Category: Life Tips

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advice and tips kids Life Life Tips math-and-edu

We survived two weeks of High School, so far :-)

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This probably should be the series 2 of Ladue high school, we are coming, series I is here and I wrote it about 9 months ago.

Now it’s real – which means, every morning, I have to be patient about the traffic on Warson road. And I am very proud to announce: so far I didn’t lose my cool ha ha 🙂 Though in one morning, I told my 14 year old it’s probably for her to ride bike when we were stuck near the stop sign at Warson and Conway.

Sports and schedule

This whole actually started in the summer, because my 14 year old took two online classes (health and PE), via Launch. Both are fairly intense courses, and more than once in our China and Hong Kong trip, including in Hong Kong, I had to walk with my 14 year old to make sure she gets enough steps or make the Garmin heart rate monitor happy. We actually started from St. Louis in late June 🙂

We encouraged her to sign up varsity sports. And I quickly realized the Cross Country program is more demanding than I thought. Btw, a little fun during the training (instagram :-).

At the same time, she decided (we ok’ed) her not doing the auditioning for YPOP (YPCO and YPSO) this school year at Webster University Community Music School. We don’t want to or try to hit at every pitch, as the old baseball saying goes (and Warren Buffett likes to say it many times).

What’s next

I can see she definitely has more homework. Also due to the Cross Country practice after school, she would feel tired and tended to do “doom scrolling” (I assume it’s TikTok and YT Shorts) instead of working on the homework right away. That would push her bed time to a time that her mom cannot tolerate.

Odds and Ends

There are a lot more of those in High School. One thing is about the volunteering and tracking hours – because it may help the college application/admission down the road. Also clubs and other extra-curriculum activities – I guess there may be implications to college application too, among other things. It basically create more work and put some more pressure on the kids/family.

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gadgets Life Tips

Mobile phone carriers I have used in recent years and couple I am considering

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T-Mobile

I think I started using T-Mobile probably from year 2012, ever since my 2-year contract with AT&T ended. I got the 2-year contract when I bought iPhone 4 at the Apple Store in fall 2010.

H2O

Note with T-Mobile, I did not sign up the data plan. And In year 2014, I started looking at prepaid data plans (with some call minutes, and text messages included), and found H2O.

Mint Mobile

I don’t recall how exactly I found Mint Mobile, probably because I realized it’s cheaper than H2O. and I decided to switch. That was probably in year 2019. I don’t have complaints with them with 3 exceptions:

1. Their coverage which is about same as T-Mobile (in some areas the coverage is not as good as AT&T or Verizon), also because T-Mobile recently bought Mint Mobile, so I don’t expect them to improve.

2. In one or two occasions, it seems their meter went wrong, because essentially my data was quickly used up as soon as I received the new pot of data for the month. Tried to chat with the customer service via the app, and it was not very helpful either.

3. They don’t support Apple Watch Cellular. And it sounds like they won’t support it in the future either because this is a prepaid plan – they want their profit margin and so on.

International Roaming

They have launched this product called Minternational Pass. And I used it recently in my recent China trip (to be precise, Vancouver, Hong Kong and Mainland China). It’s working for the most part, the nice thing is it’s about $2 or $3 per day, which is much cheaper than the Visible Global Pass or Verizon international roaming (which is $10 a day; $5 day in Canada and Mexico). Note Mint Mobile recently included Canada roaming for free. So if we only talk about the international roaming, Mint Mobile is cheaper. But we also keep in mind the length of the international travel, as well as the country.

Apple Watch Cellular

I found the below 2 carriers when I was doing research for my Apple Watch cellular, and potentially for my 10-year standalone Apple Watch Cellular. I think I may switch myself from Mint Mobile to one of the two below, so that I can travel or go out with my watch only, from time to time.

Visible

I found this one from the Apple discussion forum thread. It sounds like they are the only prepaid carrier supports Apple Watch Cellular.

C Spire

It seems we have to buy Apple Watch from them (as opposed to Visible we can bring our own watch). They do have a nice section about kids using watch or phone (around safety etc.).

Last but not least, Apple Watch for Your Kids (Apple website).

Update 05-05-2025: I heard from a friend that US Cellular offers standalone Apple Watch Cellular plan. Note it was mentioned in the Apple Website above too.

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China gadgets iOS iPhone app Life Life Tips Technology Travel Web

VPN software I have used personally

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This article can also be read on Medium. But this blog post has all the up to date information, while the medium.com article doesn’t get regular update.

Sometimes called 科学上网 in CHN

Mac:

VPN Prime – Unlimited Proxy 4+

Update early June 2025, the free plan appears stopped working in my most recent CHH trip.

Update June 12, 2025: I purchased the paid plan, and it works (again I found a sever that worked). Considering switching from the below iOS app to this Mac app for my VPN needs.

Update 06-13-25: sometimes the connection will get reset and get lost. In that case, I tried to connect to another server and it usually works.

Update 06-14-2025: I felt more confident using this app. I think this is a viable option if I need to work from CHN (right now my employer doesn’t allow that).

iPhone, iPad

VPN – Super Unlimited Proxy 4+ (Update June 2025, it still works, I have the premium sub now, and I know not all servers work, and I have my fav server now. Email me if you like to know 🙂

Update 06-12-2025: I noticed this app doesn’t always work flawlessly. At least in the two hotels I stayed, it didn’t like the Hotel WiFi. I don’t know how the app works exactly, but during the connection process, it seems dropping the WiFi and used the cellular data, which would cause the connection issue.

Update 06-17-2025: again, this app works flawlessly when I am in the US. Now I tend to think due to its popularity, China blocks this app’s use 🙁

(Original) Note: both apps have free versions, and both have add-ons that are available for purchase. I verified them on my trip and they work for the most part, iPhone app sometimes takes a few tries to get going. The Mac app works out of the box most of the time.

Cell phone international roaming

I know T-mobile used to have it. Mint Mobile has international pass too: 1 day, 3 day and 10 day. The device can go to outside world just like the VPN would. One may have to check her/his current cell phone carrier and see there is such a program or a pass.

Cell phone roaming has its own advantage, for example, we can order food or ride-share cars as those apps are usually available on the smart phone and they usually require internet connection. But in the case of China, ideally one may want to get a local phone number, as it’s needed by the meituan and didi chuxing apps.

Other use cases:

Netflix (shows from other country etc.)

Organizations sometimes block certain social media websites: this can happen in the western countries too.

Other software

Nord VPN: paid. It takes some effort to get it working in CHN. It seems all the default servers are blocked. Had to open a ticket to get alternative server names (ip address etc.), try and error, to got it working in year 2023. Retrieved a list during most recent trip too (summer 2024), haven’t tried it out as I found the two solutions above are good enough.

Default setting for Nord VPN is working when in the USA. That’s true for the free versions for two apps above too.

(Update 01/03/2025) I found this bug a while back, the issue was when my phone is on the Mobile Data network (not Wi-Fi), and when the VPN was on via Wi-Fi before the cut over, it seems Nord VPN has difficulty connect to VPN. Took me a while to understand why I lost internet connection. I am ditching this app (and software) now – not solely because of this. It’s just another annoying thing or bug for me. I noticed it didn’t work out of box on the public K-12 school’s public Wi-Fi – had to use VPN – Super Unlimited Proxy 4+ (the free version: I may consider support them later once my Nord VPN subscription expires).

(Original post July 2024) Open VPN (I set it up on my own $DGCN server), but it stopped working for me in CHN in my 2023 trip. Bought Nord VPN in that trip too. Refer to this Chinese article if you want to learn more about OpenVPN or setup your own OpenVPN server (note it still works outside CHN’s GFW).

PS: you may want to take a look at eSIM app for travel.

我用VPN主要是因为我的personal email 是GMail，还有我有时会听YT/YT Music上面的歌。下面是谷歌中文翻译。

======

这篇文章也可以在 Medium 上阅读。但这篇博文包含所有最新信息，而 medium.com 上的文章则没有定期更新。

中文有时称为“科学上网”，或者叫梯子：可能是从“翻墙”那里衍生出来的。

Mac：

VPN Prime – 无限代理 4+

更新于 2025 年 6 月初，免费套餐似乎在我最近的一次 CHN 之旅中停止了工作。

更新于 2025 年 6 月 12 日：我购买了付费套餐，现在可以使用了（我又找到了一个可以正常工作的服务器）。我考虑从下面的 iOS 应用切换到这个 Mac 应用来满足我的 VPN 需求。

更新于 2025 年 6 月 13 日：有时连接会被重置并丢失。在这种情况下，我尝试连接到其他服务器，通常情况下可以正常工作。

iPhone、iPad

VPN – 超级无限代理 4+（更新至 2025 年 6 月，它仍然有效，我现在有付费订阅，我知道并非所有服务器都能正常工作，而且我现在有我最喜欢的服务器了。如果你想知道，请给我发邮件

更新于 2015 年 6 月 12 日：我注意到这个应用程序并不总是完美无缺。至少在我住过的两家酒店，它不如酒店的 WiFi 好用。我不知道这个应用程序的具体工作原理，但在连接过程中，它似乎会断开 WiFi 并使用蜂窝数据，这会导致连接问题。

（原文）注意：这两个应用程序都有免费版本，并且都有可购买的附加组件。我在旅途中验证了它们，它们大部分时间都可以正常工作，iPhone 应用程序有时需要尝试几次才能启动。Mac 应用程序大多数时候开箱即用。

手机国际漫游

我知道 T-mobile 以前有这个功能。Mint Mobile 也有国际漫游通行证：1 天、3 天和10天。该设备可以像VPN一样连接到外部网络。用户可能需要检查当前的手机运营商，看看是否有这样的程序或通行证。

手机漫游有其自身的优势，例如，我们可以订餐或叫车，因为这些应用程序通常在智能手机上可用，并且通常需要网络连接。但在中国，理想情况下，用户可能需要获取一个本地电话号码，因为美团和滴滴出行等应用程序需要这些号码。

其他用例：

Netflix（其他国家的节目等）

一些组织有时会屏蔽某些社交媒体网站：这种情况在西方国家也可能发生。

其他软件

Nord VPN：付费。在中国使用需要一些时间。似乎所有默认服务器都被屏蔽了。不得不提交工单获取备用服务器名称（IP地址等），反复尝试，最终在2023年成功恢复。在最近的一次旅行中（夏季）也获取了一份列表。 2024），我还没试过，因为我觉得上面两个方案已经够用了。

Nord VPN 在美国默认设置下可以正常工作。上面两个应用的免费版本也一样。

（更新于 2025 年 3 月 1 日）我之前发现了这个 bug，问题出在当我的手机连接移动数据网络（而非 Wi-Fi）时，如果在切换之前 VPN 是通过 Wi-Fi 开启的，Nord VPN 似乎很难连接到 VPN。我花了一段时间才明白为什么我断网了。我现在正在放弃这个应用（和软件），不仅仅是因为这个。这只是另一个让我恼火的问题或 bug。我注意到它在公立 K-12 学校的公共 Wi-Fi 上无法开箱即用——不得不使用 VPN——Super Unlimited Proxy 4+（免费版：等我的 Nord VPN 订阅到期后，我可能会考虑支持他们）。

（原帖）Open VPN（我在自己的 $DGCN 上设置了它）服务器），但在我2023年的中国之行中，它失效了。那次旅行我也买了Nord VPN。如果你想了解更多关于OpenVPN的信息，或者搭建你自己的OpenVPN服务器（注意，它在中国的GFW之外仍然可以使用），请参阅这篇中文文章。

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advice and tips Edu-and-Ladue-School kids Life Life Tips

It’s a pleasure to be your cool dad

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Note: I also published this to Medium, and the friend link is here.

Our younger daughter turned to 10 the day before yesterday. And our older daughter is about 4 years older, so basically I have been a dad for a bit over 14 years.

Being dad is not an easy job. Last few years are getting a bit more challenging, as my older one is becoming a teenager, and also with pandemic, we were worried about the lack of social activities etc. Below is some of my observations and thoughts on the topic of “raising kids”, which is my main task or job at this stage of my life. In theory I can do auto pilot too, but I am just not that kind of cool or laid back dad. I was trying to stay away from the other extreme as well: aka the micro-management, or sometimes people call the practice “helicopter parenting”. I am by no means perfect, and I had my setbacks and failures in many aspects, from big to small. I recall in my recent trip to China, we met a dad, and he said he never missed or be late for the morning drop-off for his son (that’s 7 years of no late or tardiness).

I do believe he is a quite dedicated and meticulous dad, for me I tried but I think I failed here and there in terms pickup. Quite a few times: my 14 year old would text – dad, where are you? I would answer: 5 minutes away. And honestly sometimes I don’t know whether it’d going to be 5 or 10 minutes. But for the most part, my 14 year old still thinks I am a cool dad. And sometimes if I am not cool, she would say: chill 🙂

Adolescent / adolescence:

I have some reflections here on this topic, see below

Ankle Injury And Recovery – 从哪里摔倒就从哪里爬起来

Move Families And Kids To Better School Community

My Zhenhai Middle School Days我在镇海中学的日子

PS, corresponding to this Zhenhai Middle School; 镇海中学) piece above: I felt this summer our 14 year old seriously got into the math self-study. She wanted to do the math acceleration even since she got this idea from her 8th grade math teacher, and she was working hard on it since our summer 2024 China trip). From my perspective, I have zero complaints, and the main thing I need to remind her is “don’t sit in your room” for too long, go out and stretch, and “get some sleep” 🙂

(Update 08-09-2024 am) In terms of self motivation, and learn math on her own, I felt our 14 year old is at “friction point of the clutch“. But this morning, the hell broke loose. I think at about 6:10 or 6:20 am, I got up and heard my 14 year old sobbing. I didn’t go and ask why (as I know that alone may make things worse). Turns out she was studying for the math acceleration, and she planned to go to bed at 12 am last night, and again to get up at 2 am and study – except she didn’t woke up to the alarm. She slept through. I know she really could get some more sleep in last month, because she is exhausted studying math most of this time. I went out and was going to walk/jog in the neighborhood – but I had my 2nd thoughts and quickly came back home and went to Bread Co. and get some breakfast. A while later, I asked our 10 year old – did big sis wake you up early morning? Our younger daughter replied: yes, at 6:52 am, because I looked at the clock 🙂

So there is our 14 year old’s growing pain. Not to mention I dropped her off the high school (for test), and came back getting banana/water for her 🙁

I am not complaining actually – I think in terms of I enjoy what I am doing, if I compare myself to an empty nester: a lot of my high school or college mates are empty nester now, because I had my 14 year old when I was 39. But one day if I get lucky enough to be an empty nester, I would try to be happy too – just need to find something meaningful or interesting to fill my day.

(Update 08-09-2024 pm) So our 14 year old didn’t pass the day 2 session of the math acceleration (Advanced Geometry). But I am glad she is not giving up. She said: I am going to get the Algebra 2 book and study this year (aiming for a similar acceleration next summer). We just ordered the used book at eBay.

Each kid is different

What a novel concept or idea. Of course we know everyone is different, and child is no different. But at the same time, may I ask: don’t we used to do things like: for a guy (or a girl) with hammer, everything is a nail. No? Congrats that you already do much better than many other parents.

Categories
advice and tips China Life Tips Travel

A quick review of our summer 2024 China trip

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Since pandemic, I have been back to China twice, last year in the spring break of school year 2022/2023, which was the 1st time I visited China since pandemic, when the PRC (People’s Republic of China) just relaxed in-bound travel in Jan 2023, and I booked ticket on Jan 29, 2023 via Expedia.com – refer to this blog post China Trip Spring 2023 – Logistics if you like to learn more. I also wrote another blog post China Trip Spring 2023 – Observations And Thoughts shortly after the trip.

This most recent trip is the 2nd trip since 2020.

Visting China mainland is a bit more challenging since pandemic, overall. One main factor that people often talk about is the cut back of the direct flights between two countries: I recall it used to be in the range of 150 weekly flights. This Reuters article has more details, and I will quote some content below. Keep in mind that the regulator approving more flights does not mean the airlines will add them. This is especially true in the USA, because all the airlines are private owned, profit driven. 油管上弘哥有关于这方面的分析，我觉得比较客观。

Chinese passenger airlines will be allowed to boost their weekly round-trip U.S. flights to 50 starting on March 31, up from the current 35, the U.S. Transportation Department said on Monday, returning the market to nearly one-third of pre-pandemic levels.

……

More than 150 weekly round-trip passenger flights were allowed by each side before restrictions were imposed in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but until August 2023, Chinese and U.S. carriers could each fly only 12 a week between the two countries.

The number rose on Sept. 1 to 18 weekly round-trips and then to 24 per week starting Oct. 29. The USDOT approved 35 for Chinese carriers in November.

FlyChina.com

If you happen to know Chinese 如果你会中文, the flychina.com website has a complete list and collection of updates (for example, you can click on this “今年已增航班班详细公告” on the up to date US/China direct flights. The website has English version too, but I have not checked or verified how good are the English content there.

Anyway, amid all this aka the new normal (reduced direct US/China direct flights), we booked air ticket quite early and I talked about it in my blog post here too – Bought Air Ticket For Summer Trip To CHN. We were somewhat nervous because this is complete new route to us, and there are some uneasiness of going this route: STL <=> ORD Chicago <=> YVR Vancouver <=> HKG Hong Kong. We took Amtrak for STL to Chicago union station (and took Uber from the union station to the ORD airport or hotel near airport). We also built in some sleepovers in hotels (Chicago one night, Vancouver 2 nights, and Hong Kong 3 nights. We also tried to use the hotel airport shuttle bus when I stayed at hotel near airport.

Note both my wife and I are from mainland, so there is one more leg after reaching Hong Kong. We took the air route. There are land route aka the high speed train (Gao’tie) as well. We book those separately via trip.com.

Places we visited in China

Both my wife and I are originally from Zhejiang province (you may be interested in this blog post Hometown Is Always Special). In addition to seeing families in Zhejiang, we also stopped by Shanghai, where my wife and I met in 2006, to see her side of families and friends. I also still have families and friends in Shanghai too: but I kept my head low to focus on my supporting role. Also the few days we were at Shanghai we had quite high outdoor temperature.

Overall score: pretty good

Now that we are back, and I am happy to report that the trip is a success in terms of the new route and the overall experience. We didn’t have any major hiccups. We do have one minor thing when we leave Hong Kong hotel for the airport. Right out of gate at the taxi, our 14 year old said: I forget my hoodies in the hotel (in the closet). Let me emphasize at that time we already checked out the hotel, and we are in the taxi, and the taxi was about to leave 🙁

Minor hiccup

To say I was annoyed is definitely an understatement. First let me say after this is all over, this scene is not new to me, and I recall at the 宁波北仑世茂希尔顿逸林酒店 (note the local people call it 希尔顿逸林酒店) that I stayed since 2017, and I saw this scene in the elevator video (they haven’t changed the video since 2017 🙂 Let me repeat, in the scene the hotel staff tried to catch the minivan in which the guests are leaving for airport, and make sure the little boy has the “lost” stiff animal. Sweet, ah? The real life is not usually like that.

Anyway, let’s back to the topic. I immediately asked the hotel reception desk, and she suggested I go up to the 22nd floor lounge, and asked for help there. The lady at the lounge listened to my issue patiently, and typed something in her system, mainly notifying the house keeper. And my 14 year old and I waited there, for about 25 minutes, with my daughter much more composed than me. Eventually the house keeper showed up, and delivered the missing hoodie to us, in a nice bag. We tipped him the housekeeper $100 (Hong Kong dollar, worth about $13 USD). We offered tip to the the lady assisted us at the lounge too, but she didn’t accept. After we got back to the taxi, I immediately tipped the taxi driver 100 HKD. The driver was happy and he drove very well in terms of the time it took us from the hotel to the #HKG airport.

Lost and Found

As a postpartum or post mortem review with our 14 year old, I told her that we (my wife, her little sister, and myself) are not going to be her “lost and found department” forever. She needs to step up her game and be responsible for her own belongings and so on. I said that in the light of two “thew away retainer” incidents last semester – read this blog post I Am Exhausted, But I Will Soldier On if you are interested to know more. I guess I may have ranted too much there or here – but my intension is help her be responsible. Personally I don’t think physical things are do or die, but if one does not pay attention to his surrounding, especially as a girl at a wrong place or wrong time, things can get bad pretty quickly. That’s my main worry as a parent. Not an broken iPhone or missing stuff animal or hoodie 🙂

Things I learned or relearned: some odds and ends

When leave Vancouver for Chicago, the “entering US immigration and customs” are done at YVR. After we landed at ORD, we just exit and get our luggages like a domestic flight.

In China it’s still best to have a local mobile phone number with cellular data. We need it for WeChat pay (or Alipay), rideshare apps (Didi Chuxing or Gaode Map), as well as ordering food and drink in many places via WeChat Mini Program 微信小程序. I actually documented some of all those tips and tricks in my Twitter (X) thread. I think FlyChina.com has some quite practical advices on those related topic as well, such as this one and that one.

Get cash in HK, which is needed for taxi and the MTR (subway), I used Schwab debit card, and it has no foreign transaction fee, and offers unlimited ATM fee rebate. I had this card for a few years now, and I am glad I put it to good use for International travel eventually.

Must see places in Hong Kong: Victoria Peak aka 太平山(day, tram starts near Hong Kong Park), and Victoria Harbour (night view, looking from Tsim Sha Tsui). Please refer to my other blog post – Some Random Thoughts During My Recent China Trip – 我2024年夏天中国行的一些观察 if needed.

Starbucks are everywhere. But in China they don’t have cake pops that my 14 year old like. In YVR Tim Hortons is as popular as Starbucks. I used credit card for the purpose at YVR, the Starbucks US app does not work at YVR.

In Vancouver I tip in USD. It seems USD cash is fairly widely accepted there: as I saw a sign in the hotel lobby talkong about taking 25 CAD or 20 USD for the shuttle to the cruise ship. You got the idea.

I knew in Vancouver there are a lot of ethnic Chinese people: some moved from HK to Vancouver around 1997. I also noticed there are quite a few Indian (or south asians) immigrants at hotel and at the airport as well. Canada is q quite diverse country. The YVR has 3 languages for most signs: English, French and Chinese.

Last but not least, the Boeing planes. I noticed the Boeing 737 Max 8 of Air Canada has a very quick acknowledgment of flying over native people’s land and water. Some may say that’s “woke”, I say that’s good. Also both Boeing 737 Max 8 and 787-9 have modern infotainment system, and I played chess a lot during my trip. This is aso the 1st time I rode a 737 Max, I believe. I rode 787-9 once on American Airlines ORD to PVG once before pandemic.

Summary

Overall this is a decent route if we want to save some $ and have some extra time to spare. An added bonus is we took kids to see places we normally don’t go often: Vancouver and Hong Kong. Although I admit it’s still hard to persuade my American girls to try Tim Hortons over Starbucks 🙂

Categories
China Life Life Tips Travel

Some random thoughts during my recent China trip – 我2024年夏天中国行的一些观察

Reading Time: < 1 minute

This article is also available on Medium, and blog.wenxuecity.com

航空公司

发现加航🇨🇦的loyalty member (Aeroplan)在飞机上用微信，手机短信等是免费的。不用花钱或点数买inflight WiFi：感觉又赚了一个亿[捂脸]。航空公司其实很难赚钱：成本在那里，固定成本和浮动成本等。但是另一方面愿意额外付钱的客户不多：比如说inflight WiFi, 比如说duty free product sale等等。股神巴菲特也说过类似的话：我估计他老人家在上回pandemic 那次卖了航空股以后就不会再玩航空公司的股票债券了：他老人家今年有93或94岁了。|| 我个人觉得纯从商业的角度出发，信用卡公司的商业模型business model 比航空公司好太多：她们基本上就是高速公路和谷歌的收买路钱的方法。不过在中国大陆感觉支付宝和微信支付基本上打遍天下无敌手，Visa 和万事达两大巨头基本上可以洗洗睡了。前两者的对商家来说成本比信用卡低太多。Alipay 和WeChat Pay 在香港也很拼，有不少商家也开始接受人民币的微信支付/支付宝。不过香港的payment 有点复杂：感觉基本上是八达通Octopus, 信用卡💳包括digital wallet Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Alipay, WeChat pay等；还有出租车也就是的士🚕和地铁🚇需要的港币现钞。我用CS debit card 直接在银行的ATM机上取了些港币现钞。感觉在大陆用现钞的地方比香港少很多，基本上微信和支付宝都可以搞定。|| 离港上飞机之前有个小插曲，紧张程度有点类似于我上次工作中play as tech lead for production release：中间也出了点不大不小的问题，好在最后在超级队友的支持下，有惊无险。我感觉自己还是在这些大大小小的事情中，不断学习，提高自己[微笑]

中国好还是美国好

我被问到的一个常见的问题是：中国好还是美国好？我觉得各有千秋吧。比如说火车：美国的火车客运还停留在中国的绿皮车年代，中国的高铁确实挺牛。Amtrak 没有固定位置: no assigned seat 💺 on Amtrak – reminded me of southwest air the $luv stock ticker. 但同时，有一次当我看到拉莫多人在站台上抽烟🚬，甚至有人把烟头往轨道上仍的时候，我很无语。这次我在一些高铁火车站看到有标语提醒大家不要往轨道上扔烟头。还有比如酒驾开车违章等：感觉国内比美国抓得严一些。酒驾确实应该抓。违章，比如说摄像头直接寄罚单，扣分等，这样的事多年前我碰到过两回：olive / 270 上装了自动摄像头，有一年我不小心闯了两次，一个方向一次，一次罚款一百刀，不涨分（相当于国内扣分）。One year later: 我发现有一张20刀的支票，原来是因为这个自动照相并罚款的机器被人告了，我所在的城市承认错误，拆除了这些东东，并赔款。香港大概是中西文化交汇的一个地方了。我个人感觉不错：前面也遇到了。上海也还可以。美国也不是铁板一块：在从芝加哥机场到芝加哥火车站的顺风车上跟司机聊了聊，他是在约旦出生，英国留学，在那里碰到他的老婆美国人，后来就来到美国。他讲到上个礼拜他开Uber的轶事。跟我介绍了一下约旦。

香港一日游 (下面的图我还没有贴）

7/12 游香港岛的最高点太平山Victoria Peak (我们是坐tram 上去的，起点在香港公园/中环附近）。我们没有额外加钱上到图五/六的那个顶。我们感叹在香港这个寸土寸金的地方，还有个清净的山和山路供老百姓走走，真不错。山顶有咖啡店，饭店，和购买旅游纪念品的商场，邮局等等。|| 圣路易斯附近没有什么大山，如果想就近走走，我个人觉得 laumeier sculpture park, powder valley 和Creve coeur lake 旁边的bootleg trails 都还不错。图七，八是此次行程我们在港岛住的旅馆。两个旅馆都不错，北角north point 的凯悦中萃虽然离维多利亚港湾有两公里，但是她的位置还是非常方便，傍边有非常多吃饭的地方，有港铁和city bus. 最后一张screenshot 是此次旅程我用到的一些app。从机场到北角来回打了大名鼎鼎的香港🇭🇰红色的士(都是丰田的，大部分人较老，少部分较新），需要港币现金。我用我的CS debit card 在机场和中环的银行取款机上取了点：这个卡不额外收手续费，没有foreign transaction fee.

Categories
Life Life Tips

人到中年要注意的事

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Things to pay attention when we are over 50

(I borrowed this paragraph from a high school classmate in mailand CHN) 我来说几句吧，不妥之处请大家指正：1. 一定要有医保，有能力的可以适当配点商业保险 2. 同学们都巳年过半百了，各种慢性病会慢慢出来，应该学习一点医学常识。个人建议关注以下几个（微信）公众号： 丁香医生/ 菠萝因子/ 营养师顾中一

Below is my own cooking

Exercise 锻炼身体：running, jogging, and walking 跑步，慢跑，走路 are all good. Many other good cardiovascular exercise 心血管运动 include cycling, swimming, and tennis. Take your pick. 饭后百步走，活到九十九。Aerobic exercise 柔韧性锻炼也不错，如瑜伽，普拉提等。跑步前后注意拉伸。

至少要有大病保险；buy health insurance, as a minimum one should have the catastrophe health insurance: meaning the insurance that covers conditions such as cancer. This is needed for most people; I mean the people who doesn’t have 100 million dollars or more – who, btw, may be able to self-insure. Even in that case, one should find an administrator (basically a company that acts as middleman between you and the providers).

Colon cancer screen

聆听自己身体的声音，每年体检，看情况做一个肠镜；see your doctor and get the colonoscopy every 5 or 10 years. Below is example of people who got colon cancer and found out late.

Indianapolis TV Anchor Tanya Spencer Dead at 53: Her Final Social Media Post Issued an Important Reminder

I’m a 34-Year-Old With Colorectal Cancer. Here Are the Early Signs I Wish I Hadn’t Ignored (btw, an alarming trend is colon cancer patient get younger, as you can see from this google search)

Guys:

prostate and bladder (urologist);

Ladies: mammogram, breast cancer ♋️

好汉不提当年勇，包括开车

2000年夏天我和朋友一起轮换开车从圣路易斯到黄石，总共大概24小时，没住旅馆，累了就在加油站打个盹。08年开同样的山路感觉就有点怕，19年类似的山路更是不大敢开。

We are no longer in our 20s or 30s, this includes everything from drink, driving to eating. Pay attention to what we drink or eat. I found out I can no longer drive the mountain roads as confident as before – which is okay. I just need to be careful and mindful. If I cannot do it, I don’t do it.

饮食

我们这个年纪自己还是有可能调节的：饮食，少喝酒，少糖，多蔬菜🥬水果，包括有纤维的蔬菜水果🍉，我个人感觉酸奶也不错。还有睡眠，运动等。

Also, refer to What’s For Dinner? 晚饭吃什么 – A Series On What We Eat And Its Impact On Our Bodies – I

睡眠

我一般心里有事，就会影响睡眠。我的办法一般是白天多锻炼；实在睡不着就听收音机，尽量避免手机，电脑等。

Shingles vaccine 带状疱疹疫苗 (CDC, CDC PDF; Mayo Clinic).

(05-26-2024) I went ahead and decided to get the vaccine at local Walgreens. Today 05-27-2024 I felt a bit drowsy, tired and a touch of fever (I googled the shingle vaccine side effect too). Note this is not as bad as the Moderna Covid-9 vaccine I took about 3 years ago. (05-27-2024 evening) I jumped to conclusion too quickly, it ooks like my fever is not trivial (about 101F). More on side effects on CDC website.

Also, note the vaccine is 2 shots, and I will likely get the 2nd shot 2 months from today.

More information on shingles (Mayo Clinic); 带状疱疹 (妙佑医疗)

(Update 10-21-2024) I did 2nd shot yesterday afternoon. Today I felt not well again. Some fever etc. Hope I can recover tomorrow. The nurse at Walgreens did mention the side effect after 2nd shot is usually worse than the 1st shot.

Will:

Make a will. If kids are old enough, involve them in the process (learned this from Warren Buffett).

不折腾或少折腾 包括工作不要太拼(don’t work long hours without break, and do it for a long duration)。

PS: many of the things mentioned above are important when one is young too. But better late than never.

Categories
gadgets Life Life Tips

Mowing the lawn and lawn mower 割草和割草机

Reading Time: < 1 minute

在2019年之前，我大概有二十年没有割草了。从1998年一月到1999年七月，我住在罗拉的美国大学生的兄弟会(Wikipedia fraternity; interestingly I joined the Delta Tau Delta fraternity (Epsilon Nu chapter) which is shown in the image when you do google search). 我在兄弟会的时候割过几次草。兄弟会有duty, 翻译成中文大概是值日值班的意思，我的任务里有不少是洗碗，偶尔也有割草。兄弟会是汽油的传统割草机：会有汽油的味道。印象最深的一次是大概是98年的夏天，兄弟会后面有较大的草地，我们一开始没有割草，后来发现有（不太友好的）邻居把我们举报了。马路对面的美国邻居是较友好的，我印像中他叫Bob May, 他告诉我们这个事。后来我们兄弟会有能力的美国小兄弟，去租了一个可以坐上去的割草机，把后面的草给割了。

Google search fraternity screenshot (partial)：这个正好是我的兄弟会 Delta Tau Delta Epsilon Nu

我2000年十月份来圣路易斯以后，一直住公寓和康斗(Condo, 相当于买下来的公寓), 就不用担心割草的事。一直到19年夏天，搬到现在的独门独户的房子。

我一开始在亚马逊上买了这个 Greenworks 40V 16″ Cordless (Push) Lawn Mower，用了几年，效果还可以。一直到去年（2023年）春夏天，第一次割草时感觉很卡，割两下就熄火Shutdown. 我想两百多块的钱，用了快四年，也值了本了。正好在Costco 看到这个马力大的 Greenworks 80V 21″ Gen 2 Self-Propelled Mower, 还打折，就跳了。事后想想，打折的东西要稍加小心，也许有坑。

后来发现确实有坑：这个割草机的好处是马力大，也有自推的功能。她的缺点是一个电池基本上是坏的，还有她在草较长的时候也同样熄火。最近我联系了厂家，换了个电池。但是总的来说，她家说充满电一次可以割 0.75 acre 是达不到的。我家的院子大概是 0.28 acre, 冲满电也不能一次割完。这也让我联想到买第一个电动割草机的时候，亚马逊上有一个美国老太太的留言，她说一次割不完也挺好，人也正好可以休息一下。

我现在两个割草机都用。电池都充好电，一个没电了，换另外一个。最近发现割草的一个好处，就是可以消耗我的体力，这样某种程度上有点像跑步，可以帮助我的睡眠。

PS: 在圣村，有时候太阳很厉害，如果自己在外面割草的话，记得要涂防嗮霜。

PS 2: 如果自己不想割草的话，其实有很多专业的 landscaping 或是割草的公司，大大小小的都有。我估计，一般用邻居用的割草公司，价格一般不会太贵（我住的区是一个平民的社区，如果是富豪区就另当别论）。

我自己估计我家一次可能四五十块钱。好算一点，一次五十块，夏天两星期割一次，圣村夏天大概可以算四个月，17个礼拜，我们就算割8次，$50×8=$400, 夏天就要四百块。春秋也得割草，算一个月割一次，一共算五次：$50×5=$250, 一共是二百五，总共一年割草是$650, 或是七百块钱。

我上面的两个割草机，一个是两百多（19年），一个是四五百（24年买的，请注意我上面提到的缺点，最好读一下用户的评价，我觉得有些评价说的很客观），两个估计都还可以用上一段时间。电费我没算，我自己的时间也没算。但是需要考虑自己锻炼身体的好处-这个是用金钱难以衡量的。

Categories
advice and tips Life Life Tips

人到中老年少折腾

Reading Time: < 1 minute

好像有个说法，人生在于折腾。

Zhihu: 人生的意义在于折腾

晚读 | 人生在于折腾，而不是年纪轻轻趋于平静 (新黄河 via qq.com)

我想对年轻人来说，这个基本上是适用的。比如说前几年流行的创业，我们年轻时（大学毕业时，九十年代初）去南方，广东，深圳等。With some exceptions, of course. The main thing is we all need to listen to our body – doesn’t matter whether one is young or old.

We want to avoid things like below

Another death at BoA (X)?

A 25-year-old Bank of America credit trader died suddenly at an industry event on Thursday night

不单是万恶的资本主义才有这种现象。I heard about similar cases such as

拼多多员工猝死 (Baidu)

拼多多年轻员工“996”加班后猝死 官方账号“冷血”回复引发众怒: BBC

我妻之死 || 华裔丈夫悼念长文《我妻之死》引争议！把妻子当工具人，又一个林生斌？！

从国内搬运来妻子后，《我妻之死》的翻版

6月2日，浙江台州，在黄岩布袋山石人峡景区发生-起悲剧事件。一支来自宁波的户外探险小队，因涉水过横切面，结果发生悲剧，有两人不幸被冲走，至今下落不明。有后续成员拍下了事故发生的全过程，我来分析他们到底犯了哪些错，才导致付出了生命代价，以此供大家警醒。

Andrew McAuley (Wikipedia, Twitter/X): quote wikipedia – Andrew McAuley (born 7 August 1968; presumed dead 9–12 February 2007) was an Australian mountaineer and sea kayaker. He is presumed to have died following his disappearance at sea while attempting to kayak 1600 km (994 mi) across the Tasman Sea from Australia to New Zealand in February 2007.

身边的例子

我想到我的一个老乡，比我大几岁，大学毕业后，当时闯深圳可能比较流行，他也去了。后来没多久，他得了不轻的病，回到老家休养了。现在应该有三十多年了。也不知道现在他的情况-他是我大哥的同学，也是镇海中学高中毕业的。

其实更早些，我有表哥表姐上山下乡，有去黑龙江，新疆，云南，贵州。她们大我十几岁，二十岁。后来她/他们都回老家上海了。

我自己97年香港回归那一年夏天来的美国中西部，一晃就有快27年。前两天看油管，有一对华人夫妻，也是大陆过来的，油管上的网红北美天马行：频道名是英文 BestYears2BestPlaces. 大意是在走不动之前到处走走-这个想法本身没问题。下面是她们频道的介绍。

“北美求学, 毕业, 工作, 安家，养娃养房养花种草, 生活像陀螺 … 突然因为疫情蹲家工作，带你一起分享我们在北美的生活，旅行，旅居，和考察退休地。
*** 原创不易，谢谢您的关注和鼓励! ***
联系：一个 gmail 的邮箱“

折腾

我看了一下她们的频道，主要还是关于旅行，养老，房子等等。看她们经济上基本上是自由的。她们也讲到断舍离，和搬家等带来的emotional drain.

油管是个无底洞。后来我看到，有关于哥斯达黎加，和马拉西亚移民的视频。后者（马来西亚留学移民）的视频非常多，因为天气方面两个地方都不错（不冷，年纪大的人一般怕冷），马来西亚在地理位置，饮食，文化等方面更有优势。

说到折腾，让我想到我的一个表姐，就是我上面说的情况里的一个。她当年回城其实是跟当时在乡下的情人被迫分手的，因为男朋友不是上海人。这种情况当时应该不少。但是我的感觉也是留下一个后遗症。多年以后，她的老公已去世，小孩结婚后关系也不好。最近我听我爸爸说，她开始了网恋，其实就是应该是单恋抖音上一个类似秀才，闻神这样的人。我爸爸很不以为然。

最近我高中同学独自驾车去西藏旅游，结果高原反应，现在还没出院。后来大家才知道，他的身体其实不太好。我可以理解他想去驾车独行，但是不管怎样身体是革命的本钱。

我后来想，有可能我的同学看抖音或微信短视频多看了一些219国道怎么好玩。这类的视频一般容易一边倒，主要是抓眼球和流量，不会讲究质量，科学，严谨等等。

不折腾

其实很重要。我记得，大概二十年之前，因为我的个人工作生活不是太顺，我想过要不要去读一个 Master of Financial Engineering, 然后跟我在罗拉时的师弟那样，去华尔街做几年。我好像当时申请了纽约的哥伦比亚大学。她家没要我。某种程度上，我觉得是庆幸的。

(05-19-2024) Now I think about it, both (late) Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett stayed in their respective houses for many decades. Once Charlie joked, if people offered money to move across the street, he would not do it (the context is a question came up re: some rich people in California moved to Texas to avoid high tax).

Last but not least, I like to share something I heard – “We don’t know if we will die from overworking but why take chance” – probably said by Ronald Reagan (per Charlie Munger or Warren Buffett). Btw, I ran at Olivette this beautiful Sunday morning.

Categories
401k and Personal Finance advice and tips finance Life Tips

American Healthcare System III – 美国医疗系统之三: the medical bills are confusing

Reading Time: 2 minutes

(Update 12-08-2024) 我今天录了一个油管视频：I created a YT video today and it’s in Mandarin Chinese. I can create an English version later, if there is interest.

My street credentials (qualification) for writing this: besides as the consumer of US healthcare system (employer sponsored plans most of the time) since fall 2000. I also worked for 2 large healthcare systems (hospital chains) in the USA, Mercy Health and Ascension Health. Here is my LinkedIn profile.

(Original 04-07-2024) I talked about American Healthcare System I 美国医疗系统之一 and American Healthcare System II 美国医疗系统之二。Recently due to my older daughter’s ankle injury, I learned a bit more about the medical bills.

I received 5 bills total, one paper bill didn’t come because I turned on paperless billing inside MyChart

We had two visits at Shriner’s hospital near the BJC at central west end: the initial encounter (encounter as in medical billing) and the followup encounter (to make sure her ankle is good). She was not seriously injured per Shriner Hospital but I am still glad that we had professional to check her out to make sure.

There were 5 bills or 5 payments from my side. Two bills for the X ray which although it says the doctor’s name in the insurance company website’s benefit explanation section. For those two bills I paid on the Shriner’s hospital MyChart website. Talking about MyChart, personally I liked it very much as it’s electronic. And recently I switched my primary doctor to Mercy partially due to this. I can see the appointments, messages and test results, as well as billing info in one spot. I didn’t realize or recall until very recently, all the insurance and billing information are in the MyUHC website. More on this in the next section.

More paper bills and that’s the confusing part

Later on there are two bills for the nurse practitioner who looked at S. And one bill for therapist’s work who came for the 2nd visit. Because I don’t see the bills inside MyChart, and initially I didn’t go to MyUHC website (the benefit explanation website) I only see one paper bill came after another, and I didn’t know what’s going on.

Eventually I paid off all 3 bills online by following the website address on the letter (the paper bill), because I prefer to get refund check instead of get the collection letter.

I still didn’t fully understand is why those bills don’t show up in the MyChart website. Last but not least, after I paid all the bills, I found out I can pay all those bills from the MyUHC website too. There is some integration between UnitedHealth (insurance side) and its subsidiary Optum (HSA account, payment side). Now I recall I used that functionality a few years ago when I had the United Health insurance from my previous employer Mastercard.

Out of pocket cost

The total out of pocket for Shriner’s hospital is about $450 for us: which seems okay for me at least. The UnitedHealth plan do have some decent discount from the initial charge.

The main lesson again, if I can quote my former colleague at Unigraphics, don’t get sick 🙂