31 March 2018

After the second session of conference John, my father-in-law, invited me to go to a member of his branch's house for Priesthood Session. When I realized that they will watch the session in Spanish, I concluded that I should see Lucas' plans to watch it, since they were going to come for dinner. He came a little earlier, and we watched the session together.
It was mind blowing. On the first priesthood session that President Nelson presided over. He restructured the priesthood quorum organizations. The high priest groups have been desolved.
We are staying up late tonight because Mercedes wants to make pumpkin spice cupcakes. I should get to sleep as soon as possible, since the cupcakes will not be baked tonight. I don't want to nap during any of the general conference sessions tomorrow.

April 1, 2018

One thing that I forgot to write about is a movie that Jessica and I watched. It is called "Leap!". Jessica was avoiding PG-13 movies that night. I have wanted to quit watching PG-13 a while back. The "Strictly Dancing" movie is PG, yet it still had disturbingly suggestive scenes. Movie ratings can't be trusted.
"Leap!" is a new favorite films. It is up there with "Meet the Robinsons" and "Ratatouille." I don't like to watch movies multiple times. The motion pictures mentioned previously are animated movies that made me laugh a lot. I loved the pure humor of these films.
Today's sessions of general conference were as mind blowing yesterday because home and visiting teaching has been canceled church wide to unite the newly expanded elders quorum with the Relief Society.
President Russell M Nelson's speech was so impressive that I think that I should base my talk on it. He taught how to receive revelation. There were a few talks about revelation. Larry Wilson spoke about the same thing. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is member of the Godhead to guide, comfort, and teach. It is called a constant companionship for those that are confirmed with the gift at baptism. We were taught how to have a more intimate and productive companion with the Holy Ghost. Larry spoke about a Navy chaplain, watching the ship for the night, during a typhoon. The boat had three engines. The first was not working, the second was at half power, and third was working.
The captain asked the chaplin, who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a former missionary, to pray for the safety of the crew. The chaplin could have just prayed for the safety of the crews, but he prayed to know what to do. After a series of prayers, communications, or revelations, he learned that the fully functioning engine is being overused, and he proposed to the captain to reduce the load of the fully functioning engine; although, other crew members advised opposite. The proposal was heeded to, and the engine endured the night, and they made it out of the storm. The fully functioning crew did quit working when the waters were safe, and the ship puttered to a harbor with the engine with half strength. This is a example of how someone can be of service to man with the constant companionship. God loves everyone in that ship because they are his children, but only one had the Gift of the Holy Ghost, having the God's companionship. The chaplin's intimate work with the Holy Ghost gave him the guidance of the all-knowing Father in Heaven for the situation. President Nelson wants us all to engage their stewardships in a personal ministry with the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost; being worthy, prayerful, loving, and obedient. His speech and the new program of the Church are instructions for all saints to be fruitful servants of God as the chaplin.
Mercedes was able to make the Pumpkin Cupcakes that she was planning to make yesterday. They were so great that I ate my share of four cupcakes all in a row.
Last week or so, the church released a digital rendering of the new temple that will be built in Bangkok, Thailand. I downloaded the picture, putting it on my work computer's wallpaper. Two of my coworkers asked about the building, asking about the stone of the plans. They said that Columbia Stone Inc would like to help build the temple. I wish that I could live in Thailand, and help manage the construction. I am too weak to speak up. My voice would probably prove unfruitful. Our company has bid for several of projects of the church and Utah with near success, but none were rewarded.

Saturday 7 April 2018

Today we prepared red curry for the ward sister missionaries' dinner.

Sunday 8 April 2018

The sister missionaries came at 2:30 PM because they were heading to the temple to serve at the visitor center. We were unable to host them as we have tried to last time. We followed the recipe very accurately; although, I could have measured the paste on a scale. I looked at a cook's conversion table online. My in-laws, which we hosted for dinner later, thought that the curry was excessively spicy. I tried it, and it was not spicy. I doubled the recipe because we were serving double the people. It is apparent that red curry is much more spicy than yellow curry. I put a third cup of paste in my first batch of yellow curry, feeding four people, which were Jasmine, Lucas, Jessica, and I. No one complained. I put a half cup of red curry paste, following the recipe with precision, and everyone except the sisters and I, which we spoke to today, expressed their pain and displeasure greatly. I was not ashamed because I Iived through the same experience, when my mother cooked cowsoy soup for the first time. I wondered about why one of the sister missionaries said that yellow curry is her favorite. Does she actually know the different curry flavors?
Last week a sister on Facebook waved to my profile of the Mormon YSA Blog Spot. I have spoke to her previously. She asked me where she could find a group of young single adults in northern Washington. I understood her difficulty when she told me where she lived. It was remote. I followed up, when she greeted me again, asking if she found a group of young single adults. She affirmed that she did; plus, she has a boyfriend now. I am happy that I was able to help her. I have served as an administrator of the social media pages of the Mormon YSA Blog Spot for years, and it is nice to hear a fruit of my efforts.
The Mormon YSA Blog Spot has actually been growing a lot lately. Most posts have clicks now where as posts rarely would have clicks before.
One thing that I got me thinking about the foundation of people's lives. People should be careful about the foundation that they choose for their lives. Opportunities are given to individuals based on their previous experience. I was given the task of making the cut tickets for the Kingspan insulation panels of the Multnomah County Central Courthouse project. This experience directly related to the experience that I had during my internship with Delta Stone Products to draft cut tickets for the stone. My internship with Delta Stone Products is a surprisingly important foundation of my life. At the time of the experience, the internship was questioned whether it qualifies.
I started my third period of service in a nursery. Jessica served with me today; although, she was sustained to serve a calling to serve in the Cub Scouts today. I built a house out of a toy, putting a windmill on the house. A boy named Desmond caught on to the word windmill, repeating it several times. I tried to talk to him about the wind and the electricity that windmills can produce, but the children barely speak. I asked a girl her name, and I thought that she said Gabriela. Another nursery leader said that her name is Lily. Lily is a common name based on my experience serving in the nursery. The children seem to mumble around me, but I have heard them speak well to people that they are familiar with.

11 April 2018

A company asked me to participate in their blogging marketing campaign, but I have been quiet about it because I thought that it might be a scam. They would reply to email once a week, which I thought was odd. The company's name is ThermaLeaf. I will write about it more later. I want to get this posted.

21 March 2018

21 March 2018 

Monday was Jessica and I's two year wedding anniversary. We had Colombian food for our wedding reception, and Mercedes, my mother-in-law, rarely cooks it; therefore, we had Colombian food for dinner, since there was a food cart with food of the country a couple blocks away from our apartments.
The appetizer and Jessica's dish had overly fried plantain, which Jessica knows is not the style of Colombia. The food cart is called "Hey Stella's Cocina." It turns out that they cook a lot more food than Colombian. They are from Venezuela. They claim to cook Jamaican food. Jessica got the food, so I don't remember all of the different cuisine that they cook. We had Colombian sandwiches. Mine was made with a flat bread, and Jessica's food was sandwiched between very large fried plantain. My sandwich had tomato, pulled pork, and beans in it. I don't remember the ingredients of Jessica's sandwich.

22 March 2018

The Relief Society had an anniversary party or something like that on Tuesday. Jessica went at 5:30 to help prepare. Since I didn't have anyone waiting for me at home, I explored a little on my way home. A furniture store named after Broadway advertises a cabinet bed on its windows. The cabinet bed would be ideal for our studio apartment. A cabinet bed is a bed that rolls out of a cabinet, and it can be put away when unused. My new shelf is about the same height of it. I asked Jessica to guess the price, and she said 500 dollars. When I walked in the store, the cabinet bed was to the right of the door. The price was 2000 dollars, and that price was sliced.
The store claims to be on a 2017 inventory blow out sale, but their prices are very high. I checked the expensive website a couple weekends ago, and I thought that the store might be different. It wasn't.
My next visit was Dairy Queen because I heard that they were giving out free ice cream cones from my coworkers. A sister with a bike was friendly enough to watch my bicycle. It felt weird to ask for a free cone of ice cream from the counter, but it worked. The sister was not friendly enough for a conversation after watching my bicycle. I walked a little with my ice cream cone until I finished it; then, I rode my bike up the road towards my house.
There is a condominium complex, selling and leasing, along my path that I have been thinking about checking out. It is affordable, but the location is not walkable. I checked the complex and a real estate place. In Portland urban sprawl, condominiums cost about a quarter million dollars, and land with houses cost about 400,000 dollars. I saw another advertisement for a condominium complex, walking around yesterday, the 24th of March. It said that the HOA fees were 420 dollars a month. I don't want to deal with HOA fees. It's basically rent.

25 March 2018

Today is Sunday, and I received a calling today to teach primary. Jessica was serving in the nursery, and she received a calling to serve as a cub scout leader. We were also asked whether one of us would speak about the speeches of the latest conference next week at the following Sacrament meeting. I will be preparing that.
Last Thursday, my Elders Quorum had manrichment night. The Elder that hosted it has a calling with the young men, and he wants to Elders to be more connected with the young men. They were invited to join us, but only one came as eleven Elders came. We played "minute to win it" games. Two teams were assigned. Each person played two games. The young man was very skilled. I played a game, moving M&Ms to another plate by straw and bouncing ping pong balls into a cup. The duel was against the young man when I played the M&M game, and he got about double the result of me. I moved seventeen in one minute. I didn't do well, bouncing ping pong in a cup. My presence was introverted as usual.
On Friday evening we had Jasmine and Lucas for dinner and games. When I arrived home, expecting company, I was leery, since no one welcomed me, when I opened the door. Were they going to surprise me? I usually walk in to where the bike rake to take off my cycling gear, but I did it in front of the door. After preparing my gear, I did not seem to spoil their scheme. Sneaking up to look around the corner, my suspension was proven illogical. No one was in the apartment other than me.
I decided to lay and read Yotsuba&, the manga, as I waited for them. I bought the Yotsuba& and Prince of Tennis many years ago. I completely forgot the story of the Yotsuba Manga. It is suggestive as I have said before about movies, making it mainstream.
Lucas, Jasmine, and Jessica arrived with three pizzas including a vegan one from Dominos. Jessica protested "why do the vegan pizzas have to be so thin?"
Jasmine and Lucas misplaced the games that t hey brought, so we decided to play with our face cards. Last time we played B.S. with Jasmine. I was thinking about playing canasta, since Jasmine and Lucas almost brought Phase 10, but the rules said that we needed two packs of cards. We ended playing golf upon the suggestion of Lucas. We had a blast. It was coincidental all of us won a game, so the fifth game decided the champion of the night. Jasmine won, and she thoroughly enjoyed it.
Golf is a game where each person is given six cards, and the card that an individual draws can replace another card to reduce the total value of the six cards.The player with the lowest total value with their six cards wins.
On Saturday, we only did grocery shopping. We went to an interesting burger joint for lunch. It is unique because the owner was an elderly man, who ran the joint alone. The prices were great. There was a two small burgers for two dollars deal. The walls were covered with pictures of customers and employees of the past. 

During the week, I was asked by my Project Manager to go to Washington Square Mall. I have not been there for a while, thinking that it was Pioneer Square at Portland. Columbia Stone Inc set the original tile for the mall in 1994, and we did the remodel in 2003. Walking around the mall on work hours felt odd. Mall management offices are hidden pretty well. My PM said that I could get a snack at the food cart, since the offices were near it. I decided to drop by Helzberg Diamonds, since I got my wedding ring there, to get it cleaned and polished.

28 March 2018

Since I ride my bike around town, I tweeted my observations of other people's running form and my cycling form. My knees have been constantly sore, since I moved to Portland. I have been trying to figure out a better bicycling form. I can't figure out how. My path to work is mostly downhill, and mostly uphill returning. Cycling home has become a pain because the hills cause my cycling form to be unnatural.

30 March 2018

A second part the tweet was a declaration that I will invent a bicycle based on running form. Running is the most efficient and natural form of transportation. Thinking about this invention, I have realized that I could simplify my previous design, which requires odd stabilizing technology. We already have a technology that can stabilize the bicycle, adapting for changing situations, called a gyroscope. My design has evolved, yet it retains a cord pulled backwards with the stride of the athlete. I am wondering what happens to a human body within a magnetic field because, if the cord
had wires in it, going up and down both legs, the changing shape of the loop of wire could generate current in the wheels on both sides of the runner are magnets. It could power the bicycle's battery.

March 31, 2018

Jessica and I came over to the Ledesma's apartment for general conference. The Solemn Assembly Sustaining of the new first presidency and two new Apostles for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the first order of business of the conference. It is more unique than I recall in the previous Solemn Assembly that I lived through. There were three sustainings for the first presidency alone. I learned at a later speech that a sustanation is a covenant. The members of the first presidency covenanted to sustain each other at least three times. It felt special to stand beside my father-in-law in sustaining the new set of prophets. Jessica stood with the Relief Society in her signification of sustanation. After the young women sustained them, I heard Jessica said that we were all to stand up after her mother said something, but the video skipped the scene.
Trying to think about how I should process general conference, I am grateful that I have not missed any of the talks. I tried to go to sleep early, and I have prayed that I may apply the teachings well in my life as well as in the talk that I have to say next Sunday. Each talk felt meaningful.
Some talks that have been impressive to me is about forgiveness, mistakes, and sacrifice. A natural tendency to forgive gives people a greater capacity to lead. Forgiving others helps individuals and others learn from individual mistakes properly. Things are more meaningful when people sacrifice for a purpose. The most difficult thing that I have done is find my job; although, marriage has been very refining too. My job and wife are very meaningful to me because I have sacrificed a lot for the life that we have.
I like to look for doctrines of life to make my life make more sense, applying it in my philosophy and beliefs. Our actions and thoughts are based on our beliefs and philosophy. Applying things at the base may make the progress imperceptible. This is why people should be patient with one another because people do improve on their own time table. When we sacrifice for each other, they are more meaningful. We are most meaningful to Jesus Christ because he made the most comprehensive sacrifices to provide the way for everyone's forgiveness and resurrection.

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.

March 6, 2018

I rode my bicycle to Portland for the first time yesterday. It was mostly downhill, and the path is very simple. Capitol Highway goes straight to Portland, and the road is very accommodating to cyclist. There is a pedestrian bridge down one of the side streets to get downtown. The GPS gave me trouble, and I arrived a little late. I did not miss the Safety Orientation meeting.
When I arrived home, Jasmine and Lucas was at the apartment with Jessica. Nothing was planned, so I lead everyone to the Thinker Toy Store to borrow a board game, since Google said that they would closing by 7. It was closed when we arrived because there schedule is unique.

11 March 2018

I seem to pack my days, giving myself no time to write in my journal. One thing that I decided about a month ago is that I will no longer make Storify or Wakelet posts because Jessica thought that it took my time away from family. I almost quit being the administrator for the Mormon YSA Blog Spot; however, I realized that I have still down time that I can schedule posts. Doing this during lunch, I don't have much time to write especially when Jessica calls to talk.
Since today is Sunday, it seems like I should summarize the week. I did not write about the complete evening with Jasmine and Lucas on Monday. We went out to dinner to celebrate Jasmine, getting her driver's license, at a Mexican restaurant right across the street from Thinker Toys. The food was great, but it was ran by white people; thus, it was most expensive than a normal Mexican restaurant. Afterward we had family home evening together about establishing a home similar to that of the House of the Lord or a temple, listening to a talk and discussing the topic. Jasmine and Lucas left before Jessica and I dedicated our apartment
Not much happened during the week. Jessica had some guests at the house, having her parents and relief society president over. I was at work.
The safety orientation by Hoffman, the General Contractor, was good. The Multnomah County Central Courthouse wraps around a historic building, and it was cool to learn why. It is historic because the building is the first in Portland to be built with rebar. The building was the substation that powered all of Portland at one time.
The new construction is the first construction project to practice Green Dot. It is a communication system established by the General Contractor, which has been practiced and refined by higher education, to reduce offensive and violent behavior with the support of everyone on the jobsite. At least twenty percent of the work is done by women and minority businesses, and they need the support of all bystanders.
On Friday after work, Jessica and I watched a movie. The decision took a while to determine the movie. We ended up watching the movie, "Strictly Dancing." The dancing was skillful, and the story was unique. One thing that I have noticed is that a many movies are forgotten if they do not have any suggestive scenes. Movies are more likely to be mainstream if there are some suggestive scenes. The next day we watched a movie called "Lion" with Jasmine and Lucas, which was on Netflix, and it is not a mainstream film; however again, it was made mainstream because it had suggestive scenes in the film. I don't care for cinematic productions.
Jessica and I went hosted Jasmine and Lucas for a movie night, and Lucas wanted to cut my hair because he cut other missionaries' hair on his mission.

13 March 2018

For the past few weeks on Sunday, we would go to eat dinner with Jessica's parents. Many of her mother's recipes are from John's mother; however, Mercedes did reveal a simple Colombian food. It is eating sliced banana with rice. I loved the simplicity.

9 January 2018

9 January 2018

So far this week I don't have much to write about. Work is getting a little more busy. The superintendent complimented me, saying that I do things before he asks.

The ward's quarterly report is due this week, so I started working on that. I was surprised that I didn't fall asleep during the sacrament meeting of the Sabbath of the year.

A visitor shared an experience that he had with Thomas Monson during Fast and Testimony meeting, since he died last week. I was prompted to share the dream that I had with him with Jessica. I didn't share it with the congregation. A post on Facebook describes it, so I will copy and paste it here.

11 January 2018

Work has been busy lately. I can't think of anything to say about it, but I did home teaching yesterday.

Reed Chavez and I visited the Campbell family. I was surprised that the patriarch attended because sister Campbell said that the tax season keeps him busy in the beginning of the year. I met their son, Jack, at the Christmas party, and I was surprised that they had a daughter. Her name is Ivonne. I believe. I never had a sister, and it was interesting to see her interactions with Jack. Brother John Campbell engaged Reed Chavez in a conversation about education, explaining opportunities as he has been considering master's degrees. I shared a quick lesson after expressing my gratitude for John presence. I also engaged the family by asking the daughters name.

The First Presidency's monthly message was intriguingly by Thomas Monson, but I think that someone just put a bunch of his quotes together for the article. It was a reflection on the gospel. Isn't it gloriously that God the Father gave us his Only Begotten Son that we may come close to them by learning of them, their ways, and their doctrines? Their doctrine requires an advocate to the Father to atone for the sins of the people, who come unto God. The path to God is not a journey or a destination, but it a becoming close to their nature. The privilege to repent and come close to the nature of God is their gift by the atonement of Jesus Christ. Isn't great that there is good and bad to choose from, and we can choose to good? Let us choose the good. Let us try to be better.

15 January 2018

This weekend was a little spontaneous. I wanted to rest because I got a headache after Friday's day of work. I had a fever. I tried to aid the fever by sleeping with blankets that would usually make me too hot, and I felt much better the next day. I had to get up and drink water and gargle salt several times.

The weekend was spontaneous because my mom asked if I wanted a haircut late Friday night.

During week, a website company name Wakelet contacted me, saying that they are going to resume the role of Storify as that company will cease its web service in May. The switch was very easy.

24 January 2018

I think that I have not written in my journal for almost ten days because I felt like I did not have anything to write about for a few days and I got busy.

Last weekend Jessica and I visited my dad. Mom went to Thailand because her brother-in-law was ill. His name is Somchai. He died before my mother was able to see him, having two forms of cancer and developed a mental disease.

Since dad was alone, we made a weekend trip out of dad's idea to visit the Oakland temple. Trevor bought the "King Kong: Skull Island" movie, and he has been wanting to watch it.

It is our monthly anniversary day, when we visited my father. Dad bought a gigantic shepherd's pie, and he has been eating it for the previous few days. We ate dad's Tillamook ice-cream for our anniversary tradition. Dad told us about how he got converted to Tillamook. It is a simple story. They were out shopping for a dessert for a gathering, and Tillamook ice-cream was on sale. The cashier said that the ice-cream sells quickly on sale for its quality, and Dad was hooked ever since he tried it.

Dad wanted to leave early in the morning for a temple trip, and I had to reveal that I made plans to watch King Kong with Trevor. The deliberation was quite intense. We negotiated to tighten our schedule.

Dad made pancakes in the morning, realizing that he does not spend much time with Trevor because he usually leaves for work before he gets up, and schedule is too busy.

Our moments with Trevor were meaningful. Jessica loves movies so much that she wanted to watch King Kong right when she woke up ahead of schedule without good times visiting with him.

During the week Trevor and I spoke of an app idea. He loves phone games for their stories, and I thought what if there was an app similar to Audible where one can have access to every story video game with a monthly subscription, and the game development companies can retain customers by notifying old users who may have completed the story of new content or stories. Trevor just loved the idea of possibly offering a great dubbing/voice acting service. I think that the app should offer auto play on every game, so people who love stories don't have to be too invested in every game.

25 January 2018

"King Kong: Skull Island" lacked character development. The characters were based of stereotypes. King Kong's reality or existence is dumbed down to be a violent defender of an island. I don't like movies that glory to bloodshed and violence.

29 January 2018

I was hoping to catch up yesterday, but Jessica and I joined dad to pick up mom from the airport. Mom had souvenirs from Thailand, so we went to Santa Cruz for games, dinner, and souvenirs.

I am able to write at this time because I changed my schedule in order to coordinate with the night crew better. I am starting my day of work at 12 pm and ending at 9 pm. This morning I cooked lunch and dinner for Jessica and myself. I also cooked breakfast too.

We played a game of Risk during dinner. You may not believe that we finished a game in about an hour, but we played mission mode. I won in four turns. Lai was trying to destroy Trevor, and Jessica was trying to destroy Lai. Trevor and Lai were fighting over Australia as I was taking over the Americans. I only had to conquer 18 territories and have two armies in each one. Mickey was stuck forgetting his mission from the beginning practically. He supposed to conquer South America, but he conquered Africa instead. Jessica was pursuing Lai in Asia as I conquered most of Europe completing my mission after conquered North and South America. Mickey tried to stop my North American army bonus at Greenland, but he failed. Defending Africa, he had the most armies after me.

Work is slowing down a lot, since we only have one area left to do, completeing the last area on Friday.

On Saturday evening, Jessica and I went on a date with Thomas and Maritza. We walked along east cliff, going to a Korean restaurant after. The Korean restaurant was a little awkward because there were basically only the following four options: soup, rice and meat with salad, a noodle dish, a rice  cake dish. The limited options had most of us choose the noodle dish. I chose the rice cake dish, not expecting that it is a soup. Since Dambi, one of our Korean foreign student, served rice cakes to us on a plate with sauce.

During our walk, I was surprised how open that Thomas was. He even has a blog, explaining his philosophy. I noticed it on his Twitter profile, but he spoke about it.

Mom had some khaki pants taylored made for me. They fit me well. Trevor and dad have a pair too. Guy, my cousin, gave some gifts to me. A hat and some snacks. The Thai snacks tasted interesting. Trevor described them as tasting like burnt porcelain and chalk. I like my hat, but I don't like smashed hats. I need to figure out how to unsmash hats. The hat that Guy gave me is unique because the hat bill is long.

30 January 2018

If you don't know me well, I am very health conscious. I have two health worries that I want to write about. When people experience a new health scare, they may worry that their bodies are changing or they have developed a chronic disease.

On the last day of my self-reliance class with the perpetual education program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, my glasses were very dirty, and it bothered me. I took them off not expecting much issues. I need glasses because I have a stigmatism. I don't really know what stigmatism means, but an eye doctor explained to me that my left eye's lense is not shaped circular. It is slightly misshapen, and my eye can flex the lenses to focus on an object. Most of the time, when I strain my eye, my left eye only gets blood shot; however, this time my eye was slightly bloody. Since my eye took about two weeks to clean out the blood, I was worried that my eye was degenerating.

My job has been a little rough on me health wise. The reason is that I have gotten sick four times in a row. Prior to my last illness my friend said that he had recently recovered from pneumonia. On a Friday, I oddly got a headache near the conclusion of my day at work. I thought that I may have been looking at the computer for too long. Somehow an ailment hit me fast. That night I had a fever and chills. I thought that if I slept really warm, it would would help my body destroy the germs. The infection in my throat came quickly too, and soon I felt that I was coughing up mucus from within my chest. I did not feel a fever much after the first night. A friend of mine said that he had pneumonia recently, and his lungs couldn't beat the ailment. I was concerned that I might not be able to beat the ailment in my chest as I never heard of anyone recovering from pneumonia without medical intervention. I called a free nurse holiness provided by my health insurance. She said that it may develop into bronchitis, which can develop into pneumonia, encouraging me to go to urgent care. I got to Urgent care thinking that bronchitis might be as serious as pneumonia a couple days later. I researched on the internet, seeing that it might chronic. When I arrived at the urgent care, I felt fine, but I was still coughing up mucus. My insurance didn't seem to help pay. The form asked me my symptoms, and I wrote that I think that I have bronchitis. They did not seem to think that my symptoms were serious because I sat watching TV for an hour and a half. After watching TV for about an hour, I started standing in front of the reception office casually, watching TV and leaning against a chair. The receptionists were surprised that I had not been helped after an hour and a half. When I was finally received into a room, the nurse seemed frustrated because my symptoms were most gone already. I felt really dumb. The doctor came in after. He was puzzled too. The doctor was nice enough to do a general check up too, and his good intent to help relieved my disappointment. He said that bronchitis is recoverable, and the mucus will go away. He did not diagnose me with anything. I feel fine now, and I am happy that I have not had my fifth sickness yet. I told my parents about my experience at the urgent care, and he said that my mother used to go get bronchitis for a few years in a row.

4 February 2017

This weekend is our last weekend hanging out with my family before we move. Yesterday we visited after cleaning the Allendale Church. We had a nice Thai dinner. We played a couple of games after.

I got up at 6:30 with my new schedule. I had breakfast, and I rode my bike over to the church, arriving by 8 am. The essentials of cleaning the building are cleaning the chapel, bathrooms, and garbage cans. I cleaned the chapel, vacuuming, and my home teaching companion arrived about the time that I finished. I felt bad for leaving him so early, so I took out the trash. There were a lot of trash. It seemed like the bathrooms were not cleaned and garage were not taken out for a long time. I sang 'I love to ride my bicycle' on the way home.

7 February 2018

When we arrived to visit my family, we ate lunch; although, Trevor just finished his shift at work. When I picked him up, he was planning to meet Mickey to clean the chapel. I already cleaned my church, so we didn't go urgently. Trevor asked Mickey the progress, and he said that he was practically done. We invited him to come and play some board games. We were not able to start playing games until after dinner.

We played a game of Risk and Machi Koro. I dominated so much that we needed to come back the next day to let people challenge me. The next day Trevor used my strategy to an extreme, destroying me in Risk; however, we played a Tokaido game after, and I won that, tying with Mickey.

February 12, 2018

Preparing to move to Oregon is in full swing. I changed my sleep schedule last night. I got up this morning at 2:30 AM because I am going to have leave at 3:00 AM to arrive on time for our appointment with our new apartment.

I realized that I should read scriptures at this time because I scheduled blog posts during breakfast instead of reading the scriptures according to my usual routine.

February 19, 2018

I didn't have time to write in my journal last week because of moving. My lunch hour was split in two because I had to eat breakfast and lunch during work. The move was hard on Jessica. She had to stay up all night on Friday night packing the car and cleaning the house as I slept because I was going to drive. We left the next day at about 3:40 am in order to arrive for our appointment at 4 pm with the apartment manager. We were able to time it well, and the drive was smooth. The semi trucks just slowed us down.

I am trying to engage in the community of Portland especially in the realm of music and cycling. My mom and a coworker confessed today that they are considering cycling to work. I want to join a community band with Jessica, but it is hard to convince her to work at it with me. It was coincidental because my grandfather recorded a StoryWorth entry about his thoughts on music last week; plus, there is a lds music conference and concert this weekend. I hope Jessica would join me.

March 4, 2018

I finally was able to transcribe the story about my grandfather today. It has been a couple weeks since I have written in my journal. I think that I should just publish this entry, and commit myself to writing more consistently next week.

I love Multnomah Village. They have Multnomah Village days every first Friday of the month. We went out, and eat Vietnamese Pho. Walking around town, we did not go into any stores because we were not shopping.

I did my taxes yesterday. It took about four hours with TurboTax. It worked out well. I also decided my 401k investment strategy. I am not only saving with 401k, but I also will invest in ROTH IRAs. The first is saving money pre-tax, and the latter is post-tax. Columbia Stone matches up to 4000 dollars in 401k, and most people can only invest 5500 dollars maximum in ROTH IRAs. I plan to maximize both benefits. I got to choose where my money is invested, and I did not subscribe to the profiles that the 401k company described. My profile is mix of balanced, conservative, and growth. I have a good amount of diversity in my portfolio. My aggressivefunds are ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds).

I chose ETFs because my self-reliance facilitor recommended them.

Last Sunday Jessica and I side swiped our neighbor's car. Our garage is too tight especially for our long car. We has to get a new parking spot because our original parking spot was very stressful to fit in. We had to envision the best methods of parking in the garage to simplify our lives.

Work has been good. I started making changes proposals last week. During my first week, it snowed and the roads were frosty, and I slipped, hitting my hip on the asphalt. I realized that, since I slipped at a seemingly random spot, I should not risk slipping at another more risk part of the road. The next day was the only day that I missed riding my bike to work, since it snowed again the next night.

On the week before we left our ward in Campbell had a fundraiser. The attendance was low, but there was a gloriously crafted Snorlax cake that i

I had to buy. I believe that I bought it for 60 dollars. It tasted good too.

Last Sunday, I started posting my tweets on Facebook because my friends may feel that I have abandoned them, since I rarely go on. Social media is a waste of time, and I have uninstalled all my social networking apps to focus better on life. I just tweet via sms text messaging. I am surprised how receptive people were to my simple tweets.

On example is that Jasmine came in the early afternoon last Saturday, so we can have game night with her and Lucas. We played my favorite face card game. It is called B.S. It is kind of like Uno, but the next person always has to put the next number on the stack of cards. It doesn't matter if you have the next number or not. Put something down. You might get away with it. I tweeted that I won the first game by luck, and Jessica won the next two games by trickery. My Facebook friends loved it. I basically don't have an audience on Twitter. I just tweet for Trevor Hicken, my little brother. The added audience has changed the way I use Twitter.

We tried to play a European version of Settlers of Catan, but the play was very different and clunky. We only got a couple rounds before they had to go home for the night.

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.