1 November 2017
This morning I felt prompted to end the deal that Jessica proposed for me to help her drive to mutual because of her health. Before the deal that we made, I would go to sleep at 8 pm and wake up at 4. This would give me plenty of time to make lunch, eat, and post my Mormon YSA Blog Spot Storify post. I sometimes had time to do dishes and other things. Jessica's proposition was for me to go to sleep at 9 pm and wake up at 5, and she would help me in the morning. This of course was inaccurate because I rarely went to sleep at 9 pm; usually later. Although Jessica proposed the new lifestyle, she did not live it well, struggling to wake up. I rarely made it to work on time. This made me feel that my integrity was compromised. I used to be punctual, and until today with the conclusion of the deal I was not. I did not want to say to my coworkers that I arrived late, so I will leave later because Jessica should improve, and I should be punctual. She said that she can drive herself to Young Women's Mutual now, so that is a benefit of the deal.
I wanted to tell you about some dangerous situations. One that is not that big is a cycling story, a guy almost hit me, opening his car door. I was lucky that I was slightly passed the door. This is a blessing of God. A crash into a car door could be bad.
Another safety story happened yesterday, I was standing in front of stairs, and scaffold people were wrestling about above. I needed to go up, but I thought that I should not risk it; then in a blink of an eye, a razor blade fell and stuck in the temporary wooden stairs like a Ninja star or a Batman shuriken. I walked away to go up by other stairs, but I realized that I should go back to pick it up, so no one will step on it accidentally.
This morning I tested a excel function that merged all of the packing lists, so my inventory tracker could have a complete list of the stone and the important data. It was interesting. I downloaded a program type file, but I didn't need to install anything. It kind of functioned like a program, but it was a little finicky; however, it did work when I followed the directions in a YouTube video.
2 November 2017
Yesterday I spoke to, the CEO of Columbia Stone Inc., Mike Twiss, visiting the job, because I did not know what to expect when the project ends in a few months. He said that we do not have anymore projects in California that would require a project engineer. We do have a big project in Portland that I might be able to work on. We are most likely going to move. I really like California, but I like to work as long as I can with a company. The company is Oregon based, and Jessica's family lives there. Jessica and I would not be too far away from family.
Today I spoke with some unique people. There are many people from many different backgrounds working on this job, and they all come with different stories. Earlier this week a man told me that he used to be a chef, graduating from culinary school. He worked in the industry for ten years, but he quit because he was required to work every day of the year with no days off. He used to carve chocolate statues for hotels. A couple people that I met today are pretty awesome too.
A man named Robert took it upon himself to be a fire man without being called upon one day. He went into the thickness of the smokey house to search for any people. He found an 85 year old Asian lady stuck in a shower. It sounded like she was naked. He ran out to grab a fresh breath of air. He put his shirt on her before carrying her out. Robert was offered an 85000 dollar salary job in San Jose. He studied for the career, but he quit the path because he did not want to live away from his family four days a week.
A third guy, who I met today is Big David. When I said that I attended BYU Idaho, he said that he played BYU in football. He played college football with a couple universities, trying out for a couple NFL teams. I recall that he tried out for the Rams. He joined the masonry union after no professional sports opportunities were offered.
In "When Panic Attacks" it speaks about methods to tackle anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems after covering the basics; so I don't have much to say about it.
4 November 2017
I don't remember why I did not write yesterday.
There is a philosophy in the book "When Panic Attacks", saying that shyness is a form of anxiety. I was shy growing up. I wonder if shyness is different from introversion. The book has never mentioned introversion and extraversion. My education taught me that extraverted people get energized when they are around people, and introverted people have their energy drained from being around people. I was shy, and I got over it because my patriarchal blessing said that I would when I served my mission. Shyness doesn't define an introverted person; therefore, introversion does not necessarily mean that shyness is someone's lifelong trait. Shy people could overcome their social limitations by discerning whether they have self-defeating beliefs. There are many techniques to overcome anxiety in the book.
Yesterday was a good day. I seem to have a good understanding my job and how long it takes to accomplish things because I was able to do a random task Kevin asked me to do. I almost thought that I might finish late, since I did the extra thing; however, I finished five minutes early. I am still figuring out how I will revamp my inventory tracker. In the last five minutes I asked Audriana what she would display the information for someone reading the excel spreadsheet. She pointed me toward a good direction.
Last night after, coming home, Jessica and I packed up for a weekend with my family in Santa Cruz because my mother's birthday was on Thursday. When we arrived, I saw mom's favorite food, which is spicy sausage. I revealed that I will most likely be moving to Oregon to my parents. After dinner, we went to shop at Costco.
My rice cooker recently died. Yesterday I had to put the uncooked rice in a pot. I cooked the rice on a high temperature, and the pot needed to be filled twice with water. The rice was still not cooked well. When I told my mother about the trouble, she said to turn the heat down after getting the water boiling and put lid on the pot. We still have not pulled out our pot lids, so I didn't think of using a lid. I am out of practice of cooking rice. I also told my mother about the three guys that I met, and she didn't believe me. After shopping Jessica and I watched Thor: Ragnarok with Trevor.
I have an inside joke with Trevor. I accidentally called his friends "Nick and friends" once, and he found it humorous. Nick is the friend that keeps all his friends connected in my opinion. It stuck with Trevor. I told Jessica the inside joke, and she did not understand it well. I have a brother-in-law named Lucas. I gave her the example, so she could understand. What if I said, is Lucas and family going to join us? Nick and friends did join us, but only two came, when Trevor expected six.
Thor: Ragnarok was a good movie. It had a Guardians of the Galaxy feel. I liked that it had very little suggestive themes. I can't count one suggestive scene. The characters were developed very well. I liked the story and the message of the film. Jessica thought that the story was not developed well, giving the movie a rating of C+; but I give the film a rating of an A. I don't think that the film is meant to have a great story because it includes a prophecy.
5 November 2017
The next day after the movie Jessica and I chilled out in the morning. Trevor invited Nick and Beau to hang out with him while he gets his hair dyed after the movie. His appointment was 10:30 am. We were planning to eat out for lunch to celebrate mother's birthday. Jessica and I hung out with Trevor during his appointment, and we did not leave until 1:20 or so.
Trevor first got a haircut; then, his hair was bleached. It took so long because his hair was a dark brown. It was bleach down to tone color 3 from 8. After bleaching his hair, it did not look complete. Some of the hair looked orange or red. We kind of rushed it because we had an appointment for lunch. They tried to dye it after the first bleaching. It did not take in much of the dye after forty minutes, and we had to go to lunch because my stake was having stake conference. After lunch we dropped Trevor off at the salon to finish the process of dying his hair green.
Lunch was nice. It was coincidental because Victor is a Chinese foreign student, staying with my parents, and the leader of the education program that he is a part of was at the restaurant. Victor and the student that is staying with the leader did the SAT yesterday. The conversation was good. My mom went out to eat three days in a row to Chinese restaurants, ordering Mongolian beef all three times. It was definitely the favorite of the meal. I asked dad how he is doing, and he said that rest from running his business is rare, but he has found ways to rest. He likes to watch shows about travel. One beautiful Thai island has astonished him lately.
Afterward I picked up Jessica for the adult session of Stake conference at 7 pm. I recall that Elder Hallstrom spoke of the great progress of most every discipline in the church from teaching, missionary work, family history, and more. The theme of the conference was conversion. There was a section of the program designated to calling upon seemingly random people by Elder Hallstrom to tell us of their testimony of Christ. I thought. If I were to speak on conversion, what would I say? My talk on conversion would be very Godhead focused. This is what I wrote.
"Conversion is the change of heart that comes when we hearken to the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost will abide in the people who desire and work to apply the atonement of the son. The soul is cleansed by the Holy Ghost, working alongside the atonement. The Holy Ghost can melt a hardened heart, if the individual desires to come closer to God by the burning of the bosom. The witness of the Holy Ghost will testify of truth of God and his gospel, and conversion is line upon line precept by precept. Man should not be satisfied with a limited knowledge of truth. Continue to apply more truth in your life, and the individual will feel the Holy Ghost within yourself, testifying of each percept. The Holy Ghost, a personage of spirit, is a separate person from God the Father and Jesus Christ, yet his unity within the Godhead has been described as the mind of the Lord."
This is only scratching the surface of what I would say, if I were to write a complete talk.
