I tried other things in the past, especially when I came back from China trip, and I really need to stay away from the phone during the night – otherwise I will get zero sleep. I put the phone downstairs – which would make me harder to pick up the phone. Because I need to get up, walk down the hall, walk down the stairs, and so on.
For now, I have used this Offscreen app on and off for a while, and I plan to use it more as recently I decided to cut down my screen time, especially re: my iPhone.
In the past, I have used this lock box – it was bought on Dec 23, 2020 in the height of pandemic. But kids used this pretty much as a toy, and that defeated our original purpose. Now I think for myself I have simply put my phone downstairs or put it in a drawer – to achieve something similar.
PS: I wrote quite a bit on stocks here, and recently I realized that if I can cut down looking at the stock tradings app in general, on the phone, and that will potentially have 2 benefits: 1) Reducing doom scrolling on the phone; 2) Improving performance on the stocks, by doing less trading, and make more informed trading. I have transferred 2 apps from iPhone to iPad in that spirit.
The other day, when I was driving with my 16 year old, and she commented “dad, you smells”. 她的意思是我的身上有汗味。后来我的 better half 解释/猜测说也可能是我的衣服上有汗味。我想起来了，我小时候闻到我爸的衣服好像也有味道。还好我不抽烟。Anyway I don’t want to bore you with my 汗味。
Today I am really going to talk about something more serious, that is as we get older, how to avoid this 登味 (浙江宣传 – “登味”是什么味)。
Avoid ”我年轻的时候，什么都没有。。。blah blah blah”. Sometimes I felt “life before iPhone” is much better and I think some of the Gen X* may agree with me, maybe some Gen Y* people too 🙂
Avoid
Alcohol, cigaret, vaping, cannabis, marijuanas, any other substances.
Do the below instead
Healthy hobbies, examples: sports, music (instruments), reading, creation and arts (all kinds, from writing, to drawing, to stitching, knitting, to crochet), and volunteering… You get my points, something productive, helping people when you can, and so on. I recall there is a saying in Chinese 度人也是度己 (helping others also helps oneself).
*Gen X (as used in the USA, wikipedia): Generation X (Gen X) is the demographic cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials, generally defined as people born between 1965 and 1980.
Gen Y (also called millennials): are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years, with the generation typically being defined as people born from 1981 to 1996.
If you often find yourself lying awake in the middle of the night worrying, sleep experts say that cognitive shuffling might be worth a try.
Start by thinking of a word — something neutral or positive, like the word “house.” Then, think of as many words as you can that start with the first letter: horse, harmonica, honey. Try to picture each object or idea for 5 to 15 seconds, maybe even imagining a scene with yourself in it. (You’re riding a horse. … You’re playing the harmonica. … You’re harvesting honey!)
(Working in progress as of 06-26-2026, soft launch for now as I expect summer travel to take off towards the end of May. Thought may be helpful for friends who have not visited China for a while)
Yesterday I came across 2 blog posts almost 20 years ago – More Shanghai travel tips and Travel tips for Shanghai. A lot has changed since then, this is obvious because not only because of the 20 years but also because of the smartphone revolution happened in last 15 years or so.
App, 微信支付 WeChat Pay
Let me give an example, I recall in March 2023, after a break of more than 3 years (2020, 2021 and 2022), I flew back to PVG and saw my parents again in Ningbo. At the KFC store, they already stopped taking orders from the counter, everything is done via app or via 微信小程序。I didn’t know. Just like I didn’t know way before that, at a bank branch in Shanghai, I am supposed to take a number from the computer (printer), which is equivalent to the ticket dispenser here in the US. But I didn’t know and waited in line directly until I realized that I didn’t have a number. Anyway, at KFC, the cashier or 伙计 tried to teach me to download the KFC China app on my iPhone, and because my app store country is set to the USA, it could not find the app 🙁 She has to manually put in order for me, and I was able to pay via WeChat pay though.
AliPay works too, but personally I like WeChat much more due to its simpler user interface.
Get the money
While China is largely cashless society, cash is still accepted pretty much everywhere. And sometimes we need the cash to fund the WeChat, or give to someone. For that I have a Schwab Bank Visa Platinum Debit Card (google search, look at the AI overview; Schwab website). I pasted some Google AI overview below. One caveat: there is a 7% (roughly) surcharge, if you withdraw cash at the ATM machine (for example, Pufa or Pudong Development bank) at PVG Pudong Airport. I noticed it because it pops up that warning, and I also compared to money exchange rate with CMB (China Mercantile Bank, Zhao’shang Bank). I used the cash withdrawal feature in HK airport too in 2024, note the taxi drivers in HK only accepts cash.
Key Features
No Foreign Transaction Fees: Purchases made abroad have zero currency conversion fees.
Unlimited ATM Refunds: All fees charged by out-of-network or international ATM operators are fully refunded at the end of every month. (Note: this card offers unlimited bank ATM fee refund in the US too. Again please note bank ATMs, not the other commercial ATMs that’s not owned or run by a bank)
……
How to Use It Effectively
Decline “Dynamic Currency Conversion”: When an ATM or merchant asks if you want to be charged in U.S. Dollars or the local currency, always select the local currency to avoid getting hit with poor, hidden exchange rates.
Flights
Some of the places we will likely change airplanes: Seattle (Delta), SFO (UA), LAX (? China Eastern?), DFW (AA) and DTW (Delta)
Phone and Internet
I think the easiest way for me is to get International Roaming from Mint Mobile my US wireless carrier. It’s flexible in terms of the cellular and data usage and length of stay there. (put a screenshot here)
China Unicom SIM card and compatible phone
Re: Ke’xue’shang’wang, if you want to learn more, you may refer to my earlier blog post
Where to get tickets: there are still windows or counters that’s staffed by ticket agents, but increasingly people are doing self-serving via the kiosk or phone app.
Hotels
I wrote quite a bit of kids friendly hotels that I stayed in China: mainly Shanghai and Ningbo Beilun. I mainly stayed at Hyatt Place Hong’qiao CBD and Double Tree Beilun. Both places have swimming pools.
Eat
This is mostly for my own benefits 🙂 || I am thankful to my friends who feed me 🙂 谢谢老同学/朋友投喂。
Shanghai: 台乡缘（2024）
文兴酒家久光百货店（2025）
桂满陇虹桥枢纽浙菜 (2025)
Ningbo:小鱼厂私厨 鄞州 (2025)
Beilun coffee and tea place (quite unique), food Yi’liang’yi Si’chu (2026)
一良壹.私厨
Things maybe useful when travel to Ningbo or Beilun: taxi, subway (metro, 10:30 pm is the last train?)
话音未落，I started to teach my old kid to drive. We are already on the road, btw 🙂
We practiced on the parking lot 1st, but she got a bit bored of the parking lot, so last 2 days (I started writing this post in late Dec, FYI) I have taken her to quiet neighborhood, and she was practicing on the road. Note she is new on the road. And understandably sometimes she would get nervous if another car come by both in the front (opposing traffic), or behind. Today she almost panicked at a four way stop sign 🙂 But we survived.
12-31-2025 Today we got honked by people the 1st time, at the Hilltop neighborhood.
1-1-2025 We finally hit the real road, I mean the road with traffic lights (not just Stop sign). We drove at the Lackland near Westport, also from the Walgreens St. Ann (St. Charles rock road and Ashby) to home. Many years ago (confirmed by my wife) I taught her driving, at the industrial compound at Westport.
02-07-2026 We continued practicing on the real road, mostly on weekends.
02-10-2026 S8 drove from the St. Louis Premium Outlet Mall to home, via local obviously. She was fairly proud that she made smooth left turn from Chesterfield parkway to Olive. And re: Olive Road, she said she may miss it when she goes off to college. Other interesting facts she told me is an old story between her mom and her as her mom drove the similar route quite a few years ago – they were going to the mall as well.
Amother longer road (route) we drove recently: Olive west (from Warson), Clarkson, Manchester, and West Country Mall. She got honked when near the west county mall. There were quite a few cars because it was weekend.
Side note – Road Rage
Road rage (lu nu) is prevalent in the USA. Here in STL it’s not extremely bad, but from time to time you will see those impatient drivers or impatient people in general. Recently as I started teaching my older kid to drive, and also as I reflect on my own driving and so on, I felt I have a bit burden or worry when she eventually goes out and drives on her own.
In China people honk, here in STL people may not honk as much, but the road rage is definitely there. And in extreme or rare cases, it could turn out to be deadly (because of firearms aka the guns).
Nowadays I rarely honked at people, and I rarely honked back. I did some of that when I was younger and also when I am lacking sleep.
Started this a bit over a month ago. Better late than never. I had Apple Watch since Jan 2017, and Apple Watch released sleep tracker in 2020.
Some observations
If the watch was taken off during the night, say 2 to 3 hours, the sleep tracking got reset – which means you will likely get a bad sleep number (low score).
Also, I am not sure how accurate the Apple watch does in terms of sleep tracking – I assume it measures the heart beat (from the pulse in the elbow). I had similar questions re: the Apple watch swimming tracking too. It seems to me they are rounding up the number there.
Need some more patience there. A good example may be $MDB at 04/04/2025: it was under $155 then. Today it closed at about $399.65.
Family and China Trip
Startedteaching my older kid to drive
Realized that “Good habit is important – easier to correct in the beginning than to correct later on – similar for the music learning too”. Today 01-01-2026 she even drove from the Walgreens in St. Ann (St. Charles rock road and Ashby road) to our home – via Ashby road. I was the passenger. (Update 01-02-2026) Today’s practice route here.
Btw, I paused the Uber driving for now. It was fun ride to say the least.
YouTuber or creator instead of blogger?
Thinking I may archive this blog site and focus more on the video content creation instead. Haven’t made final decision yet but leaning towards this – it was a good 20-year journey but couple things made me to re-think about my blogging journey – very few people are reading my blogs these days, that’s probably true for other newspaper, magazine website too – people are mostly switching to video or short videos over the years due to many reasons. Video is more engaging, or much easier to absorb. Also, video especially short video is quite addictive. Other reasons are the cost of hosting this website, as well as the recent AI bots scanning my website continuously (they appear are from CHN).
Joking 🙂 I was thinking doing it until 60. But the other day, my piano teacher, who is probably 20 years older than me, told me he is still doing yard work. I am 54 btw. My younger daughter’s violin teacher who is 13 years senior than me, does yard work too. So music makes one younger – that’s one motivation factor that I am leaning music now 🙂
This morning (Saturday 2025-11-15) I cleaned up about half of the leaves 🍁 in the backyard. My joke of the day is: 前人种树，后人捡树枝和树叶🍂。
Btw, I do mow my own lawn since August 2019. I guess I will do the yard work until I feel not physically able to do as I age, or I really hate it. Hopefully I can do it for a while, at least. Right now, it’s still not too bad.
Cost associated with trees
Btw, over the years I realized there are potentially two risks involved with trees near the house.
One is the tree could fall, and it could hit the house or people. In fact, this happened to me (my house) twice. Once, a few years ago, in a summer, neighbor’s tree fell on our fence, in the process it broke the electricity wires, and knock off the power. Another time, a branch fell on our roof – for that one, I was sort of expecting it, but I was not proactive enough, to remove the dangling tree branch on the big, sweet gum tree in the backyard. One day, my neighbor emailed me and said you have a tree branch sticking into your roof. I immediately realized what happened. Btw, it’s the same neighbor – the first and the second incidents.
I consider the safety of human beings the top priority. That brings another point or cost associated with tree maintenance – removal of the dead tree. That’s not cheap either, especially when the tree is big. I had experience on this too: a few years ago, I had to call tree company to remove a dead oak tree, that tree is probably almost 60 years old, and was infected with some sort of galls – caused by gall wasps or more specifically Andricus kollari. The bill was about $2,200 (in summer 2022, to put things in perspective).
After quitting alcohol, I am substituting some of my daily coffee ☕️ with green tea 🍵. I tried to cut off coffee completely in the past too. But it seems coffee is a more addictive substance, at least to me, because I would get headache in the afternoon if I didn’t drink the morning coffee. So right now I am only moderating coffee consumption.
Also probably more importantly I believe longer term green tea will be better for my health.
As I read the benefits of green tea from food and wine magazine via Apple News: “
Turns Out, One Simple Drink Could Be the Key to Better Sleep, Sharper Focus, and a Happier Mind
According to new research, this centuries-old beverage supports long-term brain health by dialing down inflammation and balancing hormones, leading to better sleep, steadier moods, and sharper focus.”
