24 May 2020

18 May 2019

Yesterday I shared a blog post from "My Journal is Written to be Read", saying that I have caught up on my journal. When I was reorganizing my "I'm going to catch up" WordPress blog posts, I realized that I am missing content between November and February, finding that I forgot to post entries that I emailed myself. I am not completely caught up.

One thing about the weekend that I did not write about is that Jessica and I watched a movie called "This Beautiful Fantastic." It has a great story, and Jessica gave it a 9 out of 10. I would say the same myself, maybe giving it a higher score. I was on the edge of my seat, watching the film. My only critique is that it ends too fast.

Instagram seems to be my new microblog. Trevor and I are considering doing a live podcast this week. We record on Wednesday evenings.

This morning after doing a bunch of dishes and laundry, I wrote an email to an Bankless content contributor, seeking the path to a career in Ethereum. I mentioned yesterday that diving into Ethereum would be easier single. He replied already, giving me some links. I will add them to my official blog post. The link is the following: https://bankless.substack.com/p/how-to-get-a-job-in-crypto-lite. I have learned with my last career decision that a humble marital counsel should be done before moving forward.

19 May 2019

Before I began my practice of Revit yesterday, I applied to an assistant project manager with Vestas, a renewable energy firm. I did have an interest in this previously; however, the last time that I seriously took this field of study in mind was almost a decade ago.

It seems like designing my temple on Revit is similar to how Columbia Stone built the Multnomah County Central Courthouse. There is an error in the first attempt, and we/I have to redo the entire thing. I wonder if this is common. I was designing the columns, and it would have worked for me; however, there is something called a conceptual mass in Revit.

One thing that is a little inconvenient with conceptual masses in Revit is that one mass does not recognize other masses; unless, they are in the same family. You can even join the two conceptual masses, and they still don't recognize each other in that void masses don't recognize a mass that is not in their family. Or a mass can't cut another unless they are in the same family. I chose to make a second mass after making a very complicated mass, and my initial column design was intersecting with the first mass, which is somewhat good because I kept me aligned with my original design intent. I do have to redo the work from yesterday though.

I have been relating job search to Jessica with a universe where photons of light are going in every direction. It doesn't make sense to apply to work for all the photons because some have passed your trajectory. Some are millions miles away. The probability of finding a photon that aligns with my path is very low. The timing of the paths of these entities have to work just right. When people are seeking to hire someone, they want the most qualified person to be available at the time that they have found that they need the position to be filled. The timing is usually urgent. The probability that an individual fills a urgent need that fits their culture, skills, and everything is again very low. This is the feeling of my situation. I am a particle of light flying through a universe, looking for other particles of light nearby that I may align and intersect with; millions of possibilities and less opportunities.

Yesterday evening Jessica and I worked on our ballots for the 2020 Oregon election. I finished mine, and Jessica still has to complete her's; although, it is due today. Today is our monthly celebration of our marriage, so we will go out to get food and deliver the ballots. Looking into all the candidates, I find each person's perspective odd. Some come with a lot of experience and qualification as some come with none, and some come with a lot of preparation as others come last minute and without much preparation. Yet their name is on the ballot. Many go unopposed as some have too many candidates that I fear that a decision is impossible, since the mayors election with 19 candidates requires one to get more then fifty percent of the votes, and it will most likely be delayed to November. The top two would be voted on in November. Sounds like opportunities of manipulation and secret combinations are available. I think that too many candidates favors the incumbents in this situation.

20 May 2020

Some people can't think of much to write about in their journal, but I have a lot to write about.

The tech podcast today is going to be huge. There are so many big updates. TLC's 500 dollar phone is truly a flagship killer. Ethereum has futures now, and it enables artists to cut the middle man; RAC leads the way.  DappNod is the Ethereum nod opportunity for newbs. Linux GUI apps are more accessible on Windows. SnapChat is the way to escape Facebook. Flow.page led me to realize that. Apple Glass is coming at a 500 dollar price. I have so much to research and prepare for my podcast.

Yesterday I applied to many jobs, since Jessica told me to apply for jobs throughout the United States. One that I am particularly excited is one with A-Core Concrete Specialists. They said that they are working on a massive, historic, and complicated project in Salt Lake City; mostly likely the temple.

I worked a little on an idea to merge all my blogs on blogger. I am trying to get my Substack content on blogger, which is harder than expected.

I considered Snapchat again because I put my link on my Flowpage. I realize that it is like YouTube, Quibi, Instagram, and Facebook, but better. Snapchat has a good privacy reputation. They are not sell outs unlike Instagram and Whatsapp. You don't have to deal with Instagram's square. The social network is more tight and chill. It has mastered short form content as Quibi fails. It has YouTube content, and the content is more interactive. The only similarities to Facebook & Instagram is the stories. I like that there is no baggage of stored photographs or messages. The embarrassing past disappears.

Yesterday, going to turn in our voting ballot, we ran into a rare traffic jam as we joined the procrastinators. A few minutes before the deadline I had Jessica run to deliver it. Another man followed my lead running with Jessica.

I also fixed my Revit model. Now my conceptual masses won't clash. A recruiter for architectural firms contacted me, sayıng that I need more education.

21 May 2020

Today I get to edit the latest episode of Very Hicken Bros. podcast, and I am excited that Nick Chao, a regular contributor, gave Trevor and I a copy of his new song that we will be interviewing him about on our next episode with him. We had a lot of content to filter through in tech this past week. Things that I did not list yesterday are the following: TikTok nabs Disney's streaming head, Intel acquires Rivet, Joe Rogan contracts with Spotify, Nreal Light augmented reality glasses releases developer edition, Galaxy Fold 2 design is revealed, Sprint is dying this Summer, Nvidia A100 is the first ampere GPU, Microsoft acquires Metaswitch, Apple acquires NextVR, Facebook acquires Giphy, and more.

I got a job interview to work with Lam Research on Monday. I have been very rusty in my interview skills, but, getting back into it, I have found that conversations have gotten better. I am going to have to shave my beard again.

I am almost done fixing my columns in Revit, bringing the arches to height.

I started merging all my blogs yesterday, and Google stopped me because I have too much content to merge. I put all my Substack content on my "Read the Story of the World" blog. I might have to merge all my content on that blog because Google can't merge it with the website that I chose to merge all my content on.

22 May 2020

I finished merging all my blogging content to a single portfolio. One risky thing that I did is change my domain name, but it went smoothly. Everything is under alexnhicken.blogspot.com except for my journal.

I worked on the latest episode of the Very Hicken Bros. podcast until the early afternoon, catching up with some old friends on Snapchat.

After publishing the podcast episode, I cooked a pot of rice and beans. It turned out well.

Trevor and I had an evening with Alex Meldrum, where we played Machi Koro. Alex dominated us; although, it was only his second time playing. Our second game was much closer of a match among the three of us. Alex's strategy was more risky them the previous; however, right when I said that it was too risky, he won. I got second both times.

23 May 2020

Yesterday I applied to a bunch of jobs. I was prompted to not continue with my interview opportunity at Lam Research because I should not abandon my field of study, so I canceled that appointment. A couple companies contacted me recently, an electrical contractor and a residential firm. I hope that they want to interview me. The electrical contractor is in Portland, and the residential firm is in Utah.

In the afternoon, Jessica and I did some errands. Jessica brought home free produce from Meals on Wheels. We delivered some of the produce to Jessica's mother.

Today is a day for cleaning our apartment. I already cleaned all the dishes and kitchen.

24 May 2020

Now I am completely caught up on my journal; unless, I find notes, explaining what happened between December and February. I found several drafts of journal entries that I forgot in my email early last week, which I edited today, covering November. Another perspective of part of the time that I abridged over the past few weeks was posted as well.

In December, we went to California for Christmas, taking about half a month off from work. It was good to catch up with family. Maritza invited us over for an Ecuadorian Christmas dinner, and we went Christmas Caroling after. We visited new people that I never met, and we heard people say that they never seen carolers in person. I think that presents are a useless tradition of Christmas, a waste of money. My gifts tried to be meaningful. My gift for Ashley was exciting for her, which surprised Thomas, but she has not watched the DVD yet. Materialism is annoying. Times with my parents were good. We love to eat, going out with family and friends often. I wanted to go to the Oakland temple to observe the completed renovation, but I was unable to. We had a party for the New Years, and everyone left early. I recall that Jessica fell asleep early. A Japanese foreign student stayed with my parents, which I tried to be friendly with. I tattletaled on another foreign student as I found e-cigarettes in his room.

During this time, I did have a job offer, but I was too dumb to receive it, procrastinating it until I lost it, when I did try to accept it.

In January and February, things were slowing down at work; although, my presence was necessary. It was less necessary, when I caught up on quality control and things were wrapping up, when stone installation was the last thing that we needed to do. I decided to make a publication, hoping to support myself, family and friends by informing people unbiasedly of the world news. I always wish that I could follow the news closely because I have lost touch with the progression of the coronavirus in the past couple weeks after forsaking social media marketing. I was not good at it; probably never was.

I did not do much yesterday on Saturday. Trevor sent me an article saying that TikTok can’t be overlooked anymore. This whole week I was wondering why one TikTok girl is so popular. You probably know who I am talking about. I don’t want to put her name in my journal. She is just a girl. There are billions of women. What is so special about her? I explored TikTok again, deciding to post my little videos there. I have videos that are not worthy of YouTube that might fit there. It is not as tight and chill as Snapchat, but it is fun. I still prefer Snapchat. I like that I can post on multiple platforms on TikTok, but it still crops it like Instagram; unless, I record straight to TikTok. TikTok is not really a social network; although, they have a Twitter direct message type feature. I relate the feel of the social media platform to Instagram.

Last night I used my AppBlock app to limit my social network and media time to a specific period in the day to not procrastinate the evening activities. I blocked Twitter, YouTube, and some other distracting apps a few weeks ago 24/7.