lynnwood High to practice soccer. My mom asked me to update the clock embedded in the range for her. Little Sunshine was so active to wander up and downstairs. 

Driving through Lynnwood High to look for a spot, I figured several matches to be played. I'd like to play with others but it seemed all those matches might be arranged as formal ones instead of spontaneous practices. In addition, I wanted to film clips of my own practices, it would be weird for others to see my Hero Session 4 wrapped around my head. Driving on I-5 North, I headed to Kasch Park where I used to play amateau matches for a team at Greater Seattle Soccer League 10 years ago. However, Seattle is really a sports town, all the fields were occupied for soccer matches in this sunny and warm Sunday morning. 

Driving back on Everett-Bothell Highway, I happened to follow a Volvo for a couple of seconds while passing beautiful Silver Lake. As I shared before, I am not very into it while I am out of Sweden. I love my Caravan as long as it still works very well.

Approaching the gym, I looked into the merchants along the road and realized the convenience of living in this area. At the intersection of Canyon Park Business Park and The Highway, I recalled my desire of working for ATL (I suddenly recalled its name but might not be correct) 16 years ago after we came back from Chicago before Philips acquired it . It never happened and actually I never applied a job with it. However, two years later, I got a Senior Financial Analyst's job with Panasonic Avionics in this Business Park. I can say it was a dream coming true. Working for a globally well-known company with five minutes  driving distance from home was incredible. By the way, before getting that job, I was interviewed by AT&T Cable operation in this park for a similar position but didn't get it. It's Comcast now because that business of AT&T was split out later. 

On my way home after workout, I was wondering if I should stop at the coffee kiosk next to 7-11 but passed it after seeing a car parked at the window in which the driver was waiting for the coffee. Giving the fields at Lynnwood High another look, I found the one at far end might be vacant but decided to go home for lunch first. 

After wrapping up the diary for Friday and Saturday, I watched the various programs on TV for a while, then started watching Washington Huskies playing Syracuse in their historic final four presence. They had a pretty good 3 points shooter who had made 8 out of 8 by the end of 3rd quarter. However, Syracuse was a better team. The media described it as "Orange". The color is not necessarily always pleasant. I cheered for Huskies because of my son who is in his last quarter of Sophomore year at Washington. Anyway, he is not a sports fan, I even care about Huskies' sports more than him. 

Ok, let me go back to my bed, I will get up again 3 hours later. I am not very sleepy now because I had fallen into sleep from 7:30 pm to midnight earlier. For the sake of working Monday, I have to force myself to fall into it again. 

Patrick's Diary - 4/2/2016

Turning onto NBC Sports Network, I figured first half to end when Arsenal was leading Watford by one, however, they scored the 2nd goal. Watching all goals across the matches being played today through highlights during halftime break, I kept on watching the second half of the match. Eventually, Arsenal won the match by 4 goals, it became a massacre. 

Dropping my dad at Ranch 99, I drove my son to Costco to buy other groceries. First, I approached the service counter for glasses and contact lenses to find out if I could have my son's contact lenses ordered by only presenting the box of the supplies, since our insurance for vision is carried by a new company, I had to drop the previous store, which is out of network. I was told that Costco only could order per prescription, which I didn't keep and might have to get it from the previous store. I can't remember where my son's most current prescription was issued. 

Coming back to Ranch 99 to pick up my dad, we stopped by Szechuan Garden in Lynnwood to have a big lunch again. After it, we dropped my son back to his dorm. On our way home, I stopped by McDonalds' to order a big Mac sandwich and a medium pack to French Fries for my mom. Driving through the paying window, I chatted with the cashier whom complained the weather in this morning. It's a bit unpleasant because the sky became so cloudy after repeated beautiful sunny sky for the last entire week. The guy said to me that he was wondering if this was really mother nature. I laughed and eased his frustration by saying that the sun actually popped out and we could expect a much better afternoon. 

My mom started eating big Mac, which can be rated as her most favorite western food and I went back to my room to sleep until evening. 

I chatted on Friday with a co-worker who holds Sounders' season tickets. He said he would go watching Sounders taking Montreal with his daughter whom plays soccer for a Teen's team. I did hesitate a little bit if I would go to watch it in person but was tired. Instead, I watched the entire match on TV. Sounders made a lot of opportunities but hadn't been able to score until in late second half. Ivanschitz had become a regular spot-kicker whom served accurate freekicks and cornerkicks. Dempsey's header helped Sounders embrace the first win of the season. 

After the match, I went downstairs to keep watching a movie talking about a Jewish family without remembering its name. The leading actor's name is Braff and the supporting actress is Kate Hudson. Let me google to figure out the name of it...Yep, after I keyed in these two names, Google brought me the name of the movie: Wish I was Here.

Patrick's Diary - 4/1/2016

It's April Fool's, so people were very cautious of taking any actions proactively because no one wanted to be a victim. 

I actually talked to my son yesterday to learn he started struggling with the class of Biology. He kept saying that he would select easy classes but this one might not be that easy as it could be a prerequisite for medical school. My son doesn't even want to pursue a business degree, how could he expect to go to medical school? However, he was good at Biology at high school, so he might be confident in it. According to what he said, the class might not be very difficult but requirements were very critical. I told him not to make the mistakes he had repeatedly made for other hard classes in the past quarters: Overconfidence. If this is really a very difficult class, I don't mind him to get a 2.0. If he can treat Biology like these girls, he will enjoy the class. 

I almost wrapped up everything I needed at work, just would need to come in a bit earlier to finalize something the first thing on Monday morning. I guess no one wanted to finalize anything today. However, I left the office for dorm to pick up my son because he wanted to go home this weekend for a big lunch tomorrow after we would buy the groceries. 

We arrived at home to have the dinner, then went back to each one's bedroom to watch TV. I watched a movie now I can't recall what it was. But I can check my tweets, I must tweet it on Friday night about the movie I was watching... Yep, it was Jet Li's Unleashed, now I recall why I couldn't remember, I didn't watch much of it then I fell into sleep completely. 

Patrick's Diary - 3/31/2016

Getting up 3:00 am, I wrapped up the stuff for Month End by 5:30 am. Sending out the worksheet to my counterpart, then updating a worksheet for another counterpart and responded an e-mail string for an urgent task I actually initiated yesterday, I went back to bedroom from reading room to keep sleeping. Opening my eyes again, I figured it already 8:30 am and it's a very nice day outside. 

Coming back to my desk in reading room, I found my counterpart had reviewed my work and we would need to talk on the phone in an hour when she would be available. After the conversation, I communicated with another counterpart through IM, which is the most frequently used channel for communication at work compared to E-mail and Phone Calls, then I drove to NAPA to buy two light bolts and stopped by 7-11 to buy two sandwiches for lunch. 

The training would be held at one of the buildings in Everett. When I arrived at that site, I realized it outside the main site and I had never been there before. I stayed in my car for 10 minutes, then went to the conference room. 

The training went through very well and we had a lot of valuable discussions. I hadn't expected it a fan event before going there. 

On my way home, I recalled my dad asked me to buy cat litter for our Sunshine, so stopped by Costco Business Center in Lynnwood to buy it after pumping the gas. Coming back home, I started watching Aloha of which I read a lot of criticisms because Emma Stone performed as a mixed Asian-Caucasian woman. However, I really wanted to watch it especially we just came back from Oahu last week. Unfortunately, I fell asleep without watching to the end. I would need to watch it again because I didn't catch the beginning either anyway. 

Gopro posted another new clip I found on Youtube.