Category: Life Tips

Categories
kids Life Life Tips

I am exhausted, but I will soldier on

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Dealing with my 14 y old: the new retainer got lost in a week. See: I was smart that I bought the “retainer insurance” 🙂 If the opportunity arises, I would buy the “iPhone insurance” too (remember why I bought iPhone 15 : long story short, she accidentally broke her iPhone XR (which was passed on from me), and I decided to buy iPhone 15 so that I can give my iPhone 12 to her.

And before that, she lost her wallet at the J (due to theft).

So we have 2 accidents and one theft (in which she is victim, but still as my wife says, you don’t want to be careless so that the thief would notice you 🙂

Again maybe I could always use more patience: in life, in investing and at work.

Why, why, why is her so sloppy in terms of keep track of her things?

I can think of one reason, which is coming back right to us – we babied her too much, reminded her consistently (sometimes a bit excessive), which made her rely on our reminders to some extent. This is definitely not healthy. Here is one article on the topic – How to get your kid to do stuff without having to constantly remind them

Another reason is probably because there is no real consequences for her on those kinds of things. Imagine if I “broke something like iPhone”, there is no iPhone then, let’s just say that I lost a radio, or a cassette player (a Walkman). It won’t be trivial let me guarantee that. Even if my parents didn’t say anything: I would feel bad. In college now I recall I did have a few accidents: including once someone broke my drawer and stole my money there – remember the loss from theft story I talked above. Even today I still suspected someone in my dorm room or someone has the connection stole my money (they probably knew I received money shortly before that). Once in a bus in Wu’chang, I realized my wallet got stolen by a pocket picker.

I guess that’s one hard part of parenting. But I think I would still trade “being my daughters’ Uber driver” any day (see the paragraph below), over true retirement which means I probably need to find something productive to do if I am still healthy.

昨天基本上就是半退的状态-我告诉我老大我大概为她的事跑了两个半小时-为她的retainer开车到new and cool St. Peter’s orthodontist 🦷 office 两次（2 round trips, drop off mold 1st, then pick up when the new retainer is ready); 放学到学校接她(got “dad, can you pick me up” text when I was taking a walk to Warson park). Yes sure 🙂

PS: I talked about “soldier on” mentality to my 14 year old and she thinks it’s too much. She basically her generation doesn’t care. My sense is she felt that is “out of date” concept. After all, until fairly recently she never ate anything from White Castle (they have very cheap food). I guess many of her friends are privileged like her too. I heard some people spending tons of money on Bar and bat mitzvah: one of my Jewish friend told me some rich people spent wedding like money on the adulthood ceremony. She was invited to one last year and it seems pretty good too. This is quite different from my middle school days. Too bad she still has to work on similar math homework I do in my days 🙂

关于Soldier On, 我的理解很大程度上是“坚持”：我记得高中一年级，有一次运动会，跑四百米，我知道我有可能拿道第三名，最后一百米使出吃奶的力气，紧紧跟住第三名，后来我是第四。我的一个同学后来跟我说：其实他（第三名）也是害怕你一直跟着他。我觉得现在美国的很多问题其实也是因为缺少坚持，努力和毅力。

And if/when I tried to tell her or remind her to be more careful (maybe once to 3 times at the most), she would say: dad, basically you are telling me things I already know. So, here am I, the middle age guy who tends to repeat himself 啰嗦或是爱唠叨的老头。

I think she may be more talented or intelligent than me, but without that grit I am not 100% sure that she will be successful. A related phenomena is I saw very few Americans want/like to do physical labor nowadays: by that I mean things such as construction work, mining etc. For example, we saw all the contruction workers in the Baltimore Bridge accident are immigrants – An international tragedy: A father of 3 and a budding entrepreneur are among 6 victims of the Baltimore bridge collapse. The irony part is those workers were trying to fix the potholes in the highway (on the bridge) that many commuters and 18 wheelers use daily – assume mostly are the wear and tear.

Or maybe this is so called generation gap 代沟？After all, once she said: I don’t think there is any ethical billionaire. I guess her definition of “ethical” has higher standards than most. Then she added: Taylor Swift included too. That’s my girl: at least she is thinking and has her own opinion.

Categories
Life Life Tips

Stay at Hotels in China 回国住旅馆

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I am used to stay at hotels when I visited Shanghai, from the Home Inn or the like back in the days, to more fancier or western brand hotels, now that I have a family and kids.

I never thought that I would stay in hotels when I go home and see my parents. But that happened in year 2016.

我们大概是傍晚🌆 到的我父母的家：两卧室的老公寓。我当时根本没有想到要去住旅馆🏨。但是吃了晚饭后，我很快就意识到住在我父母家不现实。因为我看到另外一个房间的床上都放满了东西。

我们就出去找旅馆。先找了一个类似招待所一样的地方，交了押金等，后来很快就意识到房间的味道（发霉的味道？）太大，就损失了一百块的押金，住到了对面的稍好一点的旅馆。过了几天，找到了南苑旅馆(这家是连锁的，还可以），就又搬到那里，一直住到去其它城市我的岳父家。在我岳父家我们也住的是旅馆（招待所）。

最近三次回国（2017，2019，和2023年），我就住这一个（17年开的）。中文名字叫宁波北仑世茂希尔顿逸林酒店。今年夏天回国基本上定下来还是住这一家。这一家(DoubleTree)不包早餐*：她家有自助餐，还可以，大概一百多块钱。附近有肯德基，兰州拉/牛肉面，还有一个宁波还是台州的连锁的豆浆，肉包子等传统中式早餐。还有星巴克等。所以不用天天吃旅馆里的自助餐。旅馆傍边就是富邦世纪广场，地铁长江路站，银泰城也不远。我个人比较喜欢银泰城里的西贝莜面村。拿了也有外婆桥等本帮/宁波本地菜。

*美国的Double Tree Hotel 也不包早餐。Hotel chains that provide free breakfast (usually buffet style) include: Hampton Inn (by Hilton), Hilton Garden Inn, Hyatt Place/ Hyatt House and Residence Inn (Marriott). This is not a complete list. I know in addition to Double Tree, Marriott’s Courtyard doesn’t have free breakfast either.

Aging Parents 上了年纪的父母

这个方面的问题我以前没怎么想到。就是父母上了年纪以后可能会更“粘人”。下面是两篇英文的相关文章。

Strategies for Dealing With a “Clingy” Senior

How to Handle Emotionally Needy Parents

现代医学有很多进步，手机微信等现代科技也带来很多方便，同时也带来不少问题。我想对老年人也适用。微信是中国最流行的手机应用之一。我爸爸会用智能手机，但是他把家庭群当成了网上的某些论坛，骂人。还不如我妈妈不会用手机。说到我妈妈不会用手机，还有个故事。疫情前，她在老年大学，拿出来老年手机（就是只能打点话，发短信的手机），有人就说，都这个年代了，你怎么还用老年手机。原来她们班也是有微信群。后来，大概是16年回国那一次，我有个就是帮她在手机上弄好微信。

Categories
advice and tips Life Life Tips

Colonoscopy 肠镜

Reading Time: 5 minutes
Colyte Jug – mine is similar – prepping for the liquids and drinking it is quite some work (the day before)

Colonoscopy is a routine exam recommended by doctors for adults over 50 in the USA: as a precaution checkup for the signs of colon cancer. 在美国一般医生会建议50岁以上的人去做一次肠镜，以检查是否有肠癌的迹象。I heard colon caner is among the top two cancer in the US. I did mine at Mercy St. Louis – it’s the hospital both my girls were born and I also worked for Mercy in the IT department for about 18 months between Nov 2013 and May 2015.

It takes some efforts and courage to take the exam. First some Overview by Mayo Clinic. Also, it’s not the only way to detect colon cancer. There are 2 ways. Both have pros and cons. I did this Fecal occult blood test about 13 or 14 months ago, partially because it’s less invasive, and partially because my doctor then is also a bit soft spoken, and he agreed. This time I am not this lucky. I got a new doctor and when I mentioned testing for colon cancer, and he directly chose the colonoscopy.

Prep

The doctor performs colonoscopy will usually provide the prep instructions. Alternatively, because this is a quite common procedure, there are lots of resources online: I shared some below. One common question is the low fiber food before and after (see below), also the liquids to drink the day before, as well as the special medicine (liquids) to drink about 12 to 15 hours before the procedure.

Day -3 and Day -2

Low-fiber diet do’s and don’ts – Mayo Clinic || Also note Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente are both highly reputed hospital chains in the USA.

Day -1

Clear-Liquid Diet for Colonoscopy Preparation | Kaiser Permanente 

I did drink some chicken broth (sold at Costco): I drunk a few cups. I added a bit salt to the broth and microwaved it. I also drunk coffee and sprite that day, because I need to start the Colyte liquid (prescribed medicine, power mixed with water, see below) at about 3 pm my time (due to my schedule). I took a break between 6 to 8 pm, and resumed it until about 11:30 pm to consume about 3 L (or 2.75 L to be precise). I finished the rest in the early morning before procedure.

– Very important: You may not eat any solid food or drink alcohol for 2 days! In the morning on day 1 of your prep (2 days before your colonoscopy), fill 1 jug of Colyte as written on the jug and place in the refrigerator.

The Day

Today I went. The results are out and they seemed good.

Btw, the GI lab at Mercy seems quite busy, and they are a few steps and a few things to keep in mind (or tips, if I may).

They have a sign says don’t bring any valuables. I understand where they come from, but if you think you like to read on phone, I say bring it (I didn’t bring, and was somewhat bored during my about 45 minutes wait in the waiting room/bed). Don’t take any picture or videos due to privacy concerns.

I noticed I may not be the youngest in the patients group. Obviously they are people who are a bit older. And they seems to be people who are younger than me as well. I did see a lady brought her phone.

The anesthesia: I believe this is the 1st time I was knocked out completely. The drug is actually is from the needle, rather it’s from the IV infusion (挂盐水/葡萄糖), which I did recently (see this American Healthcare System II – 美国医疗系统之二). Btw, it’s a smaller punch or less pain for me this time, as the nurse put the needle at a spot that’s better, I guess.

Serious matter/Q: do you have a will or living trust?

I got this question asked many times. I actually started this “will” process but my wife didn’t sign. Later I learned Warren Buffett let his wife and kids view the will before official. Probably something I will do too as my 13 (soon to be 14) year old can understand some of that.

This reminds me of a related question – We each have an average of 100 online accounts. Here’s how to make sure they aren’t a nightmare for your family if you die. Btw, my wife and kids know my iPhone passcode, but that’s probably not enough. I told my wife investing in S&P 500 index funds when I die. Hopefully she take notes or registered in her brain. Otherwise she can come to this blog (wait, I probably need to renew the domain as well as pay the hosting fees in advance 🙂

Waiting

Most time seems to have been spent on waiting. Fairly routine procedure. Felt a bit drowsy after being woken up. But I feel I can drive after probably 4 hours of this. Again a smart phone may help, if you have the energy. Or just rest instead of doom scrolling 🙂

The people and humor

“You got another 10,000 miles” (this is actually from nurse at primary care office, after the annual physical)

“Just take a nap” (today’s nurse, referring to the anesthesia).

“What you want to eat after this? (a big meal :-)”

Because usually people were on the “liquids only” food the day before. And no food on that morning. || My answer: I am going back to the low fiber diet as I read it from What to Eat After a Colonoscopy

I think it’s always the people and the humor made the difference.

PS

Why Mercy: in St. Louis area there are a few large hospital chains, in the order of size, they are BJC, Mercy, SSM and St. Luke’s (not to be confused with the Kansas City St. Luke that’s going to merge with BJC), respectively. BJC (and Washington U Physicians) is nationally recognized, and it appears their service sometimes could be a bit expensive than others (not quite scientific, just a recent observation). Mercy is the closest for me, and it also has some unique strength. For example, they were the 1st to using Epic EMR in the region. A while ago I worked at MyMercy patient portal, and now I got to use it as a consumer (customer). Btw, the patient portal is based on MyChart. BJC is also using Epic software now. And both BJC and Shriner Children’s hospital used MyChart. One thing though: each MyChart is standalone, you cannot share credentials between the different hospitals.

Back to the topic, I think the prep part: both physically and mentally is the hardest part. The low-fiber diet, the liquids only diet, and the colyte (too much water to drink in a short duration of time). Then there is this unknown part of “short nap” 🙁

Categories
Life Tips

I need to better organize things

Reading Time: 2 minutes

First, some background: I missed a few checks from Delta Dental of Missouri and a mortgage company in last few years. I was able to remediate the issues later. First I located the unclaimed checks (years later), then I called Delta Dental and they issues new checks to me. In the case of unclaimed check from mortgage company, I notice the letter of “unclaimed property” from Cenlar – Central Loan and Administration Reporting recently, and filed claim online. Mainly they were asking: do you want the money or not, it not we are going to turn over the money to the goverment “unclaimed property” account. This time I immediately filled out the form, took a picture and emailed the form to the given email address. A few weeks later, the new check arrived (probably the original check was in year 2021 🙂

Again tips: don’t throw away the mails from Delta Dental and Cenlar, especially their checks 🙂

Then yesterday, the bottom fell out. I realized that I made the dumb mistakes managing my mails again. Last night I opened a mail from the school district: I was almost a month late opening it. It was for my daughter’s NJHS invitations. I need to do better – I improved a bit recently but there’s still room for improvement.

I forgot to open the mail from school district promptly, similar to my earlier mistakes on Delta Dental and Mortgage escrow account check mails

I was trying to sell things on eBay recently to address both my cluttering and hoarding issue, trying to declutter and make life simpler, and hopefully enjoyable. At the same time I really need to start from the very basics, e.g., address the mail issue first, and make sure my working desk is clean, and so on.

Procrastination

A related issue is procrastination, and I recall a great Ted Talk on this topic, ironically 1st learned about it from my 13 year old.

Dress for success etc.

A related topic is dress for success (this is for everyone, man, woman, LGBTQ+, everyone really: this used to more important if we talk about work in an office environment. Personal hygiene, your posture, your body language and grasp of English and so on. But we still need to pay attention if we go to Zoom, turn on video, make sure we are professional. There is extreme example, such as the one below.

Categories
advice and tips kids Life Life Tips

Ankle injury and recovery – 从哪里摔倒就从哪里爬起来

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I don’t know about you, but I was fairly enthusiastic about sports when I was in the middle school and part of the high school. At one time I thought I should join the Chinese youth soccer team (under 16), which looking back I don’t think that’s possible.

A few months ago I also talked about Tennis 网球. Recently (to be precise on Jan 7 Sunday evening) my old daughter injured her ankle during a tennis clinics session. I only saw her injured after the fact, as I didn’t see her fall on the spot, which is a few minutes towards the end of clinics. So we got the ankle wraps and tapes etc. from the Walgreens. But she still jumps on one leg – because she could not use any force on her injured ankle. The second day was Monday (school day), obviously we cannot go to school under this condition. And because “wait and see”, as well as “my wife’s reluctance go to urgent care” that day, I went ahead and bought Crutches from Walgreens (I posted it on CL recently).

Urgent care and specialists

The following Tuesday we still went to the Total Access Urgent care (TAUC) next to Walgreens at Creve Coeur (cost: $175.00 not too bad). Then it’s following up. I chose and went to the Shriner’s Hospital for that: 2 trips, the cost to us is only $102.13, plus they have magicians on site sometimes. This seems very reasonable. This is much cheaper than the X-ray service fee (more than $400) from BJC for scoliosis (false positive, but nonetheless the checkup/x-ray and followup with specialist (not too bad there).

(Update 03-18-2024) It seems the Shriner’s Hospital changed their billing in the month of February. Since last time I paid them inside MyChart, I received 2 more bills and I paid them online (a new bill pay website, not from MyChart). The total is about $250. Btw, BJC sent one more bill from the doctor who reads the X-ray, it’s not a lot – but overall cost seems high to me.

(Update 03-26-2023) Okay, I think now I understand most bills now. 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. Two bills for the nurse practitioner who looked at S. And one therapist who came for the 2nd visit. The total out of pocket for Shriner’s hospital is about $450 for us.

4 Bills from the Shriner’s hospital, I think I turned off the paper bill in MyChart and one of the paper bill didn’t come

Btw, I am selling a few gentenly used items on eBay to recover some of the costs.

Set of 2 Theraband Resistance Bands – Green and Blue

Ovation Medical Walking Boot Adjustable Support, Black, Size Medium, Adjustable

Walgreens Ankle Support, Antimicrobial, Adjustable One Size Fits All

Below was written on 02-04-2024 从哪里摔倒就从哪里爬起来

Our old daughter back to court after 3 weeks break, at CCRC.

几个礼拜前她的脚踝扭了：现在已恢复。我几个礼拜之前说了买网球鞋的事：大家如打网球，可以参考一下。A side note is our 13 year old got to hang out with her friend in the mall on Saturday. I recall when I was her age: I like to hang out at the bookstore by myself, and also I saved some changes and bought snacks such as 金团 一种糯米做的甜点。美国中西部没有金团，类似的甜点有mochi 应该是从日本来的。Anyway I am quite happy she is back to her normal routine, and also enjoys some “chill time” with her friend.

Adolescence

Our 13 year old is soon going to be 14 year old. And recently she started to pick up her own clothes, and I think some of it (the style) is likely influenced by the TikTok and YT shorts, her friends (again TT and YTS), and some stores such as Aerie (American Eagle).

In contrast, I recall I started to pick my own clothes around similar age.

Performative Society

Other related topics: how hard should parents push adolescent kids on sports, for that matter anything.

I felt we increasingly live in a performative society, thinking applicable to me (or my work) as well. This is a bigger topic and I will come back to it sometime soon, hopefully.

PS: personally I haven’t had hurt my ankle that bad, when I was a teen. I did get my ankle hurt once during a soccer game, in which my teammate accidentally kicked my left ankle (using his dominant foot, right foot), he and I was trying to kick the same soccer ball.

Categories
Life Tips Saint Louis

Why I like JCC, and some other choices

Reading Time: 4 minutes

(Update 01-23-2025) Recently I started attending more group exercises classes at the J. Right now I am mostly doing the Saturday morning (7:30 am) and Sunday morning (8 am) weight training classes. I feel I need those. Honestly I need a lot more. But I will do my baby steps and slowly ramp up.

(Original 01-02-2024) It’s the beginning of the year, and one common theme or joke is people sign up the gym membership in January. This is probably true. I do think we should look long term for the fitness and health. Personally I am not a believer of new year resolution, but at the same time, I do believe in milestone, and each year end/year beginning do offer suc an opportunity to review important things in our lives: families, health, savings (401k) and so on. Or better yet, we can review it periodically.

Try the J Fitness Center

I joined JCC back in year 2012, when I was working for a coal mining company. The company has a benefit that basically they pay 3/4 of the monthly due (membership fee), and I pay 1/4. I usually go to the J Creve Coeur for swimming and showering before lunch. I didn’t work for the company for a long time though. But I kept the membership. In fall 2014, I was looking for a job, and I almost left STL, because the employer (Nordstrom) is based in Seattle, and they asked me for onsite interview. I think around that time, in that summer our younger daughter was born, and sometimes I still take our old daughter to the J, or other playgrounds that’s suitable for her (such as this one).

I recall one September morning, I went to the J outdoor pool, and I don’t remember exactly whether I brought my older daughter or not. But I felt this is a type of community I want to live. That’s one reason I stayed in STL: another reason is my wife didn’t think it’s a good idea to move at that time, with new born baby and everything. But the stress from the day job for me was real at that time. I recall I even did some research on the neighborhoods in Seattle area, and so on. But eventually I decided not go there for the onsite interview.

J is more than a Fitness Center

I understand the J is more than a fitness center. They also have summer camps (btw, here is my post on Summer Camps in the STL area), early childhood centers, youth and team sports and other arts and programs suitable for grownups, including the mature adults too. I do understand their membership fee is a bit steep: compared to others. But they also have one of the best facilities (two fitness centers, Creve Coeur and Chesterfield), and group exercise classes. They do have scholarship for families in need. And on the spot, the membership office can offer some discount (for certain employers) or promotions. I think the money is worth it if you have kids go to their summer camp, and use their facilities for exercises etc.

For about 5 years I went there for swimming etc. (2012 to 2017?): including the years I worked for the credit card company, at that time I used the Chesterfield J as well, because it’s on the way to and back from work. I recall one front desk lady knows my name and call me by first name 🙂

One thing to remind though: always lock the lockers in the locker room. Here is a real life lesson from my 13 year old. Many years ago I heard similar stories from a friend at Washington U. gym (locker room) as well. Personally I almost always lock the lockers. And in some cases I could no longer open the locker for whatever reason, I called the custodians many times at the J. Just remember don’t try to do it before an important work meeting or work tasks 🙂

Other choices

New Olivette Community Center (Five Oaks)

Center of Clayton

LifeTime Fitness: I saw their location next to Plaza Frontenac. I heard good things about them, but I also heard their membership is more expensive than the J. So until I win the $1 m lottery, I will stay with the J.

YMCA: I visited one YMCA (at Brentwood). Note they have many centers, and my understanding is there are two tiers of membership, one allows access to all the YMCAs, and another one limiting to the certain branch.

Last but not least, some offers free trial or day pass: I think it’s a great idea to try out.

Some alternatives I can think of: the St. Louis table tennis club, Creve Coeur Racquet Club: there are many similar clubs in the area, racquet, tennis or swimming, such as the ones below.

Forest Lake Tennis Club: I heard good thing about them.

Frontenac: I just noticed the Woodsmill club joined them. Many years ago (2006 to be exact), on some Friday evenings, I go there with friends, and they have a deal ($5 or $8, not a lot of money anyway), and they have pizzas and the indoor tennis court. I think the reason why Woodsmill joined the Frontenac club is probably economical. I heard in the last 5, 6 years the tennis playing population dropped and at the same time the Pickleball is getting hot. I saw some efforts in some clubs converting the tennis court to pickleball court, in addition to opening of standalone (or commerical) places such as Chicken N Pickle and Paddle and Pickle Olivette.

Or no exercise at all

This seems worked at least for one famous person: the great investor Charlie Munger, as I heard from him on YouTube video, that he rarely exercises. But on the other hand though, I do believe he went to great length to avoid unnecessary risks, including in his older years avoiding fall at all cost. Personally I think this is rare. Note Warren Buffett, who is about 7 years younger than Charlie Munger, did have personal training in his 70s and 80s. I don’t know how he does now: Warren is about 93 years old.

Last but not least: this is something I have been thinking about for a while. I think everyone is different, ultimately it’s up to us to take care of ourselves in terms of health. We cannot depend on our partners or our kids. Also, we need to listen to our bodies and nowadays smart watches such as Apple Watch has a lot of useful feature to keep track of things including fitness.

Indoor play spaces

(stlmag) St. Louis escape rooms, bowling alleys, arcades, play spaces, and more that kids will love

Categories
advice and tips Career Fun Life Life Tips

How I learned spoken English after coming to the USA and started teaching

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Using Spoken English the 1st time in the USA

97年夏天我第一次来美国，我的飞机航班是东航上海虹桥(SHA) 到洛杉矶 (LAX, China Eastern MU 583), 当时好像用的是麦道11(Btw, 93年好像有一次事故），再从洛杉矶坐TWA航班飞圣路易斯(STL)。我在洛杉矶机场犯了一个不大不小的错误。我当时很想上厕所，急着从机场（入境处和海关）出来，结果一出来就拿错了行李。等我发现我拿错了，我已经出了海关，我赶紧用我的英语跟美国机场的工作人员解释，还好他听懂了，让我进去跟东航的地勤人员说上话，交换了行李（取到了我自己的行李）。这个箱子是当时上海第一百货的牌子，估计我们都是在一百买的，这个箱子实用也较便宜。这一次是我的口语第一次在美国派到用场。

PS: 大概在2005/6年在圣村的机场，又碰到一件类似的事情，这一次是Diplomat的灰色硬壳箱。对方把我的箱子拿到家以后，没有多想，直接撬锁。后来她通过航空公司陪了我大概是五十还是一百块钱(USD)：她没有拿我的东西，就是赔我的坏掉的箱锁。那个箱子今年回国才退休。Also: I have other stories with the diplomat luggage (1 and 2) back in 2007 when I tried to replace a broken wheel. So this one really last for a long time: at least from 2007 to 2023. I think I bought it before 2007 too.

Learning English in Missouri S&T at Rolla

Note the adults tend to stay or social with her/his own ethic group or friends, and use the 1st language he/she is familiar with. When I was a graduate student in Rolla more than 20 years ago, I used to have an American professor, and he made a comment which I agree: American grad students stay with the Americans, Chinese students stay with the Chinese, and Indian students stay with Indians.

I have Indian born advisor, and I talked to Indian born graduate students. One nice thing is one fellow graduate student sometimes corrected my English, and that really helped. Not many people would correct or point out. Btw, that particular grad student is now a technology VP at a credit rating agency.

At one time, I was able to translate for the professors during a meeting. I think the fellow graduate student is from Africa and he has some accent, but it’s not too hard to guess or figure out.

Host family
When I was new to Rolla, I got to learn the Stoltz family through the international office’s host family program. And they helped my English (via conversations), and get familiar with the America culture in many aspects. I still remember, the dinners, the trips to the Governor’s Manson, to Branson and the Xmas gifts.

Fraternity

At one time because I live with American undergrad everyday, and listen to their talking daily, I felt English is almost like “my native language”. Also once my “big brother” told me: you lived in a quite unique fraternity. And I agree: in the beginning of my stay there, I rode bike from school to the fraternity house every day. When the weather was bad I would call the house for help, and my brothers never failed to pick me up. That includes the rides in the snow days too.

I retook the English test again a few years later: got a “fair” grade from another Indian born professor.

TV and Movies are also a very important source of education for my Oral English. Back in those days it was mostly the Blockbuster videos, and just movies on the TV. Now it’s mostly streaming mostly from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. American middle schools and high school tv 📺 or movies 🎥
High School: Gilmore girls (Netflix)
High School: Breakfast club (I watched via Amazon Prime, free)
College: back to school 🏫 (Amazon, for a fee)

Holiday themed movies

Love Actually (a classic, watch it on Netflix before 12/31/2023)

Holiday in Vineyard (Netflix)

Christmas with a View (Netflix, going away on 1/1/24)

More

Romantic series: the Virgin River (Netflix, the series 5 just debuted and the last episode has holiday theme/Christmas celebration)

Other comedies:

Seinfeld

Friends

No Hard Feelings (Jennifer Lawrence, new on Netflix)

NPR

Most listened programs: morning edition, all things considered, market place, planet money and ted radio hour.

Listened in the past, enjoyed but no longer available or no longer listen much due change of taste or programming: Diane Rhem show, Fresh Air (Terry Gros), Car Talk, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Weekend Edition.

Including BBC World Service (in the night)

Teaching

https://twitter.com/435hz/status/1730065866195095985

I taught in China. Many years ago in SH. Failed. Will talk more about that exp. later, hopefully 🙁

When I was new to Rolla, I failed in the Teaching Assistant (TA) English test – later I tried to practice oral English with a English teacher during lunch (once a week). I didn’t teach when at Rolla (again because I flunked the spoken English test), and had to look for RA (research assistant) job in the school. Later on I taught in Abacus Rolla, to a few fellow grad students, and I did okay. It was friendly environment too.

This fall I started teaching graduate course at Webster U. 韦伯斯特大学客座教授（其实就是兼职 adjunct professor 🙂 Couple funny things:

  1. I was nervous before doing this, but my wife and 13 year old daughter were quite nervous too;
  2. I think it’s giving me some energy interacting with younger folks (all graduate students are younger than me). I do interact with my kids quite a bit too: to be precise more than interacting with them, or Uber-ing them around. But most kids will eventually grow up and live on their own. That’s where interacting with young folks becoming more important: I believe that’s one reason Warren Buffett likes to teach at school sometimes, or hosting the MBA students at his company’s HQ or at the annual shareholder meeting. Also the BRK meeting, plus Charlie’s Daily Journal Co and past Wesco shareholder meetings allow both of them to interact with many people, including many young people too. That’s one secret sauce of their longetibity.
Categories
Life Life Tips Saint Louis

St. Louis Area Nature Trails

Reading Time: 3 minutes

For hiking or walking. Some are paved, while others are not. By nature I mean there are trees etc. around the trail. I am adding difficulty levels (categories) for hiking or walking. By easy, I mean it’s suitable for family. By moderate, I mean, the old or the young may have some challenge complete the whole trail due to distance, or the surface.

Easy

Gentry Park at Bridgeton: paved

Malcolm Terrace Park: some nature walk, 1 mile round trip from the pavillion (the longer loop).

Millennium Park: paved.

Stacy Park: some nature walk, newly installed in last few years.

Venable Park: full name is Dr. Phillip Venable Memorial Park.

Warson Park: Stacy Park: some nature walk, newly installed in last few years.

Chesterfield central park: all paved

Creve Coeur Lake (paved), the loop is about 3.6 miles. Gets popular in nice days (weather). Note many St. Louis county parks have the exercises equipment or station along the trail, sometimes my kids would like to play with them during the walk. The only thing we need to be careful is: sometimes an equipment could be broken – stay away from it. Don’t attempt to work on the broken equipment, and got hurt (then sue the county park division 🙂

Powder Valley: mixed paved vs gravel. There are a few short distance trails.

Longview Farm park: at Town and Country. Note the Quneey Park is not too far away, and it’s much bigger.

James McDonnell County Park: it has quite a few amenities, and it’s fairly close to where I live.

Moderate

Boot Leg Trails at Creve Coeur Lake: note this is a trail sometimes the bikers riding bikes. Most of them are mindful of the hikers, but in general try not to listen to AirPods (especially with the noise cancelling features) so that you don’t get hit by a bike. I think the Lost Valley in St. Charles are like that too.

Quneey Park: this along with the Boot Leg, are probably two popular longer trails in the St. Lous county. I recall I ran once at the park during the SnowBall series a few years ago (maybe year 2017 or 2018?). There are two popular winter run series in the STL area, the other one is Frost Bite. I am running the latter series last year and this year. Both are good. I had quite some memories over the years from the Snowball series, including once, had to run briefly in the Creve Coeur lake (paved) trail in the melted snow water: one gentleman fell unfortunately, and that’s the reason I remembered.

Lost Valley: St. Charles. We did a large portion of the trail during the rock runner morning run. Below is quote from Andy K. who is the organizer of Rock Runner

======

  • Physical Address is: Lost Valley Trails Parking Lot, Lost Valley Trail, Defiance, MO 63341 (trailhead). 
  • Technical Level Yellow as the trail includes a variety of the following: single track, gravel road, creek crossings, dirt and semi rocky trails, switch-backs, moderate climbs and descents
  • For the History Buffs among us, here is a great link with tons of information and pics surrounding the unfortunate events in the 1940’s in the surrounding area of the park. Lost Valley area history  

======

Mastodon: Jefferson County

More nature trails

I also maintain a Google doc that has more nature trails in the area. I intend to maintain that google doc as time goes. Probably hike (re-hike) some of those trails too.

During 2020 to 2022, we (as a family, many times with friends) hiked quite a few places, especially in the year 2020 and 2021 (due to pandemic, I guess the moms were worried about kids’s well beings, and they don’t like kids glue their eyes to the iPads all day). Unfortunately “gluing to iPads or computer” is the new normal now with the pandemic is largely behind us 🙁

In Summer 2022 I also joined the Rock Runner by Fleet Feet and got to hike or ran in some of the area nature trails.

PS: AllTrails has a nice website and app for the trails in the US. I used their paid app in couple years and they allow the map to downloaded so that even in the trails (a lot of times we don’t have reliable cell data), we can still have the map and GPS.

Categories
401k and Personal Finance Business Fun Fun Video Investing Life Life Tips Master Series

The 4 right hand men of Warren Buffett 巴菲特的四大金刚

Reading Time: 3 minutes

油管：my Youtube 2022 video for BRK HQ video below (narration mostly in Chinese)

Charlie Munger

We know Charlie Munger (Wiki) passed away recently, and he was the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway: he had some influence on Warren Buffet’s investments over the years, including See’s Candy, Coca Cola and so on. Here is the free online book Poor Charlie’s Almanack (you can purchase the paper versions through the links here). Also, the last interview before he passed away with CNBC’s Becky Quick (1 hour 42 mins, YouTube link here). I still think Warren makes most investments decisions independently. though.

If you like to have a quick look, I listed some shorter videos of Charlie Munger’s classical moments here.

四大金刚 (google; baidu baike, Wiki) is a common idiom in Chinese, and I think it may be suitable to describe the current top 4 men who works for Warren Buffett. And I assume they take over most of what Warren does today, should Warren decides to retire.

Top Two (Duo)

Greg Abel (Wiki): current Vice Chairman of BRK, responsible for all non-insurance operations, which also means he is in charge of the BRK Energy (formerly Mid-America Energy), BNSF Railway, many manufacturing and retail operations ranges from BH Home Service (real estate agents), Brooks Running, Clayton Home, Diary Queen, to ISCAR, Nebraska Furniture Market (NFM), Net Jets, See’s Candies, to Oriental Trading, Squish Marrow and so on. Note there are many business people may have not heard of. As of now, Greg will be the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway when Warren Buffett retires, in addition to his curent Vice Chair title.

Ajit Jain: current Vice Chairman of BRK, responsible for all insurance operations, companies such as Geico (car insurance) to reinsurance business.

Warren asked Greg and Ajit to be on the stage in last few years’ annual shareholder meeting, and they answered relevant questions in their portfolio. This is a good move. I think also, once Charlie slipped his tongue during an Q&A, and he said Greg will keep the culture (or something similar). So the world knows Greg is the CEO heir apparent.

Investment managers (also a duo)

Ted and Todd are two former hedge fund managers that Warren Buffet hired about 15 years ago (exact date please refer to their Wikipedia links below, or you can google it). Quite a few people including $BRK.A and $BRK.B shareholders would question Warren Buffett’s age and they are worried what if Warren suddenly became incapacitated or die. Who is the heir apparent. This is a tricky question or problem, because very few hedge fund managers would give up their career, at the same time would basically be prepared when this inevitable happens. It seems in Ted W. and Todd C. Warren found the perfect duo for this job. This is somewhat like the duo of Warren himself and Charlie.

Berkshire began buying Apple stock in 2016 under the influence of Buffett’s investing deputies, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.

Ted Weschler: Ted got a bit unwanted attention from his personal IRA investment. But his performance speaks louder than his words. Quote Wikipedia: in 2012, Weschler joined Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, a year after Todd Combs joined as Berkshire’s first investment manager. As of 2019, he managed $13 billion of the equity portfolio and $8 billion in pension funds.

Todd Combs: in addition to his investment duty (along with Ted), note Todd is also the CEO of Geico (and technically for that role he reports to Ajit). Here is a picture of Todd during “invest in yourself 5k” during the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting. Here is a picture of Ted, Todd and Tracy Britt Cool during that run. Note Tracy used to work for Warren as well, and she started to work on her own investment partnership in recent years. Maybe someday she will come back to BRK: if the right opportunity arises.

Board

Howard Buffett, Warren’s older son, plans to take over the Chairman role when Warren retires. Susan Buffett, Warren’s daughter, and a few others will be on the board. They may need to add one or 2 board seats because Charile used to be a board member.

One thing it’s interesting is Warren likes #pairProgramming, or #pairWorking, because he has two pairs of magnificent managers for CEO and investment managers job.

Categories
Edu-and-Ladue-School Life Life Tips

Winter Camp and Some Holiday Tips

Reading Time: 2 minutes

OR shall we call it winter break camp?

I still think during the holiday season, it’s best to spend more time with the kids as they do grow up so quickly. Enjoy the moment when we can. I recall one of the best preschool teacher and administrator, also a Montessori educator in the area, Susie Dodge-Shelton, once said something like this, basically she said “hug your kids more” during holiday season. We knew Susie since year 2008 (?, I think), and knew her husband David who was the director of Hope Infant Toddler Community (HITC): HITC which is next to the Hope Academy in Creve Coeur (HACC, and Susie served as director for the CC campus for many years), there is a short cut between the two campus as I recall. Now they are behind the giant BJC west campus (there was more trees and greens in the front of HACC. They are both wonderful couple and educators. And I believe they are both happily retired.

With that being said, I am aware of winter break camps, and we have been to some of their equivalent summer camps in the past. Below is not a complete list, to be updated as new information arrives.

Camps

All American Gymnastics and Super Ninja

Basketball: Bobby McCorMack: noticed Dec 18 to Dec 20.

Forest lake tennis camp: Winter Junior Camp

NRG WinterCamps & Specialty Camps

The J

Maryville Holiday Drop and Shop: Dec 10 and Dec 17

Olivette (In The Center of It All 🙂

Below are some holiday tips

Don’t Let Stress Ruin the Holidays (copied/pasted from my employer’s benefit email)
Stress often goes hand in hand with the holiday season. There’s the pressure of buying the perfect gifts — and making sure you don’t go broke. Holiday party after holiday party can stretch you thin. And for many of us, missing loved ones who are not around can make celebrating difficult.
Many adults deal with stress, anxiety, and depression during this time of year. Here are several strategies to reduce stress during the holiday season.

  1. Lean into healthy habits. Virtually any form of physical activity can act as a stress reliever, so get regular exercise during the holidays.
  2. Know your limits for time and money. Consider saying no to some invites to avoid felling overwhelmed. Set a realistic budget to prevent stresses from overspending.
  3. Limit social media. Social media may increase potential negative effects on your mental health. Try to use time around the holidays to step away from your phone and enjoy in-person time with loved ones.
  4. Stay present and be proactive. If you feel tension or worry building, address it before it becomes all-consuming. Giving yourself a chance to catch your breath and refocus may help you feel better. #holiday #stress #health