May 24-October 2nd, 2019

This entry is being written on May 10, 2020. I have finally found time to bridge two of my journal blogs. I started "I'm going to catch up" on WordPress on October 4th because I was too busy to keep up on my journal. My last entry in "My Journal is written to be read" ends on May 24, 2019. My "I'm going to catch up" blog goes until February 25, 2020. You may wonder how do I have time now. 

2020 is plagued with a pandemic. A new virus called Coronavirus has cause the shutdown of most social activities. Today is a Sunday, and my ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not met for a couple months. Another freeing decision is quitting social media. After years of trying to contribute, I realized this weekend that my marketing for my publications is ineffective. When I expanded my reach as much as I can this week, no one listened to Trevor and I's podcast. I think that I came to this situation because I was trying to make an income off my publications, and no one on the Internet considered helping me except for one person. Social networking did not work for me. Social networking is not networking. My perspective is flawed in the world of social networking, so an explanation would be useless. My campaign culminated to a spammy reposting of an original tweet or post, asking for support by donating Basic Attention Tokens, a cryptocurrency based on the advertising industry of a single web browser. I think that my content was suppressed because most social networks are centralized, and they give custom feeds to their users, filtering out content with bad marketing. Twitter users can elect for content that is not personalized, but it is not on by default. 

This is my situation, trying to share my life with the world, but everyone is so focused on money, including myself, that the people or "the algorithm", who run the media industry, suppresses the ineffective to be even more ineffective because they want to appear as effective.

Let's get on with abridging my notes from my life between May 28th through October 2nd, 2019. On May 28th, my situation was very demanding at work, so much so that I could not make time for composing my weekly quality control reports. I believe that after this time management backed off, letting me catch up. I believe that I may have been six months behind. 

Another distracting thing in my life was getting out of Google's ecosystem. I got a cheap iPhone SE off Ebay. It was so cheap that the home button and fingerprint reader barely worked, and I broke the screen on my first day of the Hicken Family reunion only after a few weeks of use. Jessica has dropped hers many times, and it still functions today. Exploring iOS was useless. 

I recall that management wanted me to catch up on the weekly QC reports before I left on my second vacations of the year. I am still trying to get my blog off Google's blogspot or blogger. I don't like WordPress because they limit the size of my blog and put advertisements on it, since I am not a paying subscriber.

My Quality Control work failed, and negotiations failed. Documentation was rejected. At the Multnomah County Central Courthouse, I never observed that we were permanently placing shims to give the Kingspan insulation a one inch gap to compensate for the movement of the building. I never observed it because I was only allowed to do quality control from the stage a few times in the more than two years that I worked on the project. Do you see the illogic of permanently placing the shims? There is no gap, if the shims were placed permanently. The shims need to be removed, and Hoffman wanted documented proof that they were removed, which I neglected. The pressure was unnecessary because removing them all before continuing was illogical. 

The family reunion was great. We had good times with Trevor Hicken, Hayley Lopez, Joshua, and Martha Day. Trevor bought a tile game called Azul. I spent the night at Trevor's apartment, and we watched "Pokemon: I choose you." I remember thinking that it was a better than most of their recent films. Jessica and I met Tristan, Hayley's son, taking a walk with them at a local park. Josh & Martha played games with us like ping pong, hand and foot, & dominoes.  We also caught up with the Bridges, Wayne Hicken's wife, Kim and Curtis Day, Shaundra and Darren, & Doug and Vera Nielson. Doug is getting weak, and he had me pour three forty pound bags of salt into a water softening system. I believe that I get my love for writing from the Nielsons. When I first arrived, Doug had me help him print a short story for my grandma.

Jessica and I at Snowbird

May 17, 2020

Another week has passed, but I must write of the past. I hope that I can catch up today. One thing that I skipped over last week are events of dear friends. One event was a game night at Jordan Grimes' grandmother's old house, for she moved. 

We played the most intense game of Phase 10. Jasmine, Lucas, Jordan, Jessica, and I played. I recall that I outpaced everyone; although, I was coming from behind, being stuck on the last Phase for several turns. I believe two others caught up. I had more experience with the Phase, so I was able to finish the obstacle first. Jordan was a fierce competitor, and he finished the obstacle in the same round. Any play could complete the game, since Jordan and I both had one card. I did not realized that Jordan could claim complete victory, if he just laid his last card down first. An error perhaps of mine enabled him to place his last card down. He claimed victory with an appeal to the rules. A debate ensued. No draw was negotiated or graciously given to me, when I finished first and enabled him to play his last card by my play after a very long game. Competition is ruthless sometimes when victory and glory is achieved. 

Another friendship event that we did with the gang is that we had a game night with Alex Meldrum. I don't recall the game that we played, but afterwards we accepted a challenge from Alex to eat a large dish at Fryer Tuck. Jordan took his competitive spirit, and I believe that he contributed more than needed. We completed the challenge. The flavoring did not sink into the meat of the fried chicken, but the food was amazing other than the minimal flavoring of the chicken. 

I am asked to baby sit during relief society activities for some reason. I recall babysitting during two relief society activities. Although I had ample help during the first, we failed to comfort a couple children, requiring the children to be taken away. My help outnumbered the children six to one. Yes. We chilled out with the most chill child of the ward, and we watched Emperor's New Groove. It is a silly movie with a mostly meaningless plot with messages of people may act differently, if they were in another situation, and prideful people can change.

The second babysitting experience had a lot more children, and we were outnumbered this time. We watched a Madagascar film called Penguins of Madagascar. It was completely meaningless and silly. Children became more engaged in the film, when they saw me laugh at it. It went mostly well.

I had a return to my nursery calling, and I did not contribute significantly before I was transferred to CTR 8 before the end of the year. I was lost in a hectic last day of my children crying. My last day of teaching a Primary class usually does not go well; although, I do have good lessons. My teaching performance seems to peak before transferring to another class. I noted that a girl named Ruby waved at me as one highlight of student interaction. I believe that I won her respect because I glued her mother's jewelry together, when she broke it. She use to be wild, and I think that she became more temperate after that experience. I am not claiming anything. I am stating what I observed.

Jessica served for several months on the Friday mid-shift, and she changed to my shift on Saturday morning on July 13, 2019. Her birthday is this month. This paragraph will be about her; although, she had forbid me from doing so, since I wrote about her depression last time. She is doing better. 

Before I get into that I will write about her birthday. Jessica and Jasmine share birthdays, so we coordinate them together. We play a favorite game called "Say anything" until dinner and county fair time. We went to Blue Moon diner, and I got a Thai burger. Everyone was there; John, Mercedes, Lucas, Jasmine, Jessica, and I. The activities that we went to at the fair was a hypnotism show, a reptile display, and pig auction. I never observed hypnotism before, and I already forgot the theory around it. Something about lowering the level of conscious of people. Somehow it can be used for therapy. 

On August 17 we spontaneous walked around the Multnomah Art Festival because it was in front of our apartment complex. We checked out all of the booths. Two booths of organizations were that I was encouraging Jessica to investigate ever since we moved here. The two organizations were Meals on Wheels People and Crossfit Woodslawn. Jessica won a nutrition consultation at the booth. Jessica simplified Meals on Wheels, which is basically kiddy-corner away, to a trucking hub. She was surprised to learn that they prepare food there. Jessica has been working with Meals on Wheels ever since, and she has been working out with Crossfit too. This experience has taught her a lot of confidence and discipline. Crossfit's community and structure fits her personality. 

Jessica also was preparing a wonderful baby shower for Jasmine & Lucas.