stlplace

Category: Life Tips

  • My cars over the years

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

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

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


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


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

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

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

    =======

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

    ========

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

    Old Cars

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

    EV next?

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

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

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

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

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Thanks and please let me know what you think.

    Minjie Xu

    mobile: 314 540 2721

    email: minjie.xu@gmail.com

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

    Other running groups or resources for the kids

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

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

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

  • Separation anxiety – parents version

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Background: I went to a boarding school when I was 13. I saw my parents once a month. Society was much simpler then but the change was in the air and in the ground, Ningbo was opened up in 1984, and I saw a lot of earth moving around me. Although foreigner was still rare to come across and our vice provost emphasized “don’t listen to Deng Lijun’s Mimi zhiyin”. I had a fairly strict teacher (counselor), and I could not fall asleep 😴 💤 during 中考and 高考but all in all I survived. I think I had an easier time compared to today’s iPhone generation [微笑]

    I thought of the separation anxiety from parents perspective. This summer we dropped off Serenity at Cub Creek Animal Science camp at Rolla, for a week. This is a sleep away no iPhone camp. And in the first two / three days, before I got her email, I was restless. Everyday I checked Bunk1 app and website many times, in which the counselors uploaded their daily activities photos. I turned on the notifications. I also wrote note to Serenity in the bunk1 app or website. Later I learned she did receive it but she has no time or device to reply it from the app. The line for email was long and she had to hurry and that’s also why she only wrote back once.

    Yesterday I saw a fellow Chinese parent wrote that they are becoming empty nesters as the 2nd kid just went to college. And for me it will be 10 more years down the road when our younger daughter Sophia is college bound. Now I think my parents may have had similar feelings when they waved goodbyes when we went to schools, and when we came to the USA.

    Once in college at Wuhan, it was probably my sophomore or junior year, I told my parents that I am not going home for Spring Festival (Chinese new year). My reason is the crowdedness in the train, as explained here. My mom, who usually does not write to me, wrote a letter and urged me to return home. So I obligated. Note the train is still crowded, once I stood about 15 hours in the train on the way returning school from home, during the Spring Festival travel. I recall the train was so crowded, and there were 7 people in one bathroom (the toilet room). And once a girl walked to the bathroom, asked guys turn around so that she could use the restroom. They wouldn’t oblige. So she has to walk or to be precise squeeze through one more train cabin. I do recall one girl (she is from Wuhan university and Dongyang, one year senior than me), gave me a peeled apple when I stood next to her.

  • Alcohol

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    I started a Twitter thread on Alcohol recently.

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

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

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

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

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

    My drinking history

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

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

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

  • App Store unauthorized charges

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    In my old job at the credit card 💳 co. I did support for a while and once I spent about 2 hours giving cardholder about 1.3 cents worth of US dollar. Today the roles reversed. Btw, Serenity said she was proud of me (assuming she was complementing I was the cool 😎 guy).

    What happened

    I don’t check my email that’s associated with appleid frequently because I transitioned most emails out of that one. But on Monday August 15, I noticed something is wrong with my Apple Card as I saw the suspicious purchase: $7.97 for robux, in case you don’t play Roblox, robux is the virtual currency for Robox game. On Tuesday 8/16 I saw one more purchase: $12.98 total, $9.99 for weather – (this is quite scammy as I don’t recall I never bought its subscription), and $2.99 worth of robux.

    How I handled it

    I contacted Goldman Sachs customer service through the dispute button in the Apple card, and they gave me credit eventually. I also changed the password for the apple id and the email (enabled 2FA). I noticed some tips from Apple regarding kids apple store payment, requirement for password, etc. This is the Apple web page that explains a few ways we can tighten the in app purchase on the devices.

    My thoughts

    Overall I still prefer Apple music / fitness+ over Youtube Music. Compared to Youtube (owned by google), sound quality on Apple music is usually guaranteed, while some YT music has bad sound quality. Also Fitness+ with integrated music is better than Peloton outdoor.

    I wrote a twitter thread on this, btw.

  • Back to school

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    A checklist for Ladue school parents and guardians

    Buy school supplies;

    Meet the teacher / community night (bring school supplies if applicable): mainly say hi to teachers and staff, and for the kids to learn where are the classrooms etc. on 1st day;

    Adjust kids sleep routine: from summer (no school or no camp) schedule to school schedule, may take a few days or a week;

    Adjust grownup routine: from watching kids + work (or the other way), to do more work and maybe some self care (workout, social etc);

    Some apps or emails that are likely relevant:

    Parent Square (district and schools to parents communication), iOS, Android. Note PS has website too. But app is a bit more handier and performant. Last but not least please take a look at the notifications customization as well (especially the text messages).

    MySchoolBucks (lunch money). From this school year (2022 to 2023) on the free lunch money from the government ran out. There is still the reduced fare lunch and so on, please contact the school as applicable. Note to add money to the meal account, we can do it via credit card (CC) on its website (it seems to me we cannot add money via the mobile app), or via check to school district (which I have not done it, please ask each school administrator as needed). Note MySchoolBucks (heartland payment co.) charges a credit card transaction fee.

    Email Ladue Schools e-Connect Newsletter (usually weekly) and the paper Newsletter (usually monthly): district wide information such as lunch or construction, or strategic plan. The content is created by the district Communications Office.

    SafeStop (instructions here, note this PDF has the code for the district, the one at the school bus website doesn’t): bus tracking, not the best or most reliable app in the world, but considering constructions in some schools the bus may still be the better choice for many families (maybe on one of those days, I can brush up my mobile app dev skills and create a better app 🙂 Btw, the bus information is here. Last but not least, it seems we only need to put in the code once for one device. || A side note, it seems there is delay of tracking the kids moved up in schools (for example, from elementary to FGC), it’s possible we need an manual update in the backend in terms of kid’s school information. || Another way to track kids, especially younger kids, is to use airtag. It seems it’s working because the main thing it needs is other nearby device’s bluetooth capability. Without today’s popularity of smartphone in the school and in the bus, I think it works most of the time.

    Last but not least, for Spoede families, the portal of SSA (Spoede School Association) moved to here. The underlying software is used for the LMSPA website we well.

  • Weekend thoughts 05-14-2022

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Indoctrination (powered by Oxford Language): the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. When I grew up in China, I recall my first Chinese lesson is “Chairman Mao lives always in our heart” （毛主席永远活在我们心中）。I recall the time when Chairman Mao passed away: when I was about 5. That’s the first time I recall I knew someone passed away. And I can feel the sorrow and uneasiness of the grownups around me: the sad music in the broadcast, and people are rushing to make white paper flower and 黑袖章 (black armband).

    Fast forward to 1997 to 1999, I came to the US, and to be more specific, Rolla, Missouri, for graduate school. I went to church for a while, mostly for social reasons, but sometimes I did have some other worries too: such as find a job or get the sought after H-1b visa. The belief system or some people literally follow every word on the bible initially puzzled me but now when I heard about there is a similar movement in the Chinese textbooks nowadays, especially on the natural science (math and science), I think I found a common thread between the two. This, along with what I saw in terms of the different attitude toward science, medicine, masks, vaccines, etc. during the last 2 years’ of pandemic, made me to think many people are indoctrinated or manipulated. This include my own extended family members too.

    The key to growth, though, is always be open minded, listen to the facts on the ground, as well as scientific findings, rather than some pseudo facts, half truth, but it’s always easily said than done. We have seen a lot of silliness in the Missouri legislature too. For example, this one in which Missouri legislature says pharmacists should not express opinion on the horse dewormer.

    My comments are: 1) We live in an interesting time now; 2) We can only influence those who are willing to listen.

    Interesting YouTube videos

    Wang Jianlin at Harvard Business School, Going Global the “Wanda” Way (No Subtitles): I like his comment and thought on giving manager autonomy (don’t do micro management), among other things. Mostly are Q&As, not much speech / talk. (In Chinese, Wiki, NetEase).

  • Weekend thoughts 04-24-2022

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The spring finally came, or one can argue the temperature yesterday in St. Louis is like summer (above 80 Fahrenheit). I already cut grass once, and this morning I did a bit more yard work. I like yard work, to some extent. It made me to move a bit, in addition to run / walk I did from time to time. I signed up a few more races in May, btw. Such as this Jim Schoemehl 10k run for ALS (May 7 Saturday), and St. Charles Half Marathon (May 15 Sunday). I have another 5K upcoming, but I will hold it as a secret for now.

    More random thoughts: yesterday evening Serenity was talking to a friend about my job, and parents job in general. Her comment is interesting: my dad does twitter and stock trading in addition to his software engineer job. I guess I need to be more serious about my day job and cut down on both tweeting and stocks.

    Another slightly interesting discussion, in the car (minivan) Serenity (my 6th grader) talked to my 2nd grader about sex / gender, I don’t recall how the discussion started. But it reminded me of the Florida law, and I commented perhaps we should hold on talking too much on this topic with Sophia. How about we talk more when she is 4th grader 🙂

    In Peson Events

    On past Friday evening, I went to an event, which is for LEF Ladue Education Foundation fund raising (online auction website here). From April the school and many other places seem much more open in terms of large gathering (like pre-pandemic), I was able to see people in person at more events, and it’s a bit thrill. It started with a work related conference “no fluff just stuff” java conference. I am not a big social person, but I think for many people me included, seeing colleagues or old friends after a long time (more than 2 years) was a bit unreal.

    Stock Market

    Last week the market didn’t do well.

    YouTube videos I watched recently

    加拿大 移民 | 985大学毕业，移民加拿大炸薯条，剁肉，送餐……

    加拿大 移民 | 47岁DIY移民加拿大，从端盘子做起，如今笑的比蜜甜

    Shanghai Lockdown Week 4: FREE AT LAST???

    True stories under current Shanghai COVID-19 lockdown丨43/25,000,000

    2022年中国真实做电商的中产家庭，也是难上加难，还要帮小舅子找工作

  • Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting 2022

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    PDFs

    Genenal info; Omaha visitor guide

    Hotel (below is copied from the general info PDF above)

    TRAVEL & HOTEL ASSISTANCE
    If you need assistance in arranging lodging, we recommend contacting Travelink, American Express:
    Travelink, American Express
    Hotline: (866) 301-3011
    (615) 277-5179 (Outside the U.S.)
    Email: to teampearl@travelink.com


    Hotels fill up fast, especially in the downtown area. There are many options outside of the downtown area that offer more competitive rates and conditions. Berkshire provides shuttles to many of these
    locations and they might serve as a nice option to the higher priced downtown hotels.


    VISIT OMAHA – Find hotels and view rates

    Health info; note the Clear app and website (for health / vaccination pass)

    Please note proxy material varies by broker: e.g., TD Ameritrade website, it’s under “My Account” => “History and Statements” => “Shareholder Library”, this is the direct link just in case. If you have multiple accounts with TD Ameritrade, please make sure you select the account that has $BRK.A or $BRK.B . Vanguard sends an email, and I have’t tried, but I believe if click on it. It will lead me to the proxy materials after I log into Vanguard website. This leads to the meeting credentials.

    Meeting credentials: one shareholder can request at least 4 meeting credentials. And it can only be obtained by following the instructions laid out in the ami.pdf file (again it’s bundled in the proxy material above), and get it in mail.

    Last but not the least, investinyourself5k

    PS: I made the trip and wrote this blog post.

  • Math in Focus, Singapore Math Textbook

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    (Update 12-04-022) Today a friend told me about another book, prealgebra, which is roughly about a 7th or 8th-grade math textbook in the USA. My daughter (7th grade) is doing the exercises on Afficient (this is a bit like the online version of the good old Kumon).

    (Original) In my daughters school, we started this math curriculum about 5, or 6 years ago. One thing I noticed in the US, the kids usually don’t have paper textbooks that they can bring home. My impression is the school usually provide the books when kids are in school, during the class. I also think each teacher can do it in a different way.

    For the Math in Focus (a variant of Singapore Math) though, the textbook is available online. Here is the link to get it (this is the Clever portal, note one needs to be in Ladue School and has the right login information in order to access). Once one logs into the Clever portal, go to “think central”, and it has the links to the math textbooks (or student book, exercise book). There is .epub format textbook to download too. Note we have not really taken advantage of the ebook yet. But it’s probably a good idea to know where the textbook is, especially when we try to explain the bar model to the kiddos 🙂

    Btw, please note Clever is a single sign on platform in which we can see other apps in addition to thinkcentral. For example, I saw the “Big Ideas Math” there too, which is used by my 6th grader. I am guessing other school districts (or other schools) may use the Clever platform too.

    We used to find a place that the old textbook is online. It seems it’s no longer available. For big ideas math, I did see an online book (free, no need for login), for example this is grade 6 book (from a school link here).

    Last but not least, we also bought the “big ideas math” (common core) textbook for my older daughter the 6th grader as well. We asked around and bought it online: it’s a bit unusual for book sellers as they usually work with schools (wholesale as opposed to retail). I believe Amazon has math in focus textbook too.