7 January 2018

18 December 2017

After church, I was asked if I could help out in a blessing later yesterday evening. I found my oil, finding the valve empty, so I consecrated more oil. I bought a high quality valve a while ago. Trying to figure it out, I found that it functioned like a syringe. Valves that I have had tend to open on their own, so I bought a higher quality one.

I met with Spencer Nielsen to bless Naomi. I was really quiet. After the blessing, Spencer home taught her, but I didn't say anything. I think that I did not say anything during the home teaching lesson because I was not prepared.

After the appointment, I spoke to Spencer about Ultralink because the Facebook phone app connected his phone number to the company. He said that he invented it. He explained it as hyperlink 2.0, saying hyperlinks are so clunky and uncertain. It makes website interaction smoother. You can look at the website at Ultralink.me.

Spencer has been developing Conure Music with Derek Taylor. I can't really check it out because it is only for iOS. The website that it is a music streaming app that does not require subscription, and the purchase of music supports the artist directly.

19 December 2017

Last night we had a Family Home Evening, finishing the reading of Alma chapter 36. I liked the verse, saying that the commandments are holy. Many of the commandments are too preserve our virtue as children of God.

The countertop installation is going well. They started installing the countertops sooner than I expected. All of the counters were delivered over the weekend.

20 December 2017

Last night Jessica and I went to Happy Hooligans, a vegetarian restaurant, for our monthly anniversary. Of course. It was hard to decide where to eat. We are kind of going vegetarian. I mainly wanted to try their chicken made out of soy. I am not into it. I just want to give it a try. On the creativity scale, the restaurant does not have any unique dishes mainly salads and sandwiches. I got a pesto chicken sandwich. The "chicken" tasted like very salty soggy chicken. Somehow they made the texture similar to meat. The interior design of the restaurant was a little trippy. The hardwood floor went up the wall, and exterior finishes were put on a wall. The wall on the other side did not match, having bamboo painted on it. The hardwood floors did not run up the other wall, but brick did.

Yesterday I had my first moment that I questioned the safety of another person. A man, named Bernardo, was laying on the ground with his head, shoulder, and arms; hanging of the edge of a floor of the building. He claimed to be helping someone be as safe as possible. The man was hooking up Damin to structure with fall safety equipment. When I walked down stairs, he was kneeling on ledge between a wooden fence and an edge of the floor with a fall about six feet below to scaffold, having the kneeling width of about 6-8 inches. He was going to set a stone in front of him.  I asked him how he is going to that stone to see how sure of his decision that he was.

22 December 2017

Yesterday I did not write in my journal because Red, our foreman, hosted a barbecue for everyone. This project is very unique because we have over 70 people working from the union. Usually 20 crews is the biggest a project requires to install stone. Audriana got a picture. I know must everyone by name.

24 December 2017

Today is Sunday. On Friday night, my family and I went to Tomi Seafood Buffet. We have been looking for a seafood buffet, since our favorite Seafood buffet went out of business. Tatami was our favorite. Tomi Seafood is actually better than Tatami. We went to the Seafood Buffet for my dad’s business holiday party.

After Jessica, Trevor and I played a game of Tokaido. Trevor won. We have both expansions, and his legendary souvenir was surprisingly good.

On Saturday Jessica, dad, and I had breakfast together. I was telling dad that we were disappointed that our gifts were predicted to arrive on Tuesday; then, I received an email, saying that it was going to arrive by 8:00 pm that night. I attempted to arrange for them to change the address of the delivery location, but I figured that it was too late because the email said that it was out for delivery; therefore, I chose to drive back home.

I didn't do much at home. I made a Storify post, and cooked rice in our rice cooker while I took a nap. When I woke up our package was delivered to our mailbox. It was nice that it did not arrive late in the evening because the family was planning to watch "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."

The package was delivered as I napped in my mailbox. I got the package, and came back to cook my stir fry for my rice. After eating lunch, I drove home, being able to get home in the early afternoon.

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" had a good story line, and the movie focused on character development. I feel that some parts of the story did not follow naturally. I did not feel inspired by the story. (7 January 2018 update) I usually take a while to make up an opinion of a movie. The only character development that it had was mainly between Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker. No other characters were truly developed well. This was my final opinion that I realized, which I find unique to other media that I have consumed.

25 December 2017

Yesterday was a good Sabbath day, playing Machi Koro with Tony, Racer, and Ben. We also had a great time Christmas Caroling.

27 December 2017

Christmas was enjoyable. Mom said that it was the best in a while. The oldest son hosts Christmas, so I hosted the official Christmas, and Thomas hosted his part of the Christmas after dinner. We sang Christmas songs to Thomas playing piano. We finished the night with a game of Tokaido with my dad and Trevor.

We played the version of Tokaido, where we can choose any character from the game; plus, two expansions.

28 December 2017

Journal entries has been very brief. Only Tony stayed with us on Sunday to go caroling. Tony and Trevor are good friends, and they made it silly by singing falsetto. When we visited my older brother, caroling to his family, a lady stopped to listen with her child.

Over the Christmas break, I was worried that I have burnt some professional bridges that I have built at AC2. An assistant superintendent of an area was taking months to get a counter installed, so I followed up. On the second time that I followed up, I found no progress. I emailed the superintendent, calling the assist superintendent unscrupulous. I learned this word in middle school or high school, and I thought that it meant unorganized. I was looking for a synonymous word of unprofessional with an unorganized angle because I did not want to call him unprofessional. The superintendent followed up on the email, asking if I looked up the word unscrupulous. It means lacking morals. I wondered. Why do the words that are synonymous words of unprofessional have to do with morals? People can be unprofessional and still have high morals. I explained myself to the superintendent and apologized. (7 January 2018 update) I actually followed up again with the assistant superintendent on the Tuesday that I returned, and he again did not do anything or know anything about the counters that he is responsible for. He took me to ask the superintendent, and the superintendent cursed at him for his irresponsible actions. The only time that the superintendent mentioned the email was in a meeting with everyone, making a joke, and I was asked if I questioned anyone else’s morals. Moral of the story is that you should be careful of the words that you use especially in emails.

29 December 2017

One thing about working a salary position is that there is a main job that you are supposed to do for the majority of time that you work, and there is a practice that you can leave early, when you have completed your work. I didn't belief this philosophy or practice because in a position an individual will always be neglecting something, if one leaves early.

Today has been a little slow because I caught up on everything yesterday, but pondering what I am neglecting. I am neglecting something that can save money more than anything else. That is delegating equipment and returning the equipment that is not in use.

Another thing about salary positions is that companies may give individuals too much to do, requiring them to work to many hours. This should not be taken advantage of, and another person should be hired.

I spoke to a very outgoing person named Chris during lunch. He went to school for software engineering. He graduated locally at a university. He quit his job, joining a general contractor company to clean and protect finished product, because Activision worked him twelve hours a day. He worked on Call of Duty and other games.

3 January 2018

I made it to the year 2018, and Mom, Dad, Jessica and I went to Point Lobos on the first day of the year. 

 

4 January 2018

I seem to be too busy with family over the past two weekends to catch up and publish my journal entries. I hope to catch up this Sunday; although, Trevor's birthday is this weekend.

5 January 2018

I have been too brief, but I don't know what to write about. I would prefer to write daily because it is easier to keep track of.

Today my coworker quit, so she taught me about what she was currently doing. She was working with quality control, doing punchlist. It was funny. After she trained me, the QC manager told me that the punchlist program is being thrown out the window currently. My work to help quality control is much simpler than expected.

This week has been a little slow. I am able to keep busy, but I have to be thoughtful. It's nice that I have a little more to do, since my coworker quit.

A mason taught me the greatest overlooked obstacle of construction. It is logistics. It costs so much money to move things around, and deliver the product to the installer; however, it is rarely considered. Hours of waiting have been endured by laborers because logistics is not figured out, yet the subcontractors pay for the down time. Our two counter crews waited two hours in lines to deliver a counter that I watched them install in about ten minutes.

7 January 2018

This weekend was busy, but I am finally at home. I am hopeful about posting my journal entry. This weekend Jessica and I went to Capitola to celebrate Trevor's birthday at home.

Jessica fulfilled her destined win in our first game of Machi Koro. Everyone except for her won a game during New Years, so she believed that it was her turn.

On Saturday, we had a late breakfast because they wanted me to cook French toast. Every time I am asked what I want for breakfast; I say French toast. Mom said that it is my turn to cook because she misses my French toast. My dad likes to water down the egg with milk to make the egg last longer, but I don't milk it down. I used eighteen eggs to make the French toast for everyone. It was probably about one egg per slice of bread.

After breakfast, mom wanted to organize and clean up the garage. I joked that this is her eternal job. We bought wheels so shelves can be rolled around.

When Trevor arrived after a short shift at work, we played Tokaido, and I dominated, almost getting double the points of the other players.

Trevor loves Ramen soup, so we went out for Japanese soup themed food at Kaito. My family overestimated their walking pace, so Trevor and I ran to the restaurant in order to meet our appointed reservation. The restaurant was about a half mile away from our house. I got Udon with all kinds of vegetables. It was just mom, dad, Jessica, Victor, Trevor, and I. Trevor's Ramen looked well-seasoned. After we got ice cream at Penny Ice.

One thing that I want to mention is that it only rained a couple times this winter in the Silicon Valley until last week. I rode my bicycle with all my rain cycling gear for the first time in the rain last Friday. I was disappointed to find that my waterproof jacket failed to protect my forearms; other-than-that, I was completely dry. I thought of an idea to not get my sock wet. I have Nike shoes designed to be worn without socks, so I wore those without socks. My mom got me some waterproof pants and gloves for Christmas.
Another thing that I forgot to write about is that on the weekend of New Year’s we decided to stay in Campbell until after church instead of going down to Santa Cruz on Friday night. We decided this because I believe that individuals of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are assigned to attend and serve in local wards where they live. One ward should not thrive more than others because members, who are not local, attend the ward. It was coincidental that when we decided to serve our local ward or stake. Jessica was invited to chaperone a multi-stake dance. It was hard to believe that we had eleven stakes invited to the dance. Jessica took her post very seriously, encouraging me to do the same. I did enforce the hope that people would not damage the decorations. I had to work hard at that. When we were asked to chaperone the game room, the decorations that I watched over were dismantled. A main reason why I did not want to stick to my post is that girls from the Capitola Ward stood in the front, and I did not want to seem like I am staring at them; therefore, I walked around a lot, going to talk to Jessica many times. A senior couple encouraged me to talk to youth because they thought that I was a shy youth. Another lady, serving food, looked puzzled, when I asked for food for my wife.