Category: Fun

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Chinese articles Edu-and-Ladue-School Fun

Tennis 网球

Reading Time: 3 minutes

上面这张照片(taken at CCRC)没有小孩，this is done on purpose. 这个是从楼上的bar/restaurant 拍过去的。我的两个小孩开始打网球🎾有一年左右, 她俩都有进步：从一开始完全是新手到现在可以和同级别的小朋友打几个回合了。想到我自己真正开始打网球还是来美国以后，读研究生时跟同学打了一下。97,98,99年美国打网球的地方跟国内相比简直是天壤之别。我当时在罗拉的沃尔玛买了个威尔森Wilson 铝合金的网球拍。后来工作后在圣路易斯的Sports Authority （S A）买了个同牌的碳素纤维的拍子。SA 好像在2008年的金融危机中倒闭了。我自己大概有十几年没有打网球。记得06年在Woodsmill 的tennis club 周五晚上跟朋友打过球：庆祝过cardinals 那年拿到world series 的冠军。再之后就是去年开始跟家人，孩子打了。我估计我会很快打不过她们了：因为她们在进步，我在原地踏步再加上年龄在那里。我也是在过去一年中意识到小孩们打球不容易。有一次在CCRC看到两个高中男生打得虎虎有生气：我估计他俩可能在本州高中生里面是高手了。今天是星期天下午，我看老大打球，教练我估计是大学生（年轻人），他玩一个轻吊，一个高中男生（我女儿的搭档）跑过去，失去平衡，摔倒在地，眼镜掉地，肩膀也好像也摔痛。我的太太最近跟拉肚高中校队的小姑娘学网球。据她说，校队不好进。后来我想想其实做好每一件事都不容易。但是反过来说，进不了校队，爬不上常青藤（或相当的学校）也没啥。因为我自己就没有做到这些：and I don’t think my life is less meaningful due to that [捂脸][呲牙]

This reminds me of a related topic: Micro Managers And Micro Management.

If you have Netflix sub, you may want to check out the new movie “No Hard Feelings” too (featuring former American sweet heart Jennifer Lawrence): it touched the topic of “helicopter” parents and parenting.

Last but not least, Ladue repeats Class 2 girls team tennis state title; John Burroughs reaches Class 3 final

PS: I realized the different color for different levels of tennis clinics is in a way very similar to the level in Suzuki violin lessons. Many other programs, from academics to sports, have this progress indicator and it’s a very useful tool to motivate people to learn and to progress. Tae Kwon Do is a good example. Duolingo is another excellent example of this (the founder of Duolingo explained it in a Ted Talk). I think many Credit Card Rewards programs are modeled after this idea too. Just think of miles, points, and elite status vs the streak, the points, and all the stuff in the Roblox games: my 9-year-old just showed me all the “houses” she has in the Adopt Me, and she bought a bed and customized the color on the spot yesterday evening 😀

PS 2: in last few years I noticed the pickle ball is taking off in the US. This is both in terms of popularity and the professional leagues. A new playing place is going to pop up at olivette. The CCRC seems also allocated more spaces to the pickleball. It’s hard to imagine only a few years ago it was really just a niche sport that I saw some older folks play at the JCC basketball court on Saturday mornings.

(Update 19-Nov-2023) STLToday: Girls tennis spotlight: Lafayette’s Amber Yin aims for state title in her only season. Something new to me: so I just learned some players don’t necessarily join the high school varsity team so that they can get better score in the college recruiting. Quote – “I wanted to focus on getting some positive results for college recruiting and I think that worked out well,” Yin said.

Lafayette’s Yin makes one season of tennis count by winning state singles championship

This reminded me in the past, some figure skating kids (who are very good) do homeschool so that they can have 4 to 5 hours ice time everyday, also to be closer to their coaches. And recently I learned violinist (high school kids) do homeschool too. In a way those kids decided their professions, and I think I can understand the sacrifice here.

(Update 02-24-2014) I came across this article recently, and thought it’s interesting to share. For old timers like me, Andre Agassi was quite famous, and he was the top in mens tennis players (along with Pete Sampras), before Roger Federer, Rafael Nodal and Novak Djokovic started dominating the mens single grand slams. Quote the article/Agassi below:

“I play tennis for a living, even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion, and always have,” 好像有点我们中文里 爱之切 恨之深 的意思了。我不知道用英文怎么解释。

Personally I think it’s probably a love/hate relationship, also his parents probably pushed him hard when he was young.

Another side note is Aggasi along with his wife Steffi Graf now are playing the red hot pickleball.

Categories
China Fun Life Life Tips Saint Louis

Happy Mid Autumn Festival 中秋快乐

Reading Time: 3 minutes
杏花楼广式月饼 and 稻香村苏式月饼 from 亚米网

And eat some moon cakes. I just realized I wrote something about mid autumn festival way back in year 2007. I believe I was in Shanghai when I wrote this, and it was after we had honeymoon in San’ya, Hainan, China.

Time flies. Now we have 2 kids, and I don’t see any special mid-autumn festival logos on Baidu or Google home pages. But I saw one at Google Vietnam page. I did see this (浓情迎中秋) at Baidu 热搜。

For me this year, I bought some 杏花楼广式月饼 and 稻香村苏式月饼 from 亚米网 (yamibuy.com). We bought moon cakes at Costco in the past: not a big fan of those。我们以前经常在百利买加州的生计月饼（Sheng Kee bakery，我记得去过一次她家的Milpitas 分店. As the name suggests, this is a Hong Kong/Cantonese style, and I visited their bakery at Milpitas CA once many years ago）。今年百利可能卖完了，好像没看到生计月饼。

Local Bakeries in the STL area

I think when I was new to the US and studied at Rolla. The fresh baked mooncakes at the WeiHong Bakery (味香饼家) was a treat. Now it seems there are other choices (not mooncake), such as The Foundry Bakery: and recently I added it to my Authentic Asian Food In The STL Area post. I just heard from an Indian friend that their Naisu Milk Bun 奶酥面包 is fantastic. Before pandemic I go to a Korean bakery near Olive and 141 once a while too. Last but not least, the La Boone Bouche at Olive and Tempo drive is so busy nowadays.

A meme on mooncake

今年中秋月饼卖不动了?月饼订单减少了3-4成 | 文学城

Baidu Zhidao: 上海面包店有哪些牌子 Note many bakeries in Shanghai makes and sells mooncakes (a mostly seasonal item). Below are the list.

克莉丝汀 – I remember once I got 美式咖啡 from there, there are quite a lot Christen’s Bakeries in Shanghai. About 10 years ago, I found when I visit China, it’s hard to get black coffee (not instant coffee). I am a coffee drinker, and I found the places that I can always get good or decent American black coffee (pot coffee, basically we make them via grounded coffee at many American homes), is McDonald’s and Starbucks (not many small cities have McDonald’s and Starbucks). And add the Christen’s Bakery in Shanghai too.

静安面包房

85度C: this is a chain started in Taiwan. I recall visited their store in one of those places (Lan’xi or Quan’zhou). They are in California too.

苹果园

香特莉

季诺

可颂坊 (the link is their mobile website): I recall seen or being there before 1997. Baike 百度百科 link here.

元祖 (Wikipedia): another chain started in Taiwan. I went there once, and it surprised me that their products are quite expensive.

牛奶棚

瑞莱新侨

面包新语

马哥孛罗

迷迭香咖啡面包

红宝石

喜来公社

宜芝多

星巴克(Starbucks) 也有月饼: no need to say more 🙂

Traditional Brands
以前印象中有杏花楼 （上海杏花樓酒家- 維基百科，自由的百科全書 ）和新雅（粤式餐厅 – 新雅粤菜馆新雅粵菜館- 維基百科，自由的百科全書 ）月饼 – 月饼为其核心产品，其中“新雅广式月饼”为“上海市著名商标”[6]

Last but not least, a bit explanation on the Mid Autumn Festival on Wikipedia. Since I left home for college, I rarely had opportunity to be back to my parents home on those holidays, though. Again 2007 was probably one of the years that I was in China for the holiday. For that matter, it’s the only year since 1998 that I spent significant amount of time in Shanghai (and China), and I wrote quite a bit on my observations on my blog. This is just one example.

PS: my 13 year old liked the 杏花楼的玫瑰豆沙月饼。

Categories
China Fun Life

My 1st “near death” experience – kids being kids

Reading Time: 5 minutes
Rice Threshing machine

I put the double quotes around because looking back I don’t think I would die. Probably “scared to death” is more appropriate. But at the time I was really scared. It was probably in my 1st grade or 2nd grade, I cannot remember exactly. Maybe my parents or siblings or the aunt who helped me can verify.

It was on the way from the village school to home, and for some reason the strongest boy in my class decided to throw stone at me. I could not recall if I provoked him. But the stone hit my forehead, and blood started bleeding from there. That’s the time I thought I was going to die, because I never encountered something like this in my life. Obviously I started crying, and the other school kids that were walking home probably noticed too. And it just happened an aunt who is a good friend of my mom (she is the accountant for the village and sits in the same office as my mom, if I am correct) happened to be nearby, so she put me on her back. And walked to the doctor’s office, which is next to where my mom’s office is. Note at that time, it was the “barefoot doctors （赤脚医生）”, because China then doesn’t have formal medical schools for at least 10 years (due to culture revolution). I asked the aunt whether I would die, and she said No. I probably asked this question more than once. Btw, he was throwing from a distance of probably 75 to 100 yards (meters) so it was not too bad in terms of the hit. I don’t know if the teacher gave him a warning or not. I would not think too much about it personally. A few years later, I made a similar mistake myself, I played too rough with a boy in the class, and his mom talked to my parents. A few years later, I recall seeing him in the Zhenhai Middle School too.

I think in year 2016, I walked to the renovated village office, and I saw one of the doctors picture still there. He probably worked all these years from 1980 until 2016. He is one of the doctors who gave us vaccines when I grew up in the village, as well as treating us very much like the urgent care does in the USA nowadays. Before elementary school the barefoot doctors would actually walk to every home and gave out vaccines to the little kids. And I would close the door, hide behind my grandma and tried to get away from the shots. That usually didn’t work. I probably said cursing words at the time too. When I started attending elementary schools, I could no longer act out, because I was the class president and had to lead by example. Nowadays I can see some of that from my younger daughter – she doesn’t like getting the shots at doctor’s office, usually the vaccine shots. And I saw little kiddos crying at the Covid shots place (Christian Hospital to be specific), I recall one of the Washing U doctor was trying to comfort the kids. And I talked about my “shot scare” in twitter a while ago. Such as this one:

And this one

Other scare times during my childhood

Another time, I was almost drowning. Note I didn’t know how to swim when I grew up. I think one reason is our parents didn’t want us to swim (or learn to swim) at a big (water) reservoir (it was man-made). And we heard the stories of two guys (young healthy men) who died years ago when they swam there after work. Now I am guessing they were probably exhausted, and somehow their bodies or legs had some issue then. Because it’s a reservoir it’s static water and there should not be any danger from under current etc. Anyway, back to the topic, I recall when I was probably completing 3rd grade, and in the summer sometimes my parents would send me to my maternal grandma’s house, living with my uncle’s (my mom’s brother) family including my grandma. Once my grandma asked me to bathe in the pond, the pond was not big or anything, but it was quite deep, I could stand up at the edge but that’s probably it. So that day for some reason I slipped off the edge, and I probably screamed (again I couldn’t swim), and someone quickly picked me up. I recall running back naked to my grandma’s house, and the reason I was naked was my grandma didn’t bring any new clothes for me, and she took my old clothes and was washing it in the pond. Again washing clothes in the pond is quite normal as at that time the villages didn’t have faucet water. So the drinking water was usually from a well or from collecting rainwater. And for washing stuff etc. a pond, a brook or a river is common then.

Got Lost: another time, when I was with my maternal grandma at Chai’qiao 柴桥老街 street, I got lost because I didn’t follow her close enough, and probably she walked too fast without looking back (I may have gotten distracted by something). I think that day, a neighbor who probably knew my grandma, sent me back to my uncle’s home. In those days (before 1983), I don’t think there were human smugglers like today, so in theory, I was still pretty safe.

Probably a year later also in the summer, I was probably finishing the 4th or 5th grade. I was joining my elder brothers to 割稻 （cutting down the rice staunch before getting the rice kernel), and I barely cut probably a few yards, before my cut into my finger. So there goes my rice-cutting job for that summer. I still have scars from that episode. Talking about getting the rice kernels 打稻 (threshing rice), it’s actually quite dangerous, I heard people got hurt as the machine pulled in their hands or arms.

I recall the aunt’s son (the aunt who carried me when I was hurt), once got his legs either into another machine 水车 (water wheel) for some reason, and he had to amputated both his legs.

水车 (water wheel)

Mental Health

I don’t recall there was much consideration of that when I grew up. One of my cousin died from suicide when she heard her younger brother (not her) would take over the job from her dad, also she may have some other issues (I heard one of her eye may have some problem), she was probably a bit over 20. At my high school or college, I heard from my mom one of the girls in my village died from suicide, after her parents scolded her for dating a carpenter or something. She was one year senior than me. We went to the same village school (the elementary school).

Other Scary Experience in the USA

Six flags the Boss ride

The furnace duct had a fire at my old condo.

Fall from the ladder (I talked about it and urgent care exp here)

And car accidents: the one in which my car flew into the ditch off highway 270 was scary.

Categories
Edu-and-Ladue-School Fun Life

Suzuki violin lesson

Reading Time: 6 minutes

(Picture above Hilary Hahn, who plays the violin for Suzuki book 1; the piano was played by Natalie Chen)

(Update 12-14-2023) I realized my daughter’s violin teacher also knows how best to keep the kids engaged and interested. Couple things: 1) The practice sheet, he has a worksheet which looks like a printed out Excel spreadsheet and kids feel accomplishment after completing each task. He also plans to do a pizza party for the “most continuously practice” for celebrations. 2) Along similar lines, I saw during group class, yesterday it was probably holiday themed, he gave out candies for small quiz or games, or challenges.

(Original) My younger one started the Suzuki violin lesson recently. I heard about the Suzuki violin lesson a long time ago (more than 10 years ago), when my older one was little. But we didn’t pick violin lessons for her. Like many Chinese parents, we picked piano lessons. We started piano lessons for our younger one a few years ago as well, and kept it through the pandemic (for the most part, the main exception is the shutdown period between March 2020 and May 2020).

Choose the Right Teacher

I picked the violin teacher after doing some research. Mainly following friends and my own gut feeling. Now looking back I feel I am a bit lucky: I think this Suzuki method is probably the way to go here. Note this is the 1st Suzuki violin book – Suzuki Violin School, Vol 1: Violin Part. The book no longer has an attached CD, I believe. So I went to the Apple iTunes store to get the music and searching “Suzuki violin book 1” seems to bring me the wrong music for the book. It brings up Takako Nishizaki’s Suzuki Evergreens and you bet I bought it. It took me to a while to find out the one album matching the book (again it should look something like the photo at the top).

Our younger daughter recently passed the twinkle test. It’s the first level of the test, I would not discount it though. The teacher said the average time to pass it is a bit over one year (I should add the average kid’s age to start violin lesson is probably much younger than our 9 year old too). The start age for kids to learn something is interesting. I think in general, it gets easier for a kid to learn something when he/she gets older, another good example is swimming. But at the same time, if we start something on a kid too late, most likely he/she will do okay but not able to complete in today’s competitive world – that’s the dilemma. I know some kids who have potential to play soccer in college or in the national team down the road, and they worked real hard from a very young age, and the parents are shuttling them to practice/games like a full time job. Similar for mind sports such as Chess. So in other words, we should not just looked at how well a kid did on something, we also should look at how many miles the parent put on her car, or his frequent flyer miles 🙂

Back to the topic: the violin lesson. As I was the parent who drove her to class, as well as help her practice in the early days. I do the bow for her as she was not ready to use the bow yet (the teacher doesn’t want her to build bad habit). She is on her 2nd and 3rd song now. The music (violin) thing seems hard to me for two reasons:

  1. The master of the music, reading notes etc.
  2. The coordination and movement of two hands, in the case of violin, one hand (fingers) need to move and push down the strings, while the other one does the bow. The “bow” part is actually hard, as it was not natural, as I saw from one YouTube video a while ago. Took a while for Sophia to get familiar to it.

To overcome this, I think her violin teacher did a few things right.

  1. He has a spreadsheet-like worksheet for the kid, this way the kid could mark every day’s practice. Talking about the organization.
  2. Rigors with a sense of humor. I think most American-born kids or parents in America can sympathize, maybe I can extrapolate it to the world too, basically, nobody would like to be criticized. In the piano teachers/kids community, I heard horrendous stories such as the teacher would scold the parents if the kids didn’t do the work or practice.
  3. Group lessons and encouragement to the kids to participate in an ensemble (namely, the SE and higher at CMS at Webster U). We just started the group lesson. I think this will be quite helpful as kids like to learn in a social environment too.
  4. Use of computer and modern tech. I think the teacher is probably about 70 years old. He was previously a music teacher at Kirkwood and a violin teacher at CMS (Webster U). He does email communication, word doc, Zoom etc. very well – which is probably standout among his peers. He also encourages me to take video on iPhone for Sophia to learn at home, for music and posture, and hand (finger) gesture.

Violin Kids

In our school district the kids have the options to learn violin at 4th grade. I understand some other school districts offer that too. Our main motivation for Sophia is to have some confidence when the violin lesson starts this school year, and she may have a bit “1st mover advantage”. I know at least one other kid at her grade does violin too (already). Again this is mostly help our younger daughter to find her niche (or calling), something she can feel good about (after doing some work). We have absolutely no expectation for her to play professionally down the road. We respect all the professional musicians. But we know that’s not easy and it’s not for everyone. In fact, the step daughter of Sophia’s teacher is a pro, and she plays for SLSO. The teacher said she played 4 hours a day when she was young, and we saw her video when she was 8 and she looked already like a pro (being 8 years old).

Learning music in general (kids version)

We started piano lesson for our older daughter when she was in kindergarten (she was 5 and a half). She had a pretty rigorous teacher to start. After a while, things became harder for her and she kinda slacked off. And we also stepped back too as we don’t want to be berated by the teacher when our daughter didn’t do her work. Later we switch her to an easier piano teacher. She did other things such as SLCCSing (St. Louis Children’s Choirs), from 1st grade until 7th. This coming year we planned to have her take a break on choir. She started percussion 2 years ago when she was in the 6th grade (middle school), and we will continue her on that. She seems like music in general, as a hobby and a relaxation tool. She sings and occasionally plays ukuleles at home, and sometimes plays piano too now that she doesn’t have piano lessons (more or more willingly compared to the days she has the piano lessons). She doesn’t have plan to major in music so far, but may consider it as a minor in college. She is not talented in piano as some other Chinese kids. She only won one medal from piano (the sonatina thing when she was 6 or 7, at the Lindenwood U).

For our younger daughter we were more laid back, also due to the pandemic, we started her on piano with the “nicer” teacher. And she did the chorus at her school in last school year. And in this April we started her on violin. We hope she can continue this path (a bit like her big sister does percussion for now).

Again like many parents here, we like our kids to learn music (reading notes etc.) as well as mastering one instrument. I understand for percussion, this is a bit hard to identify a particular instrument, marimba is a common one, but drums are also common.

Also, last but not least, a while ago I heard playing piano (maybe easier to start than violin for older people), could have potential benefit of prevent dementia, so that’s something I need to get more serious about.

PS: again please note I am not doing any victory lap here. I am just sharing what I know (and don’t know). And I welcome any feedback, comments or questions.

Categories
Fun Life Life Tips

Getting older

Reading Time: 3 minutes
Not my PR, but hey I finished the race without hurting myself (I haven’t done much running last few years)

(Update 10-28-2023) Senior moment of yesterday: I was trying to find my Sienna minivan key, via the Tile app. I left it in the minivan after I filling the air for the tires. The reason I left key there was earlier I needed the accessories ON to power the portal air pump. So I was using the find feature in the iPhone Tile App, and only got the “moderate” signal, after probably 7, or 8 minutes, I realized I left the key in the car. For some reason I didn’t hear the beep, probably the door to garage has good sound insulation.

(Update 10-20-2023) Something I realized recently. A solar guy came by and asked if I was interested in installing the solar panel on the roof top. And on the 2nd conversation (which is a bit more serious) he mentioned the investment will pay off the future electric/utility bill for next 20 or 30 years, which may be $30,000 or 40,000 over the span of that time duration, due to inflation, rate increase, etc. || Yesterday and today I was thinking: will I live for another 20 or 30 years? Note this is not the main factor I am thinking about the solar panel: the main factor I see right now is we have a tree in the front yard, which blocks quite a bit sunshine in the morning; and in the afternoon, our neighbor’s tree will do the similar 🙂 I actually read up and did some research, the total cost (without any tax credit consideration etc.) is about $18,000 in Missouri. I am still not sure about the overall the worthiness of the solar panel as well as Net Metering with the electricity utility co.

Aging is one reason I restarted selling on eBay this year. I am on a couple “buy nothing, sell nothing” “give away stuff” group (FB, WeChat) as well. The main goal is make sure the house is not overly cluttered (garage included). And be conscious of buying new things – see if I can sell or give away a thing when buy a new thing. And so on.

Also noticed 17 years ago I wrote on similar topic: Senior Moment || At least the last problem is a muted issue now: I rarely bring wallet with me nowadays, bring my phone with driver license and 2 CC instead. We live in the post iPhone world, everyone 🙂

(Original written in April 2023, updated in early Oct 2023)

Aging

Big 5 (people usually said big 5 for 50). I recall years ago my AutoDesk colleague was nervous about it. Now I am qualified for senior Olympics at the J, and I suddenly realized that I am a senior in the Shanghai subway 🚇 a few months ago.

Facing death: need to think about all the time. Recall seeing an exhibit on this topic at the Fields Museum Chicago over the summer.

Exercise and Food

Workout or exercise to be fit, hopefully less a burden for my wife and kids when I get older.

七成饱 don’t gullet, and don’t eat late ⏰ e.g., after 8 pm. This is further confirmed after I talked to my kid’s violin teacher (he is 65) and he emphasized his veggie diet as we as excises.

Limit alcohol and caffeine intake too.

Sleep 💤 issue

Listen to the radio 📻 via iPod 📱 nano when I could not fall asleep. Put iPhone and computer outside bedroom. Try to get up when I am awake, go to the J instead of watching iPhone while lying on bed 🛌

More Senior Moment

Above mostly was written in April during / after my China trip, my today 10-03-2023 “senior moment” – I parked my white Camry outside the Korean grocery store near home, I did shopping and came out to look for my silver Sienna minivan, and obviously it’s not there. Sienna is my car and Camry is my wife’s. I took Camry because it’s close by and short trip. It took me a while to resize my minivan was not stolen and I came with Camry 😂

Categories
Fun Life Life Tips

Some random thoughts on teen sports

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Something random came to my mind the other day. I think overall our middle schools, high schools and some colleges *may* have emphasized too much on sports, especially team sports. I can see that from the NCAA Division I sports, basketball and football, etc. The reason I am saying that is twofold. We have limited resources, and I think compared to making sure every kid has some sports he/she likes/plays, team sports only draw a certain number of students (because it’s a selected team). And I think “make sure every kid has some sports he/she likes/plays” is more important, although it’s obviously less glamorous. Another phenomenon I saw is some kids started to specialize in some team groups fairly early (let’s say middle school, grade 6, or 7), at the same time they may not pay enough attention to academics and other things such as knowledge on “personal finance”. This obviously does not make much sense. But in this FB/Instagram/Reel/TikTok/YouTubeShorts world, I can certainly understand. Again no judgment here. This reminds me of a friend/neighbor who joked with me once: he volunteers at Human Society. He said, someone, paid $100 to adopt a dog, feels good, put it on FB, and never thinks about the long-term cost/commitment of taking care of the dog.

I said what I said, and I understand sports has its meaning and importance too. For that matter, academic as well. It’s hard to be the best nowadays, on one thing. I learned sports is hard when I was young, in my 1st year of high school. In China middle school was 3 years, and high school was 3 years too. We have the annual sports festival which is basically a track and field meet for the whole school. Because our school then is a combined middle and high school, and each grade has about 4 grades. It’s a big deal for the whole school, I vaguely recall probably when I was in the 1st grade at middle school, our class even has a mercenary of sorts, because technically a girl who specialized in sports (yes, in China there was sports school for kids talented in sports even when they were 12, or 13, they go to this sports boarding school, with everything covered by the government). So basically this girl got all the gold medals she can get, in our grade’s competition. Now you decide whether it’s fair or not. This girl probably spent 4 or 5 hours training, and I think she is in Heptathlon (https://www.topendsports.com/…/athletics-heptathlon.htm), so basically she can earn us quite a few gold medals (things such as long jump, high jump, 100 meters, 200-meter dash, etc.) for our class.

Note I don’t have that kind of talent. But I found a quick trick to earn some points for my class. I was doing okay for 200 meters sprints during middle school, likely because I got to adolescence a bit earlier than some other kids. During my freshman year in high school, that edge was going away. So I did the 400 meters. It was a tough race. Eventually, I got the No. 4 spot among 8 classes of my grade (yes 8 classes, with 50+ students each; assuming boy/girl 1 to 1 ratio, I was competing against probably 8 fastest boys out of 200). I was almost dying, as I hear my classmates cheer for me at the last 100 meters. Later on one of my friend told me I was really close to the bronze medal winner and I did give him some scare. He said: when you push hard, the other guy was scared of you as well. That’s something I learned out of that race. Psychology is definitely interesting topic including in the sports/competition. 

Other benefits I can see from doing sports (or any other activities that we can see quick progress) are the feel of accomplishment and self-esteem. Please note this does not have to come with “beating the opponent” or “winning”. In a sense, as long as we did better today than yesterday, or we learned something today, that’s a win. Self-esteem or pride should not come at the cost of “beating down others or opponents”, again this is something the recreational or competitive sports/athletes need to keep in mind. In that sense, we all can learn a good lesson in terms of how to be a good teammate from the Cincinnati Bengals’ loss of game last Sunday.

(Update 09-14-2023) Came across this post “Elite Club Sports Teams and the Dramatic Shift in High School Athletics” via FB. I agree. Quote the article: “Youth sports, now a $17 billion dollar a year industry in this country, has skyrocketed into a galaxy that is close to being insanely unrecognizable. ” (my comment: are NCAA sports similar?) || Personally I hope something like our 8th grader cross-country running for fun/exercises can continue. For team sports, I am aware of something like this – (I heard from Dr. Wipke our Superintendent, and some other parents about this). || Last but not least, it seems that in the 10th or 11th grade, they would have a really heavy course load, prep for college, etc., so finding time for team sports may not be trivial. That being said, a habit of exercise is beneficial both in the short term and in the long term.

Categories
Fun gadgets Life Life Tips

My cars over the years

Reading Time: 4 minutes

(Update 11-08-2025) 美国二手丰田太贵啦！日系SUV车价/市场/行情/TOYOTA/车市 RAV4/4Runner/Highlander/Grand Highlander/CH-R

(Original) No I don’t drive the Rivian but I drive the Toyota Sienna next to it: owned it for 9 years now (since summer 2013). It was the main car (minivan) I drove in last 9 years, with the exception of sometimes I drove my wife’s Camry for the purpose of saving gasoline, or taking care of maintenance issue.


Recently I also bought a certified pre owned Toyota Camry for my wife as I totaled her older Camry during an accident (I was not hurt).


The clear water blue 2012 Camry was the one we had for 10 years: we owned her from new. Serenity (when she was 2 years old) liked the color. The girls (my wife and 2 daughters) liked her very much too, at the day before the car was towed away, I told my girls to take some pictures. And they did. I was hoping Serenity can learn to drive on the 2012 blue Camry, but sometimes things unpredictable do happen, and the accident was not the worst as I was fine (I was the only person in the car). I think she will likely learn to drive on the white (ice cap) 2020 Camry, or if she likes, hopefully I can get her whatever cool car / SUV she wants when she is 16 (or 15 and a half 🙂

Again we all liked blue Camry very much, especially my wife. It was my wife’s main car, and since she preferred Camry, I got her replacement Camry in a week. The only complaint she had so far is the noise during initial acceleration, which from google it seems quite normal. Camry was known for its quietness, btw. Both Camry and Sienna were fairly reliable. I make sure fixing necessary wear and tear, things such as oil change, tire, wiper blades, breaks and battery. And some other occasional breakages: for Sienna, one recent example is the drive shaft.

Before those 2012 Toyotas, I owned Nissan Altima 2001 (from new) and Subaru Forester 2006 (bought used from Craigslist, in 2010). I regret bought the Altima, at the time I liked its leather and lower price tag compared to Camry. But it’s also a bit smaller than Camry, and it has more maintenance issues in the later years, also the resell value was not as great. Below is the email I sent to the owner of Subaru back in 2010 when I was trying to buy it:

=======

Minjie Xu minjie.xu@gmail.com
Thu, Jul 22, 2010, 11:38 AM
to sale-p5b98–1854914704
Hi, there,
 
I saw the Ad at St. Louis Craigslist, I would like to know whether the vehicle is still available, and if yes, when is a good time to take a look?
 
http://stlouis.craigslist.org/cto/1854914704.html (this link is no longer available, btw)
 
BTW, from the picture, it is a stick-shift (manual transmission), correct?
 
Thanks,…

========

In Summer 2013 I traded in the Subaru for the Sienna I mentioned above. I recall I did not lose money from it, because like Toyota, Subaru also holds value pretty well.

Old Cars

Before those two, when I was in graduate school in Rolla and was new to the USA, I drove a 1991 Toyota Corolla manual (stick shift). And before Corolla (about $3,000, bought in 1998 or 1999), my first car was black 1984 Toyota Celica 1984 ($450, paid in 1998, also stick shift). I learned how to drive on the Celica in early 1998. I got pulled over by police a few times due to various reasons, one occasion was I could not stay on the lane very well, it was probably in the middle of night, I drove from Rolla Walmart to my fraternity. Now I think about it, if I had the 2020 Camry LDA feature (lane departure alerts, YouTube video – How does Toyota’s Lane Departure Alert With Steering Assist work?), this won’t happen.

EV next?

I think my next car could be either a hybrid or an EV (Rivian hopefully :-). Joking. I think in general, if money or the gasoline is not an issue, one should get a car or a SUV (a truck) as safe as possible. That’s another reason I bought Camry, not only it her the most popular car (sedan) in the USA for many years, it’s also one of the safest: if you could ignore all the white noises in which the US government haul in the CEO / Grandson of Toyota founder, it’s only for the show (for the consumption of some ignorant US TV viewers or let’s just say some Americans. Some people in my humble opinion, should not be allowed to drive: this was the consensus I had with a few graduates at the fraternity when I was in Rolla. Sorry sometimes I have to be blunt. Especially if you consider I was hit by someone from behind recently in a traffic light intersection. Btw, it’s the 2nd time I was hit in an intersection. The first time, the other driver fled, unfortunately. I was able to do some freelance detective work myself, and unfortunately squared, the other driver had no insurance 🙁

Last but not least, I shared some of my recent car shopping experience here:

https://twitter.com/stlplace/status/1580768430755500033

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

Restarting Math Fact Scholars

Reading Time: 4 minutes

(Update 11-16-2023) I created a MFS FAQ blog post today: I used some of the content below, plus some of the common questions being asked in last year or so. In the future, I will try to maintain/update that one.

(Update 11-02-2023)

A few parents asked about the “1st test” PDF file. It’s the first test a kid will start taking in a particular Tuesday morning (this is just for reference). Each kid is different, so no need to compare your kid with her/his friend. That being said, I believe practice on workbooks is equally important, if not more, compared to the “timed tests” we do on Tuesday mornings. Last but not least, a kid doesn’t have to come every Tuesday morning for testing sessions. Please bring the kid when it works for you/your family and when the kid is ready.

Btw, here is web order form (you will need the SSA MTK credentials to log in).

(Update 09-07-2023)

I just realized today that a couple families re-ordered the same workbooks, and I assume it’s not their intention to reorder (I will re-confirm with each on an individual basis). || Please don’t reorder the same workbooks.

We (the kids) pick up where they left off. For example, last school year, a kid ends up Gold +10, he/she will start from Gold +11. We are not going back. If the kids have the workbooks (in most cases I believe it’s the case), he/she continues to work on it.

The only reason I can think of why you may want to order the same workbooks, is, for example, you lost the workbooks for some reason and / or really wanted the kids to have more practice.

If in doubt, email or text me before placing the order.

(Original 09-2022)

The ordering form is here: the main difference from earlier is now we offer packages only. At least from the Membership Toolkit (MTK) website at this time. Note you will need to register at this MTK website in order to see the form. For some parents I think they may already have the workbooks, or they need workbooks that are not 100% same with the package, please let us know (email: spoedemathfactscholars@gmail.com; text 314 540 2721), and we will try to work out something. After ordering, the workbooks will arrive in about a week. My current thinking is have the teacher giving it to the kid: but we can discuss delivery (in the Spoede school boundary) or pickup as needed too.

Also, if you prefer pay via check / cash, or if you need to register your kids outside of those pre-defined packages (this happens sometimes, due to various reasons), please fill out the registration form here, and bring the check / cash to me (I will text you the address).

Last but not least, a special note for those who participated and purchased the workbooks before the pandemic shutdown. The kids were kindergarteners and 1st graders in Spring 2020, and because we have 2+ years break, the kids are 3rd and 4th graders now. They are welcome to come back for testing for bronze or silver medal level tests, respectively. If there is any question regarding their appropriate test level, or proceed further along in the program, please let us know (again please note the contact info above).

Overview

The kids will practice their workbooks at home. I probably should emphasize that for many kids, especially at the beginning, parents will likely need to get involved, mainly via encouragement, also check the work to make sure the kids did it correctly. The test will be held on (most) every Tuesday morning at about 8:15 to 8:45 am, before school. Once the kid completes the workbook, and passes all the tests in a medal or trophy level, the medal or trophy will be awarded.

The test emphasizes both accuracy and speed on math facts. There are some problem solving (word problem) at the trophy level (platinum, fraction, decimal and percents). For blue ribbon / bronze level there are addition and subtraction, for silver and gold there are multiplication and division. The workbooks for blue ribbon / bronze medal level are the same, ditto for silver / gold medals. The bronze and gold level tests are 2 minutes long, silver is 3 minutes. I think they all have 18 problems. All trophy level tests are 3 minutes. At platinum level there are sometimes two approaches to perform calculation: the traditional method which is more commonly taught and used, and the mental approach which basically we do it in our mind (our heart) without writing out the intermediary results during calculation (sometimes we call it borrowing or lending). Those distinction sometimes caused confusion for the kids, and if parents need some more explanation, please let us know.

The skill levels is explained here. Please note Math Fact Scholars program is owned by Math Fact Scholars, LLC. SSA is just helping run it at Spoede school.

Volunteered needed: this cannot run without 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.

Below are the dates:

Oct 4th
Oct 11th
Oct 18th
Oct 25th

Nov 1th
Nov 15th
Nov 22nd
Nov 29th

Dec 6th
Dec 13th
Dec 20th

Jan 10th
Jan 17th
Jan 24th
Jan 31st

Feb 7th
Feb 14th
Feb 21st
Feb 28th

Mar 7th
Mar 14th
Mar 28th

April 11th
April 18th
April 25th

May 2nd
May 9th
May 16th

PS: obviously math and problem solving are important for kids academic and grownups career / daily lives. I am a strong believer of math, you can see read from my recent post here. At the same time we need to keep in mind math facts and speedy calculation are just a part of the equation (no pun intended). Each kid develops in her / his unique, as parents we should encourage our kids to try harder, at the same time don’t be overly zealous when we saw a friend of our kid got some medal or trophy. At this day of age of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and so on, I just want to put it there and make sure parents put thing in perspective.

Categories
Edu-and-Ladue-School Fun Life Life Tips

A run group for LMS 7th grader kids (or 6th, 8th grade kids, or kids, siblings in similar age range)

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Any questions please let me know || Mobile: 314 540 2721 || Email: minjie.xu@gmail.com

(Update 11-18-2022) We ended the daylight saving time for the year. The sunset is usually at about 5 pm, thus 4:30 pm starting time will give about 30 minutes time. More importantly, the weather is becoming a bit cold as the winter sets in. I think we will pause the run / walk for now. I will thinking about and we can discuss what’s the best suitable activities in the winter months.

(Update 09-30-2022) Last Friday the shower ruined it. Let’s resume today, it seems the weather will be nice. Of course with #stlwx, weather forecast is really hard, as it could change in 5 minutes 🙂

(Update 09-19-2022) We had 3 kids + myself for second run last Friday 9/16. I ran a bit but the girls mostly walked. I understand this past Friday we have hot balloon race at FP and other activities for some LMS 7th graders. || We plan to run again this Friday 9/23 at 4:30 pm, same location. Looks like we will have two 3rd graders joining us 🙂

(Update 09-12-2022) First run was a success! We have 9 kids: eight 7th graders and one 2nd grader (sibling), and a few parents (grand parent?). The boys are more determined 🙂 || We plan to run again this Friday at 4:30 pm, same location. Looks like we will have two 3rd graders joining us.

(Update 09-08-2022) We plan to run at Malcolm Terrace park (11370 St Paul St, Creve Coeur, MO 63141) on Friday 09/09/2022 at 4:30 pm. Everyone is welcome to join. Bring a water bottle, or a towel for wiping sweat, and note the restroom at the park is open.

(Original) I moved the “running” discussion from the FB Ladue parents community group here. I said 7th grade because my daughter is a 7th grader. The runner2runner program cutoff is 6th grade. At 8th grader I noticed LMS has a program for cross country. Our intention is NOT to compete against other programs.

Note this group is open to everyone in the community in this age range; so please feel free to forward to anyone may be interested too.

Goal – our main goal for our kids is to get some exercise and also have some fun. The main goal is not to prep for a competition or for a race. This is organized by parents and we don’t have formal accompanying materials such as “Girls on the run” etc. If our kids can breeze more fresh air and get close to nature more, that’s a big win for all of us.

Venue – I am thinking Malcolm Terrace park (a trip from the parking lot near the playground then back is about 1 mile, 80% of the trail is not paved); Venable Park (0.5 mile per circle, paved trail). Another park I can think of this the Tilles park trail (paved). Stacy park can be a choice when the renovation is done. I think we (coach Huang and parents) can jointly decide the location. My thinking is we take baby steps to get started. The reason I am thinking parks or tracks is I want to avoid running on the roads with car traffic.

Time – we need to agree on a time slot (or 2 time slots) each week, and hopefully with two time slots it will make it easier to get the busy middle schoolers / parents to participate. I understand pretty much everyone is busy: due to other extra-curricular activities. At this time it seems Friday afternoon is a decent compromise for some kids. As of 1:40 pm 09/06 Tuesday it seems we have at least 5 kids, 3 boys and 2 girls for Friday afternoon run. We will likely have some grownups joining us too.

Items needed – running shoes, if possible (also depends on where we run, trail running shoes, we can talk more later), water bottle, running shirt / shorts / pants suitable for running. Most important of all though, is an open heart and mind to participate.

Coaches
Jiansheng Huang: proud Laude dad. His older daughter (LHWHS alumni) graduated from medical school at Wash U this year and is starting her first year of fellowship. His younger daughter is currently a senior at Ladue High. Coach Huang ran a few Marathons including Go St. Louis, Chicago Marathon, NewYork Marathon, and he qualified for the prestigious Boston Marathon in recent years. Mr. Huang will teach all things around running including prep and cool down, safety etc, and he will likely lead the pack during our run too. Note: coach Huang will show up once we get more serious about running. He probably won’t show up if we just walk.

Minjie Xu: yet another proud Ladue dad (Serenity 7th Spartan, Sophia 3rd at Spoede). Minjie started running (or jogging about 5 years ago, with the main goal to keep weight in control (and be healthy and fit). So far Minjie ran 3 half marathons in St. Louis area (1st run was a week before pandemic shutdown in March 2020). Minjie will likely run and walk at the end of the pack to keep things in check.

It will be great to have mom(s) participating, especially if the most participants we have are girls… 🙂

Thanks and please let me know what you think.

Minjie Xu

mobile: 314 540 2721

email: minjie.xu@gmail.com

PS: note other kids in age range in the nearby schools in the community, my only ask is whether you can help look for outdoor facilities for the kids to run safely (outdoor track etc). We will likely start on the parks at the beginning though, at least this is my thinking.

Other running groups or resources for the kids

runner2runner: for kids from 1st grade to 6th grade (peachjar flyer here).

GirlsOnTheRun: in addition to run, there are some talks (or accompanying materials) They have two levels: 3rd to 5th, and 6th to 8th.

Let Me Run: boys equivalent of Girls on the Run above.

Categories
Fun Life Life Tips

Alcohol

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I started a Twitter thread on Alcohol recently.

I have not finished it yet, and I am in a bit relapse now. But I will attempt to rewrite it as a blog. Or reflection.

I think the most important thing of all, is we need to make sure we don’t get drunk often, or have our lives be influenced by alcohol. That means don’t get intoxicated often and basically we cannot learn in those times. For me this mostly means evenings.

A side note of all this is in the past I modeled my drinking habit or life style after my maternal uncle (my mom’s big / old brother). I recall his motto is he always drinks some alcohol (mostly rice wine) at evening dinner time, and if he does not drink that means he is sick. In a similar fashion I drinks the coca-cola and other sodas because I know Warren Buffett drinks 5 cans of Coca-Cola every day. To be precise Warren drinks cherry coke, and he got almost all of his daily caffeine from coke, and lot of daily sugar and calories from coke. Note Warren Buffett exercises (walks) quite a bit everyday.

The flaw of my logic above is also obvious: I am me, myself, and I am not someone else. I can learn from other’s motto or philosophy, or habit, but I need to assess if that is applicable to me or not. I think for me, I need to consume both alcohol and soda in moderation.

Note the principle above is applicable to work, to many other things in life.

My drinking history

I recall I got drunk twice (maybe more) before 10. Please don’t judge my parents, as there was no legal drinking age in China (I believe this is still the case now, but I did not check recently). I drunk during my uncle’s wedding, and during my aunt’s funeral. In China they are called 红白喜事，and there are usually drinking and food.

My wife’s option on my drinking: perhaps my daughters too. They don’t like me drinking. My wife’s mom passed away due to a car incident (the driver was drunk, note she was not the driver). My father-in-law drinks socially. And sometimes I drunk with him (again note the social part).

I think for now I will give up Whiskey (or any other hard liquors). And consume beer and wine in moderation (not everyday).