15 March 2018

Today is a Thursday evening. Today was a day for updating my accounts. I updated my T-mobile, renter's insurance, and auto insurance accounts. I updated my renter's insurance account and auto insurance accounts because they are automatically paid. My Chase account officially has zero dollars in it. The reason that I need to update my insurance accounts also is because I changed to a credit union account from a big corporate bank account. I accidentally overdrew my account because it takes so long to transfer money. Chase is really good about canceling overdraft fees, if you are a responsible person. I had to call them. My payment method update for my insurance was easy, and I did it by phone too.
I rode my bike over to T-mobile after work. Their customer service is great, but their technical support is not. They were unable to transfer my account from post paid to prepaid services after a week. My phone service with them is for emergencies only, so not having a working account with them didn't bother me. I am making a lot of account changes because I want to be more self-reliant. I started using my Google voice number and wifi calling and texting with my change to prepaid. My prepaid minimum cost is 3 dollars a month. Google Voice gives me free calling and texting.
Last Saturday Jessica and I bought a shelf from Ikea because we have a lot of stuff, but we have no place to set them. I was unable to work on assembling it until my father-in-law came. Mercedes came and cooked dinner with Jessica spontaneously yesterday. Jasmine and Lucas came too. The shelf is coming together nicely. We have a few more things to do to complete it.

16 March 2018

On the topic of updating accounts, I am heading over to Chase currently, but I have time...
I actually did not have much time to write. I was waiting for Jessica to get my personal identification number; then, after a while I remembered that it was my PIN number. I have not used an ATM for a long time.
When I arrived at the building, where the ATM is at, I felt at home, because it was at a plumber and steamfitters union building, reminding me of my internship with Apollo Mechanical. I think that it is interesting that credit unions were exclusive to trade unions for a long time.
We are mainly changing from Chase Bank to a credit union because Jessica listened to Dave Ramsey. He said that credit unions are non-profit. The amount of money contributed to the organization represents a share of the company, and a member can attend their shareholders' meeting. The company never retains profits, investing all of it to better serve their clients. It also retains your money within the local community rather funding the investment strategies of the big banks.

18 March 2018

Yesterday I attended the RootsQuest, a genealogical convention, with Jessica, Mercedes, and Jasmine. I went to the same conference last year, and I did not do anything about what I learned; however, I did learn a lot. This convention expounded on what I learned last year. I explored different website opportunities. The websites that I explored are ancestry.com, en.geneanet.org, and FamilySearch.com. Ancestry.com and en.geneanet.com are kind of a social network. Ancestry.com is for normal people, and en.geneanet.org is for genealogy experts.
I am thinking of blogging with ancestry.com. I currently publish my journal on writtentoberead.blogspot.com. Last year I heard that there was a wiki with all sorts of family history information, but I didn't know where it was. I learned that it is at FamilySearch. I asked a specialist what to do about my Thai family, and she did not know what to say, recommending me to look on the Wiki.
After the convention, we cooked curry for the sister missionaries. We learned to be careful on what days to choose to feed them because there are many days that we are obligated to deliver the food to the temple visitor center. When we said that the food was yellow curry as we met a sister, she said that it was her favorite food. The first time that I cooked yellow curry I followed the recipe directly. The second time I thought that I read it well, but I made a half serving, since the first time was for four. The second time did not come out normal. I cooked the recipe with half portions. I made the second half for the sister missionaries, and I did not read the directions well. I used to the last of the coconut milk. It was more than the recipe called for, but its taste did not overwhelm the curry as I have tasted before; however, the bold spicy taste of the curry was more mild with the extra coconut milk. The missionaries probably enjoyed it more. We did not want to get the food to them late, so we cooked food only for them.
Jessica wanted Five Guys, but I was too lazy to look for Wi-Fi. At Multnomah Village, we went to look for burger joints, but they were only bars. We decided to go to TasteBud. The restaurant looks like it would strictly be a bar from the outside, but inside a high-end pizza joint. The food was really expensive, so we thought that purchasing a pizza for two would be good. I have been exploring vegan food, so we tried their Veganator. When it arrived, I was worried that it would be extremely hot because most pizza comes out mouth burning. It was temperate though. The next thing that I looked for was how thick the pizza was. It was like paper thin, and the crust was burnt. The pizza had barely any visible tomato sauce and cheese on it, but it had garlic pesto on it. The vegetables were unique ones other than olives. The olives were not standard though. The miniature potatoes redeemed itself slightly for how thin it was. The many unique flavors balanced each other. The price was way too high. We got more for a fifth of the price Little Caesars.
One thing that I wanted to write about is a coworker. His name is Jeff. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day like me. His attitude is fatherly, sharing his life's experience with me during each conversation. One thing that is unique, making him similar to me is that I had goals to be an inventor and entrepreneur. I realized that the company might not surprised when I mentioned my ambitious because of him during my initial interview with Columbia Stone Inc. He is not open about what is it; however, he said that he will show me it, when it is ready. He drove me home once when it was raining. He has shared with me a lot of wisdom, which should be in his journal, so I will refer you to that; however, he encouraged me to pursue my invention ideas. Entrepreneurs have a more stable work than employees, who can be laid off at any time. I thought to myself, if I were to invest in a tech company, why not invest in your own startup? It will be a lot more rewarding and profitable if I stick to it.
Another coworker of mine is named Kevin. I met him a couple times in at Apple. He worked diligently, so I didn't get to know him much. He asked me if I could pick up some supplies once, and I said that I couldn't with my bicycle. He sent me an email with a meme type PowerPoint, showing me pictures of people from all over the world with supplies on their bikes. Since I moved to Oregon, I learned that Kevin actually loves bicycles, and he is preparing his bike to ride it to work. He ordered a pair of bike fenders from China. One of them didn't seem to work for him, so he gave it to me. I installed it on my bike, and it seems to work. On the day that he gave me the fender, he was trying to figure out why his project is short 700 feet of framing rail. He asked me to do a quality take off, counting how much rail the project needs. The vender sent us about 2700 LF of rail, saying that they sent us all we need for the project, but I counted that the project requires 3100 LF of rail. My work saved Kevin the grief ordering more rail, and the vender owes us more rail. I tweeted that I paid him back for the vender. Kevin said that I saved his day.