Sunday, August 09, 2020

My Four Mount Rushmore Greatest Moments In My Life

95.7 FM The Game KGMZ selected four Mount Rushmore greatest moments in Bay Area sports history in May 2020. The four moments are "The Catch" San Francisco 49ers Joe Montana touchdown pass to Dwight Clark against the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship game in Jan 1982, "The Play" Stanford Cardinals kicked off to California Golden Bears with five lateral passes to score the game winning touchdown on the final play of the game in Nov 1982, the 2014 World Series Game 7 San Francisco Giants Madison Bumgarner pitched the last five innings of shutout baseball out of the bullpen to earn the series clinching save against the Kansas City Royals in Oct 2014, and the Golden State Warriors Steph Curry scored 37 points in Game 5 of the 2015 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Jun 2015.

The Game selecting four greatest Bay Area sports moments inspire me to select my four greatest life moments. Creating the list is easy. Eliminating the obvious not Mount Rushmore moments are easy. Selecting the four life moments are hard. Finalizing my official Mount Rushmore life moments are easy when I connect the dots from creating the list to my official list in the end.

I mention my one honorable mention. Steve Jobs is my honorable mention. I read his biography twice written by Walter Isaacson. God knows when and who he or she was the last biography I read. I adapt Jobs' wisdom. I model Jobs' successes and failures. The end of the day I'm one step closer to becoming a self-trained genius. I'm learning a lesson people are no smarter than me. I influence them to become better people.

Here are my Mount Rushmore life moments in order of date earliest to latest:

1. My First Day Cosplaying (Sat Sep 11, 2004). I thank my mom for making my anime costumes or cosplays. I thought about retiring from anime in May 2004. I watched 17 episodes of Full Metal Alchemist at Fanime Con 2004 Midnight Marathon. The end of episode eight I said to myself, "I'm going to cosplay [the main character] Edward Elric." I wore my cosplay at Japantown Anime Faire 2 on Sep 11, 2004. I made my choice to continue being an anime fan on Dec 2004. I retired from anime on Sep 2014. I made a lot of new friends. I experienced my good moments and bad moments. I watched my share of good anime series and bad anime series.

2. Grow Up (Sat Oct 4, 2008). Aug-Sep 2008 were the worse months of my life at the time. I was weak. I was lost. I was a wimp.

My life changed forever on Sat Oct 4, 2008 in Los Altos, CA. I met with a friend at a board game gathering at the public library to return DVDs. He had to leave early because of a medical appointment. I walked across the street to the arts and crafts fair. I made an observation eating lunch and listening to a live band. The observation was I'm the only single person. 99.9% of the people were together as friends, couples, and families. I walked back to the library parking lot. I stood next to the parking lot driveway. I said to myself, "I have to grow up."

I tried anything new. My behavior started to mature. My wisdom grew. I stopped taking anything and anyone for granted. The changes paid off immediately. Some of the changes included a new desktop PC, new clothes, new gym workouts, started to listen to classic jazz, and read more fiction books. I learned more about life reading fiction books than non-fiction books such as self-help, leadership, and business books.

3. Self Job Training (Aug 2014). I failed an interview for a contract Data Analyst position because I failed the Excel tests. It was an example of use it or lose it. I started to relearn and refresh my Excel skills. I added Access, SQL, VBA, and PowerPoint. The job training inspired me to redesign my webpage using Sublime Text relearning HTML and learning JavaScript and CSS. My new webpage Innovate Infinitely debuted on Jun 29, 2016. My self job training today are learning and reviewing Excel, Power Pivot, Power Query, Power BI, SQL, Python, Linux, and Git. Learn, practice, drill, and repeat.

Furthermore, I add self-training outside my career. I learn how to tie knots, make paper airplanes, communicate with Morse Code, and basic land navigation.

4. The Shawshank Redemption (Sat Sep 21, 2019). I tell the background story why it took me decades to watch the movie. A friend in college watched The Shawshank Redemption in the theater. He told me the movie was boring. He didn't understand the point. My friend was a smart student. I didn't question his opinion. I believed the movie was boring.

I watched the movie for the first time on Sep 21, 2019. The movie saved my soul. The movie saved my life. The movie released everything holding me back. The movie gave me hope. The movie made me tell myself I can control more of my life. My feelings and my intuitions are trusted and strengthen. There are some situations I don't care what other people think. Geology is the study of pressure and time. Success is coming because I'm a mature adult applying heavy or deep training daily.

Side note one: My next blog is a Steve Jobs compilation blog. I combine past Steve Jobs blogs. I add additional quotes from the D5 Conference in 2007 where Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were interviewed.

Side note two: There was a chance I couldn't attend the Japantown Anime Faire 2 because my family cars were broken except the 1984 Toyota truck. Driving the manual transmission and no power steering truck in San Francisco wasn't hard as I expected.

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