Ancestry DNA Kit guidance

Our gift to John & Mercedes were Ancestry DNA Kits. Jessica had them open them at the same time. John prepared his specimen first, since Mercedes ate some melon recently after we opened gifts. An individual must wait thirty minutes after putting any substances in their mouth before filling the valve with saliva. One needs to create an account with ancestry.com before delivering the sample. I don't know if ancestry.com allowed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to sign in with an LDS.org account previously, but we thought so.  After failing to sign in with Mercedes' LDS.org account, we let John set her up with an account at ancestry.com. There are a few questions to answer, and the identification number needs to be produced to match the specimen with the account. It was simple for them to prepare, and the results will come back in six to eight weeks.

Christmas 2018

Christmas was a little slow. I let myself sleep in some. I wrote a lot, and I practiced Thai a lot. 

We stayed the night at the Ledesma's because Mercedes prepared a Christmas eve dinner, and we celebrated Christmas together too. 

We read the story of the birth of Christ in Luke's epistle to the Gentiles.

The Hicken tradition is to have the oldest child host the present distribution, and we decided that Jessica will host Christmas. She arranged it so each family member opened a gift in order around the room a few times. I got clothing. 

Our gift to John & Mercedes were Ancestry DNA Kits. Jessica had them open them at the same time. John prepared his specimen first, since Mercedes ate some melon recently after we opened gifts. An individual must wait thirty minutes after putting any substances in their mouth before filling the valve with saliva. One needs to create an account with ancestry.com before delivering the sample. I don't know if ancestry.com allowed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to sign in with an LDS.org account previously, but we thought so.  After failing to sign in with Mercedes' LDS.org account, we let John set her up with an account at ancestry.com. There are a few questions to answer, and the identification number needs to be produced to match the specimen with the account. It was simple for them to prepare, and the results will come back in six to eight weeks.

We eventually continued the Trash face card game. Jessica was tied with me a lot of the time, but I was usually ahead. Jasmine had a harder time keeping up, but she was on the same phase as John at the end. Jessica would get a lot of wild cards in her hand in many phases of the game, winning the final round with one. John and Jasmine made their last turns, and all I needed to draw to win with Jessica was an Ace or a King. John noticed that my lucky ace was the Ace of Spades, drawing it a lot, because I won the game with Jessica and the Ace of Spades.

Examples of good habits to add to Habitica

When I arrived at the apartment, I added a bunch of homely habits to Habitica. These new habits made the apartment look and be more neatly. I asked Jessica, "What habits do you thing I should develop?" She couldn't think of any, but I remembered somethings that she suggested previously. Thinking of habits to develop, I looked around the house. The more that I do the more experience that I get in the Habitica game and life. The following habits were added to my list:

Put away floss, toothpaste, and tooth brushes; clearing bathroom counter

Put on/remove shoes near door

Keep shoes organized

Take out trash

Wipe counters clean

Organize recycling

Rinse recyclable containers

Organize papers

Clear table

Put away dishes

Put away clothes

Fill grain bins.

26 December 2018

The general contractor said that they would like to sign off my many items on their QC log, so I started on that, giving documentation to sign off one item.

When the inspector arrived, I realized that I forgot to prepare for him again. We did weld inspections first, since our scissor lift was being replaced. I found that an issue has become apparent, when we were inspecting stiffener plates. The welder only welded stiffener plates where there are embeds to weld to, and I went with that. The inspector and I verbalized that embeds are missing, making the investigation formal; although, I thought of the issue previously. There are just so many issues. I continued the correspondence to resolve these issues in the afternoon.

Cycling home from work, I practiced counting in Thai. One through ten was easy, but eleven through nineteen was harder because Thais would count by saying ten one (11), ten two (12), ten three (13), and so forth. Switching between ten and regular numbers, I had to get use to it. I counted up to 39.

When I arrived at the apartment, I added a bunch of homely habits to Habitica. These new habits made the apartment look and be more neatly. I asked Jessica, "What habits do you thing I should develop?" She couldn't think of any, but I remembered somethings that she suggested previously. Thinking of habits to develop, I looked around the house. The more that I do the more experience that I get in the Habitica game and life. The following habits were added to my list:

Put away floss, toothpaste, and tooth brushes; clearing bathroom counter

Put on/remove shoes near door

Keep shoes organized

Take out trash

Wipe counters clean

Organize recycling

Rinse recyclable containers

Organize papers

Clear table

Put away dishes

Put away clothes

Fill grain bins

The Best Android Apps to Learn Thai

Since Drops lets me have sessions every ten hours, I wanted to do them early. When I recorded the experience in Habitica, I thought that if I practiced Iearning Thai with other apps I can have a broader perspective and knowledge. I downloaded more than ten apps, exploring the angles that each app takes. After I reviewed them, I uninstalled many of them, finding many to be not intuitive and generic. They typically teach phrases.

The following apps remain useful to me: 

Learn &Play Thai Beginner Word - This app is almost a generic app, teaching common Thai phrases, but it is simple and intuitive. The game is slightly fun.

Learn Thai Alphabet - This app is unique because it concentrates on the basics of the alphabet. The quiz mode is good to consolidate your Thai language knowledge.

Learn Thai with Master Ling- Master Ling is my ex, when it comes to apps to learn Thai. It is good, but I haven't gone back to him. He is designed to eventually require subscription.

Mango Languages: Lovable Language Courses - Mango is wonderful; however, it requires an account, which is not free. Although the app does not save progress, the Thai lessons are accessible. (Mango revealed to me that Drops is teaching me girl phrases. Girls say "I" as chan, and boys say it as pom.)

Pocket Thai Master: Thai Language and Culture - It looks like a text book, but I have not started reading it yet.

Write it! Thai - Writing is also good to reinforce your Thai language study.

Everyday Thai - I like this app because it is tone oriented.

Drops - I use two drops apps to make sure that I get my two daily sessions, since the minimum time between sessions are ten hours. On weekends I get double. I like the daily quick sessions to develop the habit of practicing consistently.

I have nine apps in total to learn Thai, and I like using Habitica to measure my experience in my language practice.

Christmas Eve 2018

I still woke up early; although, I went to sleep late. 

Since Drops lets me have sessions every ten hours, I wanted to do them early. When I recorded the experience in Habitica, I thought that if I practiced Iearning Thai with other apps I can have a broader perspective and knowledge. I downloaded more than ten apps, exploring the angles that each app takes. After I reviewed them, I uninstalled many of them, finding many to be not intuitive and generic. They typically teach phrases.

The following apps remain useful to me: 

Learn &Play Thai Beginner Word - This app is almost a generic app, teaching common Thai phrases, but it is simple and intuitive. The game is slightly fun.

Learn Thai Alphabet - This app is unique because it concentrates on the basics of the alphabet. The quiz mode is good to consolidate your Thai language knowledge.

Learn Thai with Master Ling - Master Ling is my ex, when it comes to apps to learn Thai. It is good, but I haven't gone back to him. He is designed to eventually require subscription.

Mango Languages: Lovable Language Courses - Mango is wonderful; however, it requires an account, which is not free. Although the app does not save progress, the Thai lessons are accessible. (Mango revealed to me that Drops is teaching me girl phrases. Girls say "I" as chan, and boys say it as pom.)

Pocket Thai Master: Learn Thai Language & Culture - It looks like a text book, but I have not started reading it yet.

Write it! Thai - Writing is also good to reinforce your Thai language study.

Everyday Thai - I like this app because it is tone oriented.

Drops - I use two drops apps to make sure that I get my two daily sessions, since the minimum time between sessions are ten hours. On weekends I get double. I like the daily quick sessions to develop the habit of practicing consistently.

I have nine apps in total to learn Thai, and I like using Habitica to measure my experience in my language practice.

I wrote my daily journal entry, publishing it before Jessica woke up.

After breakfast, Jessica and I cleaned our apartment. The compelling thing that got us to clean is that I accidentally put the detergent tray in the laundry machine backwards, and it is stuck. Now we are mostly ready to ask the maintenance guy whether he fixed this situation previously. Our apartment was pathetic.

I have been recruiting family to my Habitica party to help each other maintain our healthy habits, and adopt new habits. Jessica, Trevor, and Jasmine are on my team. 

Our Christmas Eve Ledesma dinner was good. We almost continued our Trash game, but John finished his nap too late. We started a puzzle, which Jasmine bought Mercedes two years ago and never opened. I never seen Jessica so focused on an activity.  She set the majority of the pieces.

Going to sleep on time is always difficult when visiting family. We are staying the night.

Writing at Night: How to further dim an inverted color Android screen

I woke up at 5 AM as usual, completing my journal entry for yesterday. Today's journal entry seems like I am writing about writing. I probably wrote for seven hours.

Since I woke up so early, I wrote in darkness. I inverted the screen color to reduce the bright colors. I actually wanted the brightness of the colors to be darker or dimmer. I do this to reduce the strain on my eyes. Looking on the Android Play Store, I found many apps to dim my screen, but an interesting concept is that dimming an inverted screen actually makes the screen a brighter hue. These apps don't actually dim the brightness of the phone, but they modify the display to look dimmer by causing the white colors look more grayish or a less bright white hue. 

This inverted dimming situation was a problem to solve. Most apps were straight forward, but an app called Night Shift actually had an option to make the screen brighter. I found that making a screen with inverted colors brighter actually dimmed the display. The next paragraph is a side note that I wrote for Android users.

I have the One Plus 5 phone, and it does not have an onscreen navigation bar, having physical buttons, so the screen is a uniform black color; therefore, I am lucky to have the option to hide the navigation bar natively, since I have a One Plus 5. Writing in the dark with other Android phones would not have a uniform display, since the navigation bar is usually inverted to a white color from black.

23 December 2018

I woke up at 5 AM as usual, completing my journal entry for yesterday. Today's journal entry seems like I am writing about writing. I probably wrote for seven hours.

Since I woke up so early, I wrote in darkness. I inverted the screen color to reduce the bright colors. I actually wanted the brightness of the colors to be darker or dimmer. I do this to reduce the strain on my eyes. Looking on the Android Play Store, I found many apps to dim my screen, but an interesting concept is that dimming an inverted screen actually makes the screen a brighter hue. These apps don't actually dim the brightness of the phone, but they modify the display to look dimmer by causing the white colors look more grayish or a less bright white hue. 

This inverted dimming situation was a problem to solve. Most apps were straight forward, but an app called Night Shift actually had an option to make the screen brighter. I found that making a screen with inverted colors brighter actually dimmed the display. The next paragraph is a side note that I wrote for Android users.

I have the One Plus 5 phone, and it does not have an onscreen navigation bar, having physical buttons, so the screen is a uniform black color; therefore, I am lucky to have the option to hide the navigation bar natively, since I have a One Plus 5. Writing in the dark with other Android phones would not have a uniform display, since the navigation bar is usually inverted to a white color from black.

Margaret joined us for the Christmas Sacrament meeting of the Maplewood ward. Jessica sang "Born to Save" in a women's choir. Margaret was a French professor at one time, and she said that the song was French. We arrived by 8:25 for Jessica dress rehearsal. 

The service had three special music pieces played. Jessica & her choir sang well. 

Skye, a primary student of mine, gave me a gift bag of goodies after church. I rarely get gifts, so these gifts tickled that Iove language, which I usually don't identify with. I feel appreciated since two of the three students gave me a gift at Christmas. I will not be teaching them anymore. My calling next year is to teach CTR 5.

Each Sunday I usually call my parents about four in the afternoon. I like to ask them to tell me stories of their week. Mom typically tells me of drama at work with patients and coworkers. I Iike to keep up with my dad's business, since I am business oriented.

Jessica & I try to leave on time to my in-laws for our traditional Sunday dinner at the requested time of 5 PM, but we usually arrive a few minutes late. Mercedes' food is an embraced change of pace from my bland diet of oatmeal and sandwiches. I don't have time to think of preparing a good variety of food. 

Since I didn't have work the next day, John asked if we would like to play, the card game, Trash; which our Ledesma cousins taught us at Lucas' baptism at Grant's Pass. I have realized that the strategy and skill of this game is very limited. It is mostly probability. Since Trash has phases similar to, the game, Phase 10; the completion of all the phases can be very long. It would be very hard for one person to dominate, which can be appreciated. Our game last night rotated winning, and it seemed that we would have to play nearly forty rounds to finish all of phases. Jessica & I got to phase four, and Jasmine & John got to phase three. Jessica & I decided to leave at the "late" time of 9:40 or so.

At home Jessica and I got distracted. I was looking at self-improvement apps, downloading Habitica. I decided on daily standards of achievement and new habits, committing myself to the hard task of cleaning the entire apartment the next day. 

I advised Jessica to try the Wysa AI Therapy app, requiring extra convincing. She liked it. It was a little enlightening to her.

I didn't get to sleep until about midnight.

19 - 21 December 2018

Shockwave is the song stuck in my head today. This song is a little more hardcore than the others. Listen as you read if you dare. Its not that hardcore; maybe a six out of ten.

This morning as I ate breakfast Jessica read a simple parable that Christ gave. I realized that a song, which we sang in the ward choir during Thanksgiving, cites the words of this scriptures. "first the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;" Jesus compared the Kingdom of Heaven to the growth of crop. The sower does not know how it grows. "But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come." (Mark 4:29) I did not understand the parable until the next family scripture study session, which was the twentieth of December. The Kingdom of Heaven is representative of the establishment of God's church. Christ will come for the harvest as it is known as the second coming, but no one knows how the church grows. 
The first thing that I did at work is upload the QC Sequence Manual, which was quick, but it was monumental, since it was developed over months. 
My role in the Multnomah County Central Court House is Quality Control for the facade construction by Columbia Stone Inc. I learned to not post QC reports until my project manager reviews it. The first time I did it the general contractor ran with my report, and the owner's commissioning agent even wrote about it in a site visit report. My program needed a lot of guidance. Hoffman hired a consultant from Intertek to counsel me.
My QC reports have developed a lot. I learned that blanket statements will not accomplish anything; unless, it is for training. If one wants something done, the individual needs to give direct instruction. My reports took a while to become direct and instructive. The report is for management, but the field will not use the content; unless, a specific task is given with formal documentation. I would not have developed my quality control program without my veteran project manager. 
This is my routine. Since I am in charge of arranging third party inspections, I walk up all the floors, recording what is and is not ready for inspection. A matrix is developed to track the progress of each level by elevation.
When I walk down, I look for deficiencies in productivity. I learned that a deficiency is defined by the sequence. All construction is in progress; unless, a sequence is given. It is inefficient to point out something to fix, when the product is not finished. A sequence is the method of construction. The establishment of a sequence is Important for consultants to understand, or they will make QC items to resolve in the middle of construction because the field's methods is not logical to them, making up their own sequence for the company's production. If the construction does not follow the sequence, a deficiency report can be made to resolve the issue. We have established three types of field reports. QC Alerts are for the foreman to teach the crews of situations that may stray from requirements. Deficiency reports address deficiencies by the understanding previously mentioned. Verification requests were my idea to verify the completion of unique situations like RFIs, items that I don't have access to, etc. I can verify things myself too. 
After my QC walk, I printed the deficiency reports, finalizing last week's QC Report. My QC Report includes a progress report, a list of outstanding ems, new non-conforming items, resolved items, inspection reports, and general notes.
When I got home, I needed to rush Jessica to eat dinner because she had a ministering appointment at 6:45. On the 19th of every month, we go out to celebrate our marriage, since we were sealed on the 19th of March 2016. We went to my favorite Thai restaurant. I never had a favorite Thai restaurant until I moved to Portland. What qualifies me to advise on Thai food? I grew up on eating Thai food, since my mom is Thai. It is called Thai Herb. They make the best ice cream. We typically have ice cream for dessert, but Jessica was too full. She always orders a pad Thai dish, and my favorite dish is Gai Kua, a chicken wide noodle dish was a little salad in it.
I edited my journal entry of the past several months, publishing it that night, after Jessica left for her appointment. The last time I posted was July.

20 December 2018

Shelter is the song stuck in my head today. The video is below, if you would like music to listen to matching the day of this entry.

It took me five hours to schedule 34 inspections. An accurate scheduling of the many inspections is important to help the dispatcher manage his inspectors. I scheduled nearly thirty inspections one time, and we did all of them within the time requested.
My laptop has been glitching out, turning off on me twice during my scheduling effort. I had lost about an hour of work.
Jim, our foreman, asked me to reprint the connection plate layout document for Complete Fusion Welding's CEO, since he lost it. One may think that printing something is easy; however, jobsite printers can be finicky. This task may have took me more than an hour.
My project manager sent me Eclad & Picco's latest Site Visit Report today. All of the items were for us. We have a handle on most of them. I learned to respond promptly to site visit reports especially relating to items near or within the company's scope, for consultants can determine means and methods, and they can expand scope without attempting to pay subcontractors for additional work; unless, the subcontractors respond within days. Companies need to actively define their scope of a project, or it may become ambiguous. The management of an ambiguous scope's costs and profits is very difficult.

21 December 2018

Drops, the app, gave me a ten minute Thai language lesson this evening, which is double normal. I can write in my journal now that I finished that.
This morning Jessica read the story of Christ, rebuking his disciples and the storm. I thought that it was funny that Jesus called them faithless. The boat was about to sink, being full of water; however, the story does not say that the disciples worked to empty the boat of water. It seems that the disciples expected that fulfilling Christ's command would be without unusual effort. Disciples should know that faith without works is dead, and "Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:5)
Wendesday and Thursday my project manager was working at the headquarters, and we caught up for the first few minutes today. I did not give myself much time to prepare for the inspections before the inspector arrived. I just realized that I didn't give myself much time to prepare for the inspections this afternoon either.
The inspector and I performed only one floor of torque inspections, when I planned to do three floors, because most people got half a day to work. The inspector and others were feeling the spirit of Christmas, and they even sang joyously.
I received the 41st site visit report today by RDH, the waterproofing consultant of SRG. Only one item for Columbia Stone Inc. was published, and I issued a field verification request to resolve the item. One thing that surprised me is that RDH cited my sequence manual in this site visit report.
The composition of my week's QC report was the work that I performed the rest of the day.

The video above is the sci-fi animated short of Shelter. It is a very good, and I would expect that you would be distracted from my entry if you watched it. 

22 December 2018

Today Jessica joined me in my service in the temple, working the bridge shift. The shift started about 9 AM, concluding at 3 PM. 
I was trained to be a follower of an endowment officiator today. Since I will be writing more about the endowment, I will explain it. Greater obedience to God's commandments is obligated of those who desire more blessings of God. There are several levels of accountability for each covenant to obtain the blessings. The endowment includes many covenants. I believe that those throughout the world, who may read this, may think; how can I trust to obey these covenants? The higher covenants require greater knowledge. This knowledge does not come by study alone. It requires an application of an individual to seek and desire the true nature of God. Spiritual knowledge is given by God through the Holy Spirit. The first covenant in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is baptism. Prior to baptism the knowledge and understanding required to take upon oneself the covenant is reviewed to verify their knowledge of God and the gospel. God is the father of spirits within all souls of man, and he is full of grace and truth. He desires to have a close relationship with all of His children, but they need to come to Him in humility, seeking to find His kingdom that he is establishing on the Earth, where he has revealed his truth. This world is full of religions, and I invite you to not overlook the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Go online and request the missionaries to introduce the gospel to you.
Many covenants are administered in temples. We have too many workers on my shift; therefore, schedules include breaks now. I was trained to be a follower for an endowment session. Since followers typical pray at the conclusion, they make additional mental and spiritual preparation. I had extra time to do this because a scheduling error. The officiator said that the session was good, being well attended, and my service did not have flaws.
Since I get off at 12 PM, I had plenty of time to eat lunch, and do the endowment for a man named Robert G Cooley, who is dead, before Jessica concluded her service. One may ask why covenants are made on behalf of deceased people. Millions of people have died without a fair opportunity to choose to take upon them the covenants. The work to provide these opportunities for all mankind is the work of the temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This part of the gospel may beg the question of life after death. Physical life after death is a gift of God provided by Jesus Christ, and this life is given in what is called the Resurrection, when mortal man becomes immortal; however, all man inherit their works; the greater the works the greater the inheritance. This is based on the covenants explained previously. Christ has also prepared the means that man may be forgiven; for sin, truth, error, and righteousness does exist. There are kingdoms established for those that reject the gospel, which is an eternal world without God. The time to choose is now for dead and living people. Both dead and living people live by spiritual means. This world of mortality will end, but immortal kingdoms are being prepared for all who inhabited this Earth.
After our service, I wanted to get my wedding ring, which I had fixed, because a weld broke. The mall was packed.
We helped Margaret, our neighbor, with a couple of things in the evening, putting up Christmas lights. She also required help, changing her futon cover.

The past several months

This week we rehearsed our lesson for sharing time on temple marriage. It was a little confusing yesterday because a member of the Primary presidency said that the senior primary will go to Autumn Hills.

22 July 2018, Sunday

It turned out that we taught the blessings of temple marriage to the senior primary, and they did their service at Autumn Hills within one hour.

We fulfilled our plan well.

Yesterday Jasmine and Lucas join Jessica and I for an adventure to Kiss Kiss Salon via the Trimet system. I don't like driving and parking in Portland. I suggested having a day in Portland with the Trimet System, so we could travel around without worry of where to drive and park for a simple price of five dollars a person.

On our first bus trip, I practiced my initial attempt, drawing a man, in my new art hobby. It doesn't look great, but I was able to construct his body. I mainly focused on drawing his face with his glasses.

When we were on the yellow line, it stopped randomly.

10 August 2018

Last week I finally figured out how to disable Google's bloatware. YouTube was a big distraction previously. The list that I have created has forty nine items to cover. I should continue writing about Jessica and I's adventure with Jasmine and Lucas in Portland, Oregon.

When the street car randomly stopped, people started getting uncomfortable because the operator did not inform us of what is going on. One man asked Jessica and I if we knew what was going on. We didn't know; therefore, someone called for help. We heard that we would not continue for a couple hours. Everyone got off, and the operator said that the bridge is letting boats through.

When we got off, trying to figure out where to go, a lady asked if she could have a phone call. Lucas offered his phone probably to protect Jessica & Jasmine. The lady said that Lucas can put the phone on speaker phone. Lucas recognized the manner of speech. She was saying that she was caught by the police selling drugs. The police gave her the option to give them all drugs that she had collected. Police seems to know that it is hard for people to collect drugs to sell. She was telling the man that she did have money that she owed him, coordinating where to meet him. The man answered in sympathy mourning that she had lost all the drugs that she collected. I think that the woman should have the choice to start her life over without drugs. It is possible that Lucas misinterpreted the conversation, but she said that he grew up with neighbors that would speak like this; not straight forward, and kind of cryptic. Lucas wanted to get out of that area as quick as possible. It was weird because we just walked a block away, and the environment was not as sketchy.

Google Maps said that we had an hour still to walk to our destination. The destination was Kiss Kiss Salon. We purchased day bus tickets, so we did have options. The walk with the direction of Google maps did not work well because we were walking under a bridge, which we could not just turn right on to. We had to navigate around to the pedestrian access to the bridge. We decided to reload Google maps, when we crossed the bridge, and it told us that a bus stop was near. Walking to the bus stop, we saw a very long line of people dressed very professionally. I think that it was a business convention, but we also guessed that it was a wedding, graduation, or reception. The line was probably a half mile long.

Google had us take a couple buses that seemed to coordinate perfectly. A bus driver asked where we were doing as he seemed to have dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, but we trusted Google. The second bus arrived seconds after the first one left.

We arrived in time for lunch. Some food trucks were across the street from Kiss Kiss Salon. Lucas wanted to find better options, but he gave Jessica and Jasmine money for food as we left in search for better food, since they had to eat in a rush. Walking a block away, I saw a sign saying fish and chips restaurant. Lucas was excited to check that out especially as we approached because it claimed to be British style. It seemed to be closed, so we went next door to ask when it opened. The next door store was unique. It looked like a Mexican Ice Cream cart, but an entire store. A man in Cupertino would sell Mexican Ice Cream to the crews at the Apple Campus 2 site. Talking to the people at the store was awkward, we were asked. "Why do you want to go there?" That sounded shady. We wanted to eat fish and chips. Are they not a restaurant? We walked back to catch up with Jasmine and Jessica while we waited for the British fish and chips restaurant. They were about to receive their food when we arrived. They had to rush eating, but they finished in time before the appointment. We walked them to their appointment; then, we went to the restaurant.

The restaurant open late. It seemed that it was going to open at noon, but it was a little slow to open. The door was open to us to a drowsy glam, Goth, punk Asian girl. Letting us in, she said that it would be a half an hour until the food was ready. The theme of the restaurant was odd. It kind of matched what we were hoping for based off signage on the exterior. There was a lot of Doctor Who memorabilia and other science fiction stuff. Lucas felt a weird vibe, and he could not have it any more, when he saw on the menu a warning that they are not liable, if they serve us raw food that would get us sick. We left without saying anything as the girl was in the back. The menu toted the self-given title of Sci-Fi Café.

We continued our search for good food, walking a couple blocks. We found a Mediterranean food restaurant that had a much better experience. They even had booths for a culturally rich family to eat on the floor with a rug and pillows. The guy, running the place, was really cool, a man, living the American dream from Morocco. We purchased some lamb gyros. Lucas actually purchased the food. He was generous on purchasing food; although, I was paying for the haircuts. We loved the food. We did not explore much after finding the restaurant.

We went back to catch up with our wives. Jessica was finished when we arrived, and Jasmine barely started her haircut. We chilled with them a little, walking around to a park with an odd playground, until we decided to play pool, since the food cart place across the street had free pool there.

We played two games, and I played very well in our first game, hitting several balls in pockets in a row. Lucas made me out to be a professional compared to him. We played a second round after a sound defeat. I did not play as well the second round, but I won again. My claim to beginner's luck was a fib.

We finished just as Jasmine and Jessica came from their haircuts. We decided to head back to Downtown Portland and explore. Looking for something to do, we asked a movie theater security guy, and he recommended a local miniature golf place. We decided to follow what we believe were his directions without following Google's direction. We ended up walking through PSU. When we got tired of no luck, we had Google maps pulled up. We still diddle dallied for a while until we got even more tired of walking around, and we took their Google direction serious. We came across a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Lucas admired it. Following the map was confusing. The miniature golf place was actually less than a block away East from the movie theater; although, we went south, walking a couple miles. It cost too much money to play, so we explored a little more.

Lucas liked food and ice cream, and we found a food court, which led to the Pioneer Place. Lucas did not know the place well, so we looked around until dinner and ice cream time. We decided to eat Chinese food. I think that it is good because a lot of Chinese people were eating there. After dinner, we visited an ice cream stand, and I discovered Spumoni. I knew that I wanted to get it because Pistachio was a flavor in it. Pistachio became my favorite ice cream flavor, when I saw that it was a common flavor in Jamaica. (I served my two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Jamaica.) Cherry, Pistachio, and chocolate were the three flavors of Spumoni. We went outside to sit on a bench, and a guy, passing by, spontaneously went to get ice cream with his partner, when we saw us enjoying ice cream. I did not thoroughly enjoy Spumoni, but it was good.

On the bus ride home, the glass building reflections made knowing what side that the sun was of the bus confusing. We sat in the disabled citizens section of the bus, and a man with Down syndrome thought our interaction was charming. Lucas asked him about the CD that he was listening to, and he was listening to old school rap. I summarized saying that the bus will be going up and down hills; thus, we are passing through Hillsdale. The disabled man enjoyed that summary.

There is a really good game and comic store in Hillsdale, which is better than Thinker Toys in Multnomah Village. We looked through it, when Jessica and I went on our last date. It is called "Other World's Games & Comics." It was closed before we could enjoy any of the games that they had available in the store to borrow. Their selection of games to borrow is better than Thinker Toys; plus, they have tables that you can use to play in the store. This was the first part of Jasmine and Jessica's birthday.

The event that we planned to attend for their birthday is the Party in the Park in Beaverton. Our stake was invited to serve at this event; however, it was the same weekend as Jessica and Jasmine's birthday, so we went as participants rather than volunteers. The event exceeded my expectations. Many recreational activities were provided free of cost for the community. I thought that the city only allowed the facilities to be free, and we had to bring our recreational equipment.

Mercedes Ledesma gave Jessica and Jasmine a miniature tent, a blanket, and two lawn chairs. When we arrived, we planned to set up camp. Jasmine & Lucas set up their miniature tent with the blanket. After we set up, we decided that we were going to take everything down after lunch. Jessica and I purchased hot dogs and fries. Jasmine and Lucas ate lunch in their miniature tent. We actually got a picture of them in it, and the picture is Lucas' Facebook profile photo. We figured that setting up a tent and lawn chair was like setting up camp at a theme park, so we took everything apart, putting it back in the car.

Mercedes Ledesma was asking Lucas for directions via phone. Lucas and I played basketball as Jasmine and Jessica found Mercedes, carrying all her stuff. We also went to an iHeart radio booth. I won a Trailblazer's Poster, and Lucas won a bottle of Cream Soda. After playing basketball, we found Jessica & Mercedes, trying to throw a large ring shape over water bottles with Mercedes. Mercedes brought her own camp for us to watch. Jessica stayed behind as we went to experience the climbing wall station.

When we ran to the station, Lucas and I ended up racing. If I were comparing the race to a drag race, I would say that he had an empty gas tank. He was only able to keep up for a short while. Although I dominated him in the foot race he dominated the climbing walls.

There were three. I only climbed one slowly. After climbing the first wall in less than ten seconds, Lucas proclaimed "Because I am Batman!" Lucas climbed the second one twice because there were two difficulties. After climbing the hard face of the tower, the line gently let him down as he pretended to shoot spider webs like Spiderman. The third tower was a cinch too. Jasmine tried three times. She was successful the first attempt. Fear got to her the second time, and she overcame her fear the third attempt.

We refreshed ourselves with lemonade afterwards; at least, I did. I had Jessica time when I was ready, playing jumbo connect five. We had to fix it first, learning its quirks. Other kids wanted to play, and I didn't want the game to last forever by playing too defensive, so I let Jessica win. My list of events says that we played Badminton before playing connect 5.

Jessica & I enjoyed playing badminton. We actually played a little ping pong before, but we got over it quickly. I enjoyed badminton a lot. I don't know how much running around Jessica did, but I got into it. I liked that I could hit the birdie as hard as I can, and it would not fly out of bounds. I also liked that the birdie was easy to jump smash. Although I love tennis, I was never about to get into it as much as badminton at this event. I say that I almost quit track for tennis my senior year of high school. I was actually able to play the net.

After Jessica & I time, we had Jasmine, Lucas, Jessica, & I time. After playing connect 5, we found Jasmine & Lucas, playing badminton. I was already warmed up; maybe too warmed up. I think that I was so tired that I staggered, hitting my knee on the floor hard. I got up to walk/run it off. I was fine, but the bruise came a couple days later.

Jessica & I played corn hole for the last few minutes before the event closed. We threw the corn bags about twenty feet into the hole. I made two in & Jessica made one in.

We bought an ice cream cake, but we didn't want to watch it for hours, so we sacrificed it. We ate it, but Lucas had to buy a new one, since it melted in the car. I joked that Jessica and I will start a cake delivery company. I am known within my family for having carrying our wedding cake all over the country, since we moved so much. Our experience has not been fruitful. We eventually forgot our wedding cake at an apartment as we rushed off to move to Hillsboro for my internship. I will remind you of the reason why one may carry their wedding cake all over the place. It is because there is a tradition to save part of the cake to eat at your first year anniversary. We have actually been able to deliver a couple cakes, since our failure of our wedding cake and Jessica's birthday. We bought the cake for John's birthday. That delivery was successful. The Taylor family of our ward had potluck/concert, hosting the ward's musicians. We brought a cake because we arrived late, but no one ate it.

It was a horrible five dollar cake from Safeway anyways. I don't blame them. There were strawberries on the top, which were covered with a red goo. The red goo tasted like medicine. After I tasted it for the first time, I cut off all the wipe cream and washed off the red goo off the strawberries.

John Ledesma wanted to go see the new Mission Impossible film for his birthday. The title is Fall Out. We watched it on Friday evening. Jessica and I watched the previous movie in the series on Monday. It is called Rogue Nation. I liked that movie a lot more than Fall out because it developed a lot of characters well, and the story was good; however, a lot of these characters were short lived in Fall Out, proving their development useless. The movie definitely felt like it was pushing the limits of impossible. After the movie, we had cake and enjoyed each other's company.

I have a bike story. It comes from Terwilliger as usual. I had a case of egocentrism, thinking that the world revolved around me for a couple weeks or so. There was a girl that I would see most every day, running, or so it seemed. She accidently showed me her stomach once, and I didn't see her for a while. I thought that she was embarrassed, and she chose another course to run to avoid me; however, I did see her running again. This is only temporary because the bridge that I usually use to go down to Portland was closed for construction. This is not my eccentric story, but it is part. I started riding my bicycle through Portland, when the bridge closed, having to go through Terwilliger Blvd. It was insightful to see that the perspective cycling on both sides of the street can be so different because I usually ride my bike home of that boulevard. An older guy cycled behind me and with me a couple days in a row. My egocentrism said that Trimet told the police to watch me because a bus driver honked at me. The guy followed me for the third day, and he stopped at the intersection signaling that there was a cross walk, yelling at me that I was going to get ran over by a bus. When I looked back, I saw a bus, but I knew that I was not going to be hit because it was in a different lane. When I let the buses pass, I turned right over the bus lane and the street car lane as the old guy was yelling "That's illegal, cyclist. That's illegal!" I felt bad, realizing that he is telling me to cross the road at the crosswalk for my safety. On the fourth day, I crossed at the crosswalk, and the old guy passed the intersection, waving to me cordially; then, I realized that there was a police car, sitting right next to me at the intersection. I thought that the police was waiting to pounce on me for doing an illegal maneuver, since I was warned by the guy. I didn't see the old guy for some time after this experience. My story is to warn you to be aware of egocentrism. The world does not revolve around you. The old guy might actually work for the police because I saw an old guy, who looked similar to him, cycling last week. I think if the police does have undercover cops to warn cyclists of their unsafe and illegal actions. I would rather have them not be undercover. It would raise my relationship with police. Police are scary, and if they told me that Trimet was scared for my safety. I would appreciate them more. The bridge is open again, so I don't see that running girl, since I returned to biking over the bridge; however, I have seen that old guy, going down my cycling path to Portland.

On the weekend after John Ledesma's birthday, I taught four primary lessons in one. My teaching companion thought that I was crazy. We got behind because we skipped a few weeks, but Brother Kuhn just kept teaching the next lesson rather than catching up. That lesson was actually very successful. I actually finished covering all four lessons ten minutes early.

My bill for GoDaddy was coming up for the third time, and I did not want to pay their unnecessary service charges. They love to charge you for every service that they can imagine, and their user interface or how their website builder is designed is not intuitive. I thought that I found a webpage on Godaddy that said that they would transfer their domains to other hosts for free, but I felt like I was an Apple user, when I tried to transfer my domain. I found a video that showed me how to transfer my domain name to blogger. I use it for all my other blogs, so I might as well use it for alexycles.com. The video had very few views, but I did not care, if I messed up my website. It was not making money. It was not worth the expense. The video was simple. I may have to review the video to explain, since it has been so long; however, I simply changed the IP address of the website to Google's IP address. Their IP address is given at blogger and on their services. The video was good and straight forward, and I was successful. None of my articles transferred though. I still need to do that somehow. I believe that the internet has a time machine that I can go back in time before I transferred the domain, and retrieve the posts.

YouTube has been very distracting, and I even disabled it for about a month; however, I would still check out the website on my web browser. I figured that disabling it did not do much to help me.

During that month, I practiced learning Thai with an app called Ling. I really like it. It made me feel that I can read and speak the language. I was not just learning the alphabet. It does only give the user a few lesson before asking for a hefty subscription price. The app works great.

During the week that I disabled YouTube from my phone. Jessica and I were asked, if I wanted to be Waldo. We were asked to wonder around the Washington Square Mall for an hour as youth looked for us. Jessica and I had fun looking around. A store, featuring start up products, was interesting. We went to a hair products store to look for curly hair gel, but she could not find what she was looking for. A few teams of youth found us.

I am a resource of knowledge and labor at the Multnomah County Central Courthouse especially as the project managers at Columbia Stone and Natural Stone Design quit. We have had two interns all summer, and they have not been a resource of the project or me until the last few weeks of their internship. I worked a lot with Scott Clements. He was fun because he was very smart and hardworking, having ties with Asian countries, knowing Korean. I believe that he said that his grandfather was a missionary in China. We got along well. He was very helpful for working on the assembly tickets. I am the manager somewhat of the warehouse fabrication tickets. Our new project engineer Susan has taken a lot of the work off my shoulders, continuing Scott Clements work, but I should be a check on her work. He understood the building quickly. He is a thorough and diligent worker.

In the past few weeks, I have developed the habit in the morning after I make my breakfast to wash all the dishes. I do most of the cleaning. Catching up on dishes and laundry has been my new habits. I also do a load of laundry to keep up with that. Do a little by little consistently, and one will most likely catch up. Dishes and laundry seemed impossible to manage.

I have written in my list to write about feeding the missionaries. We have feed the missionaries twice. I really need to catch up in my journal. I believe on this occasion I had the inspiration to invite Jessica to go out with the missionaries as much as possible, but she hasn't. She could work with them full time, and she could double the full time missionary work force, if she found another sister in the ward to join them. We have actually been forbidden in our ward to feed the missionaries recently; unless, we are hosting friends with the missionaries as a week ago or so. Jessica loves how big and affordable that the pizzas are at Costco, so we bought one. It fed the four of us easily. I recall saying that missionary work is interesting. I expressed that I did not think that my effort lacked synergy with my companions. In one area, I was my most fruitful, and it was because I really loved the people. The second key was following the spirit. I was lining up baptisms every week; then, I was emergency transferred, and I was trying to force things to happen. That area was my last area, and on my plane flight home I continued to make the most of my calling and authority; however, I felt my potential was limited because I was immature. I think that meditation would be important to practice as a missionary to get beyond the present, and think about what really needs to happen.

On the next day, I taught about Samuel. I went to LDS.org to look at my lesson plan to recall the experience, but my lesson plan is not available because I accidentally deleted it somehow during the lesson. I finished the lesson fine though. I taught the children about how to have a relationship with the Holy Ghost. Although Samuel was raised by a temple worker that was not faithful, he was led by the Spirit. I taught that when I grew up I rarely felt the spirit, and I still rarely feel that spirit. I related that I prayed for hours to have the spirit's guidance more direct on my mission, but it did not come until my mission president asked my companion to give me a blessing. I don't think that I feel the spirit that much. MyKelle explained it perfectly. I don't know how to explain it scripturally based. I just try to do what I think is best and good. When I do this, I think that I follow the spirit.

I attended a Temple Worker Fireside with Jessica and John Ledesma, since they are ordinance worker. The most profound thing that I was inspired to do is make more time to temple service, but I have still failed to do this. A speaker said that, when he was a mission president, he spoke in an interview with a general authority, seeking answers for how to be fruitful, as he consecrates all his might, mine, and strength to work. The general authority said that within the short years that he has of his life. People will realize that there is only one place to find hope in the world, and that is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They will start "flocking" to the chapels.

One week I got a flat tire, obtaining an answer to the question of the validity of the Bicycle Store salesman's words. Is a cheap Chinese manufactured tire with a tube full of puncture repairing goo as long lasting as a tire with metal shielding sewn into the tire? The answer is that the goo makes tires more reliable than protecting the tube. I got this flat tire a long time ago. I had to ask Jessica to buy me a new tube and arrive by the time that I finish work in order to repair my bike directly after work. The tire was too small for the tube and wheel, and I had to wrestle it to fix the tire.

During this week, our façade system was tested for waterproofing on the Multnomah County Central Courthouse. It was fun to see everyone watch the tests. The performance of our system felt like it was competing against the window installers. The interest of the general contractor, architect, engineers, and so forth was like they were watching the Olympics. At the end of the tests, we were congratulated by the architect for passing, when the window installers failed.

Jasmine and Lucas has been visiting us most every weekend. During August, they joined us for our monthly date, celebrating the 19th, since Jessica and I were married on that date. We went to eat at a gyro place. The food was not good enough to go there a second time. Surprisingly enough; a Thai restaurant was good enough on the 19th of September that we went to it again with Jasmine and Lucas last week. The Lad na noodles tastes just like my mom's, and their Pad se ew was good too. Jessica got Pad Thai both times, and I did not enjoy it as much as my mother's. Restaurants tend to make Pad Thai too greasy.

I started to practice art for a couple weeks on my tablet, and looking at YouTube videos of Art consumed my practice. I disabled YouTube from my phone and tablet; then, I practiced learning Thai for a couple weeks, but I was tempted to watch YouTube on my browser because I gave it to YouTube, thinking that, if I am going to watch YouTube, I might as well install the app again. Cub Scouts started again last week, and I hated that I watched YouTube the whole time, so I disabled YouTube and my web browser. Trevor still sends me YouTube videos, so I still have access to YouTube on my phone, since Facebook Messenger has its own browser. I can't get away from it. At least I am writing in my journal instead of watching YouTube the entire time of Cub Scouts today. I did watch a few videos to catch up of the tech stuff.

I have been saying. 'I don't know why I keep up with tech because I only buy new phones, when my phone breaks.' Phones are not even that innovative. At least they are innovating. There was a long period of time, when phones did not innovate.

I have a joke/story that I have told successfully a couple times. Since Jessica and I live in a studio apartment, I like to cover the light from the clocks of the microwave and stove. It may seem odd, but I don't check the clock most of the time in the morning. I usually complete my routine as quick as possible, and go to work. One morning Jessica got up to join me for a family scripture, and she uncovered the time on the microwave clock, and it said "End." Ideas came to my head, thinking that it is funny. I thought that Jessica may think that her day ended or that the End of time as arrived. Hopefully you have laughed before I had to explain. It said "End" because it finished cooking my Oatmeal.

About a month ago, Diego, a mason coworker, asked me whether I would teach him how to read prints. He and, his brother-in-law, Fernando would come to my apartment. I taught him how to navigate drawings on the first session, and we continued that; furthermore, I taught them how to convert decimals into various sizes of measurements like eighth and sixteenth of inches because the surveyor would put down the heights of each floor by feet in decimal. Maybe I will make some visual images to explain the issue because people are afraid of decimals and fractions.

Jessica registered the car in Oregon, and we got a cyclist "Share the road." license plate. She did a great job, not having issues at the DMV.

There were fires in the desert megatropolis of California. Since I was tired of breathing the smoky air all the way up in Oregon, I purchased a respirator, an air filter mask. I have seen a few innovative respirators that don't look creepy or odd. I wanted a respirator that would not be good for only a few days. The product that I found is manufactured by a company called Respro. It is interesting that Respro, and Flare are both companies from the UK.

Flare makes the titanium earplugs that I used for about eight years. I quit using them because they have compacted ear wax into my ear channel, and I don't know how long that it will take to come out naturally. Jessica found a recipe for a natural ear wax remedy the ratio is 1:1 vinegar and alcohol. It worked really well on the first time. The ear wax was really bothering me. I purchased a twenty-eight decibel ear muffs, so the ear plug would quit shoving wax down my ear. I have a little troubling hearing out of my left ear sometimes when I smile or laugh, when my jaw puts pressure on my ear drum.

About a week ago, I was riding my bike to work, and I faintly smelt smoke on my bike ride to Portland. Since I could not spit, I took it off to spit, and the smoke boldly entered my lungs. I was astonished as I rushed to cover my face with my Respro Cinqro Air Filter Face Mask Respirator.

Jessica and I have started to hang out with Jasmine and Lucas most weekends. On Labor Day, we drove over, and we help them move into their new house/room. It was nice to chill out and serve them. We went out to eat Mexican food at Ixtapa Mexican Restaurant Scappoose OR. Treating myself to a seafood burrito, I was disappointed that the sea food was not fresh.

One Friday, I felt spontaneous, thinking about going to the movie theaters, and I also wanted to watch Crazy Rich Asians. Jessica was leery of the movie, but I insisted as the Winnie the Pooh movie was an hour later. I don't even think that I ever watched Winnie the Pooh in my entire life anyways. The movie was very vain, worldly, and perverted. I used better words when I described the movie to Lucas. I wanted to see the culture of the extremely wealthy, and that was interesting. Jessica could not get over the negative themes.

Jasmine and Lucas came over the next day, and I bought, the card game, Munchkin. I recall that it is really fun from when I lived at Heber City during the time that I worked at Delta Stone Products. It turns out that the themes are partially vain, worldly, and perverted too. We really enjoyed the first time that we played; although, we struggled with the rules. We brought the game over to the Ledesma's home, and John looked through the cards unenthusiastically. I believe that that messed with my second experience, playing the game.

On the previous day before playing Munchkin the second time, John and Mercedes Ledesma came over to wash Mercedes temple clothes in our washing machine. John was just hanging out, so I asked, if he would like to play Magic with me. The "Other Worlds Games" Store, where I purchased Munchkin, gave Jasmine, Lucas, Jessica, and I each a free deck of Magic cards. Jessica is a little into it after playing a few games. John was not even interested in it; although, I explained the rules pretty well. He summoned spells without even reading them, when it turned out to be a very close game, and I was about to win. Jessica chirped up, telling him to play a spell that would kill the one creature that I would allow me to win. I should have won.

Jessica wanted to use her Google Play Reward money to watch Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. That movie was very intense from the very beginning. The movie felt like it was very short; maybe because it was fast paced. It rolled into plots easily. It was a good time, exploring useless themes.

Jessica and I started watching two cartoon shows on Netflix on the same night. Their titles are the Dragon Prince and Voltron. We started watching Dragon Prince with Jasmine and Lucas, and Lucas mustered the strength to not watch additional episodes only by the encouragement of Jasmine. Jessica put a dampener on the excitement and the time together because she watched the rest of the season privately. Dragon Prince was produced by the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender, so I was excited. The story is interesting. The characters are developed deeply.

Voltron has a similar feel to Dragon Prince and Avatar: The Last Airbender, but It is not the same to my observation. The characters are not developed as well. Many of the characters are developed shallowly. One phrase that I hate to hear in cinematics is "We don't have a choice." Voltron likes to use this phrase. One things that is similar with Dragon Prince and Voltron is that the screenwriters love puns. Voltron is much funnier than Dragon Prince. Voltron is pretty amazing because they design many alien races just for one episode to not bring them back. Two main characters should have girlfriends already, but the paladins are too good. They are left on their planet to abandon or show creativity in their character design. Avatar: The Last Airbander and Dragon Prince has a clear adventure; however, Voltron is freeing the entire universe practically from a tyrannical empire. The path is not clear at all. Voltron already has seven seasons, which is fun. Dragon Prince has one. When we binged on Dragon Prince, I was disappointed, but Jessica already watched the entire season. Dragging it out would be even more disappointing. Dragon Prince ended well for their first season, but Voltron did not. The team is usually very conservative, but they acted usually risky just because the season was ending.

We started using our personal plastic light weight containers to reduce waste by buying raw ingredients from bulk sections of grocery stores. This is a rare feature of stores. We like WinCo. They did have baking yeast at one time in their bulk section, but I bought nutritional yeast as a substitute. I tried nutritional yeast in my bread machine, and the Nutritional yeast did not raise the bread; however, the loaf that came from the machine was useable. Jessica looked into the product, finding that the yeast is deactivated or dead, saying that Vegans use it as cheese. It tastes similar to cheese; however, when I eat it alone, I tasted that it goes through several flavors, and the first is similar to cheese. Later she revealed that it is nutritionally fortified rather than the yeast is nutritional by nature, containing vitamin B12 and all of the essential proteins. One thing that my father taught me about fortified products and nutritional supplements is a realization. He realized that the raw nutrition put in these foods may not actually be digestible. An evidence of this is that he see an abnormal coloration in his urine despite hydration. When I began to eat nutritional yeast, I noticed that my urine was unusually yellow; although, I drink a good amount of water. My father quit consuming vitamins a long time ago, and I did not continue purchasing nutritional yeast after consuming what I bought originally.

I did my first ministering appointment six months after President Nelson revealed the change; however, I feel that I did more in one ministering appointment than my entire work as a home teacher. My ministering brother is Alex. He moved in a few weeks after I did, and he claimed to love board games. I work in primary, so I am separated from the Priesthood brethren. My ministering assignment was accessible only on my wife's account too, which delayed it for a month or so.

Jasmine and Lucas have been visiting Jessica and I on the weekends for more than a month, hanging out. We play games occasionally. Since Alex loves games, we invited him to join us. I only have one game, so we did not have many options. When Alex came, I invited him to bring some of his favorite games. He brought a few, and we played a couple. They were very fun. We played a king of the hill type game, which is called King of Tokyo. We also played a Zombie game, and I played a key role to winning, which was fun. The team feeling is uplifting.

You may not believe it, but it is December tenth today. This post on my blog will probably cover half a year. I think that I have developed a balance with YouTube; kind of. I actually began to write in my journal again after watching a few videos, when Jessica was serving in the cub scouts. A lot has happen, but life has been simple.

One thing that was a pain is, since I wore my flare ear plugs too much, ear wax was compacted in my ear. It took me way too long to go to urgent care to get it pumped out. I don't think that I should go into describing the experience. I had to buy gigantic over the ear muffs. One person said that I look like a helicopter pilot.

A while ago Jessica and I went to a fireside dedicated to ordinance workers. One of the speakers recommended us to read the scriptures daily as a couple. I usually read the scriptures during breakfast, developing that habit when I attended seminary. Jessica and I have been reading the New Testament, and we are going to have to restart that study with the new 'Come, Follow me' curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We finally finished Matthew about a week ago. Jessica would mow through the New Testament really quickly, but we would not understand it and not be able to talk. We typically read one paragraph or subject a day, which is usually a few verses. Mark is more understandable because it is written for the Gentiles. I actually have served for my fourth week as an ordinance worker in the Portland Temple last weekend. I work the morning shift.

John Ledesma asked me one week. "What would you think about serving with me in the temple, and we will go out to eat afterward? Lucas was going to serve with us too." The following week I got an email, inviting me for an interview with the temple presidency to serve in the temple. I actually did not hear anything able John as I have spoken with people that serve in the temple. The temple president alluded to what I said to my bishop, being busy. I have served in the temple as an ordinance worker before, and I did not want my father-in-law to define my experience of my service. I decided to not serve on his shift. I decided to work the morning shift, so I can get an early start to the day, and I can still have a lot of time to the afternoon to do things.

I have wanted close friends, and we have become good friends with Alex Meldrum and Ari, his wife. We also have a neighbor that has opened up to us. Her name is Margaret. She came to the ward's Halloween and Christmas party. We shop together, and we have invited her to see us perform in our ward choir. We are performing a couple songs this Sunday, and we are grocery shopping tomorrow, hoping that she will join us for both activities.

We have had one game night with Alex at my apartment, and we had a movie night to meet Ari, and we had a game night this weekend, meeting a couple of friends from his university. We played Betrayal. My overall feeling is that it is a great game, but I think that the horror theme is undesirable.

We watched the Three Musketeers with Ari & Alex. The movie is surprisingly PG. Movie ratings can't be trusted. The film was very sexually suggestive.

Jessica seems to always love to plan the special event, deciding our Halloween costume was a topic of discussion for a long time. I have only had good experiences with my costumes, since I have celebrated Halloween with Jessica. I have not chosen good Halloween costumes for most of my life. My rule is that if people cannot recognize my costume without me explaining it. It is not good. No one recognized my costumes until Jessica coordinated our costumes. We thought about being robbers, but I thought that the costumes might traumatize children. We went to Goodwill like last year, finding a rainbow poncho. Jessica found unicorn attire, and we decided combine the clothes. Jessica was a unicorn, and I was her rainbow. We did not have time to paint my face for the party, but Jessica painted my face as a rainbow for the Ledesma Halloween tradition of eating Chipotle. She actually used a crayon type medium.

I drove all my in-laws to Lucas' baptism. Lucas is Jessica's youngest cousin. Visiting their family, I feel like I was a little offish, and I think that my behavior made me developed a closer relationship to a more offish cousin. Her name is Abby. She thought that my laugh was odd. When we drove away as we depart on Sunday, she stood alone, waving us good bye. On Saturday we went to a park, and we played ultimate Frisbee. In Lucas' baptism documentation, I wrote that he has a special opportunity as the youngest child to serve the family until he is last to move out. This gives him a special relationship opportunity with his mother. This was on the first weekend of November.

Jessica & I flew to California for Thanksgiving. I basically did not prepare any food. We arrived the morning of after pulling an all-nighter because I could not sleep at the airport, and Jessica wanted to arrive before midnight rather than at couple hours before the 6 AM flight. Maritza prepared the turkey Ecuadorian style, marinating it for a whole week. It was good to catch up with everyone.

I never felt hungry in California because Jessica and I had a very early breakfast; then, we ate second breakfast. I believe that we ate thanksgiving appetizers too. I prefer to feel Iike eating. The following day we had late meals, yet we sat at a table of our favorite buffet for the celebration of my birthday. Thomas and Maritza joined us.

When I mentioned that I want to celebrate my birthday the day after Thanksgiving to my parents, they reminisced about Uncle Doug Nielson, inviting them to visit for Thanksgiving, when my birth was planned within the week. Uncle Doug convinced them not to worry because he was a doctor, so they drove down to San Diego. My birthday was very special this year, a most memorable one; although, the other events are not particularly unique. We went to the Cheesecake factory. It felt dark, crowded, loud, and distracted; furthermore, we asked for an appetizer, which arrived after our main dishes. They also forgot to give us free bread, which I had to ask for. I felt very hungry. All of the food came at once. The experience was not satisfactory. Their service did not feel human. It felt like a factory. After we went to Jessica's parent's place for dessert. John got me the same cake that we purchased from Safeway for a ward activity, which no one ate, tasting like old strawberries covered with medicine. These are the not unique experiences of my birthday.

The unique experience was a Facebook birthday fundraiser for Operation Underground Railroad. I did not expect anyone to contribute, but friends and family contributed 150 dollars. I first heard of the charity a few years ago on the Mormon Channel Talk Radio, supporting it by watching one of their films in a theater in Rexburg. I purchase a shirt, and ran an awareness 5K for the charity. This may have contributed to the success as my support has been public. The charity breaks children out of sex slavery.

My birthday celebration ended on last Friday, the 14th of December, since Columbia Stone likes to celebrate all of the month's birthdays all at once. We celebrated in Tualatin. My special gift arrived at the end of the day, when a mullion fell from the 9th floor of the building. I am grateful that I was not on the jobsite for all the drama.

The 14th of December is Mercedes Ledesma's birthday. We provided a home cooked meal for her; preparing garlic bread, pasta, and salad. The meal was more enjoyable than my factory dinner. We even danced kind of. Only Mercedes was on her feet. The rest of us sat at the table. John played a couple fun songs on his phone, playing Space Jam and Charo.

I have a story from serving at the temple yesterday. I confused my schedule twice, but I accidentally left serving at the recommend desk early. When I came back a lady thought that I was security, for they were called to help her find her lost ring. I told her a story about my wife. She lost her ring in the house about a month ago, finding it last Thursday on the ground after she had pulled the laundry basket out of the closet. I believe that God planned that I be there to comfort her.

One app that the Android Play Store introduced to me as an audience choice app of the year is Drops. It is a language learning program. It is the program that makes it great. It is not a dictionary, which is not fun. The app actually has Thai! It is subscription based, but it gives a minimum of 5 minutes of practice a day. It could actually be twice a day, since one may practice once every ten hours, if you are not a paid subscriber. I don't see a limit to the extent of material that the app has unlike Ling that I used before. Ling requires subscription to access to all their content.

Church yesterday was unique. After choir rehearsal, we sat in our bench before sacrament, and Jessica said that the Brinton family gave us a Christmas card; then, a couple seconds later a primary student of mine gave me a plate full of homemade goodies. Ten seconds another family gave us a gift. The bombardment of receiving gifts was surprising. I never received gifts at church before like this.

I am going to tell you how I balanced my YouTube addiction. I chose to disable all browsers, and the Google app. I reinstalled a browser, but I am still separated from the Google ecosystem. I typically only watch YouTube when I prepare dinner or at home. Google likes to attract people to the internet, but I have recently separated myself from Google’s personalized content by installing Duck Duck Go. It is a simple browser, but the company is a search engine.

18 December 2018

The music of the video below was stuck in my head today. I invite you to listen to it while you read my journal entry.

This morning was very wet. It rained so much that the public lights were off. Riding my bike down the hill from Hillsdale through the darkness, I saw flares in the distance at Terwilliger's intersection to ease the stress of the traffic light outage. Water was dripping off my face for minutes as I was scheduling blog posts for the newly named Single Adult Blogs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints social media pages before work. 
The first thing that I did at work is confirm completion of mislabeled mullion assemblies, which was more simple than expected.
Afterward, I caught up with the project manager to get focused. He taught that management & shop work was all to support the field personnel. We should not give or receive any lip in serving the field, which we did from the shop, when I announced the new mullion labels. 
I was told to make a matrix for all the mullion assemblies for the field, but I was hesitant because I thought my manager over simplified it. 
Working on other things, we were approached by a foreman, asking about the changes. I was then instructed to relabel mullions in the field.
When I came back from that activities conclusion, I received a call from the inspector to complete epoxy anchor installations. We were unable to complete the second inspection planned because the special condition connection plate was already grouted, which I had to arrange the removal.
I did two things for the field. Red asked me to make a document, showing the face of Probel off the grid-lines for the iron workers, since they were bugging him about it, and I made the mullion assembly matrix after humbling myself to make the oversimplified matrix. My operations manager started creating it, who is over my project manager.
Tonight we shopped with a neighbor at New Seasons because Jessica discovered that Winco has a policy that bulk products is only to be purchased in their plastic bags to avoid cross contamination. We don't want to collect plastic bags. The use of throw-away plastic bags are harmful to the world's ecosystems.

December 17, 2018

Today felt like a normal day until I realized that I forgot to put on my helmet, wearing one of my Apollo Mechanical hats. When I arrived at work, I realized that I forgot my lunch and my laptop. The rare occasion of bringing my laptop home was my birthday celebration last Friday at Columbia Stone's headquarters in Tualatin. I typically work on the jobsite in downtown Portland. 

I blamed my rhythm being off because I accidentally slept-in last Thursday until 7:30. I usually arrive at work at 7 AM. 

The facade design meeting is at 8 o' clock Thursday mornings, and I drove straight to work after dressing, arriving on time for the meeting.

The trick that I used to save time parking is that Jessica did it for me. I told a funny story of Jessica parking the car to my dad yesterday evening, and he got a kick out of it.

Jessica rarely drives, and she wanted to practice; therefore, she decided to do an extra loop around the parking structure on each floor. Someone started following her, doing the extra loop on each level until level seven. Maybe they were hoping the parking situation changed seeing logic in the extra loop. 

Last week was a triumph because we are publishing a complete QC plan. My project manager & I were planning to announce the completion of each section; however, I was mostly ignored when I reported on the QC plan. I was fine with it. The QC plan is not about recognition. Its application is the achievement.

I wrote my first real RFI for a general contractor last week. The idea was accepted, but the structural application needs to be specified by the engineers. 

There is a few issues in the mullion assembly labeling, and I felt blameless over the weekend. When I started looking into the issues, I realized that my labels were incorrect. I fixed a couple issues today, releasing updated documents, but I forgot to fix mislabelled assembly ticket. I still have a lot of work to do.