Exercise And Sleep Are Cheaper Than Medical Bills

Exercise is a good leisure activity. A person moves the elbows and the knees. It can be cheaper compared to other leisure interests. For example, I choose a gym membership instead of a TV streaming service. Use it or lose it. Further, I choose sleep over watching TV; although, I watch a little TV such a sports on network television. I sleep eight hours a night.

I take my chances on the little things exercise and sleep rather than major medical procedures. I decrease my chances of permanent medical conditions by exercising and by sleeping.

Toothbrush, toothpaste, and dental floss are cheaper than dental bills.

A Five Minute Instruction Is Nonprofessional Training

Training for five minutes doesn't equate to being a professional. Five minutes of instructions is not enough to be a professional. Teaching skills and knowledge requires good training, good coaching, good teaching, and good instructions. Be patient. Take the time. Do the boring grind. Learn. Practice. Drill. Repeat.

It takes ten minutes to learn how to play poker. It takes a lifetime to become a master.

Fast forward. Everything is learned. The teacher taught everything. The books are read. No additional practicing required. No more rehearsing. No more reviewing; the brain is jelly. Tests are passed. The graduation commences. What is done afterwards matters more. Use it or lose it. Continue learning, practicing, and drilling. Innovate infinitely.

Moving Day Is A Judgment Day

One of the best moments to learn about a person is moving day; for instance, the boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancee, or co-worker(s). Moving day is either moving in or moving out. Moving day moves from one place to another place such as a new home, new apartment, or new office building. How do people behave? Moving day shows part of their true selves. Lazy worker? Hard worker? Easily distracted? Laser focus? The people are determined to fulfill their obligations. The organization skills easy to follow. Active socialization people get along with other people. Conversations are interesting. People feed each other's kind morale. Assess the behaviors, actions, trusts, and sincerities. People learn more about their relationships with other people.

The Forgivable Trap

Any person in any social-economic status is gullible to be trapped. The person stops learning. The person stops innovating. The person becomes weak. Intelligence declines. Physical and mental strength maintenance cease. There is emotional instability. Financial discipline disappears. Sleep hours decrease. Memory declines; in particular, the lessons learned to success are forgotten. Life is taken for granted. There is too much complacency.

Fortunately, the trap is temporary. There is an escape strategy. Work is required. Continuous work is required to avoid the trap. Self-improvement is a start. The trap is forgivable because it's easy to fall into the trap. I was a victim. I'm lucky I'm no longer trapped. I work as hard as I can.

"Bud, I like you. Just remember something. Man looks in the abyss. There's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character, and that is what keeps him out of the abyss." --Lou Mannheim, Wall Street

Facebook Friends

My Facebook friends count is 233 as of today's blog. 233 is a lot. 1,000 friends are more than 233 friends obviously speaking. A rational perspective 233 is a big number. My friends consist of friends, families, co-workers, friends of friends, and acquaintances.

My true friends count is at least 242. Some friends defriended me. Some friends closed their accounts. I recognize friends closing their accounts for personal reasons. The friends who defriended me must have a good reason. I defriended zero friends because life is a full circle; although, I defriended one friend as a request from my sister. I don't know when the next time I see any of my friends. It can be a reunion. It can be a networking opportunity. It can be a contact person when I'm at their home city. It can be an emergency. My reason to defriend must be serious. I don't defriend to clean my friends list. I don't want to burn bridges unnecessarily. Rebuilding a bridge can be difficult.

Keep the relationships. Maintain the support by like, comment, and posting happy birthdays.

Winning The Nonmonetary Lottery

99.99% of lottery winners are not the big tickets winning the big money prize. These nonmonetary lottery winners are winning from the powers to be, the almighty, the heavens, the unexplained, and/or life itself. It depends on the person's perspective. Talent or unique skills is an example of a nonmonetary prize. Some nonmonetary prizes are natural such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Steve Jobs, Michael Jackson, and Meryl Streep. Some nonmonetary prizes are won through hard work such as Stephen Curry, Tom Brady, Tom Hanks, Taylor Swift, and Bill Gates. Unfortunately, most people don't find the prize, don't discover the prize, or not awarded the prize.

Their Life Game Is Over

There are winners and losers in life. Life is not everybody wins. Life is not a 100% success rate. Some people are lazy. Some people are unmotivated. Some people disrespect themselves. These people are genuine losers.

There is another group of losers. I call the another group the false losers. I wrote a blog on These Young People Are False Losers on Aug 7, 2022. These false losers did everything correct. The end results are no successes no matter what happens. Blame bad luck. Blame bad timing. Blame life. Some people must lose. It's like a Major League Baseball season. Each of the 32 baseball teams play 162 games per season. 5,184 total games played. All of the 32 baseball teams aren't winners. Theoretically speaking, all 32 teams at best the percentage win rates are 50% or .500; in other words, all 32 baseball teams end the season with 81 wins and 81 losses. 81 wins plus 81 losses equal 162 games. 162 games multiplied by 32 baseball teams equals 5,184 total games. All 32 baseball teams don't end the season with 81 wins and 81 losses in reality. Some baseball teams win 100 games or more. Some baseball teams lose 90 games or more.

All of the genuine losers and some of the false losers declare their lives game over. There are no reasons to work hard. They say infinite exercises. They say infinite lies. Forget responsibilities. Forget commitments. Forget working. Ignore the rules. Life is all leisure. Life is all fun. They stop living. They start dying.

Children Growing Use The Bowls Indicators

I poured a bowl of Cheerios in the morning for a quick breakfast before a full breakfast. I woke up late because I woke up multiple times last night. I needed to prepare the household meals.

The size of the bowl was the smallest bowl. I reminded myself the smallest bowl size matched the size I ate Cheerios when I was a child attending grade school. The bowl size increased when my body grew bigger. I realized my stomach grumbled in school too many times. The bowl sized increased again in high school.

Parents use the bowls indicators to determine how fast your children are growing. Use the bowls indicators to budget the household groceries. Use the bowls indicators to prove their physical changes. Be prepared for bigger bowl size changes in rapid time.

The Broccoli Indicator

Another physical change indicator was eating broccoli. I ate four pieces of broccoli when I was a child. One reason was to share the broccoli with the family. Another reason was to control the grocery costs. I listened to my growing body. I ate more broccoli as a teenager.

Update On A Past Blog

The Five Year High School is still a good idea in today's Information Age. I wrote the blog on Jan 28, 2011. I said, "There is more to learn and know. Expectations and requirements are more challenging. Life today is more complex 20 years ago." True today.

There is a four year junior high school if junior high school is defined as sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade. Eighth grade students enroll in eighth grade twice. Click The Journal Podcast The Big Business Of Holding Back Eighth Graders.

Two Lessons Learned When Children Learn To Tie Their Shoes

Parents take advantage of teaching their children how to tie their shoes. The advantage is two lessons for the price of one. The first lesson is obvious. Take the laces of the shoes. Tie the laces. The children tie their shoes.

There is a rhyme for tying shoes:

Make an "X", here we go. Pull one side under, now I know!
Pull the ends tight, and make a loop. Wrap around the bottom, I've got the scoop!
Push through the hole, pull it through once more. Tighten both ends, and give a whoop!

There is the bunny ears story:

Bunny ears, bunny ears, playing by a tree.
Criss-crossed the tree, trying to catch me.
Bunny ears, bunny ears, jumped into the hole,
popped out the other side beautiful and bold.

There are YouTube videos. Here is a selection:

Tie Your Shoes Song | CoComelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs
Tying Shoe Laces Song | Original Songs | By LBB Junior
Learn How to Tie a Shoe Step by Step | Tying Shoes Children's Song I Can Tie My Shoes by Miss Patty. Not animated.
Sesame Street - Tying Your Shoelace. Classic Sesame Street. David and Harry sing tying your shoelaces.
Sesame Street - Savion and Elmo "Tying Your Shoelace". Classic Sesame Street. Savion sings to Elmo how to tie shoelaces.
HOW TO TIE YOUR SHOES - Easy for Kids!. A child teaches how to tie shoelaces.

The second lesson is multiples. The children learn from their mistakes. The children learn practice. The children learn patience. The children learn memorization. These second lessons apply at school, at work, with friends, with family, and learning life lessons.

Update On A Past Blog

Curses Are Meant To Be Broken. I wrote the blog on Nov 5, 2010. Major League Baseball was my example of breaking curses. The San Francisco Giants broke the 56 year curse not winning the World Series in 2010. The Chicago Cubs broke their 108 year curse not winning the World Series in 2016 six years later.

However, there are exceptions. The Atuk Curse is a curse which killed actors interested in the leading role. The actors were John Belushi, Sam Kinison, John Candy, and Chris Farley. Also, Michael O'Donoghue and Phil Hartman were killed by being interested in casting.

The Atuk movie was a planned comedy about an Inuk hunter moving to the city. The film adaption from the book The Incomparable Atuk by Mordecai Richler was never produced.

Slow Down The Weekdays

Many people say they want the week to end quickly on Mondays. They want Saturday tomorrow. Many people change their desire on Saturday. They want the weekend to end slowly. They want another Saturday tomorrow. These people must change their desire from quickly to slowly on Monday.

Today's Information Age life is too fast. There is too much every day. We want more time. We need more time. More time is impossible. There is always 24 hours a day. No more. No less. Planet Earth can't rotate slower.

People must say they want the week to flow slowly. Take a deep breath. Be patient. Take your time. Do everything one at a time. No need to run to complete one responsibility. Walk to complete all responsibilities. Repeat on weekends. If people slow down and choose their responsibilities wisely, then stress levels decrease.

Throwback Blog: Where Does Bad Management Come From?

Blogger's Note: Throwback blogs are blogs from my past. I start posting past blogs reflecting what I wrote. It's like my "A Second Look" blogs for which I give myself feedback.

Today's throwback blog is titled Where Does Bad Management Come From? written on May 30, 2023. The answer is stress. The absolute answer is stress. The final answer is stress. Him or her must not do everything. He or she stresses out doing everything. Bad life choice. Doing everything is impossible.

I'm not a management consultant. I have no management experience. I speak from intuition. Bad management comes from stressed-out people. Bad management is the symptom from stressed-out people; in other words, stressed-out people cause bad managers.

Stress is one of many causes of bad managers. Another possibility is rough times outside the workplace. Bad managers dealing with family problems. Bad managers with chronic physical ailments. Bad managers tight on personal finances. Bad managers working too many hours. Long commutes, poor diets, lack of sleep, behind in responsibilities, and little leisure activities influence managers becoming bad. Outside influences can affect a bad manager such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, the economy, and politics.

The workers are the punching bag. The workers are the stress relief. The workers are the receiving end of the managers releasing their anger, stress, fatigue, etc. The workers' tolerance is limited. Give it time. The workers respond appropriately quitting, requesting transfers, decreasing quality work, and/or informing the higher up management.

Update On A Past Blog

It took me 2.33 years to proactively continue my financial education. I model financial education from one of my grandfathers in the blog My Two Grandfathers written on Jul 3, 2018.

Begin The Divergent

I speak from personal experience. I follow the top four North American professional sports baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. The four diverged years ago. Football and basketball are higher priority. Baseball and hockey are lower priority. I believe my sports divergence and other sports fans divergence started at the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Divergence happens. Divergence can be good. Divergence can be bad. Divergence can be happy. Divergence can be sad. Divergence is present. Divergence is change. Divergence is life. There are forks on the road. Which path does the person choose? A or B. Or C. Or D. Workplace, careers, all relationships, hobbies, and opinions are examples. In particular, marriages. I'm not a marriage counselor. Some marriages end in divorce because the marriage diverges. The marriage changes naturally or intentionally for the worse at nobody's fault. The couple grows apart naturally.

Out with the old. In with the new. Close a chapter. Open a new chapter. The garbage collector arrives to pick up the garbage.

Stupidity Stress In 1998

I remember one workday in my first job after I graduated from San Jose State University. I took a nap. There was nothing wrong with taking a nap. Everyone experiences an unusual stressful day. Management should allow naps.

However, the unusual stress causing my nap was unjustified. I remembered my stupidity. I was naive as a newly college graduate. My Research Analyst position was unstressful. I maintained a database. I created reports from the proprietary database. I completed special projects a college intern could understand. No Excel was required. No analysis needed. Further, I complained like an immature high school teenager.

There is no comparison between the stress in 1998 and the stress in 2026. The 1998 stress was Disneyland. In particular, the research analysts, business analysts, operations analysts, and data analysts industry Power BI, Tableau, SQL, databases, key performance indicators, text editors, Salesforce, artificial intelligence, dashboards, and programming languages either didn't exist or didn't require to fulfill the responsibilities in the late 1990s. Times have changed. All of the above are required to fulfill the responsibilities today.

Update On A Past Blog

The Riichi City latest promotion is Riichi City Date A Live V introducing Date A Tile Collab. The five questions asked to match a Date A Live V character are below. Each question should tell the Riichi player there are multiple ways to play and to win.

1. What's your mahjong playstyle?
2. What would you do when your hand is a mess?
3. What's your favorite way to win?
4. What's would you do if a discard completes your hand, but it's a low score?
5. What matter most in mahjong?

I included screenshots with my answers and the resulted character below.

The Data A Live V reminded me of two Mahjong Riichi blogs. I'm a beginner player on Nov 12, 2012 from the blog Let's Play Japanese Mahjong (Riichi). I included my Riichi Hands guide from my webpage. I'm an advanced player.

I shared Life Lessons Learned Playing Mahjong Riichi on Mar 18, 2016. Most of the lessons are true today. The lessons are applied either way from Riichi to life or from life to Riichi. One experienced Riichi player told me professions who place fourth two times in a row stop playing for the rest of the day.

Baby Wipes

Baby wipes should be a top invention included with plumbing, freon, internet, light bulb, soap, and coffee. Consider other names for baby wipes. Call them poo poo wipes. Call them save people's butts. Children use them. Adults use them. Remove the sweat. Remove the grim. Remove the slime. Remove the dirt. Remove the poop. Instant clean. Instant freshness. Bring them for vacations. Bring them for emergencies. Baby wipes can minimize uncomfortableness. Baby wipes can help people fall asleep faster.

Perspiration Is The Real Work

A common success wisdom is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Success = 10% inspiration + 90% perspiration. Anyone can talk inspiration. Success can walk perspiration. My personal bible Inspiration Cheer Up is the 10% of the total success. The file is as-is with edits, additions, and deletions.

The content includes my personal daily rules such as don't criticize, condemn, and complain; don't daydream when driving; and be discrete. There are Steve Jobs quotes. There are Stephen Hawking wisdoms. Honestly speaking, the 10% explains why I stopped reading my personal bible weekly years ago. I replace the reading time with the 90% working on my daily life priorities. My personal bible doesn't earn income, pay bills, lose weight, become a master in mechanics, increase the number of hours each day, and improve sleep. My personal bible is an inspiration reminder. My personal bible enlightens me up when I feel depressed. Depression is rare because I always work.

Knowledge For Strength

A more accurate title for today's blog is, "I take knowledge for $2,000, Ken." Any knowledge can open doors. The doors can be new job opportunities, new hobbies, meet new people, earn money, and save money. The knowledge for strength isn't necessarily physical strength; although, more knowledge on gym workouts can increase physical workouts. A common wisdom is, "A little knowledge is better than a lot of ignorance."

White collar people can learn blue collar knowledge. Learn cooking. Sew a button. Change the motor oil for an automobile. Diagnose a leaky toilet. Paint a room.

Blue collar people can learn white collar knowledge. Learn basic Excel spreadsheets. Keep up with financial headlines. Understand income taxes. Upgrade from basic computer skills to intermediate computer skills such as memorizing hotkeys and shortcuts for an operating system.

It takes motivation to gain knowledge; on the other hand, it doesn't take knowledge to gain motivation. The examples I mentioned above I completed them. I performed the words with action. I'm one step closer to become a self-trained genius.

Some Endings Are A Relief

I remember my junior year and senior year attending San Jose State University. I felt relief when I completed my last final exam of the semester. The relief feeling was the same for a good semester and for a bad semester. All semester obligations completed. The stress was removed. The tension was gone. The brain relaxed. Freedom. My post-semester activity was shopping later in the day after the last final. In particular, I completed my Christmas shopping after the fall semesters. The mandatory stores were Valley Fair shopping mall in Santa Clara, CA; Fry's Electronics; and Barnes & Noble.

There was no post-quarter activity after I completed a quarter when I went back to school at De Anza College. There was no relief. There was no post-quarter activity. Stress and tension were mild compared to San Jose State University. I was in my mid 30's with life experience, maturity, and not repeating my mistakes as a second-time college student.

I digress. The end eventually happens. It's over. Finish. Complete. Victory or defeat. Win or loss. It's the end. Take time off. Stop. Take a breath. Evaluate. Debrief. Reflect. Think of the positives. Think of the negatives. Strengthen the accomplishments. Correct the mistakes. Resume life or continue living life when the break is over. It's the life system.

Do You Fully Understand?

I wrote a blog on you're smarter than you think. I also wrote the converse some people are not as smart as you think. Here is a deeper blog. Do you fully understand yourself? Do you comprehend what you're doing? I believe there are more people than you think who don't know what's going on? I share three examples from the late Steve Jobs. Jobs said on 60 Minutes Overtime, "I say Microsoft and Google have a lot in common. Microsoft never had the humanities and the liberal arts in their DNA. It was a pure technology company. And they just didn't get it. Even when they saw the map, they couldn't even copy it well. How dumb do you have to be to not see it--once you see it, you know. But Google is the same way. They just don't get it."

Jobs hated PowerPoint slides. Programmer Tony Fadell presented iPod proposals in Apr 2001. Fadell learned a lesson saying, "Steve prefers to be in the moment, talking things through. He once told me, 'If you need [PowerPoint] slides, it shows you don't know what you're talking about.'"

There was a meeting discussing music copyright protection digital music with Apple and three music company executives in Jan 2002. Jobs interrupted the meeting after the fourth slide saying, "You have your heads up your asses." The presenter responded, "You're right. We don't know what to do. You need to help us figure it out."

Management is a good example such as the pointy haired boss from the Dilbert comic strip. Executives are another good example. Can a CEO describe the company's products and/or services? The managers saying they don't know from the movie Margin Call is a good portrayal many managers don't understand. There are professional sports players who underperform. Don't be surprised if these people bullshit their responsibilities. Few succeed. Sometimes their luck compensates for their stupidity.

Update On A Past Blog

Here are the blogs I mentioned above for further reading. The You're Smarter Than You Think blog was written on Nov 7, 2018. I wrote the some people are not as smart as you think blog Where Is The Intelligence? on Aug 24, 2019.

Costco Oroweat Bread Is Not $7.49

My parents purchased a pack of Oroweat Country Style Buttermilk two loaves of bread at Costco to make stuffing for Thanksgiving Day. I ate a slice of bread. No jellies. No butter. No spreads. The slice tasted terrible compared to the past. Oroweat changed the recipe. Oroweat changed the baking process. Oroweat changed the packaging. No secondary plastic wrap. Either raise prices or lower costs. The answer is obvious. Lower costs. Keep retail prices as low as possible. Inferior ingredients. Inferior materials. Lower workmanship.

I share my experiences. Oreo cookies, spices, some fast food restaurants, fruits, Cheerios, and baked goods. Also, non-edible goods. Shaving gel, toothpaste, soap, clothes, batteries, medical services, and automobile parts.

Be suspicious of no price change since the COVID-19 global pandemic. Question why the price increase is lower than expected during the inflation. Some goods change for the worse. Some services change for the worse. Coke raise prices. The product is the same. People accept the higher Coke prices.

Oroweat made the business decision. Reduce quality to minimize retail price increase. Customers still buy the $7.49 bread at Costco.

There is inflation. There is shrinkflation. There is lower quality. There is lower quantity. There is a combination of any of these.

Parents Are Salespeople, Too

A common family knowledge is children listen to their parents. Children are taught from their parents. Brush your teeth. Candy is bad for you. Go to sleep. Do your homework. Read books. You're playing too much video games. Eat your vegetables. Include your brother or sister. You don't need *insert unnecessary consumer good*. Say thank you.

Parents are parenting. Parents are also salespeople. Parents interact with salespeople buying a car, buying furniture, and shopping for home improvements. Salespeople must build trust, creditability, and sincerity selling a good or service. Parents must build trust, creditability, and sincerity nurturing and guidance. The children are the parent's customers. Parents adapt the ABC in sales which is Always Be Closing. Or parents practice rough parenting ABP or Always Be Parenting.