I happened to see this on twitter/X, and I would say the Middle Westeners have both (kind and nice 🙂
I am in HK right now with my family, and my 14 year old commented STL is not as famous for tourism compared to Hong Kong. True. We are on the way from the US to mainland China to see our families (here is my post on the air ticket shortly after we bought it).
Also I commented if she doesn’t do the online PE, I would not have the opportunity to hangout with her, such as walking on the Hong Kong street.
This also somewhat reminds me when I went to Wuhan for college in year 1989, my dad took me to Shanghai, before I onboard the boat from SH to Wuhan.
PS: I posted the above content (similar content) on FB and they flagged and deleted my post right away. I think from now on I will limiting my posting there. All major social media platforms have a lot of power. One thing I noticed is YouTube deletes any comments with a link to another website.
Reading Time: 2minutesAn email from CCRC, which my daughters play tennis (tennis clinics), unfortunately I am too OLD 🙂
Or in bubble territory. Personally I think so. I think this is a bit like the AI right now.
I think compared to tennis, pickleball is more social (for social interactions, chatting), but less sports. Once a friend joked pickleball is not a sports – which my 13 year old disagrees, note she is in the “inclusive” generation (or “woke”, LOL, if I may).
Looking back
A few years ago, 5 or 6 years ago, I only saw people playing pickleball at the J Creve Coeur indoor Gym on Saturday morning. Now we can see people playing pickleball everywhere; from outdoor parks (des peres park for one), to many community centers (Olivette, Overland).
Recently I heard a few of my friends playing including my boss who is a pro, btw; also heard tennis playing population is in decline, while the pickleball is picking up the steam. He actually took a few of us to CCRC new pickleball court and showed us the basics of pickleball, stay in the “kitchen” and all. Also the John brothers.
We had 2 snow days right out of the gate this month, once because it was extremely cold (1/16 Tuesday), another time it was due to the freezing rain and black ice on the road. Basically the road become a skating rink (1/22 Monday).
The green firetruck hit the blue car (nobody inside), barely missed the house, fortunately no one got hurt
Both my kids loved snow days. In the process I also learned the typical Americans’ ritual to get snow days: such as “Wear your pajamas inside out.” On serious note, black ice (ice on the concrete or asphalt) is dangerous both for the cars and the pedestrians. I have 1st hand experience on both. Once my minivan was spinning like the firetruck above at the Briarcliff club house parking lot. Another couple times I was walking like a duck crossing the Olive road, or walking near Olive and Spoede road.
School buses and the drivers for school buses would encounter the same issue. And the teachers and staff too. Plus the parents (guardians) drive or walk kids to school. This is a no win situation in terms of going to school. And we can always learn or have school on a normal day.
School lunch
Last 2 weeks, my old daughter got hurt during tennis clinics (group class). And I sent her to places to make sure she is okay. Once I bought her Chick fil a on the way back from provider to school around lunch time. She liked that. I think the school lunch is probably not as good or flavorful as the chick fil a sandwich.
My younger daughter does bring lunch to school on Fridays. So yesterday morning at the bus stop, right before the bus coming, she said: I forgot to bring the lunch. I said: I can either do carpool to drop you off, or I can drop you off at the next bus stop that your friends will also be there. We did the latter.
Reading Time: 5minutesThe four pieces medal for 2019/2020 SnowBall series: it’s 40 years anniversary of the series
I like to run when I was in middle school, for two reasons. I was not too bad at running, in fact I won a few track medals for 200 meters and 4×100 meters relay. I failed pretty bad in the 800 meters race (in my grade, one grade has 4 classes). But I am probably one of the fastest running 800 meters in my class, and I felt good about it 🙂
But I don’t always like being woken up and run in the winter mornings. It’s called 早锻炼。I don’t always dislike it either.
And 早锻炼 is still encouraged in college, although it’s mostly involves wake up, walk near the soccer field, wave to the 学生干部 who does rollcall, before heading off to student canteen for breakfast. Once, I recall our counselor who is a lady and she was only 4 years older than us, and she came to our dorm in the morning and tried to wake us up and go to the morning jog, and I was not up that day. The teacher’s name is 张圆圆, and I regarded her as a big sister: at one time I recall she asked me if I know another mutual friend of ours (and her dance partner). But unfortunately I learned in recent years that she passed away due to illness.
My weight gain over the years
I think back in year 2011, I hiked in the trails in the Power Valley with a friend. It was at that time that I suddenly realized I was out of shape after I looked at the photo of myself. I was 40 years old then, and our older daughter was born one year earlier.
It took me some more years to start running and joggling in the hope of control my weight. In year 1997, when I came to the USA, I probably weighed 105 pounds. Fast forward to year 2002, I gained some weight, probably at about 135 pounds. I lost some by doing Tae Kwon Do at World Martial Arts Academy between year 2002 and 2005 (mainly 2002 to 2004). I went to the location at Telegraph road, near highway 55 and 270.
Fast forward 10+ years. I finally decided to give running a try in year 2017. It went to the J for swimming sometimes, but I gained some more weights, probably at 155 lbs (pounds). I recall one of my college friends could not recognize me when I was in Shanghai in summer 2016 (both due to my aging and weight gain). I could barely run 200 meters in year 2017.
Frostbite series is organized by the St. Louis track club, and they have a short and long series, and has 5 races spanning over 10 weeks (2 weeks between races). The race is always held in the Forest Park on a Saturday morning.
Snowball series has a distance slightly longer than the Frostbite short series. It’s also held on Saturday mornings. The day doesn’t conflict with Frostbite. So in theory a person can do both series. I ran Snowball series before pandemic.
Races I have run over the last 5 or 6 years
I run mostly school, community related races; including once girlsontherun with my old daughter (when she was 2nd grader?)
The only race I won something (JCC labor day 5k run, it seems the record below has some error?)
Again I did the two series I mentioned above: the Snowball (before pandemic) and Frostbite series (post pandemic).
The longest distance I ran is half Marathon: I ran 4 times so far, once right before pandemic shutdown (03/07/2020) and it was also the only time I ran with 2 hours 30 mins. I signed up the same race for March 2024, and my 1st goal is to beat the 3/22/2022 time (12:56 minute per mile). A bonus is to run the race under 2.5 hours.
My races results over the years
Athlinks (google social login, goes back to year 2018). Results are shown below. This seems included most of my races. The most important column is probably the pace: mile per minute.
page 1
page break
page 2
page break
page 3
Two more websites that have my race results: both are not as comprehensive as Athlinks above.
raceroster (my FB social login, goes back to year 2019)
That probably summarized most of my races. I have many memories from races, mostly are fun ones.
Incidents
I saw two incidents happened right before my eyes at Creve Coeur park. Once in the snow ball series, the snow was melting, and a small portion of the paved trail (under the 364 extension bridge) still had quite a bit of water (maybe a foot in terms of the depth). When I ran there, I was thinking: gosh, now I am like the horse that had to cross the water. And I saw a gentleman who may be a bit older than me, fell, and blood coming from his legs. The full length of the paved trail is about 3.6 or 3.8 mile, so all in all, this is not too bad. I don’t think the runner’s life is in danger in anyway. It’s just looked a bit scary when we ran through the 10 meters or 20 meters of the water.
Another time Also at the Creve Coeur lake park, the half marathon, a gentleman, who seems in his 70s, fell down right before my eye at about 11 miles mark. Fortunately it’s right the 1st aid station is, and people rushed to help.
Last but not least, if you only interested in walking or hiking, I have a blog post on St. Louis Area Nature Trails.
97年夏天我第一次来美国，我的飞机航班是东航上海虹桥(SHA) 到洛杉矶 (LAX, China Eastern MU 583), 当时好像用的是麦道11(Btw, 93年好像有一次事故），再从洛杉矶坐TWA航班飞圣路易斯(STL)。我在洛杉矶机场犯了一个不大不小的错误。我当时很想上厕所，急着从机场（入境处和海关）出来，结果一出来就拿错了行李。等我发现我拿错了，我已经出了海关，我赶紧用我的英语跟美国机场的工作人员解释，还好他听懂了，让我进去跟东航的地勤人员说上话，交换了行李（取到了我自己的行李）。这个箱子是当时上海第一百货的牌子，估计我们都是在一百买的，这个箱子实用也较便宜。这一次是我的口语第一次在美国派到用场。
PS: 大概在2005/6年在圣村的机场，又碰到一件类似的事情，这一次是Diplomat的灰色硬壳箱。对方把我的箱子拿到家以后，没有多想，直接撬锁。后来她通过航空公司陪了我大概是五十还是一百块钱(USD)：她没有拿我的东西，就是赔我的坏掉的箱锁。那个箱子今年回国才退休。Also: I have other stories with the diplomat luggage (1 and 2) back in 2007 when I tried to replace a broken wheel. So this one really last for a long time: at least from 2007 to 2023. I think I bought it before 2007 too.
Learning Englishin Missouri S&T at Rolla
Note the adults tend to stay or social with her/his own ethic group or friends, and use the 1st language he/she is familiar with. When I was a graduate student in Rolla more than 20 years ago, I used to have an American professor, and he made a comment which I agree: American grad students stay with the Americans, Chinese students stay with the Chinese, and Indian students stay with Indians.
I have Indian born advisor, and I talked to Indian born graduate students. One nice thing is one fellow graduate student sometimes corrected my English, and that really helped. Not many people would correct or point out. Btw, that particular grad student is now a technology VP at a credit rating agency.
At one time, I was able to translate for the professors during a meeting. I think the fellow graduate student is from Africa and he has some accent, but it’s not too hard to guess or figure out.
Host family When I was new to Rolla, I got to learn the Stoltz family through the international office’s host family program. And they helped my English (via conversations), and get familiar with the America culture in many aspects. I still remember, the dinners, the trips to the Governor’s Manson, to Branson and the Xmas gifts.
Fraternity
At one time because I live with American undergrad everyday, and listen to their talking daily, I felt English is almost like “my native language”. Also once my “big brother” told me: you lived in a quite unique fraternity. And I agree: in the beginning of my stay there, I rode bike from school to the fraternity house every day. When the weather was bad I would call the house for help, and my brothers never failed to pick me up. That includes the rides in the snow days too.
I retook the English test again a few years later: got a “fair” grade from another Indian born professor.
TV and Movies are also a very important source of education for my Oral English. Back in those days it was mostly the Blockbuster videos, and just movies on the TV. Now it’s mostly streaming mostly from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. American middle schools and high school tv 📺 or movies 🎥 High School: Gilmore girls (Netflix) High School: Breakfast club (I watched via Amazon Prime, free) College: back to school 🏫 (Amazon, for a fee)
Holiday themed movies
Love Actually (a classic, watch it on Netflix before 12/31/2023)
Romantic series: the Virgin River (Netflix, the series 5 just debuted and the last episode has holiday theme/Christmas celebration)
Other comedies:
Seinfeld
Friends
No Hard Feelings (Jennifer Lawrence, new on Netflix)
NPR
Most listened programs: morning edition, all things considered, market place, planet money and ted radio hour.
Listened in the past, enjoyed but no longer available or no longer listen much due change of taste or programming: Diane Rhem show, Fresh Air (Terry Gros), Car Talk, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Weekend Edition.
I taught in China. Many years ago in SH. Failed. Will talk more about that exp. later, hopefully 🙁
When I was new to Rolla, I failed in the Teaching Assistant (TA) English test – later I tried to practice oral English with a English teacher during lunch (once a week). I didn’t teach when at Rolla (again because I flunked the spoken English test), and had to look for RA (research assistant) job in the school. Later on I taught in Abacus Rolla, to a few fellow grad students, and I did okay. It was friendly environment too.
This fall I started teaching graduate course at Webster U. 韦伯斯特大学客座教授（其实就是兼职 adjunct professor 🙂 Couple funny things:
I was nervous before doing this, but my wife and 13 year old daughter were quite nervous too;
I think it’s giving me some energy interacting with younger folks (all graduate students are younger than me). I do interact with my kids quite a bit too: to be precise more than interacting with them, or Uber-ing them around. But most kids will eventually grow up and live on their own. That’s where interacting with young folks becoming more important: I believe that’s one reason Warren Buffett likes to teach at school sometimes, or hosting the MBA students at his company’s HQ or at the annual shareholder meeting. Also the BRK meeting, plus Charlie’s Daily Journal Co and past Wesco shareholder meetings allow both of them to interact with many people, including many young people too. That’s one secret sauce of their longetibity.
Imagine when a kid falls and how western parents and traditional Chinese grandmas react
Is probably the confidence. From the day they start to walk. I still remember the time my older daughter started to walk. I think most parents would encourage their toddler kids to walk when the kiddos were still learning. I guess the same goes for the potty training. Now I recall we gave our older daughter chocolate when she successfully used the potty without peeing or pooing in the diaper. when we started potty training on her. And I clearly recall she asked for chocolate at her toddler daycare place when she successfully did it there.
In terms of teaching kids to walk or run, I also recall, that many years ago, in my college (China), sometimes we saw Western parents walk with young kids on campus. And occasionally, kids will fall, to my initial surprise, the western parents would usually let the kids get up by themselves, and in a way help them grow. This way of handling kids falling is totally opposite to what my grandmas would do: they would walk over, blame the ground, pretend hitting the ground, and so on.
Fast forward though, I think partially due to kids growing, partially due to our own aging, it seems we can use more patience as kids growing up. I know it’s easier said than done, especially for parents of teens, pre-teens etc.
I think the below tweet showed an excellent way the parent supported his kid. Lot of hard work, obviously. But it both improved her volleyball skills and perhaps equally important if not more, her confidence in playing volleyball.
Last year, my daughter got cut from her 7th grade volleyball team.
She made the first cut, and thought she had a good chance. But on the second and final cut, they called her name, and she put her head down and walked out to the car where her mom and I were waiting.
油管：my Youtube 2022 video for BRK HQ video below (narration mostly in Chinese)
Charlie Munger
We know Charlie Munger (Wiki) passed away recently, and he was the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway: he had some influence on Warren Buffet’s investments over the years, including See’s Candy, Coca Cola and so on. Here is the free online book Poor Charlie’s Almanack (you can purchase the paper versions through the links here). Also, the last interview before he passed away with CNBC’s Becky Quick (1 hour 42 mins, YouTube link here). I still think Warren makes most investments decisions independently. though.
四大金刚 (google; baidu baike, Wiki) is a common idiom in Chinese, and I think it may be suitable to describe the current top 4 men who works for Warren Buffett. And I assume they take over most of what Warren does today, should Warren decides to retire.
Top Two (Duo)
Greg Abel (Wiki): current Vice Chairman of BRK, responsible for all non-insurance operations, which also means he is in charge of the BRK Energy (formerly Mid-America Energy), BNSF Railway, many manufacturing and retail operations ranges from BH Home Service (real estate agents), Brooks Running, Clayton Home, Diary Queen, to ISCAR, Nebraska Furniture Market (NFM), Net Jets, See’s Candies, to Oriental Trading, Squish Marrow and so on. Note there are many business people may have not heard of. As of now, Greg will be the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway when Warren Buffett retires, in addition to his curent Vice Chair title.
Ajit Jain: current Vice Chairman of BRK, responsible for all insurance operations, companies such as Geico (car insurance) to reinsurance business.
Warren asked Greg and Ajit to be on the stage in last few years’ annual shareholder meeting, and they answered relevant questions in their portfolio. This is a good move. I think also, once Charlie slipped his tongue during an Q&A, and he said Greg will keep the culture (or something similar). So the world knows Greg is the CEO heir apparent.
Investment managers(also a duo)
Ted and Todd are two former hedge fund managers that Warren Buffet hired about 15 years ago (exact date please refer to their Wikipedia links below, or you can google it). Quite a few people including $BRK.A and $BRK.B shareholders would question Warren Buffett’s age and they are worried what if Warren suddenly became incapacitated or die. Who is the heir apparent. This is a tricky question or problem, because very few hedge fund managers would give up their career, at the same time would basically be prepared when this inevitable happens. It seems in Ted W. and Todd C. Warren found the perfect duo for this job. This is somewhat like the duo of Warren himself and Charlie.
Ted Weschler: Ted got a bit unwanted attention from his personal IRA investment. But his performance speaks louder than his words. Quote Wikipedia: in 2012, Weschler joined Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, a year after Todd Combs joined as Berkshire’s first investment manager. As of 2019, he managed $13 billion of the equity portfolio and $8 billion in pension funds.
Todd Combs: in addition to his investment duty (along with Ted), note Todd is also the CEO of Geico (and technically for that role he reports to Ajit). Here is a picture of Todd during “invest in yourself 5k” during the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting. Here is a picture of Ted, Todd and Tracy Britt Cool during that run. Note Tracy used to work for Warren as well, and she started to work on her own investment partnership in recent years. Maybe someday she will come back to BRK: if the right opportunity arises.
Board
Howard Buffett, Warren’s older son, plans to take over the Chairman role when Warren retires. Susan Buffett, Warren’s daughter, and a few others will be on the board. They may need to add one or 2 board seats because Charile used to be a board member.
One thing it’s interesting is Warren likes #pairProgramming, or #pairWorking, because he has two pairs of magnificent managers for CEO and investment managers job.
Old blog post back in year 2006, I believe I wrote it 2 days after meeting my wife. We didn’t meet at Starbucks though, we met at a tea place at the Zhongshan Park and later was changed to a bank. I used to drink a lot more Starbucks and I recall about 10 years ago, sometimes I brought my old daughter to Starbucks in St. Louis. Around holiday season they have the hot chocolate ☕️ for kids, I vaguely recall it was $1.75 for a small kid cup. Once at the Craig/Olive road store: a lady commented “start that young? We live in a wonderful life.”
Now being a teenager and probably inherited the sugar tooth from me, she likes the Starbucks a lot. So are many of her friends. Sometimes when I go there to get food or drinks for my kids, at the Lindbergh and Clayton road store, I usually see some middle school and high school kids. And this morning I got my own cup too: the holiday special, chestnut pralines latte (the cup I got this morning is shown at the top of the blog post).
(12-05-2023) I bought some $SBUX stocks.
(12-07-2023) Yesterday I heard the store at Lindbergh and Clayton was closed temporally. Today I learned that the reason was a customer used insulting words to the barista, and barista was not happy, probably threw some words back (again this is just what I heard). Later the management suspended two workers involved in this. The store is a unionized store, all the union workers started striking to protest. Separately, I read in the news quite some people (and in different countries) protested against Starbucks due to the Gaza situation. So in other words, I understand the holiday drinks are luxury compared to people in Gaza get clean water and so on, but at the same time, maybe some barista depends on the income from Starbucks for food and milk too?
and I got to learn how to connect the water supply to the fridge’s water dispenser/ice maker. We bought the fridge from Costco. Our old one eventually gave up last week (between Thursday and Sunday). I recall I talked about it here (this “GE Refrigerator Ice Maker not working” section). And on Sunday when I was walking at the J indoor track, my wife called and said the fridge is broken. I came back home shortly and started shopping for a new fridge. The reason I decided to go with a new one because I know the old one has its age, and my wife really disliked it (she wanted a new one). Got to make the boss happy.
I did some research last time around when I was working on the ice maker. This is the one I came up with: it’s a Samsung. I initially ordered this one, but a few hours later I realized this one maybe too big for our door: the depth of 33.5 in is about the front door width. Later on I learned it’s possible to remove the door and put it back. But at that time (Sunday afternoon) I don’t want to take this risk, and we went with a smaller version of this: it has a depth of 24 inch which is much easier to get in. Other dimensions are okay from what I can see.
On Thursday the delivery people came, and the lead person quickly told me I need to do two things before he can hook up the water line. 1. Install Shutoff valve; 2. Disconnect the copper tube
DIY
I called a plumbing company right away: I have their number because they are the Costco delivery partner for our dishwasher in recent years. But their plumber is scheduled out to Dec 15. So I started googling and look at YouTube. This is the YouTube video I saw initially: How to install an inline water shut off valve on the back of your refrigerator
I did watch some others: I save them in my YT playlist “diy” and you can see all the videos by scrolling down. The part and the tool I bought are:
Husky Junior Tube Cutter: 1/8 yo 5/8 inch (the link may not be precise, check the outside package when you go to store). I bought both at Home Depot Overland MO store.
This evening, after much YT watching, and so on. I decided to take the plunge. I cut the copper tube 1st, then put in the valve. I noticed the small needle didn’t fit into the copper tube, and it seems it’s okay to leave it out too. Before doing all this obviously I shutoff the water main. After the installation of valve, and with valve shut. I turned the water main back on. Next step is disconnect the copper tube from old fridge, move in the new fridge, and connect the water lines. The connections are the same as the old fridge.
After that testing time: took a bit time for water to fill. Once water was ready, I filled and dumped about 3.7 Liters of water. Finally I was able to enjoy the fruits of my labor, that is the water coming from the new fridge. I turned on the ice maker too, tomorrow we may test out the new ice maker. I think this Samsung video explained this process well.
If your new refrigerator dispenses water and/or ice cubes, you will need to ensure additional space is available between the refrigerator and the wall for the water line. This reduces the risk of deterioration in existing lines Empty and unplug your old appliance. Built-in appliances must be uninstalled prior to delivery Verify there is a 3-prong grounded electrical outlet and water supply, with an accessible shut-off valve in close proximity to the install location; preferably within 3 ft. Ensure the proper fit in the designated space and the delivery path. Here is a video guide for measurements.
Our delivery team will:
Reverse new merchandise doors on site, if needed Connect new appliance to existing water line and check for leaks Place racks, trays, and door handles in recommended positions Plug unit in and set to a mid-range cold setting and level the refrigerator or freezer
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).
My Black Friday shopping stops: tried to go to the St. Louis premium outlet, but changed my mind at the last minute – going to the meadows at lake St. Louis instead. Showed the girls some of the buildings I worked in last 10 years: Enterprise office building at Weldon Spring /1
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 13 year old accidentally broke her iPhone XR screen yesterday, probably because she put the hydro flask water bottle on top of the phone and applied some sort of force. pic.twitter.com/Wy91Ziu7gN
