June 14, 2020

2020.06.08

Yesterday was a good day. Sorting through more than fifty journal entries, I found about ten were not published from my notes on my iPad, which I emailed blogger early last week. This is not including the seven daily posts of last week. Having a more complete personal history, I believe that people will be grateful for my writings to be readily available when I die. It took me most of the day to edit those entries.

After I called my parents. My dad loves watching Thai shows on their television, and Jessica binged one on YouTube called "Lady of Fire" recently. She gives it a 10 out of 10; although, the music that sets the tone of scenes are too repeative. There is one culminating scene that had her crying pretty hard. A Facebook video turned her on to the TV show. One incredible thing about the show that might be disappointing is that each episode is over 100 minutes long. Each episode is like a movie, and there are twelve episodes.

We had dinner with Mercedes. Since there were only three of us, it was easier to practice social distancing, which was impossible with Jasmine and Lucas around the previous day. We had good open discussions. The main food of the meal was potato salad, which I have never seen her prepare. Usually eating after fasting without rehydrating is difficult on my body, but the potato salad was surprisingly easy for my body to digest.

I found a free VPN that I trust. I trust it because it is provided by Proton. Proton encrypts their virtual private network, enabling access to the internet without my information being accessed by other entities. The free tier of the VPN allows me to use one device on their network. I tried another insecure free VPN once, and it redirected my use of a dictionary website to an odd advertisement or a scam. I tried another VPN that only requires a fee of less than two dollars once, which I did not trust.

2020.06.09

I believe that I finished my driver training for BHI yesterday, needing to confirm that today. That was my main goal for yesterday.

My mother asked me to figure out my living situation. I was going to work on it anyway, but my recruiter said that I need to figure out for myself. I asked him and my coworker where specifically the project is because I like to design my lifestyle, and I did not get the address of the project until late in the evening.

I started packing yesterday. It is nice to be a minimalist. Leaving every unnecessary thing behind, I hope that I don't arrive in Texas without any necessities.

I actually got to sleep on time yesterday. Getting a full nights rest, I don't feel sleepy, which is nice. My schedule is going to shift by a couple hours, so I need to prepare rest wise even before I arrive in Texas.

2020.06.10

Yesterday I found a hotel that will give me a good weekly rate near Runge, Texas, but he would not confirm it with an email. He said that he is there 24/7, and to ask for him when I arrive. I am trying to figure out a simple productive per diem life. I am thinking of using Tovola for my food, so I don't have to worry about timing food preparation, but I am considering washing my clothes daily. I don't want to deal with going out to do laundry.

Packing to go to Texas, I am realizing the mess of gadgets are mostly mine. We need to buy Jessica a laptop for her university studies.

I got my new work phone. It took me all day to transfer all my apps to my iPhone XR, and I had to have my recruiter to contact IT to give me access to our appsheet app in order to following the daily vehicle inspection protocol. Apple's Safari browser tempted me to abandon Brave browser and their Basic Attention Tokens because Safari blocks all the annoy cookies requests.

Remember that I said that I have almost seventy Basic Attention Tokens. I got all of them yesterday. I gave myself about fifty from my android devices through the Basic Attention Token's publisher page because I can only withdraw my tokens from my desktop browser. I believe that is the only way to set up a Brave account with Uphold to recieve my BAT.

2020.06.11

Yesterday I wasted most of the day exploring apps like Wink that help you find new friends on Snapchat. I reviewed these apps on my podcast. I don't want it in my journal.

Jessica proposed considering other meal delivery companies. I am not sure why, but Tovola, the meal delivery company that I was considering, seems to limit people to buying only twelve meals a week. That is less than two meals a day. A company that I will most likely use is FreshnLean. I can get 3 meals a day for only 50 cents a day more.

That's about it. I folded laundry and dishes other than recorded my podcast with Trevor.

2020.06.12

My boss expressed an expectation to complete all the fifteen of the construction management refresher courses today, so I determined to complete my packing yesterday after editing my podcast. I am starting to use things for the last time, so it makes sense to put things away. I have been taking my time to really digest the orientation material. We will see how completing these courses will be today.

2020.06.13

Yesterday was a very long day. I worked on completing all fourteen orientation courses. Each course was an average of thirty minutes. I worked on it until 7 pm I am probably going to redo the courses to to digest the material better. I just did them all yesterday because I was asked to by my recruiter. I thought that it was odd that I got an email from human resources that they are confirming my employment, asking for the coordinated start date with my project manager or mentor.

Jessica and I celebrated another month of our marriage with our favorite Thai foods and ice cream from Thai Basil, the restaurant that we traditionaIly go to in Multnomah village, Portland. The homemade mango ice cream was a surprise; although, it was bland. We joked that after they tasted the batch they were sure what to do; then, a child suggested that they put chocolate sauce and sprinkles on it to make up for its bland flavor.

Jessica went to Safeway to buy me some food to last me until Monday lunch time while I got dinner. She came with a lot of nuts, which I thought was a good sustainable option, not requiring refrigeration. I am on the plane now, flying to Dallas. I want to eat lunch, but the airline is not offering food due to the Coronavirus pardemic. I would only feel comfortable eating the nuts after washing my hands. Maybe I will work up the guts after I finish this entry.

We had late night last night, yet I got up early to double check all luggage, charging devices that I planned to use at the airport and airplane. I started playing Pokemon again enjoy the expansions of sword & shield, coming out soon.

Lucas drove me to the Portland airport, and it was good to taIk openly, catch up, and say goodbye to him.

That is about it. The pilot gave me alcohol wipe, so I will use that and eat lunch. It is about 1:30 pm.

The flight is full. American Airlines wanted me to change my flight because it was so busy. I arrived two and a half hours early at 8 AM, being grateful for Lucas' punctuality, and the flight left an hour late. I will arrive in Dallas about 6:30 PM, jumping ahead two hours too.

2020.06.14

My travels so far have gone smoothly. We did not arrive an hour late, but we did not arrive exactly on time. Getting into my hotel room was simple. I have another flight at 10:30 today.

When I arrived, I followed Google Maps directions to the hotel that I am staying at. The directions did get me to the hotel, but it was not ideal. They actually led me to the back of the building. Somehow I walked into the parking lot. Seeing a worker of the hotel that I am staying at, I asked how to get there, and her directions were helpful.

When I arrived, I caught up with Jessica on video chat.

Since I ate a late lunch, concluding my meal probably about 4:15 PM Texas time, I went to ask the front desk what accommodations that I had to work out perhaps and work up an appetite. They said that the gym is closed and I could check out the pool. Checking out the pool, I found that the pool was emptied.

I got some salmon with a salad of some sort of grain at the Ace’s Lobby Bar in the Hyatt Regency DFW. I liked the salad, but the salmon was a little dry. I ate dinner about eight PM Oregon time, but it was ten Texas time. After dinner, I caught up with Jessica and had family prayer.

I woke up at 4 AM Texas time, which is 2 AM Oregon time, to see how my body will react, preparing for my new work routine tomorrow.

One thing that I did not tell you about, which is almost insignificant, is that my old Nexus 9 is dying. The screen quit recognizing my pens that are designed to write on touch screens. I joked with Trevor that my pens are running out of ink. I prefer handwriting on my tablets rather than typing on my devices. I was delighted to find that a handwriting recognizing keyboard on iOS is compatible with my very old iPad. It is called Selvy PenScript.