My mom applied medical fluid she blended to her legs at the living room. She has chronicle legs' pains, so had been doing this once a while. I put a piece of sweet bread into microwave for 25 seconds, then came back to my bedroom to catch the markets moves. All major indexes were going down, I guessed it might be driven by profit taking because of the recoveries in the last three days in this week. The hosts, commentators and guests only talked about specific stocks primarily, which also indicated no significant news passed around the markets.
I was about to leave the office close to 4PM, a phone call just came in on my working phone. Actually it came from a sales guy at Husky tickets office. He asked me why I didn't buy the season tickets last season. I told him that my son was admitted to UW in 2014, so I went to each Husky football game to support them as a father of one of the huskies. In 2015, that seat was included into the section for which additional fees had to be paid. Combined with another reason of lack of time of going to each game, I didn't do it. He told me a mini package of only 3 to 4 games being offered if I was interested, I told him that I would consider and call him back if I decided to do it.
Coming back home, I caught the halftime report for the match between Uruguay and Venezuela. Surprisingly, Venezuela was leading 1 to 0. While I was broadcasting on Periscope, someone asked me about the match, I explained my surprise.
I wasn't sure if everyone tried to show their sympathies to Venezuelans' economic crisis or soccer communities tried to swing its top sport from baseball to soccer. Venezuela had performed so amazingly and won the two matches over the stronger teams. They would advance to quarterfinal. However, they did play very well too.
The next match had 83,000 plus mexican fans piled Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Chicharito made a beautiful header to the dead angle at keeper's left side to help Mexico lead but Jamaica also created so many opportunities they just weren't able to capitalize.
Eventually, Mexico scored 2nd goal and won the match. They would compete with Venezuela for the 1st place of the group in the last match in group stage. They would advance to quarterfinal to possibly face Chile.
When I got home earlier, the neighbor across the narrow street talked to me at the mail rack. They were going to put their house on the market in several weeks because they would move to Bonney Lake to live in a bigger house with mother-in-law functionalities. His month-in-law was very senior and not mobile. I could imagine because he and his wife even already retired. They would make a good deal because houses in our neighborhood had appreciated in the last 10 years and the locations were very desirable.
The markets closed down and my SeaPower Index was one percent higher than its base built one month ago.
Obama officially endorsed Clinton and General Election would be kicked off actually from tomorrow though both parties' National Conventions had yet to come.
Another ex of mine, my son's mother, sent me a message in the morning to ask about my son. It might be sent during the busy time, so I hadn't noticed it until late in the afternoon. I told her that my son would start his summer break next week and planned to pursue an English major from Autumn quarter. If he is interested in humanities, language skill is the key.
I actually left home not very late but an accident on I-405 blocked the traffic. Reading the warnings on the message board, I decided to get out of the freeway from the exit of UW Bothell and Cascadia Community College to drive through local route to get back onto I-405 Southbound after bypassing the spot of accident. Listening to the traffic report on radio, I learned a car got into fire near NE 70th Street, which made that section of freeway solidly congested. It took me one hour and 20 minutes to arrive at work eventually.
Coming back home, I caught the second half of the match between Brazil and Haiti. Brazil hadn't played a convincing match when they faced Ecuador, but they crashed Haiti severely. In the last five minutes, they even scored two goals and won the match 7 to 1 eventually. I hadn't realized why they didn't show any mercy in this match until the match was played to the end. Oh, they would need goal differentials to top the group because they had a draw with Ecuador in the first match.
The following match was broadcast on FSN2, which was not included in the package I subscribed. I checked online but disappointedly found that I had to pay if I wanted to watch it. Recalling the match played at Centurylink last weekend being broadcast on Univision, I switched to it but was disappointed too. Before giving up, I decided to surf all the channels by pushing up the arrow on the remote control. Surprisingly, when I moved to Channel 722, the TV guide showed the description of the match between Ecuador and Peru. It's Univision Deportes. It looked like I could watch almost all the televised matches if I would utilize all possible channels.
After watching both teams making a draw, I drove to gym to work out. Because of catching all matches up, I hadn't gone to the gym in the last two nights. Walking on the treadmill for half an hour, biking for 20 minutes and weightlifting 150 times, I left the gym when it was almost to close at 11 PM. It's cloudy earlier and even dropped a little bit drizzle, but I saw the moon on my way home. The breeze outside the window was pretty cool. Though everyone loves sunshine during the summer, constant heat waves need a break once a while. In this regard, I love the clouds too.
US Men's National Team would face Costa Rica at Soldier Field in Chicago, so I left for home on time. Actually, I arrived at my bedroom even half an hour earlier.
It's a dominating performance and US won by 4 goals. Dempsey took the penalty kick to score the first goal. If US can beat Paraguay, they will probably advance to quarter final as 2nd placed team in Group A. However, it would be very difficult for them to move on further to semifinal because they may have to overcome Brazil. You never know if they don't have chance, Brazil didn't show much power in their first match.
Zillow initially jumped almost 10% when the markets opened due to a favorable settlement with Move-in. At the end, its price bumped up around 5%. In long term, Zillow will surprise its investors.
Colombia beat Paraguay to advance to quarterfinal, they may meet Ecuador and have chance to get into semifinal. It is a very good team.
I fell into sleep after the double headers of Copa Centenario, so didn't know about the result of California Poll for Democratic Nomination but would learn it on the following morning that Clinton won a landslide over Sanders. Sanders lost bargaining power of being her running mate.
Now, it becomes clear that I will be seriously running my Presidential Campaign across social media platform including Twitter, Periscope, Google Blog, Facebook and Linkedin. It will be very easy from me to beat Clinton and Trump in November.
I planned to come back home early to watch double header of Copa Centenario but totally forgot a meeting scheduled in the afternoon. However, I was able to get home not too late. In the first match, Panama won over Bolivia in Orlando. Both teams are weaker than the other two in the same group. In this tournament, the best teams in each group kicked off the first match: USA vs Columbia; Brazil vs Ecuador; Mexico vs Uruguay; Argentina vs Chile. I guess this may ensure the competitiveness for the following two matches to take weaker teams.
Messi got back injury, so didn't play. Argentina was good enough to win over Chile and Messi may not play in the group stage at all because this team should be able to beat Panama and Bolivia easily without him. Many fans in Seattle hope to see him play at Centurylink Field on 14th, I guess that he may be subbed in at certain point of time in second half because he needs to warm up for the quarterfinal.
Before the match, Fox Sports held a debate on if Messi is the greatest of all time, I still argued that Maradona is. I know he had so bad images off the field. However, in the field, he was the only superstar who was able to bring a second class team to championship. Fans in this generation may not know back in 80s and early 90s, the best league in the world was Serie A because of the impact of Italian's world cup championship in 1982. Maradona transformed Napoli to a Serie A champion with his individual efforts. If some fans argued that two Brazilian star players Kareca and Alemao helped the win as well, Argentina's world cup championship was apparently Maradona's personal contribution. With his comprehensive skills, leadership and discipline in the field, Maradona is the best in my mind. I am sure a lot of fans being with me. We all know FIFA hated him, otherwise Argentina led by Maradona could have won back-to-back championship in 1990.
However, I have to admit, Maradona may be the worst superstar in his personal life.
There wouldn't be any soccer match until 10:00 AM when US Women's National Team would take Japanese. However, I am always an early bird and it wasn't an exception on this beautiful Sunday morning either though I was allergic to the change of the weather, which drove my throat so dry and tight.
Hesitating a little bit, I didn't go to Lynnwood High to practice soccer, instead, I turned onto CNN to watch Jab's State of Union. When I made the comment on Periscope about Trump University, one viewer popped a comment on immigration. I said that I am an immigrant but pretty sure what I contributed to this country was more than I got. If I move out of the country, it will be a loss to the country. I just wanted to use it as an example to remind the immigration laws be reviewed from both sides. Clinton was poised to clinch Democratic nomination but Sanders was still trying to win California next week. If he succeeds, it will put Clinton into a very embarrassing scenario. Even she still can clinch the nomination, I don't think she has any other choice not to select Sanders to be her running mate. Someone popped another comment on my screen to blame Sanders a socialist. I countered that Sanders claimed himself a socialist but he didn't really understand Socialism. First of all, former Soviet Union, China were Totalitarian Socialism, which fouled their citizens to sacrifice for ruling Communist Party's interests. The leaders of the countries were imperial families instead of public servants; Secondly, Sanders admired Scandinavian Socialism deeply, as I said, he probably was far away from what I had studied it for two decades. Scandinavian Socialism is the highest social form in the world but homogeneous and facing the challenges now. US is a much larger country with tremendous diversified demographics, it's no way to have Scandinavian models implemented; Someone pointed out the crisis in Venezuela, I answered that I wasn't familiar with its socialism but could assume that it must be very disorganized. In addition, as I remember, many years ago, I had learned Venezuela used to be ranked 7th largest economy for a period of time but went down gradually due to lack of disciplines. Does it rely on oil export a lot? I think so. Under current circumstance, it's also not a surprise it gets into deep trouble. I also reassured that I keep my Presidential Campaign to beat Trump and Clinton. The newly joined candidate from Libertarian Party is no influence on voters at all.
US Women National Team played a better match than they did in last week. Morgan knocked the ball with her left foot timely to score the second goal. I don't know how many international friendly they will play before going to Olympics. It's fun of watching their plays.
Jamaica played Venezuela at Soldier Field in Chicago in its group stage match. They reserved their top player but the coach had to send him in after they were behind a goal and short of one player due to the red card. Coach himself was sent out to the stand due to the argument with referee. Eventually, they lost this crucial match. However, with Mexico and Uruguay in the same group, I don't think they were really confident to advance. Venezuela sent a bunch of beautiful girls cheering for their team on the stands, which is a soft weapon to winning the neutral fans off the field.
The following match became the best one since the tournament kicked off. More than 60,000 Mexican fans flooded University of Phoenix Stadium. Mexican scored a very quick goal and Uruguay lost a player due to the red card. In second half, Uruguay players did a much better job and equalized the match. In the last several minutes, Uruguay defenders lost concentrations, eventually lost two goals right before the end of the match. Mexican fans were illuminated. It's a happy night for them.
Catching up my diary for Saturday, I didn't watch a movie on HBO or StarZ as I had usually done to close the weekend. I planned to leave earlier then come back home to catch two more Copa Centenario matches on Monday night.
Because we would drive to Ranch 99 and Costco to buy groceries, I went to Lynnwood High to practice soccer at 7:00 AM. My plan was to walk to the formal field at the back to play if both fields in the front were still locked. If the formal one at the back was locked surprisingly, I would drive to the gym to work out for an hour. Fortunately, both were opened. I hesitated for a couple of seconds at the gate of the inside field but decided to practice at the outside one close to North Road because the other one was closer to several houses in which the residents might be bothered by the noise in such an early weekend morning made by my practices.
The weather was perfect, sunny with a little bit breeze, so it's pretty cool. I made two dozens penalty kicks on both feet, then the same quantities of free kicks too. Dashing back and forth on the field from southend to northend 5 times, I was exhausted. It took me almost an hour to get my body totally soaked by sweats. When I got into my van, I saw another guy practicing the soccer in the inside field by himself as well. I noticed he came in probably 15 minutes after I had come and he might be to stay there for a while. He dressed more professionally than I did and wore a pair of orange soccer cleats. While driving out of the parking lot, I saw my Dad walking by, it's his daily routine for workout.
The big news this morning was Ali passing away on Friday night, I caught it on CNN. I actually read a biography back in late 70s when I was an elementary school student in Beijing, so I knew him long ago. However, I am not a fan of boxing, so didn't know about his life after those years. I respect him as a person. I lost that book but found the cover of it on Baidu. However, this one must not be the first print because the publishing year was 1985. I am very sure the one I bought must be before 1979 when our family still lived in a shared apartment and I lent that book and Pele's Biography to the boy next door.
Switching to ESPN News channel, I watched the first 30 minutes of the International Friendly between Germany and Hungary, then drove my Dad out. Yes, it's such a wonderful Saturday morning, everyone was supposed to be joyful and I also put on my hawaii shirt bought in April in Wahu, but I wasn't so lucky. After dropping my Dad, I drove to Costco. At the second to the last traffic lights, I was the last driver to catch the green light to get through, a man drove his Volkswagen to switch onto my lane on the left without seeing me already passing his car's hood, so his car slightly scratched my van's sliding door on right side. We both drove into a parking lot on the right side of the road. When I got off my van, he said"I didn't see you." It's obviously 100% his fault but the damage on my van was very insignificant and my van was already 16 years old. At soon as I observed it, I already decided to let him go. However, I had to show him my driver's license and insurance card to prove my identity of legal driver and asked him to show me his in addition to the registration. I told him my point was to verify that he was a legal driver for his car. He was in his 50s and looked a good citizen. Wishing him luck, I drove away. I bet he would go to Costco as well because I saw his membership card in his wallet. It's probably why he tried to switch onto my lane, which led the road to the last traffic lights to have the cars turned left into the big commercial section where Costco is located.
Before leaving home, I signed the annual Costco reward coupon without paying attention to the detail. When I present it to the customer services representative, he told me it was for 2015 and already expired on 8/31/2015. How stupid was I? The year was specified on the coupon very significantly, I just hadn't read it through my mind. It's 95 bucks, a meaningful sum of money, so how could I miss it last year? We just came back from Scandinavia at the end of July, I probably tried to catch up a lot of stuff professionally and personally in the following month, so totally forgot this coupon. I recalled I did receive another new one for 2016 with a less value but might mix it with this old one. By the way, I still haven't found that one for 2016, it might be thrown away. In total, I probably lost 150 bucks.
I heard good recommendations of the foods at Boiling Point several years ago but never tried. I saw one of its franchises or branches close to Ranch 99 and ever suggested to try it to my son, he didn't want to do it. Today, only with my Dad since my son didn't come back home due to final exams in next week, we stopped by to sit into this restaurant. The hotpot was very delicious and both of my Dad and I loved the lunch. I would come to eat frequently in future. I bet my son would like it too, he probably just would need to order extra rice and meat.
Driving through McDonald's, I ordered Big Mac meal with diet coke for my mom. The guy at the first window to collect the money was impressed by my Hawaii shirt and wondering if I bought it in Hawaii, I told him I was there in April and it was my second time in two decades. He said he had never been there, I might respond a bit carelessly by saying "Find a chance to go." but with a big smile instead of being rude. Then he said he would like to go Mexico too, I responded "Mexico is fantastic as well" while proceeding my van to the next window. He was obviously offended. Anyway, I should have said nothing when he praised my shirt. His initial intent might not be negative but my response might be considered bragging and insensitive. It's why Trump has so many supporters now. I am wondering if Trump will have to file bankruptcy again, so he is trying to win Presidency to rescue himself. Wow, it's just a conspiracy theory.
Coming home to catch the second half of International Friendly between France and Scotland, I was so angry that the broadcasting was cancelled on ESPN2. ESPN is its flagship channel, they could have put the most significant program for today there. However, I knew this type of matches always being present on ESPN3, now it is called ESPN App. Generally, I don't like watching the matches on it because the pictures are not always high definition and can be broken from time to time. Without other choices, I sat in front of my laptop in study room and started watching the match. France won over Scotland at the end, it's a good friendly warm up before Euro Cup 2016 would kick off this Friday.
Next came Costa Rica playing Paraguay, the draw would be the best result for US and it was scoreless at the end. Valdez was subbed in the last 20 minutes but didn't control the ball much. USA would take Costa Rica on Tuesday. Many brawls broke out in this match because of reckless even brutal tackles.
Sleeping for a while, I checked the next match to be televised on FOX but found out with a surprise that Haiti taking Peru being played at Centurylink Field was broadcast on Univision. I never watched any program on this channel because it was in Spanish. This was a perfect chance for me to utilize it. Soccer itself is an universal language.
The most anticipated match at the end of the day was Brazil taking Ecuador. The most shining star was Willian and Coutinho was a very good player in my mind as well because I watched a lot of his plays at Liverpool. Later on, I figured out Filipe Luis playing for Atletico Madrid and Jonas playing for Lisbon. However, without several other stars, it's so difficult for Brazilians to make any effective offense. They even could have lost the match if the goal hadn't been called off. No matter if that ball was fully out of the bottomline, the referee had blown the whistle first, so it couldn't be ruled a goal anyway.
In between the last two matches, I drove to the gym to complete a full routine of weekend workout. The bad thing was the cold coming back for unknown reason. My throat became very tight and voice became funny again. However, I broadcast very frequently on Periscope through the day and even answered many questions raised by viewers. I would suggest my son to outline several subjects he is interested in during the summer break and start helping him building his online presence.
I got up a little bit late, so missed opening bell on CNBC after taking shower. May job report was really bad, which dragged markets down. It would trigger Fed to reconsider the timing of raising interest rate. At the end of the day, my SeaPower Index dropped a little bit but still stayed above base value I built on 5/16. I would watch Expedia closely before the end of July assuming its trend to following Costco's before its earning release a week ago. Hedge Funds managers always target someone, so am I if I make myself one of them. Twitter is still in the rumor of seeking possibility of merging with Yahoo. I don't know how much strategic value their merger will bring onto the table, but I do use both of them on daily basis. Everyone can tell I tweet everyday but people rarely know Yahoo is my news resource a dozen times a day. Though I no longer rely on Yahoo as my searching engine, still heavily rely on it for other online surfing purposes. In this regard, you may tell its contents are still very attractive to me.
Coming back home close to 5:30 PM, I started watching Copa Centenario pre-opening show. Around 6:00PM, the Opening Ceremony started, several performing artists sang and danced on the stage. After National Anthem of both countries were played, the opening match between USA and Columbia kicked off. Though USA possessed the ball more than Columbia, the visitor was more effective. Their first goal was a decisive and timely volley and I was sorry to see Yedlin making a handball to draw a penalty kick. However, I don't think he could wrap his arms at his back at that moment because he was jumping up to try to block the cross. It's a natural position to have his arms stretched in the air.
Anyway, I didn't make any comment during the match because I actually got cold today. My co-worker gave me a medication late in the afternoon. So, while watching the match, I couldn't concentrate very much even fell into sleep from time to time. It's the impact of the medication, which really helped me recover.
Tomorrow, I will be watching two more matches broadcast on Fox and FS1 but miss two international friendly in the morning because we need to go buying groceries.
Again, Periscope is really effective to have everyone running a broadcast business. I will have my son trying it if he wants to become a talk show host.
