Come, follow me. - January 7, 2019

Do you find yourself waiting for a blessing? 

Yes.

What do you feel the Lord expects of you while you wait?

Patience & do my best.

What other messages might the Lord have for you in this story?

Patience yields wisdom by pondering.

Second Institute Class

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only source of light in the world.   

Everything good comes from God.  

 

Don't let the past define your future, a fruit of forgiveness.   

A woman sued the Church for a sexual assault experience with a leader of the church. The teacher testifies of the need forgiveness, for he and his siblings were sexually abused for years as a child, but he would be thrilled if he would see his abusers in the celestial kingdom.   

A student related. How would you feel if a drug addict or an alcoholic in the Celestial Kingdom? Would you not be thrilled?   

   

3 AM is the time that President Nelson reads the scriptures, talking about how he pulled out a flashlight to continue, when the power went out. That is the time that he finds that God speaks to him. He encouraged the audience of mission presidents to find the time and place that God speaks to them.   

   

Joseph Smith Papers many accounts of the first vision, a more complete understanding of his experience.

Ancestry DNA Kit guidance

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

Christmas 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

Examples of good habits to add to Habitica

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

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

Put on/remove shoes near door

Keep shoes organized

Take out trash

Wipe counters clean

Organize recycling

Rinse recyclable containers

Organize papers

Clear table

Put away dishes

Put away clothes

Fill grain bins.

26 December 2018

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

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

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

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

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

Put on/remove shoes near door

Keep shoes organized

Take out trash

Wipe counters clean

Organize recycling

Rinse recyclable containers

Organize papers

Clear table

Put away dishes

Put away clothes

Fill grain bins

The Best Android Apps to Learn Thai

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

The following apps remain useful to me: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christmas Eve 2018

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

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

The following apps remain useful to me: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

23 December 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I didn't get to sleep until about midnight.

19 - 21 December 2018

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

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

20 December 2018

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

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

21 December 2018

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

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