Author: stlplace

Categories
Chinese articles Life Life Tips

What’s for dinner? 晚饭吃什么 – a series on what we eat and its impact on our bodies – I

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我的小女儿经常说的一个口头禅是如上的标题。这个好像也是my better half （aka 也就是我太太)有时头疼的一个问题。我觉得吃或者饥饿也是人的本性之一吧。我自己总的来说应该是没有因为经济的原因，在小时候饿过肚子。我太太应该也没有（她也是浙江人）。有一次我闯了一个不大不小的祸：小朋友玩捉迷藏，我好像躲在那个油菜的杆子后面，后来那家人说他们那个还有菜籽（可以榨油的那种油菜籽，canola oil), 我爸爸妈妈可能陪了他们五毛钱(no pun intended, for real)。那个时候我爸爸的月工资大概是50块钱，也就是我的错误大概是我爸爸月收入的1%。比我十三岁女儿最近的iPhone事故稍好些。那天晚饭我不敢回家吃饭，后来我的哥哥把我叫回去了。一般来说，再大的事不影响吃饭。那时候还有一个大人经常用来吓唬小孩的故事：浪费粮食，打雷的时候雷公会打的。后来在美国，我的美国host mom(她四八年生人，我不是住在他们家，但是他们对我刚来美国有很大帮助，以后会单独写），她的妈妈在她们小时候经常说：finish what’s on your plate, because in China and India a lot of pepiple are staving. 让我又想到小时候的台湾人民生活在水深火热之中，后来在美国碰到台湾人，好像他们也这么说。

我是七十年代初在浙江东北部农村长大，相对来说应该是较富的农村。但是还是很怀念过年或是暑假去我外婆（大舅小舅家的日子）。我可能是比较贪吃的人。我想起来，我五年级，我小哥初二，他有一次开玩笑说我肚子里有馋虫。我将信将疑，可能有点像我九岁的小女儿（四年级）不久前对圣诞老人的相信程度吧 🙂

还记得有一次，我在镇海中学上学，我大舅来镇海（城关镇），他的学生（我一般叫她阿姨，因为她也是我妈妈的朋友，我妈妈比我大舅小十几岁），叫我一起去吃晚饭。虽然当时我已经在学校食堂吃过饭了。我就去她家吃了个十二分饱 🙁

很多年以后，严格来说也就是在我年过半百的时候，我才慢慢意识到，在我现在这个年龄，吃饭最好最好吃个7️⃣分饱。亡羊补牢为时不晚。Better late than never.

小时候，好像总的来说，肉比较少，有时候好像要凭票。牛肉更少，好像生产队偶尔会分牛肉：我印像中一般可能是耕牛（干活的牛）可能老死了。顺便说一下，我骑过一次牛，我应该很小，还没上学，我的叔叔给生产队放牛（不是亲叔叔，但是比较近）把我放在牛背上，感觉牛背很高（多年以后我后来在美国骑过一会马，感觉有点类似）。公公（叔叔的爸爸）很能干，我现在还记得在他家吃的高粱饼的味道。我们那里一般大家不怎么种高粱，印像中高粱主要是北方种得多一些。偶尔我们也会到邻居阿嫂家蹭东西吃：比如寒假暑假里，我们爸爸妈妈要上班，阿嫂做得东西很好吃。当然，可能还有一个原因，就是跟”neighbor’s yard is greener” 类似的道理。有一次，还听说一个笑话。事情是这样的：有一家在做“汤锅”，就是没有馅的小圆子，另一家正好经过，就开玩笑说等一下做好了，就来吃晚饭吧。主人就说好的。我估计这个客人的智商可能跟我小时候的智商差不多，因为她们后来真的穿着漂亮衣服，去吃晚饭了。

为什么提到我的智商呢，其实严格来说应该是情商，就是察言观色的水平，英文叫read the room, or read/listen between the lines。就是有一次，我大概是我小女儿现在的年纪，春节期间去我爸的亲戚家做客，他的表哥家，我爸的姨娘（也就是我奶奶的姐姐）也在，他们拿出了所有的好菜。结果，我可能把我姨婆/大伯家的黄鱼给撬了。后来知道有的菜主人可能就一份，不能随便撬的 🙁 我的大哥小哥可能把我好好笑话了一下。我记得这是我去唯一一次去大伯家做客。我爸爸可能后来有去的：我倒不是觉得是因为我撬了不该撬的菜。我估计主要还是春节期间我们一般会去外婆（小舅家）住几天。也有去过外婆家旁边的姑婆家：应该是我妈妈/舅舅的姑妈，和我妈妈的表哥家。我记得有一次（我应该比我小女儿现在还小），我在公共汽车站，说口渴，我外婆就走到相对较近的姑婆家给我去倒了水喝。小时候去外婆家，坐车，走路都有。我小时候有时会觉得，如果我“聪明”一点（用现在流行的话来说情商高一点），我的肩膀上可能跟两个哥哥一样是三条杠（而不是两条了）。这个可能在现在看来很好笑，但当时是我真实的想法。我后来有一次还真的拿到了三条杠，可惜时间不长，因为我五年级很快转学了：也就“削官为民” 🙂

在我的外婆家（也就是大舅，小舅家）没有这个不能撬菜的讲究。八零后九零后出生的朋友们可能会没听说过”拿出来装样子的菜“：生活水平后来慢慢上去了。还有一个，后来也是听朋友提起，就是重男轻女，女生先不上桌。这个可能现在也好多了。外婆可能还是重男轻女的，比如说她会让我的表妹（跟我同岁）帮我洗衣服，等等，但是总的来说还好。春节在我外婆家的主要任务就是吃吃吃。我现在想起来她有时会问我们，早上，coffee time (宁波话想不起来了), 中午，点心时（下午三点左右），晚上各吃什么。

记得我小舅也是很会做菜。我记得几年前在他家还吃过他做的菜。小时候有一次夏天，我在他家，他发现我吃饭较慢。他说是不是因为菜不够好。有一次，他买了不少好菜，比如大虾啥的，后来发现我还是吃得很慢，他就知道我这吃饭慢的习惯了。

当然我的主要时间还是在自己家里。可能吃了不少海鲜包括各种鱼。当然过年的时候会更多一点。平时也有一些，我奶奶会买。比如马鲛鱼（Spanish mackerels），现在在这边日本餐馆，还有有一次在Share Sweet 有买到。

TO be continued… (下面部分，我会慢慢展开）

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民以食为天是什么意思: 我估计在中国古代能吃饱饭可能是比较奢侈的事情。“国以民为本，民以食为天，谚语，意思是国家把人民看作根本，人民把粮食当作生命，指统治者应重视解决人民所需的粮食。”

冰箱坏掉的日子： 最近几天家里冰箱坏了。

但我后来慢慢知道在美国也有小孩吃不饱饭的。其实来到圣路易斯以后就知道了。主要倒不是听了John Edwards 的speech: 我在2004年美国大选时在Delmar Loop 的Blueberry Hills 见过他。还记得2008年那一次有人开了宝马车去food bank领救济粮/食品的。

https://www.nokidhungry.org/blog/how-many-kids-america-go-bed-hungry

https://www.rileychildrens.org/connections/food-before-bed-what-to-offer-kids-and-when-to-hold-back (this is not economy or financial related)

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Ozempic (the new and hot)

西方最新减肥药（处方药）以下是我的一些推（或着严格来说是X）。肥胖是西方尤其是美国很严重的一个问题，有个数据说美国成年人有42%的人偏肥胖(Source: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases NIDDK, NIH)。

(Update 12-31-2023) I happened to see this book “How Not To Be Wrong (the power of mathematical thinking)” by Jordan Ellenberg, thanks to my wife. On page 24, it talked about nicomachean ethics. Let me quote: Aristotle observes that eating too much or too little is troubling to the constitution. The optimum is somewhere in between; because the relation between eating and health isn’t linear, but curved, with bad outcomes on both ends.

Categories
Fun

Hydro Flask

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Yesterday (11-24-2023) was Black Friday, and I think I haven’t done shopping on BF for a while. Until this year. We did a bit BF shopping, mainly for our 13 year old as she was interested. She seems know some of the deals including the Bose bluetooth headset (Costco has $120 off deal).

I didn’t buy the Hydro Flask water bottle yesterday. I bought one a few weeks ago, the wide mouth version.

Year 2017

It’s not the 1st time I bought Hydro Flask. I bought a few HF bottles and a coffee cup a few years ago (2017). And below are my stories.

Year 2018

Once my Hydro Flask water bottle leaked, and damaged my old MacBook Pro. I had to go to Apple store West County to get it fixed.

Year 2019

Once I lost my blue Hydro Flask at Denver shopping mall: I went back and asked around but could not locate it.

Year 2023

This time my 13 year old broke the iPhone XR screen (due to Hydro Flask?)

My new Hydro Flask: see the above, the wide mouth version. My 13 year old took that one sometimes too 🙂

Stanley bottle: heard this is the popular one in th middle school.

Overall I think we have too many water bottles and cups overall: my 9 year old have quite a few.

Categories
Career Software development

How to survive as an IT contractor?

Reading Time: 4 minutes
When I was little, my maternal grandma sometimes would say my elder bro is suitable for a carpenter due to his calm demeanor. This is just a picture of a carpenter (not my brother)

Surviving as an IT, especially a software developer contractor is not easy, from my personal experience and observations. I have mostly been an employee (sometimes people call it full-time), with a few stints as a contractor (my LinkedIn profile here). I worked as a contractor mostly because I needed to bring bread (or bacon) home, or in one case I needed to make a switch from software consulting back to a developer job.

Second class citizen

This reminded me of “second class citizen” label which I think it is how many H-1B visa holders were treated in this country. I think being a contractor is not easy in the sense of job security. I have my share of misery when working as a contractor – in some cases, the misery was not directly related to the fact of being a contractor, in other cases, it was. For example, once I made a dumb (but honest) mistake during my testing, I sent out 4 testing emails to real customers, the issue was somewhat like this HBO integrated testing email incident (I got the HBO email btw). I think that’s the main reason they let me go shortly after. When you think about it, do you really want to work for such a place (given choices)? In this case, I was the scapegoat for the incident, just like the “intern” was the scapegoat for the HBO email incident.

I think of this topic because, in the current project, I have been working on for the last 2 years, we have tons of contractor turnover, and it seems to me mostly the termination was initiated from our side. But I don’t have any input due to my career level or title. This is also one major downside of being a contractor – easy for a vendor to terminate, and also in some cases a contractor will become the scapegoat for some mishap or mistake in the project.

Sometimes or a lot of times I felt contractors are basically second-class citizens in the company. Personally, I don’t want to treat contractors like that. I am just stating some observations I have. There are exceptions: if the contractor is high skilled, works for the client for a while, or has a good relationship with senior management.

There are usually two scenarios in which a company hires a contractor, staff augmentation, and project outsourcing (the vendor company will staff a complete project team in this case). I have seen terminations in our current project for both scenarios.

In the past, in year 2015, when I was with Mercy Health, and working on the MyMercy project. And one day (April 2015?) we laid off all the contractors on the project due to the change of project direction.

Back to the Carpenter analogy, I do think there are still things a contractor can control in terms of her/his job security. I don’t think the contractors who worked on the MyMercy project have much control. But for the current project that I am a part of, it seems the people who were let go have one thing in common: basically in one occasion or another, they pissed off “the boss” (I would not name the names obviously).

When my maternal grandma joked that my elder brother could be a carpenter. Note carpenter is like a contractor or a skilled professional in the rural area where I grew up. I recall one carpenter built the 1st multiple stories house in our neighborhood: at that time, it cost more than 10,000 Chinese Yuan (RMB), and it was a fortune for all of us at that time. My dream then was to make 10,000 Yuan 万元户. Now I think about why my grandma said my brother could be a carpenter (and she didn’t say I could), one reason I think is probably I was not as calm as my brother 🙂

In the US though, probably applicable in China nowadays too, besides doing quality work, improving marketable skills, etc. A contractor needs to be a little bit more outspoken, and at the same time not piss off the client, the manager, “the boss” etc. The last part is really an art and not science. As one of my colleagues likes to say: one needs the “read the room” skills 中文就是察言观色的意思吧。Last but not least, something I learned over the years, is we all need to have some stories to tell (#storytelling). This is helpful or useful sometimes during job interviews, think of the behavior questions the HR or managers sometimes would ask: tell me a challenge that you encountered recently, how you overcame it, etc. Make sure you have those in your inventory and use them as you see fit.

(Update 02-07-2024) Personally I don’t recommend work as contractor – especially if one is the sole bread winner for the family. I understand in the US all employments are AT WILL, in theory an employer can lay off full time employee at any time (vice versa). || There are a few cases I think it’s okay to work as contractors: 1. 家里等米下锅；2. If it’s a consulting company such as WWT, Accenture etc., because they have bench time. Also they can put a contractor (consultant) at another client due to their connections. My 2 cents.

除了上面说的那些情况，我觉得应该有一些人适合做contractor / consultant. 主要有两类人：1，脾气特别好的人；2，技术特别牛的人：这个必须是marketable skills. 或者两个因素都具备。我都碰到过这样的人：现在做的项目里就有同时具备这两样东西的人。我觉得这两个因素我都不具备.

引用朋友的一个评论 “Contract 在某些方面确实不如FTE， 但是对于急于找项目经验的 ，或者急着找份工作的 还是可以考虑的” – 我的回复：“对。我本来也想加上去的。”

(Update 04-03-2024) I just came across that I talked about this in year 2016 too.

Categories
Edu-and-Ladue-School math-and-edu

Math Fact Scholars (MFS) FAQs

Reading Time: 6 minutes

What is it? (overview)

It’s a “practice and timed test combo” for math fact, plus some word problems (problem solving). It’s owned by Diana D and she has run this program in the area for about 18+ years. Some people may compare it with Kumon, Mathnasium etc. I don’t have much knowledge on the latter. I do have a little knowledge on Kumon and I think MFS is probably not as much work as Kumon, while MFS also usually has more parents involvement. I vaguely recall we do have one kid switched from Kumon to MFS recently.

How does it work? (workbooks and timed tests)

The kids work on the workbooks at home, with the help from the grownups from time to time. Every Tuesday morning (if the school is in session), we have timed testing sessions between 8:15 and 8:45 am in the Spoede gym.

How can I order the workbooks for the kid(s)?

Here is web order form (You will need the SSA MTK credentials to log in). There is also financial assistance available through school counselors and SSA (the information is also on the web form).

We have an email box: also, if you like to text or call, my mobile phone number is 314 540 2721

Why we are getting the same workbooks (or duplicate workbooks)?

The workbooks for the blue ribbon/bronze medal level are the same, ditto for silver/gold medals. The bronze and gold level tests are 2 minutes long, blue ribbon and silver are 3 minutes. I think the Bronze has 18 problems; Silver and Gold have 36 problems. The blue ribbon has 10 problems: it goes from +1 to +10, -1 to -10. Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels all have a final exam (mixed numbers).

Also, Kindergartener and 1st grader usually start from Blue Ribbon, 2nd and 3rd grader start from Bronze level, and the 4th grader starts from Silver (I listed below as standalone question too, to make sure the message get crossed).

Note there are no duplicates in the trophy level workbooks. Btw, the trophy levels goes from Platinum, Fraction, Decimals and Percents.

Which medal level does my kid start?

Note this information is also in the SSA MTK website, the MFS web order form, as well as above. To reiterate here, K to 1st grader start from blue ribbon (addition and subtraction), 2nd and 3rd graders start from bronze medal (addition and subtraction), and 4th grader start from silver medal (multiplication and division). Please talk to us if you feel your kid needs to go faster or go slower.

How much time should a kid practice per day?

Again each kid is different. Typically it’s a good idea for a kid to do a few pages of practice on the workbook, and each page could take a few minutes to (up to) 15 minutes (including the time the parent take a look at the work, check the answers, explain if applicable). There is no need to compare the times a kid work on the workbooks with another kid. Personally I think a good learning habit will help the kid down the road: e.g., focus, don’t get distracted by the TikTok, reading and understand the instructions or a word problem, and so on. This will also help them when they move up grades.

Should I send my kids every Tuesday morning?

No, you don’t have to. You/your kid are welcome to join the testing sessions at any Tuesday morning when we have them, but this is not a necessary condition. Just come when your kid is ready and also when the time slot works for you/your family. One analogy if I may add, is in a baseball/software game, the batter only swings at the ball when he/she feels there is a good chance he/she can get a hit (home run, single, double and so on).

I do understand for some kids, there are some social interactions there as well – we are okay with that, as long as the kid doesn’t cause disturbance to other kids who are more serious. Sometimes we ask am unwilling kid to sit on the steps by the stage and wait for 8:35 am when their classroom is available.

What if I (or my kid) cannot make it to the Tuesday mornings’ tests? (I used Italics to hilight below)

I understand this could be a real issue for some parents, sometimes the mornings could be a bit hectic, with the morning rush for school or work. We still want to encourage our kids to work on the workbooks and if possible, do some timed tests.

If you are confident that your kids are doing the work at home, and you may give the kiddo a timed test too, just using the practice sheet on the workbooks. If you believe the kids can benefit from getting a medal or a trophy etc., please bring in the workbooks and highlight the testing sheet, and we can award the medal or trophy after verifications. In fact during pandemic because we could not have a large group gathering and test sessions, we did something similar.

My personal observation is most kids (and maybe parents too) would value the medal or trophy more than a toy or some other material rewards.

How can you (I, we) help?

Help the kiddos work on the workbooks at home. Talk to them, look at the workbooks from time to time. Encourage them. Better yet (not necessary, but always appreciated from an organizer’s point of view, believe it or not, I have been working as volunteers for 8+ years), please volunteer for the program. This is a program 99% run by the parents volunteers. We need volunteers to run the test: grading, manage the test box, help filing the test papers, to the backend work: processing the order, ordering the workbook and testing copies, reviewing the test papers, and recording them in the google spreadsheet that we publish etc.

I do understand many parents have busy work schedule and they may not join the test sessions. Again please help when you can: there are behind of the scenes work (see the backend work above). Also, I noticed many kids are happy to see their parents in school volunteering. If your work schedule doesn’t allow for in person volunteering, or other volunteering tasks, don’t worry – we will try to treat your kids just like how we treat our kids. Our only ask is please tell your kids we practice Spoede R. O. C. K. S. (Respect, Ownership, Cooperation, Kindness, and Safety) while we are in the gym.

What is the 1st test PDF file?

It’s the 1st test a kid is expected to work on at a particular morning. Again please don’t compare your kid with her/his friend.

Occasionally we have kids that skipped certain tests, due to various reasons. We try to ask them to make up the missing tests – it’s just a way to train their good leaning habit. Not sure take shortcuts etc. We also believe in this step by step approach. In the years I volunteers at the program, it appears to me the kids did the workbook, and not skipping the tests, are usually progressing better. Somewhat like the story/the race of the tortoise vs the rabbit.

What if my kid skipped a test or a few tests?

No worries, this is much less severe than say, we adults crossed a red light or stop sign without stopping. We will try to ask the kid to make up the test: even if we always awarded a medal. Our goal, again, is to not to punish someone, rather to help our kids to build a good learning habit (including doing things step by step and so on), as well as help them to get more comfortable with math, as well as help them get more confidence on math. Sometimes the right amount of confidence is a bit tricky.

Sometimes the mistake is caused by us, we could run out of testing paper for a specific test. We would tell the kid to move on to the next one if that’s the case. Or they can choose to pause there too.

Is Math Fact still relevant in today’s post Chatgpt world?

Yes I think so. Personally I think math is just a fundamental skills along with reading and writing, and math is closely associated with logical thinking, and it won’t be out of date in this TikTok / google search / Chatgpt world. Good old human intelligence will beat AI 🙂

Also, refer to this – All The Math We Need For Trading Stocks. My point is math is extremely important and useful for our daily lives, from personal finance to cooking (think about the recipe and ingredients), to career choices (more than engineering and sciences, for sure).

Our goal: help and encourage our kids to practice math, both in terms of the math fact, calculation, as well as problem solving. Hopefully they will get more comfortable and confident on math with this program (the practice and the timed tests). And all this will lay a good foundation when they move on to middle school, high school and beyond.

What if I have more questions?

We have an email box: also, if you like to text or call, my mobile phone number is 314 540 2721

Last but not least, I wrote about this last school year too, and I decided to start this post as more people (some new) asked me the FAQs above.

Categories
gadgets

Does iPhone make you happy?

Reading Time: 3 minutes
Dynamic Island on newer iPhones

I think this is true for my 13-year-old. Yesterday evening I gave my 2-year-old iPhone 12 to her after I migrated everything to my new iPhone 15. And she was happy to see the missed text messages (friend’s b-day party invitations), and the never-ending YT Shorts 🙂

Again I am thankful that she accidentally broke it so I can enjoy 15 a few months earlier. My original plan is to get it around Christmas. A tangible difference is the new phone has a new battery and it can last a bit longer 🙂

There are a lot of talks and a lot of worried parents on the endless scroll of TikTok and YT Shorts. Instagram and Snapchat. I think consume everything (or most everything) in moderation. Perhaps alcohol is something I should be more careful 🙂

This morning, after I did the Math Fact Scholars at my 9-year-old’s school, my phone started to play music, and it’s the “moments” in the iPhone photo app, featuring the families (kids) in the forest park over the years (goes back to 2016, or more). That’s also one reason I came back to my iPhone in year 2016. Btw, free career advice (or happiness advice): don’t switch smartphone when you start a new job 🙂 A side note: my 1st boss at the credit card co likes to use the word “career” for “career level”. Personally I felt I learned quite a bit while at the credit card co: one is to be myself (not to be someone else); another one is “career” is overrated. Personal health and family are much more important. I learned (or realized) that I was about to be laid off at about 15 minutes before my meeting with my 2nd boss and the HR people there: after I worked my tail off (or pull all the stops, take your pick) for them 🙁

Recently I hear something like this: engineers (and scientists) make things, artist (designers) sell things (think Steve Jobs and Job Ives, the designer of many things Apple over the years).

PS: think more about the “happiness” that was recently talked about by Lorna at the college application seminar. I think pleasant surprises (e.g., the moments in the iPhone photo app) or simple things (think the Amazon package box is a good example) are two sources. I do agree with what Lorna said: my 9-year-old won’t have long-term interest in toys such as the remote cars. She can play with it for a day or 2 before I can start thinking about selling it on eBay.

Accessories I bought for my new iPhone 15

Note: below are Amazon links, but I am not receiving any commissions from them 🙂

Apple iPhone 15 Silicone Case with MagSafe – Black: I paid about $25 for this at Amazon.com ​​​​​​​ (this is Apple office accessory and is also available both at apple.com and store, at a bit higher price)

Apple EarPods Headphones with USB-C Plug, Wired Ear Buds with Built-in Remote to Control Music, Phone Calls, and Volume (same price at apple.com) – I know I know, some may question: why wired EarPods in todays’ post AirPods world? Good question. I think EarPods do have some advantages over AirPods: especially if we don’t need to run or jog, or walk around the room during a tele conference or a Zoom meeting. Plus it uses less battery from an iPhone (again it uses wire instead bluetooth), for that matter, sometimes the AirPods run out of battery too.

Anker USB C Charger Cable [2 Pack, 6ft], 310 Type C Charger Cable Fast Charging, Braided USB A to USB C Cable for Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Note 9/S10+ S10, LG V30 (USB 2.0, Black)

Btw, my 9 year old wasn’t too thrilled with the “dynamic island” feature on my new iPhone 15: I haven’t asked her why yet 🙂

Dynamic Island on newer iPhones

Categories
Saint Louis

Will the market at Olive be successful?

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I hope so. Last October the Costco U city opened, Oct 25, 2022 to be precise. A year later, we have a few more restaurants etc. opened, Raising Canes, Panera Bread, Chase Bank, Chipotle, and Chick-fil-A (open this Friday 11/17/23?). And now I walk around the area, I think it’s a notch above the fast food restaurants on the nearby Page Ave (north of Olive).

The Market at Olive 🫒: 我个人不是很喜欢面包店这种新的的咖啡机，以前在信用卡公司，还有一些旅馆比如说上海虹桥的嘉轩Hyatt Place 也有类似机器。我觉得这种咖啡里加了太多的creamer. Costco好市多对面的Chick Fil A 好像本周五会开。听说原计划里的靶子点(Target), 和本村较高端的买菜店Dierbergs 不来了。

Also, I took a video on the area (Panrea and the neighborhood) and uploaded to YT recently.

Last but not least, note that Costco was mostly built on the Jeffery Plaza, and NPR (STL Public Radio) has an article on it.

(Update 02-19-2024) Noticed an old article In the Path of a University City Costco, the Displacement Has Already Begun when googling “Olivette gentrification”. The original University Place is now called “The Market at Olive”. Let’s hope the original lot slated for Dierbergs and Target stores find new tenants soon.

(Update 08-05-2024) Target to open its largest St. Louis store in University City (fox2now). Earlier there was talk about Target not coming. It could be something happened during the negotiation (hit a snag or something), and now it seems they are coming. Now if they can persuade the Dierbergs to come too. Also note both Dierbergs and Target have stores a few miles down I-170 (inner belt) at Promenade: I understand sometimes people make jokes about that place (the plaza where Target is located) due to its traffic.

References

Market at Olive Development | University City, MO

Categories
gadgets

New iPhone 15 arrived 新的iPhone 15 到了

Reading Time: 3 minutes

(Update 03-20-2024) The phone works great. But it seems I cannot get the Sim Lock to work. Also they only have 3 attempts: the 1st time I didn’t know what I was doing (I thought I was going to set it up), the 2nd time I followed the wrong advice from Google Gemini (the default code is not good). Now I am down to the last choice (before calling the carrier etc.). On the plus side, it seems the carrier app is decent from security point of view.

https://twitter.com/stlplace/status/1770435196006867030

(Update 11-13-2023) Migrated most everything. The sticking point is the Microsoft Authenticator app (for work and school), and the RSA SecurID app (for work).

For Microsoft Office 365 etc., I found this link is important and useful. It will save the user some trouble and basically it will allow the use to self-serve (setup via the Mint Mobile app on the new device). The trick is to add the phone (text message) number to the account, before deleting the authenticator app on the old iPhone and on the myaccount.microsoft.com web page. Deleting it from the web page and re-add the authenticator app will prompt the user to scan the QR code and setup the authenticator on the new phone. Without adding the phone number, we will likely need the help from helpdesk (they will need to do a reset of the Microsoft account). I did this successfully for two accounts (out of 3), and I messed up another one and had to get help from the Helpdesk (basically they need to reset the account/MFA for me).

(Original 11-11-2023) 新手机来了，比计划早两天。也大致完成了迁移工作（除了几个预料中会有问题的app)。从实体的SIM卡到eSIM 稍有折腾，不过Mint Mobile 总的来说还是给力的，在她家的app 里直接完成了（图一是新手机）。顺便说一下：好像15以上这边的爱疯都是eSIM, 而国内还是实体的SIM卡，所以带手机可能用不了。|| 总体上来说，感觉从12 （图二）到15 没有太大差别，不过个人喜欢三的倍数[微笑]。损坏的XR 严格来说应该是11, 苹果店说后面也破了，换一个新的XR大概是$399，果子店旁边的一个修理摊一开始报价$300修正反两面。后来我说这老手机能用的状况，也就值两百块钱。他们就说两百也可以修/我查了一下亚马逊材料费大概是四十几块美元。我可能会自己修修看。图四和五是12和15的包装📦。我老大把新的盒子给收藏了：她说好看。可能哪天我们可以把她包回去，几十年以后，也许会值点钱[捂脸]。图六是2007的iPhone 首发版，图七是一个著名油管博主(mkbhd)花了四万美元买了一个原装的（未开封的）这样一个手机，在油管上拆给大家看。我觉得贫困限制了我的想象[呲牙]。

Btw, I realized there is AppleCare+ (insurance provided through Apple) for iPhone, and for that matter other Apple products too. It’s not too expensive. There are other insurance offered by insurance companies too.

AppleCare+ for iPhone

Also Mint Mobile has a plan for me 🙂 I think if one decides to buy, the Apple’s plan probably is better.

The insurance offer from Mint Mobile

I think I will probably pass on both for now: I am going to self insure my iPhone. In my past, I had two instances that I dropped iPhone into water or other liquids, and I was able to dry it out myself. For this episode (the XR screen break), it’s my 13 year old’s fault, and I still have to pay, the cost is about $200, because the phone in its working condition would be worth $200.

One thing to take note though, with the protection of iCloud, the iPhone thief cannot use the stolen iPhone directly (they could disassemble them and potentially use it for parts). Here is an example I am aware in which the victim likely got killed due to a robbery of iPhone (in year 2012).

“According to police, a man later identified as 18-year-old Keith Esters confessed to having targeted Megan after seeing her talking on her iPhone, for which she had replaced her Blackberry just a month earlier. In the process of the robbery, Esters shot her twice and killed her, police said.”

Earlier: Bought iPhone 15

Categories
Edu-and-Ladue-School

Some notes taken at a college application seminar

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Or college counseling, college admission (from college point of view). Some tactic (most important of all, don’t mention mental health/struggle etc in the college app); and some aspirational advices (e.g., happiness, expectation, find passion). It was presented by Interface edu and the event was hold at SLMCS.

My comment: mental health is actually the No. 1 issue for both parents and kids. Doesn’t say it or mention it in the college app doesn’t mean it’s not important. See this Universities pushed to address mental health concerns on campus after student suicides

Speakers
Lorna Gray (founder)

Started talking about parents’ anxiety amid the strike down of AA (btw, she thinks “AA or not” will have little impact to 华人/亚裔学生). ED: early decision may help 华人/亚裔学生.

She talked about Stanley Zhong: the famous Chinese kid who got rejected by 16 so-called elite schools but was offered a job at Google – Buried in the news, he will attend UT Austin after one year gap year working at Google.

Admission officer: aha moment

My understanding is storytelling 🙂 And basically the student (applicant) has about 20 minutes to tell her/his story to the college admission officer. Btw, this is not too different from “In summer 1997 yours truly applied for the student F-1 visa in Shanghai”, or “In the year 2000, I applied and interviewed for a job at a software company in STL”.

If SAT score is lower than the average of the school, don’t submit

GPA is still relevant

三条腿原理：academic, social, emotional 相当于中国三好生 (my comment)

ChatGPT: may makes the personal statement irrelevant

Supplemental material 补充文书will be more important

College rep may visit high school, go see them

Profile study: stem boy – writing and publishing, presented a topic to the general public, write about – from not interested in writing to becoming interested

Nanette Tarbouni

Personality inventory

Empathy and curiosity

(This somehow remind me of the recruiters )

Academics and interests
Study habits (time management, the YT video by Amy)

Summer experiences

Identify interests

High school course selection: physics is the most important class in high school

Annalee – Annalee Nissenholtz, Ph.D. DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE COUNSELING

NACAC feedback
College hires outside people to read the apps.
ED

Don’t write about the emotional and mental health and struggles in the application (this reminds me of my Panera interview in year 2011) || don’t be naive about a question on “challenges”

Anxiety and depression are red flags

Colleges are looking for energetic, kind and smart kids

They are looking for a kid’s story : give the readers the story in 5 to 6 minutes (supplemental essays) – additional info ℹ️

Make sure interest is ranked high on the activity list

ED is binding with the exception of colleges cannot meet student or families financial need

Lorna again
Happiness

PS, came across this one and think it’s good.

Also: a related but different topic, college majors vs pay

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated to Interface Edu. I do think for retired people with former college counseling and college admission experience, this is a good gig (or I would say this is likely a win-win situation). And here are all the college counselors.

作为父母是否需要忍耐？父母爱孩子，就不要给ta太多建议？连吃苦都需要让他们自己去领悟？#窦文涛 #梁文道 #马未都 #周轶君

Categories
gadgets

Bought iPhone 15

Reading Time: 4 minutes

(Update 11-11-2023) I got the new iPhone 15. In the process of setting it up. So far fairly smooth, in terms of transferring the content over from my old iPhone 12. The only minor hiccup is the eSim (Wikipedia, Apple) on the new phone: I went inside the Mint Mobile app and did it. I was using the good old physical SIM (nano-SIM) on iPhone 12. I am aware of the eSIM, but I didn’t jump into it with the iPhone 12. Now iPhone 15 phased out the physical SIM completely: outside of China though. In China, the iPhone 15 sold there will still have physical SIM, from what I heard.

On Monday I am going to call the IT support at my company to get the Microsoft Authenticator and RSA SecurID work. Interestingly, the Google Authenticator allows me to export from old device, and import them into the new device – pretty slick.

(Update 11-10-2023) Now it seems the phone will arrive on Monday 11/13/2023 pm per Chase. This also means my 13-year-old will likely get her phone (meaning my current iPhone 12) on Tuesday. I asked her: does everybody (at LMS) have an iPhone? She said yes (maybe some exaggeration? I don’t know). She said she missed a few text messages 🙂 I told her I got my 1st cell phone when I was 29, a Nokia candy bar phone. It was the year 2000, it looks something like this, I think mine was bigger and not as sleek. I remember I bought it at the Best Buy store on St. Charles Rock Road, and with the Southwestern Bell wireless contract in the fall of 2000 after I started to work in St. Louis. Southwestern Bell Wireless is a part of AT&T after many mergers and acquisitions. This used to be their HQ here in STL.

My plan of iPhone migration as of now (I track it via a google doc)

======

iPhone 15 coming Monday 11-13-2023

  • Got the case (Apple MegSafe, Amazon, some discount)
  • Continue to clean up current iPhone 12; also back up to the iCloud (later restored the new phone from iCloud backup)
  • Make sure Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator and SecurID continue to work on the new phone
  • Tested iPhone 15 out before giving the iPhone 12 to kid

======

(Original) Thread on X here:

https://twitter.com/stlplace/status/1720499944237232306

I was going to buy the iPhone 15 for a while: but my daughter’s iPhone XR accident accelerated it.

My iPhone history

2009: iPhone 3G in January 2009 (I gave it to my wife, for the most part, I started doing iPhone app dev at the time – “In July I signed up for the Apple iOS developer program, paid the $99 annual fee and became more seriously on iOS app development. I have thought about it and bought a Macbook and iPhone 3G back in Jan 2009…“). || Btw, today 11-10-2023 I came across this video on YT, I Spent $40,000 to Unbox a Sealed Original iPhone!, by famous YouTuber Marques Brownlee. This reminds me of all the things about the iPhone 3G including Jailbreak: maybe I should not sold it on eBay and should have kept it a collector item. Related note: the viewership and the revenue from Marques channel seem much bigger than I thought earlier, just by looking at how much he spent (bidding) for the unsealed original 2007 iPhone.

2010: I think my 1st iPhone is 4: bought at the Apple West County store and it included the AT&T 2-year plan in fall 2010.

Those two (iPhone 3g and iPhone 4) are the only 2 contract phone I bought. By contract phone I mean we as consumer signed up a 2 year contract with the carrier, and we pay a monthly fee (usually not cheap) for the plan (both call/text and data).

I briefly had an iPhone 4s for work (2012 to early 2013).

2013: I bought an unlocked iPhone 5s after iPhone 4: Back To iPhone. Also this: How I Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone 5s And Transfer To H2O Wireless.

Between fall 2015 and early 2019, I had an iPhone 6 from work.

2019: for my own use, finally I bought an iPhone XR (link to eBay) in Oct 2019 (I returned the work iPhone 6 in early 2019) from Apple. This is the phone my 13-year-old broke this week. I sold iPhone 5s before that. Also note I used Amazon Fire Phone between 2015 and 2016.

2021 and 2023: in June 2021, I bought a purple iPhone 12 (eBay link) using Chase Ultimate Rewards (Chase Sapphire) in June 2021. This evening (11-03-2023) I just ordered a green iPhone 15. Interestingly, the points number is the same: both are 72,447 points. The only difference is last time I used points only, this time I didn’t have that many points so it’s a combination of points and cash (credit card). One minor tip is I probably should conserve the Chase Sapphire ultimate rewards points: I used it for “lightning to HDMI cable” and AirPods 3 redemptions recently. Probably should use other means for those.

If we count the iPhone 3G (which my wife used primarily and I used it for dev purpose), I personally have bought 5 iPhones. The first two iPhones have contract (both AT&T). And the last 3 are unlocked iPhones. For data plans, I used AT&T, H2O and now I am using MintMobile (recently bought by T-Mobile).

Photos

I backed up most of my photos from iPhone to iCloud, especially the recent ones. For the old ones, I backed them up to an old hard drive. And it’s slow to get to. Ideally, I like to clean up the photos (deleting duplicates, etc.) and continue using iCloud.

Another Android phone I used

Also Nexus One (Google)

I didn’t use them for long. Went back to the iPhone eventually, just like the Amazon Fire Phone.

PS: Marques Brownlee (famous YouTuber) has a good review on YouTube for iPhone 15.

Categories
401k and Personal Finance Business Investing

All the math we need for trading stocks

Reading Time: 2 minutes
A fun math problem suitable for a confident 4th grader

I went to my 9 year old (4th grader)’s class recently and tried to talk about the “The Stock Market Game” (btw, it looks like my main winner is Nike for now 🙂 Below is something I shared in my daughter’s class.

I also tried to answer some questions on individual stocks too, e.g., Adobe, Chipotle, Peabody Energies (do they still have the same name after emerging from bankruptcy, btw).

All the math you need in the stock market you get in the fourth grade.

— Peter Lynch (famous mutual fund manager in the US)

Warren Buffett said something similar (only need 4th-grade math for stocks) in the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder meeting, at about 1 hour 40 minutes mark, morning session (available on Apple Podcast and YouTube)

Warren Buffett bought his 1st stock at the age of 11: 1 minute 28 seconds in the video till 2 min 27 sec . I think he is probably in grade 6 or 7 (he may have skipped grade when he was young).

Mutual Fund (this came up as a question and I prepared a bit)

Illustration of mutual fund

Articles from nerdwallet on Mutual fund


It’s hard to look up Mutual Funds in the Stock Market Game website (app), btw.

VFIAX – VFIAX-Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares

I created a notes before I go, and here is the google docs link (you can view it).

PS: 4th grade math on Kahn Academy

(Update 11-10-2023) A coworker recommended the Netflix series below, on personal finance etc. I watched a bit, and I think this is good.

Below is a screenshot, if you are in the free world, you will likely see 2 similar images (to be precise, one is Tweet, the below one is an image)

I think this Netflix documentary series maybe suitable for the kids 4th graders and up 🙂