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video

Car related YouTube channels I recommend end of year 2024

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The car and DIY channels that I subscribe to them and watch them often.

Cars and DIY

Waldo’s World: he is a young technician/mechanic/engineer who has fixed quite a few larger European luxury cars and other equipments (some are huge). I like his troubleshooting analysis, logics and approaches. Hint: not “parts fodder”. I watched some of his videos, including this Land Rover LR3 Project. It was a success, as you can see from near the end of this part 4. I never drove off-road, although I know some people do like it, e.g., some Jeep drivers and some ATV (Polaris and Honda came to mind) people like to go off-road.

Now I just realized, for a YT creator, making a playlist has almost the same effect as the Netflix “binge watching” a new series.

Some background: I studied engineering in my undergraduate. But I really didn’t have much hands on experience working on things so far, because I switched to my software engineer career about 24 years ago. I was usually impressed by people who are handy, basically any guy or girls who are hands on, fix things, or get things working. Things don’t have to complex. For example, last night at a friend’s house, I saw this Tramontina Induction Cooking System the first time. I wasn’t sure how it works: and googled 1st. A friend just took the pot and put it there, and it seems starts working. Another time, long time ago, I recall a fraternity brother took apart his Toyota Celica engine or something, and put it back (he is Mechanical Engineering major too).

So far, my automotive repair or hands-on experience is limited to replacing the batteries (for the Camry and Sienna), replacing head lights bulb. I did put on spare tire once (Subaru Forester, a while ago). I also diagnose the rodent or squirrel issue in my Sienna, and the gas cap (interfere with the sliding door) issue. For the former issue (rodent got under the hood, made a nest, and chew up cables etc.), I found the lint paper for dryer is the way to go. It appears rodent or squirrel didn’t like the small of that paper. For Sienna, I also empties some acorn shells from the AC fan (behind the cabin air filter) as I heard noise, ordered the new fan (motor) from Amazon, before i found out the noise was really caused by the left over acorn shells.

I like to learn more, and if not working on the European luxury sedan (which seems hard to ramp up that skill), as a minimum I like to do more more to my Camry and Sienna: replacing cabin air filter may be something I will do.

The Car Care Nut: the founder is an immigrant from Iraq, and he is also the owner of TCCN Automotive (Chicago Suburb). He is Toyota certified master diagnostic technician (highest level among Toyota technician community). He is probably one of the car channel on YT that has highest subscribers. He started the channel during pandemic (due to shutdown), and later he started his own shop as the US quickly reopened. He is also quite technical. He occasionally did review of other Japanese brand including: Mazda, Nissan and Subaru. But the main focus of the channel and his shop are still Toyota and Lexus.

Royalty Auto Service:

I found this channel recently. He is also pretty good. Some of the videos I watched:

Ranking The Top 5 Least Expensive Vehicles To Maintain That We Work On At Our Shop!

Ranking The Top 5 Most Expensive Vehicles To Maintain That We Work On At Our Shop!

Single Dad Opens a Repair Shop – His Story

The 3 Biggest Scams We See In The Auto Repair Industry

It’s Time To Talk About Extended Warranty Companies! (I tend to agree, also from my personal experience I only bought extended warranty once, and felt it’s not good use of the money).

How To Find A Great Auto Repair Shop That You Can Trust!

Chinese 中文

Below are all technicians. And they speak in Mandarin Chinese. I believe they are all from mainland.

小韩修车：“入行十几年的修理工，分享汽车维修知识🚗🔧”

小徐的汽车生活：“我将在这里分享我的日常汽车维修工作，分享二手车整备的过程与汽车相关知识。”

车二哥说车：“大家好，我是车二哥， 我是一个干了16年的汽车修理工。。。”

Pundits or Journalists 媒体和记者

Note I prefer technicians or engineers (hands on, handy, DIY) over pundits or theories.

北美张小车

AutomotivePress: I noticed him from The Car Care Nut

savagegeese: I think I came across them both independently (cannot find the Mustang mach e video for some reason), and also from The Car Care Nut

Categories
401k and Personal Finance advice and tips gadgets

Cheaper iPhone deals

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I’m talking about the unlocked iPhones. Because I don’t think the carrier promotions are “cheap” in the sense they usually make the money back from the monthly fees, and then more.

I can think of a few places, some are probably cheaper, but I am not 100% sure about the quality (especially the battery life for the refurbished iPhones). Below are the two places that I trust.

New iPhones at Apple, SE and 14 are two cheaper choices. Personally I think 15 or 16 are probably the better deals.

If one has the Chase sapphire or freedom credit cards and has some Ultimate Rewards (UR) points to spare, from time to time they have promotions for Apple products in the redemption center. It’s another way to get brand new iPhone. Note this may not be the most cost effective way to burn the UR points. But if they do promotion: it means 1 point is worth 1.25 cent during the redemption. If you travel, and could use the UR points, try to use the points there as 1 point is usually worth 2 cents or more there.

Personally I have used UR points for a few iPhones in last few years.

Refurbished

In the order of quality guarantee (top to bottom).

Refurbished iPhone at Apple: it seems they don’t have a lot of iPhones in stock now. Most are the larger or pro models (which are usually more expensive).

Other two places I am aware of refurbished iPhone: eBay and Amazon.

This somewhat reminds me of the preowned certified Toyotas I bought in year 2013 and year 2022.

Insurance

Do we need insurance? I usually insure it by myself (you may read this post if you have some time). Personally if I need insurance: I would buy from Apple instead of the carrier.

But this again reminds me of the one time I bought the “extended warranty” for my 2012 Toyota Sienna (preowned certified) from the dealer. Most of those are not necessary. In the case of iPhone, no pun intended, buy a good case from Amazon is probably the only insurance you need.

Comparing iPad Air and regular iPad – Update 01-04-2025

deals (dealsea iPad) – I end up bought the 11-inch iPad Air from Amazon. It should come in about 10 days and I plan to use it for Kindle, Apple Intelligence etc.

Reddit – iPad Air vs iPad

Google – iPad Air vs iPad

Apple – Compare iPad Models

Categories
advice and tips Saint Louis

Not all urgent care places are equal

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And personally, I am not happy with Mercy Go Health

First some background. There are 3 urgent care places near where we live. In the order of opening:

St. Luke’s urgent care (next to a CVS).

Total Access Urgent Care (TAUC): an independent chain that has no affiliation with a hospital; they have X-ray and can run common tests/labs. I’ve been to a location where they have the CT Scan machine. I talked about them quite extensively here.

Mercy Go Health: they opened it almost across the street from the St. Luke’s urgent care.

Scenario: in Labor Day weekend our younger daughter S6 got sick. Tried to take her to TAUC, the appointment time is about 5 or 6 pm when we looked for appointment. In other words, it’s about 6 or 7 hours away. So, I took her to the St Luke’s, our 2nd choice. The estimate wait time was one hour or more. At that time, I decided to try out Mercy Go Health.

Two things I was not happy about:

  1. They didn’t diagnose my kid’s pneumonia. The doctor did listen to her lungs, but I am not sure if the doctor made a mistake or at that time her breathing is still normal etc. They don’t have X-ray, or they didn’t do X-ray on that day.
  2. The bills. I don’t know if their billing department has buggy software or something, I paid the bill on myuhc.com (yes, it’s the United Healthcare in the news lately) but later I received a paper bill with same amount. At this time, I am just too tired to call them – I just paid online. But I may call them later: maybe I would get a refund. I am not saying myuhc.com works 100% of the time. But it seems to me there is some issues or explanation between the provider and UHC. (Update 02-12-2025) I finally got around and called / contacted them. I will update the outcome. (Update 02-27-2025) I called them a few times, today I decided to get hold of them until the end. I am on the hold for one hour and 18 minutes now. Also, from Reddit, this doesn’t seem to be a complete isolate issue. (Update 05-23-2025) I finally got my money back, after about 3 months. What I did: I filled out the complaint form online, and they used Zendesk. I replied back to them when Zendesk asked me questions via email.

Lesson for me: Next time, I will probably go to Total Access Urgent Care. For kids, I think I would also consider going to a pediatrician first. They may have longer wait times, but I don’t want to waste my time at Mercy Go Health.

Earlier, I talked about this a bit here too.

Next, I may talk about “not all doctors are equal” too.

Categories
uber-and-side-hustle

More Uber driving and tips I learned

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First a few tips (not the tip as in the money) I learned since I drove Uber.

One is you can setup a secured code like 2 factor authentication: I have one passenger used this feature. This may be faster than looking at license plate/exchange names etc. The driver can only “start the trip” after type in the code from the passenger.

Another one is something I learned this morning: we can do multiple stops. Today two older brothers dropped off the little brother at early childhood place, before heading to their destination high school.

Last but not least, try to keep your car clean. By “clean” I meant the carpet is clean and the cupholders are clean. And if you have a minivan like me, try to keep trunk clean of junks. Guess when do we need the storage space in the trunk? When we have junks there. I am not kidding, it actually happened recently to me once, when I need to take 5 people with their bags 🙂 I learned this lesson the hard way actually, in the very beginning of my driving adventure, I didn’t pay attention to the carpet and the cup holders. And I quickly got a few low rating (2, 3, 4) and it pushed down my overall rating score quickly. And now I can say proudly I am coming back as my score is 4.78 (I think 4.9 is considered excellent on Uber).

How about real tips (tips in the money)

Never expected, always appreciated. In real life though, interacting with passengers, talking to them (probably listen to them 1st) may have something to do with the tips.

Why I drive for Uber – reasons other than money

I think driving these one or two trips helps waking me up. In the old days I commute 20 to 30 minutes to work. Nowadays this is my “commute” in a way. Driving my freshman girl to HS and back is a bit too short to wake me up. The earning per hour never exceeded $30 (before tips). I received $13 tips from below trips. Subtracting the tips, it would be $58.72 for 2-hour 17 m online time. Other side benefits: keep my car clean and watch out for my driving habits no road rage etc. Use the modern word, just “chill”.

Here is an article by Harvard – Taxi drivers are steering neuroscience toward better understanding Alzheimer’s. In Chinese BMJ：老司机狂喜！哈佛团队分析近900万死者数据发现，出租车和救护车司机因阿尔茨海默病死亡风险全职业最低，或与空间导航能力有关

How to improve the rating?

Keep the car clean, in addition to be friendly.

Last but not least, I have driven 65 trips since started this very much part time gig about 2 months ago. PS: this is my earlier post on driving for Uber.

Reference

YT video How Uber Robs Its Drivers by More Perfect Union: let me quote a comment – As an accountant, I did Uber and Lyft a few years ago on weekends to make a few extra bucks. After about 300 rides, I created my own report that detailed my revenue, expenses, hourly work pay rate, etc. And came to the conclusion that was only making about $9 maybe $10 per hour in profit while putting lots of wear and tear on my vehicle. I stopped all ride share driving after that.

I think I tend to agree with the comment above. My main motivation for driving is not to get the extra income (that didn’t hurt). But I think if I want to make more money or make a living, or bring bread home, driving for Uber is not the 1st thing I will attempt to do.

Categories
401k and Personal Finance Fun

I have 526 shares of Coca-Cola stocks now

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And my goal is to have 40,000 shares eventually (before I fully retire).

I realized I have 400 shares recently as I noticed my IRA account recently received $194 quarterly dividend （48.5 cents per share). 我有四百股 $KO: 因为我注意到前两天发了$194 的红利. 伯克希尔有四亿股：巴菲特代表股东拿了$194 m 的红利。

So, if I need to retire on the dividends from Coca-Cola stocks. I need to have more shares: ideally 40,000 shares. That way, I would have $19,400 in dividends each quarter: or about $6,467 a month

Also refer to my Substack post today for dividend-based investing.

(Update 12-21-2024) Added 20 more shares yesterday 12-20-2024

(Update 01-06-2025) I have 630 shares of $KO now.

(Update 01-16-2025) 660 shares as of today.

(Update 02-10-2025) 680 shares as of today. Separately today I just learned Coca Cola owns Fair life milk: and my kids only drink this milk. I believe $KO will announce earning tomorrow morning.

(Update 02-11-2025) Coca-Cola beat earnings expectations as it battles for market share with PepsiCo

Categories
advice and tips

The insurances one must buy in the USA 我们在美国必须买的保险

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还有再加上保险里面的一些坑。

Must buy 必须买的保险

Healthcare insurance, better include dental and vision too. Without healthcare insurance, it’s much harder to get needed medical care, should you or your family need it. This actually happened to one of my friends. And I believe the friend probably died from the disease because of that: lack of insurance, and delay of the needed medical care.

Life insurance: please note for most people, term life is good enough. It’s better to buy this outside work because this way we got protected when we switch jobs. Note sometimes the benefits at new workplace doesn’t kick in immediately (it happened to me actually).

Note for life insurance, most US employers offer some life insurance under a group plan – it usually doesn’t require a physical etc. The only thing needed for employee is to “opt-in” during the open enrollment period (usually in November). Once I had a former colleague (he is younger than me) who unexpected died, and upon further examination, company benefits people cannot find the record that he “opt-in”. It was a sad story for his wife and his parents (in addition to losing him).

Car insurance: besides the required liability insurance, it’s best to buy the comprehensive (including collision) too. If the premium is high, you may raise the deductible (meaning you will pay up to that amount, out of your own pocket), if your car experiences damage. The reason to buy comprehensive including collision is: this way, if you involved in another party in an accident, your insurance company will pay you right away, and they also have more incentive to fight with the other party’s insurance company regarding the liability etc. You probably like the fault fall to the other party, because if the fault is yours, your insurance company will likely raise your premium during the upcoming renewal.

Home insurance: if you have the mortgage, the bank or the mortgage company will likely ask you to show the home (or home owner) insurance.

Types of insurances or extended warranties you may not need

Extended warranty for car or other products. I know Apple offers iPhone insurance, this one is probably okay. But many used car extended warranty plans are just junk. And yours truly managed to fall into it once.

Home or major appliance (e.g., HVAC) protection plans.

Annuity sold as life insurance. There are a lot contents on this topic. I am not going to elaborate. Fortunately I didn’t fall into this one so far. (Update 19-Dec-2024) WSJ: They Look Like CDs, but They’re Annuities—and Sales Are Booming:

Below is Chinese translation done by Google Translate.

必须买的保险

医疗保险，最好也包括牙科和视力保险。如果没有医疗保险，如果你或你的家人需要医疗服务，就很难得到。这实际上发生在我的一个朋友身上。我相信这位朋友最后死于疾病，很可能因为没有保险，以及所需的医疗服务延误。

(以下部分上面英文里还没有）

没有医疗保险，或者没有好的医疗保险，很多医生平常就看不到，更别说住院。紧急时可以去医院急诊，但这个不是解决问题，或缓解病情的好办法。好的医疗保险现在一家人在村里大概要 $1,500 左右。我知道如果你上班的话，一般自己不会掏这么多：一般是公司出一千，个人出五百。一分价钱一分货。过于便宜的保险，一般来说保得差一些。如果是自己给自己打工，market place (Obama Care), 比如这个 healthcare.gov 可以看一下。

我记得我读研究生的时候，那是二十多年之前的事了，有些男研究生因为嫌贵（我印象中大概是一个月是一百美元）没有给太太买医疗保险。那就意味着如果太太怀孕，她们要到圣路易斯的 St. John Mercy 来生小孩。St. John Mercy 因为是天主教的医院，不提倡流产，好像是一口价生小孩（顺产）是当时两千多美元。

其实刚来美国的时候，我自己也是有点讳疾忌医：因为美国的医疗系统和中国国内完全不同。还有语言的障碍：医学方面的单词确实是不太懂。当时还带了一点常用的药，比如说头孢。这个可能也是不少国人的习惯，有点小病自己吃点药。美国人的观点不一样：美国的药主要有两种，处方药是医生开的药（自己拿处方去药房买），over the counter (OTC) drugs 非处方药自己可以直接在药房买。

后来上班以后，才慢慢好一点。我先找了会汉语的医生作为我的primary care physican (PCP)。后来我的PCP退休了，我换了我的PCP：先是一个美国人医生，他一年后也退休了。我又换了一个年轻的华人医生。年轻医生最近又有工作变动，我就又找了一个大概是中年人的华人医生。

(以上部分上面英文里还没有）

人寿保险：请注意，对于大多数人来说，定期寿险（term life insurance）就足够了。最好在工作之外购买，因为这样我们在换工作时会得到保护。请注意，有时新工作场所的福利不会立即生效（实际上我遇到过这种情况）。

关于人寿保险，请注意，大多数美国雇主都会提供一些团体计划下的人寿保险——通常不需要体检等。员工唯一需要做的就是在开放注册期间（通常在 11 月）“选择加入”。曾经有一位前同事（他比我年轻，印象中他好像还没小孩）意外去世。经过进一步检查，公司福利人员找不到他“选择加入”的记录。所以保险公司就不会赔钱。这对他的妻子和父母来说是一个悲伤的故事（除了失去他）。

汽车保险：除了必需的责任保险外，最好也购买综合保险（包括碰撞险）。如果保费高，如果您的汽车受到损坏，您可以提高免赔额（意味着您将自掏腰包支付最高金额）。购买包括碰撞在内的综合险的原因是：这样，如果您与另一方发生事故，您的保险公司会立即向您支付赔偿金，而且他们也更有动力与对方的保险公司就责任等问题进行斗争。您可能希望将责任归咎于对方，因为如果责任在您，您的保险公司可能会在即将到来的续保期间提高您的保费。

房屋保险：如果您有抵押贷款，银行或抵押贷款公司可能会要求您出示房屋（或房主）保险。

您可能不需要的保险类型或延长保修，或者说保险里面的一些坑

汽车或其他产品的延长保修。我知道 Apple 提供 iPhone 保险，这个可能还可以。但许多二手车延长保修计划只是垃圾。而我曾经真的陷入其中。

家庭或主要家电（例如 HVAC）保护计划。

年金作为人寿保险出售。关于这个话题的内容很多。我不打算详细说明。幸运的是，到目前为止我还没有陷入这个。

PS: 得罪保险销售的视频: 为什么买保险不是投资?我买保险的原则是什么? by MoneyXYZ

Categories
Investing

I am not a believer of Bitcoin and Cryptos

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Because the Bitcoin just crossed the $100,000 mark recently, and with the upcoming US president who is friendly to the bitcoin and Cryptos, I saw a lot of excitement and craziness going on in that space.

Came across a question at FB private group:

My young adults (16/19) keep trying to invest in crypto, xrp, etc. Where is a good place to learn about it so they don’t get scammed. Already a few times one has lost $ from graduation gift we gave him to try his hand. What are legit companies to try bitcoin investing that I can learn from? They are definitely targeted on their social media platforms.
Thanks!

My initial answer: Replace “invest” with speculate (or gamble). I don’t think cryptos are investment: they have no real value – other than hope the next guy will pay a higher price.

Someone’s answer to my initial answer: tell that to all the people who have made hundreds of thousands of dollars by investing in it.

My follow up answer: some people are just lucky 🍀- just like those people who won giant jackpot🎰 at the lottery. That doesn’t mean everyone else can have the exact same luck.

Like Warren Buffett, I won’t pay $25 for all of the bitcoins in the world. That being said, if you speculate on it, I still wish you good luck.

PS: I already expressed my opinion on “investing” on bitcoin and other cryptos (I don’t even want to call them cryptocurrencies). But at the same time, recently I realized companies such as Block Inc. with stock ticker symbol $SQ, Coinbase with ticker symbol $COIN, and Robinhood (App) $HOOD etc. actually are still viable business. Imagine them like the casino houses such as Caesar Entertainment, Las Vegas Sand, Wynn or other other casino in Las Vegas, in Macau and in Singapore: they are mostly profitable as long as their casinos are open and they have customers coming to gamble. Or just think them like the operator of Mega Millions or Powerball in the USA. Remember the old saying: the house always wins.

You may also read a Chinese version (translated by Google Translate) here.

Categories
Business

RIP – Brian Thompson United Healthcare CEO

Reading Time: 2 minutes

(Originally written in Chinese; English version generated via Google translate at the bottom)

美国中西部大农村出来的高管，总的来说还是没认识到这个世界的复杂(公司小气不请保安，自己掏钱也得请保镖啊）。巴菲特一年的保镖/保安费大概是几十万吧。二十多年前微软的巴尔莫来村里，也有保镖。我觉得他是帮股东挨了这几枪。

我在美国工作24+ 年，基本上所有大的医疗保险公司都用过，我个人感觉 UNH 的服务还是相对靠谱的。有很多不靠谱的保险公司-光收钱不办事的很多。

还有我较鄙视网上的美国义和团/键盘侠，砸本国人的日本车，各种医闹：美国的医疗系统，医疗保险问题，主要是政客们搞出来的。共和党的政客们要负主要责任：我敢保证他们是拿保险公司捐款的大头。美国应该可以学习其它西方国家搞全民医保。美国（极端）资本主义，以盈利为唯一目标，过于依赖市场的黑暗我是领教过一些的。我记得几年前亚马逊把得了癌症的员工裁了，纽约时报当时报道过。

附：美国的医疗系统，庞大无比，有她先进之处（新药，新设备，新的治疗方法），但是确实 it has some drawbacks，我最近也是有亲身体会。

其实昨天最早是从小红书上看到这个消息的-希望国人不是因为幸灾乐祸才发的。

油管

12-08-2024 更新：我关于美国医疗体系概况的油管视频。全长15分32秒。

My YT Video on safety etc (财不露富：害人之心不可有，防人之心不可无 – 从村里最近的一个案件想到大家要注意的事). 下面是英文版。

Executives from rural areas in the Midwest of the United States generally do not realize the complexity of the world (the company is stingy and does not hire security guards, but you have to hire bodyguards at your own expense). Buffett’s annual bodyguard/security fee is probably hundreds of thousands. More than 20 years ago, Microsoft’s Balmer came to the village and also had bodyguards. I think he took these shots for the shareholders.

I have worked in the United States for 24+ years and have used basically all major medical insurance companies. I personally feel that UNH’s service is relatively reliable. There are many unreliable insurance companies-many of them just take money but do not do anything.

I also despise the American Boxers/keyboard warriors on the Internet, who smash Japanese cars of compatriots and make all kinds of medical troubles: the medical system and medical insurance problems in the United States are mainly caused by politicians. Republican politicians should bear the main responsibility: I dare to guarantee that they are the ones who receive the bulk of donations from insurance companies. The United States should learn from other Western countries to implement universal health insurance. I have experienced some of the darkness of American (extreme) capitalism, which takes profit as the only goal and relies too much on the market. I remember that Amazon laid off employees with cancer a few years ago, and the New York Times reported it at the time.

PS: The US medical system is huge and has its advanced aspects (new drugs, new equipment, new treatments), but it does have some drawbacks, which I have personally experienced recently.

Actually, I first saw this news on Xiaohongshu yesterday – I hope the Chinese people are not posting it out of gloating.

Related

More bad people – Fake bomb threat targets 2 Maple Grove homes owned by family of slain UHC executive Brian Thompson

Categories
Fun kids Life

Watch “Growing Pains” series again

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I watched a bit of “Growing Pains” on Apple TV last night: the 2nd show that has the Bruce Springsteen show tickets. I purchase the series from Apple, probably in year 2016, when Alan Thicke, who acted as the dad in the screen, Dr. Jason Seave, died.

I recall I watched most of the series in early 1990s at my childhood home, mostly during my summer and winter breaks in college years, which seems match the timing 成长的烦恼 showing time in China – “曾在台湾中华电视公司及中国大陆的上海教育电视台从1990年一直播到1994年中播出。”

I recall I didn’t go back much to my childhood home since summer 1993, the year I graduated from college. My parents also moved away a bit from our childhood home.

I have a few thoughts:

  1. in late 1980s and early 1990s, my adolescent and college years, I recall we were very curious about the outside world. I recall seeing movies such as True Lies, Twister (1996 film), Schindler’s List, and many westerns on Shanghai TV channel 2 (the international channel). The society and the country in general were much more open then too, here is some background (in Chinese) how they started to import those TV series – 文汇世纪 | 《成长的烦恼》《神探亨特》…当年上海电视台如何引进第一批美剧？||【话说上海】那些年我们一起追过的剧集 | 海外影视 This is probably my 1st exposure to the American high school (Michael and Carrol). More recently I learned a bit more about American high schools via Gilmore Girls (Netflix).
  2. Now that I have my own teen, I can sympathize better with the parents. This also ties back to my earlier blog post Summer Break 2024 – little moments. I left it in the draft mode for a while 🙂
  3. Some similar shows I watched recently include Gilmore Girls (available on Netflix), and Modern Family (available on Hulu).
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Summer Break 2024 – little moments

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Below moment is likely not isolated to summer. Sometime between March and July this year (year 2024). One day I took MacBook on sofa, and sit about 6 ft from my 14 year old. We were at the two ends of the sofa (couch). Her response: dad, you are not going to sitting here for good, right? She was on her computer and wanted privacy. My sweet 9 year old said: dad, I want to sit with you 🙂

This morning (early June): while I was driving to my 14 year old to Clayton HS, and I got distracted, passed Ladue road while driving on Warson south bound. Basically I went to the Ladue Middle School – made turn at Price & past JBS, and my 14 year old said: it’s 1st time I saw JBS 🙂

Since this summer, I started to play some board game with my 10 year old (was 9 year old before this past July), almost everyday. This continued even when she was in the Children’s Hospital for a few days in September. We played “spot it” during those days. Our most recent favorite game is Montessori Trinomial Cube (we played a ton lately, I am pretty sure she outgrew it. There goes my original plan to sell it on eBay 🙂 “Trash Panda” is probably the most complicated game for me. And I am glad some days we got to play table tennis in the basement.

PS: for anyone reading, please don’t share this with your teen kids – I am worry about the I may have the Bruce Springsteen show/tickets moments as shown in one of the Growing Pains series 🙂