15 October 2017

9 October 2017

When I got up this morning, I wanted to make sure that Jessica had breakfast because she chose to read scriptures instead of eating dinner after fasting yesterday. After getting her started on breakfast and the rice cooking, I began putting together my Mormon YSA Blog Spot Storify post. I have not written much about the Facebook page recently. Most of the posts don't get clicks on them. The page shares a post every two hours. I written one time that the page feels like a radio show. There was a little drama on the page about Lindsey Stirling's modesty last week with several comments on a post. I believe that a lot of us has witnessed her modesty steadily decline over the years, but our debate or talk won't do anything. Her modesty is her choice. The Mormon YSA Blog Spot has more than 1300 likes, and the page has finally kept the number for some weeks now.

When I went to grab my bike from the balcony, I smelt smoke. The entire bay area is covered. I heard that a fire started about two o’ clock last night. It caused me to ride my bicycle slower than usual. The sky looks fine, and the smell is not as bold at this time.

This morning I recorded the inventory deliveries from last week.

Last night I saw an advertisement for a pair of smart glasses that have been in development. Wearable technology is an interest of mine. I sent the link to Trevor because an individual can actually purchase the product, having it shipped to them. A lot of tech companies develop a lot, advertising for pre-orders. I learned from Clayton Christensen that companies should be impatient for profit and patient with development. People don't want to wait for years for their pre-ordered devices to come. I have two devices that are pre-ordered. They should arrive about the end of the year. This pair of smart glasses is amazing because it reads your brain waves; giving you data and patterns that you can interpret like stress, distraction, anger, energy levels in order to understand yourself. One can address patterns as they see fit. The company that manufactures the product is Muse.

10 October 2017

Yesterday I left the office late because I underestimated the time that it would take to complete my daily report.

11 October 2017

On Tuesday, things went smoothly. I caught up on updating most of the documents on Monday.

I told you about a foreman that I talked a lot with before. His name is Larry. I am starting to do a little quality control, and he helps me a lot. I help him too.

On Monday night my mom tried to persuade me to drive to work for safety, but I don't like driving, not wanting to deal with the hassle. She even offered to pay for the gas, but I refused. I had not written any new cycling adventures because the mornings have been too cold to race.

Last night I got a call from Trevor. He was unboxing his new phone, the LG V30. It is the phone of the year. The iPhones are not good. This year the bezel-less phone became mainstream, and the iPhone X is one. The facial recognition log in feature has been on Android phones for years, and the iPhone 8 is good only because they caught up specifications wise with the Android market. "The V30 has a dual cam setup one a Wide angle, the other a F1.6. Wireless charging, a bigger screen:body." Trevor tweeted me, comparing the V30 with the iPhone. Google is not going all out with the release of the new Pixel 2 as they have done with the Nexus phones, and the bezel is sub-par compared to competition. Trevor has been doing personal unboxing videos for me for a long time. This is Trevor's phone opinion. If I had money, I would buy a LTE smart watch with a good set of Bluetooth headphones, and I would give my phone to Jessica. I don't want to carry around a phone. I would also have to buy a tablet for work too. My most ideal technology set up, which is not developed yet, would be smart glasses that is a phone, an audio headset, a camera, and an augmented reality display. This is probably going to be developed in ten years.

At the self-reliance class last night, we learned that budgeting with the cash envelope system or a debit card is best. I don't like the cash envelope system because it is inconvenient and cumbersome. I have done the debit card method until I got regular payments with my new job. I did have a joint account with Jessica, but I quit using it after they charged me for not having high enough balance. Chase also canceled that account. My method of budgeting is a combination of both debit cards and the cash envelope system. Jessica and I both have debit accounts, where budgets are funded.

12 October 2017

I have been distracted in the evenings.

The self-reliance personal financial class also taught problem solving skills, evaluating the real problem and creating real solutions. The manual shared a scripture in a unique way.  "And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;" (D&C 93:24). We need to address problems "as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come."

The fire in Northern California doubled in size a couple nights ago, and the air is bad occasionally. I hear that the air pollution is harmful. I hope that they won't have any temporal effects on me. I did not worry about it after the first day; however, my neighbor pointed that the fire still is growing. Cycling exposes me to the air more than others.

The guy, who does the time sheets, did not do his daily report yesterday because he is taking the role of the safety manager, so I had to retrieve the data from the crews personally. There are more pressure to get these reports because I learned yesterday that the general contractor wants these daily too. I scanned all of them that I had this morning.

13 October 2017

Yesterday evening I shopped for night cycling safety gear per my mother's instruction. I got one of the brightest yellow jackets. It is waterproof too. I also got usb charging bicycle lights.

When I got home, I had a family counsel about our new budget. I found that my conservative 401K investment is too high. My salary is not high enough for California. I hope that I get a raise when they give me my three month review.

15 October 2017

This weekend I was a little productive. Jessica was taken to a "Time Out For Women" event by my mother, so I had some time to do things around the house. We still had suit cases full of clothing in our room after living in Campbell for about two months, so I decided to put them all away; clothing and suit cases. I did this after doing most of the dishes and some laundry.

Two of the driers that I was trying to use were not working because the machines had a reached its offline limit, meaning the machine was disconnected to the internet for too long. This error confused me, and I called the company taking care of the machines. They seemed to have reset the internet connection remotely, telling me to come back after a couple hours. I felt like resting after I was locked out of the laundry room and doing the dishes. I was galvanized to put the suitcases and clothing away after Jessica checked in on me.

I was napping/pondering how we could possibly save up for a purchase of a house. 

I hope next week is better. I think that I was distracted this week, watching a lot of YouTube. I am sure that you don't want me to write about those. I already wrote about an advertisement of a product that I have been waiting for its release.

8 October 2017

3 October 2017

Today was very hectic. I was working with our inventory guy to find a crate as I was waiting for a guy to bring an iPad to set up that our foreman bought. Setting up the iPad Pro, I found that it was more complicated than expected, and I was running out of time to get today's data for my daily report. I text the foreman to send me their daily construction reports for yesterday, but I realized that I needed to go to the field and make things happen. Things were a mess at the field. The mess was mainly with that one guy that is overwhelmed by his first task of the time sheets.

The self-reliance class today taught us about the importance of balance in life. Don't work too much. Be willing to analyze your expenses. Are you spending money unnecessarily? Are your spending habits balanced and under control?

4 October 2017

I am trying to get back to what I am supposed to do at work, which is to record the daily progress; however, Red wants me to set up his iPad. In the morning, since I could not email the documents to the device, I thought that I could rotate the sheets on Bluebeam Vu on the iPad. I accidentally digitally printed the sheets vertically, and the iPad is naturally horizontal. The issue seems insignificant as I write it, but you can't just turn the device counter-clockwise. Vu would not rotate it, so I needed to download Google Drive on the iPad to transfer it from the computer because iPads can't exchange files through USB. The ram capacity of the iPad was too low to transfer the files well without having the feeling of it being a hassle.

When I got home, I snacked a little before getting to house work. Mom gave me some Teriyaki sauce to make Chow Mien. After cleaning up, I started cooking a Teriyaki stir fry. I like the sauce because it is milder than the Americanized Teriyaki dishes. I was worried that I spilt too much in the pan, but it was good.

6 October 2017

Yesterday morning I dropped off Jessica at the airport for her flight to Portland for Wesley Ledesma's wedding.

Last week Jessica and I were invited to speak in church on the perfect example of Jesus Christ. Jessica was stressing about providing a personal depiction of applying Christ's example. Thinking about how I have applied his example in my life, I told her about how I served as an ordinance worker in the temple. He always visited the temple. I studied the New Testament in the past, and Jesus always testified of his father. I think that many people understand Christ and his mercy, but we forget God the Father, his Priesthood authority, and the necessary covenants that we need to make with him to obtain the blessings of salvation and exaltation, which he so wishes to grant us. He is a just man though, and he will only execute mercy through the atonement of his son.

8 October 2017

Today is Sunday, a fasting Sabbath. Since Jessica was gone, I visited my family for the weekend. I arrived on Friday night just in time to pick up Trevor from work. My timing seems to be on this weekend because I arrived just in time to pick up Jessica from the airport too.

Since Trevor works at Best Buy, we were at the location for films and shows. Trevor a couple weeks ago asked me if I wanted to watch a movie with him. Looking at the films, we considered the Studio Ghibli films, but the two recent re-released films appeared to be chick flicks. We decided to buy the first season of "My Hero Academia" despite the high recommended Rurouni Kenshin films. Trevor and I watched about 5 episodes. They were quick without advertisements, theme songs, and credits; feeling shorter than ten minutes each. I think that the character development in "My Hero Academia" is slow, but it is good because the character development of the students at school is almost unnecessary, since their presence is random.

I was hoping to do stuff with the family on Saturday, but everyone was so busy with chores and personal things. I couldn't expect much. Mom gave me a haircut, and she invited me to wash my and her car. My father drove in exactly as I finished washing my car, washing all three of our cars. I pondered childhood as I washed the cars because I am going to transcribe my physical journals. I thought of a metaphor for the steps of washing a car. It felt nice to serve the family and myself. I have not washed my car yet; although, I have owned it for a couple years. I like the random and frequent rains of Oregon and Idaho because I did not have to wash my car. Trevor did eventually give me time to choose to go on a jog or watch more "My Hero Academia." I chose "My Hero Academia." Mickey and Ben came over because they shopped for the Ocean YSA Branch Sabbath Supper.

We played Machi Koro, and my participation was meaningless like last time. The opportunities of choices when we play the rules, where ten cards are set out, are limited so much that I can't thrive well, but Mickey thrives on probability and statics as it is his field of study. He seems to only like to play games that he has an advantage in.

The metaphor of washing the car goes like this. In California, we have adapted because it is kind of a no-no to wash cars the stereotypical way with a hose, rinsing the car with water. Some people including my family fills buckets with the cold water from the shower as we wait for the water to warm. I had a bucket for soap water and a bucket for rinsing water. I relate the soap water stage of washing the car to the telestial state of the earth. It is filthy, but the cleansing agent has been introduced. The rinsing stage is the terrestrial stage of the earth or the Millennium. It is cleansed of filth, but the cleansing is not complete. The cleansing is complete after the Millennium, judgment, and resurrections; the stage in washing the car, drying it with a rag, leading to the Celestial Glory of the earth. Questions may come.

Why do we have to be defiled and endure the filth of the world? What is the stage of the Terrestrial Earth for? We need endure the filth of this world because we need to choose what kingdom that we want to live in for eternity, living in each stage. Do we want to live without God's presence (Telestial), with his presence occasionally (Terrestrial), or in his presence (Celestial)? Some people love the world, not desiring eternal families nor to return to live in Heavenly Father’s kingdom. What Kingdom of Glory do you want to live in? There are many philosophies of man mingled with scripture that will land you in the Telestial and Terrestrial Kingdoms, but there is only one way to Celestial Glory in God's Kingdom. This Gospel path begins with obtaining assurances by revelation that God has restored his kingdom on earth, calling it the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Repentance is the next step because God sets standards that we can claim worthiness to partake in covenants. Covenants need to be performed properly and by the authority that he has given to man to do his work. Covenants are two way promises. God grants blessings according to our obedience to the covenants. These covenants will eventually bless men with eternal life. Another reason that we live on this earth is to obtain a physical body as the earth is tangible. We were all spirit children, dwelling in God's Kingdom before our lives in mortality.

When we arrived home from the airport, we caught up on the wedding.

Today I received a calling to be a secretary of the Elders' Quorum Presidency. One way that I think that the calling is from God is that the Elders' Quorum needs to get on top of reporting the data for home teaching. My job at Columbia Stone Inc is basically the same thing. I got to report to management the productivity of each crew at work. The probability of this calling and my job basically being the same cannot be a coincidence. The Elders' Quorum President did not know my job.

One thing that I would like to say about myself for people to know is that I have a good sense of humor. I don't mean that I tell good jokes. I laugh at people's humor, which people appreciate. I try to only laugh to humor devoid of malice, but I am not perfect. After watching "My Hero Academia" on Friday evening, dad wanted to show mom the Jimmy Fallon video where Melissa McCarthy did a lip sync battle with the song "Colors of the Wind." I am not a fan of her work, but I saw the humor more in her performance, since dad liked it. People enjoy my laughter for some reason. I have not cracked up in a long time, but after watching a few lip sync battle videos we ended by watching Tom Cruise's one. Mom likes Tom Cruise, so I knew that she would appreciate it. I forgot the contents or the video, but I cracked up, tearing up with laughter, when Jimmy Fallon made the silly faces to sing the very high passionate notes in his duet with Tom Cruise.

At church, I saw someone with an iPhone X. I covertly took a picture of it, sending it to Trevor, because it has not been released to the public. He thought that it looked better in person. I could not get a good picture. It does look good, but one thing that I noticed is that some apps have a digital bezel. I hope that the apps are optimized better to the phone before they sell it to the public.

2 October 2017

25 September 2017

After entering in some data that was given to me over the weekend, I went to the job-site early in the morning. I did not do my normal routine. I went around two sections, recording the progress thus far on the building plans. I did not get back until 1:00.

During lunch, I heard a loud noise. Since the visitor center is closed to the public, I sit next to a big tree near the job-site trailer to eat. I used to walk to a park about a seven minute walk away from the trailer. I looked around the tree, seeing my coworker Audriana. We caught up with each other from the weekend.

Stuart Hicken, the son of Karl, read grandpa's StoryWorth entry about his Navy career. He was wondering Irwin Hicken's thoughts about going to war against Japan, since he served a mission in Japan. I called grandma to see if they would like to communicate a response to Stuart's question. StoryWorth seems to be bringing a greater unity to the family.

26 September 2017

Yesterday I finished work late because a report from a foreman for Sunday was not delivered. We had to figure out what we were going to do. I left about 5 pm

I called Jessica to tell her what was going on. She said that all she ate was a banana.

On my bicycle ride, I took my time, pondering this sad situation. Why does my wife practically starve herself every day? What can I do? I could not think of anything. I knew that I needed to get a pizza. She only had about one hundred calories up until that point. I laid around the house pondering the sad situation. I finally got up to get Jessica to come with me.

An odd thing is that two Little Caesars were remodeling. We had to drive all over town to get our five dollar pizza. Third store was the charm after calling a few other Little Caesars. When we arrived there, I saw a recent Instagram post by Jessica Frech that I understood too much.

jessicafrech, surviving these last few weeks with the help of pizza and @themimiknowles. and it's almost my birthday monthhhhhhhh. ☠️🎃👻

During the car drive, we spoke about the possible reasons for her behavior. Her reasons were not straightforward. Unmotivation was the main reason, but why? We concluded that she needs to rewire her brain away from her negative thoughts. I recommended that she start writing in a gratitude journal daily. Satan seems to try to attack us every Monday to mess up our Family Home Evening.

27 September 2017

Yesterday I missed writing in my journal because Truebeck, a General Contractor, hosted a barbecue for the subcontractors, finishing the Visitor Center and Transit Center. I met Audriana for lunch again.

After work Jessica and I went to the perpetual education fund “self-reliance: personal finance” class. We learned how to put tithing and savings first. People tend to do it after all other bills are paid. Tithing and savings should be a first priority. You will not even notice the change of pay.

Work was hectic today. I am still trying to figure out how to change my routine. A guy, doing everyone's time cards, was designated to do piece counts by the superintendent. He is overwhelmed by the first task now, and he has to do a task, which is probably equally as time consuming. I think that I have to go back to my old routine. I can't rely on the overwhelmed guy. One foreman is giving me data, but the original foreman that gave me the Daily Construction Reports quit doing them.

28 September 2017

On Tuesday I have my first personal missionary experience. My life has not been an exemplary life of missionary work. As I have said before, I am trying to settle into my life; investing more into people, community, the company that I work at, the ward, and more. Missionary work is one aspect that I would like to begin practicing. It is hard to do this when my life changes every 14 week according to the semesters at Brigham Young University - Idaho. This is my time to live, doing my best works.

I was talking to a crew, and we spoke about how long that we have worked for Columbia Stone Inc. I said that I graduated recently, getting a job about a month ago. When I said that I studied at BYU Idaho, I was asked if I were Latter-day Saint. After my confirmation, one crew member said that he was born in the church, but he is the black sheep. I listened to the crew unbiasedly, when the other crew member affirmed that half of his family is active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   I invited him to General Conference, but I am not sure if he heard it because he didn't answer. I did remind him of General Conference though.

I also invited another coworker to general conference because he seems to be a seeker of truth, going to a non-denominational church. I taught him that our church has prophets and apostles, and he discredited that saying that every church leader is a Prophet. He said that he believes in the Bible not needing more scripture, and I taught him that the Book of Mormon was prophesied to come forth in the Bible.

Ezekiel 37:19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

He knew of the scripture. He asked me if I had a spiritual experience, and I said yes. He said that people of all religions have spiritual experiences. I think that he has been calloused to missionary work. He made me a deal. If I would watch a documentary, he would watch general conference. I really like the documentary, watching it last night.

It is called "The Agenda: Grinding America Down." I always knew that Satan was at the source of the effort by the liberal movement, but I never got around to looking into it. How is Satan leading the liberal movement? Watch the documentary, and you will learn that the Communists' effort quit taking-over the world militarily. They are seeking to destroy society around the world like Venezuela by changing the culture. Their influence is at the core of public education, Hollywood, news, music, politics, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights movement, and more. Everyone will think that this paragraph is really random, but you should watch the documentary on YouTube. It is free. I can't explain it well.

The missionaries brought me some 13 Article of Faith cards last night. On Thursday night we did not hold our active member lesson. I am grateful for their effort to follow up.

1 October 2017

Today is Sunday, the second day of General Conference. My journal transcription has been off this week because lunches during the week have been late or disrupted. I am going to summarize what I want to cover from the week, and see what I can expound on. My bachelor's diploma was delivered to my hometown address.

Mom is trying to clean out from the house of the individuals' items that we have collected over the years. I got all my journals that I have written in the past, planning to publish them. I surprisingly don't have much from my childhood to take to my apartment.

My coworker suspected that I never been on a scissorlift, and he invited me to join him to set a bird trap on the caps in the building.

On Friday afternoon as the crews concluded their day, a foreman complimented me because I am very punctual and consistent.

Jessica and I cooked lad na for dinner one night. I thought that it was funny because I cooked a lot lad na, having leftovers. I was hopeful that Jessica would have a good lunch, but the next day I found that Jessica gave me all of the leftovers. 

Lad na is a Thai dish. Lad means noodle. It is a wide rice noodle dish. My mom can preserve the noodles well, but ours did not come apart well. I don't know how mom makes the dish have a gravy. I followed her directions, and I barely had any gravy. It tasted great though. I put mustard greens, cauliflower, baby carrots, green beans, and tofu in the pan.

This weekend Jessica and I went to my parents’ house to watch General Conference. After I talk about the time with my family. I will write about my general conference experience.

We played a few games. We played two games of Machi Koro Deluxe on Friday night with Mickey, and we played a game of Tokaido last night with dad. Both Jessica and I won the games of Machi Koro deluxe. I think that the main reason that we won was that the game is slightly different with the new cards. We seem to have adapted better than Trevor and Mickey. I am still undefeated in Tokaido.

Trevor stays up very late, so I was surprised that I was able to stay awake for the first four sessions of conference. I was too tired to engage in the fifth session well, and I took a nap during it.

I would have to look at my notes to go into a lot of detail, but I would like to write about the talk that impressed me the most. It was Elder Jeffrey R Holland's speech. I am not going to summarize it. I noted the following two precepts about perfection from his talk: "Finishing or completion is the New Testament definition of perfect." and "Perfection is a gift from Heaven." There is a concept in the Church. The phrase is 'Time and All Eternity.' Time is the temporal state of this earth to prepare for its Celestial Glory. The earth will begin and end in Terrestrial states as the Garden of Eden, and time on Earth will end at the conclusion of the Millennium. All eternity are the periods surrounding time, which is before and after mortality. I understand the insights from Elder Holland into perfection as this. During judgment after the end of the millennium or at your resurrection, we will present our lives to God, who will give us the gift of the completion of the second estate or Perfection. I have a question. Are you living the life worthy of receiving the gift of completion of your time on Earth ready for Celestial Kingdom? A perfect life and a life worthy of this gift are different. It is impossible for a mortal to live a perfect life. The life of beings in the Celestial Kingdom are beyond mortal comprehension. The comprehension of Celestial beings are beyond our mortal understanding. The Celestial Glory and Perfection is a gift from God, if the Holy Spirit of Promise confirms the faithfulness to our covenants. This experience gave me a new understanding of how Christ is the author and finisher of our faith.

2 October 2017

After General Conference yesterday we played a game of Machi Koro by another set of rules. My beginner's luck disappeared.

One thing that I wanted to write about is a friendship with a Mason. His name is Steve. He suspected that I have never been on a scissor-lift, and he invited me to join him. We are good friends, and I am grateful for his engagement in my life and our friendship. Birds occasionally live in the building, and we set a trap in on a cap of the building, putting parts of torn donut in a cage. Steve pointed out that we were at the highest point of the structure other than walking on the roof. I took a picture of all the floors beneath us and the ceiling.

I am good friends with many people at work, and I hope to maintain them for years. I spoke to the sister missionaries a previous week about the special culture of my company. Many of the people have worked on temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some crews are father and son. I have met many people with relations with the church. I hope to one day share the gospel with some in order for them to understand and live the fullness of the Gospel, which is the way to eternal life and happiness.

Another thing that I forgot to add is that I finally paid off my medical bill from an incident about a year ago. It is great to be debt free.